DeFrosted

Chapter 53

(Kristof)

Walking away from Delilah was suprisingly more difficult then I had even believed it would be. The dreams I had experienced in our time apart paled in comparison to actually holding her. In dreams I couldn't smell that familer mountain scent that had permanently attached itself to her. When I held her I could smell the pine in her hair again, the rich earth on her skin and even sadly taste the crystal mountain streams in her tears. Something I had forgotten the pleasentry of. I had to fight so hard not to kiss her.
The pain clawed at my heart strings like a devilish harp maestro.

The realization that she had traveled so far just for me. Watching her do all but confess her love had nearly ruined me.
I couldn't lie to myself, I knew I had strong feelings for the eccentric mountain girl, loved her even, And the time spent away from her had only caused it to blossom.

She was strong where Anna was soft, though equally as beautiful, she was calloused and course from years of solitary mountaineering, but still had ever the sense of humor and irony and an endearing gentleness about her. Fierce but her naivety was intoxicating, just like Anna's when I met her. For Delilah I was it. All she wanted, There was no previous love, no shady prince who had once owned her heart.

I had done it. I sighed, I had stayed true to my Anna. I love her. I remind myself.
And she loves me. I was going to marry her.

I thought back to that warm spring morning, when I had taken her for a ride on my sleigh. I was too busy staring at her beautiful face, listening to the sound of her bubbling voice as she talked about some boring palace event or another. When I hit that rock, that same rock I had avoided a thousand times. Tipping the cart and flipping us both into the nearest snow bank. She landed with a thud on my chest, rosy cheeks grew even redder with laughter. "I love you." She had said softly to me for the first time as she brushed my bangs out of my eyes.
It was perfect.

Suddenly I realized that marrying a queen would be totally different from marrying just a princess in waiting. Things would change, big things. I would go from Kristof the ice merchant, to duke consort. As a previous commonor, I could not be promoted to king Consort or even prince, but I would still be required at my queen wife's side at almost all times.

Again I sighed, gone would be my carefree lifestyle, in would come the responsibility.
Anna, Elsa as well as the entire kindom of Arendale was depending on me to marry her and return the country to stability.
If I didnt, either Anna or Elsa would be banished from the land.

Besides, I loved her first. It was clear to me what what the right thing to do.

°°○○○°°

(ANNA)

I watched him walk away.
But before I could really think about what just happened or how I felt about it, Beatrice found me. "Your grace the wedding is in half an hour!" She practically dragged me to my room to dress.

I sit in my chair, looking in the mirror as she pins primps and curls my hair. It felt like a century since the last time I had been fussed and waited on. The war had taken its toll, but slowly the knots in my hair were combed out, and a familiar face was staring back. I looked different, older. Harsh times had chipped away at my youth. I was thinner, thanks to the rations, but father time had also changed my body as well. My hips broader, my waist more defined. I looked more like mother then I had ever imagined possible.

I had looked foward to my wedding day since the first time my mother had read me a fable. Dreamed of walking down the Isle in a gorgeous dress, and marrying my true love.

Bertha tightens my grandmother's dress around me. I looked the part, my face was powdered, lips painted and cheeks reddened. My grandmother's dress hung from me beautifully, just like in my dreams. It had been kept in such a remarkable condition, miraculously untouched by the war. Beatrice had done an impeccable job altering it to my size as my grandmother was quite tall. Everything was going according to plan. But why did something feel amis?