Where We Are

Where We Are

by eversskye

Chapter One

"No! Don't come in."

She hid behind the wooden door, both hands shielding tearful eyes as she slipped towards the carpeted floor.

"It's okay, darling, won't you come outside? Don't be afraid."

The gentleness of her father's voice did nothing to assuage her worries. She shivered, drawing her knees to her chest as the world began to spin. The echoes behind the door became urgent murmurs soon drowned out by the loud drumming of her heart.

"NO!" she screamed, as the world pressed in and shadows within the room blended into vicious monsters, drowning her in darkness.

Anna was always watching the older girl, it seemed. They were in the midst of a battle when Anna noticed her guild leader's unusual lack of focus.

"Eris! Behind you!"

The tall sorceress broke from her reverie, turning her head towards the sound of the voice. A flash of movement caught into her peripheral version and she spun, arms raised in defense with palms facing outward.

Anna dashed forward, four daggers in hand ready to throw to aid her comrade. Yet the water spirits around Eris wasted no time to attack, flying rapidly towards her from several directions and making it impossible to dodge or for anyone to reach her on time. Before they could make contact, however, a gush of frigid wind burst forth from her fingers, blasting them away in a powerful explosion of water and ice.

The rest of their friends lowered their weapons, mouths opened slightly as they watched the water spirits dissolve into nothingness. Anna grinned, understanding their amazement. Seeing Eris fight was always a rare treat, especially since the girl often preferred a more passive role, choosing to help the guild plan the strategies for their fights rather than participating in them.

Even during larger battles where she had no choice but to join, Eris often held back from using her powers. From the infrequent moments when she did use her magic though, Anna had to wonder just how powerful Eris really was.

Shaking her head to clear the thought, Anna rushed forward to hug her friend, letting herself bask in the simple happiness that taller girl was safe.

"A-Anza!"

Oops.

There was a blush starting to show on the older girl's pale cheeks as Anna pulled away, and she mentally admonished herself for forgetting how shy their guild leader was, especially since the older girl thought Anna was a boy through the male avatar that Anna had regrettably chosen when she first started playing.

With a guilty smile, Anna stepped back.

"Sorry. I'm just glad you're okay."

Gentle, clear blue eyes bore into Anna's own as Eris nodded in gratitude.

"Thanks, Anza."

A sudden slap on the guild leader's back caused her to turn away, however, the single braid of her silvery blonde hair swinging around her shoulder as she stared at her new attacker.

"What was THAT?" Frost, one of their guild mates, exclaimed.

The rest of their guild had begun to approach as well, eyes wide in agreement as Frost gave Eris a friendly push before swinging his arms around the girl's slim shoulders.

"You gotta show me how you managed to pull it off. Those were level 90 water spirits! While they're not exactly strong, their attack speed should be faster than all of ours. There's no way your spell could have activated so quickly."

As she watched Eris squirm under Frost's display of closeness, Anna bristled silently, wondering if she should intervene.

Another guild member -Tangle- spoke up before she could, however.

"Quit bugging her, Frosty. You know how Eris is. She probably thought about it beforehand and used a delayed spell beforehand."

While she spoke, the long-haired healer pealed the silvery-haired boy's arms from their guild leader, sending a secretive wink towards Anna as Eris sighed in relief.

The rest of their friends did not know that they were related. Secretly, Anna smirked at her cousin's antics, making note to thank Rapunzel later once they logged off.

After a few minutes, Frost shrugged, and the rest of the guild quickly accepted the explanation. As the sun began to set, the guild headed back to the city, chatting amicably about the recent battle while they walked.

In no time at all, they could see the large wall that marked Arendelle's territory. Anna thought it odd, sometimes, why Arendelle needed a wall to designate its boundary at all. Aside from the mountains and fjords which surrounded the kingdom, the truth was that the reason why no one ever bothered leaving Arendelle was because impassible mountains and bodies of water surrounded the entire kingdom.

From a realistic point of view, the game was built around the kingdom alone; PVPs occurred as tourneys in the castle grounds, and people gained experience or special items through hunts within the mountain forests. There was no real enemy and no other kingdoms to explore or conquer, thus no real reason for there to be a wall.

Yet no one else seemed to question this oddity. As the guild members said their goodbyes to each other once they reached a safe point to log out, Anna wondered if she could bring the topic up one day.

She couldn't have known that the answer would come to her much sooner than expected.

As the screen around her dimmed, and Anna smiled gently, pulling the gaming helmet off. She had always been more of an active person who would much more prefer outdoors and sports than staying cooped up within her room. Yet she had begun playing Arendelle Online about a year ago, figuring that if her parents could dedicate their lives to creating these virtual reality games, then she should at the very least know why everyone seemed to be gushing about them now that she was old enough to play.

It also wouldn't hurt if playing these games could help her understand her sister more. Elsa had taken over Arendelle Corp. ever since their parents died, thus the burden of continuing the game company's legacy sat entirely on her shoulders. Anna had believed that even if she was currently unable to help Elsa with the company, maybe she could bond with her sister somehow through the game.

The only problem was, Elsa didn't play. Day and night it seemed, Elsa was always either at the company or in her home office working on contracts and paperwork.

Still, Anna did not regret having decided to join Arendelle Online. She'd gained plenty of friends there. Eris, especially, had helped her overcome the emptiness she felt from Elsa's constant disappearances from her life. As she placed the helmet carefully on her desk, a blush came to Anna's face as she thought of Eris.

It was embarrassing, really, that at first she wanted Eris' friendship because of how much the older girl looked like Elsa. From clear blue eyes to the pale, aristocratic features on a heart breaking-ly beautiful face and the thick wavy locks of silvery blond hair...Anna could have sworn that Eris and Elsa were one and the same.

And yet...

The longer she knew Eris, the more differences she could count between the two. Eris was shy yet playful, while Elsa was aloof and cold. Eris wore her hair in a single braid and dressed in beautiful form-fitting dresses that served to highlight her feminine features. Elsa had always worn her hair tightly up in a formal bun, opting for suits and white dress shirts that radiated her authority as CEO.

No matter how similar Eris and Elsa looked, their personalities often differed. Still, Anna could not help but feel drawn to her online friend. Here was an Elsa that could have been, the Elsa that might have existed had their parents not died.

No.

Anna shook her head, frowning slightly.

Eris is her own person. She deserves nothing less.

As for Elsa...

Speaking of Elsa! Eyes widening, Anna turned to glance at the clock on the wall opposite of her bed.

11 PM.

Elsa should be home already!

All thoughts of Eris and Arendelle Online suddenly forgotten, Anna joyfully dashed out of her room, flying through the halls in search of the home office that her older sister would no doubt be working in.

She slowed to a stop as she approached the office door. How many times had Elsa requested her younger sister to not run in the halls? The older girl never rose her voice, never seemed annoyed when talking to Anna. In fact, she often tried to allocate at least a couple of hours every week end to spend time with her sister, no matter how busy she was or how dark the circles around her eyes seemed. Yet it was due to this, and the gentle adoration with a hidden undertone of tiredness in her voice that made Anna desperate to never disappoint her.

Taking a deep breath, Anna knocked a couple of times on the door.

"Elsa?"

There was no reply.

Her eyebrows quirked slightly as she glanced towards the floor where, sure enough, light streamed through the door from inside the office. Elsa was definitely home.

Unable to decide on what to do, she bit her lips, shaking her head side to side. After a short moment, she shrugged to herself, as if shaking off any doubts. Carefully, she twisted the doorknob and peaked in.

"Elsa, are you there?"

Once again no sound could be heard from the room. She walked in, closing the door silently behind her. It took but a moment to spot her sister, sitting as usual by the mahogany desk with a large stash of paperwork on top. What Anna did not expect, however, was that Elsa was not working, scribbling away on various documents as Anna often saw her do.

Anna's heart quickened as she walked closer to her sister.

Elsa was...sleeping.

Her dark grey suit jacket hung neatly behind the large leather chair in which Elsa currently resided, and Elsa leaned against the chair's backrest, nuzzling slightly into one of the suit jacket's sleeves. Her white dress shirt was for once less than immaculate, and in each breath Elsa took, the beautiful arch of her collar bones seemed to peak shyly behind the two unfastened buttons at the top.

The delicate contours of her face looked softer than Anna had ever seen them, and as her eyelids fluttered behind a pair of silver glasses, the strawberry blonde swore that her sister looked almost fragile.

The older girl's exhaustion was evident, and Anna frowned with worry, gently pulling the glasses away from her sisters face before setting them on the desk. In moments like these, Anna's heart ached for her sister. It was obvious how much of a toll their parents' death took on Elsa; how much burden she carried to take care of Anna.

I want to help you, if I could. Let me share it with you.

Struck with the sudden desire to get closer to the sleeping CEO, Anna bent forward, brushing a few stray hairs away from Elsa's face. Then, carefully, so as to not awaken the other girl, Anna climbed onto the large chair, knees resting slightly upon her older sibling's lap. Facing her sister, she wove her arms loosely around Elsa's neck and laid her head against the older girl's shoulder.

Despite the troubled thoughts swimming in her head, eventually the warmth and closeness of her older sister soothed her, and she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

She would not notice that as her breathing evened out, a pair of sky blue eyes slowly opened, taking in the scene around them.

She would not feel the soft kiss on her forehead as the young woman beneath her moved to stand up, one arm tucked beneath her knees and the other on her back, carrying her back to her room.

"Goodnight, Anna."

But the words from her sister's lips seemed to whisper into her dreams, summoning a peaceful sleep.

The next morning started out no different from every other day.

"Hey Anna! Time to wake up."

As the cheery, digitalized voice of the tiny robot echoed into the room, the strawberry blonde shot up from her bed.

"Oh my gosh. Where am I? What-"

She sat, half open eyes taking in her bearings before turning to the snowman shaped automaton.

"Olaf! What time is it?"

On the nightstand, Olaf jumped up and down.

"Hurry Anna! School starts in about fifteen minutes. As directed by your sister, Kai's been in the garage, waiting to take you there."

She stumbled as she rose, fingers weaving quickly through reddish locks of hair in attempt to straighten them while she rushed towards the bathroom.

Five minutes later she ran out, fully dressed albeit messier than usual.

She seized her backpack, before running towards the door.

Clumsily, Olaf jumped down the nightstand to chase after her, one of his feet falling off in the process.

"Wait for me!" he cried.

"Ack! Sorry, Olaf."

Quickly turning to grab the PC-bot, she made a dash out the room and down the stairwell at the end of the hall.

They arrived at school right before the last morning bell, Anna breathing heavily as she slid into one of the classroom chairs beside a laughing Kristoff.

Groaning, she leaned forward to plug Olaf into the built-in desktop in front of her as she waited for the teacher to start class. The sight of the one-foot snowman only served to make Kristoff laugh harder as Anna screwed the other foot back on.

"I swear, Anna, for a straight-A student, you must be one of the most disorganized people ever."

She pouted, distractedly motioning for Olaf to pull up her notes on the computer. As the teacher started the lecture, Anna began to type at an almost impossible speed.

"Elsa's the smart one, not me. I've just been trying as hard as I can in school lately, because I want to be able to help her with the company some day."

At her reply, Kristoff's expression became more serious. It was a common discussion between them. While getting good grades was wonderful, the boy believed that Anna should just be herself. Everything she was doing lately seemed to be for her sister's sake, rather than her own.

Before he could reply, however, Olaf called to Anna's attention by poking her fingers with his twig-like arms.

"Psst! Anna. Your sister just sent a reminder for you to take your daily supplements and vitamins."

One hand still typing on her notes, she reached into her bag to grab a bottle of pills, popping it open with a small click before dumping a couple different colored tablets into her mouth with a waterless swallow.

But the robotic snowman continued poking her.

"Ooh. She also says for you to not forget to take it with water again."

Anna groaned as she paused her note-taking, obediently taking a large swig from the water bottle also retrieved from inside her bag.

Darn it! How does Elsa always know?

Kristoff watched the spectacle half bemusedly and half worriedly, ignoring the eccentric pc-bot's comments about wanting to drink some water itseslf.

"Hey Anna, you're not sick, are you?"

The strawberry-blonde raised her eyebrows, sending him a questioning look.

"No. Why?"

The young man frowned.

"All those...medications your sister makes you take. It's weird."

Her voice was light when she replied.

"It's nothing, really. Since our mother died from something that's hereditary, Elsa's just paranoid sometimes that I might end up inheriting it one day."

She brushed the conversation off casually, seemingly without care. But for some reason his words echoed through her mind for the rest of the day. So distracted was she by his comment and her lectures, that it wasn't until after school did Anna see the message her cousin left, having forgotten to ask Olaf for it during between classes.

Her eyes widened as she read the words out loud.

"Did Elsa ever tell you of the company's new release? I swear it wasn't announced or anything, but...Please log on ASAP. Arendelle's been attacked."

End Chapter 1