The Phoenix and the Snowbird

'Twas on an August eve when the creatures' paths were crossed,
The Phoenix and the Snowbird, while found, were still both lost.
One rose from ashes of the past, the other conquered fear,
The Phoenix and the Snowbird, saw each other crystal clear.
Tho' time and conflict tried and tried to tear the two apart,
The Phoenix and the Snowbird, mended one each others' heart.
Fire and ice, two second chances, so different yet the same,
The Phoenix and the Snowbird, fallen prey to lovers' game.

One

Prince Hans of the Southern Isles was dead.

At least, he was presumed to be, up until less than an hour ago.

Anna could've easily worn a hole in the carpet from her constant pacing ever since the news. She rambled on and on, but Elsa couldn't focus on the words. A grinding terror was busy clawing at her stomach, the unfriendly memories of Anna's near-death experience resurfacing again like they did all the time. But it was different now and somehow worse now that the man who had hurt her was sitting just a few flights of stairs away in a cell.

"It doesn't make any sense! He's dead!" Anna said for the seventh time; Elsa had been counting. "People don't just drown and then waltz back into Arendelle of all places. Doesn't he think he's had enough? Because ooh, I will give him a reason to leave."

Anna turned again in her loop around the rug in the parlor. Her braids whipped with her body, somehow seeming just as angry as the girl they hung from. She had an expression on that tightly knit her eyebrows together, but allowed plenty of room for her rapid-fire mouth. Elsa watched the trail of her sister's pomegranate dress move fluidly across the rug, finding some sort of peace in watching it.

She probably should have been reacting like Anna was, but she couldn't. She couldn't pretend to try and find a solution while only muttering bad things about the man under her breath. All she could do was replay Anna freezing. Anna freezing because her sister had frozen her heart. Freezing because the man down in the cell left her to die. The scene had played a thousand times in Elsa's mind, varying sometimes to scenes where Anna didn't make it out of the palace, freezing beside the fireplace and melting away until all that was left of the princess was a wet stain on the rug.

Elsa blinked, and her sister was alive again, still pacing the floor, the offending fireplace behind her. Elsa hadn't been aware her heart was racing, but she willed it to slow down, if only so the pounding in her ears would subside so she could listen to Anna.

"Okay, okay. How about this:" Anna stopped pacing and held her hands out, gesturing to the story she was about to tell. "Somehow, he took over the boat and sailed it back to his home. He's holding the French delegates as prisoner, but doesn't want anyone to know they're alive."

"So why would he come back here?" sniffed another voice, the thicker tone of the former Custodian of Arendelle, Ingvalda, who ruled the country in place of the sisters' parents until Elsa's coronation. The new queen never claimed to have been very close to Ingvalda (she'd never been very close to anyone, after all), and saw her as a sort of distant aunt. Lately, she'd been spending much more time with the older woman who reminded Elsa of everything a monarch should and shouldn't do, always peering over her shoulder to make sure nothing went wrong. Elsa thought she should have felt slightly grateful for the help, but was never entirely comfortable under Ingvalda's watchful glare.

Even now, the woman with crow's feet tugging at her eyes and a silky olive dress hanging off her twig-like figure kept an eye on Elsa. The queen tried not to notice, but still felt a burning sensation on the side of her head.

Anna resumed pacing, mumbling about how ships were always disappearing and why did he have to come back?

Just shy of three months after Queen Elsa's coronation, revelation of powers, and eventual closure which sent Hans back to the Southern Isles with the French delegate, a letter had come. It was from the King of Westernland, France, who demanded to know where his delegate was. The French boat had never docked safely home, or safely anywhere for that matter. No one in all of Arendelle's eleven trading partners- now reduced to ten after breaking off ties with Weselton- had seen or heard of the Westernland boat. It was assumed that the French delegate, his men, and Hans had all perished at sea.

Now it was over a year since the mid-summer's winter, which is why Elsa and Anna were caught completely off-guard when Kai interrupted their tea to bear the troubling news. Prince Hans was caught and arrested while attempting to steal a ship from Arendelle's docks. He resisted the guards, Kai announced after Anna had dropped her teacup in shock. But they were able to restrain him long enough to throw the man into prison. They announced he was scaldingly angry, as he seemed to heat up hotter than a stovetop when they dragged him to his cell.

Ever since their daily tea was interrupted, Anna had been wearing down the rug with no sign of stopping anytime soon. Ingvalda had joined them in the study the second she found out about the circumstance, but offered no advice on what to do.

The parlor, which had always made Elsa feel safe, seemed strange and rigid. The couch wasn't comfortable no matter how she tried to settle on it, like a thousands shards of ice poked just slightly through the cloth of the seat. The fireplace was empty, as the August heat provided more than enough warmth. Elsa had heard some of the maids saying they wouldn't mind another 'eternal winter' in this weather, but she knew she was nowhere near controlled enough to attempt a comfortable flurry. She had bare hands, and that was more than she ever thought she'd be able to handle.

"He had to come back here," Anna grumbled again, pivoting. "He couldn't have just walked somewhere else and tried to steal their boats. I'm like, this close to going down there and demanding answers," she said, pinching her fingers so that the only thing that might fit through would be the head of a pin.

"No," Elsa said immediately, finally contributing to the very one-sided discussion.

Anna stopped pacing again to look at Elsa, somewhat surprised at having her rant interrupted.

"I just don't want you anywhere near him," Elsa explained quietly, bare hands folded in her lap. Although she looked relaxed, she felt the opposite. Her hands were strained, her mind willing no ice to fly from them in the suddenly burst of emotions that hit her like a brick wall. She hoped that if anything became frozen, it would only be her dark blue dress and not something (or someone) important.

The confusion painted across Anna's face melted into appreciation as she left the rug and sat near Elsa on the couch. "Aw, Elsa. You don't have to worry about me anymore. I can take care of myself. I punched that guy right off a boat, remember?" she said, holding her arm up and flexing it jokingly. "He'd think twice before trying to fool us again."

Elsa came very close to smiling and didn't say anything more. No matter how capable her sister was, she would never, ever stop worrying about her. She could punch a hundred cruel men off a boat and Elsa would still be hesitant for her to approach the hundred and first.

Anna sighed and sunk deeper into the cushions, her legs sticking out an angle that flared her dress. "I just want to know what he's doing here. It's gonna drive me nuts if I can't get an answer."

Elsa knew it would. Anna would theorize for days, left to her own devices. By tomorrow, she'd be practically breaking in to go pry answers from the man. Elsa shivered slightly at the thought of Anna having to approach Hans again. Before the gun was fired, she took the bullet.

"I'll confront him."

Anna and Ingvalda stared like Elsa had suggested to burn him at the stake.

"You... confront him?" Anna asked, straightening her back and sitting upright.

"We all want to know what's happening," Elsa said, eyes glancing anywhere but at her sister. "I'll get some answers and bring them back, if that's what you want."

"Elsa, if you're doing it for me, then you don't have to-"

"No, no, it's fine," Elsa assured, rising from the pins-and-needles couch and holding her hands out to insist it was okay. Ingvalda still stared with the unblinking gaze of a predatory bird. "I'm the queen, after all. It's my responsibility to figure out how and why he's here."

The look on Anna's face displayed an array of emotions. Some gratefulness and a dash of fear, but mostly curiosity that Elsa knew wouldn't subside until she brought a story back.

"Are you sure? I mean, I could get Kristoff to-"

"It's okay, Anna. I'm fine," Elsa said, though she didn't feel fine. She could write an extensive list of things she'd rather do than set her eyes on Hans again. But that short list couldn't compare to the one reason she'd do nearly anything; for Anna.

Ingvalda squinted, as if reading Elsa's discomforts like they were printed across her face. "I would advise you to not visit this man," Ingvalda said, nose high in the air as always, a regal grace surrounding her that Elsa knew she'd never achieve. "It's hard for feelings to get in the way of interrogations, especially when they're so strongly negative."

"Thank you, but I'm perfectly capable," Elsa said, collecting her skirts to leave. "I'll be back before dinner. Don't wait on me."

With a small nod, Elsa left the room and let out a deep sigh. Looking down, her hands were shaking at the very thought of going down to those cells. The last time she'd been there was during last year's episode, when she was convicted of treason.

You might as well have been a traitor, her mind whispered. After all, it was by your hand that ice nearly killed the princess. It's was only by dumb luck that Anna survived.

Elsa closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to rid the plaguing voice from her mind, never able to completely shake away the word, treason.

"Fine," she muttered to herself. "Then this should be easy. Just one traitor to Arendelle against another."

With newfound strength drawn from that thought, Elsa began to head for the prison with only a slight detour to her room. She needed the assistance of two old, confining friends; the gloves. Heaven knew what kind of emotions she'd experience when confronting the treacherous man. Though freezing his heart didn't sound like a bad option, the gloves would definitely help with control. And she'd need all the control she could get.

When she entered the cell, the first thing Elsa noticed was the heat. The rest of the castle was hot in the mid-summer weather, but down here seemed exceptionally warm. Maybe it was just her heightened sensitivity, but Elsa still couldn't help rolling her sleeves up to her elbows and loosening her cape as beads of sweat formed under her bangs.

The second thing she noticed was the ragged figure sitting on the prison bench. Their feet were chained to a spot in the middle of the floor, a change from Elsa's own hand-covering cuffs. She shuddered at the thought of the iron constraints that were made just for her. As soon as she felt them tug at her hands, she knew they must have been customized while her father was still king. She tried shaking away the thoughts. Those cuffs were long gone, and she had to focus on the present challenge sitting in front of her.

She cleared her throat to announce her presence, since the figure hadn't moved since she entered the room. She instructed the guard to let her go in alone, she could handle him herself, and stood solitary in the hot room.

The figure raised their head, revealing a much changed man than the prince she'd met at her coronation. His groomed red hair was disheveled in a way that one could presume hadn't been brushed in weeks, if not months. The white coat he'd been thrown on the boat in was tattered and dirty, and looked charred in places. It had more brown to it than white. A thin, red stubble speckled his lower face. Even his eyes were different. No hint of the amiable, pleasant man with the smiling green eyes that Anna had fallen in love with. No, the cheery green had become rock solid as he glared at the queen.

"Oh, it's only you," he said, then looked down again.

Elsa stared for a moment, trying to put meaning to his words. His lack of formalities were irritating, but didn't necessarily surprise her.

"Only me?" Elsa asked. "I'm the queen, there's no 'only' about me."

He raised his head again, in a way that showed more sarcasm than reluctance.

"Forgive me, 'your majesty'. I was expecting your sister to be the first on the welcoming committee. Am I really so special that the queen is the first to greet me?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Elsa said coldly. "I refused to let Anna go anywhere near you. She expressed a sentiment to greet you with another punch."

"Am I supposed to thank you for sparing me?" Hans asked, back still slouched, elbows resting on his knees and hands draped limply.

Seeing that idle conversation wasn't getting anywhere, Elsa held her hands tightly clasped in front of her. "I want to know what business you have in Arendelle."

"My business is my own," Hans sneered.

"And my business is knowing how the French delegate's ship never arrived safely back in Westernland, and why you suddenly surface nearly a year after its disappearance" Elsa said, growing frustrated.

Hans' firm eyebrows grew lax, if only for a moment, before they knit together again. His lips stayed pressed together. He wasn't about to spill any secrets.

"Why Arendelle?" Elsa tried, hands still clapped together, layers of glove keeping them from touching. "Of the many places that now no longer welcome you, Arendelle should have been the last place to expect help."

The stone walls radiated heat and Elsa felt a bead of sweat trickle down her neck. She hoped he didn't think she was sweating out of nervousness. Not that she wasn't nervous, of course, but she hoped it wasn't too obvious.

If he was bothered by the heat, he didn't outwardly show it. His eyes stared at the hot stone wall directly in front of him, still not speaking. Elsa began to grow angry at his lack of answers. What else had she expected, though? An open book? The last time he'd been here, his true self was locked away so tight that she doubted it was even the same person.

But at last, he did speak. "I didn't intend to stay. I just need a boat, and then you'll never see me again."

"That doesn't answer my question," Elsa said, frowning. He still wouldn't look at her.

A moment passed, and Hans rose from the bench, standing only a few inches taller than Elsa but still intimidating. Despite knowing the guards were right outside and that he was in chains, she still felt all her alarms raised. She lifted her left hand and pinched some exposing arm to keep herself in control.

"I think we can come to an understanding. You are a fair queen, after all, aren't you?" he said, a hint of the past charm seeping in. Elsa didn't buy it for a moment.

"You are in no position to be making bargains," Elsa said, holding her head high.

"You and the rest of your kingdom wants me gone. All I ask is that you give me a small ship and minimal supplies, and I'll be gone forever. I don't need your money, your men, or your crown," he continued.

"You can't honestly think I'd grant your wish," Elsa said with a small, humorless laugh. "If you need a boat to sail back to the Southern Isles, I can happily arrange-"

"No!" Hans interrupted, his facade evaporating into an expression of utter panic.

Startled, Elsa blinked as Hans realized he'd let more be said by actions than words. He looked down and seemed to shrink a little, like in that one moment he was laid bare.

"I just... need a ship," he repeated. "You'll never see me again."

It was very, very tempting. There was little more that Elsa longed for than to see Anna happy and safe, and Hans' presence endangered that.

On the other hand, the last thing she wanted to do was give Hans what he wanted.
"No," she said simply, head still held high.

Hans' face filled with distraught, which soon turned to anger. "Why not?"

"I have no reason to trust you. No reason to have mercy or be kind, after what you did," Elsa said as another bead of sweat trickled down her face. She wiped it away, wondering if the day was getting hotter or if it was just this cell. "I'm not obligated to give a spoiled prince everything he wants."

"Spoiled?" Hans laughed, his smile more twisted than humored. "You think I'm spoiled?"

"A man who has to deceive and kill two monarchs because he wants a castle is a tell-tale sign of being spoiled," Elsa said, turning on her heel. "You will be kept down here until we figure out what to do with you."

"You want to talk about spoiled?" Hans nearly yelled. Elsa turned around to face his outburst, all alarms still blaring. "Spoiled is a girl who shuts her little sister out of her life and never tells her why."

Elsa couldn't breathe. It was so hot out today, and her throat began closing. "Shut up," she managed weakly.

"Who pretends like her sibling is nearly invisible to the point where to get attention, her sister accepts a marriage proposal after a few hours in their acquaintance."

"Shut up," she gasped, heart thudding. It was as if Hans had found a written list of everything she was ashamed of and was stabbing her with each word, as if these thoughts hadn't flown through her mind each day, time after time, always grabbing at her heart and branding it with searing pain.

"Spoiled is a woman who can't face her problems, so she runs from them, not caring at all for who she might be hurting, who else will have to face the consequences, who after her sister searches high and low for, will freeze-"

"Shut UP," Elsa yelled, clenching her fists as ice curled around and over her gloves, freezing her hands into solid blocks. The room seemed to drop thirty degrees at least, and the malicious expression Hans wore faded away as he noticed the temperature. Small patterns of ice began to twirl away from where she stood, crackling as it spread across the floor.

Elsa was breathing heavily when the guard rushed in, asking if she was all right. She nodded slightly, closing her eyes and trying to make all the replays of her sins towards Anna go away. But they wouldn't thaw. They froze to the front of her mind and refused to leave.

She steadied her breathing enough to seem normal and weakly told the guard she'll just be another moment. He bowed hesitantly and walked out the door, leaving it ajar for her to follow.

Elsa looked back to Hans one last time, her eyes now as cold as his had been. He stared with wide, bright eyes, an expression that if she had not known better might have been admiration.

"You will not get a ship. You will stay here until my people and I decide your fate," Elsa said, trying to be intimidating, but a wavering voice giving her away.

She was almost out the door when Hans attempted to have the last word.

"Imagine being in Anna's place. That was me, but with twelve older brothers. Brothers who either shut me out or treated me like trash. You can't understand what it's like."

Elsa stopped at the door, intending to leave without another word, but unable to. She turned her head slightly, so she could see his red hair out of the corner of her eye.

"I have no sympathy for you," she said, and with that, nodded to the guard to close the door.

She didn't wait to be accompanied and walked as fast as she could away from that horrible man's cell. She was barely held together, and couldn't wait to retreat to her room until she could summon memories of love to thaw her gloves out.

Elsa thought that freeing herself as the snow queen would finally make her happy, make her carefree. But if her own mind couldn't help but recollect every faulty choice she'd made, then she'd never truly be freed. She was just as shackled as the person sitting in the scalding, icy cell.

Wow, weird to be writing FanFiction again. Two years ago, I 'retired' to move onto works of my own. And hey, I did get two novels out of it, but Iceburns had a certain appeal that just had to be answered and fulfilled.

So if you're looking for a good 'ol fire!Hans/Elsa story full of angst, you're in the right place. I'll try and keep a normal updating schedule. Hope this ongoing contribution will be worthy of the fandom.