Anna was in her room, sitting and all snuggled up in her bed. The princess of Arendelle, who was now over four months pregnant, was reading some notes about infant care that Dr. Bonnevie had put together for her. He gave it to her shortly after he discovered she was pregnant so that he would able to answer just about any and every question she had about what to expect during her pregnancy.
She was also sitting in her bed because it was another of one of those days where she did not have so much energy to get up and go outside and see Arendelle. Because her pregnancy was beginning to show the bump of her stomach, Anna could not risk or even run around so freely or fast like she would do, or even do most of her usual physical activities that only a fearless young woman like her would or could do. On days like this, especially if her condition made her feel so tired, she would spend a lot of time resting in her room. To keep her from feeling so lonely, Kristoff, Elsa, and Olaf spent as much time with her as they could. This kept her spirits up, but she missed seeing Sven and the people outside of the castle.
While she was resting right now, Anna was also waiting for Kristoff and Elsa to bring her some food. Every now and then, Anna had cravings for strange food combinations. Of course, she occasionally wanted to eat chocolate, but lately she had wanted foods that were not ones she usually, if ever, ate. One of the weirdest combos she had eaten were sardines mixed with onions and mashed potatoes.
As if the timing was right, Anna soon heard a knock at her door, which she knew meant that Kristoff and Elsa had brought her the food. Once they came inside, Anna asked, "What took you two so long?"
Elsa and Kristoff were taken aback by how slightly rude Anna's question was. "What took so long is I had to go all the way down to the village square," Kristoff answered.
"And I had to make sure the cook made the ice cream exactly the way you wanted it to be," Elsa replied.
"Well, let me have it, please." Anna held her hands out for the ice cream, which Elsa promptly gave to her.
Once she had the bowl, Anna immediately took a spoonful of the ice cream and put it in her mouth. "Ahhhh," she sighed as she felt the sweet taste spread throughout her mouth. She looked over to Kristoff. "Did you get the carrots and dill pickle?"
Wearing a small look of disgust on his face, Kristoff pulled the said foods out of the bag he was carrying. "A-are you sure you want to eat all of these together?"
"Yes, Anna, these aren't…foods that you normally eat…particularly the pickle." Elsa also looked grossed out as she finished talking.
"Yes, I want it," Anna replied as she took pickle and carrots from Kristoff. She took the pickle and one carrot in each hand and dipped them into the ice cream, then she took a bite of each. "Mmmm," she stated with her mouth closed as she chewed her food.
As if they read each others' minds, Elsa and Kristoff simultaneously put their hands on their cheeks and closed their eyes as they shook their heads in disgust at seeing another one of Anna's strange food combinations. Making sure that Anna was not looking in their direction, they briefly looked at each other, then as if they read minds again, they hung their tongues out of their mouths in repulsion to show how much they agreed that Anna was acting very unusual with her food cravings.
"Kristoff?" Anna asked, making him and Elsa look over in Anna's direction.
"Yes, Anna?"
"I can't believe I haven't taken a long enough moment to discuss this with you, but…what do you hope the baby is gonna be? A boy or a girl?"
Kristoff tried to think carefully for an answer, but the look he was wearing told Anna only one thing. "Are you gonna be disappointed if it's not a boy? Especially since you might want a son to whom you can teach the business of ice harvesting, even though he, if it is a boy, will also be raised as a prince?"
"No, no. I'll be happy whether it's a boy or girl."
Anna was not fully convinced. "Well, I guess it's typical for men to want boys and women to want girls."
"I'm not like that. But what do you want?"
Anna looked at him and hesitated before she actually gave an answer. Seeing her look, Kristoff said, "Well, I guess women want girls so they can also see miniature versions of themselves, dressing them up in fancy dresses and playing with dolls with them."
"No. I'll be happy either way, just like you will be, too." But like Anna was about him, Kristoff was not convinced about Anna's claim.
Just then, Elsa noticed a small package at the base of Anna and Kristoff's bed. "Hey Kristoff, what's in here?"
As soon as Elsa picked it up, Kristoff immediately panicked. "Uh, uh…"
Before he could take it away from Elsa, she handed it to Anna, who said, "Kristoff, is this for me?"
"Uh…sort of."
"Well, I might as well open it now," she said eagerly as she settled her food down on her bed. But the moment she pulled the lid off, her face immediately wore an expression of disappointment. Inside the package was an assortment of ice harvesting clothes and equipment for a young child, along with a stuffed baby reindeer. Kristoff looked away in embarrassment as Anna sorted through all the accessories.
Anna looked towards and glanced up at Kristoff and said, "Not a father who would prefer a boy, huh?"
Kristoff sighed. "All right, so I'd rather have a boy. Is there anything wrong that, or with men wanting boys?"
"No, but you have to consider the fact that having a girl is also a possibility."
Elsa couldn't help but mischievously smile at her desire to play with her sister and brother-in-law like this. So when she noticed that another package was over on Anna's vanity, she walked over to it. "Hey, what's in this one?"
Anna gasped. "Elsa, no!"
But it was too late; Elsa dumped the contents onto the bed, which included a couple of dresses and a doll that looked much like the ones of themselves that Anna and Elsa had as children. Elsa only smiled. "Well, I guess we know what this means as well."
"An-na," Kristoff said in a slightly annoyed tone.
But Anna only chuckled, and so did Elsa, who then admitted, "Well, I guess it's true; men want boys and women want girls."
"What did you want, Elsa?" Anna asked.
"Me?" Elsa asked in slight confusion after she placed all of the items near the end of the bed. "You're the parents."
"But hey, we'd still like another opinion," Kristoff said.
"I really don't care either way. I am just excited to have a niece or a nephew." Just then, something occurred to her. "Have you two decided on names yet?"
"Yes," Kristoff answered. "If it's a boy, he'll be named Joseff. If it's a girl, her name will be Heidi."
"How did you decide on those names?"
"It was tough, given how Anna kept changing her mind during the first few weeks. We must have gone through 1,000 different names before we finally agreed on these two."
"Kristoff, we didn't go through that many names, and you pretty much agreed with every name I suggested," Anna protested.
"Well, you suggested a lot of good names, and when you have that many, it's hard to choose very good ones."
"But it just sounds like you're making lazy decisions and not really deciding. It'd be terrible if our child had to go through life with a horrible name. After all, I want the names to be unique and euphonious."
"All right. Then how about Unique if it's a boy and Euphonious if it's a girl." Kristoff waved his arm in slight exasperation.
Stepping off from the bed, Anna walked over to Kristoff and looked him right in the eye. "For your information, those are not names; they're words."
Kristoff groaned while rolling his eyes. "Aside from Joseff and Heidi, they're the prettiest ones you thought of so far."
Trying to stay calm before she could unleash dangerous magic, Elsa butted into the argument. "Now come on, I don't want you two to start fighting again. And Kristoff, her condition is why she acting like this so much, so don't get upset with her."
Feeling insulted, Anna shouted, "It is not my condition! I've been stubborn in ways like this for practically my whole life!" She threw her arms up in exasperation, then sat back down on her bed. "Well, I better finish my food before the ice cream melts, and I want to keep reading these notes."
"Okay, well, we'll see you for dinner?"
"I'll be there, Elsa."
Kristoff walked out of the room first, then Elsa followed. Once they had closed the door and walked down the hall a few steps, Elsa motioned to Kristoff. "Please don't take it personally, Kristoff. We both know she can stubborn, but she's really just acting like this because of what she's enduring with the changes inside of her body. Pregnancy really is not easy for women, and unless they are really twisted, their conditions can make them act crazier than usual."
"I know she doesn't mean it. It's just not easy for me to put up with her mood swings all the time."
"Yes, that does drive me crazy, too. But at least we are sticking by her, because she really needs that right now in this time. She may not always say so, but I know she is very grateful that we are always there for her…and that's why she loves both of us so much."
"I understand."
"And of course, once it's all over, we'll have a brand new addition to our family. And I honestly couldn't be any happier with my life than I am right now."
They stopped walking in the hall for a moment, and Kristoff smiled. "The baby is going to be lucky to have you as his or her aunt."
"And it will be lucky to have you as its father."
The siblings-in-law smiled at each other before they continued their walk down the hallway and to the dining room.
In case you didn't know, I drew up some more inspiration from I Love Lucy for this chapter. In one episode, she has very unusual food cravings, one of which was a papaya juice milkshake with a dill pickle; another one was ice cream and ketchup with sardines! Yuck! In the same episode, she also asks Ricky what he would hope the baby's sex would be, and while they initially deny it, both of them find proof from the other person what sex they would prefer for the baby.
In another episode, Lucy continuously changes her mind about names for the baby, so I threw that in here as well. The names of Joseff and Heidi are picked out because they are the names of the children of Kristoff and Anna in the artworks of xxMeMoRiEzxx, and she has given me permission to use these names.
Finally, in the show, while pregnant, Lucy also occasionally acts more cranky than usual, but denies that her hormones are the cause. I can't exactly say how Anna would behave during a pregnancy, but I wanted to give snappiness with her a shot, so if it sounds to out of character, please don't judge me too harshly!
On the side, since I don't ship Elsa and Kristoff, I like to think that they could be good friends, so I incorporated that in the story, especially near the end. ;)