Bright warm light, loud music, plentiful food and drink, and friendly faces all around. Overall the party might have been very enjoyable for someone who wasn't Nathan. As it was, he was standing in the darkest corner he could find with his arms crossed looking out over the large number of people, feeling very uncomfortable every time he spied someone's eyes lingering just a few seconds too long on him. Each time this happened he felt himself press a little harder into the wall behind him. He could have been down in the crowd, mingling and meeting some of the men that he had fought alongside against Gothel's people, but that wasn't a prospect that really interested him. Most of them had at very least seen him when he had… to say "flipped out" would be an understatement after Gothel died. He figured that most of them would be hesitant to talk to him, a first impression of being the most dangerous person on the battlefield wasn't the greatest to draw in new friends

A familiar sound made its way to Nathan's ears, and he shifted his gaze to follow it to its source. Elsa was laughing heartily, several men in royal guard uniform standing around her and laughing with her. Their behavior would have been highly unprofessional had they been on duty, but the entire party was to celebrate their "courage and loyalty in the face of overwhelming opposition" as well as to "commemorate the losses that were suffered at the hands of the enemies of Arendelle" as Elsa had so eloquently put it. Most of the people in the large room were royal guards, most of which were still wearing their uniforms despite being told that civilian clothing was fine.

There were a few individuals who stuck out in the crowd, wearing far more fine and ornate things than the guards, and Nathan presumed them to be various nobles. None of them had the build of a guardsman, all being either too fat or too lanky to hold a spot in the ranks. In spite of their differences, the nobles and the guards seemed to be getting along as well as could be expected.

Nathan's attention was grabbed away from Elsa when he saw a group of four men approaching him. It occurred to him briefly that he would be able to fit himself entirely behind the throne on which he was leaning if he were to make himself as flat as possible. He immediately dismissed this course of action as childish and foolish, wondering why it had even crossed him mind to begin with. He pushed himself off the side of the throne and stood facing the men, mentally reprimanding himself for the apparent lapse of logic.

When they reached him, the man leading the group held out a mug and said "Would you join us for a drink?" Nathan looked at the mug briefly, noting that it was beer instead of wine, being a fairly good indicator that the men were soldiers, as none of them were in uniform. Nathan shook his head and said "Sorry, I don't drink."

The man shifted on his feet awkwardly, then said "Uh, well… I was wondering if you could maybe talk for a while. We were kind of hoping that you could tell us a little about the battle. We were all stationed in the town when it went down, and we heard that you were pretty deep in the front. Nobody that we talked to really wanted to talk about what happened up there. We thought that maybe… maybe you would be a little more willing."

Nathan sighed, than looked past them at Elsa again. She was looking up at up, having seen the men approach him, and gave him an encouraging look. He looked back to the man and said "Alright, I suppose it couldn't hurt to give you a few details."

Elsa smiled as the men led Nathan off to one of their tables and started asking him questions interestedly. It was good to see him interacting with someone other than her or Anna. It didn't seem to be something that he liked doing.

It had been three weeks since the warning about the possible fall of Arendelle, and since then she felt that she had calmed down considerably. She had been anxious and jumpy for a while, but with time that had subsided. Nathan, Anna and Kristoff had all tried their best to set her at ease, and it had worked for the most part. The one who did the most good had to have been Nathan. The two had shared a few more intimate moments, but much to her dismay Nathan didn't seem to have adjusted well to showing his feelings to anyone but her. It was slightly aggravating, but she was more sorry for him than angry with him. Every time that he tried to say or do something in front of someone else it just tapered off into nothing.

In spite of his obvious difficulties adjusting to their relationship, Elsa loved him. She could feel that he loved her back, even if he had difficulty showing it in front of others. She was somewhat surprised by the different feeling in the love that she had for Nathan and the kind she felt for Anna. With Anna she felt a kind of familiarity, she knew her like the back of her hand. There was hardly anything that she didn't know about her, and she was always glad to have her around. With Nathan however, she felt like she had so much to learn about him even though he had shared so much of his story with her. She didn't just find comfort in Nathan's presence, she wanted him to be around her. When he was absent it felt like something was missing.

Interrupting her thoughts, a large burst of emotion flowed through her mental link with Anna. The feeling was hard to mistake, it was very similar to the one that she had just been feeling. She looked around the room and saw Anna in the middle of the floor, dancing clumsily with Kristoff. From what she could see it wasn't Anna that was the cause the difficulties. She couldn't help but give a little giggle, prompting one of the men to turn and follow her gaze. When he saw the dancing pair he laughed and nudged one of his friends, pointing to the pair. Elsa didn't interrupt their fun. If she were to be honest, she found the sight of Anna flailing with Kristoff quite humorous as well.

Elsa focused on her link with her sister and, with some difficulty, sent the words "Please be more careful with what you let through" referring to the emotions that she let through. Anna had something of a habit of letting raw emotions through the link when she felt intense emotions. It had been annoying at times, but nothing more. Thinking about the link got Elsa considering how Anna had adjusted to using her powers.

She had gotten better at pulling the power that she needed through the link, she could now do it completely on her own, without Elsa helping. With that ability mastered, her new issue was restraint. She had trouble telling how much power she would need for a certain effect and often ended up overestimating the amount by a large margin. The excess energy that she pulled was usually let off from the spell in an unintended effect, what she had called power "seeping out". On the rare occasion that she pulled the exact amount of power that she needed for a spell there was no such seeping. Elsa was proud of her sister. She had come a long way in the past few weeks and still tried very hard, and yet somehow was able to maintain her (sometimes irritating) immature, childish outlook on things. And Elsa wouldn't have it any other way.

She looked back to the table that Nathan had been sitting at. He was still there, leaning back in his chair and holding a palm sized black object in his hand. The men around him were looking on the object with awe. She knew that it was one of his spells. She wondered what the men had said to him to get him to show them him magic, he usually refrained from any unnecessary use of his magic. It was rare to get him to show off.

The guard who had been telling a very amusing anecdote cleared his throat and said "Well, anyways, I was over on the roof, right? And my friend decided that it would be a good idea too…" his voice faded away as Elsa started to let her mind wander again. She glanced around the room and found it impossible to not feel at least slightly humbled by the sheer number of people in the room. Almost every single person in the room had pledged their alliance to her, and that had a large impact on her. She had seen to what lengths those people would go to uphold that alliance. She wanted to thank them all so much, and she hoped that the party would show at least some part of her gratitude.

The man finished his story, and the other guards around him burst into laughter, a few nearly choking on their drinks. She smiled with them, not amused by whatever the punch line of the story had been, but elated that they were enjoying themselves. She took another sip from the wineglass in her hand and peered around the crowd again. Lee was out there somewhere, Elsa would guess by the drinks, doing what she seemed to be best at, serving drinks and talking to those drinking. It seemed that old habits really did die hard.

Lee had lightened up considerably in the past weeks, making a strong bond with Anna especially. She no longer seemed hesitant or scared to talk to them. She and Nathan, however, didn't seem to like each other very much. Lee had told Elsa about how she and Nathan had first met, and she didn't blame Lee for not talking with him much. Being tricked and blackmailed didn't tend to make for a very good foundation for a friendship to be built on. But in spite of all that, Lee had come to Arendelle looking for a home.

Someone behind Elsa tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to find herself face to face with Nathan. She smiled and said "Oh, Nathan! What is it?" He shrugged and said "I don't know, I don't have much to do here."

Elsa thought for a moment, than a smirk came across her face and she said "How about a dance?" holding a hand out to Nathan gently. He grimaced at her suggestion and took a step back, putting his hands up and saying "No thanks." One of the guards standing around Elsa turned to Nathan and said "What? Why not? You would refuse such a beautiful lady?"

Nathan gave the man a glare that could curdle milk, than looked back to Elsa and said apologetically "I'm afraid that I don't dance, I'm sure you'll forgive me, your Majesty." Elsa grinned and said "I know that if I try hard enough I can find it in my heart. It's a shame that neither of us dance."

Nathan looked around the room, and when his eyes found Anna and Kristoff over by the musicians a wry smile came across his face and he said "Well, at least we're not the only ones." Elsa laughed, but she felt slightly bad about it. The guard looked from Elsa to Nathan with a confused look, than something seemed to occur to him and he turned to face the other direction. Nathan said to Elsa "How are things for you? Are you holding up well?"

Elsa sighed. Nathan and Anna had been worried about her in spite of her insisting that she was fine. Both of them were worried about how she was coping with the news that the safety of Arendelle was on the line. She didn't see the reason for worrying about it though. The Outsider had said that it was coming, so there wasn't anything that she could do to stop it. She was nervous about what that event would be, but she couldn't do anything about it coming. She responded "I'm fine. I have every confidence that we can deal with whatever will come. Arendelle has gone through many hardships before, war is no stranger here. There hasn't been one for a long time, but that doesn't mean that we are unprepared."

Nathan nodded and said "I hope you're right." in a neutral voice. The guards who had fought Gothel's people certainly had demonstrated combat abilities greater that what Nathan was used to from people in such a position. He made a correction in his head; he mostly had to deal with city watch, not royal guard. From what he had seen of the way Arendelle worked; the two were identical. It would limit the size of the guard, but those guards that were there would be far more effective. A better system for a small city like Arendelle, but maybe not so good for those larger cities he used to live in.

He looked back over to Anna and Kristoff. The musicians playing was slowing to a stop and those who were dancing were also slowing. Eventually they stopped, and the pair made their way over to Elsa and Nathan, both looking tired. Anna was the first to speak, looking to Elsa with an apologetic expression and saying "I'm sorry about that slip up. I'll try and be more careful with that kind of thing."

Elsa bowed her head and said "Thank you, I appreciate it." Kristoff looked between the two with a confused look for a moment before looking to Nathan with the same look. Nathan shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he didn't know either. Elsa gave Anna a comforting smile, than looked to Kristoff and asked "So how was your dance? Did you have fun?"

Kristoff gave an awkward laugh and looked down at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "Ha, yea, I think… I think I might need a little more practice." Both Elsa and Anna smiled to each other. Kristoff looked between the two again and said "Oh come on! I wasn't that bad, was I?" Neither Elsa nor Anna said anything, but Nathan figured that he would. Wordlessly, he nodded. Kristoff's shoulders dropped and he looked like he regretted agreeing to dance at all.

Anna put a hand on Kristoff's shoulder and gave him a few playful pushes. "Come on, don't be like that! You'll get better over time, if you just give it time." Kristoff nodded unhappily. Anna sighed and wrapped an arm around Kristoff's.

Anna and Elsa started talking, and Nathan started picking his way through the crowd in the direction of the drink table. He didn't want to get a drink, but rather to have a word with Lee. He wanted to know if there had been any issue with the crowd so far. The noise of the crowd were loud, filling Nathan's ears and making it impossible to pick up on any subtle noises.

It took a bit of pushing and shoving, but he got to the table. The sight of the table was somewhat impressive, the table itself was quite large, but on top of it there were mugs. Hundreds of them. Every single one was full to the brim, and Lee was standing by the side of the table handing mugs out like candy to a large group of people crowded around her. A large puddle had formed on the floor at Lee's feet, but she didn't seem to mind her shoes being soaked in spilled brew.

Nathan battled his way through the remaining crowd and pushed his way towards Lee. Things in the midst of this crowd were much louder than the other one. He wasn't sure that he would be able to even hear Lee's responses to his questions, assuming that she could hear him either. He stepped through the thicket of people and over to Lee's side. She gave him a raised eyebrow briefly before grabbing a few mugs off of the table and passing them out to the men around her.

Nathan put a hand on her shoulder and brought his face close to her ear, nearly shouting the question "Have you seen anything strange lately? Anyone been an issue so far?" Lee shook her head and inquired "Why, you expecting trouble?" It was Nathan's turn to shake his head, and he said "No, just being careful."

He turned to leave the table, but jerked back as a large volume of liquid splashed over his front. He looked up at its source, and found a mortified looking man holding an empty mug like he was afraid that it might combust in his hand and set him ablaze in the middle of the hall. Nathan gave the man a warning look before stepping past him.

Lee hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, and neither had Nathan. It seemed that everything was going well. He let out a sigh. Perhaps Elsa had been right about what she had said when the party began. The words echoed through his head again "Just calm down, if anything happens than we can deal with it, if nothing happens than we don't do anything."

He was weaving his way back to where he had been talking with Anna and Elsa when the great doors to the hall opened. The entire focus of the room seemed to shift towards the doorway, and Nathan strained to see above the heads of all the guards. A few moments after the doors opened a few of the guards nearest started shouting catcalls and insults towards whoever had come through.

It was faint, but Nathan was sure that he heard Anna's voice from somewhere else in the room shout the name "Hans?" in an indignant tome.


Wwadawdesrtehg

Author's Thing:

WOO! So hear we have it. A new start to wild and crazy things. Of course that means that I'm going to have to find things to do differently, which is not something I'm terribly fond of. Oh god I have to do way more emotional stuff... live and learn, I suppose.

So this being new, tell me what you think of this start! Feedback is super important!