NOTES: So both Pankite and myself are seated in a Second Cup in Toronto, about to drop this update. It's been a (mostly) fun trip, one or two small annoyances notwithstanding. I feel like as much as I already knew a lot about Canada before this, now I understand it a little better than before (despite a brief trip to Montreal in the past). Tomorrow, I'm heading back to the States, but for now I'm going to try to soak up as much as I can in the time I have left. Next stop: Pizza Pizza (again)!

As for the story, here comes a twist.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

By the time they started back towards the cabin, Anna felt exhausted. With most of the other girls gone, the responsibility of watching the kids all day had gone to Anna and Elsa and the task had been much more tiring than Anna expected.

"I could collapse and die," Elsa groaned as they reached the cabin door. She saw a couple of other counselors looking a little weary, but not quite as drained as the two of them. Anna nodded in agreement, holding the door open for Elsa to saunter in first before moving over to her bed and collapsing on it.

"How on earth did we wind up with almost twelve kids dumped on us at the end there?" she grunted.

"Because… Aurora took advantage of us." Elsa was at least able to pull her boots off first, but when she started to pull her shirt off she seemed to decide it was too much effort and flopped back instead. "Blackmailing us into… taking on her jobs."

"I thought it was only supposed to be for half a day?" Anna had just enough energy to flip onto her back so that she was staring up at the ceiling. "We have to do something about her… this is unfair."

With a weak shrug, Elsa rolled her head to stare at her sister. "Like what? I'm not breaking up with you. And I'm not really afraid of her… oh, I don't know. This whole thing got out of hand."

"I don't know, either." Anna sighed and ran her hand through her bangs. "Well… at least we only have to do this for a week more."

"Yeah." Then she cleared her throat. "Is it weird that… I'd rather stay here, slaving away with you, than go back to my mother?"

The confession made Anna feel warm all over and she looked over at Elsa. "Y-eah?" She blushed at the slight crack in her voice. But Elsa only rolled so she could look at her properly, smiling a tired-but-content smile. Anna smiled back. "You could always come home with me and Papa; I'm sure he would be thrilled to have you."

"That would be… inadvisable." Then she sighed. "You know Mother would be all… yeah, she wouldn't take it well. But maybe I should think about how to tell her over the summer; about you, not us. That might be a much harder conversation!"

"Yeah...makes sense," Anna sighed. "Baby steps are advisable, especially with our Mom... " She went quiet briefly, playing with the pendent Elsa had bought her, before she said, "Do you think… Mom will accept me being in your life again?"

Elsa didn't answer right away. When she did, she said in a hesitant voice, "I don't know. I think we could get her to see reason if we worked at it for a while… but right away?" A sigh of her own. "She's been stewing in all this bitterness for so long. It's going to be hard."

Anna nibbled on her bottom lip. The thought hurt, it really did, but Anna knew that she would never change herself to fix the relationship with her mother. She would never take back what she had now with Elsa. She slowly rolled out of her own bed and walked over to Elsa's.

"Can I lie with you?"

Instead of answering, Elsa weakly reached up an arm to take Anna's hand and pull her down next to her. Then she wrapped her arms and legs around her sister. Anna snuggled into the embrace, sighing contentedly as she wrapped her arms around Elsa's torso and pressed her face into her shoulder.

"I love you," she whispered, "I don't care if Mom hates me for the rest of my life for any of this, I'm never going to stop."

"And neither will I," she breathed, petting along her back. "And I mean that in both kinds of 'love'. She won't take this from us."

Just before Anna could reply, there was a soft knock at the door. Not waiting for an answer, a cheery voice said, "Hey! Anybody in there?"

Anna lifted her head from Elsa's shoulder to look over at the door. It was awkward, considering she and Elsa were lying in a way that Anna's back was towards the door and they were at an angle, but Anna caught a glimpse of Rapunzel and gave a small smile.

"Hey, Punzie."

"O-oh, sorry," she said, wincing through the crack in the door. "You, uh… are you busy? Did I interrupt something?"

"Nah, not really." Anna started to detach from her older sister's side to address her friend properly. "What's up?"

But now that she was entering, the blonde looked highly nervous about something. Her face was pale, and she was gulping to clear her throat. "U-um… I got this chocolate from my mom in the mail today, and… and I wondered if you wanted some. Both of you, um, you two."

Anna perked up at the mention of the chocolate, a wide smile on her face. "Wow, Punzie! That's really nice of you! Are you sure?" She regarded her nervous friend, the excitement dimming slightly at how stiff the usually laidback brunette was. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I just… you two looked like you were really… close when I came in." She swallowed again, then pulled the chocolates out from behind her back. "Sorry, I still feel like I kinda walked in on… on a sister moment? Or something?"

"Don't be silly," Elsa said as she sat up at last. "You're always welcome here."

The redhead nodded and grinned at her friend. "Yeah, me and Elsa don't mind. We were just relaxing after the crazy day, that's all."

"Well… okay." Holding out the box, she smiled uncomfortably. "Take as… as many as you want!"

With a quiet "thank you", Elsa reached in and took one; trying to be conservative as always. Anna also reached in and took a few, managing to keep herself from taking more than three.

"Thank you, Punzie. Really. Would you like to sit for a bit?"

"NO! That is… sorry, I really wanna get a shower after… well, the whole day. I'm kinda sweaty." Then she gave a little wave. "You two, uh, behave yourselves, okay?"

"Uhh, okay," Elsa intoned as they waved her off. When the door was shut, she turned to Anna with a confused expression. "What do you think that was about?"

"I'm not sure…" Anna frowned and looked towards the door that Rapunzel had just exited. Worry for her friend gnawed at her but she decided to just give the brunette her space for now and talk to her about it another time.

Which was just as well, because Elsa was pulling Anna back down onto the bed. "Oh well. Here, let me… share my chocolate with you." Then she leaned up to press her tongue against Anna's lips.

A sharp thrill shot through Anna at Elsa's unexpected boldness and a moan slipped from her throat as she took Elsa's tongue in her mouth, savouring the sweetness of chocolate and Elsa and pulling Elsa even closer to her. Strong arms wrapped around her back, holding her close and tenderly as the lips and tongue continued to respond with great enthusiasm. In response, Anna gave Elsa's tongue a light, teasing nip and rolled them so she was hovering over her sister.

"O-ohhh," Elsa sighed, running her hands up and down Anna's back as they parted slightly. Gazing upward, she whispered to her, "How did you like… the chocolate?"

"I love it," she breathed back. Elsa's body beneath her was warm and inviting, her eyes soft, and Anna couldn't resist pressing her mouth against Elsa's again for another addicting taste. The other set of lips wasted no time reciprocating, humming gently.

This kiss didn't last as long. Anna pulled away and rested her forehead against Elsa's, breathing in sync with the elder sibling and smiling so much that it was making her cheeks sore. "I love you so much, you stinker."

"Back at you, Freckles. And speaking of 'stinker'..."

Out of nowhere, Elsa swatted across Anna's behind. Anna jumped, startled at the action, and stared down at Elsa with teal eyes wide with disbelief. "Y-You just spanked me! You stinker! You spanked me!"

"Only a little," she laughed with a wide grin. "On your stinker. Get it?"

Anna rolled her eyes but grinned back at Elsa's stupid joke, unable to keep even a playfully annoyed expression in the wake of Elsa's willingness to play. "I'll get you back for it," she swore. "Sooner or later, just you watch."

~ o ~

It was sometime after one in the morning when Anna's phone went off. Anna groaned in annoyance and glared at the device, her ringtone shrill in the silence of the night. She grabbed it quickly and prayed the the body snuggling into her own was a heavy sleeper before answering without looking at her caller ID.

"Kristoff, I swear if this is one of your drunk calls again, I'm going to kick your ass when I get home!" she hissed quietly. But it wasn't Kristoff.

In fact, it wasn't even Anna's phone; it was Elsa's. There was a moment of silence before a feminine voice asked, "Anna? What are you doing with Elsa's phone?"

'Shit. Aurora.'

Taking a quick glance, she spotted her own pale pink phone case in the pale light of Elsa's screen and inwardly cursed herself before answering, "She's fast asleep and it woke me up. What do you want? It's 1am."

"Do I want to know what you were doing before you fell asleep?" she asked nastily. But followed up immediately with, "Doesn't matter. I need a favour… and youuuuu guys owe me, remember?"

Anna wanted badly to tell her to shove it but she was wise enough to know the disastrous consequences, despite her half-asleep brain. So she swallowed the anger and nasty retort on the tip of her tongue and simply grunted, "What is it you need?"

"A ride. One of you has a car, right? I think… anyway, like, we're kind of stuck in the village and we don't want to miss bed check in the morning… and you know what'll happen if you don't do what I say."

"Well…" She looked down regretfully at Elsa, who looked so peaceful and beautiful as she slept. It would be a shame to wake her for this, but Elsa was the one with the car and Anna wasn't the world's best driver to begin with. She nibbled on her lip, torn with indecision, before trying, "I really don't want to wake Elsa. Can't you let this one slide? Just this once?"

The voice turned a tad colder. "Listen. I know you and Tremblay don't want to be known as sinners throughout the entire camp, do you? So either come and get us, or you'll be sorry! Just be smart!"

Her hand twitched before curling into a fist. Anna had been on the receiving end of a bully multiple times throughout the years and her entire being was demanding that she punch the bitch straight in the mouth when they finally get face to face, especially with how she was threatening Elsa. However, Aurora was right and Anna had to take several breaths to calm herself down before she ground out a response.

"I'll get her up. Text me the address and give us an hour, at least."

"An hour?!" she sighed, but then said, "Fine, I guess. But not any longer than that, Megara doesn't look too good… anyway, bye." Then the line went dead.

Around that time, Elsa rolled over, grumbling in her sleep. Anna sighed and started to comb her fingers through Elsa's mussed hair, just admiring her for a few moments as she thought about how to wake her and break the news. Deciding to wake Elsa as gently as possible, she leaned down to start kissing Elsa's sensitive neck.

"Wake up, Elsa," she cooed. "I need you to get up, Sis."

Groaning loudly, she stretched out, then blinked up at Anna with a half-scowl. "Wha… what's wrong?"

"Sorry, Elsa," Anna sighed, "but our good friend Aurora asked for a pick up; she gave us an hour to get there." She grit her teeth in irritation at the audacity of her next statement, feeling anger bubbling forward: "She also stressed just how much of a bad idea it would be if we ignored her."

It took a few seconds for her to string together a few thoughts, but when she did, Elsa was looking just as irritated. "Oh… oh, that annoying-" Pushing a hand into her face, she hissed, "This can't keep going like this. I don't want to be a slave."

"I know what you mean," Anna glared over at the wall but her fingers gently scratched Elsa's scalp in an attempt to soothe her. "We'll figure something out though Elsa, I promise. She can't hold this above our heads forever."

"I hope you're right." But the platinum blonde didn't sound particularly hopeful.

It didn't take them long to get out to the car, and to plug the address Aurora had sent into Anna's GPS app so they could be on their way. The two sisters continued to yawn the whole while, rubbing sleep from their eyes to better focus on their task — especially Elsa, who was driving. Anna hated this. They should be curled up together still, sleeping peacefully in anticipation for their single day off but instead, they were out in the middle of nowhere to pick up Aurora and her little clique from who knows what.

She frowned as she remembered what Aurora said, about a friend not feeling so hot… what did that even mean? "Elsa, do you know a Megara?"

"Hm?" she asked as they entered the little town proper. "Oh… yeah, she's another counselor. Long brown hair? She's not very social with the rest of us but she's alright most of the time. Why?"

"Aurora said she wasn't feeling very well, that's all…" Anna's brow furrowed slightly. "What do you think they are doing out here so late?"

That earned her a harsh laugh from Elsa. "Well… I might be wrong, because I certainly have no experience with those kind of things. But I would guess they're up to no good."

And when they arrived at the address, that seemed to be the case. It was a house, and loud music was coming from inside; loud enough that they could hear it very easily once they opened their car doors. Elsa pocketed her keys and grimaced up at the front steps. "Oh, great…"

"Right? This is definitely not where bible camp counselors should be in the middle of the… night." A look of mischief suddenly crossed Anna's face as she had an idea. "Yeah… it's really not, is it? How about that?" As discreetly as possible, she lifted her phone and snapped a few pictures and took a quick video, making sure to roll down the window to catch the 'soul corrupting' music.

"What?" Elsa called out, then spotting Anna's phone. "What are you doing?"

"I think I know how to get us out of our annoying situation."

"Huh?! Were you taking a video just now? I don't-"

"You'll see," Anna said softly with a little smirk. "But you can't give me away, alright?" Rolling her eyes in resignation, Elsa simply sent a text to Aurora instead of confronting Anna about her idea.

Soon enough, the girls began to stumble out of the house, some of them with their dresses askew or shoes clutched in their hands. Meg was the only one who looked like she hated everything about life, but the others were also clearly through partying and ready to get back to camp. Anna took a few more pictures, making sure to get a shot of each girl when they weren't paying much attention to her. Snow looked the worst off, with her dress stained and hair looking messy and sloppily done up, while Aurora looked the best of the group; though her stagger and unfocused gaze made it clear she had her fair share of drinks. Anna's smirk grew with every shot she took.

"What took you so long?" Aurora demanded at Elsa as she climbed into the back seat and shut the door. "Seriously, that was much longer than an hour!"

"It was shorter than an hour," Elsa scoffed as she and Belle helped Megara in through the other back door. "You're too drunk to tell time."

"Don't judge us," Belle said in a tone that clearly conveyed she was a little embarrassed and ashamed of herself. "Please? Just drive us back."

Anna started a video on her phone and placed the phone into the cup holder beside her. "So… is this where you girls have been all day instead of helping us with the kids?"

"Shut up," Megara slurred, before falling over against Snow's shoulder. Grimacing, the shorter girl pushed her back in the other direction so she leaned against Aurora.

"Yes," Belle sighed. She seemed to be the most sober of the four of them. "But don't worry about it, okay? It's none of your business, just… I'd like to go back to the cabin and forget a lot of things I saw tonight."

"Why would you care, anyway?" Aurora growled at her. "You guys are just supposed to do what you're told, understand that? No questions."

Anna shrugged. "I wouldn't peg you guys as the type to party, that's all," she said easily. "This is definitely against camp policy."

"Guyyys, keep it downnn," Megara groaned, flinching. "I think… something was in that Jack-and-Coke… besides whiskey…" She shivered like she might vomit, but then was able to hold it down.

"Throw up in my car and you will walk home!" Elsa snapped.

Aurora looked like she wanted to retort but she simply closed her eyes and leaned back against her seat while Snow drunkenly rubbed Megara's back. Anna simply snickered to herself, highly amused and pleased by the situation.

"Wait, don't go that way," Snow said, leaning forward in between the two front seats, pointing at the windshield. "You… wanna take the road on the right! Yeah…"

Anna was hit by the stench of alcohol and wrinkled her nose in distaste. She looked over at Snow to tell her to back off when something on the collar of Snow's dress caught her attention. A very particular white splotch, too thick in consistency to be a beer or food stain. There was a small, dried patch on Snow's chin, too… small enough to be unnoticed in the others' drunken states. Anna decided to take a shot in the dark.

"Looks like you had an interesting romp, eh, Snow?"

The brief silence that fell over the car spoke volumes. After a few seconds, Snow sat back, face flushed and eyes pointing downward in shame.

"Don't give her grief," Belle snapped. "She wasn't really ready for that but wanted to 'try new things'."

"Grief for what?" Elsa asked, too distracted by her driving to understand what had gone on. Anna wanted to feel bad for the ravenette. She really did. However, Anna knew that if she didn't latch onto this, then she and Elsa would be stuck obeying these girls for the rest of the week under the threat of blackmail… and if Aurora decided to talk anyway, then it could destroy her beloved sister's reputation and leave her devastated.

'They have no qualms doing it to me… to Elsa! So why should I beat myself up about levelling the playing field?' At that, Anna stiffened her back, reached for her phone and without warning or hesitation, she turned, zoomed in and took a last picture; a very clear one of Snow. Everything from the shame on her face to the stains was visible and left nothing to the imagination.

Aurora let out an angry "What did you just do?!" and tried to lunge for Anna's phone — however, the redhead tucked it in her pants pocket and gave Aurora a look.

"Sit down if you don't want us to crash," she ordered. Aurora reluctantly sat back in her seat with an angry huff.

"Did you really take a picture?" Belle demanded, too shocked to be truly angry. "Seriously?!"

"Oh no," Snow breathed as what was going on started to catch up to her. "Oh no, oh no, oh no…"

Any pride Anna had for this plan fled at the horror on Snow's face and she was left with a crushing guilt at what she was about to do. However, the overprotectiveness she felt for Elsa outweighed the guilt in the end. She turned to her sister and said, "Elsa, stop the car, please."

Though she looked a little surprised, all she did was say "Alright" and began to guide the car toward the nearest curb, putting it in park.

"What are you doing?" Belle asked. "We have to get back so we can try to get some sleep!"

Anna ignored Belle's question and the uncomfortable twist of guilt in her stomach. "I want you all to listen to me very closely. That picture I just took? That wasn't the only one. I've been taking pictures and videos since me and Elsa pulled up at the house."

Aurora's eyes widened in slight terror at the unspoken implication. It was Megara who first managed to groan, "Are… you fucking with me right now?"

"Picture…" Snow glanced down at her shirt, then pushed a hand into her eyes. "Oh noooo…"

"My phone is filled with solid evidence of what you've all been up to today," Anna continued. "Now, if I were to hand these in to Father Frollo… well, I can imagine it wouldn't be a very good thing, now would it? He may be forced to call your parents about this." Anna tried to keep the unsteadiness out of her voice. "I don't think they'd be very happy, would they?"

Aurora's face turned pale but she snarled, "I'll just tell him what you and Elsa were up to, then! He'll never-"

"Who do you think he's going to believe?" she interrupted. "An accusation with no real proof or…" She gave her phone a little shake in the other's directions. She saw Aurora tense to lunge, so she drew it back very quickly. "And it would just make you look that much worse, accusing me and Elsa of something just to make us look bad for ratting you out."

"I told you this was a stupid idea," Belle hissed at her friends. "But no, no, you wanted to have a 'slave'!"

"I didn't want any slaves," Snow protested, looking stricken by the accusations. "I j-just figured Aurora knew what she was doing…"

"Listen to how upset Snow is," Aurora flung at the girls in the front seats. "How can you stomach what you're-"

"SAVE IT!" Elsa finally burst out, having heard enough. "Of course I don't want to upset Snow, or do anything like this! But Anna has a point — you started this when you decided you were going to blackmail Anna and I for… for something that isn't any of your business! So you can just… just shut the fuck up!"

Elsa herself was the first one to gasp when she heard herself swear that way. Anna stared at Elsa, momentarily stunned, before a dark blush rose up in her cheeks and she had to swallow to dampen her suddenly dry throat. 'That was… really hot.' She was very thankful that it was dark so no one saw the heated glance she gave Elsa before she cleared her throat so she could continue.

"In conclusion, ladies, we are no longer going to take orders from you. And if you try to squeal to Father Frollo about anything, just remember which one of us has the actual power to ruin lives." Anna sighed and ran her hand through her bangs. "I'm not a bitch, guys… so long as you leave us alone and don't try anything stupid, I won't turn these in or run my mouth, I promise. I don't want to hurt you, but you are threatening us and I don't take being bullied very well."

"How do we know you will keep that promise!?" Aurora demanded to know, desperate to seize control of the situation.

"Will you give it a rest already?" Belle snapped at her. Then she turned to Anna. "Alright… I do think you're kind of a bitch, but at the same time, I get it. We got caught up in this idea of 'teaching you a lesson' and… getting a few favours along the way, and…" She squirmed.

"You forgot we were humans with feelings," Elsa supplied, having calmed down a little more. "Well, now you know what it feels like to be threatened with humiliation. I hope you won't forget."

"We won't," Snow whispered, clearly feeling pure shame by the way her blotchy cheeks were burning.

Clapping her hands together, Anna cried out, "Great! Glad we're all on the same page. Now let's get back to camp and forget about all of this!"

The redhead fell back into her seat and let out a long exhale, looking exhausted and frustrated despite the fact that they won the argument. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out the window as Elsa put the car back in 'drive' and pulled away from the curb, trying to will her stomach to stop churning with guilt and self-disgust.

'God, what would Papa say to what I just did?'

To Be Continued…