Chapter Text
The midday sun was sitting high and hot in the sky when Kristoff and Sven made their way into a clearing. It was bounded on three sides by willows trees and on the fourth by a clear blue pond with a small waterfall.
They hadn’t planned on stopping for a break yet, but they’d been walking for a while and the heat of the summer day was starting to take its toll. This seemed as good of a place as any for a rest, so they settled down along the edge of the pond. Kristoff splashed some cool water on his face before laying back in the grass. Sven crouched down with his head dipped low, drinking water from the pond.
Why didn’t he do this more often, Kristoff thought, closing his eyes and enjoying the warmth of the sun on his skin.
He’d been planning to get started early that morning on another ice harvesting trip. The skies were clear, which would make for safe travels up into the highest parts of the mountains. And a heat wave had settled itself on the kingdom over the last few days, so he knew he’d get good money for his ice down in the city.
But as he had been getting ready that morning he felt a heaviness in his limbs. He just...didn’t want to go. He had an itch to just ditch harvesting and spend the day enjoying the nice weather with Sven. Kristoff wasn’t normally an impulsive person, but-
“What do you say we take the day off, buddy?” Kristoff had said to Sven as he unhitched him from the wagon and soon the two set out for a walk. They wandered different mountain paths, at times following streams, heading nowhere in particular.
A good decision, he decided, as the sounds of the waterfall and the nearby birds chirping were lulling him almost to sleep.
He was jolted by the sound of Sven grunting and scrambling up to a standing position. Kristoff opened his eyes just in time to see Sven taking off at a run across the clearing.
“Sven?” Kristoff sat up to try to see what had caught the reindeer’s attention.
A woman leading a horse by its reins had entered into the clearing through the branches of one of the willow trees. As Sven charged toward them, the horse reared up on its hind legs, letting out a frightened sound and ripping the reins out of the woman’s hands.
Kristoff leapt to his feet and gave chase. “Sven! Stop!”
“No, no, no, no!” The woman cried as the horse bolted and disappeared out of the sight.
Sven didn’t continue after the horse, instead coming to a skidding stop in front of the woman. He jumped up and down in place, happily grunting at her.
“Sven!” Kristoff shouted as he finally caught up. He grabbed hold of Sven’s harness and pulled him back away from the woman. “What has gotten into you? Stop it! I am sorry, I don’t-," Kristoff found his voice catch in his throat as he finally got a close-up look at the woman. She had long auburn red hair, worn in two braids that fell over her shoulders. Her face was covered in freckles, cheeks turning red from the sun. And her eyes were a shade of aqua blue that he’d never seen before. Kristoff gave Sven a few pats on his shoulder and he began to finally settle down, “I don’t,” he cleared his throat, “I don’t know what came over him.”
“No, it’s ok, Kjekk can be a bit skittish,” she said, looking in the direction where her horse had run off, before staring up at Sven with a tentative look on her face. “Wow, I-I’ve never been this close to a reindeer before.” She slowly reached out her arm and Sven affectionately nuzzled his snout into her hand. “You’re a friendly one,” she said with a giggle. The woman then turned her attention to Kristoff, “What. A. Day. AmIright? I woke up this morning and just knew it would be another hot day and I thought, what am I going to do? Just stay home wishing it weren’t so hot? No! Right away I thought-, well not right away. After breakfast. After breakfast I thought…”
Kristoff took a deep breath, coming to the dreaded realization that this woman was really, actually going to explain her whole day in excruciating detail to him.
“...But then we’re going through these willow trees and the branches are so low and they kept whacking me in the face,” she waved her arms about, in case he didn’t know what tree branches were like, “and so I decided to get down off my horse and just walk it through. But then your reindeer came charging up and my horse ran off and,” she took a deep breath, “And now I’m here. Talking to you.”
She stared at him then, seemingly waiting for a response.
“Ok, well, that was, uh,” he began. “But Sven and I are going to get going so-“
The woman’s eyes widened as her face fell. “Wait, what? You’re just going to leave me here?”
“I’m not leaving you here,” he scoffed. “I’m just...leaving. You have nothing to do with it.”
“You can’t! I live all the way down in the city and you're the reason I’m stuck so far away without a horse,” she crossed her arms and fixed him with a stare. “You need to take me home.”
He rolled his eyes. Why didn’t he just go ice harvesting today like he was supposed to? This is what he gets for acting on impulse.
“It’s not my fault. Besides, I don’t take people places,” he turned away from her. “Come on, Sven.” Kristoff went to swing up onto the reindeer’s back, but he bucked away letting out an angry snort. “Hey!” Kristoff went to reach for him once more, but Sven jumped away again, bounding over to stand next to the woman.
She looked back at Kristoff with a victorious smile, before turning to address Sven with a high-pitched voice. “You’re a sweet reindeer aren’t you? Aren’t you? Yes you are! You’re the sweetest!” She scratched at his chin and Sven grunted happily, enjoying the attention. “Too bad your owner is such a grumpy, grumpy gus,” she made a pouty face as she looked back at Kristoff.
“Don’t talk to him like that.”
“He seems to like it,” she responded with a grin.
Kristoff let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. Ok. I’ll take you home. You can ride on Sven,” he waved his arm in the general direction of the city. “Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
“Oh, no, we’re not going now,” she turned and started walking over to the pond, Sven eagerly following behind. “I just got here.” She sat down on the grass near the edge of the water, Sven taking a seat next to her.
Definitely should have just gone ice harvesting today. Kristoff crossed his arms and begrudgingly made his way over to join them. The woman gave him a wide smile once he settled down on the grass next to her. Her face was so warm and bright and kind and he couldn’t help it when the corner of his lips twitched up slightly in response.
“Anna,” she said, extending a hand his way.
He reached out and shook it, noticing how much smaller it was than his own. “Kristoff.”
“You seem familiar. Have we met before?” she asked, tightening her grip on his hand and squinting at him.
“I, I don’t think so,” he stammered, leaning back slightly.
“Are you sure?” She asked, pulling on his arm as she leaned closer to him. “Do I seem familiar to you?”
“No,” he said shortly as he pulled his hand free from her grasp. She blinked down at where their hands had been, seemingly only then realizing that she had been pulling on him like that.
“Oh, ok,” she said in a small voice, putting her hands back in her lap and looking out across the water.
They were both silent for a while.
Kristoff looked down and started pulling blades of grass out of the ground one by one. He knew he was being a bit of a jerk. He just-, hated this, hated talking to people. Hated being around them. That’s why he avoided human interaction whenever possible. People just caused trouble and aggravation. But, if he was being honest with himself, Anna didn’t match what his perception was of most people. She seemed nice enough. And Sven liked her. And she was only trying to make conversation. And he supposed it was their fault, well Sven’s fault, that her horse had bolted. So, she would have been well within her rights to be upset. But she hadn’t been, at least not right away. She’d only got upset with him after he was going to just leave her here by herself, so far from home. Which, yeah, that would have been an awful thing to do to someone.
Kristoff peered up at her. He should make an effort to not be such a jerk for once, he supposed.
“I, um, I sell ice in the market,” Kristoff offered, scratching at the back of his neck. “Down in the city. So maybe that’s why.”
Anna looked back at him, confused. “Maybe that’s why what?”
“Why I seem familiar to you. Since you, you know, live down in the city.”
“Oh!” Her face lit up at that. “Yes, right! Maybe!”
He gave her a small smile back.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, beginning to dig through her satchel. “Because I’m starving.”
After looking through their respective bags Kristoff had found some carrots while Anna had some apples. She insisted that they make a trade so they’d each have at least one piece of both types of fruit. It didn’t matter much to him either way, but it seemed important to her so he went along with it.
“This is kind of like a picnic, don’t you think?” she asked him as they ate.
Kristoff shrugged at first, and then, “Yeah, I suppose so,” he said, reminding himself to not be rude and actually engage in conversation with her.
Anna let out a wistful sigh. “I’ve always wanted to have a fancy picnic up in the mountains.” She did a little twinkle move with her fingers over the word fancy.
Kristoff arched an eyebrow. “A fancy picnic?”
“Yes, a fancy picnic,” she responded, lowering her voice to imitate him before continuing on. “With a big, beautiful picnic blanket. And real plates and crystal glasses and cloth napkins and...”
Kristoff watched the expressions on her face as she detailed exactly what would constitute a fancy picnic. She’d gotten herself all excited over it as she gestured wildly. He found himself enjoying listening to her speak, which was a bit of a foreign feeling for him. But he couldn’t remember ever meeting someone so vibrant, so full of energy and life. And Kristoff was positive he'd never met a woman quite so beautiful, the thought catching him by surprise.
“Oh! And candlesticks! And-“
“Isn’t there something you’re forgetting?” he cut in.
Anna dropped her hands down into her lap and thought for a moment. “Like what?”
“You really can’t think of anything else that you might need at a picnic?” He took another bite of his apple. “If you really can’t think of it on your own,” he continued, talking with his mouth full. “Then I’m not going to tell you.”
She gave him a light shove on the arm. “Come on!” she whined. “Tell me!”
Kristoff felt his heart jump from her touch, but forced the casual, playful tone to remain in his voice. “Food, Anna,” he lifted the apple he’d been working on and waved it near her face. “You need food at a picnic.”
“Oh, pshhh,” she batted his hand away, but smiled. “Of course you need food. You really think I would bring all that other stuff but forget to bring food to a picnic?”
Kristoff shrugged. “Seems like the kind of thing you might do.”
Anna’s smile faded slightly as she looked at him for a moment. “Well, you don’t actually know me, do you?”
There was no hurt or defensiveness in her tone. It was just, matter-of-fact. And she was right. He’d only just met her.
“No, you’re right,” he looked down at his lap. “I don’t.” They were quiet for a moment. He took a deep breath before he looked back up at her. “But I’d like to.”
Her smile widened again, “I’d like that, too.”
~
When Anna was finally ready to head home, Kristoff helped her up onto Sven’s back and then walked alongside them as they headed out. He had thought for a moment about swinging up on Sven as well. About settling in behind Anna for the ride down into the city. About how close she would be to him and-
No, nope, not going to do that.
But he kept a hold on Sven’s harness as they walked, trying not to notice how close it made his hand to her leg. Kristoff listened as Anna made a running commentary of every flower, shrub, or small creature they saw on the walk back to the city, making sure to give responses that were more than just one word answers.
“You can drop me off here,” Anna said suddenly as they got near the outskirts of the city. “We’re close enough now, I can walk back from here.”
“Oh, are you sure?” Kristoff asked, feeling a pang of disappointment. “We don’t mind walking you all the way to your home, do we Sven?”
Sven grunted in agreement.
“It’s fine, really,” Anna said. Kristoff could sense a nervousness in her voice, but he didn’t want to push the issue. He thought he had done a good enough job, correcting for his initial behavior. But perhaps he had left a bad enough first impression that it didn’t matter. He reached up to help her down off Sven, trying not to think about how it felt to have his hands around her waist, even if it was just for the briefest of moments.
“Well, if you’re sure.”
“I am,” Anna insisted. She lingered for a moment, twisting the strap of her satchel around in her hands. “Ok, well, thank you again. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” he gave her a small wave as she slowly turned and began to walk away. Kristoff felt a lurching in his stomach. He wanted to say something. To stop her. There was something deep inside him screaming to not let her walk away. To not let this be the last time he ever saw her. He wasn’t normally an impulsive person, but-, “Can I-?”
Before he could say anymore, Anna stopped and turned back around quickly, her eyes wide. “Yes!”
“Oh, um,” he could feel himself turning red.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she laughed nervously. “You didn’t actually ask me anything.”
“No,” he scratched at the back of his neck. “But I was, I wanted to. I was just wondering, if it would be alright, if I could see you again? If that would be ok?”
Anna took a step back in his direction. “How about tomorrow?”
~
When Kristoff arrived back at his cabin he felt as if he was walking out of a dream. Had he really just made plans to meet Anna again? He really had plans for, what, a date? With a real woman?
“Good thing we didn’t go harvesting today, right buddy?” He gave Sven a pat and set him up with a bucket of water before going inside.
Kristoff gave the shirt he was currently wearing a sniff. Yikes. Couldn’t wear this again tomorrow. He looked around his cabin. He had to have a clean shirt around somewhere. Or, a cleaner shirt at least. He should probably take a bath too, right? He laughed at himself as he began to dig through his different drawers and chests. When had he ever cared about such things before? At the bottom of one chest he found a bunched up heap of the clothes he didn’t recognize. Kristoff pulled it out and began to examine it. The fabric was of a much higher quality than anything he ever remembered owning. There was a black jacket with embroidery on the lapels, a silk vest in a bright sapphire blue with gold buttons, and a crisp white shirt that appeared to have some missing buttons near the neck.
What were these clothes? What were they doing here in his cabin? He felt his skin begin to crawl. Kristoff shook his head and shoved them back down to the bottom of the chest and then slammed it closed.
What was he looking for again? Right, a clean shirt.