After returning from a week long campaign trip with her fiancé, Anna had asked Hans to get some groceries before he dropped her off at the apartment building. The red-head's braids bounced as she exited the car. "Bye!" She called to Hans as he drove away without a second look. Anna's arms ached from the weight of the grocery bags on her arms, how many were there? What? About ten? There was no way she was going to do two trips up to the penthouse suit, no way, no how. She didn't even care for the expensive apartment, Hans just insisted that it was the best one in the city and that he would only have the best. Anna had wanted the two story townhouse farther out of the main hub, but it wasn't good enough. Ironically, Hans spent little to no time in the apartment and Anna dealt with the crushing lonely echoes on her own. But today she ran to the elevator, feeling one of the plastic bags beginning to rip.
"Oh no. You are not going to break on me, no sir." She mumbled as she jammed the button with her elbow. It didn't take. "Ugh, you have got to be kidding me!" She had sent a request to the maintenance man to fix it a few weeks ago, and the elevator ran fine, on occasion. Then was not one of those times. "So, if I live on the thirty-second floor, and there are fourteen stairs in a flight, and thirty-two flights means-" the bag broke and an apple rolled across the hall to the lower level stairwell. "At least it wasn't the chocolate."
Anna placed the bags in a pile on the floor with little grace and stomped toward the apple, grumbling the whole way. She bent down to grab it and heard the soft sound of a guitar being strummed from the basement. The heavy door read "Service Personnel" and Anna could remember crossing the bear of a maintenance man as he retreated through it. She pulled hard on the handle and it swung outward with a groan; the guitar continued to sing.
"Now you listen here… What was it, Mr. Buhjorgman? Kyle?" Anna whispered as she crept down the steps. "Kristopher!" The name flew from her mouth without a thought. Her hand flung to cover it, but it was too late, the guitar stopped and she could hear heavy steps. Anna turned to retreat, her nerve failing her, but slipped and slid down the last few stairs.
"Kristoff, actually." The intimidating blonde towered over her. Anna gulped and stood up unsteadily. "The door says 'Service Personnel' for a reason. I don't come barging into your living space. Unless you put in a maintenance request. And then I will, but otherwise, no. Privacy, and all that." He turned around the stairwell and Anna heard him grunt as he collapsed onto something.
She followed him, striding confidently, and angrily. No one talked to an Arendella like that. "Excuse you, Kristoff. But I did put in a maintenance request, and I don't think it's been properly seen to. So if you could just march on up those stairs and fix that elevator, I would be very appreciative." Anna's voice reflected anything but appreciative.
His eyes were closed as he lay on an old metal framed bed in a very small room. There was a pile of maintenance requests on a desk next to an old computer. A large red toolbox lay expanded on the floor to show the myriad of instruments he used every day. Kristoff was laughing, sitting up to put his hands on his knees.
"The elevator? That's what's so pressing? Just walk up the stairs."
"All the way to the top floor? I pay for the convenience of that elevator, so I'd like to be able to use it!"
"Oh, Miss Penthouse. I see. Listen, there is no way you've paid for that convenience. I see you with your big-shot husband and if he isn't paying for it, then daddy's gotta be."
"That is not very nice-" Anna's voice rose to pitch her anger.
"Just climb the stairs. It won't kill you." Kristoff laid back down, covering his eyes with one large dirt stained hand.
"Ugh!" Anna groaned and began to ascend the stairs. "What a jerk. With his stupid jerkface and his stupid jerky guitar and his stupid jerky hair an- Woah! Woah!" The middle of Anna's foot hit the edge of the stair and she felt herself begin to fall backward. She tried to pull herself forward but it was too late- Clunk. Anna's back hit one step and her head rose and jammed onto another one. She toppled down until she was once again at the foot of the stairs.
"Jesus!" Kristoff was scrambling to get to her, his feet sliding to get a grip. "I wasn't telling you to try and let them kill you!" He pulled her up by an arm but she slumped forward.
"Don't touch me." Anna touted but as soon as he backed off she lurched towards the floor again. "Fine. You can touch me.-Not like that. No I didn't mean that, I mean help me, I mean I don't want you to touch me, that'd be very wrong, very very wrong, and I just met you and Wait what?" Kristoff was clutching unto both of her arms, not listening at all, just looking into her eyes. "Umm, hello!"
"Sit down." He dictated pushing her towards the step. Kristoff grabbed her head, none too gently, and pushed it down. He began to prod at her.
"Hey! What are you do-Ow! Watch it." Anna protested.
"You're bleeding. You must have hit the edge really well. And it looks pretty bad to be honest, I would suggest going to the ER just to check if you need stitches and check you for a concussion. I can call up to your husband if you want."
"Hans and I aren't married, actually." Anna chewed on her lip, then murmured, "And he isn't home."
"Anyone else I can call?"
"My parents live hours away and my sister and I don't talk. I try, but Elsa's always been a lone wolf kind of girl, you know? She's always just kind of pushed me away, it's how we've been since I can remember. I don't know what she's up to an-" Kristoff was staring at her blankly. "Ahem, no. No one."
"Miss Penthouse, do you always ramble like this or just when you've bashed your skull?" Kristoff stood up and dug through his pockets retrieved a large key ring. "I guess I'm taking you then."
"What, no. I'm perfectly fine. And stop calling me Miss Penthouse. I'm Anna." Anna began to stand then pitched forward. "Okay, we can go.
Two bumpy rides in Kristoff's beat up pick-up truck, one "your husband" confusion, and ten stitches later, Anna was standing at the entrance to her building, Kristoff's arm propping her up. The doctor had given her a small stash of pain pills just to make sure she'd be comfortable and had told her to be very careful for the concussion she had most likely endured. He also told Kristoff to watch her for the night to be certain her condition didn't worsen.
Anna stared down the elevator door with vengeance. "Do I still need to fill out a maintenance request?" Kristoff laughed and gave an encouraging, come on.
"We can use the service elevator, just this once. Don't get any ideas, little Miss Penthouse."
"Hey! Anna. Anna Arendella." Kristoff shook his head while searching through his extensive key ring to unlock another Service Personnel door. This lead to a small hall way, a door to the left was the surveillance room and to the right was a metal elevator. Kristoff hit the button and the door slid open. The duo entered the tight room and began their ascent to the thirty second floor.
"So, how did a girl like you get mixed into Hans Southis's life?" Kristoff cautioned, rubbing a hand behind his head.
"Well, Hans and I met at school actually. We went to the University of Weaselton and lived on the same floor my sophomore year. He was an alluring business major with everything figured out and he wanted a life. A real life. Not the one I grew up in. The Arendella family doesn't really take to that. My parents always used Elsa and I as campaign tools, anything to keep my dad in high favor. So here was Hans, telling me he wanted a big backyard so the dog could run around and the kids could play and yeah, it was everything I wanted. Of course we put that off because Hans wants to make changes in the city first, but I think once he implements it, we'll be set to move to the country."
"Aren't you worried that that might take a while?" Anna stared at Kristoff, her mouth open in a reply that just wasn't there. To her relief, they had reached their destination.
"Thank you for everything, Kristoff. And sorry about earlier, I mean the yelling, and really the falling… down the stairs and all that. Yep, sorry." Anna took a step into the hallway and paced toward her front door.
"No way. I am not going to be called up for a strange smell on the thirty-second floor. I am watching to make sure you don't die." Anna grimaced at the joke, "Sorry if that was… gross. But I don't want you to get really hurt. Or more really hurt."
"You've done enough. I'll call Elsa. I should probably talk to her anyway." Kristoff's hand reached behind his head to scratch absentmindedly and he shrugged, "But if it makes you feel better, you can wait until she gets here?"
"I just don't want you to get worse is all." Anna nodded, unlocking the door and stepping inside.
Kristoff whistled. He had never been in so swanky of a place. Really, it was a modern palace. The floor was polished wood and the walls covered in a rich burgundy paint with a wooden trim at the top. A chandelier hung from the center of the pitched furniture was stark white and stiff, Anna barely sat on them for fear of staining one. To Anna, this was a museum. She could never feel comfortable here with the overbearing feeling of decadence.
Anna sat in the armchair closest to her and took a deep breath. She dialed the phone and waited four rings for a frazzled "Hello" from her sister.
"Hey, Elsa. It's your sister, Anna… I know you haven't really wanted to talk to me lately since we announced the engagement… two years ago, but I need a favor. I may be concussed and alone- not alone, the maintenance man is watching me, not creepily, he's pretty nice, nice and pretty, I mean he's doing- Oh. Okay, great. Thank you, I'll let you up in an hour then… yeah of course I'll be fine until then…Yeah, I'm sorry. I miss you Elsa, I love you… Bye."
Kristoff stood by staring at Anna, taking her in and assessing what he heard. "Hans pulled you two apart?"
"My sister is radically against everything he stands for politically. I think she had the mind to run against him in the upcoming election for mayor, but I'm not sure how that'd go." Anna sighed. Politics had never been a subject she had enjoyed, and now her entire life was politics.
"I'd vote for her. Any sister of Anna Arendella can't be worse than Hans Southis."
"Why don't you like him? I get this strange feeling that you wish he were dead."
"Not dead, but terrorizing some other town. I may not personally know your Hans, but I know his type. The business tycoon with no idea of how the small guys feel. We're the majority, but all he cares about is what money can he bring to himself and the rest of the big wigs. And the one encounter I've had with Hans in here he treated me like dirt. Like I was just another serving boy to run his errands." Kristoff picked at the dirt under his nails. "I really don't understand what you see in him. If a family was the only thing, he let you down on that one too."
"You don't even know him." Anna scoffed.
"Does this penthouse look like the place a family could live? It's not even a place you can live. I see how uncomfortable you are here."
"You don't even know me." Anna turned her face, knowing he was telling the truth.
"I don't know how long I'd need to. I can tell you aren't his type. I can tell you just want simple happiness."
"Yeah, and what about you?" Anna's eyes stung with tears. How could a man she was calling a jerk not four hours ago get so inside of her?
"Me? Aren't I easy to read?" Silence. "I guess I'm strong, or at least I like to pretend I am. I'm, well, I'm a romantic. No matter how hard I try to suppress it. I fall, really easily. Kind of like you. But you fell literally." Kristoff cracked a half smile and walked over to her armchair, kneeling down. "I want simple happiness too. It's not a bad thing. A really big dog. Two kids. A swing set I would have made when my wife told me we were having our first kid. Lots of grass to roll around in in the summer. Carrot cake for Thanksgiving dessert." Kristoff shook his head. "It's stupid."
"It's beautiful." Anna was looking at him in a new light. Instead of the dirty workman, she saw Kristoff, a man, a husband, a father. None of those things had ever rolled off of Hans when she listened to him.
They were silent, just looking at each other. Kristoff's hand reached upward and felt one of her red braids, then her face, and then he was so close he could feel her breath on his face.
Anna pushed her face forward and their lips met. At first it felt uncomfortable, strange and new. But then it was like all the pretenses melted and all Anna could see was a big yard, a big dog, and a big blonde man coming home to her. She didn't care what would happen with Hans, she just wanted this life to be her future. As they pulled apart from the kiss, Kristoff's eyes were wide.
"I think maybe we both fell tonight." He admitted with a big grin.