Kai and Gerda

In a small room on the ground floor of Arendelle castle, two children sat quietly at two small desks, their heads lowered and their hands diligently working the quills over the papers that were before them. At the front of the room was a large woman. She had been talking for nearly an hour about the finer points of calligraphy and how everything about a person could be revealed simply by their handwriting. Her passions were obvious, though the two children weren't nearly as impassioned by her lecture, for they simply wanted to be anywhere else and doing anything else, as long as it was fun.

Sitting forward in the room and running his fingers through his dark hair, the first of the children was put into a place of prominence, if only because he was the crowned-prince of Arendelle. There were many expectations upon him, even if he were still just a boy. Those expectations made him focus on the task ahead of him and the resolve could be seen in his eyes, which were mismatched in color, one being bright blue and the other a paler sort of grayish-blue.

The devotion to his studies kept his brow furrowed and his attention tight, until something smacked him in the back of the head, making him wince and slowly reach back. Upon finding a slobbery wad of paper still stuck in his hair, the young prince let slip a sigh of disgust and looked back to the other child in the room, his eyes narrowing fiercely.

She was ignoring him, drawing doodles on her paper and portraying total innocence at the accusation in his eyes. Her deep blue eyes were heroically stuck to her paper, which had several corners torn away, though she would never let on that she was the culprit, despite being the only other child in the room.

The young prince glared at her for a bit, dropping the wad to the floor and trying to draw out her guilt with his eyes, but as she continued to ignore him and the teacher continued her lesson, he slowly turned back and tried to regain his lost focus.

Silence filled the spaces between the teacher's lecture and the studies continued, until once more the young prince felt another wad smack into the back of his head, though this time it made him whirl quickly and glare once more at the child behind him.

"Gerda!" he said in a sort of muffled half-yell, half-whisper.

This time, the young girl was holding her notched paper up in front of her as if she were reading a royal decree, the top of her strawberry-blonde hair and the two straggly pigtails at the sides the only thing he could see until she dropped it away to look at him, smiling impishly as she pledged her innocence.

"It wasn't me," she chirped.

"Princess Gerda," the teacher suddenly barked, making the both of them snap to attention and look at the robust woman that had finally been distracted from her passions. "No talking during the lesson. Please behave yourself."

"Yes, ma'am," Gerda replied, feigning a look of seriousness on her face that instantly disappeared as soon as the woman turned back around. She then let her eyes shift back to the stuffy prince that was sitting in front of her. The practice of putting him in front irked her, especially since they were both part of the royal family and she was actually older than he was, but she had made the best of it by using every lesson to mess with him, something that brought her ridiculous amounts of joy. Her joy was evident as she once more tore a piece of paper away and slipped it into her mouth, not liking the bitter taste of the parchment but willing to suffer a little for her ammunition.

In a manner not proper for a princess of Arendelle, she spit the gooey wad into her hand and focused her aim onto his head again, closing one eye like an archer set upon a target, then let the wad fly once more, where the muddy sound of it recoiled off his head and made her snort out laughing once more, then tuck her head down to try and muffle the sounds.

Staring forward angrily, the young prince didn't even reach back for the wad this time, but felt it slowly fall free of his hair in its own time. The lecture was completely lost and the letters on his page were starting to show jagged edges. Now he could hear her snickering, something that fueled his anger, though as he shot her a glance over his shoulder and saw her enjoying the game, a devilish smile crossed over his face and he slowly set his quill down, tucking his hands into his lap.

As he cupped his hands against one another, a subtle blue glow filled them as swirls of ancient magic slipped between his fingers, coming together as frozen crystals that coalesced into a perfectly round ball of snow, something that now rested in his hands without the slightest bit of chill for him.

For the son of the Snow Queen Elsa, a snowball was child's play.

Gerda continued to chortle until a snowball smacked her right in the face, making her instantly freeze and blink wildly at the sensation of icy water running down her skin. Her desk was covered in small piles of slushy snow and her mouth was hanging slightly open. She wondered why she hadn't seen that coming.

The prince smirked back at her, flicking his hands through the air innocently.

"It wasn't me," he echoed.

"Prince Kai!" yelled the teacher once more, which made him spin in his chair to meet her angry gaze. She was watching the princess wipe the slush from her face and winced at the depth of her charge, for she had never before been asked to teach a child that could use magic, and seeing it still made her heart beat quicker.

Secretly, the magic was terrifying for her.

"What was the first rule of the classroom, young prince?" she demanded.

"No magic in the classroom," he recited tonally, drooping in his chair as he thought about how boring of a rule that was. It seemed these days that everyone was trying to put a leash on his growing magic, all except for the girl that sat behind him. Gerda was the only one that still marveled at his powers, something that continued to tie them together tightly, though he could think of a million better things to do than sit in that classroom and listen to the woman drone on about tittles and ampersands.

"Anything would be better than this."

As the teacher once more tried to go back to her lesson, the room settled into monotony and Kai tried to focus again, though now was wholly distracted by the idea of doing something else, so much that he couldn't even reflect about his well-placed revenge on his cousin Gerda.

"Hey Kai," came a hissing whisper and it drew his attention back once more, where Gerda had completely shaken off his snowball and was gesturing out towards the darkening sky and the sounds that were coming from the town beyond.

Following her eyes, he looked towards the dying sun and listened to the sounds as well, remembering that tonight was a gathering that only adults were invited to and the reason they were having a late lesson in the first place. He knew that once they finished, they'd be ushered off to bed while the town was alive with laughter and fun.

Looking back to her, he could already tell what she was proposing and the corner of his lips lifted in reaction to the grand scheme she was outlining with her hands.

"Now that we've gone over the importance of the wrist, I want the two of you to write the first letter of your names using proper form. Elbows out. Wrists fluid. Back straight," the teacher continued, focused intently on her own form as she carved a perfectly formed letter on the large parchment that was tacked to the board before her. She imagined the two of them writing just as beautifully as she was, though she was curious why she hadn't heard anything from them in some time. In truth, she had been so engrossed in her form that she didn't remember the last time she looked back, so she decided to check on them and see their work.

"Now then, Prince Kai, would you please show me your finely-sculpted K?" she suggested as she turned, though what she found wasn't the two children of the royal family, but two rapidly melting snowmen on their chairs, something that made her eyes widen and her mouth drop open.

As the head of the snowman in Gerda's chair slowly slid off and fell to the floor in a slushy mess, the teacher let out a frantic scream that echoed throughout the castle.

"You don't even know where we're going," Kai complained as he followed Gerda, pulling on his coat not because the evening air was starting to chill, but because it was expected of him to be well-dressed outside of the castle.

With the blood of his mother in his veins, the cold never bothered him.

"Yes, I do," Gerda replied, and barely even bothered with the shawl she had grabbed as they left. After making sure that her two pigtails were as straight as she could get them and checking that none of the Royal Guard were following, she gave her cousin a glance, showing her annoyance at the way he still worried about everything. "Quit being so stiff. The voices are coming from the town square, so that's obviously where we're going."

Kai pursed his lips at the idea that he was stiff, though he slowly nodded, deferring to her experience at being older, as he usually did. "Okay. But what if our parents are there?" he asked, showing how concerned he was at being caught skipping out on their lessons and being out after dark.

He was particularly worried about what his father would do to him.

Gerda's pace stalled at the suggestion and she showed the same concerns, though she quickly waved off his suggestion as she continued to lead them forward. "Relax. We just have to make sure we don't get caught. We'll go see this hearty party, or whatever it is, then sneak back into the castle before anyone notices we were gone. It's the perfect plan," she said proudly, creeping around the corner of a building and starting to see the outlines of people in the town. The lamps weren't lit as they usual and with the sun set, it was starting to get harder to navigate the roads.

Soon enough the two of them slithered through an alleyway and found a small cranny to peek out of, hidden from the many adults that lingered in the square and able to finally see why all of the kids had to go to bed early on that early spring evening. They watched the people mingling and talking, yet could see nothing that set the night apart, aside from the inherent darkness and the look of anticipation on everyone's faces.

"Oh no," Kai suddenly said and ducked.

"What?" she asked.

His mismatched eyes were luminescent in the dim light and they stared forward through the dark, locked on two figures that were standing before all the rest. Gerda's eyes followed and she saw why he had reacted in the way he did, though her reaction was far less grave and she simply stated in awe as she always did, sharing the impression that most people had when they laid eyes on the two people that stood apart from the rest.

"It's the king and the queen," she said as she struggled to listen to what they were saying.

"Very well. It appears all have come that would come, and night is quickly falling around us," King Yasha said to the crowds, looking over the many familiar faces and the expectations in their eyes. A thoughtful glance was given to the radiant queen at his side and as she gave him a warm smile back, he lifted his hands into the air to both gather everyone's attention, but also to begin the show that everyone had been waiting for. "Everyone stand ready and we will begin the evening."

"For lovers with stars in their eyes, we require a little heat, and a little light."

With everyone watching, the tips of his hands began to glow in an orange light and he began to churn the air with his hands, making the light grow and swirl until it finally ignited into two points of raging fire, though they lingered quietly before him in spite of their violent nature, waiting for his command. Seeing the king's magic always made murmurs rumble through the crowd and Yasha orchestrated it deftly before him, a pale orange glow in his eyes.

The two orbs of fire suddenly spiraled into the air above him, then darted in opposite directions, careening through the night air until they crashed into two large piles of wood at the ends of the square, igniting them into raging pyres of light and heat. People were startled and others cheered in delight, though the orbs soon burst out from the pyres as countless others, each spot of light moving to find the dead lamps all around the square and lighting them until the heart of the town was aglow, revealing the smiles of all to the night as they cheered on their king and his magic.

With a roguish smile on his face, he gave his queen a short glance before playing his fingers through the air, making the countless points of light come flying back towards the people and dance through the sky like a million fireflies, then pool together between the two pyres until they became one large ball of fire, which then bulged and groaned until it became the shape of a monstrous fire dragon, so fearsome and real that some of the people in the square recoiled from the beast. However, with his domination of flame, the king simply turned his hands up, making it rear its head up and send a massive pillar of fire upwards into the night.

The display filled the starry sky with light and even those that had been afraid began to cheer, finding the fire dragon was no beast, but a guardian over the felicity of their kingdom.

"Show off," Queen Elsa remarked.

With Yasha merely smirking back, she elegantly stepped forward, drawing the attention of the people not because of her ferocity, but because of her grace. She was eager to show them, and her king, that he wasn't the only one adept with magic.

"But lovers need more than heat and light. They also need a reason to stand close to one another," she crooned.

With a subtle turquoise glow in her eyes, she flicked a single hand out at the square and swirls of frozen magic burst forward from her, pulling behind them beautiful tails of snow and ice, and snaking all around the townspeople. The magic began to freeze the area around the bonfires, turning it into a glass-like ice rink, while turning the flowing fountains into beautiful sculptures of ice. It was a sight the people of the kingdom were often acquainted with, but a glimmer in her eye showed that she wasn't quite done, especially as she returned the short glance to the onlooking king.

To everyone's surprise, the icy magic suddenly swirled up the body of the dragon, turning fire to ice until the entire beast was frozen in the air, spewing out a beautifully ceramic plume of ice into the sky. Then, the ice cracked and shattered the dragon, sending countless snowflakes into the sky, which then fell down on the square, cooling the air and making good on Elsa's promise to give people a reason to be close to one another.

It was Yasha that now looked charmed and he casually wiped a few snowflakes from his shoulder, not lamenting the loss of his dragon for a moment.

"And who is the show off?" he remarked.

Elsa let him see the grin on her face, then regained her royal visage and raised her hands out to the kingdom, calling in a loud voice.

"Let the Night of Hearts begin!"

Within the crowd, Anna had been enjoying the show, though quickly turned her attention to the large man that stood at her side, giving him an excited smile. "So, Mr. Prince, what do you want to do first, since you haven't spent an evening alone with your wife in a long, long time? Ice skating? Tandem apple bobbing?" she suggested, wanting to try them all but also not beyond appreciating the night for what it really was, as her voice became low and her fingers danced across his sleeve. "Something a little more out of the firelight?"

It took a moment for Kristoff to catch what she was trying to say, though he suddenly started laughing nervously, trying to keep up with her as he always seemed to be. "Oh, well how about we just sit here and enjoy the night air for a while?" he suggested, figuring that she was always complaining that they never just sat and talked, and that this would be the perfect chance. He thought it was a good idea, though the annoyance that appeared on her face told him otherwise.

"My sister made a celebration completely dedicated to letting people in love spend time together, and you want to sit around and do nothing?" she replied, stabbing her hands onto her hips.

The response made him marvel that even after years of being together, he still had no idea what she was thinking sometimes.

Idly, he wondered if all marriages were like that.

"Well, what I meant was…you know, we could always, maybe…uhm…" he stuttered, trying to quickly salvage the situation and seeing an opportunity when one of the merchants was passing by with an arm full of little baskets of chocolates, ones that he had been giving out to help the mood of the evening. Kristoff nearly toppled over when he stretched out and grabbed one, then turned back to Anna with a side grin on his face, presenting them like it had been part of the plan all along.

"Look, I got you chocolates!"

Anna watched the entire routine with a smirk, though she could appreciate that he was trying. Watching him do his dance was as entertaining as the idea of spending an entire romantic evening alone, but she decided to give him a break and casually reached out to take one of the chocolates from the basket, popping it into her mouth and enjoying every sweet bite.

"Nice save, reindeer boy," she remarked around the treat.

On the other side of the square, there was more fire and ice than anywhere else, if only because two magical beings had been lingering against the backdrop of the townspeople, though their existence was just as normal to the people as a giant fire dragon being turned to icy dust right before their eyes. "Ahh, bonfires surrounded by ice rinks. Snowflakes mixing with sparks. The sounds of love are in the air. It's a perfect night for us, my little fire angel. A perfect night for love's first kiss," the snowman Olaf said with a happy sigh, clutching his twigs together as he gave the petite fire sprite next to him a loving glance.

Sid seemed annoyed by his continued defiance of reality, but after years of dealing with his unrelenting advances, it had simply become part of her daily routine. "Look, the only reason I agreed to hang around with you was because the snow hussy swore to me she'd turn me into a snow sprite if I came anywhere near Yasha tonight. Besides, you do realize that if you stick those stupid lips of yours anywhere near me, your stupid face will fall right off your stupid head, right?" she pointed out.

"Anything is worth the chance to embrace our undying love, my sweet," he replied, fluttering his eyes at her and wondering just how close he could get before he did start to melt, and thinking at how happy he would be for those few liquefying moments.

Sid put her fiery hand to her head, utterly amazed that he would never change and that she would possibly be trying to explain to him the folly of a snowman in love with a fire sprite until the end of time.

"Ugh, you're an idiot," she sighed sourly.

At the sights before her, Gerda was aghast. They had never dared to sneak out and see why this one night of the year was restricted from the children of the kingdom and why so many people talked about it for weeks afterward. Now that they had stumbled upon its secrets, she was utterly shocked at how unfair it was for the kids to be left out. "So wait, they make all of the kids go to bed early so they can have a huge party? What a gyp! This is the biggest crime of our time! A secret cult!" she ranted, leaning back into the alleyway and looking for her cousin to share in her outrage.

Upon finding he had wandered out of the other side of the alley, she tilted her head as she looked after him.

"Hey Kai?" she called before following.

"Did you see that? My dad's fire was awesome," he said whimsically, thinking about how the king commanded something so dangerous, but which such ease. A dragon was the quickest way to capture the imagination of a boy and he was already trying to figure out how to mimic the feat, looking at his curling fingers with lofty expectations.

"Yeah, and then Aunt Elsy totally froze it solid. I guess one day you'll be able to do both, right? Like braaaaah, then skooooosh," she said as she followed him out, mimicking the sounds and movements with her hands, trying to imagine what it would be like to use magic like they did. A part of her had always been a little sad that her mom didn't have the same magic as the queen, so it couldn't be passed down to her like it was to Kai, but it did make her appreciate how special he was and that being in his family had always been a point of fierce pride for her.

As long as she was close to the one who could wield the ancient magic, she was happy enough about it.

Seeing how the display had impressed her, he suddenly felt a wave of heat inside, feeling like he wanted to be the reason that she gushed over. He suddenly felt like he had to compete with his famous parents and win. "I could do it today, if I wanted. You saw how easily they did it. I can do it twice that easy. Twice that big," he boasted.

She smirked. "Uh huh. I've seen you try," she replied, remembering every time he had tried to copy his parents and the way it had never worked right.

"Your dad makes huge fire dragons. You make sparky little lizards."

"Fine! You want a fire dragon?" he snapped back, feeling a redness in his face, then took a few steps back from her, to make sure the massive dragon he was about to summon would fit in the area he prepared. "I'll give you the biggest fire dragon you've ever seen. Just watch this."

Within the depths of Kai's mismatched eyes, rings of deep orange began to churn as he tapped into the other ancient magic that flowed through his veins, the one attuned to his father. Although he found controlling the fire harder than the ice, he felt it was cooler for a boy to throw fire, so he had always tried to master it.

After a moment, his hands erupted into a small flame, swirling benignly at his skin and not burning it in the slightest. Just the sight of it made Gerda swoon, but he had promised her a massive fire dragon, so that was what he began to envision as he tried to force more of his magic into his hands, something that caused the fire to thrash and begin to grow. In truth, Kai had no idea how to make a fire dragon. He imagined it would just come to him as he kept the vision of his father's in his mind, but the thing that grew out of his fire was longer, like a serpent. Despite the difference, he was pleased that he had successfully drawn out something that looked like a dragon and the creature let out a high-pitched shriek, then lurched from his hand and started to circle in the air above them.

Kai panted from the effort, but Gerda was cheering loudly for the creature. "That's great, Kai! You really did it!" she called, watching the way the long fire snake coiled and danced before her, then suddenly circled right above her, as if draw by her cheers. The creature hissed loudly and started moving more erratically, something that started to worry her.

"Kai? Uhm, Kai?" she said as she took a step back and looked to him, finding that he was even more out of breath and staring at the creature frantically.

"I can't control it!" he cried, trying to move his hand in every direction and dominate it like his father did, but finding his connection to it slipping away. Instead of reigning in the creature, he lifted his other hand and felt the more natural flow of ice at his hand, throwing a blast of icy magic at the creature to try and freeze it as his mother had, but the blast sailed past the moving creature, leaving him to panic even more. He then began throwing more frigid blasts into the air, all in the hope of putting an end to the beast he had created, yet none hit and the snake continued to thrash about in the air.

Nothing he did seemed to stop it, and he was feeling utterly helpless against the magic that he couldn't control.

By now some of the people in the square had caught onto the alternate light show and had wandered to see what was going on. They saw the two children being stalked by this magic creature, then heard the shrill cry of Gerda as the snake spiraled through the air at her and began to thrash at her head.

"Eeeeeek!"

"Gerdy!" cried Anna, who had come to see what was happening and found her own daughter being assaulted by a mystical fire creature. It was a harrowing sight and she could barely grasp the sense of panic at seeing her daughter being covered in flames. She sprinted forward to save her when the fire snake was suddenly overcome with a skin of frost, making it shriek out loudly and stretch into the air before bursting into a shower of snowflakes, ones that fluttered harmlessly to the ground around the growing crowd of spectators.

"What's going on here?" Elsa said after dispatching the snake, lowering her hand down and her glowing eyes falling onto the trembling form of her son. "Kai? What are you doing here?"

Kai was terrified as he looked to his angry mother, but even more so by the sound that was beginning to fill the air over the hushed town, making his fearful eyes dart back to where Gerda had been assaulted by the beast. The wailing sound of the princess of Arendelle filled the air as Gerda was clutched tightly in Anna's arms. There was a sickening burnt smell in the air and everyone was trying to see what had become of her, yet her mother wouldn't let anyone near her, not even Kristoff as he came skidding to her side to find out if his daughter was okay.

"Gerdy," he whispered, then looked back to his mother Elsa, who was still waiting for an answer. The ferocity in her eyes made him panic even more, yet his eyes then shot around to try and find the only thing that scared him more than his angry mother. Just the idea of facing his father's wrath made him step backwards from the scene, hoping to turn and run from it, yet he was frozen in fear as he bumped into something behind him, something hot and looming.

Without wanting to look but having to anyway, Kai knew what awaited him, though it didn't prepare him for the sight of Yasha's fiercely glowing orange eyes as he looked down at him, showing that whatever expectation he had at being in trouble would pale in comparison, and that the only reason his kingly father wasn't already upon him was that they were the subject of many eyes.

Kai could barely contain his terror.

"Dad…"

"You know better than this, Kai! I have told you countless times! These powers are not to be treated as you would a toy. I will not have you burning down the castle on a childish whim!"

Yasha was raging hot, pacing in front of his son and trying his best to not let his voice reach outside of the walls of the royal bedchamber. It wasn't how he envisioned spending the evening, and when his eyes moved to the quiet figure that stood in the middle of the room, flashes of orange still flared up in them, showing that while he usually kept the FireHeart under control, dealing with the antics of his son was one arena where he never felt completely in control. For a man who was looked upon to rule over a kingdom, the idea of that lapse in control was something that felt utterly foreign to him, especially when it was his own blood that was at the center of it.

Elsa had been sitting in the chair adjacent to them, watching her son cower and her husband rage. While she was also angry at the situation, she knew she had to play the part of mediator, for Yasha's temper was sometimes too hot for the room and required her cooler touch to temper it.

"Ahem," she interjected, clearing her throat in order to control some of his heat. Her voice made Yasha hesitate a moment, but he then continued pacing while relenting on his scolding tone. She slowly moved her eyes to their son, who hadn't said anything since returning to the castle. "What your father is trying to say is that you have be more cautious with your magic, Kai. I know it seems like fun, but you can really hurt somebody if you're not careful," she continued, leaning forward and wrapping her hands around his, tilting her head down so she could see his face, with was inflamed and still full of fear. She could tell he felt bad about making Gerda cry, and understood how much his cousin meant to him, but she still had to make him understand why they were constantly vigilant about how he used his magic. "Tonight, you burned a bit of Gerda's hair. It could have been much worse."

"But it wasn't my fault! And I was just about to…"

"What you were about to do was incinerate your cousin!" Yasha interrupted, like he had been waiting for the boy to speak so he could go after him once more. Kai froze once more and stood there, accepting his father's wrath as was expected. It didn't seem to temper his father's raging flames. "Is that what you want? Do you want to see the ones you love turned to ash before your eyes?"

"Yasha," Elsa warned, and the look in her eyes coupled with the way Kai trembled made the king withdraw once more, though he continued to pace, becoming quiet as he smoldered like a kiln.

Elsa slowly shifted her eyes back to Kai, and she squeezed his hand once more, to assure him that her reaction would be much cooler than his father's. "Kai, listen to me. We're trying to make you understand. Your father and I both had to learn to control our powers. We want you to learn from our mistakes, so you don't have to repeat them. The magic can seem like such a wonderful thing, but one slip of the hand can change your whole life," she cautioned, remembering all of the sadness of her own past and of Yasha's, using those memories as a way to help him deal with the life they had already lived. Right now, all Kai could do was tremble against his father's anger, but she wanted him to realize more than that. She wanted him to realize that he had something that neither of them ever had – two parents that had gone through the exact same thing.

"We're here to help you through this. You don't have to do it alone."

Hearing his mother's warm words, Kai slowly looked up to her with tears in the corners of his eyes, though felt instantly better at seeing the gentleness in her. Elsa's grace had always comforted him and helped him calm down, as he was able to accept that his queenly mother had powers that his kingly father could only dream of.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'll be more careful from now on. I promise," he said quietly.

Elsa smiled at the sweetness of his heart and leaned forward, putting her red lips against his forehead and kissing him lovingly. "That's a good boy," she whispered, then put her hands on his cheeks and framed his face for her, where she could take in every aspect of the miracle of her and Yasha's union. Just as she had been so unprepared for the many loves of her life, this was yet another one that surprised her, for she loved her son like she loved no other, in ways she never thought possible. While he was prone to getting into trouble, she knew he had a pure heart and that he struggled with many of the things that she had, stemming from the power that pulsed within him. Sometimes, she wondered if her husband would ever find the same enlightenment she had when it came to dealing with their child, though with the way he was still panting in anger, she felt the day he did was still a long ways away.

In her mind, Yasha had to learn to deal with Kai's power just as much as Kai did.

With Elsa and Kai finding their moment, Yasha scowled at their truce and faced them, running his hand across his mouth and letting a deep breath escape his lips. "For now, return to your room and think about what we have said. Tomorrow, you will apologize to both Gerda and your Aunt Anna," he ordered, looking at Elsa with as much annoyance as he felt for Kai, and trying not to feel betrayed by the way she always took his side.

"And I do not want to see any more magic for a while. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Kai replied quietly.

Watching him not even look his way, Yasha dropped his eyes to the floor and waved him off, feeling completely ill-equipped to deal with the team they created against him. "Go on then," he said, and didn't even watch as the boy quietly slipped out of the room and was ushered away by a waiting servant.

With their heavy door closed once more, Elsa sat back in her chair and focused her eyes on her husband, watching him smolder with anger and trying to figure out an easy way to cool him off. It was a routine they performed more often than she preferred, with the mischievous son angering the temperamental father and being defended by the fair mother. She marveled at how well they played their roles.

"Well, that went well," she remarked.

"You are far too soft on him," he snorted, starting to pace again.

"That's because you're not," she replied, leaning forward in the chair again and trying to appeal to him with her eyes, "He's just a boy, Yasha. You have to be patient with him."

"He is a boy with the capacity to turn the castle to cinders. A curse on whatever reason these powers passed on to him," he said, echoing the fact that he wished Kai had never been burdened with the powers they had, and that this wasn't the life he would have chosen for him.

Truthfully, he felt an overwhelming guilt at knowing this wouldn't be the last time Kai had to feel the consequences of possessing the ancient magic.

As Elsa continued to watch him quietly, he finally broke from his trail and looked to her, finding her expression striking and her silence oppressive. A deep sigh rose out of him. "Am I that much a tyrant to my own son that you look at me with those eyes?" he asked, his voice finally showing some of the gentleness that she knew was in his heart.

She was happy to see that part of him show, even if was a bit late to benefit their son. "You could go a little easier on him. I know you don't want him to live the same life you lived, but he's not you, and you aren't your father," she counseled, watching the way her words stirred him up again, though all by her design. There was no one but her that could mention Nazir without fierce retaliation, but that was just a testament to the power she had over him and the way she could be the heart he needed sometimes.

To comfort him, she rose from the chair and went to him, placing her hands into his to force him let go of the pointless pathway he had carved in the middle of their room. "He'll figure it out eventually, because he has us. And he has Anna, and Kristoff, and countless others looking out for him."

"And he has Gerdy."

The indignation at the reference to his father fell away to her overtures and Yasha suddenly felt her power, not to mention the fact that just thinking of the children together somehow made the anger bleed away from him. He knew how right she was about the cousins and that the bond they shared was yet another reason that Kai's life would always be different than his own. Even with the near-tragedy of the evening, he could only smile at the way they two of them could go nowhere without the other, and that trouble was often only steps behind.

"They do make a pair. I believe their tutor has not been seen since fleeing from the castle. If this keeps up, there will not be a single teacher in the kingdom that will be willing to instruct them," he mused.

Elsa smiled, feeling many of the same things. "Kai and Gerda. One of them with our powers and the other with my sister's heart. When I see them together, it reminds me how Anna and I were when we were younger. I don't know if that makes me worry more, or less," she admitted, then looked up to him and still saw the trouble in his eyes. There was also regret at how the evening had gone, with the Night of Hearts disturbed by the incident and the royal family returning to the castle to deal with the children. Knowing Gerda was fine and Kai was off to bed for the evening, Elsa set aside her mantle of mother and queen to embrace the other role she had intimately in her heart.

It was time to be the woman who loved her troubled husband.

Arching up on her toes, she suddenly kissed Yasha across the brow and watched his eyes settle on her, smiling one of her smiles that could cut through even his heaviest mood. "Try to relax, my sweet king. You'll turn your hair white with worry, and ruin your handsome looks," she warned as she mussed up his hair a bit with her fingers, then idly dropped her hands across his shoulders.

"Now, why don't I put your mind on other things..."

As the air within the royal bedchambers heated, there was quiet movement behind a thick metal grate at the top of the wall where hot air usually flowed in during the winter. A small face was framed behind it and a pair of eyes lingered on the room longer than intended, with a small voice then being muttered through the duct as the shadow began to scoot away.

"Ew, gross."

Kai had been sitting in his room in silence, wilting like a flower that was receiving too much moonlight and not enough sun. He was tormented by the look of fury in his father's eyes, but also by the way fire from his own hands had crept so close to Gerda and the bitter smell of her hair as it singed. When he thought back on how terrifying it was to see his magic rage out of control, a shiver ran through him, for he couldn't imagine ever hurting her, and he was getting angry at himself for coming that close.

He was also getting angry at his father, for he couldn't understand why he could control his magic so completely, yet would not spare a single moment to teach him how to do the same.

While the prince was sulking moodily, there were sounds of light grunting outside of his window, where a small shadow had been creeping along the ledge, holding vines and jagged stones to try and reach him, which she finally did as she arched up on her toes and peeked through the window, seeing him sitting all alone. A smile crossed Gerda's face, and she was completely unconcerned by the precariousness of her position.

"Kai! Hey, Kai!" she called through the small gaps between glass and stone.

Kai lifted his head at the sound of his cousin's voice, though he had no idea where it was coming from. "Gerda? Where are…?" he asked, looking to the door first, though not seeing any shadows at the light underneath. The only other way into the room was the window, but he could dismiss that from his mind. "Only an idiot would try to come in that way," he thought but turned anyway, finding the top of Gerda's head showing outside the glass and her eyes brightening at seeing him look at her.

"Hi!" she cheered, though almost lost her balance as she waved. "Uhm, a little help?"

Kai jumped up and ran to the window, unlocking it and pushing open. Just looking down from his window made his heart race and he desperately grabbed her arm, as if he were the only thing keeping her from falling down on the slanted roofs and tumbling into the gardens below. "What are you doing here?! Do you know what would happen if you fell?" he chastised her loudly, trying to pull her over the sill with all of his strength.

Gerda rolled her eyes at his dramatics, thinking at how she had been in a lot scarier places when she went climbing with her dad. "Pffft, don't be such a stick in the mud. Ooof!" she grunted as he finally wrenched her in and made her tumble to the floor of his room. Kai had stumbled back and fallen to the floor, breathing heavily and trying to imagine how any girl would be so calm at scaling the side of the castle just to reach his room.

Rubbing her knee, which was red under her dress from the abrasion of the stone walls, she acted as if doing such things was completely normal, even for a princess. "Besides, my mom told me that your dad used to sneak onto Aunt Elsy's balcony all the time, though she always gets this really creepy smile on her face when I ask her why. Adults are so weird," she remarked as she crossed her legs under her and looked utterly content to be with him again.

Upon seeing her again, Kai suddenly felt remorse for what he had done again, especially as he looked at her hair, which had been cut to get rid of the scorched ends. One of her pigtails was now much shorter than the other, which made her look even sillier than before, though he knew he had no right to make fun of her when he had been the one that caused it.

"Hey Gerdy, I'm really sorry about today. Because of me, you almost…" he began, hunching forward on the floor and turning a bit from her, if only to hide the sorrow he still felt at making her cry.

The tone made her cock her head slightly, though she quickly waved off his concerns. "Psh, don't worry about it," she replied, though suddenly gave him a sharp glance as her fingers reached up and dawdled at her hair. "But if you laugh at my hair, I'll hurt you."

While he would have usually been quick to tease her, he was still moody and sighed, while she let her blue eyes drift out the window as she thought about the day's events. "You know, I thought your fire snake thing was pretty neat, for a while anyway," she recalled, a smile still on her as she thought about how extraordinary her cousin was. Then, a smirk replaced her smile as she looked back at him.

"But your aim with the ice stinks."

Kai rolled his eyes slightly and put his head into his hand, feeling annoyed that she was right about that, and once more thinking about how his parents were no help when it came to controlling his magic. "Yeah, I know," he snorted, then winced as he thought about the look on his father's angry face. "I got yelled at by my dad"

"Yeah, I know," she echoed.

"How do you know?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

She smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I was kind of listening?" she offered.

That sounded just like her and he fell back into his mood, thinking of how often he was at odds with his father and how angry it made him to think of the fantastic things he could be doing with his magic, but was never allowed. "He never understands how I feel. Him and Mom control their magic perfectly, but they never teach me! They tell me I need to learn how to control myself before I can control the magic, but I don't even know what that means!" he vented, staring at the shadows cast by some chess pieces in the moonlight, his eyes most fiercely on the king. When he thought about how much he wanted to be just like him and couldn't, it made his eyes narrow and his lips draw down.

"Sometimes, I wish I never had these powers in the first place."

So many people treated him like some kind of amazing creature because of the powers he inherited from his parents, yet it was the both of them that seemed the least impressed, as if they were somehow ashamed by them. The two people in the world that he could relate to treated him like a child, with too much caution to what his powers might do. He couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to freely use them as they did. It drove him to resent them, even though he loved them more than anything.

It was a strangely painful feeling in his chest, and he hated the fact that no one could possibly understand how he felt.

While Kai was stewing, a sudden weight pushed down on his back and he grunted, feeling Gerda's back against his as she casually reclined onto him, her hands behind her head and her sparkling eyes in utter contradiction to the gloom in his. "I like your magic," she remarked, kicking her feet out as she made sure to push down on him completely, if only to make sure he knew she was there. "How many other kids can shoot fire and ice out of their hands or turn their eyes orange?"

"It's the only time they match."

The remark about his eyes made them roll, and he stared at the floor in contempt at the way she was pressing down on him, even if he was glad she was there. "It never happens on purpose," he replied, thinking about how the orange in his eyes was about the only thing he had in common with his infamous father.

As he thought about him and the force of his eyes, he quietly took his advice and thought back on the day, trying to find the lessons that were there for him, which was easier now that he had Gerda with him, safe and smiling once more. Just trying to figure out their message at least made him feel that much closer to them.

"But I guess I kind of understand why they're so worried," he admitted quietly, looking to his hands, "Sometimes I don't feel like I control the magic, more like it just does what it wants. Someday, I might really do something terrible. One day, I might..."

Once more, he began to descend into melancholy until Gerda suddenly rocked her head backwards and clonked him, making a dull ringing fill his ears as he bucked her off. "Ow!" he protested and twisted to glare at her, though he found her looking right back, not impressed by his persistent gloominess.

"You worry too much. It makes you really look like your dad," she complained.

Kai was running his hand over the tender spot on his head and scowled, though he didn't retaliate as he usually would have, instead turning his back on her and becoming even grumpier at the remark. "Gee, thanks," he snorted. With his fingers slipping through his dark hair, he was trying to focus his thoughts back onto the matter at hand. He knew he was supposed to be reflecting on something and that his father would expect some kind of answer the next time they spoke. The most annoying part was that he didn't even understand the question, and that trying to understand it was only making him angrier.

It wasn't until he felt her as his back again that he was torn from his mood, though this time Gerda had slipped her arms around him and hugged him from behind, leaning her head against him and letting out a warm and inviting sigh. Her sudden gesture made his back stiffen and his eyes stare forward into the darkness, not knowing what she was trying to do now.

Sometimes, his cousin did the strangest things and it always had the strangest effect on him.

"Uhm, Gerda?" he whispered.

"I'll always be here for you, you know," she said, making sure to squeeze him and give him reassurances to his troubled heart, "I'll help you keep the magic under control and make sure you never hurt anyone with it. I promise."

She had obviously been sensing how disturbed he was, with her response being to remind him that they shared a bond unlike anyone else, and that no matter what happened to him or what he might do, she would do exactly what she was promising, for the reasons she could only explain from the depths of her heart.

"Because you're my best friend, Kai, and I love you."

The simple words made his cheeks feel warm and he had to look forward to disperse it. Gerda was his family, and he knew that there was a standard expectation of love there, yet hearing her say it out loud made him realize how powerful it was, like not even his magic could compare. When he thought about how a careless moment might take her away from him, he suddenly began to understand what his parents had been telling him, that he was the only one that could keep her safe, and that he had to treat the fire and ice with respect or it would never bow to his whim. Just imagining his world without Gerda's smile made him wipe away all of the brooding and the anger, instead deciding that he would accept the love that she bore for him and return it with all of his heart.

For he loved Gerda too, and was willing to do anything for her.

"Yeah," he replied and closed his eyes, a smile finally working its way over his lips as he felt her warm embrace around him.

"Thanks, Gerdy."

"Okay!" she suddenly barked and it startled him, for she was already on her feet and heading towards the door.

"Okay what?" he asked, reluctantly rising to his feet as he saw at the look in her eyes. That look usually meant they were about to do something they would get in trouble for, and he had been in enough trouble for one day.

Gerda cracked the door open, looking down the halls for anyone that might see, then looking back to him with a glimmer in her eye. "They think we're asleep, and I totally know where my mom hides her chocolates. Let's go pig out," she suggested as she opened the door to this new adventure, curling her hand at him to join her.

Kai was reluctant at first, but he knew there was little chance he would resist her, for when she had an idea like this, there was very little chance to get out of it. He would go on whatever adventures she offered, because he was never any happier than when he was with her, and there didn't seem like anything the two of them couldn't do.

"Yeah, let's do it."