#Psychology of Kristoff Bjorgman

[annas-hair-donut]

Love, Essentially

Fandom: Frozen (Disney Movies), The Little Mermaid (1989), Brave (2012) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Anna/Kristoff, Anna/Hans, Anna & Kristoff Characters: Anna, Kristoff, Hans, Elsa, Sven, Ariel, Merida, Olaf Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Trains, Nurses, Pandemics, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Fluff and Smut, Fluff and Angst, Step-parents, Sisters, Hospitals, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Masks, Hans Being an Asshole, Showers, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Roleplay

Chapters: 37/37 Posted Series: Part 1 of The Arendelle Pandemic Summary: Anna is a nurse in an ER and she's taken the train to work almost every day for the past 10 years. She is married to Hans and they have two daughters, Ariel and Merida. Kristoff is a lonely train engineer for the City of Arendelle's commuter line. Then the Pandemic strikes and changes everything. Kristoff is forced to work as a conductor for the first time in 15 years, and his path finally collides with Anna's. Will the Pandemic bring them together?

💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞 Before he even turned around, he could hear her panting.

“Than..k you…. It… was so… nice…. … of you to…. Hold the train… for me.”

“They changed the schedule for the Pandemic.  So the train runs 5 minutes earlier than before.”

“Oh, really?  Well, I really appreciate you waiting for me.”  Kristoff thought she looked really guilty.

“Oh, um, just my job.  You know.”

Once she mostly caught her breath she looked up at him.  “No, really.  I appreciate it.”

Her eyes, bright teal, shined on top of the yellow disposable mask, which was surrounded by her bright red hair tucked into messy braids.  Kristoff tried not to think about how cute she was, or how captivating her eyes were.

“Do you have your ticket, miss?”

“Oh!  My ticket.  I completely forgot!  Ok, hold on, let me find it really quick.”

After a few seconds of her fiddling with the app, “Ok, here it is.  Sorry for all the trouble!”

“No problem.  Please go ahead and take your seat.”

The next 25 minutes were hard for Kristoff.  He went through the motions at the next three stops, but his eyes darted back to the redhead whenever he wasn’t doing anything else.  She was playing a game or texting with someone on her phone and her eyes lit up occasionally or she’d wiggle in her seat or twirl her hair.  Kristoff had to find out what she was doing that could possibly be so entertaining at 7:00 am.  He casually walked by, pretending to check something behind her so he could get a look at her screen.  She was watching “Avatar:  The Last Airbender”.  He recognized it instantly because his 11 year old niece, Thora, always made him watch with it her.  He thought they could at least have that to talk about.

What the hell, Bjorgman.  She’s not that cute.

Then he continued to casually walk back to the front and turned back around.  The woman noticed the stop and stood up, smoothing her scrubs and adjusting her bag.

She really is that cute.  And her eyes just sparkle.

She stood right in front of the door, and Kristoff really did his best not to notice her breasts bouncing every time the train hit a bump.  He wondered if they were big enough to fill his large hands.  He guessed that they were, but just barely.  Realizing that he was staring, he lifted his eyes as quickly as he could.  Just as he did she turned to him, without catching him, and said, “I hope you have a really good day.  Thanks again for holding the door for me.”

“Um, sure.  You, too.  Have a nice day.”

Have a nice day?  Huh.

He didn’t realize how nice it would be to have a beautiful woman say that to him in real life, and for him to say it to her.  It was so much better than his fantasy. As soon as the doors opened Kristoff walked onto the platform and watched Anna sprint off towards the hospital.  She looked over her shoulder, though, and waved at him.  He waited until she was out of sight before letting the engineers know the platform was clear.

“Well, she sure did turn your frown upside down!”

“Excuse me?”  Kristoff was annoyed that this woman interrupted his thoughts about the cute redhead.

“I’ve been on this train since Living Rock and you’ve been Mr. Grumpy Cat the whole time.  And in walks Miss Blue Eyes and you’re all smiles.”

“I’ve got to check tickets.”

When Kristoff walked by again, he heard, “You still have that goofy grin on your face, by the way. Even with the mask I can tell.”

“I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?”

“That girl, the nurse.”

“Do you know her?”  He hated that his curiosity got the better of him. 

“I’ve been riding this route every morning for years.  I know all the regulars.  Course most of them aren’t here anymore.  Pandemic.  Anyway, her name’s-”

“Don’t tell me.”

“You don’t want to know?”

“No.  I just want to do my job and go home at the end of the day.”

Continue reading @ AO3.

[frozen-orbit]

Love and belongingness needs in Frozen

To understand: Abraham H. Maslow was a psychologist who established the Holistic-Dynamic Theory, in which he discussed how there are different kinds of needs: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

The love and belongingness needs can be manifested, for example, as desire for friendship, wish for a mate and children, the necessity to belong to a certain group, etc.

People can be classified based on the amount of love and belongingness they have received:

People who have had this need adequately satisfied from early years

People who have never or very less experienced love and belongingness

People who have received love and belongingness only in small doses

We are not going to talk about the first kind of people cause they're like the ideal type of and unfortunately there aren't characters like this in Frozen lmao, at least not during the development of the first film, the part in which we are most focused right now.

I like to imagine the second kind of people as Kristoff. According to Maslow, these persons have seldom or never been hugged or cuddled, nor experienced many forms of verbal love. Taking into consideration that Kristoff was an orphan since a very young age, I imagine he lacked of this need when he was a kid. And though he was embraced by the trolls and had always Sven's company, I do think he received affection, but only in a small amount that maybe never fulfilled the amount of love he really needed, not to mention that this affection never came from another human. Also, I simply love the idea of Kristoff being hug starved. I mean, just look at this big soft man.

Maslow believed that people who lacked of love and belongingness needs will eventually learn to devalue love and to take its absence for granted, something that in fact started to happen to Kristoff. He was a dude almost secluded from society, even starting to hate people in some way, thinking he didn't need anyone but his reindeer.

As far as we know, he didn't feel the need to love or being loved, at least not before knowing Anna. So bless Anna and amen to Kristanna.

Talking about Anna, I think we can all agree on how she can be a pretty good example of the next kind of people. Let me explain.

According to Maslow, these persons will be strongly motivated to seek love and belongingness because they have received only a taste of it. I'm basing this on the fact of Anna being excluded from Elsa from a young age, but also considering what many people think, that she might have been neglected by her parents since The Accident™, and that was just before they died and Anna ended up practically all alone.

Maslow said that people who have received only a little amount of love have stronger needs of affection and acceptance than people who have received either a healthy amount of love or no love at all. Should I still explain why does Anna acts the way she does when she meets Hans?

I think this could also apply to Kristoff in Frozen II, where he now has experienced more love after three years with Anna, but maybe not enough to consider him "completely satisfied", specially having in mind what I previously said, that he received a poor amount of affection or even none, meaning that he could now be included within this kind of people. This could be portrayed in Kristoff's desperation to propose to Anna and all the worries it carried.

Finally, I'd like to quote some things this book I'm basing all this on, Theories of Personality, says.

"Adults need love, but their attempts to attain it are sometimes cleverly disguised. These adults often engage in self-defeating behaviors, such as pretending to be aloof from other people or adopting a cynical, cold and calloused manner in their interpersonal relationships."

"They may give the appearance of self-sufficiency and independence, but in reality they have a strong need to be accepted and loved by other people." Yes, I feel this fits Elsa too.

"Other adults whose love needs remain largely unsatisfied adopt more obvious ways of trying to satisfy them, but they undermine their own success by striving too hard."

I think this doesn't need more explanation.

Anyways, if you're interested, all the info about Abraham Maslow and the Holistic-Dynamic Theory was taken from the book Theories of Personality by Jess Feist & Gregory J. Feist – 7 ed. :)✨

[generaldisdainn]

Talk Therapy Chapter 3

Summary: Anna is engaged to the charming Hans, but Elsa has some concerns about the arrangement. Much to Anna's dismay, Elsa encourages her to seek out a professional opinion before going through with the marriage. That leads Anna into Kristoff Bjorgman's office where she is, with the help of her caring therapist, finally able to come to terms with the fact that maybe her relationship with Hans isn't all she thought it was.

[CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of emotional manipulation/abuse]

AO3 link

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Anna stepped into the foyer of Hans’ home, shoes clicking against the marble flooring and echoing through the tall, barren ceilings. Hans’ house was pristine in nature, white and sterile in every sense of the words. The walls were tall and daunting at first, but Anna had learned to find solace within them. Where her parents had been taken away from her, Hans had come in and swept her off her feet, providing her love and comfort when she needed it most. College had been fun and she loved her friends, classes, and professors, but being so far away from her sister and losing both of her parents so suddenly had taken its toll, and she had found comfort in spending nights in his arms.

“Hans?” she called. Her voice bounced back to her, resonating through the room. He must not have been home yet.

Anna sighed and bounded over to the couch, slouching down and placing her feet up on the coffee table. Hans hated it when she laid around all over his nice furniture, a preference she was happy to respect when he was around, but a line she delicately snuck across whenever she was alone. The house felt so quiet and lonely, but she knew he would be home soon.

It was always a toss-up as to what mood Hans would be in after work. Sometimes he would have just closed a sales deal and they would watch movies and laugh and he would pull her into him and tell her how much he cared for her. Other times he would come in from a particularly bad day and he would criticize, snarl, and bat her away when she attempted to comfort him. She knew it wasn’t his fault. The amount of pressure he was under as the son of the CEO of the company was something she could never understand. He was in charge of a considerable amount of people, and the stress of it all frequently bubbled over into anger. She knew she couldn’t blame him. Better to take it out on her than his coworkers and risk getting fired. And besides, a particularly rough night meant that there would be flowers on the table the next morning, so she could hardly complain.

Anna checked the time and rose with a start. He would be home in less than 30 minutes. She bustled to the kitchen, eager to get started on their dinner so that, at the very least, if he came home upset and jaded, he couldn’t complain about dinner not being made on time.

The front door opened and shut with a ceremonious slam. Anna felt her heart stop as she waited for his first words. The first thing he said when he came in the door was a reliable indicator of how the rest of the night would go.

“It smells delicious in here,” Hans sighed as he came around the corner and into the kitchen. Anna let out a breath as he kissed her forehead. “I’m making chicken alfredo. I’m warming up bread too,” she said, motioning to the oven. “How was your day at work?”

“We got that new client! God, it was incredible. Anna, you should have seen it. One of the other managers was fumbling with them and I swooped in and saved the day.”

Anna giggled. She loved when he was happy like this. “I’m so glad. You’re amazing.” She set the table. Hans sat at the head, and she placed his food in front of him before returning to the kitchen to retrieve her own.

“Can you grab some butter for the bread while you’re in there, dearest?”

Anna stopped in her tracks. Shit. She was supposed to go to the store today to pick up butter and wine and milk and-

“Anna?”

Anna spun on her heel, facing him with pleading eyes and hands outstretched in defense. “I’m so sorry, but I forgot to go to the store today. I promise I’ll go first thing tomorrow and get everything. I-”

“What could you have possibly been doing today other than going to the store?” he questioned.

“I’m sorry, I got side-tracked.”

“Doing what?”

“Cleaning, and, I got lunch with Elsa, I’m-” It was a lie, but one that she was willing to tell. Anything to avoid him finding out she was in therapy.

“Elsa.” Hans held his face in his hands, rubbing his temples. “You forgot to go to the store, and you saw Elsa? You know how I feel about her.”

“I know, but she’s my sister. I can’t just not-”

“She hates me, Anna.” He cut her off with a seething tone and a hand slammed to the table.  “How do you think that makes me feel? I would never spend time with someone who didn’t approve of you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Guilt pricked at her sides. She didn’t mean to hurt him by seeing her, but Elsa was her sister.

“Silly girl. I don’t know how you expect to go to grad school if you can’t manage something simple like picking up butter from the grocery store.”

“That’s different,” she replied.  

Hans threw his head back and groaned. “Anna, let’s not get into this now. Just sit down and let’s try to enjoy what you actually remembered to do.”

Anna nodded and ate her dinner in silence, listening to Hans prattle on about the sale he had made today.

Hans made a show of throwing the bread away after dinner. “No point in eating bread without butter,” he complained. She wanted to say how wasteful and childish that was, but Anna bit her lip. She knew better. It was her fault that the bread was being put to waste, anyway. Hans retired to his office, and Anna went up to their room to have a moment to herself.

She made her way to the bathroom and locked the door, confident that even if Hans wondered what she was up to, she could just say she was using the restroom or cleaning up the space. If he asked about the locked door, well, she would come up with something. Hidden away in the bathroom, she pulled out the papers that had been weighing in her purse since her meeting with Kristoff. She sat on the floor, paper and pen poised against the linoleum tiles, the coolness of the surface below her creeping up into her skin. She turned her eyes to the questions at hand.

How would you rate your sense of self-esteem? How would you describe yourself? What are your best qualities? What are your worst qualities? How would you describe a perfect life? If you could change anything about your life, what would you change?

What would her perfect life look like? Parents who were still alive. A sister who had been around her for longer than just one year. An elementary school class of her own. A husband who let her go to grad school and get her teaching degree.

Anna shook off the thought. She was lucky to be in this house with him. Lucky that he loved her and let her love him.

Have you ever had thoughts of death or suicide? Have you ever engaged in self-destructive behaviors? Do you ever wish you were someone else?

Anna felt her stomach rise up in her throat. She wanted to bury herself beneath the ground and emerge without the memories of the days spent alone in her dorm room staring blankly at the wall or of sneaking to the bathroom to cry, quietly shutting the door behind her as to not wake Hans.

She felt childish. Stupid. She felt hot tears pricking in her eyes, the memories and Hans’ words from earlier swimming around in her brain until she could no longer think clearly. Why couldn’t she be better? For Hans and for herself. A tear fell onto the paper. Anna stood and made her way to her desk in their bedroom. No more of those questions. She needed to stop and just breathe. Anna pulled up her laptop and wiped a shaky hand across her cheek to stop a stay tear that leaked out of her eye. She opened up Google and typed.

Kristoff Bjorgman

The words seemed to pulse in the Google search bar. She clicked in the enter key and results popped up one after another. A picture of Kristoff showed up on the side of the screen, a soft smile splayed out across his face. She felt some of her anxiety dissipate at the sight of his warm, brown eyes. That was the only image of him she could find, save for one of a small group of smiling students, heads held high. He stood out of the bunch due to his height and the soft, tousled blonde of his hair. She clicked on the link. The image was attached to a story about the graduating class of his master’s program. She was impressed, intimidated even. Getting any sort of higher education was an honor and something to be proud of. It was hard work, something that Hans often reminded her she wasn’t ready for. He was right, of course. But she would be. One day.

She clicked on a link that had his name followed by the words “Student Profile, Class of 2017”.

The picture with his warm eyes and shy smile sat proudly at the top of the page. She spent a moment looking at it, letting herself fall into his eyes and recall the gentle lull of his voice. A graduate of University of Washington’s master program in psychology, the article said that he graduated with honors and started the practicum hours needed to become licensed immediately following graduation. Anna took in all she could about this man.

“My school counselor helped me greatly as a child. I want to provide that same support that I received to children who need to be heard. People often forget that childhood can be just as difficult as adulthood and that children greatly need mental health support.” Anna could hear the quote in his voice, gentle and smooth like a lullaby. Kristoff was so sure of himself and seemed so calm and together during their session. It pained her to envision a Kristoff who sat alone and afraid in a school counselor's office. What could he have needed that support for?

She kept going, finding herself reading a quote from one of his professors. “Bjorgman consistently impressed me with his desire to find the whole picture and address the underlying roots of situations as opposed to just the obvious quick fixes. Intuitive and calming, he will be an excellent psychologist to whichever populations he chooses to serve.” Anna had only been with Kristoff for an hour-long session, and yet, she agreed with every word of the article. She scrolled back up to the top of the page and sighed as she saw his picture. Intuitive. Calming. Dreamy.

“Anna, dear? Are you okay?”

Anna’s breath hitched in her throat. She slammed the lid of her laptop shut and scrambled to shove the papers into the drawer of her desk. “Yes! Yes, I’m fine,” she called, cursing herself for the tremble in her voice.

“What have you been up to up here? I’ve missed you,” he cooed, striding over to where she stood at attention by her desk. He trailed a finger along her cheek. “I’ve been working terribly hard, and I would love to relieve some stress in bed tonight.”

Anna smiled, relieved that he didn’t press her on her scrambling to put her things away or bring her mistakes from earlier back up. She was almost giddy with excitement. She was being offered a chance to make up for her earlier mistakes, a chance to prove herself. And besides, she knew that it would be in her best interest if she wanted her loving Hans tomorrow and not the cross one she got whenever he went to bed with unrelieved stress.

“Of course,” she replied, happy to be useful to him. Happy to be needed. So lucky to be loved by him.

[swynlake-rp]

“Reindeers are better than people.”

FULL NAME: Kristoff Bjorgman BASED ON: Kristoff (Frozen) FACE CLAIM: Boyd Holbrook PRONOUNS: he/him BIRTHDAY: December 31, 1989 CURRENT STATUS: Taken

Character Information || cw: kidnapping ||

LOST BOY OF 1995 NOW LIVING IN SWYNLAKE Kristoff Bjorgman, the boy who famously went missing in Swynlake in 1995 and was found kidnapped by Stone Trolls, is now back in town

Many of the natives of Swynlake might remember the news story that broke almost 25 years ago. Kristoff Bjorgman, six years old at the time and a tourist on holiday from Norway, went missing during a day at the lake and despite efforts from the local emergency services, he was unable to found. Ole and Anna Bjorgman continued their search, but as time went on and funds dwindled, there seemed little hope of finding the boy.

However, in 2005, a new lead: investigation into the Forest of Enchantra by the Bjorgman family found that one area of the forest had been unexplored. Despite disapproval from town hall, the Bjorgman family and a volunteer crew ventured into Stone Troll Territory with hopes of finding their son, and find him they did. Kristoff, now 16 years old and cut off from the world from almost a decade, spoke almost none of his native tongue and failed to recognise his parents at first. He was brought to Swynlake General Hospital, where he was kept overnight for observation. Whilst physically healthy, Bjorgman was clearly suffering psychological issues, assumed to be from his lack of human contact. The Bjorgman family, now accompanied by two younger children, Freya Bjorgman, four, and Agneta Bjorgman, two, relocated to Swynlake, after doctors advised keeping young Kristoff in town. Bjorgman was enrolled in Swynlake Secondary School, but after just three months, he elected to leave his family and return to the forest; the reason for this is still unknown, as the family chose not to comment, leaving Swynlake to return to Norway in 2007.

Little was heard of Kristoff Bjorgman in the decade that has followed, though there have been reports of a man coming and going from the forest from time to time. In 2018, there were reports of Bjorgman moving into a flat in the Benbow Apartment Complex, but these could not be substantiated. Now, however, it seems Bjorgman is making a proper home for himself in Swynlake. We at the Squire hope the community welcomes this long lost resident with open arms.

✓  Selfless, resourceful, individualistic

✖  Awkward, bashful, withdrawn

Character Suggestions

None

Possible Relationships

click here!

Magical Abilities

None

[upthenorthmountain]

Between the Lines - 4

Previous Chapters

Short one this time, but I’ve already written a lot of chapter 5 and that should be quite a bit longer, so here we go for now

Chapter 4 - Coventry and Birmingham

“Don’t be silly, Elsa.”

“You’ve said his name about ten times and we’ve barely been talking five minutes.”

“I don’t see many people, that’s all. I’ve been writing during the week.”

“Mmhmm.”

“It’s mermaids, this one. You know, I realised I hadn’t used mermaids, I thought about it when I was in Brighton with Kristoff and we were at the seafront - STOP LAUGHING.”

-----

When a woman and a little girl took seats for Kristoff’s reading, Anna wondered if she should go over and check that they had arrived at the correct time. But as soon as Kristoff saw them he went straight over, hugged the child and kissed the woman on the cheek.

After a couple of minutes of conversation he looked around and beckoned Anna over. “Anna, this is my sister, Katja, and my niece Holly.”

“Pleased to meet you!”

“And you!” Katja said. “I was just saying to Kris, you must both come to ours for dinner tonight.”

“Oh! How nice! Of course, I’d love to.”

The bookshop manager behind them cleared her throat. “Oh, I’m on,” Kristoff said. “Talk to you later.” He hesitated. “Do you have to listen to me?”

“I didn’t park in the centre of Coventry on a Saturday to NOT listen to you. And I’ve prepared some questions.”

“Lovely.”

“And we want to see Anna, too, of course.”

“Yes!” said Holly.

“Uncle Kris first, though,” Katja told her daughter.

“Oh, okay.”

-----

Kristoff leant against the bookshop wall and watched Anna read, as he always did. She’d left her hair down, and every time she looked down at her book it swung forward and got in her way; every time she tossed her head to throw it back over her shoulder she caught his eye for a split-second. She’d nearly lost her place twice already.

When Anna looked up properly at the end of the reading, she noticed Kristoff’s sister in the first row of seats. She was watching her brother watching Anna, smiling to herself. Anna quickly put her book down and asked the children if any of them had any questions.

-----

It was Anna’s turn to drive this weekend, so she let Kristoff direct her through the maze of a housing estate where Katja and her family lived. Anna was introduced to Katja’s husband, and Holly’s little brother who was only four and not yet much of a reader; then Holly insisted on Anna coming upstairs to admire her bedroom wallpaper and bookshelves.

When they came back downstairs, Anna found the other grown-ups in the kitchen. Katja was putting something in the oven and saying “- well, what are you going to do about it?” to her brother, who replied “You’re as bad as Mum -” before stopping guiltily at Anna’s entrance.

Katja looked up. “Oh! Anna, you escaped. Can I get you a drink?”

“Just a small one, thanks, I’m driving.”

“Kris, did Mum tell you she saw Lindsay the other day?” Katja said as she poured. “Ran into her in town and then they had a coffee. She’s still single!”

“Yeah, she said. And I’m ignoring that last part.”

“Who’s Lindsay?” Anna asked, a bit too quickly. She didn’t care, why would she care? She was just making conversation.

“My ex-girlfriend,” Kristoff said. “We broke up a year ago and some people still won’t let it go.”

“She was lovely!” Katja said.”I miss her. Mum’s still a bit cross with him for not marrying her,” she added to Anna. Kristoff sighed.

“I’m still not going to marry someone just because Mum thinks they’d make a good daughter-in-law,” he said. “But then it took Mum about six months to accept we’d actually broken up.”

“Because you were still so friendly with each other,” Katja said.

“Why wouldn’t we be friends?”

“Because that’s not how it goes for anyone else? Oh, and because she doesn’t think you broke up for a good reason.”

“It had run its course. We had a good three years, it wasn’t a failure just because Mum didn’t get to wear her wedding hat.” He picked up his drink. “And that’s enough, okay? I’m sick of rehashing it.”

“Sorry.”

“What’s for dinner?” Anna said.

-----

Anna drove them back to the hotel.

“I read your book,” Kristoff said, once they were on the main road.

“You did?”

“Yes, I was - curious. And I’ve heard the first chapter a few times now, I wanted to know how it ends.”

Anna laughed. “Fair enough. And?”

“It was surprisingly well-plotted. I mean - ”

“- you mean you’re surprised to find I can actually write.”

“No, I….”

“I’m having that put on the back of the next edition. ‘Surprisingly well-plotted’, Kristoff Bjorgman, author of Fire & Ice, in which three people get horribly murdered.”

“...sorry.”

“‘Not as long as some books’. ‘More than tolerable.’”

“I said sorry.”

“It’s okay - I get it a lot. No one takes my writing seriously. It’s for kids - worse than that, it’s for girls. Everyone thinks they could do it. But it’s actually a very crowded market. You have to be good to get anywhere. And you have to write something the parents want to read, too, or they won’t buy them.”

There was silence for a moment. “I couldn’t write what you do,” Kristoff said.

“I could write yours,” Anna said airily. “Start at the end and work backwards, right?”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“Watch me.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “The leader of the Council of Fairies has been horribly murdered, found hacked to pieces in the Sunlit Meadow - “

“Steady on - “

“- and Queen Merryhooves asks Ruby and Pearl to help her find the culprit. So they turn to that well-known and most skilled detective, Olaf Snøvenn, to help them -”

“- can’t they just magic up the answer?”

“Magic has to have rules and limits or there’s no fun. And no plot. And my books are surprisingly well-plotted.”

“Hmm. So if you start at the end, who did it?”

“Ruby.”

“What!”

“I know! What a twist! I’m a genius.”

“But why?”

“Tired of her big sister always getting the credit when she’s really the brains of the outfit.”

“That sounds a bit - psychological.”

“Just stating facts.”

They drove on a bit further. “I’m so glad I’m doing this tour with you,” Anna said, “because this evening was so nice. I can’t remember the last time someone made dinner for me, at their home, I mean. And your sister and her family are lovely. So thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. She’s been dying to meet you, I’m surprised she held off this long.”

Anna glanced at him. She wasn’t going to ask what he’d told his sister about her. She thought about what her own sister had said the day before on the telephone.

“When I see my sister,” she said instead, “We go to the theatre or something, or a restaurant where what the food looks like is much more important than how it tastes, and we drink cocktails. And that’s fun, but tonight was so - home-y. I think you’re used to it so you don’t notice.”

“Probably. I mean, it was nice, of course it was. I’d rather the evening we had than the theatre and the cocktails, I don’t think I’ve ever drunk a cocktail.”

“You have to be a bit careful because sometimes you can’t taste the alcohol very well, and you might not realise how strong it is until you try and stand up in heels and fall over again and have to be helped out to the taxi.”

He laughed. “This is a hypothetical scenario, I’m assuming.”

“Of course, I would never do a thing like that.”

Kristoff tried to stretch out his legs, but couldn’t manage it very well in the small car. He looked at his watch, then across at Anna. “Penny for them.”

“Mmm? I was just thinking about how that isn’t really me, either. It’s Elsa, and it’s fun, but it isn’t me. I’d rather be home-y. With my own family, one day.”

“You know,” he said, looking at her, “I can see that, actually. You in some farmhouse kitchen surrounded by children and dogs, wellies all over the floor and mittens drying on the Aga, perfectly happy.”

“One day,” Anna said. “Have to find myself a man first.”

[upthenorthmountain]

Me: OK brain, let's spend today at work thinking about the next chapter of Wherever I'm With You, maybe get working on that tonight Brain: OK, but how about if INSTEAD Kristoff Bjorgman writes Scandinavian psychological thrillers, Anna Rendell writes the Sparkle Sisters (Sisterhood is the strongest magic!!) series of children's fantasy novels, and their publisher sends them on a book tour together