How she had gotten herself into this situation, she didn't know.
Sitting on a wooden stool in the middle of a hidden tower, with a chameleon on her left shoulder and a hairbrush in her right hand; in the company of a mystery girl with enough hair to cover the palace grounds.
It doesn't even warrant thinking about.
To anyone else, the situation might have seemed funny. To Elsa, it was downright baffling. Why on earth she was raking giant, arm length brushes through as much as she could hold of the blonde's damn hair was beyond her. Still, she ploughed on, although her patience was starting to dwindle.
She felt movement on her shoulder as her newfound reptilian friend stretched his neck down to assess her work. Seemingly satisfied, he nodded to Rapunzel before propping himself comfortably back on Elsa and settling down, eyes fixed on his best friend expectantly.
"Ready?" Rapunzel smiled.
"Ummm… Yes? Though I'm not sure what for." Elsa replied, casting an apprehensive glance at the newly brushed waves splayed across the floor.
"Don't worry." The younger girl winked. "You'll see." She picked up a bundle of blonde and dumped it onto Elsa's lap, ignoring her bemused face.
She cleared her throat and sat up straight. Just as Elsa didn't think things could get any stranger…
"Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine.."
Is she singing?
"Make the clock reverse-"
She's singing.
"-Bring back what once was mine."
Oh god.
Blushing profusely and feeling extremely awkward Elsa looked down, and the air promptly left her lungs. Rapunzel's hair had begun to glow. Elsa's mouth fell open as she gawked at it, the bright golden light coursing brilliantly through each and every strand until the entire room was ablaze. Her gormless expression did not go unnoticed by the other girl, who's lips pulled up into a smirk as she continued her chant.
"Heal what has been hurt, change the fates design."
Faint recognition sparked somewhere in Elsa's brain.. She had heard those words before.
"Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine.. What once was mine." Rapunzel finished her incantation, raising a smug eyebrow at her stunned companion.
"Try and freeze me now, ice queen."
Elsa blinked a few times. "Wait – what?"
"I'm serious." Rapunzel replied, wrapping a handful of hair around her wrist a few times. She was pretty confident she could manage without it if she channelled her abilities to the right spot, but she wasn't entirely thrilled by the idea of losing a few fingers to frostbite if she was wrong. She looped it round once more, just in case.
Extending her now safely covered arm toward the Queen, she opened her hand and waited for the other woman to take it.
"Go ahead." She smiled encouragingly.
Elsa's insides churned as she eyed the hand, but the illuminating force behind it remained strong, light still burning brightly over outstretched fingers. Seeing this helped to quash some of her apprehension, and she found herself responding. Reaching out slowly, she forced her mind into focus as her hand hovered over the other girl's, hesitating. She took a deep breath, and Rapunzel had to stop herself inhaling sharply as a cool hand met her own.
She frowned as she realised the other girl was trembling, and if she hadn't have been focused on her so attentively she would have missed the whisper that escaped her lips.
"Conceal. Don't feel."
Rapunzel tightened her grip and ducked her head to meet worried blue eyes.
"No…Don't conceal, focus… Feel, but direct it. Control it. You can do it."
The younger girl's words rung in her ears as Elsa turned, directing her gaze to their connection. Eyes narrowing, she felt that all familiar sensation course through her veins as she allowed a small flow of frost to surge through her fingertips, expecting to hear the crackling of it encasing Rapunzel's skin, for her to yank her hand away at any minute.
To her amazement, the girl giggled.
"It tickles." She stated brightly as they both watched absolutely nothing happen to her hand. They could feel it remaining perfectly warm.
Elsa couldn't help but feel dubious still.
"I'm not really trying all that hard.." She explained, feeling rather silly at the girl's expression. "I don't want to hurt you."
Rapunzel raised her eyebrows. "Where's the fun in that?"
"What if it goes wr-"
"Then I'm entirely to blame. But for now it's fine, so what's the worry? If it helps, you can build it up slowly. But I'm telling you there's no need." She flashed a coy smile. "I can handle it."
Ignoring the feeling in the pit of her stomach that smile ignited, Elsa just rolled her eyes in the hopes she wouldn't notice.
"Fine." She huffed. "But get ready."
Rapunzel grinned. "Ooh, I do love a challenge. Give me your best shot."
Something about the girl's playful tone awoke a rather strong competitive streak in Elsa that she thought had died long ago. Spurred on by the blonde's confidence, she loosened her restraint a little more, allowing a slightly more potent surge of ice to course through. She wasn't sure if or even how Rapunzel could feel it, but apparently she did, because her answer was another grin.
"Is that all you got?"
Elsa shook her head. Her scepticism was quickly being replaced by hope as she pushed harder and harder, but still she saw… Nothing. Everything felt normal, there was no physical block she was aware of – but the only indication her powers were even active was the slight tinge of white around her fingertips and the increasing temperature drop in the room. Pascal had long since left to find warmth, something he could burrow under and continue to watch - but if Rapunzel had felt it at all, she wasn't showing it.
Gripping her harder, Elsa felt the other girl tense as she amplified her assault. She was driving enough power now to do some serious damage, and anyone else would have been a block of ice by now; yet the only visible sign of discomfort Rapunzel emitted was a slight twinge of a muscle as she clenched her jaw.
The window shutters suddenly burst open as the wind roared in around them, only seconds later to be followed by hail and snow, which proceeded to swirl round the room at a growing speed, splattering against the walls and pinging off of objects that stood in the way.
Rapunzel grunted in discomfort as her energy began to leave her. The originally powerful blaze of her hair was dying down to only a dull light. Having only ever used her powers for Mother, she was beginning to feel under too much strain, and tiring quickly the more the other girl picked up her onslaught. As much as she didn't want to deter Elsa, she knew this would be a work in progress.
She gritted her teeth as discomfort turned to pain, and her hand and wrist began to grow cold. Very cold. Unbelievably Elsa's power only continued, escalating even higher still, reaching a level that her own powers could no longer match. That was it. It was too much, she had given everything.
Enough now.
"Elsa…" It was said softly, but it was all the warning the other girl needed. As suddenly as the weather attack had started, it stopped. Hail halting mid-air and falling to the floor as the wind all but evaporated, and the assaulting hand was withdrawn in an instant as the older girl regarded her with wide eyes.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you? Was it too much? I got so carried away – too carried away, I can't let that happen again, I should never have done it in the first place I-"
"You're babbling." The blonde giggled, rubbing her wrist. Her brief inspection alerted her to no initial damage or visible marks, everything was intact and functioning, which she deemed to be extremely good results.
"I'm okay! Honestly I'm fine. Just out of… What would you even call it? Out of shape?"
"I- I'm not sure.."
The younger girl shrugged. "That will have to do. So I'm out of shape. Not damaged though. Look!"
Freeing her wrist of the now unlit hair she waved her hand excitedly at the other girl.
Elsa chuckled. "Hold still, I can't see."
Once the request was obliged she surveyed the seemingly unaffected hand, scrutinizing it for even the smallest signs of damage. But there was nothing. Unable to stop the smile erupting on her face, she exclaimed in glee.
"It's fine! It's normal!" She laughed, taking the hand between her own. "It feels warm!"
Rapunzel felt her own smile grow at the sight of the other girl's joyful excitement. She let her hand rest where it was. Elsa's hands were still cold, but she found that she liked it. Then again, the only other hand she'd had to compare it to was Mother's, and she couldn't even remember the last time they had held hands, or even touched unless it was to brush her hair. From what little dusty memories she could drag up from the back of her memory somewhere however, she believed their temperatures had matched. Unlike Elsa's, which was cooling against her own, and it felt comfortable in a way that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Looking up from the hands that now seemed content to just cradle her own she was met with the beaming face of their owner, and she couldn't help but mirror the expression.
"Soooo what did you think? Good huh?"
"Good? Good? Rapunzel I – how did you do that? I've never even seen anything like – that was… It was... You're amazing."
Rapunzel's chest tightened at the other girl's words. No one had ever said anything remotely kind about her before, let alone dubbed her with such a grand title as 'amazing.' Mother would probably laugh if she told her.
"I am?" The question was posed with nervous doubt, and Elsa caught a brief sense of her own self-consciousness reflected in it.
"Are you joking? Rapunzel – yes! What you just did was like nothing I've ever known.. You've got an incredible gift! Surely you must know this? And I mean… Just look at you! Look at this place!"
Her eyes shone with determination as she spoke, desperate to convey some sense of belief into the younger girl.
"You survive here all by yourself, with nothing but books as your main source of company? And yet from this one evening I've already seen what a genuinely wonderful person you are. How can you be so.. So gentle, so kind and so good, when there's not a single soul that has been around to teach you that? You talk about yourself like you're nothing, but you're not. You're funny, you're smart, and so far you're the only person in about nine years to have shown the slightest interest in my mundane life, as well as helping me? Rapunzel – you could have risked your life with that, yet you agree to help a stranger for nothing in return.. So yes, that makes you amazing. You're amazing, and you're beautiful, and you're-"
The radiant blush erupted on her cheeks like a volcano upon realising her slip up, effectively cutting her speech short. She coughed lightly, suddenly fully aware that she was still holding the younger girl's hand. Resisting the urge to drop it like a hot coal at her own embarrassment, she fumbled.
"That's umm.. That's all I wanted to say really I err.. I hope.. Never mind."
Idiot.
Rapunzel sat back with a puff of air, letting Elsa's words sink in. Emotion had begun to well up inside her as she had listened to the girl pour out gratitude and appreciation in front of her, so much so that she had had to swallow incessantly to prevent any possible tears betraying her. But hearing the platinum haired woman refer to her as 'beautiful' had invoked a particularly different feeling. It was foreign and unique to her, it felt new. Making a mental note to reflect on it later, she turned her attentions to the more important matters at hand, which was currently Elsa's flaming discomfort.
"Wow. Way to go on your turn to do the reassuring hey?" She joked.
Humour seemed appropriate right now, her gut told her the best way to put the other girl at ease would be to make light of the situation. Convince her that she hadn't noticed the immediate decline in ability to structure a coherent sentence due to one tiny little word.. Or better still, make her think it hadn't bothered her.
It worked. Elsa let out a sharp breath of relief, and seized the opportunity to finally let go of the other girl's hand, though she missed the contact almost instantly.
"I guess I got carried away." She replied shyly.
"It's okay.. It was nice. Thank you."
They smiled at one another, both glad to be moving on from the awkwardness. Elsa straightened up quickly.
"Hey! You haven't even told me how it works!" She exclaimed, eager to find out everything she could about the girl.
"Oh! Well sure." Rapunzel clapped her hands together. "I guess the best way to explain it is basically healing power, but like, super advanced. I've never been sure why, but the song seems to activate it.. And it's a whole part of me, like on the inside, but so far the strongest way to channel it is through my hair.. Though Mother doesn't know that.." She muttered quietly, and then appeared to brighten, shaking her head free of whatever thoughts were previously there.
"So anyway, I can heal things. So you see, where you were freezing my skin I was reconstructing the tissue at an equal rate, essentially healing myself at such a speed that your power never even had the time to do any damage, because it was constantly starting from the beginning. Does that make sense?"
Elsa took a moment to let the explanation resonate in her mind. Then she nodded slowly.
"So that's why I couldn't feel any… Barrier of sorts? Because there was nothing stopping me?"
"Exactly. Nothing stopping you. Just repairing under you."
They fell quiet, both considering the situation.
Eventually, Elsa broke the silence.
"So when you stopped me youself.. What was that?"
Green eyes narrowed into a puzzled frown as the blonde considered how to answer.
"I guess you're stronger than I am at the moment."
"At the moment?"
There it was again, Elsa thought with an internal chuckle, the smug quirk of an eyebrow she was beginning to love.
"Oh what, you think I can't take you?" Rapunzel jibed in playful tones. "I only opted out due to lack of practice.. After all, how often do I get to heal people? But don't worry. I'll be ready next time." She flicked her head back mockingly, some of her hair following. "So you'd better be."
Elsa laughed. "I was going easy on you, but that's fine. I'll up my game next time if that's what you really want!"
Rapunzel picked up the hairbrush, mockingly holding it out like a weapon, much like she had previously done with the frying pan. She pouted in her best attempt to look threatening.
"Bring it on weather girl."
After Dealing with their fits of giggle's that promptly followed, they both sat back, content in the peaceful silence, letting the events of the evening wash over them. Both felt exhausted, yet happy. Elsa noted that for the first time in about a decade she felt truly relaxed, and she felt her heart grow heavy as she finally looked outside, allowing herself to accept how late it was. She would have to go soon. She knew she could have stayed for longer, far longer. But she knew if she didn't head back soon people might eventually notice – most likely Anna, and she didn't want to cause unnecessary worry. Besides, Rapunzel's strange visitor would be returning in the day, and her gut instinct told her she would not want to be around for that presence.
Though she could probably get away with not leaving just quite yet, she was still dreading it. Something was pulling at her to stay, something more than just the peace and quiet of the tower. But for now, she told herself that was all it was, and tried not to feel too down about it. After all, they had both said the two words she had wanted to hear, and Elsa felt her mood lift slightly when she remembered that both of them had established that there would definitely be a 'next time.'
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She hadn't even left the place yet and she was already feeling excitement build at the prospect of returning to it.