A/N: Hi, friends! I'm back with a very steamy, sort-of sequel to Into the Darkness. If you haven't read that yet, I recommend you do, because some things will make a little more sense. (Although it's not totally necessary.)

This was originally just going to be a one-shot, but I think it's expanded itself into a two-parter at this point. Either way, enjoy. I owe you all this after the lack of smut in my last fic. You're welcome.

Kristoff lay awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling of his tiny, one-room cottage. He had spent most of the night staring, and judging by the lightening sky outside his window, it was closing in on dawn.

But despite his sleepless night, Kristoff couldn't stop staring. He couldn't stop worrying. He couldn't stop wondering if he had done something wrong.

Relationships were still too new for him.

Kristoff had spent the first twenty-one years of his life never being close to another human being. He didn't need to, really. He has Sven, his troll friends, and a job he was passionate about. Why invest in someone when humans were such a hassle? When they were ignorant and petty? Demanding and weak-willed? In Kristoff's opinion, they couldn't be relied on to do anything but buy the ice he cut, and even that was sometimes a toss-up.

Twenty-one years, and he had never even been tempted to open himself up to another.

Then Kristoff met Anna, and everything changed.

It started off simply enough. He had been impressed with her tenacious nature. He came to respect her fearlessness and optimism. But then respect turning into caring and for the first time in his life, Kristoff actually found himself wanting to protect another person. If Anna was the littlest bit cold, it mattered. If she was scared or upset, it broke his heart. And if she was in danger, he dropped everything and ran to her.

So as his feelings for Anna grew over the weeks and months, it was no real surprise when Kristoff woke up one morning to realize that he was falling in love.

At first it scared him, because he'd never even liked another person before. Kristoff tolerated people, and they had never been worth much of his time. Certainly the idea of him actually falling in love another human being was something he never thought would happen. Besides, he never even wanted to be at someone else's mercy. And in Kristoff's opinion, that's exactly what love was: the complete and total surrender to someone else. Love was vulnerability. Not to mention a loss of judgment, and the very real risk of utter heartbreak. He'd only just witnessed it a few times, while selling ice in the village – the tears, the screaming, the fights that broke out – all done in the name of love. It seemed ludicrous to Kristoff that people would willingly put themselves through any of that.

Being in love, simply put, was dangerous.

But this was Anna. His sweet, beautiful, rambunctious little Anna.

The truth was, Kristoff had wanted to be in love with her, but he was simply afraid. He was afraid of what would happen if he dug his heart out from all the layers of ice he had hidden it under, and simply surrendered it over to the princess.

After the entire length of the ice harvesting season that winter, it was Anna's kidnapping and Kristoff's near death which finally allowed him to fall.

Following their misadventure, Kristoff and Anna made love for the first time just two days ago, on the day of spring equinox. Fatefully enough, if he had locked his heart under ice, then Anna was his sun as she melted his layers away. Her bare, flushed skin had warmed him as he roamed and reverently kissed it. Her soft moans and hot breath against his neck had turned him to liquid as he gently rocked in and out of her. He had moved above Anna with the greatest care, the most hallowed trepidation. He hadn't really known what he was doing, after all. Then when she reached her climax, Kristoff had whispered that he loved her over and over before tumbling after.

In the aftermath, there had been nothing left of him but a puddle in her arms.

Their first time had been amazing. Breathtaking. Full of love and tenderness. But if he was being completely honest with himself, Kristoff had to admit that something had been missing. Yes, Anna had melted him away. Yes, he had thought of little else in the day that had followed. Yes, he wanted to have Anna over and over again, for all the rest of his days. It was just that, in those heated moments, Kristoff had been too wrapped up in his own inexperience and worry – worry of hurting Anna, worry of doing right by her, worry of making her first time as wonderfully perfect as it could possibly be – to fully relax. He hadn't allowed himself to loosen his control and surrender.

It would be fine, though, because now that he'd gotten his first-time jitters out of the way, the next time would be even better. Kristoff would make it the best thing Anna had ever experienced.

That is, if there even was a next time…

Kristoff lay in bed and gave a frustrated sigh. After a night of thinking and worrying and replaying the course of events countless times in his head, Kristoff still didn't have an answer. As the first light of a new spring morning began to spill across the sky, he still didn't know what he had done wrong.

He still didn't know why he hadn't seen Anna since that day.

Had his inexperience really made it that bad? Kristoff hadn't gotten that impression at the time – not when Anna had been gasping and writhing with pleasure under him. Not when he still had marks from the dig of her fingers into his back, and could still feel the ghost of her hips rocking in time with his own.

Had someone found out about their lovemaking and Anna was now forbidden from seeing him ever again? Kristoff did, after all, steal the Princess of Arendelle's virginity. No matter how much he loved her, it didn't change the fact that there were still rules. Rules Kristoff had broken in a big way. But if that was the case, then why hadn't anyone said anything to him when he'd gone to the castle yesterday to see her? All the servants had just told him the same thing: Princess Anna is in her room, and she doesn't want to be disturbed. Even Elsa hadn't been of any help, although she did give him a very knowing look which made him blush from head to toe.

Kristoff sat up and rubbed the heels of his hands over his bloodshot eyes. The cool morning air nipped at his bare chest. Really, there was no point in staying in bed anymore if he couldn't sleep. He might as well try and find something else to do to take his mind off things before his brain –

There was a hurried knock at the door.

"Kristoff? Kristoff, are you there? Are you awake?"

It was Anna, and Kristoff was on his feet and swinging open the door before his mouth could even form words.

"Anna?! What…." he stared at her, completely at a loss. "What are you doing here?"

She smiled at him coyly, with her hands clasped tight around her cloak, pulling it around her as if she was half frozen from the chilly spring air.

"Hi," was all she said. Her cheeks were pink. Her hair was loose and wavy around her face.

Kristoff pulled Anna against him and closed the door in one swift motion. Then he tightly wrapped his arms around her small frame. She was cold. And he hated it when she was cold. He hated it.

"What's going on? What happened?" Kristoff rushed as he rubbed warmth back into her. His fears of something being wrong began to solidify. Anna was most definitely not a morning person, so it had to be something important if she was up and about at such an early hour. Maybe she really was forbidden to see him, now.

Anna's eyes went wide as she stared up at him with a deep blush. "Oh, no! Nothing happened! Everything's fine!"

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and Kristoff froze. It was her tell. She made that same move whenever she was feeling nervous and flirty.

Kristoff narrowed his eyes, trying unsuccessfully to fit the pieces together. "So…" he began, warily. "The fact that you didn't come out of your room yesterday because you didn't want anyone to bother you…" Kristoff looked down at Anna, searching her eyes. "That didn't have anything to do with…uh…" He was afraid to say it. "With us?"

"Actually, it did!" Anna blurted out.

Kristoff blanched.

"But, but not for any bad reason!" she insisted, starting to ramble. "I mean, I just had a lot of, you know, reading to do, and I figured it would be better if no one bothered me so I could concentrate. It turned out we had a lot of books on the subject in the library, and, I mean, who would have guessed that?! So I just kept reading and reading and I must have lost track of the time because before I knew it, it was really late and – "

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a second. Reading? What reading? What're you talking about?" Kristoff's head was starting to spin.

Anna's entire face went red, then she pulled herself from Kristoff's arms and stepped back with the cape still tightly wrapped around her. She gave him the most determined look, then slowly pulled her cape off. Beneath it, she was wearing nothing more than a nightdress. A nightdress with a small, bright red bow just below her breasts.

Kristoff inhaled sharply as Anna dropped her cape to the floor and looked up at him with doe eyes.

"I was…" she began shyly. Anna hesitated for a moment, pursed her lips, then jutted out her chin with a look of practiced confidence; almost as if she'd rehearsed the words over and over to herself. "I was reading about how to make love to you."