Desired Destiny (Frozen II/Jelsa)

15| Confession

What's wrong with me?

Slamming his face on one of the many Arendelle's records he has to finish, Jack inaudibly grunts and curses himself for not being able to focus. Ever since that Marius guy arrived in the castle three days ago, the young prince has been restless. He keeps feeling odd upon seeing Elsa spending more and more time with that knight, discussing God knows what.

The worst part is, Elsa literally laughs at his corny jokes.

Yes. Jack eavesdropped many times. He couldn't help it.

Well, partially it's his fault.

Jack can't seem to look at his fiancée in the eye and talk to her without lamely stuttering as he used to after Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf diagnosed him with jealousy type one, figuratively accusing him in a falling in love state. Now, he wakes up early in the morning to hide in the library—waiting for his tutor to educate him with Arendelle whatzits—and shies himself away from Elsa whenever they stumble upon each other.

Thinking about it again, he realizes he does like Elsa. Everything he does—starting from the day he befriended her until this very second—is to make her happy. He does whatever it takes to keep her at her most comfortable state. He thinks of new, interesting topics just to make her laugh every day.

And her laugh is the most adorable thing ever.

Jack jerks from his seat at the immense heat that's rising to his cheeks. His action doesn't go unnoticed by the old man sitting in front of him.

"What is the cause of your stupefaction, Jack?" Erlingur glances at Jack who's edgily shifting on his chair and nervously fixing his collar.

"It's nothing, Er." Jack gives his teacher a curt smile and tries to stick his nose to the book.

Erlingur—of course—does not buy that. He has met zillions of students as a lecturer. He knows perfectly well something is pestering the prince's mind since their second day together. It's obvious to detect any slight disturbance in the prince's features due to his usual bright personality, recalling how friendly Jack was while welcoming him on the first day.

The first lesson was an entertaining sight. The prince kept fuming about reading tons of pages and endlessly complaining because some of the words written on the records of Arendelle's family tree were very hard to understand. Jack was being hilariously annoying with his series of complaints, but he still obeyed every single word coming out from the old man.

The more Erlingur gets to know Jack, the more he treats the young lad as his own son. He doesn't have the opportunity to meet a happy-go-lucky and golden-hearted prince like Jack of the Northern Isles that often—and, perhaps, it's because he also is used to handling kids, being a teacher in Arendelle's school and a tutor to little Elsa and Anna as his tutees decades ago. He likes having students who are young or—at least—act younger than their biological age.

Erlingur's care towards the prince escalated fast as he paid more attention to Jack on the second day. They spent the first hour of the morning session recalling the highlights of yesterday's lesson and studied the kingdom's renowned servants, guards, merchants, and some other influential citizens in the evening class. It only took him seconds to grasp the fact that Jack wasn't as bright as he was before. Erlingur saw how he threw fewer squeaks of protest—only yammering on how he needed to remember tons of names—and pushed himself to focus on his reading in order to steer him away from something that was haunting his mind.

As the days passed, he got marginally worse. Jack managed to review the previous day's lesson nicely in the morning with nearly zero complaint—which isn't Jack at all. It was strange to admit Erlingur missed his childish antics. The old man never knew the sight itched him that much.