"Hey."
Anna turned her face away from the fingertips brushing her cheek, grunting sleepily. The fingers moved to tickle behind her ear and she swatted at them.
"Hey. Wake up."
"G'way." She rolled over, hugging her pillow to her face. "'m sleepin'."
The insistent fingers ran down her back, then prodded at her ribs. "Wake up, princess."
"Noooooo. Nope." Anna burrowed deeper into her blanket cocoon, then arched up with a shriek as the prodding became merciless tickling. One of her flailing elbows smacked her boyfriend in the face—well, it made the tickling stop.
"Ow. Watch it, feistypants, you almost broke my nose."
Anna had already rolling herself back into her blankets, and her voice was muffled. "You deserved it!" There was a little pause and then she poked her face out to squint at him in the pale morning light. "Are you okay?"
Kristoff poked gingerly at his nose, but he grinned at her. "Yeah, I'm okay."
"Good." Anna ducked back into her fluffy duvet cave. "G'night."
"Noooo you don't. You have to wake up." He tugged at the blanket.
"Not gonna. 's too early."
"I know it's early, but I have to go to work soon. Come on, just wake up for a minute. Please?"
Anna couldn't be expected to resist when her tough and manly boyfriend got that sweet, uncertain wobble in his voice. She couldn't, not even for the sake of her blossoming love affair with her pillow. She rolled over and pushed down her duvet, looking up at him. Kristoff was already dressed for work, complete with jeans and work boots, the sleeves of his flannel shirt rolled up to his elbows, but he hadn't shaved and his chin was scruffy with stubble. Anna reached up to rub her hand over his jaw, feeling the roughness scratch at her soft palm, and he blushed. "Sorry, I didn't—I was kind of in a hurry this morning. I had to run an errand."
"An errand? What kind of errand do you run at dawn?" Anna rubbed at her eyes and scooted up to lean on the headboard.
"I had to go get something. For you. Um."
"For—for me?" Anna's voice broke on a yawn, even though the prospect of a present made her perk up a little.
He rubbed awkwardly at the back of his head. "I'm sorry, this is dumb. I should have just left it with a note or something instead of waking you up. Sorry. I just—I wanted too—geez. Uh. Here." Kristoff reached behind him and picked something up from the foot of the bed. A plate. A plate with…a cake on it. Or something that was probably meant to be a cake, except it was sort of cracked down the middle and slanting to one side, and the icing was full of crumbs, and the heart that someone had tried to draw with pink decorating gel had sort of slid and looked more like a liver. It was the most beautiful dessert Anna had ever seen.
"Sorry," he muttered. "I'm sorry. Ma helped me with it, but I sort of…when I tried to take it out of the pan it sort of came apart, and I glued it together with icing, but then in the car…I just…I know it's the ugliest cake ever but I think it will probably taste okay, and, uh, happy birthday." Anna stared at him, uncharacteristically speechless, and he jumped guiltily. "Geez, I forgot. Hang on." He patted his pockets and finally produced a small box with a lone green candle in it. "Sorry, Ma was down to one, after the birthday rush with the little kids, and I—anyway." He put the candle on the cake, where it promptly slipped to a jaunty angle. Kristoff tried to straighten it but it kept leaning and finally he muttered a curse under his breath and pulled a book of matches from his pocket. "Okay, so…" he lit the candle and leaned back, smiling at her a little shyly, a little apprehensively. "Make a wish?"
Anna bit her lip and looked at the crooked candle on her lumpy, beautiful, perfectly ugly cake and felt tears well up in her eyes. The candle was dripping green wax on the uneven icing and she sniffed. Kristoff shoved his hand through his hair, groaning. "God, Anna, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I know it's awful. I—"
"It's perfect. It's perfect." Anna gave him a watery smile. "It's the best birthday cake I've ever had."
He ducked his head and shrugged, trying to hide the goofy grin that spread over his face. "Yeah?"
"Yes."
Kristoff gave up on the show of manly indifference and grinned openly at her. "Good, that's good. Uh, you'd better make that wish, though…."
The candle was burned halfway down, making a green puddle at the center of the cake, and Anna hastily blew on it.
"Happy birthday," he said quietly.
Anna reached out to grab the front of his shirt and pull him toward her so that he was leaning over the cake in her lap and within kissing range. He tasted like black coffee and his chapped lips were warm on hers. Anna giggled into his mouth as his stubble tickled her. Kristoff leaned back, raising an eyebrow, and she touched his jaw again.
"It itches!"
"Oh yeah?" He curled one big hand around the back of her head and rubbed his cheek against hers, then nuzzling against her neck, making her squeal as the rough hairs scratched. Then she yelped as her hand, jerking involuntarily, landed in something soft and sticky.
"Oops…." Anna took her fingers out of the cake, holding them carefully away from her bedding.
"Crap, I'm sorry, dammit—" Kristoff hastily took the plate out of her lap and set it aside on the bedside table, on top of her pile of abandoned magazines. "I'll get you a napkin or a towel or—" He stopped, staring at her. Anna was already licking the icing off of her fingers, but she paused to look up into his dumbfounded face.
"Do you want some?" she asked, a teasing smile turning up the corners of her mouth.
Kristoff didn't bother with the icing on Anna's fingers—he went straight for the sweetest thing of all, covering Anna's lips with his and slipping his tongue into her mouth, tasting sugar and vanilla as it curled against hers. Anna's startled gasp slid into a satisfied moan as he kissed her, his hands coming up to cradle her head, calloused fingers combing into her tousled, fluffy hair. They were both so distracted that neither of them noticed that Anna had instinctively slid her fingers into his hair as well, until they parted for air and Anna noticed the blue streak.
"Oh no! Oh, Kris—" Anna looked from her hand to his head in dismay. "I got it in your hair."
"Huh?" He blinked, still kiss-dazed, until she held up her icing coated fingers pointedly. "Oh." He touched his hair, feeling the stickiness, and winced. "Hang on, I'll get that towel…"
A damp washcloth from the bathroom and some scrubbing later and they were both icing free, although there was a lingering blue stain on Anna's fingers.
"I look like a Smurf," she said with interest. "I'm going to have the bluest tongue when I eat this cake, aren't I?"
"Sorry," Kristoff muttered. Anna grinned at him and tugged on his shirt again.
This time, without the impediment of the cake or the threat of icing, he pulled her completely into his lap and wrapped her up in his arms while he kissed her, slowly and thoroughly. Anna was limp against his chest by the time he pulled away, and she let her head drop onto his shoulder with a contented sigh.
"I love you," she murmured. He kissed her forehead.
"I love you too." He shifted her in his arms and laid her back down on the bed, bending over her to kiss her again. "I've got to go. You can go back to sleep now, sweetheart."
"Mm." Anna snuggled into her pillow, but she clung to his neck, reluctant to let him pull away. "I wish you could stay."
He kissed her. "Me too. But they're already short at work, it's going to be a long day. I'll see you tonight, okay?"
"Okay." Anna trailed her fingertips down his cheek. The stubble did itch, but she also kind of liked it. Maybe not all the time, but sometimes. It definitely made him look like a rugged mountain man. She bit her lip against a secretive smile, and Kristoff raised an eyebrow.
"What's that look for?"
"Nothing," she said, running her hands over his shoulders, her fingertips drifting down the line of buttons on his shirt. "I was just wondering if I'll get my birthday wish."
"Oh yeah? What did you wish for?"
Anna grinned at him, and pulled him down for one last kiss.