A/N: Thank you all for your support! I cannot stress enough how much your support helps me and how much it means. *Insert heart emoticon here*
BTW, PLEASE listen to the chosen theme for this whole trilogy, which is on my profile. The link is in bold, and under GKSQ. You can't miss it.
When Elsa and Nico got back to Camp Half-Blood, it was close to dinner. Neither of them was actually hungry, because they'd eaten a lot of different foods in Brooklyn. Instead, the two of them talked to Hestia. Elsa voiced her concern over having so little time left for the first time that day, nearly bursting into tears from the stress and frustration of having not yet found her true love.
"You are only fifteen, Elsa." Hestia reminded her gently. "Calm down. Aphrodite knows what she's doing. She wouldn't have sent you your love yet because you haven't established a good family yet. Platonic love is very important, especially in your case. With all that's happened to you, you need to have a family. Not just Nico. You need multiple people whom you care about, and who care about you in return." Elsa sighed, pursing her lips together.
"Should I take this as a sign that Piper, Annabeth and I need to bond more?" Elsa asked.
"That is for you to decide; not me." Hestia replied. Nico placed a comforting hand on Elsa's shoulder, and rubbed it.
"So I'm not ready for love then." Elsa sighed. "But I'm scared… I don't want to end up with a frozen heart as a goddess."
"I'm no expert at love." Hestia began. "So I think you should talk to Piper. She knows about love, and probably understands her mother better than any of us do. I can only offer you advice on what I think you should do."
"What do you think I should do?" The young queen asked.
"My advice would be to not stress or worry about it anymore. Just let life happen." Hestia smiled faintly. "Don't waste time trying to find your true love. They will find you when the time is right, and you'll know who it is." The two bid her a good evening as they stood up and walked away.
Elsa sighed, knowing that there was truth in what the goddess said. When it was clear that someone was interested in her—boy or girl—Elsa would talk with them, looking into their eyes deeply; searching for a sign that they might be the one. That they might be her soulmate. But every time, they'd prove to not stand out to her, as Elsa would feel nothing for them. She'd become frustrated, and lose a night of sleep, where she would sit in her bedroom in her nightgown with the sound machine off, her tiara on the nightstand. She would look to the stars with longing. She'd sometimes even open the window. Elsa would try again and again to feel something for the person who felt something for her, but she'd always come up empty.
Even if she didn't find the person aesthetically pleasing, or their personality just didn't draw her in, Elsa would get upset. Now, this didn't mean that Elsa was a hopeless romantic. Not by a longshot. She just wanted to find the person that would essentially be her soulmate and thaw her frozen heart. She didn't even care what the love was like. She just wanted to thaw her frozen heart.
She didn't dare tell any Nico of this, because he wouldn't understand. No one would, unfortunately, so she told nobody.
Elsa told him a lot of things, but there were some things he just wouldn't understand. Such as her nightmares. She wouldn't tell him exactly what they entailed, because to understand, he would have had to go through those months where Elsa was tortured by Khione along with Elsa, which was impossible, so Nico just had to imagine what she was feeling. But her adorned in her slippers, bathrobe, and nightgown knocking at the door of his cabin late at night/early in the morning while crying was not that unusual. He'd just let her in, calm her down, and then let her sleep in one of the vacant beds for the rest of the night. They were sorry to say that they were used to this routine.
In the morning, Elsa would teleport back to her bedroom and get dressed, and act like nothing had happened. It went unsaid that they didn't mention it in front of anybody else. They did sometimes discuss it when they were alone, but that was it.
Nico was Elsa's protector of sorts. When people she didn't want to talk to tried to make conversation for any reason, he would glare at them and make them shy away, or come over with a reason that she had to go. This was especially helpful when people who had been interested in Elsa came over to try to see if they could get a date or something. It was better if she didn't explain her situation, because to her, that was private. Nobody needed to know why she never liked them or anybody else back. For all they knew, she could be really picky or aromantic.
Elsa, unfortunately, was prone to people having crushes on her, because everybody knew that she was immortal, and going to become a goddess. She wasn't quite sure how people knew, but she supposed word would get out eventually. Anyway, Elsa was trying to live like a normal girl. She knew that wasn't really easy, but she wanted to live as normally as possible, for a demigod.
Wearing her diadem wasn't to set Elsa apart. It was to give her confidence and remind herself how far she'd come. It was also there to remind her to make good choices. It was very symbolic, she decided. She wore it around people other than Nico because it reminded her of who she was supposed to be. When Elsa wanted to be raw and expose her fears, doubts, and her inner bits, she was always either with only Nico, or alone, and then the diadem would come off.
"Do you feel like going to the campfire?" Elsa asked Nico. He shrugged.
"S'mores are always good, I guess. It's always important to take care of yourself and make yourself happy." He commented.
"I might feel kind of juvenile going to the campfire for the s'mores." She sighed. Her accent had faded a good amount, and it was almost gone. She practiced speaking all of the languages she knew, though. She had conversations with Chiron, talked with herself, and Nico in other languages. Elsa read and listened to things in different languages, as well as writing in different languages so that she wouldn't lose her ability. Especially speaking Norwegian. That was a very important part of her.
"But do you want to?" Nico pressed. "That's the question."
"I feel like I should, because I need to be a good role model." Elsa replied, weighing her reasons. "On the other hand, there will be couples. But then again… Oh yeah!" Her eyes lit up, remembering. "Piper and Jason couldn't be together today, so we can sit with her. Lady Hestia did say that I should spend time with her, so it's probably a good idea if we do go."
"Then we'll go." He told her simply. The two joined hands and walked to the amphitheater; getting there before most of the other people, because dinner wasn't completely over yet. The two sat further away from the fire pit rather than closer to it, because Elsa wasn't completely crazy about heat. It just wasn't comfortable for her, which was why she left her window open in winter, and often made it snow in her room. Nico was used to the cold, because he was used to Elsa.
When Piper finally came to the amphitheater, Elsa stood, motioning for Nico to stay and save their seats. She strode down to the daughter of Aphrodite, who was nearing eighteen years old.
"Piper, would you like to sit with me and Nico?" Elsa offered, gesturing to where Nico was sitting.
"Oh… Sure." Piper replied after a moment of processing Elsa's offer. Honestly, she just didn't want to be around couples that much, because Jason was away. Nico and Elsa first struck her as a couple, but then they explained that they were basically brother and sister, so Piper left it alone.
Elsa didn't offer Piper a hand to take as she went back up to Nico. Honestly, she didn't like being touched by most people. Nico was the one person she was completely okay with touching her. She was uneasy when girls touched her, but she was able to relax more if she knew the girl who was touching her well. Boys besides Nico touching her were a no. Flat out no. It sent her into panic mode.
Whenever that happened (though it was rare), Elsa would mentally beat herself up afterward. She'd tell herself that it had been a year and half, and that she should be over her fear. The only person who was truly capable of calming her out of panic mode was Nico. He understood why she'd panic, and flinch when someone besides Nico would touch her unexpectedly. The reasons haunted her nightmares.
Not to say that Nico didn't have nightmares and come to Elsa's bedroom. When he did come, Elsa would select a relaxing noise to play on the sound machine, wrap an arm around him, and they would look at the sky together. She'd talk to him about good things, and maybe make it snow in the room. Elsa knew how to get rid of the ice and snow once she'd created it.
Anyway, Elsa sat between Piper and Nico. She told Piper about her problem.
Piper was one of her friends with whom Elsa had mainly shared her issues with Khione. She didn't tell Piper everything that had happened to her while being tortured, because some things were just too difficult to tell. But Piper knew enough. She knew about the frozen hearts, but she only knew the conditions for thawing Elsa's heart; not Nico's.
"Well…" Piper thought for a moment. "Knowing my mother… I think she'll send your love to you when you least expect it."
This made Elsa's hope fade. She was always expecting for Aphrodite to send her true love. Did this mean that she would never find her soulmate?
A/N: If you don't remember Khione's curses on them, check chapter 4; towards the end.
Please tell me your thoughts, speculations; anything. Almost any sort of feedback will do. Thanks for reading!