Okay, let me just start by saying I am soooo sorry for how late this is. Apparently nearly all my teachers thought that the first week back in class was an excellent time to have us take exams, so between studying and work, I've been super busy. I was going to try and make it up to you guys by making this chapter super long, but it didn't feel right continuing it any further than I did, so here is me swearing that the next chapter will be up by Wednesday at the absolute latest! I'm going to try and keep this updated around every other day or so, and if I ever fall behind I give you permission to slap me with a fish. Alright, I'm done with that. Also, though, I just want to say, HOLY CRAP you all are amazeballs. Seriously, over a hundred follows? I damn near cried! And all the comments and positive feedback, it makes me feel guilty that I'm not updating this every hour. You guys are the best :3 Happy Reading!

EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER

Dawn shone out from behind the peaks of the mountains of Arendelle, bright with the beginning of a new day but lacking the warmth that the sun usually gave off. It had snowed during the night, as it had every night for the past month, and it was barely November. The leaves on the trees had been replaced with beads of ice dangling from the barren branches, and when the light cascaded down from the heavens and onto the white ground below it was breathtakingly beautiful, especially so in the wee hours of the morning, out on the frozen lakes in the alps surrounding the fjord.

It wasn't, however, splendid to wake up cold and disoriented after a rough few hours of sleep in the frozen outdoors. A certain young woman with twin braids poking out of her cap was just beginning to awaken with the sky, the light poking her eyelids just enough to force them open after a few weary blinks. She grunted as she sat up and pushed the blanket she was wrapped in away from her body, adjusting to her surroundings after a few dazed minutes.

Anna's breath came out in small puffs in the cold morning air; she stretched, idly massaging the areas of her body that were sore from another restless night. The winter in Arendelle was relentless, even to those who were used to the cold. The ginger haired girl slid down from her spot on the sleigh and onto the ice, taking care not to slip as she made her way over to where Kristoff was already working at making a hole in the frozen water.

She watched him for a minute; the determination with which he forced his saw in and out of the water was almost enough to lift her spirits and make her forget all the days she'd gone hungry because they didn't have enough money for food. Almost. It was almost enough to make her ignore how her clothes that were once only slightly big on her frame now hung off of her like rags; the breeches she had to wear out on the ice were so loose that they had to be tied up so they didn't fall every other minute. It was almost enough to make her forget that every night, when they curled up under their coarse woolen blankets, the temperature was declining more and more.

Kristoff was thinking of something along the same lines. Being out on the frozen expanse was both calming and upsetting simultaneously. The duo hadn't made a sale in months; the entire kingdom's temperature was drastically lowered year round for the past year now. The highest temperature reached that summer had been only sixty degrees, nowhere near warm enough for a demand for ice. Slowly but surely the teams that made their way out to the ice sheets began to lessen, until it got to the point where the only blemishes on the white expanse were the two young adults and their reindeer.

If this cold weather kept up any longer, their business would go under… for good. Kristoff couldn't let that happen; Ice was his life, after all. It was all he knew except for Anna and Sven, and if he couldn't keep them all safe, he didn't know what he would do. He squeezed his eyes shut, throwing all his weight into a final thrust of the saw. He stood there, motionless, for a good moment and Anna knew that he'd finally given up. Already the cut he's made in the sheet was beginning to crackle as the freezing water pulled it back together, making the harvesters' work disappear.

"Kristoff," Anna tapped her friend on his shoulder, shaking him rather forcefully when her gentle approach had no effect, "Kristoff, hey!" He didn't reply. In fact, he continued ignoring her, bending down to yank the saw from the ice.

"C'mon, Anna, stop lollygagging and grab a saw," another grunt followed an angry thrust, "We need to make a sale today. If it kills us, we need to sell something." Anna couldn't help but agree with the literal side of his statement, but snorted at the irony of his words, averting her eyes when he glared her way. When she made no move to help him, Kristoff tried a more forceful approach, "I mean it Anna, you'd better get to work, or so help me…"

"So help you what?" the girl urged him to continue, "You'll send me to bed with no dinner? It's hard to punish someone with a normal occurrence, don't you think?"

Kristoff had the decency to look ashamed that he'd even thought to threaten Anna, and an uneasy silence fell between them both

"We could possibly, just a suggestion, nothing more, look into other lines of work," she suggested, backtracking as soon as she saw the hurt expression on his face, "At least until the spring comes and it warms up… hopefully."

"I don't know how to do anything else, Anna. Don't you see? All my life, all OUR lives, this," he gestured down to the frozen ground beneath them, "This is all I know how to do. I don't have any skills. I can't do anything!"

"Sure you can," the girl tried to reason, "A smart guy like you? I'm sure under all that muscle there's a genius waiting to be unleashed. But… we'll never know unless we try, right?"She waited for him to respond, but he didn't. He just stood with his head hung low and shoulders dropped; a broken form of her friend that she was ashamed to admit she didn't know how to fix. "Kris, we'll die if we keep this up. You know that. We haven't made a single sale in months, we're ridiculously low on funds, and we haven't slept in an actual bed in so long I don't remember what one even feels like!"

"Please," her voice was sat on the fence between pleading and ordering, "Just give it a chance. We can head down into town, see if there are any jobs around there, anything that will pay and give us a place to stay. Just until spring."

Kristoff opened his mouth as if to try and protest once again, but decided against it when he saw the determined gaze Anna was directing at him. He couldn't speak- he didn't know what words to even try and use to describe the odd sensation he was feeling- sort of helpless and a whole lot of stubborn… and a small bit ashamed that his stubbornness had led them both to the point they were at now: starving and homeless. Anna was right, she always- okay, most of the time- right, and he just had to face that this was another one of those times.

"It'll be okay," she whispered gripping his arm, "I promise." Anna could only hope that he believed her words more than she did.

Queen Elsa sat in her study, poring over the stacks upon stacks of paper atop the desk. Her hand was beginning to cramp up after signing decree after decree, law after law, but she didn't care. It was just another day of her life- or rather her existence. Yes, that's a more fitting term for what she was doing. Existing; going day to day, repeating the motions of signing, flipping, and signing again with a mechanic sort of repetition.

Her life had been filled with repetition since her coronation, but if she minded it at all, she didn't show it. Her face was almost always wore a blank expression, her eyes always void of any emotion. The servants around the castle would sometimes make a remark that their Queen was without human emotions, but they were just that: remarks. Because behind closed doors, very seldom, the Queen's mask would slip away, letting her emotions run free.

For instance, she often found herself staring into the flickering flames that her handmaids would light every evening as the sun sank in the sky, and in those moments when she was lost in the dancing embers she wasn't burdened or relied upon, she was simply free. The flames reminded her of the past; of a life filled with those passionate emotions that this force of nature conveyed; it reminded her of that night, when she had become what she was today. Yes, the fire was the same shade if red as… a certain someone… a certain someone who'd disappeared from the Queen's life nearly as quickly as she'd entered it. It was during these moments of reminiscing that, if one could witness it, they'd see everything the woman was feeling clearly displayed on her face. The hurt, the confusion, the regret… all visible to the naked eye for the split second that her guard fell. As soon as she realized where her mind was wandering, though, the mask was back and her features unreadable.

Now was one of those moments; a time where she was alone with her thoughts and could do nothing to direct which direction they flowed in. At first they were solely on Arendelle and its people, and on improving internal trade, but soon they drifted to just the citizens themselves. She often wondered about the conditions of her people; trying to think of little ways she could better their everyday lives. For the most part, Arendelle was quite well off. Trade was fluid, crime rate was low, and she'd yet to receive a death threat so that was a sign that she was doing well so far, but once in a while she'd imagine herself as a normal girl living in the town, doing normal things.

Sometimes she'd imagine that she were the daughter of a baker and would run the deliveries, but the cart would get stuck in the road. That particular daydream had led to the reconstruction of many of the cobblestoned pathways in the town, which the people were thankful for. On more than one occasion she'd found herself thinking about how much she'd love to have been born a confectioner's daughter, so she could have all the chocolate she could eat, (not that that was an issue, she was Queen after all), but she did soon thereafter strike up a deal with a neighboring kingdom to the south to have a monthly import of the sweet shipped to the townspeople.

Her most repetitive thoughts, however, were on what it would be like to be a normal young woman, to have the freedom to walk around the town and not everyone bow to her, to be able to speak to people her own age. She'd imagine going on what she'd heard been labeled as a 'date', having fun without having to worry about ruling a kingdom. Nothing to fret about at all as she felt the wind on her face and ran her fingers through soft crimson hair…

Her thoughts were (thankfully) interrupted by a succession of quick raps on the door. Clearing her head of her silly thoughts, she spoke in a perfectly rehearsed voice, "Enter."

A short, balding man entered the room, shutting the door and bowing in one fluid motion before making his way to the desk where the monarch was seated, "Good evening, Your Majesty."

"Good evening, Kai," Elsa smiled fondly at the older gentleman. He'd served her parents at the castle since before she was born, and offered her the same loyalty that he'd given them, "Please, have a seat. How can I help you?"

"Thank you, Queen Elsa," he sat in on of the two chairs across from the young Queen, "I have a request to ask of you."

"Of course," was her automatic reply, "Anything you need, I'll be sure to have it arranged."

"You're too kind, my Queen, but at least let me finish before you say such things," Elsa nodded to the man, signaling him to continue, "You are aware that Master Hardingswood and Chef Claussen are both… indisposed as of late, yes?"

How could she not be aware of it? News that the stablehand had chased a runaway colt into the castle's kitchen had been the best gossip the staff had their hands on for the better part of a year, and it was even better that the Chef and Master Hardingswood had sustained rather serious injuries after the animal became panicked in such close confinement, putting both men in the infirmary and leaving their positions to be filled by the rest of the household staff.

"Yes, I am aware. Has there been any improvement in either of their conditions?"

"No," Kai said, "I mean, yes, their health is returning, but with them both gone, things aren't getting done quite so quickly around here as they normally would be. It's hard to fill such important positions."

"What exactly are you saying, Kai?" she asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"I'm saying that it would be advantageous to hire on a couple more hands to help around the castle, at least until Hardingswood and Claussen have fully recovered."

More servants… More strangers… the Queen's breath hitched in her throat. But there hasn't been a stranger inside the castle in over a year. Not since…

"Can't Gerda just assign two of her lackeys to fill in for them?" the Queen offered hastily, "I heard that girl Astrid was a fabulous cook."

"Yes, Your Majesty, she is, but with her in the kitchen all day, her normal assignments are left to the others to be handled. And no one has quite the touch with the animals that Hardingswood did, they don't respond well to anyone that enters the stables. Everyone's plates are so full with juggling the chores that it's proving difficult to finish a day's work at all,"

"I'm just not so sure about this, Kai. What if the people hired turn out to be thieves or a threat of some kind..." Elsa tried to keep the frost from spreading further about the room as every worst case scenario ran through her head; (so she had some trust issues, so what?)

"Your Majesty, I assure you that I would personally handpick those that would be joining the staff. You'd have nothing to worry about." The balding man held his breath, looking anxiously up at his Queen. He could see the mixed emotions in her face; the mask slipping ever so slightly to show her discomfort of the whole situation. She was at a crossroad, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Yes, she could just deny the man, and continue on with her life as she had been: reclusive and distant. That would be the easiest thing to do. But he was right about one aspect, and that was the fact that if she kept this one-woman-act up for much longer, her people surely wouldn't look on her with respect. They'd see her as a snob; a blue blood not worthy of their respect, and as much as she pretended not to need anyone else, the support of her kingdom was something she deeply desired. She was, after all, stuck with this job for life whether she liked it or not. Besides, it wasn't as if she would really have to interact with the newcomers. She'd keep her original staff close at hand, and let the new members follow the commands of the higher-ups. It couldn't be that bad to have a few more helping hands around the castle… she hoped.

"Very well," she agreed, forcing down the sense of worry (as well as a thin layer of frost that was creeping its way up her quill), "Do what you must, Kai. I expect all of this to be settled in a week's time."

"Yes, your Highness," the butler hid his relieved grin as he bowed and turned, making his way out of the study; a weight lifting off of his shoulders and settling heavily upon the Queen's, "You have my word."

To Be Continued