#tocap

“Okay so… you’re not going to sell that tree, right?”

Kristoff nodded, laughing as he set the tree behind the shop. “I promise. It will not get sold.”

Grinning from ear to ear, Anna wrapped her arms around his forearm, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Good! Because that is the perfect tree. And think of how pretty it would be in my apartment!”

She ran off to work, Kristoff smiling after her.

When Anna finished her shift, she ran excitedly to the back of the shop to find …

“Kristoff!”

Her voice was laced with venom, and Kristoff practically jumped out of his skin when she came stomping around the corner. “Hi there, feisty pants. What are you --”

“You sold it?!” She stomped over to him, annoyance weaving through her features.

“What?”

“I can’t believe,” she groaned, throwing her hands up over her head, “that you would sell it! After you promised me you’d keep an eye on it!”

Kristoff threw his hands up in defense, smirking. “Whoa there, calm down. Did you ring it out at all?”

Her shoulders dropped. “N-no…”

“Then it wasn’t sold.”

She bit her lip and frowned, nodding. “Okay… I guess that makes sense…”

Grinning and grabbing her hand, Kristoff started the trek up to his cabin. “Come on, Anna. I have a surprise for you.”

They walked up to his home, Anna pouting the whole way, mumbling about how she couldn’t believe her tree was taken, how it was all she wanted to make this Christmas absolutely perfect. Kristoff couldn’t stop smiling. She had started blabbering on about how her Christmas wouldn’t be amazing anymore, and how disappointed she was.

Until he opened the door, and she saw a tree - her tree - in the corner of his cabin, lit up and decorated to perfection.

“What…” She turned to him, her jaw slack with surprise. “Kristoff?”

Leaning forward to kiss her softly, Kristoff shrugged. “I just thought… Maybe we could have our own Christmas. No family…” He leaned down to hoist her up, bridal style, before kissing her full on the lips again. “Just you and me.”

Anna wrapped her arms around him, burying her nose into his hair. “Kristoff… It’s beautiful.”

He smiled, pressing his lips against her temple. “Merry Christmas, Anna.” Another kiss. “This has been my best ever.”

“Merry Christmas, Kristoff.”

Pulling back, Anna pressed her hands against his jaw and leaned in close, slanting her lips over his. It was full of love and affection… and something she was almost positive she had never felt from Hans.

“I love you.”

They were sitting on his couch, Anna in his lap, with her head buried in his neck. Kristoff rubbed soft circles on her back, trying his best to soothe her soft sniffling. “It’s going to be okay… I promise.”

She shook her head no, rubbing up against the crook of his neck. “I don’t know…” He kissed her temple, causing her to pause and hiccup and press her nose closer to his skin. “We… we don’t really know each other… I’m kind of scared to spend my Christmas alone with her…”

Kristoff sighed, unsure of how to really help. “Why… Why don’t you ask her if she’d want to come to my place for Christmas Eve?” Blushing when she sat up, her gaze skeptically falling on his face, he hummed. “Um… I mean… at my mother’s… we have a really big family so it might…” He shrugged. “Might be less awkward… maybe?”

Kissing his cheek with a bright smile on her face, Anna sniffled back the last of her tears. “That’s so sweet, Kris…” She hugged him, pressing her forehead against his temple. “I’ll ask her. Thank you…”

Kristoff held a large velvet box in shaking hands as he approached Anna, who was oblivious as she counted out the register. He was nervous to do this, to give her something. This was a big deal for him, as he hadn’t ever let himself get this close to someone outside of his family… and…

He froze when she noticed him, smiling up with her bright blue eyes. “Hi there.”

“... H-Hi.” His face lit up a bright red and he turned his eyes down to the ground, reaching out to grab her hand. “Come with me.”

Anna’s eyes widened as she followed him into the back room, her cheeks flushing, wondering what exactly he was up to. But when he opened the door, she couldn’t help the smile that spread on her cheeks. He had lined the room with colored christmas lights, making the whole room glow with a soft, almost romantic light. “Wow…” she sighed, staring at him dreamy eyed.

There were three candles burning on the coffee table, and Kristoff led her to the couch, sitting her down beside him. “S-so…” He felt so small under her gaze, under her big and beautiful personality… but he knew that she didn’t think of him that way. That he was enough for her, or at least that she thought so.

He held out the box in one hand, rubbing at the back of his head with the other. “I… wanted to give you this. It’s…” Kristoff pushed it forward, coughing. “It’s just a little… something.”

Anna carefully took it from his hands, biting at her lip and turning her gaze down towards the blue velvet. She opened it slowly, revealing a mostly crystal snowflake ornament that was decorated and trimmed with a bright, sparkling silver. It was so beautiful that it had rendered her speechless.

“My ma got it from my pa when they got engaged... and she gave it to me when I was little… she told me…” He swallowed, his blush spreading down his neck. “She told me to save it for someone special. A-and… I know we’ve only known each other for a little while…”

Visibly gulping, Anna looked up to him with misty eyes, her whole face soaked with adoration.

“But… there’s…” Kristoff took the box from her and placed in on the table, before reaching forward to hold her hands in his. “This is something special. I just… I feel it.”

“... I don’t know what to say…” Anna leaned forwards to give him a quick kiss, smiling against his mouth when his hands rose up to her jaw to pull her back for another one. “I…”

“Anna,” he mumbled, lips still pressed together. “I…” He kissed her again. “I love you.”

She threw her arms around his neck as she tried to kiss him again, smiling too widely to actually press her lips against his.

Normally Anna would mind being laid down in a pile of dirty hay, but to be quite honest, the warm lips and beyond obvious arousal of the blond who was running his hands all over her were distracting enough that she didn’t care at all.

He had called her, asked her to come earlier than normal, and the second she got there, picked her up and carried her back into the holding barn. When she asked him what was happening, he simply replied by kissing her full on the mouth, hoisting her up onto his hips, and smiling against her mouth when she slid her tongue against his lips. Things just escalated from there, and now they were, quite literally, rolling around in the hay.

Kristoff’s mouth was all over her lips and cheeks and neck, hungrily marking her as his, and Anna didn’t mind one bit… His was what she wanted to be now. Though she was sure her sister would scold her when she got home…

They continued for what felt like far too short of a time, until the barn door creaked open, and the confused (and slightly worried) voice of Oaken echoed through the room. “Yoo hoo… Kristoff? Anna?”

Kristoff slapped his hand over her mouth, biting back his laughter as Anna started giggling against his palm. “Shh…” He whispered, pressing her back down behind the wooden crates. They stayed as quiet as they could manage, waiting until they heard Oaken leave the barn and shut the door behind him.

“So…” Anna mumbled, biting her lip. “I guess we should… Go to work…”

The rest of the day had gone fairly normally, minus the shy smiles and red cheeks that happened whenever they saw one another. The only difference was that as soon as the shop closed, Anna was sprinting out of the store to find Kristoff in the field of trees, and jumping on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, grinning brightly as his hands clasped behind her back.

“Hi there,” he laughed, leaning up to place a chaste kiss on her lips. “How was your day?”

“Gooooood.” Anna bit at her lip, unwrapping herself from his torso and dropping back down to her feet. “Can you come with me?” Grabbing Kristoff’s hand, Anna started to walk back towards the shop.

With a look of confusion, he followed her. “Sure? What’s up?”

Anna led the blond back towards the shop, bringing him to the back room and sat him down on the couch. After disappearing for a moment, she came back with two steaming mugs of hot cocoa. “Well… I figured we should probably talk about what’s going on here? And what better way to do that… than over cocoa!”

Not being able to hide the stretch of his smile as she plopped back down on the couch, slightly bouncing him, Kristoff leaned forward to grab at the hot mug. “Well thank you, Red.” He sipped at it, hissing when the heat of it almost burned his tongue. He sighed as he put it down, and leaned back into the couch. “So… What is going on here?”

“Well…” Anna bit at her lip and scooted just a fraction closer, placing her hand on his thigh. “Well I really, really like you. And I’d be happy to… to be something… But you know I just broke up with Hans like a month ago and I just don’t want you to think that you’re a rebound because…” She moved her hand to his bicep and squeezed. “Because you’re absolutely not.”

Kristoff smiled and leaned forward to place a soft kiss against the corner of her mouth. “I wasn’t thinking that at all. I’m just…” He slid his head over just enough to kiss her firm on the lips. “Glad I have a chance.”

She lifted her hands to rest around his neck, fingers fiddling with the scruffy hair at his nape. “So… we’re… dating?”

“If you want to be.”

Nodding and pressing forward to embrace him, Anna pulled him as close as she could manage, smiling uncontrollably when his hands ran up and down her back, holding her even tighter. “I really, really want to be.”

“Kristooooooff!!!”

At the sound of his name, panicked and hollered from none other than Anna, Kristoff practically dropped what he was doing and sprinted up to the store. “Anna?!” He glanced around, worry coating his features, until he saw her familiar little boots kicking from inside the netting machine. “...Anna…”

“I’m stuck!” He saw her hands flailing out of the other opening, caught in the netting. “I’m already tangled in the net…”

He moved around to the front to find the net pressed against her face, and knelt down in front of her, trying (and failing) not to laugh. “How the hell did you manage this?”

“I was carrying those,” she paused to try and point towards the crates of random souvenirs, “and I… slipped on the mud over there…” Turning her head back to face him, her cheeks bright red, and bit at her lip. “And I… wound up in here…”

Kristoff pressed his lips together as an amused smile tugged at his cheeks. He was trying incredibly hard not to laugh at her, but she was just so damn adorable. “Did you try to come out feet first?”

“No… I didn’t try to get out of here already… why would I do that?”

Reaching forward to poke at her nose, he gave her a false frown. “Ouch, Red. Sarcasm does not look good on you.”

Anna was frustrated. “Please just pull me out!”

Grabbing her hands and tugging, it only took a few seconds for her to come all the way through, and Kristoff tossed her over his shoulder and pulled a knife out of his back pocket as he bent down to cut the netting at her feet. “Hold on just a second…”

She was bent at her hips over his back, and Anna couldn’t help but admire the breadth of his shoulders… the space between his neck and his arm was almost larger than the width of her hips. A dark blush spread over her cheeks and nose as he hoisted her back up before placing her down on the ground.

“All right now… Stand still. I have to cut you out.” Kristoff moved carefully, slowly parting the netting around her legs, her hips… He tried his best to stop his eyes from wandering over the curves of her thighs and hips, to stop them from admiring the softness of her stomach up to the swell of her breasts… His complexion was ruddy by the time he cut the final piece of plastic net off of her head. “There you go…”

Anna was embarrassed at herself for being so clumsy, but felt her skin burning even hotter when his hands smoothed over her hair and came to rest on her jaw, his eyes settled on her lips. “... Thank you…”

“You’re ridiculous,” he laughed, stroking his thumb over her cheeks.

Pouting, Anna scoffed. “I’m just a little clumsy.”

Kristoff couldn’t resist anymore. “You’re adorable.”

“I’m…”

He leaned a little closer.

Anna took a deep breath. “I’m…”

“I’m going to kiss you now.”

“... Okay.”

Kristoff was far beyond amused as he watched Anna running around before the shop opened. He had no idea what she was doing, but there was a pile of lights, tinsel, beads, and baubles on top of the outside sales counter. She didn’t even stop for long enough for him to ask what she was doing.

But he kind of got an idea when he saw her dragging a rather pitiful looking tree around the corner.

“What are you doing?”

Freezing and glancing up at him, Anna smiled. “I’m decorating this tree for outside the shop!” She ran back inside the store, and reemerged with a cheap little tree stand. It didn’t take her long to set it up, but she called him over. “Can you hold this straight for me?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her before stepping forward, and placing a hand on the trunk of the pathetic little tree. “Why not a nicer one? This one is… short… and thin… I’d think you’d want to set up a--”

“No!” Anna cut him off, standing up as soon as the tree was secured in the stand. “This tree,” she started, fluffing up the branches, “has been here for weeks, and no one has touched it… I feel bad for it!”

A smile tugged at Kristoff’s lips as he watched her run around the tree with the lights and the tinsel, and he quickly went to the shed to fetch her an extension cord. He handed it over with a huge grin, blushing as hugged him.

They worked together to get the ornaments hung on the tree, and within twenty minutes, Anna was bouncing up and down with joy as the lights came on, twinkling between color and white. “See? With a little bit of TLC… even just… even spare things that no one wants can be wonderful.”

It was absolutely amazing how much tenderness Anna put into everything she did - how much she cared about things that others might deem unworthy or… broken. She did everything she could to make even the smallest things and people feel wanted and loved.

Kristoff stared on as she admired the tree with bright eyes, and felt his heart full to bursting with…

Was it…?

Could it be…?

He accepted the tight, warm hug she offered him before she skipped back inside.

Yeah…

It was more than just admiration. More than just adoration.

More than just liking her.