Author's Note: So this is the first fanfiction I've ever written by myself and uploaded. I've been working on this story for about 2 months and I think it's time to start sharing. Read, review, let me know what you think!

Chapter 1: The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

Elsa stood on her balcony and breathed deep. There was work to be done – papers to be signed, orders to be reviewed, diplomatic missives to be read – but just for this moment, she was putting it off.

She closed her eyes to breathe in the majestic scents of winter; then she opened them again. Rosen, the capital city of Arendelle, lay secure and peaceful, blanketed under a pristine layer of white snow. Gentle flakes floated on the breeze. She extended one hand and a few flakes danced over to it, swirling and waltzing around her fingers.

It was a miracle she could look at any of this without shuddering.

But six months had passed since her coronation, and if anything in Arendelle could be counted as normal, "snow in December" was near the top of the list. At least it would be a mild winter. She would see to that. It was the least she could do … after.

She shuddered and drew her fur cape closer around her. The cold might not bother her, but memories … memories were another story.

Her fingers stroked the soft fur. She told herself that she only wore the capes and cloaks and warm clothing because it unnerved people to see her walking outdoors in indoor clothing in this kind of weather. But there was a part of her that reveled in the beauty of the fur under her fingers and in all the other materials: velvet and wool, silk and satin. Her ice dress had been stunning, but she had learned quickly that she had nothing on a trained fashion expert. Her Yule dress …

Elsa came to herself and shook her head. She'd spent enough time woolgathering. The sun was setting over Rosen, and in the gabled cottages and shops below, candles were flickering into light one by one. If she wanted to be done by dinner, she needed to get back to work now. She turned back into her study, her cape sweeping behind her.

It was the work of a moment to light the lamp on her desk and sit back down again. Elsa rubbed the bridge of her nose as she tried to remember where she had been. Ah yes – Treasurer Akselsen's latest financial report. Elsa forced her mind to focus as she read through the dense lines of figures and the cautious speculations below.

It was apparently beyond Akselsen's powers to write plainly or make a confident prediction, but the numbers didn't lie. Elsa breathed out a sigh of relief. This report contained the final tabulations from the harvest and the autumn trading season. It would hardly be a banner year, and cutting off trade with Weselton might not have been the best move from a financial perspective, but her people would not starve. They would have enough to get them through the winter, and they would be in a good enough position, come spring, to start again. Elsa leaned back and massaged her temples. She'd ask Gerda to add a splash of vodka to her hot chocolate at dinner. This was worth a celebration.

The report being read, she added her stamp of approval to it. Another thing to celebrate – this was the second-to-last report she had to read tonight! With any luck, this last one wouldn't take her long, and then she could go down to supper with Anna and Olaf without any—

Oh.

The last report wasn't a report at all. It was a letter, addressed directly to her.

Below the address was the anchor seal of the Southern Isles.

Son of a—Too many years of a prim and proper upbringing made it difficult for Elsa to swear, even in the confines of her own head. Although if she had a tongue like Anna's (who had spent a week getting to know the sailors at the docks and had come back with a whole new vocabulary), she could have probably come up with enough creative epithets for Hans to have a few to spare for all twelve of his brothers.

… Now that she thought of it, Anna had come up with enough epithets for all thirteen of the Princes of the Southern Isles. That was how Elsa had come to learn the breadth of her new vocabulary.

Elsa stared at the letter, as if doing so would make it disappear. She had been plenty merciful with the Southern Isles, hadn't she? She'd sent Hans back unharmed, hadn't she? She could have cut off trade as she'd done with Weselton; she could have started a war. Was it too much to ask in return that they simply leave her alone?

But politics didn't work like that. And putting off this letter would do her no good. If there was anything she had learned from the events of the past summer, it was that running from her problems never solved anything. With a sigh, she reached for her letter opener to pop the seal.

Yet if there was something else she should have learned from last summer, it was that all the good intentions in the world were no guard against things going wrong. It was something she ought to have remembered as a brisk rat-a-tat-tat sounded on the door, followed by, "Elsa!" and the door swinging open.

Elsa barely had time to shove the letter under the blotter before her sister spilled into the room. Their open-door policy may have undergone some revisions since the summer, mostly concerning the sanctity of the bedroom and bathing rooms, but she had sworn she would never close her door on her sister again – at least, not while she was fully clothed.

"Elsa!" Anna called again, all bouncing pigtails and bubbling spirits. "There you are! I was wondering—Elsa!"

"What?" Elsa asked, wondering what was so important that it required calling her name three times.

"You let the fire go out! Again!" Anna skipped over to the fireplace, her hand reaching for the matches kept on the mantelpiece. "I'm going to start needing to wear gloves all the time if you keep this up," she grumbled, or got as close as Anna ever did get to grumbling.

"I'm sorry," Elsa murmured. "I didn't even notice …"

"You probably left the balcony door open again, didn't you? Honestly Elsa, I'm supposed to be the irresponsible one, but if you can't even close a door behind you …"

Elsa's eyes slid to the balcony door. It was open just a crack, but a quick burst of cold air fixed that.

Not well enough, because the wind stirred Anna's skirts and she looked up. Her eyes went from the door to Elsa and back again; then her face scrunched up like a gray old schoolmarm who had just bitten into a lemon.

Elsa couldn't help it. She giggled. And that was all it took for Anna's laugh to ring through the room like a bell.

"What would you do without me, Elsa?" Anna shook her head.

Elsa stopped giggling.

"Oh, don't look at me like that! We're together forever, right? That's what we promised! And I'm going to keep my promise – just like Princess Rapunzel!"

"Indeed," Elsa replied. She watched as Anna sparked the flames back into life. She could start to feel the warmth chasing away the chill even now. "But what did you need?"

Anna pouted and threw herself into one of the chairs across from Elsa's desk. She was the only one allowed to sit like that: sideways, her back resting against one armrest, her feet hanging off the other. Though whether anyone else would dare to sit like that in the presence of the Snow Queen was perhaps the more relevant question. "Why do you assume I need something?"

"I …" Elsa stopped.

"I mean, maybe I just wanted to see my favorite big sister, who's been holed up in meetings all day …"

"I …" Elsa's eyes dropped to the blotter. "There's a lot to be done before Yule."

"Oh, stop looking like that!" Elsa blinked and looked up. And there was Anna, smiling at her with the full force of the summer sun. "I was only teasing; you'd think you were never teased in your life!"

Elsa smiled. "Touché."

"Thanks! Anyway …" Anna stopped, her lips twisting in her nervousness. "Erm …"

"Yes?"

"I um … well …" She twisted her hands, and under the table, Elsa felt her hands start to do the same. "The reason I came up here was—well—I finally figured out what I wanted to ask you for Yule …"

Elsa's hands stopped twisting. "For Yule?"

Anna nodded, her face lighting up so that her freckles shone in all their splendor.

"Anna …" Elsa massaged a temple. "Yule is in two days …"

"Oh! Oh, it's not something you have to buy!" Anna laughed. "You don't have to worry about that! No, it's just – well – I want a day."

Elsa blinked. "A day?" A holiday? A celebration in her honor? She wondered. Well, Anna was probably overdue for one. If Anna hadn't come after her, might she still not be in her ice palace, her kingdom of isolation?

"A day with you," Anna clarified. "I mean—look, don't get me wrong, where we are now, it's ages better than where we were before, and I know we're both trying, but you're so busy and I know you have to be, but I just want one day – just one day! – where it's just you and me, and no affairs of state, and no meetings, and no spending half the afternoon locked up with a ream of paperwork, and … and that's what I want!" Anna finished.

Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart. Her heart must have hardened again when she wasn't paying attention, for Elsa felt something grow warm in her chest. "That … that's what you want? A day … with me?"

Anna nodded. She wore that expression of perfect hope and fear that matched exactly the expression Elsa had imagined for her all those years knocking at her door.

"Anna …" Elsa stood and crossed to the door, one hand over her mouth, trying to blink away what felt like tears. Her heart wasn't the only thing that was melting today …

"… Elsa?"

Think! Railed the voice of common sense. Think!

She blinked again. Maybe …

"How about tomorrow?" she asked, turning around.

Anna's jaw fell. "Wait – tomorrow? Tomorrow tomorrow? As in the day it'll be when it stops being today? The sun'll come out tomorrow – that tomorrow?"

"Er—yes." Elsa spread her hands in apology. "It's just – all the councilors have the day off, so they can return to their families for Yule, and no government business is conducted, and—"

Anna squealed and launched herself at Elsa, who barely had time to brace for impact before her little sister landed in her arms. "Yes! Yes, tomorrow's fine! Oh, I'm so excited! This is going to be the awesomest – awesome – that ever awesomed!"

"I'm glad you think so," Elsa chuckled, patting her sister on the back. "And I suppose …" she mused, "since you won't be needing the other Yule present I bought you …"

Anna stopped jumping around to glare at Elsa.

"I can just eat all that chocolate myself."

"What? Elsa! You wouldn't dare!"

Elsa laughed. "See if you can stop me, little sister!" And without another word, the Queen of Arendelle detached herself from the Princess of Arendelle, who chased her laughing all the way down to dinner.

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