DISCLAIMER: Once Upon A Time and all related characters are the property of Kitsis/Horowitz Productions, ABC Studios and the ABC Television Network. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are the property of the author and may not be used without permission. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

ARENDELLE SISTERS

by Darrin A. Colbourne


Tiffany and Ashley arrived in the break room a few minutes after Ingrid left. They said a perfunctory hellos to Elsa and Anna before digging into the bag to retrieve their breakfasts. Ashley found hers first and went to give it thirty seconds in the microwave. While Tiffany waited to do the same, she peeked over Anna's shoulder at the tablet screen. "Who's black?" She asked.

"I am," Elsa said.

"Do you play chess?" Anna said.

Tiffany nodded. "My grandmother taught all us kids."

Ashley's sandwich was done then, so Tiffany turned to warm hers. As she did, Anna said, "And you're not royalty of any kind are you?"

Tiffany chuckled at that. "Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Well, my big sister seems to think only properly royal people should be playing the great game of Chess."

"Don't be silly. Anybody can learn how to play chess. There's whole tournaments full of enthusiasts."

"Yep," Ashley added. "Even little kids and computers have won championships."

Anna turned to Elsa and smiled triumphantly. "So...anybody can learn to play the game well."

"Yeah, but…" Tiffany took another look at the screen. "...your sister's got you checkmated in four moves."

Anna's eyes snapped back to the screen as a smile crawled across Elsa's face. "Maybe you should get 'anybody' to tutor you…"

Anna glared at Elsa and hit the "resign" button on the screen as Tiffany and Ashley sat down to eat, laughing.

Elsa decided to satisfy her curiosity while Anna reset the chessboard. "How long have you worked for our aunt?" She asked the others.

"Five years," Tiffany said.

"Six for me," Ashley said.

"Is she a good boss?" Anna said. "She's not really evil to you is she?"

"Of course not!" Ashley said.

"Ingrid's the best," Tiffany said. "It's not just the free breakfast in the morning. She's just a great person."

"Don't tell me she mistreats you two," Ashley said. "I'd never believe it.

"Well…" Anna said.

"Our experience with her is...limited," Elsa said. "We've barely known her for one year."

Tiffany suddenly seemed to understand. "I get it. Your mother is the one that stopped talking to Ingrid back when, right?"

"Right…" Elsa said.

"And I bet she regrets that now, so as a peace offering one day she just packed you up and shipped you off to stay with your crazy aunt in America, am I right?"

Elsa and Anna traded surprised looks, then they turned and smiled at Tiffany. "Kinda, yeah…" Anna said. Elsa nodded.

"Well, you can relax," Ashley said. "You're aunt's not crazy. In fact she's one of the clearest-thinking people I know."

"And definitely one of the nicest," Tiffany said. "She doesn't rule this place with an iron fist. She won't browbeat you or humiliate you when you make a mistake. And you can tell when things make her angry, but you can also see her keeping herself calm, like she's afraid of what she might do to someone she's really mad at."

"I can just imagine…" Anna muttered, remembering her stay in Arendelle's dungeon.

"The point is Ingrid is one of the few people I've ever met that's able to consider a total stranger's needs before her own."

"She hired us a both at time when people were using Obamacare as an excuse to downsize," Ashley said.

"Obamacare?" Anna said.

"That's our national health care system," Tiffany said. "All the Republican haters here dump on it. I bet you don't have to worry about that back home…"

Anna was stuck for an answer, so she turned to her big sister. Elsa smiled wide and said, "Tiffany, I can honestly say I've never heard anyone back home complain about national health care."

Good one! Anna mouthed.

It also must have satisfied Tiffany because she simply went on. "Ingrid doesn't let negativity like that stop her. She's always telling us she likes having a bunch of smart kids around her to work with."

"And she does a bunch of charity work," Ashley said, "and she's just so civic minded." Then she leaned in and got conspiratorial. "Say...can you guys keep a secret?"

"Yes," Elsa and Anna said.

Ashley grinned. "I have the biggest girl-crush on your aunt…"

"That's not a secret," Tiffany complained.

"It's not?"

"Please...now that you told them the only person in this building that doesn't know you're crushing on Ingrid is Ingrid."

"Well I don't want her to know! What if she's weirded out about it?"

"Oh, but you're not worried about weirding out her nieces?"

"Well they know where I'm coming from…" She turned to the sisters. "Right? Hasn't there been someone in your lives who inspired you and uplifted you so much that you just...wanted to be around her all the time?"

This time Elsa and Anna glanced at each other and smiled before Elsa answered Ashley. "Kinda, yeah…"

Ashley settled back in her chair and said to Tiffany, "There, see? I feel totally vindicated."

"Shut up and eat," Tiffany said.

With that, Tiffany and Ashley went back to their breakfast sandwiches while Elsa and Anna went back to their chess. Soon the baristas were done and headed back upstairs, soon to be replaced by Wendy and Max. Elsa engaged them in the same conversation as before and she and Anna learned even more about what a good person Ingrid was in this realm, including her advocacy for what Max called the LGBT community, which meant nothing to the girls but apparently was something that raised Ingrid's esteem in both baristas' eyes.

When they had the break room to themselves again, Elsa and Anna stopped playing and thought about everything they'd heard. "I feel kind of horrible," Anna said. "We spent so much time thinking Ingrid is some kind of supervillain and all the time she's been single-handedly trying to make this realm a better place."

"She helps the poor, she mentors young people, she champions causes," Elsa said, "and all without magic powers. And she's done absolutely nothing to us since we arrived…"

"Except feed us…" Anna said.

"...and clothe and shelter us." Elsa said.

"What are we doing here, Elsa? Ingrid is a good, caring person and our family, and we just found out today that she might be in danger! We've got to do something!"

"But we don't even know what the danger is, and Ingrid said there might not be any danger at all."

"But what if she's wrong, and what if that Regina lady is…" She stopped suddenly as a thought struck her and took hold. "Wait...what if that Regina lady is both right and wrong?"

"I don't follow," Elsa said.

"Remember what I said about going to get the food?"

"What...that we were on a quest?"

"What if we are on a quest? Think about it. The powers of good would either send us on a quest or send us directly to fight the evil using that Lure spell. Now where we're from, the evil would be something we'd automatically get. It's a dragon, it's a sorcerer, it's an evil knight...but what if it's here, and what if whatever it is is so beyond our experience that we have to learn about this realm to understand it?"

Elsa smiled in understanding. "The Hero's Lure didn't bring us straight to the evil. It brought us to our quest, and our quest is to learn everything we can about this realm before we have to face the evil."

"And Ingrid isn't just the innocent we have to protect...she's our guide!"

"Little sister, sometimes you're a genius!"

"Hey! Whaddya mean 'sometimes?'"

The girls chuckled at that, then Elsa said, "You realize how this changes things. We can't even think of going back to Arendelle now. We have to stay in this realm as long as it takes to learn what we need to learn and fight whatever evil we must fight."

"And we have to stick close to Ingrid. Whether she thinks there's a danger or not, we have to be ready to keep her safe at all times. Arendelle will just have to do without us until we get back."

"It should be fine. Kai will manage the kingdom in my absence. There are contingencies already in place, and we know how to get back as soon as the danger is over."

Anna nodded. "The portal in the author's house in Storybrooke. We just have to convince Ingrid to take us there when the time is right,"

"Exactly...maybe there's a train that goes there?"

"But what if it's crowded? I don't want to stand up all the way to Storybrooke! I still think we should fly there…"

"Six miles off the ground?"

Anna shrugged. "Just...don't look down?"

They giggled at that, then decided to try and watch one of Ingrid's movies. They picked The Martian because they didn't know there were Martian people and wanted to see what they were like. They didn't understand half of what was going on, but they watched it all the way through because the Martian guy was funny.


They didn't see Ingrid again until a while after the movie was done and they had resumed their chess tournament. It was around noon and Ingrid came down to get them and take them to lunch. The trio went right back to the Cavalier Deli and this time sat down there to eat lunch sandwiches, spending a half hour before heading back to the coffee shop.

Ingrid's work day ended at Two. About five minutes prior she and the girls gathered their things and said their goodbyes to the other staff, then Ingrid led them out the door. "You two still have your Ventra cards?" She asked.

"Still do." Elsa said.

"Yep!" Anna said. "Back on the train?"

"Yep!" Ingrid said.

"I hope we can get a seat this time…"

"We should be able to. The evening rush doesn't start for another two hours. Of course we still might get caught in it. We're not going home yet."

"We're not?" Elsa said.

"Nope. We're going shopping!"

"More clothes?" Anna beamed.

"More clothes."

"Woo-hooo!"

"Can we get dresses this time?" Elsa pleaded.

"Be adventurous, Elsa…" Ingrid said.

"I can be adventurous in a dress. I promise."

The train brought them to within walking distance of what Ingrid described as a "department store," a place where several markets functioned under one roof. The girls gawked at everything until Ingrid got them into the Women's Apparel section, where they proceeded to act the way young girls all over the world did when faced by racks of new clothing. When the dust settled, after all the oohing and aahing and trying on and modeling were done, the Arendelles walked out of the store with enough mix-and-match seperates for five outfits each, sneakers and high-heeled pumps, purses and one dress apiece - which made Elsa happy - with knee length skirts - which made Elsa pout.

They managed to catch a train back just after the evening rush started, so there were seats available. They took it all the way back to the stop by the parking garage. From there they retrieved Ingrid's truck and were on their way back to Evanston and home.

As she pulled into evening traffic, Ingrid said, "We'll stop and get something for dinner on the way home."

"More sandwiches?" Anna said, smiling at the idea.

"You've had enough sandwiches today, young lady. No, there are a few places to get an actual meal near the house. Anyway, I hope you two weren't too bored today."

"Actually, I think we had fun, Aunt Ingrid," Elsa said. "I liked meeting all your friends and colleagues."

"And I loved seeing all the tall buildings." Anna said. "I think you should move your store to the top of that really tall one you showed us this morning instead of leaving it at the bottom of the other one."

"Sweetie, most of my sales depend on me selling stuff to the people on the way to the top of the building it's in. If I put it at the top I'd be out of business."

"Oh. Right. Didn't think of that…"

"You must forgive Anna," Elsa said. "I'm afraid she's still a little dazed from all the beatings she took at chess today."

"Ooh! So smug!" Anna snapped.

"Don't worry, Anna," Ingrid said. "You'll have plenty of time to get revenge tomorrow, and you can snoop around the house some more if you like. And, at dinner, we can discuss getting you to Storybrooke and finding a way to get you back to Arendelle."

Ingrid's eyes were on the road, so she didn't see the girls panic slightly. Elsa recovered first. "Um...Aunt Ingrid, we were thinking that we might like to join you again tomorrow."

"You would?" Ingrid said.

"Oh...yes!" Anna said. "We want to learn everything about running a coffee shop!"

"Everything, huh? That could take a long time. Aren't you in a hurry to get back?"

"The kingdom will keep without us," Elsa said. "We should take advantage of this opportunity. Maybe mother sent us here to really get to know each other, so let's do that."

Ingrid smiled at that. "I'd like that."

"Yay!" Anna said. Then: "Wait...does that mean we have to get up heinously early again tomorrow?"

That got Ingrid and Elsa laughing. "Yes, dear," ingrid said through chuckles, "We must get up heinously early again tomorrow."

Anna's moan at that got everybody giggling.

TBC...