Prompt: Paperman + Commuter AU. We both take the train to school but we've never talked to each other before until today because we both got off at the wrong stop.

Elsa sighed and waited for her train. She looked down at the paper in her hand, shuffling them to make them look more organized. Elsa looked back up, looking at the clock right above the train schedule. "Ten-twelve. Come on, the train's supposed to be here by now," she mumbled to herself, willing the train to move faster.

Elsa felt a presence nearby, and glanced over to see an adorable redhead standing next to her, hugging a bag from the Disney store in her arms as she hummed something softly. The blonde was about to look away to avoid staring like a creep before she caught sight of a Dumbo Tsum Tsum peering its head out from the top of the bag.

"That's adorable," she said before she could stop herself, and the girl turned her head, teal eyes meeting Elsa's blue. A smattering of freckles adorned her cheeks, and she smiled.

"Thanks!"

Wait, did I just say that?

Elsa blinked, staring at the girl, but too embarrassed to say anything else. God Elsa, this is what happens when you don't get enough sleep!

With her face splattered with the color pink, she gave the redhead a lopsided grin. "Y-You're welcome. Sorry, I haven't slept… I mean, I have! Just not long enough for me to stay awake… Um, that was, you know, the 'that's adorable' was supposed to be…" She tapped on her head. "But that's okay too. You should know that."

"O-Oh! Oh, thank you! And you are—"

A sudden wind gusted through the station, causing Elsa's papers to go flying and scatter all over the floor. She kneeled on the ground, quickly picking up the papers before any could go flying away. Elsa gave out a nervous laugh and looked up, seeing a piece of paper in the redheads face. "Oh, sorry." Elsa stood up, papers disheveled in her hands.

"It's okay," the redheaded girl spoke, taking the piece of paper off her face. She looked at it and chuckled. There was a small, pink lipstick stain on it. "Sorry about this." The redhead pointed at the stain.

"Oh no, no...it's fine," Elsa said as the girl handed back her paper, lipstick stain and all. "I can just make another copy later."

"May I ask what it's for? Seems awfully important from what I could tell with it on my face," the redhead said cheekily, smiling as a train pulled up beside them. They both boarded it even as they continued their conversation, not sparing a glance at the color of its sign.

"Just a thesis for the last of my gen ed classes. And even then, this is only the first draft," Elsa reassured her as the doors closed behind them. The train lurched as it began to move, and the girl stumbled forward a little, nearly falling onto the blonde if Elsa hadn't reached a hand out to steady her.

"Sorry!" the redhead squeaked, giggling a little.

"O-Oh, uh… it's okay. That's okay," Elsa grinned at the redhead, blushing like a tomato. She let go of Elsa's hand and god, she just realized how soft her hand was.

Ding!

But they were just staring. Staring as if they were the most gorgeous thing to each other's eyes.

Please stand clear of the closing—

The moment was ruined as more people filed inside, bumping into the two as they sought room before the doors could close. Elsa found the redhead pressed up against her in order to let people pass through, and her cheeks reddened a little further. She distracted herself by staring at the Dumbo Tsum Tsum still peeking its head out of the bag in the girl's arms.

"Disney fan?" she asked, hoping her voice didn't sound too strained as a particularly portly man tried to get past them, causing the girl to press closer to make room.

Mercifully, the doors started to close and the newcomers had moved on to find their own seats or railing to grip.

"Oh, yeah! I'm a huuuuuuge fan!" the redhead said, stepping back to her original position a few feet away as she flashed a broad grin.

When the other girl backed off, Elsa found herself sadly missing her close proximity and had to fight off the frown of disappointment trying to make its way onto her lips. On top of that, not only did she have to stop herself from closing the gap between them again, she also had to relearn how to breathe.

What was wrong with her? It was ridiculous, this feeling of emptiness she was left with… and over a complete stranger! Elsa hugged her papers as if the piles of sheets would somehow make up for the loss of contact between them and trained her eyes on the radiant grin her acquaintance was gracing her with. That smile… it was as if the sun's bright rays were beaming solely down on her, warming her body pleasantly and melting her brain into a puddle.

Which explained why she thoughtlessly murmured, "You're adorable."

The redhead giggled shyly. "Actually, I'm Anna. But I get mistaken as Adorable all the time," she joked lightly with a wink.

Elsa belatedly slapped a hand over her mouth, realizing she had once again spoken out loud instead of internally. The action made her loosen her hold on her papers and they slipped and painted the train's floor.

Embarrassed, Elsa hastily dropped to gather them up, mumbling incoherently. Anna moved as well to help her out and their foreheads knocked together.

"—should just kiss already!" Elsa heard someone grumble under their breath nearby, and her face reddened. She snuck a glance over her shoulder and spotted an elderly man sitting in one of the seats, tightly gripping his cane as he watched them. A pudgy boy dressed in a scout uniform with multiple pins adorning his sash sat beside him, whispering something as he gave her an apologetic grin.

The old man, on the other hand, merely arched an eyebrow as if challenging her to go for it, and the boy lightly smacked his arm.

"Here you go! They're probably out of order, but at least no one stepped on them…"

Elsa turned her head around and wordlessly accepted the papers held out to her, not trusting herself to look at Anna without her cheeks turning even more red.

"I never got your name. Since I told you mine, I think it's only fair if you tell me yours," Anna smiled at Elsa.

"I-I'm Elsa," she stuttered, trying to keep calm. Elsa felt her ears burning as Anna stared at her.

"That's a really pretty name."

"Not as pretty as yours," she mumbled under her breath, looking down at her feet.

"I'm truly flattered," Anna said, laughing humorously. "But I'd hardly consider my name pretty. I mean, it's not really unique either. Not like Elsa, at least. That's not a name you hear very often."

"Yes, well...you don't hear 'Anna' pronounced as 'Ah-na' too often either," Elsa managed to counter, regaining some of her social balance. She smiled, pleased with herself when the girl giggled, reaching a freckled hand up to tuck a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.

"No, I suppose... not," Anna replied, her words becoming fainter near the end as Elsa reached out to assist sliding the coppery lock in position, causing their fingers to brush against each other.

Elsa jolted at the slight contact, whipping her hand away, her face heating up exponentially when she realized what she unthinkingly did. Oh, my god. Why did I do that? She foolishly blocked her face, hiding behind the stack of papers in her hands so Anna couldn't see how utterly embarrassed she was as she tried thinking up some reasonable excuse for her actions. But that was a joke because what excuse could she possibly use to explain touching her like that? It was inappropriate of her, a total stranger, to invade Anna's space. Normal people didn't brush the hair of someone they literally just met behind their ear no matter how drawn to them they were...

In her attempt to hide like an idiot, Elsa brought the papers a little too close to her face, and her lips accidentally bumped into the page facing her, coincidentally landing directly on the lipstick mark Anna had made earlier. Stunned, all she could think as she dumbly stared at the pink mark that had caressed her own lips was that she basically inadvertently kissed the girl...

Of course, kissing a cold, stiff piece of paper wasn't exactly comparable to kissing real warm, soft and inviting lips...

Her blush spread like a wildfire, rapidly scrawling across her cheeks, down her neck, to her ears and scorching her skin. She felt certain that any minute her body would burst into actual flames.

And that damned giggling she heard Anna producing as she continued cowering behind her papers wasn't helping in extinguishing the unbearable heat…

She wasn't sure how much time passed as they talked about the most banal of things—commenting on the problems of commuting, comparing their classes, complaining about the work involved…

The usual traveling milestones and scheduling awareness that plagued the daily trip felt like they had boarded an entirely different train, taking them far, far away from the sunny cadence of Anna's voice. She was almost sorry for the times she had something to add to the conversation.

The two were so engrossed in their lengthy conversation that neither of them noticed the train had eventually stopped moving completely and the car emptied of all remaining passengers. Only when they both quieted down after laughing at something hilarious Anna had said did they both become attuned to their surroundings.

"Hey," Elsa said looking around in bewilderment. "Where did everyone go? Why are we stopped?"

"Um," Anna said, scratching the back of her head. "I think the train reached it's last stop."

Elsa gasped. "What? That can't be right! We haven't even arrived at our stop yet!"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that's because we missed our stop a while ago…"

Elsa hugged her papers closer to her chest, stepping out of the train with Anna following suit.

Elsa looked up from her papers and stopped abruptly to take in her surroundings. Her companion bumped into her nearly knocking the both of them over.

"Hey why did you stop right outside the do-"

"None of this looks familiar," Elsa cut in softly, voice strained. Trying not to panic in front of her beautiful acquaintance, she turned to Anna and gave her a timid smile. "You…you wouldn't happen to know where we are do you?"

Anna laughed, and the beautiful sound was almost distraction enough to make Elsa forgot about the fact that she had no idea where they were. "Um… I'm afraid not. Fun fact, I have a tendency to get lost pretty easily so… yeah! But don't panic!" Setting down her Disney bag full of plushies on the platform, Anna felt around her back pocket for something. "My phone has a—hey, wait a minute." Frowning, her hands moved around her waist while her upper body twisted and turned to look behind her.

The redhead danced around a bit before throwing up her hands in defeat. "Well, it would seem I have misplaced my phone."

"Oh." Right, phones did have other uses aside from staring at them mindlessly. Elsa could feel her own phone in her back pocket and tried to grab it, but her hold on her stack of papers nearly slipped again so she stopped immediately. "Would you mind holding my things for me? My phone's in my pocket," she said, shifting her hips and nodding at her phone's cozy placement.

"I can get it for you!" Anna said, and Elsa looked at her, thought about where her phone was and blushed slightly. "I mean, if you're okay with that!"

"That's… that's fine! You can get it for me!"

"Great!" Jumping at the opportunity, Anna reached around Elsa's behind and inserted her hand into Elsa's rear pocket. Her hand groped around the space but the pocket was devoid of a cellular device. "Um…" She glanced up at Elsa. "There's nothing there."

"It's… it's in the other pocket, Anna," Elsa informed her somewhat shakily. She held her breath when Anna's hand evacuated one pocket in favor of the other and cupped the outline of her phone as if to identify it was definitely there.

Anna removed the phone easily and said triumphantly, "Ah ha! Here it is!" She presented it to Elsa with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that. I swear I wasn't copping a feel!"

Chuckling, Elsa assured her, "It's okay. I didn't mind… You're gorgeous." Anna giggled and Elsa's eyes widened and she corrected quickly, "I mean, you're perfectly fine…It didn't bother me one bit. I'm fine. I-I'm going to shut my face now." Shoving her phone up as close to her face as possible, which wasn't very close considering the pile of papers she was still holding, Elsa clicked the side button to turn the screen on…

Nothing happened. The screen remained blank.

No...don't tell me… Elsa swallowed, looking up to give Anna a sheepish smile of her own. "I...must have forgotten to charge mine."

"Well, this is great! I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere with an attractive stranger who thinks I'm gorgeous. I really can't complain about that, can I?" Anna teased.

"Maybe you should try reading the sign behind you first?" a new voice spoke up, tone wry, and Elsa nearly jumped in surprise.

Goddammit. Of course someone wants to redirect me so I'll never see Gorgeous here again.

She turned around to see who it was that had decided to interrupt them, and saw a young African American woman standing there, dressed much like a waitress. A bag hung off of one shoulder, and her polished name tag proudly displayed "Tiana" in neat letters. Right next to her on the station's wall was a map of the train line. A screen directly above it displayed the estimated arrival and departure times for the next ten trains—a standard sight at any station.

Elsa's cheeks flared with heat at momentarily forgetting such an obvious thing. But could she really be blamed for it? Anna was just too...too…

"Oh, will you look at that…" she heard the redhead in question giggle nervously, "Seems like the next departure back into the city is in three minutes."

"On the other side of the platform this time," the woman—Tiana—reminded them, turning around to apparently head over there herself.

Elsa felt an arm link with her own and she looked to see Anna peering at her with a warm smile. "Let's go meet that train then." Elsa felt her heart sink a bit at the thought of how, in probably less than a half hour, she would part ways with this sweet girl and maybe never see her again. However she forced a smile on her face and nodded before walking towards the other side of the platform with her.

"Oh, wait! I almost forgot my bag!" Anna exclaimed, unlinking their arms to rush back to the Disney bag still propped up on the platform's floor. Before Elsa's heart could sink even further at the sudden loss of warmth, Anna was back again, returning her arm to its place around Elsa's as if they had done this a thousand times before in some other lifetime.

"You two look adorable," Tianna remarked once they joined her on the other side, along with a few other commuters that Elsa hadn't noticed before. "How long have you been together?"

If she had a drink, she would've spat it out.

"W-Wait, what?" Elsa stammered out, heat building in her cheeks.

Anna nudged her lightly with her elbow. "It does seem like it's been forever, huh, Elsa?" she said, leaning her head casually on Elsa's shoulder and blinking up at her with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

Elsa gazed wonderingly right back at the bright young woman grinning up at her and found herself easily envisioning the two of them together in a long, happy, loving relationship. She knew very little about this woman aside from the tidbits she learned during their short time together, but… there was something utterly captivating about Anna. With her intense warmth nestled snugly against Elsa's side, the blonde couldn't shake the feeling that this special person rightfully belonged there.

Which was probably why it felt so natural for her to press an affectionate kiss to the redhead's forehead.

"It certainly has," she murmured against her skin, smirking when she pulled away to appraise Anna's reaction.

Anna just looked at her with a bright, warm smile, then leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.

"Are you sure you're not a theatre major?" the redhead whispered, voice soft enough that Tiana couldn't hear. She pulled away almost immediately; that smile still persisting.

And Elsa's heart dropped at those words, along with their implication.

But then again...that was to be expected, right? They had only just met, and while Elsa would be more than happy to see things progress further, well...A relationship was a two-way street, after all.

"Well, I'm glad you two are happy together," Tiana's voice interrupted them, and Elsa inwardly sighed in relief at the distraction.

Elsa looked over to Anna, feeling a tiny bit of moisture well in the corner of her eye, but she could not speak—the words would not come to her.

Anna turned to Elsa—her attention having shifted to Tiana momentarily, and replied, "Very happy, thanks."

Tiana smiled and waved and proceeded on her way, and once the woman was out of earshot Anna squeezed Elsa's arm and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Unsure why the question was being asked, Elsa nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Oh, well, your eyes… I saw them water a bit," Anna said perceptively. "I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable before. I mean, maybe that kiss on your cheek was a little too forward? But I have to confess, I've been dying to do that for a while, and when you kissed my head and said what you said I couldn't contain myself."

Anna flashed her a warm smile. "It just...seemed so natural."

She feels it, too? Elsa thought, pleasantly shocked. "No, you didn't make me uncomfortable. You didn't do anything I would have objected to," she assured. Letting out a tiny laugh and reaching one hand up to swipe at some stray hairs that tickled her face, she said, "It's strange, isn't it? We hardly even know each other but there's like this… this…" She struggled to think of an appropriate word.

"Connection?" Anna beat her to it.

Her words failing her, without her typical eloquence Elsa exclaimed, "Yes, that!" She smiled sheepishly at the redhead. Clutching her hands and papers tight to her chest, she nervously whispered, "I meant it, though…"

Anna looked at her quizzically for a moment.

Before either of them could say anything further, the train heading back into the city pulled up at the station's platform. The doors slid open with a muted hiss, perfectly timed so all they would need would be to take two steps to the side in order to get on.

Anna held her arm out towards the opening. "After you, and watch your step!"

Elsa was about to crack a joke about chivalry not being dead after all and missed Anna's warning, stumbling over the crack between the platform and the train, her hands flying forward to break her fall... and once again losing all her papers in the process.

She really needed to look into getting a bag for her things…

Thankfully, Anna was there again to save the day, grabbing them all before they could slip through the crack or be left behind on the platform. How she managed to do so with one hand was baffling, but Elsa found she couldn't care less in the face of the bright smile thrown her way.

"You really should get a bag or briefcase for this."

"Well, I never intended to miss my stop and carry these for longer than I needed to," Elsa bantered back as she straightened up from her impromptu stumble, hands reaching out to receive the papers held out to her.

"Maybe I should hang onto these until we get to our stop? If we're getting off at the same time?"

"I'm getting off at Jackson," Elsa said, hugging the papers firmly to her chest. "And you?"

Anna made a face. "Monroe for me. I mean, I could get off at Jackson too, but—"

"No, no, no...You don't have to go through the trouble," Elsa cut in, shaking her head and offering a small smile. "I'd hate to make you any later than you probably are."

"Look who's talking," the redhead scoffed, "Dressed up so formally like that, you're late to something far more important." She paused, flashing a smile of her own. "Really, it wouldn't be any trouble."

Elsa peered over her papers and twisted her wrist to take note of the time displayed on the watch that encircled it. She avoided groaning out loud and said with a deep, weary sigh, "I'm worse than late at this point." Even if she miraculously wasn't ridiculously late, the disorganized order of her papers would have been unpresentable for the important class she was supposed to be attending.

Well, there goes my chance to get my points up for the final…

The redhead grinned, "It probably wouldn't help if you ended up spilling your papers and arrived late, so I'll just have to hold onto these—", with that, a pair of freckled hands snatched the stack away from Elsa's unprepared grip, "Wha-hey!"

"—so you won't get into too much trouble."

The blonde gaped at such boldness, but her surprise soon gave way to amusement and affection as she saw her new companion flit through the papers, ordering them by page number with furrowed brows and pursed lips. Honestly, who was this girl, that she'd stay together with Elsa through all her awkward blunders and silly messes?

"Earlier…"

Elsa straightened as Anna continued to shuffle through the papers, a more thoughtful expression taking over her face.

"What did you mean by 'I meant it'?" queried the redhead, her fingers tapping a steady rhythm against a now organized stack. Elsa sucked in a breath when Anna's eyes zeroed in on hers, remaining jolly as ever but with a hint of...something that became decidedly more pronounced when the blonde bit her lip. She didn't think it'd be possible to be even more tense and somewhere her brain was squawking at her to breathe you fool, breathe! but the majority of her thoughts were a tad preoccupied with how teal eyes had dropped down to focus on her captive lower lip so she released it which was simultaneously a bad and good idea because now she was the main focus and she still really really needed to-

"Breathe, Elsa."

The blonde blinked and finally took in a deep swooping gulp of air.

Breathing had never been more difficult to grasp in her life. "It's… kind of hard when you rob me of my breath," she admitted, her cheeks pinking as the words flowed from her mouth.

"Oh, really?" Anna smirked, arching an eyebrow. "Would you say I'm...breathtaking?"

Elsa, not realizing her thoughts were passing her tongue, murmured, "Absolutely."

Anna's cheeks tinted a faint pink, and replied, "W-well, … thank you."

Breathtaking, gorgeous, adorable, captivating..I could go on and on about you…

There was a moment between the two before Elsa caught her previous slip up and blushed heavily, looking down at her hands instead. Trying to salvage herself, she chanced a glance at Anna who seemed to be shyly avoiding eye contact. The blonde gave a small smile and admired the cute way the girl's cheeks were stained pink. As Elsa observed her, she noticed Anna start to bite her bottom lip. That little act took all of Elsa's willpower to not swoon at the sight.

I wish I could kiss you right now.

"You...you do?" Anna's eyes flitted up to meet her cobalt blues with curiosity and a hint of something else.

Out of everything her mind decided to vocalize, it had to be that!

Elsa froze—like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Brilliant sapphire blue eyes wide as saucers. She proceeded to stammer incomprehensibly, "I-I… W-w… N-n…"

After a few moments spent collecting herself, Elsa—prepared as she could be for the expected rejection to follow—hung her head in resignation, sighed, and uttered, "Y-y-yes…"

"Great! Me too!" she heard Anna say, and her head immediately snapped up to stare at the redhead in disbelief.

"But… maybe things are going just a little too fast?" Anna sheepishly scratched her neck, trying her best to sound gentle about what she was saying. She got a feeling her new companion would take the rejection a little harder then she wanted it to, so she was quick to add, "But maybe, after you are done with your classes and stuff… would you like to go on a date with me?"

The two had long ago departed the train station after politely waving goodbye to Tiana and had been walking along the city sidewalks for quite some time now. All too soon, they had arrived at the front gates of a public university named Woodland Altars where Elsa attended, and Elsa once again felt like she would be leaving the brightest sunshine of her life, but the idea that they could meet again sometime in the near future was very encouraging and uplifting indeed. She was quick to answer the redhead's question with a short and excited "Yes!" and then, "I mean if you want… I could go either way…"

"Pshh, silly. I just said I wanted to kiss you! Of course I want to." Anna gave a toothy grin. "Here's my number; just call me after you're done with your classes and we can meet up somewhere." She took a pen from Elsa's shirt pocket and scribbled down her digits on one of the semi-important papers Elsa was carrying.

"Thanks- I… I won't forget. Trust me." Elsa sputtered at her partners boldness, and was secretly very thankful that Anna made the first move. "I guess I'll see you later?"

"Yup! Bye bye." Anna turned around to leave, but quickly turned back to plant a wet kiss on Elsa's cheek before almost skipping on the sidewalk leaving her bright pink lipstick mark in it's place. As Elsa walked to her first class, she had a feeling that she should probably wipe the mark off, but just couldn't bring herself to do it...

...Which invited an arched brow and a knowing smirk from her professor when she walked through the door, nearly an hour late.

With that very first mark still stamped proudly on her first page, serving as a reminder of how unexpected life could be. These chance connections amidst the droll routine of a day's work, sparking new experiences, forging new relationships.

"I apologize for the wait, Professor."

Her lips curled into the barest of smiles.

"I was a little...held up."

FIN

Contributors: SquaresRCool, the-wandering-quill, Iamrotting, CanITellUSmThin, Immi, Winterssummerallthefunner, Pegacorn1210, Pankite, Cyrianu, Nojamhere, christian nickles 3

