I don't own Frozen. Many, MANY thanks to my beta for her hard work and lessons.

The next few weeks were a string of awkward situations, meetings in hallways that consisted of nothing more than a wave and a smile. It rained often and heavily, leading to many days spent indoors. Until that Friday morning, three weeks after that first meeting, that Elsa heard a soft rap at her door.

Elsa froze where she was, cooking scrambled eggs half-dressed, a glass of chocolate milk and a pot of coffee on the counter.

"Knock knock?" Anna's voice called cautiously when there was no immediate response. After a moment of silence, the rap came again. Tap, taptaptap, tap-tap.

Elsa shuffled over to the door nervously, looking through the peephole to see Anna leaning up and pressing her ear to the door, holding something out of sight. Elsa unlocked the door with a click and cracked it open carefully, brushing falling bangs back over her hair and smiling like a little mouse cornered by a cat. Anna was in PJs, barefoot. Her clothes had smiley faces imprinted all over them. She smelled like cereal and toothpaste.

"Good morning!" Anna said, then continued without waiting for a response. "Um, do you have a cup of sugar I could borrow?"

Elsa relaxed and took a moment to reflect on the question asked of her, then a few moments more than one should really need to consider whether or not to give someone a cup of sugar. Coming to a decision, she nodded tersely, shuffling over to her kitchen to fetch it. She had plenty of sugar to spare, she rarely made anything more complicated than breakfast. She opened the cupboard door, reached up on her tip-toes to the shelf with the sugar, and pulled it down, closing the door again. Anna's head had been hidden behind it, looking around the kitchen admiringly. Elsa had forgotten to close the door and it seemed the redhead had invited herself inside.

"Nice place!" Anna commented just as she came into view, and Elsa jerked in surprise, dropping the bag of sugar on the floor and backing away, clutching her chest as if she'd had a heart attack. "Oh, geez! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to surprise you- you left the door open and I thought that meant- it doesn't matter what I thought it meant, look at this mess, oh, geez, let me clean this up for you.." Anna quickly lifted the bag of sugar and put it on the counter, leaving spilled sugar around it. The redhead then looked around quickly for...- oh there it was, a little brush and pan for cleaning up. She grabbed it off the hook and swept the sugar into the dustpan while Elsa watched, wide eyed and silent.

"I'm SO sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I - what is that smell?" Anna looked up from the floor. "Elsa, your eggs are burning!" Anna leapt to the stovetop and quickly grabbed the frying pan, causing Elsa to jump back and away as Anna yanked the eggs away and turned the heat off, putting the pan in the sink hastily as a chunk of blackened egg tumbled over the side onto the kitchen floor. She accidentally brushed her foot into one burning morsel and yelped, moving away from it and sliding onto the countertop, knocking the glass of chocolate milk over.

The scene finally settled as Anna stayed there, arms brought up to her chest, while Elsa looked on to the disaster area her kitchen had become in the space of a few seconds. Sugar on the counter, sugar on the floor, steaming eggs in the sink, black bits of food on the floor, chocolate milk on the counter, chocolate milk on the floor, Anna on the counter...

"Um..." Anna slowly righted the chocolate milk glass, sliding it away from her. "I'll just.." She looked up at Elsa, who was looking at Anna as if she were insane.

Nothing in Elsa's isolated past had prepared her for dealing with sprucy redheads creating a disaster scene in her kitchen. In fact, they hadn't taught her how to deal with redheads in any fashion, anything about interacting with other live human beings at all. She knew how to acknowledge people existing when they served a purpose to her. She knew how to fire them and she was very skilled in handpicking people - from their CVs. Never face to face. Never.

Elsa's expression tightened and turned cold. "I'm... going to go take a shower." She said, wrapping her arms under her chest. "Please close the door when you're done." She marched out of sight. A door opened, closed. The apartment was silent.

Speechless, Anna stared after Elsa, then at the mess she had made of the kitchen.. Her shoulders slumped and she slowly slid down off the countertop, getting to work on cleaning up the mess she had made.

"Stupid, stupid, STUPID." She muttered, rubbing her wrist across her eyes. "Can't do anything right... shouldn't even have tried, look at this." It only took a minute to clean up the mess and find a trash can to stuff the roll of soiled paper towels in, but it felt like forever to Anna. Like a defeated soldier she bit back her tears and marched quietly out of the apartment, closing the door behind her.

Elsa was freaking out, hiding under her covers and holding onto a pillow for dear life, crushing her fingers into the fabric like it was a stress ball. An alarm went off and she yelped, reaching out from under the covers to grab the phone the alarm was coming from. Work could wait. She stayed where she was, waiting. When the sounds from the kitchen stopped she began to calm down enough to move again.

Father was right, Father was right.. No, must not overreact, must not make a scene. Elsa pushed the covers away from her. The bedroom door was still closed and locked. When she cracked it open, the door to her apartment was closed and there were no signs of her unfortunate neighbor. Anna didn't deserve to be run out on like that after trying to help. It was all Elsa's fault, she'd left the door open, she'd dropped the sugar, burned the eggs.

The kitchen had been cleaned up, though she was missing a roll of paper towels. At least the glass hadn't broken- and there was a strange cup next to it. It wasn't one of hers. Anna must have brought it over and then forgotten it. She picked it up and inspected it. Anna wouldn't be able to do whatever she needed the cup of sugar for. That was something she could fix.

So it was only mere minutes after the incident in her kitchen that Elsa knocked stiffly on the door to her neighbor's apartment, so softly as if though she didn't want to be heard. "Anna?" She whispered. She was lucky the hallway was devoid of anyone else, she didn't think she'd be able to handle someone seeing her like this, cowering by a door. After a few seconds she began to lose her nerve and turned to retreat back to her room, but the door opened just in time. She steeled herself as best as she could.

Anna cringed and grimaced at the sight of Elsa, looking cold and distant. Surely, she was about to receive the scolding of her life. So much for befriending the older girl.

"Anna." Elsa said, rigidly. Anna braced. "You forgot your cup of sugar. I thought you might want it." She offered the cup, her grip like iron on the handle. "So you could do whatever it was you were going to do with it." Elsa managed to smile, just a little, and it wasn't a real smile, but a smile with the intention to smile, at least, and it was enough. Anna relaxed.

"You- Thank you." Anna said, taking the cup. "I'm sorry about your kitchen, that never happens- okay, that always happens around me, but- I'm sorry."

"That's okay." Elsa said, then just... stood there. Waiting. Unsure. Anna looked down at the cup of sugar until the silence grew awkward.

"You're not going to yell at me?" She gingerly offered. "I did kind of ruin your breakfast."

"Why would I yell at you?" Elsa looked genuinely confused.

"Well, you know, because that's what people do when they're mad." Anna said. Elsa's look of confusion didn't go away, and Anna realized that yes, the older girl was not angry with her. Maybe she could salvage the situation. "You're not mad?"

"No. Why would I be? It wasn't your fault."

"It was TOTALLY my fault." Anna said, and looked behind her at her own, messy apartment. "But if you're not mad, then I'm really thankful. I didn't know how I was going to start my day without some sugar in my coffee. I was going to brew some when I realized we were out, and I figured you might have some, so I- yeah."

"I have coffee already made?" Elsa offered. "Would you like some of that instead?"

Anna smiled and clapped her hands together, bringing them up and around the cup of sugar. "Yes, please!"

Relieved at the atmosphere finally lightening, Elsa smiled a tiny, but real, smile. "Come on over, then, I'll give you some."

Anna ran to her kitchen to put the sugar down and grab her coffee cup, then followed the blonde across the hallway, closing her door behind her with a click. Elsa made herself a cup of chocolate milk while Anna used her coffee pot, inhaling the scent and sighing contently before trying a sip. "What flavor is this? It smells good. Like caramel."

"It's imported. Fazenda Santa Ines." Elsa said, sipping from her glass. "I mix it into my chocolate milk when the glass is half-full.. I like the taste better that way."

"Really? Me too." Anna said. "I mean, I like my coffee LOADED with sugar. Totally unhealthy, but so delicious! It makes a day start so much easier, you know? That's why it was so urgent I came to you instead of the store."

"Mm-hm. You're not late for anything, are you?" Elsa asked suddenly.

"Oh- uh, ah. Y- no, not really." Anna admitted. "I'm a student at a local college but I don't have any classes today. I was just actually going to be watching some Disney movies. By myself. I guess." She waited to see if Elsa got the hint.

"Oh, okay then. That was urgent?" Elsa questioned, genuinely confused.

"...well, not REALLY, no." Anna admitted, hoping Elsa would please pick up the hint.

"Oh, okay then." Elsa sipped her chocolate milk to hide the fact she had no idea what to say.

"Well, I guess I'll be going now. Thank you for the delicious coffee. It's too bad I don't have anyone to share it with while I watch movies. Alone."

"Anytime." Elsa said, smiling faintly.

Anna turned away to hide the frustration and defeat on her face. "Have a good morning then."

Elsa watched the girl leave her apartment. She seemed very insistent that she watch the movies alone. I wonder if she would have minded me asking to watch them, too. Elsa thought. I wish I understood social cues more. Wait, did she want me to-? Her thoughts were interrupted by a dull thud outside her door. Curious, she headed back over to the hallway.

Anna was thumping her head on her apartment door, until she heard the squeak of hinges moving and looked back at Elsa with a sheepish grin.

"Forgot my keys." Anna said.

"Oh, that's unfortunate." Elsa said. "Would you like to watch some movies at my place instead?"

Anna fought hard to keep her smile from exploding. "That would be perfect."