He hated Tuesdays. Sure, dawn and dusk were nice because he could go out with Sitron for a short ride, but between those two hours was misery. Mucking the stables. That was his Tuesday. Wednesday was his "apprenticeship" at the smith's. Thursday he would be working at the water well. Friday was his day to attend any formal events he might be required to be at (Though those were few and far between and his presence was only to prevent further scandal.) Saturday he cared for the dogs. Sunday was his day off. But Monday he would start again by taking inventory of the armory and kitchens. Hans could not wait to escape the Southern Isles.

He could not wait to be done mucking stables.

Mondays and Thursdays were easily his favorite days. He actually had to think to complete his tasks, so he wasn't left alone with his thoughts. His memories, really. And his lack of memory.

Sometimes he saw his brothers, or rather their profile, as they pretended he didn't exist. Sometimes he saw the fire in his father's study. Sometimes he saw Anna freezing to death as his mother's words haunted him, If only someone-

Hoofbeats and the stirring of carriage wheels brought him back to the present as someone approached the stables.

"I'm telling you we are lost. There's a building ahead, just ask for directions." Her voice sounded familiar. Hans continued his work but paused to pull the edges of his work gloves to make sure they were snug.

"We should have been traveling with more men and a better announcement. Rather than deciding last minute to accept the invitation." The man was speaking with a scowl clear in his voice.

"It's not my fault you chose to lead the way with no idea where you were going. Just ask already." Her voice had a teasing lit to it and another girl's giggle accompanied her jab. Hopefully the man won the argument and they'd leave him alone. "Besides, I could just make asking directions an order." Definitely a smile in her voice and her female companion's laughter burst over him while the male made a few choking noises. Hans' solitude was disrupted after the man got over his fit.

"You sir! Stablehand!"

"Yes?" Hans didn't quite turn, hoping for as little ridicule as possible.

"Which way to the Castle of the Southern Isles?"

"You're on the wrong road."

"What?!" Two female giggles accompanied his outburst. Apparently seeing this man in distress was amusing to the pair.

"This road runs parallel to the one you meant to take. You made the wrong turn, oh, ten miles back, at the last village. There are two paths you can take that connect the two if you're willing to leave the main roads."

Sighing the man made an offer, "Can you lead us to the castle?"

"I'm working." Hans exaggerated his point by heaving an especially large shovel full.

"We'll pay. Enough to make up for the day's lost wages."

At this Hans turned and faced the man, pointedly ignoring the girls when he heard a slight gasp from them. "Enough to let these horses sit in their own filth for the next week? I've other matters to attend to until then and it's not right to leave them in this. So no, you'll need to take the directions."

"Prince Hans?" one of the females delicately called out. He schooled a scowl onto his face to send at them only to have it drop into shock at seeing the ruling sisters of Arendelle staring back at him.

.

It was him. The one who left her to die. The one who lied about being married to her, lied about loving her! The one who tried to kill her sister! Anna's shock quickly melted into anger. She knew it was likely she'd have to face him while here, that's why she didn't let Elsa come alone. No one should face an evil like him alone, even if they were trying to investigate him.

"Princess Anna, Queen Elsa." He bowed after his own momentary shock. "I wasn't expecting you." Anna snorted. It was pretty obvious from the stains on his shirt that he wasn't expecting anyone, least wise foreign royalty.

Max cleared his throat, "Perhaps your services won't be required after all." Elsa put her hand on his shoulder stalling him leading their carriage away.

"Why are you here Hans?" Her voice was soft, almost pitying. Anna wanted to yell he didn't deserve her pity, but held her tongue. Just barely.

"It's Tuesday." He said simply and turned his back to them, continuing his work.

"So you're here every Tuesday?" Anna ventured.

"What are the chances of a giant snowball finding its way here in the middle of summer? Here? To this exact stable?" Hans didn't look at them as he spoke and Max was about to start chewing him out on how to properly address royals until Anna spoke up again.

"It's unlikely. Though I wonder why you ask…" She was also curious about the sudden change of topic.

"Just wondering who to thank for cooling me down while I was working about a month ago." He pointedly looked at Elsa for a beat then turned his back once more. Elsa's eyes went wide. Five weeks ago was Anna's birthday.

"It wasn't alive was it?" Elsa rushed her words out, obviously fearful she had accidentally unleashed a monster on the people of the Isle.

"No." Hans seem disturbed by the question.

"We should go." Interrupted Max.

"They don't have a set time to receive us." Elsa pointed out.

"And Hans could use some help." Anna heaved a sigh as she decided to get out of the carriage.

"No." Her foot hadn't even touched the ground yet.

"It'll go fas-"

"No. I don't need to name the several reasons you are not going to help me. Just go down the road another mile and turn left. Then follow the road the path comes out at all the way to the castle."

"We'll wait for you to guide us." Elsa spoke evenly. Max looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head and his face was turning fun shades of red and purple.

"That's not necessary."

"We'll wait." She said again. Hans scowled and turned back to his work. Doing his best to ignore the three from Arendelle.

.

Elsa watched Anna tie her traveling cloak around her waist to protect her skirts and jump from the carriage, ignoring both Max and Hans. She then grabbed a shovel and set to work on the other side of the stable. It seemed half the work was done before they had even arrived. Elsa knew she wasn't quite as strong as her sister, so she stood in the carriage and did what she could.

Concentrating, she froze about and inch worths of ice underneath the muck in the stall halfway between her sister and their nemesis, then she willed the ice to move towards the cart Hans had been filling. It took all her control to lift it and place the frozen heap on the cart. Rather than thank her, as she let out an excited whoop, Hans let out a sigh and scowled as he put down his shovel and moved the cart behind the stables. He came back a moment later with an empty cart and the three made quick work of the last few stalls.

"Join us in the carriage?" Elsa offered. Max looked at her as if he was personally offended from the driver's seat. Hans just moved his hand to show off the filth covering him.

"Well you can at least ride beside us." Anna put in, annoyed.

"I was planning to walk."

"I didn't realize it was so close." Max deadpanned.

"Eh, perhaps I just don't care how long it takes me to get there."

"Sitron looks like he could use the exercise." Anna convinced him. Elsa watched as he slowly caved to their wishes.

Really Elsa didn't know why she wished for him to escort them. She should hate him. But something wasn't adding up. They all agreed on that, herself, Anna and Kristoff. After receiving the invitation to reopen trade negotiations the three had discussed every angle that this could be a trap, not wishing to trust Hans. But then, after reviewing everything they knew about their sworn enemy they discovered some inconsistencies, and one was a really big one. He saved her life.

He could have let the chandelier crush her, but he risked his own life to save hers. And then he decided to kill her? It didn't make sense. And he worked so well with people in crisis. Yet this was the man who plotted evil schemes? He was so open with Anna about his own family. But decided to tear hers apart.

Kristoff had an odd look on his face as Anna confessed she had no idea he had such a side to him until after coming off the mountain. Elsa believed he knew something but was verifying before sharing. She trusted him. Unlike the redhead who was currently mounting his horse to lead them to his home.

She already knew this visit would be trying, but did it have to start out in such an awkward way?

.

Surprisingly, Anna felt good after cleaning out the stables. She untied her cloak that she'd used to cover her skirt and dropped into the carriage like a sack of potatoes. She wasn't angry any more, the work had burned that off, and she knew she was trying to avoid unnecessary anger. Something was off about Hans and they were here to find out, not to seek revenge.

He had seemed truly surprised at their offer of help and more than a little unwilling to accept it. She stored that information away as another piece of the Hans puzzle.

Elsa regained her "queen" posture, usually reserved for council meetings. While the pair was working to understand Hans, that didn't mean that they would automatically trust him, and she seemed to be making sure he knew who he was with.

Max wasn't in on their plan, and he kept fiddling with his sword's hilt in his belt. Anna supposed this couldn't be helped. They didn't want to let everyone in on their plan to essentially spy on Hans. Really only her, Elsa and Kristoff knew.

Anna wished Kristoff would have joined them, but he had no real place in foreign politics and claimed he needed to visit his family. He wouldn't explain why though, just that he hoped he was wrong.

"Prince Hans," Elsa called. He flinched when addressed. "How was the harvest this year?"

"The deep sea harvest came in nicely, but our shallow water reserves have been lacking." His reply was a bit clipped but he held the air of indifference.

"I'm not as familiar with your supply as my sister. Could you explain?" Sometimes Anna hated how boring the meetings she was invited to were. She'd like to know what they were talking about, but hadn't been paying attention when she should have.

With a deep sigh Hans clarified, "Fish is our number one export. We have two main types of fishermen: deepsea and shallow water. You can guess where each of them practice their trade." He glanced back to see if she wished him to continue and she nodded her head, interested. "Deepsea fish are rather large and good for storing, winter food some will call them. Shallows are smaller and supply the fresh markets." Anna sat back nodding that she understood. She figured it was a lot more complex than that, but this was the simple terms that someone as unversed as her could follow.

"What are winters like in the Southern Isle?" Elsa inquired, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Not quite as harsh as Arendelle summers." Anna could hear the smile in his voice. He was teasing them. She gaped in disbelief while Elsa turned bright red and Max made more choking noises interrupted by words like disrespectful and monster. The moment Anna and Elsa made eye contact though, they burst into laughter. She couldn't see Hans face, even as they laughed he just kept riding, posture perfect and straight forward. Max grumbled some more after regaining his composure.

The rest of the ride was in vaguely comfortable silence, as Hans led them through the wooded path to the Castle road.

.

Hans was waiting for it. An icy blast knocking him off his horse. Why, oh why, had he opened his stupid, stupid mouth? He shouldn't be in their presence, let alone speaking to them, and teasing them at that. He deserved no familiarity. As much as he hated the punishments doled out to him he knew he deserved them. He'd forced Anna, sweet naive Anna, to suffer his past. And Elsa! He knew, everyday, that if someone killed him it would be justified, just as he had claimed to be justified in trying to kill her. But if there was one person who could not justly kill a scared girl with powers, it was him. He should have helped her. He had planned to help her. But that changed, and he still didn't know why.

The retaliation for his comment didn't come, instead he heard the sisters laughing at his jest. Were they insane? He just threw Elsa's lack of control in their faces! But they laughed on. He couldn't help the smirk that found its way onto his face in hearing their mirth. Luckily they didn't question him further after that.

As they rode to his "home" Hans was left to plot his disappearing act. He couldn't go through the main entrance, opting to use the servant's stair on his working days. It would be easy enough to just ask a footman to take over and ride to the stables alone, but Sitron wasn't to be stabled here anymore. So he'd have to ride to the stables to separate from them, then double back and walk from the road stable he'd just cleaned. It was already nearing dusk, the carriage hadn't handled well on the wooded path, so it could be nearing midnight before he got back. Unless he ran in and got his change of clothes for the next day and slept in the stable for the night. That was doable. Then he could head into town to the smithy's. Nodding slightly to himself as he saw the walls come into view ahead of him he made his decision to sneak out before his family could torment him for escorting the Arendelle sisters.

The gates opened and Mel, the footman, led the carriage to the door.

"Where are you going?" Elsa called after him.

He turned Sitron to face the Queen and bowed in his saddle. "I'll take my leave to stable Sitron for the night."

"Nonsense. I see a stable boy just over there; he can stable Sitron and you can see us to the queen." Hans had to remind himself to breathe. He couldn't refuse her, she was a queen after all, but he needed to get away. These two hated him, so despite appearances he had to think they had something up their sleeves. And an audience with his mother was the last thing he needed. But Anna was already waving over the stable boy. So much for his getaway plan.

He was not giving a tour. He could hear their footsteps stall every so often as they saw another interesting piece, but he strode on. His family would be in the dining room and he could easily refuse to enter the room in his current filthy state. He could throw the girls to the wolves, hide in his room for the night, and suffer the consequences of Sitron being stabled here after they left.

Hans opened the door with a bow and Stan, the butler, entered first to announce the guests and when both sisters had passed the doorway he promptly shut the door behind them, pivoted and strode briskly to his room.

He stalled however, when he heard his uncle in the study. He had a bad habit of speaking what he was reading and Hans didn't like what he overheard. Stopping to truly eavesdrop he changed his plans once again.

"'There is no way that such a threat can be left on a throne. Her sister seems normal, so it will be easy enough to arrange a tragic accident on their way home that will leave the kingdom in Princess Anna's hands. It is strange to know two in one generation, but at least we were lucky the other has no claim on a throne.' Oh, Ellen. I do love it when you use your queenliness to be so devious."

Throat constricting, Hans finally understood why they Arendelle royalty was here; not for trade negotiations, but for playing the life and death side of politics. He would not allow his family to harm these girls...even if he paid the price for his actions.