Anna sat at her window, staring out at the gates. It was the day Kristoff said he'd be back and she was anxious for him to finally return. She'd waited at the window all day, despite Elsa's pleas to come down and get her mind off of things. Anna simply couldn't do it. Usually, Kristoff was back in the middle of the day, but it was night now. The torches near the entrance to the castle gates still burned bright, just in case Kristoff returned in the middle of the night.

Elsa had been with Henrik all day, to Anna's knowledge. She'd had Olaf pass by them a few times just to see if they had left each other. Every time she asked Olaf about it, he confirmed that they were together. That worried Anna. Usually, she would be happy about Elsa spending so much time with a man, but... not this one. She couldn't help it, she just didn't trust him. Every time he'd seen her, he had been cordial and sweet, but then, so had his brother.

"Anna? Are you still up?" she heard Elsa ask. Anna looked over at the door to see her sister in her nightgown, her hair down around her shoulders. Anna was still in the gown she had worn that day, not bothering to change just yet.

"Yeah, I'm still up."

"May I come in?"

"Sure." Anna said as Elsa came in and sat down on the bed.

"You should stop all this worrying, it's not good for you." Elsa told her. Anna turned back toward the window.

"I'm not worrying. I'm just... anxious for him to get back." Anna lied. Elsa sighed and gave her sister a look.

"Anna..."

"Okay, maybe I am a little worried, but how could I not be? He was supposed to be back hours ago. He's never this late."

"I'm sure he's fine. Maybe they got a late start and got tired or something." Elsa reassured her. Anna crossed her arms and looked out the window again.

"Yeah. Maybe..." she said. Elsa furrowed her brow.

"Is there something else bothering you, Anna?" she asked, "You haven't really been yourself these past few days."

Anna shook her head. "No, I'm fine, really. It's just you've been really busy. That's all."

"No... that's not it." Elsa said, "Come on, tell me. I'm your sister."

Anna sighed. "Well... I guess it's because I'm worried."

"About Kristoff?"

"About you."

Elsa looked confused as she put a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Why would you be worried about me?"

"Well... It's because of Henrik..." Anna admitted. Elsa looked surprised.

"Henrik? What does this have to do with him?"

"He's Hans' brother, Elsa. He could be here to hurt us." Anna said.

"Anna, let me assure you, he's not here to hurt us. If he was, he would've done it by now." Elsa replied.

"But what if he's waiting? For Hans maybe? Maybe they want to try and take over the kingdom together! Or... maybe they want revenge on us for locking up his brother, or-"

"Anna. Calm down." Elsa said, putting her hands on Anna's shoulders, "He's already said that he and his brothers were angry with Hans for what he did and he's getting what he deserves. We are in no danger."

Anna glared at her sister. "You're just saying that because you're in love with him." she snapped before getting up and walking out. Elsa was dumbstruck. She gasped and jumped up, going after her sister.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she called down the hall after Anna.

"What do you think it means, Elsa?" Anna shot back, angry tears threatening to spill down her face.

"Anna, slow down. We need to talk about this!"

"Oh, the hell we do!" Anna yelled back as she broke into a run. She felt the air grow cold behind her as Elsa chased after her, pleading with her to stop.

"Anna, please! Stop!" she heard her call. Anna couldn't take it any longer. She let the tears come as she ran out of the castle. Elsa stopped, out of breath as she looked behind her, seeing a trail of ice she made. Elsa sighed as she went over to the wall, taking a seat on the floor, putting her head in her hands, trying to pull it together.

As Anna ran, her mind only went to one place. The stables. She wondered if maybe Kristoff was there, finally. The thought gave her strength as she sprinted towards the stable, slowing down as she approached, not seeing any sign of Kristoff's sled. She exhaled in defeat, dragging herself into the stables. She flung herself down onto the pile of hay in Sven's stable, where he slept and where Kristoff sang him to sleep each night.

Great. Right when Elsa and her had gotten so close, she had to go and mess it all up with her big mouth. Why couldn't she had just kept it inside and never let Elsa know? It wasn't like Henrik was staying forever… if she had only waited… now there was no way Elsa would talk to her, not after she ran out on her. Anna looked over on the small table in Sven's stable, seeing where Kristoff had left one of his tunics behind. With tears pooling in her eyes, she snatched it from the table and looked at it. It had various patches in it from where Kristoff had ripped it so many times.

"Why don't you just let me get you a new one?" Anna had offered him. After all, it's not like she couldn't afford clothing, let alone clothing for Kristoff, who had done so much for her.

"What's wrong with this one?" he had asked. Anna had laughed and then snatched the tunic from his hands, putting two fingers through one of the holes in it.

"It's got holes all in it! Won't you get cold?" she had asked. Kristoff had taken it back, smirking.

"Oh there's not that many holes in it. And hey, I've been fixing my clothes for years, this is no problem." he'd said, looking the tunic over, his face falling when he saw how many holes were in it. "Eh, nothing a little patchwork can't fix."

Anna had rolled her eyes, giving him a playful punch in the arm. "Why can't you just let me treat you?"

"You got me a sled! And a job, and a new place for me and Sven to live-"

"You helped me find my sister!"

Kristoff had stumbled a bit there, "Er… well, yeah, but-" Anna had put her finger to his lips. "Hey. Shhhh. No excuses."

"But-"

"Kristoff."

He had sighed, rolling his eyes as he pouted at her. Anna scoffed, not being able to help herself as she grinned.

"You're a child." she had said.

"Am not."

"Pfft. If you say so."

As she looked at the tunic, the memory became even more painful as she sat there, worried about him now more than ever. Where was he? She closed her eyes, falling back down on the pile of hay as she clutched the tunic to her chest.

"Aw Kristoff… I wish you were here…"

Kristoff wished he were anywhere but where he was. He could feel sores forming on his wrists from where the ropes had been binding them over the past two days. He'd only been taken out of the room a few times to go to the bathroom, where he was still watched by Hans and the Duke's men, who threatened to put an arrow through his leg if he ran. He and Sven had been allowed scraps of the men's food, most of which had been half eaten and spit on. He was supervised as he ate as well, it being the only time Hans had allowed his gag be untied. He could feel the material starting to rub a sore on the back of his neck. He had, however, managed to get a little closer to Sven, who started to calm down. He was still afraid, like Kristoff was, but he had calmed down a great deal, often sleeping through the days.

Kristoff's thoughts went to Anna and Elsa. Since he hadn't come back today, the two of them had to be worried, right? Surely they would send out someone to look for them... but how many people knew where this cabin was? How long would it take them to get here? Days? Weeks? Kristoff couldn't live like this much longer and neither could Sven... Kristoff looked around the room again for about the thousandth time for something, anything sharp that he could use to maybe slice through the ropes... or maybe even something glass or breakable... anything with a sharp edge. But the room was empty. Hans and his men must have cleaned it out before Kristoff and Sven had woken up in the room. Kristoff sighed, and then suddenly, a light shined under the crack of the door and Kristoff heard voices. He inched his way across the floor over to the door so he could hear better. As he approached the door, he put his ear to it and overheard two men talking...

"...but how long until we leave for Arendelle? I didn't sign up to babysit some smelly guy and his pet."

"I told you, when Hans and the Duke are ready. We still need more men if we're going to take the city on our own."

Kristoff's brown eyes went wide as he pressed his ear even harder into the door, straining to listen closer.

"We'd better get a good reward for doing all of this for them. I'm not staying up all night for nothing."

"Will you stop moaning about everything? The Duke said he would pay us the best reward we could get and Hans said he'd double it if we kept an eye on blondie and his pet. As a matter of fact, the Duke gave us free range to do whatever we wanted to them."

"Why is that?"

"Because it'll hurt the Queen and Princess, you dolt. Why else would you think? The Duke says that blondie has a good relationship with the Queen and an even deeper one for the Princess."

Kristoff's eyes darted around, his breaths heavy under the gag as he tried to figure out just what the two men were planning on doing. Each possibility left him with the same, sickening feeling.

"What, are they a couple?"

"Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Although if they are, I would say she's really lowered her standards since she broke it off with Hans."

"Oh, yeah. Definitely. I mean, you go from a Prince to some disgusting dullard who hangs around with a moose? And apparently he even talks to the damn thing."

"Ha. Wow. Say... what do you say we pay him a little late night visit?"

"Sounds fun. Not like he can do anything to stop us anyway."

Kristoff took his ear away from the door as he heard the men start to approach, their footsteps seemed to echo in the room. He backed away from the door a little too quickly than he intended to and landed hard on the ground, causing him to groan in pain through his gag as he tried his best to back away from the door. Before he knew it, the door had swung open and the two men stepped inside.

"Oh look, he's just the way we left him." one of the men said teasingly.

"Probably isn't smart enough to try and figure a way out of here." the other laughed as Kristoff narrowed his eyes at them. He quickly darted his eyes over to Sven, who whined quietly and kept his head down.

"Help him stand up, poor guy shouldn't have to lay down on the floor the whole time." one of the men said as the other took Kristoff's arms and stood him up on his knees.

"There we go, better isn't it?" the man asked. Kristoff couldn't answer, so he didn't.

"Huh? What's that? Don't have an answer for me?" the man asked. Kristoff rolled his eyes and looked away. Suddenly, he felt the man grab his throat.

"You better give me an answer!" the man shouted at him. Kristoff furrowed his brow and before he knew it, he was on the floor again, letting out a muffled groan as he hit the ground. He tried his best to try and wriggle free of the ropes that bound his wrists, but whoever had tied them had done an even better job than him at rope tying. Before he knew it, there was a sharp pain in his ribs as one of the men delivered a kick to his abdomen, making him groan again, cursing beneath the gag. Kristoff looked up right before the other man was about to give him another kick, but was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"What the devil's going on in here?" he heard Hans ask. Part of Kristoff was relieved as he sighed beneath the gag, glad that the second kick hadn't happened, but the other part of him was infuriated to see this red-headed bastard again.

"Um... nothing, your highness." one of the men mumbled. Hans raised an auburn eyebrow.

"Really? Because it seems to me that you two have brought it upon yourselves to come in here and bother our two guests. Is that true? Don't lie to me." Hans ordered, his voice sounding more threatening now. Kristoff's eyes darted back and forth between the Duke's men and Hans.

"It's true..." the man confessed. Hans shook his head.

"Out. Both of you. I'll deal with you later." he growled as the two men left the room. Hans closed the door, the only light being the lantern again. He stooped down to Kristoff's level and met his gaze. Kristoff still saw the shadows of the Duke's men beneath the crack in the door. They were waiting outside... his brown eyes went wide for a second and then darted away as he turned away from Hans out of disdain.

"Sorry about that. It won't be happening again, let me assure you." he said, going to turn Kristoff's head towards his. The instant he felt Hans's hand touch his head, Kristoff jerked away, doing his best to squirm away from Hans.

"Hey, hey, stop it." Hans ordered, "I'm not going to do anything, I just want to speak to you. Face to face."

"Lmmm hermm ymm dfff." Kristoff said into his gag. Like hell you do. Hans shook his head.

"What was that?" he asked as Kristoff felt the pressure behind his neck relieved as Hans untied the gag.

"Like hell you do." he mumbled, still facing away from Hans. Hans scowled and jerked Kristoff around to look him in the eye.

"Hey, let's get something straight," he began, staring into Kristoff's brown eyes, now full of distaste and hate, "I'm the one in charge here. I'm the one who decides when and if you live or die."

"Why don't you just go ahead and kill me?" Kristoff asked. Hans gave a cruel chuckle.

"Because what fun would that be?" he said, "You clearly mean a lot to Anna and the fact that you're gone must bother her and her sister a lot. So I figure, maybe I can torture them with worry over you until I go back and take over. Then maybe I can get rid of you. Or... maybe if you behave, I'll keep you around for a pet. You smell enough like one." he grinned, "Honestly, I don't see why Anna would fall for a guy like you."

"Maybe because I tried to help her instead of tried to kill her?" Kristoff said sarcastically.

"Tried to kill her? No, Kristoffer, I didn't try to kill her, I tried to kill her sister. I left her to die because Elsa had already done my work for me." he corrected. Kristoff's face burned with anger.

"It's Kristoff." he growled at Hans.

"Oh, my mistake. Wouldn't want to get the useless, smelly ice boy's name wrong now would I? I might upset him or something."

"Yes. You might, pretty boy." Kristoff agreed.

Hans tsked. "Hmm. You sure do have quite a mouth on you, don't you?" he asked, looking at the material still in his hand, "I think I liked you better quiet." he said as Kristoff realized what was about to happen and twisted his head away.

"No..." he began as Hans roughly grabbed his face and began to force the gag back over his mouth, "No! No- hnfffff. Mmmphh."

"Yes, I do believe you're better off this way." Hans said as he knotted the gag even tighter than before over Kristoff's mouth, "Can't say anything that might get you into even more trouble, huh?" he joked as he mussed Kristoff's already messy blonde hair, causing Kristoff to groan, giving Hans a death stare. Hans grinned and let Kristoff fall back to the floor, the ropes still just as tight as before, rubbing sores into his wrists as Hans made his way towards the door.

"Goodnight, Kristoff." he said as he closed the door, leaving Kristoff in the dark.

Poor Kristoff. And poor Sven too. Quite a gloomy chapter here but I hope you guys enjoyed it. As always, if you did, leave me a review cause I love getting your reviews! Also, if you want, leave some theories on what will happen next in the story cause those are always fun to read. I'll update again in a few days guys, bye for now!