It was generally accepted that when you were training to fight giant man-eating humanoids, you didn't get to have much downtime. Since trainees normally graduated after three years, a lot of information and techniques needed to be taught in quite a short amount of time. Luckily, since most of the graduates were expected to die anyways if the titans ever did attack again, sometimes the instructors let them have the night off.
This was one of those nights. The 104th were milling around the mess hall, some of them idly conversing while others were flat-out asleep. There was a rare relaxed atmosphere among the trainees, and most of them were content to waste their night this way.
The exceptions, of course, were Eren and Jean.
Neither of them had done anything yet, but Eren was still bristling from a comment Jean had made earlier during training. Only the combined effort of Mikasa and Armin was keeping him calm, but it was clear that unless a better distraction came along a fight would get started soon, and the night would be ruined.
Ymir, who was very happy to spend the night slouched in her seat playing with Krista's hair, did not particularly want Eren and Jean's combined idiocy to get them all in trouble. She didn't really care what Shadis thought about her, but the thought of running laps in the freezing cold was not appealing to her. A distraction needed to be made.
Muttering a quick "I'll be back." to Krista, she got up and made her way to the girls' dorm. Rooting around through her small supply of belongings, she quickly found the box she was looking for and brought it back to the mess hall.
In the three minutes she had been gone; Eren had stood up and walked over to Jean's table. He was just about to say something that would probably offend Jean when Ymir slammed the box down on the table.
"Who wants to play a board game?"
Eren stared at her in confusion, which she could understand. She didn't really talk much to anyone other than Krista, but that was because she found most of them boring. Nonetheless, if it was a choice between socializing with a bunch of idiots and doing push-ups until sunrise her decision was obvious.
Armin, smart kid that he was, seemed to understand what she was doing.
"That sounds great! Doesn't it, Eren, Mikasa? Who else wants to play? Sasha, Reiner? How about it?"
"Fine." Eren said slowly, still glaring at Jean intensely. "I'll play."
Ymir gave a small relieved sigh that was echoed by Mikasa and Armin.
"Jean, you're playing too, right?"
Everyone froze again, except for Eren and Jean, who were locked in a stare-down.
"Sure." Jean said eventually. "I'm sure it won't take me long to wipe the floor with you at…" He turned to Ymir. "What's the game called again?"
"Monopoly." she supplied.
"-Monopoly." Jean finished, although it was clear he had never heard of it before. From the puzzled looks the other cadets were giving each other, none of them had either.
"Wow! It looks like a fun game Ymir! Where did you get it?" Krista asked quickly before Eren could reply.
The tension eased a little bit as Ymir explained how her mother had bought it for her when she was little. That was a complete lie of course. Ymir had stolen it from a rich merchants house before she'd joined the military. Krista didn't push though, probably because she knew Ymir was lying.
"Alright then!" Marco said, clapping his hands. "How do we play?"
The list of bad ideas thought up by members of the 104th was very long and very creative, ranging from Mikasa's Ignore-physics-Armin-I-can-totally-bench-press-this-bunk-bed-idea to Sasha's If-I-eat-all-this-food-right-now-Shadis-will-have-no-evidence-I-stole-it-plan (Mina's shoes smelled like vomit for weeks). None of them however, ever came close to being as disastrous as Monopoly.
It had started off fairly minor. Mikasa had claimed the top hat and refused to give it to Annie, so there was some tension there to begin with. Annie had claimed Boardwalk and Park Place fairly early on in the game, and soon had a hotel on each. Eren landed there three times and had almost gone bankrupt, which did nothing to improve his mood. The final straw came when Eren landed on Vermont Avenue, which happened to be owned by Jean. That alone would have been bad enough, but the fact that Eren couldn't afford to pay him made Jean's crowing so much worse.
"What did I tell you Yeager? Bankrupt already!"
"Come on, Krista." Eren pleaded desperately. "You saw him jolt the table! Clearly, he cheated and I shouldn't have to pay!"
Krista, who had been unanimously voted banker, shook her head sadly.
"I'm sorry Eren, but I'm afraid you've lost."
"You heard the goddess Eren! You lost to me again, like you did this morning and like you will at graduation!"
Eren growled, and before Mikasa could hold him back he lunged across the table, tackling Jean to the ground. Krista and Marco got up to try and break them apart and Ymir used the distraction to steal a few hundreds from the bank. Only Annie noticed her robbery, and she wasn't bothered enough to say anything about it.
"Sore loser, aren't you Yeager?"
"You're the one that's going to be sore when I'm finished with you!"
When it became clear that Eren and Jean weren't going to stop beating each other up, everyone decided to keep playing. Their scuffle was relatively quiet, and everyone was confident that if it went too far Mikasa would step in and drag Eren away. At this point, they were too invested in the game to stop.
Annie reached over to steal the last of Eren's money, but paused when Mikasa gave Annie her I will cut you glare. Her hand hovered a few centimeters away from the money and for a second it looked like another fight was going to break out. Then Mikasa reached over and tossed Jean's money towards Annie instead. Annie accepted this as the peace offering it was and the game continued.
"OW! Dammit Eren I'm already bruised there!"
"Go cry to your mom about it!"
"At least I have one, asshole!"
After a while Sasha went bankrupt and started to complain about how everyone had cheated her and come on Reiner I saw you grab some of Marco's money, but then Mikasa shoved some bread in her face and another crisis was averted. Sasha cheerily skipped away to egg Eren and Jean on, who were currently trying to slam each other's head on a table.
Bertolt was the next to go, mostly because he never noticed when someone landed on his property. This was due to Reiner constantly whispering things in his ear that made him flush bright red. Reiner smiled smugly as he rolled the dice and moved off Bertolt's property, with the taller boy none the wiser.
Meanwhile…
"Fuck… fuck you Jean."
"Getting tired already? What a surprise."
"I could do this all day, horse-face."
As the numbers dropped, the tensions rose. Mikasa dominated the board and guarded her money as well as Eren's tiny amount that technically belonged to the bank. Annie milked Boardwalk for all it was worth, and managed to stay afloat. Ymir was bankrupt by this stage, and amused herself by whispering things to Krista that made her blush. Reiner soon noticed and it became a competition, with Bertolt and Krista as unwilling participants. Soon Reiner was too distracted to play properly, and he lost his remaining money fast. Marco hadn't been playing for a while, since Jean had accidentally elbowed him in the face and knocked him unconscious. Jean barely even had time to notice since Eren was still trying to twist his arm.
"Time out Eren! I think someone got hurt!"
"Ha! Just like you to make excuses. Is this too much to handle?"
"Bring it, punk!"
As the sound of senseless violence continued, Connie, Armin, Annie and Mikasa continued playing. Connie had been unusually quiet the entire game, staring at Armin, then at Mikasa, and then back to Armin again. Armin, surprising everyone, hadn't actually been doing so well. He seemed quite calm about it, even though his pile of money was the smallest. No one understood how he'd managed this far, but it was Armin and he was smarter than them so they didn't worry too hard about it.
Except now there were only four of them left and Connie was losing money to Mikasa while Armin somehow stayed safe. Annie was barely paying attention, watching Jean and Eren beat the shit out of each other with an expression that could almost be considered enjoyment.
Armin rolled the dice and moved three spaces, landing on Mikasa's property. He handed some money over to her which she added to her pile and then passed the dice to Annie.
Suddenly, Connie slammed his hand down on the table, catching the attention of everyone bar Jean and Eren.
"I knew it! I knew you two were cheating!" His finger was dramatically pointed at Mikasa and Armin. Mikasa looked unimpressed, while Armin blinked innocently back at him. Connie however, was not deterred by this.
"Early on in the game Armin you sold almost all your properties to Mikasa. Everyone remembers this, right?"
Truth be told most people had forgotten by this point how the game had begun, but they shrugged and nodded anyways, curious where Connie was going with this.
"She's been keeping you safe this entire time! You were supposed to pay her a thousand and you only gave her a few hundreds! That's bullshit."
Armin's face crumpled guiltily, but Mikasa continued to stare blankly up at Connie. Behind them, Eren and Jean continued kicking each other's shins. When it became clear than neither Armin nor Mikasa were going to speak, Annie rolled the dice.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Connie cried. "We can't just continue the game! Armin and Mikasa were cheating!"
"We formed a business partnership." Mikasa said flatly. "There's nothing in the rules against it."
"That's because it's so obviously cheating that they didn't bother!"
"The world is cruel, Connie." She picked up some of her money and began sorting it. "Cruel yet very beautiful."
"You can't just use that as an excuse for everything! You told Sasha that last week when you ate half her dinner!"
"It's true." Sasha chimed in. "I quote: 'This world is merciless. The strong prey on the weak.' The last part was kind of hard to hear because your mouth was full but I'm pretty sure that's what you said."
"Exactly! Which is why I think both you and Armin should be disquali-" Mikasa was glaring at him now, and Connie suddenly remembered who he was talking to. Last week she'd accidentally thrown Reiner through a window because she was busy watching Annie and Eren spar.
"Take your turn Annie." Mikasa said calmly.
Annie didn't seem to like Mikasa ordering her like that, but they were all starting to get tired of the game, so she moved her piece onto Go. Connie realized he wasn't going to win this fight and he sat down angrily. Mikasa was still staring at him coldly so he glared at Armin instead, who looked like he was about to cry.
"Screw you Armin." Connie snapped. He picked up his thimble and threw it, and it bounced off Armin's forehead.
Then everything went to hell.
An hour later, when the fire was finally put out, no one was able to fully say how it had happened. Somehow, Eren had stopped fighting with Jean the exact second Mikasa had flung the board at Connie, and together they had lunged at him. Reiner described it best, saying that they were 'creepily in sync'. Mikasa punched Connie in the face while Eren tackled him to the ground and began punching him repeatedly. Sasha tried to pull Eren off and Mikasa intervened, grabbing her and throwing her across the room. Sasha crashed into the table and accidentally knocked one of the cadets into the fireplace. The cadet quickly caught on fire and ran around screaming, while Krista ran across and pulled the fire alarm.
Meanwhile, Jean sat up and rubbed his black eye, wondering what the hell had happened to Eren. He soon noticed Marco's unconscious form and crawled across to make sure he was still breathing.
Reiner and Bertolt tried to intervene. Mikasa grabbed Reiner and flung him into the ceiling, breaking one of the lamps. Bertolt slipped under her arm and tried pulling Eren off, but Eren reached out and grabbed a glass from a table, smashing it against Bertolt's head. Reiner got up again just in time to watch Bertolt stumble backwards. He let out a roar and charged at Eren, but Mikasa grabbed him and flung him again. He crashed into the wall and knocked over a candle, which started to spread almost immediately. At this point three different trainees were on fire and everyone was panicking.
Sasha grabbed a mostly unburned log from the fire and charged at Mikasa with a war cry. Mikasa could respect Sasha's desire to protect her friend, but Connie had been rude to Armin and that just wasn't allowed. So she grabbed her own log and a strange sort of sword-fight began in the middle of the hall.
Ymir sat in her seat and watched the chaos around her. She wished that there was some way she could film what was happening, because Daz just ran past her with his hair on fire. This was amazing.
Then she noticed somebody shoving Krista and got up to teach them never to do that again.
Armin stared in stunned silence at the violence and chaos happening around him. Jean was trying to get Marco's body out of the room. Eren was still punching Connie's face. Reiner was on fire and oh, now Bertolt was too. Mikasa and Sasha were going at it like samurai and Ymir was about to shove someone's face into the fire. Even Krista was watching everything burn with a manic gleam in her eyes.
Beside him, Annie moved, slowly stretching her hand across the table and grabbing Mikasa's money. She stared at Armin the entire time, daring him to stop her.
"I win." she said.
Armin nodded, still not quite sure how to process what was happening. Satisfied, Annie grabbed all of the fake money, leaving only Eren's tiny pile behind.
The next morning, while Eren, Mikasa and Sasha were running laps, Shadis held an official ceremony where he burned the Monopoly set. All the cadets that weren't in the infirmary watched solemnly as the board burned and Shadis made a speech about how this evil game was now banned and anyone found in possession of it would be permanently dismissed from the military. He then stared directly at Armin and warned that a deeper inquiry would be made into the incident and all those responsible would rebuild the mess hall.
Armin was too embarrassed to talk to either of his best friends for the whole day, but Eren and Mikasa privately agreed that it was completely worth it.