A/N:Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! I'm so glad you're all liking it so far! I wasn't expecting to update so soon, but I was able to pump out a whole chapter in a day so I figured why not update? Anyway, here you guys go~
Kristoff peeked out one of the set of doors to the courtyard noticing Anna kicking at the fresh piles of powder and mumbling to herself. Quietly he made his way over to her lightly padding his breast pocket and breathing in a breath of confidence.
"Uh, hey, Anna." Kristoff greeted apprehensively.
Anna turned, she looked as if she had been thinking heavily about something, "Oh, Kristoff. Are you enjoying the party?"
She definitely wasn't as good at hiding her emotions as well as Elsa was, Kristoff had noticed, "Yeah, sure. It's great, and everyone seems to be having a good time. Best party I've ever been too… only party I've ever been too." Anna couldn't help a small giggle pass her lips at his last statement. "Why are you out here, by the way, it's a little cold don't you think?"
Anna shrugged, "I guess you could say I'm used to it," she half-hissed turning to pace once more.
Kristoff cocked his head to the side; something had really been bothering her, more than usual too. "Are you alright?" He asked cautiously.
She took in a deep breath and shook her head, not really sure what she was actually frustrated about, "I dunno," she started softly running a hand up her arm, "Elsa and I got into this stupid fight."
"A fight? About what? Is everything ok?"
"I saw Elsa leaving the party early, and she left pretty quickly so I thought maybe something was wrong so followed. When I caught up to her she told me she was going to bed, and I just sorta… snapped at her." Anna let out a heavy, regretful sigh. "She always does this, she runs away when she starts to not like things, she says she doesn't like crowds, but I mean I threw this party for her she could at least stay for me."
Kristoff nodded, "So you want your sister to be more sociable, right?"
Anna started to pace again and threw her hands in the air, "Not just more sociable, just not so contained. Elsa opened the gates so that we could be more involved with the people and she still shuts herself away from everyone, away from me!"
"And what did Elsa say when you said this?"
She opened her mouth to respond, but Anna quickly realized that she didn't actually have anything to respond with. "Oh… I guess I didn't really let her say anything… I just walked away."
Kristoff rolled his eyes at Anna and frowned with his arms crossed, "And how exactly is that supposed to solve anything, Anna?"
Again the princess began to say something, but no words came out. He was right. She smiled sheepishly at him, "I messed up bad didn't I?"
He chortled and placed a hand on her shoulder, "A bit, but you should still go talk to her – or have her talk instead this time?" Anna cringed at the words. There was no telling of how her sister would react to her admitting her wrong doings. She took a breath and nodded at Kristoff who had wrapped his arm around her shivering shoulders.
"Oh, one more thing before you go," Kristoff said as he patted his coat, dug into the breast pocket and pulled out the matching necklace to the one he had given to Elsa earlier that day.
Anna's eyes gleamed at the sight, "Kristoff!" she exclaimed cupping the pendant in her hands. "This is beautiful! Did you make this? It's wonderful!"
The ice harvester shrugged his broad shoulders, his cheeks flushing at the compliments, "Well yeah, but I had a bit of help from some friends. They say 'hello', by the way." He glanced at her sideways with a soft and telling smirk.
"Here," she stifled another giggle and held up the pendant, "help me put it on." Once he had taken the necklace Anna turned so Kristoff could wrap the strands loosely around her neck, the pendant lay gently over her collarbone. She turned again stretching her neck slightly to show it off. "How does it look?"
"Perfect." Kristoff sighed before adding, "Your sister has the other half."
Anna squinted her eyes up at him, "So that's what you and Elsa were talking about earlier!" A finger poked playfully at Kristoff's chest. She smiled and glanced down at the necklace tracing the tips of her fingers around the designs gingerly. He could tell she was receding back into her mind.
"I need to go talk to my sister." She said softly, the words sticking to her lips. Kristoff stayed silent and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. He rubbed her shoulders, warming some courage into her. Anna fell onto his chest, her arms barely reaching the whole way around his large frame. The princess pulled herself away and made her way to the ballroom doors. Her hand paused on the brass handle and she turned back to Kristoff who waved her on with a reassuring smirk. Anna returned the grin and mouthed a 'thank you' before reentering the warmth of the castle.
Anna slipped around the edge of the ballroom, greeting and smiling to those she passed. Elsa's indoor skating rink seemed to have distracted everyone well enough that even those who lingered around the tables didn't seem to notice the princess quickly skirting by. She only hoped that anyone she did speak to didn't think she was being rude as she rushed off to the end of the hall and out the doors. Anna weaved her way down and around the corridors; her mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts. How would she even begin? Would Elsa even listen to her?
She turned a corner and slammed into a mass, suddenly she found herself on the ground. Caring hands gripped her shoulders and steadied the off balance princess, "Oh my! Princess Anna, I'm so sorry!" Gerda helped the fallen girl to her feet again.
"It's ok, I wasn't really paying attention, sorry." Anna edged her way around the head maid, making it all too obvious to her that something was going on.
"What's the matter, dear? Is everything alright?" Gerda reached out and grasped Anna's wrist carefully. To any other, this gesture would be far out of line, but in the many years that Gerda had practically raising Anna, and especially the three years in which Anna felt the most alone, the maid had earned a certain level of respect from Anna that was almost impossible to resist.
Anna glanced over her shoulder, the stairs were just there, but she knew that Gerda deserved to know what had been going on between the sisters. "I made a mistake, I was angry with Elsa when I shouldn't have been. I need to apologize."
Gerda sighed, her shoulders slumped and her head cocked to the side, "You spoke before you thought again, didn't you Anna?" The tone of her voice fell somewhere in between disappointed and approval. It was a sort of motherly tone that made Anna feel like she was a child again and she had knocked one of the paintings off of the wall, or pulled an arm off of one of the suits of armor.
Anna forced a smile, "I did," she admitted painfully and placed her free hand on top of Gerda's.
"Oh, Anna," Gerda sighed patting the princess' hands tenderly, "When will you learn to let your sister be herself?" There was a guilty churning in Anna's stomach as the maid's words settled in the air. "She's a quiet person, Anna, you've always known that. Even when you two were children Elsa was far more reserved than you."
"Then why did she let me plan such a big party for her?"
Gerda patted Anna's hands a few more times before responding, "Maybe, dear, she saw how excited you were and merely wanted to see you happy?"
Anna stood speechless. She said nothing as Gerda released her hands and turned down the hallway and out of sight. She thought back: Elsa had only agreed to go out to the market with her after she had asked several days in a row. Similarly with the boat races, Anna had to beg and plead, even after Elsa insisted that she didn't want to go. Had she really been so blindly selfish? What else had she forced her sister into without knowing how uncomfortable it made her?
In the midst of her thoughts Anna had made it up the stairs and halfway down the hall where she stood in front of Elsa's blue door in silence. Her mind was still, she knew what she had to say but she wasn't sure if she had the courage to say it. Anna took a deep breath and quickly knocked three times on the door. She heard the scraping of wood against wood and then a tumbling noise like a chair had been knocked over. Anna winced; she'd startled her for sure, off to a great start.
"Elsa?" Anna called weakly, they were soft, but she could hear the padding of footsteps across the room, maybe this would work out better than she had hoped. "Elsa I just want to talk." Anna continued and she rolled her hands over each other nervously as she spoke. Elsa gave no response. Now Anna was really feeling like a child again when she knocked almost every day asking if her sister wanted to come out to play.
A draft of cool air wafted out from under the crack in the door, "Elsa I just want to say I'm sorry," Anna rushed her words as frost began to form around the frame, "I'm sorry for yelling at you, for pressuring you, for everything!" She gripped the door handle and tried twisting it, but it had already frozen shut. She noticed, only after she had tried to twist the handle again, that it had grown bitterly cold.
"Y-you froze the door?" Anna took a step back in disbelief. She furrowed her brow and huffed and without thinking she threw her shoulder into the door exuding a loud grunt as her body collided with the solid wood of the door.
"I will not-" slam "let you shut me out-" slam "again!" slam.
To no avail the door remained sturdy; all that had been accomplished was leaving Anna with a sore shoulder that was sure to bruise by morning. Anna huffed, out of breath and her head rested on the door. She could feel the lump in her throat begin to turn into hot, frustrated tears that welled up in her eyes. She watched as the ice crept out from under the door, she glanced to the handle again and watched as it too was slowly covered in ice.
"Ok, Elsa." Anna sighed in defeat. She stood up and back away from the door, "I know I messed up, and I'm sorry. Maybe we can talk about it in the morning?" Anna tried to sound hopeful, but she couldn't help choking on the lump in her throat. Anna placed a hand on the cold wooden surface and lingered in the hall for a moment before she walked back down the hall and back to the party.
"Goodnight, Elsa."
