Always You

xiv. Sibling Rivalry

Anna

After lunch and dress shopping with Elsa and Rapunzel, I headed home and took another one of my famous bubble baths. This time, thankfully, it was only because my back hurt and not because I thought my fiance was dead. Which, fortunately, he wasn't. 

As I sank into the scalding, frothy water, I thought on how I would address the kingdom. As the princess of Arendelle, it was my duty to keep my people updated on my life. They knew about the engagement, they would all be present at the wedding, and now they all had a right to know about the baby. I ran my hands over my bare stomach, feeling a very subtle difference in it. What had once been completely taut was now starting to feel a little squishy, not noticeably but enough for me to be able to tell. I was excited to be a mother, of course I was, but the future was sprawled out in front of me like some sprawling expanse of unknown possibility. And it terrified me, it really did. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.                                                           

"Yes?" I called, turning off the running water and rearranging the bubbles to cover my body. Kristoff's voice replied.

"Can I come in?" He asked. Obviously, it wasn't like he had never seen me like this before, and the thought of him even asking made me feel like laughing, for some reason. I smiled into my hand before telling him to come in. "Oh, I.. Yeah." He turned red when he saw I was in the tub, making me want to laugh even more.

"We, uh, really need to talk. I think." I told him, the urge to laugh fading. He nodded, the laughter in his warm eyes slowly cooling. Both of us were in a very serious situation, one neither of us had prepared for or had any idea how to handle. Sadly, not even Elsa could help us with this one. We were on our own.

"Yeah. First of all, I just... Anna, I am so sorry about-" I cut him off.

"Kristoff. Stop apologizing, I am not mad. I'm not upset. It is okay." I told him, giving him a small smile. Really, I wished he would quit saying he was sorry. He had no idea, and I wasn't mad for more than a minute. It was kind of cute how sorry he was, though.

"Okay, okay. Anyway, I don't know... I mean, a baby. Anna, a baby. How do we even start to get ready for this?" He asked, worry and fear and happiness clear on his face. It was an odd mix, especially on his rugged features, but I knew the same mixture was on my face, too. His question was pretty valid, too. I mean, who knew how to prepare for something so surprising?

"Well, I guess we need to buy a crib. And a high chair. And baby toys. Ooh, and we need to think of names!" I cried, rattling off the list I had been making for the past few days. 

"Technically, yes. I mean, how do we get ready for a baby? I mean, we're supposed to have years together to get to know each other before this starts... And I'm totally happy that we're starting early, but how do we get ourselves ready to be parents? How do we grow up within like nine months?" He asked, making the inside of my stomach feel like it was full of ice.

"I, uh, I mean... Well, we just have to, uh, rely on each other to... You know, to be there. And to be strong?" I said, voice rising at the end like a question as I tripped over my words. I wasn't ready to answer his question, I didn't know how.

"You know, I believe in us." He replied, warming back up my icy insides. He leaned over, kissing me, and I smiled into the contact.

"Me too. I mean, this," I motioned to my stomach, "wasn't on the plan, but we can handle it. We've been through plenty." I laughed a little. It seemed crazy to think... We had been through more in three months than most couples go through in their entire relationships. Kristoff and I had something most people didn't; we had true love. True love, I had come to find, was the strongest feeling in the world. True love could overcome almost any obstacle; Elsa's power, my frozen heart, even this little bump in the road.