Chapter 23

Nikolo did try to get a permission to go along with Jonas, though very subtly. He can't help but wonder if he would've actually succeeded by being less subtle, but it'd do him no good to go back and try again.

He'd subtly questioned his own position now that his partner was temporarily leaving, respectfully wondering if it was wise to separate a team that worked well together, that got good results. But his superiors had simply stated that there was already a replacement picked and that by now Nikolo would know enough so that he could be the one to teach the newcomer. He wasn't too upset about the refusal; he'd been expecting it after all. More than that, he was worried about what kind of guy he'd have to work with after Jonas left. Some soldiers, though not many, downright feared Eldians, and it would be troublesome to end up with one of those. Of course, he highly doubted someone like that would be sent to supervise the ghettos on purpose, unless they either had a sadistic supervisor who wanted to toughen them up or they'd just managed to hide their fear until now. Another option was some asshole he'd have to constantly keep out of trouble and from hurting anyone because honestly, while Jonas was rather annoying and could cause his fair share of trouble, Nikolo knew the guy was far from the worst there could be. And he hoped he wouldn't have to deal with the worst kind directly.

"Earth to Nikolo" Jonas calls out "Did you fall asleep on your feet?"

"No, just thinking" the blond answers with a smirk "Are you familiar with the word?"

"Haha" his partner says "About what?"

"Who I'll be working with when you leave" Nikolo says, giving a pointed look to his partner "Preferably someone who doesn't cause unnecessary trouble."

"I don't do that, do I?" Jonas says with faked hurt "I just dutifully follow you around when you baby the Eldians."

"I don't "baby" them; I just don't give them a hard time when there's no reason to" Nikolo says with a frown "You're just sadistic and looking for trouble."

"Fun, I'm looking for fun" Jonas clarifies, suddenly swatting unexpecting Nikolo on the head "I'm not a sadist just because I'm not a saint like you."

"I'd call myself a decent person instead of a saint" Nikolo thinks, but doesn't say it. Absentmindedly kicking a rock on his path, he says: "So you scaring that man half dead the other day just because he dropped a piece of paper on the street wasn't sadistic?"

"He was littering" Jonas protests, but they both know it's an excuse. There hadn't been any trouble in few days and the man had been bored, Nikolo was sure "Of course he needed a lesson."

"He did say it was an accident, you know" Nikolo says "We both saw it fall out when he took his wallet from his pocket, didn't we?"

"This is why you're an Eldian sympathizer"

"This is why you're a sadist" Nikolo easily shoots back, not worried about the nickname, knowing that if Jonas were to rat him out about being "too nice" to Eldians, he would've already done it. The guy was just trying to push his buttons.

"Then we balance each other rather well, don't we?" Jonas asks with a grin, and Nikolo can't help but laugh. The guy was a bit of a jerk, but really, he found it impossible to not like him. They were quite a pair.

"And it's not like he's a bad person"

Hearing a sudden and loud crash, Nikolo jumps. As does Jonas, he notices.

"What was that?" he asks, but of course Jonas won't know either.

"It's our job to find out" the other man says rather cheerfully "This could be fun!"

He takes off towards the direction of the sound and Nikolo follows, wanting to make sure that his partner doesn't make whatever happened worse.

All they have to do to reach the source is to go around a corner. There they see that a merchant's stand has crashed down, and there's a man yelling at it. Or to be more precise, to the person stuck under it.

"Great, this'll mean a lot of paper work" Jonas groans "Well, all the more reason to get all the fun I can out of this."

Nikolo doesn't like the sound of that. Following right behind Jonas, he has decided to let him take the lead, but he's ready to interfere if the guy goes too far with whatever he has in mind.

"Alright, what's the situation here, you Rats?" Jonas asks, marching over like he owns the place. Everyone freezes, shutting their mouths. It's only as they stop next to the fallen stand that Nikolo recognizes exactly who is stuck under the debris.

Herbert

Deciding to think of the possible consequences later, Nikolo rushes to join the two Eldians that had been dicking his friend out, yet had stopped in fright when they came.

"Stop sitting around and help me move these" Nikolo hisses at them. They immediately obey, giving him a hand. He notices that Jonas has halted whatever plans he had and is watching them, him, instead, but now's not the time to worry about it.

As they've finally moved away enough, Herbert crawls out on his own. It seems that he had just been stuck, not hurt.

Excluding that gash on his forehead, that is.

"You need to get that checked"

"Yes, sir" was the reply. Nikolo blinked before realizing that the man may not have recognized him. He would've liked to point out that it was him, but with Jonas' eyes on him, he saw it wiser to not do so "Any broken bones?"

"No, sir"

"Good" Nikolo said, getting up, deciding to leave Herbert's care for later. He had work to do. Putting on a stern face, hoping his voice matched it, he asked "What happened here?"

The reaction is immediate, the man who'd been yelling earlier and one of the two who had helped Herbert speaking at once, giving Nikolo a hard time with understanding what they said.

"QUIET, YOU SEWER RATS!" Jonas yells from the top of his lungs, and the two immediately obey. For once, Nikolo doesn't mind his harsh tone.

"Now you" Jonas is addressing Herbert, he realizes "What happened here?"

"This… this was his stand" Herbert says, nodding towards one of the men who had helped him "Apparently, he was late with its rent, so- "

"Very late!" the man who'd been yelling earlier cuts him off "So I came to gather my money, yet he doesn't give it and that guy had the nerve to get in the wa- "

"No one gave you a permission to speak" Nikolo hisses, beating Jonas to it just in time by the looks of it. Turning to his secret friend, who seems to have finally recognized him if the look on his face is anything to go by, he says: "Continue."

It took Herbert a few seconds to gather himself, and Nikolo feared Jonas would snap at him before he managed to obey the order. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

"I noticed that there was a disagreement, so I went over since it looked like… like it'd get violent. I got between them, trying to get him to stop being physical, but I think I just managed to provoke him more. The stall collapsed when he pushed me towards it and I stumbled." he finished. Nikolo turned to the man he assumed to be the stall renter, asking: "Is that what happened?"

"Ye-yes sir" the man confirmed. Nikolo clearly saw that he was sweating nervously "I-I really am behind with paying my rent, but I'm by no means planning to leave it unpaid. I'm doing my best."

"We'll take that in to account" Nikolo finally turns to the other side of the fight "Now, your version of what happened."

This man is nervous as well, Nikolo notes. He dares to think that it means the other two have told the truth.

"We-well, it's true, but I didn't push hard; it was just a small shove!" the man defended "He stumbled all on his own!"

Nikolo had to wonder exactly how hard he'd pushed. He knew how fast Herbert was; he was by no means in bad shape, but it's not like he knew how good, or bad, the guy's balance was. And Herbert did admit that he stumbled.

"But he's not one to lie" Nikolo reminded himself. Or at least, he thought he wasn't. He didn't know him all that well.

"So hard that the whole stand crashed?" Jonas was the one to ask "Either he's clumsy as hell and way heavier than he looks, or you're downplaying your role in this. Now, I wonder which it is?"

Nikolo was actually glad that his partner had chosen to open his mouth, for he had a hard time figuring out what he could say without it sounding too much like he was defending Herbert.

"We-well… that's…" the man stutters, and Jonas takes a few steps closer so that he's right at his face, no doubt in order to intimidate the man "That's what?"

"How about we act like civilized human beings and solve this without violence?" Nikolo suggests, giving Jonas a hard look "Unless, of course, you prefer doing things the same way as them."

That does the trick, for Jonas immediately takes a step back, clearly in disgust. Satisfied, Nikolo turns to the merchant.

"How long will it take until you have the money?"

"I don't know for sure, sir" the man said nervously, looking at his ruined place of business "I lost my products, so…"

That might actually be something Nikolo could use.

"So, he lost his products" the soldier says, turning to the owner "And the way I see it, it's mostly your fault. How are you going to pay for them?"

"What? But… but he owes me- "

"Ah, that's right, he does" Nikolo said "I suppose you two are even now, then."

"What!?" the man says, yells really, again "But the sum he owes me is way more than- "

Suddenly leaping forward and taking the man by the collar, Nikolo asks: "Are you talking back to me, you devil?"

"N-no sir" the man says, frightened "Covering it with the unpaid rent will do."

"Excellent!" Nikolo says with a grin "So, we're done here, unless the one who got wounded wants to press some charges?"

"No, I will not, sir" Herbert says immediately. Nikolo saw it coming; of course, the guy wouldn't risk getting in to any more trouble.

"Good, it's settled then. Since everyone was so cooperative, we'll just file this as a little argument."

"Excuse me?" Jonas asks, his eyes narrowing at Nikolo "Why would we do that?"

Taking a few steps over to his partner, the former POW asks in a whisper: "Do you really want to deal with all the paperwork a bigger incident cause?"

They stare at each other and, eventually, Jonas shrugs. It's at that moment that Nikolo knows he has won.

"Whatever" the other soldier says, flipping out a notepad "Now you dipshits give us your names so that we can leave."

Nikolo grinned, perfectly happy with letting the last rude comment slide. Getting Jonas to let them off this easily was a clear victory for him after all.

He just hopes his next partner will be as cooperating.

XXXXX

"You sure you wanna come along?" Connie asks Kaya as they prepare the horses together with Sasha "This'll be a long ride and you'll have to make a big part of the trip back on your own."

"It's fine; I'm used to it" Kaya insists, smirking "Could it be that you're actually bad at riding horses and are trying to hide it?"

Sasha snickers, bursting out laughing as she takes a look at Connie's startled, blushing face.

"What?" he asks "No! What gave you that idea?"

He turns to glare at Sasha.

"Or should I ask who gave you that idea?"

"Wasn't me, I swear!" Sasha said, holding her hands up "She came up with that all on her own!"

Connie blinked, turning to Kaya.

"I don't know what I should think about that" he said "Sasha's a bad influence on you."

The said brunette pouted.

"Why is everything always blamed on me?"

"Because most of the time you're guilty?" Kaya suggested as she hopped on her horse. Ignoring Connie's laughter, Sasha complained: "Not you too, Kaya!"

The two just laughed at her. It's not that Sasha minded that, not really, but for some reason she felt a little lonely.

"Maybe I'm just overemotional because of the dream… or something."

XXXXX

Nikolo jogs along the path in a rather good mood. Despite the incident, the day had gone well… or maybe he should say he was so happy because of the incident? He was happy to find out that he could handle it so well! Of course, in an ideal situation he would've handled everything without little threats and name-calling, but considering what could have gone wrong and how badly, today was a success.

He just hopes that he won't ruin it now as another person jogs to catch up with him.

He wants to say something, but feels like he shouldn't be the one to start a conversation, not this time. But he supposes that the fact that Helmut showed up at all is a good sign.

"But Herbert's not here" he realizes "Did he hurt himself after all or…?"

"So, you're a soldier?" the man interrupts his musings "Could've fooled me."

"I kind of did, didn't I?" he asks with a lopsided smirk. To his relief, Helmut actually laughs at that.

"That you did" he admits, frowning "Why didn't you tell us?"

"…I felt like you would avoid me if I did" Nikolo told honestly, glancing at him "Was I wrong?"

"Well, no" the Eldian confesses "If you'd told us on some of our first meetings, we would've avoided you like a plague."

"But you're still here, even though you know" he pauses "Where's Herbert? Did he get hurt after all?"

"Not really, but I told him to stay home just in case. He shouldn't overexert himself."

That made sense, Nikolo realizes. A little hesitant, he asks: "Can I assume we're all good, then?"

"Yeah, we're all good" his friend confirms "Though it's a little unfair of you to not mention you have military training when racing against us. That kind of makes it unfair."

Nikolo laughs.

"And yet Herbert still beats me most of the time" he points out "He's fast as hell!"

Helmut laughs too.

"That he is"

XXXXX

Sasha had kept rather quiet the whole journey, just listening to Kaya and Connie talk. Or well, sometimes just pretending to listen; her mind was stuck thinking of her nightmares. Yes, plural. She'd had a very similar dream a second time.

"Urgh, I hope this won't become a thing" she thought. It's not like she hadn't had nightmares before, but that was stuff like getting eaten by a titan, her friends getting eaten by titans, dying in the war, her friends dying in the war… "Well, there was that one time when I had that dream about Nikolo banning me from his kitchen for good."

Sasha smiles at the memory, though she can't remember the dream all that well. That was a stupid dream as well, though it had felt like a horrible nightmare at the time. She'd actually gone to see Nikolo after it, as in right after, very early in the morning, begging that he wouldn't really ban her from his kitchen "Had he not already been up when I went, he might've done just that."

Her begging had woken up Grior though, but he hated her guts anyway and Nikolo sided with her, so no harm done.

"…Maybe he did have a bit of a reason to not like me after all" she thought, grinning sheepishly. Connie, undoubtedly having noticed her sudden grin, asks: "What's on your mind, Sash?"

"Grior" she replies, laughing as Connie nearly falls off his horse in surprise.

"Say what now?"

"Wasn't he that jerk who worked with Mr. Nikolo?" Kaya asks "Why are you thinking of him?"

Sasha just shrugs.

"My thoughts were going a bit here and there, and eventually just… well, I ended up thinking of all the trouble I caused over the years and the reasons he had to hate me."

"He didn't hate you because of the trouble you caused at the kitchen" Connie said "He hated all of us, so it was because we were the enemy, because we're Eldians."

"…You're probably right" Sasha admits "But maybe he would've eventually come to like us had we- had I been nicer."

"Doubt it" Connie says "What would you have done differently anyway?"

"Not stealing from his workplace might've been a good start" Kaya cuts in before Sasha can answer, and Connie laughs. Blushing, Sasha defends: "I did no such thing!"

The two give her a flat stare, and Sasha sweat drops.

"…The lie is that obvious, is it?"

"Yes" the pair chorus, making Sasha groan. Seems like she had no credibility.

"There it is" Connie says suddenly, and Sasha turns her head forward to see that Ragako is indeed in sight.

"Last one there is on dinner duty!" he yells, speeding up his horse before the other two.

"Wait for me!" Kaya yells, charging after him with a laugh. Sasha however, does not hurry, deciding to take dinner duty without a fuss. That way, the other two could have some more time to talk, even if Connie will be mostly focusing on his mother. He usually is when he comes here.

Being in no hurry at all, Sasha takes her time, enjoying the sounds of nature and the undisturbed scenery. People rarely come to these parts anymore because… well, because it's Ragako. And civilians have been told to stay clear of the place as well, which reminds her that taking Kaya along might be stretching the rules a little.

"Oh well, that's a normal thing for us to do anyway." Sasha thinks with a chuckle as she finally arrives to the village. Kaya and Connie are off their horses already, having tied them down and are now just waiting for her.

"What took you so long?"

"My horse got spooked by a rabbit suddenly jumping from the bushes" Sasha answers, having an excuse prepared as she knew Connie would ask. He buys it, she thinks, but by the looks of it, Kaya doesn't. But she's not stupid; she must've already realized why Sasha did it.

Connie laughs.

"Thought you'd be able to handle a situation like that" he says "Getting a little rusty, are you?"

"No, the horse is just old" Sasha says, sticking her tongue out. It was true too; the horse was by no means at its best anymore. But Sasha herself was, thank you very much.

"Takes one to know one" Kaya quips.

"Kaya!" Sasha yells. She should've known the girl would say that.

"Ugh, whatever" Sasha says, ignoring the laughing duo as she hops off her horse and ties it to place "Shall we go?"

They walked forward, and Sasha couldn't help but eye the collapsed buildings and tall grass. The place had been completely deserted save for Connie's mom since the attack. She knew that every time Connie went over, which was as often as he could, he tried to tidy up the place a little. Sasha and everyone else helped too whenever they went along, having already taken care of the most dangerous rubble years ago, but there was still a lot to do.

Noticing that they'd reached their destination, Sasha turned her attention to Connie's mom. Pure titan or no, the younger woman was no longer afraid of her. She'd gotten used to it, though she was never careless when she went near, her instincts from years ago still wide awake.

"We're back, Mrs. Springer!" Sasha calls out, immediately realizing she'd beaten Connie at it. Oops.

Fortunately, Connie just laughs.

"Same old Sasha, as you can see, mom" he says "And I brought someone new along too."

It's at that moment that Sasha realizes that Kaya is standing a little further away, staring at Connie's mom. Sasha grimaces, recognizing fear when she sees it. It's understandable of course; the girl had seen her mother get eaten alive. And even if she hadn't, pure titans tended to be a horrifying sight to anyone. But even so, at the moment the soldier was more worried about how Connie would react if he noticed. And if Kaya didn't get herself together in the next few seconds, he would.

And as he turned around, notice he did.

"…You okay, Kaya?" he asked. Fortunately, Sasha could hear no hostility in his tone.

"Y-yeah" the girl stutters, finally snapping out of it "I'm fine. I just…"

Sasha eyes them both warily, but decides to keep silent for now. This didn't really concern her anyway, so it was probably easier for the both of them if they handled this themselves… as long as Connie didn't snap and Kaya didn't completely freeze; both had happened before.

"Maybe you and Sasha should start preparing the dinner as I talk to my mom" Connie suggests, and Sasha can't help but agree. They'd do it somewhere out of sight, mostly so that Kaya wouldn't freeze up again, but also for Connie's privacy.

"…But we agreed to make that the loser's job, didn't we?" Kaya asks, surprising Sasha. And by the looks of it, Connie as well.

The girl took a few steps closer.

"So, it's on you sis" she said. Sasha glanced at Connie, not at all knowing what to do now. She supposed all would be fine if Kaya didn't freeze up again or otherwise panic, but what if she did? Could Connie handle the situation? It's not like she'd be far away, but-

"Well Sash, you heard her" Connie interrupted her line of thoughts, grinning "Off to work with you!"

"Huh?" Sasha wasn't sure about this, but if they both said so, she supposed she had to have more faith in them "Right, but no whining about the taste!"

"Then don't mess up" Kaya said as she passed her, ending up just a few steps away from Connie. With one last smile, Sasha went to do her job.

She didn't mind at all; if she had, she had made sure to not lose in the first place. This would give her some time to think… and to sneak herself an extra bite or two, but mostly just to think.

Taking out what she needed, she wondered what Nikolo was doing right now. Was he also cooking? Did he even do it anymore? It's not like it was his actual job…

"But he enjoyed doing it, despite his constant grumbling" she reminded herself "And his disdain only seemed real the first year or so…"

Yeah, there was no way Nikolo would've given up on cooking. He probably didn't have the time to do it much, though. What a waste.

"He once mentioned that his parents didn't see cooking as a suitable hobby" she recalls "I wonder if they've changed their minds?"

They better have, or else they were ungrateful bastards. Sasha would really like to be in their shoes now, waiting for Nikolo to come home and prepare something good. Or maybe they cook for him, expecting him to be tired from working so hard. Even if his family didn't like cooking, someone had to do it. She doubted they'd eat out every day.

"It's good he taught me a few things~!" she hummed. It's not like she didn't know how to cook before, but thanks to Nikolo, she now knew how to play with spices "He always complained about lacking ingredients, though…"

Of course, Paradis didn't have everything Nikolo was used to, not even after they started their business with Hizuru. Sasha had naturally been sad about that too; the more there were new dishes for her to try, the better.

"But business with the outside world is starting to flourish, so it's only a matter of time before I can try plenty of new stuff again!" she told herself, nodding in delight. She wonders which'll happen first: getting business to run smoothly with the other countries or Nikolo returning "Well, knowing the Reeves company, the former."

But that wouldn't be so bad, either. Then Nikolo would have the things he'd need once he finally comes back.

"If he comes…" Sasha shakes her head rapidly. No no, not if, when. When he comes back. But what if he comes back to visit just to keep his promise, leaves and she never hears from him again? What if he's decided to forget the nine years they spent together!?

"This is stupid" she tells herself "I shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that; it'll only make me feel bad. I have no reason to not believe him. The fact that he's taking so long isn't enough on its own."

Taking a deep breath, Sasha decides she needs something else to think about. How about someone else's relationship problems instead of her own?

With a mischievous grin, the woman gets up, tiptoeing to see what Connie and Kaya are up to. Sure enough, they're sitting on the ground in front of the titan, a safe but by no means long distance away from it. Connie is speaking rapidly, clearly telling about their days training the new recruits, with Kaya listening intently. Sasha has half a mind to go and remind Connie to not let Kaya know anything she could use against her, but decides against it. They both look happy; if Connie says too much, she'll just have to figure out a way to deal with it later. The brunette smiles, happy but sad at the same time. Or no, perhaps, not sad, but something else.

"I suppose this is what it feels like to be jealous" Sasha snorts "Geez…"

Interesting as it was, she wasn't too fond of this feeling. She could only hope that Nikolo would be back soon.

"I really want to see him."