The cool Heathrow waiting area afforded Anna a much needed breather. Between nearly missing her morning bus and taking the wrong tube line at King's Cross, her trip home to Arendelle so far was threatening to dismantle her indestructible optimism. The security check wasn't much kinder; she had watched in silent horror as the TSA officer plowed his hands through her violin case, making sure to violate every inch of her prized instrument.

Hang in there, Joan, she telepathically communicated to her violin, wincing.

With just under an hour to spare before departure time, Anna arrived at the waiting area for flight 1448 to Arendelle. At last, in the comfort of the decidedly uncomfortable plastic seats, she could relax. While she idly thumbed through the dozens of farewell messages on her phone, her thoughts naturally drifted toward the three years she had spent studying music and living at the University of Cambridge.

Anna couldn't suppress a smile as she reformed her memories of those first few exhilarating weeks on campus. She had slowly shed layer upon layer of trepidation and excitement while coming to terms with the idea that this impossibly picturesque place, with its elegant stone halls and its postcard-perfect lawns and its incredible history and its general, well, Cambridge-ness, was somehow her new home. On more than one occasion she would wake up at an ungodly hour of night (one of the perks of jetlag), fearing that she'd find herself still in her bedroom back home and only breathing a sigh of relief when her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she recognized the shape and size of her West Cambridge flat.

Her new English friends had helped her settle in, initially as curious about Anna's exotic home country as she was of theirs, and after the novelty of the whole thing wore off, she found herself completely at ease with her university life.

She had even found love, or something like it. There was Kristoff, a somewhat burly blonde-haired English boy in her music program. They instantly bonded over bad orchestra puns and even worse singing at orientation, and as the months inched by, they found themselves spending less and less time apart. Tragically, Kristoff, for all the bravado he commanded at the requisite beer pong tables, was complete mush when it came to romance and could barely stutter out a confession to her before their last semester together.

"Why did you wait so long to tell me?" Anna had replied, immediately regretting her accusatory tone when she realized she was just as guilty for not acting on her own blossoming feelings. They dated for the rest of the final semester, and Anna, for her part, did her best to block out the nagging reality that she would have to leave all of it behind in a few months.

"Hey, um, they're calling people to board." A voice and a tap on her shoulder startled Anna.

Ugh, did I fall asleep? She blinked drowsily as the airport around her slowly rebuilt itself. When she glanced up toward the voice, she was nothing short of mesmerized.

Wha-what is this magnificent creature? She managed to fumble the words even in her head. Completely oblivious to the errant saliva trail seeping from the corner of her lips, Anna slowly registered the woman standing before her, dressed in a simple white blouse and black dress pants. She was drawn to the woman's eyes first, elusive and a cool azure blue, before noticing her exquisite platinum blonde hair ending in a braid draped over her shoulder. Then there was that complexion that looked like it was a blend of pink roses and cream. She was easily the most beautiful person Anna had ever been in the presence of.

"Good morning?" Anna offered dumbly. When she finally caught up with the present she immediately flushed. "Oh! Um, I mean thanks for waking me up."

"You've got a bit of, uh…" expressionless, the woman pointed to her own lips before walking away toward the queue to board the plane. The redhead, now acutely aware of the drool dribbling down her chin, felt her face burn even harder as she rushed to clean it with her sleeve. Anna could almost hear her ancestors beckoning her to join them in the afterlife.

Stay calm Anna, you're going to be okay. You're probably never going to see that (gorgeous) woman ever again.

That piece of wishful thinking was swiftly shattered when she found the blonde already seated next to the window in her row.

"Hey, what a coincidence, heh." 'Heh,' Anna? 'Heh?' "Sooo, looks like we're stuck with each other for the next eight hours. Oh, not that I mind being stuck with you, of course! More like you're stuck with me." She silently cursed herself for her awkwardness as she hoisted her violin case into the overhead compartment.

"I'm Anna by the way," she introduced herself, extending her right hand to the other girl, who seemed to be trying her best to keep up. "Er, don't worry I didn't get any drool on it."

The blonde blinked a few times with a blank expression on her face before accepting the handshake. "Elsa… and, um, you're blocking the aisle."

Anna noticed a growing line of people to her right and promptly took her seat, sensing that familiar heat taking over her cheeks. She was sure that somewhere else in the vast universe, in some uncharted nebula, a new star was being born, completely indifferent to Anna's minor blunders here on planet Earth, and that knowledge gave her comfort. She stole a glance at her new flying partner, feeling that comfort leave her almost as quickly as it came. Elsa was like royalty; there seemed to be no waste or frivolity in the way she carried herself.

She must think I'm a complete dunce.

"I really like your hair, by the way," Anna blurted, trying to redeem herself.

"Um… thanks," Elsa said quietly, without turning her head. Anna didn't know if her eyes were deceiving her or if Elsa's cheeks were actually turning slightly pink. The plane's poorly-lit cabin left that bit of ambiguity up for interpretation, but the mere possibility sent electricity down her spine. Then it hit her that Elsa didn't have an English accent when she'd spoken.

"Hey, you're not from around here are you?" the redhead asked. Great work as usual, Anna – expertly inquired with the tact of a glazed donut.

"Oh, I was just here for a conference. I live in Arendelle." A curt reply. Elsa seemed content to let the conversation end there, and for a few moments afterward, Anna became painfully aware of the cold cabin air on her skin. Then, to her surprise, Elsa returned the question. "What about you?"

"Oh me too! Kind of. I used to live in Corona, actually, but my parents moved to Arendelle a couple months ago while I was still studying here, so I'm going to be completely lost when I get back."

"Studying?"

"Yeah, I was taking a 3-year music course at Cambridge, which, if you've never been, is the most beautiful place on Earth," Anna boasted.

Elsa shook her head to say no, she hadn't ever been. "So, you play the violin?" she asked, looking slightly more interested now.

"Yep! I've been playing since I was, like, six. You know, parents who wished they could play an instrument trying to live vicariously through their kids, heh." 'Heh' again? "Don't get me wrong – I'm really grateful to them for getting me into music. I mean, I'd probably take a bullet for my violin."

"Because violins are getting assassinated left and right these days," Elsa quipped flatly.

Anna giggled. Behold, a sense of humor!

"So, what about you?" she started, turning her whole body over to face the blonde so that she was now kneeling on the seat. "What do you do? Wait- don't tell me! I'm really good at guessing."

"Okay."

"Lawyer! I know a lawyer when I see one. My cousin's a lawyer. Alright, now you owe me twenty bucks."

"No."

"Whaaaat? Okay, doctor then."

"No, and I don't remember making any b-"

"Sh-sh, you're breaking my focus." Anna put her fingers to her temples and shut her eyes for a moment, channeling the prophets and psychics of a time since long forgotten. She opened them again. "Marine biologist specializing in manatees."

"…No."

"Really? But they're so cute…" Anna pouted. A flight attendant walked over to ask her to sit properly and to put her seat belt on.

"I'm a librarian," Elsa answered when they were alone again.

"A librarian, huh? I think I was pretty close," Anna maintained unconvincingly. The pilot then made a brief announcement before the plane started to move, and using that as their cue, the flight attendants began performing their award-winning safety routine. Meanwhile, Anna was trying to picture this woman, who seemed to be so detached from the world inhabited by mortals, stamping books from behind a counter and found the idea so quaint that she decided she needed to see it with her own eyes.

"Maybe I'll stop by the library sometime."

Elsa's eyes widened slightly at that suggestion.

"If I can find it, that is." Anna finished.

"Well, um…" Elsa hesitated slightly, then cleared her throat. "If you need someone to show you around after you settle in, Arendelle's a pretty small city so… I wouldn't mind, um, helping you out." A shy smile capped the offer.

Oh god, Anna thought. There needs to be some kind of government funded program just to make this girl smile.

I'm going to keep these notes to a minimum. All I will say is, this is going to be pretty ambitious for my first piece of fictional writing ever, so if it ends up being garbage, that is why.

A big thanks to GhostofWintersPast for beta reading for me!