The Love That Bonds Us

Chapter 20 : The Rock Trolls

IDUNA

"He's such a drama queen!" Arianna laughed, falling back onto the floor as the sound of Agnarr's footsteps retreated down the hall.

I nodded as I laughed and brushed my fringe behind my ears.

"Goodness." Arianna said, abruptly changing tone and sitting up straight again, loosening her grip on the pillow, "I wonder what we're gonna do now that Nuru is gone."

"Huh." I tickled my chin in thought, "That's a good question. I guess I hadn't thought about that." a strange feeling overcame me and I wrapped my arms around my knees. It was a numb feeling. We'd grown so close after the last few months that it really didn't feel right waking up to a Nuru-free Arendelle. Arianna looked pretty miserable too, so I somehow decided to lighten the mood, "Did you feel this way when Fred left?"

She looked up at me, a pink tinge staining her cheeks. For a moment she couldn't find something to say, which was unusual for her, until she opened her mouth and said, "That's different."

"Ah." I tapped my nose and screwed up my face teasingly, "Of course."

"What are you implying, Iduna?"

I widened my eyes innocently, "What? So you mean to tell me you don't have a chest full of letters from a certain someone?"

Arianna leaned back and shut her eyes arily, "Absolutely not."

"So if I went up there right now, I wouldn't find that chest?"

"Of course not. Because it isn't there."

"I should go look then." I said playfully, jumping to my feet, "I obviously won't find anything, because there isn't anything to find."

Arianna nibbled at her lip for a moment before sighing in resignation and saying, "Fine. I have been writing letters to Fred. A lot of them. What's so wrong with that?"

I felt a pinch of triumph and a jolt of happiness, and when I returned to the floor beside her, I was beaming like an idiot, "Nothing's wrong. It's just so romantic!" I batted me eyelashes and clasped my hands.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Arianna's amused smile turn sly.

"Oh." she said, "You mean like a boy taking a girl onto a balcony with a breathtaking view, giving her his blazer because she's cold, and then taking her to the roof with an even more romantic view?"

I fell silent and stared at her incredulously.

"Or like a boy romantically taking a girl to his families super secret garden because he knows she'll adore it and then teaching her something new in a romantic way while she teaches him something new?" she smirked at my expression once she'd finished.

It took me a few moments to recover, and when I did the first thing I said was, "How did you know?"

She shrugged and picked up one of the chess pieces to fiddle with, "A little bird told me."

I frowned slightly and she gave in.

"OK, alright. Agnarr didn't want to tell me everything, but I may or may not have coaxed the details out of him because I really really wanted to know!" she grinned at me.

"Well." I leaned forwards, "I may have got Lanky to tell me things too."

Arianna pouted, which was not the reaction I'd been expecting. "You have pet names for each other?"

This took me by surprise, but I recovered pretty easily and smoothly said, while pretending to be more interested in my nails, "Why yes we do. He calls me Freckles," I looked at her and lowered my eyelids dramatically, "because they're my most endearing feature."