(See the end of the chapter for notes .)

They call, they meet. Everything changes, and nothing changes.

Chapter Text

Epilogue II

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Elsa almost didn’t pick up the phone.

“One second,” she murmured to the first ring. She tapped out a few shortcuts in AutoCAD and drew a careful line on her tablet.

“I’m busy,” she said as the second ring lingered. She smiled as she finished another line, then set her pen down.

She picked up her phone in the middle of the third ring. “Hello?”

“Is this Elsa?”

The voice sounded familiar, but Elsa couldn’t place it. She walked over to the window and leaned against the sill. “This is she.”

She heard a catch of breath on the other end of the line. That, more than the words, felt familiar, a memory just out of reach. She was about to ask who this was when she heard a deep breath on the other end of the call, almost a sigh.

Elsa could hear a smile in the sound. She gripped the windowsill as she realized the speaker a moment before she heard:

“Hey, this is Anna.”

And suddenly the voice became familiar again, though shifted in tonality. Elsa heard herself say, “Oh, Anna. Hello,” on autopilot as she analyzed the seven words she’d heard Anna say so far. She sounded older, just a bit. As though at some point in the past few years she’d learned to breathe and slow down between her words.

Her thoughts felt impossibly fast, faster than her speeding heartbeat, as Elsa then briefly considered that ‘Oh, Anna. Hello,’ was an incredibly drab way of answering the phone after four years.

“It’s good to hear your voice,” Anna said. Nowhere in her voice could Elsa detect any judgement over how she’d answered the phone.

Elsa let out a breath she’d been holding. Anna had never been the judgemental type. “It’s good to hear you too,” she said.

“I’m in town,” Anna said. “Or at least close enough. There’s a riding thing going on nearby.” She paused, but only a beat. “Would you like to get lunch sometime?”

“Sure, when is good for you?” Elsa asked. After years of agonizing, this response felt simple. It was just lunch. No need for anxiety. Elsa ate lunch every day.

“Thursday?”

“One sec.” Elsa walked back across the room to check her calendar. She frowned. “That’s no good for me,” she said, “but I could do coffee that morning.”

Anna paused. Or maybe Elsa was just thinking too fast to accurately perceive how long it was taking Anna to respond.

“Okay, cool. That sounds good to me,” Anna said. “Where is good for you?”

“That place across from the bookstore,” she said. “In the old downtown?” It was only after she said it that she questioned the choice. Elsa went there every week, but the last time Anna had been was probably when they were on a date together. “Is that okay?” she added.

“Sounds great,” Anna said. “I’m just glad I know how to get there.” A pause. Elsa wondered if they were both thinking about their last date there. It hadn’t been an occasion of note, just... another perfectly average happy memory.

Maybe they’d make another one.

“I’ll see you at eight on Thursday,” Elsa said. She smiled.

There was a time when this call would have sent Elsa spiraling into a panic attack. That was not now. She would never have confessed to ‘waiting,’ per say, but... she was ready, had been ready. Just in case.

“I can’t wait,” Anna said.

“Me neither.” Elsa smiled. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

The phone clicked. She set it down and took several deep breaths, all the ones she’d held back from during the call.

It had been such a short call. Not even five minutes.

But the wait was over. Not that Elsa had been waiting. She’d seen a few other people. She’d gone through phases of expecting that Anna would never call, or expecting to get a call letting her know that Anna didn’t have a plan, that there was no reasonable way for them to give this another shot.

So not waiting, necessarily. But she’d always hoped, just a little, that Anna would succeed where she had failed.

Memory of the failure, of how badly she’d screwed everything up, pressed against her chest. But that was an old anxiety. Elsa breathed deeply, closed her eyes, and set it aside out of habit. When there was new material to feel anxious about, she’d deal with that then.

Until Thursday, she had work to get done. She took a drink of water and turned back to AutoCAD. Buildings didn’t design themselves, after all.

*

Elsa arrived first, which was to be expected. She wasn’t sure exactly where Anna was staying during her trip, but it was a decent bet that Elsa lived closer to the coffee shop. She twisted her drink in her hands. The atmosphere felt different than usual.

Elsa took a few deep breaths. She counted them. She had her anxiety managed, for the most part. Specific instances of stress (or potential stress) tended to activate it, but she had enough practice to keep a hold on it.

She was so focused on her internal anticipation of Anna’s arrival that she completely missed Anna coming in.

“Hi, Elsa.”

She looked up. For a moment, thought she was reliving the moment she saw Anna after she got back from summer camp. She seemed, more than Elsa had ever seen her, both happy and assured. Everything about her spoke to their years apart treating Anna well. She’d swapped the twin plaits for a messy bun and grown into the plaid shirt look. More than that, she stood with a self-assurance that took Elsa aback.

For some reason, Elsa had half-expected the same teenager she remembered to walk through the door. Instead, a woman with an infectious smile had appeared beside her table.

“Oh, Anna. I missed you come in.”

Anna held up a coffee cup as she sat down across from Elsa. “Missed me getting my drink too. I waved to you and everything.”

Elsa blushed. She was, potentially, just a bit more nervous than she wanted to admit. “Whoops,” she said, “I was a bit preoccupied.”

“That’s totally understandable,” Anna said. Her tone was empathetic. Elsa had forgotten how easily Anna communicated that. “It’s been a while.” The statement hung in the air for a moment. Anna’s eyes flickered downward. “You take your coffee cold now?”

“Yeah, all the time nowadays.” Elsa shrugged. “I realized a couple years back that I actually like it better that way. I just always assumed I should take it hot because, well, that’s kind of the usual, I suppose. It’s how I always expected coffee to be, but it doesn’t have to be.”

“I still like mine hot.” Anna took a sip of her drink. “Even though this is a summer visit, I can’t help but wonder if the snow is about to roll in and take me by surprise. I’ve had enough of the cold, thank you very much.” She chuckled. “I’d rather it not invade my coffee.”

Elsa smiled. Something about the phrasing felt familiar and distinctly ‘Anna’ in styling. “So what’s brought you up here anyway?” she asked. “Horses?”

“Horses.” Anna smiled wryly. “Always horses. I’m almost done with my degree. Once that’s all wrapped up, it’ll just mean more horses.”

Despite the slight grumbling, Anna was clearly happy. “It sounds like it suits you,” Elsa said.

“It does. So... what’re you up to lately?”

Elsa explained her architecture work, which led to a discussion of the building she was working on, which led to a talk about historic barns, back to horses, and so on and so forth.

Talking with Anna was... easier than she’d remembered, than she’d expected. They fell into a familiar conversational rhythm that had Elsa smiling and leaning forward to hear more. In the time they’d been apart, the two of them had amassed more than enough interesting anecdotes to keep a good exchange up.

It felt more like Elsa was meeting a stranger than someone estranged from her. A stranger whose smile felt immediately comfortable, whose laugh sounded familiar. Anna was, in so many ways, a whole new person.

Elsa couldn’t wait to get to know her better. Sitting across from her was an incredible young woman with beautiful hair and a bright smile. The coffee was good. The conversation was great. What more could she want out of a first date?

At the same time, they were sitting in their old chairs from the last time they grabbed coffee together. When Elsa paused once or twice to take a steadying breath, Anna never rushed her. She asked Elsa pointed questions about her architectural influences and what she’d thought about the last Winter Olympics.

And somehow, Anna seemed to know every perfect question to ask, all the things that Elsa wanted to tell her anyway.

Two hours passed so quickly that Elsa thought her watch had broken. She did a double take and shook her head. “I need to head out in a minute,” she said, still not quite believing it.

“Oh, wow.” Anna squinted at her phone. “Time really did fly.”

A pause. Anna looked over at her. Elsa would have looked at herself if it were possible. Anna had asked her out to coffee. By most standards, the ball was in Elsa’s court to continue or cut off what they’d started up.

She cleared her throat. “Do you think we might be able to see one another again?” she asked.

Anna tilted her head. “In what way do you mean?”

“The way we both want, if I’m reading you right.” Elsa tilted her head and squinted, as though Anna were a book she couldn’t quite see from across the table. “The complicated way. The I-hope-you’ve-got-some-ideas kind of way.”

Anna held out her hand. “As it happens, I’ve got some ideas. Are you up to giving this another shot?”

Elsa smiled.

How often, on a first date, do you just know your hands will fit?

“Let’s go for it,” she said, reaching her hand out.

They walked out of the shop together and parted on a kiss full of promise. All it took was a beat, a quick kiss, and Anna’s lips were familiar again, picked up like an old habit or a favorite book.

Elsa couldn’t stop smiling as she got back in her car. The thing about favorite books was that they’re always better on a reread.