Note at the end regarding this and my other fics.

Warnings: None that I know of.

"Anna, stop staring."

"I'm not staring."

"Uh-huh."

"Really, I'm not!"

Kristoff rolled his eyes and sat down at the table across from her. "So, are you gonna tell him, or what?"

Anna bit her lip and looked back at the table across the room. Hans was chatting with his friends, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. His eyes were alight with mirth and mouth set in a wide smile. Anna's heart did a somersault at the sound of his laugh.

She bit her lip and played with her fingers. "I don't know… what if he doesn't like me back?"

Kristoff shrugged and shoved half of a hot dog into his mouth. He spent a few moments chewing, leaving Anna in suspense. She rolled her eyes and waited for his no-doubt-unhelpful response.

"You won't know unless you ask him."

Anna huffed. Yeah, she was expecting as much.

"Look, the worst thing he could say is that he doesn't think of you that way—"

"That is the worst thing that could happen! In front of everyone—!"

"Okay, okay. I know. It's gonna suck if he doesn't think of you that way. I know you hate rejection and I know your anxiety makes you think weird and ridiculous things, but just. Hear me out."

Anna raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms. "I'm waiting."

Kristoff mulled a bit on his thoughts for a while, then sucked in a breath and continued, "Look, you can tell him you like him, and maybe he'll say yes, maybe he'll say no. Or, you can sit here and think about telling him, and you'll never know what he thinks of you."

Anna slumped a little in her seat.

"And hey, if he only thinks of you as a friend, that's not so bad, because you're a great friend! But I know you, and if that happens, I'll take you out to get pizza and we'll play SSB or Mario Kart or whatever the hell you wanna play all night long."

Anna sighed and flopped over the table. This whole thing was ridiculous. First of all, what would a guy like Hans want with her? Super smart, super funny, super confident… he already had his bachelor's degree ("He's working on his master's, Kristoff!" "Yeah, he's 23." "I know, but still."), probably graduated at the top of his classes. What would he care about for a clumsy, socially awkward college freshman who only managed to get into Arendelle U because of an athletic scholarship?

Second of all, Kristoff was right, it was no use moping about something that may happen. It's just that she hated when he was right about these kinds of things.

Anna sucked in a breath and stood up abruptly. "Alright, you're right. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go over there and tell him."

"Well, no need, Fiesty Pants, because here he comes."

WHAT.

Anna turned on the spot and, sure enough, there was Hans, making his way over to their table. Her heart must have torn in two, because it felt like it both dropped into the pit of her stomach and soared right out of her chest, through her throat, and into her head. She swallowed down the sudden wave of anxiety and smiled—though she was certain it came off as more of a grimace than anything else—and gave an awkward little half-wave.

"H-hey, Hans! What's up?"

"Hey," he said, waving back, "I was just wondering… um, you guys free tonight?"

Anna's mouth was flopping open and closed uselessly, so Kristoff came to her rescue, "Yeah, we're free. What's up?"

Hans smiled wider. "Well, a buddy of mine is throwing a party… just wanted to know if you guys were interested in going."

Anna felt Kristoff nudge her briefly (So subtle, Kristoff.) before he continued, "Yeah, we're totally down. Right, Anna?"

Anna smiled at Hans, "Y-yeah, we're down. To um, go to this party. And like… hang out."

Hans smiled, apparently either not noticing or not caring about her awkward words. She smiled back and felt her face heat up. She cleared her throat and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

So does this mean he likes me?

He wouldn't ask me to a party if he didn't, honestly Anna.

But he asked Kristoff to the party, too, maybe he just thinks we'd be good friends.

Stop thinking about it! Just go to the party and have fun!

To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about drinking around people she didn't know. Not like she never sneaked off to a couple high school parties before, and she's drank her fair share with Kristoff, but in all those cases, she knew everyone she was drinking with. How would this go?

Well, in any case, if there was alcohol, Kristoff would be drinking, so she'd have to drive him. Ah well. She'd rather be sober when potentially telling Hans she liked him in a more-than-friends way anyways. The alternative was… not something she wanted to think about.

Hans introduced them to his friends, and pretty soon they were all talking like they'd know each other for years. Anna couldn't help but feel even more out of her league, though. All these guys, top of their classes, probably went to some crazy-expensive private schools that were the best in the nation, got here based on pure academics. Or money. Or something. Basically better than her in every way. And the way they held themselves… like they owned the world and they knew it, were bored of it. She had no business being in this group of people. And yet here she was, invited over by Hans himself. She was standing between him and Kristoff, and she couldn't help notice the way he let his left hand dangle at his side, between them.

Does he wanna hold my hand?

I shouldn't try.

But what if he wants to hold my hand?

Well what if he doesn't you asshole!

It didn't matter, because before she could try, Anna's phone went off.

She fished it out of her pocket and looked the text over. It was from an unknown number and she had half a mind to ignore it, until she noticed the message.

Hey, it's Elsa. Do you have everything for the project tomorrow?

Project? What—

Anna's eyes went wide.

Oh shit.

And that's for Weselton's class, too!

She winced as she shakily typed back a message, "No…"

"What's wrong, Anna?"

She perked up at the sound of Hans' voice, looking up to see him looking at her with a concerned expression. She noticed he had stuffed his left hand back into his pocket.

"You just suddenly went pale. Is everything okay?"

Anna became very aware of everyone suddenly staring at her and swallowed. Everything felt like it was closing in on her, and the large cafeteria felt much, much smaller.

"Uh… I, um," she swallowed again, hating how her voice shook, "I have a project for one of my classes tomorrow that I forgot about."

One of Hans' friends shrugged his shoulders. "Just skip it."

As tempting as it sounded to her (And it would free me up for Hans' party, dammit!), Anna shook her head. "It's for Weselton's class."

The man winced. "Er, yeah, never mind. You can't skip that."

Her phone pinged again and she looked down to read the new text.

Elsa: Are you free tonight? Need any help?

Anna: Uhh, yeah kinda? If you don't mind?

Elsa: Sure thing. Come to my dorm when you can.

Anna pocketed her phone and sighed. "I guess… I can't hang out tonight."

"Hey, it's cool, Red." Kristoff put his hand on her shoulder in comfort. "Tomorrow after class, I'll take you out for pizza as compensation for dealing with the Weasel's shit."

Hans smiled and nodded. "Yeah, don't worry about it, Anna. School comes first."

Anna smiled, blushing. "Thanks, guys. Uh, I guess I'll hang out with everyone later?"

They all made plans for another meet-up (Kristoff probably wasn't going to go to the party if he didn't have anyone to drive him back), and wished Anna good luck as she left. She checked her phone again when she got another text message from Elsa, telling her where her room was located.

Well, so much for finding out if Hans likes me.

Anna sighed and pocketed her phone, hoping she had everything she needed in her backpack as she swung it over her shoulder.

Anna only had to wait a few seconds after knocking once on the door.

"Hi, come in." Elsa held the door open wide for Anna.

"Wow, that was fast." Anna laughed as she walked in. "Usually it takes Kristoff something like five minutes to answer the door."

"O-oh, um… I-I'm sorry?"

"Oh, no, I've gotten used to it." Anna took off her shoes by the door before moving over to the couch. She sat down, drumming on her knees as she took a look around the room. It was pretty bare—besides the single bed and couch, there was only a desk with Elsa's laptop and textbooks piled neatly on top.

Though the single bed was shocking. Anna wasn't sure why, but a single dorm was not what she was expecting. She wondered what made Elsa ask for one, and just how much money she actually had to be able to afford one. Maybe Elsa was like Hans and his friends, and was actually super rich.

But if she was, she certainly didn't show it.

It took a while for Anna to notice Elsa was still standing awkwardly by the door.

Maybe I should start a conversation?

"Um… so hi."

Brilliant.

Elsa smiled and gave a small wave. "Hi."

"So… um… we should probably get started."

"Yes, we probably should."

They spent the next few hours working on the project together, Elsa helping Anna with her workload in record time. Anna was impressed but she couldn't help but notice Elsa's relative discomfort and awkwardness. Was she always like this around people? Anna hated to admit to herself that she never really paid much attention to the girl in class before.

Maybe I should from now on… maybe all she needs is a friend.

Or maybe she had friends already and Anna was just simply intruding in her space. Even if she was invited, it had to be awkward to have somebody you barely knew in the place you called home.

Oh, whatever. The project was almost done as it was.

I wonder how Hans' party is going…

Anna had to bite her lip at the goofy ear-to-ear smile that threatened to break out. Her mind went back to what Kristoff was saying earlier, and… well, he was right. It was pretty stupid of her to just sit there thinking of a thousand what-ifs and never actually act on them. Maybe Hans was interested in her, too! She's had a few signs that seemed to imply so.

And if he didn't, well… was it really the end of the world?

But I don't wanna ruin our potential friendship! I mean, we're still kind of getting to know each other and if this makes things awkward—

No, no, no, she was doing it again. She needed to just suck it up and give it a try. And she couldn't see Hans as being the type of guy to let something like that get in the way of friendships.

Anna just needed to tell him. She needed to know if this could be a thing that went somewhere.

She needed to know now.

Well, who's to say I can't text him.

Sudden energy lighted up a fire inside her and she picked up her phone without really realizing what she was doing. By the time she did, she was already halfway through a text message.

Hey, I kind of sort of really like you? And like, if you don't like me that's totally cool, if you just wanna be friends, that's rad, but just, you know. I wanted to tell you in case… you liked me too?

Well that's awkward as fuck. Oh well. Some guys liked awkward, right? Anna didn't date enough to really know, if she were being honest with herself.

Well, full steam ahead.

Anna sent the text message.

She took a deep breath and set her phone down, returning to her laptop to look over what she'd written for the project. Elsa still seemed hard at work where she sat on the couch next to Anna, so she didn't bother her. As much as she tried, though, Anna found that focusing on her work was hard to do, instead stealing glances at her phone so often she was almost getting dizzy. What made it worse was when Elsa's phone went off instead and Anna checked hers on instinct, grumbling to herself as she threw it back down.

I shouldn't expect him to get back to me right away, though. He's at a party after all. Probably put his phone down somewhere, or just can't hear it, or—

A sharp gasp brought her out of her spiraling thoughts and she looked up to see Elsa staring at her phone wide-eyed and red-faced. She seemed frozen in place, almost like she forgot how to breathe, one trembling hand halfway raised to parted lips.

Anna watched her, concerned and was about to ask if everything was alright when Elsa finally looked up from her phone to catch her gaze. Anna could see the questioning look in her eyes directed at her, and she felt her breath catch in her throat. Sudden realization gripped her and her whole body tensed.

No, wait… I didn't… I had checked, right?

Anna heard her phone beep and felt her heart leap into her throat. She picked it up in a trembling hand and opened the message as anxiety settled into the pit of her stomach.

Elsa: I like you, too.

Oh no.

A/N: So, I'm uploading this from my tumblr. Wrote it about a year ago and meant to continue it but haven't yet. I thought I should put it up here, tho, because I do plan to continue it. I don't know how long it'll be, tho, and any updates won't really be on a strict schedule but more like whenever I get the inspiration for it and finish the parts, as this isn't a priority to me. This was honestly only written as a fun little thing picked from a list of one-sentence prompts before it got really popular on tumblr and I decided to try to write more for it, lol. Honestly I didn't expect it to get as many notes as it did, so it really took me by surprise! Anyways, here it is, I hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for more.

And for anybody who's keeping up with Masquerade and IKYO, I am still working on them, I promise. It's just been a really rough past couple of months, unfortunately, and things honestly haven't gotten any better. I'm also trying to write a bit ahead so that I can have more timely updates, but writing is still going very slowly. I'm really so sorry and thank you so much for your patience, it means a lot to me. Chapters will hopefully resume by the end of the month or beginning of next month.