AN: Apologies for the delay. My fiancée and I have been on vacation together—as we normally live on different continents, we had to dedicate the past month or so to certain time-sensitive projects we could only do together, as well as, you know, just plain spending time together. I had hoped to post at least one chapter during the vacation, but obviously I failed. The vacation is over now and we're all super sad, but I have the consolation of being able to return to my normal creative pursuits.

The reason I'm apologizing, well, it seems I finally have someone to apologize to regarding this story's sporadic update schedule, that being Anonymous 55, a.k.a. Bob, who has been posting dozens and dozens of guest reviews in the hopes of facilitating my return. I apologize for causing confusion; there came a point when allowing you to continue posting multiple reviews every day felt like a dishonest way of bloating the story's review count, so I disabled guest reviews. I'm going to re-enable them after posting this chapter so you can continue speaking freely.

So, a big shout-out to Bob, who I think we can safely say is my biggest fan. Thank you for your fanatical devotion and unceasing determination to lure me out of hiatus. I'm very happy to have you here, and I hope you're not too disappointed. Make an account so we can actually talk.

Day 39

Anna barged into her own bedroom to find Rapunzel already there, flat on her back and under the covers.

"Hi-i!" Anna sang. "Wondered where you'd gone. Big day? I know I had a big day. Spent the whole day with Kristoff. Most of it in the bathtub, just naked among the water and the steam, pleasuring the living daylights out of each other, hehe, and then when we were completely drained, we did some yoga. I've been doing more yoga. Stretching, you know, developing my flexibility so we can do some seriously freaky bedroom stuff…"

Rapunzel lifted her head off the pillow. "Hey, Anna?"

"Yeah?"

Rapunzel released a puff of air. "Listen, I hate to be rude… and this is a really uncool thing for me to ask, especially since this is, you know, your room, but… would you mind stepping back out for a while? Entertain yourself in the castle for a while?"

Anna tilted her head curiously. "Of course, but why?"

Rapunzel leaned back onto the pillow. "It's just that when you came in here, I was kind of touching myself."

"What, again?" Anna said in alarm.

"What do you mean, again?" Rapunzel said crossly. "How many times a day do you get pleasured? By yourself and Kristoff?"

"Right, right, fair enough…"

"So… if you'd just let me finish…"

"Huh? Oh! Oh, of course, yes, I… I can go."

"Would you? I'd normally just leave it be, but I was really getting into the swing of it."

"Of course." Anna started for the door, but hung back in the doorframe and looked back at Rapunzel curiously. "You miss Eugene, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Rapunzel said softly.

"And I bet knowing you're carrying his baby has only intensified that," Anna said solemnly.

"Mm-hmm."

"Heh, it's funny," said Anna. "You and I have been sleeping together for three weeks… in the purely literal sense, of course, you know, sharing the bed… and I'm always going crazy for my boyfriend, and you've been missing your husband who you used to do it with every day, but this is the first time we've caught each other at this…"

"As far as you know," Rapunzel grumbled.

"Say what?"

"Not the first time you've interrupted me. This is just a particular occasion where I really need to finish."

"Okay…"

"And I do notice when you touch yourself. There's really no sufficient amount of stealth when we're in the same bed."

"Er… gotcha. Sorry about that."

Rapunzel shrugged. "We're healthy young people, it would be weird if we didn't touch ourselves. Now, again, do you mind?"

"Right, right, I'm outta here. I'll be in the ballroom. Come find me when you're done, okay? We'll hang out."

"You bet."

~0~0~0~

Anna sat patiently on a bench against the wall of the castle ballroom, dancing a bit in her seat. Eventually, Rapunzel joined her.

"Hi!"

"Hey, An," Rapunzel said tiredly.

"How you doing?"

"Fine, fine. I'm thinking tomorrow I might go out to the museum… just by myself… enjoy some fresh Arendelle air before I go… as much as I want to return home, this… this is truly a beautiful country, I hope you know."

Anna nodded. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"How was it?"

"How was…? …Oh. It was fine. You know."

Anna beamed. "What were you fantasizing about?"

"Eugene. Obviously."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh. Context?"

Rapunzel sighed. "Missionary. That works best, mental-image-wise. Sometimes I mix it up…"

"Ah, that's awesome," Anna said contentedly. "I just love orgasms, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, Anna," Rapunzel said irritably. "I'm a person."

Anna frowned. "What's the matter?"

"It's just… there's some things you don't say, Anna," Rapunzel said frustratedly.

"What, we have boundaries now? Since when?"

"'Bout since we got to second base with each other."

"Yeah…" Anna said with a slight smirk. "Things have been awkward since Eugene left. But we're not gonna get through anything by just talking in circles about how bad it's been. I liked it better when we could talk about sex."

Rapunzel smiled grimly. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Anna, that was… pretty awesome."

Anna tapped the bench she was sitting on. "Then have a seat and let's talk."

Without a word or even a look at Anna, Rapunzel took a seat. After a moment's silence, Anna leaned in and kissed Rapunzel's jawline.

"Over the line," Rapunzel said bluntly.

Anna winced. "Sorry."

"'Sokay."

"So… what's the deal, Rapunzel? What do you want?"

"I want to get back to my husband so I can have sex with him and then forget about this whole thing."

Anna pouted. "You want to forget about me."

"No!" Rapunzel gasped. "Of course not! I just want things back the way they were before… when you and I could speak to each other freely and there was no sexual tension."

"Did we ever have that time?" Anna said blankly.

"I don't know. Maybe not. Eugene always suspected… but before we gave in… it was nice."

Anna gently reached out to cup Rapunzel's face and turn it toward herself. "It can be nice again. We can speak freely and…"

Anna pulled Rapunzel close and kissed her on the lips.

When they parted, Rapunzel stared at Anna with a blank expression for several seconds before pulling back her arm and striking Anna across the face with enough force to send her tumbling across the floor.

Anna scurried back in fear as Rapunzel stood over her, enraged, her eyes glowing gold.

"What the heck?" Anna said under her breath.

"I'm pissed off, Anna!" Rapunzel snarled, kicking ineffectually at Anna with her bare feet. "We've had this same conversation a dozen times over, and the worst part is I can't be angrier at you than I am at myself, because that just—wouldn't—be FAIR!" She overturned the bench they had been sitting on.

"I-I'm sorry!" Anna said desperately.

Rapunzel pressed her back against the wall and slowly slid down it, curling into a fetal position as golden tears spilled down her face.

Anna slowly sat up and scooted her way toward Rapunzel. "So, uh… what's with the glowy gold in your eyes, there?"

"Happens sometimes," Rapunzel said in hollow voice. "It's what my hair used to do. But I've learned since I got it cut off that the magic is in me, not my hair. Because… well… just makes sense, doesn't it? It's in me, it's what saved my mother's life when she was pregnant with me, it wouldn't make much sense for it to be, you know, just hair-based magic."

"That is seriously cool."

"I guess. I still don't know how to use it on purpose. It just pops out when I hit rock bottom, like when I thought Eugene was dead, or when I was trapped here in Arendelle and thought the endless winter would keep me away from home and my parents would lose me again…"

"Yeah?" said Anna. "What happened then?"

"I… cried into the snow. A little flower grew out of it. Might still be on the grounds somewhere." Rapunzel let in a gasping breath and looked up at the ceiling, tears still streaming down her face though her voice was calm. "I can't stand this anymore, Anna."

"I, uh, picked that up," said Anna, gently touching her own face. "You really smacked me there… it stings… impressive. I mean, officially I'm appalled and betrayed, you can probably tell from the look on my face, this is my betrayed face, but it's still… yeah, that was awesome. You completely decked me."

"I'm not sorry. We broke our promise. And I've had enough of being fondled around here. Merida's been pretty touchy-feely herself. Seems to think it's cute… but this is about you. We promised this would never happen again and I expect you to hold to that, Anna."

Anna hung her head. "I'm sorry… I don't know what I was thinking…"

"Yes, you do. You like this. It's fun. I don't disagree. I've figured it all out, you know."

"Really?" said Anna. "That's great. Explain it to me?"

"Well, I… that is to say, we… no, 'I'. I have a libido that couldn't deal with any kind of separation from my husband. And you? Well, clearly your libido couldn't be satisfied by monthly trysts with Kristoff. I think it helped a lot when you started going for him daily… personally, I admire our restraint that we haven't actually had squicky cousin sex. We've adapted, for sure. We can stop it when it starts. Maybe soon we can just… stop starting. Maybe… maybe things can go back to normal."

"You have no idea how much I'd like that," Anna said weakly.

Rapunzel nodded and stood up. "Well, come on, girl. Let's get to bed."

~0~0~0~

~0~0~0~0~0~

AN: I didn't get a chance to see Frozen II over the holidays, incidentally. Or is it 2? It's very inconsistent, the title. Then again, that's always been true of Disney sequels, even if this is among the studio's first real animated sequels. Point is, I have a general idea of what the sequel is about, but haven't seen a single moment of it, not even many trailers, nor heard a note of the soundtrack. I'll get around to it, probably after Book Two is done.

Obviously, this is the first week of 2020, when, according to my personal schedule, I was supposed to put Princess Party on hiatus and return to RFE, buuuut, I wanna finish Book Two first. Now, I have a lot of projects and life stuff to work on, but I will do my absolute best to stick to a weekly update schedule for Princess Party, and then for RFE once I get back to it.