A/N: Okay lovies, here we go. The first of many Elsanna interactions has arrived, there's no going back now I guess. Thank you all SO MUCH for the love this fic is getting. You're all amazing and I love you all so much! Keep it coming and I'll keep turning out chapters as quickly as my school work will allow. This chapter is a little long so bear with me, but I hope you enjoy it.
As the new pledges approached the building, Anna's ears were instantly bombarded with the thumping bass she had been quite literally feeling the entire walk over. The party was being held in the ADT headquarters. Since Arendelle University didn't allow its fraternities and sororities to have Houses, something about a horse incident back in the 60's no one could remember exactly, the social organizations had quickly scattered all over campus looking for their own spot in which they would host events, have meetings and other important activities. Belle had gone over how the selections had been organized, depending on the hierarchy and age of the fraternity or sorority, the best spot had been scouted and claimed by none other than the hosts of this year's mixer, Alpha Delta Theta. As the newest and least influential group on campus, LIG had received last pick and had chosen the Great Hall for it's central proximity on campus and ease of access for its members.
ADT obviously hadn't felt the same concern for their members or guests when they chose their location. The building was on the very outskirts of campus, completely secluded from the other structures. Anna wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, but she decided to go with it, stomaching the growing lump in her throat as she and her new sisters pushed open the door to the building, all entering with a slight apprehension, unsure what they would find.
The main entrance hall held a mixture of elegance and messiness. Granite floors with large dark skid marks covered the floor, and in an attempt to hide the damage, the skid marks were covered by ornately decorated rugs. Large chunks of wood were missing from the two beautiful mahogany staircases that curved up both sides of the entrance hall, leading to a landing on the second floor. Paintings hung crookedly from the wallpapered walls, everything from modern art to generals leading troops into battle. One painting of a young man with long brown hair and stunning blue eyes hung from its frame, the canvas had been slashed in multiple places. 'What could have done that?' Anna wondered as she and the other girls made their way towards the bass at the end of the hall. 'Some kind of animal maybe?' The front hall was classic and elegant, but it was obvious a large group of guys had been using the space for a long period of time, the smell of alcohol and sweat permeated the air.
Pushing open the great double doors at the end of the hall, a large ballroom stood in front of the stunned group of girls. This room was nothing like the entrance hall. The ballroom was immaculately clean! The marble floor shone, obviously having been recently polished just for the occasion. Giant mirrors lined two of the four walls, giving the room a larger-than-it-really-was feel. A large buffet table was set up along one wall, with all the makings of a proper feast! Trays of steaming food lined the table with almost anything the guests could have imagined. Baked pastas, carved meats, cheese and pepperoni platters with at least 6 different kinds of cheeses, all clearly labeled, not to mention the separate tables that held more deserts than Anna and the other girls could comprehend.
"Anna!" A voice boomed over the bass and Anna turned to see Kristoff pushing through the crowd of boys who were already on the dance floor, obviously trying to show off for the new arrivals. Anna broke into a smile and ran to her friend, jumping into his outstretched arms in one of the blonde's famous spinning bear hugs. Releasing her friend, Anna stepped back to look at her friend. Instead of his normal blue jeans sweater combo, Kristoff was wearing a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, black vest and black pants. Anna wasn't used to seeing her friend dressed so formally and laughed in spite of herself. Kristoff, noticing the giggles rolled his eyes and gave his friend a gentle punch in the arm making the red head laugh harder. "I'm sorry," Anna breathed out recovering from her giggle fit. "It's just I'm not used to seeing you looking so spiffy."
Rolling his eyes, Kristoff sighed and accepted the remark. "I know, not my favorite part of the evening, but still, it's a nice change from the blue jeans and sweaters right?" Anna had to agree with her friend. Before arriving at the party, Anna and the other girls had gone back to the freshman dorm to change into more appropriate party attire. Anna had thrown on a blue skirt with purple flowers embroidered on the bottom, her favorite blue and black shirt and a light weight purple jacket that perfectly matched the flowers on her skirt.
Looking behind Anna, Kristoff smiled warmly at the group of girls standing awkwardly by the door. "Welcome to ADT ladies! I'm Kristoff, come on in and enjoy yourselves. The boys and I are really glad you're here tonight." The girls giggled and whispered amongst themselves as they began mingling around the room in pairs or threes. Leaning over to Anna, Kristoff whispered, "Do you know if the ginger chick has a boyfriend or something?" Anna looked at her friend in surprise. Kristoff and Red? Looking at the gangly redhead who was standing by the food table talking to a very handsome young man with dark skin and even darker hair, Anna could see the attraction and made a mental note to ask Red next time they got some alone time. "Not sure, I'll see what I can do."
Kristoff smiled and silently nodded his thanks at his friend. Looking around the room, Kristoff grabbed her wrist and pulled Anna through the crowd towards a young man standing on the outskirts of the dance floor trying to dance but looking like he was slipping on ice instead. Kristoff tapped the young man on the shoulder and he turned, shaggy brown hair falling in his smiling dark eyes. "Anna, this is Sven. Sven's been my bro and roommate since day one! He's one of the most awesome guys you'll ever meet!" Sven smiled warmly and extended his hand towards Anna who shook it eagerly. Leaning in to Kristoff, Sven whispered something in the blondes ear. Turning to Anna, Kristoff relayed Sven's message as if it was something he did on a daily basis. "He says it's nice to meet you and you have very pretty eyes." Anna was confused, if Sven wanted to say something, he didn't need a middleman to do it. Picking up on Anna's confusion, Kristoff piped up for his silent friend. "Sven doesn't really talk much, more of the strong, silent type. That's why he's a theater major, specializing in mime and silent film acting. You'd be surprised what you can do with body language. This guy had everyone believing he was an old man for two weeks sophomore year. I can't tell you how many people asked me if the old guy next to me was my grandfather!" Sven blushed and gave Kristoff a playful swat to the back of the head followed by a head lock. Anna smiled as she watched the friends play fight like little kids.
"Come on guys, we have guests." A familiar deep voice came from behind Anna and she turned to see Hans standing behind her with two glasses of punch in his hands. Flashing his pearly whites at Anna, he extended one of the glasses towards the redhead who eagerly accepted, suddenly realizing her extreme thirst. The walk over was longer than she had expected and the sweet red liquid was exactly what she needed at that moment. Smiling at the girl, Hans nodded to the still struggling men, jokingly asking, "These two were behaving themselves accordingly I hope. I wouldn't want my Head Ambassadors giving off the wrong ideas about Alpha Delta Theta."
Anna nodded, slightly shocked. Kristoff? An Ambassador? He always had been good with people, and had been really friendly and inviting at the activity fair, but Anna had never guessed her childhood friend was so important in his Fraternity. Giggling softly to herself, Anna replied "Oh yes, they've both been perfect gentlemen. Except the big blonde one almost broke my ribs in a bear hug when I first arrived." Hans laughed. Kristoff had been so excited his friend would be attending AU he hardly spoke of anything else the previous semester. Breaking free from the headlock, Kristoff wrapped his burly arms lightly around Anna's neck and smiled. "Hey, come on now, I barely touched you." The group laughed as Kristoff and Sven excused themselves to put a request in with the DJ, leaving Hans and Anna alone.
Clearing his throat, Hans suggested they go somewhere they could talk to get to know each other better. Anna agreed, the consistent thumping of the current song was beginning to give her a headache. Following Hans to the back of the room where the sound was somehow less intense, they sat down and began to talk. Anna told Hans it was her dream to come to AU since she was a little kid. Hans told her he came here because his 12 older brothers were legends here so it was a natural fit for the youngest brother to follow in their footstep. He told Anna he was a Politics major with some pretty lofty goals for himself. "Being the youngest of 13, I have a lot to prove." Hans explained. "All of my brothers were in ADT and had some of the most impressive majors I've ever heard of! My oldest brother went here almost 10 years ago as a biomedical engineer! He's currently doing research in some secret lab for the government! And my other brother is working in Corona as a foreign corresponded for the Arendelle government." Hans beamed with pride, clearly proud of his brothers and all of their accomplishments. Turning on the smile again, Hans turned to Anna. "How bout you? Any siblings to be proud of or idolize?"
Shaking her head, Anna softly replied, "No it's just me. My parents tried to have more kids after me, but some issue or other always seemed to come up. Mom always says it wasn't meant to be because I was enough trouble growing up for three kids." Anna had always wanted a sibling, and growing up her sibling-less cousin Rapunzel had become more like a sister than cousin to Anna, but it was never the same.
Hans felt awful, here he had been gushing about his brothers when it clearly had upset the pretty girl sitting opposite him. Reaching out to take Anna's hand in his own, Hans gently replied "I'm sorry you didn't have any siblings growing up, but if you ask me, you've got some pretty awesome brothers and sisters now." Anna looked around the room at the people around the room and smiled. "You're right, I do have a pretty awesome new family. Thanks bro." Anna joked punching Hans playfully on the shoulder.
A wave of disappointment rushed over Hans as he realized what he just did. 'Did you just make sure she friend zoned you? No, you did something worse. She 'bro-zoned' you! Dude what the hell is wrong with you?!' Hans scolded himself as he turned his attention back to the red head, who now seemed distracted. Looking around the room, Anna did feel like she was surrounded by family, even if she didn't know the majority of their names. But that didn't matter to Anna, family was family even if they were a little strange.
'Speaking of strange,' Anna thought, scanning the room for some familiar faces she knew hadn't arrived yet, 'Where was Belle? And more importantly, where's Elsa?' Belle had promised they would both be there as soon as possible. 'I wonder what could be taking so long' Anna wondered, and almost in response to her though, the doors to the grand ballroom swung open and Belle, flanked by some other girls Anna had seen at the meeting strode into the room. They had obviously stopped to change before arriving because they all looked like they were dressed to impress. Belle stopped and turned around, as if expecting someone else to enter. Anna followed Belle's gaze towards the door and felt her jaw drop. Elsa entered wearing an incredibly tight sky blue dress that cut off mid thigh with white pumps so big Anna wondered how the girl managed to stay upright. Platinum blonde locks fell far below her lower back, subtle bangs hanging across the left side of her forehead. The sides were expertly swept off her face and twisted close against her head, creating the illusion of a headband where there wasn't one. Anna noticed the subtle purple eye shadow that lightly dusted the blondes upper lids and the expertly applied charcoal gray eyeliner made the sky blue eyes Anna had fallen for pop out of their sockets.
Anna clearly wasn't the only one who had noticed Elsa's entrance because the entire room turned to stare at the girl. Elsa blushed, she had always hated being the center of attention and the extra attention made her cheeks feel like they were on fire. Looking around the large room, Elsa instantly began feeling claustrophobic and began backing out of the room, tempted to leave the borrowed pumps in the doorway and make a break for the Architecture building where she knew she would be safe. Just as Elsa was about to make her escape, she felt a small hand grasp her arm, and a small voice stopped her dead in her tracks. " I was afraid you forgot about me, Miss. Vice President."
Elsa turned to find Anna's teal eyes looking up into her own ice blue orbs with reverence and awe. Any thoughts of running instantly fled from Elsa's mind as she stared at the woman standing in front her. Everything about her seemed to be screaming at Elsa to stay right where she was, not entirely confident she was in full control of her own body. It was then Elsa realized Anna's hand was still on her arm and looked down at the small hand resting on her arm. Anna must have realized it too because she suddenly pulled her hand away as if she had been horribly burned. Retracting her arm and pulling it close to her chest, Anna cleared her throat awkwardly, and Elsa realized she hadn't even tried to react to the younger woman's statement. "How could I possibly forget about you? You're the first one not to run screaming from me since freshman year." 'What the hell is wrong with you?!' Feeling her face flush Elsa was relieved to hear the younger girl laugh good heartedly. "Why would I run? You never did anything to me to make me avoid you. Besides, you invited me, remember."
Before Elsa was able to respond, she heard an all too familiar phrase permeate the air like a fog. "Dude, did it just get colder in here?" Elsa's breath hitched and her hands clenched into tight fists. Whenever Elsa was forced to have contact with the Delta boys, it was inevitable they would try to get under her skin. She had been hoping to at least stay at the gathering for at least 5 minutes under the radar before bracing for impact. But the inevitable was happening and Elsa quickly threw up the emotional shields in her mind. Another voice cut through the room, booming even louder than the first. "Yeah I think so. But I didn't think we were due for any snow for another few months."
"Maybe Snowie tried thaw her heart but refroze it instead."
"Or maybe someone broke into her stupid isolation palace and made off with her precious snowmen." Laughter filled the room as Elsa felt her cheeks burning. So far her shields were able to block the nasty comments out, this wasn't anything new to her. "Nah man, the snowmen probably ran away! Even snowmen wouldn't want to stay with her."
Okay that one hurt a little. But no amount of preparation Elsa could muster could have prepared her for what came next.
"What a freak."
That did it. Elsa, feeling the tears spring into her eyes, turned on her heel and ran from the room. She made it to the front doors, grabbed her backpack and was ready to make a beeline to the Architecture building when she heard something truly unbelievable. "Hey! Lay off Elsa! What the hell did she ever do to you?!" Elsa couldn't believe it. Anna was standing up for her! Elsa looked over her shoulder and saw the redhead going nose to nose with the perpetrators who clearly hadn't anticipated any repercussions to their actions. Leaving the ballroom, Anna sprinted after Elsa who was staring at the girl who had just stood up to a room full of people she barely knew on Elsa's behalf.
Elsa could barely speak, but the look she gave Anna must have said more than she realized because Anna smiled and hugged Elsa close to her body. Elsa's entire being stiffened at the surprise encounter, not entirely sure what to do. Wrapping her arms tentatively around Anna's body, Elsa felt Anna's warm, sweet breath on her shoulder, sending shivers down Elsa's spine. Elsa tried to speak multiple times but found each time her voice was betrayed her, not knowing how to properly thank the younger woman for her courageous act. Anna broke the hug and holding Elsa's gaze steadily, smiled and said two words Elsa wasn't expecting to hear.
"You're welcome."
Two words. Two words had never hit the elder girl so hard in her life. Feeling a warm hand slip into her own, Anna pulled Elsa into the warm summer evening with a smile. "Come on," the redhead said. "Lets go get a coffee."