Sasha was ready to go to bed. She'd been working hard at training all day, nearly killing herself a few times in the process, so she didn't think it would be unfair if she slipped under the covers a little early today. She'd had a relaxing bath, changed into her warm recently washed pajamas, and she'd filled her tummy to satisfaction at dinner. Sasha plopped into her bed. She pulled the covers over her body, and closed her eyes. She was just about ready to drift away to a happy, sugary land where Titans are friendly and her mother is still alive...

When she suddenly realized something.

'I forgot the bread I left in the bathing room!'

Sasha ran, probably faster than she'd ever had since she left the village. She had sneaked one of her beloved bread loaves into the women's bathing room so she could eat while soaking in the tub, but she had placed it down to wash her hair. She didn't recall picking it up again after that.

'Oh no! Oh no!' Sasha had left the bath a few hours ago. Surely another girl had gone in there and discovered the wet bread, and she would likely report it to the Drill Instructor, Shadis. There would be no investigation; everyone would immediately pin Sasha with the crime, and she would be held accountable. Considering the trouble she had caused for the instructor already, Sasha knew that he wouldn't simply let her go lightly. At worst, he might use it as an excuse to have her thrown out of the trainee squad completely.

It was probably a waste of time, and her fate had already been sealed, but Sasha needed to check anyway.

She approached the bathing room down the end of this particular hall. The air seemed to grow thicker, and a light hint of mist hung in the air, like a veil. Sasha figured it must have been from the faucet used for steam, but did somebody leave it on? Even stranger, did this mean that there was still someone taking a bath, at this hour? Everyone else had gone to dinner or were spending time lounging before bed.

Sasha opened the door. She had meant to be stealthy, but the rusted hinges gave away her position immediately.

"...Who's there?" called out Mikasa's voice, from behind the partition that separated the baths and the towel stands.

Sasha trembled; Mikasa was likely the very worst person she could have run into her, even Annie would have been better. There was no way that she'd get unscathed out of this, but she had try anyway, because if she didn't attempt to fight back, then her life was simply forfeit.

"I-I'm sorry...! I didn't come in here to sneak a peek or anything! I...I forgot something here, and I wanted to take it back!"

Mikasa casually stepped out of the partition to reveal herself, dripping and glistening with water and completely nude. Sasha's jaw nearly hit the floor. Even with the steam hovering through the room, there was nothing that she couldn't see. Especially those impressive abs. Sasha's eyes grew as big as saucer plates.

"...Do you mean this revolting thing?" Mikasa dully asked, holding out a spongy, squishy object that had once been considered delectable bread.

"Err, yes," Sasha tried not to stare, but it was rather hard, when both Mikasa and the bread were in her field of vision.

"I can't believe you'd be so stupid as to actually try and eat food while washing yourself at the same time. Just take it. I'm not going to say anything about it as long as you don't do that again. It's unsanitary."

"Thanks..." Sasha took the mushy roll, and she started to leave, but she had to ask, "Why are you in here so late, Mikasa?"

"I'm not really fond of bathing with the others around."

"Really? Why not?"

"That's none of your business. I don't care if you see me naked, but if you still want to keep all your teeth to eat your bread and potatoes, then it'd be a good idea for you to keep this little meeting quiet, understand? Especially don't tell Eren...or Armin."

"I-I won't say a word! Sorry! Have a good night, Mikasa!" Sasha scurried away. Mikasa sighed and shook her head as she left to resume her bath.

'Man, my heart is still pounding so fast!' Sasha thought as she made her way back to the dorms, although her current thoughts were all over the place, 'Mikasa...she...she looked really good without any clothes on...I didn't know girls could develop abs like that...'

Sasha glanced down at the bread in her hand. It was wet with an unpleasant pale coloring. She took a bite.

'Eww, it's all soggy.'


Sasha and Mikasa laid side by side together in bed. How they ended up together like this was a story for another day, but right now, they were sharing another one of their introspective conversations. Usually Sasha was the one who instigated them.

"Hey, Mikasa..."

"What? And get your hand out of my face."

"I was thinking, back when you told the drill instructor that I farted to cover up Eren and Jean's fight..."

"Oh...I had been hoping you'd forgotten about that..."

"In retrospect, it was actually kind of funny."

"Funny?"

"The timing, the choice of words, the fact that you used me as the scapegoat...while it did scar me emotionally and leave me with a rather upsetting reputation as the 'gas girl' for a while, I can understand your decision a little better now."

"Err...yeah..." Mikasa felt a little awkward to hear Sasha bringing up those bad times between them, before they'd even started dating.

"Mikasa, I think I know what you should do after we stop the Titans."

"What?"

"You should be a comedian!"

Mikasa lifted her head so she could peer down at her girlfriend, and give her that kind of look that said 'your insanity never ceases to amaze me sometimes'.

"I'm serious; I bet you could do it! That time you tricked me with the bread too! You have a good handle on comedy; I never would have expected it from you, but it's a cute hidden side about you! I like it!"

"I'm...I'm only like that with you, anyway..." Mikasa blushed.

"I think it'd be great! You could help raise the troops' morale, and considering the sort of stuff we're facing, we all know they could use some laughter! I bet even Commander Pixis would want to see your stand-up routine! Maybe the king! We could buy you a big red nose and everything-"

"Shut up, Sasha." Mikasa finally said what her expression had been saying for the past minute and a half.

"Okay, what sort of jokes can you tell?"

"J-Jokes...?"

"Tell me a joke, Mikasa! I'm sure you can do it!"

Mikasa really didn't want to tell a joke, she didn't want to try and be funny, she didn't want to do anything that was even remotely as humiliating as performing stand-up comedy in front of a crowd. But Sasha kept staring at her with those big, cute puppy-dog eyes, the kind of stare that drew her in like a Titan to humans, and she couldn't hope to fight it. At least for this one time, she would humor the other girl.

"E...Eren's temper is so bad, that when he stubbed his toe, he declared he would kill all desk-chairs..."

Sasha's eyes grew dim and her smile faltered. She almost didn't know what she could say to a joke like that. Catching herself, she slapped on the biggest, most fake grin she could muster.

"...Well, that was good...b-but we could always practice on your material, right?"

Mikasa tugged on Sasha's hair a little roughly. "I told you that I don't want to do this at all!"


Mikasa had been quiet for a long time, ever since they had set up camp. She simply sat in front of the fire, huddling her arms and legs close to her body, her face almost buried into her scarf. The flickering flames reflected in her glazed, charcoal eyes. She did not even offer a hand in preparing supplies for the night.

"Is Mikasa alright?" Sasha asked Connie as the two of them collected firewood.

"I dunno," Connie shrugged, "She's always been kind of weird, you know? Especially now that she and Eren had to be split up for this mission...she must really miss him."

"Hmm..." Sasha frowned.

"Don't worry about it, Sasha; c'mon, you remember how she treated you back in our training days, right?"

"Yeah...but still...she's not exactly a bad person either."

"I know," Connie nodded, "But she's never even tried to be our friend before. What do you think you could possibly do for her?"

Sasha thought it over. Mikasa may have been unnaturally cold sometimes, that is, almost all the time, but that didn't mean she didn't possess feelings like any other person. She just needed someone who could be a friend to her. She seemed close with both Eren and Armin, but Eren was constantly obsessed with being strong enough to kill Titans, and Armin probably only interacted with Mikasa because of Eren. Mikasa needed some major cheeriness in her life.

As she placed her logs into the pile, Sasha decided she would try to be the source of that cheeriness.

"Hey, Mikasa,"

Mikasa looked up, and watched in silence as Sasha planted herself down beside her. They were sitting close enough for their shoulders to rub together. Mikasa sniffed.

"What do you want?"

"I...I wanted to give you something, since you were looking hungry..."

"Whatever," Mikasa really had no interest in Sasha's offer, because she knew it would do little else but annoy her further; did she really think she could ever fool anyone, claiming that a tiny piece of her food counted as 'sharing half'?

Sasha reached into her back-pocket and took out, what else, a loaf of bread she had swiped from the rations. She stared at the bread for a lengthy moment as the gears in her mind turned; she had to make a very important decision, at least in her opinion. Mikasa pretended to ignore her, thinking she knew what would happen next, but suddenly, the entire loaf was handed over to her. Sasha''s teeth marks were nowhere present on it, nor had she ripped off anything for herself. Mikasa briefly wondered if Sasha had finally gone insane, to willingly give away untouched food like this.

"Here...you need this more than I do..." Sasha grinned weakly.

Mikasa started nibbling on the bread. Much to Sasha's fortune, Mikasa DID feel a little better now.

"Mikasa!" Sasha, however, decided to overstep her boundaries a little too quickly, and pulled the other girl into a tight hug. She took an elbow to the gut for her trouble.


Sasha approached Mikasa's bedroom door. She was shaking from head to toe, her heart was pounding harder than a parade drum, and she felt like she was going to soil herself at any moment. But she had to do this. She couldn't let her feelings go hidden for a moment longer.

She raised her fist to bang on the door, to get Mikasa's attention. She didn't know whether she'd babble and spill her heart on the floor, or if she'd just grab the girl and kiss her full on the lips. Either way could work, although it was likely the second would get her ass kicked before she had to explain herself. Sasha knocked.

The door opened, and Sasha opened her mouth, but her words drifted away, unspoken, when she saw that it was Annie who'd answered the door.

"Oh...S-Sasha, it's just you..." Annie coughed. Her hair was slightly disheveled, the usual bun of hair left untied, with strands of golden-blonde hair limply dangling off of her shoulders, and there was an obvious love bite on the base of her neck, "Sorry...I was just on my way out..." she tugged on her collar to try and cover the mark. Not that it did much; she had a bite on her nose too.

"Annie, what're you-"

"Umm...excuse me." Annie brushed past Sasha in a hurry. Sasha looked back at the door, and she caught only a flash of it before the door completely shut on her; Mikasa was hurriedly throwing on her clothes.

'I'd just caught Annie and Mikasa right after they'd...' Sasha could practically hear her own heart shattering.

Mikasa opened the door.

"Sasha? What do you want?" she asked. Her scarf was lacking, revealing the numerous love bites she also possessed. Sasha could only fathom what sort of insanity was going on inside this bedroom only moments ago.

"I...Mikasa, I..." Sasha didn't know how to say it. She'd basically deflated, losing all of her courage and hope, the instant she had seen Annie step out of Mikasa's room. There was no hope that she and Mikasa could be together now. She already had someone else, and that was Annie. Sasha was beat before she could even try. She wanted to curl into a ball, cry, and stuff her face with food until the pain went away.

But still, her father had raised her not to be a quitter.

"Mikasa! Can I join you and Annie?"

Mikasa slammed the door in her face without a word.

"..." Sasha assumed that that outrageous request probably made her crush even angrier at her now.