All mistakes are mine, I don't own Frozen.
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Anna was waiting for a punch line that never came. Elsa was still hovering by the door, glancing nervously at Anna.
"That wasn't funny."
"It wasn't a joke." Elsa replied in a heartbeat.
Anna's smile fell and her expression became conflicted. Thousand questions were hanging inside her head but only one managed to get out. "Why?"
Elsa bit her lip, "It's personal matter. I hope you understand."
Anna frowned, "of course I don't. Was it something I did? I swear that I will replace your emergency chocolate stash so-"
"So it was you?!" Elsa's voice turned high pitched. All chocolates inside her secret stash were her favorites and hard to come by. She felt a headache coming in. "Nevermind, it's late. You need to rest or finish your dungeon level." Elsa made a move to slid out from the car but Anna's hand caught Elsa's sleeve.
"Are you serious?" Anna's teal eyes glazed with an unspoken plea.
Elsa seemed to contemplate for a moment. Gently, the blonde secretary released Anna's hold from her sleeve. "Good night, Anna."
Once Elsa was out from the car, she gave a cue to Mr. Marshall to drive off immediately.
Anna's mind was still whirling, wondering.
What was wrong with Elsa?
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Anna was thinking about Elsa's words during the ride. Even once they reached her residence, Anna couldn't bear to continue playing any games. Her mind always drifted to Elsa's voice, telling her about resignation.
Her cheek hurt. She kept pinching it in order to wake up because tonight must have been a dream. Elsa Frost was the only constant variable in her life. She thought Elsa would be by her side forever.
Perhaps forever was pushing it too much but Anna really couldn't imagine living her day without Elsa.
Morning came and Anna hadn't gotten any sleep at all. Her bloodshot eyes were staring intently at her phone, waiting a certain honking tone to play.
When it rang, Anna picked it up immediately.
"Good morning, Anna." Elsa's voice greeted from the other side. It was her usual voice, there wasn't any sign or hint related about the I-want-to-quit-my-job topic from last night. Anna had hoped that it was really a dream or maybe Elsa had an error judgement like glitch in a game. Despite that unlike a game, Elsa never do any error. Dread came back in full throttle into Anna's mind.
"Your schedule for today," Elsa's voice continued.
Anna couldn't hold it anymore, "I will raise your salary 200, no 300 percents!" The young CEO said frantically. "I will even throw you benefits there,"
There was a second quiet before Elsa replying, "It's not about money, Anna. I told you, it's personal matter."
The young redhead was pulling her hair in frustration, "you have to be more specific so I can make you un-resign. Is that a word? Look, Elsa I have been up all night thinking where did I do wrong that you suddenly want to quit."
The silence sank in, Elsa's voice shifted into much softer tone. "Did you sleep at all?"
"Of course not! I didn't even finish the dungeon level! My guild will demote me and they will coup d'état me for new chief!"
"I'm going up." Elsa said with final tone.
"Give me at least 10 minutes!" Anna went into panic once she heard Elsa's clicked heels going up to her room.
"10 minutes and I'm going in." Elsa agreed.
Anna jumped up from her bed, this time her blanket didn't eat her but her pinky toe had collided dramatically with the night stand. She was cursing out loud which of course was overheard by the blond secretary who was standing by her bedroom door.
"Are you sure you can manage?"
"Yes! Don't think our conversation is finished. I haven't accepted your resignation yet!"
"But, Anna-"
"No but! Who dropped the soap all over the bathroom door?!" Anna muttered again and she knew the perpetrator had been herself who had spent the night creating a mess all over the house.
It took her 12 minutes which meant that Elsa had stepped into her room once Anna finished her morning shower. The blonde secretary was moving around cleaning Anna's room, putting back things to its place since the room looked like it had been exploded from inside out.
Elsa was arranging Anna's Star-Wars collection figures back to the shelves when the young CEO emerged from shower. She didn't surprise at all to see Elsa in her room and moreover do the cleaning.
"Put that down, Secretary Frost. I'm much capable to clean my own mess." Anna told her off, still cladding in her maroon bathrobe.
Elsa walked into Anna's wardrobe, disappearing for a moment before stepping out with a pair of short-sleeve dark-green hoodie and black slacks , "were you having a blast of party or what?"
"Do you really need to ask? Really?!" Anna untied her bathrobe on the spot, took it off. She strode toward Elsa with 3 long strides wearing only her underwear. The redhead casually snatched the clothes from Elsa who seemed a bit taken of guard at the moment.
The young CEO swiftly donned in her clothes, she glanced sideways noticing Elsa had slipped outside quietly.
"There is an interview with gamezone magazine after lunch. You also need to send the result of first batch test-run." Elsa said, scrolling down her blue tablet while they were climbing down the stairs.
Meanwhile Anna was staring at Elsa with serious look. Her arms folded in front of her chest, occasionally she would strain her neck to get a better look on Elsa's face who was looking down to her journal.
"Eyes to the front, Anna." Elsa softly reminded her boss since the redhead almost stumbled again on her steps.
"You know that I haven't figured out the reason behind your desire to quit, right? I mean, we are in good place now. The company is doing well, the players like us, and I still can't function without you."
Elsa kept walking on Anna's pace. "It's personal."
The redhead rolled her eyes, "can you be more vague than that? The thought someone else handle the work other than you…"
"You will manage." Elsa replied, this time her steps were quicker to get ahead and open the door for the frustrated girl.
Anna didn't touch her sandwich. Elsa had a feeling that her boss was in strike due to the conversation from last night. She didn't even play with the portable console. The young CEO was simply staring quietly outside the window during the ride. Anna didn't do quiet, therefore Elsa was a little bit worried.
However the blonde secretary opted to leave Anna on her own thought. The girl seemed tired and Elsa still had a lot of works to finish for today. Marshall sneaked a glance by the rearview mirror from the front seat. It seemed it wasn't only Elsa who was concerned.
She heard a soft snore as the car was about to arrive. Anna was sleeping soundly beside her. Her head lolled to the side of the window.
Elsa put down her journal, taking few seconds to observe Anna's sleeping feature. Preventing her boss's head to collide with the car window frame, Elsa gently reached for Anna's head to rest on her shoulder.
"Marshall, do keep driving." Elsa asked in a low voice. Marshall exchanged glances with Elsa through the rearview mirror before seeing the reason behind the blonde secretary's request.
"Understood, ma'am." He steered the car around from the office's direction.
Anna's eyes glared at a white envelope by her desk. The word 'resignation' was written next to Elsa's name. The redhead's glare intensified as she found the next document was about list of potential Elsa's replacement.
The redhead spun her new swivel chair in fury.
Elsa was serious about quitting her position and Anna needed to do something about it.
She got up from her seat, stepping on her electric hover board, and wheeling out of her office.
Elsa wasn't on her work station which was a great thing since the blonde would more likely chide Anna in passive-aggressive way to finish the report for today. Anna grinned while imagining Elsa's annoyed face when she found out the redhead was skipping duties.
She went to creative design department office to hunt her best friend down. Apparently she didn't need to search far as she caught him in the lobby.
"Ah, good morning, Anna." Kristoff greeted with grimace. Anna eyed on the coffee he was holding and understood his misery. It was from vending machine.
"Are you running out of coffee?"
Kristoff shrugged, "my people drink them like breathing air, we ran out yesterday and barely perform magic to pull the deadline. Speaking about deadline, is it possible to push it for a week?"
Anna felt for her best friend. He was a mess and she also heard that his team was pulling all-night work to catch up with deadline.
"I'm not handling the deadline, Elsa is."
Kristoff's face fell, his shoulder slumped by his vain effort. "Then we need magic."
Anna grinned, "I may help for your coffee disaster, but in exchange for that I need enlightement."
"Is it about the rumor of Secretary Frost's resigning request?"
"How do you know about that?"
"I'm in the office almost 24 hours a day, and that's the hottest gossip currently circling in our group chat. Wait, I'm not supposed to tell you that." Kristoff scratched his hair with nervous chuckle. "But the rumor is a good joke. No one believes that Secretary Frost will resign, she loves yo- I mean, her job so much."
Anna snorted.
His eyes widened, getting Anna's reaction. "Wait, it is true?"
"She told me last night, got her resignation letter today."
"Ouch."
"Exactly. I need your help, you are the second-best captain in my guild after Elsa. I don't want her to quit." Anna's hover board machine hummed softly as they entered Kristoff's office. Or more likely, his nest since it was a total mess with rough sketches, paper reports, coffee cans, and crumpled paper balls. Anna spotted blanket and pillow on his office couch together with a tooth brush near his work computer. The man was indeed spending nights working his ass off.
Kristoff claimed the chair behind his desk while Anna plopped down on his messy couch.
"It's getting worse every year. You need more men power." Anna commented.
"I'm not good working with people. Sven helps." Her best friend referred to the new guy who just got promoted as team leader a while ago. "So what's wrong with Secretary Frost?"
Anna slouched deeper on the couch, grunting in vexation. "I don't know!"
"There is no rule in the company to prevent someone from resigning. She is an exemplary employee." Kristoff drank the rest of his coffee with grimace, he had no choice but to pump up caffeine for the conversation to come.
"What do I do?"
"Well… think of it like a mission. The main objective is to change her mind and keep working with you. There are items and arsenals you need to gather and path you take to reach the objective goal closer."
Anna nodded, hanging on each of his words.
"There are several things for a female employee resigning from a work due to personal reason, but the most often occurring is marriage and pregnancy."
Anna's jaw dropped. "What?! No!"
Kristoff twitched up a smile, "you don't know that."
"Well, Elsa would've told me if something like that happen."
"… or perhaps she has better offer somewhere else?"
"She is not a traitor." The idea of Elsa going behind her back was as hilarious as Kristoff beating her at mario kart.
"What if she wants to take a break?"
Anna looked up, "take a break?"
"The work is crazy and sometimes that does something to people." Kristoff gestured to his PC and pile of papers.
"You're not resigning too, are you?" Anna asked with hint of panic in her tone. "Please don't."
"I love my job too much to quit on foreseeable future."
The redhead let out a relief sigh, "Elsa never takes a break."
"Never?" Kristoff frowned. "We have 14 days annual leave from company."
"She never uses it. Trust me, I've tried to give her first class ticket to enjoy Corona's cruise and she refused it every year." The redhead was slowly realizing something. "Instead she chose to go with me to the summer comic convention as Zelda last year." It was a thing that they always do every year as reference purposes.
"Uh oh." Kristoff made a sound. Even he would opt out to go with Anna to the event because of the redhead impulsive obsession to get almost entire collection fan stuffs from there. It had been exhausting his mind and body. He wondered of how Elsa had been putting up with Anna's torture.
"What?"
"You have no idea, do you?" Kristoff wanted to point out that their game always contained a gorgeous platinum blonde woman as Snow Queen and protagonist's love interest. The team had tried to pitch on idea of different character style but Anna always denied their improvisation for the particular character. Everyone in the development knew the obvious similarities of Snow Queen Character with Secretary Frost.
Anna blinked, "do you want to help or what?"
"You are hopeless, two of you."
Anna's stare turned into a glare, "Elsa is not hopeless and I'm still your boss."
Kristoff flashed a knowing smile. The redhead always got protective when it came to her secretary's reputation.
It was lunchtime when Elsa found a bouquet of chocolates on her desk. It was a box full of her favorites.
Anna was standing by her desk with a huge smile. A contrast from the display on this morning.
"I told you I'm going to replace your chocolate stash."
Elsa accepted the package. There was a huge red ribbon on the box. "Thank you. Oh, by the way did you see the list of potential candidates for my replacement?" The blonde undo the package and took out the chocolate boxes one by one to put them inside her drawer.
Anna's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Yes I did, but it's never too late for you to change your mind."
"My mind has decided." A heartbeat reply, again.
Anna pouted, "Fine! I guess I'll just find another secretary to wake me up every morning, watch me in my underwear, play as my second-hand in command guild, and share sandwiches with me."
Elsa accidentally dropped one of the box with a loud thud. The blonde dived in below her desk to retrieve it back. Once she emerged, Elsa almost bumped her head onto the desk ungracefully.
Anna was dumbfounded. It wasn't like Elsa at all to be careless suddenly.
"My replacement is meant to assist you in professional capacity only." Elsa said once she settled back safely behind her desk.
"But, aren't those things what secretary supposed to do? You have been doing it with me for 6 years after all."
Elsa opened her mouth about to counter Anna's words when the phone on her desk is ringing.
Saved by the bell they said.
Elsa picked it up immediately. "Summersoft corporation, Elsa Frost speaking."
Anna's gaze lingered for a little longer before she turned back toward her office.
It was after Elsa ended the call and unpack the whole bouquet that she found the card.
A simple blue card with snowman face and Anna's handwriting.
Please stay.
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AN: your kind reviews keep me going. Allow me to hear your thought on this one ;)