Elsa woke wearily, her eyes seemingly glued shut. But that was probably for the best anyway, considering her splitting headache. „Fucking Amélie.", she muttered under her breath. 'Yeah, enough social interactions for the next six months, now back to work.' she thought, 'As soon as my head doesn't feel like the fucking anvil of Hephaestus anymore. Gotta have some Advil lying around here somewhere. And why the fuck do I still wear my clothes from yesterday? How did I even get home?'

She absentmindedly wandered into her bathroom to get something against her headache, and almost missed the pair of feet dangling over the armrest of her couch. Almost. She froze in place. Slowly her intellectual faculties were returning to her, and she deduced that the person lying on her couch must be a woman, judging from the size of her feet, and probably asleep, if the quiet snores were any indication. She slowly approached the person, and true enough, a girl was sprawled on her couch, drooling into the cushions. Something about her seemed familiar to her hungover brain, especially her auburn hair, but she still had no idea who she was or how that woman had gotten into her apartment.

She carefully poked her toes with her slipper, the only response being a slightly louder snore. 'Heh, what a goofhead', she thought. She poked her again, a little harder this time, and she actually got rewarded with a little bit of gibberish coming out of her mouth. Finally, gathering all her courage, she leaned in to the girl's ear and yelled "Wake up, doofus!" The stranger immediately jerked upright, slamming her head into Elsa's in the process. The briefly forgotten headache returned, worse than before. "Motherf...who are you?!", Elsa yelled, clutching her head.

"Good question.", the stranger replied, letting out a monstrous yawn, "the more pressing matter is, however, where am I?" Elsa rolled her eyes. "You're in my apartment, and I have no idea how you got in here. There, your turn." The girl eyed Elsa from head to toe, giving an appreciative grunt. "Only fair, I guess. My name is Anna, Anna Baneker. And, if my recollection of yesterday is correct, you let me into your apartment."


Elsa had to chuckle at the image in her head. Anna looked up from her dinner. "What's funny?" Elsa smiled. "Oh, nothing. I just remembered how we met." Anna immediately giggled. "You mean how our foreheads met. They sure made a lasting impression on both of us." Elsa sighed, feeling nostalgic. "Hard to believe that was ten years ago, huh?" Anna mumbled some nonsensical answer, being tightly entangled in a web of memories from happier times. Elsa nibbled on her barren slice of white bread, not really in the mood for eating.

"What are you planning for tomorrow?" The question yanked Anna out of her dreamworld, she glanced around for a few moments to re-orient yourself. "Uh, not much, really. Grading some tests, but that's about it. Why?" Elsa chewed on her lower lip before giving an answer. "I thought about dropping by the lab again, checking in on the people, maybe get a planet or two named after me. You know, the 'poor suffering girl'-act." She smirked deviously. Anna stared at her. "You can do that?"

Elsa looked at her confused. "What, my poor girl-act? Yeah, I use it on you every day." Anna shot an angry glance at her. "No, I mean getting a planet named after you." Elsa snorted. "Oh, that. No, of course not. They usually get named after the telescope that discovers them, or the star they're orbiting. But we do internally give them different names, usually stupid ones, just for shits and giggles." Anna had a contemplative look on her face. "You never really talk about what you did actually do at work." "That's because it's not really that interesting if you don't have a degree in physics or engineering."

Anna put on an over-dramatic pout. "Great, now the so-called love of my life called me stupid." Elsa couldn't help but laugh at Anna's grimace. "You know very well I'd never call you stupid. I love you, don't you ever forget that." Elsa's voice had grown strangely serious for the last sentence. Anna's playful mood was gone immediately. She knew exactly how Elsa had meant it. 'Don't you ever forget that...after I'm gone.' Anna suppressed a sigh. She was still emotionally drained from the watershed yesterday, and it had only begun to really sink in that Elsa wouldn't be around for much longer. She stared at her plate, absentmindedly shifting the remains of her dinner around with her fork.

They sat at the table for a few more minutes, each silently in her own thoughts, when Anna said: "You still haven't really answered my question before." Elsa looked up with a quizzical look. "Which one?" "The one about what you did in the lab." Elsa smiled when she thought about her work at the JPL. "Well, our department was in the final stages of finishing the specifications for the replacement for the Spitzer space telescope. Technically the James Webb is a replacement, but it doesn't cover the higher ranges of infrared and near-visible infrared; I also doubt they'll be able actually finish and launch it by 2014, considering the constant budget cuts."

Anna pricked up her ears upon hearing the familiar name. "Didn't you talk about doing some work on that James Webb thing?" Elsa raised her eyebrows, impressed that Anna even remembered. "Yes, they actually hired me for that. I improved the design of the primary mirror, because they were running into serious trouble with the folding mechanism." "I have no idea what you just said,", Anna replied sheepishly. Elsa couldn't help but laugh. "Well, the mirror is the primary piece of equipment. It captures the incoming light into a focal point, just like with a satellite dish. Only that this mirror is six and a half meters in diameter, way too big for any launch vehicle we have available. So it consists of 18 smaller hexagons, that, once in space, will unfold to form one large mirror, like a honeycomb." Anna rested her head on her hands, just marveling at how lost Elsa could get in her work, how much she loved what she was doing. Elsa had managed to actually turn her hobby into her job, and she had enjoyed every second of it.

After a while, Elsa realized that Anna wasn't actually listening anymore and was just observing her elaborate gestures with the most adorable look on her face. She continued talking about the most outlandish topics, that even she herself sometimes barely understood, just to grant Anna that moment of joy and bliss. It was suddenly cut short, though, when they heard yelling in the next apartment, and the distinct sound of porcelain smashing against the wall, the pieces raining to the floor. Anna rolled her eyes. "Those two again. That's what, the fifth time this month?" "Sixth.", Elsa replied, "They had a really bad fight while you were still in school last week. I'm amazed they still have dishware to throw against the walls." Anna snickered. "They probably buy a new set every month. I wonder why they don't just get a divorce and be done with it. Anyway, I'm gonna watch some TV. You coming?"

"Nah.", Elsa replied after a bit, "I'm gonna go read something." Anna rolled her eyes. "I can already imagine what. Don't you know that book by heart by now?" Elsa smiled. "I could probably write it out word for word without looking at it once, but still...reading it reminds me of my youth, the time before mom died. A simpler time." With that, Elsa went to their bedroom to look for her copy of 'Solaris', the book that had sparked her interest in astronomy and space travel. It showed the decades of heavy use, the paperback binding worn and faded, the pages themselves frayed and with dozens of dog-ears, marking Elsa's favorite parts.

She had just laid down on the bed and started reading the familiar first page when Anna called "Elsa! Come quick!" Annoyed, she set the book down again and went to the living room, where Anna was intently watching the news. "What is it?", Elsa asked with a slightly indignant tone. Anna seemed to miss or ignore her annoyance, and simply said: "Look! That's in Tunisia!" Elsa focused her attention on the TV, where she saw videos and reports of large groups of protestors being disbanded by the police, often with the help of tear gas. They were both horrified.

Just one and a half years ago, they'd spent two weeks in Tunis, a holiday to celebrate Elsa being cancer-free for two years. They both still fondly remembered the trip, and lots of pictures of it were strewn across the apartment. Seeing the country in this state of upheaval wasn't pleasant. "Poor Mariem, she still has some extended family there. I hope they're okay.", Anna said after a while. The name sounded familiar to Elsa, but she couldn't put it anywhere. Anna recognized her look, and clarified: "She's the lovely physics teacher you chatted the whole evening with, when we were at the school staff Christmas party last year." "Right, I remember now.", Elsa said, "She's really nice. She even asked me to come into her class to talk about my job. She wanted to convince more of her students to pursue a career in science, especially the girls." "You never told me about this.", Anna replied, "I don't remember seeing you in school." Elsa had to chuckle. "Of course I declined. We were swamped in work at that time, and you know how I am around large crowds of people. Especially juveniles who only think of booze and...well, hooking up." "Hey, my guys don't just think about drinking and fucking!" Anna said in a defensive tone. "You forgot partying and smartphones." She shot Elsa a cheeky smile, and Elsa couldn't help but laugh. She pressed a light kiss on Anna's lips and said: "I remember you being just the same in college. Minus the smartphones."

Anna put on a grossly exaggerated pout that made Elsa laugh even more, and jabbed at her with her index finger. "Watch it, Missus, that's slander. You better hold your tongue." "Okay, I'll think of that the next time I'm going down on you.", Elsa replied with a mischievous smile. "As if.", Anna replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest and pointedly looking away, her nose up in the air. "Why don't we find out?", Elsa asked with a sultry undertone. "What, right now?", Anna asked surprised. "Well," Elsa replied cheekily, "we could make an appointment. I believe I'm free at noon on Wednesday." By the time she finished her sentence, Anna had already grabbed her arm and was on her way to the bedroom.


Whew, chapter 2 finished, and what a finale! Just throwing it out there while it's hot off the press. Don't expect that to be the regular schedule, though, I was just excited about chapter 1 and immediately set out to write this one. I plan on having a 4-5 day schedule in the future. No promises tho.

The pace is a little slower here, getting in some more background info about the pair. Also, I hope you can excuse the amount of astronomy nerdyness in there, I just can't help myself :D

other astronomy nerds, should they be out there and reading frozen fanfics, will point out that any major design changes to the james webb telescope by 2004 (when elsa was alledgedly working on them) would've been nigh-impossible since many of the essential parts were already in production. I hope you can overlook this little artistic license, but I didn't want to move the story any further back in time. Should you come across any physical inaccuracies, please point them out

Also, a few clarifications about the setting:

the beginning of this story is set in late 2010, hinted at by the protests in tunisia (i'm rather proud of thinking this up, btw), but here I write it out just in case

elsa is 34 and anna is 31, they've been together for 10 years and married for 6

elsa wrote her PhD thesis with 24 (right when they first met) and was hired right off the bat. She's been working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Science Division in la cañada flintridge, CA ever since and is still technically employed, but on extended sick leave.

Anna is teaching english and history at the john burroughs high school in burbank, CA

they both live in pasadena, CA

as always, feel free to leave reviews. Any feedback is appreciated and i'll try to respond to everything I get.

Peace out