Author's Note: Wow! A few hours after the previous chapter was up, the reviews count boosted from 70+ to 100 in an instant! Imagine to my pleasant surprise when I checked my email and found that a large number of reviews were waiting to be read. Thanks you guys!

Now, the previous chapter I admit might have crossed the line a little bit, but I hope not too much that I have to up the rating (although in the future, I might need to). It was just me taking a crack at the many, many Elsanna fics that are dominating the Frozen section. Hue hue hue.

Some readers have been asking where was Kristoff and especially Olaf? Well, to tell you the truth, it is hard for me to write about Olaf because almost every time he appears, something funny and cute was expected from him and it's uhh…I dunno how to write him!

Oh and this chapter got some swearing.

ShadowKissedGallagherGirlLexia: While it does look filler-ish, it actually isn't. A lot of the elements in the previous chapter will be used again in the future. You'll just have to wait and see it.

CHAPTER 6 – The Strongest Piece In The Game

A day before the Viking arrival

"Kristoff, I have activities planned today for Elsa and I," Anna said, looking away and Kristoff gave her a knowing smile.

"I get it, you don't want me to get in the way between you two," Kristoff said and Anna gave him a happy look.

"Thank you so much for understanding! Oh and take Olaf with you! I love you, bye!" Anna quickly gave Kristoff a quick kiss on the lips before sprinting away.

"Wha-wait!" Kristoff said but Anna was already gone. "I love you too," Kristoff sighed with a smile.

"If the sisters are going to have their bonding time, we can have our own!" Olaf the snowman happily said. "Just the two of us! Like brothers!"

Sven made a disapproving sound and he glanced at Olaf for a moment.

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Kristoff said for Sven.

"Sorry buddy! Won't happen again! Pinky twig promise!" Olaf showed his pinky twig and Sven snorted.

Kristoff smiled before he asked again. "Sure boding time. What are we going to do actually?"

"Like singing –" Olaf started but Kristoff cut him off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, little guy! I don't sing," Kristoff said and Olaf gave him a sad look.

"But, but, you sing with Sven! And even Sven sing!" Olaf said and Kristoff stared at the snowman for a moment.

"Uuhh…okay, I guess we can do that," Kristoff said and Olaf cheered.

"Yay! And then we can cook marshmallows- oh not Marshmallow!" Olaf said and Kristoff only shook his head.

Kristoff and Olaf was riding on his sled carried by Sven and was heading towards Elsa's ice castle in the Northern Mountains. Since his presence wasn't needed by the Royal Sisters and he didn't have any ice harvesting work to do today, he figured that he'd stock up the ice castle's food supply and probably visit the trolls afterwards.

Before long, the trio reached the staircase that connects to the ice castle. A bridge ramp can be seen beside the staircase to allow sled access and Kristoff directed Sven towards the ramp. A few moments later, the trio was in front of the castle doors.

Kristoff and Olaf got off the sled and went near a large pile of snow, when suddenly it came to life. The snow pile formed into a large and menacing looking snowman and it roared at them.

Sven looked bored, Kristoff only had a lopsided smile and Olaf had a happy face. Still, the roar covered them in light snow powder.

"Marshmallow! How are you doing little brother? Although you're bigger than me…" Olaf said but jumped happily and hugged Marshmallow's leg.

"Hey there big guy," Kristoff greeted as he wiped away snow from his face.

"Heeeeey," Marshmallow, the large guardian snowman said.

When Elsa resumed her position as the Queen of Arendelle, she realized that throwing away the crown was a bad idea. Fortunately, her second snowman, Marshmallow had found the crown. Unfortunately, he also grew rather fond of it.

Elsa then had the idea to substitute the crown with one made from ice. She also made other decorations such as badges for the snowman and designated him as the Royal Ice Castle Guardian. He was very happy at that.

As such, Marshmallow looked a lot more…refined to say the least compared to the first time Kristoff met the snowman. He now has a crown on his head and multiple snowflake badges on his chest.

"Anything happened lately?" Kristoff asked as Olaf climbed the large snowman.

"No," Marshmallow said and Olaf took his head off and plastered it on the larger snowman's shoulder.

"Look Kristoff! Marshmallow now has two heads! Just like that two headed dragon you guys told me!" Olaf said and Kristoff shook his head while Marshmallow gave his brother an annoyed look.

"Okay, let's do some inventory check," Kristoff said and pulled out a rather large package from his sled and gestured with his hand towards the door. "Marshmallow, after you,"

"To the door!" Olaf said and his headless body slid off from Marshmallow, bolted towards the closed door and crashed into it, causing it to break into its individual pieces.

Marshmallow gave an annoyed huff and walked towards the door, taking great care into not stepping on the smaller snowman's body pieces. He then opened the door and Kristoff followed suit.

Once inside, Kristoff paused to take a look at the inside of the castle. The castle was now larger and more intricate than the first time Elsa built it. Back then, even though it was large, a lot of the size was just…empty space. It only had a grand staircase, hall, balcony, a master room and that was it. For a castle, it was weird to have so little accommodation. Even a lord's mansion was more grand.

Now however, it has been upgraded to utilize almost all the space available. Not that space was a problem as Elsa can expand the castle easily. The castle or as Olaf like to call it, 'Elsa's Fortress of Solitude', now has guest rooms, kitchen, lounge, and observation tower that expanded into the top of the Northern Mountain and many more.

"I'll never get tired of watching this masterpiece," Kristoff said as Marshmallow was chasing Sven and Olaf's still headless body.

Kristoff then headed towards the kitchen to begin his job. Now you would think that a kitchen made of ice would be a very bad idea...well it was at first. That was until Elsa discovered that she could make magical ices.

For example, she could make colored ice, super strong ice, ice that isn't slippery or sticky, ice that won't freeze water that it comes in contact with, crystal ice (ice that doesn't give off cold and resembled crystals more than ice) and even ice that cannot melt! Although they speculated that hotter or magical flame can melt it.

Thus, Elsa, aided by Anna, decided to have some fun with her powers. The result was that the ice castle was no longer entirely blue as Anna and Kristoff agreed that just seeing one color for a long period of time can be…detrimental to the mind. It now has different colors for different parts of the castle. On the outside it is still blue but the inside was of differing color. Now the inside of the ice castle resembled more of a crystal castle.

Furthermore, as Elsa's mastery over her power grew, she can make parts of the castle comfortably warm enough for a naked human to survive.

Kristoff arrived at the kitchen and took a look around to see what was amiss. It was clean, like its master of course.

The kitchen if anything looked as if it was made from black crystal than ice. The kitchen counter's top was black with intricate flowery patterns similar to the ones on the sister's royal dresses and it has four matching black chairs on one side of the counter. The rest of the kitchen appliance followed the same theme of black colored ice and flowery pattern inside of them. Thankfully, the walls weren't entirely black.

However, the most interesting part of the kitchen was a tall black closet on one corner of the kitchen. It was the icebox, one of Elsa's masterpieces. It was a closet that is cold on the inside and thus is able to preserve any food put inside for a long period of time. Of course, using Elsa's power, the long period of time equals indefinitely.

Elsa of course, had assigned the brightest minds in Arendelle to try and replicate the icebox without using her powers but, it proved to be harder than they thought it would be.

Kristoff went to the icebox and opened it to reveal the contents inside. The icebox was very close to empty of the easier foods to eat such as fruits, pastries, vegetables, drinks, breads and so on. Kristoff shrugged as he opened the lower compartment that holds the fish and meat. He smiled as he found out that all the meat and filleted fish were gone except for a whole fish that remained untouched.

"Elsa, Elsa, still refuse to work with whole fish, eh?" Kristoff said as he took out the fish and examined them. "Still good, guess this will be lunch then since Elsa won't be using this. Besides, I've brought more whole fishes anyway," Kristoff shrugged and began his work of replenishing the food stock inside the icebox.

The ice castle has become Elsa's (and sometimes Anna's) getaway place when she needed to relax or just wanting some time alone. It wasn't Elsa's idea in the first place but Anna had argued that Elsa would still find way to do work when she's in the royal castle. Elsa was reluctant at first but soon found out that the sense of freedom in the ice castle was indeed relaxing.

Elsa also started to learn how to cook as evidenced by the depleted stock of food. However, she was reluctant to work with whole animals.

"Sooo, Kristoff," Olaf said as she sat down near Kristoff.

"Yeah?"

"You know, I've been thinking," Olaf rubbed his nonexistent chin. "What do you think about ice?"

Kristoff raised an eyebrow at Olaf. "It's great?"

"That's all? You have to be more specific than that, Mr. Royal Ice Master and Deliverer!" Olaf egged him on.

Kristoff wanted to ask why he was asking this but he learned that sometimes, it was easier to answer Olaf's questions first before asking your own if you want to make sense of things. "Well, it's beautiful and wonderful yet at the same time dangerous,"

"Like Elsa?" Olaf asked and Kristoff glanced at the snowman for a moment.

"Yeah, why?" Kristoff asked. Olaf is many things; and unpredictable is one of them. For a seemingly naïve character, he can be surprisingly deep if he wanted to.

"Well…"Olaf drawled. "I dunno, I mean, you like ice, your job is about ice and all. So, I've been thinking, what would happen if you meet Elsa first when she ran away here?"

Kristoff stopped what he was doing as he thought of the situation. "Uuhh…"

What would happen? The answer was obvious; he would fall for Elsa. After all, she was the embodiment of ice, one of the things that his life revolves around.

Kristoff shook his head. Ice used to be everything to him, but now, it's Anna.

"I might fall for her, but I've met Anna first. I guess it was destiny?" Kristoff answered and Olaf looked satisfied. "Besides, if I didn't meet Anna, it's possible that she won't make it far,"

"Oh," Olaf said and looked down. "Oh yeah,"

Kristoff realized this and sighed. "Why are you asking this, Olaf?"

"Well, I feel bad you know. Anna got you as boyfriend but Elsa doesn't have any. It makes me sad," Olaf said and Kristoff gave him a soft smile.

"She might not have one right now, but one day she will, trust me. Especially if Anna has anything to say in the matter," Kristoff said and Olaf brightened again.

"It's just…it won't be easy for her," Kristoff said in a whisper.

…

The day of the Viking arrival

Vikings are…tough people. Yep; tough, rough, hard, stubborn, brave, harsh, too manly to a fault sometimes (okay, a lot of times!) and among other things associated with the word tough.

But really, you can't blame them for being that way; they have to be. How couldn't they? Their culture was about battle, glorious deaths and even more battle in the afterlife. The place they lived in was one of the harshest in the world and also home to many dangerous creatures that constantly attack them. Not to mention of the constant raids from rival tribes who were also Vikings.

Sigurd Eriksson hated raids with all his being. Fortunately, those were in the past.

Anyway, it wasn't a stretch to say that Vikings like to do things rather…roughly.

Want proof? The Vikings fought the dragons for more than 300 years and no Viking has ever managed to tame one during that time. It wasn't that they never tried; they used force to make them submit after all. It was just…they never figured that for such deadly creatures, you would have to use…softer ways.

Most Vikings don't do soft.

That was why it was quite hard for most of the Vikings to accept Hiccup as their king. Using more wits, wiles and brain more than muscle or force, he was viewed in the same light as the God of Mischief, Loki than the God of Thunder, Thor (who Vikings aspire to be). In other words, they see Hiccup as soft. It didn't help that his body looked soft too (mostly because he wasn't as muscular as the Vikings thought he would be).

Well, sure Hiccup was soft, but that doesn't mean he can't be tough.

Still, Hiccup was mostly soft at times.

Sigurd Eriksson was a 22 years old Viking with a tall and muscular build, blue eyes and shoulder length blonde hair. He was Hiccup's personal bodyguard and currently, his king has been fretting in front of the mirror for half-an hour now. Well, at least it was an improvement over his nervous breakdown during the voyage here.

"Relax Hiccup, you can do this!" Hiccup slapped his cheeks a few times.

Sigurd chuckled at this. "You weren't this nervous when meeting the other chiefs for the first time,"

"Well, the other chiefs can't freeze an entire kingdom on a whim, so yeah," Hiccup replied.

"Point taken," Sigurd shrugged. "Just relax. It won't help if you look scared. She might take advantage of it,"

Hiccup sighed and shrugged. "You're right. I just hope that I'd don't have to do anything ridiculous to appease her,"

Sigurd grinned. "Like allowing her to freeze your balls and Tuffnut's and watch her crush it in front of your very eyes?"

Hiccup groaned.

"Well, it's not like it's loss anyway," Sigurd continued and Hiccup raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm sure the future of the Viking Kingdom will be more productive without Tuffnut's spawn…and you hardly use yours anyway,"

Hiccup grinned. "Oh ho ho, you sir, are playing a very dangerous game,"

Sigurd shrugged.

"And I see you're getting good with the art of sarcasm," Hiccup said and tried to push his bangs to the back of his head.

"Well, I remembered my king doesn't like me being quiet. I was creepy he said. Besides, I learned from the best," Sigurd replied.

"Oh now flattery, hm?" Hiccup said and gave up trying to style his hair and sighed. "How long till we reach port?"

"Half an hour," Sigurd answered simply.

Hiccup was about to speak when a knock on the door interrupted him. "Come in,"

The door opened to reveal the Viking twins and Hiccup turned away from the mirror to face them.

"So you guys know the procedure, right?" Hiccup asked and Ruffnut fidgeted before speaking.

"Urmm…actually, we have something to tell you," Ruffnut said and Hiccup sighed.

"Is it more important than the situation we're in now?" Hiccup asked and the twins nodded mutely.

Hiccup gave them a blank look as he steeled himself. What could be more important than this? He hoped that it wasn't bad.

"Is it good news or bad?" Hiccup asked.

The twins avoided contact and fidgeted nervously. "Both actually," Tuffnut said. "The good news is that…there isn't a possible war at all,"

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at them. "What?"

"The bad news is that…we…tricked you," Ruffnut added.

Hiccup was silent for a moment before he groaned into his hands. A part of him was truly relieved that there won't be a possible war on his kingdom, but another part of him was furious that he was tricked in such manner. Hiccup didn't mind being tricked sometimes for good fun but, there is a line that you mustn't cross, even for the sake of good hearted fun.

Another part of him was greatly disappointed that his trusted friends would do something like this to him.

Suffice to say, the amount of negative emotion he was feeling outweighs the positive ones.

"I…I don't know what to say or think right now. I'm…I'm just really disappointed in you two. I almost make a fool of myself in front of a foreign Queen…it is funny to you guys?" Hiccup said in a disappointed tone.

"We didn't want you to humiliate you so that's why we're telling you the truth," Ruffnut said and Hiccup sighed.

"You didn't want to humiliate me, but you did fool me, so I guess, mission accomplished?" Hiccup said and clapped his hands slowly.

The twins looked hurt but Hiccup didn't care. Why should he? He was the victim here.

"Whatever," Hiccup waved a hand at the twins. "I guess we'll get a good laugh at this in 10 years or more," he said. "Turn the ship around, we're going back home,"

The twins then gulped before speaking.

"We can't," Ruffnut said and Hiccup glared at her.

"Why not?" Hiccup sighed. "I don't have the mood to deal with anymore of your shenanigans,"

"Because…because we did met the Queen," Ruffnut replied and Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "We told her that you want her hand in marriage,"

Hiccup was speechless for a moment as he analysed what the twins had told him. He then understood what had happened.

He was tricked twice!

Before this disappointment was the dominant emotion he was feeling, and now, it's just anger.

The twins didn't want to humiliate him by making him apologize for something that didn't happen; they want him to court the Queen. They knew that Hiccup would bring valuables under the guise of compensation where in reality, those are gifts to court the Queen.

"What the…" Hiccup finally said. "What were you thinking? Playing matchmaker behind my back, again? And this time with a foreign Queen?"

"What, do you think that you're actually doing me a favour? Is that it?" Hiccup began to ramble but Tuffnut cut in.

"We don't actually expect you to marry her!" Tuffnut said and Hiccup gave him a ridiculous look.

"Oh really? Then what are you trying to do actually, hmm? Is there anything else you want to tell me, anything else that you want to add to my misery?" Hiccup said angrily.

"We just want to get you here! We know that if we tell you the truth that there's no war, you'd leave instantly!" Ruffnut answered.

That was true; he did want to turn back.

"What for? What would you achieve by getting me here?" Hiccup asked but he has the feeling that he already knew the answer.

"We want you…to reconsider your closed door policy, to consider trading with Arendelle!" Ruffnut answered.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at them. "This again? We've discussed it many times before and my answer will always be the same!"

"And that's the problem, Hiccup!" Ruffnut said. "Do you think that what you're doing is going to help the kingdom in the long run?"

Hiccup only glared in response.

"See? You yourself know that it won't! Then why are you still being stubborn?!" Ruffnut continued.

Hiccup closed the distance between himself and Ruffnut and glared down at her. "I did this to protect the kingdom,"

"Yeah, you're protecting the kingdom from the evils of the outside world," Tuffnut said almost sarcastically and Hiccup turn his glare at him. "But at this rate, the kingdom would destroy itself!"

"What makes your kingdom, Hiccup? Who are you actually protecting?" Tuffnut asked. "Is it the dragons or the Vikings?"

Hiccup snorted. "Both of course-"

"It doesn't seem that way to the others! They think that you prized the dragons more than the people!" Tuffnut said. "They even think that you don't have any interest with woman any more, and that you'd rather fuck a dragon!"

Hiccup backed away from them. "Oh come on! It's been only a year after Astrid was missing!"

The other Vikings avoided Hiccup's gaze for a moment.

"They couldn't find her body, so she must be alive! She's a strong woman…so she'll make it back…she have to…"

"No, screw this! I don't care what you or anybody else thought about me!" Hiccup said and turned away from them.

"Really, Hiccup? You don't care when there's talk about a possible coup?" Tuffnut said and Hiccup was silent.

"What?"

Tuffnut closed his eyes and sighed. "People are starving and you're making them choose between their family and the dragons, Hiccup. And there are still a lot of people that's on the fence or outright hates dragons like Mildew. What's more, there are talks about individuals that are waiting to take the throne from you. They said that the unification was convenient for those individuals,"

Hiccup turned to face the twins again. "And you decided to tell me now?"

"We don't want you to worry and become even more paranoid! Even if we told you about it, you'd just deny the problem like it never existed!" Tuffnut replied.

Hiccup closed the distance again. "That is for me to decide. The funny thing is, you've actually made me more paranoid now. I can't even trust you two anymore,"

Tuffnut looked angry at this. "We did this to help you! We did this for the kingdom! We did this because we care!"

Hiccup snorted at this. "Could've have fooled me,"

Tuffnut's eyes blazed with anger as he grabbed Hiccup's shirt. "Fuck you! You think you're the only that have lost someone? You think you're the only one that has been doing the all the sacrifice around here, hmm?"

Hiccup's eyes widened for moment before it hardened back to stare at Tuffnut.

"We've paid as much as you have to get here! We've sacrificed to put you on the throne that you wanted! So don't you fucking dare insinuate that we don't care!" Tuffnut said and released his grip.

"Hiccup," Ruffnut said but Hiccup didn't look at her. "We know what we did was wrong, and we're sorry. We did it because we didn't have a choice. You – you've changed, Hiccup. You used to be a visionary. You weren't scared of the future and the world! Now, just want to hide from it…you've become afraid…"

The room was silent as Hiccup glared at Tuffnut who returned the gaze. After a moment, Tuffnut turned away. "Let's go, sis,"

Ruffnut nodded and the twins got out of the room, leaving a still furious Hiccup and Sigurd.

The room was silent again as Sigurd pondered what to do. He could just let Hiccup cool down…that is if he is cooling down after all. Or he could nudge Hiccup in the right direction. Still, he figured he'd give Hiccup a moment to collect himself, hopefully.

If Hiccup wasn't so angry at the moment, the twin's final words might have an impact on him. Unfortunately, there was just too many for Hiccup to process at the moment. It didn't help that his anger was clouding his judgement as well.

He was made a complete fool. Played like a puppet on strings!

His trusted inner circle plotted behind his back. At the moment, Hiccup didn't care if they did it for the good of his kingdom; they still went behind his back.

His own people, his own kingdom was still ungrateful for all that he's done for them!

However, the truth then reared its head and it only made Hiccup angrier.

The truth was that the all of the problem came from him. None of this would ever happen if…

"You've become afraid…"

Normally, when he was in sound mind, his logic and understanding nature would acknowledge that he has indeed gotten afraid over the time. That all the problems did indeed came from him.

However, anger, pride and his inherent stubborn nature clouded his judgement, making him deflect any blame to himself and justifying his actions.

'Me, afraid? The fuck! If I wasn't afraid, I wouldn't be king!' Hiccup thought angrily.

A voice then could be heard announcing their arrival at Arendelle's port. Hiccup didn't pay any attention to it.

Sigurd realized this and internally sighed. The twins did have good intentions in mind but the road to hell is paved with good intentions after all. Dumping everything on Hiccup just before the critical juncture was a very risky move.

'They could have done it earlier, to at least to let him cool down,' Sigurd thought but the twins were more afraid of Hiccup turn his tail than anything else.

However, this was where Sigurd comes to play. Sigurd Eriksson may look like he only knew how to fight, but having been in subservient role for prideful men for most of his life, he knew how to push their buttons discreetly.

Hiccup was accused of being afraid, so Sigurd will start from there.

"So…" Sigurd started. Hiccup didn't acknowledge him. "What are you going to do? We could just turn back home…but then the Queen might think that you-we're afraid of her,"

Hiccup huffed as he sat on his table and ran a hand through his hair. "Afraid? I'm not afraid!"

Sigurd smiled. "Weren't you the one that was nervous meeting her before?"

Hiccup glared at him and Sigurd raised his hands in defense.

"Alright, so what's stopping you?" Sigurd asked and Hiccup turned away. "Ah, you're worried that if you did meet the Queen, you'd be playing into the twin's hands,"

Hiccup was silent.

Sigurd internally sighed again. He hoped that it would be enough to goad Hiccup but apparently it wasn't. He has to push a bit more...

Next was pride, which Sigurd was reluctant to manipulate from Hiccup as it was very risky. Over-inflating a person's pride and ego can led to hubris and it was the downfall of many great person.

If their plan failed, Hiccup could be worse than what they intended him to be and it would be their fault.

"But from what I understand, the twins want you to change your mind after meeting with the Queen right? What if you didn't change your mind?" Sigurd said and Hiccup turned to look at him again with an inquisitive look.

"Let's say that you did meet the Queen and you still didn't change your mind. In the end, it's your victory even though you've been played the entire time," Sigurd suggested.

Hiccup looked interested and Sigurd internally smiled.

"You'd have the last laugh. In the end, all their effort will be in vain and you'd win," Sigurd finished and Hiccup smirked evilly.

"You're right. They think that they have me figured out, but they're wrong." Hiccup said and prepared himself.

Sigurd internally sighed in relief. He managed to get Hiccup meet the Queen, but at a high cost of inflating his pride. Even if Hiccup meets the Queen but if he wasn't going to listen to her because of his pride, he might as well not meet her at all.

"Let's go and meet this Snow Queen,"

Sigurd nodded. 'Phase 3 is a success. Now unto Phase 4,' Sigurd thought.

"So let me get this straight…this plan was very risky from the very start and now you want to gamble it all on the Snow Queen…who's a freaking wild card in this?" Sigurd asked the twins.

The twins nodded nonchalantly. "Yeah, we figured that if Hiccup doesn't want to listen to us, he'd probably listen to someone who's in the same boots as him, or in his case, boot" Tuffnut said.

Sigurd grew annoyed at this. "Yeah sure, they're in the same position, but are you even sure that she'd be willing to help, that she'd be willing to put up with emotional Hiccup after what you're going to put him through?"

The twins looked unsure at this. "Most likely…yeah?"

Sigurd wasn't even sure why he agreed with the plan at all. However, it was already in motion and Sigurd could only pray that their plan would work. If not, they might lose everything.

All their hope now laid on the most important piece in their plan; the Snow Queen. She will be the one that would make or break everything.

Author's Note: Oh my god, Hiccup and Elsa still haven't meet yet?! This is blasphemy! Maybe in the next chapter perhaps? Oh, wait, there's still Olaf and Kristoff's time with the trolls that hasn't been covered yet! So I guess, two more chapters? ;)

This chapter was one of the hardest for me to write because it's hard to write an angry conversation that doesn't fly off to god knows were. Most angry conversations in real life tended to end up with both sides picking up at every single fault they could find about each other instead of focusing on the original problem. Then it would deviate and escalate into something much worse. Oh well...

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