(Very very sorry for keeping you guys waiting! It was the holidays and I needed a break.)

When Jack caught up with Anna and her new friends, they had gotten stuck in the snow at the bottom of the mountain. He saw Kristoff's head pop out right after Olaf and Anna's. As he drew closer, Sven the reindeer joined them and he could hear Anna grunting as she struggled. Kristoff pushed himself from the snowbank and pulled the princess out as if she were as light as a kitten. Jack, landing behind them, leaning against the rocks, looked him up and down. The guy was so much thicker than he had been as a kid; there was no wobbling as he set the redhead down. Jack could remember watching Kristoff in the marketplace, 12 years old, staggering under the weight of a block of ice. Powdery snow dusted the blonde hair and the mountain man watched Anna almost fondly. Jack looked between them, amused.

"Woah!" Surprised by his strength, Anna smiled at him.

"You okay?" Kristoff checked, but she spoke over him.

"Thank you." She paused, and then reached out toward him. "How's your head?"

"Ah—ooh!" Kristoff winced, cleared his throat, and tried to play it cool as his friend withdrew her hand. Jack grinned at the not-so-manly giggle he released. Awkwardly, Kristoff responded, "Um—it, uh, it's fine, uh…I-I'm good. I've got a thick skull."

Jack laughed. "A thick skull?"

Olaf waddled up to them, staring in sudden alarm up at Anna. "I don't have a skull! Or bones!" He hadn't seen Jack yet.

Kristoff raised an eyebrow and smirked at the snowman, then turned back to the royal. "So, uh…so now what?"

"Now what?" Anna moved to tuck a strand of hair that didn't exist behind an ear, eyes on him, a dopey smile still tugging on her lips. Jack cocked his head. Not that he didn't approve, but what about Hans? She was basically engaged to the guy. So she'd been stuck with a handful of the same people for most of her life—who fell in love this quickly?

Kristoff was way higher on the list than the Sandwich Prince, though. Jack wasn't much for romance, but he wasn't gonna get in the way of what he was seeing. Kristoff matched Anna's clumsiness, both verbally and physically, and he was obviously falling just as quickly as she was. How long had they known each other? Couldn't have been a day more than Anna had known Hans. But then, they were two totally different men.

Anna seemed to realize what Kristoff meant. "Now what?" she repeated, panic washing over her expression. "Ohhhh, what am I gonna do?" She started to pace. "She threw me out!" Jack flinched, as if Anna had been talking about him. "I-I can't go back to Arendelle with the weather like this! And then there's your ice business—"

Jack noticed that Kristoff was chuckling. "Hey, hey, don't worry about my ice business." Suddenly Kristoff's eyebrows knitted and he leaned down a bit, looking at Anna's braids in confusion. "Worry about your hair!"

Frost followed his gaze. To his horror, white was curling around every strand of one long, thick lock. It grew from the one streak she'd had since she was little to a full-blown spiral. Jack was all for white hair—he knew a pretty cool guy who happened to rock white hair—but on Anna it was a bit more serious than an unwanted fashion statement. Elsa had done this. Did she even know how bad things were going to get? The darker side of Elsa's magic had already tainted Anna once. What would happen if she was exposed twice, when her sister had really lost control and it wasn't just a quick misfire? He wanted to fly back up to the ice castle and tell Elsa everything. He knew she must be bound in her own anxiety by now, afraid to even open a window. But he couldn't go back, not yet. He needed to know what their next move was, if they could fix it, if Elsa even had to worry about this for long. Besides, he reminded himself with a soft snort, she wouldn't be able to hear me anyway.

Meanwhile, Anna was chewing Kristoff out, offended. "What? I just fell off a cliff; you should see your hair!" She gestured to his sticky-with-snow mop top, arm outstretched, and Kristoff pushed it back down.

"No, yours is turning white!"

Anna, still indignant, must have thought at first that he meant her usual streak. "White? It's—" She lifted her braid and gasped. "What…?"

Kristoff looked away, staring into the trees thoughtfully. "It's because she struck you…isn't it?" He raised his arms a little, and a hardness came into his eyes. Then it melted, and he seemed to be thinking even harder.

Anna looked ready to defend her sibling immediately. Then she paused, and blinked up at him, thinking better of it. "Does it look bad?" She asked, biting her lip.

There was a moment of silence.

"No."

Olaf's head popped up, held in both his branch hands. "You hesitated."

Jack tried not to laugh aloud. He didn't want the snowman seeing him just yet. If Olaf struck up conversation now, Kristoff and Anna would be pulled from the problem at hand. Olaf might've been a little quirky, but talking to the air didn't seem to be his style, and if Jack knew his freckle-faced, one-sided friend, Anna was easily distracted.

Kristoff flushed. "No, I-I didn't." He started walking. "Anna, you need help, okay? Come on."

Olaf grinned and it reached his eyes. "Mm'kay! Where're we goin'?"

"To see my friends."

The mountain man made much bigger footprints in the snow as he went, and Anna had to stagger from one to the next, trying to make walking in the eternal winter easier, even if this was really making it harder. To Jack's alarm, she seemed to be struggling for breath already as she asked, "The…love experts?"

Jack scratched his head, silently walking along behind them at a much slower pace. Love experts? Kristoff wasn't the type to hang around people who were love experts. Ice experts? Sure. Reindeer handlers? Sure. Love experts? No. Not a chance. Part of him wished he'd met this little band sooner, when they'd been travelling to the ice castle instead of away from it. But he couldn't bring himself to leave Elsa unless it was important—and this was. To him and to her, even if she didn't know it.

"Love experts?" repeated Olaf excitedly. His little black eyes lit up and he seemed to have no problem waddling through the snow. It didn't cling to him or make him expand, the way it probably should have. Instead, it was almost like it was parting to make way for him, moving aside as if it were frosting and he was the finger swiping through it. He glanced backward at Anna, a look of clean and sweet adoration on his face, and Jack suddenly saw a resemblance between the two of them. Anna beamed down at Olaf, and Frost could see she thought her magic snowman was just as wonderful as he had been when she was a child. Had Elsa always built Olaf with Anna's personality in mind? All of the cute and lovable and even a tad of the ditziness?

"Uh huh." Jack could hear the smile in Kristoff's voice, even though he knew the guy was most likely still frowning. Kristoff picked his hat up out of the snow, dusted it off, and plopped it back onto his shaggy head. "And don't worry—they'll be able to fix this." His words came with a sigh, as if he were calming himself down instead of Anna.

"How do you know?" Anna fingered her braid and watched Kristoff—well, technically, watched Kristoff's back.

Kristoff finally turned around, and Jack saw he was smiling, if only triumphantly. "Because I've seen them do it before."

Olaf turned his head completely around, the rest of his body still moving forward with the group as he addressed Anna matter-of-factly, "I like to consider myself a love expert."

Sven groaned. Jack decided he'd learned enough to come out of his silence. Now he knew where they were going. He could tag along. He hopped onto the reindeer's back, lying down with his arms behind his head. "For what, two days?"

Olaf turned and gasped with delight, waving frantically as if he weren't just three feet from the winter boy. "Hey, look who's back! Hi, Jack! How's it goin'?"

Jack lifted a hand, twiddling his fingers lazily. He had his eyes closed. Man, why hadn't he done this before? Chilling on a reindeer ride was incredibly relaxing. Up, down, up down, like he was being rocked while Sven traipsed along, oblivious. This was great.

Anna and Kristoff turned as they walked, looking in the direction Olaf was. "No, Olaf," Anna said patiently. "His name is Sven, remember?" She glanced at Kristoff. "Wait, did you change it? I liked Sven!"

"I didn't name him," Kristoff informed her, "my parents did." He blinked, smile suddenly disappearing in exasperation. "And no. Who names a reindeer Jack anyway? What kind of name is that?"

"Hey!" Jack's head rose a little, offended.

Sven swaggered his head a little, agreeing.

"No, guys, right there!" Olaf giggled, as if his friends were being silly. "Jack Frost!"

"We don't have time for this," Kristoff sighed, stepping over a fallen tree. Olaf tripped over it, fell apart, and Anna put him back together almost absent-mindedly.

Jack swung his legs, sitting up completely now. "I hate to break it to you, buddy, but they're not gonna know—"

Anna paused, cocking her head. "Di-did you say Jack?"

Jack's eyebrows knitted. "What?" He squinted at her.

"Not you too," Kristoff rolled his eyes.

Anna shook her head hard. "N-No, no, it's…i-it's just that…well, Elsa always…when we were younger, sometimes I'd see her around the castle and she'd be talking to someone. Someone named Jack. But…" She bit her lip. She didn't want to tell them no one had actually been there.

"Hey yeah, maybe it was him!" Olaf pointed to Jack. "He knows Elsa."

Anna kept glancing at Sven's back, but she didn't see the staff-carrying lad watching her intently. She glanced down at Olaf. He couldn't be telling the truth. Could he? No way. Nuh-uh. Kristoff was right; Jack was a peculiar name. Not Norwegian in the least. Had Elsa just made it up? But she'd said it even when they were young adults, long after anyone would keep a figment from their childhood. Maybe she'd just created someone to talk to. Maybe that was why Olaf could see this imaginary friend and she couldn't—he was made from Elsa's magic. But then why would "Jack" be here, for Olaf to notice, when Elsa wasn't? For some reason, Anna had the intense desire to see him too. She was still trying to grasp anything that could bring her closer to her sister, even after everything that had happened.

But she saw only the shaggy spine of a reindeer.

As she turned away, the white lock in her braid gleaming in the sunset, Jack ducked his head in familiar disappointment. Of course she couldn't see him. Why had he dared to hope? He was pleased she remembered his friendship with Elsa, and that she'd even acknowledged it.

"Come on, guys," Kristoff interrupted. "We're wasting time."

"What's the big rush?" Anna panted, ignoring the throbbing in her chest. "Do your friends go to bed early?"

"Define 'go to bed'."

Olaf trudged along beside Sven as Anna and Kristoff walked ahead. "That's weird," he mumbled. "How come they can't see you, Jack?" He threw his little hands to his cheeks, gasping. "I knew I was going crazy! Ever since I ate that bad icicle earlier—"

"No, hey, Olaf, no! You're not crazy." Jack looked at his hands. "I don't know why they can't see me," he admitted. Then he forced a smile down at the snowman. "It's okay. I'm used to it. Besides, being alone's kinda fun. Nobody to tell you what to do."

Olaf didn't look convinced. He looked very confused, watching the little tracks he made in the powdery snow as he walked. "But…Anna says nobody wants to be alone. You do?"

Jack's smile wavered. That was the second time Olaf had mentioned Anna's belief. He seemed to share it. "Yeah, well. I don't have much choice, little man."

Olaf had stopped listening for the moment, attention caught by something else. He threw his arms in the air, waving them around. "Hey look! There's the sun! Bye, sun!"

Jack looked toward the sinking sun, watching it disappear behind the trees. He glanced back at Olaf. The little snowball mound was grinning wistfully.

"Wow," Olaf breathed. "Wouldn't you just give anything to have it around longer? That's what happens in summer, right?" He turned hopefully toward his new friend. "The sun's out all the time. I can't wait till my first summer!"

Jack stiffened. "Wait. Your first summer?"

"Yeah!" Olaf gave a little bounce. "Hey, you've seen summer, haven't you?"

"Uh…I've seen a lot of summers. But—"

"What's it like?"

Jack stared at him. Olaf dreamt of summer. A snowman longing for heat. Poor little guy. Nobody had bothered to tell him what happened to his kind in that kind of warmth?

Well, he wasn't gonna be the first.

Jack laid back down on Sven, who listened to Olaf's one-sided conversation with little interest.

"It's real long and real hot," he said, deciding to get the obvious out of the way first. "Perfect time to go swimming and play pretty much anywhere. Everything's green and there's all the time in the world to do whatever you want." Jack hesitated, remembering Elsa's favorite summer gown and her restless blue gaze drifting to the warm world outside her window. It was the only time he'd resented the season for being so enticing, when one girl could never enjoy it.

"Summer's the best thing ever," Olaf sighed matter-of-factly. "I'm gonna find the tallest, grassiest, hilliest hill and roll all the way down to the bottom! And then I'm gonna eat three whole bowls of ice cream in two seconds! And then I'm gonna have a picnic—and you guys are invited!" He smiled widely at Jack and Sven. Sven nodded in anticipation.

Jack chuckled. "I'll check my schedule."

"Can I try that?" Olaf asked, pointing to Jack's laid-back position.

Frost sprang from Sven, twirling his staff rightside-up in his hand as he walked. "Knock yourself out."

Olaf rode the rest of the way in Jack's same pose, content to watch the stars on Sven's back. As they walked through the trees and into a rocky landscape, the Northern Lights splashed and twirled through the night sky. Jack looked up, wondering if Elsa was seeing them. She loved the Northern Lights; when she was 12 she'd told Jack a story she made up about them, just for him. She said that once upon a time, there was a boy named Jack Frost who flew up into the sky every winter, clearing the clouds away with his staff and painting glowing streaks of color all across the heavens.

"Where do I get the paintbrush to do that?" Jack interrupted mischievously.

Elsa folded her arms, sitting primly on the window seat as the aurora borealis danced above the castle outside. "You use your staff."

"I thought I cleared away the clouds with my staff."

"You do both with your staff."

Jack turned his staff over in his hands, looking down at it in mock awe. "This thing's loaded!"

Elsa snorted, pretending to be unimpressed with his teasing. "Jack, could I please finish my story?"

"Let me think about it."

"You're impossible." Elsa rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay. Go ahead." Jack leaned back, propping his feet up. She pushed them back down again, curling her lip and trying not to smile.

"So, using his magic staff, the boy covered the whole—"

Jack gave a loud snore.

"Jack!"

"Ow, hey, that's for making Northern Lights, not handin' out bruises! I give, I give!"

Jack's eyes drifted back down to the winter all around him. It was summer; the Northern Lights shouldn't be out now. But Elsa's powers had changed everything. She probably wasn't enjoying the view after all. She was more likely still locked in her room in that huge ice palace, still controlled by her fears. She thought there was no escape. She thought her problems could never be fixed; she'd never be free. Jack wanted to show her she was wrong.

"Look, Sven! The sky's awake!" Olaf patted Sven's side, pointing to the show above them.

Sven grunted, delighted. Jack could swear the big glorified moose was smiling. In those dopey moments when expressions could be seen on Sven's face, Kristoff and his buddy actually looked alike. Jack wondered why he himself had never thought of getting a pet. Some animals could see him. Sven wasn't one of them, obviously, but who needed something that large as a four-legged companion? Not his style.

They reached a stone clearing surrounded by rock walls and geysers. Behind them, Anna shivered, whimpering slightly. Jack walked backward, watching her. Her freckles, usually popping out with optimism and energy, were dull, pale as the rest of her. She wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them for warmth. Jack walked a little slower. Whatever Elsa had done to her sister, it was getting worse.

"Are you cold?" Kristoff asked immediately, looking her up and down.

"No," Jack muttered sarcastically.

"A little," Anna confessed.

Kristoff began to stretch out his arm, gingerly, as if he were going to put his arm around her to warm her up. It was what Hans would've done. Jack might have done the same thing. But Kristoff winced, blinked a little indecisively, and pulled his arm away before Anna could notice. He rubbed the back of his head, jostling his hat, and looked anywhere but directly at the redhead. His brown eyes were flashing with something very gentle when they flicked to Anna. He clearly wanted to be smooth and sweet and helpful, but it wasn't at all in him. He'd only known her, what, two days? But his expression betrayed him.

Frost tilted his head sideways. "Somebody's got it bad." He nudged Anna, but his elbow went right through her. "Told you'd break hearts, Freckles."

He saw Kristoff visibly shake his feelings off, then rush toward a geyser, stammering, "Uh, wait, uh, c'mere."

Anna hurried after him and they stood warming their hands over the steam, as if it were a fire. The princess breathed a sigh of relief, and Kristoff watched her close her eyes as the heat spread over her. He almost smiled. Jack thought he looked pretty decent when he smiled—not so gruff and antisocial. He looked like a little kid. He wondered if they remembered each other, from the day he'd led them to the closed castle gates as children. He hoped so. But probably not—they were too awkward and shuffling around each other.

"You know that stuff's bad for your skin, right?" Jack muttered, bored as he swept past them, walking backward to watch some more. He didn't actually know if steam was bad for you. It probably wasn't. He just didn't love being quiet all the time, even if no one could hear him but Olaf—and the snowman was further up ahead with Sven.

Kristoff led Anna past a few more geysers, talking nervously along the way. "So, ahh…about my friends. Well—" He stopped and chuckled, thinking it over. "I say friends; they're more like…family."

Anna nodded, rubbing her mittened hands together, looking up into his eyes attentively. She was very different with Kristoff, she noticed, than she had been with Hans. She wanted to hear what he had to say, but she wasn't trying to look the part of hanging on every word the way she had at the coronation party with Hans. In fact, when Hans spoke, Anna was shaky on the details of his stories and information afterward. When Hans had told her about his brothers, Anna couldn't remember how many he had minutes from the conversation. When he'd explained why he liked soup roast, she'd agreed, but when he had to repeat it later she realized she had been enjoying his smile far more than his explanation.

With Kristoff, she wasn't honing in on his looks or whether her braids were coming out or how perfect his voice sounded. She just listened, attempting to empathize as best as she could even with the distraction of the cold running through her. She wasn't thinking of him in the hopeful, desperate way she had with her fiancé. There weren't any ulterior motives running in the back of her mind, no nagging that this was her one chance at escaping her life of loneliness. She was completely focused on making sure Kristoff knew she understood what he was trying to get across and that he felt opened up with her. She'd already failed Elsa—for years—she wasn't going to fail another friend too. But she had to admit, when he chortled in that dopey, cautious, uncomfortable way, her knees went just a little bit weak. It was probably nothing. Just the ice thing, right, that was turning her hair white. Nothing else.

Kristoff noticed her gazing at him and looked away, swallowing. "Anyway," he said, voice quiet. "When I was a kid, it was just me and Sven. Until they, y'know, kinda took us in."

Anna smiled. She knew what it was like to grow up by herself. She even knew what it was like, to be without parents. "They did?"

"Yeah." Kristoff smiled back, thinking of his adopted crew, his gratefulness coming out in his face. Then his smile soured and he added quickly, "I don't wanna scare you; they can be a little inappropriate. And…loud." He chuckled. "Very loud. And…they're also—stubborn, a-at times, and a little overbearing…"

Jack rolled his eyes, smirking. "Come up for air, Reindeer Games."

But Anna's smile only grew. She recognized this kind of babble.

"…And heavy, I mean, really, really…heavy, but you—y-y'know, you—you'll get it, you…it's—they mean well—"

Jack twirled his hand downward and flexed his fingers, making an explosion sound.

"Kristoff!" Anna put a hand on Kristoff's shoulder to stop him. "They sound wonderful!"

Kristoff grinned at her. Turning, he sighed, "Okay then."

"Meet my family!" He walked into the clearing covered in moss and stone. Sven was bouncing in excitement, and Olaf slipped off his back, looking about in anticipation. Jack glanced around over Anna's shoulder.

Nothing happened. All they could see was a bunch of perfectly-round boulders.

"They're…rocks." Anna mumbled.

"Hey, guys," Kristoff was saying, walking among the stones. Jack put his hand to his forehead. He knew Kristoff was nutty—the guy spoke for his reindeer—but this was a little much.

Olaf's eyes were wide and disappointed. Very slowly, he leaned toward Anna, saying out of the corner of his mouth in a hiss, "He's ca-ray-zy!"

"Mmm hmm," Jack agreed, mouth drawn into a tight, disturbed line, expression similar to Anna's.

Freckles didn't respond, gawking as Kristoff greeted the rocks like they were alive. Sven was leaping around each boulder, making cheery noises.

In the same tone and pace, Olaf added, "I'll distract him while you run." Jack laughed as the snowman darted toward one boulder, waving and patting it. "Hi, Sven's Family! It's nice to meet you!" He glanced swiftly toward the princess again. "Because I love you, Anna, I insist you run!"

Jack waved a hand up and down in front of Anna's face. "She's occupied."

Olaf looked at her again to make sure, catching Jack's eye in concern, and then leaning toward the rock again. "I understand you're love experts? Ooh!" He glared at Anna. "Why aren't you running?"

Jack snickered.

Anna's eyebrows came down, and though she looked worried for Kristoff, she started to turn. "Ah…okay, well, I'm gonna go…"

Kristoff stiffened, walking back to them in dismay when he saw her leaving. "No no no, Anna, wait!"

Suddenly the rocks began moving too. Jack jumped backward, surprised. They rolled past Anna's feet, and she leapt out of the way, picking up her skirt. "Kristoff!"

When the first stone popped out into a round little body, Jack's first thought was to Elsa's story, the one telling of her first accident with her powers and how Anna's memories of them were taken. Trolls. They were much less powerful-looking than he'd imagined, but she had told him they were made of rock. Somehow in the story that made them seem more threatening.

There were dozens of them. Rows and rows of little stone creatures dressed in plants with grassy hair and big, crackling grins.

"Kristoff's home!" cried the first, a female with a motherly look in her eyes.

Kristoff opened his arms and the trolls began chanting the same phrase, tickled to see him. One of them pleaded to be held and Kristoff caught them, staggering. He was smiling more than ever, and the softness in his large eyes was there to stay.

Olaf, flanked by two of the younger trolls, threw his arms in the air, following suit with a cheery, "Kristoff's hoooome!" Then he paused. "Wait…Kristoff?" The troll to his left nodded. Olaf turned in shock and betrayal to Jack. "I thought his name was Sven!"

"That's just the reindeer, buddy," Jack chortled, looking down at the trolls around his feet. "Watch where you're stepping, guys, some of us don't do shoes."

One troll, to his complete bewilderment, took his right foot in both cold, hard hands and picked it up. Jack was throw off balance, landing on the ground with a, "Hey!"

"Hey, his aren't square-shaped!" The little troll cried.

Jack lifted his torso, resting himself on his elbows, looking back and forth between them. "Ow…" He stared into the eyes of the one who was still holding his feet in fascination. "You can see me too?" he breathed.

"We sure can, handsome!" whistled another female, younger than the motherly one but with the same accent. She may have been her daughter, but Jack didn't really want to think about the reproduction of boulders. "Where does Kristoff find his friends? Look at that hair!" She started tugging at his feathery white mop top, and Jack grimaced, trying not to be impolite. One particularly sharp tug and he tossed his attempts out the window.

"Yeah, woah, that's enough!" Scrambling to a standing position, Jack brandished his staff.

As if he hadn't spoken, the first troll whispered too loud behind a hand to the childlike one beside her. "Ooh, too tall. I ain't much for the tall ones." She winked up at Jack. "You got a brother, honey?"

Jack couldn't help smirking. "Uh…I'll see what I can do."

"Pick me up, pick me up!" The littler troll suddenly flung itself into his arms, deciding he was part of the family in the next breath.

Jack lurched backward, catching the troll in both arms and immediately crashing back to the ground. "Man. He was right," he gasped, setting the troll down. "You guys are heavy."

"Any friend of Kristoff's a friend of ours," another informed him, helping him up again.

Jack liked the idea of being Kristoff's friend. Invisible friend that had been watching the blonde's progress since he was a toddler. The ghostly big bro. But obviously Kristoff had other magical companions to count on. Despite their constant need for physical confrontation—tugging at his shawl, hanging on his arm, standing on top of one another to get at his "buckets of fun" hair—it didn't take long for the little guys to grow on him.

He turned around. By this time most of the trolls were fawning over Anna, giving her the same treatment he'd just gotten—but with a much more awkward twist.

"Let me see!" The motherly troll (the others called her Bulda, which made Jack hold in a cackle) pulled Anna close, inspecting her entire face. "Bright eyes! Working nose…strong teeth! Yes, yes!" She gave Anna a warm side hug. "She'll do nicely for our Kristoff!"

Kristoff rolled his eyes, burying his face in his hands. He shook his head, groaning. Poor guy. Jack was content to sit down right there in the clearing, the child trolls leaning up against him and playing with his hair all they wanted, watching.

"Wai'wai'wait, um, no—" Anna began, trying to let them down easy.

"You've got the wrong idea, no," Kristoff added, blushing. "That's not why I brought her here!"

"Right!" Anna continued, all too quickly. "W-We're not—I'm not—" She giggled just a bit, forcing it in an embarrassed grin, glancing back at Kristoff, whose face, though otherwise neutral, held eyes that screamed Don't hate me! Jack laughed from somewhere in his belly.

"What's the issue, dear?" Bulda demanded, leaning forward with her hands on her hips. "Why are you holding back from such a man?"

Kristoff flinched.

Bulda frowned. "Is it the clumpy way he walks?"

"What?" Offended, Kristoff's head reared back.

"Or the grumpy way he talks?" suggested the troll holding her up on his palms.

Anna waved her hands frantically. "Oh—no—"

Another rolled up, pink fire crystals swinging. She gestured to Kristoff's large boots. "Or the pear-shaped, square-shaped weirdness of his feet?"

"Hey!"

Standing once more, Jack messed his bangs with a hand. He nudged away one elderly male troll. The old stone creature was trying to untie Frost's shawl to use as a picnic blanket, hoping to observe his relatives' song in comfort.

"This isn't going well," Jack decided. He didn't want them to waste time…

"And though we know he washes well, he always ends up sorta smelly!"

…But who said this was wasting time?

Holding onto the crook of his staff with both hands, Jack somersaulted himself up to perch on it, arms draped over his knees. The trolls could stack themselves as much as they wanted; it'd at least take them longer to get to this height. He couldn't hold back his smile the entire time, enjoying the look of supreme discomfort on Anna's face as the trolls attempted to convince her Kristoff was a good decision.

Bulda sprang up onto her family members' hands again, pulling Kristoff's mouth into a grin. "But you'll never meet a fella who's as sensitive and sweet!"

Kristoff chuckled nervously, eyes on Anna helplessly.

Anna looked away. "That's nice, but—"

The trolls began rolling Kristoff around, the mountain man shouting and exclaiming in dizziness the entire time. Embarrassed or not, he was agile; he seemed familiar with their games. "So he's a bit of a fixer-upper. So he's got a few flaws."

"Like his peculiar brain, dear!"

"His thing with the reindeer that's a little outside of nature's laws!"

Jack nodded hard. He threw his arm out to gesture at the scene, addressing Olaf, who danced along. "Yeah, see, that's what I thought!"

Kristoff popped up again after having been thrown unceremoniously to the ground. "This is not about me!"

His family paid no attention to him.

Olaf swung a few toddler trolls around, giggling. "Hey, look, Jack! I already know the moves! How great is that?"

"Nice," Jack praised him distractedly, trying not to laugh.

"Hey, maybe we should get adopted by Kristoff's family! We're love experts too, right?" Olaf spun himself so hard that his middle, bottom and head all came apart, and the little trolls caught each piece, playing catch with him gently.

Jack furrowed his brow, turning back to the scene in front of him instead of the one to his right. "Uh, sure thing, little man. But I'm no love expert."

"Sure y'are!" Olaf staggered as the children put him back together. "Woah—thanks, guys! Aww, yes you can have my nose! But you gotta give it back before we go, 'cuz Anna gave it to me, and I'm kinda attached to it." He gave another bubbly chuckle. "Hey Jack, tell 'em we're love experts!"

Jack rolled his eyes. He wasn't a love expert. He didn't know the first thing about caring for someone else, romantically or otherwise—the one shot he'd had at figuring it out, he'd blown. She couldn't see him. He didn't belong with the trolls any more than Anna did. And she was looking worse by the second.

"You can fix this fixer-upper up with a little bit of love!"

The trolls pushed Kristoff too close to Anna and he almost knocked her over. Anna still had a forced smile on her face. "Um…"

"Can we please just stop talking about this?" Kristoff moaned. He had to shout to be heard over Bulda and the others. "We've got a real, actual problem here! Anna's—"

"I'll say!" Bulda hopped onto his shoulder, leaning toward defenseless Anna. "So tell me, dear—is it the way that he runs scared?"

Her husband caught Kristoff as she threw him sideways, covering his ears and offering, "Or that he's 'socially impaired'?"

Kristoff caught the baby troll that was tossed into the air, and Anna lifted her glove in a little wave to it as the kid sparkled its glassy eyes up at her.

"Or that he only likes to tinkle in the woods?"

Kristoff flushed, dropping the little girl, shaking his head apologetically at Anna, lost for words and completely humiliated.

Anna cleared her throat. "I did not need to know that."

"You and me both, Freckles," Jack grumbled. "How's it hangin', Olaf?"

"I'm a piñata!" Olaf cried. The trolls were standing on one another, holding him up so that the little ones could bash him with a stick and see snowflakes flutter down. It didn't seem to hurt him one bit, and he laughed each time they hit him, as if it tickled.

"Oh yeah." Jack snorted, amused. "Don't let anybody tell you different!"

"Wheeeee!" They tossed him back to the ground and he rolled a little.

"He's just a bit of a fixer-upper! He's got a coupla bugs!"

"No I don't!"

The trolls flung themselves onto Kristoff. "His isolation is confirmation of his desperation for healing hugs!"

Not so flustered then, Kristoff smiled and returned their embrace.

Anna admired the way his face lit up when he grinned; not realizing she was doing it, she tried to tuck a strand of hair that didn't exist behind an ear. "Aww…"

"So he's a bit of a fixer-upper, but we know what to do!"

They lassoed vines and caught both Anna and Kristoff, pulling them closer and closer together.

Jack rubbed the space between his eyebrows with finger and thumb. "Do you ever get tired of all the singing around here?" He grumbled, looking down at the trolls.

They stared at him as if he were crazy and he decided he knew the answer already.

"The way to fix up this fixer-upper is to fix him up with you!"

They unwrapped the two humans, and Kristoff and Anna twirled away from the center of the clearing. While Anna seemed to finally be enjoying herself, laughing as she spun around, Kristoff was getting antsier and antsier.

"Stop it stop it stop it—enough!" Kristoff yelled, freeing himself from the vines completely and regaining his balance. "She's engaged to someone else, okay?" His voice cracked. His family became silent and looked at one another.

Jack watched as the main group of them huddled around Bulda. He slid from his staff, carrying it with him as he stood over their circle, trying to hear what they were planning. They didn't notice him.

"So she's a bit of a fixer-upper," Bulda's husband announced.

"That's a minor thing," a grandma responded.

A young male added, "This, quote, 'engagement' is a flex arrangement—"

The little girl from earlier, the one Kristoff had caught, sprang into the circle. "And by the way, I don't see no ring!"

Jack ran a hand through his hair, backing up as they rolled back to Kristoff. "You guys don't mess around, do you?"

They gathered little pieces of troll clothing—a moss cloak, a mushroom or two, a twig crown of some kind—and approached Kristoff the way a mother might approach a toddler reluctant to take a bath.

"So she's a bit of a fixer-upper, her brain's a bit betwixt?"

"Hey! Watch it!" Kristoff went down under a pile of troll garments.

The trolls around him, (all male, Jack realized) wiggled their eyebrows and finished, "Get the fiancé outta the way, and the whole thing will be fixed!"

Jack laughed hard. "Hey, I like this plan!"

The female trolls surrounded Anna, smoothing her braid and admiring her winter outfit, and Bulda hopped onto a high, flat stone, smiling maternally up at Anna. Anna's face immediately relaxed and she grinned back. No one had looked at her with that kind of care in three years.

"We're not saying you can change him, 'cuz people don't really change. We're only saying that love's a force that's powerful and strange!"

Anna nodded, like she understood. Jack found himself nodding with her.

"People make bad choices when they're mad, or scared, or stressed."

Jack thought of Elsa as she spoke, angry that she couldn't control herself, frightened of her gift, worried from the moment she woke up to the heartbeat she fell asleep. She'd made plenty of bad choices. He just wanted to fix things for her. So she couldn't see him. She needed him. She needed someone.

One look at Anna, and he knew she was thinking of the exact same person.

"But throw a little love their way?"

Bulda spread her arms. She and the other trolls threw daisies into the air, and Jack realized this could be the one place in Arendelle that Elsa's winter simply wouldn't affect. Anna watched the flowers drift down, eyes shining.

"You'll bring out their best!" Bulda's voice echoed in the clearing, and the trolls gazed at their guests with genuine grins, waiting for the travelers to believe it. "True love brings out the best!"

Jack looked around at them as well, the white petals gleaming in the light of the Northern Lights. True love brings out the best. He leaned his head as far back as he could, watching the flashes of color writhe across the sky.

As the trolls sang, they dressed Anna and Kristoff in some kind of woodland ceremonial clothing, draping the moss cloaks over the mountain duo's normal garb. Kristoff turned to see Anna in his family's Sunday best, and a huge, dorky grin spread across his face. He didn't even protest when they plopped the crown of branches onto his head. Anna noticed him staring and smiled back, getting all caught up in the trolls' message. There was something very loud and alive in his brown eyes, and her heart expanded as they settled on her. They were the exact color of chocolate.

When Anna noticed what he was wearing, she pointed and laughed, but he didn't seem at all shy about it anymore. He didn't seem much of anything, Jack thought, as he continued to gaze at Anna. He shrugged, still grinning.

"Everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper, that's what it's all about!"

The trolled rolled on top of each other, hands raised and eyes bright.

"Father!"

"Sister!"

"Brother!"

"We need each other, to fix us up and round us out!" They jumped outward. Bulda's husband turned over and over on himself and bumped into her. She turned and helped him to his feet, smirking.

They pushed Anna and Kristoff closer together; Anna still giggling and Kristoff's smile hanging onto him. He lifted his arms a little, letting the cloak flop about, and Anna giggled harder, which only made his rare beam get lighter. She coughed, but he didn't notice.

"Everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper, but when push comes to shove…"

Jack turned in surprise as the trolls slung their hands out to gesture to Olaf. He danced about, one minute disassembled and the next perfectly put together.

"The only fixer-upper fixer who can fix a fixer-upper is—"

"True—"

"True—"

"True, true!"

"True love!"

Jack picked Olaf up out of the rambunctious stone hands, giving him a piggyback ride and backing rapidly away from the throng of trolls clamoring to hold him again. "Not you too!" Olaf laughed.

Before they knew it, Anna and Kristoff were in the middle of a woodland wedding ceremony. Bulda's husband cleared his throat.

"Do you, Anna, take Kristoff to be your trollfully wedded—"

Anna interrupted, snapping out of it. Her breath came in short little gasps, as if she were losing some of it. "Wait, what?"

"You're getting married!"

Kristoff shook his head, but his family leaned closer, anticipating the 'you may now kiss the bride' bit. But before anything else could happen, Anna staggered. She clutched her chest. In all the excitement, she'd spent too much energy—almost half of what she had left.

As if on instinct, Kristoff threw his wedding clothes off and caught her. "Anna!" Jack winced at the worry in his voice. "She's as cold as ice!"

Frost let Olaf slide from his shoulders and together with Sven, they joined the princess and her guide. "What's going on?" Olaf whispered to Jack.

"I don't know," Jack murmured, voice hard with anxiety. How much time did Anna have left? What exactly was the problem?

The trolls parted all of a sudden, and the oldest of any of them rolled into view. He looked Kristoff up and down, then leaned down to inspect Anna, recognition lighting in his aged eyes.

"There is strange magic here," he whispered.

Kristoff's eyebrows came down. "Grandpabbie—"

"Come, come! Bring her to me."

Kristoff helped Anna to shuffle forward, and she opened her eyes, shivering as she gazed at the leader of the trolls.

Grandpabbie gently took both of her hands in his, as if they were old friends. "Anna," he said soberly, "your life is in danger. There is ice in your heart, put there by your sister."

"How could anyone do that to someone they love?" whispered an outraged female troll to the one beside her.

They stood behind Jack, and he turned to glare at them immediately over a shoulder. "Hey, she didn't do it on purpose!"

Grandpabbie continued, ignoring Jack and his outburst, though his eyes did cut to the snowy boy once. "If…not removed…to solid ice will you freeze. Forever!"

"What?" Anna gasped. "No—"

"But you can remove it, right?" Kristoff interrupted, tone pleading.

"I cannot." Grandpabbie looked tired and guilty. "I'm sorry, Kristoff! If it was her head, that would be easy, but…" He took a deep breath. "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."

Anna nodded, determination deepening her features. But she seemed too weak to do anything for herself at the moment. Her knees trembled and Jack wanted to fly her to safety himself.

"An act of true love?" Anna echoed, looking confused.

"A true love's kiss, perhaps?" Bulda suggested, planting one on her husband.

Anna stumbled again, and Kristoff hoisted her back up. "Anna," he said, "we've got to get you back to Hans."

"Hans…" Anna breathed, eyes closing.

Jack leaned backward. "Woah, hold on—you really think that's gonna work? Have you met the guy?"

The trolls motioned for him to hush, but Jack curled his lip. This didn't make any sense at all. Any moron could see Anna's true love was not the stuffed-up Prince of the Southern Isles. If anybody qualified, it was the pear-footed wonder heaving her onto the back of his reindeer.

"Olaf, come on!"

"I'm comin'!" Gleefully Olaf jumped onto Sven behind them, facing the wrong way. "C'mon, Jack! Let's go kiss Hans!" He paused. "Who is this Hans?"

Jack flew after them, shaking his head. "No one ever listens to me."