Many days later, Anna appeared in the royal garden looking for a certain snowman with a wrapped bundle of cloth tucked beneath her arm. She shielded her eyes with her free arm from the sudden brightness upon entering the outdoors, feeling like a vampire. The sky seemed brighter than usual, as if the sun, having been previously blocked by overcast, was making up for lost time. Also her being cooped up in the dark library with no light but a lone candle to see by might have played a part. She had been so intent on working on her letter that she was too lazy to light the fireplace.

There was no denying that Elsa wanted her, Anna knew that. She also knew Elsa feared those feelings she felt for Anna, and she could understand why. They were sisters, that was glaringly obvious, and Elsa didn't know that Anna shared the same feelings as her so naturally Elsa would be afraid of her reaction if she let it show. That wouldn't be an issue once the truth came out, she was sure of that. There was, however, the tiny fact that they were the queen and the princess of the great kingdom of Arendelle, and anything that went on between them in an un-sisterly way would very likely be looked down upon by their people.

Or maybe not? The people were very understanding and forgiving after Elsa accidentally froze the whole kingdom and they accepted Elsa as their queen with open arms. If that hardly fazed them, surely something as innocent as their love for each other wouldn't set them off?

But they would deal with that dilemma once they got to it...

After the mind boggling impromptu massage session, Anna gave Elsa a break from her for a few days, minimizing their contact to get Elsa back into a comfortable state and allowing her to finish her important work without further delay. Meanwhile, she returned to the library to complete her letter, welcoming the solitude that granted her a perfect haven for thinking, among other things.

And now, today, she was ready. Today was the day her letter, her masterpiece, could exchange from her hands to her sister's, but not in the literal sense. Her physically handing it to Elsa was out of the question. She wouldn't even risk slipping into Elsa's study to place it on her desk in case Elsa caught her doing so. That's where Olaf came in and that's why she was currently searching for him.

She heard him before she spotted him. The little snowman was hovering over a cluster of red roses and appeared to be tickling them. "Hello, my pretty ones!" A thorn pricked him and he gasped but then playfully tapped the little bud responsible. "You're so fresh," he stated with a giggle.

"Olaf," Anna called, announcing her presence.

"Anna! How are you?" Olaf asked bouncing up to her.

"Well…" Normally Anna responded to questions like that with the same, easy response. A simple "good" usually sufficed. Quick but simple and no reason to question it. Today "good" wasn't working for her so she answered honestly. "Nervous. Scared." Those two words were understatements for how she really felt, but they did the job.

"Oh?" He looked troubled by her words. "Why? What's wrong?"

He was such a caring and understanding snowman. She wanted to tell him exactly what she was going through. "It's complicated," she told him. She unwrapped the cloth bundle and removed an envelope from inside, then placed the remaining contents that were inside the cloth behind the tree, hiding it. It was her masquerade outfit. She planned to wear it later that night when Elsa came to meet her, IF she came to meet her. That way, Elsa would be unaware of who she was until the big unveiling, whenever that happened. Of course, to prevent anyone from seeing her all dressed up, or risking bumping into Elsa on her way to the garden, she'd need to get dressed in the garden before midnight.

"Olaf, I need you to do me a big, big, big, big favor."

"Sounds big," Olaf said, widening his eyes.

"It is," Anna agreed. She held the envelope between her thumb and forefinger. "I need you to bring this envelope to Elsa. Preferably when she's in her study or her bedroom, but definitely when she's alone."

"Okay."

"I can't stress how important it is for her to be alone when you give this to her," she said firmly. "Also, whatever you do, don't tell her who gave this letter to you."

"Why?"

"Because… I want it to be a surprise."

"Oh!" He inhaled sharply. "Is it a love letter?" he asked dreamily.

Anna gaped in shock. "What? No! It… Maybe?" she squeaked out. "I mean, no! That's silly! It's just… a letter," she said lamely.

Olaf apparently saw through her lie. He took the envelope eagerly and hugged it. "How romantic!" he gushed. "True love will see the light of day!" Anna laughed at his innocence. "Oh, I'll get this to Elsa right away!" He raced away on his two snowballed feet.

"Don't forget what I said, Olaf!" she yelled after him. "And come back to me as soon as it's delivered!"

Once he disappeared from her line of vision she sat against the tree, her special tree, and pondered Olaf's words. "True love… that's right." It was true love that saved her from her frozen doom not so long ago, her sister's true love. Surely true love wasn't something to ignore, to think badly of? No one questioned it then, so why would this be any different? It was still true love but in a more evolved form. She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and sighed, resting her chin between the cleft of her knees. She scratched a heart into the dirt with her finger and waited for Olaf's return.

Elsa sat in her study, her legs propped up on her desk with her ankles crisscrossed. She was leaning back in her chair, a book in her hands, reading… or trying to. Her eyes skimmed over the words and she mechanically turned the page, but none of the words were registering and she had no idea what was going on. Since she wasn't getting anywhere, she tossed the book onto the desk without bothering to save where she left off and raked her fingers through her bangs, puffing out a gust of air tiredly.

How could she concentrate on a useless book when all she could think about was Anna? With every interaction between them she felt herself falling harder and harder. Her dreams, when she could sleep, were getting raunchier, and forget about the growing fantasies that danced in her brain when she was at boring meetings. And now she was at the point where any simple touch from her, an innocent massage even, was driving her hormones wild. She felt pathetic and disgusted with herself. She was almost glad that she'd hardly seen much of Anna in the last couple days. Almost.

First cursed with powers that were beyond her control and now a forbidden love for her sister. No, lust, she thought bitterly. She could not confuse love with lust. What she felt for her sister, what she was dying to do to her, with her, could only be seen as lust. Love was beautiful, sweet, carefree, right. Lust was blinding and painful and-

"Hi, Elsa!" Olaf burst into the study uninvited, giggling uncontrollably.

Elsa removed her legs from their resting place and returned them to the floor, sitting properly in the seat as annoyance briefly flashed across her face. But she saw it was only the too happy snowman and forced a smile. "Olaf, hi." It was strange for the little guy to be this far inside the castle. He preferred the garden and the stables, having an incredible fondness for flowers and four-legged creatures, even though the latter always tried to eat his nose. "What brings you here?"

Olaf raised his arm high and showed her an envelope. "I have a letter for you."

"Oh?" She perked up with interest. "Where did you get that?" All of the day's mail had been brought to her and sorted through already. Had one been misplaced? But why would Olaf be delivering it? "Let me see it." Olaf passed it to her and she glanced at the sealed, blank envelope. There was no name or anything to indicate it was for her. "You say this is for me?"

"Yep!"

She frowned, narrowing her eyes at Olaf. "Who is it from?" she asked suspiciously.

"From the heart, I'm sure," Olaf answered, beaming, oblivious to Elsa's confused expression. "I'll see you around, Elsa! I've got to get back to my flowers. The clouds didn't bother watering them so they're probably thirsty."

"Olaf, wait!" Elsa shouted, but Olaf, with a wave good-bye, had already skipped out.

Alone again, Elsa fingered the seal of the envelope, intrigued by its mysteriousness. Something about it made her anxious and she almost didn't want to open it. She flipped it over from front to back, double-checking for any indication of who it was to or from and found nothing again. It probably wasn't anything important or it would have been addressed to her, so she saw no point in wasting her time on it. Turning in her seat, she went to go and toss it in the trash but hesitated, flicking her index finger against it thoughtfully.

If she threw it away without opening it she would most likely be bothered by it for the rest of the day.

There's an idea, she thought. Wouldn't having a letter on her mind be better than the thoughts of Anna that plagued her?

Tempting as the idea was, the mysterious letter was even more so. And who was she kidding? Her thoughts of Anna were like a drug to her and she was addicted no matter how good or terrible they made her feel. To not think of her, to not have her in her life…

Elsa slid one of her nails along the side to open the envelope, not bothering with a letter opener. She tipped the torn side and poured the letter out. The carefully folded sheet of paper lay on top of her desk, harmless, waiting to be read. She unfolded it and flattened it out on her desk, noticing right away how neat the handwriting was, each letter meticulously penned. It was almost as if the writer took their time with each individual letter to make them all perfect. No one would go through such trouble for nothing of importance. She read the letter, her eyes moving from side to side in rapid succession. As the words sunk in, Elsa's smile evaporated quickly, and her eyes were practically bulging out of her head by the time she reached the end.

"Oh, no," she whispered, fear lacing her voice, a drop of sweat plummeting off her forehead and marking the paper that her hand was curling into a wrinkled mess. Her study was shrouded entirely in snow and ice, from the ceiling to the floor. Despite being inside a giant ice box, the temperature in the room was stifling to Elsa and she lurched out of her seat, feeling as if the air had been strangled from her lungs. Her abruptness on the ice caused her to lose her footing and she slipped, tumbling to the floor in a heap, where she clutched the sides of her head in dismay.

She'd been discovered! The girl knew her identity, knew she was the queen. She sought her out, had sent a personal letter through her very own snowman, with an invitation to meet with her again. In her own garden? Who was this girl who dared to set up meetings in her own castle? Why would she even suggest it? There had to be a hidden meaning behind the words in the letter. The girl was after something, she had to be! She might be planning to blackmail her, or start a scandal her by telling horrible lies. Or even the truth. If her people learned of her little tryst it could ruin everything. She was the Queen, for goodness sake! Queen's didn't do things like that, at least not a respectable one. Elsa cursed her stupidity for allowing herself to indulge in a secret affair, thinking she'd remain anonymous.

Elsa tried to think rationally. Whoever this girl was… she acted as if she knew Elsa well, describing her attributes so eloquently and so… intimately. To have been in her presence for such a short period of time, and with the masks hiding their faces, there was no way she'd know these things about her so well unless it was someone she knew and saw often. Or it was someone who watched her unseen… like a spy, or an assassin.

Elsa stiffened at the unpleasant thought and paled considerably. Oh, god what if she was inside the castle? How else would she be able to plan to meet Elsa at midnight? She leaped to her feet, steadying herself against the desk, breathing hard at the thought of someone potentially dangerous roaming her grounds, bringing danger to her servants, to herself …to Anna.

"No!" Elsa said, sliding across the ice to the door. She needed to question the guards. They would know if any strange people might have entered the castle. She wanted to believe they were adequate at doing their jobs and that someone hadn't breached the walls without them knowing.

When Olaf returned to Anna and reported successfully delivering the letter to Elsa, Anna thanked him and rushed immediately to the study to see if she could eavesdrop and listen in on Elsa's reaction, if she had one at all. It was a nice, complimenting letter, Anna reminded herself as she arrived just outside the door. Elsa is probably extremely flattered.

"Whoa!" she gasped as a swoosh of frigid breeze shot out from the crack beneath the door.

Or not...

She hesitantly reached for the knob, but before her hand could wrap around it the door whipped away from her and Elsa charged out of the study, panic-stricken, and smacked right into her.

"Fuck, Anna!" Elsa choked out.

Was that an… invitation? Anna's eyebrows skyrocketed and she turned crimson at the profanity that spilled so carelessly from her sister's lips, unaccustomed to it. She couldn't recall ever hearing Elsa speak such language. She didn't think it was even in her vocabulary.

It was evident that Elsa was distressed. Her hands gripped the doorjamb tightly and frost crackled down its length rapidly. Looking past her sister, Anna saw the entire study encased in glistening ice. "Elsa! Are you okay?"

Anna reached out to her but Elsa sidestepped her, evading her touch, and said briskly, "I'm fine."

"Clearly you're not."

"Anna!" Elsa drove Anna back with a firm push against her shoulder and slammed the door closed behind herself. "I told you I'm fine," she said curtly.

"But Elsa-"

"I don't have time for this right now, Anna! I'm sorry." Her last two words as she departed sounded regretful.

Anna stood frozen in place, watching her sister's back as she walked away, purpose in her long strides. What had caused her to freak out? It couldn't have been her letter, surely? It had to be something else. She really hoped it was something else. "Please let it be something else," she thought out loud. Facing the closed study door with her fingers crossed, Anna decided to investigate.

She twisted the doorknob and pushed against the door. It didn't budge. The ice, she realized, must have frozen it shut. Anna backed up until her back was flat against the wall behind her, sucked in her breath and rushed at the door, ramming it with all her weight. It swung open and Anna burst in and lost her legs as they flew out from under her. She hit the floor, landing hard on her back, spread-eagled. "Ow." She tried to stand but each attempt ended with her skittering across the floor, so she awkwardly crawled and dragged herself to Elsa's desk.

Anna heaved herself onto the iced chair behind the desk, gripping the edges to prevent from sliding off it. Elsa was a neat and orderly person and the desk gleaming with ice was tidy as could be, so Anna didn't have a difficult time finding her letter. Especially when it was dead center of the desk, a wrinkled, frozen sheet. There was nothing else around that would upset Elsa as far as she could see, other than a book. Anna snatched the book up greedily and yelped from the sheer coldness of it, juggling it in the air a bit before slamming it down on the desk. She thumbed through the stiff pages, trying to find something in it that would set her sister off, refusing to believe her letter was the reason.

But the book gave her nothing that would cause real concern, and that left no question about the true answer. Her letter was undoubtedly the cause.

"Shit…"

Truthfully, it hadn't occurred to Anna that Elsa would have this kind of reaction from reading her letter. But… if Anna had really thought her great plan through, and she thought she had but clearly she hadn't, she should have suspected something like this would happen. She had basically sent a stalker-ish sounding letter to her sister, the Queen, and asked to meet with her. Elsa, believing it was a stranger, naturally would have freaked upon reading it. Had she known it was Anna that wrote it her reaction would have been more subdued. Maybe… Or she'd freak out in a much worse way, probably cause another Winter fiasco.

"Wow, I'm so stupid," she groaned. All she could do at this point was wait for midnight and see if Elsa showed up at the designated meeting place. If her behavior was any clue, Anna doubted she would show, but she'd be waiting for her regardless.