Revised on 7/7/15

Elsa's POV

I'm going to tell him. I'm going to tell him. I'm actually going to tell him. This is happening. You know what, I don't care what he's going to say, or what his reaction will be as long as he doesn't try to do something to Anna. Oh, but still, I can't believe I'm going to tell him. What the hell is wrong with me?...Rhetorical question, don't answer that.

"Hey? You okay?" Anna's voice rang out from beside me.

We were almost to my apartment and the reality of what I was about to do was finally setting in on me. I was more stressed than I had ever been in my entire life. My breaths were shallow, my head was pounding, and my hands were clamming up.

I took several deep breaths before answering and forcing a smile, "I'm fine."

Anna was silent for a moment as she looked me over silently, concern obvious in her eyes. "You're doing the right thing you know."

"Yeah," I said in a small voice. I wasn't sure if I believed her.

"Oh!" Anna exclaimed, the suddenness of it startling me. "I forgot, I was going to give these to you." I glanced over to see a pair of headphones in her palm. "I grabbed them when I went back to get those cookies my mom made. I wanted to give them to you because I know you like listening to music and Hans broke your headphones the last time we ran into him. I meant to give them to you sooner, but I'm kind of a forgetful person as I'm sure you know."

She was fidgeting slightly as she waited for my response. I wasn't quite sure I had one though.

I was completely speechless. I didn't know what to say or how to respond to her. She was right of course; I did like listening to music. It was one of my only ways to escape from the reality that I lived in. I had told Anna just as much. I could escape through the sweet sounds and lose myself in the artist's lyrics. Deciphering some kind of meaning behind the lyrics made it even better.

When Hans and his stupid friends broke the only pair of headphones I had, it hurt more than the physical pain of my face smashing into the cold floor. And now here I was, struggling to find words to voice my gratitude to this wonderful angel of a girl that was walking beside me.

I realized that I was gaping at the headphones in her hand as I struggled to form the right words to voice the whirlwind in my head.

"I-I don't… You don't have to… I- Thank you," I managed to stutter out finally, chest clenching as I reveled in the utter adoration I had for the girl next to me.

"You're right; I don't have to give these to you," Anna conceded with a nod of her head, "But I am. It's not a problem because I've got two other pairs beside these and I don't really use them anyway." She said as I extended my hand to take them.

I ran my thumb along her palm before taking the headphones and pocketing them.

She smiled but shivered as a wind blew around from behind us. I shook my head at her, already in the process of removing my sweatshirt and pulling it over her head.

"I told you to bring a jacket, Anna."

"I didn't think I'd need one," She responded sheepishly, "But this is yours, you need it-."

I silenced her with a look, taking her hand in mine once more.

After another few minutes, we were stopped outside of my apartment. I could feel Anna's eyes on me as I stood frozen, staring at the door. She made no move to speak as I continued staring, but she raised her arm and set her hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at her and she nodded her head, assuring me that it was going to be alright.

My mind was blank, all previous thoughts gone now that we were actually there.

I let my eyes flutter shut as I sighed. I dropped my chin to my chest as I reached into my pocket for my key. Holding it in a trembling hand, I stepped forward to fit it into the lock. I paused again before slowly turning it and unlocking it. There was another short pause before I grasped the handle and pushed the door open with a shaky hand.

I entered the apartment and held the door open while Anna entered behind me. There was a glint of curiosity in her eyes as she looked around and surveyed the apartment. She was probably noting the lack of knick knacks and pictures that most places seem to have adorning the walls and countertops, I realized somewhat bitterly.

"Where the hell have you been?" My father's voice rang out from the kitchen. "You're late again. This time you're really going to get-"He stopped abruptly when he exited the kitchen to see that we were not the only ones in the room. His surprise was evident as he spoke, "Oh, hello. I'm Elsa's father. And you are?" He asked in a friendly tone with a fake smile.

My jaw clenched. In fear, in anger, I couldn't tell.

"Anna, this is my father. Father, this is my g-good friend, Anna," I had switched 'girlfriend' to 'good friend' without even thinking about what I was saying.

Damn it! You were supposed to tell him she's your girlfriend! Can't you do anything right? Anna noticed my change of word in her introduction and lightly bumped me in the side with her elbow. I bit the inside of my cheek in frustration.

"It's very nice to meet you Anna. What brings you here? Well, Elsa obviously, but you know what I mean," My father chuckled and let loose another broad smile. His deceiving nature sickened me. The lies, the fake smiles; he was nothing but a phony, a despicable human being.

"Elsa thought it would be nice for me to meet you."

"Did she now?" He said, turning his attention to me. "Well, seeing as we've met, I'm going to leave. I suggest you do the same," He said, still smiling that stupid smile. The smile didn't reach his eyes, which glared and spelled a most certain danger. He turned away from the two of us and began walking toward his room.

"Anna's my girlfriend," I blurted out. My heart jumped to my throat and I tensed almost immediately.

I said it. I said it. I told him. Oh my god what did I just do? Oh no. No, no, no, I just screwed everything up.

I held my breath as my father froze on the spot. He slowly turned to face me and I chewed on my lower lip as I awaited any type of response. I tried to glance over at Anna but my eyes wouldn't move off of the slowly rotating figure of my father. My nerves had me practically jumping out of my skin. Every single part of me was screaming to go, to take Anna and leave right then and there. But still, there I stood, frozen in place.

"What did you just say?" He asked when he had turned all the way to face us, his fake smile only slightly faded.

I gulped and took a breath before repeating myself, knowing that it was beyond too late to take it back, "Anna is my girlfriend."

I reached over to where Anna stood and took her hand in mine, as if accentuating my point with the physical contact.

My father's smile slowly slid off his face until an obviously fake look of incredulousness had replaced it. "Oh, I heard you the first time. It's just kind of…difficult trying to take in the fact that," He laughed, mockingly, "After eighteen years of knowing my daughter, and a lifetime of despising those types of unnatural relations, I find that my daughter herself is not only associated with them," He leered at Anna, "But she actually is one."

As my father laughed humorlessly again, I chanced speaking, "Father, I just-"I stopped as he raised his voice to speak over me.

"I have gone my entire life completely hating those people. Those who think being gay," He practically spat the word out, "Is acceptable. And now, I find that the person closest to me is as big of a faggot as they are."

My jaw dropped; he had some nerve.

"Person closest to you?" I scoffed, "Person closest to you, hm." I paused thoughtfully, "No. No, I think you mean 'human punching bag' closest to you," I glared at him, temper rising as I struggled to keep my voice level. "You and I have never been close, and you know that I utterly despise you." I was so angry; I was struggling to form words properly. "You-you deserve to rot in hell you bloated douche bag." I seethed and dropped Anna's hand.

My mind was clouding quickly with a building rage that I had never felt before.

Who the actual hell does he think he is?

"What the fuck did you just say to me?!" He bellowed. "How dare you speak to me that way?! What would your mother say if she heard the way you are speaking to your father?"

"What would my mother say if she knew what you do to me every night? What would my mother say if she knew that you beat me?!" I shrieked at him, losing all sense of reason. "You stopped being my father after she died; you proved then that you only ever put up with me because of her. I'm sick of your lying, your fake smiles. I'm sick of all of this shit and I'm not going to put up with it anymore! I've had to deal with you for ten years and I am done!" I had no clue where my sudden confidence had come from but I was going to use it to the best of my ability. I knew this wouldn't end well, but I'd be damned if I went down without a fight.

"She would applaud me! Your mother would be glad that I was trying to help you, to fix you! I have always, always, known that you are a lowlife, worthless piece of shit but that didn't stop me from trying to help you. I can see now that you are also a filthy, disgusting dyke and you are broken beyond repair."

I opened my mouth and closed it, words failing me, repeating the action again. I had thought something like this would happen, but I honestly hadn't expected it to hurt this much. I hadn't expected it to hurt more than the years of physical torment.

I tried to hold everything in, but was betrayed by a trembling lip as I spoke again, "I'm not asking you to accept me, I just need you to understand-"My father's previous words buried themselves in my mind like a piece of rouge shrapnel, and I could feel tears forming behind my eyes as I choked on the lump in my throat.

"But I can't understand! I can't understand how I've known you for your whole life, eighteen years, I have been here since the day you were born, and you've never shown signs of this- this condition. I do know for a fact though that there is no cure for this type of sickness."

"It's not a sickness, it's a lifestyle!" I bellowed at him, anger flaring again.

"It's a wrong and unnatural choice!" He shouted back. He stopped for a moment, apparently contemplating something. "Oh, I get it now. I'd never noticed this before because you didn't develop it until we moved here. That means this is all your fault." He growled, rounding on Anna. "This is all because of you... I'm going to fix this."

He took a step forward.

Oh, god. Anna. I completely forgot she was here.

My father stalked across the room towards Anna and I.

Anna turned her head to face me, looking both confused and terrified. My father approached her and tightened his hand into a fist. Oh, hell no.

Without thinking, I launched myself the few steps towards Anna and grabbed the arms of her jacket to pull her behind me, using my body as a crude shield. My father let his fist fly regardless, and my head shot backwards from the blow as pain blossomed through the side of my skull.

I still had my hands around Anna's forearms so I had nothing to block, deflect, or soften the hit. I stumbled backward into Anna, causing us both to fall back a couple of steps. She was gripping the fabric of my long sleeve shirt around the middle of my back to stop herself from running into the wall. My face stung and I could feel my eye starting to swell but that only added fuel to the fire that had been lit inside of me.

I was glaring at my father with my brows furrowed in fury, teeth bared. "Anna, you need to leave," I growled in a low voice.

She ducked out from behind me. "No Elsa, I can-"

"Anna, please."

"I can't just leave Elsa-"

I took as deep of a breath as I could before turning and opening the front door. "Please go; we'll talk later." I was breathing heavily, trying to suppress my building anger. I was going to explode, I could feel it.

"You're not going to see her again-"My father started in a loud angry voice.

"I'm sorry, was I talking to you?!"I screamed back at him.

"Elsa, let me-"

"Enough, Anna." I ground out.

"Elsa, please, just-"

"I SAID ENOUGH! GET OUT!" I yelled as I pushed her through the open door before slamming it in her face.

xXxXx

Anna's POV

"GET OUT!" Elsa had all but screamed at me before just shoving me through the door and closing it roughly in my face. She shut me out. No, she threw me out. I need to help her; she needs to get out of here.

I pounded on the, once again, locked door. I doubted the two inside could hear me over the sheer volume of their yelling. The words being thrown around were muffled through the door but I could tell they were heated and (obviously) very loud. Elsa had exploding in a fit of anger and was screaming even louder than her father.

After getting no acknowledgment after a few moments of knocking and pleading for her to open the door and let me help, I decided to wait for her to come out. I walked around the side of the building and waited. Sure enough, about two minutes later, there was a loud slam of the door and Elsa stalked past me.

I followed her to an empty park where she plopped down onto a bench and practically ripped her hair from its disheveled braid before hunching over her knees with her face in her hands. I came up closer to her and heard her muffled sobbing. I lowered myself onto the cold metal of the bench and lightly put a hand on her arm. In response, her head snapped over to see what had touched her. When she saw it was me and not some random creep, she didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around me in a tight embrace and bury her face in my shoulder.

I didn't say anything, but held onto Elsa until she pulled away several minutes later. I gazed up at her and brushed a finger over the blacked area around her eye.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," She said, looking into her lap. "I blew up at you when you were just trying to help me." I stayed silent, still not quite knowing what to think, but pulled her into another hug. "I've been kicked out," She said after a pause, "I'm not allowed to go back. He said he doesn't want anything to do with me anymore," She sighed. "I know it's not something to cry over; I've wanted to leave for years. I just, didn't expect it hurt this much," A teardrop streamed down her cheek and I quickly reached up to wipe it away. "I've lost both of my parents now," Elsa smiled bitterly and I pulled her into another firm embrace.

"Don't worry about where to stay, you can live with me. My parents would love to have you stay; you saw how much my mom liked you. You can stay with us as long as you need to." I brushed my fingers soothingly through her hair, which was splayed loosely around her shoulders, out of its usual braid.

Elsa gave another small sob. "You're so kind," She whispered in my ear as her arms tightened around me. "I don't deserve you or your kindness after I screamed at you like that." Her voice sounded a little raspy from being overused.

"It's in the past, don't worry," Repeating something she had said to me earlier.

Elsa pulled back and looked at me through puffy eyes. I smiled softly in what I hoped was a reassuring way, reaching forward to tuck several strands of hair behind her ears. "I do have something I need to ask you though."

"What's that?"

"I need to ask just because I don't understand," I paused, looking down and thinking over how to phrase everything I was thinking. "That day, you let Hans hit you in the face so he didn't hit me. He tried to hurt you again after that because you had helped me. You decided to come out to your father because I told you it might be a good idea, even though you probably expected a reaction like the one he had. As a result of telling him, you were kicked out of your apartment and disowned. And back there, you stepped in front of me and took a full on punch to the face just so I didn't get hit," I looked back up at Elsa.

"All true," She responded with a nod.

"But…why?"

Instead of answering, Elsa sighed, leaned over and kissed me softly.

"Don't you see?" She asked softly after we had pulled apart. "You're everything to me. I'd do anything for you."