Groom's Cake

        The parties had to stop at some point, didn’t they? A week. A week this had been going on. You’d think Arendelle had never heard of a pregnant princess before.

        Anna clapped along with the dancers, her belly already swelling as she sat in the stands, seated next to the queen’s chair. The queen’s chair that was now vacant.

        Oh, right. Anna had asked Elsa for something, hadn’t she? Kristoff remembered seeing the queen scamper away after Anna had whispered something away into her sister’s ear.

        “So, what’s this dance called?”

        “I don’t know” Anna giggled, watching the people twirl and spin about in front of her in the market square. Great banners cloaked the sides of the royal pavilion that Kristoff, Anna, and Elsa shared. All around the square pennants sat atop poles, streamers flew across the sky. Or they should’ve. They’d never bothered to even change out the decorations that littered the poles and facades of the market, not even after the rain storm three nights ago. Banners hung limp in the wind, drapery was still sodden and clung to walls and dripped over revelers. No one really seemed to care all that much. Their princess was with child. All the beer probably helped too.

        “I’m pretty sure it’s from Prussia though,” Anna said as a lone man parted the crowd and danced on his own, feet slapping and clicking against the pavers. The whole dance was a complicated thing. If Kristoff watched the man’s feet his eyes would water trying to follow them, if he watched the man’s body it didn’t seem like he could be moving at all with how still he was. His head was starting to hurt. Maybe he’d had too much to drink.

        His chair rattled back and Kristoff pulled himself up with the railing before him, “I uh... I just need some air. I’ll be right back, Anna.”

        “Alright honey,” his wife said sweetly, “Actually, could you grab me a scarf? The blue one from our room?” she smiled, “I’m just a little bit chilled.”

        Kristoff nodded back to her as he left. It was a little strange, Anna not just getting something herself. Hah, maybe the baby was making her a little more cautious about things. Maybe Anna was finally taking things easy.

        Nudging his way past the crowds behind the royal pavilion, Kristoff followed the same footsteps that had brought him out here, back to the castle. He waved at the guards as he walked by. Christen and Ben had gotten the short straws today it seemed.

        He was getting better with the household and the servants names, he’d found, though it rankled him to call them that. A few short months ago when he and Anna had wed he was still getting lost and no amount of bumbling with the maids or butlers could help him.

        At least he got on well with the guards and Kai. Gerda was a problem. She still glared at him, no matter how many times he’d apologized for what had happened. Well just as long as he didn’t run into her it would be fine.

        The newly minted prince-consort meandered along the halls. Maybe he wasn’t as well versed as he’d thought only a moment ago. Now, which way was it? Left at the stairs? Or was it right? No Right was to Elsa’s apartments. Anna’s and His room was on the other side of the castle.

        Did they really need to make all the doors the same color? It was like looking into a mirror with another one behind you. The same door after the same door after the same door. He should paint their door. Maybe a nice little white stripe down the side of it? Anna might see the humor in that.

        Gerda wouldn’t.

Kristoff shuddered at the remember gaze.

        Okay let’s see…Third door on the right? No, no. There was a window. All the windows were on the left side here, weren’t they? Oh forget it.

        Kristoff stepped over to the first door, grabbing the brass knob and turning it, pushing the door open and looking into a largely empty room.

        The castle had plenty of them; it had been made to house a great number more than lived in it now. Elsa and Anna would use the extra space to put up and villagers that couldn’t make ends meet outside the city walls. They weren’t much use to anyone in the fall.

        He closed the door and tried the next one. Triangular window stared at him from this room, furnished with a small cot and a small desk. A butler’s room, Kristoff figured. But with a window! He was on the right side after all. He pulled the door closed and continued on.

        It was three more doors until he’d finally found his wife’s room. The door was ajar to begin with, in hindsight he should have looked here first.

        Technically he and Anna both lived in here, but really, everything was Anna’s. Most of Kristoff’s belongings could fit in the back of a sledge. He’d gotten his own wardrobe at least.

        Now where was that scarf? Probably the drawers, that’s well Anna kept half her clothes, balled up and wrinkled. Elsa had kept on giving her hell about that. He pulled open one drawer, meeting Anna’s small clothes, and not for the first time. He shut it and rummaged through another and another.

        “Where are you, you little-“

        “Who’s there?”

        “What?”

From behind the little changing curtain a blond head poked out.

        “Elsa?”

        “Kristoff? What are you doing in here?”

He held up the scarf, dark blue with little streaks of green.

        “Oh”

        “What are you doing in here?”

        “Nothing!” her crimson face disappeared behind the wooden placards.

        “Elsa-“

        “You have your scarf,” she called out, “you can go now!”

        “Elsa…”

The queen sighed from behind the little fence, “Fine…”

        Cloth rustled and Kristoff could hear the faint click of heels. Elsa stepped out into the light, red from her face to her shoulders but clad in a glowing white gown. Down the center, from the bodice’s neckline to the hem of the skirt was an icy blue cut of cloth inlaid with darker stitching looping around in curls and vines of ivy crawling across flowers and moons. The white had its own stitching, giving texture to the snowy surface. It also sported the plant motif, curls of white grasses just a shade different from the gown curling in on each other and blooming into wondrous flowers. Around her waist a large ribbon of cloth was tied into a deceptively haphazard knot, leaving a trail down the queen’s left side. As always her braid hung over her shoulder.

        He didn’t have to come any closer to the young woman to see the details in it. He already knew them. He’d seen the dress months before in a moment he’d remember for the rest of his life.

        “That’s-“

        “Anna said that she got a second one, made a little larger in case the baby was showing when you two had finally set  date,” Elsa looked down, she felt furiously foolish in this thing now that Kristoff had seen her, “But it wouldn’t really fit her… I think she… lied… to me…”

        It fit Elsa like a glove, Kristoff saw. It was made for her.

        “This was stupid. I shouldn’t have tried this on. Stupid Anna” she tried to retreat back behind the wooden curtain but Kristoff stopped her, catching her arm in his hand.

        “Elsa, you look… fine,” he said.

She didn’t say anything back; she just kept her eyes on the privacy screen. Kristoff figured she was doing everything she good to stop the color flushing her cheeks.

        “I guess Anna’s done it to us again, hasn’t she?” Elsa finally said, turning to the man.

        “She’s pretty good at this,” he admitted.

        “At least the door isn’t locked this time…” Elsa let out a nervous laugh, looking down at herself, “Maybe she thought it was unfair, her getting married and me not…”

He reluctantly let her go, and Elsa didn’t run back to change. Instead she spun around a little, the hem of the skirt fluttering about her feet, “I think Anna and I have the same taste in dresses.”

        “You both look very ah. Beautiful in them,” he said somewhat unconfidently.

Elsa took his hand and squeezed it and stood on her tippy toes. For a moment she felt like a princess on her wedding day.