Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen—it belongs to Disney.

Author's Note: Late again, sorry. Had more presents to wrap, family commitments, dragged off to see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (which cut into time that could've been spent writing, but I actually surprisingly enjoyed it), and a friend of mine was going through some emotionally heavy stuff. Still trying to catch up, though. This chapter is far shorter than what I envisioned it to be because of that.

Enjoy.


To This Day

Day 3 – Secret Santa


The moment Anna found out who she had as her Secret Santa, she knew that the whole thing had been nothing more than an elaborate setup.

"M-Merry Christmas, Anna."

…Nope, that couldn't be right. Elsa Mertens never stuttered over her words. Never. For as long as Anna had worked at the studio, Elsa always spoke clearly and precisely, like a beloved queen addressing her faithful subjects…which was somewhat accurate, considering she was both the lead programmer and lead designer for the team. An impressive achievement, considering she was a female in the industry, too. Probably the only people who outranked her in the studio's unofficial hierarchy was the Producer, Pabros Stendahl—"Grand Pabbie," on account of his grandfatherly treatment of everyone under his wing—and his associate, Kristoff Bjorgman.

Long story short, Elsa was amazing—top of the food chain, and staying there—and Anna was just a simple 3D modeler working under the tutelage of the veteran artists. In all honesty, her position was one step away from being the official 'coffee guy' who made the daily run to Starbucks for the team…which was what she did anyway, and really just made the whole situation that much more surreal.

While all of this went on in her head, the beautiful blonde in front of her held out the carefully wrapped present, face as impassive as ever, save for the faintest hint of pink on her pale cheeks, and the polite smile on her lips.

Her kissable lips, Anna's mind treacherously reminded her.

She regretted confessing her massive crush on the blonde to Olaf, her best friend. The little shit must have rigged the allegedly 'random' draw somehow, knowing that what Anna wanted above all for Christmas was to take Elsa out on a date somehow. Preferably in the near future. Preferably without rejection. Preferably with her feelings returned.

"Oh, wow! S-So you're my Secret Santa, huh?" Anna exclaimed as she finally took the present, hoping to all the gods out there that she didn't sound too nervous, and throwing a discrete glare at the black-haired programmer snickering in the background. She'd get her revenge on Olaf later….somehow.

Oddly enough, her best friend wasn't the only one in the room with a smug smile on their face.

The redhead felt the heat blossom across her cheeks as Elsa's smile turned uncharacteristically shy, biting her bottom lip ever so slightly with her perfect teeth. Anna mentally slapped herself. Of course she's your Secret Santa, you idiot! Why else would she be giving you a gift? And now you're making her all self-conscious, and—

"Aren't you going to open it?" Elsa's soft voice abruptly halted all other thoughts, sounding a little confused, and…uncertain?

"O-Oh, yeah! I was just, uh…you know, admiring the wrapping paper and all. Since I love snowmen," Anna blurted out, tearing her gaze away from the crystalline blue of the programmer's eyes to the present held in her hands. She drummed her fingers experimentally against the box, noting the hollow sound it made. "A-And it's really nicely done! I'd hate to ruin it, b-but then I wouldn't get to see the present, and hey, speaking of presents, w-wouldn't you like yours too? And then we could open ours together and holy shit, I didn't mean to imply that you'd—"

"Mine?" Elsa asked, tilting her head a little in further confusion, and nearly causing Anna's heart to rocket out of her chest with the adorable action.

"Y-Yeah, considering I'm your Secret Santa and so of course I'd—Crap, I shouldn't have said that," the animator babbled on, cheeks practically a tomato as she hastily leaned over to grab her present to Elsa off the nearby counter, "But, well, here it is! Your present! To you. From me. Uh…ha-ha, just…just me. Little ol' me. This present. To you."

Elsa's eyes were wide in surprise. Or…Anna hoped it was because of that, and not because of the gift practically shoved in her face.

Well, time to hand in my resignation, because there's no way I can face her again after today…

"It's not coffee, I swear!"

OHMYGOD. Just kill me now…Olaf, just come over here and finish the job you started!

Teal eyes flicked over to the programmer in question. His cheeks were a slight red from the effort of holding in his laughter, and there was the biggest shit-eating grin on his face…A look shared by the rest of her coworkers, apparently. The blood abruptly rushed away from her face in horror as realization set in.

Everyone had been in on it.

A small giggle immediately captured her attention once more, teal locking with an amused blue. Elsa carefully plucked the present out of Anna's hand, her smile brighter than any other smile Anna had ever seen on her, and the stiff shoulders she had been too nervous to notice before visibly relaxing.

"I should hope not," the blonde said as she cradled her gift closer to her, "I prefer hot chocolate to coffee, anyway."

I know.

"So…together, then?" Elsa suggested with a sultry arch of her eyebrow, smile turning into an equally-sultry smirk.

…Or at least that's how it looked to Anna's clearly perverted and increasingly shocked mind. Because really, there's no way that could happen. Not to her. And so the redheaded animator swallowed hard, managing a nervous smile as she nodded, not trusting herself to speak without completely messing things up for real this time.

She could almost feel the tension in the air as the others watched on expectantly, witnessing Anna give in to habit and tear away the snowman-patterned wrapping without further thought. Across from her, Elsa unwrapped hers with far less ferocity, but Anna barely noticed, too absorbed as she was in the gift she had reverently taken out of the box.

Elsa had gotten her the special collector's edition—all four seasons of The Legend of Korra on Blu-Ray, with never-before-seen artwork on the covers.

"H-How did—"

"—you know?" Elsa finished for her in an uncharacteristic squeak, looking equally awe-struck as she held the anniversary edition of the complete—yes, even the dialogue!—soundtrack for Wicked, along with two tickets to said musical.

The sheer amount of affection in those blue eyes certainly took her aback.

"Well, I asked Kristoff!"

"I asked Olaf!"

"B-Because it's not like I could just ask you what kind of stuff you like!" Anna said rapidly as her cheeks burned once more, partially hiding behind her gift. "I mean, to you, I'm probably just the coffee girl—"

"—and it's sort of hard with the schedule right now to just waltz down to your lab and get to know you," she vaguely heard Elsa babble on with equal speed, if not faster. "Considering the workload and the recent bugs we've had—"

"—and I mean, it's really crazy—"

"—so even if we don't talk as much as I'd like—"

"—you're just so perfect in everything you do, and gorgeous—"

"—adorable, and enough to brighten anyone's day, no matter—"

"—I'm just me, like how in the world could—"

"—didn't want to intimidate you if I—"

"Alright, enough!" Kristoff finally shouted, wildly waving his arms as he stomped up to them with Olaf fast on his heels. "Your gifts to each other are perfect! Yes, you wish you could spend more time, we get it! So will you please, for the love of God, just—"

"Kristoff, I think we should handle this a bit more delicately than that," Olaf suggested, interrupting the burly blond. The shit-eating grin had never once left his face.

"Olaf, I told you everything in confidence!" Anna took the moment to hiss, although it came across more as a whine. "You didn't have to rig the draw!"

Her best friend crossed his arms, looking pleased with himself. "Well I didn't rig it. Everyone else did…and I just went along. Because really, Anna…you two are sooooooo obvious, we couldn't stand it any longer and decided to intervene."

"It was driving me crazy!" Tadashi cried from somewhere.

"Kind of cute, seeing them skirt around each other—"

"—beginning to think they'd talk about it when I'm 60—"

"—wrote 'Elsanna', and she thought I misspelled 'El sauna'—"

"—both blushing whenever they leave each other—"

"—better still win the bet after this—"

Thoroughly embarrassed at what she was hearing all around the room, Anna gathered the courage to look at Elsa as the murmurs increased in volume. The blonde's face was red enough to probably rival her own, blue eyes pointedly trained on the tickets in her hand as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. She ran a thumb over the smooth surface, right over the seat location.

Anna swallowed hard, clutching her own gift closer to her chest, as if she could channel Korra's strength to say what needed to be said. "Elsa, I—"

"Go with me."

The redhead blinked in disbelief. She probably hadn't heard right.

"Wait, what?"

"Go with me," Elsa repeated a little louder, blue eyes meeting teal this time as she smiled shakily, cheeks still burning in embarrassment. "To see Wicked? I-I have an extra ticket, and since I really like you—"

"YES!" Anna nearly screamed, throwing her arms tightly around the blonde and surprising everyone else out of their heated conversations. She snuggled in further, giddy beyond measure when arms came up to pull her closer, and a face buried itself into her hair.

"D-Did one of them propose?!"

"Man, they work fast!"

"You idiot, one of them asked the other on a date!"

"Hah! Cough up the cash!"

"Nope, nope, not until they confirm it!"

"C-Can we just leave right now?" Anna mumbled into the alabaster skin of Elsa's neck, "Because I really like you too, and…these dorks won't leave us alone while we're here."

She felt a rumble as the blonde hummed thoughtfully, lips brushing against her ear and sending shivers down her spine. "What do you have in mind?" came that low, curious whisper.

"Probably curl up in a corner somewhere and hope the ground swallows me up with how embarrassing this all is. Or…we could marathon The Legend of Korra together? Put your gift to use until mine comes around next week?"

Anna felt Elsa pull away, and immediately missed her warmth. She needn't have worried, however, as the blonde's lips pressed against hers for the briefest of moments, so quick she wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen Elsa's shy smile afterwards, brimming with affection.

"Sounds perfect."

Anna didn't even notice the cheers and exclamations of "Finally!" erupting around them as she pulled Elsa down for a proper kiss this time.


Oh, I just want you for my own…

NEXT: Day 4 – No Peeking!


Author's Note: Sorry if I got depictions of a small video game studio wrong. I'm just going off of experience with class projects. Sort of. It's mostly guesswork, too. The idea behind this prompt was that the whole studio knows that Elsa and Anna have a thing for each other, and they're using the Secret Santa gift exchange to get these two dorks together. Originally a generic office AU before I decided to change it up into something I hadn't seen done yet.

Hopefully these prompts are amusing? I'm posting everything at once, so I don't know if you guys are actually enjoying them. Also, there is a reason why everything so far has been in Anna's POV. Also picked Mertens as Elsa's last name because…reference to my other fic? :3 Same with Grand Pabbie's.