Melting

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Vera M. Solway

Elsa Bellefonte found herself buried in snow as though she were an overindulgent father with children on a beach. It had sloughed over her, sliding under her expensive coat and slithering into her shoes. The latter actually didn't bother her overmuch, considering what had caused her to wind up in this predicament in the first place. The cold felt as though it should be hissing when it made contact with her swollen ankle. No, it was the snow other places she didn't appreciate, particularly the ones that were slithering down her shirt and into her pants.

"This is just ridiculous," she mumbled, pulling her head up and trying to get upright. She'd just covered enough of her body to prevent that from being easy, and she found she couldn't put much weight on the ankle. It had probably sprained, and she could probably just call Dr. Campbell or another healer to fix it without any real stress. Now though, now she couldn't walk on it.

"Well, I can't stay here either," she said to herself. Elsa could already feel herself stating to shiver, and she didn't imagine that she could hold off frostbite for too much longer. She shifted, reaching out for a ski pole that had landed some distance from her. Her gloved fingers touched it, pushing it slightly out of the way. Elsa spat another curse and tried to lunge, only to feel her ankle screaming at her. She leaned back, closing her eyes and taking great sucking breaths. As she did, Elsa extended her mind out, hoping to catch someone, and then she remembered that she had, in fact, just said hello to someone before catching the lift, and that said person hadn't been too far behind.

Elsa didn't even open her eyes: "I swear if you mock me I will end you, Vera," she intoned, before taking another deep breath, trying to sound like her ankle didn't throb and she wasn't ready to start shivering at any moment.

[Vera M. Solway]

It was like, the more Vera spent her days out snowboarding, the more she'd dread having to leave and go back to the Academy when the trip was over. She enjoyed this, being out in the open, not being contained in a very crowded school where everyone was in everyone's face and business. She didn't feel compelled to have to browse the internet, read into rumors among the hallways, read gossip blogs... or having to worry about what Riley was getting into... or who. No, that wasn't quite right. He didn't necessarily deserve being doubted seeing how he was, after all, by law, his own "free" man.

Sadly, Vera still wasn't getting used to the thought of it.

For now, it was down the slopes she went and had her focus been majorly on wanting to beat her best time, she may have gone down faster. Sad enough, it wasn't. So it pretty much felt like casual boarding. Even so, her attention was caught off by a familiar sensation that was more psionic than anything. Glancing ahead through her goggles she noticed someone caked up in snow on the ground.

She made her way over to the person, stopping short on her board and of course, it just had to be Elsa. Vera wasn't too sure why she hadn't realized it sooner but Elsa was probably the last person she expected out here trying to ski. "Woah, woah... I wouldn't think of it." She slid off her goggles and hurried to unlatch her boots from the board before crouching down next to Elsa. "Okay so I may have thought it but that's far from the point. Anyway, you okay?" She moved some snow around and away from Elsa's being. "Any pain? Does anything feel dislocated, broken, or sprained?"

Glancing over at her ski gear, her hazel eyes then glanced at Elsa. Hopefully nothing had been broken. Even worse, the Bellefonte had been covered in snow for who knows how long. Easiest way to get sick. "Why were you skiing without a partner?"

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Why did everyone snowboard? Elsa was tempted to outright ask, if only to divert the attention away from her throbbing ankle and all the snow that kept coating her outfit. Leave it to Vera to not even think about mocking her though. The question had Elsa chuckling a little.

"I've been better,' she said. She shifted her foot and nodded: "I think my ankle's sprained, at the very least. Hopefully not worse." Elsa sighed and leaned back, closing her eyes. The question made her open one, turning to look over at Vera. A wry smile twisted Elsa's lips.

"I wanted some time to myself, and I figured that since I've been doing this for years I'd be fine," she shifted again, feeling the snow fall around her. "Clearly my arrogance will be my downfall." Elsa was tempted to point out that she had made certain people knew she was here, so it wasn't as if she was being entirely foolish. Erika and Everett knew she was up here (though it was debatable how long it would take them to notice she was gone), and she'd checked in with some of the lodge staff. She kept that information to herself, instead gingerly moving her ankle.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to put any weight on that," she admitted. Elsa sighed again, closing her eyes once more. Yes, this was definitely close to the worst possible situation she could be in.

[Vera M. Solway]

"Yeah, I can see that." There was nothing good about sitting in the cold and wet snow with a sprained ankle with no one insight. Sighing, she looked at Elsa. "Good, actually sprained is good. Anything else would have had me more worried." Hopefully now there would be a greater chance at helping her out of this snow.

Vera chuckled as she continued to push more snow away, "Maybe you don't watch movies on survival but even the most experienced end up hurt and stranded." To this day the movie 127 Hours still made her feel weird. Not like Elsa would have been really stranded, seeing how there would be a skier or two coming down the path sooner or later. "No, I don't think it would be your arrogance." She smiled, taking a jab at Elsa's skills. "Your skiing ability, maybe." Hopefully any joke would get her attention off the pain. It sucked seeing Elsa like this, even if the girl wasn't bawling her eyes out or making noises to deal with the pain. Just knowing she was out here by herself worried Vera.

Pursing her lips together, she nodded reassuringly as she took a glove off and lifted a hand to push a lock of Elsa's hair behind her ear. "That uh- that shouldn't be a problem. I should be able to carry you on my back." She wasn't Riley but being able to deadlift twice her weight was also a plus. One of the major pros of working out. Sadly, it was also getting darker by the minute so they had a few options. "Okay so we have a few options: I try my best to get you all the way back up there and hopefully find a healer. I find the nearest empty cabin, or we stay out here and freeze to death."

"Sorry." Shaking her head, mostly at herself, she chuckled. "I just... I just gave you options like I was some sort of security staff and you were a student." Well... she kind of was but Elsa was 1/2 of the Headmistress and Vera wasn't usually this strict around Elsa. "Sometimes I forget to turn it off."

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Yes, sprained would be better than the alternatives, especially considering that Elsa had coming up. She could only nod in agreement with Vera's assessment there, nod and hope that things definitely didn't get worse. Soon she laughed dryly though, half-smiling. "Yes, I'm always watching movies," she said, her voice a little more wobbly than she'd like. Too much cold had started to seep through, and the relief that she felt at running into someone had actually started to threaten to overwhelm her.

Enough that she actually found the little crack about her ability somewhat funny, at least enough to earn another little laugh. Though she closed her eyes as she felt a shiver shooting through her. She felt a hand moving her hair and opened, looking up at Vera, seeing the worry and care there. It made her heart skip for a moment, so naturally Elsa had to savagely beat it down.

The options made sense, and Elsa was just about to make a suggestion when Vera paused. She waved a hand. "Vera, I was the first person you had the misfortune to meet here. We've both seen each other drunk or hungover. I trusted you enough to include you on my most secret of plans,' She raised her brows, "I think we're close enough not to worry about ranks," she shifted again, wincing. "It feels fairly bad, so we should probably head to the nearest cabin first. We can see if we can go further after that," Elsa smiled wryly at Vera, even as she reached for the other woman, "unless you'd rather freeze?"

[Vera M. Solway]

"Good, 'cause now that I know that. Next time I invite you over for a movie marathon date, you can't refuse." She smiled, while situating Elsa's leg in a way that it'll be easier to get her out of this snow. Maybe that was her way of asking Elsa out in a friendly matter, or maybe it was her just trying to stir up a convo in order to get her mind off of the pain. Vera wasn't too sure yet, all she did know was that they couldn't stay here for long.

When Elsa waved a hand, she stopped to look at her. "Right... right." She had a short lived laugh. It just got weird sometimes. While Elsa had been the first person Vera met at the school a few years back, having to report students and such to her as a Headmistress kind of made things a bit weird. Now that they were outside of their roles, she had to cut the crap and realize she was talking to someone she cared about and not her boss.

Planting her feet firmly into the ground, she scooped one arm underneath Elsa's legs and the other underneath her lower back before shifting all of her weight to her legs and lifting Elsa in her arms. Good thing was, Vera was able to lift almost twice her weight thanks to her constant work outs and Elsa was light so that was also a plus. "Yeah, not happening. My hair doesn't do well in the cold for too long." While carrying Elsa, she started making her way towards one of the cabins she spotted way off on the other side, making sure not to hurry too much that she'd miss a step and possibly fuck up to the point where they were both eating snow.

Once they neared, her eyes glanced at Elsa. "Do you think you could skim around and sense if anyone's in there? Or I can just like, bust the door open and hope there isn't a couple having sex or some weirdo creep waiting for his next victims. Or a weirdo couple having sex while waiting for their next victims." Well, in their case... the creep would be the victim.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"Sounds like a date," replied Elsa, laughing a little. She couldn't say if she was teasing back or if she'd just effectively accepted the offer from Vera. Did she want to date Vera...? Hadn't that been a thought plaguing her for a while? She couldn't act on it though, not with Riley still in the picture; she'd sworn to herself not to, to let the two of them have a chance. No, she just worked at the present, moving to adjust as Vera picked her up.

"Well, this isn't humiliating," Elsa mumbled. She made certain to stay as still as possible: her hurt foot certainly didn't want movement anyway. Her hands moved to grip to Vera, and she tried to pretend like her heart didn't flutter slightly at this whole thing. Strange that they both kept saving Elsa like this, very strange indeed. She swallowed.

"Hmm?" came out as Elsa heard Vera's comment. "Ah, right," she focused on the cabin, casting her mind out, searching, looking for thoughts to draw her attention. "No one's there," she said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Though considering that I'm a Bellefonte and you're obviously intimidating, I think we could have kicked just about anyone out," she smiled up at Vera, the expression somewhat wry.