WARNING: drunkenness and vomit.

Sedryn: People go to parties and get drunk. They make out. Things go too far. I have observed it numerous times. I have LIVED it. This isn't even the first time Anna has been drunk IN THIS FIC! As happens so often in your reviews, you seem to start with "this has never happened to me" and incorrectly jump from there to "this doesn't happen and is illegal to write about".

~ Chapter Twenty-Six ~

The waves and the rush of wind that had been so comforting to Anna during the day now seemed dangerous, taunting. Dark and vile, a living beast that wanted to swallow her whole. So complete was its roar that she almost didn't hear the shouting behind her.

"HEY, Anna! Wait up!" Panting, Al finally staggered to a stop when he saw Anna wasn't running anymore. "Whew! You… really can move for a girl who didn't even notice she lost her sandals!"

"I did?!" Al held them up, and she blinked as she wriggled her toes against the sand. "Oh… yeah, I.. yeah."

Taking a deep breath, he straightened up and said, "Are you alright? I mean, you look kind of…"

Clutching the sandals between her hands, Anna looked away toward the surf. "No. I… I think I did something stupid." When Al didn't say anything, she took a deep breath, preparing to confront herself through telling Al what happened. "She… called me a…"

"What? Oh shit, what happened?"

"She asked if I wanted to be her 'bitch', and… and I think she was just trying to do the sexy talk thing, be all forceful and 'cool' or whatever, but it didn't sit right with me, and I overreacted. Like, I felt a weird chill that wasn't the good kind, and then everything she was doing became scary instead of sexy, and I just needed to get out from under her before-"

"WHOA, okay, okay!" Al laughed nervously, holding up both hands. "I appreciate the, uh, really exciting word picture you're painting there, but I don't need all the details!"

"What? Oh! God, sorry, yeah — I'm gonna go… yeah."

Hooking a hand around her elbow, he told her gently, "Wait up. Before you go, just… don't let this make you feel like you really screwed up. Nobody has their own personal genie to make all their problems go away; you just gotta… y'know, figure out where you guys went wrong and do better next time. That's it, that's all you can do."

Anna nodded glumly, eyes still bright from unshed tears. "You're right. Definitely right, I… I'll try that."

"There ya go. And take it easy, okay? You sure you don't want me to walk you the rest of the way?"

"N-nah," she told him with a gentle smile. "You need to go back to the party. Watch out for the other girls."

"Kind of what I was trying to do. I mean, and score with one of them, but only if we really hit it off, right?"

Laughing, Anna waved to him, and he gave her a gallant bow before he began to dash back to the party. Probably hoping to find another eligible girl that he could show a whole new world before the night got too stale. He really was a prince in pauper's clothing.

But as she ambled back up the hill, all the redhead could think about was how she had fouled things up. The stricken look on Mulan's face when she ran out of there. Why couldn't she just be normal? Why did the one thing she had been secretly dreaming about, hoping would happen for years now, have to be the thing that almost sent her into a panic attack?

Regret was still weighing heavily upon her shoulders when she walked through the front door, punching in the security code and tossing her flip flops next to the doormat in disgust. She couldn't even be bothered to brush any lingering sand from her ankles; it didn't matter. Nothing mattered except that she was the world's worst lesbian. Maybe she could fall straight to sleep and forget the whole day.

Just when she was reaching for the railing to go upstairs, she heard a clink from the living room. Curiosity got the better of her. Walking into the living room, she saw a truly pathetic sight.

Elsa was sprawled on the couch while the TV softly played in the background. Her clothing was more like that which she had worn into Tim Horton's; yoga pants and a hoodie, plus a blanket that was half-off her legs. The sound had come from one of six wine bottles falling over and rolling away. It was empty, so there was only a sparse trail of droplets across the tile floor.

"Elsa? What… the hell is happening in here?"

"Hmnah?" Rolling over slightly, Elsa blinked around. "Whozere?"

Great, Anna thought to herself with a wince. Now I get to see yet another side of The Great Elsa that I never wanted to see; what she looks like totally hammered. Mentally shrugging her shoulders, she tried to put on her best fake smile as she said, "Only me! Hi!"

"Oh… oh no." That might have been an exclamation if Elsa had the power to make one. Instead, she kept muttering as she thrashed a little, knocking over yet another bottle. "I… y-you weren't supposed to be back this soon…"

"Yeah, maybe not, but here I am. What have, uh, you been up to?"

Elsa finally rolled over enough to stare at Anna, and seeing her seemed to make it worse. Elsa looked down in shame. "Nothing… I just watched some TV."

"And…?"

"Stobbit. You're not my mother, I just…" Her hand brushed over one of the green bottles fondly. "Just had some fun-for-one."

Anna walked over closer, her own head still light from drinking the small amount she had. Thinking about Elsa with her multiple bottles of wine made her wince. Her first thought was, "How did you pack this much wine in you?"

"Bathroom," Elsa said simply. "Um… can you… I think I n-need…"

So off to the bathroom they went. First, she threw up, and Anna curled her lip and stared in the opposite direction, holding her hair back as she bent over the toilet. After a solid flush, she turned around and sat down, causing Anna to utter an "eep!" as she looked away yet again.

"You… ran off an' left me. But I thought you'd be gone longer."

"Yeah, well, we all thought a lot of things," Anna sighed as she took the opportunity to wash off her makeup as best she could. "I thought I'd come home and you'd either be safe in bed or just sitting and reading, not… not like this."

"But you enjoyed a biiiig party. Did you get any… vagina?"

Anna whirled, eyes wide enough to see the whites almost all the way around her green irises. "Did I WHAT?!"

"Oh," Elsa lamented, clutching her stomach and curling in on herself. "Ughh… this is the worst, why didn't I stop after the second bottle?"

"Nevermind that. Did you just seriously ask me if I 'got' any vagina? Any vagina?!"

"What?"

Groaning, Anna shook her head and pressed her fingertips to her temples. If she wasn't careful, she was going to have a headache soon. "You are so infuriating right now."

"Vagina is a funny word," Elsa observed with a little giggle — that immediately turned into a low groan. "Ooh, no, no, noooo…"

"Please come with me to the kitchen." When Elsa rolled her eyes, she knelt down in front of her, taking her face between her palms. "Please? I need you to, it's pretty clear you haven't eaten any dinner. This is very important right now."

"Stop…"

"ELSA!"

"Stop… trying to look at my vagina now," Elsa muttered, though she was making no effort to close her legs. Not that Anna could really see anything from her perspective in the first place, but she still made it a point to look up at the ceiling. "Why are we going to the kitchen?"

"To solve the unified field theory. Come on, just… stop saying 'vagina' and get off the toilet, okay?!"

"I'm not done." There was a tinkling, and Anna's lip somehow curled more than it already was. "Yep. Now I am."

There weren't any words.

Without too much more effort, Anna was able to herd Elsa into the kitchen and sit her down on one of the stools so she could get her some leftover pasta and a bottle of water. Only once did she have to dive to catch Elsa before she slid off into the floor.

"Not hungry."

"I don't care; you need fat and carbs right the hell now, okay?"

"Not. Hungry." Elsa turned her head left and right, then started when Anna pushed the forkful of noodles and sauce into her mouth. "MMMM!"

"Theeeere ya go," Anna said in a maddeningly soothing voice. She had been expecting Elsa to spit it back in her face, as childish as she was acting, but in the end she seemed to have sobered up just enough from the trip to the washroom that she realised that was far too juvenile. "Isn't that good?"

Once Elsa had finished about half of the pasta and washed it down with half the water, Anna steered her back to the couch, not wanting to risk the stairs. However, once she had tucked her in and turned to go to her own room, she heard a very weak, very quiet voice.

"Anna…"

"Yes?" she asked as gently as she could.

"Stay… I… I missed you…"

Elsa's face looked like she was about to break down completely. On top of everything, both with Elsa and with the party, Anna somehow knew watching her break down would be it; she'd lose her own tenuous grip on her feelings. Leaning in close, she petted her cheek and whispered, "I missed you, too. Want me to stay a while?"

"Uh-huh…" Anna was so flabbergasted by how she was speaking that she had no response. "Just… talk to me a little, I… don't know…"

"Hmm. Well, we can do better than that." Lifting the blanket up, Anna slid onto the couch next to her. It took a little more work, but they could lie side-by-side as long as they both wrapped one arm around the other's back.

"Ohhh," Elsa whispered onto Anna's temple, causing the redhead to close her eyes and suppress a shiver; she couldn't even let that happen, not with Elsa so close against her. "You feel good."

If her voice squeaked, she was going to smack herself in the morning. "I do?" So far, no squeaks.

"Yeah. I like your body; it's warm and soft, and it likes me. I like you and you like me, so we're friends." A few seconds passed as they got settled. "But not in the gay way."

"R-right. Of course not."

"Did you get any vag- oh. Not that word, another word. With Luman." Her voice was growing more petulant. "Bet you did. You're so beautiful, Anna, I can't imagine anybody… not wanting to do everything they could with you. Be with you."

"No, I didn't get anything from Mulan except… well, except some kissing and some disappointment." When Elsa didn't prompt for more, she just snuggled closer to her, sighing, "Dating is weird. But I don't even have to worry about her now. She's flying home tomorrow morning."

Elsa's arm clutched at her tighter. As out of it as she was, the fact that Anna was hurting had penetrated the drunkenness. "Sorry. You looked damn sexy, so Mulan was dumb not to realise. That's my official designated SEEK opinion on this topic, yep."

"It's appreciated," Anna laughed, feeling her cheeks warm from the compliment. Those tended to come her way a lot from Elsa's direction, but these were even under the influence; she probably meant it even more than usual. "You're sexy, too."

"Well, I know." When Anna scoffed aloud, Elsa grinned sleepily. "I'm… only being honest… magazines tell me I am… so they must… be right…"

"They are." Pulling the blanket up a little more to better cover their shoulders, she went on in a hushed voice, "You're gorgeous. Anybody would be lucky to… I mean, even just to be where I am now, let alone… well, the point is, you have a killer body, a perfect face, and an even better heart inside you. And that's, um…"

A little snore interrupted her. It wasn't much, and was oddly cute, but the sound was definitely just enough to be heard. Smiling bemusedly at Elsa's sleeping face, mouth slightly open, she settled in closer to her, arms tight around as she began to drift off herself.

"And me without any Breathe Right strips," she yawned.

~ To Be Continued ~