Author's Note: Week Four: Marvel/DC!AU. I definitely prefer Marvel over DC, so this is set in the X-Men universe, no particular story arc.

Not only have I made references to some famous X-Men and future X-Men), but also to my favourite comic series, Runaways. For the sake of plot, I've mixed events from different X-Men universes into the story.

"Hey Elsa, do you want to build a snowman?"

The blonde girl didn't smile immediately and say yes, as she normally does. She feels strange – like there were so many little pricklings under her skin, and it was so cold – and she can't move.

Anna notices. "Elsa?" She reaches out a hand to touch –

"N-no!"

She flings out her hands in panic, and ice shoots out, hitting Anna in the chest.

"Anna!"

She wears gloves all the time, and she doesn't leave her house. Elsa can barely keep her powers under control, and she doesn't want to hurt anyone.

Especially not Anna again.

"Elsa?" As always, her mother sounds so old, so tired. "You have a visitor. No, it's not Anna."

"Then who – ?"

"Elsa?" An unfamiliar voice, male. Warm and friendly. "May I speak with you for a little while?"

Her hand hesitates on the doorknob, and ice blossoms on the metal. She doesn't feel the cold, but the guilt eats a little more into her. Elsa slowly opens it.

Her visitor is a bald man in a wheelchair, though his face doesn't betray any weakness. "Hello, Elsa," he says gently, "my name is Professor Charles Xavier, and I run a school for gifted youngsters." His gaze falls on the iced-over doorknob, and Elsa flushes. "Like yourself."

"Gifted?" She thinks it a horrible word for a curse like hers.

"Yes." He extends a hand, palm-up, and automatically Elsa flinches.

It's okay, Elsa, his voice echoes in her head, and her eyes snap open in surprise, you don't have to be afraid. You won't hurt me. I can help you.

"Help me?"

"Yes." He's speaking normally again. "You belong to a special group of people called mutants, and you have a gift. I would like you to be my student. I can teach you to control it."

Control. It's an alien word. "And I won't hurt anyone again?"

"No."

Elsa firms her jaw, thinking of Anna pale and still, an icy tendril of white curling in her auburn hair. "I'll go."

Very quickly they find that her ice powers are tied to her emotions, and her fear keeps her from properly manifesting them; the ice grows jagged and deadly around her, and it doesn't respond to her will. Unlike the other students, she doesn't revel in the fact she isn't a monster, and fear continues to be a problem for her.

Bobby Drake is the only person she'll let near her, and only because she's certain she can't freeze him to death. Professor X she lets in her mind; she can't hurt him either.

Elsa doesn't attend classes with the others; she doesn't leave her room most of the time.

Until she sees a very familiar girl with auburn hair – and a white streak through one braid – enter the school grounds.

She's running through the hallways, yet careful not to accidentally bump into anyone. She barely notices that she's almost caused Professor McCoy to drop his books when she darted around the corner, and she came close to elbowing Wolverine in the ribs ("What's your hurry, darlin'?").

Elsa reaches the reception area. The tall blonde woman dressed in white with Anna disappears into an office, and Anna doesn't notice, because she's just seen Elsa.

"… Elsa?"

"Anna," she says.

Anna's running towards her, face alight with joy; Elsa has to step back before the auburn-haired girl can hug her. "Please," she explains, heart wrenching painfully at the hurt expression Anna's wearing, "I don't want to hurt you again."

But Anna's shaking her head, laughing. "You can't hurt me, Elsa," she breathes, "because I'm like you." She lifts her palm, lets a spark dance across her hand. "I'm a mutant, too."

Anna's here as a student of the Massachussetts Academy – another school for young mutants, she explains. It was the Academy that came to her house four years ago when she almost burned it down. "Ms. Frost said that mutant powers usually manifest at puberty," she explains, letting flames play over her fingertips, "so I didn't know I was a mutant too until I was fourteen."

Elsa was fourteen when she hurt Anna. She's twenty-one now, and it's been seven years since they've last seen each other. Anna doesn't mention all of this, even though it's clear she's thinking it from the distant look in her blue-green eyes.

She clenches her fist and snuffs out the fire, throwing Elsa a fond look. "I'm glad you're okay."

That's it. No you hurt me. No why didn't you contact me. Still, Elsa hears the words in her mind, as clearly as Professor X's telepathic link. She shrinks away, and Anna's expression changes.

"Elsa?"

"It was nice to see you again – " more than nice " – but you should go."

"Go?" Anna's half-laughing in bewilderment. "But we've only just found each other again. You're my best friend, Elsa – you always have been."

"I can't." She really can't. Despite Professor X's promises, despite Bobby's help, her control on her emotions – not even the ice – was tenuous at best, and at worst… Elsa shook her head, clearing the thoughts from her mind. "I – I'm sorry, Anna."

She ran. Even if she couldn't do anything else, at least she was good at running away.

It's war. The Sentinels have come.

And so has Anna.

Elsa fights desperately to get to her side, the urge to protect Anna driving her forward. Elsa's vaguely aware of the chaos in the school, that the X-Men are deploying, and classmates she barely knew are falling around her, but all she can focus on is the redheaded girl.

She looks so small, standing her ground against the looming robot.

Elsa doesn't hesitate; she rips off her gloves.

The moment Anna opens her eyes is the happiest moment in Elsa's life.

She blinks once, twice, and then smiles. "Hi."

"Hi."

Anna tries to sit up, winces and touches her ribs. "Ow."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. A little sore – no, make that very sore – but I'm fine." She glances around. "Where are we? Xavier's?"

Elsa doesn't meet her eyes. "Close by. You're sure you're fine?" she asks, slowly getting to her feet.

"Yes – Elsa, what are you going to do?" Anna's eyes narrow. "You're not running away again, are you?"

"I'm not – "

"Yes, you are." Anna struggles upright; Elsa's eyes widen in alarm, and she reaches for her – managing to pull back at the last minute, and wrapping her arms around herself. The redhead notices.

Before Elsa can react, Anna's hand shoots out and grips her wrist. Ice coils around the redhead's fingers, and the blonde cries out in alarm, tugging her hand away.

When Elsa finally tears her horrified gaze away from her hand, she realizes Anna's staring straight at her. "Don't shut me out again."

She could have held back the tears. But she sees the white streak of hair intertwined with one of Anna's braids, and it breaks her.

The next thing she knows, she's in Anna's arms. Elsa wants to push her away, to run, but she's missed this – missed her – and it's been so long since she's let anyone touch her. Anna is so warm.

Elsa clings back. Her tears don't freeze this time; they soak into Anna's sleeve.

"Where will you go, Elsa? Home?"

Elsa shakes her head dumbly. The school was never home, and neither is the place where her parents live. If she's honest with herself –

– home is where Anna is, and always has been.

Anna smiles. "Well, I'm not going back to the Academy either. I'll bet it's the Sentinels' next target."

"Then where will you go?"

Her smile burns bright in the darkened space. "I'm coming with you."

They briefly consider joining another group of young mutants they've heard of, but decide against it. "I don't really want to fight," says Elsa, looking down at her gloved hands.

Anna smiles. "That's okay. We'll be just fine on our own."

Slowly, Elsa smiles back.

While the city rebuilds itself, mutants and humans alike struggling to get along, Elsa and Anna rebuild their own friendship. Anna offers to share what she's learnt from the Academy. Elsa learns to relax a little more when all her errant ice gets melted away by Anna's fire.

She doesn't remove the gloves, though.

Winter is particularly harsh on an unheated warehouse, but Anna doesn't dare stoke their modest fire into anything larger.

"You don't need to," says Elsa, "I don't really feel the cold."

Anna huffs. "Well, I do." She wraps a blanket around her shoulders, motions for Elsa to come closer. "Oh, come on, don't leave me hanging," she says teasingly when the older girl hesitates.

Elsa shifts closer, but still makes sure their bodies don't touch.

"You said you don't feel cold, but you wear those gloves all the time."

Elsa suppresses the urge to pull her hands out of sight. "It has nothing to do with the cold."

Anna's eyes flicker, reflecting the flames. She draws closer.

The kiss is tentative at first. Elsa's lips part in surprise; Anna presses near, and her hand cradles the other girl's cheek. Elsa starts to panic, feeling the ice spread up her hands –

It thaws immediately afterwards. Anna breaks the kiss to stare down at the damp blankets. "Huh," she comments matter-of-factly, "love thaws."

"Love?" Elsa feels the warmth slowly flare into comforting heat. She meets Anna's gaze, and the redhead nods in understanding. Elsa stands up, lifts a hand –

– the ice responds to her will, gentle as a lamb, and she conjures a single, glittering snowflake. Anna's grinning madly now.

Elsa dissipates the snowflake, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. "You love me?" she asks dumbly, still unable to process the words. Anna makes an exasperated noise.

"Do you even have to ask?"

The blonde laughs. Tears of happiness run down her face even as she lets Anna pull her in for another kiss, and another.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

Elsa smiles immediately and says yes. Instead of heading outside, however, she waves her hand and makes it snow inside the abandoned warehouse.

Anna doesn't stop smiling the entire time, and neither does Elsa, even when they forget about the snowman altogether in favour of rolling in the snow, exchanging more than a few kisses now and then.