A/N: All fluff zero plot.

They had their picnic downstairs where Marshmallow fit more easily, even though he, like Olaf, didn't actually eat. They were dining in elegant style. Olaf had (reluctantly) given up his cape for the table cloth. In the hamper were candles, cutlery and even a bottle of wine to go with their supper of cold ham, cheese and bread. And Elsa was in fine form. Carolina noticed that she was much more free about using her magic here; at home she always glanced around before or sometimes after she performed her magic to see if it had been a mistake. Up here she just did it. Elsa had built a table and chairs for all of them, including one large enough for Marshmallow and one tall enough that Olaf sat at table height. She had made wine glasses, a vase and intricate ice flowers, ice swords, not sharp she assured Carolina, so that Olaf and Marshmallow might recreate Anna's sword lessons. She had even opened up a whole wall of the palace, thinning the glass down to a delicate sheer pane, so they might enjoy the view outside while they ate.

Carolina could see a rather dramatic difference in Elsa. In Arendelle, she was poised, reserved, careful. Rarely, sometimes after her second glass of wine, she would express herself exuberantly or candidly if it was just Anna and Carolina and Kristoff. The only other time Carolina had seen her this high-spirited was when she and Carolina were alone and the door was safely locked, but that disposition fell away as soon as the door was opened.

It wasn't that up here Elsa was anymore talkative, Olaf kept up the conversation for the most part, but she wasn't guarded, not once she had gotten over her initial bout of shyness. She smiled more. She laughed more. She used her hands dramatically when she spoke. She even walked differently … and it was a walk Carolina could get used to seeing. And when she kicked her feet up on a spontaneously created footstool, not caring that her dress fell away exposing a shocking length of leg, Carolina found herself desperately wishing that the cold didn't bother her either. She made a resolution to recreate this feeling down in Arendelle, if it was at all possible.

After dinner Olaf was going on about his current favorite topic, explaining his understanding of the different relationships Elsa had with various people in the castle, to his little brother. If Marshmallow cared or even understood that "Fitz was different," he didn't show it, but Elsa looked a little pained and buried her face in her hands.

"So, I take it the 'talk' with Olaf about our relationship didn't exactly clear the air," Carolina said quietly.

"I did the best I could. It's part an 'Elsa doesn't talk about that subject well with anyone' problem and part a vocabulary problem. It's hard to say that we are intimate if he doesn't know what intimate means."

"What does intimate mean?" Olaf asked brightly, snowman hearing apparently being better than they had planned on. "So … Fitz is intimate with Elsa?" He seemed to be trying out the words, no doubt to add them to his current dissertation on Elsa and other people.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Elsa yelped. "You cannot say that to anyone."

Carolina started to choke as she tried to hold back her laughter.

"Why?" The snowman asked.

Carolina swore Elsa was about to say 'because I said so.' But instead she answered with, "You just can't. You just absolutely can't."

Olaf nodded. "So how about 'Elsa is ..."

"Not that either," Elsa replied fiercely.

Carolina exploded in a variety of undignified snorts and wheezes, until finally she could contain it no longer, and she burst out laughing, tears running down her cheeks. Elsa took one look at her and started laughing too. Soon they were clinging to each other trying to stay upright in their chairs. Every time one of them would start to slow down they would look at the other and the laughter would start full force again.

"This is all your fault," Carolina gasped. "You built him."

"Yes, but you attacked him in the bedroom," Elsa giggled back at her. "And you've been no help since."

Olaf stared at them, finally asking. "What is so funny?"

"Oh honey," Elsa reached over to Olaf as she calmed her breathing. "You just make us happy." She glanced up at Marshmallow who leaned his giant head down to her so she could pat it. "You too, big guy."

Then she stood up and gestured for Carolina to join her. Carolina grabbed her sea bag as she did so. "I'm going to show Fitz the rest of the palace. It might take a while. Are you two going to be alright down here?"

Marshmallow rumbled, "Yes. Play with big brother." In demonstration he swatted Olaf across the room. Olaf's head, flying by them, answered, "We'll be fiiiiiine."

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"Come on!" Elsa took Carolina's hand and led her quickly up the stairs. When they reached the top floor she was shepherded through a set of double doors that magically opened as they neared them. Elsa was practically vibrating with enthusiasm. "You have to see this; it's my favorite place."

Carolina found herself outside on a large balcony. From here she could both appreciate the size of the palace and the magnificent view down from the North Mountain.

"Ta da!" Elsa gestured dramatically at the scenery beyond the rail,"That's what I call a view."

"Not just the view," Carolina said, finding her tongue. "All of it. Everything here. It is all just …well magnificent, awe inspiring … and beautiful." She pulled Elsa into an embrace. "Thank you for showing it to me." Elsa relaxed into her and Carolina stroked her hair, looking out across the snow covered peak to the valley below. Then Carolina asked, truly curious, "How long did it take you to build this?"

Elsa tensed in her arms, and she could feel her heart speed up. "Not long," she said with a guilty smile, and the awkward silence came back.

Carolina moved a little bit away so she could see Elsa's face. "What's wrong? One minute you're perfectly fine, more than perfectly fine, and the next it's like you've done something horribly embarrassing. Am I making you feel like that? Should I not ask about ... about, your powers and things?"

"Oh," Elsa blushed as if she had been caught stealing chocolate. "Well..." she looked away uncomfortably.

"Exactly like that," Carolina said.

"It's just that I'm afraid you'll see all this, and Olaf, and Marshmallow, and the ice, and the snow, and freezing you, and you'll ask yourself what am I doing with her?" Elsa said in one long very rushed sentence that would have done Anna proud.

Carolina ran her hand down Elsa's arm, and shook her head. "Not a snowball's chance in hell."

"I understand that it's a lot to take in, and I just worry ..."

"Elsa." Carolina gently brought the queen's head around so that they looked each other in the eyes. "Stop it. Please." She begged, breathing deeply, gathering her thoughts. "I can tell you're happy here, doing this; you look positively radiant, and if you don't know that just look into my eyes, because it's reflected there. This is ..." she gestured at the palace, "well, I have seen a lot, and some of what I have seen has been very beautiful, but I have never seen anything like this." Then she turned back to the woman in her arms. "And I have never seen you as beautiful or as," she struggled to find the words, "right with yourself … as you are here and now. I feel like I'm seeing a whole other half of you, and it's a half that is amazing, and I realize how much … well, I'm … I'm in …." it was on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back. It wasn't something she had ever said before, to anyone, and suddenly she was afraid this was the wrong time, that she would make a mess of things, that it was too soon. "I'm not going anywhere."

Elsa gently caressed Carolina's face, running her fingers through her hair. She whispered,"Thank you." Then, her eyes tearing, she pulled Carolina into a kiss.

When they finally broke the embrace Carolina said,"May I ask you something?" Her emotions were still churning, and she needed to find her footing amongst them. She had a plan for this evening, and she made a beeline back to it. The plan was safer than allowing her heart to take over her mouth again.

"Of course." Elsa felt like right now she would consent to anything, anything at all.

"Would you show me how you do it? Would you make … something big?"

"With my magic?"

Carolina nodded yes.

Elsa teased, "The sleigh wasn't impressive enough for you?"

"It was pretty impressive, but it wasn't this," Carolina gestured to the walls behind them.

"Well, I'm not sure the mountain needs another palace, but ..." Elsa looked around, weighing her options, planning. "Very well, stand right behind me. Don't move."

Carolina nestled up to Elsa's back and wrapped her arms around her waist.

"Ready?" Elsa asked. Carolina nodded.

Elsa breathed in and brought her hands down and then up as if she were lifting something … and she was because the whole balcony began to move upwards. As the floor cleared one palace spire and then the next, she pushed out her hands, almost in a dance, sending supports and buttresses out to keep the whole structure stable. The floor lit up, no doubt as supports were reworked and reinforced below. The entire time Carolina could see the unfettered joy on her face, elation reflected in her eyes and in her smile. And when she stopped building, when the balcony was now the highest structure on the mountain, Elsa looked around at her work, happy, contented and relaxed.

"Oh my," Carolina said breathless with wonder, looking from Elsa's face to the scenery around them. "I think we need to do this more often."

"I'm not sure how practical that is," Elsa teased, "but I wouldn't object."

"We'll make it practical," Carolina vowed walking right up to railing, leaning over to see what she could of the structure below. Elsa followed, unsurprised by her fearlessness, and pointed back at the dim lights behind them. "You can see everything from up here. There's Arendelle."

"I bet this is even better at sunrise," Carolina said, looking from left to right, unsure what view to take in first.

"We can stay to find out." Elsa responded. "I think sunrise is in about two hours. The benefit of summer at this latitude."

"Let's stay, please," Carolina asked, her excitement mounting. "It's so beautiful up here." She moved quickly around the circumference of the balcony, as if she were afraid someone might snatch the view away if she stood still.

"I don't see why not," Elsa replied. "But please don't fall off."

"You would catch me!" Carolina pronounced, certainly.

"I would certainly try," Elsa replied. "But I would hate for that to be an unforeseen limitation of my powers." She reached out and trapped Carolina in her arms, pulling her close. "And besides, if you keep running, I can't get close to you."

"Hmmm," Carolina weighed more exploration of the balcony against cuddling. Elsa dropped her head and looked at her out of the top of her eyes, a playful warning. With an exaggerated sigh, Carolina dropped the sea bag and started rooting through it. "OK, together time it is," she said with mock resignation.

"You just don't really sit still well, do you?" Elsa chuckled as she watched the flurry of activity.

"No, I don't. It took you this long to notice?" Carolina pulled out a couple of woolen blankets that she placed on the floor of the balcony, then she pulled out a tiny oil burner. Elsa sat down, not needing the blankets, but on them anyway. Carolina plopped down next to her and began to set the burner up.

"What are you doing?" Elsa asked.

"A surprise."

"Just don't melt my palace."

Carolina stopped and looked at the small burner and then at the huge palace. "Madam, I think you have an exaggerated sense of my abilities."

"I think not," Elsa said. "You have a remarkable talent for melting things ..." Her smirk conveyed the rest of the sentence.

Carolina snorted and continued with her labors. She pulled out a small pan and a bottle of milk, setting the milk to heat on the burner. Then she pulled out the chocolate and a small packet of sugar.

Elsa laughed, "I didn't know you had culinary genius."

Carolina gave her a knowing look, "There are still a number of my talents you have not fully explored. A woman needs to keep herself mysterious, you know."

Elsa snickered, "If any of these talents involve chocolate, I demand you reveal them immediately."

Carolina looked up from where she was watching the milk so as not to let it boil, "Or what?" she asked.

"Or …." Elsa clearly thought of something, but then she blushed bright red, "Yes then, so you win this round. But trust me, I have a plan," she muttered.

Carolina kept her eyes on the task in front of her. She carefully thought through the steps the cook had drilled into her. Sure, it sounded easy, heat – milk – chocolate – sugar - but it turned out she had a remarkable ineptness with cooking of any sort. She breathed a sigh of relief when everything was together and not burned and in a ceramic mug, which she then handed to the queen.

"What are you going to drink?" Elsa asked.

"Oh, I brought my own provisions," Carolina said, reaching into her boot and pulling out a silver flask. She unscrewed the top and took a decent swallow. Then she reached over as if to pour some in the hot chocolate.

"No!" Elsa cradled her drink protectively. "You're not adulterating this ambrosia with that foul swill."

"This is not foul swill, it's Caribbean rum. Part of a very limited personal supply, I'll have you know." She poured a shot into the cap of the flask and handed that over to Elsa. "Try it."

Elsa sniffed at the drink and wrinkled her nose. She then brought it to her lips.

"In one, down the hatch," Carolina encouraged as she gently tipped the bottom of the improvised shot glass with her forefinger.

Elsa got it as far as into her mouth and then had to call on years and years of etiquette lessons, all of which instructed her that spitting something back on your host was impolite, no matter what you found out it was, and swallowed.

"Bracing," she gasped.

"You'll get used to it," Carolina chuckled, refilling the cap and handing it back to her.

Elsa set the rum down and took up the hot chocolate again. "I'll finish this while I still have a sense of taste, thank you very much."

Carolina surveyed the scene. She was back on track with her plan. Then she rubbed her hands together. "So … now that we're all comfy up here. I think we need to play a game."

"A game?"

"Yes. I'll trade you stories. One about me for one about you."

"Oh," Elsa responded, "oh … but really I don't have any interesting stories."

"I'll be the judge of that," Carolina said again. "That's why I'm picking the topics. You do have veto power. If I choose something too awkward, you just let me know and we'll move on." She looked into Elsa's eyes, "Is this acceptable to you?"

"I guess," Elsa said hesitantly, then she reached out and found the rum again.

"Great, you go first." Carolina enthused. "When did you first get your powers?"

Elsa's eyes shot open at the abrupt beginning of the 'game,' but then she nodded and took a small courage building sip from the cap. "Well, as far as I know, I have always had powers." Elsa began. "I can't remember being without them. However I understand my parents discovered I was different when I was a little baby, months old. I don't remember, obviously, but they did tell me the story."

She smiled, amused by her memory of the story as she started, "They told me I was small, and the doctor was concerned because my body temperature was low, and well you know here … babies die from the cold not infrequently. So there was a lot of wrapping in blankets, warm rooms with big fireplaces, swaddling, anything to bring my temperature up." She shook her head. "I don't like to be too hot now, and I can control it myself, so I can only imagine how uncomfortable, frustrated and not happy I was as a helpless baby. And of course the more unhappy I got, the more I cried, and the more I cried, the more they thought I was cold, and the more blankets … and well, this solution didn't work for anyone."

Carolina chuckled, "I can see that."

"One morning, after a rare peaceful night, my mother came in to get me up and feed me and there was frost on my crib. She panicked. Rooms were changed. Fires were rebuilt. Blankets were added. And I turned miserable again, wailing, and then suddenly I stopped crying. When my mother came back to my crib, there I was waving my little hands in the air, snow flakes falling on me, and I was cooing and laughing and happy as can be. And that's when my parents understood that they had more than your ordinary run of the mill princess on their hands. Well, it was the first inkling. No one believed it initially, not really, not until I started making it snow regularly … in the bath was apparently one of my favorites." With that Elsa drained her hot chocolate. She leaned back propping herself up with one arm, feeling warm and relaxed. "Is that what you had in mind?" she asked Carolina.

"Exactly," came the reply. "Now, you get to ask me a question."

"I can't think of anything. I wouldn't know where … ."

"Oh, you do. I see it in your eyes." Carolina leaned back and matched her pose. "It's the question that everyone wants to ask. 'What did it feel like when I found out the King was my father?'"

Elsa thought about it. It wasn't necessarily the most pressing question she had, but it was probably the one she could admit to the easiest. "Very well, tell me."

"So, let me set the scene." Carolina waved the flask in a dramatic gesture. "On Monday, I was the obstreperous daughter of a the long suffering widow Barnes. On Tuesday, my mother came back from a week-long trip away and told me that she wasn't a widow, my father was the King, and 'Oh by the way, you're going to the royal estate in Winchester to live with him for a while so he can get to know you." Then she wagged her finger in the air in a motherly gesture. "Mind you don't run into the Queen. She won't like you.'"

"My, that sounds ... abrupt."

"At the least," Carolina replied. "I was stunned. The earth turned upside down, and I was floating away into the sky. My mother's plan was that he would sponsor me as a Midshipman. I wanted to go to sea, and my mother had decided he owed me something even if he didn't owe her. But she didn't really share the plan with me, and I don't think she realized how her brash, fearless, noisy, brawler of a daughter might feel in a strange place, where she knew no one, and had to wear … a dress." Carolina made a pained face. "Really I blame my attire for the disaster that was my first meeting with the King. I guess my mother had told him that I was a lot like him or something … and indeed about some things I am. But I was so scared, and so uncomfortable in clothing that felt like I was wearing leg-irons, manacles and carrying a sack of sand on my back when I met him that first time, I couldn't even speak clearly. All I did was worry and think 'don't throw up and don't trip.' I know he thought I was a waste of time, another simpering useless girl that he was now shackled with feeding. He must have believed some of what my mother said; he didn't kick me out, but I was banished to a distant wing of the castle with a maid to take care of me." With that, Carolina took another drink, clearly finished with her story.

But Elsa was unsatisfied. "The story can't end there. You told me that your father was fond of you. Hell, Ledsham told me your father was fond of you although that wouldn't stop him from torturing you."

"That's quite possibly true." Carolina grumbled, shifting uncomfortably. "The King is fond of me, just not as fond as he is of himself. I have found his values to be … different, certainly than mine. Well, mine now, for a long time I did emulate him." She winced. "And you're right we did meet again and that meeting went much better … but that is another story." She topped off the cap in front of Elsa with rum and handed it again to her."It's your turn. Tell me about the first time you remember using your magic."

Elsa looked at the drink. "You do know I have to get us down, right?"

"I have the utmost faith in your abilities, besides it's nice up here. Now, your turn ..."

"Very well." She took the cap and downed in one gulp. That seemed to be getting easier to do. She wondered if that should bother her. "The first time I remember using my powers is when Anna was a baby. She was … horrible." Elsa rolled her eyes remembering and chuckled. "Now, I have to set this scene." She copied Carolina's grand gesture. "For months, Mama and Papa had been telling me how wonderful it was going to be to have a baby sister. I was going to be a big sister now, and that was a very important job. They would have to pay attention to the baby, but they stilled loved me just as much. And that the baby would love me because I would be such a great big sister." With that Elsa's expression changed to a scowl of mock horror. "Then Anna arrived."

"She was a dreadful baby. She cried, and cried, and cried, and cried. As much noise as she makes now, she is like a church mouse compared to her infancy. I remember thinking: 'This is not wonderful! How can something wonderful make my ears hurt and keep me up all night?' I had been expecting an adoring playmate, and here I was confronted with a useless noisy interloper who took all of my mother's time. I was very unsure if we should keep this particular baby, or if we needed to petition the stork for an exchange." Elsa nodded sternly, and for a moment Carolina could see a three-year-old Elsa with exactly the same expression.

"So one day I went alone into the nursery. I'm not sure that I wasn't supposed to be there, but the fact that I had to pull a chair over and stand on it to see into her crib makes me think it wasn't a planned visit." Elsa steepled her fingers, her tone still very serious. "And Anna was in there screaming … red faced and wrinkly, waving her arms, wailing, not at all meeting my standards for a baby sister. Then, and I'm not completely clear on my motivation, but I suspect I was bored …. I made her an icicle. I dropped it from my finger to her nose …" Elsa paused dramatically. "And she grabbed on to it … and she stopped crying … and she laughed! It was the best sound in the world. I was so proud that I had made her happy. That's when I decided that being a big sister really was wonderful." Elsa grinned and then added, "And Anna could stay."

Elsa glanced down at her left hand. "It was so easy to control then, probably because I couldn't do much, a little friendly snow, some ice here and there, but I wonder if it also was because I wasn't afraid at all, not of my powers. I loved them. Anna loved them, so I loved them. When you're that young things are so much simpler." She sighed. She looked over at Carolina and gave her a nudge. "Now your turn. I want the rest of the story."

Carolina launched into the tale of her days at the royal court in Winchester. Elsa laughed when she told her how she had traded one of the loathed dresses for a cast-off set of boys clothing from a kitchen scullion. Carolina described her days as an itinerant boy at the stables … working her way from odd jobs to a position on a royal boar hunt. And when she finished, when father and daughter were reintroduced to each other over the corpse of a particularly tenacious boar, Elsa found herself wondering if she had misjudged the King of Avalon. She noticed how Carolina's face lit up when she had recounted that part, and how she had ridden back to the castle in front of him on his horse, feeling very proud and loved. The glow of her happiness lasted only moments through, then she gave Elsa a very laden smirk, and added, "Of course then he turned out to be the ruthless asshole to end all ruthless assholes."

Elsa reached out across the small gulf of blanket that separated them and pulled Carolina over to her, wrapping her up in her arms. It was important to Elsa that this time she be the one to offer comfort, and given the way Carolina relaxed into her embrace it seemed it was a welcome effort. They stayed like that for quite a while, intertwined on top of the layers of wool, the rolled-up pack underneath Elsa's head, Carolina's nose pressed into her neck, her head on her shoulder. Elsa thought she must have drifted off to sleep at one point. Then, in the sudden way the sun rises when it does not have to clear the tree tops, a rosy light spilled all around them. Elsa blinked, eyes adjusting to the increasing light. She felt Carolina stir, and then sit up.

"It's sunrise," Carolina said, leaning over and giving the queen a gentle nudge. "You have to see this."

Elsa stretched lazily and then sat up as well. It was a remarkable sunrise. The warm light reflected off the ice around them, the palace a mirror of the pinks and oranges and yellows that made up the sky. They both stood and walked hand in hand over to the easternmost railing. Elsa had only once before see the sunrise from her palace, the morning after the night she had built it, and this time as before she was filled with a sense of hope, of freedom, and of limitless possibilities. However, unlike the previous sunrise, she wasn't alone. Carolina watched the sun, calming now from a fiery orange ball to the more subdued disk of pale yellow light.

"We are doing this again," she said to Elsa, squeezing her hand.

"Your wish is my command," the queen replied playfully and wrapped her arm around Carolina's back pulling her into a lingering kiss.