"Some hearts are frozen. Some hearts are cold. I know mine is." Elsa sighed, the weight of the conversation dragging her down a little.
"Well, what are you waiting for then? I got heaps more fur than just this!" The beast rather frankly stated, a playful look on his face suddenly, as though to cheer her up.
"I'm due for a haircut anyway, just rip a patch off my back if you're so cold then... you crazy ice lady..." he joked, gesturing to his seemingly endless supply of soft brown fibres, a hint of a chuckle in this deep and throaty voice.
She willed away the blush that threatened her but decided to grace him with a smile, and a retort of her own.
"Keep your fur to yourself, you fuzzy fool. The cold doesn't BOTHER me."
"Sure then. Suit yourself. But I'll still be here... you know... if you want me." he replied, soft but serious in tone.
She looked away...She smiled.
XXXXXXX
Elsa had found him there in the forest, the beast, bleeding and broken from yet another pack of wolves. A woman lay beneath him, but Elsa couldn't save her for she was already dead. She had run away from him, and he was pursuing her, but it had only lead for them both to become lost, and in one last act of humanity, he tried to save her.
He fell into despair, but she took him in, and nursed him back to health, even if it hadn't been the easiest thing that she had ever attempted to do. He seemed so content to just die, without a second thought.
But as they'd shared their days up in the cold, a softer side to him could see seen. He confessed to her his past, and the curse which was laid upon him. Only to love someone and to earn their's in return.
He had fallen into despair, ashamed of his inability to lift the curse, and this year would, like hers, be his twenty-first.
She too had learned about herself, and shared with him her experiences, with knowing what love is, and why no one had come to him yet.
She confessed her own curse, and how she'd locked herself away from the whole world, even the person she loved the most, just to protect her. But then she realised that perhaps it was BECAUSE of their separation that her powers still couldn't be contained.
If only she had known that back before she had met him, months ago when her sister had come up the north mountain to try and convince her to return. If only she knew where she was now...
But for right now all she could focus on was the beast. She only wished he would just stop, and listen to her, instead of reacting on his emotions. She thought they'd talked about that, and agreed to both try to change, and that was when she had begun to see his softer side.
A softer side that was so hideously buried at the moment under a snarling, feral rage.
"Stop! Stop fighting!" Elsa cried, trying to break herself free from the chains that pinned her to the spot. The Beast was far from listening though as he hurled another formidable paw in the way of the traitor Hans, who had lead a riled up mob to their castle on the North Mountain.
"Please!" She cried, but again it fell on deaf ears.
The beast gnashed his fangs onto Hans' leg, causing the traitor to fall to the ground, and the beast arose, pinning him to the place, ready to slay his kill
"No!" Elsa screamed, "Please! Don't be the monster they fear you are!"
Finally, the beast slowed, and looked her way, a softness returning to his eyes. He sneered at the man and kicked him harshly off to the other side of the frozen floor and then prowled over to her.
"I'm... sorry" He breathed, as he ripped off her shackles.
Elsa shook her head and threw herself into his warm fur, and cried, "Let's just go save my sister and get us all out of this place.."
He cupped her face carefully in his paw and looked into her eyes, ready to respond, when a sickly metallic sound sliced through the air before the other side of a blade came bursting forth towards her, and through the beast.
He roared in agony, and began to falter, she clung onto him to support him but his weight was too much.
Hans sneered and then replied, "You're sister? You've got to be kidding me!" He kicked the beast's leg and caused him to fall to the ground. "It's already too late for her!'
"Where, is my sister?" Elsa demanded to know, her world was rapidly falling to pieces around her, and her heart couldn't take much more.
He grinned wickedly and hollered, "She's DEAD!" You froze her heart, and she died months ago!" He laughed manically while Elsa simply crumpled to the floor, her heart had just suffered its very last break.
Finally she screamed once more, falling to his side, millions of icicles shooting up all around them, and a blasting wind sent even more ice and snow through the air.
The already crumbling walls of the prison fell even further, some landing in the fjords just a walk away from the scene.
Thrown by the harsh wind, Hans fell back, and slid across the frozen fjords, away from the busted prison wall. The weight of his impact caused the cracks already there to weaken even further. He clumsily scrambled to his feet and then tried to run off the worsening disaster, but his foot became stuck in a gap.
He frantically ripped his foot from the slowly widening crevice and then made a dash for the shoreline, but it was too late. The ice gave in and he fell beneath the water's dark and cold surface, the blizzards quickly freezing the water over again, and there he would remain, trapped forever.
The beast grunted and moaned, lifting his arm to hold her close enough to hear his voice, "It's okay... Elsa..." he was fading fast, "Don't be afraid. I'll be fine."
"No, you won't!" she wailed, fisting up his fur between her fingers, "You're dying.. and it's all my fault! My.. My sister is dead, and ...it's all my f-fault..." He sobbed heavily and her forehead dropped onto his chest, "Everyone I love always dies!"
The beast held her close and breathed softly into her hair, and then whispered, "At least we both learned what love is, before I had to go."
He sighed again and then his head fell back, his arms slowly falling to their sides.
"No, no, no no..." She whimpered and the whole blizzard suddenly came to a shuddering halt. All the snow and wind stilled in place as she hunched over his now lifeless form and wept, bitterly.
"Don't go... Don't leave me all alone..." She pleaded.
She thought of him and how they had known each other for such a fleeting amount of time and yet they'd learned so much, and how he'd come to care for her so fervently. She thought of Anna and how years of isolation was not even enough to stop her from loving her so much. And then she thought of how they were all gone now.
"I loved you. Both of you...so much."
A single beat passed, when suddenly a ray of light shone from the sky, parting the clouds and revealing the deep indigo of the night sky. A gentle wind blew, and it was not cold, but warm. The snow around the kingdom began to melt away and Elsa stood back and to her feet as the beast began to rise from the floor of the prison. everyone stopped and stared in awe as the horrific creature twisted and turned, and without a second's warning light burst forth from his every limb and he rapidly began to transform.
Now much smaller in size, and lighter than before, the once-beast was lowered to the ground, his cloak partially obscuring his form.
Elsa took a step forward and then knelt down, the ice melting away, and her sorrow was gradually being replaced with something else..
"I love you too..." the mysterious creature before her muttered from under the cloak.
"Love... of course... why didn't I see that?" Elsa realised. She laughed, and then cried all at once, throwing off the cloak that covered him, and he too sat up and looked at his hands, felt his own body and face again, he turned to her and there were tears in his eyes...
His deep blue eyes that hadn't changed one bit.
"Love will thaw... Elsa, you had the power to change this winter the whole time... just like me, and my curse..."
He held her hands as they stood and she repeated, "Love will thaw..."
And so she did. She raised up her hands and unfroze the world around them.
The citizens watched on in celebration as the streets cleared and the ships in the fjords creaked to life again with the tide.
Far off in a field, A lone statue of a woman, carved from ice began to thaw too, but not like she was melting at all.
The man who had been visiting her, looked up from his mourning and fell back in shock as the color returned once more to her face, and she gasped a breath, and blinked her eyes before noticing him there.
"A-Anna!" He whispered, hoping this wasn't a dream.
She heard his voice and that was all it took for her to leap up from her stiff, sleeping position and threw herself over him, screaming and squealing in delight.
"KRISTOFF!" she wailed into his shoulder, the reindeer and snowman who had accompanied him bounced and leaped around for joy.
"Come on, this must mean Elsa's back!" Anna urged.
before he could say a word of protest, the once-dead princess leaped atop his steed with more life than ever, and continued to urge him to come on.
With Olaf sloppily in tow, they dashed from the royal graveyard towards the fjords and in a moment of slight confusion, and a dazzling spectacle of cyan-blue light, all the snow and any other trace of winter vanished in a silent explosion.
And there stood Elsa, beautiful as ever. Anna fell off Sven and then raced over to her, expertly intercepting what looked like an almost-first-kiss between her sister and that random red headed guy, but Anna really didn't care because IT WAS HER SISTER and she was alive... and SHE was alive.. and everything was perfect.
"Anna!?" Elsa gasped as the furiously giddy girl snuggled and crushed her face into her chest and wept silently.
"I knew you could do it!"
Olaf sighed dreamily to the side and then announced, "you know what guys? This is the best, and most confusing day of my life!" the warm air of the early morning had risen during the preceding episode, and so he had also slowly begun to melt.. "and quite possibly the last..." he muttered
Elsa gasped and then with a flick of her wrist bestowed him with a tiny little storm cloud, to keep him cool,, "There you go Olaf." She said, not having forgotten the little snowman's name.
"So this is Olaf, like you told me?" The beast... well, the, uh, person... asked, stooping curiously to observe the little magical creature.
"Hi!" he said, "I'm Olaf! And I like warm hugs!" he announced.
Elsa and the man exchanged looks and then he smirked, "Well i bet you've never had a hug like mine before!" he said before surprising the little snowman with a gentle bear hug, unable to resist his cuteness.
Anna saw this as an opportunity to a group hugging free for all and dragged Elsa down into the huddle, along with Kristoff and even Sven.
Introductions could all come later, but for now they were all just happy to be all together, and there were no more curses, no more pain and no more closed gates.
"We are never, EVER closing those gates again..." Elsa promised.
XXXXXXXXX
Two months later
After a bit of scrambling around with a map, and two weeks of research in the royal study, Elsa was able to pinpoint where Adam's former kingdom was. He planned to return home and then invite his own servants to make up for Arendelle's lack of royal service, and also to reunite with the people who once were called his only family.
He and Elsa were deeply in love, so much so that Anna actually had to remind Elsa that she couldn't 'marry a man she'd just met', but regardless they had plans to be with each other for a long, long time.
But business came first...and business wasn't very pleasant in comparison.
Adam bowed once more and the old man nodded, before retreating back into his shop. he turned back to Elsa with a heavy heart.
"What news of him?" she asked, although the answer was evident in his face.
"It... it's in the past now. At least they're all together. I can't help but feel so ..responsible for it though." he admitted.
Belle, the woman with whom she had found him, had an elderly father, Maurice. Here in the French owned territory which had long been abandoned by the said nation, but still homed thousands of french citizens they had moved to the countryside in an attempt to settle down their lifestyle after the death of his wife.
However due to all the circumstances, it served to be his resting place now.
"well, I suppose all that's left is, your castle."
Adam looked up at her and then up at the forest where his previous home was definitely waiting for him.
"Indeed." he agreed. Taking her hand and guiding their horse up the bustling streets of the little village they made their way into the woods, now less formidable following the end of the curse, and into the grand castle.
Upon seeing to for the first time in so long he was astounded by it's sight, as was Elsa. She had never seen architecture of other cultures in the flesh before, and it was truly beautiful.
"This will be our winter home." She decided aloud.
Adam glanced at her, confused, "Don't you mean summer home?"
She shook her head, "Oh no, I can't come here in summer otherwise I'll have to endure the heat. Your winter is similar to my autumn since it's further down south here. I want to stay here in winter." She explained very bluntly.
He snorted a little but coughed and then guided her in. His servants all were amazed, and positively jubilant to see their master return, and all of them were just as human as they had been promised.
Elsa was introduced to all of his most loyal servants who all were instantly entranced with her beauty, and grace, and also her powers which she was now very able with.
After a few days stay, they packed up and brought whatever servants home they could accommodate and returned to Arendelle just in time for the wedding...
No, not Elsa and Adam's wedding, Anna and Kristoff's, but theirs was surely not too far away.
As they waved the couple goodbye as they set off to 'adventure through their honeymoon' they locked hands and Smiled under the growing autumn sky.
"Will we be staying in Arendelle for winter this year?" he asked, a vague sort of curiosity apparent in his voice.
Elsa snorted and smacked his chest with the back of her hand, "Oh please, Adam, we just HAD winter, you fuzzy fool!" she reminded him.
"Oh, sorry, forgot I was talking to the crazy ice lady here..." he sarcastically retorted as they referred to each other with their early-friendship nicknames.
"Shut up and kiss me." she demanded.
"Yeah, thanks, I love you too..." He teased... and then he did.
XXXXXXXXX
We locked ourselves away from the world, and never went outside,
To save the ones we cared for, it was ourselves we had to hide.
Your greatest enemy was fear, and mine was a lack of love,
In the end it's all the same, it's what we both dreamed of...
To be accepted, and to be ourselves, to truly both be free
To give your love and have it returned, anyone could agree,
We're similar you and me.