"Right," Anna bounces nervously on the Ball's of her feet. "No setting people on fire."
"I don't set people on fire," Elsa protests quietly and stands safely behind her girlfriend.
"And no raising the dead," Marshmallow adds.
"I…" before Elsa can finish her thought, Rapunzel cuts her off.
"No aging people to death either."
"Just the skeletons…" Elsa bites her lip.
"Other than that, I'm sure you'll be fine though," Eugene beams.
Anna knocks briskly on the aged pine of the door. "Um, and don't tell them you're a litch," she adds quickly.
"Or allude to your age," Marshmallow agrees.
"Or anything else that would let them guess," Rapunzel says helpfully.
"But really, they're pretty nice," Eugene's cheer doesn't seem forced.
"What…." Elsa lets her voice trail off hollowly. It's snowing, she realizes abruptly. That means it's cold. The magic eddies with the four humans' breathing, indistinguishable from the fog of their breaths to Elsa's unusual senses. Cold, very cold, but she can't feel it. Just a light knit sweater to her companions' heavy coats.
"And don't tell them you're… hi mom and dad!" Anna's words come out in a rush at the end.
"Anna!" The first thing Elsa notes about them is warm smiles. Hearts that seem to whine with age in the ambient magic. Veins clogged with plaque, the energies of their lives follow the relentless rush of their blood but boil like a swift river over rapids at the sickness in their veins.
They are rotund people, shorter than Elsa expected but not by much. Greying hair and bright eyes, fuzzy slippers and felt pajamas. Elsa wants to like them immediately. "Marsh!" The man claps his sons shoulder. "I'm glad you all could come. When I saw the business on the tv…"
"Well classes were canceled for a few weeks so we thought we could take a few days off studying for next semester and see family," Eugene replies.
"That mean you've proposed young man?" Anna's father squints at Eugene with faux suspicion.
"Nah," Rapunzel burrows through the crowd for a hug. "He's slow. C'mon. Let us in. It's cold." Laughing, the family flows into their living room. Elsa follows, and thinks that her heart would be in her throat if it ever did anything other than sit there still and dead.
"And you must be Elsa," Anna's mother crows. "Oh you must be so cold, come in dear!" The woman takes Elsa hands and gasps. "You are! Oh you poor dear! Like ice."
"The cold doesn't bother me," Elsa says quietly. Anna seizes her by the arm and pulls her through the door. It's better than heat at least… she tries not to shudder at the memory of that horrible flickering orange, burrowing into her flesh like ephemeral awls. She schools her face- long practice.
Anna's parents- Elsa doesn't know their names, and wouldn't presume to call them by anything other than "Mister or Missus Anderson" anyway- Anna's parents live well away from any town, in the thick green wetness that is the undeveloped areas of the Pacific Northwest. Tall trees laden with their own vitality and playing host to a half dozen species of moss. Lush verdant undergrowth, teeming with thousands of tiny rodents, millions of insects. All resting now though- the trees are filled with snow like fluffy white clouds and it covers the ground like an obscuring blanket. The animals hide in their little secret places where it's warm, the insects do whatever insects do when they aren't trying to bite or sting- Elsa isn't sure what that may be. It's nearly the perfect place to work magic; plenty of life force to draw from and an overactive ecosystem to replace anything she takes too much from. The only way it could be better is if it were springtime.
The Anderson's home isn't sprawling, but it isn't cramped. A comfortable two story middle ground. A red brick porch and ivy-covered walls. Faded white window sills and a moss covered roof. It doesn't look run down, and it doesn't look like it's decaying, more like it's a part of the forest.
"I…" Elsa casts about for a way to change the topic. "You mentioned having neighbors growing up," she says after an awkward moment.
"We did," Anna drapes her arms around Elsa's shoulders and glares at her parents' pursed lips and pointed lack of comment. "Mom and da moved when Marsh' and me went to college."
"Oh," Elsa nods and wishes the conversation had saved her for longer. The atrium is brightly lit but narrow and cramped for so many people. There's a coat rack and Elsa's companions hang their coats there but then Anna's mother is ushering them into the living room and Anna's father is peering oddly at Elsa. Elsa follows mutely.
"Did you make cookies this..." Eugene starts to ask, but Rapunzel swats him before he can finish. "I can help with dinner," Rapunzel says quickly so no one can reply to her boyfriend without seeming rude.
"Oh don't you worry about that," Mrs. Anderson says cheerfully and motions to the plush armchairs and wide couch. A fire crackles nearby and Elsa edges away from it as subtly as she can. "Sit, warm yourselves up! I'll get the cookies." The woman bustles off and Anna pulls Elsa to one of the soft chairs furthest from the fire.
"It's ok," Elsa says quietly. She wants to say more but… how? You don't need to go out of your way to accommodate my decades-old neurosis? A little fire isn't that big of a deal? Don't let your parents notice… "You don't have to…" she begins.
"No," Anna cuts her off with a stern glare, somehow still soft around the edges. Gently maneuvers the little litch into the chair, perches carefully on the round armrest. Something in her face seems to say that it's ok. That she understands. That she doesn't have to accommodate Elsa, but that she wants to. That she likes helping her girlfriend however she can. She kisses Elsa lightly on the forehead, just the softest ghosting of lips, and Elsa can almost feel it. Maybe not Anna's lips on her forehead, but maybe her forehead on Anna's lips.
"So," Anna's father says sternly, taking a seat across from them. The chair seems to creak soundlessly under his weight, the other three seem almost to be holding their breath. "You and she?" Mr. Anderson doesn't sound approving, but he doesn't sound overtly judgemental either.
"Yeah," Anna's eyes are a sharp challenge, Elsa avoids the world.
"Hmpfh." Mr. Anderson says. He doesn't go on. Rapunzel and Eugene and Marshmallow sit quietly and don't get involved, though Marshmallow looks like he wants to.
"What?" Anna demands, and Elsa wishes she wouldn't.
"You know what your mother and I think about your decision to be…" mr. Anderson starts to say but Marshmallow cuts him off.
"Dad," The big man snaps abruptly. "If being gay was a choice, no one would be gay. I know I wouldn't want to put up with all the shit those two face…" he trails off, Elsa thinks because he fears he said too much.
"So," Anna's father says. "Elsa. Where are you from?" Elsa glances quickly to Anna, back to mister Anderson, back to… "It's ok, kiddo," mister Anderson smiles gently at Elsa, frowns at his daughter. "You don't have to say if you don't want." He doesn't sound patronizing but there's still something in his voice that makes Elsa want to defy his expectations.
"I'm from Germany," the little litch says abruptly, as if to say she isn't shy about it, but the way she hides behind her hair and behind her girlfriend's shoulder both undermine that impression.
"Oh," Anna's father replies after a short moment. "I like Germany."
"I don't," Elsa says quietly. She isn't sure if anyone hears her.
"You don't seem to have an accent?" Mister Anderson sits forward somewhat.
"Yaa," Elsa grumbles. "I do haff zee ah-cent mein herr."
"Oh," Anna's father grins. "Such a pretty… I love German."
Elsa would blush if her blood flowed enough for that. Anna runs a freckled hand through her hair- a subtle message that Elsa doesn't have to do anything that she doesn't want to. There's silence until Anna's mother returns. She passes out the cookies- big full bodied snowmen with a generous layer of white frosting. Elsa takes one to be polite.
Anna's parents are warm enough to Elsa, but not to Anna whenever the conversation turns to their relationship. There's an uneasy strain in the air, and the conversation sometimes dies out entirely. Eugene seems oblivious to the tension, or else determined not to acknowledge it and accident or no, everytime the mass of things unspoken drags the conversation down and drowns it in wordless discomfort, he brings that discomfort onto himself. An off-color joke here about the color of the hair between Rapunzel's legs, an anecdote about a pregnancy scare there. At first, Elsa's ninety year sensibilities are mildly offended by his crass unconcern, but as the Andersons' glares shift from Anna to Eugene, gratitude leaks into Elsa's dead heart. Intentional or otherwise, she is grateful of the diversion.
Eventually, the long gone sunlight reminds the little crowd of their heavy eyes and the wordless decision to retire for the night passes around. Anna and Rapunzel are given one room, Eugene and Marshmallow another, and Elsa a third. The bed is big and lonely and entirely too soft. The room is bigger and lonelier and entirely too white.
Just as Elsa starts to drift off, there's a knock at her door.
AN: A thousand thanks to halladelle who did the cover picture for this story. Whooooooo! Ahem. Dignified coughing, less dignified scuttle to my little shyness corner. So, I wrote this chapter like a month ago, and intended to publish it and the next one over christmas so that everyone could read about it while they're home with their families (and I'm stuck in the EMS station wishing people would stop trying to have sex with tractors) but I'm also trying to write a original steampunk novel with airships and greek gods and lesbians and it's going to be AWESOME whenever I get around to finishing the last five-ish chapters. And anyway, I got a little distracted, and somehow I got it into my mind that I published this chapter. Then someone reviewed the last chapter asking me to post more of this story, and I was all like "dafaque? Why ask for more on not the last chapter?" then I checked, and I was that I derped, so here you go. Horribly delayed. Sorry.
Also, one of my other stories on this site has been published for realsies as "My Girlfriend is a Dragon" on amazon. If you all care to check it out, I would be eternally grateful.