"Move over," grunted Elsa, adjusting her grip on the bobbing barrel. She was so cold that she could not feel her toes or even her fingers. Her ocean-soaked boots weighed heavily on her numb legs.
Kristoff shouldered her but did not budge. Instead, he merely rearranged his hand holds on the wood, accommodating for his larger stature and therefore larger claim on the floating object.
"How long do you think, before-?" Elsa began through chattering teeth.
"Not long," said Kristoff gruffly. "Stop asking."
When they had first been dropped into the water together, the First Mate had been jovial of spirit. So much so, in fact, that he had teased and taunted Elsa mercilessly their first hour or so of floating together on the barrel. It had not been long, however, until even Kristoff had worn out and sustained a silence that had lasted for the next two hours.
Suddenly, Kristoff perked up, almost capsizing the barrel and Elsa with it.
"Do you see it? Has it arrived?" Elsa asked, struggling to keep her hold with her pin-and-needle fingers.
Kristoff squinted into the distance. The current was sweeping their floating lifeboat in a circle, so the First Mate had to twist and look over their shoulders to make up for the movement and keep his gaze precise.
"I believe so! Start kicking."
Together, with a tangle of heavy boots, the two pirates desperately labored to move, beginning to near the ship that had finally sprung up in their line of sight.
"How- do we- capture- its attention?" asked Elsa, gasping from effort between each word.
"Like so," said Kristoff. He took a great gulp of air into his lungs and shouted: "Ahoy! Sailors overboard!"
Elsa flinched and strained away from the sudden noise being made by her companion.
Kristoff kept up like that until they had drifted close enough to the merchant ship for those aboard to hear and take notice. Soon enough, there were heads peeking over the sideboards, their eyes full of terror and concern for the two pirates clinging to a barrel below.
"It's almost like you've done this before," Elsa said bitingly. The soak in the chilly sea had left her cross.
"Just follow my lead, all right?" Kristoff shot back. A line of heavy rope fell into the ocean before them. Kristoff waved a meaty arm upwards at the merchants in thanks. Elsa could barely help him kick forward enough to reach it. Without asking for any sort of permission, Kristoff wrapped an arm around Elsa's slight waist and pulled her from the safety of the barrel's floatation. She went underwater for a moment, then sputtered when she resurfaced. She didn't have enough breath to admonish her companion for his treatment of her.
Soon Kristoff was heaving her up the side of the merchant ship, one arm around her and the other gripping the rope that was tugging the pair of them upward. Kristoff kicked them further from the side of the ship every time they swung too close. Elsa could only see the water dripping from the two pirates' clothing and could only watch the ocean below become more and more distant until they crested the sideboard and collapsed on deck together.
Crew members scrambled around them but Elsa could only lay there and pant. Foreign hands offered her blankets and rum. She sat up onto her elbow so she could toss some of the drink back - warmth spread immediately through her torso and she wiped her mouth on her soaking sleeve, sighing contentedly.
"Thank you, thank you," Kristoff was saying to those surrounding them but Elsa was too paralyzed to do much besides nod at questions and accept the objects that were handed to her. She did not even have to pretend to act traumatized - she was exhausted enough. If anything, she thought Kristoff could use some different characterization.
He was on his feet, wringing out his vest and spattering Elsa in the process. He dropped the crown of his head and shook out the wetness from his hair as well - the merchant sailors laughed. Reluctantly dropping the rum bottle, Elsa took his cue and extracted her hair from where it was tucked into the neck of her shirt. She rung out the braid like a rag and vowed to retie it when it was dry.
She didn't notice that the sailors around them had make exclamations of surprise, but she did notice when one stepped forward with a hand outstretched and offered her a "milady!"
Elsa blinked at the hand for a moment - it had been a long time since the last she had been called such a thing. The pirate in her waved it off, and she struggled to stand by herself, taking the rum bottle with her.
The circle of merchants around them parted as a giant of a man approached. He was at least a head taller than everyone there, including Kristoff.
"What have we here?" He had a peculiar accent from the North.
Kristoff immediately extended a hand and plastered on a wide smile. "Call me Sven. A passing storm tossed my wife and I from our ship. We were on our honeymoon."
The surrounding merchants made noises of commiseration.
The giant man eyed Elsa, ignoring Kristoff and his extended hand. "What's your name, then?"
"I'm…" she began and said the first name she could think of. "Anna"
It might have been Elsa's imagination but she thought she heard Kristoff groan under his breath. It wasn't her fault - how was she to know she must have a fake identity? No one had warned her.
"How tragic to be stranded out here in the middle of the sea," said the giant man, and Elsa saw a twinkle of kindness in his eye. Maybe tricking this crew would be easier than she'd thought.
"I'm Captain Oaken, welcome to the Jolly Spinster!" he roared, coming forward to pin both Kristoff and Elsa to each side of his torso - they fit snugly under his armpits.
"Get these young people some dry clothes and some grog - AND FIND THEM A BED!"
Next thing Elsa knew, she was sitting uncomfortably close to Kristoff and being poured ladle after ladle of gray slop. One of the First Mate's heavy arms was slung over Elsa's shoulder and she couldn't help how trapped she felt, although she knew the necessity of keeping up the silly "married couple" charade. She just stayed quiet and ate and drank and tried not to listen to the inane conversations Kristoff was striking up with the merchants.
After what felt to Elsa like hours, they were finally shown to a corner of the hold in which
had been set up a cot - they were expected to share a cot between them. Kristoff sat on it and made a show of taking off his boots and vest for the first mate who had escorted them down.
"I'll leave you two alone, then," he said suggestively, winking and smirking at Kristoff. The pirate waggled his eyebrows back in a sort of male conversation that Elsa would never understand.
"What the hell, Kristoff?" Elsa said as soon as they were alone.
"Not so loud, dammit," he hissed back, dropping his grateful husband demeanor in seconds. "We are still on a quest, remember. You cannot afford to fail - we have barely started."
"Then let's get what we need and go! I've been practicing enough at a blade to hold my own."
"Do you not understand? This is a stealth mission, and your last chance to prove your worth. You'll be tossed overboard and it will no longer be a game, and no one, not even Captain Anna will save you then."
Elsa studied the First Mate for a moment, contemplating and not at all alarmed by his outburst.
"You're lying."
Kristoff, who had been re-tying his bootlaces, snapped his head up to look at her. "What did you say?"
"You know Anna well enough to know she wouldn't toss me off the Revenge, nor would she let me drown."
He stood and advanced on her, the half-tied laces of one boot swinging madly about his feet.
"See here, you cannot speak to your First Mate like that!" he was almost yelling.
Elsa stood her ground - she was becoming more confident but also more cocky. The more she learned and understood about the pirate crew she had joined the less scary they all seemed. They were all more vulnerable than she could have ever imagined.
"Now who is too loud?"
Kristoff clenched his jaw in anger, his flushed face inches from her own. He exhaled sharply and turned to sit back on the cot, continuing to tie up his boots.
"You don't frighten me, Kristoff," said Elsa after a pause. Her words were calculated but sharp. "I understand your aggressive front. I especially understand wanting to protect Captain Anna. I'm not the enemy, Kristoff. If anything, I am the best ally you've got because you and I both want to keep her safe. Without letting her know, of course."
The First Mate gave a noise that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, so Elsa continued.
"If we work together, I think we can accomplish our mutual goal. This quest that we find ourselves on we can also only finish as a team. I would have just asked for a fair bit of warning about the marriage idea."
Kristoff stood once more, but without any intent of another attack. He shook his head, but he laughed.
"You are an abysmal actress, but I forgive you. All right, you've convinced me," he said, clapping a hand on Elsa's shoulder. "Let's finish our task, shall we? I did the first part, now it's your turn."
"All right," Elsa said, rubbing her hands together in declared preparation. "What were we supposed to steal, as it were?"
"Anything that proved that we had infiltrated the ship and returned unscathed."
"For a quest, this seems quite simple."
"I suppose we didn't have a lot of faith in you."
"I'm flattered," said Elsa, moving away from Kristoff and toward the steps to the deck. "But let's make this a bit more challenging."
"How so?" asked Kristoff, who was following right behind her.
"I'm going to take our treasure from the Captain's Cabin."
Kristoff whistled, impressed. "Feeling rebellious, I see."
"I swore I would prove my worth, so the more extreme the better, wouldn't you say?"
Kristoff prodded Elsa between her shoulder blades. "After you."
Elsa led the pair of them up the creaking stairs to the door that led out onto the deck. She opened it a crack and peered through - there was no one in her immediate line of sight.
"Are all Captain's Cabins in the same place on any given ship?" Elsa whispered.
"Generally," replied Kristoff in a low voice.
Elsa listened hard at the cracked door for a minute in order to ascertain that the crew was all below deck. Once this conclusion had been established, she gently pushed it open and crept out into the salty sea air. A breeze had picked up and she was eternally grateful for the dry clothes the merchant crew had supplied her with.
A quick glance across the deck told her that they were alone. The Captain's Cabin was indeed easy to find - it had Captain Oaken's name painted across it in broad letters.
"Hrm," said Kristoff when he saw this.
"I'll go in since I'm smaller and quieter than you. You stand guard."
"You giving orders now?"
"Please, Kristoff. Don't you want to get back?"
"Yes... Captain."
Once she was sure he would stand where she indicated until she was through inside the cabin, she turned the knob and stepped inside.
It was dark but not silent - deep, rumbling snores came from the corner of the cabin. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and eventually made out the gigantic outline of the merchant Captain. His immense chest rose and fell with each breath.
On light feet, Elsa sneaked forward into the room but quickly was halted when her foot struck a solid object with a resounding bang.
She froze, listening as Oaken grunted, on the verge of waking, but then settled back into his previous snoring pattern.
She sighed softly in relief. A shaking hand groped in front of her, trying to determine what it is she had run into. It was what appeared to be a desk. As quietly as she could, she found the handle of one of its drawers and slid it open, hoping to find something valuable inside. A box wrapped in some sort of rich fabric met her fingers after a bit of searching, and she almost laughed in relief and delight that she has so easily found a reward for her efforts.
She had the drawer slid shut and was out the door in minutes. When she stepped back out on the deck, she saw that Kristoff was not where she left him.
"What are you doing?" Elsa hissed when she found him at the port sideboard.
"Someone walked by - I had to look like I was admiring the waves."
"How poetic," Elsa said, rushing over to him and clutching the velvet box to her chest.
"I was also signalling the Revenge to let them know we are ready for them. They'll be trailing behind - just out of sight."
"We aren't swimming to them, are we?"
"We must use another barrel. We'll push one overboard."
Elsa shivered at the thought of being back in the freezing ocean, and how especially cold it would be after the sun had set.
"Can we not take a dinghy?"
"Much too loud. This will work well."
He led her toward the bow, far from the Captain's Cabin, and gestured for her to help him lift and throw a barrel full of unidentified liquid over the edge and into the dark water below.
With great effort, they got it up and over the sideboard and it dropped and landed with a mighty splash. Just then, the door to the hold opened and Kristoff pushed her behind another barrel and threw himself atop her.
Elsa lay, unable to move, as she was being crushed by Kristoff, until the voices that had come faded away when the door was closed once more.
"Get off," Elsa said and he did so, helping her up.
"Come, we must follow the barrel before it drifts too far away."
Elsa braced herself for the cold water but she was still not prepared for it. Kristoff, the better swimmer of the two, towed her over to the barrel after they had resurfaced from their jump. She had one hand clutching the beautiful box and regretted getting it wet.
If Elsa thought she was exhausted before, it was nothing compared to the trip back to the Revenge. After what seemed like hours of kicking against the current, she was finally upon them, a dark ship looming out of the calm night.
Soon they were back on the deck and being asked about what they had retrieved.
"I don't know," Elsa said before gulping back a tankard of mead. Olaf had brought it and was now kneeling between her legs, anxiously waiting for her to show everyone the contents of the little box she had stolen from the merchant Captain. She downed the entire tankard before shooing Olaf away and standing, driven to finish her task.
"Where's the Captain?" she asked the surrounding crew. She was through playing games and being ignored.
"Right here, Sailor," came a voice from the very back of the circle. Those assembled parted to let Elsa get a good look of the redhead who was perched nonchalantly on the sideboard.
Elsa handed the empty tankard to Olaf and marched straight over to the Captain.
"Captain Anna," she said, looking Anna straight in the eye. "I've gone on a quest with First Mate Kristoff to retrieve in stealth a prize for the Revenge. I now present it to you, since you lead our humble crew."
She got down on one knee and held out the damp box, balancing it on a cold palm. "For you."
Elsa was determinedly glaring at the worn floorboards of the deck but she nonetheless felt the subtle weight of the box leave her hand.
"Ah," said Anna. It was only then that Elsa allowed herself to raise her head.
The Captain had the opened box in one hand and had a chain dangling from the other. At the end of the chain was a silver band - a ring. Anna studied it a moment before removing her hat and handing it to Kristoff, who stood nearby. With both hands and with delicacy, she drew the chain over her head and let the band rest upon her chest, just above those taunting freckles Elsa always admired.
"I accept your gift. Thank you, Elsa."
Then the crew erupted into cheers and began to scatter, now that the excitement was over.
Anna, too, jumped down from her seat on the sideboard and made for the Captain's Cabin without a backward glance.
Olaf waved to Elsa before following the rest of the crew down to the hold and she found herself left alone once more with Kristoff. She turned from him as he sauntered over to her.
"Good job, Sailor," he said, bringing heavy hands down on her shoulders. "You may yet be a good match for the captain."
A/N: Sorry for the long waits. Leave me a motivational review if you're feeling generous :)