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It would have been possible to try and sleep on the sled, the honest-to-whatever sled that they were taking to the forest, except the path wasn't smooth enough for Axel to believe he wouldn't fall out at the first bump after he nodded off, and because the driver was a talker.
"I got lucky with Anna," Kristoff said. "When we first met, she was convinced she was in love with Hans, so the writing could only mean I was the thing standing between her and her true love. And, well, I'm sure you've noticed, but Anna's a lot stronger than she looks."
"I noticed, yeah," Axel said, gently rubbing his arm. Queen Anna had held it in place while she studied the writing on his wrist. As soulmarks went, Axel felt his was pretty tasteful. Queen Elsa's name was adorned with what he had learned were the symbols of the four elements in Arendelle, forming a stylized snowflake around the name.
"She picked me up to move me out of the way once, and she didn't even look like she'd made an effort. I'm an ice-runner, and Anna just moved me out of the way!" Kristoff sighed. "At least she didn't punch me in the face like she did Hans. Knocked him over the side of the ship with one jab."
"Really?" Axel asked, intrigued. He'd known from his time with the Thirteen that then-Princess Anna's mouth ran in front of her brain, but he'd never thought of her as someone who would just smash someone in the face.
"Yep. Just turned around and hit him right on the nose. I'm surprised she didn't break it. Maybe hitting the water face-first in surprise re-set it. He deserved it, too. Tried to kill Elsa and take over the country, and he lied about being in love with Anna."
"Ah, that would do it," Axel said, nodding. The Thirteen's intelligence had told him Princess Anna had held very specific ideas about destiny and soulmates. Axel understood that someone who intentionally took advantage of her romantic nature would absolutely end up eating a knuckle sandwich. "So, where is Hans right now?"
"Shoveling shit on the Southern Isles," Kristoff said, grinning. "After Anna rang his bell, she made sure that continued trade relied on never seeing Hans near Arendelle again."
Axel nodded. "So, not that the ride isn't smooth, but why are we taking a sled to Queen Elsa? Isn't there a train or a road that could get us there?"
"When was the last time you visited?" Kristoff asked.
"It's been a while," Axel said. The last time he'd been in Arendelle, the Thirteen had been interested in seeing if they could recruit Elsa, based on Axel's markings. Larxene had teased him mercilessly about having to learn to love the cold. And if any of the Thirteen's intelligence had been right about Queen Elsa, Larxene might have had a point. Instead, after being given an epic run-around by Anna, Axel had found a castle constructed entirely out of ice, guarded by an ill-tempered snow beast that barely looked at Axel's soulmark before tossing him over the cliff's edge into the drifts below. Repeatedly. At that point, he'd decided that he'd sunk enough time into trying to call it due diligence and gone back to the Thirteen to tell Luxord "No dice."
"So, that waterfall over there used to be a dam, but the dam had been built to weaken powerful spirits, and they didn't take too kindly to it. So Anna and Elsa had to go and set everything right, and that, apparently, meant that Elsa had to stay behind in the forest as the fifth elemental spirit."
"And?" Axel prompted.
"And would you want to try and build roads or train tracks through a forest right after you finally got back on good terms with the local spirits?" Kristoff finished. "Especially when they look like that," he is, pointing at a figure in the distance that reminded Axel of some of the bigger nightmares the Thirteen had sent out.
Axel was willing to concede Kristoff had a point. Before he could say much about it, he heard someone singing. Kristoff didn't seem to notice, and it was over before it had barely begun. Maybe he was more tired than he thought. And the trail looked forgiving and level, so maybe he could get some sleep before they arrived.
Just as he was drifting off, he heard it again, just a little longer than before.
"This is going to sound weird," Axel said, "but have you been hearing a voice singing on the wind?"
"No, but Anna mentioned that Elsa had been hearing something like it before they went off to fix the spirits. And you're tied to Elsa, so it makes sense you would hear it, too."
The reindeer pulling the sled snorted and grunted a few times.
"That's incredibly rude, Sven," Kristoff said. After a beat, he continued. "Sorry, I've found it's best not to assume someone can't understand him. He was wondering why it took you so long to hear the call."
The reindeer whuffed and spoke again.
"No, I'm not repeating that," Kristoff snapped. "If you're going to be like that, you can keep your comments to yourself."
"Let me guess," Axel said dryly. "Sven has unflattering opinions about how suitable I am for Queen Elsa."
In response, Axel got the distinct opinion that the reindeer was laughing at him.
Axel heard the same song again, this time sounding more distinctly human. Kristoff perked up and urged Sven toward the source of the song, eventually stopping just outside of a clearing.
The woman in the clearing resembled the pictures Axel had seen of Queen Elsa many years ago. Her hair had a much whiter shade than the pictures he had remembered, and she'd obviously gotten taller in the interim. She sang the melody Axel had heard earlier, listening for a response. When nothing came, she frowned.
"Well?" she asked. "Am I supposed to wait here for something?"
A small wind ruffled Axel's hair, sounding like a child laughing, as a tiny lizard jumped up onto the sled and then launched themself at Axel. Reflexively, he caught the lizard, who burbled happily and lit themself on fire, giving Axel a pleasant warmth in his hands from the violet flames.
"Well, hello there," Axel said, examining the salamander and adding a little of his own fire to the salamander's to introduce himself. The salamander extinguished their flame and wriggled around in Axel's for a bit, before scampering up to his shoulder and giving Axel a nuzzle.
The wind rushed over to Elsa, picking up some leaves along the way.
"What is it, Gale?" she said, as the wind wrapped itself around her. The wind darted back over to Axel and spun over his head, giving him a crown of leaves, before rushing back to Elsa.
"Kristoff! Sven! What are you doing here? Who is this?" she asked, noticing the sled and all of its occupants.
"Good seeing you again, Your Majesty," Kristoff said, confirming for Axel who was in front of him. "Anna says hello, and that she wants to reschedule charades to Thursday." Sven honked loudly. "Oh, right. This is Axel."
Axel felt the temperature in the clearing drop significantly.
"I thought I said I wasn't interested in meeting anyone named Axel," she said frostily, staring Axel in the eye.
"Blame Princess—sorry, Queen Anna," Axel retorted, feeling the heat of all the other people in his life who had looked at him and dismissed him as unimportant. "She decided that we needed to meet and wouldn't take no for an answer."
"Anna wouldn't ignore my wishes like that," Elsa shot back. "My sister loves me, and she would know the last thing I need is for my worst enemy to show up in the middle of a delicate operation."
"Well excuuuse me, ice queen," Axel said. "Nice to know that you're just as judgmental as your sister."
"Why would one of the Thirteen be someone I would want in my life?" Elsa snapped.
"I left the Thirteen, okay?" Axel said. "I kept the jacket because it was cool, but that's it."
"Go away," Elsa said, turning away from him.
"Fine, I…fuck," Axel snarled. While he and Elsa had been arguing, not only had he stepped off the sled, but Kristoff had taken off, leaving them both together. "Sorry to disappoint you," he said, "but my ride is probably halfway back to Arendelle City by now."
"Well, you can just stay there, then," Elsa said, punctuating her words by freezing Axel's feet in ice shoes.
Axel looked down at his frozen feet, rolled his eyes, and took a deep breath to summon the inner fire that had been part of his life since birth. The salamander hopped down from his shoulders and relit themself, spreading purple fire over the ice holding him in place. Axel shrugged and let the salamander do the work instead. At least he'd made one friend in this space.
As soon as his feet were free, Axel raised his hands placatingly. "Hey," he said, trying to keep himself under control. "I'm not real fond of the way we're meeting, either, but the least you could do is be open to the possibility that I'm not your worst enemy. Try not have a frozen heart."
The phrase "sudden cold snap" was woefully inadequate to describe the swift and complete way that any heat in the area surrounding both Axel and Elsa fled for its life, but it was the closest that Axel could think of as a description as Elsa turned around to stare him in the eyes.
"What did you say?" Elsa hissed, surrounded by a bright blue aura.
Axel knew how this was going to end, but he also knew that self-preservation still kicks in even when you know you're screwed. Axel took off for the nearest tree that looked big enough to run behind long enough to get his chakrams out and lit. As he ran, the tree he was planning on using for cover shattered into frozen slivers. Thanking whatever deities were relevant for his lack of speed, Axel changed course. Had he actually been as fast as he claimed, he would have been skewered by at least ten thousand of those needles, none of which looked like the ones his Cactuar buddy used for acupuncture back home.
As he fled from Elsa's tree-destroying attacks, Axel desperately looked to find something either higher or that could stand up to Elsa long enough for him to start formulating a plan. Unfortunately for him, the only feature that wasn't a fragile tree looked like it was a pretty sharp drop. Weighing his options between a fall that he might not survive and a very pissed off ice witch, Axel knew his odds of survival were much higher by risking a broken limb and dashed for the cliff edge. Trees exploded around him from the force of Elsa's magic as he ran for his life. Just before he could fling himself into the void and try to fight another day, something slammed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground and pinning him in place. Axel tried to wriggle out from underneath the thing keeping him down, but it was heavy enough that he couldn't budge it with his normal strength. To his benefit, It felt enough like a creature of ice to Axel that he could probably melt it easily enough.
Axel pressed his hands to the thing keeping him down and channeled the fire down from his blood into his hands, pouring into it the emotions he kept with him as a source of fuel. After he'd been brought back to himself, Roxas had decided to stay in the Twilight District and to try and build a life with Xion in the wake of the Thirteen's collapse, telling Axel to go find his soulmate. Even and Ienzo backing out of their road trip plans to chase a research postdoc and "improve their Ansem number," whatever that meant. All the time he spent with Princess Pure Heart herself, trying to get her to see him as more than a friend, only for her to run off with both of the men she's apparently carried a torch for for decades, both of which, he later learned, were on her wrists, and hers on theirs.
And all the gods-and-spirits-damned people who kept calling him "Lea," like he hadn't left that name and that life behind decades ago.
He felt the fire rushing out of his palms, turning to vapor whatever they touched of the thing that was keeping him pinned. It wasn't very effective, but it was enough to allow him to wriggle free and get back up on his feet. Before he could jump off the edge, the creature that had been pinning him picked him up in one hand. As he tried to melt the hand that held him up, he got a good look at what Elsa had summoned to help.
If it wasn't the same creature that had thrown him over the cliffs outside the ice castle the first time he'd come to Arendelle looking for Elsa, it was his identical twin.
"Marshmallow! That's enough!" Elsa shouted. The creature turned to Elsa, still holding Axel in a hand that seemed to be regrowing the ice as fast as he could melt it off.
"Set him down," Elsa said, sighing. Marshmallow dangled Axel over the edge of what was a much bigger drop that he had envisioned and made an inquiring sound.
"No, not like that," Elsa shook her head. "Bring him over here and put him down in front of me." Marshmallow grumbled at the prospect of not getting to throw Axel over an edge another time, but did as Elsa asked. Axel could feel Marshmallow's hand stay on him, an warning of what would happen if he didn't stay put.
"And now you see the problem," she said.
"If the problem is that you have bigger anger issues than me, sure," Axel replied.
"That is the problem," Elsa said. "Ever since I came here, these flashes of power have gotten worse. I've been lucky so far that nobody has been hurt when it all escapes, but…it has to stop. And you're not helping with that."
"So what, you think that the right play here is to try to lock your emotions away or something? Because if it is, that's petty much reindeer sh—ow, hey!" Axel glared at Marshmallow. "Fine. It's…inadvisable, Your Majesty. And we don't even know whether we're supposed to be compatible or antagonists."
"What reason do I have to believe we're anything but enemies?" Elsa replied.
Axel didn't have anything to reply immediately, but in the silence that fell, the singing started again. Axel looked around for the source of the sound, but he couldn't pinpoint an origin. The last time, it had stopped when Elsa sang back to it, so Axel thought that might work for him, too.
Elsa had the same idea as Axel did, although Axel didn't know that until they both sang back to the voice, creating a harmony between themselves.
"Well, that was nice," Axel said.
"You can hear it, too?" Elsa asked? "How is that possible?"
Axel shrugged. "Maybe someone is playing matchmaker."
As if to agree with him, the voice sang again. Axel hummed back a response, while Elsa folded her arms and glared at him.
"Don't leave me hanging, Your Majesty," Axel said, grinning. Elsa sang beautifully, like any Queen who had been raised in a royal household would. Truthfully, everything about Elsa was beautiful, and royal, and regal, and Axel felt he should know better than to keep poking holes in her demeanor, but he always felt like he learned the most about someone's true nature when they were pissed off at him. Even if it had meant he'd come closer to death than he'd wanted more than a few times.
Elsa ignored him. "The last time I heard this, it was Ahtohallan calling," she said to herself. "What could it want this time? The spirits are in harmony, we destroyed the dam, and I don't have to hide my power from anybody. What could be wrong?"
"Maybe nothing is wrong and you can relax?" Axel said. "Starting with this big lunk," he added, pointing at Marshmallow.
"It can't be that," Elsa said, starting to pace back and forth, tracks of ice following her footsteps. She looked at her own wrist, where Axel could see his own name, each letter wreathed in flames. "But the Thirteen are disbanded, Hans isn't here, there's nothing to remember from the past." Elsa's pacing continued as the ice from her feet began to spread out, to the point where Elsa started skating back and forth on it rather than walking.
Axel felt something lick him on the cheek. Looking over, he saw the little salamander smile at him.
"Hey. A little help here?" Axel said, indicating both Marshmallow and Elsa's expanding ice track. The salamander jumped down, hopping over to the latest tree before setting it on fire with their own flames.
Axel facepalmed as the salamander moved to the next tree, one within Elsa's line of sight, and lit it up, too.
"Bruni!" Elsa shouted, firing ice into the tree to put out the purple fire. "What are you doing?" Bruni bounced between two trees and set them both alight, bounding away before Elsa's ice arrived to extinguish the flames.
"I said a little help, not 'burn the forest down for me,' " Axel muttered, watching as Bruni stayed just a little ahead of Elsa, lighting just enough trees up to make her keep chasing, but never seriously entertaining the idea of a an uncontrolled forest blaze. Eventually, the salamander hopped down and left a fire trail as they skittered back to Axel and climbed back up onto his shoulder, settling into a comfortable pose.
Elsa put out the last of the fires and turned back to Axel, narrowing her eyes at the very relaxed creature.
"Uh, Your Majesty?" Axel ventured, drawing Elsa's eyes to himself. "Not to insult you again, but if this is how you usually are, you're the highest-strung person I've met, and yes, I have met your sister."
A small laugh got out of Elsa before she closed her mouth again and tried to regain her stem look. "That's not nice to Anna," she said.
"Did I mention that after I turned Anna down, she left Olaf with me until I agreed to come here?"
Elsa looked shocked. "Anna wouldn't do that. She loves Olaf."
"She did, and she threatened every innkeeper in Arendelle with a fine of about half the royal treasury if they let me stay the night instead of getting on Kristoff's sled. Ugh, and the reindeer apparently thinks you're completely out of my league in brains and beauty. He's wrong, but it still hurts, y'know?"
Elsa let another laugh out before smothering it. "Sven has many opinions on many things," she said, still smiling.
"And I promise that I'm smart enough not to do a colossally stupid thing twice," Axel continued.
"Anna didn't tell you about that, did she?" Elsa said, immediately somber again. "How her own sister froze her heart."
"What, on purpose? You don't seem the type," Axel said.
"No! By accident. And Hans tried to take advantage of it by killing me after he thought Anna was going to die."
"I'm beginning to think Anna wanted to do a lot more than punch him in the face and send him home," Axel said. "How did he not end up with a knife between his ribs?"
"The same reason I didn't turn him into a living ice statue," Elsa said with a hint of her previous fury. "Sometimes, diplomacy wins." Realizing how upset she sounded, Elsa waved her hand dismissively. "Go ahead and let him go, Marshmallow. He's not dangerous."
Marshmallow stared down at Axel and growled. Axel had a sinking feeling Marshmallow was remembering how much Axel had melted off of him and disagreeing with Elsa's assessment. The next moment, he and Bruni were both airborne, headed over the cliff in what Axel hoped was a graceful arc. As deaths went, he thought this one was probably going to hurt, but at least it had enough style. If only he could stop himself from screaming, it would be perfect.
Hitting an unexpected snowdrift knocked the wind out of Axel and left him staring up at the stars, wondering which of them was responsible for his fate this time.
"Are you all right?" Elsa's voice drifted down to him.
"I'm cool," Axel responded a beat before he realized what a terrible pun it was. At the top of the Axel-shaped hole, he saw Bruni, looking as pleased as Marluxia had when he'd finally figured out the perfect cutting remark to deliver. The salamander slowly sank through the layers of snow until he was eye level with Axel, looking like he'd taken the best bath of his life before lighting up again to melt more snow on top of himself.
"Hey, save some for me," Axel protested, using his own fire, aided by his chakrams, to melt the snowbank that had cushioned his fall. Elsa glided to a stop from an ice slide a short distance away.
"I like your way better," Axel said, making sure the last of the snow had been melted and his hair was properly re-styled.
"So do I," Elsa said. "I'm sorry about that," she said.
"Eh, can't expect him to do any different this time around," Axel shrugged.
"This time around?" Elsa asked pointedly.
"Oh, yeah. He threw me over the cliff that was next to your ice castle the last time I was looking for you. Hit a drift about this big then, too."
"I have a feeling I should be less sorry about that one," Elsa said, smiling. The voice sang again, to both of them.
"Hush," Elsa snapped. "I already know what your opinion is." Axel was pretty sure he heard the wind laugh mockingly in response.
"What should we do?" Elsa said quietly. "I…it would be nice to have a companion who understands me better."
"And who you can chuck snowballs at when you're mad without worrying it's going to actually hurt me." Axel added.
"That's just it," Elsa continued. "I can hurt you. I've been learning how to summon the other elements while I've been here. I could kill you if I lose control. I could freeze your heart, like I did to Anna. Like I wanted to do to Hans. How can that make us anything but enemies?"
"Maybe we are enemies," Axel said. "But if we are, you'll have to try harder than that to kill me."
Elsa threw a snap-conjured snowball at Axel's face, but before he could block it, Bruni jumped off his shoulder into it, melting the snow into steam long before it could reach Axel.
"So, that's salamander, creepy voice, and me in favor, reindeer, bad-tempered snow creature, and you against," Axel said. "Can I convince you to give it a shot, at least? And then we'll know?"
Elsa took a deep breath. "We can try," she finally said.
"Should we seal it with a kiss or something?" Axel asked. "I'm…kind of short on practice."
"Really," Elsa deadpanned. "And here I thought you would have had lovers in every city."
Axel laughed. "Fans, yes. People hoping to join the Thirteen, people looking for the danger of being with one of the Thirteen. But the last person I kissed, well…it was one of the Thirteen, so it's been a while. And we stopped after your name showed up, because apparently everyone except us are hopeless romantics who believe that the names are always our greatest lovers and not our worst enemies."
Elsa laughed quietly. Then, as if making a decision, she stepped in close to Axel and kissed him on the lips. Her lips were cold at first, but the fire raced swiftly through his veins, heating him up more than enough to be comfortable kissing and holding on to Elsa. After what had to have been a short while, even if it didn't feel like it, Elsa broke the kiss and started walking away from him.
As if to emphasise the point, the voice sang at both of them again, with a distinctly salacious tone. Axel could see Elsa's poise break down in laughter before she resumed her walk.
"That one was for free," she called back to him. "If you want another, you're going to have to beat Anna at charades. Thursday night at the castle. Don't be late."