Cursed with Fate

Chapter Four

Hans looked down at Anna squirming in his arms, and smirked at her. "Guess we'll have to do this some other time." He loosened his grip and Anna pushed him away immediately.

"Or never." Anna said to him, brushing off her clothes to try to get the sick smell of his cheap cologne off of her.

"Until we meet again." He smirked and bowed mockingly before turning around and walking away from them.

"Are you okay?" Elsa asked, practically smothering her younger sister.

Anna grinned, "Never better. Thanks." She winced as Elsa let go, and clearly Elsa noticed because she gave Anna an unbelieving look. "Alright, so he grabbed me a little too tight. I'm fine."

Elsa sighed. "Let's go to Tony's, I'm sure he'll let you steal some ice."

"Who needs ice for a bruise?" Merida rolled her eyes. "I'm hungry, let's eat!"

"I'm not objecting." Jack said.

"Me either," Anna added.

The group went to Tony's Restaurant, ordering their usual: one large sausage and one large pepperoni. Tony walked through the rows of empty checkered tables to get to them. The rush didn't usually come in until six. "How was school today? You started new semester, no?" the asked, his thick Italian accent barely getting the sentence out. "And where is Wendy?"

"Busy babysitting." Alice frowned.

"School is the same old boring sh--"

"Merida!" Belle scolded.

"What?" Merida glanced around as if she'd done nothing wrong. "It's the truth. All we ever do is the same stuff, and they expect us to know something different. It's ridiculous!"

Kristoff shook his head, "Merida..."

Most of the meal went by with everyone trash-talking Hans. Belle made a point to stay somewhat quiet so that she could find out where Merida was that morning. Out of nowhere, Anna and Jack started getting into it about Jack's pranking habits, and Belle took that as her cue to speak with the other redhead. Thankfully, she was sitting right next to her.

"Hey, what happened this morning?"

"Oh, um..." Should she tell Belle what really happened? This had gone on a few times before, the last time when Merida was only a couple months earlier. She would always sneak back to her house in the middle of the night though, never having the courage to truly leave. But this time was different. This time she had no intentions of ever going back home--no, she wouldn't even call that prison her 'home' ever again.

"I left home, for good this time."

"What?!"

Merida's eyes widened, hoping Belle's outburst hadn't drawn any attention. Only Alice who glanced their way before focusing back on the debate between Jack and Anna.

"Yes."

"Where are you staying?" Belle whispered. Merida was grateful she was attempting to be more discreet. "I'm sure you could stay at my place if you needed to. You know it's not that big or fancy, but I know you'd be welcome."

Shaking her head, Merida suppressed the grin over her friend's selflessness, "I actually have a place."

"With who?"

"... Henry..."

"There are a million Henrys in school!" As an afterthought she added, "Wait... you're staying with a guy? You hate men!"

"This guy isn't so bad. If I hated him, he would already have a black eye." She paused looking down at the crumbs of pizza on her plate. "I ran into him, and hurt my ankle, so he got me some ice at his place and offered for me to stay with him after I told him about running away."

Belle sighed, it was both knowing and out of exasperation, "Twenty says you fall in love with him."

"Twenty says I leave his house before the week is over. And why are you making a bet? Just because I think one guy is okay, doesn't mean I'm going to fall in love with him."

"Yes it does." Belle replied, matter-of-factly. She always spoke in that tone when she predicted something, and Merida was slightly worried... all of Belle's absurd guesses about life always ended up coming true. Always.

"Will you two just shut up already?" Elsa groaned. She was tired of listening to her sister and boyfriend argue about unimportant things. Kristoff was defending Anna's side--of course, he was as loyal and protective as a german shepard sometimes. Merida seemed to be zoning out. Belle was surprisingly siding with Jack after being silent for so long. Alice was also agreeing with Jack. Elsa was forcing herself to remain the unconquered Switzerland in this, she didn't want Jack or Anna resenting her just because of one of their habitual disagreements.

Of course neither the boy with bleached hair, nor the persistent ginger backed down.

It was going to be a long night.