"I'm not warm." Elsa told Anna abruptly one day as they searched for something they could use as eyes on the snowman they were building back at the pond.

"I'm just not cold." She said quietly picking the leaves off the juniper berries in her hand. "It's just because it's so cold out here that I feel warm to you."

"Really?" asked Anna, only slightly paying attention as she pulled at the perfect stick for a snowman's arm. Trying to untangle it from the brambles that were currently, to her frustration, keeping it from fulfilling its life's true purpose.

"Yes" said Elsa, a smile making its way across her face as she headed over towards where Anna was struggling. "You're warmer then I am."

"That must be nice in the summer" grunted Anna giving another yank at the infuriating stick. "You'd be like my own personal cooler on hot days. Prepare yourself for lots of hugs!" She grinned over at Elsa as the girl in question promptly found great interest a large mound of snow as a light pink coloring rose to her cheeks.

Grinning Anna turned back to her snowman arm, finally wrenching it from the evil bushes and was about to exclaim in triumph when something cold exploded on the back of her head with a THUD that caused her to nearly fall forward before her cartwheeling arms caught her.

She turned back to look behind her, mouth wide gasping at air in shock. To see Elsa, looking slightly guilty but unable to keep the mischievous laughter out of her eyes, turning to run back to the pond, as Anna shook the remains of snowball from her head in a great flailing and flapping of her young limbs and chased after the older girl. The shrieks of laughter echoing through the air.

Anna realized she had been wrong about the purpose of the stick clasped within her mitten covered hand. It wasn't a snowman's arm. It was in fact a magic sword, made specifically for slaying evil snowball throwing ice fairies.

"Be on your best behavior Anna."

"Stay close to Kai Anna."

"Don't slouch Anna."

"Don't skip Anna."

"Remember Anna you're a princess."

Well it wasn't her fault she was a princess! She grumbled as the familiar words were repeated over her head. She hated this. She hated the nagging. The prodding. The hands that were constantly sweeping over her to straighten her clothes and hair. To remind her of all the things that she didn't do right, wasn't able to do right, the first time.

Couldn't they see she wasn't cut out to be the princess they obviously wanted? She would never have the grace or poise she knew they expected. It just didn't come naturally to her. Not like it seemed to come to her father and mother, or even to Elsa. Elsa would have made a perfect princess maybe she could teach me Anna thought suddenly she could teach a princess how to be a princess. And she giggled slightly at the thought only to have it earn herself a disapproving look from Gerda as the maid did some last minute adjustments to the front of Anna's new dress before hurrying off to attend to the queen.

"Are you nervous princess?" Kai asked softly as he gripped the young girl's hand.

Anna just shook her head as she eyed the gate in front of her. Her father and mother were talking quietly behind her as what seemed to be the entire royal household rushed around the courtyard in a last minute flurry before the royal family were scheduled to open the gates and present themselves to the people.

Kai knelt down next to her "They will love you" He said kindly his voice warm with affection for the girl "once they know you they will love you as much as everyone in this castle." And he squeezed her hand as he pulled out something from her coat pocket. "A treat for the birthday girl" he said eye's twinkling as he handed Anna a piece of chocolate. "Don't tell Gerda."

She hadn't seen the magic that night. But she went anyway. Just needing to escape the castle. Escape the title that she was cursed with and just be Anna for a few hours.

It hadn't snowed in a while but the winter weather was still cold, the sky cloudy and Anna welcomed the wind as it bit and nipped at her eyes, nose, and ears as she made her way up to the pond.

She had thought that finally leaving the palace would be different. That the closed gates policy was just her parents trying to protect her and once she got into the rest of the world she would be welcomed with open arms.

She had never realized what being a princess really meant before.

Now though she realized. If people weren't afraid for royal family then they were scared of them. No matter what there was no open arms, no matter a princess was only ever held at arms length.

She hadn't meant to wander. She really hadn't.

There were so many sights, so many people here. The colors and music all blending together and calling to Anna as the festival continued into the late afternoon.

The sun was setting over the town as Anna wondered among the stalls of vendors gawking at the wares. Gerda gripped her hand in a not so pleasantly tight hold. Kai had been forced to decline Anna's pleas to explore because he had to sort out some issue involving pigs and what had been going to be the wine for tonight's royal dinner.

So Anna had been reluctantly given permission to leave the open aired feast the rest of the royal household was enjoying on the condition that she did not let go of Gerda's hand. A condition she promptly forgot as she rushed forward in excitement.

"Anna!" Gerda scolding echoed after her as she rushed after the girl. Weaving her way through the crowd towards the vendor whose wares had captured the girl's attention.

They were fairies.

Little round talisman barely the width of Anna's thumb. Simple things really. A fairy design was carved into the metal and each one had a colored bead attached to the sting that threaded through the top. Anna's eyes scanned over them in wonder lighting on one that had a bead that was the exact blue of Elsa's eyes.

What happened next wasn't any one persons fault. It was a series of events that just so happened to line up perfectly with one another. As if the universe had decided it was bored and wanted to see what would happen.

As Gerda bustled over towards Anna the universe pulled a string and Gerda stumbled on the hem of her cloak catching herself from falling only by grasping on to a stranger next to her. Perfectly timed, as she turned her back on the princess to apologize, the universe pulled another and an octaball crashed onto the table that held the charms Anna was currently admiring.

Startled Anna didn't register the vender's outraged cry as his wares tumbled to the ground, her wide eyes locking onto the charm with the bead the color of Elsa's eyes as it flew through the air before landing and rolling with the offending ball down the cobblestones of a side street. The Universe pulled at her, and without a thought Anna ran after them, not realizing that she disappeared from sight just as Gerda jerked around. Looking towards the commotion that was taking place at the stall the young princess had been previously standing at only to find the princess absent among the mess.

The pond was still frozen. It had been warmer these past few days and, with no Elsa, Anna had been worried the pond might have melted in their absence. It was slushy on the top and more so towards the middle but still frozen as Anna step out onto it.

She had realized over the past few months that she'd been meeting with Elsa, that the older girl didn't realized she was the princess. Now Anna mused she was even more glad that she hadn't told her.

It wasn't intentional at first, just that they had both missed the obvious connection between Elsa's questions and Anna's answers about her life at the palace. Anna had realized this miscommunication with a jolt one day when she'd been complaining to Elsa after the older girl had remarked, a hint of longing coloring her voice, how nice it must be to live in the palace.

"It's just rules Elsa." Anna told the her. "It's everyone and everybody telling you what you can and can't do. The tutors, the maids, even the gardeners you should here them." She began to mimic them in a high voice that unfortunately still sounded more like Anna then anyone else. "Don't run in the halls, don't stand on the chairs, don't pick the flowers, did you do go to your lessons today?" She sighed rolling over into a more comfortable position as she and Elsa drew patterns together in the snow.

"It sounds like they're all very proud of what they do." Elsa replied watching as Anna tried to add legs to the cat Elsa had been drawing and making them incredibly large for the cat's body size. "They must care about the royal family very much."

"They should just join it then." Anna had grumbled not liking the topic or her failure as a snow artist at that moment. "The way they talk, it sounds like they would all make better princesses. I don't like it." She mumbled. "A princess must never be late. A princess always rises early. A princess doesn't slouch. A princess doesn't stuff her glob." Replying to the question asked by Elsa's raised eyebrow, "Yes, I actually heard them say that."

Though it was possible she had misheard. As at the time, she had been sprinting away as fast as her little legs could take her from the angry kitchen maid with her treasure of stolen chocolate sweats stuffed in-between her puffed out cheeks.

"She's lucky to have you as a friend then." Elsa said casually. Far, far, too casually for a statement that had just left Anna feeling like she'd been slapped in the face.

"Wh-What?" She stammered as Elsa continued to draw, glancing up at Anna shyly before returning her gaze downwards.

"You're friends aren't you? I mean the way you get so offended for her it's obvious you're insulted on her behalf." Elsa stated oblivious as Anna's brain whirled in an attempt to recall sometime in their previous conversations where she must have mentioned her birthright and at the same time found her brain frozen in it's attempts to connect her words to her mouth.

"It must be nice," Elsa continued, "to be friends with a princess. I wish I-" then interrupted herself shaking her head. "No, I could never be friends with a princess." She said laughing at herself as Anna's breath suddenly frozen in her throat as a sudden desperate fear grabbed at her heart.

"Could you imagine," Elsa chuckle was slightly bitter, "a princess sneaking into the woods in the middle of the night? It would be so irresponsible! I could never . . . I could never allow myself to put someone like that at risk fro-from my powers." Staring at her hand as it frosted over as if to prove her point. "I already feel guilty enough about exposing you, Anna."

As Elsa's voice wavered on Anna's name and her hand and eyes clenching shut as she struggled with some inner turmoil Anna, regaining some senses, jerked forward.

"You would never hurt me." Anna reassured softly bringing both her hands up comfortingly to Elsa's face. Elsa's struggle with the guilt she felt over her time spent with Anna wasn't anything new to their relationship. Anna was just glad that the girl enjoyed spending time with her enough to overlook it. But she knew that Elsa's fear was the cause of some of the longer breaks between their visits, that it sometimes overcame the girl and made her think she should stay away from Anna. Anna was just glad that Elsa always eventually called her back.

As Elsa's face slowly relaxed between Anna's warm hands, she let out a breath of cold air, opening her eyes to smile (slightly guiltily) at Anna.

"Thank you for believing that." She said quietly and Anna's chest tightened again in sadness over how sincere she sounded. "I'm not supposed to do this." Elsa continued her eye's searching over Anna's face. "I'm supposed to stay away. Keep people safe. Make sure I never hurt anyone again." Anna held her breath trying not to breath, not to move, not do anything that might distract Elsa from this rare sharing moment.

"You're lucky I'm so selfish." Elsa finally said "I really can't imagine going back to before I met you." And despite the sadness and guilt on the older girls face Anna had felt warm again.

It wasn't really surprising when Anna thought about it.

The fact that Elsa had never considered the idea that Anna could possible be the princess.

It had stung a little, when she had laid in bed the night after they'd had that conversation. Stung that despite all her stories about palace life, classes, and nagging servants Elsa had not ever considered that Anna was princess material.

But honestly, Anna thought as she dragged her feet over the slushy ice I'm not, never have been. Elsa was just confirming what Anna already knew. She wondered sometimes if there had been a mistake at her birth because Anna had certainly not been born to be a princess.

And she hated it. Oh she hated it.

"Princess, Princess Anna" she mocked herself kicking at the ice and suddenly she felt the tears from earlier spilling over again and she kicked harder. She knew what being a princess meant now. It meant distance. It meant separation. It meant no one wanted to befriend her. Everyone was either disappointed that she wasn't able to live up to her title or scared away because of it. Everyone, even Elsa . . . and the kids from today.

She had chased after the fairy charm. Down the slanted road and through the crowds. Catching the charm first but still running to grab the troublesome ball as well.

Cornering it finally, after nearly three failed attempts in the crowded street where a foot had kicked it away a second before she grabbed it. Twice, she believed on accident. Sweating and grinning in triumph she turned back with her treasures only to be surprised by a shout.

"That's mine!" Yelled a voice coming from a group of children, around Anna's age, running down the hill towards her.

The group skidded to a stop in front of her all of them breathing just as hard as Anna.

"Can I play too!" Anna squealed out in excitement, holding the ball out to them.

A yellow haired older boy looked down amused at the girl, taking the ball from her outstretched hands.

"You don't even know what we were playing." He said grinning down at the girl.

"Why is it hard?" Asked eyes dulling a little as she unconsciously stuck her lip out in a pout.

"No" he laughed, "it's not. Sure you can play what's your name?"

"Anna!" She squealed in excitement at the prospect of actually getting to play with other children. Missing the way their expressions changed at the mention of her name as she rambled on "What are we playing? I'm really fast even though I'm short! Or are we playing like an adventure game? With knights and drago-"

"That's the princess." She cut off suddenly as a little girl in the group moved to whisper in the ear of a equally short boy, her voice never the less carrying clearly over to Anna.

And Anna was suddenly aware of the silence as she looked at the group of shifting uncertain children who not moments before had been laughing and joking.

"Yeah? . . . So?" Anna's voice cracked as she tried to ignore the sudden change in the group.

"My dad will kill me if I get in trouble with the palace guards." One boy spoke shuffling awkwardly and pointedly avoiding looking at Anna who suddenly felt very very small, as he stared off to the side instead.

"Yeah, no offense Kris but if she gets hurt playing with us . . ." Another kid muttered trailing off leaving all sorts of unnamed punishments to speak in his silence.

Anna could feel the world narrowing in around her. Others were nodding in agreement and Anna looked up at the kind blonde boy desperately for some sign that they didn't all want to get rid of her.

He looked uncertain scratching his head and shuffling his feet like the others. But his eyes were kind and for a second as he looked down at her he reminded her of Elsa, he looked her age.

"Anna" he said quietly, resigned to breaking the girl's heart as he knelt down by her. "Why are you here alone? Shouldn't you be with someone? It's not right for a princess to be wondering around by herself." And Anna felt the hope rush out of her in a gasp of air. Even the kind people didn't want her.

She looked around at the children avoiding her eye, as something weighed down on her chest suffocating her. She was never going to escape it was she. It wasn't Anna that they dislike, they would never have that chance, because her title kept them from getting close enough to actually know Anna enough to dislike her. She was trapped, because what kept her from other people wasn't something she could ever change about herself. She could think of nothing she could do to fix who she'd been born as.

"Anna!" came a cry from the street as she saw Gerda pushing her way through the crowd. But she barely registered it. Standing there as the kids left one by one. The blonde boy the last to leave nodding to the girl remorsefully as Gerda reached her. Her silence continuing as Gerda walked back to the palace with her hand grasping Anna's firmly a endless flow of reprimands spewing from her lips and an endless stream of tears flowed from Anna's eyes.

Anna gave a little twirl on the ice before collapsing down on it staring up with unfocused eyes. Her eyes and her heart exhausted and aching from her tears and the wind danced through her hair and on her face as she tilled her head up towards the dark night sky.

Suddenly she wished that Elsa was there with her.

Because Elsa didn't see Anna as a princess. She didn't look at her as someone on a pedestal or judge her for never being able to reach the bar of expectations set before her.

To Elsa she was "just Anna."

Yet somehow, Elsa still liked "just Anna."

So Anna thought maybe I'm not so hopeless.

A/N sorry if this is darker guys I didn't expect to take it that far, now I'm sad :( Wow this chapter was much easier to crank out then the last one and I already know what I'm doing for the next one YAYYY! :D

So never written an authors note before, basically I just wanted to thank some super cute reviewers for their support. You're. Wonderful. you beautiful beautiful people.

And who was the guest who said Elsa was going to shit bricks because you killed me with laughter.

Night guys :)