Hello there :) Can you do this prompt with Elsa and any character of your choice, female or male? "author of book gets seated next to someone reading their book and making entertaining faces at each scene au" Thanks :)
Went with Elsa and Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Seemed appropriate considering Belle’s love for books!
Usually, one does not expect to see someone sitting beside them on the plane reading their own published book. But as it turned out, on my flight from Noway to France, a beautiful young lady, possibly a few years older than I, had seated herself next to me on the plane and pulled out a very familiar looking book.
Should I tell her? I questioned myself, Should I say that I’m the author?
I weighed up the pros and cons of that idea. If I did tell the woman, would I make her nervous or excited? Would she feel self-conscious sitting next to someone who wrote the book she was reading? I thought back to a time when I had been reading a fanfic on my laptop and apparently the author had been walking past and noticed I was perusing their fanfic. It wasn’t a terrible fanfic by any means, but it wasn’t exactly out-of-this-world amazing either, and I didn’t want to hurt the author’s feelings, but nor had I wanted to lie.
Let’s just say she hadn’t taken it well.
My eyes flickered over to the passenger next to me, and all I could see was her expressions, and isn’t it odd how you can tell exactly where someone is in your story by their reactions? I knew that right now, she was in the fluffy, heart-warming scenes, where the characters made themselves known to the reader and revealed their good side. Oh, just she wait until that dog-loving, ice-cream loving woman revealed her true colours!
Oh. Now she’s on that scene.
Her expression of happiness faded, and consternation mixed with some disgust transformed blue eyes into a frown. Her mouth parted a little--so at least I was doing something right. That particular scene was supposed to be shocking.
She seems to like it well enough so far...
And here’s the thing--I was a little scared at the same time, perhaps unprepared too. What if she put down the book, bored by the plot and characters? What if she started to yawn from boredom and not fatigue?
A gasp drew my attention again, and ah-hah. She had reached the scene of a certain sacrifice--not with death, mind you, but with a daughter taking a father’s place in an old castle in which a Beast was rumoured to live out his days.
Possibly overwhelmed with the enormity of the sacrifice, the woman put down the book on her lap, a hand still on the open page to keep her place.
Now is the time, I coaxed myself.
“Good book?” I asked, gesturing to the book.
“Huh?” the young lady blinked round blue eyes at me, a hand coming up to fidget with her long plait. “Oh! Yes! Have you read it before?”
I put on my most mysterious smile. “I guess you could say that.”
“I’ve never read this before, but my sister, Anna, she insisted I read this one, and so far I’m in love.”
She’s in love with the book? My book?
“I’ve always loved that book,” I agreed, “ever since I first wrote it in its first draft.”
“I...what?” her mouth dropped open, eyebrows rising sharp into her fringe. “You...you’re the author?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, unable to help a grin at her stunned surprise,
“Wow...” she exhaled, shaking her head in some shock, “I’m sitting next to Belle herself.” She gathered herself together and reached out a shy hand for me to shake. “Name’s Elsa Arendelle.”
