I really, really enjoyed writing this chapter. Especially the latter half. And I think you guys are going to enjoy reading it.
Elsa's jaw hung open as she glanced between the open space below them and Zephyr's face. He remained silent, waiting to see just how she would react. A long silence passed between before Elsa was finally able to say something.
"Wind…" She said, in a barely audible whisper. Zephyr gave a curt nod. "You're…you're like me," Again he nodded.
"I should have told you sooner, but I was afraid. I know that sounds stupid, because if I could tell anyone, I could you."
"Zephyr…" Elsa took a breath, "Do you think we could talk on the ground?" She was looking very pale.
"I thought you said you won't afraid of heights,"
"Heights, no. But I am terrified of falling to me death,"
"Hey," Zephyr said gently, tightening his hold on her slightly, "I won't let anything happen to you," He gave her small smile that did make Elsa feel better. And she felt better still when they slowly descended back to earth. He set them down on the roof, on top of one of the spires.
"When I said the ground, this isn't what I had in mind." She said nervously looking down. Zephyr chuckled softly.
"Sorry. But I guess you have some questions and I didn't want anyone to interrupt us."
"There is this thing called a lock, many doors have them,"
Zephyr laughed, "I won't let you fall. I promise," he said smiling. Elsa took comfort in his familiar smile and nodded. They sat on the roof, shoulder to shoulder, looking out onto the fjord.
"So what do you want to know?"
"I-I don't know. This…this a lot to take in,"
"Maybe I should start and you can ask questions after."
Elsa nodded. Zephyr took a breath, turning his head to the sky.
"My powers are something I've always had. I was born with them, like you were born with yours. I told you before my father left when I was a child, that's because of me. I was six when he left, because he couldn't handle having a freak for a son. I got so mad at him for leaving I tore the roof of our house. My mother tried to help me, but she basically helpless to do anything. We understood very little about my powers. Then, when I was eleven she died from a bad fever. That was the first time I lost complete control of my powers. I don't remember much of what happened. I was watching them take her body away, and the next thing I knew I woke up miles away, suspended in a cluster of branches.
"When I finally found my way back to my village it turned out I'd destroyed part of it. They ran me out and I've never gone back. I started to travel, just trying to survive. Then almost two years after that I found myself in trouble with a gang of thieves. I used my powers to fight them off, but instead I got a job. I worked for them getting to places a normal person couldn't. Looking back now I'm not proud of this. But at the time all I was thinking about that the steady income and food. I was with those guys until I was seventeen.
"I probably would still be with them, if not for…well something bad happened between me and the leader of the thieves, so I had to leave. But, you can't just leave whenever you want. With those guys it a pact for life, as in if you try to get out they kill you. So they didn't like when I disappeared one night, especially since my powers helped them pull off some really big jobs. They tracked me down a couple months later, and I barely escaped with my life. There was one good thing that came out of that incident though. I learned my powers were linked with my emotions, my negative emotions. Since then I've always tried to be happy. I never let myself get in situations where I could be provoked into anger or sadness."
Zephyr finished his story but didn't look at her. His gaze remained fixed in the sky. Elsa on the other hand was staring at him, her eyes racking over him, as though seeing him for the first time. Little things she'd given no thought to before suddenly were thrown into a new light. The faint scars that littered his body, marks she'd just acquainted to childhood mishaps, all at once held a different meaning. Did he get them while trying to control his powers? Or maybe from his time with the thieves?
And they way he was always smiling and laughing. She'd assumed it was his personality. But now she saw it was much more. It was his way of controlling his powers. There was something else. He looked relaxed, like he did when played his flute. There was an easiness to him and Elsa recognised it. She'd felt the same way the night after the Great Thaw, when she'd finally told Anna everything that had been kept from her growing up.
"You're awfully quiet," He said after a while.
"It's still sinking in,"
"It's okay, take your time,"
Elsa took a few more minutes then she finally asked, "Are your powers only wind?"
"Mostly, yes. But the few times I've lost control I've created storms, tornadoes. Once when I…when I really upset I created a storm with lightning."
"Our meeting was an accident was it?" This made Zephyr laugh.
"In a way it was, and it wasn't. I came to Arendelle in the first place because of you. I'd heard the rumours of someone it ice powers and it was too good to pass up. I had to know if there was something else like me out there. To know that I wasn't the only one. But I never planned on meeting you. The original plan was to just spy on you for a bit, find out if there was really someone with magical powers. It was by complete accident that I was out on the woods the same day you were, but I'm glad we did run into each other. I'm glad I've gotten to know you."
He graced her with an easy smile and Elsa felt a jolt as his hand found hers. She looked at their linked hands. She lifted their hands and asked, "Do you think this is because of our powers?"
"What do you mean?"
"You feel it to, don't you? Those shivers whenever we touch. Maybe our powers are responding to each other."
Zephyr's eye grew wide and he nodded, "I'd never considered that. It's possible, and makes sense. I'd just assumed it was because…" He trailed off, and turned away blushing.
"What?" Elsa asked. He shook his head, "You can tell me, we spent all day telling each other things no one else knows about us. You just trusted me with your biggest secret. Why can't you tell me this?"
Still blushing Zephyr in a small voice, hoping she wouldn't hear, said, "I thought it was because I was attracted to you," But she did hear.
"Oh…" She started blushing harder than he was. They dropped each other's hands, looking anywhere but the other. Part of Elsa's mind was scolding her for acting like a little girl with a school yard crush; but that part couldn't be over hear by the other part of her mind because that part was too busy melting into a senseless pile of emotions. She nervously tugged on her braid while Zephyr ran his hand through his hair. Around them snowflakes began to fall, only to be blown away in the wind.
Elsa bit her lip, steeling herself to stay something, "Zephyr," He looked at her, and she chicken out, "Maybe we should head inside. It's cold tonight and we wouldn't you catching anything,"
"Sure," He said in a disappointed voice. He flew them to Elsa's balcony, setting her down gently.
"I'll see in the morning," he said and turned in the air. Elsa took a step into her room then turned.
"Zephyr, wait!" She called. He paused, touching down in front of her. "Thank you," She took one of his hands. "Thank you, for sharing everything you did. Believe me when I say I know it couldn't have been easy for you." She squeezed his hand gently, "And you have to know that this doesn't change anything between us. Neither does your past. Nothing could change the way I feel about you,"
"And…how do you fell about me?" He took a huge leapt and asked. Elsa opened her mouth to respond, but after a moment she closed it. She gazed into his eyes for a second, leaned forward and place a quick kiss on his cheek. He blinked, one hand unconsciously touching the spot where her lips had. A grin broke on his face. He pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly.
"You have no idea how happy that makes me. Or how happy I am now that you know,"
"Trust me, I know," She said a light laugh, wrapping her arms around, returning the hug.
"I guess you do," He said closing his eyes and brushing his cheek against hers in a gentle gesture. She leaned into him, feeling comfort in his embrace.
"Hey, listen," He said suddenly, his voice taking a more serious note, "I don't mind the others finding out about me…but not just yet,"
"It will be our secret, until you're ready," Elsa said gently. Zephyr nodded, brushing a finger across her cheek.
"Thank you," he took one of her hands and brought it to his lips pressing a light kiss to her knuckles. "Good night, my lady. Sweet dreams," he said with a wink.
"Sweet dreams," Elsa replied in whisper. He bowed to her, making her laugh, before he jumped off the railing tumbling off in the wind.
A few days later the pair were ridding up the north mountain.
"How do you fly?" Elsa asked. Since he'd told her, every chance they were alone she asked a dozen questions, which he was happy to answer.
"I will the winds the take me. And it's not really flying. More like floating it guess. If the wind is strong I can't control where I go very well. That's how I ended up falling out onto the path in front of your horse when we first met. The winds were too strong for me to and I crashed into the trees and fell out on the path. Elsa laughed.
"You can't control it? Really?"
"Yeah. For instance, if the wind is blowing in one direction, I can't make it blow another way, but I could make it speed up, or maybe slow down. It all depends."
"I understand. There was a terrible blizzard last winter. I tried to make it stop, but I only eased it for a short while. But you sure seemed like you knew what you were doing when we went for that flight last night," Elsa added a teasing tone to the last part.
"That's because the wind wasn't that strong and I've learned to read the winds. I just make it look easy," He said with a wink. "It's much easier to make smaller currents of air,"
"Like that mini tornado that messed up all the reports on my desk?" Elsa asked raising an eyebrow at him.
"I said I was sorry for that. You were the one who asked to see me do it."
"Yeah but I didn't want you to make it than big,"
"I didn't mean for it to get that big," He said, "You made me nervous,"
"I made you nervous?"
"Yes," He looked away blushing. Elsa bit her lips, fighting off her own blush.
"But the worst part was trying to come up with an excuse for what happen," She said.
"I don't think they believed the whole wind from the open window story."
"Would you have believed it? Only the stuff on my desk was a mess. The papers on the shelves and other desks won't touched."
"Yeah, I guess wasn't a good excuse,"
"You do know what they think we were doing, don't you?" Elsa said, a faint blush on her cheeks. Zephyr laughed.
"They amount of time we spend alone together, there is a lot of things they think we're doing that we actually aren't,"
They glanced at other for a second, only to look away, both blushing. Despite their close relationship, and what everyone in the castle thought nothing beyond Elsa's kiss on the cheek had happened. And neither had been brave enough to take another step. But in their defence they'd been having too much fun experimenting with their powers together.
The silence between them grew thick, but luckily at that moment they rode around a ridge and Zephyr's jaw dropped.
"Whoa," He titled his head back to look up at the impressive structure. Elsa's ice palace was glowing in the light of the sunset. "You made this," He looked at Elsa in wonder. She smiled and nodded.
"It's become my home away from home, so to say. I come up here every so often when I need some time to myself,"
"It's…wow…it's beyond words,"
"Let's go. You still have to see the inside." Elsa slid off her horse heading to the stairs. Zephyr in his excitement flew ahead, pushing the doors open. He hovered inside, ten feet off the ground.
"This is-ah!" He was suddenly grabbed out of the air. He let out a scream as he looked into the face of the huge Marshmallow.
"Marshmallow, put him down!" Elsa said running up the stairs. Marshmallow looked at Elsa, tilting his head in confusion.
"He's a friend," Elsa held up her hands moving towards the snowgiant. Marshmallow blinked.
"A friend. Remember, we don't hurt our friends," Marshmallow huffed at Zephyr before dropping him. Elsa rushed to his side, helping him sit up.
"Sorry about that. He doesn't like strangers,"
"That's Marshmallow?" Zephyr asked rubbing his head.
"Yes,"
"When you said you had another snowman guarding up here, I thought…"
"You were expecting another Olaf,"
"Kind of, yeah,"
Elsa helped him to his feet, "I should have warned you, sorry. Marshmallow, say you're sorry,"
"Sorrrie," He said in a deep voice, looking at his feet.
"It's okay."Zephyr said waving at the giant, "Nothing broken, so no hard feelings," He extended a hand for him to shake. Instead Marshmallow picked him up in a bone crushing hug.
"Oh, okay, that's enough hugs," Zephyr gasped out. Elsa covered her laughter behind her hand. Marshmallow put Zephyr down.
"I think he likes you," She said still laughing.
"Lucky me," Zephyr said rubbing his back, "People in your family sure like to give hugs,"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," He stretched out his back one last time before taking hold of Elsa's hand, "Let's see this place,"
Elsa showed him around the ice castle, finishing on the balcony that over looked the other mountains.
"It's amazing up here, I don't how you ever leave."
"It is nice, but I'd miss everyone I love,"
"I guess it would get lonely after some time. Still it just blows me away your powers created all this. Especially Marshmallow."
"Zephyr, have you ever created anything that's alive?"
"No, I'm not sure if I can. But I can do this," He took out his flute from his coat pocket and twirled it between his fingers. It spun into the air, suspended by the winds. The air blew into the flute, the keys pressed down by the wind, producing a fast and playful melody.
"Oh, that's beautiful," Elsa said looking at the flute playing all by itself.
"My lady," Zephyr said with a bow, "May I have this dance?"
"I don't dance," Elsa said shaking her head.
"Please, for me," He smirked at her. Elsa bit her lip, indecisive for a moment.
"Okay, one dance,"
Zephyr took her hands in his own, pulling her close. They stood chest to chest, dancing to the music. Zephyr moved with grace and ease that would have made any prince jealous. He easily lifted up by her waist and setting her back down with a light flourish, before leading the way through another dozen or so steps, ending in a graceful dip.
"How knew you could dance this well?" Elsa said trying to catch her breath.
"My lady, you have seen nothing yet." He said with a wink. They moved easily together, each move flowing into the other, as thought they were gliding on air. After a while Elsa realised that was what was actually happening. They were dancing on air, literally, hovering inches above the floor. Elsa looked down at their feet then back up to Zephyr. He winked at her again, pulling her close, arms around her waist. Elsa shifted her arms around his neck. The flute had slowed now, a softer tune playing. Their moments slowed, until they were just swaying back and forth. Zephyr placed them back on the floor and they stopped moving altogether.
The flute still played in the background. For several moments nothing happened. Then slowly, very slowly Zephyr brought up a hand to Elsa's cheek, running his fingers against her jaw line and weaving them into her hair line at the base of her neck. Elsa pulled him down a bit closer, stopping with only a hair breath's worth of space between them. An agonising second past were their blue and grey eyes remained lock on each other, both knew what was about to happen, and they were both longing for it. Then the second past and their lips met as the last light of day was shining into the palace.
The kiss, slow and soft, sent sparks buzzing down both of their spines, dulling their senses. They became oblivious of their surrounds. Neither heard the sharp sound of the flute clattering to the ground, the winds no longer focused enough to keep it aloft. Elsa's fingers curled into his clothes and hair, while Zephyr's hands travels down to the small of her back. Finally when the need for air surpassed that of their desire they broke apart. Gasping for air they stood close together, foreheads touching. Their eyes met and sheepish, happy grins appeared on both their faces. They didn't speak right away, until Zephyr finally said,
"At least for once we're actually doing what your sister thinks were doing,"
Elsa burst out laugh, tucked her head against his chest.
"Oh god, Anna. I'm going to have to tell her about us now,"
"That's a bad thing?"
"I'm not fan of high pitched screaming,"
"You know," Zephyr said tilting her chin up, "There may be a way we can tell them and have fun," Zephyr have that mischievous glint to his eye and Elsa couldn't help but grin.
"I'm listening,"
The next morning Zephyr was walking out to the pavilion in the garden.
"Morning," he said cheerfully, "How come we're having breakfast out here today?" He asked.
"I thought it would be a shame to waste such a beautiful morning," Anna answered.
"Plus when we eat outside Sven can join us," Kristoff said tossing a carrot to the reindeer.
"So Zephyr did you enjoying Elsa's ice palace? You two got back quite late. I didn't get to talk to either of you last night and Elsa' being cryptic this morning," Anna said.
"I'm not being cryptic. I said we enjoyed it,"
"But you didn't give any details. Did anything interesting happen?"
Zephyr paused at the edge of pavilion, thinking, "Let's see Marshmallow almost killed me with a hug,"
"You're worse than Elsa," Anna huffed and took a plate of fruit from one of the servants bring the dishes outside. Zephyr and Elsa chuckled. He made his around the back of Elsa's chair, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"How'd you sleep?" He asked grinning knowingly. Elsa bit her lip for a second before answering.
"Good. You?"
"Would have been better if you were there," he leaned down and kissed her gently. Several things happened at once. Kristoff started to choke on a piece of toast. There was the clatter of plates and dishes as many servants dropped them in shock. Olaf and Sven were staring with open mouths and wide eyes. Anna's scream of pure joy could be heard by half of Arendelle.
Elsa felt Zephyr chuckle against her lips, "Desired effect achieved," he whispered.
"I'd say," She said laughing as well, but her laughs were cut short as Zephyr's lips pressed against hers again.
Are you grinning right now? Cause I'm grinning right now. So we finally reached that stage in their relationship. I swear I was driving myself craze waiting to get here. I hope you guys are ready, because there is some major fluffy coming your way.
Nardragon~ until the next page.
