Second Best

Chapter Two

Elsa focused single mindedly on what she would say to Prince Eric, afraid once again of the ice's return. She'd foolishly thought that Anna's act of true love would fix all her problems, especially her control over her powers, but once she'd returned to the stresses of the everyday life of any Queen without a King, she'd struggled to maintain that control. Her advisors were always telling her that she needed someone to help her, like, you know, a King!

All their subtle hinting didn't help at all. She knew she needed someone to rely on that wasn't as flighty and obviously in love as Anna and she didn't begrudge that at all. She was glad her sister had found someone who could both love her and keep her safe from her flights of fancy.

So she'd consented to this foolish plan of shipping in potential candidates for her inspection, as if they were little more than products to be bought or sold if they fitted her needs. It seemed so cruel, but she could think of no other way to solve her problem.

Her only insistence in the matter was that she would be in complete control of who arrived and when, and that they would all receive hand written invitations from her hand only. Just to soften the sting a little bit. She may be new to this, but she didn't want to seem rude.

She tried to imagine every scenario possible when she found Prince Eric, picturing his face yet again in her mind. As if out of her control entirely, and most of the time it was, she lifted her right hand and gestured in the way she often did when she was summoning her power voluntarily.

She shut her eyes tightly to avoid seeing what she'd inadvertently created. She hated herself when this happened, because she felt as if she had no control over herself at all, and she felt as if she should, being Queen and all.

She opened one eye slowly, peeking out from beneath her eyelashes. In shock, she jumped before she realised what she was doing. Strangely, it felt like the sort of reaction Anna would have had in this situation. She didn't want to think about her sister right now, though.

Before her stood a snow statue of Prince Eric. Not living, thank goodness! That would create a stir, if anyone should see him.

She almost felt like apologising to it, which was definitely an Anna reaction. Queen's did not apologise, even to fellow royals, especially not when they were only made of snow. Even when they did it was just an empty platitude, like her people apologising for nearly having her killed by Prince Hans, just after her return to Arrendelle. She might be inexperienced, but she wasn't stupid.

She set off again, wondering what that noise was just beyond her range of hearing. It sounded like talking. It sounded like...

"Olaf!" Elsa exclaimed as Olaf came bundling around the corner in all his gloriously child-like energy, Prince Eric in tow behind him.

"Elsa! We were just talking about you! All nice things, all nice things..." his sweet voice trailed off when he saw her face darken.

She raised an eyebrow, wondering if she should place so much trust on an artificial lifeform that she'd created by accident the one time she'd let her powers get out of control. But then again, who else still had the power to make her smile anymore?

"He said you were the nicest Queen he'd ever met, because you gave him his own personal flurry so he could experience summer," spoke a deeper voice she recognised somewhere in the depths of her distracted mind belonged to Prince Eric, and not Olaf.

"Thank you, Olaf," she spoke only to Olaf, rudely ignoring Prince Eric. She'd deal with him in a moment.

"And quite possibly the only Queen I've ever met," Olaf rambled on, apparently having not heard her speak at all.

"Olaf, that's not helping your case," Prince Eric whispered urgently to Olaf, even though Elsa could hear quite clearly. And she wasn't sure she liked what she was hearing, either.

Then she shrugged and smiled. She opened her arms for a hug and Olaf ran straight into them, using his tiny little legs to leap up high enough to wrap his twiggy arms around her in return.

She eyed Prince Eric suspiciously over his shoulder, unconciously squeezing Olaf tighter than she should have. He just tried to look innocent, even though he had to know he wasn't fooling her. Or anybody else, for that matter.

What was he doing here? It wasn't like he needed a kingdom. He had a perfectly adequate one already, or very nearly. Unless he was one of those stupidly greedy people who were never satisfied, no matter how much you gave them.

She felt her eyes narrow, just as Olaf began to wriggle to get out of her arms and rejoin his stumpy little legs on the currently unfrozen floor. Which was quite amazing really, she'd never managed to have this many emotions running rampant inside and not have any icy representation of it somewhere around her. It deserved celebration. Once she'd swallowed her pride and apologised.

"Would you mind excusing us for a moment, Olaf?" she asked him, not brave enough to look Prince Eric in the eyes just yet.

"Oh. Of course," and he scurried off, humming happily to himself as he went.

She glanced up from under her eyelashes, surprised to find her heart beating a little faster than it did normally and her hands just a little bit shaky. What were these feelings? Anything else she could handle, but this? This was completely foreign, and she wasn't sure she liked it either.

"I feel as if I should explain this a little before I get to the point, because the grape vine isn't that accurate information-wise," she started out, relieved to see Prince Eric merely nodding, rather than running screaming. Then again, she'd barely started.

She told him the whole story, trying to shorten it as much as possible, without leaving out the important bits. It was a hard skill, you know.

"So that's why I'm really sorry for my lack of control today. It's such a new concept for me, balancing letting my powers out and controlling it, that in difficult situations, I quite often find that I'm creating things without even realising," she finished, her eyes on the floor she'd inadvertently turned to ice during her monologue. She didn't slip, she never did, and probably never would. Considering she'd lived in an ice castle, not for long, but still, she doubted it would ever happen.

After an extended period of silence that was quickly becoming extremely awkward, she glanced up, catching sight of his green eyes studying her with a vacant expression. It was like he was trying to figure her out, yet like all royals she knew, had long ago mastered the skill of keeping one's facial expression blank. Since she hadn't been looking at him til just now, he probably thought he could get away with it. Thought he'd have his thoughts together by the time she looked up. Clearly he'd underestimated her.

It did explain the awkward silence though, so that was something. She smiled to herself, no longer really focused on Prince Eric so when she heard him clear his throat she was a little startled.

"I'm not exactly sure what to say to all that, I guess?" Prince Eric ran his hands through his hair nervously, his eyes not settling for a moment. "I mean, you threw my brother out of your kingdom, which was understandable, and I was one of the brothers who ignored him for three years, so I don't know why I didn't think that just maybe, he might turn into a greedy psychopath? So I guess maybe this whole thing is my fault, and it's me who should be apologising to you, Elsa. May I call you that?" at last he looked her in the eye, after his ramblings to himself seemed to have sorted things out in his head.

"Yes. Yes, you may call me Elsa, Prince Eric," she told him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to. I'm already inexcusably late," and she walked off. If the floor was still icy, she didn't notice, and hopefully after she was gone, it would thaw itself.

"Bye, Elsa," he murmured to himself, somewhere behind her.

Maybe he wasn't so bad after all...