A/N: Thank you kindly for the follows and reviews, it means a lot!
Welcome back, enjoy chapter 2 :)
"Elsaaa!"
Groggy blue eyes bolted open, vision blurred and light making them throb. That sound was entirely too close to her ear. Not that it was unwelcome, just rather startling. Fighting the sleep away, Elsa turned in her bed. "Anna, what time is it?" She noticed her door still wide open in the background. Her sister was crouched right next to her bed such that they were face to face.
"That's not important, what is important is that we should watch a movie today!" She pointed her finger at the ceiling to punctuate herself.
Elsa playfully rolled her eyes and checked the time on her phone. It wasn't too early. "What movie do you want to see?"
Anna had her answer coiled and ready for attack. It was a brand new movie.
A jolt of cold flushed down the elder's chest, followed by some kind of wiggling fuzz. She placidly smiled, sitting up now. Her blanket slid off, leaving her in just her sky blue, light sleeping gown. "I'd love to." A date. No no, wait, just quality time with her sister. A sister date? That wasn't a thing, was it? It was now.
"Great! It starts in two hours, get ready."
Elsa's eyes widened. She hardly noticed Anna leave as she hurriedly began to get ready. Teeth? Check. Shower? Check. Hair? One very time consuming check. She was just putting the finishing touches on her platinum braid when Anna re-appeared. Some summer sandals and a light, breathing dress that came down just passed mid-thigh. Freckles draped along Anna's smooth, tan legs. Well, they were at least tan in comparison to Elsa's porcelain-colored legs. Anna could at least get somewhat of a tan, as light as it was. Elsa, on the other hand, never seemed to tan, or burn, no matter how much she was in the sun. She wondered if that had something to do with her capabilities. It must, right?
Her sister's strawberry hair has pulled into two, neat twin braids. A few strands that stood out winded their way through, sporting the exact same color as Elsa's own hair.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Elsa grinned. "Lead the way."
Anna nodded with her lips perched happily. She grabbed her elder's hand and lead merrily along. Her palms were warm, in stark contrast to Elsa's own extremities, but matching rather nicely with how her heart felt. Elsa's feet felt light on the ground. The way Anna moved sort of reminded Elsa of how a bubble dances through water.
The theater was comfortable. The air pleasantly surrounded Elsa's wintry skin. It was quiet, her and Anna were able to get a fairly secluded seat. After all, it was only mid-day. A titanic popcorn bucket sat on her lap, filling the air with a crisp, buttery smell, which blithely snaked its way into Elsa's nose. She breathed it in deeply. Cozy as can be.
"Brrr, it's freezing in here!" Anna had her arms hugging around herself, fighting tooth and nail against the chilly air.
Elsa chuckled. "I can make it colder if you like," she teased, holding up her hand. Joking about her… uniqueness always made her feel a little odd. Like there was something in her stomach that just wouldn't sit still. But with Anna, that was something she could look past. Did she accidentally make the place cooler when she said that?
Anna's face expanded to a gaping mouth and eyes. She sat straight, locking on to Elsa like a missile. "Don't you even dare, don't you even start to begin to dare!" Her voice was feathery yet carried all the precious concern that it needed to.
"I'm going to do it," Elsa challenged.
A much louder laugh from her sister. "Don't. You. Dare!"
"Oh, but I do dare." A pale hand lowered towards its lap, as if it's position would control the air temperature.
Anna's mouth jutted open, then shut, then open. She was stuck between bawling in laughter and complete disbelief. "Why you little! I'll just have to hug you to stay warm!"
She did, suddenly, tightly, and somewhat aggressively. Elsa immediately stopped, mostly because she was caught so off guard. Her mind drew a blank for several seconds, seriously putting a damper on her wittiness. She could feel the powerful, rhythmic presto beat of her heart. "I- you- you're just gonna stay there for the whole movie?"
"Yup," Anna nodded against her sister's shoulder.
"Well," Elsa replied, slowly gaining back her train of thought and motor skills. "I suppose I can keep you warm."
"Good, you'd better," the redhead said, snuggling in a little bit closer. Gingerly, Elsa reached her arm around two freckled shoulders and leaned back in her seat. Her hand hovered for a moment. As if Anna was made of some kind of acid. Well, not like that. Like Anna- like Anna would what? Like she'd not want Elsa's hand on her shoulder? Elsa shook her head as if it'd shake the thoughts away. She gently, testingly rested her hand down. When Anna didn't so much as flinch, she rooted it on the shoulder of a very soft dress. "And I'm keeping you warm." The voice was almost a whisper.
Elsa's heart skipped a beat. "Huh?"
Anna raised her head just enough to meet the icy blue eyes above her. In the dark, it was impossible to tell that she had so many freckles, or that her eyes were such a fascinating mix of blue and green. "Every time I hug you, you get warm. Not that that's a bad thing! It's a good thing. Like your skin, it's always so cold when I first touch it, but then it's like a layer of ice melting away. Then, you're like a heater!"
Elsa's heart was pounding hard. She wasn't actually sure if she could hear anymore. Her jaw was slack, hanging dumbly. She didn't know what to say. She'd forgotten how to speak, anyway. Was her temperature changing against Anna right now? The anxious pit in her stomach, did that make her so cold? Or the butterflies flying in her gut, did those warm her up? Those peaceful, loving, fuzzy creatures that seemed so prevalent when Anna was around.
Met with silence, Anna simply rested her head back down, right on Elsa's bosom. "I always just took it as proof that you love me," Anna stated matter-of-factly.
"I- I do" was all the older sibling could manage. She was painfully aware of where a certain freckled cheek was perched: barely not on her breast. Stiff, she pretended to relax. The room was no longer nice and cold. It was actually quite hot now.
She felt Anna smile.
"Phew, I'm hungry!"
"How?" Elsa raised her eyebrow. "You just ate a giant thing of popcorn." The sun seared her eyes as they exited the theater.
"I can't just eat popcorn, I need something like actual real food, too," Anna insisted.
She had a good point, popcorn wasn't a meal by any stretch. "Your stomach is like a bottomless pit, you know. But I'm quite hungry, too. Where do you want to eat?"
"Let's get ice cream!" Anna chirped cheerfully.
Elsa stopped dead in her tracks, finding her words. "Ice cream isn't a meal either, Anna."
"Yes, but it is delicious."
"You're ridiculous," Elsa laughed with a happy roll of her eyes.
"You're ridiculous-er because you're gonna listen to my ridiculousness." This was said
with an all-to-proud expression. Cocked eyebrow, crossed arms, and everything.
Did the air around her change when Elsa's cheeks turned pink as a rose petal like that? If it did, Anna didn't seem to notice. "How could I ever argue with logic like that?"
"I don't know," Anna said as she placed herself in the passenger's seat. "I'm the logical-est. That's a word, right? If not, it is now."
Elsa just giggled. Logic-shmogic. She was going to obey Anna no matter what, she was powerless not to. Not that that was a bad thing, though it did sometimes end in one or both of them getting injured or in trouble. Neither of these were a possible outcome here. A tummy ache was manageable. At least, that's how the elder justified their unjustified choice for lunch.
Over ice cream, Anna was quiet for most of the meal. Odd, but it was uncharacteristic of Elsa to break the surface of such a silent pool of discussion. So, she licked at her melting cup of vanilla ice cream.
It's not that Anna wasn't talking at all, but her comments were brief. Her conversation wasn't filling the air over the soft music playing at the store. Plus, she'd barely touched her dessert. Or dinner. Or both? Dinsert? That was weird. Liquid ice cream dripped down the sides of the younger's strawberry dinsert, pooling at the bottom of her cup. A quiet Anna was often an eating Anna, but a quiet Anna that was not eating was a thinking Anna. Elsa wanted to know what Anna was thinking.
Her heart felt low as she tried to pipe up. There was something catching her words in her throat, but she managed to squeeze them by, with some effort. "Anna?"
"That's me." She threw out a meek, unconfident response, matched with an equally unsure smirk. Like she was trying to commit to her little quip, but couldn't. Now that was bizarre. Anna didn't get nervous.
"Are you- is anything on your mind?" Elsa's hands raised off of the table a little, as if it'd offset the almost certainly lowering temperature.
"Yeah I'm- there is- I'll tell you, but first could- can you fix that?" She pointed to her ever-liquifying bowl of ice cream.
Perplexed, Elsa nodded. She focused on the ice cream. This would have been a no-brainer under normal circumstances, but her mind was still trying to work out her sister's head. She raised her fingertips, opening her hands and aiming at Anna's dinsert. But it was hard with her mind hopping tracks. Sure, she made the ice cream refreeze, but she also noticed Anna's now visible breath. Elsa sighed. Shakily, she said "o-okay that's the best I can do."
A satisfied smile crept to Anna's mouth nonetheless, and seemed to breathe confidence into her. She sat a little straighter. "You- we- me and you- should practice!"
Elsa raised an eyebrow for the second time that day. "Practice what?"
"That!" Anna jabbed her finger at the now frozen solid dairy. "Your gift! So you can- so you can control it better, to use it even better, so you're confident with it!"
Elsa's heart stopped. Like dead stop. Like straight into a brick wall stopped. If her brain was a computer, its circuitry would have shorted. The only reaction she was able to give was the subconscious, rapid blinking of her eyes. Was it really that crazy of a suggestion? Or that unexpected? Or both? Elsa didn't know, and her heart sure didn't want to come out of her stomach. She looked briefly at the white streak in Anna's hair. Dread rose like cold water in the pit of her being. It felt like her stomach was digesting itself. She averted her gaze.
Eventually, a word swirled into her mind. "No."
"Great! We can start little, like maybe just- wait, what?" Now it was her turn to be rendered speechless. The marked drop in Anna's shoulders, the lamenting slouch in her back, and the crestfallen confusion in her eyes made Elsa feel physically sick.
"I- I said no, Anna." Elsa was a little disappointed in her voice. It's wild vacillation made it sound as un-confident as she actually was.
Anna picked up on that. She leaned in, her voice becoming a little shrill. "Why not?"
"Because I- I can't."
"Sure you can, you can control it sometimes," Anna pointed at her ice cream. "So you can get better at it, if we focus."
"I can't, Anna, I just- I just can't." Elsa's breath evaded her.
"Yes, you can, Elsa!"
"I don't want to." Elsa hunched into a defensive position.
"Why not?" Anna took her elder's change in posture as an opportunity to square up, controlling the field.
"Because," Elsa forced her mind not to run to the past. She closed her eyes, which now felt a little hot. "Because I- because I-"
"Because why?" Prying, confused, curious. Those were the three sounds in Anna's voice.
She wanted to, desperately, but she couldn't tell her. Or did she? Elsa couldn't even read the mess of feelings pitting her stomach like a cherry. She wanted to tell Anna, but she couldn't. So, she haggled with herself. Vagueness, a welcome compromise. "Because I'm scared!"
Anna's response came fast, like she expected that. Her voice was softer now, intimate almost, and she leaned in and grabbed Elsa's frigid hands. Her breath billowed like clouds out of her mouth when she spoke. "I know you are. But," then a longer pause, "but the more we practice, and the more you learn about it, the less scared you'll be. I promise."
That was perhaps the most genuine thing Anna had ever said. Her promise. Her eyes looked so deeply into Elsa, so purposefully, but not analytically. She wasn't trying to see why Elsa was scared, she was simply being there for Elsa.
Love. That's what Anna was looking at her with. It felt safe, it felt comforting like home should feel. Elsa took a deep, long, wavering breath. "Okay, but what about-"
"Dad will never have to know."
Elsa nodded and gulped. Her heart was feeling lighter.
"We can practice in your room when he's not home. There's no way I'll ever let him find out." Anna's confidence and care made her words more than a promise. It made them a fact. That was one problem taken care of.
"I don't know," she mumbled.
"Please, Elsa." Her breath billowed.
"Anna, I-"
"It'll be fun," her voice was louder, more chipper now. "Just you and I, working together."
Elsa's ears perked up. When Anna put it that way… "okay." She wondered how long it'd be before she regretted saying that.
"Great!" Mellifluous and overjoyed. "We can start tonight!"
WHAT!?
A/N: The first lessons in chapter 3, you ask? Why yes, yes indeed. I hope you've liked it so far, I'll see you back soon :D
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