Five Years Later . . .

Joanne saw the clouds passing by slowly. The ground was also moving at a steady pace. The large buildings that loomed over her like giants were now small enough to be considered ants. She reached her hand over the clouds wondering what they felt like. Were they soft? Were they wet? Did they make your hands glow? Joanne wanted to know.

But sadly she could fell anything else but glass. The young girl was trapped. Trapped by a wall of glass. Trapped in this weirdly shaped car. She was trapped in the confines of her mother's lap.

Joanne looked at her mother and declared a sign of protest. Sadly, her mother wasn't very good in communication. Sure she understood whenever Joanne was hungry and needed her favorite Pooh bear, but in everything else? Not so much.

Well her father usually got her. He would take time to understand his daughter's ramblings. That was why her father was her best friend.

But sadly her daddy was not with her and she was stuck with her not so fun mom.

Again Joanne tried to tell her mother she wanted to touch the clouds, but the blonde woman just took her hand.

"Stop licking the window Johanna" her mother would say.

Joanne, who disliked the named Johanna that had been given to her, pouted and just stared at the window. Hoping that someday she would touch the clouds. Maybe her daddy would let her.

Elsa looked at her pouting child seated on her lap. She was almost an exact replica of her when she was three years old. The same platinum blonde hair, same rosy cheeks, the same thin pink lips and even her freckles were passed unto her child. Despite having blue eyes they weren't as 'calm and collected' as her were.

Whenever people would see Joanne they would immediately say she has her father's eyes, the same look of determination and innocence were not difficult to miss. Even Joanne's nose came from her father, which he was quite proud of.

"Mama" Elsa was taken away from her thoughts from the inquiry of her child again.

The woman turned to her child "Yes Johanna?"

"Are we gonna see daddy?" the toddler asked brightly.

"We will" Elsa poked the little girl's nose "But later; he's busy so he won't pick us up at the airport"

At this Joanne cocked her head "So we won't see daddy?"

"At dinnertime I'm sure" when she saw the toddler frown Elsa gave a reassuring smile "Don't worry, knowing your father he'll finish whatever he's doing and come before I even cook dinner"

At this the young girl cheered "Yay!"

There was no better sight than to see your beautiful daughter smile. And Elsa was glad that she could see that every day.

There was nothing that could harm her right?

Freedom. Sweet Freedom.

Stepping out of the cold chamber he had been locked into and hearing the cracking sounds of the gate closing for the last time had brought him relief. He could hear his fellow inmates.

Some were cheering; some were cursing him while other just sat in their cells staring at him.

As he made his solemn walk through the hallway he stayed silent. There was only one goal in his mind right now.

He had been brought into another room where he was to change. Finally at long last he would be stripped of the rags that he had worn for so many years. It was like removing skin. Every piece of clothing was like peeling a small part of him one by one before dropping it onto the floor, like unwanted fat.

He stared at the clothes offered to him.

For a moment he stood there naked allowing the cold breeze unto his skin. Had it been such a long time since he had worn such clothing? Grabbed the silk polo and felt the material by rubbing it on his skin.

He had been shun by society for so long, would he be able to return?

After swiftly changing his clothes he exited the room. He was then giving his belongings; they were placed in a plastic bag. They weren't much, just his phone, his lighter, a box of Pall Mall and his ring.

He was then escorted out of the prison. He was slightly blinded from the sun shining in his eyes. It seemed to be a beautiful, the exact opposite of when he entered the Monster Mansion.

The doors closed behind him and for a moment he didn't know what to do. He was finally out. After all these years he was finally out. And he didn't know what to do.

At this instant he spotted a black Citroen C6 parked right in front of him. He stood there for a moment contemplating if he should get in the car or run of.

The car did not move. The windows did not open. The horn was not sounded. It was as though it were patient enough to wait for him.

Taking a deep breath he moved his feet, he did not know if this was a right decision. He had made terrible decisions in the past, he had paid for them as well. Or at least he assumed he did.

He walked towards the car stopping right in front of it.

It was in this moment that the tinted windows went down and he was greeted by a familiar yet unmemorable face.

"Good to see you Master Hans" the driver dressed in all black said, tipping his hat. "Has prison been good to you?"

Hans thought for a moment on what he would say. There was an eerie silence. The noise of passing cars and bird being shut off from him.

"I believe it was" said Hans before getting into the car.

The car then drove off, and Hans did not look back.

The sounds of bells ringing meant that there was another customer to be served. Taran lifted his head from his game of Sonic "Oh great another customer" the redhead placed his green 3DS on the table before exiting the breakroom and going to the counter.

Putting on a smile that has been practiced meticulously for customers Taran greeted "Welcome to Canal Street Ice Cream, the only ice cream that doesn't melt in your hands, because we here at Canal Ice Cream understand, so what are your demands?"

"Hmm . . ." said the customer who was a lanky male with blue hair "Hey guys what flavor you want?"

A tall guy with green dyed hair was looking at the chalk menu "Toxic Waste, Diarrhea Bonanza, Sally Salmonella, Blue Chew Swine Flu . . ." he then gave Taran a weird look "Those names sound unhealthy"

Keeping a passive face "The owner has a weird sense of humor" if only they knew how many times Taran himself tried to change the names to be appealing only for Mister Luong to change them and give him a temper tantrum, it wasn't an appealing sight to say the least.

"Well then I'll have the Sally Salmonella" said the only girl in the group, a tanned blonde girl who wore a polka-dotted dress.

Green haired guy stared at the menu for a moment longer "I'll get the Diarrhea Bonanza"

"You guys get the boring ones" exclaimed Mr. Blue "I'll get that Toxic Waste stuff" he then turned to another guy who was at the back "How 'bout you Doug?"

Compared to the rest of his group Doug looked kinda plain, he had a unmemorable face, wearing common clothing and even how he speaks seem boring. "I'll take the Commonly Hot Common Cold"

"One Sally Salmonella, one Diarrhea Bonanza, one Toxic Waste and one Commonly Hot Common Cold coming right up" Taran then went over to the display of ice cream while the colored hair group went to sit down.

As Taran was scooping up the sweets a small Chinese man suddenly appeared beside him "Did you give the customers a warranty?"

Not looking up from hi scooping "You don't give warranty to food"

"But you must!" said the tiny man "So the customers could be assured by the quality of our products!"

"We are selling frozen sweets not electronics" the red head said placing one more scoop of Toxic Waste in a glass bowl.

"Did you then tell them about our lottery? How about the happy seniors discount if they bought a reward card?"

"We don't have a price to put on the lottery and they're not seniors, they're obviously teenagers" Taran had finished making the customer's orders "Now don't you dare talk to them about Bingo night"

The small man rubbed his chin "Maybe we should do a Mahjong competition instead . . ."

"For the last . . ." it was in here where Taran felt his pocket vibrate and took out his Nokia 150 "Yes?"

"Taran?" said a very familiar Welsh accent. "Are you busy?"

"I'm kinda . . ." but the man trailed off when he saw that Mister Luong take the tray and was currently trying to put out some business deal to the teenagers. "No, I'm not busy. What's up El?"

"I'm pregnant"

Taran's eyes went wide ignoring the chimes of another customer coming in "You're what?"

"I went to the doctor for a blood test" Eilonwy explained calmly as though she were telling him about her grocery shopping. "And in there they told me I was pregnant"

The red head was still trying to get the news in his head "Are . . . you ok?"

"Of course I'm fine, I'm only a few weeks pregnant" Eilonwy said cheerfully "I'm not going to pop out your son tomorrow or something"

"It's a boy?"

"Well we don't know yet really" he heard her giggle "But isn't this exciting? We're going to have a baby"

The customer in front of him was giving him a glare but Taran didn't care "Yeah it is . . ."

"You don't sound too sure"

"It's . . . well you kinda just threw me off guard with it"

"Ok then, I'll see you tonight then" and with one last cheerful I love you and goodbye she had hung up.

Taran was going to be a dad.

And he was soo not ready for it.

"Mommy can we get doggie?" asked Joanne as they took a cab ride going to their apartment.

Elsa, who was having some other thoughts almost, jumped at her daughter's inquiry "Would you repeat that?"

The little girl pouted "Can we have a doggy?"

"You want a dog?" Elsa blinked, well it was understandable Joanne would want one. After seeing Anna's Newfoundland puppy Sven the little girl was sure she wanted one for her own.

Joanne replied with a very excited nod "Yes mommy"

"Well I don't see why not" the woman smiled "But we'll have to ask your father about it first"

At this the little girl was practically bouncing in her seat "Daddy will say yes! Daddy will say yes!"

"You can't be that sure" Elsa teased the child "He might not like the idea"

"Call daddy! Call daddy!" the tiny child said pulling the skirt of her mother. "Hurry up!"

Sighing "Alright Johanna, just behave" Elsa said taking her pink gold Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

At once the little girl tried her best impression of being a good little girl, but she was still silently jumping.

Shaking her head at her daughter's antics Elsa placed the phone on her ear to call her husband, she wasn't surprised by the fact that he didn't pick up at once. It took about ten rings before he picked up.

"Did something happen?" was his automatic reply.

Rolling her eyes "Nothing happened, your daughter just asked me if we could have a dog"

". . . I . . . well that's great"

Raising her brow "What's with the reply?"

"What reply? I'm happy Joanne wants a dog"

Elsa was not convinced "Arthur Terrence Pendragon, did you buy our daughter a dog while we were away by any chance?"

She heard him gulp "Well . . . it's . . . just a mere coincidence that . . . a co-worker may have . . . brought me to a dog pound . . ."

"Is the dog at our flat right now?"

"What matters is Joanne's happiness right"

Closing her eyes "Sometimes I wonder if you're 27 or you're seven"

At this he gave her a dry laugh "Hilarious dear, and don't worry about the dog it's with me here at the office"

"I'm annoyed that you planned on something like this and you didn't bother to tell me"

"It's a dog not another child!" Arthur exclaimed. "And we've been planning to get one anyway, and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to surprise Joanne"

Elsa laughed "You spoil her too much"

"I have every right to do so" Arthur countered "Now excuse me I'm meeting up with a client; I'll see you two at dinner"

"Aren't you gonna say hi to your daughter?"

"If you give her the phone right now I will never hang up you know that"

Elsa smiled before her face fell for a moment and she fell silent.

"Is there something wrong?"

The woman looked at her daughter again; she seemed to be half listening to the conversation and was now looking at the passing view of townhouses.

"There's nothing wrong" Elsa assured him "Everything is fine"

Taran was having a hard time eating his beef satay for some reason. Was it because he wasn't paying for the meal? Well it was his friend who insisted he treat him. But why does it feel like it's been done a little too much lately?

He was currently at the Singapore Garden in Fairfax after Arthur called him up, apparently Eilonwy couldn't hold the news to herself for so long and there were constant calls congratulating him.

He should be happy right? His wife was pregnant and it was the first step in having a family.

Then why does it feel so wrong for him now.

"Sorry took so long" Arthur returned from the restroom "Elsa called and she for some reason found out about Olaf"

Olaf, the black and white Polish Lowland Sheepdog Arthur bought for Joanna, was currently in Arthur's office being taken care of by his assistant Sam.

"It's alright mate" Taran said taking another sip of his jasmine tea. "Joanne excited for the dog?"

"Very" he then took another prawn into his mouth "You seem kinda down though"

Putting his cup down "I'm alright, what are you on about?" for a moment Taran felt hot.

Raising his brow "You sure? You're awfully quiet right now"

"Just had another squabble with Luong" Taran waved his hand dismissively "Kept trying to give customers expired coupons"

"Those were expired?" Arthur paused for a moment as if thinking about bringing out the coupons he got the other week "Good to know"

The redhead then turned away; staring at the passing cars and ignoring his dish.

Arthur decided not to pester his friend, knowing that he'll just be stubborn about it.

"When you found out Elsa was pregnant . . . how did you feel?" Taran suddenly asked.

The blond gave his friend a look before he took a sip of his tea "Well I was happy, she wanted to have a child while she was young"

"Did you?" Taran countered.

Putting his cup down "You don't want a kid yet don't you?" Arthur asked.

Taran leaned back against his seat "Look, we've only been married for what a year? And I don't think I'm in the right place in my life to have kids yet"

"You think I was?" Arthur asked. "We were 25 when Elsa had Joanne; she just passed the bar while I had my first big client"

Taran rubbed his head "What's with girls anyway that they're such in a rush to have kids? It's not like they can't reproduce when they're 30"

"I guess it's because they wanna be able to keep up with the kids while they're still young" Arthur shrugged "Or you know, grandpa and grandma are excited"

Closing his eyes Taran groaned "As much as I love Eilonwy's parents, they did annoy us to have kids"

"Everyone is in such a rush lately aren't they" Arthur looked at the window, the sun was slowly setting "And because of that time seems to pass by so fast you don't even realize it"

The read head put his arm over his seat "Well things could have gone worst"

"I don't think you can define one situation are worst as the last one" Arthur said still looking at the window "You could say people are starving at Africa, you could say you have incurable cancer, you could say the love of your life was cheating on you with someone else, you could say you've been fired and lost your only means of livelihood. When you've got all of these different situations with different people you could never say which one is worst because in the end we're all suffering anyway."

"Art, is that jasmine tea or bourbon?" Taran chuckled.

"Your mum"

Excitement was the one thing that was on Eilonwy's mind right then. She was going to become a mother. She never thought that the idea of becoming one would excite her this much.

She had just come back from work and was preparing dinner, she hoped Taran wouldn't mind having tofu for dinner because that was the only thing left in the fridge.

She had just taken out the marinated tofu when she heard her phone ring. Tofu in one hand she reached for her phone in her pocket "Hello?" she said.

"Oh my Eilonwy I'm so happy for you!" said the familiar Southern tone of the caller. "When's the baby due?"

"You're quite excited Queen Latifah" Eilonwy was looking for a wok "I just found out I was pregnant"

"I can't believe it; you two have only just got married" Tiana groaned "Like all of you guys are having kids back and forth and I'm still single"

"What happened to that doctor?"

Tiana paused "Umm . . . we . . . there was nothing going on between me and him . . ."

Eilonwy blinked "But wasn't he your date . . ."

"He was an escort" Tiana said trying to sound firm "It would be stupid and depressing to show up at your wedding without a date, even Merida had a date so there . . ."

"Speaking of Lady Macbeth . . ." Eilonwy tapped her chin with the wok in her hand "I wonder how she's doing, I haven't seen her since the wedding"

"Well, it's not an easy task to run an inn" Tiana shrugged "Especially when her mom's pressuring her to get the hotel five stars"

Eilonwy heated the wok and added peanut oil while still holding the phone "I wonder if we could have the baby shower there, I hope she won't mind"

"She'll probably even give you a discount" Tiana laughed "Much to her mother's displeasure"

At this Eilonwy heard footsteps "Oh, I think Taran's home. I'll call you later"

"Sure, let's talk about the cake ha" and at that she hung up.

Taran popped his head into the kitchen "Were you talking to someone? Or to the strange lady who lives inside our home?"

"Oh she's busy trying to think of a tweet" Eilonwy went over to her husband and kissed his cheek "I was talking to Queen Latifah"

"Tiana?" Taran nodded then noticed the bowl of marinated tofu "I already ate by the way"

"Aww to bad" Eilonwy said taking the tofu and cooking it into the wok "Its tofu"

Taran nodded "I can tell, we should probably do groceries tomorrow"

While tossing the tofu Eilonwy looked at her husband at out of the corner of his eye "You don't look alright"

"I'm fine" the redhead waved his hand dismissively "Just had another fight with the old man again"

"I don't think there's any more beer in the fridge, you should check" Eilonwy did another toss.

"No need, I think I'll just lie down I had a long day . . ." he was about to leave.

Turning off the stove Eilonwy turned around "I'm starting to suspect something"

Staring at the tiles of the kitchen "Suspect something like?"

"I have no clue" Eilonwy tapped her chin "Actually I do, and you know I'm usually dead-on in my suspicions"

Taran took a deep breath "Alright if this is about me . . ."

"I think Elsa is having an affair"

Taran whose mouth was already open did a little weird mouth acrobatics before replying with "Where did you get that from?"

Eilonwy placed her hands on her belly "I think your child has given me psychic powers"

Joanne was more than ecstatic when Arthur came home with the dog. Her entire face lit up and it was as if it were Christmas again, only it was not, it was the middle of July.

With a wine glass in one hand and her phone in the other Elsa took a video of her little girl playing with the new dog "And out of all the names you could have picked, it was Olaf"

Arthur took the wine glass from her hand and sipped on it "What? Is there anything wrong with that?"

"You named it after the snowman me and Anna made from when we were kids" Elsa smirked.

"Well he does look like a giant ball of snow" Arthur reasoned.

She faced him "I'm impressed by the fact you still remember"

"Not everything back then was a bad memory" Arthur shrugged before heading for the kitchen to refill his glass.

Elsa stared at the figure of her husband, for a moment she contemplated on what he had just said. She then turned to her daughter, who was happily chasing the sheepdog puppy around the living room.

It was a sign of pure innocence, a time for playfulness and child wonder. For a moment she couldn't help but picture herself and Anna as they played in the snow pretending to go on adventures with their snowman Olaf. It was a fond memory indeed.

But why did she only remember it now?

It was strange she wondered. Why such a pure memory like that would be tarnished and thrown away from her sub consciousness. If anything she should have treasured that memory for all it was worth. It was the calm before the calm before the storm.

Arthur came back to her placing a hand on her waist "You're thinking of something again"

Shaking her head "Oh no, it's nothing" Elsa stopped her recording "Just thought on how cute Johanne and the dog are"

"Did you hear about Eilonwy?" Arthur asked.

Facing him "Oh yes, they're going to have a baby as well"

"Taran's having doubts" he sipped his drink, which did not look to be wine.

"I'm not surprised" Elsa crossed her arms "He almost run off during their wedding and honeymoon after all"

He nodded "Good point"

"Did you have doubts?" Elsa asked before she realized what she just said. "I mean . . . that was rude . . ."

"I was completely honest with you regarding that" he finished the drink "You know that" he then removed his arm and went for his office.

Elsa bit her lip. When she was younger she wondered why adults liked to complicate things. She wondered why people became more depressed when they grew up.

But now she knew.

She stared at her hand.

She was not wearing her wedding band.

Took forever to do I'm so sorry. I finally did the time skip I was talking about earlier. Tell me if this is a good thing or bad thing, that is if people still read this :P. If you guys do please tell me what you think, feedback helps with with ideas.

Guest: Well shit will now get deeper for these people.

Heyheykian: No Kuzco yet, sorry. Hopefully you still have this bookmarked, despite the fact how crappy I am in updating this.