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Kristoff and Elsa finally got going leaving the hospital even later than they had meant to, and it was dark, moonless night, so once they got off the interstate, Kristoff needed to drive slowly to make sure he didn’t miss any turns on the way to the lake house.
“Here we are,” Elsa said, as they pulled up to a large, modern looking house with floor to ceiling windows, lit up.
“This is the lake house?” Kristoff asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, like I said, it was our parents’ house,” Elsa explained.
“I know, you told me that, but I figured it was some kind of rustic cabin,” Kristoff said.
“Um, anyway…” Elsa hemmed, climbing out of the passenger side of the truck. “It looks like Anna waited up for us.”
Kristoff followed, locking his truck despite the feeling that it wouldn’t matter out here.
Anna was at the door, hugging Elsa as she entered. Kristoff hadn’t seen her since the fall races, probably four months before. They hadn’t kept in touch. She was busy with college, he was busy with work.
As he got to the door, Anna smiled.
“Kristoff! So good to see you again!” she hugged him, too.
“Ow!” he yelped.
“Oh no, the bruise?” Elsa asked. “Kristoff, did you get that checked out?”
“What?” Anna asked. “What happened to you?”
“It’s fine,” Kristoff insisted. “I just got hit by an oar. It happens sometimes.”
Anna frowned. “Have you eaten, at least? I wasn’t sure if you were going to get dinner first, so I kind of waited. There’s a frozen pizza, though.”
“That sounds good, actually,” Kristoff said.
They sat around the remains of the pizza. Most of the conversation had been Elsa filling Anna in on the details of the regatta the day before, and Kristoff ended up looking around the room. The main room was a two story living room and dining room, open to the kitchen. It almost looked like a restaurant, or possibly a hotel lobby.
“What about you, Kristoff?” Anna asked, bringing Kristoff back to the conversation.
“What about what?” Kristoff replied.
“I need to get to bed,” Elsa explained. “I’ve got to log in for work.”
“Good night,” Kristoff said. “I don’t have work tomorrow, so I’m fine.”
“Wait, we haven’t shown you your room,” Elsa said, gesturing to Kristoff to follow her. Anna grabbed his bags from by the door before Kristoff had a chance to think of getting them.
Kristoff didn’t want to admit that he thought he would be sleeping in the living room. He really wouldn’t have minded; the sofa looked very comfortable.
“Here’s the guest room,” Elsa said. “We really haven’t done anything with it, but the sheets are clean, I promise!”
“Clean sheets are a lot more than I was expecting,” Kristoff laughed.
“Anyway,” Elsa said. “It’s almost midnight, so good night!”
“So…” Anna said as soon as her sister had gone upstairs. “Have you seen the view?”
Kristoff looked back at the living room. “It’s a bit dark out, isn’t it?”
“Well, you can see the stars. Want to?”
“Uh, sure?” he replied, following Anna, who had already started her way to the living room. The windows had to be twenty feet tall, and Anna led him to a small door to the balcony.
His eyes took a moment to adjust to the pure black, but he started noticing a few of the brighter stars, followed by a few more. Anna reached inside the door briefly, and all the lights inside turned off. Now the only other lights were a dim glow on the horizon.
“Is that the city?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty bright,” Anna said. But we’re far enough from anything else, at least. See?”
She touched his hand and pointed over to the side.
“Is that the Milky Way?” he asked. Her hand was still on his.
“Yeah, this is about as early as you can see it in the year. Sometimes you get an aurora this far south, too.”
“We’re not that far south,” Kristoff said.
“We are for auroras,” Anna said.
Kristoff nodded. He looked over at Anna, who was still looking at the sky.
“So, um, yeah,” Anna said, breaking the silence, and moving her hand away. “What do you think?”
“It’s pretty,” Kristoff replied, really not sure what to say. “I guess you have parties here or something?”
“No, not really. Do you think we should?”
“I have no idea,” Kristoff laughed. “Parties really aren’t my thing. It’s just like the kind of place you’d see in a movie with people having cocktails.”
“I’m not sure who we’d know who would be into that sort of thing.”
“I thought Olaf said he’s come up here with you?”
“Oh, of course, but we’ve known him forever.”
“Right,” Kristoff said. “He was on your team in high school, wasn’t he?”
“We knew him even before then,” Anna said.
“Family friend?”
“I guess you could say that.” Anna said. “He was the exception to not having any guests here.”
“Really?” Kristoff asked. “I just kind of figured everyone got invited here at some point.”
It was too dark to see Anna’s expression clearly, but from the silence he had the feeling he’d hit a nerve.
“My parents didn’t like having guests over, that’s all. We still haven’t really gotten in the habit of inviting people up here.”
“Oh,” Kristoff said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, it’s fine,” Anna insisted. “Anyhow, I’m glad you’re here. It’s nice to have some variety on a long weekend.”
“So what variety am I?” Kristoff chuckled.
“That’s not what I meant,” Anna groaned, playfully hitting at his arm, except that it was another spot the oar must have hit.
“Ow!”
“Did I hit the bruise again?”
“No, you found another one.”
She gently touched his arm again. “I hope I’m not making you regret coming here.”
Kristoff tried to think of something clever to say. “It’s good,” he said.
“It is nice to see you again,” Anna said. “It’s been a while.”