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Elsa’s eyes were glued to the screen of her phone, a video that had come up in her suggested feed playing over and over again.
Her finger hovered over the heart button, hesitant. The video was almost three weeks old and had more than ninety thousand likes already, so it wasn’t like she was worried of being the first one to do so, no.
Her reluctance came from how Instagram’s new algorithm worked. In certain posts, you could now see who, from the people you followed, had liked a certain post, and Elsa had over fifty million followers.
But again, people knowing she had liked a post wasn’t what was keeping her from liking it, she had liked other videos and pictures in the past. She wasn’t a stranger to posting either, no matter how much Anna kept insisting she was a hermit, but she did like keeping most of her private life, well, private.
Her family had renounced their royal titles in favour of a democratic Arendelle years ago, but she was still in the public eye as far as anyone was concerned. And as the former heir to its throne, her choices still had to be made carefully.
Which brought us to the point she was debating, finger frozen in indecision. To like or not like the ten second video she had seen at least eleven times now.
Pros: bring attention to a very important cause, help them (perhaps) raise the money they were seeking, and all in all, use her influence to point more eyes towards an essential part of their society, one that took care of their dear forests and the city they lived in.
Cons: the world would know she was gay. She was veeeeery gay.
I mean, she was out and proud, so the world already knew she liked women, but there was a line between the once Princess of Arendelle liking a post in support of the LGBTQ+ community, and her liking a video of topless firefighter women posing for a photoshoot.
She never had understood the concept of firefighter calendars until that very second.
Elsa bit her lower lip, debating her choice while the video played again. They were all beautiful women clearly toned, but there was one especially that Elsa couldn’t take her eyes off of.
Her khaki uniform pants hung precariously low on her hips, and on every watch, the guilty part of Elsa kept wishing for them to drop a tiny bit more, but she was quick to stifle that thought because she didn’t want to sound like a pervert.
Then the woman moved and Elsa’s eyes shifted to her abs. She couldn’t get a full view of them because her hand covered her stomach for half the frames she appeared in as the video moved to the right, but there was no doubt in Elsa’s mind of the power they suggested.
But she could definitely see the floral tattoo that climbed on the right side of her body, sneaking down her sports bra and continuing towards her back. Elsa couldn’t see its details, only colours and lines, but her fingers itched to trace that ink– this time at least, Elsa knew her actions were motivated more by the appreciation of its art rather than desire.
And those arms… the firefighter looked like she could lift Elsa into the air with no issues with how defined her arms were, which she probably could. The woman smiled brightly as she waved at someone off-screen, her arm showing those slick muscles, sunkissed and oh so kissable…
Elsa was in trouble, alright.
But if she liked the video, it would be for a good cause, right? Besides, the account that had posted it had ‘Arendelle’ in its name, so that implied they were local. She could help them out with her influence, if only she tapped the screen twice…
“ELSA!”
Elsa jumped with a startle on the sofa, her phone flying off her hands and landing somewhere between the cushions. Her heart beat furiously in her chest, embarrassed for having been caught doing something she shouldn’t have.
“What?!” she barked, sounding perhaps harsher than was warranted.
Anna’s footsteps preceded her arrival. The redhead’s head popped up on the side of the living room's doorframe.
“Have you seen my phone?” she asked.
Elsa suppressed a growl; Anna was bothering her for that? She was not a kid anymore, she could do that on her own and leave Elsa to the very important issues she had been evaluating.
“Have you checked on your green jacket?” Elsa proposed instead.
“Which one?” Anna shot back with a snort.
She swung on the doorframe as she walked into the living room, plopping her arms on the back of the sofa and rocking back and forth. Elsa rolled her eyes at her sister, sitting up and searching under the cushions for her own phone.
“I don’t know, Anna, the one on the coatrack? Or maybe Kristoff’s, you came back with his coat yesterday.”
“Oh!” Anna clapped her hands together. “Oh you are right! He stayed late with Ryder because they had to pack some work things at the station and they wanted everything to be ready for today, so when I went to meet him I didn’t have anything on because it was sunny.” Anna was clearly not talking to Elsa anymore. “And since it was late we went for dinner with Ryder and his sister, but then the weather turned and my skirt and crop top wasn’t warm enough so he lent me his uniform’s coat. Then Ryder gave us a ride back, heh, Ryder gave a ride, and I told Kristoff I would give it back today.”
While Anna monologued, Elsa managed to find her phone. The screen wasn’t broken, thanks to the soft pillows cushioning its fall. It dinged on her hand with a message.
Elsa tapped the phone’s edge against her chin. “Isn’t Kristoff already working? He had a day shift, you said.”
Anna waved her concerns off. “I mean yes, but he said someone would be swinging by to collect it. He said they would probably get here at around midday and…” Anna checked her watch. “And that’s almost now. Oh, he also said they had something to give me!”
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you go get your phone, then? See if he’s sent you a message?”
“Yep, yep, you are right… On my way!” Anna stuck out her tongue at Elsa before leaving the room. Her steps on the stairs were clamorous as always, fading into the background as she reached the top.
Elsa snorted, getting up from the sofa and cracking her neck side to side. She had decided to take the day off after two weeks of crunching the illustrations for her latest client, and she was feeling lazy.
Her white hoodie rode up as she stretched out with a yawn. She adjusted the glasses on her nose, shaking out her hair with the other hand. The only responsibility she had that day was pilates later in the evening, and thank the spirits she had scheduled it because she was feeling rusty.
Her phone buzzed once on her hand, then twice. Elsa’s attention shifted to it as she walked towards the kitchen to grab some water, but before she could unlock it, the apartment’s doorbell rang.
“ELSA CAN YOU OPEN THE DOOR THAT’S PROBABLY KRISTOFF’S BUDDY!”
Anna’s words were crystal clear even from her room on the first floor, as though her voice was more a megaphone than a human windpipe.
“Fiiine!” she yelled back.
Elsa changed directions and headed to the door, humming to herself. The doorbell rang again, and so did the device on her hand.
“Yes, yes, I’m almost there!” she informed whoever Kristoff had sent.
Brow furrowed at the amount of notifications she was getting, Elsa drew her phone’s pattern with her right thumb, left hand reaching out for the door’s handle.
She opened it at the same time her phone’s screen shimmered out of the lockscreen and into the video she had been watching.
And the heart that now glowed red on the right-handside of it.
No.
Oh no, no, no, no.
Elsa stopped dead, heart frozen in fear as her phone showed her the push notifications of messages and DMs and missed calls, all because her clumsy fingers had double-tapped the screen when her boisterous sister scared her half to death.
From the quick look at the messages as they disappeared, everyone was asking her about why she had liked that video. Elsa knew she couldn’t take back the heart now no matter how much she wanted to, it would be a PR disaster!
Spirits, could things get even worse?
“Hi, is this Anna’s apartment?”
The voice that cut through Elsa’s panic was rich like honey, slightly rough but in a good way. Elsa took a deep breath, her heart restarting. There was no point in getting hung up on the video right now, first, she needed to fend away the strangers.
Elsa shook her head to clear it. “Sorry, I was just–”
The words caught on her throat, mouth falling wide open when her eyes climbed up the body cladded in firefighter uniform, and landed on her face.
That lopsided smile, those freckles peppered across her cheeks and nose, those brown eyes that locked into Elsa’s and didn’t let go, the fringe that stopped just above them.
The athletic body that hid under those baggy clothes, her firm arms that carried a stack of papers, the floral tattoo that ascended through her flank and under the sports bra she was probably wearing at this exact–
Elsa could feel a blush climb from her neck to the tip of her ears as she fumbled for words she couldn’t find.
The woman in front of her blinked rapidly, her easy-going smile shifting to a concerned expression as she knitted her brows together. But the sound of Elsa’s phone dinging three times in a row drew her attention downwards to it.
And to the video playing.
Eyes shone in recognition because she was one of the women in the video. She was the woman in the video.
Elsa squealed, panicked, letting her phone drop to the floor and kicking it back inside. Compose yourself, compose yourself, she repeated in her mind, swiping a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Hi, yes, um, hi, how can I help you?” she cringed internally at how high-pitched her voice sounded, but she wasn’t thinking straight anymore.
“Oh, she’s not… she’s not here? We’re uh–” the woman stammered, a light blush colouring her cheeks. “We’re selling calendars to raise money for our local fire station, you… You might’ve seen them announced before…?” The firefighter presented Elsa with one of the somewhat racy calendars the video had been alluding to.
Elsa wanted to die in that moment, for a hole to open under her feet and swallow her whole. There was no denying she had seen the calendar before–or at least the women featured in it–not when she had been caught red handed, 4K resolution, watching their behind-the-scenes video.
“Wonderful! Of course I’ll help our local heroes get hot– fire hot– fight fire. How much for a firefighter– for a calendar?” the more she spoke the less her words made sense, and the worse she sounded.
The woman in front of her blushed deeper, her lips quirking up with Elsa’s blunders. She tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear.
“It’s three hundred krones each,” she told Elsa.
Feeling her face as hot as the fires the fighter in front of her probably put out, Elsa turned to retrieve her wallet from the console table of the entrance.
“Do you take credit cards?” she asked when she turned back.
The firefighter looked dubious. “...no…?”
“Great! I’ll take ten!” Elsa gleefully replied. She ruffled through the pockets of her wallet and grabbed at least six thousand krones, handing the banknotes over.
But the woman didn’t reach for the money yet, her eyes flickering between Elsa’s outstretched hand and her face.
“Miss, are you okay?” she asked Elsa, face marred with worry.
Elsa knew she probably was asking that because the blonde was close to hyperventilating, but Elsa couldn’t bear making more of a fool of herself than she already had.
“I’m ecstatic!” she replied instead, unable to meet the firefighter’s eyes. “Here, thank you for your body– for your work! Bye!”
She snatched a calendar from the woman’s arms, all but throwing the banknotes on top of the rest of the pile. Then she slammed the door of the apartment shut, leaning her forehead against it.
That had been absolutely mortifying, painful to watch, and a downright disaster.
She must’ve looked like a pervert and perhaps even a stalker, because what were the odds of knocking on a random apartment, and the woman that opened the door having a video of you playing on her phone if she hadn’t known you were coming?
Spirits, the firefighter was probably going to call the police on her.
“Elsa?” Anna called out. “Was that Kristoff?”
Elsa snapped out of her reverie and turned around as Anna skipped the last steps of the stairs.
“...And why is your phone on the floor?” she followed up. “Huh, I think somebody is calling you.”
Elsa’s eyes widened in alarm; she couldn’t let Anna know what she had just done! As her younger sister bent down to pick up her phone, Elsa sprinted and leaped forward to retrieve it before Anna could.
“Wait!”
Elsa almost knocked Anna to the ground as she dove, protectively clutching the phone against her chest as she looked at her sister like a deer caught in headlights. The phone stopped buzzing for a second before another call came through. A look down revealed it was their mother calling.
Oh, great.
Anna put a hand on her hip, regarding Elsa with a confused look. “Okay, what is wrong with you?”
Elsa opened and closed her mouth like a fish. How could she succinctly explain the last ten minutes of her life?
Turns out, she didn’t need to.
Anna’s phone dinged in succession with messages and she took a second to read through them. Her expression shifted between perplexed, worried, and puzzled, until it settled into a deadly cheeky smirk.
“Oh, Elsa, Elsa…” she chuckled. “You really are a mess.”
“Wait, so that was why Ryder didn’t bring back my coat?”
Kristoff threw his head back with a roar at Anna’s recounter of the events of the previous day.
They were in a bar not too far away from Kristoff’s station, enjoying the Friday night before they went home. Kristoff was on call, so he wasn’t drinking alcohol, but Anna and Elsa were, with the latter downing her glass of wine in tune with Kristoff’s laugh.
It was her second one of the night, and if that evening turned out to be a ‘teasing Elsa’ session, she was going to need a couple more. The blush on her cheeks wasn’t only from the alcohol, as the topic of her appearing on the news because of a slippery finger had been the first thing Kristoff had mentioned when he had joined them.
“This is all Anna’s fault!” the blonde defended herself. “If she hadn’t lost her phone, she wouldn’t have needed to call for me and she would’ve been the one to open the door!”
Anna put her hands up. “How is that my fault? You were the one watching and liking that video,” she remarked, wiggling her eyebrows with a smirk.
Elsa blushed again, hiding her face between her hands. “Don’t say it like that! It was a perfectly innocent video.”
“Your thoughts weren’t,” Anna quickly pointed out.
Elsa squealed, taking a fry from the basket in the middle of the table and throwing it at her sister.
“That is not true! Stop making me look like a pervert!”
Anna shrugged. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with appreciating the fine body of a lady, Kristoff and I do that all the time.” Next to her, Kristoff nodded. “But if you wanted to admire the body of a certain lady, you know the one you opened the door for is Ryder’s sister, right?”
Elsa let her forehead fall on the table as Anna cackled wickedly over her. Things could indeed get worse. She hadn’t met Kristoff’s partner Ryder, although she had heard about him whenever Kristoff talked about work over dinner.
And as he told the former royals, Ryder’s sister had joined their fire station two months ago after working abroad for five years. When Ryder had told her a spot had opened up back in Arendelle, she had jumped on the opportunity of returning home.
Elsa kept wishing for that hole to open under her feet.
She could’ve dealt with the slip of her finger, she could’ve dealt with encountering one of the women from that video on her doorstep, she could’ve dealt with making a fool of herself in front of said woman.
But the fact that it was that woman, the woman Elsa had found incredibly attractive, the one she had made a fool of herself in front of and who was the sister of Kristoff’s best friend… yeah, she’d take the pit over meeting her ever again.
“Oh, and speaking of…” Elsa heard Kristoff get up from the booth. “Ryder! Maren! Over here!”
Elsa’s head snapped up, eyes wide as saucers.
No. It couldn’t possibly…
But Anna’s sly smile in front of her told another story.
From the corner of her eye, Elsa saw Kristoff hug a muscular man with shoulder-length brown hair and an easy-going smile. He was wearing a red and black flannel and denim pants.
“Kristoff! What are you doing here, man, it’s your day off!”
Elsa noticed he was cute, excitedly patting Kristoff’s back as if it had been days since the last time they had seen each other.
Kristoff set his hand on his shoulder. “I’m on call, didn’t you see the sheet? We came here for Happy Hour and to introduce Elsa to the perks of having a bar next to the fire station; you know they have the best deals.”
“Yes, Happy Hour! We were thinking the same thing.”
The young man moved to the side and the person behind him came into view.
She was dressed very differently from the last time Elsa had seen her, but she was just as beautiful. She was wearing jeans and a green T-shirt that left her lean arms in full view for Elsa to ogle.
Anna reached over the table to close Elsa’s mouth.
Just in time too, because Kristoff turned towards the sisters with a smile.
“You guys already know Anna, but I don’t think you were properly introduced to her sister. Ryder, Maren, this is Elsa, and she’s usually coherent when she answers the door. Elsa, this is Ryder, my work partner, and his sister, Honeymaren; it’s good to put a name to the body, right?”
Everybody but Elsa shared a laugh, who was too busy burying her face in her hands.
“It’s alright,” that deep, husky voice said. “I must admit I’ve never met a fan before, but I’m flattered. And hey, her stunt sold out the women’s calendars within five minutes, so I’m not going to complain. Perhaps we could officially partner up for next year? It would come with a free calendar, no need to overpay for it.”
Elsa finally raised her head to look at Honeymaren, who winked back with a smile. Elsa bit her lower lip, pink dusting her cheeks.
“On that note, why don’t you two stay with us?” Anna asked the siblings, scootching over to the end of the bench to get up. “We’ll go get us some drinks, won't we, Ryder, Kristoff? Let’s go, let’s go.”
Elsa suppressed a groan; Anna was not discreet at all. Everyone else seemed to catch on to what the redhead was doing, and the men followed after Anna with a snicker.
“Do they really think they’re being sneaky?” the brunette asked, watching them go with a raised eyebrow.
This time Elsa didn’t withhold the heavy sigh that fell from her lips. “Honestly, sometimes I think she didn’t grow past twelve.”
“She’s Ryder’s age, right? Twenty-eight?”
“Only on a good day. As you can see, today she’s closer to ten.”
Honeymaren chuckled. “Ah, I think that’s a generational problem; Ryder’s just like her.”
Elsa laughed, feeling her shoulders relax. Honeymaren took the chance and sat on the other side facing Elsa. She laced her fingers together and set them on top of the table. She regarded Elsa with a laidback smile, none of the apprehension the blonde had expected.
Gosh, but she was really beautiful.
“Look,” started Elsa. “I’m sorry for what happened yesterday, I was… caught completely by surprise, I– I’m usually not that rude.”
The brunette half-shrugged. “I didn’t find you rude, I found you endearing; I’m usually the one who’s awkward, that was a new experience. I was mostly worried you were suffering from a heatstroke, your face got very red at the end.”
Elsa hid her face under one hand, but she couldn’t hide her smile. Wait… was Honeymaren flirting with her? Maybe the pit of despair could wait and Elsa could test the waters.
“Good thing I had a firefighter on my doorstep,” she quipped with a smirk.
Honeymaren chuckled. “Two, actually, but you didn’t seem to notice Ryder. But don’t worry, I would’ve been more than able to kick down the door and pick you up if you had needed it.” She leaned forward, winking at Elsa.
Oh, she was definitely flirting.
Her heart missed a beat as she considered her next words, a fluttery feeling in her stomach.
“Well, how about tomorrow at eight?”
For a second Honeymaren looked surprised and Elsa thought she had read the whole thing wrong, but then Honeymaren blushed, avoiding Elsa’s eyes with a sheepish smile. The brunette scratched the back of her head with a grin.
The image in front of her was too adorable for Elsa not to say something. “Oh? You’re shy now?”
Honeymaren chuckled. “I am not very used to being flirted with,” she confessed. “But from you it’s welcomed. Oh, as a heads up, I work tomorrow until eight; maybe we could meet at eight thirty?”
Elsa couldn’t believe that had worked.
“Sounds perfect,” she said with a smile.
They sat there, just looking at each other with smiles on their faces until a clatter on the end of the table made the both of them jump.
“Drinks?” Anna’s smile was deadly. “I’m sorry, Maren, you’re on my seat. Perhaps you would like to move? To the other bench? You know, a bit closer to my sister?”
Honeymaren shook her head with a laugh at Anna’s shamelessness.
“You really aren’t subtle, are you?” she asked Anna.
Anna grinned. “If you know exactly what I mean–and neither of you is telling me to stop–then get to it. Chop chop!”
Honeymaren and Elsa exchanged an amused smile, but Honeymaren did move to sit closer to Elsa. And closer even she sat, because Ryder sat on her other side and pushed Honeymaren further into the booth.
Hip to hip, and arm to arm with Honeymaren, Elsa felt giddy. The brunette looked at Elsa and rolled her eyes, faking annoyance at her brother’s antics and making Elsa giggle.
“Children,” she whispered.
And Elsa laughed harder.
“Here, Maren. And here, Elsa.”
On the other side of the table, Kristoff started handing around the drinks Anna had brought. Elsa was back on her wine and the trio had brought a non-alcoholic beer for Honeymaren. Ryder and Anna were drinking the same colourful drink that was probably more sugar than alcohol, and Kristoff was having a soda pop.
“To what should we toast?” asked Ryder.
The five of them looked at each other, thinking of a good call. Of course, it was Anna who found it. With a gasp, she raised her glass.
“To hot firefighters!”