Preview: Cinderella II

Disclaimer: Frozen belongs to Disney.

Cinderella II

"Come out Hans I know it's you," Anna called out leaning against the tree in a very unladylike manner. "I know you're the one who's been following us."

From the tree branch, Hans smirked and shook his head. Anna watched him swinging down and jumping gracefully. At least that was one thing he remembered to be graceful about.

"So what gave me away, princess?" Hans leaned against the tree beside her, the smirk on his lips never dissipating.

"You're not very good at hiding," Anna couldn't suppress the goofy smile that came on her face, she rolled her eyes and shook her head at the silliness.

"I suppose not," Hans shrugged, but not making any move to look at Anna, and Anna didn't move either, they both just leaned against the tree quietly. Then Hans cleared his throat. "You convinced Elsa to come here, why?"

"Because I wanted to see you," Anna replied quietly, looking away from the trees and looking at Hans just as Hans turned to look at her with a surprise looked.

But the surprised look dissolved away into more of an understanding, his lips quirked into a half smile and for a while he basked in the way Anna's eyes look. He never failed to notice how blue it was. Ironically enough, her eyes were a lighter blue, almost arctic… like ice, but still holding gentleness and warmth.

"Can I say something crazy?" Hans whispered very softly, his smile never disappearing.

Anna mentally shook her head out how stupid those words sounded, but she shrugged and nodded at him, "I like crazy."

Hans grinned at her but promptly redirected his eyes to look back at the stars afterwards, "I wanted to see you too." The stars are dull tonight, Hans thought decidedly, almost ruefully.

There was silence between them wasn't awkward, but it still hung in the air heavily like the clouds before rainfall, then Anna spoke—

"I wanted you to know that I forgive you."

Hans didn't speak. He didn't know what to say, and he knew that Anna wasn't done talking. There was something else. You can't just say I forgive you, to someone like him. Not impossible, no, just excruciatingly difficult. Or maybe it was impossible

"But I'm not doing this for you," Anna continued talking, and Hans released an understanding sigh, the two of them kept looking at the stars. "I'm doing this for myself."

Of course, I understand. But he doesn't say it out loud. He's focused on trying to see if the stars would shine any brighter, but they don't. They were just dull, and lifeless, glimmering but not holding any sort of appeal for Hans.

"Because I'm tired of being angry, sad, and feeling like I'm carrying a big burden on my shoulders," Anna gave Hans a sidelong glance, watching him with his eyes castdown, his chest rising and falling as he breathed quietly; listening. "I know that at some point, I'm still going to keep having nightmares, and you're the bogeyman but…"

"But?" Hans prompted gently, looking at her for a brief moment before looking away again.

"But it beats having to see you as a monster every time I see your face."

"Thank you," Hans whispers gently, sighing and wondering how things could have been if he didn't turn out the way he did. And because he didn't know what else he could say, he just said again, "Thank you."

"Why ask Elsa to come here?" Anna looked around the forest, pointing to everything that was the Southern Isles. "Why Elsa?"

"Why not you?" Hans asked with a bitter chuckle. Anna was caught off guard that she could only nod, but then she forgot that Hans wasn't look at her so she managed to murmur an affirmation to prompt Hans to continue. "I should have asked you, not Elsa. But why Elsa? Why her when the person I truly, and deeply hurt is her little sister?" his voice sounded cold, colder than any storm Elsa could conjure, Anna shuddered.

Hans chuckled softly again, his entire demeanor softening and becoming more relenting, "Everybody wants to know what my motive is for bringing Elsa here."

"What do you tell them?" Anna finally found her voice.

"I tell them…" Hans trailed off, he clenched his fist and shut his eyes tight. Anna watched him, he looked so different, now that she wasn't as naïve as she used to be, and now that she knew even the most trustworthy looking people could betray you, Anna could see how guarded Hans was, the only thing she couldn't completely grasp was how guarded he was. "I don't know."

Anna expected this reply, she reached out and tugged at the sleeve of his inexpensive navy blue coat, this was the first physical contact they've had since they started talking, "Please, don't hurt Elsa," there was a silent plea in her voice.

"I can assure you, Anna," Hans replied, placing his gloved hand on top of Anna's. "Elsa's not here because I want to hurt her." Why the bloody hell would he hurt her? Hasn't he done enough? Or was he more of a monster? Maybe he would hurt her unknowingly in the end. That would be worse. Oh, but it was right up his alley, wasn't it? He seemed to hurt many people, he lost count actually.

"What if she gets hurt?" Anna asked with a small, scared voice. "I don't want her to get hurt the way I did when you walked away."

It took all of Hans's strength not to let Anna feel him tense up at her words. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to banish the betrayed look that glimmered in Anna's eyes when he finally revealed his real intentions. His mind drifted to how broken Elsa had sounded, and the way the light seemed to dull from her eyes when he was still keeping up with his charade, telling her that it's her fault that Anna died. Hans felt his heart got wrenched from his chest. Remorse was the worse punishment he has ever had to carry, he didn't understand it because he never thought he was capable of it.

"She doesn't have anybody like Kristoff to catch her, Hans," Anna continued, her voice still painfully soft.

"I can't hurt Elsa that way." Hans whispered, unable to stop his voice from breaking, "I have no right to hurt her that way," I have no right hurting her in any way. He lets go of Anna's as he stepped back, hiding himself again in the shadows. Then he said in a louder, harder tone, "There's nothing for me to walk away from, Anna," and finally, before completely disappearing—

"Especially not from Elsa."

Thanks for reading!

Are you excited? I am. *self support* XD

It's because I finally managed to grasp how the story will go.

Finally.

I know this says preview, but you won't actually find this in the story. It's just a prequel of sorts.

I'm making another compilation, this one's going to have parallels to fairytales, epics, ballads, poems, short stories, etc. I'll be stumbling across. Suddenly I find using those old stories and giving them an iceburns twist is fun. (yeah, I'm a sucker for helsa, sorry XD don't worry, you'll find substantial amount of Kristanna, Hanna and non-icest Elsanna, and probably a touch of Kristelsa somewhere in them too, but it will be HELSA, because Helsa is my OTP) I already have a few ideas for a couple of stories. I'm actually planning on doing something with The Snow Queen, *evil smile* I swear, the ending's already at the tip of my fingertips, it's going to be a short one but it's going to be... oh you'll find out soon enough.

You guys are all great, and I just want you to know how awesome you are, and thank you for reading my stuff.

Cheers!