Warning: Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that this chapter contains some kind of graphic descriptions of violent injuries, blood, that sort of stuff, so, just warning you. Enjoy!

-AJ

Chapter 3

The word 'happiness' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. - Carl Jung

When I woke up the first time, I had absolutely no idea where I was for a solid minute, before my heavily sleep deprived brain decided that it didn't matter as long as the bed was comfortable, and I promptly fell back asleep. When I woke up the second time, the first thing that I noticed was that it was not the morning. According to the digital clock on Elsa's nightstand, it was almost one in the afternoon. I must have been way more tired than I thought. The second thing I noticed was that something smelled so good that I had been dreaming about food for the past half hour.

In an effort to start the morning with a good attitude, I tried to fling myself out of bed. It immediately became apparent that I didn't have the necessary grace for that good of an attitude when the sheets caught around my ankles and I slammed to the ground instead.

"Fantastic start to the day." I groaned. "Nice job, Hart. Way to hold true to yourself." I stared at the ceiling fan for a second, trying to decide whether or not I was hungry enough to get off the floor, but eventually my stomach whined it's protest and I hauled myself up, kicking the sheets away from my feet as I went.

"Welcome to The House of Wolf!" Kristoff shouted at me the second I stepped around the corner into the kitchen. I was so startled I almost fell over again. "Our specials today include pancakes and, um..." He hesitated, glancing around the rest of the kitchen before shrugging and focusing back on the stove. "Pancakes."

"Incredible." I muttered, wincing when I tried to pull a hand through my enormous bedhead and it got so tangled it was a struggle to pull it back out. "Got any chocolate chips?"

He snorted. "Elsa lives here."

I grinned. "Where at?"

"Far right top cabinet, second shelf."

"Thanks." I looked in the cabinet, and quickly discovered it had all kinds of good, sugary, cavity inducing food, which just happened to be my favorite kind. I snuck a quick glance behind me at Kristoff, hoping to seem nonchalant, but he noticed before I could even make the grab. "You seem to be under the impression that I've forgotten your bad habits from high school. If you use the last of the powdered sugar, I swear to god, Anna, I will take this spatula and-"

"Okay, okay, jeez!" I pouted. "You could be a little more accommodating to your guest." I adopted a snobby, aristocratic accent and tried my best to stare down at him, which was 100% impossible as he was well over a foot taller than me. I wondered briefly if they had a chair I could stand on to accomplish the task. It was at that moment that I noticed what he was wearing, and I abruptly burst into laughter, scaring Kristoff enough that he dropped the spatula.

"What the hell?!"

"What are you wearing?" I wheezed. Kristoff, however, sent a stony glare my way.

"Proper cooking attire."

I laughed harder. "Oh my god."

Kristoff was shirtless, but I had expected that, he was vehemently against wearing shirts when he slept. What he did have on was a pair of plaid pajama pants, and the frilliest, pinkest apron I've ever seen in my life. There was a reindeer stitched on the front of it with the happy slogan "Reindeers Are Better Than People!" in a swooping slanted font that was way too hard to read.

"Stop laughing at my apron, or you get no pancakes."

I slapped a hand over my mouth, nodding my understanding.

After a few minutes silence I suddenly felt the need to speak, which in my case is never a good idea. "So what's on the agenda for today, bromigo?"

There was a moment of tense silence, and Kristoff froze, slowly raising his head to stare at me. "Did you just say-"

"I know I said bromigo, and I apologize, I deeply regret it now, but there is nothing we can do about it except move on."

Kristoff snorted and shook his head, thoroughly exasperated with me. "Honestly there isn't much to do. Whenever Elsa is gone for one reason or another I just trash the place with junk food and then spend the day before she gets here frantically cleaning."

I laughed. Kristoff then set a plate in front of me, holding one of the largest pancakes I'd ever seen in my life.

"Holy god."

"I know, right?" He grinned. "Don't forget the chocolate chips."

I quickly dumped a way larger portion than I needed, and started inhaling the food at an alarming rate. Kristoff stared in wonder. "I forgot how much you eat."

"Pretty scary, right?" I asked around a large mouthful of pancake. Kristoff laughed and then glanced at me with a contemplative expression.

"What?"

"How's your Aunt and Uncle? And Rapunzel?"

I grinned and shrugged a little. "Good. I talked to Rapunzel a few days ago, she's been begging me to come down to Ohio to visit her and Flynn. She hates me living in New York, says its too dangerous and all. Last I heard Aunt Arianna got her car fixed-"

"Don't tell me you wrecked it again!"

I glared at him. "No, I didn't, this was from a much more recent wreck that I had nothing to do with. And it's rude to interrupt."

He rolled his eyes, and I continued. "Uncle Fredrick calls and checks in at least a couple times a month. He's still running the brewery in town. He misses me and Punz, though. I can tell. I would go out to visit them, but, you know, money and my lack of it causes a problem."

Kristoff nodded and then cleared his throat, looking toward the ground. He rubbed at the back of his neck, a nervous tick of his. "How, about, you know, your mom?"

I froze, my hand gripping the bar tightening until the knuckles were white. "I wouldn't know." My voice was soft and chilled, the cool detachment apparent in every word. "I haven't spoken to her since I left."

"Oh." Kristoff nodded, and kept his gaze averted. "So, the institute hasn't called or-"

"They would only call if there was a break in the case." I cut him off quickly, wanting nothing more than to distance myself from the subject. "Or in her evaluation. Neither have happened, and are likely to never happen."

Kristoff could hear the quickly rising anger in my tone, the warning for him to drop it. Kristoff was one of five people in the whole world that vaguely knew what had happened with my parents so long ago, excluding the case workers, and one of only two people that knew by my choice. Telling the twins, at least the basics of what had happened, had been something I felt I had to do, it was a driven need for them to know, to understand what had happened so that they could appreciate the situation for what it was, and not the rumors that flew all across town. When I had moved to Warren it had been with police sirens and violent accusations trailing closely behind me. My aunt and uncle took good care of me, tried to distance me from what had happened, but people talked, and there was nothing anyone could do about that.

Kristoff nodded and went back to his own plate, the only sound filling the room from the silverware against our plates. I sighed after a moment, unhappy with the tension now surrounding everything. Knowing Kristoff, he wouldn't speak unless spoken to, especially after a highly charged moment, so I took the initiative.

"Hey, Kris?" I asked after swallowing the massive bite.

"Yea?"

"Will you tell me a little more about the Spirit thing? I just, I feel like I don't know anything, and if it's you and Elsa then I want to learn."

"Well," Kristoff rubbed at the back of his neck. "What do you want to know?"

"Where did spirits come from? Was it an evolution thing, like humans, or some kind of mystical magic thing? Are there other types of spirits, or just the elemental kind like you guys?"

"Honestly, I have no idea on the first two. It's a little hard to get factual scientific evidence on our race since humans don't know we exist, and there isn't really a large enough number for us to have our own, like, community where we could study ourselves. There are the Torram Legends, stuff about how we are the children of the Earth, and our purpose is to benefit her in anyway we can. It's a lot more detailed than that, there is a ton to learn about it, but.." He hesitated, seeming to struggle with his words for a moment. "It's kind of like a religion, in a way. Like the religion of the spirits, except a lot of us don't believe in it. My parents always thought it was a load of nonsense. Elsa was pretty into it at one point, I think; but after we left Wyoming she didn't really want anything to do with it anymore."

I nodded and stared at him with wide eyes, an invitation to continue.

"As for other kinds of spirits, I'm not sure. I would say they don't exist, I've never heard of one, but then again, you would've said Elsa and I didn't exist a day ago. There could be some hidden group I suppose, but if there is it's very well hidden."

"Got it." I bit my lip and glanced down at my socks. "So, um, next question. Do spirits like, exclusively- I mean, like, do they only- are they only attracted to other spirits, or is it like, humans and stuff too?"

You are smoother than the bowling alley lanes, Hart.

"Um." Kristoff looked away, the tops of his ears tinted pink. "Anna, that's kind of- Spirits aren't like people in that way."

I felt a small pang in my chest, like someone was poking me with a needle, puncturing whatever bubble of hope had been resting there. "What do you mean?"

"We, um," Kristoff was full on blushing now, and if I hadn't been so upset with his answer I might have laughed. "Spirits mate. Like for life. It's a 'magic' thing, like you said earlier. You would think it was strange."

"No, no no." I tugged on one of the folds of Kristoff's apron. "Please tell me, Kris. I really want to know, I won't judge, I promise."

He sighed heavily and fiddled with what was left of the food on his plate. "It's an instinctual thing. In that way, spirits are a little more.. animalistic, I guess? It's not something we can control. When a spirit finds their En Oru, they-"

"What is that?"

"En Oru, it means My One." Kristoff's eyes were filled with an emotion that I couldn't quite pinpoint; he seemed almost... wistful. "Anyone can have one, humans too, even though they hardly ever know or acknowledge it. My parents were each other's. They just... fit together. The legends say that an En Oru is the partner to your Kor, that finding them is like finding part of yourself. But like I said, it's instinctual. That pull you feel, your whole life, telling you in the back of your mind that you should go here instead of there, or do this instead of that, it's all a lead up to meeting them, seeing them for the first time. From what... I've been told, you feel it, when you find them, like a switch going off. It's the basest of all instincts, you just immediately know that..." He searched for the right phrasing and eventually just shrugged. "They're your's."

"Wow, that..." I was at a loss for words. I gazed at Kristoff in amazement. "That's incredible, Kris! What about you? Do you have that pull you were talking about; where does it tell you to go?"

Kristoff swallowed hard gave me a very, very sad smile. "I don't have one."

I blinked. "Wait, I thought-"

"Do you remember what I told you yesterday? About me and Elsa's birth?" I nodded. He cleared his throat in an effort to look casual, but it was painfully weak. "The fact that some of my Kor went to Elsa means that... I don't have a full one to give someone. I'm not enough of a spirit to have an En Oru. Or at least, not in the way that my people have one. I can't find them, like other spirits. "

I stared at him. He didn't meet my eyes.

"But that..." I struggled to express my anger. "That's bullshit! That isn't fair. Isn't there something you can-"

"Look, Anna, it's okay." Kristoff offered me a small smile. "No one has to have an En Oru to have a good life. You can be completely content without one; some spirits even prefer it that way. Some don't have one at all, going through their whole lives and never finding them because they died or weren't born in the first place or any number of things. It's just the way that things are, nothing fair or unfair about it, it just is."

I wanted to argue, to demand that Kristoff gain his fight back and find a way to fix whatever had happened (it still didn't make complete sense to me), but the level of resignation in him was blatant, and there was a certain fragility behind his excuse that worried me enough to drop it. The subject obviously upset him, but I had to ask.

"Um," I hesitated. There was a large part of me that didn't want Kristoff to realize what I was actually talking about, but another part of me didn't really care as long as I got the answer I wanted. "So, that means that spirits can't, like be with humans? Like, if they're looking for their En Oru.. I mean, that can't be like - a human, can it?"

Kristoff didn't look up for a very long time, and I silently started to wonder if maybe he didn't hear me somehow. He took a great inhale of air and suddenly his head snapped forward. He met my gaze with very carefully schooled emotion in his eyes, giving away absolutely nothing.

"I couldn't really tell you, Anna. I'm not an expert. I've never heard of it happening though." Kristoff stared me dead in the eyes, but something was very, very off in his voice; the places where his inflections would have normally sat now void of anything but a flat monotone. He sounded like that one shy kid in speech class, when it's their turn to stand in front of everyone else; like he'd rather cut his own tongue out than continue to speak.

He's lying.

I couldn't tell which part he was lying about, but I knew he was. Kristoff is an inherently honest person, it's one of the many things I love about him. Even when he probably should lie, even just to spare someone's feelings, he can't bring himself to do it. It was probably why he ignored people that asked him questions about his life or his past, rather than try to answer, because he knew that if he tried to make something up no one would believe him.

Elsa is a great liar. I'd seen her do it; spin a story that is so fantastically detailed, but obscure that no one in their right mind would ever question her. Her voice always so earnest, her eyes so wide and sincere, just the perfect amount of emotion underlying every sentence that it makes you believe her, giving you no other option than to eat her words up like candy and grin while she plays you for a fool.

There was a memory tickling the very edge of my thoughts; a conversation I had with Elsa that seems like forever ago. She had been boasting about her test scores of some calculus thing, and I had always loved to mess with her, her competative side always giving me a kick, especially when it came to math. Elsa knew math better than anyone I'd ever met, and it was clear that she thought so too.

"I schooled them. It's as simple as that." She waved her fork around, a tiny tomato stuck to the end of it. Kristoff swatted at it annoyingly when it came close to his face. Elsa ignored him. "I'm serious, Anna. It's ridiculously easy at this point. I should probably be teaching the class."

"Hmmm." I hummed in quiet contemplation, and grinned internally at the way Elsa watched my expression closely, her eyes following every change in my demeanor. "I don't believe you."

The end of Elsa's fork hit her tray with a loud clatter. "What?"

"Prove it. How do I know you got them all right unless you show me? You could be lying for all I know."

Elsa's expression shifted, a small smirk curling up the corners of her lips. "Sweetheart, I couldn't lie to you. It's not in my coding. Not anymore."

Kristoff moaned his disgust at us, and I saw her grin when I blushed heavily, but I wasn't ready to give up quite yet.

"You're the best liar in the world, Els. How do I know that wasn't a lie?"

Cold blue eyes stole the very breath from my lungs with their intensity, a heavy seriousness that wasn't there before suddenly appearing beneath her irises.

"I guess you'll just have to trust me."

"Anna?" Kristoff woke me from my reminiscing, his nervous voice filtering in through my thoughts. I realized that I had been quiet for much longer than was normal for me, the need I have to fill every silence usually overpowering everything else. But I could still hear the memory of Elsa's voice in my ear, whispering reassurances and terms of endearment, calming me down and winding me up in the very same second. "You alright?"

"Oh, um, yea." I nodded my head a little too quickly. "Yea, it's just a lot of info to take in, you know?"

He nodded in sympathy and I wiped the metaphorical sweat from my brow that he didn't push the subject. Another good thing about Kristoff, he didn't pry.

The rest of the day was spent with Kristoff and I playing video games on his Xbox One, and me occasionally blurting out random questions that happened to occur to me and annoyingly him incessantly the entire time.

Me: "How long are the spirit's lifespans?"

Kristoff: "Not too different from humans, I guess. But hardly any of us die before we're at least ninety five unless it's from some accident or something. The elders can sometimes live into the hundred thirties, but that's rare."

Me: "How come spirits don't really look different from humans?"

Kristoff: "I think that our species must be like, somehow related. Like dogs and wolves or something, you know? It explains some of that kind of stuff in the Torram Legends. You should ask Elsa when she gets back."

Me: "Do you and Els have any other friends that I haven't met?"

Kristoff: "Nobody but Kai and you, unfortunat- Ow, Anna! Jesus!"

I could feel myself settling into this place. It spoke of how close Kristoff and I used to be that it was so easy for me to become completely comfortable around him again, newfound knowledge and all. If anything I felt closer to the twins than I ever had, now fully understanding the fuzzy parts of their life that they'd edited from my view. The apartment screamed of the twins and their personalities, and I found myself comforted in a way that was difficult for me to comprehend. It felt like I was supposed to be here. A niggling thought tickled the back of my brain, that maybe that wasn't normal, maybe I should try to evaluate my strange desire to be around the twins, and decide if it was truly healthy or not. Another part of me didn't care at all, and laughed at the thought of ever intentionally putting any distance between myself and them.

I called Olaf about half way through the day and assured him that I was fine, that I had not been kidnapped, that I would be home by at least Tuesday, and that he had to water my plants for me. The entire time I was talking to him Kristoff held his ear directly on the other side of the phone, trying to listen and see if my impression was accurate. The minute Olaf mentioned Marshmallow and his new diet Kristoff rolled to the floor and shook with silent laughter. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Marsh says bye, Anna!"

I heard a disgruntled meow on the other line and giggled quietly. "Bye to Marsh."

After that I called my incredibly sweet boss, the owner of the bookstore I worked at, and asked him if I could possibly have the next few days off of work.

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Oaken, something just came up and I-"

"Anna, it's fine, ya?" His cheery voice sprung through the line; I could hear the smile in it. "You have many, many vacation days anyway. I will call Belle in."

"Thank you sir! I'll work anytime you need me to the rest of the month!"

I heard Oaken's booming laugh on the other end of the line. "I might take you up on that, ya?" And then he hung up with a promise to see me on Wednesday.

Kristoff was slightly interested in my job, asking a few questions about my co-workers and the like, but he quickly became bored when I explained to him that it was only me and a quiet girl named Belle that ever worked the shop, and that I mostly just cataloged books for Oaken.

The twins had a legit maid that checked on us around five, but Kristoff waved her off when she looked horrified at the mess in the living room.

"It's alright, Mrs. Gerda. This one is on me."

Mrs. Gerda sniffed mightily and pointed a bony finger at Kristoff on her way out the door. "Your sister will smack you silly if she sees it like this, sir. You remember that."

Kristoff nodded respectfully. "Yes ma'am."

The day passed in a lazy, content kind of way. It felt like one of those days where you literally have nothing to do, so you don't really know what to do, but you're still happy about it. Kristoff's company was something I had missed dearly, and though I could literally feel myself going insane due to anticipation at Elsa's return on Tuesday, I was happy and calm in a way that I hadn't been for years.

Kristoff and I called it a night around eleven, him complaining that tomorrow we would actually have to clean the place up a bit, so we needed to sleep and gain our strength back from our vigorous round of zombie killing. I retired to Elsa's room with a satisfied smirk on my lips, feeling good and light, the knowledge that it was one day closer to her return buzzing with energy on the tips of my fingers. I thought about what I was going to say to her, played countless scenarios in my head, ranging from me as a shy awkward mess, to literally jumping on her the moment she stepped through the door. The last thought sent a buzz of heat through my lower belly, remembering one time when we had been rehearsing some stupid stunt for my mascot tryout, and I had fallen from a tree in her backyard, forcing her to catch me in such a way that her hands were like, directly on my ass. She hadn't been able to look at me for almost three days after that one, but a small part of me didn't regret it at all. I blushed into the pillow, Elsa's scent calming me almost immediately into a dreamless sleep.

It was 2 a.m. when the screaming woke me up.

I sat bolt upright, throwing Elsa's covers off my torso. The apartment was silent, the groan of the air conditioner the only thing I heard. The room was pitch black, the clock on the bedside table barely bright enough for me to see my own hands. I stood slowly, slipping off the bed as quietly as possible, and slinking silently to the door. I pressed my ear to the cool wood and listened. It was quiet for a long moment, the air still and heavy with my own fear. Just as I was about to dismiss it to my crazy dreams and slip back into bed a piercing, drawn out shriek cut through the air, the note of desperation a chilling thing, and then a thunderous crash shattered the stillness, as if a suit of armor had toppled to the ground.

I heard a high, broken kind of sob. "Kristoff!"

Oh my god.

I flung the door open, nearly tripping on rounding the corner into the living room. The scene that met my eyes was terrifying, turning my bone marrow to ice, freezing the blood in my veins.

Kristoff knelt on the ground, his breathing erratic and labored, his head whipping every which way.

"Where? Where?" He searched frantically, his eyes darting around every crevice of the room, fixating on the door, wide with a panicky fear. The shadows along the wall were long and dark, the moon streaming through the glass wall barely enough to illuminate the room, casting a sickly silver glow on everything.

And in his arms, barley leaned off the floor, was Elsa, scratches covering her arms, her clothes torn and tattered, and an alarming amount of blood falling from a wound right above her left temple, caking her silky braid to the side of her neck. One of her arms was bent at a funny angle, and there was a slow, angry red bruise building all across her throat. Almost every inch of her was covered in dirt, as if she'd been buried alive, and she shook violently, her teeth chattering loudly enough that I could hear it from where I stood.

The moment I saw her I would swear my heart stopped. All the breathe left my body. My blood heated to boiling, and flooded back through my veins with a vengeance, all my muscles twitched and ached, there was a tug in the center of my chest, and despite everything, one of the greatest senses of calm I had ever felt settled over me like a blanket of snow, my entire body seeming to cry out.

Finally. Finally. Finally.

Elsa, however, did not see me, and continued to babble on, her speech slurred and broken in a that I had never heard her speak before; it made me flinch.

"It's them Kris- Them, they're hunting her!"Elsa's hand came up to clutch desperately at Kristoff's shirt, smearing blood and dirt across the front of it. "Anna!"

I felt my breath catch in my lungs, unable to move in or out, hearing her say my name such a massive shock to my system that it nearly knocked me to the ground.

"We were w-wrong; you have to help me Kris, please!" Elsa sobbed, her ragged vocal chords grating and exhausted. "She wasn't at home, I- I went to her apartment, I was going to get her- I, she was gone- We can't let them take her! I can't- I can't stop them- I have to- I -"

"Elsa, Elsa stop!" Kristoff gripped her shoulders and tried to get her to focus, but Elsa's eyelids were fluttering, her words getting more and more difficult to understand in her hysteria. Suddenly her eyes snapped open wide, empty and unfocused, her body going rigid in a way that looked almost painful her muscles tightened to such a degree. Her pupils dilated wide, seeing much farther then either Kristoff or I.

"They want her!" She cried, her panic nearly tangible, every syllable tinged with desperation. "They want Anna!"

There was a moment of breathless quiet, a stillness so close to death that I swore none of us breathed, no one blinked.

"Elsa?"

The twins moved together, Kristoff in a blind panic, Elsa with painful hesitation, both to stare at my spot in the entry way. I had my hand braced against the side wall, my shock so great that I was scared I might collapse

Elsa's eyes met mine, and something in the very back corner of my brain clicked into place, like a key in a lock, the snick so loud that it echoed to every corner of my head.

"Anna." Elsa gave a weak smile, and then fell, limp as a rag, to the soft carpet.

There was a long moment where Kristoff and I stood stock still, trying to understand this sudden and extreme turn of events. Elsa was home, two days early, covered in blood and badly injured, screaming some kind of vaguely threatening nonsense about me.

"Anna." Kristoff's voice was surprisingly steady, his calm helping to ground me, my heart beating in a wild panicked frenzy at the sight of Elsa. "Clear off the table and grab the first aid kit and a sheet from the hall closet." I hurried to follow his instructions, sweeping the debris off the table in one motion, and sprinting to the hall, rooting through the cabinets in a daze. I finally located the kit and a large, white sheet, running back around the corner just in time to see him lay Elsa on the table, grip her arm tightly, and snap her shoulder back into place.

She didn't even flinch.

I felt the corners of my eyes itch, helplessness racing through my blood, feeding on my panic. I wanted Elsa to move or to speak or to do something other than lay there and look very, very dead. It was getting hard to breathe. "Kris, I-"

"Don't think about it." He snapped at me, and held his hand out for the kit. "She will be fine, I promise you. Just don't think about it."

He quickly ripped a small strip away from the bandages and tied it around Elsa's head, the thicker part covering the gash above her temple. He pulled apart the sheet and wrapped a small portion of it around a baggy of ice; settling it delicately across her neck and newly set shoulder. There was a small tube of something that he plucked from the first aid kit and started dabbing it on various cuts across her arms and face."Anna, take those bandages and tie them together, long ways, like a rope."

I did as I was told, and handed the modified bandages back to Kristoff. He seemed to be in another world, his hands trembling only slightly as he created a makeshift sling, and slipped Elsa's arm through it, settling it gently against her side and wrapping the remainder around the lower half of her rib cage.

"W-What happened- I don't-"

"Something went wrong." Kristoff shook his head, his eyes blazing with intensity as he continued to doctor Elsa's various injuries. "This shouldn't have happened. I don't get it, those guys, Elsa could beat those guys with her hands tied behind her back, I don't-"

Kristoff's words were cut off by a high pitched whine, ending in a ragged gasp. Elsa's eyes fluttered open weakly. Kristoff stilled, his hands moving slowly away from a nasty cut right above Elsa's hip bone. "Els?"

Every breath sounded like it pained her; she wheezed as her eyes darted around the room, pausing briefly on my face at erratic moments, coming back to look at me every few seconds before quickly resuming their frantic searching. Each time they met mine, an odd zing of electricity sung at the edges of my fingertips, tingling with the desire to do something.

"Close it up." She coughed, and Kristoff jumped into action immediately, grabbing something from a kitchen drawer and palming it, running toward his own bedroom.

"Anna."

My eyes flew back to Elsa's prone form on the table, her battered body groaning with the effort to breathe. I felt the immediate and overwhelming desire to cry. I wanted to bawl my eyes out right there and grip Elsa's body to my own, holding her tightly enough that maybe somehow it might heal her. A small part of me wanted to fight against this, rage about how unfair it was for me to finally see her again under these circumstances, cry at the injustice of it all, and demand a redo with a healthy, happy Elsa. I also couldn't stop thinking about how pretty she looked, just laying there, but I figure that had something to do with me being crazy. I had difficulty looking at her eyes, every time I met them a crushing, foreign emotion sat atop my chest and making it difficult for my heart to beat. And after all the times I had thought about seeing her again, how it had been my go-to daydream for years, every possible word I could have said, everything that I'd wanted to tell her for years, it all built up into this one single moment. And I didn't have a clue what to say.

"Hey." Elsa's voice broke, her eyebrows drawing up in the middle in concern. I felt a cold hand brush shakily against my cheek. "Don't cry."

"Elsa." A sob heaving through my chest, and more tears leaked out. "Y-You're going to be okay, alright? You just gotta walk it off, right?"

Elsa smiled. Like a real genuine smile. And my brain swirled in a whirlwind of color and noise, every single moment with Elsa, every word and laugh and memory all piling up into one, distinct slot in the center of my skull that warmed me to the tips of my toes. Her smile, her laugh, her dorky half way grin, her cold hands that would occasionally slip into mine and suddenly feel burning hot. Every single aspect of her, all rolled together to make Elsa, pulling on the back of my chest, rushing forward with a blinding intensity that I couldn't understand. There was a hitch in my breath, my lungs working twice as hard as normal to get air, while I stared at her, and drank her in, every inch of her bruised body so familiar and comforting. Elsa what what I knew.

She was my home.

Kristoff darted back into the room. "Done."

Just as he spoke the front door slammed shut with a loud crack, making me jump about a foot in the air. Elsa's trembling hand ran soothing patterns down my arm, trying to calm me. A large, thick sheet of metal slid silently over the doorway, sealing with an audible click. I turned back around just in time to see massive steel sheets falling like blinds, to cover the entirety of the glass wall to the left. I gawked.

"Precaution." Elsa murmured, her hand ceasing it's movements and falling back toward the table. "It'll keep us safe, for now. Kris, did you get the bath?"

"Yea, I got it." He walked over and hooked an arm under Elsa's knees and behind her head, lifting her as gently as possible. I saw her jaw clench in an effort not to make a sound, and it tugged hard on something in my chest. He walked her slowly down the hall, towards the bathroom. I don't remember making the conscious decision to follow, but my feet trailed after them loyally anyway.

When we stepped into the massive bathroom I saw the tub nearly filled with steaming water. Kristoff walked forward and, as gently as possible, settled Elsa into the tub, clothes and all.

Elsa sighed so heavily that I could almost feel her relief. There was a small moment of quiet, then a light buzzing in my ears, and the water started glowing light blue. My eyes widened in shock. Without a word Elsa sunk her entire body, head and all, beneath the surface, and remained there for much, much longer than she should've been able to. There was an abrupt cold snap throughout the room, the once steamy water frosting around the edges, and Elsa shot out of the water faster than a bullet.

I blinked.

She looked fine.

Okay, not fine, but she looked healed, at least weeks away from where she should've been. While I watched she gingerly took the makeshift sling off her arm and rolled her shoulder a few times, only grimacing lightly. The small, superficial cuts that had covered her were gone, only the much deeper ones remaining, and only as faded, reddish pink marks. The angry bruise that had circled her neck was now a faded yellow in some places, and completely gone in others. And the massive gash that had split the side of her head open was a closed up, angry red line above her temple, a slightly darker bruise than around her neck surrounding the area. She hesitantly reached up to poke at the mark, and winced when her finger made slight contact with it.

"That was a bad one." She muttered.

"Uh," Once again, both twins moved to look at me.

There was a moment of quiet, and then Elsa shifted, standing abruptly and motioning out to the side of her body, clenching her fist tightly over nothing. Thousands of drops of water rolled out away from her body, sponging away from her clothes, her hair, her skin, coming to gather on her fist, and rushing away from her legs when she stepped out of the bath. She relaxed her hand and the water crashed back into the tub, Elsa now completely dry. I didn't even get a moment to marvel before she was striding across the room, taking five large steps before crashing into me, her arms wrapped tightly around my chest, one hand coming to tangle in the hair at the base of my skull, pressing my face desperately to the crook where her neck and shoulder met, her other wrapping around my ribs, my arms now locked around her waist. I felt her face pressed against the top of my head, her nose breathing in deeply, and her grip getting impossibly tighter.

"I missed you." She murmured against my hair, her nails lightly scratching where they were buried in my hair, her fingers splayed out on the side of my ribs. I could feel the sincerity in her words, the trembling of her always steady pronunciation, the tightening hold of her arms. I gripped around her waist as hard as I could and breathed in desperately at her collar before bursting into tears.

"I missed you too, Els."

Author's Note: Hi, guys! To all of you guys that have been leaving me reviews, thank you so, so much, that is the most wonderful thing, please continue to do so. I'm so glad that y'all like this so far. This chapter was insanely hard to write because I really didn't know how to go about putting Anna and Elsa back together, and I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the way this turned out. We've finally hit the crux of the main conflict in this story, but there is still a ton to find out. Let me know what you, guys think. Also, I've been trying to get ready to move into my dorm room in a few days, which is why this update took a little bit longer than normal, sorry about that. Anyway, y'all tell me if you like it, things I need to fix and the like. I apologize again for the stupid grammar and spelling mistakes, but at this point I feel like if I reread this one more time to check for them my head might explode.

Thank you guys for all this, and I look forward to seeing what you have to say! Much love 3

-AJ