Thursday night found the little family sharing dinner, as well as their days. Already dressed for her shift in navy blue slacks, a white button-up shirt, and a black tie, Elsa gave up chasing a pair of lima beans around her plate and stared across the kitchen table. "So, Anna...Rapunzel tells me you have a fan club?"
Eyes wide, Anna inhaled sharply, dropped her burrito on her lap, and let out several miserably hacking coughs. She struggled to clear her throat and catch her breath at the same time and didn't even bother to touch the clumps of rice sticking to her cheeks. She croaked shyly. "What?"
Elsa's cheeks pinked as she sat up straight and glanced at Rapunzel uneasily. A self conscious mumble. "Sorry. Oh...did I get it wrong?"
Puffing out her cheeks, Anna leveled a harassed glare to her left...and didn't miss the slight quirk in Rapunzel's coy smile. "What."
Rapunzel shrugged and tapped an index finger against her nose. "Sorry, was that supposed to be a secret? It's just so cute the way they wait for you outside after school...they're freshmen, right?"
Anna mumbled incoherently, head bowed as she fumbled to collect and reassemble her busted burrito. After a few seconds proved the effort to be futile, she settled for mashing the beans, rice, and tortilla into a lopsided ball. "Yearbook freshmen. They were taking some pictures of my gym class down by the track. I told them some stuff about changing up their camera angles to get better lighting in shots...nothing big." It only took one little bite for the mashed burrito to crumble in her hands, and she dumped it back onto her plate with a bashful quirk of her lips. "I call them Mary Jane, mostly 'cause I always forget who's who."
Rapunzel picked up right where Anna left off, and nudged Elsa's chair with a pink bunny-slippered foot. "Now they want our NaNa to join yearbook club. At least...that's all she thinks they want."
Having hunkered down so low that her nose nearly brushed her plate, Anna paused between shoveled bites and shook her head quickly. "Nope, no, no way, uh-uh, this is Rapunzel coming to us with a live report from CrazyTown and…" Her voice trailed right off, and her thoughts ground to a halt, at the brush of fingers against her rice-speckled cheeks.
Elsa rose to her feet, leaned across the table, and made quick work of the face-rice with several swipes. Then...she followed that with several more as the corners of her eyes crinkled with a brilliant smile. "Those framed photos you give us every year for Christmas? You do have talent, Anna, and that's the easiest thing to see."
Gulping hotly, Anna managed a meek nod. In moments, her gaze drifted down, desperate for anything to wake up the treadmill-gerbil in her head.
Soft.
Maybe I should...join.
Soft.
Uh...baddie, why are you looking...at…
A weak chuckle as Anna furrowed her brow and blinked in surprise.
"Sour cream boobs."
Lickity...ESCAPE THIS SITUATION, BADDIE!
Flopping against the back of her chair, Anna let out a dizzy grumble, and shuffled her sneakers against the nearby table leg until her chair rocked back on two legs.
One basic fucking sentence and I can't even...
Rapunzel spied the issue in a second, and slapped a hand over her mouth even as rich laughter spilled out.
Perplexed, Elsa glanced down...and promptly sat back in her chair with a cringe. "Oh...shoot." A giant glob of sour cream lay plastered and dripping from her collar and all the way down to her black belt. She huffed in exasperation, tugged her tie loose, and went right down the front of her shirt in a methodical unfastening of every button as her shoulders slumped.
"Rapunzel, is that cleaners two blocks down still open? I mean I can just iron my other shirt from yesterday but, but shoot shoot, why didn't I return that enormous bowl and why did I put the sour cream in it tonight and…"
Pale skin and a small patch of prominent collar-bone freckles drew a flustered yelp from Anna, who frantically shoved herself away from the table. End over end, she crashed to the floor on her chair as her mangled burrito sailed into the living room
Splat.
I was never this horny before! This is all because of that dumbass slime spider!
Having just yanked off her dress shirt, Elsa pitched it into Rapunzel's waiting hands and darted around the table. "Anna?! Rapunzel, get the keys, she might be having an arrhythmia and we need to..."
Rapunzel just smiled and shook her head. "I think NaNa's perfectly okay."
Anna kept her eyes slammed shut, loathe to respond to Elsa's voice or touch lest she barf up more sins.
SpiderBaddie is not okay. NOT OKAY.
Early the next morning, before the sun rose, Rapunzel collected the duffel bag she had packed the night before, collected a sleep-stumbling Anna, and deposited both in her 2003 Dodge Ram Pickup. No sooner had Rapunzel pulled out of the apartment complex parking lot, then Anna had already curled around the black duffel bag and started to snore again. As she slept, new feelings and sensations flitted around the edge of her consciousness.
Big aura. Big, super huge aura. It's all red and yellow-y, and it...kinda tickles.
It's right here, too. Close...extra close to me.
With the flick of a button on the center console, Rapunzel watched from the corner of an eye as Anna's seat reclined to a near-horizontal position. A warm, still-sleepy grin spread across Rapunzel's face, and she ruffled Anna's bangs for nearly a mile...before pulling into a McDonalds drive-through.
Anna wriggled at the contact and tried to inch closer.
Warm! That's...it's love.
Back on the road as the scent of breakfast sandwiches and juice filled the air. Ideas and sensations with no names slowly began to get names as Anna felt them...over and over and over again. Tingling.
That's Rapunzel. Me. How I...about her.
...BaddieSense…
But I just love her...and that's...what this feeling is.
Down the highway another five miles. LeAnn Womack on low volume.
Shifting until her face mashed against the duffel bag, Anna slung a plaid pajama-clad leg around it.
Something's coming. Or...getting closer.
Humming along with the country radio station, Rapunzel's smile grew, and she kissed her left palm before pressing it against her window.
'Greater Manhattan Police Department'
In her sleep, Anna fidgeted again.
Big...so big. Not as close...and more like...red…
...with blue?
Just off the highway, the police station passed by in the blink of an eye...and Anna let out a flummoxed whimper in between snores.
That one's Elsa. Me...my...feelings…
...wish I wasn't bad...but there it is.
Orange and purple.
A ragged exhale...and a breathy, pleased whine. Anna shuffled right back against Rapunzel's bangs-teasing fingers.
A new power I have.
I know where you are...and...your color tells me…
Teal eyes fluttered open, and for several moments, Anna stared...vacant and uncomprehending.
Chuckling softly, Rapunzel put her right hand back on the steering wheel and nodded at the expanse of highway ahead...as well as the mountain range way off in the distance. "We're on our way. Just passed the station. I know you were up late last night...go back to sleep, NaNa."
A blush, a hesitant nod, and Anna forced her eyes shut.
You could go back to doing that...and I'd enjoy it too much.
Bright colors flared again. Anna curled her toes in her sneakers and began to count the regularly-spaced bumps along the highway.
Maybe I'll feel less bad when I can just...just practice. Just focus on that and only that. Build up my cat-rescuing skills and maybe some day these colors just won't be here any more and and and…
Brilliant red and yellow swirling into a luminescent orange. Fingers combing through hair.
...I couldn't ever forget these colors.