Elsa & Anna
The picnic was Kristoff's idea, but Anna had been the one to suggest the clearing in Sutter woods near the old fishing pond. It was a short enough hike from the parking lot, and a cool breeze had swept over the hills, making it a pleasant sort of sunny weather. They should have all been making their way to that clearing together, but the boys had forgotten to pack the chips and sandwiches, and dropped the girls off at the edge of the woods to hurry back for the food. Elsa suspected that Kristoff was also eager to fly his rebuilt vintage Mustang down the narrow curves of the hillside without her constantly in his ear, hissing at him to slow down at every turn.
"I guess I'll take the lead," Anna begrudgingly declared, grabbing one end of the ice cooler, waiting for Elsa to take the other as she looked on with indolent eyes. Completely befitting of an irritable teenager.
"You know the way from here?"
"Of course I do. I come here all the time on the weekends."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Elsa probed, unable to mask the criticism in her voice. She'd heard the infamous stories of Sutter woods when she was still in high school. Teens drinking and skinny dipping in the pond, vomiting from the top of the water tower, parking after hours in the old parking lot overlooking the town. Plenty of girls had lost their v card in that old lot. "I don't think your brother would approve of you and Hans out here all by yourselves."
"I come out here with my astronomy club," Anna indignantly replied.
"Oh. I just thought-"
"I know what you thought."
"It's not so far-fetched to assume it would be with your boyfriend."
"Well, he's not."
"What?"
"Hans. He's not my boyfriend."
"You two are always together, so I just assumed-"
"You've been doing a lot of that lately," Anna cut her off, suddenly hastening her pace, faster than Elsa could hope to keep up.
"Anna, hold on. Can you please slow down? Please?" The plastic handle of the heavy ice cooler bit into her aching, clenched hands, cutting off the circulation to her fingers. She slowed to a pause as they descended the steep slope to the green grassy clearing, but before she could set down her end, Anna wordlessly jerked it onward, rattling the bottles of beer that filled the cooler.
Elsa lurched forward, tightening her grip, and nearly skidding her way to the bottom.
"Was that really necessary?" She huffed angrily as soon as they came to a stop, a light sheen of perspiration dampening her face.
"Well that's rare," Anna remarked, staring at Elsa with mock curiosity.
"What is?"
"I didn't realize it was possible for the ice queen to get all hot and bothered."
Elsa clenched her jaw, biting back her tart reply, and hoped the boys wouldn't take too long to return. Five minutes alone with the brat, and she already wanted to slap her.
"We should set up the picnic here," she finally spoke, choosing to ignore Anna. "I brought matches and lighter fluid for a fire, but we should probably split up and gather some wood."
And just maybe I won't be tempted to strangle her.
~X~
Elsa was nowhere to be seen when Anna returned, sweaty and carrying an armful of dried twigs and branches for the campfire. It didn't appear as if Hans and Kristoff had returned either, but she spied a couple of opened beer bottles on the cooler. Miss Ice Queen probably got bored and helped herself, Anna figured, picking up a half empty bottle with her free hand, taking a long sip. There was a slight peachy taste on her lips when she withdrew it, and Anna remembered the peach flavored lip gloss she had given to Elsa for her birthday last year. It was a cheap thing she'd picked up from the clearance bins at the mall, an afterthought of a gift. The look on Elsa's face when she'd unwrapped it instantly told Anna that her sister-in-law knew what little thought she'd put into it, and Anna always figured Elsa had thrown it away.
Anna bit down on her lip, fighting back the remorse that pestered her thoughts over their last encounter.
She's the one who was asking for it.
"Elsa?" She called out as she set down the beer and wandered to the edge of the clearing. "Where'd you go?"
It didn't take long to find her. She was resting on the soft, grassy curve of a small hill, under the shadow of a red maple, in a bed of white clovers. Her hair lay sprawled in waves over fallen leaves, with just enough sunlight peering through the tree branches to cast shimmers of gold through her fair locks.
She looked like an elfin fairy. Or a goddess.
Like something out of a dream.
Anna set down the branches on the small pile that Elsa had gathered, and walked over to the elfin figure without uttering a sound, pausing to kneel over her sleeping form. Despite being awake, Anna's actions were dictated by the trance-like dream that had overtaken her the moment she had caught sight of Elsa. The lovely and lonely girl that often haunted her dreams.
In that moment, Anna was much like the seven-year-old child who had first laid eyes on stardust, made manifest in the girl that laid before her. She reached hesitantly for her, pulling her hand away when she got too close, and briefly wondered if stardust burned hot or cold to the touch.
"Every princess needs a crown," Anna remembered her mother often tell her long before she grew too ill to look after her and Kristoff. Each time, her mother would fashion a flowery crown, strung together with white clovers, and fasten it into Anna's hair.
Wordlessly, Anna plucked a white clover from the grass and carefully fixed the stem into the billowing locks of stardust, hoping that Elsa would not wake. When she did not stir, Anna fastened another in her hair, then another, slowly weaving Elsa's silvery blonde tresses with a flowery crown over her bangs. Once she wended the last white clover into her locks, Anna's body was gripped by an instinctive compulsion.
"Elsa," Anna whispered, leaning in as Elsa slowly stirred awake. Her lashes fluttered open and her sleepy eyes peered up, still insufficiently awake to make sense of the softness in Anna's eyes. Elsa was only beginning to gather her senses when Anna reached for a small tendril of hair and gently pushed it away from the sleepy girl's forehead. Her fingers lingered, softly caressing the contours of Elsa's face, and for the first time since she'd known her, Elsa saw a beautiful untamed creature. And she was drawn to her.
The years of distance between them diminished into nothing as Anna drew in closer, gently tilting Elsa's chin up, and stealing her lips for the very first time. It was tentative at first, lips on lips, soft and fluttery. But Anna pressed deeper, seeking out the wetness of Elsa's mouth, suckling on her timid tongue, until she pried an unchaste whimper from her ravaged lips.
"Do you understand now?" Anna whispered, the heat of her breath teasing Elsa's aroused flesh. "Why Hans could never be my boyfriend?"
Elsa opened her mouth to speak, but she was too stunned by realization to formulate a reply. But her body could still respond, and she reached for her this time, teasing her fingers along the curve of Anna's ear, fluttering them down her neck, then gently tugging at her braids and pulling her in for a second kiss. Even as Anna had her pinned down, it was Elsa who was taking, deepening, and seeking respite in their embrace. It was only when they heard the distant voices of Hans and Kristoff approaching from beyond the clearing that they finally pulled away.
And she was swallowed up by guilt, head first.
"Is there something going on between you two?" Kristoff asked Elsa after they finished their sandwiches. They were watching Anna and Hans bicker as they struggled to set up the bonfire. Just days ago they'd all been gathered in the back yard looking up at the stars, Anna and Hans arguing over the telescope; a moment that resonated much like today. But the world had changed since that day. Or perhaps it was only Elsa who had changed, and the world remained as it always was.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you and Anna."
Elsa tensed and nearly forgot how to breathe, expecting the ground to open up beneath her feet.
"Why would you think something is going on?" She asked, forcing a laugh.
"You've barely spoken a word to each other," he insisted with accusing eyes. "Don't think I haven't noticed. What's the fight about this time?"
"It's nothing, really," Elsa said unconvincingly, too relieved to bother dissuading him.
"Sure, it is," he replied with a playful glare, and she couldn't have felt worse.
That evening, as they reminisced and melted marshmallows under the dying sky, Elsa lost herself more than once in Anna's intrepid eyes, falling deeper into a lie that she could not control.
"So your sister hates your wife," Hans drunkenly whispered to an equally inebriated Kristoff, loud enough for Elsa and Anna to hear. "There are worse things in life than that."
The girls looked away, afraid that their transgressions would be exposed by a simple glance. Their eyes would not meet for the rest of the night.