I tried to get this chapter up as soon as possible, seeing as how it ended last time.
"Whagh!," Anna cried as Elsa pulled her out of the way of Adam and Simba, as they valuated over seats to get to the bottom of the stands where a scrimmage was growing quickly.
"This isn't good," Rapunzel said ducking as Disney and DreamWorks turned half eaten concession stand food and semi filled soft drink cups into projectiles.
"Let's get out of here," Elsa said pushing Anna ahead of her towards the stairs.
"But what about Merida, Flynn and Kristoff."
"I'm getting you out here first,"
"But,"
"Anna, if you get hurt I'm going have to go full protective big sister mode, and I really don't want a battery charge,"
"Oh," Rapunzel gasped. The sisters looked at her, then followed her gaze to the rink. Kristoff and Eugene were locked in a full out grappling match out on the ice with Donkey and Puss.
"Kristoff!" Anna cried and took off.
"Anna wait!" Rapunzel cried. Elsa groaned.
"Why is everyone in our group of friends so rash?"
"Let's go," They ran down the stairs right into the mass of bodies. Anna was lost from view in the mob of flailing limbs.
"If she gets hurt I'll kill her," Elsa muttered pushing her way through the crowd. She somehow managed to get the wall between the stands and ice. Anna had already gotten on the ice. But without proper footwear she was forced to cling to the wall.
"What did you think you were going to do?" Rapunzel asked.
"I didn't get this far in plan,"
"Let's just get out of here," Elsa pleaded.
"Elsa! Rapunzel! Look out!" Merida's voice made them both turn. Just in time too, to duck under the blur that was coming right at them. Said blur landed on the ice and promptly got his feet, shaking his head to clear.
"STITCH!" Lilo cried from half way up the stands, "Are you okay?"
The boy with blue highlights said something that sounded like 'Ichi Niliquista!" And pounced liked a cat across the ice, over the barrier and right back into the fray. Merida appeared next to Elsa and Rapunzel.
"Well this escalated quickly,"
"Help us convince Anna she can't help the boys," Rapunzel said.
"But they're in trouble,"
"No they're not." Elsa said pointing. Kirstoff had Donkey in head lock. Eugene seemed to be having more trouble with puss, but they'd somehow gotten separated and were both trying to find their footing on the ice.
"We can't just leave them."
"Do you think Kristoff would want you getting hurt for his sake?" Elsa countered. Anna frowned but conceded climbing back over the barrier. Elsa sighed and took her hand once again making way for the exit. She glanced back over her shoulder, her stomach twisting when she couldn't spot any white hair in crowd. 'But he'd be wearing his helmet, and in his gear' She thought, 'he'll be fine.'
Rapunzel grabbed Merida and pulled her after the sisters.
"Wait, we can't just go!" She said.
"What is getting in a fight going to accomplish?" Rapunzel asked. The four entered a hallway. Personnel from the rink were running towards the fight.
"We can't just leave! They'll need us," Merida said, pulling her arm from Rapunzel's grip forcing the group to stop.
"Us joining the fight isn't going to help anything. There's nothing that the four of us on our own can do to stop the fight." Elsa said.
"Merida's right. We shouldn't just leave. Those are our classmate and friends back there,"
"You think we don't know that," Rapunzel said, "But fighting is the worst option."
"We don't have to fight. But we can't just leave."
"What do you suggest then?" Elsa asked.
Merida didn't respond, but she had a thoughtful expression on her face. But that was interrupted when someone cried 'AH-HA!', causing the girls to spin around.
"Hey look, a couple of Princess. Trying to sneak out like a bunch of rats, aren't ya." Said a thin lanky boy wearing the DreamWorks' colors. Next to him was a girl, and two more boys, much larger that their friend.
Elsa pushed Anna behind her, while Rapunzel put a hand on Merida's shoulder to stop her before she tried anything.
"We may be mice, but you look like the rats," Merida said.
"Roddy! Rita!" Someone called out from behind. Elsa turned and saw a barefooted Jack with Sandy by his side, "We saw a couple mice running that way." He pointed over his shoulder, "You go get them. We'll handle these," He pointed to Elsa and the others.
"Frost what are you-" Merida started but Elsa jabbed quickly.
"You got it Jack," They ran off in the direction he pointed.
"You all okay?" Jack asked once the coast was clear.
"Yes. Thanks for that," Elsa smiled at him, "But what are you doing? And where are your shoes?"
"I couldn't just stand by and let something happen to you, and it's not like I have time to put shoe on. I don't even know how I managed to get my skates off as fast as I did." Sandy tugged on his shirt, "Yeah I know. We can't talk long. You have to get out here, while you can. Hiccup is trying to get DreamWorks to stop. I'm going to help him."
"We're not just going to leave," Anna and Merida said.
Before anyone else could speak Turk, Bolt and Chen Po appeared in the hallway.
"Hey, leave them alone,"
"Shit," Jack cursed, "Sandy run!" The two boys took off running, with the Disney guys hot on their tails.
"See, they'll tear each other apart if we don't do something." Anna said.
"How can we stop a mob of angry teenagers?" Rapunzel said, "Call the cops?"
"How about a way that won't end with our parents having to pick us up in a station," Merida said. Elsa groaned and titled her head back, rubbing her eyes. This was a mess. She looked up at the ceiling and suddenly she grinned.
"I just thought of something," She said. Her friends looked at her.
"What?"
"The sprinklers," She said pointing to the little metal head poking out from the ceiling, "if we can set them off it's going to rain in here. That should be enough to get everyone to stop."
"Only how do we set off the fire system?" Anna asked
"I know! Leave that to me," Merida grinned and took off running.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Rapunzel called after her. But she was gone. The other three looked at each other. They could do nothing but wait for her. Several minutes passed, and with each the got more impatient.
"I can already see tomorrow's headlines. Two entire student bodies charged with public misconduct. We're going to be in so much trouble." Rapunzel said.
"Don't be so sure," Merida said reappearing, "Sorry I took so long. It was hard trying to find David in that mess,"
"David?" Anna and Elsa asked.
"Nani's boyfriend. He likes to play with fire, so I got this from him," She held up a lighter.
"Merida, that's perfect." Rapunzel said.
"Let's end this riot," Merida said.
"Anna, you might be the lightest," Elsa said. She and Rapunzel linked hands and Anna climbed on, placing one hand on Merida's head for support. Once she was up and somewhat balanced Merida tossed her up the lighter. She had to flick it several times and almost fell over but she just managed to keep the flame on for long enough to set off the sprinklers. Cold water burst from above, shocking everyone. Anna lost her balance and toppled over on Rapunzel.
"Damn, that's freezing." Merida cried. Screams and shouts could be heard from several directions, along with the sound of pounding feet.
"Let's go before we get trampled," Elsa pulled Anna and Rapunzel to their feet and Merida led the way out of the building. They managed to exit the building before most of the crowd, so they avoided the bottle neck that occurred at the doors. They still ran to Elsa's car to get out of the cold as fast as possible.
Elsa was the one to turn the heater up to max once they were all inside. Once Anna caught her breath she pulled out her phone and tried to call Kristoff.
"He's not answering."
"He probably didn't have his phone on him when the fight broke out," Elsa said.
"Try Flynn," Merida said.
"Already on it," Rapunzel put her phone on speak. She sighed when he answered, "Eugene, oh thank god. Are you okay?"
"I'm wet and I didn't get to skin that stupid moony, so no I'm not!"
"Eugene, are you okay?" Rapunzel asked more sternly.
"I guess,"
"Is Kirstoff with you?"
"Yep, we're both okay."
"Are they okay? Is Anna with her?" They heard Kristoff asked.
"I'm fine," Anna said.
"You aren't outside in the cold, are you? We can come get you." Elsa asked.
"No, that's okay. We were with Eric by chance when the sprinklers when off, so we're in his car now. We'll wait for things inside to calm down then we'll go grab Kristoff's stuff.
"Okay," Rapunzel said, "We just wanted to make sure you were okay,"
"Go home and get dry. You don't want to get sick," Kristoff said.
"You too," The girls said.
"We'll call once we get my stuff,"
"Okay, bye then."
"Bye,"
Rapunzel hung up and slumped back in her seat, "Why do I feel like I was the one playing?"
"I know what you mean," Elsa sighed and leaned forward to rest her head on the steering wheel. She slipped her phone out and called Jack, but wasn't surprised when she got his voice mail.
"It's me. I just want to know if you're okay. Give me a call when you get a chance,"
"Our place is closest, we should head there and dry up," Anna said.
"Sounds like a plan," Merida said. Rapunzel and Elsa nodded as the latter put the car into drive.
"So…" Merida started, "What do you think the changes are of this getting back to Mr. Michel?"
As Elsa pulled out the rink's car park they heard sirens and as they came to the junction two police cars cut across them.
"Ah…I'd say pretty good…Elsa get out of here," Anna said looking back in the mirror at the police cars, and the abundance of other vehicles suddenly speeding away on the roads, or racing to the exits of the rink's parking lot that the cop cars hadn't come through. Elsa didn't stick around to see much more.
"I hope the guys won't still hanging around," Merida said.
"School's going to be chaos, isn't it?" Rapunzel asked.
"Oh yeah," the sisters answered together.
Once home Elsa and Anna got everyone towels and a change of clothes.
"I'm still freezing." Merida complained, sitting on Elsa's bed and wrapping the blanket around herself.
"In retrospect getting everyone wet in the middle of winter probably wasn't the best idea," Rapunzel said, tugging part of the blanket away from Merida as she too was on Elsa's bed.
"Hey, I was thinking on the fly," Elsa said.
"At least we stopped the fight," Anna said. The sisters were on Anna's bed, also sharing a blanket, but with a significantly less amount of fighting over it. Elsa sighed, taking pity on them and reluctantly got to her feet.
"I'll get you another blanket," She said. She padded out into the hallway, almost colliding with her mother in the hall.
"Oh sorry," Elsa swerved to avoid her.
"I was just bringing you girls some hot chocolate."
"Thanks, everyone's still cold. I'm grabbing some extra blankets." Her mother nodded and Elsa went to the linen closest in her parents' room, taking up extra blankets. By the time she got back to her room the others were all sipping on their mugs. Elsa tossed two blankets to Rapunzel and Merida and placed one more over Anna before grabbing her own mug and climbing back on to Anna's bed.
"Any word from the guys?" She asked, when Rapunzel's phone lit up with a message. She glanced at the screen but shook her head.
"Not since Kristoff texted they'd gotten his stuff," Anna said. All of their phones had been receiving a steady stream of messages from classmates and friends trying to confirm they were okay, or to find out what part of the story they knew.
"If they were intercepted by the cops we would have heard," Merida said, knowing that was Rapunzel and Anna greatest concern at the moment.
Elsa's phone started to ring. Elsa grumbled, staring at it sitting across the room on her desk.
"Punz, answer that will you?"
"It's like ten feet away," Merida chided. Elsa made a noise of complaint and snuggled closer to Anna, bringing her hot chocolate to her lips.
"I'm too comfy at the moment." She said before taking a sip of her drink.
"It's your boyfriend," Rapunzel commented when she took up the phone. Elsa's head snapped up. "Hello Jack, I'm not sure if Elsa can come to phone, she's rather comfy under a blanket right now,"
"Okay, hand it over." Elsa said sweeping across the room.
"Wow, she even put down her hot chocolate. She must really love him," Anna teased. Elsa shot her death glare and swiped the phone from Rapunzel, leaving the trio to giggle as she left the room.
"Are you okay?" She asked as soon as she was out the door.
"I'm fine." A weight in her chest loosened, "What about you?"
"I'm okay." She heard Jack sigh.
"Good, I was worried. Especially when I heard those cops,"
"So I'm guessing you managed to get away too."
"North somehow got us all in his van. He actually made me abandon my car at the rink. Said it wasn't worth the risk. I only just went back for it. And I was wondering, is it okay if I pass by? Only for a couple minutes."
"Mom's home so it should be okay…but why?"
"I just want to see you,"
"The girls are over, just so you know,"
"I'm willing to even face Merida to see you right now."
Elsa smiled, trying to fight off a blush even though he couldn't see. "Okay," She said softly, "I'll see you in couple minutes."
"Mom," Elsa ran half way down the stairs when she hung up, "It's okay if Jack stops by for a few minutes, right?"
"Right now?" Her mother asked, looking up her daughter.
"I know it's short notice,"
"I suppose it's fine,"
"Thanks mom," Elsa grinned and turned to head back up the stairs only to jump when she saw Merida, Anna and Rapunzel standing at the top of the stairs. "Jeez, what did you do? Run when you heard me say Jack was coming."
"Basically." Anna said, "So why's he coming over?"
"He just asked to come over," Elsa said pushing through her friends.
"Maybe he wants to make sure you're okay. Aww, that's so sweet," Rapunzel gushed.
Elsa blushed, ducking her head hoping they wouldn't see. She entered her room, checking her reflection in the mirror.
"Pay attention everyone," Merida said behind her, "What we are witnessing here is the very rare act of the Elsa Winters preening for a potential mate. It's an act so rare that only a handful of people can honesty claim to have seen it."
"Oh shut up," Elsa snapped, even as she re-did her braid.
Ten minutes later when Elsa answered the door the others were hovering at her shoulders, probably just to make Elsa uncomfortable.
"Hi Jack," Anna and Rapunzel chorused.
"Ah, hey," Jack managed a smile, he looked at Elsa and his smile widened. "Hi,"
"Hi," She returned his smile. When the next few second passed and nothing else happened, another than Elsa and Jack continuing to beam at each other, Merida coughed.
"Is that all you're going to do? Not that this conversation isn't riveting."
"Nice to see you too Merida," Jack said stepping inside. Merida promptly punched him in the arm. "OW! What the hell?" He rubbed his arm.
"Merida!" Elsa cried.
"That's for denying us the opportunity to crush you," She said.
"What?" Jack looked genuinely confused, "How's what happened my fault?"
"You were the one wo got knocked down by Ralph and that's what sparked the fight."
"Wait, so you punch me? I think Wreak-it is the one you should be punching for that."
"It's not Ralph's fault you couldn't avoid him. And besides, have you meet Ralph? Trying to punch that guy is like trying to punch a brick wall."
"Well I'm sorry I couldn't avoid that tank you call a boy. And believe no one's more pissed than me that the game wasn't finished."
"And it even got interrupted on a tie. So it's not like we could say we won by default," Merida grumbled.
"Tell me about it. The only thing that fight helped was Shrek's temperament."
"It was the stupid Ogre who started it."
"He's just so hot headed, especially at events where he doesn't take part. It just sucks that we can't finish the game."
"Did Jack and Merida just agree about something?" Rapunzel asked, her jaw hanging slightly. Anna's eyes were wide with surprise and Elsa's eyebrows were so high they almost disappearing into her hair.
"Miracles do happen."
"We would have won of course," Jack said.
"In your dreams Frost,"
"And the world makes sense again." Anna said with a snort. Elsa chuckled, but suddenly cut herself off with a gasp. Everyone looked at her.
"Jack, you're cheek," She pulled him closer, turning his head so she could see the dark blue-black spot marring his face, "I though you said you were okay?"
"This? I just got elbowed in the face. I don't even think the guy meant to do it."
"Did you put anything on it? Should I get ice?"
"Elsa, I'm fine," Jack smiled trying to reassure her.
"But it looks painful." She reach up but Jack caught her hand and with his other free hand he turned her face, forcing her eyes away from his bruise.
"Look at me. I'm fine. Okay?"
"But…are you sure?"
"I'm with you right now. How can I not be okay?"
"Awww!" Anna and Rapunzel gushed while Merida rolled her eyes, even though she was smirking.
"Do you want to want go in the back?" Elsa asked, throwing a look at the others.
"Very much,"
"Have fun," Anna giggled.
"But not too much fun," Their mom added from the kitchen. Jack and Elsa blushed profusely while the girls burst out laughing.
No sooner than they'd stepped out on the back porch and Elsa closed the door she found herself in Jack's arms. She gasped at the sudden embrace.
"Jack?"
"I was scared today when that fight broke out. I couldn't stop thinking 'What if something happened to you?"
"Jack, I can take care of myself."
"I know that. But I was still terrified."
"I'm fine now. I'm fine."
"Just let me hold you a bit longer,"
"Okay," She said softly.
She didn't say anything when his grip around her tightened. Her only response was to press soft kisses to his cheek and neck, letting him know without words that she was okay. He finally pulled back, looking at her with intent eyes. His gaze flickered over her face, as though searching for something.
"Are you okay?" She asked. He nodded.
"Just…I needed to see that you were okay with my own eyes."
"I'm fine," She repeated, bringing their foreheads together. Jack nodded, brushing his thumbs across her cheeks, his gaze never leaving hers.
They remained like that for the longest time, neither taking notice as the sky started to darken. It took flicking movement in the corner of their eyes to break the trance.
"It's snowing," Elsa said, confirming what those flickers of movement had been. She took a step closer to the edge of the porch, looking up at the sky. Jack moved next to her and slipped his hand in hers.
Her gaze remained on the flakes floating from heaving, but Jack was only looking at her. At the little crinkles at the corner of her eyes as she smiled. At the brilliant blue of her eyes. And the faint rose hue coloring her cheeks in the winter air. At her lips, curved upwards ever so delicately. As though sensing is gaze she turned.
"Jack what is it?"
What was it? That's was the question indeed. Jack knew of course what it was. But he didn't want to say it. He couldn't say it. Saying it out loud would confirm something. Something big, and grand, and yet so impossibly simple. Saying it would change nothing and it would change everything. So instead he shook his head with a smile playing at his lips.
He kissed her softly, their rhythm slow and graceful. As slow and graceful as the snowflakes cascading around them.
Nardragon~ until the next page.