I stood on the edge of the building looking out at the mostly evacuated city of Trost. Trost ran routine practice evacuations in preparation for the next time the Colossal and Armor Titan would come since was the most likely site of attack. The 104th trainee squad was present performing a practice drill of our own. The evacuated parts of Trost were full of Titan dummies, and squads of cadets were given specific areas of the city in which to eliminate the titans. Each squad consisted of three people, and my two partners were Bertholdt and Eren.

"Is that all of our dummies?" asked Eren.

"It looks like it," responded Bertholdt. "So, do we just sit here and wait until the drill is over now?"

"Those were the instructions. Hopefully everyone else will finish soon," I sighed. I didn't want to be waiting up on the roofs forever.

"I think we completed our mission in good time," said Bertholdt. "We'll all get good points for this."

"Yeah," agreed Eren. "But isn't it weird how we're just standing here? In a real attack we would move on to the next area of titans."

I shrugged, "Probably, but it's also important to trust your commander's orders." I gestured up towards the northern edge of the wall, where Commander Pixis was. "In a real situation, we would receive orders on where they would want us to go next, not just move about the city randomly."

"That's right. This isn't a real situation, anyway, Eren," chided Bert.

Not long after that, we received the signal that drill was over, and we joined up with the rest of the cadets on the street outside of the military quarters. I followed Bertholdt to where Reiner and Armin were on the other side of the street.

As I was about to ask Armin how the drill went for him, a yell interrupted me, "That was playing dirty, you thieving bastards!"

"Huh?" I turned to see Jean standing over Sasha and Connie.

"I spotted them first!" Jean yelled again.

"Playing dirty?" Sasha repeated, with a smirk on her face. "You sure do come out with some bologna, Jean. Do you think there's an etiquette to hunting?"

This made Jean angrier, "Don't lay some hunter logic on me, Potato Girl."

Sasha mumbled something under breath that sounded like, "Damn. I thought everyone had forgotten about that," before standing and yelling, "Don't call me names!"

Connie stood up with her, "Yeah! Apologize to her!"

At this, Reiner stepped forward, "For one thing, Jean, that was our zone."

I looked back at Armin and Annie, "You all left your zone?"

"Jean went forward without us, so we had to follow. We're supposed to stick together," explained Armin.

Annie scoffed, "We didn't have to. We could've stayed behind, and then he would've been the one diverging from the group. But anyway, he was trying to get brownie points, and now he's mad it didn't work."

I looked back at the scene just as Jean raised a fist and Sasha and Connie assumed their signature faux fighting poses, which made me chuckle.

"Stop it," cut in Reiner. "You too, Jean. You'll never make the Military Police like this."

Not wrong, I thought to myself as Jean lowered his fists. "Tomorrow," he announced, "I'll get more targets than all of you!"

"Interesting!"

Everyone turned towards the new voice approaching the scene, and immediately saluted when they saw who it was, Commander Pixis.

"Your fighting spirit is certainly commendable. However, using a training exercise to settle an argument is unacceptable." He took a swig from his cannister and announced, "Fight by cooking."

Everyone looked at him confused, not sure they heard right. "Huh?"

"Fight by cooking!" Pixis said louder.

A wave of excitement and confusion went through the crowd behind Pixis. I shared their feelings. This was far more interesting than anything had expected to happen on this trip, but I didn't quite understand what the commander was thinking.

"But, Commander, we're soldiers!" exclaimed Jean. "Cooking isn't a part of our- "

"Jean, what do you even know about cooking?" demanded Sasha, pointing her hand holding a pear at Jean.

"I bet your mom always cooked for you at home," added in Connie, aggravating Jean even more.

"Jean, my boy, I will teach you the true art of cooking!" Sasha emphasized her challenge by taking a big munch of her pear while glaring Jean down.

Jean, never the one to back down from a challenge, yelled back, "Fine! Cooking, cleaning, I'll do whatever you want! But if I win, you have to stay out of my way forever!"

"Excellent!" smiled Pixis. "The contest will take place tonight. Both of you will cook and serve a main dish for dinner. Bring your best dishes forward!"

Cheers abrupted from the crowd along with yells of excitement. "Well," I laughed, turning back to Annie and Armin, "looks like you two will have a fun afternoon."

Armin laughed, and I could see the excitement reaching his eyes, too.

Annie responded nonchalantly, "I suppose it's better than doing nothing."

Sasha and Jean left in opposite directions with their respective groups, and the rest of the trainees started to leave as well to spend their free time doing whatever they want.

I met with Eren and Mikasa, who had been watching the scene from further off. "What do you two want to do for the rest of the morning?"

"Uh, I don't know," said Eren. "What was all that about a cook off?"

I waved my hand at him, "Jean and Sasha were fighting because Jean went into their zone trying to get more dummies for points, but Sasha stole them all from him."

"Man," grumbled Eren. "What a jerk. He would disobey orders to try and get more points."

"You think that wouldn't get you more points, though," commented Mikasa.

"Whatever, it's not our business what points Jean gets," I shrugged.

Eren nodded and mumbled, "Wish he'd get none, though."

Mikasa changed the subject, "Do you want to go ahead and visit Isabelle again at the orphanage, or wait for Armin?"

"I think we should wait until tomorrow so Armin can go. We agreed we'd all go together. Let's go window shopping, or something. Just walk around the city?"

Mikasa and Eren nodded and we started to head towards the city of town when Eren stopped and yelled, "Hey Bertholdt!"

I turned and saw Bert on the opposite side of the street from us heading in the direction of the military quarters, "Yeah?"

"Are you doing anything? You should come with us, we're going to go walk around the city," Eren gestured for him to follow us.

"Yeah! C'mon Bert!" I nodded at him.

He smiled at us and said, "I'm not doing anything, so sure."

We wondered through the busy streets where stands where set up and went in and out the different shops. Trost was a city similar to Shiganshina. Despite being full of people, it was simple enough. The shops sold regular commodities like food, books, clothes, hunting gear, etc. People chatted away happily in the street and children played wherever there was enough room to start a game.

After a few hours of exploring, we heard a commotion coming from one of the nearby streets. We decided to go investigate, and food a parade going through the main street featuring the largest boar I had ever seen. On top of the boar was Sasha, looking about the happiest I had ever seen her. Reiner and Connie stood on the float in front of the boar looking proud.

"Look at that beast!" exclaimed Eren, looking impressed.

I shook my head, impressed myself, "How on earth did they kill that thing?"

"How on earth does that thing exist?" added Mikasa, and I had to admit that was a better question.

"Do you know those cadets?" an older lady next to us asked.

"Yes, they're our friends," answered Bertholdt.

"They must be so brave. That boar is known as the 'Colossal Boar' and has been terrorizing the forest outside of the city for years. I'm so glad they were able to get it!"

"'Colossal Boar', huh?" commented Bertholdt.

"It is a fitting name," I admitted.

"It's making light of the Colossal Titan," said Eren.

"So?" asked Mikasa. "It's just a name, isn't it?"

Eren struggled to respond before saying, "I guess."

"We should be going back anyway. It's almost lunch," I said, and Bertholdt nodded in agreement.

After we got back, a few of the older soldiers stopped us before going inside. "Hey, you lot, you've had a free morning since that evacuation drill, right? You know we've been working hard all day, right?"

Eren and Mikasa stopped to answer the soldier, but I grabbed Bertholdt's arm and pulled him with me to mess hall while the rest were distracted.

"Shouldn't we have stopped, too?" asked Bertholdt.

I shook my head, "Nah, those guys can't get us in trouble. Sounds like they're trying to get us to do their work for them, anyway."

The hall inside was dark and cool, which I was grateful for after being in the sun all day.

"Reiner, Connie, and Sasha beat us here," said Bert, pointing to the other side of the hall where sure enough, they sat.

I blinked in surprise, "How? They were just parading that gigantic boar through the town!"

Bertholdt shrugged and motioned for me to follow him. When we got there, Sasha's happy smile greeted us, "Hey guys! You'll never guess what we did this morning?"

"Oh really? I think I can," I responded with a laugh while I sat down on one side of Reiner, and Bertholdt on the other.

Connie smirked, "Try it."

"You hunted and killed a massive boar, probably to have meat for the cooking contest."

"What?" exclaimed Sasha. "How'd you guess?"

"She didn't have to guess," sighed Bertholdt. "You all paraded the boar through the middle of the town. How could anyone miss that?"

"True," commented Reiner as he took a sip of his soup. I realized then that Bertholdt and I hadn't gotten our food before sitting down, but decided it could wait a few more minutes.

"But how'd you kill it, though?" I asked. "That thing was impressive. They don't call it colossal for nothing!"

"Right?" said Sasha. "We chased it using the 3DMG and I killed with an arrow"

"Wait, you killed that thing with an arrow? As in just one?" Bert looked at Reiner, "Did I hear that right?"

Reiner nodded, "Sasha's aim and tenacity when hunting is impressive."

"Whoa, that's crazy. It must've been dangerous, though. I'll bet that thing was scary when it was alive. The townspeople said it's been terrorizing the area for years," I said.

"Maybe it would've been frightening for some people," huffed Reiner, "but it was no big deal for me. It's not everyday you see a beast of that size, but it still didn't faze us."

"Reiner, you tried to run away as soon as you laid eyes on it," Sasha rolled her eyes.

"Yeah," laughed Connie. "And when we attacked it, you stayed at least ten meters back from us."

"Shut up! Don't tell people that!" Reiner glared at them while Bertholdt and I joined in on Connie laughing.

"Is Jean Kirstein in here?"

Most of the room turned to look at the front, where one of our superiors was standing at the entrance. Jean got up and stood in front of him, saluting, "Yes sir! I am he!"

"Your mother is here to see you."

"Huh?"

A middle-aged woman who must've been Jean's mother walked into the room and towards Jean, "Jean-boy! Why haven't you come home yet? Mrs. Wagner's boy, Thomas, has already come home! You really are a problem child."

Everyone in the room started paying attention as soon as Mrs. Kirstein called him "Jean-boy," and people started whispering the longer she talked. Connie snickered when she called him a problem child.

I couldn't see Jean's face from where I was, but I could tell he was horrified and embarrassed. Jean's mother seemed to notice something on Jean's pants and pulled a handkerchief from her pocket. "Jean boy, did you spill something on you?" She reached forward without waiting for a response and pressed the piece of fabric against Jean's pants. "You can be so clumsy sometimes."

"Stop it!" Jean yelled. "It's fine, just go home!"

Everyone went quiet after Jean burst out at his mom. The angry tone in his voice surprised me.

"Then…" Jean's mother turned to the nearest table, and I noticed that Eren and Mikasa had come inside and were standing behind Jean's mom. She took some apples out of her pockets and set them out in front of Eren, "Let me leave these. These are for everyone."

"You don't need to do that!" Jean sounded like he was getting angrier, and he shoved the apples off the table. I felt myself getting slightly mad, too, at his treatment of her.

A few murmurs were heard around the room, and Eren knelt to pick up the apples.

His mother looked at him with shock, "Jean-boy!" She then looked around the room at the people surrounding, "I know he's a problem child, but can everyone please be his friend?"

Most of the room stayed quiet and tense as she turned back to Jean, "Oh, I almost forgot, Jean-boy, I brought you your favorite…."

"Just go home!" Jean lead his mother up the stairs, and out the door, slamming it behind her.

"You should be nicer to your mother, Jean-boy, I mean, Jean," said Eren.

Jean gave him an irritated look and left.

A slightly tense atmosphere stayed after Jean's outburst, but conversation resumed.

"Jean has some serious issues," commented Connie, and nods of agreement went around the table.

I sighed, "If the jerk would've went to see her himself, she wouldn't have shown up when he didn't want her to."

"And he shouldn't have been that rude to her for wanting to see him," grumbled Reiner, and I was reminded that like Eren and a few others here, Reiner no longer had a mother.

"Why didn't Jean go see his mom? Was it just because of the competition?" Bert asked.

Sasha shook her head, "He said this morning when we got here he wasn't planning on visiting her. I don't know why, though."

I chewed on my lip. It rubbed me wrong, but there wasn't much to be done about it. Saying something to Jean would just make it worst, so I changed the subject, "What are your plans for that meat Sasha?"

Her eyes lit up, "I was just thinking about that! There's so many ways I could cook it, I don't know what's best!"

As Sasha went on discussing her different ideas with Connie, I went and finally got food with Bertholdt. When we got back, Connie and Sasha had left.

"Where'd they go?" asked Bert, to which Reiner shrugged.

"Not sure. Something about checking on how cutting the meat is going, and brainstorming ideas. Sasha wanted me to go with them, but I convinced her to let me stay with you two," he sighed. "She's taking this very seriously."

"Of course she is," laughed Bert. "It's Sasha and food."

Reiner shook his head, "She slapped me and broke down crying."

"She what?" I asked while swallowing a piece of bread.

"Well…, okay, maybe I was a little afraid of that boar when I first saw it," Reiner started, and Bert snorted. Reiner gave him a look before continuing, "So, when I suggested we give up on that boar and try finding something else, she slapped me and went on this rant about hunting and ancestors and all."

I laughed, I could see Sasha doing that, and I could imagine Reiner's surprised face after she slapped him. "She cried too?"

"Yes! I didn't understand it all, but I told her I'd help her kill the damn thing if she'd stopped crying," he grumbled.

"It'll be over after dinner," said Bert in a comforting tone, to which Reiner shrugged.

Bertholdt told him about the market and the rest of the town as we finished our meal. Reiner, who had been done with his food, sat in silence listening to us talk. He had that look on his face that he had sometimes. It was like something was bothering him, but I knew from experience that if I tried asking about it, he'd denied.

"Trost sounds like a nice city," he commented. "It's a shame that admiring it isn't what we're here to do."

This made Bert tense. After Sasha and Connie left, he had moved to across the table from us, and I could see his face and reactions better. Reiner's comment made him freeze.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What's wrong with admiring Trost? We've been given so much free time here, what else is there to do?"

"That's right," nodded Bertholdt. "There's nothing else to do right now. Besides, it's not like we came here to chase giant boars and participate in cooking competitions."

Reiner and Bertholdt stared at each other for a moment before Bert continued, "And that's not the only thing that we didn't come here to do- "

"What are you two being serious about?" I interrupted. They both looked down at me as if they had almost forgotten I was there. "We're here to run drills and follow orders. Reiner's orders are to help Sasha with the competition."

Bertholdt nodded, "That's also right."

We sat in a tense silence for a few moments, and I wasn't sure what to say. It was odd for Reiner and Bertholdt to argue at all, especially over something as stupid as that. Reiner grabbed my almost finished meal and added it to his own dishes while standing up, "I probably have a little while before I have to start helping Sasha and Connie again. Want to go walk around with me, Alex?"

"Uh, sure, but I wasn't done eating."

"There's not much left anyway," he said as he walked away from the table.

I looked at Bertholdt, who had finished his food and was also standing up to go, "Bertholdt, what was that?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you later," he gave me a weak smile before going in the opposite direction as Reiner.

"Alex! You coming?"

I turned to see Reiner several steps away waiting on me. I got up and hurried after him, "Coming!"

I followed beside him, thinking he wanted to walk around the city, but instead he lead me further into the building until he found an empty storage room, and lead me inside.

"Are you okay, Reiner?" I asked concerned.

"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"You and Bert seemed tense. Have you two been fighting?"

He shook his head, "It's not serious; it'll blow over. Don't worry about it."

I stayed quiet a moment, knowing I shouldn't pry if he didn't want to talk about it, but I was always a little too nosy, "What were you fighting about?"

He turned away from me, repeating, "It's not serious, don't worry about it." He sat down on one of the crates and leaned against the wall, "I want to spend time alone with you and forget about it. Please?"

He gave me a pleading look while holding out his arms and motioning for me to come over towards him. I couldn't help but think that for such a large guy who put on such a tough act for everyone, he also had a remarkable tendency to resemble a teddy bear sometimes.

I smiled and went towards him, and as soon as I was in his reach, he pulled me into his lap. "This all right?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around me and leaned me against him.

I nodded, and he relaxed back against the wall again. Being so close against him made me think of how much larger he was than me, which also made me think of possible implications behind him saying he wanted to spend time alone with me. I remembered the conversation I had with Mina and Sasha the week before. Should I try talking about that now? I wondered. How do I bring that up without being awkward?

Reiner started talking before I could start that conversation, though, which made me grateful. "So who do you thinks going to win?"

"The cooking contest?" I asked, looking up at him. He nodded.

"It's pretty obvious Sasha will win. She has more experience and she has better ingredients. What can Jean make that'll compete with boar meat?"

"I don't know. I think Jean will pull through, though."

"What? But you're on Sasha's team. There's no way Jean will win this, not even with Armin helping him."

"It does seem unlikely, but I have a gut instinct, you know?"

I gave him an odd look, "No."

"Jean's the underdog right now, and I'm a sucker for an underdog. He'll pull something out and win it, you'll see."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever you say, babe."

He grinned at me and said, "How about we bet on it? We haven't made a bet in a while."

"No, we haven't," I considered. "What would we be betting on? We could make the loser tell Shadis to go fuck himself again."

Reiner touched his forehead where Shadis delivered his blow and said, "Maybe not that."

I laughed, "But I thought you were sure that Jean is going to win?"

"I am," he responded with confidence. "Do you think I want to see you get headbutted like that?" He thumped the middle of my forehead, which caused my face to scrunch up and made him laugh.

"Okay, what do you want to do then?" I asked.

"Hm…." He pulled an exaggerated thinking face, before getting a devilish look on face.

"What?" I asked, getting curious. "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know if you'd like it," he said with the same mischievous look in his eyes.

"Well tell me and find out."

"Alright," he twirled a piece of my hair around his finger. "How about whoever loses the bet has to jump in the lake near the training camp at night, naked."

"Naked?" I repeated, sitting up a little.

"Yeah. It's still cold enough at night that it won't be enjoyable, but I don't think it's still cold enough to get sick."

I gave him a skeptical look, and said, "It sounds like you just me to get naked."

"Well, if you're as right about Sasha as you think you are, then I'll be the one getting naked, not you," he paused for a second. "But if you really don't like it, we can make some other bet. I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

"I'll do it," I said quickly.

"Wait, what? Really?"

"Yeah. Seeing you cold and butt naked sounds funny."

He chuckled, "It might be. You're right, though, I do kind of just want to see you naked."

"Perv," I laughed. "There's actually something I've been wanting to talk to you about."

"What's that?" he questioned with a soft smile on his face. He was once again playing with my hair and I was once again struck by how adorable he was.

"Well-uh- "

"Reiner!" The door opened and we both jumped and looked to see Connie and Sasha standing in the doorway.

"We finally found you!" yelled Sasha. "It's time to start prepping the meat. Come on!"

"Uh, Sasha," Connie said nervously, "maybe we should leave them alone for now. They look busy."

I felt my cheeks grow hot when I realized the way we were sitting definitely made it look like we were doing more than we really were. Sasha didn't seem to care much, though.

"You two can do whatever after dinner! We only have a few more hours until the competition!"

"A few hours are more than enough time. If you start now, the meat will be cold when it gets served," I pointed out.

"Do you really need three people to do this anyway?" questioned Reiner. He was tapping his fingers against my side, so I could tell he was getting impatient.

"Cooking is an art!" stated Sasha. "It takes time, and this has to be the best piece of boar meat ever prepared! I need as much help as possible."

I sighed, but then decided maybe it was best to let Reiner go. The confidence I had built up from our earlier conversation was gone, so I stood up and turned to look at him, "Go ahead. I'll see you after dinner."

"But, you said you wanted to talk about something."

I shook my head, "It can wait."

I gave him a quick kiss before letting Sasha drag him and Connie off towards the kitchens. I headed in the opposite direction to find someone else to kill time with. Armin was probably busy, and I wasn't sure if spending time with Bertholdt again was a good idea. I had a feeling that whatever he and Reiner were arguing about had to do with me, which made me feel guilty. I didn't walk for too long before I ran into Annie.

"Hey, Alex, your brother's broken both of his legs," she said before I could greet her.

"What?"

"He fell while going up some stairs. Come on and I'll show you where he is."

"Alright," I said, following her lead. "That sounds just like Armin, though. Breaking his legs because he tripped on some stairs."

"He tripped on the stairs because horse face suggested we steal ingredients to win the competition. Armin freaked out and ran away."

I chuckled, "That sounds even more like Armin."

"It was kind of funny," Annie said.

"So, I take it Jean isn't doing well with the whole cooking thing?"

Annie sighed, "He's crashing and burning, as expected." She stopped in front of a door and opened it for me, "Here you go. I'm going to go relax for a little while."

"See you," I called as I stepped inside. Armin was laying on the bed, with casts around both of his legs.

"Damn, Armin, why?" It looked bad.

He gave an embarrassed half shrug, "Jean was sort of freaking out, and it made me freak out?"

I shook my head and asked, "What was Jean freaking out about?"

Armin responded by giving me a summary of their day. He explained chasing the boar, only to have Sasha to snatch it up, and how upset Jean's mother made him.

"What's the deal with his mom exactly?" I questioned. "I was in the dining hall when he blew up on her."

"I'm not really sure. I think he's having some sort of existential crisis about proving his worth and capabilities," he guessed.

"Ah, that would explain not wanting his mother around. He can't prove his worth with someone trying to coddle him."

Armin started giggling, and I looked at him confused, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just…. That sounds like Eren and Mikasa."

I laughed too when I realized he was right.

"What have you done with your free afternoon?" he asked, resting back on his pillows.

"After you all left to hunt the boar, Mikasa, Eren and I decided to wait until tomorrow to visit the orphanage, so you could go, too."

He nodded, "Good."

"We went with Bertholdt to look around the city instead. It's a lot like Shiganshina. The market place has commodities from all corners of the walls, and the layout and buildings are even similar to the ones in Shiganshina."

"I think all the walled cities have the same layout, and were built the same," Armin mentioned.

"Really? I didn't know that. But we also saw that boar you were hunting. It was so big! They paraded it through town with Sasha on top of it," I laughed. "That thing is infamous around here, apparently. A lot of the townspeople seemed grateful it's dead."

"Jean said as much. I can't imagine something that big not causing any problems with the locals."

"True," I agreed. "After that we came back here and ate lunch. I've spent the rest of the afternoon with Reiner."

"Doing what?" he asked. He seemed half asleep from exhaustion, but sat up a little when I mentioned Reiner.

"Nothing much, to be honest."

"Alex, you know you can get in trouble, right?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember that girl that got sent away a few months ago for being pregnant? What would you do? Where would you go? If you got caught alone with him, even if you didn't end up pregnant, it could still mean trouble for both of you," he said sternly. It was one of the few times I had ever seen my brother be stern.

"A-Armin, w-what are you saying?" I stammered out. "Reiner and I aren't… I am not going to be pregnant!"

"Oh, really? You're not doing that when you're alone with him?" he sounded relieved.

"No! He doesn't tell people that, does he?"

"No," Armin shook his head.

"Then why would you think that?" I yelled.

"L-look, I just want to make sure you're playing it safe. Do whatever you want, it's not my business, as long as you don't get in trouble. And it's not Eren's business either."

I raised an eyebrow at the mention of Eren. "Is Eren the reason you asked about that?"

"Maybe," he said, giving me a nervous look, worried if I'd get upset or not.

"Tell me what Eren said," I told him, leaning forward in my chair.

"You can't get mad at him for it."

"I won't," I promised.

"Okay, well, it's really not a big deal. Eren heard some guys in the barracks making jokes about Reiner sneaking out with you at night, and then he started complaining about it. He was saying he was worried about you, basically."

"Basically?"

"Well, there's he said more than that, but being worried was the basic idea of it."

I rolled my eyes, "He's such a hypocrite. He complains about Mikasa acting like an older sister all the time, and then he goes off and acts like that."

Armin sighed, "You said you wouldn't get mad about it Besides, Eren just doesn't like Mikasa smothering him. He secretly likes the attention, and if it was Mikasa he'd do the same thing."

"Yeah, whatever."

"Mr. Arlelt! How are you doing? Oh hello!" one of the military nurses walked in, and greeted us both with a smile.

I introduced myself to the nurse as Armin's twin, and she told me that I should probably leave him be, so he could rest. I didn't want to leave him alone, but he did look tired throughout the conversation, so I told him goodbye and left.

I ended up being found by Mikasa, and got caught up in training exercises since we didn't get a chance that morning from travelling. As usual, I tried to match her amount of push ups and sit ups, and keep up with all the punches and kicks she swung at me while sparring. I did all right defending, but I suspected that was because Mikasa didn't want to risk hurting me if she hit me too hard. She had left plenty of bruises behind before. I could still barely move fast enough to break through her defenses and land any sort of hit.

While we were cleaning up, I noticed the sun was almost down. "Hey, we need to go, or we'll miss the cooking competition!" I exclaimed, quickly getting back dressed and hurrying Mikasa.

"It's okay if we miss it," she protested, but started moving faster, too.

"I've got a bet riding on this contest," I explained.

She raised an eyebrow, "What kind of bet?"

"Don't worry about it. It's with Reiner."

"Oh. Who'd you bet on?"

"Sasha," I said confidently. "And I know she's going to win too. Annie told me earlier that Jean was crashing and burning."

She nodded, "Well the contest is about cooking, so of course Sasha will win. But isn't Reiner on Sasha's team? Why would he bet against her?"

"I don't know, he said he had a gut instinct."

When we arrived, we had to push through the surprisingly large crowd that showed up. We stopped in the middle when we found Christa, Ymir, and Mina. Eren and Bertholdt were standing with Thomas beside them.

Not long after saying hello, the contest began. "We will now commence the cook-off between 104th Squad members, Jean Kirstein and Sasha Blouse!"

The crowd cheered, and Shadis continued, "First up, Sasha Blouse!"

"Yes sir!" Sasha stepped forward while Connie and Reiner nodded on either side of her. She placed a covered plate in front of Shadis, and opened it to reveal a pretty large slab of meat, which riled up the crowd. I thought it was odd that she only served meat instead of a full dinner, but I also thought it was still probably enough to win.

Pixis looked at the meat, with a curious but impressed look before cutting off a piece and putting it his mouth. After tasting the meat, Pixis eyes widened and sat unmoving while chewing.

"What's he doing?" whispered Mina.

"I don't know. Does it mean he likes it?" Christa whispered back.

Sasha looked confident that the Commander's silence was a sign of approval, "It's your turn now, Jean!"

Jean looked at Armin, who was somehow already on crutches, and stepped forward to present his dish. His reveal was a surprise.

"An omelet?" said Thomas. "He really expects to win with that?"

I was surprised, too. I knew Jean wasn't likely to be able to produce something as good as boar meat, but choosing an omelet was extremely humble, which wasn't usually Jean's style.

"Well, isn't this a cute little thing," said Pixis, loud enough for the crowd to hear.

"Please," Jean replied, "have a taste."

Pixis took a bite of the omelet, and kept eating until he finished. No one was sure what to think about his silence, but Sasha, Connie, and Reiner looked confident of themselves on stage.

Pixis stood and announced, "The winner is Jean Kirstein!"

"What the fuck?" I yelled as the rest of the crowd broke out in cheers.

"Jean won!"

"It's a victory for home-cooked meals everywhere!"

I scoffed, thinking it was ironic that this was the same crowd that just laughed at Jean for serving an omelet not five minutes ago.

Sasha walked up to the Commander's table and slammed her hands down in front of him, "I cannot accept this! Why? Why did the meat lose?"

"Listen, rookie," Pixis began, and the crowd quieted enough that I could hear him, "What exactly is meat?"

"Meat is meat!" Sasha exclaimed.

"Hm. Exactly, meat is meat. It is nothing more or nothing less. Meat is simply… meat. That is why you lost."

"What the fuck does that mean?" I asked, looking around me, but everybody shrugged.

On the stage, Sasha fell to her knees and wept, "I was such a fool! I've completely ignored the carrots and potatoes I've relied on up until now! I tried to win by simply roasting meat!"

Shadis walked away from the stage, as Jean stepped forward and offered a hand out to Sasha, "Don't be embarrassed. You're not the only one who just roasted their dish."

Sasha took his hand and stood up, shaking it.

"Can anyone tell me what just happened?" said Eren loudly as the crowd started to disperse.

Bertholdt looked down at him, "Who knows. This whole thing was weird anyway."

We all left and headed towards the barracks where we were sleeping that night. As I walked beside Mina, I heard a voice I recognized as Reiner's calling me.

I turned around and saw him at the end of the hallway, and went to meet him. "Hey, sorry you didn't win."

"What do you mean? Thanks to our bet, even if I lost, I still won," Reiner grinned.

"That's why you bet against, Sasha?" I asked.

Reiner shook his head, "I really did have a gut feeling about Jean, although it didn't happen like I thought. I can't believe Sasha accepted that bullshit explanation the Commander gave her."

"I know right! It didn't even make sense!"

"Were you going to bed just now?" he asked, suddenly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I'm tired. Aren't you?"

"Well, sure, but I want to know what you wanted to talk to me about. It's been bothering me all evening."

I blushed a little, and tried to hide it, "Oh, it's nothing too important. It can wait."

"Are you sure?" he asked, and I nodded.

"We'll talk tomorrow."

"Okay, princess, whatever you want," he said and pulled me in for a kiss. I wrapped my hands around him and melted into it before a gruff voice broke us apart.

"Hey, rookies!" We turned to see one of the garrison soldiers passing by the hallway we were in, "Go to bed before you get caught by someone important and end up in real trouble!"

"Yes sir!" we said together.

The guy walked away, and I looked at Reiner and grimaced, "Whoops."

"It's all right," said Reiner, waving his hands. "He said he wasn't going to get us in trouble."

"Maybe we should be more careful," I considered.

"We can start that tomorrow," said Reiner as he leaned down for another kiss.

A/N: I can't believe how long this took to write. I'm home for the holidays, and being home makes it harder to find time to write than I thought. Hope everyone else is enjoying this holiday season!