A familiar ringing of Skype woke Anna up. Her room was a mess and she herself probably looked like straight out of horror movie, but she was too tired to care and started looking for her phone anyway. Plus she had hardly heard anything of her mother since the last call had ended so abruptly. Anna wanted to make amends, though she was a little hurt from the way her mother had just pushed her away, only because she had dared to mention her attachment to Elsa.

But to her great surprise, it wasn't her mother who was calling, it was her father. Her father who hadn't called her even once after she had left the UK. Anna had a feeling that he was still holding a grudge against her for making her mother cry so. She could sense a passive aggressive hint in his text messages.

She pressed the answer button and even after reading the name, she was surprised to see her father's face on her phone. "Hey, papa."

"Hey. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine! I'm really excited to show you guys the places next week!" Anna grinned happily.

"Yes, I was calling about that," Agnarr's said hesitantly, Anna was immediately suspicious.

"What about it?" Anna asked with low, warning tone.

"Your mother and I, we cannot make it there next week, but—"

"But you promised! Is this because of what I said to mother last time she called?"

"Of course it isn't about that," Agnarr's voice wavered slightly and Anna knew immediately that he was lying. "But Anna, why did you have to say such things to your mother? You know how sensitive she is with the subject."

"I didn't mean it the way she took it! I just wanted to tell her how much I have enjoyed bonding with other people close to my age, the way you never let me to!" Anna was getting aggravated.

"Let's not fight about this," her father said sternly. Of course not, the world would most likely collapse if anything was ever solved by arguing about it. "We cannot come, but we really hope you would come here to spend your holiday."

"But I was hoping for you to meet Kristoff," Anna whined.

Her father let out a long sight: "Well, ask him to join you. We would love to host you boyfriend alongside of you."

That was a huge step, and she wanted to shout 'yes'. But she knew there was that one huge problem: "Kristoff wouldn't leave Elsa alone for a whole week."

She was hoping for her father to extend the invitation for Elsa too. The three of them could have so much fun in England. But her father, of course, refused to grant her that: "Well, then we can meet your boyfriend in Christmas. I assume you intend to keep dating till then?"

"Yule, papa," Anna corrected, she didn't bother to acknowledge the jab, it wouldn't lead into anything.

"Pardon me?" Agnarr asked with a buzzled expression. He kind of reminded her of Elsa when he said that.

"We are celebrating Yule here, Elsa's an atheist," Anna explained matter-of-factly.

"Yule then," Agnarr agreed, though the term didn't matter to him. Heck, it probably didn't matter to Elsa either, but Anna felt like it was important. "Would you like for me to buy your tickets right now?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Anna felt sad that her parents wouldn't come after all, but maybe it would be nice to visit home. She just missed her family, but she wasn't sure if her family was only in UK, anymore.

"What is this amazing smell?" Anna asked the moment she stepped in and the smell hit her nose.

"Elsa's making food," Kristoff told, and moved so Anna could see Elsa in the kitchen, barely, as the wall was mostly blocking her view.

"Wait, are you telling me that you actually eat other food than green salad and macaroni with tomato sauce?"

"Oh shut up! I'm not really a chef, I'm a builder," Kristoff huffed.

"I'm also not a chef, but an architecture student," Elsa quipped teasingly from the kitchen. Kristoff just shot her an annoyed glance and she grinned and went back to her business.

"What are you making?" Anna asked while strolling into the kitchen.

Anna was trying to peak in the oven when Elsa answered: "Mushroom and spinach lasagna—Hey don't open the oven door!" Anna quickly threw her hands up.

"So Anna, what brings you here so early? It's only 12pm, aren't you usually sleeping at this time?" Kristoff asked teasingly. After they had started really date, Anna had revealed that she couldn't stand waking up for their morning walks. Kristoff walked his dog alone these days, as he didn't want to wear Elsa out too much with her bad leg.

"Har har. But actually, I was rudely woken by my father calling," Anna said.

"Your father called? He wanted to talk about their trip to here?" Kristoff guessed.

"Actually, we decided that it would be better if I went to England instead," Anna bended the truth a little. She felt oddly embarrassed by the fact her parents weren't coming after all. And she really didn't want to explain the reason why.

"I thought you were really excited for them to come here?" Kristoff pressed on.

"Uh, yeah. But it's not a big deal. It's really nice to go home for a while," a lump was forming in Anna's throat and she willed for Kristoff to get the hint.

He didn't seem to get it, but opened his mouth to continue pressing. Elsa, on the other hand, seemed to catch what was going on, and stopped her brother: "Hey, Kris! The food is going to take like an hour, you could take Sven for a walk. He seems like he needs to relieve himself."

As with a cue, Sven walked to the door and whined. Kristoff turned to see his dog, eyebrows high with surprise: "I guess you're right." Then he turned to see Anna. "Are you coming with me?"

"Uh—," Anna gave Elsa a nervous look, trying to figure out a good excuse.

"I could really use some help with the dessert," Elsa offered.

Anna almost sighed with relief, but then Kristoff rushed: "Why didn't you say you needed help? Of course I would have helped you, Elsa."

"No, no! There's no need! I'll help Elsa, you take Sven for a long walk and the dinner—or is it lunch—will be ready when you come back, right Elsa?" Anna looked at Elsa, who just nodded to confirm that.

Kristoff just shrugged and went to put her shoes on. Anna took a cutting board from the drawer and started dice chocolate, next to Elsa. When they heard the door close, Elsa asked without darting her eyes from the eggs she was beating: "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, I'd rather not think about it." Anna looks at Elsa to detect her reaction. Elsa just nods, but doesn't show any emotion that would tell how she felt about Anna's refusal to talk about it. "But how did you know?"

"Anna, you're like an open book with your emotions." Elsa wasn't. "Don't get me wrong, I adore my brother, but Kristoff isn't the best detecting other people's feelings. He can sometimes be—like Kristoff."

"Maybe that's because he grew up with you. You're impossible to read!" Anna exclaimed after staring at Elsa's passive face a moment. Anna barely ever knew how Elsa was feeling about things.

"Maybe that's it," Elsa shrugged, tiny grin on her face.

Elsa had been on a bed for a while. She was tired, but her restless body wouldn't let her sleep. Also, her aching leg could have something to do with her insomnia. Kristoff and Anna had stayed watching the movie after she had retired, but now it had been silent for a while.

She wasn't sure if they had fallen asleep on the couch, until she heard them getting up and walking to Kristoff's room with a strange pacing. Elsa was confused while listening the strange footsteps. The pair was talking with hushed tones and Elsa couldn't make out the words.

She tried to ignore them, it wasn't good to eavesdrop when others thought she was asleep. She turned to her side and tried to concentrate in her own breathing noise, but then she heard a creak. Her eyes shot open when the creaking noises continued. They were kind of like as if someone was jumping on the bed, someone way smaller than Kristoff, or even Anna.

But then Elsa heard a grunt from Kristoff and a low moan from Anna, and she understood. Elsa felt sick. How could they? How could they do that just a wall away from her? The bile was threatening to rise up in her throat. Elsa felt disgusted and violated, and also ashamed for feeling those things.

Elsa got off the bed, on her shaky legs. She glanced her crutches near the bed, but decided they would make too much noise. She quietly padded to the door, and slowly opened it. She creeped into the living room area and when she passed the couch, she tapped softly on her thigh to gain Sven's attention, who was sleeping on that couch.

Sven jumped down and followed Elsa to the front door. Elsa reached for a coat, but decided that trying to get a shoes on would be too much hustle. She found Sven's collar and leash and put them on. Then she opened the door as silently as she possibly could. She tried her best not to bother the pair, whose quiet huffing she could still hear.

Elsa made it all the way outside of the building, when her stomach decided to empty itself from her supper. She would have felt bad for the bush and the people who would see the vomit, but she herself felt too terrible to think about things like that. Let some drunk partyer take the blame.

Elsa wiped her mouth and started walking into the dark fall night. Her leg was aching just from walking the stairs down, and Sven was trying to get her to turn around, but Elsa was determined. It was actually the first time she was alone at the street at night since she had been on the run after the car accident. She rarely went out at nights, and when she did, she always had someone with her.

The night was cool and the asphalt was radiating coldness into Elsa's bare feet, but it felt kind of nice. The cold had never really bothered her. She felt oddly calm while the tiny rocks pierced the bottoms of her soft feet. It actually reminded her of the time she had spent on the run. While the memory wasn't exactly good one, it wasn't necessary a bad one either. She didn't know where she would have been, if she hadn't escaped back then. Most likely dead or even worse, in the hands of Author. He hadn't been the worst one, far from it, but that didn't mean he wouldn't have hurt her if he had caught her.

Her father had always kind of kept her safe from the worst sides of the child trafficking, she knew it. Though, there weren't good sides, just bad and worse. She had been valuable to her father. Not in a way that a child should be to her father, but he had always thought that Elsa would make more money with all her limbs and stuff intact. Her father had even refused to sell her to Tickler anymore, after he had done something especially gruesome to Elsa, which she couldn't remember what. She had once seen one boy lose his eye, then he disappeared. Elsa never learned what happened to him. But it wasn't hard to guess how they had got rid of him.

Elsa had never been sold forward, like she knew most of the children had been. And she had lived fairly normal life outside the business. Some of the children she had seen, lived in horrible conditions, just waiting to be rented or sold. Elsa had lived in big houses with her own room. Sometimes she had even attended school, though they had moved a lot when the ground had started to burn their feet. She guessed she should be grateful about the normality she had granted, as some of the poor children hadn't had even that much. But was there really a mind in comparing the sufferings of people? Wasn't there always someone who had it worse?

Without noticing, Elsa had walked to the river of Nidelva. Her injured leg was barely holding her weight anymore, and the pain was flaring up. She sat down to the edge of the river, hanging her legs on the air. Sven was sitting next to her, warmly pressed against her left side, her hand absently twirling his fur. She was listening the noises of sleeping city and watching the gentle waves of the river.

She breathed in the cool autumn air, and felt an odd sensation in her whole body. Even with her aching leg and earlier dark thoughts, she felt peaceful. She rarely ever felt this way, especially when she was alone. When there was nothing to disturb her train of thoughts, they had habit to go overboard and flare up her anxiety. But now her thoughts seemed to stop, nothing really bothered her. Even the memories of her childhood didn't make her want to jump in the river and drown, they felt so distant and unimportant.

Elsa felt almost—happy? She was in middle of the city in nighttime, but she still wasn't afraid. She didn't get startled when a drunken couple passed her, not too far away. She didn't even turn around. She heard them, but they didn't feel like a threat to her. It was strange feeling for her to feel so calm and unafraid. Elsa closed her eyes and tried to enjoy the sensation with every cell in her body. For the first time in forever, she felt like she was actually living. And the best part of it was, that it was all by herself. She indeed was capable of feeling happiness without someone else pouring their time and energy into her. Who would have guessed?

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to let Sven in," Kristoff answered and opened the door.

But to his great surprise, Sven wasn't anywhere to be seen. The house was small, there weren't great many places where the dog could've gone. The bathroom door was closed, so the only place Sven could have gone to, was Elsa's room. Had Elsa woken up and let Sven in her room? Had his sister heard them? The thought made Kristoff blush.

He quietly creeped to Elsa's door and cracked it just enough to peak in. The room was dark, but he didn't need light to see that no one was on Elsa's bed. He quickly put the lights on, forgetting that he was only in his boxers himself. With light, he could see that the bed was indeed empty, and so was the whole room. The crutches were laying against the wall. Elsa was probably hiding in the bathroom, she couldn't go far without the crutches.

Kristoff strode towards the bathroom as fast as he could without running. He knocked the door impatiently and asked with a slightly wavering tone: "Elsa?"

"Elsa?"

"Elsa, this is not funny, answer me!"

"Elsa, I'm sorry if we hurt your feelings, say something. Let's talk about this."

"Elsa, please, I'm coming in if you don't answer now."

He waited for a moment, but nothing happened. The panic was starting to crawl in his body. The door wasn't locked, so he slammed it open, hoping to hear Sven's bark and Elsa's yelp. It was all quiet after the door was done with its slamming noise. The room was dark and obviously unoccupied, but Kristoff put the lights on anyway to see its emptiness clearly. Now he was really starting to panic. Where else could his sister be?

"What's going on?" Anna asked behind him, dressed in a robe.

"Elsa's gone."

"Wait what?"

"She's gone! I don't know where, but she left her crutches. She's gone. This is all my fault," Kristoff wailed.

"Okay, let's calm down. She couldn't be that far without her crutches, she has only walked meters on her own," Anna tried to be reasonable, but the wavering nervousness was evident in her voice.

"It's Elsa! She managed to get up and demand her way to home after waking from surgery, I have no idea what she's capable of! She can be anywhere!" Kristoff shouted. His mind was too clouded with worry to consider his neighbors.

"We'll find her, I promise. Let's go and find her. She's probably just outside the building," Anna said and put a reassuring hand on Kristoff's shoulder.

Kristoff shook it off and stalked to his room to change his clothes. Anna did the same. They needed to find Elsa before someone did something to her—or she did something to herself. The thought forced a shiver through Anna's spine.

The sun was slowly rising from the horizon. It was so beautiful, coloring the world with orange blanket. Elsa wondered why she never took time to just watch the sunrise in peace. What else she had missed in her life by being so afraid all the time? Why had no one told her how beautiful the world could be? Elsa wanted to see more, she wanted to see it all.

Elsa wanted to go and see savanna with its wide and treeless fields and beautiful wild cats. She wanted to adventure in a magical jungle, where it was hot and humid and monkeys were hanging on the trees. She wanted to go to Antarctica, feel the cold biting her cheeks and see a penguin. She even wanted to go to middle-Europe, she wanted to see the old cities, hear the buzzling city around her and not feel afraid. Elsa wanted to experience everything. And the most importantly, Elsa wanted to live, not just survive.

"Elsa!" A desperate cry behind Elsa broke her thoughts. "Kristoff! Kristoff! I found Elsa! She's here!"

Elsa turned around to see what was happening. She saw Anna running full speed towards her, Kristoff hot on her heels. Their faces were full of worry mixed with relief. Elsa didn't understand what had gotten them so worked up. Sven was barking and pulling, so Elsa let go off his leash to allow him greet his owner. However, Kristoff ignored Sven and kept running towards her. Well, that was first.

Anna got there first. She immediately sunk to her knees and took Elsa in a tight embrace. Elsa was too stunned to even hug back. "We were so worried of you! How could you disappear like that, without saying anything?" Anna sobbed into Elsa's shoulder.

Before Elsa could answer anything, Kristoff reached them and joined them on the ground. He hugged them like his life depended on it. "Elsa, never do anything like this again! I've been sick with worry. We've been looking for you everywhere. I get that what we did was wrong, but you don't get to take it out on us like this."

Did they really think that Elsa left in spite of them? Her brother could be so thick sometimes. Elsa didn't think herself as a vengeful person. She didn't lay on bed at nights, thinking ways to revenge on the people who had hurt her or wishing them ill. And she, if someone, had people who had hurt her. She didn't really think of them that much, she actually spent her nights awake, trying to forget them. To think that she would leave her home in middle of the night just to teach her brother and friend a lesson, was an absurd thought. She left because she couldn't stay.

The pair broke the hug to look at her face. Elsa frowned, she felt the familiar feeling of nervousness to sweep in. "I uh—I—I just needed some time to think—about stuff," she managed to stutter out.

"Then you go to a courtyard and think!" Anna exclaimed. "You don't leave in middle of the night, without your crutches and in your pajamas, for a walk without saying anything!"

"Anything could have happened! You didn't even take your phone! What if you had fallen and couldn't have gotten up, who would've helped you then?" Kristoff questioned with anguished tone. Then he happened to glance down to see Elsa's bare feet. "What the fuck, Elsa? Did you honestly leave the house without your shoes? You're unbelievable! You could get cold or something!"

"I'm not cold," Elsa piped up a helpless defense.

"We're going home now, we will talk about this more when you are safely and warmly tucked inside of the blankets, at home," Kristoff stated.

Anna and Kristoff helped Elsa up. She couldn't help but wince from the pain in her sore leg. Bravely she tried to take a step with it, but before her bruised sole could make contact with the ground, Kristoff stopped her from putting any weight on it by holding her from her armpits. "Wait, wait, wait. Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh—home?" Elsa frowned.

"You're not walking a step with that leg," Kristoff said sternly and pointed her injured right leg. "I'm going to carry you home now, then we are going to call your doctor as the first thing at the morning, and you are going to the hospital, without a single complaint, and let them see if there's any damage on that leg from walking with it. I'm I clear?"

"Yes, sir," Elsa said meekly. She almost liked Kristoff being so harsh with her. It was scary, but she was familiar with it, she knew how to react, how to answer. She didn't know how to take her own space, or say what she wanted, she knew how to be submissive and please others. But Elsa didn't think she was naturally meek, it was just a learned habit for survival. She felt this tiny spark inside of her chest that wanted to burst out and force the world on its knees.

"Yes, who?"

"Yes, Kristoff," Elsa corrected.

"Great! Now, hop on, we're going home," Kristoff said with kinder tone and helped Elsa on his piggyback.

The four walked home quietly. Kristoff and Anna were trying to calm their nerves from the stress of worrying and trying to find Elsa. Elsa was already missing the extraordinary peace she had felt on the edge of the river. And Sven, he was just happy to have his whole family with him

A/N I personally like this chapter a lot, I hope you do too. I wanted to write about Elsa's own personality too, Elsa is depressed, but depression isn't all she is. There's still a playful girl inside of her, who longs for an adventure and wants to find her own place in the world. Elsa is a free spirit (hah) who is just caged in this tiny cage of self-doubt and anxiety, and I love to write about her. Plus I was really happy to write about Agnarr finally, though his role wasn't too big, yet. Leave a comment and we'll see in the next chapter!