Chapter 38

"Anna, I still don't think this a good idea."

"What's so bad about it, 'Zel?" Anna asked as she thoroughly looked herself over in the bathroom mirror. "Hannah said that Elsa's coming back from Agrabah today! So I'm just gonna go to the airport, find a way past security, meet her there, try not to make a total fool of myself, and then get her to say to everything you told me."

Once she confirmed for the hundredth time that she didn't have anything gross on her face, she walked over to where Rapunzel was leaning on the doorway and gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze, "Again, it's not like I don't trust you, I just want to hear her say it. It'll make things more real that way."

Rapunzel followed Anna as she made her way back to her room. "And then what are you gonna do?"

She slipped on a scarlet blouse- a present Elsa got her for her 17th birthday- and shrugged, "I...guess we'll see. Anyway I'm good at coming up with stuff on the spot, remember?"

"You're terrible at coming up with stuff on the spot."

"Noted." Anna sat down on her chair and slipped on her running shoes. "But either way this is a good idea, I know it is. Even if she's...changed her mind, at least then I can finally move on right?"

"Right…" Rapunzel replied, still weary.

Anna leaped out of her chair, "Right! Now my Uber's gonna be here any second now, but you have to get going. Someone's gotta be at the bakery to open up."

She went to leave her room and grab her phone off the kitchen counter, but before she could get farther than a foot from the door, a hand tugged at her wrist to stop her. "Anna, wait."

The confused redhead turned around, and it was Rapunzel's turn to put her hands on her shoulders. She tried to look serious, but the strength of the worry the blonde had for her best friend was too much. "Are you sure you know what you're doing? I don't wanna see you get hurt again."

Rapunzel had every right to be worried, this plan was ridiculous- and also super cliché, how many romantic comedies had Anna seen where there was a sappy confession of love at the airport?

But even so, her eyes were open, and she was seeing things more clearly than she had in a while. She smiled, this one smaller yet much more sincere, and squeezed one of Rapunzel's hands on her shoulders. "I'm sure. Just like you said, I'm stubborn and stop at nothing to get what I want."

Rapunzel frowned, "I never said you were stubborn."

"Eh, it was implied." She shrugged, and at that moment, someone knocked on their front door. "Ooh! That's probably my Uber, I gotta go!"

She raced to the kitchen to grab her phone and pet Barry all while Rapunzel exclaimed, "They don't knock on your front door."

"Maybe it's one of those fancy ones!" She unlocked the front door and opened it. "I'll see you at the bakery, 'Zel, make sure to-"

It wasn't her Uber.

To be honest, that would have been a little sketchy in hindsight if her driver did show up at her front door instead of sending a text saying they were here. So maybe should have been a little glad that wasn't the case. But as she opened the door and looked to see who it was, she felt a whole mixture of emotions: glad, confused, shocked, a little angry, her heart felt like it was breaking and repairing itself at the same time. Because the person at the door was the exact person she was going to see.

The ticket cost a fortune, but it was worth it to get Elsa on the next plane back to Arendelle. The words Jasmine told her were still ringing in her head: she needed to take this chance, tell Anna how she felt, and pray that she still felt the same.

The flight provided her no sleep, but she couldn't sleep anyway with her mind running marathons trying to figure out what to say when she got back. After racing out of the airport, getting her car, and chugging an extra-large cup of coffee, she made it to Anna's apartment in record time. In the midst of this frantic pace, she only had enough time to put on a hoodie and jeans, her hair was in a messy ponytail, the bags under her eyes were bigger than her luggage and she was a paler complexion than normal.

With no time for doubting whether Anna was even home, Elsa knocked on the door. She felt inside the front pocket of her hoodie to make sure her peace offering was still there, hoping it would be enough to at least get her inside.

Apparently, she wouldn't have time to wait anxiously either, because maybe five seconds had passed before the door opened. Anna was two feet away now; and seeing her up close after so long amplified Elsa's feelings for her immensely. So much so that any semblance of a plan that she had went right out the window, and she spoke impulsively.

"Holy crap you're still home, yes! Er, I mean...I was hoping to catch you before to left for work but I'm really glad I did." Elsa said, her voice sounding raspier than she wanted for her first words of the day. "And I know I'm probably the last person you want to see right now, but...can we talk?"

No response, although that was expected considering that Anna looked like she was seeing a ghost.

The adrenaline from seeing her again, however, was wearing off rapidly and soon Elsa came crashing down to Earth.

"Look, i-it's fine if you can't talk right now, you do need to go to work after all. So maybe later we could...we could..." She noticed the redhead- slowly getting less petrified- was too casually dressed. In fact, she had to work especially hard to hide her eagerness when she recognized the blouse she was wearing. "You're wearing...uh, y-yeah so if you can't talk right now then I can wait till later. That's no problem."

Still no response, but Anna's face had softened a little. Or had it? Her eyes had narrowed and her lips had pursed, now she looked...a little angry. That wasn't good.

Trying to smooth things over, Elsa tried a different approach, "Anna I know that what I did was wrong, so if you could just give me like ten minutes to-"

"Seventeen days." She hears, no, feels Anna say bitterly. But when she speaks again it's not as bitter as before, and it's quieter. "I've waited seventeen days to hear from you again..."

She watched Anna turn to Rapunzel, observing all this from the kitchen with an overly protective face, and said, "I'll meet you at the bakery, okay?" Without waiting for a response, she looked back at Elsa, "Let's talk in my room."

The first thing Elsa noticed about Anna's room was how similar it looked to when they were in high school. There were clothes strewn about everywhere, her computer desk had an amusing number of knick-knacks to the point where there was no place to even put a computer, and her blanket was left bundled up at the foot of her bed left unfolded for who knows how long.

Then she noticed the not so similar parts such as the Christmas lights, the lack of a bedframe, and instead of pictures on her desk of great moments on the lacrosse field or from when they were dating, there were pictures of her baking or her and Rapunzel doing best friend things.

Another brutal reminder of how long she'd been away from the redhead's life. To say that this saddened Elsa would be an understatement, she wondered if Anna even had the pictures they took when they were together.

"Sorry about the mess." Anna said as she stood awkwardly in the center of her room, rubbing her elbow. "I, uh...haven't found the time to clean up yet."

"N-no it's fine, it looks…" Exactly how she thought it'd look. "It looks fine."

Anna smiled sadly and sat cross-legged on her bed, "Thanks. I'm glad that you think that it's...here, why don't you sit down?" She gestured to the empty side of her bed.

The damning similarity of this scene- with Anna sitting on her bed looking up at her with tired eyes as she stood in the room weary of how this conversation would play out- was not lost on Elsa. All of a sudden, they were once again high school seniors unexpectedly embarking on different paths of their life. Except this time, she took the invitation and gingerly sat down on the bed. No more running, not anymore.

"So, how have you been? How was Agrabah?"

"You don't have to do this."

Anna blinked, "What do you mean?"

Elsa ran a hand through her matted yet still gorgeous looking hair. The ponytail was always a cute look on her. "I mean like you...we don't have to do all this small talk first. We can just address the big issue now and then go from there. You know, skip all the awkwardness? I've got a lot of things to say anyway, and I'm sure you do too."

She wanted to be offended, because she actually did want to know what Agrabah was like- vacationing there was on her bucket list- but she also had to admire the blonde's readiness to tear off this band aid right away. Subconsciously, she also ran a hand through her hair and let out a shaky laugh, "O-okay, I guess we can do that too."

"Good. We can...yeah let's do that…" And then there was silence, neither of them had taken the initiative to start because they were anxious to hear what the other had to say.

"I-" They both started after seconds of agonizing nothingness.

"Oh that's okay you can-" They immediately said together afterwards, followed by a nervous laugh.

"Can I go first?" Elsa asked quickly and timidly.

Without giving it a second thought, Anna nodded. This was exactly what she wanted to happen, and she didn't even have to go to the airport, successfully avoiding a tired cliché. Well...hopefully this was what she wanted to happen. "Cool." She said when Anna agreed. "Cool…"

When this was all over, Elsa was going to make a vow to permanently remove the word "cool" from her brain's dictionary.

She had also pointedly decided to improvise this whole conversation, see where her heart took her in the sense of forming words. Besides, speaking from the heart was always more personal than a prepared speech.

"Okay before I say what I need to say, I just have to apologize again. For everything. I'm just...I'm really, truly, incredibly sorry for everything that I've put you through. Not just for these past seventeen days, or the stuff that I've done since becoming your boss, but for everything. Past, present, and future. I've screwed up and hurt you a lot, so I'm sorry." She took a breath and continued, "And if you don't forgive me then that's fine, I...I can live with that. I just needed to let you know that right away. I'm sorry, Anna."

As she spoke, Elsa did her best to look Anna in the eye and watched as her expression changed. She went from nervous to on the verge of tears in the blink of an eye. "Anna are you okay?"

The redhead brushed her off with a wave of her hand and wiped the tears away with her arm. "I'm fine." She said unconvincingly. "K-keep going, it's not...they're not sad tears."

Reassured and cautiously optimistic, Elsa continued. "I especially need to- I mean I need to especially apologize for hanging up on you. I at least could have given you a better answer than I needed time to think. That was unprofessional of me." The CEO side of her took the reins for a split second there. "I mean it wasn't right. I know it wasn't right. You deserved better than that, and better than me."

Anna bit her tongue before saying that Elsa was wrong. She loved when her...when Elsa was honest like this, and she'd hate to interrupt her in this moment, especially since her tears had already done that once.

It was hard not to say anything though. Her heart was racing and she was using all the muscles in her face not to look too excited, because it really sounded like Elsa was gearing up to deliver some big revelation. And every time Elsa had some big revelation, it always tended to be good and beneficial to the both of them.

"Did...did Rapunzel tell you that she talked to me?"

The last time this happened was when they were together and- wait what did Elsa just say?

"Wh-what?" Anna asked wide-eyed.

"Did Rapunzel tell you that she talked to me?" The flustered blonde repeated. "She came to my apartment before I went to Agrabah, and...well she confronted me about what I did to you. It was a really, er, fun conversation and I was wondering if she told you anything about what we talked about."

Everything. Literally everything. Anna probably knew even more than Elsa did, but there was no way she was going to tell her that. Not if there was even a fraction of a chance that Elsa's feelings had changed on her business trip. Besides, even if her feelings were still the same, why wouldn't Anna let her say those words herself?

"Just a little. Mostly about how you were sorry." Anna said, the lie being a little too hard to stomach.

"Oh. Well if you didn't hear it enough yet...I'm sorry?" Elsa chuckled. "Sorry, that wasn't supposed to be a question. And I'm sorry if I'm saying sorry too much."

In a very bold move, Anna put a hand on her knee and shushed her, ignoring the blood roaring in her ears at this shred of physical contact. "It's fine!" She exclaimed way too loudly, "I forgive you, I really do. Just stop saying you're sorry."

Elsa ignored the blood roaring in her ears when she felt that soft, familiar hand on her knee, and she swore she started floating when Anna said she forgave her. Just hearing those words lifted a huge burden off her shoulders, which made this next part much easier.

"Th-thank you. I'm so glad that you forgive me, you have no idea how much that really means to me." She shook her head. It should make this next part easier. "Hah, so...so then she didn't tell you about the other part, huh?"

Anna tilted her head, Elsa pretended that wasn't the cutest thing in the world, "What do you mean?"

Her heart was pounding out of her chest now, this was the moment of truth. After seventeen days and thousands of miles, it all came down to this. Every word needed to be perfect, because Anna deserved nothing less than that. After everything that they'd both gone through, everything they'd done to each other, if this was how their story was going to end…then it needed to end right.

She put her hand on the one that was on her knee, "Anna I've put you through so much that I already feel blessed that you didn't just shut the door in my face when I finally showed up. When I said that I needed time to think...the truth was that I knew how I felt, I-I just couldn't say it back then because I got a little scared."

"Well how do you actually feel?" Anna asked innocently, placing her other hand over Elsa's.

Elsa bit her lip, "I...I feel that...I mean I know for sure that…"

"Yeah? What do you know for sure?"

If she wasn't struggling to catch her breath, Elsa would have found Anna's eagerness a little suspicious. But she couldn't think about that right now, all she wanted to think about was summoning all the courage she had to say the damn words.

She closed her eyes as another feeling washed over her, one she was also familiar with: the peak of adrenaline. Just like before, she latched on to it before it was too late.

"I know…" She opened her eyes. "...that I still love you, Anna Dawson."

Anna's reaction was frighteningly quick. She squeezed Elsa's hand and laughed, using her free hand to tuck away a strand of hair from her perfect, strandless face. It wasn't a mocking laugh, or an amused laugh. It sounded nervous- no, it sounded relieved. "You do?"

"Yes!" Elsa exclaimed breathlessly, taking her reaction as a very good sign. "Gosh Anna, I- ever since you came back I haven't been able to get you out of my head. No matter what I did, I could never stop thinking about you. At first I thought it was because I was still holding a grudge, and then I thought it was because I was still guilty over breaking up with you, but...but now I know."

She gave the increasingly excited redhead a lopsided smile, "I do honestly, truly love you and miss you. I miss your eyes, and your laugh, your hair, and your arms and legs, and your everything! I've missed your baking and the way you dance around the kitchen. I miss being near you and with you all the time, I-I miss the way you used to rub my back when I was writing an essay. I miss the way you say your thoughts out loud when you think people don't hear them."

"I don't do that." Anna protested weakly.

"Of course you do!"

Anna pulled her hands away to cup them over her mouth. "No I don't, shut up!" She exclaimed, trying to muffle her embarrassment.

The adrenaline hadn't worn off just yet. Elsa was still feeling a little bold, so she laughed and gently placed her hands on Anna's wrists and lead them away from her face to reveal her reddened cheeks and finely formed frown. "I miss you." she said earnestly, and one more time for good measure she added: "I love you."

The pout lowered, and so did Anna's eyes. In a meek voice she replied, "Elsa…"

A surge of panic shot through her caffeine-addled mind, trying to figure out if she'd said anything wrong. Was it that last "I love you"? Was it embarrassing her? Was it her whole speech altogether?

She placed a hand on one of the brooding redhead's shoulders, "Anna, I'm sorry if that was out of line I just really needed to-"

Anna's wide eyes looked straight back at her, "No! It-it's not that it's just…" She sighed and then, much to Elsa's relief, smiled, "You have no idea how long I've waited to hear you say that."

It wasn't fair.

It just wasn't fair that Elsa was gifted with such a way with words, and now Anna had to follow that somehow.

"Ugh, I knew I should have gone first." She said, voicing her thoughts. But when she saw the fear in Elsa's eyes, she backtracked. "N-not that what you said wasn't good- gosh it was everything I've been waiting to hear you say for a long, long time- it's just that you're a lot better at talking than I am."

Elsa smiled bashfully, "You're not that bad."

Anna took a second just to admire the vulnerability of Elsa, this woman who constantly had to be this perfect figure of level headedness, the woman who had to be the bad guy so many times in their recent interactions. Underneath the facade was this gorgeous woman who was both perfect and imperfect, someone she just couldn't get out of her head or head no matter how much she tried.

When she was finished with her creepy stalker staring, she shook her head and took both of Elsa's hands into hers, the blonde looked elated when she did so. Not wanting to let this moment linger for too long, Anna spoke the words she herself had been waiting to say for a long time.

"Elsa, I...I'm sorry but I may have lied a little earlier. Rapunzel did tell me what you said. Everything." When that look of elation was gone, replaced with wide-eyed panic, Anna squeezed her hands. "No no no trust me it's nothing bad, I just didn't bring it up on the off-chance that your feelings changed, and I'm so happy that they haven't."

Her heart was beating faster and faster as she gathered the nerves to continue, "Because, well, the truth is that I don't care about you."

"...what?"

Oh crap she missed a word. "I-I mean that I don't just care about you. Wait no, that sounds even worse! I- gah! I just mean like that's not like the extent of my feelings. They're more than that, waaaaay much more than that and- ugh, see I told you I suck at saying words."

Elsa placed her hands on Anna's cheek and laughed, her confidence still slightly shaken, "It's okay Anna, you're doing great. Just...keep going, okay?"

Anna wasn't blind to the fact that the touches had grown much bolder. The innocent arm grabbing was no more, there weren't any articles of clothing to cover the skin-on-skin contact now. Well technically it was still just her face, but that was still probably lewd or risqué in some cultures. Regardless, her heart raced, and she just put her hands in her lap and gathered her thoughts again. Letting the hands on her cheeks rest where they were.

"What I was trying to say, I-I guess what I'm getting at is that everything you said made me so happy, I...I loved it. In fact, I loved more than the words you said." She took a deep breath, still finding it hard to believe that she was getting the opportunity to say this. "I love you. Again. I mean still...I love you again still."

Yeah, she definitely should have gone first.

Elsa snickered while trying to hold in a bigger laugh, not the reaction that Anna wanted. "You love me again still?" she asked.

Anna closed her eyes, exasperated, "I told you that I'm crap with words, and even worse with confessions. Remember when I said I love you the first time? I mean I wouldn't be mad if you forgot, you did sorta have a concussion. Well, you didn't get a concussion then and there, but those things are still scary, so if you forgot about it, then that's fine."

"Anna…"

She opened her eyes and pouted, "Still, I'm really bad at this so you should at least know that and I really regret letting you go first because then we would have ended with you and your confession and it would have been so pretty and amazing. Just like you're pretty, and amazing, and pretty amazing and just...I mean look at you. It's been so long since I've seen you in something that isn't like a business coat thing and the hoodie is just wow!"

"Anna…"

"But that's not what this about. I mean you said really pretty things about me and I should be saying pretty things about you, because it's clear that we both feel really strongly about each other so this should be like what we do, right? Talk to each other and complement each other, so maybe I shouldn't have stopped. I mean for instance I could talk about your pretty ponytail and how it reminds me of when we were in high school-"

"Anna!"

"What?! I'm trying to complement you here, woman, so why are you interrupting me?"

Elsa didn't say why, she just closed the gap between them and kissed her.

Fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks in an open field lighting up the pitch-black sky with colors along the entire spectrum, and with explosions so big and bright it could set off car alarms all the way in Corona. It was easy to close the gap since Elsa's hands were still on her cheeks, Anna yelped at first from the sudden movement, but then closed her eyes as said fireworks exploded behind her eyes.

It was just like she remembered. No, no it was better than she remembered. They were older, the distance and time apart made their hearts grow fonder, and Elsa was simply a way better kisser than before.

It ended just as suddenly as it happened. Anna couldn't help but let out a meek, little "No…" when Elsa pulled away.

Elsa smiled at Anna and rubbed her thumb over her cheek, "You're cute when you ramble."

As the initial awkwardness subsided, they continued to talk about nothing and everything at the same time. There was so much they had to catch up on, so much that needed to be said. They migrated from Anna's bedroom to her kitchen, sharing an unhealthy number of cookies as they recounted memories from high school.

Memories that were painful to think about before but were now joyful instances that reminded them of what they had, what they have now, and what they could possibly have later.

It was easy now, it was finally so damn easy to be around each other and get lost in each other's words and thoughts and eyes, that they gave very little thought as to the troubles facing them outside this apartment. Or at least, that's what they wanted to.

During a rare lull in their conversation, Elsa looked down at her crumb-filled plate and let out a breath that turned into a shaky laugh, "So how long do you think it'll take the paparazzi to find out we're together."

Together. Wow, they really were together now, weren't they? That was such a hard thing to wrap her mind around.

Anna snorted, "I've caught a few right outside my apartment before. I don't think it'll take too long." She tried to smile in order to make light of the situation, but it lasted for only a couple seconds, "Are...are you sure you're gonna be okay with this?"

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, unable to shake the irrational fear that Anna was about to back out in some twisted form of karmic justice.

"It's just that I've already caused you a lot of trouble with the article and stuff, and now you've got Hans to deal with and I'm sure your board won't be happy about us being together again…" Anna stopped for a second while Elsa relished in the fact that she also said they were together. "I just don't wanna cause you any more trouble, that's all."

Elsa let out a sigh of relief that she masked as a breathy chuckle. She put her hand over the nervous redhead's fist on the table, "Anna, you're worth all the trouble in the world."

A sharp redness filled Anna's cheeks and she smiled bashfully, unable to look the blonde in her earnest, blue eyes. "Gosh, I hate how you're so good at that."

"Good with what?" Elsa asked, amused.

"Words. The ones that make me feel nice, I wish I could speak half as good as you can."

"It's just me speaking from the heart, that's all it's ever been." Elsa explained. "There's not much to it. I mean, I guess those Communications classes didn't hurt."

"Ugh, I knew there was a catch." Anna groaned.

Elsa pulled in for another kiss, now that they were finally together (there was that damn amazing word again), she didn't have to hesitate any longer. It felt good not to hesitate. "Ugh, you're good at that too." Anna whined when she pulled away.

Elsa grinned, "The point is that right now I don't care about the consequences. We're together now, that's all that matters. If there are any problems down the line, we'll face them. Together."

"Hmm, well I hope you remember that when you realize I still snore."

"Like a chainsaw?"

"You said it was like a tiger!"

Elsa shrugged, "I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

Anna frowned, "Well mission not accomplished. They're very hurt right now."

The fact that they'd slip into their typical relationship banter so effortlessly made Elsa even more assured than before that this was going to work. No matter what happened, no matter who got in their way, they would make this work.

Elsa patted her hand, "Well I'll make it up to you later." She checked her phone and groaned, "But right now I...think it's time you got to the bakery, don't you think?"

Anna checked her own phone and let out a gasp, "Holy crap it's been two hours?!" When Elsa nodded, she let out a similar groan, "Uuuuugh, I guess I do have to get going."

"You want me to drive you?"

Anna's eyes widened eagerly, "Are you sure?"

Elsa nodded, "I drove here anyway, and ArenCorp's not expecting me back till tomorrow so I've got all the time in the world today."

"Well...well I mean I guess if it's not too much to ask, and if you really want to…" Anna had placed her hand over Elsa's as she mulled over this decision, her lips suddenly curled up in a mischievous grin. "...and as long as I get to pick the music."

This was going to work. This was actually going to work.

Elsa smirked and got out of her kitchen chair, heart racing from the unexpectedness of how great things were going. "You always do." She replied.

A/N: Boy how much of a kick in the crotch would it be if I ended things there? Nah, we've still got a little bit of ways to go. Anyway hi guys, I'm back! I know it's been a minute but I'm back now and that's what counts.

A lot of stuff went down real life-wise, but you don't have to worry about that. I graduate in about three months, which means more time for writing, but also less and less time to find a job. Yikes.

Anyway, check back soon...ish for a new update. I promise you won't have to wait like eight months for a new chapter this time.