Elsa sat in the passenger seat of the car, picking at her nails, stealing a glance at her sister using the rear-vision mirror whilst trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. She watched Anna gazing absentmindedly out the window. Stray hairs had escaped the girl's messy braids and were laying gently against the smooth curve of her neck, making Elsa's fingers itch to reach out and sweep them away so that there was absolutely nothing to block her view of the lightly freckled skin.

A smile tugged at her lips and she felt her fingers relax. That'd be like taking the blue out of the sky, though. Messy just suits Anna. And so she was content to just watch the hairs be buffeted by the steady stream of wind flowing through the small gap Anna had just made by rolling the window down half an inch.

Elsa's heart skipped a beat and she tore her eyes away from the mirror when her father glanced up at it in order to determine the source of the sudden noise intruding upon the thick silence blanketing the car. She had hardly noticed the lack of conversation – it seemed to be par for the course these days when the four of them were in the same room.

Or speeding down a highway in a tiny metal shitbox. A splat against the windscreen served as a eulogy for another unfortunate insect that had tried to gamble with Newton's Third Law, and Elsa sighed. That I literally just washed two fucking hours ago.

"Can you please close that, Anna," her father ground out, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "I can't concentrate with that thumping sound of the air against the glass."

Elsa geared up for another round of the belligerence that Anna seemed to be all too fond of right now. "Concentrate on what, Dad?" She waved a limp arm around the backseat of the car. "We're not exactly engaging in stimulating conversation here." She thrust the same arm between the two front seats, almost shearing Elsa's ear off. "And this highway is completely straight and devoid of all life, because no sane person would willingly choose to live out in this backward-ass-"

"Anna," her mother warned, interrupting before the friction between her daughter and her husband – now hunched over the steering wheel and frowning heavily – ignited the flames of an unnecessary argument. "Your aunt and uncle are completely sane," she declared. Then, as if realising the unspoken insinuation of her statement, she backpedalled. "Not that there's any reason to classify them otherwise. This is a perfectly inhabitable area." She glanced out the window behind her daughter's head. "Just because there's a couple of hobby farms out here, doesn't make it 'hick town', or whatever you so tactfully called it."

Anna huffed, turning away from her mother and looking back out at the sprawling paddock they were driving past. "I called it hicksville, Mom, and I stand by that." She then cupped her hands around her mouth and did a terrible impression of The General Lee, trying to imitate what was probably supposed to be the iconic car horn from the Dukes of Hazzard.

Elsa lost it. She snorted loudly, catching Anna's cheeky grin in the side mirror, smiling goofily at the wink her sister shot her.

"Knock it off," her father ordered, not taking his eyes off the road. "I know you two seem to think the normal rules of family don't apply to you," he began, and Elsa winced, "but your Uncle is only going to turn fifty once in his lifetime, and he doesn't deserve to have it ruined by your stupid jokes about this town. Got it?"

Anna was smart enough to acquiesce, but not without a hint of stubbornness. "Yes Dad. We get it. No fun allowed."

Elsa fought hard to hide her smile this time.

"Psst."

Elsa cracked an eye open, squinting against the glare of the sun filtering through the branches of the tree she'd parked herself under not two minutes before. She'd given her uncle the requisite 'happy birthday' after walking in the door, and – ignoring her father's eyes burning into the back of her head – made a beeline for the emptiest corner of their large backyard.

"Yo nerd. What's up?" Eugene was standing over her, holding half-empty bottle of Budweiser in his left hand, and an overflowing one in his right.

Eugene? "The hell are you doing here?" she asked. "Did you come voluntarily? Or did Rapunzel threaten you with no sex for a mon-"

Her head snapped down to look at her leg, a unpleasant damp feeling creeping up her shin. A steady stream of beer foam was falling onto Elsa's jeans, and she jerked her leg away.

"Oh shit, my bad," Eugene said, yanking his right hand back, trying to minimise the damage but only succeeding in sloshing more beer onto the ground. "Just figured you could use some help from the fun brigade." He grinned, waggling his eyebrows. "These things are boring as fuck without a little social lube."

Elsa made a face at his strange choice of words, holding her hand out for the drink. He happily passed it to her, plonking himself down on the grass beside the still-foaming patch of wasted beer. "You've got the right idea," he said, almost conspiratorially. "Show up, spend thirty seconds making the bare minimum amount of small talk, then go find the most secluded corner of the garden to sleep through everything but the actual food part." He held his beer up in a 'cheers', then proceeded to down the remainder of it, letting out an impressive burp when he was done. "I could learn a thing or two from you."

Elsa chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Yeah no, you don't want to learn a goddamn thing from me," she replied. "Unless, you know, you want to fuck your entire life up with maximum precision, or whatever."

Eugene leaned closer, and Elsa eyed him warily, worried she'd been too honest. He searched her face for a few moments, before sitting back, smiling self-assuredly. "Oh I get it," he said, nodding slowly. "This is why we haven't seen you in like, fucking forever. Because you've gone and messed up with that cute little brunette thing you pulled and you've been wallowing in that nerd dungeon of yours trying to replace getting laid with getting loot?"

In a repeat of Christmas dinner, Elsa choked on her drink, the swig she'd just taken shooting out her nose and leaving a burning sensation that made her eyes water. "W-what?!" she coughed, face redder than the label on the bottle. "Fuck off, Eugene," she managed, throwing an arm out to shove his shoulder. "How the fuck did you know about Belle?"

He grinned. "Belle, huh?" He pursed his lips. "Une fille sexy," he said, with an accent so cringeworthy Elsa almost forgot to be embarrassed.

She let him know as much. "Jesus christ that was the worst French I've ever heard." Eugene pretended to look insulted. "But seriously, how the fuck did you know?"

The boy tapped his nose. "I've got my ways, cherie. A magician never reveals his secrets."

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Yeah alright, David Blaine." And before Eugene could protest at the comparison, she continued. "Speaking of filles, where's yours? She didn't greet us at the door like a good French maid should."

Her joke fell flat, Eugene preoccupied with staring intently at the label of his beer as if it held the answer to the simple question. "She's, uh…" he glanced up quickly, avoiding Elsa's eyes. "Well, she's not exactly-"

"Oh jesus," Elsa drawled. "You guys didn't break up did you? "

Eugene's eyes snapped back to hers. "What? No. No we didn't break up." He gave her an incredulous look. "Why the fuck would I be here If we'd broken up?"

Elsa shrugged, before flicking her wrist and making a whipping noise. Eugene kicked a foot out and it connected lightly with her thigh. "Get fucked," he said, light-heartedly. "Anyway, I'm not in the shit here," he continued. "You guys are."

Elsa frowned. "Who's 'you guys'?"

"You and Anna, dumbass," he clarified. "Rapunzel is pissed – and I mean pissed – at both of you."

Elsa was getting frustrated at Eugene's complete lack of explanation. "Why? What the fuck did we do?"

Eugene's eyes went wide, and he remained silent, looking suddenly anxious about something over Elsa's shoulder.

"Hey!" came a shrill voice from the middle of the yard. Elsa whipped around, peering behind the tree, and saw her cousin striding towards the secluded corner, Anna hobbling behind her and keeping pace with the irate girl quite impressively.

"You're screwed," Eugene muttered, before jumping up and waving his empty bottle in Rapunzel's direction. "Just gonna grab another beer, babe. You want a coke or something?"

But Rapunzel didn't respond, focussed solely on getting into Elsa's personal space. Elsa scrambled to her feet, using the tree as support, surprised and somewhat disgruntled at herself for being afraid of the tiny figure rapidly approaching.

"Oof!" Elsa grunted, as her back collided with the tree. Rapunzel had given her a solid shove as soon as she was within arm's length, and Elsa instinctively threw her hands up to block anything else that the smaller girl might want to unleash on her.

But her cousin went for the verbal attack next. "I can't believe you!" she screeched, throwing her hands in the air. Eugene had been right – Rapunzel was pissed.

And I still haven't the faintest fucking clue why.

"Punz-" Anna started, taking a hand off one of her crutches to place it on Rapunzel's shoulder, but it was smacked away before she could even get close.

"Don't you 'Punz' me!" Her cousin snapped, glaring at Anna. "Not even Eugene gets to call me that, and he doesn't make a habit of disappearing on me for months at a time, leaving me to find out about-" she gestured wildly to Anna's cast and crutches "about this shit four fucking days after it actually happened!" She moved to smack Anna on the shoulder, but thought better of it at the last second, probably deeming the injured girl's sense of balance dubious at best.

Elsa felt a bolt of defensiveness shoot through her. "What the fuck, Rapunzel? It's not like she could have texted you whilst doped up! They were giving her enough morphine to take down a whale."

Did…did you just compare your sister to a whale? Fuck me, you're genuinely the most autistic-

"And you!" Rapunzel spun back around to face Elsa, and the older girl suddenly wished she hadn't opened her mouth. "You fucking burst out of the closet, find yourself an eleven out of ten girlfriend, and I have to hear about that from Eugene ?!"

Seriously, how the fuck did Eugene even find out about Belle?!

"And neither of you think to call? Or text? Fuck, I would have even been happy with a Facebook status update!"

Elsa spoke without thinking. "I don't have Facebook."

Rapunzel made a very loud and very frustrated noise. "That's not the point, you faggot! The point is that I'm your cousin! We're family! And family tells each other this kind of stuff!"

Elsa slumped. Rapunzel wasn't pissed. She was hurt.

No surprises there. Congratulations. Your track record of bulldozing over everyone's feelings remains intact.

Elsa exhaled. "I'm sorry, cuz." Rapunzel seemed to deflate a little, her anger dissipating slightly. "Anna and I have just- I guess we kinda got caught up in everything that was going on. We didn't mean to make you feel shitty."

Rapunzel's voice faltered as she responded to Elsa's apology. "Well, you did," she said, but her tone held no malice. She eyed them carefully. "I thought maybe you guys didn't wanna talk to me because…well, 'cos I knew." She waved a hand between her cousins "About this. You and Anna, I mean. And that truth or dare thing way back when. And I know you were drunk but like, sisters don't make out with each other like that, you know?"

Elsa felt her head spin and she glanced nervously at Anna.

Rapunzel knows?! Jesus fuck, how fucking obvious have we been?!

As if reading her mind, Rapunzel tried to downplay the revelation, stammering out something that she hoped was reassuring. "Oh, hey, it's not like it was super obvious or anything." She frowned. "Well, actually, to me it was, but that's only because I'd literally just read this, um, story about a girl who was trying to come to terms with this 'forbidden' love she harboured for someone, and like, I normally nope the fuck out when I see that siscon shit but for some reason this-"

She clamped a hand over her mouth a second after Elsa's astonished look registered in her mind.

"Siscon?" Elsa and Rapunzel barely acknowledge Anna's confused query.

"Internet thing," Elsa replied, absentmindedly, continuing to stare at her cousin.

You fucking cyborg, Punz.

They stood, mute, and Elsa was vaguely aware of Eugene's timid approach and hasty retreat as soon as he realised the three were in some kind of bizarre Mexican standoff.

Faint sounds filtered into the stunned silence. The hiss of beer cans being opened. The sizzle of the barbeque. The busy hum of conversation.

Rapunzel's hands never moved from her mouth. Anna's eyes flicked between Elsa and her cousin, desperately trying to understand what was going on.

And then Elsa threw her head back and laughed. "Way to hide your fucking power levels, Punz!" she said, lightly punching the girl in the arm. "Jesus christ, you were reading a whole siscon thread, weren't you?" Rapunzel's face was rapidly heating up behind her hand, and Elsa could see the flush spreading across her cheeks. "Was that an accident, or are you just a regular old fan of that shit?"

Finally Rapunzel moved her hand. "Shut the fuck up," she retorted, hiding a grin. "At least I wasn't writing it-"

Reality hit Elsa with all the force of a shovel to the face, and the humour in their banter vanished. Her cousin clamped her mouth shut a second time. "Fuck, Elsa, I didn't mean it that way. Those threads are really depraved and shit. You'd never write something like that."

I just act it out instead.

"Okay," Anna interjected forcefully. "I don't know what the hell this 'siscon' thing is, but I'm guessing it's probably not something we should be discussing out here with a million people around-"

"It's not something we should be discussing full stop," Elsa said, looking pointedly at her cousin. The girl hadn't yet vilified Elsa or Anna for whatever feelings she thought they harboured for each other, but a sudden change of heart might be imminent if Rapunzel though too much about the implications of it all. And Elsa wasn't going to risk another fallout.

She met her sister's eyes briefly, hoping Anna would understand and not be hurt by the words about to come out of her mouth. Then she steeled her gaze and set it on Rapunzel.

"Whatever you think you saw during that dare was probably because that cheap and shitty beer fucked with your head," Elsa said, forcefully. "There's nothing for you to 'know' about what's going on between me and Anna. We're just sisters. That's it."

Well, Laurence fucking Olivier, you just made yourself seem as genuine as a three-dollar bill.

She held her breath, waiting for her cousin's response.

To her credit, Rapunzel didn't call her out on the unconvincing lie. Instead she simply nodded once, and turned towards Anna. "Guess I should stop drinking PBR before it gives me brain cancer or something," she quipped.

Anna laughed softly and Elsa felt herself cracking a smile, thankful that her sister had seen the adamant rejection for what it was, and hadn't been emotionally crushed by it. She watched as Rapunzel put a hand on Anna's shoulder and attempted to steer her back towards the house.

"Alright, pegleg, we're going back inside. I've got something I wanna show you," she teased, ducking Anna's hand as the girl attempted to swat her head. "Hey hey, potential brain cancer patient, remember?!"

She looked back at Elsa, pointing at an old, dubious-looking shed in the opposite corner of the yard. "By the way, Dad has a beer fridge in that thing, and Eugene's probably already halfway through a case by now, so you'd better get in there before there's fuck-all left."

Elsa waved a hand in thanks, and Rapunzel gave her an overly-enthusiastic thumbs up, before power-walking away from Anna. "C'mon, you cripple. Hurry up. I want to show you this thing before I die of old age!" she called behind her.

Elsa chuckled, hearing a steady stream of grumbling spilling from Anna's mouth, and headed towards the shed, hoping there was something other than Budweiser and PBR in her uncle's fridge.