A/N: This is my first actual attempt at Kristanna, so bear with me. It's inspired partly by the Anna Week 2015 prompt "Warm Hugs and Frozen Hearts", referring both to the overall story, and a minor plot element from TCAtS that's only been hinted at so far. There will probably be only two parts, unless I get carried away. ;)


"A Warm Place" (Part 1)

It turned out that lifting ice out of a frozen lake really was harder than it looked. Princess Anna let the block go reluctantly, wondering what had possessed her to try in the first place. It was the first harvest of the fall, and there was a lot of ice.

"Look, I know you're strong, feisty pants," her companion said, taking the tongs from her, "but you don't need to hurt yourself to prove it."

"I want to do something to help, Kristoff." She watched as he lifted the block she'd been trying to lift for ten minutes with little effort. "And you make it look so easy!"

"That's because I've been doing it since I was a kid." He set the block down, and moved to the next one. "You build up a lot of muscle doing this for a living."

Anna silently agreed. Kristoff Bjorgman was indeed a sight to behold, tall and muscled, with broad shoulders from decades of harvesting ice.

"You all right there, Anna?" he asked, pulling another block out. "You look a little red."

Anna started, and realized that she had been staring, blushing all the while. "Muscles! Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I guess I'll go sit down, so, you know, I won't be in the way."

"All right, then." Darn him, he knew, and was smirking at her! It didn't last, though; she looked back at him when she got to the sled, and Kristoff had gone right back to work lifting ice blocks.

Climbing up and settling on the seat, Anna decided that watching him was better than nothing. There wasn't much else to do, anyway; she hadn't invited Olaf on this trip, so she really didn't have anyone besides Kristoff to talk with. She could talk to Sven, of course, but the reindeer wasn't much of a conversationalist.

"Do you think he likes it when I watch him?" she asked, only loud enough for Sven could hear. Up here in the mountains, with nothing but the sound of Kristoff's tools and the occasional breeze, talking softly was as tricky as being quiet in an empty castle.

Sven grunted, in such a way that Anna interpreted it as a yes. "Well, he has a funny way of showing it. You understand, though, right?" He adopted a happy expression, and nuzzled at Anna with his snout. "Okay, okay!" she laughed.

This continued for at least an hour, with Anna watching Kristoff, and the occasional half-conversation with Sven. Around midday, though, Sven suddenly perked his ears up, looking off into the distance, and brayed at Kristoff loudly.

"What's up, buddy?" Kristoff asked, setting his tongs down. He had cut and removed a significant amount of ice in these few short hours. Sven barked something urgently, motioning to something on the horizon. "Whoa, slow down, what?" he asked. He glanced in the direction the reindeer indicated, and hissed softly.

"Oh. Yeah, that's bad." He turned to Anna. "There's a snowstorm coming, and we need to leave as soon as I finish loading the ice." He sighed. "I don't know if we can get back to Arendelle before it reaches us."

"Then we'll go as far as we can," she replied. "Do you know of any shelter between here and Arendelle?"

"A few places, yeah." He hauled the last of the ice blocks into the back of the sled, and went to hitch up Sven. "Neither Oaken's or the trolls' valley are close, though."

"That's too bad," she said, watching him fiddle with Sven's harness. "I would have enjoyed seeing your family."

Kristoff climbed up onto the seat, "Well, maybe we can visit them after the storm passes. I'm sure your sister won't worry too much if we take a slight detour."

"As long as they don't try to marry us, I think she'd be okay with it." Anna blushed at the thought, and could have sworn he looked a little embarrassed as well.

"Yeah, I guess," he said, and snapped the reins gently. "C'mon, Sven."

They traveled in silence for the most part; Anna had a feeling that Kristoff still felt awkward talking to her sometimes, even after getting to know each other better over the last few months. She thought that maybe Elsa had something to do with that, giving the Ice Master boundaries for what he could do when he spent time with her. She knew that her sister meant well, but she also knew that those rules were primarily for when they were together in public. Not like now, when there was no one around for miles.

About half an hour into their journey, the wind picked up, and the temperature fell. Anna pulled her cloak tighter around her, and said, "We're not going to make it, are we?"

"Probably not," Kristoff replied, doing his best to encourage Sven to go faster. "Fortunately, we have plenty of supplies to set up shelter, even if we have to stop for the night."

"Right." She did worry a little about how Elsa would react to them being gone an entire extra day, unplanned. "At least this storm isn't magical, right?" she asked, trying her best to sound chipper.

Kristoff barked a short laugh. "Yeah." He seemed to sense her uneasiness, because he added, "You're worried about your sister, aren't you?"

Anna sighed; he knew some of her moods all too well. "Yeah."

"Don't worry, Anna," he said. "She's not going to freeze the kingdom if we're gone only one extra day. And she knows that I'll always keep you safe."

"I guess you're right. But where can we stay?" She shivered, beginning to feel the bitter chill of the oncoming storm. Snow flurries started to drift down, hastened by the wind.

"There's some caves near here, over the next ridge," Kristoff replied. "If we're lucky, they'll be unoccupied."

"What if they're not?" Anna had visions of them staying in a cave, only to be attacked by wolves while they slept.

"Then we'll do what we can," The wind was really picking up now, forcing him to raise his voice to be heard. "Besides, if we light a fire, it should keep most of the animals away."

"All right," she agreed, looking forward to the warmth of a fire. "Let's go."