Kristoff took another bite of the carrot, then tossed the rest to Sven. Crunching meditatively, they glanced at each other and then at the door that the girl had just walked out of. As if his day hadn't been strange enough without her showing up. He crossed his arms defiantly.
"I don't want to do this."
His shoulders slumped as he automatically assumed Sven's voice. "But she needs help. And she said she could end the snow."
"But how would she know? Who is she, anyway, and how do we know we can trust her?"
"You could introduce yourself."
"I don't like people."
"We already ate the carrot."
Glaring at Sven, Kristoff pulled on his gloves and hat. "I blame you for whatever happens – not to mention the fact that we won't get any sleep tonight. Thanks a lot, buddy."
Shoving the door open with his shoulder, he walked out into the cold night, Sven clomping carelessly behind him. The snowstorm had nearly stopped, and the moon was full and bright. He had to admit, grudgingly, that it wasn't a bad night to go up the mountain. The girl was out there, arms folded against the cold and rocking back and forth on her toes. She was examining his sled, eyes wide with curiosity. Apparently, she hadn't heard him come out.
"Be careful there."
Jumping at the sound of his voice, she spun toward him, first smiling and then frowning. "Are you ready to go?" she asked stiffly.
"Whoa whoa, slow down there. We can't just pick up and leave in two seconds. If you want to go anywhere fast, I need to unload all this ice first."
The girl bit her lip. "Hadn't thought of that," she muttered to herself. "Fine," she said, holding her head high as she addressed him again. "You may unload, but you must be quick. There is no time to lose."
Kristoff put his fists on his hips and cocked his head at her. "First, you need to stop it with this back-and-forth thing. It's like you want to be friendly but are trying to be commanding or something. You obviously think you have the authority to give orders, and judging by that gown-cicle you were wearing back there, you probably do. But that doesn't necessarily mean you can tell me what to do out here. And the formality has to stop. If we're doing this, we do it as partners. Deal?"
He held out his gloved hand, and, to his surprise, the girl took it firmly, smiling with relief. "Deal. Sorry. Sometimes I'm bad at knowing when I should give orders."
After shaking hands, they looked at each other blankly for an awkward moment of silence. Sven grunted and smacked Kristoff with his antlers.
"Ow! Oh! Um." Kristoff rubbed his neck with his hand awkwardly. He really didn't like interacting with people. "I guess the one formality we didn't have is introductions. I'm Kristoff, and this is Sven."
"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm – I'm not used to people not knowing who I am," the girl stuttered. "Well, I'm not really used to people for that matter." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's so nice to meet you both, Christian and Sven!"
"It's Kristoff."
"Oh, right, sorry."
To his surprise, the girl dipped into a small but elegant curtsy. As she straightened, she lost her balance on the slippery ground. Kristoff reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her. She chuckled embarrassedly as he stepped back.
"Thank you. Princess Anna of Arendelle."
Kristoff's eyebrows drew together. "Excuse me?"
"Um, my name. It's Anna."
Sven grunted in shock and dropped down into the closest thing to a bow that a reindeer could muster. Kristoff blinked twice, staring at the girl in front of him. Then Sven reached up, bit the corner of his coat, and dragged him down into a snowy bow.
"Well, I guess that explains a few things," he muttered.
"Oh, please stand up," Anna said quickly and sincerely. "I never really liked all the formalities anyway. Besides, we're partners, right?"
"Yeah, I guess we are," he returned, standing and brushing the snow off his knees.
Sven pranced over to Anna and nuzzled her affectionately. Laughing, she rubbed his ears and pulled out another carrot from the sack. Sven tossed a gloating look toward Kristoff .
"A whole carrot all to myself!"
"Yeah well you better enjoy it, bud, cause it's all you're getting!"
Anna chuckled, and suddenly Kristoff flushed red. He was so used to being by himself that he had spoken for Sven as automatically as he usually did. To his knowledge, no one – no human, anyway – had ever heard him do so.
"I, um..." He coughed. "Sven, stop flirting and help me unload this sled!"
With a grunt, Sven trotted over and they set to work sliding the large blocks of ice off into the snow. Anna watched them quietly for a moment, then walked up to the sled with a determined face.
"Hang on, what do you think you're doing?"
"Helping, of course."
Kristoff arched an eyebrow. "How do you propose to do that?"
"Oh come on, it can't be that hard. It's ice, so it just slides, right?"
Standing back and crossing his arms, he nodded to her. "Alright. Go for it."
Anna squared her shoulders and rubbed her mittens together. Walking up to the sled, she put both hands against the topmost ice block and shoved. A squeal escaped her as her mittens slipped on the ice and her feet slid on the snow, causing her to stumble forward and land sprawled across the sled.
Kristoff shook his head, suppressing a chuckle. "No, it's not too hard, but you have to know how to handle it. I've been doing this my whole life. Ice can be dangerous."
Anna's face clouded with pain and concern as she pushed herself up. "Trust me, I know," she said quietly, hugging her arms to her chest.
"So," Kristoff grunted, continuing to unload the sled, "are you going to tell me what's going on? All I know is there's a lot of snow that's not supposed to be here, and suddenly the princess wants to go into the heart of it with some unknown plan to stop it."
"Mmm yep, that's about right!" Anna nodded.
"And? What else?"
"And you should tell me what you saw up on the North Mountain, if that is where it's coming from."
"That's not fair, I asked you first! You can't answer a question with a question."
"But I could command you to tell me what I need to know," she answered with a slight smirk.
"Cheater," he grumbled. "Fine. I was up at the top lake cutting ice and had just started bringing it back down. All of a sudden there was this massive blizzard coming toward me. I had no idea what it was – it looked like a solid white wall. Then it hit me and I couldn't see anything. I had to wait it out. At one point…it was totally crazy, but I thought I heard a voice. There was something about all of it that felt strange. I mean, apart from it being in the middle of summer."
He looked back at Anna and was surprised to see her quickly wiping away a tear.
"Oh, Elsa," she whispered.
"Elsa?" he asked, more gently than he'd spoken yet – more gently than he was used to speaking. "Isn't that your sister, the other princess?"
"Queen, now."
"Right, today was her coronation! Did something happen?"
"Let's just say that things didn't go as planned, and she accidentally set off this winter."
He was about to ask her for more details, when a sudden image came into his mind – a young couple bent over two girls, one with white hair, one with brown hair who was unconscious, and a troll holding his thick hand over them.
"Her magic. She has power over snow," he said slowly.
"And I had no idea!" Anna burst out. "If only she would have told me, this might not have happened. And how could I have never realized?"
"Well you didn't know because Grand Pabbie –" he cut himself off with a sharp intake of breath.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Um, nothing. I just remembered… It's nothing."
Anna looked at him questioningly, but at that moment Sven grunted and pushed the last block of ice off the sled.
"Good job, bud!" Kristoff called, walking over to him and hoping Anna wouldn't push the matter. He circled the sled, making sure everything else was ready. Sven pranced eagerly, and Kristoff had to wrap an arm around him to try to hold him still while they hooked up the harness. Finally he turned to Anna, and noticed that she was practically prancing herself.
"Well, let's go."
She rushed past him and jumped into the sled excitedly. "To the North Mountain!" she yelled, holding a fist in the air.
"Just one problem."
"Yeah?"
"You're in my seat."
"Oh!" Anna quickly scooted over climbed in. He shuffled around uncomfortably, not used to having another person with him.
"Well, this should be interesting," he muttered.
"What's that?"
"Um, to the North Mountain!"
...
A/N - Hope you enjoyed this fluffy little oneshot. I wrote it up rather quickly, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head when I realized that in the movie we never actually see Kristoff realize that Anna is the princess, or his memories of seeing the royal family with the trolls. I like to fill in the gaps. ;) If you enjoyed it, leave a review! Much love!