Lowest on the Totem Pole

Chapter 19

A/N: I'm really in the mood for constructive criticism, can someone help me out on that?

Aside from work, Elsa and Kristoff spent the majority of their time at Anna and Teresa's house during their break from school. It became routine to head over shortly after waking up and for Kristoff and Sven to pounce upon Anna's bed in order to force her awake. The four would eat breakfast together in various states of dress (or undress, in Anna's case). Elsa had noticed that Anna hardly ever wore pants inside the house, and said article of clothing seemed to mysteriously disappear shortly after coming inside.

Their first morning there, Kristoff had nearly choked on his coffee when Anna came stumbling out into the kitchen. He had gently woken her up that day, not quite comfortable with pouncing on her bed yet. Not only was Anna's hair a rat's nest bigger than her head, she was only wearing a loose black tank top and a pair of green plaid boxers.

"Morning," Anna mumbled, rubbing at her eyes as she plodded into the room. "It's a little early, isn't it?"

"It's nine already, Kristoff and I have been up for hours!" Elsa said, lounging comfortable on one of the dining room chairs. She sipped her coffee slowly, not in the least bit concerned with Anna's state of undress.

Kristoff, on the other hand, took a few moments to regain control of his vocal chords. Once his windpipe was clear of coffee and his breathing had returned to normal, he grinned. "I knew it," he said triumphantly. "I knew you wore boxers! Hah!"

"Well duh," Anna said, sitting down with her own cup of heavily sweetened coffee. "So much more comfortable than girl's underwear."

"Anna," Teresa chided from the kitchen, where she was starting to fix breakfast, "aren't you getting a little too comfortable around your friends?"

"No such thing, Mom," Anna called back. "I don't wear pants in this house, that's my rule. If they don't want to wear pants either, then they're welcome to do the same. Unless it bothers you, I suppose."

Teresa rolled her eyes, not that Anna could see her. "I fear your mother was a terrible influence on you, Anna," she said. "You're becoming more like her every day."

Anna shrugged, smiling as she stared into her coffee. "You mean the best of influences. How bad can she be if you want to marry her?"

After a fantastic breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs, Anna finally got dressed enough to go outside and play in the snow. She and Elsa began their snowman army as Kristoff and Sven explored the five acres of land that the house sat on. About half of the land was grass, not that they could see any of it through the thick coating of snow, and the rest was thick forest, where Kristoff and Sven spent most of their time. Anna listened to Sven barking periodically and Kristoff's shouts of "Sven, stop chasing that squirrel," and "Sven, you're too little, that deer will eat you alive," and "God damnit, Sven, that's not a squirrel that's a sk- Oh God, EWWW!"

After trying every piece of advice from the internet, Sven still smelled a little strange at the end of the day. Bathing him in tomato juice had seemed to help, but the scent had returned shortly after the smell of tomato faded.

"Hrm. Wet dog and skunk," Anna observed as she hugged Kristoff goodbye after lunch. "No hugs for you until you get rid of that skunk smell." She gave him a little shove, sending him stumbling down the steps to the driveway, and turned to Elsa. "Have fun at work," she said with a smile.

"Thanks," Elsa said. "Have fun with... Well, whatever you end up doing. I'll see you in the morning?" She reached out slowly to touch Anna's cheek, flinching back at the last second. She forced her hand forward, accidentally pushing Anna's face, but the younger girl didn't protest and eagerly brought her hand up to hold Elsa's. Anna closed her eyes happily, rubbing her cheek against Elsa's palm.

"See you tomorrow," she said, opening her eyes to look at Elsa.

Elsa smiled back, letting her hand linger for longer than necessary. She still felt sick, but less so than she had the previous time and likely more so than she would the next time. Baby steps, she told herself. As much as she wanted to hug Anna or touch her casually or run her fingers through that red hair (she often wondered what it looked like outside of braids or bedhead, she imagined it would have the softest of curls and fall somewhere around Anna's mid-back), she couldn't quite bring herself to do it and she had to convince herself that that was okay. Anna had said so, after all.

Christmas Eve - one and a half weeks after school let out, 150 snowmen built, countless more to be made before the break was over. Elsa was beginning to regret her promise, but she wasn't about to go back on it. She just wished that Anna didn't have access to so much snow. There were snowmen guarding every inch of the property line and Anna's next project was to line them up on either side of the driveway.

Elsa grew slightly concerned as she spent her days helping Anna build a snowman army. She was often in plain view of her mother's house and was honestly quite surprised that the woman hadn't come out to tell her to come back inside yet. As more cars parked themselves in the driveway, Elsa became more and more reluctant to spend time outside. She still hadn't seen her mother, but that didn't mean her mother hadn't seen her.

As Elsa and Anna made their rounds to check all of their snowmen's noses, Elsa's fears came true. The pair had been skirting the property line between the two houses (where the snowmen looked angriest, thanks to Anna) when she heard a man speak up from behind her.

"Elsa? Is that you?"

Elsa turned, fighting back a grimace, looking up to the man. She folded her arms behind her back, cleared her face of any emotion - the perfect model of professionalism, if it weren't for the snow on her nose and the bright pink coat she had borrowed from Anna. "Hello, Uncle Kai. What a pleasant surprise to see you out here. What brought you outside in such cold weather?"

The man chuckled, running a hand through his receding hair. "Little Jack wanted to see the snowmen, but your mother would have none of that. So, I made some sort of excuse and snuck him out. It's not right for a kid to be locked up inside all the time. But never mind that, I didn't expect to see you here for the holiday! What's it been, three years?"

"Closing in on four, yes. Who's this Little Jack that you mentioned? It seems our family has grown quite a bit in my absence," Elsa said, gesturing towards all of the cars parked in the driveway. She hadn't counted, but there were certainly more than ten lined up.

Kai looked at Elsa, hesitating before responding. "You don't know Jack?" he asked, his voice soft and wavering. "Your mother didn't tell you?"

Elsa felt her stomach fill with dread. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anna, worried and reaching out but afraid to actually provide comfort. Elsa reached towards Anna, pulling the girl close, though not close enough for their bodies to touch, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She fought against the urge to puke, worrying more about Kai's words than about Anna.

"Uncle Kai," Elsa said, surprised at how level she sounded. "Who is Jack?"

"Jack is... Jack is your brother. Three years old," Kai said, turning to look for the boy. Once spotted, Kai called him over and the boy came running. The boy had messy brown hair and seemed tall for his age, though he might have just seemed bigger from all the snow gear he wore.

Elsa froze. For several moments, she forgot to even breathe. It wasn't until Anna reached up to touch Elsa's shoulder that she could react. "My... My brother? I have a brother? Why didn't Mother tell me?"

"Did you make the snowmen?"

Anna jumped and looked down, seeing the little boy tugging at her pants. "Did you? Did you? Cuz - cuz I like 'em. They're super duper cool!"

Anna smiled at the boy, but was cut off from responding by a shrill voice cutting through the air. Anna winced – the series of (rather unfortunate) events was far too reminiscent of her childhood.

"Jack Winters, you get back in here right now!"

Elsa looked past Kai, seeing her mother standing on the porch. The woman stood tall and proud, her brown hair falling just above her shoulders. Elsa could almost see her angry blue eyes and she remembered the way they would always harden and chill when she was upset. A shiver ran down her spine, but it wasn't because she was cold. She gritted her teeth as her mother began walking down the steps and towards them.

"Elsa," the woman said coldly once she was close enough to speak in a normal voice. The boy, Jack, ran up to her, holding his arms up. She picked him up without thinking, sitting him on her hip as she spoke with her daughter.

"Hello, Mother. It's been a while, but there has been plenty of opportunity to tell me about this... development," Elsa said, gesturing to Jack. "I might have liked to play a part in my brother's life."

"There was no need," Elsa's mother said. "Though, I suppose it would have been prudent to let you know that he will be taking over the company in your stead."

"Fantastic," Elsa said without a hint of sarcasm. "I didn't want that bastard's company anyway."

Elsa's mother hesitated. "Do not speak of your father that way," she said softly.

"He is not my father, I know that for a fact now, and I will speak of the bastard as I please." Elsa felt a sick sort of pleasure, watching her mother squirm in front of her.

"Elsa," the woman stressed, glancing between her two children. "This is why I stopped allowing you at family functions. You can't spread lies about my husband and expect to be treated well!" She paused, looking between Elsa and Anna as if seeing the younger girl for the first time. "Why are you here anyway? Surely you don't expect to take part in our celebrations?"

Elsa scoffed, squeezing Anna's shoulder. "Mother, I'm on this side of the property line for a reason. I will be spending Christmas with Anna, her mother, and my roommate. You don't have to worry about me crashing your party."

"Anna? Ah, the little neighbor girl. After all that effort I went to to keep you away from her, it seems her family-" the woman sneered "- has infected you anyway. Take care not to ruin your father's reputation any further."

"Infected?" Anna spat, drawing the attention of both Kai and Elsa's mother. "Do you have a problem with my family?"

"Lesbians-" another sneer "-Have no place in this world outside of mental institutions. Which, if I recall correctly, one of your mothers is in. At least one of them is where they belong."

"You bitch!" Anna shouted, lunging toward's Elsa's mother. The only thing holding her back was Elsa's grip on her coat. "You bitch, how dare you!"

Elsa pulled back on Anna's jacket, dragging the girl towards the house. "Anna, it's not worth it! Let's go, leave them to their miserable party." She looked at her Uncle, giving him a sad smile. "It was nice to see you, Uncle Kai, pity we couldn't spend more time together."

"Quite a pity indeed," Kai said, nervously running his hand through his hair again. "Have a merry Christmas, you two. Enjoy it enough for all three of us, would you?"

"Kai!" Elsa's mother snapped. "That's enough, we're going back inside. The last thing we need is for Jack to be exposed to this filth."

"Yes, sister," Kai said regretfully, turning to follow the woman back to the house. He waved sadly at Anna and Elsa as he left.

Elsa dragged a fuming Anna back towards their house, catching Kristoff's eye in the process. Anna was surprisingly quiet, her arms crossed over her chest and her brow furrowed so heavily that it almost hurt. She was silent as she removed her boots and jacket in the entryway.

Somewhere between the front door and the living room, Anna's pants had disappeared as usual. The girl threw herself into the recliner in front of the fireplace as Kristoff and Elsa sat themselves on the couch. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Kristoff not quite sure what was going on.

"You know what, Elsa? Your mom's a bitch," Anna finally said.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Elsa replied.

A/N: Woo, we've broken the 50 follower mark! Thanks to all of you! At this rate, we'll break ASiS numbers by chapter 200!

Anyway, meet Elsa's family! Well, her mother, uncle, and brother at least. Shit's going to continue to go down next chapter, because who doesn't want their Christmas day filled with drama?

See you next week!

~Matt