aaand the fourth chapter. i hope you enjoy. and oh, if you're thinking this is based on TFIOS or anything near that, it's not. dunno if that's good news or bad, but still, enjoy!
Chapter IV - A Collection of Moments
Kristoff woke up to one long languid (and gross) lick from Sven's stingy tongue. With his steamy dream of shared kisses with Anna still clouding his brain, he might've responded back by puckering his lips and kissing back but reality quickly swept in and so did sensibility, he groggily pushed his best friend's face away with little might.
"Sven! S'too early for your gross face…" he'd mumbled before digging his face back into his pillow. He heard the mutt snort before he'd poked his wet nose to his side, his neck, and his back.
"What do you want? It's Saturday… that grouchy customer from yesterday's still on my nerves, lemme sleep, pal…"
Another snort, though almost sarcastic this time. Sven barked right in his ear that made Kristoff grab another pillow from beneath him to cover his ears stubbornly like a child.
"Five minutes, and I'll give you all the carrots you need…" he said half-asleep before snoring into the pillow.
Sven sighed, yet trudged off his grilled bed and searched the room for his phone in hopes of dragging Kristoff's lazy butt off the bed once and for all. When he found what he was looking for, he took it between fanged teeth and cautiously poked it to the blonde's face, persistent as ever.
It took two gruesome minutes before he even became aware of the phone poking in his face.
"What!" he groaned into the pillow, a trail of dried saliva at the corner of his mouth. Sven dropped the phone on his forehead.
"Ow!" he yelped, effectively snapping both eyes open only to slowly droop close again. "Devil dog," he mumbled, and Sven growled at him. "Fine, fine, I'll see what you're so worked up over…" getting the phone in thick fingers, he tapped at the transparent screen. He'd stare at the notifying phone, before his eyes grew wide and bolted upright as his brain fully registered whom the message was from.
"Well," he bit his lower lip. "Fuck."
It was from Anna.
Anna (message): Kris. B. Date tonight. Hope u remember. Did u remember reservations?
He jumped off his bed with his hair still sitting chaos on his head and his smell more revolting after sweating out more than normal body fluid after last night's work, praying to whatever listening entity that his girlfriend wouldn't throw him in the gutters that he'd forgotten to get his only suit at the Laundromats last night. (Thank goodness he remembered reservations). But of course, he didn't forget to throw a cushion at his mocking dog that chortled as he swiftly threw pants on (and almost tripping) when he did.
He never makes her wait.
Anna really loves pulling Kristoff into a hug.
She claims he's the most adorable portable teddy bear in the world, with his delightful body heat enough to share just for her and firm body to press hers into. She'd constantly cuddle him, from the haven of home or in crowded public places he'll act all grumpy about from prying eyes, yet ultimately melt into her arms.
In his best and in his worst, she was there to pull him into the tightest embrace he would ever need. By simply slipping her thin arms around his waists and kissing his jaw and anything her pink lips could reach on her tiptoes.
He asks her one time why she loved hugging him so much (because his smell was a bit nauseating and wondered if it bothered her at all).
She smiled at him. "Because I give the best hugs in the world."
She does.
Kristoff (message): Elsa.
Elsa (message): yes?
Kristoff (message): I'm gay.
Elsa (message): …
Elsa (message): well, that'd be news for Anna.
Kristoff (message): fck.
Kristoff (message): elsa, i swear to god that was anna. u know how it is when she gets a hold of my phone. im so sorry.
Elsa (message): don't be.
Elsa (message): top shelf. she's 2 short to reach it from there anyway.
Kristoff (message): ur a lifesaver.
Anna's favorite game is engaging in a dangerous game of kisses with Kristoff while Elsa is around the house, since they're never allowed to close the door while she's there.
With the door ajar, she would steal him kisses on the cheek, on the neck, on his nose while they mixed tapes or watched movies or played board games or did whatsoever, just to grill him out and see his most agitated reactions out of fear of getting caught. And when they did get caught, they'd receive Elsa's signature 'death glare'.
That were mostly just for Kristoff.
He'd flaunt at the thought of getting strangled by Elsa's thin fingers and would press his face into her hair ruefully, and she would burst out laughing, for the next five minutes or so.
"Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" Anna nuzzled her nose with Sven as she continued to speak in her most comical voice, earning her an affectionate lick on the cheek, Sven's tail wagging wildly with glee.
"Don't talk to him like that," Kristoff growled from the other end of the couch, watching in horror as his girlfriend babied his best friend. "Why do you even put him on pedestal? He just pissed in the kitchen."
Anna looked up to meet his gaze, pouting petulantly.
"You're just jealous he has carrots and you don't."
He snorted.
"The carrots you brought were near to spoiling anyway. Gladly, it's all his."
"Hey!" she pipes defensively. "The shipping was just a little bumpy. And these carrots were specially imported from Asia. They're rustic."
"And marred."
He laughed when she threw a cushion at him.
Kristoff gave Anna a concerned look. "You okay?" he asked, eyeing how her chest gave out laborious puffs of uneven air as they walked, stopping to turn to her and let her catch her breath.
She seemed troubled after the next minute, drank in some more fresh air that filled her lungs that screamed thank you, and managed a smile. "I'm okay."
But the thing was that she didn't look okay at all.
He's there for her when the hospital requires her to stay for the night for uncalled for check ups and countless blood transfusions, making her laugh and sleep soundly into his arms without even the need to ask him.
And she's there for him on silent nights he feels the wash of melancholic memories hitting him that makes him sob softly into her hair with the thought that everybody he had loved had gone, comforted by the thought that he has her anyway.
"Anna?" Kristoff calls for her, slightly flummoxed and worried.
"Go away," she muttered into her pillow, struggling to keep her voice stern, but a hiccup escapes her swollen lips, and he knows what he's done is wrong.
"Anna, look, I'm sorry…" he moves closer to her side, extending a hand to press into the small of her back. She brushes his touch away; it makes him smile a bit.
"You're annoying."
"Nope, you are. I got my sense of obnoxious peskiness from you."
She pulls the covers down just above her nose to see him smiling broadly, hating how he's smiling even till now. "I'm annoying?"
"No," he edges closer, his weight sinking deeper into her plush bed, both hands wrapping around her waist to pull her close. "Just really, really hard to read sometimes."
"I hate it when you look at other girls…"
He snorts, trailing kisses on her jaw.
"See! You're even laughing at me."
"Yes, I am, cause' you're crazy. I do not look at other girls."
"You were totally checking her out. I should show more skin…"
"Don't, okay? They're all too artificial, and you're you. Plus, I was just wondering why the hell her boobs weren't damn proportionate."
Her pout breaks into a wide smile and she topples over, laughing.
He loves how she never really runs out of ideas and how she swears there is nirvana contained in chocolate sweets and how simply raw and so painfully honest she is when she talks about something she loves with undying passion. He loves how her bangs sweep just above her eyebrows, and that there's the most adorable twin freckles just below her neck that's shaped like a heart he'd ritually kiss every single day when he's with her. He loves how she's so ticklish and soft to touch and hold, and how she gets incredibly flustered and embarrassed of her song choices when exposed to anyone but him. He loves how her thin fingers pull and settle at his soft hair when they kiss, and when he's wrapped around her she is anything and everything that is Anna.
He loves her.
She loves how shy and suppressed he is in public and all of civilization, yet soft and dorky when it's just them. She loves how firm and sculpted his muscles are when he flexes absently while getting groceries of too-heavy bags she's not allowed to carry, she loves being held by his strong arms. She loves kissing each scar, each bruise, each part of him that aches that makes him shiver and tremble under her single touch. She loves how he grows conscious of his style choices, because he can never really match his clothes that came cheaply from thrift shops. She loves how he appreciates her weirdness, and fully participates in her crazy antics and wild escapades. She loves how his love is never suffocating, protective and solicitous; she grows in him in every single way.
She loves him.
Eugene was setting down orders across the room, Kristoff on a stool wordlessly sipping black coffee.
"Just how far do you plan on going with her?" he asks, almost as an afterthought after the comments of last night's game slowly dwindled.
He pauses.
"I'll marry her," he proclaims, determination burning in his eyes and he's more than sure now. The man gives him a sad look, but he does not care. "God, I'll marry her."
Someday.
No matter how many dates they've been with each other for the past few months, Kristoff could never shake off the nervous flutter of a hundred butterflies in his chest at the thought of taking her out once more.
But most especially because he'd have to go through Elsa first.
He had come five minutes too early when Anna apologetically yelled from upstairs that she still had to get her fingernails dried, and was forced to sit robotically on the couch across the counter from where Elsa occupied a stool, coolly sipping tea from her 'Best Sister In The World' cup. She looks up to him, he rigidly straightens on his seat.
"So," she starts off, raising an eyebrow at him. "Date again, huh?"
He'd found Elsa had a soft side other than her out-worldly sisterly protectiveness and rigidness, yet when it came to terms of date nights and too many affectionate moments between Anna with her around, he found that she was very strict with conservatives and simple self restraints.
He found it hard to move around with her piercing gaze. "Uh, yeah. We found this nice restaurant we could try out for the night. And I earned extra at the Trolls this week, so I have enough money to take her out to a decent place other than the mall and by the beach so…"
"That's great."
"Very."
An uneasy silence follows, Elsa sipping silently on her cup while Kristoff's hands fiddled on his lap, his eyes unsure where to settle over the large house he came to memorize after all this time.
Her eyes suddenly soften, yet her fingers wrap tighter on her lukewarm cup.
"Kristoff?" he senses that something has shifted in the room, and it makes him worried no less.
"Yes?"
It takes her a long moment to reply and she lets out a loud breath, like trying to pull off a heavy weight as much as a brick off her chest.
"Take care of Anna for me," her eyes flicker up, and he looks up as well. There's the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of her lips, and he sees that she's trying to keep her measured self in front of him, holding back a little to show more dignity. "You know her history—our history, to be frank. I have no idea if she's told you this before but…" she lets out another heavy breath.
"I was never there for her when our parents had gone. I was eighteen and stupid, you know how it is with college girls and such, and how I'd let my demons get to me for far too long. I was in a state of trauma and loss of them, and I'd never considered my only family, Anna, that was there for me. She was always there for me. Always. She doesn't give up on people. I know you know."
"I know," he mirrors her smile, a little sadly, wondering where this was going.
"Even when I pushed her away and practically treated her like rubbish… I was so selfish to bottle my own feelings up to myself; I never knew how much I needed her. How much she needed me, not until… not until she finally got diagnosed," she finishes, forehead creasing.
His heart is breaking, but he continues listening.
"And things were never the same with us before," she forces out dry laughter out of her tightening throat, before pressing further. "I can never take back everything I'd done, not even if she'd forgiven me. Still, she doesn't give up on people. She doesn't," she shifts in her seat, lips tightening into a line that marks her sadness. "Not even when she's given up on herself."
He sees that she's desperately fighting back tears, blinking back a few just before looking up to him and smiling fully this time before he could even move to comfort her. "And I must say, Bjorgman, you are one of the best things that has ever happened to my baby sister in a long time. I've never seen her so happy... So I entrust you with her, her everything. Something I could never patch up myself, so please," sincerity floats in the air with her final request.
"Take care of Anna for me?"
Kristoff's heart swells and doesn't hesitate or thinks twice. "I will, Elsa. I will."
Her smile broadens. "Thank you," she says in a small voice, before quickly following up with; "but I swear if you ever do anything to hurt her, and by anything, I mean absolutely anything, I will cut you."
His laughter is light even if she'd just threatened to mince him into dog food. "I won't, I'll do anything for her, I swear."
"Good."
Anna is suddenly tumbling into peripheral vision at the door, stumbling on her high heels he worries her small feet would get blisters from. "Kris! Hi! Did you wait for me? Gosh, I hate drying my nails… remind me to buy a stronger fan to make drying a whole lot faster."
"Anna," Elsa extends an arm and Anna slips into her arms, giving her a quick hug. "Have fun. Keep safe on the road."
"We will, Elsa," she giggles, before joining Kristoff that had already moved to the door as he waved Elsa his own meek goodbye from the other end of the room. "See you at ten."
When the two of them had settled in his newly washed pickup truck, spotless and shinning even under the big bright moon, she asks mindlessly about what they'd been talking about while she was upstairs.
He smiles fondly, and a little sadly at that. "Nothing. Nothing at all."
kinda rushing now, aren't we? well, i did say this was only to be around a few chapters. heads up for the next. feedback is most welcome. till next time!