A/N: At long last, another one-shot! Sorry for the lengthy gap between updates; this fic is decidedly more difficult to make a schedule for, as they're sort of idea based? And I admittedly run out of ideas! So, again, my apologies! Now then. On with the fic. :)

Disclaimer: Disney owns everything.

- Sink or Swim -

It was summer in Arendelle. Real and proper summer, the kind of summer with sun and heat and air so still and thick that it was a struggle to walk from room to room. Anna begged Elsa to do something—anything—to ward off the oppressive warmth, but Elsa steadfastly refused. It hadn't even been a month since the disaster that was her coronation, and she wasn't terribly keen on calling up another sizable flurry.

An ice rink. A cool breeze. Maybe an occasional snowball to the face. That was all she was comfortable with at the moment.

That, and it was incredibly draining, using her powers in this sort of heat. She hadn't given much thought to it before—she was actively trying to hide her powers, not use them. Any and all energy went towards concealment. Now that she could actually exercise her abilities, she needed to be mindful of how far she pushed herself. It was one thing to construct an icy fortress while running on pure adrenaline; it was another to try and conjure a small storm cloud when tired and sweaty, sitting in the parlor.

"It's hot," Anna complained loudly from her place on the floor. She was spread out in a rather unladylike manner, skirts hiked up and stockings pulled off, so that you could see her bare calves. (So scandalous. And in the presence of a man, no less!) Elsa said nothing though; her own dress sported a knee-high slit and bared her slim, pale shoulders. She had no leg to stand on, as the saying went.

Kristoff sat opposite the sprawled princess, back propped against the settee, thin shirt sticking to his chest in great patches of sweat-darkened fabric. His scruffy blond hair was pushed back from his forehead, and so rare a sight it was that Elsa realized for the first time that his eyes were brown.

"No kidding, Feistypants," he drawled. "I hadn't noticed."

"Like, really hot." Anna continued, ignoring his snide remark. "Like, I-can't-even-think-straight hot. It's just…it's just so…"

"…Hot?" Elsa guessed.

"…Yeah. Hot."

The three lapsed into exhausted silence. The heat sapped their energy, making them lethargic and irritable. But mostly lethargic.

"You're sure you can't do anything about this?" Anna whined. Elsa ran a hand through her hair, noting with some disgust that it was damp with perspiration.

"Yes, Anna," she said with forced patience. "And even if it wasn't an issue of control, there's no way I'd have the energy…the focus…to keep a flurry going right now, or—"

"Not even just a tiny one? Like, smaller than Olaf's flurry, even."

"No, I can't, I told you—"

"I know what you told me! But—"

"Then why did you—!?"

"Hey!" Kristoff interrupted the two before the conversation could escalate further. Both sisters were glowering as they turned to face him. "I uh…I think I might have an idea."

Anna's glower immediately vanished, her eyes bright in spite of the flush on her cheeks. Elsa didn't look nearly as excited—if anything, she seemed curious. Curious, bordering on suspicious.

Kristoff didn't take it personally.

"An idea?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, I mean, uh…if you two are…up to it, and stuff." He muttered, suddenly self-conscious. (He wasn't sure which of the sisters was evoking this response; perhaps it was both.) "We'd, uh, have to sneak past some guards. And you'd need something to swim in; I know of this really great spot, up the mountain a ways, and—"

Kristoff wasn't sure what he was expecting. Smiles, maybe? Interest, at the very least.

Instead, both sisters shared a look.

Oh gods, oh gods they don't…I've overstepped some sort of boundary, I've crossed some sort of line, oh gods—

"Uh…swim? Like, in a body of water?" Anna asked.

"That's…that's the general idea, yeah." Kristoff answered, slightly confused.

The princess considered his response, the strangest sort of look on her face. Elsa just looked upset; she frowned and turned her gaze towards the window.

"It's…it's a nice thought, Kristoff." The queen assured him, not that it did much to ease his anxiety. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline the offer."

"Can't swim, huh?" he'd meant it as a joke, but the way her head whipped around and her blue eyes widened, he realized that was exactly the case.

"…No, I can't." She admitted. Somewhat shamefaced. (For a moment he didn't quite understand the obvious guilt, and then it occurred to him—seaside kingdom, main export fish, various diplomatic missions by sea, and the queen couldn't swim?)

Kristoff wasn't exactly surprised. In fact, now that he thought about it, it made a great deal of sense. He didn't know a lot about Elsa; he was trying to get to know her better, mostly at Anna's insistence. (Though, honestly, he was warming up to the idea of having friends—friends who didn't have antlers. And Elsa, from what little he could gather, seemed like she could use a friend.) He knew that their parents had been lost at sea. (Everyone in Arendelle knew that the King and Queen had been lost at sea. Even raggedy, ice-harvesting, antisocial, honorary trolls such as himself.) And he knew that Elsa wasn't exactly…'free to roam,' as it were, when they were growing up.

So it wasn't shocking that the young queen had not found the time to learn to swim.

But then Anna piped up.

"I don't know how to swim either," she blurted.

And that.

Well. Kristoff was shocked.

And judging by Elsa's slack-jawed expression, she was too.

"Wait, what?" Elsa asked. She leaned forward in her seat, propping her elbows on her knees. "You never…all that time, you didn't at least try to—?"

"Well, I tried," Anna huffed, blowing a stray strand of red hair out of her face. She only succeeded in shifting it slightly to the left. "I mean, I'd wade through the duck pond every now and then, and occasionally I'd convince Kai to take me down to the docks…but I'd never like, actually get far enough to, like…" she mimed some sort of stroke…paddle…thing. They got the gist of it. "Papa promised to teach me, when we were younger. But then…well. You know."

They did know. Elsa better than Kristoff.

Elsa turned eight and everything went to pieces.

Kristoff would have been content to let the issue be, had it just been Elsa. (He was not yet confident enough to joke with her the way he did with Anna.)

But Anna didn't know how to swim, and that was just…that was not acceptable.

He stood, covering the distance between them with a few quick steps, and he hauled Anna to her bare feet. He did the same with Elsa (pulling her to her not-bare-feet, and doing so with a bit more respect and hesitance.)

Thankfully, the young queen did not seem all that bothered by his forwardness. She flinched a little, when he took her hand, but that was all.

"Alright, you two," he declared, smiling broadly. He ushered them towards the door. "We're going swimming."

It had seemed simple enough. 'Going swimming.' Not a big deal, right?

Wrong.

Not only did they have to sneak past the guards, attendants, servants, Kai, Gerda, everyone—they had to somehow manage to slip the sled and Sven out of the stables without being noticed, and that was a nightmare, especially once Olaf got involved, and hadn't he said no snowmen?!

And on top of that, apparently neither of the Arendelle sisters had anything to wear for such an outing.

This had occurred to Anna somewhere between the parlor and the stables, as the three sat crouched behind the suits of armor, hiding from Kai.

"Wait, Kristoff, we don't—mmfp" Anna had started, only to have Elsa clamp a hand over her mouth as Kai walked past. Once the chamberlain turned the corner, Elsa removed her hand. "—ppfft, geez, Elsa, was that really necessary? No, wait, don't answer that. Kristoff, what are we supposed to wear?"

"What? Oh, uh, you know. Those…things, that women wear. For swimming." He hedged.

"Gosh, Kristoff, that's specific."

"Well, I mean, how should I know! It's not like I wear—" Elsa fixed him with a glare that could shatter glass, and honestly, he was glad she had, as he'd almost blurted something…rather embarrassing. And it occurred to him that this whole situation could be very embarrassing, if he didn't solve this 'what to wear' problem.

He thought of suggesting undergarments—they basically covered you up head to knee, right? (He assumed. He admittedly was about as familiar with women's undergarments as he was with women's bathing suits.) But he was pretty sure Elsa wouldn't go for that idea. (And he was pretty sure Anna would.)

Then he remembered he had a spare bag of clothing in the back of his sled. Old, worn shirts and pants, threadbare but 'appropriate.'

And so, here they were. Lined up at the edge of Kristoff's swimming hole, Kristoff still clad in his shirt and pants, Olaf toeing the water ("Don't do that, you crazy—!") and Anna and Elsa, both wearing Kristoff's cast-offs, their slight frames dwarfed by the too-large clothing.

They looked ridiculous.

Elsa said as much.

"Honestly," she grumbled, struggling to hold the pants up. She had the waist cinched as far as it could go, and still, they threatened to fall down around her ankles. Anna was having the same problem, as well as trying to keep the sleeves rolled up.

"Won't all this extra fabric, like, drag us down?" Anna eyed the trousers and shirt skeptically.

"Most likely," Kristoff shrugged, turning to take off his shirt. Anna would have been perfectly happy to observe the process, but Elsa's palm suddenly obstructed her view.

Anna muttered something rather uncouth under her breath.

Elsa, for her part, ignored Anna's obvious displeasure, and looked everywhere but the tall, broad-shouldered ice harvester, her pale skin bright red. This was a terrible idea…

Kristoff finished (and while Elsa was glad for that, he was still shirtless, and she couldn't very well have her hand over Anna's eyes all day so…) and approached the rocky shore, taking a deep breath of the sticky, warm mountain air, and plunged forward.

SPLASH!

He disappeared beneath the surface in a spray of water, only to resurface a moment later, hair slicked back, dripping wet, and yelling.

"COLD!" He shouted, seemingly having forgotten the present company. He laughed and splashed and did not look at all like the gruff mountain-man Elsa so often saw back in Arendelle. He looked…

Happy.

Anna beamed, and fidgeted with barely-contained excitement.

"Alright, alright, ya big dope, quit splashing around and come teach us how to swim!" She called. Kristoff laughed in response, but swam back to shore. When he stood, the water dripped down his wet hair, along his toned arms, down his chest.

Anna made some sort of unintelligible squeak beside her and Elsa knew her sister was enjoying this far too much.

"Refreshing." He said, mouth quirked in a contented grin. He ran his hands over his face in an effort to keep the water from dripping into his eyes.

Anna didn't say anything for a beat (Elsa wondered if her sister remembered how to breathe, let alone speak) but then she nudged her in the side, which seemed to kick start Anna's mental faculties.

"I bet," Anna hastily got out, forcing herself to look at the water, as opposed to Kristoff. "Mountain run-off. Probably just as balmy as the fjord."

"Want to find out?"

"Ye—wait, no, no!" Anna shrieked with laughter as Kristoff rushed forward and wrapped her in a soggy embrace. She yelled and kicked and thrashed (half-heatedly) pounding her small fists on his chest, but it was no use. He turned and marched the two of them right back into the pond, and Elsa chuckled as her younger sister was promptly dunked.

She came up sputtering, but smiling.

"I w-was r-right," She said. Her teeth chattered and she drew her arms around her middle. "J-just like the f-f-fjord."

"Well, the hardest part is over," Kristoff told her, making sure they stayed in a shallow area, so that Anna would be able to stand. "Now we can work on the actual swimming."

"This isn't swimming?" Anna asked, splashing the water for emphasis. (And, okay, so she sort of splashed in Kristoff's direction…certainly not on purpose.)

He decided to let the splashing slide.

"No, Feistypants," he told her, voice warm with affection. "It isn't."

Elsa still stood on the shore, content to watch Anna and Kristoff, if only to distract from her growing unease.

At that point, Olaf waddled over, a bit upset that he couldn't join in the fun, and settled himself at her feet. His small flurry followed obediently after, casting cool air in its wake. Elsa was grateful for it; the cold felt good against her too-warm skin. It felt…right. Natural.

He laced his stick fingers together and watched Kristoff and Anna for a bit, chuckling and giggling at their antics. Eventually, though, he seemed to notice that someone was missing, out there in the pond, and that someone happened to be standing right beside him.

"Aren't you going in?" he questioned her. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was bent in a curious frown.

Elsa hesitated slightly before answering.

"I…I don't know." She said, sitting down next to the small snowman. She drew her knees to her chest, eyes trained on the two in the pond. "I'd like to…but…"

"But what?" Olaf's tone was innocent and openly curious.

Elsa could only hum in response, thinking of her icy escape across the fjord that night, a month ago. She'd accidently stepped out onto the water—but it wasn't even water by the time her foot had made contact with it—it was already bright, brittle ice.

Of course, she'd been frightened, and she suspected her powers reacted in a kind of 'self-preservation' sense. It probably wouldn't happen again.

Still, she worried.

She turned her attention back to Kristoff and Anna, hoping they would continue to provide a distraction. And of course they did.

"No, no, kick and use your arms. Both. At the same time." Kristoff instructed.

"I thought that's what I was doing!" Anna yelped. It was sort of hard to decipher, though, as half-way through the sentence, she took an accidental gulp of pond water, and choked and wheezed and coughed.

"Well, technically, I guess…" Kristoff tried to be generous. "But keep doing it. Don't stop, start, stop, start…you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay. I got it, I got it—" SPLASH. "*Cough* *Sputter* D-don't got it."

Elsa chuckled. Anna floundered back to Kristoff, long hair having been pulled loose from her braids. It now hung limp in her face.

He pulled her close, and reassured her that he wouldn't let go, so long as she needed him there.

Elsa looked away, face bright red once again, but it was a pleasant sort of embarrassment. She was glad that Anna had found someone…someone who wasn't Hans. Wasn't anything like Hans.

Still, it was a bit awkward, and they deserved some privacy. (Lord knew Elsa had every available guard flank them on their outings, and insisted Olaf tag along whenever possible. He was an excellent deterrent when it came to…certain things.)

As if reading her thoughts, Olaf giggled loudly and made a comment about warm hugs. There was a flurry of splashing, and Elsa looked back to see Kristoff standing several feet from Anna, face almost as red as Elsa's. Anna, as always, looked unashamed.

Elsa smirked.

"Hmmm, warm hugs indeed," she smiled.

"Well, pssh, can you blame me?" Anna countered, following after Kristoff. They both moved towards the shore. Anna looked comical, her hair pressed close to her head, the clothes hanging heavy and wet in some places, awkwardly clinging in others. "I mean, look at him!"

Elsa did not think it was possible for Kristoff's face to get any redder, and yet…

He coughed and tried to play it off, but Anna continued to tease him mercilessly, and Elsa made the mistake of laughing. The noise seemed to remind Kristoff of the fact that he'd promised to instruct both of the Arendelle sisters, and Elsa was still sitting on the shore, bone dry.

Emboldened by the overall jovial atmosphere, Kristoff did something he would not normally do (and would most likely later regret) but as it was, he wanted to take the attention off of himself and perhaps distract from the embarrassing blush on his face…

So he stepped forward and scooped Elsa up, as he had done with Anna. Elsa was more caught off guard than her sister had been. She yelped in a manner not at all befitting a queen, which had Anna in stitches.

"Kristoff, NO." Elsa said firmly as they approached the pond.

"Apologies, your Majesty," he teased, right before dumping her in the water.

Queen Elsa of Arendelle, ever the picture of sophisticated grace (according to Anna) flailed and fell beneath the cold surface, limbs acting on their own accord.

One moment, her ears were filled with the hearty chuckles of Kristoff and the breathless gasping for air of Anna's laughter, and the next there was nothing. Just the cold, quiet embrace of the water.

It was oddly peaceful, and yet unnerving as well. Murky and muted, she couldn't quite tell which direction was up at first. After a few more moments of more frantic flailing, she thought of Kristoff's words (kick with your legs, and use your arms at the same time) and pushed towards what she hoped was the surface.

The warm summer air hit her face and she took a deep, grateful gulp of air.

"Don't—" she gasped, trying to push the wet hair from her eyes as she blinked away the excess water. "—do that again."

Kristoff struggled to keep a straight face as he raised his right hand solemnly, and Anna just ran forward, tackling her in a wet hug, shouting praises and encouragement.

"And hey," Anna said, splashing Elsa in the face. "You didn't even ice the pond over."

Elsa splashed her back grinning.

"It's still early."

As the day wore on, Kristoff continued to teach them, and by late afternoon, he was mostly satisfied with their progress.

"Well, neither of you will drown, I suppose, should you fall in." He decided after observing Anna's (still slightly floundering) strokes.

"Comforting." Elsa said, content to stop at 'no drowning,' and trudged from the deeper portion of the pond towards the shallow bank. Anna expressed a desire to keep at it, but Kristoff reminded her that it was getting late; they still had to dry off and head back to Arendelle, and somehow make it look like they hadn't been bumming around a swimming hole for the last…four…five? hours.

(Kai would be livid. Probably.)

And so Anna reluctantly dragged herself out of the water.

"This was fun," she told Kristoff, reaching for the hem of her shirt to wring it out. "Really, Kristoff, it was a great idea. Thank you. You know. For thinking of it. And bringing us. And teaching, and the clothes, and—"

"Not a problem, really," Kristoff said with meaning, cutting her off. He smiled sheepishly, and rubbed at the back of his neck.

Elsa wandered over, also wringing the hem of her own shirt out.

"Yes, Kristoff. Thank you." It was small and formal and lacked the comfortable ease of Anna's, and yet Kristoff could tell, by the way her blue eyes warmed, that she really meant it.

His grin was huge and probably goofy, but he couldn't help it. He was just so…so proud of the fact that he'd thought of something fun to do, and that they'd all come, and had a good time. Anna was happy. Elsa was happy. And he was happy because they were happy and great, now he was going all soft.

(But then, he'd always been soft. He'd just been very good at hiding it.)

He went about packing up the sled, heading up the shore a ways to where Sven was lounging in the sparse grass, enjoying the warm sun on his shaggy back. (How he managed to stand the heat with all that fur…hair? was beyond Kristoff.)

Olaf trailed after, glad that they were headed back at last. (This had been fun, sure, but he hadn't been able to swim like the others, lest he risk melting.) He had, though, been able to pick some lovely wildflowers, and now he busied himself with weaving them into Sven's harness. (To which Kristoff said, 'cut that out.')

Elsa and Anna hung back, sill dripping, but the sun was doing a good job of drying their too-big shirts and pants.

"Still didn't ice the pond, you know," Anna joked quietly, no longer wringing out her shirt and instead tending to her hair.

"Too much of a hassle." Elsa joked back, untying her braid, as she didn't want it to dry all knotted up. She pushed her bangs back, out of habit, and slight annoyance. (They were hanging in her eyes and she looked like a…what had Anna once called her? A sheepdog?)

"You did have a good time, right?" Anna asked, tone suddenly concerned. "We haven't…I mean, it hasn't even been a whole month yet…and I just wanted to…you need time and stuff, and I don't want—"

"Anna, Anna," Elsa smiled and gripped Anna's shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. "Yes. I had a wonderful time. I'm very glad we came. It's been—" Thirteen years, the traitorous voice at the back of her mind remarked, but she forced it down; it would do her no good to dwell on such dark thoughts. The past is in the past. "—A long time. I think we…needed this," she said.

Anna's tensed shoulders relaxed, and her expression smoothed. A pleasant warmth washed over her as she smiled happily at her older sister.

"Yeah," she agreed. "We did."

FLUFF. That's really what I should have called this thing. FROZEN FLUFF. XD In other news, finally broke down and started up a tumblr for all my crazy scribblings. There's not much there at the moment but hopefully that'll change as I get some more writing done, you know, drabbles and the like. :) You can find the link on my profile page.

Anyways reviews are always appreciated, but certainly not necessary. Hope it was an enjoyable read either way!