A/N: Woohoo! Character development!

Just to refresh your memory, since I set it in a city I'm familiar with, both girls grew up around the city of Columbus, in Ohio, in the USA. Some of the suburbs I mention are around the area. :)

And, hey-just to clarify. This is definitely Elsanna, but I haven't talked about their back story yet. As we know, neither of them know their parents-but both have different reasons! I am not extremely familiar with the world of adoptions and foster care, so please tell me if I screwed something up. Again, I'm not going to force the sister issue, so please read into this what you would like to read into it. In my mind here, they're not, two totally different families, but I'm leaving it open depending on what you'd like to believe.

Thanks to so many of you for reviews, and please hit me up here or on Tumblr (gretchenwienershadcracked) with any comments. :)

Love,

Prez

Fifteen minutes had passed before the pizza all started to taste the same.

Half an hour in, Elsa was feeling uncomfortably full and was starting to resent Anna for this stupid contest.

Oh, hell, she could never hate this girl, but her stomach sure could. Anna was merrily chewing her way through the food, showing no signs of slowing down, and she had one or two curious fans who kept looking over at the table. Tony kept popping in to take photos. The pizza had a thin crust and not too much cheese, but the toppings sure were filling.

"Come on dude!" the strawberry blonde mumbled, taking a sip of the fruit punch she asked for. "I can't do it alone!" She patted Elsa's back with a little force. "Come on, burp a bit and there'll be room."

"Nope, I will totally puke," Elsa grunted, stealing a sip of fruit punch and carrying on valiantly.

Fifty minutes had passed. There were five pieces left. Anna looked a little worried, as if she had gone too fast and might explode. Elsa was sweating, had removed her jacket long ago and had rolled up the t-shirt sleeves.

"I'm going to kill you," she wheezed. "I have a demon in my stomach. It's made of cheese and sausage and...oooooggg," she groaned as a painful burp surfaced. "But I will not let this pizza defeat me."

"Shut up and keep moving," Anna whispered. People were definitely staring now, and one man even started clapping for them. The two girls locked eyes.

"For the fans," Anna said as she picked up another piece. "By the way, have I told you I love that necklace?"

Elsa smiled and then grimly set herself to her fate.

In the end, they finished with three minutes to spare.

A loud cheer went around the restaurant as Elsa collapsed back into her seat and closed her eyes.

This is what dying feels like, she thought firmly.

"Congratulations to Anna and Elsa!" Tony boomed. Elsa opened one eye as the portly man came over with t-shirts and gift certificates. "How do you feel?"

They both groaned, and he laughed, setting their winnings on a clean part of the table as . Elsa's pants were now uncomfortably tight, her fingers slick with pizza grease.

"I'm thoroughly impressed at us," Anna said. She looked at Elsa, smiling. The blonde wiped her fingers on a napkin.

"Do me a favor and call a paramedic," said the older girl, who couldn't help grinning back.

"Wanna blow this joint?"

"Totally, if I can move." Elsa didn't really want to leave, but she also didn't want to sit at this damn table and smell more food. She grabbed her jacket and motioned towards the door.

They walked out, again with a ton of applause, and got into the truck.

"I have chocolate in my room if you have room for dessert."

"Anna are you fucking kidding me, I won't eat for a weeeeek."

The strawberry blonde laughed, burped a bit, and revved up the truck.

They weren't driving very long before Anna realized it was now or never to ask what she had been thinking of asking all night.

"Do you, um-" she started, then paused.

"Do I what?" asked Elsa.

"Do you, I mean-do you wanna go home, or...I am just going to lounge around or something at the ZK house, and I figured we could hang out a bit more?"

"Yeah, I'd love to hang out," said the blonde warmly, and Anna felt a happy feeling settling in her chest above her pizza.

"Cool," she said, smiling.

They pulled up to the house, with Elsa jumping out first this time to offer Anna a hand down. The younger girl blushed a bit.

"Flatterer," she said teasingly, and Elsa nudged her as they walked to the door..

"My pants are gonna burst," said the taller girl as they walked into the brightly-lit foyer.

"Oh come on, you had so much fun! I'm so glad we finished it and I didn't have to fork over fifty bucks."

The blonde chuckled. "Why did you want to do that, anyhow?"

Anna shrugged as they (slowly) reached the top of the stairs. "Thought it would be fun! I love a good challenge." She waved at a few sisters who were chatting about something in a doorway, and then had a sudden idea. "Oh! So we have like...kind of a gym downstairs?"

Elsa's eyebrows went up. "You have a gym in your house?"

"Just two treadmills downstairs and some free weights, really." She pushed the door open to her room. "So, I was just thinking, maybe we could go walk off some of these calories?"

"You want me to move after I just did a 'Man vs. Food' challenge?" The blonde perched herself on one of Anna's desk chairs.

"I know you think you're funny, Elsa Michaels, but-"

"But what?" asked the blonde with a smirk that Anna found so endearing. "I'm hilarious."

"Yeah, okay." said Anna, flopping down on her loveseat with a groan. "My stomach is killing me."

"That was your fool idea," came a lazy reply.

"You had fun, though, trying to gain five pounds in one sitting." Anna's stomach gurgled. "Ugh, these pants are too tight, I'm changing." She sat up and made her way over to her dresser. "Well, if you don't want to go on the treadmill with me, do you at least want some shorts or something? I don't know about you, but my ass is about to bust out of these pants."

She turned around just in time to catch Elsa staring at her ass, and threw a pair of soccer shorts at her.

"Rude," she said, swiping a t-shirt from another drawer. "You can borrow a t-shirt if you want, too. I'll be right back."

Anna definitely had to go to the bathroom after all that pizza, but she wasn't about to admit that to Elsa.

After changing into a green t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants, the strawberry blonde walked back down to her room and knocked.

"You decent?"

"Yeah."

Elsa was in a light blue long-sleeved t-shirt and the black shorts Anna had given her. The shorter girl tried not to stare at those long legs, but really, it should have been a crime for two legs to look that good. And that blue shirt-damn. Elsa looked good in blue.

"So we might as well go walk this off, I suppose," the blonde said with a smirk. "Maybe I won't feel like dying any more." She looked down at her bare feet, frowning. "But I don't have any shoes with me."
"What size are you?" asked Anna, rummaging through her closet.

"Like, a 7 or an 8?"

"Perfect, me too." the strawberry blonde tossed a pair of running shoes over her shoulder.

They stopped by the kitchen to get bottles of water before going down to the basement. Some of the girls were washing dishes in the sink, and Anna stopped to give them all a hug before practically bouncing downstairs.

Being with Elsa made her bouncy.

The basement was cozy, with soft brown carpet and light pink trim around the cream-colored walls. The treadmills were in a big room next to the washers and dryers, with concrete floors and boring white paint. Anna had wanted to paint rainbows or something on there-it was a project she may take on a little later.

"Want any music or anything?" she asked. "What do you usually listen to?"

Elsa shrugged as she programmed one of the treadmills. "I usually listen to the news, to be honest."

"I like news!" said Anna brightly as she turned on NPR and got her own treadmill running.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Anna fixed on tying her hair in twin braids.

"So," she said over one of the news anchors. "I feel like we're friends, but I don't really know you like know you, you know?" Elsa nodded. "And you don't really know me, either," Anna continued. "But...ugh, this is so cheesy. I feel like...I can be myself with you? Like, and I really like hanging out with you?"

"I like hanging out with you, too," said Elsa in that delightfully husky voice.

Anna beamed.

"So, like...where are you from? You're from around here, right?"

Elsa pursed her lips, staring forward as she thought.

"It's kind of complicated, but yeah, I grew up in the area. How about you?"

"Yeah, well sort of. I was born in Columbus. But...my mom and dad died, and I grew up at a group home in the city for a while, a long while, and when I was in middle school and high school this nice pastor and his wife adopted me. I was like 10. But they were like super old and they retired after I graduated so I never got to see them anymore because they went to Florida. So now, I live here over break and in the summer and take care of the house."

"So...you're…"

"Yeah, an orphan. It's okay, I don't mind the term. I don't remember my parents at all-I think they died when I was still a baby."

"Damn," said Elsa, looking over at her with concern and-something else? "You-you don't really have anything from them?"

Anna shrugged. "I have some pictures of them, and pictures of me from when I was a baby. I guess...their families lived across the country, and they came to visit me when I was a kid, but when I moved in with the older couple at the church, the visits kind of stopped. It's okay though, I have my sisters here now." She smiled, even if thinking about it too much made her sad. "So, I went to school in Westerville."

Elsa nodded. "Which one?"

"Oh, South."

"Hmmm. When did you graduate?"

"In 2012."

The blonde hummed as she took a sip of water. "We may have run into one another if you ever went to any of the football games. I went to Darby for a year and a half."

"Oh, no way!" said Anna. "I went to a few of the games." She paused. Elsa said she only was at Darby for a year and a half?

Elsa looked like she wanted to say something; there was brain matter working behind those eyes. So Anna focused on her treadmill time and on the news, biting her tongue and trying to keep from questioning the older girl.

"I was in...a similar situation, but I never found a home that was good for me," she said quietly. "My mom gave me up when I was a baby. Just...kind of did the stereotypical thing and left me at a police station with a note."

Anna's jaw dropped. Elsa's voice was cold, sounded angry all of a sudden. "The officers had to take me somewhere, so one of them kept me for the night and then took me the next morning." She smiled sadly. "He would visit me at the home when I was a kid and I would always ask about my family. But he didn't know anything. And he would always tell me about how he had no idea what to feed me, how the police officers sat around that night watching me in my little carrier.

"One of them finally went out and bought bottles and formula, and they fed me, and when they had to leave the station one of them strapped me in and I went out on a call. And I would laugh at the idea of a baby riding in a police car and maybe accidentally pushing the siren button."

She sighed. Anna had slowed down her walking speed and was watching Elsa speak. The blonde ran her hand through messy bangs. "I moved around a lot because someone would want to take me in and I just didn't feel happy in their house or something. So I'm like two years behind in school, technically. Had to stop and start grades a few different times because I kept leaving, starting at a new school, and then coming back to live with the rest of the kids."

Her face was a bit dark, and her phone buzzed as she stared ahead. Elsa looked at it, and then groaned.

"But, you know, now I have these three assholes that I live with who are either like little brothers or like children," she said with a smirk. "Olaf just asked me if I would go with him to get his ear pierced this weekend and he took a selfie of himself and some of my earrings." She shook her head. "They're my family. And I am pretty sure I might be a bit more miserable without them around."

"Hey, it takes all kinds. My family is comprised of 52 sorority girls, and I'm the mom," Anna mused. Her phone buzzed. "Oh look, one of them needs me."

"If you are the mom, you have some hot kids. And there are probably plenty of hotties who graduated already. Hey-can I move in?" Elsa joked.

Anna snorted, and relaxed a bit as she felt the tension dissipate. She understood Elsa's past, of course-but she had been a bit luckier, having been adopted. And-well, there was a distinct difference between being orphaned and being given up by a mom who didn't want you.

Anna had met many other foster kids in her lifetime. She knew the difference. She knew how so many of the kids longed for someone to love them, someone to want them.

Hesitantly, she held out her hand in Elsa's direction. The older girl glanced down, then slipped her palm in Anna's.

"Thanks for sharing your story," Anna said softly, searching Elsa's face.

The blue eyes looked over, still tinged with sadness, but she smiled slightly as she squeezed Anna's hand.

"Topic switch?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, totally. Uh...so what's your favorite food? Is it pizza? I bet it's pizza!"

Elsa laughed.

"I'm never eating pizza again, Anna Johnson. You have ruined it for me. ...Well, aside from candy, I really like mashed potatoes. What's yours?"

"Chocolate!" said Anna. "And probably mac and cheese. What's your favorite color?"

"Light blue. Yours?"

"Uhhhh pink, I think. First concert you ever saw?"

"Oh damn, I think it was Three Doors Down. You?"

"Mine was Britney Spears!"

They chattered on, still walking side by side, neither wanting to let go of the other's hand.

Author's note again: Thanks to all of you again for reading! Special thanks and un abrazo to my faithful reviewers el-sana, Base Guardian, olafscarrot, crazydiscounicorn, Me and My Luck, ajunebuga, and engarem0912. Another hug to everyone else. :)

Hope to have something else this weekend, even though I'm busy all day Sat with chorus rehearsal.