(quick reminder that in the UK 'pissed' means drunk, not angry)
"We must stop meeting like this," Anna said, suddenly at his side.
"Sorry, what?"
"Half-dressed at 2am."
Anna was actually wrapped in a fleece blanket; he could only see her fluffy slippers and her hands. Kristoff found himself wondering what she was wearing underneath and stomped on the thought quickly.
"At least I've got proper shoes on."
"Is this your dog?" Now she was crouching down.
"Yeah, this is Sven."
"Hello, Sven," Anna said, letting him sniff her hand. "I knew you had a dog but we never hear him during the day, he must be very good."
"He is. But also he isn't actually there, I take him to work with me."
"You work for your dad?"
"Yeah, how did you know that?"
"Your van says Bjorgman and Son. And I didn't think you had a son so I thought you must have a father."
"Well - noticed."
She beamed at him, and stroked Sven cheerfully before standing up and absent-mindedly wiping her hand on her blanket.
"Where's your sister?"
"Over there," Anna pointed. Elsa was a little further down the street, engaged in a heated discussion with some of the other residents. "She thinks they need to have an electrician look at the alarm."
"This is the third time this month."
"The first in the middle of the night, though."
"Once is too many." Kristoff crossed his arms over his chest. It wasn't a cold night but, considering he was only wearing a t-shirt and his pyjama shorts, it was cold enough.
"Are you cold? Do you want my blanket?"
"I'm all right. And then you'd be cold."
"I have my onesie on." She held open the blanket. "Look, I'm a reindeer!"
"Very nice."
"I have a koala as well but it's in the wash. It got hot chocolate on it."
He snorted. "I like the way you remove yourself from all responsibility, there. You didn't spill hot chocolate on it, it just happened."
"Right." She was grinning.
"You're very chipper for being woken up in the middle of the night."
"Oh, I didn't go to bed yet. I mean, I had a nap after work, then I've been up again for a bit and I had some dinner, and I was going to go back to bed but I was still up just now."
"That sounds...complicated."
Anna shrugged. Then her head whipped round. "Ooh! The fire engine! Look!"
"How old are you?" She stuck her tongue out at him. "Five," he said. "Got it."
They stood in companionable silence for a moment, then Anna said "Um, actually, Kristoff, I needed to talk to you about something."
"...okay?"
"You know the other night?"
"Yes?"
"And I was a bit drunk?"
"Yes?"
"And I kinda asked you out?"
"...yes?" Anna was pulling a face so he decided to help her. "If you didn't mean it - or you've changed your mind - that's fine. I can't hold you to things you said when you were pissed."
"Oh it's not that - as such - it's just that. Well. You know I moved in with Elsa because I broke up with my boyfriend?"
"I didn't, but go on."
"Well, I realised that I've only been single for about a week since I was fifteen - that's nine years! And I realised that my boyfriends were getting worse and worse and the last one was, ugh. You don't even want to know. So I thought I should stay single for a while - like, at least six months - until I worked out what I want, you know. So I can make better choices. So it's nothing personal, but I can't go out with anyone just now." She looked at him, hesitantly. "Is that okay?"
"What? Of course it's okay."
"Oh. Okay. I mean, that's good! Fine." She took a deep breath. "You're not disappointed?"
"I'll live."
"Sorry." A pause. "That's really big-headed, isn't it? To think you'd be disappointed. You're probably glad you don't have to go through with it."
"No, I -"
"Anna!" Elsa was walking towards them, waving. "We can go back in! They've checked everything and reset the alarm. Honestly, this is ridiculous, I'm phoning first thing in the morning and getting this looked at."
"It is first thing in the morning," Anna said, turning to follow her sister back inside. "Goodnight, Kristoff."
"Goodnight."
He watched the sisters cross the road and go inside, and tried to work out when six months would be up. Mid-December? Something like that.
That wasn't too bad.
