Chapter twenty-nine
And after
You ever have one of those days where you just don't want to get out of bed?
Anna had not been the kind to have those days in years. Ever since taking up jogging, her internal clock might as well have been atomic. For most of the year, she was up before the sun was. Even during dark times in her life, like her breakup with Hans, her routine had served as an anchor to prevent her from being overwhelmed by despair. It was a constant in her life. Constants were good.
But here she was, still in bed at 8:30, with no inclination to leave. And it wasn't because of the arms wrapped around her waist, or the legs overlaying hers, but rather the woman they belonged to.
At some point in the night, she and Elsa had switched from hugging to spooning. She couldn't remember exactly when this had happened, but she felt no desire to change it. Somehow, the steady, rhythmic breathing on the back of her head had not kept her up all night; however, now that the she was awake, she intended to revel in it for as long as it persisted.
She still felt like she wasn't processing things fully. Here she was, lying in her bed, with Elsa's arms wrapped around her, both of them totally naked, having just made love the night before. And yet somehow, she felt not just calm, but serene.
I just slept with my sister. My sister. How am I not freaking out right now?
By way of an answer, she scooted backwards, nestling herself deeper into Elsa's embrace. Every inch of her body in contact with Elsa's felt warm and tingly. Perhaps she had shifted too much, however, as Elsa began to stir as well. She prepared herself mentally for what might happen next.
Okay, remember her anxiety. She's had trepidation about this stuff before, and she might freak out. If she does, I need to stay calm. Stay calm.
So she was surprised when Elsa squeezed her tighter, nuzzling her head forward into Anna's shoulder. "Morning," she whispered into Anna's ear.
Her breathy voice sent shivers down Anna's spine. "M-morning," she said. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling good," Elsa said. "Like I just woke up next to the most beautiful girl in the world. How 'bout you?"
Anna chuckled. "Much of the same," she said.
Elsa giggled.
Anna turned herself around to look at Elsa's face. Her eyes were still sleepy and half-lidded, but the smile on her face was warm and genuine. Not a hint of fear was anywhere to be seen.
"Wow, you look so…content," Anna mused aloud.
Elsa let out another melodious giggle. "Perhaps, sister of mine, you're starting to understand why people like sex so much."
"Yeah, I think I'm getting the gist of it." She pushed herself up into a sitting position against the headboard. "So…what do we do next?"
Elsa followed her lead, sitting up as well and grabbing Anna's hand. "Anything we want. Including that one thing."
xxxxxxx
Anna offered to make breakfast that morning, which Elsa was more than happy to agree to. She went for scrambled eggs and toast on Elsa's recommendation, a dish that was very hard to screw up. It ended up being pretty good, though obviously not on the level of Elsa's cooking. They ate quickly – to put it plainly, they'd worked up an appetite – and in no time at all, they both had empty plates.
Throughout the whole meal, Anna kept looking at Elsa. She'd been right – things felt far different now than they had the same time yesterday. On one hand, she was still Elsa, the same kind sister she had spent her whole life with. On the other hand…
On the other hand, it wasn't twelve hours ago that she had held her in her arms, run her fingers across that vast expanse of perfect ivory skin, and made her feel pleasure in ways that only…
Okay, cut the purple prose. We fucked.
It was a harsh, inelegant word, one that didn't sound nearly as romantic as others she could think of, but it was the word necessary to snap her out of the dancing around the subject that she had been doing. They had just fucked, made love, had sex, whatever you wanted to call it, in the room she had grown up in. It had been her decision, and she would've done it again if given the chance – and from how things looked right now, she likely would be – yet to act like it wasn't even a little bit strange would be disingenuous at best, a blatant disregard for reality at worst.
"Feels weird, doesn't it?" Elsa said, if not reading her mind, certainly her face.
Anna nodded. "Sure does. A good weird, but still…weird."
"Well, that's inevitable. After my first time, I felt good for the next twelve hours, and weird for the next forty-eight. And Belle wasn't even…well, you know."
"It'll probably be longer for us, then," Anna said.
Elsa flashed her a smile. "Well, ideally, I'd like to, uh, interrupt the weirdness with another twelve hours of feeling good. If you catch my drift." She batted her baby-blue eyes at Anna, just to drive the point home.
Anna blinked. "So soon after?" she said.
"If you want to," Elsa responded. "Some people prefer to space it out a bit more, but if both sides are willing, there's no real reason not to do it as often as the mood strikes."
"And how often does the mood strike you?" Anna asked, pointing her fork at Elsa.
Elsa smiled. "Honestly? If I was the one setting the pace, we wouldn't still be sitting here."
Anna's eyes widened. "Oh," she said.
"But that's not how it works," Elsa said quickly. "In any relationship, the slowest person sets the pace. We're not going to go any faster than you're comfortable with."
"Of course," Anna said. "I never doubted that. But I don't want to keep you waiting too long, either."
"Ah, don't you worry about that," Elsa said. "If I ever get too excited, I've got my old standby to fall back on." She raised her right hand with a flourish to demonstrate.
Anna placed her fists on her hips in mock indignation. "Oh, I see how it is," she said. "Getting a little side action with Elsa Schneider, hmm?"
Elsa burst out laughing, and Anna soon joined in, incapable of maintaining even the illusion of anger.
"Actually, Anna," Elsa said once their laughter had died down, "you won't be hearing from Elsa Schneider ever again."
"Really?" Anna said. "Why not?"
Elsa assumed a straight face. "Because she's dead."
Anna's eyebrows arched. "Oh," she said. "I'm sorry to hear that. What happened to her?"
"She, uh, fell into a bottomless pit trying to get the Holy Grail," Elsa said, face miraculously straight throughout the entire sentence.
"Ah, I see," Anna said.
I knew that was where she got the name from!
"So, that kinda sucks, huh?" Anna said, playing along. "I know you were pretty close to her."
Elsa shrugged. "At least now I can wear all my green shirts again."
"Fair point," Anna said.
A lapse in the conversation followed, long enough for them to decide to get up and put away their dishes. Once that was done, they returned to the table, relaxed but with still more to say.
"So," Anna asked. "What's next? Where do we go from here?"
"Where would you like to go?" Elsa asked. "Do you want to keep going on dates, and lean more on the girlfriend side? Or would you rather we be…sisters with benefits?"
Anna scratched her head. "Is there a difference?" she asked.
"Only in how we look at it," Elsa said. "The next time we go to the movies, or the zoo, or Angel Island, we could just be hanging out as sisters, or we could be on a date. Or we could be one thing one day, and the other thing another."
Anna rubbed her forehead, in much the same way that Elsa often would when staring down a particularly tricky math problem. "I'll be honest, I'm really not sure," she said.
"That's totally fine, too," Elsa said. "We've got all summer long to figure it out."
Anna's eyes widened again. She paused for a moment to let the realization sink in.
All summer long. Three months ahead of us, just us two alone. No school, no job, no parents, just me and Elsa. My sister together with me for weeks on end.
She smiled. "This is going to be a good summer, isn't it?"
Elsa nodded. "The best summer ever, if I have anything to say about it."
The distance between her and Elsa had, in a few short seconds, become unbearably long. She rectified this at once, rounding the table and sitting in Elsa's lap. Elsa wrapped her arms around her, and she put hers around Elsa's neck.
"You're the best sister a girl could ever ask for, you know that?" Anna said, touching their foreheads together.
"You too," Elsa said, touching her in the nose.
Anna locked eyes with her. "I mean it," she said. "You are so wonderful. I'm lucky to have a sister as amazing as you. I love you so much."
Elsa sniffled, and her eyes watered. "I love you, t-too," she said, voice trembling. She buried her head in Anna's shirt and began to soak it.
It had been a long road just to get this far. But it was worth every step.