The Khamsa Chapter 1, a frozen fanfic

The Khamsa
By Jessica X

WARNINGS: Explicit sexuality, though very little smut. Weird kinks; warnings in the chapter notes. Belsa (Belle/Elsa) moments, minor Helsa (Hans/Elsa) moments, Cinderelle (Cinderella/Belle) moments; related!Elsanna endgame.

[More author notes after the chapter.]

[NOTE: This chapter has been edited for clarity.]

To say "it was a typical day for Elsa Nieves" was not hyperbole in the case of the Thursday in question. It really was. Her days seldom had enough differences from each other to make them at all remarkable. They were interchangeable with each other; her weekdays were identical, and her weekends were identical. Swapping a Thursday for a Saturday would be a significant change, but only in a respective sense.

Wake up. Shower. Coffee. Work, work, work. Home. Dinner. TV for an hour or two. Rinse and repeat. On the weekends, she did her shopping, but there was little passion to the activity. She also found time to read those days, and at night just before falling asleep. During her lunch at work, all she did was eat and allow her mind to wander. A stagnant, homogenous life.

There had been no man in her life for several years. Not even a passing interest in a year or more. Every date also went the same; young professionals who dazzled her with perfectly white teeth and perfectly white resumes, making the same comments about how she "didn't look Mexican" when they found out her last name. The shine wore off so quickly she had started to wonder if it was ever there to begin with.

Other than that, she had no real friends. The woman in the nearest cubicle to hers, Belle Des Rosiers, provided a sort of camaraderie in that they both enjoyed working in silence. Then there was Cindy, the new girl who was always inviting her out to dinners and events, no matter how often she declined; she could count her as a friend, even if their friendship was rather strained because of that.

Perhaps the closest thing to an actual friend she had was Tiana. The woman ran the local diner that Elsa would allow herself to stop in on Friday evenings, after her workday was finished. Beyond names and a few surface details of each other's lives, they weren't all that close. The rest of the time, she would go home and make herself a bland, inexpensive meal, but this was one of the small frivolities she allowed herself. That, and her ever-growing library of romance novels.

All of her childhood friends and her family were gone. Some passed, like her parents, and the rest just drifted away. Now it was only her, alone in sleepy little Arendelle Cove.

Yes, it really was a typical day for Elsa Nieves when she got off the elevator onto her floor, walked down the hallway, and found a small pile of duffel bags in front of her apartment. One of them, as it turned out, was actually not a duffel bag at all; it had red hair poking out of a cap made of the exact same material as the bags, which had made it harder to distinguish them at first. The old, scuffed Birkenstock sandals stretching out into the hallway were poking out of the bottom of dingy olive-green capris, and the rest of the figure was hidden by the bags themselves.

Elsa was just reaching for her phone to call security, or maybe even the police, when the red hair twigged a memory. Of course. Her mouth set; she knew who this was. Unbelievable that it would be her, but she did know.

"Hey," Elsa snapped, kicking at the leg. "Quit loitering, you wino."

A loud snort signalled that the figure had awoken. The bags rustled, and a tired, apple-cheeked face dusted with freckles turned up from amongst them, blinking blearily in the soft lighting of the hallway. After two or three seconds, the face lit up with recognition — quite a lot.

"Elsa?"

"Yes? And who might you be? Gulliver on one of his travels?"

Scrambling to her feet, the grimy form just barely managed to reach a standing position before she was throwing her arms around the baffled blonde's torso, grabbing on and squeezing tightly as she could. "Ohhhh, Elsa, it's so good to see you! Namaste!"

"Namawha?" When the redhead didn't answer, she grunted and rolled her eyes, patting her back gingerly. "Fine. Hi, Anna."

"I really missed you," Anna breathed into Elsa's shoulder, so earnest that she almost couldn't ignore it — despite how tempting it would be to focus on the overpowering stench of her clothing. "It's been so long, God… how are you?"

"Fine, fine. How are you, stranger? I mean, I might already know if you ever called, or wrote…"

"Yeah, yeah," Anna laughed as she finally pulled back, still gripping her sister's shoulders. "You know, I lost your number somewhere between Nepal and Kenya. My whole phone, really."

Again, Elsa fought the desire to roll her eyes. "Sure you did. You could have tried to look it up."

"Who would I call? Mom and Dad? Kinda hard to do that now without a Ouija board."

"You could have looked me up online," Elsa said as she moved to unlock the door. "LinkedIn, Facebook… all of those things exist here in the civilised world."

"Africa is civilised," she shot right back. Once the door was open, she began to drag her things inside. "It's just not the same kind of civilisation as we have in the West, you pampered American. Plus, they do have big cities there that are just like ours. Well, not just like ours, but equal in their own way."

"I'm a pampered- wait, what are you doing?" When Anna didn't respond, she yelped, "Why are you taking all this into my apartment?!"

Laughing, she barely glanced at Elsa as she grabbed another bag to heave over the threshold. "Come on, Sis, why do you think? I'm gonna stay with you!"

Definitely no longer a typical day.

~ CHAPTER ONE ~

By the time Anna had all her duffel bags piled in a corner, Elsa had stopped sneering and hating the situation. Clearly, this fell under the umbrella of "familial obligation"; Anna needed to stop over, and Elsa would provide that service. When she moved on, she would be absolved of all responsibility regarding her wayward sister. It was the only way to get out of this without being perceived as a completely cold-hearted bitch.

"There," the redhead sighed, dusting her hands as she walked back over to Elsa. "Now I'm all settled in and we can start getting caught up!"

"Wrong," Elsa grunted, holding her nose. "Now you can take a shower so I can be in the same room with you."

To her mounting horror, Anna lifted the front of her shirt, pushed her face down into it, and inhaled. "Huh," she said with a shrug. "I can't even tell. Guess that's what happens when you live off the grid for a while."

"God, listen to you! 'Off the grid', as if any such thing exists. Please, just… into the shower, now! Come on!"

"But all my clothes are dirty, too," Anna grumbled as she was chivvied through the spacious living room. Though it was only a one-bedroom apartment, it was grand and elegant in its way; the furniture she had purchased on a limited budget all matched and had remained in pristine condition. That this was mostly due to never having any houseguests was a minor detail.

"I'll get you something of mine. Just go."

"But your clothes might not fit. No offense, Sis, but you're…" Her voice dipped lower to soften the blow. "Getting a little wider around the middle. What happened to that ballerina body?"

Elsa glowered at her. That was the last straw; she was tired of being cajoled into everything. "Get… in… the shower. Or get out of my apartment." At that, Anna only blinked, flashed an awkward smile, and rushed into the white tiled room. "I'll bring you some clothes."

"Thaaaanks!" she called out through the door.

The entire time Elsa was collecting clothing for her sister, the glower persisted. She did not want this. She did not want a monkey wrench thrown into her dull-but-pleasant life — and especially not one in the form of her estranged sister. The last time she had spent any worthwhile period of time with her, she had only stayed three days, crashing on the couch in Elsa's first apartment. It was for their parents' funeral, and though she was so young and inept and in mourning herself, she had been supportive, loving, tolerant of her outbursts of grief… everything a sister should be. Then, of course, she had packed up and left with only a single Post-It note.

Thanks for everything, it read. Their hearts are among the stars now. See you when I see you. Anna.

That note was now full of wrinkles from all the times Elsa had crumpled it up to throw it away. Yet she still had it. And as she shut her dresser drawer, finding one of her older, smaller pairs of underwear to provide her with, she again saw it in the little frame, propped next to her jewellery box. Every time she looked at it, she again felt the same old compulsion to smash it into a thousand pieces, throw it from the nearest window to the ground far below. But she never did.

"Okay, I got them," she said to the silent bathroom door. "Where do you want-"

"Oh, thanks," Anna said as she paced out, patting down her hair with the towel. "I'll put 'em on when I'm dry."

A full five seconds passed of Elsa sputtering before she was able to squeak, "Wh-what are you doing?!"

"I'm… getting showered? Like you commanded me, remember? God, they say the mind is the first thing to go…"

"But you're naked! In my living room! What kind of animal did you turn into overseas?!"

Rolling her eyes, Anna put her hands on her hips, still naked as a jaybird. "Get over it. I mean, I am your sister, remember? Who cares if you see my firecrotch?"

"I don't want to see any crotch! I…" Finally, she turned to one side, taking the view away from herself. "Don't you have any shame?"

"Nope. A lot of the smaller villages where I was volunteering, I had to learn how to go without privacy, running water. Or had to learn to take fast showers, like I did just now. After a while, you sorta stop caring about 'but what if they see my nipnips?' and other petty bullshit when you're focused on building houses and stuff."

Elsa's eyes flicked to said "nipnips" again, then away. "R-right. I guess that makes sense. But you are not in Africa anymore; you're in America, where we don't condone that kind of… of exhibitionism!"

"Huh. Sounds to me like you could use some more of that in your life." Anna walked right up to her, a hand raising upward.

"Wait, what are- stop, Anna, don't tease me! STOP!"

"I'm reaching for the clothes," she snorted, though now she stopped with her hand on Elsa's. But instead of doing something crazy, or demented, or angering, she simply frowned and asked, "Hey… does this really bother you that much? Sorry, I guess I just… we're grown-ups now, I didn't think you'd even blink at my dumb, freckley body."

That sufficiently shamed Elsa for shouting at her over such a matter. "Maybe… you're right. But I haven't seen anyone's body in a few years, Anna. Not even my own; I tend not to look in the mirror when I get dressed. Too many… imperfections, like you said. Sorry for being a little uncomfortable."

The bemused look had disappeared entirely. "Elsa, your body is beautiful. You've always been gorgeous! Are you kidding? I didn't mean to imply…" Reaching down, she patted her thigh through her relatively plain, dark-grey skirt. "So what if you packed on a couple more pounds? It doesn't mean anything."

"Stop that," she breathed shakily, trying to step away from the hand. It followed her.

"No, listen, I'm… really sorry, okay? Totally not my intention. I was trying to tease you, but the main reason I even said that is because your clothes might not fit me. Legitimately, not just as a… that was the only reason I brought it up. I swear."

Her face looked pinched. Finally, Elsa rolled her eyes and pushed her clothes up against Anna's chest. "Get dressed, you nudist. We can talk about my big butt afterward."

"Okay. And we will." Elsa turned around to look out the window as Anna began to don the clothes. "Really didn't mean to misalign your chakras, at all."

"I don't even have chakras."

"Of course you do! Not believing in them doesn't mean they aren't real!" Her voice got a little more excited as she went on, "Hey, I know what! Once we have dinner, I can test out acupuncture on you!"

Elsa did turn around with wide eyes to glare at her, and got an eyeful of boobs. At least she was covered from the waist down; seeing that, she decided to face her discomfort and stay looking at her sister as she snapped, "You're not sticking any needles into my body, you little imp!"

"But it's really beneficial! Seriously, just let me try once and see if it hurts or doesn't do anything for you, and if that's the case-"

"Enough! Wow, I had forgotten how much you can pester to get your way!"

Grinning, Anna yanked the shirt down over herself. "Good. I know I'm taking up your couch space, messing up your feng shui, so I have to do a few things to make up for it, right? As much as I can, anyway."

"My f… yeah," Elsa grunted, resisting the impulse to pull her hair out. "Just don't walk around naked or grab my thighs anymore and we'll call it even."

"No promises on either front," Anna laughed once she had dumped her dirty clothes on top of her bags, earning a lip curl from her sister. "Oh! Hang on, I have something for you — shit, where did I put it?"

Already, Elsa found herself sinking down on the couch with a heavy sigh. Her sister had always been tiring, but it wasn't nearly this bad before she went off to "find herself". Chasing her around at all their athletic events, or around the pool when they were little… that had been entirely manageable. Now, she couldn't even put up with her talking too much.

"Here! Here, I found it." Rushing over to her, she pushed a statue into her hands. "This… is for you."

"Great!" she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster for the smallish bronze statue of a person sitting cross-legged. "What is it?"

"Guanyin. She's the Buddhist goddess of mercy and compassion. I dunno, I thought she looked a little like you — right here, in the eyes." Her finger tapped the statue where indicated. "Obviously, you don't have a thousand arms, right? I also got you an amulet, but that's probably stuffed waaaay down at the bottom of my bags."

Turning it over and over, she finally squinted at the base. "So you loved it so much you bought me one that was 'Made In Indiana', huh?"

"WHAT?!" Snatching it away, she turned it over as she growled, "Ooh, that filthy cheat! I gave him a hundred bucks for this piece of sh… th- hey, I don't see anything about Indiana…"

"No, you don't," Elsa laughed, and Anna slowly blinked up at her. "But I am flattered you'd spend that much on a present for me. Probably so I'd throw some of that 'mercy and compassion' your way."

But instead of laughing along with her, Anna pouted. Then her face fell entirely as she set the statue down on the coffee table. "You don't like it."

"What? Oh, don't pull this. I don't even know what it is; how am I supposed to care about it as much as you do?"

"It's not your thing, I get it. I'm… yeah," she laughed harshly. "What am I even doing here? Sorry, I'll get out of your hair. Thanks for the shower."

"No," Elsa warned her, pointing at her as she strode to the bags. "No, you don't get to do this. You don't get to tease me about my thunder thighs and then, when I try to tease you back for ONE second-"

But Anna was giggling. Looking over her shoulder, her eyes danced as she sang out, "Got youuu!"

"You- I can't believe- OH ANNA, you're such a pain in the ass! Why are you even here?!"

"To be a pain in the ass," Anna sighed as she rejoined her sister, plopping down on the couch and leaning against her. "For a little while, anyway. But I promise it's only gonna be for about a week, and then I'll be outta your hair."

"Only a week?" Elsa resisted the temptation to sigh. She should have expected the time frame to be short; it always was. "Fine. I guess that's fine."

"Well, I ship out for Brazil at the end of that week. But I wanted to make a stopover." Suddenly, Anna looked serious. "I've been worried."

"Worried?"

"My ki wasn't resonating w-" The sigh that finally slipped out from Elsa's lips brought her up short, so she glared at her sister for a half-second before saying, "Okay, okay. We'll do this the Western way. I felt like God was telling me you needed me back here, at least just to say 'hi' and check in. That you were… I don't know. Unhappy for some reason."

That really did catch Elsa by surprise. For a moment, she blinked and tried to think about what might be making her unhappy. Then she grunted, "Wait. You're teasing me again."

"No, no, I'm not." Warm hands took one of hers between her own. "You feel irritated that I'm here; I get that. Should have called first, looked up your number somewhere, like you said. But you weren't happy before I got here, either… were you?"

As much as she wanted to refute that statement, she could not. "And what's it to you if I wasn't?"

"It's my duty as a sister to get you right as rain again. So… here's me, trying to do it." Taking a deep breath, she leaned in and kissed Elsa on either cheek.

"Wh-what on-"

"I'm gonna help however I can. Promise! You and me, okay? We'll figure out what's got you down and we'll work on it together."

Completely defeated, the apartment's owner said, "You could stop talking about my weight, for a start."

"Done. I promise, I'll never make any kind of joke about it again, not even your clothes, nothing. But I tried to tell you before; you still look gorgeous." In a voice very like their dad's, she added, "I wouldn't kick you outta bed for eatin' crackers."

"That is… wrong on so many levels." They both chuckled very briefly. Glancing at the statue on her coffee table, she turned back to say, "Can I at least ask something up front?"

"Sure!"

"How much money do you need?"

"Why, Sis!" she gasped a hand to her chest. "How dare you cheapen my visit and my kind gesture with a query like that! You ought to be ashamed for insulting me so!"

"Yeah. How much?"

For a moment, Anna gazed across from herself, into nothing at all. Then she looked down and away. "Actually, I'm doing okay for money. I have a handpan in one of my bags that I play on street corners if I get really broke, and even that I haven't needed in a while. But… I get why you'd assume I'm tapped out. I haven't been very…"

"You haven't been anything," Elsa told her baldly. "Except absent."

"You're right."

The blonde stared down at her knees. "I am."

"Yeah. I… really dropped the sister-ball. There was just so much going on… but you have a point, I probably could have tried harder to get in touch." When Elsa didn't respond right away, she leaned in and embraced her tightly. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly, Elsa felt very uncomfortable with the way Anna was expressing her regret. So she patted the middle of her back and said, "Alright, alright. So you feel bad for being away so long. I get it."

"You don't believe me?"

"That's not… I do. I guess it's just hard for that to hold weight when I haven't seen you in a few years." Before Anna could respond, she embraced her back, then allowed her arm to fall away; a nonverbal signal that the hug should end soon. "But it is good to see you."

Pulling away, Anna smiled up at her. "It really is. Anyway, dinner! I managed to smuggle in a bag of quinoa that I can contribute; it's not a full meal, but at least I'm not just totally freeloading, right?"

As Anna ran to fetch yet another item from her luggage, Elsa suppressed a chuckle. She hated that Anna was so easily likeable, and that she could always find a way to make her smile, or laugh. It made it awfully difficult to remain cross with her. Giving up on the idea of reprimanding her or arguing with her, she pushed to stand and walk over to help.

"What the hell is quinoa, anyway?"

~ To Be Continued ~

AUTHOR'S NOTE: No, this STILL isn't the fic I was working on when I suddenly had to write "Kasnian Letters". I'm a mess! But at least I'm an inspired mess instead of a writer-blocked mess, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

This particular fic was actually a rejected roleplay idea; I had run it past a couple of other people, and they didn't bite. And there's nothing wrong with that! We came up with other ideas that worked better for us. I was simply going to exile this to the scrap heap, but for some reason, the more I thought about it, the more I needed to write about this lonely, dull Elsa and her free-spirited, world-travelling sister. So I did.

The story turned weird in a way that I don't think one has for me since Min Søster Bursdagskake. That's not to "hype it up" as the next Cake Fic, just to warn people that it's going to get a little odd. Not even in hugely obvious ways, just… who knows? These things come out during the writing process! If you have to nope out of the fic at any point because it's too squicky or you're uncomfortable, I will totally understand and not hold it against you. Just don't flame in the reviews; you've been forewarned so that would only mean you didn't read the notes.

But to allay some of your fears, the Helsa is very minimal and includes no smut between them. More than anything, Hans is a catalyst for the Elsanna.

And again, probably for the last time (apologies for talking about it so much, it's almost over), I want to remind everybody that the Indiegogo for my queer modern fantasy novel, "Bleeding For Eurydice," has a mere two days left (Google the title and it's the first result). So if you want an autographed copy or to get your name in the book or anything like that, time is running out!

Enough about that, though. Enjoy this weird little fic; it'll be about 50k words when it's completed, so I hope you're ready for some twists and turns!

Jessex