Hellos! Its been a little less than a week, that not too too bad eh? Anyways enjoy my relatively long chapter. Make sure to review. Why? Reviews really do motivate me to write more.

Chpater 4

"Thief!" Alfred yelled, shocking the two youths from their trance. He angrily marched towards the boy and snatched the Hope Diamond out of his hand, not offering any space for explanation. He knew the boy was no good ever since he laid his eyes on him. He stared at the diamond clasped in his hand. It really was the flawless Hope Diamond. How the boy got his hands on it he'll never know, but he had to show this to the King. Muttering a small curse, he headed to the vile cell where the King was to be interrogating the prisoner.

Ranma looked confused. What just happened? He had nothing to do with that diamond. Mischievous? Yes, but a thief? No. He was sure people would understand, after all, he was only seven. Whatever, he didn't care. He proceeded to wash himself in the spring with Anna who didn't seem to care about the strange event.

Alain was currently sobbing. He would surely get his head cut off for his failure. No matter what he did to the culprit, the fool wouldn't speak. He cursed his luck. Never again would he see that flawless blue beauty of a diamond. In fact he was imagining it right now in his grief, a man, who he knew to be the butler, was holding it right now. Putting his hands in his eyes and started to sob once again as he tried to shake the illusion off.

The King was currently talking to the prisoner. It appeared he was able to appeal to the man's greed.

"How about this? I will allow you to get away freely with some nice gold in your pocket and a horse to ride if you reveal the location of the Hope Diamond." The King was told all about what was happening by Alain. Speaking of whom, he couldn't help but think that Alain seemed to be a very depressed man.

The man's will seemed to crumble before building himself back up. He said, "You're a king right?" He mentally smirked.

The King nodded.

"Do you have daughters?"

He nodded once more. He did not like where this was going.

"I'll tell you what. If you wed my son to your daughter along with the gold and freedom you promised me. Only then I'll tell you where it is." Genma mentally smiled. Physically that was almost impossible for him.

The King was almost lost for words. The audacity of this man! "…I cannot agree to that." He didn't even believe a man such as him to have married much less even have a child.

"That's too bad, looks like you're never going to fi-"

"-I have the Hope Diamond your majesty." A new voice cut in.

"Damnit!"

"Ah Alfred. So you do. Where did you find the diamond?"

"That pesky Ranma boy had it on him. He must have stolen it."

"Really? From what Alain and several others told me, they clearly saw this man here take the diamond."

Alfred finally took notice of the man in front of the king. He had to use quite a bit of his will power in order to keep himself from throwing up.

"My King, are you sure that is not some beast conjured by dark magic?"

The King mentally flinched at 'dark magic.'

"He is as human as you and I, Alfred."

While the talking between the two men occurred, Genma was sweating in trepidation, now with the diamond found, there was no reason for them to keep him alive. Ranma failed him! Never mind the fact he never told the boy to hide the diamond but he had failed him! Oh why did he have to be with such a useless son? He found himself listening to the conversation once again.

"My King, arrest the child for thievery, perhaps he stole the diamond from him."

Before Alfred could say more, Alain barged past him, "The diamond! It wasn't an illusion!" knocking him over, causing the diamond to fly up and instead of falling, it stayed suspended in the air. There was a mysterious red glow and the diamond was gone. "Noooo!" Alain went back to hysterically sobbing.

"That was nice." Ranma said while drying himself off with the towel Alfred had dropped on the ground. The Queen appeared at the door.

"Ah, good you two are still in here." She said. In her hands were several articles of clothing. She looked at Ranma, "I've brought clothes for you to wear instead of your dirty ones."

"Mommy!" Anna ran over to her mother who hugged her before proceeding to dress her.

"Go dress yourself in whatever you like Ranma."

Ranma nodded and looked at the pile of clothes. A minute later, he was dressed in a silk blue vest and baggy black pants.

"You look charming." Said the Queen while fitting Anna in a green dress like the one she was wearing before.

"Thank you."

"Why are you are you in this country, so far from home?"

"Training." He replied shortly.

"Training to be a soldier? At your age?"

"I'm gonna be the best martial artist ever!" Ranma declared flawlessly in English. He knew how to say that exact phrase flawlessly in several other languages too. It never hurts to know.

"Like, what is it called in the East? A ninja? Samurai?"

"Kinda." Ranma frowned slightly.

"Are you by yourself?" From what she knew, this boy was an orphan, his mother was dead and his father was 'gone.'

He shook his head, "my pop is here." He put his hands on his chin in a thinking pose, "should go find him." Before the Queen could say anything else Ranma was gone. The Queen stared in silent wonder at how fast the boy had moved. She shook her head and looked down at her daughter under her.

"What do you think of Ranma, Anna?"

"He's fun!" Anna replied cheerfully, beaming up at her mother.

In response, the Queen nodded.

"Now, where's pop?" Ranma muttered to himself while scanning the dark streets. It was nighttime. He hadn't seen or heard of the usual signs. The usual signs being screaming innkeepers, running guards, giant bodies hiding behind skinny lampposts, or closing buffets. He kicked a pebble and put his hands on his pocket.

"Clink." His eyes widened, there was something in his pocket. He reached in his pocket and pulled it out. It was the diamond.

"What the?" He was sure that there was nothing in the pockets of his pants when he put them on. When did the diamond get there? And why him? He stared at the diamond closely, the blue gem was emitting an ominous red glow in the illumination of the moon.

He was not the only one who saw the red glow. Behind him he heard shouts of surprise and commands in French. It didn't take much to tell him that they were after him and the diamond.

One side of his mind wanted run. Even though he was only seven he was sure he could get away due to his training and smallness. The other side wanted to let the men capture him with no resistance maybe giving him a chance to explain. That 'other' side did not bode well with his seven year old mind and thus he waved to the men heading towards him, turned around, and ran.

At around midnight the men finally caught the child.

"Little child." Said a heavily accented tired voice, "I do not know how you managed to cause two of my men to get pots stuck on their heads or three of them to be beaten by the women in the bathhouses. But give me the diamond, there's no place to run." It was unbelievable who much trouble this child caused him but he had him in his hands.

The boy sighed and handed the diamond to the man who put the diamond in his pocket and grabbed Ranma by the scruff of his vest. He proceeded to walk to the castle. Along the way the boy kept yelling objections that it wasn't his fault. The guard knocked him out in annoyance.

"Ah boy you up yet?" A voice said in Japanese.

Ranma groggily woke up, stars danced in his eyes. His head hurt and was throbbing. His body was tired and didn't want to move. Fortunately that was cured when he looked to his left where the voice originated from.

"Gah!" Next to him was a bruised, swollen, and beaten up man. His body and mind completely woke and he jumped away from the man. His mind made a logical conclusion. "Pops? What did you do to get in jail… again?"

"Never mind that boy. We need to get out of here. My handsome face is probably going to get chopped off."

"Right… can't you get out yourself? I'm sure the bars are easy to break for you."

"…I'm in no shape to move."

"But I've seen you get up from worse pops."

"Don't be so blind boy! The thing is, my nether region is stopping me from doing anything rash."

"Your nether what? Oh… how about you do some amputation?"

"These are my jewels you're talking about!" Genma exclaimed, his face going slightly pale from the thought of it. "Nevermind that, I see you found the diamond in your pocket and they took it from you, oh I'm so ashamed to have a son who is such a failure."

"Well you didn't tell me! And you stole the diamond." Ranma said defensively, he couldn't help be feel ashamed at being a 'failure.'

"I don't know what you're talking about." Genma pled innocently. He thought about the conversation Alain had with him and the king. Genma's face turned stone serious. "Ranma, my boy you're cursed."

"What?" Ranma noticed the difference in his father's tone, it was one of the rare moments he was serious

"Check your pockets boy."

Ranma hesitantly reached in his pockets and felt the cool smooth touch of a diamond, he took it out of his pocket and stared at it in stupor.

"That diamond which… mysteriously… came to my hands and to yours is called the Hope Diamond. The diamond is said to be cursed, its owners would always experience some terrible fate. And it seems like the diamond imprinted on you. When they tried to take the diamond away from you it would eventually turn up on you."

"So I am going to die?" Ranma looked fearfully at the diamond and his hand shot out, in an attempt to get the diamond as far as he could get it away from his body.

"Not sure but your life is going to be hell. But the French people who had lost it aren't returning home til they get something here. So Ranma, my son, I need you to be strong when I'm gone make sure you become the best martial artist in the world. And remember a martial artist protects the weak!" Genma spoke sagely.

"Ok."

A vein pulsed on Genma's forehead, "ok? All you say is ok? I'm going to die soon and I give a speech about being the best and you just say ok?"

"Uh huh." Ranma's attention was riveted to the diamond in his hand, after he heard 'not sure' he zoned out a bit but he heard 'best' and 'protect the weak' and he assumed the spots in between.

Genma sighed, "Ranma, I'm going to be killed. I won't be able to get out of this one because of the state I'm in, I think it was because of that diamond, but when I'm gone promise that you will become better than I was."

Ranma was now listening with an intense focus, and he nodded acutely but before he could say anything men came in the cell opened the door and grabbed his father. Genma took a second to give a stern gaze to his son and the men took his father to his death.

As the men and his father left, the King came in. The King looked after the door, his eyes following the back of the men escorting the criminal, the apparent father of Ranma. His eyes then darted back to Ranma and he moved towards the cell and opened the door.

He then kneed down, something a king should never do to another person. The King spoke in a tender voice, "Ranma, I am deeply sorry about all this happening to you. We will not punish you for what your father has done. And I want to let you know that the Kingdom of Arendelle welcomes you and the castle is now your home."

To that, Ranma nodded, his thoughts buzzing in his head.

The next day, Ranma woke up in a soft bed with a red blanket wrapping his body. His room was larger than what he was used to and next to him was a red chest containing his few belongings. He was awakened by the movement of his blankets and shaking of his body.

"Rammie, Rammie wake up! Let's play!" A voice squealed in his ears. It's Anna he figured. He groaned a bit by being woken up forcefully.

As he ignored the hyper girl, he thought about the day before, the French along with his father is now gone, he would be taking lessons with the stingy butler, and he made a promise to become the best.

"Oof!" Ranma cried out, Anna had slammed her hand into his stomach and glared at him with her wide blue eyes.

"Rammie let's go play!" Anna demanded cutely.

"All right." He complied.

The two played throughout the halls of the castle, this did not go unnoticed by another girl.

Elsa had her ears pressed to the door, trying to make out the sounds she was hearing in the castle. Anna was certainly enjoying her time with 'Rammie.' She wanted to go out too. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, her hands snaked towards the handle of the door. But before she could turn the knob she stopped. No, she couldn't risk it. Her heart forced her to turn the knob, unlocking the door and she hesitantly opened the door faintly. Her mind then shut down her body. She couldn't do it, what if she hurts Anna again? She let go of the door knob and held her hands together and sighed. It was for the best. Leaving the door slightly ajar, she left her room to go relieve herself in the connecting bathroom.

Before she closed the door to her bathroom she heard, "Let's play hide and go seek!"

"In this giant castle?!"

"Yea! I'll count, you go hide! Ten, nine, eight…"

"Wha! Ok then." The volume of footsteps increased in Elsa's ears. And then there was an opening and slam of a door suspiciously close to her and she could make out the rustling of the boy hiding under something.

Wait a second.

He was in her room! She started to panic, she put her dress back on as fast as she could and she hid behind the door of her bathroom. What should she do? She couldn't just wait in her bathroom forever! This was her room for god's sake!

Cautiously she pushed the door deliberately, glancing around her room, seeing no sign of the boy she figured that he, indeed, was under her bed. She silently moved towards her bed and stopped. Unconvinced of what to do, she opted for a simple approach.

"Hello." She said softly.

"Bump." The bed jumped a bit, followed by an "ouch!" Obviously, she surprised the boy and that brought a small smile to her face. A moment later a head popped out from under the bed, his eyes were wide in shock and he quickly wiggled himself away from his position and shot up. Elsa idly noted the boy was quite cute.

"Uh hi." He said timidly. "Didn't know anybody was in here."

"What were you doing under my bed?" Elsa knew the answer, but asked anyways.

Ranma tugged on the back of his pony tail, "hiding," he replied. He gave a hard look at Elsa before talking, "hey, wait a sec, are you Elsie? Or Elsa?"

Elsa nodded. "Elsa. What's your name?"

"I'm Ranma." So 'Rammie' was not his name. He continued, "why you locking yourself in this room? Are you sick? Anna really wants to play with you."

Should she tell him? No, he's just a stranger. Elsa bit her lip before replying in a lie, "Yes, I'm sick." Hopefully this will get him to leave too. But Ranma didn't.

Instead Ranma gave a small scowl, "then why ignore Anna?"

What should she say to that? If you're sick then it doesn't mean you can't talk. Elsa appeared uncomfortable, her hands fidgeting behind her back. "I don't know." She confessed, finding the ground interesting.

Ranma pressed on in his broken English, "if sick, why room so cold?"

That's true, that didn't make any sense. "The cold doesn't bother me?" She answered dubiously.

"But you're sick."

Ahh! This was frustrating. Elsa was still indecisive of what she should do. She really wanted to tell him about her powers. To tell him that she was cursed.

"You're cursed?" The boy said, his eyes large in wonder.

"…" apparently she did say that out loud. Her hands shot to her mouth in an attempt of reclaiming the spoken words while preventing her from saying anymore. She could feel her eyes getting slightly wet. She messed up. Ranma was going to run away and Anna would know again. Once again contrary to what she expected, Ranma stood where he was.

He reached in his pocket, "I'm cursed too… maybe." He said. Elsa's eyes dried up in curiosity. Maybe, just maybe, he would understand her. Out from his pocket, he pulled out a large beautiful diamond. Elsa's eyes widened as she looked at it. " 'parently this gives a bad life."

Well that certainly was not what she expected. Ranma then threw the diamond up as high as he can in the air and just as it almost reached the roof, the diamond stopped in mid air and there was a flash of red light and the diamond disappeared. Ranma had discovered this when he was examining the diamond.

Elsa looked at Ranma in question who then reached into his pocket again and pulled the diamond out. Elsa looked in stupor.

"What your curse?" Ranma said snapping her out of her stupor.

Elsa bit her lip, the question knocking her out of her wonder. It was too late to back out now. Toying with the white gloves in her hand, she replied, "I can control ice." She took off her gloves and reluctantly created a large snowflake in her hand. Ranma's reaction was just like Anna's when she found out.

His eyes shined in completely awe before yelling loudly, "That so cool!" Elsa quickly dissolved the snowflake, put her gloves on and shushed the eager boy. "Why keep something awesome secret?"

Oh well, she might as well tell him. Several minutes passed as Elsa explained the story excluding the magic rocks and instead saying the magic blast had changed Anna's memory.

Ranma stood listening, and then spoke, "but why lock yourself in room?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, can't you just not use power while play with Anna?"

Elsa opened her mouth in retort, but no words came out she stood still as the words register in her mind. Yeah, why couldn't she do that? Just not use her powers when playing with Anna. It was so simple. And the gloves would prevent her from accidentally doing magic too.

Elsa clasped her face in her hands. Why had that never occurred to her? Seriously. But then another thought echoed in her mind. She didn't know what she was capable of, what if she gets too excited and she freezes Anna? What if she was just too powerful? What if the gloves weren't strong enough? What if? What if? She couldn't risk hurting another person. That was why.

Suddenly they heard crying outside. The crying was from Anna. Ranma looked at the door of her room then at Elsa. Elsa shook her head and cowered away.

"Don't tell her." She whispered.

Ranma sighed and left, looking to appease the crying Anna. Apparently Anna became sad and distressed when she couldn't find Ranma and she started to cry because she believed that Ranma abandoned her.

The next three months came into a schedule. With little to none of the disaster he expected from the diamond. Ranma would wake in the morning by Anna where he would then spend some time playing with her, then he would train himself, while he knew he couldn't train himself as hard as he had with his father and apparently he was too young to enlist as a soldier, he did his best using his memory and several scrolls he had found in his father's bag a couple of them were sealed for when he was older. He would eat breakfast with Anna, and then take lessons with Alfred the funny sounding butler. Though his English and knowledge improved greatly, he dearly despised the lessons. He would then devote the rest of his time training, playing with Anna, or exploring the castle. Every once in a while he would manage to get into Elsa's room and just talk to her unbeknownst to Anna. It was just small talk and Ranma would try at least once to get her to get out her room. Sometimes he would try to get her to show her powers and see what she could do but she would decline to show him. He noticed barely anyone would go inside the castle and practically no one would go out the castle and assumed it was because of Elsa's paranoia. Anna had turned six two months ago and while they celebrated Anna was a bit sad that Elsa couldn't come, thus Ranma doubled his efforts with Elsa.

One day after lunch, Elsa finally came out of her cold room.

"Fine."

"I mean come on Sa-chan just once you gotta whaa? You said 'fine'?" Ranma fell from his spot, he was hanging upside down from Elsa's bed.

Elsa steeled her resolve and walked past her only friend to the door. She put her hand on the handle, took a deep fulfilling breath and turned the knob and pushed. She was doing it, she was really doing it. In what seemed to be in slow motion Elsa pushed the door open and hesitantly put her toe out as if testing the ground if it was safe. Noting that outside her room was not dangerous she took one big step outwards and turned to Ranma looking triumphant.

Ranma sweatdropped at the how big of the deal Elsa was making out of opening a door.

"Now what?"

"I dunno."

"You're the one who wanted me to get out!"

"Yeah but I didn't think you would actually go out."

"Don't doubt me!"

"I remember you telling yourself that before. And you never did leave the room."

"Shut it Ranma."

"Nyah!"

Well she was out her room after what seemed to be an eternity. All of the sudden she was tackled by a red and green blur. The two fell down precariously close to the stairway.

"Elsie!" The red and green blur was Anna of course who was hugging Elsa with all her might.

"Hey Anna, I don't think Elsa's face should be the same color as her dress."

Anna unwillingly let go of her sister and looked to Ranma and back to Elsa.

"No fair!" She complained. "Why did Rammie get to see you and I don't!" She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

"Well he, like a rude boy he is, didn't ask me and just went in."

"I should've done that." Anna said thoughtfully.

"I'm not rude!" Ranma said defensively.

From across the hall, the Queen and King watched with a smile on their faces. Ranma was such a charming energetic boy. Thanks to him, in the past two months the place was much livelier, Anna wouldn't cry and though they didn't know how he did it, but he got Elsa out from her insecurity.

"Oohh so that's why."

"Yep! Totally." Ranma chirped unconvincingly. Elsa's hands twitched, she really wanted to slap herself. No, she wanted to slap Ranma. Ranma was a terrible liar Elsa decided, absolutely awful at fabricating the simplest of lies. It was only because Anna was too young to read facial expressions nor understand logic that she believe them.

"So Elsie was super duper sick and that made everything cold and she couldn't move because it was freezing and it was so cold the fireplace didn't work and mommy and daddy didn't want to move her? And only Rammie could see Elsie cause he is super awesome?"

"Uh huh." Ranma said with a shaky smile while scratching the back of his head.

"Yea sure 'awesome,' sure," Elsa deadpanned. Ranma's explanation made no sense, what kind of sickness would make her super cold?

"Ok!" Anna chirped. "Let's play princesses and knights! Daddy found someone to make a doll for you Rammie! You can finally play now! Look!"

Anna ran from the room and into hers and came back holding a doll that slightly resembled him.

Dolls were just too girly for him he was able to avoid playing with dolls for months and now that he had a doll for himself he couldn't find a reason not to play, and he really didn't want Anna to cry. "Thanks Anna…" He looked at the doll in his hand his thoughts in turmoil.

Anna handed Elsa's doll to Elsa and knelt down to start to 'walk' her own doll around. "I'm Queen Anna, who are you?" She did a little shaking of her doll to emphasis you the Queen was.

Elsa joined in, kneeing down on the ground and placing her doll in front of her, pushing the doll's head slightly down in a bow. "I'm the maiden Elsa from the Kingdom far far away."

Anna looked up expectantly at Ranma who was slightly sweating. This was just too girly! Elsa looked up too. Then Anna turned on her puppy dog eyes and Elsa turned on her 'do it or else' eyes. Oh no. He could feel his will brutally being murdered by the two girls in front of him. Finally as he noticed Anna's eyes were a little wet, his will was nothing but rubble.

He gave an exaggerated sigh and knelt down like the other two girls. And he slowly put his doll in a standing position. And he made his doll do a little bow the way Elsa did. "I'm... the knight... Ranma." His body was tense and ready to run away the moment a maid or servant came. There was no way he would let anyone see him playing with dolls. Speaking of the maids and servants they all welcomed Ranma openhearted and Ranma got to know them well. The only staff that disliked Ranma was the head chef and of course Alfred.

"Oh no!" Queen Anna said with a shake. "Elsa is stuck in a tower! Who will save her."

"Help! Help!" Maiden Elsa said in the air as if she was stuck in the castle.

Ranma swallowed his pride. "I will save her!" Knight Ranma said. And he walked his doll towards the 'tower.'

Anna then said "but there's a dragon!" And with her free hand made a chomping motion and moved towards Knight Ranma threatening to eat him. "Roar, roar! Chomp chomp!"

"Hiyah." Knight Ranma did an unenthusiastic chopping motion.

"Ah the dragon is slain! Now he can save Elsa."

Knight Ranma walked up the tower and grabbed Maiden Elsa in Elsa's hand and brought her down. A bit violently.

"Ouch! Why'd you hit me?"

"Be more gentle next time! A princess should always be treated with respect."

"But you're a maiden."

Queen Anna butted in, "Yay! The maiden is saved!' She did a little happy shake. "Now Knight Ranma your reward is a kiss from maiden Elsa."

"What!?" Twin voices squeaked out.

"Kiss each other." Anna declared.

"Why?" The two said simultaneously.

"It's his reward for saving you! Mommy always said the Knight gets a kiss in the end during story time."

"But I don't wanna kiss him/her." The two said pointing at each other.

"Well Queen Anna said so. I'm the queen."

Both sighing in defeat the two brought their dolls together and their faces touched for a split second before backing quickly away.

"Yay!" Anna said. "Now kiss each other."

"Huh? We just did." Ranma said.

She dropped her doll on the ground and pointed at the two. Elsa got the hint. Ranma didn't and looked confused at Anna's pointing. Elsa looked at Ranma who noticed. And finally he got the hint. The two stared at each other for a couple seconds and then Ranma stood up and left as fast as his small body could. Which was pretty darn fast.

"Gottagotrainbye!"

AN:

Ha! I felt like I could end this chapter with a bit of fluff. How'd you like this chapter? Read and review!

I had a funny thought. Would pairing names be Ranmanna or Ransa/Elsma or Ranmelsanna? They're terrible names. o.o