Punchout

Kristoff was mucking out Sven's stall when he heard someone approaching. "Hi, Feisty Pants!" He called out, without looking around.

"Is that any way to greet your Sovereign Ruler?" There was amusement in the voice. Kristoff nearly jumped into the hayloft and barely missed stabbing Sven with the pitchfork. Holy Icicles! It was Elsa!

"Your...Your..Majesty! I'm so sorry!" he stuttered, his face red. Ice was his life, but he didn't want to spend the rest of it as an ice sculpture in the castle garden for the pigeons to...roost on.

Elsa had a look of warm affection in her eyes, and didn't seem ready to freeze him solid right at this very moment. "I thought we had this discussion already. To you, my name is Elsa, not Your Majesty."

She had come to appreciate the Ice Harvester over the month since she first met him, and was glad that his friendship with her sister Anna seemed to be progressing nicely. Elsa wasn't certain yet, but she had a strong suspicion that the relationship would become more than friendship. Anna seemed content to let it grow without rushing things, and that was just fine with Elsa. Her little sister had seemed to learn a lesson from her near-disastrous experience with...that man. Elsa sometimes couldn't bring herself to even think his name.

"Okay, uh, Elsa." Kristoff calmed down a little. "Uh, what's up?" He wasn't sure what had brought her to the stable. Although he had certainly been spending enough time around her, he was still a little uneasy, feeling a little intimidated. The woman had Presence, no doubt about it.

"I managed to ditch my responsibilities for the rest of the afternoon, and was wondering if you would take a walk with me."

Kristoff wasn't sure what he thought she was going to say, but that certainly wasn't it. A walk? With the Queen? This was a little more unnerving than the time they spent looking for Anna recently. This was personal.

"Ah...sure." What else could he say? He racked the pitchfork, ruffled Sven's fur, and walked over to a tub to wash and dry his hands. Elsa waited patiently for him to finish, and then led the way out of the stable.

They walked across the courtyard of the castle, and through the gate that led down to the fjord. The same gate that Elsa had used to flee from her fiasco of a coronation ball. They walked in the shadow of the castle wall until they came to a bench that was placed so someone could sit and watch the gulls fly and the boats glide across the fjord. It was a pleasantly warm August day, even in the shade. They sat, Kristoff trying not to be too conspicuously uncomfortable as he fidgeted. He glanced up at the coat of arms hanging on the castle wall and chuckled, remembering the look on the Royal Herald's face when Elsa had requested and required him to produce it.

A few moments went by with nothing being said. He stole a sideways glance at Elsa. She was looking out over the fjord, a pensive look on her face, a thousand mile stare in her eyes. Kristoff tried to imagine what she saw, but he suspected he knew. A blue statue, hand raised to protect someone. He shifted a little on the bench, and Elsa came back from wherever she had been. She turned to him and said, "Sorry. Woolgathering." She drew herself up and looked into his eyes as though searching for something.

"Kristoff, Anna and I have had enough time to talk over everything that happened those three days." He wondered where she was going with this. "I have a question for you, though. Why did you start toward Hans on the ship? It looked like you were going to punch him out." She watched him closely.

Startled, he said, "Well, yeah, I was. But Anna beat me to it.", he finished wryly. Elsa surprised him with her next question.

"Why? You had no reason to." She held up her hand as he started to answer. "No, let me explain what I mean, before you answer that." She shifted on the bench, looked out over the fjord again, and started to speak in a voice so low Kristoff had to strain to hear her over the cries of the gulls and the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore.

"Anna told me all about why you rushed her back here to...Hans...that day. You both thought that 'an act of true love' meant a true love's kiss, and that meant Hans could save her with a kiss. He didn't, of course, he broke her heart and left her to die in the study." Kristoff winced. Anna had told him all about that conversation, too.

"But you didn't know that when you saw her running over the fjord. You were running to find her because you knew something was wrong, and you cared for her, and you wanted her to be safe. But for all you knew, Hans could have kissed her and it didn't work, for whatever reason. You didn't know he had cruelly betrayed her." Elsa looked at him. Kristoff was startled. He hadn't thought of that. He looked at Elsa, "Well, Hans tried to kill you." It sounded a little tentative, he wasn't sure now what he had been thinking.

She shook her head. "He had every right to." Kristoff's jaw dropped, what was she saying? Elsa looked at him sympathetically. She reached over and took Kristoff's hand. Her skin was smooth and cool to the touch, and he felt a little shiver go up his arm. "Kristoff, right then, at that moment, before Anna came running up, I was in despair. I thought I had killed her by striking ice into her heart. For that matter, you thought so, too, didn't you? You knew she was freezing to death, and you knew why." She looked at him steadily, and he squirmed a little. She was right.

Elsa continued. "For all you knew at that moment, the only way to save the kingdom from freezing was for me to die. The storm had been raging for hours because I was so afraid, the ice and snow were beginning to cover everything in depths that wouldn't melt in a hundred years if something wasn't done. Hans could have been the hero to save Arendelle by killing me." Kristoff's mind was reeling. She was right again. Why hadn't that occurred to him before now?

Those blue eyes of hers kept looking into the depths of his brown ones. "So, I'll ask you again. Why were you going to punch Hans?"

Kristoff went perfectly still, his thoughts whirling, trying to remember what he was feeling in that moment, after everything that seemed to be a disaster had turned into something wonderful. He dug deep into himself. He stirred. She was still looking at him with those eyes, plumbing depths he didn't know he had.

Finally, he spoke. "Hans tried to kill you." She simply cocked an eyebrow at him, not unlike the look Sven gave him sometimes. Not that she looked anything like Sven, oh, no! He took a deep breath, and continued.

"Anna loved you. I had spent those three days with her, and it was like tagging along with a whirlwind. But one thing was a constant. She loved you, and she would bring you back to Arendelle no matter what stood in her way. Even after you had struck her in the heart, she never gave up on you. She was willing to die to save you, willing to freeze to death, and willing to face that sword for you. And she did, and you didn't die. And I saw your face when you looked up at her. And I watched you touch her face in disbelief, the tears on your cheeks. And I saw you collapse in grief, holding on to Anna like you had lost the most precious thing that could exist in the world. And you had."

Another breath. "And then I saw your face when she thawed, and the joy in both your hearts, and that embrace, the touch of two women who loved each other beyond life and death."

Another breath. "And if Hans had killed you, because Anna was just a second too late to save you, the last thing she would have seen on this earth would have been the mutilated corpse of her beloved sister. She would have frozen in that moment, and her soul would have gone into eternity screaming 'No!' forever, a torment without end."

"THAT'S why I wanted to punch him. For the pain he almost brought her." It sounded lame in his ears, but he knew it was the truth. There was no sound but the cry of the gulls, and the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore.

Elsa looked at him, this man who was a friend to her sister, this man who she was absolutely sure now would be more than a friend. She looked forward to getting to know him better. "Thank you, Kristoff."

He looked at her oddly. "For what?"

She gave him a little smile, and he felt another shiver. "For being you."

And they sat there in silent companionship until the sun set, and then they went to look for Anna and Olaf. Dinner was waiting, and there would be chocolate for dessert.

Author note for Chapter 1 - Punchout

As much as I enjoyed watching Anna punch that jerkass Hans into the fjord, it had been bugging me that Kristoff had no good reason to punch Hans out. We, the audience, knew. But Kristoff didn't. Neither did Elsa, for that matter. Go back and watch Elsa's face as Anna walks over to Kristoff, then to Hans. She's puzzled. AT THAT POINT IN TIME, only Anna knew for sure and certain that Hans was a total jerkass who had betrayed her, left her to die, and was going to kill Elsa so he could take the throne. So, why did Kristoff make a move to take on Hans?

I decided to figure it out. Actually, I didn't decide. It just happened.

6/5/2014 - I made a couple of small changes to retcon this to match up with chapters 4&5, and my new story "Hour of the Wolf".