"I don't know Elsa, none of them are just right."
Anna let out an exasperated sigh and slumped down to the floor of the Ornament shop. Anna had dragged Elsa out of the apartment they shared to go shopping. They had been to every single store in town that sold tree toppers, in search of one for the tree that nearly reached the apartments ceiling.
Elsa frowned and knelt down beside her little sister, wrapping her arm around her in a side hug.
"It's okay Anna, I haven't had a tree topper on the tree for the past two Christmases. We can find one next year?" Anna shook her head and bit back tears.
"I shouldn't have taken it for our tree." She whispered to her feet.
Our tree? Elsa was slightly confused at first, but then she remembered, Hans. Anna had gotten engaged to the dirty lying cheat of a man Hans Westegard two Christmases ago and Anna had taken the star tree topper from their childhood Christmas tree for the tree she would share with Hans. Last Christmas Eve, after Hans had come home drunk and with another women, they got into a terrible argument. Hans had taken the star off the tree, knowing what it meant to Anna, and broke it at her feet. Anna had left him afterwards, glad that they had never gotten around to having the wedding, but spent the next year deeply depressed. This Christmas seemed to bring back the feelings as Elsa had never bothered to buy another star, and now they had none.
Elsa shook her head and squeezed the red head tighter.
"Sh. Sh. Sh. You didn't know any better. It isn't your fault. There's that small holiday store across the street, we haven't looked there. I'm sure we'll find something." The platinum blonde helped her sister to her feet and walked her to the store.
"Yoohoo! Welcome to Oaken's Holiday Shop and Bakery. We're having a big pre-holiday sale. Half off wreaths, tree skirts, and a hot coco of my own invention Ya?" The giant of a man sat behind the counter of the holiday shop wearing a hideous Christmas sweater and a light up Christmas light necklace. Anna had perked up slightly since the last store and smiled,
"That's great! But how about for now tree toppers? Stars in particular?" The man nodded and pointed to the left of the store,
"That would be in our decor department."
Anna immediately rushed over to the decorations while Elsa trailed behind, praying that there would be one star to fit her sister's liking. Anna scoured over the shelves of tree toppers, completely oblivious to the jingle of the store door and the burly blond now searching the shelves beside her. She stood high on her tip toes to look over the highest shelf when suddenly she saw it.
A crystal star, sparkling along the edges, and different colors appearing inside the star as the light hit it just right.
"It's perfect!" She squealed and reached for it just as a much deeper voice went,
"Perfect," and reached for it as well.
It wasn't until she pulled the star down that she realized another hand was wrapped around it as well.
" I don't think so mister, this is my star. I found it first and I have dragged my sister all over the town for this star and no one is- wait Kristoff?" Anna stopped mid rant when her eyes locked with the man standing across from her. Warm brown eyes that looked so very familiar, so similar to the eyes of the boy who had been her best friend in middle school and high school too until she had, wrongly, stopped hanging out with him to dote over Hans.
Kristoff stared at Anna, mouth open in shock and eyes wide.
"A-anna?" He finally stuttered after a moment. "From middle school?"
Anna nodded meekly and then asked
"What's better than people?"
Kristoff's face immediately lit up, he still remembered their inside joke after all these years, "Reindeer of course!"
Anna burst into a fit of giggles and nodded before wrapping her arms around his chest, "It's so good to see you! It's been a long time. Too long I um, I missed you." Anna backed away smiling shyly, hoping her blushing wasn't noticeable. Kristoff nodded, smiling more than he usually did and feeling more nervous than usual, "Uh, yeah. Yeah me too. Missed you a lot, I didn't know you still lived in town. Didn't you move to New York with Westegard?" He tried so hard not to show the disgust and hate when he said his name.
Anna tensed and looked down at her feet, "Yeah. Yeah I moved. But then we um," Anna took a deep breath and swallowed the nervous tears and looked back up at the caring eyes. "We aren't together anymore."
It took Kristoff a moment to process the last sentence; it was shocking to hear that Anna and Hans weren't together, they had seemed so undoubtedly in love senior year he just assumed Anna would love the rest of her life with the pretentious jerk, no matter how much he hated it. "Oh, Anna I'm sorry..." He wanted so badly to be hurt for the separation but a small part of him was strangely happy.
Anna smiled a lopsided smile. "It's fine. For the better really. I just came here for a tree topper. Mine it broke." Anna stood on her tip toes and grabbed half of the star, but Kristoff shook his head. "Sorry Freckles. I need to take this home. Sven jumped on the tree and broke the other one and if I don't have a new one on the tree in a half hour, well the towns going to have a serious problem on their hands. Ma doesn't take Christmas lightly." Anna frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Oh don't you Freckles me! Calling me by my middle school nickname is not going to get you my star!" She reached up for the star, jumping on her toes. "So give it!" Kristoff chuckled and lowered the star but didn't hand it over.
"But why this star? There's so many others." He was only joking with her, picking on her like he used to, but Anna seemed offended.
In fact she was fuming.
"This star looks like my old one! And it was our family star but Hans dropped it by my feet on Christmas Eve and now I don't have one! I need that star none of the others are right!" Her face was nearly as read as her hair and tears were brimming her eyes. Kristoff stopped and set the star on the shelf.
"Hey hey hey, Sh. It's okay don't, don't cry. Here. You take the star. I'll take this angel, Ma always thought they were prettier anyway." Kristoff hesitantly reached over to hug Anna. Anna blinked away her tears and shook her head "I'm not crying." But she hugged him back anyway.
Elsa came around the corner corner holding a cup of Hot Coco and a bag of fudge, "Anna you have to try this coco and fudge it's amazing-oh." Anna turned to her sister and broke out of the hug. "Oh, Elsa you remember Kristoff right?" Kristoff smiled and held out his hand to Anna's sister. Elsa grinned and shook his hand, she had always wished Anna had stayed friends with Kristoff and secretly had wanted Anna to be engaged with him rather than Hans. "Kristoff was just taking our star topper, weren't you Kris?" Anna gave him a playful smirk. To which he replied,
"I was. But you see your sister is pretty strong and she beat me down. So it's her star now." He handed Anna the glistening crystal star and smiled. Anna took the star and inspected it once more.
"You know what? I think I'll get an angel too. A nice new angel. A new one. For new beginnings." Anna set the star up on the shelf and grabbed an angel dressed in the purest of white with a candle wreath on her head. Kristoff cocked his head, "You sure?" Anna nodded, "I could use some new good memories." Elsa smiled cheerfully from the side, relieved to see the smile on Anna's face.
The sisters payed for the angel but before they left, Anna scurried over to Kristoff with her receipt with her phone number on the back.
"Um, I was thinking maybe we could possibly hang out sometime? Like old times?" She handed him the receipt and he nodded, "I'd like that."
Anna's cheeks turned pink and she smiled, "Good. And, Thank you. For everything."
And with that she was gone. Driving away with Elsa and their angel, chattering away. But it want like last time she had driven away, this time it wasn't the end of a friendship, it was a new beginning.