As a reward, Anna brought Elsa to the only Norwegian restaurant in their area. She'd meant to save this moment. To watch Elsa's eyes glower in amazement as she ate forkfuls of gravlax steeped in hollandaise sauce. Fluttered her eyelids shut at the taste of lingonberry bread pudding. A warmth extended across the table and Anna caught the wonder if she really meant to savour this meal for herself. It'd taken everything to firmly decline Elsa's request for a glass of Glogg. But she calmed her down with a promise of some port when they got home. Just for old times' sake. Though she hardly knew what "old times" meant to either of them.
A text message from Hans grated her nerves further and fuelled nagging doubt that she really wasn't cut out for this job.
Hans-AHOLE (6:45pm): We need an initial reading to calibrate our observations from the afternoon assessment. You've come so far despite your poor attitude towards the matter and the higher-ups have limited tolerance for delay. Do this right once and we won't bother you. Don't fuck this up.
The old Anna would roll her eyes. Toss her phone on the couch and watch Netflix. But right now, even if she turned on the television, the only show she could find would be: Fuck up, starring Anna Sullivan - a 12-part mini series on how a privileged girl managed to screw everything up in her life.
"You're bothered by something," Elsa whispered. The melody in her voice shook Anna from her stupor and she set her phone facedown. She looked at Elsa eating Breyer's chocolate ice cream straight from a tub. Despite falling to this convenience, her legs still crossed primly like she were dining in a palace.
"No - I'm just going through next week's plan with Hans."
"I noticed," Elsa tipped the spoon to her lips, "you unlocked the wine fridge."
"Look-"
"You don't have to reward me for anything," Elsa offered, "if you'd prefer me sober for the rest of my time. I'd gladly acquiesce to your request."
An idea sprouted in her head, "It's fine actually - I-I think a glass of port wouldn't hurt. It's nearly bedtime after all. Studies have shown moderate alcohol consumption to be good for circulation and you've just had your blood drawn."
"Really?"
"Yes, in fact," Anna got up and poured Elsa a half glass of Port, "why don't you drink this in the backyard? It's a lovely night."
"Are you-"
"I'll catch up in a moment, right after I finish the plans."
Anna waited with a held breath. She couldn't hear the slide of their screen door through the pounding in her ears. All the while, the thermal scanner lay by her feet like a ticking time bomb. What would Elsa do if she caught her? Her conscience quivered with unease, like she was hurting Elsa with a mere flick of a photograph. Forever marring this beautiful, timeless Queen. Somehow transported through centuries and standing in her backyard twenty feet away. Blonde hair haloed with the last reddened kiss of the day's sunlight. Eyes tracing those mysterious flying machines drifting across the dusk sky.
Just get it over and done with.
A tilt of Elsa's head as she sipped. Eyes fluttered shut at the wine's heat rushing into her cheeks.
Anna took aim with the scanner. Just one or two readings. Elsa showed up as an orange splotch amidst the cool blue of furniture. She held down the trigger and waited for the first image to upload over wifi. Transfer complete. Anna pulled the trigger again and watched the progress bar steadily increase. Barely reaching 60% before Elsa's image flashed icy white. ERROR -459 F ERROR. All breath vented from her lungs in one massive gasp. She lowered the scanner in a shuddering mess and recoiled further when Elsa had closed the distance in a mere blink of an eye. Full height towered over her. Eyes burned livid with rage. Icy wind billowed in her face and she felt an almighty swat slap the scanner away from her hands.
"Elsa-"
"Nej!" her voice tore through the house like a hurricane.
The terrifying image of a shaking, red-faced Elsa burned into her eyeballs for a split second before their front door slammed shut. Leaving Anna alone in the house. Reality exploded in a nuclear fission. Stumbling over her footsteps as she made it onto the porch in time to see through teary eyes, the blurry image of Elsa running down the street. Her ears crammed with the stampede of her heartbeat. No, no, no. Fuck up. Fuck up. Anna clambered through the house, randomly colliding into furniture before she slammed a red button on the landline phone.
Hans called within a few seconds. Angry expletives and words she couldn't make out through the throbbing in her head. She yelled back a slew of insults until the very real noise of helicopter blades pummelled the once-still night air.
"I'm going after her!"
"No!" Hans shouted back over the phone, "You've done enough! Just let the blow team handle this - sit still and don't move an inch!"
For the first time in forever, Anna Sullivan proved she was capable of following orders without question. There was no way she could've driven in a straight line with the shaking in her hands anyway. Her face burned with shame at how easily she'd been shouted into compliance. Yet, deep within her chest she still felt that clench knowing Elsa was out there alone being chased by faceless men. Probably scared witless in a strange world without anyone to calm her down.
The more she sat in the kitchen's silence with her hamster heartbeat for company - the more her brain saw through the fog of adrenaline and played back each harrowing moment. The sudden wash of cold displayed in absurd readings on the scanner. The icy chill that bit into her bones and paralyzed her. Sheer terror. Anna took forever to rise to her feet. Legs weighted down with lead and joints creaking from sitting stock-still in awe. She swept aside the living room curtains and gawked at two helicopters hovering in the distance. Cones of white light beaming into the forest like heaven looking for its fallen angel. Right when her eyes refocused, she shuddered at her own reflection - sheet white and shaking. Clamming further when she saw the imprint of a massive snowflake in the backyard balcony door.
Clear glass stared back at her when she turned around. I must be losing my fucking mind.
Hans hadn't even bothered calling when red-and-blue beacon lights from NSA blow-team humvees came flashing down her driveway.
Hans-AHOLE (9:45pm): I got the scan - it's enough for today. Whatever the fuck you did to piss her off, DO NOT DO IT AGAIN
Anna (9:45pm): The fuck you mean? She ran off BECAUSE I scanned her. Can't you see she HATES it?
She knew he wasn't going to reply and he didn't. What she wasn't prepared for, was Elsa hogmarched into their living room by four NSA SWAT officers. Armed to the gills with automatic weapons and Kevlar Armour. Faces concealed by black balaclavas and tactical helmets. Between them stood Elsa. Blonde braid disheveled and a grimace on her face. Her handcuffed wrists had been shackled to a belt and two gloved hands held her elbows. The sheer size of their presence sucked all oxygen from the house.
"P-please," Anna croaked out.
"Ma'am," an officer announced to Elsa, "we will release you back to your escort's custody."
Elsa looked up with a glare that knifed straight through her heart. Realising for the first time she wasn't ready to handle this woman. Or any of the emotions those icy-blue eyes churned in her. An hour ago they were chatting and making jokes about the NSA and eating dessert and feeling normal. And she had to fuck it up like everything in her life. An unshackled Elsa stood before her tall and proud. Frowning. All four officers departed like ghosts in the night. Liquid dread cemented in her stomach. She tried to recall how royal subjects begged for mercy in the 19th century.
"D-did they hurt you?" Anna asked, for the second time tonight.
That hardened stare refused to let up. She shook her head. "I didn't fight them."
A tear trickled down Anna's cheek, hot with shame. She wanted so badly to crawl in a hole and die. Or hurl herself to her knees before Elsa and beg for forgiveness. Both options tore at her head until she finally whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Listen, Anna - I'm only going to say this once," Elsa softened her glare, "ever since I've reigned as Queen, nobles have plied my favour and I've never gotten good at trusting people. Even after I ended up in this place. I'm not a person who easily trusts others."
"I see."
"Until I met you."
Guilt slammed into Anna so hard that her knees buckled, sending her slumping into the couch. Elsa remained standing still. Unswayable stone pillar in a hurricane.
"Anna, you're the only person I trust. Whether or not you were deliberately manipulating my confidence, I couldn't care less. Until you pointed that thing at me."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Anna pressed her wet face into her hands. Repeating the words knowing full well her prayers wouldn't be answered.
"I don't want to hear your apologies - I've heard enough of them for a lifetime," Elsa continued, "what I really want is to know I can trust you. The brutal truth, even if you think it'll hurt me. I've been hurt enough as Queen that I think I can make do with more."
Anna looked up at her.
"Only if it comes from you."
A deep breath, laced with the scent of rain and pine needles stuck on Elsa's dress.
"Are we amenable to these terms?" Elsa asked, in a decidedly Queen-like tone. It had the effect of eliciting immediate compliance from Anna. Her mind raced with the possibility of what other things Elsa could make her do with that voice of hers.
"So tell me now - exactly what you were doing to me."
"I wasn't doing anything to you," Anna started - before she caught herself. For once, she tried to view things from Elsa's perspective. A strange object pointed directly at her. She relented. "I-I was told to take your temperature. That instrument would display a map of your body, showing which parts were cold or hot."
The tension in Elsa's shoulders lifted, "Y-you could've just told me."
"And you would've been ok with it? I mean, it does seem fairly intrusive."
"Is it any different from having one's picture taken? I didn't even see a flash go off."
"Well," Anna rubbed her forehead, "y-you didn't look like you liked it very much."
Elsa sighed, "I don't like having things pointed at me. Especially without my knowledge. I-I've went toe to toe against thousands of infantry muskets enough times to want to never face that again."
"Oh, well," Anna adjusted her hair, "we don't have to do that if you don't want to."
"But I'm assuming your superiors ordered you to."
"They proposed alternative means of obtaining your temperature if you didn't wanna get scanned-"
"Such as?"
Heat surged through Anna's face, "Um, well - they said I could, um, touch you. They just needed to know if you were hot or cold and were willing to take my word-"
"Touch," Elsa's voice rang through the living room, "you could've just touched me and you resorted to using that preposterous-looking machine?"
"Well-"
"Do it, then," Elsa plonked on the couch. Their knees bumped. Anna curled further into her guilt and shame but the Queen's gaze was relentless. Filling each void of her mind and giving her nowhere to hide. Daring her to come out and bask in the presence that is herself. Slowly, she swiveled to face Elsa. Her own bewilderment meeting that look in Elsa's eyes she couldn't pin down.
"Y-you don't mind?"
"Over having that death gun pointed at me? Definitely not."
She leaned closer. Gooseflesh broke when the faintest of Elsa's breaths grazed her neck. A stirring warmth spread to the pool in her belly. Elsa resembled a coiled spring, slightest twitch of her hand looking as though she would touch her if she brooked further delay. You can do this, you've touched other women before, haven't you?
"Come here," Anna lifted a hand. Elsa's eyes fluttered shut. Right as Anna cradled the gentle slope of Elsa's jawline, she heard a sharp inhale. A rush of warmth spread across the rapidly thinning space between them. Her hair's scent made her lightheaded. The breath caught in her throat as Elsa held her palm in place. Curling herself further into the firmness of her touch.
"How do I feel, then?" Elsa whispered. A wisp of breath that grazed her fingertips.
Each one of Anna's senses lit on fire. It took a moment to untie that held breath in her lungs. But what was a few seconds, when she'd just reached across two hundred years and knit her soul onto another woman?
"Hot," Anna whispered against Elsa's pink cheeks, "you feel really hot."
It hadn't even occurred that Elsa just spent two hours in the Maryland woods, in the middle of October. Wearing a thin nightgown.
"So do you."