Day 2's Prompt: "Fire and Ice"

Disclaimer: Frozen belongs to Disney.

Day 2: Fire and Ice

They all dismounted from their horses, Elsa motioned for her remaining guards to crouch and move slow. Finally, after hours of chasing, they had the fire demon cornered. Elsa could see the exhaustion in the faces of the guards, she was tired herself, today was supposed to be another ordinary and boring day of signing documents and writing letters, but somehow she managed to get kilometers into the deepest parts North Mountains while chasing the fire demon the townspeople had reported "rising from the sea and attacking them."

After a quick investigation of the part the town the reports came in, it was near the docks, Elsa did saw burn marks there, angry and wild in its path, what Elsa didn't see, however, were injured folks. The people she talked to said the demon in the shape of a man covered in fire, had tried attacking the people, but did no further harm than trying to, and scorching the ground and some barrels.

An enraged cry escaped from the being's lips, then he swept his arms in front of him, aiming for everyone closing in on him, everyone but the queen. Elsa quickly noticed this, and for a fraction of a second she let her guard down, looking and studying the face of her enemy for then first time. What surprised her was the fact that it was staring right back at her, as if it were begging her to understand.

Understand what? She frowned, then she saw it. Fear. It wasn't trying to harm anyone, it was trying to protect itself. It was afraid, but of what? Surely he could have torched anyone who dared cross its path. But it didn't. Elsa reminded herself. He only hurt the guards enough to immobilize them, no one had gotten killed or grievously injured, as far as Elsa knew.

She held up a hand to stop the guards, then she motioned for them to back away. Although they didn't like the idea, the stood down, but were all tensed and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice to help their queen.

Elsa brought her hands in the air and targeted the man covered in fire. She sent a concentrated blizzard towards him, ice met fire, creating a dense mist around them. Elsa walked towards it slowly when she could no longer see the fire burning behind the thick mist. Directly in front of it, with the mist slowly dissipating, Elsa gasped at what she saw.

In front of her, Hans was kneeling on the ground, his auburn hair was longer and messier, covering his eyes, his arms hung limply on his sides and he was heaving, his chest moving along with it's rhythm.

Hans looked up at Elsa, and when she saw his green eyes, she could no longer see the man who had tried to take her kingdom, or the demon covered in fire, in his place she saw a man, looking frightened as though he were a lost little boy. "H- Help me, Q- Queen El- Elsa," he said shakily, though he wasn't shaking from the cold his body refused to feel.

Elsa knelt in front of him slowly, one hand reaching out to touch his cheek, not minding one bit that this man was so inappropriately dressed—if he were even dressed at all, besides the black trousers that were in tatters.

"I d- don't know what to do," Hans said again, his voice sounded painfully weak and small. "I can't control it. It wants to take control of me. I can't— it's— Help me, Elsa."

"I will," Elsa replied softly, not caring that he had addressed him so intimately, without title. Last she heard, the King of the Southern Isles had banished Hans, that was almost a year ago. "I promise."

Her senses, and the more logical part of her screamed at her not to trust this man, but the part of her who understood the fear that flashed through his eyes, wanted desperately to help him—to let him know that she would not let him, or anyone suffer what she had gone through.

Hans breathing slowed down with each passing second, "Th- Thank..." he fell forward, consciousness drifting away, unwittingly, into Elsa arms who shakily managed to catch him. "...you."

Elsa touched his face and brushed back his hair, he seemed so peaceful while he slept, she didn't think that someone like him could look that peaceful. She didn't believe that someone as villainous as he was could look so damnably angelic when he was unconscious.

Maybe he should be unconscious more often.

"Your majesty, what do you want us to do with him?" one guard asked as he approached.

"Bring him to the castle, take him to the Eastern wing's high tower, give him a bed and a change of clothes," she allowed two other guards to take Hans from her Hans and support his weight. "Give him food and let him bathe, when he wakes up, and don't forget to treat his wounds. Place guards outside his doors and don't let anyone but me and Gerda in."

The guards nodded, saluted and carried Hans's body away on one of their horses. One guard, by the name of Iver, who was tasked to remain at her side at all times, helped her mount her horse, and after mounting his, asked, "What are you going to do with him, your highness?"

"Help him, of course," Elsa replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Help him?" Iver seemed confused and taken aback. "But h- he's—"

"The banished prince of the Southern Isles, the traitor who almost usurped my throne," she smiled ruefully at the guard. "But he is also under the protection of Arendelle now."

Iver shook his head, looking like he thought his queen had finally gone crazy from the hours of chasing, "Princess Anna will not be pleased."

"I'll deal with my sister, Iver," Elsa laughed, Iver had been a in the palace since he was old enough to wield a sword, and served as a guard the moment his age permitted him to, and outside his duties, Elsa knew that this man was a friend of Anna's—and Kristoff's eventually. "Kristoff will help me distract her."

Iver laughed. Elsa spurred her horse into action, her mind drifted back towards Hans. It was an unlikely second meeting, and an even more unlikely scenario that she would end up helping her enemy. Fate had a mysterious way of working, and she didn't know, yet, what it would mean for her, or Hans—or anybody else that will be dragged into the picture, for that matter.

Villain and Heroine.

Hot and Cold.

Fire and Ice.

Hans and Elsa.

Him and me.

It had a poetic ring to it, and was an unlikely combination, one the gods dared tried pushing.

Finally the internet cooperated, and I finally got to post this.

I'm well aware that this story is horribly cliff-hanger-ish, so I'll be writing another story for Day 2.

Also, it sunk in to me in a very slow, very late manner, that today is April 1.

(I guess I just don't have a sense of date or time on school vacations.)