Notes:

17/04 - Fixed the error with Anna's knowledge of the layout of the town. I've added in a few tweaks exploring how/if/why she would know a thing about shopping in Arendelle.

Kristoff – now fully dressed in relatively clean, if still slightly damp clothes – made his way back to the stable.

"Right, Sven. Let's head up to the castle."

Sven nodded his great head and lumbered forward. Together, they made their way along the cobbled streets towards Arendelle's centre.

Kristoff's still-filthy fur jerkin and gloves were slung over Sven's back. The day was warm and the sky was blue and it felt like there was more magic in the air now than there had been in the last few frost-laced days.

Gossip swirled about him.

"I can't understand it. Prince Hans seemed such a good man – so generous, with Arendelle's best interests at heart…"

"– the Queen will explain everything?"

"The Gates are still open, I suppose…"

"– swam to the shore and was seized by the guards –"

Kristoff frowned at the mention of Hans' name. Sure, he'd never really met the guy, and all he had to go on was the all-too detailed description Anna had given him as they hiked up towards the North Mountain – but it must have been Hans swinging his executioner's sword down to Elsa as she knelt on the fjord, and it must have been Hans that had failed to thaw Anna's heart before she had stumbled across the ice to him, and it must have been Hans that had let them down despite how they'd ran all the way back to the castle to deliver Anna into his arms –

Kristoff was thoroughly confused about the whole thing. The guy on the boat certainly fitted the description Anna had given him. Sure, it was stupid to marry a man you just met – but how could anyone's judgement be that bad? How could Anna totally miss the fact that the man was a murderous sociopath? Or had Kristoff totally misread the situation?

If he was being honest, he hadn't really been thinking straight when he'd marched towards the guy on the boat yesterday. He'd not given a second thought to the fact that the true love's kiss clearly hadn't worked, or hadn't taken place at all – in his head, he'd just been planning to knock the guy's lights out because he was a jerk who'd tried to kill the queen and stopped him from saving Anna. Had that even been Hans on the boat?

Maybe Hans was a perfectly decent bloke who had been watching in horror from the castle as the guy on frozen fjord swung his sword towards the queen's neck.

Kristoff felt a gloom settle in the pit of his stomach like lead, but consoled himself with the fact that at least the kiss hadn't worked. Doesn't sound like true love.

"Kristoffnsven!"

In surprise, reindeer and man turned. Sven bounded towards the little snowman- whom most people were giving a wide berth – tail wagging and nose twitching at the smell of carrot. His tongue lolled out as he brayed a hello.

"Olaf. What are you doing here?" Kristoff cast a faintly annoyed look at the townsfolk staring at Olaf in horror, and crouched down to the little snowman's level. "Is everything ok?"

"Everything's great! Anna sent me to find you and bring you back to the castle!" His twig arms waved about happily. "She's having a bath. But she's invited you to dinner."

Kristoff went bright red at the thought of Anna having a bath, but was luckily distracted from this particular train of thought by Sven lunging forward to take a bite at Olaf's nose. Olaf chuckled.

"Ohhh, I like you too. But you're not invited to dinner, Sven. Reindeers can't sit at tables."

Kristoff cleared his throat. "Olaf, it's good you found us– we were just about to head up to the castle anyway. I need to talk to Anna. About my new sled."

Olaf looked sceptical.

"My old one, it – Anna drove it off a cliff. With all my stuff in it."

Olaf gave Kristoff a maddening look of disbelief and amusement. "I think you'll have to talk about more than just sleds. You'll have to meet Elsa properly! And we have our whole story to tell!"

Kristoff's eyes grew momentarily very wide. "Um, Olaf? I'm not sure if Elsa will want to meet me –"

"Oh, sure she will! Now come on! Anna's orders!" Olaf turned and bounded away towards the castle, Sven following excitedly in his wake.

Anna fiddled with the end of her still bath-damp plaits as she walked up to Elsa's bedroom door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked.

"Elsa?"

No answer.

Trying to push down the rising disappointment, she knocked again.

"Elsa?"

"Oh – hang on!"

Relief. The door swung open and her sister stood there, wearing a dress slightly more conservative in colour and style than the spangled ice-frock of the previous day, but with her hair still long and loose like Anna had never seen her wear it in the past. She smiled when she saw who it was.

"Anna. Hi."

"Hi."

"Do you…" Elsa glanced behind her. "Come in."

Very, very tentatively, Anna crossed the threshold of her sister's room. She didn't think she'd ever been in here before.

It was a big room – beautiful, with a wide bay window and blue wallpaper trimmed with a pattern of deep purple crocuses. A portrait of their parents hung on the wall opposite the bed. Anna saw, with a twinge of sadness, that ice was creeping up the glass of the window.

She put a hand on Elsa's arm.

Elsa jumped. Physical contact was still a very new and strange thing.

But Anna didn't pull away, and the ice on the glass began to retreat.

Anna smiled.

"Elsa. I think we should talk."

The queen sighed. "Yes. Yes we should. But…" She drifted over to the window. "I think, before we do that, I… I have an apology to make to the people of Arendelle."

Anna considered. "Sure, but- could that wait, or? I mean, of course, they're your people, and I totally get that, and-" Anna was babbling. In her head, Elsa had opened the door first time, pulled Anna into a hug and they'd sat on the bed eating ice cream and talking like she'd always dreamed they would. And it hurt, just a little, that Elsa still had to be a queen first and a sister second. "Of course. Of course, that makes total sense." She tried to smile.

"But I also have an apology to make to my sister."

Elsa turned.

"Not just for the past few days, but for the past thirteen years. And also for now. Because I do have to explain to Arendelle. As soon as I can." Elsa looked down. "I'm sorry Anna."

"Don't be silly, we –"

"It's just I know you'll be patient," Elsa looked at her sister with huge apologetic eyes, willing her to understand. "And I don't know how much longer Arendelle will be."

Anna understood. "Elsa, you do what you need to. I'll be right here." And Anna grinned, gesturing to herself and holding out the sides of her skirt. "I'm not going anywhere at all."

"Thank you, Anna." Elsa smiled and held a hand out to her sister. Together, they looked out the window. "Arendelle really is beautiful, isn't it?"

"It's even more beautiful with you here," Anna jumped in. "And without all the ice. Though it was still beautiful with the ice, of course."

Elsa smirked. "Of course. I –" But something outside the window caught her eye, and she frowned. "Is that Olaf? With… the ice harvester? And a reindeer?"

"Kristoff and Sven," Anna corrected, as, unbidden, her heart leapt at the sight of them. "I've invited them to dinner this evening, but I didn't think they'd come straight away, it's only three o'clock –"

Elsa smiled at her sister. "No, no that's good. I've got a very long speech to write, and I would hate to think of you just wandering around the halls alone again, like –"

"Like before. You have a point." Anna couldn't help but grin out the window. "Elsa, I really want you to meet Kristoff properly. Honestly, if it wasn't for him, I'd definitely have died of pneumonia long before I even got to your ice palace. Or been eaten by wolves or something."

Elsa repressed a shudder thinking of all the ways her sister could have died – could have died whilst searching for her. What had she been thinking, coming after her without even a party of guards for protection?

But that was Anna. Headstrong. Act first and think later.

Elsa pulled the breaks on this train of thought and looked a little shrewdly at her sister. "Another man?"

"Oh – no, no it's not like that Elsa – I mean, I'm still probably engaged to – Hans – technically – aren't I?"

Elsa's face darkened. "Absolutely not. Not if you don't want to be." And she was uncertain for a moment what Anna would say. She hoped to God it would be no, of course not, he tried to kill us both – but if it wasn't – if Anna said yes –there was no way Elsa could say no. No way at all. Not after last time.

"Oh, God, no," Anna pulled her hands away from Elsa's and covered her face. "I… I was wrong about him. Totally wrong. It wasn't… true love. Or even normal love. I don't think."

Elsa felt a sudden overwhelming guilt.

"I'm so sorry, Anna. If I'd just been here for you –"

"No," Anna replied, firmly. "No. If I'd just read different books. Or been a little less naïve. Don't you dare blame yourself for this. Not at all."

Elsa still looked unconvinced, but Anna kissed the her forehead and grinned. "Seriously, I just need to get a grip on reality somehow. Maybe your ice has knocked some sense into me. Now," She curtsied. "Your majesty. I'll leave you to your speech-writing." Then – very, very tentatively – "I'll see you at dinner?"

"You will."

With a wicked parting grin, Anna bounded down the corridors to the courtyard. She nearly knocked two servants flying on her way, but with shouted apologies, it was worth it – she skidded out the front doors just as Kristoff made it to the centre of the courtyard.

She stood awkwardly for a second, cheeks flushed from the run.

"Hey. I uh, I saw you from the window." She waved an airy hand upwards to where she was sure Elsa was still looking out, laughing at her.

"Hey. We were, uh – Olaf came to find us." He waved an airy hand downwards to where the little snowman stood beaming under his personal flurry.

"Cool. Great. Well, you're a little early, but do you, uh, want to –" She stopped. Frowned. "Are you wearing the same clothes as… the past three days?"

Kristoff turned bright red and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well. Yeah. But I washed them. This morning. All my other stuff, it's – it was in my sled. Or with the Trolls."

Anna went very wide eyed.

"Oh! Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I – God, I really didn't think how much stuff would be in that – God. I'm sorry." She bit her lip. "There have been so many apologies today."

"Hey," Kristoff moved towards her a little. "Don't worry about it. Really." He smiled a rare smile. It looked good on him, Anna thought.

There was a slight pause in which Olaf and Sven looked back and forth between the two of them.

Suddenly, Anna was struck with an idea. "We'll have to get you some new clothes! You can't wear that forever. And I did say I'd replace your sled and everything in it," She hitched up her skirt a little and hurried down the steps towards Kristoff, already mentally whizzing through all the tailors in town. "Looks like I owe you a new wardrobe."

"Oh – no, really, don't worry about it, I never had too many clothes and stuff anyway –"

"Kristoff," She rubbed Sven's nose and fixed the man before her with a look of mock-horror. "Are you disobeying the wishes of the Princess of Arendelle?"

" –no. No, I wouldn't do that." Hesitantly he smiled. The smile fell. "I've never really been shopping before, though."

Now, Anna's look was of true horror. "What?!"

When she was younger, Anna had only ever been allowed out of the castle on very special occasions – birthdays, national holidays – and even then only with the close supervision of her governess and an enormous train of servants. She had loved these days – loved them – and tried to remember every detail of the town as they'd wandered about, drinking in the sights and people and atmosphere. When they returned to the castle and the gates were shut once more, she'd gaze for hours out of her window, squinting to make out the town buildings on the shore, the other side of the bridge from the castle. As such, her knowledge of the town's layout was sketchy.

"I know all the names of the tailors – but they always used to come visit us in the castle for fittings. My parents were very funny about strangers." She explained.

Kristoff nodded. "Figures. It's ok – if you can tell me the names of the shops, I should be able to find them for you."

They left Olaf and Sven in the courtyard, happily chasing each other around, and headed into town.

Kristoff shook his head. "How long do you think it will take Olaf to realise Sven wants to eat his nose, and not kiss it? Hey!"

He jumped as Anna hit him playfully. "Shh. Don't you dare tell him."

They walked along the cobbled streets in the sunshine, chattering away. It was much easier to talk now they were moving- like when they'd been searching for Elsa, or the Trolls, there was a clear goal and conversation just swelled to fill the space until they reached it. Anna did most of the talking, of course – but she was easy on the ears and always gave Kristoff her full attention when he did speak, fixing him intelligently with her eyes and taking every word in – just like when they'd been out in the mountains.

It was strange- nobody had ever really listened to Kristoff properly before her. Ice harvesters weren't known for their conversational skills, and his family had a habit of either talking over each other or speaking in unison – so it didn't have the same… effect. Anna gave him all the space he needed to speak before taking over again.

Anna quite liked the way he didn't talk too much, and only spoke to send her in a new direction or ask a simply-worded question. It reminded her a bit of the way her mother used to talk, always saying the right amount, giving her imagination space to romp and stretch and leap from one idea to the next.

Often, they found themselves supplying words for each other or finishing off the other's sentences.

" –so then I just totally freaked out, because – oh, here we are!"

Seeing the elegantly painted sign – Frue Anja's Tailoring – she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the shop, announcing their arrival with the tinkle of a bell and an enthusiastic, "Hello!"

"My lady," there were murmurs and curtsies. "How nice to see you about the town. How can we help you this afternoon?"

Kristoff could see Anna already becoming distracted by a lilac-coloured dress hanging on a manikin to their right. He nudged her slightly.

"Oh – Anja, I'm looking for some things for my friend here. Kristoff, Anja; Anja, Kristoff." Anna stepped back and crossed her arms. The woman named Anja had swept over, measuring tape in hand, tutting and examining the tattered and patched old jumper Kristoff was wearing.

"Dear me. Dear dear me. Wherever did you find him, your majesty?"

Anna giggled. Kristoff gave her a look of pure terror as Anja scooted around him, measuring everything from the width of his shoulders to the length of his inside leg.

"Where on earth have you brought me, Anna?"

Anna just laughed and steered him towards the back of the shop.