Rapunzel and her boyfriend spent Christmas Day cleaning. It wasn't ideal, but it was necessary.

The blonde woman barely heard her own thoughts over the blasting drone of the vacuum and the swishing gargles of the dishwasher downstairs; but this was not a bad thing. She started to bend to pick up yet another half-eaten box of chocolates from the staircase when her hair flopped down against her face. With a sigh, she yanked her long blond locks up, impatiently looping them into a sloppy braid which she wrapped at the top of her head and secured with the hair tie around her wrist. She reached into her denim pockets for the several bobby pins she'd collected from the stairs. Then, she stuck a few in to secure her hair and went back to collecting the myriad of junk on the steps.

Something that sounded like a turkey's gobble cried out against the roar of the vacuum, but she couldn't make sense of it. She chuckled and yelled, "What?!"

The vacuum paused for all of four seconds so that Eugene could yell out, "The buyer's on his way!" Then, it was on again, and Rapunzel could hear her boyfriend frantically running from one wall to the next in the living room. Fortunately, most of the floors were tiled or hardwood and had already been swept and mopped. But one thing was clear: the house had not had a deep-cleaning for quite some time. In fact, Anna had let the place become a pigsty.

Rapunzel shook her head as she cleared more from the stairs: slippers, books, a liter of apple juice right next to boxed wine, notebooks, pens, cough drops and hand sanitizer, letter openers, tissue boxes and more. She thought of how outraged Elsa would be to see her parents' house like this. Part of her wondered if she was partially at fault. Whenever she dropped in on Anna, typically with Eugene in tow, it was to beg for a favor... and usually that favor consisted of treating the couple to a meal out in town, though with the recluse Anna had become since Elsa's death, she usually just ended up giving them enough money for just the couple to dine out alone. It was that same reclusiveness and generosity that allowed Anna to be the unfortunate victim in what she and Eugene were doing.

But it was necessary, Rapunzel told herself, just like she told herself all those times she and Eugene dropped in on Anna were merely to check in on her cousin.

She almost tripped over a chess set at the top of the stairs because she was too fixated on the door across from the top landing. Without looking, she picked up the game and stowed it away in the garbage bag with all the other miscellaneous stair items. She didn't think she'd been upstairs since Elsa's passing—not even when she and Eugene visited. It was strange how someplace once 'home' could seem so unfamiliar now.

She dragged the garbage bag along and hesitated as she reached out for the crystal door knob. The nail for the sign that used to hang on the outside of the door was still there, though Elsa had taken the sign down years ago. It used to say, "Queens Only. Do Not Enter." The queens, of course, had been Elsa and herself. Anna was supposed to have knocked. From what Rapunzel understood, Elsa and Anna had finally grown closer after she moved out. But during the six years she lived under her aunt and uncle's roof, Elsa had been Rapunzel's dearest friend and confidante.

She steeled herself and opened the door. The room was dark, so she flicked the light switch on. Immediately, tears stung her eyes as she saw that Anna had not moved a thing in Elsa's room. The bedroom looked almost exactly like it had when Rapunzel last visited the two sisters.

Elsa had made some changes to the room over the years since Rapunzel moved out. The wintry blue and white motif remained, though none of the band and movie posters they had shared. Gone were the twin beds that took up each corner with one wide window between them. The twin white dressers had been removed too, replaced by one wider one. Now there was a single queen bed that jutted out from the righthand wall. With the way it was perfectly made, not a sheet sticking out from under the navy and white geo-pattern comforter nor a throw pillow out of place, Rapunzel suspected Elsa had been the last one to make the bed. Then again, Elsa wouldn't have spent much time in the house once her modeling career had taken off.

"Punz, honey!" Eugene shouted as he thundered up the stairs behind her. She turned to find him panting in the doorway, her cellphone out and buzzing in his hand.

Rapunzel's eyes widened at the incoming call from Japan.

"She's calling again..."

Anna.

"Well... too late to have second thoughts now, right?" she asked, clinging to some form of pep through her voice. She wondered if Anna would ever forgive her. She could have asked for the money, but Rapunzel hadn't been certain Anna would agree to it. Certainly not if she knew the whole story... or that the money's technically for Eugene. The last uncertainty bothered her in particular since Eugene would be family one day.

Besides, Anna would have Elsa's money once she made it back to Arendelle. Rapunzel was not so heartless that she would touch that. It wasn't available yet, but hopefully Anna wouldn't have to wait long.

"Are you sure about this? We can call back and—"

"And what? We're running out of time, Eugene."

"Um..."

"What?"

"What do you want me to do about...?" He trailed off uncomfortably and held out the still buzzing mobile. He glanced at it as if he were holding onto a scorpion that might sting him if he took his eyes off of it.

"Just put it down somewhere and bring the boxes from downstairs so we can pack this stuff up."

Her boyfriend nodded and tossed the cellphone toward her before he darted back for the stairs. Rapunzel barely caught the thing. She turned the phone over and stared at the call location and number as it flashed across the screen.

It was amazing—no, it was infuriating how one hour of interviews could feel like an eternity because of one boorish girl with no alcohol tolerance. The rank stench of puke had followed Hans all the way from the airport to his hotel. Unfortunately thanks to city traffic, he'd not had enough time to change before meeting with reporters about the film he was there to shoot. Although the fool of a girl had puked on the jacket he left on the plane, he swore he could smell vomit on his cardigan. He'd had to endure the stench throughout the entire press release. It was only due to his prowess as a celebrity that he was able to get through without wrinkling his nose.

The minute he got to his room after the final interview, Hans stormed into his premium suite and practically tore his navy cardigan off. Left in just his white crew neck, he held the cardigan away from himself and sniffed once before he gagged and threw it across the room in disgust.

Just when he was about to sniff the remaining shirt he had on, there was a knock at the door. He looked at his watch. There were still a few hours left before he had to dine with the director. Or did the press somehow find out which room he was staying in? His face darkened at the possibility.

Jobs always ran so much more smoothly when his agent, Gene, was around. But Gene was back taking care of things in Arendelle.

Hans sighed and went to answer the door. In the worst-case scenario, he could always call hotel security and have his room switched.

He cracked the door open at first, prepared to slam it at the first sign of notebooks or cameras. Instead, he threw the door wide open, staring wide-eyed at his visitor.

"Kris!" he exclaimed.

The muscular blond smiled at Hans's surprise and clapped Hans on the shoulder as he entered the suite. "I heard you were filming here in Osaka. You could have said something!"

Hans chuckled and scratched at his head as he shut the door. "I figured you'd be busy with work." He led the way to the sitting area and pulled out a couple of Asahi beer cans from the microfridge as he gestured for Kristoff to take a seat in one of the black upholstery chairs facing a corner stone fireplace. To their left was a broad view of Osaka city at night.

Kristoff leaned his beer can forward to clink it against Hans's, chuckling before he took his first sip. "Not a whole lot of work to be done on Christmas Day."

"Is it Christmas Day?" Hans asked, genuinely surprised. It wasn't unusual for him to lose track of the holidays, a fact which was of consistent aggravation to his mother and grandmother. His father of course couldn't care less whether or not he came home for the holidays.

"Yes! A good time to visit an old friend," Kristoff added with another sip.

Hans nodded. "I'm sorry, I kept meaning to call. This movie has me pulling my hair out and we haven't even started filming."

"I thought you swore you'd never do movies?"

"This was all Gene's idea. He thinks I should branch out more internationally. This movie is kind of a stepping stone. The goal is Hollywood," Hans explained.

"You don't look too crazy about that," Kristoff noted.

Hans took a swig of his beer and set it on the little table in between them, sighing. "I'm not. I just want to keep singing. But apparently this could be good for my career, so..."

"Gotcha," Kristoff nodded. He wouldn't press the issue any further, and for that, Hans was grateful. "So tell me about the film!"

They talked for a while. Hans described his role in the movie. Then, he listened to Kristoff talk about business in Tokyo. Most hotels were receptive to stocking his company's ice machines. Kristoff had hoped to open partnerships with certain vending machine companies, but that was a work in progress. They reminisced about the good old days at university. They hadn't attended the same school, but had rented an apartment together. Hans had attended a music university, much to his father's disapproval, while Kristoff had attended a school for business. When they first started living together, about the only thing they had in common was drinking. But that changed after their first semesters. Kristoff had caught the flu and had already missed the allotted number of lectures on applied econometrics. Hans had casually asked what the class size was; it was big enough for no one to notice an unfamiliar face if he kept to himself. He had no courses before noon himself that semester, so every morning for a week he attended Kristoff's class and signed in for him. He took the best notes he could and passed them on to his roommate. To this day, Kristoff was deeply moved and bewildered by the gesture.

Then, there were the heated arguments over the phone whenever Hans's father used to call and try to convince him to drop out of music school. There were a few times when Hans came close to doing it. In truth, he'd hated to disappoint his father by not going into the medical field.

"To hell with him," Kristoff would always say. Eventually, Hans began to say it as well. By his third year, his father's phone calls had stopped.

"You ever hear from Eric?" Kristoff asked.

Hans shifted uncomfortably in his chair and cleared his throat. "No, we ah... don't really talk much these days." Where Hans had failed to make his father proud, Eric was the almost-perfect son. He'd graduated early from both high school and undergrad to enter medical school. There was no other word for it; he really was brilliant. And only twenty-seven! But still old enough that the family constantly nagged him about getting married. Hans heard it too every time he spoke to his mother or grandmother. In some ways, they were harder on him since he was nearly thirty.

Kristoff had only asked to be polite. Hans knew he wasn't a huge fan of Eric. The three had all been friends when Eric stayed with them for a while when finishing undergrad. Hans and Kristoff had kept the apartment for a couple years after graduation. Hans would do local performances while Kristoff had found a paid internship near school. Eric was great in those early days. In fact, he and Hans had never been closer. The problems started once he started medical school.

"I'll be returning to Arendelle in a couple days."

Thankfully, Kristoff's news pulled Hans from his retrospection.

"For how long?" he asked.

"For good. Well, except for when business takes me away again... but I finished all my projects here in Japan. It's time for me to go home."

"Ariel will be glad to see you," Hans said with a smile.

"Oh...? Are you two...?"

The redhead laughed at the unasked question. "No. Definitely not. She only has eyes for Eric, anyway."

Kristoff chuckled a little too neutrally. Ariel was still a tricky subject for the two of them.

A chiming ringtone went off then, and Kristoff pulled his cellphone out of his jacket pocket.

"I have to take this," he said apologetically after checking the number. Hans stood up with him to show him to the door.

"Let me know when you're back home!"

"Yes! We'll have to go for drinks," Kristoff suggested as Hans let him out. He chuckled, Hans knew, because neither one of them would ever 'go for drinks' quite the same way they had in their youth.

Hans watched his friend take his call as he departed down the hall toward the elevator. Kristoff's return to Arendelle was a welcome surprise.

Lights glowed and flashed all around Anna as she drifted through crowds on the streets. It was unlike any of the big cities she knew. For starters, she could only understand tiny fractions of the language, spoken or written. A surprising number of signs used western characters, but they were mainly the names of shops.

A sweet and savory scent caught her attention right as she was about to pass a shopping arcade. Just beside the entrance to the alleyway, a middle-aged woman stood at a little stand selling what looked like skewered dessert balls in soy sauce. They were too sweet-smelling to be fish. Anna wanted desperately to try one, but her curiosity led her deeper into the shopping arcade.

She found herself having to shut her gaping mouth as she turned her head this way and that to see all on either side of her. She walked past a ramen restaurant, a bar, a café, clothing displays, brightly colored signs and gaming arcades. The arcade was at some point intersected by another, but Anna kept on the path forward. She eventually came to another restaurant at the end which had food displays in its window. The smells rolling out from the open door made her salivate, as did the realistic presentations of fried cutlets with rice, shredded salads, hamburger patties next to potatoes and shrimp tempura. There were some noodle dishes as well, with sliced meet, green onions, tofu and more. She had never had any of it before, but she could easily imagine wolfing down any one or two of the dishes.

Unfortunately, she still had no Japanese yen.

Anna ignored the growling of her stomach and sulked away from the restaurant and out of the arcade. She wandered several streets until she came to a little park where packs of teenagers passed around her. They all giggled, talked and teased each other with hardly a glance at the sad foreign woman even though she felt like a sore thumb sticking out. She found herself a bench and sat down so that she could stretch her sore legs out after so much walking. She had a vague sense of the way back to the hotel, but she still hoped she wouldn't get lost.

She sighed again and pulled out her mobile phone, hoping that in at some point during her exploration, she had maybe connected to a shop's free wifi and would be able to receive a text message from Rapunzel. There were, however, no messages waiting on-screen for her.

"What am I going to do...?" she wondered aloud.

"What... am I... going to do?" a voice echoed her.

Anna glanced to her right as someone sat down in the space beside her. That someone was a very flushed businessman who reeked of booze.

"S-sorry," she stammered, inching to the left. "Is this seat taken? I can leave..."

"So-sorry!" The businessman cackled. "Is... this seat... taken? I can leave..."

Anna's brow furrowed. Maybe she should have been creeped out, but she just found it annoying to be mocked.

"Sumimasen. Nihongo o hanashimasen," she said, expecting that to put an end to things. But the businessman just repeated that too.

With a frustrated little growl, she stood up and stormed off, ignoring the ghoulish laugh of the man back on the bench as she speed-walked all the way back to the hotel. She almost made it without incident, except for when she tripped and scraped her knee stepping off a curb to cross the street to the Ritz Carlton. The people around her paused to consider her, but only one old woman murmured a, "Daijoubu desu ka?" before everyone went on about their business.

Sore and now angry, Anna trudged all the way up to her room. From there, she used the room phone to try and call her house this time. A confused gentleman answered. Figuring she must have made an error dialing out, Anna tried Rapunzel's phone again. Not so surprisingly, there was still no answer.

Anna was trembling by the time she heard the beep for voicemail. "Rapunzel. This is Anna. What. The. Hell. Is. Going on?! Why won't you pick up the phone? There was no reservation at the hotel. I was lucky to be able to get a room, and now I have to pay for it. You're going to owe me big time when I get home. You have a lot of explaining to do."

She slammed the receiver down and paced the perimeter of her bed while trying to think of what to do. It had been months since her last paycheck at her old job. She hadn't published anything substantial yet. So, even if she could find an international ATM, there just weren't enough funds for her to cover a four-night stay at a luxury hotel like this... at least not if she hoped to pay her monthly bills. She was still waiting to receive the money she inherited when Elsa passed away, so that was not an option either. Could she pay for her lodging by doing some laundry or cleaning?

Anna whimpered as she sat on the edge of the bed. Even if she checked out early, she didn't have the money for a cab to the airport. She stared wildly around the room.

"Think like a writer, Anna. This is a plot problem. What's the resolution?"

Then, her gaze fell upon a chair near the window, where she'd left a certain jacket to dry after doing her best to scrub out the vomit. She bit her fingernails as a crazy idea began to take shape.

It was crazy. But she was desperate.

A/N: Whoooo, soooo much backstory. Thank you for waiting/reading! I'll update again when I can. Oh, and to clarify about the ages in this story, because they don't exactly follow canon-

Kristoff – 29
Hans - 29
Elsa - 28 (deceased before 29th birthday)
Anna - 26
Rapunzel- 26
Eugene - 26
Ariel - 27
Eric – 27