Part 3, chapter 2, the price of love
Elsa had woken up like any other person. Well, not exactly. Any other person didn't hum let it go in their sleep. Any other person didn't have nightmares of dating the head of guards. Emphasis on nightmare necessary. However, aside from that, she woke up like any other person, hair uncurled and in her face. As soon as it uncurled so much she couldn't breathe, she choked herself awake. It was a weird experience, but amusing to watch. However the only one who had ever done so, had been shot at with fractals of ice. Elsa woke up quite plainly otherwise, trying to keep her proper appearance even at night.
The Snow queen sat up and stretched a little first before cracking her neck. Her room was the sty that Annas was, nor was it close, but to Elsa, it was still missing something. What, she did not know, but she would in time. She got out of bed, her slender figure walking briskly to the closet where she took a bathrobe. After a quick experience with this new "plumbing thing" and using up all the cold water, she dressed. I will not go into it, because lonely men at home are reading this. Jeff, I'm looking at you.
The dress she wore today was typical for the rich of Arendelle. It was mostly black in the upper regions, with the family crest sewn into the green. It was only slightly different from what she had worn during her coronation, with one major detail. Her hair, as usual in the morning, was uncurled. It was longer than one would believe, the tips curling at the end out of it's standard position and because of how it grew. She planned to leave it like that one day, as an experiment, but for now, she was going with her standard braid. It just barely made it through Kai's daily "ladylike" posture check.
She left the room in the best portrait she could portray. Hands folded over one another, back straight, and greet everyone with at least a nod. The Snow Queen went for a while before noticing Anna's room. It was now Gilda's room of course, but she was used to calling it Anna's. She walked up, slowly and steadily and peered inside for anyone.
"Hey Auntie Elsa!" Gilda yelled behind her. Her voice and vocabulary now matching her age. She was five now, wasn't she? Just past being a toddler.
"Good morning Gilda. Where is your mama?" Elsa asked, looking down on her with an open smile. Gilda didn't stop to think when she squealed, "She's still asleep! She shouldn't be sleeping this late!"
Gilda made a grouchy face. Elsa couldn't help but laugh. The girl had inherited her mother's immaturity, and inability to be taken completely seriously.
"Well, we should go wake her up shouldn't we?" Elsa asked, finishing up her laugh. Gilda nodded with a humph. Elsa took her hand and began to lead her down the hall. Kristoff and Anna had taken up residence in the old master bedroom, for private reasons. Once again, lonely men at home, talking to you Jeff. Elsa opened the door a crack to make sure the two weren't busy before Gilda burst in, not caring if it wasn't Christmas.
She jumped onto the bed and shook her mother. Elsa had seen this a million times. For the little bit of Kristoff in her, there was always a big clump of Anna.
"Mama, Wake up! Wake up!" Gilda yelled. Anna slowly rose, her hair enough to poke someone's eye out, which it has done.
"Ok Gilda, I'm up!" Anna moaned, resting on her elbow before falling back into a snore. She flew back up.
"Still awake!" she murmered before she lumbered out of bed.
"Glad to see somebody hasn't changed." Elsa said with quiet laugh. Anna responded well-ish with a little arm pulling at hers.
"Having a kid changes a person changes a person to be more mature." Anna corrected. She was asking for the next comment.
"Indeed, I can see Kristoff becoming more mature as he takes care of two children." Elsa said, holding back a chuckle. Anna was dragged away by Gilda before she could respond. Kristoff groaned awake, grabbing Elsa's attention.
"Good morning your majesty." he grumbled, wiping gunk out of his eye with his palm and a yawn.
"Good morning indeed. It seems like you're enjoying married life." Elsa said, looking out over the room. Kristoff nodded with a chuckle.
"Yeah. Did Anna already leave?" Kristoff asked, looking up with tired eyes.
"Gilda wanted to play with her, she's probably getting ready." Elsa said. Kristoff nodded before he went to his closet. Elsa didn't want to see that mess, unlike some of the girls reading this. Hi girls reading this who have a brain and support Kristanna! Thank you for being awesome! Elsa went back into the hall, spotting Anna being dragged around, somehow managing to fix her hair...or not. Pretty average day in the Arlington household. Elsa began to make her way through the hall, walking down the auburn stairs before bumping into Kai.
"Your majesty, we have to settle our financial problem immediately! Our investors say it must be done by the end of the week!" Kai blabbered. He had done so, the week before, and the week before that. Kai's basic instinct seemed to be to find something to complain about. Before this was the water damage, and before that was the horses. The things just got more and more burdening. Elsa knew that if he told him she paid for everything as soon as she saw it, he would just move on to the next thing. It gave him a purpose.
"I will get to it, thank you Kai." Elsa said with a nod. Kai bowed before walking away, muttering to himself, flabbergasted. Anna finally managed to get downstairs with a deep breath. She was wearing a lighter green along her shoulders that spread to most of the dress.
"I finally got Gilda to do something." Anna said in a huff, trying poorly to fix herself up.
"You gave her my notebook again didn't you?" Elsa asked. Another typical day.
"Yes, I'm sorry."
"No worries, I planted a new one where mine usually is, it's just an early birthday present is all."
"You're a life saver."
"It's alright. You seemed to have your hands full so I got something to keep her mind off things."
"Well you'll be there soon." Anna said, still huffing from having to run around the place.
"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, although she had a hunch that she didn't want to be true.
"You'll have kids one day."
"No, Anna, I can't do kids, ok?" Elsa said, trying to end the conversation with a gesture.
"Why not? There are plenty of guys who would-" Anna began only to be interrupted.
"No, it's not that, I'm just not...ready is all." Elsa lied. She wasn't ready of course, but it wasn't being unable to be ready to have a kid. Well there was a little bit of that but that was aside the point. She had a debt to a very bad, very dangerous, man, if you could call him that. It was only afterwards that she realized her mistake. The man, or monster, was named Rumplestiltskin. No one knew what he was, or where he came from but he had done this sort of thing before. A deal. One to save Wilhelm, but cost something only he could give her.
Elsa hadn't thought much about what it was at the time, she was in a hurry, but she had done everything to stop it. She had held him off by giving her wedding ring, by giving up the marriage, by giving every gift from Wilhelm to the frog-like creature. Elsa had done everything. She paid him off every week, but it still came back to get the child. Her actions to protect Wilhelm and whatever child she might have eventually had cost her those exact things.
"Is this about Wilhelm? You broke up with him, there are plenty of fish in the sea!" Anna said, tossing her arms in the air around her.
"It's not that, I just...I have the kingdom to take care of, and you, and I can't juggle a child in there!"
"You can, I believe in you." Anna said, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder. Elsa looked away to hide her regret. Letting her sister see, might cost her too. This deal was taking away everything. Wilhelm's life, for hers.
"Let's do something to keep your mind off the subject, let's see him now." Anna suggested. Elsa raised a hand in objection.
"I can't, Anna. I just-"
"Come on, either way, it's better than lying in the dust and feeling sorry for yourself." Anna said. She grabbed Elsa's hand and began to pull her away. Gilda had gotten that quality from her mother. Elsa was dragged through the garden to a man she knew well, but didn't speak to anymore. Wilhelm Pan was reading, an art he didn't know well, but knew well enough to shut out the rest of the world, especially Elsa.
Anna pulled her sister into the garden, pushing her slightly towards Wilhelm. Elsa gave a worried look to Anna before turning back to the man. His head was down, not even bothering to look up, but he knew who it was. The spearmint smell gave it away.
"Hello." Elsa said quietly. Wilhelm could hear her, clear as day, but chose to ignore her. It was the same voice that gave him hope, but he rejected a month ago.
"Hello." Elsa repeated, a little louder. Wilhelm looked up as he said, "Good morning your majesty."
"I've come to talk." Elsa said, her eyes looking at the book. Poems. She didn't recognize the writing though.
"About what?"
"Anything, anything you want to get out."
"Why would you care?"
"Because..." Elsa began looking to Anna, who just gestured to continue.
"I don't want the two of us to be at our throats because we made a few mistakes." Elsa lied. What she wanted was a chance to have a life. Even this was risking the inevitable.
"Because you got rid of everything I gave you?"
"Yes, among many other things."
"Shall I list them, in order of importance? Would you like that your majesty? Things that are more important than other things?"
"No, I am trying to help. Anna put me up to this."
"Well you can tell Princess Anna that I would not like to go into it, and I don't plan to."
"I just...don't want us to be at each other's throats."
"We're not, I ignore you, you ignore me. I am just another one of your servants."
"...Do you want to know the truth?"
"Yes, please!"
"I-" Elsa began before he spotted something only she could see. A frog eyed man with stiches and mismatching body parts crept up behind Wilhelm, leaning on the back of the bench. It grinned and shushed before making a finger gun and pointing it at Wilhelm's head. Elsa shook her head, wide eyed in fear, stopping when Wilhelm looked up.
"Well?" he asked, not even seeing Rumplestiltskin. Elsa looked ath the finger gun, then at Wilhelm and said, "I never cared about you. Ever."
Rumplestiltskin grinned before raising his finger gun and heading back into the shadows. Wilhelm stood up and looked at her and said directly to her face, "I wish the feeling was mutual."
He threw his black book back onto the bench before wallking out angrily back into the castle. Elsa looked back at him with a sad sigh before looking back at the book. The Snow queen leaned over and picked it up, flipping through to the first page with words on it. It was signed Wilhelm Pan, in the closest he had to cursive.
Hello Readers, DFF here, wishing you a very happy whatever day of the week it is on your side! I want your opinions on every chapter, including this one so as you are hopefully feeling a shimmer of sadness at home, I want you to write how you feel and what you think Elsa should do. PS. Sorry for the previous chapter, I picked the right document this time, I would go back and read the actual first chapter of part 3
