(Hans)

The first time I saw her, it was winter.

The royal family of Arendelle had come to visit with ours, and three days of royal hooha had been planned. Not a lot was expected of us children, other than showing up for the wave and bow and farewell banquet in clean clothes.

Seeing as those moments took all my effort to behave in a princely manner, I didn't pay too much attention to the people around me. The rest of my mind time was spent wondering how to smuggle more furniture to my secret hideout in the stables, where my brothers couldn't bother me with their petty teasing and bullying.

After the banquet, when my brothers were off playing racquetball or watching a performance in the ballroom, I took my cart, loaded it up with stuff for my hideout: a cushioned chair and two blankets, a basket of apples and my sketchbook, and snuck out through the empty hallway next to the kitchen.

Outside I checked all around me to see if any guards were around. Not that anyone would stop or report me, but the less people know, the better.

Once I reached the stable, I untied the rope hanging from the dolly that was attached to the ridge and tied it around the arms of the chair and underneath the seat. The basket I took up the ladder where I found the rest of rope that I then threw down the ladder.

Pocketing two apples I went to find Sitron. He was 5 years old, not yet fully grown, but he was already big and strong. He nuzzled my cheek when I opened the box and his head moved down to snuffle at my pockets, knowing what snack I had brought him.

"No boy, I need you to help me out first." I told him as I took down the saddle from its place on the wall.

Once the saddle was secured on his back, I led him out of the stable. When we came to the rope, I attached it to the saddle and started to guide him toward the far end of the stable. I could tell it wasn't an easy job, but Sitron was proud and up for the challenge. Once we reached the back, I told him to stay and ran to scramble up the ladder.

Through the opening at the front I could see my chair dangling against the starlit sky. Happy that I had calculated the right distance for the chair, I started to pull it towards me. The next moment I found myself hurtling towards the ground, no time to scream, not even time for my short life to flash before my eyes.

"Ooomph!" is what came out if my mouth when I back flopped onto a surprisingly soft surface. A cold surface. For a moment I lay there, with no thought in my head, just wondering how the hell I ended up down here… and alive. The next moment, a scuffle of feet, a swish of skirt and the sweetest most angelic voice.

"Oh my gosh, are you alright!?" Bright blue eyes surrounded by a halo of white blond hair appeared before my eyes and the cutest rosy lips curled up in a hesitant smile. I couldn't help but grimace back at her as the back of my head began to melt. Melt? With a grunt I sat up and found myself sitting on a huge pile of snow. "What the…!"

She giggled and my brain melted as well.

"How did this...there wasn't any snow here...it hasn't snowed for years…?"

She blushed looking down, then, took a deep breath and pointed toward the sky.

"What are your doing?"

Confused, I looked up, only to see my chair still dangling from the roof.

Suddenly I remembered Sitron and jumped up to run inside. He seemed ok, so I quickly climbed the ladder and grabbed the chair, careful of the edge this time, to pull it inside. A pair of small pale hands appeared next to mine, and with combined effort we pulled the chair inside.

"Thanks!" I breathed, "I have to go untie Sitron."

I slid down the chute and quickly unwound the rope from the saddle. Sitron neighed softly, nudging my belly, as if to ask what had happened. I took an apple from my pocket and gave to him. "I'm fine boy, I fell, but there was snow…" Strange.

After I put him back in his pen, I left him settled with the second apple, and went back to the loft.

She was sitting in the chair, staring at the stars. When she saw me approach she slid over to the side and patted on the cushion next to her. Awkwardly, I scooted in next to her and we spent the next couple of minutes stargazing and sneaking quick glances at each other.

(Elsa)

I could feel his soft green eyes on me, giving me goosebumps on the inside of my skin. A thousand words created a jumble inside of me, but a starting-stranger-conversation sentence would not step forward. Finally I decided to continue the one I had started down below. "What…?"

"How…?"

We both giggled nervously and then he put out his hand. "I'm Hans."

I slipped my hand into his warm one, feeling a rush of heat climb up my arm from the contact. "I'm Elsa."

"Did you see what happened? Where did that snow come from? Why aren't you watching the performance with the others? Are you leaving tomorrow?'' he stopped to take a deep breath, "You're the crown princess of Arendelle, aren't you?"

''Um, yes, I'm princess Elsa. My baby sister Anna just went to sleep and I didn't want to sit there with all those boys.'' I gave a little shudder, ''I think one of them was picking his nose.''

Hans smiled, realizing who I was speaking of. "Yeah, that's Gray for you, he doesn't care who's watching."

I narrowed my eyes, "He doesn't care who's watching? Are you saying others do care and do it in secret?"

He gave a low guwaff "Ha, of course, everybody does it!"

"Ewww! I don't!" I blushed, I couldn't actually remember if I ever had.

He just smiled at me, then jumped off the chair and peered over the edge.

"The snow is still there. Do you know where it came from?"

I shifted uncomfortably, what should I do, should I tell him? Would he laugh? I loved my gift, but I was old enough to know that it was rare, possibly unheard of, and my parents had told me never to tell anyone, because some people might not understand.

When I didn't answer he turned to me. I blushed and looked down at my hands, to see the sparkle of snow swirling around my fingers. I heard a gasp and looked up at same moment that his hands cupped mine. "What's happening to your hands… is that… snow?"

I sighed deeply, "Yes," and waited to see what his reaction would be. I could see his brain at work, and tensed at which way he would lean.

"Wait… so… you made the snow? Are you a fairy?"

Fairy didn't sound bad right? I was so tired of trying to hide myself all the time, I decided to just out with it. "No, I'm not a fairy, I'm just a girl, a human girl. But I was born with this, I can create snow from nothing."

He paused, his thumbs softly rubbing the inside of my hands, sending sparks of warmth throughout my whole body. "So the pile of snow, the one that I fell into, you made that? You saved my life!" He beamed at me and I couldn't help but grin back at him.

"Can you show me?"

Reluctantly, I pulled my hands from his and swirled them around to create a small flurry of snow. He stretched out his arm to feel the snow settle on his hand, and his eyes started to sparkle, "It's really cold! It's real snow! This is the coolest thing ever!"

I laughed in relief and closed my hand to stop making snow. The snow fell on the hay and he stared at it.

"How come I haven't heard of this before? Why didn't my parents tell me about this? We could have had some fun these past three days."

"Well, no one knows about it, no one is supposed to, so please don't blab. People could take it the wrong way. Someone might think I'm a witch and you know what happens to witches."

We both fell silent, and then I decided to change the subject.

"What's the chair for?"

I could see he him shake his head at the change of subject.

"I have a secret place - at the back of this loft. Only Marcos, the head of stables, knows about it - he's the one that showed it to me when he found me cr… well, he said I could have this corner as my own and he'd never tell anyone. So I was furnishing it… you want to see it?"

I was honored that he wanted to share his secret place with me, and I vowed that I would forever keep his secret.

We both took an arm of the chair and with much grunting managed to drag it over the straw and into the corner. Behind piles of hay bales and obscure pieces of tarp there was a dark space, lit only by a small window in the roof.

I waited as he confidently moved to the corner, and lit a lamp. When he turned around I could see his awesome hideout lit up in a soft yellow. A chest served as a table, and in the corner stood a small cubbyhole with things like lamps, a knife, a jar containing preserves, a paper bag that looked suspiciously like a candy bag from a store we had passed yesterday, and a piggy bank.

Meanwhile, Hans was pulling the chair to the other empty corner, then disappeared only to appear a minute later with a pile of blankets. He threw them onto a pile of pillows and fell down on them with his hands behind his head.

"Welcome to my hideout."

Feeling shy again I shuffled my feet until I saw him pat the pillows next to him, so I decided to be brave and sat daintily by his side. What followed was one of the best nights of my young life. We laughed, we talked, we shared toffees, we became friends.

I had seen him a couple of times before in the last three days, and I thought he looked very dashing in his uniform. But when he took my hand in his as we lay there, it felt like the world would burst in flurries. I fell hard.

I told him about what I loved to do the most - playing with my sister in the snow, how she would giggle as we slid down hills. He told me about his friend in the village, his sketches, about his brothers teasing him for be the runt of the family, about his dreams for the future - he wanted to be a kind king, to rule with justice, but he knew he never could, seeing as he was the youngest of thirteen brothers and was last in line to the throne.

After what seemed like hours of drowsy chatting, we heard a rooster crow in the distance.

I shot up "Oh no, it's almost morning. If my mother checks my room and doesn't find me, she'll freak out, we're leaving at the crack of dawn!" Suddenly it dawned on me what that meant. "But… that means that I won't see you again."

My throat constricted and it felt like a ball of ice settled in behind my ribs. I heard the rustling of hay and cloth and then his hand appeared before my face. I looked up and saw him looking down at me with a lopsided smile.

''I know. It's really too bad, you're the coolest girl I've ever met. But I'm sure we'll see each other soon. Didn't you see how our mothers hit it off? I'll bet they've already planned the next get together. And we can write each other as well. That is, if you want to."

Slipping my hand into his, I let him hoist me up. I must have been a bit woozy, because I stumbled forwards, straight into his chest. His arms came up around me to steady me. "Whoa there, are you okay?"

I giggled nervously and pushed my hair back, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. And I would love to write to you Hans, I'd love to be your friend."

We smiled at each other and silently descended the ladder. He walked with me to the guest hallway, where, after an awkward pat on my arm, he left for his own quarters and we continued what was left of the night in our own beds. I didn't think that I could sleep one bit, but it seemed only seconds later that Gerda was softly shaking my shoulder to wake me.

An hour later we were on the boat that was to take us home. In vain I searched the shore for a glimpse of Hans, but I could not see him. Disappointment cut through me like a knife. I tried to tell myself that it was very early and no one would know to wake him, why would he care. But maybe the night hadn't meant as much to him as it had to me.

When we started to pull out of port, I sniffled, but one tear managed to escape. At that moment I heard ever so softly, my name being called in the distance, "Elsaaa!"

I stood and turned toward the dock, and there - in pyjamas and a dressing gown was Hans, waving like mad. A huge smile broke onto my face and I bounced up and down, flapping my arms like a maniac.