I can't do this...
But I need to…
But I can't…
Emotion swirled within Elsa as she made her way home. The drive back from the desert may have been bad, but at least she had had Olaf's company. Driving back home, alone with her thoughts, proved much worse.
How will I explain this to Mr. Henderson? How will I tell Olaf I don't want to do this anymore?
How will I explain it to Anna?
She pulled into the driveway of her house and put the car in park before shutting off the engine. She didn't get out right away, though. Instead she sat in the car for a while, thinking, breathing, trying to think up a good lie to tell Anna.
Maybe I could tell her that I went to the library? Oh, even better- I'll just tell her that I was working on a project with Olaf! That sorta worked on John so it should work on-
"Elsa?" Anna asked from the other side of Elsa's driver's side window.
Shit.
"Oh, uh… H- hey, Anna," the blonde said awkwardly. She unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door of the car, pushing Anna out of the way.
"Where ya been?" Anna asked.
"Oh, you know… Around..." Elsa said.
Well aren't I a fucking genius at deception?
Anna was obviously unimpressed by Elsa's response. "Huh," she said. "Well, I cooked myself dinner half an hour ago and there's still some left. It's in the kitchen." She then turned and headed back inside without waiting for a response from her sister.
After the front door of the house latched, Elsa finally decided to get out of her car. She shut the front door of the car behind her and turned to open the back door to get her backpack. She reached blindly to grab her backpack, searching for it by feeling instead of sight. The girl eventually found what she was looking for and pulled it out of the car.
The backpack she had found wasn't hers, though. It was John's. The boy's backpack was grey, but it had been drawn on with markers of various colours. There was a tear running along one of the seams that had been sewn back together haphazardly with black thread.
Didn't think about what I would do with this…
Elsa simply threw the backpack back into the car. She didn't want to confront her feelings again this soon. She then grabbed her own backpack and made her way inside.
Elsa closed the door behind her and placed her backpack next to the door. Anna had gone off to her room, leaving the living room unusually quiet. Elsa paused for a second, unsure of what she should do.
I think I'll try some of whatever Anna made.
Elsa then made her way to the kitchen to find a bowl of cooked spaghetti smothered in tomato sauce, perfectly portioned for one. Anna had clearly planned to serve two, and Elsa felt a bit guilty for not returning soon enough to eat with her sister.
Elsa picked a fork out of the cutlery drawer and drew a small amount of spaghetti from the bowl to test its temperature. Finding that it was cold, Elsa put the bowl in the microwave and set the time to thirty seconds. She then walked over to the fridge and retrieved a bottle of iced tea from it. She turned around to get a cup when a spark from the microwave caught her eye.
"Oh fuck!" Elsa exclaimed as she ran over to the machine. She had left her fork in the bowl. She hastily flung the door of the microwave open and was hit with a faint smell of burning plastic. The blonde reached in and removed the fork from the bowl. The heat of the fork burned her, causing her to drop it. The utensil bounced towards the living room before sliding to a stop near the seam between linoleum and carpet on the floor.
"Great," Elsa said before making her way to where the fork had landed. As she walked she noticed that the lid of the piano had been left open. After picking up the fork, Elsa made her way over to the piano to close the lid.
She paused to look at the music resting on the piano. It was hand-written, and Elsa had never seen it before. She assumed Anna had composed it. She studied the music for a moment before sitting down on the piano bench. She then attempted to play what Anna had wrote. Within seconds Elsa realized that Anna had put on paper the song she had shown the blonde the night before.
But Anna never writes down her music… Must've been a boring afternoon.
Although Elsa was a decent sight reader, and this wasn't a very complex piece, she found it difficult to work through her sister's composition. The accidentals and strange harmonies incorporated in the song proved difficult to articulate, being so unconventional. It took Elsa nearly twice the time it should've taken to play the song, and the girl made more than a few mistakes throughout.
I have to do better than that.
So Elsa sat there for a while longer, determined to do a better job at playing her sister's song. The second attempt was certainly better, but only slightly, so Elsa began the song once more.
In the end Elsa sat there for nearly forty-five minutes, repeating Anna's song over and over but even still she was unsatisfied. As she began the song for the umpteenth time she heard the stairs creak under the weight of her sister's steps.
"Elsa?" the redhead began. "What's up? Why are you playing my song?"
Elsa stop playing and turned around to face her sister. "Oh, I uh," she said, "I don't know. I just saw it here and I figured I'd… ya know…"
Anna wasn't impressed with Elsa's reason, but she dropped the subject. "So, need some help there?" she said.
"Oh, uh, nah," Elsa said. "I think I got it."
"Then play it for me," Anna replied cockily.
"Oh, alright," Elsa said. She began the piece with a lump in her throat, afraid she would stumble over some of the more difficult parts of the song.
Meanwhile Anna walked into the kitchen to find the microwave still open, with the bowl of spaghetti still inside. She also noticed the bottle of tea sitting atop the counter on the other side of the room. "Got carried away, huh?" the younger sibling asked. She didn't expect an answer. "Left the door open and everything," she added before closing the door of the microwave and setting the time to forty seconds.
Ultimately Elsa made it through her sister's song without making too many mistakes. She did strike a few wrong notes, though, and it was obvious she was disappointed in herself for doing so.
"Hey, not bad," Anna said.
"Yeah, whatever," Elsa replied, her tone more melancholy than before.
Anna immediately sensed something was wrong and walked over to Elsa. She sat down next to the older girl, wrapping her right arm around Elsa's back and pulling her close. "Something's up," she stated. "What is it?"
"I… It's just… I keep trying to do this right and every time I mess it up a little bit," Elsa said. Although it was a weak explanation for her sudden sadness, it was true. The girl felt like she had disappointed her sister by playing her piece wrong.
"Yeah, but," Anna began, "it's more than that." She relaxed her grip on Elsa. "What's the deal? You're not acting like… like you."
Yeah, yeah, mom.
The microwave beeped. Anna then stood and walked towards the kitchen to fetch Elsa's food.
Well… I suppose she sort of is like my mom. I mean, look at her, she does all this motherly stuff and all…
Anna removed the bowl from the microwave and shut the door.
All the things I'm supposed to do for her.
Anna sat the bowl of spaghetti, along with a fork and glass of tea atop the piano. "You ought to eat something," she said.
"Anna, I… you don't have to do all this for me, you know," Elsa said.
"Yeah, well, if I don't… who will?" Anna said playfully.
Anna's words stung a bit to Elsa. The fact of the matter is, she was right. If Anna wasn't around, Elsa never took to doing the things she needed to do. She needed her.
The blonde spun a lump of spaghetti around her fork and raised it up to her mouth. As she pulled the fork away a single noodle flopped down onto her chin. Anna playfully grabbed the loose end of the noodle and put it in her own mouth. She puckered her lips and made an obnoxious sucking noise before biting off the end of the noodle and giggling.
Anna then spun another lump of spaghetti around the fork. She picked it up and passed it in front of Elsa's face, saying "here comes the airplane." She then sat the fork back in the bowl and laughed. Elsa couldn't help but giggle herself.
Anna was treating her sister like a child. While on one hand it was inappropriate and embarrassing, on the other hand Elsa didn't care.
At least for now she knew she had her.
A/N So... I skipped a week. Yeah, I know I said I would update every week but what can you do? School woes like usual, plus Big Hero 6 came out last week and I was too caught up in the hype surrounding that to even breathe (The movie is amazing, by the way, if you haven't seen it). So anyway, this isn't what I originally had planned for this chapter, but I just couldn't stand the idea of making you guys wait another week, so here you go, more Elsanna fluff. Expect the next chapter to be much more interesting. Also, shoutout to FrozenHeartsDontBeat. The name of this chapter is a nod to their story. I suggest you go check it out if you get the chance.
Happy reading,
for-the-first-time-in-never