summary: in which Krista gets the upper hand (if only for a few sweet seconds)

A paroxysm of giggles erupted from the blonde trainee's lips as her girlfriend's fingers crept along the exposed skin of her midriff, sliding beneath her shirt and creeping mischievously over her sides, where she was most sensitive. Her pleas for mercy died upon her lips, unable to overpower the peals of laughter which rang out instead. Escape was impossible; Ymir was straddling the smaller girl's hips, holding her captive upon the lower shelf of the bunk they shared. Krista squirmed and squealed with all her might, clawing at the roving fingers which tortured her so, but to no avail.

"Ymir…please…I can't!" she huffed between attacks, unable to speak except in broken sentences. "Break…I need…time-out…pleaaaase!"

"You can't break?" asked Ymir, tilting her head to the right in a puzzled manner. Never ceasing in her assault, she continued, "Hah? What on earth are you trying to say, Krista? You'll have to speak more clearly than that! How will I ever understand you otherwise?"

"Evil…Ymir is crueeeel!" wailed Krista. She battered the taller girl's chest with a series of half-hearted punches, and in response Ymir freed her hands from the fabric of Krista's blouse and grabbed the blonde's wrists, pinning them down over her head in one swift move. With the intention to begin assailing the girl's neck with her mouth - an action that she knew would make Krista really squeamish - Ymir glanced at the powder-white skin, and then quickly down beside it, past the corners of her bed sheets to the wooden floorboards below the bed.

Every muscle in her body turned to stone, and her eyes stayed riveted upon the dark blemish which rested gaily upon the floor. Krista, who had managed to regain her breath during this blessed pause between attacks, raised an eyebrow at the extreme unease presenting itself upon Ymir's face. She turned her head and craned her neck forward, following Ymir's line of vision to locate the cause of this distraction.

"Is that a cricket?" she mused aloud.

Like a current of electricity, Krista's words jolted every nerve in Ymir's body. In a flash she was half-standing, half-hunched over in the corner that the bed shared with the wall, pressing her back against the bunk's support beam.

"Eh? What's wrong, Ymir?"

"C-can you get that thing out of here?" Ymir asked, hissing her request through clenched teeth.

"What thing? The cricket?"

"Yes, the crick- NO, DON'T PICK IT UP LIKE THAT!" her voice hitched up an octave as Krista bent over the side of the mattress and scooped the twitching creature into her hands, cupping it gently in her palms.

Instinct got the better of her, and Ymir leapt off the bed in an attempt to get as far away from the insect as possible. She watched in horror as Krista opened up her hands, allowing the creature to roam freely over her palms, her fingers, her knuckles and then the back of her hand; the resultant shudder down her back had her entire body quivering.

"Are you scared of crickets?" asked Krista, her blue eyes growing wide in disbelief. As if it were also questioning the dark-haired girl, the insect offered a few cheery chirps of its own, much to her chagrin.

"I had a somewhat traumatising experience with one a long time ago," she muttered. Her jaw grew taut as the accursed cricket continued its journey along Krista's arm - why was she just letting the damn thing do as it pleased and crawl all over her when there was a perfectly good window right behind her? "It was rolling around in a cheap meal I'd bought from some crappy food stall. I almost took a bite out of the damn thing - I had it in my hands, and it was twitching, flailing those creepy little legs in the air and twisting its head this way and that -" She stopped speaking for a moment as another tremor ran down her spine, "Did you know that in some villages around here, they're considered omens of illness and death?" She pretended not to hear Krista's derisive snort of amusement. "My point is, I can't stand the things, so just throw it out, or I'll squish it for you!"

"But he's so cute!" With an impish gleam in her eye, Krista stepped forward, and Ymir responded by taking a step back. "Look at his little face - how could you hate that?"

There weren't many things in that world that were capable of making the tough soldier shake in terror, but when it came to crickets, Ymir would gladly use her friends as human shields if it meant saving herself from their despicable wrath.

"Just look at it," Krista tried again, and she picked it off her shoulder and held it out to Ymir, right before her nose.

The deafening shriek which Ymir emitted caused Krista's lips to twist into a teasing smile, and the cricket flailed its legs wildly in the air, both of them upset with the blonde's decision. "IT WAS IN MY FOOD, KRISTA! IT'S DISGUSTING! I DON'T WANT IT!"

"How'd it get there, anyway?" wondered Krista.

"How do they get anywhere? I don't care about the details, just take it away!"

"But I've always wanted a pet! We could keep it!" Her lips formed an 'o' as a brilliant idea popped into her head. "We could even give it a name! How about Connie? Connie the Cricket! Isn't it adorable?"

"KRISTA!"

"Hah? Are you trying to tell me something, Ymir? You'll have to speak more clearly than that! How will I ever understand you otherwise?"

"KRISTA!"

"Alright, alright, it's going! See?" Krista daintily skipped over to the window and pushed the glass forward an inch; the resulting gap was just wide enough for the agitated insect to hop out through, but not before it aimed a series of angry, almost screech-like chirps at the two girls. "There. He's out now. Bye, Connie!"

Exhaling loudly, Ymir collapsed onto her bed and pulled her pillow over her face, burying it beneath the plush rectangle in an attempt to conceal the bright red glow of her cheeks.

Krista would have none of it; she was going to enjoy this moment while she could. "You're so cute when you're scared," she giggled, taking the opportunity to leap upon her partner's stomach. She wrenched the pillow away from the slender brown fingers which held it in place, revealing the embarrassed features of a girl who couldn't look her in the eye anymore.

"Hmph."

"I've never seen that adorable side of yours."

"That's what you said about the bug."

"Nah. You're cuter."

"Cuter than a cricket?"

"A hundred times ove- eh?"

Krista didn't know how it happened - one minute she was gloating, comfortably settled on top of Ymir, and the next thing she knew she had lost her balance; the dark-haired girl had taken advantage of her inattentive state, and had managed to roll her over and pin her down onto the mattress once again - only this time, there was no distraction to save her.

"Now," said Ymir, with a devilish twinkle shining in her eyes, "where were we?"