Tokens and Goodbyes

(A/N: And last chapter. As always, final A/N at the bottom. Enjoy.)

Much of the excitement had died down since the incident in the cave. Olaf had told of the conspiring suitors. They had come very close to being imprisoned, but Carl had spoken on their behalf and assured they would be dealt with on his return to his land. The term had been acceptable, and Carl had ordered them all back to their various kingdoms. This suitor game was just about done. Tonight, Elsa would address the ones that remained and either make her decision, or send them home to wait for word from her. More likely the latter, though they still held out hope it would be the former. Today, though, was the waiting period, as she reviewed everything that had happened and tried to finalize her choice. She would be in conference with the Duke, Mael, and her family until evening with only a few breaks.

It was during one of these breaks that Mael read a letter from home to his siblings in an undertone. They listened solemnly, heads bowed. "Whatever is the matter with you young men?" the Duke questioned, coming along with his bodyguards at his back. They looked at him. Hans turned and left quietly. His brothers watched after him then turned to the Duke again.

"Peace with Scotland has been obtained… Only for war with Britain, at least parts of it, to break out in its stead as we fight alongside our former enemies," Mael answered. "Moren has summoned us back. He cannot spare us anymore… We are to leave first thing tomorrow and make for the Isles with all haste…"

The Duke was silent, looking down and taking this in. "Weselton is at your aid, should you need it," he soon said, looking back at them again. "I wouldn't fear for yourselves, boys. Moren will not put you in more danger than he must. Not this time."

"I wouldn't be too sure," Kelin-Sel quietly said. "He may not have a choice." The Duke shifted worriedly and looked out a nearby window.

Frozen

Elsa listened numbly to Hans's explanation, looking down in stunned silence. She couldn't be hearing this. Not now… She closed her eyes and swallowed before looking back up at Hans. His eyes were fixed on the sea, troubled and tired. "So that's it, then? You're just going to leave? Like that," she said.

"We have no choice," Hans answered.

"This war… It could go on for years," Elsa said.

"It will," Hans stated. "There is no 'could' about it." He paused, looking upwards. "I think... I think that maybe… No. It's a silly thought. Forget it…" he said.

"What?" she asked.

He hesitated, cringing, then turned to her earnestly. "I think that perhaps the hardest part of it, for me, will be not being able to write you anymore. Couriers won't go into a warzone, pigeons won't find us… There is no way to keep up any form of communication." He looked back at the sea. "You were my respite, out there on the brine. You and the messages you sent. They were such a relief… A sign of hope and life in an ocean of carnage… Wow. I'm being blatantly inauthentic. Err, cheap. Hackneyed. Cliché."

"I know what it means, Hans," she teased with a smirk. He grinned and shrugged sheepishly. Her smirk fell and she went quiet, looking out at the ocean. After a moment she spread her hands and began conjuring something. Hans looked over, vaguely curious as to what she was doing. His eyes widened slowly as the figure began to take shape. A bird of ice. His lips slowly parted as she raised it to her lips and softly blew on it before kissing its head. "Wake up," she whispered to the creation. With a shudder it began to move and shake out its wings. It looked up at her as she brought it to life, then to Hans. Elsa smiled, petting its head.

"Elsa…" Hans said in awe. "That… that's amazing."

"Thank you," she said. She looked to him. "Perhaps a bird of flesh and blood will not be able to find its way to you, or its way back to me… But this isn't a bird of flesh and blood… It will find you no matter where you are, and no matter where I am. A messenger just for us…"

He took it gently into his hands, admiring the intricacy and beauty. He closed his eyes, nuzzling its head softly. "You will never know what this means to me…" he murmured to her, placing it back in her hands, though he kept his own on it as well.

She smiled at him gently then looked out over the sea again, letting the bird go along with the prince. It flew to a nearby perch on a tree and settled in. She grinned at it. Soon, though, her grin fell to a more serious expression. "You saved Anna's life," she remarked. "Thank you… Nothing means more to me than her. If I'd lost my sister…" She trailed off, shaking her head. She turned to him again. "Just thank you." He bowed to her respectfully. She bowed back then rose, leaving to start up the meeting again.

From above, Edvard Collin watched solemnly and sadly.

Frozen

Hans and Edvard were in the garden, sparring one another. Soon, though, they lowered their swords to take a break. "You're a good opponent," Hans remarked to him.

"Thank you," Edvard replied, sounding distracted.

Hans frowned, looking over. "Is something the matter?" he asked him.

"No. Yes. I don't know..." Edvard replied. He looked over at Hans. Hans looked curious and worried. "She means a good deal to you," he remarked finally.

Hans started and cringed, looking away. "She's a friend," he answered.

"A friend... Would a friend had crafted something as beautiful as that bird for you?" he asked.

Hans tensed up but didn't reply directly. "We leave tomorrow... War has broken out and we can't be spared it. Too much is on the line... It will go on maybe years..." He turned to Edvard. "I plan to withdraw my hand," he stated.

Edvard's eyes widened slightly. "You what?" he asked.

"I'm pulling out," Hans answered. "There's no point in remaining. She'll never love me and I'll never love her, and that's the fact of it."

Edvard observed him silently. "How can you be so blind?" he asked finally.

"I'm through with love," Hans said. "And why does it matter to you anyway? One of your greatest threats is gone, so let me be... You will make her happy..." Edvard was silent. Perhaps he would, but was that all that he would ever do...? He looked away from Hans, thinking. He could make the queen happy, yes... What did Hans have the potential to do for her, though, if he'd let himself?

Edvard shifted. He loved her, of that there was no doubt... But sometimes love wasn't all it took... "She will be content with me, she will love me; but with you..." Edvard murmured.

"There is no future for her with me," Hans replied, turning and walking away. He paused a moment and looked back. "I hardly believe I'll survive this war anyway."

Edvard watched after him solemnly as the prince left. "I think there could be a future for her with you," he murmured after Hans. "If you would let there be." And it would be a future greater than any he could offer her... He bowed his head and closed his eyes tightly, willing back the pain he felt.

Frozen

Elsa now addressed the suitors that remained. "Which of you withdraws of your own accord?" she asked them all. She trusted them to be honest.

Harald and Carl both raised their hands. Along with them, the triplets and Kelin-Sel raised theirs, as other suitors began to murmur and discuss with one another. Hans was still. He drew a deep and shaky breath and began to raise his hand. All at once someone caught his wrist. He glanced over sharply and started. "Edvard?" he asked in a shocked whisper.

"Stay in the running," he murmured to the prince.

"Are you out of your mind? Why would I…?" Hans began.

"On the night of the masquerade I saw that something between you two had formed. I don't know what it is, or what it could be, but it's there," Edvard stated. "I love the queen. Dearly. I would fight for her and die for her a thousand times over and then some… But sometimes mere love isn't enough… What I witnessed between you two… It was unlike anything I have ever known…"

"I have no feelings beyond friendship for Elsa," Hans hissed.

"Yes you do… Maybe it's not love, not yet, but it's something. Something far more valuable and rewarding than I could ever give her," Edvard said. Hans was shocked numb, trying to figure out what the heck it was that Edvard meant. Edvard turned to Elsa and raised his own hand.

Hans's eyes bugged wide. Elsa, seeing the action, coiled back looking visibly stung and upset and betrayed. "Edvard? You?" she asked, hurt in her voice.

"I would have died to be your husband, my lady queen, a thousand times over and then some… But I can't be… I won't be the man you choose," he said. "I won't let you pick me, because I know… I know that there is someone who means far more to you than I ever could."

"That isn't yours to decide," Elsa said, rising almost pleadingly. "You don't know my thoughts or my heart! I love..." She trailed off. She couldn't say it... She couldn't say she loved him. She couldn't say she chose him. She could pretend, oh how she could pretend, but not in this... Never in this...

He waited a moment, to see if she would continue. She didn't, and he shakily sighed, feeling his heart sinking. "Is your heart with me truly, Elsa? Do you look at me and say to yourself, 'This is the man I see a future with. This is the man I picture having a family with. This is the man I see sharing my bed for the rest of our days'?" he asked.

Elsa was silent, swallowing tightly. "No…" she answered. "But I see that with none of you... It will come..."

"It has come. You do see it," Edvard answered, smirking. "Somewhere within your heart and your mind, somewhere in your darkest and most secret dreams, you see that life with one of us… You're just afraid to identify the man whose image it is that you see… But I can tell you that face isn't mine… I wish it was, but it isn't." Elsa looked down, closing her eyes tightly and willing back tears. Hans remained frozen in shock, as did Iscawin. Edvard looked away, tears burning his own eyes. "I'm sorry… Forgive me…"

"You are forgiven," Elsa said in barely a whisper. Edvard bowed low to her then turned his back, leaving the throne room. Carl and Harald exchanged worried looks and followed him silently. The other suitors were quiet. Soon, though, one by one they followed. Hans gaped up at Elsa in shock and disbelief, concern filling his eyes. He almost moved to go to her, but Kelin-Sel dropped a hand on his arm and shook his head. It was time for them to go… Hans swallowed, turned to look at Elsa again, then let his brother bring him away.

Frozen

Elsa sat on the window seat in her room, knees drawn up and head resting on them as she watched the ships belonging to Edvard, Carl, Harald and the rest of the suitors pull away from Arendelle. All except for the Southern Isles. She sniffed, wiping her eyes in frustration. She wasn't supposed to cry for any man. She was supposed to be the ice queen… But she felt like anything but a queen now… She felt like a young woman who had just been left behind by the man who had loved her... just not enough to stay. Or maybe too much to stay...

"Elsa?" Gerda's voice asked from the door.

Elsa sniffed, wiping her eyes again, and looked over at her. "What went wrong?" she asked the old woman in a breaking whisper. "Why did he do that?"

"Are you really as hurt as you seem, or is it for another reason you weep?" Gerda asked.

Elsa sniffed again, looking back out the window. "I weep because… because he was right… I never meant to hurt him like that, I didn't… He shouldn't have… Why couldn't he have been wrong…? Why couldn't I love him like he loved me? I would have been happy with him and then… I don't know what's happening anymore…" she said, burying her face in her knees again.

Gerda approached and sat across from her, gently placing her hands on Elsa's shoulders. "It was for the best," she said.

"You can't know that," Elsa said.

"In most instances you would be right… But not in this one," Gerda stated. "He saved you from a very big mistake."

"He wouldn't have been a mistake!" Elsa protested.

"But he wouldn't have been the man your heart desired either," Gerda said.

"My heart desires no one," Elsa answered in a whisper. "It never will again. I won't let it... It hurts too much..." She didn't want to feel like the villain again. She was fine with being alone. She was fine with having just her family.

Gerda tilted her head, thought about arguing, then decided now was not the time. "Oh dear girl…" she softly murmured, drawing Elsa close and hugging her motheringly. Elsa let herself cry in the woman's arms.

Frozen

"I'm worried about her," Anna said to Hans and Kristoff. "She was so hurt. How could he do that?!" Hans cringed but said nothing. He got the sinking feeling he knew why Edvard had done that... For Iscawin, probably! Inside of himself, he was laughing at that notion. He was kidding himself worse than he'd ever kidded himself before.

"Because he loved her... He loved her, but knew there was someone who was at risk of coming to love her even more than he did," Kristoff replied. "Someone who she's probably at risk of coming to love as well."

"Who?" Anna asked. "Iscawin?" She hoped it was Iscawin, at least... Part of her wasn't so sure...

"Maybe? I don't know," Kristoff replied.

Yes you do.

"Whoever it is probably hasn't even come to love her yet, though, and might never get to, so it was a pretty big risk Edvard took," Kristoff continued slightly more harshly. "He threw away a lot for her sake... The guy he suspected was starting to enter her heart had better not stomp on that gift."

"He won't," Hans said, rising and quickly leaving. Iscawin was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

You lying bastard! Are you serious right now?!

Scowling, he stomped out that thought. "Hans!" Anna called. Hans paused, looking back. "Can you check on her? Please? I don't think she'll talk to me about it."

Hans was quiet. "Fine," he finally, and begrudgingly, relented. The last thing he wanted was to be anywhere near the ice queen right now. Or ever again.

Frozen

Elsa was standing in the garden by the pond, watching the swans swimming on the surface. She heard footsteps approaching but didn't turn. They stopped, a little ways behind her. "I'm sorry," someone said. Hans, she knew.

She closed her eyes and drew a shaky breath before turning to him, sadness in her eyes. "His leaving didn't hurt me as badly as knowing I could never love him like he loved me did," she replied.

"I know... I'm sorry nonetheless," Hans replied. "I wish I could say more."

Elsa nodded and looked back out over the pond. "You're leaving tomorrow..." she murmured.

"Yes," he confirmed again.

She was quiet, thinking. "How do you see the war going?" she questioned, wanting to avoid the topic of Edvard for now.

Hans was silent. She turned to him warily, on hearing no answer. Soon he sighed. "I don't know... I don't believe... I'm not sure that I'll survive it."

Elsa felt her body tense up. Those words had no right to jar her like they had...

You do not want to accept that he may die... You want to save him...

She watched him a moment then looked up to the castle. "Come with me. Please. There's something else I want to give you," she said after a moment. He looked curious and slightly confused, but nonetheless he obligingly followed.

Frozen

Elsa pushed open the door to a room that had been locked tightly long ago. Hans followed her inside and his lips parted. Surely this had been the king and queen's old room. He was in awe of it. Elsa went to a dresser and opened up a box that began to play a soft tune. He turned to it curiously and watched her. Elsa reached inside and withdrew something from the box, gazing at it a long moment. She took a breath then turned to him, going to the prince. She opened her hands, showing him what she held.

His eyes widened. It was a pendant, one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. Whether it was crystal or diamond or ice was hard to tell. Oh the never melting ice... Gold was trapped within, spiralling throughout like a still flame. The light caught the piece just right, and within it a dazzling and eternal dance of fire and ice erupted, constantly swirling and moving and intertwining as the gold seemed to come to life, no longer frozen in place, and as so many various colors flashed along with it, sparkling and glistening like a flame blazing in a snowfall. "My god…" Hans breathed.

"It's been in my family for a long time, following the blood line of my mother… God only knows how far back it dates… It was an heirloom. A token… A promise… Mother gave it to father, during their courtship. Perhaps grandmother did the same with grandfather. I don't know… I have no man to gift it to… Not like that. Not in the sense of a lover," she murmured, lightly petting it. She looked up at him solemnly. "Except for you..." she added. "I give it to you now; not as my lover, but as just you. My friend and confidant." To say he was her friend and confidant made it seem less intimate. It was a reassurance to herself that that was all he was...

But it is a lie. A part of you wants him to be so much more... He is coming to be so much more, and you don't want him to be, so you fight it; but he is and you're afraid... So is he...

He was stunned, unsure what to say or how to react. She took a breath and slipped it over his head. He held the pendant in his hand, gazing at it as if afraid the slightest wrong move would shatter it. She admired it as well for a long moment before she looked up at him. He met her eyes. She slipped her arms around him, holding him close. Hardly daring to move at first, he soon put his own arms around her and gently drew her nearer to him still, resting his head on hers.

Soon the queen drew back, gazing up at the prince. "I will wait for no man," she told him.

If I choose you, will it save you? Will it bring you back alive and sooner? Will it keep you from the front lines? I would risk it, if it would, but should I? Can I? Or am I too late...? Perhaps we will soon see.

"Then I will never make you wait," he promised, wrapping his hands around hers and resting her forehead against her own. She nodded her head, drawing in a shaky breath, and looked up at him again, tears burning her eyes. They were so close, his nose softly nuzzling hers. Could it hurt? To kiss him? Just one kiss… Not the kiss of a lover! Just… just the kiss of a friend…? A dear, dear friend… It was just… just a kiss…

Frozen

Where normally either her or him would have withdrawn last second, this time she didn't. Neither did Hans. They hardly realized what they'd done until their lips were pressed firmly together, their bodies as close and as tight against one another as they could possibly be without getting more inappropriate and improper than they were already being.

His lips like coals against her own, her lips like an icy whisper against his.

After a long moment they drew slowly apart. She let out a soft and shaky breath, and he... he just felt numb... Numb and scared. His heart was pounding so loudly... Their eyes slowly opened and they looked at each other. Fear and uncertainty was reflected in both of their gazes. Just the kiss of a friend. It was just the kiss of a friend…

No it isn't…

Before they could fall into the temptation to kiss again, they looked away from one another, eyes shut.

Say it. Say something. You both know that is what you want to say. Tell him you love him…

"Be safe," Elsa whispered softly. What one wanted and what one spoke from the misleadings of a heart caught in the passion of the moment, were very different. This was the misleadings of a heart that had been recently hurt, and was now caught up in said passion of the moment. To say those words... I love you... They would be spoken in bad judgement and longing and loneliness, not in love and certainty and common rational sense.

I love you… Say it! Say to her you love her…

No... Love did not exist... It was a concoction of writers and artists, and were he to speak those words it would be only for curiosity's sake. Curiosity to see what it would feel like and sound like on his tongue and in his mouth. It would be a fancy, it would be a whim, and it would be totally and utterly unfair to Elsa. He was not ready to accept that. He was not ready to take that leap. One day, maybe, but not now. He would not let his heart betray him again. Besides, there were no happily ever afters, for the princes of the Southern Isles.

He turned back to her and tilted her chin gently. He leaned forward, pressing a soft and tender kiss to her eyelids, each one. He drew back. She opened her eyes, tears burning in them. "Don't be afraid for us," he murmured to her. "We will be victorious." She nodded quietly. He drew her near once more, gently rocking her, then pulled back and bowed low to the queen, kissing both of her hands softly. "Farewell, nightingale," he murmured. Pulling away, he turned and quickly left the room, tucking the pendant out of sight beneath his coat. Elsa stood in the bedroom, as still as if she were a statue. Head hung low, she closed her eyes and willed this all to end...

Final A/N: And done. I didn't feel it was as good as some of the earlier ones, but hopefully the fifth story, which I'm in the process of writing and which will be rated M, makes up for it. And if it doesn't, the sixth definitely will. After the sixth story, starting with the seventh or eighth in the next half of the series, the plot armor comes off and most everyone's fair game. Both excited and depressed for that. Of course, the plot armor is off for some characters already now... First death may actually happen next story, though it won't be any of the brothers. Likely. Anyway, the fifth story brings back the cursed mirror, the trolls, and the wicked hobgoblin. Gran' Pabbie features in at least the first chapter, thus far, but probably later ones as well, depending on how things go. Have a plan, but it's getting it written that's hard, especially with schooling. Anyway, hopefully you all enjoyed it. Thank you, again, for the continued support. It means a lot to me.)