A/N:This one is a long chapter, guys! I'm sorry if it's a bit, too long, but there just never felt to be a natural ending to things before I got there. Once again, thank you guys so much! I had never thought I'd receive so much great support for this project. This is my first time writing fiction that's not all about fighting giant steam robots, so it's really new territory to me.
I have some news, too. I have decided to switch to a two-chapter release schedule, meaning that I won't release chapters unless I have two to release. Even though it's probably not true, I feel like this is going to afford me some sort of control I wouldn't have otherwise.
Secondly, I've retconned a few things. Mainly, I realized my timeline was all wrong, so instead of there being two months before the tour leaves, it's two weeks. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. I hope you enjoy these next two chapters!
Later that evening, Elsa, the cast and the rest of the crew that were going on tour in slightly less than two months were sitting in the backroom, eating dinner. It was something they always did on the evenings of dress rehearsals, and then again a few days later on the day of the premiere. Elsa always enjoyed these dinners. They were the times when she got closest to Anna without being alone with her, which would probably be way too awkward.
It had actually happened once before, being alone with Anna, that is. Elsa had stayed late, cleaning up a bit of stuff, settling the accounts and she was also on closing duty that day. Apparently, Anna had stayed behind, too, after that night's rehearsal to practice some lines or her mimicry or something, Elsa wasn't really too sure. She wanted to know about it, she really did, but when the redhead told her about it, all Elsa could do was stare at her with a weird smile and think about how lucky she was that Anna would talk to her. It had gotten really awkward when Anna had asked her a question and all Elsa did was stare and nod, still with that weird smile. The other girl's expression had grown more and more concerned until she caressed Elsa on the cheek and asked if she was okay. Elsa flushed and stammered something akin to an acknowledgement and made up an excuse for why she needed to throw Anna out of the building before she could close up, which had taken an enormous amount of emotional strength as acting dominantly towards her crush wasn't really something that came natural to Elsa.
But these dinners were different. They were often between 12 or 15 people there, and Anna was more often than not seated among the other actors, chatting with them and sharing tricks for when they got on the stage. Elsa was rarely even close to them, so she could stare and smile at Anna all she wanted without her noticing. A few of the other members of the backstage crew were more than aware of Elsa's crush, namely the two rather large haulers, Oaken and Mark, or Marshmallow as he was called because of his incredibly soft and sweet personality. These were the two other people Elsa would dare to call her friends, even though they were nowhere near as close to her as Olaf was. Oaken had worked at the theatre for years when Elsa had started, and he had somehow acted as her mentor in how stuff was done around here. Marshmallow had started only a few months after her, immediately being hired as a hauler. Today was not much different. Elsa, Oaken and Marshmallow sat at the very end of the table, the two men discussing something while Elsa stared off to the other end, smiling as she enjoyed the view. Anna was laughing at something Hans, the male lead, had said. Elsa had had a sneaking suspicion that something was going on between the two for a quite some time now. Hans wasn't that funny, and yet Anna laughed at almost everything he said. And he touched her way too much, and not just during rehearsals. Even now, he was caressing her shoulder while he ate pizza with the other hand.
Stop touching her, you disgusting little shit. You're not a good person, you'll end up hurting her if the two of you continue this comical display of half-hearted affection. I have no doubt Anna's actually sincere about her feelings for you, but you're just out to use her in some way, I can feel it in my guts.
Elsa had apparently been mumbling some of these words out loud, and the big guys on her sides had noticed. "Don't you think I'm right, Elsa?" Oaken had asked her, referencing whatever topic the two of them had been discussing. She could see the older man was concerned about something she had said, but this was just how it always went with him and Marshmallow. Whenever they noticed something was up with their younger female friend, they quickly tried to take her mind off whatever had been on her mind and then they'd ask about it a few days later.
- "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" she asked, knowing the men knew she had no idea what the fuck they had asked her.
- "We were just discussing the latest episode of Game of Thrones, and-"
- "You know I don't watch TV, Oaken," Elsa cut off her friend, almost snapping at him.
- "You watched that Parks and Recreation show," Marshmallow countered her statement.
Because I had nothing better to do.
- "Yeah, but that was funny as shit," she said and did her best to fake a warm grin at the two bigger men. They returned to their discussion, and Elsa returned to her thoughts.
She didn't like this Hans character. He was relatively new at the theatre, and she had no idea why, but there was just something that told her he was a bad person, and she couldn't pinpoint what it was. Olaf had often told her that those kind of instincts were rarely wrong, and to her experience, Olaf had only been wrong about a handful of times in the time they'd known each other, so she trusted that he knew what he was talking about.
After the cast and crew had finished dinner, the actors and the make-up artists went off to do their thing, the band went onto the stage to prepare their instruments and do one last run-through of the intro song, and Elsa and the rest of the backstage crew got into the swing of things, preparing everything, just as they had practiced many times before.
Elsa was responsible for a couple of things. First of all, she had to make sure the costumes were hanging in the right order on the coat rack. The actors had no time to check if the new costume was the right one, they just barely had time to put it on. She considered for a few moments to hang Hans's costumes in the wrong order to screw with him, but when she thought it through, that would more likely come back to her in a bad way than it would reflect badly on Hans, so she decided against it. Second of all, she was in charge of making sure the hollowed-out watermelons were full of boiled spaghetti and fake blood so Anna could smash them and splatter the front rows in fake gore. The play was some sort of rock musical about a female axe murderess back in the 1800's by the name of Lizzie Borden. The story was pretty interesting, but Elsa had other stuff to think about at the moment. The dress rehearsal was set to start in ten minutes, and Elsa still wasn't half done with her duties.
As the first act played out, Elsa stood back and leaned against one side of the stage, making sure no one in the audience could see her, but she could see them. She'd watched most of the play before, so she wasn't really paying attention to the current scene. Anna wasn't in it anyway. She surveyed the crowd, trying to spot her dad. It took some time, but she finally saw him.
He showed up! Fuck yes! That must mean he's not entirely mad at me.
The fact that her father had showed up to this dress rehearsal showed Elsa that at least some part of her dad had to be in support of her decision, and it warmed her deeply. Maybe everything was going to be alright after all. She was going to talk to him about it tonight. They were leaving in two weeks, and Elsa wanted everything between her and her dad to be good when she left. It'd eat away at her conscience like acid otherwise, and when she came back, it would probably be even worse.
Elsa was forced out of her thoughts as Kaj, the crew manager, signaled that the watermelon scene was just about to start, and Elsa and another member of the backstage crew rushed to grab one of the hollowed-out watermelons, hurrying onto the stage in their anonymous black t-shirts and jeans, placing them on the on-stage table. A third member placed an axe on the scene, and before long, all of the backstage crew was just that again, backstage. Elsa watched in amazement as Anna laughed maniacally, smashing the watermelons with the axe, spraying the fake gore over the crowd, followed by her bending over to pick some of it and practically bathe herself in the fake blood and intestines.
Oh, god, even when she's smeared in fake blood, her ass is perfect. How does she do it?
But it was not just her body that Elsa admired, of course her red hair held a certain attraction to the shy blonde, too, but the way Anna could slip in and out of a character's personality with the same ease as when Elsa took her clothes off at night was downright amazing. Normally, Anna was the kindest, most caring person she had ever met, but Elsa had by now seen her crush take on the role of everything from evil stepmom as her first role at the theatre, heartless housewife, and now this, a criminally insane axe murderess. It was astounding, and she didn't even seem the least bit uncomfortable acting stuff like this out. As the heavy rock song that played during the murder scene died down, so did the lights, and the backstage crew once again set into motion. They had to clean the stage and the three front rows as well as set up a few new props for the second act within the next ten minutes while the crowd enjoyed the interlude. Even this part of Elsa's job was great, she thought as she cleaned up fake gore and listened to the actors laughing with Anna about how insane her eyes had been this time.
After the dress rehearsal was over, the cast and crew met on-stage for feedback. The director was very pleased with their performance, and he commended them, expecting the same performance on opening night the following Monday. After the little pow-wow, everyone started cleaning up, and about 11 PM, Elsa was ready to leave. She bed everyone a good night and walked out of the door, shooting Anna a last goofy smile as she left. She was surprised to see the redhead smile back and wave at her in a way Elsa had rarely seen her do before. It was almost as when she looked at Hans. Some sort of an affectionate glimmer in her eyes. Elsa blushed and her head began swimming with thoughts as she lightheadedly stepped out of the door and into the alley behind the theatre.
My God, what was that? Why did she smile at me like that? Did she notice me staring during dinner? I hope she did. I mean, if she did and she liked me staring, wouldn't that be how she'd react? Don't kid yourself Elsa. You don't know how people work, not even yourself, so how would you know what an appropriate reaction would be?
Elsa walked towards her bike at the bike rack, fishing for her keys in her front left pocket of her jacket. She felt a swirl of confusing, opposite emotions fill her. It was some mix of butterflies in her stomach from excitement, a tight, black knot of fear in her stomach, lightheaded expectations in her brain and a heating sensation between her legs, and even some emotions she didn't recognize. This tour was going to be both the greatest and most difficult time of her life.
At the bike rack, she couldn't find her bike. In her confusion, she looked all around her and still couldn't find it. Foot steps approached, but she didn't hear them, her head filled with thoughts of Anna and both fear and excitement about what was going to happen. A heavy hand placed itself on her shoulder and started to turn her around, but Elsa was quicker and took a step away, turning around by her own accord instead of that of the stranger. Ready to defend herself, she crouched down and put her fists up, even though she knew she'd probably be unable to do anything against her assailant.
"I'm parked right over here, your bike is in the back," her father said, smiling away.
Fuck, you scared me! Don't sneak up on me and scare me like that!
- "Oh, so that's where it is?" Elsa asked, trying to mask that her voice was shaking, both from the fear of being attacked and from the confusing mess of feelings that were still assaulting her mind.
- "Did I scare you?" he asked as they walked to the car. He opened the door for her, waiting for her to get in. "It was a great show, by the way."
- "No, you didn't, I was just a little surprised. And thanks, though I'm not doing much," Elsa said and smiled as she got into the car.
- "Don't say that," her father comforted her and placed a hand on her left shoulder when he had gotten in. "Do you think the show would go on if no one helped the actors prepare?"
- "No, of course not," Elsa said and smiled. Silence descended over the little family of two as her father set the course for home. Not long passed before she broke it, though. "Dad, we need to talk," she began and stopped him from responding by placing a finger to her lip when he started to speak. "I need you to understand that I'm not agreeing to go on this tour just to spite you. I'm not doing it because I don't like you. I'm not even doing it because I need to get away. It's just, I don't know, something I feel like I need to do. I don't want you to misunderstand."
Her father was silent for a few seconds before answering. "I understand that, and seeing as you're more or less an adult by now, it's only fair that you can choose your own path. But you also have to know that I am a bit disappointed that you're more or less letting me pay for six weeks of college that you won't even attend to."
- "I do understand that, and I promise you that I'll even pay you back if you want me to, but this is something I have to do. I'll tell you why when I come home. I just want everything to be okay between us before I leave."
- "Elsa, dear, there's nothing you could do that'd make me stop loving you. Everything will always be okay between us. I love you all the way up to the stars and back, remember?" he said with a loving grin and looked over at her. She looked back and leaned in over the gear stick to give him a kiss on the cheek and a one-arm hug. "Thanks," she said and the rest of the trip home was completed in silence, but this time, it was not an uncomfortable one.