Riven paces his room. What had he done a couple of nights ago? He took himself too far. Way, way, way too far.
He had taken Elsa's virginity.
He couldn't have helped it. She was amazingly wonderful. She pleasured him so much the other night. Even when he thinks about it, two days later, he gets an amazing tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach.
But now he feels terribly, horribly guilty. He has a brilliant wife, who had given him the best gift a man could wish for. She'd given him a child, and said child is truly adorable. So why had he done what he did?
Because I was in need of a pleasuring woman. Musa is amazing, but she's very old fashioned, Riven's mind screams at him as he punches his left fist into his right palm. Too old fashioned for my liking. But I love her? Right?
Whereas Elsa has a more modern vibe to her; she is absolutely beautiful; and is so much more like him: cocky, sassy, rather flirtatious and cold. Cold in personality, and cold so very literally.
Riven grumbles; he can't face the queen yet. He has avoided her for the whole of yesterday, and all of today, so far. He doesn't know when to go and confront her and he's not so sure he wants to. He can't say he loves her, for they are not in a proper relationship. He doesn't love her. He never has. 'Friends with benefits' makes him feel even more guilt ridden. Why didn't he control himself? Why had he gone and let her seduce him?
So he's stayed in his room for two whole days. He hasn't left for fear he'll bump into Elsa, Princess Anna, Kristoff or even Xander. He can't let the friendly guard know about his actions. That'll be their friendship over. And Anna; she'll probably scream her head off at him if she sees him.
And there's his own family. How will he explain to Musa what he'd done? She will kill him, he is sure of it. And Cadence. He's been such a terrible father to her. By cheating on her mother, he has given her an irresponsible parent. How could he have done that?
He had been so happy yesterday, even if he hadn't had the courage to go and talk to Elsa about their actions. However, when he had received the call from his loving wife, Musa, that all changed. The guilt started to creep in and his mind started to give him the wrong advice.
Riven sits back down on the bed with a heavy hearted sigh and puts his head in his hands. Nothing he does can take his mind off of his situation. Not reading, not sleeping, not eating, not listening to his favourite songs, and definitely not listening to his darling Musa sing his favourite song.
He doesn't know what to do. He feels like crying, but he doesn't want to shame himself even more. He knew everything he did would come back to haunt him someday. And that day has come. What can he do to eradicate and rid himself of the guilt?
Talk to Elsa, that's what. But what do I tell her? Ask her why we did what we did? I don't think so.
He squeezes his fists, tighter and tighter. Along with the guilt, the anger has settled in now, freely bubbling and boiling. He regrets the words that slipped out of his mouth in the heat of the moment: you're the best thing that ever happened to me. He regrets it so much so that he starts to dig his nails into the palm of his hand and swear under his breath.
He remembers what he told Musa to do when she was in need of an escape route. Count to ten, and if that doesn't work, keep on counting.
One… two… three…
It's not working.
Four… five… six…
Still not working.
Carrying on counting, Riven walks to the window and leans his forearms on the window sill. A tear slips down his cheek, and he wipes it away furiously.
Eleven… twelve… thirteen… fourteen…
With every number that crosses his mind, a fuming, guilty tear falls out of his eyes. Soon, he gives up trying to keep his image intact. He'd already lost his reputation, hasn't he? He lets the tears fall freely. He has lost his lover, through his horrible actions. If he hasn't, then he is a very, very lucky man, but incredibly undeserving.
Suddenly, a knock comes at the door. He silences himself, but still doesn't stop the tears. He waits to see if whoever is at the door will go away if he doesn't respond.
Nope. They knock again. He has an urge to yell at them to go away. But biting his tongue, he strains himself to keep silent. "Riven?" they ask softly.
His heart drops. It is Elsa. He can't face her yet, not now. But she is persistent: she calls his name over and over, and he has no choice but to go and answer her. He wipes his tears away and wipes his face, trying to get rid of the evidence.
He opens the door and lets her in. She enters with a frown, and has her arms folded across her chest. "Are you OK?"
She sinks onto his bed with a sigh. "No," she says flatly.
No time for grieving now. Riven sits on the bed beside her and runs a hand through his hair. "What is it?"
"Riven, we're in deep trouble," she says, sighing once again.
"Why? Who've you told?" he asks her accusingly, immediately jumping to conclusions. He stands back up and walks up to his door.
Elsa's head jerks up and her eyes flash menacingly. "Who said it was me who spilled the beans, huh?! How can you prove to me that your precious little queen doesn't know about what happened that other night?!" she yells, standing up, suddenly.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. You're the one who said we were in trouble. I didn't speak a word about it," he shoots back at her indignantly.
"Still, it's not the way to speak to a queen, King Riven." Elsa holds her head up high as she walks up to him slowly.
"Same goes for you, then," Riven says. "You can't speak like that to me. I'm what you would call a king."
"You're doing it again, Riven!" Elsa hisses.
"Look, can we just get on with this?" Riven asks impatiently.
"You accused me of telling! All I could do was defend myself!" the queen frowns at him.
"OK, OK, I'm sorry. Really, I am. Can you just tell me what happened? Please?" Riven apologizes. He takes her hand and sits her back down on his bed.
"Well…" Riven looks at her expectantly. "We're… we're about to… become parents…" Elsa whispers, not quite meeting Riven's eyes. Riven's eyes widen as he mentally face palms himself.
"Oh, Elsa…" he sighs as he sits beside her and takes both of her hands. "You're not...?"
Elsa nods, slowly. "I'm sorry, Riven. I… I wasn't thinking…"
"Elsa… why? What… I thought we used…" he trails off, breaking the contact between them for a moment.
"Me too. But, it must have broken… or… something along those lines?" Elsa looks up at him, looking helpless.
"OK. Are… are you sure?" Riven asks her needlessly.
"Riven, I'm positive."
"But, it's only been two days…" he muses to himself.
"Hello?! We are in the Magic Dimension! Pregnancy is different here than what it is on Earth! Here you start having the symptoms within a week!" she informs him. Her voice gets louder with every word.
"Fine, fine. So… what… what do we do?"
"I. Don't. Know." Elsa's hands fly up to her hair and she pulls, tearing a few strands of hair out.
"Hey, hey, don't do that! Stop!" Riven goes to hold her wrists and pry her hands open.
Elsa starts crying as her hands float up to her head once more. Riven takes her back into his embrace, letting her cry. He whispers to her as she cries; soothing her and offering suggestions.
"Why don't you have an abortion?" he says suddenly.
"Riven, really?" she says witheringly, looking on at him disbelievingly. "Just because the little boy is illegitimate, I'm not going to abort my child." She then adds in a whisper, "our child."
"OK, fine. I guess that's too cruel. Wait, a boy?" Riven asks, curiously.
"Yes, we're having a little boy." Elsa smiles at this point and pats her stomach.
"That's great and all, but what are you going to do?"
"Me?!" Elsa says, pointing to herself. "What are we going to do, more like!" she scoffs.
"I'm sorry, but I have my own legitimate child waiting for me back at home. I'm leaving in a couple of days, anyway," Riven informs her flatly.
"No, you are not, Riven. My little boy needs a father."
Riven stands up abruptly, and narrows his eyes at the blonde woman. "Well, so does my Cadence!" he cries.
"She's had a father for four years. She can go without one for a couple of years now," Elsa says, somewhat rudely.
"Excuse me? Are you saying you're going to keep me from fathering my own child?" Riven asks, turning his head slightly to the left and raising his eyebrows at her as he crosses his arms.
Elsa pauses. "Yeah, I guess," she nods.
Riven growls, and turns on his heel to face the door. He strides forwards towards the door, pausing only to pick up his suitcase. He opens the door, turns back to tell her that he hates her, only to find that no words come out.
All he feels is Elsa's lips on his. His first instinct is to push her away but he realizes that it feels too good to do so. He finds himself kissing her back with an equal amount of passion. He doesn't break the contact between them as he bends down and sets his suitcase on the floor beside him. His hands move to the sides of her waist as her hands wind around his neck. All the previous hate melts away as all he can feel is burning infatuation.
As they break away, Riven leans his forehead against Elsa's. "If you can give me another one of those," he whispers enticingly. "Then I think you've just won me over," he says as lust starts to take control of his mind.
They lean in for another heated kiss, and Riven forgets all about his family, the ones he is supposed to love. All he can think about is the woman standing in his arms.
After he finally prises himself away from Elsa (which is an incredibly long time), Riven walks down the corridor for the first time in two whole days. He finds that he feels fresher; that he knows he made the right decision staying in Arendelle.
Xander apparently hasn't been told, or if he has he doesn't care. Kristoff has been avoiding him. When they do meet in the hallways, the 'reindeer man' gives him a fierce glare. He starts to doubt his decision a little and does his best to avoid Anna.
On the way to the dining table, he passes the princess' room, where he can hear her yelling at her older sister.
"See?! I told you it was a flipping stupid idea!" she shouts.
"Look, he said he's staying in Arendelle. We'll look after our child together," Elsa replies, straining herself to keep calm.
Riven brings his hand up to knock, but then pauses. He flattens his hand out against the door. He listens to their argument, the guilty butterfly feeling returning to the pit of his stomach.
"That's not the point, Elsa! The point is that you just ripped him away from his own family! You can't be so pleased about that!" Anna yells again.
"Well no, but-" Elsa sounds very reluctant.
"There you go. Stupid idea." Riven can just see Elsa frowning down at her sister, almost in tears. He can't stand it.
He growls and slopes off back to his room. He can't back down on his decision now and if Elsa can love him like she had an hour before, then surely, it is worth staying. Right?
A/N: One chapter and an epilogue, then we're done! Review to let me know what you think!