A/N:
What is Christmas without cookies?

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Disclaimer:
«I do not own any of the following pictures, music, characters or the original universe. Nor do I own the Christmas Calendar or its content. I only own this Christmas story and the mixing idea.»

For practical purposes, Hange Zoë will be referred to with female pronouns. The character's gender has not been confirmed by the creator, so there is still a mystery about what is the truth of it. However, because it is hard to write around the pronouns, I chose the female gender because this is what they used for the English dub of the Anime. I hope that you all understand my reasoning for this, and that if you have another opinion on the gender, you can still replace the pronouns while reading.

DECEMBER 20TH

The mood was high as a sweet scent filled the air the morning of December 20th. The meat they had collected two days prior had all been handled and preserved so that it would be in good condition for a long time to come. However, it had been pointed out that they needed more than just meat, and so, as Petra and Sasha were making bread on the morning of the 20th, Commander Erwin Smith had announced that they would be making other doughy treats.

"Cookies?" Petra repeated, unsure whether or not her hearing was intact. Although it was highly unusual to let the soldiers have quality food and drink, it did happen - if only just at very special occasions. However, there had been no mentions of cookies! Why would the military eat cookies - let alone bake them? "Do you really mean-?"

"Yes!" A glow in the commander's eyes made any further questions unnecessary.

Petra had heard about the 'being bitten by the bug'- expression, but she thought that was reserved for activities and hobbies. However, looking at the expression on her superior's face, she couldn't help but think that he was bitten by the Christmas bug.

So, after the breads were set, the two girls began mixing another dough. This one was a sweeter kind, and as they worked on it, small smiles appeared on their faces.

Soon their friends came down to have their breakfast, and, learning what the girls were doing, many were more than happy to lend a hand shaping the cookies.

"Wow, this is just like when we were kids!" Eren exclaimed as he played the dough between his fingers, before looking over at his friend. "You remember, right?"

Mikasa nodded. Although Eren had hated most chores, he always made exceptions when it came down to things they could all do together. So, although it was more common for the girl of the house to stay inside and help with the baking and the boy to gather firewood, Mikasa often volunteered to get the wood. She didn't really mind which chore she was put to, and the beaming smile she got from him as she returned, would have made ten times the work totally worth it.

"Do you remember these?" She held up a circular form to him.

"Of course. It's like that cookie mom always gave us after we had helped out. I didn't know you remembered things like that. We were just kids."

"Of course." Mikasa smiled. "And you know what? I'm going to make lots of these, and you can only have one when I say so."

A frown began on his face, and for a second Mikasa worried that the little progress she had made with him the previous week would be wasted, but the frown was soon replaced by a grin.

"Sure," He grinned at her. "I'll do my best."

"Hey! Eren, Mikasa."

They turned to face the one calling them.

Levi, his apron tied tightly abound his waist, looked over at them. "Stop messing around and get to work."

"But we're making cookies today," Eren protested.

Levi did not respond, but continued working on the dough in front of him.

"What are you making?"

Looking over the captain's shoulder, Eren could make out a set of cookies.

"Wow! You're doing the badges?"

His outburst drew more people over, to look at the cookies made by humanity's strongest warrior.

"Wow!"

"Amazing!"

"Such detail!"

"Can you teach me?"

They all stood around him, admiring how he, to detail, made exact replicas of the emblems of all three branches of the military.

"Something is missing, isn't it."

The deep cough behind him made Levi turn around.

"Keith Shadis?"

"They're still missing the most essential part of the military."

Nothing more was said, and Levi Ackerman simply turned back to the dough. However, the comment hadn't passed by without notice, and he grabbed a new piece of dough and molded it into yet another shape.

"That's what I'm talking about," Keith slapped the captain on his back. "Now they're all gathered, eh?"

Slowly, still with the molding knife in his hand, Levi turned to face the leader of the recruits. Although he might seem like it, Levi was not particularity sour or easily irritated. The rumors and whispers circulating were all based on his not so great moments, and had often been noted down as he was particularity upset or worked up – and they were mostly caused by that damned Hange Zöe.

However, in the current situation, being handled like this, and not to mention the 'degrading position' he had found the man in just a couple a days ago, the captain could not let this slide.

"So," He began, his voice so deep that it almost rasped the floor, "since you have so many ideas, why don't you go confront the Commander, or the Squad Leader maybe, with it?"

"Well..." The man's eyes became even more narrow than usual by the mentioning of Hange. "They both seem busy, but," he raised a brow, "maybe I will give it another try."

An annoyed wrinkle appeared on the captain's brow. Although it seemed like the man was going to leave him be, the result was still not far from what he wanted. He'd expected the man to be more put back by his reference to his earlier endeavors, but it was as Levi had thought: The man was shameless.

"They are really well made. Truly," Petra picked up one of the cookies, careful not to crush it. "They are so detailed. Did you have anything to mold it after? A photo or anything."

Levi hadn't. He told the sergeant so, and as he did, the man seemed impressed. He didn't really understand the big deal. It had always been like that: he would just put a picture to mind, and then he used that to make what he would make. Not that he was baking cookies too often. Thinking about it, he couldn't remember having been near any sweet dough since Erwin had first brought him along to show him off at the royal feast a few years back. It had been a truly dreadful night, and Levi had wanted to leave as soon as he entered the hall.

It had been a nightmare throughout the whole visit. Erwin had told him that all he had to do was stay close, look respectable, and not speak without being spoken to first. That part was what Levi had agreed to. However, it seemed like the nobles of the feast had much more in mind. It turned out that he was not just a soldier – a brilliant and prominent one at that - but that he was preconceived more like the lapdog of the new commander. So, like all the poodles in the room, Levi was expected to entertain and to please, and in the middle of all the things that Erwin had made him do, Levi had ended up baking cookies. He had no idea how he had agreed to it, but somehow he ended up in the kitchens, with a little, old granny, making her cookies as she was talking with Erwin about a possible founding of the Scouts.

Shaking his head, he tried to rid himself of the memory of the pink cabinets and the mess he had discovered inside of them. Turning his attention back on his cookies, he grabbed a new chunk of dough and began molding a new set of badges. His favorite was the one for the scouts. The symmetric placement of the wings of freedom was easy to do, and there was a strange pride going through him as he looked down at the piece of dough. The others were easy as well. Like the survey corps, the recruits had a symmetrical design – and was even more simplistic. The Roses and Horse of the other seals were a little more difficult. The rose had seven petals, and these all had to be made individually. It was some job and it was not easy to make all the flowers look exactly the same. The same went for the horse's head used for the military police. The head itself was easy enough to make, but when he went on to make another horse, the form changed slightly.

Seeing the Captain Levi struggle with his cookie design, Petra decided not to bother him any more than necessary. So, making her way back to her own working area, she got a pan out, and began placing her own little cookies on them, making sure that there was more than enough room for them to grow as they baked, without having them touch any of the other cakes. Unlike her Captain, Petra had not gone for anything complicated. She had grown up with cookies that were plain to the eye and so she had made them today. Of course, she could have splashed out and made something like the Captain's, but today she wanted to stick with her own tradition. And, she told herself, it was probably not the best time for the world to see her non-existing sculpturing skills.

When all the cookies were on the pan, she carried it over to the corner cabinet of the kitchen. Although they had brought along a lot of food for this journey – and more had arrived with Keith and Annie, there was still some free space left. When they had first explored the kitchen and figured out where all the supplies should be stored, Petra had kept this cabinet unused. Then, she had cleaned it herself and when her bread dough was done, it had been put in the cabinet to rise nicely.

Walking over to that same closet, Petra put the pan inside of it and closed the door behind it. Not only would the cookies get a better temperature to prepare themselves in, but the stacking of the plates also saved them a lot of space.

Seeing what Petra did, more soldiers got their hands on their own pans, and put their own cookies inside the cabinet as well.

Hours had already passed since they first started that morning, and as Levi finally put his own cookies aside, he called lunch. The rest of the soldiers gathered, and after eating their food, it was decided it was time for another reading.

The twentieth of December: Cherubiel

… something suddenly fell out of the sky …

A procession was on its way through Asia Minor. During the third century it sped through Pamphylia and Cilicia south of the high Taurus mountains, crossing rivers, orchards and plateaux.

Sometimes the pilgrims made their way along steep slopes with old rock graves; sometimes they floundered along the edge of the beach so that the sand spurted up around them; sometimes they sped through Roman cities such as Attalia, Seleucia and Tarsus. At Tarsus they paused and looked around for a few seconds. The angel Ephiriel told them that it was Paul's birthplace.

On their journey the pilgrims passed Roman theatres, sports stadia, harbours, triumphal arches and temples. Now and again they saw something that might have been a Christian church.

The route was planned so that they should not attract too much attention. It took them a century to cross the country but they showed themselves only in the grey light of dawn before people had woken up. Here and there they frightened the wits out of a night watchman, or a fisherman who was setting out his nets early. As a rule they sped on, and the poor man would be left standing rubbing his eyes, but sometimes the angel Impuriel called out that he should not be afraid.

For a human being doesn't often see one of the angels of the Lord, and even then the sight doesn't last longer than a second or two. Then it's easy to believe you've seen visions, especially if you're a poor night watchman who hasn't closed his eyes during the long hours of his spell of duty.

The mysterious procession sped round the Gulf of Alexandretta at the very end of the Mediterranean Sea. From now on, the way to Bethlehem went south along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. They arrived at the Syrian city of Antioch and stopped in front of the town gate.

'We are in the year of Our Lord 238,' said Ephiriel. 'This is where Paul's first missionary journeys began. We ought to remember, too, that the word "Christian" was used for the first time in Antioch.'

'But weren't Jesus's disciples Christian?' Elisabet wanted to know.

'Yes and no,' replied Ephiriel. 'It took a long time for the first Christians to begin calling themselves Christians, and the first occasion when that happened was in this very city. Before then the Christians thought of themselves as Jews. Paul was a Jew too, but on his missionary journeys he found out that Romans and Greeks could also believe in Jesus. Paul thought they didn't need to become Jews before they began to believe in Jesus. They didn't need to follow all the old rules in the laws of Moses either. Because Jesus didn't talk to the Jews alone. He had something to say to all people.'

The Wise Men came up beside Ephiriel.

'We are Wise Men from the Orient,' said Caspar, 'and Kings of Nubia, Sheba and Egryskulla. None of us has a drop of Jewish blood in our veins, but all the same, we are among the very first to welcome the Christ-child into the world.'

Joshua struck his shepherd's crook against the city wall.

'To Bethlehem!' he said. 'To Bethlehem!'

The procession of pilgrims moved off on their way to Damascus, the capital of Syria.

After a while Ephiriel called to them to stop. They were on a deserted stretch of the old Roman road through Syria.

'Here it is,' said Ephiriel, pointing at a bright red poppy at the side of the road. He continued, 'The time is 235 years after the birth of Jesus. Two hundred years ago a miracle took place here, and it was of great importance for the history of the whole world.'

The Three Wise Men lined up and bowed solemnly, and to show that he agreed, the Emperor Augustus planted his sceptre on the spot the angel had indicated. The four shepherds tried to collect the little flock of sheep round the Emperor's sceptre. It shone like a small sun. Quirinius called their attention to the landscape and said, 'It's good to be home again. Now it's only a couple of hundred years since I was the Governor of Syria. Dixi.'

'Excuse me for asking you so directly,' said Elisabet, 'but I may be the only person who doesn't understand what you're all talking about. Jesus wasn't born here, was he?'

Ephiriel laughed.

'In the year of Our Lord 35 after Christ, a Jew from Tarsus in Asia Minor was on his way to Damascus. His Roman name was Paul, but his Jewish name was Saul. As a young man he had lived in Jerusalem where he studied the ancient Jewish scriptures. He may have met Jesus there and listened to what He had to say. But Paul was a Pharisee, and the Pharisees believed that people could keep in with God by following all the laws and precepts in the Books of Moses. He became one of the enthusiastic persecutors of the Christians. He helped to throw them in prison, and even helped to kill St Stephen.'

'Then he was stupid,' said Elisabet.

Ephiriel and all the others nodded. The angel continued, 'But when he was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians there, he had a strange experience. Suddenly a light shone down from heaven, and Paul heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

Paul asked who was calling him, and the answer was, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do." Paul and the men who were with him were struck speechless. All of them had heard the voice speaking, but none of them had seen anything but the light from heaven.'

'That's exactly how it was,' said Impuriel. 'The voice they heard didn't even say, "Fear not".'

'Paul went in to Damascus and joined the congregation there. Before long he became the first great Christian missionary. Paul was a Roman citizen, he spoke Greek, and Aramaic which was the language Jesus spoke. And he could read the scrolls of scripture in Hebrew. On his four missionary journeys he preached about Jesus in Greece and Rome, Syria and Asia Minor.'

While Ephiriel was speaking something suddenly fell out of the sky. It happened so quickly that Elisabet didn't even have time to jump. At first she thought it was a bird that had fallen to earth because it had forgotten to beat its wings. Then she saw that a new angel was standing in front of her.

'Fear not,' said the angel. 'I am Cherubiel and I shall accompany you on the last stage of your journey to Bethlehem.'

The Emperor Augustus picked up the sceptre that had stood where Paul had heard the voice from heaven, the shepherds gave the sheep a little push, and Joshua exclaimed, "To Bethlehem! To Bethlehem!'

After they had packed away the food, the second part of the sweet day began. This was declared by Erwin carrying in two bags. Those who had helped carrying in the new supplies from Keith and Annie felt they had seen it before, and that was true. In addition to the supplies, the commander had ordered quite a few luxurious products. Up until then they had seen both the liquor and the ingredients for beer - as well as an incredible amount of sugar - that they had now learned was meant for the baking. However, that was all they had thought about, but what he brought out now was yet another 'gift' to his crew.

"You all did a very good job on the butchering. I told you earlier that if you did excellent work, I would gift you with something special. Well, my friends, the products I saw were excellent, and you more than deserve what I have for you." He went over to the table and placed the bag on it. "In these bags you will find cocoa powder. When blending it in the right mixture, these will be hot chocolate, or chocolate that you can pour into shapes and serve cold. There are not too many shapes to choose from - so make sure that you share. Also," He looked in the direction of Sasha, "There isn't an endless amount of this, so make sure to divide it evenly between you."

Cheers broke out as he completed his instructions. This Christmas adventure had been turned into something all of them - even the worst of the doubters - had grown to enjoy.

Opening the bag, Annie got out two smaller bags containing brown powder. She continued to empty the bags until all the contents were on the table.

Annie counted the bags. "We have 7, 8, 9 - 9 bags of the powder."

"So as long as we heat it up and mix it in groups, it will be divided evenly between us?" Krista asked.

"It should"

"And that might save us from Sasha, too," Connie grinned, poking her with his elbow.

It was meant as a joke, but instead of the usual joke back or punch in the shoulder, no answer came from the girl. Worried, he looked up at her, and what he saw made his heart hurt. All who had been around Sasha for more than a little while knew that the girl was a fan of food. Whenever there was a piece of bread - or god help a piece of ham or beef - the girl's mouth, as well as eyes would water. There seemed like there was no bottom to her appetite, and one quickly learned to hold tight onto one's own food. However, the look he saw in her eyes now, it was not the one of just hunger and gloth, but there was a longing in there that he couldn't quite recognize.

"Sasha?" he tried, gently pulling on her sleeve. "Sash?"

"Eehe," Shaking her head it was as if she was brought back to life. "Sorry, yeah."

"Are you alright?"

"Sure, it's just been a really long time since I've had chocolate."

"Liar," Connie protested. "I saw you drinking a cup of it as late as yesterday."

"It's not the same," Sasha began.

"Sure it is. I mean, it's chocolate. Chocolate is chocolate"

"In this case, she's right, kid." The comment came from Mike.

The man seldomly spoke, making Connie curious. "Oh?"

"The cocoa powder in those bags is something far beyond your imagination. Compare it to a piece of dried meat and the juiciest beef you have ever tasted. That is the difference."

"Really?" Connie had a hard time believing the man. Could there really be such a big difference between two so similar products? He highly doubted that, and besides, he already had troubles enough tasting the difference between good milk and milk that had gone off. Who knew, maybe it would all be the same to him, regardless of what the others said. He was about to give up his chocolate, telling Sasha that she could have his part as well, when suddenly he got a great idea.

"Hmm… Interesting," he said, tasting the words. "Yeah, sure, I'll make some chocolate."

"Yeah?" Sasha asked.

"Mhm, I really wanna try tasting this amazing chocolate of yours. And besides," he added, "One time gotta be the first, right?"

Mike nodded.

"Let's get over there and make some chocolate!" Suddenly back to her old self, Sasha grasped Connie by the arm and close to fought her way over to the table to take a bag.

"Two on each, Two on each." Gunther had taken upon himself to be the one making sure that everyone got their right amount of powder, and was now passing them out, making a mental note of who teamed up with whom.

"Sasha and Connie!"

Gunther looked at both of them for a second before handing them the bag. Connie wasn't sure, but for some reason it felt as if the man was hiding a smile as he looked at them.

"Great! Let's do this!" Grabbing the closest set of shapes, Sasha continued to pull Connie until they were on the furthest part of the table. "Okay, should we just mix it all?"

Connie blinked. He didn't know.

"Okay, then… MIKE?"

Mike came to sit with them and soon they had mixed a bowl of something that, when heated up and mixed thoroughly together, and set to cool, would end up as chocolate.

It was easier than Connie had thought, and while making the chocolates he found himself really enjoying it. It was so fun actually, that he almost didn't mind saving all his chocolates so that he could give them to Sasha on christmas as his Secret Santa gift.

The cozy feeling in the room was broken by Erwin clapping his hands.

"First off: I hope you're all enjoying yourself."

There was agreeing mumbling.

"And second," He paused to take a bite of a cookie. "These," he waved it in the air. "These are amazing. Really. And the design-"

The cookie was ripped out of his fingers. "Oh, Levi, why-"

From her seat, Hange watched the scene. She had foreseen it from the moment the Commander went to check on the cookies that had been put in the oven and laid to rest on the bench. Erwin had always been a sucker for the visually pleasing, and she had known the Captain's would be chosen. Grabbing another of her own cookies, she leaned back with a vicious smile on her face. "Oh dear."

A/N:
Question of the day:
What is your favorite cookie?

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