I've Come to Kill You (Elsa x Hans)

Mediocrity - The End

Sometimes, she knew he loved her.

It was spring time. Elsa followed Hans through grassy meadows, and across clear brooks. Her garments were all whimsical whites and duckling yellows, analogous to the clouds and sun that gleamed above them. In her right hand, Elsa carried a thatched basket. Its lid was partially open, revealing delicious sandwiches and fruits from the castle kitchens. Bumblebees whizzed past the picnic site as one of the children laid out a carefully-knitted quilt.

Hans took the basket from Elsa, and placed it on the mat. He grabbed her by the waist and spun her over his head, like she was one of those billowy clouds. His face was bright with a white-toothed smile, and hers a knowing grin. As soon as he brought her back to Earth, he pulled her in for a tender kiss.

Sometimes, it was impossible to tell.

She could hear him shouting from inside the bedroom. She pulled the covers up to her nose, and tried not to jump whenever a flash of lightning pierced the room's pervasive darkness. Eventually, she gave up, and crept into the hallway. Hans stood before a cowering servant with his hand raised high above his head. The remnants of a steaming dish were strewn all over the floor: a lobster tail near a suit of armor's sabaton; an unopened clam just beside its spear.

"Hans?" He turned at the sound of her voice, and lowered his palm. 

"Elsa," His voice was thick with forced obedience. "What are you doing up so late?"

She crossed her arms, and shifted from one foot to the other. "I could ask you the same question, Hans. Why don't you come to bed?"

Without another word, Hans elbowed past her. She would've fallen to the floor, had a few slender roots of ice not curled around her feet. Sometimes, it felt as if he regarded her as more of a bother than as a wife. And then on warm, crowded nights he would suddenly see her beauty as Hades saw Persephones'. He would press her against the wall, or kiss her when her mind had already half drifted into the empty recesses of sleep. In those moments, she had her husband back, but for now she was no more desirable to Hans than the trembling servant beside her.

                                                           ❅ ❄ ❆

That night, Hans dreamed. He dreamed of the Southern Isles, and of his twelve brothers. Young Hans was below the deck of a sinking ship. His knees were submerged in arctic seawater. He kept screaming their names, every last one, but his words drifted up and scattered like drops of ice in a pool of bath water. He hammered on the trapdoor with his fists until they felt numb.

Above Hans, two parents were counting their kin. Their twelve sons were already laughing, teasing each other about their captain's poor navigation. Not a single soul remembered the boy beneath the waves. Not a single soul heard his cries.

Hans woke up in a cold sweat. The room was bleak and wintry, but that was alright. He was not drowning, not while his family stood safely ashore. Instead, he slept beside Elsa. Elsa. He had never intended to fall in love with her, not in a century's time. 

For a few hours, Hans sat upright, contemplating his childhood abuse and the true reason behind his appearance in Arendelle. No matter what route he forced his thoughts to take, however, the result was always the same. The voices of his mocking brothers were louder than the wind, louder than the demands of his newborn sons and the beating of his heart when his wife's lips met his own.

He decided, without further ado, that a man who had never received love could never share it with another. With a satisfied huff, Hans laid down and prepared for a long night's sleep. 

"I love you," Elsa whispered. Hans would never admit it, but he loved her too.

                                                              ----

Author's Note: Please note the development of both Hans and Elsa from the inception of the story to its conclusion. 

~ Both characters were overwhelmed, but not overcome, by their problems; Elsa faced and dealt with her powers quite effectively, though her past mistakes (where fear took the reigns) still haunt her. Hans could never change his past, and because of that, his future suffered.