Forever By Your Side ch. 14

It is day two of the tournament and the per-quarter finals are underway with Anna fighting against fighter, making anxious for her safety because these swordsmen are twice her weight and size with the possibility of anything going wrong. She ducks under the blade of her opponent causing me to flinch at how close was to losing her head but she doesn't seem by it at all as she continues to fight. Olaf is engrossed in the fights cheering the mercenary on loudly as a few of the council member mutter to themselves as they watch judgmentally while the other looked impressed with her skills.

"She's quite skilled and the crowd seems to love her as well" Lee said rubbing his chin as he watches the fight with interest.

"She is indeed. She was able to best Marshall in a spar" I said in agreement.

"Wow that really is something. Do you think she stands a chance in winning?" Lee asked raising a smug eyebrow.

"There is no telling since there are plenty of skilled swordsmen" I said giving nothing away. "Do you?"

"I think she will because I have this little bet with Councilmen Matthew that Anna will in the final match with that Sasuke fellow from Weasealtown. He disagrees with me" Lee said rolling his eyes.

"It is Weselton, Lee" I said giggling through my hand.

"I stand by what I said" Lee said shrugging his shoulders.

"Anna is gonna win and she's gonna marry Mommy" Olaf said grinning.

"You like that, wouldn't you Olaf?" Lee asked ruffling his hair.

"Uh-huh" Olaf said turning his attention back to the fight.

Lee looks at me with an amused expression on his face which seems to be even more amused as my cheeks darken at my son's declaration and I turn my attention back to the fight to see Anna with her foot on her opponent's chest and his sword pointed at his exposed neck. The mercenary hands the sword back to her opponent before holding out her hand towards him, helping him on to his feet as the both of them walk of the stage together sharing a hearty laugh. I am impressed with Anna's sportsmanship but it is something that I can expect from someone like her and I hope that it is something that she could teach Olaf and our future children. Where did that thought come from? Our children? Anna has not won the tournament and I am assuming that we have a future together with children. It is possible to have children with the um equipment that she has but I do not if I will be ready to have more children which will require Anna and I to become… rather intimate with each other. Will I be able to be intimate with her? I never been intimate with anyone in so long and I do not know if I will be able to. Just calm down, Elsa. The future is not certain or written in stone and there is no rush to be intimate with anyone.

The rest of the matches go on without a hitch with the final eight fighters standing in front of the balcony, bruised and covered cuts and their clothes have been ripped due to their swords cutting through them. I have to give a closing speech and I decided to keep it short because I know that they are tired from a long day of fighting before retiring for the night as Olaf runs to go see Anna as Lee walks at my side with his arms crossed. I knew that there was something that he wanted to say but I do not know what is stopping him as the councilmen always seems to give me unsolicited advice at time.

"Is there something on your mind, Lee?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Am I really that obvious?" Lee asked laughing nervously.

"Yes so speak what is on your mind"

"Okay, I think that you like Anna" Lee said plainly.

"Well I think that she is a good fight and person even if she is a little jaded at times and Olaf adores her"

"Your Majesty, as your friend and confidant, you need to come terms with the fact that you might have feelings for a certain mercenary even if you're unsure what they are yet" Lee said smiling. "But you don't have to admit now because there is no rush for it"

"Lee, I do not have feeling for Anna" I said shaking my head.

"I think you do and you're just in denial of them. I've seen how you flinched every time her opponent's sword was swung at her and how nervous you were even through most people wouldn't have notice since you have mastery of controlling your facial features"

I hate that no matter what I do, Lee has always been able to see through me as plain as day even though at times, I wish that it was not but I cannot stop him from being perceptive. I am not sure if I do have feeling for Anna since I have never felt anything for anyone in a long time and I am not sure what to do with these feelings that I am having since I am not very good dealing with uncertainty. My powers are tied to my emotions with uncertainty and fear being my enemies as there were times that I felt these emotions causing my powers to get out of control but jack was there to calm me down, showing me that my powers were something to be loved, not feared. I am pulled out of my thought by Lee placing his hands on my shoulders, smiling at me comfortingly before pulling me into hug unafraid of me hurting him with my powers.

"I know that all of this is really scary and new to you but try to opening yourself up to the possibility of finding love again. You deserve to have someone take care of you and love you like you should"

"What if she does not return those feelings? What if she does not care about me like I do her? I would opening myself up to the possibility of getting hurt as well as hurting Olaf in the process. I do not how if I am strong enough to put myself through that"

"I know that you are because you have a lot of love in your heart to share and love is a funny and fickle thing. You'll never know what you're doing but it is a very beautiful thing once you open yourself up. You should know better than anyone" Lee said pulling back.

"I do. Thank you Lee" I said smiling.

"You're more than welcome and lets hope that Ana makes it to the finals" Lee said walking away.

Well have to see if she does make it to the finals in one piece because I know that things are only going to get tougher and I cannot shake the feeling that something is going to happen during the finals. I shake it as me being paranoid as I go to search for Olaf and it was not long before I find him in Anna's room who is wearing a white sleeveless shirt that is clinging to her torso to see her arms and shoulders dusted with freckles that suit her well and a pair of loose beige pants. I see that her right shoulder is bandaged up and there is a huge purplish and red bruise peeking out at the hem of her shirt when she reaches over to place her cards down in the space in-between her and my son as I cleared my throat to get their attention.

"What are you two doing?" I asked raising an eyebrow

"Anna's teaching me how to play poker" Olaf said smiling.

I turn to look at Anna with a raised eyebrow who laughs nervously as she rubs her neck sheepishly.

"Yo kid, why don't we pick up the poker lesson another day?" Anna said gesturing to the door.

"Mommy, is Anna in trouble?" Olaf asked curious.

"No Olaf, we just need to discuss some things" I said smiling.

"Oh okay. Bye Anna" Olaf said hopping out of the room.

With Olaf out of the room, I walk over towards Anna who was preoccupying herself picking up the cards on the bed as I bend down to picked up the stray card off of the floor before handing it to her. The mercenary takes it from me before putting it in the deck as I take a seat across from her, folding my hands in front of me as awkward silence is filled as we looked at everything but each other.

"Um Your Majesty?"

"Please Anna, just call me Elsa when we are alone" I said smiling awkwardly.

"Okay… Elsa, am I in trouble for teaching Olaf poker? Because if I am than I want to say that it wasn't my idea to teach him because he saw me beating Kristoff at it then the jerk made me teach how to play and by the way, he might becoming really good at it" Anna rambles.

"Although I am against him learning how to play that game, it is good to know that he is 'kicking your butt' so to speak" I said smirking.

"That's mean" Anna said pouting like a five year old.

I giggled slightly as I am finding her pout rather adorable and I restrain myself from pinching her cheeks because I do not want to embarrass her further and hurting her pride than it already is. Anna looks at me strangely at she cocks her head to side adorable before passing cards between the two of us and I furrow my eyebrow in confusion as to what she is doing.

"Anna, what are you doing?" I asked confused.

"I'm gonna teach you how to play poker" Anna said like it was the obvious thing.

"Why? What use would this be to me?"

"Having fun. You do know what fun is?" Anna asked raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I do" I said squaring my shoulders.

"Riiiiight" Anna said chuckling.

Anna explains the rules and what the cards mean before starting the game and I have to say that it was enjoyable yet frustrating all at the same time because I lost a few times as it was hard to tell if what kind of cards she had from my own. After losing another round of poker, I was getting a little frustrated as I put my junk hand down on the bed as the mercenary looks at me smugly.

"Why don't we make things interesting?"

"Interesting?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"For every round I win, I'll ask you questions and you'll have to answer truthfully and I'll do the same if you win. Okay?"

"Sounds fair" I said in agreement.

We went through the round of poker and I was quickly beaten as I looked up at Anna for her to ask her question.

"Okay, do you think that I can win the tournament" Anna asked curious.

"Well I um I think that you have a good chance. You are quite skilled with a sword" I said shifting in my seat.

I see the corner of Anna's lip twitch upwards for a moment as we play another round and I win that round. I think on the question that I wanted to ask the mercenary and I comes to me on what I want to know why she is so jaded all the time.

"Anna, why are you so distant?" I asked curious.

Anna freezes when the question leaves my mouth and her eyes widens to the sizes of dinner plates as the cards fall from her hands, making regret asking the question as her eyes grow sad for a moment then cold and distant. What could happen in her past that made her the way that she is?

Anna's POV

Why are you so distant? Fuck, I should've known that this would have that this rule would come back to bite me in the ass later. What the fuck was I thinking? Why would she ask me something like that? I sigh to myself as I run my hand through my hair before looking at Elsa to see that she's looking down at her hands in her lap with regret written on her face then started picking up the cards.

"You do not have to tell me anything that you want to. I should not be prying into your personal business like this" Elsa said shaking her head.

"I-It's um okay. Do I really seem distant to you?" I asked curious.

"At times yes and my curiosity got the better of me but I should not have minded my own business as you rather not talk about it. I think that it's better that I leave" Elsa said rising from her seat on the bed.

She turns to leave but I don't know why I reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from leaving but I did as the Queen looks at me with confusion on her face as I sigh to myself. Elsa sits back down on the bed, waiting patiently for me to say something but I don't know what I'm going to say to her because I never talked to anyone about this outside of Kristoff and even then I don't like talking about it. I guess that I should and I doubt that she's going to blab it to everyone in the kingdom and if I don't do this now I'm gonna lose my nerve to do so.

"This reason why I don't get too close to other is because I've lost someone very important to me and it was my fault that I couldn't save he-… this person" I said swallowing thickly. "This person was the first to accept me for me and not for the freak nature that I was lead to believe my entire life and yet because I wasn't strong enough or quick enough after training so hard, I couldn't protect her. It was my fault that I couldn't save her from the blood-sucking bastard of a monster who stole her from me"

I wasn't planning on revealing that much but once I got going, the word started spilling out as well as the tears that I didn't want shed as I buried my face into my lap with my hands covering my head. It still hurts. It hurts so badly even after all these years and I don't think that I will ever get over this throbbing pain in my heart because I'm such failure. It's all my fault that I lost the love of my life because I couldn't save her and that bastard is still out there because I couldn't put a stake in his unfeeling, undead, cold-bloodied heart. If I ever find him, his death shall be slow and painful. I'm make him feel what I felt all these years. I'm pulled out of my thoughts when I feel a pair of cold hands on the back of my head before moving around to my face then slowly guiding it upwards until I was looking into a pair of aquamarine eyes with tears in her eyes as well as fingers were wiping the tears away. I wasn't expecting Elsa pull me into a hug but I couldn't for the life of me understand why she was crying or holding me like she was but I have to admit that it felt… nice to held as I bury my face into her shoulder.

"I am so sorry that you had to go through something as horrific and traumatizing as that and I could not imagine the pain that you had to endure because of it but that it was not your fault" I open my mouth to protest but I was silenced. "It is not your fault and I may not know this person that you talking about personally but I do know that she does not want you blaming yourself that was beyond your control"

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked confused.

"Because I know the pain of losing someone that you care deeply about all too well and the pain does not go away but it does get easier to deal with" Elsa said smiling sadly.

"I guess that you're right" I said shrugging.

"Promise me that you will try to see that life is worth living even if it seem grim now" Elsa said.

"I can't promise you that but I can try" I said trying to smile.

"That is all that I can ask of you. I shall take my leave as I know that you have had a long day and you should get some rest" Elsa said standing up.

Elsa walks towards me the door before lingering in the doorway for a moment then closing it behind her, leaving me alone with my thoughts as I flop back onto the posh bed as I stare up at the ceiling. What is going on with me? Why did she ask that question? What would she gain from knowing about that part of my past? Why did it feel so good when she held me like she did? Why did I like it so much? Why did I not want it to end? Why did she cry for me like she did? Was it really because she understood what I was going or was it because there was more to it? Would Evangeline be okay with me marrying another woman that isn't her? It's not like I can ask her myself but fuck, why is everything so messed?! I groaned to myself as I rolled myself onto my stomach with my face buried into one of the many pillows there when the door of my room opens and closes as the bed drips slightly, causing me to look up to see Kristoff sitting on my bed.

"What do you want?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"I was coming to check up on you. Why did I see the Queen coming out of your room?" Kristoff asked gesturing to the door.

"She was looking for Olaf"

"But I saw Olaf leaving your room awhile ago and she's just now leaving your room" Kristoff said furrowing his eyebrows together.

"Stalker much?" I said rolling my eyes. "We were just talking. No big deal"

"Did you really talk? Or were you making sexual innuendos?"

"I can have a normal conversation with a woman without it pertaining to sex" I said offended by his accusation.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that" Kristoff said holding up his hands in defense.

"Yes you did, you jackass" I said hitting him with a pillow.

"I really am sorry, Anna" Kristoff said apologetically.

"I guess that I can forgive you this one but do it again, I'll hit you with something harder than a pillow"

"So what did you talk about?" Kristoff asked curious.

"About… Evangeline" I said sighing.

"The Queen knows about Evangeline?!" Kristoff asked shocked.

"Not by name but she has the gist of it. I don't even know why I told her but she… she saw me cry" I said running my hand through my hair.

"Wow, just wow" Kristoff said leaning back against the headboard.

"Wow what?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"It's just… Nevermind" Kristoff said shaking his head.

"Speak your mind" I said sitting down next to him.

"You must really like her or feel like you can really trust her if you told her about Evangeline"

"I don't know about that but she cried for me. Like tears and all like it pained her too which I don't understand why it would but she says that it's because she knows the pain of losing someone she loves"

"Birds of a feather flock together I guess but the way that I see it is you two can help each other move on from the tragedies that you're still dealing with" Kristoff said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"I need to find the bastard that stole Evangeline and introduce him the tip of my sword" I said frowning.

"Anna, revenge isn't going to bring her back. Can you try and move on with your life" Kristoff said sighing.

"I will Kris, starting with kill that son of a bitch"

Kristoff throws his hands up in the air in resignation because no matter how many times he tries to detour me from this, I'm not going to stop hunting the vampire that took Evangeline from me. I don't think that I will be able to move on with my life with the knowledge that he's still out there doing who know what to countless others like myself and I need to be the one to kill him. I resign myself to bed because I'm too emotionally drained to do anything else and I have the rest of the tournament to think about but I didn't get much sleep as the conversation that I had with keeps playing itself over and over again in my head. By morning, I was more tired than when I had went to sleep but at least my opponent didn't like he's been eating nothing but rocks and could crush man's skulls between his thighs as the kid looked like he was a few years older than me but not as experienced. I don't know how he made it this far but this is where it ends for me as I quickly take him out as quickly as I could by having him step out of bounds as he groans in annoyance as I walked off the mat to watch the rest of the fights. Hans didn't look like he was breaking a sweat his opponent as for Sasuke, he looked like he was bored with the fight in general but the guy's facial expression never really changes.

"Looks like it's going to be the three of us and whoever wins this match" Hans said walking up to me with Sasuke not too far behind.

"Marshall will win" I said folding my arms over my chest.

"I'm surprised that you made it this far" Sasuke replies.

"Hans, please put your friend on a shorter leash or I'll purposely accidentally slit his throat with my sword" I said in a sickening sweet voice.

"That won't be necessary and Sasuke, we talked about this and you can't say everything that comes to mind" Hans said trying to keep the peace.

Sasuke rolls his eyes as Hans lets out an uneasy laugh as we continue to watch the fight and it seems to be dragging on. Marshall was having some difficulties in his fight before it came down to a test of will-power and brute strength but the Captain of the Guard manages to overpower his opponent. I smirked as he walks off the mat with sweat roll down his face before sheathing his sword as I high-five him then breaking for water and food.

"Looks like we'll find out who wins this things soon enough. Nervous?" Marshall asked sipping his water.

"Hell no, you should be. I know that I'm making it to the finals as the only thing that matter is who I'm fighting" I said shaking my head.

"Your confidence in your abilities amazes and worries me" Marshall said chuckling.

"It also be your downfall in the end" Sasuke said appearing out of nowhere.

"Don't you have anything else better to do than bug me?" I asked frowning.

"I'm just pointing out the obvious. It's one thing to have confidence in your abilities but it's another to ignore your limitations"

"Good at that the loner can say more than one sentence" I said clapping mockingly. "I don't ignore my limitations because I know that I'm going to be in the finals and I will take down anyone who stands in my way"

"We'll see about that" Sasuke said smirking smugly.

"Man that guy irks me" I said glaring at Sasuke's treating back.

"You know that he's only doing this to piss you off" Marshall said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well it's working but I can't wait to see his ass in the tournament"

~Nicole The Dragon Rider signing

End of ch. 14