~ Chapter Thirty-Four ~

"Well, I can't say I've ever had waffles for dinner before."

Laughing, Elsa poured another generous helping of syrup atop her own stack as she said, "We bought the waffle iron and all this other stuff; may as well get some use out of it."

"Totally fine by me," Esmé chuckled as she helped lay things out on the table. "Anna, is that coffee ready?"

"Yep! Decaf, just as you requested!"

"Good." Jogging into the kitchen, she narrowly missed where Elsa was turning with her plate, causing them both to gasp and then smile at their good fortune. "Can't have breakfast without coffee, even if it is at eight in the evening."

Once they were all seated, they dug into their meal. It had been Elsa's idea; something to cap off their trip. That she had struck upon said idea while staring into the refrigerator at all the food that would spoil once they left was a mere coincidence, of course.

While they ate, they discussed all manner of things. Hans escorting Elsa was a favourite subject, though she quickly grew tired of talking about the "pompous ass" herself. Esmé spent a lot of time dodging their questions about who she went to see on the island. Anna, of course, ended up telling the other SEEK member a lot of things she'd already told Elsa about her home life, her hopes and dreams, and all that lay between.

"These are really good," she said, flipping through the sketchbook as Elsa and Anna did most of the cleaning up. They didn't want to leave too big a mess, since the next morning they would be flying away and leaving Esmé with most of what was left. Anna was beaming when she saw Elsa didn't have to scrape any of her waffles into the trash; she had eaten every bite. "God, how long did it take you to learn to draw like this?"

"Too long. Seriously, it's not like I just picked up a pencil one day and out came perfection; I work really hard at it."

"And it shows," Elsa said stubbornly, with just as much conviction as she had used ever since the topic trended in that direction.

"Stooop," she whined weakly. "I'm no da Vinci!"

Grinning, she flipped a couple more. "Well, I don't know about da Vinci, but you got skills, girl. Take it from me and Blondie over there — never give up on your dream. Ever."

"Look at the portrait of me. Isn't that one divine?! It's probably the only time I've seen a picture of myself that didn't make me want to throw up."

"ELSA!" Anna burst out, slapping her arm with a dishtowel. The diva only giggled, and Anna kept right on scowling in disapproval at her self-deprecating attitude.

"What portrait? This one of you holding the coffee?"

Looking around the corner, Elsa said, "No, the one a few pages before it." Esmé flipped back and forth several times. "What?"

"I don't see another one of you in here, sorry."

"That's impossible." Leaving the dishes, she stalked in there, wiping her hands on the yoga pants she had thrown on once they got back from their day in town. Picking up the pad herself, she flipped back and forth through several pages, before she discovered that there was, indeed, one missing. "What happened?! Oh no… oh no, no, that one was beautiful, where did it go?!"

But Anna was beginning to giggle behind one of her hands. When they both looked up at her, she picked up the backpack seated in the fourth chair and withdrew a thin, giftwrapped package. Without a single word, she handed it over to Elsa.

"What are you up to?" she asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion. But she still hefted it and turned it over in her hands. "You didn't. Tell me you didn't!"

"Go on!" Anna urged, and Elsa shredded the paper in record time.

"Oh wow," Esmé breathed, standing up to get a better look at the golden frame, with its crisscrossed etching. Also, at the sketch held neatly in the center of the glass. "You weren't kidding, that's… dang, even I wanna kiss this painting, and I'm hetero."

"Keep telling yourself that," Anna goaded her, though she was too excited to focus on teasing the taller woman. "Well? Do you like it?"

Elsa didn't say much. For a long moment, her hand raised to trace over the glass, the way it had when it was just a page in a sketchbook. As if trying to reach inside and interact with the art. Her expression — the real Elsa's, not the pale reflection of her in her hand — was one of the most bittersweet ones Anna'd ever glimpsed in her short life.

"Elsa? Is… do you not like it?" The hand laid the painting on the table, which made Anna even more wary. "W-well, I picked that frame because the crisscrosses made me think of waffles, and- but you can get it re-framed! Or I can draw you somethi-"

The last words died when Elsa's lips crashed into hers at such speed that she had to take several steps back to keep them from sprawling on the tile floor. She didn't know how to react; what to do with her hands, or her mouth, nevermind the rest of her body! But the more Elsa's lips kneaded into hers, the more she responded by reflex rather than design, until they were so wrapped up in each other that getting them apart might have taken a prybar.

Kissing Elsa. Really doing it this time, not just pecks on the cheek that hinted at more, but a "more" neither of them could handle yet. That was the past. In the present, Elsa was devouring her mouth like a starving woman, the actions so clumsy and disjointed but full of sweetness and earnest, just like Anna's own. It was so new to both of them that they were learning together.

One thing was for certain: it would be awfully difficult to go back to being "buddies" after that.

Finally, the two broke the kiss noisily, gasping for air with Elsa running her hands up and down either side of Anna's neck, eyes slitting open and fluttering. They both struggled to find something to say for a long, long time.

Until Elsa finally whispered, "Thank you."

Poor Anna was still trying to figure out how to respond when they heard the sound of clapping. They turned, and she watched Elsa visibly cringe when she noticed Esmé still standing by the table, applauding their efforts.

"Oh, don't mind me," she said in highly bemused tones. "I just didn't want to do anything to ruin the moment, so I stayed put and kept quiet."

"I… appreciate that," Elsa wheezed, the corner of her mouth turning up slightly. Turning back to Anna, she glimpsed the stunned look in her face and immediately lowered her eyes. "Um… that was… d-did-"

"That was awesome," Anna breathed, heading off her worried fumbling. When Elsa grinned from ear to ear, Anna threw her arms around her and hugged her as tightly as her arms could manage. They danced on the spot for a moment, turning small circles as they laughed with pure joy.

"God, how disgusting," Esmé remarked… though something was off about her voice.

"Are you crying?!" Anna demanded.

"NO! Shut up!" As she wiped her eyes, Esmé walked over and put her hands on one shoulder each. "You two seem to really fit together, y'know? Like peaches and cream. I'm… glad you found each other."

"Thank you," Elsa told her hesitantly, still seeming to be flogging herself internally for how she treated her a few days prior. "And thank you for helping in the ways you did. Finding me when Anna was worried, that… if you had let me stay out there by myself, I probably would have eventually convinced myself to keep everything bottled up, and… and never tell Anna a thing. Which I now see would have been a horrible mistake!"

"Yeah, horrible," Anna whispered, kissing the stretch of neck just below Elsa's ear. It earned her a shiver that was satisfying to watch.

"Okay, that's enough for me," the third wheel laughed — but when she tried to pull away, they caught her in another group hug. "OH, WHY?! When will this end?!"

"Tomorrow morning," Elsa told her firmly.

"Okay, okay! Wow, are you clingy all of a sudden!" When neither of them let her go, she grunted, "Can we at least hang out together in the hot tub, something more relaxing than standing around like scarecrows in the dining room?"

At that, Anna drew back to wag a finger at her face. "Ohhh, no you don't; I'm not getting in a hot tub with YOU, I know what'll happen!"

"What'll happen?" When Anna and Esmé only giggled, the blonde frowned at them and insisted, "What is it? Tell me! Oh, this is going to drive me crazy if you don't!"

~ o ~

So they did eventually relax in the hot tub for an hour or so, letting the time meander. Nothing of note actually came to pass, other than the disappearance of Esmé's bathing suit — which Anna had half-expected, and didn't care very much about due to the bubbles hiding everything. Elsa, on the other hand, was a flustered wreck for a minute, which held great entertainment value for the other two.

Once the hour grew too late for more shared experiences, however, they all retired for the evening. And Elsa again slipped into Anna's bedroom.

Hands wandered, but never too far, or under anything. Lips, however, were given a lot freer reign to roam, and would push up the hems of pyjama shirts, down along collarbones. The twin sets met each other so many times that Anna felt sure they would burn, or bruise, but they only felt better the more they danced with each other.

"You're lighting me on fire!" Anna finally gasped out, hands passing up and down Elsa's ribcage, alighting on her hips. This time, when her fingertips gouged in, their owner only sucked in a breath and groaned. "I… I want to keep going, but…"

"I know," Elsa breathed against her chin. "It's… so good, and doing more would be…"

"Too much! Right!" Laughing nervously, their eyes met as they laid there for a moment. Lips pushed out and met again, but only for a fleeting instant. "But… someday."

"There will be a someday, Anna. I promise." Her face grew more serious, even flushed as it had become. "I'm going to make this work. My schedule is crazy, but it doesn't matter to me; you're the only one I want to be with in the whole world, Anna! So… so if we have to wait, we have to wait. It's honestly a pleasure to have you and I to look forward to in life."

"You too. We'll… figure it out. Somehow. Maybe, if I get a part-time job, by the time winter break-"

"Stop, stop," Elsa laughed. "My schedule might be crazy, but the one benefit is that it's because I'm earning the money to do whatever we need. So you just worry about working out the plans, and I'll pay to make it happen. AND," she went on firmly before Anna could protest, "this is me doing the thing with my money for the only reason that matters to me, so you had damn well better let me!"

"Yes, Ma'am," Anna whispered, and Elsa's righteous aura faltered as she smiled. "Anything you say. For the rest of my life, anything you say."

That earned her another flurry of kisses that kept them up for some time longer.

~ To Be Continued ~