Chapter twenty-four

A fast break

Elsa awoke to a most pleasant smell. She sniffed the air. Was that…pancakes?

She smiled. It had been an age since she'd detected the scent of home-cooked pancakes in the air, let alone been woken up by it. It seemed Anna was committing fully to her role.

The previous day had gone by in a blur. Though home from the hospital and through the worst of it, they'd been thoroughly exhausted. Elsa has called in stock, and the two had cuddled on the couch, alternating between TV and Kirby's Epic Yarn – another brilliant suggestion by her newly older sister. After a night bereft of nightmares, she was feeling quite recharged. Pancakes, though, that would be an even better start to the day.

Dad had once made a habit of making pancakes every Sunday morning with them, so Anna surely remembered the steps. Elsa lingered in bed, letting the aroma of the batter and syrup waft up to her and basking in the-

Wait, syrup?

She sniffed again. Yep, that was definitely syrup in the pan right alongside the batter. With alarm, she threw off her covers and leapt to her feet. Under no circumstances should she ever be smelling that.

She dashed out of the room and went down the stairs as quickly as she could manage. Before she even reached the bottom, she heard a wicked hiss from the kitchen, and the smell of cooking syrup quickly transformed into burning.

Entering the kitchen, she saw Anna standing at the oven, whisper-shouting a lengthy string of curses and frantically chiseling at a frying pan with her spatula, a pan from which dark smoke was billowing. This smoke was filling the kitchen quickly, and the fact that the smoke alarm wasn't going off suggested only that it was in need of a new battery.

On her way over, Elsa dashed to the window and cracked it open, allowing some of the smoke to exit the room. The noise caught Anna's attention, and she spun around, looking like a child who had wandered into a nuclear silo and pushed a big red button. "Elsa-"

"The extractor fan," Elsa said, pointing at the bulky unit above the stove top. Anna took a second to process what she said, then dropped the pan on an inactive burner and flipped the switch. The fan roared to life, seemingly generating more noise than suction, but still managing to slowly pull some of the smoke from the air. Next, Elsa picked up both pan and spatula and wrenched the two together. With one hefty heave, she managed to free the dried syrup encrusted pancake from the pan. Anna held out an empty plate, and Elsa deposited the blackened disc onto it.

With the crisis over, Elsa set the pan down on an inactive burner. She turned to Anna, mystified. "Why-"

"I know, I know!" Anna said despairingly. "It's the easiest dish in the world, and I fucked it up. I thought the syrup would, like, glaze it or something, and it'd be fancy."

Her eye was twitching, and she looked close to tears. Cutting into her much needed sleep hours in order to make sure she woke up first seemed to have been a destabilizingly bad idea. Elsa raised her palms and lowered her voice.

"It's okay," she said. "You just didn't know, that's all. Experimentation is the best part of cooking for yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, I've seen Delicious in Dungeon," Anna said. "I coulda just looked it up, but noo, I had to go freestyle for my first try in years."

"I stuck to cooking by the book for two years," Elsa said. "I wish I had been as bold as you."

"Well, thanks, I guess," Anna said. "But-"

"But nothing," Elsa said. "You'll know not to do that again next time, and the worst that happened is I ended up smelling burning syrup for a few seconds. No harm, no foul."

Anna's shoulders sagged. The panic faded from her body, leaving her exhausted and defeated. "It was supposed to be breakfast in bed," she lamented.

Elsa pondered this. "I could get back in bed," she offered. Anna stuck out her tongue. "First, though…would you like some help with your cooking, big sis?"

Anna was taken aback by the question. The look on Elsa's face was warm and genuine, suggesting she was acting entirely in good faith. The tension in her body slowly dissipated.

"Uh, sure…little sis," Anna said cautiously after a while. "You can help with the pancakes, thanks." She looked down at the burnt one sitting on the plate. "Uh, I call dibs on that one, though."

"And that just about wraps this meeting up," Wes said. "Elsa, if you could stay on a little longer, please?"

"Sure thing, Wes," Elsa said. Everyone else's webcams disappeared from the screen, leaving her face to face with her boss.

She wondered if he was going to mention her hand. She had no intention of hiding her bandaged palm, but she hadn't drawn attention to it either. Taking on another secret wasn't something she had the mental bandwidth for right now. That said, he was already aware that she'd called in sick the previous day, and any remotely curious boss could easily put two and two together. "What did you want to speak to me about?" she asked.

Wes fidgeted a little in his seat. "Well, you see…it's about the Hadrian job," he said.

Theory tested.

"I know I said I'd be ready to look over the report if you sent to me by today," he said uneasily. "However, I've had some things come up – a few admin meetings, a new proposal, things like that. I suppose what I'm saying is…if you have some infill work you can do in the meantime…"

"I understand," Elsa said. "As it happens, I'm not actually finished with the Hadrian report."

Wes did a double take. "Really?" he said.

"I went over it a second time, and there's a few things I caught that I'll need to iron out," Elsa said. "I believe I should have it ready by tomorrow."

"Excellent, thank you!" Wes said before catching himself. "Er, that is to say, thank you for telling me. We certainly have room in the budget, so by all means, submit it tomorrow morning, if it is finished at that point."

"Will do, Wes," Elsa said with a smile. "Talk to you later."

Wes hung up, and Elsa sighed. "Oh, Wes," she said, shaking her head. She opened up her fully completed report, and after a final once-over, she picked up her wireless mouse, put it in her pocket, and walked away from her computer.

Anna was waiting on the couch in the living room. "Oh, Elsa, help me, for I trust not my own lying ears," she said in overdramatically. "Did I hear…a fabrication? From my own sister's lips?"

"I don't like making a habit of it," Elsa said. "…Unlike him."

"Hey, no judgment," Anna said. "If he's not giving you 100%, he doesn't deserve your 110%."

"You might be right," Elsa said. She moved around the mouse against her thigh, then checked the Teams app on her phone to see that it registered her as being Online instead of Away. "Now, what was that Delicious Dungeon show you were telling me about?"

Anna broke out into a huge smile. "Oh, you're gonna love it."

They were under the same blanket, as was customary at this point. This time, though, it was Anna carefully calculating the distance between them.

Anna sat on the middle cushion, leaning back and trying to look casual. To her right, Elsa leaned forward, totally engrossed in the show. Just as Anna had predicted, she was absolutely loving it. So that was a clear W for her. Now she just had to figure out what the hell to do next. She found herself performing the same mental calculus that Elsa must have been operating under enter since she got back.

How close do I get to her? Should we be touching? How much?

Her number one priority was ensuring that they never ended up back in that hospital again, that was clear. What wasn't clear was how to achieve that while being a good big sister and moving their relationship forward. It had been this contradiction that had caused Elsa to do what she did in the first place, and the more she thought about it, the more she could sympathize.

If only we had a third relative who had her shit together, who we also coincidentally were both in love with. But no, it's either up to her or up to me, and it seems pretty clear that I'm up to bat.

Tentatively, Anna reached forward and grabbed Elsa's wrist. Elsa jumped, but seeing the smile on Anna's face, she calmed down quickly. She returned the smile and scooched back, leaning into Anna and looping an arm around her back. Anna moved her legs to the side, making room on her leg rest, and Elsa happily filled the space. Before long, they were both sitting on the same cushion.

Hey, good move there. You could say that one makes up for the absolute mess you made out of breakfast, but hey, who's counting?

She ignored the nagging voice. A victory, by any other name, was still worth celebrating. Elsa seemed receptive enough to a kiss, but Anna elected not to push her luck. Maybe she'd go for a peck on the cheek a few episodes later. Slow progress was fine by her.

Take the small, easy victories. Move forward slowly, a step at a time. We've got a good thing going here. I can afford to spend a little while in second gear.

The two of them relaxed, nestling deeper into the couch and each other. In all likelihood, they wouldn't be moving from that very spot until lunch, which they were both perfectly fine with. Elsa rubbed the mouse against her thigh, wondering if the computer could even pick the signal up from there on the couch. She didn't bother to check. If Wes said anything, she'd just tell him she was on a break.

God knew they'd earned one.