Hi peeps! What's up? So, after My Life In a Vlog, here is my new Helsa fanfiction! I'll warn you: THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS ARE 2 YEARS OLD, so you might find some changes in style as my original plan was to finish it and then post it. I have about 236 pages done, so I should be able to update regularly EVERY FRIDAY, for a while, though I've got a severe case of writer's block, but I've been working on it for a while and I wanted to start sharing it with you guys.
BEFORE YOU READ!
In my story, there are no historical or linguistic/idiomatic references. That is why I also like using idiomatic expressions or modern slang like "Dude", even though the story seems set a few centuries ago. I will quote Shakespeare, Dante, the Greek and Latin authors, maybe kant and Schopenhauer, but their homeland will never be mentioned, except for the latin and greeks which will be named "Ancient Culture", to be more specific: Latin- West Ancient Culture, Greek- East Ancient culture. Either way, these authors I'll quote are from another place and time: mine, the author's.
One last thing, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST"! You'll get the title meaning as you read on.
With that being said: Enjoy! :-)
Hans' POV:
Here I am, standing and waiting at the start of the aisle. I'm not supposed to be here, but here I am. As the music began, she entered the church in her wonderful white bride dress: an off-shoulder dress, that perfectly hugged her body to her waist and loose beneath it, she wasn't wearing any heels, her long, wavy auburn hair was loose with her bangs perfectly combed to the side, showing off her bright eyes. She wasn't wearing any make-up (like she needed any to begin with), she was wearing our necklace: Ying and Yung. Mine was gold with a silver spot, and hers was silver with a gold spot. It was a symbol of our friendship, of our bond. In all, she was stunning. It was the second time I ever saw her dressed as a woman. She was just sixteen and looked so grown up, and she was already getting married. All the people who were invited stood up as I walked to her, offering her my arm which she gladly took, looping hers through it. I walked her down the aisle to her Prince Charming, who stood at the altar in his royal uniform glory, the young King Landon of Drakora. He was a couple of years younger than me, which made him 19 years-old, tall, short blonde hair, neatly combed to the side, broad shoulders, athletic figure, he was certainly a good-looking man, but what counted the most was the look in his eyes as soon as he saw the woman walking at my side. He loved her and the smile on her face confirmed that the feeling was mutual.
There were a lot of people celebrating the wedding, most of them were soldiers and their families, others were commoners but they had all one thing in common, they were all people who were eternally grateful to the soon-to-be queen. As we got to the altar, Skylynn smiled at me and hugged me as I kissed her cheek, then I stood to the side as she took King Landon's hand and the ceremony began. All eyes were set on the happy couple throughout the ceremony.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss" said the priest as soon as they exchanged rings. Skylynn smiled widely as Landon wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her as the crowd cheered. When they pulled away the priest said "I now present you King Landon III and Queen Skylynn I of Drakora!" The crowd cheered even more loudly and I couldn't help but smile at them. Then a thought came to me, I was on my own now… I didn't have Skylynn anymore. Skylynn got her happy ending, she didn't need me anymore, actually, she never did. She became queen and I was back to being the last of thirteen sons, back to being ignored, back to being the… thirteenth wheel. When I got back 'home' from the wedding, it didn't take much for my brothers to figure out where I've been and make me pay about it.
"What the hell did I ever do to you?!" I shouted coughing as Brad, the sixth of the offspring, punched me in the guts "Why do you treat me like a piece of trash and what's so wrong in attending Skylynn's wedding?!"
"She is a bastard child! And we treat you like trash because you are trash! Nobody cares about you! Look at you, you can't even defend yourself"
"Easy when it's a 6 on 1!" another blow came from Herbert, the third son.
"You would manage if you were a man. Us Westerguards are warriors, admirals, we fight back. If that girl got to get where she is you should at least try to defend yourself. Plus we're just preparing you"
"That girl has a name"
"Getting defensive over King Landon's mistress are we, Hans?" Jayden, the eighth prince, provoked.
"Don't you dare talk about Skylynn like that, you bastard!" I yelled throwing a punch at him, but Linus, the eleventh, caught my fist and punched me in the gut.
"The only bastard here is her" Linus said
"Luckily for us, she is now King Landon's problem" August, Herbert's twin, said. I smirked.
"I get it now" I said trying to get up "You are all jealous of Skylynn. You're jealous because she made it, you're jealous because she's a heroine, you're jealous because she outsmarts all of you, because she found love and because starting from nothing, she proved herself worthy of being a ruler, something you never will be" they all laughed at me, then Gordon, the fourth prince, punched me in the face, again knocking me down.
"And neither will you" he said "You may be a prince, but you'll never become king, nobody wants you, you are worth nothing. Nobody needs you, not even your precious Skylynn. If only there was someone out there to love you…" he said with a smirk that wiped away mine. Then they left.
That was the moment I made up my mind: I would become king, whatever it takes. Even if that meant killing someone. I would have shown them all. I would have proven all of them wrong! I would have shown them what kind of man I was. I would have them either begging at my feet for forgiveness or look at me with envy knowing that I made it and that they can't touch me anymore without risking of having their heads chopped off. I wouldn't have needed anybody, I could have done this on my own and nothing and no one was going to stop me.
2 years later, a month after the Great Thaw…
Anna's POV:
"Incoming!" I yelled as I threw a snowball back at Elsa. She finally had some time off and we decided to spend it together by having a picnic near the lake. It was a wonderful day of early September, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was still very warm, actually. We got there by carriage since Sven was out with Kristoff. We had a nice picnic, catching up after being separated for years. We talked about Elsa's queenly duties, about her control over her powers, and she wanted to know how it was going with Kristoff… she said it was just out of curiosity, but I believe that she was being the protective big sister. Well, what was I supposed to expect? I got engaged after one day and it didn't end so well, plus she spent all those years in isolation to protect me from herself, of course she is protective of me! Anyway, after eating a delicious chocolate cake, I asked Elsa to work her magic and soon enough, the small area was covered in snow, perfect for a snowball fight. The fact that Elsa could just conjure the snowballs was an extra to the fun even if harder for me. Usually Olaf would join us, but sometimes we wanted it to be just the two of us. As we threw snowballs at each other, we didn't notice we had moved away from our picnic spot and towards a higher edge of the lake, Elsa dangerously close to the edge and with her back to it… what do you think happened next? Yup, that's right! I hit Elsa square in the face with a snowball and sent her splashing into the lake. I froze… almost literally.
Luckily, Elsa emerged from the water, brushing away her soaked platinum blonde hair from her eyes. She looked up throwing daggers at me. She was not happy about that. "Sorry" I muttered waving timidly at her. She shook her head and, fighting with her ice dress, swam towards the shore where our picnic spot was. I immediately ran back there, heading towards my sister. As I got to her, Elsa was out of the water and completely soaked, she was actually twisting her wet braid to get the water out.
"I'm so, so, so, so, so, so sorry, Elsa!" I said running towards her.
"I really hope you saw that back dive, because I'm NOT doing it again" she said glaring at me.
"Sorry… are you alright?" I asked as she wiped her face from the water and placing a hand on my shoulder walking around me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I would have rather liked to stay dry, but…" she paused and placed her other hand on my other shoulder "Are you alright?" that got me confused.
"Yeah?"
"Good!" and she pushed my into the lake. Good news was the water wasn't deep because we were next to the shore, bad news was I fell on my butt, inside the water with a loud splash and ended up soaked almost as much as my sister. But Elsa wasn't done, she came closer to me and started splashing me.
"Elsa! Stop it!" I said between laughs, splashing her back, but she didn't stop and kept splashing and laughing at me. It felt like we were kids again. When we were decided we had soaked ourselves enough, we went to lay down in the sun on the picnic cloth to dry ourselves as best as we could. Elsa was laying on her back and I used her stomach as a pillow. We laid there chatting and joking, sometimes Elsa would gently whack me on the head when I cracked a couple of jokes on her. But of course, we had to head back at some point. We got up, cleaned up what was left of the picnic, placed it on the carriage, woke up the coachman who had fallen asleep waiting for us, went back to the castle. As soon as we got there we didn't even get the time to go back to our rooms that Kai, the butler, walked to us as fast as he could.
"Queen Elsa, your Majesty!" he called her. Elsa turned to look at him.
"What's going on, Kai?" she asked as soon as she saw his worried look. Kai stopped in front of us and acknowledged my presence with a quick bow.
"A letter just arrived, it's… it's kind of important" he said.
"Thank you, Kai" she said, the butler bowed and walked away. Elsa turned back to me with an apologetic smile on her face.
"Duty calls?" I asked, even if I knew the answer
"Yeah…" she said "I'll see you later though" then she looked out of the window and then towards the clock "It's 5:45p.m." she said looking at me with a small smile.
"Okay…?" then my eyes widen as I remembered "Kristoff's back!" I shouted jumping up and down, excited to see my boyfriend after a long day "I'll leave you to your queenly duties, then! Bye-bye!" I said smiling widely and running back down the stairs.
"Anna" Elsa called. I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around, ran back up the stairs and back to Elsa who stood there offering me her cheek.
"Right, sorry" I said, swiftly kissed her cheek and turned back around "I'll see you at dinner!" I said and ran down the stairs nearly falling down as I tripped on my feet.
"Try not to kill yourself down the stairs!" shouted Elsa from behind me.
"Okay!" I answered and made my way looking for Kristoff. I ran around the castle, tripping a few times, until I found him in the stables with Sven. Since he became Arendelle's official Ice Master and Deliverer, I suggested him to come and live in the castle with us so we could see each other every day. Of course, I first needed to ask for Elsa's permission, which meant it was not just the Queen's permission I had to ask. She looked kind of suspicious and reluctant when I first asked. Basically, she first lectured me and then gave me a third degree, but then she agreed to it. I believe she already had decided he could stay, though. Even if she would never admit to it, I knew she had grown fond of Kristoff. She just enjoys playing Protective-Big-Sister.
Anyways, as I was saying, I found him in the stables, where he was taking care of Sven. As I called him, he turned around and smiled at me and opened his arms as I jumped to throw my arms around him.
"Hey, Anna!" he greeted kissing my cheek and setting me back down on my feet.
"How did the ice harvesting go?" I asked keeping my arms around him.
"Oh, it was fine. The harvesters are actually quite happy about it. Looks like Elsa actually froze more ice than usual up in the mountains, last month. More ice, means more extras, which means more ice to sell" he said with a happy face.
"That sounds great, Kristoff" his expression changed for a moment, as if he has just remembered something.
"Anna, where's Elsa? I need to talk to her" he asked me.
"About what?"
"Oh, nothing…I- I have to… uhm… do my… weekly report! That's it! I have to do my weekly report, that's all" I raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"Uhm… probably in her study, she had queenly duty to attend to. I think it's better if you tell her later"
"Oh… okay" he said looking oddly disappointed, then his face broke into a smile, he bent down and gave me a quick peck on the lips "So, how was your day?" he asked.
"Oh, it was great! Elsa and I went…" I started telling him about our day out, Elsa's fall (to which he laughed hysterically, only to beg me not to tell her he knew), and basically the rest of my day.
Elsa's POV:
It's been a while since I entered my study to read the letter. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept reading it to myself, trying to come up with what to do about it. It said:
HRM Queen Elsa I of Arendelle,
It's been a month since the Great Thaw and it's been a month since my youngest brother, Hans Westerguard, has been imprisoned. I apologize for not being able to take care of his case any sooner, but I had to personally deal with other urgent matters, but alas, Hans Westerguard still needs to have his trial. According to the laws of the Southern Isles, high treason is to be punished with death, however, his crime has not been committed in the Southern Isles, but in Arendelle. Our law is also very clear on saying that whenever a citizen of the Southern Isles commits a crime in another kingdom, it's that other kingdom's duty to hold his trial and decide his fate according to its laws.
Because of this, I took the liberty of looking at the Arendellian laws myself and turns out that it is up to the monarch to decide the criminal's fate, which in Hans Westerguard's case would be the most outright thing to do.
My ship shall be in Arendelle in four days. I'll be there as well, escorting the prisoner alongside two of my brothers, Prince Herbert and Prince Gordon.
According to the law that both our kingdoms have in common, all the nobleman and noblewomen who were present during the Great Thaw, need to be summoned to the trail as witnesses. I took the liberty of sending them a letter to inform them of the trial.
Considering that all that has happened a month ago directly involves you and Princess Anna, as an experienced king, it's my duty to encourage a young queen, such as yourself, to be as coherent as possible with your country's law and punish the traitor as you see fit, but as a brother, I beg you not to let your resentment for him to get the best of you.
I will see you in four days
Sincerely
King Theodore IV Westerguard of the Southern Isles
So… yeah… Hans was coming back for his trial. I would have to see his face again – heck- I had his life in my hands. It was my first trial and I already had to deal with sparing or taking a man's life, and King Theodore was absolutely right about one thing. I did feel resentment towards him –no, wait- actually I was beyond furious. He left Anna to die frozen, after he tricked her into being in love with her, then he tried to kill me and to take over Arendelle. All I knew was that, at the trial, every word I say will be written down and every word will weigh something, every sentence that comes out of my mouth will weigh on his fate. But how can I judge someone impartially when his crime was against Anna and I. How am I supposed to ask Anna to be impartial after what he did to her? After he humiliated her like that?
My train of thoughts was interrupted when I heard someone walking in the hall out of the door. I immediately put the letter back in the envelope, accidentally knocking a couple of books and letters off the desk, scattering a few documents on it as well, in the rush to hide the letter. Luckily I didn't knock over the empty tea cup. I was about to put the fallen items back up when I heard someone at the door and I immediately sat back up straight placing my elbows on the desk, clasping my hands together and resting my chin on them. Then the door opened revealing Kristoff, who immediately noticed the little mess at my desk's feet.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Nothing" I said "Thinking"
"You thinking? Why am I not surprised?" he joked walking towards me.
"Shut up" he obliged and bent down to pick up the books with the letters and putting it neatly back on my desk. "Why are you here, Kristoff?" I asked, only realizing I sounded harsh.
"I just wanted to chat with you" Then he took the letters scattered on the desk.
"Dinner is to be served in a little bit, couldn't you wait for it?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you… alone" he then was about to get the letter from King Theodore
"No!" I said a little too loudly and quickly putting a hand on it. He looked at me weirdly. I gave him an awkward smile and patted the envelope with my other hand "Leave it"
"Why?"
"Because I'm telling you to and I'm the Queen of Arendelle" I said, he held back a smirk "Not that it actually means anything to either you or Anna" he didn't say anything and ordered back the documents, but as soon as he was done he turned back to me trying to catch the letter, but I was faster and put my hand on it. Kristoff had a smirk on his face as he leaned down on the desk closer to my face to look at me eye to eye. There was a moment of silence.
"Tell the ice-harvesters that the royal supplies are doubled for two weeks. We are going to need a lot of ice ready for this Wednesday and we can't run out of it" I said.
"What for?" he asked straightening up in his full height.
"You don't need to know" I said and picked up the tea spoon and pointing it towards him "Do not bring a word about that letter to anyone… especially Anna" Kristoff raised an eyebrow.
"You're the Snow Queen and you're threatening me with a spoon?"
*SBONK!*
"OOOWW!"
"That was the least I could do" I said putting down the spoon.
"Okay! I get it! Jeez!" he said massaging his cheek.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked. Kristoff seemed to pale.
"I… well… I…" he took a deep breath "I wanted to ask Anna to marry me" he said. I froze for a moment.
"I-…I beg your pardon?"
"I-I wanted to ask Anna to- to marry me" he repeated "And I'm not asking for the Queen's blessing, I'm asking for yours" he added. There was a moment of silence.
"You've only known each other for a month" I said
"Elsa, I'm not Hans. I'm not going to betray and hurt her like he did" he said looking straight at me with his brown eyes.
"It's not that, Kristoff. Don't you think it is a little too early?"
"Maybe it is, but I love her. I love her very much"
"I know, I can see that. But still, hoping that I'm wrong, what if things don't work out between you two? What if one day, you two find out that your… 'spark' is over?" Kristoff remained quiet for a moment "You are Anna's first love, Kristoff… and I want, more than anything, for my little sister to be happy and have her happy ending and I can see she's happy with you, but… you never know"
"Anna's my first love too" he said "and I want her to be my last"
"More reason for you to think about what I just said"
"Since when have you become a love expert if you've never been in love?" he asked crossing his arms on his chest.
"Female Sixth Sense, and Big-Sister-Watch-Out-Third-Eye. You wouldn't understand, plus, I'm thinking it rationally" that made him chuckle a bit. Then he looked at me with a serious face.
"Please Elsa. I- I love Anna very much and I just can't imagine myself without her" I thought about it for a moment, then I made up my mind.
"Do you really love her, Kristoff?" I asked even if I already knew the answer.
"With all my heart" he answered as I expected. I nodded at him.
"Then I'll offer you a deal"
"I'm all ears"
"You can either wait some more time –which I don't think you will- and then ask her to marry you, OR you can ask her as soon as you want, but you'll have to enjoy a long engagement"
"The long engagement sounds best. How much do we have to wait to get married?"
"Two years" I stated.
"A month" he countered.
"A year and a half"
"Two months"
"Ten months"
"Four months"
"Seven months. Take or leave"
"Deal" he said and we shook hands on it.
"You have my blessing, then" his face broke into a huge smile.
"Really? You don't want me to come back and ask you again?"
"Do you want me to take it back?"
"Nonono! Thank you, Elsa!" he said and before I could do anything he grabbed me by the waist lifting me up and spinning me around repeating 'thank yous', smiling happily and I couldn't help but smile myself "Thank you, so, so much! You're awesome!" he repeated again holding me up in the air, I laughed a bit at his enthusiasm.
"Put me down, Kristoff" I said with a smile patting his shoulder.
"Sure" he said putting me back down "I can't thank you enough, though. Thank you, Elsa" he said and hugged me, planting a kiss on my cheek a moment before releasing me from the hug.
"So, what are you going to say?" I asked.
"Actually… I haven't thought about it yet" he confessed scratching the back of his neck nervously.
"Why don't you practice? I could help you. Pretend I'm Anna and improvise" I suggested as I walked back to my desk and leaned on it. Kristoff shook his head with a chuckle but agreed to it.
"Anna-"
"Wait! You got to get down on your knee"
"No, I'm not getting down on my knee" I took a step towards him.
"She'll like it. She'll like to see you down on your knee" I said softly.
"I don't want it to be too cheesy"
"It won't be. Trust me, I know my sister very well. She'll like to see you down on your knee" He exhaled deeply.
"Okay, fine" he said and got to his knee.
"Much better. Okay" I said as I went to lean on my desk again, with a smile.
"Anna" he began
"Yes, Kristoff? Is there anything you need to tell me?" I said doing my best Anna impression. Causing him to chuckle.
"That impression was awful, don't make me laugh" he said composing himself again "Okay… Anna" he began "Will you… uhm…uuhh… marry me?" My smile faded.
"No." Kristoff jumped back up on his feet.
"Oh, come on!"
"What do you mean 'will you uhm uuhh marry me'? You don't sound or look happy or excited about the prospect of spending the rest of your life with her!" he slapped his face in his hands. "Try it again. You're asking Anna to spend the rest of her life with you. You're asking her to be the only man in her life. You're telling her she'll be the only woman in yours. You're promising her a future together. At least say something to tell her how much she means to you"
"Alright" he got back to his knee and began again "Anna… so gentle and so-"
"-Yeah… and so virtuous she appears" I interrupted "Why are you quoting Dante Alighieri? And more importantly: how do you know him?"
"By having half a brain" he answered. I rolled my eyes "And because Anna followed your hint on giving me a little education"
"She actually listened?"
"Yup"
"Well, that's a first" he chuckled.
"Besides, I kind of like Dante" I raised an eyebrow, half between amused and impressed.
"Looks like Anna is really about to get engaged to a man of good taste" I commented.
"Thank you Elsa. How come you're being so nice to me today?" he replied with a smirk.
"Don't get used to it and don't tell Anna I just let you hug me and kiss my cheek or I'll use the spoon"
"And I believe you. Let's try the proposal again" he said, cleared his throat and took my hand "Anna, my love, my sweet, my soulmate, my one and only, my beautiful love. You're my Juliet to my Romeo, you're my Ophelia to my Hamlet, my Isolde to my Tristan-"
"-Okay, no" I interrupted again.
"What now?"
"First, that was extremely too cheesy and so rehearsed. Second, Anna is going to die of boredom like I was. Third, you're making a proposal, not reading an address book! And fourth, you really have no idea what happened to these couples, right?"
"Uhm… well, they're famous lovers so I guess...they get married and have kids?"
"Romeo and Juliet kill themselves"
"Oh…"
"Ophelia and Hamlet die"
"Uhm…"
"Tristan dies due to a wound and Isolde dies of pain because of his death"
"Oh, my God" he complained exhaustedly "This is going to take a while, is it?" he said letting go of my hand. I was about to answer when there was a knock on the door which made Kristoff stand back up.
"Your Majesty, may I come in?" said Kai from out the door.
"Yes, sure" I answered. Kai's head stuck out of the doorway he gave both me and Kristoff a little bow with his head. "I just wanted to inform you that dinner will be served in 5 minutes"
"Thank you, Kai. We'll be right down" I answered. He nodded his head and walked away. Kristoff and I shared a glance, then we made our way to the dining room.
At dinner, Anna was talking non-stop since the moment she came into the room. Kristoff seemed to be listening to her and participating. I remained silent for the whole time, thinking about how to break the news to Anna. We were already eating dessert and I was so deep in thought that I didn't notice Anna was calling me until she hit me in the forehead with something.
"What?" I asked coming back to Earth.
"Finally! I called you three times already" Anna complained. I looked down on the tabled and noticed the small chocolate ball and picked it up between my index and thumb.
"Did you just hit me with a chocolate ball from your dessert?"
"Yes, I did"
"Oh, thank you!" I said and ate it. Anna's blue eyes widened.
"That was mine!"
"Sorry, you threw it at me" I said nonchalantly. Anna pouted.
"Seriously, though" she began "What's wrong? You haven't spoken since you got here"
"Nothing. What makes you think there's something wrong?"… the way I said it sound just like: Hey Anna, I'm hiding something!
"You're staring blankly to your right. It's something you do every time you're in deep thought about something that makes you nervous" I blushed sheepishly.
"Oh… I didn't notice"
"So, what's up?" Anna asked taking a spoonful of her dessert.
"Yeah" said Kristoff "Even in your study you were all weird about a- aaahh…" he slurred interrupting himself as I nonchalantly raised my spoon, so he could clearly see it, reminding him of earlier "Something" he ended instead of saying 'an envelope'. I gave him an ever so small smirk that only Kristoff managed to see.
"So?" said Anna expectantly. Alright, make or break.
"I was just thinking… uhm…" I began. I felt Anna's eyes on me as she waited "I was just thinking about what happened last month and… I thought about Hans and… well… I was wondering how you would react if he showed up again one day" Nice. Really smooth, Elsa… Anna raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously? That's it?" she said "Well, I'd probably be the first to tell you to freeze his butt and kick him out" Okay… this is not good. "I think I'd probably punch him again. Kristoff, in a scale from 1 to 10 how much do you like Hans?"
"-100?" the blonde man suggested "If he showed up again I'd be my pleasure to teach him a lesson"
"Good answer" Definitely not good. "I wonder what punishment he was given in his trial"
"About that…" I butted in, awkwardly "What if –hypothetically speaking- he didn't have his trial yet?"
"Huh?" was Anna's remark
"I mean –hypothetically- what if he didn't have his trial yet? Because… I don't know… the king had other urgent matters to attend to, and according to the hypothetical law both Arendelle and the Southern Isles share, a law that declares that he needs to have his trial in the kingdom he committed his crime in…" Anna and Kristoff listened intently " and according to this hypothetical situation-"
"Elsa, why are you even thinking that? I mean, why would you waste your time thinking what I would do: if Hans came back, if he didn't have his trial yet, if that's because the king couldn't deal with him because of urgent matters etc.? I mean, it does make sense but-" she abruptly stopped talking dropping her hand on the table as realization hit her "Hans is coming back to have his trial, isn't he?" I gave her a weak apologetic smile nodding my head. "When is he coming?"
"In four days"
"Four days… great" she said sarcastically
"Try not to think about it too much"
"Wait! You're not serious, are you? This is an early April Fool's Day" Kristoff said.
"No, she's serious" Anna said. He covered his face with his hands exasperated
"I can't believe it"
"Neither can I" Anna and I said in unison.
"Does this have to do with doubling the ice supplies?" he asked again.
"Yes, the noblemen and noblewomen that were here during the Thaw are coming for Hans' trial as witnesses" Kristoff nodded. I turned my attention to Anna who had found a certain interest in her dessert.
"Anna, I know you're angry at him" I began
"Oh, I'm more that angry at him. I loathe him" she said.
"You're not the only one. Anyway, you do know that at the end of the trial it's up to us to sentence him, right?"
"Yeah? Well, actually it's up to you, you're the queen but we're in this together aren't we?"
"Yes, we are. But I just need to ask you a favor, that King Theodore asked me and I'm trying my best to prepare myself on restraining my powers from freezing him when he gets here"
"Okay, shoot"
"Don't let your resentment for him get the best of you" I said "We need to be fair, and to be fair, we have to treat him like we would treat any other criminal: like a person we don't personally know" Anna took a deep breath.
"How am I supposed to do that? After all he did to us"
"I don't know. Just… treat him like a stranger in court and don't strangle him or beat him up with Kristoff outside"
"I'll try… but I'm not promising anything"
"Neither am I" Kristoff added. After that we ate our dessert in silence.
I was in deep sleep when I felt someone shaking me slightly. I grunted sleepily as I was slowly waking up.
"Elsa" I heard Anna's voice call me softly. I turned around to face her. She was in her green nightgown, with her long red hair loose instead of in her signature braids. "Elsa, may I talk to you for a moment?" I slightly opened an eye looking at her then at the clock on the wall behind her.
"Anna, it's 3 a.m." I complained closing my eyes "Don't you know about the '3a.m. wake up tradition'?"
"Uhm… no…What's the tradition?"
"Telling you to buzz off" I could feel her glaring at me. I peeked at her through my half closed eyelids "What is it?" I asked closing my eyes again
"I… ehm…" she stuttered "I couldn't shake the idea of Hans coming back out mind… I… I had a nightmare" she paused. I slowly opened my eyes completely and looked at her. Anna was looking at her hands uneasily. I already knew what she had dreamt about: Hans leaving her to die and Hans raising his sword to kill me.
"Would you like to sleep here with me?" I suggested sitting up.
"Really? May I?" she asked hopefully. I smiled and raised the covers.
"Come on" I said. Anna smiled and jumped on the bed sliding under the covers as put them back on us. I laid down putting my arm under Anna's head as she used my shoulder as a pillow, snuggling to my side hugging my waist as I stroked her upper arm with my hand.
"This is nice" she said "I missed it"
"Me too" I said softly. There was a moment of silence.
"Elsa?"
"Hm?"
"Why did you shut me out all of a sudden?" she asked suddenly. I inhaled deeply
"Does it matter now?"
"Not really, but… I think I have the right to know" she said. Arguing would have been stupid, but I knew this was going to come up, sooner or later.
"You do…" I paused and looked at Anna who's big blue eyes were wide open, waiting for me to talk "When we were younger, you actually used to know about my powers. We would go into the ballroom and you would ask me to do the magic so we could play and build snowmen. One night though, you came to me asking me to come play" I paused as memories of that night came back. Anna listened intently "We went to the ballroom as usual and as usual you asked me to do the magic, so I did. Everything was going fine, we were having fun, we built Olaf for the first time. We were sliding down a pile of snow and you flew into one, then started jumping and I would have caught you by creating other blocks of snow under your feet, but every block was getting higher and higher. I suddenly slipped on the ice and when I saw you jumping, I just tried to reach out but I accidentally, shot you and hit you. That's how you got that white streak in your hair" I confessed. Anna's mouth was slightly opened at the news. "Anna, you were so cold… Mama and Papa immediately brought you to Pabbie and he removed all your memories of my magic, replacing them with memories of us during the winter. I shut you out because I wanted to protect you. I never wanted to leave you. You have no idea how hard it has been for me to hear you every day knocking on my door asking me to come out and play. You have no idea how much I wanted to come out, to hug you, to play with you, to be there for you when our parents died. But I just couldn't. I…" I paused taking a deep breath "I didn't want to hurt you again… but I did and not just by freezing your heart. I… I'm so sorry, Anna" She remained silent. I was expecting her to let go of me, to walk away from me, but she surprised me. Anna leaned up and kissed me on the cheek.
"Well, now I know that my streak doesn't come from being kissed by a troll" she said smiling and rested her head on my shoulder again.
"You're not upset?" I asked genuinely surprised.
"Why should I be? You're my sister, you would never hurt me intentionally. During the winter I never once doubted you, I knew you could thaw it. I knew you weren't a monster" she said.
"Oh, I love you, Anna" I said kissing her forehead.
"I love you too… does that mean I can borrow your clothes some time?"
"No"
"Oh, come on!"
"Maybe"
"Okay, I can live with that" she said satisfied. We both closed our eyes. I was about to drift into sleep when Anna spoke up again. "What are we going to do with Hans?" she asked. I sighed.
"I don't know. We'll have to wait for the trial and decide then"
"One thing's for sure… we can't have him executed for two reasons: A) You revoked that law and B) We both know no one deserves to die, not even him" And not just for that… I thought.
"When have you gotten so wise, Anna?"
"Maybe you're rubbing it off on me" we both laughed softly.
"Well, that's good. But when he comes here, just… just try not to fly in rage. Believe me, I'm still having a hard time taking the news in as well"
"You can't do anything for not having him here?"
"King Theodore already summoned here all the other aristocrats who attended my coronation, I can't just send them away"
"Well, that was rude. He should have asked you first"
"Agreed. Now let's get some sleep" I said Anna remained silent. I was about to drift into sleep when Anna spoke up again.
"Elsa?"
"Annaaaa… I want to sleep" I complained
"One last thing" she pleaded. I didn't even bother to open my eyes.
"What?"
"Can we move in together again?" I opened my eyes, turned my head and looked at her. She was staring at me with hopeful eyes. "Move in as in sharing the room again. I missed this, I missed the times when I would sneak into your bed, or you would do that, I missed our night talks and… it's quiet difficult having night conversations in separate rooms" I turned my head back on the other side to hide the smile that was slowly forming on my lips.
"You're not supposed to have night conversations, you're supposed to sleep"
"Please Elsa? At least until one of us gets married" she suggested. At the word 'married' Kristoff immediately popped into my mind. Well, we made a deal. I guess I could share my room with my little sister for seven months. I turned my head back to her and smiled.
"Of course" I said. Anna's smile couldn't get any wider.
"You're awesome!" she said as she practically jumped on me and attacked my cheek with kisses joyfully, as I wrapped my arms around her in a hug.
"Okay, okay! I get it, you're happy about it!"
"Yes, I am!"
"Although, you probably want to share the room just to borrow my clothes and shoes"
"Oh, man! That was supposed to be my little secret!" she joked.
"Now, seriously, get off of me and let's get some sleep"
"Okay" she said and assumed her earlier position, using my shoulder as a pillow and hugging my waist "Goodnight, Elsa. Love you"
"Goodnight, Anna. Love you too" I saw Anna close her eyes before turning my head on the other side and closing my eyes. I then felt Anna's hand moving up from my waist to the base of my neck and pulling me closer to her. I turned my head towards her in surprise, but she was already asleep with a content smile on her face. I couldn't do anything but feel a small smile on my lips. I place a small kiss on the top of Anna's head and closed my eyes to finally drift into sleep.
And there you have Chapter 1! Again, I apologize if the style sucks here, it will for a few chapters more, but as I said, I've been working on this for 2 YEARS!
I have to give you another warning: BE PATIENT! This story is kind of complicated, so everything comes on its own time.
What do you think of this first chapter? I really hope you're going to like this story!
REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!
See you next chapter! (on Friday!) ;-)
The Princess of Stars