There was a cough that brought Elsa back to the moment and she carefully poured the next glass. The emissary from Weselton gave a snort of displeasure but began the careful ministrations of preparing the poured beverage even as it steamed up the frame on his glasses. Whereas the weaselly Duke had been short, this man was as much the opposite with a tall, lanky frame and ginger hair that was beginning to thin in the back. Elsa was not going to be the one to inform him of such a feature if he was not already aware.

Hans avoided her gaze as the two newcomers were extended a seat at the table. They talked, discussing the weather on the seas and the ill fortunes of the navy's extensions. Still, he avoided her gaze even as she poured coffee into his cup.

"I'm certain you are overdue to freshen up after such a harrowing journey!" King Viggo waved at one of his guards who then issued forward a female servant clad in the blue ice that Elsa had yet to grow accustomed to. It seemed to make several of the dignitaries uncomfortable including Hans who stiffened at the sight and leaned in to mutter to the Duke.

"Begging your apologizes, Your Majesty," the Duke spoke up. "My good friend here has not been witness to your rather unique hospitalities."

"I suppose I surround myself with them so much I almost forget." There was a tone of amusement in his voice that countered any hint of an apology even if he were to offer it. His laugh issued a hum of echo among the others.

"If you would do us the honor of having one of the other lovely ladies here escort us..." the Duke continued with a wave of his raised mug in Elsa's direction while casting her a flirtatious wink.

There was an unattractive snort of disapproval from the King followed by the slamming of his fist on the table, "Do you hear that? Elsa, wasn't it?" He motioned her over with a curl of one finger. She cast a pleading glance at Gerda for help but the woman was lifting away some emptied plates for cleaning.

Elsa breathed in and lifted her chin, keeping the pot firm in her grasp as she stepped in towards the King. "Yes, Your Majesty," she answered, carefully repeating the Duke's formal address.

The King pulled her in by the waist and it took everything for her not to pull away. His breath was sweeter than she expected.

"No doubt this pretty face of yours. I've hardly had the time for it myself and yet these two would like to steal you away for themselves. Is that it?" He once again cast his gaze upon the darkly attired Duke who gave a bow of the head.

"Steal? I wouldn't dream of it. It was only a suggestion from a man who has spent far too many days at sea. I admit, the idea of following behind one such as her is much more appealing." He gave an apologetic glance to the frozen servant who was being passed over. "No offense, milady. Although you do make for a pretty picture yourself." If the woman was offended she gave no notice of it.

"You do need to get a feel for directions if you're to be summoned," the King once more addressed Elsa. She could feel his breath warm on her throat and she swallowed. "Gerda," he called, and the older woman was at his side, plates in hand.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" She dropped into a curtsey.

The King slid his arm from Elsa, passing her with ease to the side of the other servant. "Take her with you when you show the Prince and the Duke to their quarters. In fact, send out the blonde when you have the others replace you both out here. The morning is still early. Make sure she's presentable."

Gerda curtsied again with respect and hissed under her breath at Elsa until she did the same. Together, they returned to the kitchens to make the arrangements.

The Duke of Liemiera was bold in his actions and confident in every step as they traveled down the freezing halls of the castle. Ice clung to the walls with tangling spines that reminded Elsa of a great maw of teeth. Their breath released in white mists but it didn't seem to deter the Duke from his continuous rattling. Thankfully, he had chosen Gerda as his occupant and showered her with compliments and questions that she deftly avoided at every turn.

Hans remained silent the entire way and Elsa didn't spare him a look.

Gerda would offer details on the halls they were taking but there was very little that Elsa paid mind to. The halls were familiar. Like old friends. They were all she had known once.

They stopped outside the first of the guest chambers where Gerda unlocked the door with a given key and offered it to the Prince.

"I hope you enjoy your stay here, Your Highness," she offered with the opened door. "Will there be anything else you need?"

Hans gave a nod to the Duke and then addressed the servant, "Now that you mention it..." He reached out and took Elsa by the wrist. She gasped with surprise and at the same time his fingers slipped down further until they curled their way into her hand and he pulled her towards the room. "Privacy."

He closed the door behind them both, leaving a stunned Gerda and the Duke with a broad smile on his face. There was a hearty laugh and he pat Gerda on the shoulder, "He'll take good care of her, I'm sure."

"But the King..."

"Doesn't have to know." He pocketed the second key from her. "Go along then. He'll have her back by supper, I'm sure."

For a minute it looked as though she might fight it but then Gerda gave a sigh of defeat and left the Duke to unlock his own door. She had stopped putting her nose into things years ago.

"Are you crazy?!"

"I've been wondering that lately myself," Hans answered, finally letting himself take a more thorough look over her. The extensive assessment made her mildly uncomfortable, putting aside the warmth that spread at realizing he was truly there. "Are you all right?'

There was a vulnerability in his tone that took her by surprise. She was considering her answers, some more biting in a way Anna might have approved of, but there was a worry behind his eyes that had Elsa respond with a candid, "Yes."

"Truthfully, I was worried I would have to scour the city for you first." He seemed to realize that he still held onto her hand. Hans let go and Elsa curled her fingers up underneath her palm.

"Why?" The question was asked. Perhaps later, Elsa would let herself mull over the Hows but she still was having difficulty wrapping her head around the simple fact that this man was standing in front of her. She had expected to be on her own. She had expected he had already left as he claimed.

He wet his bottom lip and dipped his chin, surprise in his gaze at the question, "Why what?"

"Why are you here?"

The question hung in the air. Her tone mixed innocent bewilderment with a skeptical accusation that Hans believed only the Ice Queen could manage with such elegance. If she had realized how close she still stood, Elsa didn't give any signs of it. His directions had taken a few turns along the way, yet there was only one answer in the end of it all: "I came back for you."

"You're here for...me?" It was not an answer Elsa had expected and her words faltered. There was such sincerity behind his eyes that she wondered if that was what Anna had once seen. That memory was enough to pull her from the natural course of any romantic aspirations.

He seemed to sense the change. Straightening his posture, Hans delivered a roguish smirk that had an air of confidence Elsa had yet to see across his face until that moment. "Who else was going to get the Queen of Arendelle out of this little predicament?"

Did he really think her so weak? "I can get myself out."

"I'm sure you can," he added, avoiding pointing out her admission at such a situation's existence in the first place. "But even you have to admit, the odds are much higher with some help."

"I thought our arrangements no longer held any value."

His confident smile quickly dropped. He had left. The understanding was clear between them both. Hans had the decency to look away as the familiar pangs of disappointment began to crawl their way up.

He took a chance and looked back, feeling the need to explain, "We both were sent here for a reason. God only knows why. Maybe I am just a fool for coming back here but I couldn't just leave you. Not after hearing what has happened to Arendelle. Not if you didn't know."

He couldn't take the way her eyes followed his every word. The way she listened intently for the hint of some underlining motive. What more should she expect? He was a man of many words and he had shown little in the way of honor. Hans breathed a sigh of frustration, his finger running through the hair over one ear, brushing it back into place. She couldn't know how it had hit him unexpectedly. How the thought of seeing her fall like the rest made his heart clench with failure.

He remembered raising his sword...

"I have nothing to gain out of going back. My family would rather see me locked out of sight for all they care. I've spent years trying to be what I thought was expected. I made a mistake. And I'm sorry."

The apology was out and still she remained silent. He wished she would say something. Anything. When she didn't, he found himself filling the silence himself, "I'm sorry for Anna. I'm sorry for all my actions that followed. I'm sorry I left." Even now, in the garbs of a servant, she held herself like a queen. "I'm here, because I couldn't forgive myself if something more were to happen to you. It's haunted me every night since I left Arendelle. Your face. Anna's face. You never leave. All those nights I've asked for forgiveness a hundred times over and in no scenario have you ever granted it. Here I am, being given a chance, a small, ridiculous chance to recover my soul, and I'm still floundering like a fool."

They dropped into silence, Hans on a bended knee before the Queen.

When she spoke, his heart froze, "I don't know if I can forgive you." Had the room seemed so cold just a few minutes ago? "I can give you a chance." His eyes met hers and neither could tear them away. Had the pull always been so strong? Hans wondered if she felt it too.

"Don't leave again," she softly commanded. There was a layer of pleading desperation but she never would have admitted to it.

"Never," he answered immediately. "I will pledge myself to you, in this moment, if you would have me. I swear to your protection and my loyalties to you, Queen Elsa, until such a time as you would release me."

There was an uncomfortableness at the severity of his expression and the unexpected declaration. It was overwhelming and Elsa felt the need to lighten both of their spirits, "Just Elsa." She reached down and took the man by the elbow as she guided him back to his feet. He seemed to require an explanation and she was willing to offer one, "Until we get...back, I am just Elsa."

"It doesn't change my pledge to you."

"What if we never get back?"

"It still changes nothing."

"You could still disappear," she suggested. "Live a life of an unknown. Wherever you'd wish it."

"And your face would still follow." He breathed only to release a shallow sigh, shaking his head, "That man you met, I can't lie and say that wasn't me. I'm familiar with easy targets. I know the games they play in court. I've grown watching my brothers cheat and manipulate their way into power. I can tell you that it was never the man I wanted to be."

"Who is it that you want to be?"

"An honorable man."

If he was attempting a play on her emotions, it was a battle she found herself losing. There was an openness in his eyes that she wasn't used to and it suddenly terrified her. As a deterrence, Elsa quirked her brow with amusement at the idea, blurting out, "An honorable man who stole a young maid into his chambers?"

Her smile brought out one of his own once more, "I've yet to hear any protest from the maid."

There was a thoughtful hum as Elsa's thoughts replayed the moments since that door had closed behind her. With the subject shifted back, she needed to the next course of action, "I need to get to the library." Hans seemed to notice the change and his brow narrowed as he waited further details. "There should be a map to the Trolls there. Once I have it, we just need to find a way out of here."

It was simple enough. Wasn't it?

"We?"

There had been no mention of her acceptance to his admissions nor of his pledge. Not until her lips turned up with an almost playful hint, "Yes. We. Do you object to my proposal, Prince Hendrik of the Southern Isles?"

"Not at all," he answered quickly. The warmth of his smile had been unexpected. Elsa wished he showed it more often. Then it fell as he seemed to remember, "Except..."

"Except?"

"Except I can't exactly leave quite yet. Map or not."

"But you just said..."

She swore there was a flush to his cheeks and he briefly rubbed just behind an ear, "I know. And there are a few reasons lingering out there for why I can't."

"I don't understand."

Hans took a breath before turning away, just to turn back with an introduction to his predicament, "You, yourself, have asked. What if it doesn't work? The Trolls, I mean. What if they can't send us back to how things were?"

"And?"

"If it doesn't work, there needs to be some sort of back up plan. If we can't return, I know this isn't the way that you want things to stay. Even from the very limited viewpoint that we've experienced, we both know that these people can't continue the way that everything is."

"You're worried about the people now?" Elsa couldn't hide her surprise.

"I always was. Despite my actions around your coronation, I made every effort with them." There was a defensive sharpness to his tone that continued with the rest, "And now, I've made a promise. In order to get my way in here with some credibility, I've agreed to help Ragnvald on his business with the charming King Viggo."

There was an undignified scoff, "Charming my..."

A smile quickly filled his features again as he cut off her rant, "Such words from a Queen!"

Elsa rolled her eyes at his condemnation. Still, she couldn't help but smile back. She shifted her posture, folding her arms with a dip of her chin, "So, what exactly are your plans with the Duke?"

Hans was more than happy to explain it to her in detail. Despite the added complication, the rightful Queen found a new sense of lightness in her chest at the prospect of taking the King down. She had neglected to address her sister's placement in all of it and was grateful that Hans didn't ask. From the rest of the details he had proceeded to explain there was little doubt he had heard enough of the story to know that, due to fates and circumstance, Anna was very little like the bright soul they had come to know.

Elsa insisted she waste no time in getting to the library, which was just as well since Hans was scheduled with a more personal meeting between himself, the Duke, and the King later that afternoon. That would leave no opening for the King to interrupt Elsa's search. Perhaps, now that she knew what else to look for, there was a chance she might come across details into his powers.

It was only the chime of a clock that startled her into recognizing just how long she had been concealed within his room.

"I should get back," Elsa uttered apologetically as she rose from the seat that had drawn her into its comfort just minutes prior. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks in a way that she was unaccustomed to. "It's already been far longer than is proper."

Hans rose with her and stepped in close enough that she could feel the shift in warmth increasing between them.

"Then don't let them think it's proper," he grinned, confidently reaching up behind her head. She almost stepped away but he had already unfastened the right pins so that her braid fell out of place and down over her shoulder."I may have been the maker of a scandal or two in the past. It isn't uncommon." Of course he would have been. Perhaps it was something in her expression that caused him to add, "It's only a part we both have to play for a little longer."

Elsa had forgotten the way that her hair made her feel when it was down. Her own fingers reached up and loosened it just that little bit more to be comfortable before stepping away.

As she turned for the door Hans caught her by the hand. His fingers were warm against hers and they slipped through effortlessly. He tugged just enough to pull her back towards him and before she could react, Elsa was facing him and her hand was lifted to his lips. It was little more than a flutter at first, the moment his lips made contact with the back of her fingers, but her eyes widened and her heart stopped for just that moment. Then, they were warm like the brightest fire.

It was over before she could breathe and Hans had released her hand. She had to remember to bring it back.

"Be safe," he whispered.

Elsa couldn't answer so instead she just gave a single nod. She turned away, fingers lingering on the door handle.

"You too," she managed softly before opening the door and leaving Hans alone in the room wondering what had just happened.

A.N.- Took a bit longer than I'd expected. I hope you all like it!