"We're sure that you've received some," the queen paused as she glanced at her husband, "offers from some men. So we decided that we need to set some ground rules regarding romantic relationships."

Ana laughed at her mother's clumsy wording. "There's no need to be so uncomfortable, mother. You forget that I'm an adult," she gave her a pointed look.

"Yes," her mother laughed lightly. "I'm simply still getting used to you being so independent is all," she explained.

The king suddenly cleared his throat and the princess glanced over at him with a calm expression. "We've come to realize that some of those offers may be tempting, but we thought we should disclose that you should not be giving in to them."

Ana's eyebrows furrowed. "So is that only sexual based offers, or romantic as well?" Both of her parents' eyes widened at her choice of words. "I understand that I shouldn't be having intimate relations with just anyone," she confirmed with a nod. Even if her parents hadn't been so insistent on teaching Ana how to 'save' herself, she still wanted her first time to be with someone she genuinely cared for. "But I don't see the issue with casual dating," she continued.

"You've never shown interest in dating before," her mother noted. "Is there someone you're hoping to be able to have a romantic relationship with," the queen grinned.

Ana shook her head even as her heart skipped a beat when a pair of blue eyes flashed through her mind. "Not necessarily. But I thought it might be fun and it would give me more experience. Plus, dating is one of the most normal things a person can do."

Her father hummed lightly in acknowledgment, a hand adorned with jewelry reaching up to rub his chin. "Would you be dating college boys then?"

"Well who else would I date," she giggled. It wasn't as though she had many options.

The king suddenly looked away from Ana, eyes lingering on something to the side of her form. She turned slightly to glance at the spot before spotting nothing different than usual and turning back around. "Is there someone you would like me to date?" She was hesitant to ask, knowing that being royal entailed suitors and proposals.

She had been receiving proposals since she had turned eighteen but - after she hadn't accepted any even a year later - they had been few and far between as of recently. But her parents still believed she should marry for the benefit of the kingdom.

"You have many possible suitors, Anastasia," her mother said in response. "You receive dozens of proposals a day and most of them are from neighboring countries, which could greatly help our people."

"What proposals? I haven't seen a single one since I turned nineteen," Ana disagreed. And it was highly unlikely that she had gotten so many proposals even after being away for so long.

"We simply stopped showing them to you," her father answered. "After you denied every one we presented to you, we thought we might wait a while before discussing marriage again. We assumed you just weren't ready yet."

The princess resisted the urge to scoff, "Of course I'm not ready to get married; I'm only nineteen."

"But if you're considering dating, perhaps you'd like to date someone better than just a regular college student. We could contact one of your suitors from America, I'm sure they would be more than willing to court you regularly."

"Status isn't everything, mother."

The queen smiled awkwardly at her daughter, "Of course it isn't, dear."

Ana absently wondered why she suddenly sounded so condescending. "I'd much rather experience a normal lifestyle and date a boy my own age." She glanced between her parents, noticing the uncomfortable expressions on both of their faces.

"As long as you don't get attached, I see no issue with it then," the king finally said.

Ana laughed, "Don't worry, I don't see that happening any time soon."

~~~

Lili cringed away from Ana's hands, turning to glare at her as she placed a hand on her head. "Stop being so rough," she whined. "You're going to rip my scalp out."

The elder sister rolled her eyes, "Oh- quit being so dramatic."

Lili huffed and turned back around, staring at Ana through the mirror as she finished braiding her hair. "You've changed, you know," she abruptly stated.

"What do you mean?" Ana hadn't really noticed any change, although she probably wouldn't have been able to tell considering she couldn't exactly see herself from an outside perspective.

"I don't know," she shrugged, "you're just different."

"Very descriptive," Ana responded sarcastically as she wrapped a hair band around the tail end of the braid in Lili's hair.

Lili suddenly turned again, grabbing onto her older sister's shoulders and shaking her with vigor. "Maybe it's because of Mason." Ana pulled away, staring at her with an incredulous expression. "Think about it. You have an ongoing prank war with him, you see him every day, and you spend pretty much all of your free time together."

"Okay, and?"

"Well he obviously influenced something," she laughed. She was most likely referencing the way Ana spoke now, but even then it wasn't much different than before.

Ana rolled her eyes once more, leaning back against the chair she was sitting in. "He's hardly influenced anything. If anything at all, he's just made me more irritable."

"Stop it," Lili giggled and shoved Ana's shoulder lightly and the older princess raised an eyebrow in response. She was acting weird. "You totally like him."

"What," she shook her head rapidly. "No way! That's literally impossible. The last time I liked a boy he turned out to literally not exist." It was true; her most recent crush had been a persona that a random man had used to get close to her. To his credit, the plan did work briefly (before Ana realized he had been been pretending to be someone completely different than who he actually was).

How ironic that she was now doing the exact same thing.

"But he seems really sweet - other than the obvious - and even you said yourself that you think he's cute." Ana had admitted to her sister that she thought Mason was kind of attractive, not realizing how she would latch onto the simple sentence. She was regretting the confession now.

"Right," she agreed. "And so does half the population; if a person is attracted to men, then they're undoubtedly attracted to Mason. It's just the way it is."

"Well what do you not like about him then?"

Ana's expression grew thoughtful, "You mean besides everything? To begin, he's a complete jerk; you know that as well enough as I do. He has a terribly vulgar vocabulary and can't say a single thing without including a curse word. And he's a flirt that uses insults as a love language; which I mean- how do you even do that?"

She continued before Lili could even try to answer the rhetorical question. "I suppose he can be sweet when he's not being purposefully annoying. Like when he got me the violin," she smiled at the memory. "And I guess it's also nice of him to walk me home after class most days." It was something she had noticed only recently, always thinking it was coincidental until Mason casually mentioned how hungry he was after waiting so long for her lecture to end.

She had felt genuinely shocked at the information but when she looked over at him to see if he was serious, all he did was grin and exaggeratedly rub his stomach.

"And he also always opens any jars of food we buy as soon as we get home from the store so that I'm able to open them myself later. And - sure - he's very perceptive and always listening to what I have to say, but him being a good listener doesn't mean anything." Ana found herself lost in thought then, remembering Mason's teasing grin and warm blue eyes.

She shook her head to clear it, "Anyways, he's annoying. End of story."

Her younger sister squealed. "Okay, well even if you don't like him, Mason is absolutely in love with you."

"You're insane," but Ana couldn't help but grin at the thought.

She felt indescribably happy at the mere idea, her heart stuttering in her chest as she imagined what it would feel like to know with certainty that he did have feelings for her.

"If I'm so insane then why are you smiling, huh?"

The elder princess bit her lip, trying to neutralize her expression but ultimately failing. "Okay so maybe I have a slight crush on him," she finally admitted with a sheepish expression.

Maybe Ana had known she liked him all along; it was so obvious to her now that she was surprised she hadn't seen it sooner. Because whilst he was very irritating, he was also probably the most genuine and thoughtful person she had ever come across.

"I knew it," Lili practically yelled.

"I said slight!"

~~~