The fragrance of honey and camomile wafts into Elsa's face as she enters the royal bath. With her concentration diverted by the blissful scent, she fails to stop her gown and slippers melting into the steam rising from the pool to greet her. Atop the granite columns flanking the bath, bowls of mint-scented water perch on canary carvings holding candles in their open beaks, adding even more steam to the room.

"The bath is ready, your Highness," a handmaiden curtseys, laying out towels and a pot of herb-infused honey by the edge of the pool.

Elsa waits for the thump of the door shutting behind the handmaiden's footsteps before undressing and slipping into the water. She undoes her braid and splays out her golden tresses, allowing the scented water to soak into her scalp. The worries about Anna and Arendelle melt away into one long sigh as she slumps into the bath and takes in the sensation of the heated bathwaters caressing every inch of her skin.

The comfort sends her eyelids fluttering shut, and at once her imagination wanders to Anna – standing before her and dressed primly in a regal gown. Even in the conjurings of her mind, the sight of her sister brings a smile to her lips, and she presses them to her cheek, before placing another not-so-sisterly kiss on her lips. Anna smiles back against her chin, and whispers, "Elsa, look what I brought you-"

A severed head clutched between Anna's slender fingers wakes Elsa with a shudder and a gasp draining all the air from her lungs. With her heart thumping in her chest, and the water turning lukewarm around her, Elsa shakes the thought from her head and wades to the edge of the bath, just needing to get rid of the thoughts. She contemplates allowing herself to drift off to sleep again, but the burn marks and all the memories they represent change her mind.

Instead, Elsa dips her fingers into the jar; her hands making squelching noises as she rubs the thick medicated honey into her sear marks. Standing waist-deep in the bath and facing away from the door, she fails to notice the ripples traversing the surface, until a hand snakes its way along her bare back.

"Christ!" Elsa shrieks, flinching away from her intruder's touch. She trips over her feet and stumbles backwards into the water, only to resurface and frantically wipe the moisture from her water-logged eyes.

"Anna?" Elsa gasps, coming face to face with her sister's naked form barely inches from her own, "you're…awake? You're here? H-how did you get in?"

"Actually, the servants drew the bath for me - Doctor says honey's good for burns," Anna whispers, pointing at the blisters lining her thighs,

Elsa stares into her sister's eyes and feels her heart tighten at the sound of her voice. Her gaze wanders to the bruises on Anna's face: angry and red against the sparseness of her freckles. The cuts on her wrists from where the shackles had dug into them have barely started to heal, as with the many other wounds inflicted on her body. Elsa bites on her lip as she comes face to face with the reality of just how much danger she put herself through to save her. But as Anna extends a trembling arm towards her - Elsa finds herself pulling away from her.

"You're scared of me aren't you?" Anna whispers, allowing her hand to slip back beneath the surface, "They probably told you everything."

Through the steam, Elsa detects a faint glisten in Anna's eyes, and her heart begins to pound.

"No, Anna listen-"

"I'm probably a monster to you now, after everything that happened."

Elsa's gaze dips to Anna's fingers; the bruises and scars telling a story of the pain she went through for her sister – together with all the blood and lives plucked from her enemies.

"I mean - Anna, all those men! You killed them all!"

"I did it to set you free!" Anna gasps.

"You can't just go around killing people! These people have families, they have-"

"I only have you!" Anna screams, clutching her fingers into little red welt-lined fists, "Elsa, you're everything to me, and besides, didn't I kill myself before trying to save you? What difference does it make-"

"You can't, you just can't!" Elsa shrieks, bunching up her fists around her ears, "this wasn't how father and mother taught us how to deal with problems!"

"Ignore it, shut people out? Is that what they taught you?"

"Well, they didn't teach us to kill!"

"You killed someone too!" Anna yells, "Don't you remember the soldier who almost stabbed me through the throat?"

Elsa shuts her eyes and tries to remember diving through the clouds and plucking Anna from the jaws of death. There could've been someone there she inadvertently froze over as her dragon landed, or a few others caught on the points of her icicles, but really – all she saw was Anna, and everything else which happened was secondary to the throbbing in her chest as she reached out and grabbed her.

"It was but one man!" Elsa says.

"One man, ten men, a hundred, a thousand, whatever! After everything the Southern Isles put us through, could you just sit back and let them take advantage of us?"

With every word leaving her sweat-lined lips, Anna's breathing grows more and more laboured; she clutches the side of her ribs and utters a groan. The grimace on Elsa's face fades into softness as she sees her sister buckle over in pain.

"Anna, your chest, it's-"

"It's nothing," Anna scowls, waving away her sister's outstretched hand, "I'm fine-"

"No you're not, tell me what happened!" Elsa demands.

"He s-shot me," Anna whispers, looking away and edging herself onto the edge of the bath, "t-the King shot me."

"Adolphus? He shot you? Like, with a gun?"

Anna nods; the quivering in her lips calms into stillness as Elsa forces a chill into her fingers and grazes it over her sister's ribs. The bumps and deformities greeting her touch causes Anna to wince, and Elsa's eyes begin to water as she feels her sister's pain coursing through her fingers.

"T-that feels nice," Anna whimpers, "t-the doctor says it's broken in three places, and the bullet's lodged so far in my chest removing it would endanger my life."

"Oh, Anna," Elsa gasps, slipping her trembling fingers around Anna's waist and gingerly pulling her sister's body close to hers, "you didn't have to."

"I had to, what would I do without you?"

Elsa's heart clenches at the gentle heave of her sister's breathing, and the realisation that unlike her – Anna met her problems head on, without fear or even the thought of running away. Anna was the one who knocked when the door was shut, pursued when her sister ran away - and slaughtered the enemies who threatened their lives.

"You killed him, didn't you?" Elsa asks.

Elsa feels her sister's nodding against her shoulder. The trickle of tears along Elsa's back confirms she never wanted to kill any of them. She thinks of an adequate reply that would calm Anna's feeble whimpering, and the sobs trembling through her chest and into her own.

"Thank you," Elsa whispers, and at once – Anna's sobbing ceases.

"I'm…I'm…just a-afraid you'll think I'm a monster, or some sort of freak who goes around killing people."

"No, Anna – you're my sister. You'll always be my sister no matter what happens."

"Even if I-"

"No evens," Elsa whispers, brushing her hands through Anna's hair, "nothing at all."

Anna slips her ankles around her sister's lower back and pulls her closer. The feeble pulse in Anna's chest intensifies to a dull throbbing as Elsa presses her lips up against her chin. Without even thinking about it, their lips meet in a shuddering union of ice and fire, and at once Elsa's fears melt away into the knowledge that what Anna did was right. Anna slithers her tongue over Elsa's lips, and the chill in her sister's hands fade. With cautious, trembling touches, the sisters graze their fingers over each other, taking care to avoid evoking pain from their bodies, or memories from their minds.

"God," Elsa gasps as Anna presses herself up against her chest.

Anna trails her fingers along her sister's spine, but a harsh knocking on the door snaps her out of her daze – and Elsa stumbles backwards into the water.

"Um – your Highness! It's time for your physical therapy!" Gerda's voice muffles from behind the door, "And, uh, your Majesty – the inquiry will resume in a quarter-hour!"

Anna groans and slips into the bath, sending water sloshing around her sister's waist.

"Oh god," Elsa gasps, sputtering flecks of water, "they know we're in here together!"

"What's the big deal? We took baths together when we were kids didn't we?"

"But-" Elsa starts, before pondering the necessity of her worry and reconsidering, "yea, you're right."

"We have to go, don't we?" Anna mutters, staring at her feet.

"It's alright," Elsa whispers as she cups her sister's face in her hands, "I still need you for, um, something."

Anna's eyes light up at the sound of her sister's request, before they flutter shut as Elsa grazes her lips against hers.

"Meet me at the harbour tomorrow morning at sunrise," Elsa whispers, "and wear a nice dress."