A/N: Before we get started here, a few short notes. This is a complete story; a prologue and five chapters in all. They are fully written and edited, and the story will be posted over the next four or five days. You know, for torture purposes. BETA credit goes to my bestie.
Disclaimer: Frozen (and it's characters) is copyright to Disney.
Through Windows: Chapter I
Elsa had been so content with the idea of visiting Arendelle street that she hadn't bothered to put on her gloves, scarf, or hat (stashed away in the pockets of her coat) before taking off on her pale blue speed bike. After about five minutes of peddling into the snowy weather, she regretted it, and had to pull over, standing astride on her bike just off of the sidewalk as she fumbled to bundle up. She shivered for the first few minutes when she got going again, but soon enough her blood was pumping and she began to warm up. Her toolbox hanging over the handlebars rattled as she rode.
As the blonde made her way along the bumpy sidewalk, now properly wrapped up in a navy beanie, scarf pulled high to cover her mouth and nose, she spent her idle time taking in her surroundings. She didn't exactly live in the nicest part of town. In fact, in some ways, it bordered on a ghetto. The area was just a small portion of the town though, and full of life and passion despite (or because of) it's troubles. Arendelle street was the line between her home, and the more "friendly" (and rural) part of town.
Perhaps that was part of it's appeal to her. There was still life and love and passion there, which lacked in the upper part of town, but had the security that was lacking in her own environment.
By the time she reached paradise, spears of light were raining down from the breaching sun against a cloudy indigo sky, a sea of orange pouring out at the edge of the horizon. She slowed to a stop, stepping down off the pedals and over the top rail. Now that she had been going for a while, she was actually a bit too warm, so she lowered and loosened her scarf, tugging the zipper of her coat down a few inches from her neck.
God, that air felt good. Today felt good. She was experiencing more than her usual elation at having the wee hours of the morning to her own thoughts and devices, though she wasn't sure why. She lingered for a moment more, those deep pools of blue scanning along the quiet storefronts, then began walking alongside her bike. As she meandered toward the first display, she balanced her bike with one hand, using the other to check her phone for the time. Six-fifty-five. That gave her twenty minutes or so to browse before needing to head off again.
"Perfect," she mentally recited for the second time that morning.
The first store was a coffee shop, and Elsa paused to look inside; the lights were already on, a young man giving the tables a quick wipe down with a cloth. She couldn't be sure, of course, but she liked to think he was humming as he smiled to himself, probably a humble man who enjoyed his work. That seemed to be the standard for the people who lived and worked here.
The blonde took her time as she continued up the sidewalk, stopping for a minute or two here and there to observe the displays, and people watch as the various stores began to open (or prepared to open). The majority of the shops had an upper floor, commonly occupied by said shops' owners, but still, Arendelle managed to be a fairly busy road. A few cars rolled by every few minutes, and the number of pedestrians on the walkway began to grow as the morning started to come to life.
It was as she was nearing the third building to the end that she realized it had a new sign over it. She stopped out front of the store, tilting her head back to look up at the name, reading it to herself in a quiet voice.
"Thrifty Things?"
"Ah. That's right," she recalled. She had seen a moving van out front of this place last week, though she had been on the other side of the street, on her way home.
Her gaze turned to the display window, closing the few steps distance from the storefront to the glass. The display itself was not particularly amazing, though it was interesting. A dress hanging on a mannequin with a few books propped around the base. A record player. A lava lamp. Okay, so it was a bit random.
It was just as Elsa was about to let her attention drift away and back to the road ahead that something caught her eye inside the shop. Looking in and towards the door, she saw the checkout desk and register. It was the girl perched behind the checkout counter that had drawn her gaze, however. The blonde furrowed her brow a bit as she leaned to the left just slightly for a better look.
The girl in question, copper locks held high in a ponytail, looked somewhere between bored and pleased. "Happy to be bored, maybe?" She was leaning forward on the checkout from a stool that stood higher than the counter itself, propped on her elbows. The posture left her back curved, and with her head resting on one hand, she appeared to be flipping through the pages of a magazine with the other.
The girl tipped the chair back slightly on it's rear legs, causing the curvature of her backside to stand out.
"Huh," Elsa thought dumbly, "that's new."
It took a moment to register that she was experiencing something entirely foreign to her. Wait, wait, wait... what was she just thinking to herself? Before she could interrogate herself further, the redheads gaze snapped up, looking straight through the window display and right at Elsa.
The pale woman was suddenly feeling rather suffocated. Elsa could clearly make out a smattering of freckles across the girls nose and cheeks, eyes of aqua sending her careening through a tidal wave of emotions both alien and familiar. The girls smile reached her eyes before it met her lips, and she sat up a little straighter, beginning to lift a hand to wave.
A large man in a business suit walked between Elsa and the glass.
The smile fell from the girls face, replaced with a visage of melancholy disappointment, hand lowering to rest on her magazine. The blonde had disappeared.
Elsa had used the opportunity to ninja herself just out of sight, around the corner of the building. Clutching the handlebars of her bike tightly, she pressed back against the red brick wall, eyes wide as she attempted to catch her breath. Her heart felt like it was in her tongue, fearing she might choke on it as it hammered away with ferocity. It felt like hot water was being poured into her neck to pool in her head; sure, her cheeks had been warm from the ride and the cold air, but now they were positively scorching.
The woman had never been one to examine her emotions too deeply, too intimately. Casual and aloof. She liked casual and aloof. There were many other things she knew she liked; riding her bike, the cold, the snow, Arendelle street. She had felt the joy of all of those things coursing through her when the redhead had looked at her, and more. It was so familiar, but also felt so far away. So strange.
Elsa decidedly did not like whatever it was that had just happened to her back there.
Finally collecting herself, she hopped back on her bike and rode over the curb of the walkway, then sped away to her job. She was probably late.
