About a week later Anna had totally forgotten about Sven's appointment until Sven and Kristoff in all their snowy goodness entered through the door and she started smiling. Her husky, Olaf jumped at the site of a new dog and bounded over, they hit it off immediately.
"Hey Kristoff!" she said getting to her foot and boot. "I forgot you guys were coming today, come on back. Olaf, get off of him" she said laughing Olaf had managed to jump onto Kristoff and push him against the door in an awkward sitting position. The dog jumped up at his master's call and returned to his doggy bed under her desk.
"Olaf?" he asked following her with Sven into the back room.
"He likes warm hugs" she said on reflex smiling. Sven jumped onto the table as she put on her gloves and began to check his stomach.
"So how's the leg?" he asked curiously leaning against the wall.
"Well it turns out I only need this thing for another week, the break wasn't as bad as they had originally thought, which is good imagine trying to clean horse hooves in this thing."
"You've been cleaning horse hooves in that? That cannot be easy" Kristoff said confused. "Don't you have a boyfriend or someone who can help you with this stuff?"
"No" she said simply not wanting to talk about it really. "We broke up two weeks ago, so what about you Kristoff what do you do?"
"Oh, a little of this a little of that, mainly I guide people on the mountains, sometimes Sven and I go on rescue missions. When I'm not doing that I drive the Zamboni at the ice rink and I help my parents deliver ice from time to time"
"So, you're like Arendelle's Ice master and deliverer?" She said using her important voice.
He chuckled, "That's not a thing, but I guess so. Listen I'm not doing anything for the rest of the day, if you need any help around here I'm more than happy to stick around. You should not be messing with horses with a broken leg, not to mention how small you are."
Her eyes flickered from Sven to Kristoff and she smiled warmly. "Well, honestly I could use the help." She admitted taking off her gloves. "Sven is all better; his skin is back to where it should be."
"So what's first?"
"Have you ever shoveled a stall?" she said putting food in Olaf's dog bowl, then another for Sven. She flipped the sign closed and led him back through another door that through a skinny hallway to a large wooden barn. "The owner came and picked up his Clydesdale's two days ago but I still need to muck their stalls."
"Which ones?" Kristoff asked pulling his jacket off, which revealed he was far more ripped than Anna had been imagining.
"These two" she said hobbling over to open the door. But Kristoff was too fast and got there first.
"Why don't you sit down." He said pulling the wheel barrel over and a rake. "I've got this Anna"
She was about to protest but decided not to, she hated mucking stalls anyway. She sat down on the hay bales next to the stall door.
"So Anna, have you always lived in Arendelle?"
"No, my sister Elsa and I moved here after our parents died about two years ago."
"I'm sorry, I never met my parents" he said quietly.
"I thought you said you helped them deliver their ice"
"Those are my adopted parents, they took me in when I was very young." She could hear him smiling.
"You must love them very much."
"I do, so where did you move from?"
"Maine, we had a really nice house on the harbor." She smiled to herself. "It was beautiful, but I traded that in for a mountain view and I'm pleased to say I was not disappointed."
"Yea, it's beautiful. Have you ever seen the Aurora Borealis?" he asked poking his head out of the stall and moving to the next one on the other side of her. For a split second she didn't respond. His biceps and chest were pushing against the fabric of his faded blue shirt and she had to stop herself from making any sounds. His hair was slightly damp with sweat that shined on his neck and down his shirt. It was going to kill her to let him leave.
"Oh, uh, once when I was really little. The lights woke me up"
"Oh your one of those people" he said grinning as he emptied out the wheel barrel outside the barn door. "If the skies awake"
"I'm awake" she finished smiling.
He slipped into the next stall and began working again. "So how long have you been a vet?"
"Just two years, I got my degree right after my parents died. What about you, how long have you been the Ice master?"
She heard him chuckle and smiled herself. "Well, I've been working on the Zamboni since high school, and I've always helped my parents do their ice business. I became a rescue guide about four years ago."
Doing the math in her head that makes Kristoff about two years older than her, so since she was 24 he would be, what, 26-ish? He looked older than her but not by too much.
"Well it seems you've got all the ice taken care of"
"That I do" he said finishing the next stall. He started to throw in fresh bales of hay into the clean stalls.
"Have you done this before?" she asked suspiciously giving him her best suspicious eye.
"No, but the basics are pretty easy to grasp." He said sitting on the bale next to her, even sitting down he was still taller than her. Suddenly he touched her chin causing her eyes to widen. "Oh, um your chin the bruise is all gone, looks like it healed pretty well." He noted, not moving his chin.
"Yea" she whispered not able to pull her eyes from his pink, very full lips. Anna couldn't tell if he noticed or not, but he did exactly what she was thinking. The kiss was soft as he cupped her face; she leaned into him and touched his wrists. Taking this as a good sign he spread her lips to deepen the kiss. She slipped her arms up and around his neck to pull him close. They pulled apart for a minute, but she didn't waste any time pulling him back after they both took a breath.
Before she knew it he had lifted her up to a taller pile of hay bales so he was standing just a few inches above her and started to kiss her again. He ran his tongue over her bottom lip begging entrance which she denied teasing him lightly. She bit his bottom lip lightly tugging on it until she felt his chest rumbled.
Kristoff ran his hands up and down the outsides of her thighs, sending goose bumps down her arms. She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt collar and moaned against him slightly. He pulled himself away after a moment, just staring at her. But before either of them could speak the bell to the front door rang, someone was here.
"Didn't you lock it?" he asked turning his head towards the door.
"Yea" she said suddenly realizing.
"Who else has a key?"
"My Ex….." she whispered
"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked lifting her from the hay bale onto her feet.
She shook her head. "No, I can get rid of him." She said hurrying down the hall. When she got there Hans was obviously drunk and sitting in her chair.
"Where the FUCK have you been?" he snapped glaring at her.
"Here, working" she said crossing her arms. She really needed to call a lock smith.
"No you dumb cow, for the last two weeks" he jumped up from her desk and pushed her against the wall, only glancing at her booted leg for a minute.
"You need to go." She said not looking at him, she couldn't.
"Then you're coming with me." He slurred leaning in close he grabbed her wrist hard enough to leave a bruise. Suddenly a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her aside, Kristoff stepped in front of her.
"You're not welcome here."
The tone of voice Kristoff used was neither gentle nor welcoming like the voice he used for her.
"Not welcomed here?" Hans slurred throwing an arm around with exaggeration. "You're not welcomed here!" he yelled
"Kristoff is welcome here any time he wants, you are not!" Anna yelled pulling out her phone. "Leave or I'm calling the police."
"Why you little bitch!" He lunched for Anna but Kristoff was too quick. He grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind him, slamming Hans's face into the counter and holding him there.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you how to speak to a woman? I plan on coming around here a lot more so don't for one second think you'll do something to her under my nose. This is your last chance to leave her alone, if I see you harassing Anna again I will call the police. If you lay your filthy hands on her again, you better hope they find you first." Kristoff pushed Hans away from Anna, revealing Kristoff had accidently broken his nose.
"I was done with that slut anyway, you're lucky I'm such a nice guy. You can have those slutty seconds" With that Hans turned slamming the door behind him, tearing up the gravel as he drove away.
Without meaning to Anna started crying, she pressed her hands against her face and took in a long shuddery breath, this couldn't be happening. She felt Kristoff wrap his arms around her and she leaned into his chest.
A buzzing sound from Anna's pocket pulled them back to reality; she answered it to ashamed to look at the man before her.
"Elsa? Yea I'm coming home right now sure, okay bye."
Kristoff felt his heart drop, she was going home? He knew he shouldn't be this invested in her well-being already but he couldn't help it. "Do you want me to follow you home? You know, to make sure Hans doesn't."
"Would you mind?" she asked smiling.
"Absolutely not." He said as the dogs got to their feet. "I can pick you up for work tomorrow too" he offered, trying to make her smile. She did.
"I'd like that."