Growing Together Chapter 2

Anders brought up the subject of cold-resistance once or twice over the next three days, and Elsa gently but firmly shot the idea down every time. Matters finally came to a head while they were out for a walk on the mountain. He slipped on an icy rock outcrop that was covered by snow, and slid downhill on his back nearly eighty feet. By the time Elsa got to him, his head-first slide had jammed nearly a cubic foot of snow down his collar into his coat. He was shivering violently when they got back to the ice palace, and it took her nearly half an hour to warm him up enough that his lips were no longer blue.

"I hate to say this again," he said quietly, "but if the cold didn't bother me, this wouldn't have been a problem."

She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and laid her head on his shoulder. "Anders, please don't ask me to kill you."

"What if we took some precautions to keep that from happening?" he wondered.

"Like what?" she asked, fearing that the answer might be so reasonable that she'd have no choice but to agree.

"We could slide down the mountain to the palace at night," he began. "The guards will let us in, and they'll obey orders to tell no one that we're there . We'll hide in the royal suite, and we'll build a big fire in the fireplace, so you won't have to warm me up all by yourself. If anything goes wrong, Kristoff and Anna are just two doors down; they can take me to the trolls if they have to. Once I'm up and about, we'll sneak back up the mountain and start really enjoying our honeymoon together."

She thought for a few seconds. "Does this really mean that much to you?"

"Not as much as you mean to me," he replied, letting her braid trail through his hand. "If you're absolutely, totally against it, then I won't make you miserable over it." He glanced up at the ceiling of the ice palace. "I just want to be with you, and also be warm."

She thought it over some more. A very light dusting of snow began falling all around them. "Never mind," he said quickly. "I won't bring it up again."

To his great surprise, she held his face in her hands and kissed him. "Anders, just because I'm afraid of everything that's unfamiliar to me, that isn't always a good reason to refuse to do something. You've shown that you want what's best for the both of us, and your plans are usually good ones." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I trust you. If you really think it's a good idea, I'll do it." Then her eyes snapped open again. "But if you die, I swear I'll never forgive you!"

He embraced her wordlessly. That kind of trust is the greatest gift she could ever give, he thought, much greater than immunity to cold. No matter what I do in life, I must never, ever betray that trust.

They waited until after sunset, then rode down the mountainside in a toboggan made of ice. When they reached the snow line, Elsa made an icy path for them, with slightly raised edges so they didn't slide off the side of it. She also kept them from moving too fast; plowing into a tree wasn't high on their list of things to do that night. He just held onto her and tried to enjoy the ride. They got off and walked when they approached the outskirts of the capital.

When they reached the town, the streets were empty. Everyone was sound asleep except the occasional night watchman. Those watchmen would certainly have recognized their Queen, but she was wearing a heavy coat with a hood that hid her easily-recognized hair. Queen and Prince-Consort made their way toward the palace unrecognized... until they approached the gates. The palace guards would know their Queen anywhere.

"Your Highness!" they exclaimed, and snapped to attention.

"Shh!" she ordered, with a finger to her lips. "No one must know that we're here. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, we're away on our honeymoon." They nodded, assuming that some vital matter of state had brought them back to Arendelle's capital, and opened the gates to let their sovereign in.

The inside of the palace was dimly lit, quiet, and empty. They didn't need lights to find their way, of course. They eased the door of the royal suite open, slipped inside, and closed it quietly. "We made it," she sighed.

"I was convinced we were going to bump into Anna or Kristoff in the halls," he admitted as he took off his coat and his many layers of warm outerwear. There was plenty of firewood stacked beside the fireplace, and while Elsa had little or no experience starting fires, Anders had been doing it all his life. They soon had a good blaze going.

"Okay," she said nervously. "What's the plan?"

"We'll wait until the fire has been burning for a while. The fireplace stones have to be warm, so it's throwing as much heat as possible," he began, trying to hide his own nervousness. "I'll lie on some blankets right in front of the fire. You'll hit me with just the right kind of cold, from head to toe; then I'll roll over and you'll do it again on the other side of me. Then you'll wrap the both of us in the blankets, and keep me warm until I'm back to normal."

"I'm still nervous about this," she quavered.

He held her hands. "I trust you completely, Elsa. I know you can do this. Once it's done, we can go anywhere together, and do anything together, no matter how chilly it is!" He smiled at her. "I'm really looking forward to that."

"Then why are your hands shaking?" she asked.

"I'll be honest. When you froze my hand by accident, it hurt. When you freeze all of me, it's probably going to hurt more." He suddenly looked at her very intensely. "Elsa, whatever happens, don't stop when you're halfway done! If only my front half can resist the cold, that's useless; I'll have gone through all this for nothing. Promise me you'll finish what we're starting." She nodded solemnly.

They sat on the floor in front of the fire for nearly an hour, adding logs now and then, trying to act normal with each other and failing. At last, he said, "I think the fireplace is as hot as it's going to get. There's nothing to be gained by stalling any longer. Shall we do this?" She nodded with wide eyes. He lay down on the blankets and gazed steadily at her. "I love you, Elsa." She nodded, held her hands out in front of herself, and thought about the perfect mix of anger and fear that would duplicate the cold blast she'd unleashed by accident, those many months ago.

She saw him cringe, and hesitated. "Is this really going to hurt you?"

"Sometimes we have to go through pain to do something worthwhile," he answered. "I'm told that when a lady has a baby, it hurts like crazy, but that hasn't stopped ladies from having babies, because the baby is worth it. This is worth it to me."

"You're sure?"

"Completely sure," he nodded, and braced himself again. She held out her hands with fingers spread, took a deep breath, and tried to recall just how angry and afraid she'd been when she'd left that meeting with Major Harstad.

When her cold wave hit the tops of his feet, he went rigid and forced himself not to scream. She swept the wave up his legs and torso to his head; his hair and moustache went white with frost. "Halfway done," he gasped, and rolled over. "Finish it." She took another deep breath and swept her cold wave down him. He kept his composure until the icy cold hit the soles of his feet. Only then did he scream, and he blacked out a moment later.

"Anders!" she cried, threw herself at him, and wrapped the blankets around the two of them. For the first time in her life, she couldn't say, "The cold never bothered me anyway," because her husband felt as cold as ice, and "bothered" was a horrible understatement. She brushed the frost out of his hair... and his hair was still white. She clung to him, feeling him shiver, desperately wishing for some heat powers to counteract what her cold had done.

"Wake up... wake up... please wake up..." was all she could say.

After ten endless minutes, he stirred slightly. "Anders, are you all right?" she begged.

"Cold cold cold cold cold," was all he could whisper. She could barely contain her relief! He was coming around on his own; he wouldn't need a visit to the trolls in order to save his life. Whether he'd gain immunity to chilly temperatures no longer mattered to her; she just wanted her husband back, and it looked like she was going to get him.

It was around that time that an important part of their plan began to unravel. The guard at the gates changed at midnight, and the guards coming off duty obeyed their orders to say nothing about the Queen's presence in the castle. The new guards noticed smoke and sparks rising from the chimney of the royal suite. They knew that the Queen and her new husband were away on their honeymoon. The only possible conclusion was that a fire had broken out in the royal chambers. One of them ran to notify Kai and Gerda.

Anders slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the face of his Queen, barely three inches from his face, her huge blue eyes full of concern that turned to relief when she saw him looking at her. At that moment, the door flew open and a dozen servants with buckets of water burst in, looking for the fire they were supposed to put out. All they saw was their Queen and their new Prince, wrapped in blankets by the fireplace, looking back at them in surprise and astonishment. The ones in front stopped short, turning crimson from embarrassment, and the ones behind them piled into them, slopping cold water all over everyone.

From the hallway, Kai called, "What's going on in there?!" He and Gerda had taken charge of the emergency. He saw no flicker of flames from inside the suite, only a human logjam.

He heard the first servant stammer, "The Queen... the Prince... they weren't expecting company." Gerda covered her mouth in shock, and Kai did a facepalm. From within the suite, they heard Elsa stammer, "You're, umm, you're dismissed." The servants almost fought each other to get out of the suite, their faces still bright red. As soon as the last one was out, Kai slammed the door shut and called, "My deepest apologies, Your Highnesses! We thought there was a fire!"

"No fire, just a... a slight change in our honeymoon plans," he heard his sovereign say. "We'll be going back to our honeymoon location as soon as we're ready."

Kai wasn't sure if he should answer that, but that was when he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was a drowsy Princess Anna, wearing a nightgown and carrying a candle. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"Uhh... nothing, Your Excellency. Just a fire drill." He wanted to hit himself for sounding so lame, but that was beneath the dignity of a royal major-domo.

"That's nice," she yawned. "Next time, keep the noise down." She stumbled back to her suite and returned to bed. Prince Kristoff slept through the whole thing. Gerda sent all the servants back to bed, then turned to Kai. "Did we do something wrong?"

"This sort of thing never happened in years gone by," he said with a shake of his head.

Inside the suite, Elsa was nearly beside herself with relief. "Anders, can you hear me?"

"Mm-hmm," he nodded, still shivering.

"Are you all right?"

"Cold. Feeling warmer." He took a deep breath. "Are the servants going to wake us up every morning like that?"

It wasn't that funny, but Elsa was so relieved, she laughed out loud. Her laughter was always his favorite sound; he wrapped his arms tightly around her and enjoyed her warmth. After a few more minutes, his shivering stopped.

"Do you think you're going to be all right?" she asked, still concerned.

"I think so," he said quietly.

"Do you still need to hold me so tightly to stay warm?"

"No," he half-smiled. "I'm holding you so tightly because I can." That was when she knew he was going to be okay. She kissed him, he kissed her back, and before their kissing session was done, they wound up leaving the royal suite a lot later than they'd planned to. But they did manage to sneak out of the palace long before the sun came up. Once they were out of the town, Elsa made another toboggan, laid an ice track in front of them, and propelled them uphill with bursts of ice from her hand. They were soon at the base of her icy stairway, with their ice palace waiting for them on the other side.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked. "Take off that heavy coat so we can see how well it worked!"

"I admit, I'm a little nervous," he said as he stood up. "I know you can do it, but there were so many things that could have gone wrong."

"You mean we might have gone through all this for nothing!?" she demanded.

"No matter how my cold-resistance worked out, we didn't go through all this for nothing," he said softly, and cupped her chin with his hand. "We learned some things about trusting each other that we didn't know before, things that some couples never learn. Those things are probably more valuable to us than me being able to ignore the cold." He waited until she smiled; then he unbuttoned his coat and dropped it on the toboggan.

He faced into the chill wind, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The wind blew his white hair straight back. After a moment, he held his arms out at his sides and fell backwards into the snow. He spent a few seconds making a snow angel, then sat up. "This is amazing!" he exclaimed. "It's like a day at the beach!" He grinned, made a quick snowball with his bare hands, and tossed it half-heartedly at his bride. She pointed at it; the snowball made a U-turn in mid-air, went back the way it came, and smacked the Prince-Consort in the forehead. He brushed the snow off with one hand. "Will I ever learn?" he grinned. "You did it! You really did it for me!"

Her own grin turned into a full smile.

"Let it blow! Let it snow! Now you're like the one you adore!
"Let it blow! Let it snow! Don't need hats and gloves – what for?
"You won't wear coats like yesterday!
"Let the storm rage on! The cold will not bother you any day."

He stood and brushed the snow off his bare arms. "And now, my lovely bride, now that I can really appreciate your ice palace, let's head up those stairs and get on with our honeymoon."

She smiled back. "You've got it, my amazing Prince!" They ran up the stairs, laughing like children as they raced each other. He won by a few feet, but stopped and held the door so she could enter first. Then he followed her in, and the door swung shut behind them.