Days passed, and eventually the party reached a coastal city from which they would be taking a ship from to reach party picked an inn to stay the night in and they were greeted inside by the innkeeper and her daughter.

"Welcome! My daughter Helena will see to your comfort this evening."

Elsa gave a polite smile to the village girl, who was subtling leering at the queen, but since Elsa had eyes only for a certain captain, she never noticed the other's interest.

Everyone settled in for the nighttime meal, and then went their separate ways for the night, save for a few soldiers that were elected to guard Elsa in the meantime. Subtlety was key, as the queen didn't want to be drawing any unnecessary attention to herself.

As twilight fell over the city, the Snow Queen became more and more agitated as the night went on. Now in a stationary environment, there was now little to distract the blonde from her troubling thoughts, save for the cracks in the ceiling and the boisterous citizens getting in drunken fistfights downstairs.

Eventually, the queen became so bored that at the latest smash! that echoed through the upstairs hallway of the inn, she finally stood from her desk and sought out Kaya. She couldn't wait and allow the woman to avoid her any longer.

Kaya was downstairs having a rare drink to attempt to clear her own roiling thoughts and emotions. Unfortunately, having a fire demon's stamina, partnered with the fact that drinking games were quite commonplace in Palladon, meant that the woman would be sadly hard-pressed to get any sort of relief from the alcohol alone.

She didn't look up as she felt Elsa's heat signature drawing nearer.

Not like she had planned on getting drunk anyway, she thought as she downed the rest of her drink.

Elsa didn't hesitate to approach her, unlike the timid pursuits she'd attempted back in Arendelle.

"You can't avoid me forever. What are you so afraid of?"

The accusation came from nowhere. Kaya had thought that the first thing the queen would say was that she was sorry for what she'd said.

"Avoiding?" Kaya drawled, setting her mug on the counter and standing. "I was under the impression that we simply had nothing to talk about besides business matters." She bowed her head out of formality. "If you'll excuse me."

Elsa grabbed her arm and she turned away, making the other woman nearly jump at the uncharacteristic show of assertiveness from her usually docile queen.

Realizing that there really wouldn't be any avoiding this conversation, Kaya simply took Elsa's wrist and tugged her outside, away from anywhere their conflict might be overheard. They ended up in a back alley after Kaya had dismissed the guards to stay inside.

Turning from doing a quick up-and-down scan of the alleyway to assure their safety, Kaya now looked Elsa in the eyes. "Now, what is it?"

"Why are you being so difficult about this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play that game with me," Elsa said. "I realize that I hurt your feelings with what I said, and I would've apologized sooner, if you'd given me the opportunity."

Kaya sighed, raking a hand through her hair.

"It wasn't...what you said." She answered frustratedly.

Elsa seemed to relax somewhat, but the tension in her posture didn't disappear completely.

The captain looked back to the queen. "It truly wasn't. It was just what made me realize how much I had to-" She corrected. "Have to leave, that's all."

"You were serious, then?"

"I'm not in the habit of making empty promises."

"But I don't-" Elsa shook her head. She didn't want her to leave!

But the words here lodged in her throat, which had become almost painfully tight since the conversation had started.

Kaya continued. "You shouldn't trouble yourself over what you said. You were perfectly justified, and if I was upset at all, it was because of how close to the truth you were."

Elsa didn't believe that for a second, but listened as the fire magic user went on.

"So don't worry about it anymore; focus on keeping peaceful ties with Palladon. Soon enough, you'll be home and I will be a distant memory to the rest of Arendelle." And to you, she chose not to add.

Before Elsa could get out a decent response, the captain turned on her heel and was gone just as Elsa finally strung her words together, whispering her words to the wind, as she'd so often been doing lately.

"-And what if I don't want you to be a memory?"


Elsa didn't particularly like ordering people around. But since her composure and patience were hanging on by a mere thread, she made an exception and ordered (she was forced to order, since the bodyguards simply would not take the hint and leave her the hell alone) the guards to make themselves scarce for the night.

Apparently, they feared incurring Kaya's wrath if anything untoward happened to the queen if they left her unattended than they desired to please said queen by heeding her request, as they merely gave her more space than usual, but didn't leave completely.

This, of course, only made Elsa's mood darken more than it already was, and she brooded (something she couldn't ever remember doing in her life) on the balcony on the second floor of the inn. It was late, and it seemed like the majority of the rest of the guests had turned in for the night.

"What's got you looking so depressed?" A voice said from behind her.

Elsa didn't recognize the voice, but turning around, she recognized its owner.

Helena, the innkeeper's daughter, stepped out on the balcony and gestured to the seat beside Elsa.

"May I?"

Elsa wasn't really in the mood for company, but the girl's energy reminded her of her sister, whom she'd give anything to have with her at this very moment. So she motioned that the girl have a seat if she wanted.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

When Elsa did nothing more than nod politely in response, Helena took a more straightforward approach.

"I hope I'm not prying, but I'm here to listen if you want to talk about what's bothering you."

Elsa tried not to give her a look that said "Why would I be talking about my emotions with a complete stranger?"

She realized she'd failed miserably when the girl laughed and said,

"Sometimes what people need is the opinion of someone unbiased to help them work through their thoughts."

The queen certainly couldn't argue with that, so she ended up telling much of the story to Helena (who was a surprisingly good conversationalist, unlike the usually quiet Kaya). She left out the part of her being a monarch for obvious reasons, and that they were on their way for peace-talks with another country. For all Helena knew, Elsa was an ordinary woman.

"I said something awful...I don't know if she'll ever forgive me."

"And what exactly is your relationship with this woman?" Helena had gotten a feeling about Elsa from the first moment she saw her...or maybe it had been wishful thinking. Either way, she figured it couldn't hurt to help Elsa realize her feelings if she could.

Elsa blushed. "I-" She cleared her throat. "She's a friend, what else?"

Helena smirked. So it was that way. She thought.

"That isn't the only feeling that can be between two women, you know." Helena said, subtly moving a bit closer as she spoke.

Elsa blinked, not really sure what the other woman was getting at, so she switched topics.

"But I can't just think about myself; I have others to put first."

"Others? Are you the matriarch of your family, by chance?" Helena said, half-joking.

Elsa laughed a bit. "Of sorts. I have to keep my family safe, whatever the cost." It wasn't a complete untruth, after all. "But she's convinced that where we're going is somehow dangerous...That it's some kind of trap that will put me in harm's way."

"Has she given you any proof that this is the case?"

"None at all." Elsa put her head in her hands. "And she refuses to talk to me about it!"

Helena sat back, looking now over the balcony edge to the moonlit ground below.

"Sounds like a lack of trust on both sides."

"Lack of trust?" Elsa asked. "I'd trust her with my life!"

Helena chuckled. "Apparently not enough to take her advice without her having to prove there's any real danger to you..." She hummed, leaning on her elbows more as she continued. "But to be fair, she doesn't seem to trust you much either."

Though her words did have more than a bit of truth to them, that didn't stop them from stinging like salt in a fresh wound for Elsa.

"What makes you say that?"

"If she doesn't trust you enough to tell you the real reason behind her behavior, maybe she fears your reaction when you find out the truth."

"Which is?"

"How would I know?" She laughed, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "Honestly? With your personality and looks, she might have fallen in love with you, for all you know." She gave a playful wink at the end of her statement. She was taking a gamble by bringing the often-taboo topic of a love between two women into the conversation, but she couldn't help it.

The blonde turned a flattering shade of red, but with her complexion, it wouldn't take much embarrassment to turn her into a living tomato.

"S-She's not in love with me!"

Was she?

"Well maybe, maybe not..." Helena grinned. "But you love her."

This time, Elsa shot from her seat and nearly tripped over her chair in her haste to get away from...she wasn't really sure what.

Helena stood as well, smoothly moving closer to Elsa and placed a tentative hand on Elsa's cheek.

"Want to test it?"

Elsa was again at a loss for how exactly they could do that. As she tried and failed to make sense of it, she was struck from her thoughts by a pair of warm, soft lips pressing against her own.

The queen started, but didn't pull away as she let Helena set the pace, currently swept away in a whirlwind of confused emotions.

Not that Elsa had much experience with kissing, but she had to admit Helena was certainly skilled, noting the way her lips moved smoothly and confidently over hers, guiding and coaxing Elsa's into a positive reaction.

Elsa, for her part, was still frozen with no idea what to do as she allowed the village girl to continue kissing her. The questioning tongue that then licked at her lips, asking for entrance, was what finally gave Elsa pause.

Pulling back and putting slight pressure on the other woman's shoulders ended the kiss immediately.

Helena smirked, looking only slightly disappointed and surprisingly smug, as if she knew something Elsa didn't. "Nothing, right?"

Elsa started to protest,

"It wasn't that it wasn't nice, I just-"

Helena stopped Elsa's words with a gentle finger over her lips as she stepped away.

The innkeeper's daughter danced gracefully back to the entrance to the balcony, looking back at Elsa as she stood at the door.

"Think about why that is, Elsa." "You might just discover a side to yourself that you never even knew existed."

With a wink and a smile, she was gone, leaving Elsa alone with her thoughts.

It wasn't another five minutes later that saw Elsa quickly walking for the stables, where she had a hunch her head bodyguard would be.

As upset as she was with Kaya, Helena's advances (and more importantly, her own reaction to them) had made her realize two things:

First, there would be no rest for her until she found a way to keep Kaya at her side of her own free will.

And the second...

Elsa stopped at the top of the stairs, looking in the direction of the floor below but not really seeing anything.

It most certainly was not Helena she wanted kissing her.


Kaya thought about hiding or doing some other action equally as childish as she felt Elsa coming. She seemed incensed about something, if her higher-than-normal temperature was any indication.

She tried to block the image of the two kissing women from her mind, but brushing her horse was not helping the calming process at all. She had dismissed the guards around Elsa for the moment, intending to talk to her about the next day's plans, although she would have preferred to have as little contact with Elsa on the journey as possible.

What she hadn't counted on was the village girl making a move on the most powerful known magic-user within leagues of Arendelle. Even more unexpected was the complete lack of negative reaction from the blonde. She didn't seem to hate the advances of the girl, but Kaya didn't bother to stick around to see who escalated the kiss first.

"Kaya." It wasn't a question, and the captain turned around to find the queen with a determined look set upon her face.

"Your Majesty." Kaya bowed her head.

"Elsa." The blonde said in a low whisper as she stepped forward. "Please."

Kaya resisted the urge to match Elsa's steps, only backwards, but with the horse directly behind her, there was nowhere to go.

Finally, she lost her patience and snapped.

"Elsa, what do you want?"

Elsa didn't hesitate.

"You."

She rapidly closed the distance between the two of them, reached up to cup Kaya's face and laid her lips almost desperately upon Kaya's.

Elsa immediately felt Kaya's body stiffen as she remained unresponsive to Elsa's kiss.

The kiss lasted for several more seconds, and Kaya couldn't help but be drawn in by the raw emotions that were be conveyed through the kiss; fear, frustration, desperation, love...

It was disturbing to think that the last one unnerved her more than any of the others.

She grasped Elsa's shoulders and forced her away so she could meet her eyes.

Kaya had to stop herself from pulling Elsa right back in when she saw tears glistening in the queen's eyes.

Elsa's voice wobbled as she spoke. "I just want you. Please."

Kaya didn't even have the heart to snap at Elsa about the fact that not ten minutes ago she had been kissing a near-stranger and had seemed perfectly fine with it.

The thought of Helena and Elsa's embrace earlier that night was like a bucket of ice water being dumped on her.

"You don't know what you're asking." Kaya hoped she was keeping her chaotic emotions properly veiled as she stepped back. "This is a bad idea."

Putting some distance between them was difficult, considering all she wanted to do was grab the queen and show her exactly why this was such a bad idea.

"Go back to your room and sleep, Queen Elsa." As she spoke, Kaya turned away and tried to make it look like she would actually return to grooming her horse the moment Elsa left. "We still have a ways to go before we reach Palladon."

Had she only looked at Elsa again, she would have seen the tears glistening on Elsa's cheekbones where they steadily trickled their way down to coat their maker's neck. Her heart plummeted at the thought that she had misread every interaction with Kaya since she had arrived in Arendelle. Her heart sank even lower to think of what a desperate fool she must have made herself out to be.

Kaya felt the temperature drop, signalling Elsa's already blatantly obvious disappointment, and then felt Elsa's heat signature move away swiftly, as if she couldn't stand to be in Kaya's presence a moment longer.

Only once she was sure Elsa was no longer anywhere near the stables did she allow herself to fall forward to lean her weight somberly on her mount, her forehead against the massive side that steadily moved up and down, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Kaya certainly didn't blame Elsa for being upset, or for running away for that matter.

Whatever treatment Elsa saw fit to bestow upon her now, Kaya had no doubt she deserved every bit of what she got.


The next few days, no matter what the task seemed to be, time just dragged for Kaya. Within a day of being at the inn, the group from Arendelle was on a ship that was headed directly for Asuria.

The act of distancing herself from Elsa was by no means impeded by the Snow Queen herself. Elsa and Kaya fell into a routine of avoiding each other while on the voyage, but there was only so much space on the boat. Every time they ran into each other, sometimes quite literally, the situation would be awkward and cold. Kaya had no doubts that everyone in the room had felt the telltale temperature drop that accompanied the times Elsa was forced to interact with the captain at all. Frankly, Kaya was surprised the woman had enough control at least to not make it snow after even laying eyes on Kaya.

Not that she was doing much of that anyway.

Kaya could only hope that she was making the right decision by Elsa. Both by not confronting the problem and by disappearing as soon as Elsa was safe and sound back in Arendelle and Kaya had made it abundantly clear to Zmeya that Elsa meant nothing to her.

Even though nothing could be farther from the truth.