Prompt: Bounty
She wasn't sure why she kept taking these jobs. Sure, they had paid extremely well, enough for her to live comfortably for the majority of her life, but they were slowly growing to also be the most repetitive jobs of her career. Elsa leaned against the wall, staring balefully down at the captive whistling at her feet.
The redheaded woman, girl really, continued to sit there, hands shackled together for the fifth time in thirteen months, as if she was without a care in the world. Elsa thought back, wondering why in the hell she had thought it was a good idea to take that first job.
-x-x-
"Hey there, frosty!" Elsa winced at the nickname, as she approached the proprietor of the bar.
"Hello, Jones." She replied softly, settling herself onto the barstool closest to the door, surreptitiously checking the exits. "Any new jobs come in this week?"
"You've been hurting for a job haven't 'cha?" Jones continued polishing the glasses, oblivious to the exasperated look Elsa was giving him. "Yeah, a couple new ones came in. There's one in particular that might interest you."
"Oh?" Elsa carelessly flipped a few coins between her fingers as Jones set down a whiskey, prepared neat, in front of her. "What's it entail?"
"Sheriff's office don't want to deal with a rather elusive cat burglar. Word 'round town is she weasels her way into men's hearts and makes off with their wives' jewelry. They refuse to elaborate though."
Elsa nursed her drink. "Sounds simple enough, what's the take?"
"Fifty thousand silvers." Sputtering, Elsa coughed into her glass as Jones pounded away at her back.
"Fifty thousand?! That's nearly two years worth of salary! What's the catch?"
"Girl is a pain in the ass to catch. Her name's Anna. Well, that's all anyone calls her, no one knows her last name."
"Oh yeah? What makes it so difficult?" Elsa raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Who could possibly want to pass up a fifty thousand silver reward. That was enough to set a person up for a better part of two years!
"Not sure, maybe not many people want to get involved with the socialites funding the pool I suppose? No respect in that kind of job." Jones shrugged, going back to polishing the glasses. "You interested?"
Elsa tapped the glass against the table, thinking. Fifty thousand was a lot of money, one part of her whispered. No one taking the job was definitely a giant warning against it, another part reasoned. Making up her mind, Elsa tossed back the dregs of her drink.
"Sign me up."
-x-x-
After the better part of two months and change of tracking down the elusive cat burglar, Elsa stood triumphant over the slippery thief, cuffing her to the the back of the wagon. Elsa had lost all hope of catching Anna until suddenly a trail of obscure clues began to put themselves together. Seizing onto the slight ray of hope, Elsa had redoubled her efforts, determined to cash in that bounty.
"You know, I never really stole anything." The girl grinned slyly up at her as Elsa secured the horses to make their way back to the city, "I just asked real nicely and they pulled out their valuables and showered me with luxuries."
"Right. Of course they did. Let me guess, you probably had some sort of sharp implement in hand while asking?" Elsa deadpanned as she hopped into her seat.
"Well, to be honest, I'm sure they wanted more than whatever I was offering them." Anna batted her eyelashes at the back of Elsa's head, pouting when she realized the bounty hunter wasn't paying her any attention. "But seriously, I didn't ever really steal anything. I just asked and they handed it over."
"Mhmmm…" Elsa took the reins in her hand, giving them a sharp crack, the horses slowly beginning to plod down the road back to the city.
"Well… We're pretty far from the city aren't we?" Anna remarked casually. "I reckon we've got a few days to ourselves all cozy in this wagon."
Elsa turned to shoot the girl a withering look, but found her jaw dropping. The girl was sitting comfortably against the back of her seat, free of her cuffs. Anna looked up at her grinning, her sea-green eyes sparkling with pride. Wiggling her fingers, she simply stated, "Magic touch, I suppose."
"Ho- How-" Finding herself lost for words, Elsa suddenly realized her fifty thousand silver pieces was about to slip out of her grasp. As if sensing her thoughts, Anna raised her hands in mollify the blonde.
"Calm down, I'll let you turn me in, and you can collect your how ever many thousand silver pieces."
"What?" The confusion in Elsa's icy-blue eyes was quickly replaced by suspicion. "And why would you do that."
"It's boring being on the run, besides I feel bad for leading you around on a wild goose chase."
"Huh?" The confusion returned.
"Well let's just say, I got a real kick at you going around on a wild goose chase for two weeks and felt really bad afterwards."
"So… All those clues..." The cogs in Elsa's brain turned furiously.
"Yup! Just me messing with you." Anna was lying on the wagon floor now, eyeing her innocently. "To your credit though, you were super tenacious and you had almost actually caught me a few times!"
Burying her face in her hands, Elsa released a silent scream of annoyance. Two entire weeks wasted from her life. She was beginning to see why no one else had wanted to take this job.
"But it was nice." Elsa turned to snap at the redhead, words dying in her throat as Anna continued speaking, "Being chased after."
"An odd thing to want." Elsa choked out, restraining herself.
"Being on the lam gets lonely, you know." Anna kicked her legs into the air, scooting back up against Elsa's seat again. "And yes, I've heard it all before, wouldn't need to go on the lam if I didn't resort to a life of crime, blah blah blah. Yeesh."
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Elsa muttered, rubbing her temples as a migraine began to build up.
"You can handcuff yourself to me if you don't believe that I'll stay behind." Anna replied, a sudden softness to her voice. "Honestly, I just took them off since I dislike the feeling of the steel against my skin, but hey, we all gotta make our concessions."
Defeated, Elsa shook her head. "Cuffing you to me isn't going to help if you can just slip right on out of them."
"You've got a point there." Anna tapped a finger to her chin, deep in thought. Turning, the redhead leaned up against the blonde, setting her chin on Elsa's shoulder, speaking breathily into Elsa's ear. "But maybe, I'll get used to your warmth and be that much more inclined to stay."
Elsa felt the tips of her ears grow hot as blood rushed to them. Anna giggled and slid back down to a sitting position in the wagon. Silence descended upon them, for which Elsa was grateful. Every now and then she would turn back to see if the redhead had absconded, only to see her napping, using a spare piece of cloth as a blanket to protect her from the chilly autumn air.
As the night grew longer Elsa began to feel a modicum of pity. Pulling the blanket out of its compartment, she draped it over the girl. Anna couldn't have been a day over sixteen, and here she was, already securing herself a bounty that could pay the livelihood of multiple families, Elsa thought to herself.
Anna's earlier actions rose unbidden to the surface of her mind. Frowning, Elsa reflected on them, the ease with which Anna had flirted with her. Almost as if it was something she was intimately familiar with.
"No." Elsa muttered to herself. "It couldn't be… Could it?"
She turned back to observe the peacefully sleeping girl in the backseat. One of Anna's legs had slipped out from under the covers, kicking against the breeze. Elsa reached over to adjust the blanket, pushing the thoughts out of her mind. Turning back to observe the empty road, Elsa missed the small smile that flickered across Anna's face at her action.
-x-x-
"Well, here's your reward, Ms. Everest." The man drawled on, passing her an accounting slip for the local bank. "Your reward has been recorded at this establishment and will be available for you to do as you wish."
"Transfer ninety-percent of it to this account." Elsa replied, passing her own checkbook to the teller.
Anna sat in a chair opposite the pair, looking bored in her cuffs, flanked by two imposing officers of the law. Satisfied that the transaction had been validated to her satisfaction, Elsa stood up, prompting the other parties to do the same.
"Well it has been a pleasure gentlemen." Elsa replied, shaking the hand of the sheriff. "Try not to be too rough on her."
"We make no promises, Everest." The sheriff replied, glaring at the redhead, who was whistling innocently. "This one has been a pain for all of us at the station. Thanks for taking care of her I suppose, none of my officers were competent enough to even get close to nabbing her."
"Like I said, a pleasure." Elsa made her way over to the door as the sheriff called out to her.
"Everest!"
She turned back, eyebrow raised.
"If you're ever looking for a bit more… Honest work, feel free to join us down at the station."
"I'll keep that in consideration." Raising a hand in farewell, Elsa made her way out, stretching. It had been a long while since she had partaken in a nice stiff drink, and she was sure Jones would oblige her.
-x-x-
"She did WHAT now?" Elsa stared at the sheepish deputy who was sitting before her.
"She uh… Escaped from our maximum security cell." At least the deputy had the grace to look down at the table instead of directly into Elsa's eyes.
"How the hell did she manage to do that?!"
"We're still not really quite sure..." The deputy mumbled. "None of the guards will tell us anything."
"So why are you coming to me?" Elsa leaned back in her chair, glaring at the deputy who was interrupting her lunch.
"We wanted to hire you directly to catch her again."
"No way." Elsa flatly replied, returning to the busy task of devouring her succulent chicken breast.
"We'll pay you double."
Elsa froze at that. "Double?"
"Double."
"Who's bankrolling this. No way does the sheriff's office have the funds to cover this reward." Elsa squinted her eyes at the deputy, wondering just how dense he thought she was.
"Let's just say, this wouldn't be such a big issue if some of our uh… Sponsors, weren't affected by her recent spree again."
"She's hitting the same families?" Elsa raised an eyebrow at that. "You'd think they'd have learned their lesson the first time."
"Not quite the same… But within the same social circles. Look, I'm just a deputy, I'm not privy to why exactly they want the girl caught, but they're putting up double and we thought we'd offer it to you before we made it public. One hundred thousand pieces would set you up nicely for a good long while..."
Elsa stared at her gradually cooling meal, pushing it around with her fork. Groaning, and against her better judgment, she gave her reply. "I'll do it."
-x-x-
Elsa had nabbed Anna twice more before she resigned herself to joining the sheriff's office. The high-society folk were growing suspicious, believing that she was in cahoots with Anna due to how Elsa made it so seemingly easy to catch the sly redhead. Feeling that she was fairly set for the rest of her life, she caved and accepted a minor salary from the sheriff to work on special assignments.
Work wasn't always dull, at least she had a shiny new badge that she could show off. But she could do without the paperwork that was involved with handling cases. Sometimes it was a relief to be put on assignment to go after Anna, paperwork for those cases had been turned into a very streamlined process. In fact, she normally drafted out exactly what would happen beforehand, and only need to make minor adjustments afterwards.
Brought back to Earth by the whistle of an arriving train, Elsa sighed and looked back down at the girl sitting at her feet.
"You know. I'm going to get tired of chasing after you one day."
"I doubt it. I'm a breath of fresh air for you." Anna chirped at her, munching on the fresh apple that Elsa had handed to her shortly after catching her. "These are delicious by the way! So tart... Fresh?"
"Mmm. From the local market. I thought you might like them." Elsa rolled her eyes at their familiarity, unable to deny that she would not relish going back to the office. "You know. I never asked but-"
"It was their wives." Anna confirmed. Elsa had long since gotten used to how easily the redhead would be able to read her. "We'd get a bit frisky and they'd shower me in gifts, hoping that'd I stay and save them from their dreary husbands."
"I suspect their husbands did not take that too well." Elsa remarked, satisfied that her intuition was correct, watching out of the corner of her eye as the workers start unloaded the cargo from the train that had just grinded to a halt.
"Not in the slightest. They were rather miffed that their 'prowess' in bed was being challenged" Anna grinned toothily up at her, flecks of green apple skin decorating the corner of her mouth. Elsa leaned down to wipe away the residue, to which Anna gave a noise of thanks before returning to devour her treat. "Ah well. At least I get to look forward to meeting you!"
"What happens if I'm on a different assignment?" Elsa poked her with her boot, "What are you going to do then when they dispatch someone else to catch you? Someone better than me?"
"Well luckily, I'll probably be better than them, so I'd just wait until you were free to come track me down." Anna leapt up, rather springily for someone whose hands were cuffed, throwing her arms around Elsa. "Besides, you'd miss me."
Elsa ducked out from under Anna's arms, fighting to keep the smile off her face. "I refuse to confirm or deny your unfounded accusations."
"I suppose I'll have to settle for that." Anna laughed, a tone that was entirely pleasant to Elsa's ears. "When's the train get here to take me away?"
Elsa checked her pocket watch. "Ten minutes or so."
"Write me?" Anna batted her lashes at the blonde.
"Please, by the time I finished drafting the letter, you'd have broken out already." Elsa deadpanned.
"Leave them on your windowsill for me to find then!" Anna retorted, bouncing on her feet.
"I'll think about it." Elsa conceded. "Though… Nevermind."
"What?" Anna glanced up at her, eyes full of curiosity.
"It's nothing, just something silly." Elsa waved it off, groaning internally at the fact that she had said anything at all.
"Tellll meeeee." Anna drawled, bumping her hips against the blonde, "Or I shall just break myself out right now."
"Ugh, must you be so petulant?" Elsa shook her head in defeat. "Alright, alright. Calm down. I'll tell you."
Eyes sparkling, Anna nodded at Elsa. "Go on."
"After you serve your sentence." Elsa smirked at the crestfallen look on Anna's face.
"But it's so longggggggg." Anna whined, a look of hurt crossing her face. "You really want to condemn me to two years in that place?"
"I'm sure you'll make it entertaining for yourself." Elsa laughed as Anna scrunched up her nose and glared at her. "Besides, I'd visit you every week, twice a week even."
"If I wanted to see you more, I'd just break into your house every now and then." Anna muttered, sulking.
"Oh, so now you don't want to see me?" Savoring the feeling of truly trapping Anna for once, Elsa leered over the deflated redhead.
"Fine. I want to see you lots." Anna replied after a pause, defeated at long last.
"Well if you want to see me more, stop chasing after all those high society girls and just visit me normally." Elsa retorted.
Anna blinked, her brain quickly putting two and two together. "Hey… Wait… No… Oh my god… You-"
"I am not going to dignify whatever question you have with an answer." Elsa replied, a blush finding itself onto her face.
"Fine, fine." A smile bloomed on Anna's face. "But, really. If that was the problem you had with me, you could have just said something! I'd have stopped immediately, found some other petty crime to commit."
Elsa refused to look Anna in the eye, staring resolutely at the train still being unloaded at the platform across from them. Anna made a tutting noise, before settling for sitting and leaning against Elsa once more. "Promise you'll visit?"
Glancing back down at the girl, Elsa nodded. Anna made a face, sighing to herself. The two of them jerked their heads up as the whistle signally the arrival of Anna's train went off in the distance.
"Looks like our brave deputies will have to take custody of you now." Elsa remarked as the train pulled itself to a stop in front of them.
"Please, they wouldn't know bravery if it spat in their faces." Anna joked, fidgeting with her dress, as they watched the deputies disembark a few compartments down. "Promise, promise you'll visit?"
"Promise, promise." Elsa murmured, pulling Anna to her feet.
"I guess I'll have to settle for that." Sighing once more, the redhead dusted herself off as they made their way over.
"Ma'am." The deputy stepped off the train, pulling his hand out of the glove to offer to Elsa. "Pleasure working with you again."
"Just doing my job." Elsa replied, handing over the key to Anna's cuffs and paperwork, ignoring the sound of the whistle signalling the other train was departing soon. "Try not to coop her up too much, she's more liable to fly away if you do that."
"We'll keep that in mind ma'am. Though the warden still isn't going to be allowing his daughter to ever visit again."
Elsa flashed Anna a withering glare at that. "Oh? His daughter?"
Anna shrunk at Elsa's gaze, raising her hands in mock surrender, "Okay fine, I get it. No more dalliances."
"I'll leave her in your capable hands then deputy." She patted Anna on the head, noting the pout that sprouted across Anna's face at that. "Do try and take care of her though. I've grown rather attached."
"Yes, ma'am."
With that, Elsa watched as they marched Anna back into the compartment, cuffing her to the window. At least they were being relatively gentle, she thought to herself, satisfied that these particular deputies wouldn't mistreat the girl. She hadn't been lying before, she was growing quite fond of the outlaw.
Stepping off the platform, Elsa made her way towards the exit, noting the train across from them had finally started to chug its way out of the station. A sudden crash had her whipping around. Racing back over to the platform, Elsa noticed one deputy attempting to stand while the other two were gawking out the window of the compartment.
"She wouldn't..." Elsa breathed, racing across the platform as the other train gathered speed.
"Write me!" Anna called out, from the other train, blowing a kiss towards Elsa as the other train sped out of the station.
Dumbfounded, Elsa could only stare and admire the audacity of her little thief. Shaking her head, she felt a smile bloom on her face. Of course she wouldn't make it that easy for her. That just wouldn't be her style. Elsa made her way over to the deputies.
"Tell the sheriff that it looks like I'll need to extend the time I spend on this case" Elsa plucked the casework back from the still dazed deputy. "And wipe that look off your face, you'd think we'd all be used to her antics by now."
"Ma'am. I. How."
"I don't know, deputy. I don't know." Elsa shook her head, not bothering to suppress the smile that had fully blossomed on her face. "But damned if she doesn't make it interesting for us."