Kristoff made a point to be awake, dressed, and prepared for the day earlier than usual. He walked briskly to the castle. Not finding anyone who would know about the day's meetings, he continued toward Anna's chamber.
Likely hearing the approach, Elsa walked out of Anna's room, still dressed for sleep.
"Kristoff! You're here early. Anna is fine, but her fever still hasn't broken. Gerda has a list of the meetings you'll need to attend to while Anna recovers. You still have some time, but I'll go find her."
While Elsa hurried off to prepare for the day, Kristoff peered through the open door behind her. Anna, if she had ever been awake, was now back to sleeping soundly. She looked hilarious when she slept-Elsa liked to tease her about this fact-but she still never ceased to make Kristoff's heart skip a beat. Seeing her like this was a glimpse into her private life, one that kingdom's other residents would never experience.
He paced the halls, trying to remain quiet, and closed Anna's door when Elsa and Gerda appeared so that he wouldn't wake her.
As Gerda went through the schedule, Kristoff realized that all of the residents and most of the issues were familiar to him. He had been visiting various citizens with Anna, and even when he didn't, she had filled him in on the happenings around the kingdom.
Still, he was nervous to accomplish all of these meetings and conversations on his own for the first time.
As Gerda finished up the list, Elsa re-emerged, dressed for the day and looking more refreshed. Kristoff decided to reach for one last lifeline.
"Elsa, maybe you'd like to attend these meetings with me? I'm sure everyone misses you!"
Elsa gave him the same look she gave to Olaf when he was acting up or being ridiculous.
"Kristoff, you can do this. It's important to build trust with the citizens of Arendelle. And besides, I have other matters to attend to here. I want to make sure that everything is organized once Anna is well again in order to save her some trouble."
Kristoff sighed. "All right. That's nice of you. I can do this...hopefully."
Gerda smiled at him and handed him the schedule. "I trust that you can. You smell nice today, by the way."
Kristoff blushed. "I, uh, left my reindeer in Northuldra. I thought it might be a nice break for him. And for me, I guess, from smelling like a reindeer…"
Elsa and Gerda chuckled before Gerda continued. "Elsa, a few letters have come in, and I thought you might want to take a look and draft responses on Anna's behalf."
"Of course! Good luck, Kristoff. Fill me in when you get back."
With that, the two women walked off toward the study, leaving Kristoff alone outside of Anna's door.
He decided that he should get some breakfast for Anna in case she was hungry. Plus, walking to the kitchens and back would be something to do, reducing the temptation to either wake Anna from her much-needed rest or start walking off toward Northuldra to recover Sven (or to live there among the reindeer himself).
When he returned, he placed a small breakfast tray on a table next to Anna's bed. He watched her for a moment, not wanting to wake her, then gently let go of the tray and went to leave. Before his hand got too far, hers suddenly grabbed onto it. She opened her bright blue eyes, sleepy but clearly awake.
"Stay. Let's talk."
He smiled and sat down.
She rubbed her eyes and yawned before speaking.
"I forgot to ask-did you have a chance to visit Ahtohallan?"
"No, I...wait, that was your idea?"
"And Elsa's. But yes, I thought it would be good for you. I'm sorry I made you come back before you had a chance."
"Actually, it wasn't that. I'm just...not sure if I want to. Maybe some things are best left unknown. At least for now…" Seeing her confused expression, he continued, "And if I do end up going, I want you to be there with me."
Now she smiled. "I didn't want to pressure you-I thought if I went, you might feel uncomfortable. I guess Elsa would have to be there either way, but she would be good about giving you privacy. I didn't want you to feel like you had to share everything with me."
"I want to. I want to share my whole life with you."
"Good. I'm sorry I didn't bring you along when Elsa brought me-it just felt like something we needed to do together. See our mother again. Learn about our past. But all of my best memories included you," she smiled at him.
"Anna, it's fine. You don't have to justify spending time with Elsa. I'm just lucky that you also make time for me."
"And now that the whole 'mysterious voice causing spirits to attack the kingdom' crisis is over, I'll be sure to prioritize our time together more. I'm glad that Elsa has finally found her place...even though she's here less often, I don't feel so desperate to chase her down, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," he answered, and he truly did. When Anna went chasing after Elsa, Kristoff felt like he was chasing after her-it brought him right back to their very first meeting, when Anna was running up a mountain, desperate to help Elsa, and Kristoff was just trying to keep her safe.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Elsa. And of course, he knew how much she cared about Anna.
Elsa just didn't always seem to understand Anna's need for company and reassurance the way that Kritsoff did, even though both he and Elsa could be considered loners.
When Anna clung to him, Kristoff knew to stay steady, to be her rock until she was confident that he wouldn't run away. When Anna clung to Elsa, sometimes it seemed to agitate Elsa even more, which agitated Anna more, which devolved into a cycle that spiraled away from him, leaving him frozen in confusion and helpless to intervene.
One of the first such incidents he witnessed after the Great Thaw happened as soon as the weather started to change. No one wanted to admit that the slight chill in the air brought them back to the uncontrollable July winds, to the sight of Anna shivering, weakening, freezing...but the thought hung among them in tension, which was sometimes thicker than the smoke that rose from their chimneys.
One night, Kristoff awoke to the sound of rustling in the stables, and barely had time to react before he was suddenly struck by something small, warm, and shaky.
It was Anna. She had hurtled into the stables and into his arms, and was now sobbing quietly against his chest.
The sound immediately startled him out of his sleep to be acutely aware of his surroundings.
"Anna! What is it? Are you hurt?"
He wrapped one arm around her, using the other to cradle her face in his hand, encouraging her to meet his eyes.
Finally, she looked up. Teary-eyed, messy-haired, and barefoot, wearing nothing except her usual dressing gown (which, at that point, he had never seen).
"No, I'm fine. I'm sorry to wake you. It was just a nightmare. It's silly."
He hugged her back against his chest.
"Anna, don't be sorry. I'm here. Do you...want to talk about it?"
She sniffed, wiped her face, tried to regain her composure.
"It was just...that day. You know...you know that I saw you, right?"
Of course he did. He could never forget the look in her eyes as they had met his. The desperation he had seen just seconds before had turned into a different kind of desperation, going from "Please help!" to "I'm sorry."
"Yes. I remember. I think about it, too. A lot, actually."
It was true. And an understatement.
She sat up. This seemed to strengthen her, and she spoke next. "I remember how hopeful I was, even when all hope seemed to be gone. Because even if it didn't work, even if I froze anyway, I wanted to spend my last moments with you," she blushed, "And I felt kind of ridiculous, you know, after the fact, when we were all awkward again and really hadn't known each other for that long, but now...what if I had never gotten to kiss you? To tell you how I feel?"
Her huge blue eyes met his, filled with fear and sadness and gratefulness, and he kissed her just to prove that he could.
"That...would have been terrible," he said simply. They couldn't help but chuckle slightly. They sat in silence for a while, not knowing how long, until he had decided that he needed to get her back to the castle. He wrapped her in a jacket, leant her some shoes that were ridiculously oversized for her feet, and grabbed her hand and a lantern to head back through the darkness to the castle.
They didn't make it far before they heard her.
"Anna! Anna, are you out here?"
They looked at each other, eyes wide. Elsa's voice jolted Kristoff back to the moment they had just discussed-seeing Elsa clutch her sister's frozen form, sobbing.
They picked up their pace, running toward the sound until they saw another small lantern in the distance.
"Elsa! Elsa, I'm right here!" Anna yelled, and Elsa turned toward her and met her in the middle of the distance between the two.
"Anna!" She hugged her sister with relief, then continued with an edge to her voice. "Anna, what in the world were you-"
Her eyes shifted to take in her sister's odd wardrobe, and then met Kristoff's, and her face hardened.
"Anna of Arendelle, you cannot be running off at night! I had no idea where you were! Do you have any idea how terrifying that was?"
"Elsa, I'm sorry, but it's fine, I was with Kristoff, it's not like I was in danger or-"
Elsa continued, her tone more exasperated, "And that's supposed to make me feel better? Anna, you're a princess! You can't be running off at night with some man that you're seeing!"
The words stung. Kristoff's face flushed, but he didn't move. Elsa glared at him, face equally red in the light of her lantern. He finally spoke.
"I-sorry. I'll go. I'm really sorry."
As he turned to walk away from the sisters, he heard their voices, more and more distant, continuing the argument. He tried not to listen, but it was impossible not to in the silent autumn night.
"Elsa, I'm not a child! I can take care of myself! I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was going, but I was coming right back, and if you had been asleep nothing would have happened and no one would have known! Why were you awake, anyway?"
"I had work to do. That's none of your concern."
"Elsa, I keep telling you to let me help with everything! You need to sleep, too!"
"I need to run a kingdom. I need you to keep yourself safe so I can do that."
"And what about you? I'm supposed to just let you work yourself into the ground because you happened to be born first? It doesn't make any sense…"
The argument continued along roughly the same path, and Kristoff had never heard the sisters talk to each other this way. Normally, their relationship was cautiously pleasant and loving.
When the sun had risen, there was a change, but not back to normal.
Every time he saw Anna in the next few days, she seemed to be chasing after Elsa, desperate for some sort of involvement or responsibility, while Elsa brushed her off in her cold and regal way.
He didn't see much of the princess for days after the incident; and then, eventually, she started to emerge from the castle to find him more often again.
At first, he was worried that he had done something wrong. Eventually, he realized this was just the way of things. Elsa and Anna's relationship was in a constant cycle that was almost seasonal, from healthy to distant to desperately clinging and everything in between.
He would just have to accept it. And he did. Mostly. Three was a difficult number at times, but when the three of them managed to stay out of crisis, their strange little family worked well together.
After a pep talk from Anna and a few last attempts to get out of taking the day's meetings on his own, Kristoff finally steeled himself to leave the castle.
He had a schedule and instructions, jotted out by Anna and expanded in painstaking detail by Elsa (which made him feel both wounded at her lack of trust and grateful for the guidance).
The first meeting was the most difficult. There wasn't anything particularly important to discuss; it was simply the action of stepping into someone's business as some sort of representative of Arendelle's monarchy. Of all things to get himself into, and of all people to get into this sort of thing…
Finally, he pushed open the door, and the day's tasks began.
It was mostly mundane. Slightly awkward at worst, pleasantly friendly at best. People asked after Anna, sending well-wishes, favorite sickness remedies passed down through families (some of them were surprisingly similar to troll methods, giving him some common ground), and even a wonderful smelling pot of stew from a particularly kind shop owner.
The best meetings were the ones where Kristoff could make himself useful, offering assistance or advice with the tasks necessary to prepare for winter.
The last person he visited was an elderly woman, and he was able to mend the edge of a drafty window and haul in some extra firewood to make sure she wouldn't run out.
"Is there anything else I can do before I go?"
The woman smiled kindly.
"Go and take care of your queen. Send my best wishes for her good health. Seeing the two of you together always warms my heart. Reminds me of my late husband and me when we were young like you."
The look in her eyes was sad and joyful and teasing at the same time, and he gave an awkward half smile.
"Oh, uh...thank you. That's...nice to hear. If you need anything else, you know where to find us. Stay warm."
He finally left his last visit of the day, checking off his schedule and exhaling a deep breath. Kingdoms were exhausting, but also kind of nice.
By the end of the day, Anna was feeling better and eager to get back out into town. Elsa and Kristoff convinced her to wait until the next day, and the three of them spent a cozy evening inside the castle.
Life settled back into a comfortable new normal. Elsa went back to Northuldra, promising to return for the next game night and to bring Ryder, Honeymaren, and Sven along with her.
Kristoff made a point to go along with Anna when she mingled around town, and had her delegate some of her less involved tasks to him (a feat that he managed by reminding her of her constant frustration with Elsa).
At night, he enjoyed his time in the castle with Anna, leaving each night feeling more and more desperate to stay.
It was odd not having Sven in his familiar spot in the stables. One night, he instinctively looked in to check on Sven before realizing that he wasn't there and laughing at himself. He had left an old blanket in the middle of the stall, which was odd, and he decided to go in and put it away.
It wasn't until he was bent down to grab it that he noticed that the blanket was breathing.
He backed up against the gate, not wanting to startle whatever animal had taken up residence there in Sven's absence, and forgetting that it had swung shut behind him.
The sound woke the animal, which looked up at him with a set of blue eyes that were very human.
As was the mop of dirty blond hair that was matted in spots above the very human face.
It wasn't a wild animal, but a little girl.