Disclaimer: "Frozen" and its characters belong to Disney. None of these characters are my own.
Prologue
It had all started quite simply, as many things tend to do: There was a coronation to be held, and I was to attend it.
Strictly speaking, the whole family should probably have attended, but that wasn't going to happen. Though we did a little bit of trade with Arendelle, it wasn't really enough to justify all fifteen of us going (yes, all fifteen. When you have the mother, the father, and thirteen boys, these things will add up).
Anyway. Nobody wanted the bother of attending the thing, but nobody wanted to make the new queen of Arendelle think we were snubbing her, either. So my father, King of the Southern Isles, announced after much careful deliberation that I, Hans, would attend the coronation, as the representative of our family ("Careful deliberation" here meaning that all twelve of my older brothers had shoved off the responsibility, saying, "I'm too busy; I don't want to go.").
Despite my modest, humble protests that I felt unqualified to properly represent our family, and that this was completely unfair because why did it always fall to me to do whatever nobody else wanted to do, and didn't anyone ever stop to consider that I might have plans, too-
Ahem. Perhaps that is better left unsaid.
Despite my modest, humble protests, I was packed up and sent off for a miserably long, seasickness-plagued voyage of three weeks to attend a coronation that would probably last all of three minutes. If I was lucky. People were always dreaming up new ways to prolong the torture that is a formal ceremony-I should know. I'd been sent on this kind of trip before.
When I first set out, I had expected that the only adjectives that would suit the trip would be along the lines of dull, nauseating, and excruciating. However, by the time all was said and done, I would find that I had been completely wrong.
Or mostly wrong, anyway.
Author's note: Pretty much the only reason that this fanfiction exists is that I found myself extremely disappointed with the way Hans's character was handled in "Frozen". Yes, yes, I get that it's a plot twist. But a good rule of thumb for plot twists is that they should make you say, "I should have seen that coming". I've watched the movie more than once. You can't. Not really. This story is my attempt to give Hans a little bit more depth. Some of it will take place during the "Frozen" timeline, but a good deal of it will take place afterwards. I hope you enjoy it!