"Aah, hjem, kjære hjem!
"Kristoff grinned, stretching as he walked out of the airport into Norway's August sun. Behind him were a dozen San Fransokyians who had made the journey to the European country in order to experience winter sports somewhere other than on an indoor slope. Hiro's friends, Fred, Wasabi, Honey and GoGo were there, in addition to a several others that were part of their various classes. At the tail end of the group was Tadashi, who was practising various Norwegian phrases with the group's third and final instructor, Elsa.
In a red and black blur, Anna and Hiro ran past them all, younger sister rattling off the names of various things in Norwegian to younger brother. Someone called Anna's name from a line of vehicles at the side of the road and the girl squealed, abandoning Hiro and running over to him. "Kai!"
Kristoff saw an equally speedy yellow blur out of the corner of his eye, and grinned at the sight of the two sisters mobbing the much shorter man. Hiro, dragging his case behind him went back to Kristoff. "Who's that?"
"That's Kai. Old, old, old family friend. Lovely guy. We're going to head out and grab middag with him and his wife before we head up to the mountains."
"'Dinner', right?" Tadashi walked up to stand beside Kristoff and Hiro, looking over at the trio by the cars.
"Right. And this restaurant has the best lutefisk in the world."
"Lutefisk?" Hiro frowned up at him.
"… maybe not for your first meal, kid." Kristoff ruffled his hair, before calling the group together and over to the cars. He gave Kai a hug in greeting, before loudly greeting the other two drivers that had shown up to provide transport, both of them pulling him into spine snapping hugs, complete with backslaps.
Wasabi leaned over to whisper in Fred's ear, "Are they greeting him, or beating him up?".
Anna hopped over to provide an explanation, "Kristoff was a volunteer on a search and rescue team up in the mountains for a while - they're his old team mates. And they're all built like tanks." An appreciative look was shared amongst several group members, before Anna started steering them to their vehicles.
It was impossible to tell who was more excited out of the chattering group, the visitors or the natives. The impromptu Norwegian lessons had continued in the vehicle he was sharing with Anna, and had now moved onto the subject of food, specifically what might agree with Hiro's sweet tooth.
"You'll love krumkake. It's like… it's like a waffle, you roll it up and fill it with stuff. Cream, or chocolate… oh my god, I've missed them. They're like the gummy bears of Norway." Hiro's eyes widened slowly, like a small kitten who had been sprinkled with catnip. There was a quiet "Oh dear," from Nicola, an eighteen-year-old snowboarder in Hiro's class, followed by Wasabi's, "Who's idea was it to let these two co-exist in the same universe?".
Kristoff shrugged.
The group in the other vehicle were just as chatty, finding out from Elsa what that next two weeks held in store for them, rather than just focusing on the next few hours.
"-and next week we'll head off-piste. We'll pile onto snowmobiles, find a good spot in the middle of nowhere and just… play about." Tadashi's face exploded in a grin at the mention snowmobiles.
Pop. "This is going to be… awesome."
"Depending on the weather, we could camp if you really wanted to." A few cheers erupted from the small group, but Elsa frowned, and continued quietly, "Actually… depending on the weather and bears. And… wolves…" She raised her voice again, "Let me find out about that one first." As the rest of the group dissolved into discussions about the finer points of which animal would be preferable as a midnight predator, Tadashi poked his head over the seat in front of her, in order to speak to Elsa.
"So… how far away are we from where you used to live?"
Elsa looked over her shoulder at him with a small smile, "It's about an hour's flight from here. But, the ski slopes are actually quite near to Nærøyfjord, so as we pass over, I can point it out."
"I swear you guys fly more than you drive." Tadashi chuckled; he'd already been on two flights that day.
"Unfortunately, it's a bit tricky to drive through over a fjord in autumn." Elsa smiled wanly.
Tadashi frowned. "You don't seem all that enamoured with the prospect of another flight." He had noticed, but remained quiet about the fact, that both sisters seemed to become rather subdued whilst anywhere near aeroplanes. If he didn't know of their proclivity towards dangerous winter sports, he would've put it down to a mild fear of hurtling over an ocean in a large metal tube for eight hours, but even the thirty minute flight within the US had put them on edge. It had been part of the reason he'd asked Elsa to teach him some Norwegian phrases whilst they were over the Atlantic; he wanted to keep her occupied.
"I'm not a fan, no. If the journey weren't so difficult by road…"
"Well. I'm sure there's a whole heap of phrases left for me to learn. What was that one again? Luftputerboaten min er full ov als?"
Elsa chuckled once, "Luftputebåten min er full av ål."
"Luftputerbotnen… wait, say it again?" Elsa grinned up at the head poking over the corner of her chair and turned in her seat to face him better, taking him through the phrase he knew perfectly well, one syllable at a time.
Middag was a literal smörgåsbord – "Smørbrød," corrected Anna, her face full of krumkake – of Norwegian food for the group to tuck into. Rather than everyone pick one thing from the menu that they might dislike despite the natives' translations, Gerda had suggested they get a little bit of everything. Hiro had taken a curious sniff of lutefisk and promptly shoved it back at Kristoff, holding a piece of krumkake under his nose for the next ten minutes.
After a couple of hours deciding which dishes they would happily eat over the next couple of weeks, and once Anna persuaded Kristoff to order several more helpings of krumkake for later consumption, they piled back into their vehicles and drove off to catch yet another plane. Tadashi happily indulged in another round of "Distract Elsa" whilst they were in the air, only stopping when he heard Kai talking to Honey, who was sat next to him, "Down there, that's Nærøyfjord."
Elsa's head snapped around and she peered past Tadashi to take a look out the window. "… can you see your house from here?" He smiled at her, leaning back a little in his chair so she could move in closer.
She lightly pressed a finger to the window, "You see that sort of S-shaped main road?" He nodded. "Just above the second bend, where the hills begin. That's our old house. Well, that's where it is, anyway. And further south, by the docks, if you sit in just the right spot, you can watch the sunset through the mouth of the fjord…"
Tadashi had to dip his head slightly to see what she was showing him, their cheeks briefly touching as he leaned in for a closer look. Tadashi pulled away quickly, apologising, but Elsa merely smiled and moved back a bit more, letting him lean in while she pointed out things with her finger, her other hand gently resting on his shoulder. He found it hard to concentrate, the warmth of her soft cheek still lingering on his, and he briefly shut his eyes to try and clear his head, to focus solely on her quiet, measured voice. He snapped his eyes open when all that came to mind was thoughts of other skin-to-skin contact and was greeted with a window full of cloud. Sitting up straight, he looked over at Elsa.
"I imagine it's much more beautiful up close." Much like one of it's previous inhabitants…
"Mhmm." She nodded, sitting back in her chair and looking at the seat in front of her.
The plane banked suddenly and Elsa grabbed hold of the armrest between her and Tadashi, before forcing herself to relax again. Tadashi calmly placed his hand on top of hers, giving it a small squeeze and giving her a reassuring smile. "Almost there."
As if on cue, the pilot's voice came over the intercom, speaking purely in Norwegian, but Tadashi made out 'ten', followed by what sounded like 'minutes'.
He kept hold of Elsa's hand until they landed.
"And you're sure there are no bears."
"I'm sure."
"Or wolves."
"Yep."
"… or winter wolves."
"Anna. There are no lions, tigers or bears in this small corner of Oz."
"… or wolves."
"Or wolves."
"I just wanna be sure! As beautiful a backdrop as our destination would make, I'd rather not be mauled to death this evening."
"Anna, you'll be perfectly safe. I have my penknife. … don't try and do the eyebrow, only your sister can do that-"
"You're going to fight off a bear with a penknife?"
"There are no bears out there-"
"You just implied that there were-!"
"Anna-"
"Kristoff-"
"Both of you! Please stop arguing."
They both fell silent at her raised left eyebrow, visible even in the dim light, and continued trudging through the snow. Elsa turned back to face front, leading the group to a nondescript location. Elsa and Anna had been absent for the day, both of them - well, Anna - unusually quiet upon their return. Kristoff had kept the group sufficiently occupied that they hadn't asked questions of the two sisters. Far too curious for his own good, Tadashi had watched the pair and realised he had seen that look before, in mirrors when he was younger. He had worn the same emotions he was seeing on their faces, and hoped that their reasons weren't the same as his. When Hiro had quietly pointed it out to him over dinner, he decided there wasn't much else it could have been.
He had watched Elsa for the rest of the evening, giving her a warm smile whenever she would catch him staring. Soon after dinner, they had left to gear up, as warm as they could possibly manage, before starting the long walk to… wherever they were going.
Honey had been the first to work out where they were going, but had kept quiet, refusing to elaborate on Elsa's plan. Wasabi had been next, almost falling over with glee when Honey confirmed his suspicions. Hiro had been throwing wild guesses for an hour, and Tadashi couldn't keep ideas such as 'midnight tobogganing' or 'reindeer wrestling' out of his head long enough to form a coherent suggestion of his own. He gave up, and resumed his observations of Elsa.
Said observations made him walk smack bang into GoGo, when he hadn't realised they'd come to a stop. Elsa gave him a slightly bemused smile, before saying, "We're here."
"… where's here?" Hiro watched as Elsa simply pulled out the mat she had brought with her and sat down on the snow. Anna and Kristoff followed suit. "… what's going on?"
"Just wait, kid. You'll see." Kristoff grinned at him, pulling Anna into his lap and citing shared body heat. One by one, the others unrolled their mats and sat down, quiet conversations being held in the cluster of people.
Tadashi followed Elsa's gaze up into the sky and he looked up at the stars, filling the sky like glitter. He was never able to see this many stars back home; San Fransokyo was a clean city, but light pollution would always be an issue for a big city. It simply wasn't dark enough for star gazing. He got lost in the constellations for a while, and he had no idea how much time had passed when he heard a small gasp and a voice laced with almost childlike wonder.
"The sky's awake."
He looked around and saw a small sliver of green amongst the black before it disappeared. He watched as it reappeared, longer and more defined, before disappearing again. Within a few minutes, the coloured ribbons were simply too large and too bold to vanish, and the snow beneath them flickered shades of green, yellow, red, violet, blue, the Northern Lights dancing across the sky.
He heard a quiet sniffle, followed by shuffling, the brief crunch of snow and more shuffling, then the crumpling sounds of waterproof jackets colliding with each other, before the quiet sniffs were all that could be heard.
Tadashi carefully looked towards the noise and saw Elsa hugging her knees, Anna sat beside her, arms wrapped around her in a hug, tears staining both of their cheeks. He tore his gaze away and forced himself to look back up at the sky, but not before wrapping his arm around Hiro, who had quietly shuffled closer and leaned against his older brother's side.
"Hey Elsa! Can we get these on the slope and get rid of the ski liii-aaaah!" Elsa chuckled as Kristoff zoomed past her on a snowmobile, Anna holding on for dear life, as her sister trudged up to the top of the hill on foot. They had spend the first week on the standard slopes, working their way from green to red, the group of amateurs becoming finely attuned to the differences between indoor winter sports and the real thing. After a near flawless red route run from Hiro, she had announced that they would spend the rest of their trip off-piste, but to the raucous delight of the San Fransokyians.
For their last day, Elsa had brought them to a hidden gem within the mountains; too far away from camp for anyone to simply stumble across, too much of an incline to snowboard there, but on the snowmobiles Kristoff had wangled from his old S&R buddies, it had been an easy trip.
Hiro was sat behind Honey on the back of GoGo's snowmobile, screaming his head off with glee. GoGo had nominated herself designated driver, and had performed a number of stunts with the machine that had made Elsa wince. The third snowmobile had done the rounds between some of the others and as Elsa reached the top, Tadashi was at the handles.
A gap-toothed grin appeared between them, "I bet you…"
"Oooh, here we go." Elsa rolled her eyes and adjusted her goggles on the front of her helmet.
"… that Elsa can beat you to the bottom…"
"That's no contest, I'm nowhere near as good as she is on a board-"
"… while you ride that." Hiro pointed at the snowmobile, grinning.
"Hiro." Pop. "That's the best suggestion I've heard all day." GoGo turned off her snowmobile and swiveled around on the seat, leaning back against the handlebars. Several others in the group agreed with her, and moved to get a better view.
"… we've not said yes yet-"
"But you haven't said no either, 'dashi." Fred grabbed a spare t-shirt from his bag, standing in between Tadashi and Elsa, clearing meaning to set them off.
Elsa took a wary look down at the slope below; she'd been impressed with how quickly Tadashi had picked up driving the snowmobile, and it came as no surprise when she was told he rode a scooter. Peering down at the snow, she could see a good, clear route, there were no trees for miles… she was sorely tempted, and a grin slowly crept onto her face. She looked over at Tadashi, who shared a similar look.
"… okay."
Hiro cheered and hopped off to find a better viewpoint, whilst Elsa clipped herself onto her board and moved a sensible distance away from the snowmobile. Tadashi widened the gap even further.
"Okay! First one to the bottom… which… actually, the bottom's kinda hard to make out, so whosoever we deem the fastest, and most totally awesome wins! Get ready!" Fred bounced on the spot, turning himself sideways, t-shirt flag pulled taut above his head.
Elsa checked she was all secure and gave Fred a thumbs up. Tadashi got comfortable, knees bent, hovering above the seat of the snowmobile.
"Okay, on three! One!"
Elsa took a deep breath and pulled her goggles down over her eyes. Tadashi revved the engine briefly, brakes clamped down.
"Two!"
Elsa hunkered down slightly, getting ready to push off the edge. Tadashi revved again, the torque nudging the snowmobile an inch or so forward, the snow shifting behind him.
"THREE!"
Fred's t-shirt hadn't even hit the ground when the two racers started to move. Elsa popped herself off the side of the hill, hitting the slope at the perfect angle to quickly gain speed. Tadashi's acceleration had been nowhere near as good, sending a torrent of snow behind him as the tracks spun in the snow before they finally got good grip, and sent him hurtling off the side of the slope, Elsa already several feet ahead and gaining.
Tadashi ploughed through snow drifts, occasionally catching air, but mostly stuck to the ground. The larger the snow drift, the harder he had to accelerate in order to get over it, and until he managed to work out the timing, he found himself ploughing through the thickest of snow drifts, his speed dropping until the tracks of his snowmobile cleared.
Elsa had to go with the drifts, large and small. She carved her way through the snow, using the smaller drifts to bank and flying over the larger drifts with ease. She couldn't hear the sound of the snowmobile for the wind rushing past her ears, and focused all her senses on what was in front of her. What - and who - was behind her was of little import.
Tadashi, lacking professional teaching and the amount of practice that Elsa had had, found himself intensely aware of every little sound; the noise of the engine struggling if he held the throttle open over a jump, the suspension creaking under the weight of the machine hitting the deck at too shallow an angle, the wind creeping under the flaps of his woolly hat and into his ears. It took all his energy to focus on the obstacles in front of him, and the fact that he could see Elsa pulling away inch by inch only served to annoy him and make him insanely happy at the same time.
He almost lost control when Elsa made one last huge jump, performing a grab in mid air, complete with 360° spin. He couldn't help but stare and got a mouth full of snow for his inattention. He tore his gaze back to what remained of the slope, and came to a hard stop near the bottom, the rear of the snowmobile swinging out and causing a huge snow spray that covered the celebrating Elsa from head to toe. When the air cleared and he caught sight of her, he moved to apologise… then to retaliate when he got a snowball right between the eyes.
Elsa laughed as a snowball narrowly missed her ear, and she quickly moved to free herself from the now-highly inconvenient board holding her feet together. She'd barely managed to free both feet before Tadashi had dumped an armful of snow on her, before picking up more snow and chasing after the giggling blonde.
"Don't run! I have to shower you with celebratory snowflakes! Millions of them!"
Elsa was laughing too hard to retort and a well placed snowball to her shoulder distracted her enough the she fell face first into the soft snow, Tadashi falling on top of her, flattening his quarry of snow between them. Still laughing hard, he deflected Elsa's handfuls of snow to the face, eventually managing to grab her arms and pin them above her head. "Gotcha!"
She made a futile show of trying to escape, but quickly gave up, her giggles and his laughter slowly calming as they tried to catch their breath, grinning like idiots.
"That was…. amazing." Elsa chuckled, still on an adrenaline high from the descent, and blinked slightly when Tadashi pulled her goggles from her eyes with his left hand and sat them back on her helmet. Her grin faltered slightly as she stared at him, the dark brown of his eyes made all the more darker and more inviting by the stark contrast of the bright blue sky.
She felt like she was in a vacuum, unable to hear anything but her pulse like a staccato drum beat in her ears, quickening as Tadashi moved closer. His voice, though quiet, silenced the thumping noise completely and she thought for a moment that her heart had simply stopped.
"You're amazing."
The outline of his face reached the level of her imprint in the snow, and just as she could feel his breath on her skin, she was blinded by the sudden glow of the high sun in her eyes, Tadashi's weight missing from her hips. She blinked to try and refocus her vision, and a silhouette came into view, two pigtails swinging in the breeze.
"It… Hiro and Fred, they… I… we… sorry. Are you okay?"
Elsa didn't trust her voice and just nodded, taking the hand Anna offered her, pulling herself to seated. A couple of feet away, both Hiro and Fred were shouting and yelling mostly incoherent comments at Tadashi, who looked just as stunned as she felt. The excitable noticed that Elsa had seemingly appeared from thin air, and their ramblings increased ten fold, until Wasabi finally dragged them away under the pretence of being interested in their re-enactment of the run.
Anna moved to stand behind Elsa and pulled her up, her arms under her sister's. She moved back round to stand in front of the silent girl, and forced her to look down at her. "Elsa. Are you okay?"
She nodded mutely, then turned her head back to see Tadashi being pulled to his feet by Kristoff. She caught Tadashi's gaze for a moment, before she forced herself to look away, staring down at the snow she'd been lying in moments before.
"I'm fine."