The Conversation

When both sets of parents came home, in the early evening, they found the triplets seated in front of the couch, watching cartoons, while the two girls had fallen asleep on the couch, Elsa holding tenderly Merida, a blanket protecting them both from the cold. It was an almost surreal picture, for both couples. For Merida's parents, it was a sigh Merida was happy with her girlfriend. For Elsa's parents, it was a sigh neither wanted to interpret. They headed straight to their room.

The two girls were left sleeping on the couch until Fergus was asked by his wife to wake them up lightly, which the giant man did with as much carefulness and application he was capable of. Elsa headed to their room to fetch a sweater before dinner, while Merida headed to the kitchen to talk to her mother.

"So, how was your day?" asked Elinor as her daughter walked in.

"Surely better then yours."

She decided to ignore the comment, and asked another question:

"Let me guess, you coordinated the tree decorations?"

A bright smile appeared on Merida's lips.

"I thought you might have missed my chaotic trees."

After making sure everything she was preparing was cooking like it should, Elinor turned to her daughter, and after a glance to the door to make sure no one was there she declared:

"Elsa's parents are gonna want to talk to her. I hope she's ready."

"She'll never be. She's terrified, she doesn't want me to know but I can feel it. All I can do is pray she won't listen to them."

Her mother gave her a sad smile, and caressed her cheek.

"No matter what happen, we'll always be behind you. The both of you."

"Thanks mum."

When Elsa walked down the stairs, Merida noticed what sweater her girlfriend had put on with a smirk. It was obviously a bit too big for her, but it also had the logo and name of a local archery club, one Merida hadn't been to since she had left. She really needed to go go back there before they went back home.

"I see you searched through my closet?"

"I'm afraid I didn't pack any soft and comfortable sweaters like this one."

Merida shook her head with a smile.

"Of course you didn't."

Seconds later, Elinor asked them to set the table, which they did with enthusiasm, and quite a bit of laughter when they started to argue on which sides the knives and forks should be. Merida just wanted to distract Elsa from her parents as much as possible, and Elsa just wanted to distract her mind from them as well.

When said parents walked down the stairs, Elsa's smiled struggled to stay up, and when Merida took her hand and led her out of the dining room, with the excuse that they needed to take care of Angus, the blond was more than glad.

This time they took the time to put on their shoes and heavy winter jackets, and Merida held onto Elsa's hand until they reached Angus.

"It's almost over, don't worry."

Elsa frowned.

"What is?"

"Your parents. Apparently they'll be leaving after-tomorrow, so just two other dinners to stand, and it's done."

Elsa thought it would help her breathe a bit better, but she was terribly wrong. It didn't. Instead, it almost made her feel sad, and she knew why. No matter how poorly they treated her, and how much of a monster they considered her, they were still her parents. She was not happy to see them, but it didn't bring her any joy either to see them leave.

"I guess your right."

She petted Angus while Merida took care of his food and water, but they stayed by the horse until Elinor called them for dinner. Then, there was no going back. As the two girls walked back inside, Elsa was taking as many controlled breaths as she could. One wrong word and she would be sent spiraling into anger, and she didn't wanted that, not in front of Merida's family. She would have to stay calm, as calm as possible.

They sat at the same seats as the previous evening, and started to eat in silent. Unfortunately for Elsa, it was with her that her parents wanted to talk tonight.

"How is Anna?" asked her mother with a calm voice.

First Elsa almost dropped her fork and she had to control herself not to run and hide in Merida's room. She took a deep breath, and answered without sarcasm, with a toneless voice:

"She's doing fine."

The conversation could have stopped there and Elsa would have been happy, but of course her father had to intervene:

"Is she still with that guy... Hans, was it?"

This time Elsa truly dropped her fork, and it loudly hit her plate. The sound echoed around the room, and she had to drink water to cool herself before answering. Has it been this long since they hadn't seen each other?

"No, they broke up almost three years ago. Now she is with Kristoff."

This was a good answer she thought, maybe a bit too shocked but she truly was shocked.

"Is he good to her?" her father than asked.

Elsa was at a lost for words. This was the most illogical conversation she'd ever had in her life. They were her parents, they were suppose to know this things, and her father was suppose to worry about who was this guy dating his youngest daughter! She wasn't suppose to be the one telling him that, that was a fact he was supposed to establish for himself!

"Yes."

She prayed any god that could hear her to put an end to this misery, to let this dinner be calm. Her plea stood unheard.

"She just entered her first year of college, didn't she?" asked her mother. "What is she doing?"

"Yes she did." And you didn't bother to come to her graduation. "She's studying theater."

"I hope she knows what she's doing." commented her father.

Elsa was boiling with anger, something Merida noticed instantly, but the blond's parents apparently didn't. How dare he, Elsa thought, how dare he make a comment about what Anna was doing with her life when he wasn't there to guide her. Neither of them were. Last year had been a trial for both sisters, because Anna couldn't decide what she wanted to do, and it had been an administrative nightmare, because Elsa was her sister, and everyone wanted to see Anna's parents. So he had no comment to make about what Anna was doing, or what she was doing. Because he hadn't been there.

"What about you Elsa, still in architecture?" asked her mother.

It took Elsa all her might, and a large glass of water, before she could answer without a trace of anger in her voice.

"Yes."

"And you Merida, what do you do?"

Elsa thought she would be glad to see her parent's attention shifting, but it horrified her to think they would be judging her girlfriend, when they had no right to.

"I'm studying to become an archery trainer."

"So you are good at that, archery?" there was no real disdain in Elsa's father's voice, but there wasn't any particular interest either.

"Yes. I was almost part of the Olympic team, actually, but I was so nervous I messed it up..."

Elsa remembered when her girlfriend had told her that story. She was impressed and a bit sad for her, but Merida wasn't. It had just been an opportunity, and it hadn't work. Instead, she had traveled in her RV, and met Elsa, so it wasn't so much a lose-win situation as the best thing that had happened to her.

To Elsa's father, it sounded like an acceptance of failure, and Elsa felt it in his answer.

"Too bad..."

"What is that suppose to mean..." she whispered through her clenched teeth, and her father heard.

"What did you say?"

That was the last twist the lock-pick needed to open the chest, a chest Elsa had kept locked and safe since they had arrived.

"I said, what is that suppose to mean! Tell me? Does that make my girlfriend a failure?"

She was not standing, not just yet, but she felt she was about to. About to stand, and hit the table with her fist, and run upstairs.

"Young lady you better watch you tone." warned her father.

"Or what? You'll cut my pocket money! I'm not a child anymore, and I'm not afraid of you anymore. You can't bully me into braking up with her like you did before, because I won't! And you don't even get to judge me, or Anna, or Merida! You weren't there for me!"

She was standing now, she had no idea how it had happened. She glared at her father, than her mother. The beast was out, let it at least finish all it had to chew.

"Neither of you were there for us growing up! You missed Anna's ceremony! Of how many birthdays are you late? So you don't get to judge Anna, or me, or my girlfriend. And yes, she's my girlfriend, and I know you hate it, but I'll keep saying it anyway!"

With that, she left the room and ran upstairs, slamming the door behind her. The dinning room fell silent, and even the triplets in the leaving room had left the TV to see what was going on. After what felt like an eternity, Merida got up and murmured:

"I'll go and check on her..."

Behind her, the two couples were stunned.

Merida walked up the stairs, and as she stood in front of her door she felt small and weak. She knew there would have been no way for her to protect her from this, but it hurt just as much. She rapped her knuckles on the door, and asked in a small voice:

"Elsa, it's me. Can I come in?"

Her heart shrank when she heard a sob coming from inside, and she decided to open the door nonetheless. The light was still out when she walked in, and she decided to let it that way. In the silver light of the moon, she found Elsa, her back to her bed, her head buried in her hands. So Merida did the most logical thing she could think of. She sat beside her girlfriend, and hugged her. Elsa just kept on crying in her arms, and all she could do was hug her closer, and whisper:

"It's over, don't worry, I'm here. It's going to be okay."

Neither of them knew how long they stood there, alone, in the dark, the only sound coming to both their ears were Elsa's sobs. Merida still felt small, but she also felt how much more smaller Elsa was, now. Emptied from all her pain, and anger, and frustration, she was just a cold bundle of tears, and Merida held her as close as physically possible, and she tried to calm her, to warm her, to comfort her. It all seemed in vain, as if from now on, Elsa would never smile again, like a flame in her had been extinguished. She kissed the blond's forehead. It was the only part of her that felt hot, boiling, like her temper had changed her temperature. Merida was about to cry herself, desperate of her inefficacy, when there was a knock on the door. It seemed Elsa hadn't heard it, as she made no move to hide. She just sat there, crying.

"Merida, it's me."

It was a welcome sound, the voice of her mother, full of care and worry.

"Come in."

It was a strange sight, for Elinor, to find her daughter rolled around her girlfriend, both girls looking so pitiful and sad.

She walked up to them, and left the tray she was carrying on the bed, before kneeling before them.

"How is she?"

"I don't know. She hasn't said anything."

It was clear from Merida's voice that she was desperately about to cry, something which never happened before. Elinor offered her a small carrying smile, and pushed away a few strand of her from her daughter's face.

"You take care of her. You father and I we'll talk to her parents."

Merida nodded. She knew this was the best thing to do now, wait for Elsa to retract out of her shell.

"I brought some cake if you're hungry, but I suppose I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Thanks mum. Good night."

Elinor walked back to the door, and closed it behind her.

"Good night."

She sighed. This was not going to be a pleasant conversation, she already knew it, but she wasn't going to let what had just happened slip.

Morning came with a shiver. It was far more colder then Elsa had remembered it being the previous night. It almost felt as if they were back in Merida's RV, during that faithful night which had followed their first date. She opened her eyes, only to find that she was alone in bed. This was weird. Usually Merida would at least wait until she was awake to go anywhere. The events of the previous evening came back to her with a force of a train-wreck, and she was almost tempted to cry again. She sat, freezing, and pressed her hands to her chest.

The door opened, and Merida walked in, a letter in hand, but she was still looking back toward the corridor.

"I'll tell her, don't worry."

She closed the door and turned around. She froze. There was her girlfriend, her eyes still red from the previous night. She looked so feeble one could almost believed she was sick. It took Merida two sets to reach her bed, and hug fiercely her girlfriend, to Elsa's surprise.

"It's okay, it's over now."

While Elsa still felt like crying, she wouldn't. Not now. Like Merida said, it was over.

When the two girls separated, Merida sat beside her. She was still in her pajamas, which showed she hadn't been awake for long.

"Your parents left last night, when it started to snow."

"What?"

Elsa seemed shock more than anything. She really thought there would be a second round to last night, some kind of revenge.

"Our parents talked, and then they signed the deal your parents had come to make, and then they left."

Elsa let out a sigh.

"Your parents must be very good diplomats to have convinced them to leave."

"I don't think they did. Apparently your parents didn't wanted to be stuck here by the snow. My mother even asked them if they wanted to stay for Christmas but they refused and they just left."

"Of course they would. One minute you think they are here to stay, and then you come home from school with a note that says 'We'll be back in a month'. That's how they've always been."

Merida took Elsa's hand and squeezed it affectionately.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'm used to it."

Merida then handed the letter still in her possession to Elsa.

"It's for you, your parents left it."

Elsa took the letter and hesitated a long moment, wondering what to do. Should she open it? It could be a hateful letter, disinheriting her. It could be a peace offering, apologizing. Either way, she had to open it, because she had no idea what else there was to do.

With slightly shaking fingers, she tear the envelop, and let its content fall out of the letter. 100$, in bills of 10, and a small letter. 'To Elsa and Anna, Merry Christmas.' Elsa let out a shaky breath which turned into a laugh Merida couldn't understand.

"Nothing as changed, then..."

Merida gave her an inquisitive look.

"This has been our Christmas present from them every year."

Elsa sighed.

"I'll give her share to Anna, and you know what? I'll use mine to buy you a gift."

Merida was about to ask why, but Elsa gave her a peck on the cheek.

"It's the least I can do after last night."

She placed everything back in the envelop, and placed it beside her on the bedside table.

"Alright, what are we doing today?"

"Well, there is a tonne of snow in the backyard..."

"I like the way this is going!"

Both girls got up from the bed and left the room hand in hand. Elsa was more than happy her holiday was finally starting.

A/N: Hi guys! So this was the ending to this short sequel! What did you thought? It probably wasn't what you were expecting. Please leave a review, tell me what you thought about it, I want to know, like, badly! As for another question you may ask yourself, no, there won't be another sequel, at least not for now. I'll never say no to a good idea, so a day may come when I feel the need to write about those two in this particular setting again. As for another MerElsa story? For now I'm on a break of sort, looking for inspiration. I don't know what I'll find, it may be a fiction or a fanfiction, I just hope I'll find something!

As always, I really want to thank all you readers who have sticken to the end, and I hope you appreciated the story through and through. Though the publication was only over four days, I would still like to give a shout-out to all of you who reviewed/followed/favourited the story. As of today we are at 51 views, without this final chapter of course. So, thanks to vinzgirl for the reviews, I'm still astonished that you took the time to review every single chapter, even in "Like Two Knotted Strings"! I don't feel like I deserve this much attention so thank you very much! Thanks to Clytemnestra13, KathyMata, askousen44 and vinzgirl who followed this story. Thanks to KathyMata who favourited on day 1, thank you so much!

I don't know when or if I'll ever hear from any of you again, if I'll ever write another story worthy of being read by so many cool people, but thank you so much you guys for sticking all the way to the end! Have a Merry Christmas!