Author's note: sorry, I forgot to upload a chapter yesterday, so here's two today as always, I don't own any of the characters/movie dialogue, and this is all just for fun! Happy reading!

Chapter 7

When he finally came out the door a few seconds later, she let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and clambered clumsily up into his sleigh. She looked down to see him awkwardly holding his arms out below her – he'd been trying to help her up.

"You could have scratched the paint," he complained and she rolled her eyes. And to think she'd thought he was being sweet. He swung easily into the seat next to her and looked down at her.

"You're Princess Anna," he said. It wasn't a question. She figured he had seen her in the square that day with her sister. She didn't remember seeing him, but then again, there were a lot of people there.

"Just Anna is fine," she said. "And you are…?"

He laughed a little as he flicked the reins. "I'm Kristoff," he said, then indicated to his reindeer. "And this is Sven." And then they were off, the little sleigh lantern lighting their way toward the mountains through the dark night.

Kristoff considered the little princess in the seat next to him.

"I guess you must be wondering why I want to go to the North Mountain," she said. He could tell she was a nervous talker. "It's my sister – the Queen – it turns out, she's had magic powers her whole life and no one ever told me. I thought she just hated me, but it turns out she had this big secret. Anyway, we had a fight at the coronation and then she went crazy, shooting ice everywhere. I could tell she didn't mean to, but she couldn't stop herself. And then I chased after her, but she turned the fjord to ice and ran away across it. I couldn't catch her." She fiddled with her braid as she talked and Kristoff noticed the streak of blond still running through the red.

And he realized with a jolt that he knew something about this girl that she didn't know. That streak of blond was from when Elsa hit her in the head with ice. Her family must have never told her the full story of what happened that night. He had felt, that night, the love they had for her, so there must have been some reason they kept this from her for so long. But now, it seemed, the secret was out. And it had happened in the worst way possible.

Sven rounded a curve and picked up speed as the trail smoothed out. The sleigh jolted and banked around the bend.

"Hang on," Kristoff said. "We like to go fast!"

To his surprise, Anna leaned back comfortably and kicked up her feet. "I like fast," she said, folding her hands behind her head.

"Woah, woah, woah!" he cried. "Get your feet down! This is fresh lacquer!" Hadn't he already told her this? "Seriously, were you raised in a barn?" He spat on the dash to clean it and some of the spit flew back and hit Anna in the face.

"Ew!" She wiped it away. "No, I was raised in a castle."

Oops. He tried to quickly change the subject. "So uh…tell me, what made the Queen go all ice-crazy?"

"Oh well, it was all my fault. I – I got engaged, but then she freaked out because I'd only just met him, you know, that day. And she said she wouldn't bless the marriage, and –"

"Wait," Kristoff was shocked. "You got engaged to someone you just met that day?"

"Yeah," she said nonchalantly. "Anyway, I got mad and so she got mad and then she tried to walk away, and I grabbed her glove –"

"Hang on!" Kristoff interrupted. "You mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met that day!?" He was repeating himself. He couldn't help it. She was crazy.

"Yes. Pay attention," she continued, unfazed, waving her hand at his protests and continuing her own train of thought. "But the thing is, she wore the gloves all the time, so I just thought, maybe she has a thing about dirt."

Kristoff dismissed this. The explanation about the Queen could wait. She was just a magical ice witch. He was much more worried about the Queen's younger sister, who clearly had no common sense. A horrible thought struck him – it wasn't that prince who'd almost knocked her into the water, was it?

"Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?" he asked.

"Yes they did," Anna said, and then looked up at him in trepidation and scooted away a little bit. He rolled his eyes – it was a bit late for caution when she had already willingly gotten into the sled with him alone in the middle of the forest…and when she had already gotten engaged to someone she met that day. "But Hans is not a stranger," she insisted.

"Oh yeah?" Kristoff countered. "What's his last name?"

"Of-the-Southern-Isles?" Kristoff might have believed her if she hadn't said it like she was asking a question.

"What's his favorite food?" Kristoff continued.

"Sandwiches."

"Best friend's name?"

"Probably John," she guessed.

"Eye color?"

"Dreamy," she cooed.

"Foot size?"

"Foot size doesn't matter," she rolled her eyes. He could tell he was getting nowhere with his very logical argument that she knew nothing about the man she intended to marry. He couldn't tell why he cared so much, but he pressed on anyway, enjoying teasing her more than he wanted to admit, even to himself.

"Have you had a meal with him yet?" he continued. "What if you hate the way he eats? What if you hate the way he picks his nose?"

"Picks his nose?" Anna wrinkled hers.

"And eats it," Kristoff went on, relishing her disgust.

"Excuse me, sir. He is a prince," she tossed her chin up again in the same adorable way she had in the barn.

"All men do it," he insisted.

"Ew!" she cried. "Look, it doesn't matter. It's true love!"

"Doesn't sound like true love," he quipped. But in a strange way, he believed her. Of course he didn't believe that she was in love with some man she met earlier that day. But he believed she thought she was. And weirdly, he believed that if Anna loved someone, that love was unconditional. Even if they picked their nose and ate it. After all, here she was risking her life to chase after a sister who had shunned her, lied to her for her whole life, and cursed the kingdom. Kristoff fervently hoped that every person who Anna loved knew how just how lucky they were.

"Are you some sort of love expert?" Anna challenged.

"No," he admitted. "But I have friends who are."

"You have friends who are love experts? I'm not buying it," she scoffed. But he had no witty response, because he had heard a sound behind them in the darkness. A sound he did not like.

"Stop talking," he said, stopping the sleigh so he could listen.

"No, no, no. No, no, no," Anna babbled on. "I'd like to meet these –" Kristoff covered her mouth with his glove.

She tried to push him away. "No, I mean it," he said. "Shhh!" He swung the lantern around to peer away into the forest. And then he saw it, the shining eyes of a pack of wolves that was closing in on their sleigh.

Kristoff sprang back around, tossing the lantern back onto its hook and yelling for Sven to Go!