Revised on 7/6/15

Warning: Mentions of self harm, slight bullying, and abuse.

xXxXx

Anna's POV

It had been a week since I tried to kiss Elsa and I still hadn't explained myself. It wasn't my fault though, the only time I saw her anymore is in Harrison's class and she didn't talk to me then; it was almost like she was purposely avoiding me.

She probably is though. I mean, I would be pretty weirded out if one of the only friends I'd ever had tried to kiss me.

I felt so stupid. Being Elsa's friend had been the best thing about the school year thus far. Spending time with her was enlightening in so many ways, and I enjoyed it immensely. Making her smile, making her laugh, learning everything that I could about her so I could help in providing the best possible friendship was amazing, and I loved it. I loved being her friend, and I let my stupid, one sided feelings ruin it all.

Months of friendship, gone like that, because I just kept pushing.

I sighed as I continued walking through the school halls. I got to my locker and practically threw my things into it.

I just hope we can stay friends. At least that way I'll be able to see her, but not think about how beautiful she is. And I can talk to her without telling her how amazing she is. I can-oh who am I kidding? I'm going to implode if I suppress this any longer. I've at least got to talk to her and try to explain that I shouldn't have done it and ask if we can go back and stop acting like complete strangers.

I glanced around from my locker only to see a certain platinum blonde walking to the front door, headphones in her ears. Speak of the devil.

I took a single step toward her, initially curious as to why she was still here; I mean after all, the bell rang fifteen minutes ago. Then I remembered that a while ago she told me that a couple days a week she stayed late after school in the art room.

I stayed after today to retrieve some extra notes from my science teacher, and I'm glad I did; if I hadn't then I wouldn't have seen Elsa and we might not have talked for who knows how long; it could have been another week.

"Elsa! Hey! I need to talk to you!" I said loudly, slamming my locker shut and running off toward her.

She continued staring at the floor, the music in her ears covering the sound of my voice. I looked past her to see Hans approaching with his usual smirk on his face, his stupid 'friends' following behind him.

"Elsa! Hans is-" I started to yell as Hans stuck his leg out when she passed him. Again, she was deaf to my words as she tripped over Hans' leg and face planted on the ground.

"I told you I'd make you pay," He said to her as he cracked his knuckles and one of his 'friends' ripped the headphones from her ears as the other one snickered.

Elsa had blood dribbling out of both nostrils as she glared up at him. "I'm surprised you need two of your little lapdogs to try and beat me up Hans," She said wiping blood onto her sleeve as she stood. "I mean really. Three on one borders cowardly don't you think? Especially when we're only talking about some girl, right?"

"At least I have friends," He retorted lamely, still smirking as his friends flanked him.

As Elsa opened her mouth to reply, I rushed forward and pushed Hans back into his cronies.

"I'm her friend," I said to him as I narrowed my eyes and glared daggers. Hans' smirk widened as her barked out a laugh, making to approach the two of us but suddenly stopped, turned, and ran off, his friends in tow, as a teacher can into view.

"Are you okay?" I asked Elsa as I turned and helped her to her feet; her nose was still bleeding quite profusely. I noticed, but didn't pay attention to the small wince she gave as she straightened up; nor did I pay attention to her bending over slightly, clutching her ribs. I figured it was from the fall.

"I'm fine, Anna. Thank you," Elsa glanced down at the floor before stooping down to collect her headphones. Her eyes screwed shut and she sucked in a sharp breath as she slowly straightened up again. "I think these have seen better days though."

The headphones, where they laid in Elsa's palm, did indeed look worse for the wear. One of the buds was smashed, wires poking out from underneath the roughed up bud. A long tear ran through the center of the headphones' main wire, lengthening the shredded chord.

Elsa blew a breath threw parted lips, the air ruffling her loose bangs, a sad gleam present in her eyes. "Doesn't look like I'll be listening to music anytime soon. Pity."

"Don't you have another pair?" I asked.

She look from the ruined headphones to me and gave a small shrug, "Nope. It stinks, you know? I find music very… freeing," Elsa sighed and spoke again, so quiet I had barely heard her, "It's my only escape." Her lip trembled slightly and she blinked.

Not sure if I was supposed to hear, I was quiet a moment, before hesitantly offering, "Would you like to come to my house and get cleaned up? I can lend you a jacket, seeing as you have blood all over yours."

"Actually, that would be great. My father knows that I stay after school on Friday's to help the art teacher, so he won't expect me home for like an hour. Mrs. Smith told me that she didn't need help today, so I have some time before I need to be home." I didn't notice that her face became glazed over and stony as she spoke of her father for the briefest moment.

"Awesome. It's not far as you know, but it's still about a ten minute walk."

"Let's get going then." She said smiling.

xXxXx

Ten minutes or so later, I led Elsa back up to my room as I had done on her previous visit. I brought her to my room and told her to wait as I retrieved a box of tissues from under the sink in my bathroom.

I returned to my room to see Elsa trying to use the end of her sleeve to staunch the, thankfully light, blood flow that was surprisingly not wielding, even after the ten minute walk.

"Here, use these," I said while handing her the box.

"Thank you," She replied, accepting the box and pulling out one of the white fluffy tissues.

After another minute or so, the bleeding finally stopped. Elsa asked me if there was somewhere she could clean the blood off of her face and hands, which were both caked in drying blood. I showed her where the bathroom was and patiently waited for her to return.

When she came back, all of the blood had been cleaned off.

"I'm glad your nose finally stopped bleeding. I was afraid that you would pass out from the blood loss or something," I said to her, attempting to lighten the mood a bit. She simply chuckled in response.

Elsa crossed the room to her backpack. I had told her earlier she could drop it off in the corner of my room. I watched as she turned her back to me and lifted her jacket over her head before rolling it up and placing (more like shoving) it inside her backpack.

As her arms were extended up over her head, her shirt slightly rode up her back. I couldn't help but follow it up. I noticed what seemed like a few dark and discolored bruises before the shirt covered them again.

Elsa bent over again slightly, holding her ribs, muttering to herself. "Should not have done that. Should not have done that." I barely heard her say while holding her ribs tighter.

Those bruises couldn't have been from Hans tripping her. I mean, first off, she didn't fall on her back, and bruises that bad wouldn't form in just ten minutes like that. And her ribs… She fell on her face and arms, so her arms would have the second worse injuries, next to her nose. What's going on with her?

"Elsa-"I started cautiously as I spoke to her still turned back as she siphoned through her bag, apparently looking for something.

"Hmm?"

I bit my lip, searching for a way to phrase my request without having it sound strange and creepy. "Would you uh- take off your shirt?" I asked, cringing as I thought of the unintended, unspoken innuendo.

Elsa promptly froze in place. "What?"

"Take off your shirt," I said, more sternly this time.

Elsa turned to stare at me, looking absolutely terrified. "W-why? Never mind, that doesn't matter. No. I'm not taking my shirt off." She held a small, battered old phone in her hand, apparently what she had been searching through her bag for.

"Elsa, I have reason to believe that you're not okay. If you don't take your shirt off, I'll…I'll call the police and tell them someone's hurting you… or I'll check you into a hospital and they'll make you take it off instead," I said, rising from my sitting position on the edge of my bed.

Okay, honestly, I had no clue what I was even talking about. And I knew I was totally being an ass about the whole thing, but I was worried and didn't know what else to do. I couldn't just pretend like I hadn't seen the signs but I mean, it wasn't like Elsa would take her shirt off for a friend that she'd only known for a bit, I totally understood that. They were pitiful and empty threats but their affect on Elsa was tremendous.

Elsa was visibly trembling as she turned and bent down, placing the phone on top of her bag. She raised two shaking arms over her head, slowing dragging the baby blue shirt up her back. She pulled it over her head and held it against her stomach, still facing the wall.

With her back still to me, I could see many bruises and welts tracing her back, varying in size and color.

"Oh my god…Elsa…"

My mouth had dropped open as my eyes scanned the skin of her back. She turned to face me, staring blankly at the floor. The hand holding her shirt dropped to her side, revealing more dark bruises spotting the skin around her ribs. My eyes traveled down to look at her arms and I saw bright red cuts lining them horizontally.

"Who did this to you?" I asked, referring to the bruises, completely mortified.

"N-no one. It-It's nothing. I'm clumsy. I-I fell down the stairs," She stuttered.

"Elsa, I'm not stupid. I know you didn't fall down any stairs. Even if you did, it wouldn't cause those sort of bruises. And those cuts are self inflicted, not from stairs. I need you to tell me who did this to you; let me help you. For once, just please let me help you. Don't shut yourself down again. You don't have to be alone, and you don't have to be afraid; I'm here and I want to help you."

I rushed forward as Elsa collapsed on the ground, shaking and crying while clutching at her hair. I sat next to her and slowly made to put a hand on her shoulder, giving her amble time to move away. When she didn't, I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Almost immediately, she turned to me and buried her face into my stomach while her hands grasped at the back of my shirt. My shirt was wet from her tears as I gently placed my arms around her shoulders, so as not to press against her many bruises.

"Shh, it's okay. It's going to be okay. I've got you," I whispered as I absentmindedly stroked her hair with my hand.

This explains everything. Her being so closed off, so far away from everyone. Someone's abusing her, hurting her. And she cuts herself. She's closed herself off and thought she was bothering everyone by simply being here. My heart clenched as I thought of the things this poor girl must be going through, and going through alone. Elsa was curled into a ball with her face still hidden by my shirt.

We stayed like this for several more minutes until Elsa's sobs morphed into quiet sniffles before fading completely. She shifted her head to look up at me through puffy eyes, red from the crying. She pulled away from the embrace and looked at my shirt, eyeing the damp material.

"Your shirt…I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's just a shirt. You have nothing to be sorry for…Hey, last time you were here… I'm sorry that I… you know… tried to kiss you," I said. I figured we might as well get it out of the way now.

Elsa was silent for a moment before whispering, "Don't be, I get it," She gazed at the floor, brows slightly furrowed. "I just-you know more about me than anyone else. I feel the same, don't get me wrong," She glanced up, eyeing me again. "I just thought you were rushing things kind and I wasn't even one hundred percent sure what you were thinking, and I didn't know what else to do," She paused and looked back up at me. "But I do now."

Elsa took a breath and leaned in to me, slowly pressing her lips to mine. My eyes fluttered shut as I let my thoughts cloud over momentarily. I focused on how soft her lips were and how warm her breath was as I moved a hand up to lightly cup her cheek.

I was suddenly on cloud nine, transported from the gloom of the present. There was definitely hesitation, from the both of us, as if we were both expecting the other to pull away. Oh, and by the way, whoever described the feeling as 'butterflies in the stomach' was seriously wrong. It would be better described as mines going off inside of you, rattling organs and sending tremor after tremor of rumbling aftershocks through your heart.

When Elsa pulled away, I dropped my hand slowly back into my lap, exhaling a shaky breath through my nose.

"I'm sorry I left so suddenly that day. And that I haven't talked to you in a week. It just…seemed too good to be true and I didn't know what to think… but I really was late that afternoon, I didn't lie about that," Elsa said, sounded just as affected by the too brief kiss as I was.

"It's no problem but… I think we're sort of ignoring what just happened. Before this, I mean. Someone's hurting you Elsa." I watched her eyes flicker from mine to the carpeted floor, and the lack of denial bowled through me like a punch to the gut. "You need to let me help you," I continued, trying to steady the hurricane of emotions barreling throughout my head. "I'm not going to press you for details you don't want to give, but I can't just let this go. I'm not going to let you go through this alone anymore. Tell me who does this to you."

Elsa remained silent and clenched her jaw.

I sighed and tried again, speaking softly, "Okay. Can you at least tell me when they do it to you? Like, when they do it... You call me afterwards and I'll come help you?"

"Okay," She whispered meekly.

"Okay," I confirmed. "I know you told me a while ago that you don't use your phone like at all, but, here's my number. You can call me whenever you need." Elsa took the piece of paper and gave me a small smile. "So," I paused, figuring that it would be best to redirect the conversation elsewhere, "do you want to go get something to eat?" I asked. "It's fine if you don't want to, or if you don't have any time but-"I stopped myself from starting a long rambling session.

"Actually," She started, looking at the alarm clock on my nightstand, "I do still have some time, and I would love to go somewhere with you."

She turned to me and smiled and I smiled back. "Let's get going then," I said, repeated her words to me before we departed school grounds to come to my house. Her smile widened as she put her lifted her shirt back over her head and smoothed it down. She threw a spare jacket over herself but didn't zip it up.

I stood up when Elsa was, lowering a hand down to her. After I helped her up, she laced her fingers with mine.

"Thank you Anna," Came the almost shy response.

We walked out of my house, still holding hands.

xXxXx

A/N

I didn't really like writing this chapter, so I'm sorry if it's bad. Reviews are lovely.