Aftermath

Scene 6

Scene 6: Anna, then

She introduced him to her sister.

--

Elsa, Hans.

Hans, Elsa.

She'd had everything planned out before the "big night," as she was mentally calling it, even though that probably would have sounded dumb to a normal person-it wasn't as though she was getting married, or anything-but she knew how anxious Elsa was about meeting new people, and how she hated crowds, and so she'd brought Hans over to their house, asking Gerda if she could make something special for dinner, just for the three of them.

It was a genius plan, really: it simultaneously a) showed Hans around the house, b) introduced him to her only living family, and c) forced Elsa to come out of her room, at least for an hour.

At least, that was what she thought.

In reality, things were awkward from the start-there was something odd about the way they looked at each other when they first met, both their eyes going a little wide, and both quieter for longer than seemed normal-but then Hans introduced himself with his big, charming smile, and Elsa refrained from shaking his hand, and all seemed right with the world again.

It wasn't as if it were a new thing, anyway, for Elsa to be so stiff, and cold; still, it bothered her that even on such a momentous occasion as meeting her younger sister's first boyfriend ever for the first time,she was so standoffish, and said so little during dinner, even when gently prompted and prodded.

The only thing that even slightly piqued her sister's interest was when she brought up the fact that she was surprised that Elsa hadn't met Hans before, since he went to the same college and was only a couple years above her.

Actually, Hans admitted hearing about Elsa (because who hadn't heard of the "Ice Queen," really?) and seeing her around campus from time to time, though they'd never actually spoken-and when he said that, she thought she saw Elsa's face go a dark, angry red for a brief moment before returning to its normal pallor, and then she simply remarked that our school is huge, Anna-I didn't even know most of the people in my year, let alone his.

But that was her sister, she guessed with a sigh, and Hans reassured her, later that same evening, that I don't mind, honestly-she probably just had a bad day.

She frowned at that, and told him, irritably, that if that were true, then every day was a bad day for Elsa; but, realising how nasty that sounded, she flushed, and apologised, and was just glad that her sister hadn't heard that.

Another part of her, though, wished that Elsa had been there-and that she had heard it.