Author Note: Merry Late Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Sorry for this super late update but I'll be honest with you guys. For the last 3 months, my health hasn't been the best and I've been in and out of the hospital at least 4 times in November and December. I've been in too much pain to really sit down and just write. And on top of that, the laptop that I got doesn't run half of the time because my internet is just that garbage. It's a shame really because I had big plans for December. I had wanted to post multiple chapters then ultimately end the year with a Christmas special which was going to be the snow memory ova. I'll also not try to skip over what could be important events like the interaction between Reinhart and Elsa last chapter. I applaud you guys for pointing that out because I thought "Hey this is just fanfiction no one would notice." but you did lol.

However, if I stop posting for like one year and disappear off this site then chances are I just ran out of luck and kicked the bucket. Eh, enough with these personal issues now and let's get on with the story.

Oh, shit one moment. If I do end up kicking the bucket don't let this degenerate Elsa x Subaru ship fade out of existence. We need more unpopular ships haha. Seriously though there is a supreme lack of best girl up in here. Okay, Okay I'm serious this time.

The story starts now.

-Line break-

The kiss only lasted a couple of seconds before she broke and went back to resting on his arm. It took Subaru's brain a few moments to process what happened.

Natsuki Subaru, a shut-in NEET, just had his first kiss stolen from him.

"W-wha-wha-" Subaru is turned into a sputtering mess and decides just to close his mouth because of the weird noises he was making.

Should he be angry? He did want his first kiss to be with Emilia after all. Or should he ask for another?

Confused and flustered, the NEET says the only thing he can say in this situation.

"...Thanks…" Subaru mutters meekly.

"The pleasure was mine." She says before resting her head back on his shoulder.

This was strange, to say the least. This woman who shared the same appearance and name as the very assassin that tried to- no did kill him. Twice in fact. What made things even crazier is that she was apparently from another world. Such a claim would be utterly absurd to anyone else. However, Subaru shared that same otherworlder status as her and can loop time upon his death. That honestly made him feel a bit better. But that also raised many questions. Questions that he couldn't quite ask at the moment because of the hammering in his chest.

For the next couple of minutes, Subaru doesn't say anything and Elsa continues to rest on his shoulder. Her eyes were closed but she wasn't sleeping. This was something she longed for. To be able to get this close to him. To feel his warmth. To hear his heartbeat. Elsa felt content for the first time in her life.

She was happy.

This Subaru's innocent demeanor and mannerisms made it easy for Elsa to be able to get in close like this. She treasured every second of it. This moment in time would be forever engraved into her mind.

"Erm...Elsa?" Subaru finally finds his words.

Elsa looks up at him with a sickeningly sweet look. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes gaze upon him softly. She looks like the very definition of a maiden in love.

Subaru finds his eyes drifting toward her lips. He remembers how they felt against his own. Suddenly Subaru feels guilty. The other Subaru must have left quite an impression on her. One that he wasn't sure he could live up to.

"I'm not that same Subaru. You understand that right?" He shifts nervously in his seat.

"I know." She doesn't miss a beat. Her immediate response catches him off guard but he regains his composure quickly.

"So don't expect anything too big out of me." He shifts his body to his left and crosses his arms.

"I don't have any expectations for you."

"Oi, oi! What's with the sudden abuse?!" Subaru shouts indignantly. Elsa looks stunned and for once she is stumbling over her own words. She honestly had no intention to offend him.

Subaru finds the look on her face funny and bursts out laughing.

"Bwahaha! I was just kidding." His fits of laughter continued for a bit.

Elsa would have been annoyed at that trick if he wasn't just so adorable to her. She feels a pang of sorrow strike her. She already knew that this isn't the same Subaru from where she came from but the thought finally started to sink in. She had essentially traded lives to end up here and abandoned her "past life". She didn't care about much back in her world. Perhaps that was an understatement, she hadn't cared about anything except for Subaru and Meli.

She wasn't given the chance to change their fates but the opportunity to begin another life.

"Hahaha...hahaha….eh?" Subaru finally manages to get a hold of himself and creaks an eye open but instead of seeing a mildly annoyed Elsa, he sees her staring at him with a dead-eyed look. For a moment fear took hold of his heart when he gazed into her practically empty eyes. The look almost completely mirrored the doll eyed expression of her counterpart. However, the emotion was quickly dispersed when he noticed the tears slowly streaming down her face. Why was she crying? It was a relatively harmless joke and she was in a good mood earlier. Maybe he failed to read the mood like he always seemed to do. Or did he possibly trigger a bout of PTSD?

Man, he was hopeless.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I was just teasing you."

She blinks before her eyes focus on him. Seeing this, Subaru starts speaking again.

"Are you okay-" Before the teen can get whatever he wanted to say out, Elsa pulls his head down against her chest in a defensive manner.

"Woah, Woah, What are doing?!" Subaru half-shouted while trying to pull himself up. An action that he quickly found to be impossible. As he tried to wrench himself free, Subaru found that Elsa's physical prowess greatly surpassed his own. No matter how much force he put into his escape efforts, Elsa didn't even budge.

He feels her hand start stroking the top of his head affectionately. As Elsa's fingers pass through his hair he notices that her hand is trembling. Because he was right up against her chest he could hear her heart beating wildly in her chest. After realizing what was going on he promptly ceased his resistance after concluding that she was having some sort of panic attack.

Elsa holds Subaru closely as her mind flies into a frenzy. This world can't end up like the last one. She didn't know what kind of fluke allowed her to end up in this alternate world but she wouldn't waste this opportunity by letting her beloved walk straight to his death.

While the Subaru from her world was a powerful individual, he was a madman with no sense of self-preservation. This was made clear on the last one of his schemes that she took part in which was a nationwide genocide. She didn't know exactly why he had done it, but in the end, it ultimately resulted in her and Meli's demise.

Although she didn't like to think about it, Subaru likely met his end after she failed to stop the Sword Saint. She hoped that Subaru would have taken the few moments that she bought and made his getaway. Unfortunately, that was an unlikely outcome.

Subaru knew what he was getting himself into and Elsa knew exactly what kind of person he was. There was simply no chance that he decided to call it in there. He was just the type of person to see it through till the end.

She wouldn't allow the events of her world to repeat themselves here. Even if this Subaru wasn't like that now, there's no telling if he would end up like that in the future.

He was due to be the Sin Archbishop of Pride after all. Although that wasn't an immediate problem, it was something that she couldn't take lightly.

She looks down at the boy against her chest. This was the first step to get that family back. And once she did get it back, she would make sure no harm would come to it.

Never again would her little family be taken from her again.

…

Pet

…

Pet

…

Pet-

"Elsa?" Subaru's voice knocks her out of her stupor. She feels him trying to sit upright.

She frowns lightly but offers no resistance. When he sits up on his own and looks at her for a moment. She doesn't have that dead inside look anymore which relieves the Return By Death user.

Seeing this, Subaru has two options.

First, he could sit here and pretend like nothing happened just now. Or he could confront her about it. For a moment he considered taking the first option but realized how awkward it would be considering he already interrupted her little spill. And if that wasn't enough to deter him from option one, she still had fresh tears cascading down her cheeks.

If he were to go with the first option, he would be a scumbag.

"You got a little something right there," Subaru says with a whipping gesture against his cheek. Elsa follows his example and Subaru notices that she seems surprised. She shifts her body slightly away from Subaru and wipes the rest of the tears away.

"Sooooo, what exactly was that?" Subaru questions.

"I apologize," Elsa said with a shameful expression on her face.

"Wait, don't misunderstand. I'm not angry or anything, I just want to know if you are okay?" The look on Elsa's face softens and she flashes a gentle smile.

"Worried about my well-being? How sweet." Subaru doesn't look amused by the comment.

"Of course I am, miss savior of my life," Subaru said while mimicking her copied speech.

"..." Elsa doesn't reply.

Subaru sighs defeatedly.

"Fine, I'll stop talking about it. But now I have another question. You said that you worked for me in that world right? So what exactly was your job?" Subaru says with a curious gleam in his eye. "My job…?"She had expected him to ask this question but didn't know how to respond. She couldn't just say that she went and killed whoever he pointed his finger at with glee. She detested the idea of lying to him but if she stayed silent that would add unnecessary suspicion to her.

Elsa didn't want Subaru to distrust her. It was quite surprising that he didn't distrust her to begin with. And even more, so that he wasn't traumatized by her gut obsessed self.

Because of this, she had to think a little before responding.

"I was your bodyguard." That was her safest response that wasn't exactly a lie. When she was first employed by him, he had her at his side for the most part. That was until he had a run-in with the witch-cult and became the Sin Archbishop of Pride. While he was there, he sided with another archbishop named Betelguese, the Sin Archbishop of Sloth. Following this, he didn't need her by his side anymore and sent her out to deal with external affairs. Even after Belelguese's crushing defeat, he didn't need her as he did before. In the time that she was away, he had become powerful and didn't need her protection.

"My bodyguard? Um, well-ehm," Subaru has something on the tip of his tongue but is hesitant to say what he wants. Elsa doesn't rush him of course. She is interested in what his response will be.

Then he does something that she never thought she would see in a million years.

Natsuki Subaru bowed.

What he did here was something that the Sin Archbishop of Pride would never do. She was quite sure Pride would have rather killed himself than to even consider doing such an action. It was quite a foreign sight and she found it both strange and...oddly arousing.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you continued protecting me in this world! Even though I don't have any money to my name, I'll find some way to repay you eventually!" This...was honestly the best possible outcome that she could think of.

"I'll gladly take you up on that offer Subaru-sama," Subaru pumps his fist excitedly. For him, this was a huge win. After witnessing her fight he knew that she was quite powerful and after hearing that she had worked for him in the world that she came from, this was something that he had been meaning to ask. Especially because of what he could be up against in this world.

He was so hyped from his success that he almost missed what she said at the end of that sentence.

"Hey! What did I say about that 'Subaru-sama' stuff?" Subaru points an accusing finger at her.

"Sorry, it's a force of habit. However, don't you think that it is appropriate for this situation considering that I'm under your employment?"

"That's beside the point!"

This would be a long night.

-Line break-

It took them about a day and a half to reach their destination. The trip itself was rather uneventful but informative. While they were riding Subaru wanted to know more about this world and going on the basis that the world that Elsa came from was almost identical to this one. The first question the boy asked was that if there were monsters in this world.

Elsa was certain that she may have when a little overboard on that one. Because of the time that she spent with Meli, she knew a thing or two about mabeast. And she may or may not have blabbered almost everything she knew. She told him about the various forms they came in. Whether they were big mabeast, the small mabeast, the feisty mabeast, and quite a few in between. This also included the Great Mabeast.

Yeah, she may have gone a little overboard. It was a more subconscious way she spoke that led to all of this. She developed ways to stretch out conversations because Pride didn't want to speak with her if it wasn't about something he needed or useful information. Because of this she also had become something of a pseudo information collector. Thus further increasing her value to him.

In conclusion, if she could stretch out something to keep interacting with him, then she would. This situation was no exception. Even though he wasn't Pride and wouldn't snap her arm for touching him without good reason or refuse to speak with her if it wasn't something that could benefit him in any way. She'll take up as much of his time as possible. And by talking about these threatening mabeast to him it would further raise her value as his bodyguard.

Fortunately for Subaru, the manner in which she spoke to him was quite informative and kept his interest. Although he won't lie, learning about all these potential threats made him pretty uneasy about the world. He was quite glad that Elsa seemed to take an interest in learning about the world that he came from because talking about it took his mind off the scary mabeast. While talking about it, Elsa took particular interest in learning about his past and he indulged her curiosity by telling her about his parents and a couple of funny things that happened to him when he was younger.

When they finally arrived at the mansion it was already sunset. The bright star that served to give light to the world was resting on the horizon and the partially clouded sky was a warm orange. When they stopped, Subaru was the first one to get out of the carriage. He didn't like to be cooped up for such a long period of time he did a couple of stretches to get some of the creaks out of his legs and back.

When they got on the inside Subaru noticed something. This place looked even bigger on the inside.

"Woaaah…" Subaru said in awe. Not only was this place big, but it was also very lavish. It took Subaru more focus to not go wandering around. More than he would care to admit. Subaru turns to face Emilia points at her accusingly.

"What the heck Emilia! I thought you said you were also poor!" Emilia looked embarrassed being on the spot like this.

"I-I don't own this, my benefactor does!" Subaru doesn't look amused.

"Okay, so your dad does. Cool."

"Roswaal isn't my dad! Subaru, stop being a dunderhead."

"Dunderhead? Who even says that anymore?"

They continued arguing but Elsa started to tune them out. What Elsa focused on was the name that Emilia gave.

'Roswaal? Roswaal L Mathers?' Elsa knew that wasn't good. She didn't know much about the mysterious man other than he was the one who hired her to retrieve the half-elf's insignia. And that he was likely just as crazy as Pride. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find information on him. She also realized how strange it would be for the assassin that you hired to show up to your mansion with the person that you were supposed to steal from. She wonders how he would take that she wasn't the person he hired but someone who happened to look just like her.

She would rather not have Subaru here but unfortunately, she had nowhere else to go. Before she could ponder about the situation, a blue-haired maid made her presence know.

"Greetings sister, Emilia-sama, and guests." The maid said with a polite bow.

Subaru dropped his shenanigans with Emilia and turned his attention to the maid. He immediately notices that she looks identical to her sister.

"This is amazing! Who would have thought this world had such cute maids?"

An awkward silence fills the air and Subaru wonders if he failed to read the mood again.

"Sister, Sister. That man is an awful pervert." That answered his question quite fast. Luckily for Subaru, Emilia intervened before the situation could get even worse.

"Rem, Subaru isn't like that, please apologize to him." Emilia reprimanded the blue-haired maid now known as Rem.

"Sorry, Subaru-sama. My response was unwarranted, please forgive me."

"I'll forgive you this time, but you shouldn't make fun of people that you just met."

After Rem's apology, her sister Ram told her that she was going to inform Roswaal of Emilia's return and their guests. While she did that Rem informed the group that she was likely hungry and that she would prepare dinner for them.

No one made any objections to that.

Luckily, Rem was already preparing for Emilia's return so it would only take about half an hour for the food to be ready. During that time Subaru was still curious about the place so Emilia gave him a little tour to satiate his curiosity. By the time they were done, Rem had finished the dinner and directed them to the dining room. Before they ate the pink-haired maid Ram had returned.

She informed Elsa and Subaru that Roswaal was glad to have them but wasn't going to be joining them for dinner because he was busy. Subaru thought nothing of it but Elsa was getting starting to get suspicious of this waiting game. After they finished eating, Emilia had retired to her room for tonight and Ram excused her sister.

"I'll be leading you to your rooms. Please follow me." Subaru and Elsa complied with her request.

It didn't take long for them to reach one of their destinations happened to be Subaru's room. Subaru entered the room and started saying his goodnights to both Elsa and the maid. However, he was interrupted when Elsa suddenly decided to embrace him. She then moved her head upwards and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Elsa didn't do this without a reason. Although she did quite enjoy it very much, she did it because it put her right next to his ear.

Before Subaru could say anything, Elsa whispered something in his ear.

"Don't trust the clown." Subaru didn't know what she meant by that but he knew it had to be important considering that she was hiding it from the maid. So Subaru did his best to hide his surprise as she released him and begin left the room.

When after they were a good distance away Ram suddenly stopped walking.

"Roswaal would like to speak with you Elsa-sama." So that was the game he was playing. He wanted to speak to her when no one was around

"Lead the way."

Ram started walking without delay. Once they made it Ram gestured to the room. Elsa opens the door and Roswaal was sitting behind a large desk.

"Please take a seat." She notices that something is off. He didn't appear to be the same cool-headed mysterious Roswaal that she remembered. Something was bothering him and he was trying to hide it.

"I'm quite tired right now. Is there a reason why you want to talk to me?" Elsa feints ignorance.

"I apologize for taking up your time however, I would like to about this now. Now I know you saved Emilia-sama from that dreadful assassin and I thank you for that. But you must leave after tomorrow morning." He explains.

"And why is that?" Elsa shifts in her seat.

"I don't feel safe knowing that someone that resembles the assassin that tried kill Emilia in the to be here for and wandering these halls."

"Is that so? Hmm and here I thought it was because you are afraid of Emilia finding out that you were the one that hired that dreadful assassin in the first place?"

Something flashes inside of the man's eyes and his hands start to move.

Skkkr!

The white kukri was drawn and an odd noise emitted from the blade as it stops only a few centimeters from the sorcerer's throat.

"No, no, no please stay seated sir. Things were going so well." Elsa said sarcastically. This man may be the most powerful magic caster in the world but that meant nothing in this situation. If they were to fight at this range Elsa would certainly win.

Roswaal glares that Elsa.

"I don't know who or what you are but you need to leave my domain," Roswaal said with all traces of pleasantries dropped.

"I don't think you have any authority to be making that kind of demand. However, I can promise you that I won't tell little Emilia about your involvement in that incident but I need you to do one thing for me."

"...What would that thing be?" Elsa grins at his response.

"Forming a contract with me."

-Chapter end-

Author Note: So there's been a good number of you guys who want M rated content in this fic. Tell me in the reviews what the rest of you think about that. I'm not opposed to writing stuff like that however I'd need to know if the majority is on board. On that note, I need to ask yall an honest question. Would Elsa be a chronic virgin? Hey, here me out because she's a cursed doll wouldn't that make her hymen regenerate after penetration? Lmao, I'm legitimately thinking of just having it like that as a meme. Probably won't make it but whatever really.