Walking on the beach with someone is usually deemed romantic. Unfortunately, this wasn't really the case for Elsa. Calypso was sharing stories from around the world; places she had gone to, historical sites that she'd seen, and what it was like going to all of those places and seeing all of those things. Elsa was deeply immersed in Calypso's stories. She'd feel a slight sinking in her gut whenever Calypso mentioned her ex-boyfriend, but then she remembered that Calypso had broken up with him and didn't love him anymore, which restored her spirits.
She stayed focusing on Calypso; maintaining eye contact whenever possible, and throwing in appropriate and thoughtful comments.
"Anyway, enough about me." Calypso decided at one point. "What about you? I want to know about you, Elsa. I want to know who you are."
"I haven't really done much or gone anywhere very exciting very much." Elsa warned her. "The first year after I became immortal, I bought a building and turned it into a shelter for homeless youth."
"That's beautiful, Elsa." Calypso replied sincerely. "What inspired you to do that?" Elsa thought for a moment.
"Knowing that people are kicked out of their homes, and have nowhere to go." She said after a moment. "I was lucky; I had someone to take me to a safe place. Not everybody has that. Mortals do not. Demigods who come to the center are sent to one of the camps as soon as possible, in order to make room for more mortals. Demigods have a place. Two, actually. Mortals may not feel safe going anywhere, so the youth center is so that they do have a place. We only let them completely leave when we are confident that they have found a good, safe, and supportive home."
"What are you going to do once you become a goddess?" Calypso asked.
"I'm figuring who I'm going to hand the place off to." Elsa explained. "We have sponsors, so it's not like money is really an issue."
"How old were you when you bought and founded this place?"
"Fourteen." Elsa admitted. "I… I had a lot of money at the time, so I just decided to do it, after some planning."
"You must have been a very wise and mature fourteen year old." Calypso commented. "I've met some fourteen year olds who are not nearly as mentally old as you were by that age."
"I'm sure you have, and I'm sorry that you've had to." Elsa smiled sympathetically. "How bad was it, knowing each time that you were going to fall in love just to get your heart broken?" The older girl grimaced. "I apologize if that crosses a line." Elsa quickly apologized.
"No; it doesn't." She assured Elsa. "I'm just trying to put it into words. Well… As I said… I held onto the foolish belief that one would eventually stay. At first, I thought that it was my fault, and that I needed to make each person love me more. But then I realized that it wasn't me that was the problem. It was the person. They needed to leave, and simply could not stay. So I stopped trying so hard. I wouldn't go out of my way to make them love me. I'd just go about it like a normal person would, but slowly fall in love. I was only bitter about it when I was alone. I mean, how could I not be? And how could I be bitter when I was in love, or falling in love?" Calypso sighed.
"You couldn't." Elsa answered her rhetorical question. "But the last time…"
"I was finally fed up. He wasn't conventionally attractive, and fell out of the sky; destroying my dining table, so it was easy to be angry and bitter." She explained. "But to no avail."
"I'm sorry." Elsa sighed.
"Don't ever apologize for that, Elsa." Calypso told her gently. "It is not, was not, and never will be your fault. So don't apologize. You're my friend whom I am recounting this to. You're listening. You care. Don't apologize for anything that isn't your fault."
"Alright." Elsa's face broke into a smile. "I'll stop apologizing for things that aren't my fault. It's… It's just something I picked up in less than good circumstances." She shrugged.
"That's unfortunate." Calypso smiled sympathetically. "Everything's better now, right?" Elsa nodded, her smile restoring itself.
"Yes; everything's good. It's much better." She assured the caramel haired girl. "Unfortunately, I do still get a whiplash from my… unfortunate past. But everything is better than it was a year ago, and I think that's what counts. Improvement."
"I'm glad that everything has improved." Calypso stopped Elsa for a second. "May I give you a congratulatory hug?"
"Yes, you may." Elsa had already told Calypso that she didn't like to be touched without warning. This was on the walk over, as a casual get-to-know-you fact in their conversation. The young queen was secretly pleased that Calypso had remembered and taken that into account. Unfortunately, a lot of people either forgot or disregarded this.
Anyway, the caramel haired girl and platinum haired girl stopped, and turned to face each other. Calypso opened her arms; hesitating. Elsa took control in the hug, and Calypso went along with it. The young queen buried her face in Calypso's shoulder, and tried to silently inhale the other girl's scent. She smelled good; a kind of floral scent that Elsa couldn't exactly place, and a slight hint of the ocean.
"Your skin is very cold." Calypso commented once they pulled away. "Is that normal for you?"
"Yes; it is." Elsa assured her. "I was born with it. My skin didn't used to be as cold as it is currently, because I'm more powerful now. Not many are used to it. When I was younger, I would try to cover my skin more in order to keep people from feeling how cold it was, and also to try to warm it up more. Needless to say; it didn't work. I never liked warmth anyway." She shrugged.
"I don't mind the cold that much." Calypso remarked. "Despite having lived on a hot island for many millennia, I actually like it, I suppose."
"Perhaps that's because it contrasts with what you were used to?" Elsa suggested. "Maybe it's because you were so unhappy on the island, that you associate heat with that?"
"That would be a logical explanation." It was Calypso's turn to shrug. "I feel fresh, like I've started anew. It feels… Nice." A smile graced her lips.
"I'm glad." Elsa smiled for the girl in front of her. "I'm happy for you, Calypso."
"Thank you, Elsa. You are perhaps the first real friend I've ever had." She informed the blonde.
"What an honor. You're a very lovely and pleasant person to be around, you know. You could be friends with anyone you wanted." Elsa was looking for Calypso's reaction to this.
"Elsa, you are the first person to reach out to me and be interested in talking to me. One girl, Piper, reached out to me before we met; apologizing for Leo, my ex-boyfriend. She told me to find her if I ever need anything, and not to be shy about asking her. Then, Piper went off to scold Leo for apparently abandoning his friends for so long."
"I know Piper." Elsa commented. "She was probably really angry with Leo, if I know her. They thought he was dead, and honored him as a hero. They mourned him for so long… I wasn't present for the mourning, except when Nico and I would come on days off. They all recently moved on… And now the wound has been re-opened, and salt has been added. Piper would usually be more warm and welcoming, but she probably needed to tell him how she felt."
"So Piper would be a good choice as a friend?" Calypso asked. Elsa nodded.
"Yes. She's very kind and helpful." She reported. "Piper has given me advice on some very important things recently. We bonded over the fact that she has also had a bad past with my mother. She, her boyfriend, and… Leo did. Khione, as Leo might have mentioned, is the reason that the two of you met."
"I don't regret meeting Leo. Dating him… Well, I'm in between on that right now." Calypso informed Elsa with a slight smile. "I just don't love him anymore. I mistook gratitude for love, once he rescued me. Before that, it was the island; my curse. But I supposed everyone must make mistakes in their love life. It's all a part of life, isn't it?" The young queen didn't know how to feel about what Calypso had said at first, but then she realized that the caramel haired girl had just said that she didn't love her ex-boyfriend, and that she had mistaken gratitude for love once she was safe from the curse. She was secretly pleased after this realization.
Elsa still didn't know if she had a chance. All she knew was that Calypso had a lot of ex-boyfriends who had abandoned her and only one who had come back for her, but whom she didn't love anymore. Was Calypso even looking to date someone? If Elsa were in her shoes, she wouldn't have been looking for love, but Calypso maybe was different. After all, they were two different people.
Since they were friends, perhaps Elsa could just ask her. It took a moment of quiet for her to summon up the courage.
"Calypso," The blonde started.
"Yes, Elsa?"
"Out of curiosity, are you taking a break from romantic relationships currently?" She chewed on the inside of her cheek, waiting for Calypso's response.
"Yes, I am." Calypso smiled sadly. "I think it would be best, considering everything that has happened lately. I just don't think that I want to have a relationship for the foreseeable future."
"That's understandable." Elsa commented, smiling and nodding. However, on the inside, her heart sank. She willed it not to break. Not yet.