A/N: Hey! Long time no update! College life got the best of me and I also did not have access to Microsoft word for a while which made even opening the document difficult. Fast forward to now, I'm out for the summer and finally have Microsoft Office again. I almost decided to give up on this story because it has been so long, but I was contacted by someone who wanted to beta read/ editor and it encouraged me to get back on the horse so to speak. I'm going to be updating the already existing chapters before I post new ones so bare with me! Edits are thanks to our new editor! I don't know if I'll be able to update regularly, but I'm going to try to make sure I don't pause for as long as I did again. I'm very sorry about that...
Thank you, everyone who has reviewed and favorited the story. It really means a lot. Here is the updated Chapter 1. Author out!

Chapter 1

Anna shoved on her shoes and dashed down the hall toward the stairs. Okay, don't want to be late, she thought to herself, glancing at the clock. Five minutes. She was halfway down the stairs before she remember that she still needed to tell Elsa where she was going. She ran back up to Elsa's room.

The door was closed. Memories of her childhood flashed before her eyes—Elsa shutting her out, never opening the door no matter how hard she begged.

Anna shook her head. Things were different now. Elsa didn't shut her out anymore. She could be napping or reading or doing something else that might require the door being closed. Still, Anna hesitated before she knocked.

"Elsa," Anna called. "I'm going out with Kristoff. Well… I mean… not going out as in dating, but going out as in he's taking me with him to help with ice harvesting and such. Yeah… well… I'm off. I'll be back before dinner!"

She could have slapped herself as she ran down the stairs and out the castle gates. How could I be so stupid as to phrase it that way? Elsa already has suspicions. One kiss and it spreads all over town like wildfire. We are not dating! Anna thought as she hurried to the outskirts of the kingdom where Kristoff had told her to meet him. Of course I like him, and since he kissed me, he must like me, too, but that doesn't mean we're automatically in a relationship. She was still too worked up from the whole Hans thing to think about relationships at the moment; commitments were not at all part of her concerns. She liked her relationship with Kristoff where it was at. She refused to rush things like she did with Hans. Kristoff was nice; she wanted to do this relationship the right way and not get married after a day.

She leaned against a tree as she tried to catch her breath. Being cooped up in a castle for forever did not provide many opportunities for exercise. Somehow she must have made it to the meeting spot early because Kristoff was nowhere to be seen. It was a good thing too; she didn't want him to see her like this, sweaty and out of breath as if she was running late. Pfft, no that is not what happened.

She heard foot steps behind her and spun around. She adjusted her posture against the tree to make it seem as if she had been waiting for him for a while. She brushed her hair behind her ear—a nervous habit of hers—and smiled.

"Hey," she yawned. "Took you long enough."

Kristoff laughed. "I bet you just got here."

"Ha! No, what ever gave you that idea?" Anna scoffed, hoping that she wasn't sweating too much.

"Uh-huh." He rolled his eyes and approached her. "You think I'm going to believe that?"

She nodded. "Yes."

He put his arm on the tree to lean in front of her. "Well, I don't." He pressed his forehead against hers. "But maybe you can persuade me otherwise."

Before he reached her lips, she placed a hand over his mouth. "Not right now," she whispered. "What if Olaf followed? Or Sven, for that matter?"

He gently dragged her hand away from his mouth. "I left Sven with the sled further up the mountain. You can't just pull a sled anywhere you know. There's gotta be snow. As for Olaf, he is nowhere to be seen."

"Still, we are really close to town, and I don't want anyone to see. People are talking…" She looked away from him, hoping that he wouldn't take that the wrong way.

He backed away. "What do you mean by that? Are you embarrassed of me?"

Shoot, he did…

She bit her lip, "No, not of you. I'm afraid of rumors spreading. You know, once people start talking, the lies start to snow ball until the story is entirely different from how it was in the beginning. Plus, after this whole Hans thing, I don't want my reputation taking a turn for the worse."

He sighed, "I guess." He pushed himself off the tree and walked towards the path that led up the mountain.

She followed closely behind him. Things were quiet for a while after that. It was obvious that he didn't like her excuse. Just because I'm not ready to announce that I'm in a relationship doesn't mean I want to push him away, she thought to herself as they walked further into the woods. She wasn't trying to ruin things with him, but the longer neither of them talked the more she felt like she had done something wrong.