Despite how much she had missed the castle and her family, Ana was looking forward to going back to UPenn. She hadn't thought she'd get so attached to a college, but she was probably more excited to go back than she had been when she got to travel home.

She would be leaving late that night (before Thanksgiving break ended) to give herself a full day of recuperation.

She decided that she would spend the free time she had before the flight to visit her people in town. Having been gone for about two months now, her body double had been put to use and gone to town a few times already. Although she was never seen talking to anyone, the royal family had guaranteed that she had been spotted walking around the stores, which was enough to convince her people that it was her.

The Princess thought it was strange they had resorted to a body double, before her parents were able to call and explain that it would be more troublesome if she had seemingly just disappeared off the face of the Earth.

"Anastasia," her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her brother's voice. "Anastasia," he repeated, more annoyed this time.

She shook her head softly to clear it, turning to look at the crown prince. "Sorry, what were you saying?" He had chosen to accompany her on the trip into town and Ana couldn't even begin to fathom why.

Jeremy sighed with exasperation and she wondered if he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes at her. "We're here. Get out."

"Wait- what?" He wanted her to just leave him in the car? "Aren't you coming with?"

"I have something else to do."

"Oh, okay." She wasn't going to lie, while the crown prince wasn't exactly the best company, she had gotten excited at the thought of hanging out with her brother. She always silently hoped that they would eventually be able to find common ground and get along.

She apparently couldn't have been more wrong.

"Go on," he nodded towards the door that the driver had already opened for Ana.

She moved to place her foot on the pavement, before pausing. "If you have to lie to our parents just to be able to do something, you're doing something very wrong Jeremy." She stepped out of the car and let the driver close the door behind her.

She wasn't sure what he might be hiding, but if he had to lie to the king and queen about it, it couldn't have been a good thing.

She relaxed her shoulders as she heard the car drive away, smiling at the sight of Cherry Fabrics in front of her. She could clearly see Thomas and Alex in the store, hanging clothing on racks and rearranging the hangers.

The princess pushed open the building's door and watched as Alex noticed her, a smile appearing on the young girl's face. She whispered something frantically to her grandfather, to which the man's head turned to see Ana.

His eyes widened, hands grappling towards Alex as she suddenly left his side and ran towards the princess.

Ana giggled at her exuberance, picking up the small child as she practically flung herself into the woman's arms. "Wow," Ana gushed as she set the girl on her hip. "Look how big you've gotten."

"The doctor said I grew so much," she stated with a decisive nod, crossing her chubby arms over her chest pridefully.

"That's wonderful," she responded with a grin, "I can definitely tell."

"I'm taller than all of my friends," the little girl continued with a shrug. Ana bit her lip to hide her smile as she stuttered adorably over the sentence. "Even Jack." Alex's nose scrunched slightly at this, clear distaste on her small features.

The princess laughed from seeing her expression, "Who's Jack?"

"This boy from my class. He pulled my hair, you know," she looked up at the princess with doe eyes. "I told on him and he got in trouble."

Thomas interrupted before Ana could say anything more. "Your highness, it's wonderful to see you again. I heard you haven't been visiting town a lot recently so I'm truly honored that you decided to come here of all places."

She smiled gently at him, "I've been very busy as of lately," she explained. "But most of my schedule was open today so I thought I might visit."

"Cause you missed me right?" Alex suddenly asked and she glanced down to see her pouting.

Ana's heart about shattered at the look. "Yes," she hurriedly confirmed. "I missed you so much that I just had to come and see you."

"I told you, Grandpa," the young girl stuck her tongue out at him and Ana only laughed as Thomas paled.

"Yes, I see that my dear."

~~~

Ana made it back to the dorm at around one in the morning, completely exhausted and sore from sitting in a plane for so long. She turned on the light after walking into the living room, slipping off her shoes and leaving them at the front door.

She heard a door open and close and Mason entered the room with a low mutter of "Who the fuck-," before he paused after seeing Ana.

"Hi," she greeted. He was like a breath of fresh air, a smile tugging at her lips and fighting past her fatigue as soon as she saw him. She let her eyes wander over his form (absentmindedly noting that he was shirtless and fit) and mentally swooned over his sleepy eyed expression.

"Oh," he suddenly looked uncomfortable. Ana resisted the urge to frown as she noticed him fidgeting. Why was he acting so awkward? "Welcome back."

"Thanks," she moved past him to walk into her room but was stopped by the feeling of a hand lightly brushing her upper back. She turned to look at Mason confusedly.

He let his hand fall between them, ridding the warmth that Ana had felt from the brief contact. "Shit- um- maybe wait till tomorrow to go in there."

"My bed is in there," she laughed.

He ran one hand through his hair and Ana wondered if he would let her do the same. It looked so soft. "Sleep in my room," he abruptly stated.

Ana bit her lip to hopefully conceal the temptation to say yes. "Why?"

"No reason," he shrugged feebly, miserably failing to be nonchalant. "It's probably fucking freezing because no one has been in there for a while so I thought my bed might be-" he unexpectedly stopped.

She ignored her heart pounding in her chest from the use of the words my bed. "Why are you acting so weird? Wait- did you finally prank me?" Ana grinned at the thought, excited to see what he had come up with while she had been gone.

She opened her door before he had the chance to respond, gasping as she noticed what he had done to her room before beginning to giggle hysterically.

He had gone for a classic prank, covering all four of her bedroom walls with a random assortment of rainbow sticky notes. Except on closer inspection, every slip of paper had something written on it. And - from the look of it - they all said different things.

"Shit," Mason suddenly said from beside her. She glanced at him as he cringed and laughed at his expression.

"How long did this take?" It had to have taken forever, especially since he had written on all of them.

Mason sighed, "Pretty much all fucking day. My hand is still sore," he chuckled and she could feel her face warm at how raspy and soft it was.

Ana turned slightly, pulling one off from the wall upon random to read what was written. "You're annoying," she read aloud. "Very original." She grabbed another one only to see the word pervert scrawled across the top.

She laughed and turned to look at Mason only to see him staring at her with a small smile. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she couldn't help but think he looked so happy.

"So are you coming to my room or not?"

She couldn't ignore how suggestive the offer was and her blush deepened. "Not tonight," she finally responded.

"Not tonight," he repeated slowly. "Jesus, you're going to be the death of me," and groaned.

While she really wasn't sure what Mason meant by that, she couldn't help but say, "Is that such a bad thing?"

"Holy fuck," he muttered before turning and walking away and leaving her still standing in her bedroom doorway. Ana laughed, slightly confused but still enjoying the interaction nonetheless.

Her eyes lingered on his form as he walked into his own bedroom and she had to remind herself to look away from his door. The offer really was so very tempting.

He was right, I am a pervert.

~~~

She spent hours that night pulling off sticky notes and reading whatever was written on them. Most of them were teasing insults, inside jokes, and terribly written puns until a random one had caught her eye.

She was almost two hours into removing them (too invested in reading all of notes to go to sleep now) when she noticed one of them was written slightly different. Whilst all the others were written in pen, this one was in pencil, smudge marks evidence of something being repeatedly erased and rewritten.

She didn't pull it off the wall immediately as her eyes briefly skimmed the words, freezing as she realized what was actually written. She read it once more, rubbing her eyes and slapping her cheeks lightly in case she had read it wrong. She then went over each letter individually in her mind, double-checking that they spelled out what she thought they did.

She frantically removed the rest of the sticky notes around it (completely clearing all four walls of them in the process), not even mildly interested in what the others said at this point despite how invested she had been earlier.

It took another hour of work, but she was finally able to come back to the now lone piece of light blue paper still stuck on the wall above her bed.

On that single sticky note, one sentence out of hundreds upon hundreds of others, Mason had written I'm yours if you're mine.

Safe to say she wasn't going to be taking that one off her wall anytime soon.

~~~

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