Chapter 1 – Preparations

Welcome to the not-in-the-least-bit anticipated sequel to Facing the Storm, in as much as it has one of my characters in it. Otherwise, it doesn't relate to the first story in any way except for one or two throwaway references to events there. If you haven't read Facing the Storm, it's not necessary to read this.

Also, I assume Elsa's birthday is in the summer since her coronation was. The whole 'come of age' line tipped me off, and it's marginally important to the story. Carry on.

It had been very late at night the first time Kristoff asked Anna to marry him.

And, not in the least bit cautioned by the previous man who had asked her to marry him, she had squealed 'yes' in a pitch humans shouldn't be able to reach, temporarily stunning him and effectively immobilizing him for her to attempt to squash him in a hug.

That first proposal had been 'unofficial', because Anna had actually learnt something from the whole Great Freeze fiasco, and she had whispered to Kristoff that they should probably ask Elsa before making it official.

Which they had promptly done so, at three in the morning, because that was when he had asked her, following a wonderful and very romantic night out. Anna had snuck into Elsa's room, holding her breath, and whispered very gently into her sister's ear. And Elsa, half asleep and mostly disinterested in anything except remaining one with her pillow, had mumbled something that sounded more like 'get out of my room, it's three in the morning' than 'of course you can, what a fantastic idea', but Anna had taken it as a yes.

She had to remind Elsa of it at the breakfast the next morning, working it casually into the conversation by waiting until Elsa's mouth was full, thus giving her a chewing window to speak without Elsa interrupting (because no matter how dire the situation, the Queen of Arendelle did not speak with her mouth full), and saying casually, "So, we were thinking the wedding should be in summer, because I want a dress without sleeves."

And Elsa had stopped chewing, clearly trying to figure out where this conversation had started.

"We're not entirely sure what we're meant to do about Kristoff's family, but that's something to figure out once the big details are sorted-"

"Anna, what are you talking about?" Damn, Anna's uninterrupted time was up.

"Kristoff and I are getting married," she said slowly, trying to make it sound incredibly obvious, like Elsa was the one being unreasonable. "I told you. You said yes."

"When?"

"I told you last night."

Elsa was thinking, trying to map out every moment of last night. "You went out, and I was working late. We didn't see each other last night."

"When I came home," Anna said cheerfully. "Remember? You were already in bed." Again, like it hadn't been three in the morning, and Elsa was really supposed to be able to keep up better than this.

"Was that what you were asking in the middle of the night?" Elsa could vaguely remember muttering at Anna to get lost.

"Yes."

"I don't think I said yes."

"Of course you did. Why wouldn't you?" Anna blinked innocently, a broad smile on her face.

Elsa contemplated the different places this conversation could go. If she said no, Anna was likely to sulk and rage for days. But she was nervous about saying yes. Not for any rational reasons, just because Anna was her little sister and she should thus spend the rest of her days being Elsa's little sister. Elsa didn't know Kristoff all that well, but what she had seen of him he was kind and honest, perhaps a little unrefined. Anna had done (much, much) worse.

Elsa sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine. You have my blessing to get married."

Anna started to leap across the table towards her sister.

"But," Elsa continued, and Anna froze in mid-air. "If at any point I think Kristoff is not 100% right for you, I will call it off."

Anna continued her trajectory and landed mostly on top of Elsa for a hug. "Thank you, thank you! And he's perfect, you'll see."

Elsa tentatively returned Anna's hug. At least one of them was happy.

Anna detached herself from Elsa, and sent a sunny smile in her direction. "Will you have dinner with us both? Tonight?"

Elsa thought for a moment, mentally running through her schedule. "Yes, I can manage that."

"Thank you!" Anna bounced back to her seat. "This is so exciting!"

Elsa had to smile at her sister's enthusiasm, but a part of her was saddened. Anna was growing up, getting married, replacing Elsa's presence with someone else. Anna had Kristoff. Who did Elsa have?

"It has to be in summer," Anna said later that evening, bickering with Elsa over dinner and a date for the wedding.

Kristoff remained silent, enjoying his meal and keeping tactfully out of the argument.

"It can't be around my birthday," Elsa argued back, "And afterwards it's heading into Autumn and everyone is harvesting crops. I can't shut down Arendelle after that, we'll starve in the winter."

"Then have it before your birthday! If we start planning now, we can do it in the week before your birthday."

"Absolutely not."

"Why? We can just spend two weeks celebrating, and Kristoff and I will stay for your birthday, then have our honeymoon."

"They can't be back to back."

"Why not?"

"Because it's too much work!" Also, the mere thought of two weeks of non-stop people, social outings, being polite and having no privacy were mortifying, but Elsa couldn't say that out loud.

Unfortunately, Anna caught on. "Hey! Are you really going to postpone my wedding until spring because of your social anxiety?"

"I do not have social anxiety; I just don't like people around all the time. There is no way this city can spend two weeks celebrating; everything would have to grind to a halt."

"Can't we just move your birthday?"

"Seriously?"

"Why is your birthday in the summer anyway, it makes no sense!"

"I had absolutely no control over that. Why not have the wedding immediately after my birthday?"

"Because then all the hype and excitement is wasted on you! I want it to be about me."

Elsa was starting to understand that. She sighed. "Okay, relax. Let's not worry about a date just yet, there's a lot else to plan."

Anna was clearly pouting. "You're going to make me wait until spring. Unless," she perked up, "There was no winter at all?"

"Absolutely not."

"Come on, it's not like we need the winter. I'm sure if we just skipped it this year everything would be fine."

"Anna, we are not rearranging the natural world just so you can wear a sleeveless dress."

"Delay winter?"

"It doesn't work like that; I don't control the weather."

Kristoff was enjoying desert at this point; he wasn't sure if either sister had even started eating yet.

"What if we had the wedding, like, next month? Then you've got time to recharge your introvert batteries before your birthday."

"Arrgh!" Elsa pressed her fingers into her temples. "It's not about me! You want a minimum of a week of partying, which means Arendelle has to basically stop. Right when harvesting is about to start. Next month won't give me enough time to prepare everything."

"Then get so drunk at my party that you just cruise through yours without noticing the people," Anna begged. "Please don't make me wait until next year!"

"I'm not getting drunk at all."

"Sure you are."

Elsa raised one eyebrow in a look that she hoped would convey to Anna her disapproval. She attempted to steer the conversation back on course, "There has to be a gap between the two celebrations, and since mine was planned first-"

"You don't even want a party! You'd be perfectly happy spending your birthday in bed with a book! Why not do that?"

"Arendelle expects a party; I don't have a choice in the matter. I'll keep the matter in mind tonight and see if any solution presents itself. Until I've had a chance to think about this, please don't nag me at every turn."

"I don't nag."

"You do. You fixate on something and then harass me until I do it. Now, keep your mouth shut about it until tomorrow, at the very least, and just eat your dinner." Elsa looked pleased with herself, having found a way to shut Anna up. She finally took a bite of her food, and frowned. "This food is cold."

Anna shot her a grumpy look. "How can you tell?"

Elsa was true to her word and spent the rest of the evening poring over her calendar and trying to figure out how to give Anna the elaborate, all-attention-on-me, everybody-stop-and-focus wedding that she wanted without jeopardising the whole Arendelle economy.

Eventually, Elsa had to admit defeat and accept the fact that both celebrations were going to have to be one after the other. She wasn't thrilled with the idea, but Anna was only going to get married once (Elsa hoped), and she deserved to have everything she wanted.

Elsa was pretty sure she was going to need a week after all the partying to recover, because having people around all the time was going to be taxing. And probably annoying. But Anna would love it, and that was the most important part.

The next morning Anna was uncharacteristically early at Elsa's study door, practically oozing anticipation. She bounced on her toes, unable to keep still, "We-ell?"

Elsa sighed. She had already been up for a few hours, getting most of her work out of the way early in order to start preparations. "We'll have to have them both back to back."

"Yes!" Anna nearly split Elsa's ear drums. "This is going to be the best party ever! Thank you!" She scooted away, no doubt to publicly announce her news, leaving Elsa wondering how she was supposed to get everything organized in roughly a month and a half.

Well, the sooner she got started, the sooner it would be finished. Elsa turned her full attention back to work, determining that she could get this done by lunch time, then sit Anna down and start discussing details. Anna was very much a 'big picture' person, while Elsa liked working out smaller pieces of things, so all she would need to do is dissect Anna's ridiculous ideas and make them plausible. How hard could that be?

"What on earth is that?" Elsa asked later in the day when Anna appeared in front of her armed with a piece of paper with something scribbled on it.

"This is what my dress has to look like!"

Elsa squinted, wondering if that would bring it into focus better, because at the moment it looked like a drawing of an exploding elephant. "Perhaps you should talk it over with someone who actually designs dresses. And can draw."

"You're a buzz kill."

Elsa lifted one shoulder in a disinterested shrug. "Perhaps. But that aside, where exactly did you want this to take place? You were so adamant about a summer wedding; I assume you'll be wanting it outside?"

"Yes, in the gardens," Anna said, studying her dress doodle. "In the afternoon."

"I'm sending all the overseas invitations out sometime in the next week, so make sure you've got everyone on your list who you want to attend."

"I'm making the list right now." Anna pointedly took a pen off Elsa's desk and started scribbling on the back of the hapless dress concept. "See?"

"Just tone it down a bit," Elsa cautioned. "We're not inviting the whole world."

"Oh, why not? It'll be fun."

"It'll be crowded."

"Stand in the corner."

"We're not having this argument again."

"When do we sort out the menu?" Anna asked, changing tracks and motoring off in a different direction. "When do we sample the menu?"

"One thing at a time," Elsa said, and she had a suspicion she would be adopting that as her new mantra over the next few weeks. "Because the number of guests is going to influence the menu. Get the guest list sorted first, then-"

"Hey, do you have to do anything special, being Queen, or can you just be my maid of honour? How does this work? Also, would you be my maid of honour?"

"Of course, if there's nothing special that I have to do. I haven't looked it up yet; that's quite a bit further down the to-do list." Elsa glanced at one of the papers on her desk. "I was first-"

"You made a to-do list?" Anna sniggered. "How spontaneous of you."

"I like to have things organised," Elsa explained flatly. "This way, I know exactly what's going on."

"Okay, Queen Control Freak," Anna bounced up from her seat. "Here's most of the list, I've got to ask Kristoff something." She whirled out of the room before Elsa could protest.

Elsa carefully Anna's list to her pile of 'wedding' papers, and made a note that 'guest list' was in progress. She was checking through the rest of the list, making notes wherever it seemed necessary, when the sunlight outside was suddenly obscured and the whole room became dark.

Elsa briefly panicked, thinking she had done that and maybe she wasn't as calm as she thought she was, but the dark cloud covering the sun was clearly a raincloud, and thus not Elsa's fault. She went to the window, wondering where it had come from so suddenly.

She was frowning at it, when the cloud disappeared just as suddenly as it had arrived, and the sun started streaming over Arendelle again. Elsa studied the sky, looking for any indication of rain. There were none, and she shrugged the incident off as irrelevant and turned back to her list making.

Thanks for reading; updates on this story will be a bit less frequent than my other two, because I do actually have a life outside of Frozen. I think. I know I put it somewhere . . .

SpicedGold