Carry On

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      We continued on like this for awhile, pretending like the kiss never happened. Although I did notice a change from the angry, broken girl I found in the gardens a few months ago.

      She was a lot happier when she was with me, more free. We had gotten closer over the past few weeks, playing hide and seek in the woods to having snowball fights. Today we were going skating.

   But, of course, I forgot my skates. So we had to go back to my cottage.

  "Wait, where are we going? This doesn't look like the way to the lake."

   "That's because it's not!" I chuckle. "I forgot my skates, so we're going to go by and get them."

   That's when snowflakes begin to fall heavily onto the already snow-covered ground. I turn around. Elsa is sitting on the ground on a bare patch of ground that is free from the snow. I look around her. The snowflakes are swirling around her, like she is causing this. But then I realize...the storm is her.

  "S-Stay away! I don't want to hurt you!" I step closer to her, anyway.

"Jack, no!" She accidentally shoots a shard of ice at me. I dodge it.

I'm scared, to be honest. But I trust her. She wouldn't hurt me. I come closer to her, putting one of her hands on my chest. She gasps.

"Jack, stop. I'll hurt you." I shake my head.

"You could never hurt me snowflake."

She blushes and the storm grows worse. I have a feeling this is her true emotions finally boiling over and coming out of her through her body.

"Elsa..." I trail off as I cup my cheeks to hers. I don't know why I'm doing this; it's my instinct leading me to this, a desire pressing me further.

She looks at me, confused and surprised. "Jack," she pauses,"please stop. You'll make it worse."

I just take it a few more steps further. I caress her cheek with my thumb with one hand, and the other hand I hold her hip and bring her closer to me. She gasps.

"Are you not...not afraid of me?"

I shake my head. "El, I could never be."

"But I'm a monster!" I open my eyes, looking into her terrified eyes. She really thinks that about herself.

It's my job to make sure she doesn't.

I lean my face closer to hers, my forehead touching hers. It feels like a spark whenever I touch her, an electrifying shock between our bodies.

It feels...exhilarating. The most right sense of feeling in the world.

"Elsa..." I close the gap as I kiss her fiercely. She draws in a sharp breath, but soon relaxes against me.

The storm dies down, but I continue to kiss her fiercely. She kisses me back with hunger and passion.

We pause, holding each other and looking at the disaster around us.

"I could've hurt you."

"You wouldn't."

"But I can't control it!"

"It seems you just did. It died down, didn't it?"

She looks down, mumbling something I can't understand.

"What was that?"

"You helped me with that." I chuckle at her words.

"Can I 'help' you again?" She bites her lip. I don't wait for her to answer; I do it anyway.

She pulls away, shaking her head. "I can't."

"Oh."

"You know we can't, Jack."

"Why not?" I say in frustration.

"Let's just go to your house, okay?" I nod, walking ahead of her.

We get there after about ten minutes of walking in awkward silence.

Elsa looks around at my small cottage. "I know it's not much, but we get by."

"We?"

"My mom, my sister, and I."

"Oh. Where's your dad?"

I look at her and the sad look in my eyes give it away.

"Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's fine. Nothing you can do about a dead man." I simply say, shrugging my shoulders.

"I lost my parents, too." She looks down.

I look up, shocked. She lost both of them? I come closer and rub her back comfortingly. "Elsa, I'm so sorry."

I wrap my arms around her, holding her. I put my chin on her head.

That's when my sister opens the door, catching us. We quickly jump away from each other.

"I KNEW IT! MOM, JACK HAS A GIRLFRIEND!" Emma runs back into the house.

Elsa laughs. "Sister?"

"Yup. Her name is Emma." I laugh.

"She looks just like you."

"Maybe that's where she gets her good looks from." I wink at her, and she laughs.

"Shall we go in? I'm freezing my flakes off out here." She laughs.

"It doesn't really bother me."

"So that's why you were wearing shorts and a tank top when we first met." She nods.

I follow her inside as she looks around. There is the kitchen, where we cut up mainly vegetables for soup since we can't afford meat and it's too cold to find any animals in this weather. Then there is a small wooden square table with four wooden chairs. I show her the fireplace, which she backs away from.

"Too hot." She shakes her head.

I lean closer for her, whispering in her ear. "I'll say." I say boldly. She flinches.

Maybe I shouldn't have flirted with her like that.

I show her Mom and Em's room, then mine.

"Sorry, it's a little messy."

"Hey, at least you clean your room. My sister never used to." She laughs.

"I didn't know you had a sister."

"Yeah. She's a year older than your sister."

"Aw. Okay."

We sit down on the bed, talking, when Emma comes into the room, grinning. Oh, no.

"How long have you been courting Jack?"

Elsa's eyes widen. "Courting? Where'd you hear that?"

"You must be! Jack talks about you all the time!" Elsa looks at me, but I look down in embarrassment.

"Well, I'm glad he does." Elsa says simply. What does that mean? Does she not like me like I like her?

Emma talks with Elsa for awhile. I leave after I hear the word "corsets."

"I see Emma and Elsa are hitting it off." Mom laughs. She passes me the knife to cut the carrots.

"I think Emma likes her more than me." I laugh.

"Oh, I don't know, hon. I can tell you like her a lot." I roll my eyes as Mom laughs.

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