Kristoff had been waiting for thirty minutes for Anna and Elsa to come out of Anna's room. He was leaning against the wall outside the room with her arms crossed. He began to question his relationship with Anna feeling that she had given up on him. If she did, he couldn't blame her. He freaked her out and maybe he did cross the line the night before even if he didn't mean to. He should have just listened to Anna's pleas and oblige to her request. He could have waited a little longer for the right moment when they were both ready to go to that part of their relationship. He felt crummier and crummier the more he thought of the huge mistake he made with Anna. He didn't want to lose her so early in their relationship. He needed her and if he couldn't make things right with Anna then he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Kristoff was starting to majorly doubt that Elsa could get Anna to come out of her room just for his sake to talk with Anna.
Just as Kristoff was about to leave the bedroom and his hopes of a relationship with Anna behind, the door to Anna's room opened up. He saw Elsa and Anna come out with determination etched on their faces. Elsa looked around for Kristoff until she saw him leaning against the wall. She walked over to him still holding onto Anna's hand.
"Kristoff."
Kristoff looked over at Elsa and uncrossed his arms. She gave him a gentle smile as she brought Anna around her and passed her off to him.
"You two need to talk."
"Um, okay."
Kristoff shifted his focus from Elsa and Anna. The two of them felt uncomfortable making eye contact since they last saw each other. Kristoff rubbed the back of his neck while Anna clutched her left arm staring at the ground. Neither one of them knew how to start the conversation they knew they had too have. Elsa broke the awkward tension by clearing her throat. The couple gave her their full attention as she gestured to where she would be to give them some privacy. She pointed to the around the corner at the end of the corridor.
"I'll just be there. If you two need me for anything, then just get me. I'll be around."
Anna and Kristoff watched Elsa leave them to each other in slight horror afraid that they would make things worst between them without her supervision. They needed her to be around in case something bad happened. They felt that they couldn't get through this without her support. Kristoff and Anna reverted back to their original positions before Elsa announced that she would give them privacy. Anna rubbed her arm while Kristoff rubbed his neck.
Both of them avoided eye contact with each other until they stared at the floor so much that their eyes began to hurt and were forced to look up at each other. Both Kristoff and Anna were in awe at each other with their lips slightly parted. They didn't know what to do. It wasn't until Kristoff ruffled his hair and coughed into his hand that Anna shuffled a few steps toward him.
"Um…."
"So…."
"Did you get a good night's sleep?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Yeah. I slept well. Thanks to Elsa I was able to get enough sleep."
"I heard."
"I know."
"Elsa's great like that."
"Yeah. That's a big sister for you-always looking out for their little sister's safety and best interest."
"Yeah. I wish I knew what it would be like to have a sibling."
"You do?"
"Yeah. Seeing how dedicated you and Elsa are to each other, Anna, it makes me want to have a sibling."
"I don't think you would want a sibling."
"And how come? Don't you like having Elsa as a sibling?"
"Of course, I like having Elsa as a sister. I'm not talking about how I feel about having a sibling, I'm talking about you. I don't think you would want a sibling."
"How come?"
"I don't think you would know what to do with yourself if you suddenly found out you had a brother."
"What makes you think that?"
"You were raised by trolls and when I first met you, you were kind of a loner. How would you expect yourself to react if you found out you had a brother?"
"I think I would be glad to have a brother."
"No, you wouldn't. It's not easy having a sibling. I'm not saying that it's not worth having a sibling, but it's not easy. You couldn't just love your brother if you had one once you met him and feel that is the only moment you would base your love for your brother on. If you were to love your brother, you better know all you can about him before loving him. The only way to accurately love a sibling is to love them for all their flaws and imperfections and never truly abandoning them even if things seem like that at times…like you just want to give up on them, but you don't and that makes a world of a difference what you choose to think and choose to do. You would have to be willing to do that for your brother in order for you to love him…just like you would with anybody else who's important to you."
Kristoff stared at Anna. He saw an unfamiliar and unnerving seriousness swirling in her eyes. It seemed to Kristoff that Anna was speaking from the heart on how to love a sibling or a special someone. He understood what Anna meant what it truly took to love somebody and then he thought of the misunderstanding he had with her the night before.
"I still think I would be glad to have a brother."
Anna widened her eyes in question. "What do you mean?"
"I know what you're talking about, Anna. I related what you told me to what occurred between us last night. I know I can love you properly since I accept you for all of who you are as a person. I accept every flaw and perfection that you have whether it be physical or part of your personality. I love you, Anna, and I'm sorry I crossed the line. I didn't mean to. I hope you know that."
Anna's face fell. She turned away from Kristoff and rubbed her arm some more all the while staring at her hand as it went up and down her arm.
"I know. Elsa told me and we talked about it."
"You did? What did you talk about?"
"We talked about the reasons why I freaked out on you last night."
"You mean there was more than one reason? I thought what I did was all there was to the incident."
"No. There was more to it."
"Like what?"
Anna looked up at Kristoff with a deep shade of red bathing her freckles.
"It's kind of embarrassing."
"Why?"
"You know the first reason why I ran away was because I wasn't exactly ready."
"Yeah. I know that."
"But the second reason is connected to the first one….and Elsa told me not to worry about it anymore."
"What was the second reason?"
"I didn't want Elsa to find out."
"What? What do you mean by that? If we had done it, don't you think you would want to tell your sister how the experience was for you? Isn't that what sisters do? Tell each other everything?"
"That's not what I'm talking about, Kristoff! And did you get that impression of what sisters do?"
"You seem to be the perfect chatter box and Elsa seems to be the perfect listener."
"Are you saying that I would do all the talking? Are you implying that I would incapable of letting my sister talk about her life too? Or are you implying that Elsa wouldn't want to tell me what's going on with her life? She's my sister! Of course she'd want to talk to me about her personal problem and what goes on in her life. Why wouldn't she? I am a part of her life. I'm her little sister!"
At the last part of Anna's rant, she tossed her arms up in exasperation. Kristoff was shocked at Anna sudden display of defending her relationship with Elsa. Anna dropped her arms at her side and let them hang where they were and let out a loud huff. Before Kristoff had the chance to speak up, Anna beat him to the punch. Her voice was much more tender and soft.
"That's why I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"That's why I didn't want Elsa to know what we did if we did it. I wouldn't want her to find out herself. I didn't want her to walk by and find out herself. I would rather that I told her instead of her hearing what would have happened. I wasn't just concerned about not being ready, but I also concerned about what Elsa thought of our relationship."
"Is it because she's your older sister?"
"Yes. I know it's kind of stupid, but that was part of the reason why I wasn't ready. Yet Elsa told me not to worry about it, so I won't."
"What about now?"
"Kristoff, it's not that I wouldn't like to go take that next step with you, but I would like to take things slow, real slow. I want to take things slow and savor what we have together. I would like to take baby steps with our relationship. Besides, things are going to go slower than expected between us because I need time to spend with Elsa. I need time to figure out how to balance my love for you and Elsa. I thought I knew what love meant by I have a lot to learn about love. But I was wrong. I was so desperate for love that I was ready to fall in love and be in romantic relationship almost completely ignoring the most important relationship in my life-my relationship with my sister. Remember what happened with Hans?"
"Yeah. I remember Hans. That no good, rotten-"
"The point is that I don't want to make the same mistake twice. Please, understand, Kristoff. I still love you, I just need time. And up to this point, Kristoff, I'm glad that you have been patient with me. I just need some extra time."
"Well, when will we be ready?"
"I don't know. I do know that it won't happen anytime soon."
"Will it happen sometime though?"
"Yes as long we're both ready. Even if I'm ready later, you could change your mind and I wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable."
"Thanks for the thought, Anna, but I'll be fine. I just want to make sure you'll be okay with it."
"I will…in time."
"So, are we okay?"
"Yes. I forgive you, Kristoff. Will you forgive me for overacting a little? I didn't mean to make you feel like you're a horrible person because you're not. You're a great guy and I'm glad to be in your life."
"I'll forgive, Anna. I guess we just added another flaw to ourselves."
"We're just two fixer uppers that can help each other."
Kristoff widely smiled at Anna. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Then, without any hesitation, Anna and Kristoff leaned in for a tender kiss. Their lips met and lingered for a few seconds before pulling away signaling that they patched things up between them. After a comfortable moment of silence, the pair looked around their surroundings calling out for Elsa. A few minutes passed before Anna and Kristoff spotted Elsa coming out from her hiding place from the corner down the hall. She walked up to the couple with a small smile on her beautiful face.
"So, is everything better with you two?"
Anna rushed off to encase her sister in a warm embrace. Elsa wrapped her arms around her sister's body in response. Anna rested her chin on Elsa's shoulder. "Yes. Everything is better now thanks to you."
Elsa let out a soft chuckle before gently pulling her sister away from her.
"No. All I did was get you two to talk to each other."
Kristoff approached Elsa and gestured to Anna as he spoke.
"But without that simple action, we probably too stubborn to come talk things out ourselves as soon as you had us do. I think what you did for us helped a lot, Elsa."
"Well, I guess so. I was only trying make things right between you guys. I just wanted to help."
Anna placed her hands on her sister's shoulder and smiled at her.
"You did! You helped out so much. Seriously, Elsa, thank you."
"You're welcome, Anna." Elsa looked up at Kristoff. "And Kristoff."
Kristoff gave Elsa an assuring smile. Not only would he mind having Princess Anna as his girlfriend, but he also didn't mind the notion of being a good friend to Queen Elsa. He found it helpful if he did more than just be a faithful subject to her; that he would be there for her when he could, especially if Anna couldn't be there for her. At that moment, Kristoff felt that Elsa was just as important as Anna was, but he saw Elsa more as a sister. He knew that they were the same age, but he felt like he could see Elsa as a big sister. She did, after all, have experience being an older, wiser older sister who was very caring-she was Anna's older sister.
Elsa gingerly plucked Anna's hands off her shoulders and stepped a tad bit back. She folded her hands under her stomach and smiled at the couple.
"Shall we head down for breakfast?"
Kristoff's face lit up. He was ready for food after all the talking he and Anna did. "Sure!"
Elsa smiled at Kristoff's enthusiasm. She could say that he was excited enough for all three of them to have some breakfast. She walked up to Anna and Kristoff and brought their hands together before leading the way. As Elsa walked toward the stairs, Kristoff and Anna looked at each other and then between their linked hands and Elsa. They quickly joined Elsa at the stairs just as she was about to take the first step down. Kristoff placed himself on her right side while Anna placed herself on her left. They each took one of Elsa's hands and smiled at her. Elsa stopped where she was and gave each one of them a quizzical look. The two of them just kept on smiling. Anna laced her fingers with her sister's and pressed her shoulder to hers while Kristoff used his free hand to hold onto Elsa's arm as an escort would do. Elsa blushed and smiled brightly at each of them.
Without any need of any other words, the trio looked forward and began to descend the stairs to have breakfast together. Just like one happy family.
The End