"… and then I awoke to find myself here," the blonde finished, looking up at Anna on the other end of the couch after telling an abridged version of her life's story and the events leading up to her appearance in the modern day.
Anna gave a low whistle. "That is one hell of a fairy tale, Elsa. How do I know it's true? How do I know you're not just someone - granted, a really talented someone - playing a part to get to me?" She looked up sharply at the blonde, a look of alarm on her face as though she'd said too much.
"Get to you? What does that mean?"
She shook her head slightly. "Nothing. It's nothing, never mind. So you're really a time traveler from the past, here to… what? Observe the future? Take some futuristic technology back to your kingdom so you can conquer Europe? What's your angle?" Anna prodded.
Elsa sighed. "Anna, I didn't do this by choice. The storm - whatever it was - brought me here, and I have no idea how I got back, or if this is permanent." She laid back against the couch cushions, her shoulders sinking as she finally admitted out loud what she'd feared since waking up in this new world, what she'd mulled over during the morning alone. What would become of her kingdom, her sister? "So… this being the future and such, has science progressed enough to explain what has happened to me?"
The dying light of the day faded away, leaving the little apartment in shadow. Anna smirked at Elsa briefly, a mischievous look in her eye, before turning her head over her shoulder. "Alexa, turn on the lights."
In short order, three things happened.
The smart assistant acknowledged with a chime.
The lights came on.
Elsa shot off the couch like she'd been shocked.
"Science has definitely advanced since your day, but I'm not sure if anyone's ever solved this kind of weird situation," Anna said, gesturing for Elsa to sit back down. She suppressed a giggle, seeing the frenzied look in the blonde woman's eyes. "I- I'm sorry, that was cruel. I just needed to blow off a little steam from this crazy day and thought it would be a good laugh for us."
"What… what was that? Who is Alexa, and why is she invisible?" Elsa swiveled her head repeatedly, looking for the invisible intruder, her hands out to her sides as if waiting for an invisible attacker to appear.
Anna stood up and walked to the tiny fabric speaker on the bookshelf. "This is Alexa. It's a smart home device that controls stuff around our apartment like the lights, temperature, music, and so on. It's…" Anna struggled to remember what she'd learned in history class. "It's like a butler, except that it's all online now."
"On…line?"
"I tell you what. It's getting late and we didn't really finish dinner - which I totally admit is my fault - so why don't I explain it to you as best as I can while we order a pizza?"
Elsa blinked. "What's a pizza?"
"So these black mirrors you have everywhere are all… windows of sorts that have electricity and computers inside them?" Elsa asked, taking a small bite of her third slice of pizza as Anna finished explaining more of the modern world.
"Yep. And they provide endless entertainment and knowledge. Like, for example, I was searching for when pizza came to Norway, and from your point of view, it won't arrive for another 127 years. But apparently you have a dish very much like it called brauddiskar," Anna said, taking a swig of her Sam Adams beer as she relaxed on the couch.
Elsa smiled softly. "Not… quite. Brauddiskar is much less oily than this and usually has fish and eggs on top of it, and certainly not this much cheese. However," she took another bite, "I will grant you this is much more delicious. A little smoked salmon would make this perfect."
Anna wrinkled her nose. "You really are a totally different person. My Elsa would never in a million years put fish on her pizza."
While they'd been eating, Anna had, out of pure habit, scooted closer and closer to Elsa on the couch. As she finished off her own slice of pizza, Anna flopped against Elsa, leaning her head on the blonde's shoulder. "I am so stuffed," she giggled. "I think I need to go walk this off. Want to come along?"
"A walk would be lovely." Elsa's eyes unfocused as she reminisced. After meals, she and Anna would often walk the halls or grounds of the castle, holding hands, occasionally listening to Olaf ramble, as they watched the citizens of Arendelle go about their business. The palace's walkways offered easy views to the entire city around them, and they'd giggle over the latest gossip circulating.
Anna struggled to her feet before lifting Elsa from the couch, walked to the front door, and put her sneakers on. Elsa followed suit, and they walked out of the brick apartment building along the darkened street. Old trees lined the avenue, along with modern LED lamps housed in old gas lantern glass casings to give the walk a more stately feel.
Without thinking, Elsa clasped Anna's hand in her own, eliciting a gentle sigh of relief from the redhead. "This is such a magical world, truly. Lights that need no oil, carriages without horses, invisible butlers and helpers." They walked up the block, passing brownstone apartments and little corner shop stores, neon-like signs advertising specials and lottery tickets.
Anna let out a contented sigh. "It's been a little while since we've just gone on a walk together, hon- Elsa. My Elsa and I would do this a lot, sometimes even go out to one of the local bars. We… we've not done it much lately."
"Why is that, Anna? I can't imagine someone not wanting to spend every minute with you," Elsa murmured as she rubbed Anna's knuckles with her thumb. Though she'd never thought of her own sister romantically, this Anna wasn't so different from her sister in all the ways that mattered, and she'd been enjoying these quiet moments away from palace life.
Anna paused, lifted their clasped hands, and kissed the back of Elsa's hand, making the girl blush slightly and take in a sharp breath. "I don't know. You - she's been so busy with the law firm, lots of late nights and long hours. We're really trying to get her to partner in the firm. Once she's done that, she said we can start thinking about kids."
Elsa frowned, scratching her head. "I'm sure there's a modern answer to this, but how would that work? You're both… women."
"Ha! That's an area where science has definitely changed. We'd either do a medical procedure to implant a fertilized egg inside one of us, or adopt, or … well, there are a lot of options. They're just all very expensive options. Once Elsa's a partner at the firm, we'll be in a much better position financially to have kids," Anna described as she stared up at the night sky, the city lights masking many of the stars. A tear trickled its way down her cheek. "I…" she sniffled, "I just wish it would go faster. Neither of us is getting any younger."
It was Elsa's turn to pause while they walked, gently rubbing a thumb over Anna's cheek to wipe her tear away. "I'm sorry, Anna. It's clearly important to you."
Anna sniffled again as she resumed walking, enjoying the coolness of Elsa's hand. "It's… it's okay. I understand why you - my Elsa, I mean. Gosh, this is so confusing. Anyway, I understand why she wanted to wait." She released a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Telling you - even though you're not her - makes me feel so much better. I know that when… whatever this is… is over, I'll still need to tell her for real, but it's… it's nice being able to share how I feel with you too, Elsa."
"I know how you feel," Elsa murmured, her hand rubbing small circles on Anna's lower back. "You're not my Anna, but you're so close to her that in all the ways that matter, you're the same person." She leaned over and gave Anna a quick, chaste peck on the cheek before taking her hand again.
As they turned around and headed back for their apartment, an idea struck Elsa. "Anna, could you use your… smartphone? … to look something up for me?" A nod encouraged her to give voice to the thought she had. "Can you look up what happened to the kingdom of Arendelle?"
Anna came to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk, reaching out and clasping Elsa's arms. "Are… are you sure you want to know the answer, Elsa? I've seen enough movies about time travel to know that sometimes, you're better off not knowing."
With a silent nod, Anna unlocked her phone and searched for it. "Well… I know there's a city in Norway named Arendal, but no record of a kingdom of Arendelle that I can find right now. I might have to look on my laptop when we get home."
"Thank you for trying. I wonder what happened. We aren't a large kingdom, but we're prosperous and peaceful."
Anna cast her eyes downward before putting a hand gently on Elsa's shoulder. "I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know, seeing as how you're a monarch and all - which still blows my mind, by the way - but prosperous and peaceful nations didn't tend to stay unconquered, particularly in Europe back then. "
Elsa swallowed. "Yes, but no one would dare attack us. We had…" she paused to think about how to word her thoughts, since she hadn't confessed the existence of her powers to this Anna. She looked away, staring across the street, watching one of the light rail trains go by. "I commanded some unique defensive capabilities back then."
"Yes, but where are you now, Elsa?"
Anna's train of thought caught up to Elsa and her stomach felt sick, bile rising in her throat. "I'm here… which means I'm not there to protect my kingdom. I must have… disappeared and my kingdom fell. Oh, God, Anna!" She nearly fell over as her knees weakened.
Anna pulled her into a hug. "It's okay, Elsa. We'll figure this out-"
"No, no, you don't understand. Anna - my Anna! What happened to her? What if she was killed because I vanished and our kingdom fell to one of our enemies?" Elsa lamented, tearing up, holding tightly to Anna. "What if my sister died because of me, because I wasn't there to protect her?"
"I don't mean to… I- this is going to sound insensitive, but 177 years later, you would both be gone anyway. People back then didn't live for nearly as long as now." Anna slowly rubbed her hands up and down Elsa's back as she softly spoke. "That said, I understand wanting to make sure she lived as long and happy a life as possible. I certainly want that with you- I mean, my Elsa."
Elsa nodded silently, relishing the feeling of Anna's hands on her back, her warmth. A spark of confusion echoed in the back of her mind, but she pushed it away as she tamped down her emotions, channeling a bit of her magic inside to cool them down. "I'm sure she wants that with you, too."
The women silently resumed their walk back to the apartment, Anna keeping careful watch during certain blocks. The neighborhood they lived in was an odd patchwork of really wealthy areas combined with really poor areas; college students in temporary housing intermingled with blue blood old money families. She spotted one guy, huddled on a stoop and staring at them intently, and took Elsa's upper arm gently to urge her homeward a little faster.
After a few more blocks, they were safely back inside their apartment, the sounds of city nightlife picking up outside. Roving bands of singing college students walked by the windows, punctuated by the occasional train or police sirens. Anna closed the heavy velour curtains in the front windows and flopped on the couch, only to see Elsa poke her head out of the bathroom door.
"Umm… Anna? I… don't know how the bath works. I realize this is ridiculous but…" Elsa said with a sheepish grin, a light blush coloring her cheeks.
"How… do bathtubs work in your time?" Anna stood up and started walking to the bathroom.
Elsa gave a short laugh as she stared at the chrome fixtures. "Well, usually Kai or Gerda draw a bath for us, and we just… bathe. Servants would usually carry the water to the bathing room."
"Well, we don't have servants here, just faucets," Anna chuckled. "Shower or bath?" At Elsa's blinking stare, she turned the faucet on to shower as a demonstration.
Elsa tentatively reached her hand in and gasped. "It's… it's so warm! It's like a warm rainstorm! Anna, this is amazing." She immediately began to undress as Anna's eyes widened, followed by quiet choking sounds.
Anna's eyes hungrily devoured the sight before her, the woman who looked just like her wife did ten years ago, but with a few notable exceptions. She had body hair everywhere, which Anna assumed was the norm 177 years ago, no tattoos whatsoever, and wasn't wearing any underwear at all. Before her mind could rope the words back into her mouth, she blurted out, "Elsa, where's your underwear?"
"My what?" came the voice from inside the shower.
"Your underwear. Did you really go all day without underwear?"
Elsa poked her head out from the shower. "Anna, I don't understand. What's underwear?"
"N-never mind," Anna muttered, leaving the room quickly, face as red as her hair. She flopped face first on her bed, trying to wrestle her emotions into submission. This Elsa wasn't her wife, thought of her as a sister, and came from a time and place where everyone was a churchgoer. She was, to Anna's knowledge, as innocent and pure as wind-driven snow. She groaned, flipping over and scrubbing her face with her palms, trying to force away the carnal desires that nearly overwhelmed her when Elsa undressed for her shower.
A short time later, Elsa came out of the bathroom, dressed in her maroon robe, the one she'd arrived in, hair somehow perfectly dry and braided despite just getting out of the shower. "How do you do that, Elsa?" Anna asked with the barest hint of frustration rasping in her voice.
"Hmm?"
"Have perfect hair after a shower. I'm pretty sure you've never heard of a shower cap, so what's your secret?" Anna grumbled.
"Oh," Elsa smirked, truly smiling for the first time, the same radiant smile that Anna had fallen in love with as a college freshman. "Magic." She purred happily as she climbed into bed next to Anna, savoring not only the warmth, but the decadent luxury of modern day sheets.
Minutes after turning off the lights, Elsa felt the bed slowly rock and creak. Though the woman next to her might not be her sister, the mannerisms were the same. She opened her eyes, watching the lights from cars on the street dance on their ceiling. "Can't sleep, Anna?"
Anna snorted. "How did you know?"
"You roll around restlessly just the same way as my Anna. What's keeping you awake?"
A long moment passed before Anna rolled over on her side, facing away from Elsa, before whispering, "Do you really not wear underwear?"
Elsa could almost imagine the ticking of the clocks in her palace bedroom, counting the moments before the inevitable happened. Her stomach tightened. Her lips trembled. Her fingers tingled.
And she burst out into raucous laughter. "ANNA! What kind of question is that? Of course I don't wear undergarments. I wasn't sure what you were referring to earlier, but I gathered after remembering what I saw in the drawers. No, goodness no. In my time, they're incredibly unsanitary and worn all the time only by… certain professions. You only wear something like drawers and such during strawberry days."
Anna coughed quietly. "Uh… strawberry days?"
"It's what we call our bleeding," Elsa whispered, thankful that the room was dark and Anna couldn't see her blushing.
"Oh. OH. Oh, that's what you call that? That's so much more poetic than what we call it," Anna giggled. "Here, it's called your period."
Elsa wrinkled her nose. "That's… yes, significantly less poetic. Anyway, sleep well, sis- I mean, Anna." She threw her arm over Anna, hugging her around the stomach, and curled up next to the redhead.
Anna's last conscious thought before drifting off to sleep with a smile was the realization that Elsa was probably still not wearing any underwear.
Author's NotesThis chapter has an amusing backstory to it. I wasn't sure how bathrooms and such worked in 1840s Norway, and after extensive Googling, I still had no concrete answers. Most of the sources I found online had information dating back to the 1880s or so, but no earlier. So I did what any good fanfic author does, and I emailed the archaeology and history department at the University of Oslo (after Googling the staff) to ask them. After getting bounced around a couple of times, one of the historians said that the University doesn't keep as good a set of records as the Royal Palace does, and recommended I contact the Royal Family of Norway's staff.
So I did.
And they were more than kind enough to not only send me an answer, but an entire multi page document of the floor plans and blueprints for the 1840s Royal Palace (long since gone/rebuilt, so not exactly a security risk). And sure enough, the Royal Palace back in the 1840s had no plumbing of any kind. Servants would have carried water for baths and cleaned chamber pots instead.
Also, the bit about underwear is also true, though I didn't need to contact the Royal Family for that. There's a surprising body of work available online about undergarments, menstruation, etc. and "strawberry days" is indeed one of the euphemisms in Scandinavia.
Join The PartyEnjoyed this story? Want to meet fellow readers and discuss? Join the Elsanna Shenanigans community on Discord at /TU9NpnH (copy and paste that URL for AO3 friends, go to discord dot gg slash TU9NpnH for FFN friends).
As always, please review, kudos, comment, like, follow, all that good stuff. I appreciate it.