A/N: So this is pretty much my brain's response to "how can I make a Hans/Anna fic that actually sticks to both canon events and characterization and have it still work?". Yeah. I'm not planning on glossing over Hans' actions from the film in the slightest. It's going to be a fun ride.

This has a slight crossover with Tangled, but I'm sure that's nothing new for fandom at this point. Also Elsa will come in after the first act, and I'll add her to the list of tags when she does. Kristoff will also appear (following canon, he and Anna are currently in a relationship), but won't have that much screen time comparatively.

"But it'd pretty much burn a hole in your tongue at that point, so after that you need to soak it for another five days-"

"Anna!"

Anna turned to see her cousin rushing towards her through the crowded ballroom. Even without the small tiara, she would've stuck out by the ragged cropping of her brown hair.

"Rapunzel!" Anna cried. The two clasped hands, bouncing in glee. "I'm so sorry! I know I should've found you first, but it was just crazy! The winds stopped not even an hour from shore. Boom. I'm telling you I looked out and the surface was like a lake. Our captain was practically ready to break out the life boats and personally row me to the castle when they finally picked up again. And then by the time we docked, the party was in full swing so-"

"Don't worry, our messengers told us everything." Rapunzel smiled. "You look great by the way. I take it you got ready on the ship?"

"Yep. Hair, makeup, and everything… although I can't help but feel like I smell like seaweed. Do I smell like seaweed? I mean, Renaldo here keeps assuring me I'm fine, but- Oh!"

Anna's hand swept over her mouth in shock as she remembered her up-until-now conversation partner.

"I'm soooo so so sorry!" Anna said, turning to the tall, yet portly man. "This is Relnado, the Lord of… of…"

"Anjou."

"Anjou! And this is my cousin and the Crown Princess of Corona, Rapunzel."

"Your highness," Relnado said, sweeping into a seasoned bow. "I can see you two have a lot to catch up on. It was a pleasure making your acquaintance, Princess Anna."

"Oh, you don't have to…" she trailed off as the older lord already began walking away. "Okay then."

As Anna sighed, Rapunzel gave her an encouraging smile.

"Was I rude?" Anna asked, turning to her cousin once again. "I didn't forget his title on purpose, and I do think the conversation was going rather well. Well, I guess I was doing most the talking. You know, I don't think lutefisk is really a thing here."

"You were fine," Rapunzel said. "Okay, I'm not going to lie; there are probably better conversation topics. But overall I just know you're going to be the most amazing junior member of the Arendelle consulate ever!"

Anna couldn't help the smile that crept up the left side of her face.

The two were far from the closest cousins that'd ever walked the earth. In fact, they'd never even met until her sister's coronation, flight, and subsequent return.

A byproduct of their shared… sequestered childhood.

But after the initial introductions and the whirlwind that'd followed, Rapunzel had quickly invited Anna to visit Corona. Anna had been hesitant at first, clinging to her elder sister with every new second she had. Then, after the first couple months proved that the castle gates were never going to close again, she'd accepted.

It hadn't been until the ship reached the edge of the harbor that Anna had realized it was her first time being outside of Arendelle since she was four years old. And when she finally stepped foot in her cousin's kingdom, her mind had gone into sensory overload.

In a way, it'd never snapped out of it.

For so many years Anna had written herself off as the spare, the sibling destined to skip around the castle for the rest of her life cradling ducks and sliding across waxed floors to pass the time. Not that she didn't like cradling ducks and sliding across floors - quite the opposite in fact - but between Elsa ruling the kingdom and Kristoff busy with his ice enterprise, the potential of being able to help out and make a difference for once, her own personal and unique difference, really got her heart pounding.

So she'd talked it over with Kristoff and then had talked it over with Elsa, and one year later here she was, the newest and youngest member of Arendelle's consul to Corona, providing assistance and support to the official Ambassador.

Anna only wished she'd gotten a cool pin or a badge or a medal or something to display as physical proof of her accomplishment, but she supposed the title would have to do.

"Sooo," Rapunzel continued. "How are things in Arendelle?"

"Good, good," Anna said with a smile. "Elsa's really warmed up to whole 'queen' thing. Well, 'warmed up' might not be the best choice of words, but you know what I mean. Kristoff's still caught up in the whole ice delivery reformation thing… Do you guys have ice delivers here? Anyway, it doesn't make that much sense anymore to travel weeks into the mountains to grab ice when Elsa can just - poof! - conjure it of thin air. But she can't make ice for the whole kingdom because then she wouldn't have any time to get queen stuff done, and even if she did then there's all the questions on who gets to sell what ice? Does ice cost less now because it's easier to get? Should the people living in Arendelle itself get an additional discount because it gets created right there in the palace? If it's getting created in the palace, do they even need an ice deliver? Ugh! Personally it gives me a headache just thinking about it."

Rapunzel giggled. "Then I won't ask any further."

"You'd think that having magic powers and stuff would be a cause for cheer," Anna continued, now on a roll. "That people would go, 'Oh, our queen has super awesome magic ice powers? She must be the best queen ever!' Talk about never having to worry about the threat of war!"

Several people turned their heads at the mention of the 'w' word, but Anna pressed on.

"I mean, if I was a random stranger, that's what I'd certainly think. And don't get me wrong, everyone loves the city-wide skating rinks in the summer. But it's like every other single, tiny, little thing, they somehow manage to sink their hands in and wrench it into a bureaucratic nightmare!" Her fingers curled as she mimed out the last part.

"Sounds like you all are doing just fine."

"Yeah… I guess we are. Oh, and how have you and Eugene been doing?"

"Good. Good. Did you know just the other day—"

The two cousins chattered on, inviting people over and waving hello to others as the ebb and flow of the crowd saw fit. Anna excused herself at one point to grab some chocolate cake that'd been rolled out, bumped into her Aunt Primrose - regal and soft-spoken as always, and got swept up into their - now usual - conversation about how Anna was looking more and more like her mother.

"Honestly, I think Elsa looks more like her than I ever did, but thank—"

"Ahem!"

The two women turned to see a rather nervous and harried-looking servant clutching a small strip of paper.

"Yes?" Aunt Primrose asked.

"May I speak to Your Majesty? Alone, please?"

Aunt Primrose frowned.

"Anna, dear," she said, clasping her niece's hands. "Hopefully this should only take a second. Would you mind waiting here?"

"Umm, not at all."

The two swept out through an inconspicuous side door. She stood in place, holding her uneaten piece of cake, as Rapunzel pushed her way through the crowd with Eugene now in tow.

"What happened? I saw Mother just leave."

"I'm not sure… A servant grabbed. I think he was holding some kind of message." Anna frowned. "It must've of been extremely urgent."

"If it is, I hope it's nothing too bad," Rapunzel said. Her face creased with worry.

"Uh… hi, by the way," Eugene said, with a little wave to Anna.

"Oh, yes! Hi, Eugene."

With no light topics springing to mind, the three lapsed into silence. Finally Aunt Primrose re-emerged, her face noticeably paler than it'd been just a few minutes ago.

"Mother!" Rapunzel cried. "What-"

"Not right now," she said with a smile and one eye locked on the sea of guests. "Stay with me. We don't want to cause a scene."

Rapunzel's eyes were wide, but she slowly nodded. Then Aunt Primrose turned to Anna.

"You on the other hand. Peter is waiting in the room beyond that door. I need you to go and listen to what he has to say."

"Anna?" Rapunzel said.

"Me?"

"Yes, you'll understand as soon as you hear it. We'll be back as soon as our absence can go unnoticed."

With a sweep of her arm, Aunt Primrose herded Rapunzel away. Eugene followed with a sympathetic shrug.

Anna was alone once more.

With her cake.

Feeling like she was about to need the energy boost, she gobbled down as much as she could in one go. She placed the rest on a table full of similarly half-eaten dishes, took a deep breath, and walked through the door.

The servant from earlier was nervously pacing the length of a small hallway. The Queen had called him Peter… He glanced up as the door clicked shut behind her.

"Princess Anna?"

She nodded.

"Her majesty said you have some experience in these matters. For all our sakes, I hope this is true."

Before she could respond, he thrust the small strip of paper into her hands. The dim light of the hallway made it a bit difficult at first, but she soon read aloud:

"Disaster and chaos in Wallonia. Unnatural blizzard- Blizzard?!" Her head whipped up only for Peter to gesture for her to keep reading. "Unnatural blizzard has frozen the kingdom. Storm only seems to be spreading. We pray this reaches you in time to prepare."

Anna flipped over the paper, scanning it for any other sort of details or explanation, but that was it.

She looked at Peter again. "Where did you get this?"

"Messenger bird," he said. "Less than half an hour ago. Poor beast looked like it'd been to hell and back. Brought the message straight to her majesty."

"The storm is spreading… They mean it's coming here?"

"We can only assume."

Anna bit her lip, pondering.

"And there's no possible way whoever wrote this meant it as a joke?" she finished hopefully, if a bit lamely.

"Wallonia is one of our closest allies. They would not 'joke' about serious matters such as these."

Anna frowned and reread the few small lines.

"The Queen said you'd experienced this before?" Peter asked.

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean…" Anna took a deep breath. "I've dealt with magical blizzards, sure. But that was less about the actual weather and more with the person behind it all."

"Could there be a person behind this?"

"Perhaps…" Anna said.

If Elsa had managed to hide her powers from the whole world for over twenty years, it was reasonable that someone could be out there with similar powers. That there could be someone just as scared and isolated as she'd been.

"But even then," Anna said. "What can I do?"

"That, my lady, is what we hoped you'd be able to tell us."

Anna waited in the suddenly claustrophobic hallway. She waited for her aunt and Rapunzel to return. She waited for some great plan to strike, for her brain to suddenly explode with ideas. She waited for another servant to arrive, this time with a message saying that - despite Peter's opinion - it was indeed just a joke.

And what had been her great plan last time? She'd jumped on the back of a horse and took off in the general direction of the mountains. No preparation, no supplies other than a light cloak… Even Kristoff had scoffed at her so called "plan."

Granted, everything had worked out okay in the end, but that was after she'd almost been eaten by wolves, and Elsa had accidentally frozen her heart, and she'd turned to ice and almost died, and Elsa had almost died…

To be entirely honest, the way she'd made it through those three days had more to do with luck than any great plan or skill on her part. And even though Anna liked to believe that luck was her secret, magical power, even she didn't want to tempt fate that hard. Charging out blindly into this storm was probably not the best solution out there.

At the same time… did she have any other options?

"Okay, can you please tell me what is going on now?" came the sound of her cousin's voice.

Aunt Primrose and Rapunzel made their way through the door seconds later. With no further prompting, Anna passed the message to her cousin who quickly read it and paled.

"A blizzard? In summer?" She glanced up to meet Anna's eyes. "But you've fixed this sort of thing before, right?"

Anna took a deep breath, trying not to scream.

"What happened last time was different," she said. "I was the one who got Elsa mad, who triggered everything. When she ran away, I knew I had to go find her. All the snow and ice… okay, yes, they were important - the whole kingdom nearly froze to death, but at the heart that 'thing' was always just about the two of us. And I wasn't even the one who thawed the ice, Elsa did."

Her aunt looked thoughtful. "Is there anyway Elsa can come here?"

Anna's face lit up temporarily before fading again. "I don't think that would work," she said glumly. "It'd take several days to get a message to Arendelle and then another week for Elsa to actually travel here. And that's assuming the seas stay calm and clear. If a blizzard's coming and it's anything like the ones Arendelle gets, that's far too long to sit around and do nothing."

"Surely it wouldn't hurt to at least send the message though."

"Maybe, but…"

Anna always hated sea travel in less than perfect weather. How could she not be? Her parents… And then to put Elsa at risk…

But did she really have the power to stop Elsa from coming? If they couldn't find a solution, Elsa was the only person in the entire world that might be able put a stop to it. She'd be saving the lives of thousands…

Far more than you've ever been able to do, a nasty part of her whispered.

It was worth the risk.

"Alright," Anna said. "We can send a message to her. But we need to do something else in the meantime."

"Well then," her aunt said. "Corona defers to your judgement. What do you think is our best course of action?"

"I… I…"

There were a lot of really terrible things about her last plan. It hadn't even really been a plan… It'd nearly gotten everyone killed…

But at least it'd been something.

"I need to go to Wallonia and find out where this blizzard came from," Anna said, a new, weak confidence sprouting up beneath each word.

"Just you?" Rapunzel asked.

"Oh, no. Others are definitely welcome to come along!" Anna said. "But you're half right. Even if what happened with my sister isn't exactly the same as what's going on right now, there might be something that overlaps. Maybe I'll see things and connect things that others wouldn't. And if there is a person who's causing this, I can talk to them in a way that no one else can't."

"I can provide guards to accompany you," Aunt Primrose said. "Peter will see that you have plenty of warm clothes and provisions. The border of Wallonia is a two day ride from here, but if this storm is as bad as the message says, it may take longer."

Anna bit her lip. "I should leave tonight then. Are any your guards experienced in navigating winter storms?"

"Not many, I admit," she said. "But we'll find who we can."

"Vladimir is originally from the North," Rapunzel said to her mother. "And maybe Maximus could go with her too. I know he's still recovering from that training incident with the new steel frying pans, but I know he'd be a lot of help. And maybe I—"

"You will stay here," the queen said firmly. "As the Crown Princess, it is your duty to help take care of your people. Once word of this storm breaks, it's going to take everything we have to keep order and keep everyone safe."

Rapunzel sighed. "I suppose you're right," she said. "Just… stay safe, Anna. Okay?"

Anna smiled. "I will," she said. "Just you see. It will be summer again before you know it."