"Are you awake?"
Kristoff had found it hard to sleep in the palace. It's not because he was a picky person as to where he slept - he'd slept in barns, on the ground, on hay, on dirt. He'd burrow down and be asleep in minutes. But the palace was so large, with ceilings too tall and things too organized. Everything was at 90 degree angles; everything had a guard or a maid or someone to watch over it. He feared that if he slept in the sheets wrong he'd be making some poor servant's day harder, and for what? For him? It just seemed so unnecessary. But Elsa had insisted that he move into the palace as soon as Anna had announced that he slept in a barn at dinner. Which wasn't true, by the way! Just because he and Sven slept in the same room didn't make it a barn.
It took time to adjust to all of this, and Kristoff truthfully didn't think he'd every fully adjust to living here. It was too different from everything he'd ever known, and too different from how he was built. But Anna loved having him here, and he loved Anna, so he stayed and adjusted himself. It had been about a year since he'd been moved in and given his own royal room so all of this to say that, yes, he was asleep at the moment Anna climbed into bed with him and shook his shoulder.
"Kristoff, if you're sleeping, just say so."
"How would that work, exactly?"
"Oh, good. You're up!"
Kristoff groaned and rolled onto his back.
Anna laughed. "Are you naked?"
Kristoff flushed red, grateful for the cover of night. "No, I'm wearing pants, just not a shirt."
"You don't sleep with a shirt?" Anna asked, putting a hand on his chest as if she needed to confirm for herself that he was, indeed, shirtless. "I sleep with a shirt on. Well, a dress. But it has a top part."
"Is this what needed to be discussed at three am?"
"Of course not! It's only two am." Anna said.
Kristoff laughed and pulled Anna on top of him, wrapping both his arms around her so tight he could touch his own shoulders. Anna sighed and relaxed for a second, but wriggled and tipped her head up to whisper in his ear. "I have something to show you."
Kristoff froze for a second. This was not the first time Anna had snuck into his room at night, and he had drastically misread that situation the first time it happened too. He remembered the embarrassment of excitedly kissing her, trying to pull her closer only to have her laugh and show him a miniature painted horse she had found while rifling through her things. He tried to set their relationship fully at her pace and her comfort, but part of him wondered if Anna even knew what sex was, because at least he knew how everyone would react if they found her in here at this hour.
"What is it?" he finally asked, arms still around her. "If you woke me up to show me another horse-"
"No! Better! Come with me." Anna wriggled free and climbed off of him, grabbing his arm by his wrist and tugging at him.
"Better than a miniature horse? Oh wow." Kristoff grumbled, taking her hand and letting himself get dragged down the hallway and into a large sitting room.
"Okay, now watch this." Anna stepped behind an end table that housed a few plants and a book.
Kristoff rubbed sleep from his eyes and tried to focus. He was neither a night owl nor an early bird and this was the worst of both worlds.
Anna furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, concentrating on the plants. She raised her hands, moving them in little circles. Kristoff didn't know if that helped her concentrate or was actually doing something, but within a few seconds the plants began to grow and sprawl out, a soft green glow emanating from them. A orchid grew to twice its size, blooming two more buds.
"Oh my God!" Kristoff explained, staggering back for a second before running closer. "How did you do that?" he squatted and gingerly touched one of the orchid flowers. It was real. It had grown in a second just before his eyes.
Anna squealed. "I don't know!"
Kristoff laughed. "This is incredibly. I can't believe this." he pulled Anna closer to him and examined her hands. "I mean I believe it. I saw it, after all. And if anyone's going to be able to do this, it would definitely be you. But, God!" he laughed, rising up to his full height. "What did your parents feed you as kids? You both have powers? How did all of this happen?"
"I don't know!" Anna shuffled a little, looking around. "Elsa said that after the accident, when they took me to the trolls, all memories of magic were removed. So I sort of just...forgot that I'd be able to do things like this. But after everything, after the thaw, things slowly came back to me."
"When did this start?" Kristoff asked. The plants stayed just as grown as they were. It still amazed him.
"Well I've always been very good at keeping plants alive." Anna said. "Which I just figured was a normal talent. I tried to take good care of them, even I forgot to water them every once in a while or something. And about a year back after the thaw I was walking in the gardens, looking at this one plant I didn't quite recognize, and wondering how it could be helped. It was dying. And once I really concentrated it just...bloomed. That I knew was weird."
"Wow." Kristoff breathed. "So you've been working this out for a year?"
"Yes! I finally feel like I'm starting to get a bit of a handle on it. It doesn't always work, but here, look-" Anna grabbed his arm again and yanked him back out into the hallway to her bedroom.
Kristoff stood behind her as she gestured to all the roses spilling out over her windowsill and across the floor.
"I kept focusing on roses and I just made them appear! Bloomed out of thin air!" Anna jumped a little. "Isn't it amazing?"
Kristoff laughed, for want of having anything else to do. "It's amazing."
Anna spun around and threw her arms around him, hopping a little to let him pick her up.
"What's this?" Kristoff asked, jostling her a little.
"If you have to hold on to me, you can't leave and go back to bed." she leaned her head into his neck, sighing.
Kristoff smiled. He knew that he should put her down and go back to his room, but he also remembered how many times he had dreamed of a moment just like this with her, so who was he to deny either of them?
"Why don't I just stay?" he said.
Anna lifted her head to smile widely at him. "I think that's a wonderful idea!"
…
Brigita liked working as a maid the castle, mostly. It was good work, not too hard. It paid well, and the castle was a beautiful place to spend time. But the worst part, especially for a night person such as herself, was having to be the first one up. She was the new maid, lowest in the pecking order, and it was her job to sneak into the rooms and stoke up the fires.
It was grimy work but, worse, it must be done with the most care. She was going into people's bedrooms - royal's bedrooms - and rifling around as they slept. She must not, under any circumstances, wake them. Elsa was kind, as their few reactions had proved, but she was a light sleeper. Anna slept through anything, so that was less concerning.
So, as usual, she got warmed up for her duties by starting with Anna's room. She opened the door quietly, and very quickly noticed that the princess wasn't alone. Brigita clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Of course she knew that Anna and Kristoff were a couple, and sure they weren't the first people to spend the night together before marriage, but there was something so bold about -
Brigita was hit with the realization that if nearly anyone else found them like this, the reaction wouldn't be that of bemusement. No, Anna or Kristoff could get in serious trouble for this. Kristoff especially, since would but the queen could punish a princess? Biting her lip, Brigita crept over to the side of the bed where Kristoff gently snored.
"Hey. Hey!" she said, jabbing his shoulder.
He moaned, and she shushed him.
"Oh!" he jumped a little, but she waved her hands.
"Don't wake Anna!" she whispered. "It's morning. You can't be found here."
Kristoff was groggy for a second, but realization hit him quickly. "Oh, shit-"
"Sh! No one is up yet, go now! You'll be fine, your room isn't that far."
Kristoff nodded a little. "Thank you!"
Brigita smiled and stepped back, letting him leave quickly and close the door behind him. She looked around with amusement at the hundreds of roses around the room. With a bit of concentration and a wave of her hand, she brought a gust of wind and tidied them up.
…
Elsa sat at the table with the council, clenching her hands into fists as she listened to what they said.
"And no one felt it important to bring this to my attention until now, right as the deadline approaches?" she said, maintaining her composure as best should could. Which, based on the discomfort of the council, was not very well.
"We hoped it would happen...organically." One of the men spoke.
"You are getting older, after all."
"I'm only twenty-four!" Elsa exclaimed.
"Your parents wanted this to be a match of love, as well as smart politics." another man explained. "They did not make this law, but they spoke of it to us often in your youth."
"I'm perfectly capable of running this country on my own." Elsa crossed her arms.
"No one is saying that you aren't, highness. But no human, no matter how educated or prepared, knows everything, all the time. It is good to have a partner, a confidant, someone to discuss matters of state with."
Elsa felt sadness pool in her stomach. Her parents had wanted her to be married. She knew it was common for rulers to be married, and she remembered both her parents crediting the success of their too-short reign to the partnership and trust they shared.
"So what did their letter say?"
"They wrote it together when you were eighteen, when your mother caught ill."
Elsa remembered those scary days. Her mother had caught a fever, leaving her bedridden for weeks. The doctor was hesitant to say that she would die, but everyone assumed that this would be the end of her. Thankfully, her mother had recovered, though they didn't understand then that she was living on borrowed time.
"Show it to me." Elsa said. The letter was handed to her, and she read it quickly.
The letter wasn't long, stating that her parents wished that, in the event they wouldn't be around for her young adulthood, that she'd be married. They gave her the age of 25 as a guide, telling her to treat it as an important decision, but not to wait for the perfect person, because they'd never come. They said they knew their daughter, and that she'd wait forever for a faultless man, when all she needed was a king.
All you need is a king.
Elsa touched where her parents had written that. They didn't know, they'd never know.
"Most women are married by your age." a man said gingerly.
Elsa glared at him, and he looked away. She folded the letter and slid it onto her lap. She would never love a man, she knew that, but did the rest of the kingdom even know it was possible? She knew of no women who married other women, she'd never heard of a queen ruling with a woman by her side. Was this, like ice powers, another phenomenon only she was forced to reckon with?
Even there, she debated telling them. Saying that, sure, she'd pull off a marriage in a year, but only if she could find a bride. She didn't know how they'd react, though she couldn't imagine the conversation would be easy. God, she wished that anyone else knew! It would be easier to know what to say if she had ever pieced the words together before. But what good would it do? She had never known a woman romantically, there was no one to fight for her right to be together with.
She'd have to reckon with this, she knew that much. But that battle didn't have to be fought today.
"It's your parents' wishes, highness." A man said, giving her a pleading look. "We didn't do this to hurt you, we did this to honor them."
"I know." Elsa said quietly. "That's the only reason why I'm listening."