This story is written for Scarterror The Fallen. Library it is!
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It was the hottest day on Arendelle for the past 100 years. The sun literally could burn everything under its glare, even according to some people, the heat that day was enough to boil an egg by exposing it under the sun for a whole minute.
On the mercy of the cruel heat, Anna Summers dragged her feet forward to the nearest building in town that hosted a free full-blown non-stop air conditioning. Arendelle's City Library.
She was supposed to meet Kristoff and hang out together. Unfortunately, their usual place was closed since the owner had decided to take a trip to the south and flee the heat. His place was not an option with his broken thermostat and Anna's house was packed with visiting relatives during the whole summer.
So both of them broke away from their routine to seek refuge of cold air. If only their tiny town had a Starbucks.
Pushing forward a huge wooden door, Anna practically jumped in excitedly once her face was greeted by refreshing cold air. Her clumsy excited jump almost knocking over a trolley of pile of books.
"Mind your step." A voice reprimanded her sternly.
Anna flinched, she looked up only to meet with a face she least expected to see inside Arendelle's library.
The Ice Queen of Arendelle High, Elsa Frost.
Anna gawked at the sight.
Wearing a pair of thick glasses, plain shirt, knee-length skirt, and platinum blond locks up into a bun was clearly Elsa Frost. Her gaze zoomed in on the town library logo embedded on Elsa's shirt. Was she working here?
"Elsa?"
What happened with the most popular cheerleader with brilliant mind and elegant charisma?
She could be Elsa Frost's twin. Anna reasoned with herself, although she always recognized Elsa's voice anywhere- and the girl before her was obviously the only Elsa Frost.
It was too bizarre and too convenient to bump into her long-unrecruited crush in an old library. Besides, there was no way an Elsa- a senior- would recognize an Anna- a sophomore- among hundreds of students in Arendelle High. Well, they had History class together last year and that was it. She didn't make it to popular kids list for Elsa to notice.
Elsa was still glaring at her, sending shivers through Anna's body despite a nerdy wardrobe the older girl was wearing.
Yep, totally Frosty.
The redhead was saved by the bell or more likely a ping message on her phone. A huge relief washed over her as now she had an excuse to get away from Elsa's shocking appearance and intense gaze. The text was from Kristoff.
'R u here already? I'm in forbidden section :p.'
Anna grinned. She made a beeline toward the 'Spiritual and Religious' aisle. Meanwhile, missing completely a dejected look from a particular cheerleader.
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True to his word, her best friend was chilling on the deserted aisle playing a game on his phone. He gave her a brief wave to come over. Since there was no desk, she sat down on the floor, facing him.
"You won't believe who I just met!" Anna claimed with giddy smile.
Kristoff was in the middle of a raid, so he did look up for a second before focusing back to his phone screen. "Joan D'arc? There are lot of her faces in French history section."
"No! It was Frost! Elsa Frost!"
This time Kristoff's character seemed to be suddenly killed as a Game Over message filled his screen. "Are you kidding me! I was so close to beat it!" He sighed and finally gave Anna his full attention. "Frost... the Queen Frost?!"
Anna nodded. "She is here and she is wearing glasses. Do you have any idea that actually her sight is bad so that she needs a prescription glasses? Oh, and she was wearing this dull looking shirt! A total awkward nerd costum and halloween is still due for 2 months!"
"Whoa, hold on, princess. What did you say? The Queen in this library? Yeah right." He snorted and then returned to his game, he pressed replay but Anna snatched the device from his hand.
"Hey!"
"Dude. I'm telling the truth."
"Give me back my phone, the event today has a huge reward, I can't miss it."
"No, you are not paying attention-"
"Well excuse me if I don't trust your judgment. You have been having girl crush on the Arendelle High's Queen since our freshmen year and it was your words that you think she is so out-of-your-league. You need to stop being delusional- not every cute blond girl with piercing blue eyes is Elsa Frost."
Anna pouted, taking Kristoff's words as personal offence. She smacked his big head with her bare hand.
"Ow! That was uncalled for!"
"I am not delusional and you were supposed to be on my side." The redhead wasn't finished yet as she proceeded to pinch his cheek.
Retaliating Anna's pinching abuse, Kristoff used his both hands to pinch both Anna's cheeks. They both were glaring and grunting at each other during the whole cheek-pinching battle.
"Letgeww (let go)." Anna's cheeks started to redden but so are Kristoff's. Neither party volunteer to give up.
"Yewfeszzh (You first)."
"enthrwe? (On three?)"
"Feewn! (Fine!)"
They did let go of each other on three and Kristoff used the moment to grab his phone back from Anna.
He didn't notice that his best friend was gaping at the sight of a blond woman who was sending unpleasant glare toward their direction. Once Kristoff realized it and followed Anna's line of sight, he admitted that he was wrong. It took him longer and if Anna hadn't mentioned it, he wouldn't have recognized the woman at first glance.
She was indeed the Elsa Frost.
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"I need both of you to be quiet or else I must ask you two to leave the premise." Elsa's arms were crossed in front of her body, although her shoulders slumped a little bit, her eyes remain fierce.
"We are... reading?" Kristoff tried to reason.
Elsa shifted her gaze to Anna and Kristoff and then to the floor, "I don't see any opened books."
Like an automatic reflex, Anna immediately scrambled to the nearest shelf and pulled out a random book, she extended the book to show it to Elsa. "We are reading this!"
Elsa's annoyed expression palpably changed to be puzzled and then slightly amused.
"Are you really reading that? How unusual."
"Yes!" Anna replied convincingly.
Kristoff who was already aware of the issue, nudged Anna with his elbow.
Only then Anna skimmed over the cover page title of the book she was holding.
The Beginner's Guide to Sex in the Afterlife: an Exploration of the Extraordinary Potential of Sexual Energy.
The redhead's face flushed furiously until it resembled a ripe tomato.
Elsa twitched up a smile upon the sight.
Kristoff tried to save his friend's dignity or what was still left by taking the book from Anna's hand and returned it to the shelf.
"We are sorry for causing trouble." Kristoff said sincerely.
Then since his friend had turned into stone after making a fool out of herself in front of her long-term crush, Kristoff had to comically half-carried Anna outside the building, back to be under the scorching sun.
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The next day Anna decided to visit the library again.
It appeared that no one in the school had knowledge about Elsa Frost working in Arendelle City's library. Everyone in school just assumed that the Queen of Arendelle High was taking summer trip around Europe with her family.
When she stepped inside, the redhead found Elsa behind the counter. She was engrossed with thick-looking book in her hand. Her glasses was slightly askew as her brows furrowed deeply.
Anna wondered what book she was reading.
She braced herself to step closer and that time, Elsa's frown expression vanished, replaced with a thin simple smile.
Anna's heart did a little hop.
Was it a good idea to interrupt her reading?
The redhead was too nervous and her fidgeting had resulted in her knocking few books from the counter with loud crash.
Anna flinched. There gone her effort for trying to be subtle.
Elsa looked up and their eyes met.
"Uhm, hi." Anna said eloquently. "I mean… I'm sorry." The redhead rushed to pick up the fallen books but then she ended up knocking over few more. "Oops, sorry again."
Elsa stared at Anna who was still picking up books from the floor. She didn't glare at her like yesterday, instead her gaze was like she contemplating something.
Anna secretly bit her bottom lip, talking directly with Elsa Frost had taken a lifetime of courage from her.
"I know yesterday was a disaster so I come today to apologize." Anna stacked the fallen books and returned them back to the desk. "You probably don't know me, I'm-"
"Anna Summers. Sophomore. We shared Miss French's History class last term." Elsa cut in. The blonde glanced at the pile of books Anna had arranged and then shifted her gaze back to the younger redhead. "Thanks for putting them alphabetically. However, they were supposed to be stacked by genre."
There were no words that could describe how Anna was feeling right now. Elsa Frost actually noticed her!
Anna smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry?"
"You realize that you have been apologizing a lot, do you?" Elsa closed the book she had been reading.
"Okay, I'll stop, I'm sor- ehem! Anyway, what are you reading?" The redhead asked since she was genuinely curious of what kind of book that could make Elsa's expression so colorful. After all, the blonde wasn't called an Ice Queen with no reason.
"My favorite book." Elsa slid the thick book toward Anna. The cover had dragon and mermaid picture on it, and those were enough to pick Anna's interest even more.
"Wow, that seems interesting. Can I take a peek?"
Elsa shrugged, pushing back glasses on her nose. "Go ahead. It's a library. You can even borrow it. I only re-read it for third time."
Anna opened the first page and was greeted by the author's biography. "Can I ask something? Why don't you wear glasses to school?"
Elsa replied almost too quick, "I have cheerleader practice after school. It's more convenience wearing contacts."
Anna couldn't complain since Elsa was still cute with or without glasses.
Anna gasped, slapping her own mouth.
"I said that part out loud, didn't I?'
Elsa nodded slowly.
"I'm sor- I meant I didn't mean to- not that I meant you are not cute, anyway, I'll be off. See you tomorrow!" Anna grabbed the book and hastily made a dramatic exit it was unexplainable of how she had managed to avoid herself crashing into books again.
Once she was at home, Anna settled to read Elsa's favorite book. The book told about a princess with her dragon and her adventure.
The princess's name was Anna.
After that day, Anna made a frequent visit to the library for the whole summer. She would stop by to talk with Elsa and read some books. The blonde senior had collection of recommendation on fantasy books Anna had come to like.
A week before summer holiday ended, Anna visited library. Like days before, Elsa would give her a piece of paper containing book location for the day.
Anna would then take a seat where she could have strategic location to see the whole library and especially Elsa's counter desk.
"Why the library?" Anna asked. Today, Elsa had recommended her a fantasy book about mythical creatures' collection. "There are a lot of options for summer part-time jobs."
"I love books." Elsa answered. She was in the middle of cataloguing the town archives. Arendelle was yet having incorporated digital system for the town's history archives. It meant double effort for Elsa to re-arrange everything but the platinum blond cheerleader never complained about her task. If anything, Anna would assume that Elsa was enjoying the job.
Anna had come to know Elsa better in the past few weeks. Somehow, Elsa's short genuine answer was more than enough for Anna.
The older girl was furious when Anna had dog-eared the Dragon Princess book a week ago. The redhead was scolded and given a lengthy speech about the importance use of bookmark in long-term.
After that day, Elsa's snowman bookmark was tucked neatly between the pages of the book Anna was reading currently. Anna had no intention to return it anytime soon.
"You were the first." Elsa said suddenly.
Anna's wandering mind snapped back to the present. Elsa was looking at her, not with her usual intense glaring, but soft and kind eyes.
Anna was puzzled for a moment, taken aback by the sudden change. "Eh?"
"… You were the first person to recognize me in here, despite what I'm wearing." Elsa continued.
Oh.
"You have peculiar eyes." And beautiful hair, gorgeous face, and amazing every other things- In short, there was no way a simple glasses would fool Anna. She wasn't Lois Lane. Also the fact that she adored the cheerleader was a significant factor.
"Hmm." Elsa hummed with a knowing smile. "You too have cute peculiar freckles."
Anna suddenly became self-aware of her appearance. She lowered her face, avoiding Elsa's inquiring gaze.
However, Anna could not escape anymore as Elsa's hand caught her chin and kept Anna's face hostage. Elsa's eyes were travelling every inch of Anna's face, studying intently. "They remind me to constellation of summer night sky."
After that, like nothing had transpired which almost killed a certain redhead with a heart attack, Elsa returned to concentrate cataloguing the town archives.
Anna's useless mind was only capable to produce one coherent sentence.
Elsa had called her cute.
There were little things about Elsa that Anna slowly figured out.
Elsa loved chocolate more than vanilla since she had picked chocolate pudding over when Anna had treated her one as apology from dog-earing a book.
Anna had missed a day in visiting the library and then the next day Elsa had totally ignored her, leaving Anna on her own device for the whole shift.
The Queen of Arendelle High wasn't dating anyone, especially the quarterback Hans Isles despite what the most-trending rumor said. Elsa had wittingly quoted Shakespeare to describe the quarterback's personality as 'A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, and hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.'
Anna couldn't agree more for that notion.
Getting to know Elsa Frost closer day by day was like reading the most interesting book Anna had ever read. She enjoyed every page of it and there was always pleasant surprise at the end of the day. She couldn't wait to reach the last page but at the same time, Anna didn't want it to end.
Last day of summer was approaching to the end.
On the last day of summer holiday, Anna didn't see Elsa behind the counter. Instead, she spotted a piece of paper on the desk containing book location.
FN 201.20.l42
Treating it as a guiding map, Anna set her way to find the book location.
It was aisle of town's archive location. Anna found Elsa was standing with her back on Anna. She turned her head to greet the younger redhead.
"Hey." Elsa tilted her head, gesturing Anna to come closer. "It's finally finished."
Elsa had been cataloguing archives of old files from the town hall. Apparently the blonde's work was massive since Anna was looking at the new section and aisle inside the library.
"Wow, good job." Anna gave a thumb up. "I should've helped you, these must've been a lot of work."
"You are helping." Elsa said sincerely. "However, I'm not sure I can stand another second looking at alphabets and tables."
Anna felt dumb since she just realized how Elsa's glasses were dangling between her shirt buttons and how the older girl had let her hair loose from her usual bun. Elsa was back to claim her cheerleader persona.
Elsa noticed Anna was looking at her, the redhead was taken off guard when Elsa was smiling at her. A similar smile Elsa did every time she was reading an interesting part of a book.
It was quick but from Anna's perspective, it happened in slow-motion.
Elsa's hand raised, threading gently against Anna's hair before finally rested on Anna's shoulder.
Anna couldn't breathe despite her chest rising and falling; she just wanted to lean closer to Elsa's touch.
For the past weeks they knew that each of them was falling for the inevitable. They both knew but Anna didn't dare to hope and Elsa seemed too afraid of what could have been.
However not today.
Elsa tilted her head, gaining advantage of bewildered Anna and diving for a kiss.
So Anna pressed closer. She moved forward until their bodies bumped into the shelf behind Elsa. Anna should have apologized but she had promised she won't say sorry anymore.
Elsa's hand was tangled in Anna's hair with her lips were daring as the older blonde deepened their kiss.
They pulled away with a small gasp, Elsa's eyes were searching for Anna.
The redhead had gone auto-pilot the moment Elsa started kissing her, and now her lungs greedily sucking back the oxygen. Elsa smiled seeing Anna's flustered face. The older blonde leaned forward, about to kiss Anna once again. However, this time Anna's hands gently pushed Elsa back.
"Wait." Anna pleaded.
Panic and fear emerged within Elsa's blue eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"
Anna quickly shook her head, she regretted instantly that she had pushed Elsa away. "No, not at all." She took the pair of glasses that was tucked on Elsa's shirt. Carefully she put it on Elsa, brushing a few blond strands away into the back of her ears in the process. Anna had to admit that she had become fond to Elsa's glasses for the past few weeks.
Behind the glasses frame, Elsa's eyes softened as they seemed realizing something. Her eyes were no longer searching. Gradually, the blonde's face grew warm and tinted red.
Anna took her cue and this time, she kissed Elsa, it was soft and split-second, or at least it had meant to be, if only Elsa had let Anna to pull away.
Their second kiss was more breathtaking. Both Elsa and Anna ventured carefully, teasing with each other's lips, savoring every sweet second they had. Anna could feel Elsa's smile against every kisses.
Anna's brain was all bubbles and hollow, she was still grasping sentences in her head to help her describe what was going on at the moment. She gave up, stopped thinking and just letting her heart feels.
They parted only because Anna's phone suddenly went off quite loudly.
The redhead cursed between her breathes, pulled out the phone from her jeans pocket and crossly turned it off.
"What did I tell you about setting cell phones on vibrate in the library?" Elsa shook her head with playful smile. Elsa tenderly caressed Anna's cheek. The blonde was humming a cheerful random tune.
"I'm sor-" Anna's apologize was cut off by Elsa's lips. Then they were back bantering with kisses.
They stayed for a while under archive collection about Arendelle's reindeer mating pictures and compilation of Arendelle Mayors's portraits for the past century.
Anna didn't care and she wouldn't have it any other way.
Tomorrow was going to be a whole new chapter for both of them.
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This needs to end because it is a oneshot. The book about beginner's guide for sex in afterlife is a real one, I didn't make it up :P