Chapter four

Stubbornness

Of course, if two people are separated by a locked door, neither one is happy about the situation. Long after Anna had stopped knocking, Elsa was still lying, face down, on her bed, crying softly into a pillow.

Idiot. You just stood there and let that happen.

What was I supposed to do? Recoil from her touch, right after apologizing from the bottom of my heart? She'd never talk to me again!

At least she wouldn't have found out.

Elsa sat up, trying to regain her composure.

What am I supposed to do now?

Images from a thousand movies flashed through her head, of government troops surrounding her house, capturing her, spiriting her away to a top secret bunker-

She shook her head. No. That's not going to happen. Anna will keep my secret.

How do you know?

Because that's part of who she is. She's kind, caring, and loyal. She would never spill a secret like that.

From this, the obvious question came. Then why didn't you just tell her about it in the first place?

I was scared, I wasn't thinking straight. I should have told her right away. I should have let her in instead of pushing her away.

Yeah, well, shoulda coulda woulda.

No, I still can!

Elsa stood up and walked towards her bedroom door.

This time, I'll tell her everything.

She unlocked the door, throwing it open wide. "Anna?" she called.

The hallway was empty.

Elsa's heart sank. She's gone.

You idiot, of course she's gone! That's what happens when you keep slamming doors in people's faces! Eventually, they go away!

Suddenly, she heard a loud crashing noise behind her. She wheeled around. It had come from outside her window, which she had closed the drapes on. She ran to it now, threw back the drapes, and pulled the window open.

Anna was hanging from the bottom of the windowsill, legs swinging back and forth. Behind her, a ladder was lying on the ground.

Elsa grabbed her arms. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked, straining to pull her up.

"Something…stupid," Anna gasped.

Her feet scrabbled on the wall before she found a foothold, and with their combined efforts, Anna managed to climb into the room.

She collapsed onto the floor, and for a few seconds she just lay there, panting heavily. Then Anna got to her feet, staring around the room, eyes wide.

Elsa's room had only gotten worse. Now icicles were hanging from every ledge, and it had even started to snow.

Anna looked at her. "You did all this?"

Elsa nodded.

"Okay, wow. Yeah, all right, then," Anna stammered. "Yeah, no, that's fine. My best friend turned into an ice goddess – overnight." She backed into a chair, not so much sitting down as collapsing in an orderly manner. "Okay, cool, I just…give me a moment."

Anna shivered, and Elsa realized how cold it must be for her, dressed as she was. She ran to her closet, pulled out a woolen blanket, and wrapped it around Anna.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

Anna looked up at her. "Am I okay? How can you even be asking me that? Are YOU okay? You're the one with all the crazy stuff going on!"

"Well, it's just…you were shaking pretty hard," Elsa said.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. You have enough on your plate already without worrying about me," Anna said. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm…fine," Elsa said.

Actually, now that Anna was here, she was feeling a lot better. She had someone to trust, someone to talk to.

So she did just that. Anna listened, spellbound, as Elsa told her about everything that had happened from the previous afternoon up to this point in time.

Well, almost everything. She left out two key points: what Anna had done while they were drunk, and what, exactly, her dream had been about. So much for telling her everything, she thought, but she didn't feel too guilty about it. There were far more important issues at hand, after all.

Elsa paced back and forth as she talked, her head bent. Whenever she reached a particularly emotional point, a stiff breeze would pick up within the room, then die just as quickly. She seemed oblivious to it.

Anna listened to it all, enraptured. She sat there in that large wicker chair, legs crossed like she was back in preschool, taking in her friend's extraordinary tale. She had never been the type to faint, which was quite lucky, as she certainly would have by now.

Finally, Elsa reached the end of her story. She turned to Anna, apprehensive of her reaction.

Anna was still as a statue. At the very least, her breathing had returned to normal. Finally, she opened her mouth.

"Oh my god, I'm a terrible friend."

Not what she had been expecting. "No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. I mean, look at what I've been doing. Every decision I've made has made things a million times worse!"

"Anna…"

"I mean, let's start with last night. Not only do I get you drunk – against your better judgment, as you said – but I get even more drunk myself, so there's nobody to make sure you can handle it."

"Anna…"

"Then, the next morning, right after it starts happening, and you need a friend to help you out, what do I do? Run straight to school, not even giving it a second thought. Not at all worried about you, I just assume you'll-"

Elsa placed her hands on Anna's shoulders. "Anna."

Anna stopped talking and looked up at her.

"It's not your fault. It's mine. I should have told you what was going on in the first place. I should have let you in. I'm sorry."

Anna smiled, pulling her into a hug. "Don't worry about it, Elsa. You did what you thought was best at the time. I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have done the same."

Elsa said nothing, just enjoying the warmth of their embrace. It felt so good, after spending the whole day alone with her thoughts, to have someone she could talk to.

After a while, Elsa let go. "So, now what do we do?"

Anna thought about it. "Well, I guess the first thing we do is, try to find out a little more about whatever's happening to you. See if it's ever happened before, right?"

Elsa felt skeptical, but it seemed like as good a place to start as any. "Sounds good."

"Great. I have to go to my house to get some stuff, be right back." Anna raced out the open doorway.

She returned about five minutes later, wearing a thick winter coat and carrying her backpack.

"All right, I'm ready for the long haul," she announced. She reached into her pack and pulled out her laptop and charger.

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "You think we'll find answers on the internet?"

"Well, we won't find them in an encyclopedia, will we?" Anna pointed out. "I'm sure we'll find something useful, even if we have to sort through thousands of pages of crap to do so."

"I guess," Elsa responded. "But it'll take hours. We have school tomorrow."

Anna looked at her like she had just spoken another language. Then she reached into her backpack, mumbling to herself.

"Power of a god, and she's still worried about getting to school. I swear…here!" She said this last part louder, pulling out two pieces of paper as she did so. She handed one of them to Elsa.

It read:

Dear Principal Taiclet,

My daughter Elsa has come down with a severe strain of the common cold. For the sake of her well-being, as well as that of the other students at your school, she will not be able to attend classes for the remainder of this week. I apologize for this inconvenience, and will keep you notified as to whether or not her condition improves.

Cordially,

Norman Glace

Elsa stared at the signature at the bottom. It was identical to that of her father's, right down to the peculiar way his Gs looped back in on themselves. She looked at Anna, her expression demanding an explanation.

"What?" she said casually. "Your dad's handwriting isn't that unique. My dad can make these things in, like, a couple of seconds."

This only raised further questions. Elsa continued to stare.

Anna sighed. "I told my parents you were going through some tough times and needed my help. Dad whipped these up in a hurry, while my mom put together…" Anna reached into the backpack once again and pulled out a sandwich covered with Saran wrap. "…A BLT sandwich! She didn't have the time to add all her special seasonings, but it should still be pretty good."

Elsa stared at her for a moment. "Okay, then," she said after a while. "I'll…I'll just get my laptop, then." She walked out of the room, the look of surprise still evident on her face.

Anna scratched her head. "You'd think she's never seen a BLT before."

xxxxxxx

Cryomancy, or the manipulation of ice and snow, is one of the four core elemental powers, along with pyromancy, terramancy, and electromancy. While the other three are very rigidly defined, cryomancy is more fluid, as it involves a wider variety of abilities. As such, most imitators prefer the flashier – and more easily falsified – pyromancy.

To this date, there have been no confirmed cases of cryomancy, but this is believed to be due to many nations' policies of finding and quarantining such individuals, in the hope of eventually utilizing their abilities to combat geological events, such as volcanoes and climate change.

Anna closed the window without reading another word.

"Well, chalk another one up for 'just making shit up,'" Anna said, mentally crossing another website off her list.

They had been at this for hours, with no credible results. Nothing but hoaxes, conspiracies, and flat-out idiots. Even knowing that Elsa's case was true, after spending this much time searching, it seemed pretty clear that none of these people had any idea what they were talking about.

"Any luck?" she asked, turning to Elsa.

Elsa's head was resting on her keyboard, her eyes closed.

Anna sighed. She reached over and shook her, gently, on the shoulder. "Wake up, Elsa," she said softly.

Elsa's head jerked up. "I wasn't asleep," she said hurriedly. "I was just resting my head."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Then what did I just say?"

"Okay, I fell asleep," Elsa conceded. "Thanks for waking me."

"I think it's time we called it a night anyway," Anna said.

Now Elsa was alert. "No, that's okay, I can keep going."

Anna frowned. "You told me you didn't get enough sleep last night. You really should get as much as you can tonight."

"Don't worry," said Elsa, although she was the one who looked worried. "I can just grab a few cans of Coke and keep going."

"Yeah, or you could just go to bed, sleep, and wake up tomorrow, well rested and ready to continue," Anna said pointedly.

Elsa looked uneasy. "Anna, I really don't want to go to bed," she said quietly.

"Why? Afraid you'll have another nightmare?" Anna asked.

Elsa had never specified what her dream had been about, but she figured it must have been bad from the way she acted when asked about it.

Elsa grabbed this suggestion like a lifeline. "Yes," she said quickly. "The last time I woke up, my bedroom looked like…this," she said, gesturing at the room. "I don't want to wake up in an icebox."

Anna raised her eyebrow again. "So your solution is to…never sleep again?"

Elsa blushed, and Anna felt bad. She realized how terrible it must be to stand where Elsa stood right now, where even a slight change in her emotions could have such drastic consequences. So much pressure.

"You're right, Anna," she said dejectedly. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Well, lucky for you, I do," Anna said brightly.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out her flannel pajamas. "Ever have a bad dream as a kid, so your parents let you sleep in their bed?"

"Yeah," Elsa said slowly.

"I'll put it this way: it doesn't look like the air mattress would fit in here anyway," Anna said, winking.

Elsa was quite taken aback by the suggestion. "You mean…the two of us…should both sleep in the same bed?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "No, Elsa. I mean you in your bed, and me in the garbage cans across the street. Yes, the same bed!"

Then, to Elsa's great surprise, Anna started stripping down to her underwear, right in front of her.

Elsa looked off to the side, trying to think about something else. "Anna, that's kind of weird."

"Are you kidding?" Anna replied, oblivious. "We used to sleep in the same bed all the time, when we were little. Remember all those sleepovers we had?" she asked, putting on her pajamas.

"I wasn't talking about – never mind. I didn't have these powers back then. What if I-"

A horrible thought crept into her mind. "Anna, what if I froze you in my sleep?" she said quietly.

Anna, now in her pajamas, turned Elsa to face her. She grabbed Elsa's left hand with her right, clutching it tightly.

"You feel pretty warm to me," Anna said after a moment. "Was your bed ever frozen over?"

"No, but…"

"Then I'll be fine."

"You don't know that," Elsa said nervously. "God, if something happened to you-"

"If something happens to me, it'll be me hurting myself in order to make sure you're okay." She held up her left hand. "I've done it before, and I'll do it again."

"Anna," Elsa said, trying to think of something to say. Something that would convey her gratitude for being such a good friend, her fear that she might cause her harm, and her guilt for getting Anna involved in all this to begin with.

"You don't have to do this for me," she said eventually.

"Since when did I only do things that I had to do?" Anna replied.

She squeezed Elsa's hands. "Trust me, Elsa," she said, her voice turning serious. "I'm not going to leave your side. I'll never let you go."

Elsa thought that she herself might melt.

"Does that sound good?" Anna asked.

Elsa nodded.

"Great. Now get in your jammies and go to bed," Anna said, her forceful tone betrayed by a sly smile.

xxxxxxx

Anna's watch beeped, notifying her that midnight had come. To her left, Elsa slept, curled slightly into a ball with her back to Anna.

Anna, however, was wide awake. While she tried to avoid tossing and turning for Elsa's sake, her mind was still racing with questions about the amazing things that had gone down just the previous day.

And, of course, it didn't help that, of the two of them, she had to be the calm one. Because whatever she was going through, Elsa must be a thousand times worse. So she had to suppress her feelings and appear calm and collected, which – well, quite frankly, seemed impossible. She had no idea how Elsa did it all the time.

Elsa shifted, and Anna turned to her.

Penny for your thoughts, Elsa?

This thought amused her. At this point, she'd pay far more for such a privilege.

Elsa curled up tighter. Anna thought, once again, about how lost Elsa must be feeling. Pity, curiosity, and an overwhelming desire to help practically radiated from her body.

And yet, beneath all that, there was still some primal enjoyment that came from being so close to Elsa.

Anna had only just discovered that she was a lesbian recently, a few short months ago. Of course, she had had confusing feelings for quite some time beforehand, but the tipping point came one day in class, when she had been dozing off.

She had read somewhere that when a person doesn't get enough sleep, their subconscious can leak into their conscious mind, sending up primal thoughts usually confined to dreams. Well, she had been up all night watching a Marvel movie marathon the previous night. She was attempting to make up for this time in first period, and then, a few minutes into a quality nap, a fantasy about Scarlett Johannsson floated to the top of her mind, jerking her awake. She had dwelled on this for the rest of the morning, wondering why she had just had such a dream now, but when she thought about the kind of thoughts she had been thinking in recent days, it didn't even seem out of place. By lunch, she had come to grips with it – she was a lesbian.

Her parents had been extremely understanding when she told them. Other than her father briefly expressing remorse that he would never have any true grandchildren, they took Anna's announcement with remarkably good grace. Anna had assumed they would at least ask a few questions to make sure she was really a lesbian, but no, they trusted her judgment immediately.

Another thing that surprised Anna was how little her lifestyle changed following her realization. She had seen how movies depicted lesbians – tough, masculine, and butch – and indeed, there was a small clique of girls who behaved just so in her school. She had sought them out and asked a few questions, and while she understood why they behaved that way, it wasn't for her. Just because she found women attractive didn't mean she wanted to become more masculine herself. (Then again, she realized later, she already had quite a few interests, like rock climbing, which would have been considered masculine beforehand.) So she still wore miniskirts, kept her hair long, and kept her sunny disposition. She suspected that there were a lot more lesbians like her who simply went unnoticed because, well, how would you even know?

Really, the hardest part of it all had been figuring out her feelings about Elsa.

At first, Anna had tried to deny that she was attracted to her. They were really good friends, nothing more. They had been friends for years, and they would keep on being friends for years to come. The fact that she was smart, funny, and drop dead gorgeous was completely irrelevant. She had told herself this many times over, and yet she couldn't shake the strange feelings she got every time she looked at Elsa. A flurry of confusion, excitement, and apprehension – she had never had a crush on anyone before, but she had heard people tell her what it felt like, and this certainly seemed like one of those cases.

And the strangest part was, it almost seemed like Elsa felt the same way.

Elsa hadn't said anything, and Anna certainly wasn't about to come right out and ask her, but sometimes, when they were all alone, Anna could swear she felt Elsa looking at her in a more-than-friends kind of way. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part, but maybe, just maybe…

Suddenly, Elsa tensed up, crying out in her sleep. Her hands clenched the sheets, and she started shivering – not from the cold, Anna realized, but from fear.

Anna felt like shit. She was supposed to be here to help Elsa, to comfort her, and here she was thinking of ways to seduce her! She was being a terrible, terrible friend.

Elsa started muttering. Anna couldn't make out her words, but she certainly didn't sound happy. Anna's heart throbbed as she imagined what kind of nightmare Elsa must be going through. Around the room, the ice began to thicken, but Anna barely noticed.

Slowly, ever so delicately, she reached out her hand and touched Elsa on the shoulder. Elsa flinched at the sudden contact, but as her hand persisted, Elsa subsided.

Emboldened by this, Anna gently began to turn her over, rolling her so that they were facing one another, Elsa still fast asleep. Once this was done, Anna wrapped her arms around Elsa, drawing her close.

Now that they were this close, Anna could feel Elsa's body shaking all over. She could hear her heart beating, much faster than any sleeping person's should.

"It's all right, Elsa," she breathed into her ear. "I'm here. Everything is going to be fine. I won't let anyone hurt you."

She didn't know if she could even keep this promise, but it had the desired effect. Elsa's breathing began to slow, and her body relaxed. Anna breathed a sigh of relief.

There was nothing sexual about it. Two best friends, one comforting the other. And right now, the knowledge that Elsa was safe and happy in her arms was worth more to her than anything in the world.

Maybe Elsa was a lesbian, maybe she wasn't. But that didn't matter right now. Elsa didn't need a date, what she needed right now was a friend. And that, Anna knew, was something she could do.

The bed stayed warm all through the night.