"Anna, is that you?"
She heard his voice behind her. It was a whisper, his voice heavy with sleep and waking concern. She half turned to him. Her Kristoff was sat up in bed, hair still mouded to how it was pressed against the pillow, and rubbing his eyes slightly. "Is everything - what's wrong?"
Anna crossed the room to his side and perched herself on the edge of the bed. His eyes widened, trying to get a clearer look at her; tears or a frown- anything that would justify his worry. She sighed and pushed her fingers through his hair and he leaned into her touch. "Nothing's the matter, go back to sleep."
His brows furrowed further, he was battling sleep and yet she knew he would be willing to battle her troubles -if only she told him about them. "But you- the window…"
She indulged him in a pearly white lie "I couldn't sleep so I was watching the ships on the fjord, the water's been so calm lately." If he was a little more awake he'd have met the flaws in her words with a frown for the water was not only chopping against the cliff but the moor was mostly barren of ships.
But in his state he only nodded against her palm before pressing a soft kiss against the skin there. "Okay, but please come back to bed soon." Anna went to open her mouth but he stopped her with another kiss, this one to the corner of her mouth and lazier than the first. " I love you- and I know you'll be hard on yourself if you fall asleep in that meeting tomorrow."
The words on her tongue faded into a sigh as his arms snaked around her despite their difference in temperature, his hands found gentle purchase in her gown and nudged her close to him.
"I love you too." Anna murmured quietly. Kristoff's head shifted down against her shoulder and what was perhaps the first true smile in weeks pulled at her features as she looped her arms over his shoulders. It was enough to pull a string of tears from her eyes.
After a soft moment between them spent with Anna running her hands up and down the expanse of his back and Kristoff muttering half-thought sentiments to her, he had dozed off against her; arms falling limply around her. Upon noticing his steadied breath against her neck she threaded her fingers into his locks and pressed his forehead closer so it connected with the column of her throat.
Anna found herself willing the heat of him to find it's way into her. Surely he was able to feel the lack of warmth in her- that when he looked into her eyes he searched for the warmth that had once matched her body's- but if he did, he had never spoken of it. Anna's mind wandered back to mere hours ago when she had told him how cold she felt in the bathtub. In a room heated by smouldering coals, in a bathtub filled with steaming water- her, a girl with fiery red hair, with stories told of the fire in her heart that had once been enough to bring her back to life, a girl who was so surrounded with the heat of love- and yet found herself in a shudder that knew no bound of days…
"... alone and cold." she had told him. And truth be, she wouldn't have been shocked at his confusion as, well, she was equally disturbed by these feelings.
But he wasn't. Kristoff's expression was devoid of anything that looked like uncertainty or misunderstanding. Instead, he had looked so deep into her eyes that she felt as though he had cut right through her soul as easily as he would split a block of ice. He wasn't searching either, not for hidden meaning or misplaced warmth- his eyes easily found the part of her he wanted. Kristoff had covered her hand with his own. "You'll never be alone, Anna. I know it can be hard not to think that when you're locked up in your thoughts but it's true. I know that with Elsa gone it must feel like there are fewer people that care for you but nothing could be farther from the truth. She'll always be there for you," his hand had tightened then , "As will I. And as for the cold, well, only Ahtohallen knows.."