A/N: Well, I might have broken my own personal record here for longest chapter I've ever written, but personally, I think this one's kinda boring... but hey, maybe you might enjoy it, so I'd just read it anyway! :-]

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen (or any other movie, for that matter).

Elsa awoke the next morning to the sound of the howling wind against her window. Rubbing her sleep laden eyes, it took a moment for her to remember where she was. As yesterday's events came flowing back to her, she dragged herself out of bed to look out the window.

Outside, the snow violently swirled around in the wind, and it was too white for Elsa to see anything else. She couldn't even tell if the sun was up. But a quick look at the clock confirmed that she was up no earlier than usual.

Yawning, Elsa made her way to the closet to start preparing herself for the day, although she had no idea what she was going to do being snowed in. She slipped into a simple, long-sleeved purple dress and began to brush her hair in front of the mirror.

A few minutes later, to her surprise, she heard her sister knock on her door.

"Come in."

Anna opened the door and pranced into the room. She still had her nightgown on, and her hair had barely been brushed.

"Hey," she said as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"You're up early," the queen commented.

"Well, the wind started crashing ice into the window, and that woke me up," Anna explained. "So I figured I'd come and see what you were up to, since I knew you would be awake."

Elsa shot her a smirk as she continued to straighten her bed-head.

"Besides," Anna continued, "Kristoff snores and-" The princesses eyes widened as she realized who she had just said that to. She looked at her sister to see her with a look on her face that showed a mix of shock, amusement, and disgust all in one.

"Uh, well- we... we were just-"

"No, Anna, I really don't want to know."

Anna sighed in relief at not having to explain any further. "Anyway..." She continued, hastily changing the topic. "That's a cute dress! Is it new?"

"No," Elsa replied. "I just haven't worn it in a while."

"It looks good on you," Anna said. "It's simple but elegant."

"Thanks." Elsa looked at herself in the mirror, having finished taming her hair. "What do you think I should do with my hair? A bun or a braid?"

"Hmmm..." Anna thought for a moment as she studied Elsa's appearance. "Honestly, I think you should just leave it down. It looks good like that."

"You think so?" Elsa replied, looking at herself in the mirror. Her wavy blonde hair hung behind her to about her waist, and it seemed to add to the simple-but-elegant look that her dress already had. "Alright," she agreed. "Now go get dressed. We have a lot to do today."

"Like what?" Anna asked as she made her way to the door.

Elsa paused as she pulled out her makeup supplies. "Figure out what we have to do today."

Anna laughed as she exited her sister's room.

Not even five minutes later, Anna came back, wearing a long-sleeved dress with a few different shades of blue in it. Her hair was mostly straightened out, save for one small braid hanging to the right side of her face.

"I just saw Johan. He said there is breakfast in the Great Hall for everyone," she said.

"Okay," Elsa said. "Did you wake Kristoff?"

"Yeah. He just threw on the first pair of pants and shirt he could find and went down there."

Elsa chuckled. "Typical Kristoff."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Can I use some of your makeup?"

"Why? What's wrong with yours?"

"Nothing, it's just buried somewhere in my bag and I don't feel like searching for it right now."

Elsa laughed and shook her head at her sister's antics. "Alright, fine."

The girls finished primping themselves and walked together to the Great Hall, where they found Kristoff and Johan sitting at the table they had been at the night before.

"Morning, gentlemen," Elsa greeted them, taking the empty seat next to Johan. Anna meanwhile sat on the other side of Kristoff.

"Good morning," Johan replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did, thank you," the queen replied. An awkward silence fell over them, until the waiter came around to take their orders.

Johan was just about to try to make conversation when he saw Julie walk into the Hall. She still wore her nightgown and a robe and slippers, and her hair stuck up in all directions.

"Morning," she said with a yawn, sitting in the empty seat next to Anna.

Johan scoffed at her. "I have never met anyone who can sleep as long as you," he said.

"Sure you have," Anna cut in. "I'm usually a pretty late sleeper, but the wind outside woke me up."

"Well that still makes you better than me," Julie said, laying her head down on the table. "I could probably sleep through an earthquake."

Anna laughed, and even Johan chuckled as he scolded his sister.

"Well, you know, Julie," he continued, "at least Anna and her sister her took the time this morning to make themselves look presentable, while you're coming down here in a robe and slippers."

Julie lifted her head and gave him a cold stare. "I live here. I don't really care!"

They all chuckled, and Elsa thought of how similar Julie was to Anna. Looking around as they dropped the subject, she saw that the Great Hall had begun to fill up with the people who had chosen to stay rather than try to beat the storm. But despite the loud volume, mostly provided by young children, it was not nearly as full as the night before.

"Not as many people stayed as I thought would. I'm surprised," she commented.

"Yeah, I was surprised too," Johan agreed. "It's mostly people who live too far or just thought it was too risky. But we haven't gotten word of any ships going down, so as far as we know, all of the people who left are safe."

"Well that's good," Elsa said.

"So do you guys have any plans for today?" Johan asked.

"(Well)," Julie began jokingly, "I'm planning to-"

"Not you!" Johan yelled at her.

Elsa chuckled at the two siblings before clearing her throat. "Well," she said, "since our original plans for the day have been ruined by this weather, I actually have no idea what we are going to do today."

"I think we should just relax!" Anna said, leaning back in her chair with her hands behind her head. "We get an extra-long vacation!"

"That sound great, but we have to find something to occupy our time for the next few days, or we're all going to get cabin fever from being stuck inside!" Kristoff said. Anna laughed, and he chuckled along before saying, "Yeah, you think I'm joking?"

"Well I might just get a book to read and curl up under my covers all day, because it is freezing!" Julie said.

"The staff is working overtime to try to keep all the fires going," Johan said, "but there's only so much they can do."

"Well you know," Kristoff said, "if they need help, I know how to make the crème de la crème of fires that can keep a pretty big place warm and keep going for a while."

"Really?" Johan said.

"I'm a mountain man. I know how to survive these sorts of conditions."

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm sure they'd love the help."

"I would be more than happy," Kristoff said, before turning to Anna. "Unless, of course, you wanted to do something."

"No, go ahead," Anna replied. "I'll find something to do. Ooo! Elsa, can we build a snowman?"

"Anna, I'd say yes, bit covering our own ballroom in snow is one thing. It would be awfully rude to mess up someone else's ballroom," the queen replied.

"Oh," Anna said, slouching down in her chair. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You guys make snowmen in your ballroom?" Julie said. "That sounds like so much fun!"

"Yeah, we do it once in a while when I have a day off," Elsa said. "When we were real little, that one over there would wake me up in the middle of the night and we would play in the snow until our parents would come in and see the mess."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Those were the good days, weren't they Elsa?"

"Yeah," Elsa said, looking down at her fingers as she tapped them on the table. Her smile slowly disappeared as she remembered the night when that all ended.

Anna noticed her sister's smile falter. "Oh, Elsa, would you stop thinking about it?"

"I can't help it."

"Well look at it this way: what happened that night happened. But you can't keep thinking about how thing could have turned out differently. The fact is I'm here now and still in one piece!"

Elsa chuckled. "Yeah, I know."

Julie leaned closer to Anna. "Why? What happened?" she whispered.

Anna shook her head. "I'll tell you later," she whispered back before hastily changing the topic. "Anyway, speaking of snowmen, Olaf is probably gonna miss us while we're gone."

"Yeah," Elsa agreed, "but I'm sure he'll find something to do."

"At least he still has Sven!" Kristoff said. The sisters chuckled, while a waiter came around with their food.

Johan gave them a confused grin. "I'm kinda out of the loop here. Who are Olaf and Sven?"

"Sven is Kristoff's reindeer, and Olaf is a living snowman I built," Elsa replied. When Johan raised an eyebrow at her, she simply shook her head. "Don't ask."

The whole table laughed as they began to eat. As soon as he was done, Kristoff got up to get to work. Not long after, Julie took Anna to see what dresses she could borrow when she ran out, since she only packed a few.

Now left alone, Elsa and Johan sat in silence, each yearning for the other to say something. Johan didn't want to take his eyes off the beautiful woman in front of him. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he didn't know how to say them.

Elsa felt herself turn red under his gaze, and her mouth broke into a wide grin as she let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

"What?" he said with a grin.

She turned her head toward him. "You're staring at me."

"Oh!" he said, sounding as if he had snapped back to his senses. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to-"

"No! It's okay," she assured him. She took in a deep breath as she continued. "You wouldn't be the first."

Johan's mood suddenly turned somber. "What do you mean?"

Elsa stared into his eyes. "People take one look at me and they know exactly who I am. I'm the magical queen of Arendelle who froze the entire land in the middle of summer. The one who tried to run away from her problems rather than face them." She shook her head to herself as she looked away from him. "I'd stare too."

Johan looked at her with sympathy, as he realized how much people must judge her. Leaning forward, he placed his hand on top of the one she had rested on the table. She jumped, not expecting him to do that but she didn't pull back as she looked him in the eye.

"Elsa," he said, "you can't let that get to you. People are afraid of what they can't understand. And it's nothing you did on purpose. And if you made some mistakes along the way, well, guess what, mistakes are part of being human. None of what happened last summer defines who you are. So you can't let it define who you are. Okay?"

Elsa smiled at him. "Thanks, Johan."

"You don't need to thank me for anything," he replied. "Just know that when I stare at you, I don't see the queen that froze the entire land. I see a beautiful young woman with plenary to offer."

Elsa felt a blush creep onto her face, and she prayed that he wouldn't notice. Taking a deep breath, she pushed on to change the topic.

"So," she said, "what have you been up to all this time?"

Johan shrugged. "Ah, well, nothing interesting. I've been practicing my flute, like, four hours a day-"

"You play the flute?" Elsa cut in.

"Yeah," Johan said. "And I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself!"

Elsa laughed. "How many years have you been playing?"

"I've been playing for..." He tried to count off the years on his fingers. "... a long time!" As she laughed again, an idea hit him. "Do you want me to play for you?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah, why not? It's not like we can do much else with this weather."

She smiled as he stood and held out his hand for her. "Alright," she said, taking his hand.

"C'mon, I'll take you to the music room," he said, leading her out of the Great Hall.

.:.^*^.:.

"Thanks again for letting me borrow some of your dresses," Anna said, as Julie led her to her room.

"No problem," Julie replied. "So long as they fit you."

"Yeah, I think they should," Anna said. "We're about the same size."

"Yeah," Julie agreed. "And, you know, we may be small, but we're not as delicate as we look!"

The princesses laughed as they turned the corner, until Julie ran into something and fell on the floor.

"Ow!"

"Oh my goodness! Your Highness, I'm so sorry!"

Julie knew that voice. She looked up to see Noah grabbing her hands and helping her to her feet.

"Why so formal?" she said as she stood.

"Well, I just-" he stuttered as he cast a glance at Anna, "I figured since we have guests, uh-"

Julie simply shook her head at him. "Noah, you're fine. You don't need to be all formal."

"Oh," he said. "Sorry."

She chuckled as he gazed at her. Looking up at the handsome guard, she lost herself in his beautiful, hazel eyes.

"Ahem!"

A small cough from Anna brought them back to their surroundings. They stepped back as they realized how close to each other they had been standing.

"Well," Noah said with a nervous laugh, "I'd better get to my post."

"Okay," Julie replied. "See you later, then."

As he rushed down the hallway, Anna looked at Julie with a skeptical look on her face.

"Is he, like, your boyfriend?" she asked.

Julie's breath caught in her throat for a moment, and her face turned scarlet red. "What? No!" she said, as she began speed-walking toward her room. "We're just friends!"

Anna smirked at her as they walked into Julie's large bedroom. "But do you wish you were more than just friends?"

Julie stopped in her tracks for a moment, trying to think of how to answer that. "Look, does it really matter that much?"

"Come on!" Anna begged.

"Well, I don't know what you want me to tell you!"

"Well, let's start with this," Anna said, sitting on Julie's bed. "How did you guys meet?"

Julie sighed as she sat down next to her. "Well," she began, "it's kind of a long story. One day, when I was about four, Johan and I were walking home because we knew there was a storm coming when we found him hiding in an alley. It was obvious that he was hungry, cold, and all alone, so we brought him back here. He was really nervous around us at first, but once we got him to trust us, we learned that his father had beaten him and he ran away."

"That's horrible," Anna said. "Is that how he got that scar on his face?"

"Yeah," Julie replied. "Anyway, the guards went to go look for his father to arrest him for child abuse, but when they got to his house, his father and the rest of his family were gone. They had fled the kingdom. So, we put that behind us and took him in here as a servant, and when he was old enough he became a guard. But he's always been a really close friend to Johan. And to me."

After a moment of silence, Anna found her voice again. "Wow," she said. "You guys pretty much saved his life that day."

"Yeah," Julie said. "We don't talk about it much, though. It reminds him too much of his father."

Anna smirked at her. "So you really don't have any feelings for him at all?"

Julie looked down at her hands resting in her lap to try to hide the blush on her face. She shrugged. "I guess maybe I do," she said, before hastily changing the topic. "But it doesn't matter now. Come on; let's see what dresses I have for you to borrow."

As Anna followed her to the closet, she couldn't help but think about how perfect Julie and Noah seemed together. She desperately longed to see them get together, almost as much as she longed to see Elsa get involved with Johan.

That gave her an idea.

Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63