Annie Leonhardt hated when people came to their band practices. She hated this even more when one of those people was making the stink eye at Bertolt. If she hated anything, she hated anyone who dared threatened Bertolt in any manner. Bertolt may have been bigger than her, but Annie took it upon herself to be his surrogate big sister. And currently Big Sister Annie Leonhardt wouldn't mind taking a swift boot to Sasha Braus' ass.

Sasha only went to Jean's band practice because Marco insisted that everyone wouldn't mind her being there. Currently she felt like Yoko Ono without a John Lennon because her would-be John Lennon was actually dating Paul McCartney. For someone who also had a crush on Jean, Marco seemed upbeat and beyond rolling his eyes every time Jean did something kind of cheesy with Bertolt. Sasha was surprised at how well the rest of the band took it. In fact, she swore she saw Annie smile when Bertolt gave Jean a quick peck.

The band took a break after practicing a few songs. Bertolt needed to talk a phone call from work, and Annie need to restring her guitar after breaking a string, along with cleaning up the cut she got from said rogue string. It went without saying that she also needed a much needed smoke break. Then Marco needed to go to the bathroom and take some medicine, and Jean left to get some food. This left Sasha with Reiner Braun, a person she knew very little about outside of the fact that if sex and lust were personified, it was probably Reiner. Then again, she also knew that Reiner was known to be a bit of a teddy bear, but she still felt uneasy as he walked around stretching. He stopped and plopped onto the couch beside Sasha. He looked over to her and grinned.

"I don't bite. Well, not unless you want me to, and I'll expect you to return the favor if that's the case," Reiner said.

Sasha recoiled and inched away from Reiner. He was a bit too much- which was saying a lot for a person like Sasha who was used to larger than life people like Reiner.

"I'm kidding. Your lady boner for Kirstein could be seen from space," Reiner said.

"Seriously?" Sasha asked.

"Not any more obvious than the actual boners that Marco and Bertl have. Honesty, I don't get what you guys see in him besides that ass of his. I mean, I'm very single, and I'm good with my hands. What more could you even ask for? Well for Bertl, he'd probably want me to get rid of my nipple piercings. Though you know, maybe he would dig it. Wanna see?"

"Um… maybe later."

"Later! Yes, ma'am."

"No! Not later. Like maybe not at all."

Reiner laughed and punched Sasha lightly on the arm. She rubbed the spot where he punched her even though it was such a light punch that it was more of a love tap than anything. It wasn't like Sasha didn't think Reiner was good looking. She wasn't blind or resistant to the sexual aura of Reiner Braun, but he was so damn forward and just comfortable about sex that it made Sasha embarrassed.

"I'm kidding you know," Reiner said.

"Yeah… of course I did," Sasha said.

"It's okay to be embarrassed. It doesn't bother me. I know what people think about me anyway. You wouldn't be the first."

"Have you ever thought about not being so… you know?"

"Not really. There's no point in being a person that you aren't."

"Even if it means being a guy who doesn't know the meaning of TMI?"

"Making people squirm with discomfort is one of life's pleasures."

"That's really fucked up."

"Not any more fucked up than the girl who is being ridiculously mean to the nicest guy ever."

Sasha looked around confused and scratched her head as Reiner stared her down.

"Who's doing that to Marco?" Sasha asked.

Reiner pointed to Sasha and shook his head.

"I'm talking about you and Bertl. Stop giving him the evil eye. It's rude. And honestly, Annie looks like she's about to tear your fucking head apart. If you care about your life, you will be nicer to Bertl," Reiner said.

"You sure about that?" Sasha said.

"Yeah. Annie thinks of Bertl as her little brother, and she will do anything to make him happy. Anything. And right now, Bertl is happy that he is dating Jean again. He's been the happiest when he is with Jean. What that is? Don't ask me. We've been best friends since childhood, and I don't get it. Maybe he's a great fuck. If that's the case, I want in."

Sasha winced as Reiner smirked. He was awfully confident in himself, Sasha noted.

"You're so weird," Sasha said.

"I take pride in that. But seriously, Bertl's kind of sensitive. He's a good guy. I know you're close to Marco, and I don't know what he's told you. Jean was the one who started everything with Bertl, and Marco probably got miffed because Jean didn't choose him. Marco and Jean fought over it. I mean like not on talking basis fighting for like a week. And I know Marco and Annie are fine now, but she blames Marco for breaking Jean and Bertl up in the first place. Like he's had it in for Bertl. You can take that as you want. I'm just telling you because I don't want you to take it out on Bertl."

"Okay. I promise not to do anything to Bertolt. Honestly, I'd rather not have Annie on my case. I just… I don't want Marco to be so heartbroken."

Reiner shuffled and straightened up. He looked at Sasha and shook his head. He took her hand and made her sit closer to him. His face changed into some thing so grave.

"Have you considered how Jean feels about Marco? Like it's cool that Marco likes Jean that way, but you can't force someone to be in love with you. It doesn't work that way, and it never will. If it did, I'd be the one fucking Bertl right now, but it obviously doesn't work that way. Besides, you're fucking miserable all the time anyway because you're constantly feeling guilty- like you forced this other person to love you. Like when I dated Bertl, I thought it was going to be the best thing that happened to either of us, but Bertl was depressed. I felt shitty constantly because I thought it was my fault and that Bertl didn't love me enough. I had to break up with him even though I didn't want to, but it was the best thing I ever did. Just goes to show you that you can't make love happen," Reiner said.

Sasha waited for Reiner to say something else, but he just sat there looking at Sasha.

"Um… I was really waiting for you to say that love happens to you, but you didn't," Sasha said.

Reiner slapped his thigh and started to laugh. Just then, Jean walked in with Bertolt. They were holding hands and looking slightly less on edge than they were during practice. Reiner lifted an eyebrow and looked at Sasha.

"Reiner, you're not freaking Sasha out. Are you?" Jean said.

"Nope, just having some friendly intercourse," Reiner said.

"No! We weren't doing any of that! I mean some people may have! But we weren't!" Sasha said.

Jean rolled his eyes and picked up his guitar.

"He's talking about talking with you, Sasha," Jean said.

"I knew that!" Sasha said.

"Sure you did."

"What's wrong with you guys?" Annie said as she led Marco back into the practice space.

"Sasha and I were having excellent intercourse," Reiner said.

"That's still the worst fucking joke in the world, Reiner. Come on. I just got a text from Hitch, and I have to cover her shift. So we need to do two more songs before I leave," Annie said.

Annie corralled the boys back into practice mode. They tried a few of their own songs- some of them brand new. Sasha kept looking at Reiner and then back to Marco. Marco relaxed as he listened and gave some of his opinions to the band. Sasha refused to say anything even though she wanted to ask him everything again about the history of him, Jean, and Bertolt. Some other day, she thought. Before she had the mine to even suggest taking Marco out for some coffee, band practice was over, and Jean and Bertolt were off to drop Marco at his home. Annie sneakily left for work. Again, Sasha was with Reiner. He was cleaning up after the rest of the band, looking a bit lonely. Sasha imagined that the reason why Reiner was the way he was had to be a way to just deal with his own loneliness and discomfort. She felt bad for him and even worse that she didn't take him so seriously before.

"Hey… sorry about before," Sasha said.

"What?" Reiner said.

"I mean, I'm sorry for acting like a bit of a jerk."

"Not a big deal."

"You're actually nice."

"I could have told you that earlier."

Sasha giggled and helped Reiner pick up some cables.

"So are you weirdly sexual with everyone you meet?" Sasha said.

"No," Reiner said.

Sasha looked up at Reiner who was finished up with cleaning.

"I only do that with the people I want to fuck. You don't see me doing that to someone like say Annie," Reiner said.

Reiner put his hand on Sasha's shoulder and tilted his head a bit as he looked at her.

"You know… if you ever decide you don't want Kirstein, I'm always around," Reiner said.

Reiner then grabbed his coat and started to turn off some of the lights.

"Just let me know… We could grab a drink some time," Reiner said.

Sasha nodded, "I will. Maybe some time soon. I'd like that a lot."

"Thanks Braus. Even if you don't mean it."

Sasha smiled and left as Reiner shut off the rest of the lights. As he locked up the space, Reiner wished he could punch himself in the face. Another strike for the books.