Sooo this is basically two chapters in one because I didn't have the heart to divide them with a cliffhanger…Enjoy.

WARNING: Rated M

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen.

Usually, the familiar weight of a sword sheathed to her back calmed Anna. Her skill with a blade gave her quiet confidence, but now she barely noticed it.

She shifted in her saddle, teal orbs scanning trees drowned to their middles in premature winter snow and waning moonlight. It didn't matter that she knew these woods like the back of her hand when her racing heart showed her faces in shadows and invisible movements in her periphery.

"Oh, come on, Anna…" She tried and failed to scratch her chest through her thick corset. The frozen scar over her heart blistered like something crawled under the raised white flesh. "If anyone can find Elsa, it's you. Just calm down and get her back. You got this. Now, if I were a shape-shifter throwing the temper tantrum of the millennia and wanted somewhere to hide, where would I go…?"

The branches above overhead groaned and snapped. Anna shielded herself and screamed, and her ears turned red when a gentle sheet of snow rained down.

Desmond whined and shook the powder from his mane into Anna's face. She glared at him.

"Hey, don't give me that sass, mister. It's dangerous out here, y'know? You gotta be on your toes. I'm just alert is all."

Anna heeled the chestnut horse forward. She'd named him Desmond, not knowing what his actual name was since she smuggled him away from the castle. He was just barely tall enough to wade through the deep snow, and the redhead tried to concentrate on his steps rather than how the thickening trees blocked out more and more moonlight the closer they got to the heart of the forest.

Anna had officially accepted her legacy as the stupidest human being in existence when she crawled out of her window last night. Well, this morning, technically. There was going to be a national emergency if someone found her missing. It was her magnum opus stupidus.

She was the governing head of Arendelle at present and therefore obligated to protect her people, but she was also obligated to protect Elsa. She loved the blonde, and with that came certain responsibilities to her. They had to watch out for each other.

Besides, how could she ever be a good ruler if she can't even keep her best friend safe?

Elsa doesn't have her powers to defend herself out here, and the gods know she's too proud to come back to the castle if something DOES happen to her…

A gap in the branches revealed dark clouds heavy with snow, but Anna didn't care about the blizzard they promised. The sliver of sun peaking over the horizon to welcome the morning was what made her stomach drop.

"Great. Juuust great. That's perfect. Simply wonderful. Only have an hour left to find an angry magic woman in hundreds of acres of forest. Just peachy. Elsa couldn't just go to her cove, could she? Nooo, that'd be too easy. Let's worry Anna even more, shall we? Let's make her search all the way to the coastline woods and make her think that Elsa was so fed up with her that she took a swan-dive over Paine's Edge. That's a brilliant idea."

The trees grew tighter, and the snow fell deeper. Desmond groaned, and Anna fervently nodded in agreement.

"Exactly! How could she do this? Like, really? She's blowing this way out of proportion. I mean, yeah, maybe I was a little pushy and just a bit bossy, but who wouldn't be? It's worth making her mad at me if it means she'll be safe, right?"

Anna waited for someone or something to respond, but Desmond stayed quiet.

She blinked a few times, suddenly remembering that she was alone. Some of the red left her face, and she didn't notice her grasp tightening on the reins.

"…No. It's…She'll understand. I'll explain everything. Elsa just misunderstood me before. Everything will be fine."

Desmond stopped. Only his twitching ears didn't shake with exhaustion. They snapped to attention in random directions, his whines inaudible under his pants.

Anna nudged him forward, but he wouldn't move.

"Seriously? You, too? Is no one going to help me?"

She dismounted and tied Desmond to a tree. She patted his mane and hushed his anxious pawing before steeling her nerves and turning to face the forest. She's come too far to back out now.

So, she started her trek into the woods.

Alone.

Right before a blizzard.

…Yeah, the gods really wanted her to die, didn't they?

"Elsa! Where are you?!"

Only an echo answered her. Anna's shoulders slumped.

"Oh, come on…"

Who am I kidding? If Elsa doesn't want to be found, then she won't be found…

Anna froze.

Elsa wouldn't have left left…would she?

No, she wouldn't. She'd never…She just wouldn't. Not like this. She promised—

Anna froze, staring between the trees to her left.

There were footprints. Barefoot footprints.

"Ha! Oh, thank the gods!"

Anna stumbled after them. Their neat trail wove through the narrow spaces between the trees in an almost perfect path.

The footprints halted before a small clearing. The tight perimeter of trees hugging the area of virgin snow turned it into an oasis of open space. And like the trees, the footprints seemed to avoid the clearing, continuing on the other side.

Anna didn't think twice before marching forward.

"Elsa, I know you're here! Please come out! I promise I'm not mad! Well, maybe I'm a little mad, but I don't mean it, honest!"

The clearing's fresh powder gave under her weight like quicksand. Anna wasn't concerned about the fragile snow until her hips were level with the ground and trying to take a step left her breathless.

She slowed to a stop in the center of the clearing, and she highly doubted she had the strength or leverage to turn around.

"Well…*pant pant*…this is just…perfect."

On her next step, the snow collapsed under Anna's feet like a trapdoor.

Snow gagged her yelp as she sunk into the ground, up to her shoulders. She scrambled for a handhold, but the fluffy powder crunched into nothing. She may as well have been trying to grab onto running water.

Anna stilled. She was getting herself nowhere fast.

"Elsa! I need help! Please! I know you can hear me!...Please tell me you can hear me!"

No answer.

"Anybody?! Please, I'm stuck!"

Still, nothing.

"Desmond!"

The silence mocked her.

Anna's face plopped into the snow. "Ughhhh…" Frost squished into places she tried hard not to think about, and she was getting very cold very quickly.

Then, it started to snow. Heavily. Because of course it did.

Anna mumbled into the ground. "Gods, I'm so stupid…"

"Yeah. You are. Really stupid, actually."

Anna's head whipped up, frantically looking towards the voice even though the snowflakes in her eyes made her vision blurry.

"Elsa?!"

Elsa reclined in a tree boarding the clearing, wearing the same dirtied pants and wrappings she wore when they had their fight. She laid on a limb that caught most of the moonlight weeping through the leaves. Her hands cradled her head against the trunk while one of her legs lazily dangled over her branch.

At the sound of her name, Elsa spared Anna half a glance before closing her eyes and sighing back into a comfortable position.

"Good morning, Your Majesty. Fancy meeting you here."

Elsa's face was perfectly stoic, but Anna had known her long enough to see that she was thoroughly enjoying what she was seeing.

Anna turned a dozen shades of red that darkened to crimson, words forming and freezing behind her pursed lips in whistling babbles.

Elsa's lip twitched on the left side.

"Elsa!" Anna yelled, her voice booming like a cannon. She struggled again, though how much of her effort was to free herself or to strangle the blonde was hard to tell. "You've just been sitting out here this whole time?! Really?! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?! Very! I was very worried!"

Elsa looked like she was on the verge of falling asleep.

"I know you can hear me! Don't you dare try to ignore me!"

Elsa had the audacity to snore, and Anna spat a string of curses that would've impressed any sailor.

The princess tried hard—very, very hard—to calm herself.

"Okay. Okay, I get it. I'm sorry, Elsa. I'm sorry for getting mad and yelling at you. Can we talk? Please?"

Elsa shrugged. "Sure. We can talk."

"Well, can you help me out first? I'm stuck."

Elsa cupped her ear. "Hm? Sorry, what was that? I can't quite hear you from down there."

"What do you mean you can't hear me? You have super—"

Anna stopped herself before she yelled again. She put on a smile that looked like a grinding sneer, and her voice sounded equally as forced.

"I said, can you help me out, please? I didn't realize how deep the snow was, so now I'm stuck."

"No."

"…No?"

"No."

"What…What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean 'no'." Elsa glanced at her. "You do understand the common tongue, yes?"

"Of course I understand the common tongue. What I don't understand is why you won't help me."

Elsa stood on her branch, raising her arms and arching her back in a long stretch. She jumped and gracefully landed at the base of the tree.

"You wanted to talk, right?" Elsa crossed her arms, the emotion on her face as illegible as her handwriting. "Well, we're talking."

"Elsa…," Anna growled. "I'm freezing down here."

Elsa shrugged and walked towards her. She shape-shifted mid-stride, the smooth transition not hesitating her step in the slightest.

Anna couldn't deny that her awe at the change didn't distract her. It had been a long time since she'd seen Elsa do her magic.

The silvery tiger stalked to the front of her prison. It wasn't fair that Elsa could walk so effortlessly on the light snow. The dense fur packed into her webbed paws practically gave her snowshoes.

Elsa stopped at her head. She spun in a tight circle, stomping some snow into a solid platform. She shifted back to her human self and crouched by the princess, and her small slab of stable snow kept her from joining Anna in the ground.

"Freezing as it may be, we both know you're safer down there. Who knows what you'll do to yourself if I let you out? You'd probably just get stuck somewhere else." Elsa didn't bother hiding her smirk this time, sharp as it was with the predatory glee of a catch well caught. She ruffled Anna's hair, and the princess seriously considered biting her hand. "It's for your own good, little one."

"Elsaaa…"

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Knock it off. It's freezing down here."

"Yes, it's absolutely suffocating, isn't it?"

Anna, apparently under the impression that she still possessed some dignity, tried to blow the now messy hair from her face and appear like she was the one with the high ground here.

"I knew you were a lot of things, Elsa, but I never took you to be so petty."

Elsa gasped and leaned back on her heels. "Me? Petty? How could you? I'm just acting with your best interests in mind."

"Fine. Be that way. You know what? I don't even need your help. I can get out just fine."

Unsurprisingly, Anna's feeble attempts to find some leverage failed spectacularly, her efforts only shoveling more snow into her dress. She twisted back and forth in her limited range, flailing through a dozen different contortions that had Elsa struggling harder and harder not to laugh.

Anna yelped when she sunk deeper, having literally screwed herself into the ground.

Elsa hummed through her smirk, resting her head in one of her cloth-bound hands. She considered the princess with half-lidded eyes. "Try again. I think you were getting the hang of it."

Anna slapped the snow. "Why are you being so mean, Elsa?! I said I was sorry!"

Elsa faked a wince. "A thousand pardons, Your Majesty, but could you lower your voice? My simple ears are sensitive."

"You—You're a real ass, you know that?!"

Elsa shrugged. "So I've been told."

"I was so worried about you! I thought you were in real danger! I searched the entire forest for you, and it turns out you put me through it all so you could sit in a tree and laugh at me!"

"It's not my fault it took you so long to find me. I literally gave you a path to follow, and it still took you hours to get here."

"You…Wait, wait, wait, wait, you…you led me here?! You planned this?!"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Maybe I did. So what? It's not like you haven't been doing the same thing to me for weeks."

"How is that in any way a fair comparison?! You made me sneak out of the castle at the risk of creating city-wide panic and wander around the forest by myself all night just to trap me in the snow! For what, to prove how pissed you were over an argument you started?! About how I was trying to keep you safe?!"

"You're missing the whole point!" Elsa's voice snapped like a whip that would have made Anna flinch if the redhead wasn't so mad. "Are you really that thick?! Couldn't you see how much I hated it there?! Or did you just not care?! Because frankly, I don't know which is worse!"

"I do care! I've always cared!" Anna's teal eyes became hard and livid like hot ice. "You just haven't given it enough time! You always get mad and worked-up over any change! What you think about the castle doesn't change the fact that it's the best place for you to be!"

"How can I not be mad when you keep me locked in there like a prisoner?! I'll never belong in the castle, just like I'll never belong in a cage! My home is out here! It's always been! But you never even gave me a choice—!"

Elsa's voice died. She looked away and blinked several times, her head tilting and her brow furrowing like she was trying to place something she recognized but couldn't quite remember.

"It's not like I wanted to do it! I had—!"

"Shhh," Elsa hissed.

"Did—Did you just shush me?!"

"Stop talking."

"I won't stop talking! I'm trying to be mad at you—!"

A cold palm covered Anna's mouth.

"Seriously," Elsa whispered. "Stop talking."

Anna ripped off Elsa's hand, but she shut her mouth when she noticed Elsa's posture. The shape-shifter rose into a balanced crouch, moving so slowly and quietly that not even her breathing made a sound. Her arctic eyes scanned through the thickly falling snowflakes in sharp glances around the clearing, and her slightly parted mouth and deep breaths tasted the air.

Anna's skin crawled with gooseflesh. The silence was maddening. Even the trees were quiet.

Then, there was noise everywhere. It was distant but dangerously close, like the guttural murmur of a thunderstorm rolling over the mountains.

She looked at Elsa. Snow collected on the blonde's stiff shoulders like a powdery cape, but it couldn't hide how she instinctively coiled up, looking for something—preparing for something.

Somewhere, a horse screamed. Anna didn't want to believe it was Desmond. It was a bloody, hoarse noise that cut off too soon.

"…Elsa?"

No answer came, and the dead stillness of the forest summoned a terror that pooled cold dread in Anna's stomach.

Snow crunched somewhere, and the forest roared to life with bloody barks and rolling growls.

Anna caught only a glimpse of the hulking forms charging from the shadows before her world blurred. Something yanked her skyward so quickly that her strangled yelp made her choke on her tongue. She was dragged away just as quickly, her body plowing through the snow and threatening to drown her in it.

The large jaws clamping onto her dress' scruff forced sharp impressions of its fangs into the nape of Anna's neck, and its snarling pants billowed hot air down her back. Anna blindly clawed the muzzle holding her. She stopped struggling when the snow melted out of her eyes, recognizing the silver and white paws galloping at either side of her.

Anna awkwardly twisted under Elsa, but she managed to find which way was up and maneuver herself into hugging Elsa's neck and locking her legs around her chest, though her ankles couldn't reach each other around her girth. Elsa released her dress when Anna found what she hoped was a firm grip.

An army of paws pounded after them, the wolves' howls shrieking the night air as they closed in. Those that dared to get close snapped at Elsa's flanks to corral her through the forest and away from escape. Anna couldn't see, only able to imagine what was happening when a growl grew too close before Elsa outmaneuvered it and distanced it again.

One of them slammed into Elsa's side, and Anna nearly lost her grip, struggling to keep her legs around Elsa's barrel chest. Her roar left Anna deaf, and something warm and metallic sprayed her cheek before the wolf was silent.

More quickly jumped Elsa, and they rolled, spiraling down a steep slope that threw her and Elsa apart.

Anna tried to stand despite her intense vertigo. She got one foot under herself and starting to push up on the other when it slipped into empty air.

She immediately regretted looking at it. Her foot hung over a cliff, the mouth of the gorge below seeming to have no end in any direction. Thick fog frothed in its throat and hid just how deep it was.

She scrambled away, but a wolf circling her front kept her from going too far.

Anna's heart sank as it stalk towards her. It was huge.

The wolf snapped at her, and she quickly drew her sword, being just fast enough to slash its eyes. Her old training kicked in, and she methodically followed through with a hard thrust into its chest.

But when she tried to pull it out, her sword remained steadfast in its corpse, and she could see more wolves charging towards her.

"Elsa!" Anna yelled, uselessly yanking her sword.

A spitting roar told her where she was. The shape-shifter brawled with a pair of wolves a dozen yards away, a broken body lying limp in their wake as they rolled in a grizzly storm of fangs and claws. It was horrific to watch and even worse to hear.

Elsa broke one wolf's jaw with a powerful swipe of her paw, and it whimpered away while the other bit into her shoulder. Elsa screeched a pained snarl and bucked and rolled to dislodge him, but the rest of the pack descended upon her to follow up their comrade's hold.

Anna didn't have time to panic over Elsa because three wolves were zoning in on her. They lunged to back her up and corner any escape.

One of them went for the kill, but Elsa caught its throat between her jaws. An ominous crunch sprayed blood over her muzzle and poured hot crimson into her already reddened chest fur.

Cold reality hit Anna like a charging horse. Between the wolves at their front and the gorge at their backs, her and Elsa's chances of surviving were plummeting. Anna was defenseless without her sword. Maybe if she were on her own, Elsa could fight her way out, but there was no way she could protect Anna at the same time.

Anna glanced at the drop behind them. That was a looong way down.

Elsa bristled when the pack drew closer. She roared and swiped in warning to force them back before quickly shape-shifting to her human form.

"Anna, stay behind me!"

Elsa looked like she was going to change back, only becoming human to bark the command.

Anna grabbed her arm. "Wait!"

"What?!"

"Elsa, do you trust me?!"

That made Elsa pause. "What—?!"

Anna didn't let her finish. A wolf lunged, so she did too. She grabbed Elsa around the waist and hurtled them both into the rolling fog below.

Anna wasn't conscious the first time she fell off a cliff—waterfall, actually—, but it turns out that it's just as terrifying as she imagined. The wind was so loud that she couldn't even hear her own screams.

A chimed 'boom' buckled Anna's senses. It fried her nerves and made her whole body numb.

Then, she landed, sinking into a pillow of snow.

Anna had to convince herself that she wasn't dead before she opened her eyes. It was hard to breathe. Everything was tight around her.

She clawed her way out of the snow.

She…was alive.

"Yes!" Anna tried to yell, the sound barely a loud gasp. "It worked! W…We're alive! I can't believe it!…It…It…Wait, what?"

The snow that caught her was a giant mound that was as tall as a small building and nearly as large as the castle courtyard. Even in the snow-laden gorge where there was probably already twenty-plus feet of snow, the mound towered like a small mountain.

…Elsa?

"Elsa!" Anna fell to her knees and sifted through the snow. "Elsa, can you hear me?! I'm right here! Follow the sound of my voice!"

The ground quaked. It shook the loose snow before exploding, blowing snow like ash from a volcano.

Anna shielded her eyes from the falling powder. "Elsa?! Elsa, are you there?! Are you okay?!"

A large hole yawned from the ground, and Elsa crawled out of it like a corpse brought back to life. Her platinum hair stuck to her face in sweaty clumps, and she stared into nothing like she really did just come back to life and was seeing everything for the first time again.

"You're okay!" Anna helped her to her shaky feet. The snow had wiped the blood clean from Elsa's skin, leaving only a few faint messy smears, and Anna sagged in relief when she saw that most of it hadn't been Elsa's in the first place. "Oh, thank the gods you're okay! I thought—"

"What the actual hell, Anna?!" Elsa roared. She pushed Anna away and glared at her from head to foot. "A cliff?! Again?! A fucking cliff?! Are you kidding me?! A—!"

Elsa paused. She pulled Anna close, patting her down with gentle touches and nervous murmuring to make sure she wasn't hurt. When she finished, she pushed her away again, remembering that she was mad.

"We had to get out of there, Elsa. There was no other choice. We were about to be—"

"A cliff?!" Elsa gasped again but with more feeling. "Seriously?! 'Trust me'?! You tell me to trust you then tackle me off a cliff?!"

"I saved our lives!"

"You pushed us off a cliff!"

"Well, I didn't see you coming up with a better plan anytime soon. We were about to be torn apart."

Elsa threw her hands up. "Golly gee! Wow, Anna, thanks for saving our lives! I'm sooooo grateful!"

"You're welcome."

Elsa opened and closed her mouth several times. She settled on a sneer and paced.

"You—You could've killed us! You do realize that, right?!"

"Oh, please. I knew there was at least twenty feet of fresh powder down here to catch us. It's been snowing like crazy lately, remember?"

"How did you know that for sure? For sure? What if there were rocks? Trees? Literally anything?"

"Well…Well, why did you come out here when there were obviously going to be wolves?"

"Wolves? This close to the Arendelle? At this time of year? At daybreak? Really? I lived in the forest most of my life, and you expect me to believe that's normal?"

"As of late, yes, actually. The early winter forced them closer to the city because food has become so scarce. Migration and hibernation aren't supposed to happen this early, so they're getting desperate. The council's been having to deal with how to protect what livestock the city has left."

Elsa gaped before flushing crimson. "Why didn't you tell me?! I wouldn't have come out here if I knew that!"

"How could you not know there was a huge pack of wolves here? You can smell me a mile away, remember?"

"I did know they were there! It's just—The fresh snow covers their scent and makes it stale, okay?! I thought they'd just passed through! Regardless, why would you lie about something like this?! It's kindof important!"

"I didn't lie! It never came up, so I never told you. If anything, I was withholding the truth."

"That's lying!"

"Is not!"

Elsa scoffed and forced herself to stop yelling, instead speaking in a tensely low voice that was almost a growl. "See, this is exactly what I meant when I said you never tell me anything. Maybe if you bothered telling me what's going on every once in a while, this whole thing would have been avoided."

"You shouldn't have come out here in the first place, Elsa. You said you would stay in the castle. We wouldn't be having this conversation if you'd just listened."

They glared at each other. The snow rained down in massive waves, thrown around by the strong winds channeling through the gorge. A blizzard brewed around them.

Elsa's shoulders deflated. "This is a stupid discussion that is getting us nowhere since you clearly can't understand how much danger you put yourself in—put us in," Elsa coolly said. "I hate arguing with you, and I refuse to waste any more time talking to you if that's all you seem to insist we do. So do us both a favor and shut up and stay here while I find a way to wait out this storm."

Elsa's words were deceptively soft, hardly betraying how hard they forced the air from Anna's lungs.

Before Anna could respond, Elsa marched away, shape-shifting after a few paces to move faster in the snow.

"H-Hey!" Anna trudged after her, sinking to her knees with every step. "Where do you think you're going?! You can't just turn into a tiger and walk away when you don't want to talk to me!"

Elsa turned human. "Watch me!"

"Get back here!"

As much as Anna tried to force herself forward, Elsa was quickly getting further away. The blizzard swallowed the blonde's figure in dark, snowy chaos.

Anna could do nothing but sit and wait. She had exhausted herself. She was freezing and alone, and her emotions were starting to take over where her stamina was beginning to fail her.

She'll be right back, Anna told herself as she shielded her face from the burning frost. She'll be right back…

She sat there for a small century before Elsa finally did return. The blonde was as pale as the snow swirling around her, making her nearly invisible. She said something that Anna couldn't hear before picking her up, and Anna didn't resist. Elsa held her close as she maneuvered through the snow and down an incline.

Anna felt herself being put down and ushered into a small tunnel. On the inside, she could see that it was a crude attempt at an impromptu igloo…though she guessed the proper term would be a den. It was short but wide enough to lie down in. The walls were scored with deep claw marks from Elsa digging it out.

She and Elsa migrated to opposite sides of the den. The awkward was suffocating, even by Anna's standards, and both of them seemed desperate to avoid the elephant in the room. Ignoring each other seemed to help in that, and Anna managed to keep Elsa's attention off of her by shivering in silence.

Elsa cleared her throat. "Um…I'm sorry I left you out there for so long. I thought it would be safer for you to stay in one place while I found some shelter. I wasn't thinking about how cold it was."

"It's fine," Anna tersely said, trying not to let Elsa hear her teeth chatter.

Elsa still heard, of course. "Here," she said, turning to her and opening her arms in an invitation. "You need to warm up."

Anna looked at Elsa's offer longingly, but she shook her head.

"I'm f-fine."

Elsa sighed. "Anna, come here before you freeze to death. I'm not mad at you anymore."

Anna bit her lip.

"For the gods' sakes…" Elsa scooted closer to Anna and gently but firmly lifted her into the space between her legs. Her warm body blanketed the redhead, her hands prying Anna's apart so she could rub feeling back into them. Elsa laid her head on Anna's shoulder, thawing her frozen cheek by pressing her own against it. "There. That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Anna's content sigh was involuntary as she melted against the shape-shifter. She nodded but didn't speak. Elsa entertained herself through the silence by watching the steam of Anna's breath flow into the cold air.

"…Are you sure you're not mad anymore?" Anna quietly asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I was never mad, just frustrated." Elsa tried peeking at her from the corner of her eye. "Are you mad at me?"

"No. But if you're not mad at me, why are you scowling?"

"I'm trying to remember how to get out of this place. It's been a while since I've been down here. I don't exactly thrust myself over cliffs that often. You, on the other hand, seem to make a habit of it."

In her mind, Elsa thought the joke would loosen the tension, but as soon as she heard it out loud, she regretted it. She felt Anna flinch at the backhanded jibe and grow uncomfortable in her arms. Elsa wanted nothing more than to test her flexibility to kick herself in her own ass at that moment. She gave Anna's waist a gentle squeeze and purred a quiet apology, and Anna somehow translated the gestures, loosening and curling closer to her.

"…My father's going to kill me," Anna said.

"How so?"

"I snuck out, remember? Everyone's probably waking up right now and seeing that I'm not there. Or you, for that matter." Anna groaned. "I'll never hear the end of this…"

"Well, maybe they won't worry? We're both gone, so it's not impossible for them to believe we went out for an early morning stroll or something."

Anna patted Elsa's arm. "Elsa dear, your optimism is truly charming."

"You never know. But, if he does want to off you, he'll have to get in line behind the wolves. And possibly Gerda."

Anna erupted with small giggles. "Yep, that woman's going to skin me alive."

The silence returned. It was strange. A few minutes ago, they were at each other's throats and running for their lives, but now they were chatting like the past two days never happened.

"Well, at least one good thing came out of this," Anna said.

"What?"

"Your powers got a lot stronger. I mean, they were pretty much nothing before, but you just made a literal mountain of snow to catch us when we fell."

Elsa blinked. "Oh yeah." She looked at one of her palms. "I did, didn't I?"

She concentrated on making a small flurry. Her hand glowed and hummed, making little white specs that weren't snow twirl around her fingers.

The mangled spikes that erupted from her palm made her and Anna both shout in surprise.

"…They might still need a bit of rehab."

"Agreed."

Anna shifted in Elsa's grip, trying to find a spot that let her see her face without moving too far out of her arms.

"Elsa, I was wondering…," Anna started, not quite able to meet Elsa's eyes, "…are you…going to come back to the castle?"

"Of course I am."

"Really?"

The genuine surprise and relief in Anna's voice made Elsa scowl. She turned the redhead so they properly faced each other.

"Anna, did you really think I wouldn't come back? I was mad at you, sure, but I wouldn't leave for good. You should know that."

"Well…You always talk about how much you hate the castle and how much you want to leave, and I guess it scared me because it sounded like there wasn't a single thing that you liked about staying there and well…I'm there and…," Anna fiddled with the end of her skirt, "…a-and when you ran away after we argued, I just thought...maybe I became part of what you didn't like about it…"

"Oh, Anna…" Elsa gently held Anna's chin and tilted her head up to meet her eyes. The vulnerability in those teal orbs should be a crime. Elsa let a soft smile draw up her lip.

"Anna, I'm sorry for making you feel that way. All I could think about was how suffocating it was there. It was driving me mad. Sure, maybe your actions were a large part of why I left, but you never were. You can't drive me away that easily."

Anna smiled brightly, and Elsa pulled her into a warm hug. Elsa held on to her for just a bit longer than usual, just a bit tighter, and in that moment, Anna never felt more wanted.

When they eventually separated, Anna's face turned red with shame.

"I'm sorry for everything, Elsa. Could you ever forgive me? I was no better than Hans. I shouldn't have doubted you, and I promise I'll never do it again."

Elsa chuckled a short laugh before kissing Anna's brow and talking in a melody. "Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt I love."

"You've been making Gerda read you Shakespeare again, haven't you? What is that, Hamlet?"

"Act II. Thou knowest me well." Elsa regally kissed the back of Anna's knuckles. "Also, please do us both a favor and never compare yourself to evil-incarnate ever again."

"I promise."

Elsa cupped Anna's cheek, rubbing her thumb across her freckles. Anna's heart skipped as she watched her arctic eyes soften to a calm sky blue.

"Anna?"

"M'yes?"

"May I kiss you?"

Anna failed to hide her smile. "You know you don't have to ask, Elsa."

"I know. But it's nice to hear you say yes."

"Yes, you may kiss me…But!"

"But?"

"But…" Anna's grin curled mischievously. "I say when the kiss ends."

Elsa huffed, and Anna didn't miss the predatory gleam in Elsa's eye that delighted at the challenge. Her hand slid down Anna's cheek to hold her chin again.

"So demanding of me, princess. Tut, tut, have you learned nothing today?" Elsa sighed. "But alas, if you say I must submit to your terms, then I have no choice. I only pray that my noble sacrifice is remembered. If I don't return from this, let Snowgie know that I hate him. I know I've told him before, but I never got to truly express just how deep my resentment runs. It is my greatest regret."

Teal orbs rolled so far that it was a miracle Anna didn't go blind. "Oh my gods, Elsa. Would you stop giving me your last requests and kiss me already? I want lip service of the physical nature, not the verbal, please and thank you."

Elsa gave her cheek a chaste kiss in bemused apology before smiling toothily, her canines flashing. "So you have decreed it, so it shall be done, princess."

The hand holding Anna's chin drew her forward, the redhead mumbling something about smartasses and blondes along the way. They both leaned in to close the distance, and Elsa smiled against the full lips that greeted her.

Anna fell slack, every ache and pain from the past two days flushing from her body. Elsa always had that effect on her. The blonde seemed to know it, too, and she released Anna's chin to cup the curve of her jaw and cradle her head, her fingers weaving into the stray hairs that curled under her ear.

The kiss started superficial. It was typical of Elsa to do that. She loved to start shallow and shy so she could draw it out and give it as much attention as she could. It was her addiction to foster a kiss' slow growth and savor its evolution when it blossomed into something that felt much more intimate.

She was a perfectionist at heart, and she enjoyed taking her time to guarantee her efforts delivered more than expected. To Anna, she was like a swimmer diving deeper and deeper into a pool that was cool at the surface and a furnace at the bottom. It made Elsa's kisses soft and sweet and made Anna warm all over.

If Anna let Elsa have her way all the time, their kisses would last for hours—however long it took for the shape-shifter to be satisfied that she had given everything she had into worshiping Anna's lips, discovering and claiming secret pleasures, sensations, and needy noises that even Anna didn't know were there. And it was very, very hard not to let Elsa have her way.

Unfortunately, Anna was becoming impatient. The draw out was torture from the endless teasing of what could be, and she needed more.

In an unprecedented display of coordination and grace, Anna crawled into Elsa's lap without breaking their kiss. She settled her knees on either side of Elsa's hips and let her torso lay into Elsa's nearly naked one, their bodies easing together like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Elsa chuckled as Anna completed her maneuver, and the blonde dipped just a little deeper between Anna's lips to show her just how impressed she was.

Anna groaned as Elsa continued her rhythmic strokes. Her body flashed hotly. Hunger stirred in her gut, the feral cry of some beast within escaping her throat as a whimper. That primal part of her cried for more—give more, take more, give more, take more…

Anna straightened up so she had to look down to meet Elsa's lips. She held the blonde's face and pushed just a little bit deeper, just a little more intensely, just a little bit rougher. Elsa tasted like winter and the cold—sharp and spiced like pine syrup and fresh mint.

Elsa quickly caught up to her tempo, the firm laps that overtook her mouth and curled hotly over tongue feeling like the rolling shoulders of a predator rising to a challenge. Elsa's hands, which had been resting on Anna's thighs, teased the curve of her waist with slowly mounting pressure that matched the rhythm of their kiss. Anna gasped, and Elsa retook control, tilting her head and doing something that made Anna shudder.

Elsa smirked her victory against Anna's lips. She loved her, but she wouldn't Anna outplay her so easily.

"Just say the word if it gets too much, princess…," Elsa purred, watching and waiting for Anna to catch her breath. "I gave my word to keep going until you do…" She kissed the corners of Anna's lips before claiming her mouth again.

Anna settled back down in Elsa's lap. Elsa purred and rewarded her with more touches to secrets spots along her sides that made the redhead's insides turn to slush.

Fire brewed in Anna's lower belly. She needed more. Something more. She needed Elsa.

Anna curled an arm around Elsa's head, loosely knotting her hair. With her other, she slightly pushed Elsa's legs apart, opening a gap between them just where she needed it.

Elsa faltered in the kiss as she tried to figure out what Anna was planning. The redhead just giggled, making her even more suspicious.

All at once, Anna dove into a deep kiss and started rolling her hips.

Elsa jerked and jumped. She was forced to pull away from the kiss, moving just far enough away to make a sound that Anna hadn't heard before. It was like a stuttered breath that died into a gasp. Anna took that as a sign to continue.

Poor Elsa tried to regain some control over herself, but Anna punctuating her hips with a grinding thrust that circled her lap forced her to be slack-jawed with muted gasps. Elsa clumsily held Anna's hips and guided her in little patterns that Anna quickly picked up on and rode into the blonde.

"I've got you, Elsa…I've got you…" Anna cooed through her smirk as she guided Elsa's head to rest on her shoulder. She kept moving all the while, circling and pressing and experimenting new ways that would catch those spots that made Elsa sing for her. Elsa was as pliable as wet river clay in her hands.

Elsa mumbled something and turned her attention to Anna's throat, mapping down her neck. Anna tilted her head to give her the extra skin she wanted, and the blonde purred her appreciation against her throat. Elsa growled at the high dress collar in her way. The dreaded thing covered some of Anna's most sensitive real-estate.

Anna laughed at Elsa's mumbled pouting, but her giggles were cut into a yelp when she hit her head on the den's ceiling.

Everything came to a stop. Anna glared at Elsa while she rubbed her bruising scalp, pained tears in her eyes. "Don't you dare laugh."

Elsa tried not to, but giggles escaped into her words. "You need to be careful. The ceiling's a little low, Anna."

"You don't say?"

Anna felt something tugging at her corset, and she let Elsa maneuver them onto the floor. The blonde laid over her, her weight settling between Anna's legs, and leaned over her like a cloud.

"Is that better?" Elsa asked.

Anna wrapped her arms around her neck and pulled her closer. "Very." She kissed her heatedly, and it was all Elsa could do to catch up with her.

Elsa's head instinctively tilted when Anna started making some new noises. The redhead's legs were restless beneath her, spreading and then trying to clench together repeatedly.

A sharp smell hit Elsa's nose. She breathed deeply to catch it again, tasting its thick scent roll over her tongue and swell in her chest into something heavy, and a purr welled up from it.

Anna watched Elsa's smug face brighten with a smile before meeting her lips again. Anna happily accepted the advances, but the heat in her belly was raging now. This was more—more than Elsa's ever given her—but it still wasn't enough.

Elsa felt the heels of Anna's boots dig into her lower back like spurs, forcing her closer. She growled a bit at the force, almost missing Anna's gasp when her groin struck against her like flint on steel.

Elsa tried moving as Anna had done before. She started tentatively, applying only a little pressure and barely moving, but that was still enough to make Anna squirm beneath her. Then she curled her hips back in a long, slow grind, and Anna scratched Elsa's sides.

Elsa hummed into her neck. She liked that a lot.

"E-Elsa…" Anna groaned. Her eyes were pleading and dark.

Elsa felt it too. She wanted to be closer. She hushed Anna with soft kisses down her throat, getting an impatient whimper in response.

She felt Anna string up excitedly when she started lifting up her skirts, but then...

But then Elsa stopped.

Utter horror washed over the blonde.

She had never imagined anything beyond heated touches and long kisses with Anna. She was more than satisfied with them. She didn't need to think of anything more.

But now that she was here…

She had no idea what to do.

They were both women for the gods' sakes, what the hell was she supposed to do?!

Anna shivered beneath her, and Elsa forgot about her thoughts for a second while she looked at her.

Then she suddenly remembered that they were both in a snow-den…lying on a slab of ice…in the middle of a blizzard…and Anna was freezing…

"Elsa? What's wrong?" Anna asked, her voice strained.

Elsa didn't move for a long minute. Then she sat up on her arms.

"Anna…we can't," she said, trying not to look nervous.

Elsa shuddered when Anna dug her nails into her skin like a predator denied their kill.

"What?" Anna looked hurt. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. It's just… w-we're laying on ice and you're freezing and we can't …you know…here." Elsa's face burned with a hot blush.

Anna tried to pull her back down. "Elsa, I'm fine, really. The cold isn't even that bad—"

Elsa pressed a finger to her lips.

"Don't lie to me, Anna. I can feel you shivering."

Anna pouted. Half of her wanted to scream in frustration. She rolled her eyes and groaned, umhuming her assent.

"Wait, don't get up. At least cuddle me."

Elsa tried to let the bulk of her embarrassment slide as she laid back down. Suddenly, the exhaustion of the night caught up with her, as did her new pains. She really wanted to go to sleep, but she could still feel Anna's racing heart and squirming legs, her scent still heavy on the back of her tongue. Her pity for her quickly turned to guilt that kept her awake.

"…I'm not cold, you know. Just saying."

Elsa hummed dismissively, not opening her eyes.

Anna softly scratched Elsa's back. She tried her best not to fidget under the blonde, but she almost couldn't bear it.

"Seriously. I think it's a new superpower of mine. Maybe from your mark. The cold really doesn't bother me," Anna said while she clutched Elsa for warmth.

If Anna kept scratching her back like that, Elsa might manage to fall asleep. But then Anna was shivering again, and Elsa felt her trying to hide her fingers under her abdomen for warmth.

Elsa looked up, and Anna knew she was caught.

"You were saying?"

"Oh, shut up."

"That's not very nice language, princess."

"Fuck you. The princess can use whatever language she damn well pleases."

Elsa laughed lightly and stood up. Anna was instantly cold from the voided warmth, but she didn't have to wait long. Elsa shape-shifted and laid against the back of the den, nearly taking up all the space, and pulled Anna to her chest to bury her in her fur. She chuffed and nudged Anna's hair affectionately.

Anna smiled, feeling Elsa's deep breaths like a metronome against her. She wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn't afford the luxury. She had to get back to the castle.

So, she stared at the opening to their den, enjoying Elsa's warmth and waiting for the blizzard to pass.

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-REKA