A/N: I think the reason no one's updated for a bit is because we're all still crying over the ending to r9kElsa is Suffering.
CHAPTER ONE
"Come on, Ezra. Lighten up a bit!"
"Yeah. You would've jumped at this opportunity two years ago!"
"Two years ago I would've jumped clear off the cliffs and into the fjord, Charming. I like to think I've grown more mature," Elsa replied, accenting her words with an eye roll. She glanced up from the parchment laid out on her desk to eye the three members of royalty before her.
"It's Samuel, your royal assholishness," Prince Samuel, known to his friends as 'Charming,' retorted, crossing his arms as his lips tugged upward in a smile.
"Charming's right though, Ezra. You've turned into a bit of a buzzkill," Prince Eric piped up, smirking mockingly in hopes of luring Ezra into their plan.
"I am not!" Elsa huffed indignantly, rising from her desk and strutting over to her friends. She towered a good couple inches over the three and glowered down at them.
"Then take advantage of this situation! It's not every day your father arranges an event that brings ALL of the royals together. Look, Adam, Naveen, and Aladdin are already down by the girls' rooms. We just need you!" Eugene, Charming's younger brother, persuaded.
"Where are Philip and Florian?" Elsa asked after thinking for a moment.
"They're distracting the princesses with some swordplay. We've got to hurry,"
I must be crazy if I'm actually considering this. I'm nineteen, too old for this... child's play.
With a resigning sigh, Elsa slowly nodded and grinned mischievously at her fellow princes.
"Yes! I knew you'd come around, Ezra," Charming said, smiling cheekily.
"Whatever. What's the plan?"
"You'll see. Come with us," Eric grinned, grabbing Elsa by the wrist and hauling her out the door.
I suppose I am crazy after all.
"Of all the asinine ideas you've had, Charming, this is by far the most—" Elsa was cut off by a snicker.
"Brilliant? Yes, thank you, thank you," Charming grinned, standing in the doorframe that led to the obscenely large chamber that housed the princesses on their stay in Castle Arendelle.
"I was going to say 'childish,'" Elsa snorted. The beds in the room were lined against the left and right walls, each with a wardrobe at the foot. A few leisure items, such as a piano, three easels, a few lutes and a large bookshelf brimming with countless tomes lined the wall furthest from the door. There was a large open span of gleaming, polished tile between the left and right walls.
"So I just freeze their wardrobes shut?" Elsa asked, trying to hide the excited quiver in her voice. It didn't go unnoticed by Naveen, who chuckled before resting his hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah. It will take them by surprise," he explained, his thick accent making the words roll off his tongue like water tumbling over rocks in a stream.
"Sammy, you truly are a dubious one," Elsa laughed as she entered the room, gazing down at the tile before stomping her boot-clad foot against it. She reveled in the awed "wow"s coming from the other princes as ice spiraled out from where her foot connected to the floor. It went outward towards the walls and crept upwards to freeze the wardrobes shut with a crystalline crackle. It was unnoticeable, as the ice was hidden in crevices. The room's temperature, however, dipped considerably.
"That's a-a-amazing, Ezra," a voice shivered from behind her. She turned to see the Arabian prince, Aladdin, rubbing his arms as his teeth chattered and gave a small chuckle despite herself.
"Poor desert boy," Adam laughed as he playfully nudged the quivering prince. Aladdin rolled his eyes in response.
Elsa moved nimbly across the ice and ran a finger along the sides of the each of the wardrobes to make sure they were secured with ice.
"All done," she called as she slid back over to the others. The sound of girlish laughter suddenly echoed down the hallway outside the room.
"Quick, against the wall!" Eric whispered. The princes ducked outside of the room and sidled against the adjacent wall, out of sight of he approaching girls.
"Phillip, you're amazing with the sword!" one of the princesses swooned.
"Florian as well! That was such a close match," another laughed.
"Yes, well, a draw is a draw," Elsa heard Florian say.
"We will bid you goodnight, my ladies," came Philip's voice. Elsa heard the smile in it; he was anticipating what was about to happen.
"Goodnight, Prince Philip, Price Florian," the girls chorused, giggling. The door shut behind them.
"Hey, feather-hat! Over here!" Adam whispered, waving the two over.
"Did you do it, Ezra?" Florian asked, his voice bubbling with anticipation.
"Of course. Let's see what happens then, shall we?" Elsa smirked as she crept around the corner towards the door, motioning for the others to follow. She peered in through the keyhole as the other princes pressed their ears against the wood.
"–SO dreamy! His eyes are like little round icicles," one of the girls was saying.
"I know. Ezra is like a pretty kind of handsome," another added. Elsa recognized the speaker as Anna, one of the two princesses from Corona. Her stomach quivered pleasantly when she saw the strawberry blonde princess grinning thoughtfully.
Elsa received approving claps on the back from the others and dipped her head dramatically in response.
"What about Adam?" a quiet, French-accented voice that Elsa assumed belonged to Belle, spoke up.
"I think he needs a haircut. Shorter, like Eric's," Elsa saw a smile creep up Ariel's face through the keyhole.
Adam growled quietly and Elsa looked down to see him glaring at the door. His gaze softened considerably, however, when Belle murmured, "I think it's wonderful the way it is."
"Long hair isn't so bad. Ezra's hair is pretty long," Anna murmured.
"Yes, but he either keeps it tied up with that little ribbon or braided with his bangs slicked back. It's awfully cute," Cinderella giggled.
"That's two for two, Ezra," Naveen whispered with a small laugh. Elsa grinned, proud of herself.
"Enough daydreaming over the princes— let's get ready for bed," one suggested.
The eavesdroppers outside the door exchanged excited glances. Elsa heard the sound of drawers rattling followed by a frustrated grunt.
"My wardrobe won't open," one complained.
After more rattles, another said, "Mine either!"
Soon the room filled with clacking and dull thumps as the girls beat against the old wood of their dressers. Through the keyhole, Elsa saw the girls stomping around in frustration and bit back a laugh.
"This— they must've done this!" Ariel shouted.
"Who?" Cinderella asked, still trying in vain to pry her drawers open.
"The princes! Those-Those—!" Ariel struggled to find the right word.
"Those dastardly, flagitious, imbecilic excuses for royalty!" Belle supplied, her usual calm demeanor having dissipated.
"Was that even English?" Eric asked, dumbfounded. The others laughed quietly, their hands covering their mouths and their eyes squeezed shut. Phillip was rolling on the ground, clutching his sides and biting his tongue.
Elsa opened her mouth to say something when the door suddenly swung open. She stumbled backwards in surprise, tumbling into the crowd of male royalty behind her. A few of them fell ungraciously to the ground with a dazed Elsa at the top of the pile. After shaking her head vigorously, she found herself staring up at Anna, who was glaring at the mass of boys before her. Standing behind her was her sister, Rapunzel, who was gripping a frying pan firmly, poised to strike. Before Elsa could wonder where the brunette girl had found a frying pan, the princesses began shouting.
"You perverts!"
"Grow up!"
"Fix our wardrobes!"
Elsa covered her ears to block out the onslaught of high-pitched cries and looked around to see Eric and Phillip fleeing to her right, their laughter rebounding against the walls. With a disdainful sigh, Elsa rose to her feet. As she dusted off her dark gray waistcoat, she noticed with satisfaction that now all the princesses had to tilt their heads upwards to meet her gaze. She straightened her back.
"I don't understand what the problem is," she said with a smirk, her eyebrows pulling down in an expression of fake confusion.
"Like you don't know! Why else would you all be standing outside our door?" Rapunzel demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
Elsa shrugged.
"We were heading out to the courtyard for a smoke when we heard the commotion," she replied, pulling a snuffbox full of tobacco from the pocket of her black leather trousers as proof. "We were curious, is all."
While all of the girls had their attention on her, Elsa quickly and discreetly forced the ice in the room to coalesce into a single large snowflake before disappearing in a small puff of frost.
"Oh yeah? Then why did Eric and Phillip take off in the other direction?" Anna asked, smirking.
"Perhaps they did it. It wasn't the rest of us, I assure you," Elsa said, throwing the princess a winning smile.
At this, the strawberry blonde girl seemed to relax, her ocean blue eyes softening.
"Oh. Well, I– we apologize for accusing you," she murmured, averting her gaze.
"And I'll have a word or two for Phillip in the morning," a blonde princess, Aurora, if Elsa's memory served her right, growled with an angry huff.
"I apologize for Eric and Phillip's childish behavior. I'll be sure to talk to them," Elsa said with a nod, bowing slightly to the princesses. Her eyes flickered to Anna's and she felt her heart twinge at the sight of a small, shy smile playing on the younger girl's lips.
"Yes. Alright. Um, thank you, Ezra. I mean Prince! Prince Ezra! Sorry. Goodnight," Anna stammered. Elsa barely had time to see the girl's cheeks flush red before the door slammed shut. Elsa started to turn to the other princes when the door creaked open again. Through a crack she could see Anna's face peering up at her.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to slam the door. I don't want you to think that I'm rude or prudish or anything like that, just... oh, goodnight," she sighed before easing the door shut. Elsa raised an eyebrow. The other girl was a nervous, bumbling mess but Elsa founding it incredibly endearing.
She's adorable and beautiful.
With a soft smirk, she turned to the others, who were beaming at her.
"Jesus, you cheeky little devil, you!" Naveen laughed as the crowd of men began advancing towards the courtyard.
"I thought they were going to smash our noses in with that frying pan. You're brilliant, Ezra, really," Adam shook his head in disbelief, draping his arm across Elsa's shoulders.
"Thank you, thank you," Elsa chuckled.
"And it seems as though you have an admirer," Charming remarked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"More like a whole crowd of them! They said hardly anything about the rest of us," Aladdin huffed.
"So much for being a buzzkill," Elsa said, throwing Charming a playful glare. "And it seems as though each of the princesses has one of us in mind. Don't get your hopes down."
There's only one of them on my mind, anyways.
"Oh, wipe that cocky grin off your face, Ezra. Did you bring papers for the tobacco?" Eugene asked as they entered the courtyard. Elsa noted Eric and Phillip leaning against the fountain, smirking in their direction. Oh, when they found out... Elsa hoped she'd be there.
"Of course. Anyone got a light?" she inquired as she rolled the tobacco expertly and stuck one end in her mouth.
"Yeah, here," Eugene said as he pulled a small box of matches from his pocket. He lit the cigarette for Elsa and she took a long drag before passing it to her right.
I'm glad Father chose to raise me to be a man, she thought as she puffed out a series of smoke rings, barely playing any heed to the conversations of the men around her. Women must wear uncomfortable clothes, must believe what men say, must always act in a lady-like manner... they can't have real fun or even smoke without looking like hellions in society's eye.
Elsa gave a soft chuckle as the cigarette arrived back in her hands.
"What's so funny?" Charming asked as he blew smoke in her face and leaned against the fountain beside her.
"Nothing. Just thankful," she answered after another drag. She gazed at the princes before her; some where climbing up the wall to get a better view of the sunset, some were trying to dunk each other's heads into the fountain, a couple were climbing a tree and another was flirting with the gardener.
Her mind drifted to the princesses; going to bed on time, being toyed with by the men, being expected to act proper at all times. They couldn't have the kind of fun Elsa was having with the boys. If her life had been different, she would be holed up in that room with them while the men went out to smoke and watch the sunset.
I'm glad. Very, very glad. Elsa smiled.
"Come on, Ezra, let's climb up the wall. The sun's beginning to set," Charming suggested with a grin, grabbing her by the elbow. Elsa stuck the cigarette firmly in the corner of her mouth before following.
"Alright," she murmured around the cigarette as she ran a few steps up the side of the wall before grabbing the ledge and hauling herself upward. She swung her legs over the side and stretched, allowing herself to be bathed in the warm glow of the receding sunlight. Elsa passed the cigarette, now nearly a stub, down the line of men resting atop the wall. With a smile she pulled out her snuffbox and rolled another cigarette before passing it to Eugene for a lighting.
Elsa gazed over at the wing of the castle to her right. She took a moment to admire the architecture, now cloaked beautifully in the red and orange of the sunset, when a glint of blue caught her eye. Elsa squinted and made out two ocean blue eyes gazing back up at her from a window she knew to belong to the princesses bed chambers. Upon closer inspection, Elsa made out strawberry blonde hair braided into double plaits atop a gorgeous face that she knew was dusted with freckles.
With a friendly smile, she waved at her onlooker. When Anna waved back nervously, Elsa felt her smile grow, which in turn evoked simper from the princess.
Elsa felt her chest swell as butterflies began a caper in her stomach. After a long moment, she peeled her eyes from the princess, turned her gaze back to the sunset and began conversing with the other men. With a content sigh, Elsa affirmed in her mind that she had never felt happier.
Thank you, Father.
A/N: Thank you all so much for the review, favorites and follows! This was intended to be a light-hearted chapter that gives you a bit of a look into Elsa's life. I apologize if this is going along slowly. What I'm planning on doing is having the next chapter be about their marriage and all that good stuff— it'll take place a few years later, however.
Most of the chapters onwards will probably be about them together and Elsa's struggles to tell Anna what's really up, with an occasional chapter here and there that details their past experiences together (at a variety of ages) and Elsa's life as a carefree prince (much like this chapter here). How do you guys feel about that? Let me know in the comments or through a PM. Thank you for reading and please leave some constructive criticism!