Author's Note: Let me begin by saying that I am so sorry this took so long to write. I've been back from Basic Training since December 18th but so much has gotten in the way of finishing this chapter. Things like getting all my National Guard paperwork and equipment straight, finding a job, spending time with family and friends that I hadn't seen for three and a half months, and catching up on all my favorites reads that had released while I was gone (both original and fanfiction) not to mention the new stuff that's come out! Not only that, but when I left in September this chapter was only half finished so I had to feel my way back into the grove that allowed me to release a chapter a day. I love every review that everyone who left one has sent me and I would greatly appreciate more. I'm definitely open to ideas so if you have some for the story or some prompts for a different story that you would like to see written, go ahead and send 'em! Here's to hoping you accept my apology and enjoy this chapter. Hobey-ho!
Discovery
Letting out a massive yawn, Anna stretched out all four limbs as she began to return to land of the living. Realizing what was happening, she quickly curled herself back up and tried to lose herself again in the warmth of the blanket covering her and the comfort of the full-size air mattress she had borrowed; her effort was all in vain though, now that she was awake there was no way her body would let her go back to sleep. She seriously began considering to just stay curled up comfortably in what was her best impersonation of a ball, but the feeling of her empty stomach and the taste of her rank morning breath dissuaded her from that pleasurable thought. Groaning in displeasure, she sat up straight in the bed and stretched out her arms again before standing up and grabbing the toiletry bag she had commandeered. She then slipped on a pair of sandals and made her way out of the office that had become her temporary bedroom and walked towards the bathroom. She tested the door and found that it wasn't locked, which was enough of a sign to her that Elsa wasn't in there.
Striding in, she found her assumption to be correct and quickly locked it before making her way over to the sink. The motion-activated lights flickered on upon her entrance and she smiled at the small miracle. Slipping out of her clothes, she carefully placed them upon the raised shelf where customers would put their rings, watches, and bracelets before opening the toiletry bag and retrieving the washcloth and travel-sized body wash. Wetting the washcloth, she squeezed a minute amount of the gel onto in and began rubbing it in until she had lathered up an appropriate amount of suds. Satisfied, she raised her arm and began scrubbing at her armpit in slow circles, making sure to spend at least a minute on the area before hanging the soaped-up washcloth over another faucet and using her hand to gather some water to rinse herself. While this wasn't an ideal way to bathe in the morning, it was the best she could do give the circumstances. Years of camping as a Venture Scout had taught her to make do with what you were given, and fully outfitted bath houses were few and far between in the scouting world.
Sniffing the armpit to confirm it was clean, she repeated the process with all of the important areas; places like her other armpit, chest, groin, buttocks, feet, and bellybutton. Many people disregarded that last area, but she knew first-hand from a dare Kristoff had given her that it could quickly become one of the most disgusting places on the body if not attended to regularly. Satisfied that she was now acceptably clean, she rinsed the washcloth of all the soap and placed it on a different faucet to dry. Returning the bottle of body wash to the bag, she then pulled a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste from it. Wetting the brush and squeezing some paste onto its bristles, she set to work running it across her teeth in small circles until the resulting foam filling her mouth became too much and she was forced to spit it out. She then used it to brush her tongue and as far into the back of her mouth as she could get (which was rather far) to rid herself of the vile morning breath before spitting it into the sink as well.
Washing the toothbrush off, she put it away and grabbed a hair brush to set to work taming her lion's mane style bed head. This task took considerably longer than the others, but years of experience guided her and she soon had it straightened out with only a few of te numerous tangles actually causing her any pain. She then braided the strands into her normal twin braids before putting away the brush and slipping her clothes back on. Winking at herself in the mirror, she grabbed the toiletry bag and exited the bathroom to return to her office/bedroom to put on some clothes she hadn't slept in. Once they were on, she made her way over to the employee lounge where she found her companion sitting at one of the tables with her face buried in a book.
"Morning, Elsa." she said, slipping into the chair across from her.
"Good morning, Anna." Elsa replied with a smile, placing a bookmark in between the pages and setting it down. "How did you sleep?"
"Pretty well." Anna said. "Air mattresses beat out leather office chairs any day."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Elsa said, looking at her watch before getting out of her seat and walking over to the counter. Anna watched as she grabbed two plastic bowls and a rather large blue plastic bag.
"What's that?" She questioned as Elsa made her way back to the table.
"The breakfast of royalty." Elsa said with a smirk, placing the bag down on the table in front of her.
"Mountain House Scrambled Eggs and Bacon, huh?" Anna said, reading the bold print on the front. Familiar with the freeze-dried hiking food and seeing the top had already been opened and resealed, she grabbed it experimentally to find that it was already plenty warm. "These things take at least fifteen minutes before they're ready to eat. How'd you know I was going to be up?"
"I realized it when your snores stopped echoing down the hall." Elsa said with a playful smirk, grabbing the bag and testing its temperature.
"I do not snore!" Anna exclaimed incredulously.
"Whatever you say." Elsa replied. Deeming the meal was now warm enough, she reopened the seal to the bag and fanned away the hot steam that poured out of the top with her hand. Once it had all cleared away, she carefully grabbed it walked over to the sink to pour out the extra water. Once she removed as much of the yellow-tinted water as she could. She returned to her seat and dumped her half of the meal into the bowl. She then leaned over the table and poured the rest of the bag into Anna's bowl. As she did, a small amount of her cleavage revealed itself from the t-shirt she was wearing. Anna couldn't help but stare, catching herself a second later and tearing her gaze away from the line formed by the two pale breasts with surprising difficulty.
"Thanks." She managed to say, fighting the blush forming on her cheeks as Elsa sat back down. 'What the hell was that, Anna?' She mentally berated herself. 'You shouldn't be looking at her like that! She your boss!' The last thought surprised her. She couldn't fathom why she had thought it was wrong to ogle Elsa because she was her boss, not because she was another female.
"No problem." Elsa said, not noticing Anna's internal struggle. The comment snapped her out of her thoughts and she forced herself to forget about it, focusing on the meal in front of her instead. Putting a spoonful of the egg/bacon/water mixture into her mouth, she chewed it for a few moments before swallowing. There was still a bit of water that Elsa hadn't managed to pour out and the taste was nothing like real eggs cooked in a pan on a stove, but it was better than having nothing at all and was good enough for her and Elsa to keep eating until their bowls were empty. While they both finished their last spoonful at nearly the same time, it was Elsa who raised her bowl to her lips and drank the cloudy water that was left in it. Anna could do nothing but stare as Elsa finished and put the bowl down on the table.
"I can't believe you just did that." She said.
"Did what?" Elsa asked.
"You drank the egg water!"
"So?"
"That's, like, the nastiest part!"
"Well, while the taste wasn't particularly pleasant, the water holds leftover calories that we can't let go to waste." Elsa responded, smirking at her.
"I knew I like you for a reason." Anna said after a brief pause, returning Elsa's smirk before raising the bowl and drinking down her own helping of egg-clouded water. Taking it one step further, she made sure to lick the bowl clean until there was no trace that any food had been in it at all. Setting the bowl down, she spied the book Elsa had been reading. "So what's that?"
"This?" Elsa said, picking the book up. "This is a book, Anna."
"I know what it is, smartass." Anna said, rolling her eyes and smiling at the lame joke. "What's the title?"
"The Maze Runner." Elsa said, showing her the front book. Sure enough, the title was right there in bold, white letters.
"Oh, yeah." Anna said, remembering seeing a trailer for a movie that bore the same title a few days ago. "Didn't they make that into a movie?"
"Yep." Elsa said, bring the book back to look at the cover herself. "I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie. I'm only a few chapters in so far, but what I've read is pretty good."
"Well I don't care how good it is." Anna said, causing Elsa to look at her questioningly. "Because you're going to have to stop reading it for a little bit."
"And why's that?" Elsa asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Because I'm pretty sure this is the only one-on-one time we're probably going to have for a while, and if we're going to be friends we're going to need to know each other a little better." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Is that so?" Elsa said, putting the book aside. "So what, we're going to play twenty questions?"
"Exactly." Anna said, leaning back in her chair and placing her feet on the table. "And I'm not talking about that cheap electronic version we sell over in Toys."
"Well, if that's the case," Elsa started, settling herself more comfortably in her chair. "Then you start first."
"Alright." Anna said, her first question already at the forefront of her mind. "Where'd you learn to treat hypothermia? 'Cause that was some EMT-style shit you pulled last night."
"I was born and raised in Sweden." Elsa began. "Over there, knowing how to prevent and treat hypothermia is almost required to get through grade school."
"Sweden!? That's so cool!" Anna exclaimed, happy that Elsa was playing along. "Your turn."
"Alright then." Elsa said, pondering for a second before a question popped into her head. "What were you doing the day you caught me skating at the ice rink?"
"Oh," Anna said, remembering that night all too well as a small flush rose in her cheeks. "Well, in case you didn't notice, I'm a pretty horrible skater so it took me a while to get off the ice. Plus, I think my skates were a size too small and I got some pretty nasty blisters from them. The dude who brought me a First-Aid kit to treat them told me not to close the doors because someone skated late there every night. Once I finished treating the blisters I was about to leave, but I got curious and wanted to see who was skating; so I went in, saw it was you, and you know the rest." She finished sheepishly.
"Good to know." Elsa said, amused at Anna's embarrassment. "Your turn for a question."
"Hmmm." Anna hummed, thinking of another question and posing it to Elsa. The two of them continued like this for a while, quickly losing track of time as they learned more and more about each other. Out of all the things Anna learned, the most prominent ones that stood out to her was that Elsa was twenty-four years old to her twenty-two, her favorite color was blue, favorite season was winter, favorite instrument was the piano (which she played), that she used to use a sewing needle and tiny hammer to make sculptures out of ice cubes when she was little, and that they both shared an obsession with chocolate. Alternatively, she had told Elsa that her favorite color was green, her favorite season was spring, her favorite style of music was rock (both classic and modern), and that she aspired to becoming at least a semi-famous singer in the future. They were both laughing at a particularly funny story from Anna's high school days when Elsa looked down and her watch.
"Well would you look at that." She said, once her laughter had died down. "I think it's just about time that we went and got lunch."
"Really?" Anna asked, peering over at the watch and seeing that it was almost one o'clock. "Damn, we were at this for a while, huh?"
"Time does fly when you're having fun." Elsa said, standing up and gesturing towards the hallway. "Shall we?"
"We shall." Anna said, standing up and walking with Elsa out to the sales floor. When they got there they saw that, while the space was definitely dark, there was enough ambient light coming through the snow on the skylights for them to see where they were going.
"How long do you think it'll be before someone can rescue us?" Anna asked as they made their way through the aisles to the outdoor/camping department.
"The storm's cutting off any phone service, so no one's going to know we're here until it passes. I was able to check the weather reports before we got cut off though, and the storm's combined with a polar vortex that's broken off from the artic. Because of that, it'll be another two or three days until it dissipates. Hopefully the snow has stopped falling, but even if it has the temperature's never going to rise high enough for any of the snow that's already fallen to melt."
"That's encouraging." Anna said sarcastically. "Because if I remember correctly, the snow piling up faster than a gamblers debt."
"Don't worry." Elsa said reassuringly. "The governor declared a state of emergency right before the storm hit the city, so the National Guard will be coordinating search and rescue efforts; they're probably already here doing just that. Once we get phone service back we can call emergency services and tell them where we are, afterwards it won't be long until they dig us out."
"So we just have wait and camp out here, huh?" Anna asked.
"Well it is possible the National Guard will find us before then, but they'll be responding to residential areas first where they know people are so it isn't too likely."
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Anna said a little despondently as they arrived at the department they were looking for. "So where's the food at?" She asked, her mood immediately improving at the thought of a meal.
"It's down this aisle." Elsa said, taking the lead and heading down an aisle filled with various hiking equipment. At the end of the aisle the shelves were filled with multiple varieties of the blue packages and red/black plastic buckets, different sizes and meals giving them a plethora of choices to choose from.
"You know," Anna said, looking for a lunch that seemed appetizing. "Isn't this technically stealing?"
"It is." Elsa replied, doing the same as Anna. "But I don't think anyone from Executive will mind when they find out."
"And why's that?" Anna asked, inspecting a package of Mexican-Style Rice and Chicken before putting it back.
"Because if the press were to learn that two employees got trapped in the store during a blizzard, one of them having developed hypothermia in the process, because a certain executive forced them to open the store despite the protests of the store manager; well, let's just say that wouldn't cast the company in a good light now, would it?" Anna's eyes widened at this, looking over to Elsa in surprise at both the news and her deviousness.
"So you weren't the one who gave the order to open the store yesterday?" She asked tentatively.
"No." Elsa replied sadly, looking over at Anna. "That decision was made by the area executive. I spent nearly the entire morning on the phone arguing with him to close the store; but the weather reports he was receiving, which weren't even from this state, had him convinced that the storm was going to miss us. It was only until the storm was right on top of us that he changed his mind and finally let me close the store."
"Oh," Anna said guiltily, wringing her hands in front of her. "In that case I probably owe you an apology."
"Why's that?" Elsa asked, shifting her attention from the packages of food to the nervous redhead.
"Well, you see, I kinda' thought you were the one who called for the store to be opened today and I was blaming you for the fact that I was stuck here."
"It's alright, Anna." Elsa said, giving her a reassuring smile. "In your position I would've assumed the same thing, and I suppose it is partly my fault that you're stuck here."
Anna was about to tell her that it wasn't her fault at all, but a possible lunch on the bottom shelf caught Elsa's attention and she bent over to retrieve it. In doing so, Anna's attention shifted from her face to her ass; the first thought that popped into her mind being how perfect it looked in the semi-tight jeans she was wearing. Feeling the heat rising in her cheeks, she was once again forced to tear her gaze away with a surprising amount of difficulty, shaking her head in disgust at herself. 'Stop staring at her like a horny teenager!' She yelled mentally.
"How's Beef Stroganoff with Noodles sound?" Elsa asked her, inspecting the package in her hands and failing to notice Anna's internal struggles for a second time.
"Uhhhh," Anna groaned, breaking from her thoughts and quickly searching the shelves so Elsa wouldn't see her flushed face. "Ooh! There's Chili-Mac up there!" She exclaimed, her favorite of the freeze-dried foods catching her eye; unfortunately it was out-of-reach for her short frame. Frowning in displeasure and still distracted by her previous thoughts, she used the bottom shelf as a stepping stool to reach up a grab the package.
"Anna, NO!" Elsa yelled, looking over and seeing what the redhead was doing. Anna looked at her in confusion, before both the shelf she was standing on and the shelf she was holding onto for balance snapped under her weight. Eyes widening in horror as she felt herself begin to fall, Anna grabbed at another shelf only to have it snap as well. Now she was falling backwards, arms pin-wheeling around her as she watched an avalanche of freeze-dried foods and metal shelves fall with her. Her life once again began flashing before her eyes, but the images suddenly stopped as another body that could only be Elsa's collided with hers in mid-air and forced her out of the way.
The two hit the ground hard, both grunting from the impact as they rolled across the floor. The falling merchandise and broken shelves chose the moment they came to a stop to crash to the floor in an amazingly loud and spectacular fashion, forcing the two to hold each other tighter in fear of being hit. Only when the din had stopped echoing around the store and Anna didn't feel anything collide with her did she deem it safe enough to open her eyes. Looking over, she saw the floor now contained a very large congregation of blue packages, red/black buckets, and metal shelves; a congregation she would have been buried under had it not been for Elsa quick thinking.
"Looks like you saved me again." Anna said shakily, adrenaline still coursing through her veins at coming so close to being seriously injured. Elsa's breath only hitched in response to Anna's comment. Confused at the sound she shifted her attention from the wreckage to her boss, only to have her own breath freeze in her throat at the realization of the close proximity the two of them were in; their bodies only little more than an inch apart from each other.
'Thirteen freckles.' Was Anna's first thought, as she was near enough to properly count the pale spots populating Elsa's cheeks and nose. Her attention slowly began to roam, taking in the details of her pale face. The soft-looking platinum blonde hair that was still in a perfect bun despite having just gone through a tackle, the arching eyebrows that had been tailored to perfection, the nose that was neither too big or too small for the face around it, and finally, the deep but natural-looking color of the lipstick she was wearing on her thin lips.
'Even in a disaster she manages to look beautiful.' Anna thought, so mesmerized by Elsa features that she both failed to notice both her own thoughts and the flush that was rapidly rising in her cheeks as her gaze moved north again. Teal met blue as their gazes connected, Anna practically dissecting the anatomy of Elsa irises as she mapped their various lines and contours. Perhaps it was a simple trick of the light or maybe it was the closeness of their bodies, but Elsa's eyes suddenly appeared to be a slightly darker shade of blue than Anna had ever seen them. Suddenly, she felt the urge to say something, or possible do something. What that something was, she didn't know. All she knew was that something was happening and she shouldn't waste the opportunity of that something.
BANG!
The loud noise echoed through the empty store, scaring the two women and causing an abrupt end to their moment as they jumped away from each other in surprise. Anna was about to say something along the lines of 'What the hell was that?', but her question was answered before she could voice it.
"Hello!?" A voice called out from somewhere near the back of the store. "Is anyone here!? "This is the National Guard, there's no reason to hide! Is there anyone in here!?" Anna and Elsa shared a look of surprise and relief before Elsa moved out of the aisle and cupped her hands around her mouth.
"We're here!" Elsa yelled as Anna got to her feet and arrived next to her. "We're in the Sporting Goods section!" Immediately, the sound of numerous boot-clad feet could be heard coming towards them. Within seconds a group of five men dressed in Army digital camo gear appeared around the corner, M4's momentarily pointed at them before they recognized that the two women were not a threat and lowered them.
"Are you two alright?" One of the men, a specialist by the name of Sauers, asked as they drew arrived.
"Yes." Elsa answered, relief clear on her face. "My friend here fell into hypothermia when the storm began though."
"Alright." Sauers said, offering her a nod before turning to the other four soldiers. "Williams, take Jans and Kyle and tell Sergeant Shang we found two. Cruz, check to see if pigtails is okay.
"You got it." Williams and Cruz said, Cruz smiling at Williams before unslinging his medical and walking over to Anna.
"Should we report anything else?" One of privates in Williams' group, Jans, asked him.
"Yeah. Go ahead and tell Sergeant there's an unbelievable sale on Gerbers." He said sarcastically to the man, pointing with his thumb at a knife-filled endcap with a large '20% OFF' sign over it. Williams gave a small chuckle as Jans shot him a look of extreme annoyance.
"Stupid questions deserve stupid answers, Jans." He said, putting his hand on the man's shoulder. "Now get going." The man shook his head before the three of them turned around and ran back the way they had come.
Sauers put his hands on his hips and sighed slightly before turning around and walking over to Cruz and Anna. Elsa followed him to see that Anna was currently having her temperature taken as Cruz shined a small but bright light into her eyes.
"How's she looking?" Sauers asked.
"I'm not seeing any signs of shock." Cruz said, turning out the light and putting it back in his pocket. As he did so the thermometer in Anna's mouth beeped and pulled it out, then took another thermometer from his bag and ran it across Anna's forehead. Once it beeped he examined them both comparatively. "According to these her body temp. is a little below average, but it's nothing concerning."
That was a relief to both Elsa and Anna and they looked at each other happily as Cruz discarding the plastic coverings of the thermometers into a sealable bag and returned them to their pockets. He then gently grabbed Anna's wrist and place two fingers on her pulse point, looking at his watch as he counted the beats. A few moments later he raised one of his eyebrows and looked at Anna out of the corner of his eye.
"Do you run a lot, miss…?"
"Summers." Anna said. "But you can call me Anna. And yes, I do run when I can."
"How far?"
"Three to five miles at my gym, depending on how I'm feeling and what music my phone decides to play."
"Well that would explain why your pulse is below average." Cruz said, letting go of her wrist and stripping off the non-latex gloves he was wearing.
"So what's the call?" Sauers asked him.
"She has no signs of shock and as far as I can tell her body's suffered no side effects from her hypothermia." Cruz said, dumping the gloves in the sealable bag. "How bad did you have it?" He asked Anna.
"According to Elsa I was in stage two." She replied. "She was the one who pulled me back in here and warmed me back up." Cruz looked at her in mild shock before directing his gaze at Elsa.
"Are you sure she was in stage two?"
"I'm First Aid certified with the Red Cross." Elsa replied. "Not to mention that I was raised in Norway and have seen it before."
"Well then," Cruz said, his tone clearing showing that he wasn't expecting that kind of answer. "I'll trust that you do know what it looks like. It's just, with the way she is now I'd have never though she had hypothermia. Whatever care you gave her, you did it right."
"Thank you." Elsa said, smiling as Anna beamed at her and gave a thumbs up.
"So she's good then?" Sauers asked. "She doesn't need to go to medical?"
"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Cruz asked him. "She's perfectly fine."
"I'm just an infantryman." Sauers replied, raising his hands as he turned to walk to the back of the store with the rest of them. "I don't know what kind of SOP's you medics have."
"Whatever, man." The medic laughed.
"Excuse me," Anna said, drawing the two soldiers' attentions. "But can I stop by my locker and get my purse and stuff?"
"Sure." Sauers said. "Where is it?"
"In the backroom by the employee entrance."
"Well isn't that convenient?" Cruz said. "That happens to be the entrance we used."
"Great!" Anna said happily. The four walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence before entering the backroom and turning towards the exit. Quickening her pace, Anna pulled ahead of the group and fished the key to her locker out of her pocket. She should have done this earlier but she had been a little preoccupied with recovering from almost freezing to death and making friends with Elsa. Smiling at that, she inserted her key and pulled the locker open. Her smile quickly disappeared as the sleeve of her hoodie caught the door and got pulled out of the locker, taking her purse with it to the ground and scattering her belongings across the floor.
"Shit!" She exclaimed, kneeling down to pick up her stuff as the other three caught up and kneeled down to help her. Between the four of them the mess was almost no problem and soon enough they had nearly everything back in the leather bag. Sauers managed to get her license off the floor after a moment of difficulty and was about to hand it to her when something caught his attention. Examining it more closely, a feeling of worry passed through him.
"Anna," He said, pulling her attention. "Is your license accurate?"
"Yeah." She replied, perplexed at the odd question.
"Address as well?" He asked.
"Yes." She said slowly. "395 Shubin Street. The Tattersall Appartment Complex." Cruz's head shot up at that, looking at Sauers with the same expression of worry that was currently ono his face.
"Anna," Sauers said calmly, standing up and handing her the license. "Which floor do you live one."
"The top floor." Anna said. She knew that sounded expensive (which was why she said it) but the complex was a small one and only had three floors.
"Anna," Sauers said again in the same calm manner. "I'm sorry that I have to tell you this, but the roof of the Tattersall Appartment Complex collapsed under the weight of the snow. The top floor is completely buried under debris." Both Anna and Elsa were shocked into silence at the news. They looked between the two soldiers, but the sympathetic looks that being given to them by both Sauers and Cruz was proof enough that this was the truth.
"H-how do you know?" Anna stammered, not wanting to believe the news.
"One of the platoons in our company was sent there this morning." Cruz said, sadness and sympathy evident in his words. "I'm sorry, but it's the truth."
"W-where am I going to live?" Anna asked, her voice quivering and her eyes slowly beginning to mist.
"We've set up temporary living quarters and medical stations at Chiron Stadium." Sauers told her, placing a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I know it's hard to think of right now and I know what I'm about to say sounds hollow, but things could be far worse. Thanks to your friend here you're in good health, and I can guarantee that you'll be well-fed and warm at the stadium. These disaster scenarios are nowhere near as bad as Hollywood makes them out to be. You're going to be okay."
Despite his kind words, Elsa could see the tears beginning to fall from the corners of Anna's eyes. She could see her bottom lip beginning to quiver and her shoulders start to shake and she felt and painful stab in her chest. She knew what Sauers was telling the redhead was true, that Hollywood always overplayed these things to see way worse than they were. But images of Anna sleeping in a cot with nothing but a few blankets, a pillow, a hoodie, and a purse as her only possessions; surrounded by hundreds to thousands of other people who were homeless, wounded, or sick flashed through her mind at breakneck speed. She couldn't take the thought of Anna living like that, which was why she strode forward. Which was shy she placed her hand on Anna's shoulder and guided her face up so she was looking into her watery, red-rimmed eyes.
"He's right, Anna." She said slowly, her gaze never wavering from the girl's teal gaze. "You're going to be alright, because you're going to be living with me."