It's been two weeks and Anna has yet to find a cure. And now… she's done the absolute unthinkable.
The redhead looked down at her best friend, watching the way the sun's morning rays licked across her perfectly nude form. The blonde looked so peaceful. So happy and content with life. Anna's mind deserved no such bliss. Not with what she had done. And the worse part of it all? She wasn't sure she wanted to find that stupid cure at all!
Selfish Anna, fucking selfish. She groaned and clapped her cheeks, only serving to give herself a stinging reminder that all of this was real.
The best you've ever had… Elsa's promise haunted the chambers of Anna's guilty conscience. The redhead hated how well the blonde kept to that promise. These past two weeks have honestly been the best few days of her entire life.
Her heart clenched. Anna was disgusted with herself for taking advantage of her longtime best friend like this. Especially when she was 'under the influence' so to speak.
You are so fucked up. Anna berated herself as she moved over to her drawer, covering her naked shame under a flimsy robe and grabbing her laptop off of her work desk. About a dozen tabs and screens popped up immediately as she sat at the edge of her bed, cross-legged. She had to undo her mistake. She had to fix her friend.
She had rounded back to that shady website from the back alleys of the internet for the tenth time this week. She read every word from every comment in every review at least a million times, hoping to find something.
She went over the recipe to that devil's brew she had no right making. She cursed Hans's name under her breath. All of this was his fault! If he had just been the boyfriend he said he would be! If he had been the loyal, charming prince he was pretending to be this whole time! If he was at least not such a dirty, scheming, lying snake Anna would have at least been able to move past this without the burning desire for vengeance. But when Anna stumbled across some overly-familiar messages from a few too many girls, she decided within herself that he would suffer for what he did. Anna searched high and low for the perfect revenge. And she found it.
Cuckoo Soup.
It was a funny name. The claims surrounding it were laughable. The special secret ingredient that gave the otherwise basic soup its "magical charm" was downright ridiculous! Anna remembered how she was doubling over in laughter at the absurdity that people actually tried this, and worse, swore for it!
What a fool she was.
She figured that when the potion ultimately failed to "claim the absolute admiration and loving devotion of your desired target", she could at least get a good laugh out of getting the bastard to drink something so… crude. But if, by whatever strange twist of fate, the brew did what it claimed… Oh how she would break him! He would learn to worship her the way he was supposed to, and then she would shatter him. Reject his newfound devotion. Probably flaunt some new arm candy around him just to crush him.
Anna hummed over her bubbling pot, grinning devilishly to herself. It was finished. She sealed the bowl she had put aside for herself, wanting to be as convincing as possible. She didn't want to risk having to eat it with him. She couldn't bring herself to stomach the thought of willingly consuming… that.
She didn't count on him breaking up with her via text about twenty minutes before he was supposed to come over for dinner, her pot cooling on the stove. Yes, in her head it was already finished, but for him to so coldly… she was stunned.
She wasn't even sure when Elsa came over, the girl having her own key to Anna's apartment for various reasons, mostly involving some unfortunate nights of alcohol fueled disasters. She didn't pay attention to her friend as she padded around the apartment, cleaning this and putting away that. Hell, Anna wasn't even sure when she started crying. All she knew was that she felt herself being swept into a warm embrace and her head nestled into the crook of a familiar neck.
Elsa was her rock. The older girl had been in her life for as long as she could remember and had helped her through more heartaches than Anna was willing to admit.
As usual, Anna spilled her worries and woes and cried herself dry. Elsa on the other hand, was… different. She normally would tell Anna how everything was going to be okay and that boys are stupid and would promise to help her drown her sorrows in chocolate.
"He didn't deserve you."
When Elsa whispered that, it didn't come as much of a surprise. She never liked the snake, and she made that clear from the beginning.
It was when she said, "I'd be so much better to you," that they both froze. Anna couldn't tell which of them looked more shocked in that moment.
In hindsight, Anna considered that it was probably cruel of her to stand up and stare the way she did. Tears began to form in her friend's eyes. Her rock was breaking.
"I'm so sorry," Elsa breathed. "I'm such a terrible friend. I shouldn't be… feeling these things, I know. And, God… I shouldn't be putting another burden on you. I just hate to see you hurting like this… especially when I know I would never…" Elsa dared not to finish that sentence. She didn't even dare to meet Anna's eyes, shimmering tears rolling down as she focused on the tiles beneath her feet.
Perhaps she was too shaken by everything that was happening, but Anna couldn't understand at the time what was going on with her friend. Why this was happening now. All she knew for certain was that in that moment, she needed to be the support. She needed to put aside her own pains and do for Elsa what Elsa had done for her over the years.
Anna guided the older girl's head to her chest and patted her sputtering back, taking in every desperately whispered "I love you" until they developed into stuttering sobs. It wasn't until after she led the heavy eyed, depleted Elsa upstairs to rest in the bedroom, did she come back downstairs to meet the freshly used ceramic bowl sitting on her kitchen counter.
Her stomach sank.
When she returned to the room, she met Elsa sitting up at the edge of the bed her normally calm eyes alight with resolution.
"I know you need time to decide what you want, but I promise that if you give me this opportunity, I'll make this relationship the best you've ever had."
She focused on Elsa's words quietly.
"I'll even prove it to you. Starting tomorrow, I'll show you who I can be for you."
Still, Anna said nothing, eyes near vacant.
She could see the cracks forming in Elsa's resolve almost as clearly as she could feel the ones forming around her heart.
"I-if it bothers you though, just say so and I'll sto-"
"Okay."
Elsa's eyes widened about as much as they could in their weariness and she pulled Anna so close the redhead could feel the girl's heart racing in her chest. She couldn't hear whatever words were being whispered to her, she could barely feel the blonde's breaths wisping across her neck. Elsa pulled back and locked eyes with her but all she could see was the haunting image of that freshly used bowl.
The next morning, Anna awoke to the aroma of hot chocolate and frying bacon, the foreign scent of fresh breakfast becoming a usual occurrence over the next few days.
Anna smiled wearily at the memories they formed over the past two weeks, but not without bearing the weight of guilt in her heart. The first time Elsa called her 'my love', Anna flushed to a red that put her hair to shame. They had their first kiss only moments later and despite the dread pooling in the younger's gut, she hated that it was better than any she had experienced before.
Elsa was… perfect. It made every night that they separated even more difficult as Anna powered up her laptop determinedly hunting for a cure to the affliction she set on Elsa. By the end of the first week, she couldn't get through the night without crying.
Last night was the worst of all. Anna always knew Elsa was an amazing cook - hell, their skills were incomparable, but that fettuccine tasted like it was the work of angels! The wine matched it perfectly! But beyond all that, one full week of hair-pulling tension came to a boil last night. The kiss lasted just a bit too long. Elsa's hands were just a bit too confident. But more than anything, Anna was too weak. She let herself enjoy Elsa's ministrations. She encouraged the blonde's straying lips. She gave in to the heat pooling between her legs. She was far too weak.
A pair of soft lips against her neck broke the girl from her self-loathing.
"Morning love, you okay?" Anna hated the way that rasped voice was making her heart swell. She felt the older girl's body press against her as hands wrapped lovingly around her waist and her head came to rest on Anna's shoulder. "Cuckoo Soup?"
And for the first time since this whole thing happened, Anna finally spilled her guilt from start to finish. She expected Elsa to be angry and feel cheated, betrayed even. But, there was just laughter.
"Anna, if… 'love juices'," Elsa quoted one of the comments, "had some type of magical effect, I would have received a double dose of that last night. Fresh from the source." Elsa smirked as the redhead flushed at the crude reminder of what that mouth could do.
"Then why did all of this suddenly happen that day?" Anna was still a bit doubtful. It showed in the way she furrowed her brows.
"I've felt this way for a long time," Elsa admitted shyly, taking Anna by surprise. "But that day… Anna you never cook, most days you rather starve. When I saw that bowl on the counter, I couldn't help myself. I tasted it and, my god was it horrible!" Elsa laughed but it was far from mocking. "But you made it. By the time I caught myself, the bowl was empty and I felt like I had the best meal of my life. And then I came out and saw you crying… and you told me you made it for that bastard Hans, and you told me what he did to you and something… snapped."
Wait.
"But the bowl I left on the counter was plastic, yours was ceramic." Anna was trying desperately to cling to this new ray of hope.
"Well I wanted to heat it up and your tupperware isn't exactly microwave-safe." Elsa knitted her brows, a confused chuckle escaping her lips. "That's the part you choose to focus on?"
Before she could react the blonde found herself being tackled to the bed, lips melting against her own feverishly, a passion she was almost too happy to return. She wasn't sure what overcame her little redhead but she wasn't about to complain. Not even when she pulled away and pressed their foreheads together, laughing wildly at god-knows-what.
"You okay there?" She asked with only a slight concern.
"I love you Elsa." It was the first time Anna could let those words escape without shame and it filled her with unbridled glee when she finally made the older girl blush for a change. Running her hands down a body she could finally guiltlessly appreciate, Anna smiled. "How would you like another dose?" she cooed.
Elsa happily obliged.