She was sure the alarm had gone off about forty minutes ago and she knew that it would go off sometime soon, again and again until she woke up. For some reason, today out of all days, she wanted to stay in bed and avoid all responsibilities. It wasn't typical of her, very rare in fact but there was something about the decisions she would have to make throughout the day that made her not look forward to it at all.

Despite her lack of willingness, she got up and headed for the shower. It wasn't too late, almost seven in the morning and of course Anna was still heavily asleep on her bed. She couldn't force herself to stop smiling at the sight of Anna's unconscious, yet somehow hilarious, body position. It almost made getting up worth it.

After finishing her quick shower, she decided it would be a good idea to get Anna to wake up, even if she looked quite adorable in her sleep.

"Hey, Anna. Psst!" The redhead only shifted and groaned but refused to completely wake up.

"You should get up and get ready for the long day," she insisted but received the same response.

I'll have to try a different tactic, she thought. She sat on the edge of Anna's bed with her back against the headboard and observed the sleeping redhead as she thought of something else. She placed her hand on Anna's shoulder and shook her.

"What?" Anna groaned.

"It's time to get up," she said after a chuckle.

"Get up my ass," Anna yawned and pretended to be asleep again.

"Anna! Wake up!"

"Make me." Her lips curved into a half smile.

"No, thanks. You'll be the one in a hurry today." Elsa got her point across.

"Ugh, fine but..." she yawned and Elsa didn't move from her bed, waiting for Anna to finish saying whatever she was going to say.

"But?" She asked after Anna took longer than usual to comply.

"Kiss me," she simply said.

Elsa laughed silently. "Are you asking or stating?" She said with amusement on her tone.

"Does it make a difference?"

"Hmm, it kind of does." Anna knew that Elsa was playing hard to get. Well, she wasn't playing hard to get, she was hard to get.

"How about both?" She wondered if Elsa was thinking about it for a while because she took her time to reply.

"Eh... I don't know."

This woman... Anna thought. She convinced herself that she had to take matters into her own hands. So she open her eyes, got up and took Elsa by surprise.

Elsa's eyes widened, completely underestimating the redhead but she couldn't break apart from the kiss, she loved it as much as Anna did.

"What are you smiling about?" Anna asked after feeling Elsa's lips pull up into a curve.

"I actually made you get up," she laughed.

"Oh... So you were just tricking me, huh? Not fair."

"Hey... You made it extremely easy. You're the one who asked for a kiss, after all."

"Which you haven't given me yet," she declared.

"You're right," Elsa replied and cupped Anna's cheek, pulling her in for another kiss of her own.

"Okay," Anna said after a quick kiss. "I'm," another kiss. "Awake," and another.

"I never thought getting you to wake up would be this difficult." Elsa held Anna's face in front of her on both her hands.

"Oh shut up, you loved it." The redhead pouted.

"You're right again,"

"Well that must be a record," she laughed and this time she actually got out of bed.

"What is?" Elsa asked, a little confused.

"You saying I'm right for the second time in one minute."

"Hmm. Perhaps, but my biggest achievement is getting you out of bed." Anna couldn't resist the smile on the blonde's face.

"I don't even know why you insist on me waking up so early-" Anna was about to begin rambling, she knew it and Elsa knew it.

"Because we have many things to do today."

Anna stared at her, "like what exactly? Last time I checked we only had one important event to attend to..." She made a thinking face.

"And let me guess, you're just going to go like that? You won't get your hair or makeup done, or pick up a gown?"

"Ugh, I forgot how long this preparations usually take." She sighed and frowned.

"I suggest you go in the shower before I leave you here..." Elsa threatened, jokingly.

"Fine," Anna grabbed a towel and some clothes before she headed to the bathroom. As she walked into the shower, the state of sleepiness that had previously blurred her train of thought began to clear up and she was forced to stop midway into the door as a thought crossed her mind. "Hey, Elsa?" She asked as she bit her lip.

The blonde, who was still sitting on Anna's bed looking at who knows what on her phone, looked up at the mention of her name. "Yes?"

"Have you decided?"

Elsa looked at her quizzically. What could Anna possibly be talking about? She didn't even know, out of all the decisions she had to make that day, which one Anna was referring to. "Decided... Decided what?" She narrowed her eyes, causing her forehead to crease into thin lines.

"Who you're going to the ball with?" She suddenly felt awkward for bringing that up. Obviously she didn't want Elsa to say she would go with Hans, it would hurt her even if she knew it wasn't for that reason, but she needed to know anyway; she needed to be ready and prepare herself.

Elsa didn't say anything for a few seconds, thinking about the reason why Anna would ask such a thing. "I thought we were going together? Unless... Unless you don't want to?"

Anna's eyes quickly brightened up and a smile formed on her lips. "of course I want to! I just thought..." She didn't know whether she should finish that sentence. "Nevermind, I should go shower before it gets too late..." And with that, she shut the door and let the shower run.

"Why do I have a feeling we should have planned this a week before?" Anna asked as they exited a clothing store, neither satisfied with the selection of dresses that were offered.

"Because we should have," Elsa added. "We've been at it for what? Four hours now and no results..."

They both stood outside the store they just exited. Elsa looked around hoping she'd find a store they had yet to visit. Anna, standing not too far from her, looked at the blonde with admiration as an idea crossed her mind.

"Here's a thought, why don't we have lunch and continue shopping after?" She rubbed her palm over her belly.

"Good idea. God knows we don't want you starving to death!" The smirk on her face earned her a look from Anna.

"If I didn't know any better I would take your sarcasm as a way of calling me fat." She stuck her tongue out to her.

"I'm not that mean, am I?"

Jokingly, Anna remained silent for a few seconds to see what kind of reaction she would get from Elsa after not answering her question. The look of worry on the blonde's face had her regretting that decision soon enough. She wrapped her arm around the blonde as they walked to a corner café.

"I'm kidding, you're just a little mean." She gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

Not long after, both girls ordered their lunch and were then seated on one of the tables.

"You never did tell me how your finals went," Elsa declared.

The redhead, who seemed to be too entertained with the straw in her drink, looked up at her to respond. "I didn't think you'd be interested…"

"Are you kidding? I'm interested in anything you have to say."

"Well then, are you prepared?" Anna shifted her eyebrows up and down.

"Prepared for?" Elsa stared at her in confusion.

"All the rambling I'm about to do." She winked.

"Entertain me," she placed her elbows on the table and her head on her hands to give Anna her full attention.

"Alright well, they weren't that bad. They weren't bad at all. It's just the idea of finals and all the studying that can be a headache sometimes. You know what I mean?" Elsa nodded. "I'm not really worried about any of them but hopefully I'll be able to raise my GPA. So yeah, how were yours?"

"I'm not worried about them either. Honestly, I just wanted to get them out of the way and deal with my father's stuff."

"I see," Anna understood but did not know what else to respond to that. Now that she thought about it, she never really considered how much stuff Elsa was really dealing with. She not only had to worry about school but also work, her dysfunctional family and now that business deal her father was trying to get her into, not to mention Hans. "Why don't you just decline your father's offer? Obviously I'm not implying that you should, or offering any advice but it just seems like the simple thing to do." She asked as the thought crossed her mind.

Elsa pursed her lips, Anna was right, it would be the easiest thing to do. It would definitely rid her of a burden, so why didn't she do that? "I actually never thought about it until now that you brought it up. It seems reasonable that I simply decline even if I don't end up with the job but..." Elsa paused as the waitress served their food, "thank you."

"You were saying?" Anna asked once the waitress left.

"I don't know, if you had mentioned this before yesterday I probably would have declined."

Anna took a bite of her sandwich and swallowed before responding, "what changed?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I went to see my father yesterday..." She looked down at her salad, not wanting to meet the redhead's eyes.

"Okay. He tried to convince you, didn't he?"

"I don't know what to make of it, we didn't even talk about business at all."

Anna stared at her. She didn't know Adgar well but was definitely surprised at what Elsa just informed her about. "Did you talk at all?"

Anna's current face expression earned her a giggle from the blonde. "You won't believe it," she said. "We talked about my mother."

Anna's face softened. She didn't know where Elsa was headed with that but it could mean one of two things. "Did he... Did he say anything about you? Did he blame you, Elsa? Maybe you shouldn't have gone there at all. You know whatever he said doesn't mea-"

"Anna relax," she grabbed her hand. "It was nothing like that. It was like..." She tried to look for the right word, "it was like closure? Yeah closure, you could say that."

If Anna was taken aback before, she was even more surprised now. She was about to offer a comment before her phone started ringing. Elsa noticed the discomfort on Anna's face after the redhead looked at the phone screen, then looked up at Elsa and pursed her lips. "Who is it?" Elsa asked curiously.

"It's… Sam."

Elsa's eyes widened, she was definitely not expecting to hear from her so soon but then again, Samantha probably didn't know about their commitment to each other. "Go ahead, answer it."

"Are you sure?" Anna asked quietly. Elsa only nodded her head.

"Hey, Sam."

...

"Yeah, I know I've just been busy."

...

"You're right, we should catch up."

...

"I can't anytime soon, I have so many things to do…"

...

"I actually already have plans for winter break, so maybe sometime after?"

...

"Yeah... Miss you too. Bye-bye." She ended the call only to have Elsa staring at her with what seemed like disbelief, then worry and then something she couldn't entirely describe.

"Miss you too?" She asked as the stared down at her salad. Anna noticed she wasn't actually eating but rather playing with her food, shifting the pieces of lettuce with her fork here and there.

Anna sighed, "I shouldn't have said that, I know."

"No, it's fine. Let's talk about something else, shall we?" Ideally, talking about something else was the better option but experience advised Anna not to let that topic, which clearly bothered Elsa, be one of their skeletons. It was better to deal with it then and eliminate it.

"No, let's talk about it now. I know it bothers you, Elsa." Anna was glad that what she said came as authoritative as she meant it to be, if her voice shook at least a microsecond, Elsa would notice and exploit the weakness but at least her resolve seemed to not have failed her today.

"It's not a big deal, just let it go."

That was exactly the kind of response Anna was expecting, but she didn't give up just yet. "Does it bother you that I talk to her? I can stop if it does."

Elsa let out a small chuckle. It wasn't one Anna was used to hearing; it wasn't because Elsa found it humorous but rather frustrating. "You can't stop talking to people just because it bothers me, Anna. You shouldn't do that. I don't determine who you can and cannot talk to."

Although that made sense to Anna, it wasn't a good excuse to rest her case. "But I don't want you to be upset or bothered or feel-" She took a pause, unsure if the word she was about to use would be appropriate. She didn't want to assume.

"Jealous?" Elsa beat her to it and Anna only nodded. "Anna," she began, shaking her head as she looked for the best way to explain it logically. "It's normal to feel jealous, it only means I want you but that doesn't mean you need to stop talking to people or stop being you. If I get jealous it will only be a passing feeling, unless you give me a reason for it to be otherwise."

"You know I wouldn't do that, and I guess I understand what you're saying but... Even if you insist it's okay because it's normal, I want you to know that it's only you I care about. Once I commit, I commit. I'm not going to play with your feelings so there should never be a reason why you should be jealous."

Elsa nodded and then,noticing the serious turn their conversation had taken, said something to lighten up the mood. "The same goes for me. Besides," she smiled as she took both of Anna's hands into hers, placing them atop the table, "I bet you're a far more jealous person than I am."

"Hey!" The redhead laughed and pulled her hands away. "That might be true," she said after Elsa stopped her laughter, "but let's go back to lunch for now. We still have shopping to do for tonight."

"Who would have thought you'd be so responsible?" Elsa joked and Anna playfully punched her bicep.

"How do they look?" Elsa asked as she waited outside Anna's stall. They'd been in the fitting room for quite a while now.

"They both look good, but I can't decide which one to take." Anna replied and Elsa could hear clothes coming off and on.

"Well maybe I could help you decide if you'd just let me in."

"I can't do that!" Anna almost yelled.

"Shh, I'm right here you know. You don't have to be that loud. Besides, why can't you? There's no rules that prohib-" Elsa was about to protest but Anna cut her off.

"Two reasons, one of them being me not wanting you to see me in whatever dress I choose. I want it to be a surprise." She heard another zipper being opened and the redhead's grunts.

"That's not fair, you saw the dress I decided to buy and I know which dresses you have in there with you..." Elsa insisted but she knew Anna wouldn't let her in anyway, regardless she tried. "It really sounds like you need some help."

"I got it!" Anna said after some jumping around.

"Fine, since you decided to ignore my plea, what's the other reason? Are you on the nude? Is that why?" She joked.

Anna didn't say anything for a while and Elsa didn't hear any movement, causing her lips to curve into a smile and then a smirk after realizing she might be right about her comment.

"That's not it," Anna said. "You do realize people can hear what you're saying, right?"

"Anna, I'm pretty sure there's no one else in here..."

"Right..." She replied sarcastically.

Elsa looked around, sighing as she leaned her back onto the stall door. She wondered how long Anna was going to take, after all, she only had two dressed s with her. Her hope was to not have to go to another store after the one they were in, it was getting late.

"So... Are you going to tell me your other reason? I'm intrigued." She asked after the silence got the better of her. She didn't hear as much movement on the other side of the door.

"To put it simply, I'll be changing in and out of clothes way too frequently and if you're in here... Well, let's just say you might not be able to control your carnal desires." That made Elsa instantly blush and she was finally glad there was a door separating the two. Unfortunately for her, Anna decided it was the right time to come out, causing Elsa to blush even more.

"Woah, are you okay there?" There was no hint of concern in her tone, but rather amusement.

Elsa swallowed before saying anything. "Anna, someone... Someone probably heard you..." She said it as quietly as she could.

Anna couldn't control her laughter. "There's no one else in here, remember? Besides, it's good to know that's your response." She kissed Elsa's cheek, grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the store.

"Wh-what d-do you mean?" The blonde stuttered, not fully understanding where Anna was getting at.

Anna placed her hand on Elsa's left shoulder and leaned in to whisper on her ear. "It's good to know you also feel that way about me," she winked as she pulled away, walking to the front desk and leaving Elsa trying to process what she'd just said.

Oh, Anna... If only you knew...

AN: I know it took me a while to upload this chapter, and it is a short chapter, for that I apologize. It's been a hectic two weeks what with exams and all. Tax law is getting the best of me v.v Anyway, I had planned to include the events that will happen at the Winter Ball in this chapter but that would only delay and lengthen this one which would end up being a bad idea. So, expect the next chapter to be about that.

I appreciate all the reviews and follows. You guys have no idea how much inspiration your comments give me, keep it up and enjoy!