A/N: I know this is roughly 12 hours later than I normally post. I'm on spring break and this was the first opportunity to post. I wasn't able to get this chapter edited because my beta is on break in Amsterdam (I am quite jealous). Enjoy the chapter and please forgive my mistakes!

Anna wasn't sure how long she stayed there, hunched over in the snow. It was dark by the time she found enough strength to drag herself inside. She stumbled into her room and closed the door. She almost lost herself right there, but she managed to throw herself onto her bed before she dissolved into a fresh round of tears.

How could it hurt so bad? An unfathomable cold was squeezing her chest and biting her heart. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of Elsa's ice curse. The air stung her lungs every time she breathed. What had she done? What went wrong? Why was he gone? Her heart spasmed in pain. She didn't hear the knock on her door.

"Anna, I was reviewing the guest list for the upcoming social and I noticed you only had one eligible bachelor on the list and- Anna are you alright?" Papers fluttered to the ground as Elsa rushed to her side, taking in her condition. "Anna, what's happened?" Anna tried to tell her between breaths, but it came out broken. "Kris? Kristoff? Is he hurt?" Elsa bent her head closer to Anna. "Gone? Gone where, what do you mean—oh, Anna, I'm so sorry."

"Anna? I couldn't find you or Kristoff—I found hair!" Olaf had found his way into Anna's room, but froze comically when he saw Elsa sitting next to a sobbing Anna.

"Now's not a good time, Olaf." The snowman left the room. "Anna, is there anything I can do?" Anna didn't respond. She felt Elsa begin to rub circles in her back, and she leaned into the physical comfort. There was a knock on the door. Elsa sighed wearily, "Olaf, not now!"

"My apologies, Your Majesty. I merely thought it would be best to inform you that I found the legislature you requested." Anna could recognize Kai's voice. He had always been a little uptight for Anna's tastes. She and Kristoff had made it their mission to make the old advisor smile—Anna shut down her thought process, unwilling to cry at the thought of Kristoff.

Anna felt Elsa turn. Elsa's hand moved from her back to her hair. Anna knew her sister was torn between family duty and royal duty. Anna sighed, knowing what Elsa wanted to do. "I'll be fine." Her voice was quiet, worn from crying.

Elsa looked down at her, sympathetic pain in her eyes. "I'll be right down the hall if you need me Anna. I'll be back before you know it." She kissed her sister's forehead before gliding out of the room after Kai. Anna kicked off her boots and wrapped blankets around her, settling in for a night of thought.

Why hadn't she seen any signals leading up to this? Kristoff had been happy. Every single event he had planned today had been thoughtful and full of warm memories. He clearly had been planning that day for a while. She had noticed that Kristoff was out of the palace more than usual and a little subdued, but she thought it was because he missed his ice business. He talked about it regularly, and she had even gone with him that past Wednesday to harvest ice. Kristoff was almost a new person when he was in his own environment—confident, proud, even charming.

I can't be the man I want to be. Anna sat up, brow furrowed. Kristoff said he still cared for her, and presumably was happy in most aspects of their relationship. For him to say he couldn't be what he wanted to be… She mentally compared ice harvesting Kristoff to Kristoff making Kai laugh. They were fairly similar, although he seemed unsure of the palace in the second case. Anna's eyes widened as she remembered the dinner almost a week ago. He had clearly been upset and uncomfortable. She had taken him for his word when he said he was feeling ill. Maybe he had been ill, and it had been an isolated event? But every time she pulled a memory of Kristoff in the palace, Kristoff at a ceremony, even Kristoff in front of Elsa he was reserved, self-conscious, and distinctly uncomfortable.

Had she failed as a friend and companion to Kristoff by not noticing his feelings? She had noticed his feelings, though! She had just written them off. That might be worse, she winced. Elsa was uncomfortable in nearly every situation, but she wouldn't just leave like Kristoff did. Well, except for that one time she immersed the entire Kingdom into an unnatural winter.

Anna groaned and fell forward, burrowing her face into a pillow. Suddenly, the sense of loss overwhelmed her again, and she silently wept. She would figure this out. She had to! For Kristoff.

"This is everything I could find on betrothal laws and regulations. Everything in the right-most pile doesn't apply to royalty. The center pile is what most affects Your Majesties. The left pile is cases of precedence that may be of assistance to you." Kai indicated the spread of documentation across the desk as he spoke. Each pile was a sizable, if dusty, pile of manuscripts and bound parchment. Only a few modern books were present. Elsa was not particularly eager to begin her research that night.

"Did you perchance have the time to look at the legislation yourself?"

"I did, your majesty. While it was not as thorough as I would have liked, I sorted through roughly half of the documents. I confirmed our fears. Anna cannot be married to anything less than a prince—with one condition." Elsa looked up sharply, not daring to hope. "If the ruling monarch marries and produces an heir, she is free of her obligation to the throne. Therefore, she would not need to marry royalty. The ruling does not explicitly state this, it only implies. I believe that the intent of this ruling was so that unmarried princes of large families would not each have to seek a princess; they need only find a suitable wife of any standing. In our case we can use it to allow Sir Kristoff to continue courting Princess Anna."

Elsa's gaze unfocused. Of course the one saving grace for her sister would be the act that damned herself. Even without the law, the only instance in which she could envision Kristoff and Anna remaining together was if they were not obligated to royal duties. Kristoff couldn't even handle an awards ceremony, and Anna was singly devoted to him. As much as Elsa loved her sister, she always managed to complicate matters.

"Your Majesty, that is not all." Elsa returned her attention to Kai, who was watching her sympathetically. Oh god, that look couldn't mean anything good. "There's a time limit for you to produce an heir before the throne is deferred to Princess Anna."

The room's temperature dropped, ice etched itself onto the windows. "What? How long?"

"Seven years after your coronation." Elsa's initial panic faded somewhat, but the implications were still heavy. If she couldn't produce an heir—which she did not even know if she was physically capable of—the throne would pass to two people who were certainly not capable. Anna could be trained in the span of five years at the most and with a good husband at her side, she could accomplish great things for the kingdom. Elsa felt sure of that, but Kristoff? Could he ever hope to inherit such a mantle?

A tinkle of glass woke Anna from her dreamless state. She didn't remember falling asleep. She lifted her head to find Olaf bearing a tray of cookies and hot chocolate. She slowly sat up, propping herself against the headboard. Her hair had freed itself from her customary braids and now hung limply over her shoulders. How could she allow herself to sleep when there was work to be done! She silently berated herself as Olaf set the tray on the nightstand before hopping onto her bed. He handed her a cookie. She took a small bite and tried to swallow, only to find herself crying again, touched by Olaf's kindness.

"Oh, I'm sorry Anna." Olaf brushed his twig arms through her hair. Anna looked at Olaf through the corner of her eyes, not having the energy to turn her head. "Why is he gone? Why did he leave, Olaf?" She winced internally at the sound of her voice. It was still hoarse, she could hear the tears in her voice. She hated it.

The snowman frowned at her, apparently in thought. Anna tried to drink some of the hot chocolate, but the mug was too heavy. "Sometimes when people fall in love, they lose themselves in the other person. Maybe he went looking for himself."

Anna sighed. It was close to the conclusion she had drawn before falling asleep. "Do you even know what that means, Olaf?"

"Well, sure I do! It's like a snowball. If you throw it into the snow, you can't find the snowball again, but you can make a new one."

Despite herself, Anna's lips twitched into a small smile. Olaf tried. He really did. Anna regathered her thoughts on Kristoff. She knew that he still cared for her and that she still cared for him. She knew that he didn't feel like himself when he found himself in unfamiliar situations. He said that he was without purpose. Anna sipped her hot chocolate, humming in appreciation of its warmth.

What would it mean to be without purpose? Anna knew exactly what it felt like to be unneeded, to be a spare. She was really just a backup in case anything ever happened to Elsa. It had frustrated her for all of her adolescence—if she was honest with herself, it still bothered her from time to time. She had a tendency to throw herself into any project that came her way: her schooling, her pastimes, even her art classes that she loathed.

A slow epiphany drew over Anna. Had Kristoff become her most recent "project". She devoted herself to him. She donated every spare minute of the day to being with him or thinking of him. Was her whole-hearted attitude the only reason she felt so strongly about him?! No. It simply was not possible. She liked Kristoff for who he was. She was sure of it.

She firmly discarded the notion and turned to Olaf, who was replacing his stone buttons with cookies. Anna laughed, and Olaf looked up at her with a smile. "Are you doing okay? I can't cry. Is it a lot like melting?"

"Yes. Um, to both I guess. I just haven't really figured it out yet, Olaf. If he didn't feel like he had a purpose, why would he leave? He could pick up ice harvesting again. Although, I suppose that's not much of a business anymore when Elsa can mass produce it." Anna frowned. "But he could still easily find a job! Heck, we could have invented one for him if he'd asked."

"Really? Like what? Can I have a job?"

Anna paused, looking thoughtfully at Olaf. She could think up several jobs, even for Olaf, but they all had a common theme: they were based in or around the palace. That had been the problem all along, hadn't it? Kristoff felt too out of place in the palace. He probably felt out of place even in the town- he was raised by mountain trolls for heaven's sake! Now she knew what to do! She had to teach him everything she knew about living in the palace. She had to show him all of the good things, instead of the bad he was familiar with. She smiled triumphantly.

Olaf was watching her expectantly. Anna stood and looked around quickly before picking up a long peacock feather from its vase. She spoke, moving the feather as if she was knighting him. "I hereby declare you to be Olaf, Royal Cheerer!"

Olaf clapped before he froze and deadpanned, "What's a Royal Cheerer?"

"It's your duty to cheer up anyone you meet! You're already doing a great job."

Olaf eagerly practiced his new job for the next hour, telling jokes and bowling with his own head. Eventually, she felt exhaustion pull at her eyes and she shrank down into her blankets willingly. Tomorrow, she would go to Elsa and tell her sister about her ideas of giving Kristoff a job. Elsa would help her.

A/N: So now Anna has a plan of action, Olaf has a job, Elsa has even more reason to not like Kristoff, and Kristoff- well, we don't know at the moment. But we will next chapter, won't we? Thank you for reading, please review if you have the time, and until next Thursday!