Southern Hospitality

The sun hovered precariously, warmth and energy just beginning to sap from the beach disappear over the horizon. A dozen pairs of footprints stretched out everywhere within eyesight along the coast, their owners probably just beyond, telling a tale of laughter, of sport, of solidarity.

And way back at the foot of the trail crouched a young boy, brow creased with concentration, sunlight glistening off his pail and shovel as he worked and carved and pressed and traveled as far away as his mind could take him, and when he finished he stepped back, sweat shimmering, sand climbing up his arms to his elbows, and a bright smile underneath his mop of auburn hair, and admired the castle...HIS castle. Something he could call his own, something he could take pride in.

"Hans!" He whipped around and waved to the group behind him, then standing up and waddling awkwardly towards them at their beckoning, leaving his structure behind...

"Hans?"

His eyes fluttered open and he groaned irritably to the voice as it patiently waited for him to get himself together. He looked up and blinked in the direction of the brown-haired woman from his wooden, make-shift bed...no. Not brown. He blinked two more times. Red.

Princess Anna stared down at him, arms folded, through the metal bars between them. Below, he could feel the waves tilt her slightly forward. Home, sweet home. "...Are you okay?" She asked him in a even, carefully neutral tone of voice, and it wasn't until he moved his head and felt the moisture running on his face that he figured out why.

"Sorry...all this sea breeze is irritating my sinuses," he replied coolly, wiping a sleeve roughly across his eyes.

"Is that right?" She frowned skeptically.

Hans sighed, already anxious for this exchange to be done with. "What can I help you with, princess? Come here to gloat again?"

Anna tilted her head to the side, as the boat lurched again. "Do you think I should?"

He was stupefied by her questioning and let his eyebrow arch freely. "Look...you won, I lost. I failed, and now I'm the one forced to talk to you behind bars. Even I would say it's within your right to rub it in."

"Well...I don't want to. I'm not in the mood."

A low growl nearly escaped from his throat. "Well, what then? Because let me tell you if this ends up being a lecture, I'm not exactly in the mood either."

"Hans..." Anna uncrossed her arms, balled and then unballed her fists. "Let's calm down...I just want to talk."

The prince breathed in through his nose and it came out with a chuckle. "Talk? You wanna go back and remember the good ol' days?" He leaned his back into the wooden wall, a devilish gleam on his face. "...Like that time we fooled around over behind your sister's shrubs?"

"Don't be gross, Hans." Anna wrinkled her nose. He had to admit he found her exasperation endearing in it's own way. "Also, that didn't even happen."

"Sorry...Must've gotten you mixed up with someone else."

"Hans...please." The redhead spoke through gritted teeth, squeezing the bars in front of her tightly, before she just as quickly slackened her grip. Hans smiled anyway, content with his small victory. "I'm trying to be serious. You know you're being shipped back to the Southern Isles in the morning, right?"

Of course he knew. Part of him wondered how they could stand having him linger around as long as they had. "And I can imagine you must be pretty happy to be rid of me at last."

"Yeah...we're all pretty much thrilled...might throw another party just for the hell of it," Anna replied easily, but the enthusiasm stopped cold well before it reached her face, instead showing him something that looked suspiciously like melancholy. "But...for part of me it's like...I guess there's something I want to get off my chest while I still have a chance..."

"Do you not know how weird you're being right now?" Hans snapped as she trailed off. "I still have no idea what you're here for. So spit it out already!"

That did it. "What is wrong with you?!" The princess of Arendelle shouted, indignation roaring in bright fury across her eyes. "And what's wrong with me? Am I just so shallow that I was just imagining seeing all those things in there?" She paused for a second, swallowing harshly before her next sentence. "Is there really nothing in there?"

He did nothing but quirk an eyebrow at her outburst. At least he was finally starting to follow the vague logic behind the girl's visit. "Well I shouldn't speak for myself, but...if I recall, the specific word I used for you was desperate."

She glared up at him, face flushed with anger and, he liked to think, a sprinkling of humiliation. "I cannot for the life of me figure you out!" She was pacing now, crossing the slim width of the passage in just three steps before taking the next lap. "I've thought about it so many times but I just can't get it right in my head."

Fortunately she stopped before he got dizzy. "I don't UNDERSTAND you. I don't understand anything about you. What is this place we're taking you back to? How did it make you into this?" And then she looked at him with an expression he couldn't quite place, and it slightly unnerved him. Concern? "And what's it gonna do to you once we drop you off?"

The Isles. Why, oh why did it always go back to the Southern Isles. "I'll survive." He shrugged off her questioning and Anna just scowled, frustrated with his lack of cooperation. "And what's there to "get", anyway? Fortune and fame and power, you know, that whole thing? Pretty simple if you ask me."

"Yeah...I sure you'd love to think that," Anna muttered darkly. Just what was that supposed to mean?

"Look..." The Prince could feel the dull ache start to pound rhythmically against his temples. "The moment this ship sets sail you can just turn around and shut the book on this whole thing. You want my advice? Just forget all this bad...shit my presence seems to evoke." He looked at her pointedly. "Okay? Just go enjoy your Happily Ever After. So in the grand scheme, do any of these questions even matter?"

"I don't believe I did ask for your advice," Anna replied testily, but her expression soon softened. "And yes, Hans, they might matter. To me, at least!" Her eyes pleaded with his to show her just an ounce of humanity, until he could feel his mouth grow dry. "Do you think..." She started, eyes casting downward. "...Do you think, if we took away the royalty...the throne, the fortune, the power, all that stuff you were talking about...could we all have at least been friends?"

When she looked back up, Hans' mouth was agape, leaving the man wordless and stupefied by her question. She might as well have grown five new heads before his eyes.

"You know what, forget it." Anna sighed tiredly and turned her back. "I guess you were right...I really don't know what I was trying to accomplish coming down here."

"Leaving? Just when you're starting to speak English again?" He couldn't resist calling out to her back.

But she wasn't taking the bait. "Have a safe voyage." Hans of the Southern Isles then turned his own back, huddling to find a comfortable spot on the wood bench and choosing to ignore the faint tightening in his chest as he heard the princess bound the stairs and open the door. "Go and survive, whatever that means. And for what it's worth...I hope you find some kind of peace. Because I don't think the world has any place for your ambition." And then she shut the door, leaving him to only the darkness and his own thoughts.

"Take away the royalty, she says." He muttered spitefully to himself. "Just what the hell goes through that girl's head..." Saying no more, he shut out the noise, felt the gentle rock of the waves and tried fitfully to block out the unease wavering about somewhere behind his eyelids.

"...Mama?" The boy stared wide-eyed, sinking one hesitant foot into the sand after another toward the scene unfolding.

The brown-haired woman had granules caking her feet and ankles and running halfway up her shin, heaving and grunting with an overabundance of effort as she tore apart his prized castle. He could only watch tearfully as the last section of wall became crushed under her bare foot, and then she walked toward him, her breaths ragged and dress nearly ruined.

"Oh, Hans..." a deceptively delicate hand reached out and caressed the boy's cheek, connecting him to the lady smiling sweetly, yet venomously down upon him. He didn't dare turn his face away.

"If only there was someone out there who loved you." Her smile was gone, and she rose to her full height and walked silently towards the town, without a care in the world, least of all the boy left behind, standing in the ruins of his creation.

I know I should be working on Diamond in the Dust...but you see what had happened was...I got attacked! By this vicious...plot bunny. And you know there's only one thing that placates plot bunnies. Anyway...hope you liked it.