Chapter 7

Elsa turned her eyes away from Hans and back at Anna, but Anna only mirrored back Elsa's perplexed expression. They were still in each other's arms, caught in a scene the two sisters themselves could not interpret. Both could not find the right answer to Han's unexpected question. Or maybe, they knew what the answer was, but were too afraid to say it aloud.

What is going on here? Elsa internalized as their stares wavered away from each other. Anna looked lost in her own thoughts - digesting some inner struggle within herself.

Elsa then felt Anna gently pulling herself away from her arms, and coldness instantaneously overtook the warmth in place of Anna's body.

Anna stepped away, looking slightly bewildered at what might have been going on through her own mind. Anna turned her gaze to Elsa, and grasped her arms like she always did when she was unsure of something. She was staring at Elsa in a way, Elsa never saw Anna look at her before - there was an intensity in her eyes that made Elsa's heart flutter.

"I-I think I need some time alone for a while… to think," Anna dazedly said, rubbing the side of her arms. All the while, her eyes were only directed at Elsa, communicating wordlessly to her with an apologetic look.

Elsa parted her lips to protest, but Anna had already turned away to walk past Hans - they locked eyes briefly, but did not say anything to each other. Both Anna and Hans knew anything between them was kaput long before it even started.

Elsa reached out a hand towards Anna - trying to process what exactly just transpired. She moved forward to chase after Anna, but Hans blocked her way. This motherffff- It took all Elsa had not to freeze off his sideburns.

"Move," she demanded, but Hans refused to comply.

"No, I don't think so, my queen," Hans said, letting the royal title glide off his tongue, as if relishing the way the word tasted. "You see, I think you and I both know, something is not quite right here."

Elsa gritted her teeth. Don't ice his sideburns. Do not ice his stupid sideburns. Elsa had to keep reminding herself in an effort to remain her composure.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Elsa brushed off Hans' comment, trying to move around the idiot blocking the only way to Anna.

"Ah, ah," Hans reprimanded Elsa as if she was some mindless child - stopping her from leaving once more. "This photo says otherwise." Hans proceeded to pull out a photo and waved the still-developing image before Elsa's face.

Elsa had to squint her eyes to make out the image in the process of steadily forming into a clear photo. She gasped in shock. It was her and Anna in their embrace, but it had been cleverly taken to look as if they were kissing. What the? She looked at Hans' triumphant smirk and wanted to wipe it right off his smug face.

The nerve of this guy, Elsa seethed, and glowered at Hans. Should she freeze him right now and tell people he was an ice statue she just recently commissioned for the garden? She most definitely would have, if she wasn't too worried about what Anna would think of her if she suddenly became a murderess.

"Pretty convincing, isn't it?" Hans chuckled menacingly, tucking the photo safely inside the inner pocket of his jacket. "It was never my intention to take this photo, but I stumbled onto the opportunity while trailing you two to the garden, and so, I seized it. I know you two aren't really kissing, but it really does appear like you two are locking lips in this photo doesn't it? I take a darn good photo." Hans continued his monologue. "What would the kingdom think of this?" Hans feigned curiosity by placing a finger to his chin. "Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, in an incestuous relationship with her baby sister. Even going so far as to dress up as a man to court her own sister. My, what a scandal it would be." Hans looked at her like a slimy snake - his smirk growing wider with each passing moment he basked in his victory.

Elsa tried to make it look as if she was not phased by Hans' little speech, but deep down inside, she was scared - scared of what it might mean for her, and more importantly, Anna's future. "What is it you want?" Elsa forced out, through gritted teeth. Her hands shook from restraining her powers - if she so much as twitched a finger, a blast of sharp icicles may have pierced the side-burned villain.

Hans chuckled evilly - he was taking his role as the bad guy way too far. Maybe just one ice blast won't kill him, at least, I don't think it would… Elsa contemplated as Hans proceeded to circle around her with his arms behind his back. He was strutting around her with an air of pompous arrogance - Elsa wasn't sure how much more of his antics she could take before she snapped.

He stopped behind her, and she then felt his breath circle around her ear as he spoke - a strong wave of nausea washed over her. "It's not what, I want," Hans said, "It's who I want," he finished, and Elsa could practically visualize his triumphant smirk as he spoke, even though she wasn't facing him.

She whipped herself around to challenge him. "Don't you dare even think of Anna," Elsa threatened him, which only made him laugh harder.

After a hearty bout of laughter, Hans said, "Oh, my queen, you've got it all wrong. Not Anna - It's you I'm talking about." He encroached closer to Elsa, and she backpedaled instinctively.

"Me?" She said, incredulously.

Hans smirked. "Yes, you, Queen Elsa," he confirmed. "You are the only reason why I even tried so hard to get close to Anna - she was only my leeway towards my ultimate goal - which is you."

Elsa decided she had heard enough. She raised her hands and was ready to strike him with a bout of her power, but then Elsa remembered, only the castle staff and Anna knew her secret. Revealing her power now - without fatally killing Hans that is - would be detrimental to not only herself, but Anna. What would the kingdom do? Exile both of them? She couldn't risk Anna's safety no matter how tempting it was to obliterate Hans at the moment. Control yourself. For Anna, she thought, and inhaled deeply.

Elsa let her hands fall back down to her sides, thinking desperately for a more reasonable solution. Hans refused to let her have her own personal space, closing in even more, until she could see every strand of hair on his sideburns.

Elsa thought she might as well take the opportunity to try and take the photo from him, but failed miserably. She clawed at his jacket, hoping to open the lapels to retrieve the photo, but ended up pawing his chest instead, without really accomplishing much.

Hans took her wrists in his hands and held them firmly. Elsa groaned inwardly at how slow her reflexes was. Even a blind person could have successfully taken the photo out of Hans' jacket from such a close distance.

Hans chuckled and enjoyed seeing Elsa look so frazzled. "My, aren't you a feisty one. Were you trying to be a bad girl and steal the photo from me, or were you making a move on me?" Hans smiled widely at Elsa.

Elsa scowled in disgust. Smooth move, Elsa. The only chance you had to swipe the one piece of evidence this scuzbag has on you, and you end up feeling him up instead. Ugh.

Elsa fiercely pulled back her wrists from Hans' grip, and wiped her hands on the sides of her jacket in extreme disgust. "Trust me, I would rather light myself on fire while stabbing myself in the eyes with ten inch needles than touch you," Elsa spat out.

Hans only smiled and said, "I'm sure Anna has a different opinion of me. She seemed to be quite taken with me actually," Hans egged Elsa's temper on. "If I really wanted to, I would have had her on her knees in a matter of hours."

Elsa's blood pounded with a fiery rage and her reaction was to knee him right in the groin, which she promptly did.

"Oof!" Hans cried out in pain, and doubled over, cupping his private parts.

Bulls-eye.

Hans let out a shaky laugh, still in great pain. "Y-you misunderstood me," he gasped out, struggling to keep his smirk on his face. "When I said she'd be on her knees, I-I meant-"

"It doesn't matter," Elsa cut him off. It still felt damn good to do that.

"You're not as fragile as you look," Hans chuckled, with one eye closed in pain. He pushed his hands off his knees to struggle back to an upright position. He wobbled a bit at first, but eventually found his center of gravity. "But no matter what," he said, still breathless. "I'm still the one with the upper hand," Hans reminded her, as he patted the right side of his breast pocket.

Elsa looked at him with such hatred, it could have froze hell over.

"If you don't want this to go public," Hans started, "Then there is something you can do for me. In return, I give you my word, I will give you the photo of you and Anna being… intimate." Hans said, knowingly.

Elsa glared at Hans, refusing to believe she was at the mercy of such a slime-ball. Unfortunately, she knew there wasn't much she could do. Hans really did have the upper hand, and she hated to admit it. If she used her powers on him, then her ability would be exposed and that wouldn't be good - he'd have two things to blackmail her with. If she refused whatever offer Hans had in mind, the supposed incestuous relationship between her and Anna would be revealed. Whether the evidence was false or not - it was still a damn convincing photo. You win, for now, sideburns.

"What is the offer?" Elsa said, lowly, crossing her arms across her chest.

Hans titled his chin up, making him look a thousand times more pompous. "To marry me," he simply stated.

Elsa's jaw dropped. Her immediate response was, "No. Hell, no."

Hans shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, if you insist. I'll just go back inside and make a little announcement about this photo I just took of the queen and her sister…" He then turned to walk away.

Elsa panicked. "No! J-just give me a moment to think about this," Elsa cried out.

Hans turned back around to face her. "There's nothing to think about," he suggested. "If you marry me, I'll give you the only photo of you and Anna acting in more than a sisterly manner, and I'll be king - we'll both win. Or, if you don't marry me, I'll just tell everyone what goes on behind the queen's closed doors, and you and Anna will be ruined."

Elsa's heart dropped and it felt like a large, gaping hole replaced her stomach. She gulped nervously and forced her brain to think as fast as it could. What do I do? Elsa desperately thought, but no answer came to relieve her from the stressful situation. All she could think about was what would be best for Anna.

Elsa sighed in defeat and clenched her fists. "Okay, fine." She couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth.

"Is that a yes?" Hans said, expectantly.

Elsa couldn't let the confirmation out of her mouth, so she just nodded yes.

Hans smile grew even larger and he stepped forward towards Elsa. "Announce it back at the party. I will meet you back inside," was all he said, and turned around to walk out of the garden back to the ballroom.

Elsa was left numb and raw from what she had done. "I did not just give in to that side-burned vomit-bag," Elsa whispered to herself incredulously. "But what choice did I have?" Elsa thought to herself as she thought about what she could have done different.

She thought of Anna and wondered where she had run off to. Before she was going to make any crazy announcements, Elsa felt the need to talk to Anna first. I've got to see Anna, was all she thought, and moved to head back inside to look for her.