“Presenting Duchess Elsa Jorgensson of Arendelle” Victor Steiner-Davion loudly proclaimed through the room and with that, Elsa Jorgensson made her entrance, her long purple cape trailing behind her as she glided in.
It was quite an entrance indeed; looking every micron from her head to her toes the perfect Duchess. Anna dared to simply stare and drink her in from her position off to the side as Elsa took her place rightful place just in front of her throne. As was protocol given their respective noble positions, Elsa first offered Victor a curtsy. Then as she rose, he fully faced her and -accompanied by the crowd as a whole- offered a bow, the entire room showing their respect and homage to their new liege. As was proper.
Off to the side of the crowd standing with her relatives and Hans, Anna also rose from her curtsey (held just a tad deeper and longer than others around her) and regarded her sister with no small amount of awe. Her sister's presence was again suddenly overwhelming, leaving her somehow feeling caught by surprise all logic, despite being rather more focused on other things.
Rapunzel, for example, hadn’t stopped
prying from the second she and Hans had shown up, with only the occasional
look from her aunt holding her cousin's curiosity -barely- in check.
Hans though had proven to be
astonishingly good at engaging her cousin in polite conversation while also deflecting her questions with an ease so smooth that Anna would have completely believed him if not for the fact that she had actually been
there.
And yet he did so
without actually lying even once.
Clearly
someone had spilled the beans about the little confrontation outside but with remarkable adeptness Hans had quickly downplayed it as a bunch of probably half drunken idiots making stupid comments with him overreacting just a tad and Anna showing
incredible maturity in handling the situation on her own.
That had earned her beaming smiles from her Aunt and Uncle - and let her hope that perhaps it wouldn't be a media disaster tomorrow once news got out.
It had
also earned her a suspicious look from Punz that clearly said ‘
You’re not
telling me everything’ which she had returned with a roll of her eyes that said ‘
Duh!’. With an implied promise she would tell her the truth later.
Well. Most of it.
All of
that however had fallen off to the side as Elsa had entered the room, her heart hitting her throat as once again Elsa materialized before everyone, the moment seemingly having snuck up on her despite everything else-
“And her sister” Victor continued, shattering the moment of stasis in her mind, “the Lady Anna Jorgensson of Arendelle!”
Anna’s eyes bulged for a moment as Victor turned to look at her.
Me?! she mouthed at him.
A clearly amused Victor nodded - and then she felt two hands (one clearly a young woman’s and one clearly a young mans) on her shoulders
push and she skidded out from behind the pillars on this side of the front of the room barely biting back a curse, walking up onto the dais, waving with a nervous smile at the masses of nobles who in turn offered her bows and curtseys as she came to a halt a respectful distance away from her sister.
Okay, a
log distance away from her sister.
Victor raised an eyebrow at her - before shifting to look at someone behind her and nod. Moments later she felt the iron hands on her shoulders that she
instantly recognized as Gredas and was not
quite frog walked her across to her sister. Her fear spiked to the point that she was utterly unable to resist as she was dumped
right next to Elsa, shoulder to shoulder - although Elsa simply continued to look out at her people and smile gently as they were both given a round of applause and Anna nervously waved and smiled back.
As the clapping died down, Victor stepped several meters in front of them, continuing to speak to the crowds (and for the cameras she could see subtlety in the back of the room), leaving them more or less alone for now. Anna managed to rally
just enough muscle control to ease a footstep or two away from her sister, suddenly terrified that she would feel her personal space had been invaded by her presence.
Beyond that, she suddenly felt once more, frozen in place.
It was not
quite as bad as in the Great Hall this afternoon, but not that far away either as she stole rapidly several glances at Elsa, her mind spinning at a significant fraction of lightspeed as she nervously reached up to brush her fringe back, and glanced off to the side at her relatives - who were all looking at her with encouraging smiles and utterly unhelpful happiness that ignored the fact that she felt on the verge of a panic attack-
“Hi”.
One syllable. One gentle, softly delivered word pitched to reach her ears alone. It made Anna’s muscles twitch and bounce in place ever so visibly as if someone had just touched her with a live electrical wire as her head whipped around to her sister … who was looking directly at her.
Anna considered it a major miracle that her voice actually sounded normal as she opened her mouth to speak to her sister for the first time in well over a decade.
“Hi … hi me?” she managed to say like an idiot, touching her chest as if in confusion over who her sister was talking to as the moment she had waited for most of her life, finally started, her entire world narrowing to the woman across from her who nodded gently - almost as if afraid of startling her.
“Oh! Um … hi?” she replied, before breaking her gaze away for a second to cringe at her utter awkwardness and study the floorboards. A moment she had dreamed for so many years and
this was the best she could do-
“You look beautiful” Elsa observed with that perfect voice (seriously was there
anything about her sister that
wasn’t perfect?!) and Anna at once felt the
need to correct her - feeling perhaps irrationally- as if she was trying to downplay her own
unearthly beauty by praising hers and
needing to correct her at once!
“Thank you” she blushed at her sister's words. “But you look beautifuller!” she insisted, before horror hit her as she realized what she had said. “I mean not
fuller” she rapidly rambled on, falling over herself to correct the error. “But
more beautiful!”
Her sister gave a tiny laugh at her rambling, her smile turning genuinely affectionate at her as she tripped over her tongue and Anna firmly shut up.
“Thank you” she said kindly and they broke eye contact to look at out at the crowd, Anna suddenly
very grateful for the touch of rouge Edna's people had applied that hid her blush as Elsa continued smoothly even as Anna found herself lacking anything to say.
“So … this is what a party looks like” Elsa noted, as off to the side music started to play and couples squared off to start dancing, leaving the two young nobles subtly screened by a number of palace staff to let them talk alone for a moment - with no doubt who had organized this interlude as Victor caught her eye and smiled before shifting off to the perimeter of the crowd, Galen and Kai both in tow with him (and both in turn also shooting her supportive smiles) as they dragged away a significant chunk of people in their wake as the dance got underway.
There was a wistfulness in Elsa’s tone that fascinated Anna just as much as the words - as if Elsa had
never been to a party before?
So many questions reared their heads - and she beat them all back down violently with a mental club, knowing this was
not the time.
“It’s more crowded than I thought” Anna admitted as she realized just how many people were squeezed into this part of the castle.
“And
what is that smell?” Elsa wondered with a tilt of her head, Anna sniffing and closing her eyes as she sought out the scent, her eyes going wide as her taste buds tingled.
“Chocolate” they both breathed in simultaneous delight before opening their eyes to see they had unconsciously turned to face each other - and both of them broke into a giggle of laughter at the synchronized delivery; enough to actually have Elsa raise one gloved hand to cover her face as she laughed. It caused another jolt to Anna as she felt her sister's formal polite mask slip for just one second to see what she dared to name affection in her sister's eyes before she composed herself once more.
“Rita is in the kitchen making some of the deserts - but she did make a few super mix caramel truffles for snacks before dinner” Elsa explained.
“Really?” she gasped, “they’re my…” and Anna paused to offer Elsa and shy knowing smile. “My favorites”.
“Mine too” Elsa admitted, her eyebrow raising in slight surprise.
Why do you think
they’re my
favorites Anna mentally thought - and, oddly, from the way Elsa’s expression again softened, she had he oddest feeling her sister could read her mind...
Turning away, Anna watched the crowds of people dance and mingle with her sister, the two of them simply standing and watching the dance progress … but it wasn’t awkward.
If anything, it just felt
right as she stood there with her sister.
Or perhaps the fact that she felt enough emotions right now to keep seizing up her throat prevented her from chattering nervously away … but in either case, she firmly kept repeating the advice
everyone had been telling her for days now.
Small steps Anna. One day at a time, one conversation at a time.Presently, the first dance of the night ended to applause and the crowd started to move, Elsa immediately putting what Anna was already calling her ‘Duchess’ face back on as Victor again started to make his way back towards them. Anna suspected that he was going to ask Elsa to dance as would be the kind of protocol of these things - and part of her squeeed at that idea- but before he could approach Kai Brevik did so from the side with a man in tow.
“You Grace, My Lady. May I present
his Grace, the Duke of Wesealtown-”
“
Weselton” the other snapped back at him before quickly turning to face Elsa and affect a smile on his face that just looked … wrong. “The Duke of Weselton” he again stated as he approached and offered a short bow, the kind that one equal peer offered another, Elsa returning it politely. “Your Grace - as your soon to be closest partner in trade
and peer, I thought it only fitting that I should offer your first dance of the night as Duchess and welcome you to our ranks!”
With that, the man sharply bowed deeply, extending his arm to Elsa … and causing his toupee to partially detach and flop down, barely held in place.
Anna’s hands flew to her mouth to firmly muffle the explosion of laughter that
desperately was trying to escape, turning to look with wide eyes at Elsa - who to her delight, was also clearly trying incredibly hard to not break down laughing. The moment of shared joy resonated between them for a second as they desperately worked to get themselves under control, Elsa clearing her throat and forcing herself back under control.
“Thank you” Elsa bowed slightly at him with an easy smile. “But I’m afraid I don’t dance”.
The Duke rose (his hair neatly flipping back into place and threatening another giggle from her which Anna managed to restrain to a slight snorting sound, as he made a disappointed noise.
“But” Elsa quickly added as she turned to look at her with something that looked suspiciously like a smirk on her face, “my
sister does - very well”.
Anna was so struck by the sudden unexpected smile and praise from Elsa that it took her a good two seconds to realize what had just happened - which proved to be more than enough time for the good Duke to brighten up and seize her elbow, hurrying her towards the dance floor that was starting to fill again for the next dance. Startled as her mind finally caught up to the fact that Elsa had just outsourced her dancing duties to her, Anna had just enough time to shoot her an astonished look - and get a clearly laughing Elsa shoot her a mouthed ‘Sorry!’ that made everything better, before screeching to a halt with the Duke.
Who started strutting like a … a … she didn’t
know what. With absolutely no self-consciousness at all - despite the double takes increasing numbers of people were doing of him as the music kicked into a fast dance.
Well this is … different she thought to herself in a slightly bewildered way as she placed her hands on her hips and started to move to the music as best she could.
“Like an agile peacock!” the other pronounced as he strutted around her, Anna doing her best not to gawk as his energetic movements caused his toupee to jump around hilariously. “If you swoon, I’ll do my best to catch you!”
Well … he’s certainly spry she noted as she tried to make heads or tails of what he was doing, it not being any dance she had been taught.
“Uh … thanks?” she managed, feeling more than a little off balance.
“Hmm. So good to be here though, with the gates
open and your sister visible. Such a … reclusive’ figure he noted before suddenly he leaned in close to her. “You wouldn’t happen to know why she has been so
hard to get a hold of, would you?”
The absurdity of this man asking a question -
the question- Anna had been grappling with all her life shifted her from feeling off balance to feeling irritated.
Especially with Elsa
back, right here, right now.
“No” she said somewhat curtly before he took her hand.
“Ah, no matter” he smiled land with that she found herself flung in an absurd dip in a whirlwind of motion that stopped … with her upside down looking back at her sister across the room. Who was watching her and clearly trying not to laugh. Anna managed an upside down smile at her before she was back up and swinging into the dance.
Several minutes of … interesting … dancing later, Anna managed to stagger back to her sister who quickly smiled as she moved next to her.
“Well - he was … sprightly” her sister laughed softly as she adjusted her dresses straps.
“Especially for a man of
that age” she agreed with a wan smile as she reached down to run her hands over a couple of points where the others steel tipped boots had crashed into her legs.
“Are you okay?”
“Actually … I’ve never been better” Anna said honestly as she set herself and looked at her sister. “This is just so … great. I hope it can be this way all the time now”.
Instantly, Anna knew she had chosen the wrong words.
Something in those words stilled Elsa, almost as if the very air had cooled between them. The affectionate smile slowly mutating into something almost … regretful before she broke eye contact to look out at the people, or at nothing in particular.
“Me too…” she agreed. “But … it can’t”.
“Well … why not?” Anna asked in confusion, stepping forward towards her sister-
As quick as a snake Elsa
moved, sliding away from her a half meter, her body language suddenly
screaming at her to
stay back.
“
It just-” she didn’t quite snap before the mask fell back in place on her sister with her back half turned.
“It just … can’t” she finished quietly.
Only meters separated them now, it was the closest she had been to Elsa for most of her life … and yet she was starting to understand that some doors didn’t need to be visible to be real as her heart sank. And against everything she had wanted to do for so many years and so many dreams … Anna took a step away from her sister.
“Excuse me” she said softly and slowly she turned and walked away into the crowd, fighting back a sudden surge of emotions that made her right on the verge of crying, her abandonment issues roaring up from nowhere and raging in her mind, leaving her desperately wanting to get out of the public eye now because she knew she
was about to break down crying.
And thus she failed to see behind her, Elsa turn slightly to watch her walk away. Her mask slipping, just for a nanosecond, to show the anguish under it before her sibling forced it back on and turned to go back to work. As was her duty. But no longer with any joy in her expression.
Not paying any kind of attention in the packed room as she tried to get out it was probably thus inevitable that Anna caught the backside of an overweight man as he bowed to his partner at the end of the current dance, sending her careening to the side her arms uselessly pin wheeling with a yelp
Only to jar to a halt as a hand latched onto her wrist - her own hand instinctively grabbing onto the other's wrist as she gasped and looked up from her suspended position-
“Glad I caught you … again” Hans noted with a grin.
“Hans” she breathed - her angst flying off as her heart frantically beat from the adrenalin jolt of her near crash. Smiling with a level of class she would only have thought existed in her dreams, Hans simultaneously pulled her up, placed his champagne flute onto a passing waiter's tray without looking and pulled her in close against him as the music around them started up into a classic waltz.
“My Lady … may
I have this dance?” he asked her with such gentleness it made her heart flutter again as her emotions swung from one extreme to the other.
“You may” she breathed, lost in his gaze - and with that, they were off.
They must have spun around the dance floor for a good ten minutes or so, Anna
reeling with his physical proximity (and flushing bright red as she felt the
rock hard muscles under the man's suit as they moved against each other) as they danced and spun and just let everything go except this moment.
It … it was like a dream.
This was the dream she had been having all her life. A strong, noble, beautiful man moving with her as one around the floor. And then around the castle. The two of them talking and laughing and sharing and joking and
everything as the night deepened - with the two of them eventually finding themselves sitting on a balcony deeper in the castle, beyond the public areas - but the guards certainly hadn’t tried to stop her moving into her own house. Something about this man was incredibly mesmerizing; everything she had wanted to share with Elsa, stories and events in her life, now came spilling out to this man who she felt she had
known all her life! It was incredible!
“So let me get this straight” Anna said, sitting on a table with absolutely no care for decorum, hugging her legs, with Hanse across from her having made a seat out of an antique dresser in this clean, but clearly unused room. “You have
twelve older brothers?”
Dealing with
one sister had been impossible enough.
“Sounds crazy doesn’t it?” Hans chuckled, leaning back with his eyes going slightly distant. “Although three of them decided to pretend I was
invisible … for two years”.
“That’s horrible” Anna breathed in shock.
“Half-brothers anyway” Hans sighed. “My father married four times. The first four sons were to his first wife. The next two to his second. Five more to the third … and then there was me. The
runt of the litter”.
“Don’t call yourself that” Anna scowled slightly at him and the offered her a wan smile, apologetic but not taking it back, seemingly having accepted the label.
“Well its part of the reason I try to keep busy offworld” he explained to her, shifting slightly. “I suppose it's sort of what brothers do with their pecking order to keep putting each other in place - Father was
very supportive of having his children fight to win his approval and handing out titles and responsibilities based on some idea of who was most loyal”. Hans shrugged to her horrified face. “It’s a large part of the reason I spent as much time as possible offworld as an ambassador. If the brother want me to be invisible, well, that's what brothers do I suppose”.
“And sisters” Anna replied, her smiling face fading away as she returned to the fact of the night. Something in the back of her mind quickly warned her she was entering dangerous waters here, but she was just too exhausted around Elsa right now to care.
She needed to
vent.
“Elsa and I were really close when we were little. Then, one day she just … well, shut me out. And … I never knew why” she finished, blinking back tears as she looked away … then looking up as Hanse took her right hand with both of hers, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand and sending shivers down her spine as he looked at her with such compassion, such empathy that it made her smile despite herself.
“That’s horrible. ’d
never shut someone like you out” he breathed softly and Anna felt her heartbeat start racing again and that fluttering feeling in her stomach come back again.
“Really?” she asked softly.
“Really” he confirmed, his hazel eyes reflecting everything that she had ever wanted back at her as he reached out to gently ease her fringe back into place.
His finger felt like it was leaving trail of fire on her skin from the brief touch...
*******
“And I do look forward to seeing you later Councilor” Victor bowed slightly to the nth VIP to gushingly shake his hand in awe. This one, one of Elsa’s personal advisors, unfortunately could not be lightly dismissed as he would probably be sitting in several meetings with him at some point in the rest of the week. And it wouldn’t do to get things off on the wrong foot...
Still all
he wanted was to just introduce himself and his plump but charming wife, which was more than enough.
Unlike the gaggle of industrial magnates who had all with various levels of subtlety, start to feel him out to support this or that proposal to turn Arendelle into a glorified strip mine.
Granted there were trillions of Kronor of materials at a minimum in the ground just waiting to be extracted, but he would have thought they could have at least given him
one night before starting in on him!
Made worse by the fact that all of them were watching each other like hawks and instantly correcting the other. It had gotten to the point that Victor had flatly told them all that there would be
no more talk about business tonight. And anyone who defied him
would face a summery negative appraisal for their presentations from the outset.
They had scattered like Bugmechs having a Clan Assault Star drop into their formation after
that. Sometimes it was good to be the Archduke and Archon-Prince designate.
“And I’m sure we will Marshal” the other addressed him before backing away with a bow, addressing Victor but his military rank given the uniform rather than his political one.
“And … that is it” Galen noted”.
“What is it?” Victor asked with only mild irritation, as he surreptitiously massaged his hand which had shaken one too many hands tonight.
“That’s it for the receiving - I
think we’ve covered most everyone in the room”.
Victor looked up in surprise - indeed there was no one more seeming to want to converge on him through the gatekeeper of Mavis Williams.
“Praise be” he muttered in relief before turning on his friend with a glare. “Where the hell did you run off to earlier?”
“Outside” Galen shrugged with an utterly unsympathetic smirk. “As it so happens, I actually ran into Elsa out there”.
“Ran into …” Victor left it hanging with a raised eyebrow and Galen snorted and shook his head.
“No,
not like Anna” he chuckled as his gaze went distant as he crossed his arms across his uniform. “Still, she’s … rather fascinating”.
“Oh?” Victor asked carefully as he studied his friend’s distant face with sudden interest.
“She’s unsure of herself and slightly insecure, but hides it almost as well as
you did back on Trel” he noted, leaving Victor wanting to protest that he had
not been insecure … until he remembered that, in fact, he had in fact been
damn insecure about leading a Battalion right out of school even if he had been in denial about it at the time.
And that he had been incredibly lucky to have Galen assigned to him.
Well, incredibly lucky to have
Galen assign himself to him, anyway.“She’s smart” Galen continued. “She’s got a sense of humor. I think she genuinely understands the sheer depth of what she has agreed to do for the rest of her life -possibly too well- and takes herself almost too seriously…” he continued. Sounding, Victor noticed,
remarkably taken with the young Duchess. Casually following Galens distant gaze, he found himself unsurprised to find that Galen in fact was looking at her right now as she conversed with a small group of nobility…
No. Victor thought in growing amusement, looking back and forth.
“And she’s hot of course” Victor carefully added as casually and neutrally as possible.
“Very” Galen nodded with a smile. Before blinking and hurriedly killing it. “Wait, what-”
“Oh my God
you have a crush on the Duchess?!” Victor breathed in a theatrically horrified tone, grinning nonetheless as his friends almost iron composure cracked at the accusation.
“Don’t be silly” he said with a snort as he turned away to face him directly (but the twitch above his left eye gave him away delighting Victor even more). “She’s just a kid”.
“She’s
twenty one” Victor retorted with his arms crossed, greatly enjoying this moment as he made Galen squirm for the first time in a
long time. “You’re only thirty three. Lest we forget how old
my parents were to each other when
they married”.
“Victor, she’s a
Duchess. I’m the son of a
farmer”. And now Victor snorted, his mind starting to plot and scheme … probably in ways that would have had Katherine slapping him on the back of his head if she had been here.
But luckily his sister wasn’t present, so...
“And you’re a
War Hero” he rolled his eyes. “You know, Federated Suns, mania for Battlemech pilots and all that? Plus if you
want a noble title-”
Now Galen simply rolled his eyes, his expression back firmly under control, if slightly amused. Although Victor would have bet half of New Avalon that it was nothing more than a bluff.
“Victor” he sighed, “You
can’t marry someone you just met!” he pointed out.
Then frowned.
A frown shared with Victor.
Not because of the context of the statement per se. But because they both distinctly heard the slightly raised voice of Elsa saying the
exact same thing at the same time. Pivoting, the two of them turned to see Anna had reappeared from wherever she had run off to an hour ago (he guessed because ‘dinner’ was just about to be served in the informal way chosen) and she was now standing with a tall, handsome looking AFFC officer - no, wait, that wasn’t the new AFFC uniform. It was just cut remarkably close though.
At any rate, tall and red hair was standing off to the side looking somewhat ashen as Anna and Elsa started to argue openly on the dance floor, more and more people turning to face them as the volume slowly rose.
The two men exchanged a glance and without any further words, they started to drift towards the two sisters, Kai materializing from the side to join them as they moved in to defuse the situation.