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spam-monster · 5 years ago

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Helsaween day 7: Westergaard Family

Reposting the fic I wrote for Helsaweek in 2017 for “How It Should Have Ended” because it features my headcanons for Hans’ nieces and nephews - his 12 older brothers are probably mostly all married, so it makes sense he’d have a bunch of them. Also there’s not much Helsa technically...yet...

---

He thinks about what he could have done differently. Of course he does. Isn’t that what villains always do?

If he had let the queen be shot back in her ice palace, if he had not revealed his treachery to the princess so soon and let her die thinking that it was her fault true love’s kiss hadn’t saved her, if he had killed the queen as soon as she had fallen out there on the lake instead of sparing her a moment of sympathy for her perceived loss.

Those are the ones he tries to think about. The ones a monster like himself should think about. But there are other thoughts, ones that come to him unbidden when all is quiet and dark and still.

If he had been honest. If he had gone with Anna from the beginning instead of staying behind and feeding his ego. If he had confessed his deception and tried to help her find another way to break her curse instead of shoving it in her face and laughing as he slammed the door behind him.

If he had not pretended to love Anna at all, and had tried to win over Elsa instead, like he had intended. She would not have been fooled so easily. But maybe if he had been honest with her instead. Maybe if he had taken the time to befriend them. Maybe they would have let him come back, after that day. Maybe if he could have spent time away from his cruel brothers, with people who were kind and loving and good, maybe he could have learned such things himself. Maybe…maybe he could have found true love.

Instead he had let himself become the monster of their story, vanquished and cast away, never to be spared a though again.

But there is no use in dwelling on such things, he thinks.

He thinks.

Because it is hard not to dwell on these things when your nieces and nephews insist on him telling the story over and over and over again.

***

He spends more time with them now.

There is a small fountain in the village, near the castle. The children of the local village play there with the children of the royal staff. His nieces and nephews didn’t use to play there, with the lower-class children, but one day he had gotten tired of having to repeat the story to them after he had already told it to the village children that day, and from then on he declared he would only tell it once, to whomever was gathered at the fountain when he was finished with his duties for the day. So all the children play there together now while they wait for him.

His brothers are rather annoyed at him for encouraging this. He can’t bring himself to care. Maybe if he had contact with normal loving families earlier in his life, he would have been quicker to realize what his family had lacked.

Hilda is the eldest, the first-born of his oldest brother, strong-willed and fierce. Fredrick is the first born of his second eldest brother, clever and charming. Christian is the son of Lars, his third eldest brother, and he is as stuffy and studious as his father, and his little sister Margrete is a hopeless romantic. And there is Erik and Harald, Magnus and Frida, Charlotta and Valdimarr and Vivi and Johan…

He had memorized their names out of convenience before. Lately, it had been out of sympathy. Twelve married princes with several children each made it hard for the staff to keep track and easy for the children to get lost in the crowd, and he knew all too well what that had felt like.

They made fun of him, of course, as they forced him to tell of his defeat over and over again. But they also listened to him, now that they knew he was willing to tell them stories if they behaved. It was kind of…nice.

So he comes to the fountain, and waits for them to settle down, and he tells them stories. He throws other fairy tales in sometimes, when they agree, for telling the same story all the time would be dull. But the story of Anna and Elsa is still their favorite, and he has agreed to tell it again today.

***

The beginning is easy.

He does not know much about what happened in Arendelle before he arrived, but between the history books, rumors from foreign travelers, and what he had heard from Anna, he manages to put it together. He then tells them of his arrival, of meeting Anna, of the coronation and the party and his clever wooing of the princess. He re-enacts the dances and the songs with great enthusiasm, even letting the children get up and participate themselves (Fredrick and Margrete often steal the show at this point, unless another child has managed to bargain with them for a chance to play himself or Anna).

After the dancing has settled down, he tells them of the argument. Of Elsa losing control and fleeing across the lake while Arendelle froze behind her. Of how Anna decided to go after her alone, while Hans stayed behind and took care of Arendelle.

“You should have gone with her!” one of the girls pipes up, as they always do.

“You’re just saying that because you’re mad I don’t know what happened to her after that.” He replies.

Because they are annoyed, of course. They don’t care about how Hans helped protect Arendelle’s citizens by organizing food and shelter for them when they were cold and afraid. They want to hear about how Princess Anna braved climbing the mountains to find her sister, and Hans doesn’t know that part of the story.

He’s heard there was an ice harvester involved. And snow monsters. And somehow Elsa ended up freezing Anna’s heart. That’s about it.

So he skips to the part where he traveled up the mountain himself to confront the queen. He emphasizes how he saved her from the Duke’s henchmen and brought her back unconscious but unharmed.

(He knows he does it to try to compensate for what he did later. He doesn’t think they’re fooled.)

He returned to Arendelle’s castle. And so did Anna.

(He hates telling this part.)

(He should be smug about how easily he tricked her. He was, at the time. It’s a lot harder to feel good about yourself for fooling someone into believing you loved them only to throw it back in their face later when there aren’t dozens of small, disapproving eyes watching you.)

So he glosses over it. Just tells them that he hurt her, admits that she probably didn’t deserve it.

(Sometimes he even tries to explain to them that it wasn’t her he was mocking, it was himself for being as naive as she was once. They just glare at him. They don’t understand yet, and that’s a good thing.)

He never tells them exactly what he said to her, although he remembers every word.

(He was wrong, anyway.)

And then, he tells them how he chased after Elsa.

He tells them that he thought killing her was the only way to stop the endless winter and save Arendelle.

(He had thought that, at the time.)

(It’s easier to tell himself that than to admit that he had wanted it to be the only way to stop the winter.)

And then…

He usually lies.

They know he’s going to lie about how it ended. They expect it by now. And as an expert liar, he tries to make it as extravagant as possible.

Last week it had ended with him having been secretly hiding that he had been born with power over fire the whole time, and he and Elsa engaging in an epic magic battle. This week Elsa summoned a giant ice dragon that he had to defeat before she would give up.

(His lies often involve Elsa fighting back somehow. It’s hard to admit now that he was about to kill a defenseless woman in cold blood.)

So he lies, for as long as they allow him to, because he is a very entertaining liar. But eventually they grow bored of it, as they always do.

And he relents, and tells them the truth.

He tells them how, as he went to deliver the final blow, Anna had appeared out of nowhere. How she had protected her sister who had neglected her for all those years, who had frozen their kingdom; how she stood in front of him and blocked his sword as she froze even though the woman she was protecting had been the one to curse her heart to freeze in the first place.

And then, well…

“You really don’t remember anything?” They ask.

“What part of ‘knocked unconscious’ do you not understand?” he retorts.

But even though he doesn’t remember Anna or the kingdom unfreezing, he can tell them now why it happened.

“An act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.” He tells them. “Even after everything Elsa had done, Anna still loved her enough to save her. Her love for her sister is what freed her heart, and then inspired Elsa to find a way to undo her magic and save their kingdom from the endless winter.”

(He knows that he shouldn’t feel happy at this part. He certainly wasn’t happy when he had woken up, back then. But he sees the light in the children’s eyes when he tells them this part, when he tells them that true love is real and it is out there, when he sees siblings and cousins quietly holding hands or pulling each other closer despite his brothers encouraging them to fight and argue among each other as they once had done.

And if he can give them the reassurance he had never gotten as a child, if he can encourage them to hold on to that hope instead of letting it be buried under abuse and loneliness and neglect, then maybe there’s hope for his family yet.)

But they are still obnoxious children.

“You haven’t told us the best part.” Christian complains.

“Isn’t Anna and Elsa saving the kingdom the best part?” he says sweetly.

(It never works, but it’s a tradition by now.)

“Just do it,” Hilda demands.

He sighs. Then he stands up and reenacts Anna’s reaction to him after he had woken up.

As he mimes getting punched in the face and tosses himself dramatically in the fountain, the children laugh and cheer hearty. Little brats.

Well at least someone is satisfied with the end of his story.

He doesn’t notice the fountain water feels icier than usual or that the children have become oddly silent until he hears her.

“Well that’s funny. I certainly don’t remember the dragon.”

---

(And then the kids end up thinking Anna and Elsa are the coolest ever and are really mad that Hans didn’t marry one of them and pester him about it.

“I could have had an aunt with magic ice powers! Uncle Haaaans!”

“So I know Miss Anna has a boyfriend now...but does Miss Elsa have anyone? Because my uncle’s still single...”

*flustered Hans noises* “FOR GOODNESS SAKES - COULD YOU NOT - I TRIED TO - SHE DOESN’T... I...apologize for them, your highness. They don’t understand the severity of the situation -”

“But you feel bad about what you did now, right uncle Hans?”

“...What...feelings? I don’t have feelings! Obviously! Someone like me have feelings that’s ridiculous who has feelings nowadays why-”

*more flustered Hans noises*

*Elsa snickering in the background*)

#helsa #helsaweek #helsaween #helsaweek2019

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