A/N: Once again, sincere apologies for over the week delay. However, with this chapter, we should finally almost hit the 30 mark, around in which I shall start preparing for the story to pave the way for the climax. However, that will be something else to worry about later on in the future, so let's get back to the story now, shall we? Fluffy romance moments await ahead!
PS: I don't own Disney's Frozen. If I did, obviously, there would have been a Frozen free world game for everyone to play that would allow you to play as Elsa and have similar game mechanics like that of the Assassins Creed game franchise, except more kid-friendly and the story of the game would be canon to the movies and possibly include more fluffy Kristanna moments. :)
Chapter 29: Safe with you
A month later ...
Alex's POV
"You want to do what?"
That's the first thing I ask the 5th spirit while we're in the living room. Of course, I heard what she wanted to do, but I had to make sure my ears were working correctly. After all, lately, Elsa's been acting a bit weirder than usual since she arrived in my modern world dimension, and it was something that I was a bit concerned about.
"A cake! Well, especially a chocolate one to be exact," She restates what she had just told me, looking at me while sitting on the sofa, my laptop in her lap as she looks at me excitedly. At the moment, she was wearing a sweater over her spirit outfit, snuggled comfortably with a blanket over her. Not only that, but Bruni is currently on my laptop as well while Gale is currently fluttering around the 5th spirit's side, chirping happily while the lizard is simply happy normally as usual..
"Why exactly do you want to make a cake?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I've been watching these online baking classes recently on your laptop and I was starting to crave some chocolate when Bruni and Gale suggested instead of craving it, I should try baking it. I have to admit, it was a pretty good idea since it looked fun to do," She admits with a smile.
I sigh in response. "Well, there's a difference between what they show online from the baking classes that you made me sign you up for and you try baking what they show."
"Which is?" She asks with a questionable look as she stands up, her hands on her hips as she waits for an explanation from me.
"Well, it's a complex process to bake something like a cake. For example, you have to know the temperature to set the oven for, what ingredients to use, what brand to use for the cake batter, the amount of sugar to use, the amount of butter to use…" I glance in her direction and I can see she's now just plain confused by what I'm talking about. "In the end, it's just a complex process, that's all."
"Oh," Elsa replies, thinking about who knows what in her mind before shaking her head, looking back at me with a smile again. "Well, we can still try to bake one, you know?"
"We?" I gesture to her and me, making her giggle like she was a child.
"Of course. After all, isn't that what friends do?"
I want to object, but since Bruni and Gale are nearby and looking at me with their eyes in the form of puppy eyes and Elsa is waiting for my response still with a gleam of cheerfulness in her blue eyes, I can't think of a reason to object for in the end. Besides, when do you have a once in a lifetime experience to bake a cake with a Disney character in literal real life? "Sure. I suppose they do bake cakes together."
"Yay!" Elsa says joyfully, heading my way to hug me like it was the best thing she ever heard. "Thank you, Alex! I can't wait to start making it!"
I give a small chuckle in response, hugging her back gently in a friendly manner. "Well, if we're going to start making a cake, we might as well make sure we have the ingredients we need for the chocolate cake. Otherwise, we can head to the grocery store to get the things we need."
Elsa pulls away from the hug and nods in agreement, quickly hurrying to the kitchen along with the two other spirits as I close the book I was reading, which was the Hunger Games book (I was simply bored that's all), and proceeded to stand up from the sofa as I made my way to the kitchen area. Currently, by the time I got there, the 5th spirit was finding some bowls and some ingredients that she needed for the cake, Bruni and Gale happily helping her in the process.
"Anything missing that we need?" I asked as the 5th spirit seemed to go over what she had right now before she clicked her fingers, looking towards my direction.
"Well, we're missing the cake mix and butter, and I'm not sure what else exactly," she admits with a frown, making me sigh and head to where she's standing. I look over the items that she has right now, which is that of the milk, pans, eggs, sugar, salt, and…
"Chocolate chips or chocolate itself is what we're missing," I say after a while, making Elsa's eyes light up happily.
"Yes! I knew I was forgetting about something important," she exclaims in a cheerful tone, grabbing a piece of paper nearby and writing on it with a pen that I give her. "I will make sure to write down what we need in order to make the cake for everyone to enjoy."
"Alright," I say as I check my phone, seeing the time is around 4 in the afternoon, "We have enough time to go shopping for what we need and other stuff that we may need for today. After all, you want to bake just one cake right?"
Elsa nods. "I suppose so since I want to make the cake for all of us here so we can all enjoy it. To be honest, Bruni and Gale want a piece of chocolate cake as well as Nokk, even though he's not here at the moment as he went out for a run at the lake nearby."
"How long does he take for his run?"
"Around an hour or so. Nokk likes to head out for a while as the water spirit likes to run around while feeling the wind blow around him."
It's a reasonable explanation for the water spirit. Which horse wouldn't like to go out for runs, spirit, or not?
"Well, then," I reply, "You might as well get ready if we're heading out to the store. So that we don't raise any red flags on your identity to the public."
With a nod, Elsa proceeds to head to my room for a change of clothing while I'm left with Bruni and Gale, the two spirits looking at me curiously (I assume Gale is looking at me, I don't know for sure) while I proceed to head to the fridge, grabbing some bottles of water in the case during the trip to the store either of us gets thirsty. I notice the little spirits and offer a smile. "Hey, guys. You wanna come along with us?"
The spirits give happy chirps in response, which I take for a yes as Bruni simply leaps onto me and climbs up my shoulder, offering a smile as Gale flutters around me to blow the hoodie of my jacket over my head. I simply chuckle in response and whip off the hoodie, heading to the front door with my keys and wallet in my pocket as well as the bottle of waters in hand. However, I'm not really paying attention to where I'm walking, so I end up accidentally knocking over a staff that's leaning by the wall, which ends up hitting the floor with a rattle.
I bend over to pick it up from the floor, setting aside the bottles of water to examine the staff more closely. The two other spirits decide to examine the staff as well with me, which looks pretty unique and seems to be really old. Of course, I remember that Elsa had told me that someone had given it to her after she had found the thing to heal me after Garrett's attack, so I never really paid much attention to it until now. Aside from the engravings etched on it, I can't read what they mean or figure out why at the top of the staff, it looks like something goes on top of it, like perhaps a spearhead.
"Ready, Alex?"
"Huh?" I turn around to find Elsa standing behind me, wearing a change of outfit that I can tell she blended her spirit outfit to make it look like modern style clothing. The dress of hers is now simply a sweater and jeans in the same color of her spirit outfit, the little crystals on her dress visible on her sweater while she wears a light blue jacket over. Not only that, but she's also wearing some flats as well. Overall, she's looking more modern than before, which I can deem to be cute in its own way. "I suppose so."
I stand up and set the staff against the wall again, offering Elsa a bottle of water that the 5th spirit accepts gladfully, taking mine in my hand as the two of us leave the apartment while I make sure to lock the door. As we head to my car in the driveway, Gale and Bruni decide to accompany Elsa as she enters the passenger seat while I take the driver seat of course. After all, Elsa can't drive a car as she doesn't know how to yet, but from the times she constantly begged me to teach her how to drive it, I can conclude that she's slowly but surely adapting to these modern times.
After igniting the engine and backing up the car, it's a normal ordinary drive to the store, which is merely a 20-minute drive. Actually, scratch that normal ordinary part, since it's not normal ordinary to drive when there's a real-life physical Disney princess sitting by your side, watching out the window with two other elemental spirits by your side as well. But I shrug off the thought, secretly happy for Elsa as she watches the scenery around us, still learning about how the times have changed since her own timeline while I'm still trying to find out how to send Elsa and the other spirits back to their own timeline.
But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy every moment around her. After all, she helped me overcome my own darkest pain that I held in my heart years after Erick's death, so it was only fair that I should hold through with my promise to help her return back to her own dimension. Not only that, but I also had some questions to ask her that I had in mind. "Hey Elsa?"
"Yeah?" She turns to face me, looking at me with a questionable look.
"Are you still okay?" I ask her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's been around half a year since you arrived in my dimension, and normally I tend to avoid this topic to not hurt your emotions, but are you emotionally okay with all these sorts of events that have happened to us? Do you still miss your own dimension and homeland of Arendelle, along with your families such as Anna and everyone else?"
She nods, looking saddened by my question. "I do, and even Bruni and Gale along with Nokk miss everyone back home. I miss Anna the most, as she was the only family member I have left ever since our parents' death and one of the few people I could count on to help me realize I had a purpose in life. Without her around, I just feel like I have no motivation to keep on fighting the fights I face in my life."
"Anna is that important to you?"
Elsa nods, looking down at her hands that rest on her lap. "She helped me through the darkest moments of my life, along with Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. I can't imagine a life without them in it." She then gives a smile, looking back in my direction. "And I can't imagine a life without the other people in my life that I met and became great friends with, such as Yelena, Ryder, HoneyMaren, and everyone else back home. Even you."
I feel myself blush slightly, though I shake it off really quickly. "Really? What for?"
"Well, had it not been for the Enchanted Crystals, I didn't really think of the possibilities of other dimensions existing in the first place. I knew magic existed in many ways, but I never thought of the possibility of magic existing through time and space in multiple dimensions. Not only that, but you helped me from freaking out and losing myself in this dimension, offering me help even though I didn't know you. You knew me, of course, but to me, you were just a stranger that I thought was insane when you showed me your laptop with my life on it as it was a movie."
I'm embarrassed now, remembering how Elsa called me insane when she first met me and I told her she was a character from a fictional movie. "Insane? That's a nice way to put it."
Elsa giggles along with the other spirits giggling as well before she calms down. "Sorry about that. I was just scared, to be honest when I had first arrived here. I thought that the crystals had teleported me to another kingdom or that something bad had happened with the Peace Keepers involved, but I never thought that I would end up in a timeline far ahead of my own in a dimension that believes my own dimension to be simply a fictional thing."
I agree with her in a slight nod. "I suppose so. You must have been terrified about the idea of the future having things like cars, technological advancements, and other stuff that you don't have, like cameras for example that can take photos of things."
Elsa seems confused. "Cameras? You mean the things that take photos of people?"
I nod.
"We do have those in Arendelle, although they don't take color photos yet."
I slap myself mentally, forgetting that at the end of Frozen 2, Lieutenant Mattias had just gotten his photo taken after the coronation of Anna. How clueless and forgetful was I? "Oh right! I forgot about that!"
Elsa sighs in a disappointing manner and tries to look disappointed towards me, though I can see she's clearly on the verge of smirking at my reaction. "Clearly, someone doesn't know my timeline as well as they claimed to."
For some reason, we both laugh at this before composing ourselves as I continue to drive, glancing at Elsa who seems calm and tranquil. She notices me looking at her and blushes slightly, making me smile towards her. "Well," I tell her, "I'm glad to hear that you consider me as a friend. Like I told you, I will help you and the other spirits find your way home."
Elsa seems happy to hear this, possibly excited by the thought of seeing her family again sooner than expected. "Thank you Alex. You're a good person, you know that?"
I nod. "Glad to hear that."
With that, I turn my attention back to the road as the 5th spirit begins to hum to herself a song I never heard before, but one that makes the environment around us more comfortable than before. And while Bruni and Gale enjoy the music that she is humming, this drive to the store helps me realize something that I never really thought I could feel again after what happened to Erick years ago.
It's the sensation of feeling cared about, safe with, and possibly just a rushing sensation of my heart beating faster than before. As if I felt safe around Elsa as she was now a friend I never really thought to be possible. Though it might sound mushy to other people who may not believe me until I revealed her to the public, I couldn't help but deny what I was feeling for her was love.
And it was something that I didn't know if I wanted it or not for fear of keeping her here without fulfilling my promise. One that I hoped I wouldn't have to go through faster than expected.
A/N: Well, it looks like I have written down another chapter. And the majority of the time I should have spent on writing it was due to the author's block syndrome and goddamn reading other fanfictions. Seriously, I recently read fanfic by fanfic author Atohallan calling, the story being nothing in their hands, and the damn emotional toll of the story had me watching from Halo Reach Noble Team deaths to even Yugioh 5ds Bruno's death just to increase my mental distress. Just great.
Anyways, it looks like Alex is dealing with an inner conflict now that starting to surface for him now as he's driving with Elsa to the nearby store to get ingredients for the chocolate cake the two will make. Chapter 30 will explore more of what will happen in the store, which will include some heartwarming moments and other stuff that will reveal one of the Peace Keeper's backstories that led to their decision in following the Superior. Then, the story should start building for the grand finale in the next 10 chapters. Just a heads up.
So, if you're following the story, make sure to leave a review on what you liked and your possible thoughts for the future of this story. I really want to publish the next chapter by next week, but I have so much stuff to worry about right now that I may have to end up prolonging it more than expected. Sorry for the late delays, fellow readers. In the end, just give a like if you're new and I appreciate all your reviews for the story. It helps a lot in these times. Until then, good day and expect surely around next week for the next chapter. Thanks! :)