AN: Hey look another chapter updated so quickly. I actually wrote this chapter at the hospital where my sister was getting a check up. XD Um, thanks for reading, and please review. :3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything within this fanfic, and I do not work at Disney, and I do not own Frozen.


"May I have this dance?" Hans had bowed before her.

Short of saying a blunt no, Elsa shook her head. "I don't dance. There's so many other guests you could ask."

He took her hands anyway, and the shock sent ice crystals down her sleeves to encrust on both of their gloves. The last thing she wanted was to make a scene at this party in Anna's honor, so she put up with it. The ice crackled but remained as Hans pulled his hands from hers. Allowing him to place a frost covered gloved hand on her waist, Elsa slipped her own hand on his shoulder. She fought the urge, yet again, to freeze him solid.

"I could see why my sister fell for you so quickly." Elsa refused to look at him directly as they slowly danced across the floor.

"Thank you." He gave her a debonair grin, before realizing she wasn't looking at him.

"That wasn't a compliment." Elsa squeezed his hand harder, frost dancing up his sleeve to his collar and into his facial hair. Hans was unfazed, as if he had expected this. "You're too charming. It's suspicious."

"You speak from experience." He glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the guests, including his mother. He held the Dowager's eyes for a moment before speaking in Elsa's ear. "If you had not known me, I thought you'd fall easily."

Elsa met his gaze, her own expression steely. "I don't 'fall' for anyone."

Hans chuckled softly. "Of course. I forgot, you're the Ice Queen. No one may penetrate your heart."

She was silent for a moment before remarking in a tiny voice. "My sister is all I need."

"I'm sure you've noticed. Your sister has a family of her own now."

Elsa's gaze snapped to his. "Do you expect me to just let you talk to me like that?" Hans gave her a disarming smile, but she remained just as prickly as ever. "Oh, no, of course not, your grace." Neither of them spoke after that.

The song quickly ended.


"I saw you dancing with him, Elsa. What was Hans doing here? Wasn't he supposed to be imprisoned?" Anna's voice sounded scared, like she was a little kid again, and not a new mother.

Elsa looked at her expression with sorrow. "The Queen of the Southern Isles granted him a full pardon, and begs we do the same."

"What? She can't do that! That isn't fair!" Anna was, of course, incredulous. Elsa didn't begrudge her sister that; she felt the same way.

"By way of a formal apology, the Dowager Queen has 'expressed interest in a marriage betwixt Arrendelle and her kingdom' to 'secure the future of both our kingdoms'." Elsa recited, quite disheartened as she read from the message she had received earlier. The messenger had just come from the Queen Dowager herself. "She means for me to marry her eldest son, the future king." Elsa looked to her sister, biting her lip to keep from displaying unwanted emotion.

Anna stared at her for a long moment. "That's one of Hans' brothers..."

"I know." Elsa crumpled up the note, tossing it in the fireplace. "I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."

Anna's shoulders sagged just a little. "That would make him family."

"I have to accept." Elsa watched the fire as she spoke. "There's no reason for me to decline."

"No reason? Elsa, he tried to kill the both of us!"

"Hans did, not his brothers or the rest of the Southern Isles. I shouldn't judge them all based on one person." Elsa tried to keep her voice even, only betraying the slightest of trembling in her voice.

Anna looked up at her sister. "You really don't mean to go through with this, do you?" Elsa didn't answer, as she left the room.

She passed Kristoff in the hallway. He inclined his head, even after she told him he didn't have to bow, since he had married Anna, and went into the room she had just left, to be with his wife.

Did she really want to do this? Marrying some stranger she knew nothing about; it was the same thing she had denied Anna, and now she was some kind of hypocrite for doing it now. But it was for the good of the kingdom, not some childish infatuation, and it wouldn't end up with a premature winter or the attempted murder of any of the royal family. At least she hoped so.

Either way, Elsa had to pen a response, or she could visit the Dowager herself. She didn't have the mental fortitude to go through seeing Hans again so soon, so it was down to writing a letter back. Just a few simple words that didn't mean anything out of context, if anyone else had seen the message. "I accept your terms."

Before bed, Elsa sent the message with a servant, one of the newly hired ones she hadn't yet learned the name of. Not expecting an answer so soon, only an hour later, she jumped when she heard a knock at her bedroom door. Clamoring to be presentable, she slipped into a dressing gown over her bedclothes and opened the door just enough for her face to be seen. Instead of the familiar face of the servant, Sigurd, his name was, there was a Cheshire grin plastered across the one face she didn't want to see.

"Good evening, your grace." Hans put his hand on the door to keep it from slamming in his face. On the opposite side, feathers of frost were beginning to spread along the door where Elsa's hands were.

"Why are you even here?" Elsa attempted to force the door closed against his hand but was overpowered.

"I'm sure you could guess." Hans forced the door open further, causing the Queen to step back. The room was particularly chilly, and the frost on the door was not melting any time soon. Where her feet touched the floor, it froze near solid. "You were in bed, I assume. I apologize for waking you."

He stepped past the doorway nonchalantly, frost crunching beneath his boots as he looked around her room. Ice covered nearly every surface, as if it had slowly been spreading out since the christening, when her stress had just begun.

"I couldn't sleep." Elsa found herself responding, as she backed up further, to give Hans more space, so she wasn't so confoundedly close to the ridiculous heat he was producing in her freezing room. It was almost as if steam was coming off the rimed floor where he had stepped, the ice melting quickly when exposed to him.

"That was sure to be my mother's doing, then." Hans glanced at the door, before shutting it. He then made a big show of not locking it, to put Elsa at ease. "She intends to have you in our family either way."

She frowned, turning away and clutching her dressing gown tighter to her, not out of cold but out of decency. The man had no right barging into her bedroom like this when she was not dressed. "Are you her new messenger then? Or are you here to warn me about your mother's nefarious plot?"

Hans chuckled, putting his hands on his hips. "I will admit, I may not have your best interest in mind, but I thought I'd tell you what you will be getting yourself into. My brothers.. Are not the princes of fairytale that your sister was so intent on marrying."

"Neither are you, for that matter." Elsa muttered, coldly, as she followed his movements the way a cornered animal would.

"You wound me, your grace." He smirked, clutching at where his heart would be beneath his flesh.

"Would you rather I used something more physical?" She brandished her hands at him, fingernails growing long and clear like icicles.

Hans shook his head, his tone mocking. "Couldn't you figure out other ways to hurt me without resorting to your powers?" He turned on his heel, looking to the fireplace. "It's much too cold in here. Are you afraid you might melt if you produced some heat?"

Elsa made a disgruntled sound in the back of her throat. "Get on with whatever business you have for me. Must you comment on every single little detail of my life?"

He swiveled and looked her right in the eye. "Don't you think I should get to know my future wife?"

Her eyes grew wide and all of the color drained out of her face, what remained was an almost impassive icy blue mask. "What?"

"Oh wow. You really weren't expecting this, were you?" The prince shook his head in feigned disbelief. "My mother only had one son. All of my brothers are only related to me through my father. "

Elsa was hyperventilating, as she tried hard to calm herself down. Icicles began bursting from the floor, where the tiny puddles had been from her other icy escapades, and started surrounding her. What had she gotten herself into? It was improper to break an engagement without proper reason, and Jekaterina would be furious or offended, no doubt , but this was Hans she was talking about.

Then one thought entered her mind, and blasted through all the rest in a rush of cold, like rocks settling in the pit of Elsa's stomach: How was she going to tell Anna?