Kristoff slept for what felt like about a week. When he woke up, he had absolutely no idea what time it was, but the light that filtered through the thin curtains of The Cross and Courtier's cheapest room betrayed the fact that it was daytime.

He went to reach for his bag before remembering it was in his sled. Like all his other belongings.

He groaned.

Grumbling, he pulled his old jumper – which by now must have been stiff with in sweat and reindeer hair, as well as various bits of moss and mud from the Trolls' matchmaking efforts – over his head. He ran a hand through his hair and stumbled downstairs.

"Hey." The innkeeper was up, polishing glasses. "Strange question. You don't happen to know what day it is, do you?"

The innkeeper fixed him with a stern look. "Didn't see you at the bar last night. Rough night, lad?"

Kristoff rubbed his face. "You could say that. I was out on the fjord. Was it yesterday I checked in?"

"Aye. Yesterday afternoon. After the Great Thaw." The innkeeper nodded sagely.

"Right. So the time now is…?"

"'Round noon. You slept a solid twenty-four hours, boy."

Kristoff sighed. "I feel better for it. How much for lunch?"

"Three-forty."

Kristoff rummaged around for coins in the pocket of his trousers. Thankfully, his money had not been on the sled – it lived in a pouch on Sven's harness.

"Oh, and you don't –" He cleared his throat as the words of his adopted family rang in his ears – "You don't have a bath I could use, do you?"

"It'll be an extra two."

"Deal."

Kristoff handed over some coins and flumped into the chair at a nearby table.

He'd go see Anna today. He had to find out about this sled, find out how long it would take to get it, and then… well, he supposed he'd head back into the mountains again. Now it was summer again, people would need ice.

He wasn't sure why, but he felt strange about going back into the mountains so soon. Sure, Sven was all the company he needed, but it had been nice to… well, to have someone to talk to for a while. Someone that wasn't himself – or even himself giving Sven a voice.

'Don't be a stranger' – what did that mean? Sure, he could go to castle today because it was business – important sled business – but an ice harvester could hardly pay social calls to the princess of Arendelle. Especially an ice harvester who currently didn't even have a set of clean clothes to his name.

A plate of lunch was plonked down before him.

Maybe she hadn't meant it, Kristoff brooded, shovelling a whole pastry into his mouth. Maybe she was just being polite. Princesses were practically trained in the art of being polite, right?

But he couldn't shake the image of her, almost frozen, looking out to him across the fjord. White hair, blue fingertips, the dance of frost which ordinarily would be so beautiful marring her cheeks – no, he didn't think he would ever be able to forget that image. Nor the look in her eyes just before she turned to throw herself between her sister and Hans' sword. A look of longing.

Stop it. You are an ice deliverer. She is a princess. It was a very stressful situation, out in the storm. She probably wasn't even looking for you out on the fjord. Why would she be?

Kristoff impaled a sausage on his fork with more force than was probably necessary.

What would be nice, he thought, would be to sit down and talk about it. But he wasn't very good at talking.

Not much practice, he supposed.

No. He would go see her today, ask about this new sled, congratulate her on the accuracy of her right hook yesterday, and express his sincere hope that she'd broken Hans' nose. And with that, he would be gone. Maybe, if he was in town in the future, he'd call in and let her know how the sled was performing.

Let her know how the sled was performing…

With a groan, Kristoff buried his head in his hands. He really hadn't learnt a thing from the Trolls.

The bath was in the back room. The innkeeper said he'd have the servant girl fill it with warm water for him. In the meantime, Kristoff went to see Sven.

"It's about time!"

"Oh, good morning to you too, buddy. I slept like a baby. You?"

"This isn't even fresh hay."

"Well, that's not my fault. I brought you some lunch, though."

He handed Sven a carrot.

"You can have the whole thing. I just ate."

To emphasise his point, Kristoff let out a hearty belch.

"Today, buddy, I think we'll take a trip up to the castle. We need to see about this sled."

"They'd have fresh hay at the castle!"

Kristoff gave him a look. "You are never satisfied, are you?"

Sven brayed happily.

"Aw, you too, buddy. Right," He gave Sven a good scratch behind the ears. "I need to go have a bath. And before you start," he raised his eyebrows at the reindeer. "It's not because we are going to see An- Princess Anna. It's because mum has a point. I stink."

Kristoff had the servant girl – Hilda – put some of the water in a bucket, so he could soak his clothes. The minute they hit the water, it turned brown.

Kristoff wrinkled his nose.

"Oh. Ew."

He eased himself into the bath, letting the hot water soothe all the aches and pains and from the last few days – most of them, honestly, caused by Anna. There was a bruise just above his left hip where the bag of tools she'd thrown at him outside Oaken's Trading Post had landed; tight muscles on the back of his legs from where she'd slammed into him as they'd slid down the hill escaping from that giant snowman; the still-throbbing lump on the top of his head where he'd hit the rock face shortly after; rope burn on his arm from that impromptu wedding ceremony his family had tried to stage for them; multiple scratches and bruises on his knees and hands from slipping repeatedly on the icy fjord when running towards her –

Circular thoughts today, he grumbled. Stop it.

Once he thought he must smell at least reasonably clean, Kristoff climbed out of the bath, water dripping everywhere. He shook his head like a dog before fishing his clothes out of the bucket and wringing them out. He rinsed off the residual crap in his rather scummy bath water before flapping them around a bit and hanging them outside the window to dry.

He hoped he was doing this right. Normally, his mum washed his clothes for him – with any luck, there'd be a neat pile of clean shirts somewhere in the Rock Troll clearing – but for today, this would be all right. Hopefully.

Anna woke up with a start. She had been dreaming – Hans, Hans had been there, and his sword had passed straight through her to hit Elsa, like she was nothing but air –

Anna went to sit forward and rub her eyes, try to push the images out, but as she did so, the warm weight on her leg shifted. She'd completely forgotten Elsa was asleep beside her.

Elsa wasn't awake, but as her head moved, blood flooded back into Anna's leg with a surge of pins and needles.

"Ahhhhh," she eased her sister's head onto the sofa, before rubbing sleep from her eyes with one hand. She tried to shake some feeling back into the leg with the other. "Arghhh."

"Anna!"

It was Olaf.

He leapt from his perch by the window – had he not moved? – and came waddling over. "How are you? You slept and slept but I didn't want to wake you up."

"Thanks Olaf. I needed the sleep." She yawned. "I'm going to find some breakfast – well, lunch," she corrected, glancing at the clock on the mantelpiece. "Could you stay here and keep an eye on Elsa? I don't want her waking up on her own."

"Of course!" Olaf chirped. He jumped up onto the sofa beside the sleeping queen. "I'll wait right here."

Anna smiled. "Thanks Olaf. I'll be back soon. Me and Elsa have a lot of talking to do." Uncertain, she looked down at her sister. Where would they start? How would they begin to make up thirteen years of lost time in a single conversation?

Olaf seemed to read her mind. "You have all the time in the world now," he said. "You don't have to rush a thing."

He was strangely wise at times, this little snowman. Maybe that was the Elsa in him, in the magic that gave him life, Anna thought. Elsa always came across as wise – well, at least to her.

Wiping some sleep-dribble from her cheek, Anna made her way down to the kitchens. This was no time for a sit-down meal. She was ravenous.

She was just disentangling strands of her hair and trying to comb it into some kind of order with her fingers when she entered the kitchen.

"Good morning Bethan! What food do you have?"

The scullery maid looked up in surprise. "Good afternoon to you, m'lady, I didn't expect to see you! You gave me a bit of a turn."

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to make you jump. I am starving though. I thought you would have heard my stomach coming."

Anna had lived in the castle for almost nineteen years now, and in those nineteen years the kitchen had become well used – and well equipped – to deal with Anna's erratic and insatiable appetite. There was always a selection of cakes, bread, fruit, and every possible kind of pickled food to hand so when the princess wandered in, foraging – as she often did at all and every hour of the day – there was always something to eat. The kitchen staff often joked that the only way to Anna's heart was through her stomach – though now, after the rumours about Prince Hans' conduct, the staff didn't joke about Anna's heart at all.

"I'll make you a sandwich, m'lady."

Anna nodded, rummaged in the cupboards and found a muffin to function as a starter. She took a huge bite and through a mouthful of cake, she asked, "Have fings bin ok downere Befan? Widda ice?"

Another thing the kitchen staff had become accustomed to was Anna's refusal to forfeit the chance of a good conversation under any circumstances.

"Not too bad, m'lady. With the cold, we'd been makin' a lot of hot grog for the townsfolk. Shan't imagine they'll need it now though, what with Queen Elsa havin' melted all the ice for us all."

Anna swallowed her cakey mouthful. "What have you heard about the ice? And the Thawing?" Again, she tried her hardest to be nonchalant.

"Jus' the same as everyone else, ma'am. That though Queen Elsa froze the land, she also gave it back again. I never did think she froze in on purpose in the first place though, if I may be so bold, m'lady."

Anna's heart soared at this. Of course, the castle's servants would never speak ill of Elsa, but nor were they under any obligation to labour the point. Anna took a thoughtful bite of her muffin. She was very easy with the servants, as they had been her sole companions for a long time. They knew her, and had seen her grow from girl to woman – as such, they had always been much more than just servants. Bethan would not say that about Elsa if she did not truly feel it – of that, Anna was sure.

She took another big bite of cake.

"Issat really wot people arsayin?"

"By my best crockery, my lady, 'tis."

She handed Anna a ham sandwich.

"Thanks, Bethan." The maid bobbed into a curtsy, and continued to busy herself with the washing up.

Anna wandered back up through the empty halls to the parlour where she'd left Elsa. After all the madness of the past few days, it was so quiet in the castle again. If she listened really, really hard, she could almost hear the musical echoes of the Coronation Ball.

She'd talk to Elsa today. And have a bath to wash off the sweat and grime of the trek up the North Mountain. They had so much to talk about – secrets, adventures, plans…

She pushed open the door to the parlour. Both Elsa and Olaf had gone.

She spun around.

"Elsa? Elsa!"

Anna dashed back down the halls, shouting at the top of her voice.

"Elsaaaa!"

She didn't see Gerda until she collided with her and barely kept her balance, arms windmilling wildly.

"My lady?"

"Hey Anna! I'm helping!"

"Olaf! Where's Elsa? Gerda, she's gone, I don't know where she is –"

"Shh, Anna, it's all right. She's just upstairs. She wanted to take a bath, and asked I tell you not to wait around for her if you have business to attend to."

Anna's eye was caught by the little snowman waving from under his personal flurry. "Yeah, she's fine, Anna. I told her she should wait for you to get back, but she said you're usually quite a long time in the kitchen –"

The tightness around Anna's heart loosened. "Oh thank goodness, I thought- well, I don't know, I thought maybe she'd gone AWOL again, and, yeesh. We've only just got back."

Gerda smiled. "Not to worry, my lady. Shall we take you to your chambers? I hear you've eaten, but a fresh change of clothes and a bath might not be such a bad idea for yourself, too."

"That would be nice, actually. So long as you're sure Elsa is –?"

Gerda took Anna's arm. "She's fine, my lady."

Anna nodded and started to walk along with Gerda when she was struck by a sudden idea. She turned back around to the little snowman.

"Olaf, could you find Kristoff and Sven for me? I want to make sure they're ok. And…" Anna thought for a second. "Can you invite them to dinner? Well, Kristoff at least. I'm not sure Gerda and Kai would be too happy if a reindeer came to dinner. But I'd like Elsa to meet them properly." She smiled.

"Ok!" With his characteristic laugh, Olaf turned and waddled and leapt and bounced away down the corridor.