Anna is trembling with excitement. This seems to be a common theme when she is with Elsa. It's also a bit of nerves of course, and pre-emptive embarrassment because she's about to be completely butt-naked in front of this very attractive, very dignified stranger. Hans usually at least throws a blanket on her first, very unceremoniously but it does the job.

'Are you sure this is…' Anna pauses. The last time she asked if something was allowed, Elsa dismissed the question. She doesn't seem particularly concerned about rules. Perhaps that's why she lives out here, away from mainstream society and the magical community which both seem to have neverending arbitrary rules.

'Oh, it's perfectly safe. I've done it before.' Elsa is already cracking her knuckles with her hands flexed forward, and giving herself a little shake. 'Are you ready?'

'Sure, I'm ready. I was born ready!' Anna braces herself for the twisting, stretching feeling of transformation. Bones growing, part of herself dissipating and rematerialising. It's impossible to describe the actual sensation of being rearranged at the atomic level, but if she had to try, she would say it's like being on a rollercoaster, inside a spa that's turned up a little too high. Not painful, but definitely intense.

Elsa's eyebrows furrow in determination, and she holds her hands out in front of her, lightly flexed. They glow with a pale blue light, brighter by the second, pulsing, presumably in time with her heartbeat. She's muttering some kind of chant, low and steady. It is accompanied by a growing white noise, kind of like rushing water. Anna eventually averts her eyes when the light becomes too much, like staring into the sun.

The swirling, tingling sensation begins in Anna's fingertips and toes, like tiny little tornadoes. She grunts as she feels her limbs elongating, her skull growing and muscles morphing. It takes a little longer than usual, probably because it's going against her current state, her soul-binding. Anna's vision goes grey and fuzzy, her limbs begin to feel numb, kind of like when she's stuck between sleep and wakefulness. She tries to speak, to let Elsa know something is wrong, but she can't get the words out. Then everything goes black.

When Anna comes to, the first thing she feels is cold air on her furless skin and the damp towel beneath her. Elsa's face is right above hers, her eyes are big and full of concern and so very beautiful, like frozen pools.

'How are you feeling?'

'Yeah, I…' Anna sits up, blinks away the fog and looks down at her naked body in all its glory, slowly unfurling. Ten fingers, ten toes, belly-button, miles and miles of freckly skin covered in mud and scratches and an angry red rash. 'Wow.'

The tub suddenly seems so small. Everything does, and Anna feels so big. Comically big. The colours of the room are so vivid and intense, it's almost overwhelming. Red tones in the wood panelling, orangey brass highlights on the pumps. Pinks and purples in the stack of towels. A richness of hues, the full spectrum of colours that she's all but forgotten. It's beautiful. Elsa sits next to her with faint pink tones in her skin. Her hoodie isn't actually blue, either. It's a pale kind of violet, and it suits her.

She looks so much smaller as well. Less intimidating. Just a girl, out here, all alone. There's a kind of vulnerability about her, actually, in her oversized hoodie with her big sad eyes and simple ponytail and the patches of dirt on the knees of her jeans.

'Yes, wow indeed. Um…' Elsa bites her lip, and her eyes flicker ever so quickly over Anna's body, before settling back on her face then turning away. She suddenly sounds a lot less sure of herself, and when she turns back, with two jars, there's a definite blush over her nose and cheeks. 'So this is a disinfectant.' She opens a jar of clear liquid, releasing a sharp, pungent, plant-like smell. 'Maybe I can do your back? It's the most scratched up.'

'Oh, yeah,' Anna tries to ignore the heat spreading over her own face and the feeling of words backing up in her throat, 'I'll… I'll keep cleaning this mud off myself.' She reaches for the pile of washcloths but her arms feel so weird and long, and the way her elbows bend is just so different. She misses, knocking over the jar of disinfectant. 'Shit, sorry!'

Panic rises in Anna's chest immediately and she pulls herself into a ball. The last time she knocked over one of Hans' concoctions, he sprayed her with a water bottle and docked her pay.

'It's okay,' Elsa calmly wipes the liquid off the floor and retrieves another bottle from the cupboard. 'There's plenty more.'

'...I can pay for that.' Anna says timidly, feeling a little pathetic, curled up on the bottom of the tub, but not wanting to break anything else. Certainly not wanting to break this potential new friendship.

'Don't be silly.' Elsa laughs lightly into her words, 'It's not like it cost me anything.'

The warm wet cloth is soothing on her back, with just the occasional sting of disinfectant on her scratches. Elsa hums lightly as she dabs and wipes, a melancholy little tune. Anna begins to relax, leaning back when Elsa instructs her, breathing through the self-consciousness and telling herself that her body is totally normal. Remembering Elsa's words from last time, you're safe here. The witch is too polite to touch anywhere close to Anna's breasts or even her thighs, though Anna can't help imagining what it would be like if she did, then pushing those thoughts away just as fast, as a heat threatens to build in her belly.

Instead, Elsa's dextrous hands linger over the scars on Anna's belly and shoulders, left from her encounters with Buttons. With his nicked ear and squashed face. If that fat tabby was a human, Anna is sure he'd be a school bully, taking lunch money and giving wedgies.

When Elsa offers her a damp cloth, she takes it with a shy smile and a very careful hand, and begins to wipe herself down. Soon, thanks to their shared efforts, Anna is sparkling clean, with all her wounds washed and patched. By this point, she's a little disappointed that Elsa will no longer be touching her body with those gentle, soft hands.

'This is a salve for the stings and rash.' Elsa opens a jar of blue-grey slop, this time with a savoury, earthy smell. 'Fire nettle, right?'

'Mhm!' Anna realises she sounds far too happy about that, and corrects herself, 'Yeah, oh, it stings like crazy.'

The cool, muddy salve soothes the angry rash immediately, and Anna wonders if there's magic in it. She can't tell, in this state. Can't even smell Elsa's magic. Can't see anything glowing. It's odd. A reminder how vulnerable the average non-magic customer is to being scammed and swindled. Once she is thoroughly coated in the salve, Elsa stands back with her hands on her hips, satisfied, as though inspecting an art project. 'Would you like some clothes?'

I'd prefer it if you just took yours off, and we were both naked, Anna doesn't say. 'That would be lovely. Thanks.'

Anna stands up, slowly, still feeling a little dizzy, and follows Elsa back to the bedroom. Her legs wobble like a baby horse. They're so stiff, as though she's been curled up for a thousand years, and she stumbles a little. Walking on two legs is harder than she remembers - it feels like she's on stilts! She stumbles after a few steps and Elsa catches her by the elbows, 'Oops! Are you alright?'

'Yeah!' Heat spreads across Anna's face. It's so strange to be at eye level with someone. So intimate. Of course she has to be bloody naked as well. 'I'm fine, sorry. Just gotta get used to this big ol' body again. The ceiling feels so low. And the floor is so far away, it's crazy.'

Elsa raises one eyebrow, purses her lips, and simply says, 'Hm.'

Finally dressed in an oversized T-shirt and a pair of well-worn green trackpants, the salve has dried to a crust on Anna's skin, and she feels snuggly, warm, and significantly less flustered. She stretches out her limbs - bending over and touching the ground, reaching up toward the ceiling, all those poses she vaguely remembers seeing the yogis doing on the university lawns - and is beginning to feel normal again.

'Feeling better?' Elsa leans against the doorway with her arms crossed.

'Much better!' Anna jumps to her feet, sniffing. 'Your house is beautiful. I've really missed colours.'

'Of course, you'd be colour-blind.' Elsa heads to the kitchen and Anna follows, 'I think what I would miss the most is chocolate.'

'Oh, don't even talk to me about chocolate! And coffee. I really miss just like a good, strong latte on a chilly morning. And talking to people! Actually, a lot of things, once the novelty wears off.'

Back in the kitchen, Anna is now completely sure that the house is bigger on the inside than on the outside. It's so much brighter now, in the daytime, and she runs to the window, entranced by the vivid colours outside. Flowers and birds and trees, and even the sky looks different. 'Wow.' When she spins around she notices that Elsa's bookshelf is colour-coded, as well, in a series of rainbows. That's different. Cute. 'Wow.' Her eyeballs just about pop out of her head when she sees Elsa placing a loaf on the table, pulling a tea-towel off it, and the unmistakable smell of coffee hits her nostrils. It's a coffee-cake. Coffee and cake - two of Anna's favourite things! She's beginning to be glad she fell off that ledge and down that bank.

'I can't exactly offer you a latte…' Elsa cuts the loaf into slices and opens up her laptop, clicking a few times until some kind of acoustic pop begins to play softly in the background. 'But I had this vague premonition last night about coffee, so I made this. Please, help yourself.'

'A premonition? Do you have a lot of those?' Anna helps herself, and it's delicious. She's actually really hungry, and tries not to wolf it down too fast. It feels weird to hold the cake in her hands. She's missed holding things. She's missed her hands. And her feet. She's missed her whole body, and gives herself a little hug. She has the urge to give Elsa a big warm hug, too, the sweet little thing hovering over her cauldron, but refrains. There's a subtle kind of fragility to her - Anna has the sense she has layers.

'Not particularly important ones.' Elsa shrugs. 'Have you read anything good, lately?'

'Nah,' Anna hovers over the cauldron. She can't sense magic, in this state, but she's pretty sure the brown liquid simmering in the pot is just straight up chocolate with a few interesting herbs for extra kick. Awesome. 'I've got so many on my to-read list, but I'm so busy. I barely get time to lick my own butt, you know?'

Elsa leans away from the cauldron and splutters as she laughs, holding her hand over her mouth again. It's very messy, not her usual polite laugh, and just when it seems she's composed herself, she laughs again, even harder.

'Sorry, I'm sorry. I just…' After a good minute, she manages to breathe, face Anna, and speak. 'My threshold for humour is quite low. I- I spend a lot of time by myself.'

'Why?' Anna asks. 'Don't you like people? Where are your friends?'

'Of course I like people. Sometimes. I'm… I just…' There it is. A shrug and a sad sigh. A layer. 'I'm not so good with people.'

'You're good with me.' Anna smiles as earnestly as she can. She means it to be comforting but Elsa squirms.

'You're different.'

'Different how?' Anna doesn't mean to push, but now she kinda needs to know how she's different. That's a bit exciting. She generally considers herself to be a thoroughly unremarkable person. Even her most interesting attribute - her gift of familiary - takes the form of the most common animal, in a drab ginger colour. Not even black. Who ever heard of a mysterious ginger cat crossing one's path under the pale moonlight?

'I don't know. See? I said that, and I can't even explain myself.' Elsa scolds herself. 'I didn't have a lot of friends, growing up.'

'I'm sorry to hear that. The other kids missed out. You're a good friend.' Anna steps closer, now she really, really wants to give Elsa a hug. But Elsa steps back, and deflects the question.

'You know what I would like to know? How long have you been in your familiar form before today?'

There's that familiar note of authority in her voice again, but now, at eye-level, seeing the way Elsa's shoulders shrink and the way her lips tighten, Anna kind of gets the sense that it's only skin-deep. Something she's learned, to feel powerful. Anna had basically forgotten how to walk, so they both know the answer to that question is a long time. Too long. Longer than is safe, legal or ethical.

'You know what I've really missed?' It's Anna's turn to deflect the question. She's in no mood to ruin this rare human time, in this lovely place with this lovely person, talking about Hans. 'Dancing! Would you like to dance with me?'

'I don't… really dance…' Elsa looks away, to the side, but ever so slowly, she holds out her hands, palms open. A blush spreads over her face again, and she smiles shyly, apparently relieved to have dropped these tense subjects. 'You'll have to show me how.'