When Anna woke the next morning she rolled over onto her back and let out a sigh of deep contentment. The masquerade had been wonderful. After meeting the green man, Anna had completely forgotten about finding Tessa or anyone else at the ball. In some ways the evening had reminded her of when she first met Hans at Elsa's coronation ball, but there were obvious differences.
First, in accordance with the rules of the masquerade, Anna never did see the face or learn the name of the green man she spent her evening with. Second, there was not even a hint about marriage. Third, the evening had ended beautifully with them sitting up on a parapet and watching the moon set. There had been no fights, no impulsive decisions, and no ice.
Anna lay in bed smiling to herself and reliving the previous night until a knock on her door disturbed her.
"Your Highness?" came Elin's voice through the wood, "Are you awake yet?"
Anna frowned slightly, "Technically."
The door swung open smoothly and quietly as Elin entered the room with a breakfast tray. "You've slept late today." She glanced at Anna and corrected herself, "Even later than you usually do." Elin put the tray down, smoothed the blankets across Anna's lap as she sat up, then transferred it to the bed. "I take it you enjoyed yourself last night."
"Oh yes," said Anna dreamily, "I spent the evening with a man that I had so much in common with it was uncanny. He was sweet, charming, handsome, smart, observant, fun…" she trailed off.
Elin raised an eyebrow, "How do you know he was handsome? Wasn't he wearing a mask?"
Anna flushed, "Well yes. But there's more to being handsome than just a face."
Elin nodded in satisfaction, "I'm glad you know that at least. I thought you weren't interested in meeting a man and getting married?"
"Hmm?" said Anna. Elin's words suddenly registered and Anna snapped herself to attention, "Of course not! And I never said I wanted to marry him! I just had a really great time with him. I think he would make a good friend," she defended herself.
Elin smiled knowingly and left the room, "That's how it always starts Your Highness."
After breakfast Anna combed out her hair and dressed quickly. She was running late for her first meeting with King Edwin, and Anna hated making a bad first impression. When she reached the stairs, she quickly scanned for witnesses and – finding none – slid down the banister and ran down the hall to the library where she would meet with Edwin.
Anna stopped at the door to collect herself and make sure that neither her dress nor her hair showed signs of her rush, then pushed open the doors and entered.
"Good morning Princess Anna!" boomed King Edwin, "Won't you have a seat?" He pulled out a chair for her and Anna accepted it.
"Shall we begin by discussing our mutual interests?" suggested Anna, taking a stack of parchment from Elin who appeared unobtrusively at her side.
Two hours into their discussion, as Anna was busy writing some notes, she heard footsteps approach the table and an unexpectedly familiar voice spoke, "Sorry to bother you Your Majesty, but where in your library would I find– Anna!"
Anna's head snapped up and she jumped to her feet in shock, knocking over her chair. Unfortunately, her dress got tangled in the legs and she lost her balance, falling down with it. "Ow!" She stared at the man facing her, unable to process what she was seeing and registering an inexplicable feeling of guilt in the back of her mind. "Hans?"
Completely unlike his normally graceful self, Hans stumbled around the table in an apparent daze to help her up. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Um, yes. Of course," she said. The feeling of guilt stung harder and Anna tried to figure out what was causing it, but was distracted by Hans' unexpected presence.
They stood for a moment, Hans still holding her hand, when Edwin cleared his throat and Hans dropped Anna's hand as though it had burned him. They both flushed in embarrassment. "I take it there is no need for introductions then," said Edwin with suppressed laughter in his voice.
"No, Your Majesty," said Hans. Anna peeked at him from the corner of her eye and saw that he was avoiding looking at her directly, "Princess Anna and I met a few years ago back in Arendelle."
"Well!" said Edwin with evident relief at the excuse to take a break from negotiations, "Allow me to get out of your way so that you can catch up." He stood and inclined his head towards Anna, "We will resume our negotiations tomorrow if that suits you."
Anna nodded in acceptance and watched him walk quickly from the room. She turned to ask Elin to stay, but saw that her advisor had already collected their paperwork and was on her way out of the library as well.
The slight scrape of wood on wood made Anna jump and spin around. Hans had righted her chair and offered it to her. Anna sank into it gratefully and watched as Hans took the chair beside her. "So, how are you doing?" he asked awkwardly.
"Good," she replied.
"That's good," Hans said.
They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a minute or so while Anna twisted her dress nervously in her lap.
"Listen Hans," she said abruptly, "I'm really sorry, you were right about me. I was so obsessed with the idea that love would solve all my problems and make me happy that I had no idea what it even was." She looked up at him pleadingly, "I'm really sorry for putting you through that. I didn't mean to play with your feelings."
Hans smiled. "I'm glad to see that in some ways you're still the same old Anna. In the best way," he quickly added. The smile fell off his face, "Really though, I'm the one who is sorry. I shouldn't have left like I did after the ball. Being locked up for a year, and then being suddenly free but having no home, no friends, no place, no purpose… I had nothing to hold on to. I thought I had you, but then I realized that you didn't really see me. I felt like I was just a means to an end for you, and I couldn't bear it."
"Oh Hans," said Anna, reaching out to take his hand without thinking, "I wasn't thinking about you at all. Of course, you felt like you needed to get away from me!"
Hans shook his head, "I should have handled it better."
Anna stood up and pulled him to his feet. "It's in the past now," she said firmly, "By some fortunate chance we've both ended up here, in Svetland. Far away from either of our homes. So let's take the chance that we've been given and really get to know each other. This time, properly."
Hans smiled, "I'd love to."