A/N: This is normally the part where I apologize for such a late update and give a reason as to why it took so long. Well, I don't have a real specific reason.

But I want you all to know that I will never abandon a story. If it has been a month since the last update, rest assured I haven't abandoned it. Even if I'm not actively writing, I'm constantly thinking of ways to put the next chapter into words, or come up with a new plot device or major event. I know that some authors have all these elaborate story outlines that even involve specific chapter outlines. I'm not that kind of writer. I write whenever I find the time and motivation, and often times I make it up as I go along. Sometimes chapters don't end the way I imagined because I had a sudden idea in the middle that I decided to put in.

If I feel as if the story is going stale, I might step away for a bit and come back to it when I feel more creative.

But I do know how it feels to be really involved in a story that hasn't updated in awhile. Because of this, I'll start putting chapter statuses on my profile right here on ffnet. That way you guys know whether or not to expect an update soon.

Sorry for the rant.

I would like to thank you all for your patience and continued support.

Leave me some love in the reviews.

Enjoy!

"Hey Jas, got a minute?" Rapunzel asked as she walked into the bathroom and leaned against the row of sinks. She already knew the answer, as only one of the showers was running and she knew that Jasmine was the only one who showered so late.

"Don't really have a choice given the situation." Jasmine called back as she pulled the curtain back and stuck her head through, brushing her wet hair out of her face.

"What do you know about any parties being thrown in the next few weeks?" Rapunzel asked tentatively and started to twirl the ends of her hair between her fingers.

Jasmine shifted her eyes as her jaw hung ajar, after a brief moment she shrugged. "I think Fred is throwing one in a few days – but it'll probably be nothing but monster movies and video games." She shrugged again before shutting the curtain. "He has a strange group of friends. Wasabi is pretty cool though I guess."

With only a small grunt in response, Rapunzel shook her head. "Anything else?" She didn't know anything about Aleks' boyfriend, but she definitely knew that anyone who would date Aleks wouldn't have a friend who threw parties that involved video games and monster movies. Especially with someone named after a spicy condiment.

"The only other one I can think of is the housewarming party that Gaston won't shut the hell up about on Twitter."

That sounds more like it. "Tell me more about that." Rapunzel said as she turned around and faced herself in the mirror, clearing a spot through the fog large enough to view her entire face.

"Apparently he's come into some money as of late and finally moved out of his parents at the ripe age of twenty seven."

Shaking her head as she tousled her hair in the mirror, Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "What kind of person is Gaston?"

Jasmine let out a curt laugh that resonated throughout the room. "Rumor has it that the dude eats five dozen eggs a day."

"So he's a health nut?"

"He's an egghead." She commented with a chuckle. "Why are you so inquisitive? You're normally not interested in these things." Jasmine finished as Rapunzel heard the water stop.

"Because when I visited Elsa yesterday Aleks stopped by and asked me to ask her if she'd go to her boyfriend's friend's party." Rapunzel explained as she twirled back around. "It sounded kinda sketchy."

"Sketchy?" Jasmine asked as she threw back the curtain as she dried the corners of her eyes with the end of the towel wrapped around her hair and adjusted the one wrapped around her body. "You think Aleks would lead her own sister to any kind of harm?"

As she started to make her way out of the bathroom with Jasmine in tail, Rapunzel sighed with a quick shrug. "I don't know her well enough to answer that. On that note, I don't even think I know Elsa well enough to answer that." She was nearly mumbling at the end of her statement. She was speaking the truth though. She and Elsa were friends, good friends even she thought. Although there were times when Elsa would sort of sink into herself and grow silent. And offer only short nods or mumbles unless someone was speaking directly at her. "Do you plan on going to his party?" Rapunzel bucked up and asked as her and Jasmine entered their dorm.

"I wasn't planning on it, but I will if you think I shou-"

"I'll go with you." Rapunzel cut in, much to Jasmine's confusion. "I promised Anna that I'd watch over Elsa. If she decides to go to this thing, I want to be there." She sounded resolute, absolutely determined to hold up her promise.

Jasmine gently sat down on the edge of her bed and continued to dab her face dry with her towel. "If you'd like, we can invite the entire crew! Kristoff, Merida, Eugene-" She started, slightly sarcastic as she counted on her fingers.

"-Tor, Gunther, Ulf, Attila, Bruiser, Killer, Fang, Vladimir."

"Those sound like dog names." Jasmine chuckled with a small grin.

"Most of them look like dogs. Have I ever told you about Vladimir's ceramic unicorns?"

It was the vibration on her chest that roused Elsa from the gray area between consciousness and sleep. Startled, her eyes immediately darted across the dark room and tried to slow her beating heart as she caught her breath. Adjusting herself and leaning against the headboard, she grabbed her phone and smiled when she saw an all too familiar face on the screen. "Hello?" She asked in a raspy tone before quickly covering her mouth to clear her throat. "Hello." She repeated in a clearer tone.

"Did I wake you up? I'm sorry! I still don't know how many hours apart we are." Came Anna's upbeat voice through the other end of the phone. Although upbeat, Elsa could still tell that she had just recently woken up herself.

"No, no- well, yes, sort of. But I wanted to talk to you before you left for your classes." She reassured, rubbing the corners of her eyes. "And we're five hours apart, by the way."

Elsa heard a brief rumbling before Anna's response. "Elsa! It's two in the morning! Aren't you tired?"

"When you're right, you're right." The blonde responded with half of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "I'm exhausted but I don't really care." She stated, lowering her voice.

"Are you sure? I mean, I can call back at like noon if that wo-"

"Anna." Elsa stated, holding back a small chuckle. It warmed her heart to hear Anna in a bit of a fluster over how much sleep she would get, but sleeping was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. "Don't worry about me. Tell me how your first day went yesterday."

"Oh. Okay." Anna started, lowering her voice to match Elsa's. "I met Jane soon after we hung up when I got off of the plane. She's insanely smart and actually a pretty cool person. I think you'd get along with her really well."

"Why do you say that?" Elsa asked, amused.

"I just feel like you two would have a lot of the same interests. She's always carrying around a textbook and like three notebooks with her." Anna said and paused for a moment. "And her father is pretty cool too. He's actually a professor at the university."

"So what you're saying is, you got stuck with two big nerds?" Elsa teased with a grin.

Anna scoffed. "I'm dating a big nerd."

Her grin grew to a large smile as Elsa began to absentmindedly play with the fabric of Anna's pillow between her fingers. "This big nerd helped you bump your chemistry grade up to an A, thank you very much."

"I never said that I didn't love and appreciate my big nerd, now did i?" Anna retorted, and quickly began on another thought before Elsa could reply. "Oh yeah! I bought some rain boots the other day cause Jane says it rains a lot in London. They're rainbow colored and have little flowers on them." She mentioned with a bit of childlike glee in her voice.

"That's gay." Elsa teased again, leaning her head back against the wall and letting her eyes fall shut.

Anna giggled. "That's why I bought them. But, how have you been? I'm sorry things have been hectic and I haven't been able to call you since I got off the plane."

Elsa clutched at the pillow, continuing to rub the fabric with her thumb. "It's been strange to say the least."

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, voice muffled as if it were full.

"What a-"

"Brushing my teeth." She replied innocently. Elsa heard another brief rumble before she heard her girlfriend's voice again. "Anyway, yeah."

With a short chuckle, Elsa shook her head and continued her thought. "It's just strange coming back to an empty dorm. And especially-" Her eyes opened slightly and were cast toward the empty spot beside her as she smoothed over the wrinkles that she caused on Anna's pillow. "An empty bed." She finished in a low whisper, unsure if Anna heard.

She did. The rhythmic, pulsing light emanating from underneath her shirt proved it. "I'll be back before you know it." Anna reassured in a much more serious, yet still managing to be loving tone.

With a sigh, Elsa nodded to herself as she wiped off a budding tear from the corner of her eye. When she shut her eyes while Anna was speaking and she let her mind wander off enough, it would almost feel like Anna was still there beside her. "Rapunzel stopped by last night."

"I'm so glad you two get along so well." Anna admitted in that same tone that simultaneously caused Elsa's heart to flutter and sink at the same time.

"You know, she reminds me of Aleks in a lot of ways." Elsa began. "They're both very fervent in their beliefs and opinions, and definitely not afraid to show it. And they're both loving and caring people, although in different ways." She explained before Anna could get a word in, afraid that she would disagree with her before she had a chance to explain herself on the basis of Anna's previous interactions with Aleks.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Els. I just haven't seen that side of her yet."

"She'll grow on you." Elsa muttered, although she didn't exactly believe it. She had known Aleks her entire life, but as of late it didn't always seem like that. Ever since their makeup, Elsa thought that things would return to normal between them. But that wasn't exactly the case. She noticed that as of late, even during Anna's going away breakfast, she was distant. It bothered her to a certain extent, but Aleks was never one to hide anything from her. Or so she thought, but after Aleks' confession to the murder of their father, Elsa wasn't too sure what to think anymore. "Speaking of Aleks, she invited me to some party that her boyfriend's friend is throwing in a couple weeks."

"Oh? Will I be back in time for it if you decide to go?"

Elsa shrugged to herself. "I don't know the exact date. I'll talk to Aleks about it. I don't even know if I'm going."

"You should!" Anna began as Elsa heard more rumbling and what she believed to be the opening and closing of dressers. "Have some sister-sister bonding time and get to know her boyfriend. I know you haven't seen a whole lot of her since we've been dating."

"You're right. But I don't know, the idea of it just doesn't sit too well with me." Elsa chuckled to herself. "A couple months ago, I would never have believed that I'd even consider going to a college party."

"I'd believe it. You were so quiet the first few days of the semester. But, I'm glad I've been able to coax you out of your shell a bit." Anna admitted, and Elsa could swear that she felt herself blush ever so slightly. "Like an adorable little turtle that I just had to dangle a little piece of lettuce in front of. The lettuce being me and the turtle being you."

"So I'm a cold-blooded reptile?"

"No! What I-I mean is that y-you were kind-"

"Anna!" Elsa cut her off before she was able to enter into one of her ever so famous awkward ramblings without taking a breath for a solid minute. It wasn't that Elsa found them annoying, but she was just way too tired to follow her girlfriend's thoughts in a coherent fashion. "I'm teasing."

Anna let out a sigh of relief, causing a crackling in Elsa's ear. "Okay, okay good. Cause you're not like a reptile at all. You're actually really soft. Like, really REALLY soft. I have no clue how you do it. I actually started to use some of your body wash and lotion for a little while thinking that was it, but it wasn't and I just ended up smelling like you for a few days which I didn't mind at all. How do you get your skin so soft? Not just your skin, but you're really soft on the ins-"

"Anna!" Elsa exclaimed with a large smile that hurt her cheeks as blood rushed straight to her face. After she regained control of her face, she took a deep breath to try and calm herself. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should, cause I mean… damn." There was a brief pause, just long enough to startle Elsa when Anna spoke again. "Damn." Anna repeated.

"What happened?"

"I thought about it too much and now I'm horny and have class in half an hour."

With a chuckle, Elsa rubbed the growing sleep from the corners of her eyes. "Well I think you're a little too far away for a late night or early morning booty call."

"Well, I do have Skype on my phone, so you think we cou-"

"Maybe one of these days if you're lucky." Elsa teased, knowing that Anna would be pouting and squirming in her seat about now. "But you're crazy if you think I'll be up for that at two in the morning."

"Well, damn. It was a nice thought, though."

"Are you alright, Elsa? I saw you dozing off in class."

Elsa turned her head to find Rapunzel weaving through the small crowd of departing students to catch up to her. When she finally did, she playfully bumped her hips into Elsa's and smiled. It took her mind a moment to register exactly what was going on and to remember the question she was asked. "Yeah, I'm okay. What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty?" Rapunzel answered with a small chuckle as she placed her hand on Elsa's back and directed her toward a nearby bench. "Did you have a rough night?" She asked, concerned as she started to brush back loose strands of blonde hair that covered Elsa's forehead.

"Not at all, I just lost track of time talking to Anna last night." Elsa admitted, leaning her head against the wall behind her. She found that the relatively cool temperature of the wall on the back of her head was extremely soothing, and she could take a nap then and there at a moment's notice.

"Is she settling in alright? I haven't spoken to her much since she's left. Just a text every here and there." She mentioned, taking her purse off of her shoulder and placing it on her legs.

Rolling her head to the side to maintain eye contact with the brunette, Elsa copied her position and placed her own purse on her legs. "Yes. She's in good spirits too, so that's reaffirming. Although she did try and convince me of a booty call at two in the morning over Skype." She accidentally admitted.

"What?" Rapunzel asked with a wide eyed giggle.

Realizing what she had just said, her eyes shot open as she launched her head off of the wall. "W-what? I d-didn't actually do it, I mean I-"

"So, you're defiling my cousin again huh?" Rapunzel teased, resting her chin on the back of her head and shaking her head. "Well I hope you use protection."

Flustered and embarrassed, Elsa tried to muster all of the coherent thought she could to try and understand if Rapunzel was being serious or not. "B-but how c-cou-"

"Judging by that killer bruise on the side of your neck, I'm assuming you at least gave it to her good. Looks like a bite mark."

Frantically adjusting her hoodie so that it concealed more of her neck, she placed her hand over the bruise and opened her mouth to explain, but hardly managed to make any real sound but mumbles. "Neither of u-us really, uh I-I mean that like, we kind of swit-"

"Damnit, I owe Merida twenty dollars." Rapunzel cursed under her breath before winking at Elsa with a large grin. "I never really figured Anna to be a submissive one." She explained, much to Elsa's embarrassment.

"But s-"

"Don't worry, Elsa. I'm playing with you." Rapunzel broke with a giggle. "I'm actually really glad that Anna has been able to find someone she can be that open with." She giggled again. "Literally!"

Elsa shook her head and groaned, but smiled nonetheless. "She's a wonderful person, Rapunzel." She admitted, wiping at her eyes to try and make herself seem more awake than she actually was. "She actually thinks I should go to that party, she brought up a good point that I haven't been able to see much of my sister as of late."

Rapunzel made a face at the reference of Aleks' name, but it didn't last long as her expression quickly changed before she began to speak. "I talked to Jasmine about the party, and I think I have some information about it that you'll like to know."

Elsa straightened up and nodded, letting Rapunzel know that she can continue.

"It's being thrown by some guy named Gaston. Apparently he's came into some serious money as of late and bought a house, so it's like a housewarming thing. From what Jasmine has told me of him, he isn't a real bad guy, but his elevator doesn't quite reach the top." She awkwardly cleared her throat and nodded. "If you know what I mean."

"Well, okay." Elsa commented. "I'll probably just stick around Aleks regardless." She knew that Aleks wouldn't intentionally lead her into any harm or uncomfortable situations. The more she thought about the entire idea, the more that she warmed up to it. If she gets along with someone enough to date them, it only makes sense that Elsa would like him to. To an extent, at least. After all, it could be an opportunity to grow her circle of friends.

"Jasmine and I will come with you. Anna won't be back in time for it." Rapunzel stated, deadpan. Even if Elsa wanted to argue, she knew there would be no point in it. The intent gaze Rapunzel was giving her made that all too obvious. "Jasmine has experience with these things, she'll know if things get too… sketchy, for lack of a better word." She added, brightening her tone.

What does she mean by sketchy? Aleks wouldn't let anyone push her around and force her into anything that could be considered 'sketchy'. Elsa pushed her hands into her hoodie pocket and started to rub her palm with her thumb. But what if she's a different person than the person I knew a few weeks back? She heard Rapunzel speaking, although she wasn't paying attention. All she did was offer a blank stare and nod after every few words. But that's just Rapunzel's assumptions, right? I'm sure that Aleks wo- She flinched slightly when she felt her phone vibrate against the back of her hand. Pulling it halfway out of her pocket so that she could check the screen, she unlocked it and read the message.

'I think I know where your powers come from!'

Her heart started racing as she immediately pushed her phone back into her pocket and pulled her purse back up to her shoulder. All other thoughts instantly left her mind. "I have to call Anna, I'll speak to you later. Sorry." She deadpanned, lifting herself off the bench and toward the exit of the building as her stomach started to tie itself into knots.

She wasn't sure if she was going to like what Anna would have to say.