Anna was hunched up in the corner of the couch, groaning, when the knock came on the door. She groaned at it, but that didn't seem to work for some reason. The knock just came again. Anna uncurled, wincing, and shuffled across the floor to yank the door open.
"What do you wa—oh." The irritable tone broke off as she actually looked up at the person in the hall. Looked up, and more up. "…Hi," she said finally, her voice a very small squeak.
"Hi," Kristoff said. Her friend-sort-of-boyfriend-sort-of-thing was leaning on the doorframe, grinning down at her, but the smile faded a bit as he took in her pale face and reddened eyes. "Hey. Are you okay?" He put out a hand to brush the hair back from her face, and Anna blushed when she remembered that it was a snarled mess—she'd felt so bad when she got out of the shower that she'd just rubbed a towel over it and shoved it all into a messy twist on top of her head without even brushing it. And she was in her pajamas, the Little Mermaid pajamas that she'd bought in the children's department. At the time she'd been gleeful about the fact that being so petite meant she could get away with kid's pajamas, because who doesn't want mermaids on their pants? but now that Kristoff was seeing her in them it seemed stupid. And there was a brown chocolate ice cream stain on her shirt.
"Fine!" she said quickly, ducking her head so that he wouldn't see the ridiculous tears welling up in her eyes. God, why did she have to cry so easily over everything, just because it was her period? "I'm fine."
"Okay," he said slowly. "Well…I came to see if you wanted to go out, but I think I'm not really in the mood for that. Do you want to maybe…stay in? order pizza? Watch a movie?"
Anna bit her lip. 'Staying in' for them usually meant something extra after (okay, sometimes during) the movie watching. "I…can't," she said finally. "I mean…I'm just…I'm not great company, right now."
"I'm okay with mediocre company." He touched her hair again. "You kind of look like you shouldn't be alone right now. What are you beating yourself up about?"
"Nothing," she muttered. "…Everything."
"Sounds like you need a distraction." Kristoff reached for her but she backed up, bumping awkwardly against the door.
"No, Kristoff—I'm on my period!" She winced as the words came out much too loud, if anyone was in the hallway they must have heard—and good grief, she and Kristoff had only been…well, been whatever it was they were for a couple of months, it seemed way too early for her to blurt out things like that. The last time she'd managed to make excuses, but that month had been kind of easy. This month was bad, and the pain medication was wearing off. She winced.
"Hey." Anna looked up to find that Kristoff had stepped in so that he could bend over her, his hands rubbing gently over her shoulders and upper arms. "That's okay, Anna. We can just watch a movie, it's okay. You look like you need the distraction. Okay?"
"Okay," she said, relaxing.
Kristoff ordered the pizza. Anna curled back up on the couch, after a heated internal debate about whether it was too late to go and put on something else—something a little more grown up, maybe. But before she came to a conclusion Kristoff was already hanging up the phone and there was a fresh wave of pain in her stomach. Curling up it was, Little Mermaid pajamas and all. Maybe he just wouldn't notice.
He did notice. First he brought her a glass of water and the bottle of pain killers, and then he sat down by her on the couch and gathered her up on his lap and rubbed his big, warm hand in circles on the small of her back, but then he said "So, Ariel, huh?"
Anna spluttered on her water. "What?"
He traced a circle on her thigh. "Ariel's your Disney princess?"
"Yeah," she muttered.
"Why?" Anna raised an eyebrow at him as he settled back on the couch, his arm wrapped loosely around her waist. "Why?" he repeated. "I know there's a reason. My little cousins give these long speeches about why they love their princesses. Out with it, feistypants. Why is she your favorite?"
"Because of course she is? Come on—she has red hair, and she wants to explore the world and learn about everything, and she kind of screws stuff up a lot but she's really fearless anyway, and she doesn't give up. And she has the best soundtrack." She nudged him in the ribs. "Who's yourprincess?"
"What, I don't get to have a prince instead?"
"Nope, you have to have a favorite princess first. Come on, Bjorgman. You know Ariel by name, so you must know enough to have a favorite."
He shrugged. "Mulan, because she kicks ass."
"She's not technically a princess," Anna pointed out, leaning into his chest. His hand came up and started toying with her hair, brushing through her bangs and the frizzy tendrils that have come loose from her bun.
"My cousins let that slide," he complained. "She's on some of their princess stuff. Fine…I guess Jane isn't a princess either?"
"Is Tarzan a prince? She doesn't count, but why do you like her?"
"I dunno, she's cute. She's funny and curious and she had a cute little nose, like you do." He bent to give the nose in question a quick kiss. "And she does end up with a wild forest man."
Anna snorted, but a loud buzz announced the arrival of the pizza and Kristoff set her down on the couch while he went to answer it. When he came back with the pizza she'd dug out the big CD case where she kept her movies, on the theory that this would help keep them organized and her apartment less cluttered (…it hadn't really worked). "What do you want to watch?"
"What do you want to watch?"
"I can't tell you," she said, scooting over to make room for him as he put the pizza on the coffee table and sat back down on the couch. "You'll laugh at me."
"You want to watch a princess movie, don't you?"
"Maybe. But I guess I don't care which one." She grinned up at him. "Do you want to pick?"
He did laugh, but he took the case of movies. "Okay, feisty, you win."
"Wait!" Anna sat up in sudden alarm. "It isn't Rapunzel, is it? Because I can't watch Tangled, there's too much crying involved." She coughed. "Also I already watched it today."
"Is that why your eyes are all red?" Kristoff brushed his thumb over her cheek. "What makes it sadder than all the other ones?"
"Her parents, and their faces, and—" Anna wiped hastily at her eyes. "Ugh, I just can't. They're sosad."
"Okay, okay," he kissed her forehead. "We'll watch my other favorite princess movie. I was going to go with it anyway, because my cousins think it's too scary and they never want to watch it with me." He got up to put the disc in, and glancing back at Anna he caught a sweet, goofy smile on her lips. "What?"
"I just love that you're a big lumberjack guy who watches princess movies," she said, reaching out to be lifted into his lap again as he sat down and snuggling into his chest.
"Is that what you love about me?" he said, rubbing his nose against her hair briefly for reaching to pull the pizza closer.
Anna realized that she'd just used the 'l word' for the first time with him—granted, she hadn't told him she loved him, but…geez, it was too early, but at this rate it was going to pop out of her at some completely inappropriate moment. Keep it together, Anna, don't rush, remember? Fortunately the opening narration of Beauty and the Beast meant that conversation was over for the time being.
They finished the pizza by the time they were halfway through the movie, and Anna had pulled the elastic out of her hair, letting the tangled bun down and combing at the knots with her fingers. The weight had started to give her a headache, and her cramps were making themselves known again.
"Hang on a second." Kristoff paused the movie, heading toward the bathroom, and Anna took the opportunity to put the pizza box in the trash, but it was only a minute before he was back, her hairbrush in his hand. He guided her to sit in front of him, between his knees, and as the movie started up again he worked gently on her hair, carefully untangling it from the ends up, holding each section in his other hand so that he would yank on her scalp. There were benefits to having a boyfriend…person…thing who had a lot of little girl cousins, Anna reflected. He came with certain unexpected skills.
By the end of the movie her hair was smooth and free of snarls, and Kristoff set the brush down but kept running his fingers gently through the long red strands, his fingertips stroking over her scalp, until she was half asleep with her head resting against one of his knees. "Hey, sweetheart, c'mere," he said, pulling her up into his lap so that she could snuggle into his chest. "Don't go to sleep," he murmured in her ear. "It's almost over, you'll miss the big kiss."
"Mmm." She yawned. "If I miss it, you can demonstrate it to me later." Anna heard the warm vibration of his chuckle in his chest.
"Okay. Hey, feistypants. You know what I love about you?"
"Mmm? Wait, what?"
Kristoff nuzzled gently against her hair. "Everything."