"So...Mind if I ask how you knew my name?"
Anna looked up from her container of orange chicken and white rice, a few of the white grains stuck to her lips. Her tongue darted out to catch the stray grains of rice, the pink mass of muscle swiping over her lips in a rather unladylike manner. Not that Anna was really a stickler for manners or etiquette; that was more of her sister's thing.
For most of the impromptu meal - and the time spent waiting for the food - Anna had been carrying the conversation. She'd brought up as many topics as she could think of, trying to find something that might coax her rather aloof neighbor into speaking more than a handful of words. She flitted from one subject matter to another - the weather, recent news, upcoming holidays - often jumping from one topic so fast that she caused a bit of a verbal train wreck, her words tumbling into one another as they left her mouth.
The only thing she'd really gleaned from him so far was that he liked ice hockey. Anna had only brought up sports after a string of other failed topics of conversation.
But, Kristoff was actually talking now, asking a question without Anna having to prompt him into doing so.
Anna definitely saw this as progress.
"Olaf, just next door to me?" Anna replied, swallowing the food in her mouth. "We've been friends ever since I moved into the building." Which sort of made it sound like she'd been living there for a while, but she had really only been in the building for about four months. "He told me that you have him watch your dog sometimes, when you work a lot? Olaf likes to chat about his day and the people he meets, so your name's come up a few times. Nothing bad, I promise! He just mentioned that you were handy, good with fixing things."
"Right...Olaf," Kristoff mused, his eyes narrowing as he focused on putting a face to the name. "Short li'l guy, right? Brown hair, buck teeth, crooked nose?" he listed off in a questioning tone, looking for confirmation.
"Yup! the one and only!" Anna smiled brightly, happy that the conversation was shifting away from being almost completely one-sided.
Olaf was a sort of funny little guy. He was short, and a rather odd mix of being beanpole skinny everywhere but around his middle and face, where he still seemed to carry a little bit of baby fat. His hair was a dark brown, almost like the color of damp wood, and stuck up at odd angles. His nose was long and pointed, a crooked bump at the bridge of it giving the impression that it had been broken and improperly set, resulting in it healing not quite right.
"He told me that you'd done him a few favors around his place, fixing some things up so he wouldn't have to pay someone else to do it," Anna continued, shifting forward in her seat to grab her drink. "He said you were a good guy, and he recommended you when I was asking about someone to fix my shower."
"Oh, yeah?" Kristoff hummed, cocking an eyebrow at the redhead. He leaned over the edge of the sofa he was seated on with an arm, offering his container of food to Sven and shaking it to get the dog's attention.
Sven raised his head, his ears perking forward as he caught sight of the red and gold container. Digging his snout into the take-out box, Sven got several mouthfuls of pork fried rice before Kristoff took it back for himself.
"Aw, I don't know if that's sweet or kinda gross," Anna commented, catching Sven licking his muzzle in satisfaction.
Kristoff very deliberately - and with a rather pointed look on his face - took a large bite of what Anna assumed was pork fried rice with an extra helping of dog slobber.
She figured he didn't like being called "sweet".
"Oh, gosh, ew! Did you really just...? After the dog...? Nope. Nope, nope, nope. That's definitely gross, not sweet," Anna squealed in a mixture of amusement and disgust. It was sort of icky, that much was clear to her, but it was also sort of funny - he was just so serious when he stuck that slobbery stuff in his mouth, she couldn't help it. "I've heard of people letting their pets have human food every now and then, but not actually sharing the food out of the same container like that!"
Kristoff shrugged, shoveling more rice into his mouth. "If I don't share, he begs. And a begging Sven is just...all kinds of sad-"
"Oh, my gosh, you are a softie! You put on this big, tough guy, 'grrrr' face, but you're really just a super fluffy marshmallow, aren'tcha? I'll bet that pooch of yours is pretty spoiled, actually," Anna smiled, her lips quivering with a restrained laugh as she watched the man's face turn an impressive shade of red.
"I- I am not a softie!" Kristoff choked out, all bluster and indignation.
"You know, the more you deny, the more I'm convinced that you're more of a teddy bear than a grizzly," Anna kept at it in a sing-song tone, teasing and light.
This was great! This was the sort of teasing and joking around that friends did, right?
"I'm not, I just-"
"Kris is a softie, Kris is a softie, Kris is a softie~" Anna sang at the top of her lungs, brandishing her plastic fork around like it was a marching baton.
"Knock it off, Freckles...," Kristoff said in a warning tone, voice dangerously low.
"Krissy, you're too much of a softie for your own good, you know that?"
Sven had scrambled onto his paws at all of the sudden noise, joining the racket by lending his howls to Anna's voice.
"Well, it's this 'softie' who's saved your sorry ass more times than either of us can count. A little respect wouldn't go unnoticed, you brat."
Kristoff wasn't hungry anymore, feeling a headache stick its irritating, piercing little claws into his brain. He set his container of food down on the glass coffee table in front of the sofa, shutting his eyes as he ran a hand over his face.
Too many noises, he needed out.
"Aw, is big, bad Lieutenant Bjorgman feeling underappreciated? C'mon, bro, you know I'm just yankin' your chain!"
"If by that, you mean you're acting like a childish dick who just got out of boot camp, then, yes."
"Kris...?"
It wasn't just the noise in the apartment anymore. The howling had shifted into something else for him; bringing back the dust, and the blood, and the terrified shouting.
"Get down, get down! Ambush! Take cover, and return fire!"
"Kristoff?"
"Fucking listen to me for once, you idiot!"
"No, I'm not leaving you here - orders or not! It's just your shoulder, we can get that fixed, we can- Krissy, look out!"
"Sven!"
"Kristoff!"
Kristoff jolted at the proximity of Anna's worried voice, sucking in a shuddering breath he hadn't realized he'd been deprived of. Brown eyes shot open, hands dropping from where they'd been clamped over his ears; he was disoriented at first by the freckles, red hair, and blue eyes that took up his field of vision. Standing up abruptly, Kristoff pushed past Anna to get to the door, knocking her off-balance with more force than he'd intended.
Damn it, why now? In front of someone else?
Someone who was nice, and actually tried in spite of his uncooperativeness.
Fuck, had he taken his meds that morning?
Couldn't remember, couldn't remember - that could be a good sign, or a bad sign. They made him forget things sometimes. Where he left his phone, what day it was, did he take his Goddamned meds or not that day.
"I have to- I have to...go. Sorry, I...," he trailed off, gears working too slowly in his head. "I just think it's time for us to leave. Sven, let's go!" Kristoff was blindly reaching for the door knob, his other hand grabbing for a whimpering and whining Sven's collar.
"Wait, Kristoff, I-" Anna didn't get to finish her sentence.
He didn't wait that time.
"I'm sorry...," she offered the closed door, her mind struggling to catch up with her heart for what exactly she was apologizing for.
Most people thought Anna was graceless on a good day, tactless more than half of the time, and leaped before she looked much too often.
But, even she gave it a day before trying to go over to Kristoff's again.
Something had obviously gone wrong the other night, and Anna had a feeling it wasn't bad take-out that caused it - besides, she's gotten take-out from The Red Dragon countless times, and never had a problem with it. She was curious, to be honest. And, what sort of a friend would she be if she didn't at least check in to see if he was alright, anyway?
They'd only known each other a day, sure, but Anna was an optimist! They'd be friends before the week was over, she just knew it!
Plus, he'd left his tools at her place, so she had more than one reason to go across the hall again. Just in case Kristoff didn't like her primary reason for dropping by unannounced.
Again.
Peeking her head into the apartment, the door cracked open just wide enough for her to do so, Anna called out in a sort of stage whisper, "Kris? Kristoff, are you home?"
The apartment was as dark as it could be in the middle of the day. Windows shut despite the heat, and blinds pulled down to block out the sunlight as much as possible. It felt stuffy, stale air stuck too close together on account of the closed windows.
Biting down nervously on her bottom lip, Anna inched into the apartment. Oookay..., she thought to herself, attempting to quietly lug the toolbox behind her. Maybe he's...out? But, wouldn't Sven be, like, guard dogging? Pretty sure that's a word- The redhead's train of thought came to a sudden stop when she tripped over something furry, letting out a muted shriek as the weight of the toolbox - coupled with her natural lack of balance - sent her sprawling to the floor with a metallic crash.
Wincing - not only at the fall, but also the noisy clang of the toolbox connecting with the floor and spilling its contents - Anna pushed herself up off the hard floor with a groan.
Sven, whom Anna had tripped over, padded up to the redhead and licked her cheek.
"How Kristoff thinks you're a guard dog, I don't think I'll ever know," Anna sighed, patting the big mutt's head before turning her attention to the pile of tools in front of her. "I don't suppose you could help me put all these away?" she asked, laughing softly when Sven snorted at her.
"I didn't think so..."
So, as Sven kept a watchful eye on her - aka laying up against her leg, rolling onto his back and whining for belly rubs - Anna went about trying to put all of the tools back in their proper place.
Of course, this was easier said than done. Anna quickly found out she couldn't just cram everything back in, the lid wouldn't close properly if some tools weren't in the right order. If some weren't put in the right spots, there'd be some still left on the floor that she just couldn't get back in the box, and it was rather infuriating. He needed to get a better toolbox...
Or, maybe it wasn't so hard to get the lid to shut if she flipped that doohickey sideways, instead...
Get it together, Anna, it's not rocket science! she berated herself, blowing up at her bangs in frustration.
"You just can't be quiet, even when you try, can you?" came a tired voice, making Anna jump from where she'd been kneeling on the floor with Sven.
"Sweet maple syrup, don't do that, Kristoff!" Anna shouted in a huff, her heart hammering against her ribs. She'd thought he wasn't around, so that had given her quite a start.
She heard the creak of springs and leather, and knew where he was. Anna remembered, from when she came into his apartment the other day, that his couch was leather; old and worn, and lumpier in more places than a warty toad.
"I'm sorry, what? Is that your idea of a swear, Freckles?" Kristoff asked, chuckling in a dry, humorless manner.
"My parents taught me manners," Anna retorted, standing up and brushing herself off. Pausing for a moment in the semi-darkness, she asked with slight hesitance, "...Have you...been there the whole time?"
"What do you think?" was Kristoff's sarcastic reply, his voice muffled.
Anna pouted, stepping over to the windows and pulling back the blinds; sunlight flooding into the room. "There, that's better! Now I can see you, Mr. I'm-actually-in-the-room-but-I'm-not-going-to-say," Anna smiled, trying not to let Kristoff's tone effect her too much.
The blond man groaned from his place on the couch, face buried in an equally as lumpy pillow.
Anna noticed that he was wearing the same clothes as a day ago, but knew better than to comment on the navy blue hoodie and baggy jeans that looked like they needed a good wash. She'd had plenty of days like that herself, and it was never nice to have someone point it out like you didn't know yourself.
"Oh, it's not so bad, Kris! Look, it's a really nice day out!" Anna beamed, twirling around to face the couch.
Kristoff lifted his head, giving the redhead a flat look. He rolled over so that he was facing the back of the couch, arms folded over his chest. "...What're you doing here, Anna?" he murmured.
Anna pursed her lips together, hands on her hips. "Well, first off, you left your stuff at my apartment. So, I brought them back over for you." Sliding onto the nearest arm of the couch, Anna leaned over so that she could at least see his face. "And, after what happened the other night, I figured...you needed a friend, too."
Kristoff tensed, shoulders hunching. "Since when are we friends?"
"Since the other night, weren't you paying attention?" Anna replied, flashing a wide but unsure smile.
Rejection was still a possibility. He could kick her out of his apartment, and not want to deal with her at all after that.
Kristoff sighed, listlessly carding thick fingers through his messy hair as he righted himself on the couch. "You're not gonna give this up without a fight, are you?"
"Nope!" Anna grinned, "I'm gonna be your friend, whether you like it or not!"
Kristoff smirked at that, shaking his head a bit. "Doesn't that sort of counteract the whole 'friendship' thing?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Anna had only known him a day or so, true, but that little note of amusement was so much better to hear than the sheer...exhaustion in his voice before.
"I don't think so. Some people just need that friend who keeps at it, even if they feel like they don't want to. Good things can come from persistence!" she replied, jumping up from where she was sitting on the couch arm. "Now, come on! It's a lovely day, and we're going to do something; you, me, and Sven!" Anna announced, pointing to the other two in turn.
"Anna, no, I'm tired and I just want to sleep," Kristoff protested, broad shoulders slumping visibly.
"Oh, no, Mister! We're taking Sven to the park, and making the most out of the rest of the day," the redhead stated decisively, nodding her head with finality.
Sven recognized the word "park", instantly rolling to his paws and dancing around excitedly; his tail windmilling sporadically.
Kristoff rolled his head, like he had a crick in his neck, scratching at his cheek. "Now you've done it...," he grumbled, frowning at the small woman who looked very much pleased with herself. Sven wouldn't let it go until he got to go to the park, the very word riling the dog up so that he was bouncing off the walls with excitement and anticipation.
"Yup, I knew you wouldn't be able to say no to Sven," Anna smiled rather smugly, trying to keep up an innocent expression without much luck. Anna wore her feelings plain on her face, making it fairly easy to tell what she was thinking or feeling - which was one of the reasons why she was such a bad liar, her expressions often gave her away. "So! Chop-chop! Let's go! This doggie wants to go outside and get in some playtime!"
Kristoff visibly gave in, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. "Alright, alright..." Trudging over to the door, where Sven's leash hung from a hook.
"Whoa, hold up there, Kris. Shower first, fresh clothes, then we go to the park," Anna said quickly, holding out a hand for the leash.
Anna was pretty sure Kristoff gave her the most sour look anyone had ever given her ever.