Ares walks back into the same study from the day before, expecting the room to still be a wreck from his fight with his brother, but to his surprise the servants had cleaned the mess already. He walks across the hardwood floor to the couch, sits down, and cups his hands together. He can feel tears tug on the back of his eyes as he looks at his gear, partly due to him realizing he's wanted this since the moment he lost Alex, but couldn't work up the courage to leave Elsa.

He stands up, turns the latch to the glass door, and pulls off his coat. He begins to put on his gear, sticking with his silk undershirt, having grown accustomed to the feeling of the soft fabric. He then pulls on his cloak, the thicker, coarser wool offering protection from the elements.

His shoulder guard is the next piece to go on, he unhooks it from its hanger and throws it over his left shoulder. Setting the large leather pad atop his shoulder, he ties it down with an abundance of buckles and straps. Then he buttons up his trousers, staring at himself in the transparent reflection of the glass.

Grabbing a leather belt from a rack in the case, he reaches behind his waist, and loops it through his trousers. He then grabs his silver-plated sword from the wall and unsheathes it, setting the sword down on the coffee table. Ares points the scabbard towards the floor, and loosens his grip enough for it to slide down in his palms. Holding it by the end, Ares straps it to his left hip. Returning to the sword, he grabs it and attempts to sheathe the blade, but misses and pricks himself in the left thigh.

"Fuck," he murmurs under his breath. As he goes for a second try, the sound of metal moving through metal echoes through the room, while the hilt slams against the mouth of his scabbard.

He grabs his last piece of gear from the case, his hidden blade. "One last time," he breathes as he slips it on over his right wrist.

Ares fiddles with the blade, and tightening it down to his forearm, he hears a soft voice from behind him.

"Do you have to g-, please don't go."

Ares turns around to see Elsa leaning on the doorway, her blue eyes glistening in the light of the fire, her cheeks red and puffy.

"Elsa I have to-"

He is cut off by Elsa running up to him, burying her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around him. Tears run down her cheeks. "No, please. Don't go. I don't want to lose you."

"Elsa... I'll come back."

She lifts her head from Ares' chest, arching her neck to meet his eyes. "Promise me."

"Give me your hand."

Elsa, a bit confused, offers her cold, left hand out to Ares.

Ares slips off a ring from his hand, a white-gold circuit with an insignia and some characters engraved on it. He plays with it in his hand, twirling it around a thumb, before delicately placing the band on Elsa's ring finger.

"This ring, it belonged to my father. After he passed, it was all my family had left of him, it's been passed down from father to son for a couple centuries now. I want you to keep it safe for me."

Elsa examines the ring, sliding her available hand in between their palms, spinning it around to see an engraving. She quietly reads it to herself.

"Mea anima est cum te."

Ares places his hand under Elsa's chin, picking her head up to meet her crystal blue eyes, "'My heart is with you'. I'll be back Elsa, I promise."

Before she can say anything Ares' lips meet hers. He grabs her by the waist, her leg moving in between his own as she leans into the kiss. She pulls Ares in, standing on her toes as her fingertips dig into his neck.

Ares is the first to pull away, but makes up for it with a soft, "I love you."

Elsa flushes, her cheeks red enough to turn the tears running down her face to steam. A smile breaks out on her face, "I love you too Ares."

She buries her head into his shoulder as she wraps her arms around him. Ares resting his head on top of hers, looks out the window to see a twinge of orange reaching across the sky. "I have to go... Bryn should be waiting for me down by the gates."

Elsa holds him tighter, sliding her hands behind the leather strap running diagonally across his back. "Please, just a little longer?"

Ares kisses her on the forehead, holding her tighter as he chokes back tears of his own.

"Of course."

Anna and Bryn walk across the courtyard to the gates. Each move away from one another, dipping a hand in the cold, flowing water of a fountain on their way by. They meet in the middle once again, Anna bumping into him as he flicks his fingers dry on her face. They both chuckle as their hands meet, and the laughter stops, replaced with short-breathed gasps and meeting eyes.

They both turn away, Anna running her hair behind her ear as Bryn throws his hands into the large pockets of his cloak.

"So... Uh... Anna, I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not very good at goodbyes."

"Oh? So what do you usually do?"

"Well... There's two ways, one, a swift punch, kick, or elbow, usually to the face. But I don't think that'll go over well with you, let alone your sister. Remember the time we jumped off the roof of the chapel, into the fjord? You can still see where it tore!"

Bryn pulls out his hood, tracing his finger along a large, shoddy stitching job that runs along the brim of the hood near his right shoulder.

Anna giggles, remembering the time Elsa hung Bryn by the hood of his cloak with her ice. She had risen him out of the water that way, the humiliation 'punishment' for putting Anna in 'danger'. Elsa had no intention of punishing Bryn with anything more than a disapproving look, but Kai had been standing next to the Queen at the time.

Kai didn't particularly like Bryn.

"So what's the other way?"

"Just silently leaving the room, save the slamming of a door. That's probably even worse come to think of it."

"Yeah, I've stood in front of doors long enough as it is, I'd have Elsa *actually* hang you if you did that to me." Anna chuckles at her baseless threat, "but I know that you'll have a special, third type of goodbye."

Bryn and Anna come to a stop at the gate, the young princess signaling the guards to get ready to open them up, Bryn giving each a simple nod as they run up the steps.

"Maybe, if the girl is special enough," Bryn smirks. Time to decide, door slam, or...

Anna launches herself into Bryn, wrapping her arms around him as he fully receives her into his arms. Anna pulls back from the hug, and grabs a basket from a servant standing next to the wall. She had been concealing it their entire walk over.

She sticks the basket out for Bryn to grab. "I uhh... Made you sandwiches for the road."

Bryn grabs the basket from her hands, a huge smile appearing on his face. "You made sandwiches? Yourself?" She nods, a wary look on her face. "Anna... That's adorable."

"I just thought you guys would get hungry... I uh," she bites her lower lip as she eyes the left side of the basket, "also threw some chocolates in there."

Before Bryn can reply, his brother intrudes on the two. "Bryn, uh... I hate to say it, but don't take to long…" he looks at his younger brother as disappointment fills his face, "ah fuck it, take your time. I'll be waiting right outside the gates."

Bryn looks to his brother, Ares' eyes red, apparent that he had been crying, and was still struggling to hold back tears. "Ares, you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Ares notices the basket in Bryn's hands "What's that?"

"Oh! Anna made us sandwiches for the road-"

Ares cuts Bryn off, looking at Anna, "You made us sandwiches? That's-"

Bryn, cutting his brother off in return, "Adorable right?"

"Yeah. Well, I'll leave you two to say your goodbyes."

Before he can leave Anna wraps her arms around Ares, hugging him tightly, "Take care of your brother for me okay? Don't let him do anything stupid."

Ares hugs the young princess back, "Stop Bryn from doing something stupid? That's impossible, but take care of him, that's something I can do."

"I know you'll bring him back."

Ares gives a simple smile to the princess, and walks off.

Bryn runs his fingers through his hair, trying his best not to be awkward.

"So what were we talking about? Sandwiches right?"

"Actually, I believe you called me adorable?"

"Well it's tru-"

Anna quickly meets Bryn's lips with her own. He runs his hands down along her slim figure, setting down the basket for just a few minutes, or as many as Kai would allow, ominously standing over the two of them.

Anna picks the basket back up as she slowly pulls away, "Don't be gone for too long, okay?"

"I'll be back soon," he says, a genuine look in his eyes as he takes it into his arms.

He gives her one final kiss and makes his way towards the gates.

Anna is left standing in the courtyard, letting off a satisfied grin as she sighs happily. She looks up at Kai staring down at her with a slight look of disapproval.

Anna shrugs and tilts her head to the side, still smiling, "What?"

Bryn soon catches up to his brother, who stands directly in the center of the bridge, talking to a guard.

"These gates are to stay closed while were gone, and nothing is to happen to the queen, you understand me?"

The guard gives Ares a nod as he makes his reply. "Yes sir, we'll have guards patrolling 24 hours a day."

Bryn brushes past the guard, giving him a nod as his brother turns on his heels.

"You ready to go?"

Bryn turns to Ares as they walk, "We should hurry, they're probably already waiting for us."

A/N: Hi guys, so, this pretty much concludes ACT 1 of the story. There will be...3 or 4. We have yet to decide the specifics for down the road. But, we'd love to hear your feedback, it really helps to see what others think of it. So just click on that little review button down there, it's just begging for it. Thank you for all of the follows/favorites, we really appreciate it! Longest chapter yet! Thanks guys and gals! -/u/CleansedBubbles and /u/Duckbutt11