**Upon request, I'm going to give a little background in case people don't want to go back an re-read the earlier chapters, since there was such a long hiatus. Previously, at the ball, Elsa became overwhelmed between her suitors-Hans's brothers, Marcus, her childhood friend who isn't a favorable political match, and Tyr, the newly appointed King of Friedhelm, Arendelle's greatest ally. Elsa ran off into the woods because she was startled and speared Tyr in the leg outside with a shard of ice, and feared ruining Friedhelm and Arendell's alliance. What Elsa doesn't know is Tyr is really Marcus's brother, trying to stop Marcus, and he only secured the title of Friedhelm for that reason. Also, at the same ball, Kristoff saw a picture of Anna's father, and told her he recognizd him from the Valley of the Living Rock, which confused Anna.

Xx Hayley

"Kristoff," Anna said in the tiniest of squeaks. She was pressed against the large window of his new room, standing on the wraparound balcony that adjoined to hers. She let out a huff of frustration. She couldn't chance waking anyone up—except Olaf, who had probably already heard her. Kristoff was such a ridiculously sound sleeper, she was afraid she would have to get her cymbals out to wake him. Did they even have cymbals? That might actually be funny. Every castle had cymbals, right? Like a royal band thing. Wait, did they have a royal band? Surely that was a castle thing. But wait, if they did, where did those guys live? Were they normal villagers with a side job?

"Focus, Anna," she heard Elsa's soft voice in her head, as if her ever-so-proper sister would condone this behavior of slipping into a boy's room late at night. She had to get off the balcony before she was seen; Elsa would give her such a talking to if she were noticed.

"Kristofffffff," Anna whispered his name more loudly again, with a light rap on the glass.

He stirred suddenly, and cried out some random words that were totally unintelligible. Sven, Rock, Wednesday? She had no idea what he was trying to say. "Calm down, it's me," she told him, wondering now if he could even hear her through the glass.

"Wait, how, what? Where am I?" Kristoff's babble began to make slightly more sense as his eyes darted around the room, clearly still not expecting to wake up in the middle of four walls.

"Kristoff," she tried again, giggling at the silly outdoorsman. He would be so embarrassed about this once he was completely awake.

"Anna!" he said way too loudly, leaping out of bed. It seemed to take him only one step to reach the wooden door that separated the two large windows. He was so glad Anna had moved his sleeping quarters; the windows made this room seem so much less confining than the rest. "What are you doing here?" he asked as he shut the door behind her.

"Keep your voice down," Anna warned, blushing at how close he was standing to her. He was wearing only some sort of winter underwear, and they were really quite silly looking. "I don't want to wake Elsa. Her room is just above this one."

"Sorry," he said immediately still loudly, and then followed her gaze down to his stupid fuzzy woolen trousers. He hadn't chosen knee-length, super puffy breeches for the aesthetics, but now he wished he was just wearing normal, non-crazy-mountain-man undergarments. "Sorry."

Anna burst into laughter; she couldn't help it! He looked almost as ridiculous as he had with that pompadour, but now he had a serious expression, and it was just too much. "What? What is so funny?" Kristoff put his hands on his hips, which just made Anna laugh even harder. "Seriously, little girl," he added, trying not to join in the laughter at his own expense. "I'm asking you a question. What is so funny?" Not that he actually needed an answer of course. He looked like a fawn, except instead of being half-goat, he was half-abominable snowman. Of course she thought it was funny; it was funny. Heck, he didn't even wear these pants in front of his pet reindeer; Sven would probably crack up, too.

"It's," she stuttered. She was never able to get a word out when she was laughing too hard. This happened every time she tried to recount a hilarious joke. Laughter was her frenemy. "Because, it's, I—" The stammering was no use, and she resulted only to pointing at his ridiculous looking garment.

She covered her mouth with her hand, but it didn't help anything. "What is so funny?" he asked one more time before he whisked her into his chest by her waist, and tried to tickle an answer out of her.

"Stop, stop!" she protested, as most victims of tickling do. Being forced to laugh against one's will was a rare form of torture that Anna didn't really mind, especially when she got to be buried against Kristoff's bare chest.

When he finally listened to her and her giggling died down, Anna noticed that in the tickling frenzy, Kristoff had carried her over to his bed. She sat on the covers opposite him, and the flare in her eyes gave away how exciting this was to her.

Kristoff coughed awkwardly. "So, did you come to my room just to make fun on my underwear?" he joked, hoping it didn't seem creepy that he'd set her down on his bed.

"I wanted to ask you something," Anna answered. The way he was sitting was very distracting, with his thighs apart, one calf hanging off the edge of the bed, the other wrapping around behind her. She wanted so badly to reach over and touch his shoulders, touch his face, but she wanted to know the truth about her past even more. She met his eyes to proceed with her question and noticed the expression on his face. So he knew the effect he was having on her, did he? Well, she could make him pay for that after her questions, but she was determined to find out more about her family. "About my parents," she began, unsure of what exactly she wanted to ask, "you said you saw my father the day you found the Valley of the Living Rock? Where was my father in that?"

"Well, uhm," Kristoff fumbled, suddenly realizing his thoughts were in a totally different place than Anna's. He kind of felt like a pervert now, considering she was concerned about her family history and what he was concerned about was of, let's say, a different thread. "I don't really know much about why he was there, but when I first discovered the Valley, there was a man standing in the middle of all the trolls, and they were talking to each other. I think it may have been your father; at least it looked like him. And there was a woman, holding a little girl, and another little girl, standing next to the woman. And then Grand Pabbie did a spell or something on the smaller girl. It seemed like she was hurt, and then after his spell, she seemed to be better."

"So, you think the girls were me and Elsa?" Anna asked, feeling completely overwhelmed. How much about her own past did she not even vaguely remember?

"I'd never thought about it before tonight, when I saw that picture of your father. After all, I hadn't known what any of the royal family looked like until I met you. So I just assumed some village family needed the help of the trolls on the day that I met them. That day wasn't the only time that humans ever sought their help, after all."

"Did you ever see me again?" Anna ventured, panicking further about her missing memories.

"No, I never saw any girls there again." Anna breathed a sigh of relief. "A similar looking man came there again, but I'm not sure if it was your father or not. We could ask Grand Pabbie, though. I'm sure he would remember."

"Oh, could we?" Anna squealed. She hadn't even thought of that possibility. Then she could hear exactly what happened without Elsa censoring the details to "protect" her, something Anna had had quite enough of.

"Of course," Kristoff chuckled. "We can go tomorrow, if you'd like. I'm sure my family would love to see you again. I know they're relieved that you can stand to put up with me."

"Thank you, Kristoff!" Anna cheered, knocking him back with a hug, as if she'd had a running leap.

"How are you so strong?" Kristoff's question wasn't answered; Anna's mouth was already pressed against his. Her fingers were in his hair. This girl was crazy. Maybe his thoughts earlier hadn't been too far off after all.