"So wait… Elsa kissed you?"

"No, you idiot, I kissed her! What am I gonna do?!" Anna whispered fiercely as she pushed the grocery cart past the veggie-green walls of the produce section. She cast a shifty glance towards the shelves filled with all the things she hated: broccoli, asparagus, and… Oh my God I didn't know they made Brussels sprouts that big!

Anna stuck out her tongue in disgust and tried to push the cart forward past the vegetables, but a hand caught the hood of her sweatshirt and pulled her back. "Nuh-uh, feisty pants. I know what you're doing." Anna winced, turning her guilty eyes to look over her shoulder at Kristoff, who was keeping her place with a smirk curling his lips. "Wittle Anna needs her veggies!" he cooed in a ridiculous baby voice.

"Oh, lay off, Reindeer King!" She reached up and yanked her hood from Kristoff's grasp. "Just because you actually enjoy shoveling roughage down that gob doesn't mean I do!"

"No, but it doesn't mean you can replace it with chocolate. You need to eat healthy, y'know. Otherwise you'll lose that girlish figure, and we can't have that. Who will Elsa have to kiss then?" Kristoff teased.

Freckled cheeks erupted into flame as the memory of the kiss came to the forefront of her mind. Anna shoved her hands into the pocket of her sweatshirt and buried her nose in its thick hooded collar. She mumbled out a half-hearted 'Shut up,' but otherwise remained oddly quiet. When that was all she did Kristoff glanced at her, forehead creased with worry. That wasn't the reaction he'd been expecting. Normally, when Anna was teased she either got loud or got snarky, sometimes both. Quiet was not something he associated with the short redhead.

He actually sometimes wondered to himself if there was any Italian blood hiding in Anna's veins. That was the old stereotype after all: if there's shouting you're fine. If there's silence? You're in trouble.

"Anna…" he reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder, but hesitated. At the last second he shied away and reached up to grab a bag of carrots instead. One of the few vegetables Anna could stomach. He placed them down carefully in the cart and drummed his fingers against the handlebar for a while, the silence between the two friends palpable and awkward. Just when he gathered the courage to break it, his mouth opening to blurt out some form of dopey, desperate change of subject, Anna groaned and rubbed at her eyes.

"What am I gonna do, Kris? I-I, I can't blame this on her… I kissed her. I did. I initiated it. What does that mean? I-I mean, does that mean I like her? Like, like her like her? Well, duh, of course that means I like her like her… but it's not my fault! Have you seen her? She's so pretty, and when she smiles I just…" Anna let out a long, bone-deep sigh, eyes sliding shut with resignation. "I wasn't even thinking when I did it, it just happened. Kris, I-I'm totally lost. I don't know what to think, or how I'm supposed to feel. This isn't exactly an ideal setup for a romance, but I-if I like her then, then… then that means I-"

"Anna! Calm down." The redhead froze, eyes opening when she realized that Kristoff had gripped her shoulders and was trying to meet her eyes. His own were wide with concern, his mouth pulled down at the corners. "Not here. Let's finish getting your groceries, then we can head home. You can tell me all about it, and I promise not to be sarcastic, or mean, or yell. Alright?" He squeezed her shoulders gently for emphasis, and Anna reached up to lay a hand on one of his, squeezing back.

"…alright."

She said 'alright.' The acquiescence left her lips but the truth was Anna was anything but alright. Kristoff turned her around and gently pushed her forward, and she stumbled along beside him as he filled the cart with who-knows-what. Food most likely, but with the way Anna's brain was buzzing her best friend could have been putting live rodents into her cart and she wouldn't have noticed until one crawled up her pant leg on the drive home.

With things as they were though, what with her sleep-deprived brain and emotional exhaustion, Anna Christian was currently nothing short of a zombie.

Once Anna had left Meg's wonderfully distracting company just about an hour ago, there was nothing left to keep the image of Elsa's ecstatic smile at bay. Her head had begun to pound with painful ferocity as the thoughts swirled around in a relentless circle through her mind: memories of the kiss, of the unadulterated joy in Elsa's bright blue eyes… joy that Anna was responsible for. Joy that Anna wasn't sure she could be responsible for. She could barely remember to eat three meals a day, how could she ever be responsible for…

…for something that pure?

The way Elsa had looked at her when they pulled apart had done things to her she'd never read about in any cheesy romance book before. There was warmth sure, uncomfortable but beautiful warmth blooming in her stomach like ivy as it curled its way down through to the tips of her toes. She'd felt weightless, lights on the balls of her feet with only Elsa's gentle fingers on her jaw keeping her grounded. Elsa's fingers… and her own heart. Her own heart, heavy and cold in her chest. It hurt, the pain registering somewhere numbly in the back of her mind, and that part of her knew things Anna didn't want to voice.

Elsa's in a mental institute.

Elsa doesn't speak.

She's not well. She's not crazy, but this isn't something I can do by myself. I can't put a Band-aid on it and fix it.

I can't magically make her better.

They shouldn't have kissed. Anna shouldn't have kissed her. She knew it (though in her defense it is hindsight that's always 20/20 and Elsa was way too pretty for her own good), and she'd done it anyway. Kristoff, even Meg had both warned her that this was going to happen. While she was sure neither had been expecting this kind of situation the result was the same: Anna was now responsible for Elsa's happiness. Her actions had a direct and powerful influence over Elsa's emotional wellbeing, which was a burden she was almost positive she would not be able to carry on her already-weary shoulders.

And what made it worse were Anna's own feelings.

It was true that Anna was no love expert, she was in fact pretty much the opposite. She had no idea what love was, had never experienced it for herself. She'd been far too young when her parents died for there to be any residual memories of affection between the two, and Hans had never brought a girlfriend home. The only successful relationship she'd seen was between her cousin Rapunzel (who she still had to call to explain what had happened after they'd parted ways at the dance), and her boyfriend Eugene. Watching them gave her a template to work off of: witty banter, affectionate glances, lots of smiling, and selfless action to ensure the happiness of your partner.

But it was confusing for her, because that was pretty much the relationship she had with Kristoff. The only thing their relationship lacked was the physicality, the kissing and junk. True, she'd never once had the desire to kiss Kristoff, but Rapunzel always said that when she first met Eugene she'd felt the same way.

Not that Anna could blame her. After all, when Rapunzel and Eugene had first met he introduced himself as 'Flynn Rider,' as if that could ever be a real name. It wasn't until they got to know each other and Eugene realized what a weirdo, quit the act, and started acting like himself that the attraction came.

Anna knew almost everything about Kristoff, and vice versa. The attraction still wasn't there though, so for a while Anna had been scared that she was incapable of love.

After this weekend however, those fears were now called into question. She had wanted to kiss Elsa, very much so. Seeing Elsa in that beautiful red dress had made her entire body uncomfortably warm, and when Elsa had initiated their second kiss with a smile Anna could feel when their lips pressed together, the redhead's fingers had itched to reach out and touch. There was no way she could deny the attraction.

But from what she'd read in books and heard whenever her ears caught wind of high school gossip, attraction and feelings were two different things. You could be attracted to someone and not care about their feelings, which was definitely unfortunate if the person you were attracted to ended up having feelings for you.

Anna was terrified that she was in that situation.

She cared about Elsa, that was absolutely true. Anna loved making her smile, and hated to see her sad. Seeing Elsa cry made her feel like crying right along with her, and the thought of never seeing her again (God forbid something happened to make Elsa hate her, or if the institute refuse to let Anna see her), seemed like an impossibility.

But is that love? I feel that way about a lot of people. I'd be sad to see Ariel or even Vanessa crying in the hallway. Well… maybe not Vanessa. She is kind of a bitch.

Anna sighed once more, shoving her hands into the pocket of her sweatshirt as she plodded along with her head down, oblivious to Kristoff's sad eyes watching her every move.

If love is supposed to be the best thing in the world why does it have to be so hard?

Later when the pair had finished with their grocery shopping and put everything away, Kristoff dialed the nearest fast-food pizza joint and ordered their usual for a typical Kristanna pow-wow session: an extra-large Meat Lover's and Cinna-stix for dessert with extra icing on the side. While he took care of the food, Anna sat in front of the PlayStation 3, flipping through a CD holder which contained all of her brother's favorite games.

She needed a night to remind herself of the good old days, before Hans had been institutionalized, and before Elsa had smiled and blushed her way into Anna's heart.

With everything that had happened in the past few weeks, Anna needed a night to feel normal again.

"I've got the order tracker thing on my phone; Anthony popped our order into the oven at exactly 7:41 pm. Should be here in about half an hour." Anna bobbed her head in response, not bothering to look up as she felt Kristoff plop down beside her. He leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing. "Whatcha looking for?"

Anna hummed, not quite sure how to respond. Most of the CDs had graphics on them that were either off-putting or confusing: one was blood red with a particularly unattractive, dirty-looking man pointing a gun out at the viewer, and another was completely black with only a dragon and the word 'Skyrim' written across it.

How was she supposed to tell which one would actually be fun to play? She'd never bothered to ask Hans the names of the games she'd thought were interesting, he didn't like being distracted when he played.

Kristoff watched her curiously for a few moments before plucking the CD holder from her grasp, ignoring her indignant 'Hey!' as he began to flip through it. "If you wanted a suggestion, you should have just asked." Anna snorted in response and crossed her arms. Kristoff spared her an amused glance before squinting down at the game console. "Hmm… this is the original model, right? The one that's backward compatible?"

"Uh…"

"Let me answer that: it is. So here, we're gonna go a little old school." He plucked a disc from the case and Anna cocked her head at the sight of a particularly attractive blonde boy holding what looked like a sword made out of water. He turned the system on and slid the disc in. "The best Final Fantasy game they ever made, in my opinion… even if Tidus' voice actor was really annoying at some points."

Anna sent him a look that was halfway between insanely curious and mildly irritated. "You realize I have no idea what you're talking about, right?"

He only smiled at her, ruffling her hair before handing her a controller. "That's why you're gonna learn, goof. Now pay attention," he paused to check his phone, "Anthony here says the pizza's done, so it'll be here soon. I figure you'll have enough time to get through the opening, which should get you hooked. If it doesn't, then we aren't friends anymore."

Anna's forehead scrunched up in response, lower lip jutting out in a pout. "Gee, thanks!"

It turned out that she didn't have anything to worry about; when the pizza finally arrived Kristoff had to pry the controller from Anna's hands. The opening sequence had been so cool, even if Anna didn't understand how the characters were playing what could only be described as underwater rugby without drowning. The turn-by-turn gameplay was easy for her to pick up, and Kristoff had watched on, amused when she let out a victorious cry whenever the characters sliced through their enemies.

"Ha! Take that, you stupid thing! Who cares if your wings glow? Not me!"

"Alright, enough, feisty pants! The food's here and I know you're hungry. Don't let the game pull you in, or else trust me when I say you'll be at Macalania before you know it!"

"I still don't know what that means," Anna giggled as the pretty blonde boy finally sliced through the weird machine-looking object the old man had told him to attack. When she saw the structure catch fire and fall into what must have been oil, the following explosion had her grinning like a maniac. "Did you see that?!"

Kristoff ran a hand through his hair, smiling affectionately. He sighed and leaned down to take the controller from her hands, wincing when she beat at his arms in a futile attempt to get it back. He stood up and ran the character to the nearest save point, saving Anna's game before turning the system off. "Food time, feisty pants. You can play later."

Anna rolled her eyes and grumbled but did stand up. "Fine. But I get to pick the first slice!"

Without waiting for confirmation she rushed into the pizza and grabbed two plates, one for herself and one for Kristoff. She raised the top of the pizza box and her mouth began to water at the sight of the cheesy beauty staring back at her. She regarded the pie for a moment before plucking the piece with the most pepperoni. "We got soda, right?"

"Yeah, in the fridge," Kristoff murmured distractedly as he fiddled with the TV. "You wanna watch a movie while we eat? Or is that just gonna distract you?"

"Distwact me fwom what?" Anna had eaten halfway through her slice, and when she spoke it was hard to understand what with the mouthful of melted cheese practically hanging out of her mouth.

"Distract you from telling me about Elsa," Kristoff deadpanned. "But I can see that the video game has already done that." He sighed and stood, putting his hands on his hips. "Well… you're not getting out of it. You're going to tell me what happened, and we're going to figure this out. You told me yourself: you're in too deep. Now, I promise I'm not going to judge you, or yell at you. I'm your homie and, like your old pal Finn says, 'homies help homies.' I may not know this Elsa girl, but I don't want her getting hurt either. I wanna hear, from the top, everything that happened this weekend."

Anna remained silent, but Kristoff could practically see the gravity of her situation pushing back down upon her once again. He could see it in the way her shoulders tensed, the way the light in her eyes dimmed. She swallowed her mouthful and nodded once, meekly.

"Okay…" she said.

Her voice was weak.

Elsa was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she waited for Gerda to open the door to the visitor's lounge. It was finally Wednesday, finally time for her to see Anna.

She didn't see the worried lines that marred the old woman's normally soft features. In her excitement she didn't realize that Gerda had paused before opening the door, and when she did Elsa brushed straight past her. She missed the way Gerda had reached out to pull her back.

(There was no way she could have known of the call Gerda had received from Mr. Oaken upon Anna's arrival… a call detailing Anna's tired eyes and restless body language.)

When the blonde stepped into the lounge her eyes immediately darted around the room, looking for that familiar flash of copper. She found it seated at one of the tables; Anna's back was facing her. A sneaky grin spread across pink lips and Elsa began to creep across the room, making sure to be as quiet as possible. Why Anna might have been facing away from her was never called into question.

Soon enough she was within striking distance. Elsa stepped right up behind the redhead's chair and gently clapped her hands over the younger girl's eyes. Anna squeaked and jumped in her seat, hands immediately flying up to grasp at Elsa's. The blonde tried to fight back the ear-to-ear grin that threatened to break free; her cheeks were extremely sore from having already spent the last two days smiling.

"Elsa? Is that you?" Anna's hands began to slide their way up Elsa's arms, patting at the soft material of her blue sweater. "Hm… I'm definitely feeling some blue sweater, and here," her fingers blindly poked at Elsa's cheeks, "are some chubby round cheeks." When Anna pinched one cheek and gave it a gentle tug Elsa's grin finally broke free. She shook her head wildly, forcing Anna to relinquish her hold. Anna's wandering hands only continued upward, and when they threaded their way through her bangs Elsa felt a pleasant shiver travel down her spine, and she leaned down to press her nose to Anna's hair.

She could hear the smile in Anna's voice when she spoke.

"Yep, that's my Elsa alright."

Heat bloomed in Elsa's cheeks and her body shuddered again. She pulled back and drew her hands away from Anna's eyes, letting them fall instead to her shoulders. Anna tilted her head back to meet Elsa's gaze and the blonde was pleased to see the gentle curl of the redhead's lips. But her brows immediately drew together in concern when she took in the pallor of Anna's skin, the dark circles under her eyes. Her hands returned to Anna's face, this time cupping freckled cheeks as Elsa stared deep into Anna's tired eyes.

Anna… what's wrong?

Elsa instantly feared the worst: that she was the cause of Anna's discomfort. Despite her joy over having finally kissed the other girl, she hadn't been blind to the way Anna had left in a nervous rush. At the time she was too busy floating on Cloud 9 to even imagine that Anna would regret her actions. Originally she'd chalked up Anna's stuttering and discomfort to simple nervousness, but the creeping fear that Anna had never wanted the kiss was there in the back of her mind.

And now that she was seeing Anna's disheveled appearance, that niggling fear was now at the forefront of her mind.

But, just as she always managed to do, Anna assuaged her fears almost instantly. "Don't worry Elsa, I know I look like crap, I'm just tired. I was up really late these past two nights catching up on homework." Anna smiled up at her, and reached up to hold one of Elsa's hands against her cheek. "I'm fine."

Elsa brushed Anna's bangs away from her face with her free hand, eyes still showing quiet concern. The redhead glanced away for a moment, cheeks reddening ever so slightly. Elsa cocked her head, one pale strand of blonde falling into her eyes. When she reached up to brush put it back in place, she felt warm lips press against the center of her palm. Her eyes flew wide open and she looked down to see Anna's eyes closed, her head turned to give Elsa's hand a gentle kiss.

When she pulled away her eye's opened back up, and though her eyes were no less tired Elsa believed her when she said, "I'll be alright."

The two stared at each other for a while before a loud voice broke the silence.

"Anna! Who that?"

Elsa's head snapped up and met the eyes of a dark-haired little boy. He was seated next to Anna, a bright blue crayon clutched in his hand. He was staring at her blankly, round cheeks pudgy and pale.

He'd been so quiet Elsa hadn't even noticed his presence.

When the little boy blinked, Elsa quickly ducked her head and her eyes fell upon several pieces of paper, all scribbled upon, presumably by the little boy himself.

"Olaf, this is Elsa. She's a very good friend of mine, so say hi."

His response was immediate, though shy and somewhat monotone. "Hi Elsa..." But his following question was spoken in a much louder, curious tone. "Why she no talk?"

Elsa frowned and withdrew her hand from Anna's skin, folding her arms across her stomach. Anna noticed and frowned, glancing up over her shoulder at her with concern clear in her eyes. "Because, Olaf… she's very shy." Elsa's arms only tightened, squeezing firmly against her torso as she looked away from their table. "And she's scared, but that's okay. Because we all get scared sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with that." Surprised, Elsa looked back up to see Anna standing, facing her with a hand outstretched. "Isn't that right, Elsa?"

The smile on Anna's face was confident but gentle.

It was in that moment that Elsa wondered if Anna truly was an angel, sent to her from Heaven.

She has so much faith in me, faith that not even my own parents seem to have anymore. She does so much just to keep me happy, and what do I do? Take the attention, take the affection… and every Wednesday she goes home alone. And she does it all with a smile.

Elsa's eyes narrowed. How could she show Anna how much she appreciated all that the redhead did for her? How could she prove that she was an active, attentive, caring partner in this relationship?

She's exhausted right now. And yet she still drove over here, to see me. And she'll have to drive home too…

An idea struck her.

Elsa reached out and took Anna's hand. When Anna smiled Elsa smiled right back. She gave Anna's hand a tug and led the other girl over to the couch. Anna gave no resistance, pausing only to say goodbye to Olaf. When Elsa sat down, turned her torso and stretched one leg across the couch the redhead's eyes grew confused. Elsa only grinned and gave her hand another tug, patting the spot between her legs.

Understanding flashed in turquoise orbs and Anna flushed, stuttering out a polite refusal. Elsa only sighed and pressed her lips to Anna's knuckles, staring up at her angel with a pleading look in her eyes. The pair had a silent argument with their eyes before Anna's cheeks darkened and she gave a shaky nod. Elsa smiled and when she sat down gingerly upon the couch cushion the blonde had to help Anna situate herself the way Elsa wanted her.

She reached out to wrap a hand around the back of Anna's neck, guiding her down as Elsa's other leg came up onto the couch to trap the redhead's body. When Anna's head was nestled against the curve of her neck Elsa let out a content sigh. The pair of them were now laying on the couch, Anna using Elsa as a full body pillow, cradled between Elsa's legs. Both girls were wonderfully warm, though Elsa could feel the blush searing through Anna's skin. The redhead was still stiff too, unfortunately, and Elsa could not think of a way to get her to relax.

"Thanks for making this easy, Elsa." Elsa's ears perked at the sound of Anna's voice. It was weak, and Elsa could hear the fatigue lacing every word. "You know, I came here expecting to have a serious conversation with you. About this weekend, the kiss… where we stand. Because I… I don't know what we're gonna do. And I'm really kinda scared." Elsa's grip tightened around Anna's waist (her arms had locked around the smaller girl's body the moment they'd laid down). Anna sighed deeply. "But now that I'm here, the only thing that keeps coming to mind is that I forgot your truffle, and I feel horrible."

Anna almost sounded like she was going to cry. Elsa screwed her eyes shut and pressed a firm kiss to Anna's hair. When she pulled back she replaced her lips with her cheek, resting her head as her heart clenched at the thought of Anna beating herself up for something so little.

Didn't she know that it wasn't the chocolate that Elsa cared about, but Anna herself? Anna, the beautiful, wonderful girl that she'd do anything for?

Anna… you're so silly. Elsa threaded her fingers through messy red locks, wishing she could sing or even just hum a lullaby. Don't worry about me, Anna. Just rest, please. You've earned it.

As she continued to stroke Anna's hair she did in fact feel the body on top of hers lose its stiffness, and she gaze a lazy grin of triumph when Anna finally seemed to settle into place. She pressed herself against Elsa, one hand grabbing a fistful of the blonde's sweater as she let out a comfortable sigh.

"Kristoff and I prepared a whole speech, y'know? About boundaries… and expect… expectations. And now I can barely remember any of it. How dare you use the fact that you make a great pillow against me… so not cool." Anna's words were becoming murmurs. Elsa could sense her drifting off into dreamland, and hoped that her dreams would be pleasant. "There is one thing I remember though."

Elsa blinked once, fingers curling into the material of Anna's shirt. Anna's eyes opened slightly, blurred with fatigue but serious as anything.

"…I want to hear your voice."

And with that last thought, Anna finally let sleep take her. Elsa could only hold her close, her hands clammy, heart thundering in her chest.

I think I'm gonna take a break from ANs for a while and just write the story, because even though most of you are incredibly sweet if I have to deal with more reviews like this:

'You know there's this thing called updating that a lot of us like... u should try it sometime... its been over a month... so yea... f*ng update the d**nstory... we are all waiting for u to... plz just hurry... we gotta know how this ends...'

'This is so gonna end up like r9k elsa'

'MAKE AN UPDATE ITS BEEN OVER A MONTH! ! ! ! !'

'Updates take so long I forget what the story is even about'

Then I might just stop caring altogether.

If you people don't like what I'm writing, or can't deal with my updating schedule here's an idea: write your own fucking story.

-Cel