TW: flashbacks/dissociation; references to past violence and gore


Anna kept turning around to see what Kristoff was doing, hoping he'd wink at her like he usually did, but today he was working alone and therefore too busy to notice her.

"You're drooling again," said Alex.

Anna zeroed in on her little brother's mocking tone and stopped herself from snapping at him just as a new family approached the table.

After coming together in model behavior, the siblings resumed their spat in Coronan.

"I'm not drooling! I just… feel bad for him that he's working all alone today. He looks so tired…" She yawned as she finished her thought, giving away how sleep deprived she was.

Alex cackled, "You guys probably shouldn't have stayed out so late last night!"

Anna froze. Then she scrambled. "Alex… Can you not tell Papa? Please?" How else could she possibly save herself? "We're just friends, Alex. Nothing's going on. Please?"

Alex rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Sure. And wombats don't poop squares!" He cackled some more at the absurdity of the statement, but scaled back when Anna clasped prayer hands to her chest. "Fine! I won't tell. But you owe me!"

Anna took another quick peek at her friend and was disappointed that, again, he wasn't looking at her. her stomach dropped and a heatwave, followed by the chills, crept into every orifice. Maybe he finally figured out that she wasn't worth it.

"Where's his crew? I guess th…"

"Thanks, Alex, you're the best brother in the entire world," she said with a light peck on his cheek.

Kristoff was halfheartedly tossing bags of rice into some baskets lined up on a table, alternating between fast, angry throws punctuated with Northuldran curse words, and slow, distracted throws. He could have been mad at Anna, but it was also possible that there was something else going on. Maybe opening up last night brought up some unpleasant memories. Maybe Anna pushed too hard.

He threw the next bag even harder than the others and knocked the basket off the table, spilling its contents. He groaned loudly enough for Anna to hear and put his hands over his face.

Anna knelt down to pick up the basket and replaced the cans and boxes of food that had fallen out of it. She dropped it onto the table and the thud prompted Kristoff to lower his hands.

He froze when he saw walking towards him. His eyebrows knitted together and his eyelids lowered, as did his jaw. Anna looked around to make sure neither Alex nor her dad, who was on the other side of the camp, would notice before wordlessly drawing Kristoff behind the nearest tree.

Kristoff's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "What, Anna? What is it? I'm very busy."

Anna thickened her skin and asked, "Is everything ok?"

"Yes, fine! Why?"

Anna made a face indicating her disbelief. "Did I do something to upset you?" She braced herself for the truth, that he no longer wanted anything to do with her.

"What?" The way he asked filled Anna with shame. She was two seconds away from bawling at his rejection when he recanted his tone. "No. Um, no, it's not you, of course not. Why would I be upset with you?"

Anna's heart skipped for a moment and her jaw quivered, still holding back tears. She couldn't even look at him as she asked, "Just friends?"

Then she chanced a look through her lashes at Kristoff's eyes, widened in surprise. "What? No," he said in disbelief. Then he let out a deep breath and most of the tension that had built up in his jaw.

Anna took a deep breath to let go of her unfounded fears and reached for his hands.

"You can talk to me, you know." She offered a soft smile and inched closer to him. "Please, Kristoff? Let me help."

He smiled smugly and Anna regretted her offer. She retracted her hand and jutted her chin in the air. "Kristoff…"

His eyes filled with pain and sorrow and she barely had enough time to extend her arms as he fell into them.

"I just miss the Northern Mountains, my family, the way things used to be. Before the soldiers moved in. That's all. Just feeling homesick, I guess."

She rested her chin on top of his shoulder and squeezed. It was easy to take care of him like this, and the world didn't get fuzzy or feel unreal at all, though she did tingle all over from being so close to him and breathing in his salty musk. The sweat that had dampened his clothes clung to her skin uncomfortably, but she didn't move, not even when his weight forced her spine to compress and her knees to lock, and he nearly choked her with his tight grip. She held him past the point of discomfort because he needed her to.

"Thank you, Anna" he said plainly and pushed himself off of her. He adjusted his hat, then added, "I'm sorry for getting upset like that. It wasn't because of you. I'm glad we can be friends."

Anna smiled and played with one of her braids.

"Oh, so, uh, did you need something?" he asked, adjusting his hat again. "When you came over here?"

"Mmm. I was just gonna offer to help you today so you won't be alone. I don't think Papa would mind, and Alex doesn't really need my help."

Kristoff grinned as he moved a large box from a pickup truck and set it on the ground. Then he split the tape in half with a razor blade before coolly returning it into his back pocket. He picked out a few cans of carrots and unexpectedly tossed one to Anna, which she fortunately caught. Her mouth opened in objection, but Kristoff's smile, crossed between smug and smitten, floored her into silence.

"I'd love your company, Anna," he said in Arendellian. He shrugged his shoulders and continued in Northuldran, but all she could understand was "You [something] me [something] home."

The soft tone of his voice, his gently wrinkling eyes, and the deeply curved line above his chin assured her that it was an extremely nice compliment. She put her hands on her hips and in mock annoyance, she said, "Kristoff, you know I don't speak Northuldran."

He grabbed the last can from the box, and the clouds parted so Ahtohallan's love could shine on his charming smile. "We'll just have to do something about that, won't we?"

"Just friends," she reminded him as much as herself.

She reached for the can of carrots he held out to her, but he retracted it before she could take it, and held it to his heart. "At least for now," he said with a wink that weakened Anna's core.

She was about to drag him behind the tree again, when Agnarr came out of nowhere.

"Oh, there you are, Anna! I've been looking all over for you!" She blushed and looked down to hide her feelings. "Well, I can see you've already got your work cut out for you helping Christopher. Good, good. Carry on."

Both let out a deep breath as he walked away, and Kristoff handed the carrots to Anna. Then he ripped open the bottom of the box and tossed it onto the stack of flattened boxes he'd already unpacked that morning.


Even months after Anna broke up with Hans, he continued to race against Kristoff to sit behind her in gym class. Sometimes he even pushed Kristoff out of the way just so he could dig a knife into Anna's back and attempt to drive a wedge between them.

Hans must have gotten there early that Tuesday, so Eugene plopped himself down in the next line, just slightly in front of Anna, and Kristoff sat behind him. Kristoff immediately glared at Hans, so he played with Anna's braids. She swatted him away and scowled as she swung her braids in front of her already pinched shoulders.

"So, Anna…" Hans leaned around her when he spoke, but his eyes shifted back and forth between Kristoff and Eugene. "When my mom gets elected as mayor you guys won't have to work so much at the refugee camp. Cause there won't be as many refugees!"

He chuckled while James and Bobby Stabbington roared. "You should thank me for that, Christopher. You'll actually have time to have a real life with a real girlfriend. Instead of Florence Nightingale."

Kristoff had no idea who Florence Nightingale was, but it was an obvious dig at Anna.

James Stabbington added, "No, he could only get a date with a REINDEER !" He elongated the word, and said it just a little nasally, taunting him like a child.

Hans and Bobby erupted into laughter and Kristoff could see the tiny hairs along Anna's otherwise smooth – though never anywhere close to straight – part stand as Hans cackled into her back. She squeezed her eyes shut and cringed at the comment Hans didn't even know applied to her. Then she pulled her knees to her chest and made her back concave so she could hide her face between them. Kristoff reeled at how disturbing it must be for Anna to feel Hans' foul breath on her back after making such an ethnic slur.

Kristoff drifted off for a moment, imagining himself standing next to Anna and extending his hand, inviting her to sit in front of him, and her sweet smile from knowing she had an out if she wanted one. But that would have made things worse for Anna, so he didn't.

"You know, Hans," Eugene said in his most pompous voice, one of his most annoying traits, for good. "Frederick King actually has a much better chance of winning, and-"

"Oh, give me a break! He's been mayor for forever and everyone's ready for a change, and-"

"And. What?" Eugene scowled. Everyone around them got quiet so they could hear how Hans would handle Eugene's combative demeanor.

"Well, you would know. You're dating his slut daughter…"

Kristoff held onto Eugene's arm when it flexed. Punching Hans, as much as Kristoff would have loved to see it, wasn't going to make things better. Eugene tried to shake his arm free but Kristoff tightened his grip.

Then Hans finished what he wanted to say, smug that there'd be no consequences. "Well, come on, I mean, she's half Arendellian. What do you expect?"

Anna's head popped up and her braid would have nearly taken Hans' eye out if he hadn't leaned back when she turned. Kristoff held onto Eugene's other arm and pressed down so he couldn't stand.

Feeling invincible, Hans continued. "I mean, let's just look at the facts. Anna, you're all Arendellian. If that's not proof, I don't know-"

Before Kristoff knew it Anna was standing in front of him, bracing his wrists. "No, Kristoff - er," she whispered in Northuldran.

"No, Christopher!" Hans mocked, not knowing it was Northuldran, while several other students joined in his laughter. "You've probably never said that before!"

Anna ignored him and the louder wave of laughter and dragged Kristoff by the wrist. Then she poked her foot at Eugene's lower back until he moved forward and Anna instructed Kristoff to sit. There was barely enough room between them so she practically sat on Kristoff's lap. He reveled with heated cheeks momentarily at Anna so clearly choosing him in front of the entire class.

Hans rolled his eyes and shouted, "Case in point!"

The heat from Kristoff's cheeks traveled to his belly and his vision blurred. The bell interrupted and the gym teacher didn't give him another opportunity to defend Anna, not that she actually needed him to.


Hans and James, who were assigned as pitcher and umpire, respectively, were nauseatingly nice to Anna as she approached the dugout with Kristoff and Eugene to await their turns at bat. It made Kristoff's skin crawl, but it infuriated him when Anna looked down glassy eyed, weary from ignoring their unwanted attention on the jog over to the baseball diamond. He and Eugene exchanged glances, and Eugene nodded at Anna until Kristoff silently agreed that their priority was cheering Anna up and not retaliating.

"Hey, orange!" Kristoff said jovially in Arendellian as he lightly tugged on one of Anna's braids.

Anna frowned as she put her hands on her hips.

Not needing to understand what Kristoff had just said, Eugene put his hands in the air and pleaded, "I tried to talk him out of it."

Anna shifted her eyes from Eugene back to Kristoff. "Orange?" she asked in Coronan, while Eugene laughed into his hand.

"Oh, sorry, I meant…" He switched back to Arendellian to finish his sentence with a shit-eating grin, "Carrots."

Anna crossed her arms and squinted her eyes. Back to Arendellian, she teased, "I don't know, Krriyistaff…"

Kristoff's heart leapt out of his chest, as it usually did when she said his name.

Then in Coronan for Eugene's benefit, she finished, "...if you know Coronan well enough to read Anne of Green Gables … I'm not really sure you need my help tomorrow."

Kristoff, unphased, whispered into her ear so Eugene couldn't hear, "I'd rather learn from Anna of Green Gables."

Anna blushed and pushed her braids behind her shoulders.

"So, you'll still teach me?" he asked in Arendellian, and then finished in Northuldran. "Please?"

Anna smiled, but a crack in the air surprised Kristoff and his arms swallowed her body as he pulled her to the ground so she wouldn't get shot.

"Krriyistaf?" Anna asked.

Kristoff opened his eyes when he felt her hand on his cheek and her heavily accented Northuldran assuring him that he was safe.

"Hey, man, it's just a baseball bat. Just softball," Euegene said as he crouched down to tap Kristoff's shoulder.

Another loud crack caused him to cringe, but Anna stood anyway. She and Eugene helped him up while the Stabbington brother acting as umpire cackled at him.

"Forget about him," Anna implored.

"Yeah, he's not worth it," Eugene added with a reassuring hand slapping his back, as though that didn't make it worse.

Each time the bat cracked against the ball Kristoff closed his eyes and shuddered at the vision of one of the worst moments in his life. Each crack added up and he found himself squeezing, possibly even crushing, Anna's hand harder than he meant to each time it happened. She never complained, though, and generously allowed him to hold onto it while they waited their turns to bat.

The palpitations in Kristoff's ears became overwhelming as their turns approached. The sweat on Kristoff's palms became unbearable, but not as bad as the thought of Anna's hand slipping away to pick up a bat. There was only one person in front of Anna, and there was nothing he could do except beg.

"Anna, I don't want you to play," he whispered to her in Arendellian. Then he switched to Northuldran, hoping she'd see how much he meant it. "Please, Anna? Please don't play. Please. "

His sister would have punched him in the gut if he ever asked her or any other woman from their village what he had just asked Anna, but he was desperate. Watching that ball being hurled at her would have completely undone him, especially if she managed to hit it. He was having the worst hot flashes he'd ever experienced just thinking about it.

Eugene slid around them and announced that he'd go first, and Kristoff flashed his eyes at him in gratitude. Eugene gave a slight wave of his hand in acknowledgement. Kristoff was confident that Eugene was so uncoordinated that wasn't going to come anywhere close to hitting the ball, but he couldn't bring himself to watch.

Then Kristoff skipped ahead of Anna, despite her protests. His heart raced as Hans threw the first ball at him, and, despite his gradually blurring vision, he managed to lean back enough to avoid having to swing. He felt like he was underwater and the coach gave her corrections from second base, though they brought him back to the slippery bat in his hands.

He stood closer to the plate, like the coach instructed, but he swung too fast. The ball hit his shoulder, causing him to cry out more from terror than pain, and knocking him to the ground. He knew he was in gym class, but all he could see were bodies stacked on top of him, blocking Ahtohallan's light. All he could smell was the foul stench of sun-baked death, and all he could hear was the buzzing of flies feasting on half of the men from his village. He didn't dare move.

The gym coach hovered over him, which didn't help. Nothing helped until Anna held his hand and whispered Northuldran into his ear, because he needed her to.

"Why don't you take him to the nurse," the coach said in a muffled, though kind, voice he hated when it interrupted Anna's soothing words.


Kristoff must have blacked out because suddenly he was walking on the sidewalk, his shoulder in searing pain. His good arm was draped across Eugene's shoulders while Anna carried his backpack. He shook himself out of it enough to walk on his own and demand his bag from a scowling Anna, which he swung over his good shoulder.

Kristoff's tears flowed, slowly at first, slow enough that he could catch each one before Eugene noticed. He turned his head towards Anna so he wouldn't see, and Anna held his hand a little tighter.

"Thanks, Eugene, I think we're good now," she said. "You can go back to school if you want."

He hemmed while Kristoff struggled to hold his emotions in and he regretted not seeing the look Anna must have given him to make Eugene turn around. Then his tears came so fast he had to let go of Anna's hand so he could hold his nose inside his shirt collar.

Anna wrapped an arm around his waist and gently encouraged him to move faster. "We're almost there, Kristoff. We have to hurry, though, because we're skipping school and we could get in trouble."

Kristoff nodded and did his best to quell the tears. He barely made it across the threshold to Anna's house before he broke down. Anna shuttled him to her bed and disappeared momentarily, returning with some medicine and a glass of water. She laid down on the bed with him and draped an ice pack over his shoulder. He sobbed harder and, with the arm her head was resting on, pulled her into a close hug.

"Krriyistaf?" she asked as she draped her arm across his stomach and crossed one of her legs between his. "What do you need?"

"Will you just say my name again? Please? Just keep saying it."

Each time she said it negated a crack of the bat, until finally he felt calm enough to slow his tears.

"You don't have to talk about it, Kristoff," she said as she propped herself up and leaned over him a little more. "But my shoulder's still here if you want to borrow it."

Then she removed the ice pack from his shoulder. "I'll put it back on in a few minutes," she assured him with a wink.

Kristoff chuckled, a welcome relief after all that sadness. Then he leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. He had to tell her, but he couldn't bear to see the hurt in her eyes.

"We were lined up, my dad was next to me, along with a lot of other men from my village. And there was a soldier with a gun in front of the first five men, and…"

Anna was already in tears and he knew this was a bad idea. He turned his head towards her, unsure what to do. "Go on, Kristoff. It's sad, but I can take it."

Kristoff sighed and relented. He needed to say it out loud, and she was the only person he could tell.

"They fired together. Then they shot at the next five, together. My dad and I were in the third group, and he... switched places with me when no one was paying attention. The soldier that was supposed to shoot him seemed to be inexperienced. He was the last to shoot from taking extra time to aim. And my dad…" Kristoff's tears pooled. Anna ran her thumb across them so he could continue, but she didn't push. "My bullet grazed my shoulder, but my dad, he…" Anna kissed his cheek, temporarily taking away his pain in the way she always somehow did. He took a deep breath so he could control his own voice. "He saw that my soldier missed, and he held his arm over my chest so I'd fall backwards with him." He said nothing to her about falling into a mass grave and landing on a jagged plane of jutting bones and sharp features, lucky he didn't break his spine. Nothing about his father drowning from blood but finally dying from suffocation when the last body fell on top of him. Nothing about prying his father's hand, stiff from rigor mortis, away from his own. Nothing about struggling to get out from under the unmoving bodies of his teacher and the man who helped him carve a necklace out of reindeer horns he'd given to his sister. Nothing about crawling over the crunching bones of his cousins and neighbors that he could still feel on the soles of his feet as much as hear each time Oaken chopped meat on the cutting board. Nothing about using the bodies of his father's brother and closest friend, along with several other well respected men from his village, to stack against the side of the pit made of moist, cake-like dirt so soft that he couldn't climb out otherwise. Nothing about the navigating blind in the darkness other than pale beams of the moon shining through dark clouds as they shifted on occasion. He nearly lost faith in Ahtohallan that night but there was no other way a 14 year old with a wounded shoulder, numb from shock and adrenaline, could have escaped on his own. But more than Ahtohallan, he owed his life to those men who gave their lives so he could live. He prayed to their stars, as much as he did to the moon and sun gods. "I pretended like I was dead, and they never checked."

Kristoff buried his face in his hands, though his shoulder ached, and he found a new supply of tears. Anna burrowed into his neck and said his name over and over. She didn't stop until this round of tears had dried up.

He smiled at her reassuringly when she lifted her head to look at him. He stroked her braid, and said "I waited until nighttime, and then I ran to the forest and made my way to Corona like my mom said."

Anna moved her leg so she was on top of him. Then she held onto his cheeks and put her forehead against his. Her lips landed softly on his, chastely, but also just a little more than friendly. They were dry and flaky, pale and, sadly, unadorned with glitter, but he wanted them to linger. He could see in her eyes as she pushed herself up that she would have given anything to make him feel better. She would have given him everything. But this wasn't how he wanted it to happen. Not when she felt sorry for him, and not when she wasn't ready for it. She so much as told him she wasn't, and there was no way her stance would change that drastically in four days. Besides, he already felt 1,000 times better from just leaning on her shoulder.

Instead of giving in to the uncomfortable building pressure in his pants, just centimeters away from her beckoning heat, he kissed her shoulder and brushed the paintbrush tip of her braid against her cheek. "Orange."

Anna snorted a laugh and suddenly sat back on his thighs. With a straight back, she said in an extremely confident voice Kristoff wished she used more often, "I know what you need." Kristoff had no idea what he needed, but he had no doubt that Anna did.


Kristoff missed Anna as soon as she left the bed, and he hugged her pillow for a moment to breathe in the clinging scent of her lavender shampoo. His sore shoulder wasn't enough to distract him from his aching groin so he banged his head against the mattress a few times. He didn't want her to see him like that when they were supposed to be "just friends."

He curled the pillow under his head and looked around the room, his curiosity getting the better of him. There was a bed, a nightstand, a simple table she used for a desk, a dark and bulky dresser with a mirror that had all kinds of things like scarves and bras hanging on it. Kristoff did his best not to look, but he saw enough to know that Anna didn't use the mirror often. Despite the expensive-looking furniture, plush carpet, and soft green walls, Anna's room was sparse. There weren't any posters or art on the walls, but there was a large window with billowing purple drapes that looked homemade, and several small pots on the sill with plants Kristoff had never seen before. There weren't any knick knacks like Oaken had all over his apartment other than a snowglobe and some lopsided and gaudy colored ceramics Alex must have made for her and an assortment of books, including Anne of Green Gables, some Jane Austen books, a lot of other books Kristoff had never heard of stowed neatly on the tall and narrow white wicker bookshelf with a curved top standing in a shaded corner. And, barely visible on the bottom shelf, there were books about the Northuldra, the Northern Mountains, Arendelle, the war and genocide, and an Arendellian-Coronan dictionary. Except for the plants and the mirror and the bookshelf, this could have been anyone's room.

Kristoff could still hear Anna clanging in the kitchen, so he sat up and moved closer to the head of the bed, leaning against the wall so he could keep the ice on his shoulder like Anna instructed. He smiled when he noticed the toilet paper roll with the ruffled edges. He ran his finger across the plies at the top and shook his head. Then he went for the small tube, clear with glitter that sparkled in the afternoon sun streaming through Anna's window. He ignored the pain in his shoulder to untwist the cap and attached stick with a fuzzy end, covered in glitter. This must be what she wore on her lips sometimes. He inhaled the sweet scent, and now that he knew what it was like to kiss Anna, he imagined how heavenly it would be to add a dash of vanilla to the experience. He thought briefly about touching it to his lips so he could taste it, but thought better of it and screwed the top back on instead.

Then he picked up the small, brown picture frame that was laid face down. The picture, which had a crease down the middle and across must have been in the letter Iduna gave Anna. He stroked her long braids, which she'd apparently been wearing since she was five years old, with his finger and smiled. Behind her, there were two women who looked nearly identical, but only the one with dark blonde hair was smiling. Anna's smile matched hers, so he assumed that was Iduna. The other woman, whose almost white hair laid in a braid over her shoulder, must have been Anna's aunt. She was holding baby Alex, but she had a look like she was somewhere else. She proudly gestured at a snowman that was almost as tall as she was. Kristoff giggled when he realized how small the snowman's carrot nose was from being pushed in a little too far. He wished he could have known her back then so he could have felt Ahtohallan's love emanated from her toothy smile, which was brighter than he'd ever seen it. He would have built so many snowmen with her.

He laid the picture face down like he found it, likely something Anna did out of respect for Agnarr, and the room darkened from a moving cloud. He wished Anna could have stayed that happy forever, and it was unlikely she'd ever be that happy ever again. Then he wished he could have killed the person that stole her smile. He took a deep breath and moved on to the worn literature textbook that was hanging over the side of the nightstand, which opened to a bouquet of pressed flowers, and smiled giddily. He knew Anna cared about him, but he didn't realize how deep her feelings were before seeing how much she cherished his gifts.

Kristoff's stomach growled as he returned the book to its spot. He learned to ignore those pains when he was in the forest because he was always hungry. He could only eat when food was available rather than at particular times of day. But since moving to Corona he'd grown accustomed to eating lunch at a certain time. Glancing at the clock, lunch time was a couple hours ago.


He lumbered over to the kitchen, holding the ice to his shoulder, when he decided he couldn't wait any longer. "Hey, Anna, can I help with anything?"

"Oh, you're just in time!"

Kristoff eyed the sandwiches and licked his lips. He pleaded with his eyes for Anna to let him have it, but he couldn't bring himself to ask.

She handed him a plate with a smile in exchange for the ice pack, and said, "Just sit down. I'll be there in a second."

He should have waited for her before tucking in, but the bread smelled so good, and the lettuce leaf poking out the edges looked so fresh. She had cut it in half and Kristoff marveled at how neatly the cheese, meat and tomatoes lined up. He just wanted one bite, just to find out what kind of meat it was. But the sharpness of the cheese, the juiciness of the tomato, and the tanginess of the mustard made him feel cherished, and couldn't stop after that one bite.

Anna approached him from behind and set the glass of water in front of him. He stopped chewing and dropped the last quarter of the sandwich on the plate. Then he swallowed hard and practically drank the whole glass before Anna had a chance to sit down. Kristoff expected to get yelled at, but it would have been worth it.

"Is it good?" The answer was obvious, but he muttered a Northuldran 'yes' into the sandwich and nodded his head. As much as he wanted to sing her praises, the sandwich was more important.

He had finished eating and guzzled the remainder of his water before Anna even finished half of hers. Then he told her, "We don't have sandwiches in the Northern Mountains, but they're one of the things I like best about living in Corona. And that was the best sandwich I've ever had."

"Really?" Anna gushed as she came around the table to inspect his shoulder. Her finger seared his icy skin, but when she kissed his scar his entire body seared. The patter of his heart was louder than his own thoughts, but he managed to stop himself from turning so he could feel her magic on his lips. She had boxes and she wasn't ready for it. And he could wait.

"You're a sandwich queen," he said with a teasing smile.

Kristoff's belly warmed as pretty freckles punctuated her charming smile. Forgetting about his shoulder and her boxes, he put his hands on her hips.

"Krriyistaf…"

She was amused more than annoyed, removed his hands quickly just the same.

"I'm sorry," he said with eyes closed from shame. "I know. Just friends."

Anna closed her own eyes and balled her fists up, banging them into her thighs. "At least…" She seemed to be having as much trouble with it as he was with the incredibly blurry line she'd set between them.

He interrupted what he knew she was going to say but didn't want to hear, to ask for her help preparing for his upcoming test in Coronan history. It was just as well because Kristoff sat on the other side of the table from Anna, but he jumped when the keys rattled at the front door. Alex shot into the room and immediately assaulted Kristoff a slew of questions, which saved him from thinking all the things he was thinking about Anna while he was supposed to be concentrating on studying.

At first, he was annoyed that he couldn't keep paying attention to Anna, but he liked seeing her amused smile every time he glanced at her. Besides, Alex was entertaining, and Kristoff liked him. And one day he'd call him his brother.

"Hi, Princess," Agnarr said as he squeezed Anna's shoulders from behind and kissed the top of her head. Then he rounded the table, where Kristoff stood to shake his hand. His shoulder still hurt, but he pretended it didn't because he didn't want to answer any questions about it. He told Anna as much as he wanted to share, and didn't want to talk about it anymore, especially with Agnarr. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Anna wince. He gave a slight wink when Agnarr looked away briefly.

"So how is your Coronan coming along, Christopher?" Agnarr asked in Arendellian.

"Should we ask the teacher?"

"He's learning just fine. He's my best student, in fact!"

Agnarr and Alex erupted into laughter, and Agnarr asked, "Do you want to stay for dinner, Christopher? We're just having leftover chili, but there's plenty."

"Of course, he's staying. Doesn't Oaken work late tonight?"

Kristoff chuckled at that authoritarian voice again. "Yes. Thank you, Agnarr."

"Wait, I thought you were working together tomorrow?"

Kristoff had just put a spoonful of burning chili in his mouth and couldn't answer.

Agnarr forgot his question as he put a spoonful in his mouth before asking, "So how do you like the chili?"

"It's good. I've never had it before. These spices are totally new."

Kristoff was going to be sick later, but he'd never say that to Agnarr.


After dinner, Kristoff and Anna sat on their bench for a while.

"I can't thank you enough for today, Anna. I… well, I've been on my own for so long, and it feels nice having someone I can trust."

"Aww, Krriyistaf! It's nice having someone I can trust, too."

Kristoff folded his lips, gathering his strength for the more difficult part of the conversation. "Anna… you…" Kristoff knew exactly what he wanted to say to her, but he didn't know how to say it in Arendellian or Coronan, and she wouldn't be able to understand it in Northuldran. He spoke the words anyway, in the language they were meant for. He held her hand and forced himself to look at her, emboldened by her not understanding. "Anna, you sparkle more than any star in the sky." He breathed nervously, and finished. "And... I will kill for you, Anna."

She responded in Arendellian, "I had a really good time, Kristoff. Despite, you know, earlier." She bit her lip and continued. "Thank you for opening up to me and trusting me." She moved her hand on his thigh and leaned in. "It really means a lot to me."

Kristoff only had to remember the flowers pressed between the pages of her book to know that was true.

She smiled teasingly, "I have no idea what you just said to me, but maybe, sometime in the future when I can understand it, you'll tell me again."

"So…" he arched his eyebrow. "We can do this again tomorrow?" He stood and extended his good arm to help her up. "But no more tears, ok? I like it when you laugh."

She giggled, and he tucked her head beneath his chin. She curled her arms into him and he reached his arms all the way around her back, ignoring his sore and stiffening shoulder. He glanced at Iduna's star for a moment and, remembering his vow, held Anna a little closer. He was supposed to die in that pit, but, instead, he had somehow survived the darkness of the grave and the forest. And now, as Anna's hands circled his waist so she could be closer, he relaxed to enjoy the twinkling starlight he had finally found.