Kai had immediately shrugged off what happened between him and Cielle back at Arendale. He said things that he wasn't proud of and she said some things that, in hindsight, wasn't so positive either. Truth be told, Kai had forgotten about it all by the time he had reached that winter supplies store with the tall, husky fellow. His only focus right now was figuring out what they should do. The plan of persuading Elsa to come back with them hadn't gone exactly as he thought it would. When the giant snowman made himself known to them, Kai should've put it together that Elsa wasn't going to listen to reason, but he was pushing on for Anna's sake.

"It's already forgotten and forgiven!" Kai told Cielle, giving her his usual, cheeky grin. One thing that could be said for Kai was his ability to forgive and forget without a second thought. As he saw she hadn't done the same for herself, Kai placed a hand on her shoulder. "No more frowning, Ci! Smile like me!" Kai had then brought both of his hands on her chin, bringing her head to eye level with his, and he took his fingers on the outside of her lips and forced her to smile. "See? Smiling is easy!"

How in the world was Kai so calm about it? Their fight had left Cielle somewhat dismayed, but there he was, acting like it never happened. Despite initially dismissing him as a fool, maybe she really could learn from him. Even if he was quick to forgive, he was much too soft for his own good. And yet, that stupid smile of his was oddly comforting. There was probably no avoiding this fight, it was probably going to be the many of first, but if they got over them quickly, things wouldn't be so bad. She was too rigid, he was too lax, but maybe together this would get a lot easier.

And maybe...

Kai suddenly approached her, snapping her out of her thoughts. The young girl was immensely confused, especially when his hands touched her face. Cielle's cheeks were slightly stung by the coldness of his fingers as he tried to make her smile, making her less than appreciative. "H-Hey!" She cried, immediately trying to flee. "Stop that!"

"You have to smile, first!" Kai urged her, not letting up as he forced the blonde girl to smile for him.

And as Kai was doing that to her, those watching them were finding themselves in an awkward position. Anna, who was still reeling from the fall herself and the revelation of her sister not coming with her, couldn't help but let out a small giggle as she watched Cielle try and resist Kai's unique way of getting people to smile. Whether it was from the act of his good-natured, albeit somewhat quirky, personality, or a more assertive approach, Anna couldn't deny Kai was one of those boys that you couldn't help but smile when he was around. Even in the disheartening events with Elsa and the now frozen kingdom of Arendelle, Anna found a silver lining in watching Kai force a smile on Cielle.

"I think that's enough, Kai. She's clearly smiling," Anna commented, seeing Cielle smile through Kai's forceful hands.

As he kept his hands on the outside of Cielle's mouth, he turned his head towards Anna, giving her a blank expression, though his lips would curve into a grin. "Ya think?" He asked, his head darting back to Cielle. "Can I let go now? You gonna smile now, Ci?"

It was only in this moment that she realized that Kai wasn't going to give up until she smiled. Smiling wasn't really something she did often, less so under these sorts of circumstances. Yuffie always said Cielle's face was permanently stuck frowning. She couldn't help it, she wasn't the type of person that was all sunshine and rainbows. Her face was starting to hurt, though Anna granted her some mercy as she told Kai she had enough.

As he looked at her, she couldn't help but scowl again, though as she felt his fingers pulling at the corners of her mouth again, she couldn't help but whine. "We need to get going!" She tried to remind him.

That statement of hers seemed to make Anna realize something. "Going? Oh...Oh noooo..." She placed her hands on the sides of her head, slightly panicking. "What do I do now? I can't go back without Elsa! She needs to unfreeze everything!"

Recomposing herself, Cielle tried to assuage the princess. "It isn't ideal, but...perhaps withdrawing for some time would help the Queen. Going back now would only alienate her further."

"You can't be too comfortable with that ice on your shoulder," Kristoff pointed out.

"An inconvenience, but solved with fire," She said, though she didn't know any fire magic. She did, however, get an idea. Trudging over and bringing out her keyblade, she pointed it at a fallen log. "Thunder!" The log was zapped, a spark engulfing the part where lightning struck and forming a small fire.

Huddling over it, Cielle felt the warmth comforting. After a moment, however, she did not find the ice on her body melting, even if the snow around the log had all but melted. "...interesting..." She murmured.

Kai liked to think of himself as observant, but he was beating himself over that he somehow missed the glaring obviousness of the ice on Cielle’s shoulder. What seemed to be eating him up as they sat around the campfire was he missed it while Kristoff had seen it right away. Kai didn’t sulk for long, however, because while he found himself warming up from the fire that she had set aflame with a thunder spell, he took notice to how the ice on her shoulder wasn’t melting. His first thought was how it might’ve been a thick variety of ice, so maybe it took longer to melt. This soon was proven to be the wrong theory to get behind as three minutes passed and the ice remained.

“Seems like it’s a stubborn piece of ice,” Kai commented as he found himself both curious and overtaken by slight worry for Cielle. “Maybe setting it on fire while standing next to the campfire could cure it?”

“I’m not so sure that would be a good idea, Kai,” Anna interjected, voicing her concerns with Kai’s idea.

“If one fire doesn’t do anything - not even melting it -then I’m pretty sure another wouldn’t help,” Kristoff added to what Anna said, the two exchanging a smile, though they quickly turned their gaze back to Kai.

“We won’t know until--” As Kai was about to say something, he found himself alerted by a cry of sorts off in the distance. “Did you guys hear that?” He couldn’t quite make it out, but something in him told the boy to turn his attention to where the castle towered over the surrounding trees. “I think it’s coming from Arendale. I think Arendale is in trouble..” Kai didn’t know why he said that, but something tugged at him. Maybe it was the cold.. “We have to go back to the castle.” Kai’s gut instincts had the tendency to be right.

Kai didn't seem to wait for the others to agree or disagree. He was running towards the castle he saw in the distance, his keyblade summoned. Whatever this was he felt, he knew haste was his friend.

---

Whether it was the land that Arendelle reigned over or the waters that border it from the surrounding countries, all began to frost past the point of return. The castle was on the verge of cracking from the pressure of the strong winds and snowfall that threatened its foundation.

The people of Arendelle weren’t in good shape either. Since leaving, both Anna and Elsa left it without a proper ruler, so they began to worry and fear they wouldn’t be without leaders. Those who would assume control tried their best to keep everyone calm and even invited them into the castle so they could warm up, but not everybody fit into the castle. And those that did soon consumed most of the food. The storm was worse than they thought and at some point, the denial phase passed and acceptance that death was imminent was upon them.

...They just didn’t know what form it would take. Unfortunately for them, the situation went from bad to worse as creatures from the sea and from the ground rose up from portals of blackness, a sole figure wearing a black cloak standing behind them as these winter-themed creatures went forth to cause mayhem and misery. These creatures had forms that ranged from flying icicles to little, black shadows wearing parkas and scarfs.

“Go forth, my heartless! Gather the hearts,” said the CLoaked Figure, watching and observing the dismantling of Arendelle’s citizens.