It didn't take long after the lights were out for Anna to start tossing and turning on her side of the bed. Granted, Anna did need near-pitch-black in order to sleep, and their bedroom was filled with the dancing reflections of the northern lights. "Hans," she whispered."
He faked a loud snore, turning over.
"Haaaans," she repeated, flipping onto her stomach and nuzzling really close to his ear. "I know you're awake."
"Anna…I'm trying to sleep."
"How can you sleep if the sky isn't sleeping?"
He smiled despite himself, quickly feeling himself melt under her childlike charm. Sitting up, he leaned over to light a lamp, looking back over at his bright-eyed and smiling bride. "Okay. I'm up. What do you want?"
She quickly climbed into his lap, reaching over to the end table to pick up the battered and water-damaged old storybook she had so cherished in her childhood. Handing it to him, she lied her head against his chest, tucking her hands up under her chin, and closed her eyes. "Read to me."
He couldn't protest with her looking as sweet as all that, her tiny body warm on top of his while she rose and fell with gentle breath. "All right," he said in a sleepy, scratchy voice, "One story."
"Two stories," she corrected, waving two fingers in front of his face.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head, stroking the pages of the book gently between his fingers and cupping the spine as he let it fall open to its most cherished story. He tended to just run through the stories in order or ask Anna what she wanted to hear, but why, he thought, had he never gone straight for her childhood favorite?
The corner of the page had been folded down several times and the ink was faded from light exposure. A crease in the paper about an inch inward served as evidence of a bookmark of sorts, probably long lost by now. "Once upon a time," he began, adopting his reading voice as Anna nuzzled his chest. "There lived a young girl in a quiet, distant village, with only her sister to protect and guide her. Oftentimes they would play together, out in the shallow salt water of the sea, or dance together on the sand."
He could feel Anna smile against his chest, mouthing the words as he went. He knew this story by heart by now, as well, but this time he was going to pay special attention to why it was so important to her.
"As the years went by and the sisters grew older, the elder sister had less time to play for a famine had struck the land, forcing her to work harder in order to support them both. The younger sister began to feel very lonely, for she was not like the other girls in the village and they never wanted to play with her. One day, she was all by herself by the sea, for she missed it so. She danced along the sand, imagining she held hands with her beloved sister, when suddenly a wave rose high and crashed upon the shore, surrounding the young girl in sea foam. It pulled her back into the water, further and further still, until her older sister, whom had noticed her absence, found her and rescued her from drowning.
"The sea rose again, enraged, this time the wave taking on the shape of a man," Hans read, his voice getting more intense. Anna tensed up, heart beating fast despite knowing what was going to happen. "And it spoke, warning the elder sister, 'I will relent this once, but if she is ever again alone in my presence, she will be drowned.'"
He read through the tale, paying attention to Anna's reactions when the Younger Sister finally had her first friend, and when the Elder Sister fell in love, when the Younger Sister nearly drowned trying to save her friend from the ocean's grip. But most importantly, he paid attention to her reaction toward the end.
"And upon seeing them all so happy with each other, the ocean decided to leave them at peace and they lived as a happy family for the rest of their days, dancing forever more along the white sand and the waves."
A shaky sigh. Loss of all tension in her shoulders. Hans rested his chin atop her head, gently stroking her hair, understanding no more about her but rather understanding better what he already knew. How many times had she read that story, after leaving Elsa's unanswered door? Taken the book outside in the sun, trying to forget the dark and quiet confines of the castle? A magnificent prison, but a prison nonetheless.
"'Nother one," said Anna, picking up a childish perkiness to her voice. She played with the top button on Hans's nightshirt. "Please?"
Understanding how much it freed her, Hans couldn't help but continue, with a smile. "How about the one about the princess and the monster? That one's my favorite."
When she nodded against his chest, he set the book down and opened his mouth to recite the story he had learned by heart when Anna interrupted. "No you have to read it to me."
"Anna, I know every line. Every word of every line."
"You have to read it, Hans. C'mon, take the book," she said, sitting up only to grab the book and place it back into his hands. He opened it again, raising his eyebrows at her until she settled back down on his chest, and began to tell the story of a spoiled prince whose vanity turned him into a monster.
He had gotten so into the tale himself—giving a ridiculously flamboyant accent to the chandelier character and a pompous, proper accent to the talking clock—that it took him a while to notice Anna's lips were no longer moving along with the story. Her heart rate had slowed considerably and her breathing was deep and even. "…and then," said Hans, "the beast found the girl in the very room he had forbidden her from, and he ate her right there and stayed a beast forever."
That garnered a giggle and a light smack to the arm. "Read it properly."
"He ate her out right there because he was such a beast in bed—"
"HANS."
So he did continue the story properly after pressing a loving kiss to her head, holding the book open with his thumb, not even looking at the words anymore as he scratched Anna's back softly. Somewhere after the climax of the story, Hans's words slowed, his voice more tired and scratchy than when he started, and he gazed down at the angel in his arms. This dorky, awkward, infinitely forgiving angel whose love was far more powerful than anything he had ever read in fairytales.
"And…they lived happily," he concluded, slipping his thumb out from between the pages and snapping the book shut as he rolled onto his side so Anna laid beside him, "ever after."
"Wait, you didn't finish it…"
He kissed her nose, chuckling and stroking her cheek. "Oh Anna, you already know how it ends!"
"But I wanna hear it!"
"The princess saved the prince," he said softly, looking down as he took a lock of her hair and wound it absently around his finger. "And they got married and lived happily ever after."
Anna smiled brightly and sighed, gazing at him in adoration just as lovestruck as the moment they had met. And she looked about to fall asleep when suddenly, "Another!"
"Anna, I just read you two stories! How are you not tired yet?"
"Hans." She squidged his cheeks in her tiny hands, looking at him very seriously. "I want you to read me another story."
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, as though begging it for some sanity. "Well, fine, if you're not tired I'll just have to make you tired."
"Wait, what?" was the last coherent word before he pressed his mouth against hers, sliding a hand up her thigh underneath her nightdress. She moaned against his lips, directing his hand where she wanted it to go and he just worked his fingers against her, encouraged when she rocked her hips.
There were times when she would be an absolute kitten during sex, teasing him and nipping at his weak spots, pinching or smacking in places he didn't expect and absolutely dominating while still making it seem like he was the one in control. But on other occasions, like now, she let him really take control, hooking her arms around his neck and mewling as he rubbed her wet and slipped a finger into her, and then two.
"Oh, Hans," she breathed, brows furrowed as she peered up at him with those shocking blue eyes, "I-I don't want you to s-stop…please don't stop."
He nodded, pressing his thumb against her clit as he curled his fingers inside of her. She gaped. "You wanna come around my fingers, baby girl?"
"Oh." Her eyes blinked wide and she blushed hard, fingers curling against his shoulders. She nodded, hips twitching while he fingered her gently, occasionally brushing his fingers against that one spot inside of her that made her nearly choke on air. "I'm, I'm…Hans, I'm…"
He brushed her hair away from her neck and leaned down to kiss it, the hair on his cheek brushing against her jaw. "Go ahead, baby girl. Come for me."
Her hips spasmed as she climaxed, her moan high and desperate and shrouded in shyness. Yes, it was very rare to see her like this in bed, but boy was it a treat. "Th-thank you…"
"Good girl," he murmured against her lips before kissing her again, settling down beside her once more. "You tired now? Think you can sleep?"
With a huge kitten yawn and a nod, Anna curled up against Hans's chest, still squirming a little from the orgasm as he enveloped her in his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Goodnight."