To say that Kristoff was feeling severely jet lagged was an understatement. Between flying from country to country and trying to plan his next proposal, he was growing extremely tired.
Anna, being Anna, powered through. She was used to surviving on little sleep and purely survived on the naps she was getting on every flight.
"Kristooooooooff!"
He woke up to her straddling him and jabbing her fingers in his rib cage. He'd have laughed if it wasn't for the fact he couldn't move a muscle without feeling like was going to die.
"It's one in the afternoon, come on! I wanna sightsee!" She groaned. "Come on! I've been up for hours waiting for you!"
In theory, taking her to the Greek island of Rhodes seemed a good idea. It was a beautiful island full of history.. However, he didn't take into consideration how much Anna would really want to explore, and right now, he really wasn't feeling it.
"T'morrow." He murmured and rolled away from her.
"You're usually a morning person! What's up?" She sat back down on the edge of their bed and placed her hand on his forehead. "Kristoff, you're boiling!"
"Mhm."
Anna grew wary and stripped the covers from him until he protested and grabbed them back. "I'm cold."
Anna sighed. A fever. Just what they needed right now.
"Kristoff, you're sick."
"Am not."
She laughed at his protest. "Yes you are."
As if to prove that he was perfectly fine, he rolled out of bed to stand up, only to fall straight back down.
"The room's spinning."
"See, you are sick."
He growled, he really didn't want to ruin this trip and besides, he really liked his plans for this one.
"You better stay away, don't want you getting sick too."
"Don't be silly." She walked off into the bathroom and came back with a wet flannel. "I'm gonna put this on your forehead, then I'm gonna go and ask the receptionist if there's a pharmacy nearby."
He was about to protest but he didn't want tomorrows plans to be ruined. So instead, he gave her arm a squeeze and closed his eyes as she placed the cold towel on his forehead.
"Get some more sleep. I'll be right back." She kissed his forehead and left the room.
Anna returned forty minutes later with a paper bag filled with medicines.
"So it turns out that there was a lady who speaks English there. She gave me some paracetamol and some ibuprofen and you can just take them together. She also gave me one of those cooling packs for your forehead and then she said that I should buy you lots of water because you might be dehydrated. So I went to the store next door and bought as many water bottles as I could carry and I also got myself some chocolate because... Oh."
Anna laughed as she turned to actually see Kristoff. He was fast asleep and she had been talking to herself. She went over to him and moved his hair out of his eyes.
If only I could tell you how much I love you.
She smiled and sat beside him on the bed, turning on the TV to hopefully find something in her own language.
An hour and a few episodes of Spongebob later, Kristoff woke up.
"Hey." She said, handing him a bottle of water that she had placed beside her. "Drink this, I'll get your painkillers."
"Thanks." He gave her a small smile as he took the pills off her. "Sorry for being sick."
"Don't be silly, you can't help being sick. Don't forget you aren't the only one who's been ill on this trip!"
He shuddered thinking back to that awful day. It was the worst of his life. For a moment he thought that the worst had happened to his best friend.
"You're right." He squeezed her arm. "Ugh, Spongebob?"
"It's the only thing that was in English! Besides, you weren't giving me good company."
"I'm sorry." He laughed. "I'll try to give more conversation from now on."
She giggled. "Good."
"Are you sure you're feeling okay? I mean your temperature was really high yesterday and I don't want you going out in this heat if you're sick."
"Anna, I'm fine. It must just be a twenty-four hour thing. I'm all good."
"Okay, but if you start feeling drowsy I'm marching you straight to the nearest pharmacy."
He had big plans for today. In his opinion, today was the best proposal so far. He loved the Greek island of Rhodes. It carried so much history and had such lavish historic landmarks still present.
After spending the entire morning in the Old Town, sightseeing and picture taking for the blog, Kristoff instructed Anna that a coach would be here to pick them up any minute now. She'd presumed that they would get on the coach and be travelling to another town but was surprised when they ended up at a harbour.
"Where are we going?" She asked, knowing full well that he wasn't going to give her an answer and when he raised his eyebrows, she just rolled her eyes.
They stepped on the boat and Kristoff led her to the front, where a table had been lay out. She turned and noticed they were the only two on the boat and smiled.
You charmer, she thought.
An hour, and a lot of Greek food and wine later, they stopped in the middle of the sea.
"Is it broken?" Anna asked, with a concerned glare in her eyes.
"Nope, completely planned, you'll see."
"Damn, I thought we were going to get our big 'I'll never let you go Jack' scene." She laughed and then stopped when something caught her eye. "Dolphins?"
"Yep."
"Oh my gosh!" She sat down on the deck floor to get a better look. "They're beautiful!"
"They are!"
"Ma'am." One of the boat staff to the right of her called.
Anna's eyes lit up when she saw a little dolphin head pop through the railing.
"Can I?"
"Yes."
She went over and touched the top of it's head, giggling at how cute it was.
"How does it know I'm not gonna hurt it?"
"The boat does excursions all the time to this area, the dolphins tend to recognise them. They are smart and besides, you naturally come off as friendly," Kristoff replied.
"Yeah." She smiled. "Hi Mr Dolphin."
She laughed as it jumped back into the water and swam away, only to do a 360 degree turn and swim back towards her.
"Kristoff, I love it thank you! Come say hello!"
He went over and gave the dolphin a little pat on the head but decided that he'd rather stand back and watch her interact with it.
Her face was priceless.
"Marry me Anna?" He said, almost getting choked up at her glimmering eyes turning to face him.
He didn't know what had come over him recently. Everyday he was sure the next proposal would be the one that she'd say yes to. Most of him was just worried that he wouldn't figure out the true recipe for Anna's dream proposal in time.
He really didn't want their time spent together to end. Sure, they spent 99% of the time together back at home, but this was different. It was like he was seeing her in a whole new light.
The affection he was feeling was starting to get the better of him, and boy did that scare him.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
"That's a no then?"
She shrugged her shoulders and gave him a hug. "Thank you though. This really has been a day to remember."
He gave a small sideways smile. It's not like he expected her to say yes, and what happened if she did? I mean, it was no different right? It wasn't like he was proposing for real anyway. He just wanted to find what her perfect proposal was. That's how this all started right?
He asked himself a million questions over and over.
But for the first time, he was starting to not doubt himself anymore.
Because he loved Anna.
He just had to figure out in what way.
Proposal Blog
Proposal #16
August 2nd
Location: Rhodes
Dolphins are apparently a big hit with the ladies. It seemed Anna really enjoyed her day. Still no yes though, I mean, I was sure dolphins would win her over!
Keep following. 4 more to go!
They entered their hotel room laughing a few hours later. It had been such an amazing day. After the boat ride, they took a walk along the beach and stopped for dinner at a little restaurant on the boardwalk.
They'd talked about a lot of things. Anna expressed her concern over Elsa, "I just worry that she's not letting herself grieve properly." Kristoff assured Anna that Elsa has a different way of dealing with things and that all she can do is support her and Lily.
They talked about her mother and how she was always trying to set them up. They laughed as they remembered their college days and not once was the company or the proposals brought up. It was nice.
It felt like it used to a long time ago. It took a long time to get back to this place, a place they'd seemingly just lost when they grew up. Business partners turned their friendship into something different, not a bad different, but still not the same.
"So, you just left him struggling?" She giggled.
"Well I couldn't help him, it wasn't like he spoke English, plus how awkward would that be?"
Anna snorted midst laughing fit which caused them both to laugh even more.
"So, you just left the guy in the bathroom trying to undo his zipper?"
She chuckled when he nodded and fell back onto the bed, Kristoff falling beside her.
Lying there, laughing at something so simple... Anna had almost forgotten the last time she'd been this happy.
"I haven't had this much fun in a long time."
"That's because you don't let yourself laugh anymore, not like you used to anyway. Sometimes you just gotta let yourself loose a bit."
"Mhm." She stared at the ceiling for a while and realised how much of a different person she had become since her mother had passed away. "Hey Kristoff? Do you ever think what life might have been like if we never met?"
"Sometimes."
"What do you think about?"
"How lonely I'd probably be. For one thing, I didn't have many other friends in university, you were kinda my rock."
It was true and Anna knew it. He'd never had a best friend before her and most of the time considered himself a loner, that was before she came along and pulled open his shell with her tiny hands and insisted that they be friends. Of course, he much preferred this to the alternative of having no friends for the rest of his life. Now, not only had he gained someone who would laugh at all his awful jokes, but also someone who would be there for him no matter what. Anna, Elsa and Lily were his second family and that's just the way things were. He wouldn't have had it any other way.
Kristoff continued, "I see you everyday, we eat Christmas dinner together and even brush our teeth at the same time. I don't really want to think about what I'd be doing without you."
"Me neither, I'd probably have died of a broken heart or something. You were my saviour when-."
They both turned to face each other. Kristoff wiped a tear that escaped Anna's eye and settled his hand on her arm, gently running his fingers up and down it.
"Do you think things would have been different if maybe... we weren't friends first?" She questioned hesitantly.
"Maybe, but maybe we were just meant to get there the long way?"
"Yeah, maybe." She gave him a small smile and rested her hand at the top of his neck, gently playing with the hair at the nape.
Each could tell that the others minds were racing, they were inches apart growing closer and closer and neither wanted to stop this time.
"No more running." He whispered, gently cupping her cheek.
Anna could feel his breath upon her lips, and for the first time, she didn't think about the consequences.
"No more running." She confirmed, pressing her lips against his and savouring the moment that would inevitably change everything.
A/N: Just a quick PSA. I received a review that really angered me, by an anon no less. This review was in no way constructive and completely offended me as a writer. Saying I "should be embarrassed" by my fic is down right rude. I'm not usually one to comment on things like this and I'm definitely not one to remove reviews. However, I made the decision to delete the review because it was in no way constructive criticism. Saying my story sucks.. okay, go find something else and move on. I'm perfectly okay with this not being somebody's cup of tea, however, if you don't like it please move on. That being said, constructive criticism is very welcomed! Anyway I can improve this fic or my writing is appreciated, however, disrespecting me personally is not welcomed here. I don''t have to be writing this, it just so happens I really enjoy this fic and it means a lot to me that I finish it.
That being said, thank you to all you lovely new people that favourited the fic! I hope you're enjoying it.. oh, and the cliffhanger;)
Ellie xxx
