Anna jumped up and down in the little room to calm her nerves. "Calm down, Anna, it'll be okay, he's coming, just trust him... Oh Kristoff, where are you? You had better not be in the kitchens..."

"Is everything alright, Anna?"

Anna swirled around, the weight of her skirts nearly knocking her over with the sudden movement. "There you are Kristoff! Where were you? Oh never mind, we have to go in now, quickly, we have to make a good impression!"

"Anna, I'm not going in till you calm down." Kristoff folded his arms and frowned at the princess.

Anna rolled her eyes slightly. "Kristoff, we don't have time..."

"You keep jumping like that, you'll knock over the supper table. That would be embarrassing."

Anna sighed, and held perfectly still for a total of five seconds, before groaning. "Kristoff, I have to move, and it's hard enough in this stupid dress!"

"I didn't mean don't move, I just meant calm down," sighed Kristoff. "You're making me nervous."

"Good," said Anna cruelly.

"Well, more nervous anyway."

"Well, you don't look it! You look as if you're not nervous at all, not even just a little bit!"

"Anna, I'm terrified." Suddenly the big, confident iceman faded away, and left a little frightened Kristoff. "What if I forget my words? What if we don't make a good impression? I need this to work, and if I mess up..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Anna, giving him a hug. "I made you feel bad." Her voice was muffled against his chest. "You'll do great, I know it!"

Kristoff pulled her back, and looked her in the eye. "You're sure? Are you sure the speech is right?"

"Tell you what," smiled Anna sincerely. "No matter if you mess up your words, no matter if you stutter, no matter if you faint, we'll still get married. Even if we have to do it secretly up in the mountains it'll happen. We've got Elsa's approval, and what more do we need?"

"I'd like the people's blessing all the same."

"And we'll get it," said Anna.

Kristoff smiled at her, and took a deep breath. Then he offered his arm, and she curtsied and took it. His dancing lessons had paid off, she decided, as he led her into the ballroom amidst cheers from the crowd.

Elsa watched, smiling from her throne – and yet her head was thumping terribly, feeling as if it was about to split. She stood and clapped, and the rest of her people followed her lead. Just as she had promised Anna, a thunderous applause. Now Kristoff could mess up as much as he wanted, for she had kept her promise.

Anna and Kristoff mingled throughout the crowd, shaking hands and talking to the people. Anna could tell that Kristoff was nervous, but she was in her element now, meeting her people and talking to them, strengthening the bond between the royal family and the common people, just like Elsa wanted.

Supper was a success. Anna was wedged between Kristoff and the queen, and politely talked to people down the table, made witty comments, and laughed in all the right places. All in all, she was quite proud of herself, and even prouder of Kristoff who had only made one awkward comment and immediately fixed it. Besides, the comment had been making fun of ice workers' personal habits, and while it may not have been entirely appropriate for a political gathering, no one could deny that it had been hilarious.

Then came the time when they must make the announcement. They fought their way through the mingling crowd to the dais, where Elsa stood from her throne and said, "Attention please, attention please!"

As if by magic, the noisy room hushed into silence.

Elsa continued, "The princess Anna has a little announcement to make. Anna?"

Anna took one more gulp, and stepped forward onto the dais, Kristoff at her elbow. She turned to face the crowd – so many shining faces, looking expectantly up at her. She gulped again. Kristoff twitched her elbow, and she came to herself. "Ladies and Gentlemen of Arendelle... it is my great pleasure to announce to you all today that... that Kristoff here has something to say."

Behind them, Elsa facepalmed. Kristoff stepped forward, trembling. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he began, stuttering slightly, "I'll cut right to the chase, so you can go back to the dancing and the food and the general things that you do at a ball. Well, I've known Anna for a long time, what is it, three years now?" Anna nodded, smiling, and he smiled back and continued. "Well, pretty soon after we met we kinda realised that we both liked each other, and as it generally works out, when two people like each other they usually get married." Besides him, Anna smiled with joy, and Elsa had an unreadable expression on her face. "In short, several weeks ago I asked the princess Anna to marry me, and she said yes."

The applause was tremendous, and Anna nearly sunk into the floor with relief. She put her arm into Kristoff's and smiled so hard she thought her face would break. She could fly; fly and touch the moon and the stars, and kiss Kristoff besides. She could see Kristoff grinning at the crowd, and at her.

Behind them Elsa was clapping politely. Inwardly she was trying not to laugh, and cursing herself for not reading their speech through, instead of assuming that they knew what they were doing. Oh well, she thought, at least the people are happy. There were mostly smiling faces in the crowd; some looked slightly annoyed, but most were amused and joyful.

After the crowd had returned to mingling and eating, Anna came up to her sister with Kristoff in tow. "That was quite some speech you had there," smiled Elsa.

"It was, wasn't it? Kristoff and I wrote it together – well, he did most of it, but I helped some," Anna babbled.

"Do you think we made a good enough impression, your majesty?" asked Kristoff, fear creeping into his voice again.

"Well, I don't know about you, but the crowd seemed perfectly fine with the idea," smiled the queen.

Kristoff and Anna beamed with joy. They thanked the queen and left the dais, where they met Olaf the snowman wobbling his way over to them, his little cloud leaving a trail of snow flurries. "Oh I'm so proud of you!" He clasped his hands and grinned up at them. "I always knew this day would come!"

"Oh Olaf!" Anna bent down and gave the snowman a hug, which accordingly made the front of her dress rather wet.

"Thanks little man," said Kristoff. "I appreciate the effort you've gone too."

"I'm just so proud," twirled Olaf. "It's finally happening... Oh listen, that's the music for the waltz, you'd better run!"

"What?" said Kristoff, before Anna grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

The next thing he knew, he was in the middle of the dance floor, his arm on Anna's waist, and the entire kingdom watching. "Anna, what's going on?" he hissed.

"If I'd told you before, you would have run off," whispered Anna. "Watch your feet."

The two danced the waltz for three minutes before the music finally ended, and they bowed to a thunderous applause.

Elsa watched from her throne, but her brain was wandering. She was exhausted, and her head was throbbing. She wished that the stupid ball would end, but she couldn't just call it off. She had to wait until at least midnight before she could properly excuse herself and leave the ballroom to go to bed. Then it was up at six again the next morning, ready to start the day's work...

One thing's for sure, she thought, being a queen is not easy.

She rubbed her forehead. It was starting to throb again. She felt her eyes blur a bit, and had to blink to restore her vision. The nausea was starting to creep up her throat again, and she gulped, trying to push it down...

The music was playing loudly, as the couples danced to the music. Her head started to beat in time to the music, and she would have laughed if it wasn't so painful. She clutched it, squeezing it, trying to make it stop. A hand patted her shoulder. "Are you okay, your majesty?" said Charles.

Elsa shook him off and sat up. His eyes bored into hers, and she wished only to leave, to sleep, to be by herself... She rested her feet on the floor about to stand up, but stopped at the screams.

The moment her boots had touched the floor, the floor had turned into ice.

The ice was blue, and the room was filled with cold, cold that seeped through the thin summer clothes and into your very bones. The music died away.

Elsa felt deliciously cold again, and then immediately guilty as hundreds of eyes locked onto hers, angrily wanting to know why the dance floor had turned into an ice rink.

Elsa didn't know, and wanted to run and hide in embarrassment, but instead opened up her arms. "Ice party!" she cried.

There was an immediate cheer. While some grumpy faces stayed plastered on, the majority of the kingdom enjoyed these impromptu ice parties that the queen held at random. They skated around on the floor of the ballroom, dancing to the music that the band had started up again.

Elsa sat down, her legs suddenly shaking. Her headache and nausea was gone, and she was deliciously cold, but the thought of what had just happened was making her feel sick in the pit of her stomach. Vaguely she was aware of Charles talking to her, but she ignored him as she tried to calm her beating heart.

Anna came running up, her angry expression plastered all over her face, Kristoff running after her. "Elsa, you promised."

"Just... just don't, Anna," said Elsa, frowning at her sister, her cheeks as pale as the ice beneath her feet.

"Don't want? Don't create the ice? Umm, hello? That was you!"

"You're not making any sense."

"No, you're not making any sense! You promised me you wouldn't make ice!"

"Anna, don't," said Kristoff, his hand on her arm.

But Anna ignored him. "Why do you always have to make everything about you?"

"I don't! I was just... I was hot!"

"Seriously? You were hot?"

"Keep your voice down, Anna," muttered Kristoff. People were starting to stare.

"You were hot? What if I was hot, huh? You always make ice, did you really have to do it this time, the one time you promised me you wouldn't?"

"Anna, that's enough." The queen looked pleadingly at her sister.

"I don't care! It doesn't always have to be about you!"

Elsa looked slightly pleadingly at Kristoff, and he sighed, before taking Anna's arm. "Anna, let's go talk this over."

"Kristoff, this is none of your business! Elsa, you... you horrible reindeer, you promised me!"

Kristoff kept a straight face as he half dragged Anna out of the ballroom. She was seething at him, glaring at the very air. As soon as the door closed behind them, however, he let go and she let loose at him. "It always has to be about her... and you, you're on her side!"

"Anna, look at me. You've lost it! Come on, Anna."

Anna glared at him.

"Come on, Anna, breath. Do the exercise."

"I hate the exercise."

"Come on. It's not that hard. Just breath. In, out, in, out. That's the way. Close your eyes."

After a moment, the both of them opened their eyes, feeling sufficiently calmed down. Kristoff had coined the exercise after they had discovered that Anna suffered from an extremely short temper, particularly after she consumed large amounts of sugar. He always made Anna do it to calm down, and it seemed to do the trick, as she was now looking at him with sufficiently less angry eyes. "Right," she said. "I'm calmed down now. But it still wasn't fair of you to side with her. You weren't there, Kristoff." And she told him what had happened earlier in the afternoon.

"Anna, that's terrible. Any idea how it happened?"

"Nope." She managed a little smile. "But I think it was just her nervousness playing up. I'm not too worried about it. After all, she said she was feeling a little under the weather."

"Not too worried about it! Anna, she nearly killed you!"

"Nonsense! She's my sister, she would never hurt me."

Kristoff raised his eyebrows.

"Well, at least she wouldn't hurt me on purpose. Oh, stop looking at me like that. And it was jolly mean of you to side with her, when she was in the wrong. She promised, Kristoff."

"Anna, you know that nothing ever gets sorted out when you're in a temper. I could see that, and I saw that people were staring, and I made the quick choice to get you out of there before you ruined our new found popularity."

"I'm sorry, okay? It's just that I didn't want ice today. She already couldn't control it this morning – what if she lost control just then? With all those people?"

Kristoff gave her a hug, ignoring the maids that were hurrying past with plates of food. "How about this, Anna. We'll forget about it all... don't growl, just for now... And you can talk to Elsa later, when you're properly calmed down. Okay?"

Anna sighed, then said, "Okay, fine. But on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You're not allowed to leave my side for the rest of the ball."

"Deal." They grinned at each other, before linking arms and sauntering back into the ballroom.

/

Elsa watched her sister leave with Kristoff, and her heart was wrung. "That can't be good, your majesty," said Charles. "Did you mean for it to happen?"

Charles had known her since she was a baby, and had been one of the few servants who had not been fired after the Accident, back when she was a little child. He was now one of Elsa's most reliable advisors, and she trusted him enough to shake her head. "No. I don't know how it happened."

"That is curious," said Charles. "I will look into it."

"It's just because I'm sick," said Elsa. "That's all it is."

"If you say so, your majesty," said Charles, but he did not look convinced.

Elsa wasn't convinced either.

/

It was when Anna was waving the last guest out of the castle that she bumped into her sister. "Did you have a good night?" she asked, trying very hard to keep all frostiness out of her voice.

"It was enjoyable, thank you Anna. But Anna... I am sorry, you know."

Anna frowned. "I don't think that we should talk about that right now." She squared her shoulders and prepared to walk off in high dudgeon, hoping that Elsa would stop her.

But Elsa simply said, "Okay," and turned and walked away.

Anna groaned and ran after her sister. "What I meant was... I mean, it's okay, just don't do it again, okay?"

Elsa looked down at her gloved hands. "Anna, you don't understand. I didn't mean to do it."

"Nonsense!" Anna felt the bubble of anger grow inside her again. "You did it, and you meant to do it, and I don't know why, especially after you promised you wouldn't, but please don't make stupid excuses. I forgave you, what more do you want me to say?"

"Nothing Anna," Elsa backtracked fast. "I just wanted you to know that I didn't do it purposefully. But anyway, we're both tired. Let's put it aside for the night, okay?"

"Let's put it aside forever," said Anna stubbornly. "I don't want to talk about this ever again. You broke your word to me. I forgave you. End of story. Full stop. Finished."

"Very well Anna," sighed the queen. "I will see you in the morning then, I suppose."

"Yes. Good night." With that, Anna turned on her heel and made a sweeping exit out of the front room. If she had turned around, she would have seen her sister looking at her with hollow eyes, as misty as ghosts – but she didn't, instead refusing to look behind her as she made her way to her room, where she could have a good cry and rant for fighting with her sister again.


Thanks for reading! You're the best! Also it's starting to get cold where I live and I do NOT approve where can I get a refund on the weather please

Review? xx