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Almost without meaning to, he had found himself a fiancée.
Dragging Hans through the crowd in the ballroom, Anna, Princess of Arendelle, marched with shining pride and teeming excitement past the snapdragon flower banquets and the music waffling from the orchestra, trying to find her brother, the newly crowned King Josef, and her sister, Princess Elsa.
“Elsa?” Anna shouted. "Josef? Elsa?”
Hans peered around over the refreshments table, filled with food and freely flowing wine and other drinks, before spotting a white crown on who he assumed was Princess Elsa. If he squinted, he could almost see glitter falling earthwards as if they were snowflakes.
“I see Elsa! There!” Anna grinned at Hans. “And Josef too! Josef!”
“Oh, um, Your Majesty," she giggled, remembering herself and sweeping into a small curtsey upon finding Josef beside Elsa.
"This," she tugged at Hans' arm, "is Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. And this," Anna indicated the woman to Josef’s left, “–is Princess Elsa.”
Hans inclined his head, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty. The Southern Isles send our congratulations on your coronation."
"We are grateful, and hope you find Arendelle's hospitality welcoming," King Josef responded swiftly, although his expression remained strangely blank. “We have heard of the South's prosperity, and we shall continue to welcome the friendship between our kingdoms.”
Hans wondered idly if King Josef was aware that Arendelle and the Southern Isles had almost nothing to do with each other. Trade vessels from the Isles rarely visited Arendelle, reluctant to brave the icy and treacherous seas that surrounded it, while merchant ships from Arendelle almost never ventured so far south.
Still, appearances and diplomatic niceties were important and the royals from both kingdoms took a moment to study each other. The two elder Arendelle siblings looked similar, Hans thought, with icy blond hair and narrow, pointy features. Princess Elsa fidgeted with her gloves idly.
Anna, never the one for subtlety, always seeing the best in everyone, chose this moment to interrupt.
"Alright, moving on–”
She cleared her throat.
“Ahem, now that you know each other, we can move on to the main topic. Josef, I have been in Hans’ company since morning and can I just say–" here Anna looped an arm around Hans' arm, squealing, "–I have so much in common with him!”
“And you know how these things turn out, we talked a lot, and we went on walks, and we danced a little, and we, uh we ...."
Here she blushed, fidgeting and seemingly unable to continue.
King Josef turned to share a look with Princess Elsa. Her gaze turned sharp, and a silent conversation passed between the two elder siblings.
Hans gently shook off Anna and stepped forward.
“Your Majesty–”, Hans began. “Forgive me if this seems abrupt; I am aware that me and my convoy had only recently arrived, but I would like to ask–”
He was cut off by Anna grabbing his hand. “We’re getting married!” she exclaimed. "And we want you to oversee our marriage. Will you give us your blessing?" Anna's gaze flitted hopefully between Elsa and Josef.
The crowd around them was starting to murmur excitedly among themselves. Josef maintained a stony expression at Anna's declaration, but Elsa looked as if she saw her very worst fears in Anna and Hans.
“Anna, be reasonable,” said Elsa, shaking her head. “The engagement of a royal is no jesting matter.”
Anna’s smile evaporated. “What do you mean? I am perfectly serious about marrying Hans—”
“No one marries a man they just met. ” Elsa cut in. She waved a hand at Hans, “You don’t know him, we don’t know him—”
“I do know Hans!” Anna insisted. And now the people around the royals were eavesdropping shamelessly. “I knew the moment we set eyes on each other that we were meant to be!”
If anyone could convince the King and his sister of the existence of love at first sight, it’d have been Anna. But Elsa remained unmoved.
“Anna,” Elsa began carefully, “You can't claim to love this man in one day. Love does not work this way.”
Hans winced, involuntarily. Judging by Anna’s rapidly reddening complexion, Princess Elsa definitely said the wrong thing.
"Oh, so you’re the resident love expert now, huh? Where are your suitors? I don’t see any lining up around the castle!” Anna shouted, but a second later, her eyes grew wide and she clapped her hands over her mouth, looking horrified.
A sudden hush had fallen over the room, as the crowd started to realize there was something very interesting going on near the refreshments table.
Elsa took a moment to calm herself and pulled Josef closer in. “Josef, tell Anna she can’t marry this man.”
Josef gave Elsa a flat look, as if saying there was nothing he could do.
(The King wasn't wrong, Hans thought: he was sure sweet, naive little Anna would elope with him if he'd asked, and nothing short of locking her in the dungeons would have kept her from running away with him.)
Finally, Josef sighed. “You do not have our blessing, Anna. You shall not marry this foreigner.”
Anna did not take this well. Tears welled in her eyes, and standing beside her, Hans could see her frame trembling ever so slightly.
“I guess… I’ll never not be lonely in this castle,” Anna said plaintively. “Of course you wouldn’t understand. When Father and Mother died, I thought you would come out of your room, Elsa. I thought you would want to talk to me, or at least look me in the face and tell me you were sad they were gone. We’d been friends, we could be friends again—“
Anna took in a deep breath, “And, and– then Josef had to come running in and ruin things further. You,” she turned to the King, her breath catching, “you didn’t know Mother and Father. You came out of nowhere, you weren’t part of our family. Why… why would Elsa let you close, but not me?”
Anna’s voice broke.
“How could you do this to me, when Elsa was all I had left?” she asked, bursting into tears.
The whole room stared intently at the distraught princess, at the stunned elder siblings, silent condemnation pouring over them.
(And then Hans saw his place in the world carving itself in front of him: he would never get close to power in his kingdom, thanks to all his lovely siblings, but the fragile reputation of Arendelle's royal siblings was beginning to shatter into tiny, tiny pieces, revealing power that Hans could claim for himself–
–if he had the patience and the cunning to dethrone the siblings. Meeting Anna had been a surprise, and discovering she was a princess and winning her heart was completely unplanned for. But first, he had to buy himself some time.)
Hans cleared his throat and spoke over Anna’s sniffles, "I am deeply apologetic for having caused your family strife.”
“Please,” he continued, drawing on his rhetoric lessons with as much sincerity as he could muster, “allow me to prove myself worthy of Princess Anna. I would be most grateful if you would kindly permit me to court Anna for however long you deem fit, Your Majesty.”
Josef and Elsa exchanged glances – another silent debate. Surely, to save Arendelle from further humiliation, they’d have no choice but to agree to Hans’ proposal. Anna had stopped crying at some point, looking between Hans and her siblings with hope on her face.
A few moments later, King Josef spoke to the entire room. “Princess Anna, it is unbecoming to marry someone whom you just met. Nevertheless, in the interests of friendship between Arendelle and the Southern Isles–” and here he looked at Hans, “–we will invite Hans to stay in the castle with us for a time.”
The commoners and dignitaries around them started to murmur excitedly. Hans watched as Anna's spark of hope grew.
“After a reasonable amount of time, we shall reconsider whether to approve of your engagement to Hans,” Josef finished.
In three steps, Anna approached her siblings and wrapped both of them into a tentative hug. Hans couldn't hear what she was saying, but from what he could see, all of them were shaken but relieved.
The hug ended after a few moments, and then Hans found Anna in front of him, taking his hand and smiling radiantly. She leaned closer and whispered, "Thanks for standing up for me. I love you so much!"
Giving him a peck on the cheek, "Come on, I’ll show you to your room!”
Anna dragged Hans towards the door, again by the arm. The orchestra had resumed playing and the crowd its chattering, but looking back towards the center of the room, as Elsa embraced Josef once more, Hans saw Josef staring at him with a cold glint in his eyes.
She was sitting with Josef at his desk into the night, just the two of them, discussing the future of Arendelle, the dignitaries who had come for the coronation, and trade relationships.
Elsa wondered if she was deliberately putting off discussing Anna and Hans’ upcoming nuptials. She’d been plagued by guilt upon realizing just how neglected Anna had felt all these years, and she knew Josef was avoiding the topic for the same reasons.
Anna and Elsa had lived in different wings of the castle, rarely seeing each other growing up. It had been like this ever since Elsa had hurt Anna with her ice, her powers, when they were very young.
Elsa had never thought that she could change all their living arrangements after she gained better control of her ice with Josef’s help.
Now, after Anna’s outburst during the coronation ball, Elsa had taken to wearing those gloves specially crafted to mute her powers, at all times. This way, she could spend more time in Anna’s vicinity without the possibility of accidentally hurting her.
Three knocks jarred her out of her thoughts and the door swung open. Hans, looking a little frazzled, walked into the King’s study without waiting for a response.
He pushed the door shut behind him.
“Your Majesty,” he breathed, eyes darting to Elsa and settling on Josef, “there’s a matter requiring your immediate attention.”
Josef nodded and signaled Hans to continue. Elsa stood and stepped forward, frowning. An emergency?
Hans paused in front of the desk, folding his hands behind him. A glint of silver reflected in the mirror on the wall behind him was all the warning Elsa had before he lunged, and though she twisted out of the way, Hans still scored an ugly gash on her arm. Clutching a dagger, Hans advanced on Josef, clearly intent on killing him first.
Weeks ago, Elsa would have called on her power to protect her. Shards of white ice crystals would have formed and plunged themselves into Hans, driving him against the wall of the study.
But Elsa was wearing her gloves, those damned gloves which suppressed her powers. Cursing herself, she stumbled to the side, clutching her wounded arm.
Josef had unsheathed his ornamental sword and was parrying Hans’ dagger, the blades clashing with terrible clangs.
Unfortunately, Hans was swifter than the King, and more practiced, too. Josef had never needed to use his sword, with Arendelle protected from war by its turbulent seas.
Elsa saw the moment Hans’ dagger avoided a parry and slipped past Josef’s sword, into his chest.
She screamed.
Elsa desperately clawed at her gloves, ignoring the blinding pain in her arm. She’d never been more desperate to get rid of her gloves, not even when she’d been forced to wear them in her childhood; but the gloves were slippery, slippery with her own blood and impossible to remove–
–and suddenly she had to dodge Hans' second attack, while she heard Josef slump to the ground, choking on nothing, while blood poured out of his chest, or was that water, what the hell, why did that look like water–
Her distraction cost her her already meager defense.
Hans stabbed Elsa straight in the stomach, and she gagged, blood flowing freely from her wound as Hans pulled out his dagger, leaving her crumpling to the floor.
Elsa heard an anguished cry beyond the ringing in her ears. Josef had gotten to his feet again, his clothes stained dark from his gaping wound. Before Hans could deliver a death blow to Elsa, Josef engaged his blade with his sword again, fierce determination shining through his eyes.
As the fight began anew, Elsa lay there, gasping and trying to stem the flow from her torso. Josef was ignoring Hans’ smaller jabs and driving him away from Elsa with reckless, furious sweeps.
Elsa stopped trying to pull off her gloves. They had been frozen to her hand, forming red crystalline flakes. Pressing her gloved hands to her bleeding stomach, Elsa tried to call on her powers. Somehow, it worked – the room became noticeably colder – and she sealed her wound with ice.
Turning towards the fight, she slowly crawled closer to Hans. With great effort, she swung her unhurt arm and willed a giant icicle into existence–
–and Hans crashed to the ground, his head rolling off as Elsa’s ice pierced his throat and Josef’s swing finally struck true.
The ice around Elsa was searing.
To Elsa, ice had always been cool and soothing. The last time Elsa’s ice burnt her, she had been crying over Anna’s limp form, thinking she’d killed her only sister.
Now, as icicles grew from the walls and inched closer to her prone form, Elsa felt light-headed and strangely feverish. As she faded in and out of consciousness, she could hear Josef calling her outside of her icy cage.
Water trickled down her shoulders and arms, and as Josef staggered over, the ice around her began to melt rapidly.
Josef was a sorry sight: his arms were missing chunks, his gait uneven, and blood covered his entire person now. Along the way to Elsa, Josef stumbled and he began crawling towards her.
To her horror, Elsa realized that Josef wasn’t bleeding.
He was melting.
Josef’s legs were all gone now, along with half his torso. Elsa tried to pull through the mental fog, but thinking was getting more difficult. Was it Josef’s presence in the ice around her? Had they always felt so similar?
She didn’t know, she couldn’t think. She was too exhausted now to scream or even whimper.
Elsa felt Josef’s touch on her forehead, on her cheeks, leaving cold water all over and soothing the burning. But when she blinked, Elsa couldn’t see Josef anywhere.
“You’ve always been the hero, you know. Running Arendelle and raising Anna— it was all you,” she heard Josef’s voice in her mind. "Now it’s time to rest. I’m so proud of you.”
As darkness claimed her, Elsa’s only regret was not seeing Anna one last time.
Suddenly, the world righted itself, and when Elsa opened her eyes again, she was sitting in the ballroom, sunlight streaming in through the big windows. Everything was a blinding white, the walls illuminated seemingly of their own accord.
Elsa blinked at the figure in front of her.
“Hey,” Josef said, offering a hand to pull her to her feet.
Josef was as dignified as Elsa had ever remembered him being, but he was whole and there was no sign of blood or water on him anywhere, and looking at her reflection on the floor, Elsa couldn’t see any blood or icicles on herself either.
“Where are we?” she asked. “Josef, am I…”
“Does it matter?” Josef said, and beckoned her to follow him.
Walking outside, Elsa realized that the walls, floors, even the paintings – all of the castle had been made out of intricate ice.
They passed an ice painting of Arendelle's royal siblings. Every brush stroke was clearly defined, and in the frame, Josef and Elsa stood behind a smiling Anna, each with a hand on her shoulder. Elsa asked, "Will we see Anna again?"
“We’ll see her soon,” Josef promised.