A/N: Well, hello! I'm so glad you stopped by! Welcome to the next chapter! And you know, since as we all know a major topic in this chapter is going to be the storm that was mentioned, I'd just like to say, while we're on the topic, if you're going to the shore on the east coast, make sure you're careful, because there's a hurricane headed our way! That's all! Enjoy the chapter! :-)
Disclaimer: I "dis-claim" Frozen, meaning I don't own it.
"I must say, you're quite the dancer," Elsa said as she and Johan glided across the floor.
Johan chuckled. "I'm not bad," he said. "But only when I have a good partner to dance with."
Elsa smiled as she tried to hide the blush that appeared on her face. It wasn't working, though.
"Elsa!"
The queen turned to see Anna calling her, beckoning them to come over to the table. After exchanging glances with Johan, they walked over to where Anna, Julie, Kristoff, and a young guard with a scar sat with somewhat worried looks on their faces.
"What is it?" Elsa asked.
Anna took a deep breath. "Well," she began, "we have a little bit of a... slight... I don't want to say 'problem'; it's really more of a... um... a 'hindrance', shall we say-"
"Skip to the point!" Elsa said impatiently.
"There's a snowstorm coming in from the northeast," Anna said.
Elsa looked at her sister, confused. "Okay..." she said. "Well... it's not me, if that's what you're wondering-"
"No! No!" Anna interrupted. "I know it's not you."
"The problem is that the weather will cut into your plans to leave tomorrow morning, along with everyone else's," the guard spoke up.
"Well, Noah, how bad is it?" Johan said.
Elsa recognized that name. She remembered the story that Johan had told her one night all those years ago, the story of how he and Julie had saved this boy from freezing to death after he had run away from his abusive father.
"It's pretty bad," Noah replied. "All these people could get stuck here a while. However, if they were to leave now, they might be able to beat the storm, but-"
Johan felt saddened at the prospect of his time with Elsa being cut short, after finally seeing her again for the first time in so many years. But he didn't have to worry long, as Anna cut Noah off mid-sentence.
"If there's a storm coming, I'm not going anywhere near that ship!" the princess concluded.
Elsa nodded her head in agreement, and Johan felt a surge of relief.
"Well, I guess we can arrange for you guys to stay here for a while," Julie said.
"It looks more like you're going to have to arrange for everyone to stay here for a while," Elsa joked.
"Yeah, but we'll make sure you guys have the best rooms," Johan said, smiling.
Elsa smirked at him. "I highly doubt that any of the rooms are bad."
"Well, no," he agreed, "but you guys can have the perk of being near us. How do you like that?"
Elsa smiled. "I'd like that."
"Sounds great!" Anna agreed. "Maybe we should get on that now before it gets too late."
Elsa nodded. "Alright then."
.:.^*^.:.
Elsa sat on the bed in her guest room as she unpacked. Johan had been right about one thing: these were the best rooms as far as location.
A knock sounded at the door. It was a familiar knock. One that she knew, but hadn't heard in a long, long time.
"Come in."
Johan opened the door and walked in. "Hey," he said. "Just came to make sure you're settling in okay."
"I'm fine, thanks," Elsa replied, blushing.
Johan nodded, but at a loss of words, he turned to walk out.
"Well, don't leave," Elsa said. She sat on the bed and motioned for him to sit next to her. "Come and talk to me for a while."
Johan did as she said and sat down next to her. A moment of awkward silence passed between them before Johan finally spoke up.
"You know, part of me didn't expect to hear you say 'come in' when I knocked," he said. "I'm so used to knocking on your door and getting no response."
Elsa chuckled at this. "Yeah," she said. "So much has changed."
"I know," he replied. "It's kind of funny to think that you're a queen now. It makes it feel like it's been even longer."
"Well, that's just it, though," Elsa said. "Once my parents died, everything just changed so quickly."
Johan recalled when he heard about the death of the King and Queen of Arendelle. He had heard about the tragic shipwreck from his father.
"I guess that's why you and Anna were so adamant that you weren't going on that ship," he said.
Elsa nodded sadly. "Yeah."
Johan gently took her hand to comfort her. She felt a jolt go up her spine at his familiar touch.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Thanks," she replied with a small smile. "Anyway, on the day of my coronation, it all just kind of spilled out. I couldn't hold it in any more. I got in an argument with Anna, she pulled off my glove, and... well I guess you know what happened next."
Johan squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Hey, all's well that ends well, right?"
"Yeah," she replied.
The prince sighed. There were so many things he wanted to ask her. He bit his tongue, figuring that now was not the best time. But there was one thing he was desperately curious about. He stared at her cold hand that held on to his, but he quickly looked away when she noticed.
"If you want to ask, you can," she said. "I don't mind."
He shrugged. "I- uh- I just wanted to know if- uh- maybe I could- uh-"
"You want to see?" she finished for him, knowing he'd never get the sentence out.
Johan sighed. "Only if you don't mind," he said.
Elsa smiled. She held her hands close together and formed a circling ball of snowflakes between them.
"Ready?" she said.
He nodded, and she shot the magic up toward the ceiling, where it burst into flurries of snow that fell throughout the room. Johan looked around in amazement, and then he gazed at her in delight.
"Wow," he said. "I guess you really meant it."
Elsa looked at him, confused. "Meant what?"
He smiled tenderly at her. "When you said that I'd find you where the snowflakes fall."
Elsa blushed. "Well," she said, "I never really intended for you to find out the way you did."
"It's okay," he said. "I understand why you didn't tell me."
She looked up at him. "You do?"
"Mm-hmm," he replied. "Because you didn't know whether or not you could trust me."
Elsa hesitated to say something else. "Well," she continued, "that was part of it. But the main reason was that I didn't trust myself."
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't want to hurt anyone," she said. "Like I hurt Anna when we were little."
Johan stared at her with sympathy as it all started making sense to him. As the snow started to freeze into ice on the floor, Elsa took a deep breath to calm herself down, and everything melted.
"Elsa," Johan said, taking her hand in both of his, "please don't be afraid of yourself. I trust you, and I just hope you can trust me."
Elsa blinked back a tear starting to form in her eye. "I do," she said.
He smiled at her. "Good," he said as he began to stand. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Goodnight," she replied as he exited the room.
Elsa sat by herself for merely a minute before another familiar knock sounded at the door.
"Come in, Anna."
Anna stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. She smirked at her sister.
"I saw that."
Elsa stared at her, confused. "What?"
"You like him! Don't you?" Anna cried.
"What? No!" Elsa said defensively. "We're just friends! I just met him!"
"Oh, sure. You just met him?"
"Yeah," the queen said hesitantly, wondering how much Anna heard.
"Mm-hmm. Liar," Anna said.
"What?" Elsa said, refusing to let her guard down. "I don't know what to tell you!"
"You don't have to. I know everything," Anna replied.
"What? What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean! I'm talking about everything that happened seven-and-a-half years ago! And yes, that includes the kiss!"
"How did you find out?"
"That's for me to know," the princess replied stubbornly. "But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't find out from him."
Elsa sighed and fell back on the bed. "Okay, fine. You got me," she said. "But that was almost eight years ago. As of right now, we are just friends."
Anna smirked at her as she began to walk out the door. "We'll see."
Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63