Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Frozen. This is a Christmas present fanfic for my friend Abigail, who requested Anna and Kristoff. Merry Christmas, Abigail!
One would expect that waking up at half-past five in the morning would be a grueling task for one. It was for Kristoff, who enjoyed sleeping in on the big plush beds piled with quilts at the palace. He was thoroughly unwilling to acknowledge the little "Psst!" he heard coming from two inches above his ears.
"Psst! Kristoff!" Anna whispered excitedly.
"Anna, it's the middle of the night. Go back to sleep." Kristoff turned over in his bed so that Anna was affronted by his quilt-covered backside.
She shook her head with this knowing smile on her face and raced around the end of the bed. Her slippers padded against the tiled floor and her lavender bathrobe sash danced at her sides. Her braided hair knocked against her white nightgown, and she hurried to wrap the bathrobe closer around her. "Wow, it's freezing in here," she said as she rounded the footboard and came to Kristoff's half-concealed, sleeping face.
"That's exactly why I don't want out of here. It's good to see that you get my side of the argument," Kristoff mumbled.
He reminded Anna of a bear in hibernation. Any sane person knew that awakening a bear in the middle of winter meant to only wake up a sleeping monster full of tiredness and a thirst vengeance. But of course, Anna was the person to poke a sleeping beast with a stick.
"Kristoff, the sun hasn't risen yet."
"I got that; it's early."
"I wanna go see the sunrise," Anna said. She shook his burly shoulder with too much energy. "C'mon; it's the first sunrise of the new year!"
"I know; that New Year's Eve party is still affecting me."
Anna stood back with her hands on her hips, this satisfied, affirmed look on her face. "We sure know how to throw parties now. Those gates are never closed anymore!"
"Throw parties is right." He groaned. "That champagne isn't loving me back."
"Why would champagne love you, Kristoff? It's just bubbles," Anna said curiously.
"You're just bubbles," Kristoff said. He sighed as he flopped over onto his back and stared at the canopy over his head. Dang, this palace was fancy and full of different expensive fabrics and regional designs.
"I have decided to take that as a compliment, as I'm sure you were aiming it as," Anna said. She grabbed his hand and shook it up and down so that he looked her in the eye. "Please, Kristoff? I'm sure you've seen thousands of sunrises, yeah, but you haven't with me. Please please please?"
Kristoff sighed and secretly grinned to himself. Anna was persistent; she never gave up. An annoying, strong trait to have. And he found himself slipping under her thumb and giving in to her. And somehow, he didn't mind doing so. It was nice doing something with someone who wanted to do things with him for once.
"Okay. Go get some winter clothes on; like you need to freeze out there," Kristoff said. He threw off the quilts and Anna put a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle as she turned and fled, the bathrobe ballooned with air around her.
"You didn't tell me you weren't wearing a shirt!" she said, blushing as she gave him one last look before hurrying to close the door to hide herself.
"You didn't ask," Kristoff said, sounding uncertain as to why she was blushing.
Anna hid another giggle and shut the door. She skipped down the dark halls. Some windows allowed in rectangles of pure white glowing light. Snow had stopped falling during the New Year's Eve party last night, but the moon stuck out on the rolling untouched plains of snow. The stars glowed above the icy fjord. It, surprisingly, wasn't frozen solid. Fishing boats had been out all Christmas week fishing for seafood for the various feasts and celebrations happening over all Arendelle. Anna herself had been in charge of organizing the kitchen staff and the meal plans and had ordered over seven hundred oysters herself. (This proved a bad idea, as all seven hundred oysters had to be shucked. Anna promptly felt wholly responsible for making the entire kitchen get stuck with the task of deshelling hundreds of sea shells.)
Those fishing boats rocked the fjord, and also many other ships came in, bringing to shore several dozen representative diplomats of different neighboring countries. Anna and Elsa this time welcomed the German, Spanish, and French dignitaries; the counts, lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses; excepting, of course, anyone from Weselton or the Southern Isles.
The party had been a dazzling success last night. Everyone went to their guestrooms late and full of warm food, deep laughter, and deep draughts of champagne. Anna heard the few noises of the waking servants hurrying to build up the fires and start up a hundred individual breakfasts. She'd be looking forward to toast, eggs, and sausages after a hike through the snow. She walked down the silent hallway with a skip in her step and hurried into her and Elsa's bedroom. After that whole ice-power fiasco and its resolution, the sisters wanted their relationship back, like when they were younger. Thus, the queen and princess, highest authority figures in the land, had their beds in the same lavender-wallpaper-ed room.
Anna bounded around and gathered up a warm dress. She grunted as she pulled on several layers of woolen petticoats. Her clattering against the floor-length mirror and her hopping around roused the queen.
"Anna, what are you doing? It's early," Elsa said.
"You're just like Kristoff," Anna said. Each grunted word was punctuated with a hop about the room.
"Anna?" Elsa said. She sat up, and looked very beautiful surrounded by warm white sheets and lavender-blue quilts. Her pale white hair lay down her shoulder in a thick braid, and her face was bathed in moonlight. She looked concerned. "What are you doing?"
"Kristoff and I are going out to see the first sunrise of the new year," Anna said simply as she bounced around like a rabbit. She finished tugging and sighed with satisfaction. She shook the skirt out and determined it'd stay up. She reached for her dark pink cape.
"That sounds like a nice idea," Elsa said. She gave a glance at the pale galaxies outside their room, all aglow with moon and stars, and said, "Don't slip on ice or something. Be careful."
"Elsa, calm down. You're making it out like I'm going to freeze out there," Anna said. She buckled her cape underneath her chin and then her face creased with realization; "Oh, that was really bad phrasing."
Elsa gave her a little smile and a passing nod. "Forgiven and forgotten."
"Okay. Woh. Got a little worried there that you'd go off the deep end or something," Anna said. Her hands waved around as she turned to Elsa.
"I'm in control now that I know what to do to keep my powers in check," Elsa said. "You don't have to be afraid of me."
"Hey, it's not like I'm afraid of you or anything; I was never like 'afraiddddd' of you, like, 'Oh no, my sister is a monster! Runnn!'" Anna said, waving her hands more and walking until she was alongside Elsa's bed.
Elsa laughed. Her little sister, just like she'd remembered, was a hilarious hoot. "That is good to know," she said.
"Yep. Rest assured, I'm totally not afraid of you, anddddd I'm totally going to go on a long hike with Kristoff to a nice cliff we can hang our legs off of. It's gonna be great," Anna said adventurously.
"Okay." Elsa yawned and said seriously, "Don't fall off the cliff."
"Oh, ye of little faith," Anna said teasingly as she went over to the door.
"Be careful, Anna," Elsa warned with a touch of amusement. Her sister was just itching to get off alone with Kristoff.
"Since when haven't I been responsible?" Anna said, peeking her head around the crack of the door.
"There was the time you got engaged to a sociopath who planned to take over the throne," Elsa said calmly and evenly.
"That was one time, Elsa. ONE time," Anna said. She closed the door and then came back again. "I'll be careful, Elsa." She gave her sister an affirming, comforting nod, and then ran off to find her beau.
Elsa, relieved that Anna was only heading out into the freezing cold night with Kristoff (nothing to worry about there), sighed deeply and then laid back down to sleep.
Anna ran down the carpeted hallways, dashing and skipping, and ran straight into Kristoff as he stepped outside his room. He barely moved, as stoic as a mountain, but Anna bounced off and landed on her cushioned bum with an OOF! and an abrupt halt.
"Anna!" Kristoff said. He squatted and looked worried. His hands were held out, like he wanted them to do something to help, but he hadn't a clue what to do to help her.
"WHOA; wasn't expecting that," Anna said, rubbing her mittened hand over her eye.
"Are you okay?" Kristoff wondered.
"Me? Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little knocked off my feet, as it were. The last guy who I ran into I fell in love with," Anna said. She gave him a mischievous smile and said, "It's become a habit of mine."
"Well, I don't recommend continuing it anymore, okay?" Kristoff said.
"But what if you're the only man around?" Anna questioned him as he grabbed her hand and gently helped her to her feet.
"I guess then an exception can be made."
"Sounds like a plan," Anna said.
"Speaking of plans"—Kristoff nodded toward the bay window allowing sight of a crystal earth outside—"shouldn't we be out there BEFORE the sun rises?"
Anna nodded slowly and said, "Yes. Good idea, Kristoff." Then without a word of warning she caught a tighter hold on his thickly gloved hand and pulled him down the hallway. He tripped and stumbled trying to catch his footing, and Anna raced ahead with nary a care. This was exciting! Getting out of the palace at all these days was an adventure in and of itself, and with just Kristoff to boot! She flew down the bannister with her beau hurrying his long legs to give enough chase to keep her pace.
A guard or two in royal grey uniform took quick care to notice the barreling princess and her choice of a man and they hurried to open the gates. They tipped their hats in friendly greeting and said, "Good morning, princess."
"Good morning Beatrop, Elmer," Anna said cheerfully. "Lovely morning, isn't it? I mean, it's gorgeous!"
Kristoff managed an acknowledging nod before Anna dragged him through the opened mahogany gates out into the backyard of the palace of Arendelle. The backdrop to the palace was composed of a large mountainous range, full of bracken and alcoves full to bursting with prickly bushes of gorse and de-leaved rose and azalea bushes. Confirs and pines of all sorts dotted the range in groups and groves, and the mountainside held piles of rough rocks, clusters of burrows and tiny caves holding the warm little bodies of snoozing forest animals, and snow. Snow lay everywhere; some lay smooth against the slope of the mountain, but some parts that dropped so straight down didn't have any snow, as the side was too vertical for there to be any hold for any falling snow.
All lay bathed in cold white moonlight, and hoots of winter snow owls came from the forests. Dark and shadowed, some places glowing, it was a terrifying yet comforting sight to Anna as she pulled Kristoff head-first into the forest that breathed like something haunted.
"Well, this is kinda creepy," Kristoff said observantly.
"Not to me:" Anna said. "It's my backyard."
"I guess if you grow up with something scary, it doesn't strike terror in your soul as it does with other people," Kristoff said, keeping pace with Anna, who had a surprising amount of energy for being up so early.
"This ol' forest doesn't strike fear in your heart and soul, does it, Kristoff, Mr. Facer of Wolves and Faller from Cliffs?" Anna said jokingly.
"No. Just making a point. For you, growing up with scary things is normal," Kristoff said.
Anna stopped in her trek, her feet buried in several inches' worth of snow, and turned back to Kristoff with a firmly set jaw and tightly pressed lips. "My sister is NOT scary. She doesn't strike terror in the hearts and souls of people." Anna shrugged her shoulders as she turned away and once again began the uphill climb. "She's my sister, and harmless."
"It's amazing you can still defend her even after she froze your heart." Kristoff knew he was walking a dangerous road, approaching the subject of Elsa and her ice powers to her overly protective defensive younger sister, who'd literally take a stab to the heart for her sister. He wasn't trying to press Anna's buttons, but he had a way of being curious and trying for information while overstepping several implied boundaries. Sometimes he and Anna were the same in that way: innocently ignorant.
"That's funny: that's how love works. You stay and forgive despite the worst things they do." Anna sighed and looked back at Kristoff with her worried eyes and pursed lips. "That's love, isn't it, Kristoff?"
"I think there's a fine line there," Kristoff said. The faintly glowing moon was set on his face, making him brighter than usual. "It's if they're sorry or not. Like, Hans wasn't sorry for what he did, and Elsa was. And which do you love?"
Anna bobbled her head and as usual, went to the bright side of things. "Well, at least Elsa hurt me by accident."
"And Hans was intentional," Kristoff said, a bite to his voice. He in particular wanted to get even with Hans, maybe lay on a bit more than a single well-aimed punch to the jaw in retribution for his crimes against Arendelle, Elsa, and Anna. The only thing that restrained him, however, was the idea that doing so would incite a massive international fiasco, something that neither him nor the sisters were up for. They were all for putting the past behind them, even if that meant not getting revenge on that evil sociopath.
"Yeah. After all that, it's wayyyy easier to see who the monsters really are," Anna said. Her voice grew more cheerful as they resumed their hasty, arduous trek up the mountainside. She breathed heavily, all gasps and determination, as they came along to a very vertical, straight-line path. To the left and right of it were edged-off slopes with little leverage and a lot of nothing for hand-holds.
"Okay," Anna said, facing it with her hands on her hips. She cocked her head and sized up the thing, tapping her foot and thinking seriously. Kristoff, meanwhile, behind her, unsuccessfully masked an amused grin and dug into his belt, which held a neatly sized pick ax, brown-handled and with freshly sharpened points. He threaded out a few knots' worth of rope into a handful of circles in his hand as Anna muttered to herself before biting her lip and taking a head start, threw herself at the wall. The snow cushioned her fall, and she made a hefty five-foot-bit-more dent in the freshly fallen crystal white. She withdrew her face from the cold stuff, spat out the frozen ice, and then began to crawl up it. She slid down for every inch she made another two, resulting in her feet touching the little stone cliff landing they were left standing on.
"Okay, gonna be like that? Well, you asked for it. Here I come," Anna said angrily to the snow wall, and was about to throw herself against it once more when she felt a strong hand on her shoulder telling her to stand back. She looked up at Kristoff and he said, "I'll take care of this."
"I got it under control," Anna said defensively, though she took the step back, relieved.
"I know," Kristoff said. He didn't argue her point as he expertly threw up the pick ax so one of its points stuck into the rock ledge above them. He gave it a few expert tugs with a lot of his weight holding it down, making sure it didn't come flying back into their faces to leave a deep red slice in their heads. With no dangerous blade flinging headfirst towards them, he made a loop and said, "Arms up, Anna."
It was rare a commoner could order a royal to do anything, but Anna obediently put her arms up. She also cocked her hips a little, making her look sassy and beautiful at the same time.
Kristoff put the loop 'round her and tightened it firmly so she could have some help if she darest fall. Then he led her to the wall and said, "Have at it, Your Majesty."
"I will. Thank you, Mr. Bjorgman," Anna said seriously.
He waved a hand to it and Anna determinedly pulled herself up, grunting but heaving. Every few feet she took a small break, catching her breath for a few seconds before flinging her effort back into her task and reaching the top. She unknotted the circlet of rope from 'round her waist and then threw it into Kristoff's waiting hand. She said, "Your turn," and then took a few steps back to breathe and recover and give Kristoff room to come up.
That last part of the mountain she'd just surmounted. The rest was a steady walk up a ledge to a grove of thickly situated piney trees. Anna sighed as her feet destroyed the perfect fall of snow, and she turned around with her hands on her hips, and caught a full face full of icy-cold mountain wind. It blew out her skirt and lightened her cape and sent her thick braids flying back. It bit at her freckled face and blew into her lungs, making them ache and feel alive. It tasted cold and sharp and like winter. She wanted to taste it forever, smell it, feel it. If it didn't keep her standing freezing there, of course.
She closed her eyes to save them from getting frostbit and held out her arms, allowing the familiar sensation to fill her up. She only opened her eyes when Kristoff said, "You like that?"
"Maybe," Anna said mischievously. She gave him a smooth little smile and put her arms down. A weird look came over her face as she felt the physical revelation of bone-chilling realization. Her arms immediately wrapped around her and she shrunk and said, "Oh, it's collllllldddddd up here."
"Understatement," Kristoff said. "By the way, this was YOUR idea."
"I know," Anna said. "I usually don't think my ideas through before I proceed immediately into them."
"That's very evident," Kristoff said.
Anna gave him a look. That wasn't helpful.
Kristoff chuckled and wrapped a thickly comforting, manly arm around her. It enfolded her and brought her instant heat and warmth, and not to mention cuddles. "I'll help ya," he said cheerfully.
"Wow. You're like a really big fluffy blanket. Or teddy bear," Anna said. She snuggled closer so her nose and eyes were the only parts visible. The rest of her was inhaling the musk and sweat of his warm woolen jacket. "Either one works."
"Never been called that before," Kristoff said off-handedly.
"I'd take it as a compliment. A teddy bear is a nice thing to be called," Anna reassured him.
Their footsteps stopped at the edge of the fine drop. Their legs were carefully hoisted over the ledge and their heels dug into the sub-zero white paint of the mountain. Anna felt warm and thickly wrapped against Kristoff and his multi-layered clothed torso, and felt no great need to take her pink nose away from the fiery warmth to face the oncoming winter. But alas, as the quiet enveloped them and their breathing became even for the first time since their spontaneous fling into the palace's backyard wilderness, the sky before them began to slowly stir and wake up. It yawned with a breath of frosty air that made you yearn for fires in hearths and warm blankets cast over you in tall, stately sofa chairs.
Deep magentas and warm, soft pastel oranges arose, chasing away the pale grey and indigo that swallowed the sky. White fluffy clouds were turned from grey foreboding messes promising more snow and winter unto the new year. The fjord's waves, a few frosty and laced with white bubbles, like sugary, air meringue, slopped lazily against the vivacious little waves all piling and falling against each other, drifting back and forth and back together again, like dancers on a ballroom floor. The arriving sun, creeping along the sky, spoke of yellow warmth and the chill flew away, giving away under the graceful entrance of the brilliant sun. The stars gave one final wave and salute before they took a deep breath and dove under, out of sight. The moon silently moved away, bowing like an actor off the stage making way for the star of the next act. The heavens gave light that seemed to give an indication, a sneak peek, of hope for that new year, which dawned like a newborn, quietly taking place of the old and taking hold as the new.
It all turned out like a painting before them, and they had the best view in Arendelle. The sunrise of the first of January was come.
"That was really, really beautiful," Anna breathed.
"I'd say so," Kristoff said.
Anna turned her face up to smile broadly at him. "Aren't you glad now that I woke you up?"
Kristoff bobbled his head and said, "Welllll, right now I am." He looked over at the nearly ninety-degree angle drop they'd have to take and he said, "And as long as we don't have to climb back down that thing, and my back doesn't start aching up a storm, I'd say the entire thing was an excellent waste of time."
Anna playfully swatted his well-padded suit of armor and he said, chuckling and leaning away from her little retaliation, "I kid, I kid."
Anna rolled her eyes eagerly toward the rising sun and said, "Do you like it?"
He was watching her every move with attentive eyes quick to capture every little infliction and intonation of hers. He was captivated by her, by her determination, her beauty, her loyalty, bravery, her sense of adventure and devotion. She was quirky and flung him straight into her life with nary a thought but that that was how it was supposed to be. And this was how it was supposed to be. Kristoff only went with her not because he gave a hoot about seeing a sunrise (he'd seen a thousand in his lifetime) but because he'd see the first sunrise of the year with her. Bouncing, happy, alive Anna, who gave far greater worth to things than he did because he often took them for granted while she held them in precious sight.
"I love it," he said.
"I have a feeling you're not saying that about the sunset in particular," Anna said curiously, trying to appear not interested.
"You've got very good intuition," Kristoff said, amused.
"Thank you. That's good to know, as I often rely on it. A lot," Anna said, babbling some. She stopped, though, when she felt a warm peck on her cheek, and she smoothly turned her head in a quarter circle to match up her lips to his. His hand came around and supported the bend of her neck and she leaned into him more.
They slid away and Anna said quickly, loudly, "You're a really good kisser." She then checked herself as Kristoff laughed.
Then they met eyes, with Anna's face flushed (from the cold or indwelling embarrassment, who can say), and Kristoff said evenly, "Happy new year, Anna."
"Happy new year, Kristoff," Anna said quietly, with her lips pulled into a tiny, sweet, warm smile.
They both sighed over the tall mountain with its priceless view, and then both cast their eyes toward the long rope they'd used to tug themselves to the top. They shared a mischievous look and Anna darted up first, tearing herself like fabric from Kristoff's side. She dashed to the rope, and Kristoff scrambled after her. She looped the rope around herself and took a running leap, allowing Kristoff enough time to give the pick ax an additional thump to stay in the icy ground, and she flew down the side of the mountain, whooping as the jump took her down to her kingdom, her sister, and the new year below.
They're the cutest. :3
Thanks for reading! God bless you!