Growing up secluded in the castle, one might assume that Anna rarely got sick. Not only her separation from people, but the fact that as Princess of Arendelle, Anna was seen by the finest doctors and physicians in the kingdom — well, one would think she was always the picture of health.
But, despite their preventative treatments and care, the Princess always seemed to catch whatever mild illness that was going around. Though Anna caught everything that was coming or going, she was never sick for very long.
Kristoff was the complete opposite.
Even though he came into contact with more people on a daily basis, he very rarely caught whatever was going around the city or in other villages. But when he did get sick, it always hit him hard.
Which was why Anna was worried about Kristoff these last few days.
Kristoff didn't have the luxury of a private family doctor — who lived very conveniently in another hall of the castle whenever needed — until a few years ago now. He grew up with a "rub some dirt on it, walk it off" mentality, and was incredibly stubborn when it came to admitting he wasn't alright. Kristoff was even reluctant to ask for the trolls' help when sick or injured, only going to their healing abilities for something serious.
And, recently, Anna was starting to suspect that Kristoff was falling ill with something. But, as usual, he was being too pig-headed to tell her that he was sick.
Kristoff was always so vigilant about her health, and caring when she got sick — Anna just wanted to do the same thing; care for him when he wasn't feeling good.
Usually, Kristoff was up before the sun even rose from the horizon of the fjord. Bur, these last couple of mornings, Anna would roll over in bed to find him still curled up under the covers. And — just today, in fact — he seemed rather slow and sluggish once he had gotten up to start the day, and it hadn't been just regular morning grogginess.
"He's just a stubborn…idiot!" Anna vented, throwing her hands up over her head before moodily crossing her arms against her chest.
"What's Kristoff done this time?" Elsa inquired casually, her eyes never leaving the papers neatly set out on her desk, though her ears were ever attentive to her sister's voice.
Anna blinked. "How do you know I'm talking about Kristoff?"
Elsa spared her sister a silent glance before returning to her work.
"Okay, yeah, you've got me on that one. But it's not something he's done, it's something he isn't doing," Anna replied, a sigh escaping her.
"Anna, a man can bathe only so much in one day to try and erase the smell of wet reindeer," Elsa pointed out in a teasing tone, a benign smile on her pale face.
"No, it's not that! Besides, I don't mind his work smell…," Anna murmured, sitting herself on the edge of her sister's desk. "I think Kristoff may be sick with something, but he's too stubborn to tell me so that I can help," she explained.
"Have you tried asking him if he's feeling ill, Anna?" Elsa asked wryly, setting her quill down and shifting her untouched papers to the side.
Anna opened her mouth to speak — her index finger raised up, like she was about to reveal some sort of epiphany — but almost instantly closed her mouth again. "No…Come with me?"
Kristoff could be just as stubborn as her sometimes, so Anna hoped that having Elsa present would more easily get the man to back down and listen. Elsa would also prevent this from turning into an argument.
Elsa shook her head, smile still in place, as she stood from her chair. "If our Ice Master is ill, it is my duty as Queen to see that he is properly looked after. Besides, if Kristoff really is sick, Anna, I wouldn't want him to be pushing himself in such a way…As a friend, and as family. Come, let's speak with our Ice Master and Deliverer."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Kristoff, don't start this stubborn, tough guy act," Anna huffed, pouting in an exasperated manner. "Would you stop working for a minute and listen? You need to rest—"
"Anna, I don't need to rest. I need to put Sven up for the night, make sure he's got enough food and water — and one of the sled's runners got damaged along one side, so I've gotta fix that."
"Kristoff. There are other people who can do this sort of stuff — it's what we pay them to do — so you can take a break and rest for once!"
Kristoff fumbled with the buckles on Sven's harness, his fingers unusually slow and clumsy at the task, before easing it off the weary animal and hanging it from a hook in the reindeer's stall. "But I don't want anyone else doing it for me, Anna! I don't expect you to understand why I don't want other people doing my work, I just…," he trailed off, seeming to lose his train of thought for a moment, "…I'm perfectly capable of doing this work on my own."
"If I may interject for a moment," Elsa spoke up before Anna could go at it again, clearing her throat delicately. "You do look rather flushed, Kristoff."
"Of course I am, I've been working all day," Kristoff pointed out, an eyebrow raised as he regarded the Queen.
"No, this is different…I've seen you after a full day of work many times now, Kristoff, and this just…has an off feel to it; something isn't right," Elsa said, her eyebrows drawn up with concern. At first, she had thought Anna might be overreacting to Kristoff's behavior, but Elsa now realized that her sister's worries were valid.
Kristoff rubbed at his face with a hand, leaning against the stall door in an effort to conceal that he was starting to sway a bit on his feet. "'M fine…"
"No, Kristoff, you're not! I know I'm not always the most observant, but I know you, Kristoff, and I know something isn't right…," Anna pleaded, taking the opportunity to press her hand against his forehead. "Kristoff, you're burning up!"
The blond pulled away from her touch, stumbling back into Sven's side. "Listen, you two, it's nothing. I'll walk it off, and be completely fine in the morning."
"I'm afraid that might not be the case this time, Kristoff…Whatever this is, I don't believe it will be something you can just…'walk off'," Elsa stated slowly, the phrase unfamiliar and slightly awkward in her mouth.
"Please, Kristoff…Just for tonight. Let someone else finish up your work, so you can rest," Anna pressed on, concern clear on her face.
Kristoff shook his head, edging around Anna to exit the stall. "I'm done with this conversation, Anna…I'll see you later tonight," he muttered over his shoulder, going to get Sven some fresh carrots from the kitchen's stock.
Anna was nowhere near finished with the conversation, but she let Kristoff go. Clearly, not feeling fully himself had left Kristoff's patience thin and his temper frayed, and Anna wasn't going to aggravate him further.
Elsa placed a reassuring hand on her younger sister's arm, a sympathetic expression on her face.
"You know I'm right about this," Anna stated, resisting the urge to sigh, "I'll just try again after our evening meal…"
Of course, Kristoff knew Anna wasn't just going to drop the subject. He'd seen her determination firsthand, after all. So he made sure to be scarce come supper time, effectively avoiding her until it was dark and quiet in the castle.
But Anna knew, fight or not, Kristoff would come to bed. Unless he was physically away from her, Kristoff never let Anna sleep by herself; the nightmares were more frequent when she was alone.
Their chambers were quiet, tension hanging thick in the air between them.
Anna was already in her nightwear by the time Kristoff trudged in, the redheaded woman perched on the bed as she waited for the ice harvester to join her.
"…You didn't eat with us…"
Kristoff haphazardly kicked off his boots, tossing his hat and gloves after them. "Wasn't very hungry."
"Oh…" A pause, the sound of clean sheets whispering against skin as Anna moved. "Did you at least get something from the kitchens to eat before coming up?" she asked.
Anna was very conscientious of her loved ones' eating habits. Elsa ate very little, really, and often forgot when she was caught up in her duties as Queen. Kristoff had explained to her once that he had often gone without certain things before living in the castle — and some nights, that included food. So Anna had taken it upon herself to make sure they always ate enough.
"Mm," Kristoff mumbled, gingerly starting to remove his shirt.
Anna didn't miss the grimace, and the twitch of muscles in his back as the movement caused him some sort of discomfort. "Kristoff…?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he tried to wave her off, but not before Anna saw the shallow cut on his left side.
Crawling across the mattress to get a closer look, Anna let out a sympathetic noise of pain in the back of her throat. The cut wasn't incredibly deep, but it spanned roughly the same length between her wrist and the the tip of her index finger. It wasn't a clean cut, more of a ragged, happenstance gash. The flesh around the wound was an irritated red, the skin hot to the touch as she carefully pressed her hand against his side.
"How did this happen?" Anna inquired, trying to meet his gaze.
"Sharp tools, slippery ice," Kristoff sighed, sitting on the bed next to Anna. "Got a little careless with the ice saw."
"You shouldn't have been working so late in the season," Anna pouted, squirming around to get to his injured side again.
Kristoff raised a brow at her words, a vague smirk edging onto his face. "Late in the season? When did you start talking like an expert harvester, Princess?" he asked, grunting when she forced him to move his arm out of her way.
"Since I married one, that's when," Anna muttered, her attention more concentrated on looking over the cut. "How long have you left this untreated, Kristoff?"
"…Almost a week, maybe? It's just a cut, Anna, nothing serious," Kristoff replied in a low tone, standing up again and stubbornly getting under the warm covers of the bed. "I'm tired, can we just…go to bed?"
Anna let out a frustrated sigh, blowing out the low-lit candles before slipping into bed next to her husband. "You're a stubborn old bear, you know that?" she huffed, sneaking her arms around his waist — mindful of where she touched.
Kristoff let out a muffled chuckle, shifting so that his forehead pressed against Anna's. "And you know that won't change, I'm too stubborn."
Anna rolled her eyes, and almost allowed herself to fall into the ease of sleep. But she still worried, now knowing what was likely causing Kristoff to hurt and become sick like this — she could only hope that he would improve over the night.
It was only a couple of hours before dawn when Anna woke up — very unusual for her, but something felt…wrong. As per usual, the two had drifted apart from each other during the night; Anna spread out over her side of the bed, and Kristoff curled up on his. That wasn't out of the ordinary for them — but Kristoff shivering under a pile of thick blankets was.
Even on a cold night, Kristoff would end up kicking out of the sheets after a while, so for him to actually be shivering under the blankets was odd.
"Kristoff…Kristoff, wake up," Anna mumbled, still half-asleep, as she shook his shoulder.
He groaned and rolled over onto his side, but didn't wake up.
"Kristoff, are you cold?" she asked, shifting her hand to his cheek — and blinking at the sweaty dampness that met her fingers. If he was cold, why was he sweating so much? "Kristoff…Kris, wake up," Anna tried again, more awake than she had been a moment ago.
The blond man opened his eyes briefly at her insistent voice and not-so gentle pats to the cheek, but just as quickly seemed to fade back into unconsciousness again.
The night wasn't even completely through, but Kristoff had clearly not gotten any better.
Nearly bolting up in bed, Anna turned back one more time to Kristoff, leaning over so that she could quickly press her lips against his hot forehead. "I'll be right back, okay?" she whispered, before launching herself out of bed and down the hall to get the physician.
Kristoff woke up slowly, feeling groggy and slightly disoriented. Shifting himself up so that he was sitting instead of lying down, Kristoff winced at the unexpected constricted feeling around his abdomen — not enough to keep him from breathing, but tight enough for him to be aware of it.
"What…?" he mumbled, blearily blinking down at the bandages wrapped securely around his middle.
"You sit still, or I'll pour hot tea in your lap, Mister."
Brown eyes rose to meet the uncharacteristically stern face of Anna. "I'm sorry…?" he murmured, confused.
"You were that sick, and you didn't tell me? You've been out for days, Kristoff; barely keeping conscious through your fever most of the time," Anna continued, not meeting his gaze as she poured a cup of tea.
Kristoff let out a breath through his nose, reclining back into the soft pillows behind him. "I…I didn't think it was that bad. I thought it would heal on its own after a while."
"Well, it didn't. It got worse, because of an infection — or so the physician said. That's why it was all red and swollen, and how you came down with such a bad fever," she huffed, thrusting the teacup at him. "Drink this, you dumb bear."
Kristoff took the cup carefully, nose scrunching up a bit at the smell of the tea. "What is this, exactly?" he asked slowly, wary of Anna's mood at the moment, taking an experimental sip of the steaming liquid. He tried valiantly not to gag, his face twisting into a grimace as a shudder ran down his spine at the taste.
"Medicinal tea," Anna stated after he had taken a drink of it, "It's supposed to help with any lingering pain, and flush out anymore toxins in your body."
"So, it'll make me piss a lot, you mean," he said, arching a brow at her.
That earned him a slight quirk of the lips, Anna attempting to scowl but not quite managing it as well as before. "Stop that, you! I'm trying to be furious at you!" she quipped in a slightly frustrated — but more Anna-like — whine. "You really had me worried, you big goof."
Dutifully draining the teacup, Kristoff repressed another shudder as he set it down. "…I didn't mean to worry you so much, Anna. You know I'd never do that sort of thing on purpose. I was just—"
"Stubborn? In denial? Not as smart as me?" Anna offered, the small smirk on her lips showing her teasing intent.
"All of the above."