"Oh fuck Scott, I'm so sorry." Elsa shook the flames from her hands before covering her face with them once they were finally extinguished. She parted the fingers on her left hand ever so slightly, one icy blue eye blinking at Scott through the gap.
On the other side of the room Scott moved quickly, grabbing the fire extinguisher that he'd brought up to his room a couple of minutes into Elsa's training and putting out the blaze that was his bathroom door. With the flames out, he moved to inspect the damage, nothing too major – the door was blackened and charred but otherwise marginally unscathed. "It's fine, honestly it's fine." He murmured, turning back to Elsa with a bemused smile. "Eleventh times a charm, at least this time you didn't get me."
Dropping her limbs from her face Elsa folded her arms tightly across her chest, tucking her hands under her arms in a subconscious attempt to stop them from spontaneously setting anything else alight. Her cerulean gaze flitted to Scott, trailing from his dark eyes down to his chest and the shirt he was wearing. When they started this attempt at control, god knows how many hours ago, the shirt had been crisp and white – free from any sort of blemish or stain – but now it was blackened, charred and riddled with holes, which gave Elsa a sneak peek at his toned chest that the rest of Scott's shirt kept covered. Swallowing hard she offered him a meek smile in response, they'd been at this for hours and Elsa had been forced to extinguish Scott with an extinguisher far more times than she cared to admit, she was certainly no closer to having control over this thing inside of her, in fact she felt as though it were more volatile than ever.
"I am so sorry." She was exhausted; it was all over her face and showed in the way she could barely keep herself upright.
"Honestly." Scott's voice was soft as he walked towards her, stopping just shy of her, genuine concern flashing upon his handsome features. "You can't expect to get it on the first try."
"I know, and you're right. I just didn't expect it to take it out of me as much as it has. Not to mention the fact that I'm so worked up now I'm probably going to set fire to the bathroom just brushing my teeth, oh god and Shane what if she gets in my bed and I get caught off guard. She'll go up like a god damn Christmas tree." Running a hand through her hair Elsa perched herself on the end of Scott's bed, smiling when he sat down beside her.
He was about to assure her that none of those things were going to happen, but the idea of Shane and Elsa cosying up together in the night time completely disrupted his chain of thought. "Doesn't Shane have her own room?" Was all he could muster up, and he only blinked when Elsa laughed at his response.
"Yeah but I can't tell you the last time she slept in it…Anyways that's beside the point, get your mind out the gutter, I don't want to kill my best friend in my sleep Scott."
Scott nodded, in the back of his mind he was playing a pretty vivid scene of Elsa and Shane's bedtime routine but at the forefront he understood Elsa's fears – they were ones he'd experienced himself back when he first turned. "Well maybe you shouldn't go home tonight, stay here, cool off, you can head home in the morning before school starts. That way, you won't burn your house down and I can keep an eye on you."
She ignored his lame attempt at a 'heat' related joke; it would no doubt be the first of many to come. "Stay here? Like…in your room?" Elsa asked, unable to hide the disbelief that laced her tones. Scott picked up on something else, he couldn't quite put his finger on it but if he had to guess he'd say it was excitement.
"Well yeah, I mean I can sleep on the chair." He motioned to the lone chair that sat on the other side of the bed. "We don't have a spare bedroom…"
"Okay fine, but you're staying in the bed with me." Her words had come out a little more forcefully than she'd originally intended and she was met with a raised brow from Scott. "I've slept next to Shane every night for the past couple of years, I am not sacrificing a comfortable nights spooning just because I might accidently set you on fire. And since we've already discovered that you can take a good roasting I figure you'll last the night."
"Well when you put it like that…" Scott was laughing now, quietly, but laughing nonetheless. He turned his face to follow Elsa as she got up and walked to the other end of the bed, kicking off her old tattered converse before pulling back the covers and climbing underneath them. Once settled she grinned at Scott who returned the smile and moved to climb in beside her – after he too kicked off his boots.
Elsa woke at 6am sharp in a blissfully groggy state. Her blue eyes fluttered open and closed before she finally worked up the energy to keep them open for more than a few seconds. In her sleepiness she had almost forgotten where she was and so frowned when she wasn't greeted with the familiar surroundings of her own bedroom. There were no clothes strewn across the floor in this room, no hilarious photographs of her and Shane pinned haphazardly to the wall, in fact there wasn't a lot of personal items in Scott McCall's bedroom – maybe it's a boy thing, she thought before changing her mind, Oliver had all sorts of sentimental crap littering every surface in his bedroom, maybe Scott was just weird.
After some minutes deliberation she finally decided to move. Elsa had chosen to carefully slip out the bed and return home to shower and change her clothes before school, she'd explain to Scott later on why she wasn't there when his alarm woke him up. Her plan was foiled however by the alpha werewolf, whose strong arms only pulled her closer every time she moved even a fraction of an inch. The feeling of Scott's arms around her, holding her against his body, was one that Elsa Kirsch never thought she'd experience and one she most definitely wanted to experience again – despite it being a completely subconscious reflex on his behalf.
"I've got to go home." She whispered as she wriggled once more, apparently waking Scott who reluctantly let her go, murmured something completely incomprehensible and then rolled over, falling promptly back to sleep.
After pulling her shoes on, running a hand quickly through her hair and tugging on her jacket Elsa took one last look at a sleeping Scott McCall, wanting to mentally store the image in case she never got to see something so completely adorable again. She lingered at the doorway for as long as she deemed socially acceptable before moving silently down the stairs, unlocking the front door and pulling it open as quietly as possible.
"Kira, honey." The voice of Melissa McCall caused Elsa to stop dead in her tracks, one foot out the door, the other rooted firmly to the hardwood floor inside the McCall house. "I thought I'd told you, you don't have to sneak out before dawn. I'm happy for you to stay over as long as your parents are too."
Elsa didn't know whether Melissa had just got in from a shift at the hospital, or whether she was just readying herself to leave. But the longer Scott's mom's voice flitted out of the kitchen the more awkward Elsa felt. Part of her wanted to simply make a run for it; it wasn't her problem if Melissa McCall thought Kira Yukimura was rude for running out on her son at six am. If Shane was here she'd urge Elsa to leave without another word, but against the blonde's better judgement and the screaming voice of her best friend in her head, Elsa closed the front door and walked slowly to the kitchen, popping her head around the doorframe with a meek smile.
"Uh, not Kira." She announced her presence with a little wave.
Melissa, who was half way through a slice of toast, coughed at the sight of the blonde Kirsch girl – absolutely not the person she was expecting when she'd heard the front door being opened. Dark eyebrows momentarily shooting up her forehead Mrs McCall nodded. "I can see that."
"Sorry, if I woke you or anything…I just need to go and get ready before school starts."
"Tell your mom I'm still on for Tuesday night if she is." Was all Melissa replied, taking a sip of coffee from her mug and smirking into the dark liquid as Elsa ducked out of the room – Lisa Kirsch was going to lose her mind when Mel told her about this little encounter for their weekly Tuesday wine night.
By the time Elsa had crossed the street and made it safely to her own front porch, the hot pink blush which peppered her cheeks still hadn't subsided, and she was pretty sure she was having a heart attack. She wasn't sure what was more embarrassing, getting caught trying to sneak out of Scott's house and being mistaken for sunshine and light Kira Yukimura, or the fact that as of about two minutes ago Melissa McCall almost definitely thought Elsa Kirsch and her son were having sex, probably the latter if Elsa was completely honest. She gave herself a few quiet moments to calm herself down; conscious of the fact that any heightened emotion could lead to the burning down of her family home – with her family inside it – which was absolutely not something she felt like dealing with any time soon. Confident that she wasn't going to spontaneously catch fire the moment she stepped over the threshold, the petite blonde turned her key in the lock and opened the front door to her home silently as not to wake anyone.
Her silence continued as she treaded carefully up the stairs, navigating the floorboards with the finesse of a girl who had sneaked downstairs on more than one occasion, for snacks, to walk a lover to the door and to try and to catch Santa Claus in action. Needless to say Elsa Kirsch knew exactly where to place her feet in order to not make a sound. Her silence was only broken when she pushed open the door to her bedroom, and it was an involuntary one of confusion.
"Huh."
Her bed was empty, and it was clear it hadn't been slept in. Something Elsa found quite peculiar given that Shane slept in it every night regardless of whether or not Elsa herself was in it. Closing the bedroom door behind her Elsa moved towards the bathroom which adjoined her bedroom to the one Shane was supposed to use, she headed straight through to her brunette counterparts room and was once again stumped to find the room on the other side of the door completely vacant. Shane wasn't here.
For now Elsa didn't think anything of it, although it was unlikely that Shane had gotten up this early and was already out of the house starting her day, there were other explanations for the feisty brunette's whereabouts – and Elsa was willing to bet good money that Shane had spent the night at Oliver's house after all. Happy in the knowledge that rather than lying dead in a ditch somewhere, her best friend was more than likely lying in the arms of her other best friend Elsa closed both doors of the shared bathroom, pulled her t-shirt over her head and climbed into the shower. Realising now just how soot covered she'd managed to become after last night's training session as the water ran black into the bottom of the shower. Gross.
By the time she was showered, dressed and ready to face yet another day of senior year she could hear both her mother and Viktor downstairs, chattering away about Lisa's date the night before. When she entered the kitchen and joined them her mother placed a gentle kiss atop of her blonde head, and Viktor poured his niece a cup of black coffee, sliding it across the work top towards her waiting hands.
"God morgon." She greeted them both with a breezy smile after taking a tentative sip of her coffee. "Vet du var Shane är?"
Lisa and Viktor exchanged a glance at Elsa's question; they'd both simply assumed that Shane had been with Elsa the night before, that's where she could usually be found.
"No söttis, I haven't seen her since you left for school yesterday." Lisa answered, her Swedish accent just as thick today as it had been when she landed in America seventeen years ago. "I thought she was with you last night?"
"No…" Elsa mused aloud, taking another sip of coffee and debating whether or not now was the right moment to announce to her family that something very strange was happening to her. "I was at Scott McCall's house. Shane wasn't there."
At the mention of Scott McCall, Viktor Kirsch visibly straightened up, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "Vad gjorde du där?"
What were you doing there?
It wasn't the question that made Elsa feel uncomfortable, it was Viktor's tone of voice when he said it, it was accusing and suspicious and the frown that was set on his pointed features only served to further confuse the petite blonde. "Uh, studying." She replied after a moment's thought, it was technically not a lie. "Whatever it's fine, I'm sure she crashed at Oli's or something."
Lisa shook her head once more, and Elsa was certain she saw a hint of worry etch itself upon her mother's impossibly pretty face. "Oliver came here last night, wanting to know if you girls wanted to go out to a movie. You weren't answering your phones, I told him you were out."
"Oh…"
"I'm sure she's fine hjärtat, you know what our Shane is like. She is free." A reassuring smile replaced the look of concern on Lisa Kirsch's face and somehow managed to put a stop to all and any concern brewing in the pit of Elsa's stomach.
"You're probably right; I'll ask her about it at school. Which, by the way, I am totally going to be late for. "
"Your uncle will take you." It was more of an order than a suggestion, and so, beside his sister Viktor nodded, draining the last of his coffee before grabbing his keys from their home in a basket on the countertop and making his way towards the front door at a frankly alarming pace for a man wearing a floor length kimono and platform sandals. Elsa didn't exactly understand how he was going to drive in this particular attire, but had long since learnt not to question the ways of Viktor Kirsch.
"Be careful with Shane today." Viktor's words dragged Elsa from the almost trance like state she'd fallen into somewhere between their front drive and the school parking lot. Her booted feet were rested lazily up on the dashboard and her hands drummed rhythmically against her thighs in time to whatever song happened to be playing on the obscure Swedish radio station Viktor had somehow managed to tune his car into.
She was unsure whether he'd struggled to find the right words in English, and her confusion was clear in her expression and the way her head tilted ever so slightly to the side causing her blonde hair to fall across her face. "What?"
"Be careful. When you see Shane. She may not be herself." Viktor's sentences were short, concise and came out exactly as he had intended them to. The same look of suspicious concern that had flourished upon his features in the kitchen no more than twenty minutes ago was back with a vengeance and Elsa frowned at the sight of it.
"You know something don't you Vik?"
"Promise me."
"Promise you what?"
"That you'll be careful."
There was only so much of her uncle's eccentricity and love of theatrics Elsa could take before she was tipped over the edge, and she was quickly nearing that metaphorical ledge, ready to take a nosedive off of it. "I'm not promising you anything, not until you tell me what you know." Her tone was challenging, menacing almost, something that sounded entirely wrong coming out of her. "And don't you dare play the weird stoned uncle card Vik…"
Viktor sighed heavily and leant across Elsa, opening the passenger side door for her and gesturing his head for her to get out. "It is not my place, everything will be clear soon enough." Long pale limbs shoved Elsa from her seat and threw her the rucksack she'd tossed into the back when they'd climbed in. "Remember what I said pussgurka."
With that Viktor Kirsch was gone, leaving his niece stood open mouthed in the Beacon Hills High parking lot with about a million thoughts and questions whirling in her mind, the most prominent of which being: when in the hell is he going to stop calling me a god damn kiss cucumber?
A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since my last update! First of all I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has followed/favorited, I'm blown away by the support this story and Elsa is receiving! Just a short chapter here, setting us up for some exciting things to come a little later on. As usual I hope you enjoy it and if you do then please leave a review as they completely make my day! If you'd like to see any more of Elsa and her crazy shenanigans then head to my blog on tumblr (lydamartin) and go to /tagged/elsa kirsch where you'll find all my edits/headcanons etc etc. Thank you again guys! Honestly.