A/N: I'm really not sure where the idea for this one shot came from, but I wrote it quite a while ago and it's always been one of my favorites. I don't think I'll ever write the whole story to go along with it, but it's possible I'll get bored one day and go for it. Anyway, tell me what you think!


When she approached his cell, only silence greeted her. It was dark and she could just barely make out his form, the slumped shoulders in the darkest part of the tiny room. Lars gave a short bow and muttered his leave before turning and exiting. Even the guards left the room and it made her wonder about the entire situation. There were bars, but it was still surely somewhat unsafe to leave her with a prisoner.

"Who's come to visit me this time?" Hans' voice was different, bitter. Yet behind that thin line of anger, a wall of sadness hit her, practically radiating from the cell. She saw his head turn up, green eyes glinting in the faint flicker of the torch behind her.

"What do you want?" She imagined there was supposed to be venom in the words. But they fell flat and lifeless.

"I came to hear your side of the story. Apparently there is one." Elsa pursed her lips, doing her best to tamp down anything she might be feeling. Conceal, don't feel. That was an important mantra when talking to Hans. He stood slowly, and she could see his clothes hanging off of his now thin frame, his haggard face coming into view. And his eyes, they were dull. Like a man who had given up hope. It took him some time to shuffle up to the bars, hands reaching up to hang limply from the metal while his eyes only met her for brief second, then dropped to the stone floors.

"It doesn't matter now. What's done is done." He was panting, chest rising and falling as though he'd just run all the way from Arendelle. Then with a cough, it went back to silence and she worried for a moment that he had stopped breathing entirely.

"They'll hang you, if you don't defend yourself." She pointed out incredulously. It could all be an act. An elaborate plan to secure her pardon. Yet even she, with all her lack of experience, could see that he wasn't faking anything. He swallowed roughly and shook his head.

"Good." His hands fell away, the effort of merely standing clearly weighing on him. She started to notice smaller things. Bruises on his face, old cuts and scars on his arms, the bags under his eyes. He didn't resemble the man she'd met at her coronation in the least. Not in his looks and not in the way he was acting. Feeling a bit more bold, Elsa tool a step forward.

"How can you not try to clear your name? You were selfish enough to kill to gain a kingdom, but you don't want to live? I find that hard to believe." She told him coldly, surprised at how well it all came out, how confident she sounded. And her words seemed to bring

Hans to life, him slamming against the bars once more, green eyes spitting fire and face full of rage and fury.

"I deserve to die!" He cried out, shaking at the bars. "For all I've been through, for all I've done, this is my fate! I didn't ask anyone to seek pardon for me." He looked like a caged animal, his hands shaking as he pressed against the bars. Elsa had taken a step back without even realizing it, a hand risen to her chest in shock at the sudden outburst. He looked at her and for the first time actually seemed to see her. His features softened, the kind of heartbreaking sadness in his eyes that artists always long to capture.

"Please just let me die." He whispered. She realized she could see tears gathering in his eyes and he didn't manage to wipe them away before they slipped down his cheeks. He didn't even seemed to notice. She struggled against any feelings of pity.

"Lars said there was a woman." Elsa finally gathered the courage to speak again. Hans appeared to travel to a different place, a haunted look in his eye.

"Rosaline." The name fell off his lips in a soft breath, an obviously treasured name. She couldn't help but feel it was something special just to hear it aloud from him. She stayed silent, hoping he would continue, that she would finally learn the truth behind his motives. He leaned against the wall to his left, then slowly sank to the floor, his eyes fixed on some indiscernible spot opposite him.

"She was just a servant." He admitted after a long moment of unbroken silence. "Not suitable for a prince, not even a spare one. But we were going to run away together anyway." Finally, he reached up to wipe his face. It wasn't much use, since she could see the tears kept coming. "Then they found her. Locked her up. Made me do..unspeakable acts with the promise of getting her back." His shoulders sagged as a ragged breath escaped him. "But I failed. So they killed her." It was spoken with so much more ease than the rest, like he was entirely cold to the fact. Like he hadn't quite accepted it yet, he was still in shock.

Elsa felt the air around her chill at the admission. It seemed as though he had been misjudged, in many ways. It in no way dismissed his actions, but it put them into a very different perspective and sobered her. She found her hatred lessening, just a little, to see him in such a pitiful state. Of course she'd never known heartbreak such as his, so she couldn't truly relate. But guilt, she knew that like an old friend.

"It seems we've judged you too hastily." She spoke again, though she wasn't sure what else to do. Setting him free hardly seemed right either, considering there was no erasing what he had done. The way he was in her nightmares and Anna's. He turned away from her, then laid on his side on the cold stone floor.

"Please. Just leave me alone to die."

She turned quietly and left the dungeon.