It was difficult to process much through the haze of her fever. But at some point, Anna felt herself being turned on her sides and unwrapped from a cocoon of blankets she did not recall bundling herself up in. As soon as she had the thought, however, she was swept into another dream. She dreamt of laughter in the house the day Rapunzel came to live with them. There'd been spring flowers on the trees at the window. In her dream, the flowers fell to the ground and froze until they burst. She walked upstairs to tell Elsa, but her sister and cousin would not open their door.

The next time Anna woke up, it was either dusk or dawn, or very cloudy. She could tell from the sky out the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. She lay stretched out on a chaise lounge, a cold, damp cloth spread over her forehead. She tried to turn over, though lack of strength only allowed her to turn her head and spot a half-filled water bottle on the coffee table. It impressed her for a moment that she had gotten herself into the house. She didn't remember stumbling in. Her head ached like she'd been out all night. Getting out of the chair seemed like an Olympian task at the moment. She would sleep a little more, and then worry about getting up.

The homey smell of cauliflower soup eventually woke her again. This time Hans was in the armchair that was kitty-corner to her. Anna jumped and sat upright in the chair. She'd forgotten all about him.

"You're awake."

She groaned and suddenly scrunched up her face as if in pain, putting her hands to the sides of her head as she sank back into the chair.

"M-my head… ooh, my head…" She made herself shake as she curled up and closed her eyes half-way. The singer scoffed and left her for a moment. She could hear him moving around the kitchen, but she didn't dare sit up to look. She still had to figure out what to do about her house.

There was silence for a second and Anna popped one eye open to peek at her surroundings. It still took her by surprise to see her parents' furniture replaced by more modern pieces.

"Ahem."

Anna jumped again and jerked her neck back to find the singer standing there with a steaming bowl on a small plate. He raised an eyebrow at her jumpiness as he set the plate down on the coffee table. Anna glanced at the steaming light liquid with spinach, onion, seasoning and bacon floating in it.

"I'm stepping out to run," Hans said. "Eat this."

She looked up at him carefully but nodded, still conscious of making her movements very deliberate and slow. If she appeared to be well, he might throw her out again. His absence would give her time to think.

A rumbling from her stomach broke the quiet. She looked down in embarrassment and made an exaggerated gasp as she sat up.

The singer didn't question this performance. He seemed distracted, in fact. But Anna wasn't going to complain about that. She heard him grab keys before he headed out, leaving her to her slow recovery.

As soon as she heard the front door shut, Anna grabbed the bowl of cauliflower soup… and promptly howled in pain when the hot ceramic burned her fingertips. She set it down and, more cautiously this time, lifted the plate instead. She blew at the surface of the soup and watched the steam slither away from her, making a kind of game of it for a couple minutes before she finally braved a sip from the spoon. The rich broth and hearty spinach doubled her hunger. She quickly ate spoonful after spoonful. It burnt the roof of her mouth to eat it so quickly, but that didn't bother her until the bowl was empty.

Her stomach growled.

She debated for all of one second before she jumped up to race to the refrigerator. Her eyes lit up as she opened it. Scores of vegetables, fruits and drinks dazzled her on the shelves. Her mouth watered at a carton of chocolate milk. She grabbed it and turned around to fling through the cabinets until she found where Hans kept his glasses. She poured herself a glass, swigged back the contents in a hurry and then poured herself another.

After that, she went into the pantry and took out a box of stroopwafels. She had a few of these before she noticed some glazed cherry crackers, a kind of cereal she loved as a child. Unable to resist, she whisked the box from its shelf and returned to the fridge in search of regular milk. The chocolate milk would go well with the cereal too but she didn't want Hans to notice how much of his food had been eaten. When she had no luck, she ended up using the chocolate milk, and she was grateful that she did. The chocolate really complemented the cherry flavor. After a few impatient spoonfuls, she carried the bowl back toward the eating area so she could eat at the breakfast table.

She lowered her hands to set the bowl down on the table and clumsily tilted it so that the contents spilled all over. The surprise of it made her drop and break the bowl. She cried out as it smashed into dozens of jagged pieces all over the floor.

For a moment, she just stared at the mess on the floor, partly disappointed, partly panicked. She moved to the kitchen corner for where she used to keep her roll of paper towels, but there were none there.

"Oh no..."

She checked underneath the counters, but Hans must not have bought any yet. Anna cursed and pulled out other drawers in search of kitchen towels. She halted her search when she heard keys jingling at the front door.

There wasn't enough time to clean the mess and get back to her performance on the chaise lounge. She panicked again and leapt over the mess on the floor to sprint back to the living room. The door had opened and there were footsteps in the foyer. She threw herself into a sprawled lying position in the chair and clamped her eyes shut as she listened.

Slowly, the footsteps moved toward and up the stairs that looked away from the kitchen. Anna relaxed a little as she heard Hans moving around in the master bedroom upstairs. With luck, he would head straight back out the front door and give Anna a chance to clean up the disaster in the kitchen. She'd pretend to be asleep until he left. Then, she'd check the house for a broom and dustpan. Hans did not strike her as the type to notice if a single bowl of his went missing. But even if he did, it could have been lost when he moved, for all he knew.

A bedroom door shut, followed by Hans's footsteps back down the stairs. Anna relaxed her face as much as possible and braced herself. She waited to hear the singer go straight out the door, but he paused at the bottom of the stairs.

Anna's heart stopped as she held her breath and listened. He was just… standing there. Then, there were quick strides into the kitchen. She held in a groan and just did her best impression of her sleeping self, waiting for the horrible moment when—

"Are you serious?!"

There it was. She didn't have to see Hans to know he was furious. Anger radiated off from each step he took storming into the living room.

"Get up," he ordered.

Her game was up. He couldn't have been gone more than ten minutes before. She cleared her throat and slowly sat up, squinting her eyes open and wanting to shut them again after she met Hans's stony face.

"I… I'm too dizzy to get up. I'm still not—"

"You're well enough to make a mess in my house. Go clean it up."

At that, her eyes both popped open.

"I was planning to," she snapped.

"Get to it then."

"I need a broom… and a dustpan…"

Hans scowled. "In the closet under the stairs."

The gravity behind his stare made her squirm in her seat until she got up to fetch said broom and dustpan. She found them hanging on the door hook and brought them into the kitchen, finding that Hans had already blotted up the chocolate milk with several kitchen towels. She kept her head down and started sweeping up the ceramic pieces, careful to brush even the smallest onto the dustpan. All the while, she felt Hans glaring at her. She grit her teeth when she finally finished and dropped everything into the trash bin. Then she turned around to find him flipping through cash he'd pulled from his open wallet.

"There. All done."

He stopped what he was doing and walked up to her, holding out a hearty stack of money. Anna blinked as her gaze dropped down to the money being offered.

"Um…?"

"You're homeless, aren't you? You have nowhere to go?"

The question hit Anna harder than if Hans had smacked her.

"I'm not homeless!"

"Then why did you sleep outside last night?"

Anna's face turned red as her fists balled up enough to whiten her knuckles. He knew why. He was in her house.

She smacked the hand with the money away and snatched her suitcase, angrily rolling it all the way to the front door. Thankfully, Hans did not try to stop her when she walked out.

Anna walked along the edge of Midsummer Park, gently kicking every stray rock or twig in her path on the sidewalk. Westergaard wasn't wrong; she was homeless. That was why she had stormed out so angrily. And the very people she should have been able to call were the ones who swept the rug out from under her.

She stopped at the bus stop on the corner and sat in the bench there with her suitcase resting in front of her. She had taken the bus from there many a time. But now she reflected on the difference of leaving on a bus you knew you would also come home on.

It wasn't that she was hopeless. There were several things she could do. She could go to the police again. She could pay a visit to her old workplace and see if they would help. She had a friend or two from college she could reach out to, though it'd been years since she had seen any of them. Every option meant the heartbreak of leaving her family's house behind her.

Her nose stung as tears threatened to overwhelm her. But as an elderly woman approached from the opposite side of the street, Anna reined control over herself.

"What a pretty dress!" The old woman smiled down at her.

Anna looked down at herself, having forgotten she was still wearing the green dress from dinner.

"Th-thanks…" She sniffed once and that was the end of her tears. If she still had the receipt, she could go return the dress. That would give her several thousand kroner!

Quickly, she undrew the zipper of her suitcase and dug her hand in to feel for the bag from Seasons. When she couldn't find it, she lay the entire case open and flat on the ground, ignoring the quizzical look from the old woman. She dug through her leggings, shirts, socks, panties and bras. She opened all the pockets. The shopping bag wasn't in there.

Her heart sank as she sat back and imagined herself tossing out the bag, receipt inside, back in the subway station restroom. It was such a simple thing, she didn't even remember doing it. But at the time, she wouldn't have been thinking about returning such a gorgeous piece of clothing, a gift she hadn't yet understood at the time.

A raggedy machinic huff and squealing brakes made Anna look up to find the bus rolling in to the stop. The old woman nodded to her before approaching the opening door. Anna found herself glued to her bench seat as the bus lingered for a minute. When the driver was convinced that she wasn't going to board, he closed the door and put the bus in gear.

Anna watched the bus drive away. In the event that she was able to get herself to move, there would be another bus in a couple hours. For the moment, staying put and feeling pitiful was more appealing than facing reality.

After a few moments of studying cracks in the pavement, she heard a car pull up to the bus stop. She looked up to see a certain auburn-haired singer gawking at her from the driver's seat of a sleek white convertible. She was so startled to see him there that she stood up.

"What are you doing? Get in!" he yelled out his window.

She merely glared at him and grabbed for her suitcase to walk away from him. But she'd only taken a few short steps before she heard the hum of the car as it rolled up behind her, following along her path on the sidewalk.

"Get in, I said!"

Anna stopped in her tracks. She glared at him again and turned around, beginning to walk in the opposite direction. She was sure he would drive off after that, but instead he put his car in reverse and caught up with her.

"Argh!"

Again, she turned around and walked in her original direction, at a much faster pace this time. Again, Hans followed, driving parallel to the sidewalk. Finally, Anna stopped and turned toward him.

"Knock it off!"

Hans braked and looked at her with his arm resting outside the open window. He looked from her, to the suitcase, back to the bus stop and then at her again.

"How are you planning to pay me back?" he asked.

Anna opened her mouth to snap at him again. She immediately shut it. She didn't have an answer yet. She wanted to get him his money, wanted him out of her life, especially now that he was living in her house.

"Anna, please just get in the car."

She inhaled deeply and held her breath for just a second before letting it out again. Then, feeling defeated, she rolled her bag around to his passenger side and got into the car with him.

Hans and Anna sat facing each other at the breakfast table. Anna hard a hard time meeting his gaze, and so she kept looking down at the glass top of the table surface. It was quite different from her own breakfast table, which was god knows where. Hans didn't even use a table cloth! Unless he just hadn't bought some yet. Then, she had a thought: Hans probably ate so perfectly that he never spilled anything.

She chuckled darkly.

"So…" Hans's voice forced her to look at him. "You have no job?"

She nodded.

"Nowhere to go."

She nodded again.

"And no family to turn to?"

Anna hesitated, thinking of Rapunzel. But she ended up nodding again.

"All right," he said, sucking his breath in through his teeth before he let a long sigh out. He ran his hand over his face as if he'd had a long, long day. But it was still morning. "I will let you stay here…" Anna's ears perked up. "…but you will have to cook, clean and do housework to earn your keep." His phone dinged, and he pulled it out to check it. He looked puzzled by whatever had popped up on his mobile screen.

Anna's face scrunched up with displeasure. "Oh, lovely. You're letting me earn my keep in my own house?"

Hans nodded distractedly. "And breakfast must be ready by 7:00AM every morning. The cleaning and laundry will be daily. Oh, and if you can stay in your room when I'm home to avoid disturbing me…" He trailed off as he tapped away at his phone, not even looking at her.

Anna sighed. She supposed she should be grateful. It was a temporary solution to being homeless.

"Fine," she said. "Which room will be mine?" She half-expected him to stick her in the closet under the stairs.

"Huh? Oh…" He finally looked at her again after sticking his phone into his jacket pocket. "The room by the second staircase from the loft. I was using it for storage, but… there should be enough space for you."

She bit back a heated remark.

"Thank you."

"This is just for now," he said as she stood and started to take her suitcase. "I expect you to get back on your feet within the week."

"Thank you, all the same," she said with a forced smile. Then she took her bag and headed upstairs to scope out her new room. Her parents had used the room that looked out over the living room for storage too. Depending on how much Hans had in the room, it would be plenty of space for her.

She was pleased to find there were only a few stacks of boxes and bins up there. There was no bed, but she would bring that up later. In the worst-case scenario, she could just sleep in the chaise lounge downstairs.

For now, in an act of good faith, she would roll up her sleeves and find the supplies needed to get started on the cleaning.

Now that the mess with Anna was, at least temporarily, sorted out, Hans ran out to check his mailbox. The text message he received from Ariel had said, "did u get the invitation?". He could only assume the invitation—to what, he wondered—arrived the day before, when he hadn't checked his mail.

He stepped out of the lattice gate and opened the black mailbox immediately outside. His fingers closed over a silver envelope, which he pulled out to discover had come from Kristoff's company, Wintra, Ltd.

Hans took a moment to appreciate how quickly Gene had gotten his new address to all of his contacts. How else would Wintra have known where to reach Hans?

He tore open the envelope and found an invitation within to a welcome home reception for the following evening. It was being sponsored for Kristoff by his company's Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Of course, Hans would go.

With a chuckle, Hans took his cellphone out to reply to Ariel.

He'd barely just sent the "yes" when there was another incoming text from his favorite redhead.

"can u meet me at Pierce?"

Hans's heart stopped. Pierce's was a department store… and, incidentally, where Hans and Ariel had gone on their first date. That is if it could be called a first date.

The singer didn't even blink before he jumped into his car to head downtown and meet her.

Hans found Ariel right away near the escalators in the entrance lobby. Her beautiful red tresses were pulled back by a black bowed ribbon… also just like on their first date.

His heart fluttered somewhat when she waved him over. He was beginning to wonder…

"What's up?" he asked. "You don't usually call me out like this."

Ariel made a prayer-like gesture with clasped hands as she winked at him. "Sorry, but it's an emergency! My father's birthday kind of sneaked up on me, and I need a man's insight for gift shopping."

Hans felt his heart sink, but he was still glad to spend time with her as they drifted from shop to shop.

Papa Waters, officially Triton Waters, was an intimidating man from what Hans recalled of their first and only meeting. The man had a fierce passion for his daughter's singing career. Hans remembered how Triton had reiterated, over and over, that Hans was not to distract Ariel too much from her dreams. He could still hear his ex-girlfriend's embarrassment through cries of, "Enough, daddy!" and "Oh, stop, daddy!" Hans still envied how Ariel had the support of her parent.

Ariel did not exaggerate when she said she needed help picking something. They looked at suits, they looked at watches, they looked at hardware, computers, snack baskets, liquor and more. Every time Ariel pointed something out and asked Hans for his opinion, he was enthusiastic merely because she picked it. Part of him was sorry that he wasn't more helpful, but mostly he was just looking to extend the outing so that he could spend this time alone with her.

But Hans could eventually sense her frustration. After leaving the record store, something occurred to him. He gently took Ariel's hand into his to stop her from darting into the next store.

"I think I know what your father would really love."

Ariel's whole face brightened, though she gently took her hand out of his.

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "Why not just write him a song? He loves your music, doesn't he?"

Hans loved watching the changing expressions on her face, from pensive to agreement and then wonder. She tapped her fist onto her palm and grinned at him as she called him a genius.

Then she hugged him, and his world went still.

"I'm gonna miss you when I move to Glowerhaven!"

Then everything went to shit.

"What?"

She broke the hug and looked up at him.

"Yeah… I'm working with my agent now to get a contract with a studio there. I wanted a change in scene."

Glowerhaven was significantly smaller than Arendelle, though some celebrities lived there for the prestige. It was looked at as kind of an old Arendelle. It was the place to be before the booming economy shifted decades ago. The buildings there, and probably the people too, were more traditional than in modern Arendelle. But Hans already knew the real reason Ariel would want to move there. His brother Eric worked as a surgeon at Glowerhaven Municipal Hospital.

His phone dinged to notify him of a text message, but Hans was too stunned to care. Somehow it surprised him that Ariel would still chase after Eric. It was already several years since…

"That's five hours away," he said when he realized he'd been too silent. "Won't your family miss you?"

Ariel had several sisters in addition to her protective father at home. His phone went off again. He glanced at the screen this time, surprised to see Anna's name pop up on his screen. He forgot he'd added her number previously to be able to get in touch with her about his money. He ignored her message again as Ariel began to answer.

"Five hours isn't like the other side of the world." She giggled.

After a third message from Anna, Hans opened his texts to see what she could possibly be bothering him about.

"WHERE'S YOUR VACUUM?" asked the first message, followed by: "Does Your Highness not have a vacuum?!" and finally, an impatient, "HELLOOOOOO?"

"Oh, for the love of…" he trailed off as he quickly input a reply to get Anna to shut up. "will pick up vacuum omw home," he sent.

"You okay?" Ariel asked, watching him.

Hans jerked his head up and let out a nervous laugh before stowing his phone away. If it went off again, he'd put his phone on silent.

"Yes, fine. Just surprised, is all. I'd really miss you, Ariel."

She smiled. It was that very moment that Hans realized that she had no idea how much he still loved her. The thought was followed by the passionate decision that he would propose to her. Enough time had passed. His friendship with Kris wouldn't be in any danger now. Yes, he'd propose. Ariel would see how deeply he still cared for her… they could be together.

"You haven't gotten a place yet though?"

Ariel nodded. "We're waiting for everything to fall into place with the studio first."

Good, he thought. That left him enough time to buy a ring.

A/N: Thanks for reading/following/favoriting! 😊 Hans is totally John Mayer's "Still Feel Like Your Man" about Ariel here, lolol.