Tomorrow is another day

Silence means assent

"You took your time, dear," said the one who seemed the oldest of them taking Anna's hand affectionately.

"Why am I back, Grand Pabbie?"

"The truth is I have no idea."

"It was thanks to me! Isn't it?" exclaimed one of the youngests.

"I don't know, but I really appreciate how much you tried to help me."

"Did you found it? Did you find my Flemmingrad?"

"I did."

"And did you sing to it?"

"Yeah..."

"And did you lick its forehead?"

"Don't remind me that."

"And what did you wish for?"

"To be able to live," Anna replied with a touch something gloomy in her voice.

"Interesting..." the old man said just before staring at me. "It's been you, lad?"

"Me what?" I said getting up slowly still processing that a stone was speaking to me.

"The one who has thawed her heart."

"Oh no. I was only there by chance. I found her letter and read it. That's all."

"Sure..." the troll answered incredulously.

"And you put your jacket on me."

"Well yeah... I did that too," I answered a little embarrassed.

"Who would have thought it!"

"Thought what?" Anna asked hoping to finally resolve her doubts.

"Your wish was probably fulfilled and the ice did not end your life."

"I don't know, I haven't been very active for the last two hundred years."

"Do you have any memories of the afterlife?"

"No, I don't remember absolutely anything from all this time."

"What I thought then."

Anna and I looked at each other expectantly and I could see a small victory smile peeking out from the corner of her lips. She knew that I had already fallen.

"Anna, your frozen heart should have killed you, but it didn't. Instead, thanks to your desire, your soul froze with your body waiting for an act of true love to unfreeze you."

"But I haven't done any act of love. I was frozen."

"No, not you."

Grand Pabbie turned his smiling gaze towards me and my eyes widened as I listened to Anna's whisper.

"The jacket..."

I looked at her more scared of acknowledging my own feelings than of her reaction and I found her crystalline eyes searching in mine; reading my soul.

"I..." I said trying to coordinate a word that would get me out of that predicament.

"The man loves you, princess. It seems quite clear to me," Bulda intervened blatantly.

My colors boiled over and I could only cover my face with my hands.

"Let me die..."

Anna approached me slowly and gently and softly uncovered my face, letting her sweet smile invade my field of view.

"Thank you. I owe you my life."

She stood on tiptoe and gave me a delicate kiss on the cheek that made me feel like the happiest man in the world and the most pathetic at the same time. I had just fully entered the Friendzone. Then she turned back to Grand Pabbie and crouched before him.

"Grand Pabbie. I have to go back. I have to help Elsa."