"Morning Anna," she said, brushing a lock of hair from her still-sleeping sister.

Anna shifted under the covers and opened a single bleary eye. Her mouth made a sound incomprehensible to human speech but Elsa spoke fluent Anna.

"Mmmmsawhati'msit?"

"Time to get up," Elsa said, and unceremoniously shoved Anna out of the bed.

They slept in the same bed now. For the last year since their parents had died. At first it had been for Elsa's sake, when she still had nightmares about still-loyal servants coming for Anna in the dead of night to carry her away forever. Then it had been for Anna, whose wounded heart had been so large it had threatened to consume her. Some nights it had seemed like only Elsa's hands wrapped around her had stopped her from cracking in two. Even months later when Elsa had stopped looking twice at every servant around her and Anna had stopped waking up crying in the dark they hadn't stopped. It had just seemed…more comforting, for both of them. Sometimes she might think about having a room to herself again, where she could get a good night's sleep without the occasional kick in the shins or strands of red hair tickling her nose. Then Elsa remembered that she'd never again sit in a chair with the warmth of her mother's lap beside her, listening to her read from books, and she would shake her head and put the thought away.

She didn't think Anna ever harboured such thoughts at all.

There was a knock at the door. "In a second!" She swung her own legs off the bed as Anna clambered to her feet. "Come on already."

Anna rubbed sleep from her eyes and stretched indelicately. "Five more minutes."

"Not unless you want to spend them sleeping on the floor." Elsa sighed as Anna looked as if she would seriously consider it. Then she smiled, and suddenly Anna practically squeaked and leapt up as…

"That was mean!" her little sister said, wide-eyed, rubbing at her side where suddenly the ground had become extremely chilly.

"Sorry, but you know we have things to do," Elsa laughed as she opened the door and let Gerda in.

The old woman took one look between the sisters, one frowning and rubbing at a frozen behind and the other standing over her and laughing. She sighed like a mother catching her daughters fighting. Girls. They would always be girls to her. She laid out twin dresses on the beds; red and green for one and…

"It's fine Gerda," Elsa said, gently taking the blue-and-white corseted dress from her head maid's hands. "Let people talk, it's no secret."

If Gerda had been her mother there would have been a dozen things she would have said. I worry about it. I worry about the conclusions people draw when you wear those colours. I worry about how half the guards look at you in awe and the other half look at you in fear.

"The young princes will be scurrying after you, your highness," she said instead.

Elsa smiled. "We don't need to worry about that just yet," she said, and felt her gut churn as she did so. So she did what she had done all year, whenever the subject had even approached being brought up; she ignored it. She moved behind the screen to dress.

Gerda coughed politely. "Your highness, will you be needing…" she trailed off before she could finish.

"No," Elsa said with a voice of authority. If she could have heard herself, she would have recognised her father's voice. "The gloves won't be required." She stepped out as Gerda handed her the blue scarf, and turned around to let Gerda begin lacing up the corset, which was why she was staring directly at the screen as Anna walked past her to change behind it, the light from the window casting a shadow. She couldn't help but look.

"Do we really both have to do this?" Anna said, throwing her nightgown over the screen where her own maidservant grabbed it quickly.

"Yes," Elsa said. "Sorry. I know you don't like them." Anna's shadow moved to grab the dress the maid was offering. Elsa saw the maid's eyes glance up for a second to look at Anna, and felt a sudden burst of…something…when Anna's head came up to meet them. It's nothing, she thought quickly.

"That's an understatement," Anna said. She was stretching around to get the dress on, and Elsa could see every contortion of her body as she fought to get it over her shoulders and she looked away before she could blush. Images came unbidden to her mind. Brown eyes and peach-coloured lips that swallowed up her own, and her hand resting against something soft and warm. "They're so…"

"Dull?" Elsa said, snapping herself back to her little sister's gripes.

"Unexciting!" Anna replied. "Everyone's so boring Elsa, they all want the same thing." She pivoted and walked out from behind the dresser and Elsa had to keep from gasping. The dress hadn't buttoned all the way up, and under the dress Anna's white undershirt could be clearly seen, and skin under that thin piece of cotton, already sticking to her in the summer heat. Too much skin.

"Anna!" Gerda exclaimed, in her shock forgetting titles or ranks.

Anna sighed in exasperation. "But these things are so stuffy and it's so hot outside! Can't I do the rest up when we're at the party?"

"You may certainly not run around the castle all day in such an indecent state! There are young men all around this castle young lady! What would the guards think?"

"The guards will think 'oh my, it's certainly hot, I wish I could unbutton just a little bit like Princess Anna," Anna grumbled as Gerda roughly finished closing up the dress.

"Elsa, tell your sister!" Gerda said with a huff.

That Brown hair and those peach lips locked around her sister's, eyes closed and both of them sighing like…like nothing she had ever heard before. Moving against each other. Elsa blushed. She felt herself blush everywhere. It was getting worse. She tried to clear her head as she replied. "She's right Anna. This one is important."

Anna sighed. "They're all important these days."

"They are all important Anna, especially now, since…since last year," Elsa said, as soothingly as she could, tucking in an errant string of her sister's hair. "There," she said, as the maidservant held up a mirror.

Elsa stood behind her sister and both of them looked. They were a study together. Elsa's dress hugged her sides closely, a black corset giving way to greens and purples in the skirt and waist. She had thought about snowflake patterns, about blues and whites, and had even idly dotted some ideas in her notebooks. But in the end that would have been going just a little too far, what with…what with everything these days. In the end she had taken Arendelle's traditional colours, gathered her hair up onto her head, and anointed the whole thing with her tiara. Somewhere in the castle vault there was another one, bigger. But she wouldn't put that one on for two more years yet.

Anna's dress was in comparison was much simpler and more traditional. More folds, more expansive, hanging from her shoulders and a gorgeous green colour. Her hair was piled up on her head in a similar way. No tiara though, not yet. It seemed unfair.

It's fine.

It isn't fine.

No, it really is fine Elsa. You're the heir, not me. You get the gold.

You deserve it just as much.

Don't rock the boat yet.

But she wanted to rock the boat. She wanted to wear the whites and the blues and dress herself in ice and snowflakes as a part of her whispered you're free now at her. She knew all that though. The gates had been opened after her parent's funeral, and she had commanded that they stay so. She and Anna had went out into the towns, reassured the country. It had absolutely liberating, for both of them. It had felt so good that for a few days out on the roads they had managed to forget the tragedy that had set them free. It had been enough, and when they had returned to the castle Elsa had been filled with something elating. She could afford to wait a little while longer to truly be herself.

I'm myself, Elsa thought. She took a deep breath, and smiled at herself in the mirror, and ignored the little voice at the bottom of her stomach that was insistently calling her a liar.

The throne-room was gorgeous at night. Just like at her eighteenth birthday the candles on the walls and chandeliers above lit the huge room beautifully, bathing the entire room in a warm glow that was bright enough to see by but not bright enough to blind. Elsa watched from the small raised area where the thrones were located, and looked down at her guests. She smiled.

They mingled and talked happily, servants circulating like a well-oiled machine to deliver the food and drink. Men in black-and-white tuxedos or ornate military uniforms gave thousand-candle smiles to the women dressed in amazing gowns, and everywhere she went Elsa and Anna were complimented on the outstanding reception that Arendelle was giving them. A couple of the bolder princes complimented the princesses themselves. None of them kissed Elsa's hand though.

Only a small, ever so tiny, really barely even there, undercurrent ran through the room that kept everyone from forgetting what had happened last year. Everything was different now, and nobody knew what to do about it. Everything was the same, and nobody knew what to do about that either.

Those close enough, rich enough or entangled enough to have relations with Arendelle had split into two camps. Half had done what the upper-classes of all ages and generations had done when presented with something so totally outside of their experience as to be impossible; they had simply ignored it, and carried on like everything was normal. Condolences were given and her condition wasn't even hinted at.

There's still money in Arendelle. Not our problem.

The other half had reacted…differently. Kristoff had heard the stories coming in on merchant ships. The news was leaking from the top-down. From the people who had been at the funeral to the rest of the royal courts, to the noblemen and merchant classes that made a country function, from them down to the masses.

There is a witch-queen in Arendelle. Unforgivable.

Elsa had known that none of the people in the second group were going to be here tonight. She had no idea how many people that would be though. She had worried it would be herself and Anna in an empty throne-room, leaving the food for the servants. She needn't have.

"Your grace, it's a pleasure to see you again," Elsa said, enthusiastically as she could, as the man and his entourage approached her.

"It's always a pleasure to visit the capital of our oldest trading partner," Duke Weselton said, at the front of the pack of around a dozen men, and two women. She could put names to all of them, and inside felt relief at who they represented. A couple of the bigger countries were missing representatives at the banquet, but Arendelle wasn't a pariah quite yet. The old man reached out a hand, and she placed her own in it, and he brought it to his lips and gave it a rough, papery kiss. To the man's credit he didn't even flinch at her ever-so-slightly chilly skin.

Dry and sandy. No competition. Not like her. Not like-

Not now.

"-such unfortunate circumstances, but anyone here can see you're rising to the challenge however, your majesty," Weselton went on, oblivious to his audience's momentary distraction.

"Just your highness for now, Duke," Elsa replied, smiling.

He slapped his head like he had remembered where he'd left something. "Ah, of course! Forgive me!" He did something with his eyebrows. "I certainly look forward to the banquet for that!"

Oh, he's trying to wiggle them. At his age? "Your name will be the first on the guest list your grace."

"And speaking of firsts I wonder if we could maybe talk later? Discuss a few common points of national interest?" He did the wiggle thing again.

Any other day she would have sighed quietly and made her excuses, but Elsa had been waiting for it and jumped instantly. "I'd be happy to talk about trade and more tomorrow Duke," she said. "If your ship is still around that is."

Duke Weselton actually seemed taken aback. His mouth moved up and down for a few seconds in total shock before he could recover. "Ah well I…ah of course…Of…well. Certainly! Yes, certainly your majes- your highness! It would be a delight! Yes, we'll…I'll look forward to it!"

Elsa watched as the man strode away happily.

"That was a change. Usually he's sneakier than that. I think you surprised him."

Elsa almost jumped. "Anna! Don't creep up on me like that."

Anna popped a small roll into her mouth. "Mmf moo hhur-"

"Finish your food."

"Mmmf! Ahem. Are you sure about him?"

Elsa shrugged. "We need friends right now." She looked after the retreating Duke and sighed. "It's hard." She felt something warm encase her un-gloved – un-gloved now and forever – hand and looked down to see Anna's hand encasing hers.

"You'll always have me," she whispered, the same way she had when Elsa had been curled up, catatonic, in a frozen room a year ago.

She smiled, her heart filled with love, driving out the worry and the fear and-

-and the other-

-and the rest from her heart. "I know," she said, smiling at Anna the way she hadn't at Weselton. "We'll always have each other."

Anna smiled radiantly. "I know." The smile turned into a grin. "Now come on, have some fun. There's a chocolate fountain and everything."

Elsa frowned. "I don't recall asking for one."

"I added it to the servant's list of supplies for tonight, when no-one was looking."

"Anna!"

"I can forge your handwriting quite well you know."

"Anna!"

Anna practically skipped away through the forest of guests, laughing as she went, eyes following the gorgeous green-glad princess as she threaded her way through the banquet.

The night wore on, and on, and Elsa's patience and energy was whittled away little by little. So much so that she began to worry, and not just that she would say the wrong thing or insult the wrong person. She felt sleepy and her eyes felt heavy, not fully under her control. She worried she would be caught looking at the wrong person in the wrong way.

In the year since her parents had died – Elsa didn't use phrases like 'lost' or 'passed on' anymore, she had forced herself past denial – she had dove back into her education in a way that had almost scared Anna and her old tutors. During the evenings and nights she had still been Elsa, still laughed and played with Anna, but in the daytime she made herself become a machine that drank knowledge. Every piece of paper the king had looked at in his last years, every report, file and book that had been kept back from her, she devoured, and studied, and learned. This night was the first test, for herself. Now this…this other thing she had tried so hard to bury inside herself was threatening it all.

"Your majesty."

"Just highness for now," she replied, turning to see- "Prince Staas?"

She realised her mistake immediately. Prince Staas had been old. Well, older. The man in front of her shared some of his features but was far, far younger. The same shock of light brown hair, the same high cheeks and strong chin, the same brown eyes. But where Staas had been cold and with all the emotion and warmth of a block of ice, the young man in front of her had an easy smile. He was dressed in off-white just like his older clone, another of the quasi-military outfits men seemed to love so much. Everything about him screamed young and confident.

"Unfortunately my older and wiser brother couldn't make it back for the occasion," the man said, and bowed deeply. "Allow me. Prince Hans, of the Southern Isles." Elsa didn't even realise she had offered her hand until he kissed it. Yes, definitely warmer than Prince Staas had been.

"It's a pleasure your highness, I remember your brother fondly," she said. Although I have no idea if he'd remember me the same way.

Prince Hans kept smiling. "He owes you his life, and asked me to apologise he couldn't be here in person," he said, and took a drink from his free hand.

"…Oh?" Elsa said, momentarily lost for words. That had been the closest anyone had come all night to even mentioning her powers.

"You made quite the impression on him. In many ways," he said, his eyes never leaving her face. It was…a little disconcerting. "The Southern Isles will always remember the service you gave us."

She felt confident enough to give a little smile of her own. "And will the Southern Isles be requesting a service in return?" she asked.

Hans laughed quietly. "Maybe. But that's for another day. Tonight I'm just glad to have been invited. Arendelle is an extraordinary place, with extraordinary people." He raised his glass. "Yourself most definitely included, your highness. While I am required to say that I hope I can demonstrate that the Southern Isles values and keeps the friendship of Arendelle, I hope that her people can come to a similar relationship."

In spite of such breath-taking forwardness Elsa felt herself still smiling, and decided that she was prepared to like Hans of the Southern Isles. Her reminded her a little of Kristoff. He wasn't afraid. "I'm sure we can come to some arrangement."

"I couldn't ask for more," Prince Hans said, and bowed, and turned away. She watched him retreat, and catch the eye and smile at the ambassador from Norway. As Elsa watched a woman in a long and severe red dress came up and put a hand on his shoulder, and whispered something in his ear. She bent closer to whisper something in his ear, and-

Elsa coughed, and dragged her eyes away. It felt hot in the throne-room, in spite of the open windows letting moonlight and cold air spill in. Clearly she'd had too much to drink.

"Oh my, that was smooth," Anna said, appearing at her side as if from nowhere, watching the prince with a sly grin on her face. "No wonder that girl's hanging off'f him."

"Hello Anna. Meet Prince Hans, of the Southern Isles."

"Two out of thirteen. Think we'll collect the whole set some day?"

"Haven't you had enough of that?" Elsa said pointedly, as Anna sipped her glass.

The red-haired princess just smiled back radiantly. "No. Look, half the room is tipsy already, they're practically eating from your palm." A heartbeat, then… "I always knew you'd be the perfect queen," she said.

"I'm not queen yet," Elsa replied, the uncertainty missing from her conversation with Prince Hans suddenly back and at centre-stage.

"A technicality," Anna said breezily, and took another sip.

"Just stay awake for the toast, alright?" Elsa teased her little sister.

"Sorry," Anna said quietly.

"Are you alright?" Elsa asked, just as quietly.

"Just…remembering last year," Anna said, a finger moving around the tip of her wine-glass.

Anna lost more than me that day, Elsa remembered with a jolt, and suddenly felt bad. She reached for her sister's hand as it traced around the crystal rim of the glass. "I'm sorry," she said. "If I had-"

"Not your fault Elsa," Anna said quickly, intensely, slapping the idea down before it could stay in Elsa's head. "Never your fault." She stretched, and planted a small kiss on Elsa's cheek. Like always when their skin touched Anna felt like fire against her. "Make your toast. I'm right here."

"I know," Elsa said, and turned, and climbed the small dais to the throne. She wouldn't sit there yet, but it was there. Just waiting for her. Two years. She held up the glass, and smiled. "To your health, and to your friendship!"

The reply from the assembled multitudes was loud, hearty, and more than a little drunk.

"To her highness, Elsa of Arendelle!" Weselton shouted, enthused by the promises of the trade he loved so much. Exactly as she had hoped he would be.

"To her majesty, Elsa of Arendelle!" a white-suited figure shouted, and Hans smiled as their eyes met.

"TO HER HIGHNESS!" came the roar from the others as they toasted.

Elsa caught a glimpse of red hair among the crowd and looked to find Anna standing by a serving girl, her own glass raised, and a smile plastered over her face. She mouthed words, and it only took Elsa a second to translate them:

Proud of you.

The wine felt sweet and hot going down her throat, and as she drank it she looked out over the throne-room, all of them staring at her, and she tried not to look at the green-eyed woman standing next to Prince Hans. Instead she lifted her glass, and gave one final toast. "To Arendelle!" she cried, and the cry came back:

"TO ARENDELLE!"

The candles were extinguished. The guests were thanked flattered and given gifts (and some asked to keep their ships in the harbour 'till morning). Finally it had been Elsa and Anna alone in the throne-room, with Elsa standing there silently, almost holding her breath, as if the slightest disturbance would shatter the illusion it felt like the night had been.

It was magnificent, Gerda had said, with a tear in her eye, and Kai agreed. They would be so proud.

You were so great! Anna had said, still more than a little tipsy, and had hugged her sister fiercely.

The final hours of the day had gone by in a whirlwind, and before Elsa could think straight she was out of the stuffy dress, and into a nightgown, and in bed. As if the entire night had been a dream. Alone with her own thoughts.

Which was the whole problem, really.

It had started in the last month or so. No, if she wanted to be honest though it had been building for years now, it felt like. She had ignored it at first, dismissed it as a fever that wouldn't quite vanish, or tiredness, or a dozen other things that she could put out of her mind so she could focus on picking up the reigns that her father had left for her.

It was getting worse. She had tried to think responsibly, talking with those 'prospects' who had arrived, smiled and made nice. But she simply couldn't focus. Maids in severe black and white formal wear had offered food and drinks, women in beautiful gowns had hung from the arms of their escorts as they had talked with Elsa, and she had felt her eyes dragged away to them and she had wondered.

Elsa shivered in her nightgown, and not from the cold. All the education and training and lessons, and now she lay in her bed, arms wrapped around herself, and she simply didn't know what to do. Her lips tingled, she felt sweaty under the silk nightgown and cotton sheets. She had taken the side of the bed that looked out over the window, Anna dozing on the other, and Elsa stared out into the moonlight overlooking the city as she thought.

One year ago. Two kisses. The man, honest as anyone who had ever lived, strong and tall and blonde. If Kristoff had been born a prince he would have been the kind stories were made of. The…the other. Just a common servant, a milk-maid, could the cliché be any worse? Insolent and disloyal. The kind of maid that other kinds of stories were told about, and Elsa had seen it was true.

But she had kissed the man and felt barely anything, and kissed the woman and if she thought hard enough she imagined she could still feel it.

And it was just too much. She couldn't keep it inside.

God, it was a choice between two kinds of torture. Humiliation and ignorance.

Ignorance lost. She'd risk humiliation.

"…Anna?" Elsa asked, and just saying that one word felt ten times harder than standing at the head of the ballroom only hours ago.

"Hmmm?" came a sleepy reply.

"Do…do you miss Eva?"

There was no reply, and Elsa stared at Anna's back for so long that for a second she thought her little sister might have fallen asleep before she heard the question. Or was ignoring her. Finally though, Anna's form shifted under the covers as she twisted around, and Anna's green eyes were staring into her own, and Elsa could see the pain there. "Sometimes," Anna whispered, and the pain was in there too. "When I think back."

Elsa's lips felt dry. She ran her tongue across them and felt them tingle. "Tell me about her," Elsa asked. "Were you…was it…"

"Love?" Anna whispered, the word Elsa couldn't quite bring herself to say. "No, she…both of us knew it wasn't. Maybe if…maybe if I hadn't been a princess."

But then you wouldn't have been my sister, Elsa thought, as her sister went on staring into her eyes as she talked, one hand between her and the pillow and the other resting on her side.

"But she made me feel happy, and alive." Anna said, her memory like a picture-book in fast-forward, each image just a little different, read so fast they were almost moving.

She would tip-toe from the secret passage to Eva's room, sometimes drenched in sweat, sometimes her leathers spattered with blood, and Eva would always be waiting on the other side of the door with a wash-basin and a clean nightgown, and a piece of cheese or hunk of bread to make a good excuse if Anna was caught sneaking around at the small hours of the morning. She would smile and ask how Anna's night had been, and never complain or treat her like an aberration or monster for what she enjoyed so much. Anna had wondered if this was what normal people felt like, coming home to a family after a long day at work. It felt so good.

Anna would talk breathlessly as Eva gently wiped away the sweat or blood, Anna speaking at a thousand miles an hour, coming down from adrenaline and working up her courage all at the same time, until finally Eva would lean forward and say let me wipe your forehead or let me fix your ponytail, and Anna's will would break and they would be on each other.

This is wrong, no, we shouldn't, I can't, she had whispered at first, over and over as Eva's hands had crawled over her buttons and her breath flowed softly over her face. Whatever shirt she had worn to sneak from the castle had already been unbuttoned past her navel by Eva's questing hands, and the maid's warm breath across her chest had done things to her she hadn't been able to describe. Indescribable-ness had been a running theme. After the first two months and four meetings though she had stopped trying to stop herself, and replaced the hesitation with confidence, and the whispers of no with yes.

Trust me, Eva would say every time, and her tongue would be Anna's mouth, and Anna's words would disappear back down her throat to make room for that amazing feeling twisting inside her. Hands brushed and twitched at Anna's belly and her shirt had been wide open, and then Eva – or maybe Anna herself, it was impossible to tell – had pushed them together until Anna could feel Eva's chest pressed against her own. She would moan and strip Eva in return and bury her hands and face in the older woman's large breasts, feeling…

"Wanted," Anna whispered in the present, her mind in the past, as Elsa listened in total captivation to her sister unrolling the memories she had kept secret from everyone. "She made me feel wanted. She just…she didn't want me because I was Anna of Arendelle." Without thinking it the hand that had rested against her side was running an idle finger up and down her thighs, as if recalling a place Eva had once touched. "She just wanted me for me."

I can't, Anna had whispered again and again, night after night as Eva's hands or tongue would move inside her, bringing Anna closer and closer but never sending her over the edge she knew was there but couldn't find. Pure pleasure would flow through like lava, singing every inch of her, but too soon turned to frustrated pain, and Eva would have to stop and whisper I'm sorry in a voice thick with pleasure and lust that would just make Anna grit her teeth at the fire building inside her with no place to go. Anna would twist them around and take out that hot frustration on the skin beneath her until Eva was panting and twitching like an animal. She knew every inch of that skin, knew where to touch to make her blush and purr, or turn red and grit her teeth, or arch her back and gasp for air. Anna would straddle Eva, her hands playing out a symphony on the woman's body, herself still an unfulfilled pot of fire driving her onwards where her slick sex rubbed against Eva's sweat-covered belly, and the milkmaid would soak the sheets underneath them both as she came. As she worked the hot and wet flesh sometimes green eyes would meet brown and Anna would marvel that she could make another person look at her like that.

Afterwards, Eva spent and exhausted and Anna still at her limit as always, unable to make that final leap, the milkmaid would lay underneath the princess and gently shift a strand of hair plastered to Anna's cheek. A queen, she would whisper thickly, cupping Anna's cheek with her hand. Anna would reach a hand down, deep inside Eva to make her buck and shout one last time, and she would take a last kiss from her gasping mouth before she stood on shaky feet to leave.

Elsa watched Anna as she remembered the nights, watched the way she shifted in her nightgown under the covers. The way she licked her lips. She wanted to look away but at the same time wanted to keep watching, wondering what the other woman was thinking. Wondered what had happened to make Anna move like that. "Anna…"

"I know," Anna said, and refused to meet Elsa's eyes, settling back down in the bed they shared. "I know one day it'll be someone like Kristoff, or Staas or one of his brothers, or someone I've never even met. It's just the way things are, right?"

"I would never-"

Anna's head snapped back up. "But out there on the mountain I really felt like myself. I really felt like that was who I was meant to be. I…I'm such a terrible princess. I enjoy it all so much. I enjoy sneaking out, and the hunt, and…and I feel like I've really accomplished something if I'm saving those people out there. Our people."

"You have," Elsa said quietly, "and they love you for it." But Anna didn't hear, lost in her confession.

"I don't just want to sit around and wait for some storybook knight to come and claim me. I want to be them, and rescue my own beautiful princess, and…" she said, looking into her sister's blue eyes with a heartbreak so intense Elsa could feel it across the few inches that separated them. "I like women Elsa. I don't care what that makes me, I don't care what other people think. I want my own life. I'll never be like them." Anna didn't have to say who Elsa was talking about, because that night there had been maybe half a dozen of them walking through the throne-room. Quiet, ephemeral things, barely there. They smiled and curtsied when told and maybe said a couple of words when introduced by their husbands, but otherwise they were nobody. Not important. Whatever hopes or dreams they had had been taken and consumed by their spouses, maybe voluntarily, maybe not, but gone all the same.

Before she could hesitate or stop herself, Elsa grabbed Anna by the shoulders and brought the two of them together until they were looking past each other, their cheeks touching. Elsa felt Anna's heat blow through her like a furnace, purifying, burning away the smiley black tar of doubt and self-hatred in her mind. Looking at her little sister crying in her arms, Elsa would have admitted to anything. Having to say something true didn't even phase her for a second.

"Listen, Anna," Elsa whispered into her little sister's ear, running a hand down her red hair. "I'll never ask you to do that. Never. If you don't want any princes then there won't be any. I can-"

"You can't promise that."

"I can, because I…" One sentence. Do it for Anna. How can you leave her being so miserable, you horrible sister.

"Because I feel the same way," Elsa said, and it felt like all the world's weight being lifted from her shoulders.

Anna blinked, whatever word had been on the tip of her tongue sudden lost, as she just stared at Elsa. Finally she spoke. "Are…what?"

So she told her and at the end of the explanation she took one Anna's free hand in both of hers and said: "You're not a monster. Or if you are we're both monsters, and I don't care."

But Anna wasn't entirely convinced. "There's still…tradition is still…you still can't stop them from-"

Elsa threw the covers back from them both and got onto her knees over Anna. "I can," she said loudly. "If you don't want to marry a prince you'll never have to. If you want to be a knight I can make it happen. I'm the queen in two years. Who's going to stop me?" She looked down and saw Anna laying there, nightgown clinging to her from the sweat, and resisted the urge to look away. "Kneel."

Anna giggled, but she did so as Elsa stood, feet planted apart on the soft feather mattress. "Yes, your majesty."

Elsa breathed out, utterly confident, and just like it had been waiting for her command the frost was there. Elsa held her hands into the air like a conductor and the snowflakes whirled and twisted and flowed together between them, and after only a few seconds it was there, and perfect.

Elsa gripped the sword with her left hand and held it tip-down onto the bed. "Kiss the blade," she said, imperiously.

Anna did so, and Elsa imagined steam rose from where Anna's lips touched it.

"Anna of Arendelle, be my knight, forever and always."

"Forever and always," Anna whispered back. She looked up at her sister, standing above her in only a nightgown, the light from the moon streaming in from behind her and outlining every inch of her body through the thin silk. She was so beautiful it ached.

"Here," Elsa said, and reversed the sword and handed it to Anna. Even though she gripped it by the blade it didn't so much as scratch her. "It's yours."

"It's your birthday, not mine."

"Whatever, then you're not getting a birthday present in summer," Elsa said.

"Meanie," Anna said with a laugh, and took the sword. It was cold in her hands but not especially so.

"Nobody will take this one from you," Elsa whispered, as she dropped back down to Anna's level, and embraced her sister.

I won't allow it.

And so part two begins. Familiar faces. Chapter notes up on tumblr as usual.

Queens #2 ETA one hour or so.