✔𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐈𝐈: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈

Chapter 155: The Letter I Never Gave You

My dearest Aiden,

I could never gain the confidence to give this to you myself. I'll let you find this, I'll let you read this. This is for you, anyway.

I know life is no illusion. I know whole heartedly that life is no daydream.

Tragedy makes us more human. Betrayal makes you think that you have to be more careful in picking who to trust next time. Death makes us value the passed person more. Tears lessen the pain. Being caged in one place for so many days makes you feel more like a monster.

On the other side, however... Freedom is the definition of what living is like. Perseverance makes the prize more sweet. Smiles make sure you'll endure long enough.

When I finally got to go through that door, it felt like I could breathe again. But  the halls, the parlors, the vacancy of the rooms... Everything felt so ghostly and empty. Only echoes lasted, but the laughter is faint. Frowns were present, and the grins were far from our faces.

Guilt was the only thing that always blooms in my chest whenever I look at dear Anna. Of course it was only natural I'd wish things were different, but we've moved on from that point in our lives. Somehow, the laughter returned from its long absence. Somehow, Anna didn't need to knock and plead anymore.

I am happy she found someone. Someone who is a thousand times more of a prince than Hans could ever be.

He may not act so much like one, but I know Kristoff. For him, ice is superior than gold. Anna, is worth so much more than any castle or any kingdom his hands could ever hold.

I felt contented, at long last.

Although, I began to be drowned in a sea of confusion about life being no day dream. When you arrived.

Out of all the women you could have, you chose me. You are everything I have ever hoped for in a man, in a king, in a soul. Which felt truly strange at first. I never had any interest in this quaint thing called romance.

Yet there you are, smiling goofily at me with your brilliant green eyes which held so much warmth I never wanted to stare at anything else again.

Everything about you makes me feel so... Dizzy. Sometimes I am fooled into thinking that every move of yours, every inch of you, is no more than an illusion of mine. Sometimes, I kept telling myself, you're not real. You're not there, standing before me and looking at me and fearing for the worst as if I will disappear.

Whenever you would kiss me, cry before me, smile in front of me, embrace me so tightly, be honest with your emotions in front of me, I have never felt so wanted and important in a different way.

Promise me we'll stay that way forever. Please?

And there I realized, Aiden... I love you too much that I might end up shielding you in future situations and find you lost again when you just found yourself. Because of me suffering the consequences of your protection.

But all of those are just paranoid thoughts. After all, we'll continue to protect each other until the end of our time, won't we, minn elskede?

There are times you unintentionally hurt me, I must admit. Not with words, not by any part of you, but with how you willingly give up on the two of us on certain occasions. I love you dearly, my king, but you're better than goodbyes. We're better than those.

Please, d-don't scare me like that, lover.
You gave me a necklace just to prove what we've vowed before, am I correct?

Having the privilege to sense if you're in danger or not, at the brink of death or not, makes me feel like I can do lots of the impossible. I will always protect you, whatever it takes. Even my own life. Even my last breath.

But actually, Aiden— you've become the air that I breathe.

There will be more times our promises will be tested. If ever one of those times arrive, please bear this in mind. Keep on breathing, keep on loving, keep living... Please do all of that just for our little Aria and Chandler. For mama Helena.

For me.

Thank you, for existing, Aiden.

♥ All my love, your pretty eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐚 | 𝟐𝟓 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐚

"Erm, Aiden, why are you– uh?" Kristoff cluelessly questioned, utterly confounded to find the fire king in the midst of tears and choked sobs. Anna peered over her blonde husband's broad shoulder and squeezed his hand tightly, "Don't you feel a little dizzy with the rocking? I'd be puking by now."

Kristoff shook his head but offered his wife comfort, assuring her with a hand pushing her head to rest on him. As she accepted the former mountain man's gesture, she couldn't help but raise a befuddled brow at her brother-in-law's eccentric state.

Aiden froze and stared back at the ginger in embarrassment. He sniffled and flashed her a forced smile, stiffly standing up from the sofa before folding the ragged paper and carefully putting it inside his pocket.

The King of Arendelle ignored the blonde and the ginger's baffled looks they were giving him. He walked away for the main deck; hoping to find his wife waiting for him there.
•••
𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐤

Raise your chin up, bite your lip, keep it in, Elsa tenaciously told herself as she forced down the bile rising from the back of her throat, a queen shouldn't be seen puking her guts out in the middle of god knows where we are.

Her face looked pale, paler than her natural, almost translucent complexion. If it wasn't for Admiral Arvid and the captain discussing something in front of the wheel she would have marched up to the railing and unleash her breakfast out on sea.

Her body shook. Oh oh.

It wasn't long before her feet dragged her to where she ungracefully disgorged her stomach's contents. Her upchucking lasted much longer than she expected.

Aiden smiled in success as his first guess is undoubtedly correct. But the clear, muffled noise of his wife's retching  alarmed him thoroughly. He quickly took out a handkerchief and ran up to her in worry, a gloved hand rubbing gentle circles on her back.

The horrid aftertaste of the foul substance dawdled in her tongue. Aiden held her close and wiped her lips clean, "Are you alright? You threw up quite a lot."

"I-i'm fine," She waved her hand in a perfunctory manner, "The tides are really wild today."

"I can tell," He chuckled before taking her hand in his, "Let's get you some water inside and get you some rest. The twins are with mama and papa, so no more extensions of worries."

"T-thank you," She weakly says, still recovering from her recent ‘unwinding’ "Your eyes are puffy," She eagerly pointed out.

"And you need hydration," Aiden tried his best to avert her from that certain subject, "Come on, you need to refill what you've spewed up. I'm not going anywhere."

Thank you for existing too, snowflake.

To be continued
on the next chapter...