The Adventures of Elisabeth and Frederick - Part 3

"One of my favourite artists is coming to Berlin in about two weeks," said Elisabeth one night.
"Who's that?" Frederick replied.
"Escapade - he's this absolute sensation in the music world, he mixes all kinds of tones and genres into one huge visual and auditory experience. It's mostly things you can lift your arms to and dramatically sway from side to side. Or slow dance."
"Is that a hint?"
"I never hint. Will you come with me?"
"Of course I will. But you should know that us Berliners take our dancing very seriously."
"Can you teach me?"
"It can't be taught. It's just letting yourself be transported, as if you were floating in water and the strong currents moved you. Just like that."
"Sounds like pretentious bullshit to me."

They spent the concert never leaving each other's side. Frederick enjoyed himself immensely, and to Elisabeth's delight, he lifted her onto his shoulders when Escapade played her favourite song. They left themselves to be immersed in the mood and the sweat of the wild crowd and eventually, they shut out the world, remaining the only two people that mattered on earth that night.

Elisabeth often saw their relationship as an out-of-body experience. Sometimes, when they lay intertwined at night, or when she would watch him stack his books alphabetically in a shelf she had helped him put up, she saw them in their undeniable love bubble. It scared her, as she had been in another love bubble not long before she had chosen Berlin, and all the passion then had turned sour very quickly.
When Frederick had asked her to move in with him, Elisabeth said no. It was a choice divided between fear and the desire to maintain some independence. She had calmly explained this to Frederick, who had shrugged in a rather un-German fashion: they spent so much of their time together, why not make it official?
"Because then there would be no more mystery between us. We'll know the smallest, most insignificant details about one another, like how often you do your laundry or how long it takes me to brush my hair in the morning."
Her long hair was her pride and joy.

"I already know that," he replied without sulking. Instead, he reached over to her nightstand, grabbed her wooden comb and proceeded to brush through the reddish brown mane on the head of the woman he loved.

The Adventures of Elisabeth and Frederick - Part 2

Their adventures began with a spontaneous trip to Prague. They walked and explored every part of town and found people who would take their picture without running away with the expensive camera.
The weekend turned out to be far too brief, as these moments always are, but it left a lasting impression on both of them. Frederick realised that Elisabeth was a better traveling companion than anyone he had known before. When they fought, it didn't take long for them to forget or find a relatively diplomatic solution, usually one that would require no clothes at all and nothing but each other's embrace. Elisabeth understood that Frederick, unlike the boys and men she had known before, was the opposite of someone who liked to create unnecessary drama out of thin air. His jealousy episodes if one can call them that were tempered and overwhelmingly short. And more than that, he never gave her a reason to be jealous.
Their conversations deepened with time. They spoke of their absentee parents as well as the ones they loved very much.
Elisabeth told Frederick of her fear of being lonely and the difference between that and being alone. The latter she didn't mind. The former was something her loveless mother had settled on her. It wasn't good, but it was nevertheless a part of Elisabeth, one Frederick would learn to love.

With the passing of months, Frederick's need for Elisabeth grew. It never manifested itself through grand displays of meaningless declarations or through boundless despair when she turned out not to be where he wanted her. His affections became more frequent. A touch of his fingers against the warm skin of her neck, a soft kiss on her forehead when she slept or a deep sigh released into the forest of her long hair when their passion had been given into.
He adored her backside and she clawed in to his broad shoulders, as if they would save her from drowning.
It was not long until they fell into moments when all they would do was study each other. They craved to know the smallest and most intimate mannerisms of the other: the way their breathing slowed down when they had fallen asleep, how their neck strained after hours of work, how tension could be spotted in the way they wrote.

Little notes made their way into Frederick's pockets.
The most frequent one read: "I love you more than chocolate".

The Adventures of Elisabeth and Frederick - Part 1

E: The first time Elisabeth saw Frederick, he was standing at a ticket counter, chatting to a man with more tattoos than plain skin.
She looked twice. One of those rare moments when your eyes want to see what they have already seen again. A closer, deeper look - one that is needed should those eyes ever learn to love what is before them.
Frederick was a German of ancient Prussian descent, tall and built like the noble wardrobes of old. He wore a golden crown of thick hair on his head, reminiscent of his ancestry.
But what drew Elisabeth to him at first were his eyes. Bright green, like the freshly mowed grass on top of an untouched hillside.

F: Frederick had had a bad day. He was meant to go lose himself in the latest Hollywood blockbuster, something he did often and with great pride, but his friends cancelled their plans at the very last moment. He went all the same, even though the prospect of sitting alone in a dark room made him somewhat uncomfortable.
There at the ticket counter, he met Elisabeth. She too seemed to be on her own, yet much more comfortable with that fact than him. Elisabeth spoke first, something which Frederick would always cherish.
Holding up her ticket, she asked: "And you?"
He smiled: "Touché".

The film finished two hours later, but Elisabeth and Frederick did not go their separate ways until the early hours of the morning.

First, they fell in love with Berlin.. then with one another.