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‘A bunny!’
‘Miss Nilsen’s bakery!’
‘Ice!’
Elsa dropped her arms to her side. Experience had taught Maren this was her taking a moment to think rather than another clue. Her clues had mostly involved her waving her hands around while sniffing.
Maren turned to Anna who shrugged a little. It was boys against girls and since Maren and Anna had gone first they had been pretty level with Ryder, Kristoff and Olaf when Elsa’s first turn started but Elsa really couldn’t act out anything to save her life.
‘Pass!’ Anna said, the first pass of the night. They only had three.
Elsa picked up a new paper and frowned slightly upon seeing it. Then she started waving her hand around again. Was this a new clue?
‘Magic!’
‘Snow!’
‘Leaves!’
Elsa picked up some of the papers that had been left on the floor and threw them at Anna. An oddly aggressive move for someone who was usually very calm.
Anna looked at Sven and saw the time was running out and panicked, ‘Pass!’
With a few seconds left Elsa glanced at the new paper and immediately lifted her leg and put it down next to her. Her hands patting the air in front of her.
‘Bear!’
‘Kai!’
‘Sven!’
As his name was said, Sven rang the bell. Elsa dropped back on the sofa between Anna and Maren all the while muttering an apology. Maren reassured her it was fine but Anna demanded to know what she had been miming.
‘The Earth Giants at first,’ Elsa said.
‘With the sniffing and waving?’
‘Yes, they can sniff out magic,’ Elsa said to her confused sister. ‘Did you not know that?’
‘And then Gale, with the waving and I even added the papers as though they were letters and send them to you.’
‘That was part of it?’ Ryder asked to a murmur of agreement. ‘I thought you were just annoyed.’
‘And then the Nøkk! I was riding him and petting him,’ Elsa said. ‘I actually thought that one was pretty good.’
‘It was,’ Maren said, ‘if we had had a bit more time we would’ve got it for sure.’
‘But you didn’t so it’s 13 for the guys and 9 for the girls! Let’s start round two!’ Ryder said.
The second round presented the boys with a few trickier words. Ryder got stuck on acting out what a bluebell was. Maren’s insistence he should have split it into two parts was met with a pillow to her head. Then Olaf spent almost half his time acting like a wolf only to realise his paper said ‘wolffish’ and not ‘wolfish’.
Maren and Anna on the other hand were on a roll. Their performances were so good that even Elsa managed to guess several of them correctly. By the time it was Elsa’s turn to act out the next clue they were level with the boys.
But Elsa didn’t get up from the sofa after Anna told her it was her turn. ‘Can’t we just leave it? We’re level now so we’re all winners.’
‘Or we’re all losers,’ Anna said. ‘You can do this, Elsa! We only need one point.’
‘Hey,’ Maren said so only Elsa could hear, ‘don’t worry about it. I think you’re awesome either way.’
As nice as Maren’s words were, Elsa still got up rather reluctantly and pulled the first note from Sven’s basket. Her first reaction was not promising – a slight frown and an element of surprise.
‘You got this!’ Anna yelled.
Elsa’s first move was the hold up her hands, palms up so Anna and Maren got a few guesses in right away.
‘Hand!’
‘Palm!’
‘Fingers!’
‘Beg!’
Then Elsa stuck out her tongue and moved it up and down and Maren felt a slight blush creep up her face. She stayed quiet as none of the words popping into her head were appropriate for company. Anna continued guessing though as Elsa stopped moving her tongue and seemed to be throwing something in the air.
‘Snow!’
‘Ball!’
‘Dog!’
When Elsa had repeated the three actions twice Anna decided to use their third and final pass so Elsa reached over to grab a new slip of paper. She seemed more confident with this clue and started gesturing between her and Anna right away.
‘Sisters!’
‘Best friends!’
‘Queens!’
‘Idiots!’
‘Shut up, Kristoff!’
Elsa pointed between Anna and Kristoff now but it wasn’t clear if this was part of it or just meant to get them to stop it. Then she pointed at the painting of their parents behind them and all the while she was tapping her chest.
‘Family!’
‘The Arendelles!’
‘Royals!’
Exasperation was getting to Elsa a bit as she tapped her chest right over her heart and pointed at Anna and Kristoff and Olaf and finally at Honeymaren when Anna suddenly got it and as Sven rang the bell, Anna all but yelled, ‘LOVE!’
‘Yes!’ Elsa exclaimed.
Elsa sank back onto the sofa as Anna and Kristoff argued about whether or not the start or end of the bell signalled the end of the round. Elsa didn’t care though and was just happy someone guessed one of her clues – it was such a rare occurrence.
‘It was Bruni,’ Elsa said to Maren. ‘The first one. I was trying to show the eye lick thing but it didn’t work. I just couldn’t believe I got all four spirits in a row.’
Maren didn’t reply and was looking at Elsa with a slightly odd expression. Before Elsa could question this, Anna pushed a drink into their hands. Apparently, she had won the argument and they had won. Elsa didn’t really care but Anna did so she celebrated with her.
~*~*~
An hour or so later, Anna and Ryder were arguing about who could act out the clues nobody had guessed best and were taking turns showing Kristoff. Elsa had been reading to Olaf until he had fallen asleep. Looking up she noticed Maren had stepped out to the balcony. Leaving the others to continue their competition, Elsa stepped out to join her.
‘Hey,’ Elsa said, closing the door behind her before approaching Maren.
Maren gave her a small smile before returning to look over the fjord. Elsa joined her and for a while they stood quietly, just enjoying the company and the view. No matter how much Elsa loved being home, there was always that pull back to the forest.
In fact, she had cut short her last few visits to Arendelle because she had wanted to return to the forest early. Although if Elsa was being perfectly honest that was in large part due to a desire to return to the woman standing next to her now.
Elsa first noticed this a few months ago and it had surprised her more than anything else. Initially Elsa assumed what she was feeling was a normal friendship but as she made a few more friends, Elsa realised that her feelings for Maren were different and much deeper.
And now Maren was standing next to her, silently staring ahead and nervously picking at the wooden railing. Did she look worried? Elsa couldn’t quite figure it out but she was trying to worry less and be more social and as Anna said simply asking a question can help with both those things.
‘Are you okay?’
Maren turned to her and while the frown didn’t quite leave her face, there was a sweet smile there as well.
‘What did you mean when you pointed at me?’ Maren asked. Elsa couldn’t quite place the question until Maren added, ‘with the last clue.’
Suddenly it dawned on Elsa that she had absolutely included Maren in her pointing when she was trying to act out love. Was that bad? Friends love each other, don’t they? It didn’t have to mean what Elsa knew it meant. Just because Elsa happened to spend a great deal of her time thinking about Maren and wondering what it would be like to kiss her, didn’t mean that her pointing at Maren during a game of charades proved that, did it?
‘Oh,’ Elsa said. Great response, very articulate, Elsa thought. Maren had locked eyes with her and Elsa saw nothing but kindness and curiosity. ‘Well, I do love you… if that’s okay.’
Maren laughed a little at that. ‘Yeah, that’s okay, Elsa.’
Maren still locked curious and stepped a little closer to Elsa causing her stomach to do the now familiar summersault it did whenever Maren came close. Maren reached out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Elsa’s ear and smiled.
‘What sort of love do you feel, Elsa?’ Maren asked. Elsa blushed at the thought of answering that question honestly. A blush that did not go unnoticed by Maren. ‘Because there are lots of different ways to love.’
‘I … I’m not really sure how to describe it,’ Elsa said.
‘Try,’ Maren said, taking Elsa’s hands into her own. ‘Please.’
Emboldened by the feel of Maren’s hands softly caressing her own Elsa said, ‘it’s warm and comforting, but also wild and exciting. And it makes me greedy.’
‘Greedy?’
‘Yeah, like I always want more. Another chat by the fire, another walk in the woods, another night spend stargazing. And to sit a little closer, have your hand linger a little longer. Just more.’
Maren stepped a little closer again. Their noses were almost touching when Maren whispered, ‘I’d happily give you more, Elsa. So much more.’
Moving as one their lips touched lightly. Relishing the feel of Maren’s lips against her own, Elsa started moving her lips a little. Taking Maren’s bottom lips between hers Elsa gently slid her tongue across it. A soft moan escaped Maren before stepping back a little to be able to look Elsa in the eyes.
‘I love you too,’ Maren whispered.
Elsa moved in for another kiss. Maren responded with great enthusiasm and when Elsa once again moved her tongue against her lips Maren opened her lips to deepen their kiss. All the warmth and excitement swirled inside Elsa making her feel settled like she finally understood a part of herself that had always been a mystery to her.
They kissed until a sudden realisation made Elsa step back.
‘What is it?’ Maren asked.
‘I just realised that Anna didn’t get what the clue was until I pointed at you, but I never told her about my feelings for you so how did she know?’ Elsa wondered, as she turned to face the room.
And there was Anna. Watching them on the balcony with tears in her eyes and a big smile on her face. Apparently Elsa’s feelings hadn’t been quite as mysterious to Anna as they had been to her.