Author's Note: A huge merci/dankeschön to our translation assistants, a-kiirii-on-board, darkdraconis, and pascaldragon. Thank you so much!

La Guerre de l'Art - Un Portrait de Deux Lesbiennes Amoureuses

[The War of Art - A Portrait of Two Lesbians in Love]

CHAPTER 4

The Art of Indiscretion

Fingers skimmed across her skin, tracing idle patterns as a hot mouth left a trail of kisses down her neck. A moan fell from her lips once that mouth latched onto a heaving breast, and her back arched off the bed in reply. A hand drifted down, brushing the soft patch between her legs, and her breath hitched sharply.

"Relax," came the murmur against her skin, and a tongue laved diligently at her stiffened nipple. That hand continued its downward journey, fingers alighting on the wet folds of her womanhood, and she whined, bucking her hips in need.

"Please…"

The mouth left her breast, retracing its former path to capture her own in a searing kiss that had her toes curling. They parted for air with a gasp, and Anna's hands reached up to tangle themselves in that soft hair, tugging down for another heated kiss.

"Please—"

"Excuse me, mademoiselle Roxanna," a voice cut in, and Anna jerked awake, knocking her supplies off the table.

Merde… what the hell was that?

"Mademoiselle, are you alright?"

She looked around her table, groaning at the fallen objects and picked it up. "Yes, Kai, what is it?"

"I'm… terribly sorry for disturbing your sleep." Anna paused and her heart throbbed at the vague memory of hearing moans and feeling the touches that caressed her whole being… and she was naked… Oh God. She hadn't had one of those dreams for a long time. She wondered what could've made her dream something so indecent, but it just felt so right.

Anna rubbed her eyes. "Y-Yeah, it's fine. I shouldn't be sleeping at this time any way… so, does Hans need me? Or does Elsa?"

"You asked to be woken when it was time for today's sessions with your tutor. That time has come."

"Oh… yes, I remember. Thank you, that will be all." She managed a wan smile as the man retreated from the room.

As she dressed, the dream rolled over in her mind over and over; the warm skin against other skin, hands that could find no permanent rest, her own fingers clenching against soft blonde hair… oh, it had been riveting. Beyond riveting, if she were entirely honest with herself.

Then the bottle of perfume she had been about to open and dab behind each ear fell from her hands, shattering against the floor.

Blonde hair. That would definitely preclude Hans from behind the object of her nocturnal imaginings.

"Mademoiselle?" Hurried footsteps reached her ears and she heard Kai's muffled voice through the door, his concern evident despite the barrier of wood. "Is everything alright? I heard a dreadful crash."

"No, no!" Anna called, unable to keep her hands from shaking. "I-It's fine! I just dropped a bottle, is all!"

"You are not hurt, are you? Should I fetch—"

"That won't be necessary!" she all but shouted, her voice a pitch higher than normal. A glance at the mirror revealed the bright flush that had claimed her cheeks, and she immediately looked away, gaze dropping to the broken perfume bottle. The aromatic liquid it had previously contained slowly spread out, beginning to seep into the floorboards.

"Well… if you say so!" And she did say so; the room would smell quite powerful from now until when they next cleaned, but there was no need for them to barge in and interrupt her looking like a beetroot. And she needed all the time to compose herself she could get, because after this she would be in Elsa's presence.

Elsa… of course, it was only likely that it had been her in the dream, not a complete certainty. She had never seen the other person clearly. But there were many very important reasons it may have been her. Ones that she had been keeping close to her chest.

And Anna was growing impatient. She had to do something to clear up her possible misunderstanding before she was driven out of her mind with worry. Today, she would try something she had been both dreading and excited about for many weeks… something that would cut through the fog surrounding her thoughts of Elsa—and Elsa's thoughts for her—like a hot knife through butter.

Where is she?

The frown on Elsa's face deepened as she paused in her restless pacing of the room. Anna should have arrived ten minutes ago, yet there was no sign of her radiant visage anywhere. Perhaps she forgot, the blonde mused, idly picking at the sleeve of the dress she had donned today. Although she preferred the mobility and comfort trousers gave her, personal preference tended to be sacrificed for the sake of art.

In more ways than one.

"I'm here!" a familiar voice called, followed almost immediately by the cacophonous sound of the doors forcibly thrown open, ricocheting off the walls. "Sorry I'm late, I—oof!"

One of the doors had bounced back close enough to clip Anna's shoulder, and Elsa found herself instantly rushing forward, hands outstretched to help. "Anna!"

"I'm alright, ne vous inquiétez pas!" she hastily assured her, patting down her hair and touching Elsa lightly on the wrist. "I'm… oh goodness, Elsa. You look… different."

At that, the blonde harrumphed and took her hands away. "I look daft. But for your art, I make sacrifices. Now, shall we get on with it?"

"Not daft. However…"

As Elsa approached the chair draped with clothes that they usually utilised for such purposes, she paused before sitting. "However?"

"You won't be needing the dress today. I've decided to paint a seraphim."

"A seraphim? Ooh, very ambitiou—"

Elsa's heart froze, and seemed to relocate itself to her throat in the same moment. That did not bode well. In fact, there was a very specific thing that seemed to imply, that she could not believe Anna would ask of her. After several attempts to clear her throat, she turned and managed to meet the mischievous, sparkling eyes of her fellow painter.

"You… wish me to pose nude?!"

"Oui!" Anna affirmed, nodding her head with perhaps more enthusiasm than needed. Her lips quirked into a smile that matched the impish glint in her eyes. "After all, I wish to hone my craft and I've painted very little by way of the body's...natural form." At Elsa's continued dumbfounded stare, she added, "Besides, that Michelangelo fellow paints them all the time! It's not as if you would be the first to be a nude subject!"

No, I wouldn't. But I would be your first, and that is...that is…

That is unbelievable.

Elsa stared into adoring eyes and feet jumping up and down like a child, with this staggering look, still. And it was as if Anna just completely disregarded what happened yesterday. But it wasn't as if Elsa opposed to the idea of posing nude but… Anna would be painting her… looking at her in detail and up front and… how could she be so excited while the poser was feeling quite the opposite? They should be both worried and nervous!

The blonde ran her fingers down her hair, biting her lips. "I… I don't think—"

"You don't want to?" Anna pouted and Elsa's face flushed adorably red.

"No, it's just… I—" God, how could she deny that look! All she needed to know was that Anna was only doing this to paint. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's just a painting… just a painting… just a painting… She repeated in her head for a couple of thousand times before…

"Bien, I'll do it."

Anna gasped and her hands clapped together in celebration. "Ouais! We can start now. Right now. Could you… well, I want you to lay on your side, is that alright? O-On the couch." Her cheeks reddened immediately, noticing Elsa unbuttoning the back of the dress she had put on so meticulously. She quickly turned away so that her back faced the blonde. This was harder than she'd thought it'd be. Jesus, maybe it was because of that dream but… her mind was wandering to places where it shouldn't be going and imagining things she shouldn't be imagining!

She gulped, ears perked up as she heard clothes dropping to the ground and shuffling of supplies. Was she naked already? Or had Anna been daydreaming about the body that was on top of her in her dream?

"Laying on my side, okay… And then?"

Still she didn't make an effort to turn. "W-Well, put your arm around your waist and the other one in your hair, w-whichever one that you're propping yourself up with on the couch."

"Comme ca?"

Without any thinking or hesitation—because she was too immersed in her daydream that she probably forgot that Elsa was completely bare from any clothes—she turned, and her heart stopped.

Laid out before her was the nude form of her mentor, and a fine form it turned out to be. Anna wasn't sure what she had been expecting; to see a copy of herself with lighter hair, something she wouldn't care one whit about. Instead…

Curves and mountains, valleys and shallows. Supple, flawless skin that stretched out before her from nose to toes. Pink places, sparse freckles on shoulders… more blonde hair than she had seen before. And to the side of it all, the severe but alluring features of her companion, her mentor, splashed with red as she'd never seen before.

Elsa was definitely reacting to this situation the way she had been both hoping and dreading. This went further than mere embarrassment; if it were so, Elsa would be shouting at her, or refusing to do it, or at the very least would look surly as she lay there, exposed. Instead… she seemed merely humbled, and anxious.

"I asked," she finally spoke up when Anna did not comment, "if this was satisfactory?"

"Oh… well, almost. Very nearly so." Pacing forward, she reached toward Elsa's face—

And the woman drew back, flinching. She really was anxious about this situation. They both were, now that it had come about; Anna couldn't deny her own heart racing, the heat haze that seemed to pervade the room without any forewarning. But she had something she needed to do.

"Just this…" Her fingers pulled at Elsa's messy bun until she had freed her blonde locks; then a second hand helped to fluff them out, allow them to spill down her shoulders as they so seldom did. "There… I think that's… just about right."

She never noticed exactly how blue Elsa's eyes were until the flowing locks framing her face brought them out. They seemed to render her immobile, captivating her in a way Hans' unsettling green failed to. And her hair...it felt so soft beneath her fingers, so much like—

A nervous cough jolted her out of her...open admiration, and Anna immediately stepped back, clasping her hands together behind her back. Hopefully her face wasn't as red as it felt, but knowing her luck… "W-Well, then...shall we get started?"

"S-suppose we should. If you're ready, I am."

"Oui! Let's… let's get started." Then she paced back and took command of her canvas. Despite the storm of conflicting emotions that had risen powerfully in her breast, she needed to suppress them for the nonce. If she was going to paint this goddess before her, she would need every last shred of her faculties.

The hour stretched on, and Elsa's gripping fear of what being nude in front of Anna would be like began to recede. Not fade entirely, no—she would not enjoy such a courtesy. But it was lesser, more manageable. Her blush was a very slight pinkening of her cheeks and she was lucky enough to experience no further… tinglings down below.

As she had when Anna first went to unpin her hair. That had seemed too good to be true, and when it turned out she was right, she wished she had been wrong more than any time before. Oh, for Anna to lose herself and lean in for just a few seconds…

Some piece into their second hour, Anna stepped back and frowned. When Elsa inquired about that, she merely said, "Oh, it's…. I think I'm finished, but I just… it's not turning out how I intended."

"Can you turn it so that I might see?" The girl did so, very slightly chagrined; it took some work to turn the easel, but she managed. Elsa was in for a major shock.

It was her. Not simply a seraphim with her vague body type and shape, but it was a painting of her, Elsa Maurer, outfitted with gossamer wings and ascending to the heavens. The burning halo around her head blended partially into her flowing blonde tresses. Every last intimate detail of her body was captured with subtlety and deceptive ease. Luckily, her face looked far more angelic than the one she had last hitched onto Anna's portrait, but she still looked severe in her beauty, very much magnetic in her attractiveness.

I suppose we have both committed sacrilege in our own ways, she thought, swallowing past the sudden dryness in her throat. For if her portrait of Anna had been to challenge the most beautiful of the Greco-Roman pantheon, the painting before her dared to declare her a veritable angel, a true work of God.

"Is this...how you see me?" The words slipped out before she could think otherwise, too stunned as she was. Even if Elsa's heart hadn't been so woefully enamored by Anna, she would've still been impressed by the skill her protégée had displayed. Especially for her first time capturing a nude subject.

"It's just… how you are."

That was the only answer that could have stunned Elsa more than a simple "oui", which was already quite a lot. Anna was exalting her, which was in defiance of the church… but it did make her feel so much less like she were displaying something ugly, unclean.

"Elsa," she asked hesitantly as she approached her, leaving the painting turned for their viewing. "Do you like it? Or is it… not…"

"Me," Elsa finished, pushing up from the couch and standing awkwardly. Laid bare, literally. "It's not me, but it is… a perfect work of art. You have captured what was in your soul."

"In my soul? Ohhh, you mean that bit you told me when we first met." Anna approached her, took one of her hands and pressed it between her own, despite Elsa's spluttered and quiet protest. "That art should come from a painful place in your soul that needs healing, needs to see the light of day. But… you do not cause me pain."

Grimacing, Elsa tried to make herself pull away from Anna's touch… and found she could not. Fully clothed, she could have burst from the room and run, but in the here and now, all she could do was try to dress herself again, so she turned to pick up her dress—

And felt Anna's hand halting her. One good tug would have sent her to the floor, but barring that, she would not be able to break free of the hand until Anna had said her peace. And she had a feeling that was about to happen.

"Why have you been helping Hans court me so ardently?" she asked, without preamble or reservation. "The chocolates, the jewellery… I suspected, but when I saw that dress, knew it was exactly what was in my heart… there could be no mistaking, no coincidences. There was only one person I had told about all of those things."

"He was completely lost," Elsa told her, pleading, just the slightest amount in the hopes that Anna would forget the whole thing. "Needed me to express his feelings for him. I don't see as that's a crime."

"But your feelings showed through the gestures. Not his." Again, she attempted to pounce on clothes, and again, Anna's well-concealed strength held her at bay. "Do you think I'm such a fool that I wouldn't notice? Mon Dieu, I'm smarter than that…"

"Oh, are you?" The frostiness of her tone made Anna flinch, but she did not let go, nor back down. "I'm standing here naked in front of you, wishing for all the world that you would… let me go, embrace me, do something, and you don't realise that it was the same way even before you stripped me of my dignity! But forgive me for doubting your intelligence!"

Obviously, that was a load of bluster, and they both knew it. Anna was staring straight down, and finally commented, "You're curling your toes under. That's something people do when they're afraid or uncomfortable."

"I'm both!" she snapped, taking great pains to uncurl the appendages in question. "You have me naked, and questioning the nature of my relationship with you!"

"And why are you afraid of that? What possible reason would you have to—

"Because if it changes, I might lose you! And I can't have that, Anna; you're all I have. You and my brushes, and… and some tiny amount of money that is little more than enough to buy a horse. That is all I have to my name in this world."

In her mind, that settled the argument. What she wasn't expecting was for Anna to seize on one particular word like a drunkard diving on a single écu in the gutter.

"You said… you 'have' me." Again, Elsa tried to dart away, and Anna pulled her body in close, wrapping her arms in a way around Elsa's back that the poor model began to sag against her warmth without fight left in her. Apparently, she had been granted one of her wishes. "You do. You have me in your heart, ma chérie."

Both of Elsa's eyes shot wide. "Anna… no, you c-can't- think of Hans, and our station! It's not proper for us t-to—

"But I won't say a word," she headed her off, raising a hand to cup the side of her head, expression finally clear and hopeful rather than full of that irksome irritation. "It won't be me who causes you scorn and derision everywhere you go; I… I care for you, too. Hopefully you understood that I always have."

"Not the way I do." Anna didn't even answer; she just kept staring into Elsa's eyes, pleading and waiting, until finally Elsa whispered, "No… you can't, that's… are we both that ridiculous?"

Anna chuckled, her thumb caressing her cheek and Elsa couldn't help but to lean into it. "We've both been since the very first day I came here."

Elsa frowned. No, she was wrong. She was very, very wrong to believe that they'd been anything but outrageous. They had something special… a bond that even that idiot Hans noticed. But Elsa denied that bond; denied her feelings until they were getting stronger and they had grown closer over time. It had become an unbreakable bond.

She grabbed Anna's hand. "I don't have you. No, this isn't…" She chuckled. "We have a very different meaning of what 'care' is, don't we?"

"W-What?"

"I care about you. Truly and fully." Elsa endeavored to maintain her gaze, hoping her voice sounded as careful and even as she intended it to be. "But the question is… do you care about me in the same way that I do you?"

Anna furrowed her brow. "Of course I do, I—"

Lips pressing into hers cut off Anna's sentence; Elsa felt no guilt over that, for she knew it was just going to be the same rhetoric as before. Their bodies were flush, and fingertips were clawing into the shorter woman's back through her dress, and a strangled squeak echoed through their connection. Hard as it may have been for her to reconcile, she was, at long last, enjoying Anna in a way that she could only have dreamt of before.

Feeling her… return the kiss. For just an instant. Not even her dreams had been that optimistic.

And then Anna was pushing her back, eyes so wide that Elsa worried they might become fixed in that fashion. Her chest heaving, fingertips clutching at her own chest where the heart was clearly keeping up a thunderous din. The large eyes flicked to the door, then back to the nude woman she had just been…

"You kissed me."

"I…" Mistake. Clearly, she had perpetrated a grievous error in her judgment, but there could be no undoing it; better to own up to it as a grown woman than hide as a child. "Yes, I did. There was no other way to explain what type of affection I have for you than to… demonstrate."

One of the hands came up and pressed into her lips as she tried to figure out what had just happened. True fright was in her eyes, but she was neither running nor growing angry over the indiscretion. "Elsa… that is, I knew you cared deeply—as a sister, a bosom companion! And there was also a certain… je ne sais quoi between us, an element that excited me, but I didn't… ever… mon DIEU."

Elsa, however, felt the urge to flee well up inside of her like waves crashing against the shore of her mind. With every word that fell from Anna's mouth, her hand inched closer and closer to her clothes draped over the armrest of the couch. She may have admitted to her feelings for the girl, but that did not mean she needed to stay any longer.

Not when Anna's eyes looked at her so fearfully, so…

So very much like those in Germany.

She quickly covered her front with her clothes, eyes glaring at the girl, but on the inside, she knew she was ready to flee from her. "You have to go."

Anna tilted her head, but didn't bother to toss Elsa's clothes again as she expected her to do. "Are you running away again?"

"Running away is the only option here, Anna, if we don't feel the same way towards each other!" she yelled and got up, draping her clothes over her body. She didn't intend to scream, nor to startle Anna… nor to kiss her so suddenly. But she did all of those things, and it was her one way to express her anger and frustration.

"You don't know that, Elsa."

The blonde scoffed, coming close to her until they were met face to face. "Of course I know that. The way you look at Hans… your oblivious mind… oh, I know how you feel."

"You don't!"

Silence. Broken only by Anna's heavy breathing and the pounding in Elsa's ears.

"...No. Perhaps I truly don't," Elsa muttered at last, averting her gaze to the floor. I have to leave. I have to go. "If I were privy to your feelings, if I knew the color of your thoughts...Perhaps we wouldn't be here. Like this."

Half-clothed and the urge to run.

Anna softly mumbled out, "No, you don't."

Elsa was broken out of her consternation by a soft hand tilting up her chin, teal eyes imploringly gazed into her own.

"Elsa, I… you… Dieu help me…"

Suddenly Elsa felt warm, soft, supple lips pressed against her own. They lingered, patiently moving against hers—as if waiting for her to return the kiss, which she unwittingly did in earnest. Elsa dropped the clothing from her hands to wrap them around Anna's slim waist as Anna pulled her tightly against herself. They stayed like this for several long moments.

Eventually, Anna pulled back hesitantly. "I… Merde! It… it was always you. Hans… he's far too vapid, and yet… how could I turn him down? He holds my entire life in the palm of his hand…" She trailed off resignedly.

Elsa stared at her, and her eyes and ears longed for Anna to say that Hans wasn't for her. The silence and the words that were left abandoned from Anna's lips were enchanting… comforting. They looked each other in the eyes, hushed from any thinking. Her blue eyes darkened with desire and her body was feeling fire unlike before.

She was feeling very conscious of the way Anna bit her lip—whether from nervousness, shyness, or in want, it didn't matter. The way they stood so close to each other that they could feel gentle breezes of each other's breathing, and Dieu… the way Anna's nails left her shuddering while they dragged along her molten hot, bared skin. She craved for it. Dreamt of it.

And their eyes searched each other, trying to get into each other's mindset.

Slowly, Elsa raised her palm up to caress Anna's cheek. She hummed, eyes closed in satisfaction. "I care for you, but… know that I'm merely an artist. An artist that has barely enough money to feed herself…"

"And I am a peasant—well, I was," she whispered, lips brushing towards her glowing skin of her palm. She held it gently, stroking the smooth skin on the back and soon laced their fingers together.

Elsa tilted her head, a bittersweet smile perking up from her unsettling emotions. "Madame, what have you done to moi?" she whispered, and her body relaxed the moment Anna laid their hands to her thumping chest.

Anna looked at her and it was clear: she desired to have her. She leaned in deliberately, their noses lightly touching. "Non, what have you done to me?"

But it didn't matter anymore, with the slow and eager kiss that stripped them from any reality. And it was desperate, arms wrapped around each other as if the world was going to end, and their lips lavishing each other so hungrily that this seemed almost to be a meal. Groans slipped out of their lips, hands grabbing each other's hands, waist, hips… hair… but nowhere that could lead to a very inappropriate moment, at a very inappropriate time.

Elsa was pushed down into the couch once again, and Anna laid atop her. She turned her head away immediately, covering her mouth with the back of her hand—although she stared so affectionately at Anna, with the lust and passion that had grown so much in her that she was horrified.

They were like animals.

"Anna…"

Anna's face was flushed, a glisten of saliva peeking from the corner of her lips. "Elsa… are we—

"Anna, you have to go."

"But I don't want to go!" she whispered, in a voice soaked with emotion, with need. "My sweet Elsa, we have discovered something… I mean, it was there all along, but I somehow didn't think…"

"Please, just go! We can… sort this out another time, when we're not—

"Your flirting had to be some silly game! I thought it couldn't be true, that you might truly have these feelings. You're a woman! And a strikingly beautiful woman, one that… that men would throw themselves into the Seine for the privilege of kissing your hand!" She let out a somewhat rude little laugh. "Most women who are déviants… I mean, they're usually somehow viril, sans façon, no?"

Curling her lip, Elsa looked away. "They seemed content enough to call me such things in Germany, despite my being what you seem to think of as 'beautiful.' Many times."

That was all Anna needed to hear, and to perceive in Elsa's haunted eyes. That this was not a new development, no passing fancy. Her lips descended to graze the blonde temple nearest them as she whispered, "You… are such a déviant? You can tell me. I won't judge."

"I have never lusted after a man. Not once in all my adult life, and not even as a girl; I found them unattractive, and most often petty and churlish. Les connards!" Scoffing, she reached up to pet along one side of Anna's face with a feather-light touch. "While women… oh, women…"

Elsa's gaze softened as her fingers traced the curve of Anna's jaw. "They were so beautiful, so soft...I longed to learn the paths their thoughts treaded, which colors brought the most light to their eyes. Which flower would incite a blissful sigh, which verses tinted their cheeks."

"And did you find out?" the girl murmured against her temple.

"Some," Elsa replied in a similarly soft voice, "But I found that I still have much to learn."

The redhead hid a grin against her skin before pulling away. And wow, only then she realized, Elsa looked ridiculously attractive with all her curves… and the sunlight making her glow… and mon Dieu, how blue her eyes were.

Elsa tilted her head, smiling with grace as her fingers trailed down towards her neck. Anna sighed, and wondered what those fingers could do… that would make her feel content and possibly, begging for more.

"And you…" Elsa whispered, eyes darting from those pulped lips and to the fluttering eyelids. "You, madame, also have a lot to learn…"

"A lot…?"

"Well, you have me, don't you?"

Anna smiled, cheekily. "Define 'have'."

Frowning, Elsa traced a finger over her nose. "Don't be absurd; you knew I meant 'have me available.' We… cannot be more than mentor and protégée. Not publically."

"Then…" Anna's flush was more complete this time. Her voice got quieter, and some of her previous boldness fled in the face of what she meant to say.

"Oui?"

"Then might we… be more… not publically?"

That brought Elsa up short. Until that moment, she had assumed they were simply acknowledging their "je ne sais quoi", as Anna had described it. Not plotting to do anything about it ever again! On the other hand, having the redhead's body slung across hers on the couch should have been forewarning of such matters.

"You wish to… begin an ongoing affair with a woman?" She let out a blast of shocked laughter, which only made Anna's adorable little ears redden. "You do. Mon Dieu tout-puissant, you are- I can't believe what I'm hearing, what we're talking about! Our plan is for you to marry Hans de Neuvillette and, what, steal kisses behind every corner and closet door from now until then, like common thieves?!"

"No," Anna refuted softly. Elsa only just had time enough to breathe a single sigh of relief before Anna added, "Why should we stop once I am married?"

"You would be married. Surely you can see the problem with that?" Elsa said, chuckling nervously. Upon seeing that Anna's countenance remained serious and her gaze had not lessened in its intensity, she continued, "Anna, I may prefer those of the fairer sex, but I won't have you forsake your vows simply to—"

"But what if I want to?" her protégée insisted, lips curling into a frown that somehow managed to keep its adorable touch. "Why can't...Why can't I just marry—"

Elsa interrupted her with a finger to her lips, averting her gaze from the girl before her. "You forget the world we live in, Anna. Beyond these walls, it is cruel, callous, cold. Even… even if, by some miracle, the world turns a blind eye to what we share and allow us to live in peace...the church would raise an uproar. The marriage you've probably dreamt of at least once before...you won't have it."

"But what if I marry you in secret?"

The absurdity of the words gave her pause.

"No, you can't."

"W-What? No, you're not allowed to get up." She pushed her down, legs straddling her.

"Anna." Elsa sighed, looking away with her hands by her waist. "Look… we're only together… to work. To get you married, and that's all. Anything else… like this… is a taboo. Plus, if Hans comes in here and finds me naked and you on top of me, he'll kill us. He has the power to, Anna."

"But—"

"Don't forget that we're only here because he hired me and he likes you. We would be out in the streets in no time if this continues and we both know we don't want that. Oh, Anna…" She grinned bitterly, a hand cupping her cheek and caught a tear that fell ever so slowly. But why? Why cry now? Elsa knew that she liked him one way or another, but not loved him. Wasn't that what she wanted?

Anna held her hand, tightly and warmly. This was comforting for some reason. "You're right." She sniffled. "The church will find out… and perhaps, we'll be burned alive in public. We do have a very religious society, after all."

Elsa nodded, wanting to apologize but she couldn't. She just couldn't. These were her feelings and she'd expressed them openly and happily. Anna had accepted her, yet Elsa denied themselves from being together. This wasn't fair. This was… necessary.

Finding Anna getting off of her, and handing over her clothes, she looked at the painting. "Um… it's… the painting needs some more work to be done, but… I'm tired. I'll see you tomorrow, Elsa."

Her voice cracked, and a part of Elsa's heart cracked with it.

"Anna—"

"I just...I just thought that having something would be better than nothing at all," the girl continued, shoulders drooping ever so slightly. "That even if we can't have all of it, we could...we could at least try."

All Elsa wanted to do was call out to her, assure her that they would at least be in each other's lives. Could she even promise that much? Not for certain. Once the two of them were wed, she would have her own premises. Their lives would become separate, only distantly related compared to what they were now. What was the use in kindling a flame that would only have to be extinguished?

So instead, she said the only words of comfort that were open to her, forcing the words out as she finally began to pull her dress back on. "The painting… it's finished."

"What?" Anna asked, her hand on the doorknob. "Oh. You don't want to pose for it again, I understand."

"No, it's not—I'm being genuine. Your artistry has created something spectacular. I will be fairly embarrassed for anyone else to see it, given that it's my face, but… but it's perfect. No further work is required, and that is… my official word, as your mentor. Take pride in this accomplishment."

With a slightly sad smile, she gazed evenly at the blonde. Then, after mulling it over for a moment, she said, "It's not for sale. A painting like that belongs in a private collection." As she pulled open the door, she added one more word before slipping out: "Mine."

The minute she was alone, Elsa slumped to the floor, utterly drained. How this many emotions and venting of spleens had put her through the ringer! It would be a wonder if she even felt like getting up in the morning.

Yet, on the other side, Anna took a quick glance at the door behind her before turning and giving her new painting in possession a look of awe and wonder. She knew she was improving as a painter, but she wasn't struck by the skill she managed to to put from brush to canvas. She was struck by the beauty of, who Anna thought, would never be with her despite them both knowing what they truly wanted.

Perhaps she could run away and elope with Elsa? As much as Hans held her entire life in the palm of his hand, the riches and attention he would shower her with were nothing compared to merely being with Elsa, alone. But where exactly would they run? With Hans's status, there's no telling what he could do to the both of them. Murder, possibly? Was Hans even capable of that?

Anna gave her being with Elsa a second thought, and it pained her to know the kind of pain Elsa could be under just trying to help a man, who possibly never loved her to begin with, win her affections.

She held the painting close and quietly sobbed.

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