Chapter Text
He was eight when he met the neighbors next door.
Finally adopted into a warm and loving family, he was excited to meet other kids in the area. He wandered over one snowy day in winter, beanie tugged over his ears and cheeks blotchy and red from the onslaught of wind. Shaggy tufts of blond hair peeked out from his hat.
He watched as the two girls giggled as they piled on buckets of snow on top of each other. One was slowly but surely rolling a ball of snow about waist high and grunting with exertion as she slowly moved the giant ball of snow to the center of the yard.
Fear gripped him as he watched them play. Would they be like the kids at school?
Orphan! Orphan! Orphan!
He heard the phantom chants as he was surrounded in his ears, even though he was far, far away from the school now.
What caught his attention next was a smaller girl running back and forth with a small bucket of snow. He had to chuckle as she fell onto her stomach a few times. But each time she got back up, her two pigtails swinging and with a giggle that rang clear and happily across the courtyard. Her hair was warm, like a fire, he thought.
It was then that she noticed him staring over the shrub that lined their fence.
“Hey!” she called out, waving a pink mitton above her head at him.
He ignored her and ducked his head.
“Hey!” she called again, closer this time.
He peeked an eye upwards and flushed as he saw her round face peeking over the fence. She had a huge grin.
“Whatcha doing here?” she asked.
“I uh—just wanted to see what all the yelling was about.” He felt his cheeks burn as his gaze shifted downwards towards his boots. He kicked the snow a bit, hands in his pockets.
“Oh. We’re building a snowman!” she happily exclaimed. Her arms went flailing as she lost her grip on the fence.
“Whoa! You okay?” He tried looking over the fence but she was gone. He heard the click of the gate and there she was at his side, looking at him with a wide grin.
“Come over here! It’ll be faster with more people!” He felt a tentative smile pull at his lips as he walked over.
“I’m Anna!” she said as he reached her. She pointed over to the blonde who was looking at him cautiously. “That’s my sister, Elsa.”
“Kristoff.” His voice was quiet.
“It’s nice to meet you, Kristoff! We’re going to be best friends!”
And she grabbed onto his hands, pulling him along to make snowmen that littered across their lawn. He felt a stutter in his heart, but he didn’t know what it was.
All he knew was that he had made his first ever friend.
From then on, it was Anna who had rung the doorbell of his house almost everyday after school, asking for him to play outside.
Sometimes, he would watch from his window as she walked away with a pout, Bulda having to send her off because he had homework to do. He watched sadly as she played in the yard by herself, Elsa not keeping her company most days.
He always made sure to complete his homework on time and as early as possible, showing it to Bulda in a flash and rushing out the door to meet her.
She always opened the gate for him, yelling out his name and giving him a hug, her tiny arms wrapping around his torso. Her hair was longer now, and she still kept it in braids.
But one winter day he didn’t see her for a week. Every time he rang the doorbell of her house, her mother looked at him with sad blue eyes and shook her head sadly.
“Is she okay?” he asked, he felt so worried for his friend.
“She’s been very sick.” And so he would have to leave, always wondering where his friend was.
It was another week before he saw her again. He dashed out of the house as he heard her outside, and the big smile she gave him made him so relieved.
“Kristoff! I missed you!” Her tiny arms wound around him.
“Where were you?” He didn’t want to admit that he missed her too.
“I was really sick, I stayed out for too long with Elsa one day. It was so boring! All I did was stay in my room and sleep, and it was so hot! I was sweating and it was so gross!” Her face scowled in disgust, one eye closed. He chuckled.
“Well, it’s good to have you back.” He coughed. “It’s been boring without you.”
“Yeah! Come on let’s go down to the river!”
She tugged him along and the winter season passed on.
It was a refreshing spring day now and they were playing in the grass, Anna trying her best to weave a flower garland. Her tongue stuck out as she tried to weave in a flower (that they didn’t steal from the neighbor’s porch, no sir) into the braid. She huffed as she failed, shoving the flower garland into the ground.
Kristoff held up a fairly nice, intact garland for her. He watched as her eyes lit up like stars, jaw dropping.
“Wow!” she said, elongating the word as her lashes blinked rapidly in surprise. “Kristoff, you’re really good at this!”
He felt himself flush. He also tried to tamp down the giddy feeling he had at Anna gushing over something he made.
“It’s just like in those movies! Like in—what is it called?” She frowned as she thought. “A wedding!”
“A wedding?” He blinked. Weren’t they really important? Something only grown ups did.
“Yeah! I can’t wait to get married.” Her eyes turned dreamy and she sighed. “It’s so romantic!”
“I’ll marry you.” He flushed but he didn’t take the words back. He didn’t want to.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Later.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Hmm. I don’t know. You’re not tall enough.”
“What?” His jaw dropped.
“Yeah! In the movies, the guy is always taller than the girl! And really handsome!” She raised her arm way over her head.
He thought for a moment. “So, when I’m taller than you, you promise to marry me?”
“That’ll never happen, Kristoff! You’re never gonna grow taller than me!” Her giggle rang through the field.
“Watch me!” He stuck his tongue out at her.
She giggled. “Okay, when you do, I’ll marry you! But that won’t happen so don’t hold your breath.”
“You never know!” He dove after her but she ducked away, laughing. They spent the rest of the afternoon chasing each other in the field.
“Kristoff! Promise me that you’ll write to me!” Her eyes were full of tears as she stood next to him, his parents packing away his things.
He was twelve years old now.
And he would be placed into a boarding school and he didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to leave Anna.
“I will. Promise you’ll write to me too.” He had given her a slip of paper with the address of his new school written on it. He had written it three times, wanting it to be perfectly legible. He had already memorized Anna’s address long ago.
“Kristoff! It’s time to go!” His mom’s voice called out after him.
“Bye, Anna.” He said to her sadly. Her large doe eyes blinked rapidly, and she wiped her nose. The sight made him want to cry too.
“Bye, Kristoff.” She wrapped her arms around him as tight as she possibly could, and he buried his face in her soft hair.
He watched her from the back window as the car drove away, seeing her wave to him until she was just a small dot on the horizon.
Settling into his new room was a challenge. He didn’t know who he would be living with, and he hoped they would be at least amicable. He hoped they weren’t like the other kids at his old school. Desperately.
He unpacked boxes of his stuff, setting down a picture of his family, and his planner on his desk. Tucked inside was Anna’s address written in her loopy cursive.
The door opened and a boy with a curly mop of brown hair came in and sat down on the bed.
“Oh, hey! So you took that side eh?” He gave Kristoff an easy grin.
“Yeah, is that okay? I didn’t know what side you wanted but I was here for an hour already and wanted to unpack.” He turned his eyes down to the boxes. “I can move everything if you want.”
He flushed as he rambled. It felt like something Anna would do. He already missed his friend by the telling ache in his chest.
“Nah, I don’t care. Don’t wanna undo your work there.” He flopped onto his bed. “Good on you though, for unpacking. I never finish unpacking until about a month in.”
Kristoff chuckled. “I just don’t like leaving things packed.” He finally knew he had a place to go back to, after all.
“Better than me. I’m Sven, by the way.” He sat up and held his hand out.
Kristoff grasped it firmly. “Kristoff.”
“Nice to meet you! Here’s to a good year together!”
Kristoff smiled in relief, the apprehension and nervousness draining away at his easy grin and bright eyes.
“Same here.”
Dear Anna,
I made a new friend. His name is Sven, and he’s my roommate. He reminds me of you, actually. He laughs a lot and nothing seems to get him down. We stay up late playing games most nights, and then I have to wake him up everyday to get to class on time. He also snores really loudly, like you.
Dear Kristoff,
That’s great! I can’t wait to meet this Sven, if he can get along with you then he has to be a great guy. :P Elsa has been staying in her room studying all day. I miss her a lot, but my mom and dad make me stay away. Is that what high school does to you? If so, I don’t want to go!
P.S. I don’t snore that loudly!
Dear Anna,
It’s really gonna depend on the high school. There’s a lot of different things to consider. Also, I’m technically in high school and I’m not cooped up in my room all the time. That’s just something your parents are doing.
P.S. Yes you do. One time I could hear you snoring all the way from my house.
Dear Kristoff,
Nope! Not gonna go. They’re gonna have to drag me by my feet every morning to school. But that reminds me, I’m going to graduate middle school soon. It’s really weird to think about. Is it okay to be scared?
He read his latest email from Anna on his laptop. They had started emailing each other when Anna had gotten a computer from her parents, and he looked forward to opening his mail every morning. He was fifteen now and Anna was fourteen.
He still kept the letters that were sent to him, nearly stacked in a box. Though he liked the loopy cursive that gradually got better over the years, he found out very quickly that Anna was as expressive through email, using emoticons like there was no tomorrow. It was almost like reading hieroglyphics.
He typed out a reply, Sven’s snores almost a comforting background noise now during his morning routine. Almost.
He was grateful that he could choose his roommate for the past few years, and Sven had agreed. They were the best of friends, aside from Anna, of course.
“So, when am I gonna see your girlfriend?” Sven asked, popping some chips into his mouth.
Kristoff sputtered. “What?”
“Yeah, your girlfriend! You literally wake up for her emails, dude!” He tossed a chip over to Kristoff, and he grimaced as it landed on his shirt. But he picked it up and ate it anyway. He didn’t want to waste a chip.
“She’s not my girlfriend. I haven’t even seen her since I was like, twelve.” He rolled his eyes. But a part of him did wonder, what did she look like now? Would she still be wearing her two braids? What about her braces that she had to go through?
He scratched his head as he recalled from one of her last emails that she did want to meet Sven. He did talk about him a lot.
“Wanna send her a picture? She wants to meet you.”
Sven’s grin was all he needed and he awkwardly snapped a picture with his camera, and uploaded it onto the email.
This is Sven, he says hi.
He sent it before he could second guess himself, nerves filling his entire body. He would wait and see what she would say. He looked at the picture again and he saw his awkward smile compared to Sven’s exuberant one, but a warmth filled him at seeing it.
But Anna sent a picture of herself wearing a flower crown the next morning and he couldn’t take his eyes off of it. She was so pretty, her freckles shining in the sun with her signature braids that he remembered.
He didn’t say that, of course. Instead he wrote: You’re getting better at making flower crowns.
But he saved the picture from her, and the one he took with Sven. He printed them out and saved it in his box.
He was eighteen now, and the years have been good for him. Kristoff had joined the rugby team, at Sven’s insistence, when he had shot up in height one summer. Sven had teased him mercilessly for hours one day as he noticed his pants were now too short and his ankles awkwardly showed.
They ended up wrestling on the ground with the angry hall monitor breaking them apart and yelling at them. They couldn’t stop laughing after that, chucking chips at each other in jest.
Sven was also tall but was leaner than him. The rugby coach made him do strength training three times a week, and he ran around the school during practice. It got out some frustration, and it was a good distraction from thinking about other things.
College for one. Where would he go? What would he do?
He wanted to go back to the small town of Arendelle, knowing Anna wanted to stay. She told him that she wanted to be a schoolteacher there. He grinned at the thought of it, she’d be perfect as one.
Admittedly he wondered if she was involved with someone yet. With how pretty she was, there had to be guys falling at her feet.
And then the promise he made when he was eight rang in his head. He was sure that he was much taller than her now.
I grew two inches over the summer! she had written in one of her emails, and he had to laugh as he himself had gone through a massive growth spurt.
Still a short stack, he wrote back.
Her angry replies had him laughing out of his chair, and he had dubbed her “feisty pants.” All of his emails had “Dear feisty pants” written in the beginning now.
But the best thing was, he had gotten a cell phone. And Anna had begged her parents to get her one, and while they still sent emails as was their tradition, they sent each other text messages and the occasional phone calls.
He was so nervous the first time she called that he stuttered and stammered and Sven was silently cackling on his bed, clutching his stomach. His face burned bright and hot that day, but hearing Anna talk after years made him happy in a way that he never knew was possible.
They called each other weekly, usually on Saturdays, unless there was a game. He had so much to look forward to now.
Despite her insistence at sending her new pictures of him and Sven, he really didn’t and he grinned secretly at the thought of how much taller he was and how shocked she would be.
He sent her pictures of winning rugby games though, of the big grins he and Sven wore, but never more than his face.
Anna had sent him pictures of her in her prom dress, and his jaw dropped. Her hair was braided up in an elegant bun, little flowers woven into her hair. The dress was a light green and strapless, hugging her chest and waist, and flowed out to her heels. A pearl necklace sparkled around her neck and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her gentle smile.
She said she was going with this guy named Hans, and he nearly boiled with jealousy. He knew about him already, from the way she spoke about him talking to her for the first time at school, and then more.
Now she was at prom, and he hated the fact that she was with him, though he didn’t even know this guy. He could have been a perfectly good gentleman for all he knew. He was self aware enough that he knew it was just him being jealous.
He worked out a lot at the gym that night, Sven accompanying him in a silent show of support as he spotted him through his routine, pushing himself harder than he ever did before. He would be forever grateful to Sven. He already was, since he was his best friend. Well, best guy friend.
And then in the middle of the night, his phone rang. It was midnight and he blearily woke up, muscles aching, nearly knocking over his bedside lamp reaching for the tiny flip phone.
“Hello?” he yawned. Who could be calling him?
“Kristoff?” Some sniffles came through and he bolted up in bed, alert and now fully awake.
“Anna? What happened? Are you okay?” he said. Why was she crying?
“I just wanted someone to talk to,” she mumbled quietly and his heart nearly broke at how sad she sounded. She wasn’t supposed to sound like that, ever.
He noticed Sven roll over and turn on the light, his half closed eyes watching him in question. It’s Anna, he mouthed, and Sven nodded, turned off the lamp, and put his pillow over his head. He’d buy him a bunch of snacks in the morning, he promised himself.
“Anna, what happened?” he gently prodded.
“It’s Hans!” she lightly exclaimed. “He stood me up, he was supposed to pick me up to go to prom but he never showed. So I went by myself and there he was with someone else. I went up to him to ask him but he brushed me off.”
Kristoff tensed with her words, and the more she talked about him. He remembered how light her voice had sounded talking about him, how in love she had sounded. Now the day that was so special to her and that she had looked forward to for months was ruined because of this asshole.
“I’m gonna go and tackle him.” He growled.
A light giggle accompanied with a soft sniffle made him feel a bit better. “I doubt that. He plays football, you know.”
“And I play rugby. I’m not even protected with anything when people tackle me. He won’t stand a chance.” He heard her laugh and he grinned.
“I just—I was just looking forward to this, and now it’s ruined.”
“You’ll have another chance.” He didn’t know much about prom, but there had to be another chance sometime, right?
“No, there won’t. Not like this.” Her voice was far away in some other dreamland and he wanted to pull her back to reality.
“I’ll take you somewhere special one day. Like a prom.”
“Really?”
“I promise,” he adamantly said.
“Careful there, you already have a promise you can’t keep.”
“Oh?” He raised a brow, knowing she couldn’t see him.
“Remember? You said that if you grew taller than me you would marry me.” She giggled.
“Yeah, I think I can keep that promise.” A light scoff from her. “Seriously.”
“Okay. I believe you.” Though the way she said made him believe that she really didn’t. But he swore he could hear her smiling over the phone.
“Well, I’m coming back for the summer. You’ll see then.”
A gasp. “Really?”
“Yeah, after graduation.” Then he would have to think about what to do in terms of college. He already applied to some and got accepted but he needed to make a decision.
“Wow! I mean—wow! I can’t believe it!” His smile grew wider. “I can’t wait! I mean, the town hasn’t really changed but we can go to Oaken’s and hang out by the creek again! Just like old times!” He could just picture her hands waving as she talked, excitement clear in her voice.
“Yeah, we can.”
“And the field too! Oh there’s actually a movie theater we can go to now, and a new place opened that sells a great gelato!”
She rambled on and on, and the night grew into early morning as she excitedly recounted all the new things she could do. With all the things she said about the town, he wondered if it even stayed the same. It seems like a lot has changed.
“I can’t wait for you to come back,” Anna said softly, wistfully. “I really miss you.”
“I do too. The month will be over before you know it.” He yawned. Damn if he was gonna be super tired today during class, but it would be worth it.
“I should let you go.” Anna said, but she paused and he smiled, eyes dropping and feeling heavier by the second.
“Mm.” he said, intelligently.
“Good night, Kristoff,” she said.
“G’night,” he slurred. And shut his phone off and promptly fell asleep. Sven had to literally roll him out of bed to wake him up in the morning. Now that was a role reversal.
Kristoff was sitting on the train back to the town. He was looking through his old messages to Anna, the most recent one promising that she would meet him at the train platform, right on time.
He could barely sit still, he was so nervous at what she would think upon seeing him. He was sure that she was still a short stack, and he would tower over her. He was one of the tallest people on the rugby team, after all.
And as he got closer and closer to Arendelle, he sent a quick text to her saying he was almost there. The hours seemed to drag as the long train ride continued. He never realized how far away his childhood town really was from his desolate boarding school in the middle of nowhere.
His leg bounced as he looked out the window, twiddling his fingers, anything to pass the time quicker. Until finally, finally, the announcer said that they arrived in Arendelle, and the train kidded to a stop.
He nervously grasped his backpack and duffle bag, easily hauling it over his shoulder. And he stepped out on the bright and sunny platform.
He looked around, and an incoming text came in from Anna.
Where are you? I’m by the ticket kiosk!
He walked over to where it was, and he spotted her. All petite and wearing a yellow top and denim shorts, with some sandals and it literally took his breath away. Her hair was down to her lower back now, longer than ever and loose and free with a braid weaving through the loose waves. In the sun, it glinted a fiery orange and he felt like he was basking in the sun itself. She was even more pretty in person and he felt something in him flutter.
She was biting her lip, on the lookout for him but facing the opposite direction. And he walked up to her.
“Anna.”
She turned around, and she had to look up, and up at him. And her smile was brilliant and beautiful, and the only thing he ever needed.
“Kristoff! Wow.” She gasped, and he had to chuckle as she blushed, hard.
“Come here.” He opened his arms and she grinned before literally jumping into them, arms wrapping around his neck and he buried his face in her hair. It still smelled the same as back then.
They let go and she stood in front of him, still smiling.
He leaned down at her and said, “Do you see how tall I am now?”
Her blush got even more red and she smacked his chest before starting to walk away, turning around to see if he would follow.
He did. He always would.