Chapter Two

Anna Dawson had her whole first day planned out: wake up super early, eat breakfast, brush her teeth, shower, ride with Rapunzel to Warm Hearts Bakery, prepare all the ingredients for that day, prebake some stuff to fill up the shelves, open the door to a sea of customers, make a bunch of connections with wealthy business people and stuff, get a baking show on TV, become famous, buy a house for her mom, and finally get herself a car (with an optional chauffeur).

Okay so maybe that wouldn't happen on her first day, but she was ambitious. And she was organized enough to have a plan; and nowhere in that plan did she make any room for reuniting with her ex-girlfriend.

Anna regrets not keeping up with current events. If she did, she would know that Elsa ran ArenCorp and would show up to her bakery. But if she had known that, then…then she still wouldn't have known what to do.

What could you do in that situation? How were you supposed to react? Apparently, her answer was to freeze up and convince herself that she was dreaming. Or having a nightmare. Or...both?

It took massive amounts of shaking and shouting from Rapunzel to pull Anna out of her trance once Elsa had left. And throughout the rest of the day she could never feel like herself.

She was sluggish and careless in the back of the bakery, orders had to keep being redone and she spilled way too much flour. Somehow, they both made it to closing time; even if their numbers weren't so good, they were decent enough to celebrate their first day.

Rapunzel wanted to go out for drinks to "celebrate a job well done", but Anna knew that was code for "I'm going to use margaritas to get you to tell me what's going on". Anna didn't object, it would keep her from being alone with her thoughts.

But what Rapunzel forgot to mention was that they were going to a nightclub, not a bar. Not just any nightclub either, but one of the premier nightclubs in Arendelle: The Dark Room. Once an Irish bar, it was bought by two thirty-year old entrepreneurs who flipped the whole place upside down. They renovated it, painted the building black (which ironically made it hard to spot at night) and fitted it with purple lighting to mimic UV rays. It was standing room only minus the bar stools and leather couches backed up against the walls, which Anna never wanted to sit on ever.

Thankfully they were able to navigate their way to a pair of bar stools, dodging the handsy pit of patrons. Rapunzel spun around on her stool and squealed like she had just won the lottery, "Aaaah, don't you just love life Anna?" She wasn't even drunk yet.

Anna swirled her half-full glass of lime green slush and smiled at her friend. "Yeah 'Zel, life's pretty cool sometimes.", she said without fully agreeing.

Rapunzel scoffed, "Sometimes? Why not try all the time! You and me we're…we're going to be the best damn bakers this city's ever seen. Better than that ginger and that guy who looks like a rat."

"Hey, come on, the R & L Connection are great. I love their YouTube channel."

Rapunzel downed the rest of her drink and let out a satisfied sigh. "Yeah life is pretty good, especially when you have no secrets to hide." She said, already dismissing her diss. "You wouldn't have any secrets you're hiding are you, Anna Dawson? I'd hate for you to not have a good life."

Anna giggled, thankful that the dark interior hid her nervousness, and pushed her still half-full drink over to Rapunzel. Someone needed to be sober enough to drive them home. "Is that your subtle way of asking me about what happened this morning?"

"Well that depends, are you actually going to teeeell me about what happened this morning?" Rapunzel inquired. "I thought I was scared when I accidentally hit on her, but then I saw your face and I was just like...whoa. You know?"

"Wait, what? You hit on her?" Anna would have been more concerned if she didn't already know Rapunzel was straight. Still, that didn't explain the weird feeling in her stomach.

"What? Pssh, no! I called her attractive that's all, it was strictly platonic." Rapunzel leaned forward and propped her chin up with her hand. "Now, are you gonna tell me?"

Anna bit her lip and questioned how much she actually wanted to say to her best friend. They were roommates in college, and they told each other everything, but this was…Elsa was something entirely different. "It's complicated.", was all she could say at first, "You know how I don't like to talk to you about high school that much? Well this sort of has something to do with that."

Her friend nodded understandably, Anna hoped she would put two and two together without having to say any more. Despite the fact that she was two frozen margaritas in with a third already set down between them.

The leather bar stool groaned as Rapunzel reached over to grab another one. "Huh, so you knew Ms. Andersen back in high school then?"

"You could say that." Anna replied while noticeably refusing to make eye contact. There were an awful lot of people on the dance floor doing less dancing and more- well, not dancing.

"But you've never brought this up until now, so I guess that means you two aren't on very good terms."

"You could also say that." That wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

But Rapunzel, the reincarnate of Sherlock Holmes that she had to be, wasn't finished. She took a long sip from her drink and continued, "But you couldn't have hated her guts or else you would just be venting to me all the time about what a total bitch she was or is." Alcohol made her a bit…slurry. "So that means you two were on good terms."

"That's…true too." Anna laughed, nervously running her hands through her hair, "Why are you always so deductive when you're drunk?"

"Bah I'm not drunk yet, don't be silly." Rapunzel downed the last of her third drink and waved the bartender down for one more, she was really pushing the limit for a work night.

"I' don't think you would have reacted the way you did unless something happened between you two, something big."

Anna couldn't tell if the thumping sound was the music or her hear. When the fourth drink came, she quickly snatched it away.

"Hey! That's mine!" Rapunzel whined as she reached for the drink.

"No 'Zel I think you've had enough; we have jobs we need to be sober for remember?" Anna pushed the drink farther and farther away until even she couldn't reach it.

She wasn't going to deal with a hungover Rapunzel at work tomorrow, and snatching it away might force them to talk about something else.

"Not fair, I know my limit!"

"Yeah and so do I! That's why in college they called you-"

Rapunzel suddenly gasped and her slightly glazed-over eyes lit up, "I know what happened between you two!"

Well, so much for talking about something else.

Anna froze up, the only thing left working in her entire body was her brain. And even that was in full-on panic mode. Four years later, her deepest, darkest secret was going to be revealed by her best friend, the drunken detective.

"You…took Elsa's spot on your high school lacrosse team!"

Or maybe not.

Anna could have let out some fake sigh of relief and gone along with this silly revelation, but instead all she said was, "…what?"

"Yeah, it all makes sense now. Elsa was this big hotshot lacrosse player at your school, but then you came along and blew everyone away. The two of you worked together at first and were an unstoppable duo, but I don't know if you were just way better than her, or if she got injured or something, but the coach decided to pick you over her for the starting lineup or something. And that caused a rift in your friendship and that's why you never talk about it because you feel guilty about the whole thing."

Anna could have smiled and nodded, but there was something gnawing at the pit of her stomach that made her want to tell the truth. It was one that she'd been holding on to for too long. "That's…none of that was even close to being right."

"Really?" Rapunzel said with disappointment. "Not even the lacrosse part?"

"Do you think I played lacrosse just cause I'm a lesbian?" Anna would have been offended if that wasn't actually true, she was a damn good center.

"Well I mean if the shoe fits you know…" Rapunzel trailed off. As soon as Anna leaned in closer to see if she missed something she said, the blonde lunged for the margarita once more. Unfortunately, all she succeeded in doing was slipping off her stool and right into Anna's arms. "I'm not drunk I just slipped!"

"Doesn't matter, we should head out anyway." Anna groaned from the weight of the adult woman slumped in her arms. "We have to be up early tomorrow and I do not want to help sober you up on our second day of work."

Rapunzel grumbled but didn't protest. She leaned on Anna for support as the redhead lead them back to the car: a forest green sedan that Rapunzel nicknamed "Pascal". Anna helped her into the passenger seat and walked over to the driver side, taking a moment to herself.

Was this going to be her life now? Running a bakery and pretending that her ex-girlfriend wasn't her boss? She shook off those thoughts for now and stepped inside the car. Rapunzel was already dozing off.

In their senior year of college, they were able to afford to live in an apartment off-campus. It wasn't easy to find someplace affordable, close to school, and in a safe neighborhood, but eventually they did. Or at the very least they found a place that fit 80% of their criteria.

An apartment complex on the quiet side of West Arendelle opened up during their search. Even though it was just ten minutes down from Arendelle University, it was a bit pricier than they were hoping. Nonetheless, they took the risk, applied, and thankfully got accepted.

The large, two-bedroom apartment had everything they needed: separate bathrooms, office space for Rapunzel, and a big kitchen for Anna. Somehow the two made it work, even if they had to take on full-time jobs while still getting their degrees.

Eventually, once they stopped worrying about rent and paying for utilities and important stuff like that, they were able to splurge and decorate the place. Rapunzel's artistic flair clashed with Anna's odd mixture of practicality and tackiness, resulting in their living space looking like an eight-year old's art project.

Rapunzel painted the walls with vibrant sunny patterns, while Anna hung up an obnoxious amount of Christmas lights. Rapunzel organized the room and bathroom supplies, while Anna took ownership of the kitchen supplies. And while Rapunzel may have picked out the bedsheets- which created the most vivid and unexpected color palettes- Anna picked out the bedframes, or rather she convinced Rapunzel that they didn't need bedframes.

Was their apartment unique? Absolutely. Was it practical? Absolutely not.

Nonetheless, Anna admired the place they had spent so much time and effort on as she led Rapunzel to her room. The drinks had finally caught up with her, and the nap during the drive home made her incapable of walking by herself.

"…can walk just fine." Rapunzel mumbled.

"Oh, sure you can. That's why I'm dragging your drunk butt to your room, because you can walk just fine." Anna pulled Rapunzel to the side before she knocked into a large stuffed bear/couch named Barry, for a second she even thought about just dropping her onto him for the night. "You need me to change you too? Or are you gonna be okay with that part?"

"I…change me…fine."

"Dunno what that means, I'm just gonna assume that you said you're fine."

Walking down the hallway to Rapunzel's room felt like walking through mud with sandals on, but eventually they got inside and Anna was able to lead her friend right to her bed. Despite her "confidence" to get dressed just fine, Rapunzel passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Anna sighed, "You stinker, what would you do without me?" She took off Rapunzel's shoes and pants and pulled the blanket over her, hearing what sounded like a "Thank you".

She slipped out of the room, closing the door quietly on her way out, and walked towards her own. After stopping to pet Barry, Anna realized she hadn't checked her phone since they had walked into the night club. That was when she saw the four missed calls and voicemails from her mom.

"Oh shoot!" Anna quickly unlocked her phone and called her right back; even this late at night, she still picked up after the third ring.

"Anna, is everything okay? Did you just get off work?"

"Sorry mom, we went out for drinks after we got done for the day and I forgot to check my phone the whole time." Anna continued the walk to her room. "And before you ask, I only drank half a glass and I made sure 'Zel didn't drink too much either." She didn't, but saying so would have made her mom even more worried.

"Well that's good to hear, but are you sure it was a good idea to go out drinking on a Monday night?"

Anna turned the light on in her room and plopped onto her purple-lilied bedspread. "I know, but don't worry this was just a one-time thing to celebrate the first official day at our bakery. We're not going to be doing this all the time."

"Alright I trust you." Her mother's tone changed once she got the reassuring answer she needed, she went from being concerned to curious in an instant. "Sooooo how did your first day go? Am I gonna see my baby girl on TV anytime soon?"

Anna chuckled, "No mom, not yet, but today was still amazing. I didn't expect so many people to be there on opening day, but we were still able to survive. It's insane how many people need bread on a Monday afternoon. I hope I can keep up if we somehow get even more customers, you know? But anyway yeah, everything was just…yeah it was great."

Anna could tell right away that she slipped up, her hesitation meant that any second now…

"Anna, what happened today?"

She sighed, someday she would learn that her mom had ears like a hawk and could pick up on the smallest of her insecurities, even through the phone. There was no point in lying, and ignoring her mom would end with a surprise visit from the woman herself. In other words, there was no getting out of this. "Mom I…I saw Elsa today."

Her mom gasped, "Oh dear, what happened?"

The question was vague, but Anna still knew what she meant. "I heard 'Zel talking to someone and I assumed it was just a customer, but then she came and pulled me out to the front and that's when I saw her. I froze up, mom, when I saw Elsa I just froze up. I thought four years would be enough but I guess it wasn't; all I could think of was that it had to be a nightmare and that I'd wake up pretty soon."

"And how did Elsa look when she saw you?"

"She looked like…I don't know. I couldn't really tell what she was thinking. Her face didn't give anything away." Once again: not a lie, but not the whole truth. Anna knew what was going through Elsa's head, what she felt; behind that stone-faced look was pure, pent-up anger. "Mom I could use some help here."

"Do you want me to come over?"

Anna shook her head but appreciated the gesture. "No, I just…what do you think I should do?"

"Well I don't know honey, what do you want to do?"

"I don't knoooooow." Anna groaned. "I mean I guess it was kind of stupid for me to think I could avoid her for the rest of my life, but I don't know if I have the guts to actually face her. I want to make things right between us, I want to apologize for what happened, but I'm scared of what she's going to say. I really don't know what I want to do."

"Sweetie, I don't think that's entirely true. I think you know exactly what you want to do."

"What do you mean?"

"You just said so yourself, you want to apologize and make things right between you two. And I say you should go for it."

Her mother, as always, was right. Unbeknownst to herself, Anna did confess what it is she really wanted. "But what if she doesn't accept my apology?"

"Then make her, let her know that you genuinely want to bury the hatchet. just don't give up until you two are finally good again. Or, you know, better than good."

Anna felt a sense of dread rush over her, "What are you trying to say, mom?"

"Anna, you haven't been on a proper date in four years, heck I've never even heard you mention another girl in four years. I think you know what I'm trying to say."

"No, I don't think I do."

Her mom giggled, "I'm saying that you still have feelings for her."

"I do not!…" Anna stopped and let out a calming breath before continuing, "Mom that's absurd, I couldn't possibly…I mean Elsa probably doesn't…I mean I'm not…you're wrong!"

She could feel her mom's smugness through the phone, "Deny it all you want but you know I'm right. Now come on, it's very late and you have work tomorrow remember?"

Anna pouted, "I was supposed to say that."

Her mother laughed, "Goodnight Anna, get some rest and be the best okay? And try to find a way to talk to Elsa, no matter what it takes."

Anna felt a wave of calmness run through her, her mom would always say that when she was a kid, and it never failed to make her feel better about all the challenges and problems ahead of her. "Goodnight mom", she said with a smile before hanging up.

The end of the phone call capped off one of Anna's most interesting days of her life. She had a lot to think about, but once she turned off the light, she decided to let those thoughts rest at least until the morning.

There was nothing she could do about her problems tonight, and there wasn't anything she could do about them tomorrow if she didn't get some sleep.

A/N: For the record, no Rapunzel's last name isn't "Holmes". That was a joke. I haven't figured out a last name for her yet but I want it to be something fitting, and not generic. Something like…Smith.

You know, something unique.