Death by Chocolate (Anna)

[Kristoff]

“Anna!...Anna!”



He had continued his search for Anna around the school, heading for places that he thought she might be. The kitchens seemed like a pretty good shout; whenever Anna was stressed she wanted either chocolate or sandwiches. So he had set off in search of them in the hopes that he might find a little snack as well. The longer he went without seeing her the more concerned he became, however hunger was starting to set in and if he didn’t get some food soon then he wasn’t going to be any use to her even if they did find her.



Not to mention he was getting grumpier.



“ANNA!” he shouted again as he walked down a mess hall, “ANNA! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME…I HAVE CHOCOLATE!...COME GET IT!”



It was a terrible lie to tell…but if it meant that he got to see her again then it was going to be worth it.

[Princess Anna]

Anna had been returning to the stables roughly three times a day looking for Kristoff, ever since she spoke to Olaf about where to find the man. So far she hadn't had any luck. She was just on her way to check again when she thought she heard her name being yelled in a very familiar voice.
She turned towards the building it was coming from, moving closer... and there it was again, that was definitely Kristoff, shouting her name! Well what was he doing that for? And why was he in there? Maybe he needed help...
She broke into a run until she reached the entrance to the mess hall, hearing him still shouting for her, and she flung the doors open... just after he mentioned he had chocolate, and now it looked like she had been summoned by the mere mention of chocolate. She wasn't sure what to make of that, or rather, what he would make of her because of it, and she almost wanted to go back and pretend she hadn't heard him.

But also, if he did have chocolate, it was probably worth it.

"Kristoff!"

[Kristoff]

He spun around when he heard her voice and couldn’t help but grin as he looked at her. She was ok, she was alive. Of course she was, this was Anna, she was a lot tougher than she looked. Why had he been worried in the first place?

Kristoff started rushing towards her, across the Mess hall until he was right in front of her at which point he put his hands on her waist and lifted her up and round, in that same excited way he had done when she had presented him with his new sleigh. He almost leaned in and kissed her as well…almost…he managed to stop himself just in time.

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere? So has El-her majesty, and Olaf too,” said Kristoff smiling.

Then he stopped smiling. His hands were still on her hips. He quickly snatched them away, holding his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ motion.

“Uh….just so you know…the Chocolate was a lie…there is no chocolate…sorry…please don’t have your sister turn me into an ice sculpture…even if it would be a pretty awesome way to die…”

[Princess Anna]

Anna's hands automatically went to his shoulders as he lifted her, her smile bright and wide as they spun. She loved when Kristoff did that, it was one of her favourite things, for just a moment everything felt so free and loving and not awkward at all and she just wished they could do it all the time. Okay, maybe not all the time, they'd probably get dizzy, but it felt like the kind of thing people in love did with each other and she just wanted to hold on to that feeling.

"I've been... well... everywhere, just not at the same time as you!" she laughed "I've seen Elsa and Olaf, but I've been looking for you too!"

When he suddenly snatched his hands away from her hips, she found herself missing their steady warmth almost immediately, and she couldn't help but wish he'd put them back, but instead she focused on what he was saying, putting her own hands on her hips almost as substitute and pulling a mock stern face at him.

"No chocolate! I demand you get me chocolate right this instant." she scolded him, summoning up the same royal attitude she'd used on him to get a ride up to the north mountain, but it dissipated just as quickly, and this time in his presence "That's okay, I'd rather have you than chocolate..." she hoped she wasn't blushing. She was.

[Kristoff]

Anna had been looking for him too, that was a good sign wasn’t it? It meant she cared, right?

Another horrible part of his brain which for some reason sounded an awful lot like that Hans guy said, ‘yeah but it doesn’t matter does it, because she’s a princess and you’re the official ice deliverer’.

Stupid fake Hans voice in his head. He barely even knew the guy, he’d barely even spoken to him, mostly he had just wanted to punch him, he was still a little put out that he hadn’t gotten too. When she started talking about chocolate however everything else just seemed to melt away; it was criminal for her to be this cute, it had to be. Then she said she would rather have him than chocolate. He wasn’t blushing, you’re blushing. Nor did he had a completely ridiculous dopey grin on his face, no, not at all.

He pulled himself up to his full height and with a smile said, “No, no, her highness has demanded Chocolate and as the…uh…official Chocolatier to the Princess Anna, I will not stop until I have found her some.”

He bowed low and headed off in the direction of the kitchen , “There’s gotta be some chocolate cake in there somewhere.”

[Princess Anna]

Anna loved when he smiled like that, she had no idea what it was exactly that made him do it (she wasn't always the brightest candle in the chandelier), which was frustrating, because she wanted him to do it all the time.

"You can't just give yourself a new title you know," Anna teased, then rethought her statement "Except that one, you can have that one as long as it means you keep bringing me chocolate, even when I have grown fat enough to roll along."
Of course she wasn't about to let him go off on an adventure by himself, especially when she had only just found him again, so when he set off towards the kitchen she followed along after him.

"This place looks a little abandoned, I don't know if anybody's eating here yet... do you really think they might actually have chocolate?"

[Kristoff]

“I hope so,” said Kristoff eagerly, his stomach following up his statement with a rumble, “well, if not chocolate then I hope they have something to at least make a decent sandwich.”

As they reached the door to the kitchen he tried the handle. Locked.

“Hmm,” he said looking at the door, “I could maybe try to pick the lock,” he glanced back at her nervously, “not that I know how to do that, that would be wrong,” he stood up, “but even if I did the gears all probably so old that it wouldn’t work anyway. Oh well.”

He took a step back and threw his weight against the door, it budged a little but still remained locked and all he was left with was a rather sore arm. He tried it again, and this time it opened all the way, which he had not been expecting at ended up landing face first on the kitchen floor.

He lay there for a moment and then said, “ow.”

[Princess Anna]

"I do like sandwiches..." Anna mused. She wanted chocolate, right now, because Kristoff had given her the idea and now she wouldn't rest until she could have some, but it might be nice to sit and share a sandwich with him.

She giggled at his comment about picking the lock, he had all sorts of odd skills, it didn't really surprise her to realise he might have a few she didn't know about, in fact it fascinated her. Where had he learned that? Why? did the trolls teach him about it? She was distracted from that line of thought when he went barrelling into the door and she brought her hand to her mouth in a gasp, hoping he hadn't hurt himself too much.

Of course, when he threw himself at the door again and this time it opened, sending him tumbling to the floor, she had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing, even as she moved forward to offer him a hand up.

"Are you okay?" she asked, trying to sound genuine.

[Kristoff]

“I’m fine,” he said slowly getting to his feet, letting her help him, “and it’s fine…you can laugh, it was pretty funny.”

He was laughing a little himself already. He should probably feel embarrassed about landing flat on his face in front of her, but in the ground scheme of things he was pretty certain in the ‘falling down in front of each other’ ranks they had lost count a while ago. As he looked around the room he started to notice that a lot of the shelves seemed to be filled with all sorts of foodstuffs…

“Wow….” He said and let out a long whistle, “well…there’s gotta be some chocolate in here somewhere…do you think it’s all ok to eat? I’m sort of getting gingerbread house witch vibe here.”

[Princess Anna]

When he took her hand to stand, she took the moment to enjoy the feel of his touch even as she strained to actually provide support for his much taller and more muscular frame, luckily he seemed to be doing most of the work himself. Still, she helped, and if she didn't let go of his hand once he was finally standing again, well that was neither here nor there.

"I know what you mean..." Anna said, staring around the kitchen "Or maybe it's just all really old, this place has been abandoned for like 100 years, that's what everybody says anyway... maybe it's all dried up or gone mouldy..."
There was a sort of trap feeling to it, like if they touched anything suddenly a monster or something would come bursting through the door, or a trapdoor would open under their feet... but also this was a school and this was just a kitchen, surely it wouldn't be anything like that, right?

[Kristoff]

Kristoff nodded in agreement and said, “Well…I guess we won’t know until we try.”

He smiled and headed towards one of the shelves, and started looking at the items on it. It was hard to make out some of the words on the labels given that most of them were covered in dust, but there were a few that stood out, in particular, one jar that looked like it might just have the word ‘chocolate’ on it. Kristoff grinned and turning back to Anna pointed at the jar and said, “did I not promise the Princess Chocolate? Am I not a man of my word?”

He reached out to pick up the jar but hesitated for a moment and said, “…this isn’t going to set off some warning bell or something…is it?”

He shrugged and lifted the jar…pausing to see if anything would happen.

[Princess Anna]

"My hero," Anna laughed, unable to hide her eagerness at the possible appearance of chocolate - admittedly the dust and debris scattered around was not promising, but this place was pretty magical, right? There might be actual chocolate here....

"I dont'-" she began, but while she thought everything was safe she clearly spoke too soon, the shelf clearly hadn't been disturbed in some time, and even that slight interference of removing the jar was the proverbial last straw. With a disturbing sound, a chunk of the shelf slowly began to give way, the remaining jars tilting dangerously forward.

"Oh no," Anna stepped backwards quickly, tryng to tug Kristoff with her as the jars began to rain down, shattering in tiny explosions of glass and dust.

[Kristoff]

Despite his considerable size and heft Anna was able to pull him back, before any of the cans could fall on him, however it didn’t stop him flinching at the sound as they all went crashing to the ground. Not only that, but she had pulled him back against the wall, and he had lost his footing a little, turning a little so he could place his hands on the wall before he landed on her and squished her.

He looked down at her and smiled sheepishly, “oops.”

They were standing incredibly close now…if he just leaned down…he let out a little embarrassed cough and stepped back. He looked down at the can in his hand and noticed that the dust had cleared enough to read ‘Hot Chocolate’. Checking the date on it he said, “huh…that’s…weird…it’s in date…hot chocolate? Do you think if we find cream that will be in date too?”

[Princess Anna]

Anna found herself pressed back against the wall with Kristoff crowded in close to her, arms either side of her head, protecting her from the brunt of the avalanche but also drawing her attention very abruptly away from it. Especially when he looked down at her and she was certainly acutely aware of how large and strong he was, and how dainty she felt in contrast. The little smile on his face was adorable and she was pretty sure she was blushing crimson and the whole situation was doing something to her insides that made them feel like they were tying up in knots.

But then he was moving away and she had to resist the urge to ask him to come back, instead she coughed herself and smoothed out her skirt and tried to focus on the chocolate. That was what she wanted right now, the chocolate, yes.

"Maybe in one of the cupboards?" she suggested, glancing around the kitchen. Her gaze fell on the shattered remains of their little mistake "I hope they don't get too mad about the mess..."