✔𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐈𝐈: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈

Chapter 163: No Match Against Flames (EP. 04)

MEDICAL WING | INFIRMARY

"She's shivering."

Aiden looked at his motionless wife with a frown. Her body is indeed shaking, and the infirmary bed has been growing more damp than Magoo can remember.

Ice solidified and thawed; and so the cycle repeats. The King of Arendelle unclasped his gloved hands and sunk his teeth into the supple fabric, before allowing the incarcerating garments to lay on the empty space beside him.

He scooted to the only dry spot on the mattress, the one in front of his wife's tense frame. His emerald eyes gleamed like the smoldering flames and the dying embers the moment he saw her head lift up from its downcast state.

His heart died a little inside to find the tears she was trying to make invisible.

Aiden's bare hands clambered up to her shoulders, the warmth of his palms sinking into her porcelain skin, and her body eventually stilled before relaxing into his endearing touch. Unlike that yellow eyed snake, his touch never felt compelling.

The fire king took the lapels of his royal uniform and slid it off, letting it fall past his strapping forearms and wrists. He draped it around her and watched how her lips curl slightly upwards.

Elsa's hands instinctively clutched the lapels and buried her nose on the collar of her husband's uniform, the threadbare scent of pine and citrus filling up her nostrils. It smelled exactly like him. It made her feel at ease.

But it wasn't enough. No matter how much she wants to forget, the vile poison the Prince of Draven made her swallow still stayed there.

"I-i can't breathe."

I'm afraid my heart can't as well, snowflake.

She couldn't face him without breaking. Not when she's like this, still donning her dress from the previous event which only rubbed salt to her fresh wounds.

Her face remained shrewd in shame as he helped her gather herself—just like he always will. But first, he needs to fully ensure that she'd snap out of her makeshift fallacy. He wants nothing more than to kiss those tempting lips, just to drown out the bitterness they just recently tasted.

But he had his own worst delusion. What if she was so traumatized that she would withdraw, even from his own touch? It never occurred to him to imagine his wife growing distant and their love turning rancid.

He just hope none of those will happen.

"Yes," He was out of breath, however could he save her from losing hers, too? "Yes, you can. You just don't realize it."

"You told me I've become the air that you breathe, my love," He quietly reminded, and his sentence immediately earned a surprised gasp. She realized it was also a confirmation that he had read the letter she had sworn to hide thoroughly, but her words could only remain as words since well, he found it.

He moved his face closer and expected her to avoid his reassuring gesture of comfort, but his guess was luckily wrong. Elsa craved the attention she had gotten and inched her lips next to the corner of his, and his cheeks immensely flushed.

Warm meets cold once he found the courage to entwine their longing hands, their longing souls. Their rings, bands of silver, vows and pledges, met in an ice cold embrace.

"As far as I can tell," He whispers, "I'm right next to you. Your air, is right next to you."

The Queen of Arendelle's heart fluttered at the fire king's emphasis on the last few words. She sniffled and pulled him closer, and the ice and frost that encased the covers of the bed began to thaw into nothingness.