Darkness and Moving Pictures

Elsa sighed once more, probably for the tenth time since she had left her home. Why she had let Anna drag her out to the cinema was beyond her. To change her mind, her sister had said. It had been a week since the Carnival, and her encounter with the witch. She hadn't seen Merida since, but had thought of her every waking minute, to the point she couldn't concentrate on her classes anymore. Sometimes, she was almost inclined to believe the strange prediction the seer had made, how they were tied by fate or something. After all, they had accidentally met not once or twice, but three times already. But it wasn't enough to say that they were tied by fate, was it? The thought scared her more than everything.

"Elsa? You're not gonna like this."

Anna's slightly anxious voice brought her back to reality. They were queuing to enter the cinema, and there seemed to be quite a lot of people.

"What is it?"

"I think the new Disney is full."

"Really?"

Elsa let out a sigh. The only thing she hated more than to go out of her house was going out for nothing. And yet, as she looked up to the screen displaying the programming, it showed the film they wanted to see was full.

"So... what do we do?" asked Anna.

"I don't know. What else can we see?"

"Right now, I think there's only this horror movie."

"Oh no, please! You know I don't like horror movies."

"Well, we're probably going to have to wait."

Elsa sighed. She was about to turn around when her eyes caught sight of a bright red mane of tangled curls. She froze as she handed up face to face with Merida, which looked just as embarrassed and surprised as her.

"Hi..."

"Hello. Are you going to the cinema?"

"I am... I mean, I was... but..."

She would have kept on babbling if not for Anna's assistance.

"We were gonna, but it's full."

"Oh, too bad."

"And you?"

"I was gonna see this dumb horror movie that just came out."

Elsa thought if she stayed silent and waited for Anna to be done talking they would quickly leave, but she had to speak up when she heard Anna declared:

"Maybe we should come with you then!"

"What! No!"

Merida turned her gaze to Elsa, who blushed strongly.

"I mean..."

"Are you scared?"

There was nothing taunting in Merida's voice, it was caring and gentle.

"I just... I don't very much like horror movies."

Merida smiled lightly.

"It's okay. But I would feel bad in leaving you alone if Anna was to come with me."

She moved closer to Elsa, only to whisper in her ear.

"And if you're too scared, just look at me."

It made Elsa blush even more furiously. She gave a quick nod. As she followed Anna and Merida inside to take a ticket, her mind wondered back to the words of the seer. Once again she had ended up facing Merida, and now she was most likely going to pay for a movie she wouldn't see a second of, because she was going to keep her eyes closed.

They took their seats, Merida in between the two sisters. Elsa looked around, only to see how empty the room strangely was. As Merida silently munched on her popcorn, Elsa noticed Anna was strangely seated, leaning to her right, as far away from Merida as possible. She looked at the blank screen in front of her, until Merida asked:

"Are you still upset about what the seer said? I'm sorry I dragged you there."

"Don't be, really."

She bit her lower lip before explaining:

"I am not upset, I'm just... I don't know. Conflicted. She proved me she could see things she had no way to know... I really don't know what to think."

"You don't have to believe her, you know. I don't want to believe her."

Elsa couldn't believe she was about to say that:

"Maybe you should... You know, with how ofter we find each other by complete accident, I'm starting to believe it myself."

Merida shrugged.

"We'll see what fate as in store, then."

Elsa contemplated silently what Merida had just said. If she chose to believe that they were tied by fate, then she had no choice but to accept whatever would happen without questioning it. It terrified her, that fact that she had no control over whatever would happen.

The room went dark and the commercials started. Elsa barely listened to them, to caught up in her thought to notice everything around her, even Merida moving closer to her.

About twenty minutes afterward, the movie was finally starting, and so were the first scares. Elsa first decided to look as long as she could, but when the first jumpscare made half of the room yelp, she reached instinctively to the only thing which could protect her: Merida. And so she quickly found herself hugging Merida's strong arm, the same way Anna usually held Kristoff's when they went to crowded places. It took her a few minutes to actually realize what she had done. She had barely pulled away that she felt Merida's arms around her shoulders, pulling the blond closer. Elsa was almost annoyed by the armrest between them. She settled as close as possible to Merida, and tried to move closer and closer every time something scary happened. But she missed a lot of them, as she blankly stared at Merida, whom had a small smile on her face during the entire movie.

At one point, Anna looked over to her sister, only to see her cuddling against Merida. She smiled, and silently scooted to the seat to her right, to give them some more space. Then she went back to the movie, which, just as Merida had said, was pretty stupid. From time to time she gave her sister a look, and Anna decided she liked to see them cuddling together like that.

The movie went by so fast that Elsa almost regretted it, but far less than Merida did. While she had barely looked at the blond, aware that she looked intensely at her, she enjoyed greatly the warmness Elsa gave her. But as the credits rolled, they had to part, and coldness seemed far more uncomfortable than Merida remembered it. Just as she thought, Elsa didn't acknowledge the fact that they had basically cuddled during the entire movie. Merida didn't say a word about it either because she knew it would embarrass her greatly.

Anna was already outside, waiting for what she considered to be a soon to be couple. But, just like Merida she didn't say a thing, even if it was very hard. She felt she was making progress in how not to tease her sister, and she didn't wanted it to crumble in one fell swoop.

"So, what did you thought of the movie?"asked Merida to Anna.

"You were right, it was so stupid!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought. The original is better."

The younger girl seemed shocked.

"Wait, that's a remake?"

Merida nodded, and took her phone out of her pocket to look at the time.

"Well, I better go back to my camping car. It's still early, but I hate to wait for buses, and they are either extremely late or fairly early."

Anna simply nodded, and once she saw Elsa wasn't reacting, she gave her a small nudge with her shoulder. Elsa blinked multiple times, bit her lip and after a deep breath asked:

"Can I... Would you mind giving me your phone number? Not that meeting you at randomly isn't nice, but I want to decide when we get to see each other."

It made Merida smile widely.

"No problem. Here, let me write it down for you. Then I'll text myself so that I have yours."

Elsa nodded, and handed over her phone to Merida. The redhead was proud of how Elsa had found a way to take control over her fate. She quickly added herself in the blond's small contact list, sent herself a blank message and gave her her phone back.

"Alright. And with that, see you when you feel like it."

She walked away, waving goodbye to the girls. Elsa watched her go, before she stared blankly at the numbers on her phone, which, altogether, allowed her to communicate with Merida. She went back to reality when Anna shook her by the shoulder.

"Alright sis, let's go home."

Elsa quickly placed her phone in her purse, and followed her sister to the parking. She let Anna drive, because, under their terms, Elsa would go out only if Anna was the one driving. Once her seatbelt was fastened, Elsa looked at her phone once more, and saw she had received a new message, from Merida no less.

'Next time, we'll cuddle before the original.'

She blushed even more furiously than before.

A/N: Hi guys! Hope you liked this cuddly chapter! I'm happy because from now one it'll only get better, I promise!

Thanks to vinzgirl for the review, and you know what I was thinking? Once Upon a Time has the possibility to make MerElsa canon! The chances are slim, but I'll believe until the end it could happen. Plus I want to see more of Elsa and Anna, cause they were absolutely awesome!

I finished writting Like Two Knotted Strings' sequel last Friday, and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to, and it's going to be awesome, so be prepared!

See you guys Friday!