The more I think about it, the more in common the characters of Tangled and Frozen seem to have: Elsa's and Rapunzel's magic, Kristoff and Eugene both being in relationships with royalty, Rapunzel's and Anna's outgoing nature... so why not write a few stories about it? Enjoy! And if you feel like it, leave a review.

Neither Tangled nor Frozen are mine. Oh, what a cruel world!

Cursed with magic

Queen Elsa of Arendelle was a bit nervous. Not "a complete wreck", as her dear sister had told her in Anna's very own, very direct way, definitely not. If she WAS a complete wreck, her seat in the conference hall of the Arendelle castle would have probably been covered in ice already. But this talk... it was very important. She knew that Anna had only tried to make Elsa relax with her smiles and jokes, knowing that the big sister still didn't work well under pressure, and she was probably right... but so much depended on this one talk.

Elsa sighed. She wished that Anna was here. Her younger sister didn't participate in royal matters usually, aside from entertaining Arendelle's guests whenever Elsa needed a break – which Elsa was very thankful for since she still was not used to constantly be around people. It wasn't that Anna was dumb or anything – she hadn't spent as many hours of her life reading and learning as Elsa had, but Anna was still a princess and had had a royal upbringing too... at least until their parents had died. Back then, when Elsa had stopped talking to her younger sister altogether and had focused completely on learning everything she needed to know as a queen, Anna had fled into the world of romance novels... which had led to the disaster with Hans. Well, Anna had grown up since then, but even after all the princess had been through with Hans and Elsa herself, she still retained her sunny, optimistic nature which made it so easy for Elsa to relax around her. No matter how stressed Elsa was because of her royal duties, a couple of smiles, hugs, a few minutes of talking was usually all it took for Elsa to feel relaxed and happy again. Elsa smiled. After all these years of trying to suppress what she really was, of trying to achieve perfect self-control, she loved how Anna's company somehow made it so easy to control her magic while still being able to express her feelings.

Well, usually. Anna was not here right now. This was Princess Rapunzel's wish. And that was pretty much everything Elsa knew about the Coronian princess' visit here in Arendelle. Which was the reason why she was nervous. After the infamous events that had transpired after Elsa's coronation, few of their guests had shown outright hostility – well, aside from Hans and the Duke of Weselton –, but neither had many of them accepted Elsa's invitation to stay longer in Arendelle as compensation for the danger Elsa had put them through. Most of them had been polite, but they had left pretty soon, probably to tell their monarchs about the new situation in Arendelle. It didn't help her mood today that Princess Rapunzel and Prince Eugene had been one of those who had left Arendelle nearly immediately. It had been a very stressful time for Elsa... fortunately none of the other kingdoms had cut their ties to Arendelle openly, but it seemed like they were simply observing Elsa's behavior. If one kingdom decided to stop trading with Arendelle, then it was very possible that more would follow suit.

Which would be disastrous. Elsa's unnatural winter had affected the harvest in Arendelle this year, they had been forced to open the granaries and the country was nearly without supplies now. And since their relationship to the Southern Isles and especially Weselton was pretty much non-existent now... Elsa had asked herself many times if she should maybe have ignored the Duke of Weseltons attempts to kill her for the sake of her country. Anna had argued fervently against that, but Weselton had been Arendelle's most important business partner for long years. Elsa needed to find new allies or Arendelle would suffer because of her actions, but most of the other countries were too wary of her right now... and now the princess of Corona was here, and Elsa couldn't help but ask herself if this would be the first country suspending relations with Arendelle, causing a chain reaction which could ruin her nation. No matter how many times Anna had told Elsa to just calm down and hope for the best, fear had been with her for most of her life. It wasn't so easy to get rid of that. She grimaced when she noticed that she had frozen her hot chocolate. She quickly summoned the image of her and Anna playing as children to thaw the beverage, but that only meant that it was not frozen anymore, it was far from warm. She wondered if she still had enough time to ask someone to...?

Three knocks on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Elsa?" A cough. "Um, I mean... my queen? May we enter?"

Elsa smiled affectionately. Anna would never change. And in fact, Elsa didn't want her to. "Come in," she said in her "official" voice, as Anna called it, and stood up.

The door opened and Anna walked in, smiled at Elsa and curtsied like a maid. Elsa allowed herself to roll her eyes. She knew that even a princess had to pay respect to the queen, better than Anna herself actually, but Anna seemed intent on overdoing things, as if she was trying to mock Elsa. Or maybe their "official" relationship, when they had become so close again as sisters.

"My queen, I present to you Princess Rapunzel of Corona," Anna announced with way too much pathos. Then she turned around to Arendelle's guests, curtsying again. "Princess Rapunzel, meet Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Elsa couldn't help but snort. The whole situation was still as serious as it had been before, but once again Anna had managed to ease Elsa's worries a bit by just... being Anna. She felt the love for her little sister spreading through her body, keeping her fear at bay for now. Still, she couldn't show any weakness, so she kept a straight face.

"That's enough, Anna," she chided, then facing the foreign princess and her escort, Prince Eugene. "I'm very sorry," she told the two, respectfully bowing her head, "I can only guess that my sister is trying to... break the ice by acting this way."

Anna harrumphed. "Well, it seems my services are not appreciated." She walked over to Prince Eugene, offering her hand. "Prince Eugene, would you like to accompany me as long as the queen and Princess Rapunzel are busy doing royal stuff?"

The prince was enough of a gentleman to smile at Anna and link arms with her. But his eyes stayed serious, looking at Rapunzel questioningly. Elsa knew what that meant all too well. He was worried. Worried that his wife had requested to be alone in this room with the infamous Snow Queen. Perhaps he was right to be, but the foreign princess smiled at her husband encouragingly.

"Don't worry, Eugene," she said, gently squeezing his arm. "I will be fine."

"Are you sure?"

The prince looked at Elsa. She could tell that he was trying very hard to avoid showing any negative emotions, but he wasn't completely successful. This was his wife after all. Elsa didn't move at all.

"Yes, I am sure," Rapunzel assured him and pushed him out of the door. "I'll see you later. You too I hope, Princess Anna."

"Sure!" Anna agreed, showing another bright smile before closing the door.

The princess took a deep breath, turned around and curtsied herself, although in a far less mocking manner than Anna. "Your Highness," she greeted Elsa.

Elsa smiled and pointed at the seat right next to her own. "Please, Princess Rapunzel, sit down," she said, with as much of a warm voice as someone like her was capable of. She still was not sure what this meeting would be about, but thanks to Anna's little act she was not quite as tense anymore. "You just arrived here in Arendelle and immediately requested this meeting just between the two of us. The least I can do is offering you a cup of hot chocolate before we start with the negotiations. You like chocolate, I hope?"

"Oh yes!" the princess exclaimed, sitting down and taking a sip. "I love chocolate, especially here in Arendelle! Corona is generally warmer, so I can't enjoy it just as much as here..." Then she realized that she had started rambling and coughed slightly. "I'm sorry, your Highness. I am just really excited to be here."

Elsa couldn't help but smile. "It feels like you have spent too much time with my sister already," she commented.

Suddenly Rapunzel's face became serious. "She is worried about you."

Elsa blinked. "Pardon me?"

"Princess Anna. She is worried about you," Rapunzel clarified. "When we walked here, she told us that she thought you were a bit... stressed lately. And that she would overact a bit to amuse you and that Eugene and I shouldn't feel offended." The foreign princess gave Elsa a look which the queen couldn't decipher. "Your sister seems to love you very much, your Highness."

Elsa looked down and blinked again to remove the sudden wetness in her eyes. She couldn't show any weakness in her role as a queen, but as with her fear in her childhood days she had still not learned to keep her love for her baby sister in control, when it attempted to overwhelm her. Not that she really wanted to. A huge part of her wanted to pour out her heart to the Coronian princess about just how much Anna meant to her... that without her sister's love she would have never learned to control her magic, that Anna was always there to imbue even the dullest day with joy, that she could not even imagine spending her life without Anna's laughter anymore. But she controlled herself. Anna would be furious, if she knew about it... but in her role as queen Elsa found her old mantra to be useful still: Conceal, don't feel.

"I sometimes wonder how it would be to have siblings... neither me nor Eugene have any, or at least real ones in his case." Rapunzel was still staring at Elsa, but then she suddenly blinked and blushed slightly. "Oh! I digressed again! Uh, my father would be SO disappointed in me right now..." She opened the bag she had been carrying around since she had arrived and fetched an important looking document, sealed with the official Coronian Sun seal. "Queen Elsa," the princess continued with a far more dignified voice. "My father, Kind Thomas of Corona, sent me here to deliver this document."

Ah, yes. Elsa's good mood left her. Princess Rapunzel did not seem to fear her at all, but King Thomas had never met Elsa. This still might be bad news. Well, no reason to delay this any further. She accepted the document, carefully broke the royal seal and unrolled the paper. She knew that the first part would probably just be empty phrases, just like the ones she herself used to start official letters, but she read them carefully nonetheless. This document might be too important to miss even the tiniest detail.

She was halfway through when she suddenly lost her composure, became wide-eyed and stared at Princess Rapunzel, who was just barely concealing a huge smile. "A formal trade agreement?" she repeated what she had just read, not quite ready to believe it. "Favored trading partners?"

"Yes!" Rapunzel had obviously known what the document was about, and she was delighted by Elsa's reaction. "Isn't that wonderful?" Then she – again – remembered that she was here in her official role as a princess and composed herself. "I mean... does Arendelle think this offer would be beneficial to both of us?"

Elsa was still puzzled. She was thankful that she had much better control over her magic now, otherwise the letter would probably be frozen now, instead of just a thin layer of rime, which she shoved away quickly. Beneficial? If this was not some cruel joke, then this letter would probably solve a huge part of Arendelle's import and export problems right now. But she did not understand... she put the document on the table, giving Rapunzel a severe look.

"Princess Rapunzel... may we speak openly?"

The foreign princess blinked, suddenly looking a bit insecure. "Uhm... sure, your Highness."

"Why?"

"Why... what?" Rapunzel was getting more and more nervous. Maybe because Elsa's clasped hands had begun to freeze over, the queen noticed, and mentally ordered them to thaw immediately.

"I am sorry," Elsa apologized, her voice becoming softer. "But I just don't understand... Corona isn't poor. Much of what your country needs, you can produce yourself, and many countries do business with you, Arendelle not so much in the past. And after the events at my coronation... well, you and Prince Eugene were some of the very first to leave, some would say flee Arendelle. And now, a few months later... you are here again, not only offering a simple trade agreement, but nearly a firm alliance. I just don't understand how Corona would benefit from this agreement."

"Well... do we have to?" Rapunzel asked. She seemed to have calmed down a little... but she still seemed to be a bit cautious. "Isn't it a noble thing to help those in need? And Arendelle HAS suffered from the sudden winter... not that I want to say you did it intentionally, your Highness," she quickly added.

"Yes, that would be noble," Elsa agreed. "But this is how people think – not how rulers think, who have to worry about relationships with other countries too." She leaned back. "Look, princess... I won't lie. This document seems like a godsend to me right now. I just would like to know the reasons why your father, a man I have never met and who has probably heard some sinister tales about me, would make such an offer."

"I see." Rapunzel nodded. She seemed to have calmed down now. "Well... then I will speak openly too. One reason would be that my marriage with Eugene has not caused open hostilities, but some countries didn't take it very well that the only princess of Corona didn't marry one of their princes."

Elsa nodded. That sounded right. She had not heard much of it, but once or twice an ambassador had mentioned during smalltalk how... unorthodox this marriage had been.

"My father would probably not want me to tell you this," Rapunzel continued, "but this HAS inflicted at least some damage on our relations to some other countries. They are still civil and have not stopped their merchants from doing business with us, but there seems to be a little less trade than before overall. Not particularly much, mind you, but still enough to wonder if it will decrease even more."

"I see," Elsa concluded. "So you are looking for new allies... particularly countries you haven't done quite as much business before, like Arendelle."

"Well, that was the reason that convinced my father," Rapunzel replied. Her gaze had become quite intense. "He thinks showing that Corona does not intend to cut off any relations, but is also not overly dependent on other countries is best right now. But it was not MY reason."

Elsa's eyebrow twitched. "YOUR reason, princess?"

"Yes." The foreign princess' voice was very serious now. "You were right, my father was quite wary of you at first because of all the stories... but I managed to convince him that you are not a danger to Corona, but that you are actually... very much like me."

Elsa could feel her magic deep inside of her stirring, but she held it back. This talk was not at all how she had envisioned it. "What do you mean?"

"Queen Elsa... you think that you are the only human whose early life was ruined by a magic you didn't ask for." Elsa suddenly remembered Anna's eyes when her younger sister had visited her in her Ice Palace... full of sympathy and determination to help. Princess Rapunzel's eyes were quite similar now. It was a bit... unsettling. "But you are wrong. Tell me, what do you know about my life?"

"Not... much," Elsa managed to say, finally pushing aside Anna's image. "Just that you were kidnapped... and that Prince Eugene reunited you with your parents when you were eighteen. I am sorry by the..."

"Don't be," Rapunzel interrupted her. "From the little bit I heard, your own life has been much harder than mine. But you don't know WHY I was kidnapped, do you? Not because of money or political reasons or something. I was kidnapped because of the magic I was born with."

Elsa inhaled sharply and she felt part of her seat freezing over, but thankfully Rapunzel didn't notice it, so she had enough time to regain control and reverse it. Meanwhile the princess started her rather fantastic tale about her mother eating a magic, sun-kissed plant, the princess herself being born with magic hair which could heal and stop the aging process, she then being kidnapped by Mother Gothel who pretended to be her real mother for eighteen years, while in reality not loving, but only using Rapunzel to regain her youth.

Elsa was not completely sure... her own childhood had left her quite distanced and wary of other people, and as a queen she could not rule out that this story could be a ruse to sign something that contained hidden clauses. And yet... the feelings this foreign princess was putting into the tale seemed genuine... and a part of Elsa WANTED to believe that it was true. She had Anna, who was so very similar to Rapunzel in behavior, and her sister's love was probably way more than she deserved after all she had put Anna through in their childhood... but some things of Elsa's life Anna with her sunny, optimistic nature would, and probably also should never understand, not in detail. But if Princess Rapunzel's tale was true...

The princess continued her story with Prince Eugene entering her tower, their adventurous travel to her home town and her finally reaching her dream of seeing the "lights in the sky" up close. Elsa's eyes were glued to Rapunzel's lips when the girl described how Mother Gothel had deceived her to come with her, Rapunzel then realizing that she was the lost princess and her so-called mother showing her true face. Elsa's heart began to hurt a little when Eugene was dying in Rapunzel's arms, reminding her so much of Anna's sacrifice, also the miracle that followed and saved his life.

"And then Eugene brought me back to the palace... and I finally was reunited with my real parents," Rapunzel ended her story.

"I... I don't know what to say, princess," Elsa managed to utter. She really didn't. All of this sounded too good to be true. An agreement that would benefit Arendelle immensely AND someone who could maybe truly understand Elsa's feelings about her isolation... this felt like a dream. A rather cool dream, she realized – the temperature in the room had dropped a bit and she had to use quite an amount of willpower to raise it again. Fortunately Rapunzel didn't seem to have noticed it. The princess' capacity for enthusiasm seemed to shield her from Elsa's cold for now... something else which reminded Elsa of her own little sister. She had to be careful not to let her feelings cloud her mind, no matter how much she WANTED to like the Coronian princess.

"You don't have to," Rapunzel replied, smiling. "I know this is much to take in. You should first study the trade agreement in detail, although I assure you that there is no catch... at least none that I know of. You can also ask me or Eugene for details about my story, if it sounds unbelievable... but what I really want to say is this." The princess suddenly put her hand on Elsa's, at first being surprised about the cool skin, but then continuing. "You are not alone, Queen Elsa. There ARE some people who can understand what you have gone though in your room during all these years. And if you ever want to talk about it... well, then I would feel honored if you considered me enough of a friend to choose me to talk to."

Elsa took a deep breath. "Thank you," she said, her feelings finally calming down. "I will... no, I HAVE TO study this trade agreement first, as you suggested. But..." She hesitated for a moment. The only person she was really close to, the only one she really had to talk, was Anna. And yet, as much as she cherished the strong bond between her and her little sister, there were some very dark moments in these thirteen years of isolation she would probably never feel comfortable enough to talk about with Anna... and had not her sister herself told her – jokingly, but still – that Elsa was overly dependent on her sometimes and that she needed to make some real friends? She smiled at the foreign princess. "But I won't deny that I WANT both of it to be real... Corona's offer AND your story. For the moment... I invite you to stay here in Arendelle as long as you wish. And I encourage you to spend some time with my sister. You will find that you have much in common with her too... maybe more than with me."

"Oh, I will," Rapunzel agreed. Then she seemed to remember something. "Actually I think we should end our talk soon... Eugene is probably worried sick right now. I think I should go look for him and show him that I am alright." She stood up and prepared to curtsy. "Your Highn..."

"Please," Elsa interrupted her. She was surprised herself. Impetuosity was usually something Anna was in charge of in their family. "Call me Elsa."

Rapunzel was just as surprised, but she immediately smiled again. "Only if you call me Rapunzel."

"I will." Elsa stood up too. "How about we look for my sister and your husband together? I'm pretty sure Anna will have caused at least two international incidents by now, which I will have to apologize for."

Rapunzel laughed. "Oh, believe me, Eugene is perfectly capable of causing those himself when he is under pressure. I guess we will both have to apologize."

"Well, than we should probably not give them any more time. I would truly regret it if Arendelle and Corona were suddenly at war..."

And with that, the queen and the princess left the room, chatting as if they had been friends for a long time already. Elsa was still not utterly convinced... so often in her life her hopes had been crushed, so often things had become worse instead of better, but now she felt like she finally understood why Anna was always so eager to make new friends. When she had finally been allowed to let Anna's love embrace her after her little sister had broken Elsa's curse and ended their misery, she had been overwhelmed by her feelings. She had been sure that she could not possibly endure more warmth than the sun that was her beloved sister.

But she had been wrong. Even though Anna's love seemed endless, Elsa now realized that there still was space for more warmth, for new friends in even her cool heart. And that was why she allowed hope to return into her heart again now, even though it had been ripped out so often. Hope that Rapunzel would indeed become her very first true friend... hope that her future might become even more bright than it was now. Provided that Anna and Prince Eugene had NOT started a war yet.

Well then. I think the next one will be about Eugene and Kristoff getting tipsy and talking about the girls.