Their acquaintance had gotten off on an awkward start. Since he was a biology major in his junior year, Kristoff took statistics to prepare for veterinary medicine later on. But the copper-headed freshman who sat beside him that day was a communication major. It seemed kind of pointless to take a math class when your major is about talking.
Anna—that was the freshman's name—had bristled when he told her that. "Well, excuse me, Mr. Biology Major," she huffed. "First of all, I'm taking up advertising. Statistics is important when I'm trying to do quantitative market research. You know, surveys and stuff."
"Of course," he agreed, if only to placate her. "So you took this class voluntarily, then?"
"W-well—that is—it's also interesting!" she sputtered. Kristoff raised an eyebrow—really, this girl was a terrible liar. He hadn't missed how her eye darted toward the guy sitting a few rows ahead of them, sitting up straight and in that supremely confident way that never failed to annoy him.
It was Hans.
Kristoff had rolled his eyes. That guy was a major prick, strutting around as if he owned the campus, surrounded by his lackeys and female admirers. It was no secret he was after Elsa, who, thankfully, was immune to The Prick's supposed charms.
The Prick had happened to glance back and saw how Anna was staring at him. Kristoff watched as the other guy's mouth stretch into a slight smile. He supposed that to Anna it looked charming, but to him it looked too slick. He didn't see it, but he could feel Anna quivering with excitement beside him. "Don't hold your breath," he informed her as he flipped through his notebook for a clean page, a bored expression on his face. "He's after Elsa. You know, the dean's daughter."
Out of the corner of his eye he spied the communication—oh wait, no, advertising—major deflate. "I know," she muttered. "She's my sister."
Interesting. "So now he's making a pass at you? That is one classy guy," he drawled.
"He's just being friendly!"
"Sure he is."
"Ugh, you are annoying!"
"No, I'm Kristoff. Nice to meet you. And you are?"
Yep, rocky relationship. But surprisingly, she continued to sit next to him for the next two weeks, trading barbs with him before Professor Kai shuffled in. Once class started, the two of them focused on the lesson, comparing notes and helping one another unravel the mysteries of statistics. Professor Kai had his class pair up for doing exercises, and since they were sitting next to each other, Anna had gone ahead and asked him to be her partner. He only shrugged as if to say "what the heck" and tamped down on the wave of satisfaction that overcame him when Hans sauntered over to ask Anna to be his partner, only to be refused. Still, out of consideration (which surprised him, because he normally wasn't considerate), he asked her if she'd rather be with Hans. "No," Anna had answered, flipping her book to page 462. "I asked you, you agreed, so we're partners."
After a month of working on problems side by side in class, and sometimes at the library, Kristoff began to notice the freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose. He noticed how she wrinkled its left side as she squinted at her book, trying to make sense of the equation she was puzzling over. He always gave himself a mental shake—since when had freckles and nose wrinkling been a big deal to him?
"Here," he offered when it became too much for him today (he tried not to be distracted by how dangerously cute she was being, her nose scrunched up like that), "let me see what you've got." He took her notebook and studied her work. Surprisingly, her penmanship was neat, considering how madly she wrote in her notebook as the professor droned on. He had expected her notebook to be filled with an illegible scrawl.
"I know it's wrong, but I can't figure out why!" Anna pouted, bringing him back from his musings. "Am I missing something?"
"Yep. You forgot to subtract seven from fifty."
"What?" Anna snatched her notebook from him, her eyes scanning rapidly to where her mistake was. "Oh. Well. Now I feel kind of stupid," she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.
"You're not. You're just impatient, making you careless," Kristoff replied. "You know you're wrong somewhere, so that means you know what you need to do. Take things slowly, and you'll find the answer."
"Really?"
"Yep."
The smile she gave him made him feel like a hero. "Thanks, Kristoff. That's really nice of you to say that." Anna laid a hand on his forearm, its warmth leaving his skin tingling. He swallowed, willing his heart to calm down.
"Don't mention it," he said curtly, ducking his head to pretend looking over his notes and pulling his arm away. "Anyway…"
The class dragged on for another thirty minutes, with them working on five more exercises before Professor Kai dismissed them. Kristoff was working up the nerve to ask Anna if he could walk with her to the dormitories, since they were both located in the same one. It had come up before that the statistics class they had together was the last one they had for the day, and before he and Anna ended up as math partners, Kristoff was usually the first one out the door, walking briskly toward his dorm building so he could chill out playing video games or go to bed. As for Anna, well—judging how extroverted his math partner was, she probably headed off to parties once she dropped her stuff off at her room so she could soak up the college experience. He had tried it, but it wasn't his thing.
"So," Kristoff ventured, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "You wanna walk back with me? You're headed back to your dorm, right?"
"Yeah, sure," she agreed. "Oh wait, hang on." Anna fumbled at her bag to retrieve her phone. "Hello?"
Kristoff stepped back to give Anna the privacy she needed to speak with whoever was on the other line. He tried not to listen in, but his proximity from her made it rather unavoidable. "Yeah, I'm headed back to the dorm. No, I think I'll pass, I—oh, really? Well…" she hesitated, hitching her bag up higher on her shoulder. "Look, I'll text you if I'm on my way, okay?" She ended her call and put her phone away. "It was Meg," she explained as they started walking toward the door of the classroom, adjusting their coats. "She's inviting me to this party Hans is throwing at the Sigma Rho house."
Kristoff furrowed his brow slightly. Sigma Rho was the most popular fraternity on campus, and it was known for throwing rather wild parties. He felt a surge of protectiveness for Anna—she was a freshman, and those parties Sigma Rho threw weren't for the faint-hearted.
He held his tongue though. Based on what he knew about Anna, if he said anything along the lines of "don't go, you can't handle it", she'd be even more determined to go. He had to think fast. His roommate Flynn usually scored invites for those kinds of parties—what if he asked Flynn if he if he could go with him?
"Hey, Bjorgman—you home in there?" Anna waved a hand before his eyes. "Are we going or not?" She tugged on his arm and he ignored how his pulse jumped at the contact.
What the heck was she doing to him?
But before he could figure it out, Hans suddenly appeared out of nowhere, looking smooth and polished as ever with his blue oxford shirt and neatly-pressed chinos. "Anna," he said, smiling. "Just the girl I wanted to see."
Dammit.
Kristoff resisted the urge to hustle Anna away, because he knew Hans was going to invite her to his party. Which The Prick did, with that earnest (ha) look and sincere (yeah, right) smile on his (annoying) face.
"Oh, um…" Anna looked flustered, her eyes darting between him and Hans. "Well—maybe next time," she blurted out.
"Are you sure? It won't be the same without you," Hans asked, surprise flickering in his eyes. Kristoff kept his face carefully bland, pretending to be indifferent to the exchange. In reality though, he felt like punching a fist through the air and screaming 'In your face, dude!" at The Prick.
"Yeah, I am," Anna said firmly. "Thanks for the invite, though."
With that, Hans shrugged and went on his way. "Invite's still open, though. Look me up when you're there," he said over his shoulder, smiling. "I'm sure you'll change your mind."
"Not likely," Kristoff heard her mutter under her breath, causing him to look down at her in surprise.
"Whoa, what changed?" he asked, falling into step beside her as they walked out of the math building. The chilly autumn breeze greeted them, ruffling their hair. "I thought you liked the guy," Kristoff remarked, raising his voice a bit over the whistling wind.
"Well…" Anna trailed off, shrugging. "Guess I came to my senses."
"Huh." A sneaking suspicion crept in his mind and he gave it voice. "He didn't do anything to you, did he?" Kristoff asked, frowning deeply this time. He didn't notice his hands clenching into fists until he felt his nails digging into his palms.
"Who, Hans? Oh no." Anna shook her head vigorously in denial. "He's harmless."
Kristoff barely kept himself from snorting in derision. He really didn't have a good opinion about the guy, and he was not sorry to feel that way.
A comfortable silence fell over them like a blanket as they walked along the tree-lined path covered by red and gold leaves. Anna shivered from the cold and pulled out a pair of earmuffs from her bag. "I can barely feel my hands," she laughed, her teeth chattering a bit.
Maybe it was the shy invitation in her eyes that prompted what he did next. Or maybe it was the slow realization that he liked her, and that he wanted her to like him too. Whatever it was gave him the shot of courage to do it.
"Here, come closer." He took her hands in his, raising them to his mouth. Anna's eyes widened—he heard her breath hitch as he warmed them with his breath. He locked eyes with her, holding her gaze as he lowered their hands, rubbing hers within his broad, warm ones. "Better?" he asked, his voice slightly husky.
Anna lifted the corner of her mouth in a little smile. "You have no idea," she murmured, the tip of her tongue darting out to lick her lips quickly.
That did him in. He bent—slowly, to give her the chance to refuse his advance—just stopping shy from her lips, one last chance for her to retreat.
She didn't.