Hange (and AOT) x Reader

Social Anxiety (AU): GN Hange x F reader

A/N: Hi all, in this request, reader has social anxiety and is really nervous about going back to in person learning at college after a year of learning at home so Hange helps them out!

(Y/N) ran over her list for the thirtieth time that day. Keys? Check. Phone? Check. Mask? On. But even with her persistent attempts at trying to convince herself she was going to be okay, that she had done this for many years, she still felt a bit nauseous Her palms were already sweaty, and she frantically wiped them on her jeans (which were so uncomfortable, and she missed wearing sweats all day long).

"Ready to go?" Hange asked, walking over to the entrance of the apartment they shared with two other girls. They were dressed up in a maroon tracksuit and were wearing a mask with some science joke she didn't understand.

"Yeah," (Y/N) nodded, heading towards the car. Campus was a twenty-minute drive away and Hange had offered to drop her off that morning. She had never told them about her social anxiety, but she had a feeling they knew—they were pretty intelligent, after all.

"I'm so excited! I haven't been on campus for so long, isn't it great things are slowly getting back to the way they were?" Hange gushed. "I get to be in my labs again and you won't have to suffer through my kitchen experiments!"

(Y/N) cringed as she remembered the experiments Hange was talking about. Hange, a biology and chemistry double major, had many hypotheses that they wanted to prove and that required professional materials. Due to the situations with the pandemic, they dealt with what they had and created one too many explosions in their kitchen sink.

"Well, at least that's one good thing coming out of this," (Y/N) mumbled sarcastically.

Spending a whole year with no social interaction had left her woefully unprepared for communication with her teachers and peers. And she was extremely worried about presenting herself in class again. She had difficulty speaking before the pandemic had started, how on earth was she going to talk now?

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Hange asked, gently, pulling into a vacant parking spot. "You've been quiet this entire ride."

"Oh, just thinking about my schedule," (Y/N) grabbed her phone, opening it to a screenshot of all her classes and buildings. She probably forgot the entire layout and where the buildings were...

Hange exited the car and she soon followed, grabbing her backpack. The two walked out of the garage and (Y/N)'s eyes flitted over the crowds of students that were milling about. Okay, crowds might have been an overstatement, but there were still around 20 students outside of the liberal arts building.

"Well, my building is that way," Hange pointed towards the opposite side of campus. "Do you want me to drop you off at yours first?"

(Y/N) didn't respond, feeling dread take over. This wasn't a good idea. Maybe she should just turn around and forget about her classes—

"(Y/N)!" Hange gently tugged on her backpack. "It'll be alright. You've done this for years when you used to go to school!"

"But that was before I spent a whole year with literally no human interaction!" (Y/N) whispered.

"Listen," Hange reached out and intertwined their fingers with (Y/N)'s, softly letting their thumb run over her knuckles. "You don't have to talk to anyone, okay? Just go to class and sit there."

"What about icebreakers? Professors always make us do that!"

"You'll be just fine, just state your name and your major, and maybe a fun fact about yourself!"

"There's literally nothing fun about me."

"Then make something up! Say you went zip lining the other day," Hange's eyes sparkled.