The alarm clock's painful buzzing tore Anna away from her dreams. Still half asleep, she made a mental note to start keeping a baseball bat beside her bed. Smashing her hand against the snooze button wasn't doing nearly as much damage to the clock as she wanted it to.
Anna threw off the covers and practically crawled to the bathroom. She hopped into the shower, almost forgetting to take off her pajamas first. Anna let the hot water rain onto her head in the hopes that it would soothe her terrible bed head. But, soon, the water's warm embrace made Anna fall asleep on her feet.
A knock on the bathroom door woke Anna. "Hey, Anna," Elsa called, making sure she was heard over the noise of the shower. Anna jumped, startled by her sister's voice, and slipped.
"Woah!" Anna shouted, catching herself at the last moment. She was definitely awake now. "Yeah, Elsa?"
"I'm going to the bookstore. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Want me to bring you anything?"
Anna pulled back the shower curtain and poked her head out of the shower. "No, I'm alright! Oh, oh wait! Can you bring me Double Chocolate Chip Crème Frappuccino from that little café?"
"One of these days, you're going to actually ask me to bring you a book." Anna could hear Elsa giggling through the door. "I'm heading out. Hey, don't forget –"
"No boys in the apartment if you're not home. I know. I know." Anna rolled her eyes.
A year earlier, Anna had been dating a boy she'd met at a party. She brought him to the apartment when Elsa was out, and he'd taken as much of their stuff as he could carry on the way out. Elsa still wasn't over it, even though Anna's new boyfriend was a complete sweetheart, and definitely, definitely, not a thief. Elsa knew that, after all, it was Kristoff who sold Elsa the ice she needed to make her sculptures, but she wasn't about to lighten up until Anna learned her lesson.
Anna finished her shower and, wrapped up in a fluffy fuchsia towel, flopped back onto her bed, this time with her laptop open in front of her. The thought popped into Anna's mind that, maybe, she could surprise Elsa with a sweet treat, when she got home from the bookstore. She rifled through her "recipes" folder, in hopes of finding the perfect dessert.
"Nope… Too much work… Still don't own a melon baller." Anna scrolled down the endless list until she found something that peaked her interest. "Oohh, that looks delicious!"
Buried near the bottom of the folder was a recipe for self-frosting Nutella cupcakes. Anna threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt while the recipe printed. She was halfway through putting her hair in a bun when it finished. She quickly finished up, a messier job than she would've liked but fine for the occasion, grabbed the recipe off the printer, and ran out to the kitchen.
Anna started going down the list of ingredients, making sure she had everything she needed. "Eggs, check. Butter, check. Nutella, hah, when do we not have Nutella?"
She went into the cabinet and pulled out the antique mixer that had belonged to, not only her mother, but her mother's mother as well. Anna wanted to get a new one, something fancy with lots of weird buttons that didn't seem to do anything, but Elsa assured her that the old mixer worked just fine.
Anna set the oven to preheat, then started measuring ingredients and adding them to the mixer, one at a time. Anna grabbed the baking powder out of the cabinet, but she noticed something strange about it, namely, that it wasn't baking powder at all.
"Baking soda? Phew, that was close. I'll just grab the baking powder out of the cabinet." Anna peered inside the cabinet. "Oh no…"
Anna frantically emptied the cabinet. Nothing. She emptied every cabinet in the tiny kitchen that held ingredients of any sort. Nothing. Anna, in her desperation, even started taking the plates and bowls out of their cabinet before she would admit to herself that there wasn't any baking powder in their apartment.
Anna leaned against the wall and slid down it until she sat on the floor with her legs sprawled in front of her. From the floor, she admired the mess she'd made. A familiar loud beep told Anna that the oven was ready to receive cupcake batter.
She thought, maybe she could walk to the store and get some baking powder. No, she didn't want to leave the mess and the oven on. Not to mention the fact that it was raining. Elsa would've definitely taken the car, and Anna didn't want to walk through the rain.
Suddenly, Anna had an idea. She jumped up and ran to her room. She grabbed her cell phone and quickly called Kristoff.
The phone rang twice before Kristoff answered. "Hello, there," he said with a smile in his voice. "To what do I owe the pleasure of –"
"Are you busy? Can you do me a favor?" Anna interrupted.
"Uh, yeah, sure, what do you need?"
"Okay, so I'm trying to bake some cupcakes so I can surprise Elsa and I just realized I don't have any baking powder!"
"Why not just use baking soda?" Kristoff asked.
"And risk poisoning my sister? No thanks. But anyway, she took the car, and I wanted to surprise her anyway, and it's raining and so, I was wondering if you'd maybe –"
"Say no more, I'll get you some… baking powder, was it?"
"Thank you so much!" Anna practically screamed into the phone. "I'll even give you a cupcake as payment."
"Before I go, are you sure that all you need is baking powder?"
"Yeah that should be, oh…" Anna's memory flashed to a few nights earlier. She darted back to the kitchen and set the phone down on the counter.
"Anna? Everything okay?" Anna heard Kristoff say, though his voice only faintly reached her ears.
"Everything's fine! Gimme a second!" Anna shouted towards the phone.
Anna scanned the countertop and the floor until she found what she was looking for. The large jar of Nutella had been completely overlooked in Anna's search for baking powder. And, as Anna was just realizing, the jar was almost completely empty.
Anna brought the phone back up to her ear. "So um, I just remembered that I may or may not have spent my evening eating Nutella and watching Disney movies a couple nights ago."
"How much do you need?" Anna could practically see him rolling his eyes.
"One, no, two jars should be enough! Thanks again!" Anna knew herself well. One jar would be for baking, the other for snacking.
"Wait, doesn't your sister have a 'no Kristoff when she's not there' policy?"
"It's not a 'no Kristoff' policy. The rule applies to all men."
"Just how many men are you inviting over?"
Anna giggled. "It'll be fine. You won't need to actually come inside the apartment. I'll just buzz you in, and you can bring the stuff up. Elsa didn't ban me from bringing men into the building, after all."
"Right… Gimme ten minutes and I'll have your stuff."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Anna sang. "You're the best!"
Kristoff chuckled. "I'll see you in a bit."
"'Kay, bye!" Anna said, just moments before Kristoff hung up.
Anna set the phone down and examined the mess she'd made. She covered her bowl of half-finished batter with plastic wrap and set it down beside the mixer. Putting everything back in its place helped Anna pass the time. She managed to get everything back into the cabinets before Kristoff arrived. Well, sort of. She couldn't close the cabinet doors because things were sticking out in every direction, but that was a problem for another time.
Anna's phone began to buzz. She grabbed it and ran to the window while she answered. Anna pulled back the curtains and stared down. She could see Kristoff walking towards the front of her building with a plastic bag in one hand and his phone in the other. "Heyah!"
"Hey, I'm outside now," Kristoff looked up and waved. "But it seems you already knew that."
Anna backed away from the window. She could feel herself blushing. "I'll let you in," she said as she made her way to the button by the apartment door. She hit the button and could hear the sound of the building's main door unlocking, through the speaker of her phone.
Anna had just enough time for a quick look in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, and she was covered in flour and batter. But she didn't get a chance to do anything about it before Kristoff knocked on the door.
Anna jumped at the knocking. She slid, almost gracefully, across the linoleum floor and leaned seductively against the doorframe with one arm behind her head. With her free hand, Anna threw open the door.
"Heya!" Anna said excitedly. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Well, you do live here…" Kristoff said, shaking his head to hide the smile he couldn't keep from cracking. "And you also invited me over."
"That I did." Anna stood up straight, then leaned towards Kristoff. "…You're all wet."
Kristoff looked down at his t-shirt, which was soaked almost to the point of translucence. He shook his head, spraying Anna with droplets of water. "Oh, would you look at that."
"AH, stop!" Anna shouted, putting her hands up. Kristoff stopped shaking his head and let out a laugh. Anna leaned in and whispered, "You got the goods?"
Kristoff held up the plastic grocery store bag. "Baking powder and Nutella, got it. I, uh, I know you said two jars, but I figured you'd want something to snack on, so I brought three. Two for baking, one for eating."
Kristoff handed the bag to Anna, who was beaming from ear to ear. She felt a little bad that Kristoff had brought her three jars of Nutella, way more than she really needed, but she was thrilled that he was sweet enough to think of her snacking habits. She could always share the extra with him. Anna bit her lip and leaned backwards as far as she could. From that angle, she could just barely make out the time on the microwave.
Anna returned to her seductive lean against the doorframe. "So, you wanna come inside stay for a bit, watch me bake?"
Kristoff leaned in close enough that his nose almost touched Anna's. "Sounds tempting, but, uh, your sister…"
"Well, she doesn't have to find out, now does she?" Anna smiled, biting her lip again.
"That's good enough for me!" Kristoff exclaimed. He rushed into the apartment, picked Anna up, and twirled her around. While she was still in the air, Anna kissed Kristoff, softly at first, but the kiss grew more passionate as Kristoff set Anna back on the ground.
Kristoff wrapped his arms around Anna, holding her tightly, while Anna wrapped her arms around Kristoff's neck. Even standing on her toes, Kristoff had to lean forward so that Anna was tall enough to reach. She buried her fingers in Kristoff's rain soaked hair. The kiss only ended when the heavy grocery bag slid down Anna's arm, and the force of the handle hitting her shoulder pulled Anna back.
They stared at each other for a moment, before breaking away in a fit of nervous laughter.
"So, baking…" Kristoff said awkwardly.
"Baking? Oh, right, baking!" Anna spun around and floated to the kitchen. "All I've got left is to mix in the baking powder and then comes the good part, the chocolate!"
Anna took the plastic wrap off the bowl and set it back on the mixer. Kristoff pulled a chair up to the counter, and sat down with his legs spread around the short back of the chair. He stared up at Anna – one of the few situations in which he could – while she measured out the appropriate amount of baking powder. Anna's eyebrows scrunched up, and Kristoff tried not to laugh while Anna made sure she had precisely the amount she needed before tipping the baking powder into the bowl.
Kristoff noticed the recipe sitting on the counter. He picked up the paper and read through it. Anna threw a few more ingredients into the big bowl and turned on the mixer.
"It says here that you're supposed to put the baking powder in a separate bowl with some of this other stuff and mix that first. Did you just throw everything together?"
"Yeah, why?" Anna asked, focused on not losing control of the mixer.
"I don't think you're supposed to do that. Baking isn't like making a salad. You have to do things in the right order or it won't come out right."
"It'll be fiiiiine, really!" Anna shouted over the whir of the mixer.
Kristoff rolled his eyes and set the recipe down. Quietly, he stood up and walked to Anna. He gently hugged her from behind, slouching so that his head was level with hers. Anna smiled and turned her head. She closed her eyes and kissed Kristoff, and he kissed her back.
But the moment was ruined when the steady whir of the mixer became the angry scream of a broken machine. Anna and Kristoff looked at the mixer. Anna stood frozen, but Kristoff unplugged the mixer immediately.
Anna tilted the mixer back, removing the beaters from the batter, revealing the cause of the grating noise. When Anna turned to kiss Kristoff, she'd inadvertently let go of the plastic spoon she used to feed the batter into the beaters, and the spoon had become lodged inbetween the beaters.
Anna gasped and removed the beaters from the rest of the mixer, freeing the spoon. She and Kristoff stared at the beaters with mouths hanging open. The thin metal attachments were bent and warped beyoned belief.
"Elsa's going to kill me." Anna stated without breaking eye contact with the batter covered beaters.
"What's the problem? Accidents happen, just buy a new mixer."
"This mixer is kind of a hundred year old family heirloom. This mixer survived two World Wars, The Great Depression, Korea, Vietnam, and I destroyed it…"
"Right…" Kristoff said taking a step towards Anna. He plucked the beaters out of her hands. "Why don't you finish the cupcakes, and I'll see what I can do about fixing these."
Anna continued to stare at the empty space in her hands where the beaters used to be. "Cupcakes… yeah… cupcakes…"
Kristoff set the beaters down in the sink and grabbed a jar of Nutella. He opened it and stuck a spoon into the chocolaty spread before placing it in Anna's hands. Anna shook herself free of her shock-induced trance.
"Cupcakes, right! Cupcakes. I can do that." Anna set the Nutella on the counter, but only after sticking a spoonful in her mouth.
She pulled a cupcake tray and snowflake covered cupcake papers from the cabinet where they kept all their Tupperware and baking trays. One by one, she put the papers in the tray and filled each just under halfway with batter. She ate another spoonful of Nutella and looked over her shoulder.
Kristoff sat at the kitchen table, silently trying his best to bend the beaters back into shape with his bare hands. He seemed to be doing a good job, but even Anna could see that he wouldn't be able to even out some of the bends all the way. Maybe Elsa wouldn't notice? She didn't do a lot of baking anyway.
Anna scooped Nutella onto the spoon and plopped it down into one of the batter-filled paper cups. "One for you, and one for me."
Anna ate another spoonful. She continued in this way until all twelve cupcake papers had a glob of Nutella on top. She took a small spoon and swirled the batter and Nutella together. When she was satisfied, Anna stuck the tray into the oven.
She sat down at the table across from Kristoff.
"I think this is the best I can do," he said, handing Anna the beaters.
They looked almost normal, especially compared to how they'd been. Would it be enough to fool Elsa? Definitely not, but Anna wondered if she could lie her way out of it. She could just say that she got distracted by something that wasn't a boy she wasn't supposed to have in the apartment anyway. Anna stared a the beaters and wondered what Elsa would do if she found out that Anna had brought Kristoff into the apartment? Elsa's rule hadn't come with an "or else" attached to it. She just said, "don't do it, Anna," and Anna obeyed.
Kristoff leaned across the table and put a hand on Anna's shoulder. Anna looked up and smiled at him. "Hey, you'll be fine and –"
The sound of keys jangling on the other side of the door made the two of them jump out of their seats.
"Elsa's home!" Anna whisper-shouted. She looked around for a way to sneak Kristoff out of the apartment. "Fire escape!"
She grabbed him by the arm and hurried Kristoff to her room. "Come, on, out the window you go!"
"Hey, hey, this is the first time I've been in your room. You're not going to give me a second to admire it?"
"Anna, are you there?" Elsa called.
Anna threw open the window and shoved Kristoff onto the fire escape. "Go! I'll call you later."
Anna closed the window, but Kristoff just stared at Anna through the smudged glass with his big, sad eyes. Anna rolled her eyes and half-smiled. She opened the window, leaned out, and gave Kristoff a quick kiss.
"Anna, you shouldn't leave the oven on if you're not… Hey, what's this?"
Pulling back from the kiss, Anna said, "Gotta go."
She shut the window and walked to the kitchen to where Elsa held the misshapen beaters in her hands and an eyebrow raised at Anna.
"Surprise! I made dessert…"