A/N: Happy Pocky day! \(*^O^*)/ (Ignore the fact I'm a day late; I'm already two years late from the original plan.)
A part of the Shingeki no Special Day series, but can be read as stand alone.
"Annie, what's with the bag?" Eren questioned as soon as the girl sat next to him in their lecture hall, a giant, apparently full plastic bag in tow.
The blond looked at him with a blank expression before pulling something out of said bag. Eren could only stare at the small red box in Annie's hand as it was the last thing he expected her to bring out. She just shrugged, opening the box while stating in a bored voice, "It's Pocky day."
Eren continued to eye her warily during the whole lecture as she slowly ate one stick after another. About halfway into class he decided he couldn't take it anymore. He pulled out his phone and shot a quick text to Armin, 'think ur gfs gon crazy'.
The response was immediate. '?', was all it said.
'Shes eatign a ehole bag of it&is esting it'.
'Oh. Yeah, I know. I helped her stash up on it'.
Now it was Eren's turn to return only question marks.
'Annie loves that stuff but usually holds back on it. Only once a year she goes all out and that happens to be today'.
Eren stared at his screen, then Annie, who ignored him completely in favor of taking notes and chewing on yet another stick.
'Some people are weird', he thought.
As every Friday lately their group met up that day in their favorite bar to catch up as they were all majoring in different things and didn't see nearly as much of each other as they were used to during high school. This week the group was extra large as not only none of the now-university students had any exams to study for nor projects to work on, but also a bunch of Levi's friends decided to come.
The kids, safe for Eren, Mikasa and Armin, still felt weird hanging out with their old high school teachers but they were slowly getting used to it. Getting drunk together and listening to Hanji spill all the embarrassing stories sure helped as well.
Every time a new person arrived during the evening, they questioned the box constantly lying in front of Annie. Annie quickly got sick of answering the same question over and over and elected to ignore everyone, leaving her previously enlightened friends to explain, instead aggressively munching on the snack, switching between flavors as she eradicated one box after another.
Eren was honestly amazed she still had any left.
Or that she hadn't gotten sick neither from it nor of it yet.
Of course, first thing Sasha did after her eyes fell on the treat, was to try and steal some. Too bad she was so obvious about it because the next thing she knew, she was kneeling on the floor in front of expressionless Annie with her hand forced into an awkward angle, pleading for mercy.
Luckily, Armin immediately intervened, soothing his girlfriend and saving Sasha from a broken wrist. The second the grip on her hand loosened, Sasha ran away with tears in her eyes, and for a good while kept hiding behind Connie who didn't hesitate to laugh at her even as he massaged her hand to ease the strain that had been put on it.
However, this incident put a probably disastrous, definitely very dangerous and potentially genius idea into Hanji's head.
The second Annie left to order another round of drinks for the table, she immediately had to share.
She leaned over the table and took a deep breath.
"Fuck no; shut up, Shitty Foureyes..." Levi groaned into Eren's shoulder before she managed to get a single word in.
"I didn't even say anything yet!" Hanji pouted as the rest of the table laughed.
"You were about to and I'm telling you that no, whatever shitty idea you came up with is shitty and no one is going to agree."
Hanji narrowed her eyes at her best friend. "You're just scared Annie would beat you."
"Ooooh," Petra drew out dramatically, breaking into a fit of giggles when Erwin groaned and Mike snorted in amusement.
Levi ignored them, too busy glaring at Hanji. "There's no way the brat could even touch me."
"Stop lying to yourself, Shorty."
Jean scooted away from Mikasa looking horrified at what she just said, an action that only caused Eren and Armin, who were used to the two throwing teasing jabs at each other, to exchange an amused look. Levi didn't even react.
"Then you better prove me wrong," Hanji grinned, knowing she's won.
A beat of silence passed, before Levi finally cracked, "Fine, let's hear it."
"Sorry to break it to you, guys," Marco interrupted, "but Annie's coming back."
Suddenly the tense – or amused, depending on if you were Levi or not – atmosphere broke away and chatter restored.
Levi leaned back into Eren's side but soon had to stick his elbow into his boyfriend's ribs to make him stop chuckling. "Sorry, but Hanji's got you so figured out; it's funny." Eren mumbled, not sounding very sorry.
Levi grumbled until Eren pressed a small kiss to his cheek in apology.
Hanji practically vibrated by the time Annie left the table again to go to the bathroom.
Finally, she leaned forward and shared in mock-whisper, "So I came up with a drinking game."
"Oh great," mumbled Erwin, already looking forward to having to take care of a bunch of drunk college students and high school teachers acting like college students. Petra patted him on the shoulder compassionately, yet not planning on holding back herself.
Hanji continued when she was sure she had everyone's attention. "We try to steal Annie's Pocky. Whoever chickens out, is caught, or glared at in prevention, has to drink."
"So... Sasha already lost," stated flatly Mikasa.
"Why?" cried the girl in question in protest. "We haven't started yet, before doesn't count!"
"But Annie's glaring at you constantly to keep you away," Jean pointed out, to which Sasha sulked visibly but couldn't argue against.
Armin sighed. He expected something like this. "It's at your own risk but go ahead. But I'm not participating. The worst that could happen to you is broken wrist; I dare to say the risk for me is far greater."
"Ooooooooh," echoed in response around the table.
Armin immediately flushed beet red, throwing the first thing his hand came into contact with, which happened to be Jean's phone as the boy was sitting opposite of him, at Hanji, who was making obscene gestures at him.
"Hey!" Jean scrambled to collect his phone as everybody else started laughing hysterically.
"That's not what I meant!" Armin tried to correct his mistake; however, he knew it was too late. The damage was done. He groaned, burying his face in his hands, planning to never come up again.
By the time the game was called off, there were several findings made.
Jean was hopeless. He lost even to Sasha as he was apparently physically unable to be sneaky. Annie caught him every time he tried, even that one time when Annie was making out with Armin after a round of pocky game and everyone else managed to steal a stick or two. He nearly lost his hands twice and was completely drunk before anyone else got even close. However, funnily enough, Ymir, as much as she boasted, was in a much similar situation and honestly, the group couldn't fairly decide who was worse. The only thing that helped Ymir's case was that she had better alcohol tolerance than Jean.
On the other hand, Mike apparently had some secret talent for stealing as Annie never caught him. Everyone was impressed. Or had been at least until they counted the score to see who won and Krista came up with literal dozens of the sticks that no one noticed her ever taking. To say they were impressed, a little scared and felt very much betrayed would be an understatement.
Krista was officially announced the Queen of Pick-pockets and they never looked at her the same way again.
A/N: Annie is me.
Or would be if I could get my hands on more than two and a half boxes... ㅠ.ㅠ But as far as I'm concerned, my dedication to the cause is on par with Annie. The half box I mentioned, it travelled from Japan to here during the hottest week of the year. The sticks were more like one big stick so I stood for ten minutes in -5°C waiting for it to harden enough and cut them apart. The things I do for Pocky. (It was worth it.)
(Wonder if I manage to finish the Shingeki no Chrismas I started writing last year around this time in time for this years Chrismas...)