A/N: Hello everyone! You are presentely reading a story which I wrote a few months ago, but I was too lazy to fix until now. Also, I have absolutely no idea how to write accents, I find it very distracting if not done correctly so I did not even try. As always, if you enjoy this first chapter don't forget to follow so you'll know when the rest is published. I decided on a chapter every Tuesday and Friday, so we'll see where that goes. I hope you enjoy my story!
_-Like Two Knotted Strings-_
The stranger in the RV
Fuzzy was the first word to pop into her mind this particular morning. Everything felt fuzzy and soft, as if she had slept inside a cocoon made out of clouds and feathers. As she breathed deeply, a sudden headache exploded in the back of her head. She clenched her teeth, and tried to ignore the pain. Her hands shot behind her head, and pressed the sensitive spot as hard as she could, in hope that it would be squeezed away. She remembered the breathing technique she had learned when she was stressed out, and tried to put it to good use. She breathed in through her nose, and breathed out through her mouth, taking loud and regular intakes. That was when she noticed that something was amiss.
The smell of the pillow, of the air itself was strange and unknown. It smelled of pine, of a forest, deep woods and mossy waterfalls, a smell of far away places, and freedom. She blinked, and suddenly the pain wasn't the least of her concern. She sat slowly, still quite disoriented, and took in her surrounding.
She was in a double bed which took almost the entirety of the room. A small closet was half open, revealing a few checkered shirts which she knew definitely weren't hers. A small shelf hang over the bed, on which rested a few pictures of green valleys running as far as the eyes could see, a black horse and a family posing together, all of which were redheads and unknown to her. Before she could look at it closely, there was a knock on the door. She froze like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. She turned her gaze to the plastic door at the end of the bed. The voice of a young woman with a thick accent she couldn't quite place talked to her through it.
"Hum... Elsa? I heard you breathing and I... are you alright?"
Elsa's eyes grew wide. Who was this girl she had never heard before and how could she know her name?
"I... I'm... okay. Just a headache..."
"Alright. I'll make you something for the pain... Come find me when you feel like it."
Her footsteps echoed away, and Elsa let out a tense sigh. There had to be a logical explanation as to why this girl knew her, and why she didn't seemed surprised at all to hear Elsa had a headache. And how on earth had she ended up in the bed of a stranger, in what seemed to be a RV, no less. Her eyes grew wide as a thought crossed her mind. A terrifying what if popped into her mind, and she quickly looked at herself. She let out a reassuring sigh.
She was dressed, and although her boots and jacket were gone, everything else was still on her, and it reeked of alcohol. Well, it surely explained her atrocious headache. But, apparently, she had done nothing wrong while being drunk. That was something less to regret. And with those questions answered, more were to ask. If only the alcohol hadn't blocked her memory, at least she could have remembered who the girl was. She had probably befriended her at the bar, but that were only logical guesses Elsa could make. For now, the only thing she could do was walk out of this door and talk to the girl.
She stretched, and heard her vertebrae pop with contentment. She crawled out of bed, and looked out the window. The sun was already quite up, and she saw an almost empty parking lot, safe for a few cars, hers included. So she had drove there? Why?
As she reached the door she sighed, and as her hand rested on the doorknob she only hoped that the person behind this door knew the answers she needed. The door opened, but the bed blocked Elsa, and she had to climb back onto it before finally reaching the small hallway. Only a few steps brought her to what could be considered the main room of the RV, with a kitchen set on her right and a table in between two booths, barely large enough for the four persons it was suppose to host. In front of her, two large seats occupied the space for the driver and its copilot, and she quickly noticed the headboard was covered with stickers.
Elsa turned around, but saw no one. She frowned. There weren't that many places the girl could hide, after all. She froze as she noticed the bow and large quiver full of arrows resting on the passenger seat, but before she could make any attempt at grabbing the weapon, the front door opened.
"Sorry I had to go to the bar for some fresh water. I'm not hooked, so unless you want to taste stocked water..."
The first thing Elsa noticed about the girl was her vivid and impressive mane, a bright red color full of curls, completely untamed. As she walked the two steps to enter her RV, a bottle full of clear water in one hand, she looked up to see Elsa, still standing in awe. The pale skin of her face was pierced by two bright blue eyes, two giant and happily glimmering orbs. She wore an unbuttoned green shirt with the sleeves rolled-up to her elbows, and a tank underneath, which must have been white at one point, but was only grayish now.
"Is your head still hurting?" she asked as she placed the bottle on the counter, and fetched the tube of aspirin.
It took a few seconds to Elsa to reengage her train of thoughts, but eventually she mumbled:
"Kind of..."
Her answer made the other girl smile. She poured a glass of water, place the white pallet inside and watched as millions of bubbles filled the water, turning it as white as paper.
"Here you go. You should sit, I feel like..."
She frowned lightly as she looked intensely to Elsa. While her platinum hair were still caught in a braid, it was far from neat, full of ruffled locks. Her icy blue eyes seemed lost, caught in an expression the redhead was all too familiar with.
"Let me guess? You drank too much last night, and now you can't recall a damn thing, am I right?"
Elsa's eyes grew in surprise, before a light blush colored her cheeks, showing off the light freckles under her eyes.
"I... How did you know?"
"Don't worry. You ain't the first girl I find the morning with memory loss after one beer too many."
She handed her the glass and sat in one of the booth. After a few seconds of hesitation, Elsa sat on the opposite side, her glass still untouched in her hand.
"You should drink. It'll help you remember, I'm sure."
Elsa looked hesitantly at the bubbling glass, and the redhead declared:
"Let's make a deal. You drink, and I tell you all about last night. What do you say?"
As Elsa turned back to the girl, their eyes met for a second. She had to blink multiple times to tear herself away from the still happy-looking girl in front of her. Finally, she took the glass to her mouth and drank. She ignored the acid taste of the medicine, and mostly enjoyed the fact that her thirst was quenched. Her swelled tongue seemed to be satisfied, and so was her sore throat. The girl on the other side of the table simply smiled.
"See, I told you you'd feel better afterward."
She stood and took the bottle, only to place it next to Elsa.
"Drink more if you need to. Are you hungry?"
Elsa watch her silently, marveling at how the girl took good care of her. She probably already had, the night before, when Elsa was too drunk to remember what was going on. The girl's chuckles took her out of her thoughts.
"It's funny. You were so much talkative while drunk."
"Hum... No, I'm not hungry. But thank you..."
Elsa struggled to find her words, even more than usual. While she had never been good with people, things seemed to be even worse with the redhead, as if Elsa unconsciously remembered how awkward things had been between them the night before. The girl grabbed a pack of cream filled cookies and set them on the table. Before she sat again, she poured another glass of water to Elsa.
"Drink. It'll help you with the hangover."
She sat back, and grabbed a cookie to munched on while the blond drank. Once the glass was empty and back on the table, the redhead swallowed what was left of her cookie and said:
"Good. Now, a promise is a promise, and I'll tell you about last night. Try to keep up, please. Oh, and by the way, my name is Merida. Try not to forget it this time."