It Was Supposed To Be Cute...

It Was Supposed To Be Cute

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“This is actual art. This kills the Elsa drawfag.” Elsa muttered as she passed through the door into Rapunzel’s little studio.

 

“C’mon now, don’t be like that. You’re the one… oof… the one that wanted some pointers, right? Besides, we never get to hang out outside of Orgrimmar.” Rapunzel said as she hefted canvases and paint tins to clear a space for an extra drawing table.

 

“And this’ll help make up for the stunt with Eugene I pulled last week.” Rapunzel said, an apologetic smile on her face. She cleared away all of her own projects from the space and patted the surface for Elsa to put her work down.

 

“I’ve already forgotten about it.” Elsa said, taking her seat and putting her sketchpad on the table. It was a boldfaced lie, though, and she had spent a lot of cringe-filled moments wincing whenever she remembered the little episode. Not that Rapunzel had to know.

 

Rapunzel could see the little tic that Elsa had when she answered her, and she knew that she’d rustled Elsa’s jimmies despite what her cousin was saying. Thinking it was best not to dwell on it and focus on the task at hand.

 

But what a task that was.

 

“So you’re sure about this?” Rapunzel said, knowing exactly what was in the sketchbook and all the implications it had. Once she looked into it, it would mean Elsa had opened up a major part of herself to Rapunzel, as well as Rapunzel finally facing what she had always dreaded seeing firsthand.

 

“It’s better than airing out all our dirty laundry on /r9k/.” Elsa grumbled, placing her sketchpad on top of the table. “Hey, did you see that butthurt guy in the thread you made? Haha, he was raging hard.” Elsa smirked as Rapunzel took a seat next to her.

 

“Oh yeahhhh… ‘hurr durr not ur personal blog’. Lulzy fag.” Rapunzel smiled, sharing a quiet laugh with Elsa as she felt the thrill of using words that she usually bit her tongue at in real life. Their laughter settled down and they both looked at the unassuming yellow book resting ominously on the raised plane in front of them.

 

“Well…” Elsa said, scratching her neck in anxiousness.

 

“Yeah… here goes…” Rapunzel nodded, reaching out and flipping back the cover, ready for anything.

 

Elsa sat in tense silence as Rapunzel flipped through page after page of her drawings. She felt the strange need to both say absolutely nothing and try to justify every little scribble and scratch that Rapunzel’s uncharacteristically intense gaze fell upon. For now, Elsa’s silent personality won out and she held herself in check.

 

Just as Elsa thought she couldn’t take it anymore, Rapunzel reached the last page and nodded, straightening back up to look at Elsa properly.

 

“I have good news and bad news.” Rapunzel said, looking deadly serious. Elsa was all ears.

 

“First off, you don’t need Loomis.” Rapunzel said, and her no-nonsense mask began to crack as she let out a little snort. Elsa just quirked an eyebrow at her.

 

“Secondly. LOOMIS!” Rapunzel said , bursting in a fit of giggles that almost made her slip off her stool.

 

Elsa groaned and gave Rapunzel a mock chop to the head. “Hah, quit fucking trolling me!” she growled, trying not to join Rapunzel. As much as she hated to admit it, Rapunzel had the same infectiously happy laugh that Anna had, and it took all her practice of keeping a straight face in front of her sister not to be overwhelmed by her weird urges.

 

“I… snrt… I’m sorry. I always wanted to use that line.” Rapunzel said, wiping away a tear. “But it’s true though. You have the basics down. Proportions are all there, the lines are clean, you can draw what you want… all of the stuff covered in ‘Fun with a Pencil’. Now you just need to get some depth and value.” Rapunzel said, flipping through and pointing out examples for Elsa to see. “You probably already know it since I saw some blooks in the first pages. So now you have to learn the other books.” Elsa nodded, knowing what Rapunzel was talking about and she felt grateful that she was getting things in an /ic/ perspective.

 

Rapunzel flipped through a few more sheets before she stopped on the last page of Elsa’s drawings. Elsa couldn’t read her expression, but she could take a few guesses as Rapunzel stared at the page.

 

“You’ll need to some help with this one. Maybe Cavardi if you’re using the sticky. At least that’s what I think you’re trying to go for here.” Rapunzel said in an even tone as she took in the drawing. She turned and looked at Elsa.

 

“A lot of love is going into this one.” Rapunzel said in a softer voice. Rapunzel’s hands followed the delicate lines of the portrait, never touching the surface but highlighting each space where Elsa had captured Anna’s likeness perfectly.

 

“And you could tell that by the pixels, right?” Elsa said, chuckling weakly. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes as she let Rapunzel see into the world that she had kept locked away for so long.

 

Rapunzel’s felt her own eyes misting as she saw Elsa at her most vulnerable. They both knew that the pretense of a drawing lesson was quickly crumbling around them. Though Elsa was the older of the two, she looked at Rapunzel with eyes of someone that had been lost for a very long time.

 

“Elsa, I…” Rapunzel said, reaching out for Elsa, before the two girls heard a yell from inside the house.

 

“RAPUNZEL! I KNOW YOU KIDNAPPED MY SISTER AGAIN!” Anna’s voice pierced through the silence of the studio, and Elsa and Rapunzel’s eyes shot wide in panic as they heard Anna’s footsteps on the staircase.

 

They scrambled to put the picture away, fumbling with each other and actually batting the pad off the pedestal and watching it fly through the air. Only the adrenaline of the situation gave Elsa enough of a jolt to actually clear the jump to catch the sketchpad and hide it behind her on the table. Elsa barely had enough time to stand up and dust herself off before Anna opened the door.

 

“No fair! You guys never invite me along for anything!” Anna pouted, stomping into the room.

 

Rapunzel had an unnaturally stretched smile over her face and Elsa only flapped her mouth uselessly as Anna made her entrance. The youngest girl didn’t seem to notice and strode over next to Rapunzel, taking Elsa’s seat.

 

“So what are you guys up to? I had to call uncle to find out where Elsa was at when I found out she wasn’t home today.” Anna said, plopping herself onto the stool. Rapunzel’s eyes darted to Elsa for help, but the older girl’s own panicked look told her that she was on her own.

 

“Haha, we were just… uh… I… taking… um… Elsaaaa’s…. portrait?” Rapunzel said slowly, shrugging painfully with each syllable. Elsa piped up and cleared her throat, joining in on the lie with equal spaghetti.

 

“Oh… yeah… you know Rapunzel… a… always drawing… things…” Elsa said lamely, shifting where she stood.

 

Rapunzel took initiative and tried to add some detail to their idiotic lie, hoping that Anna wouldn’t be too suspicious. “Well, you know me. I just, umm… had the idea in my head to draw Elsa! I mean, you see a face for so long as an… an artist and you just think to yourself ‘hmmm, I wonder if I can draw that’ in your head.”

 

Elsa’s breath caught in her throat as she prayed to God that Anna was buying it. She could feel her stomach tie into knots as Anna looked between her and Rapunzel, as if trying to find something.

 

“Oh, cool! Can I take a look?” Anna said, and Elsa felt her heart stop as her sister reached behind her.

 

Time slowed down as Elsa felt herself swim through molasses, trying to stop Anna from drawing the sketchbook back and opening the pages. Somewhere in the far distance, she could hear Rapunzel utter a long, drawn out “Noooooooo… nooooooottttt….. thaaaaaaatttt….. ooooonnneeeee….” but it was too late for either of the girls to react.

 

Elsa and Rapunzel could only watch helplessly as Anna leafed through the pages, her carefree expression slowly becoming more and more vague and withdrawn with each sketch and each figure study on the page leading up to the one, single, monolithic, incriminating portrait.

 

Elsa said goodbye to life as she knew it as Anna took what felt like forever to study her drawing, and Rapunzel sent out fervent mental apologies trying to wish away this moment for Elsa. They both realized they were holding their breath when Anna finally broke the silence.

 

“Wow! These are really great, Rapunzel! I mean, it doesn’t feel like your style, and some of the other drawings were like, I dunno, rougher than what you usually do. But this last one is amazing!” Anna smiled, holding up the page as Rapunzel and Elsa’s minds broke from the pressure.

 

“I guess you really can’t help drawing people around you, huh Rapunzel? Where’d you put Elsa’s? I bet hers is great!”

 

Rapunzel didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both. Loudly.

 

“Ohmigosh. Ohmigosh. Ra… Rapunzel, are you okay. Oh jeez. Elsa, was it something I said?” Anna said, rushing to comfort Rapunzel as she blubbered and laughed.

 

Elsa looked at her sister and felt the familiar tang of bile on her tongue.

 

“Sorry. I think I need to go to the bathroom.” Elsa said calmly, far beyond the point of insanity as a trickle of vomit leaked through the corner of her lips. She silently walked to the door and turned away from sight, leaving an immensely confused Anna holding on to their hysterical cousin.

 

Elsewhere in the house, the contents of a young shut-in’s stomach found their way into an eagerly awaiting toilet.