"Hola, Anna!" Flynn waved to the girl, then let his arm fall as he half-heartedly nodded at Elsa, "...Frosty"
"Gumby," Elsa replied. He shook his head. Kristoff tossed his bag just behind the curtains and the other boy followed suit, his bag landing with a big plomp atop the other. Anna could just barely make out Kristoff saying "hey watch where you throw your stuff, dumbass" and Flynn replying with his very own sassy, "you can't go one day without talking about my ass, can you". Their squabbling continued while they set up the jungle gym equipment.
Anna watched a moment and then shouldered Elsa.
"Rehearsal?"
Elsa blew out an unladylike puff of annoyed air. "Yeah."
That didn't convince Anna even in the slightest. She bravely reached her hand to Elsa's shoulder and patted it softly to get her attention. "Hey, I can absolutely kick their asses if you want me to."
"No, I suppose that won't be necessary." Elsa sighed, then smiled lightly, lopsided, and placed her hand on top of the other girl's. "Thank you for offering. Now, from the top."
They went through the routine again, mostly verbally 'cause they didn't need to walk through the physical part. Only where they should be entering from, standing at, how to choreograph working and walking around each other. Even though the boys were playing music way too loudly as they messed around with their own routine, Elsa's grouchy mood all but diminished. she'd dropped the air of her Ice Queen role and almost seemed downright goofy as she threw her hands around. Anna giggled when she mimed an exaggerated bow for an invisible crowd.
"What? See something funny?"
"Nah, just something dorky"
"Peanut gallery."
One of the last things they went over was the card trick. Anna knew she couldn't be the assistant for it or it'd look rigged. Someone from the audience would need to volunteer and she'd need to step aside.
"I have to stand right here?" She asked, sitting on her haunches to tape the spot. I could probably figure out the stinkin' card trick from a different angle. (Oh yes, she was still obsessed.)
"Only if you want to be seen by the crowd. If you don't stand there you'll have to stand right by the curtain, maybe even behind it."
"Wow, hiding me like the red-headed stepchild that I am." Anna snickered at herself, but felt a pause in the air. She looked up from taping to see a hilariously horrified look on Elsa's face, mouth agape.
"No, no! Anna, it's definitely not like that! I didn't—"
"—Oh, Elsa," the name falling off her tongue deliciously, "it's okay, I was kidding."
Everything in Elsa's face remained pathetically sad as if Anna had kicked a puppy in front of her. With cleats. Down a flight of stairs that were also made of cleats. But it's not like Anna could do that! She loved puppies. Which kinda in a stupid way reminded her...
"So I know I'm a, uh, newbie to the circus scene but I thought there'd be more animals— I haven't seen diddly-squat. How come?"
Elsa stopped hunching over the tape spots and sat fully, crisscross applesauce. Anna followed slowly from her crouched position down to the floor and splayed her sweaty legs out in front of her.
"Well that's a pretty good question for a newbie. For one, we probably don't have a license for animals. And then there's the whole cruelty factor— not that we would treat them cruelly, of course. We're a travelling circus and the move would be stressful for them. And we'd have to figure out how we'd fund the traveling part."
"If you guys stayed in one spot, you could have animals."
"That would make us a carnival."
"Is that so bad?"
Elsa grinned. "We actually do become something like a carnival for a couple of weeks. Every few months we end up back in this area and get to collaborate with the Northuldrans." Anna felt like the name sounded familiar but couldn't place where she knew it from. "Despite what Hans thinks of them, we're close and work together for a bit. They've got animals, games, and we help them set up some small-tech rides..."
The fleeting image of a Ferris wheel breaking apart crossed Anna's mind.
"... So the closest thing we have to an animal is Sven. Sven and... Flynn over there."
"About Flynn, uh, what's your beef with him? It doesn't seem like you guys like each other." Anna leaned back on her palms, half to try out being casual and half because she was exhausted from the extra hours of work. Yeah, she still had hours of more strenuous work ahead of her, buuuuut that was a problem for Future Anna.
"We did at one point." Elsa rolled her eyes and sucked in a big breath. "Sort of. We tried to date once."
Anna's mouth puckered inward like she'd eaten a lemon. No, that's not right. The entire lemon tree. Enough citrus to keep a whole pirate ship free of scurvy. She never would've guessed that series of words coming out of Elsa's mouth, especially regarding Flynn. Were they even talking about the same Flynn? That guy over there, practicing Tik Tok dances?
"Oh don't look at me like that, Anna. It was really dumb and lasted only, what, a month?" Elsa could tell that Anna wasn't reassured and kicked the other girl's leg lightly. "It wasn't insignificant though. As the cliché goes, our relationship and its downfall helped me grow as a person and find myself, blah blah blah. The whole thing made me realize that I'm truly exclusive to, well, you know..."
"I don't know," Anna played dumb, mostly. Of course she had an inkling of what Elsa was about to say but Anna really needed her to say it out loud, she couldn't want anything more. Like that would cement it. She stared at the other girl with eyes wide of their own accord.
Elsa shook her head lightly, "Anna, come on…" but could tell Anna wasn't going to bite. With a tight inhale and a small glance at the other girl, she whispered the smallest whisper, "women. Just women."
Anna didn't want to break eye contact. "That's good. Hoo. Hella good," she breathed out.
Any and all of Elsa's shyness had disappeared at that, and her small smile became stupidly smug. "What's so good about it?" Uh oh.
"Because, well," Anna scanned the tent for a distraction, a means to save a shred of her dignity. Way behind them in the background, Flynn and Kristoff were catching the woah, tossing it to each other, running far and throwing the invisible woah like it was a football. They both let out very obnoxious and very stupid huhuhuh laughs. Convenient. Anna turned back to Elsa and thumbed toward the idiots. "I mean, come on. Boys? Yeesh."
"So... There's nothing going on between you and Flynn?" Elsa asked genuinely.
"Ew, ew! I just threw up in my mouth a little," She made a wet gag and covered her eyes at the thought, "God no, nothing's going on there."
"Well that's good. Hella good." Elsa repeated.
Anna almost didn't believe her ears. She peeked from between her fingers to make sure she'd heard right and caught Elsa mid-laugh. She followed the crinkles in the corners of her eyes down to the shy dimple peeking from her cheek. She'd turned away and shook her head, blonde waves following slowly. The sounds of the boys' loud music and the hot wind outside and the other bits and pieces of the world came rushing back all at once. Anna was struck by how seamlessly they'd faded away in the first place.
Elsa sighed with a distant look in her eyes and her mouth in a terse line. "It's for the best. Circus-cest is all too common and hardly ever works out." The what now?
"Circus... cest?"
"Right, you're a big newbie. It's slang for dating within the same group of carnies."
Oop. Moment absolutely decimated. Anna's balloon heart instantly popped and deflated, fart noise and all. Pbbbbbttththhhhh.
Elsa hadn't even noticed the girl next to her having a crisis and continued, "since the breakup, it feels like he's trying to sabotage me and my happiness."
"Have you, like, talked to him about it?"
"I... oh, I honestly hadn't thought of that..." Elsa seemed a little embarrassed.
Kristoff and Flynn had been watching some video on one of their phones with the audio at max, because of course the boys were loud bastards, and shouted about how they "could definitely do that", before dropping the phone on the ground and going into weird stances. Flynn wrapped himself around Kristoff's middle, Kristoff held onto him and the boys jumped sideways so now Flynn was the one standing and Kristoff was sideways. Alternating who was jumper and who was jumpee, they thumped around stage loudly and clumsily. It was like Kristoff wanted to break his arm more with how hard the two of them were going. There was no way the girls could continue their conversation- whether that be fortunate or unfortunate seeing as Anna had no idea how to respond.
Elsa looked at her watch and hummed. "The others will be arriving soon, so we can end our practice here. Nice work today, Anna."
Nice work sure, don't mind me, I'll be over here digging my grave— "You too," Anna scrambled up gracelessly and half-jogged towards the tool shed. The Stomping Bozo Brothers managed to hop in her path and they came to a full shoe-squeaking stop directly in front of her.
"Whoops, sorry! Almost ran you over there." Flynn wiped at his sweaty forehead. "Back to work? No more goofin' around?"
"Wow, I didn't realize that stunt would give you more brain damage." Kristoff retorted. Flynn just punched his shoulder and went back to setting up equipment. The puppeteer was about to follow when Anna patted him on the same shoulder.
"Wait here for a sec, my guy, I have something for you," she said, holding up a finger.
Kristoff froze in place. Anna quickly ran to the shed and rummaged through it loudly. With little grunts, "where is it, I swear I just saw— THERE IT IS" she found and threw the item at his open arm. He'd just barely managed to catch the coil of rope and metal before it clanked against the floor.
"I found this earlier. I know you're not so confident with your gymnastic skills but I think this guy can help out if you put him to use."
"Woah, an old slack line! Think it's safe?"
Anna and all two of her braincells hadn't thought of that so she shrugged in response.
"Heh. I'll just try not to break any other parts." Kristoff seemed unbothered.
Anna smiled, "At least make sure it's not your other arm."
She'd already turned to walk away when he called back to her, "Hey Anna..." He stared at the equipment in his hand before making eye contact with her, "... Thank you so much. It honestly means a lot." He looked so genuinely grateful that all Anna could do to not fuck up this nice moment was to nod and point finger guns. He ran in Flynn's direction and Anna was finally able to get to work.
"Now, which piece are we behind on today?"
"Alright guys, last call for potty breaks," Hans' voice boomed backstage. That seemed to be the cue for all hell to break loose backstage as everyone talked over each other. Hans was admiring himself in the mirror, making sure his lapel was just so, his jacket dust free.
"Oh dear. I should get to the bathroom, ya. Beeg guy, beeeeg bladder."
"Don't wet your spandex, Flynn, it'll ruin your sock."
"Bet. Don't let Sven piddle down your arm."
There was motion all around while Anna peeked around the curtains. The tent was filling up, hardly any seats open in the pit. She bounced on the balls of her feet and turned to the magician who had towered over her in her patented Ice Queen heels, which was weird after having spent aaaaalllll day as tall as Anna on her tiptoes.
"Elsa, I literally might piss on stage during our act."
Elsa looked at her, mouth forming a small o, "Oh, Anna, I don't-"
"—I'm joking, I'm joking. I'll wear a diaper. I'm so stoked!" She hopped in place, her grin straining against her cheeks.
"Anna, I'm, I forgot to..."
"Hey dumbass," Flynn came up, crossing his arms, "what Frosty here is trying to tell you is that you aren't going on yet. Not tonight."
"But I—"
"No, no, he's right."
"Forreal?" Anna looked at Elsa incredulously.
Elsa nodded. Then unexpectedly cupped the shorter girl's shoulder, leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Don't worry. This was your first day of practice. You'll be ready soon, I know it."
Anna understood. She didn't like it, but understood. Disappointment and a sudden arousal from Elsa's hot breath on her neck were fighting brutally throughout her body, and it wasn't until Elsa released her shoulder and stepped back that Anna could finally get a fucking GRIP. "Yeah, no, I get it, don't have to tell me twice, pffft... Besides, I don't even have an outfit yet, heh." Her voice was unnaturally high so she concealed it with a small cough and gently patted Elsa on the back, "go get 'em, Els."
An itty-bitty smile graced the Ice Queen's lips as she mouthed, "thank you", as she walked backward into the stage light. All of Anna's disappointment (and, let's be real, dignity) melted away when she watched Elsa run through her routine.
Yeeeesh, she had it baaaaaaaad.