Author's note: A little prequel at the beginning. I thought the conversation between Elsa and Anna about rewarding Kristoff would be fun to write. It takes place after the ice skating rink scene in the movie.
Anna followed Elsa into the entrance hall, wobbling on her skates as she awkwardly walked across the floor.
"Who's the man you brought to my ice castle?" Elsa asked casually.
"Oh! That's Kristoff. I have something about him I need to ask –"
The queen raised a hand. "You can't marry him," she interjected quickly. Elsa wasn't about to let her sister stumble blindly after someone else after the fiasco with Hans.
Anna laughed. "Oh, no. We're just – we're friends," she insisted. The girl did feel a strange palpitation in her heart whenever she saw him, but was that love? The princess knew she needed more time to figure out her feelings. She had to admit her sister had been right about Hans. Maybe Anna could sneak off to consult the trolls later.
"I promised him a new sled in exchange for helping me find you," she explained. "He's been amazing. Kristoff deserves more than just a sleigh."
Elsa looked into her sister's face, carefully gauging her emotions. After what felt like forever to Anna, her sister smiled and nodded.
"A palace with an ice queen needs an Official Ice Deliverer. And the latest sleigh model. Does he require a steed from the palace?"
"Oh no, he has Sven – his reindeer," Ana rushed forward and squeezed her sister in a suffocating hug. "Thanks so much! I'm going to go surprise Kristoff!" She rushed off.
Elsa clasped her hands together and shook her head slightly at Ana's swinging brown braid as it whipped around a corner. Kristoff didn't seem like a bad egg. She would have to keep an eye on the pair just in case. It was okay to be protective of her sister, right?
Several months later, in the heart of winter
"Aren't you going to finish breakfast?" Elsa cast a critical gaze over at Anna, who had barely eaten any of the hash browns and sausage piled on her plate.
The younger sister motioned for a servant to take away her still heavy plate. She shook her head and excused herself from the table.
"Kristoff promised to teach me how to ski today," Anna explained. Her stomach jumped around with so much excitement she didn't feel like she could hold anything in.
"You haven't even finished your hot chocolate," Elsa noted with concern.
Anna slid across the dining room floor and leaned over to give her sister a reassuring hug.
"I'm not sick, if that's what you're worried about."
The queen shook her head and smiled. "Don't be silly. Go have fun." She watched Anna rush out of the room.
She rose from her place and nodded for the servants to remove her dish as well. Elsa strode over to the expansive panes of glass, watching the gently falling snowflakes chase each other in neat little spirals.
The older sister felt happy that Anna enjoyed spending time with the ice messenger. She didn't have as much free time as Anna, who didn't have matriarchal duties to tend to. A tiny smile lit up Elsa's face as she watched the princess dance across the courtyard, pausing to catch a few snowflakes on her tongue before vanishing inside the stable.
A pang crossed her heart as she thought back to the simpler days before the power struck Anna's heart – happy, carefree, and innocent. Jealousy that Kristoff was out enjoying a fine winter day with her sister instead of Elsa drooped her smile slightly. She raised a hand and blew a random pattern of snowflakes against the window and traced a doodle into the frosted pane. Elsa knew she couldn't keep Anna all to herself, but a large piece of herself wished to be heading out on the slopes with her.
Anna thanked the holster for getting her horse ready and hoisted herself hastily into the saddle, reins grasped firmly in one hand. The girl rode off, trying to get accustomed to the strange feel of her strange clothes. Kristoff had warned her that skiing and dresses didn't mix well, so she had borrowed a thick pair of cotton breeches and a white shirt from a bemused male servant to wear under her winter cloak.
Anna urged her horse out of a sedate trot and into a canter as they cleared the worst of the town's foot traffic. They turned off the wide dirt road and followed a frozen rivers upwards that wound through the outskirts of the forest. Anna reached an expansive lake that showed recent signs of being sawed into by Kristoff and the other ice men.
She pulled her mare back into a trot as they ventured into a thin forest trail and sighed at the loneliness – Anna didn't understand why Kristoff hadn't requested a house to live in that was closer to the castle than this. Of course, she had bitten back the offer to stay in the palace – she knew better after Hans.
Anna supposed it wouldn't make sense to have an hour to commute back and forth each day. Poor Sven!
In the center of a small clearing a thick spiral of smoke rose from a modest log cabin with an attached stable. She gently pulled her steed to a halt, uncertain. Kristoff had never invited him to come to his house before. "You were born ready, Anna," she said out loud to herself, and nudged her mare closer.
The girl breathed out a frosty puff of air and gathered up the courage to go up to the entrance. The door decided for her, swinging open to reveal a whistling Kristoff burdened by a pair of skis and other equipment. The music cut short when he noticed Anna sitting in the saddle. A shy smile lit up his face. Sven emerged from the doorway, pushing the blonde forward. He stumbled down the wooden steps off balance as the reindeer bounded forward.
"Kristoff!" Anna grinned. The familiar heart flutter that always triggered when the man appeared twinged in her chest – or maybe she just felt a little gassy? She slid out of the saddle. Her cloak, embedded between a stirrup and the rest of the saddle, sent her tumbling into Kristoff's ready arms.
"Whoops," she giggled as he gently set her down. Anna turned to tug at the trapped fabric, wincing at the savage snarl it made as it tore.
The girl spun back around, aware her cheeks felt as red as the crimson stain spreading across Kristoff's cheeks. She also was hyper aware of the scant inches separating their lips.
They hadn't kissed since the day he'd been made the official Ice Deliverer of Arendelle. Yes, they talked plenty and had some fun adventures in the past six months, but nothing more to suggest he thought of her as more than a friend. They even had a couple of squabbles! Anna thought that was strange. True love didn't work like that, did it?