A/N: Sorry guys, this one took an extra day since the power in the hotel I'm staying in blacked out, so this chapters going to be a little longer than usual to make up for the delay. :)
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It had turned out, much to Andrew relief and Elsa's joy that Hannah turned out to be a rather nice girl, the man who was attacking her when they'd found her was her boyfriend, or as the brunette preferred to word it 'soon-to-be-ex'. She and Elsa became fast friends, almost immediately talking about things Elsa never thought could be spoken of so freely, including fashion and shopping, which Hannah was eager to do with the young queen. Sensing his presence wasn't currently needed, Andrew decided to go and find Roc and the children he was hopefully still watching over, leaving the two with twenty dollars, just in case something in the café caught their eyes.
As the two girls continued talking about random subjects, eventually the topic fell onto the young soldier Elsa was living with.
"So you're saying that Andrew basically just appeared into your life, out of nowhere?" Hannah asked as she fidgeted with the bandages around her arm, attempting to quell an itch that was apparently an unrelenting issue.
"Actually…" Elsa began as she laughed. "You could say it was the other way around."
"Um, okay, so are you visiting Neon city then?" Hannah asked while looking Elsa over for any sign that would indicate her as a visitor; however she found nothing, resigning herself to whatever explanation Elsa would provide her as she brushed her brown hair away from her eyes before she sipped on her tea that Elsa bought her with the money that Andrew left them.
"Sort of, it was impromptu if that makes any sense, I wasn't expecting to come, and I just sort of ended up here."
Hannah seemed confused, prompting Elsa to explain. "It's a long story, I'll tell you about it when we go shopping alright?"
The other young woman smiled and nodded before she perked her head up at the sound of something calling her name, standing up and stretching before looking back at Elsa and smiling.
"You better go find Andrew; I'll need to get some sleep if I want to heal fast." The brunette explained as she took one last sip of her tea.
"Alright, have a good night!" Elsa said smiling as Hannah turned away, but not before laughing as she stopped in her tracks one last time to say "Feel free to come around whenever you want, I could use the company… And just so you know, you're very lucky… Your boyfriend is good to you, I can tell; make sure he knows that…"
Elsa thought about what her friend told her for a few sparing moments before she nodded to Hannah, the latter leaving to go to bed while Elsa finished her smoothie and left to find Andrew.
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As Andrew and Elsa walked back to the car, which they had left next to the Sarg's family's house, Elsa asked to borrow Andrew's phone once again, which he quietly handed over before looking up into the night sky, watching the stars twinkling in their own unique ways. If he didn't know any better he would assume they had a small rhythm between them, one shining while another dimmed, almost like a celestial quire, keeping in beat with heaven itself as the human race watched with fascination, only mere specks in a grand existence that fully eluded understanding by even the wisest on earth.
"Ha! Got you, you stupid fucking piggy BASTARD!" Elsa cheered in victory, causing Andrew to jump back in surprise, quickly recovering just before Elsa looked back, unaware of what happened to her boyfriend, before she shrugged and quickly turned back t the game she was so fascinated and involved with.
The more that Andrew thought about it, the more he realized just how much Elsa had changed in 2 short days. When he found her in the rave he worked weekends at, she had bags under her eyes, her gaze was dull and depressing, she wore a scowl that radiated sadness, and he was much more humorless and annoying, but now she was absolutely filled with vibrancy and life, she was smiling much more, and her eyes sparkled with happiness. Andrew wasn't sure why but he absolutely loved seeing Elsa so happy. Sure, they'd kissed, but it was Elsa who'd initiated the kiss, it was Elsa who'd run into his room, it was Elsa who clung onto him so she could sleep in his bed, it was Elsa who'd started calling him 'sweetheart'. So why didn't it bother him as much as it should be? After all, he was supposed to be the social outcast of the neighborhood, hell, if not the entire fucking city. He should've pushed Elsa off of him when she kissed him, he should've made her go back and sleep on the couch, and he should be telling her to stop whenever she addresses him by a pet name, he shouldn't even acknowledge her when she does. Yet he didn't, and he had no clue as to why.
"Hey, Andrew?" Elsa spoke up as she ceased her relatively fast walking pace, causing Andrew to stop dead in his tracks a few feet ahead of her, swiftly but calmly turning around, a small smile even he was unaware of across his features.
"What's wrong Elsa?
Elsa quickly caught up to the young man and flung her arms around his neck, kissing him, before pulling back while she blushed and smiled.
Oh yeah. That was why…
"I just wanted to say thanks, I know I've been a pain in the ass and all, but I really do appreciate what you've done for me." Elsa cooed as she pressed her head into Andrew's chest as he gently held her, rubbing her back in a way he had noticed that she liked last night in bed.
"You're not a pain in the ass Elsa, but you're welcome…" Andrew muttered softly before he shivered slightly as he felt Elsa's breath on his chest. "Now if you don't mind, can we get home, I can actually feel the cold, and I'm kind of hugging a big icicle right now." Andrew explained, prompting Elsa to slap his arm playfully while he laughed and backed away, before walking back over and grasping Elsa's hand gently which caused her to blush yet again.
Suddenly, Elsa stopped once again, a look on her face that Andrew couldn't quite describe until she began speaking.
"You're really brave you know…" Elsa said softly as she gazed at the soldier, while her grip on his hand tightened slightly, causing almost instant confusion in him as he tilted his head to the side slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"You and your friend… You guys ran into that house even though you had no idea what was inside just to save that woman you didn't even know…"
"So? I'm sure a lot of people would." Andrew responded, his features suddenly acquiring darkness to them, obviously for prompting a weaker willed person to stay away, although for a reason she couldn't quite explain, she kept pushing.
"Andrew, you and Roc are heroes… You would be revered in Arendelle for something like that…" Elsa explained, playing with her hair once again, before tucking the strands behind her ear, taking note of his grim expression.
"Elsa, believe me, I'm no hero. Do I look like a hero to you? I'm not on some magnificent white horse with a fancy sword and expensive armor. I'm a monster, I'm a soldier, but I can assure you, I'm no hero." Andrew explained his voice softening slightly as his explanation carried on. "After all I've done in my life; hero is the last thing people should be calling me…"
"You don't have to be a knight in shining armor in order to be a hero; you are without question a great person, at least in my eyes, and never call yourself a monster alright?" Elsa asked. "You're not a monster alright?"
"Elsa you just don't get it, the war broke me a long time ago, okay? It broke all of my squad; none of us are the same people that met each other in an infantry tent over a birthday cake an new guns." Andrew's voice seemed to teeter on both anger and sadness "No one helped us when we came back from war, my squad and I, we were homeless for the first 5 months after the war until I was lucky enough to land a job at the rave I found you outside of. We all lived there for over a year, bunking in the VIP lounge when the place wasn't open, and it was almost always open, so we slept for 8 hours for every 40 hours that we were awake, eventually we made it back onto our feet, alone, just my squad and I, that's when I finally realized that we were still fighting a war, just one without guns." As Andrew finished he freed himself from Elsa's grasp, which had weakened slightly, as her focus had gone into listening to the young man speak.
"Andrew wait!"Elsa called, running up to catch up to the soldier, who didn't cease his walking pace, Elsa could swear he was nearly jogging by the time she caught up to him, finding it quite difficult to stop him, nearly having to plant her feet into the ground before Andrew finally relented and stopped his stride dead in the water, causing Elsa to run into him, before he sighed, never even turning around.
"Elsa listen, I know you think Roc and I are good people, and that we deserve all the praise anyone even thinks of sending our way, but here's the hard truth for you, we killed innocent people, people who never deserved a death like that, all in an effort to enforce 'counter-terror measures'. It? We're sick, broken, and frankly, at this point, we're just weapons that the military decided to toss when the war ended." Andrew growled to himself as he spit out the last part of his statement in the same fashion that one would speak of a warmonger or dictator.
"Andrew, you need to stop thinking like that, I understand that what you and your friends went through damaged all of you, but if you never look past that, you'll always re-live it, and you drinking yourself to death and shutting everyone out is not helping you do to that, there are people out there who genuinely care about you, your family must love you, after all, you were a soldier, they would never judge you." Elsa lied, knowing all too well the sting of family betrayal, of her own parents forcing her to stay locked up in her room for over a decade.
"My family and friends from before the war couldn't give a fuck about me, they abandoned me the moment I left, so no Elsa, I have no loved ones, and no one that loves me, and that's suited me just fine for the last 4 years, even Bridget can't say I loved her, she was just a convenience, the only family I care about is my squad." Andrew finished sighing before attempting to walk away, however Elsa stopped him once again, turning him around to face her.
"Andrew, that's not true, you do have someone who loves you very much…"
The young soldier sighed dejectedly as he put his thumbs in his pockets "Who?
Elsa carefully wrapped her arms around his neck "Me…"
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"YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" Anna screamed as she was dragged along the palace floor by Kristoff and an unlucky guard who'd already gained a few bruises from the irate princess.
"You have to Anna! Elsa would want you to do this!" Kristoff attempted to explain, grunting as his girlfriends shoe found contact with his abdomen, causing him to drop Anna, leaving the poor guard that he'd enlisted for help holding onto the red-head himself, at least for a few moments before she decided to kick him in the face, causing him to let go of her as well, supplying her with ample time to escape, with Kristoff in hot pursuit as the guard was left laying on the floor with a black eye moaning and wondering if he would be paid for the torture he'd just gone through.
"Anna come on, it'll be fine! You'll make a great queen!" Kristoff called out as Anna sped ahead of him at a break neck speed weaving through the castles many corridors expertly; with the blonde barely able to keep up, much less catch the fleeing girl.
"NEVER!"
Eventually Anna found herself running towards Elsa's room, and in a split second decision, decided to hide in her sister's room, charging in and diving under the bed, hitting her knee on a small rectangular object as she did so, scraping her knee and pulling it under the bed with her.
Unfortunately for the red-headed princess, she neglected to shut the door, leaving it wide open for Kristoff to spot, and spot it he did.
Kristoff ran into the room, panting heavily before taking a deep breath and began to examine the room carefully, checking for any sign of his girlfriend, quickly spotting one of her pig-tails, although he decided to fake confusion for a few moments, attempting to make Anna lower her guard before he suddenly dropped to the floor and shot his hand under the bed in an attempt to pull Anna out, although when he finally grabbed onto something he suspected was a softer part of Anna, he heard her squeak before she suddenly grabbed his wrist in a death vice.
"Kristoff, you're groping me…"
The young man couldn't help but to blush freezing for a few seconds as the information sank into his brain, a few seconds too long in Anna's opinion, to which to quickly rectified by throwing the book she'd hit her knee on at the blonde man, striking him square in the jaw, causing him to fall back as the book landed next to his head, wide open, leaving its contents for the entire world to see.
Anna, too curious for her own good as usual, decided that the book peaked her interest, as she crawled out from underneath the bed and took a seat on Kritoff's chest as a verbal 'I win' before reaching down to examine the tome, which was entirely written in a language she couldn't understand, with strange drawings littering the pages alongside more of the undecipherable text.
"Hey Kristoff, what's this say?" Anna asked as she lowered the book to her boyfriend, who'd only just recovered from the blow, before she herself leaned down, continuing to attempt to translate it, although the effort was entirely wasted, as she could not read it, no matter what she did, and so waited for Kristoff's comment.
"I don't really know actually, it's nothing I've ever seen before, and I would definitely remember something like that."
Anna sighed and stood up, giving Kristoff freedom as she planted herself on Elsa's seldom used bed, Kristoff sitting beside her; before she opened the tome once again in a third attempt to read it, although she was unaware as to why she was doing so.
Unfortunately for the two young lovers, as they continued to stare at the text, seemingly mesmerized, both felt their eye-lids growing heavier as they drooped, however they couldn't seem to tear their gaze away from the mysterious tome, until suddenly it was too late as they both slipped into a deep sleep.
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"Me…"
Elsa confessed as she continued to hold her grip around Andrew, closing her eyes and biting her lip as the young soldier she was hugging grew silent.
After a few more moments of silence, Elsa gazed up at Andrew "Please say something…"
At first Andrew could only stutter, before he suddenly leaned down and captured Elsa's lips in his own, holding her tightly against him as they stumbled behind a few trees.
"I love you, too Elsa."
Just as Elsa was about to respond however, suddenly both she and Andrew heard a sharp whooshing noise, as if the wind around them was focusing on a specific point, the behavior of the winds beginning to worry Andrew, and just as he was about to lead Elsa away from the odd noise when all of a sudden, the noise stopped completely and he heard a groan from a man nearby.
Wasting no time, Andrew pulled out his handgun and pulled the top back, loading a round into the chamber, and stalked towards a large bush where he heard the groan originate from. However, he was completely dumbfounded by what he found, a blonde man who appeared to be around his age in what, from what Andrew could tell, was furs that he was dressed in. Next to him lay what seemed to be a younger red-headed version of Elsa! Both of them were out cold however, which rendered any questions on hold.
"ANNA?! KRISTOFF!?" Well, Elsa recognized them, which was good, unfortunately that meant Andrew would most likely have a few more room-mates before the night was out.
"Jeremy is gonna fucking love this…" Andrew muttered as he and Elsa began to drag the two unconscious young adults towards the car.
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A/N:Sorry for the delay, the hotel I was staying at decided to lose power while I was typing and I had a huge headache so I just couldn't write any more. But anyway, Anna and Kristoff are now in the future as well! :D Just wait to see what I have planned for them. :3
