AN: It's starting to get a little steamy, ladies and gents. Hold onto your seats!
Disclaimer: I don't own any aspect of Frozen, I don't work for Disney and this is a not for profit fanwork. Thank you for reading.
The sun was shining high on the forest trail, and the sound of birds was all around them. It wasn't the most unpleasant of horseback rides, Elsa could admit. Not only that, but the view around her was beautifully breathtaking.
Hans turned toward her, a grin spread across his face. It was the happiest she'd ever seen him.
"Still keeping up?"
"What do you think?" Elsa flashed him a dazzling, if breathless, smile.
He almost fell off his horse seeing it for the first time actually aimed toward him. He couldn't keep his eyes off her. The sun shone bright on her white blonde hair, and the heat was making her face flushed, and he thought she never looked more beautiful.
Elsa spurred on her horse with a cry, urging it on ahead of Hans. "Try to keep up now!" She tossed her head back, laughing as the horse sped forward.
"Trying to outdo me, eh?" Hans dug his heels into Aja's sides, going after her, laughing genuinely as well.
She shrieked with laughter as he began to catch up, and urged the horse faster. Hans still remained close enough to see her, Elsa's braid flowing in the wind like moonlight. If he wanted to, he could have reached out and touched it, just for a split second.
Just for a moment he could have, but then that moment was gone as they both slowed to a stop. The horses were tired out so Hans suggested they stopped at a stream to rest.
Elsa leaned forward on her horse, breathing hard from laughing, as Hans pulled up beside her, breathless with laughter. He dismounted first, tying Aja's lead to a tree beside the stream so she could drink, before tying Elsa's black and white horse, NĂ²rr, to the tree as well.
"Need help, my queen?" He offered his hand to Elsa once he had finished.
She took his hand, and no frost gathered as she carefully descended, the prince grabbing her waist with his other hand to steady her.
Hans' hand did not leave her waist, even after Elsa was safely on the ground. Instead, she turned in his grip, hands flying to his chest.
"Do you mind?" She asked, politely, looking up at him. Her hair was a mess and starting to come loose from her braid.
"Not at all." Hans brushed her hair off of her face with his fingertips, his hand coming to a stop at her cheek.
"I meant.." She leaned a little closer, face pink. "For you to let go of me."
"Ah! Of course, I apologize." Hans released her, not even realizing he still held her close.
"You're always apologizing, Prince Hans." Elsa ambled away, to look at the stream between the horses.
"And you don't apologize enough." Hans replied, calling after her as he splashed his way to her, where Elsa had balanced perfectly on a rock across the river.
"Since when is that a bad thing?" She waited for him to reach her, before darting off again, as if playing a game of tag.
"Since you're too stubborn to even admit you're sorry." He gave chase, splashing loudly, hearing the echo all around him.
Elsa was waiting for him on the other side of the river, where she had froze it just enough that she could get across without getting wet but seconds after she breached the other side, the ice melted and Hans had to slog through knee deep water. The opposite side of the river was completely surrounded by trees that were too thick to really run through, but Elsa didn't want to get lost anyway. She was just relishing getting out of the castle for once, and she was sure Hans didn't mind either.
"Since when is apologizing too much a bad thing?" Hans had asked as soon as he stepped onto the bank, boots all muddy.
"It makes you sound like a pushover."
"Am I a pushover?"
"I don't know." Elsa was leaning back against a tree, arms crossed over her chest.
"Why don't you find out?" Hans approached her, fingertips brushing against her waist.
"You did do whatever your mother wanted you to do." Elsa pointed out. "That makes you a pushover."
"I meant like this." He moved forward as if to kiss her again, and she shoved him back hard. He ended up tripping over some exposed root. However, Hans had not relinquished his grip so she fell on top of him.
"Very funny." Elsa muttered, unamused, a hand sliding up his chest as she found her footing, kneeling between his legs in the mud. She was suddenly very glad she had a pair of jodhpurs and high boots on instead of a dress.
"You don't like my jokes, I take it?"
"I don't like anything about you. You should know that by now." Elsa made no move to get up.
"Right, right.." He cupped her cheek in his hand. "You hate me still, I know. I don't blame you."
She glanced down, face pink in the sunlight dappling through the trees. "I admit now, I don't hate you as much as I did."
"Oh?" Hans' thumb was stroking her cheek. "Why is that?"
"I.. I don't know, I just feel like since we've been engaged, I trust you more."
"Still want to try to throw me?"
That got a smile to pass across her face like a cloud on a sunny day.
"I'll think about it."
Hans laughed softly. "I'm sure that wouldn't be be the only time you think about me."
"Says the man who tries to kiss me every chance he gets."
"It's not every day you meet a beautiful woman."
Elsa cringed, turning away from him. "You always say that, but I'm not."
"How do you know?" Hans turned her face back toward him. "Do you know what beautiful looks like?"
She closed her eyes. "I'm a monster, Hans. Just as much as you are."
"Then perhaps my mother was right in matching us up. Us monsters need to stick together."
Elsa smiled sadly, shaking her head. "You're a fool."
"Elsa. Look at me." She met his gaze, hesitantly.
Hans very carefully leaned in and kissed her.
For a beat there was silence and no reaction. Then the Queen surged forward against him, hungry for attention, clenching his shirt in her fist. His other hand rested against her back, sliding lower just a little.
Elsa's face felt hot, and she felt like she should pull back and step away from this situation and block it all out, but for some reason she didn't.
Instead she leaned in once more, kissing him again like she couldn't get enough of him.
They went on like this until the sun began to set.
Elsa had crawled up further against him, and she didn't even care that her hair had come out of its braid or that she was getting mud everywhere. She just wanted to touch and be touched.
"Hans..." Finally she pulled back after a long kiss that could have went on forever and she wouldn't have minded. "I-I-I think we should stop. I don't know if I could take this any longer."
He sat up, heeding her advice. "It's getting dark anyway. We should go back."
She took his hand and pulled him upright once she was standing. There was mud all over his back, and his hair was just as mussed as hers.
At least he didn't have a particularly visible suck mark on the base and side of his throat the way Elsa did. And she didn't even notice.
Hans took her hand and helped her onto the black horse, before climbing onto Aja. It was fully dark when they finally reached the castle, and the stars looked like snowflakes.
