Omega [REDUX]

Chapter 27

"I asked her out."

"You did?"

"Yeah."

Hans raised an eyebrow, still looking out the window. "Hmm. At least you did it. And what'd she say?"

"She said yes." A smile broke across Elsa's face that she couldn't control. "I'm just… so… happy."

"Nah, that isn't all she wrote," Hans chuckled, turning to face her. "You guys went further than that, didn't you?"

Elsa narrowed her eyebrows. Hans merely smiled. "I'm a trained professional, Elsa. You know how to fool the untrained eye, but you've yet to fool someone of my caliber yet. I can tell when there are things you're not telling me yet."

"I really can't hide much from you, can I?"

"You probably could, if you catch me at a bad time when I was inattentive or emotionally compromised, but I doubt you'll find me in those states anytime soon." Hans strolled over back to his table and took a seat, motioning for Elsa to do the same. "So tell me? How far did you go with her?"

"Do I really have to tell you?" Elsa groaned, her face burning.

"I could make it an order under the administration of this school and your personal development," Hans joked, prompting Elsa to bury her face in her hands. "I'm kidding. Don't share anything that you're not comfortable with sharing."

"Hans, how am I supposed to keep all of this going?" she asked abruptly. "I mean, after we graduate. How do make sure I don't lose her?"

No more words passed between them. Hans knotted his hands. Elsa almost suffocated under the silence. "I don't want to lose her," she said softly. "She's basically all I've got."

"I do suppose I can spoil some of the surprise," Hans said, reaching across his table to trigger the tabletop display, bringing up the holographic display, as Elsa looked up in surprise. "This was technically all pre-arranged, by the way," he went on, "thanks to the backgrounds both of you have. No offense."

"None taken."

Hans scrolled through the projection of text and figures, and while Elsa could read most of it despite it being displayed backwards to her from her position, she didn't really understand what she was reading. But she swore the names she saw were familiar.

"This," Hans went on, "is the list of all graduating recruits this year. According to their aptitudes and preferences that were previously indicated, we have assigned them to various units and deployments. Our original plan was to send Anna into a standard deployment, probably an infantry battalion, given her meagre scores, dismal aptitude tests and the fact that she had not previously indicated any preference of specialization or unit deployment whatsoever."

"Uh huh."

"I'm sorry, it sounds harsh, but it's protocol for the administration." Hans shrugged, his face an expression of sympathy. "I myself wanted to do something about it, to make her life more meaningful than probably just dying to air strikes or artillery barrages, but we normally assign dismal recruits to such infantry battalions."

"It still sounds rather dehumanizing," Elsa said.

"Hey, every one of us here is a weapon, in one way or another. We're a weapon for the UIF. We're the weapons that keep all our civilians safe from harm. We have to make sacrifices."

Hans turned back to the display and kept scrolling. "Point is," he continued, "with Anna's recent drastic improvements in almost all areas of aptitude, we were able to retract our previous decision and give it more consideration. I argued that on the grounds of such drastic improvement that the possibility of a fluke or a glitch in the system was very low. The administration concurred, and so…"

Hans stopped the screen, analyzing the content displayed and cutting out the irrelevant portions, expanding the remaining text on the screen to let Elsa see, rotating it to her point of view. Elsa took a closer look. It was two lines of simple text: the first was the name Anna Faust, along with the designation Class-X; rank Omega.

Then the other line of text had, in place of a name, Asset Omega, along with the exact same designation.

"We were able to place you in the same unit," Hans finished.

Elsa pouted. "I don't even have a proper name in your database?"

"Sorry 'bout that. We use whatever's in our database when we create deployments. When we keyed you into our database a year ago you were still unconscious. Kristoff punches really hard."

"I can tell."

"Also, I should probably let you know that even though only your names are here, there are other recruits who did well enough and expressed interest in joining Class-X units, and some of them were indeed assigned to Unit Omega."

"Why's that important?"

Hans shrugged. "I don't know, in case you and Anna were intending on some hanky-panky if you mistakenly assumed to be the only two operatives in the unit."

Elsa felt her face literally fire up upon hearing him. "H-hey!"

Hans laughed out loud. "You're not really comfortable discussing that topic yet, are you?"

"It wasn't exactly my focus when I started learning about real life, okay?" Elsa retorted, half-glaring at the chuckling Hans. "I never expected to start having… these kinds of… feelings… for someone this soon, or at all, for that matter."

"Most people your age will have already carried out sexual activity with someone else sometime in their lives, whether as an experiment or as part of a relationship," Hans went on. "Who knows? Maybe you'll find out that Anna is already experienced in such matters by the time you two get around to doing it."

Elsa glared at him, properly this time.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing you." Hans still had a grin on his face. "I can take a hint."

"It's creepy."

"Okay, I've stopped already, alright?"

Elsa rolled her eyes.

"You'd better take the suit," Hans said, after a period of prolonged silence. "You do know what to do on that evening itself right?"

"Yeah, just dance to some music in a specific way—"

Hans shook his head. "No, no, no, no. There's a lot more to that."

Uh-oh.

"You do realise that since you're wearing the suit, you're gonna have to do some other things, right?"

"I don't quite follow."

"Prom has some pretty old traditions, especially when you have a prom date. Since you're wearing the suit, I should think it appropriate to take on the role of the male partner."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this kinda, you know, weird in any way? Won't people make snide remarks or something?"

"Since when did that affect you?"

"I'm more concerned about it affecting her."

"Fair enough," Hans said, shrugging. "But hey, you do have it pretty good now. Over 80 years ago, same-sex prom dates was a big controversy. 5 years later, even when same-sex marriage was legalized, not much was changed. Change surrounding this topic came really, really slowly. But it's unlikely you'll receive much opposition in this day and age. You're lucky to be living in this era.

"Besides," he went on, "let's not waste time bickering about these details. I'm trying to ensure you get a proper date over here."

"Okay." Elsa nodded, silently processing the information, unsure of what to make of it.

"As I was saying, according to 'ancient' traditions, you're supposed to 'pick up' your date. I understand this term was coined by students literally picking up their dates from their respective houses, but I do suppose you could go knock on her door when the time comes."

"Oh." Shit. This is making me nervous already.

"Which means you need to ensure that you're already properly dressed before Anna finishes dressing herself."

"That should be fine," Elsa said, although secretly she wasn't sure if it would be fine at all. "I know how a tux works, definitely read about that some time ago."

"With any luck," Hans said, "Anna's dress is going to take much longer to put on than you with your tux. Hopefully you won't have too many hiccups along the way."

"Seems easy enough."

"Do you know that our prom has two sections?"

"No, I didn't."

"The first section is the couple dance. This means you're going to have to waltz. Then comes the DJ-ing and whatnot."

Her eyes widened. "Waltz?!"

"I thought you'd have read up about it, given the sheer scale and scope of your reading habits," Hans said. "Didn't think you'd be that surprised."

"I just… don't know how to do it with anyone. It's scary."

"You'll figure it out, won't you?" Hans smiled. "Go practice with her or something."

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "This is a lot scarier than I thought."

"Most importantly, Elsa, make this prom meaningful. For the both of you."

"I know—"

"Especially given the kind of things we deal with, Elsa." Hans turned grave now. "You know that as soldiers, we never know when our next mission may be our last. That makes—"

"—our memories all the more precious," Elsa finished.

Hans nodded. "Glad you understand."

There was a knock on her door.

Anna wasn't in the mood for visitors. All she wanted to do was daydream about the possibilities of what she and Elsa would be doing at prom, or after prom, or even learning about dancing together, and kissing her, and a myriad of other things. The taste of Elsa's lips still caressed the tip of her tongue, and she placed her fingers to her own lips instinctively.

Another knock yanked her back to reality. Reluctantly, she pushed herself off her bed and trod towards the door, slapping the door release to reveal her visitor outside. It was Merida.

"I don't suppose you're going home, are you?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, I am," Merida replied. "By any chance would you have a prom date?"

Anna raised an eyebrow, her heart already beating faster as Elsa's serene features came into her mind's eye. "Why do you ask?"

"I was hoping you'd get one, otherwise I'd have put this wonderful piece of clothing to waste."

From behind her back, Merida drew a clothes hangar, adorned with the most beautiful dress Anna had ever seen. The fabric was interwoven with lime green and back, along with floral patterns along the length of the dress, leaving the shoulders exposed to the air. Anna squealed and hugged Merida, who staggered under the impact.

Then something clicked, and Anna pushed Merida away. "Where's your dress? I can't be wearing something this beautiful if you're not wearing something beautifuller—"

"I'm not going to the prom, Anna."

"Why not?"

Merida stuck out her tongue. "No date. Bunch of dumb boys came up to me and I rejected them outright. My Prince Charming hasn't arrived yet."

They both shared a laugh, and shared some more discussion over the dress. Then Merida turned to Anna and gave her a very serious look. "Tell me, do you actually have a date?"

Anna cocked another eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Are you sure you're not just accepting the dress so as to not appear rude?" Merida eyed her curiously. "Tell me honestly."

"Well…" Anna fidgeted with her fingers for a brief moment, her mind phasing through the potential ramifications of revealing her current situation to Merida, but decided to come clean. "I'm going to the prom with Elsa."

She stifled giggles as she watched Merida's jaw literally drop. "Are you serious?" her friend blurted. "She actually agreed to it?"

"She was the one who asked me out."

"Oh my god!" A huge grin began to form on Merida's face as she the amazement slowly faded. "I can't believe—"

"And we kissed," Anna couldn't resist adding, her face turning a bright red.

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, we really did."

It was Merida's turn to hug Anna now, spinning her around in a circle, both of them laughing through it all. Eventually, Merida put her down, and looked straight at her, traces of tears forming in her eye sockets.

"Err… are you okay?"

Merida blinked back tears and shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good. It's just…" She sighed happily and carried on, "I'm just so happy for you. That you finally found someone."

"What do you mean?"

"The three of us, Rapunzel, Belle and I; we were so worried that you'd be all alone if we couldn't support you, if we couldn't be around you. But now you've finally found someone who can! And I'm so happy that that happened."

"Don't be silly," Anna responded. "This doesn't change anything. You're all still my best friends."

"That's not what I'm saying, dumbo," Merida said, a smile on her face. "It's not about us. It's about you. I'm just glad that you'll finally be happy."

Anna turned away slightly, gazing at the floor. "I don't know about that."

"Why? I mean, you guys are technically a thing now, aren't you?"

"What happens after prom? Once we graduate? We'll just get sent off to different deployments, and we'll probably hardly see each other again. And that's assuming we aren't killed in battle." She shook her head and exhaled, almost painfully. "I don't know if I could handle that."

"Handle what?"

"The news if she were to be killed."

Merida put an arm around her shoulder. "Way I see it, you'll probably be put in similar or even the same deployment. I mean, your scores and pretty much equally good, somewhere at the top of this academy's scoreboards. You'll probably end up together."

"That's one hell of an assumption to make."

"Hey, I'm one to dream," Merida said, grinning at her. "But even if that doesn't happen, and you both part your separate ways, at least make something out of the last few days you have together. Then you'll both leave this part of your lives with wonderful memories of each other."

"But it's only a few days."

"A few days can make one hell of a difference. Heck, any amount of time can make a hell of a difference. You only needed less than a year to pull your aptitude tests up from where they were before to topping the academy." Merida took Anna by the shoulders and turned her towards her room. "So go make some memories. With that dress."'

Their laughter echoed off the walls of their dorm.

Anna had gone and taken a nap. When she awoke she didn't know what the time was. Her posting was due to be released at 1815 hours, and she'd slept at roughly 1400 hours, and given that she wasn't hearing chitchat from outside, she decided that her teammates, and most of the school, had gone home. Given how deeply she could sleep, she decided it was probably about time her posting results were released.

She almost didn't want to know the results.

What if we don't end up together?

A wave of sorrow suddenly overcame her. She felt a tear roll down her cheek, and her breath catch halfway down her throat in a sob. I can't take this. I can't. I didn't just find someone that I care about and who cares so much for me only to lose her—

Her hand scrunched up her blankets as more tears and sobs came forth. She hurt so much inside, she felt the agony was eating her from the inside out. She'd lost her parents to the vicissitudes of fate and burning heaps of car wrecks, the sound of emergency sirens and the heat of flames still etched into her mind. She'd lost her childhood to bullying, Ursula's screaming and kicking and the scars never quite left her.

And now she would lose Elsa too.

Her heart wrenched as the single word crossed her mind. Elsa. She found it so strange, that a single word could encompass all of her emotions, summarise everything that made her insides sing with joy and shudder with anticipation, leaving a fluttering in her belly and a hunger insatiable. Every fiber of her being yearned for Elsa, every thought in her mind clouded with how much she absolutely wanted her—

She forced air into her lungs in a painful gasp, trying to cut off her thoughts. This won't do, she told herself, I can't do this. I can't show this to Elsa. Not on our last days together.

The sound of a notification cut through her mind. It was sharp, jarring, and to Anna's mind it carried a note of dread with it. The dread of destiny calling. Funny, she realized, that every other time the notifications came in she'd absolutely dreaded it. Now, what she wouldn't give to keep hearing it, if it meant she could spend more time here with Elsa. That their time together wouldn't end so quickly. The times had passed way too quickly.

There was a knock on her door.

She knew who it was; there was only one other person stuck in school when everyone else could go home. Anna pushed herself off the bed and detached her datapad from the port on the wall. The notification did indeed read Posting Results on its subject field. She locked the datapad and held its edge in her palm as she trod over to the door, hitting the door release.

Lips mashed into hers as she felt two hands on her shoulders, one of which moving to cusp the back of her neck as she was pushed back into the room. She heard the door being closed as darkness began to envelop them again just as her feet hit the edge of her bed, her mind unable to focus on anything but the unrelenting oral assault.

Eventually they broke away again, Anna falling back onto her bed, gasping for breath, feeling her body heat up as Elsa crawled on top of her, moving in for another kiss. She held up a hand, drawing in another breath.

They laughed. "I'm still not used to the whole breathing thing after kissing," Anna grinned, looking back up at Elsa's smiling face. In that moment she almost forgot they were going to be separated, her troubles banished to the far corners of the world, because all she needed was right on top of her, pressing tender lips into her own once more.

"Since when did you get so aggressive?" she asked.

"I might as well get started," Elsa replied as planted a kiss on her forehead. "You might as well get used to it. We're going to be doing this for a long time coming."

The smile faded from Anna's lips. "I'm not so sure about that."

She watched Elsa arch an eyebrow, and felt obliged to explain, not understanding how Elsa could not possibly understand. "Elsa, there's no guarantee we'll end up in the same unit. There's no guarantee we can continue this relationship."

"Don't worry. I came here to allay those fears."

Confusion shot through her, only to be replaced by bliss as Elsa pressed her lips into hers again, a hot tongue moving to lap her sensitive skin. She moaned, feeling her entire body heat up, barely realizing that Elsa had taken the datapad from her. Anna almost whined when Elsa pulled away until the datapad was unlocked before her eyes and Elsa had begun scrolling.

"And how do you know my password again?"

"I observed the stains on your screen." Elsa brought up the datapad back to Anna's eyes. "Here you go."

She looked. It was her post-academy posting: Class-X; rank Omega.

"This would be pretty good, given how far you've come in the year," Elsa said, snuggling up to Anna as she continued to maintain her own silence, "but what's even better is…"

Elsa brought up her own datapad, and revealed her own posting. It was identical to hers. She blinked to ensure she wasn't making a mistake. The letters, in the same black, italicized font, were Class-X; rank Omega.

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious." Elsa nipped at her ear and she sighed. "We're going to be spending a lot more time together than you think."

"How did you know?"

"General Hans gave me a spoiler."

She felt the muscles on her cheeks pull into an involuntary smile, but at the same time she felt hot, wet tears stream down her cheeks. Elsa's expression changed a little; her smile became more concerning, and more amused.

"There, there," she said, running a hand through Anna's red hair, causing her to exhale deeply through her relieved sobs, "it's alright. You were worried, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Anna admitted.

"So was I."

Elsa pressed her forehead against Anna's. She could feel Elsa's warm breath on her face now. Her heart thudded as her face began to heat up. "You drive me crazy, you know that right?"

"The feeling is mutual." Their lips brushed together again, and Anna swore she saw stars even with her eyes closed. She gently tugged on Elsa's t-shirt, pulling her closer, and their lips joined in a proper kiss. Her lips parted invitingly, and a hot tongue caressed the tip of hers. She literally felt her mouth water at the sweet, heavenly taste.

Elsa pulled away with a small smile. "I didn't come here just to kiss you all day."

"Admit it, that does sound appealing," Anna teased, pushing herself forward, but deciding to abide by Elsa's statement, pecking Elsa on the forehead instead. "What else did you want to talk about."

Forehead still pressed against her own, she watched Elsa's eyes sparkle as she raised the datapad. "I was going to ask you to practice dancing with me."

The sound of a tutorial voiceover echoed through their room at the tap of Elsa's finger, coinciding with Anna's surprised laughter. "I almost forgot.

"You mean you completely forgot," Elsa grinned, leaning forward to kiss Anna again, silencing her amidst a fit of giggles. "We're screwed if we don't get it done by tomorrow."

If we are, it may as well be me screwing you. The thought that floated through her head threatened to set her body ablaze, and she quickly attempted to silence her train of thought. No dice. There was no way her thoughts weren't turning wanton.

"You're blushing," Elsa pointed out.

"I – I am?"

Elsa gave her a knowing smile that made her heart flutter, and it was all she could do to smile back.

Ridiculously difficult chapter to write :( And I'm working at a cafe now so chapters are gonna take longer :(