Anna shot up straight in bed as her phone woke her the next morning. She didn't remember setting an alarm, let alone an early one. The sky hadn't even fully brightened up yet, what time is it? She checked her phone for the time and -woah. A message from Elsa! The message was short and to the point, but Anna soaked in every letter.
"Hi Anna, this is Elsa. I'm letting you know that rehearsals will begin at noon instead of the usual time. I'll be there by 7, so you can show up anytime before noon. Thank you."
The shock of holy shit Elsa's texting me very quickly became holy shit 7 am. Seven? In the morning? Anna didn't normally wake up before double digits unless she'd accidentally picked an early class. Amidst her sleep-addled thoughts, she realized that she didn't necessarily have to be there yet and threw herself back to bed.
She showed up early— well, earlier —okay, a single minute prior to noon, semantics schmemantics. At least she wasn't late and could pat herself on the back for that. The stage itself looked ginormous when the curtains were all pushed aside; the back of the tent was visible along with scattered props and sets, backdrops, etc. Anna reasoned that this mass of stuff was probably why they had theater curtains in the first place— it was too much for everyone to clean up before shows. Elsa wasn't amongst the piles of crap on the stage, so Anna headed straight toward the tool shed to get started on the set piece that she hadn't perfected yesterday. She'd just found her belt when she heard footsteps immediately behind her and turned around to see Elsa, looking oh so casual in an oversized sweater and legging instead of her Ice Queen getup. Somehow still tall, even without the signature high heels. Anna missed what she'd said 'cause of all the ogling.
"I said, what are you doing?"
"I'm, uh, getting my tools?" These things here that I grab every day?
Elsa crossed her arms, her eyebrow up and a slight smug smile on her lips. "Anna, you're my assistant now. You rehearse with me first and then build the sets."
Apparently, Anna thought she could get away with being near Elsa without knowing the routine at all. The power of her rose-tinted glasses made her think she could just trot about onstage and cozy up with the object of her affections, while omitting the fact that she had to do actual work. In all fairness, Anna had imagined being Elsa's big buff bodyguard and in these scenarios, she'd heroically one-punch K.O. any creep within the Ice Queen's vicinity and be rewarded with a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh, heheh, I guess I hadn't thought that through. Wow, I didn't even tell Hans-"
"Don't worry, I already told him about our agreement. He said it's alright as long as you get all your work done."
Anna instantly thought about all the work she'd have to do, how many more hours she'd need to put in. She wasn't even entirely settled in this new job and she decided to pick up more responsibility? Just to sate her giant gay crush on this magician?! Yikes yikes yiiiiikes. And then when her brain couldn't possibly fizzle out anymore, Elsa patted her softly on the small of her back.
"I let him know I felt confident that you could handle it. You're a good worker, after all. Now lets get started!"
Anna tried to conceal her warm (and undoubtedly neon red) face and blindly followed Elsa to the stage. "Where's everybody else?"
"It'll only be us until the usual time. I always start early."
Yeah, 7AM early.
Elsa began to walk her through the routine, showing her the stage marks and very conveniently leaving out the answers to how the magic actually works. She said undetailed stuff about the first act in the routine, the ring link trick. "Oh, remind me to make sure the smaller props are on the right. The Snowbox Escape illusion needs to be wheeled in stage left so they won't collide. Ooh, and it might also make the space up here seem bigger if we're not constantly pulling..." Elsa thought aloud and fell into mumbling.
"After the links, it's the Mary Poppins illusion. When Kristoff was my assistant he would hold the bag up halfway through the act so that it would seem even more impossible that I could out of a small bag, and I think that really added to it. So when I give you the cue, you'll lift up the bag and put it about the middle of your torso, okay?" Elsa mimed the motion.
Anna tried, she really did, but couldn't imagine what the act would look like. "Can you show me?"
Elsa gave a noncommittal nod and pulled a sparkling ice blue bag from her side.
"WOW! I didn't even notice you had that on you!" Anna gaped. Elsa chuckled and gave her the bag.
"Now hold it here, uh," she said, mimicking with her hands where Anna should put it.
"Here?" Anna asked, holding it open around her boobs.
"No, uh, lower."
"Here?"
"Anna, you barely moved. No, lower, like..." Elsa walked up to Anna, closing any distance between them and held the other girl's hands delicately. She slowly moved their hands down, down until it was about the middle of her torso, right above Anna's bellybutton. "...There."
Anna hadn't been watching their hands. She couldn't. Her eyes couldn't leave Elsa's face.
"The bag can't be super close to your heart, okay?" Elsa said, finally meeting Anna's eyes. Their hands were still together and Elsa must've realized, 'cause she dropped them unceremoniously, clearing her throat and putting space between them. "Ahhh... Yes, keep your hands there, hold the bag pretty steady, and try not to move it too much during the act."
Anna found her voice again. "Right. Soooo where's the magic mechanism? This is literally an empty bag."
"Trying to get me to reveal my secrets, are you?" Elsa had a coy smirk.
"Well okay, why dontcha demonstrate the act so I can picture it better." And sneak a peek heheh.
Elsa nodded and pushed up her sleeves.
"First, you'd show the very large audience," she motioned to the hundred empty seats in the pit, "that there's nothing in the bag. Go overboard with being showy. Go flashy, be obnoxious with it if you have to."
"Always am." Anna said and grinned, and waved the bag around above her head, held it upside down and shook it, stuck her hand (and then head) inside it.
Elsa watched, "done yet?" to which Anna nodded and held the bag back to the position she was showed. Elsa breathed in deep and crossed the stage to where the other girl stood. She reached in the bag, exhaled, and as she walked backwards slowly, a long ice object began to appear in her hands. The form revealed itself with each backwards pace taken. The bag grew cold in Anna's grasp, colder than she'd thought possible, and she herself was frozen to the spot. Elsa kept backing up and by the time she'd reached the edge of the stage, the object had come out fully and plopped on the ground. She propped it up straight so Anna could get a wide-eyed look at it. A glimmering giant giraffe sculpture sparkled in the few stage lights that were on.
"Why a giraffe?"
Elsa shrugged in response.
Anna peered into the bag, still no visible mechanism, nothing that showed her how the trick was done. The bag was just a bag as far as she could tell. Still, she set it down gently as if it was fragile.
"This is amazing..." Anna circled the sculpture, "how the heck did you do that?"
"Only a magician can—"
"—Know the magic, yeah yeah." Still, Anna's eyes kept onto the giraffe. "So, since I don't know that, what else should I do as your assistant?
"Your role is really to stand and look pretty, that's all Kristoff's job really was."
"And he probably did so well."
They started taping teal x's around the stage to practice Anna's marks. Elsa would occasionally think aloud again, mumbling stuff like "if you stand here then I could hand it over and, no that won't work for people on that side of the crowd", mostly to herself. Anna caught herself smiling more than once. Other than the few mutterings and the buzzing lights overhead, the tent was quiet. Perfect time for Anna to make conversation.
"Hey, Elsa, why were you here so early?"
Elsa paused to answer carefully. "Magic has some hangups. Some kinks that need fixing."
Anna's brain short-circuited at the image of Elsa's mouth saying kinks so casually and heard it in her little monkey brain on repeat.
"What kind of... uh..." kinks kinks kinks "...hangups?"
"Well, it's... It's complicated. In order to keep the, ah, more mystifying parts of the act honed in correctly, I have to work out." Elsa working out ELSA WORKING OUT. Anna hadn't ever gotten a good look at her arms. Could Elsa bench her? Jesus Christ. "I'd rather not have the others around when I exercise, you know?"
"Yep. Yep yep totally get it, yeah," Anna cleared her throat, "hey, where's the gym anyway?
"You ask a lot of questions," Elsa looked up from the tape that she was working on. She had that stupid smile that made Anna's face feel hot and so she averted her eyes. "It's over by the tool shed."
"That can't be right. The only thing by the tool shed is a pile of cinderblocks."
"Ding ding ding! With enough imagination, a cinderblock could be a dumbbell." Elsa let out a light laugh and Anna replied with one of her own. "It's gotta be portable, so I make do with whatever's around. Cinderblocks, bricks, tires... I, ah, I once used Flynn's dirty laundry bag."
"You did what now?" a deep voice called from the front of the tent. Flynn himself entered the big top, Kristoff directly behind.
"Oh boy," Anna eyes rolled to the back of her head and she whispered with an indiscreet hand beside her mouth, "I thought it would just be you and me for a while."
"Me too," Elsa said under her breath. Anna thought for a hopeful minute that Elsa was grumpy about the intrusion. They watched as the boys sauntered down the middle of the pit with bulky duffel bags smacking against them. Duffel bags. Seriously? Like they were getting ready to stay at a dang hostel. So much for alone time.