Rating: T - Perfectly safe but I’ll stick a T rating on just in case.

Words: 2734

I hope you enjoy!

Oneshot – The London Underground:

Each morning in the city of London there are thousands of businessmen and women rushing around the busy streets. Each are in their own little worlds, conscious of the meeting they’re late for, the pile of work that awaits them on their desks, thinking how they can avoid their bosses long enough to finish off a report that’s due. Yes, step into the streets of London any morning and look around. Most likely you’ll be knocked to the floor as you stop against the flow of those busy people, but you will quickly notice two things about the surge of madly rushing workers. One, they have no regard for people have fallen over, and two, each of them is lost in their own routine.

Elsa Sonticus was one of those who had such a routine. Each morning she would emerge from her studio apartment, whip around to the the local Costa coffee shop to grab an Americano with two sugars and soy milk, pick up a buttery croissant from the Tesco next door, walk down two small side streets while pulling out her Oystar card and Kindle, and finally walk down the steps of Holland Park tube station to catch the 8:20 train. Elsa would do this every single day almost at the exact same second while passing the same people and observing the same advertisements boards. The only thing that changed in Elsa’s daily routine were the posters inside those advertisement boards.

Now if there was one part of the morning journey Elsa enjoyed, it was her trips on the 8:20 train. She had her own spot that she had managed to fend off from the other passengers over the years. It was at the left end of the middle carriage, right by an open window that blew in a gentle breeze that took away the unbearable heat of the underground. The usual passengers of the middle carriage knew this was the fierce looking business woman’s spot and no one dared approach her, coffee drinking, croissant eating, Kindle reading domain. They had seen young, over-confident businessmen stride up to her and mutter some cheesy chat up line about her slender figure or neat bun of white-gold hair. Each of these poor fools along with any other who disturbed Elsa during her morning journey all met the same fate. She would throw them an icy cold death stare that could turn the burliest soldiers into blubbering children. Elsa never needed to open her mouth or lower her Kindle, the stare would soon send the cause of the disruption to the other side of the train.

You can imagine her surprise then when one Monday morning Elsa’s train pulled up with a girl with fiery auburn hair wearing a smart business jacket, white shirt, and sleek black pencil skirt was already stood in her place, bobbing her head along to the no doubt jumpy pop tune playing through her white earphones. Elsa got onto the train looking paler than usual. Some of the passengers had noticed and were whispering to one another while they stared at this poor young redhead. Elsa was already in full death stare mode when the young woman finally looked up and caught Elsa’s eye. She looked down the train to some of the few staring passengers, then back at Elsa and gave a cute, oblivious smile. The smile was horribly infectious. Elsa could hardly maintain her death stare as she pursed her lips and bit on the side of her cheek to stop herself smiling back. The young woman carried on bobbing away to her songs, quite unaware of Elsa’s fury over losing her place on the train. Eventually the train pulled up at Elsa’s stop and she had to get off without gaining so much as an inch of her spot back.

Elsa brooded with silent anger for the rest of the day.

How dare she waltz onto my train and take my spot without a single thought, Elsa thought while she focused all of her fury into slamming down on the stapler to staple a series of important documents.

Now it might seem a little extreme, being so upset about a place to stand on a train, but Anna Renidens had quite innocently broken a silent rule of the London morning worker march. Never ever disrupt a person’s routine.

Elsa was quite sure that this smiling girl had no idea of important things such as a morning routine. She had contented herself then that this girl was subject to randomness and would quite happily be in a different carriage in another person’s spot the next day. Oh how wrong she had been.

The next morning Elsa’s face dropped when the 8:20 train pulled up at her stop and there stood that very same girl bobbing along to another tune. Elsa was distraught. How could this be? This was her spot and it had been for years now. How could this strangely energetic girl usurp her rightful spot in a day?

Elsa thudded onto the train with a face like thunder. Anna once again, broke her concentration away from the fast paced beat of the song, looked up at Elsa and gave her the warmest look she could manage at 8:20 in the morning. Anna was quite confused why this tall, pretty business woman kept staring at her and giving her funny looks. Anna had only been in the city a month so she guessed that the early mornings did strange things to people here. Hell, the mornings were a struggle for Anna too. But the moment she stepped on the train and stood in this oddly cool spot, she felt wide awake and was gently dancing away to herself in seconds. She thought then that this blonde woman needed the same sort of pleasantness in her mornings so Anna decided to give her a cheery smile.

The days passed by and still Anna stood in Elsa’s spot every working morning without fail. Elsa was half tempted to get on the train on the weekend just so she could remember what it was like to stand there. Elsa’s fury grew stronger and stronger and still Anna stood there without any knowledge of the unspoken crime she had committed. One morning when the shop assistant at Tesco informed Elsa that her buttery croissant wasn’t going to be in stock today she had had enough. She flew down the corridors and escalators of the underground and stood waiting for the 8:20 train like a cat waiting for a mouse to come out of a hole in the wall. The train pulled up and sure enough, there stood Anna Renidens hungrily eating a rather large sandwich baguette. Elsa crossed to her in the blink of an eye. The passengers of the train looked on with bated breath, this was the confrontation they’d been expecting to see for just over a week now. Elsa was waiting for Anna to notice her standing a little too close. She was going over the clear set of arguments she had thought out on the way down when she actually looked at this girl for the first time. She had a light sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks, with pinkish-red lips and bright turquoise eyes. She was beautiful. Elsa was too lost in her thoughts to even realise that Anna had pulled out one ear phone and was asking her if she was okay.

“Hey, excuse me, are you feeling okay?” repeated Anna.

Elsa finally snapped out of her trance enough to make some attempt at speech, “Uh… um… well…”

Elsa couldn’t quite meet those brilliant eyes so she kept looking at Anna’s forehead instead so that this girl knew she was being addressed, to an extent.

“Oh my God,” said Anna as her eyes went wide with shock, “I have chocolate on my forehead don’t I? Oh my, I’m so sorry. Here I am dancing away to myself when in fact I’m being a disgrace to the entirety of London!” Anna began scrubbing at the middle of her forehead asking where the stain was.

This wasn’t how Elsa planned things to go. She hadn’t done anything to get her spot back. All she had managed to do was get this girl to draw attention to them both. Every eye of the passengers was on them now.

“No, no it isn’t that. There’s nothing on your forehead,” said Elsa impatiently.

“Oh. Phew! You have no idea how many times my mother used to warn me about that. She claimed that I once strode about for an entire day with half a chocolate bar melted on my head when I was a kid.”

Elsa blinked. She had no idea what was going on any more. She just wanted her place back, no matter how adorable this girl was being. “Listen… here’s the thing,” said Elsa now gone shy, “I… uh.. you see… this is where um-”

Anna looked on with that same cheery smile as Elsa stammered along.

“Your stood in my spot,” Elsa said after several attempts.

At first Anna laughed rather loudly. She had no idea this blonde woman was funny too. After Anna wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye she soon realised this was no joke. Elsa stood there with a stern expression set on her face, arms crossed firmly.

“Oh… You were serious?”



“Serious? Of course I am,” Elsa hissed, “I’ve stood in that same spot for the past two years. Every morning I get my coffee and croissant and read a book while standing in that very place. My spot.” Elsa’s face had slowly turned deeper shades of angry red, or pink in her case since her skin was so pale.

As for Anna, well this made no sense to her whatsoever. How could someone that pretty come onto a train and be so rude! Anna wasn’t giving this spot up now. “What makes it your spot?” she said, deciding to poke the beast of fury that was this blonde woman.

“Weren’t you listening? I’ve stood here for the past two years! This is my routine and no one interrupts. Especially by taking my spot.”

“Like hell this is your spot. I don’t see your name on it!” Anna retorted like that same small child who once had half a chocolate bar melted on her head, “Plus I was just starting to get real comfortable here. I think I might bring a fold up chair with me so I can stretch my legs out too.”

Elsa was beginning to defy her natural skin tone and was quickly reaching the deepest, darkest reds. But before she could open her mouth and let loose on this infuriating girl, Elsa’s stop pulled up. Anna shot her a sly look of victory as Elsa stepped off and the train pulled away. Anna even had the nerve to give her a little wave.

It could only be expected then when the 8:20 train pulled up the next day with Anna grinning like the Cheshire cat, her hands on her hips, standing defiantly in Elsa’s spot. There would be no holding back today Elsa decided. As soon as the doors opened the arguing began. Elsa would lecture Anna over the importance of maintaining simple order so that everyone could have an organised and pleasant morning. Anna would disagree on every point she could, saying that Elsa was selfish, caring only about her own comfort.

“Of course people are selfish!” Elsa would cry, “This is London for heaven’s sake!”

And so this soon became the routine of Elsa, Anna and the passengers of the 8:20 train on the Central line. The train would pull up at Holland Park station, Elsa would get on, the passengers would moan and groan, and the two young businesswomen would begin arguing. Now people stayed away from the spot not because of an icy death stare, but because they didn’t want to get caught up in the unrelenting debate. Once a guard tried to break them up but Elsa and Anna turned their anger on the poor guard instead, both arguing against him until he backed out of the middle carriage and dared not come back in. Their arguments weren’t even about Elsa’s, or everyone’s as Anna insisted, spot. They would argue about books, movies, sushi, even the latest posters in the advertisements boards. Anna had the cheek one day to wait till the train arrived at Holland Park before pulling out a fold-up camping chair out of a rucksack and sat in it before the doors opened. Anna soon regretted this decision when the train started moving again and the chair slid out from underneath her. Elsa managed to catch her before she fell to the ground only to begin arguing with her about how much she liked to wind people up.

This all carried on for another few months until Elsa was off ill with the flu one day. Anna realised on that oddly quiet and lonely day that she actually enjoyed arguing with Elsa in the morning. She was wide awake every morning now, always set for her daily dose of Elsa confrontation. Through their countless arguments she got to know Elsa quite well, she knew what she liked, she certainly knew what she disliked, she knew how Elsa would purse her lips and bite her cheek when she didn’t want to burst out laughing or smile, she knew the way Elsa would dress on the certain days of the week. All of this was only the start of her Elsapedia. Anna wondered how on earth that in the few months of living in London, the person she knew the most about and liked the most was someone she argued with daily. Before her thoughts got carried away with themselves, Anna noticed that the passengers were enjoying the peace a little too much. She was half tempted to start arguing with the lot of them just to add some noise to that unfamiliar quiet.

The next day the 8:20 train pulled up to the platform and Elsa, despite being slightly fluey still, was ready to make up for the day of arguing she missed. She was shocked then when the doors opened to reveal her spot empty with not a flicker of auburn hair in sight. She tentatively stepped onto the train. Surely this is some kind of trick? She thought. She knew it had to be a trick. Any minute now Anna would probably run down the train and slide into the spot. Elsa looked down the train and saw Anna stood on the other side alone and beaming at her. Elsa quite forgot about the spot now. This simply wouldn’t do. How dare Anna move to the other side when there was a debate to be had! The passengers closest to the hotly contested spot sighed with relief as for the first time in months, they would be away from the ceaseless argument that began at 8:20 everyday. The passengers near Anna, however, looked on with horror as the tall, blonde businesswoman strode purposefully towards them.

“I demand to know the reason behind your sudden immigration to this side of the train! Do you care nothing for routine?” said Elsa gripping onto a nearby pole to steady herself.

Anna meanwhile continued to beam at Elsa as she enjoyed her attempts to start an argument about anything at all. Curiously, Elsa became redder with anger because Anna simply wouldn’t argue back, she only smiled. Elsa, to her own frustration, found herself admiring Anna’s features all over again.

“This is all a big trick isn’t it? To get me away from my spot! Well let me tell you, Anna Renidens-!”

“Would you be interested in going out for something to eat this evening?” said Anna looking down at the floor, occasionally casting shy glances back up at Elsa.

Elsa was taken aback. That was the last thing she expected Anna to say. She soon found herself stuttering as she had once done when she first spoke to Anna. This was also the first time Anna had said something that Elsa couldn’t or didn’t want to argue with.

“Wow, um- well, I mean… I’d love to.”

Both girls went pink to their ears.

“Finally!” Shouted a blonde boy further down the carriage.