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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 3, 2017 5:11:24 GMT
Elsa paced back and forth in her office. Not often did she let her ice powers have full control, yet the light of current events had put her on edge. In high-stress situations, she would let her powers take over for a small span of time, letting things frost over. The marble floor of her office began growing colder, even colder than she could tolerate. Ice was crystallizing from the base and climbing on the walls and bookshelves, covering them in a sheen of frost. Weiss was found by the Others Unit, thank God, but that still didn't console her racing thoughts. Had they not gotten to her in time...had Elsa not been such a coward...had she paid more attention to the signs of Weiss losing control...had she only been more adamant in reaching out to her. Threatening a lawsuit against her parents. Bringing in police and demanding they keep her out of the custody of her abusive parents. She could have done all of this...and she hadn't. Then because of her neglect, Weiss had let literal demons into her life.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 3, 2017 6:28:57 GMT
If Elsa hadn't been so distracted by her deep worries, she might have noticed that she had several missed calls on her cellphone all from the same person. And it was the overly large shadow of this same person that suddenly appeared in the frosted-over window of her office door.
Ralph only had to take a single look at the sheen of ice that was creeping slowly across the door and feel the frigid air coming from the office to know that something was wrong with Elsa. Heck, he had already had worries about her when she hadn't answered his calls. At first when her cell had gone to message he hadn't made much of it. While their relationship was still only just beginning to bloom he knew that the feelings they had for each other were very real. He also knew that Elsa was a renowned lawyer who often got lost in her work and wouldn't always pick up the phone if she was in the middle of a case. He could relate. After all, he had spent the past two weeks working hard on a case involving suspected elder abuse and only just finished his case by seeing the sorry excuse for a at-home assistant put behind bars. One missed call wasn't a big deal when they both were devoted to their lines of work.
However, one missed call had quickly multiplied and then the story about the Demon kidnapping of a Lafayette had made headlines. Ralph didn't know the LaFayettes beyond the fiasco of a masquerade they had thrown nearly a year past but Elsa had made mention of the young daughter on several occasions and there was no mistaking the concern that touched her words when she did. Perhaps she was worried about the young voodoo girl....
With this in mind, the Giant had made his way to Elsa's mansion to find it empty. And if her house was empty it meant she had to be at her office. It hadn't taken him long to reach the building that she worked out of but his own concern for the lovely ice-wielder had started to grown. And now seeing her office doorway as cold and icy as a freezer only intensified his worry for the woman he loved.
Without hesitating, Ralph stepped up to the door and knocked on the frosted wooden frame with a massive fist. Several pieces of ice fell to the ground to shatter but he ignored them and instead spoke.
"Elsa? I'm coming in."
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 3, 2017 15:19:33 GMT
Elsa stood in place. The ice had grown to the point where icicles were hitting out. Thick one’s. If she had the strength, she could have ripped one out of the ground and used it as a rapier or impalement. Thankfully, they had started to grow away from the door, which was being dwarved by the shadow of an arrival.
She hadn’t even heard Ralph come in. She rushed to her desk and picked at the frost to rescue her phone. Ralph had called her and she hadn’t answered. Multiple times.
A sigh like a winter wind escaped her throat as she slumped against the desk. Frost began climbing up and she brought her knees to her chest. She bit back the urge to cry. All it did was have her press her forehead against her knees and let out a tiny whimper.
And that was what Ralph opened the door to.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 6, 2017 3:33:22 GMT
Even though Elsa didn't speak from behind the door, Ralph heard a small noise that immediately made him tense with worry. It was sigh but filled with so much sorrow it might have been a moan. He immediately tried to turn the doorknob but found it frozen firmly in place. Without hesitating he hit the door hard enough to break the latch, causing it to swing sharply and hit the wall with a loud bang as he stepped into the office.
It was like a winter storm had hit the place and it was so cold that his breath plumed on the air. Yet the Giant saw none of this, his eyes focusing completely on the figure of Elsa where she sat curled up with her head on her knees whimpering.
"Elsa...."
Ralph spoke the name in a strangled whisper before lurching forward and kneeling on the ground where she was. He wanted to reach out and touch her, to pull her into his massive arms and hold her close. However, the moment he tried to touch her ice began to form on his bare skin, making it feel as if it were being burned instead of frozen. He pulled his hand back with a small wince but didn't move away from her.
"Elsa, what happened? Are you hurt?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 6, 2017 4:14:09 GMT
There was crunching in the frozen floor of the room. Someone had entered, and giving the fact that the ice was breaking at such a rapid pace, she knew exactly who it was who had come in. Normally, Elsa would have given Ralph a talk about coming in, but she bit back some statements, realizing that she herself had come in and disturbed some of his cases. Besides, she wasn't even on a case at all, just some bad me time.
Her head lifted ever so slightly from her bent knees. Ralph was shaking his hand and she realized she had given him freezer burn. She must have turned the cold on stronger than she realized.
He was so close. So close she could smell the evergreen aftershave he used. She always liked the cedar-y smell. It made her think of pine trees up in the mountains, unlike here. She looked up at him, her lips quivering.
"If by hurt, you mean absolutely guilty, then yes."
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 7, 2017 0:17:35 GMT
So she wasn't attacked or anything like that. Thank goodness.
Ralph felt some of his anxiety give way upon knowing that Elsa wasn't physically hurt. However, the concern for her remained. It was clear that while she had no injuries, her self-proclaimed guilt was hurting her deeply in a different way. But what did she have to feel guilty about? The Giant didn't know and was worried that asking her would only upset her more, but if he didn't know the source of her pain he wouldn't be able to help her.
Moving as close as he could to her without touching her in her current state, he spoke in a soft and soothing voice that seemed to go in opposition of his physical appearance.
"Why should you feel guilty, Elsa?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 7, 2017 0:40:11 GMT
"Because I couldn't protect her..."
Elsa's words choked into a fit of sobbing. It was all she could say about it. Weiss hadn't shown any signs the shadow demons were using her as their puppet. The Others Unit got to her, thank God, but it still wasn't enough. She had sensed something was wrong, but instead it had just been dismossed and thus an innocent girl had become victim to dark forces.
It was so cold in the office, her tears began crystallizing as they hit the chilled air, making it snow.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 7, 2017 1:13:58 GMT
Although she hadn't said a name, Ralph was almost certain that the 'her' she was speaking of was Weiss Lafayette and what had happened recently to her. Most of it had been kept out of the papers, but because of his connections to people who still worked at the BPD he knew that the young girl had gotten mixed up with some dangerous spirits that had nearly possessed her. And the only reason she had been saved at all was when the BPD intervened and her officer brother managed to break the spirits' control over her.
And now Elsa felt guilt over not recognizing the danger Weiss had been in. She felt guilty because she hadn't been able to do what she saw as her job and protect the girl.
For the moment, all Ralph could do was look at Elsa in silence as snowflakes began to slowly fall from the ceiling to land on the ground. However, when he saw the glint of tears in her sad blue eyes and heard her crying, he didn't pause but reached out with his massive arms and gently enfolded the icy woman in his embrace.
He didn't even wince as the ice burned his skin but merely held her close, his own eyes closed as a wave of love and empathy for the lawyer filled him.
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 7, 2017 6:35:30 GMT
Heat and chill were polar opposites. If one came into contact with the other, the one half died. It was just common nature for ice to melt when something warm came and touched it.
That's what happened as Ralph hugged the sobbing Elsa. She was still weeping, but the snowflakes no longer fell. The frost that was in the office was beginning to thaw, dripping into cold puddles. Thankfully, the bookshelves and important paperwork hadn't gotten stained or ruined by the drips. Even if they were, the lawyer wasn't thinking about it.
She was thinking about Ralph being there, comforting her. Her dainty arms looped around his heavy barrel chest, her tears staining the front of his shirt.
"I should have done something. Instead, I just told her parents to go fuck themselves."
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 8, 2017 8:05:17 GMT
Ralph held Elsa close to his heart, feeling her sob against him and wanting with all his being to take away the guilt and sorrow she felt but knowing that he couldn't. All he could do was be there for her and help her through this dark time.
The burning sensation from the freezing ice had stopped and he could feel it starting to melt against him as if his holding her had somehow created its own warmth, its own heat, to counteract the bitter cold. However, he couldn't care less in that moment if a blizzard had been going on around him. All that mattered was Elsa.
"Elsa, how could you have known what those people were doing to her? They'd managed to keep it hidden from everyone for so long and you saw through it more than anyone else."
His words were pitched at a comforting level as he embraced her. It was so strange to see a powerful Giant and hardened former BPD officer show such a soft side yet that was exactly what he was doing as he began to soothingly stroke Elsa's hair. And his face, one that had struck fear into even the worst criminals Bellerouge could throw at him, showed a vulnerability that only a handful of people had ever seen.
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 8, 2017 21:44:32 GMT
“I just wish she trusted me,” Elsa sobbed. “Or if she did, I didn’t listen.”
Her tears glistened on her pale cheeks. Usually people who cried in freezing temperatures had their tears frozen in thick icy layers along their cheeks. Hers slid off easily, and that tear streamed face went up to look at Ralph.
He was so much...gentler. The furrowed brow and anger in his brown eyes had been an expression she associated with Ralph. Now he was looking at her full of concern. The gentle side of the Giant was coming through, and it was one of the many reasons Elsa fell in love with him.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 10, 2017 7:37:47 GMT
Ralph didn't speak and merely let Elsa say what she needed to as he held her, his huge bulk filling up the office while at the same time creating a place of warmth and comfort for the lawyer. She was a powerful lawyer and to be seen breaking down under pressure or guilt would damage her reputation and image if seen by the public. It was unfair, but it was the reality of it. He knew that and because of it he was more than willing to be a kind of protection, a safe harbor in which Elsa could show the raw emotions and vulnerable feelings that she had to hide from the public eye.
He continued to kneel on the floor, enfolding the crying woman he loved in his arms as she finally let the hurt she had been containing out. He didn't try to stop her crying or cut her off, didn't try and tell her everything would be fine. He wouldn't tell her falsehoods like that to try and make her feel better. However, he continued to gently stroke her head and let the warmth of his body keep her from freezing.
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 11, 2017 19:13:25 GMT
Elsa brought a hand to her tear-streaked face. Her fingers were soaked from all the tears she let fall. Ralph had been one of the very few people who had seen her cry. Jenna had been a close second to viewing her at her most vulnerable. Having him kneel and have his girth take over the floor of the iced office didn't seem fair. She was calmer and thus the ice had stopped spreading and the sections that had been frozen were beginning to thaw. Hopefully none of her important papers were ruined by smeared ink...
With a shudder-sigh, she stood up and looked at him square in the eye.
"It just...made me realize that maybe...maybe I was wrong in becoming a lawyer for the rights of Others. If I can't protect one girl, what good am I?"
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 15, 2017 1:22:34 GMT
The time seemed to stretch on forever and yet seemed to last only a moment before Elsa's cries had tapered off into silence. When Ralph felt her moving within his embrace, he let his arms fall away and watched as she rose somewhat unsteadily to her feet. She looked so broken in that moment, it was like seeing an ice statue begin to crack under its own weight. Would the beautiful yet fragile figure be able to stand tall or would it fall and shatter into a thousand pieces?
He continued to crouch lightly before her, feeling a deep well of love and sympathy for her. However, when Elsa suddenly began to question her value, he felt his temper flare up. Suddenly he surged upwards to his full height, his eyes filled with a blaze as he moved forwards so that hardly half a foot separated the two of them and Elsa had to look up at him.
"That is bullshit and you know it, Elsa!"
His voice, while not a yell, was loud and seemed to fill the entire office. Anyone outside in the hallway might have assumed that the young lawyer was dealing with an angry client and in danger, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. While the Giant was clearly enraged, it couldn't cloud the love and respect that still reflected down at her in his brown eyes.
"You've always been too hard on yourself and now you're letting your guilt make you forget all the great things you've done. Do you think any one of the people you have helped would have gotten justice if you hadn't taken on their cases? Do you think those criminals who're locked up now would be there if you hadn't been brave enough to face them?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Nov 15, 2017 6:44:14 GMT
If Elsa were made of paper or of glass, she would have swayed or cracked at Ralph's voice raising. He had even gone up to his full height, which was just the tips of his spiky hair grazing the ceiling. The lawyer just stared at her feet, even watching him approach her.
The good news was he wasn't yelling. He wasn't treating her like a child or calling the things that were 'bullshit' weren't things that she cared deeply about. The only time that word was ever used had been her father calling her line of work 'bullshit'. She said nothing as Ralph berated her, called her out for being so hard on herself. He reminded her of the good things she had done, how many lives she had saved.
Finally, her blue eyes, probably looking like they were about to shatter, went up to him, looking at the intense blaze of his.
"Ralph, I..."
She swiped a hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. She looked at him and blinked back a tear. No more. There was one last thing that was keeping her quiet about it.
"There's two types of evil in this world. People who do awful things like the Lafayettes and the people who know something dark is going on and do nothing. I fall into that last category, Ralph. I knew what was happening. Instead, I cowered. I should have been more like you, taking the initative, freezing them to their little mansion." Her eyes darkened. "It's not like they have anyone else to 'love'"
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