Trolley Ride (A Tadelsa One-Shot)

A trolley car rumbled down a sidestreet in San Fransokyo, the rows of cherry blossom trees lighting up like glowing pink clouds under the soft spring sunlight.

A young man in a cardigan and baseball cap sat on one side of the trolley car.  A young woman in a blue dress and high heels sat on the other.

Neither one said a word.

Tadashi Hamada glanced down at his phone, but he had no new notifications. He sighed, his hand at the back of his neck. He'd normally be excited, looking forward to another day at college. After another fight with his brother that kept him up half the night, though, he really wasn't in the mood to confront a stubborn robotics project. Put it behind you, he told himself, straightening up and forcing himself to smile. Keep moving forward. Today's gonna be great. 

Elsa Arendelle tried to concentrate on the book she held in her hands, but her mind kept going back to the night before, when her sister had sung herself to sleep outside her bedroom door. Normally she'd look forward to an hour of solitude in a private corner of the library before her shift started. Not today, though. Her gloved hands began to tremble slightly. She put the book on her lap and clenched them. Shhhh. Keep it together. Conceal, don't feel, she said to herself silently. You just need to make it through today.

He noticed her first, well, because she was beautiful. Stunningly so, with her enormous blue eyes and striking platinum blonde hair. But he watched her longer than he usually would, because she looked so scared--her arms wrapped tightly around her slender torso, her eyes downcast but wary, her body tense. He wondered what made her so afraid.

She noticed him because, she had to admit, he was good-looking, with his athletic frame and warm brown eyes. But she kept watching because he seemed so confident, so self-assured, so full of life--everything she was not--yet an undercurrent of disappointment and maybe even anger showed in the way he furrowed his brow and gripped his phone. She wondered what made him feel that way.

Their eyes met for a second before Tadashi quickly dropped his gaze, not wanting to seem like a creep, and Elsa quickly looked away, a light pink dusting her cheeks. They spent the rest of the ride in silence, even more awkward than before, staring fixatedly at nothing.

Tadashi reached his stop, looking out at the gleaming campus. He got off the trolley car with a hint of regret, and couldn't help glancing over his shoulder for a moment. He could have sworn she looked back at him too, but then the trolley pulled away, and she disappeared in a flurry of falling blossoms and biting wind.