A/N: Hi! I saw a tumblr post a while ago that talked about what would happen if Anna's frozen heart had turned her bitter, and I wanted to write a story off of it. This will probably be a two chapter story, extending to three at most. Enjoy!
The first thing Anna feels is cold. Mind-numbing, biting, cold that sends her to her knees immediately, that makes her see a blinding white color that clouds her vision.
For a moment, the pain is in her head and she's five years old again, falling from a pile of snow and Elsa's calling her name. She doesn't remember much of that but she knows that after it, Elsa stopped playing with her. Right now her head really hurts and Elsa gasps, and two voices that sound familiar are saying her name, and it's different.
And then the pain is in her heart and she's banging on her sister's door, praying that maybe this would be the day that Elsa would step outside and sled with her again, like they did when they were kids. She's knocking on the door again wanting to show Elsa how she learned how to read, how she won her first chess game, how she rode Arion for the first time without falling off. She's at her parent's funeral staring at the empty spot where her sister should be, where her parents should be. She feels all of that put through a concentrated beam of loneliness and isolation that isn't her own but somehow feels that way.
The first thing she does after all of that is stand up and say "I'm okay… I'm fine." She's really not fine, but she wants to prove people wrong. Anna knows that Kristoff doesn't believe in her, doesn't see her as a strong person but a damsel in distress. She doesn't know what she even means to Elsa, but she knows that the queen finds her naive and stupid.
"Who's this?" her sister asks, her eyebrows going up and her hands going up in a defensive position. "Wait, it doesn't matter. You have to go."
"No, I know we can figure this out together-" Anna says, and part of her believes it. The other half wants her sister to stop messing around and just fix things. But she makes it a point to remember that her sister has gone through a lot, and tries to stop the part of her mind that tells her that she has as well.
"How? What power do you have to stop this winter? To stop me?" Elsa's desperation is on the walls, creeping upwards in shadowy ice and spikes, and Anna wants to scream in frustration. Scream that they're sisters and they don't need to stop each other to stop the winter. Kristoff puts an arm across her shoulders and it's irritating that he thinks she can't do anything for herself.
"No. I'm not leaving without you, Elsa," she says, setting her jaw and preparing for her sister to freeze her again. It doesn't matter because she's tired of Elsa refusing to listen, Elsa slamming the door in her face. Elsa was going to end this winter, because Anna had faith in her. Why didn't she understand that?
"Yes. You are." Elsa's voice trembles, but it's strong. With a wave of her hand, she creates a snow creature that is much bigger, scarier, and angrier than Olaf.
And as Anna is pulled by Kristoff out the door and away from the gigantic snow monster, she wonders why Elsa is so bent on hurting her.
At the bottom of the cliff wrapped in a blanket, Anna regrets everything she's done in the past few days.
She regrets taking her sister's glove and sending her running off to the North Mountain. She regrets leaving Hans and taking the mission onto her own shoulders. Most of all, she hates the snowman, reindeer, and the stupid mountain man, who's he's brewing a cup of tea over a fire and casting concerned looks at her when he thinks she's not looking.
When Kristoff walks over to hand her the mug, she lashes out. "You don't have to be so condescending, you know. It's not my fault that this all happened, and I definitely don't deserve the whole damsel thing you're giving me."
Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf exchange glances. "Anna? Are you okay?" Kristoff ventures, still holding the mug. His lips are pressed together and he's scratching his head.
"Okay? As in my sister hit me with ice again, and now I have to explain to Arendelle that their princess has no diplomatic skills and no way to bring back summer? Sure. If that's what you call okay."
Usually she wouldn't be that harsh, but she's cold. She takes the mug and almost drops it, the heat painful and her hands numb. "Ow!"
"I'm so sorry!" He shrinks when she gives him a glance and puts his hands up. "You know, you're not the only one affected by this."
"Yeah, sure. Your ice business." Kristoff opens his mouth to talk, but Anna raises her voice. "Arendelle's not going to be doing much business, either! Now I can't get you that stupid new sled, my kingdom's probably going to overthrow me, and Hans will probably think I'm incompetent, just like everyone else. And to top it all off, my stupid sister still insists on shutting me out."
She finishes her rant and Olaf comes over. Sven tries pulling him back along with Kristoff where they're standing on the far side of the fire, but he persists. "Anna? What happened to Elsa being the nicest, warmest, most gentle person ever?"
She hates it, but she comes to the conclusion that Elsa is probably the coldest and unfeeling person she knows. "She hurt me. Again." She pauses, shrugs, and amends the statement. "Or, I guess, she never stopped."
Kristoff seems to notice something in her and moves closer while maintaining a safe distance. "Your hair."
She laughs, a barking laugh that sounds nothing like earlier. Kristoff had immediately warmed at her original laugh after meeting Olaf. This laugh is cold, as if Elsa's ice had gotten to the smiley, bubbly, part of her. "I just fell off a mountain. You don't look so nice yourself." She's not saying it in a moment of indignation; the hard set to her eyes and mouth say otherwise.
"No! It's turning white!" Anna's hand goes to her braid as the white sweeps up it.
"Great. Just great."
"It's because she hit you! That explains why you've been so…" He hesitates.
"So what?" She expects an answer, but Kristoff can't think of a word that won't make Anna push him into the fire.
"So cold." Anna purses her lips and turns away, probably to cook up more insults.
"We need to get you to my friends. They've done this before."
"What? The love experts?" she asks, her back still to him.
Olaf comes up to him and whispers. "Sven, do you really think that'll work? She's kind of…"
Although he's not confident at all, he tries to put it into his voice. "Of course they can."
The northern lights are bright, but Anna doesn't notice, complaining about her feet but refusing to let anyone help her. Even Olaf's optimism is wavering. Old Anna had been stubbornly cheerful and bright, but this new one was just plain ornery.
"Are you cold?" Kristoff asks her, but it's obvious. She's shivering and her breath is visible, even though it's not cold enough.
She bristles. "What do you think?"
He wants to hate her. He really does. But he knows that this isn't her, that she doesn't want to be that way. This is just the worst side of her.
The best side of her was the one that he missed. He debates putting his arm around her, but decides otherwise. He's scared, and would be even if Anna didn't have the skewed personality. Instead he brings her to some steam vents near the path, and she gives him something close to a smile.
Kristoff takes a deep breath and says, "Now, about my friends… well, I say friends, they're more like family... Anyway, when I was a kid, it was just me and Sven...until they took me in."
He waits for her reaction, but she still has the same scowl on her face. He sighs and continues. "Yeah. I don't want to scare you, they can be a little bit inappropriate...and loud...very loud... They're also stubborn at times, and a little overbearing. And heavy. Really, really heavy. But they're fine. You'll get it. They mean well." before he knows it he's rambling on and stumbling over his words.
Anna cuts him off with a,"I'm sure they're nice enough." It isn't the best reaction, but she wasn't too hostile. It was okay.
"Okay, then." He steps into the clearing full of rocks with a flourish. "Meet my family." He begins greeting everyone while pretending that Anna and Olaf aren't standing there with open mouths.
"They're rocks." Olaf says, trying to cover up the tension between Anna and everyone near her. She glares at Kristoff, who seems to be talking to the rocks.
"I'll distract them while you run." Olaf goes up to the nearest rock and tries to get her to run, but she crosses her arms and frowns.
"What kind of joke is this?"
"No, Anna, it's not a joke." Kristoff says, standing up after patting a rock. "It's just-"
"Just you talking to a bunch of rocks while I'm freezing to death." Anna turns and resolutely strides in the other direction.
Luckily for Kristoff, she almost trips over a rolling rock.
The rocks surround the visitors, causing them to jump and trip. Anna's trapped in, sullen and annoyed. "They're trolls." She turns to Kristoff. "You couldn't have mentioned that before."
Kristoff is left speechless, but the trolls are definitely not. "Kristoff's brought home a girl!"
There's cheering, along with Olaf's confused whisper of "Kristoff?"
"Um. No." Immediately Kristoff tries to alleviate the situation, but Anna's already speaking.
"No. Please don't. I'm already engaged, and I definitely wouldn't be with him. Kristoff, can you please just get them to help?"
"Right. Um. Where's Grand Pabbie?" The trolls- his own family- are looking at him and wondering why he brought her. Why, out of all the wonderful girls in the world, he chose this one.
The little trolls pipe up, oblivious to the tension. Anna does her best to avoid them, shivering and trembling. She looks more sick than hostile.
When she collapses, none of the trolls make an effort to help her. Kristoff rushes forward, catching her as more of her hair goes white. "She's cold as ice."
There's a rumbling and the trolls clear a path for an even older troll. "There's strange magic here."
Kristoff sighs. "Grand Pabbie."
He hands over Anna to Grand Pabbie and she narrows his eyes at him. "Who are you?"
Grand Pabbie looks up. "She wasn't like this before." He addresses his next words to Anna. "Anna, your life is in danger. There is ice in your heart, put there by your sister. If not removed, to solid ice will you freeze, forever."
"That's why she's like this," Kristoff feels the need to tell the trolls. "Her heart is frozen, so that's why she's so bitter. She's not usually…" He stops when he realizes that nobody's listening, because they're all staring at Anna as her eyebrows go up and the anger leaves her eyes, replaced with fear.
"So fix it," Anna says, finally desperate and afraid. "Fix me!"
"I can't. Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." Grand Pabbie gives Kristoff a resigned look. Another chunk of Anna's hair goes white, and she falls into Kristoff's arms again. She hates it, probably hates him, but she's incapable of standing anymore.
"Let's get you to Hans," he says. That's probably the strongest act of true love he knows of, true love's kiss.
But as he picks her up, climbs onto Sven, and directs him to Arendelle, he's not sure if Anna's frozen heart has left her capable of love anymore.