Their first post-christmas check-in was suspiciously uneventful. Half the academics were still on vacation. Hans looked hungover. They'd merely asked for a log of what they'd gotten up to over the festive period and Anna's own observations. Despite the trivial questions, Hans had developed a tendency of holding the silence after her answers. For uncomfortably long seconds. As though he'd wanted her to reveal the little moments of intimacy she'd lapsed into. It reminded her of all the times she'd gotten hauled to the principal's office in high school. Dimebag of weed on the table and a burning stare from the counselors. We're giving you a chance to confess.
"So what happened after you got back from the bar?" Hans's expression was unreadable behind his notes.
"Um, we made hot chocolate together and she regaled me again with her rendition of Jingle Bells."
Hans looked up at her. Dragging the silence as she shifted around in her seat.
"And we danced."
A half-smile broke on Hans's face. As if he'd expected her to lie and was pleasantly surprised by her confession.
"You danced with Elsa in your living room," Hans sneered, "what kind of dance was that? If I may ask."
"A ballroom dance," Anna clasped her hands, it'd gotten colder in the empty meeting room, "she wanted to show me something she used to do."
"Right. A ballroom dance. In your living room."
"Yes."
Mr Tweed Jacket cleared his throat and changed the subject, "Actually - I'd also like to check if Elsa shared her thoughts on those three whitelisted books she'd finished over December."
Anna handed over the requested book reviews. Six months ago she would've found it in herself to glare back at Hans's menacing scowl. But this time, all she could do was look at her own toes. Afraid of his silence and how it threatened to rip Elsa away from her. Meeting up with Elsa later in the parking lot hadn't eased that hum of unease in her belly.
"They gave me a meteorological exam," Elsa shook her head, "Arctic ice. Sea levels. Ocean temperatures. Your people brought me to the 21st century to be a weatherwoman."
Anna chuckled. Behind her laughter and the link of their fingers she found dread settling into her belly like a concrete block. It showed on her face when she started the car.
"More bollockings?" Elsa queried, leaning closer in concern, "You look - disturbed, to say the least."
"No," Anna lied between her teeth, "it's just that I've gotten clearance to cross two state lines to Arlington National Cemetery. It might be a little heavy for an outing so I don't know if you're prepared for it."
"A cemetery?"
"For America's war dead."
"Oh."
"W-we don't have to go if you don't want to," Anna tapped her steering wheel at a red light, "we could just visit a couple of monuments in DC and call it a day."
"Well, you could try - but I don't think it'll work if you were ordered to bring me there," Elsa fished around her purse, "as much as I'm unfamiliar with technology. I'm fairly certain they've been tracking my movements."
"Heh, you're fairly certain?"
All the hairs on Anna's neck stood on end when she looked at a scrap of paper held in Elsa's palm. Curled thumb hiding the graceful swoop of her handwriting. She nearly swerved into traffic.
ITS HIDDEN ON ME. I DONT KNOW WHERE.
They didn't make it to Arlington, instead choosing to spend the day gawking at the Lincoln memorial and the National Mall's whitened snowstrewn expanse. Despite Anna's earlier promise to keep Elsa away from war monuments, it was impossible for the Queen to miss that enormous black gash in the Constitution gardens. She couldn't keep Elsa from trotting over, blooming skirts gathered in her hands and eyes widened at the names. Thousands of them etched onto black marble. She wanted to lead Elsa away. Follow the NSA's rules and keep her focused on the good things in the new world. But a part of Anna viewed that blindfold on her eyes as a pair of shackles. So she allowed Elsa the space to read each name and touch the lives lost in a conflict she never knew about. Hoping it mended the one she knew in her soul.
"T-this is a war monument. All these men died in battle," Elsa whispered, slender fingers tracing the surface, "Vietnam."
"Sixty years ago," Anna answered, "thousands of young lives lost in a conflict over ideology. It lasted nearly twenty years and America found itself right back where it started. A nation full of scars and hearts full of hurt."
Elsa pointed south at a statue of three women cast in bronze, "And that one?"
"It's the same war - but that sculpture commemorates the women who served," Anna stepped in front of Elsa, "I don't mean to bring up a bad memory, but y'know. In Oslo - there's a statue of a famous Queen who rode bravely into battle. Who gave her life in service of her country. Just like all these men and women here."
Elsa smiled, taking Anna's arm into her own, "Pray tell, who may that be?"
Anna's breath hitched. Specks of snow landed on Elsa's fringe, delicate like her cheekbones.
"She's a good friend of mine."
She knew there still existed a litany of unanswered questions stemming from Elsa's involvement in the war that the NSA wanted answers to. But a huge scaffold of trust had arisen between them, built from all the moments they shared over the months. It was easy to stand on its planks and reach just a little further. Into the depths of Elsa's memory and pluck the answers her employers wanted. But one look at the fragile glimmer in Elsa's eyes and she feared it'd all come crashing down.
As if sensing Anna's apprehension, Elsa requested they stop by a cafe for coffee and chocolate donuts on the way home. It was one of those places that didn't provide a lid for the cups - citing "environmental reasons". Still, the donuts were delicious and powdered sugar looked like the snowy landscape Anna just escaped shivering from. Elsa bought a second cup of unlidded coffee to drink on the way home. Questions still rife in her mind that Anna answered to the best of her ability.
"So we're not going to Arlington then?" Elsa asked as Anna blew past Virginia's freeway exit.
"I think we've seen enough war dead for one day. Or maybe a lifetime."
"What's there?"
"Just a whole bunch of graves. Men and women who've died in American conflicts."
"Was it something you proposed, or did the NSA-"
"The NSA inserted it into my plans. For some weird reason, they specifically requested to show you the mounted horsemen of the 3rd Infantry Regiment. Maybe they like horses."
"Perhaps they're trying to jog memories of my time on the Continent."
Anna looked over, completely missing the sign on the highway that read: "Caution! Construction ahead!"
"I do think they are, yes," Anna answered, "don't get me wrong, I've explained that you're as forthcoming with your interviews as you're capable of."
"Frankly, Anna - I'd be more concerned about exactly why they're so interested in them."
"Heh - I don't think the NSA would have use for a warrior Queen," Anna turned and smiled at her, "as competent as you surely were in leading your men."
"So you say! General Larsen did most of the commanding and I was just there for morale. To give them some inspiration."
Anna swallowed back her trepidation. A knot in her throat. An unanswered question she meant to ask for months and somehow found excuses to skirt around. Time after time. Despite Hans's pestering and her own curiosity fraying at the edges.
"Why did you follow them into battle, then?" Anna spat the question out before she could reel it in, "You didn't have to."
Elsa kept silent. The unanswered question stretched thin between them and she considered apologising. Pondered whether that scaffold she'd built would be enough to fathom the deepest recesses of Elsa's motivations. Perhaps a nudge.
"Elsa?"
Elsa stayed silent. Anna flicked her head over. Mouth ajar at that tear which had trickled down her cheekbone. It stole Anna's attention long enough to miss that slight curve in the road. A depression along the side of a hill she'd always slowed for. The forgotten morning drizzle hardened into a sheen of black ice that she drove full speed into. A shriek tore through the car's interiors as it spun wildly out of control. Sending them careening full tilt towards the badly patched barricade another poor sod had driven into. Still under construction.
The Ford Focus tore into the wooden planks like bullets through paper. It lurched down a steep hill, throwing both girls in their seats. A concrete wall by the ramp loomed towards them in a blur. With a grunt, Anna stomped the brakes and missed them completely. Instinct screwed her eyes shut and all she saw was black.
Before she opened them to a flash of pure white. Brighter than the most dazzling star in the night sky. Completely enveloping her vision and filling it with the purest light. The engine had stalled. Her quivering hand found Elsa's, shaking like the rapid thump of her heartbeat. Lungs heaving every trace of air in mad, stuttering breaths. It took a full second for Anna to comprehend that she'd skidded and driven the car off a hill and crashed it. Another few seconds to understand she wasn't dead. Or even drenched in Elsa's unlidded coffee. Her eyes widened at a solid black brick still in the cupholder.
Years of razor sharp focus from deployments hardened Anna's response.
"A-are you alright?" Anna stammered through the fog of adrenaline.
"Y-yea."
Slowly, Anna released her vice-grip on Elsa's hand and edged out the vehicle. Stumbling momentarily into the frigid-cold air.
She surveyed the damage.
There was none.
The front bumper of her Ford Focus embedded three feet deep in a steep bank of snow. Behind it, a graffiti-littered concrete barricade. Icicles crunched beneath her boots. Elsa was out of the car. Standing with her mouth ajar gawking at that pile of snow she created. Because it wasn't there when Anna drove headfirst down the hill. The last memory flashing through her brain was definitely a concrete wall of death looming towards her.
Pieces of the puzzle clicked back into place. Her propensity for cold. Even right now, standing in deep winter with hardly a jacket on. Rumours of her sorcery. Hansen's poem. The inexplicable readings when she first thermal-scanned her. It all added up into this dumbfounded look on her face and a massive snowbank that quite possibly saved both their lives.
"W-we should get out of here," Anna looked at Elsa. The Queen was staring directly at her. Broken face betraying the horrifying realisation of that secret she'd kept concealed all this while. So easily hidden beneath the veneer of their burgeoning attraction. Affectionate words and coy smiles camouflaging the awful truth she was capable of this. That two hundred years hadn't weakened it one bit.
It took a couple of tries to start the engine. In between the angry revving and groaning tyres that extracted them from the snow, Anna's phone chimed with a message.
Hans-AHOLE (4:45pm): JESUS FUCKING CHRIST R U OK?Anna (4:45pm): We're both fine.
No reply from Hans. No reply from Elsa either. Her hands were still shaking after she hauled the stricken car out of the ditch and drove at a snail's pace for the rest of the way. The sun hung low in the sky by the time they reached home. The thud of closing car doors was the only punctuation at the end of a silent drive fraught with icy tension. Anna went straight to the wine fridge and unlocked it. She didn't bother with a glass and downed a mouthful of Cabernet in one long gulp. Unmelted ice still clung to her boots. It was real.
So was Elsa. This woman. As human as herself - with warm hands and the delicate scent of her hair and a smile she knew each muscle of.
Now standing before her with a broken expression on her face.
Anna stared at her; wine bottle dangling from her hand. Daring Elsa to speak first.
"I-I'm sorry," Elsa finally croaked out.
"For what?"
"For keeping this from you."
Anna took another swig. The burn didn't soothe her and only made her more heated with rage.
"Why?" Anna whispered, barely a flutter over her drumbeat heart, "After all this while, why?"
"I don't know."
"Is it because you don't trust me?"
"No, it's not-"
Anna slammed the bottle down and marched toward her room. The brush of utter cold from Elsa's body hurled another dose of reality at them.
"Stop, Anna - don't-"
"Tell me why."
"No."
Anna yelled at the top of her lungs, "Answer me!"
"I didn't want to hurt you, alright?" Elsa screamed back, the confession forcing a tear from her eyes. Refracted in the setting sun's rays. "I didn't want to lose you - people die around me when they know. My sister. My parents."
Words reached deep into Anna's chest cavity and crushed her. There'd be no going back from this.
"So you kept this inside you," Anna whispered, her words soft like raindrops on cottonwool, "the whole time. Because you were afraid of hurting me."
"I've kept a lot of things from you."
Anna looked up and met her eyes, "Like?"
"I joined the war in Europe because," Elsa looked away, unable to bear Anna's gaze burning down on her, "because I wanted to die."
"Oh my god, Elsa."
"Politically, I had the courts' backing. We had to repair our relations with Russia. Arendelle wanted to leave the Continental System anyway," another tear slipped down her cheeks, "but after my sister's accident. I'd-I'd never been the same. Like an empty void in my heart I couldn't fill with anything. Not even Ingrid. After she was gone I didn't have a reason to go on anymore."
"Y-you've kept this from me-"
"I killed my sister, Anna," Elsa shot back, "with this."
A plume of snowflakes erupted from Elsa's open palm. Sublimating into thin air and turning their living room chilly for a split second before warmth returned.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"When I came here, I still found myself lost in hopelessness," Elsa looked down, "and then I met you. And it felt like I found my sister all over again. It gave me a new meaning to be alive."
Anna's heart swelled. She wasn't ready for this. Too small to contain the raging emotion within her. Still, years of heartbreak and trauma hardened her granite expression.
"Are you hiding anything else from me?" Anna stared.
"No," Elsa wiped tears from her face, "are you?"
"Actually, about that," Anna answered, "yes."
Elsa looked up, "Wait, what?"
"I've been hiding this," Anna marched right up to Elsa and kissed her. Heat arced through her face. She felt Elsa tense up. Before cradling her face and relaxing into the kiss. Tasting of coffee and donuts. Vanilla-scented hair. Two hundred years between them disappeared in a matter of seconds. Hands fell to her hips and dragged her closer. They probably installed cameras in their house but Anna was past caring at this point. She'd rather die than live another day without the taste of Elsa's lips on her mouth. Vaporise into thin air if they kept up this pretense for a second longer.
Sputtery lips gasped for air when they parted. The words tumbled from Anna's mouth in a stuttery mess.
"My whole life has been a one track path-"
"-towards finding you."
They melted into one another again. Staggering back beneath the weight of Anna's kisses before her back hit the wall. A hand had slid into the shoulder of her jacket. Apprehension clouded her eyes and that heavy thrum of adrenaline that fogged her thoughts.
"If you want to do something," Anna snarled, "do it."
She held back the words: because we might not get a second chance.
Elsa tore the jacket from Anna's shoulders. Boots and shoes clattered the living room. Too long they've waited for this. The rush of excitement that drove them both into Anna's bedroom. Still littered with study material and pages of Elsa's history. Now paying host to two women who fell on her single bed. Jeans unbuckled and tugged halfway down her thighs. Frantic, shaky hands making a poor attempt at unbuttoning her shirt. Elsa had taken off her dress in one fell swoop and tossed it overhead before helping Anna with the rest of her clothes. Pale, radiant skin burning into her eyeballs. Vanilla scent intoxicating them both. It hadn't occurred to Anna just how strong Elsa was until she tore the shirt from her shoulders with such force that the fabric rent.
"A bra," Elsa sneered, lavishing heavy, open-mouthed kisses down Anna's speckled cleavage, "you're wearing one."
"So are you."
Elsa paused, hands frozen on the strap of Anna's white cotton bra. Trepidation etched into her face when she swallowed.
"I got carried away, on the tide of my passions," Elsa whispered, "sorry."
"Don't - oh you," Anna curled fingers around her neck and dragged her into another kiss, "don't you dare."
"You want this?"
No answer. Besides another kiss that Anna guided down her jawline. A terse moan erupted when Elsa found her way along the nape of her neck. Their breasts touched. Lace meeting cotton and the prominent peaks of arousal scraping them both. Anna tucked two fingers into the frilly edge of Elsa's black lace bra and slid it down. Brushing a thumb over her nipple and watching Elsa curl in heady pleasure. Their eyes met across a gulf of lust. Dishevelled blonde tendrils splayed across red. Desire surged forth within Anna and she kneaded the generous swell of Elsa's breasts through her bra. Nails dug into her forearm and she found herself unhooking and tugging the accursed garment off.
"Much better," Anna growled through gritted teeth. With an oomph, she tossed Elsa on her back and straddled her. Ankles hitched around her lower back and lips met tenderly. Hot, heavy kisses down her neck drew out a new symphony of sweet moaning. She could feel Elsa's toes curling into her thighs.
"Anna," Elsa gasped, voice punctuated by yet more whimpered moans, "c-can I kiss you?"
Anna looked down at a slender finger trailing precariously low along her bosom. She rolled her eyes and removed her bra in one swift motion. Pressing her chest up into Elsa's face and biting back a shrill scream when Elsa kissed her breasts. Lips tracing each freckle with agonising leisure before finally closing around a nipple. She arched deep into Elsa's mouth. Fisted her blonde braid until strands of gold peeked through her fingertips. Mewling with pleasure as their hips canted into one another. She'd fantasized about this moment a thousand times over. Touched herself to the imagination of taking her time to unravel the Ice Queen. The reality of making love to Elsa couldn't be further from her fantasies. One swipe of Elsa's tongue over her nipples dissolved her restraint. She plummeted a hand towards the lacy fabric of Elsa's panties and slid two fingers beneath the waistband.
"Oh, Anna," Elsa moaned, "you're not thinking of - oh!"
Wet. Elsa was so wet. She slid past the warmth in time to feel Elsa awkwardly pawing off her own panties. Freckled limbs met pale skin as they finally got the rest of their undergarments off and felt nothing but unfettered heat radiating from their cores. Amidst the tangle of limbs and rough, wet kisses; their fingers found each other's centres. Elsa sat upright. Back straightened against the girl astride herself. Eyes half-lidded and lips parted as she rode. Elsa reached up a free hand and cradled the sloping lines of Anna's jaw. Shuddering in deep-seated pleasure when the girl sucked on her thumb. She reciprocated by trailing a slick line down Elsa's collarbone and pinching a nipple hard. The resulting scream nearly tore her ears off.
"If you don't want them to hear us," Elsa clasped a hand over Anna's, "maybe you shouldn't do stuff like that to me."
In response, Anna twisted harder. Hips bucked into one another and the rapid, superheated tremor in her loins became apparent. Like Elsa had reached deep within her and filled her with fire.
"Closer," Anna pleaded, dragging Elsa's head down for a fervent kiss, "oh god, don't stop - I-I'm close."
"Close?" Elsa cocked an eyebrow.
Anna opened her mouth to answer, before words lost themselves in a desperate cry of release. Hips bucking into Elsa's fingers as the pleasure crested within herself. Each successive wave felt like it'd drown her. And when she opened her eyes again, saw white for the second time today. The air had grown sticky with arousal. Damp sheets. A look in Elsa's eyes that oozed sensuality.
"Close to that," Anna answered between her heaving breaths, "close to coming."
Elsa covered her mouth and giggled, "Is that what you call it? Coming?"
"Well, what do you call it back in the day?"
"We didn't have a name for it," Elsa brushed the matted, unruly tendrils of Anna's hair, "we just felt it."
A fingertip found its way to the gentle curve of Elsa's cherry pink lips. She traced its outline. Soaking in the afterglow of her own climax and that glimmer of lust still swimming in Elsa's eyes.
"How would you like to feel it?"
"Anna, you don't have to-"
"I want to-"
A kiss was all it took to shut Elsa up. Trailing down the hummingbird pulse of her neck and the sweat-lined dip of her collarbone. The Queen tensed up as she reached her breasts. Heavy kisses that were sure to bruise in the morning. Anna made sure they did. Not stopping until that hardened fist in her pigtails teetered on the verge of pulling out her roots. She pinched a nipple again and savoured the way Elsa trashed beneath her touch. Twisting harder until that scream she'd been holding back tore through the room.
Anna made her way beneath Elsa's breasts and across the milky white expanse of her waistline. Rotating her body until her thighs flung over Elsa's face. The insinuation of what was about to transpire as bare as the space between Anna's legs. Quite unlike Elsa's; adorned by golden curls. Anna pushed apart Elsa's thighs and dipped closer. She heard a sharp inhale. Time to get busy. Lips leaving reddened lovemarks on Elsa's inner thighs. Like she'd wanted to brand her with remembrance. She repeated the process with agonising precision until Elsa trembled with want.
"Oh, Anna," Elsa groaned, fumbling around in the sheets until she was perfectly lined up.
A deep breath in, saturated with the musky sweetness of arousal. Before Anna went straight for her centre. Lips and fingers parting that white-hot core. Gently, she flickered a tongue against her clit - relishing in the taste and the sudden arch of Elsa's hips. It wasn't long before Elsa herself figured out a comfortable position and they both went to town on each other. The difference in height made up by the way Elsa curled her back. Heavy-scented air interspersed with moans. Pitched to ever-higher crescendoes each time Anna went a bit too hard. Until she felt that inevitable buck of hips against her lips. A cry from beneath her as Elsa tensed up.
"Oh! What is that?" Elsa exclaimed, voice still muffled by Anna's thighs, "You're going to make me - ahh - come!"
The innocuous way Elsa pronounced come made Anna choke out in laughter. It drove her tongue further into Elsa's core and she felt her shudder around her head. Thighs and abs flexing as she came undone in a twitching mess. Anna kept up the pressure - feeling her partner brim over in wave after wave of ecstasy. Even as still maintained her steadfast attempt at bringing her to a second climax. Rhythmic teasing of her tongue paired with the two skillful fingers that made short work and hurled Anna over the edge a second time.
The sharp pain in her ribs abated. She hadn't realised Elsa had dug fingernails into her skin. As much as they smarted in pain she couldn't stop grinning at the fact that she'd made Elsa come.
"How'd you like your first 21st century climax?" Anna untangled herself from between Elsa's legs. The Queen looked worse for wear. Kiss-swollen lips and hair in an unruly blonde mess. She shifted into a wedge of a lamp's light and Anna's breath hitched yet again at how gorgeous she looked.
"Wasn't my first," Elsa adjusted her hair, "I-I've touched myself thinking of you. Right next door."
"Could've just knocked."
"I wanted to. So many times. Courage always failed me at the last second."
"Wait, wait, what?"
"You'd be in your bedroom. I could hear you typing on the fruit machine. Humming those silly songs to yourself."
"Oh my God, Elsa," Anna took Elsa's face between two hands and kissed her.
"I've been meaning to court you ever since. Well. Ever since I realised there could be a possibility."
"Courting!" Anna choked back a laugh.
"Evidently I didn't know what I was doing - or how to go about it," Elsa bemoaned, "you're such an independent lady. And I've no more lands. No more titles. No more riches from the Palace Treasury. Only my petulant temper and fastidious desires of my heart-"
Anna hopped onto her lap. Straddling Elsa and cutting her off with a gasp. "And that is all I ever wanted from you."
"Really now? You know I have nothing to offer you," Elsa looked up at her, "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths-"
Anna touched a fingertip to her lips, "I would spread the cloths under your feet-"
"But I, being poor, have only my dreams," A hand snaked around her wrist, "I have spread my dreams under your feet;"
Two hundred years. Two heartbeats. Pulsing gently against one another through sweat-soaked skin.
"Tread softly-"
Elsa's smile curled against her lips, "Because you tread on my dreams."
Anna leaned forward and kissed her before she could say anything else.