Hey there guys! I just want to thank the people who are following this, I AM SO HONORED TO HAVE YOU GUYS FOLLOW THIS! :3 Seriously! You awesome people are the reason I'm continuing this story. This is my first fic so when I saw that there are actual people following it I almost died.
Just to let you know, there's a tinsy bit of Kristanna here to establish where they are and all that. And now, I have the honor to present to you beautiful people Chapter 2:
A Heart for a Heart
Chapter 2: A Beautiful Chance
Everybody is after me. Dying to see me die. But he, he saved me.
Elsa knew she had to make do with what she had. She knew that if she lets her fear consume her, everything would go wrong. She had a set of instructions in her mind ready so she could do this as quickly as possible. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, 'I can do this' she thought, 'conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel.' But the thought of her and Anna as children kept on coming back to her, how all she could do was to cradle Anna and to wail for her parents. The fear that engulfed her that day seemed to be present, waiting for her to give in and to gobble her up. But no, no Elsa was not going to let her distress consume her, she was not going to succumb to fear. A man's life is at stake.
Firstly, she needed him to lie on something even and high. Something like a bed. She stood up and clenched her fists tightly then slowly opened them. The floor started to shake slightly. Then the part of the floor where Hans was sprawled on started to rise and it stopped when it reached her waist. She smiled to herself, proud of her creation. It was a big King sized bed just, well, frozen. But it would do for now. Hans lay on the wide bed that took up most of the center of the room. A soft moan escaped his lips. Elsa sat by his side on the bed and heard a soft moan escape his lips. She couldn't help but smile, because for the first time in forever, she was healing instead of destroying.
But her smile then quickly turned into a frown. The next step was going to be a bit hard (well, at least for a person with very little experience with men- like her). She has to remove the clothes on the upper part of his body so the following steps could be executed with more ease. She took a sharp breath. Her hands trembled as she removed his blue-green winter cloak. She gently put it on the floor. She sighed to find that he had two more layers of clothing—a white vest and a blue polo. She slowly pulled him out of the vest. She then proceeded to unbutton his polo and when she undid the last button and stripped him of it, she had to bite her bottom lip. Yes, Elsa has little experience with men but she can say that Hans has a great chest. 'Elsa, what is wrong with you? He is Anna's fiance!' she scolded herself.
But Elsa couldn't help but look. She closed her eyes and reminded herself of the task at hand. She sighed. Now she needed to put a bit more snow in the wound to make sure there was no infection, she conjured a small amount of snow and gently pressed it into the wound. Hans' moaned once more, relieving Elsa of the thought that he was already gone.
Now the last step came in which would be stitching him up. She needed a needle and cloth.
"Make do Elsa. Make do." she murmured.
She procured a very thin piece of ice, this would be a good substitute for a needle. She then made a thin white cloth that looked like part of her dress. She gulped and started to stitch him up.
At first, she was so scared of messing up. But then she relaxed and was finally given the opportunity to think straight for a while.
'He took an arrow for me. Why, why would he do that? He could've died! Can't he see that I'm a danger to everybody around me? But, he protected me. Everybody is after me. Dying to see me die. But he, he saved me.' Elsa thought as she finished up the stitch, finally closing up the wound. Hans' chest was moving up and down. He's breathing. Seeing this relieved Elsa greatly of her fear and worry.
Elsa pulled her knees to her chest and closed her eyes. She just couldn't seem to understand why he would save a monster like her. She just couldn't seem to find a logical explanation. It made no sense! Nothing made sense.
She opened her eyes and looked at the still red wound that violently contrasted with his pale skin. Thank the heavens that it was a shallow wound and more importantly that the arrow didn't get to damage anything important. Elsa chuckled. She had to admit that Hans was very lucky. Yes, he got struck by an arrow and lost a deal of blood but besides that he's fine. The arrow didn't go deep in enough to do serious damage. His luck was of great amount. Heck, the arrow hit him just below the heart. Lucky man indeed.
"What seems to be so funny Your Highness?" his voice rang through her ears. The silence was interrupted by the sudden waking of Hans.
It shocked her so greatly that she almost fell off the bed.
Now it was Hans' turn to chuckle. "I didn't mean to shock Your Majesty."
Elsa's eyes widened, "You're..you're awake…?" she said in disbelief.
"Apparently I am." he shot her a weak smile.
She returned the smile and tried her very best to regain her composure. Hans' body was extremely sore but he forced himself to sit up in an Indian sitting position and to face Elsa.
She turned to face Hans and once more brought her knees to her chest. Here they were, sitting face to face in silence. Elsa couldn't bring herself to look at Hans because she was too guilty knowing that she is the reason he is weak and the fact that she has never been so close to a man before (especially a shirtless man) so she settled to look at her feet.
"Your Majesty?" his voice was weak yet extremely kind.
"Hmmm?" she hummed in response.
"Do you mind if I have my clothes? It's freezing.." he asked, his voice giving away the fact that he was turning red.
"Oh. Oh! Yes, I am so very sorry Hans, I...I was just thinking really deeply and yeah." Elsa stammered, her face heating up. She bent over the side of the bed to pick them all up in one quick swing of a hand and handed them over to him without looking at him.
She was still facing him but this time she pulled her knees even closer to her neck and hid her now tomato red face with her arms.
"Uhm, you can look now." he said after a few minutes. His voice gave away that he felt awkward.
Before facing him she breathed in and out forcing herself to look like she is well-composed.
She looked up to see Hans in the outfit he was in before everything happened (the blood stain very much present causing Elsa to feel the burn of guilt once more).
She looked at his face—his kind and smiling face. This caused her to relax a bit and to return her knees to her chest.
"Queen Els-" he said slowly.
"Elsa. Just Elsa." she corrected him politely. She does not want to remember what she left down there in Arendelle. She did not want to open the wounds that were quickly closed by the exhilarating feeling of freedom. She wanted to be free. She wanted to be her and not the ruler of Arendelle. She wanted to be Elsa.
"Elsa," he repeated kindly, "why..why did you save me?"
Elsa chuckled causing Hans to be very confused. He didn't say anything funny to cause her to chuckle.
"Hans, the real question is: Why did YOU save ME?" she said as she looked him in the eye, searching for answers.
"Elsa, I couldn't just let them kill you. I couldn't just let them kill something as beautiful as you." he said in the most concerned tone he could muster. But it was no lie. Yes, he did want to kill her in his original plan but when he saw that arrow about to strike her he couldn't help but notice the beauty and vulnerability of Elsa. And all he wanted to do was to use it for his advantage. To turn it against her and to make her depend on him. All in the hopes to get what he wanted. Why kill the beautiful chance that is Elsa?
Hans saw that Elsa's face was burning red, maybe it's because she's never been complimented by a man before (and that Hans highly believes). Seeing Elsa flustered made Hans' lips crack into a smile. He is smiling not only because he's starting to break down her mountain of a boundary even though it's just by taking away pebbles one by one but because Elsa was genuinely beautiful. She wasn't trying hard or anything like that, she was just beautiful by nature. But Hans was quick to shoo away this thought. 'Yes, she's beautiful but I'm not going to give in to her. It has to be completely the other way around, her giving in to me, clinging to me.' he thought, "but her beauty does make things easier."
On the other hand, Elsa did really appreciate the compliment. No one has really ever said anything nice about her. But it also left her to drown in a sea of confusion. 'Beautiful?' she repeated in her mind. 'Doesn't he see that I am a monster? That I am the reason he is weak and injured? Doesn't he see that every second he spends here poses another threat to his life?'
Little did Elsa know that Hans was fully aware of it, damn, he even challenged it with every second that he remained here. He knew that he could just die here with a single motion of her hand. Little did Elsa know that Hans was also confused about why he trusts her so much. But he wants to believe that if she tended to him and saved him, she wouldn't kill him. Oh his plan, was falling right into place.
"Well, thank you." she said with a shaky voice. Her cheeks were still pink and her eyes were fixed unto her feet.
"I'm just stating facts my lady." he said with a smug smile. Hans knew he was charming. And whenever he had the chance, he liked to use it, he had to admit it was fun.
Elsa's eyes grew wide. 'Why does he keep on saying all these nice things?'
Elsa figured it would make it less awkward if she laughed. But instead of a confident laugh, what came out was a nervous chuckle.
Hans noticed that she was getting uncomfortable, the temperature dropped even lower for crying out loud, so he opted to change the topic. He was tempted to push it, to see what it would make her do but he didn't want to risk it. Not now at least.
"You didn't answer my question yet." he pointed out kindly.
"Oh, yes," she replied as she straightened up and finally brought herself to look at him in the eye, "Hans, when I saw you sprawled on the floor I realized that your act of extreme nobility had two effects on me. One that I was of course guilty, guilty to see such a kind man like you in that state, and two being the fact that I was utterly astounded and touched by you saving me. Everybody is chasing after me with pitch forks Hans. But you, you put your life on the line for me. I saved you not because I felt like I was obliged to do it, I wanted to do it."
Her eyes never broke contact with his. He felt guilty and fulfilled to hear this. He may be ruthless but he still has a heart. A tinge of guilt crept up on him but the fulfillment of hearing her words rapidly flushed out every single tinge of guilt until there was nothing left. Everything was working out perfectly for him. He heard what he wanted to hear and all that was left was to keep up the act.
He shot her a grateful smile.
A smile she gladly returned.
Keeping up the act wasn't going to be as hard as he thought. Yes, he could do this. He'll finish what he started.
They stayed up the whole night talking about their favorite books, the things they used to do (they did not dwell that much on this topic since there was not so much to tell) and anything that came into their minds. And one can say that for the first time in their lives, they were genuinely enjoying the company of a person.
But through all the jokes and deep conversations, Hans was periodically visited by the thought of a person that would foil his plan. A person that would interfere and wreck it for him. He did not want to dwell on the thought. But it just kept on coming back. He wasn't going to back down though, he'd stick it out. But the thought of this person made his blood run cold for his plans.
Anna.
Anna didn't know what just happened because it all came by so quickly. It passed by her like one colorful blur. A second ago, she thought Kristoff was crazy and tried to run away when he introduced her to his "family" and now she was dressed in moss that was lit by shimmering crystals. And now the trolls are ushering them into a pit, there were so many of them that they couldn't move against them.
"TRUE LOVE!" they sang in an upbeat melody.
Anna looked at Kristoff and he looked at her. They shared a smile.
"Ann-" Kristoff started but was cut off by the Troll Priest who popped out of nowhere.
Anna laughed to herself. What kind of insanity was going on? Troll priests? Moss outfits? She did not know why but she found it all amusing and entertaining, especially to see a baffled and flustered Kristoff.
"Do you, Anna, take Kristoff to be your trollfully wedded-" the Troll Priest began.
"Wait, what?!" she cut him off loudly out of pure confusion. 'WHAT?! I'm engaged to Hans! Just to be eloped by trolls to Kristoff?! Yeah Kristoff is funny, brave, quite good-looking and stop Anna, your engaged!' even her thoughts were all messed up due to the shock.
"You're getting married." The Troll Priest said in matter-of-factly tone.
Anna's eyebrows knit together showing her deep state of puzzlement.
"LOVE!" the trolls announced happily in union.
But suddenly Anna felt weak. Her knees started to shake and the next thing she knows is that she collapsed. Her head is spinning and she feels so cold and disoriented. She was lucky that Kristoff caught her before she hit the ground. She didn't understand any of the events that happened next. It looked like she was just watching them play on a television screen without taking any of it in. Their words just came in through one ear and came out the other without her wrapping her head around it. Her sight was getting blurry out of her weakness but she forced herself to try to make out what was happening. The trolls all looked so worried and an old troll that looked so oddly familiar came and worriedly discussed something with Kristoff. She started to feel colder by the second.
She heard something going by the lines that an act of true love can save her. Anna closed her eyes, feeling so frail.
"Anna, we've got to get you to Hans." was all Anna managed to understand.
"Hans." she repeated. Yes, Hans would save her. Hans would be her savior. He loved her. Didn't he? Anna didn't know what to think anymore. Everything came by like one big blur. Just not a happy one. Since Anna was so adrift she didn't even know that Kristoff had already slung her on to Sven and started riding off back to Arendelle.
Kristoff wasn't going to let Anna down.
"Just hang in there." he whispered to Anna as they sped off back to Arendelle. No, he would never let her down.
So Anna and Kristoff discover that Hans isn't at the Palace, what do you think they'll do next? As for Hans and Elsa, well, let's just see what happens…
Reviews? C'mon I'd love to know if I'm doing it right.
Love lots,
The Free Fangirl
