She alights first, just as a queen should. Her subjects are waiting in anticipation, cheering, even, for her ship to anchor. His keen eye catches that she stiffens slightly at the sight of the crowd. Everyone else is too excited at the arrival of the ship to notice. Even in her hesitation, she is calm and graceful, regal. Her emotions last only a momnet on her face before they are hidden away, and a smile is plastered on.
He feels a twinge of pain as he watches Anna rush up to her sister and embrace her. Elsa returns the gesture, her false happiness not reaching her eyes. Hans does not understand how the younger one never notices her sister's pretence. But then he reminds himself that she had never been good at seeing through masks.
The crowds follow the royal sisters and their retinue, disappearing slowly. He is the last to leave the ship, of course. The hated prisoner, the villain of the story that the people of Arendelle knew about their Queen and Princess. The few that remain by the docks when he descends, glare at him cruelly. They remind him, within mere seconds of his setting foot on the kingdom, that he is not welcome.
He wants to retort, to scream at them, to remindthem, what he remembers; a part of the story they chose to forget. The part where he was the one providing them shelter against the cold storm their Queen had brought upon them. He knows they do not see him as that man anymore, who brought smiles of gratitude to their faces as he offered warmth clothes and food to them when they needed it most. The gestures were not what had been a part of his plan, and he had little reason to give away blankets and soup, but he had not wnaged the people to suffer for their Queen's folly. The same people that now turn their backs and sneer at him.
He wishes that he did not blame them, but he does. They have omitted everything in their pursuit to call him a monster. His is the lot of the fallen, the vilified, the detested.
It strikes him that perhaps this was the Queen's intention. A pretence to gain a part of his trust, and then to throw him into the very heart of the kingdom that loathed him. It is much crueler than an isolated dungeon at his former home.
He lets out a small laugh, that no one else hears, just as they approach the castle gates. He contrasts the image of him being led in as a prisoner, with guards watching his every move, with the previous time he had walked through the same doors, as an honoured guest and a representative of his kingdom.
"How low the mighty have fallen,"he whispers mockingly to himself. The castle that is to be his new prison looms above him.
Notes: I am aware I mentioned that I won't update this story on fanfiction dot net anymore, but it seems that it has quite a following here, and I would hate to disappoint any readers. So here we are!