He should have known better, should have known something would go wrong.
But her smiling face, her excited laughter and chatter...
Perfect distractions from the weight of realistic caution. He had noticed it all too late, ignoring everything that years of experience had taught him.
The shift of ice beneath their feet, cracking like underworld thunder.
But she was safe, he'd done that right this time around. She was safe, she was safe...She was all that mattered, and he wasn't going to lose her to the ice and cold again.
It was cold; the abyssal color of a twilight sky that lacks the warmth of bright stars. The groaning crack that sucked him under reverberated in his mind, since he was suddenly robbed of all sound.
He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel past the cold blackness surrounding him.
He couldn't breathe.
Can't breathe, can't breathe, can't breathe-
"Kristoff!"
"Please, please, please~" Anna chanted in a sing-song voice, a hopeful expression on her face as she clasped her dainty hands together.
"It's a long ride up the mountain," Kristoff pointed out, hoping to dissuade the princess, as he carried on with the task of prepping his sled for travel.
"Pfft, big deal! Been there, done that," she replied confidently, leaning up against the sled to try and appear nonchalant, but stumbling a bit when her clothed arm slipped because of the varnish on the detailed wood.
Kristoff gave the strawberry blonde a knowing look, tossing in some extra rope and dry kindling before shifting a heavy tarp over the supplies in the back. "You're gonna get bored, just sitting there, watching me hack away at ice," he continued, going over to Sven's stall and walking the reindeer into place before the sled.
"I could never get bored of looking at you~" Anna sighed dreamily, jolting in embarrassed surprise when she realized what had just slipped out of her mouth. "Wait, what?" she coughed, seeming to choke on her own spit for a moment.
Kristoff felt his cheeks burn like hot coals, his ears going bright red at Anna's words. Wow, would you just look at the craftsmanship of this little speck of paint? It's really, really interesting all of a sudden...I mean, is that white, or...or some other sort of white? How many shades of white are there, anyway? This looks...pretty white...Why is it so white? Where did this even come from? The only white paint should be along the side and front designs, the railing should be all gold..., he rambled to himself, thankful that his tongue was firmly clamped between his teeth. He started to dig at the paint finish on his relatively new sled, just for the distraction it provided.
Anna, unfortunately, didn't seem to be having as much luck in controlling her verbal flood. "Not that I just sit and ogle you all the time, you know! Though, that's not to say that you aren't good-looking enough for me to spend hours staring at - 'cause you really are, and I totally do -" Eventually, Anna started talking so fast that her words seemed to run into each other, and Kristoff could no longer understand what she was gushing out.
"It'll be cold, real cold! Too cold for you, if you ask me! And there'll be wolves and bears - and Sven and I never bathe, so we're gonna stink! And you're definitely not going to like the food - I don't like the food!" Kristoff suddenly blurted out.
Gods, her rambling is contagious...
Anna couldn't help but giggle at their combined awkwardness, a fond smile coming onto her face. "Just let me come along, Kristoffer," she pressed, tucking a loose strand of red-gold hair behind her ear. Even if it got him twitchy sometimes, Anna liked teasing him by calling him Kristoffer instead of Kristoff. "It's been over a year, but I've never actually seen what you do - aside from when you come back down to Arendelle with your delivery load of ice, that is. I just want to learn about the work you do up in the mountains. You know all about the stuff I do at the castle - which isn't much, but still," Anna said, her smile turning into a wild and excited grin. "Don't make me beg!"
"So, everything before wasn't begging?" Kristoff chuckled, tightening Sven's harness and rubbing the reindeer between his antlers. It wasn't quite December yet, so the older reindeer still hadn't shed his antlers.
Sven bellowed appreciatively, bumping his large head into Kristoff's calloused palm.
"Come on, what could go wrong?" Anna hummed, her blue eyes sparkling.
Inhaling through his nose and pushing the deep breath out of his mouth, Kristoff messed his hat back and forth on his head. "Well...," he hesitated, trying to pat down his now mussed up hair into something more reasonable, "Did you get permission from-"
"From Elsa?! Check!" Anna exclaimed, bouncing on her heels. "She said I could tag along with you if I promised to take Olaf with us...Apparently, the little guy's been trying to 'help' Elsa with her queenly duties a little too enthusiastically these last few days, so...," Anna trailed off with a little laugh, shrugging her shoulders a bit and fidgeting with her hands.
Kristoff grimaced as he tried - in vain - to contain his groan.
"I never really had a chance to appreciate it when I first came up here, since things were pretty hectic at the time, but the mountains truly are beautiful," Anna breathed out, her eyes slowly roaming around them and taking in the details of the snowy landscape.
"Best place in the world," Kristoff said in a soft and agreeable tone, unhitching Sven from the sled so that the reindeer could eat and rest for a while before they started on their actual work. "The castle's amazing - for something that was built by humans - but this...," Kristoff gestured around them, "Is a work of art that only nature can make."
Anna smiled at the way Kristoff spoke; she loved the way his tone of voice would change whenever he talked about nature, or the mountains and forests, or - of course - ice and reindeer. The look that would make its way onto his face was always so genuine and happy, Anna couldn't help but mirror his enthusiasm as she listened attentively to Kristoff go on and on about the beauty and wonders of nature. The fact that he also spoke about her with the same soft and rather goofy expressions always made her heart soar, her smiles growing as big and warm as the bonfires they had during summer when spending a few days up in the chill of the mountains..
"Hey, hey! Do you think we could go skating before you start chopping the ice into neat, transportable little blocks?" Olaf burst out eagerly, not even waiting for an answer as he went skidding over the lake's frozen surface. Sven went galloping after the animated snowman, slipping and sliding on wobbly legs for a while before he tumbled to the slick ice with a great crash.
Smiling, Anna tugged on Kristoff's arm, jarring him away from unloading his tools and supplies. "Come on, let's go!" she exclaimed, pulling them both onto the ice.
"But we didn't bring any skates!" Kristoff protested, looking back over his shoulder at his still-not-unloaded sled for the briefest of moments before his equilibrium suddenly shifted, and he found himself slowly inching across the blue-ish white ice spread-eagle on his front. "And, as you can see, I'm not very good at it," he added, sitting up and rubbing his sore jaw.
"Neither am I, you big goof!" Anna pointed out, waving her arms all about to keep her rather precarious balance. "Besides, life's no fun if you only do things that you're good at."
After several tries, Kristoff managed to scramble back to his feet on the ice, a half-smile on his face. "Alright, alright...I can't argue with such sound logic, now can I?" he chuckled, gently grabbing a hold of the strawberry blonde's arm to try and steady her. But he was struggling just as much as she was, so it really wasn't much help at all.
Anna's smile practically split her cold-reddened face, white teeth flashing brightly in the morning light. "That's the spirit, Mountain Man," Anna hummed cheerfully, pressing up closer against Kristoff's side.
They skittered across the cold, wet ice for only a little while, their stumbling movements bringing them near the center of the frozen lake. Their breaths streamed from their mouths in warm wisps of white, chilled blushes reddening their cheeks and across their noses.
But the sharp crackle of ice beneath their feet abruptly shattered their revelry.
"What was that?" Anna whispered, not knowing why she felt the need to speak in such a low, meek voice.
Kristoff released Anna's arm hesitantly, motioning for her to stay where she was, and took a few careful steps away to test the ice. Spiderweb cracks erupted in the ice's surface underneath and around his heavy boots.
"Oooh...T-That's bad, isn't it?" Anna stammered out, her sky blue eyes going wide, like that of a frightened doe's.
"Don't panic, Anna; I'll get you out of this safely, I promise," Kristoff stated in a sure voice, his soft brown eyes holding Anna's frightened gaze. "Don't look at the ice, Anna...Keep your eyes on mine, okay? Just slowly, carefully, move closer to me," he instructed, reaching his hand out toward the Princess.
"O-Okay, okay...," Anna murmured, trying to keep her eyes from flickering down to the splintering ice beneath her. "Move slow...Be careful...Don't look down...," she repeated under her breath, keeping up the mantra as she slowly inched her way over to the ice harvester. Anna let out a soft gasp when she felt her smaller hand get enveloped by Kristoff's larger one, her cheek smacking against the rough leather of his winter clothes as she stumbled into his broad chest.
"You're alright...," Kristoff breathed into Anna's reddish-gold hair, rubbing his free hand in sweeping circles against her back.
Another crack from the lake's frozen surface drew a somewhat panicked look from the blond, Kristoff gingerly shifting his gloved hands onto Anna's tiny waist. "Okay, Anna, I need you to brace yourself; I'm going to toss you back over to the more stable ice, where it's thicker and won't crack," he said, knowing that the area of ice they were currently standing on wouldn't hold their combined weight for much longer. Even just shifting to move off the unstable area could plunge them both under.
"What? No! What about you?!" Anna demanded worriedly, clutching at Kristoff's arms as he rearranged his grip on her.
His hands tightening around Anna's waist at the tone of building hysteria in her voice, Kristoff gave her a small smile; he took one last look at the ice to gauge where it would hopefully be able to hold Anna safely, and then murmured, "Don't worry about me."
"No, wait, Kristoff-" Anna protested further, but the words abruptly died in her throat as he spun on his heel and launched her toward the more solid ice.
Anna hit the ice hard, landing heavily on her left side. But the ice stayed strong beneath her light weight, and didn't fracture. Immediately sitting up, ignoring the throbbing pain in her shoulder and ribs, Anna looked on in frantic horror at the jagged hole left behind in the ice; freezing water lapping at the uneven edges, little buoys of ice floating on top of the undulating lake.
"Kristoff!" she screamed.
The cold water hit him like a punch to the gut, drawing the air out of his lungs in an upwards cascade of faint bubbles. Freezing, murky black lake water rushed into his lungs to fill the empty space; his insides burning with icy fire as he choked, his body thrashing about in the black cold as his brain struggled not to simply shut down.
The groan of splitting ice was suddenly muted in his ears as he was submerged in cold water, but the noise seemed to echo around in his head, since it could no longer be heard by his waterlogged ears.
His eyes were stinging, so he dimly figured that they must be open, but he couldn't see anything through the silty darkness of the lake water.
His frantic, thrashing movements had slowed down considerably due to the cold and a lack of oxygen; his body going numb as his core temperature plummeted.
But, just as the pitch black of unconsciousness started to encroach on the edges of his struggling-to-function mind, something began to burn in his chest against the obliterating cold. The small, flickering flame that was his will to live suddenly ignited into a roar within him, and he kicked against the frigid water with one thing set into his mind.
Anna...
Kristoff gasped raggedly for air as he broke the water's surface, his gloved hands scrabbling for some sort of purchase on the ice like a half-drowned cat. Coughing up lake water, his throat feeling sore and scratchy as he inhaled the chilly morning air with quick, sharp breaths, Kristoff raised half-lidded brown eyes to see Anna sliding across the ice towards him. "N-No...Anna...Stay 'way, don't...," he croaked out in a nearly inaudible voice, struggling to pull himself out of the frigid water to stop her from coming any closer. But, the thin ice gave out beneath his weight before he could haul himself up, and he was back in the water again.
"Kristoff! Kristoff, hold on; I'm going to get you out of there!" the strawberry blonde shouted, looking determined but unsure of what she needed to do.
"A-Anna, no! Don't m-move any closer...I don't know w-where the ice i-is weak," Kristoff managed to wheeze out in a weak yell, flailing about slowly in the dark water, his arms reaching out in search of more solid ice to hold himself.
Anna skidded to a halt at Kristoff's yell, her face etched with worry. "Tell me what I need to do, Kristoff," she said in a strained tone, trying to keep her voice controlled.
"The rope...in the sl-sled. Get that, and...and Olaf; he's lighter, t-the ice won't break if he walks over i-it instead of y-you," Kristoff instructed, his teeth chattering uncontrollably as he watched Anna struggle back to the snowy shore.
"Olaf, Sven! Hurry, I need your help!" Anna called in a tight voice, following their footsteps through the snow and back to the sled. Quickly snatching up the rope, and stumbling a bit under its unexpected weight, Anna dashed back onto the ice. She would have slipped and fell because of the sudden transition from snow-packed earth to slick ice beneath her winter boots, but Olaf was behind her now, using all the strength that his boneless body could muster to keep Anna upright.
After seeing that Anna wasn't going to fall, Olaf toddled along after the princess as fast as he could manage, Anna stalwartly continuing across the unforgiving ice. "What's happened, Anna?" he asked, his expression uncharacteristically worried as he tried to keep up.
While the snowman and reindeer hadn't seen what happened, they'd certainly heard the commotion that came right after.
"Kristoff...fell through the ice while saving me, and we're going to get him out," Anna replied, chewing on her bottom lip as she struggled to tie a good knot into the sturdy rope. After several failed attempts, she tugged off her mittens with her teeth in frustration, tying a strong knot as she made a wide loop in the rope. God, am I glad that I really payed attention to the survival lessons Kristoff gave me...
Getting as close to the fractured section of ice as she felt was safe, Anna handed the looped bit of rope to Olaf just as a huffing and grunting Sven stumbled over to them. "Olaf, I need you to take this over to Kristoff - but be careful, okay? The ice is very unstable," she warned, watching the usually cheerful snowman nod and pick his way over the frozen lake to the gaping hole in the ice. Her eyes drifted from Olaf to Kristoff, her lips pressing into a thin line of worry as she saw him fighting to keep his eyes open; warm, honey brown eyes drifting shut more often the longer he was in the water.
Tying off the other end of the rope to Sven's harness, Anna murmured into the upset reindeer's ear, "Once Olaf gets that rope secured around Kristoff, I'm going to need you to pull your hardest, Sven..."
The reindeer snorted with strong assurance, stomping a hoof against the lake's frozen surface. Sven's hot breath puffed out into the cold air through flared nostrils, almost like smoke from the stack of a locomotive train.
There was a brief moment of panic for Anna when she realized that for Olaf to get the rope around Kristoff, he'd have to shift his arms off of the ice currently keeping him afloat. With the material of his clothes wet, the cold air had started to freeze his arms to the ice; it kept him from slipping off, but it made things slightly more difficult concerning the rope.
"Okay, Anna, start pulling!" Olaf shouted, stubby legs carrying him back a bit so that he could help pull, his twiggy fingers barely able to really grip the rope.
"Sven!" Anna hollered, her voice cracking slightly, as she pat the reindeer on the hindquarters to get him moving. Gripping the rope with both hands, Anna started pulling as well.
Sven let out a short bellow as he started forward, the reindeer digging his cloven hooves into the ice for more leverage as he pulled.
As soon as Kristoff was out of the freezing cold water and onto the more stable ice, Anna was instantly at his side, untying the rope from around him and patting his unnaturally pale cheek in an effort to bring him around. "Come on, come on...Wake up, Kristoff, open your eyes!" she pleaded desperately, bringing both of her hands to his face, her thumbs shakily rubbing at his deathly cold cheeks.
Anna could count every little splattering of freckles on Kristoff's face, his skin was so pale that they stood out starkly on his round cheeks and broad nose.
She didn't like it at all.
Suddenly, Kristoff's chest heaved with a gasping intake of breath, and he spluttered up a bit more lake water. Brown eyes met blue, and Kristoff stammered out a scratchy, "H-Hey...L-Look at you! Doin' water rescues like a p-pro.."
His lips were blue as he attempted to force a smile onto his face, the azure color even spreading to his ears; Anna couldn't see his hands or feet due to his thick gloves and sturdy boots, but she suspected that they, too, were tinted with the faint, unnatural color. She'd read about that happening before, the cold sinking into the extremities like a poison spreading through the body.
Pressing her mitten-less hand to his cheek again, hoping to impart at least a little bit of warmth to him, Anna gushed out worriedly, "We have to get you back to Arendelle!" Wobbling onto her feet rather unsteadily, Anna hooked her arms around one of Kristoff's and attempted to haul him up.
Chuckling despite the situation, Kristoff mumbled out, "Princess...Princess, what're you tryin' to do here? Dislocate my arm?"
"No, I'm trying to get you up, so we can get you warm and dry...And not all blue, and shivery, and cold - and why are you so heavy?!" Anna huffed, slipping a bit.
Sven grunted, nudging urgently at both Anna and Kristoff with his broad snout.
"Sven's right, you guys! We've got to hurry!" Olaf blurted out, awkwardly trying to disentangle himself from the cords of thick rope.
With Sven's help, Anna got Kristoff to his feet; the blond man heavily leaning against the reindeer's side, cold-clumsy fingers hooked around his harness as he tried to steady himself against the spastic shivers that wracked his large frame. "Y-You okay, Anna? Didn't t-throw you too hard, d-did I?" he asked, words vaguely slurred as he looked the strawberry blonde over for any obvious injuries.
Cupping his water droplet-speckled face between her shaking hands, Anna let out a choked noise, bringing Kristoff down into a needy kiss. Separating with a near-sobbing gasp, Anna brought their foreheads together, so close that their noses almost touched and their breath mingled. "I-I'm fine, you big, stupid, lovable goof!" she reassured him in a wavering voice, her breath hitching as she fought off the urge to sob out of pure relief and lingering terror.
Licking her lips, Anna glanced down at where her palms rested against Kristoff's chest, blinking rapidly before looking up at his face again. "Kristoff, we have to get you back to the castle...T-The physician will now what to do, and it's warm there. We'll get you dry clothes, sit in front of the fire with blankets...Whatever you need to..."
Not die like I did...
That feared phrase went unsaid, but between them, they both knew what Anna meant.
"Y-Yeah, that's...that sounds like a g-good plan, Freckles," Kristoff murmured, leaning on Sven to help him over to the sled.
Anna had seen Kristoff hitch Sven to the sled numerous times, but she still had to have him talk her through it - which, in actuality, was a good thing; talking was keeping Kristoff awake and aware, at least for the moment. Anna knew enough to know that keeping him awake was a good thing.
Of course, going down the mountain again, things started to get worse. The air was cold, and the speed they were going had it whipping past them in freezing waves. Even with the couple of blankets Anna had found in the little storage compartment under the seat, Kristoff was still shivering horribly - which, he kept telling her was a good thing, but she wasn't really having any of it. Getting back to the castle, that would be a good thing. Getting him in dry clothes, in warm blanket, by a fire? Also good. Hot drinks and food? Definitely.
Just...no more shivering, or stuttering from the cold, or any of that.
Anna didn't know how to drive the sled, or direct Sven back to the city - Kristoff could barely grip his hands anymore, and he was starting to get increasingly confused as to what was going on. Anna stopped trying to explain it to him after the third or fourth time he mumbled out a vague question, knowing it wasn't going to stick with him for very long considering how muddled he was getting. It scared her, more than she'd ever want to admit to anyone but him; he was always the level-headed one, the one in steady control. Anna wasn't used to this, and never wanted to be.
As rocky as it was, they made it back to the castle wit no further problems - something for which Anna was incredibly grateful for.
Several guards rushed over to help the princess when they realized something was wrong, and it took all of five minutes for the group to be bustled indoors - not counting Sven, of course, though he certainly did try to follow. Anna didn't leave Kristoff's side until Gerda guided her away, saying that it wasn't proper for a young lady to see a man undressed like that.
Anna came quite close to telling the older woman exactly how many times she'd seen Kristoff in various states of undress, and what that had subsequently led to, but decided that now wasn't the best time to divulge the extent of her and Kristoff's relationship. She left hesitantly, and only because she made them swear to get her as soon as he was deemed clothed enough once again for her to be around. Which she thought was ridiculous, Kristoff had nearly died saving her, but Anna would rather not make a fuss if it meant she got to see him faster and make sure he was alright.
So, she waited. Olaf stayed with her for a while, until he started to worry about how Sven was doing in the stables. Elsa was quick to appear by her sister's side, telling the little snowman it was a good idea to check on his reindeer friend. As expected, Elsa was flooded with worried questions, eyes roaming over her younger sister for any injuries. Anna reassured her time and again that she was fine, a little sore and bruised here and there, but nothing serious.
Despite feeling drained of energy, Anna was still wearing a furrow into the carpet - jumping when a door opened, and the familiar face of the royal physician peaked out.
"Princess? You may-"
The older man barely got to open his mouth before Anna was zipping by him with a rushed "thank you so much" trailing in her wake, Elsa stepping in to properly thank the man.
Anna could have cried - in a good way - seeing Kristoff awake and looking at her with complete and utter focus back in his eyes.
"Hey there, Freckles...," he sighed out, sounding beyond tired but so, so very much there with her in that moment.
Anna let out a relieved sort of sob-laugh, launching herself at the blond and burrowing herself under the multitude of blankets he was currently bundled under. It wasn't enough to see it for her, she had to feel - had to make sure he wasn't cold anymore. "Don't you ever do that again! I thought...I almost lost you...," she whispered out, hands clutching at the comforting fabric of Kristoff's now dry shirt, her face pressed into the crook of his neck.
Kristoff wasted no time in returning the embrace, thick arms wrapping around Anna's small frame to bring her as close to himself as possible, her warmth doing more for him than the fire blazing right next to them. "Guess we can call it even now, huh?"