Within minutes, Anna had the room bursting with energy once more as brass and string instruments swelled and vibrated off the ballroom walls. Guests continued to talk about the cake fiasco, gushing with gusto, but at least now they were also dancing again.

The dance floor grew denser as wine and champagne flowed freely. Many of the visiting diplomats became less than diplomatic as they burned through flutes and glasses of liquor. Cravats came undone and high heels were discarded as royals cast off formalities for whimsy, and bottles of booze.

Anna was no exception.

Kristoff hadn't noticed the champagne flute in her hand that never seemed to empty. Her energy was so intoxicating, that it easily masked her inebriation.

Something is bothering her, he surmised.

He had the same feeling from Elsa.

She'd barely reacted when she was pummeled by the cake canon. Not so much as a gasp or a whimper. Just her unnerving silence.

Then there was that look she gave him, like he was an intruder.

Kristoff couldn't imagine ever being a part of Anna's world. She was a free spirit, but not free enough to cast away the formalities and stiff collars that dominated her society. Elsa was the embodiment of that world, and Anna had her role to play in it. On the other hand, Kristoff was just the boyfriend, free to come and go from this world at his choosing, but never actually a part of it. He didn't belong, and Elsa probably hated him for it.

"Lez do it again!" Anna cried out, taking Kristoff's hand and dragging him onto the dance floor. He dutifully complied, certain that the night from hell was never going to end. He'd never danced so much in his life, and was now convinced that it was a social convention with the sole purpose of humiliating men for having inappropriately fun fantasies about their girlfriends.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his face closer to hers, which would have been romantic had the princess not practically been choking him with her vice-like grip.

"You haaave such kisssable lisps," she slurred, sliding her right hand across his face and nearly poking his eye.

Oh god. She's drunk.

Resigned to taking on the role of babysitter, he gently pried her hands off him and clasped them together.

"Anna," he said in a tone that he typically reserved for misbehaving children. "We need to get you to bed."

But Anna was not listening; instead she was far more interested in his mouth. She pulled her hands from his and ran her fingers over his lips with fascination.

"They're soooo soft," She mused, pressing against him and whispering into his ear. "Soooft."

His face flushed and he was drawn in by her sexually charged voice, tempted to steal a drunken kiss.

"Is that so?" he whispered back, his face now inches from hers.

She nodded. "Mhmm, jus' like marshmallows. Fat. Puffy. Marshmallows." And with that she tapped her hand against his face and grinned stupidly. The spell was now completely broken.

It was likely a good thing that he was not caught kissing a drunken princess in public, although considering how enthusiastic the party guests had become, he doubted anyone would have noticed one brief stolen kiss.

"Do you sssink that Elsa also tastes like marshmallows?" Anna wondered, practically clawing at Kristoff's vest just to keep steady.

"Ooookay. And on that note, I'm gonna have to cut you off, princess," he told her as he reached for her champagne flute. But the less-then-cooperative royal would not be deterred, and held the flute outside of Kristoff reach, spilling it the process.

"Well, that works too," he remarked, and plucked the glass out of her hand as she sulked over her folly.

"Stupid cup," she grumbled.

~X~

Elsa unwrapped the damp towel from her head and draped it over the arm chair before she plopped herself onto her bed, her damp hair sprawled wildly on her sheets. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her and the bath hadn't helped. Removing the saturated chocolate fudge and icing from her dress had been no problem; just a wave of her hand magically dissipated the dress into thin air. But the fudge in her hair was a nightmare to remove. Her scalp still ached from all the extra hot water she used, and even with Gerda's help, her hair still vaguely smelled of chocolate.

She closed her eyes, and was tempted to fall asleep where she lay when a soft rapping at her door called for her attention.

"Come in," She answered informally, not bothering to crack open an eye or to move from the comfort of her bed. When she heard the door open, she added "The towel is on the chair, I took care of the dress."

"Is that so?" A man's voice replied, leading Elsa to practically jump out of bed and quickly tie her robe over her revealing nightgown. Augustus stood at the doorway looking just as surprised.

"Is this an invitation, your majesty?" he quipped, brushing his hand through his hair and dropping his gaze. Elsa's face burned.

"Ah, no. Sorry." She smoothed back her hair, suddenly quite self-conscious about her appearance. "I, I wasn't expecting—um. I uh, I thought you were my chambermaid."

"I must confess, I am a little disappointed." He looked up again, noting that she had not asked him to leave.

Elsa eased up when she realized that he was joking. The mischievous twinkle in his eye was a dead giveaway. Though she hadn't known the young Lord for very long, Elsa was finding herself increasingly receptive to his presence.

"Is there something you need from me?" She asked.

"Only the pleasure of your company," he replied flirtatiously. "It's still early and I thought that maybe we could entertain each other for a little while." He took her question as an invitation to enter, and took a few steps inside her chambers, holding up a bottle of wine that had not been visible behind the door frame. "I'm afraid I don't have any glasses, though."

Elsa hesitated. She was rather tired and had hoped to finally bring the night to a close.

"Oh, I'm intruding, aren't I? You're getting ready for bed?" Augustus had seen the hesitation on her face and suddenly felt like trespasser.

"No, no. You're not intruding on anything." She held a hand up to stop him when she realized that he was backing away out of her room. Something about the disappointed look on his face elicited a change of heart in her. "I think a walk would be nice."

~X~

Elsa walked Augustus through the solarium listening to his every word as he told her stories about visits to Corona and his home in Montressor, and his boyhood dream to explore the seven seas. She enjoyed his energy and wished that it could somehow manifest itself in her as well. Only once they entered the castle gallery, did the young lord remember that he had an unopened bottle of wine in his hand.

It was a lucky thing for Augustus that Elsa's magical abilities extended beyond architecture and dressmaking. After he had sufficiently embarrassed himself while trying to open the wine bottle with a small knife, she put him out of his misery by fashioning a cork screw out of ice.

"You know, you could have done that from the beginning," he pointed out.

"True," she replied. "But I was intrigued by what you planned on doing."

They settled themselves on a long upholstered bench at the far end of the gallery. When Augustus took a swig of wine then offered her a drink directly from the bottle, she produced two small glasses as well and nearly filled them to the top. He chose not to comment on it this time and resigned himself to a silent chuckle.

"We used to play here," he told her. "You were six and I was twelve. I remember that you and Anna used to beg me to spin you around by the arms."

She nodded and took a drink from her glass, noting the rich sweet tartness of her wine.

"I don't remember you ever doing any magic though."

"No, I wouldn't have," she told him, the distant memory slowly coming back to her, and the wine beginning to take its hold on her. "My powers weren't very developed yet, and my father didn't approve of me demonstrating them to anyone."

"You were the big family secret, then. It must have been lonely."

"For a very long time I was," she took another drink, this time polishing off the glass and refilling it to the brim. Elsa had only ever had a few sips of wine and champagne, so it pleased her to realize how warm and light she felt after just one glass.

"You remind me of her," he admitted, slipping slowly from his own glass.

"Of who?"

"The first girl I ever loved. She was quite lonely too," he then brushed a wild strand of Elsa's hair behind her ear, drawing a small shiver from the queen. She pulled away and stared intently at her bare feet.

"Did she love you back?"

"No. It wasn't like that," he replied with a nostalgic glow in his eyes. "I was nine and she was twenty-two, and I completely adored her."

Elsa smiled warmly, picturing a love-struck little boy clinging possessively to a much older woman.

"She was like a breath of fresh air, the way she looked at me and made me feel important and alive. And she was so much fun too." He gulped down the remainder of his glass and laughed. "She once helped me and the cook's son make a giant mud pie. The three of us were muddied from head to toe and Uncle Claudius got really mad at us. He was absolutely furious."

"What ever happened to her?" Elsa pressed on, and he frowned.

"She died not long after. I heard that she'd taken ill with consumption," he said, but judging from the look on his face, Elsa could see that Augustus wasn't quite sure he'd remembered it correctly. "She'd gone so quickly. Uncle Claudius was beside himself. He'd already lost his daughter, we all know that story," he paused and Elsa nodded. "…And now his baby sister was also gone. But it always bothered me…that someone so lovely, and lively, and funny could be so lonely, and come to an end so sadly."

"Maybe she never found love."

He turned to meet her eyes, and Elsa felt like he trying to probe her thoughts. It seemed like there was a lot of that going around lately.

"Is that why you're still lonely? Because you haven't found love?"

"I'm not-I'm not lonely," she sputtered. "Why would you even think that?"

"Because I can see it in your eyes. It's the same look I see when I look into the mirror. When I see my future, trapped by titles I didn't ask for and in a marriage with a girl who feels more like a sister than a bride." He paused, reconsidering his thoughts. "Or maybe, maybe you're lonely because you have found it."

"No," she said lamely. "I've never been in love. I'm much too busy for that."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Elsa heard a voice that sounded a lot like Anna whisper in condemnation. Liar, the voice hissed, and the queen replied by drowning out the voice with another drink from her wine glass.

"You know what I think?" Elsa said, her voice inflamed with drunken determination. "I think you should do what you want. Take back your freedom. This prison doesn't have to be permanent. So if you want to be a pirate king—"

"I never said pirate king," he interjected.

"—then you should take a couple of years and live that dream. It's not like Montressor is going anywhere. It'll still be there when you get back. It's been there since long before you even showed up."

She grabbed onto the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer.

"And if you want to marry your sister—"

"Not my sister."

"—don't be afraid to choose the girl who's right for you."

Maybe it was the alcohol, or how close they were standing to one another. Or maybe it was the raw emotional exposure they'd just shared. Whatever the reason, when Augustus leaned in to kiss her, Elsa kissed him back.

The kiss was long and slow, and a bit bitter from the wine, but in her drunken stupor it was also very much like a hazy dream.

A loud shatter of glass pulled them apart from each other as they alternated between seeking out the source of the sound, and glancing awkwardly at each other, far too unnerved to speak. Augustus wanted to apologize, and he wanted to tell her how much her words meant to him, but he wasn't sure he was sorry for kissing her.

In the end, it was Anna who broke the silence.

"I saw that!" the tipsy princess exclaimed as she was helped into the gallery by her exasperated boyfriend.

Elsa froze, feeling a portion of her sobriety come back to her, and Augustus coughed and looked away.

"I'm so sorry," Kristoff apologized. "I didn't realize how much she's been drinking until it was too late."

"Don't you ignore me! I know what you two were up to!" Anna whined. She stumbled over to the bench and plopped down, grabbing the empty bottle of wine from the floor at her feet. "You were drinking without me. So mean."

She tipped the bottle over her mouth and was disappointed when only a couple of dropped wetted her lips.

"Wow," Augustus marveled. "She's really wasted."

"We should really get her to her room," Elsa told them, doing her best impression of her sober self, and overcome with relief at not being discovered.

"I was actually just on my way to take her to bed," Kristoff explained and Elsa stiffed. He must have noticed her reaction because he quickly added, "Just tucking her in of course."

As if on cue, Anna rose to her feet and clung onto Elsa.

"Marshmallows," the princess mumbled as she buried her face in her sister's hair. Kristoff cringed and gingerly pried Anna off of Elsa, whose face had turned a deep shade of vermillion.

She groaned but didn't resist, and let herself drowsily sink against Kristoff. But even in her state, Anna was well aware of another presence approaching them by the nearing sound of clamoring feet on the marble floors.

"Did any of you see Felicity come this way?" Rapunzel asked as soon as she spotted the four of them, and all eyes turned to her as she rushed over to meet them. "The last time I saw her, she was headed somewhere in this direction."

"I did." Kristoff replied. "She said she was going to bed. So she's probably back in her room by now."

"That's a relief!" Rapunzel exhaled sharply at the news then burrowed her brows when she noticed Anna making saliva bubbles and Augustus and Elsa trying not to look guilty.

"So, what's been going on with the rest of you?"

~X~

Kristoff helped carry Anna as far as the top of staircase to the hallway that separated the sisters' rooms. As soon as he made it to the top, Elsa thanked him and ordered him to set down the princess before telling him good night. On the surface the exchange was all politeness, but he could feel her pressing for him to make a quick exit.

Elsa didn't look back when she heard Kristoff make his way down the stairs. In spite of everything he'd done to help mend things between the two sisters, she couldn't deny the irritation she felt when he was in her presence. And more so when he was in close proximity of Anna. She'd once runaway because she wanted to hide the monster inside of her, but even then she'd never felt as ugly inside as she did at this very moment as a small part of her imagined how much better she'd feel if Kristoff was turned into an ice statue.

Anna snored, startling herself into a semi-awake state, and the queen realized that her sister was more asleep than awake. The princess was barely holding on; her feet dragging on the red carpet as she was guided across the hallway. Elsa readjusted Anna's arms, draping them around her neck, and held onto them more firmly before she proceeded again.

They managed as far as the snowflake door when she decided to go no further. Anna's door was just a few more meters away, but Elsa just didn't have it in her to take her the extra distance. She popped open the door and Anna groaned, flexing her arms around her sister's chest and nuzzling her face in the crook of her neck. Something like an electric shot went through Elsa, and she squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth to try to will away the sensation that was reverberating in her body and hollowing in the pit of her stomach, forming a warm resonating ache.

Two deep breaths and she continued into the darkness of her room.

Once she made it to the foot of the bed she plopped down with princess still draped over her, feeling completely spent. But she took no more than a moment's rest before she tried to roll Anna off of her.

"Anna!" She whispered loudly. "I need you to move." It occurred to her how foolish she seemed, whispering to the only other person in the room.

The princess mumbled a sleepy reply before she fumbled her way to the middle of the king-sized bed. Her movements especially difficult in her ball gown.

"Wait! Your dress!"

But Anna was already comfortably curled and unresponsive.

The Elsa quickly refashion her dress into a nightgown and crawl back toward the sleeping figure in the middle of the bed, wondering how to proceed. She was briefly tempted to magically undress her, but reconsidered when she imagined how disappointed Anna would be to learn that her new ball gown was immaterialized into nothing.

Exhaustion came to her like a sudden wave. Her eyelids felt like paper weights after an evening of drinking and the strain from carrying dead weight, and her body felt like jello. She collapsed beside Anna, and closed her eyes, her head still clouded by the alcohol. By the time she'd exhaled on her third count, she was already fast asleep.

~X~

She wasn't sure what woke her.

When Elsa opened her eyes she saw nothing but pitch black. At first she wondered if perhaps her eyes were still closed, but as she reached up to her face, she realized that she had some sort of silk garment over her head. She quickly cast it off and sent it cascading off the bed and onto the floor.

That's when she noticed the warm body beside her.

Anna lay sprawled on her back, dressed in her white lace pantaloons and camisole top, and bathed in the blue moonlight that shimmered through the large window. Wisps of her hair had come undone from her now disheveled braid and curled across her cheeks, feathering over her forehead; and her arm lay across her stomach, nestled under her top, baring the slim curves of her waist.

She looked like a dream.

Elsa propped herself up and gazed down at the sleeping form. She brushed aside the wisps of hair on Anna's forehead, delicately tracing her fingers along her soft skin and down her temple, sweeping her hand over her right cheek in a long caress. She leaned in closer and could see the fine strokes of her eyelashes and the slight parting of her rose-colored lips as she exhaled softly.

Is this a dream?

She leaned in closer, as if by some magnetic draw, and hesitated when their faces were just inches apart. Elsa could feel Anna's warm breath tickle her lips, and stimulate them like an electric charge. She could not resist the pull, and so she closed the distance between them. As soon as their lips touched, she was enraptured by a tingle of a thousand nerve endings, teasing its way along her mouth as she stole Anna's lips.

It was a tender kiss, no more than a whispery graze, but Elsa could feel that pull again, and she pressed harder, coaxing the sleeper to part her lips to match her own. Her chested hummed and a guttural primal groan made its way along her throat.

Elsa pulled back.

Every muscle in her body tensed, and Anna's blissfully sleeping face left her feeling guilty and afraid.

She crawled back slowly until she was firmly pressed against the headboard of her bed. Her breath came out in short gasps and she curled herself forward, resting her forehead against her knees, clearly shaken and ashamed.

This was no dream.

A thousand questions exploded in her mind. Too many to latch onto one coherent thought. And Elsa realized that she was afraid to make sense of those questions. Afraid of what they might imply.

Anna shifted on her side, pulling a plush velvet pillow into a tight hug. Elsa held her breath and her mind went blank as she looked up and stared at her sister's back, waiting for any signs of waking. But the world did not end, and Elsa felt at ease when all that followed was the rhythm of her heavy breathing.

As fear lessened, and her body slowly slid down the backboard and shifted onto her side, she let sleep reclaim her. Further down the bed, Anna clutched the pillow tighter as she opened her eyes and stared blankly into the darkness.

…to be continued...

Author's Note: The next chapter finally goes back into the present. Thank you so much for your comments!

EXTRAS

Anna: (slurring) "You haaave such kisssable lisps...wait. You're not Elsa."

Elsa: [deleted bath scene] (sultry voice) "Oh yeah, right there!"

Augustus: [deleted bathe scene] (awkwardly) "Uh, the wall between the men and women's bath could do with a bit of sound proofing."

Elsa: "And if you want to marry your sister—just remember: I wanted to do it first."

Anna: "Don't you ignore me! I know what you two were up to! The walls in the bath are practically paper thin!"

Kristoff: (tearfully, to his beer hat) "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize how much she's been drinking until it was too late. She even polished off all of the wine coolers."

Rapunzel: These extras were a little lackluster, I think it's time for you to call it quits.