One year later…

"What?"

Elsa scoffed. "I still can't get over the fact that you decided to wear that when I told you to dress well."

"This is 'dressed well;' I'd wear this any time or place."

"You'd wear it to a funeral?"

"Okay, maybe not a funeral, but—"

I felt a poke in my ribs. I looked down at the redheaded girl standing on the other side of me. "It's the hat, buddy," she murmured. "I think she'd be fine if you didn't have the hat."

"Thank you, Anna," Elsa said, "for helping him understand. I, of all people, should know subtlety isn't his strong suit."

I eyed up my reflection in the mirrored doors of the elevator; dark blue jeans so new you could practically see the off-line crease in the leg, a maroon button-up shirt with subtle black checkered stripes, brown dress shoes polished to a shine, and my good pastel-tan Stetson hat. I'd thought wearing my roper boots might have been the thing to put Elsa off, but I hadn't considered she'd be upset by the hat. I would wear this to anything but a funeral, I wasn't lying. Well, a funeral or a wedding; I'll definitely wear a tuxedo to our wedding.

"Well, it's too late to put it away now," I said, re-adjusting the fit of the brim on my forehead, "it's just going to have to be the way it is." Elsa rolled her eyes, and the elevator buzzed to signal that we had reached our floor. The doors slid open, and the three of us stepped out into the room.

It was very open, very modern. There were fogged-glass walls that sectioned off parts of it for reasons I couldn't guess at, but for the most part it was an open room of windows looking out into the skyscraper jungle of the city. There were tables and chairs all around the space, all made of glass or clear plastic. Some of them had papers and folders laid out across them, others had empty glasses and bottles of scotch, no doubt malted, and bowls of tiny mints. This must be a conference room of some sort, for business men to fiddle with their ties and talk about stocks while stuffing themselves with those TicTac-looking candies and wash it down with a glass of liquor that was probably worth more than I could dream of making in a month. And Elsa's aunt and uncle had rented the whole thing just to say "hello."

"There she is, my beautiful niece!" The woman that scurried over to Elsa with arms wide open was as smiley and cheerful as could be, putting in my head a humorous image of their family gatherings when Elsa was still a child. Aunt Primm, as Elsa had been calling her since this get-together was arranged last week, was slender, brunette, and quite youthful in appearance. She was Elsa's father's sister, if I remembered correctly, who had moved to Germany to live with her then-fiancé less than three years before Elsa was born. When Anna was born three years after Elsa, Primm also had a daughter, Rapunzel, and that was basically the entirety of the story Elsa had told me. I guessed that the skinny, blonde girl with exceedingly long hair that stood behind Primm and squirmed with excitement was none other than that very cousin, and the look she was giving Anna was pure bliss. Anna weaved her way around myself and her embracing family members to get to Rapunzel, and the two of them scampered off to one of the smaller sets of chairs near the window and started talking.

"It's nice to see you too, Auntie," Elsa said with some effort, patting her aunt on the back a few times. Primm released her death grip on Elsa's ribcage and held her niece at arms' length, looking her up and down. The woman was wearing a black dress with heels and a large pearl necklace. She had some ivory bangles around each wrist and her hair was pulled back from her face in a curled ponytail to reveal pearl earrings and a liberal layer of makeup. The woman sighed and looked at me.

"My, and this must be the young man right here, isn't it?" She had the faintest whisper of a foreign accent, though Elsa had told me she was raised here in the States. The way she addressed me, coupled with the subtle change in her smile as she looked me up and down as well, made me feel a pit patronized.

I tipped my hat. "It sure is, ma'am," I said, extending my hand and introducing myself. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ooh, 'ma'am,' you say?" Primm laughed and touched Elsa's shoulder. "Sweet-heart, where ever did you find such an honest charmer? And quite the looker, too, if you don't mind me saying." Elsa chuckled uncomfortably, rubbing her thigh lightly through the fabric of her dress.

She had been so worried about what to wear today; she must have asked me to choose between ten or eleven different dresses. Not only was it about what dress to wear, but also what shoes, and which necklace, and what earrings. And then if I told her one dress, it meant I couldn't pick these shoes or those accessories, and if I managed to match the shoes and dress she would look at her jewelry and tell me she didn't have anything to match and make me start all over. Thankfully, Anna showed up and helped me out a bit, but I told Elsa over and over that she should just wear whatever she wanted to wear, because I liked everything on her. Finally, she'd settled on this dark teal dress with short black sleeves and a golden headband to hold her hair away from her face. I liked it when she let her hair down, it made her look less stressed and more approachable. Don't get me wrong, I love it when she has it braided and slung over her shoulder, and nothing could ever match the elegance of the updo she wore to the dance, but something about when she had walked over to me and asked me to finish zipping her up while finger-combing her long, platinum hair off the back of her neck made my heart flutter and my cheeks burn even now, hours after the fact.

Primm clapped her hands together. "Well," she said, "let me see it!" Elsa looked at me quickly, pitifully. "Come now, don't be shy! I just have to see it!" Elsa slowly lifted her hand up to Primm, who took it and shoved her face into it. "Oh, my God," the woman exclaimed, "how absolutely gorgeous!" She looked at me. "You, young man, chose a beautiful ring! Was it an heirloom?"

I nodded. "My great-grandfather proposed to his wife with it, and it's been working its way through every man in the family."

"How precious," Primm said sweetly, smiling and turning back to Elsa's hand. "What a sweet-heart, Elsa. You'll do well to hold on to this one." She laughed, and Elsa gave me a look that couldn't have been mistaken for anything but: Kill me now. I frowned her way, trying to offer my sympathies as best I could without saying anything. "Come now, we have lady things to discuss." Primm tugged hard on Elsa's hand and dragged her away to the far end of the conference room, leaving me standing alone with the only person left: Elsa's uncle.

He was a big man; wide, not tall. He had a goatee beard and short, black hair that was beginning to thin out around his forehead. He was dressed in a suit that seemed to be too tight for him, but through some miracle he had managed to squeeze into it anyways. He stepped forward and extended his hand to me. "My name is der Kaiser, Friedrich der Kaiser; it is a pleasure to meet you." Uncle Friedrich was a very successful businessman, so Elsa had told me. He owned a company that manufactured pharmaceuticals, so he was always in business, and always profitable.

I shook his hand and introduced myself formally. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

"Herr, my boy," he said quickly, "not 'sir', Herr der Kaiser." His accent was thick and noticeable; he was definitely German. He spoke English well enough, but it was very apparent he had not been to the States in a very long time, if ever.

I nodded my head. "Sure thing, Herr," I said, "not a problem at all."

Friedrich nodded once, seemingly satisfied, and looked over to the corner where Elsa and Primm had gone. "Marriage," he said slowly, thoughtfully. "That corner is full of marriage." He turned back to me. "It is a funny game, son; marriage. You will play it too, soon enough."

This stream of words was nonsense to me. "I'm sure it is, Herr," I said, trying to keep him occupied to see if the clock would move faster the more he spoke.

He seemed to be satisfied with my response, but his attention was being collected by something that was going on over my shoulder. "Rapunzel!" I turned to see Anna and her cousin fooling around with the bottle of scotch by the window. "Berühre das nicht!" The girl looked sheepish, and returned the bottle to its original position. Freidrich shook his head. "My apologies," he said, "the girl is too curious for her own good."

"That's quite all right," I said. I ran my fingers along the brim of my hat. "She's only a kid."

Freidrich scoffed. "So she is," he said. There was a moment or two of silence, but then the squat man drew breath again and I gave him my attention. "You are not much more than a child yourself," he said, "I hope you know that you have made a heavy promise to that girl over there." He looked over to Elsa, who was standing silently as Primm talked at her.

"I know, Herr," I said, "I'm ready for that commitment."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? So confident." He rubbed his nose. "For barely being a man, you have quite the strong mindset."

"Barely a man?"

He nodded. "You are both so young," he said. "We have a saying, in Deutch, for when two young people first grow fond of each other. We say, 'Sie haben einen Knutschfleck.' It means they have been…" He inhaled deeply, searching his brain for words. "They have the 'bite of love.' Yes, 'bite of love' would be the best way to put it. The first emotion connection, the first time their eyes meet. It is a strong bite, but it takes something special to turn that bite into wahre Liebe, 'true love.'" He put a hand on my shoulder. "You have to understand your partner, feel with them. I know how much Elsa has been keeping hidden; it is probably bothering you to know so little about her."

I shrugged his hand off of me. "Excuse me?"

He looked at me, startled. "I am just saying, as her uncle, that I need to be satisfied with how much of her you know. I can say that she is by no means an easy person to spend time with."

I crossed my arms over my chest. I could feel a vein swell up in my neck. "Lemme ask you something," I said. "Just…just one question, and see if you can answer it." Friedrich copied my gesture, folding his arms in turn. I ran my tongue across my lips.

"How many times has Elsa come to me in tears because she's afraid of being alone?"

Friedrich appeared to stop breathing. After a few seconds of silence, I spoke again.

"Maybe that was too tough for you; let me try another. How many days has Elsa skipped school so she could be home to make sure Anna would actually make it back?"

Still no response.

"How many hours has she spent trying to trick herself into believing her parents were still alive?"

Nothing.

"How long did it take for her to stop being afraid of seeing other people after her parents died?"

A bead of sweat dropped down his temple.

"How many phone calls have I gotten from her, in tears, at one in the morning, because you, and your wife, forgot to call her again? On Christmas? Easter? Her birthday? The anniversary of her parents' death?"

He flapped his jaw stupidly, nothing coming out. I furrowed my brow.

"What color are her eyes?"

He looked to the floor.

"What's her middle name?"

He started wringing his fingers. I sighed.

"Can you even guess at her favorite color?"

His head snapped up. "Don't mock me, boy," he said, "I can do more than guess; it's green."

"You're wrong." The look on his face was one of rage and defeat. I pointed a finger at him. "The nerve you have, to say to me that I don't know Elsa well enough to marry her, makes me sick. And to imply that, because I'm younger and less experienced than you, I'm not ready to start a family is ridiculous; especially when, even with all your experience and your wisdom of years, I'm miles ahead of you when it comes to knowing who Elsa is."

He frowned something fierce. "Excuse me for a moment," he said, striding past me towards the elevator, "I have forgotten something in my car."

"I hope it's your uncle's license," I retorted as he pressed the call button for the elevator, "because it sure would be embarrassing if you were carrying it just now; Elsa's real family would never get shown up by a kid like me, I'm sure."

The elevator doors pinged open and Friedrich stepped inside. He reached over to the button tree and held his hand there, presumably keeping the doors open. "Rapunzel," he called, "komme her, schnell."

The blonde girl looked up from her conversation with Anna and slumped her shoulders. "Vater," she replied, "ich möchte hier mit Anna zu bleiben!"

"Kommen Sie her, Mädchen! Jetzt!" Friedrich pointed his finger so powerfully towards the ground he could have probably ripped the elevator loose of its cables. Rapunzel's face shrunk into her shoulders and she said a quick goodbye to Anna before scurrying off to her father's side. The elevator doors slid shut, and they were gone. I sighed, making my way to a section of the window and leaning against the glass, staring down at the city below.

I got lost in the bustle of it all. Cars of every color sliding around the streets like water through a straw, moving on with their days like clockwork. The people looked so small from up here, too; tiny ants marching to and fro, carrying their work and their food as they droned along to their next task without any hesitation or resistance. It really was a different world in the city. So fast-paced, so busy. Just looking at it all made me feel nauseous, or maybe that was just vertigo. I wasn't sure, but I knew that it wasn't for me.

"What'cha looking at?" I was torn away from my thoughts by Anna's spritely voice, which had appeared to my side very suddenly. The littler redhead girl had pressed her forehead to the window, peering down the side of the building eagerly.

I re-adjusted my hat on my head. I huffed, "A good time, I guess. I was just sort of looking around. We drove three hours to get here, we ain't just gonna leave after this; I'm going to make a day of it for the two of you."

"Really?" Anna peeled her face off the window and looked up at me. "What did you have in mind?"

"I dunno…Shopping, dinner, sightseeing. Basically whatever Elsa wants to do; I know she's been really stressing about this meeting for a week or two." I shrugged. "I hope you don't mind playing third wheel to us."

"No, no, I don't mind," Anna said, turning back to the window, "so long as you're paying, I'll do whatever you want. Plus, you're my ride home, so I can't just ditch the two of you, ether."

I laughed. "I'm glad you're a flexible person when it comes to plans. Sometimes I wonder how the two of you are related."

"You don't mean that," Anna said, "you of all people know that Elsa and I are pretty much the same, Elsa's just a little tougher to crack than I am." I raised an eyebrow; she wasn't wrong. I looked over at Elsa, who was still talking to Primm. The older woman seemed to be getting more and more excited, which was only serving to make Elsa more and more sheepish. "Anyways," Anna said, reclaiming my attention, "what'd you say to Uncle Freddy that made him get all grumpy?"

"Oh," I said, "he just pushed my buttons is all; tried telling me I shouldn't marry Elsa because I was too young and didn't know enough about her. I proved I knew acres more than he did, and he stormed off in a huff." I screeched the back of my neck. "Sorry he took your cousin with him."

"Ah, it's okay," Anna said, "Uncle Fred's always been uptight; he works all the time, it's like he's always in overdrive."

"I can tell." The younger girl left the window and made her way to a nearby pair of chairs. I followed her. "So, you and Rapunzel seem to be pretty good friends. Do you see her often?"

Anna wrinkled her nose. "We Skype when we can; it's tough, with the time difference. I hadn't seen her in person since before Mom and Dad died, but we say in touch as best we can. She's really cool, and she's got a pet chameleon."

"A chameleon?" I raised my eyebrow again. "How'd she get one of those? Aren't they zoo critters?"

Anna shrugged. "Uncle Fred brought it home one day and gave it to Punzie, I never asked why. Its name is Pascal, and she managed to bring it with her. I'm excited to play with it."

"That should be fun," I said. "They'll be staying through the wedding, then? Just like they planned?"

"Punzie and Auntie Primm are going to stay, but Uncle Freddy had a last-minute meeting come up, so he's flying back to Kiel in a couple of days." I nodded my head. I wonder if Elsa knows that. I'm sure Primm has told her by now, considering how long they had been chatting for by now.

I had small talk with Anna until finally Primm brought Elsa over to us and announced that she had to get going. "My husband seems to have already made his way out," she said, "so I think I'll get going too." She touched my shoulder gently. "It was wonderful to meet you," she said, "we'll have to chat at some point before we start planning the rehearsal; I'd love to get to know you better."

"Can-do, ma'am," I said, tipping my hat to her, "drive safe tonight." Primm giggled and said something about how charming I was, and she spun towards the elevator and headed down to the garage. I stood up from my chair and faced Elsa, taking in the way she was carrying herself.

She looked absolutely and totally exhausted. Her face was long and her eyes were droopy. Her shoulders slumped heavily and her posture was lazy and improper. I pursed my lips, taking a hold of her shoulders. She looked me in the eyes, the crystal blue oceans of her pupils swimming with agitation and humiliation. "God dammit," she whispered, "if I never see her again, it'll be too soon."

I smiled. "I could say the same for your uncle," I joked softly, pulling her in for a hug. She never swore, not even "dammit"; she had to have been on her very last ropes with that woman in order to use language like that. I rubbed her back gently, hoping to help ease away some of the stress and the pain.

"What about my uncle?" Her voice was muffled in my shirt.

"Oh," I said, "he tried to tell me not to marry you, so I told him to go to Hell."

Elsa wriggled her face free of the fabric of my shirt and looked up my chest into my eyes. My pulse quickened as I looked down at her. "Did you really?"

I shook my head. "No, not really."

She groaned, flopping her face back into my chest. "Ugh, I wish you had." Her arms reached around my torso and took hold of my lower back, squeezing it lightly as she drew another deep breath. "I hate seeing the two of them; it reminds me how much my family doesn't want any part of my life."

"Hey! Don't say that!" I separated us enough to look her in the eye. "The two of them do care for you, whether you realize it or not. They're your family, and they do love you. They're just…not doing it right." I shook my head. "And you have every right to be mad at them for that, but don't ever think they don't love you."

Elsa's eyes dropped to the floor. "I just wish the people who loved me could just show me without all the crap, or waiting until I get married, or whatever. They shouldn't need an excuse to start caring again." Her fingers dug into my skin slightly. She tucked her chin into my chest, muffling the sentence she whispered to me next. "They need to…to be more like you."

I felt my chest swell with emotion. I felt proud, I felt humbled, I felt like I had just saved the day. I kissed Elsa on the top of the head. "That would make life too easy for you," I said coyly. "And, besides—" I whispered into her ear "—if everyone was like me, how would you know which one to get married to?"

She laughed quickly; a short, powerful pop that broke across my chest and rippled my sleeve. She looked up at me and smiled, pulling my hips into her stomach and stretching up to kiss me. Smiled back and bent down to meet her halfway. She still tasted like vanilla, just like she always did; I bet a month from now she'd still be wearing that same lip gloss, especially since the rest of her outfit would be white and pristine like the vanilla ice cream she likes so much. I always tell her to branch out and try some more interesting flavors, but she insists on the pure white vanilla every time. I don't complain too much, though; vanilla looks the cutest when she accidentally gets some on the tip of her nose.

"Pardon me, lovebirds, but I was promised free food?" Anna's sassy voice broke apart our intimacy, and we looked over to see the younger girl holding open the elevator doors.

"Free food?" Elsa looked at me in surprise.

I smiled. "My treat," I said. "Pick anywhere you want to go for dinner."

Elsa's face became one of deep reflection. "Anywhere, hmm?" She tapped her chin with her forefinger.

This couldn't be good news.

"Well," I said, "basically anywhere…within reason."

Anna gasped. "You weasel! You said 'anywhere,' you can't just back down!"

Elsa laughed. "Don't worry, baby, I'll try and keep it reasonable." She took my hand and led me to the elevator, which we entered and punched in the button for the ground floor.

As the doors slid shut in front of my face, I reflected on everything that had just happened. From meeting Primm and Friedrich, to what Friedrich had tried to tell me, to what Elsa had said while I hugged her. It had been quite the roller coaster of emotion, but there was one thought in my mind that I kept coming back to over and over:

Family ain't in a high-rise, looking for a good time, shutting down the city lights. Family is loving someone through the good times and the bad, when it's easy and when it's inconvenient. That, right there, is what family is.

That, right there, is where it's at.