Anders trudged down the castle halls, muttering darkly to himself about eternal winters and crazy magical teenagers. Eventually, he reached the castle's massive front doors, where he let the latest guest inside. Of course, the long-awaited reopening of the castle gates had led to a substantial influx of visitors to the castle, but this particular guest had been given special permission to be allowed in immediately, though he still had to wade through the jealous glares of the other people in line.

The boy was easily identifiable by his loathsome posture, lack of anything resembling etiquette, and the clumpy way he walked.

"Hey there, I, uh just came by to see the princess," Kristoff said, shrinking under Anders's glare.

"Right this way, sir." Anders kept his voice level, but his eyes took a judgmental look over Kristoff, resting a particularly long time on his unmanly blond hair. Anders led Kristoff inside, wincing involuntarily as he tracked dirt all over the finely woven rug. It was a long, silent walk from the front entrance to the dining hall. Anders sighed in relief when Kristoff finally vanished down the hallway.

In the span of a week, the castle had gone from a quiet, dignified, albeit empty, house of royalty to a place where sentient snowmen ran amok and princesses dated hairy mountain men. It was starting to dawn on Anders that the only thing standing between order and hair-splitting madness was one elderly and overworked butler.

Why, oh why, couldn't Princess Anna have stayed with that nice Hans fellow? Now there was a man who'd known how to act in the presence of royalty. Well, up until that "attempted murder" incident, anyways. Anders had been more heartbroken than Anna.

"You sure you don't need to be rushed to the infirmary? You look like you're in real agony."

"Very funny."

Of all the things she'd been unable to do before she could control her magic, burning her tongue was the one Elsa had missed the least. She was still making pained faces as she and Anna left the royal stables and made their way through the courtyard, which sadly was no longer a skating rink. It couldn't stay that way forever unless they wanted people slipping and falling on their faces during work hours.

Elsa reviewed her mental list. Reopen the gates? Check. Replace Kristoff's sled? Check. Refreeze the ice-harvesters' lake? Check.

Hmm... What did that leave? There was still that gaping hole in the dungeon wall, but... wasn't there something else? Elsa couldn't shake the feeling she was forgetting something.

"Hey, Elsa?" spoke up Anna as they neared the castle's front door. "Whatever happened to the white streak in my hair?"

Oh, right. Telling Anna the truth.

"White streak?" Elsa feigned ignorance, which, of course, only made her conscience scream louder.

"Y'know, the one I was born with." Anna held out a solid orange pigtail. "I looked in the mirror this morning, and it was, like, totally gone."

Elsa did her best to sound disinterested. "Mmm, that is strange..."

"You know what?" Anna looked thoughtful. "My hair went all white when you froze my heart. Maybe when I turned into an ice-sculpture and back, I was hit with some kinda magic hair dye."

"Well, you know how magic is." Elsa forced herself to take some steady breaths. Her heart was thumping a little too fast. "Bizarre and unpredictable."

"Maybe we can go ask the trolls about it?"

Elsa groaned in spite of herself. She was lucky those stupid trolls hadn't told Anna the truth already.

"Wait a minute. My hair turned all white once you hit me with ice-magic, right? But it was already a little bit white before that, so..." Anna's face lit up. "...what if that means I've got ice-magic, too? Wouldn't that be awesome?" She swished her hands around like she might start shooting ice any second now.

Elsa shuddered at the thought. "If you had powers, I think they'd have manifested by now. I was already making snowflakes when I was a baby."

"Really?" At this, the enthusiasm left Anna's eyes. "So you mean, all those times we played together, you... you were hiding it from me?"

Elsa's heart sank. "No, no, that's not what I-"

She was cut short by the sound of screams.

"That came from inside!"

Elsa said a quick prayer of thanks, then hurried through the front door with Anna. No sooner had the girls thrown it open than a maid pushed past them, shrieking, "It's alive! It's alive!"

Elsa and Anna bolted down the hall, where they quickly found what it was safe to assume was the source of the trouble. Namely, an overturned tapestry being trampled by a runaway pig with a bucket stuck firmly over its head. And at the front of this madness was what might have once been a snowman, only now his head and butt segments had switched locations and his carrot was sticking out his chest.

"Olaf?" said an astounded Elsa. "What are you doing?"

Olaf gave this some deep thought. "I don't know," he said earnestly.

Elsa shook her head, then conjured up an icy pig pen before the little pink beast could do further damage. "Well, try not to cause any more trouble, okay?"

"Okay!" Olaf said brightly. Then he frowned. "Wait, what qualifies as 'trouble,' exactly?"

"Sheesh," said Anna, "I don't remember the one we built as kids being such a handful."

"Actually, Olaf acts exactly how I always pictured he would," said Elsa. "Even his voice matches how I heard it in my head."

"Huh, that's kinda weird." Anna glanced back at the snowman. Olaf was trying to get himself back into proper shape, but his butt didn't seem to be cooperating with the rest of him. "I'm guessing you never pictured him too bright, then?"

"Well, I think it makes him more endearing..."

"Look out!" screamed Olaf. "My butt's out of controooooool!"

It was at this point that the sound of frantic squealing returned Elsa's attention to the icy pig pen. Olaf had put his pieces back in order, and now he'd apparently climbed inside the pen in an attempt to remove the bucket from the poor creature's head.

Elsa brought a palm to her temple. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Trust me, I did way worse when I was a kid," said Anna. "There's a reason Kai's prematurely bald."

"Oh! That gives me an idea."

Elsa and Anna hurried back to the entrance hall, where Anders was busy cleaning traces of cake off a bust.

"Your Majesty?" He looked up at their approach. "What was that screaming? Nobody dead, I hope?"

"It was fine," said Elsa. "In fact, I have a job for you, Anders. You used to babysit Anna when she was little, didn't you? Can I ask you to watch another child for me?"

Anders raised a gray eyebrow. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Not a human child." Elsa opened the hallway door to call out, "Olaaaaf!"

"Ooh! Ooh! That's me!" No sooner had she called for him than the snowman bounced into the room, his bright-eyed look of joy permanently fixed on his face.

"Olaf, I'm going to be busy today." Elsa knelt down on her knees to meet the his charcoal eyes. "Anders here will be in charge of taking care of you, okay?"

Olaf turned to examine his new caretaker. For a minute, he was silent. And then he was the opposite. "Alright! We're gonna have so much fun together and we'll run around and play games and make loud noises and you can give me piggyback rides and…"

Anders stared at Elsa. "You hate me, don't you?"

"Please, Anders?" said Elsa, a note of apology in her voice.

Anders made his sourest face.

"Just for today, I promise."

Anders still had half a mind to refuse, but then Elsa made puppy dog eyes at him, and not even the crotchetiest of old men could resist those.

"Confound it all, I'll do it!" Anders threw his hands up in defeat.

"Hurray!" Olaf immediately gave his new friend one of his trademark warm hugs.

"Yeah, it's probably a good idea to get Olaf a babysitter," said Anna. "We don't need him destroying anything else."

"Wait." Anders' eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'anything else?'"

"I got to play with paint," Olaf said proudly.

The sisters thought it best to vamoose before Anders had time to change his mind.

"There you are!"

Kristoff found the sisters hurrying down the castle's winding halls.

"Kristoff!" Anna looked like she'd like to give him a hug, but then she glanced at Elsa and thought better of it. "What are you doing here?"

"Just checking up on you. How'd your little stint as commoners go?"

"Not as well as it could have," said Elsa. "The citizens didn't seem too happy with me."

"Well, who cares what other people think?" said Kristoff, absently scratching his rear. "By the way, you said it was fine if Sven stayed in the royal stables while I'm here, right?"

Elsa gave Anna a look. "We did?"

Anna nodded. "We did." She inched ever so slightly further from Elsa and closer to Kristoff. "Hey, uh, Elsa, if you've got more queen stuff to be doing, Kristoff and I can leave you alone for a while-"

"Nice try," cut in Elsa. "I think I need to have a little conversation with Kristoff."

Anna's face flushed. "Y-You do?"

Kristoff gave her a look. "You told her about the kiss, didn't you?" he asked flatly.

Elsa's eyes bulged. "You kissed?"

"I just remembered something I gotta go do bye!" Anna vanished down the hallway with remarkable speed.

As soon as she was gone, Elsa's eyes fell on Kristoff. "So you want to date my sister, do you?"

"Uh..." Apparently, Elsa could make blood run cold even without magic.

"Watch where you're going!" screamed Anders. "For heaven's sake, slow down!"

"I don't know how!" Olaf yelled from the back of Anna's old bicycle, which was currently hurtling out of control down the dining hall table.

"The pedals!" Anders ran along the edge of the table in a futile effort to catch the out-of-control vehicle. "Push back against the pedals with your feet!"

Olaf looked down at his leg-stumps. "I'm not sure I have any."

Sven gave Kristoff a look that said, You're totally screwed, dude. Elsa had agreed to have this conversation in the royal stables, mostly because Kristoff had a feeling he was gonna need his emotional support animal.

"Look, Your Majesty..." He let out a sigh as he scratched Sven's ears. "I know your sister could do better than me. A lot better. I mean, I appreciate being made Official Ice Master and all, but even with the extra income, I'm not exactly in Anna's social class."

"That's not what concerns me." Elsa was standing in the dead center of the stables, keeping as far away as possible from the palace horses and all the filth they entailed. "I appreciate what you've done for Anna, but how am I supposed to trust you when you're keeping things from her?"

Sven gave Kristoff a look that said, Now you're double-screwed.

"What do you mean?" Kristoff asked quickly.

"The trolls." Elsa folded her arms. "Anna said you were raised by them."

"Oy..." Kristoff brought a palm to his forehead. "I had a feeling this would come up. Look, I'm gonna go ahead and tell it you straight – Sven and me were there the night Anna's head froze."

Elsa's face remained perfectly tranquil. It was kind of unnerving.

"I was a little orphan kid living on the streets, and when we saw your trail of ice, Sven and me followed it. We overheard everything about your powers and Anna's memories and stuff, and that's when the trolls found us. So, really, we-" Kristoff glanced away. "-we've got to thank you for that. The trolls are our like family. I don't know what we'd have done without 'em."

"So you knew about my magic all along?" Elsa said softly.

"I didn't tell anyone!" Kristoff assured her. "I mean, no one would've believed me anyways, and I'm not exactly a social butterfly in the first place, so-"

"And why didn't you tell Anna all this when you met her?"

"I don't really go around advertising the fact that I was raised by trolls. In fact, how many people here know about them, exactly?"

"Only a trusted few staff members," said Elsa. "They haven't told anyone in a decade. I doubt they'll start now."

"Good, good." Kristoff seemed to ease up at this. "I only brought Anna to the valley because her heart was frozen. It was kinda urgent."

"I see." Elsa took a deep breath, then regarded him sternly. "You're not to tell Anna about her altered memories. Understand?"

Kristoff frowned. "Why?"

"It..." Elsa faltered. "It could be upsetting. I don't know how she'd react."

"Hey, you know..." Kristoff hesitated before saying, "When we were traveling together, Anna never sounded mad at you, even after you froze her heart. She loves you a lot."

Elsa turned away, hiding her face. After a brief silence, she said, "Thank you for telling me that."

"Your Majesty..." Kristoff's ears turned a shade pinker. "The way I feel about your sister... I've never felt like this about anyone before. I really want to make it work between us." He shut his eyes. "But I also don't want to step on your toes. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm asking for your permission to see her."

Elsa took this in silently. "You have it," she finally said. "Anna deserves to be happy." She turned back towards him, her eyes narrowing. "But if you do anything out of line-"

"Just say the word, and I'll end things with her." Kristoff held up his hands. "I swear."

"Good." With that, Elsa made for the stable doors. She was about to leave, but then she glanced back. "For what it's worth... you're looking pretty good compared to her last boyfriend."

"Well, yeah," laughed Kristoff. "Sven would look pretty good compared to him."

Sven made an indignant snort.

"Cooooming throooooough- Agh!"

Apparently, riding a bike on the dining hall table hadn't been the soundest idea ever. Eventually, the bike's wheel had snagged on the tablecloth, and Olaf had been sent hurtling through the air... and right into a set of steak knives.

"Oh dear lord!" Anders immediately ran to his side, but Olaf merely yanked the knives out and patted his belly back into its proper shape. "You're- You're alright?"

"Yeah!" said Olaf. "I guess it's a perk of being a magical snowman. Plus I don't have to eat, I never need to tinkle-"

"Wait." Anders blinked. "You're saying you can't feel pain?"

"That's right!" Olaf said in a singsong voice.

Olaf wasn't exactly sharp enough to pick up on it, but Anders' fists had started to quiver. It was taking everything he had to restrain them.

"Kristoff! You weren't turned into a popsicle!"

As soon as Elsa and Kristoff arrived in her bedroom, Anna sprang off the mattress to give him a big, squishy hug.

"Yeah, how about that?" grinned Kristoff. "Turns out Elsa's okay with you dating down after all."

Anna proceeded to give Elsa an equally squishy hug. "Have I mentioned you're the best sister ever yet?"

Elsa smiled. "Just don't give me a reason to disapprove of your relationship, and I won't. Fair?" She turned back to the door. "Now if that's settled, we'd better check up on Anders. Olaf's probably got him at his wit's end."

When the trio of Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff found Anders, he was seated comfortably on a sofa in the reading room, a nice thick novel in his hands. Every so often, his reading would be interrupted by cries of "Ooh! Ooh! I see a bird!" or "Look at the sun! It's so pretty!" These, of course, came from Olaf, who was perched on a nearby windowsill. Or at least, a third of Olaf was.

"Anders!" snapped Elsa. "Where's Olaf's body?"

Anders looked up from his novel to smile at her. "Locked in the ice chest," he said proudly.

Elsa folded her arms. "When I asked you to babysit Olaf, this wasn't what I had in mind."

"Frankly, my queen, your snowman here ought to be forced to live outside until he's been house-trained," said Anders. "Removing his head from his body is a relatively mild reprimand considering everything he's done."

At this, Elsa groaned. "Olaf, what did you do this time?"

"Isn't heat the best?" said Olaf's disembodied head. "Did you know sometimes if you make things really hot, it'll start a fire?"

"Olaf!" Elsa turned to her sister. "What am I supposed to do with him? I really wasn't planning on having to raise a child anytime soon."

"Sheesh, talk about a single mom," said Anna. "I think Olaf's just restless. I mean, he's trapped in a big castle, and he's got nothing to do with his life." She glanced away. "I, uh, kinda know the feeling."

Elsa hung her head. "Olaf really caught me off guard. I never meant to bring him to life. It just... happened. Making life is so different from everything else I can do. It's... It's a little scary when you think about it."

"What? Don't be silly," said Olaf. "There's nothing scary about snowmen. We're lovable and huggable and soft. Y'know, like my little brother Marshmallow."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Marshmallow?"

"Oh, you don't mind if I named him do, you?" Olaf hurriedly added. "Because if you already named him Olaf II, I'm totally fine with Marshmallow being his middle name."

"I don't remember making another snowman," frowned Elsa. "I only made you and-" The dots connected. "Oh. Oh!"

Eight hooves went tromp tromp tromp over the crunchy snow, then plink on the stairs in the middle of the wilderness. The girls dismounted their horses. As it turns out, quadrupeds aren't the best at traversing staircases made of ice.

"What a trip," said Anna, wiping sweat off her brow. "How the heck did you ever make it up here on foot?"

"It wasn't fun," said Elsa flatly. "And you hiked here, too, remember?"

"Yeah, but I had a horse. Well, until I lost it. And then I had a sled. Well, until I set it on fire."

"You wha-?"

"Y'know what? Let's just head up already!"

Anna started to dash up the stairs, but her sister stopped her. "I'll go first."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a worrywart. I'll be fine. I'm sure Marshmallow's friendly."

"He chased you off a cliff."

"Yeah, but that was just because... Kristoff threw a snowball at him. Totally immature of him."

"Well..." Elsa swallowed. "I made Marshmallow when my powers were out of control. I don't know how he'll act now."

"Yeah, well, that's got me thinking," said Anna. "You said Olaf acted exactly how you imagined him to act, didn't you?"

"Yes..."

"Well, maybe Marshmallow works the same way. If he goes berserk and tries to eat us or something, you can just swish your hands around and magic him into being smaller and friendlier like Olaf."

Elsa pursed her lips. "I don't know..."

Anna's brow creased. "Man, I still can't believe we forgot about an entire snow-monster."

"We've been so busy dealing with Hans and the fallout from the winter, we must have lost track of him in the chaos." Elsa let out a sigh. "Let's just hope Marshmallow doesn't hurt anyone before we can find him."

"The North Mountain's pretty uninhabited," said Anna. "And even if he does go on a rampage or something, you've got awesome ice powers. There's nothing to be afraid of."

And with that, Anna zipped up the stairs, Elsa trailing behind her. But it was actually Elsa who reached the top first – One of the perks of being the Snow Queen is that ice isn't slippery for you if you don't want it to be.

Elsa had to pause at the top step to take in the sight before her. The Ice Palace was beautiful as ever, sparkling in the sunlight, rising majestically above the mountaintop. Elsa had to admit, if she'd had to isolate herself from the world somewhere, this had been a gorgeous locale to pick.

"Oh, good, it's not melted yet." Anna waltzed up to pat an icy wall affectionately.

"Let's keep it that way." Elsa waved her hand, causing a little trail of magic to shoot into the sky. All of a sudden, it was overcast. Elsa gave her work an approving nod. Giving the Ice Palace a palace-sized personal flurry à la Olaf's made it even more beautiful. The perpetual, gentle snowfall added just the right touch of tranquility.

"Don't see any giant snowmen around, though," said Anna, glancing left and right. "Where do you think he ran off to?"

A thought struck Elsa. "You don't think he was killed when Hans stormed the Ice Palace, do you?" She found her stomach tightening at the idea.

"What could they have done, impale him to death?" scoffed Anna. "Marshmallow's made of snow. I'm sure he's fine."

Elsa still wasn't reassured. To be honest, when she'd first made Marshmallow, she'd been horrified. Making him hadn't even been a completely conscious action; it was more like a reflex. Elsa had only wanted Anna and the others out of her Ice Palace for their own safety, and she'd had no guarantee the giant snow-monster wouldn't hurt them or worse. In fact, even when Marshmallow returned to the palace, Elsa had been too cowardly to go near him. The snowman had ended up curling himself up by the front door while Elsa hid from him inside.

But even if he turned out to be nothing but a mindless beast, the thought of losing Marshmallow made Elsa's heart beat faster.

While Elsa stewed internally, Anna searched the palace perimeter. "Marshmallow? C'mere, boy!"

"Maybe he's inside?"

Anna followed her sister into the Ice Palace. The interior, too, was just as beautiful as before, not to mention slippery. By the time Elsa traversed the stairs around the frozen fountain, Anna was still trying to make it across the room without falling on her butt. Taking her eye off of her sister, even for a moment, left Elsa with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but Anna was taking forever, and Elsa would only be a minute.

She wandered into the palace's center, where shards of a fallen chandelier were still scattered across the floor from where Hans had "accidentally" dropped it on Elsa's head. Luckily, a quick wave of her hand set things good as new. A gust of freezing wind sent the pieces flying to the ceiling, where they refroze into their proper shape. Elsa gave a content nod, then headed back towards the main entrance.

"Anna?" she called out. "Have you-?"

"GO AWAY!"

"Okay, the good news is I found Marshmallow!" an anxious voice called back.

Elsa dashed downstairs to find a giant, angry snowman staring down her sister. Marshmallow was every bit as gigantic, bulging, and covered in icicle-spikes as Elsa remembered, though that tiara on his head was new.

"Marshmallow, wait!" Elsa yelled, running to his side. "Anna's our friend now!"

The snowman's head shot her way. When the eye-holes in his face fell on Elsa, he let out a gasp. Every last icicle was immediately retracted, leaving him much cuddlier-looking. Slowly, carefully, Marshmallow knelt down, drawing his face nearer to Elsa's.

"You made me," he said.

All the tension left Elsa's body at once. She found herself smiling. "That's right, big guy. I made you." Unsure what to do, Elsa patted him around where his nose ought to be. Marshmallow hummed pleasantly, so she supposed he appreciated the gesture.

"Oh!" The snowman brought his hands to his head. "I found your crown."

Elsa smiled at him. "You can keep it."

"Yeah, it looks good on you," added Anna.

Marshmallow turned to snarl at her. "You'd better not bother my mama!"

Anna drew closer to Elsa. "I don't think he likes me. Why don't you, y'know, do the magic and make him nicer?"

Marshmallow frowned, not seeming to understand. Elsa, meanwhile, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and raised her arm until it was level with the snowman's face.

"Mama?" said Marshmallow.

And then she lowered it. "I... I don't think that's necessary, Anna. He'll warm up to you."

Elsa was right, of course. Once they explained how Elsa had only wanted Anna away from her palace because she was scared of hurting her, Marshmallow was more than happy to nuzzle with his auntie just as much as his mama. After that, the rest of the sisters' visit to the North Mountain went splendidly. As the sun began to set, Elsa and Anna made for their horses, while Marshmallow opted to stay behind and guard the Ice Palace from intruders (and Elsa made sure to give him a personal flurry of his own in case the North Mountain ever had a scorcher).

Elsa laughed at Anna's jokes and put on a big smile, and for the most part, she felt genuinely happy. But there was a tiny part of Elsa – a part she couldn't bring herself to tell her sister about – that wasn't. Elsa didn't feel unhappy, necessarily, just... troubled. Once she'd finally learned to control them, Elsa had led herself to believe that her powers were... well, inconsequential, really. Sure, she was happy to use them for useful things like refreezing the ice harvesters' lake, but for the most part, Elsa planned to use her powers for trifles like ice-skating rinks.

And her snowmen didn't detract from this, exactly. Elsa was happy to have Olaf and Marshmallow in her life. It was just... they were people. People Elsa had made with her magic. And the thought that there was something sitting behind her snowmen's eyes, something that could think and feel the same as any other person, made her a bit lightheaded.

Elsa watched Anna sling a leg over a horse. She saw where Anna was coming from about changing her snowmen's minds, but Elsa didn't find herself treating the idea quite so lightly. It wasn't something she expected Anna to understand, but... when Elsa had closed her eyes, she'd felt the magic at her fingertips. If she wanted to, Elsa could go into Marshmallow's mind and remove all trace of aggression.

In the same way she could cut off her own arm.