So,

One day it's Spring, and the next we're right back to Winter. Is the weather wonky these days where you are, too?

Thank you, as always, for reading, reviewing, following, and all those sweet things. I appreciate it all.

ssg.x.

CHAPTER 9
A CURIOUS BEAUTY

Prince Hans Westergård of the Southern Isles,

It is with profound sincerity that I, Queen Elsa Riborg Voigt of Arendelle, do hereby grant my forgiveness for crimes committed against myself and the citizens of my kingdom. I assure you that we shall seek no further retribution beyond the punishment assigned to you in accordance with the laws of your dominion. Instead, my most genuine hope is that during this time, your majesty will find strength in solitude, rather than despair in isolation.

Yours sincerely,

Queen Elsa of Arendelle

oooOOOOooo

Elsa watched Hans pacing the room, shoulders shrugged against the cold, and arms crossed over a navy double-breasted half coat over a white, high-collared shirt. The rows of gold buttons running the length of the coat's torso all bore the Westergård family crest. He had tugged a second pair of gloves over the pair he was already wearing, and wrapped his elegant throat in a stiff, silk necktie. He was the perfect balance between grace and strength.

The devil.

His cheeks were ruddy, and his teeth were chattering. His pacing had slowed down considerably since he started, and his eyelids drooped over his soft, green eyes. The cold was clearly taking its toll on him. Still, when he caught her watching him before she could prevent it, a small, self-satisfied smile pulled at a corner of his mouth.

"Your Majesty?" Hans uncrossed his arms and gave Elsa a little bow. The drop in temperature had no effect on Elsa, so she couldn't blame the blush that coloured her face on the cold. Under her breath, she cursed herself for letting her guard down.

"Yes?" she asked hoarsely, folding and unfolding her gloves in her lap.

"You were looking at me."

Elsa shifted uncomfortably on the window seat. "Don't flatter yourself. It's only because there really isn't much else to look at in here right now."

"I don't mind you looking at me," he said, tilting his chin up haughtily. "I'm attractive - I know that. It's partly how I was able to net your sister so easily."

"Don't talk about my sister," she warned him, more for his sake than her own. "You're such an arrogant a –"

"You know," Hans interrupted, "you said that I'm incapable of telling nothing but lies, but every single time I've managed to prove to you I've been telling the truth, I've gotten no apologies from you. Not even for, say, locking me up in that wardrobe. That hardly seems fair."

"So, the truth here is that you think you're attractive?" Elsa asked wryly. Hans began pacing again, hands clasped behind his back, cocksure like a hawk circling its disadvantaged prey. He smiled.

"I don't think I'm attractive, Your Highness. I know I'm attractive. I also know I'm disarmingly charming. I can't accomplish much with it here, though. I'm the thirteenth son; handsome and charming are a dime a dozen in this family." Hans shrugged his shoulders with feigned indifference - there was an edge to his voice, though, that even he couldn't hide whenever he mentioned his family. "Those are all truths. I've committed many crimes. I'm a cad and I was willing to leave behind a death count to get where I wanted to be, but you're the bigger liar of the two of us."

Elsa was so taken aback by that last statement that she struggled to find words to express how outraged she was.

"You're insane. How's that for the truth?" she sputtered at last.

Hans chuckled. "You lie to yourself all the time, don't you? You're more like me than you care to admit."

"I'm nothing like you," Elsa spat. Hans strode over to the window seat and sat down beside her. She glared at him before standing up and crossing the room, turning her back to him.

"We're two sides of the same coin as the expression goes. The same something dwells in both of us. We've both almost killed –"

"I was defending myself," Elsa said shakily. "I didn't want to kill anyone."

"Now that's not entirely true, is it? You had immobilized those two men, but it wasn't enough for you. You wanted to destroy them. I stopped you."

Don't be the monster they fear you are.

"Yes, I wanted to be the big hero who swept in and saved Arendelle just when all hope was lost, but I had asked you to end the winter, remember? You said you couldn't. The fjord was frozen through. Your people were suffering. Does it really matter what my motivations were for wanting to put an end to their suffering so long as someone, oh I don't know, put an end to their suffering?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Elsa asked, wrapping her arms around herself. Her joints ached from the strain of keeping the freeze under control. "Asking me to end the winter was all part of your act. I was naïve. I let you manipulate me. I needed so desperately for someone to tell me I wasn't a monster, and there you were – Prince Charming. Then you try to crush me with a chandelier followed by an attempt to decapitate me."

She glanced back over her shoulder at Hans, who looked mildly surprised she'd managed to figure out that he'd purposely aimed the crossbow at the chandelier in her palace of ice as Elsa stood unsuspectingly under it. She shivered when Hans walked across the room so he could stand behind her, snow and ice crunching beneath his boots.

"We're both young, strong, and beautiful, Queen Elsa - capable of boundless heroism and staggering destruction," he said.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Elsa replied sardonically. Hans wasn't the least bit put off.

"I can't control the weather, but I can control people. I think you'd agree that can be just as dangerous, if not more so," he drawled huskily.

Elsa wanted so badly to move away from Hans, but the weight of his eyes on her back kept her close enough for his scent to take hold of her again. Soon she could feel his warm breath tickling the nape of her neck. For his own safety, she hoped he knew better than to try to touch her. She didn't like to be touched.

"Whatever it is you're trying to do right now, it isn't going to work," she said, standing a little straighter and pulling her shoulders back, trying to appear as confident as Hans seemed to be. "I'm not my sister. You were able to take advantage of her because she was lonely and desperately wanted someone to love who was capable of loving her back. I left her vulnerable to you, and I'll never forgive myself for that. But I didn't grow up lonely – I grew up in complete and utter isolation, in a room much like this one. Some might wonder if I ever felt like those four walls were closing in. It never felt like that to me." Elsa stared down at her clasped hands, a faraway look in her blue eyes. "The walls would draw farther and farther away from me with each day that passed, leaving nothing but more frozen wasteland in their place. No trees, or flowers, or people to watch. Just me. It was unbearable until it wasn't."

Elsa sighed, smiling sadly. "I don't suppose you could understand what I mean," she said, finally turning to face Hans. He was looking at her, but his expression was unreadable. For once he seemed to have nothing to say.

"So, you see, I'm very good at being 'just me'. Trying to seduce me for any nefarious purposes you may have in mind would be a waste of your time. You'd be better off conserving your energy so you don't freeze to death."

Hans was quiet for the longest time. She couldn't see his breath, and, despite herself, she began to worry about him. Then, without warning, Hans closed the distance between them, winding his gloved hands in her soft, white hair and pressing his mouth desperately to hers. Elsa felt the room begin to spin, and the icy floor beneath them exploded with light. It travelled up the walls and across the ceiling, setting the icicles that hung from the rafters aglow one after the other like lanterns. Elsa gasped against his mouth, her heart pounding so violently it frightened her. He parted the seam of her lips with his tongue and the icicles began to burst, becoming harmless snowflakes that glittered like tiny, winking diamonds by the time they met their heads and shoulders.

Hans fumbled to tear off his gloves, throwing them to his side before reaching for her again. She should have used that brief moment of freedom to push him away, but she didn't. She couldn't. One naked hand lightly traced the line of her neck, while the other made quick work of pulling out the pin and loosening the braid that held her up-do together. Her hair fell softly around her face and down her back like dove feathers. She pressed her hand flush against his chest, ready to free herself from him, but felt his heart beating against the palm of her hand as fiercely as if she were cradling it in her fingers. She began to tremble. He couldn't fake that, could he?

"Elsa," he breathed. The sound of her name on his lips, his perfect lips, was her undoing. She moaned and, despite every fiber of her being begging her to take heed, she kissed him back. The freeze hummed through her veins, but all she could feel were his hands, his tongue, his lips…

Hans suddenly pulled away, crying out in pain. He gritted his teeth and doubled over, tears springing to his eyes. Elsa looked down at her hand, the one that had been pressed against his heart.

"Elsa…?" he rasped, green eyes entreating her for answers she couldn't give him. Elsa wordlessly shook her head, eyes wide with panic and confusion. She drew her hands to her chest. His legs buckled beneath him and he fell to the ground.

"Hans…" she whispered. His eyes became glassy and unfocused; his lips began to turn blue.

Please, no…

Horrified, Elsa realized what she had done. She had just inadvertently frozen his heart.