Chapter 3: Morning

Disclaimer: Still don't own Frozen.

"Do you really mean that?" she asked, looking at me straight on. "Can you really promise that to someone you have just met?"

Huffing, I pouted and crossed my arms over my chest. "I'll have you know I'm very responsible. And I always keep my promises."

"Then...?" her voice was shaking and her eyes were watering again.

"Then it's you and me." I reached out and held her hands. They were cold to the touch, but they grasped mine with desperation. "And I will always be by your side. I promise."

My eyes snapped open. I was lying on my back with my arms stretched towards the ceiling. A cold sweat was running down my back and my breath was shallow and painful. Slowly I lowered my arms and ran my fingers through the mane that was my bedhead. My eyes had adjusted to the dimness of my room enough to make out the usual mess. The sun was burning my freckled skin.

"The sky is awake Anna. That means you should be awake too." I said to nobody in particular. My feet almost hit an empty box of chocolate when they hit the floor. Rifling through my closet I pulled out my clothes for today: A black tank top and some blue cargo pants. It really wasn't a hard decision, seeing as I own maybe five variations of the same pants and a dozen of the same tank top, but I still felt some need to look good.

After I sorted my clothes and found my towel, I headed out of my room, bidding farewell to the various posters of 90's rock bands that I plastered on my wall. The hallway was silent as I crept across it to the stairs. Elsa's door was still closed. I guess she wasn't an early riser. Either that or the whole 'descending from heaven' thing tired her out. Regardless I made my way to the shower for my daily grooming.

After roughly a lifetime and a half, a new personal record, I had wrangled my hair into a pair of socially acceptable braids that hung down to my chest. I hadn't tied my hair like this in years, so it took me a little bit to remember how. I waked down the hall, fiddling with the products of my labor that were still damp from my shower. Ya know, maybe I can strap knives or something to these. With all the spinning I do in a day these could be useful. I broke my musings on follicle-based combat when I passed by Elsa's door again.

Something inside me pulled me closer, and I found myself outside the door with my fist pressed against it. Just knock doofus. My Inner-Anna said when I started to visibly hesitate. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. It was almost funny; I've chased down nightmares, vampires, hellhounds and never even flinched. But here I am, shaking in my fuzzy slippers because I knocked on a door. If it wasn't Elsa's I would have called myself stupid.

After more than enough time, and enough mental tongue-lashing, I groaned and just opened the door myself. Inside the sun was shining brightly through the window panes. I swear everything was glowing, and not just the angel clothes folded on top of the table. There was this slight chill inside the room, but it wasn't the biting kind of cold. It reminded me of the first time I saw snow. After staring like a slack-jawed idiot for a minute my eyes finally wandered to the bed where Elsa laid, covered in bed sheets from neck to toe.

Now, normally I wouldn't stare. It's rude and a little bit creepy. But I also don't normally have a gorgeous angel lying in my (guest) bed. And normally my guests don't long pale legs with just the right amount of firmness. And they definitely do not have beautiful bedhead that flows down to their shoulders, covering their bare flesh with silken locks. While I was berating myself for how cheesy that sounded, her eyes fluttered open.

"Mrrrh… Quid est?" There was shuffling of sheets and she started to rise. There was a little voice in the back of my head trying to tell me that I was forgetting something. As Elsa sat upright the sheets fell, reminding me of exactly what I forgot. Her clothes were on the table you moron!

The voice in my head was screaming at me, but words failed me. My face-hole organ thing was frozen solid, and it took everything I had to not go completely slack-jawed. Eventually my brain started to unfreeze and I realized that her mouth was moving.

"Anna? Quomodo surgere ante me?" She stretched, oh god she's stretching, as she let out a yawn. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she smiled at me. "Quo- Oh." She coughed, blushing as she cleared her throat, "H-how are you? Are you alright?" Cocking her head to the side, she moved to reach over to my face. "You're bright red. Are you fee-?"

"I am feeling fine!" I sputter out, practically throwing the towel that I still had around my shoulders over her. She let out a cute squeak as she fell back. While falling she thrust her hands out to grab support and ended up getting me by one of my pig-tails. The two of us fell together and landed on the not quite soft enough sheets.

After the initial shock wore off, it took my brain a second to realize the position we were in. Maybe it was the fact that we were only separated by two thin pieces of cloth, or the fact that her hair had somehow managed to get even more beautiful after the fall, but I found myself immobilized, paralyzed and blushing darker than my hair. She herself looked shocked for a moment, but quickly recovered, placing her forehead against mine.

"Your face is warm." Not just my face. Bad Anna! "Are you feeling sick?" In a way. Anna Stop! I shook my head as hard as I could and backpedaled to the far end of the bed.

"C-Clothes!" I stuttered out. "W-why are you naked?!" Because her clothes are on the table Dum-Dum.

She bit her lip before saying, "I apologize, I did not think this would bother you. Nor did I think you would be awake before myself." Twirling a strand of hair she looked up at me with apologetic eyes. "Did it offend you?"

"Nope, definitely not!" I sputtered without thinking. "It was good. Good in that you slept comfortably. You should do that more often. Sleep comfortably, not naked. Unless you want to be naked. I mean I should stop talking and just get you some clothes."

I stopped talking and looked everywhere but at the naked beauty before me. There was silence and I was worried that I said something incredibly stupid (again). Just as soon as I was about to apologize, soft giggling interrupted me. Looking to the source, I found Elsa, clutching the towel as she was trying to hold in her laughter.

The longer I watched her laugh the harder it became to hold back the chuckles. Eventually I gave in as well, letting out an un-ladylike snort. Said snort broke Elsa's floodgates and the laughter poured out. So today marked the first time I could say that I saw Elsa naked. It was also the first time I spent ten minutes laughing my ass off with a naked girl in her bed.

Eventually the two of us collapsed on the bed, both of us gasping for breath as we stared at the ceiling. She put her hand over my hand before saying, "You're still very easily flustered."

I huffed and grumbled a bit. "People don't usually see each other naked first thing in the morning."

She hummed and tapped on my knuckles a bit. "That would explain your reaction. Apparently nudity has gone out of fashion since the last time I was on Earth."

I snorted and ran my thumb over her fingers. "Okay, jokes? I thought I was the one that changed. Also, wipe that smile off your face. I don't even have to see it to know it's there."

After I said that we both just lay there letting the noon sun warm us up. The sheets were comfortably warm while Elsa's hand was cool to the touch. I closed my eyes and smiled as the realization flowed over me. She's here. You're touching her hand again. This isn't a dream. You're together again. I started to drift off as I just let the feelings wash over me.

"Anna?" Elsa's voice pulled me back from my daze. "Did you hear me?" I mumbled out a negative response. "I was saying, shouldn't you let me get dressed now?"

"Lemme enjoy the afterglow." I said while sighing.

"What's an afterglow?" she asked. I really did not want to answer that, so I reluctantly separated our hands and sat up.

"And that is my cue to get you some clothes. I hope you don't mind borrowing some of mine."

She sat up as well, covering herself with the towel. "I already have my armor and vestments Anna. I do not need to borrow any garments."

I tried to picture Elsa walking around in her uniform. It was actually worse than I imagined, so I waved that thought immediately. "We're heading into town today, so we need to look like normal people. I'll get you some clothes, and do you think you can do something about those wings. People tend to freak out a bit when they see winged people buying groceries."

After she nodded another realization hit me. Elsa is going to be wearing my clothes. Elsa probably doesn't own undergarments either. I'm literally about to get Elsa in my pants. I swear, if Kristoff makes that joke I am going to kill him.

"Hey, you finally got a girl in your pants." Kristoff said as Elsa and I sat together on the couch with leftover pizza. I grumbled to myself as I looked my partner over. She wasn't a particularly difficult model, so it only took us a few minutes to decide on an outfit. I settled for a white sleeveless turtleneck and a pair of my black cargo pants. It didn't occur to me before but Elsa was certainly… bigger than me. Thankfully my clothes stretched enough to fit her, much to my embarrassment and mild enjoyment.

"I'm going to let that slide this time, Bjorgman." I said before I took my first sip of coffee. "Especially since you didn't mess up the coffee this time."

"Anything for the princess." Kristoff said with a satisfied smirk on his face. He had the tv on hockey replays again. "So, what's our plan of action today boss?"

What is our plan today? I thought to myself. I kinda just went wherever I got complaints or weird readings on our radar. It had been years since I actively seeked out a target. "I guess we need to figure out what's going on first. Elsa, you got anything to say?"

At the sound of my voice Elsa ceased her process of 'eating' the pizza. In this case eating referred to her picking at the edges of the slice and gently nudging cheese with her tongue. She looked up to me and blushed before putting the slice down. "What, oh. Yes. Sorry, what was that?"

I bit my lip to avoid outright laughing at her. Kristoff on the other hand did not and let out a loud hearty laugh. Elsa only continued to blush as she poked at the crust. Putting my hand on her shoulder I calmly said, "You don't know how to eat pizza do you." She nodded. "You want me to teach you?" She gave me a sheepish grin before nodding again. "Okay. Start from the tip and slowly work your way down. Don't stick the full thing in your mouth otherwise you may start to choke. And if you have any questions, ask our resident expert Kristoff."

At this Kristoff choked on his slice and shot me a death glare that went completely unheeded. Elsa on the other hand just nodded her head and tried taking her first bite. It was slow and tentative but eventually she had worked the first sample into her mouth and started to chew. A light went on in her eyes and they widened till they were almost as large as her smile. Vigorously, she attacked the pizza in her hands. I had to keep her from inhaling the rest of the slice, all to the accompaniment of Kristoff's roaring laughter.

Five minutes, two slices and a dozen napkins later, Elsa had calmed down and was eating at a normal pace again. "Um, please excuse my earlier outburst. I'm not sure what came over me."

I shook my head and patted her shoulder. "It's fine. I reacted the same when I tried chocolate for the first time. You should've seen it. There were bits and pieces of fake Easter Rabbit everywhere."

"And don't forget to mention the blood. I'm sure somebody lost a finger in there." Kristoff helpfully added.

Elsa laughed and smiled at us. "Well, if my behavior has not been too far out, I suppose I should discuss why I am here in the first place." Placing her plate on her lap, she took a deep breath before speaking.

"Yesterday, by your standards, my superiors received a vision. It foretold a great cataclysm. Legions of hellspawn marched across burning landscapes. The city, Arendelle, was completely in ruins. All the buildings were covered in frost and torn apart. Amidst the chaos stood a giant fiend of epic proportions. They called it an archdemon, young in appearance, but with enough power to level continents at his will. Eventually the armies of darkness spread, faster than any plague the world had ever seen. The troops were endless, never running low in supply and humanity stood no chance, and faced either extinction or slavery.

"This was told to them to be a vision of things to come in the future, but only if events were allowed to transpire uninterrupted. They were told that 'In their darkest hour, the world shall turn to their last saving grace. An angel, cast down from the heavens, shall stand against the legions of Hell itself. Cloaked in robes of Ebony and Ivory, she will beat back the forces of Evil through might and fire. The Guardian will vanquish the legions, sealing them in the nether real from whence they had come. So they shall stay, and the gate will stand impervious until the coming of the next Judgement.' Needless to say, nobody desired such a burden to be placed upon their shoulders. When it finally happened, an archangel himself chose who to send, and I was picked to be heaven's representative to stop the rise of Hell's legion."

After she finished her story, she took another deep breath and leaned back against the sofa Kristoff and I were sitting there taking in everything we had just heard.

"Wait, so they saw a vision of a demon army taking over Arendelle? There's not nearly enough frozen here to form an army, let alone demons." Kristoff said with a frown.

"I do not know either." Elsa responded. "It also troubles me that they claimed to see a new Archdemon. The generals of Hell were, for the most part, former angels from Heaven. To see one that was not recognized would imply the birth of a new one. I do not wish to imagine the implications behind that."

"They're opening the gates." I said, not raising my head. Both of my friends turned to me as I continued. "The incident 30 years ago. It's going to happen again."

Kristoff shook his head. "No way. Nobody could even found a portal that could have caused the whole incident to begin with."

"But it fits. New army? You'll need a portal to hell. New Demon dude? You'll need a portal to hell. Either way you look at it, something is going to happen in North Mountain."

Kristoff tried to rebut me, but the words died before they even left his lips. He only took another deep breath before slumping back into his seat. We didn't want to admit it but I'm probably right. Without more information though, this was probably the best explanation we had, not that it gave us a plan.

Elsa interrupted the silence with a gentle cough. "There is… one more detail I forgot to mention." She talked slowly and evenly. "They gave me a time frame for while I could act. The cataclysm is supposed to happen by the end of the week."

Today was Monday. "That gives us four days to figure out what's going on, right?" Elsa nodded at me, holding her hands together in silent prayer. I clapped my hands together and smiled. "Alright then, let's get going."

Kristoff and Elsa looked up at me. "Where are we going?" Elsa asked, raising one eyebrow up in confusion.

"We're going to go figure out what we're going to do next. Kristoff, you wanna search the web for whatever you can find?"

He sighed and gave me a weak salute. "I guess I'm the only one who knows how to use a computer. I'll be on wire if you find anything out." He gave me his best smile. It was a small kind that reached his eyes. In all the time that I've known him, Kristoff always believed me whenever I had a plan. I need to ask him how he does that later.

"Sounds like a plan. Elsa, you go ahead and get ready. I'll finish eating and we'll head out after." She nodded and finished her slice. With a few quick steps she was up the stairs and out of earshot. I sighed exaggerately and slumped back into my chair. "So…" I say, dragging out the 'o' until Kristoff replied.

"We're supposed to stop the apocalypse." Kristoff replied in a matter of fact tone.

"Yep."

"And Elsa's on a direct mission from God to stop it."

"Well, she didn't mention big G, but yeah."

"Okay, why aren't you reacting more to this?" He rose to his feet with a frown on his face. Brown eyes glared at me from behind dirty blonde hair. "The biggest case in years turns out to be the apocalypse, and you're not concerned at the slightest."

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. "I know her. She's not the kind to fail a mission. Besides she was in a prophecy and stuff. People in Heaven tend to take those kind of things seriously."

"She's not the only one that fits the prophecy."

My breath caught in my throat. I glanced up at his eyes but averted my gaze almost immediately. "Anna, you know it's not necessarily her." I started shaking my head and plugging my ears. "We need you! You fit that description just as well as Elsa."

"The prophecy calls for an angel Kristoff." I say as evenly as my shaking voice can allow.

"You are an angel!"

"No I am not!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. We stood there staring at each other as an uncomfortable silence spread between us. I put my best scowl on to keep the shaking at bay. A gentle hand cupped my shoulder and my scowl faltered. Slowly I started to shake and the hand moved to my back. The ceiling must have been incredibly interesting, because he was looking up the whole time, just standing as rigid as a board. We stood there until my shaking stopped. "I'm not an angel Kristoff. I fell years ago, I told you already."

Kristoff shook his head. "Just because they took your wings doesn't make you any different. Elsa didn't seem uncomfortable around you in the slightest."

I laughed a bit and shook my head. "That's 'cause she doesn't know. Believe me if she knew, she wouldn't be half as close to me as she is right now."

"Why not?" He said in a quiet voice. "You skipped out on that part last night."

I sighed and let my shoulders sag. "Angels are a giant family Kristoff. We're supposed to give everything to the world around us. We don't have problems until an angel starts getting selfish. I mean, ya know everyone knows about that Lucifer guy for example. They're dangerous. It's one thing to know that your friend will give up anything to protect their family. It's another when they'd give up everything to protect what they want."

"I don't get it. How does that lead to banishment and not, I dunno a stern lecture."

"It's not something that we can just shrug off with a lecture." I shook my head as the chills started to come back. "Angels aren't programmed to be selfish. Altruism is built into the brains of every angel ever since their creation. Selfish desire is a major glitch in the matrix. Mortals feel desire. Mortals are willing to give up everything when they find something worth dying for. Not angels."

"So what was worth getting kicked out of heaven for?"

I looked up at him and gave myself a reassuring smile. It felt like a long time before I opened my mouth. A single word came out of my lips, weighed down by years of regret, frustration and sadness. The word that was the beginning and the end to everything in my life it seems. It was both my favorite word, and my worst nightmare.

"Elsa."

A/N: Sorry for the delay! I actually had a chapter written out a few weeks ago, but I didn't like how it worked. It was a huge flashback and frankly disrupted the story so bad I had to shelve it. Maybe I'll put it up some time in the future, but for now here's this chapter. Leave a review if you liked or didn't like anything, and I'll see you guys next time.

P.S. I'm starting school in a week, so updates may be even slower. I swear though I will not wait a month again, even if I have to upload a 500 word chapter.

P.S.S. I kinda wanna put a picture for this thing, but I'm not sure what images would fit. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it so much if you could help me out.