A/N Wolf heart 22 suggested that the kids in the prologue should belong to Eugene and Rapunzel and Varian and Cassandra, and I've made the necessary changes. Anyway, enjoy this next chapter!
A year and a half later… (R 9½, E almost 7, A 3½)
"Punzie, com'on! It snowed, and now we gotta build a snowman!" Rapunzel groaned at the cheery voice of her youngest cousin. "Not now, Anna, go away," she mumbled as she rolled over in her bed. Her head was pounding, and the shrill voice of Anna was making it worse.
"Are you okay, Rapunzel?" Elsa, who was standing by the opposite side of the bed, stared at her cousin in concern. The older girl looked so pale, and it was a bit frightening.
Rapunzel shook her head and coughed. "No," she mumbled, then sneezed twice in a row.
"Anna, go get Mama," Elsa instructed her younger sister. Anna nodded and ran out of the room. Meanwhile, Elsa lay a gentle hand on Rapunzel's forehead, then gasped as she felt the heat radiating off of it. "You're burning up!" she exclaimed. "Sorry," she added apologetically when Rapunzel winced at the loud noise.
"It's fine," Rapunzel assured her, "but my head really hurts." Elsa smiled sympathetically and laid her hand on her cousin's head. This time, she allowed her magic to flow toward her hand in an attempt to cool the hot skin.
Anna came back less than five minutes later, Iduna and the doctor hot on her heels. The doctor examined Rapunzel and announced that she had a fever, and should therefore be confined to bed for a couple of days. He prescribed medicine and gave Iduna instructions on how much to give Rapunzel, then left.
"I hate being sick," Rapunzel mumbled. Her eyes were so heavy, and she just wanted to go back to sleep.
"I know, sweetheart, but it happens to all of us," Iduna told her sympathetically. "Even Elsa gets colds from time to time." Elsa made a face at that. "Elsa, can you get me a cloth out of the bathroom please?" Iduna instructed. Elsa nodded and obeyed, returning a moment later with the ordered item. Then Iduna asked her daughter to freeze it, then proceeded to lay it on Rapunzel's forehead.
Rapunzel sighed in contentment as the cool cloth came in contact with her burning skin. "Thanks," she murmured, closing her eyes.
"Elsa, Anna, let's go out please so your cousin can rest," Iduna told Elsa and Anna, seeing that Rapunzel needed to sleep. The girls were reluctant to leave, but obeyed anyway.
0o0o0o0o
Sometime later, Rapunzel awoke, feeling completely refreshed and back to normal. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, but then they shot open when they spotted the snow covering half of the floor. Elsa and Anna sat together in the middle of it all, talking in hushed tones as they gazed at their newly-made snowman. "Aw, no fair, you built one without me?" Rapunzel teased.
Elsa and Anna glanced up in surprise. "Yay, she's better!" Anna exclaimed, jumping up and rushing over to the bed.
"Anna, just because she's awake doesn't mean she's better," Elsa reasoned, also walking over to Rapunzel's side.
"Actually, it apparently does," Rapunzel replied. "I feel completely better."
Elsa stared at the older girl for a moment, jaw hanging nearly low enough to touch the floor, then finally managed, "Anna, go get Mama again." The three-year-old nodded and ran out of the room.
Anna returned moments later with Iduna, who was shocked to see Rapunzel sitting up in bed, the color back in her cheeks. "Um, Rapunzel?" she asked in surprise.
Rapunzel grinned and tilted her head to the side. "Yes? I don't feel sick anymore, if that's what you're wondering."
"But you've only been asleep for roughly two hours!" Iduna exclaimed.
"Why is everyone so amazed?" Rapunzel asked, a bit confused. "I don't get sick very often, and when I do, it's usually because it's something more serious, but it always goes away after a few hours."
Iduna and Elsa stared at the girl, their mouths silently opening and closely like fish, while Anna just launched herself onto her cousin again and hugged her. "I'm glad you feel better," she said.
Rapunzel laughed. "Me, too," she replied, then turned to her aunt and other cousin. "Elsa, why is this so shocking to you? You're the one with ice powers," she teased.
Elsa shook her head, trying to clear her confused thoughts. "I'm just surprised, that's all." She grinned. "I'm glad you're not sick anymore, though."
Iduna slowly nodded at the three girls, then walked out of the room after announcing, "I'm going to go update Agnarr on Rapunzel's health."
"So," Rapunzel began when her aunt had left the room, "what'd you name him?"
"Who?" Elsa asked.
"The snowman," Rapunzel explained, motioning to the creation sitting in the middle of the floor. She quickly crawled out of bed and walked over to inspect the snowman. "It's really good," she observed.
"Olaf!" Anna answered excitedly, dancing around a little. "And he likes warm hugs!"
"That's great!" Rapunzel replied with a smile. "In fact, I like warm hugs, too. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any this morning, so if you two wouldn't mind…" She grinned and held out her arms to her cousin.
"I think we'll take you up on that offer," Elsa answered, grinning as well. She and Anna raced over to their cousin and the three girls all shared a warm hug.
0o0o0o0o
Seven months later… (R 10, E 7½, A 4)
"Yay, vacation!" Anna cried, jumping up and down the wagon.
"We don't need to tell the whole kingdom of our plans, Anna," Iduna scolded gently with a smile. Anna nodded and quietly sat down on the wooden seat between Elsa and Rapunzel.
"I wish we were actually going somewhere instead of just sitting here in the courtyard," Rapunzel complained. The two horses attached to the wagon apparently heard her and whinnied impatiently, and Pascal gave an annoyed chirp.
"I know, but Agnarr had some last minute things to go over with Kai, so we have to be patient," Iduna explained.
"I wish he'd hurry up," Elsa mumbled.
Just then, Agnarr came running out into the courtyard and jumped onto the front bench of the wagon beside Iduna. "Sorry about that," he apologized sheepishly. "Kai wanted to go over every detail of what he's supposed to do if an emergency arises while we're gone."
"It's fine," Iduna told him with a smile. "We've been patiently waiting for you, right girls?" She turned around to look at the princesses with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," answered three unenthusiastic voices.
"Alright then!" Agnarr announced cheerfully. "The Royal Arendellian Summer Vacation begins now! Hyup!" He flicked the reins, and the horses started forward, dragging the royals off to their two-week-long adventure in the outdoors.
0o0o0o0o
Several hours later, sometime after lunch, Agnarr stopped the horses in front of a beautiful, two story cabin-the Arendellian summer house. The five royals jumped out of the wagon and admired the building that they hadn't seen in a year.
"Ah, it's good to be back," Agnarr proclaimed as he stretched. "For the next two weeks, it's just us and the great outdoors. No stressful ruling, no piles of documents to sign-"
"No boring council meetings to constantly avoid," Iduna interrupted with a smirk.
"Hush, dear. Put yourself in my position, and you'd hate them as much as I do."
"I don't know; they're actually not that bad. After all, they're a great place to take a nap. Didn't you do that a lot when you were younger?" Iduna asked, still smirking. "If I recall, the council members, especially Lord Peterssen, were always complaining about having to wake you up from your terribly-timed naps." Agnarr nudged her arm with her elbow, but said nothing in response.
"I can't wait to have lots of pillow fights!" Rapunzel remarked as the family walked up the short path to the cabin door.
"Me neither!" Anna exclaimed excitedly.
"Yeah, and you two are cleaning up the mess," Elsa deadpanned with a raised eyebrow.
Rapunzel was about to formulate a retort to that, but then she stopped in her tracks when she saw the cabin door…which was open. It wasn't open all the way, but a good four inches of space stood between the edge of the door and the doorpost. "Is that supposed to be like that?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.
"No…" Iduna responded slowly.
"Girls, get behind me," Agnarr ordered his wife, daughters, and niece. The four females obeyed, and Agnarr cautiously moved forward, pushed open the door, and stepped into the quiet cabin. Feeling satisfied that it was safe, since there were no strange movements or sounds, he allowed the four people behind him to walk inside as well.
"Alright, so first order of business," Iduna began a moment later, "open all the curtains to get some light in here, then dust everything off."
"And make sure there's nothing stolen," Agnarr added. He was only half joking, and the others knew it.
After searching all over the cabin and finding nothing out of place, the family breathed a sigh of relief. "If there was someone in here," Iduna decided, "then they either were scared away by all the dust, or they thought there was nothing valuable enough in here that was worth looking at."
"Or maybe we scared them off before they could do anything," Agnarr suggested warily.
"There's that, but that's highly unlikely," Iduna replied with a reassuring smile. "After all, it's the middle of the day, and no thief in their right mind would try to steal in broad daylight."
"And since when are you an expert in thieving?" Agnarr asked with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.
Iduna smiled, shook her head, and tapped his nose with her finger. "You're not helping, darling," she scolded, motioning silently toward the three girls with her eyes.
"Oh, right," Agnarr quickly corrected, clearing his throat, "of course. Anyway, how about we unload the wagon, and then we can maybe play a game of charades."
"Charades?" Rapunzel asked with a frown. "I thought we were going on a hike."
Agnarr shrugged. "Oh, sure, you can go on a hike if you want. You can do it all by yourselves even."
"Really?" three excited voices chorused back.
"Certainly. But don't come complaining to me when you get sick from being soaked to the bone," he replied with a grin, motioning one of the windows. The girls groaned when they saw the big, dark storm clouds forming outside.
"I guess charades could be fun," Rapunzel consented with a smile.
"Yeah, and I'm gonna win!" Anna announced, her expression fierce with determination.
"Oh really, well what if I win?" Elsa asked with a smirk. She was met with awkward silence, as everyone in the family, including her, knew how terrible she was at charades. "What?" she protested after a moment. "It could happen!"
"Of course, Little Snow," Iduna responded with a forced smile, trying not to hurt her eldest daughter's feelings.
"To the wagon!" Agnarr spoke up, changing the subject. "We've got to hurry and get the luggage instead before the clouds start dumping on us." His family nodded and hurriedly followed him out the door.
0o0o0o0o
Later that night, Elsa was woken up by a thump from the bottom floor of the cabin. Since she was a light sleeper, she was the only one who heard it. Silently, she crawled out of bed and went over to Rapunzel's bed before shaking the older girl awake.
"Elsa?" Rapunzel asked groggily. "What is it?"
"I think there's someone downstairs," Elsa whispered nervously.
"It's prob'ly just Papa or Mama," Rapunzel mumbled. "Go back to sleep."
"No, it's not!" Elsa insisted, shaking her cousin harder. "Papa and Mama are asleep. Can't you hear Papa snoring?"
Rapunzel listened for a moment, then nodded when she heard what sounded like a low growl from the next room. "Okay, but that's just Papa. Maybe Mama's downstairs."
"Can you please just come with me and check?" Elsa begged.
Rapunzel slowly nodded, yawned, and sleepily climbed out of bed, leaving Pascal asleep on her pillow, and letting her cousin pull her toward the door. As they passed Anna, she woke up as well and stared them in confusion. "What are you doin'?" she asked.
"Nothing. Go back to sleep, Anna," Elsa told her sister.
"Elsa thought she heard someone downstairs," Rapunzel mumbled, earning a glare from Elsa, who was trying not to involve Anna.
"Oh, like a bad guy?" Anna asked excitedly. "I wanna come!"
"Anna, I don't think-" Elsa began, but before she could finish, Anna had jumped up, grabbed the girls' hands, and dragged them out into the hallway.
The three princesses crept down the stairs as silent as mice. Their first destination was the kitchen, where Rapunzel grabbed a frying pan for extra protection. Then they sneaked around the bottom floor until they reached the front room. There, the girls gasped when they spotted a masked figure heading toward the now-open door and carrying a large, heavy sack over their shoulder. From the jangling coming inside, the girls knew that some of their family's possessions were in that bag. "Hey!" Rapunzel called out, stopping the figure in their tracks. "Where do you think you're going with that?" The figure turned, and the girls could tell that he was either a teenage boy, or a short man.
"Um…" the figure stammered, shocked at the sight of the three young girls in their nightgowns standing before him. "Uh, away from here!" He started toward the door, but Elsa smirked and tapped her foot against the ground, causing a sheet of ice to form under the man's feet. He slipped and fell, landing on his face. "Ow!" he moaned.
Rapunzel triumphantly marched over, kicked the young man's side, and picked up the sack of stolen items before setting it safely a few feet away. The intruder stood up and stared in slight fear at the three girls. "H-hey, that's mine!" he protested when he noticed where Rapunzel had put the sack.
"It's ours," Elsa corrected with a grin. "You stole it from us."
"Go away, bad man!" Anna cried, waving a spatula that she had gotten from the kitchen.
"I'm not afraid of three little girls," the man scoffed.
"Oh, you should be," Rapunzel replied menacingly, brandishing her frying pan. "We're your worst nightmare." Anna giggled a little at that, but the thief didn't notice.
For extra emphasis, Elsa discreetly sent an arctic wind toward the intruder's backside. "Yee-ikes!" he yelped, his hands reflexively moving back to cover the area. Elsa formed a snowball when he wasn't looking and threw it at his face, and the next moment, the thief ran out the door.
The girls cheered-silently of course, since their parents were still asleep-and congratulated each other. "That was amazing, Elsa!" Rapunzel praised. "He didn't even know what hit him!"
"Yeah!" Anna added.
Elsa yawned. "Can we go back to bed now? I'm tired."
Rapunzel smirked and lightly punched her cousin in the arm. "You're the one who woke me up, remember?"
"Yeah, and now I'm gonna be the one who goes to sleep first," Elsa mumbled sleepily as she turned and started back in the direction of the stairs.
"I sure hope he learned his lesson," Rapunzel commented a minute or two later when the girls had climbed back in bed. "And wow, are we ever gonna have an awesome story to tell Papa and Mama in the morning!"
0o0o0o0o
While the girls went back to bed, the intruder found his accomplice hidden in the bushes several yards away from the house. "So, Flynn, how'd it go?" the other person asked.
The sixteen-year-old thief groaned and removed his mask, revealing brown hair and brown eyes. "Terrible," he grumbled. "Didn't you hear me yelp, Lance?"
"I might have," the other teenager replied with a grin. "Why, what happened?"
"My backside froze, and I didn't get the loot, that's what happened!" Flynn snapped. Lance immediately burst into laughter, and Flynn quickly clamped a hand over his friend's mouth. "Are you trying to give us away?" he hissed. Lance shook his head, and Flynn released him. "I'm still annoyed at you for not coming with me."
Lance shrugged. "Eh, someone had to keep guard."
"The family's inside, not outside," Flynn replied with a roll of his eyes.
"There's too much dust. I think I might be getting allergic to dust."
"Yeah right."
"So, where to next?" Lance asked curiously.
"Anywhere but here," Flynn responded, guiding Lance away, but not before glancing warily at the cabin. "That was so weird," he mumbled.
"What was?"
"Ice and snow just…appeared out of nowhere."
"Yikes. Now that's not normal."
"I know, right?" Flynn shivered. "Man, I hate snow!"
A/N Did anyone catch my reference to the new Frozen book, Dangerous Secrets? By the way, that was all of Eugene/Flynn for now, but I promise we'll see him again, though probably not for another eight years (story-wise). Anyway, this is the last chapter with Rapunzel, Elsa, and Anna before the accident. Things will kind of stay the same as they are now, but it'll take some time to build up to that, so expect some hurt/comfort coming up. I promise they won't be separated as long as Rapunzel's there but…we'll see what happens. Next chapter we get to see what Cassandra's been up to, and we'll have three surprise characters show up, even though they might not be the best of characters…such as one in particular who's not so nice later in life. After that, we'll get back to the sisters. Next chapter-A New Home For Cassandra.