NOTE: Okay, so I know this story has thus far been pretty romance-heavy, especially the last few chapters. Which is fine, of course! But this upcoming chapter is a turning point with the plot in couple of ways. Hopefully everyone finds it to their liking.

To address drakefyre's comment: Elsa was only referring to Anna as a "strumpet" due to the risque outfit she was wearing, and yes, in the more modern connotation.

Also, while listening to this I discovered something to set the mood: look up "DeepLoungeMusic" on Youtube. They do covers of pop hits in a 60s smooth jazz style, it's really… bizarre, but good! I especially liked "Somebody That I Used To Know" and the Adele ones, ahaha.

And this is a birthday present from me to all of you (even though it's my birthday, ahaha). Thanks for sticking with me for 10 years of fanfiction writing, no matter how much of that time we've spent together!

Jessex


Chapter 11: Working The Room

The Suarez Centre was awash with the sounds of clinking glasses and sophisticated conversation, so much so that it spilled outside and into the night surrounding. The gorgeous little three-story building with its flying buttresses and ornate scrollwork had been heralded as an architectural marvel by critics and the common man alike when construction completed ten years previous. It might have been sorely out of place in such a modern city, but that was part of the charm.

Of course, the only reason North Mountain were granted the space without having to pay a small fortune to book it was because it benefitted the Fredricksen Foundation. The city council and the directors of the centre loved charity functions almost as much as they liked tax revenue.

"I can't go in there."

Elsa rolled her eyes. "You can, and you will."

"No, I can't!" Swallowing thickly, Anna adjusted the sweetheart neckline of her dress for the hundredth time, apparently trying to hide her cleavage. An exercise in futility if ever there was one, but it made Elsa giggle inwardly. "Everybody's going to see my goods! What if I don't want them on display, since they're not for sale?!"

"It's a bit late for second thoughts now, love. We're at the gates of Hell."

Pursing her lips, she leaned forward to gaze past Elsa and out the tinted window of the limousine to the one couple standing just outside the three sets of double-doors, champagne flutes in hand and laughter in their faces, and the two guards checking invitations. "Which one of those guys is supposed to be Cerberus?"

"Anna, please!"

"Fine, fine! Lead on, Highness!"

Sighing heavily, Elsa picked up her clutch in one gloved hand and reached the other back for her companion's. After a moment's hesitation, she felt a thin hand slip inside hers, but it trembled so much that she paused halfway to the door. "Anna?"

"Get moving, slowpoke. I don't want to miss all those canapés or whatever."

"Anna, you don't have to go if you really don't want to, I would understand. Herbie can take you home as easily as he can sit around the block waiting for us, and I wouldn't think any less of y-"

"I'm nervous, yes," she breathed, chewing at her lower lip for a brief moment. "But I'm going. Th-this is important to you, and… I am curious how the Arendopolois elite throw a shindig."

Elsa watched Anna's face for another few seconds, to make absolutely sure she was ready to be seen, critiqued and treated like fresh meat on a hook in an enormous freezer. Then she rapped on the window glass twice. A young valet sprung to the car to open the door, allowing her to more easily glide from the limousine's innards and gently lift her guest out after.

"Names, please," one of the guards asked in a deep, rumbling voice that brooked no discussion of the matter.

"Elsa Froiland, plus one."

The man raised an eyebrow; it was impossible to miss. However, his only other action was to glance down his clipboard and mark off Elsa's name before gesturing for she and Anna to pass.

"Oh, this is fun already," Anna moped under her breath. "That guy thought we were weird."

"No, he was mildly surprised I brought anyone. Keith has been working the door at our functions for a few years now, and I've always shown up stag. Or 'doe', I suppose, since I'm a woman. Why is a male-specific term used for showing up to a party sans-escort?"

"Are you sure it's just that, and not that we're…?"

A light shrug as they glided past the useless coat check; it wasn't nearly cold enough to bother. "Might be, but I shouldn't think so. Either way, you saw he didn't let it deter his professionalism, and that's as much as I expect from our hired hands."

They both held up short at the wide archway that led through to the main ballroom. After a moment of coughing and fidgeting, Elsa turned and fussed with the elegant little silver necklace draped around her companion's neck, making sure the jewelled charm was dead center on her chest.

"Stop it, Mom," Anna half-tittered.

"Th-that is in no way acceptable!" Elsa hissed, feeling her face beginning to warm. It drew attention to their age difference, which was something she still felt the tiniest bit sensitive about. But as Anna laughed, she took a few deep breaths and regained her composure; she had years of practice at exactly that. "Alright. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be. Let's go wow these stuffy old geezers."

When Elsa and Anna stepped through the archway, every last eye was drawn to the pair. The reasons were varied and equally important. Firstly, the head of the company throwing the ball had arrived. Secondly, arrived with a woman on her arm. Thirdly, arrived in a stunning dress of rich, royal violet with a Queen Anne neckline and long, elegant opera gloves that had half the women in the room salivating with jealousy. And most of the men simply salivating.

Still, Elsa suspected that Anna's emerald-and-seafoam creation was the one earning them all the lingering stares. She was only too happy that Ella's seamstresses (or more likely a computer program of seamstresses) had been able to recreate the dress in green so quickly. Elsa's dress was a handmade original; it could not have been palette-swapped nearly so fast.

Changing the colour had been necessary, though, and not just because Anna looked best in green. No matter how you sliced it, showing up in matching dresses would have been tacky. And telling.

"Why do I keep hearing the theme from Jaws in my head?" Anna whispered.

"Hush, they won't devour you. Not whole. Maybe take little nibbles here and there."

"You've had one too many nibbles already, my dear. Shouldn't you give your hips a little more consideration?"

Both Elsa and Anna turned to their left to see a slender woman with her greying hair teased up so that it looked more like a cushion than a part of her anatomy. Her drawn, haughty features left no room for dissention in her presence, as if she were royalty, and her blood red dress did nothing to refute this air of oppressive authority.

"Sowena," Elsa said in a falsely welcoming tone. Even Anna winced at the pretense while her date managed to just barely catch hold of the elderly woman's fingers, holding them away from herself as if an unclean animal she'd found scurrying in an alley before dropping them again. "Had no idea you were in the States for this little soiree. Tell me, how's that sciatica treating you lately?"

The woman's smile was both bitter and poisonous. "Oh, I'd managed to forget every word about it. Until just now, funnily enough." She glanced back and forth between the two of them pointedly. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Ah, forgive my manners. Anna, this is the Lady Tremaine."

When Anna took her hand, mimicking Elsa's gesture, Sowena rolled her eyes artfully, as one who'd had a lot of practice with the action might. "I am third in line for the marquessdom, it's hardly anything worth mentioning."

"And yet you do, often and vocally." Before the Lady could respond to that, Elsa smoothly continued, "Sowena, this is Anna Snowman. Her company is a recent aquisition; I'm bringing her along as a courtesy. Thought she might enjoy seeing us all dressed up like tannenbaums."

"Yuletide greetings, then, Snowman," the woman quipped distractedly as she stared at the stage.

"I'm sorry, are we boring Your Ladyship?"

Sowena pulled a face of genuine regret. "It's just that I was so looking forward to hearing Sir James Blunt. His second heart replacement is supposedly a medical miracle, but it seems his recovery is taking longer than projected. What does anybody know about this, this… who is she supposed to be?"

"Aurora," Anna breathed, pupils already dilating.

Elsa allowed herself a small smile. Hopefully, it would never make its way back to Anna's ears how, the instant she found out about Mr. Blunt's breaking the date, she had demanded Aurora's number from Sven and given the young diva a call. A fair amount of haggling over booking price and repeated mentions of the charity the funds would go toward finally lured her to their gala. This news had obviously made its way around the Arendopolis social circles, as she spotted many younger faces in the crowd that normally gave this event a miss. Her star power may really have been the best thing for the benefit, regardless of Elsa's initial motivation.

Aurora herself was stunning, waves of honey-coloured hair striking against her barely-there pink catsuit - and there were so many strategically-placed holes in it that it barely counted as a suit at all. However, instead of the thumping beats that usually accompanied her songs, there was a string quartet, a drummer well-versed in lounge percussion, and a pianist, and the prima donna's vocals did not suffer for them. In Elsa's opinion, she sounded much better this way.

"Go and say hello," she whispered to Anna.

"What?! N-no, I- are you freaking kidding me? She's Aurora, she's famous! I cannot even be breathing her air right now!"

"When she takes a break, then," she snickered, reaching out to pluck champagne from a passing tray. "Honestly, she's here for the same event you are. Don't be shy."

The rouge in Anna's cheeks was not part of her makeup. "I'll b-be as shy as I want!"

"Not around the office, she isn't!" said Kai as he joined them, a brownish suit stretched tightly over his midsection. It was only then that Elsa noticed Sowena had wandered away at some point, and found she cared very little. "In fact, she's warmer and more approachable than most kindergarten teachers. Miss Snowman, Miss Froiland."

"Hey, I didn't expect to see you here," Anna said, hugging the man who had blessedly distracted her from being in the presence of tabloid royalty. He blinked in surprise for a moment before returning her embrace with a bemused grin. "Thought this was just for bigwig types!"

"It is, it is, but I managed to sneak an invitation this year! I wonder how I did that…?"

Elsa pursed her lips, nudging him in the paunch. "No idea what you're hinting at. Anyway, how are things looking over in the accounting department?"

"Never better! Nothing… out of the ordinary. Which is great; it makes my job easier!'

"I'm sure it does," she breathed in some relief. So they weren't trying to put anything over on her from that angle; it at least eased her worries in one spot, if not entirely. "Any other water cooler gossip I might find interesting?"

"Well…"

"Out with it, Hall."

The pained look on his face made it clear he was uncomfortable revealing what had reached his ears - nearly as uncomfortable as Anna was with being this adjacent. Which was why she made a polite nod to Elsa and Kai as she moved off to inspect a nearby statue.

"Word is," Kai murmured as he leaned in, "that the players in the Winter Consortium are about to make a move."

"What sort of move? Any details, any at all?"

"Search me, Ma'am. Wish I could do any better than that. And I can't tell you who told me, either, so there's no point pushing for it."

Her smile was tired but grateful when she pulled back enough to look her old friend in the eyes. "Wouldn't dream of it. And thank you."

"Anytime." He took a deep breath, smoothing what was left of his hair down as his voice raised above a whisper again. "Well, Mrs. Hall is probably over there telling anyone with a pulse about my colonoscopy video, so I'd better go stand around and look upset. Excuse me."

As Kai moved off to hopefully silence his wife, Elsa spotted someone else in the crowd; a boorish, thick-necked jackinapes she had hoped never to see again. She also noted that his hands were all over another someone with luxurious dark ringlets who was mostly resigned to letting him do it, even though once in a while her eyelid twitched.

That wouldn't do. Not in the slightest.

When she finally reached them, she saw him suddenly pause in mid-movement. Then he withdrew both hands to himself in the same motion as he turned to look at her. "Ah! Hello there, Miss Froiland, wh-what a pleasant surprise!"

"Pleasant surprise, Huntsman? You do know I organised this event, don't you?"

"Well, yes," Gaston grunted, eyeing his companion nervously. "Just didn't think I'd see you out here, mingling with common folk like us."

"You are woefully common," she admitted with a glare. "However, you're also a guest who I expect paid his fair way into being here, and I wouldn't dream of asking you to leave. Unless you caused some sort of… for example, disturbance. Naturally, that would be unwelcome."

"Naturally."

The bespectacled woman at Gaston's elbow seemed quite curious about this exchange, and stood back a few inches to watch it more properly. "Anyone you'd like to introduce me to?"

"R-right, where are my manners?" Swallowing down his evident fear, he gestured between them. "Belle, Elsa; Elsa, Belle."

"From accounting," Elsa said with a bright grin as she shook the demure woman's hand. "Mr. LeGume has told me so much about you."

"How would he do that?" Belle asked baldly. "I bet he could count the number of things he knows about me on one finger."

"Not true!" Gaston objected strongly. "Your favourite place to eat lunch is Mario's on Fifth."

"That's your favourite place. Mine is- oh, what's the point?"

"Be a dear and get your plus one a glass of water? She looks a bit peaky." Elsa's white teeth flashed. "Unless you'd like me to accompany you? Thought I told you what might happen if we crossed paths again - and here you are, with Belle!"

"Going, going!" he said hurriedly. "I m-mean, wouldn't want her to faint or anything!" Then he was high-tailing it out of there before the situation could devolve further.

"Thank you," Belle half-laughed, hiding the sound and accompanying grin behind her daffodil-coloured glove. "He hasn't taken one hint from me to back off in the last half-hour."

"And he likely never will. How on earth did that ox convince you to come with him?"

Belle's delicate shoulders lifted in a tiny shrug. "He had an extra ticket. Plus, I've never been to one of these. When you're as low on the corporate food chain as I am, you tend not to find your way into that many social functions."

"Ah, quite. Still… you'll let me know if he gives you any further trouble, won't you? He and I have a certain… understanding." And with that, they touched their wrist computers together, exchanging contact information.

"You do, huh? What, are you sleeping with him already?" The instant she saw the disgust cross Elsa's face, Belle cleared her throat and added, "Sorry, I- wow, did I misread that! And I usually read things so well - just ask anyone, my nose is always stuck in a book!"

"My skin is crawling. No, seriously, look at it crawl!"

They both laughed and made small talk until Gaston returned with a Perrier and a hangdog expression. Elsa and Belle exchanged a brief hug and she left before he could re-engage her in conversation, but not without shooting him a death glare to remind him of the peril that may befall him should he disregard her ample warnings to treat the accountant with deference and respect.

Elsa spent the next five or ten minutes mingling, circulating among the various faces and names she recalled just well enough to produce a few dusty facts with a flourish and come off seeming at the top of her game. This evening would be talked about for weeks.

When she finally made her way back toward Anna's side, she was mildly irked to see David Xanatos chatting her up, a hand possessively pawing at her elbow, her head tipped back in laughter. Before she could wing her way yet closer, however, she was waylaid.

"Elsa, dahhhling!" Ella of Felton's cried out as she threw her hands upon Elsa's shoulders and drew her in for a pair of socialite air-kisses on either side of her face. "Thank God, I've been looking for you all evening! Where is my creation? How does it hang? I was worried about a little tweak I did with the bustline, wanted to see with my own eyes how it turned out!"

Laughing uncomfortably at Ella's obviously alcohol-increased volume, she gestured to the corner where David was apparently getting to know Anna better. "There it hangs."

Elsa's collagen-inflated lips pursed. "Hmm. I seem to recall some very vocal crowings in my shop about that pretty little redhead being your newest… acquisition?"

"Oh, stop that!" Elsa hissed self-consciously. "Can't you leave well enough alone?"

"Please, I am merely curious about why you're here and she's with him. Is that a crime?"

"She's j-just being friendly."

They both watched Anna place a hand on David's lapel as she laughed, saw the flash of his teeth as he laughed with her. "You said it, not me."

"Get out of it."

"Getting out," Ella sighed with a roll of her eyes. "There's Dearly; we have a date to pick apart that Aurora trollop's hideous dayglo outfit."

Elsa squared her shoulders as she prepared to move through the throng again. "Ah, the wonders mutual hatred can work on two bitter rivals. You'll excuse me, then?"

"Go get your girlie back, Froiland." The football-worthy pat on the behind as she walked away made Elsa yelp, but it wasn't the most ridiculous act Ella had ever perpetrated, either. The list was long and embarrassing.

It took nearly another two minutes for the CEO to disentangle herself from three involved conversations and just barely avoid getting mini-quiches smeared all down her dress. Then, she found herself next to Anna and David, blinking at the suddenness with which she had achieved her goal.

"Well, there she is," David said easily, working his charm for all it was worth. "We were beginning to think you didn't have time for the little people."

"You know what they say," Elsa began sweetly. "There are no small men; only small appendages." While two pairs of eyes were still widening at that barb, she turned to Anna. "I trust David has been sparkling company, as usual?"

"Actually, he was just telling me about his cottage up in Canada," Anna said, cheeks aglow with excitement at their surroundings - and possibly the champagne flute in her hand.

"Outside Calgary," David elaborated as he adjusted a cufflink. "I invited Miss Snowman up anytime she wishes to do a little skiing. The invitation includes yourself, of course."

"Of course."

Then he did that thing Elsa had known he would do: he began to deftly control the conversation in a way she was sure he had not been doing until she arrived. "You would be arriving together, yes?"

Elsa's mouth opened slowly - too slowly, for Anna had already blurted, "Yeah, of course!"

"The airlines likely have a special friends' rate," Elsa added carefully, glaring at David.

"Likely so," he said with a wide smile. Elsa wondered if Anna caught the triumphant gleam in his eye as if he had unearthed something crucial to his master plan. She merely hoped that wasn't literal. What if this tied in with what the Consortium was plotting against her?

"Ohhhkay," Anna said uncomfortably, clearly having missed any darker implications but sensing that she wasn't in on the whole story. "Doesn't that sound like fun, though? I haven't been skiing since I was a little girl!"

"A right little treat, yes."

David waved over their heads to someone across the room before returning his attentions to Elsa. "How many times did you go with… what was her name again? Carol or something?"

That was when she felt her veins begin to run thick with shards of ice. Anything but that. "A few. Skiing wasn't her thing; more for tropical getaways than parkas and balaclavas. Now, if you'll excuse us, there's someone I'd like Anna to meet."

As they moved off, Elsa felt his eyes on her back, stabbing into her soul as if he has preternatural powers. Perhaps he did. The company at large had never known much about her romantic entanglements, and Xanatos had not even been with them in those days. How did he know? Why was he making it his business to unsettle her and generally cause a mess in her life?

"Who's Carol?" Anna whispered, dodging a careless elbow. "Was she your last, um…"

"I don't know any Carol."

Anna frowned slightly, irritated by Elsa's reticence. "Well, it sounded like he got the name wrong, so whoever he meant when he said Carol."

"Hmm."

"H-how long were you two, um… together?"

"A while."

"Why are we moving so fast? Who do you have to introduce me to, anyway?"

"Anybody who isn't that manipulative snake, David."

"Wh… I'm sorry, but I don't get what you mean! He was perfectly nice to me."

At last, Elsa sighed and stopped, turning to look her full in her bright, sparkling turquoise eyes. "Not everyone who's trying to use or hurt you actually socks you across the dial, pet. Haven't you ever met anyone with a hidden agenda before?"

"Fine," Anna grunted as she folded her arms. "What's his hidden agenda, then? Still that stupid consortium thing? I thought they already did what they set out to accomplish."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. But he's trying to pit us against each other; get you thinking about my former lovers and distrusting me. Maybe they heard about…" She swallowed thickly; none of her board members were dancing or standing nearby. "About what my call told me."

Anna nodded, eyebrows hiking. "But how could they even know that? You had OLAF sweep your office for bugs! That's crazy paranoid!"

"Crazy paranoid is how you keep your head above water in this world."

"Just tell me about Not-Carol, then. Clear the air. Then he won't have any ammunition to use against either of us."

Every last ounce of energy drained from Elsa's face, and it was only through sheer determination she was able to keep from falling backward into whoever's arms might have been standing behind her. This was all just far too much. "That's not a five second conversation, Anna."

"Why? Did she dump you? Did you catch her cheating, did she embezzle company funds? Does she have three nipples? I mean, come on, give me somewhere to work from!"

Elsa couldn't help laughing. "Three what?"

Anna's reply got drowned out by scattered applause, and the next moment they found themselves being chivvied gently aside by none other than Aurora herself. "God, these old people are kind of stodgy, but it gives me an idea for a music video."

"My apologies," Elsa sighed, trying her best to hide the annoyance at being interrupted.

"Wait… that accent. Are you Elsa Freeland?"

"Froiland," Anna corrected in a distant voice, but Elsa was already nodding as if used to that.

"Schway," the pop star said with a slight smile. "So this was your idea. It's kitschy, I like it." She lowered her voice a tiny fraction of a decibel. "Too bad all these fogeys are kind of dragging it down, but it's cool. Guess you need these types to give to the charity or whatever."

"Right in one," she answered blandly. Then she gestured to the side. "Aurora, Anna Snowman."

"Oh my God, I loved your book!" Anna said in a hushed voice, acting as if they were on hallowed ground and Aurora were some sort of Pope-like figure. "And that movie you had the cameo in? I caught it on cable just to see you, and you were hilarious!"

"Nobody gets that," Aurora replied contemplatively. "Most of my songs have humour in them nobody notices, too. It's the eternal curse of an artist that nobody will fully understand her art. I like you, Annie."

For some strange reason, she then booped Anna's nose with an index finger before moving off into the crowd, eyes scanning for a drink.

"Did she just, um, add me to some kind of mental collection of people who don't suck?" Anna said, positively vibrating with excitement.

They both exchanged a flabbergasted grin. Elsa wanted to rush forward and kiss her when she looked like that. Moreso than every other second of the day, when she still wanted to do the same.

Then the squeal of a microphone picking up feedback from the speakers brought their flinching attentions up to the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for coming!" began old Dick Weselton, looking quite dapper in his top and tails for once, even if it was a dapper from another millennium. "Yes, on behalf of North Mountain and myself, this really is one of the most worthy things we do all year, and it's so good to see you all in attendance - and with your pocketbooks at the ready!"

Weak laughter met his ears. Someone coughed.

"What is he doing?" Elsa hissed as he continued to blather about the Fredricksen Foundation and how the proceeds from the cost of each ticket and any further donations would go almost entirely to the children. "This is supposed to be my speech, and it's not supposed to happen for another hour!"

"Maybe he just wanted to do his part," Anna suggested reasonably. "Or maybe Aurora needed a break and he's trying to fill in."

"Maybe," Elsa conceded grudgingly. "But I still- eh?"

Her wrist had pinged. As she kept Dick in the corner of her eye, she brought her wristphone up and saw she had a new message from an anonymous sender. Figuring it had to be at least somewhat more interesting than her colleague's droning speech, she opened it.

And immediately covered the tiny projection with her other hand.

"What?" Anna whispered, moving in to crowd around her and help block the view from the other guests, sensing that it wasn't something for public eyes. "What's wrong? Did… did you… oh."

It was a three-dimensional image of the two of them embracing in the ball pit at Wonderland Galleria, Elsa's face still just barely visible above the coloured spheres, Anna's grin standing out in strong relief. They both looked silly in a playground for children and they both looked extremely sapphic in that instance.

Scrolling across the midpoint of the image were these words: Your position or your reputation?

"What in the fu-"

"CEO Elsa Froiland!"

At hearing Dick call out her name, her eyes jerked up to see he was turning the crowd in her direction. Instantly, she thumbed the wristphone off and stood straighter. What was going on?

"That's it, there we go!" he went on merrily as she climbed the steps to the stage to stand next to him, smiling easily at the crowd as if this had been what she expected all along. "Right, then. We have a little announcement to make regarding the future of North Mountain, everyone!"

There was a curious muttering throughout the Suarez Centre at those words. As Elsa held her plastic smile in place, she scanned the crowd for the other Consortium members; Esmeralda looked bored and Clayton looked positively triumphant. David, on the other hand, was simply watching with great interest, mouth hidden behind a wine glass. He wouldn't have missed this for all the vodka in Koltsovo - and that's a lot of vodka.

"It's been a fairly… open secret that our overseas divisions aren't doing quite so well as our Arendopolis offices," Dick went on, voice dropping as if greatly saddened or disturbed by this news. Such theatrics, Elsa thought. "The saddest part is that our CEO's home country of Norway has been hit hard by the recent recession there - and even though the country is now flush again, that branch of our company has yet to recover."

It was true. Her last terse communique from her father - at Christmas, the only time he heard from him other than her birthday - had said as much, and she had glanced over the company reports. One of many things on her list to tackle eventually.

"Therefore, it is with a mixture of both regret and pride that we announce our big cheese herself, Elsa Froiland, will be relocating to Bygdøy to breathe new life into our interests there! Let's hear it for this bold move, everyone!"

And then it all came together in her mind as the hands began to come together, as a few people whistled or cheered. This had been the meaning of their forming a consortium, and of all their posturing, and of moving money around and buying or selling companies as they saw fit. It had likely even been their hope long before she started vocally complaining about their practises; that she would show herself to be too personally invested in a single cause for reasons other than business. Proven by the photo currently in her wristphone's inbox in which she was seen canoodling with the head of Snowman Home Robotics. Protesting their announcement would only get that photo leaked to the press. She would be ruined. And even if she decided she could weather the twin storms of being outed and fraternising with another head-of-company, publicly refuting this announcement would make her look beyond incompetent.

The Winter Consortium had put her in checkmate. Like it or not, Elsa was going back to Norway.

- To Be Continued -