336
characters: kristoff, anna
ships: kristanna
rating: K
He is ready to go home. Two weeks in the mountains wouldn't have been enough a year ago, but these days it's more than enough to break him. Two whole weeks, fourteen whole days, three hundred and thirty-six whole hours alone with his mind and his reindeer, alone without the fire that keeps him warm. ----- His memory has never been the best, and he knows he is probably overreacting, but he swears he can feel the colour of her eyes slipping from his mind and fading into the blue of the sky even after the first day. His pick splits the ice. He thinks of her frozen and his heart splits with it, but the light of the sun is nearly as bright as her smile, and it brings him back to himself, back to the knowledge that she is warm, whole, and waiting for him. ----- He hadn't seen the storm coming. He'd been too busy pushing himself to work faster to see the dark clouds rolling in, to hear the rumble of the avalanche blocking the only road to Arendelle. By the time he notices, it is too late. Digging his way through the snow would take almost as long as waiting for it to melt. So he waits. ----- "Do you really have to go? You could just stay here...." "You know I have to. There's nobody else who can. They need me, Anna." "I need you too! Kristoff, are you sure there's no one else who can go?" "I'm sure. But it's just a few days. You'll be okay." "But will you be okay?" "I will. I promise." ----- When night falls, his hand takes on a mind of its own, reaching into his pack and finding the letter she left for him. His eyes and thumbs trace her words over and over, memorising them in every sense of the term. "I'll be home soon," he whispers against the paper. He isn't sure when soon is. ----- Dear Kristoff, Every time you leave, it gets a little harder to let you go. I know you'll always come back to me, but I hate that you have to come back at all; I wish I didn't have to let you go in the first place. Please, never stop thinking about me. Unless it's dangerous to not focus. In that case, you can stop thinking about me. I need you to be okay. I miss you every second you're away, but don't worry about me. I know that's hard for you, but I'll be okay as long as you are. I love you. So much. Thinking of you always, Your Anna ----- By the time enough snow has cleared for his sled to pass through, he's been away for two weeks. Everything is a blur - packing the few things he has, hitching Sven up to the sled, driving through the remaining snowdrifts. Things only start to slow down once he sees the top of a tower over the line of trees. From there, everything is too slow. Every second he hasn't passed the gates feels like a year, and he pushes Sven faster and faster, nearly standing up as if it will make him aerodynamic enough to fly straight through the trees and the stone and into her waiting arms. The gates are already open when he reaches them, but he doesn't notice; he would have plowed right through them anyway. He leaps out of the sled, runs harder than his legs can handle, never stopping until the brown of his eyes locks with the blue of hers. He melts into her, and he is finally home.
