Author's Note: Fair warning, this quite a bit longer than the others. I played around with the idea of simply merging the beginning of this chapter into the ending of the last one (which was rather short) but I felt as if the story didn't flow right. Again, thanks to all who have, reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. You are my greatest source of inspiration for writing this and I cannot thank you enough. I would also like to thank all those who read this story in general, but as I said in the chapter before this, the only way I know you exist is in the traffic graph and having a review from you all would be phenomenal. I would also like to give a shout out to WolfDragonGod, who favorited the story after I posted the last chapter. You are one of my favorite authors on this site and I absolutely love your Harry Potter stories. You would not believe how happy I was when I saw your URL pop up in my email. Now that I've the fangirl-ing out of my system, here's to hoping you enjoy this chapter and here's to the Elsanna fandom! Hobey-Ho!
Disclaimer: Disney owns Frozen and I have no claim to its characters.
Secrets Revealed
Anna could not believe she was about to do this.
She hadn't even been able to make it forty-eight hours into her temporary tenure with Elsa and she was already going to break the one rule the Elsa truly had. She tried to keep telling herself that she didn't want to do it, that her friendship with Elsa was worth more than some silly secret that was most likely nothing. A lot of people don't like other people going into their rooms. Bedrooms are a place of true privacy where someone can express themselves without the scrutiny of the outside world; truthfully though, that was why Anna wanted in. She wanted to know more about her Swedish boss. The rational side of her brain was telling her that she could do this simply through talking and normal human interaction, but the curious side (the one currently in control) was insatiable and was fully intent on murdering some cats in cold blood. It was for this reason that she was currently sitting at the desk in her room and staring intently at her phone with her finger hovering over the 'Call' button.
She had spent the last few hours sitting at this desk, conspiring on how exactly she would get on the inside. After the showcases had ended she had excused herself to her room, telling Elsa that she had to get to work on filing a claim for her lost possessions with her insurance company and searching for a new apartment. The blonde hadn't given a second thought to her white lie, she had business to take care of as well. They set up a lunch time for two o'clock before closing the doors on each other, leaving Anna to her thoughts. Truthfully, it hadn't taken her that long to decide how she was going to get into Elsa's room. Thanks to an unnatural ability to eat a weeks' worth of chocolate in a day, her foster parents had been forced to lock any and all of it. Rather than accept defeat, she had learned to pick any and all key locks they used. All she needed was two paperclips and she was certain she could get past Elsa's door lock, getting the paperclips was the problem.
Fortunately the answer was a simple as asking Elsa if she had six or seven spare paperclips for organizational purposes while she was cooking lunch. Elsa had readily agreed to the innocent-seeming request and retrieved some for her after she had finished cooking and set the meals. It was there, eating another amazing meal (Reuben sandwiches this time) with the target of her curiosity and her weapons of destruction that she felt the first wave of guilt and doubt towards what she was planning on doing. Could she really do this? What if Elsa caught her? Would it ruin their friendship? Would Elsa kick her out? And if she didn't catch her, what would she do with the secret? Could she keep it? Would she let it slip? Would it ruin their friendship?
Fortunately, she was interrupted from the string of never-ending questions as Elsa asked her how her insurance claim/apartment search was coming along. The lie flew quickly from her mouth as she launched into how she had just managed to complete a list of all of her covered possessions and their approximate values. When she was finished Elsa informed her that she had received a call from the president and CEO himself, Arne Oaken. Anna had nearly spit out her food at this bit of information and asked why. Elsa let out a small laugh at her action before telling her that news of their having to take shelter in the store had already reached his ears. He had called to offer his sincerest apologies at the idiocy of the area executive (who was now on unpaid suspension and facing an internal review) and to tell them that they would be receiving a week of paid vacation for having to experience such a traumatic event starting the day the store opened up again.
Anna had to force her jaw to not go completely slack as Elsa finished. Sure, she had hoped that they would receive some kind of recompense for becoming trapped in the store but she only half-expected it to actually happen, and she never thought it would ever come in the form of a week's worth of paid vacation! Elsa shared her elation, though in a much more controlled manner. After that, they had engaged in some light conversation before finishing the last bites of their meals and returning to their rooms after agreeing upon a dinner time. All-in-all their lunch had taken a little under an hour, the latter half managing to successfully distract Anna from her nefarious plot. Now that she was alone with her thoughts again, nothing was there to distract her from the guilty thoughts again. Steeling herself, she forced them away by immersing herself in the intricate task of making the paperclips Elsa had given her into workable lock picks.
Without the aid pair of pliers to aid her in the making of the devices, the task was decidedly harder than her when she had made them in the past. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that it had been years since she had made the lock picks and she had lost the muscle memory she had once had. It would have been easy enough to hit up Google and find the instructions on WikiHow or some other website, but the fear of Elsa finding the search topic during a random search of the Wifi usage kept her firmly away from that course of action. It was nearly an hour-and-a-half later when the picks were finished to her satisfaction. Her fingers were red and sore from having to work all the small angles and the fact that Elsa used stainless steel paperclips instead of aluminum only made shaping them harder, but now she had three usable picks and tension wrenches lying on the table in front of her.
Glad that the painful task was now over, she stood out of her chair and walked over to her door with the six devices in hand. She slowly opened the door and peeked her head out, looking and listening for signs of Elsa. Not seeing her in the hallway, she stepped out and peeked out into the living room. Finding no sign of her, she walked over to check the bathroom. She had enough evidence that Elsa was not in there either since the door was half open, which meant she was in her room. Confident she had her privacy, Anna stepped back into her room and opened the door fully until the knob was against the wall. She then locked it and placed her tools on the ground in a neat order. Kneeling down, she took a calming breath before grabbing the first pair.
First she inserted the tension wrench into the bottom of the keyhole, putting a slight amount of pressure on the shear line. She then turned the tension wrench clockwise and counter-clockwise, finding that the lock turned to the right when she felt the differences in pressure. Keeping a good amount of rotational pressure on the lock, she then inserted her pick and began feeling for a seized pin. Once she found it, she slowly applied upward pressure on it until she heard the telltale 'click' that meant it had settled into place. The sound was very faint due to the fact that the condo had been built with some pretty well-machined locks, but she heard it none-the-less. She repeated the process until she had set all six of the pins in the lock and the entire thing unlocked. Relief flooded her at the realization that she hadn't lost her touch over the years and she allowed herself a tiny celebration before relocking the door and grabbing another pair. The next hour was spent honing her skills and testing each one of the pins and tension wrenches, trying to find which ones worked the best and allowed her to pick the lock in the fastest and smoothest manner. Finally finding the pair that worked the best together, she gathered up the rejects and sat back down at her desk. Now came the part she knew would be the hardest, figuring out a way to get Elsa out of her room for an extended period of time.
In truth, she could probably just wait until Elsa used the bathroom or started cooking dinner. Those were the simplest options, but their over-simplicity came at the price of being extremely risky. At any moment Elsa could just walk into the hallway and it would be game over for her and master scheme. The best way to do it would be to get Elsa out of the condo somehow. That would ensure that she had enough time to physically get the door open and give her enough warning to abandon the task should she come back in before the door was open. Unfortunately, Anna couldn't think of a single feasible way to actually get the blonde to leave the condo. She sat there for an untold amount of time, thinking up plan after plan before ultimately tossing them away at the realization they would never work. At one point she even started doing what she had told Elsa she was doing. She figured that since sitting around and thinking of ideas wasn't doing her any good, maybe actually doing something productive would jumpstart her mind. Besides, she was sure she had heard that it was in the monotony of working as a patent clerk that Einstein formed the Theory of Relativity…why couldn't it work for her? This decision turned out to be her saving grace as she was searching for a new apartment.
Google had managed to be its usual self and had managed to place a few random cars for sale links into her search of "Apartments for sale". She currently scrolling past a few when her eyes caught a rather nice-looking car that was actually quite affordable. She entertained herself with the thought of considering to buy the car (her Beetle was getting up there in miles) when she read one of the broken portions that served as a description of the link. The portions mentioned it having eighty thousand miles, a newly installed radio, and a slight dent/scratch in the bumper from a fender-bender incident in a parking lot. The last line held her attention for an extended period of time before the first fledglings of an idea began to take form in her mind. Ever so slowly, more and more pieces began to fall into place until the layout of a full-blown plan of action was laid out in the forefront of her mind. It took Elsa knocking on her door and announcing that she was going to start on dinner to rouse her from thoughts.
That had been ten minutes ago and now all she could do was stare at the number of the condominiums front desk with her finger only an inch away from calling it. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she pressed the red button and held the phone up to her ear. The phone rang two times before a friendly male voice answered.
"Corona Condominium Complex. How may I help you?"
"Is this the front desk?" Anna asked in a slightly panicked and worried tone.
"Yes it is." The voice answered, confusion evident in his voice.
"Do you happen to know who owns the red Audi Allroad parked in your parking lot?"
"Y-yes I do." He answered, a slight amount of worry evident in his tone.
"Could you contact them please? I was using your parking lot as a means to turn around and as I was pulling through I went over a patch of hidden ice and hit the bumper of the Audi."
"Oh my." The man said, understanding her tone. "I'll call the owner right now and tell her the news. Would you like me to come out as well?"
"No, no!" Anna replied quickly, trying to divert the man. "I'd rather this stay a private affair between me and the owner."
"Of course, ma'am." The man said. "I'll call her right now. It may be a few moments as she lives on one of the higher floors."
"That alright. I'll be waiting." Anna said, ending the call and leaning back in her chair. Not two seconds later she could hear the phone in the living room ringing. It rang only once and she assumed Elsa had picked it up and was listening to the false news being delivered to her. It was another thirty seconds before she heard Elsa's footsteps coming down the hallway.
"Anna?" Elsa called after knocking three times.
"Yeah?" She called back, trying to sound as if she were working.
"Anna, there's been an incident in the parking lot with my car. Apparently, someone hit a bad patch of ice and hit my bumper. I'm heading out to talk with them and see how bad the damage is. There's pizza cooking in the oven so could you listen for timer in case I don't make it back up in time?"
"Sure." Anna said, trying to sound worried at the fake damage. "I hope the damage isn't too bad."
"Me too." Elsa replied. There was a second on silence before Anna could hear her footsteps leave the hallway. Listening closely, she could hear the door open and close as Elsa left. Reining her nerves in, she stared at her watch as she let sixty seconds count away. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't out picking the lock if Elsa had forgotten something and came back in. The minute passed slower than any minute in Anna's life; and by the time it did pass, her heart rate had almost doubled. Taking a steadying breath, she swiped the two repurposed paper clips off the desk and opened the door. She ran out into the living room and locked the door as quickly as she could. This would act as her alarm upon Elsa's return. She looked to the desk to see if Elsa had left the keys, but it was empty. That would mean she would have to listen for Elsa trying to enter rather than waiting for her to knock to be let in. With that set, she strode back into the hallway until she was staring at the offending door.
Now standing in front of it, she took another deep breath and got down on her knees so she was level with the lock. She was relieved to find it was the same type as her door and quickly tested the knob to see if Elsa had locked it. She silently prayed that all her preparation had been for nothing and that the door would simply open, but that prayer when unanswered as the knob refused to turn. Sighing at her crushed hopes, she inhaled once again and set the tension wrench into the keyhole. She tested the turn of the lock and, as she expected, it turned to the right just as hers did. Applying the necessary pressure, she then inserted the pick and began feeling around for the seized pins.
For some reason, the process took much longer than when she had been picking her own lock. Maybe it was style of pins or maybe it was her own nerves causing her to apply too much pressure in certain places. Whatever the reason was, by the time she was turning the keyhole her forehead was covered in a nervous sweat. The knob made a satisfying 'Click' as it unlatched and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She couldn't allow herself a reprieve though, as Elsa was probably in the elevator on her way back up that very moment. Not wasting another second, she stuffed the tools back into her pocket and grabbed the knob. She turned it quickly and took her first step into the forbidden room. What she saw in there made that first step her only step. There was only one way for Anna to describe what she saw in the room before her…Nerd Heaven.
The room was slightly larger than hers, with a bigger bed, more shelves, bookcases, and a door adjoining to the bathroom; but rather than photos of family and friends, each of the shelves and bookcases were filled merchandise from games, comic books, movies, and animes. One whole bookshelf was dedicated to multiple POP figures while another was actually being used for its intended purpose of holing books. On it, she could see all seven of the Harry Potter series, all four of the Eragon series, all four of the Divergent series, and multiple others that she either couldn't see or didn't know. The bottom two shelves were housing multiple blue-ray DVDs, some of which appearing to be the adaptions of the books above them but most appearing to be of the own design. The walls were lined with a mix of posters, the topics ranging from Marvel and DC comic character (she noted there were more Marvel that DC), to the movies and books on the bookshelf, to animes that she both did and did not recognize. She unconsciously began to step farther into the room when a foreign sound pierced through her haze. It was so small that she barely heard it and it took a second to place it, and her heart skipped a beat when she did.
It was the sound of a jiggling door knob.
Elsa was back!
A nanosecond later she was out of the room and relocking the door as she shut it. She almost slammed it, but managed to stop the door before it did and eased it closed. The second it closed, she heard the sound of the living room door opening and announcing Elsa's entrance. As quickly and as quietly as she could, she sprinted towards her open room as Elsa footsteps came closer to the hallway. She barely made it into the sanctuary as she heard the blonde's footsteps enter the hallway just after she passed through the door. Throwing herself on to her bed, she pulled out her phone and made it look like she was browsing through an app just as Elsa appeared in her doorway.
"That was quick." She remarked at seeing her, looking up from her phone and trying not to look as panicked as she was feeling. "The damage must've been pretty insignificant."
"There wasn't any." Elsa replied in a frustrated tone, leaning against her door frame.
"What?" Anna asked, putting down her phone and doing her best to look confused.
"The entire thing was fake." Elsa explained. "Someone prank called the front desk about running into my car for shits and giggles."
"Damn." Anna said in her best sympathetic tone. "Prank calls can be bad, but pranking someone about their car is just cruel."
"Tell me about it." Elsa replied, rolling her eyes and smiling at her. "On the bright side, I don't have to call my insurance company."
"True that." She replied, offering a smile. "How's the pizza coming?"
"Should be ready any minute now." Elsa said, pushing herself off the doorframe. "I think I saw about five minutes left on the timer. By the way, did you lock the door when I left? Because I could've sworn I didn't lock it."
"Oh, yeah!" Anna exclaimed, trying to keep her face from paling as she got out of her bed. "I've kinda' had a thing about locking doors ever since my house got broken into when I was a kid."
Another lie to add to tonight's growing list.
"No problem." Elsa said, moving out of the doorframe to let Anna through before following her. "I'm already used to taking the keys with me when I leave so it won't be too much of a hassle."
"Cool." Anna replied, stepping into the living room and smelling the aroma of baking pizza. "So what kind of pizza did you make?"
"I decided to play it safe, since I didn't know what you liked, and just made plain old cheese pizza." Elsa said. "I put some herbs in the sauce for a little extra flavoring and I've plenty of spices if you need them."
"Thanks." Anna replied, smiling at Elsa's thoughtfulness. "And for future reference; cheese is always fine with me, but I prefer sausage pizza."
"Duly noted." Elsa laughed as they entered the kitchen. Looking at the timer she had set up on the island, she saw she had a little over a minute left before she had to pull it out. Opening one of the cabinets, she pulled out a large circular pizza dish and square pizza spatula.
"Anna, can you get some parmesan cheese and some garlic?" She asked, placing the dish down on top of the oven and waiting for the timer to sound.
"Sure." Anna said, making her way to the fridge. "Where are they at?"
"The parmesan should be on one of the shelves on the right door." She answered as the timer went off. "The garlic is on the spice rack inside the pantry door. Feel free to grab anything else you see."
"No problem." Anna replied, opening the refrigerator as Elsa turned off the timer and opened the oven. Searching up and down, she quickly found the canister of parmesan and grabbed it. She then closed the door and opened the door to the pantry. Searching the rack as Elsa said, she quickly found the garlic and also grabbed some black pepper and tabasco sauce for her own slices. Closing the door, she turned around and placed the four items on the island while Elsa expertly slid the pizza off of the spatula and onto the plate. She inhaled the sweet aroma of the cheesy confection while Elsa grabbed retrieved a pizza roller.
"So what kind of pizza is this?" She asked Elsa as the blonde began cutting it into eighths. "DiGiorno? Tombstone? Newman's Own? Trader Giotto's?"
"Anna!" Elsa exclaimed in mock hurt. "I'm affronted that you would even consider the very idea that I would use a frozen pizza!"
"…So the crust is frozen?" Anna asked after a mild pause, smirking at Elsa's theatrics.
"Yes." Elsa replied, shoulders dropping as fast as her charade. "I may be good, but I seriously doubt I can make a full pizza in under thirty minutes."
"That would be amazing." Anna said, staring off as she imagined being able to have a delicious homemade pizza long before any pizza company could deliver one.
"While that would be amazing…" Elsa started, tearing Anna out of her impromptu day dream. "What I'm more amazed at is how many frozen pizza brands you know off the top of your head."
"What!?" Anna asked incredulously at Elsa's stare. "I was a college student for four years, you know? There was a time when I was literally living off of frozen pizzas and Ramen noodles."
"Ewwww." Elsa said, faking a retch. She couldn't even begin to fathom the notion of living off such processed foods for a time longer than two, possibly three days at most.
"Don't hate." Anna said as she strode to the fridge and opened it, searching for a certain beverage. "You wouldn't happen to have any soda, would you?"
"No," Elsa replied, finishing the last cut across the pizza. "I try to stay away from unhealthy foods and drinks."
"And yet, you've made lasagna, double-chocolate waffles, Reuben sandwiches, and pizza all within the last twenty-four hours." Anna fired back, grabbing the carton of vanilla almond milk again.
"Well, I've never had someone to…impress before." Elsa said as she placed the cutter in the sink and grabbed glasses for the both of them. For some unknown reason, Anna found herself blushing at the comment as the blonde filled the two glasses.
"Well, you've certainly succeeded in that." Anna said playfully, bumping Elsa's hip with her own as she grabbed her now full glass and walked back to the island, completely missing the blonde's face flush deep crimson.
'What. The. FUCK WAS THAT, ANNA!?' Screamed a voice in her head as she walked away. 'Did you just flirt!? With another girl!? WHO IS YOUR BOSS!?'
'No…' Anna thought haltingly. 'It was just a friendly gesture.'
'Friendly gesture your ass!' The voice yelled back. 'How many guys have you tried to pick up doing that!?'
'Like, two.' Anna answered tentatively, taking a drink from her glass.
'That's a damn dirty lie and you know it!' The voice fired. 'Try every single one of them! And now you're using it ON HER!? Never mind the fact that she's another girl, BUT YOUR BOSS!?'
'I am NOT attracted to Elsa!' Anna replied. 'I have absolutely NO interest in her because I am one-hundred percent straight.'
'Sure…' The voice said. 'Never mind the fact that you've been staring at every aspect she owns at every damn turn.'
'I have not!' Anna yelled at the voice, the flush returning to her cheeks. 'It's perfectly normal for one woman to appreciate another woman's fig…
"Anna?" Elsa's voice called, effectively cutting through her inner argument.
"Huh, wha…?" She said, looking up to find Elsa standing next to her.
"Are you alright, Anna?" Elsa asked, concern etched on her face.
"What!?" Anna exclaimed a little too loudly, a slight nervous sweat starting to break out on her forehead. "Of course I am! What could possibly make you think that that I was anything other than alright!?"
"Well, you were just really spaced-out there." Elsa started, a little startled at how loud and fast Anna had spewed the words out of her mouth. "Plus, your face is really red and it looks like you've been sweating. Do you feel like you're coming down with something?"
"Nope! I feel perfectly fine! A-OK! One-hundred and ten percent! No sickness here! Just a perfectly healthy human being! Absolutely disease free! Couldn't be healthier if I tried!" Anna replied hastily, mentally smacking herself for every response that surfaced from her out-of-control mouth. If Elsa hadn't been startled by her first comment, she definitely was now.
"O-kay then." Elsa said hesitantly, gazing at her quizzically before looking down at her watch. "Well, its seven right now and I usually like to watch Jeopardy…if that's okay with you?"
"I love Jeopardy!" Anna exclaimed, being careful not to be as awkwardly loud as she just had been; rejoicing in the very wanted distraction from her unorthodox behavior. "Go ahead and turn that shit on!" Elsa smiled widely at her enthusiasm for the show, walking into the living room and hitting the necessary button to turn the TV on. She then switched it to the proper channel in time to hear the announcer introducing Alex Trebeck. She watched him walk up to his podium before turning around to see Anna with a piece of pizza already in hand, sitting with her back to the island and her phone on the seat to her right. She quickly walked back and grabbed her own slice, adding some garlic and parmesan, before taking her own seat next to the phone. Glancing down, she saw it was own and displaying various buttons that corresponded with the Jeopardy points totals.
"Is that a points counter app?" Elsa asked as Alex began naming the categories.
"Yep." Anna said quickly with her eyes glued to the TV, not wanting to miss the categories. "Most of the ones on the market suck, but Olaf managed to design a really nice one and put it up for free."
"Olaf? Olaf from Electronics?" Elsa asked with undisguised surprise.
"Yep." Anna said in the same quick tone. "He's really good with that kind of stuff. Now shush! The first answer is coming up!" Once again, Elsa smiled at Anna's eagerness before taking a bite of pizza and turning her attention to the game. As usual, the player started off with a two-hundred dollar question and the two woman managed to shout the answer out at the same time. Both of them got it correct and Anna pressed the '+200' button on her phone, her score instantly appearing on the top. Soon, the awkwardness of the previous situation completely diminished as they became more and more absorbed in the game. The two of them went through the first three categories quickly, both getting questions wrong and right and Anna changing her score as needed. When the first commercial break arrived, Anna celebrated in the fact that she was an around two thousand dollars ahead of the leader.
"Sorry to rain on your parade," Elsa started. "But don't you think that it's a little unfair that you get to answer all the questions?" Anna merely stuck her tongue out at Elsa before grabbing another slice of pizza and adding on the four ingredients she had retrieved from the pantry. Elsa shook her head at the redhead's childish response before grabbing her own slice and adding her preferred toppings. The show returned soon enough and, after the interviews of the players, the two women were back to shouting out answers. When the daily double appeared, Anna quickly hit the 'Daily Double' and 'True Daily Double' button; all the while chanting "True daily double. True daily double,' under her breath. She let out a small, disappointed groan when the player only wagered two-thousand five-hundred. Alex began reading off the question and Anna managed to get the answer off a split second before Elsa did, crying out in joy when she saw she was correct and hitting 'Correct' button on her phone. Her score doubled and the app went back to its regular screen in time for the next answer to be chosen. By the end of the round, Anna's score was significantly higher than the leader's and she was doing a little dance in her seat in celebration. Four answers later and the round was over, the program yielding to commercials with the promise of Double Jeopardy soon to come.
"Don't you think that was a little risky?" Elsa asked, taking a small drink from her glass. "Going with a true daily double that late in the round."
"It was," Anna started, taking a bite out of her third piece of pizza. "But a game isn't worth playing if there isn't any risk."
"I guess." Elsa said slowly. "But taking those risks could lose you the game, and that's no fun."
"Well, you just have to take the right risks." Anna said.
"And how do you know you know which are the right risks?"
"Simple," Anna said, turning to look at Elsa with a cocky smile on her face. "You wait until the game is over and see if you've won."
"Doesn't seem like a sound way to play." Elsa stated.
"It's worked for me so far," Anna said with a shrug. "So I'm sticking with it."
"I can't really argue if it works." Elsa conceded, finishing off her second slice of pizza. Anna looked as if she were about to say something else, but the sound of Jeopardy returning left her statement to die in her throat as the two women focused intensely on the new categories. They both found that they were more unfamiliar with these categories, leaving more questions unanswered than the first round. The first daily double was revealed rather quickly and, without fail, Anna immediately hit the "True Daily Double' button on her app. This time, the answer stumped the poor girl and she whimpered as she pressed the 'Incorrect' button and watched her score change to zero. Elsa almost let out an 'I told you so', but thought better of it and reserved her mouth for answers and pizza. While the predicament was sad, Anna did not let the setback deter and returned to the game with even fiercer vigor. Soon she was answering questions left and right and getting most of them correct. Elsa noticed that Anna had begun to play more strategically, only throwing out answers on the lower number values while keeping silent on higher number values if she wasn't sure she was correct. The final daily double remained hidden until the very last tile on the board was revealed. Staying true, Anna wen for a true daily double and listened intently as Alex read off the answer. Shooting straight up in her seat, Anna shouted out the question in such vehemence that Elsa didn't even have a chance to try and answer. When it was revealed she was correct, she cheered in celebration and happily pressed the 'Correct' button.
"Congratulations." Elsa said happily upon seeing that Anna's score was two-hundred points above the leaders. "I imagine you're going to wager everything for Final Jeopardy?"
"You bet!" Anna squealed, already typing in her wager. "I just hope it's something I'll know!"
"We're about to see." Elsa said, the two of them turning their attention to Alex.
"Well, I hope our contestants enjoy graphic novels," The older man began. "As the Final Jeopardy category is 'Comic Book Heroes'. Contestants, place your wager and we'll be back after this." An awkward silence immediately settled between them as the commercials began to play. Anna saw Elsa stiffen slightly out of the corner of her eye and her thoughts automatically turned to what she had uncovered in Elsa's room. She soon recognized this as a possible way to breach the topic with her.
"Well," She began, rubbing the back of her head slowly. "Looks like I'm screwed. I really don't have much of a clue went it comes to that stuff."
"I'm afraid I won't be of any help." Elsa said, looking at her with a sheepish smile. "I probably know less about this than you do."
'So that's how she wants to play it.' Anna thought to herself, knowing that Elsa was lying to her. Truthfully, she couldn't really understand why Elsa was being so secretive about what she liked. It was true that she herself had never gotten into comics; at least, not until Marvel had started releasing some damn good blockbusters. Elsa definitely wasn't like her, though. The posters she saw in her room were the genuine comic book characters and not their movie counterparts. Some of the posters were of characters she couldn't recognize right off the bat. She didn't look down upon her for her interests, if that's what was holding Elsa back. There were masses of people who enjoyed that stuff as much as she did, probably even more so than she did. And nowadays society was definitely more accepting of those people than a decade ago.
'Maybe that's it, though?' Anna pondered to herself. 'Maybe she was bullied as a kid?' She didn't have time to think too much on the idea as Jeopardy returned on the television. Filing it away for later, she paid close attention as Alex began reading the answer.
"Sadly, for this Marvel superhero, his promising surgical career was cut short after an unfortunate accident. Luckily, he quickly found a new job fighting villains as this 'Master of the Mystic Arts'. Thirty seconds contestants. Good luck."
Anna visibly sagged in her seat as she realized that she had no hope of answering this correctly. The only Marvel heroes she knew of where the ones who had either already gotten movies or were getting movies soon. As far a she knew, none of the characters even came close to fitting the description the clue had given. Elsa saw all of this and realized Anna's turmoil. Knowing the answer, she quickly grabbed her glass and took a drink out of it; feigning a grimace and letting out a small noise of dissatisfaction. Anna heard this and looked over to see Elsa's expression.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing." Elsa replied, lowering the glass from her lips. "It's just that my almond milk tasted a little…strange."
Anna noticed Elsa's prolonged pause and the ever so slight emphasis she put on the last word. She knew Elsa knew the answer and that Elsa was now giving her a hint in the most secretive way she could. Knowing she didn't have much time left, she immediately began wracking her brain for any superhero that had any sort of connection to the word strange. Every encounter she had ever had with Marvel flew through her brain until, at the last second, she stumbled upon a recent memory in the break room at Oaken's. She hadn't been paying much attention at the time, but she definitely remembered Olaf talking on a phone with somebody. Something about attending this year's ComiCon and going as…
"That's it!" Anna yelled, the answer popping into her brain as the music just began to close. "Who is Dr. Strange!?" Elsa let an imperceptible smile play across her lips as her hint seemed to help Anna, and with her being none the wiser. The two of them waited (Anna rather anxiously) as the first two contestants got their answers wrong and watched their scores fall. Anna was on the edge of her seat as they revealed the champion's wager and leapt out of it in joy when it was revealed that they had both guessed Doctor Strange and gotten it right. She quickly pressed the 'Correct' button on her phone and watched her score reach thirty-five thousand six-hundred dollars, seven thousand dollars above the champion's.
"Yeah! I won!" Anna cheered, throwing her fist into the air. "And it's all thanks to you, Elsa."
"What? How?" She asked, simultaneously feigning ignorance and fearing that she wasn't as discreet as she thought she had been."
"If it hadn't been for you saying your almond mild tasted strange, I would've never remembered that Dr. Strange was a Marvel superhero!"
"Well," Elsa laughed, relief flooding her system. "I guess we were just lucky that I was thirsty."
"Yeah." Anna said happily. "You're, like, my good luck charm." Elsa immediately felt her face flush at the light compliment and immediately felt a strong urge to put some distance between her and the redhead.
"I wouldn't say that." She replied, rubbing the back of her head and sparing a false glance down at her watch. "Listen, Anna. I really need to take care of some business so I'm going to head back to my room."
"Awwwww." Anna whined, recognizing Elsa's escape attempt and trying to keep her around. She was hoping that spending more time with her would allow her a chance to breach the topic of Elsa's love of nerd culture. "Can't you at least watch Wheel of Fortune with me? I might need some more luck."
"I'm sorry, Anna." Elsa said, getting up from her seat and grabbing her glass. "I really need to take care of this. And besides, I'm horribly terrible at Wheel of Fortune."
"Oh, okay." Anna resigned, realizing that she wasn't going to get Elsa to stay. "You can at least let me clean up the dishes."
"Anna, you're my guest." Elsa stated. "I can't ask you to do that."
"You're not asking, I'm insisting." Anna said, standing as straight as she could. "You've cooked and cleaned everything so far and I've already told that I'm not the kind of girl to just sit back and do nothing."
"Fine." Elsa yielded after a few seconds, placing her glass on the table. "The glasses go on the top rack of the dishwasher and the pizza plate goes on the bottom. The spatula doesn't need to be washed seeing as the pizza crust was cooked enough to not leave any residue. I presume you remember where the ingredients go?"
"Yep." Anna replied, immediately gathering up Elsa's glass and the pizza plate.
"Alright then." Elsa said, gaining Anna's attention. "This will probably take me the rest of the night so I'll see you in the morning, Anna."
"Really?" Anna asked in a slightly dejected tone. "Well, if that's the case, then goodnight, Elsa."
"Goodnight, Anna." She replied with a smile before turning around and walking to the hallway. Anna watched her leave, not letting herself recognize the fact that her gaze was lingering a little too far south as Elsa disappeared around the corner. Once she was gone, she immediately placed the dishes in the dishwasher with the rest of the day's dishes and set the washer to what she believed would be the right settings. If they weren't, she was pretty sure Elsa would forgive her. She then returned both the spatula and the ingredients to their rightful homes before grabbing her glass and rinsing it out in the sink. She filled it with water from the dispenser built into the fridge and plopped herself down on the couch in front of the television.
'Now,' She thought to herself as she took a sip from the glass. 'How to get Elsa to break her secret?' Soon, just like this morning, she began thinking up scenarios on ways she could ease the blonde out of her shell. She barely paid attention to the show in front of her as multiple plans began playing though her mind. Slowly, more and more time passed by as each and every idea she conjured up was thrown away at the realization that they wouldn't work. She began to take larger and a larger drinks from her glass until it was completely empty in her hands. She automatically got up and refilled it before returning to the couch and planning some more. Wheel of Fortune ended and the next program began playing without her knowledge as she was absorbed into finding the perfect plan. It wasn't until she rose to refill her glass a second that she realized she had been ignoring a growing urge.
She had to pee.
Cursing at herself for no reason, she placed the glass down and walked down the hallway to the bathroom. Closing the door and locking it behind her, she made her way around the wall separation the bathtub and the toilet and turned her back to the porcelain receptacle. She had her pants and underwear halfway down her thighs and was beginning to sit down, when she glanced to the left and saw a practically empty toilet paper roll mounted on the wall. Her frustration rose even higher as her to pull her pants back up and strode straight to the door connected to Elsa's room, not even thinking to look for the toilet paper herself. She was about to knock on the door and ask her where the toilet paper was when she was stopped by a foreign sound. Lowering her hand, she quickly recognized it music playing in Elsa's room. She even managed to identify the song as Wake Me Up by Evanescence.
'Well, she has good taste.' Anna though, absentmindedly tapping her thigh with her hand as she listened to the song, She immediately hissed in pain though, as she felt something prick said thigh. Carefully reaching into her pocket, she found the cause of her pain and pulled it out to find the lock pick and tension wrench she had used to pick the lock to Elsa's door earlier. She stared at the two objects in her palm and, ever so slowly, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Looking down, she saw that the keyhole side of the door knob was there in the bathroom rather than in Elsa's room, most likely by Elsa's design.
'No, no, no, no, no.' She thought to herself as she began to kneel down. 'Nein! Nyet! This is a bad idea!'
'Elsa's listening to music. She won't hear it.' She thought as she placed the two devices in the keyhole.
'She'll see the knob move!'
She pushed the first seized pins into place.
'She'll be too preoccupied with her work to notice.'
The final seized pin fell into place and the knob unlocked.
'She'll definitely see the door move!'
She turned the knob so the latch was barely out of the hole.
'Let's hope not.' Anna thought as she began easing the door open a nanometer at a time. She pushed it until she believed the latch wouldn't fall back into the hole and held her breath as she released pressure on the knob. It was a full minute before she was no longer holding onto the knob and she let out exhaled in relief when the latch remained in place. Standing back up, she stepped back from the door and replaced the tension wrench and lock pick in her pocket. She took a few calming breaths to settle her nerves before standing straight and raising her hand.
"Elsa!" She called through the door as she knocked on it. "Elsa, there's no toile…"
Just as planned, her knocking caused the door unlatched to swing open and reveal Elsa's room. She had planned to feign surprise at the opening door, but she found she was not needed at the sight in front of her. Rather than working as she had said, Elsa was sitting on a rather interesting-looking circular seat with a pair of sleek headphones over her ears connected to what she recognized to be an Xbox One controller. She also recognized the headphones to be Turtle Beach before registering the look of surprise and fear on Elsa's face. The two stared at each other in stunned silence before Elsa reached up and pulled the headphones off her head.
"A-Anna," She started hesitantly, the fear in her voice all too apparent. "W-what's going on?"
"There...was no toilet paper." She said slowly, not wanting to freak Elsa out. "I called your name and knocked…and the door…opened."
The silence returned between the two as Anna finished, neither of them willing to make the next move. Then tension quickly began to rise between the two of them until it was a thick as the snow covering the city. Then, suddenly, it was violently shattered into a million pieces as Anna's ringtone erupted from her pocket at full volume. They both jumped in utter surprise at the unexpected sound, one of them letting out a small and shrill yelp. Anna took a second to catch her breath before fishing her phone out of her pocket in a rush and looking to see who had managed to find the perfect fucking time to call her. She almost smacked herself in the forehead when she saw Kristoff's name on the screen. Sending an apologetic look to Elsa, she slid her finger across the screen to accept the call and held the phone to her ear.
"Anna! Are you alright!" Kristoff's voice shouted into her ear, forcing her to hold the phone away a few inches for fear of damage.
"What do you mean!? Of course I'm alright!" She answered in a loud and aggravated tone.
"What do you mean 'What do I mean'?" He yelled back in a worried tone. "I'm just sitting here watching the news with Sven, enjoying the fact that I haven't had to work for a while, when I suddenly see footage of YOUR apartment complex with its roof collapsed on the side where YOUR apartment is!" Anna's aggravation at his interruption dissipated instantly at the realization of why he was calling and why he was yelling.
"I'm alright, Kristoff." She said in a much more calming voice. "I wasn't in the apartment when the roof collapsed. Some of my shit was destroyed but my clothes and the basic shit I need to live weren't."
"Oh, thank God." Kristoff replied, worry leaving his tone to be replaced by immense relief. "Well, where are you now? The news report said that the roof collapsed a few days ago. Did they move you to the stadium shelter? Do you need a place to stay at?"
"No, I didn't get moved to the shelter." She answered reassuringly. "I'm staying at a friend's place right now. She offered as soon as she learned what happened."
"A friend?" Kristoff asked in confusion. "Who? Is it Fiona?"
"No, it's not Fiona. It's…" She paused, not willing to tell him it was Elsa she was staying with. "Listen…you kind of interrupted something pretty important right now that I really need to deal with. Will it be alright if we hold off on having this conversation until tomorrow, or something?"
"…Alright." Kristoff said after a moment. "Tomorrow it is. I was just really worried when I saw the footage."
"I understand." She replied. "If our roles were reversed I would've been just worried as you. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Tomorrow. See ya, Anna." He said before hanging up. She let the phone hover at her ear for a moment before hitting the power button and putting it back in her pocket. She shook her head and smiled at how worried the blond oaf had sounded before turning back to Elsa. She found the woman sitting in the same positon, with a slightly toned-down version of the fearfully surprised expression she had two minutes ago.
"Elsa," She started softly, gesturing around the room. "We're going to talk about this, alright? But first, I really do need to pee. So it would be nice if you could tell me where you keep the toilet paper."
"S-sink cabinets." Elsa said quietly. "The farthest door to the right."
"Thank you." She said in the same soft tone. "I'm going to keep this door open while I pee. In that time, I think it would be best if you gather your thoughts and remember that you promised me that you wouldn't ever go back to being the Ice Queen. Do you agree?"
"Y-yeah." Elsa said, this time slightly louder than before.
"Great. I'll only be a few minutes." She gave Elsa a small smile before turning and walking away from the door. She grabbed a new roll of toilet paper from the cabinet and set to work removing the old roll and putting the new one in. Once that was done, she tossed the old roll in the wastebasket beside the toilet and dropped her pants to relieve herself. The whole time she was listening for any sign of Elsa attempting to close the door and lock her out. When she finished, she wiped herself with a few folded squares and flushed the contents before striding back to the still open door. Standing in the doorway, she saw Elsa had moved from the chair to the end of her bed and was now staring down at her lap.
"Can I come in?" She asked tentatively. Elsa looked up at her and let a ghost of a smile appear before looking back down.
"I think it's a little late to be asking that question." Elsa replied. Anna let her own smile appear, taking it as a good sign that Elsa was joking.
"Yeah." She said as she entered the room. "But I've never heard of good manners ever ruining a situation."
"No, I suppose not." Elsa said, feeling the bed sag slightly as Anna sat down next to her. "Go ahead, ask away."
"Well…" Anna started. "I'm guessing all of this is why you didn't want me coming in here?"
"Yes." Elsa answered.
"And I'm guessing that's because all of this is embarrassing to you?" She continued.
"Yes." Elsa repeated.
"So…my real question is, why?" She asked. This caused Elsa to look up at her in confusion.
"Why what?" The blonde asked her.
"Why do you think this is embarrassing?" Now Elsa seemed really confused.
"You don't find all of…" She gestured around the room. "…this, to be weird?"
"Weird how?" Anna asked.
"Weird, as in the fact that a twenty-two year old adult is still interest in this kind of stuff." Elsa replied.
"Elsa," Anna began, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I was a Venture Scout for four years. Now, I don't know if you know much about it, but it's a co-ed scouting group for anyone ages fourteen to twenty-one. I made a lot of friends and met a lot of people who are just as into all of this as much as you are. Not only that, but I have seen some weird; and when I say weird, I mean very weird shit. So however weird you think all of this is, I think it's perfectly normal."
"Really?" Elsa said, not believing her ears.
"Of course!" Anna exclaimed. "You probably haven't realized it, but I've got an Xbox One sitting in my room right now! Which reminds me, you are so sending me a friend request before I leave this room."
"Seriously?" Elsa asked in astonishment.
"Absolutely!" Anna said, hugging her with one arm. "Now, the night is still young and I want you to spend it telling me about all the nerdy shit you have in this room. And don't even try to tell me that I wouldn't be interested, because I most definitely am and there is nothing in this room that could weird me out to the point of leaving."
"I think I'm going to take that as a challenge." Elsa replied, offering a wide smile.
"Bring it on." Anna said confidently.
And so Elsa did. The next few hours were spent as a grand tour of the nerd-centric room. Anna found out that the posters hanging on Elsa's walls were not the only posters she had. There was a sizable stack of other framed posters residing within Elsa's closet merely because the room was not big enough to contain them all. Her closet also contained a wide assortment of t-shirts and hats depicted characters and symbols from various shows. Elsa led her through each one of the POP figures on her shelf, giving the name of each character and what they belonged to. Some of them were familiar to Anna (Like Darryl from The Walking Dead) while others were completely foreign to her (Such as Eren Jaeger from Attack on Titan). She was shown multiple boxes (Elsa called them "Fat Packs) filled with cards and decks belonging to a game she recognized from her Venture Scout days called Magic: The Gathering and painted figurines from a tabletop game called Warhammer 40K. Many of the books and DVDs that Elsa owned she had seen or read before, but what made her nearly jump for joy was the sight of the complete collection of Dragonball Z. Elsa was equally excited at finding the two shared an almost unhealthy passion for the show and immediately revealed to Anna that the game she had been playing when all of this was revealed was Dragonball Xenoverse.
"Really!?" Anna squealed. "I wanted to get it but I was afraid it was going to be a flop!"
"It's so worth it." Elsa replied, pulling out her headphones so Anna could hear the game. She turned her controller back on and quickly showed Anna her character, a human female that closely resembled her. She explained how she had been really tempted to be a saiyan, but she eventually chose to break the norm and make a powerful human. She showed her how you could customize the character's skill set, attributes, clothing, and how you could become a student of the various characters in the series to learn their moves. After also explaining the parallel quests and the story quests, Anna begged her to show her the fighting mechanics, to which she easily agreed. She quickly chose a parallel quest and explained to Anna what she was doing as she fought.
"This looks amazing!" Anna exclaimed as she watched Elsa finish the battle and gain her experience points. "I am so getting this when the stores reopen!"
"Great!" Elsa replied enthusiastically. "I can help you level up and we can play together online!"
"I can't wait!" Anna cried. In her excitement, she managed to catch a glimpse of her watch and paused at the realization that it was nearing eleven at night.
"Damn." She said in surprise. "We've been at this for a while, huh?"
"I guess we have." Elsa chuckled, looking at her own watch.
"Well, as much as I want to stay here and find out what else I can fangirl over, I think it's time to hit the sack." A quick yawn merely punctuated her point.
"I think so too." Elsa said, letting out her own yawn as she stood up.
"Good to see that we agree." Anna replied, standing up as well and stretching a little.
"Hey, Anna?" Elsa muttered, drawing her attention. "I just wanted to say thanks, for accepting all of this."
"It's no problem, Elsa." Anna said, wrapping her arms around the taller girl in a hug. "And thank you for letting me see this side of you."
"You're welcome, Anna." Elsa said, returning the hug for a few seconds before letting go.
"Don't forget to send that friends request." Anna said as she turned to leave the room. "And you are definitely teaching me how to play Magic: The Gathering tomorrow."
"Really?" Elsa asked in surprise.
"Sure." Anna responded. "I was into Yu-Gi-Oh as a kid and that just looks like a much cooler version of it."
"More like Yu-Gi-Oh is a simpler form of Magic, seeing as Magic came first." Elsa replied.
"No shit?" Anna said, halting in the doorway as she found the little tidbit interesting. "Well, then I definitely need to learn how to play. Goodnight, Elsa."
"Goodnight, Anna." Elsa said for the second time that night. Anna gave her a small smile before closing the door and walking to her own room. Once inside, she stripped down to her underwear and curled up under the warmth of the thick blankets. Soon enough she was falling asleep, her last thought being on how overjoyed she was at how this day had gone.
Important Note: Hi everybody, I'm writing this little end snippet because I am faced with a dilemma. While I absolutely adore writing this story, I've found my mind wandering into the dark corners of my consciousness and returning unexpectantly with some scandalous ideas for a few Elsanna one-shots. Finding myself at a crossroads, I am turning to you (my readers) for whom I write for. If you are curious as to what happens in the next chapter (and believe me, you are) please let me know. If you are curious as to what perversions lie in the shadows of my mind (and believe me, you are) please let me know. On Wednesday I am leaving for a short trip to Puerto Rico and plan to be back by Sunday. That is when I will collect the final tally and have the winner posted as soon as possible. Until then, you all have my gratitude and my thanks.