"What are you doing sitting down on the job, Sasha? Get your lazy butt off the floor before Corporal Levi comes and kicks your ass into next week!"

Sasha opened her eyes to find Connie standing over her in his casual clothing, wiping off his buzzed head with a towel and grinning. He smelled like soap. She just looked at him, not trusting herself to say anything yet.

"Sash?" His face fell. "What's wrong?"

She hugged her knees, hiding her face. "I think I got myself pretty fucked up, Connie." She groaned. "I'm really, really fucked up."

Connie was sitting next to her in a second, his arm around her shoulder. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked, nudging her cheek. "You know I'm a super good listener. Mostly because I'm too dumb to remember secrets long enough to start rumors." He gave her a big grin, but Sasha only stared at the floor in front of her. "Come on, Sash," he pleaded. "Who's your best friend in the whole world, huh? Bet I can make you feel better."

"I don't want to talk about it," Sasha muttered.

Connie pouted for a moment before he smiled again, squeezing her shoulders. "That's cool too, Sash. I'm here whenever you need a big manly soldier to cry on too."
"Shut up, Connie," she sniffed, turning and resting her head on his arm. "You're, like, three feet tall."

"'Doesn't mean I don't have manly shoulders."

.

"Braus, Springer, I don't know what you're doing sitting down on the floor, but it certainly doesn't look like you're carrying out your duties."

Erwin Smith looked down at the two of them like God himself. The two soldiers jumped to their feet, Sasha nearly tripping over the towel Connie had accidentally dropped. She was glad that she had stopped crying a long time ago.

Erwin turned to Connie, his eyes calmly regarding the boy's almost desperate salute. "Springer, your horse hasn't been brushed down. We returned three hours ago."

"I was—"

"Go see to it."

"Yes, sir!" Connie bolted, looking like he might piss himself. Once he was safely out of the Commander's danger zone, though, he turned back and smiled broadly at Sasha, giving her a reassuring thumbs-up. She couldn't help but smile back.

"Officer Braus," Erwin said, his voice losing some of its edge, "your face is red."

"I…uh…" Sasha turned away. "It is, Sir," she answered quietly.

"If you want to take some time for yourself, I can send you to the infirmary. There's no one there today."

She shook her head. "That's very kind of you, Sir, but I would much rather keep working, if I can."

The commander raised his eyebrows, obviously surprised that she would pass up a free break. "Are you sure, Braus?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well then," he said, turning and walking off down the hall. "I'm sure kitchen duty will suit you just fine for the rest of the day. How's that sound, soldier?"

Sasha's eyes widened. "Sir?" she asked. Kitchen duty was not only the easiest chore he could have assigned her, but he was ignoring her obvious history of stealing food.

"You heard me, Sasha," Erwin called over her shoulder. If she hadn't known better, Sasha could have sworn he even smiled at her. "Hope to see you back on duty soon."

.

"Braus."

Sasha spun around two hours of potato-peeling later to find Levi standing behind her, a strange dark look in his eyes. She gulped, setting her knife down and standing at attention. "Yes, sir?"

Levi glared at her for a moment more, putting her nerves on edge. She must have done something wrong, though she couldn't remember anything. Maybe, she thought with a sudden numbness, Jean had spoken to him. Would he deem her mentally unfit? Kick her off the squad? Or was he finally going to ask her about…about why…Levi stepped closer, his lips almost on her ear. Though there was no one else in the kitchen, he whispered, "You will come to my office after dinner tonight, understood?"

His voice was low and very serious. Sasha lowered her head. He must know. "Yes, sir," she said obediently. She was just about to turn back to her job when he said her name again: "Braus." She looked back at him cautiously.

"You're not to tell anyone else about your orders. Come alone."

She couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in surprise. What's he planning to say that has to be kept so secret? "Yes, corporal," she said solemnly.

Levi held her eyes her for a moment more before he nodded curtly and turned on his heel, walking about of the kitchen. Just as he reached the door, Eren strode in with a massive bag of potatoes in his arms. As the two passed each other, the older man short him a filthy glare.

Eren watched him go, confused. "I wonder what pissed him off today," he muttered to himself, then turned and smiled at Sasha. "I have more potatoes for you, potato girl."

"Damn it, Eren! I told you—"

His laugh cut her off. He looked happier than he had ever been around her before. She forgot her anger at the dumb nickname and smiled back at him as he hefted the sack onto the counter.

"Thanks," she said, and Eren made as if he was going to leave. She turned back to the potatoes, still smiling slightly to herself, and was nearly back into the mechanical motion of her job when she felt his strong arms wrapping around her waist.

"Eren?" she gasped as he buried his face in the side of her neck, inhaling through her hair.

She was so shocked that she didn't even realize that she had accidentally missed the potato skin and cut her thumb with her knife.

"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked breathlessly, trying to get a look at him.

He pushed his head harder against her, keeping her from turning her neck. "You just…smell good. I don't know."

"W-What?" Sasha gasped. "Eren, what are you—?"

"I never realized how much I wanted you until you were gone," he whispered, cutting her off. "I thought you were pretty and all, but you were my friend. It was only until after I thought I'd never see you again that I realized…"

He kissed her neck. Sasha stood frozen in front of him, her heart pounding in her chest.

"How do you feel about me, Sasha? I need to know."

"I…uh…Eren, I…"

There was that feeling again, that undeniable instinct to run away. She tried to push his arms off of her body but he only held her tighter, waiting for her answer.

Her eyes fell to the knife in her hand.

He could heal, she thought, her fingers tightening around the handle.

"Hey, Sasha!"

Eren's hands snapped to his sides and they both spun around, finding Connie standing in the doorway. His eyes were bright and warm, even though Sasha could tell from the way he looked at her that he must have seen Eren with his hands all over her.

"You're not busy, are you?" he asked, cocking his head. "Someone left all the brushes on the top shelf of the tack room. 'Can't reach it." He shrugged. "Think you could help?"

"Yeah." It was like a weight had been lifted off of her back. As she rushed past Eren to the door, she could feel his fierce green eyes on her. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She pretended not to notice. "Yeah, sure.

"See ya, man." Connie waved to Eren and turned into the corridor, waiting for Sasha to come and walk next to him before he punched her half-jokingly on the arm.

"You looked like you could use a little help back there," he said quietly. Sasha looked over at him and he winked at her. "I can't believe I just admitted I was short for you. You owe me big for that one."

She smiled. At least she could count on Connie. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it, Sash. I always got your back."


**Author's note: Because I am very lazy, I never noticed that FF was deleting a lot of my double spaces as I uploaded the chapters before this one (which, by the way, is really crappy) so over the next few days I'll hopefully go back and alter some of those chapters so that they make more sense. Sorry about not catching that before!

Also, I believe I may be the only person on the planet to ship Sasha/Eren**