Anna walked through the village, smiling in greeting at the people she passed. Over by the baker was an orc dressed like Father Christmas, with a blonde sin'dorei helper leaning on his shoulder, golden eyes sparkling with merriment.
The elf's red costume covered somewhat less than what was appropriate for the weather, but she seemed comfortable enough and the kids running around were having a blast of a snowball fight. And if Anna was honest with herself she was nice to look at, with very long legs and elegantly pointed ears.
She might legitimately be into elf-ears.
The orc was impressive to look at too, but it was obvious he only had eyes for his golden lady and she for him and Anna thought about herself and Kristoff, and smiled.
A goblin walked by, flicking a lighter open and closed as he listened to a local woman. "So far, the Yule Goat has almost made it to the Queen's birthday without burning down! It'll be a new record! Would you like to see it?"
"I'd love to," he replied, eyes glinting.
Anna eyed him, but before she could say anything, someone ran into her.
"Sorry!"
She grinned at Jaina. "Hey, what are you up to?"
"Defending myself," Jaina responded, grabbing Anna and lifting her up so she took the brunt of a snowball barrage.
"Nice." Anna rolled her eyes. "Put me down and if you're lucky I'll help you out of this mess."
"Elsa is around here somewhere," Jaina said, looking over Anna's shoulder and exchanging a nod and a smile with the orc and elf couple who, she was certain, would happily repopulate the Horde all by themselves. "Wow, she would look really good in that…"
"I'm right here and that's my sister you're talking about."
"Uh. You'd look good too?"
"Not what I meant, but you know what? I'll take it." Might be a nice little thing to do for Kristoff, actually. Anna grinned to herself and made a mental note to ask the elf where she'd gotten that outfit.
Jaina put her down and they both ran for cover as the rest of the children spotted her. Anna dove behind a snowbank and started to roll up a supply of snowballs for them. "Have you thought about what to get for Elsa for her birthday?"
"I'm not sure yet." Jaina picked up a snowball, turning it over and over in her hand. "I can't believe I've been here eleven months."
A tiny portal formed in front of them and Jaina threw the ball through it. One of the children across the square shouted in surprise.
"Oh my God." Anna laughed as Jaina winked at her.
"Any ideas?" Jaina created more portals, and Anna started tossing snowballs through them. Snowballs started falling from portals in the sky, forcing a horde of screaming, laughing children to dive for cover.
"Nope, you've gotta figure it out all on your own," Anna told her. A ring on Jaina's finger sparkled in the sunlight and Anna dropped her snowball. She grabbed Jaina's hand. She recognized this ring. "Wait, what? Is this? It is!"
She grabbed Jaina by the shoulders. "Are you engaged? Did she propose? She actually proposed! I didn't expect it so soon, or maybe ever, I mean let's be honest here my sister is a little emotionally constipated most days and I know I gave her my blessing but I figured Iduna would be like forty before-"
Jaina was staring at her, eyes wide and expression vulnerable. "You gave us your blessing?"
"Duh?" Anna grinned at her, covering Jaina's hand with both of hers. "She's so smitten with you, and you've been just … so good for her. And it's pretty obvious she's been good for you too and I know it's not even been a year but… You okay?"
"I'm fine," Jaina replied, wiping her eyes with a finger.
Anna leaned in, hugging her tightly. She wasn't sure what else to say, or even if she should. But Anna knew loneliness as well as her sister did, and Jaina had always struck her as particularly lonely. So she was happy for her. Not just happy for Elsa, but happy for Jaina too.
A shadow passed over them, and Anna looked up to see a snowball the size of Kristoff's sled hanging over their heads. "Uh, Jaina? I think Elsa found us."
❄️
Jaina was pretty sure that using ice magic was even more of a cheat than thinking with portals, but who was she to call the Queen out in public?
She dug her way out of the snow, and peeked up trying to locate where her fiancée was attacking from. She saw her over by Father Christmas with a small army of children.
"Et tu, Galnir?" Jaina murmured, when she saw the orc helping the children build an arsenal of snowballs. His mate waved her hands over them, enchanting them with some kind of light spell that made them glow and sparkle. And then, just to show off, Elsa added her own sparkly magic to the snow.
Ducking back down, Jaina explained the situation. "Okay, we're outmanned and outgunned. Elsa's enlisted Galnir and Minuial and if they're as good at snowball fights as actual battle, we're in serious trouble."
Anna started to dig a hole in her snowbank. "So, do you have a plan?"
"I can make us a couple of water elementals, with the right adjustment to the spell they can shoot snowballs. That'll keep some of the kids occupied for awhile."
This was a thousand times better than any real battle Jaina had ever participated in.
Anna nodded, and finished making her hole. She peeked through it and scowled, "Elsa made Galnir a snow-axe!" Anna stood up and shouted, "No melee weapons!"
Jaina yanked Anna back down just before a dozen snowballs would have hit her. "They're trying to bait us."
"Can't you do some more ice stuff?" Anna asked.
"I'm outclassed by your sister. And she's really creative so we have to be ready for anything." Jaina started positioning her elementals, keeping them out of sight to be used when she needed the element of surprise.
She heard Elsa's magic again, and the kids started giggling. They were joined by the musical notes of Minuial's laughter and the deeper guffawing from Galnir.
What was Elsa up to now? Jaina transmuted a stick into a periscope and used it to peek up out of their shelter.
Cruising towards them on the snow was a little ship made of ice, with three children manning snow cannons. Jaina turned the periscope towards Elsa, who smiled deviously and wriggled her fingers as if to greet her.
Jaina sank back down into the snow and started to laugh.
"Do I want to know?"
"I told her a story about something I did once," Jaina said, shoulders shaking as she tried to contain her laughter. "I'll tell it to you over hot chocolate sometime."
"Ooo~kay." Anna raised her eyebrows and took a peek through her snow hole again. "So what are we gonna do?"
"We need to even the odds somehow," Jaina said, as the snow cannons on the ice ship started peppering their position with snowballs. She heard Elsa giggling across the square and tried to keep a straight face as that rare thing called 'joy' flooded her.
Anna rubbed her chin. "Speaking of chocolate … I've got a plan. But I need you to distract them."
"Give me two minutes and then go," Jaina said, shifting onto her knees. "I have a spell, and I haven't used it since I was a kid. Actually, I came up with it myself." She grinned sheepishly as she worked the spell, making modifications on the fly. But Jaina didn't change it entirely; there was something charming about this spell, how raw and child-like it was.
And now, especially now, it was the child-like wonder she wanted.
At exactly the two minute mark, Jaina got to her feet and ran out of cover, her elementals popping up and targeting the ice-ship. But swirling around Jaina were a hundred snowballs. They danced and spun around her, and as soon as she saw Elsa she flung her hands forward. The snowballs twirled through the air, right for Elsa, Galnir and Minuial.
Elsa laughed, catching them with her own magic and sending them flying back towards Jaina. Jaina had expected that, and she pirouetted on her heel, catching the snowballs and building their momentum around her before they sailed back at Elsa.
Back and forth the snowballs went, glowing in blues and whites as Elsa and Jaina's magics intertwined and interacted with each other, snowflakes blowing off of each snowball like azure trails.
And then a snowball hit Elsa in the side of the face. And another. And another. And still more as all the children started throwing snowballs at the Queen until, finally, two more hit her from behind.
"Et tu?!" Elsa cried as Galnir doubled over laughing.
That distraction was really all Jaina needed to send a hundred snowballs crashing into Elsa.
She disappeared under an avalanche of snow, flurries twisting around in every direction and kicking up a mini-blizzard in the square. Just as suddenly as they spun up, the twisters subsided, the blown snow falling silently back to earth.
One of Elsa's feet stuck out of the magically created snow drift, an icy, glittering heel hanging off of one toe.
Olaf sidled up to Jaina and stage-whispered, "I think you just committed treason."
"Elsa?" Anna called out, rushing over to where her sister was. She dug at the snow, looking concerned. "Are you all right?"
"The sentence for treason is death," Olaf provided. "Section three, sub-section two, paragraph seven."
"Thank you, Olaf," Jaina said, rolling her eyes as she ran over to Elsa and Anna. "Elsa, baby? I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."
The snow floated up into the air, turning into a crystalline shower. Elsa had gotten to her feet and was looking at Anna and Jaina with an amused expression on her face. She lifted her chin in an attempt to regain her dignity. "Well you won. But at what cost?"
"A whole lot of chocolate treats," Anna admitted.
"Bribery?" Jaina asked.
Anna looked sheepish. "I didn't think you'd mind."
Elsa started to laugh, wrapping an arm around Anna and then her other around Jaina. Jaina was relieved that Elsa was neither hurt, nor mad at them. She jerked her chin towards the chocolate shop. "Lets pay off the bribes and then head home?"
"Yeah!" Anna grinned. "And there are things we should talk about, like when you're having the wedding."
"The-" Elsa looked at Jaina.
"She saw the ring," Jaina explained. "Sorry?"
"It's okay, I know she would have told me sooner rather than later," Anna assured them. She pulled them towards the chocolate shop and Jaina wondered how much was going to pay off the children and the Orc and how much was going to be sent directly to the castle.
"So?" Anna prompted as they stepped inside. "When?"
"Spring," Jaina and Elsa answered, exactly at the same time.
"Not this spring," Elsa clarified. "But the one after."
❄️
If Elsa was honest, she'd pretty much stopped counting her birthdays after twenty-five. If she had her way, she wouldn't actually celebrate it; but Anna would never let her have her way, at least not in this.
Oh no, when Elsa had a birthday, there was a party, with singing, and a giant cake that could probably fit a person but why would anyone want to ruin a chocolate cake by bursting out of it? Regardless, she tolerated the whole thing because it seemed to make her subjects happy and mostly because it made Anna happy. Even if they'd already had a ball just a month or two prior.
Elsa had her own plans, of course, that involved unwrapping Jaina from that incredible gown she was wearing later, but for now, she made her appearance, had a dance with her sister, and then retreated to safety before someone else could make her dance. Elsa reserved dancing for Jaina, Anna, and maybe heads of state.
Elsa folded her hands behind her back and second guessed her decision to take her hair down.
She had received a number of well wishes from the Horde and Alliance, and hoped that none of them would have the time or inclination to make an appearance, only for that hoped to be dashed when Sylvanas and Anduin walked in.
Together.
Elsa was pretty sure Jaina almost choked to death on her champagne, but as far as she was concerned that was growth and a very good sign. She watched in amusement as the King stole her fiancée for a dance and then with growing unease as Sylvanas approached her.
Oh no.
"You escaped before I had a chance last time," Sylvanas said, "but you owe me a dance."
Elsa owed her no such thing, and it was her birthday and she could not dance if she wanted to. But Anna was on the other side of the room and thus too far away to foist onto Sylvanas and turning down the Warchief of the Horde was bad diplomacy.
Besides, Elsa liked to lead by example, so she offered her arm. "Lead on."
If Sylvanas felt any surprise, she hid it well, taking Elsa by the arm. "Princess Rapunzel wished me to relay her sincerest apologies for being unable to attend. Fortunately, I am due in Dalaran tomorrow, so I came a day early."
"How is my cousin," Elsa asked, noting a slight reaction at her hair being down. Sylvanas led, and Elsa kept up well enough, more uncomfortable with the act of dancing than who her partner was. Even with Jaina she was only able to lose herself in it because of who her partner was.
Sylvanas's eyes always resembled some distant red stars, or perhaps the planet Mars. They showed no emotion as the Warchief replied, "Well enough. Are you concerned, Your Majesty? Is this where you threaten me if I hurt her?"
"There's a place called Ahtohollan," Elsa replied casually. "My mother used to sing of it. No one would find your frozen body."
Her comment seemed to amuse Sylvanas, and those red stars glinted in their dark sockets. "My interest is purely political. I'm even willing to admit it's refreshing to speak to someone who looks at my people and sees people."
"The Forsaken - hand above my waist please and not too far - The Forsaken have been through things I can scarcely imagine. I'm happy that you found a place, Warchief." Elsa wondered if Sylvanas was functionally incapable of not digging at cracks in other people, and what might happen if someone started prying her apart.
And she really, really wanted to see that.
"I want to believe that you mean that," Sylvanas said, her fingers digging into Elsa's skin. "Maybe a part of me does but maybe another part of me remembers how easily trust can be broken."
Elsa looked up at her, studying the red stars. And she took a page from her cousin, a page that she hoped others might too.
There was no hate in her words, no fear, only kindness and respect. "Trust, Sylvanas, is something we have to work at, day by day and week by week. It never stops, but the effort is worth it."
Sylvanas pursed her lips, and then nodded, once.
Elsa simply smiled.
