A/N: Originally a backup piece for the Elsanna Secret Santa.

Rated M for violence and mild NSFW.

Anna traces her fingertips along the carvings in her forearm casing, hiding a wrist activated retractable blade. Her face is obscured by an oversized assassin's cowl, attached to her heavy assassin robes, inlaid with armour.

"Well?" a tight voice says. "Speak."

Anna glances up, her eyes grazing the queen's gentle features, pulled taut from stress. The redhead flicks her gaze around the throne room, noting the rigid postures of the guards, how their fingers grip the hilts of their weapons in white knuckle grips.

"I have no intention of harming you," Anna murmurs, her soft tone slicing through the pregnant silence. Elsa's eyes flash, ice crackling around her fingers before she can stay her anger.

"You have undertaken over seven attempts on my life," the Queen grits, "and you have the gull to stand in front of me and deny all responsibility?"

Anna raises an eyebrow, even though it can't be seen under the shadow of her hood. The guards had tried to make her remove it upon 'capturing' her. They failed. "With all due respect, your majesty," the assassin says, trying not to let the extent of her exasperation show, "if I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead." The guards straighten, their grips on their weapons so tight it looks painful. Anna ignores them, sending Elsa a mirthless smile. "I'm good at what I do, your majesty. If the actual terms of my contract were to kill you, I'd be three kingdoms over before anyone would think to wake you from your evening nap."

The redhead watches as Elsa's nails dig into the throne's arms, a mild fascination overcoming the assassin at how easy the queen loses her composure. It's unbecoming.

Anna glances at the man standing at the base of the raised dais—Hans, was it? She never cared to remember—grinding his teeth to stubs. He hired her to scare the queen into his arms, making him the dashing noble prince of her dreams. Anna did her job, even allowing herself to be apprehended to put the whole scandal at rest. The assassin puts little faith in the man to hold up his end of the bargain to replace her with a scapegoat, but that's fine. She doesn't make a habit of putting the continuation of her existence in the hands of another, anyway.

"Who contracted you?" Elsa asks through clenched teeth. Anna shrugs. Ice sprouts from the floor, shooting towards the assassin. The redhead hums, raising her chin so that the tip of the spear grazes the skin of her neck.

"Contracts are a private affair," Anna says, taking a step around the queen's not-so-subtle threat, running a finger along the chilly side. "But I assure you I like them not," Anna continues, "and with my capture my end of the deal has been tied into a neat little bow." The redhead pauses, watching Hans' furious trembling from the corner of her eye. She cracks an empty smile. "While I won't make a point of working with that particular contractor again, I won't breech my oath of confidentiality. Many of my customers do not hold that kind of honour and most certainly don't deserve mine, but I have a reputation to uphold.

"Unless, of course," Anna taps her fingers against the ice beside her, considering. She grins, coiling her lips like wisps of smoke. "Yes, I like this idea." She turns to the queen, flaring her cloak for dramatic effect, revealing a good number of the assorted weapons hidden on her person. "My contract is over and you are no longer in danger from me," the assassin reiterates, "but with a rebuttal contract from you, I can gut the bastard responsible for your last few months of misfortune." Anna holds out her hand in offering. "All you have to do is agree to pay the sum, and shake my hand in promise that you'll keep your word, because I'll most certainly keep mine."

"You lying, traitorous bitch!" Hans howls, ripping his sword from the scabbard. "You've been trying to kill my love for a full season and a half, I will not have you fill her head with your false promises!"

Anna wiggles her fingers at Elsa, paying the raging man no mind. "Just take my hand and your fears of future assassins will be nothing but a bad memory," she says, smirking at how Hans' hackles rise.

Elsa eyes the assassin's hand warily, with good reason. "How do I know you'll keep your end of the bargain?"

"How do I know you'll keep yours?" Anna rebuttals. "I don't get paid until I do my job."

The queen's eyes flash, her guard snapping back into place. "And how do I know you're telling the truth, that your hit against me is actually finished?"

Anna twitches the same, cold smile. "On my person I have two flintlocks, twenty throwing knives, a compression powered poison dart launcher and a wrist mounted crossbow for ranged attacks, any of which I could have used to murder you a hundred times over since I've entered this room." She raises her arm further, getting Elsa's attention back onto her hand. "I don't want you dead," Anna assures, "I want to rip out the throat of the slime who thought my purpose in life is theatrics."

Hans roars, charging her. Anna stays still, examining her effect on the queen. She gets her answer when ice blocks the furious prince and Elsa stands, holding out her hand. Hans stares in horror, trying to rush around the icy wall – only for it to expand to keep him at bay.

The assassin grins, walking towards the monarch and taking the taking the offered hand in a firm grip. "Ten thousand gold," Anna says, making Elsa's eyes widen. The redhead smirks. "That's my regular price, but I'm willing to offer a fifty percent discount for indulging me."

Duty, obligation and personal desire war upon the queen's features. Anna pulls the woman closer, placing her lips on the queen's ear. "Or, if I can finish this in the next five minutes, we can consider my contract with you as pro bono," the redhead breathes, her hot breath puffing down the monarch's neck.

"Elsa, no!" Hans cries, pounding his fist desperately against the ice barricading him. "Whatever she's saying, don't trust her! She's an assassin."

"An assassin with more honour than most nobles in your court," Anna airs, nudging her nose against the blond's jaw line. "I can make all of your fears disappear with a literal flick of the wrist. You can rule your kingdom in confidence. All you need to do is agree to my terms," she husks, resisting the urge to nip the skin under her teeth. The assassin doubts it's an action that'll help her case.

"Fine," Elsa grits, her tone notably more breathy than it was a minute before. "I promise upon the stated payments should you uphold your end of the bargain."

Anna groans, a shiver running down her spine. "Good," she rumbles, in a guttural tone that doesn't go unnoticed. Anna steps back and ducks under the spear of a royal guard. "Call off your pets, your majesty, and retract your ice." A ferial grin spreads over Anna's lips. "I have a pup to slaughter."

Seeing the assassin walking towards him, Hans cries out in horror and bolts for the door. Anna cackles, activating her wrist crossbow and loading it.

"Where are you going, pup?" Anna calls, firing. Hans screams, collapsing as the wood drives into the back of his knee. "It's not so fun being on the opposite side of a contract, is it?"

Ice blocks her path. Anna raises an eyebrow and turns to the throne, where Elsa stares at her in a mix of ire and horror.

"What are you doing?" the monarch howlers, her voice amplified by the structure of the room. Anna breaks into loud, careless laughter.

"You're paying me to kill the one who hired me to abuse you," Anna guffaws, "I'm merely holding up to my end of the deal." Anna's humour increases into obnoxious howls as Elsa ices her ankles and wrists together.

"I don't believe you," Elsa grinds, though the flicking of her gaze between her and the writhing man on the floor says she's not far off.

Anna relaxes into her imprisonments, allowing her laughter to die off. Doing otherwise wouldn't inspire confidence, which is what she needs from her captive audience.

"Who was always there to save you?" Anna asks, deciding it best to let the queen come to this conclusion herself. "Who always showed up at just the right time at exactly the right moment required to save you from my blade? Who's comforting, selfless arms always coaxed you in after you were left traumatized? Who did you loath with a passion a mere half a year ago, but you now bare a ring from?" She pauses, letting that sink in. When the horror seeps into Elsa's features, Anna continues with, "Your noble fiancé hired me so he could become a hero. Used me like I was no better than a court jester and played your emotions to back you, blindfolded, into a corner. He raped both our honour, and it's time he gets what's coming to him." She smiles. "Make your decision quickly, your majesty; three minutes have already passed."

"I don't care about the money!" Elsa snaps, storming towards the prince with the promise of hell in her eyes, the ice crackling at her fingertips. "How could you do that to me?" Elsa asks, her voice too soft. Hans's mouth flaps, useless. Something snaps in the queen's gaze. "How could you have done this to me?" she screams, a storm engulfing the room.

Anna ducks her head against wind. "With all due respect," Anna says, raising her voice over the monarch's magic. "You promised his death to me."

The storm leaves as abruptly as it came, a thoughtful expression overcoming the blond's features. "I did, didn't I?" she murmurs, sending Anna an even look. "Do you mind taking requests?"

Anna raises an eyebrow and nods, intrigued.

Elsa smiles, but there's no mirth behind it. "Don't let me see it and make it hurt," she says, walking away. "Take as much time as you'd like. I'll pay you the five thousand."

Anna barks a laugh, shaking out her body as her restraints dissolve. "As you command, your majesty!" She turns to Hans, cracking her neck. "Are you ready to play, pup?" Hans whimpers in response.

How fitting.

"Four-thousand ninety-eight, four-thousand ninety-nine; five thousand." Elsa drops the last coin into the chest, smiling politely at the blood soaked assassin sitting on one of the ordinate chairs in front of her desk. The redhead hums, her hood for once pulled back to reveal her surprisingly soft, elegant features. The hardness of her eyes, however, ruins the innocence of her face.

Which is tragic, Elsa can't help but thinking, seeing as the woman can't be any older than herself.

"I propose a counteroffer," the assassin murmurs, side glancing Elsa in a way at spikes fear in her heart.

"I—" the blond clears the lump from her throat. "I thought assassin contracts are set in stone?"

Anna shrugs. "Mostly," she allows. "Once the terms are agreed upon they can't be changed unless both parties agree to the alternation, so if you refuse I'll take your gold and leave. You'll never have to worry about me again."

When no other information is forthcoming, Elsa closes her eyes and breathes, bracing herself. "What's your counteroffer?" she asks, all breath and no vocals. She knows her voice would crack, otherwise.

Then the assassin is too close, pinning Elsa between herself and the desk. Elsa jolts, yelping in surprise. The redhead grins, but it's a far from reassuring sight.

"Submit control to me for a night," she proposes. "Let me bed you, and I won't take one piece of gold from you."

Elsa's eyes widen. "What? No!" she declares, the shock of the request returning her confidence. "I will not compromise my virtue for—"

The assassin nips at her nose, a predatory glint in her eyes. "You need this money for your kingdom. You've drained a significant amount of resources in boosting your defenses against me. No one needs to know about this." The redhead breathes in, taking in Elsa's perfume. An approving rumble slips past her lips, and she says, "I'll leave as silently as I came. Not a word will slip from my lips." She pauses. "But maybe you could arrange my clothes to be cleaned while we're otherwise occupied?" Elsa tries to slap the redhead, but the assassin catches her wrist with little effort. "I'll bathe myself prior, if that's what you're so uptight about."

"No, that's not what I'm 'uptight' about!" Elsa snaps, gritting her teeth. "You're proposing to violate your Queen."

Anna snorts, amused. "It's hardly a violation if you agree to it and, no offense, you're not my queen." She pauses, a thoughtful look overcoming her. "I don't think I have a monarchy to pay herald to at all, actually. My village was too isolated for anyone to give a shit about." Anna twitches a bitter smile. "Or it was, at least, until it was raided and burnt to the ground. That day I decided that if my village was under any kingdom's jurisdiction, I owed them no loyalty."

Off Elsa's wary look, the assassin flashes a hollow smile and takes a step back. "I won't intimately mistreat anyone as I saw the raiders do that day, is the point to that story," Anna says, her gaze flicking to the chests of gold, the muscles in her jaw jumping. Elsa doesn't say anything.

Anna shrugs, taking the queen's silence as an answer. "Okay," the redhead says, recovering from her slip in composer, "I'll take your gold." She picks at the drying blood on her uniform. "But could you maybe get someone to wash my uniform before I leave?" she asks, barking an awkward laugh. "Considering what we just talked about I don't blame you if you disagree, but I'll knock half a thousand gold of my price if you do." She kicks the closest chest, not looking the queen in the eye. "I—" Anna clears her throat. "I really need it cleaned."

The thought of leaving herself vulnerable makes the redhead visibly twitchy, which gives Elsa a slight boost in confidence.

"How about leave all the gold for food and shelter in the castle for a couple nights under my personal protection?" Elsa asks, "Consider it a vacation."

Anna laughs, and for once it isn't completely callous, even if it remains close. "No thanks," she declines, almost humble. "I need to keep the rest of the money as leverage just in case you want me to bend you over a table and leave you a shivering, sopping mess. I don't very well have that chance at that without holding your money hostage." So much for humble.

Elsa's head snaps back, nostrils flaring. "I am a queen whether you heed to one or not," the blond barks, "and you will hold your tongue unless you wish to see it chopped off."

Anna flashes her a raunchy grin. "That'd be exceptionally hard to do while it's buried inside of you, don't you think?"

Elsa grits her teeth and points to the door. "Grab your gold and go."

The assassin's smile freezes on her face, weighing her options in her mind. She clears her throat, cutting through the awkward air. "About my clothes—"

"Clean them in a ditch," the queen growls, unable to stop the scowl that mars her features.

Anna twitches a withdrawn smile. "Uh, yeah," she murmurs, "that . . . that doesn't work, very well." At Elsa's raised eyebrow, the assassin winces. "I've tried."

From calm to insane to flirty to demure. Elsa can't keep up with this girl's mood swings.

Then again, the queen thinks, with her history, I'm not surprised by her mental instability.

Justifying the behaviour doesn't mean Elsa wants the woman residing within the castle, however.

The assassin ducks her head, scratching off the flaking blood on her sleeve. "A thousand gold?" Anna asks, wincing when the queen glowers at her. "Please don't kick me out," the assassin pleads, meekly, "if only to not see me again in the future. Do you honestly think I'll get out of Arendelle without getting arrested? A shady figure like me, covered in dried blood, carting around chests of gold?"

More mood swings. More irrefutable logic.

Elsa pinches the bridge of her nose. Despite how she wishes it isn't true, the last thing Elsa wants is for Anna to cause a scene and get dragged back before her.

"A thousand gold, and you're out of here by sunrise," Elsa says. "Whether your clothes are dry or not."

Anna winces, but doesn't try her hand at a counteroffer. "Okay," she agrees, "is there a room I can wait in, in the meantime?"

Elsa isn't quite sure how to handle this development.

Anna, clad in nothing but an untied robe, stands in the doorway to Elsa's bedroom, chest heaving. The assassin's eyes flick around the room with a critical gaze but, when she realises nothing is wrong, her face flushes and she kicks the remains of the doorjamb into the hallway.

"Heeey," the redhead says, rubbing the back of her neck. "I was just making sure you were alright. Loud noises and . . . me, don't, uh, usually equal normal circumstances."

And the queen tries to pay attention, really, she does, but her eyes are drawn to Anna's toned torso, her breasts.

Without Elsa registering it, Anna shuts the—now broken—door and approaches the queen, stopping a step away.

"You're allowed to touch, if that's what you want," Anna whispers, a soft enough husk in her voice for Elsa to notice but not enough to put her on the defensive. The bad thing is that Elsa does want to touch, but she doesn't trust Anna in so many ways, and that's enough to steel the monarch's resolve.

"No," Elsa says, shaking her head. "You should probably—"

"It's okay," Anna breathes, bringing the blond's hands to cup her breasts. "I promise to be a docile little pup, if you just want to feel." She nudges the monarch onto the bed and straddles her lap. "I bet you're curious, and I'm nothing if not benevolent when it comes to uncommitted exploration."

The queen stares in open amazement as she tests the weight of redhead's breasts in her hands, runs her fingertips over the assassin's hardened abs. Elsa's brain flat lines on logical thought, her throat choking up at the same speed as the fire coiling in her gut.

Anna, true to her word, watches on in silence, only reacting by the unconscious twitching of her muscles and her soft, sharp intakes breath. All minor things that Elsa doubts she would have noticed in any other circumstance, but are now things that speak louder than words.

Elsa runs her hands down Anna's sides and grasps her hips in a bruising hold, but the assassin doesn't flinch. After a moment, the redhead twitches a smile and, for once, a portion of it reaches her eyes in a manner that doesn't make Elsa want to run for the hills.

"Like what you see?" Anna asks, her voice low and smooth. It's not a comforting sound, per se, but only because the redhead has dropped all pretense from her tone. Perhaps that reassures Elsa, if only a little, because the queen asks;

"I can touch you as I please, correct?"

Anna nods, amusement sparking in her eyes, alongside something else Elsa can't quite identify.

"Can I . . . can I kiss you?"

Anna leans down and captures Elsa's lips in a short, searing kiss in lieu of an answer. When the redhead pulls back she twitches a small smirk, her eyes lighting in hunger and . . . is that affection?

"Kiss me wherever you please, your majesty," Anna husks, running her fingers through Elsa's hair and tugging before draping her arms over the queen's shoulders. "The question," the assassin continues, "is if I can do the same."

Initially Elsa had said no, but she didn't keep saying 'no' as the night went on. Anna probably knew that would happen, which was why she was so complacent in the first place.

When Elsa wakes the next morning, she finds Anna gone and the full chests of gold remaining in her office.

An assassin of honour indeed, Elsa can't help but think, even if the pang of loss in her chest tells her that this isn't the outcome she desired.

A/N: 'Complete' doesn't mean 'complete' with me, it seems. Fair warning to everyone.