fruipit said to elsannafervor: my god elsa you are really bad at accepting help. like, seriously. i wonder what's wrong with her? She hasn't eaten, and in all likelihood, she hasn't told any of her bandmates what's up. Isn't she friends with these people? I'm curious about the (potential? upcoming?) romance just because there is a power imbalance between the two of them. But, I also know that you can (probably ;) ) solve it ^^;
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Ohhh be careful with that phrase. "Power imbalance" implies it's concrete, like teacher/student or boss/employee. I agree that idol/superfan has a perceived imbalance, but it depends on how much credence both parties give it.

As far as being friends with the rest of SEEK... this IS Elsa. She's working with them and they are "friends", but that means different things to different people... you'll see eventually.

~ Chapter Five ~

"This... is a diner."

Anna nodded excitedly, looking back and forth between the celebrity and the mundane insides of Gerda's Diner. There was nothing unique about it, really; just an eatery full of local peoples and retro nostalgia along the walls. As she had promised, several police officers sat at the counter, sipping coffee and eating their way through meals or desserts. The jukebox was cranking out a steady stream of hits from the fifties through to the mid-eighties; Michael Jackson was cranking out "Billie Jean" at present.

After a quick glance around, she wasted no time dragging her idol to one of the back corner booths, sitting Elsa in the bench that would face her toward the wall. When Elsa looked at her questioningly, she sat herself down and leaned in.

"If you sat where I am, people could see you easier."

"Ah." Leaning back against the wall of glass blocks that rose above the back of the bench, she sighed before adding, "Thank you for your... discretion. Even though I resent being here."

Anna frowned again. "I know. But I literally couldn't make myself do anything else." They both picked up the menus, though with Anna it was more out of habit than out of need to actually read over the inside. "So... um, you took quite a few snaps of me on the car ride over."

"I did. I wanted to make sure my manager knew who I was with, and where I was."

"Yeah, it's... yeah. The world is a pretty dark place."

Elsa glanced at her, then back down at the menu. "So, what am I eating? Since you've decided I am."

"The slinger." That got no response, so she went on, "It's french fries with chili and cheese, topped with two fried eggs."

"I am NOT eating that," Elsa told her flat out. "Not even if you really do kidnap me. Try again."

"Okay... they have killer blueberry waffles. Like, fresh-made, not just Eggos." When Elsa didn't react, she pressed her luck. "Maybe... a couple pieces of bacon?"

"Fine. I'll take that; you'll order it so I don't have to speak to the waitress, and she might not recognise me. And then I am on the road when the Uber gets here. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Anna told her with a little salute. Elsa didn't laugh.

"What can I get you girls?" the waitress asked, notepad at the ready.

"Blueberry waffles, for both of us. She'll have bacon, and I'll have a fried egg. Oh, and coffee for me. E- um, Erica?"

The random alias made Elsa twitch slightly, but she said, "Grapefruit juice, if you have it."

"Think so, honey," the woman said, jotting everything down. "Back out in a jiffy."

Once they were alone again, Anna put her own menu back in the holder by the wall. She wasn't sure what else to say; this whole thing had been her idea, and Elsa was essentially there against her will. She hated herself for doing what she was doing, but she had given the singer many opportunities to turn her down, resist her, ignore her "orders" that held no real power. Yet there she was. It had to mean that Elsa knew there was some truth to her claims, and wanted to be told not to keep hurting herself by...

Not eating. There was nothing saying Elsa was truly an anorexic; maybe she just missed a few meals, due to the gruelling schedule. For now, the most important thing was to get Elsa fed. Figuring out why she didn't eat in the first place wasn't her job.

"Why are you so quiet?"

"Huh?" Her hand slipped off her face, where she had been rubbing it moments ago. "Dunno what you mean."

"Ever since you walked into that bathroom, you've been talking my ear off," Elsa accused, and Anna gulped; guilty as charged. "What changed?"

"Hey, I get that you... don't wanna be here with me. So, um, I'll just be really quiet and wait for the waffles."

"You're right. I don't want to be here with you." Seeing Anna deflate further, she looked down at her own hands folded on the tabletop. "It shouldn't take what you're doing to... to show me how bad I let things get. But honestly, I will be fine."

"Of course you will. You're Elsa, you HAVE to be!"

The blue eyes rolled up toward the ceiling. "And what does that mean? Just because I can sing doesn't mean I m different from everyone else. I can get sick, pass out from exhaustion." Smirking, she added, "Pee just like you pee."

"Well... that's not what I meant, but... yeah, it's true, I guess."

"It's a blow to my pride, but I suppose I should thank you for doing this. Not that I owe you any explanation, but I would think my manager or one of the other girls would have tried harder. They point out to me that I need to eat, and I ignore them, and they leave it alone."

Elsa stared down into the water glass that she hadn't bothered to touch since it arrived. Anna didn't push, allowing her to find her own words. "I just... please don't think I have an eating disorder. That's not the problem; it's stress. Sometimes, I get so caught up pushing myself, working out and touring and practicing, rehearsals and wardrobe changes, and press conferences - and that's without the actual shows themselves. I forget to eat, or I convince myself that I can skip that meal, or... CAN'T eat when I try, it just goes down feeling like a lead weight in my stomach and I don't want to finish. It's not about the eating itself, but it ends up falling by the wayside. If that makes any sense."

Anna dipped her head, feeling silly for making any assumptions now. "Yeah, it makes sense. I know you have a lot on your plate." Then she squirmed. "Bad metaphor."

"Good metaphor," Elsa countered with a little snort of laughter. "I have so many tasks on my plate there's no room for food. Stupid of me."

"Well, then!" Anna said with a satisfied smile, sitting back and folding her arms over her chest. "You're welcome. I'll just mark this down as my good deed for the day."

"You do a good deed every day?"

Anna's posture slackened slightly. "N-no, not really. I was kidding."

"Oh," Elsa said quietly - and Anna saw something remarkable happen. She had been blushing off and on ever since she first bumped into Elsa; it was unavoidable. However, she didn't expect to see her pop idol do the same. Sure, the pinkening of her cheeks was very slight compared with the huge red tomatoes growing on her own, but it threw her for a loop completely.

"Sorry," she found herself whispering.

"What? No, you don't need to be sorry. You just... almost seem like the sort of person who really would find something nice to do for someone every single day of the week."

There went the tomatoes again. "I d-do? W-well, I'm- th-that is, I do try, of course, all the time, if I can, and it won't kill me or anything, b-but I don't always find something, and... and I'm rambling again."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." They both laughed... and the tension that had been lingering there ever since Anna first started questioning her fatigue seemed to lessen significantly.

Not long after, the waffles came, and they dug in. Anna did peek at Elsa once in a while, to make sure she was eating, and she was; no need to babysit her. She even drank the grapefruit juice, which made Anna cringe to think of such a pungent glass of pure sourness, but at least she'd be getting a good dose of vitamins.

"These really are quite good," Elsa conceded when they were about halfway through.

"Yeah? I m-mean, yeah, I know. This place looks like a dump, but they know what they're doing in the kitchen."

Nodding her agreement, the pop star laid her fork and knife down and sighed. "I can't eat another bite. Thank you, though."

"You sure? That's..." But she cut herself off, holding up a hand. "Nope. Not gonna do that, I'm not your mother."

"Thank God you aren't; I just met you, I'd rather not think of you as dead."

Anna froze completely. "Oh, I... yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No need to apologise. She's been gone for some time now. And stop being so nice to me about everything, it's... grating."

"Grating? Fine, then - I think you smell and your hat looks dumb. Is that better?" When Elsa only blinked, she melted immediately. "You smell really good. I didn't mean it."

"But the hat does look dumb?" Anna squirmed, and Elsa sat back in surprise. "You insulted me. You actually insulted my clothing choice."

Shoulders hunching up toward her ears, she whispered, "It was a lie! I mean, it's not the greatest hat ever, but it's f-fine, you look killer!"

Rolling her eyes, Elsa reached for her water glass. "And here I thought we were making progress. Fine, insult me by not insulting me."

"However..." That easily, she had the star's attention. "If you were trying to go incognito, why didn't you just pull up the hood on the hoodie? Would hide your hair a lot better."

"The hood... on..." Against all odds, Elsa facepalmed, right there in front of one of her biggest fans. "Wow. I honestly never thought of that. The damn hood. Why didn't I think of it myself?"

"Because your brain's too full of octaves and dance moves. We all have our strengths."

"And yours is rescuing celebrities from themselves. Interesting." Noticing that Anna had finished her own waffles already, she pushed her plate across the table. "Would you like the rest?"

Instantly, Anna's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh... oh n-no, I couldn't - they're yours, I d-don't want to take them from you."

A few seconds passed in silence. Then Elsa asked in a deadpan, "You're nervous because I ate off them. Elsa's precious waffles."

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are. Look how you're turning purple!"

Frowning, Anna folded her arms as she turned steadily more and more purple. "Am not that, either! I mean, that's not- I didn't- SHUSH!"

"There we go; now you're shushing me! Much better." An alert noise filled the air. Pulling her phone out of her hoodie pocket, Elsa glanced at the screen, then put it back as she rummaged in another pocket, withdrawing a cute little white wallet. "That's my Uber, which is outside, so I'm afraid our little brunch is over. Do whatever you want with the waffles; bronze them for all I care."

"Oh," Anna sighed in mingling relief and disappointment. "Well, this has been... nevermind, I don't have any words for how it's been."

"It's been something." She tossed a twenty onto the table as she pushed to stand up, stretching her arms. "And... I do feel better with a proper meal in me. Thank you."

"My pleasure. Seriously."

But Elsa wasn't quite done. Her lips had pursed, and she then reached in to get her phone again. "Scoot in a little." Anna did, though she looked quite confused. "This will only take a second."

Then, to her complete and full astonishment, she sat down next to her, leaned in, and took a quick selfie. Anna only caught a glimpse of the result, but she could see a nigh-professional smile on Elsa's face, and a frazzled, blushing look on her own before the phone was gone again.

"For posterity. It was nice to meet you, um... what was it again?"

"Anna," she breathed softly. She honestly had no idea if she had told her before or not.

The pinkish lips - ones that she had fantasized about kissing more times than she would ever admit, even to Kristoff - smiled gently. "Anna. Take as good a care of yourself as you did of me today, alright?"

"O-oh... y-yeah, alright, I will. B-bye."

And without further ado, Elsa walked out of her life. Then again, that's what Anna had thought the last time she got on the tour bus. Before she could do anything else, she pulled out her own cheap Android phone, pointed it at the two plates of waffles, and took a Snapchat to send to Kristoff. Across the top of it was a brief message:

U'll never believe who I just 8 with at Gerda's

~ To Be Continued ~