With the everlasting winter finally over, Anna is able to repay her debt to Kristoff. With excitement and haste, she leads him to an expensive looking sleigh. After remembering to remove the blindfold from his eyes, she explains all the features of the promised present with a bright smile and a glimmer in her eyes, all the while waiting to see joy light up his face.
Kristoff blinks a couple of times. The look on his face reveals he is awestruck. He sweeps up Anna high overhead with his broad shoulders and spins her around, bellowing out the words, "I love it...! I could kiss you!" He quickly sets her down, suddenly feeling embarrassed by his words, "...I could. I mean I'd like to. I'd... may I? We me...I mean, may we? ...Wait, what?"
She giggles a bit and gives him a quick peck on the cheek. Anna looks in Kristoff's eyes, "We may."
Repairs have been made to the kingdom, with help from Elsa, but something within Anna seems to be broken. The love between Kristoff and Anna is seemingly obvious, yet there is still hesitance from Anna to act on this love. The doors to the castle of Arendelle may be wide open, but it is becoming apparent that the doors to Anna's heart are frozen shut.
~Several Days Later~
It's not that I want to just be friends with him, it's just that I don't know how to love him. I thought I knew what love was... do I know what love is? I know Kristoff isn't Hans, but I just feel... I feel insecure. What if I can never achieve true love? Anna continues to let her thoughts ramble on.
"Anna," the word barely reaching her ear.
"Anna...ANNA!" Kristoff shouts.
"What? What is it?" Anna mumbles as she falls back into reality. She is sitting with her back against the bark of a tall tree. The low, dangling branches frame her body with green leaves and specks of light passing through the foliage.
Kristoff gets off of Sven and passes the meadow behind the tree. The sun reflecting of the water illuminates his face. He gazes at Anna, noticing the sorrow in her powder-blue eyes. "You really shouldn't daydream. Isn't that, you know, non-princessy?" He says with a grin, yet a hint of worry exists in his voice.
"Whatever, when have I really ever acted exactly as a princess 'should'? I do what I want!" She declares with a scoff.
"Basically never," Kristoff chuckles, "which is what I love about you." His head moves towards hers, decreasing the distance between their lips
Anna's face flushes with bright shades of crimson and rose. However these coy feelings are fugacious, and in a matter of seconds they quickly fleet to reluctance. "Don't..." she stammered as she jolts her head away from him.
Kristoff pulls back. The tension in the air was so thick it was palpable.
Anna tries to hold strong but her eyes began to coruscate. Her drizzly eyes let go of a tear, leaving it to creep down her fragile face. "Ah...uh...um." She mutters with her eyes wide open.
She feels a brush of skin against her face. Kristoff's hand may have been large and carved with evidence of years of manual labor, but they were able to ever so gently caress Anna's face. He started with the teardrop and traced its shimmering trail to the corner of her eye, letting his fingertip wipe the drops of misty crystals off the tips of her eyelashes. She feels her heart flutter.
Her face yet again heats up with tints of burgundies and pinks. She tilts her head up towards Kristoff, letting her eyes focus on him. He flashes her a bashful smile, his face also a little flushed.
"What's wrong?" Kristoff asks timidly, he waits a few seconds but receives no response.
"Anna, what's wrong?" he repeats with growing uneasiness.
"I don't know. I just don't know, Kristoff. I feel restless and there is a pain in my chest. Like I can't breathe."
"Are you unwell again?" Kristoff questions as he rises to his feet.
"No... not like that," Anna says while she slowly turns her gaze away from him, "it's hard to explain. I'm just worried about us."
"Us? What do you mean?" With a look of confusion he sits back down, leaning in towards her.
She feels his shoulder press up against hers. Warm, she thinks. "It's just that Hans... of course I don't love him anymore. But at the time, it really did feel like true love. Is what we have true love?" She says as she pulls her knees even closer to her body.
Kristoff's eyes sadden as he takes a deep breath. "You know, I tried my hardest to reach you while you stood on the frozen water, literally freezing to death. I really do believe if I had kissed you right then and there, that the ice inside your heart would have melted. Are you telling me that you don't believe that? That you don't believe in our love?"
His words struck her quickly, was he always this forward, was she always this weak? Anna searched frantically in her mind for words. "I love you, I'm just so scared," she confessed with a sharp exhale.
~To be continued~