So sorry that this update took so long dearies, but I hope you enjoy! Love! Aria
Note: I TOTALLY made a mistake with the timing in this as well, that I apologize for. As all of you know, Frostbitten is set in the mid-1820s right now while Jack and Elsa are taking their little trip to the various nations. What I neglected to do while I first said that they went to Belgium was check to see that Belgium was actually an established nation in this time frame (which it wasn't). Belgium was a part of the United Nation of the Netherlands until October 4th, 1830 when it declared its independence, and then Belgium wasn't recognized as a nation until April 19th, 1839. So, the little trip that you'll see in this chapter is going to be portrayed about 20 years or so TOO EARLY, and I'm very sorry for that, but I did want to have them go to Belgium. (There is your history lesson for the day :) )
Anna was laying on her and Kristoff's bed on her back, a pillow over her face as Kristoff stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at her with a helpless expression. He moved forward to touch her, paused and then straightened back up, swallowing before he spoke.
"Anna?" he asked quietly.
Her arms moved, flopping the pillow onto her swollen belly, exposing her red, swollen eyes.
"Why hasn't she come back yet?" Anna wailed, turning her head to look at Kristoff. "Did I make her mad again? Does she not like me now? Is she ignoring me? Why is this happening?"
The pillow flipped back up over her face as she screamed into it, her legs kicking. Kristoff looked up at the ceiling and exhaled.
"I'm sure she is just enjoying her vacation, Anna. She's fine, nothing looked amiss when I was up there yesterday," he said, giving a concerned look at his pillow covered wife.
Anna sobbed from under her pillow, crossing her arms over top of it.
"Elsa!" Jack said, bouncing on the end of her bed. "Wake up! Wake up!"
Elsa groaned, pulling her pillow over her head as she stretched out in the silken sheets of the comfortable bed she had slept in. Her snow bed in her ice castle was quite nice, but the down mattress she slept was wonderfully luxurious.
"Jack," she groaned. "What time-"
"Time to get up!" he said, pulling at the covers.
She pulled up the covers to glare down at him. "You know, some of us like to sleep."
He scoffed, flipping over to perch on the bedpost.
"You'd rather sleep all day when there is so much fun to be had? Food to be eaten? Gelato to be tasted?"
She chuckled. "Shopping to be done?"
"Well," he said, hesitating. "I'm not so sure about that."
She flung the pillow up at him, causing him to lean back and topple off the bedpost.
"Hey!" he said, tossing the pillow back up from the floor.
Elsa giggled and sat up in the head, resting her head against the headboard as she yawned and stretched her arms up above her head.
"They have something downstairs for breakfast that you want, don't they," she asked, giving him a sly smile.
"We are in Italy, they can make nothing bad," he retorted.
"Well, go do something while I get ready then."
He rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. But hurry up would you, I'm hungry."
She kicked off the silken covers, smiling at him. "I'm beginning to think this is a pattern with you."
He gave her a sly smile as he went to the window and opened it, hopping onto the ledge and out into the morning air. Her room overlooked, barely, a portion of the river from it's third floor station and the scents of freshly baked bread wafted in on the morning air. She stepped over to the opened window, breathing in the fresh air before pulling the window closed and began her morning routine, eager for breakfast herself.
Two lazy hours later, she emerged from the lobby of the hotel with a wide smile on her face, the spritely guardian floating just above and beside her with a satisfied smile on his face.
"You could have left more of the fruit for me," she murmured, turning to start to walk down the street. "It was delicious."
"Yes. Yes it was," he agreed, skipping along in the air beside her. "Besides, you had all of that chocolate pastry thing. Where to then?"
She smiled brightly up at him. "Shopping."
He groaned, wilting from his aloft position in the air as he set down beside her. "What? Bu-"
"No, no protests," she said, holding up a hand as they rounded a corner. "There were all sorts of neat things on that bridge that I want to go back and look at, so I'm going back."
She could see him silently sulking from the corner of her eye, but he didn't protest further as they made their way back to the covered walkway that was already busy, the various merchants happily holding out their goods for everyone to see as they past.
Elsa marveled at everything as she slowly made her way from stall to stall, packets, parcels and bags slowly starting to weigh her down as she purchased Florentine leather and silver, Murano glass from Venice and luxurious fabrics from various parts of the globe set up for all to come and buy. Jack stayed close to her, patiently translating as she haggled over prices with the vendors and admired various other wares.
"Are you almost done?" he whined, as they neared the end of the bridge. "I think you've bought everything."
"While my arms would agree with you, I haven't," she murmured, leaning over a display of tiny mosaic art pieces.
"Well, I can take them from you when you're done," he said in a sing-song tone of voice, causing her to smirk.
As she finished her last purchases, the leather bags she had bought for Kristoff now full to bursting with all the other items, she turned and took the last few steps out to the other side of the bridge, looking up at the sky and noting the sun's high position.
"Oh my," she murmured. "I was in there longer than I thought."
Jack appeared ahead of her, looking thoroughly bored and more than a little ready for something new to do.
"4 hours and 18 minutes," he said, his blue eyes pleading with her. "Please tell me you're done."
She smiled at him, chuckling. "I don't understand why you don't like getting to see all the neat things people make and sell, some of them are really neat!"
He gave her a sidelong glance as they walked further down the side of the river, Elsa shifting her bags higher on her arms several times.
"How much did you get, exactly?" he asked, eyeing the bags.
"As I said, there were a lot of neat things. And, I'm the Queen, I'm allowed to get as much as I want."
"Uh-huh," he said, still looking at the bags. "And I'm guessing I get to help carry them all back to your ice palace."
"It would certainly be nice of you," she said, giving him a big smile. "And I'm all done here, if you'd like to head back early."
"That doesn't sound bad actually," he said. "Come on, there is a stable down the road from here, we can take off from there."
"And how will none of the stablehands notice me? I can't exactly move fast with all these bags and parcels."
"And whose fault is that?" he asked, smiling at her.
She glared back at him.
"Just, flip him a coin and say you were never there," he said, shrugging. "They will likely assume you're meeting a lover or having a tryst."
She gasped. "That is outrageous, I would never!"
"Yeah, but they don't have to know that," he said, smirking at her. "This way, maybe there are some trees in the back here that we can have you hide in first."
She sighed, casting her eyes upward as she followed him around the stable, trying not to breathe in the foul air of excrement as they did so. There was a stablehand in the back of the yard who was attending to a milking cow, she had a moment of panic when she saw him.
"Don't panic," Jack said, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward. "Just put your nose in the air all noble like and keep going forward. If he says something, then you give him some coin to ignore you."
"You know a lot about this," she murmured, looking ahead and walking quickly towards the group of trees behind the yard.
"I've seen it happen a few times," he said. smiling at her. "Never gets old. Especially when the lady catches the gentleman with another lady? Oh, that's just fun to watch."
"That's what you do in your free time?"
"Well, what else am I supposed to do when it's not winter? People are fun to watch."
She stifled a chuckle and ducked below a branch as they made their way into the trees, yelping as her bag caught on a limb.
"I got it, I got it," he said, hopping back to untangle the strap.
Elsa groaned, kneeling down on the ground and spreading the bags and parcels out around her. She winced and rubbed her arms after setting them all aside, looking mournfully at the angry red marks on her arms.
"I told you not to get that glass sculpture," he said, looking down at her.
She sighed, pulling at one of the bags. "I know, but it's so pretty."
Jack rolled his eyes, bending down to pick up several straps, looping them on his arms and over the crook of his staff, which he had flipped over and was holding upside down at the moment. She watched him, seemingly mesmerized as he carefully lifted each item, testing it's weight before distributing around his arms or his staff.
"Okay, come on," he said, gesturing for her to stand up.
She blinked, realizing that he'd picked up everything. "Oh, I was going to help carry everything."
He gave her a rueful smile, angling his staff in his arms as he walked towards her.
"I'd be carrying everything anyways, this makes it a little easier," he said, stepping forward to scoop her up.
She squealed, wrapping her arms around his neck as they floated off the ground a few feet before stopping. She turned and looked at him, his face working as she felt his hand move to adjust his staff underneath her.
"Problem?" she asked, glancing down and around her.
"Yeah, this is heavy," he said, bouncing her slightly as he shifted his hold on her.
She gasped, turning an affronted face back to him.
"Oh don't give me that," he said, floating higher in the air before turning around and setting off north. "You are fine. I meant half of Florence that we're taking back with us. Women, you're all so vain."
She scowled at that, fighting a smile; she had bought rather a lot of things, and he was carrying it, and her, back with relatively no fuss. She supposed a few quips wouldn't hurt anything after he'd taken her everywhere the last few days and waited patiently, helping to translate for her whenever she'd needed it.
They continued north, back over the mountains and north through France when Jack started to complain again.
"What on earth did you buy?" he asked, looking down at her. "Am I carrying more than one statue in these bags?"
"Well, two," she admitted. "And there was some very fine silverwork that I just thought was lovely that I bought a set of."
"A SET?" he exclaimed. "I'm not taking you shopping anymore."
"But!"
"How about the beach? We could go to the beach tomorrow. That could be fun."
She blinked at him. "The what?"
"The beach! Where the ocean meets the land, it's all sandy. Though, I don't really like the sand bits, gets too hot. And sandy. I like the water though, the waves get huge and massive before they crash onto the beach. I like to freeze them when they get really big."
She slowly smiled up at him. "You freeze the waves?"
"Yeah! It's fun," he said, grinning widely at her.
His arms drooped down, causing them to dip in the air; Elsa screamed, squeezing Jack's neck tightly as they fell several feet in the air.
"Jack! Don't drop me!"
"Elsa. Can't see," Jack gasped out, his face buried in her chest.
"Sorry," she said, loosening her grasp.
He gave her a strained smile, looking around. "I told you, I won't drop you. How does a little break sound? Belgium perhaps?"
"I guess?"
"Good, because it wasn't really a question," he said, skimming the tops of the trees before landing beside a massive oak tree.
She looked around, confused as he sighed, setting her down and removing the items from his arms.
"What are we doing here?" she asked, looking around at the variety of trees.
"Storing your things."
"HERE?"
"What? You think the squirrels are going to take off with your silver? I think they prefer more tasty treasures."
She shot him a glare. "I can't just leave all my things in, in a tree!"
"Why not? I do it all the time," he said, carefully picking up several bags and leaping to a high branch to tuck them away.
"But, what if we forget which tree they are in?" she asked, looking worriedly at her bags.
"I won't forget," he said, moving a tree branch down to cover the bags as frost lanced up the leaves, freezing them in place.
"But-"
"Elsa," he said, landing in front of her. "It will be fine, stop worrying."
He smiled at her. "Just, enjoy. Like you have been."
She watched as he hid the rest of her bags, then turned to gather her up again, still smiling at her.
"I guess this means I can't get anything more in the next place," she said, smiling at him.
"No," he said quickly. "No more shopping."
"So where ARE we going then?"
"Brussels," he said, flying them towards the north again. "Just a little more north of here. Neat city, OLD city. Cool buildings."
"Good food?" she guessed.
"Lots of places have good food, I thought you would appreciate me taking you to places with good food," he muttered, shifting his grasp on her and flying faster as she laughed.
They set down behind a large building, the stone tiled spires stretching high up into the late afternoon sky as Elsa looked around at the impressive stone architecture. She slowly started to walk forward on the stone path, marveling at the buildings around them.
"These are amazing," she said, smiling up at everything around them.
"Yeah, as I said. Old city, cool buildings."
She stepped to the side as a cart rattled past, splashing water from a puddle onto the path as the driver shouted an apology to her. She furrowed her brow, glancing up at him.
"They speak French?"
"Some do, we are close to France after all."
She nodded, moving further along and swinging her neck around as she marveled at everything around her as they made their way down the streets.
Olaf huddled behind the heavy curtain, trying desperately not to laugh aloud as he heard the fast paced footsteps of Lisbet running into the room. Erik was hiding in the curtain across from him, their game of hide and seek continuing as the girl had been the last found.
Olaf gasped as she ripped the curtain back from him, giggling. "I found you, Olaf!"
Erik hopped out from beside him, laughing as well. "Again! Again!"
Olaf grinned. "Okay, okay," he said, turning around, covering his eyes with his small twig hands. "One, two, three..."
He heard the running footsteps of the twins take off behind him, both of them scurrying to find a new hiding spot from their snowman playmate.
Kristoff came into the apartment of rooms that held his family, setting his worn bags aside and looked up, seeing Anna standing at the window facing North. He smiled softly at her, walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her head. She sighed, leaning back.
"I know you're worried," he said, gently swaying her side to side. "But she's going to be fine, you'll see. I'll bet she's just having fun, doing whatever she thinks is fun, probably doesn't even realize you're worried."
She squeezed his hand with one of hers. "I hope you are right. I just, I just got her back as a sister though it seems. I'm scared to lose her again."
"She'll be back soon, rested from her little trip and ready to dive back into her duties. And you'll be ready to send her back off again in no time," he said.
There was a riot of laughter from the hall behind them, causing them both to step back and look at the open door as Erik, Lisbet and Olaf tumbled in the doorframe, limbs all jumbled and faces red from exertion. Kristoff stepped away from Anna, taking two large steps and scooping his laughing children into his arms while Olaf rearranged himself on the floor below.
"Papa," Lisbet laughed, hugging his neck. "Papa, tell us a story."
"Yes!" Erik said, bouncing on his other side, his eyes bright. "Yes, a story!"
Kristoff laughed, turning around to look at Anna who was smiling at them, her hands resting on her stomach. He turned and carried them to the couch, sitting down in the center of one large couch as the twins bended to pick up stuffed dolls and animals from beside them, turning wide eyes up to their father.
"Mama! Come join us!" Erik said, moving over on his cushion to make room for her.
"What should our story be?" Kristoff asked, adjusting Lisbet on his lap.
"The one about how you and mama met! And you went on your adventure together, and fought the wolves, and met Olaf!"
Kristoff smiled down at her. "Well it sounds like you already know that story."
"But tell it again!" she said, bouncing as she held up her doll.
"Oh, oh! I love this story!" Olaf said, running around to plop down in front of Kristoff as well, grinning up at him. "It has me in it."
Anna chuckled, easing down beside her family.
"Well, it all started several years ago when your aunt Elsa got very scared and took off to her ice palace in the North Mountain, and your mama went out after her, trying to find her," Kristoff said, smiling at Anna. "Aunt Elsa had just been crowned Queen that very day, so it was a very big day for Arendelle."
Lisbet wrapped her arms around her doll, her eyes wide as she looked up at Kristoff, Erik shifted to sit on what remained of Anna's lap, his head leaning against her chest.
"Were you there too papa?" Lisbet asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," he said. "I had left to go up to get ice already. It was when I was coming back down to Arendelle that I met mama, at Oaken's."
Anna smiled at him, rubbing a hand down Erik's back as Kristoff told them the story, the sun slowly setting in the sky outside.
Just a friendly reminder that Erik and Lisbet are a little precocious for their age, as I did mess up the age timeline just a little bit. Oops.
Please review, hope you liked it! Love! Aria