With one last stroke of the brush, Elsa was finished.

Her eyes blinked back in the bathroom mirror, appraising the new additions to it. Despite her insistence on getting this all just so, she wasn't even that late; the party had only technically started about fifteen minutes ago. Judging by the volume it wasn't even in half swing yet.

Elsa made a face at the mirror, then giggled at how her whiskers wriggled when she did it. Between the little black nose, the dots flanking either side beneath it, and the long whiskers she'd drawn across her cheeks, Elsa was looking thoroughly feline. She didn't even have the ears on yet. The paws and the tail would help complete the look, and the little black dress...well, that wasn't really cat-like. It was part of the costume for a different reason. A reason she had been thinking about a lot more in the last couple of weeks.

This reason wasn't new, not if she was being honest, but waking up with it snuggled against her arm (even if it was drooling on her) had sent her thoughts about it into overdrive starting that snowy morning.

It was going to be a long time before she stopped thinking back to it. Light had woken her when dawn arrived, far, far sooner than she'd been happy with. If she'd been at home she'd have turned over and gone right back to sleep after having gotten so little of it. But Elsa hadn't been at home. Her bleary first look reminded her that she was at Anna's house.

With Anna. Who was on the couch with her. Asleep, with her hair all a mess, and having at some point in the night wrapped her arms around Elsa's left one in a hold Elsa couldn't immediately see how to escape from.

Elsa had never in her life felt warmer than in that moment. Fuzzy heat filled her from where Anna kept her arm trapped in her hold, frizzing out to all the rest of her. When Anna shifted, just slightly in response to those slight waking movements, Elsa froze in place completely so as to avoid any possible breath that might wake her. She was adorable.

Elsa wasn't nearly awake enough to know what to do about any of the situation.

She liked it. Damnit, she felt in her own heartbeat how she liked how Anna felt, holding on so tightly. Somewhere along the line she'd apparently lost the last, stubborn scraps of anger that had been pushing her away. Instead she was...interested? Intrigued? God, they were basically cuddling. She wanted it to continue so badly, even after Anna woke up, even once she'd have to do it on purpose instead of accident. She wanted it so badly that Elsa didn't have any idea where the physical part of it ended and the...the emotional part might begin.

Those cheeks, with all those freckles, were so inviting to pet, but Elsa didn't dare. She just stared, and thought. There was a streak running right through the middle of the girl that fascinated Elsa, and no matter how deeply red her cheeks were now she was dimly aware that any attempt to deny that fascination was doomed to catastrophic failure.

Anna somehow kept managing to force Elsa to have fun despite her better judgement. She was talented, and enthusiastic, and honestly drop-dead freaking gorgeous, and not nearly as much of a pain in the ass as she had been. Being adorably asleep and snuggling under that gigantic blanket was the straw that broke her denial's back.

I like her.

Of all the things that she didn't know how to handle, she knew how to handle that the least. So, as carefully as humanly possible, she had extricated herself from Anna's grasp and shamelessly fled home to fail utterly at sleeping any more in her own bed.

She knew that she was supposed to say something. Anything. She couldn't count on stumbling into more chances like that randomly, and so if she wanted more of it she was going to have to say it.

Which of course meant she spent the next few weeks studiously avoiding doing anything of the sort. For all she knew Anna was just the type who was comfortable being close like that. It didn't necessarily mean anything, right? Probably wasn't definitely. Maybe she wasn't even single. In any case, if Elsa was wrong she'd never be able to live with herself.

Besides, what would she even say? "Hey sleeping with you was kind of great we should do that again" wasn't really an option. And she'd spent her whole life failing to learn how to ask anyone out on a proper date. Overcoming that sort of momentum would be a monumental task. Making not a single effort towards starting wasn't really surprising in that context.

She was a total coward, and for those weeks she knew it. She'd never been so happy to get ambushed.

Elsa shifted her weight and bit her lip, standing lost in thought in her costume, gazing into space through the mirror. Goodness, was she happy about it.

Between Olaf's often rambling texts and the ramp-up in homemade Halloween decorations springing up next door, Elsa had developed a vague understanding that there was going to be a Halloween party, and that it was going to be a thing. A noisy thing, if the previous events were anything to judge by. It sounded like Olaf was expecting her to be there too, but he never actually made it clear that she was invited.

As it turned out, the sound of a pinecone hitting a window was remarkably distinctive. It was about a week and a half before the holiday, and Elsa was thirteen and a half pages deep in an essay about French gothic architecture. The thunk when it hit didn't make her jump like she would have before; she didn't even drop her book. Instead she simply looked up towards the drawn blinds, heart rate accelerating for a reason entirely unlike when she was startled before.

Only one person could possibly be out there. Elsa was beyond being surprised by her anymore, and had moved gladly on to being confused and excited all at the same time.

"Hey, studybutt!" Anna didn't wait for her to open the blinds before shouting, and Elsa hurried to open the window so as to forestall her from maintaining a volume that would invite the entire house into the conversation.

She whipped the curtains to the side. Despite a smile betraying it, Elsa feigned indifference, crossing her arms and coolly watching the redhead perched in the tree outside her window. Anna had her arm paused, half-raised and armed with another knobbly projectile. Elsa flicked her eyes from it, to Anna, and back again. Anna did the same. With both of them silently onlooking, Anna finished drawing her hand back, then lobbed it at the screen. It arced through the air, both their eyes following it, and spronged off the thin screen. Moments after it could be heard clattering on the concrete patio below. Silence followed.

They both waited a few seconds for the other to speak, Elsa with steady attention and unflappable demeanor versus Anna, who didn't appear to know quite what her next move ought to be. Only after she'd been given time to squirm a little did Elsa break the stalemate, as dry as could be.

"...studybutt?"

Anna glanced about, but when it was clear that no help was forthcoming from the pine needles around her she giggled, for all the world nervous despite her grinning. "Umm, yeah...I mean, I'm right, aren't I? You were doing some dumb homework?"

"Only if you consider architectural history to be dumb. I'm sure you wouldn't…" Elsa paused, shook her head, and sighed exaggeratedly. "There's no way I can finish that with a straight face, I'm convinced I'd bore you out of that tree before I reached the thesis statement."

Anna waved her hands frantically in front of her. "No, no, I'm sure you're right, the last thing I am here for is to actually listen about it, I just wanted to tease your butt about studying so much." She finished the sentence emphatically, nodding to herself. Elsa fought back an absurd urge to grin that Anna had indirectly mentioned her butt twice.

From the middle of that struggle another idea tumbled sideways into the foreground of her thoughts; Anna was wearing way too little for the temperature outside, just a ragged Depeche Mode tshirt and the same scuffed up chinos she had on the last time Elsa had seen her up in the tree. She'd heard her climbing before, before the winter rolled in, but hadn't looked yet out of embarrassment. But now that she was she couldn't help but think that Anna had to be freezing again, even if the snow has all melted within a week after the storm.

The dork was gonna risk frostbite again at this rate. Better to get her to the point, then.

"So, since I don't believe for a moment that your reason - well, only reason - for being here is to tease me, let's try again. Why were you throwing pinecones at my window?" She shifted to rest on her other foot, arms still crossed and gaze unrelenting. Hopefully it was properly imposing.

"Oh, right! I'm supposed to invite you to the party. The Halloween party. It's in about a week, on...err, on Halloween, obviously. You're invited!" Despite the flubbed delivery, Anna stuck the enthusiasm on the landing, beaming back. It was entirely too endearing for Elsa to resist fully, a smile creeping like an ivy tendril into her attempt to maintain a stern facade.

"You do remember what happened last time I showed up at one of your parties, right?" There was no force behind the challenge, partly because of the grin winning out wholesale as she said it.

"I thought about that! And I have a plan." She paused and waited.

Elsa bit. "What's your plan?"

Anna waggled her finger in front of her when she answered. "This time, and I think we can pull this off, this time we'll agree that neither of us will be an asshole." Her smirk was the sort of someone inordinately pleased with herself; Elsa's sigh in response was the sort best spent on the incurably ridiculous.

"You are a twerp, you know that? You have it down to an art." That was all bark and no bite and Elsa was, to be frank, enjoying it immensely. There was just something so satisfying about prodding at Anna this way.

"Thanks, I in fact do know that! Now, are you gonna come or not?" Despite a visible effort to suppress it a shiver ran through her.

Elsa knew already that she was going to say yes and that it wasn't close, but she was enjoying putting a show on too much to simply blurt it out. She shifted her weight back and forth, looking to Anna's side to put on the airs of making a difficult decision. 'Neither of us will be an asshole', honestly, what sort of plan was that? Anna could stew for a few seconds longer. Wait on Elsa tapping her foot slowly, tilting her head just so as she thought it through. Then, to top it all off…

"Yeah, sure." It was as casual and anticlimactic as she could make it. She left Anna waiting for the rest of the answer for a beat before sticking her tongue out.

"And you say I'm the twerp? Come on, that's it? Just 'sure'"? She grumbled too quietly to hear properly, appeared for a second to resign herself to that answer, then blurted out, "Grr, how do you manage that? You're not just messing with me, right? You'll be there?"

Elsa covered her giggle with her hand. "I'll be there, I promise. Wear a good costume, ok? Now, I'm going to get back to my essay, I need to have everything done a little earlier if I'm going to be coming to your party." She waved over a half-smile and started to turn away.

"Wait, hold on a sec!"

In response to the call Elsa paused, looking back to Anna on her perch.

"There's still one other thing. We aren't quite even yet, and I wanted to make that up to you." There was a mischief written through and through in the little slant in the corner of her lips.

"Make what up to me? I'm not keeping a tally here, Anna, you don't owe me anything." Sure, she'd probably have said something different not all that long ago, but it felt true now.

It was Anna's turn to shift her weight back and forth. "Well, still, I think I owe you this one."

She pulled her shirt right up to her neck.

Ohhhh, fuck. They're pierced.

Her mission well and truly accomplished, Anna broke out into an 'I-can't-believe-I-just-did-that' grin, dropped her hem back into place, and swung fluidly to the ground. She left a thoroughly poleaxed Elsa in her wake.

It wasn't until Anna had vaulted the fence that she called back, shouting, "I'll see you at the party!"

Elsa's mouth was stuck open, but that was ok. Totally ok. Her cheeks were burning scarlet, too, and that seemed about right as well.

A thoroughly juvenile corner of her brain, a corner that would soon receive a proper admonishing, and a corner that was about the whole thing right now, was dancing about haphazardly in celebration for having seen Anna's boobs.

She hadn't made as much progress on the essay that night as she'd hoped. And she definitely hadn't stopped thinking about that sight in the intervening few days leading up to the party. It wasn't even so much about seeing them, as it was about Anna having made such a point of showing her. It wasn't often, and decidedly less often than Elsa would have prefered, that beautiful women were sexy towards her.

That had featured in no small way in her thinking when she'd gone to pick out her costume.

The party store she went to had been there far longer than Elsa had, but until now she'd never had any reason to spare it more than a passing glance. Party supplies had been in low demand in her life. She was glad now that Anna had given her a reason, or several, to change that. She'd finished class on Tuesday, the last day prior to the party where she wasn't due to stay late at the library, and gone right to the shop. The name, "Party, Display, and Costume" was something less than clever, but it was a big enough place that she figured it had to at least have a decent selection.

She stepped through the front door and nearly collided with the wings of a girl in a bright green pixie costume.

This walking hazard was just inside the front door, crouching down to move...something. Elsa didn't really remember what. That costume had a dangerously short skirt, and with hips like that she wasn't going to be too terribly upset if the skirt lost the battle of the bum. Elsa was three seconds into rude staring when she remembered that she was here to look at the other displays. Surprise had, she told herself, simply overridden propriety.

"Ah, err, sorry, didn't see you there." That had at least started out true.

The woman straightened, turning to see Elsa. "Sorry about that! Didn't mean to block you out." She turned to face her, which gave Elsa a proper view of her employee nametag, precariously attached to the other very short end of that green dress. There would be no escape the blushing tonight.

"No, no, it's fine, I just...wasn't looking. I didn't mean to bother you."

"Can I help you find something?" Gods, Elsa hoped that her blush didn't show too clearly. She knew that she didn't used to turn into this much of a mess around cute girls. Somehow she was going to find a way to blame Anna for it, but for the moment she tried to cover.

"It's last minute, but I'm in need of a costume, I fell into having plans. I haven't really dressed up since I was a kid, but this year has given me some good reasons to try getting into it again." That was probably too much information. 'Margaret K.', according to that nametag, wouldn't have any reason at all to care about Elsa's Halloween history.

"I can definitely help you with that!" Elsa wasn't certain costume shopping required a response with quite that much pep, but Margaret also didn't sound like she had any doubt that Elsa would end up happy with the result. "I never stopped, so I have a bit of an eye for what will look good. Though - if you don't mind me saying it - that will include just about everything if you're the one wearing it." She led the way before Elsa realized that she hadn't actually answered whether she wanted the help. She was a little too preoccupied with whether or not she'd just been flirted with.

"What sort are you looking for? We're pretty close to Halloween so we've run out of a few things - we've yet to keep Harley Quinn in stock here - but we've got plenty that you'd make look great." Elsa took a couple of paces to answer while she was following, under an internal litany of Don't look at her butt, don't look at her butt, don't…

"Ah...I haven't decided yet. I don't think there is a theme I need to follow." She kicked herself mentally for not thinking ahead better. People probably didn't usually walk into a store without any idea what they wanted. "What would you recommend?"

"I'd want to put you in something with leather, but that's just me." What did that mean? Elsa had a rapidly growing suspicion that maybe, just maybe, Margaret had noticed her blushing. It would explain the extra little bounce in her step. "This depends on what you are comfortable with, and what you want the costume for. If it's a family party we can rule out a lot. If it's a college one, we rule it right back in!"

Inspiration struck like a pinecone hitting a windowpane. "What about a cat costume? You have to have that, right?" Maybe it was a stretch, but if Anna was the one who had invited her, from that tree...cats got stuck in trees, right?

Ok, it was definitely a stretch, but Elsa liked the idea anyway. It was a simple costume idea, but it would look cute. She wanted to look cute.

"Which type? There's Catwoman, Cheshire, and then regular pussycat."

"Regular." She definitely felt less silly now that she had an answer ready.

"Black cat? That's the most common, but we've got a few to choose from."

Elsa was glad for the help, now that they arrived by the long racks of dresses, leggings, full body costumes, and scattered bits and pieces of all sorts throughout the place. There was, presumably, some sort of organization to it, but whatever it was escaped her. Margaret pointed her from option to option effortlessly, between the other customers picking through things.

There was so much, in fact, that there wasn't a lot of room to move between the aisles. Whenever someone else needed past through the aisle they had to squeeze, brushing each other on the way by while Elsa pressed into the rack beside her. When they came up on a particularly large gentlemen already wearing a big plastic Viking helm Margaret simply ducked through the set of togas to the next aisle over. But they were making steady progress.

The ears were an easy pick, a simple hair band with big fuzzy black triangles attached, with pink polyester inside. And the thigh-high stockings that were capped with cat's faces were adorable, she grabbed them the moment she saw them. A tail was obvious too, a black one that would hang to her calves. She took longer deciding whether she needed paws, but in the end did wind up choosing some that fit like fingerless gloves. They'd be easy enough to take off if they got in the way.

That left the dress to go with it, and she had made up her mind already. Margaret was pointing her towards a longish black dress with a wide fringe made of cheap lace, but Elsa stepped over to a different one. This had a lace fringe too, but it wasn't nearly so far down the legs, and the black of the outer layer was underscored by pink beneath it. Above that was a black cloth corset, with pink ribbon running crisscross up it. Just beneath the low-cut, furred neckline were more pink highlights, over the cups on the dress.

She'd first noticed that the pink matched the center of the ears she'd chosen. She'd blushed even harder when she thought of herself wearing something like that. And then she'd thought of Anna's most recent method of getting even.

The dress didn't feel quite so reckless compared to that.

Margaret whistled when Elsa pulled it off the rack. "It's not what I'd guessed you'd pick, but I like it. You're going to turn some heads." She checked the size tag and swapped the one Elsa was holding for the one beside it, asking, "That's the plan, isn't it?"

I hope so… Elsa thought, keeping it entirely to herself. To answer Margaret she instead said, "I'm trying something new, so why not go all out with it?" It was more confident an answer than she really felt - her comfort zone's boundaries had yet to settle into anything resembling clarity after recent disruptions - but she wanted to mean it, and that was enough for now.

It wasn't until Elsa was at the checkstand buying the pieces, with Margaret strangely having stuck with her the whole way through the store, that she managed to ask a question that had been on her mind from one of her earlier comments.

"Do you actually sell real leather costumes here?" Elsa hadn't seen any when they went around.

"Oh, no, not really, this is all cheap stuff. That'd be at my other job."

"So," Elsa accused lightly, "you've been teasing me on purpose, haven't you."

"Consider it payback for the looking you did!"

It took her a moment of thinking, shifting from one foot to the other, but she didn't want to leave without playing back, at least a little. "So, then, if that's the case," she asked, slowly, "would this work to turn your head, too?"

The answer came in a sultry tone and flashing smile. "Even more than you already do, dear."

Elsa had left the store blushing like she had when she entered.

That had been four days ago. She'd spent them thinking about wearing it, and on occasion burying her face in her pillow at the idea of actually wearing it, now that she'd bought it. This was going to be new. But a lot that had been happening to her lately was new, and most of it hadn't turned out to be terribly scary.

By the time Halloween finally arrived she'd found a little more resolve. Bailing on the party was no option at all, not with it right next door, and not when she'd committed time and effort already to getting ready for it. Plus, compared to some of what she'd seen at the show this wasn't even that risque…

She had even found some excitement while putting on the cat makeup she'd decided would be a nice touch. The music kicking in from their place had a lot to do with it. By the time she was making faces at the mirror to test it she had even found her humor again. She was ready. What for, Elsa hadn't any idea, but she was prepared for tonight to go in yet more new directions. She even wanted it to.

At long last, duly prepared, Elsa closed her front door behind her with a firm shove. She was properly equipped with tail and all.

The night was only just beginning.