NOTES: Just a quick "hi" and a thank you to all of you who've been enjoying this so far! Both Kite and myself have been working on the back end of the story, trying to get it done while we get these chapters edited (and while we pursue other projects). But we're at least keeping up a semi-regular posting schedule. Anyway, ignore this pointless note and enjoy the chapter!

CHAPTER TEN

Friday dawned with an overcast sky. The campers were all clearly unhappy about that, but they continued their activities as usual, hoping for no rain.

And they all loved Anna's braid. Especially when they saw the braid was the same as Elsa's; that drove them crazy. The sisters could see Olaf straining to say things, but apparently, their reprimand had at least temporarily headed him off from saying things like "marriage" in reference to the two of them. Instead he simply told Anna that she looked pretty with Elsa's braid and asked Elsa when she was going to copy Anna's usual hairstyle.

While their interactions were nowhere near as frequent or friendly as the last few days, Anna was relieved that her sister was at least talking to her. Even if it was just to briefly comment on her braid and to explain what that day's agendas were. However, to keep her distance from Elsa, Anna kept herself as busy as possible with the kids, patiently allowing them to play with her braid and helping them with whatever problems they were having.

It was nearing noon and while the sky was still gray and dreary, there was a brief glimpse of the sun peeking through the clouds. Their group were inside the crafts building again, but instead of birdhouses and clay, the kids were all making hats and tie-dyeing shirts. The room was filled with chatter and a mix of colour that brought life where the sky was dull.

Anna stood near the back wall to watch, arms crossed and a slight smile on her lips as she watched Elsa show some of the kids the various ways to dye the shirts. Her hands gestured so emphatically that Anna could even tell what she was demonstrating from across the room. When one of the little girls raised up her shirt to ask a question, she patted her on the head, and the girl beamed with gratitude.

A minute or so later, Elsa approached her spot by the wall, face completely passive. Leaning up against it a foot or so away, she observed, "You've been quiet today."

"Yeah, sorry." Anna subconsciously began to fidget with her hands. She smiled at Elsa but she couldn't help feeling a touch nervous under those bright blue eyes. "I'm just a little tired today, that's all."

"Oh. Well… I guess."

Anna felt a tug on her shirt and almost sighed in relief when she looked down to see Max, one of the camp owner's kids, standing in front of her with a sheepish grin. "Hmm?"

"Miss Anna, can you help me with my hat?" She ruffled his hair and nodded, watching him as he dashed back to his table before walking after him with an apologetic look towards Elsa.

She ended up staying there for a bit, watching as Elsa went back to helping the kids, however there was a slight frown gracing her beautiful features that made Anna's gut twist in guilt. She didn't mean to lie, but she wasn't sure how else to respond to the question without making the kids curious.

~ o ~

Elsa didn't try again until they were in the mess hall for supper. She had apparently been chewing on what she would say all throughout the entire crafts activity, because she spoke as if there had been no gap in their conversation.

"Of course you're tired. Where… did you sleep last night?"

The question made her blink in surprise. She was sitting alone today, seeing as Rapunzel was busy elsewhere, and hadn't expected her sister to join her. "I stayed with Rapunzel," she answered, lowering her gaze to her platter. "Her roomie, Snow, was sleeping over with the other girls so Punzie offered her bed to me. Snow was surprisingly nice about it this morning, too," she sighed slightly. "Did… you sleep okay?"

"No. I didn't. Too many thoughts running around in my head." She moved around to sit, even though she had been waiting before. Apparently, Anna's not asking her to leave was approval enough. "I have a feeling I… didn't say the right things last night. When you told me."

Anna's guilt returned tenfold at the almost casual way Elsa admitted her bad night. She wanted to shrink under the piercing gaze, feeling worse as she reflected that while Anna had Rapunzel, Elsa had no one to turn to since Anna had selfishly ran from her.

"I-I'm sorry," she managed to whisper. She heard the scrape of the chair across from her as Elsa settled down. "W-What did you mean to say?" The words came out of a tight throat and Anna fiddled with her fork, too ashamed and too guilty to look her sister in the eyes.

"I… wouldn't know, Anna. This isn't something I've ever had to talk about before. So… I think it's really unfair for you to have expected me to answer correctly the first time, don't you?"

"I don't expect you to answer 'correctly'…" Anna sighed and forced herself to eat a bit of the food despite the knots in her stomach. "I just… want some reassurance that you won't hate me, that's all. That you won't do what our mom did." She didn't like saying that, admitting it out loud still stung. "I love you, Elsa, and I can't… I wouldn't be able to deal with you hating me. I'm so sorry for leaving you last night but I just got so scared…"

Looking down at her tray for a few seconds, Elsa finally whispered, "You didn't give me a chance. You just… just dropped this bombshell on me, and then ran. Maybe I have no idea what I could have said, maybe I messed up my words, but how could I do any better with you gone?"

Anna hung her head in shame. "I'm sorry," she apologised, "I didn't… I remember you always liked to be alone to think about stuff, and I was scared that I- I would just… be a distraction, and we would fight and-" She stopped herself from finishing that sentence. "So I left to give us space to think about it. I'm sorry..."

The other sister didn't respond for a minute, opting to take a few bites of her food. Her hand was shaking as she lifted the fork up to her mouth, chest rising and falling too rapidly. Anna almost began to worry she was having an attack of some kind when she finally spoke up again, voice barely a whisper.

"You're probably right. About me needing time. But you left too early. I… I didn't… I had questions. They might have been stupid, or cruel. But I had them, and no one to ask them to." Then she set down the fork and grunted in frustration, "This is going nowhere; I keep blaming you for being scared when I don't mean to, and… and that isn't fair. I just want you to understand how I was feeling yesterday, too, that's all. Do you?"

"I literally just crapped on an entire lifetime's worth of teachings, Elsa," Anna said softly. "Trust me, I've been there, too. Luckily, Papa has been nothing but supportive of me. He never held any disdain for gay people and he always told me that my… 'lifestyle' doesn't make me any less of a person or any less of a Christian." She looked down. "But you, you were raised under the firm belief that we're bad people, and to learn that I'm one of those bad people was probably a bitter enough pill to swallow without me running off like that…"

"Anna… of course I don't hate you." Her eyes were clear and intense when Anna glanced up at them, gazing directly into Anna's. "Actually, I'm pretty hurt you think I could. Even when I thought you were ignoring me for five years, when I resented that… I still didn't hate you over it. Why should this be any different?"

"I- I just love you so much..." Anna's confession was a whisper and she had a hard time keeping Elsa's intense gaze. "I- I couldn't help but worry about the chance." She didn't mention that a large part of her hesitation had to do with their mother's actions. She wanted to reach out and hold her sister close but she hesitated, unsure where they stood. It was such a tremendous relief to know Elsa didn't hate her that Anna's tense shoulders almost completely relaxed, but she was still not too certain how welcome her touch would be.

"You really do, don't you?" Elsa's question was fragile and small. "I… wish I had never questioned it. I wish I could say that, but I can't. Because after the first few years…" Now she was looking down at the table, throat tight. "Did… you not want to talk to me all this time… because of this? Because you were afraid I wouldn't love you anymore, like you were afraid last night?"

"I told you, all I wanted more than anything was to talk to you." Anna bit her lip in frustration. "I- I admit I'm not sure I would've admitted my sexuality right away, but I would never just completely shut you out of my life! I tried so hard to contact you and I have no idea how to prove that!"

"Yeah, you said. About the picture." Suddenly, almost as if from nowhere — but obviously they had been building all along — tears were sliding down her cheeks as she hissed, "But what possible reason would Mama have to do this?! It's crazy! I know she hates Papa now from how she talks about him, I know that, but she doesn't ever talk about you at all! Not unless I bring you up! A-and you're so sweet, and kind, and every bit the sister I remember, so I just don't understand this! I'm s-so confused, and I don't know what to believe!"

"I don't know, Elsa." Seeing Elsa break down in front of her was one of the most painful sights Anna has ever seen and without another word, she stood up and walked around the table to her sister. She kneeled in front of her and embraced her tightly. "All I know for sure is that I want nothing more than to be with you… We're together now, and if you're willing, then I never want you out of my life again." She squeezed her as tightly as she could. "I think Mama cut off contact between us because she doesn't want my homosexuality rubbing off on you… I mean, she wouldn't want two gay kids, right? Why would she want that sinner tainting her only good daughter?"

"Shut up. You aren't 'bad', you aren't…" After a few seconds, Elsa's crying quieted. At first, Anna thought she was feeling better, but that hope faded when she whispered in a tight voice, "Are… you sure? That was… that was why?"

She tightened her grip and squeezed her eyes shut to keep her tears from spilling out, as well. "I've been thinking this over for hours, and that's the only thing I can think of that makes sense. She doesn't hate Papa like he thought, it's me..." She let out a soft sound that was stuck between a sob and a sigh. "I don't know Mama as well anymore so I can't say for sure… but I do know Mama freaked when I told her I kissed a girl. What else should I think?"

"When…" Clearing her throat, she pulled back to stare into Anna's face. Hers was full of a kind of dread, maybe even nausea. "When did you tell her about kissing a girl?"

"Remember when I told you about Mulan?" At the sight of Elsa's nod, Anna continued, "Mama called that night and I was just so… I dunno, confused but also kind of elated. A-And I told Mama about it because I was thirteen and wanted to share this weird, new development with her. She lost it, Elsa! Screamed and yelled, and called me all sorts of cruel things until Papa took the phone from me to diffuse the situation." Anna shuddered. "Summer just started, I remember that because Mulan left for a trip to visit relatives in her homeland in June and she kissed me the day she left."

But Anna could tell Elsa hadn't taken much of it in. Her entire face, her posture, everything about her was numb. It would have seemed like a bad omen for their relationship if the next thing Elsa did was anything else, but what she did was reach up to lay her hand on Anna's neck, stroking up and down affectionately.

"Thirteen," she rasped out dully. "Five years ago… right before…"

Anna nodded, relishing the warmth of Elsa's hand on her neck. She held Elsa even tighter. "We were supposed to visit that summer, remember? B-But Papa had to cancel the trip because he was scared of how Mama would react if she saw me… it took Mama six months before she would talk to me again."

"She did? What did she say when she would? What happened? Oh God…" Clearly, Elsa was on the verge of losing mental integrity, but she was trying to hold out long enough to hear Anna's full story. To get every piece of information into place.

"She didn't really say anything? If I asked about you, she would avoid the question or tell me you were too busy to talk and if I tried talking to her she would… she would talk about the scriptures or make general small talk rather than tell me about how you and her were doing. I mean, besides 'fine', for how much that counts. There were a few times she asked if I had 'purged the evil from my soul'… and when I didn't answer, she would hang up. But she would always call at the same time every week and would answer my calls so I had no reason to believe anything was out of the ordinary besides the fact that she never really acted like Mama anymore and that you wouldn't talk to me."

Elsa blinked a few times as Anna rubbed her shoulders, nodded, and sat blinking for a few seconds longer. Then she whispered, "Anna, I am… I still don't understand all of this, but I'm sorry that you were ever given the impression that I was too busy for you. Or that I would stop loving you just because you like women. I still don't understand that, but it's not the same as me giving up on you completely. I…" Her lip quivered. "I'm glad you're back in my life, okay?"

"I'm glad you're back in mine, too, Elsie. So glad!" Anna choked on a sob as she pressed her face into Elsa's to give her a kiss on the cheek, her arms around the older girl shaking from the onslaught of emotion and love that overwhelmed her. "T-Thank you."

Elsa nodded against her face, clinging to her hard. They sniffled and clung to each other, lost in the heartache and sadness. The spell was eventually broken by a quiet, sweet voice.

"Are you two alright over here?"

When they drew back enough to look, it was to see Snow's cherubic little face blinking down at them in concern. Anna reluctantly pulled away from Elsa, resting a hand on her cheek and using her thumb to carefully wipe the winter blonde's tears away. Anna let out a sigh.

"We're fine, Snow... we just…" She didn't know how to explain the situation so she trailed off and just looked at Elsa, who was smiling through her bleary, wrung-out expression. She felt much better than she had starting the day, but she knew that their talk wasn't quite over yet.

"We needed to get some stuff out, that's all," she finally managed to finish. That would have to do.

To Be Continued...