Author's Note: I apologize for taking a tad longer than expected to upload this next chapter. But from here on out, you can expect about an update a week. Hope you enjoy!
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The longer Elsa stood and watched as Gerda and her assistants bustled about the bedroom packing her belongings into a series of luggage cases, the more she felt herself doubting every decision she had made in the past month.
I'm not actually going, am I?
It hadn't seemed any realer two weeks ago, when she received an unexpectedly prompt reply from the Southern Isles after sending her note accepting their proposal. At the time, though, she'd simply pushed that letter towards Kai to read aloud to her, refusing to allow herself to get so worked up again over a flimsy piece of paper.
Even though he'd read the words to her, and she had, at the time, acknowledged them, a part of her wondered if she had really understood anything he'd said at all.
I guess I have to go now anyway, whether I understood or not, she thought, defeated, and sat down in a chair by her dresser, turning towards her mirror.
A tired, drawn face stared back at her, and she frowned.
I haven't slept enough recently, either.
She pulled lightly at the bags under her eyes before sighing and rolling her head slowly across her shoulders, attempting to stretch the sore, tight muscles there.
A knock thumped against the door, followed by Kai's voice as Gerda opened it for him.
"Queen Elsa?"
She looked up at the door, her eyes blank from exhaustion, and nodded lightly. "Come in, Kai," she said gently, not rising as she normally would, and gestured for him to sit in the chair by her.
Seeing that he had brought her no books or particular documents to read in preparation for her visit—during his last appearance, he had produced a four-volume set of tomes entitled, ironically, A Brief History of the Southern Isles and Their Ruling Families—she was somewhat intrigued by his empty hands.
"You have some news to tell me?"
Kai nodded diligently. "Yes, Your Majesty. I wanted to inform you in advance of your departu—"
From the corner of her eye, Elsa noticed Olaf waddling in past the guards outside, and she regarded him with a smile, distracted from whatever Kai had started to say. She wasn't used to the snowman wandering into her room, since he and Anna were closer friends and usually he went directly to her.
Somehow, though, his presence was a welcome respite from Kai's serious stare.
And all of this.
"Olaf," she greeted him warmly, and the snowman paused in watching Gerda's and the other maids' antics long enough to glance back at her in surprise.
"Elsa!" he exclaimed, hopping over to her with a toothy grin, and his snow cloud, as always, was in tow overhead. "So you're really leaving, huh?"
Her smile faded at this question, and he pressed one of his twiggy arms to her lap in concern.
"Oh, uh, I didn't mean to sound so happy about it," he said with a sheepish look. "I mean, we're all going to miss you a lot when you go."
He added, after a pause: "Especially Anna."
Elsa tensed at this without meaning to, and she closed her eyes for a moment.
YOU ARE READING
Winter's End
Fanfiction[Frozen; Hans x Elsa.] A year has passed since she lifted the curse of eternal winter, but Elsa—still feeling that some matters have been left unresolved—decides to finally pay a diplomatic visit to the Southern Isles. Notorious for its powerful Que...
