A/N: Chapter 15: Chapter 14 Part Deux

Meteorologically speaking cooling a storm would draw out the energy. It would still rain heavily, but the lightning would stop. Also, it's magic.

Hans was in his room readying himself for bed when the door creaked open and it entered. The pain pulsed in Hans' eye and heart.

"The time has come again for you to make yourself useful," the smoke creature placed a paper on his desk, "Arendelle is crowning its new queen. She is an unapproachable recluse, but she has a sister whose hand you can surely obtain," it hissed.

"And how do you propose I do that?"

"You will seek out the younger princess, charm her, be the prince of her dreams; I know I have taught you well enough to make yourself whatever it is she desires. Convince her to marry you, the sooner the better. Kill the queen, but you must not be held negatively accountable for it. You will then become Arendelle's king and I will give you further instructions."

Hans sat up soaked in a cold sweat. He got out of bed, went to the basin and splashed water on his face. A flash of lightning startled him and his hope it was a great distance away was shattered by the thunder that shook the windows. He got dressed, lit a lantern, and stepped into the darkened hallway. No amount of medals or scars could change his fear of thunderstorms. He ventured towards the library; his heart jumping with each swing of Mjölnir.

The part of the hall he now walked down had no windows and an exceedingly loud and unexpected clap of thunder forced a quick scream from his throat. He clapped his hand over his mouth and leaned against the wall trying to catch his breath and feeling like a pathetic coward. The door across the hall slowly opened and Elsa poked her head out into the hall, "Prince Hans?" she asked with a yawn.

"Sor…sorry to disturb you," he said between rapid breaths.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm…" he jumped as the storm made its presence known again.

"You were saying?" she smirked and raised an eyebrow.

He straightened his clothes with the hand not holding the lantern, "I'm not fond of storms," he said embarrassed.

Elsa smiled, "Come keep me company," she opened the door for him to enter.

He placed the lantern on the table and sat in a chair, "I'm sorry if I woke you, I was on my way to the library."

Elsa wrapped a dressing gown over her nightgown and sat on the bed. "You didn't wake me. The thunder did," she covered her mouth as she yawned, "Have you always been afraid of storms?"

"I know I was when I was a child, and have been since the mirror was removed, so I believe that would be a yes. Again, I feel I must apologize for my cowardice."

"There's nothing to apologize for," Another loud of clap of thunder caused Hans to jump out of the chair and land next to it, "I have an idea," Elsa walked to the window, parted the drapes, and pushed opened the glass. She leaned out the window and moved her hands shooting bolts of magic into the clouds.

"What are you doing?" he jumped up off the floor, wrapped his arms around her middle, pulled her back in and closed the window. She was soaked from the waist up, "You need to get out of those wet clothes," he rummaged through the drawers until he found a nightgown and tossed it on the bed "you may want to put this on too," he removed his tailcoat and laid it next to the nightgown, "I'll step out so you can change."

Elsa couldn't help but smile at the fuss he was making over her. She couldn't bring herself to remind him that she didn't get cold, mostly because the simple gesture reminded her that to him she wasn't the Snow Queen, she was Elsa. She quickly changed her nightgown, slipped into his tailcoat and opened the door to allow him reentry, "What were you doing?"

"I believe I may have taken the energy from the storm."

Hans stopped and listened; the only sound was rain, "How?"

"Magic," she smiled and tapped the end of his nose. She froze the rain water that remained in her hair and deposited in the basin. She caught sight of herself in the mirror above the vanity, sat on the bed and ran her fingers through her hair trying to tame it. In the mirror's reflection she caught him staring at her with an enamored expression and quickly averted her eyes as she blushed knowing he wasn't aware she noticed. The look in eyes and the enraptured smile on his face made her self-conscious in a way that only he seemed to cause; it made her feel beautiful and reminded her that she wasn't just a queen or an ice witch, she was a woman.

Hans picked the brush up from the vanity, "here, let me help you," he sat next to her on the bed. She turned so her back was to him, "Would you like me to braid it?"

Elsa laughed, "You can braid hair?"

"I've spent years braiding rope; as long as it can be split into strands, I can braid it. Do you have something I can tie the end with?" Elsa picked up a small bit of ribbon from the nightstand and handed it back to him.

He put down the brush and hesitated for a moment, "unlike rope, hair does require the removal of my gloves," he said barely above a whisper. Taking a deep breath he removed them and sat them on the bed. Elsa saw the movement out of the corner of her eye as he set them down; she had never seen him willingly remove them. He picked the brush back up and began to run it through her hair.

"You're amazingly gentle with the knots," Elsa said thankful for the fact.

"Gita has a tender scalp," he continued to brush lost in the feeling of her smooth hair as it slid between his fingers, "I believe this is the first time I've seen you with your hair loose," he began to divide her hair sending chills up her spine when his bare hand would come in contact with the skin of her neck, "not that my opinion matters, but of all the ways I've seen you wear it, this would be my favorite." She had to pull her mind away from the fantasy it was trying to create involving the alteration of the current situation and the touch his uncovered hands.

"Why did you write the letters to me and not Anna?"

Hans paused mid-braid, surprised at the question, "I wrote them to you because I was worried Anna might actually read them and forgive me," he tied off the end of the completed plait; Elsa turned to face him, "I had assumed you would destroy them, being the more sensible one. If you noticed, there was a gap of several months between the first letter and the second. I waited to see if there would be a reply and when there was not I felt confident in my belief that you had rightfully disposed of the first one without opening it," he laughed a little, "This led to me embarrassingly use the letters as a person journal of sorts since I felt safe in their eternal secrecy. Why did you read them?"

"When I received the first letter I was infuriated by the fact you had written to me. I threw it in an unused drawer of my desk never intending to actually read it, but when the drawer overflowed curiosity got the best of me. As to why I didn't destroy them or throw them away, I suppose part of me felt that when I was ready to face the past they would be there."

He practically floated back to his room, undressed, and lie on the bed in his drawers and shirt staring at his hands with a grin he was unable to remove. Her hair had felt like the finest silk as it slipped through his fingers. He was all but certain he was the only man other than her father and Kai that had ever seen her in that state; wearing a nightgown, no makeup, her eyes still heavy with sleep, and her hair down and messy. A woman had never looked so beautiful. His coat had been far too big for her, but her wearing his clothes was an enticement he had not expected. He put his head in his hands realizing he was an idiot. He had given the Snow Queen of Arendelle a jacket to prevent her from getting cold. He assumed she had taken it in a polite attempt to not point out his stupidity.

Elsa's eyes fluttered open; she sat up and smiled when she found herself still in his tailcoat. Light crept in from the gaps around the drapes and illuminated the buttons on the cuffs that covered her hands; she brought the collar to her nose and breathed in his scent. This was ridiculous. She had been pining after him for months. The only thing keeping her from telling him was the vulnerability that would come with expressing her feelings; there had been three direct attempts on his life that she knew of and that just wasn't a good enough excuse anymore.

She was up earlier than she meant to be. A maid had found her exploring the halls and insisted she come to the kitchen for breakfast since it wasn't to be served formally for another hour.

"He walks around like an animal in a cage, poor man," the cook said to a naval officer.

"I know. The Admiral of the Fleet has tried everything to convince the king and queen to let him take a command again, but they won't budge," the maid escorting Elsa cleared her throat to draw attention. All present turned to find Elsa and instantly bowed or curtsied.

"Mikael, would you kindly make Queen Elsa something for breakfast?" The maid asked.

"Yes, yes of course," the slightly chubby man nervously answered.

"Really, some tea and a pastry will be more than enough," Elsa insisted.

"Lieutenant Severin Dahl, at your service, your majesty," the naval officer bowed before her. He was thin, with dark hair, and hazel eyes, "May I ask where you got that necklace?"

Elsa touched the square cross, "It was a gift from Prince Hans."

"I thought so," he smiled, "he never would explain where it got to. Did he happen to tell you why he was awarded that medal?"

"He told me it was for protecting some wounded men."

"Leave it to Admiral Westerguard to minimize it," he laughed, "If you would like I can tell how he really earned it."

"I would like that very much," she sat down in the chair Dahl had pulled out from the small kitchen table for her.

The loud cracking of wood followed by the bell and the call of "All hands on deck!" woke Hans from his slumber. He threw on his trousers, boots, and gloves and ran out on deck. The main mast lie broken in half, "What is going on?" he yelled to the sailor who had been on watch as Dahl appeared alongside him.

"I don't know, sir! There was a blast and the next thing I know the main mast snapped!" The ship rocked as something collided with the side of it; grappling hooks glimmered in the moon light.

"We're being boarded," the shock caused it to come out just barely above a whisper. He dove out of the way of a cutlass taking Dahl to the deck with him. Quickly rising to his feet, he ran to grab his sword but finding the way blocked he grabbed a boarding axe from a supply box on deck. A searing pain shot down his back and he spun, axe out, felling the man who had inflicted it.

The clashing of weapons rang in his ears as he fended off another blade aimed at his chest. Hans stepped forward with left foot turned and brought his right leg around snapping it straight as it connected with the head of a pirate about to land a blow on one of his men. He let the movement complete his rotation and felt a pain on the side of his neck as another cutlass grazed him.

His men were outnumbered and in no position to use the guns. Noticing that most of the pirates were now busy on the deck of the Daggry, Hans climbed the gunwale, jumped onto the deck of the pirate ship and charged the bridge.

The sound of metal on metal rang as the admiral and the pirate captain battled for control of the helm. The captain's cutlass stabbed through Hans' shirt and tore the flesh of his left shoulder as he turned and came back to kick the sword from the man's hand. The pirate tried to recover it only to be knocked overboard by a boot to the chest. Hans grabbed the wheel and spun it hard away from the Daggry; when he hadn't been being directly attacked on the Daggry he had used the axe to sever the grappling hooks that held the two ships together. By this time many of the pirates had returned to their ship after witnessing their captain being challenged. Outnumbered and cornered Hans did the only logical thing he could think of; he ran, hopped on the gunwale and jumped into the sea.

The sudden silence as he entered the water was almost welcoming, but was quickly replaced by the pounding of blood in his ears as he fought his way to the surface. When the air hit his face he gasped, and by the light of the rising sun saw a cannon ball break through the hull of the Daggry. The salt water burned his wounds, his left arm was barely functional, and he was tossed by the wake of the pirate ship, but he closed the gap between the Daggry and himself. Lieutenant Dahl threw a rope ladder down to him and Hans climbed onto the deck.

"He looked like he had been stolen from the jaws of Davy Jones himself when I helped him up on deck; bedraggled, his shirt in pieces and bleeding everywhere. I tried to get him to rest, but he refused and began working on the rigging on our remaining sails and giving orders on how to get us home. In the dark the rest of the fleet had gone off ahead of us and didn't realize we were missing until daylight," Lieutenant Dahl took a drink of his tea.

Elsa and the kitchen staff remained in stunned silence until the smell of smoke reminded Mikael that he had been cooking.

"You lied to me," Elsa said as she approached Hans in the library. He looked at her puzzled, "you lied about why you were awarded this," she tapped the medal in the center of her necklace.

"I did no such thing."

"I spoke to Lieutenant Dahl this morning."

"I didn't know he was still in port," Hans said shelving a book.

"Why didn't you tell me you single-handedly boarded a pirate ship?"

"I received the medal for protecting the lives of my men, not turning a wheel," he flipped through the pages of another tome.

"How could you give me this?" her voice shook as she touched the silver.

"You deserved a gift that had some meaning to it," he put the book down, walked to her and smiled, "It looks much better on you than it did on me anyway."