Anna bolted out of the limousine as soon as it came to a stop. She ran towards the steps, taking them two at a time. She came to an abrupt stop at the door, taking a moment to catch her breath.
Calm down you weirdo. You're not a dog, you're a friend. Don't overwhelm her.
She took one last deep breath before knocking rhythmically.
"Come in, Anna."
The redhead burst through the door, striding towards the blonde with a smile from ear to ear.
"How have you been An- augh!" Elsa found two arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Once the surprise wore off, she returned the embrace, her arms gently holding the redhead around the shoulders.
Taking a deep breath, the redhead took a step back, still beaming.
"Sorry, I was just excited to see you again," the redhead looked down, brushing her hair behind her ear.
The blonde smiled down towards her.
"It's alright, I missed you too." She motioned for the redhead. "Now, Gerda prepared us a wonderful meal, and we have a lot of catching up to do."
"Anhd dem, he sliphed anhd bloof!" The redhead mimicked the fall with her hands.
Elsa giggled under her hand. "That's a wonderful story. Maybe I'll actually hear it when you're mouth isn't full?"
Anna gulped. "Oops! Uh, wow. I'm so sorry about that, I didn't-"
"I'm only teasing you Anna, it's alright. Though I would like to hear the entire story sometime." She poured herself some tea as the maids took the dishes away. "So, it sounds like you've been pretty busy these days working."
"Yeah, it's all thanks to you really!" The redhead picked up a small pastry. "It's mostly been smaller ads. Although, I did a few photoshoots for some 'Youtubers'? They had some merch they wanted to showcase, and they even made a video of me doing the photoshoot. Weird, I know," she tossed the pastry into her mouth.
The redhead leaned slightly over the table, eyes narrowing. "What about you? You seem a bit thinner, are you okay?" Wow. That's where you want to go right now?
"Uh, I mean not that you look bad, you look great! I was just trying to-"
The blonde raised her hand. "It's alright, I did get a bit thinner, didn't I? Traveling was never my strong suit, working while traveling takes its toll on me. Especially when some things don't go as planned..." She looked out the windows, watching the wind blow over the trees.
Elsa looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have dropped all of this on you, I-"
"No, it's okay!" The redhead lowered her head, trying to meet the blonde's eyes. "You can talk to me about this stuff, I'm sort of an expert on this stuff."
The blonde looked up towards the girl across the table, waiting for her to continue.
"Well, uh, okay." Anna's brows furrowed, as she scrambled her brain trying to find the right thing to say. "Oh! Okay, so two months ago-"
Before she could continue, her phone rang. When she saw who it was, a smile flashed over her.
"Um... Sorry, do you mind if I take this?" She looked apologetically at the blonde.
Once the blonde gave her approval, Anna picked up the phone.
"Hey, listen. This is not a good time. We'll talk tomorrow? Okay cool!" The girl went silent for a moment, her cheeks beginning to glow red.
"I gotta go... I love you too bye," she muttered into the phone, before hanging up.
Anna sat there in her own little world, cheeks glowing and smiling. When she came back to reality, she quickly looked up at the blonde, who was staring back, one eyebrow raised.
"Oh, uh sorry. Where was I?"
"No, you're not getting away with it that easy. Who was that?"
"Uh, oh that? Well um..." The redhead fidgeted. "That was... My... Cat! Wait, not my cat, I don't have a cat. I mean, my friend Kristoff, he has a cat, who kinda acts like a dog, but it's a cat..." She gulped, starting to sweat under the scrutiny of the blonde's glare. "These are really good pastries by the way, do you think Gerda would show me how to make these?" She grabbed a couple quickly, stuffing her face before she could incriminate herself any further.
The blonde burst into a fit of laughter. When she saw Anna genuinely confused, she composed herself.
"Anna you are a terrible liar. I gathered enough just by watching you that was your boyfriend." She grabbed her cup. "The only question is, just who is this 'Prince Charming'?"
Anna choked on the last pastry, coughing and panting as she fought with the piece of strudel lodged in her throat.
"Well, um..." She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Okay, this might sound stupid, but right now we're trying to keep our relationship private... No one knows about us, except for us. Is that weird?"
The blonde set her cup down gently. "No, I know all about being private, it's perfectly understandable."
Anna let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"Frankly, I think it's pretty adorable," Elsa took a bite of the strudel. "You're right, this is a really good strudel."
Anna's face was flushed red once again as she stammered through a reply.
Elsa held back a laugh. "So, if I can't know the name of this dashing young man, at least tell me how you guys met."
"Well, that's actually a pretty funny story. So this one night, I stormed out of a dinner with Kristoff..."
Anna gasped as Elsa opened the door to her bedroom. She studied the room carefully, from the large fan hanging from the high ceiling to the window at the end of the room stretching the height of the wall.
"I know I shouldn't be surprised at this point, but... wow..." She walked by the bed, fingertips skimming over the comforter. When she realized that Elsa wasn't following her, she spun around the face the blonde.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have just walked in without asking you," she started walking back towards the door. "If I-"
Elsa smiled affectionately at the redhead. "You're fine, Anna." The blonde walk past the smaller girl. "What I wanted to show you is over here."
She walked over to the bookshelf beside the window, fingers trailing past the books as she searched for the right one. When she came upon a thick leather book, she pulled it out, grunting at the weight of it. Elsa turned to face the redhead, holding out for the redhead.
Anna took the book from the blonde, nearly falling over when the blonde let go. Once she regained her balance, she set it down on the floor and knelt down beside it, studying the front cover.
"What is it?" She started going through the pages. "Woah, is that you?"
Elsa sat down beside the redhead, watching the girl as she flipped from page to page. "A perk of having business globally is traveling around the globe. If you can name it, I've been there."
"Eifel tower, Big Ben, the Sydney opera house, the Great Wall..." Anna's eyes darted from picture to picture. "This is incredible!" When she got to the end, she slowly closed the book. "I wish I'd been able to go to these places."
Elsa put her hand over Anna's that lingered on the book. "You're still young, who knows what could happen? Maybe one day you'll have a super rich friend who can afford to take you around the world for … hm, I dunno, your birthday or something," she smirked.
"Yeah, that would be something..." When it finally sunk in, Anna's eyes widened as she looked up at the blonde. "Wait, are you-"
Elsa chuckled. "Took you long enough. If you took any longer I-"
The redhead wrapped her arms around the blonde tight, eyes squeezed shut. She squealed in glee, barely able to contain her happiness. Elsa wrapped her own arms around the smaller girl, smile growing wider and wider as the redhead frantically listed all the places they could go.
"Hey Anna, Gerda set up the guest room for you. I also have some pajamas here if you wanted to..." Her voice trailed off as she approached the redhead sitting in the chair beside her bed. She nudged the sleeping redhead, who responded with a half opened eye.
"Hey, I had a room set up for you, so you don't have to keep sleeping on couches and chairs. Do you wanna sleep on an actual bed?"
"Mhm... Carry me," Anna put her hands out in front of her.
Elsa scoffed. "Jeez, you could say please." The redhead pouted, lower lip quivering as she slumped back into her chair.
"Okay okay you big baby, you win." Elsa crouched down in front of the redhead, allowing the redhead to climb on her back. Once the redhead wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck, Elsa stood up and began walking down the hall.
"I didn't think that would actually work," the redhead sighed contentedly.
Elsa laughed quietly, trying not to stir the sleepy redhead on her back. As they approached the room, the blonde's smiled.
"Hey Anna?"
"Mm?"
"I missed you."
"Mm. I missed you too," Anna gave the blonde a small squeeze.
Once Elsa had situated Anna in bed, she walked out as quietly as she could. When she was a few feet from the hall, she could hear the redhead snoring. I should thank Gerda tomorrow for setting up the guest room further down from my room.
When she returned to her room, she prepared for bed. As she washed her face in the bathroom, her eyes locked on a clear bag containing small plastic bottles, sitting on her counter. She grabbed it, studying the label. She glanced at the biohazard logo, with the words 'caution' in bold beneath it.
This is what I have to put into my body for the foreseeable future. That's comforting.
She put the bag down, recounting what the doctors had said on her last day in the hospital.
"Miss Beck, we couldn't remove all of the tumor. We're going to start you on chemotherapy, it should shrink the tumor and give us more time."
"More time for what?"
"To find you a replacement heart."
A/N: That is the most fluff I've ever written in one sitting, enjoy it hahaha.
I want to give a shout out again to my beta reader, cupcakesplease (or cupcakes_please on reddit). He's really helped me translate my thoughts onto the paper and I couldn't have done this without his help. He just recently started publishing his own fanfiction, A Dream of Arendelle. It's on my profile under favorite stories, so you should check it out. Like right now.
As always, comments, criticisms, and thoughts are always appreciated. The next chapter will be posted on Thursday.
I'll see you guys then!