Ana had never seen her roommate look so angry before and - having been so used to his laid back persona - she was almost left speechless at the sight.

Mason slammed the door behind him as he walked into the dorm, visibly fuming as he tugged off his shoes and left them at the entrance. He left the living room only briefly, coming back a few minutes later after seemingly changing clothes.

Ana watched as he slumped onto the couch before tentatively taking a seat beside him. "Are you okay?" She wasn't even completely sure she wanted to ask the question. Judging by the girl's tears and Mason's expression, it was a really serious conversation and she didn't exactly want to pry into his personal life. He didn't even know Ana's real name so it felt unfair to ask for any more information about him.

"Do I look okay to you," he suddenly snapped. Ana's eyes widened at his tone of voice, offended that he would take his anger out on her of all people. That was before she remembered he had no idea that he was currently talking to royalty.

She rolled her eyes, both at herself and Mason as she stood from her spot. "Shit- wait," she was suddenly stopped from walking away by a hand on her waist.

Ana froze. She found it odd that he would grab her waist instead of her wrist or even her hand. But she pushed the thought aside to focus on the man currently holding her still.

"I didn't mean to sound so aggressive, I just- fuck." He sighed heavily, releasing her and leaning back against the couch cushions. "I'm just so fucking mad that she thought she could show up whenever she wants and I would just accept it."

Ana shook her head absentmindedly, "I don't understand your exact situation but I do understand strained relationships so I know how frustrating something like that can be. But I also understand that you shouldn't take your anger out on someone who doesn't deserve it." She raised an eyebrow, head tilted as she smirked slightly.

Mason's mouth opened before abruptly closing, eyebrows furrowing with evident confusion. "You don't sound too upset," he trailed off.

The princess laughed softly at her roommate's words. "I might have been upset for a moment," she acknowledged. "But you kind of apologized before I even mentioned anything so you're forgiven," she shrugged.

"Really?" He sounded genuinely surprised at being so easily forgiven. "You fucking forgive me? Just like that?"

"Sure," she nodded. "You realized your mistake without me having to tell you and immediately tried to fix it so it would be pretty pointless for me to still be upset afterwards." She crossed her arms over her chest, retaking her spot on the couch and crossing one leg over another. "Unless there's something else I need to forgive you for?"

Mason grinned at her, and Ana wondered how she never noticed how attractive he was when he smiled. It wasn't a perfect smile by any means; one side of his mouth was higher than the other and some of his teeth overlapped the others. But it was still wonderful to see nonetheless.

"I guess you'll just have to fucking see, now won't you?"

~~~

If Ana was being honest, she was expecting something absolutely terrible. He was supposed to be getting back at her for the ball pit prank but she thought it might take a while so she wasn't too concerned about it.

That was until earlier of course.

She had shrugged off the insinuation at first, assuming that Mason was just trying to psyche her out. So she was now out with her classmates, finishing up the last of the English project to turn in the next day.

It had only been an hour since she left the house but Ana could slowly feel the anxiety starting to creep in. What in the world would her roommate pull this time?

"Paris," her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her pseudo name. "You okay?"

She looked over at Mae - one of Ana's partners - who was staring at her with a concerned expression on their face. "Of course," Ana smiled at them. "I was just thinking. Sorry," she refocused on the page in front of her. "What were you saying?"

"We thought we should separate the graph into three columns instead of two. So the written, the expected, and the planned. Apparently the original outline of the plot was really different than what was actually written. And - since this is the last step in the project - we thought we might make it as good as possible by including all three aspects," they explained.

"Sounds like a good idea," she responded. "I've pretty much finished listing out the elements of the written column so Rachel can start typing it out now too."

"Let's get back to work then," Caleb jokingly cracked his knuckles.

~~~

By the time Ana got home it was close to midnight but they had completely finished the project so she wasn't too upset by it.

She walked through the door into her dorm, cringing at the sound of the hinges as she closed it. She pulled off her heels, regretting having worn them the entire day when she had the opportunity to change earlier.

She sighed with relief as she stretched before jumping at the sound of a throat clearing. She looked in the direction of the noise to see Mason on the couch. "Well you don't fucking see that every day," he stated blankly.

"Were you just sitting in the dark?" Ana was sure she had turned on the light, meaning - if Mason had been there the whole time - he was sitting in the living room with no lights on.

He looked almost embarrassed as he stood up, rubbing his thighs with the palms of his hands and refusing to make eye contact. "You were out for a long ass time," he said instead of answering her question.

"I told you I would be," she confirmed. "I texted the group chat and each of you personally to let everyone know." She always made sure to do so if her plans had changed, as she was often the person providing dinner and she didn't want anyone to practically starve because they forgot to eat without her there.

"Well-," he began before pausing abruptly. "Still," he finally finished.

Ana's brows furrowed. She was certain he wanted to say something more, but he decided not to. She was curious to know what it was but didn't want to pry. "Okay then," Ana gestured in the direction of her room. "Well I'm going to go so-," she trailed off for a moment as she noticed Mason staring intently at her face. "Good night."

Well, that was weird, she thought to herself with a shake of her head as she made her way to her bedroom.

She opened the door slowly, scared of what might be in her room, and was relieved when she didn't see anything noticeably different than before in the dark. She turned the light on and let her shoulders relax after ensuring that Mason didn't try to completely ruin her room.

Apparently he hadn't pranked her after all, merely trying to make her think he did so she was on edge. She laughed slightly at the prospect, wondering why he would do something so strange.

Must be a normal-people thing, she shrugged.

She finally moved to set her bag on the bed when she realized something was on top of it.

A violin.

~~~