Sabato; Mezzanotte

Chocolate made damn near everything better. That was a truth that Elsa knew on a very deep level; one that was practically genetic, and therefore one she had grown up with. The recipe she was currently seeing about working through was one that her grandmother had originally taught her when she was a child, and by now, she had been through the process often enough that she could about complete it with her eyes closed. The hardest part was finding dark chocolate since Anna clearly preferred the milk variety, but a little searching revealed what she needed, and it wasn't long before she had her ingredients and the few tools she needed lined up on the counter.

Almost, at least, she considered, and sent a glance towards the bathroom door as she carefully chopped the chocolate into smaller, more manageable pieces. She hadn't been able to find the kind of milk that she preferred to use (what Anna stocked was lighter), but that was easily enough fixed by adjusting the amount of milk versus the amount of cream. There were other things where she had to make minor adjustments – differences between the products available in the US and the ones she had learned to use back home – but she had been in this country long enough and completed this particular recipe enough times that she knew how to make a product that was at least very close to the original.

Elsa knew several recipes from memory, and thanks to her family and her region of origin, a good number of them either included or were based on chocolate. The downside was that she could do her favorites without conscious thought, which in turn meant that her mind invariably turned to other things as she worked. She didn't need to watch for the sugar, milk, cream and corn starch to mix properly because she could feel that the mixture was right through the amount of effort it took for her to move the whisk around the bowl. She didn't need to concentrate to determine if the taste was right, because her brain knew the right taste well enough to catalog it without any actual thought involved.

So instead, she kept glancing towards the bathroom door. There were three glances while she poured the finished mixture into a saucepan and another while she put the empty bowl in the sink. Rinsing the bowl out was two more glances, and while she washed it... well, she lost count.

The water in the bathroom hadn't stopped running yet, and although the minutes that had passed barely qualified for a shower of average length, worrying was something that Elsa was very, very good at.

Especially over nothing, which - she considered as she gently whisked the warming mixture and frowned at it - she dearly hoped that this was. It wasn't that she didn't believe Anna. It was more that... well, that people had a tendency to say what they wanted to be true, and sometimes confused that for what actually was true.

I'm fine; I swear.

At the same time, if she was reading the signs correctly and Anna was a psychology student, Elsa was probably safe in assuming that she knew the pitfalls of miscommunication better than many others. That she wouldn't lie if she could help it; at least not about anything important.

And this – them – that was important to Anna, too.

She hoped.

Elsa sighed and banished that train of thought with a minute shake of her head; re-centering her focus on the thickened mix in the saucepan and guiding the whisk through it a few more times before turning off the stove and moving the pot to a cold spot. That done, she found a spoon and set about folding the chopped chocolate into the mixture; something that she did need to focus on in order to make sure that the end result came out as smooth and evenly mixed as she wanted it to.

"Whoa." Behind her, she belatedly picked up on the sound of a door closing softly. "Something smells... absolutely incredible."

"Flattery will get you everywhere." Her voice was warm and relaxed on purpose, though the chuckle was as genuine as they came because she had never in her life heard a human being drool in actual words before. At least not over food.

The DVD menu was still cheerfully looping and casting colored rays of light across the room, but the music was low enough that it didn't quite drown out the soft sound of bare feet. Elsa didn't turn away from her work, but she did sneak a glance out of the corner of her eye when there was movement in her peripheral vision; enough that she could quickly scan Anna as she approached and make note of the distinct lack of tension around her eyes and mouth, as well as the way in which the fiery hair now fell in loose waves around her shoulders, and the unconcerned display of far more skin than had previously been the case.

Cargo shorts and a tank top was a perfectly acceptable way to dress, Elsa firmly reminded her suddenly purring body, and she had certainly seen Anna in less, even if she – at the time – hadn't really had the chance to study the freckles that extended from her shoulders down the length of her arms in increasingly dispersed spatters. Thinking about doing just that was... definitely distracting. Enough that her attempt to un-distract herself took enough of her focus that she completely missed the fact that Anna was speaking, and had to give her head a little shake to clear it. "Sorry, what?"

Anna – who was now standing close enough that Elsa could just barely feel the heat of her body – chuckled. "I asked what you're making," she repeated kindly, and peered over Elsa's shoulder with a lift of her brows. "Aside from the fact that it apparently contains enough chocolate to be fatal."

"Not quite," Elsa demurred, and smiled as she slowly stirred the mixture. "How are you feeling?"

The question was appreciated, she guessed, based on the soft press of softer lips to her cheek. "Better, thanks," Anna told her; warm hands settling lightly on the sides of Elsa's waist and a chin coming to rest on her shoulder. "How do you ask that in Italian? Come sta?"

"Mm, that's probably closer to 'how are you'," Elsa mused, and felt her heart give a little flip at the realization that Anna had apparently been reading up. "And come sta is the polite version; you'd use that with a stranger, or your boss. With people you're closer to-" Her gaze dropped to the arms that now wound loosely around her middle, and her lips twitched. "- you would say come stai."

At the edge of her vision, she could make out the narrowing of the pale eyes. "See, that's what I have most trouble with, when it comes to other languages," Anna decided wryly. "The subtleties; rules that no one ever mention, but which still mean so much when it comes to how you address some people, but not others."

"Oh, of course." Elsa quirked a eyebrow. "English has no such thing. Anyone could greet, say, the President, with How's it hangin'? and no one would so much as blink."

Anna blinked twice, and then snickered. "Yeah, okay. Fair point."

"Thank you." Elsa turned her head enough that she could brush her lips against one freckled cheek. "Care for a taste?"

The question made Anna's eyes absolutely light up in response, and Elsa only barely managed to swallow a grin as she reached for a fresh spoon-

-and found her wrist caught between warm fingers, and the one she'd used herself stolen away.

"My tongue has been in your mouth," Anna offered by way of wry explanation as she stepped around to Elsa's side and dipped the spoon back into the casserole. "I don't think we gotta worry about sharing a sp- ooooooh, my God." She'd only barely tasted the thick drop that was escaping over the edge of the utensil, and Elsa felt her eyebrows jerk up significantly when even that was enough to have the redhead actually leaning against the counter.

Well, then. Chocolate was clearly something of a cure-all where Anna was concerned, and Elsa found herself making a definite note of that, too.

"This..." Anna was giving the opposite wall a very intense, very concentrated look as she sucked the spoon clean, and then tapped it against her own chin. "This is not hot chocolate," she eventually decided. "This is a culinary orgasm."

Elsa was currently biting her lip so hard that she was sure she was going to draw blood, and she brought one hand up to scratch her nose in an effort to distract herself from the guffawing laughter that dearly wanted to burst free. It didn't help, so she scrubbed a hand over her face instead and – when she chanced a peek at Anna – hoped that her expression didn't look as pained as it felt.

It probably did, because she was getting a very droll look from those pale eyes, and Elsa shrugged her shoulders even as she made a helpless little noise into her own hand.

"You can laugh, you dork," Anna sighed.

So Elsa did, and got a spoonful of chocolate to the nose for her trouble.

"Hey!" Anna's aim was startlingly accurate, and try as she might, even Elsa's best side-step still landed a fresh glob on her shoulder. She did manage to dodge the swipe of two chocolate-coated fingertips, at least. "At this rate, I'm going to need a shower, too!"

"Hm." That made her attacker still, and count on her fingers. "You. Naked. Wet." Anna settled the spoon back in her mouth and squinted at the ceiling, then shrugged her shoulders. "I bfail to shee de ishue," she decided before removing the spoon again with a faint 'pop' of her lips and a lift of her eyebrows. "Remind me to hide the towels."

"Cute." Elsa leaned one hip against the counter as she cleared the chocolate from her face. "Would you like a cup for that, or are you just going to eat it directly out of the casserole?"

"I would if I had to," was the easy response, alongside a half-grin as Anna reached up – with her clean hand, thankfully – and wiped away a small spatter that had escaped Elsa's own fingers. "Seriously; this stuff is amazing."

"Always glad to see another convert to proper hot chocolate," Elsa noted. Her cheek made her have to duck another swipe, which she did with an amused smirk and the wag of a single finger. "Careful; I haven't given you the recipe."

"So?"

"So." She caught the hand by the wrist when Anna lunged for her again, and chuckled at the playful scowl. "If you want to have this again, I suggest you be nice to me at least until I do." Pause, and a slow drag of her lips over Anna's skin that let her gather up some of the still-warm chocolate and made the younger woman draw in an audible breath. "Which will probably take a while, if your current behavior is any indication."

"My behav-" Anna's mouth shut with a faint click of her teeth before she finished speaking, though Elsa allowed that it probably had something to do with the fact that she'd just sucked the tip of one, chocolate-coated finger into her own mouth.

"That… isn't fair," came the half-whimpered, half-groaned observation a few moments later, to which Elsa shrugged her shoulders as she turned the hand she held over to examine it for any further stains.

"No," she replied simply, and somehow - somehow - managed to rein in her smirk when Anna actually growled in reply.

"Brat," the redhead groused. "You're lucky you make such good hot chocolate."

Now that, Elsa couldn't stop herself from laughing at. "Oh, really?" She gave the hand in her own a light tug, and God, it was so easy to curl her arms around Anna's waist; to duck her head just enough for their lips to brush, and to feel the motion of the smile that met her halfway. "And I suppose that's my only redeeming feature, hm?"

"Well, maybe not," Anna allowed, and there was the newly familiar warmth of fingers lacing behind her back. "You do also make for a pretty decent backrest."

"I live to serve," Elsa returned dryly. "This isn't persuading me to hand over the recipe any sooner, by the way."

"That's fine," was the amused answer. "One more excuse for you to come over, y'know? Or for me to visit you, if that's what it takes."

True, Elsa privately considered, and certainly not a brand of reasoning that she was about to argue with.

"But..." Anna extracted herself from their loose embrace, and Elsa only barely managed to restrain herself from grumpily grabbing onto her top and pulling her back in. "I guess I should at least try to return the favor, since you were nice enough to introduce me to the most sinful drink known to man. Or woman."

"Oh?" She watched with a slight, curious cant of her head as Anna pulled open the small freezer, but was unable to see exactly what was removed from it since the redhead's body was blocking her view.

"Mmhm." There was the soft clink of a plate being set down on the counter. "Could you get me two spoons, please?" Anna requested, with her shoulders bunching a little as she pulled the lid off of what Elsa now recognized as a tub of ice cream. "Big and small. And a fork."

Now she was definitely curious - not to mention a little confused about where the fork fit in - so Elsa did as asked and retrieved both a fork and a tablespoon from the top drawer, as well as a teaspoon that wasn't currently sitting in a casserole half-filled with thick chocolate.

"Thanks." Anna accepted the implements with a smile when Elsa got close enough to hand them over, and then proceeded to… well, do whatever it was that she was intending to, Elsa supposed, though exactly what that was, she couldn't quite tell even as she watched. She started with the tablespoon, and used that to dig out two large, roughly round balls of ice cream, which she then proceeded to round more properly with the teaspoon. Then - when the first two balls had been stacked on the plate next to her - came a third, much more oblong sphere which was formed and smoothed in much the same way. That shape stayed on the big spoon for longer though, and it was here that Anna set aside the teaspoon (popped it into her own mouth, actually) and used the tines of the fork to deftly and quickly carve a wide semi-circle into it while her chosen medium was still hard enough for her to work with.

She did leave in one large chunk, which she then easily shaped further until the whole thing mostly resembled a buck-toothed grin.

"It's a snowman," Elsa noted a touch dumbly a few moments later; leaning on the counter on one hand as she watched Anna work with remarkable dexterity.

"Yup." Tanned fingers carefully pressed two small, round chocolates into place to serve as the eyes. "Well... technically I guess it's an ice cream man, but that's more fitting for summer anyway, right?"

"Right." Because why not? It was certainly the first time that Elsa had ever seen anyone craft a snowman from ice cream – particularly at this speed, though the comfortable temperature in the apartment probably didn't leave much choice in the matter – and she wagered that if she ever had imagined such a thing herself, she probably wouldn't have expected the flavor of choice to be Lunar Cheesecake. "Did you come up with this around Halloween, by any chance?"

That earned her a little laugh. "No, but that's not a bad idea. He does look kinda zombie-ish like this," Anna mused. "You think it would be possible to maybe mix this with... Hm." A brief pause while she placed a few more small chocolates as buttons. "What's a flavor that has some red in it? Triple Grape, maybe? That could look sorta gory."

"Probably," she agreed. "Not exactly ideal for giving to trick-or-treaters, though."

"No. But he'd still make a nice, spooky dessert." Anna gave her a wink over one, bare shoulder, and then neatly twirled in place as she held the plate aloft with a flourish. "Ta-daah! Olaf the First!"

It was, Elsa idly reflected, the goofiest looking zombie-snowman that she had ever seen. Though, granted, that wasn't saying much, and especially not if she took the whole crafted-from-ice-cream variable into consideration. It was, however, curiously adorable, which was in no way diminished by its maker's crooked grin, or the playful sparkle in those pale eyes.

"The first out of...?" she wondered. Her tone was teasing, but she felt her own expression sober when Anna's did the same, and there was an oddly serious glint in the look she was getting now, even if the steady affection in it never so much as wavered.

"Out of however many you want," Anna responded easily, though there was – unless Elsa was very much mistaken – a slight tint to her cheeks as she set down the small plate, and then turned away entirely under the pretense of digging out a spoon.

Elsa's fingers closed around the spoon that had been resting on the counter the entire time that Anna had been working, and she focused on the sensation of the cool metal warming against her skin. It was... a little difficult to breathe, after that, but in a good way. Staying on her feet was also taking more effort than normal, and she took stock of her own body and wondered mainly if this... if this was what it was supposed to feel like; this rapid, almost dizzying shift from warm familiarity to scorching passion to stomach-clenching emotion that all seemed to happen between one breath and the next.

Mostly, it felt as if she was walking across a tightrope, Elsa mused as she turned the spoon over and studied the way that the metal glittered in the warm lighting. Blindfolded and a few hundred feet in the air; probably above something hard and spiky, and in some very severe winds. Exhilarating, certainly, but at the same time-

"This is kinda scary." A pair of bare, tanned feet and shins entered her field of vision, and when she lifted her head enough that she could see Anna nibbling at her own lip, Elsa nodded once (though her choice of descriptor would probably have been closer to 'terrifying'). "Why is that?"

"Because it feels right?" Elsa half-answered, half-asked, and put the spoon aside before leaning back against the counter and curling her arms around herself. "I think that perhaps it's-" She dropped her gaze and cleared her throat softly. "- because it's so... easy. Comfortable, but... at the same time it's as if everything is happening entirely too fast." A low hum of what she took to be wry agreement reached her ears, so Elsa continued. "It mainly feels as if I'm-"

"Waiting for the other shoe to drop?" Anna's hands were warm where they settled against her skin, and gently pried her arms free before letting their fingers twine between them. "Like maybe this is all a little too easy?" A pause while Elsa nodded, and then a soft, almost breathless little laugh. "I mostly feel like I took a flying leap off the Brooklyn Bridge with some kind of rope tied to my ankles. Only I have no idea if it's the right kind of rope, or if it's short enough that I won't end up faceplanting in the East River." There were palms sliding slowly up her arms now, and when those palms eventually settled on her shoulders, Elsa shifted her own hold until her fingers hooked loosely behind the small of the redhead's back. "So at least we can freak out together, if that helps."

"I'm not freaking out," Elsa protested, but felt the additional heat in her cheeks when Anna simply quirked an eloquent eyebrow at her in response. "Alright. I'm not freaking out much," she corrected, and laced her fingers together a little tighter; until Anna's arms were circling her shoulders and the redhead was leaning against her. "And it helps," she then admitted more softly when their foreheads touched and she could make out the faint tension in the skin around Anna's eyes. "Actually, just being around you helps, though I'm definitely stressing over it when I have time to think. I genuinely cannot control this, and that terrifies me."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I am so glad to hear that." A slow exhale warmed the lower half of her face, and Elsa watched long, dark lashes curl gently against sun-kissed skin as the pale eyes slipped shut and Anna slumped against her. "Because this is making my vital organs do somersaults, and it would really suck to be alone in that."

"You're not," she promised softly, and drew idle lines over Anna's back in exchange for a low hum. "But it does all feel a little-"

"-crazy," Anna agreed, and cracked one eye back open as she scrunched up her nose. "Case in point: we're already finishing each other's-

"-sandwiches?"

"Dork." That earned her a light headbutt even as Anna laughed, and the sensation of those soft fingers slipping over the backs of her shoulders combined with the warm weight of her body until Elsa was all but ready to fall asleep exactly where she was. "That's what I was gonna say."

"Wasn't that the point?" Elsa wondered, and kept her expression as innocent as possible when the pale eyes narrowed at her.

"You're in a very playful mood," Anna decided after a few moments of curious study. "And yes, I'm basing that on a grand total of, what? Six hours actually spent in the same room with you?" Discounting sex, obviously, Elsa deduced, or the number would be higher. "You are, though; aren't you?"

Elsa pursed her lips, but still couldn't quite hold back her smile when she brushed a few, errant locks of burnished hair behind Anna's ear, and felt her lean into the touch. "I don't think I ever asked exactly what your major was, but I'm going to assume that it has something to do with psychology."

"Sports psychology endgame, but yeah." A crooked grin, and a friendly scratch to the back of her neck. "Don't change the subject."

"Of course not." Elsa nipped at the tip of a freckled nose, and smiled at the resulting giggle. "Yes, I suppose I am," she then admitted.

"Are you usually this way?" Anna's voice – and expression – was very carefully neutral, and Elsa studied her for all of one second before mentally tacking 'with the people you sleep with' onto the end of the question.

"No." Jealousy was – at least to her – flattering, but she wasn't about to let it be caused by Anna thinking that she was just one more in a long line. Relationships certainly wasn't a subject that Elsa counted herself as any kind of an expert in, but the amount of toxicity that would be inviting was patently obvious, and better nipped in the bud. "As I mentioned earlier, I'm comfortable with you." Slowly, she traced a line along the upper curve of one copper eyebrow, and then let the tip of her finger continue down the slope of Anna's nose. "With you," she repeated for emphasis, and gave the tip of that nose a little tap for good measure while holding the now slightly wide-eyed gaze. "Alright?"

They were close enough for her to feel the slight hitch in Anna's breathing; close enough that she could see the flicker of emotion in her eyes, and – when she let the lone fingertip glide lower and trace a set of soft lips – could pick up on the irregularity in her exhales.

"Yeah," the redhead whispered a little hoarsely, and Elsa could feel her fingers tightening rhythmically in the fabric that covered her own shoulders. "That- that's alright."

"I know that we haven't..." She paused, and chewed her own, lower lip for a moment as she tried to gather her thoughts. "... haven't exactly talked about what this is." Briefly, she gestured between the two of them with one hand, even though they were too close for either of them to actually see the motion. "And it's probably fairly obvious that I tend to keep things, um, simp- hey." Her fingers were curling under Anna's chin and gently nudging her head back up a split-second after it started to drop, and Elsa waited until she could catch those eyes with her own again. "Listen to me, alright? I've had my share of casual sex; that's worked well for me for a long time and I have no issues with admitting to it, nor am I going to pretend to be ashamed of it. However." She canted her own head forward a fraction, and let her hand drift up until it was cupping one warm cheek. "None of them – not one – ever managed to touch me like you have; physically or otherwise."

"Anna." The pale eyes had closed, and Elsa waited for them to open again before she continued, because this was something that she needed Anna to know as much as she suspected that the other woman needed to hear it. "I haven't taken anyone into my bedroom since you were there. And just for the record, I haven't spent time in anyone else's either." A faint twitch of her lips, then, as she tried to lighten the mood a little. "Well... aside from yours, a few hours ago. Yes, this scares me beyond all good sense, and no, I really don't have a clue how to go about this," she admitted softly. "But I will still do whatever I can to make it work."

Anna made a soft, little sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a hiccup, and Elsa didn't resist when the redhead pressed impossibly closer. Instead, she just held her as tightly as she could while she let one hand stroke the back of the fiery head, and gave a silent sigh of relief that she'd apparently managed to say the right things.

"God," she then breathed, and rested her cheek against Anna's temple. "I think that was the most emotionally draining thing I've done all year."

A soft, wan chortle against her shoulder. "Tell me about it," Anna muttered. "And it wasn't even an argument."

"Oh, please let's not go there," Elsa groaned, and felt the twitch of a grin against the side of her own throat. "I can barely sum up the strength to say goodnight and go home at this point; let alone imagine what it's going to be like to actually have us upset with each other for whatever reason."

"Ungh." The hold around her shoulders tightened, and a sigh warmed her skin before Anna shifted enough that the side of her head – rather than her face – was now resting on Elsa's shoulder, which allowed her voice to be that much more audible. "Yeah, that's going to suck," she mused, and Elsa could feel the faint flutter of long eyelashes against her skin. "I think we'll be okay, though. I mean, we haven't driven each other crazy yet."

"Mm." She stroked the cotton-covered back under her hands slowly. "True. As you yourself pointed out, however, we've also only spent a grand total of less than a day in each other's company."

"Well, yeah; that's kinda my point," Anna countered, and the copper head lifted until they were face to face again. "I mean, we-" Pause, and a soft, somewhat frustrated sound. "Elsa, I literally have no boundaries with you. That's not normal for two people who've spent this little time together. We're supposed to be at least ten flavors of awkward when it comes to both touching and talking at this point, and we're not. We were," she continued. "Earlier today, we were. For not even an hour. You know?"

She knew. It was, as Anna had said, in everything from the ease with which they could keep their conversations going to the complete lack of hesitance when it came to physical contact. The latter especially was unusual for Elsa herself, who tended to prefer to be touched as little as possible. Except for where Anna was concerned, apparently, since the heavens knew that they'd barely been two feet apart since the moment they'd met up earlier. It had nothing – or at least very little – to do with carnal desires, and everything to do with the simple, yet curiously addictive peace that stole over her when she had Anna in her arms; that quieted her at-times whirling mind and made her want to do the most ridiculous things, such as fall to her knees and pledge her eternal devotion to this poor woman that she barely even knew.

"It's easy," she murmured instead, and wished that she had other words to describe it than ones she'd already used a half-dozen times in the last quarter hour. "And again, comfortable. Almost as if-"

"- we've known each other a lot longer." Anna's fingers were picking at the shoulder of Elsa's t-shirt, and her eyes were firmly trained on that. "Like-" A pause, and then a slight lilt to her voice when it resumed that made it sound like she was singing moreso than speaking. "- old friends who've just met."

"Where's that from?" she wondered, and felt the body in her arms move in another, short laugh.

"Apparently yet another classic movie that I need to introduce you to," was the amused answer, with Anna's lips pressing a brief kiss to her cheek and a single finger hooking in the neckline of her t-shirt. "Please tell me you've heard of The Muppets."

Elsa rolled her eyes. "I'm not quite that out of the loop, thank you."

"If you were, you'd be airb- hey! That tickles!"

"And you're the one being a brat, now." She was smiling, however – just a little - when she relented and laced her fingers behind Anna's back again. What, she wondered, had happened to the version of her that stiffened when someone outside her immediate family laid as much as a brief touch to her shoulder? "So it's from a Muppet movie?"

"The Muppet Movie," Anna corrected, with her knuckles warm against Elsa's skin as she now picked at a loose thread at the edge of her sleeve. The not-quite-blue gaze was still firmly focused on the motions of Anna's own hand, and her voice was soft almost to the point of being hesitant. "There's this scene in the desert because they just- well, that doesn't matter, but Gonzo sings this song, and I always liked it a lot. Growing up, y'know. I remember hoping when I was a kid that maybe that's what it would feel like when I fell-" There, she obviously stopped herself, and cleared her throat while her fingers slipped around the end of Elsa's sleeve in search of more loose threads. "Anyway, I still like the song. Kinda childish, I guess."

"Not really." Elsa decided that her own voice sounded impressively calm for how fast her heart was currently beating. "Humans, we- we relate to... the most random things sometimes, but I don't think we ever do so without having a reason for it. We dream." She watched Anna nod, and let her own fingers trace patterns between the spatter of freckles on one, bare shoulder. "Mostly when we're still children, but I think the happiest adults are probably the ones who don't forget how to dream."

"That's a pretty good philosophy to have," Anna murmured, and let her head come to rest against Elsa's shoulder again.

"Mm." She trailed her fingers through Anna's hair, because it was... there and warm and felt like silk under her touch and oh God, she was in so much trouble here. "Especially if you manage to live by it." There was a few moments of peaceful silence, with fiery hair slipping between her fingers and steady, soothing exhales against her collarbone, and then Elsa herself took a breath. "Do you remember any of it?"

"Hunh?" Anna actually jerked a little in surprise when she spoke, and maybe - just maybe - Elsa wasn't the only one who relaxed to the point of wanting to sleep when they were in each other's arms. "Say what?"

"Gonzo's song." She managed to hide her smile against the top of Anna's head, and felt her nestle closer when she gave her lower back a gentle scratch. "Do you remember it?"

A soft, wry chuckle. "I've known every last word to that song since I was seven years old," Anna told her. "Why? Did you… want me to sing some of it?"

Elsa did, in a strange, almost desperate sort of way. The exact reason eluded her grasp, but she was sure that it at least had something to do with what Anna said about the song, and even moreso with what she had stopped herself from saying.

"Yes," she murmured into the copper hair, and tightened her hold on the warm body in her arms. "Please."

"Um..." There was the soft sound of Anna clearing her throat followed by the even softer one of her swallowing, and the sensation of oddly hesitant fingers tracing over her collarbone. "This looks familiar; vaguely familiar. Almost unreal yet; it's too soon to feel yet. Close to my soul, and yet so far away. I'm going to go back there someday."

Whether it was intention or happenstance, Elsa didn't know, but at 'back there', Anna's fingers tapped against her chest; twice, and almost directly over her heart.

You already are. The words were on the tip of her tongue and trembling to be spoken, but still, she bit them back. It was too intense – too soon – for that level of honesty, no matter how true it was. The surge of emotion they inspired in each other was already threatening to bowl them both over, and Elsa felt the dire need to exercise caution; to keep the level of intensity at a manageable level, if only to ensure that she didn't lose her footing. So instead of speaking, she slipped her fingers under Anna's chin and nudged until she could catch them with her own; until she could taste the sharp inhale, and feel the way Anna's fingers curled in the fabric that covered her body as she pressed closer with a soft sound of encouragement.

Here, too, was the potential for intensity, and Elsa did her level best to keep the contact between them as light and unassuming as she could, even if they somehow ended up going from Anna leaning on her to perching on the counter with her legs hooking around Elsa's waist. Kissing Anna was something that Elsa only adored more whenever she was granted the privilege of doing so, and while this level of physical closeness did a very good job of making her blood sing in her veins, she was perfectly content to feel the warmth of Anna's skin under her palms; to taste the slow sighs that she could provoke by stroking her fingers over the dip of Anna's spine, and to let fade every sensation but that of Anna's lips on hers, and the slide of warm fingers into her hair.

There was, of course, a moment where their kissing teetered on the brink of turning into more; when Anna's legs tightened enough to bring their bodies flush and Elsa was almost painfully aware of how smooth all that skin was; how fresh Anna smelled from her recent shower, how fine and soft her hair was and how she tasted even more of chocolate now to the point where her senses almost overloaded on it, and God, Elsa wanted to give in.

Even so, she didn't; knowing somewhere that as much as Anna was clearly able to get herself out of the slight funk she'd ended up in, she herself wanted to be able to help with that. So she slowed their kisses and eased her touches; focusing all her attention of the brush of Anna's breath against her face and the soothing warmth of the body in her arms, until she felt Anna relax while her own heartbeat settled, and she could nudge the fiery head back with the light press of her lips against the skin below Anna's jaw.

"Easy," she whispered there, and felt Anna take a long, slow breath before her head dropped to Elsa's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for things to get so-"

"- heated?" Anna's voice was husky, but amused. "'S okay. Not like it doesn't take two to tango." Her fingers stroked slowly at the back of Elsa's neck, and there was the slow slide of a cheek against her temple. "I was matching you pace for pace, in case you didn't notice."

"I noticed," Elsa chuckled, and pressed a kiss to the hollow of a warm shoulder.

"How about you?"

"Hm?" The soft-spoken question only barely caught her attention even though it was right by her ear, and it really was ridiculous just how far she could sink into this state of utter, fuzzy-headed contentment simply by having Anna's nails scratching soothing lines between her shoulder blades. "How about me as in, was I matching you?"

"No," Anna's smile was soft against the side of her face. "How about you as in, did you ever forget how to dream?"

There was multiple layers to that question, Elsa realized, and hooked her fingers in the pockets of Anna's shorts as she considered the idea. But the answer... well, that could really only be one thing, if she wanted to give an honest one.

"Yes," she admitted, and closed her eyes when she felt a warm exhale wash over her ear. "But I think that I'm starting to remember."

"Yeah." Anna's laugh was a little shaky, and the hold around her shoulders tightened. "Me too," she sighed, and for several moments they leaned on each other in a peaceful silence that was broken only by the music from the DVD's menu restarting itself every now and then.

Idly, Elsa wondered how long that song would be stuck in her head for, and then promptly forgot all about it when there was the light brush of soft lips against the base of her jaw.

"Stay," came the low request, with gentle fingers combing through her hair and the warmth of Anna's forehead against her own. "Because I can't dig up the will to say goodnight to you, either."