Day 25: In Which They're Connected

"Catch!"

Before Elsa even had time to turn around, he was already tossing the red cup in her direction. Catching it at the last minute, she sighed as she twirled the piece of string attached to the cup around her finger.

"Honestly, how do you even come up with these ideas?" she asked.

"Alright. Let's give this bad boy a test." Jack stretched the string as far as it went and whispered in the cup. "Can you hear me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I can hear you. I can also hear you just as clearly without the cups."

"Were you this much of a killjoy growing up as well, Elsa?" he grumbled before whispering nonsensical sentences on the makeshift phone.

With a grunt, she pulled her cup away from her ear and dropped it on her lap.

"I never really understood how these things worked," he admitted, rotating his half of the phone in his hands.

"Your voice's vibrations travel through the string and are converted back into sound when they reach the other cup."

Jack rolled his eyes. "You know, rainbows lose their magic when you explain the science behind them."

"Rainbows are nothing but refracted light—"

"Shut up and come over here." Jack hunched against the railing and pulled on the string.

Begrudgingly, she dragged her feet to the corner of her balcony. "What are you doing?"

He kept his eyes on hers. "Connecting."

Elsa frowned. He tugged on the string cup again, and her hand was pulled forward. The weirdness of that sort of contact confused her. They were… touching without actually touching. Why did a simple piece of string feel so intimate? And why was she so emotional now?

She let out a shaky breath. Her throat had tightened all of a sudden.

"So…" Jack's eyes were so intently focused on her that she feared he could read her emotions like an open book. "What else can go through the string beside our voices?"

She shrugged. "Why don't you try to hear my thoughts?"

He narrowed his eyes, studying her for a solid minute in silence. "You think I'm the most roguishly handsome person you ever met in your damn life."

"Try again," Elsa replied with a snort.

He smiled, eyes softening as he leaned forward, almost as if holding himself up on his feet was too much of an effort. He pulled on her wrist again.

"You wish we didn't need a stupid piece of string between us."