Chapter 29

Anna, Kristoff, Rapunzel, Flynn and Marshall are in Elsa's house to spend the day all together. At the beginning they thought in going to make a walk at the lake but as soon as they arrived there, it began raining and so they decided to consider the other option: the masterchef-like-challenge. That morning Elsa made a round of call, remembering Anna's proposition of the last evening, it is Friday, that means that the day after this her cousin and her fiancé will come back at their home.

"So, how is life treating you here?" Kristoff asks the couple next to him, in the living room and once in a while peeking into the two girls who are cooking.

"Good, we are enjoying a bit of relax, luckily, I fixed some business issues yesterday and now we think only to relax before leaving and to see who cooks better!" Punzy answers patting gently Etta's back.

"I'm just glad to eat free at your cousin's place.." Flynn smiles noticing the knowing blonde's look in front of him. On the other side, Marshall stays quiet, no one knows if it is because he does not have anything to say, if he is thinking about something or if he is preparing himself for the challenge.

The two young women doesn't know what the others are talking about in the living room, not that they care particularly. Elsa has opted for a mixed salad, while Anna takes care of the filled chicken and roasted potatoes. At the beginning they had in mind to make the starter, the main course, the second course and maybe go out and have the dessert ou all together in the hope that the weather would be better. But then they changed idea, they haven't taken the challenge seriously, actually it is like they have totally forgot it. They are next to one other, the blonde is cutting some tomatoes in wedges in order to add them at the leaves of salad, while the redhead is peeling the potatoes. There are moments of chats alternating moment of silence, not the embarrassing one, but the pleasant one, the one which all it takes is a look and suddenly everything is understood.

"It's nice.. isn't it?" The younger asks peeling the umpteenth potato.

"Mh?" The doctor is busy finding where the cucumbers and the carrots are in the fridge.

"Being here, together, doing this.. cooking.. it feels like-"

"-domestic.. I like it, you know? It's like it is right to be like this, and the.. to have a hand here it's well welcome." The blonde smiles while pointing with her glance at the last cleaned potato that is added to the others, ready to be cut.

"I can see that, I like cooking in company, whenever I can I help mom to make lunch or dinner.. you know, when I was little I loved staying in the kitchen with her because that was the time when she sang and I've always loved her voice, you should listen at her.. she has a beautiful voice, she's the reason why I have this passion for the sing." Hearing and saying those words out loud make Anna nostalgic, while the only thing Elsa has in mind is that time when she listened at the redhead singing Just The Way You Are in the hospital, if she says her mother has a beautiful voice, that means it's a family trait. At the sudden the doctor imagine a Dr. Summers singing out in the living room dressed like a rock-doctor and it wouldn't take much to lose a finger at the scene bumped in her head, since she is using the knife.

"Elsa? Everything okay?" Anna seems a bit worried seeing her black out for that moment.

"Yeah, yeah, I was only imagining your father singing." At the confession the redhead bursts out into a laughing catching the attention of everyone in the house, including Etta, who runs away from Rapunzel.

"My father? No, he tried only very few times to join us, but he's totally not able to and we joking around it every time." They come back to the pleasant silence and finish to prepare lunch.

In the meanwhile the others decide to switch on the playstation, after the owner's say-so, and they choose to play with Mortal Kombat for a while, just to spend a bit of time. Between chit-chats, laughs, friendly insults, fatal hits, victories, losses, the group seems to come along more and more, at times it doesn't look like they are grown-ups people in the paper. There are those moments where you realize you are in the car driving to work, when it seemed just a few days earlier to be at school studying and trying to do your best to bring a good score at home to your parents and to show them you're able to do what you want to do. The job you didn't know you could find, the house and the personal life you have always dreamed about, the independence so craved, the responsibilities that have always made you very nervous to deal with, the company after the never-ending solitude, the friendships and the love when you've almost gave up. Elsa looks at the living room and sees those four people, special and important in her life. The one who's always been there, like Punzy and Marshall, and the one who came along later, Flynn and Kristoff.

'Life has always some surprises in store for us, uh? If at first I didn't like them.. now I can't wait for the next one.' Then the blonde look beside her and see the one who made possible for her to smile again at life.

Rapunzel decides to stand up and leave the children playing with the PS3 and join those two in the kitchen.

"How is it going on here?"

"Ehy, everything's fine! Back there? Have they finished to make my controllers' batteries flat or..?"

"Nope, not at all.. it looks like they're sixteen once again, but at least they haven't destroyed anything yet." At this Elsa pretends to take a breath of relief, while Anna, just like Punzy, smiles simply.

Once the lunch is ready everyone take their seats at the table, set earlier with the help of each one while the chicken was in the oven with the potatoes.

"Okay, let's see who made the best meal!" Kristoff almost scream while sitting next to Marshall and looking at the two young women bringing the food.

When the blonde notices what there's to eat he's a bit confused. "Mh.. I thought it should have been like masterchef, Elsa, have you done only the salad?" he arches his eyebrow.

"Well.. you see.. let's say something took our minds off.. we haven't took seriously the challenge.. I'm sorry guys, we thought to prepare simply something to eat together and well.. the other time you tried my cook, today Anna's." The doctor smiles and places the bowl with the mixed salad she made: different kind of salads, like lettuce, iceberg and corn salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and mozzarella.

"Exactly.. just try what I made and then maybe.. we always could the challenge again, this time seriously! Nothing is on the way, isn't it?" Anna smiles at everyone hopeful in a positive answer, which comes not after long. She puts the filled chicken in a corner of the table in order to cut it, as soon as the blade on the meat, Marshall stands up and stops the girl, offering to take care of it by himself.

Everyone's given their slice of chicken, with some potatoes and salad, there's who drinks wine and who simply water, everything joints together by a nice atmosphere, despite the fact the weather is ugly and cold outside, in the inside of those four domestic walls there's a nice warm and lovely mood.

"Well, I have to say.. I was expecting a drier chicken.. well done cousin!"

"Kristoff, why don't you say how things really are? You are the one who manage to dry everything, you'd be able to dry even a watermelon.. someone could even think you're responsible for the global warming." Anna replies joking as she usually do with him.

"We are lucky that at least there's someone who is really able to cook.. congratulation girls, it's really great!" Punzy says, with the corner of her eye she finds a hungry Flynn, not that it's new, and she shakes her head. "Why don't you act like that whenever I cook?" at the question the fiancé finishes to swallow and answers.

"Mh.. you cook always, I'm used to and they're really good." After a split of second he realizes what he has just said and how it could sound. "With that I don't mean you can't cook! If I hadn't a good metabolism, you'd have left me for how much I'd have eaten your delicious dishes." Rapunzel would like to pretend to be a bit upset, but she chooses to smile simply. 'He tried to make up at least..'

Everyone finish eating while talking about everything and nothing, trying to avoid the topic of work, so they focus on the private life of each one. Marshall like always is keeping everything for himself, without sharing any kind of personal information. Even Elsa, who is something like his daughter, doesn't know certain thing, not that she's ever asked the question.

"So Kristoff, tell us something.. how are things going on in that field?" Flynn asks him winking and the blonde blushes immediately.

"Ehm.. everything's fine..?"

"It's a question or a statement? Oh come on! How are things with Mandy? Tell us!" Anna asks this time, after all she has always seen them good together and hopes they'll be a couple soon.

"What to say.. everything's fine, I think is right to say we are dating and.. yesterday we went out for dinner, we had spent the evening together, romantic.. and well.. it went good!" the red on his face becomes always more evident, all of that attention on him, he's not used to and of course is not a everyday-thing that he finds himself surrounded with that number of people listening and asking him something about his personal life all at once. Kristoff isn't in lack of friendships and he's not that kind of introvert person, yet, when Mandy's topic is on, it's like he becomes a totally different person. Clearly love makes everyone a bit more childishly, shy, embarrassed, euphoric, with their mind totally somewhere else and with that hormonal storm, that it was supposed to be dealt with during the years.

"However, I'm not the only one who has spent the evening with someone special.. what about you my dear little cousin Anna?" Kristoff shifts the attention on the redhead in order to free himself from that situation that was putting him uncomfortable, even if nobody hasn't started with some questions, like Flynn, who had something in mind but it wasn't possible for him to ask, and for that reason he snorts and immediately he receives a jab by his fiancé in order to tell him to stay quiet and be polite.

Like Kristoff earlier, Anna has his same reaction, a moment of awkward silence and the cheeks are starting to gain colour, but she's not the only one. In the same room, at the same table, there's that special person with whom she's spent the last evening. And like the redhead, her face matches the other woman's. Both doesn't know if, how, what and who should answer, Rapunzel, who was watching the younger and was smiling at the reaction, she finds herself to switch her attention from her to her cousin and the brunette's smile changes completely: if at first it was an innocent act, now it isn't. She already has an idea of what might have happened, she hasn't had the time to talk properly with her cousin, so she can't be sure, but seeing how the two are interacting with each other without talking, just make sense. So, the brunette decides to step in.

"Even if we'd like details, or at least I'd be curious to know them.. it's okay if you don't elaborate, tell us how it was the evening, only if you want to, of course!"

"Wonderful, amazing, beautiful, breathtaking, fantastic.. and so much more!" without thinking Anna starts saying the first things that come up in her mind and, as it was expected, those words make even more colourful the blonde's face, that it's impossible not to see it. "I mean.. it was nice. There was fun, let's say there wasn't time to be bored.. the only sad thing? It was over too soon.."

"You know how it is said.. when you're having fun, the time fly by." Flynn comments winking and after a few second he checks at Punzy and he's relieved to not meet a "punishment".

Despite the fact it was untold who was this special person, everyone knows very well who was it, but oddly nobody says anything. Or at least not in front of them all.

When the topic changes, Elsa decides to put away the dishes, since the lunch was over and they were starting to move to the living room. Her cousin helps her and just like some evening earlier, they are alone in the kitchen.

"I'm happy for you." The brunette starts.

"Excuse me?"

"Last night, Anna and you.. I've noticed that the memory made her feel good, so I can only assume that you-"

"Okay, okay! Got it.. thanks!" The blonde stops her immediately knowing what she was up to. "Yes, it was just like she said, you know? I'm happy and.. I think you were right.." she starts to wash the last dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. "I think I'm starting to heal, slowly, but it's working."

"I haven't any doubt, you know what they say about the redhead, don't you?" Punzy's tongue comes out of her lips. "And then.. I'm sure she can't wait for the second time. I bet that you're waiting too, I don't know why but I have the feeling that you two if put in the situation, you wouldn't come out the bed or at least the house, no matter what."

Elsa thinks about it for a moment, she thinks again at those moments spent in her room, at that will to keep going and staying with Anna, without having to say goodbye to her in order to her to come back home. It's not something about passion or attraction, but it's about that complicity they've found under the blankets, so many feeling and emotions you can share with that simple act of love. Yes, she believes that it could end like her cousin says. Her eyes are searching for those that belongs to the person she's falling deeper and deeper in love and as soon as they find each others, she feels that soft warm comes over internally, she can't help but smile and remember herself how much it was nice feeling her in her arms.

"That's the reason why.. the way you look at each other. I think you know it and you understood it, Elsa. That's love, not only attraction."

Author's Note: Hi guys! I am so sorry for the long wait.. I finished my exams (finally) and I tried to write the new chapter, it was really difficult.. I restarted it almost 4 times! And I'm not sure of the outcome.. My brain doesn't want to cooperate with me in these days, I don't know if it's because of the heat of these days here in Italy, or because of lack of exams until september.. well anyway! I hope you'll enjoy this little chapter. Thanks for the patience!

Have a nice day!