She woke up in a room that wasn't hers, and her neck hurt like she'd been sleeping over a rock. It took her a moment to understand where she was, then she remembered the Christmas party at the Frost residence, and how the girls were told to sleep in Jack's little sister's bedroom while the younger girl went to sleep with her parents.
Elsa stretched her back and the air mattress screeched under her weight. She froze, fearing she would wake the other girls up with the noise. Lucky for her, both her friends remained asleep, their soft breathing the only sound in the dark bedroom. She could hear muffled sounds outside, the clanking of pans in the kitchen, most likely. Figuring it was a reasonable hour for a guest to get up, she changed as quietly as she could and left the room.
Downstairs, she spotted Cassie playing in the living room. The girl was surrounded by plush toys, and she had a colorful tea party set spread on the coffee table. One of the dolls Elsa and her friends had gotten Cassie had made it to the tea party guests list, and it warmed Elsa's heart.
"Good morning," Elsa said as she walked to the couch.
Cassie looked up at the newcomer and smiled. "Morning."
Elsa looked at the tea set skillfully organized, every little cake, every cup, and spoon having its specific place on the table.
"What a fancy tea party."
"Wanna play? You can sit next to Bunnymund."
Before Elsa could reply, Cassie was already opening a spot for her next to a grey bunny curled inside a real-sized teacup.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bunnymund," Elsa said, sliding to the carpet and scratching behind the animal's ears.
Cassie offered her a teacup and saucer. "Jack gave me Bunny last Christmas."
"How thoughtful of him."
"He said Bunny was grumpy."
Elsa couldn't help but pet the Bunny some more. He was just too fluffy not to.
"I'm afraid your brother doesn't know what he's saying most of the time," Elsa said, making Cassie smile. "What kind of tea are we having?"
"Strawberry tea."
"Do you like strawberries?"
"Mmhmm!"
The girls clinked their cups together, and Elsa brought her cup closer to her lips. She noticed how full of expectancy shone the little girl's eyes, so she took a moment to savor the beverage. She wet her lips and hummed with a pensive expression on her face.
"Fruity with a hint of sweetness..."
Cassie sat on the edge of her seat, paying close attention to the smallest of Elsa's reactions, and Elsa prolonged the suspense as best as she could.
Biting her lower lip to contain her smile, she put her cup down and cleared her throat. "Looks like we had a good strawberry harvest this year as well. Thank you for the lovely tea, Cassie."
Cassie giggled overjoyed.
"Could I have some more, please?"
"Sure!" Cassie jumped to refill Elsa's cup. "Would you like a piece of cake, Elsa? We have strawberry cake too!"
"I could never say no to cake," Elsa chuckled, sudden memories of her childhood games with Anna flooding her mind and tightening her chest.
The tea party continued, each of the girls getting more and more into their characters as the exchange of pleasantries proceeded. Laughter filled the room as child and teen lost themselves in that make-believe world of miniature cakes and fancy tableware.
Sick of her hair getting in the way, Elsa took a moment to brush it with her fingers, pulling it back into a French braid, and she noticed that Cassie watched her again.
"What do you think?" Elsa asked, turning her head so the little girl could inspect the final product.
"Looks good!"
"Great!" Elsa beamed. "Want me to braid your hair too?"
"Can you?"
"Sure. Come here," Elsa said, patting the space in front of her.
As the girl sat in front of her, Elsa worked on splitting Cassie's hair into sections. "Your hair is so smooth… Reminds me of my little sister's."
"You have a sister?"
Elsa hummed. "She's not so little anymore, though. I used to braid her hair all the time."
"Jack did my hair when I was smaller," Cassie mumbled, leaning back as Elsa's ministrations on her hair continued.
"He did?" Elsa asked, pressing her lips together to contain her smile.
Cassie wrinkled her nose at the memory. "He used duct tape to tie my hair."
Elsa gasped. "He what?"
"Then it got all sticky and tangled, so he cut it while mom wasn't looking…"
Elsa shook her head in disapproval, but she had amusement in her eyes. "Did she ever find out?"
"Yeah," Cassie snorted. "Mom yelled so much that day I thought she was gonna explode."
The girls laughed together at that, and as Elsa finished tying the braid, she patted Cassie's shoulder and announced, "All done!"
"Thanks, Elsa!" Cassie grinned, fingers carefully sliding down the tightly interlaced locks.
"You're welcome." Elsa gently tucked Cassie's bangs behind her ear.
"If you two are done embarrassing me..."
Elsa jumped, turning to find Jack leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a not-so-pleased look on his eyes. His lips were pressed into a thin line as he scowled at his little sister.
"Look, Jack!" Cassie jumped, showing him her hairdo, and if she felt intimidated by her big brother at all, she did an amazing job not showing it. "Elsa did my hair."
"I can see that," he mumbled, dragging his feet across the living room and dropping himself on the couch. Glancing at Elsa with a sheepish smile, he greeted, "Hey."
Elsa smiled back at him. "Morning."
"Come here, Cass." Jack beckoned her, swinging a stethoscope in his right hand. "Mom sent me to check on you."
Cassie nodded, waiting patiently as he measured her heart rate.
"So how come you didn't wake me up this year?" Jack asked.
Cassie breathed out. "Mom said I couldn't go to your room 'cause we had guests."
"I should've thought about bringing guests ages ago," he muttered and took the stethoscope off his ears. "Alright, all good."
She thanked him and went back to her seat on the carpet. "You wanna play with us, Jack?"
"I'm good," he said, putting the stethoscope away and leaning his head back. "The guys and I were talking about going skating today, so why don't you go ask Mom if you can open your presents now?"
"Okay!"
In her hurry to open her presents, Cassie hit the center table, making some of her toys fall as she stormed out of the room. Chuckling to herself, Elsa went to pick the dropped toys up, and it was then that she noticed how tense Jack looked sitting completely still.
"So you duct-taped Cassie's hair?" the girl asked with an arched eyebrow.
He snorted. "Not my brightest idea, I admit, but what was I supposed to do? Her hair kept falling."
"If it wasn't bad enough, you also cut her hair just like that." Elsa mocked as she put Cassie's bunny back in its cage.
Jack shrugged. "I was eight. I was trying to be creative."
"You're unbelievable."
"Thanks," he said, smirking.
"It wasn't a compliment..."
He chuckled, shaking his head, and his shoulders seemed to relax as she sat next to him. She kept twirling the end of her braid around a finger, wondering what she should say next, but coming out empty. And as the silence between them grew, so grew the elephant in the room. Or better yet, the avoidance of a certain medical device.
"Ever heard of something called HCM?" Jack's voice was raspy and tired, and she found it hard to understand his words with clarity.
She pursed her lips, torn between giving him an answer and remaining quiet. A part of her feared that he'd return to his standard smug persona once her voice broke whatever mood he seemed to be in. So she made her mind. She took a deep breath and waited, biting her tongue not to utter the slightest of sounds.
"It's a heart disease," he continued. "Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Heart muscles thicken, making it harder to pump blood to the rest of the body. Cassie was diagnosed with it when she was four."
She nodded. Her head was a mess of memories connecting to that new snippet of information, and a rush of questions she had yet to find answers to raced to her lips. "Is that why she's homeschooled?"
Jack looked at her, surprise written on his face, and she chastised herself for probing.
"Yeah…" He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. "It's also why I was sent to boarding school."
"What?"
"Cassie ended up in the hospital because of me." He shrugged. "We were just playing outside like we always did, but I was stupid. I should've noticed how out of breath she was, or how red her cheeks were…"
One of his hands messed his hair as he figured out the rest of his words, and Elsa stared at him, breath caught in her throat and heart beating loudly in her ears.
"When I turned around, she was on the floor, holding her chest in pain and breathing so hard." He huffed, sinking on his seat and hiding his face with a forearm. "The next thing I remember is my mom taking off with Cassie to the hospital. That's when we found out about her heart."
"The doctors said that she'd be okay as long as she didn't push herself too hard, so my parents figured she'd be safer if I was somewhere else. Somewhere I could waste all my useless pent-up energy without putting her at risk again…"
Elsa shifted, leaning the side of her head against the backrest. She gripped his arm to catch his attention and waited for him to look at her before saying, "You were just a kid, Jack. You couldn't know."
Jack chuckled, his free hand going to rest on top of hers. His gaze remained locked on hers as his expression softened. "Doesn't change the fact that I almost killed her."
Her eyes started to burn. She shook her head. "Don't do that. It wasn't your fault. I know you, Jack, and you would never knowingly put anyone in danger, much less your sister."
"You sure about that?"
"Of course." She smiled. "You're an idiot, but you have good intentions most of the time."
"Was that a compliment?" he asked, one of his eyebrows arching upwards.
Elsa rolled her eyes, pulling her hand back to cross her arms. "Don't get too cocky."
"I'll take it as a yes."
Jack stretched his limbs with a yawn, and Elsa found her own unease lessening.
"So we're skating today?" she asked.
"If you're okay with it. There's a park not that far from here where we can rent skates, We figured getting out of the house could be nice, and we don't have to stay there long, but I guess we should've checked with you girls first, huh..." Jack rambled, and his confidence seemed to waver as the words spurted out of his mouth.
Elsa chuckled. "Well, I think it will be fun."
"You do?"
"Does that surprise you?"
"I mean, kinda. You're not really the athletic type."
"I'll have you know, I'm a fairly good skater," Elsa huffed with a scowl.
"Now that's something I'd pay to see!" Jack laughed, throwing his head back.
"You're an idiot, you know that?"
Jack only laughed harder, and Elsa rolled her eyes. She couldn't wait to go skating.
Violet hated the cold. She hated everything about it: how it made everything damp and grey; how it made her nose hurt and her limbs go numb; how she had to suit up like an overweight astronaut before going outside... And yet, despite all her grievances, that blissful Christmas morning was met with her freezing her ass on that stupid bench as she watched her stupid friends skating in that stupid ice rink.
She had skated for a total of two minutes before falling spectacularly and had excused herself to lick her wounds in defeat. Honestly, how could she focus on skating when more important matters required her attention? Violet scrunched her nose as she glared at the trio having fun in the rink. She was on a mission, and cold or not cold, she was not letting that one go without some answers first.
Someone plopped down beside her, but she didn't care to find out who.
"Coffee?" Andy offered, holding a fuming cup of coffee in front of her nose.
Violet accepted it with a grunt, her eyes unmoving as she bit the plastic lid.
"What's the scary face for?"
She grunted again but uttered no words as a reply. In the rink, Jack attempted a pirouette, making Elsa and his little sister laugh. Violet's eyes narrowed. Those three seemed to be getting along suspiciously well since morning. How suspicious.
"... Are you seriously still thinking about that not-kiss from yesterday?"
Violet sipped the hot beverage, sighing at the more-than-welcome warmth. "You think I'm being stupid."
"I didn't say that. Although… I am concerned."
"Welcome to the club."
He clicked his tongue. "I meant about you. You're obsessed."
She rolled her eyes. "Mark my words, Andrew: They're hiding something, and I'm gonna be the one to figure out what. And when I do, I'm gonna throw it in your face that I told you so, motherfucker."
"Jack is a whore by default. What makes you think it's not just that?"
"Need I remind you that Elsa is also pretty much immune to his whoriness?"
"Vi, come on."
"No, you 'come on', Andy," Violet snapped, throwing an annoyed glare in his direction. "They're your best friends, why the hell are you so dead set on denying that there could be something going on between them?"
Andy sighed. "That's just it. They're my best friends, and I don't want things to get weird in our circle because of some misunderstanding."
She frowned. "Isn't it kind of pessimistic of you? I mean, look at Hiccup and Astrid. They seem to be getting along just fine."
"Do you really think they could work?"
"... I think they could try."
His prosthesis was being a bigger nuisance than usual that day, and he'd rather not risk his chances by adding a slippery frozen floor to the equation. So Hiccup bailed the skates, declaring that he'd be venturing the rest of the park instead. To his surprise, his girlfriend had offered to keep him company, bringing Hiccup to aimlessly walking hand in hand with her as he took in the pale wintry scenery.
As they walked, Hiccup easily noticed Astrid's disattention. She seemed to be too lost in her own thoughts to hear any of the things he was telling her.
"You sure you don't want to skate with everyone, Astrid?" he asked, tugging on her hand for attention.
Astrid blinked, then looked at him.
"Somebody has to make sure that you don't slip and break your neck," she mumbled, flicking her hair out of her eyes.
"Gee. Always so thoughtful," he mocked sourly.
"Besides, Violet was getting on my nerves."
"How so?"
She shrugged. "Oh, you know, the whole matchmaking thing."
"Right. That…"
Hiccup blew warm air into his palm, hiding a doofus grin behind his hands.
Astrid snarled, "What are you smiling at?"
"Don't you think it'd be fun to see?"
"What would?" She glared at him, and he looked down at her with an arched eyebrow. Astrid sucked in a breath as comprehension drew upon her. "You mean Elsa and Frost? The fuck is your problem, Haddock?"
Feeling her anger rising, Hiccup shot his arms in the air in an appeasing gesture. "Just hear me out! Elsa is all hard work and deadlines, right?" He waited for Astrid to grumble an agreement before continuing, "Jack, on the other hand, is snowball and fun times—"
"That's putting it mildly."
He pretended to scowl at her. "What I'm saying is that he could ease some of the weight on her shoulders whereas she could help bring him down to earth—God knows that ain't no easy task. So I think they'd be good for each other."
Astrid shook her head, speeding up as she continued down the lane and huffed, "You're delusional."
Chuckling, Hiccup hurried after her. As he matched her pace, he threw an arm around her shoulders and nuzzled her ear to whisper, "Hey, anything is possible if even you were willing to give me a chance."
She rolled her eyes, elbowing him in the ribs. "What can I say? You're a thick-headed nerd who kept bugging me until I ran out of ways to say no."
"It's kind of upsetting when you put it like that..." Hiccup grumbled, rubbing the spot she had just hit.
"It's also what happened, so I don't give a fuck, Hiccup."
Hiccup grumbled under his breath about his mean girlfriend as he rubbed the sore spot she had just hit, but the grin continued splattered on his face. He planted a kiss on her hair and tugged her closer as a thought itched the back of his brain: Elsa and Jack were pretty damn stubborn themselves. They manifested it in different ways, sure, but there was no denying that they were both headstrong individuals. He didn't remind Astrid of that, though.
Because the truth was that once either of them had put something inside their heads, there was not much anyone else could do to get in their way...