Elsa was having a wonderful dream. It was something about bright fields and the warm sun. She was a small child, just as she had been about sixteen years ago. Anna was there too, laughing and playing with her. They were running around in the field together playing various games and having a good time.

Her parents were sitting not too far off, shouting encouragements at her and Anna in-between loving words with his wife. He and his wife were wearing casual wear today instead of the formal military-wear he usually had when dealing with ruling the kingdom. Today he wasn't the king of Arendelle, today he was a father.

After some time he joined in their game of hide and seek. Elsa and Anna decided quickly that he should be the one to seek them. He agreed and turned away from them and started counting down from ten. Elsa and Anna scurried off into the tall grass and threw themselves to the ground becoming almost completely invisible. As their father reached zero, he turned back to the direction that they had been in and uncovered his eyes.

Anna and Elsa gave a few suppressed giggles as he said "Now where could they have gone?" to himself as he brushed a few blades of grass aside so he could see a bit of the covered area. He saw the small foot of a child disappear into more of the tall grass and smiled, chasing after it.

Elsa gave a screech of delight as she looked back and saw her father chasing after her. She went tearing off through the grass as fast as she could. She ran as quickly as her little legs would carry her, but no matter how quickly she ran her father only gained ground.

She looked briefly to the front of her just in time to see Anna looking surprised at her. She rammed into Anna at full speed, sending both girls sprawling on the ground. Their father walked up and, laughing, picked up both Anna and Elsa by one leg and held them up above his head, shouting to his wife "Honey, look what I caught!"

The woman laughed and said "Put them down dear, you'll hurt them."

He looked to the two upside-down children in his hands and said "No, I don't think these little creatures are as frail as they look." squinting at them. He pretended to examine them for a moment than called out "But they might be good to eat!"

His wife laughed and the girls screamed playfully. They struggled half-heartedly to free themselves from his grip, but failed. He carried them over to the blanket that his wife was sitting on and set them down gently, wrapping them tightly in the blanket so they couldn't move. He sat down and pulled a basket full of food from somewhere the girls could not see and said "see? We've got just enough to serve them both up."

The girls struggled against the blanket that bound them, but to no avail. The king said "Of course, we'll have to stuff them first." The queen gave him an exasperated smile and opened the basket. Elsa could smell the sweet scent of the food, she could almost taste it…

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Than a dull knocking woke her up. She sat up in her bed and looked around her. The various crystalline ice formations around her room reflecting thin rays of sun, shooting them all over the room. She rubbed her eyes and looked out her window. The sun was barely out yet, shining weak rays of light all over the room. Her first thought was wondering why someone was waking her up this early, and her second was that they had better have a really good reason too.

She pulled herself out of her bed and walked over to her wardrobe, dragging her feet all the way. She threw the doors to her closet open and took a few articles of clothing down, putting them on hurriedly. After a moment of examining herself in a mirror to make sure she was presentable she stepped over to the door and braced herself mentally for whatever royal business lay beyond the door. She opened the door and said "Yes?" expectantly.

Then she looked at what was in front of her. It was certainly not the messenger or guard that she thought it would be. Her eyes took a moment to focus on whatever it was, but when they did she gasped and stumbled back.

The thing in front of her was totally alien. It was like a mass of turning and twisting shadows had come together to form one body, barely held together by writhing and twisting bands of darkness that flitted across the surface of its body and then was wiped away the next moment. The thing was in a humanoid shape, with its arms and legs hanging loosely on the rest of its body and shoulders slumped. It was about her height and of a slightly stronger build than her. It seemed to emanate a feeling of dread, making her mind jump to horrifying conclusions as to why the thing was in front of her.

Elsa let out a horrified scream and threw an arm up defensively, prompting a spike of ice to shoot out of the ground and spike towards the thing. It dodged slowly away from the spike and said something in a bizarre voice that echoed around the room, stepping forwards towards Elsa and putting a hand out as if it was concerned.

Elsa fell to the floor and shot another spike at the thing, this time the spike looked like it grazed the things head. It reeled back from the spike and toppled over to the floor. A beam of light fell directly on its chest, and Elsa could see a patch of fabric become visible through the writhing shadows. She got quickly back to her feet and got into a more combative stance, using her magic to turn the beams of reflected light to the things face.

The twisting blackness receded to reveal Nathan's face, which said "What the hell are you doing?" loudly. She dropped her arms and rushed over to him to help him up. As soon as his face left the beam of light the shadows returned, completely hiding his identity.

Elsa got him back to his feet and said "Nathan, what is all this?" and gestured to the shadows covering him. He looked down at himself and said something that was completely incomprehensible. Elsa looked at him a second before saying "I can't understand a word your saying."

The dark figure of Nathan fumbled around with something on its chest for a minute before the shadows flew off of him and into something in his hand. Elsa looked down and saw a bone charm. Nathan was looking at it with a puzzled expression, saying "That's interesting…" before his voice trailed off.

Elsa gave him a puzzled look and gestured at the charm. He smiled and said "I was wearing it to see what it did. What did it do, by the way? Other than make you a psychopath."

Elsa sighed and dissolved the ice she had summoned into the air. She walked over to her bed and took a seat, saying "I don't know, make you a big… shadow… thing." She looked again at the window and said "Nathan, why are you up this early? You should be in bed resting. I should be in bed resting. We should both still be asleep!"

Nathan smirked and said "Yet here we are." He looked down at the charm in his hand and held it out to Elsa. "Here, use this." Elsa was about to ask him why but he preempted her by saying "I just want to see what it looks like."

Reluctantly Elsa took the charm and pushed it against her chest. She didn't feel any different, but Nathan jumped back and exclaimed "Whoa!" She looked down at herself but didn't see anything different. She stood from the bed and took a step towards Nathan, saying "Well how do I look?" in a playful kind of voice.

Nathan only tilted his head in response. It seemed that he couldn't understand her. She couldn't help but wonder where he had gotten the charm. She walked past him and stepped in front of a mirror. Her reflection was normal, there wasn't a single out of place shadow at all. Nathan stepped behind her and looked at her reflection as well. A thoroughly confused look came over his face and he said "Well that's very interesting."

Elsa assumed that her reflection was as clear for him as it was for her, and held the charm out to him. She didn't see the shadow come off of her like it had for Nathan, but by the way his eyes followed something to the charm she could also safely assume that he saw it.

He took the charm and pocketed it, nodding his appreciation to Elsa. Elsa yawned widely and said "So is that it, or…"

Nathan's eyes widened and he said "Oh!" than put a fist to his forehead and said to himself "What was it, what was it, what was it?" he turned and paced around the room a few times with his eyes closed. Elsa grew slightly concerned about him. She said "Nathan? Are you alright?" He nodded silently but the motion didn't do much to reassure Elsa. He had a concussion, and a very serious one at that. Her medical staff had told her that he might think he was fine, but he needed rest.

She stepped forwards and put a hand on Nathan's back and said "You need rest. You should go back to your room and sleep. Nathan stopped his pacing and wriggled away from Elsa's hand.

He opened his eyes back up and looked at her, saying "What? No, I'm fine." His focus returned to the mirror and he stared into it briefly. He took a few steps towards it and stared intently at his own face. Elsa was about to ask him what he was doing when he suddenly turned and snapped his fingers. "I remember!" Elsa jumped slightly, startled by his sudden movement. He looked at Elsa and pointed at his eye and hair. "What is this?"

Elsa gave him a confused look and said "It's your eye… and your hair. You've had them for some time now."

Nathan shook his head and said "No, no, the change, the pale, the white!" he stopped and took a deep breath before trying again. "The magic that caused the change, what is it? Has it happened before? It has to have some effect beyond hair dye, so what is it?"

Elsa sighed and looked down. She said "Yes, it's happened before. It's that when you got blasted, some ice formed in your body. Pabbie said that because you have power, you are more resistant though, so it won't freeze any more of you." Nathan gave her a puzzled look when she said Pabbie and she cleared it up "The troll."

Nathan nodded, than raised an eyebrow and said "When did this happen before?"

Elsa's eyes fell and she heaved an even heavier sigh. "I almost killed Anna once." Nathans eyes widened and he seemed to focus more on her. She continued "I froze her heart with my power, and she would've frozen solid if she hadn't saved me."

Nathan looked slightly worried, and asked "Am I in danger of dying like that? How would I stop it?" He started fidgeting, pulling at the strands of white hair and picking at his pale grey eyes. Elsa hated to see him acting like this. She was the reason he was doing that.

She said "Well, Anna was able to unfreeze her heart by saving me, because it was an act of true love."

Nathan's shoulders dropped and he said grimly "Well than I hope your troll friend was right, because if he wasn't… I'm royally fucked."

Elsa was a bit taken aback by his profanity, but was more disturbed by the comment as a whole. "Surely you have something you love!" she said hopefully. She wanted desperately for there to be some way that he could save himself from her magic if it started to be a problem. If he died because of her…

Nathan put a hand to his chin and started making a low humming sound as he thought. After a moment of this he stopped and said "No… no I can't really think of anything."

Elsa's face fell again, and she turned away from him. That couldn't be true. Everyone had to love something, right? Maybe he was right, maybe he didn't love. Was it because of his past; His bloody, sad, unfeeling past? He had to love. If he didn't love anything now, than he would start soon. She was sure he had at least the ability to love.

Nathan spoke up, saying "What is it with you people and love, anyways?" Elsa turned and looked at him. he continued "Love isn't some mystical, all-powerful force." He put a thumb to his chest "I have a mystical power." he pointed to Elsa "You have a mystical power." He swiped his hand through the air and said "And neither of us can claim to use love as power."

Elsa wanted to say that that wasn't true, that she had used love plenty of times, but for each example she thought of she realized that love hadn't provided any power, just shown the way to use it. Nathan continued "Now I won't deny that love has sway over people, I've seen enough to know that. But love only affects you as much as you let it." Elsa heard him take a deep breath and she looked back up at him. "Though I… suppose that could be why I don't really love anything."

Elsa looked him over now, paying much more attention to how he actually looked. He looked tired, like he hadn't gotten much sleep. His eyes were sunken and looked unfocused. His shoulders drooped and his back was hunched more than usual. His face was a stony blank expression. Elsa felt responsible for all of it. She knew what she would do if it were Anna like this.

She spread her arms and walked towards Nathan, who eyed her suspiciously. "What are you doing?" he said cautiously. Elsa didn't respond as she kept approaching him. As she got close enough to actually close her arms around him he started backing up. "Elsa I don't want a hug." he said with a growing tone of concern. She still pursued him, and after a few seconds of him backing up he backed into the wall.

Elsa took advantage of this, circling her arms around him and latching her hands together on the other side of him. He struggled against her grip for a moment, then stopped. "Just this once." He said in a grudging voice.

Elsa smiled. She knew it would work. She felt the tension in Nathan's body fall away slightly. Not as much as she had hoped, but the change made her feel good.

Nathan, for his part, was surprised at how the hug felt. He hadn't been hugged much in his life, and when he imagined a hug all that came to mind was the pressure of the other person's arms around him. This hug, however, seemed to have much more than just that. He felt a warmth coming from Elsa, worming its way through his body spreading an unfamiliar feeling. His limbs felt heavier and his eyelids started to droop.

He pushed Elsa off of him gently and blinked rapidly in an attempt to stay awake. A high pitched ringing started in his ears and he put a hand to his head. Elsa looked concernedly at him and started talking to him, but her voice was unintelligible and muted against the ringing. Pain started to follow the ring, building in his head. He dropped to one knee and gasped. He tried to make sure that his bone charms were still on properly, but his vision blurred making it impossible to see.

He felt Elsa trying to pull him up to his feet but he didn't respond. He couldn't. He felt his mind slipping into unconsciousness again and tried to stay awake. He tried focusing on anything he could that would keep him anchored to awareness. What he focused on the most were Elsa's attempts to get him to his feet. They were erratic, and didn't feel very good on his arms.

The pain started to fade slowly, and his vision cleared slightly. He could still hear Elsa's muted voice talking to him, though he still couldn't tell what she was saying. She sounded worried which didn't surprise him. If it were Elsa on the floor clutching her head than he would probably be concerned too.

He pushed his way to his feet and made a grab at the nearest thing that wasn't Elsa he could see. This turned out to be a post on Elsa's bed. He successfully caught the thing in his hands and pulled himself up on it. He stood there gasping, trying to not to vomit. Elsa was in front of him now, still talking to him even though he couldn't understand her.

He held up a hand to signal she should stop talking. She did, and he tried again to clear his mind of the pain. It faded slowly, as did the ringing, and he shook his head again to be sure that it was gone. When he was sure he turned back to Elsa and said "Ok… ok I'm good now."

Elsa asked in a gentle voice "Are you sure? You looked pretty bad."

Nathan nodded and sat down on the side of Elsa's bad. He looked at the floor for a moment than started laughing. Elsa knelt down next to him and said "What? What's the matter?"

Nathan put a thumb between his chest and the bandoleer that held his bone charms and pushed it out slightly. "Boy am I glad I've got these!" he said in an uncharacteristically mirthful tone. Elsa was caught off guard by the sudden change in demeanor and wasn't sure how to respond. Nathan just continued laughing and laughing on the side of the bed.

She stood and cleared her throat, saying "Umm… Nathan… maybe you should just go back to your room and get some more sleep." Nathan looked up at her, still giggling to himself. Than as soon as it had started, the laughter stopped. The smile on his face was replaced instantly by a pained grimace and he clutched his head again. "Ow" he murmured "perhaps your right."

He stood shakily from the bed and started trying to walk to the door. Elsa stood and quickly put herself under Nathan's shoulder, helping him walk. She heard him open his mouth probably about to voice an objection, but none came.

The pair got about halfway to the stairs before a voice rang out behind them. "Elsa, Nathan, what are you doing?"

Elsa turned under Nathan's arm to see Olaf running towards them. He was waving his stick arms at them and smiling broadly as usual. As her drew up to them and slid to a stop. He looked up into Elsa's face and gave her the innocent look that reminded Elsa of a child. She looked from Nathan and Olaf and said "Olaf, can you take Nathan to his room for me, please?"

He nodded and walked over to the side of Nathan. Nathan took his arm off of Elsa and put his hand of the top of Olaf's head. Nathan gave Elsa a sarcastic look, sticking his tongue out in a playful manner. She gave him a concerned look and waved meekly as he and Olaf went off down the stairs. She could hear Olaf talking to Nathan, and Nathan grunting in response.

She turned her back on the two and went back to her room. She shut the door behind her and sighed. The visit from Nathan had been strange, certainly, but she was glad that it had happened. She felt like Nathan had been more open with her than he had ever been.

And all it had taken was serious head trauma.

She cringed at that though, guilt returning to her mind. She settled herself under the covers of her bed and set her head on the pillow. The last thing that did before falling asleep was say to herself "Get well soon Nathan."

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Authors thing:hmm... I'm not sure i like this open hearted Nathan. I hope he gets over it soon.

so anyways, here the chapter is. hope you like it!

remember to leave a comment, follow, do whatever, y'know.