Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A few days later.
"We're getting slaughtered out there." I whispered harshly, pulling my Zombie bandanna lower until my eyes were almost completely covered by the cloth. While I was at it, I zipped my extra jacket up to the tip of where my hood began as I covertly glanced over my shoulder and squinted into the distance.
"You guys are insane." Elsa breathed from beside me, drawing my attention back and I couldn't help but watch the way her hot breath materialized in near-transparent white vapors infront of us. We were both breathing heavily, but we needed to stay on our toes and in hiding, lest we give away our positions.
"What, this?" Gesturing to the supposedly empty park we were currently in. "This is only the beginning." I assured her with a lopsided grin before taking her hand and dashing across the vast expanse of snow to the next rally point. Once we stopped, I reached out to secure the beanie on her head as well and let a knowing smirk cross my lips when I got a look at those rosy cheeks that were tinged with the cold and her own excitement. Not to mention the separate streaks of black across both of them. Adorable. My eyes glanced up to where my hands hesitated to move away from her beautiful platinum tresses. I like how my beanie looks on you. "You haven't seen anything yet." I chuckled instead of voicing what I'd just thought.
The hard crunching of snow to our right, broke our eyes away from each other to see three familiar people sprinting toward us. "You two stay where you are. Romie will take to the wall on that side while Olaf and I lure them out." Kida instructed through the radios she gave to us before tossing me my trusty weapon. I caught it and was reminded that I had lent it to Romie not too long ago because she didn't have anything to defend herself with. Now it seemed like Olaf had given her his own gun and resorted to using his hands instead. My eyes met shimmering arctic blues for an instant and we both nodded in confirmation at Kida as she continued tugging Olaf and Romie away.
As I quickly set up a more secure barrier around Elsa and I, I couldn't help but tune in to the conversation of the two now lying theatrically in the middle of the snow-covered ground. "Base one this is Cavalier two-one-four!" Olaf's voice sounded just frantic enough to be believable."We've been in a collision with a civilian vehicle. Nedakh's dead and Ramsey's hurt real bad. We need medevac immediately."A pause. "She's got kids, Base one, she's got kids!"
As I loaded my Zombie Strike rifle, I couldn't help but raise a questioning eyebrow at the bordering-on-too-dramatic guy as he protested loudly after completing the call. "Roger, Cavalier two-fourteen. We're scrambling a team. Hang in there." The other line answered over Olaf's grumblings about how he used to be good at that. Whatever 'that' was. Being a complete failure at lying? Glancing curiously at Elsa, she shrugged in as much misconception before peering across the quad to them too.
"Shut up." Kida criticized.
"I mean, that was so contrived!" Olaf went on complaining, ignoring her while he was at it.
"Olaf, shut up." Kida growled more forcibly.
"You shut up, Kida." Olaf countered. "You're dead. I'm spinal injury and spinal injury can talk. Dead can't say anyth-"
"Stop talking or I'll have Feisty-Pants shoot your face off." She barked.
"She loves me too much to do something ludicrous like that. Besides, you should really start getting into character." He motioned over his face with his hand. "Dead woman means no talking."
Luckily, our oncoming targets stopped whatever argument was about to continue boiling over. "Base one, this is Medevac Delta. We have visual on Cavalier two-fourteen." The pseudo pilot's voice came over the radio and I went to work on steadying my breathing. Through my scope, I could see two people reveal themselves from behind the trees and rush to help the other two imbeciles out there. Off to the side, Romie was stealthily situated in the background as well, but I patiently waited for my orders.
I could hear Olaf's exaggerated cries of agony, but as the one who decided to tend to him tried to soothe him, he faltered badly out of character. "Oh, wow. Hi!" He chirped. There was a short pause that only meant that a great 100% Olaf Line was in the making before he voiced, "W-what's your name?" That response made a stupid grin split my face because even from this distance, I could hear the hopefulness in his question clear as day. The girl's response not so much, Olaf was just flamboyant like that.
"Fire when ready, Feisty." Kida's own whispered voice suddenly tore my attention away from the love-struck idiot and on to the one checking him out. Sorry, Felicity and Jackson. I thought before firing. One shot. Two shots. They stiffened and Olaf simultaneously sat up to catch the girl as she fell while Kida left the younger boy to crash to the snow. They followed the rules perfectly if I had to say so. Looking back, I suspected that Romie would come in for backup and start firing like crazy, but Kida successfully waved her off, so I let out the breath I'd been holding and leaned back against our barrier.
"Nice shot." Elsa commented, making me turn to give her a wink.
"I was a champion sharp shooter at summer camp three years in a row." I bragged like an idiot. Elsa rolled her eyes before reaching up to deliberately pinch both of my cheeks, making me chuckle coyly. She had effectively made the rest of my body warm up with the silly intimate look she gave me next. I'm so into you. I thought as I felt myself beginning to get lost in those unending pools of gleaming cerulean. For now though, I couldn't do anything more because I knew if I completely let myself get caught up in the girl named: Elsa Mariani, we'd undoubtedly be the next two to go down. Can't have that. So instead of stealing a kiss like I so badly wanted to, I playfully stuck my tongue out at her and looked back over my shoulder.
"Pleasure doing business with you, fellas." The other blue-eyed girl stated triumphantly. I rested my rifle on my shoulder just as Kristoff and Sen publicized themselves from behind the playground at the bottom of the hill. I felt my adrenaline spike and then turned to face Elsa who was now a little preoccupied in looking around with those eyes as wide as saucers.
"Hey, listen to me." I whispered to her while taking the radio piece out of my ear. She snapped her attention back to me. "Something tells me that our temporary alliance with Olaf and Kida will be ending here shortly." I pointed down the hill to the slides on other side of Kristoff and Sen to our undecided safety zone. "I want you to get yourself over there without getting caught. Wait for my signal and I'll catch up with you in a bit." When she nodded, I couldn't help but lean in to press a chaste kiss to her cheek before standing to my feet, missing the subtle way she lightly frowned from the quick contact of our skin. "And if they come for you, don't be afraid to lash out at them." I added when she stood up too.
"Where's my wild goose?!" Kristoff asked as he readjusted his Naruto goggles.
"You mean your GPS?" Kida asked, tossing said object from hand to hand gleefully. "We got it while you two were too busy smooching over there!" She added proudly.
"S-shut up, Nedakh!" Kristoff barked in embarrassment and even from where I was standing I could see the lower part of his face turning a nice crimson color. Sen made it a little more obvious by looking away and pulling her hood back over her head. How cute! I bit my lip to keep from laughing at that. "Now give it back." He crossed his arms arrogantly.
While Elsa surreptitiously took to the trees that had been right behind us, I moseyed further away from our barricade until I saw Kida shove the device in her jacket pocket. With a loud rebellious chortle to the taller guy, she joined me as we continued walking nonchalantly over to Olaf, ignoring the other two for the moment. "Have you ever seen an EMT look like this?" Said boy asked us with wide, gray, puppy dog eyes, still pointing at the grinning girl on the snow-covered ground who was choosing to try to stay in character. She's clearly flattered though. I thought smugly.
Regrettably, I had other things to say to my friend first off. "Seriously, Bud?" I motioned to Felicity and then back to him. "'Hi, what's your name? I have no legs but I wanna take you on a date?'" I mocked him before clapping my hand on his shoulder, just itching to tease him more about his unique way of talking to people. Or not. He was a total dork when he wasn't on stage or talking to any of us. Wait. What am I saying? Olaf Ramsey was always a dork no matter what.
"You, my friend, are as smooth as a child's bottom." Kida joked, slapping his other shoulder more aggressively than she probably meant to and caused him to jerk forward from the startling force. All the same, he gave us that sheepish shrug of his while his adorable face began to flush.
"Well, I wasn't really- I mean, I still can walk so..." He trailed off, chuckling apprehensively and then decided that the best thing to do was to drop it altogether. "Hey, Kristoff!" Olaf yelped like a kicked puppy. "Do you guys need an extra team member?" Scampering away from us, he began trotting down the hill toward his deliverance. Only to get hit square in the face with an unforgiving snowball.
My easy grin disappeared when the realization dawned on me. Uh-oh. I thought just as Kida turned to aim her own Double Strike pistol at me. I didn't even remember that I had my own weapon and even if I did, I'd forgotten to reload it, so it was useless to me now. Aw, man! Just when I anticipated that it was all over, Oaken and my dad suddenly popped out of the snow and began mercilessly firing snowballs at all of us. "SNEAK ATTACK!" They cried together.
"EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES!" My dad declared and even slung one at me, which I barely managed to dodge. All at once, our quick game of capture the flag (or GPS in Kristoff's term) turned into a sun's out guns out brawl and we ended up switching sides just like I'd predicted.
"GO NOW! SAVE YOURSELF, SNOW PAW!" I yelled and waved my hands around hysterically to her just before a snowball struck my shoulder. On the ground infront of us, Felicity and Jackson straightway broke character and then scrambled to their feet, bolting safely out of the kill zone where they could regroup. While they eventually went at each other, I jammed a new cartridge in before whirling right back around on my heel and then fired my Nerf gun just as fervently at Oaken. He dropped his remaining snowballs and tried to defend himself against the onslaught, but one lethal dart managed to hit him right between the eyes. He shouted dramatically and clapped a hand on his forehead, falling to his knees in the process, only to be playfully tackled by his son. The two fell over and disappeared behind an upturn of snow that practically ate them once it settled.
"Anna, look out!" Kida successfully tackled me out of the way when a huge packing of snow crashed into where I was supposed to be standing. Huh. After realizing that she was supposed to attack me and not defend me, she shrugged and gave an inane salute before running after Olaf. Cool! While my dad frantically began gathering more snow into another bomb, I did the same while glancing around to find my next target. Sen. She was running back down the hill toward Elsa. My eyes narrowed and I held a hand up in the universal sign for 'wait' to Elsa before diving for an extra snowboard we brought out.
Kristoff saw me going for it and then, since he was already a little further down the hill, took off after Sen to try to stop me from getting to her first. Instead of strapping either of my feet into the board, I impatiently hopped on and sped toward Kristoff until I caught up to him where I then managed to launch my pre-made snowball before abandoning my ride altogether so I could do a dramatic shoulder roll. My built up momentum had me stumbling a bit once I got back up to continue running, but that didn't stop me from firing a couple of rounds in Kristoff's general direction either. The smooth guy dodged my snowball first by doing a half-baked Matrix stunt that landed him on the ground with a grunt, which actually helped him duck under the rest of my attempts at taking him out.
Ah, well. No matter. I continued running and expertly flipped over one of the kiddie tunnels like I'd been doing parkour all my life, making Kristoff stare at me in admiration for all of two seconds before I shot at him once more. He snapped out of it and instead ran away, leaving me to get back to my Snow Paw. Said girl was safely hiding behind the rock climbing wall and Sen was closing in, still searching for her with two snowballs in hand as I silently crept toward them.
When excited blue eyes caught mine, I held my pointer finger to my lips and then lunged, taking an unsuspecting Sen's legs out from under her. She landed in the snow and I stood over her to fire an empty shot at her stomach, forcing out a scream, which alerted Kristoff. Yelling like a maniac, he hastened back across the battlefield of Nerf darts and snowballs (that had migrated much closer to us) until he was on his knees, holding her head in his lap.
"Curse you, Crescent!" He raised his fist at my retreating form as dramatically as I'd ever seen him.
I cackled like a mad woman, but just before I could actually get to Elsa, I felt another unforgiving snowball smash right into my back. "Argh!" I cried out and flopped face-first into a deep snow drift just outside of the playground. Warm hands lifted me out of the snow and I was greeted with mock watery eyes.
"Gattina, don't leave me." Elsa murmured quietly, trying to stay in character. Her semi-awkward smile didn't help any and I ended up biting back a laugh.
Luckily, I was able to keep it together. "I-I'm sorry, my sweet." I lowered my voice to try to sound gravelly. "Take this. You know what to do with it." I shakily handed her my Nerf gun before going limp in her arms.
"Anna, your gun is empty." Elsa said after a minute, causing me to pop back up so I could unstrap the additional ammo belts from around my chest.
"My bad, Snow Paw." I chuckled and then placed a few extra darts into her hands since I wasn't sure how full the belts or the magazines were. "Now you know what to do." Just after I said that, I let myself fall back into the snow drift while my hands linked themselves behind my head. I was out and now it was her turn to try her hand at challenging my friends.
But, she didn't have much longer to tarry as the only other apparent last one standing charged at her with a piercing warrior's cry. "Taste my fury, Elsa Mariani!" Kida declared fearlessly, making Elsa drop half the darts before hastily jamming the clip back into the rifle. A split-second passed just as a lone snowball came right for her. Elsa let out a surprised squeak and fell back on her rear at the same moment she pulled the trigger. My mouth dropped open when the snowball disintegrated as the dart blasted straight through it. Just above my line of vision. Holy cow!
I sat up in the same instant to see the impending duel scene unfolding before my eyes. "DO IT, SNOW PAW! TAKE HER OUT!" I shouted fervently when Kida shut her mouth and ducked down to gather more snow. Where her own Nerf pistol went was a mystery, but I had no time to expand on it as I cut my eyes back to the cowering girl beside me. Elsa opened an eye and peeked out from behind the gun she'd been using as half a shield and just as Kida shot back up to throw her fresh snowball, Elsa frantically lifted the rifle and fired.
After our all-out battle subsided with Elsa as the ultimate victor, we slowly shuffled back inside to change, warm up and just plain enjoy some hot chocolate on our first snow day of the year.
Soon after we received the news that there was no school, Elsa had called and asked me what my plans were. So, I invited her over to my house first where we had our formal introductions with my dad and after breakfast, he decided to call in for work. I thought the day couldn't get any better but it did when Oaken stopped by with his own children too, declaring that he actually got permission to pick them up and hang out with them for a day. Just after I'd introduced Elsa to Oaken's little family, Kristoff, Kida, Sen and Olaf all dropped in with their Nerf guns and basically chased us outside. Team names were: Usual Suspects (Elsa and I) Nerf Busters (Kida, Olaf and Romie) Mass Destruction (Felicity and Jackson) Lady and the Tramp (Kristoff and Sen) Chairmen of the Board (Dad and Oaken.) We all dressed for the occasion, started out with capture the GPS, and then resorted to an epic Nerf war. That was that.
"You lost, Kida. Get over it." Kristoff got the chance to poke Kida's shoulder playfully as he passed her to take a seat on the floor. She didn't hesitate to lash out and give him a charlie horse, forcing a sharp cry of pain from him. I snickered when he continued hobbling over to Olaf.
"And stop making a big deal with the eye- wait, where did you even get an eye-patch?" Olaf spoke up next, looking curiously at Kida's face. We all turned to look at her then.
"Anna mentioned that she was a pirate one year for Halloween, remember? So I got permission to go through her old clothes." Kida chuckled. "I think it's fitting, considering that Elsa is a terrifying perfect shot!" Once she placed her mug on the coffee table, she plopped down on the other side of me.
Sen was sitting beside Elsa on the floor while Kristoff and Olaf were sitting infront of the TV while they set up Kristoff's xbox one and Olaf's Wii. Dad and Oaken were talking in the kitchen and every once in a while there was a burst of laughter from the both of them. Upstairs, Oaken's kids were making use of the showers while we patiently awaited our turns.
Meanwhile, Elsa hid behind her huge mug of steamy hot chocolate. "I'm sorry, Kida." She managed after I gave her leg a comforting pat.
"You sure that was your first time playing with a Nerf gun?" Kida asked, raking a hand through her pale blonde locks that was still damp with melted snow. Even I was still wearing my Zombie bandanna for fear that my hair would stand up on end if I took it off. Since we weren't doing the usual Humans vs. Zombies, I decided to wear it on my head instead of my face.
"Yes?" Elsa cleared her throat after taking a sip, avoiding eye-contact. That time, I crossed my legs so that my foot was nuzzled against her calf. "It's actually my first time doing anything other than school related duties on a snow day." She added self-consciously. I knew for a fact that she didn't get out much, so it was an honor for me to introduce her to whatever I could outside of her fabulous apartment.
Kida narrowed her eyes and then tapped a finger to her chin in thought. "Then we had better make the most of today, huh?" With a fire in her eyes, she shot up and all but shoved Kristoff out of the way to get to the Wii.
Elsa then looked at me with confusion evident in her pretty blues. I figured that she was thinking that Kida was going to react much different, so I gave her a reassuring lopsided grin. "You don't have to be anxious around them, Snow Paw. They won't judge you." I playfully nudged her shoulder with mine.
"No, of course we won't. But Just Dance will!" Kida announced before tossing a controller in my direction. "Oh, I meant to throw that at Elsa." She lifted her eye-patch and squinted at us, making me chuckle with a shake of my head.
"Right now?" I asked, haphazardly waving the stick around.
"Uh, yeah?" Kida motioned to us to come to her with her pointer.
"Not while the dads are here!" Kristoff interjected.
"I actually vote both of them to go first!" Felicity suddenly spoke up once she got to the bottom of the steps. Romie popped out from behind her to take the seat Kida had vacated and I absently wrapped my arm around her when she cuddled into me. From the kitchen, the men roared with laughter again and we all smirked at one another.
"Oh, Daddy..." I called out sweetly.
"In your dreams, Panda." Dad replied through a chuckle.
"I triple-dog dare you, dad." Felicity changed directions to saunter into the kitchen.
"No way, darling." Oaken voiced.
"Hey, what's going on?" Jackson was next to appear at the foot of the stairs.
"We're trying to get Oak and Ben to engage in a dance battle." Olaf turned to casually lean an arm on the coffee table before lifting his own mug of hot chocolate to his lips. Jackson nodded and then wandered toward the kitchen too.
"Well, it was supposed to be me and Elsa." Kida crossed her arms, letting her eye-patch snap back over her eye. "But I have to admit that seeing two grown tough guys, who so brilliantly named themselves Chairmen of the Board, dancing to some Gangnam Style is quickly winning me over." She snickered. "Come on, Mr. Woodsworth and Mr. Crescent!"
"No!" They both protested.
"Please, Daddy?" Romie pleaded from beside me before getting up to bounce into the kitchen.
"He's in for it now." Kristoff chuckled.
"He- who's hungry?!" Oaken boomed suddenly. "And something extra sweet for my little girl if you come with us." He added with a tone that had Romie won over in two seconds flat. The rest of us groaned with disappointment, but there was no way we were going to let them off just like that.
"I vote chicken sandwiches from Maui Mike's!" Was my submission.
"Chinese!" Olaf was next and he raised his hand like a dork.
"I agree with Anna." Kristoff commented. "Pizza's always our go-to food."
"I said Chinese." Olaf grumbled.
"True." Kida ended up sitting on the floor too, ignoring Olaf's comment. "So that's three to one. What about you two, Elsa and Sen?" Crystal blue eyes snapped questioningly to them, which I felt compelled to smile at as well.
"Ohh, I haven't had Mike's in forever!" Sen's eyes lit up. "Definite yes for me."
"That sounds good." Elsa agreed. "Something else I haven't tried." She mumbled to me.
"Get ready to experience a taste explosion then." I whispered back, silently letting her know it was okay.
"Five to one." Kristoff got up. "Sorry, O." Before he made his way to the kitchen, he gestured to us. "Orders?"
"I'll take a bacon melt with ranch and fries." I answered and then looked at Elsa, "they also have regular chicken, but their Melts are to die for. They go as follows-"
"I-I'll just get the same as you." Elsa replied. "Considering that everything you've bought for me to eat so far has been delicious." She added quietly, causing a blush to form on my face that not even my face paint could hide. Wow!
"I'll have Mike's Melt with honey mustard and fries." Sen smiled at him. And now both of us are flushed idiots. I coughed awkwardly before standing up and taking Elsa's hand.
"While the rest of you are discussing other things, I think we'll make use of the showers next."
"No! I called it." Olaf tried to scramble to his feet, but tripped over the couch pillow he'd been sitting on and crashed into Kida who cried out when they landed on the floor.
"OLAF!" She snapped and I wasted no time in yanking Elsa away from the soon-to-be noogie beating that was going to be happening soon.
"So, how's your day so far, Snow Paw? Having fun?" I asked over my shoulder as I looked through my clothes so I could change (yet again) after I showered. I realized that we hadn't really gotten that much time to ourselves since the arrival of everyone, but just being in the same places as her for half the day was so rewarding that I couldn't help but feel giddy with excitement.
So much so, that I failed to notice the quietness that stemmed from behind me until I suddenly felt warm arms sliding around my waist. I stiffened on instinct, but as Elsa pressed a light kiss to my shoulder, I let a nervous smile tug at my lips. Blush right back on my face. "Y-you okay?" I croaked and then cleared my throat.
"Sorry." She murmured before taking a step back, leaving me to retreat out of my room.
My eyes widened and I spun around on my heel. "Els-" I tried, only to see that she was already turning into the bathroom. "W- hold on!" I yelped, nearly tripping over my own two feet so I could rush to her. "Hey, let's talk about this." Skidding to a stop infront of the door, I stopped her from closing it.
"It's nothing." She gave me an unconvincing smile. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"Well, you did." I frowned at her. "What's the matter?"
"Anna, it's-"
"You know how I mean to ask that, Elsa." I gently reached out to take her hand in mine, searching through her eyes to try to get to the answer just in case she didn't know where to start. She hesitated, pulling her lower lip between her teeth as she tried to piece together what she wanted to say.
"Can I shower? I-I need a right way to say it without making a fool out of myself." Her gaze faltered and she looked away self-consciously.
I saw it then.
It was a distant glimmer, but I was thankfully able to pick up on it and there was no way I would leave her to herself. Again.
"I'm sorry, too." I whispered, stepping closer until she backed up and once she was deep enough inside the bathroom, I turned around to close the door. Now, I'd had the same thought not too long ago and right then I decided to make up for it.
I reached up to curl a hand behind her neck and tugged gently as Elsa's short intake of breath was stifled when I suddenly pressed my lips to hers. Our lips brushed; infinitely tender and now I didn't let any resistance into my kiss that time. Elsa finally seemed to relax as her hands came up to wrap around my neck while our kiss deepened almost instantly. Only when I felt my back press up against the door, did I break it with a light groan. Whoa. I was already breathless and virtually stunned by the intensity of the kiss. By the implications behind the way Elsa hadn't thought to budge once I stopped, the way she still had her hands wrapped around me and the way she was leaning. It was encouraging.
"I-" She let a soft giggle escape before leaning her forehead on mine. "What do you surmise I'm trying to say, Gattina?"
I didn't even blink. "I miss you too." Sliding my hands over her arms, I linked my fingers around her waist. "I know we haven't seen much of each other these past few days because of me trying to catch up on two weeks' worth of homework and you dealing with the upcoming Winter Dance and the pending Carnival, but don't think I don't want this too." I smiled and then connected our lips again. That time, I hesitantly slid my tongue along the groove of her full lips, asking for permission and when she granted it, I let a low groan pass my lips. Oomph..A whole new galaxy of stars exploded behind my eyelids then.
Elsa was next to stop as she pulled me closer to her so she could bury her face in my neck. "I-I just don't want to come off as...clingy." She whispered, breathlessly. Yet her voice was still tinged in worry.
My eyes widened in realization. "Oh, my lovely." I chuckled, returning her hug as fiercely as I could without crushing her. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I find it so, utterly adorable. You are adorable and I wouldn't mind seeing you like this more often." Was my added comment while my hands came up to draw random patterns on her shoulders since she hadn't moved back into my line of vision.
"Sei il migliore, Anna." She whispered before pulling back to smile intimately at me. "Sonno pazza di te."
I've heard that last one before. I thought when her fingers came up to trace along my temple to my some of those words into memory so I could try to learn what they meant, I then leaned in to brush my lips against hers. "If you asked me how many times you've crossed my mind, I would say 'once' because you never really left."
Elsa let out a happy laugh and returned my kisses gratefully.
A/N: By far the longest chapter! And I'm not hating it whatsoever^^
Since my nephews are big Nerf nerds, I figured I'd pay homage and put a war in there somewhere. (Which was really fun to write.) Anyway, I hope y'all like it! Thanks for reading and whatnot.
Tootles~