[Kinda backstory chapter? You guys can headcanon the timing] In which Kristoff and Anna go ice-skating.

Waddle

"I want a penguin!"

"Too bad. I'm all you've got." He puts on the smugness only to annoy her. Anna is already strong enough when she's not terrified, and the way she's gripping his forearms now tells Kristoff he'll definitely find bruises the next morning.

"Hey, I think I got the hang of it! Let go, Kris, I can totally—oh my god, don't let go!"

Kristoff grabs Anna before her pinwheeling can bowl over a family of four. "You were saying?"

Watching another kid glide past on a penguin skating aid, Anna huffs, "I can't believe they don't have those helper penguins in my size. How can they just assume all adults know how to ice-skate?"

"You assumed you could ice-skate."

"I thought it'd be like horse-riding!"

"Gee, I wonder where the rich girl got that idea from."

"Says the vet student who smells like horses."

"What was that? Let go? Sure, I'd be happy to—"

"No no no no no! I take it back! I'm sorry!"

Kristoff wants so badly to take a photo of Anna looking like Bambi on ice. But that would require him to take his eyes off of her, and that's been getting harder and harder to do lately. So he chuckles and takes her hands again, ignoring the diamond ring stabbing into his palm, calling him an idiot.

"You know what else I can't believe?" Anna blows a piece of hair out of her eyes. "That this pop up Winter Wonderland is ending tomorrow, and Elsa's going to miss it. How could she forget? I reminded her at breakfast this morning."

"She didn't forget."

"What? You think she's avoiding me? Is she mad at me?"

Shit, Bjorgman; you weren't supposed to say that out loud. "No, ah… I meant that she never forgets anything because she's, you know—Elsa. She probably just got stuck in a meeting and didn't have time to message you. Maybe she's already on her way."

Another lie, no longer as white as snow. Kristoff knows Elsa isn't coming. Not to an ice rink.

It still feels weird that he's the only one who knows. As weird as it was for him to stumble on Elsa's Mini Cooper after a shift at the animal shelter last winter.

It wouldn't have caught his eye if not for the way it was stopped in the middle of the deserted street, engine running, headlights cutting through the snowy night. It had only got weirder when he knocked on the window, and a glamorous young woman he'd never seen before dazedly said, "Kristoff?"

Then something seemed to snap back into place behind her wide eyes. She launched into flustered apologies—something about the gym and her sister showing her his Instagram, and she was so sorry for inconveniencing him like this; was her car blocking his?

It was, actually. But what came out of Kristoff's mouth was: "Hey, are you okay?"

He hadn't expected her lips to tremble, or for her voice to shake as she explained that her car had skid on black ice. It was fine; the car was fine. She would be all right once the shock passed.

Yet her breath began hitching shallowly after 'ice'.

"You don't look so good. Why don't you call your sister?"

That summoned a flinch so violent that the car jostled—that was the moment Kristoff knew that it wasn't a tow truck the woman needed.

It wasn't until he coaxed her into the passenger seat and squeezed himself behind the wheel that he realised what his actions must look like to a woman on the verge of a mental breakdown.

When he turned to explain himself, though, she wasn't even looking at him. Just curled up in a ball on the seat, face buried in her knees, blonde hair shimmering like a ghostly curtain in the dark.

"Do you, uh, want me to leave you alone?"

A tiny shake of her head.

So Kristoff cleared his throat and spent a ridiculously long time adjusting the seat. Then he looked up the address she whispered to him. Neither of them spoke during the drive—until her phone rang over the car's Bluetooth and made them both jump.

The woman's demeanour instantly changed when she saw 'Anna' on the screen. "I need to take this," she croaked, wiping her cheeks. "Would you mind…?"

She spoke as if they weren't sitting in her car, which he practically used to kidnap her. He really wasn't doing himself any favours if she changed her mind about his Good Samaritan act. It would have been smarter to call the police, or some sort of helpline. It wasn't too late to stop the car and get out.

Concentrating on the slick road, Kristoff mimed zipping up his mouth.

Then he nearly ran a red light when the woman answered the call, and a startlingly familiar voice tumbled through the speakers.

Oh, Kristoff thought as flashes of strawberry blonde hair, donuts, and a twenty-kilo weight plate zipped through his head. That girl. The not-Anna. Ah-na.

If only he had known back then that it wouldn't simply end with him seeing Elsa home. That, one year and a second winter later, these two bothersome sisters would still be in his life.

The thing is, Kristoff isn't sure he would have done a single thing differently, even if he had known.

Anna still doesn't know that Elsa wasn't home late because of traffic that night. She has no idea that her sister is terrified of ice. She definitely doesn't know that Kristoff almost changed gyms the next day, because meeting her sister mid-panic attack was weird enough, and if there was one thing he hated as much as animal cruelty, it was complicated relationships.

Besides, Anna Arendelle was obviously a people person. That was more than enough reason for him to stay away. So he did.

Or tried to.

They kept running into each other. Kristoff's work and study schedule had him returning at the same time every second day, and Anna kept chatting to him while they worked out next to each other. She kept ribbing him about his abysmal cardio, and he kept teasing her when she tripped on barbells running off to answer her fiancé's calls. They kept going for donuts downstairs.

Kristoff kept missing the signs that Bulda and Cliff wouldn't stop talking about all through his life. They had made it sound as fantastical as fairytales, too grand to overlook; too world-changing to sneak up on you over time. If you didn't fall in love with someone at first sight, Kristoff believed, then it would never change. Simple. Uncomplicated.

Stupid.

"Yoohoo!" Anna waves her hand in front of his face. "Still with me, penguin?"

Kristoff blinks and focuses on her. Freckled cheeks flushed from the cold. Rosy lips exhaling puffs of warmth he can just feel brushing against his own lips, ever so faintly. And he has to remind himself to be grateful for the ice; it may be as cold and hard as the ring on her finger, but its existence is all that keeps him from drowning in her.

Smirking back, Kristoff yanks her beanie over her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm with you, Feisty Pants. Now, let's see if you can do one round without landing on your butt."