"Whoa wait—seriously!? The King actually sent you a letter requesting that you step up or whatever?" Kristoff glanced between her and the dripping paint brush he was holding.

Anna grunted as she dipped her roller in the primer and slathered a fresh coat on the drywall, "Yeah, I have the thing in my back pocket if you wanna take a look."

She didn't hesitate pulling out the crumpled page, knowing that Kristoff would want some tangible evidence. He strained to take the letter from her while keeping the brush over the can. Anna watched him read it over for a couple of seconds before returning to her task.

Kristoff was overall a good guy. He wasn't a fan of people but he was protective, loyal to a fault, and always tried to do right by his friends. The downside was that sometimes he was a little too protective and a bit headstrong. Anna sometimes reminisced how different her life would be if she didn't have Kristoff around to pull her out of sticky situations.

After about ten minutes Kristoff ran a hand through his hair, "Refusal or failure to answer this call to action will be filed as a national offense, holy shit… He must be bluffing."

"Oh yeah he's totally bluffing, but um… yeah that's the bomb I got dropped on me at ten-something in the morning," Anna laughed. It was empty and awkwardly placed, seeing that there wasn't anything humorous about the situation.

Kristoff picked up his brush again and began dabbing at the wall corner, "Well, what are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna take the job?"

"Nope."

"No?"

"No? I don't know!"

"Anna, pal, refusal will be filed as a national offense, sure there's a high chance that the King is bluffing but there's also the chance that he isn't. And if he is there probably is some other penalty waiting for you."

Anna placed her roller down and turned to face the blonde, "Look, I never wanted to be apart of this whole—family duty shit, alright? How would you feel if you suddenly had to drop everything you had going for you to take care of a bunch of strangers because some pompous lemon man said it was in your genes."

Kristoff gave her a look of mild confusion, "Well yeah I'd be a little miffed if I was in your position too. But it's not like this is some huge, terribly placed plot twist in your life bud. You've known about this since un… primary school actually. I'm more surprised at the fact that he didn't send you a letter sooner since your grandma well um..."

She glared at him with her arms crossed over her chest. If looks could kill…

"Alright I get it, you're annoyed—angry even, probably a bit lost right now. You've gone through hell, came out alive, found yourself a cozy place in the world, and what you thought you could just will away ended up coming around to knock you back on your ass. It sucks, I can empathize," Kristoff continued to trim the wall, "You told me about your heritage years ago and I still can't wrap my head around it."

Dhale was an old surname which derived from the "Delle" in Arendelle. To put it shortly, her family played a major role in the province's history, though this knowledge is more common amongst historians and nosy Arendelle natives. Sadly, old names didn't always equate to old money.

When Anna didn't speak up, Kristoff added, "If you take the job, you'll be able to claim your inheritance money. You could pay off your student tuition, afford a better apartment, help pay for your grandparents' medication, put it in your savings, a whole bunch of stuff really… plus they can't make you work for free. If the King is asking you to do it, then there definitely is some good pay in it for you."

After a moment Anna finally muttered, "I didn't think I could will it away Kris, it just slipped my mind. I like where I am now. It could be better but it's one hell of an improvement from where I was before, and I'd like to enjoy it some more."

"Sure as hell doesn't sound like it," He snorted. Anna cringed and pulled her arms closer to her torso, Kristoff quickly regretted his remark.

"I'm being honest, it's… nice. I'm networking, I have a job, my gpa is pretty good, and I've been living on my own for a year now. Things are good, I feel stable, I feel like a normal art student scraping by," she reaffirmed. Anna regained some strength in her voice, "Is it wrong to want things to stay as they are?"

He sighed, "No… it's not. This whole thing is suspicious, honestly. If you got this request from anybody else then I'd be glad you weren't planning on taking it, but King Hastördson sent this as a personal request from you. I can't make you do anything you don't want to, but at least try the job before you decide to fuck over the system."

"Fuck over the system, you make it sound like I'm planning a coup," Anna actually laughed this time and picked up her roller.

"With you, I wouldn't be surprised." Kristoff smiled a little, he was relieved that some of the tension faded away. He cleared his throat, "But yeah, give it a try alright? From how he's describing it just sounds like babysitting, which shouldn't be too hard."

"Ah but see that's what I'm concerned about, these people are around our age Kris. One of them is actually older than me by a few years from what I remember, so why in the hell would they need to be looked after?"

"From what you remember?"

"I met them like, once. When we were kids my family had a little get together with theirs and then I never heard from them again," Anna shrugged. In her opinion it only made the whole arrangement more suspicious. She couldn't remember much about them, other than their incredibly pale skin and cool touch.

And their eyes.

The redhead shuddered, rubbing off the prickly feeling on the back of her neck. It felt like she touched a memory she wasn't supposed to. Anna added, "It's been over ten years though, they're still strangers to me."

Kristoff studied her for a moment before handing her back the letter. He still wasn't used to seeing such pessimism from Anna. The redhead was usually more cheerful and forthcoming when they were together. He took a shot at lifting her mood, "Well think of it as a opportunity to make fresh connections, you like meeting new people."

"I do but these people aren't new, they're… just really estranged," Anna corrected him as she stuffed the paper back in her pocket, "You should call Sven, see what time he gets off work. It's been awhile since we've gone out as a group."