Author's Note: Holy shit, people! In my entire time on this site I've never seen a reaction quite as big as the one this story is getting! Because of that I now find myself spending a lot of my free time thinking of ideas for the story and writing it out. Just a warning, Belle will be in this chapter but there will be no Belsa or Banna. I repeat! There will be NO Belsa or Banna! It's my aim to try and mention at least one or two Disney characters each chapter. Speaking of chapters…here's to hoping you enjoy this one! Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Ice Skating

"Have a nice day, ma'am." Anna said, smiling and nodding her head to a mother who had been looking for a CD to give to her daughter for Christmas. She knew what bands her daughter liked but wanted to get her an album from a band she didn't already have. Unfortunately she didn't know what bands played the type of music her daughter enjoyed. Anna only had to glance at the list before knowing exactly which album the woman should buy, guaranteeing her that her daughter would love it.

"You too dear. And thank you so much." She said, pulling out another list as she walked away towards the Entertainment section to buy a game for her son. Anna waited until the woman disappeared from view before whipping out her phone and shooting a text to her now second-favorite person in the store.

"Heads up, Olaf. There's a woman in a red blouse heading your way to buy a game for her son. She has no idea what she's doing."

Pressing send, she closed the screen and was about to drop the phone back into her pocket when it binged to tell her she received a text. Reopening the screen, she touched the message app to see Olaf had already texted her back.

"No problem. I'll start her off with CoD: Ghosts, Dead Rising 3, and AC IV: Black Flag. Maybe I should throw in some T rated games too? Madden and Kinect Sports Rivals should do. Thanks for the warning."

Anna chuckled, always amazed at the speed the seventeen year old could text at. He was one of the new hires from last month and, despite being a little too childish, he had quickly become the Entertainment section's best employees; having a near inexhaustible knowledge of everything technological, from computers, to game consoles, to phones, to earbuds!

"All those are Xbox One games. What if her son has a PS4? What then?" She texted back, giggling slightly as she sent it. This time she didn't even bothering closing the screen, knowing he would respond within the next few seconds. Just as she thought this, Olaf's new text showed up with a 'bing'.

"Anyone who's smart has an Xbox. And not all of them are for the One, some of them have 360 versions. Wait, red blouse spotted. Gotta' go complete the mission. Bye."

Anna giggled again at his response before closing the screen again and slipping it back into her pocket without any interruptions. Checking her watch, she saw there was still an hour left until the employee meeting. She would've used her phone, but the store had given them all some pretty nice employee watches and it as an effort for them all to seem more professional and using it had become second-nature to her now. For about the thousandth time that day, she wondered what the meeting would be about; it was obviously something amazing, judging by the ecstatic look Gene had on his face when he told her about it this morning. She had tried to glean the information form him, but he was being very hush-hush about it, saying it was a secret and all that.

She snapped out of her ponderings as another customer came over to her for help, much in the same situation as the woman in the red blouse. She quickly identified another album and led the man over to where it was, handing him the CD with another 'Have a nice day' farewell. Watching him leave as well, she thought about how much she had come to enjoy working in the store over the past month. All the reasons she had for previously wanting to quit had disappeared. In fact, if she thought about it, there was only one aspect that she could say she hated about her job. Elsa.

Well, hate was a strong word. Hate was how she felt when Weselton was in charge, dislike was a much better word to describe her feelings towards Elsa's leadership than hate. Weselton had one of the biggest superiority complexes Anna had ever seen and, as a result, he believed he had no need to interact with any employees other than his assistant managers due to his "higher status". Elsa's approach to leadership was different, yet somehow the same. No one ever saw her on the sales floor itself, but she still interacted with the assistant managers and department managers through one-on-one meetings held in her office. Sometimes she'd even have a meeting with a sales associate, although those were rare. The only problem that Anna had with Elsa was that she never, once, interacted with her.

In the entire month since the store had turned a corner, she could only count two times in which she actually had any form of interaction with her platinum blonde store manager. The first being when she had ran into her on her first day as department manager and ended up flat on her ass. The second occurred a week and a half after that, when she managed to corner her in the early morning and present an idea she had about displaying some of the newer albums they were due to get. Elsa had seemed distracted the entire time though, only giving one-word answers and looking anywhere but at her. She eventually got the hint and dropped the topic, leaving to return to the floor. After that she hadn't seen hide or tail of her, leading her to believe that she had done something (or was doing something) to make Elsa dislike her.

'Well, she definitely living up to the Ice Queen name.' Anna thought to herself in a bitter tone. She shook the thought off quickly, though, and set back to work on her duties for the day. The daily list had grown slightly smaller since the first week she had become department manager and, while the tasks were still as tedious as that first day, everybody had grown acclimated to them and were leaving at the end of the day with only a few miscellaneous duties left uncompleted. As much as she disliked Elsa's leadership, it was definitely getting shit done. The slight remodeling that had been done did wonders to change the atmosphere of the store itself and, combined with the daily cleaning duties in every department, brightened the moods of employees and customers alike. As a result, more people became attracted to the store and became returning shoppers. Many people swore the store's clientele had at least doubled since then. Anna was currently busying herself with one of the said cleaning duties, cleaning the glass on one of their display cabinets, when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Yes?" She asked, a smile on her face as she turned to address the customer. That smile dropped immediately when she saw who was standing before her.

"Hey there, Anna." Said a tall man with auburn sideburns large enough to turn Hugh Jackman green with envy.

"Hans." Anna said lowly, venom practically dripping off the name as she said it.

"Now, now. There's no need to be uncivil. A pretty voice such as yours shouldn't be tainted with such negative emotions." He said, grinning flirtatiously at her.

"Cut the crap, Hans." Anna said, crossing her arms in disgust at his crude attempt to flirt with her. "Either buy something or get out, 'cause in case you haven't noticed, I'm working right now and don't have the time to deal with you." Hans smiled at that, reaching behind himself and grabbing a random CD without looking. He pretended to examine the artist on the front of the case before speaking.

"Funny thing, Anna." He started, flipping the case over and pretending to read the songs listed on the back. "My father and I were scheduled to have dinner at Le Restaurant Fantaisie in the city on Sunday. Unfortunately, he's now unable to attend due to some business complications that have arisen. This leaves me with an open seat in the reservation and I just had a feeling you'd be interested in occupying it." His attention was now fully focused on her, his eyes giving her the most disgustingly lecherous gazes she even seen from a man. She looked around for a means of escape, already tired of dealing with him, before her eyes fell to her watch; she felt her heart soar when she saw there was only ten minutes left until the meeting.

"I've got to go, Hans." Anna said curtly, turning to leave without answering and beginning to walk away. She was stopped, as an arm appeared in front of her to block her off, though. She turned back to Hans and saw that he had become closer to her than before; much too close for her comfort. She attempted to back away, only to stop as her back hit the glass panel she had been cleaning only moments before.

"You know, Anna." He said slowly, his voice taking on a slightly darker tone. "When someone asks you a question, it is very rude to leave without giving them an answer." Anna was too scared to reply. Hans had never gone this far in his constant passes at her before and she had no idea how to handle the situation. Luckily for her, someone else did.

"There you are, Anna." A familiar voice said from down the aisle. Hans immediately backed away, destroying the close proximity entrapment he had on her. Now free, she looked over to see none other than Elsa striding down the aisle towards them. "The meeting is taking place in six minutes."

"Excuse me." Hans said, his own voice now containing a small bit of venom as he failed to notice the ID badge on Elsa's lapel. "In case you hadn't noticed, Anna here was in the middle of helping me to find something." Anna was about to protest, about to tell Hans to shove a cork in his ass and tell Elsa what had really been going on. To her surprise, though, Elsa beat her to the punch.

"Well I'm sorry, sir." She said, now turning to look up at Hans. "But my department manager here has a rather important meeting that she really must be present for. Now, as store manager I would gladly assist you in finding whatever it is that you are looking to buy. That is, unless you aren't actually looking to buy something at all."

The whole time Elsa's face had remained impassive, holding the courteous smile that was expected from a store manager. Under it though, Anna could sense the slight veiled threat that she had just delivered. Hans, now seeing the ID badge and realizing exactly who it was he was talking to, let a scowl develop on his face before backing down and turning around; quickly striding away from them and disappearing into the store. Anna let out a tense breath she hadn't realized she was holding before looking over at Elsa. If she hadn't arrived when she had, she wasn't sure how far Hans would've gone. She was about to offer a thanks, but Elsa was the first to speak again.

"Three minutes until the meeting, Ms. Summers." She said, only giving her a glance before turning on her heel and taking off in the opposite direction as Hans. Anna could only stand there, dumbfounded at Elsa's abrupt exit after what had just transpired.

'Figures.' Anna thought bitterly, unfreezing herself and heading to the employee lounge. 'What else was I expecting from the Ice Queen?' Still, even though she felt offended by Elsa's ridiculous attitude towards her, she could help but let a small smile escape at how she had defended her. Everybody in the city new about Samuel Isles and his thirteen sons, even Elsa had to…despite the fact she had only been in the city for five weeks now. Barely anyone ever talked negatively to them, and those who did could usually expect to find themselves falling on hard times afterward; this was why she had been having to deal with Hans' unwanted advances alone for the past nine months. And yet, there Elsa had been, standing up for her like no one else had as if Hans were nothing more than a lowly mortal. Because of that, she couldn't stop thinking about the blue-eyed store manager until she reached the packed lounge and started looking for a seat.

"Anna, over here!" Kristoff's voice called out. Looking over, she saw him waving to her and gesturing to an empty seat he had been saving for her. Grateful for his foresight, she wove her way through the crowd and sat down next to him. Just like her, he had been promoted to department manager of the store's outdoor section. He had been ecstatic to learn of the news, so much so that when he had been riding in the passenger seat of her car his knee collided with the glove box and unleashed its contents as they were heading to a local bar to celebrate. It was then that he had learned of her now-extinct plans to quit. At first he had been hurt to find Anna had been planning on leaving him alone at the store, but quickly got over it when she told him that was before she had been promoted.

"Thanks, Kris." She said, pulling the seat closer to the table. "I owe you one."
"You always say that but you never pay me back." He said, putting his hands behind his hand and leaning back in his seat.

"What do you mean!?" She asked indignantly. "Of course I do!"

"Suuuure." He said, drawing the word out for emphasis before changing the subject. "So what do you think this meeting's about?"

"Beats me. Pay attention and maybe you'll find out." She said, gesturing to the front where the assistant managers were beginning to assemble. All the idle chatter died down as the six people gathered in the front of the room, discussing something in a small huddle before separating with large smiles on their faces. Out of all of them, it was Gene to step forward to make the announcement.

"Alright everyone," He started off, his hands clasped in front of him. "We'd like to thank you all for attending this impromptu meeting, but this morning some wondrous news was delivered to us and we've made a decision based upon it that we think you'd all like to hear. Normally the store manager would be the one to make this type of announcement, but she is unfortunately caught up in an important business call right now so it has been left to us to make it."

'Business call?' Anna thought in confusion. 'But she just saved me out on the floor a few minutes ago. What kind of important business call comes in in that amount of time?' She would've liked to ponder on the subject more, but was brought out of her musings bythe sound of Gene's voice starting up again.

"Now we understand that the last month has been hard on you all. The shift in management, unexpected promotions, and an almost complete change in staff. Add that all together with start of the Christmas season and you could say we've definitely all been put through our paces at least three times over." Everybody chuckled at that, nodding their heads in agreement.

"But," Gene continued, pausing for dramatic effect. "This morning we received news that, in one month, we have jumped from being the least profitable to the second-most profitable store in the state!" At this he threw his hands into the air and the rest of the assistant managers behind him began clapping their hands. Everyone followed suit, amazed at the fact that they had made such a jump in such a short amount of time. Some started whistling to add to the noise while others shouted out 'Yeah!' and "Woohoo!' Gene let this play out for a bit before signaling everyone to quiet down. Once the noise level returned to normal he continued with his speech.

"This was only possible because of all of you who stepped up to the plate and delivered through this difficult time. Because of this, both the Elsa and the all of us assistant managers have come to a unanimous decision to reward all of you!" Chatter immediately erupted at this, but soon died down as Gene once again made the gesture for everyone to quiet down. "And so, this weekend being the last before we break for Christmas, we have managed to book the entire Corona City Ice Skating Rink for the whole of Saturday for you all to enjoy for free!" Everybody erupted into cheers at the announcement, ecstatic at the idea of a free party. The only one who wasn't cheering was a certain twin-braided redhead, whose eyes were wide open in complete fear.

"You know, you didn't have to come if you're this scared of ice skating." Kristoff said to her as she stared in apprehension at the rental ice skates the woman behind the desk had handed her.

"I know." She said, as she followed him to the benches where they could put them on. "But you know how much I love parties! It's not like I can just stay at home!"

"Of course you could." He said, taking a seat on one of the benches and pulling his shoes off. "But then you'd be lonely loser laying on your couch and lamenting the fact that all your friends are out having fun while you're doing nothing but being bored in your apartment."

"Exactly!" Anna exclaimed, taking off her own shoes. "And then it would become a trend for me and I'd end up staying home all the time and not going anywhere fun until I end up alone in my mid-forties with thirty-seven different cats all named after random musicians being the only things to keep me company for the rest of my lonely life!" She finished. Kristoff had actually stopped in the middle of lacing up one of his skates to stare at her in surprise.

"Well…I wasn't going to take it that far, but it's definitely a possibility!" He said.

"Thanks." Anna said sarcastically. "Besides, maybe this time I'll actually learn how to do this."

"That's the spirit!" Kristoff exclaimed, giving his laces a final tug before looking over at his companion's now shoeless feet. "Uh, Anna? You do know that skates go on your feet right?"

"Yeah." She said, a blush slowly growing on her face. "But I don't think I know how to."

"Ah," He said, understanding dawning on his face. "Well I really have to use the bathroom right now, sooooo…" He trailed off, looking around before his eyes landed on an unoccupied employee. "Hey buddy! My hopeless friend over here needs some help with her skates!" He yelled, gaining the attention of not only the employee but five of their co-workers in the process. Anna's blush only deepened as she made their way over to them.

"You need help, miss?" She asked politely, giving a customary smile.

"Damn right she does!" Kristoff answered, clapping the girl on the back before looking down at her. "Now you be a good girl while I run off to the bathroom, got it?"

"Go to hell Kris." She said, causing him to smirk before heading off the restrooms behind him.

"Seems like a nice guy." The employee said to her, making small talk to lighten the mood.

"He's an asshole." Anna said with a smile. "But at least he's not a douchebag like most guys I know. Now if you could help me get these damned things on my feet?"

"Sure thing." The employee said, kneeling down and loosening the skate's laces before slipping them onto her feet. "So are you two together?"

"What!?" Anna asked in surprise. "Well…I mean…we tried something out a while ago, but it just didn't feel right so we decided to just drop it."

"And you guys are still friends?" She asked, almost finished lacing up the skates.

"Well, yeah. We only went on one date, but it was uncomfortable for us both so we just agreed that it never happe…Ow!" She exclaimed as the laces were pulled tight. The girl immediately backed off, looking up at her in concern.

"Are you alright?" She asked carefully.

"Yeah." Anna replied, looking down at her feet. "They're just a lot tighter than I thought they'd be."

"Don't worry, they're supposed to be that tight. But I can get you a size larger if you want." She offered, relaxing slightly.

"No way." Anna said, quickly dismissing the idea. "I just got these on and I am not going through that entire process again!"

"Whatever you say." The employee said, shrugging her shoulders. "Do you need help standing up?"
"Now look here," Anna said with false indignation. "I may not know how to put skates on but I'm definitely competent enough to stand on my ow…!" Anna's sentence was cut off as she immediately lost her balance and started to tumble to the ground. She swore she saw her life flash before her eyes before feeling a pair of arms stop her.

"You sure about that?" The girl asked, smirking as she lifted her into an upright position.

"Thanks for not letting me fall…uh," Anna deadpanned, realizing she didn't even know that girl's name. Looking down, she saw the girl wore a name plate on her left side. "Belle."

"No problem." She said, before being distracted by a text from her phone. Checking it, she sighed before putting it back in her pocket. "That's my boyfriend. He's wondering why I'm not out in the parking lot yet." She explained.

"It's cool." Anna said, before connecting the dots in her head. "Wait, are you not working right now?"

"I just clocked out when your friend called me over, but it's alright. I like helping people out." She said, sensing Anna was about to apologize for keeping her.

"Well then, thanks again for the help. I'm good now that I'm on my feet, so you can go ahead and get out of here." Anna said.

"You sure you're good?" Belle asked, giving her a disbelieving look.

"Yeah, Kris will probably be back soon anyway." She replied.

"Suit yourself. It was nice meeting you…?" Belle said, pausing as she waited for Anna to give her name.

"Anna. My name's Anna." She said.

"Well it was nice meeting you, Anna." Belle gave her one last smile before turning around and walking towards one of the exits. No sooner had she left that Anna felt and large hand on her shoulder, almost making her lose her balance and fall over again.

"Well, looks you've finally got some blades on." Kris said from beside her. "Now how 'bout we get them out onto the ice?"

"Might as well." Anna sighed in response, preparing herself for whatever fresh hell she was about to experience. Truth be told, at the end of the day the experience was nowhere near as bad as she dreaded it was going to be…it was far worse. The entire time her hand was in constant contact with Kristoff's shoulder. Any time she tried to take it off and skate on her own she ended up either face-first or ass-first on the ice, most of the time with Kristoff laughing at her misfortune above her. One time she actually fell caused him to fall to his knees in laughter, clutching his gut as tears fell from his eyes. By the end of the day she was pretty sure she had a bruised tailbone and at least three blisters on each foot. This was only confirmed as she pulled both the skates and her socks off to see the pale spots glaring angrily at her from the soles of her feet.

"Those seem pretty nasty." Kristoff said as he finished tying up his shoes, making appoint not to look directly at them. "You, ah, you need any help with them?"

"Nah." Anna said, carefully inspecting them. "I was a Venture Scout so I know how to handle these. Could you get an employee to grab me a First-Aid kit though?"

"You were a what?" Kristoff asked, not even hearing that last part.

"A Venture Scout." She said, glaring up at him. "It's like Boy Scouts, but co-ed. But that doesn't matter. All you need to know is that I know how to take care of these, but I need a First-Aid kit to do that."

"Right. First-Aid kit." He said, looking around for an employee but finding none in the empty room. "And when I get said employee to bring you said First-Aid kit, you won't need any help with that, will you? 'Cause you know I'm pretty squeamish when it comes to things like that."

"No, Kris." She said, rolling her eyes. "You don't have to stay. Like I said, I can handle it myself."

"Great." He said, relief flooding his features. "Now to find that employee." With that, he took off and left her alone in the room.

"God, I hate being the last one at a party." Anna said, taking in her lonely surroundings. By the time she had managed to actually get off the ice, everybody had already turned in their skates and were on their way out the door. At least Kristoff had offered to stay, but she knew if he did then the janitorial staff would have one hell of a mess to clean up.

"Excuse me?" A voice said, breaking her from her thoughts. Looking up, she saw a man standing there with a First-Aid kit in his hand. "Your friend said you needed this?"

"Yes." Anna said, happy to see the red tackle box the man was bringing over to her.

"He also said something about how you didn't need any help with this?" He asked, giving her a careful eye.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Feel free to leave if you want to, just leave the door locked and I'll close it when I'm done."

"Well thank you, ma'am." He said, placing the kit next to her. "But I was actually going to ask for you to not close the doors so as not to lock the other one in."

"Other one?" Anna asked, wondering what he was talking about.

"Yes." He answered simply. "We have a regular here who prefers to skate alone at night and she would probably appreciate it if you didn't force her to stay here for the night."

"Well," Anna said, slightly confused. "I'll be sure not to do that."

"Thank you. Feel free to leave the kit here for someone else to pick up." He said, before turning around and leaving.

"Thanks." Anna muttered, opening up the tackle-box and fishing around inside until she found the moleskin pads she was looking for. Quickly applying them to the blisters, she carefully pulled her socks on and tentatively stood up on them. Satisfied that the pads were keeping the pressure off the blisters, she slipped her shoes back on and grabbed her purse before heading out. As she came to the exit, though, her curiosity got the better of her and she began heading towards the rink. She wanted to at least see whoever it was that apparently skated her every night. Reaching the entrance to the large room, she strode in and stepped up onto the spectator's ledge. The second she did though, her jaw dropped in pure awe.

"E-Elsa?" she stuttered, not believing what she was seeing. Out there, on the ice, was Elsa herself. She wasn't just merely out on the ice, though. The way the platinum blonde was moving, Anna would've sworn that she was levitating over it and not gliding across it on the blades attached to her feet. Her movements were so effortless, so flawless, that all Anna could do was stand there frozen at the woman's natural talent.

'She's amazing!' Anna thought to herself a she watched Elsa go up on one skate and bring her arms and legs in, initiating a spin that was fast enough to give her motion-sickness just watching it. Elsa then pulled out of the spin, moving across the rink with ever-increasing speed until she finally launched herself high into the air; spinning as she sailed through it and landing perfectly on one leg with her body parallel and other leg parallel to the ice, gliding backwards without a single wobble or tremble. She held this position for a few seconds before returning to an upright position and initiating another, slower spin and coming to a complete stop with a graceful pose to end her routine. It was only then that Anna realized that Elsa's eyes had been closed the entire time, and now they were both face-to-face with each other as the pale lids began to open.

'Shit!' Anna thought, realizing she was about to be she could duck out of view, though, their eyes met and all Anna could do was stand there as Elsa's face went from a look of confusion to one of shock at realizing that she had unknowingly had an audience. Anna could immediately feel an amazing amount heat rush to her face in pure embarrassment and it took all of her willpower to rip her gaze away from Elsa's and rush out of the room as fast as she could. The entire way though, the only thing she could think about was how at peace Elsa had looked out on the ice. How…beautiful she had looked as she flew across it. The second the thought popped into her mind she shook away, not wanting to think about its implications as she rushed out the door and quickly got into her car.

Meanwhile, Elsa was still standing motionless out on the ice in shock. Out of all the people in the worldwho could've caught her in this private moment, it just had to be her. She slowly brought her hand up to her cheek, feeling the heat from the blush that was becoming ever present on her face. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't she only she felt though and she closed her eyes in annoyance as she skated to the exit of the rink, done for the night.

"Dammit." She muttered, cursing the two parts of her life that she now absolutely hated.