"You have a nice basement."
Anna paces around the vast -completely finished and fully furnished and decorated- space, impressed by each new feature she discovers. Elsa can't help but secretly smile to herself as she desperately tries to lose herself in her work once again.
"Thank you," she states, finally, hoping she can regain control of her concentration if she addresses the stranger in her house at least once.
Anna continues talking, her pursuit of keeping this conversation going is relentless. "So, what are you working on?" she asks, her voice laced with genuine interest.
"A case," Elsa says, quickly, hoping the strawberry-blonde gets the hint that she isn't quite in the mood for talking.
Of course, that isn't entirely true. Elsa sort of wants to engage in a conversation with the woman but at some point in her life she managed to replace every ounce of small-talking skills with court room terms and legal jargon.
Even though Elsa all but dismissed her, Anna's eyes still light up at the short response. "Like a lawyer case?" she chirps.
"Yes," Elsa blurts, her voice clipped. She was attempting to sound less interested in the conversation than she did before -if that was even possible- but she realizes it might have just come out as rude.
Elsa lifts her head to apologize, but Anna doesn't miss a beat, asking her next question. "What's it about?"
"Can't tell you that," Elsa smiles, amused by Anna's curiosity.
The strawberry-blonde pokes out her lip -adorably, Elsa notes- before placing her hands on her hips. "Sure you can. I won't tell anyone." She holds up two fingers. "Scout's honor."
"I'm sure you won't," Elsa smiles, looking back down at her work. "And scout's honor is three fingers."
"Okay…," Anna groans. "I'm just trying to lighten up the mood. I mean we don't know how much time we'll have to spend down here, and I thought talking would help pass the time."
Anna silently sits down on the basement sofa and starts fiddling with her hands. Elsa looks up from her work, feeling guilty about the exchange that just happened between them.
She takes in a deep breath and runs a hand through her hair. "I'll tell you what," she starts, causing Anna to look up. "You get three chances to try and sell me that makeup. Only three. Think long and hard about it. It has to be convincing."
Anna's face lights up again and she jumps from the sofa and runs over to the table where Elsa is sitting. "Okay, well it's really nice makeup, like I've used it and I think it's great. It can make you beauti-fuller," she lets out a small giggle, before her eyes widen. "W-well not fuller," she stutters, "-but more beauti-"
"First attempt failed," Elsa states, matter-of-factly, looking back down at her work.
"Wait, no. That doesn't count," Anna blurts, holding out a hand.
"Why not?" Elsa asks, fighting the urge to laugh. Anna is just too damn adorable.
"Just give me a second chance," Anna pleads.
Elsa looks up, but looks down immediately, realizing her mistake. She can't manage to stare into Anna's big teal eyes, and stay strong at the same time. "You do get a second chance," she says, "-and a third one."
"I meant a second first chance," Anna pleads, again, her voice almost a whine.
Elsa looks up with a smirk, finding this situation impossibly cute. "Well you can call your second chance your 'second first chance' and your third chance your 'third first chance'... If that makes you feel better."
Anna's eyes harden and she places her hands on her hips again. "How do I know you'll stick to your word? Lawyers are tricky people," she states, sassily looking away from Elsa. "You probably worded it in a way that you don't have to actually buy anything."
"There are no loop holes here," Elsa laughs. "If you can sell that makeup to me, then I will honestly buy it."
"Okay."
Anna turns and starts to slowly walk away. Elsa looks back down at her work and sighs. "So," Anna starts, causing Elsa to look back up. "Where did you go to college?"
Elsa looks back down, bringing up a hand to massage her temples. She grabs a pencil off the table, hoping that marking the sheet will help direct her attention. "I went to Harvard for Law school, Yale for undergrad."
"Oh," Anna breathes. "I went to community college. Got an Associates Degree in business."
"Any college is good," Elsa says, looking up to Anna with a reassuring smile. "Why business?"
"I took one of those career aptitude tests, and apparently I have a knack for selling things. Isn't it obvious?" Anna laughs, sardonically.
Elsa opens her mouth to speak, but closes it, feeling bad about the way she's been acting. The truth of the matter is that she intended on buying something from Anna, whether the strawberry-blonde succeeded in selling it to her or not.
"I'm sure you're great at selling things," Elsa finally says, "-you probably just need to get into the groove of things. Consider our little exercise a test. You're getting some practice."
"Does that mean I get more chances?" Anna smiles.
"No," Elsa says, flatly, "-you have two left. Use them wisely. What good would unlimited chances do you? I want to push you. Think outside of the box."
Anna nods and walks away, halting the conversation. Elsa looks down at her work, glad that she finally has some time to get back to her tasks.
She finds that her attention is equally as torn even when the conversation isn't going. Part of her wants to continue talking to Anna, but the other part keeps reminding her that she hates to lose.
After fifteen minutes of working, Elsa is finally getting back into her concentrated zone when she hears a loud THUD!
She looks up from her work to find Anna climbing off the floor, clutching her head, a small trickle of blood making it's way down her forehead. Elsa's eyes widen. "What the hell happened?" she exclaims.
Anna shrugs. "I tried to jump and do the pose that the lady is doing in that painting, but I fell."
"Shit," Elsa breathes, "Are you okay?"
Anna shrugs again, her eyes starting to water. "I hit my head on that thing, I think."
Elsa quickly leaves the table and runs to Anna's side, guiding her to the sofa. "Hey, you sit down and I'll go upstairs to get the first aid kit."
"No," Anna whispers. "Stay down here. There's a storm. I'll be fine."
Elsa lets out an exasperated breath. "Calm down. I'll be quick."
She then glides from the sofa to the basement stairs and heads up toward the main level. When she makes it to the top she laughs to herself, considering she's willing to leave a perfect stranger alone in her house.
But she's cute, her mind interrupts, and she laughs again. This isn't the time where she needs to stop thinking with her head.
She makes her way to the downstairs bathroom, but the first aid kit isn't there. She can't find it in the kitchen, either. After five minutes of searching she pauses to try and figure out where it could be.
Where would I put it? I thought it was in the bathroom. Her eyes widen. "Ohhh," she whispers, "-upstairs bathroom. Get it together, Els."
Elsa climbs the stairs and turns right, heading toward the upstairs bathroom. When she makes it there she enters and opens the closet- the first aid kit right in front of her.
She smiles to herself as she reaches forward, but there is a loud clack of thunder, followed by every light in the house shutting off. Shit, this is just great.
Elsa continues to reach forward, feeling around for the kit. Her hand finally lands on it, and she pulls it to herself, turning to make her way through the house without sight.
She feels her way toward the steps before descending carefully and slowly. She prepares to turn toward the basement, but decides it's probably best to grab a flashlight, so she makes her way toward the kitchen instead.
She places the first aid kit on the kitchen counter as she prepares to do the extensive search of blindly looking through drawers for a flashlight but, luckily for her, she finds it on her first try.
She then grabs the first aid kit and begins to feel her way through the house again. Half way through the living area she realizes that she just got a flashlight from the kitchen.
Elsa laughs to herself, again, as she reaches to turn on the flash light- but she feels a hand grab on to her arm.
"Shit!" she yells pushing the offending body off of her with as much strength as possible.
The intruder hits the floor and Elsa prepares to run, but a small voice speaks up. "Hey, E-Elsa, it's me... Anna."
Elsa stops, her heart pounding, and turns on the flashlight. She then flashes it down at the woman on the floor. "What the hell are you doing up here? I told you to stay on that sofa."
"You were taking a really long time," Anna says, softly, visibly afraid, "-th-then the lights went out and I thought maybe you got hurt, so I came to g-get-" Her voice catches and she sounds as if she's going to cry.
Elsa's heart sinks a little, realizing that this day probably isn't going that well for Anna. The strawberry-blonde hadn't sold anything, and then she got stuck in a stranger's house -who had just shoved her to the floor- during a storm.
Elsa points the flashlight away from Anna's face and extends a hand. "Here, let me help you up. I thought you were an intruder. I'm sorry I pushed you."
Anna takes Elsa's hand and lifts herself from the floor. "It's okay," she whispers, "-I'd be on edge too if there was some random stranger in my house… I'm pretty harmless, though, honestly," she finishes, straightening her clothes.
Elsa smiles, grabbing on to the shorter woman's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Come on," she urges, "lets get back downstairs so we can get you fixed up."