Complications (Hans and Elsa)

Epilogue

Author's note: I'm so sorry I've taken too long to post this Epilogue. This was supposed to be a Christmas special, but I felt that I owed you this. So yeah.

. . .

As his head dipped down each time they shoved him, all he could see was the blonde plait waving in the catastrophic breeze. It was as if the plait itself was mocking him, telling him that he should have chosen her above anyone else when he had the chance. As his head gave away the sinister hope he had for the throne, the flashes of guilt became him, leaving him like the husk of a man he was. The dreaded lines on his face and the red mess on top of his thick skull belonged to a man that was no longer him, but to a beast that was caught before it caused havoc, before it caused more than peril.

He wished he could have chosen her above anyone else. He wished he could have gone after her instead of the naïve Princess Regent. He wished he could have cooperated when she was trying to pull him off of his own masterpiece. He wished he could have told her that he was willing to do anything just to turn the tables around. He wished… But all of these wishes are empty now as he was left with nothing but the rope that was awaiting his sweat coated neck.

As he tried to ignore the vile words the people of Arendelle were currently throwing at him, he forced himself to look around and to swallow what his actions had caused. This could have gone another way if he had just calculated his plots enough. Treason and attempted regicide wouldn’t have been mixed into his punch if he had just thought of another way of approaching the queen. If he hadn’t narrowed his equations down towards murder, he wouldn’t have been here trying to search for love when there wasn’t any. He wouldn’t have been here if he had just taken her hand and joined her in her delusional belief of redeeming him of his sinister ways.

And in the end, he kind of loved that about her. He loved the way she spun lies out of every criminal who decided it was best to change fate at the very nick of time. She who had eaten her dinner on the cold – not that the cold had ever bothered her, anyway – just to make sure that he finishes his and so that he doesn’t try to kill himself with a knife or a fork. She who had spoken very lightly and had tried so hard to reach him in his portal of darkness, risking her own safety just for the sake of his redemption, and she who had ignored her sister’s plea and tangoed with the tiger. It was she who had almost pulled him out of the cold chains of ambition and bitterness, but almost… It wasn’t enough to redeem him. Almost wasn’t everything. Almost, until she gave up – no, until he had let her go.

. . .

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.” He shook his head, the smirk on his face growing into an ironic smile. “You’re supposed to execute me.”

She sighed. “I’ve already told you.” She said in monotone, standing up in exasperation. “I don’t know why you’re so stubborn.” She placed her cold shaking hands on her face, rubbing them soothingly on her cheeks.

He guffawed at that as he shook his head in disbelief. “I’m not stubborn.” He crossed his arms against his chest. “You know what, Elsa,” the tone that lingered on her name crept under her skin, sending her shivers she hadn’t felt before. She was terrified, but she didn’t let it show. “Why don’t you get in your thick headed skull that executing me will just do you the favor? I can tell that your queenly ass does not like the dampness this cell offers. You do not like the stress every encounter gives you. I know you, Elsa. You get emotionally stressed. You cry. You freeze your room, thaw it. Conceal. But tell you what, just kill the viper. Kill the snake so it doesn’t slither anymore. So it doesn’t hiss on you when you’re tucked in bed and ready for a shut eye. Shake the hand of the sinner, negotiate. It’s a good deal. I’m gone, you’re at peace.”