Best Laid Plans (12/?)
Fandom: Frozen (modern AU, no magic)
Pairings: Helsa, established Kristanna, Rapunzel/Eugene, lotsa frohana
Rating: T for now, M later almost for sure
A/N: I ain’t gonna be back to this fic for awhile, FYI. So savor this. Gotta write something Kristanna soon or the natives will riot
She tries to speak but no words come. Her body flashes hot and cold. Her heart hammers. Her feet are nailed to the floor as her head wars with her heart and she does not have time to reason this thing through to completion. All she can do is stare at his lips and that is all the permission he needs.
He leans in. All the air goes from her lungs at his approach and he chases the sound.
The pressure of his mouth is pure heat and friction. He makes her keep pace, demanding and unshakeable, molding her mouth to fit his own. His free hand loops to the small of her back, and pulls her tighter against him, the other stays on her cheek to steady her - steer her - but the whole event sets her off balance. Her hands grab at his sides to steady herself. He takes this as encouragement. She cannot blame him. Her traitorous body bows into his.
He buries his fingers into the thick of her hair and tips her head back so that her mouth opens under his. She thinks to protest at the gentle pressure of his tugging, at the way he commands her mouth to do his bidding, but the thought is swept away in the rushing warmth of sensation.
This must be what Rapunzel meant when she said there was a difference between kissing and being kissed. Elsa can feel the difference tingling up and down her spine as Hans grazes her bottom lip with his teeth. She can feel it in the pooling heat at the base of her stomach. She can feel the weight and size of the difference as if it were a tangible thing.
He is everywhere. His heat pours into her from his fevered skin and it is like she is falling into the sun.
By the time he eases his mouth off of hers, she can hardly breathe. Her body feels tight, overstimulated, like a clock wound too far. He gathers her tightly against his chest and holds her there. She trembles, or he trembles, or perhaps they tremble. Pressed together like this, with her ear resting heavy over his thundering heart, she cannot deduce the origin of the tremors but can only accept them as they race through her entire body.
This is bad.
“Don’t.” He pulls back enough to peer down at her face, finger crooked under her chin.
“What?” She does not recognize her own voice.
“Don’t start thinking about all the reasons I shouldn’t be kissing you.”
She almost smiles at that, but she doesn’t have time. He takes her lips again, softer this time, but insistent nonetheless. Her mouth plies beneath his request, caught off guard, and he groans low in his throat at her response. The sound frightens her. Everything about this frightens her and she breaks away on a gasp. Her eyes land on his chest.
“I’m thirsty.” She says like it matters, like she came up here for any other reason than to see if he would follow.
“Mmmm.” He hums softly, like he is agreeing, but he doesn’t move. He stays pressed against her like this is business as usual, but it isn’t. She does not just go around kissing clients - or anyone for that matter.
He does not seem to understand that however as he leans in again to take up her mouth. Her hands brace against his chest, panic rising at how hard she must fight her every instinct to just melt into him. She cannot do that to him - to herself.
“I need some water.” The words bubble up in a frantic breath just before his lips meet hers.
He freezes. Each muscle of his body tightens at her words. Whatever he had expected in this moment - clearly that was not it. She keeps her eyes on his chest, not trusting herself to meet his eyes just yet as he pulls back, hands lingering at her waist. He steps to the side and walks to the mini-fridge she spotted earlier. It is only a few steps away but it gives her space enough to breathe.
He returns and hands her a bottle of water, the fancy glass kind she stocks for clients in her own office but would never purchase for herself, and she does everything in her power to keep her hands from touching his because she is quickly learning that touching this man in any capacity is dangerous. She unscrews the metal cap and drinks. She hadn’t realized how dry her mouth, her throat, had become and she takes long, deep swallows to slake her need. It is the ocean water, she is sure, and not the inferno burning inside of her. She breaks off for a breath and finds him watching her with a calculating expression. She does her best to keep her calm.
“Thank you.” She says and he huffs half a grin as he crosses his arms.
“It’s no problem.” His brow furrows and he cocks his head to the side to inspect her, always gauging something with those keen green eyes.
“Well, I think I’ll head below and see if the others are back yet.” Her tone is overly light, and she manages to get halfway to the stairs before he slips around in front of her, blocking the path.
“Mister Westergaard, please.”
“Hans. My name is Hans.” He steps closer and she clutches the glass bottle at her chest like a shield.
“There is work to be done. They might be back. They might be wondering where we are,” Trying to change the subject, to avoid the inevitable outcome she sees barreling towards her like a freight train and wondering if she really wants it to stop.
“Let them wonder.” He hooks one hand around her waist and cups her jaw with the other. "There's still more we need to discuss.”
He stops any reply or protest by ducking down and clamping his mouth over hers with a speed previously unseen. Her entire body tightens under the onslaught. The water bottle slips from her hands and falls to a plush white rug with a thud that dully echoes her surprised gasp. He is merciless now - as if answering a challenge she had unwittingly laid down. Her insides quiver and pull at the relentless power of him - at her own weakness to turn him away.
Her mind spins trying to find a way out of this, to find a way to want to stop kissing him, but fails. All she can feel is the heat of him, the faint rasp of stubble against her chin, the slick of his tongue dipping past the boundaries of her mouth. All she can hear is the syllables of his kisses, his serrated breath. All she can smell is the thick scent of sunscreen and the increasingly familiar combination of musk and man. All she can taste is the flavor of the insides of his cheeks, the tang of the ocean on demanding lips. If she opens her eyes she knows she will see him - only him - as an inescapable entity and the idea makes her dizzy.
Her hands slip into the damp salt-laden silk of his hair, clinging to him for balance. He pulls her closer. The thin swim cover she wears, his shirt, does little to conceal the hard lines of his body and even less the truth of how well she fits against him. She does not know how she got here, does not know how to stop it, as she is swept along in the hot, rushing tide of desire.
Someone clears their throat.
It takes a moment to register that the sound comes from a third person, her mind scorched beyond reason, but they pull apart on a mutual breath. Hans’ face lingers above hers for a just a moment, eyes dark and starstruck as if he had anticipated several different ways this scenario could have gone but none of them quite like this - none of them quite this devastating. His expression is that one of complete humanity, no pretense, that always catches her off guard. The intensity of it, his honesty, his need, is enough to make her forget their company for just one more breath.
Then it is gone, whatever mask he had let drop in the moment is back in place as he pulls a smile from the corners of his mouth and turns towards the intruder.
The turn of his body releases her and she stumbles back a few steps, trying to regain her bearings. She braces herself the plush back of a smooth leather couch, clutching it like a lifeline, the nearly imperceptible pitch and roll of the boat having nothing to do with her unsteady feet. As reality takes hold once more she meets the familiar brown eyes of her brother-in-law across the room where he stands on the stairs and her cheeks light aflame.
“Anna was - uh -” It is Kristoff, his voice cautious - taking in and assessing the entire situation before jumping to any conclusions. A voice of practical reason when there was nothing practical or reasonable happening. “Anna was wondering if Elsa was okay.”
Even steps away and with his back to her Elsa can practically feel Hans’ grin at that. “We were just coming to meet you all. Are you okay, Elsa?”
He does not mean it to humiliate in the way he tosses the words over his shoulder towards her, in most cases with most girls it would not, but she is not most girls and it does. The words sting of defeat. What had meant to tease instead taunts. She had been so weak. Every inch of her body burns with embarrassment until she can hardly breathe.
She stares at the water bottle on the floor. The lid hadn't been properly tightened and there is a water stain spreading on the carpet worth more money than she will ever see in her life - no matter how long it is - and she is going to be sick.
Still she manages: “Yes.”
What she does not manage is to make it convincing.
Hans cheats towards her then, brow furrowed, and gives her a look that rocks her to her core. He looks at her like he sees her, like he caught the single frantic note in her voice that most would have missed, like he wants to check in - apologize - do something but cannot and she never expected that. She is coming to realize that she never expected most of what has come with Hans Westergaard, at least not the parts that really count.
She looks back to Kristoff, back to safe territory, heart rebelling at the idea. In her periphery she sees Hans slowly turn away.
The look in Kristoff’s eyes is similar and she wonders if she is actually unraveling. If she looked in a mirror right now would she see the thread of her calm, reasonable exterior being pulled from her body row after carefully crafted row?
“Well we’ll see you down there.” Kristoff is not exactly close but the way he steps to the side is a clear message. Hans hesitates just an instant, clearly weighing options, then with a nod crosses and heads up the steep staircase into the sunshine.
Elsa’s gaze goes to where her hand white knuckled at her sides. She is fairly certain it is the only part of her body that is not bright red with humiliation. She does not look at her brother-in-law, but she knows he is shuffling his weight between his feet - as awkward and uncertain as she is.
“You - uh - you okay?” He asks, but there is so much more to that question than meets the ear. “I’ll tell Anna you’re seasick and we need to head back.”
It will be that easy. He will do just that. No one will know what he has seen. No one will be the wiser, and she loves Kristoff for that. For as much as he protects her sister, he protects her as well.
Part of her very much wishes she could take up his offer. The need she has to run is strong enough to leave her head muddled, to lose track of exactly why they are there, of what they have all just seen at the reef.
"No," she bends down and retrieves her water with shaking hands. "I'm fine. I just - I need a minute."
There is a long pause and then, "You want me to drown him? Make it look like an accident?"
Elsa chokes out a laugh that almost tips into a sob and looks at her brother-in-law. He is smiling too, his dorky half smile that he saves only for those who know him best. He is a good man. She is glad Anna will have him in the end.
She shakes her head. "No, nothing like that."
"If you say so," he rubs the back of his neck. "But Elsa, if he hurts you -"
She holds up her hands and shakes her head, knowing where this is going but Hans Westergaard is not that type of guy.
"He didn’t. He won’t," she is not sure why she knows this so certainly but she does. If she is honest she knows that between the two she will be the one doing the hurting. He has no idea what he is asking of her, and that is by her design.
They are going to break each other in two if given the chance, but it will be by no fault of his.
“What do you want me to do?” Kristoff asks and she appreciates that. Her sister (and Rapunzel even more so) just barge forward without concern which is not always a bad thing, but this situation has her frazzled enough as it is.
“Don’t say anything to anyone. I will handle Mister Westergaard,”
He nods. She is not certain if he agrees with her but that is not the point. She knows she doesn’t need Kristoff to agree with her in order for him to respect her wishes, but just to smooth things over a bit in the wake of this awkward tidal wave:
“But if I ever need a mysterious disappearance, you will be my first call.”
The dorky grin is back and she laughs down towards her feet. They are bare. She hadn’t grabbed her sandals. She just realizes that now. She had kissed Hans Westergaard more than once while barefoot and she is not sure why that makes it feel that much more intimate but it does.
She just needs a few moments to collect her thoughts. Those few moments should have already been hers. If she had just had them then she may not be in this position right now, this place where she knows just how Hans Westergaard tastes and she is going to need another one of these bottles of water STAT.
“I’ll be down in a second,” she says, mind racing. “Just tell Anna I’m making some notes or something. She’ll understand.”
She looks up and Kristoff nods. “Okay.”
He goes to the same staircase where Hans had disappeared a few minutes before and if it was anyone but Kristoff she would reiterate the need to discretion, but she trusts him. It isn’t that he is intentionally reticent, it is just that Kristoff knew how to be economical with his speech.
“Oh - and Elsa?” He stops at the top of the stairs. “Whatever you decide with - well, all of it - I’m in your corner.”
She smiles and she is thankful for her brother in law. She appreciates his steadiness, his ability to differentiate his choices from others while still wanting the best for them. It is a trait that neither she or her sister had mastered.
“Thank you.”
Kristoff nods and is gone.
It takes several breaths for her to understand her solitary state, that she does not have to wonder if Hans Westergaard is going to burst into her space and crowd her with his overwhelming presence again. Instead all she has to do is stand and breathe.
She squeezes her eyes closed and tries to remember the resolve she felt when they had pulled into the parking lot. This has all been business then. She had been prepared to shoot him down at every turn but step by step, touch by touch, he had broken her down. How?
How had she let that happen?
She considers each contact with academic precision but her own emotions cloud the results. The heat of her reaction burns away everything else and makes her question her own reason. She shakes her head. That is nonsense. She is drawn to him, yes, but that does not mean that she cannot control herself. She knows she needs to control himself because this is a professional relationship, because she is personally unavailable.
He may not understand the personal aspect but surely he can latch onto the professional one.
If they sign this contract then he will effectively be her boss. There will be ways she can terminate the contract, and she is tempted to phone their lawyer right now to update their sexual harassment clause even if she is not sure what that is. Despite Rapunzel’s claim she has kissed enough men to know she can pull away when she wants, but that hadn’t been the case with him. With him she could not pull away and not because of his own force but the strange electricity that dances, joining them the second they connect.
And that is the danger.
She cannot go down this road where she does not have control.
She cannot even chance the idea that he may feel the same shocking heat and intensity that she endures with every brush of his fingers.
She knows that she only has thirty eight days left with him in theory but if he can do this much damage in only four she hates to think what he can do in over a month.
Another deep breath and she unscrews her water bottle and chugs the rest. She is not sure what to do with the canister and then remembers the stunning brunette below. Surely someone like he will fix her mess on the carpet and pick up her discarded bottle. That is their job after all. She has had that job for years and it feels strange to assign it to another, but something breaks loose in her chest at the idea. Maybe someone else can be in control for once?
It is dangerous. The very idea shakes her to the core. She has not been ready to cross that bridge, to fully admit that she is not going to be here much longer, but it is a reality she must face now.
This is her final event.
If they sign this contract they will make their annual revenue goal in one month. Their company will be set during her departure in a way that will make reorganization less stressful. They will be able to hire and train and rearrange as needed.
She lets out a single, caustic laugh. She has worked for almost a decade to bring them to this point. She has strategized and fought and battled this goal along with her illness. She has hired and fired and strived through each and every goal. She just never imagined someone like Hans Westergaard would be part of the process.
It is poetic somehow that this final challenge will be met with an ultimate stressor, that all that she has so carefully suppressed would be awakened in his vibrance and joy. It makes sense that the universe would continue to laugh at her with how he looks at her with unsettling focus, touches her with unscrupulous casualness, and stirs something deep inside her just by proximity.
Life has never been fair to her. So why start now?
She sets the glass bottle on an end table made of marble and stares at it.
Someone else will see it.
Someone else will clean it up.
Someone else will make sure it is taken care of.
Someone else.
She needs to start removing herself from the equation. She needs to remember that she is not long for this world. She needs to consider just what she wants to leave behind. She needs to forget how her lips still burn from his kiss.
She clenches every muscle in her body just to feel the pressure of it. She breathes into it and holds it until she cannot anymore. The tension melts from her and she is ready. She can move past whatever hold Hans Westergaard has supposed to claim over her. She will. She knows her motive, her purpose. She is ready.
With that Elsa heads downstairs to face whatever the rest of this day held for her.
She leaves the empty water bottle behind.
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