Anna hurried from the library, eager to get back to her apartments and see how Elsa's research was coming along. Other than her family dinner the other night, this was the longest her slave had been left alone without Anna so far. It had only been a few hours, but she was already missing the other girl terribly. Things were just… better when Elsa was around. Her lessons that morning had felt like they had dragged on for hours longer than ever before, and she had been distracted and antsy the entire time, her mind filled with thoughts about the other girl and all the new things she was feeling. Her teacher hadn't said anything outright, but she knew he must have noticed it.

As she turned down the passage leading behind the Great Hall from the library, she heard the low murmuring voices of several men in conversation somewhere ahead of her. She heard a deep voice say something, then the muffled thump of steps leading away and the sound of a distant door closing. As she rounded the corner that would take her beyond the Great Hall and towards the East Wing, she found the castle steward standing close with the Royal Physician. They were huddled together at the foot of the wide carpeted stairs that led up to her parent's apartments in the Royal Wing, and they stopped their conversation as she drew closer, both turning to greet her with formal bows.

"Dr. Coombs! Oh, I haven't seen you in the castle for a while. How are you?" she asked, surprised to find him here.

"Your Highness! It's wonderful to see you, dear. I'm very well, very well indeed."

The Royal Physician was a thin man of middling height, with a large, bushy mustache and wavy red hair that was well on its way to going completely white. Anna had always thought that his mustache was a bit too large for his long, thin face, and it always twitched and jumped with such animation as he spoke that she would find herself staring at it in helpless fascination. His mustache was by far the most expressive part of his pallid face.

"What brings you to the castle today, Doctor?"

"Oh, nothing to be concerned about, Your Highness. I just came from seeing your father, the king. Just a routine check-up, my dear. His Majesty is the picture of vigorous good health, I assure you," he told her, his kindly blue eyes twinkling at her over his beaked nose and bushy mustache.

She did feel reassured. For a moment, when she saw him standing there, she had feared… But no, her parents were both young and healthy. They would rule for many, many years yet before Anna had to start worrying about them falling seriously ill.

"Of course he is," Anna said, some of the tension that had filled her body leaving her. "Papa will probably live forever."

Kai was looking back and forth between them, a sour expression on his face. She couldn't help but feel like the castle steward was holding a bit of a grudge towards her, after the whole "apology" incident with her new slave. Elsa had warned her that he wouldn't forget it. The looks he was giving her now were positively frigid, and she shifted uncomfortably.

"I didn't mean to interrupt you both. I can see that you are busy," she said, eager to be away from Kai and his resentful eyes. "It was great to see you again, Dr. Coombs. I'll leave you gentlemen to your work."

"Your Highness, the pleasure was all mine," the doctor said, bowing as she went away.

Kai, she couldn't help but notice, merely sniffed, saying nothing, his thumbs hooked into his belt beneath his broad stomach. As she turned down the hall to the East Wing, she heard them resume their conversation behind her. She wondered briefly what it was they were talking about, and who the other voice had belonged to earlier.

More importantly, how long is Kai going to be mad at me about one little apology? She wondered, not able to help but feel like the older man's sour attitude towards her was completely unfair. It wasn't her fault he had been so insufferably rude to Elsa in the library.

Putting the steward firmly out of her mind, Anna climbed the stairs to the second floor of the East Wing and soon arrived at the door to her rooms, slipping inside.

"Elsa?"

"In here, Anna."

Her slave's voice sounded from the study, and she crossed the sitting room to peer in at the other girl.

Elsa was seated at the desk, her head down as she concentrated on a small stack of documents opened in front of her, her right hand busily scratching away at a ledger book already filled with entries. She didn't look up as Anna approached, and so the princess was able to study her side profile for several uninterrupted seconds.

The other girl really did have a stunning figure, she thought, not for the first time. She seemed so much more grown up, more adult and womanly than Anna. Not only was she slightly taller, but she had those deliciously flared hips, and her breasts were full and voluptuous. Even the unflatteringly plain servant clothes she wore couldn't hide the pleasing curves and swells of her young, healthy body. She was soft in all the right places, trim and athletic in all the others, and somehow her natural grace brought it all together into a picture of elegant female beauty.

Where Anna sometimes felt like she was still a bit of an awkward teenaged girl, with her smaller breasts and almost boyishly thin body, Elsa was everything she would ever hope to admire in sensual femininity. It wasn't that she was jealous of her good looks, per say, or even that she wanted to look like her, but rather… she desired her. That was the word. Desire. Anna wasn't sure she had ever truly felt it before for another person, and it had taken her a couple days to understand what was happening when she looked at Elsa and felt her breath get taken away, but she understood it now.

When Anna finally did speak, she didn't say any of the things she was thinking about the other girl. Instead she blurted out the first question that popped into her head.

"Where did you find a pair of glasses?"

"Hmm?" Elsa said, sounding confused. She glance up at her quizzically, then her eyes went slightly wide and she reached up to her face, taking off the glasses she was wearing and looking at them in her hand like she wasn't sure how they had gotten there.

"I… I found them here in the study this morning," she said, rather vaguely.

"Really?" Anna said, surprised. "That's strange, I don't recognize them at all. You found them in here? Let me see those."

The princess walked the short distance over to her and reached out a hand expectantly, and after a hesitant pause, Elsa handed them over, turning in her chair to face her.

They were a small, delicate pair of finely crafted reading glasses with a thin silver frame. They looked expensive and they were extremely beautiful. She ran her fingers over the cool metal appreciatively. There was a very small, very fine pattern worked into the silver, which upon closer inspection looked like swirls of perfect snowflakes so small that they were difficult to make out unless you brought them close. It must have taken a craftsman with a lot of skill to work such a tiny, intricate design into the metal.

"Wow, these are gorgeous! I can't believe they've been in here the whole time. They must be antiques," she said, stunned by Elsa's find.

True, she had never really taken the time to go through every drawer of the old desk in her study. It had already been here when she moved in a few months ago. The glasses must have been buried in a back drawer all this time, hidden out of sight, long forgotten by their previous owner.

"Yes, well…" Elsa was saying, a reluctant, almost worried tone in her voice. "I hope you don't mind me using them. I don't always need glasses to read, but all of the little print in these documents was giving me a headache earlier."

Anna looked up at her with a smile, charmed that the aloof older girl she was crushing so hard on suffered from something as normal as a bit of farsightedness. It was such a little thing, but it made her seem just a bit more human and less intimidating.

"Of course I don't mind, Elsa. I don't need them, so consider them yours now."

She opened the glasses and leaned forward, startling Elsa by sliding them back onto her face. Tucking a stray, whisper-soft blond curl of hair behind Elsa's ear before she withdrew, she found her breath catching at how close they were now, and at how intensely blue the other girl's eyes were this close up behind those adorable glasses.

"There," she breathed, leaning back with a blush, but somehow managing not to stutter or look away. "I really love these on you. They look so pretty."

Elsa licked her lips, watching her carefully.

"Thank you," was all she said, sounding a bit strained. Her hand was gripping the wooden arm rest of her chair so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

The awkwardness from this morning was creeping back again, strangling the air between them like a vise. Anna cursed herself. Elsa had to be feeling it too, given the way she was staring at her, and how both of them now seemed at a loss as to what to say next.

Gosh, I hate this! Why can't I just be normal around her?

The other girl had to notice how Anna's heart was racing, and how her fingers had trembled when she stroked her hair back behind her ear. For what felt like the millionth time, she wished she could tell what Elsa was truly thinking. Was Elsa as effected by their close proximity as she was, or were these feelings she was struggling with entirely one-sided?

Get a grip, Anna. You're making a fool of yourself… Again!

"Are you hungry? Let's… I'll have some food brought up. Don't get up! You can keep working, it's okay, I'll call you when it's here," Anna said finally, turning away.

Once the food had arrived, Anna coaxed Elsa out of her work, and the two of them somehow managed to have normal, light conversation as they ate. Anna found herself chatting away, telling Elsa all about her earlier lessons and sharing a few of her more amusing anecdotes about past tutors she had had. Elsa even laughed a few times. She seemed to find Anna's habit of confounding her teachers very funny.

"You're not going to be a difficult student for me, are you?" Elsa said, smiling that delightfully mischievous smile of hers. "If I had known about all the pranks you pulled on your past teachers, I might not have offered to tutor you in Norstla."

"Oh, don't worry," Anna said, very seriously. "I'll go easy on you."

"Why don't I believe you, hmm?"

"Excuse me?" Anna said, pretending to be deeply offended by this. "I'll have you know, Professor Bell says I'm a wonderful student."

"You have that poor old man wrapped around your finger, Anna. It's obvious he thinks the world of you," Elsa said, smiling.

This made Anna embarrassed, so she hurriedly changed the topic, which made Elsa smile at her in a very annoying way which clearly said that she saw right through her.

It was well after one o'clock before they finally sat down for their first lesson in Norstla. By some unspoken agreement, they went into Elsa's study. Anna was a bit surprised that the room was now very much Elsa's study in her mind, but something about that just felt right. Her slave took her place in the single chair, turning it around to face the room, while Anna flopped down onto her little bed opposite, much as she had the night before.

Elsa gave her a slightly pained, uncomfortable look.

"What?"

"Nothing! I just… Here, wait a moment, Anna. I'll go get another chair."

"Huh? Why?" Anna asked, uncomprehendingly. "I'd much rather sit here, if it's alright with you. I've been sitting on those hard library chairs all morning. This is much more comfortable."

Elsa was still looking at her, her expression completely unreadable and her eyes guarded. A thought occurred to Anna, and she bit her lip, suddenly unsure.

"Unless… Does it bother you? I shouldn't presume… I mean, it is your cot. I'm sorry, Elsa, I know you don't really have a place of your own here. I can just sit in a chair, I…"

Anna rambled a bit, concerned that she might have inadvertently invaded what little privacy and personal space her slave actually had for herself. She should have thought of this earlier. Things had been different last night – there hadn't been room for any extra chairs as they worked to stack and organize her papers, so it had only seemed natural for them both to sit wherever there was a bit of free space, and somehow Anna had ended up getting used to sitting on Elsa's little bed. In a weird way, it felt like her spot now in the cozy little study.

"No, no don't be ridiculous. That's not… It doesn't bother me, Princess," Elsa protested. "It's fine, you can sit wherever you want, of course. Now, let's get started, shall we?"

What was that all about?

She soon forgot about it as Elsa started speaking a stream of Norstla at her. Anna frowned and concentrated, doing her very best to follow what the other girl was saying as she led her through her first lesson. Elsa began with simple introductions and greetings, getting Anna to respond in her own halting, horribly accented Norstla.

Next Elsa started asking her basic questions about herself, clearly trying to get a sense for the limits of Anna's understanding of the language. She found she did okay with the really simple stuff. She could tell Elsa how old she was, where she was from, what her name was and so forth. When she stumbled or hesitated, the other girl was patient. When she didn't know a word, Elsa would say it clearly for her, and make her repeat it over and over until she pronounced it just right. Her new tutor was far more demanding of proper pronunciation than any of her previous teachers had ever been. After only thirty minutes, Anna could already tell her accent was improving, as was her ability to hear the individual words Elsa was saying. Even so, her brain soon felt like it was melting, and she longed to switch back to her native tongue.

"Can I ask you some questions?" she asked, dropping her halting Norstla. She needed a break, and all these questions had reminded her that she still knew so little about her slave.

Elsa raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was going to cover the interrogative forms with you in more depth tomorrow, but we can work on those now if you like."

"No, no that's not what I meant. Please, I need a break, and I just… There's so much I still don't know about you, and it feels like you know everything about me," the princess said, with a hint of melancholy in her voice.

Elsa looked reluctant, but she nodded after a thoughtful pause, giving a small sigh.

"What do you want to know?" she asked. "I won't promise to answer anything you ask, Anna. Some things are just too… difficult to talk about."

Anna chewed her lip, thinking carefully. This was something, at least. Elsa seemed willing to open up to her some more, which was a definite victory.

"Just normal, simple stuff, I promise," she hastened to reassure her, adding, "If I ask you anything you don't want to answer, just throw something at me! I won't get mad."

"Ooh, a free pass to throw things at the Princess of Arendelle? Lucky me," Elsa teased.

She ignored her. She already knew the first thing she wanted to ask. It was something that had been eating at her for a couple days now.

"How old are you, really?" Anna asked, perching on the edge of the cot so she could lean as far forward as possible.

Elsa laughed, a surprised bark of laughter. There was a hint of relief in the sound, as though she was expecting Anna to ask her something much more difficult.

"Really? That's the first question you have?" she said, grinning at her.

"Why are you laughing? It's a totally normal question to ask!"

"No, of course, you're right."

"Well? How old are you? My father said we were the same age, but…" Anna trailed off. It was obvious to her that Elsa was older, no matter what the king had said.

"You said you turned eighteen a few months ago?" she asked, looking thoughtful. At Anna's nod, she continued, "I guess that makes me almost four years older, then. I turn twenty-two next month."

"Four years?!" the princess exclaimed, and Elsa nodded.

Four years felt like a devastatingly huge expanse of time. Why, when Elsa was Anna's age, she herself was only fourteen – still just a kid! She only now realized that, though she had known she had to be older, a part of her had hoped that her slave was only a couple years her senior. She supposed it could be much worse, but four years…? Elsa was all grown up while she herself was just barely out of girlhood. It was unbearably aggravating. Maybe she was being silly, but the older girl already seemed so untouchable, so distant, so out of her reach, and this just made her feel that even more acutely.

"So, you lied to my father?" she asked, hoping Elsa couldn't tell how peeved she was by the discovery of their four year age gap.

Her slave looked amused now, her smile turning sly.

"Yes, well, let's just say the king was very eager to see me as just as young and innocent as his beloved daughter, and I was happy to let him go on thinking that," Elsa said. "To be fair, I didn't actually lie. He assumed, and I let him. Also, it bears mentioning that I was still pretty sick when he first saw me, so I'm sure I looked rather pathetic."

"Okay, fair enough," Anna conceded. "Next question."

"How many of these are there going to be?" Elsa grumbled, shifting in her seat.

"As many as it takes until I am fully satisfied," the princess told her, smiling sweetly.

Elsa rolled her eyes.

"So, we'll be here all day then. I'll give you two more, Princess. Two! No more than that. So you better choose your questions carefully."

There was a playfulness that had sprung up between them now as they teased back and forth, and Anna felt a corresponding warmth building in her chest. She loved it when Elsa was like this. When the other girl let her walls down just a bit, lowering her impressive guard, and they just talked and bantered like close friends and confidants.

Is this what it's like to be falling for someone?

It did kind of feel like falling, to be sure. She was falling into Elsa's eyes, into her hidden warmth beneath that cool reserve, into her clever charm and intelligence, and the way the other girl sometimes looked at her so intently… kind of like how she was looking back at her right now.

"Okay. Fine, two more questions," Anna agreed, swallowing and struggling to think. One big one immediately occurred to her, and she let herself ask it, not stopping to worry if this might be one of those things that was too difficult or painful for Elsa to talk about.

"Where did you grow up?" she asked, then clarified, "I don't just mean Northuldra. Obviously you grew up there. I mean, what was your home like? How did you live? What did you do there?"

"That is way more than just one question," Elsa rebuked her, but she smiled and answered anyways. She spoke carefully, seeming to think long and hard on every word of her answer. Anna supposed that, in a way, this wasn't entirely dissimilar to the interrogations she had undergone after being taken captive. It wasn't a comparison she enjoyed thinking about.

"I grew up in a very fine house belonging to a very well-respected and noble family in the capitol. Everyone in the household was given a proper upbringing and education, but it didn't come without high expectations. We were expected to serve, to put our abilities to good use for the family. I was always particularly good with writing and numbers, so even at a young age I was valued for my skills in those areas. We lived fairly simply, compared to what you are used to here in the castle, but all together, I would say I had a very comfortable childhood."

An interesting answer, to be sure. It all made a certain sense, though Anna couldn't help but feel like she was holding a great deal back and leaving many things unsaid. She had known from the start that there was no way Elsa had grown up in some small, dirty village. A girl didn't grow up into the kind of woman Elsa was unless you were raised around a certain amount of wealth and privilege.

"What about your family?" Anna asked, once it became clear that Elsa wasn't going to say anything further, already completely forgetting that she was supposed to be limiting her questions. "Did you all live and serve in the same household? Do you have brothers and sisters?"

Elsa's expression closed off and she drew herself back into her chair, pulling away from Anna physically as well as emotionally. Anna realized her mistake immediately. Of course, talking about the family she would probably never see again might not be something her slave was eager to do just yet. The wound must be too raw, so soon after being made a slave. Just as she was about to apologize and retract her question, however, the other girl answered her, her voice distant and tightly controlled.

"No brothers or sisters. It was always just my parents and I, as well as a few aunts and uncles… I'm sorry, I'd rather not talk about my family."

Anna scooted so far forward that she was about to fall off the cot, but it allowed her to stretch out with one hand and press it to Elsa's knee, squeezing apologetically.

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. You must miss them terribly," she said, feeling about an inch tall.

Elsa smiled at her, her cold expression thawing slightly.

"It's a perfectly ordinary thing to ask someone, Anna. Don't worry about it, it's fine."

Anna withdrew her hand and smiled hopefully at her, searching for a way to lighten the mood.

"Well, you haven't thrown anything at me yet, so I think aside from me being an insensitive jerk, this is going pretty well," she joked.

"Would it make you feel better if I did throw something?" Elsa teased back, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "I have a paperweight here that looks like it might be just the thing…"

In a mock threatening manner, she turned to reach across the desk for the heavy iron weight that was currently holding open the curling edge of one document, and Anna laughed and waved her off playfully.

"Please don't! Have mercy, Elsa! I don't want to get blood all over my favorite dress, and I still have so many questions for you."

"If you insist," her slave said, sighing dramatically. "I must be in a gracious mood today. One more question, then back to your lesson, I think."

Anna groaned in protest, but she was happy to see Elsa's earlier good mood returning. She sensed her window of opportunity to ask a question was truly closing, so she scrambled to ask something important before Elsa changed her mind.

"So, fancy house, fancy education… You don't have an equally fancy husband waiting for you back home, do you?"

As the words left her mouth, Anna nearly choked on them. Why had she just said that?! Of all the things to ask, this was probably the worst, most incredibly stupid and prying thing she could have asked. If Elsa didn't want to talk about her family, why on earth would she want to talk about a lover who was equally lost to her? She had meant the question as a bit of a lighthearted joke, but it was a foolish one. For all she knew, Elsa did have a husband. She was twenty-two years old, for goodness sake!

She felt her face flush beet red in mortification.

What was most embarrassing was just how desperately she wanted… needed to know the answer to that question, no matter how much she had tried to make it sound like she was asking in jest.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry! I… I shouldn't have asked…" she started to stammer, but to her huge relief, Elsa didn't look like she was about to fly into a rage, or start crying from unbearable sadness and grief. Instead, she was silently laughing in such pure, honest mirth that Anna stopped talking and simply stared.

"Anna… Anna, you…" Elsa sputtered, struggling to get the words out around her laughter, clutching her sides. She swiped a hand across her eyes, wiping away small tears that had gathered at the corners.

"No! Dear god, no, of course not. I'm not married to some fancy old gentleman back home, or anyone for that matter, if that is really something you were wondering."

"Oh! Oh, that's…"

Amazing! Wonderful!

"… that's good, I guess. It would be sad, wouldn't it, if you were married and he was waiting and waiting for you to come home, never knowing what happened to the love of his life? Elsa, why are you laughing?! This doesn't seem very funny to me," Anna finished, completely mystified by the other girl's continued mirth.

Elsa finally got herself under control, and was now looking at Anna with a very fond, very kind smile.

"Oh, you dear girl. Yes, yes of course that would be very sad," she said, seeming to take Anna's earnest expression of concern more seriously. "You are very kind, Anna, but no. I never had any interest in marriage, and certainly not to any man I've ever met. There's no need to worry over it, if that's what this is about. I promise your slave isn't going to be moping around here, heartsick over some long lost love back in Northuldra."

"That's not why I asked," Anna said, a bit hurt by some of the assumptions that Elsa seemed to be making, even as her heart also thrilled over the other girl's words. "I care about you, Elsa. I just don't want you to be sad, is all. I know your whole life got taken away from you, when my father's men captured you. You're so good at hiding your feelings, but I know it can't be easy."

"It's not been easy," Elsa agreed, seriously. "But if it helps you feel a bit better, I can honestly tell you that you've made my captivity almost… pleasant, these past few days. I'm not sure how to thank you properly for that, Anna. I'm sorry for laughing at your question. I know your intentions are good. Now, I think that's been a long enough break. Let's get back to our lesson, shall we?"

"Alright," Anna agreed.

Then she completely contradicted herself by adding, "But you know, it's not that strange to think you might be married! I mean, you're so… so attractive and clever, and you're almost twenty-two years old, so it's not like it's some huge leap to assume you would be married by now. It's the natural thing to do, right?"

"The natural thing, hmm?" Elsa said, a peculiar note in her voice. "Well, it's never been the natural thing for me. Like I said, I've never had an interest."

"But surely you thought you must get married someday, right?" Anna insisted.

She wasn't sure why she couldn't let this go, but the other girl's casual dismissal of marriage just… bothered her. It was just the way things were, right? Girls grew up into young women and got married. If they were lucky, it was to a man they chose, instead of one chosen for them by their parents. It was expected. Or were things really that different in Northuldra?

"Must I?" Elsa said, her expressive eyebrow lilting up again sardonically. "You know, everything you just said about me is equally true of you."

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, a lump of anxiety beginning to form in her throat.

Why was this topic upsetting her so much? She wasn't sure, but she just knew that whenever she thought about the fact that someday she would need to get married to some foreign prince or lord, it made her feel sick and anxious. So mostly she chose not to think about it.

"Oh, come on Anna, you know exactly what I mean," the other girl said, giving her a pointed look with that piercing gaze of hers. "You're eighteen now. You are a beautiful and intelligent young woman, and on top of that, you are your kingdom's only royal princess and heir. Your father is probably drowning in requests for your hand in marriage from eager louts from every corner of the continent!"

"What?!" the princess spluttered, her earlier blush returning. "Don't be ridiculous. Hardly anyone in Arendelle even knows me. I've been shut up in this stuffy old castle my whole life. Why would anyone want to marry some girl they've never met?"

Elsa thinks I'm beautiful. Elsa thinks I'm intelligent! Oh god, my heart is beating so fast right now, surely she can hear it?

"Oh really, you think so?" Elsa said, a dangerous gleam in her eye. She leaned forward, narrowing the space between them, snaring Anna with her eyes. "Would you care to make a little wager, Princess?" she purred.

"A… a wager?" Anna gulped.

At Elsa's words and expression, she had felt an ardent pulse of arousal shoot down between her thighs. It lingered there, heating her, making her want to squirm uncomfortably on the cot where she sat, but she couldn't because Elsa had her pinned with that uniquely predatory look she was giving her.

"Yes, a wager."

"What would the stakes be?"

"Hmm, well, it has to be something valuable, otherwise there is no point, but obviously I have nothing to my name as a slave, so…" Elsa drawled, bringing a finger up to tap against her lips as she thought for a moment. Anna licked her own lips, her eyes drawn to that gesture.

"Ah, I have it!" her slave said, giving her a satisfied grin. "A favor. We will wager a favor, to be granted without question or debate. How does that sound?"

"A favor?" Anna squeaked, confused and aroused, and totally flustered by this entire conversation. "I guess… Well, I can't agree until I know what we are betting on, can I?"

"Yes, the bet," Elsa agreed. She leaned over to the desk and grabbed a stack of unopened letters, holding them up for Anna to see. If she had to guess, she would have said that there were just over a dozen envelopes there.

"I wager you that within this stack of unopened letters there is at least one proposal of marriage," Elsa declared, smiling that sinister, satisfied smile that did nothing to slow Anna's heartrate.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, shaking her head. "Are those all from my closet?"

"They are indeed. All unopened, I assure you. The seals are still intact on these, so there is no way I could have cheated and already read them."

"And it's just a favor? We can ask for anything?"

"Anything that the other person can reasonably achieve, yes," Elsa confirmed, nodding.

"You aren't going to change your mind when you lose, are you?" Anna challenged, grinning at her. There was just… no way that any of those letters were marriage proposals, right? Her slave was delusional!

"You aren't going to change yours, when I win?" the other girl challenged, returning her grin.

"As if! I hope you are good at foot massages, Elsa, because my poor feet have been aching all day," the princess drawled. "Give me one of those. You're on!"

"You take half and I take the other half, then we swap," Elsa told her, handing her half of the stack.

"Are you suggesting I would cheat?! I am a princess."

"Oh, no, perish the thought, mistress."

The room went silent as they both ripped into the letters. Anna's guess had been close and there were thirteen letters in total. Each girl read theirs as quickly as possible. On only the second letter, Elsa made a happy, triumphant sound.

"Here, see? Read this, Anna," she said, thrusting the letter at the princess. Anna took it apprehensively, worried that Elsa might have won their wager so quickly. She read through it. It was a rather long and boring happy birthday letter from the Dowager Lady Shrewsbury of Thistledown, whose scrabbled cursive writing was frustratingly difficult to follow. She got to the end and looked up at Elsa with confusion.

"What are you talking about? This is just from a nice old lady, Elsa."

Her slave gave her a look that seemed to say she was being unbelievably dense.

"Look, look right here. She says she wants you to meet her grandson, and that he is very handsome, and blah blah blah. Then look, here, she says how a match between your houses would bring 'joy to the entire kingdom, as wedding bells always do'. She is telling you she wants you to marry her grandson, Anna, this Theodore fellow. It's as clear as can be!" she said, clearly exasperated.

"It's not clear," Anna protested, a bit miffed by this analysis, though she knew Elsa was correct. "We wagered a marriage proposal, not… not some old grandmother telling me about her favorite grandson! This isn't an actual proposal, Elsa."

"Oh, so you are going to hold me to the exact wording of the wager, huh?" Elsa said, but there was a gleam of humor in her eyes.

"Yes! Obviously," Anna said, rolling her eyes. "Implying a marriage is not the same thing as proposing a marriage."

"Fine, fine, have it your way. We've just started, after all. There will be more," the other girl said, and they both went back to reading their letters.

When the moment of truth finally did arrive a few minutes later, the princess gave herself away. She went still as she read. And read… and read some more, a hot blush staining her cheeks. She turned a page, and her blush deepened to crimson.

"What is that? What are you reading?" Elsa demanded, noticing her changed demeanor. There was a gleeful hint in her voice as she stood up and snatched the papers out of Anna's hands and began to read them. Anna didn't fight her, just stared at her empty hands and tried to get her blush under control.

"Wow… Just… Wow," her beautiful tormentor said, a note of wonder in her voice. "Oh god, there is poetry on the second page! Anna, did you read the poetry? Oh, oh this is just terrible."

Elsa's lips were pressed together, her eyes glittering with amusement, and it was clear she was struggling to keep from laughing. Anna moaned in pained, wordless embarrassment, looking up at her where she stood over her.

"I read the poem… unfortunately," Anna admitted in a miserable whisper, shuddering at the memory.

Her slave sat down next to her on the cot, still shuffling the papers and humming thoughtfully as she read through them. Anna watched her finger trace one of the lines of the poem as she read it out loud.

"I live in cold darkness without you, my loins cry out for the warmth of your tender embrace. Sweet Princess of Arendelle, Queen of my pulsing heart, my love bursts forth unbidden, covering you, yearning for our fates to entangle forever… Oh hell, this is wretched stuff, Anna. I though poetry was supposed to rhyme? What a filthy old windbag, this Lord Fenwick. He certainly isn't shy, is he?"

Groaning, Anna turned, hiding her face into Elsa's taller shoulder. She wanted to die, this was so dreadfully embarrassing!

"Please don't read any more," she begged. "The official marriage proposal is on the last page, as plain as can be. He sent a portrait, too."

"Oh, so it is!" Elsa said, sounding far too cheerful for Anna's taste. It wasn't nice of her to be so happy about her victory. "Oh, that is Lord Fenwick? Yikes. This portrait does him no favors, I must say. Still, I have to give him some credit for just laying it all out there like this. At least you know what you are getting in bed with, so to speak."

Anna groaned again and Elsa laughed as she set the papers down on the bed next to her, clearly done reading them. She didn't move though, just left her head and face tucked against the older girl's shoulders, breathing in her warm scent, and Elsa made no move to pull away either.

"Are you done?" she begged. "You shouldn't gloat when you win. It's not attractive."

"Yes, well, I shall be magnanimous in my victory," Elsa informed her, nudging her with her arm.

"Tell me, Anna, what favor should I claim as my prize?" she asked, lowering her voice to a near whisper, the words softy spoken into the princess's ear.

"Anything," Anna mumbled, feeling so damned shy, and aroused, and flustered, that she wasn't even sure what she meant by the answer. She just knew she meant it. Anything. She would happily give Elsa anything she asked.

"I suppose asking for my freedom is off the table?"

The princess's head whipped up at this, and suddenly she found that she was staring Elsa in the eyes from extremely close up, their faces only inches apart. She felt her heart give a painful lurch, both at the other girl's words, and at their current position, so close together on the bed. It was all overwhelming her, unsettling her so thoroughly that she felt desperate for some kind of connection and reassurance.

"Oh! Elsa, I tried! I swear, I would… I would free you right now if I could. I'll try again, talk to my father as many times as it takes. You have to know, I…"

"Shh, it's alright, Princess," Elsa said, and to her utter shock, she found that the other girl was pulling her into a firm embrace, hugging her reassuringly, one of her hands stroking her back in small, comforting circles.

Anna hiccupped a sharp breath, realizing now what the other girl had clearly seen – that she was trembling right on the verge of crying. She fought it back, getting control of her shuddering breaths. Her heart was beating so fast, and Elsa's arms felt so wonderful around her. It reminded her of her dream that morning, and she felt that heat pulse between her legs again, setting her alight with a desire that she didn't really know what to do with.

Elsa pulled back after several long moments, releasing her. Anna only had a second to miss her touch before her hands had returned and where now cupping her face. She froze, hardly daring to breath, completely consumed by the look in the other girl's eyes.

"You are so tender, so kind, Anna. How is that even possible, when you grew up in a place like this?" Elsa asked, her question barely whispered. She sounded almost breathless, startled and confused, but there was a hint of yearning to her words as well, as though she couldn't believe what she was saying. She was looking at her like she was afraid Anna might simply disappear or cease to exist.

The princess couldn't do or say anything. She felt as paralyzed and helpless as a rabbit in the grip of a predator. What was happening right now? How was this happening right now? This was just supposed to be a language lesson!

"I know what I want for my favor now," Elsa was saying, still whispering to her confidentially. Their faces were so close, however, that it didn't matter. Anna felt like she could feel the other girl's words in her very veins.

"Favor?" she breathed, confused.

"Yes, my favor," her slave said, the scant space between then narrowing even further.

One of her thumbs stroked across Anna's cheek tenderly. Elsa glanced down at her lips, then one of her thumbs stroked across Anna's lower lip as well, very softly. The caress was a wordless question, delivered with such soft tenderness that the princess felt dizzy from it.

"May I?" Elsa asked, the words a breathless exhalation of want.

Their thighs were pressed tightly together on the cot now, and Elsa's right hand, the one that had just stroked her lips, slid back, tangling in the fine hairs at the back of Anna's nape, holding her there, drawing her face even closer with a careful, yet firm grip.

She was so close! Was this really about to happen? Anna felt like she had stopped breathing, and like she might pass out from anticipation and frantic desire.

"What?" she gasped, helplessly.

She knew she must sound completely brainless, but every thought had been driven right out of her head by Elsa's closeness, and by her hands on her face and on her neck, and by her body pressing so tightly to her. She was quivering and mindless, and she thought if Elsa didn't do something, anything, she might explode from unfulfilled yearning.

"May I claim my prize, Princess?" Elsa teased, her lips drawing back into a little smile that barely showed the glint of perfect, white teeth.

Those dark blue eyes looked to her lips, then back up into her eyes, and there was a clear challenge, a need in that gaze, a demand that was being barely kept in check, and Anna realized all of a sudden that the other girl was also skittering along the edge of control. As out of her mind as she felt right now, Elsa too was losing herself to something unstoppable and powerful, this force that was drawing them together.

Anna licked her lips, and her own eyes dropped to look down at that delicious, perfect pink cupid's bow of Elsa's lips, and that was apparently all the other girl needed for an answer, because before Anna even had the chance to gasp "Yes! Please yes!", Elsa's lips were pressing against hers in a searing, heated kiss.

The princess gasped, shocked by the warmth of the other girl's mouth on hers. It was her first kiss. It was her first… anything. Everything.

There was a frozen second where she couldn't move, then she felt a thrill of electricity pulse through her and she started to kiss her back, eagerly. She heard Elsa give a little hum of pleasure low in her throat, like a purr, as she pressed back further into the kiss. Her hand was still holding the back of Anna's head, keeping her close, and her other arm slid around her waist, sealing their bodies together, breast to breast. Elsa's mouth opened slightly, her tongue teasing at Anna's lips, asking her for more, her warm breath painting her skin, and Anna gasped into the kiss, her own arms moving to embrace the other girl in return. Her mouth opened to let her in, a bolt of shocked pleasure thrumming through her straight to her heated core when she felt Elsa's tongue taste the inside of her mouth, and she felt her hips, thighs and stomach tense, shuddering with this new sensation as Elsa's tongue gently, intimately began to explore her mouth.

Kissing! They were kissing! Oh god, Elsa was kissing her! How was this—

A rapid knock sounded on the outer door of the sitting room, and Anna froze, as did Elsa, their mouths still pressed together, both of them panting and tangled in each other's arms, eyes wide.

She heard the door open, and a voice called out.

"Anna?"

The princess scrambled back, tearing her mouth from Elsa's with shock and alarm.

Elsa stared back at her in equal alarm, her lips wet from their kisses and pale cheeks flushed pink, a look of confusion warring with desire on her face. Their unexpected intruder was still out of sight in the sitting room beyond, but Anna didn't need to see her to know who it was.

"Mother?!"