Backwards

by Sensational Sista

College/AU. There's an unusual perspective in rowing: To move forward, you have to move backwards. As Anna joins Arendelle University's rowing team and forges an unlikely friendship with the elusive blonde Senior, she realizes her own perspective of life and love is about to be turned around. Elsanna (Rating upped for occasional Adult Themes)

30. Love Is Alive

Chapter 30

Anna stood at the edge of the docks, watching as the morning light showered the river in a vibrant array of deep pink splashes. An effervescent amber glow surrounded the rising sun beyond the fjord's hills amidst the bit of overcast; vapor hung in the air, crystallizing around her breath. The morning sky's red spectrum felt warm as she basked beneath it despite the lingering nips of brisk breezes scraping against her equally rose tinged cheeks.

Most of the Novice athletes had already dispersed from the docks, the long trek back to campus and the beloved Dining Hall calling out to them, while the varsity had a Captains' meeting starting soon. Anna was one if the very few who stood long after the last boat had been strapped down and the final oar set nestled away, avoiding the meeting as long as possible.

Her teal hued eyes reflected a contrasting fuchsia along her irises. The tousling of her hair unnoticed, her hands shoved deep in her pockets as she lost herself to pensive curiosity.

It was like a full circle; having watched the sun melt under the weight of cooling twilight in a self-recognizing moment of truth, only to now watch it shed light like a burst of orange fire to where darkness had been once creeping in.

Anna had been so confident this morning; riding along the roads with her shoulders held high, grin locked in place, although not too confident in trying to run anymore red lights. She'd all but bounced off her bike when slotting it in the racks, prancing with a strong skip onto the wooden planks in her exceptional burst of morning readiness.

Excitement of finally knowing what love felt like reverberated in her chest and pulsed in her veins, causing her heart to thud and palms to sweat anxiously. Or perhaps it was simply all simply adrenaline (well, she's taking BioPsych, she knew it was all adrenaline.. but regardless). Either way that she thought of it, it didn't matter. She was just looking forward to coming face to face with her heart's primary occupant; so incredibly curious as to how her body would behave the moment she'd gaze upon the top rower with this shiny new knowledge.

Would her throat tighten, words completely stunned into silence as her breath escaped her until some silly but heartfelt compliment was spoken?

Would her jaw hang gaping in unapologetic dumbness until it gained her a playful smack upside the head, leaving her in a smiling gooey puddle?

Would her eyes completely hallucinate and envision the blonde appearing like a goddess, backlit by some heavenly source while walking straight off the water in a sparkling white dress?

All of the above cliché contemplations held some plausibility in her case. Yet they were to be put to the wayside, answers evading her, all thanks to one annoying fact:

Elsa wasn't at practice.

The anomaly of an occurrence in of itself had her extremely worried, knowing of only one other occasion where Elsa hadn't showed up to practice in their whole history of rowing. And, although not directly the cause, Anna knew she had been an associating factor for why.

Almost grudgingly, though less so than earlier having to get out coxswain gear, again, she made her way back inside for the Captains' and Coaches' post practice discussion. Anna hid herself further in the back of the crew than usual; Marshall's behemoth shoulders acting like a marvelous shield from view of surrounding members. She was far from mentally present enough to even pretend she was listening anyway.

Digging her phone from her backpack, her thumb had programmed a quick text. She wasted zero time to send it out to the blonde, questioning where she was and if she was alright.

It wasn't overbearing; just straight to the point and business-like, and it absolutely shouldn't come off as anything more than a concerned rower wondering of a friend's well-being. Though, rereading the hastily sent message, Anna couldn't help how her rouge-tinted goggles were seeing things now.

The words 'Hey, why weren't you at practice? Is everything okay?' suddenly looked a lot more like 'Hey, i am SO sad you weren't here with me and i'm so worried if you're alive, can you pleaseee text me back asap?'

She shook her head, ridding the silly thoughts. Anna wasn't that transparent, and certainly not through text. Elsa would never think anything strange of the message.. because there was no reason for such a thing to be weird!

But, ugh, why was a simple text making her feel so squirmish today? Weirdly clingy? She'd never felt this sort of weirdness when reaching out to Elsa before. It was probably just because she was a healthy level of concerned. Yeah.

Her fingers tightened around the little flip-phone before she shoved the item into her pocket, squishing the odd nervousness and self-doubt down along with it. The action did nothing to stop the odd energy manifesting in her limbs though.

Barely having heard a word said in the last 10 minutes anyway, Anna's legs were already moving. She slid out behind the large practice group, bag in her arms. Slipping through the connected boat bay doorways, she distantly eyed the silver hulled Single; the regal Kjekk that she had actually been somewhat excited to try out this morning.. with Elsa.. who wasn't here.. or replying to her. She sputtered a huffed breath, blowing her bangs in frustration.

She sneakily slinked to the bike racks, hearing the eventual dismissal of the varsity behind her early extraction. Her nerves were still pumping, brain tuning out all rationale thoughts aside from wanting answers to ebb her worries. Her helmet was clipped in a sharp click. Like a bolt, she was off, bicycle speeding down the streets and back to the Residential Campus, before making a veering turn to an all too familiar adjacent street at the last moment.

Ultimately, her unprocessed and autopilot efforts had been in vain. She'd incredibly made it all the way up the North mountain, never once getting off her bike in an amazing feat of strength (despite barely surviving on her lowest gear).

Lugging the bike into the small enclosed lobby with a heaved breath, she watched the locked inner entrance doorway. In the past, she'd managed to tuck inside on another tenant's coattail. Today, it seemed she was in no such luck at squeezing in behind a resident even after she paced inside the complex's downstairs fishbowl for nearly a quarter of an hour.

In the first few minutes that Anna had arrived, she'd tried the intercom system connected to the apartment numbers; the archaic looking communication option something she used frequently to buzz in at Kristoff's place, but it was new to her here. She'd always just sent a text message to the blonde, the act the simplest and most effective means to communicate between them some days.

But as those first 15 minutes came and went and Anna still had no means to actually get in and up to the woman's apartment, she found herself gloomily looking at her feet, sliding down against the smooth granite wall. Her phone remained in her pocket, quiet and still; no new alerts having come in all morning.

As the anxious energy radiating out of her gradually began to subside in its deluding intensity, rationality tried its luck at returning to her mind to give her sobering lucidity.

Idiot. She's obviously at her internship. She noted how the street was barren of most resident cars; the blue sedan also missing. And if that's the case, she'd not even be home until after 6:30 tonight. Anna frowned at herself. What was I thinking coming up here like this? This is so stalker-y! She moved her eyes up to the inner entrance-way once more before sighing dejectedly. I shouldn't be here. I'm so stupid.

When she finally noticed how her growling stomach was yelling at her for this side-tracked decision, she checked her watch, only then realizing how far into the hour she'd pointlessly waited. She had to leave now if she'd want any time to grab something to eat before going to class.

It was all for the best that she leave any way. Elsa was most definitely fine. Something probably just came up. Things come up, after all! She was worrying for nothing, especially by coming all the way here. What was she hoping to gain?

Hands gripping the handles to her bike, she internally sighed. She knew the answer to that.

I just.. really wanted to see her face.

…

Over three hours after she'd forced herself to her feet to end her fruitless journey, and make her way back to campus, Anna found herself standing in the Main Campus recreation lobby, eyeing some dangling chips at the small snack food concession stand; the not very nutritional items answering the call of her noisy stomach at the noon hour. Her brain was knocking annoyingly against her skull trying to tell her otherwise.

She'd received a PDF document from Elsa at some point last night, only having opened and read it over once she and Rapunzel parted ways after their morning class. It was a training schedule filled with blocked work out times in a calendar, types of body circuit exercises, various erg and water practices, and a self-fill-in sheet to track one's progress; Norway's insignia was stamped along the bottom, no doubt an artifact saved from Elsa's training days. But the last 3 pages were what her mind had conjured now, going on and on about nutrition and healthy diet and optimizing your caloric intake with a well-balanced yada yada yada..

Anna was quite fine pretending she had not seen the fine print regarding chocolate being a big 'No No.'

She knew she shouldn't. But they're cheddar. She absolutely shouldn't. And they're half price. She definitely shouldn't. Maybe the brownie? She most certainly shouldn't. Well, there's popcorn too.. She shouldn- eh, that's healthier. Plus an apple. Having the fruit offset the nutritional lacking of the popcorn. Like canceling each other out. It was a rule of physics, or something.

Stepping away from the cashier and happily popping the kettle corn puffs into her mouth, she took a seat at a small table, apple beside her to complete the lunch of champions.

She had only just settled into the IKEA-make chair when two familiar faces appeared, near simultaneously, coming in opposite directions. She waved, happy to see her friends' coincidental timing, although not missing a small pinch of her nerves flickering; she knew she was about to be grilled about the details of her date. Getting out of the discussion after practice was already one stroke of luck, and Rapunzel for once diligently taking notes in class was strike two, so what were the chances of a third time? Oh please. She never got that lucky.

The duo hopped into the seats amidst a small conversation, animatedly discussing something about the yearly art show that their disciplines would be participating in. Anna easily slipped into the topic, encouraging the artists to elaborate on the event and what they were going to be preparing. Maybe she could get her third time's charm to get out of date talk.

As Rapunzel had just begun mentioning her watercolor collection, Kristoff suddenly shifted in his seat, hunching over, hushing his friends. "Guys, get down, Hans is coming." Immediately, Anna bristled, eyes slanting as she shot her look to the side, folding her arms onto the table similar to her friend; Rapunzel doing the complete opposite as instructed and instead sitting up taller, craning her neck. The blond yanked her back down sharply. "Hey stupid, don't be suspicious!"

Anna missed whatever uncultured word escaped the girl's sailor mouth. She was too busy seeing the familiar Junior boy walking across the open room heading to class. He was apparently far enough away and preoccupied with his destination that he did not toss their table any passing glance. But it didn't stop Anna from narrowing in on one particular thing about the ex-crew member: the side of his eye looked mildly discolored. She gasped. Did he have a black eye?

When the auburn haired boy turned a corner, taking his ass-awful aura with him, she immediately spun to her friends. "Did you see his black eye?"

Kristoff, who had been more turned away shook his head, but Rapunzel seemed thoughtful. "Eugene mentioned Hans came back with a nasty one the other week; swollen nose too. They still aren't talking, but he said he noticed after our first race."

"Why didn't you mention this?" the blond boy asked in a mildly exaggerated manner. "That's comedy gold!"

The youngest of the trio shrugged her shoulders insouciantly. "Thought we weren't speaking of him."

Anna tilted her head, recalling the subject the group had gossiped about last week. "Didn't we talk about a kid getting punched at the race?" Her brows furrowed at the dawning thought. "Could Hans have been there? What if he pissed someone off.."

Honey and emerald colored eyes both widened in time with Anna's growing proposals.

Kristoff let out a 'huh' sound first. "Unless he went to visit some of his friends on the team, the chance of him being there is probably slim." He weighed his hands like a scale. "Now, on the other hand, chances of him pissing someone off..?" The trio all nodded at the same time.

Glancing at the hallway Hans had disappeared down, Anna gave a small scowl before it morphed into a wry laugh. "I sorta wish I had done it!"

"I could see that," the blond man nodded, grabbing some popcorn from Anna's bag. The sculler smacked his hand away from the snack. "Either you or me."

"Or Elsa." Anna flinched at Rapunzel's piped up participation.

Could that be a possibility? But Elsa had been basically glued to her hip that entire day. What, maybe two times they were apart? No. Kristoff was right. The probability of him being there was low enough, let alone even if he were there, the opportunities for him to run into Elsa without Anna's guard dog senses tingling was basically nothing.

The biggest thing was Anna trying to imagine Elsa ever throwing a punch at anyone. Yeah, she and Kristoff would hardly hesitate when a hit was called for, but Elsa? The woman could never give in to such an impulse, unless absolutely driven by something enraging. Not that her enraged hatred for the man hadn't flitted through crisp ocean eyes now and then when speaking to Anna.

Although near impossible to imagine, and near impossible to ever be remotely true, Anna found she was fine to pretend for a moment that, if called upon, Elsa would gladly toss aside any polite mannerisms to heroically defend both of their honors. A small smile quirked at the corner of her lips.

"Oh!" Rapunzel gasped, eyes alight. "Hey, speaking of her but not actually speaking of her 'cuz we're also not supposed to be speaking of her.. how was your date with that new girl?!"

Anna's savoring of the indulgent 'knight in shining armor' thought was short-lived, cyan eyes absently falling to her watch, more out of habit. So it was exactly 12:56pm when Anna's luck had finally given way; waiting 21 hours had to be a new record for those two. She also fought a visible grimace at the awful transition of choice; as if inadvertently placing Elsa in the same 'he who shall not be named' ex-relationship boat as Hans. Just, no.

Her decade-long best friend splayed an arm out across the largely barren table as if to make space for whatever was about to come from the conversation. For the first minute, Anna just had to sit there because apparently the art majors were in an incessantly chatty mood today, both bouncing off one another's comments and questions in a disorganized array.

Anna bit into her apple, chewing intently on the crunchy fruit while figuring out just how she could start fielding the anticipatory questions thrown by her friends. Not like getting a word in edgewise with the talkative rowers was any easier than jumping into a double-dutch tournament with two left feet, so she waited for the first semblance of coherency.

"No no no," Rapunzel hushed over Kristoff's selected question. "We start with the most important question first!" Her sparkling green eyes honed in on the freckled woman. "What did you wear?"

The oldest rower rolled his eyes muttering how unimportant that was, but unknowingly, it actually lightened Anna's mood. She could start with this. Her apple tilted in time with a non-energetic answer. "My usual stuff."

Rapunzel looked baffled. "What? You didn't dress up? Not even the lipstick I told you to wear?" Anna shrugged. "But dates are the best excuses to do so! You want to make a lasting impression," the brunette hummed between straw sips of her drink, almost appalled at the idea. Her cheek slouched into her palm at the missed opportunity. "You could have at least done your braids up."

"Yeah, like Judy's weird pigtails," laughed Kristoff, joking about the team's older coxswain.

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "Ugh stop. Girl looks like a rabbit." She pointed at Anna. "Only ever take style advice from me, got it?"

Chewing her lip to prevent her own chuckles, Anna shook her head at her friends' ridiculous natures.

Her free hand distractedly played with her near empty bag of popcorn. "Well, it wasn't exactly necessary." She glanced at the expectant gazes. Ugh. How were they going to take this? "The whole dating thing just.. I dunno, wasn't for me?" Understatement.

There were a few passing seconds of pensive processing.

"What do you mean it wasn't for you?" Rapunzel balked, pure disheartened look in her eyes, as if she just lost a piece of herself hearing that Anna hadn't succeeded in the triumph of fairytale love.

Kristoff raised a brow, more incredulous than the youngest group member. "Didn't you say you guys clicked while texting?" As the questions began to pile up, again, Anna wished her information had been more of an ending statement rather than being the can opener needed to open a new horde of worms.

Starting to shift awkwardly, Anna wriggled her lips, trying to figure out the best possible way to describe her current feelings. What could be the simplest and easiest way to explain the concept to her two straight best friends? What exactly would make sense..

"Okay fine. I'm just going to come out and say it as best as I can," Anna said, chewing her inner cheek. "When I k-kissed her, it.. it.." She suddenly gestured stiffly in the direction of the short haired girl, aqua eyes rolling in exasperation before sliding closed above her flushing cheeks; hand waving with an increasing erratic nature. Hopefully this wasn't about to be as humiliatingly awkward sounding when she voiced the comparison. The words were quickly smashed together in a blur. "It felt as if I was kissing Rapunzel!"

The boy kind of made a face, twisting his lips and scrunching his nose in bewilderment by the chosen description; his current thought process very obviously derailed. The other freshmen, on the contrary, merely tilted her head with a considering look up to the ceiling, knuckles coming to her lips during the passing time.

At last, the short-haired brunette nodded. Her hand gave a subtle twirl and she simply chirped, "Oh, I get it." Anna looked at her with a small eye of hopeful surprise; Kristoff somehow only looking more confused as he looked between his friends. Girl-code was never his thing. Totally his own fault for not picking any close guy friends. He needed to get up to speed.

Rapunzel smiled while elaborating, looking between both parties seeming to know both needed an explanation of what she truly 'got' out of the description. "You mean the girl was an absolutely amazing kisser, like, the total best you ever had, but it ended up just being friendly feelings when all was said and done." Her arms folded over her chest as she leveled a gaze and pointed to Anna. "Am I right?"

The redhead and blond looked at the smug faced woman for a beat, and then glancing at each other with a shared deadpanned stare.

"Uh.. well, yeah. That's.. basically what I mean, I guess," Anna grumbled out, although not without the fleeting thought at how her recent kiss was nowhere near as amazing as the heart-stopping ones she'd shared with Elsa.

Kristoff thumbed in Rapunzel's direction. "I think Flynn's starting to rub off on her humbleness."

Anna nodded. "Agreed."

"Hey!"

The tallest of the trio rested his cheek against his knuckles as he inspected his sandwich. "You guys are awful at explaining stuff, but I think I get it now." He pointed at Anna, a winking grin present. "It was like kissin' yer sister!"

Rapunzel made an aghast face while Anna peered at the boy, narrowed eyes and concerned. While Kristoff tried to save face and ramble on about how it was 'underwhelming' and 'uneventful', the two women gave each other knowing side eyes. Ultimately, the American phrase was vetoed, two thumbs down causing Kristoff to brush them off with a 'tch'.

The brunette girl pouted for a second before relaxing and tapping her cheek in further recall. "I guess it makes sense." At Kristoff's large smile and Anna's confusion, the other varsity rower shook her head. "Not you Kristoff," she shoed quickly. "I mean about your preferred type, Anna. See, I told you I could never see you going for the tan, dark haired, chatty girls."

Kristoff looked at her curiously. "When was that?"

"Before she knew she was gay," Rapunzel offered openly with a flippant hand wave as she leaned forward on the table. "She was obviously trying so hard to avoid explaining how she had a huge crush on Elsa, so she went with a total opposite description!" The two friends had laughed for only a brief moment before their realization clicked. Both art students looked at their redheaded buddy who was looking way more uncomfortable than just 10 minutes ago.

Anna's head, feeling 1000 degrees hotter than the sun, had fallen into her hands by the steady downward progression of this topic. This was stupid. It wasn't like she was trying to purposefully mask anything this time, nor preemptively sabotage her own dates. She'd never have agreed to go on a date with anyone in the first place, no matter who they looked like, if it weren't for her meddling friends anyway.

Normally she trusted their advice, following it almost without a doubt in her mind; blindingly so, it felt like. Hell, any time she didn't take Kristoff's advice, she basically wound up in a disastrous mess.

This time around, though, it just felt like her friends had missed something key on how she was feeling; misjudged something. That being said, Anna only recently realizing something remotely functional regarding the concept of love only less than 24 hours ago probably influenced her earlier amenability to their dating suggestions. Knowing what she knows now, or at least being able to see love for what it was, she was doubtful she would have taken the brazen dating advice in the first place.

"Maybe you should leave the match-making to me," Rapunzel said playfully, fingers already coming up to count in front of her. "What other blondes do we know.. Tink?"

Kristoff shook his head. "Avoid that one."

"Oh, good point.." Rapunzel nodded agreeing. "Then, Aurora?"

"Definitely not gay," Kristoff said with a knowing chuckle, and a wink.

Anna's face was in her arms flat on the table, groaning. She couldn't wait for the hour to close when both art students would be heading back to their shared Art History class..

Although having joked in the past about wanting to take the same Art History as her Dream Team, given that her own World History course was absolutely the most boring class ever, today she was utterly thankful to be spared their spirited investment in her twisted romantic life.

As the two students headed off toward Art-endelle, Anna flopped backwards onto a nearby lobby couch, arm and leg lazily hanging off one side. A few passing upperclassmen tossed her strange glances, but she didn't care who saw her like this right now.

She was absolutely exhausted from that conversation, and the persistent pestering made her feel no less guilty about completely reversing her stance on the whole 'Elsa Break' without their knowledge. She didn't really know how to go about explaining that she didn't want to pursue dating this way; that she couldn't just push Elsa aside like a regular relationship because they had become friends. And Anna had not at all been prepared for the change in her feelings toward the girl (or potential romantic change for any girl).. so it wasn't like moving on from either of her previous boyfriends. She felt pretty alone navigating this, and she was getting tired. The idea of going to class now was looming.

Preparing to will her body to move, Anna was stopped as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She fumbled her extended arm to grab the item, not realizing how it had managed to already fall asleep (how long was she moping?), gravity throwing her slightly off kilter as she turned to her side. Then seeing the name pop up on the screen shifted her center of gravity completely and sent her sprawling; her breath caught and 'whump.' She was on her stomach on the floor.

Quickly, through her gasped breath, she opened the text thread, barely having lifted herself onto her forearms. She read down the long response message.

'Hello. I apologize that I am so late getting back to you, and that I missed our first Singles practice. My supervisor called me very early for a last minute 7:30 review this morning before I was even getting ready for practice.'

Anna read the message a few more times, not feeling very surprised by the intense internship's interruption of their daily plans, even if it felt oddly convenient being the day after they finally agreed to row in Singles.. Could Elsa be purposefully avoiding Anna's rowing request?

Her shoulders scrunched up by her ears, more so attributed to her odd body posture. 'You could've told me..'

Elsa's reply came in quickly.

'Yes.. I should have.'

Anna moved to sit herself back on the couch seat, not caring how her weird behavior was worrying peers and professors.

'It's fine, im just glad you're ok.' She had re-typed nearly the exact same message three times, backspacing before reconsidering the words, only to repeat again; hopeful it did not seem too clingy, or too needy, or too much of anything that it wasn't meant to be.

There was a long, heavy pause before she received the next message.

'I am really really sorry that I made you worry. Believe me. That would never be my intention.'

It felt like her breath was sucked from her lungs at that, and she wasn't sure why. The sincere concern, even if in mere written form, emanated through the phone. Perhaps the feeling was only accentuated due to the unusually long pause, a characteristic of Elsa's in those moments of meditation.

'I cannot really talk right now, but I will be out of A.T.C. early. If you do not have plans, would you like to make up for this morning with a private session this afternoon?'

Anna automatically beamed, first thought instantly being how she'd still get to see the woman of her dreams today after all! The plan sounded doable. An afternoon practice, just the two of them and..

Oh. Just the two of them.. A private session. She had to swallow hard to catch herself. Hey, no, it was absolutely no different than their afternoon practices in the fall.. The only thing being that no one else would be out on the water at that time. All novice rowers were now rowing in the morning along with the varsity. It literally would be just them in.. private.. Yikes, why was thinking about that word's connotations paired with Elsa making her face radiate?

She hurriedly scrambled to reply 'yeah!' simply to get the ball rolling within a reasonable time-frame, though her randomly shooting pulse had certainly short circuited her vocal ability.

'Text Coach so he knows we will be there. I will probably arrive around 4:15.'

Thank goodness this wasn't a phone conversation. Mind still reeling at the plans, her words would have sounded horribly stuttered. She knew this because as she typed the response, the adjectives inside her head had blended together to form something like 'groolsome.'

'Great! Awesome! See you then.' Yup, technology was god-sent for preventing verbal faux-pas.

And if her steadfast belief in all that was good with the world's advancing communication methods held any grain of doubt, her body freezing in place and jaw gaping at Elsa's final text would have been enough to eviscerate even that remaining questionable speck.

'Can't wait!'

Huh? Huh? What was going on? This.. this was.. a grammatically incomplete sentence with.. excitement punctuated.. all in one text. An Elsa text. Like, what? Why was her whole day feeling so topsy-turvy? Every direction she went, when the subject of Elsa was involved, she was becoming a hopeless mess. This was the day that her world should finally make more sense than any other day, ever!

Whether it was the planets shifting out of alignment or that had she crossed to a new celestial plane, nothing felt quite the same. And her brain was completely lacking in anything coherent amidst this alarm.

In a rush, face still flushed and only growing dizzyingly hotter with her strange thoughts, she hurriedly minimized the chat and opened a new text chain. Not one moment after shooting out a rushed text, she had thrown her backpack onto her shoulders and zoomed out the building's doors; History class be damned.

…

The twin toes of worn, scuffed up converse were bouncing together, knees pulled up to a small chest as Anna impatiently waited; body nearly a mirror image to her pout from earlier this morning, but with less dejection and more feeling of uselessness. She had tucked herself up against a small decorative obelisk lining the entrance to a nearby city Green.

The sound of heavy boots scuffing the sidewalk alerted her to the new arrival. She looked up to the offered welcoming smile, as at ease as it had last been the day before. Anna had to wonder if her planned meet ups with her new friend were going to start making her a delinquent student. Two classes skipped in two days. Elsa would not be happy to hear about that.

"Hey, Audrey," she said from her spot leaning against the cement base of the short column. "Thanks for meeting me so soon.."

Bundled under a light blue petticoat, the Spanish woman grinned, plopping down at her side, a laugh erupting form her throat. "How could I not come to the rescue at the text: 'help, I'm having a gay panic'?"

Anna blanched. "I did not say that!"

With a casual wave, the smaller woman grinned. "I'm paraphrasing."

At that, the redhead ultimately smiled, feeling oddly more at ease with her friend today. Probably because the two of them luckily figured out the platonic bond pretty rapidly. "I just needed to talk to someone and I don't have any other, you know, gay friends."

"It's not a slur, don't sound so bashful when you say it," prodded the dark haired girl.

The woman was right. It was a word she thought about plenty enough, but actually never verbalized.. Heck Kristoff and Rapunzel were way more comfortable labeling her with it than she was herself. Cyan eyes looked at the smaller girl. "You're right. I guess I haven't had any one to comfortably talk to like this before.." She frowned at how that sounded like a disregard to her best friends. She definitely didn't mean it to sound like that! "I mean, my best friends are super helpful and supportive but they're not.." she hurried to justify herself.

The mechanic lolled her head with an understanding hum. "There's always that little difference that they won't quite understand. It's not at all a fault. Just perspective." She tilted her head with a smirk when Anna bashfully nodded. "Don't be so shy about it. It's good to have a well-rounded group of friends." She elbowed the student. "Besides, thanks for letting me be your token gay one."

Freckled cheeks flared, hands momentarily rising to her face in embarrassment. "Gahh! I totally didn't mean that-" Audrey had only laughed with gusto, causing Anna to halt her rampant apology string from starting. She stiffened before letting her body flop forward dramatically, ragged exhale forced through her lungs. She felt a hand land atop her head, patting it.

Audrey tsked. "There, there baby gay."

Lip sticking out in a petulant pout, Anna moaned, not happy with the nickname but could determine the meaning it represented. She was still very new to these uncharted waters of life and love and the colorful array of orientation identification that it involved.

"Now I have a feeling this all has to do with your uptown girl," Audrey stated with a knowing smirk. The copper haired teenager shrugged her lips to recognize the intuitive guess. Heck, Audrey probably figured that out yesterday which made the date's ending more acceptable. "Still on your mind, hm?"

Hah. Always. Anna felt her shoulders scrunch, cheeks heating up. It was so obvious.

"I had some things that I sort of.. discovered about myself last night." She hated how that was worded, but what was the point in trying to be exact? Somehow she figured the mechanic may be better at decoding her meaning than her best friends. Although not meaning to shift subjects, she was simply talking her train of thought at this point. "I figured I was going to be fully prepared to see Elsa.. but when I didn't see her this morning, although I was super worried, I almost felt relief after the fact.. and then she texted me to meet up with her, just the two of us, which has always made me so happy and it was all I had wanted this morning.. but it was overwhelming and I-" She hated that she lacked a better word, lest she give in to the short girl's vocabulary choice. "I panicked..? So now we're here."

There was a long low whistle and shake of dark hair. "Man, love's hard, eh?" Audrey turned to her newly established friend, noticing the red flare on the freckled face and cyan eyes blinking rapidly while staring at her sneakers, smirk lifting into place deducing the situation near immediately. "Ay dios mio. So that's what you discovered. You didn't realize you were head-over-heels in love with that blonde bombshell yet, did ya?"

A brilliant fuchsia red face fell into her hands and she grumbled in humiliation. That remark wasn't completely true, like, she had sort of known but.. well, she hadn't fully at the same time.. Subconsciously, yes. In retrospect, her like-likes and adoration had long since amalgamated into the beautiful red rose passion, for how long though, she could not pinpoint.

But attaching the word love, and to really be in love? It made everything she knew of her feelings for Elsa feel so much more.. and everything else just so much.. less. It happened so slowly, approaching that precipice of emotion, and then all at once, only realizing that she'd gone over the tipping point amidst her current free fall. So far gone.

It was almost like she'd metaphorically follow Elsa into fire if she could be with her. Protect her. Hell. She basically took that example and literally applied it to voluntarily following the girl to the Nationals; metaphors be damned. In the end, it was all for Elsa. Everything else that happened to the younger woman was mere collateral as long as she kept Elsa safe in her endeavors.

It was pretty impressive of her obliviousness to have not seen it sooner, she will say.

"I never gave it a label." She let her head rise, facing the cool air once again. "I didn't really know how to define what we came to be. Probably 'cuz we were girls. We started as friends so I had zero preparation in thinking anything would come from it. And then I was confused over straight girl-crushes up until finally something just.. clicked to me. And once it did, I didn't think twice beyond jumping into the joy of it all."

"It's wiser to look before you leap," tsked the petite woman.

She gave a tiny snort, shaking her head. "Oh I definitely did!" she chuckled with sardonicism recalling long nights lying awake and dragging daydreams spent pondering the validity of her attraction. "But I meant that back then, my friends gave a lot more encouragement to just go for it like any regular crush, rather than wasting any more time rationalizing other logistics of our friendship. I think that's what they don't fully understand while pushing me to move on.." She bit her lip. "Now, it's scary to realize it so late, but.. it's exhilarating to finally get it, too, ya know?"

Had the tiny mechanic been familiar with Anna's beloved sport, she would have voiced her comparison of sitting at a starting line; the adrenaline rush of anxious uncertainty but confident enthusiasm.

"Now that explains the panic," the girl said with a point to the air, as Anna looked at her. "All the pent up exhilaration you had at your discovery. You were excited 'cuz you figured it out, but had you actually seen the girl you love, it would have hit you. It would finally be real." She held up her phone, raising the tone of her voice teasingly. "Like how it hit you earlier when you were actually texting her for, I'm guessing, the first time since you realized."

Anna frowned at the sheer accuracy of the intuition. Taking her text reaction, she tried to imagine how she would have fared this morning if what Audrey proposed was correct; flabbergasted and nonfunctional, tripping over herself in a confused state of nerves, completely worse off than any stereotypical comedic cute cliché stupors she had envisioned in the safe confines of her sane mind. Oof, it looked ugly now.

"Yeesh. I guess I dodged an embarrassment bullet," she laughed before sobering a bit. "I really hope I don't make a fool out of myself when I do finally see her.."

Ruby lips grinned, dark brow raised. "I get the feeling she wouldn't care if you did."

At that, Anna puckered a bashful smile, teal eyes watching her worrying fingers with a happy glint; a little laugh escaped her. "Honestly, she probably expects it," she chuckled, then tugging her lip between her teeth, eventually shaking her head weakly. "It's a bit scary. I finally feel comfortable in myself, which is probably the most important thing if you want to share yourself with another person, and now.. I just don't want to mess up what we have, again."

The young Latina mirrored Anna's wistful expression, before looking to the sky framing the tall cityscape buildings; a comical drawling whistle emphasizing the heavy introspection piece she'd been handed. "This chick really makes you that happy, huh."

Regardless of its semi-rhetorical nature, it was a loaded question, and one both of her closest friends had asked before.

Back then, answering it was filled with its own anxieties, but ultimately Anna's growing understanding and closeness with the woman had prevailed in her quick affirmative answer. How she enjoyed talking with Elsa, her smile, her laugh, how the woman intensely sought her passions, the butterflies brought about by simply basking in her presence.. it was as simple as the question itself.

Giving herself pause, Anna mulled her reply over in her mind, finding the simplicity of the expected response just.. lacking. Like describing a superficial tip of an iceberg to encompass all the magnificent glory yet potentially devastating wonder that hid below the surface.

Today, facing the basic question pitted with a similar unknown future, she was approaching it from a different standpoint. One she could have only obtained through weathering experience; perception of not only how she perceived hers and Elsa's interactions as individuals, but instead as a whole.

It was Elsa's sense of protection, her hidden pleasures, her simple joys, her rawest fears, her flawed flawlessness, her humbleness in setting of adversity, and how she always listened to Anna; it was more than anything external, but fully understanding who she was.

Elsa made her happy. Made her heart swell with the sea and thunder like a rolling storm. She brought her some of the most splendid highs she'd ever encountered. That was the undeniable truth. But.. Elsa also made her mad. At times, even sad. Truly, stupidly sad. Yet, that sensation never lingered for too long, and Anna always felt like a bit of herself grew out of it. Elsa made her joyful. Sorrowful. Hopeful. Annoyed. Peeved. Prideful. Unsteady. She made her weak in the knees when she wanted nothing more than to scream out her frustrations. There were times she didn't like her, while simultaneously adoring her; times where she wanted to break into tears and run away in fear, but wanting to pull that frustrating woman in close to kiss her deeply.

Elsa made her feel the entire spectrum of human emotion without once ever making her feel any less valid, even in the darkest of shared moments. Anna knew that Elsa could never and would never intentionally hurt her; knew Elsa never acted out of cruel malice or upon petty thought directed toward even her most pained aggressors. She acted out of fear, protection, both of herself and for Anna. God did she ever try to protect Anna! To the point where the young rower feared for Elsa's rationality.

This stoic, socially awkward, shy, gorgeous, powerful, ridiculously smart but also dumbly dense woman made Anna feel so much more than the word 'happy' could ever describe on its own.

Ultimately, Elsa made her feel alive.

All Anna wanted was to give back every bit of that magnificent array of feelings for Elsa to also experience, and she would be willing to do so in any way possible. To make sure Elsa was cared for, loved, and protected against all odds. To make sure Elsa actually felt it, believed it, not just hearing words tossed around flimsily to be taken back when the going got tough.

Anna's tongue darted to her lips, her ensuing summoned response beyond that of giddy tingles, filling her with a deeply rooted sense of wholeness.

This is what it meant to love unconditionally.

…

Tapping her heel on the wooden planks, tiny thuds vibrated over the small area of the dock, taking a moment every other tap to slide her Crocs back into place. Leaning back on her palms, Anna tilted her head to the late afternoon sky; overcast haze remaining from this morning, making the view look oddly dull for once. And to add one more oddity to this strange day, she was actually the first to arrive. So early that she'd already taken care of all the prep that she could by herself.

Her discussion with Audrey had helped her refine a lot of the bumbling emotions and recognize the strange nervousness, but it did nothing to lessen the sadness accompanying the fact she was so late in expressing herself.

However, the logical side of her brain was speaking volumes over the idealistic part, even if it did nothing to ease the sadness.

Maybe it had been in her best interest to keep the sentiment to herself. If Elsa had a good enough reason to stop their intimate partnership from progressing, despite both girls having overtly expressed their interests in one another, would a confession of true love really have been a good idea? Honestly, Elsa had been acting as if she was amidst a loosely controlled panic attack back then. Anna had a gut feeling that throwing around the 'L' word would have likely made the situation much much worse. She also had a gut feeling that had she realized her feelings back then, there would have been little restraint to stop her from blurting it out loud near immediately.

Now she found herself here. Bubbling to the brim with excited self-affirmation and the lightness which came with identifying the true depths of one's emotions, but each bubble kept bursting messily against the barrier between them. She would now be forced into the role of a pathetic pining admirer.

That all aside, she would hold strong to her silent promise. If she had to sacrifice her feelings, push them aside, she would still not change her decision to stay beside Elsa as they proceeded toward the same (awful) goal of Nationals. At the end of the day, Elsa's well-being and her true happiness was what mattered most to her.

Steady steps and the click of heels alerted her, turning to look at the dock's main entrance. She swallowed hard, all curious questions immediately leaving her mind the moment Elsa came into view, looking as if she'd come straight from work; the view beautiful but funny with the current river backdrop. Anna barely felt her body move to stand up, meeting the approaching older woman face on.

Elsa's face was apologetic, and she looked nowhere near closed off or anxious; a bit of confirmation to the sincerity of her morning excuse.

Anna felt a star struck calmness at seeing the blonde coming up to her, speaking about something or other, but the younger girl had missed every single word. She could only hear her newly acknowledged emotions bouncing around in her mind; words passing dangerously close to her mouth's control center in their unbridled excitement. I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you. I'm in love-

Oh yeah, totally confirmed. At how easily the phrase tapped against her vocal cords now, if she recognized this fact any earlier, there would have been no stopping her from blurting it out like a fool.

Yet despite the whirring phrase stuck on a disorganized loop, her physical jitters at facing Elsa were thankfully subdued when she finally honed in on the lovely familiar face. Okay, so there may have been a bit of heavenly halo-like glow effect after all.

"..Anna?" Blinking and shaking her head at the gentle prompt, Anna scratched her neck.

"S-sorry, I spaced out for a moment."

The older rower gave a concerned face but continued, motioning for Anna to follow her up the boat ramp.

"I was apologizing for this morning. I hadn't even thought to alert you.." she said remorsefully. "I was sort of.. worked up about the meeting and how it had to be so sudden, especially since my phone woke me up before my usual alarm.. I wasn't thinking straight." She spun to face the redhead at the top of the ramp, causing the opposite woman to halt sharply. "I promise, I texted you the very moment I had a breather."

Anna listened carefully, eventually nodding. "Don't worry, we all have times like that." She analyzed the grateful blue eyes, before thinking of the other thing Elsa mentioned. When the blonde turned into the boat bay, she wondered out loud, "Why were you worked up about it? You already had a review this semester."

The stiffening of poised shoulders was minimal, but present. Elsa's hand made it to her forehead, distractedly running her fingers through the quaffed bangs. "I.. well, it's.." She slowed her steps. "I had asked for this meeting a few days back.. to talk about my recent performance. I guess this was the only way to succeed at squeezing me in." There was a terse chuckle, ironic, before muttering, "People in the business world never have time for anyone."

Though low, the words and their implication were not missed. With a frown, Anna tilted her head. This sounded a lot like when Elsa had to deal with the Winters Management and A.T.C. fallout, but she figured that had been handled at the midterm review. "Did it all go alright?" she started slowly with a soft, rising tone.

Glancing over her shoulder, blue eyes caught hers and for a second, Anna felt hypnotized by them. Elsa gave her a small smile, be it a little out of place, air of finality in her voice. "Yes, I think so. Everything should be taken care of today." Her hand patted the hull of her gorgeous ice blue boat, a loving attachment in the touch. "Now.." Her little smile morphed into a brave smirk, eyes matching it, looking up at Anna. "You ready for a new spin on our tutoring?"

The sexy tone within the teasing quip had Anna's freckled cheeks flushing and her stomach flip-flopping something awful. Elsa may not be one to drop overt come-ons or purposeful one-liners, but it was unnecessary. She was so unbelievably good (oblivious or not) at tone shifting, somehow striking Anna's exact keys to conduct a sonata of feels.

And if that wasn't enough, Elsa's next action had Anna's beloved stomach enter into an unstoppable tumbling avalanche.

The older woman had pulled the hairpins from her tidy workplace bun, letting the heavy French braid fall free into her defining look; the act alone mesmerizing enough to stop the ginger haired bow rower in her tracks.

However, Elsa then continued to pull the hair tie, placing the little band between her teeth, and Anna stood there like a gaping fool as she watched Elsa's hands fluff out the thick braided tresses in a way she'd never seen before. Holy Hell, her hair is so beautiful! It was only a transient second before Elsa tamed the wild flaxen locks again, taking the tie and pulling it up into a mid-level ponytail; the look much more relaxed than any of the hairstyles Anna had seen before.

The charming presentation was so new and strikingly flattering that Anna had a second of doubt that her dearest person had disappeared before her very eyes and was replaced by some incredibly hot doppelganger.

But nope, not the case. Elsa just somehow made herself that much hotter in one sweep of magical hands. How the fork was Anna supposed to concentrate on anything else now?

"I'm going to go change," she said pointing toward the locker room. "Can you get the boats down on your own?"

Anna gulped, eyeing the expensive Single hulls on the wall. "Uh, in theory I can.."

The blonde blinked, making a swift hand motion to discontinue the ludicrous thought. "Never mind, go stretch. I'll be quick."

Anna tossed two thumbs ups with a forced grin in the awkwardness. Although possible to handle the 8 meter length boat by oneself if you were really strong and coordinated, she was not about to chance lifting a boat alone on her first go. And like Hell was she going anywhere near the Nokk.

So stretching it was! By the time she had completed one round of hamstring stretches and barely began a new set, the blonde was already coming back, looking curious as to Anna's status. Anna had almost shot up from her incomplete set to meet the woman, but she stopped herself. One more set. Have to be limber. No more muscle injuries!

"Sorry, I haven't finished my stretches yet. Can I have some more time?" she said while pulling her legs in to a butterfly pattern. The blonde smiled, moving to settle herself on the cold concrete floor across from the redhead, immediately mirroring the same stretch as Anna.

"Of course. I'm glad you're taking a more proactive initiative to your body's care." And she really sounded glad. The relief and pride were so evident in that alto voice that Anna mentally high-fived herself. Damn, being mature had perks after all.

After finishing, they walked Anna's silver Single to the lip of the dock, Elsa's commands lighter than normal. Or maybe it was the unusual weightlessness of the slender boat. Either way, Anna let the question drift away while she anchored her ankle near the wing riggers. She looked to where Elsa was walking back up the ramp.

"Do you need help carrying it?" she called in a moment of courteousness, but the blonde just called back over her shoulder.

"I got this."

Ah. Right. Anna should have known better. Like, literally. It was as if she somehow forgot the day that they had first met; midnight blue eyes staring her down, the sharp tip of that icicle pointed directly at her face, and yet she could only ogle openly at the Senior's masterpiece of sculpted muscles. She shook her head. No time for that stroll down memory lane, she had to get her oars ready!

Popping open her oarlock holders and stepping away from the bobbing hull, she grabbed the set of Arendelle themed oars. Just as she reached the boat again, she looked up at the striking brilliance of the metallic blue boat coming down. And that gorgeous, muscular body carrying it, halo-like glow and all..

Who needs a stroll down memory lane when Anna could just go careening through the present, gawking in awe like a mad woman? The brief side glance she was tossed was jarring, but the hurriedly redirecting blink paired with the tiniest of bashful lip bites made her throat go dry.

Anna tucked her chin to the side, quickly finishing setting her oars. Gah! Can I please go back to dealing with the gay panic at a distance? Today was going to be a rough day if her catecholamine hormones did not quiet the frick down!

"So, first things first.."

Anna snapped to functional attention and watched as Elsa knelt beside Kjekk. She pointed to the shoes in the boat, tapping her finger over a very specific part on a toe. Dark blue eyes looked back up at the inspecting ones and waited. It was then that Anna, who had been a part of a crew team for over 4 years now, made the shocking discovery for the very first time.

Her stomach sank.

"Oh shit.."

Elsa nodded, giving a sympathetic look to the other rower, having figured this might be how the conversation was going to go. "Yeah. There's no foot steering."

Foot steering allowed their Double's direction to be controlled by Anna either shifting her toe to the left or right, helping steer the slightly longer boat as a supplement to their oar pressure. But the Single was small enough that it steered off of oar pressure alone. Anna had never given it a second thought, all her previous sculling experience having had the control of moving the boat's rudder.

But she would persevere. Hunkering down, Anna's face became determined. "I doubt it'll be that hard to get used to." A thought. A grin. She lifted her hands into little finger-guns. "Besides, no more crutches for me! Eh? Eh?"

The blonde's look fell flat, unamused, before standing again. "Anna.."

"I'm just saying," she muttered, starting to slip off her Crocs, tossing them to the side. Her tan hands eagerly took the two rubber handles and she looked across at the blonde again. "Anything else I need to know?" Elsa gave a half lift to her lip at the impatience and then gestured her arm openly toward the boat.

With practiced ease, Anna stepped in and slid her feet into the new foot bindings, lacing them tight. Her right hand held the oar handles while the other steadied the dock. So far, she may as well have been seated in the Double again; steering as if she was a bow seat, while simultaneously leading the tempo like a stroke seat. Everything about being in the Single was nearly the same. All but the blaring the absences of her usual steering asset, and missing one very important person.

"Ready for a row?" Elsa asked quietly with a bit of mischief looking up into Anna's bright eyes.

She had knelt down again, only a few inches away, leaning over the boat's front rigger. Those dark eyes watched her face intently. Anna hadn't gotten to see the blonde this close in a long while; almost forgetting how, in shadow, the dusting of freckles became so prominent over her finely curved nose. Somehow she nodded, breaking the gaze with a breathy 'mhm', only moments later finding her voice; lip curled as she met those amused eyes with an impish tint in her own.

"Always."

She wasn't sure if Elsa had noticed the change in her demeanor at the proximity, either the bashfulness or the beat for beat teasing, or if Elsa could hear the resounding thump of her heart, but with a pale hand landing on the thin hull and a strong shove, Elsa had pushed the singular boat off the dock. For the first time ever by herself on the water, the young woman was set free.

Anna's head turned toward the water on her right side before the boat lilted back onto its center axis. She took a cautious stroke with her starboard oar, enough to turn away from the docks. Gently she drifted with her oars stabilizing against the water and she scrunched her shoulders up in excitement. Quickly she looked toward the docks where the blonde moved over to her own boat.

"This is amazing!" Anna called loudly, bopping her knees together as she sat in poorly contained anticipation, hands gripping the handles tightly out of sheer delight as she waited.

She heard Elsa chuckle from her position on the dock, and looked up just in time to see the blonde woman send her an over the shoulder glance, the mischief from earlier still glinting. "Watch this.."

Anna needn't be told twice. Her eyes were already trained on the dreamy picture-perfect body, highlighted by the afternoon sun's rays, next to the sparkling azure boat. She held her breath. Elsa had one foot on the dock and the other planted in her boat, hands holding the oars flat.. not making any indication that she was about to sit down. Wait. Was she about to-

With a forceful press from her left leg, the boat was shoved out into the water with her still standing tall; her leg remaining extended for a few short seconds like a powerful ballerina before gracefully gliding down to her seat.

Anna openly gaped. "You can do a standing shove-off in a Single?" The blonde offered a playful grin before gathering her oars, taking a couple of strokes to pull her boat up next to Anna's. "That's so cool, Elsa! Teach me!"

She laughed modestly at the overly zealous woman. "In time. You've just started the basics of the Single today.."

Anna sat listening, at least the best that she could as Elsa reviewed the day's plan because of course she had each thing scheduled down to the minute. But Anna was transfixed on the present, seeing how relaxed the blonde was; coming out into the water with her favorite boat, doing her favorite thing in rowing. She genuinely looked like she was enjoying herself for the first time in a long while.

All Anna had to do was take that step back, take some of the rowing stress from Elsa's shoulders no matter how brash and forward she had to be, and she was able to see her happy partner once again. Those playful eyes made her swoon, and those occasional cheeky grins had a swarm of happy bumble-bees buzzing loudly in her belly. This is the woman she'd come to know and it was like heaven to be basking in her angel's presence again.

"Does that all sound good?" Elsa asked her.

The distracted freshman puckered her lips and nodded, despite having missed pretty much everything spoken within the last minute, but, more importantly, dear lord did Elsa look beautiful against the mountainous fjord in her sparkling iced Single! Encoding that snapshot to her memory was way more important than listening to whatever the plan was; Elsa would just re-state everything before they did it anyway. It wasn't always that Anna got to see Elsa looking like an ethereal rowing goddess descending onto the water not 3 meters away from her.

"Yup!" Worth every moment.

As Elsa took the moment to scan the distance stretched beyond them, the empty water quiet despite the mild chop that swept against the boats by the breeze, Anna practiced some back and forth taps of her blades. One side at a time, feeling the ultra-giving shift of the lightweight boat's direction despite minimal pressure applied. Regardless of her brave face earlier, she already knew the cold hard facts: steering this thing in a straight line with pressure alone was going to be a hell of a challenge.

Seeming to observe the newcomer's careful testing, Elsa spoke again. "The key, more than ever, is centering yourself in the seat. Keep your core solid through every motion of the stroke." She moved to demonstrate a perfectly poised movement up and down her slide, no lateral movement appreciated; her upper body moving like a statue. She caught her blades in the water, but then released them before sitting back again, looking to the redhead expectantly.

Anna scoffed. "Jeeze, make it look so simple why don't ya. You didn't move a single muscle!" A small smile came to her lips at the display from the strong athlete. Whipping around those 45 and 50lb dumbbells sure paid off.

As the younger rower set up in the finish position, arms tucked to her chest while she took a calming breath to begin a demo stroke, her ears picked up a tiny sound at the last moment; a little laugh from across the water.

"Let's go," Elsa urged in a subdued cheer. "Use those awesome abs of yours!"

At that, Anna flinched just as she had moved her hands away, oar blades clattering on the water as she stopped and turned to look at the blonde. Her cyan eyes were wide. The older woman had a mildly surprised face, seeming to have caught on to the effect her words were having, but instead of shutting down, she gave a god damn little cutesy wave of her fingers. Had she misspoken, or did she mean to say that?

With the gestures, the expressions, the choice of words.. the fact Elsa was thinking about her abs after all this time! Yup. That's it. Anna was a goner.

"Come on, Anna," Elsa pressed, regaining seriousness instantly, taking a stroke with one oar to turn her boat closer to Anna's side. "Focus. You're already used to good posture from the Double." She drifted close enough for their oar blades just to touch. "The real difference that you'll feel is how how much you do influences the movements now that you're closer to the stern. In the Double's bow, you can give a little and the boat responds a lot, and with foot-steering, it's easier to correct any errors. But now you need to be a bit more conscious of your pressure to get the boat moving exactly as you want. Keep that in mind as we go." The blonde made to move, beginning her rowing for real this time.

Now, did Anna hear any of that monologue? Any of that astute and helpful information during a transition into a new area of the sport? Nope. Not a word. Her head was still replaying the joyous fact that, yes, Elsa still freaking thought about her, quote, 'awesome' abs.

In her blissful daze, she merely followed after the blonde rower upstream. Seriously, how could today get any more dizzingly perfect than this?

…

Each stroke gradually became less awkward, the passing movements only combining previous motor memory to her new sponge-like information gathering, tailoring her abilities to perform in this new setting.

They had taken time here and there to review some super simple drills; catch-placement, half-slide and quarter-slide lengths, although the feet out of the foot stretchers exercise was probably the worst of them all (she'd never liked that drill, it was uncomfortable. And in a Single? Just, no thanks).

But eventually Elsa had set them both free, taking the last part of their session to allow for just overall immersion of the row.

Still checking over her shoulder way more frequently than she'd ever done in the Double to make sure her steering was okay, Anna would otherwise look up to the late cloudy sky, close her eyes, and let the wind whip past her. So this was what it felt like, what Elsa had described.

Her eyes would occasionally take glances to the side, seeing the beautiful blonde riding across the river near parallel about a boat lane width away. As the free row went along, Anna's glances were almost a clockwork pattern; check her steering, check out Elsa, repeat. No matter how much she missed the physical closeness and being able to appreciate the masterpiece body up close, she was pretty sure she'd never get tired of watching the woman row with such splendor.

This was the closest physically she'd ever gotten to see Elsa while in her Single, and also one of the few times Anna could actually watch Elsa's face full-on amidst a real row. It was as mesmerizing, if not more so, as her gorgeous body's fluid movement. Her generally neutral expression was soft, at peace. It was a strange thing to say, or more so recognize, but after last night, Anna could almost describe it as a look of love. More than that. In love.

And would that be terribly far off?

Elsa loved the river, loved her Single; was in love with rowing and everything that it encompassed. She literally put all her savings into it, sold her young heart for it, worked through sweat and tears, all the while putting it above her own well-being. And of course, Elsa had pushed Anna away to fully pursue her dream, hadn't she?

Really, how could any mortal person ever begin to think to compare? To be so important to the blonde woman and compete with that; not to compete against a person, but a way of life?

Anna had never thought she could ever be jealous of a sport, yet here she was, wishing that all of Elsa's love for rowing was directed to her. Anna laughed a bit dejectedly at her silly pining thoughts.

She knew she had to get used to this feeling of separation. She had to be happy with what she could have. And if that meant Elsa happily being herself, falling in love over and over again with her passion for rowing every day in her Single, then Anna would be her number one fan, ready and waiting, simultaneously falling in love with the wondrous woman each and every time too.

Looking across at the Senior, silken strands flowing loosely against the wind streaking through the low ponytail, white gold color contrasting the dark navy training top, Anna smiled. If this was the only path she could take to make Elsa happy while remaining as close to her as possible, she would stay here. Stay happy.

The months at Arendelle had mapped the river's natural markers within Anna's mind and, as they wrapped around one final bend, she felt her spirits slightly dip. The darkening evening had descended too fast for her liking. They were getting close to the boathouse, nestled along the shoreline. They'd need angle into the dock alignment zone soon.

When Anna noticed Elsa slowing down, white Port oar blade checking against the water to begin aligning, an impromptu idea popped into her head.

"Hey! Wanna race?" she excitedly asked, now eager to see how far she could test her speed limits. They were the only ones out in the river, and if they continued downstream, it opened up to a wide basin. Not like she could accidentally charge into someone or anything even if her steering went off course. And if she could prolong this wonderful session just a bit more..

Elsa looked to the sky and then lifted her wrist, checking the time with a frown. "It's already gotten dark and we didn't bring bow lights. Let's go back."

The freckled rower tilted her head. "Please, Elsa? Just a quick sprint?"

The blonde gave her a side glance. "I'd rather not race you tonight." It brought a grumpy frown to her companion's face.

"I think you're just chicken because I'm turning out to be such a natural," Anna goaded to which the blonde tossed her an unamused stare.

"I'm far from chicken.." A long beat passed with the blonde looking back toward the lit boathouse. Then Elsa lulled her head to the side, her expression a bit exasperated but also containing a bit of piqued interest. "But, if your ego really needs the reality check.."

"Yes!" Anna squealed in delight at having gotten her way. She was well aware she was going to struggle to neatly row any high sprint rates, but there was something tempting to know how the two stacked up to each other as individual rowers.

The two lined themselves up side by side, boats bobbing along with the rocking waves, both moving up their slides to sit at the catch, blades buried in the evening chop. A chill passed through Anna's body as she waited for Elsa to give them a starting call, her bangs and loose hairs tickling her face in the wind. And then Elsa gave the shout; row.

Both shot off from the start, racing out the agreed upon total 50 stroke sprint past the dock toward the river basin. Although side by side for the initial strokes, Elsa and her boat disappeared from her peripheral near instantly. That didn't deter her. Anna bared down on her legs, checking over her shoulder a bit less this time to focus on her setup, not too sure how her steering was, but the cross-wind pattern required more concentration. Even passing the halfway mark count, she still hadn't caught up to wherever Elsa was, so she pressed on in her sprint. She'd end her first practice strong, give it all she had. Make Elsa proud.

The wind had a sudden frigid drop in its chill as Anna felt a bit more resistance against a random wake. Even the wind seemed louder grazing past her ears. She must really be going fast to feel such a change.

It was only that slightly jarring moment that her eyes caught sight of the platinum blonde again, at a much larger distance away, and only getting farther.. Did Anna miscount the amount of strokes they agreed on? She had missed a lot of information today after all.. Or was her steering just atrocious at a high speed? There was no way that she could have been that much faster than Elsa.. at all.

That's when she realized Elsa wasn't rowing.

"Anna, wait, slow down! Come back!" Elsa called after her, the distance having made the words quieter and quieter, barely distinguishable.

With her final stroke, Anna sent the boat sailing on its own. She tucked her handles to her chest, oar blades in the air like an eagle's wings as the tiny boat glided through the water. She was breathing hard, but still proud, despite whatever happened with her steering.

She let out a whooping call of accomplishment, but that notion and shout were suddenly eclipsed by a clap of thunder roaring overhead; the cheer dying in her throat. The Arendelle oar blades fell onto the water with a loud smack as her wide eyed stare shot sky bound. Her stomach fell. A streak of lightning crackled across the darkening sky, lighting up the teal eyes gawking below its spectacle.

When had those dark clouds rolled in under the evening's guise?

"Anna!" Her name was nothing but a whisper beneath steadily rolling thunder and the howl of growing winds. She looked across the expansive water toward her Doubles partner. A panicked gasp left her throat. When had she gotten that far away?!

For a second, she was frozen in fear. Paralyzed in the spot while the wind grew louder around her, howling growls sending a jolt down her spine.

A cold splash of water crashing into her hull woke her from the daze, still barely able to visualize the woman down the river, the current's tug increasing and dragging her out. Quickly she put her blades into the water and began turning against the perpendicular force, aligning herself back as best as she could.

Each blade placement was a grueling chore as she rowed. The oars would miss water as the lull of the wave forms deepened, tossing the boat this way and that. It got worse when the oars would get sucked down beneath the dark liquid, barely giving Anna any means to free them as the steel metal of her rigger dipped into the wake. Every catch of her oar was daunting, every stroke arduous, but every moment she did not spending moving was terrifying to the bone.

She tossed distressed looks over her shoulder as she steered, checking to see how far Elsa had made it because the incredible rower was probably battling these waves with way more ease, if not already docked safely at the boathouse. On her inspection, though, her heart dropped when she realized that the blonde was not rowing. No. Elsa was still waiting for her, hand cupped around her mouth. The blonde woman must have been shouting to her, but any words that may be there were carried away by the growing storm to nothing more.

You dummy! Go! Anna could not help but think on instinct, wishing for the woman to get herself to safety. Yet, the knowledge that Elsa was willingly putting herself in harm's way for her benefit was enough to incentivize Anna's slowly fatiguing body. She needed to get to Elsa! So she continued to work, every stroke uncomfortable, muscles and tendons trying to function, but all of their trained rowing movements were near useless in the tumultuous tide.

The thunder clashed loudly overhead, the whine of gales only tunneling the noise into amplification. And then at last, following a striking crack of lightning, the heavens opened their floodgates and the torrential downpour began.

The black liquid lapped at the tiny boat from all angles, waves sloshing over her bow and soaking her back. She was jostled from side to side as the waves rose and fell; white foamed crests breaking in shattering splatters.

Amidst all of the chaos, her eyes landed at the small seating space in front of her, mind quickly gaging the unusual fullness of water reaching past her ankles paired with the heaving weight of the small boat. With a terrified realization, Anna's chest tightened and her breath hitched. No! No! With every excess splash over her hull, she was starting to take on water. Horrific past memories and childhood nightmares were stirring to life and pure fright was beginning to set in to her core. But she had to move.

With each passing stroke, no matter how heavy and sluggish the movements felt, she managed to gain distance. She was getting closer to the blonde. Slowly, unbearably slowly, but she was moving. Over her shoulder, she could still see the Senior waiting; arm waving frantically to make herself visible under the sheets of rain. Gritting her teeth, Anna blinked back the fearful tears and choked down the panicked lump caused by her memories.

She had to concentrate. Focus on Elsa. Get to Elsa. Get to Elsa!

She turned back around, rowing once more, bangs slick against her face as heavy rain drops pelted her hard.

On the next dredging stroke, she felt the oar get stuck again, sucking the small boat toward the Starboard side. Before she could yank it out, a swell of water slammed into her Port side, canting the boat's narrow axis upwards with a sharp jolt. Letting out a shocked scream, Anna saw the dark water come hurtling toward her, barely having the wherewithal to hold her breath before she was submerged below the river's crest.

Wildly, she slashed about beneath the shadowy waves underneath the capsized shell; still managing to pull her feet free from the foot stretcher binds in the jarring moment. Her head surfaced, lips sputtering barely missing a braking wake against her cheek, only to be met with another wave knocking her backwards seconds later. Her upper shoulders smacked hard against the overturned hull and she hissed at the contact. She frantically grabbed onto the buoyant boat as a lifeline, legs struggling to their fullest to tread upwards, lips gasping for each precious breath that she could get. Turned now, her view was cut-off and limited to that of the foreboding storm traveling in from the fjord's expansive basin. The cries of the tempest whistled shrill but spiraled into deep mourning calls, engulfing her as she boldly resisted their taunting, almost as if she could hear them calling her name.

Then, after a shy minute feeling no less than forever, praying silently against the floating object, a lightning bolt lit up the sky in a brilliant white flash. An accompanying massive swell abruptly followed and she felt a sharp whack against the back of her skull; the impact sending a disorienting thrum to resonate through her mind, already wrought sick with terror. The last thing Anna saw was another wave sloshing over her head as her hands slipped from the slick boat and the world she knew grew black.

…

Elsa's heart sank, plummeting into the depths of her soul, crashing and shattering every fragile layer of her being as she watched the small boat flip beneath the force of a monstrous swell. Voice running raw, she shouted out again into the deafening storm, but to no avail; her words were carried back to her against the heavy gusts. She tried to turn her boat, to orient herself toward the mangled mess having reached not 10 meters away from her, but coordinating the actions was posing way too difficult. Her boat just couldn't move fast enough against the wakes; each breaking wave countering her strength. She continuously spun her head and watched out into the storm, eyes wide and tense with worry as her best efforts to row were utterly futile.

Then a new surge of panic.

She couldn't see Anna anymore.

Where was Anna?!

Reason being far from the forefront of her mind, her hands flew to her foot stretchers, releasing her feet from the laced binds. Taking a deep breath, she turned and dove off of her icy bow into the river. The current's force sent her tumbling beneath the surface, requiring her to spin and pivot under the waves before she managed to resurface into the pelting rain.

She urgently strained her eyes, searching through the frigid wind, each rain drop feeling like ice slamming against her face. She tried to lift her arm to block the heavens' onslaught, but even her strong legs couldn't keep her afloat for long in the treacherous river. Her arm splashed back into the water as she squinted through the wet sheets, looking for the strikingly silver hull of Anna's capsized boat again. A whimper passed her lips, eyes wild as she searched through the storm, finally seeing the color contrasting the blackened water still meters away. She tried again to call out toward the other boat in a primal act, head constantly getting dunked below a breaking wake each time.

"Anna!" Elsa shouted again, head resurfacing amongst the churning water as she immediately oriented herself in the boat's direction, attempting to move her body forward with powerful swoops of her arms. She sputtered, trying to begin the next in line of a string of calls. "A-Anna!" It felt like forever, but she found a functional rhythm. Elsa kept her eyes on her bobbing target, watching it jerk abruptly against a massive swell beneath a brilliant lightning flash. She fought to crawl through the dense water as if she were swimming in glue. But like Hell would she stop.

The short distance felt like miles while every important second ticked like centuries. Her heart was pounding faster with every passing instant. The longer she went without seeing Anna, the worse everything was and would be. It could mean Anna was.. Elsa felt an escalation of adrenaline rush through her veins as every one of her arm strokes pulled her faster, closer, to Anna.

She reached the upside down boat seconds later, trying to avoid the flopping oars that were dangerously slicing through the air. She had no idea how long it had been since she last caught sight of the young woman, but it had certainly been too long. Without another thought, she opened her mouth wide and sucked in a large gulp of air. A second later she was below the waves.

The water was dark. It wasn't murky or dirty, but with the rolling storm overhead everything was cast in shadow. She swam down, each stroke facing greater and greater resistance. Her eyes squinted through the blackness for a sign. Something.

Anything.

Seconds stretched long and thin, nearing a half-minute's tick. Elsa's chest was on fire, pulse pounding up her neck into her strained jaw muscles, and she knew she had no other choice but to resurface soon. But Anna was.. She could be…

As the morbid thoughts agonizingly crept into her mind like sharp claws slicing through her hammering heart, a guiding light in the night came to her rescue.

It was far from a beacon; just a glimmer in the dark depths off to her side. There! Had she had any ability to do so, she would have smiled at the irony of Anna still wearing that godforsaken shiny whistle. At that moment, fueled with renewed strength, Elsa stretched the extra meter to where she finally grabbed hold of the dampened body. Her right arm looped around Anna's chest as she began to kick upwards. With more power than she'd ever felt before, more power than she'd ever thought possible of her mortal body, Elsa broke through the crest of water with a loud inhale, bringing both rowers' heads out into the open beside the keeled hull.

She glanced at the redhead's closed eyes and pale skin; so scarily pale. Desperately turning attention from Anna's pallid complexion, her heart constricted in her chest when she saw how far away the docks were; the river's mighty current trying to draw them out to the cold fjord.

She looped a free arm over the hull of the small capsized shell, trying to lug herself up higher from the water level. The sudden force made Elsa tightly constrict her arm around Anna's midsection.

The redhead instantly reacted with a gurgled wet cough, causing Elsa's heart to catapult in surprise. The weak cough was followed by more and more and all Elsa could think to do was keep the freshman's head above the rolling waves at all costs. Anna's head lulled back weakly into Elsa's neck for support.

Using a valuable moment's time to collect herself, Elsa shuddered a gasp of relief, biting back a sniffle as she turned her forehead in toward the redhead's own. The young woman was still down for the count, but God dammit, she was alive!

Utterly thankful that she heard some indication of life from Anna, Elsa wracked her brain of what to do. A clap of thunder made her look up suddenly. The rain was steadily coming down, somehow harder now if possible. She squinted toward the boathouse, eventually sucking in a breath as she deduced the only plan she could think of.

With great force, Elsa used her free hand to grab over the boat's hull and pull it back over. Her legs screamed as her weight was directed onto their support, using everything she had to tread water and keep them both afloat.

With a clumsy splash, the shell was restored upright. She next hauled Anna's body over the stern of the narrow boat, careful to keep her head up. The unbalanced weight nearly made the boat jolt down again, but Elsa slung herself up, having to blindly grasp for the flailing oars through the rain. Once they were in her hands and Anna's torso pulled up into the narrow room between her legs, she turned to the docks and awkwardly began the hardest row of her entire life.

She had absolutely no idea how or even if this was going to work, but she only prayed, to whichever Norse deity was watching over them, that it would.

It was painful and onerous, each wake slapping against the small Single; jarring the shortened strokes and limiting the motions more so than they already were with the body kept so close to her. But they were at least moving; going much faster than if Elsa had tried to swim both of their weights to safety. Whether it was a slight turn in the river's current or change in wind patterns that aided them back, Elsa was far from questioning her fortune. At least the buoyant boat kept the unconscious Anna above water. That was Elsa's primary concern. She'd row through this God forsaken storm until her body gave out if she had to, as long as Anna was safe..

After an eternity's passing, Elsa felt a loud crack ripple through the boat's thin material as the Single's bow hit the dock hard at an angle; if the carbon fiber didn't splinter from impact, she'd honestly be surprised. Nothing else on her mind as she pulled the dock toward them, she scooted the two bodies out of the boat, falling to her knees as she tripped over the bobbing metal rigger.

Forcing her screaming legs to move, she grabbed the body beside her and scrambled up the wooden planks to the open boat bay; the only light casting away the darkness surrounding them. Anna's arm was thrown over Elsa's shoulder as the blonde clutched securely around her tiny waist. Elsa's depleted body was nearly completely numb as the chill had long since set in. The growingly noticeable sound of her squishing wet socks was a thankful indicator that they'd made it to the dry concrete of shelter.

Exhausted beyond her limits she'd almost collapsed against the wall with an ill-timed stumble, the weight of Anna's limp body completely supported by her alone. Elsa reached for a nearby towel on the floor; dingy, but dry. Bunching it up, she laid Anna down on it, resting her head. Elsa's lips were so cold that she didn't realize she was repeatedly mumbling Anna's name until she heard her voice grow louder when freed from the raging gales.

Had she not already been on the brink of being frozen, seeing the shocking stillness of the younger girl's chest rises would have done it anyway.

"Anna..! Please.. no.."

Her hands clumsily rubbed Anna's face before sliding to a divot just below the girl's jaw; her pulse point. The gentle thrum present was the only thing preventing her world from completely breaking apart. Elsa hovered over the stilled form before beginning the medical training she'd always known yet never thought she'd have to use.

She tilted Anna's head back and moved her face down, the air frosting as their lips connected, administering a breath. She leaned back and forced herself to wait the agonizing but important counted beats before rushing back to Anna's lips. And she repeated these ministrations, over and over, each rescue breath becoming more and more despairing as the seconds accumulated.

Her vision was now blurry from a slowly rising sea of tears; those clouded sapphire eyes never leaving Anna's face. She moved her face down again, slower than the rapid transitions that she'd done before. Even with her finger resting on the subtle pulse, the prolonged silence was rapidly fraying the remaining thin thread of hope that she desperately clung to; dangling above the terrifying abysmal darkness that wanted to forcefully cinch her glass heart, to shatter the bloody shards and send them ripping through her soul with a chillingly painful ferocity.

She placed her trembling hand against the damp cheek, like ice to her touch, choking back a raw sob as she leaned in again, taking a shuddering breath and covering their lips in another attempt.

"Please.."

-End Chapter 30-

Sorry for the POV swap at the end, but it fit better this way. Elsa's perspective is running parallel to Anna's after the boat flip if it wasn't clear.

So much for 12k words… If only they heeded the red sky warning in that dang first paragraph, then maybe the whole evening wouldn't have gone so south lol. Goodness, I originally wrote this storm scene when I posted chapter 6 in 2014 (Anna's water aversion = full-circle plot point, aye!). And damn, now all I can envision is the Nokk scene in F2. Thanks Disney. Obviously this was written based off the Anna freezing scene in the original movie.

Would the rowing actually work at the end? Don't know, never heard of anyone attempting it!

So, I do need to give a Viewer Discretion Warning for the next chapter, which I know 99% of you will have no problem with enjoying… :)

(Last note Education: If there's no breathing but a person has a pulse, give Rescue Breaths every 6-8 seconds. If there's no breathing and no pulse, begin CPR chest compressions to the beat of "Staying Alive". If you can, obviously call 911 first. I'll sit on my high horse and recommend everyone take a First Aid/CPR/AED class at some point in your life.)

Thanks for reading!