AN: I had the weirdest dream about this fic last night. I had like 17 reviews and almost all of them were about batman/related to how i had too much batman related stuff in this fic. I don't even know. Batman?! But yeah, this chapter was written in the span of last night to this morning, and i somehow got a good nights sleep, despite the weird dream. So, ah, read and review, please? Also there will be Russian in this chapter. The translations will be at the bottom. Some of it I got from a friend who speaks Russian, and some came from Google translate. I do not speak any Russian so I apologize if there are any discrepancies with the translation.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything within this story, except the Queen Dowager who is hella crazy. That's literally it. I don't work for Disney, I was not involved in the making of Frozen, thank you for reading.
As it turned out, Elsa didn't have to tell her sister. The banns had been announced at sunrise, by the Dowager Jekaterina's personal servants. No one would think to oppose the union, of course they wouldn't, except maybe Anna, but her sister was too busy with her son to bother, so Elsa knew there was no getting out of it.
The Queen was roused from bed at an early hour to attend the banns, before being whisked off to a wedding dress fitting. It was only the first day of a forced engagement, and here she was, trying on white gown after white gown. She could have been eating chocolate at her Nephew's Christening celebration, but no, she was here.
"You will not be wearing it until months from now, so try not to fret." Jekaterina attempted to soothe Elsa's nerves as she sat in on the fitting. "It isn't proper for two complete strangers to marry without becoming familiar with one another."
She turned to look at the Dowager, arms raised as the seamstress pinned the seams at her hips. "I am already familiar with him. He tried to destroy my family." Elsa hissed, trying not to freeze the delicate fabric she was swathed in, and thereby ruin it. The finished design was supposed to look like the dress she had constructed herself after her disastrous coronation. Supposed to was the key phrase. "Ow!" A pin pricked her (most definitely on purpose) and a flourish of feathered frost appeared on the fabric as part of her natural reaction to any particularly unwanted feeling. The fabric was unusable now. Elsa bit her lip. "Sorry, I.."
Jekaterina only smiled diligently, as if Elsa was a dumb monkey she was training. It made her skin crawl to be looked at like that. "It can be easily replaced, моя маленькая птица.."
Elsa looked down at the dress where the ice sparkled like rhinestones. "This wedding.. Is it going to be in the winter?"
The Dowager smiled that wretched way again. "птица, I like the way you think. You think my son will want to see you in an ice dress. You will look so beautiful."
Elsa hadn't thought of what, ugh, Hans would want to see her in, but the ice dress would be a huge confidence boost. She always felt at home in ice, and to those from the southern isles it would be something never before seen. Elsa's face heated. And if Hans didn't want her to show off her powers, then he would just have to get over it. He'd have to let it go. But if he had wanted her to use her powers just for this purpose to turn the people against her... She refused to finish that thought. Instead Elsa turned her attention to what would have to be done before the wedding. She wondered how she could put up with Hans, and what he had to be planning. She wondered how Anna felt about this whole arrangement. Elsa hoped her sister wasn't too worried about her. She could handle it herself. Before she got too lost in her own thoughts, the voice of the Queen Dowager called her back to the present.
"дочь, your husband will expect you to act as if you care greatly for him, do you understand?" Elsa couldn't respond for a moment. My husband. "I.. Yes." She bowed her head. "I understand."
"очень хорошо." Jekaterina stood, towering over Elsa even on the modeling stand she was perched on and patted her cheek sweetly. The Queen Dowager's hand felt too hot on her cold face. It felt wrong somehow, like it was an old hand attached to the dowager's too-young body, and it smelled too strongly of lilac mixed with the reek of bonfire. "Once you remove the dress you are wearing, you will be meeting your future brothers-in-law. Dress in your best, and go to Hans' room when you are finished. He will be expecting you, so don't be late."
Of course he was. Elsa bit her tongue to keep from speaking her mind, as the seamstress carefully and oh-so-slowly removed the ruined dress from off of her body. The room was hot from the fire blazing in the hearth and a headache had begun from the heat surrounding her alongside the muggy summer air. It was as if time itself slowed. She felt as if she could barely breathe. How could the dowager stand it?
"Mother, I couldn't do it." Hans was holding an ancient looking dagger in two shaking hands. "He's my brother, I can't–!"
Jekaterina slapped him across the face, long scarlet nails leaving four gouged tracks along his cheek that soon filled in with red. He cried out, clasping his hands to the bloody wound his mother just created and dropping the blade at her feet. бесполезно ублюдок (Useless bastard)!" She hissed, scooping up the blade. "I should have done it with my own hands! Do you want to be king or not?!"
Only a moment later, her volcanic temper had cooled just as fast as it had raged and the Dowager deposited the knife away safely, she was back to cooing soft nothings to him, and stroking her baby boy's hair like it was nothing. "Did I hurt you, my darling? Shall I fetch a servant to clean and dress your wounds?"
"Leave me be, mother." Hans ground out through his teeth, trying to staunch the flow of blood with his fingers as it begun to leak through them, and drip onto the floor, while swatting at the Dowager as if she was a harmless fly and not capable of destroying everything he held dear. She didn't mind, too busy licking her fingernails clean of her son's blood and crooning softly to him. Hans shoved her off harder, and in the split second of time he had, stormed out of the room in a fury.
Elsa found her betrothed (oh how she hated thinking of him like that) twenty minutes later in his chambers, a tainted bowl of steaming water and a bloody rag on the bed beside him. Hans had a large bandage sloppily pressed to his cheek, and she could see blood soaking through it. "What happened to you?"
"Does it matter?" His tone was tense, and Elsa hadn't noticed it until she stepped mincingly closer, but he was trembling. "It was just a.." he opened his mouth to finish his sentence, then closed it for a moment before finishing. "One of your people, who happened to remember the coronation too well."
It was a bald faced lie but Elsa didn't need to know that. She took it as truth anyway. "You deserved it." She exhaled, before sitting on the bed beside him. "What would the people say if you went out looking like this? They would think a monster attacked you."
Hans winced. "A monster known as my wife, you mean."
Elsa was about to strike him, but instead she dipped the rag in the water, and it cooled almost instantly, ice forming on its surface. She touched the frozen rag to his raw flesh to clean the spots he missed and he inhaled sharply before letting out a cry like a small child.
"Quiet." Elsa finished, palm gentle against his uninjured cheek as she turned the wound toward her and pressed clean rolled bandages to the deep gouges, to stop the bleeding and covering it all with another bandage. Elsa tied it neatly, securing it in place. "There." She sighed, almost reluctant in letting her hand drop from his face. "Now I could be seen in public with you. It only looks like a flesh wound."
Hans scoffed and replied sarcastically. "Gee, thank you. I couldn't have done it without your help."
Elsa's brow furrowed. "I didn't have to help you."
Hans frowned back at her. "But you did. And if you're expecting anything in return, you're sorely mistaken."
She clenched her fists to keep from slapping him as hard as she could, frost bursting from her sleeves and cascading up her arms in spirals, and down her legs and onto the floor, making icy spots around her. "You are the most pig headed, insufferable, arrogant man I've ever met."
"All I heard was the pot calling the kettle black." Hans began to provoke her.
"I should have put you to death when we stopped you." Elsa's tone was stone cold, and deadly.
"You should have." Hans agreed, picking up the icy bowl.
"What?" The queen stopped short, staring at him, blood running cold. Well, colder than usual.
"I'd gladly face death compared to being married to you."
"Oh, you self centered—"
Everything seemed to go in slow motion right at that moment.
Hans stepped toward her, grinning, about to say another inane comment, and accidentally skidded across a tiny patch of ice, sending the bowl of water into the air and the prince careening into her. The freezing water splashed down on Elsa mostly, Hans protected by the fact his face was buried against her upper torso, right beneath her breasts.
When Elsa realized what had happened, she was flat on her back in a pool of cold water, with a large man pinning her legs down with his own body. "What are you doing? Get off of me."
Hans sat up, an arm on either side of her, meeting Elsa's gaze. "Good thing you cushioned my fall with your body. I guess you're worth something after all."Her hands found their way to his upper arms, barely visible where the sleeves had been rolled up. Frost climbed across his bare skin and he shivered.
Elsa attempted to sit up, but only managed to pull the prince closer. Since he refused to move, possibly for fear of falling on ice again and making a fool of himself, which Elsa knew to be a waste of time since he was already the biggest fool she had ever met, she was stuck in the puddle. It was soaking into the thick cloth of her dress, and she knew it would probably ruin it. "You owe me a new dress."
"Would this make it any better?" He leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers. Elsa's ice fought back; the prince's lips freezing, but the queen pulled back before any real damage could be done.
"No. You now owe me a new dress and need to get off of me." Elsa deadpanned. "Right now." Her face was too warm, despite the water now turning to ice against her back.
For once in his life, Hans obeyed, pulling back and fixing his sleeves, probably fearing what the Queen would do to him if he just laid like that for a moment longer. He shouldn't have thought of that.. Elsa..
He cleared his throat awkwardly as he swung his jacket over his shoulder to put it on.
He recovered soon enough, offering his arm to Elsa. "Shall we meet my brothers then?"
She put one hand on his elbow. A thin coating of frost spread from where her fingers rested. It was her best compromise.
моя маленькая птица-(moya malen'kaya ptitsa) - my little bird
птица - (ptitsa) bird
дочь(Doich) - Daughter
очень хорошо(ochen' khorosho) - very good
бесполезно ублюдок (bespolezno ublyudok) - useless bastard
Alright, there is a plot related reason for the Russian, don't worry. Thanks for reading.
