"Princess Anna get back here this instant!"

The occupants of the corridor all turned to stare either in amusement or exasperation, at a sight that had become all too common over the past few days. The young princess scrambling at top speed between the legs of the house hold staff as she expertly avoided a red faced and angry Gerda rushing behind her.

Not that anyone could blame her.

Gerda made a rather alarming sight as she chased the young princess with a pair of scissors grasped firmly in her hand.

"It is unbecoming for a princess!" The maid practically howled down the hallway at the retreating girl.

"I don't care!" Anna yelled back craning her neck to look behind her. "I don't wa-" she began to continue before she was cut off as she collided with someone's legs and abruptly fell backwards.

Blinking upwards for a moment dazed before seeing Kai staring down at her, amusement and concern warring over his expression.

"Save me Kai!" Anna squeaked before ducking around behind Kai's legs. "She's trying to cut off my hair!"

"I am not!" Gerda huffed indignantly, taking large gulps of air as she finally came to a stop in front of Anna's new human shield. "I'm only going to fix it!" She glared down at Anna. "If you hadn't gone and done whatever it is that gave you that nasty strip we wouldn't have to go through this."

"I was kissed by a fairy!" Anna replied confidently puffing out her little chest in pride as she returned Gerda's glare from behind Kai's legs.

She meant to sound confident as she yelled "You can't take it away!" but wasn't able to control how her voice wobbled and it came out as more of a desperate plea then the royal demand she'd intended.

"Kissed by a fairy?" Kai questioned his bemused eyes going from Anna to Gerda. The older woman raised her eyes to the sky as if to ask whatever deity she paid homage to exactly what she had done to have to deal with such wild tales.

"That's the only answer we've been able to get out of her." She sighed. "She just woke up one morning with that streak of blonde running through her hair and all she says about it is that she was kissed by a fairy! Look at it!" Gerda gestured exasperated. "It goes all the way to the roots! It's as if that section of hair decided it didn't want to belong to a six year old anymore and started acting like it belonged to a sixty year old instead!"

"What's going on Anna?" Kai asked, and Anna looked up surprised by the sudden seriousness in his tone.

But before she could do more than blink up at him the sudden slamming of the door behind her made the three of them jump.

They turned as the new occupant of the hall swore loudly to himself and whirled away from the door that had probably not done anything to deserve his harsh treatment.

Anna shrunk backwards again behind Kai's legs as she recognized the tell-tale black hair and scared face of Gendrik one of the more unpleasant of her father's men.

It wasn't his scars or his constantly greasy hair that made Anna wary of him. Normally Anna was wary of no one, knowing all too well how appearances could deceive and what it was like to be judged for things outside your control.

Hendal the guardsman had scars far worse than the single line that ran from Gendrik's left eye to stretch the skin at the top of his upper lip, but Hendal was far gentler and had carried Anna up seven flights of castle stairs when she'd fallen from a tree and broken her arm the previous year. Behind Hendal's scars was the man who had whispered words of comfort and kindness to a frightened child.

It was speculated that Archy, the old blind grandfather of the castle's head cook who spent his days blindly carving an endless supply of dog whistles, hadn't bathed since he'd lost his sight. But he was the owner of one of the most beautiful singing voices Arendale had ever known and was Anna's comrade in arms when it came to stealing sweets.

No it wasn't the disfigurements or hygiene that made Anna frightened of this man. Rather that as his eyes finally caught sight of the three of them standing there they seemed to fill with disdain.

He looked at them as if he would just as soon kick them as greet them.

Her first meeting with him had involved one of her more spectacular accidents and a large bowl of rather watery chocolate pudding. And Anna could not shake the memory of the way his eyes had hardened as his arm had raised or the way her heart had pounded in her ears as his fist had descend towards her face before the cook's howl of "Princess!" had echoed after her. She had flinched away only to find Gendrik, eyes still like flint, pause with his hand in the air before suddenly wiping at the large chocolate stain on the front of his tunic and finally whirling away and storming off down the hall in silence.

She had been certain he was going to hit her and the fear of that day had colored her opinion of him from then on.

Which was ridiculous. Grownups didn't go around hurting people just because they could and Gendrik was her father's man. He reported to the king himself. Though to Anna's relief, he only seemed to appear in the castle for a conference with the king every month or so.

Now he was standing there glaring at Anna, Kai, and Gerda as he muttered crossly to himself. Then with a swish of the winter cloak he always wore no matter the weather, he hurried down the hallway without a word to any of them.

"Well," Gerda huffed into the silence once Gendrik had vanished, "I don't care what secret mission the king has him working on that man is nothing but trouble!"

She exchanged a glance with Kai who let out a sigh before seeming to remember that Anna was still using his legs as a human shield. Some of the weariness lifted from his face as he reached for the princess's hand.

"It's none of our affair." He answered Gerda, still looking down at the princess. "Come along Anna, you have an etiquette class you're going to be late to and if you do well today we'll see what we can do about having chocolate cake for dessert tonight."

He was snoring.

Propped up against the door, his second bottle somehow still clutched in his hand.

Leaving.

They were leaving.

Time was up.

The fire crackled lightly as its last remaining embers continued to flicker warming the room, and Elsa was still frozen.

Her familiar walls had slid into place too late. But they were back now. She had retreated to that familiar numbness in her mind as he had ranted and raged. She still sat where she had fallen. The broken pieces of glass from his first bottle surrounding her and the ice she had fallen on refusing to melt.

Leaving.

This was normal. They never stayed in one place long. She should have been prepared.

But…

It had been so hard to block him out. What had happened to her? She was used to his insults. They had stopped affecting her a long time ago. So why did this time affect her so much?

Weak.

She had been a fool.

Useless.

She had betrayed herself.

Monster.

Why did she have to feel? Her shoulders shook and a tear fell silently into her lap.

Pathetic.

She was pathetic. She was soft. A few angry words from a drunk man at the abomination that he'd been sentenced to live the rest of his life with, and suddenly all her years of practice meant nothing. She hadn't been able to conceal it. It was her fault. Her magic had flowed so easily, so naturally outwards with her fear at the noise of the breaking glass that she hadn't even been aware of it. She had slipped on her own ice.

Her hands were still bleeding.

And they were leaving.

Tomorrow.

Leaving.

She would need to pull the glass shards out from her hands eventually.

Anna

...

And suddenly she couldn't stop the tears as she curled into herself.

What fool she had been. She had exposed an innocent girl to such danger. She should be happy they were leaving. Happy she no longer had the choice of whether or not to expose Anna to such danger again.

Because if she did…

She was so selfish, because she knew she wouldn't take back the last few months. She would take those memories and store them somewhere safe, deep within herself. They would be treasured. But she would never see Anna again.

No one was here.

Anna stopped in confusion and looked around. The pond, normally full of color and shifting ice and a smiling blond haired girl was deserted.

She flopped down into the snow. Pouting with her bottom lip jutting out as she crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. She had seen the lights. Elsa had called her. She would just have to wait for her to come back. It wouldn't be long now.

She stared down at the tiny snow fairy ornament in her gloved hand. She would be able to give it to Elsa soon.

She found foot prints behind a bush by the edge of the pond that led her all the way back to Elsa's cabin.

The door was open.

The cabin where Elsa had brought her was empty. The bedding she'd been wrapped in was stripped off the frames. The fireplace she'd warmed herself at was cold. And the girl who had saved her life was no where to be seen.

The little red haired girl stood in the middle of the silent room as the first rays of the morning sun peaked in through the door behind her, clutching her snow fairy and quietly staring at the room that felt like it was so much larger then it'd been before.

A/N

#Super long hello again that you don't have to read

Not to make excuses but just because I feel the need to rant, this chapter was originally over 5,000 words. Then I accidentally deleted the entire thing.

Finding the enthusiasm to rewrite something a second time that was super emotionally draining the first time, just didn't happen. :( Then life happened. But I've been super sad lately that none of my favorite elsanna authors *cough (Requ) cough* have been updating and realized I was guilty of the same thing so...

I was really surprised to see new comments and surprisingly encouraged by you all! :D I thought my story had just disappeared into the vastness of fanfiction. So wow. Thank you for your encouragement. I came back for you!

On another note if anybody has any ideas or things they want to see in this story I love brainstorming. Feel free to send me a message here or on tumblr. My problem is that I have two different ideas on where to take this story and I'm not sure which one I want to write.

Also while main plots are great I'm a strong believer that it's all the little moments that make the story, so what I'm really looking for is little details or characteristics you'd like to see in the future when (spoiler!) they meet again. Is Elsa cold or shy? Does Anna have a secret hiding of horseback riding? sword fighting? ducks? How does Kristoff become best friends with a reindeer? Hans anyone? So basically I'm asking if anyone has input. Send me your ideas, AU's, all the little twirks you imagine these lovable people having and I'll do the work.

Probably.

Maybe.

This may seem like shameless idea stealing. But honestly I'm writing this story for fun and am encouraged when you guys find it fun too. I know I'm not the best or most creative person or writer, I was just overflowing with possible ideas one day and decided to write them down. So if other people have some great ideas I'd love to make this story as good as it can be.