Through a veil of tears, I see Jack's body start to solidify again. Although there is a scar, he is no longer bleeding. His eyes gently open and he smiles at me.

"Hadn't given up on me, had you?"

"Oh, Jack!" I exclaim and fling my arms around him.

"Where's my staff?" he sits up.

I send a small wind to pick it up off the frozen fjord and it clatters on the drawbridge. "I'm not sure it'll work anymore."

"Says who?" he picks it up and shoots a ball of snow. Anna shrieks as it bounces off her. He stands up in horror and bounds over to apologise to her. There are murmurings from the crowd as nobody recognises him. They either all believe in him now or...

No.

He won't have done. He can't have done.

I tug his hoodie. He turns round, concerned. "What's up, Elsa? You look worried."

"Everybody can see you now."

"Of course. I'm no longer a Guardian."

"Jack!" I stare at him, distraught. "You didn't have to do that!"

Jack takes my shoulders. "Yes, I did. It was either this or no longer being with the woman I love. Which one do you think I would've chosen?" When I don't reply, he continues, "Look, I am no longer immortal. I will grow old with you. I will die with you. I will be reinstated as a Guardian at the end. You will become one too. Manny has promised me. I have learnt a lot about you. I think you need to start learning about me." And with that, he draws me into a kiss. Now that he's human, the kiss feels more real than it ever did before and I find a small part of me hungering for more.

We break apart and hear large cheers. I then realise that we've just had our first proper kiss in front of the entire kingdom, and blush.

                                        ******

"Come on, Elsa!" Anna exclaims.

I stagger towards the next shop, laiden down with bridal wear. Some of it's for me, as Mum left nothing to go with the dress except a simple pearl necklace that I think is fine but Anna insists otherwise. The other 90% (rough estimate) is for Anna. We're having a double wedding, so we need to start from scratch for her.

We're approaching the dress shop, called Blizzard Bridal Boutique.

I summon a young girl over.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" she sweetly curtsies to me.

"Can you run to the palace and get a sleigh pulled by a reindeer called Sven and a man called Kristoff, please?"

She recites the message a few times, then nods and sprints up the street towards the drawbridge.

The girl must be a fast runner, for Kristoff and his enormous sleigh are beside me within minutes.

"Seem a bit snowed under." he drily remarks. Sven snorts. It sounds like a reindeer laugh.

I narrow my eyes at him, then dump everything onto the sleigh.

"Can you please put this in your room? Anna and I will return and sort it out once we've got her dress."

"Can I see the dress?"

"Of course. Jack's seen mine. If Anna's insistent that she doesn't want to-"

"Elsa!" Anna squeals from within the shop.

"- you can get an accidental peek at it between now and the wedding."

"Brilliant! Thanks, Elsa." Kristoff grins and turns tail, leading the sleigh back to the castle.

I head inside the shop and my jaw drops.

Anna radiantly beams and as she twirls around, the chiffon fans and falls back into small natural pleats around the hem. The dress itself is silk and the bodice is delicately laced. It is predominantly white, however around the bottom hem, the sleeves, the neckline and where the bodice meets the skirt, there are strips of subtle rosemaling. It's unusual, but pretty, and I've never seen anyone look so delighted in a dress.

"What do you think?" Anna expectantly asks.

I feel tears start to prick as I think back to when she was younger. Do you wanna build a snowman? she'd sing to me through the keyhole. It barely seems 5 minutes since then and now look at her. Getting married. Alongside the sister who once wouldn't play with her.

Verbilised words can't really express how I feel, so I just nod and hug her really tightly.

"Beautiful doesn't begin to describe it." I whisper.

"I want to try more on." she confesses. "But this one's my favourite."

After an hour of trying lots of dresses on, Anna grows weary of getting in and out of mounds of material and pays for the white-and-rosemaling dress.

Relieved that it's over and I can stop having to lie through my teeth at some dresses which were frankly horrendous, I follow her out of the boutique and we start the long trudge back to the castle.

"Anna, please. I'm getting old. Can we not stop?"

"No." Anna presses on.

"Well I am." I sit down on a bench, shattered and unable to believe that women enjoy doing this. Shopping for hours on end really takes it out of you. I conjure an icicle and slowly melt it, drinking the resultant water.

Anna is standing over me, unimpressed.

"Elsa, we've got one more shop."

"One more shop? You promised that we were going back to the castle!"

"I've just remembered that we need some fancy stationary for the invites. It's our wedding- ordinary ice-blue paper won't be special enough."

On the bright side, I need a new set of fountain pen refills.

I agree and follow Anna into Arendelle Stationers, probably my favourite shop on the High Street. Apart from that café that has a chocolate fountain...

She busies herself with the sickly-sweet floral designs that she's into, while I drift into the Pens and Pencils Department and search for my favourite shade of black for the refills.

"Elsa! Where are you?" Anna calls from somewhere behind me. I find my favourite, pick it up and wind my way back on the snaking path.

Anna is stood, holding some horrific, old-fashioned paper. I wrinkle my nose at it and put it back for her.

"We're not two old dears exchanging letters." I remind her. "We're two young royals getting married."

"I thought that you were getting old."

"I am." I ignore her confused glance and peer round the other side of the stand. "Why didn't you go for some of these?"

The cards are beautifully and meticulously cut and detailed into snowflakes.

"I didn't think that they were big enough." she truthfully replies.

"I'm sure that I can fit all the essentials in the middle." Although she's right: there's barely enough space for a 'Happy Birthday!' but I'll buy anything to avoid that awful paper covered in small flowers and the occassional bee. "If I can't, then I'll wear the clunky necklace that you made me buy."

"It's a deal." Anna recognises that the loss of this pact will be the only way of getting me to wear it on the day, bar putting it on and then tying my hands behind my back so I can't get it off.

I pay for several 'clumps' of cards (because, you know, clumps of snowflakes? Me neither) and we leave the busy high street behind.

"Elsa..."

"Yes...?" I warily reply. When Anna uses that tone, she's usually about to tell me something that I don't want to hear or ask me a really awkward question.

"After you and Jack get married, how long will it be before you have children?"

I falter, having never really thought about children before. I suppose I will face pressure to produce an heir. But what if I don't want to? What if I can't? What if Jack doesn't want kids?

It's so much to process that I still haven't given an answer to Anna when we reach the castle gates. She smiles kindly at me, but doesn't say anything.

"I sent the rest of our purchases back here." my voice slightly shakes. "They're in your room. Can you sort them out and put everything on my side of my room, please?"

"Sure."

"You're very pale, Your Majesty, if I may say so." Gerda takes my jacket from me.

"You can always criticise me as long as it's true." I smile briefly and hurry to my office. I shut the door and ice the knob.

Oh dear.

I open the door a crack and summon Jack. Trembling, I melt the ice and trail over to my desk where I sit and stare into the distance.

The door opens and Jack ambles in. "You called?"

I get up and his face falls as he sees the state that I am in. He rushes over and pulls me close to him. I am reassured by the love and strength of his arms.

"Jack, have you given any thought to after our marriage?"

"Like what?"

I try and casually pass it off. "Children, perhaps?"

"Children?" It's clear that he hasn't given it much thought either.

"Anna's pointed out to me today that I will be expected to produce an heir, but I'm not sure that I can."

He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear and lightly kisses me. "We'll worry about that later. We're not required to have kids right this second, are we? Let's enjoy the time we have as just the two of us while it lasts."

I am relieved that he doesn't freak out. He kisses me again and smiles at me.

That's when I notice that he's changed. It's by no means a bad change, but he's taller, broader and more mature. I guess that it all happened when he was converted back into a human. He couldn't look 17 forever, could he?

He's also dressed very smartly, in an ice-blue suit, although he clearly looks very uncomfortable. I've told him before that he doesn't have to wear it, but he apparently gets funny looks from the servants if he walks around in his normal hoodie-and-ripped-trousers outfit.

"I love you." he whispers.

"I love you too." I reply.

"Your Majesty." Gerda knocks. "The King of Oslo is passing and would like to say hello."

"Should I go?"

"No." I then raise my voice. "See him in."

                                         ******

"You do know that it's too late now, right?" Anna notices how nervous I am.

I nod and glance away, hoping that she'll take it as a signal that I really don't want to talk right now. She doesn't.

"What's wrong? It'll go fine." she then frowns. "You're not getting cold feet, are you?"

"No!" I reply, maybe too quickly. "I'm just worried. There's so much that could go wrong."

"It won't." Anna laughs. "You worry too much."

The hooves stop. We must be outside the church. I remember how cold and uncomfortable the floor was at my coronation and glance down at my feet. They're even less protected than last time and do not desire to go through it again.

Unusually for December in Arendelle, the sun is peeking through the clouds today and bathing the town in gentle heat.

Good thing I didn't wear the clunky necklace- my neck would've been sweating buckets.

Yes, I won that bet. But I did cheat... don't tell Anna!

There is a rather large crowd that haven't been able to get into the church because of all the dignitaries (including one of Hans' elder brothers, to my relief, and the Duke of Weselton, to my disgust and displeasure. I think he wants to carry on trade agreements but after the way he treated me at my coronation, I have no inclination to aquiesce). They cheer loudly as Anna and I emerge from the carriage.

Butterflies fill my stomach, but not in a sickening way. Just... nervous but excited.

I glance across at Anna as we enter the church and her eyes are moist with tears of anticipation.

"Are you crying?" I playfully tease her.

She shakes her head at me, but doesn't attempt to blink the tears back. We're not even at the altar and, if I know Anna, she's started as she means to go on. I don't envy Kristoff's suit.

Kai is waiting for us in the foyer of the church, holding one crook of the elbow out either side for us to slide our hands into. I take a deep breath and do so, aware that I am walking towards a new chapter of my life.

And isn't he wonderful?

The congregation stands and stares at us  as we pass by. I smile graciously at them, hoping  that they can't see that I actually want them all to go away and have a small, private wedding in front of practically nobody.

We reach the altar and Kai gives us to our respective to-be-husbands. As I clutch Jack's arm, I feel my knees knocking.

"We gather here today to celebrate..."

"Are you OK?" Jack whispers over the priest in my ear.

"Bit nervous." I flash him a smile.

"We'll be fine."

The priest asks if there are any reasons as to why any of us should not be wed.

The church is silent. Thank heavens for that.

The priest turns to us- as I am older than Anna,  I shall be married first- and starts.

"Jackson Overland Frost, do you take this woman, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do." he grins broadly and I think he is restraining himself from kissing me.

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle, do you take this man, Jackson Overland Frost, to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do." I allow myself to be hypnotised by his deep, blue eyes. When he first crashed into my ice palace all that time ago, I never dreamt that I'd be stood, in front of him, marrying him. I never thought that it would be possible for me to fall as madly in love with him as I have. 

Jack gently takes my hand and slips a thin gold ring onto my finger. He raises my hand to his lips and kisses it, his eyes twinkling.

The crowd 'aah's and my resultant giggle is very high-pitched and unlike anything that's ever come from me before.

The priest knowingly smiles and turns to Anna and Kristoff. I zone out, focusing only on the man who I am now married to and I'll get to be with, literally, forever- Jack has promised me a Guardianship after death!

He seems as excited as I am, but is also interested in what is going on behind him. He pulls me to one side and wraps his arms around me.

"You may now kiss your bride."

Jack's lips crash into mine and the background church applause fades into nothing.

He is mine. I am his. I love him. He loves me.

For the first time in forever, I feel truly happy.