"Anna, fix!"

Anna sighed, putting aside the book that she was reading (and couldn't really concentrate on anyway), and looked up at Elsa. "Oh," she said, suddenly serious.

Elsa had dragged Ingrid into Anna's room. She had seen Elsa be guilty, frightened, embarrassed, but she had never seen her distraught. Elsa's eyes, trembling on the verge of tears, pleaded for Anna's help.

Ingrid on the other hand had left the verge of tears far behind. She was bawling like a toddler, her face red and blotchy, and wet with tears and snot.

Anna jumped from her chair and dashed over to help. "Oh dear God, what is it?"

"Anna fix, please?" begged Elsa.

"I'll try," said Anna, examining the woman who until a few weeks ago had been a rescue greyhound. "Are you hurt? Did you hurt yourself? Are you sick?" She didn't see any blood or vomit. Or...oh shit, could Ingrid be menstruating? Ingrid was timid at the best of times, a human-style period would probably freak her out. "Is anything happening...um…"

"I am sorry. Everything is fine. I go now." Ingrid tried to leave, only to be yanked back by Elsa's unbreakable grip.

Anna put herself between Ingrid and the door. "Ingrid, please, it's going to be okay. I want to help, but I need to know what the problem is, okay?" She reached up to smooth Ingrid's hair but she flinched away from Anna's hand.

"Ingrid!" scolded Elsa. "Anna is good! Anna help!"

"...mad at me?" muttered Ingrid, her head bowed.

"No, of course not, honey. But I need to know what the trouble is."

"Sorry I made noise."

Anna clamped her mouth shut, hard. Ingrid's incessant apologizing was starting to frustrate her, but she knew snapping at Ingrid would only make it worse. She took the deepest, longest breath she could, blew it out slowly, and forced her jaw to relax. "Ingrid, hold still," she said as she went to grab a box of tissues.

Ingrid was standing paralyzed, taking the "hold still" instruction to heart.

Anna wiped Ingrid's face clean. Elsa hovered, wanting to help but not knowing how, quivering like a...well, like a frightened puppy. "There," said Anna. She pulled her office chair forward. "Now sit, and relax, and you can tell me all about it."

Ingrid sat, sniffling.

"Actually, could you blow your nose first?" Anna held out the box of tissues.

Ingrid pursed her lower lip and puffed air up at her nose.

"No, that's not…" While Anna put her free hand to her forehead, Elsa stepped up and took a tissue.

"Like me, see? Like me." Elsa held the tissue to her nose and blew it noisily.

Ingrid gently took a tissue from the box, held it to her own nose, and blew even louder than Elsa.

Anna used Elsa's relatively dry tissue to take Ingrid's sodden one and dropped them into the wastebasket. She hunkered down to meet Ingrid's eye level. "Now, what's the matter?"

Ingrid's mouth moved silently, but no words came. Anna looked over Ingrid's shoulder at Elsa.

The sparkle in Elsa's eyes was noticeably dimmed. "Man said mean things to her."

Ingrid wailed. "He said I was not nice to other peoples! He said I shouldn't be important like other peoples! He said I was oc! and ook! and I was too…" She waved her hands vaguely indicating, as far as Anna could tell, Ingrid's entire existence. "And I should just go away!"

Ook? thought Anna. Does she mean OOC? That doesn't even make sense. "Who said this, honey?"

Ingrid was too busy crying into her own hands to answer. Again, Anna looked to Elsa.

"Internet man," snarled Elsa.

"Who?"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Internet man! Man on the internet!"

Anna sighed, stretching her back as she stood up. At least it's nothing physical. Anna frowned. I'm still going to have to explain human periods to her. Then, thinking of how helpful Elsa had been in teaching Ingrid to blow her nose, Or I could delegate?

"Who was this man, anyway?"

"His name Guest," said Elsa.

Anna knitted her brow. "Guess?" Elsa looked at her with regal disdain. "Jess?"

"Gues-tuh. Guessss-tuh."

"Oh, Guest." Anna nodded. She stroked Ingrid's hair, and this time there was no flinching. "Ingrid, you can't let some clueless, anonymous, ill-tempered internet troll get to you. I'm glad you're here. Elsa's glad you're here." Elsa nodded emphatic agreement. "And I'm sure there are plenty of other people who like you, too, and who will like you when they get to know you. One miserable complainer who doesn't know what he's talking about doesn't even count."

Ingrid looked up at her in hopeful disbelief.

Remember who you're talking to, Anna. "You're a good girl, Ingrid. Good girl." She saw Ingrid's expression brighten. "Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl? Yes you are. Yes you are."

Ingrid bounced up out of her chair. She pointed to herself. "Good girl?"

Elsa joined in. "Ingrid a good girl. Best girl ever except for me and Anna."

Anna raised an eyebrow on Elsa's slightly self-serving compliment, but Ingrid took it at face value.

The two former pets were feeding off each other's energy, and Anna realized she may have overdone the pep talk. A thought came to her; an idea to distract Ingrid from falling back into misery and to burn off their excess energy.

"Ingrid, would you like to go for a run in the park?"

Ingrid stood straight and proud. "I will run for you."

"Thank you. But do you want to go for a run?"

Ingrid's brow knitted. "I am good at run. I am very fast."

"Yes, honey," said Anna, gently stroking Ingrid's back. "I want to know if you would enjoy it."

"I win," said Ingrid confidently. Her smile faded a bit. "Sometimes."

Uh oh. "Don't worry about that. We're going for a fun run." Anna knew that Elsa loved running in the park, and she counted on Elsa's energy to keep up Ingrid's spirits. "Elsa, can you help her get changed into running gear?"

"Yes." Elsa stood tall. "Elsa is very responsible." Anna smiled to herself as Elsa immediately lost her composure and led Ingrid to go change.

The three of them stood beside the track that circled the park, watching people go past: serious runners, Sunday joggers, couples ambling casually.

Anna patted Ingrid's shoulder. "So, Ingrid, looking forward to a nice run?"

Ingrid nodded once, her face impassive. "I can beat them."

"That's not really the point," said Anna. Elsa had been a handful when she first became human. She still was, sometimes. Going through all this again, but with Ingrid, was a whole different challenge.

Ingrid looked to Elsa. "When does the next race start?"

Elsa looked helplessly to Anna.

"It doesn't 'start'. You just run."

"No!" said Ingrid, hiding behind Elsa. "They have head start!"

"Ingrid, honey, this isn't a race. You don't have to beat anybody. Didn't you ever run just for the fun of it?"

Ingrid pursed her lips. "I...think so?"

"Well, that's what we're doing today."

"How do you know when to stop?"

"You stop when you're tired," said Anna. "Or when you don't want to run anymore or when you just don't feel like it or when you want to stop for any reason at all," she blurted, realizing that a determined Ingrid might insist she's not tired and run until she collapsed. "Elsa, tell her how you run."

"I run. I stop. I drink water. Maybe I run again. I stop again. Maybe…" She looked at Anna. "I have ice cream?"

Anna did the mental arithmetic of having to clean up a sticky-faced Elsa versus making her girl happy. "Mmmmmaybe. Maybe not. We'll see."

Ingrid looked at the ground, her brows furrowed, then looked up at Anna. "But...how do you know who winned?"

Anna forced herself to be patient. "It's just a run. There isn't a winner."

Ingrid's eyes widened. "Everybody lose?"

Anna looked at both of them. "Uh… no. Nobody lose. Loses. Nobody loses."

Ingrid looked to Elsa for confirmation. Elsa nodded and smiled. "Nobody loseses."

Ingrid's heart swelled with hopeful joy. "Everybody win?"

Anna shrugged, grinned. "Uh, yeah. I guess so. Everybody wins."

Once again she looked to Elsa. "Everybody win?"

Elsa took her hands. "Everybody win."

Ingrid literally jumped up and down with joy. "Everybody win! Everybody win! Everybody win! Everybody win! Fun run now!" She dashed to the path, then dashed back to see if Anna and Elsa were coming, dashed back to the path and bounced on the spot. "We go!" She took a step and stopped. "Or...maybe I don't want to run right now." She swung her arms back and forth, tasting the freedom. "La la la...okay I run now bye!" and she took off like a shot.

Elsa followed right after, keeping up with Ingrid for most of a lap.

Anna paced herself and didn't even try to come close to Ingrid's speed. After a lap and a half she slowed to a walk, then stopped to rest on the bench near where they started. Elsa had lapped her twice and wound up finishing about the same time, joining her on the bench and gratefully grabbing a bottle of water from Anna's bag.

Ingrid just kept going. At one point she ran past shouting "I am fast! But I don't have to be!" And then, triumphantly, "But I am!"

Anna watched Elsa smile fondly as Ingrid ran past, then realized the same smile was on her face as she watched Elsa.

This is my family, she thought. It's little, and - well, not broken, but seriously fucked up - but still good.

Ingrid came to a stop in front of them. "I win!"

"You win!" said Elsa, hugging her.

"And you win!" Ingrid said to Elsa. Anna hugged them both. "And Anna win! And everybody win!"

Yeah, thought Anna. Still good.

They walked back to Anna's apartment - they walked home - with Anna carrying her bag, Elsa wiping ice cream off her face, Ingrid letting the afternoon breeze dry the thin, sweat-soaked t-shirt through which her black sports bra was clearly visible.

"I was faster than anybody," said Ingrid.

"Yes, you were," said Anna.

"I was faster than you, and you, and everybody."

Anna smirked and said, "You're coming dangerously close to gloating." Ingrid looked frantically around herself, checking for the dangerous gloating that was coming close to her. "Never mind, Ingrid, never mind."

"But you win, and Elsa win, and everybody win. How?"

Anna watched Elsa as they walked along. How beautiful she was, how free and confident in her movement, how purely kind and happy she was. "Elsa wins by being the best at being Elsa."

"And Anna is best Anna ever!" confirmed Elsa.

"And everybody win by being best at being everybody?" asked Ingrid.

"I guess so."

Ingrid thought. "Even bad internet man?"

Oh shit, thought Anna. She frantically tried to come up with something that could be disapproving without breaking Ingrid's optimism.

But before she could, Elsa said, "He win at being a asshole!"

Anna choked down her laughter.

"He win big!" said Ingrid.

"Yeah!" said Elsa.

"He win so big," said Ingrid, "they put him out to stud, but no one breed with him because he a asshole!"

This time the guilty laughter burst out of Anna.

Author's Note: I hadn't really meant to write another chapter of this, but a recent review really inspired me.

Also I didn't get that reviewer's pronouns but for some reason I have a hunch I'm not far wrong.