Breakfast was Reiner's most important meal of the day. The fact that this also held true for everyone else made no difference to him. They didn't all have the same fervor for breakfast that he did. Their stomachs didn't coil with anticipation at the mere thought. Other people didn't spring out of bed and rush to get ready simply to make it to breakfast early (although he might share that trait with Sasha). No, he felt that he alone found breakfast the most important. That's because Krista now ate breakfast with him every morning.

It had started after the blizzard. The camp had accumulated several feet of snow overnight, and despite their public and harsh punishment, some of the other instructors had privately let them know that command had thought them dead when they didn't return. That none of the livestock had been lost during the storm was another personal victory for the two, and had ensured Krista's swift and immediate return to livestock duty. It was viewed as something of a miracle by the other soldiers.

Reiner was quick to give Krista credit, which had only bolstered her popularity in the ranks. This had led to a whole new problem- too many friends. She had been a quiet and kind person before her daring rescue, but now she was catapulted to 104th cadet corps fame. The girls had sought her out as their sparring partner, and asked her advice during their riding lessons. Reiner had overheard Armin admitting that he'd never noticed how pretty she was to Eren. Jean had loudly bragged to Marco that he was sure he could get Krista to take him along next time she needed extra help with the animals 'if you know what I mean'. No one did.

Krista had so many more friends vying to sit with her during meals that Ymir had given up trying to stop them, opting to sit and sulk instead. It shouldn't have come as a surprise then that Krista was starting to eat breakfasts with Reiner, since she was eating with so many other people, but it certainly surprised him. And it had continued to shock him for the first weeks as she continued to do so. The novelty had worn off, but the excitement hadn't and he found himself actively looking forward to each day. He had even began to retrieve two meals before he sat down so he was already prepared for her arrival.

He was sitting at his usual bench seat- three up from the entrance and to the left- with breakfast in tow when Krista came in. It was still dark out, the sky only just beginning to bleed into purple as the weepy late winter sun rose. Only a few other soldiers milled around the room, plopping tiredly into chairs and rubbing sleepy eyes with fists as they reached for their breakfast. And she was a ray of golden sunlight streaming into the room when she breezed in. She bounced when she walked, like she was about to spread wings and take flight, and he loved that about her. Reiner loved everything about her, but that was maybe his favorite.

Ymir trailed in behind her like the storm cloud she was, and glowered at him before sulking off to her own table in the corner. She never joined them for breakfast, although she did shoot daggers their way the entire time. Neither did she attempt to stop Krista, preferring to silently suffer. Reiner wondered what Krista had done to prompt this change in behavior, but he didn't question it for fear of ruining his good graces.

"Good morning Reiner!" Krista chirped, sliding into place across from him. She beamed up at him, and he felt his face crack into a smile in response. Her glow was contagious.

"Morning Krista. How'd you sleep?"

She shrugged in nonchalance and reached for her bowl. As winter dragged on, they more and more had leftovers from the night before reheated as their breakfast. Today is was day old leek broth with rye bread. Krista wrinkled her nose as she smelled it, and dug her fingers into the bread instead. The crust cracked audibly as she tore it apart.

"I can't wait for spring. I miss having fresh food," she sighed and dipped a piece of bread into the liquid.

"We can't have too much longer right? We're in the back half of winter now anyways," Reiner replied and gestured out the window. The snow that had blown in during the blizzard had stayed and grown, but the winter solstice had long since come and gone. Soon, the snow would begin to slough off in melting ice sheets. At least he hoped it was soon. The weak sunlight peeking through the windows spider webbed with ice illustrated his point quite nicely.

"Maybe...I don't know how long the snows last down here," she mused, watching the window change from pale yellow to bright orange, like the stained glass of the wallist churches. She appeared lost in thought, and Reiner seized his chance. She didn't speak about her past often, and he was hungry for every detail of her. As far as he could tell, she'd answer him honestly, if vaguely. Even if he couldn't say the same. As a soldier, Reiner had no secrets from her at least. Small mercies. He was beginning to prefer himself as a soldier.

"Down here?"

Her eyes snapped from the window to his, flashing with panic before falling down to her meal.

"I was raised...farther north," she hedged, and hurriedly stuffed a piece of broth soaked bread into her mouth. His eyebrows raised, both at her reaction and the thought. Krista, the snow angel. No wonder the snow storm hadn't scared her. He felt a swell of appreciation for her bravery and tucked into his own meal to hide it.

"You came from a resettlement camp, right?" he pressed on gently. He knew he should stop, but he found himself hungrier for information about her than his poor excuse for a breakfast. She perked slightly at this line of questioning. Slowly, he was learning how to speak with her, and how to get her to speak to him.

"Yeah, that's right. It was right north of Stohess."

"Wow that is north! So that's why you're fearless in the face of the snow," he teased and her smile returned in full force. Blinding. She opened her rosebud lips to respond.

The door banging open and swinging back into the wall loudly prevented her from answering. A steady stream of cadets began to filter through, bundled from the cold, ignorant to the rapid temperature drop they were facilitating with the open door. Bertolt and Annie wandered through a few feet away from each other, both eyes darting to his place across from Krista. This was no longer a surprise to them, but he felt his face darken just the same -in shame or anger, he could no longer tell. Bertolt cut him a look, pleading and sharp, while Annie let her eyes drift up and over him in disdain as though he wasn't worthy of her attention. Reiner knew better.

They were both concerned and wary at this change in his habits. Angry, even. He had so far avoided the worst of their scolding, but that was about to change. Annie had been on an excursion the night before, judging by the deep bruise-like purple circles staining her skin beneath her eyes. The snow had been cleared off enough roads to allow her to enter the cities again. They would have to meet behind the woodshed tonight for a debriefing. He would no longer be able to ignore them.

Oblivious to the traitorous machinations swirling around her, Krista continued on with her answer. Reiner missed it, too distracted by his entering comrades to hear her, and when his eyes drifted back to her, she was blinking expectantly at him.

"...I'm sorry. I didn't catch that," he spluttered, embarrassed by his slip. Distracted from his distraction. The light in her eyes cooled, but she waved him off just the same.

"It wasn't important. What's your duty today?"

"Why? Need some help?" Reiner raised his eyebrow at her in what he hoped was a flirtatious fashion. While she was allowed back on livestock duty, they had not been paired together. A small punishment in comparison, but one that still smarted. His response elicited a giggle from her though.

"I'm on the barracks cleaning duty today. But we have our ODM equipment maintenance training after, remember? Are you going to help me again?"

"Oh, come on. You don't need my help. You can disassemble and reassemble the gear better than me now," he teased, enjoying watching her blush prettily. Krista blushed easy with her pale skin, and he had yet to tire of watching it. Soldier Reiner was bolder than Warrior Reiner.

"But I have a hard time loosening the pistons. I don't have enough arm strength to twist the wrench hard enough," she complained, but seemed mollified by his compliment.

"Somehow, I think you'll manage." He winked at her then and stood, sweeping back from the bench with his bowl in hand. He had his own work to get to, and the taste of breakfast- and her company- had been soured by the appearance of the warriors. "I'll see you later then."


Krista ran through the motions of her chores, the sweeping and the dusting, and the wiping. She was an excellent cleaner, and small enough to crawl into the corners that no one ever got to. The officers had very little reason to complain about her work. But she was distracted. Her mind was filled with thoughts of a certain blonde giant. Reiner was occupying more and more of her thoughts each day.

Since that night in the barn, she had come to depend on his presence. He was sturdy and strong, and had proven himself trustworthy. Perhaps most importantly, he made her feel safe in a way that she couldn't remember previously in her life. Maybe moments from when she was a child, but those memories were surrounded by haze and mist, unable to form into something solid.

And Reiner was solid.

A shiver trilled through her extremities, pooling in her belly as the last thought crossed her mind. She shook her head to clear it of the increasingly heated ideas and went back to cleaning. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could make it to training.

In the corner of the room, the door creaked open. Krista's was sprawled in the corner, reaching with splayed fingers for a sock someone had miraculously balled into the corner under a bunk. It was Mikasa's bunk, but decidedly not Mikasa's sock. Mikasa was too clean for that. A soft flump onto the bed she was squeezed beneath jolted her, momentarily knocking some wind out of her before she wriggled free, absent that infernal sock.

Ymir was sprawled on the Mikasa's bed above her, arms folded behind her head, mussing the perfectly made covers. She smirked as Krista stood with a huff.

"I could've been trapped under there you know!" she scolded, and puffed herself up to seem larger, placing her hands on her hips. It didn't work. Ymir snickered.

"Oh please! You're so tiny, you can wiggle out of anything," she replied, and Krista felt Ymir's eyes trail up and down her form, as though checking that her statement was still true. Irritation bit down on Krista's cheerful disposition. She didn't appreciate being crushed, or reminded of her stature.

"What are you doing in here? Don't you have your own chores?"

Ymir smiled with mocking, syrupy sweetness up at her. "I finished them early just so I could come and see you." Even her voice was cloying and dripping with honey. Krista would've normally written it off as Ymir being herself, but it was bothering her more than usual.

"Did you come to help, or to watch?" Krista snapped with more force than necessary. She spun on her heel to wipe down the already spotless bed posts behind her, resolutely ignoring her. Ymir scoffed at the implication that she would do any more work than necessary, and kept her place on Mikasa's bunk.

"That's what I thought," Krista sighed.

"Hey, the military only requires one chore of me a day sweetheart. If they think that's enough, then who am I to argue?" Ymir said airily.

"You could help because I'm your friend?" Krista reminded her, throttling her tone into civility.

"Nah, it's much more fun to just watch you do all the work," Ymir remarked and shifted onto her side, propping her head in her hand. "You're like a mouse in a fairy tale. Or that one with the dirty princess. Poor, long suffering Krista."

"If you keep comparing me to little field animals, I'm going to chew a hole in your blanket," Krista growled, but Ymir just laughed. Krista saw red, and whipped around to glare at her.

"I don't see what's so funny, Ymir! You aren't being helpful- you're just being lazy."

Ymir sat up at that, rustling the neatly made bed and scowled at her.

"Are you mad at me or something?"

Krista wasn't entirely sure what she was feeling, but her annoyance simmered at the top, waiting to spill over.

"No, why would I be mad at someone who crushes me, insults me, and then won't even bother to help?" she muttered, but her eyes darted away from Ymir's, unable to hold their piercing gaze. It wasn't a particularly fair assessment- Ymir regularly came to keep her company after she finished her chores, but her mannerisms- her caustic attitude was eating at Krista today. It had been for the last few weeks, she supposed.

"Whatever. Clean by yourself then," Ymir sneered, and hopped up off the bed. She was out the door before Krista could apologize or take back her words, although she found she didn't particularly want to. It's not like she had been actually helping her anyways. She'd just been ruining a perfectly made bed, and squishing her. And teasing her about her height, which Ymir knew bothered her. A small part of her resented the hurt feelings she had just surely caused, but the larger, indignant side insisted that Ymir hurt her feelings all the time. She could handle a little taste of her own medicine.

Krista tossed the rag onto the floor with a frustrated sigh and began to pack up the cleaning supplies. She was mostly finished anyways and equipment maintenance with Reiner would help take her mind off her tiff with Ymir.

It was a short walk to the equipment building from the barracks. Other than the stables, most of the buildings were only a short walk. She wrapped her arms around herself to stay warm and hurried, desperate to be out of the cold quickly. Some of the other cadets were already in the room, standing behind their assigned places at their tables. Reiner's spot was diagonal and to the right of her spot. He pivoted slightly when she took her place next to Mikasa, quirking his lips up at her, but that's all he could give before the instructors entered the room and began their lesson.

Lesson was maybe a loose term. They could've been called lessons when the cadets first arrived at camp, but now they were more like drills. Speed drills and accuracy drills. Precision drills. Who can disassemble and reassemble quickest? Who can clean their equipment the most thoroughly? Who can manage to oil every gear so that they run the smoothest? It was mind-numbing- and finger-numbing- work, but practice made permanent. Krista knew every inch of her equipment, and since Reiner had helped her early on, she could handle it well herself. She had small, nimble fingers that could make work of the more intricate details and a brain filled to burst with names of each piece in her load out. What she lacked in the arm strength, she made up for in knowledge.

"Today we will disassemble our equipment and do a routine maintenance check on the item. You will, of course, be timed," the officer at the front eyed them as he projected. It wasn't Instructor Shadis today, though this one liked to think he was. That usually meant that the lessons were more difficult than necessary. "I will be walking around the room to monitor your progress. I expect you to complete your maintenance in the specific order required of a cadet. I will be randomly calling on cadets in the process of their work to explain what they're doing to the room. Anyone who answers incorrectly will start again from the beginning."

A collective groan emanated from the group and Krista felt herself no exception. This was a new twist on an already old threat. But, as Reiner had asserted earlier himself, she didn't need anyone's help anymore. She was capable, and intelligent- she could make this work. The room simmered into silence as the instructor strode to the front of the room and surveyed them.

"Begin."

Krista flexed her fingers and got to work. The equipment was familiar by now, and she was confident in her ability to finish quickly and efficiently. The rest of the cadets didn't seem to hold her confidence, but they set about their task anyways. Mechanical scraping and gear clicking filled the room as two dozen soldiers began to disassemble their equipment. The cool metal felt pleasant under her fingers and she could feel herself being drawn into her work.

"Bott!" The sound made Krista- and half the other recruits in the room- flinch. After working steadily in silence for at least ten minutes, the instructor had picked his first victim: sweet Marco Bott. He was seated next to Jean, who looked terrified, but pleased that he wasn't the one who was called upon.

"Y-yes, sir?"

"Explain what you are doing to the room."

Marco spluttered for a moment, his face quickly reddening under the scrutiny. Pity swelled in Krista's chest for him, but no one could save him but himself.

"I'm removing the pistons to begin recalibration of the tanks?" His statement came out like a question, his voice pitching upward at the end in anxiety.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling you? Uh...telling you. Sir," Marco said, fidgeting in his seat. The instructor let him linger for a moment, silence stretching taut like a rubber band.

"Incorrect. Begin again." And the instructor turned on his heel to begin stalking the room once more. Krista shot a sympathetic look Marco's way, but quickly turned back to her work like all the rest of the cadets. The pattern continued two more times. The instructor would stop some poor, unsuspecting soldier- first Connie and then Eren- and would inevitably force them to begin again. Krista was so absorbed in her work that she didn't hear the clicking of military boots stop short beside her table.

"Ahem."

Krista blinked at her work, and her fingers froze where they were. With a sinking stomach, she let her eyes trail up the imposing figure of the Instructor. He stared down at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Cadet Lenz. Explain what you are doing to the room, if you please."

She gulped audibly in the silence and looked back down at her equipment, her brain short circuiting in her panic.

"Umm…"

"'Um', Ms. Lenz? I don't believe that's a component of our equipment."

Krista's eyes darted up to the instructors and then away again, sweeping the room as her throat closed in embarrassment. Most cadets still had their eyes on their own work, as though afraid her misfortune was contagious. Finally, her gaze landed on Reiner. He was staring intently back at her. When her eyes met his, he offered a small, encouraging smile. Warmth swelled in her chest and she squared her narrow shoulders and stood at full attention, staring down the intimidating instructor.

"I am currently rotating the pistons of the firing mechanisms. Before that, I removed and oiled the gear well." She hoped her voice sounded confident. Reiner's face had cracked into a wide grin. Buoyed on her success, she continued on brazenly. "Next, I will close up the casing and begin checking the wiring."

Quiet stretched in the room as the Instructor inspected her equipment. Nervous glances around the room calmed her a bit. Her table mate Mikasa was impassive, but not coldly so. Armin wore a small smile. Ymir was trying her best to look impassive and apathetic, but Krista could tell she was following the exchange with rapt attention. Maybe she'd respect her a bit more after this. Presuming she was right, of course.

"That's correct," the Instructor nodded. "Resume."

Krista fought the urge to jump and squeal, opting instead for a stoic salute. When he turned to begin walking away, she bounced a bit, her cheeks aching from how hard she was smiling. Reiner shot her a thumbs up, mirroring her expression, and several other covertly nodded and grinned her way in acknowledgment. Carefully she turned back to her work, flushed with praise.

The Instructor only called on one more person during the course of their routine- Armin- who also succeeded in answering correctly. Finally dismissed, the cadets filed out of the stuffy building into the crisp air, and towards the combat grounds to begin their next dredge.

As she exited, Krista sight of Reiner, his forearm caught in the iron grip of Annie, hunched over, face reddening as she whispered in his ear. Krista's stomach clenched uncomfortably in what could only be described as jealousy. When Annie released him, their eyes caught for just a moment too long, before he nodded and turned, catching Krista's gaze before his eyes darted away. With forced nonchalance, he breezed past her in the doorway. No look, no words, no acknowledgment. The dismissal stung. Krista could feel the foundation that they'd carved out together in the stables lurch uncomfortably under her feet as he walked away.

Annie just stared back at her, impassive and unknowable.


A/N: I hope you like it! It's a bit of a filler chapter (setting up the next arc of the story!) but it was fun to write just the same. I have a thing for capable Krista and clumsy Reiner. Tell me what you think!