A warm wind blew the desiccated fall leaves across Connie's path as he left Armin's house. A frown marred his usually happy face.

The night was young, for all the good it would do him. He would have a hard time falling asleep that night, angry and disappointed. Even worse, tomorrow was a collection day so he had to be up before dawn. What a rotten day.

The bell on the door of Sasha's Homestyle Cafe tinkled as Connie walked through the door. Sasha's restaurant was the only one Connie had ever been in that had a bell on the door; hadn't anyone ever told Sasha that that was more of a store thing?

He should some time. They were best friends. He supposed the good food made up for it. With a heavy heart, he let himself be led by the hostess to a booth. He didn't see Sasha anywhere, but the hostess was sure to let her know he was there. He came in every morning after his shift was over, and Sasha usually took a break from working in the kitchen to come have coffee with him (and quite often, a huge plate of fried potatoes or hashbrowns).

Surely enough, he hadn't been tapping his hands idly for more than a minute before she bounced into the seat across from him, nearly dropping the serving tray laden high with coffee and potatoes in the process. He had once asked her if she ate anything other than potatoes for breakfast; she had promptly explained that her time with wasn't breakfast. Breakfast was earlier. 11:00 o'clock was "Potato Snack" time.

"Connie!"

"Hey, Sasha." he said, grabbing a plate of hashbrowns.

"How'd your date go? Did you get lucky? Tell me all about it!"

Connie eyed her warily.

"Not so great." he said.

Sasha put her hand over her mouth, covering the grin she couldn't hold back. She thought she had a good idea what had Connie so depressed.

"Oh yeah? What happened?" she asked.

"Nothing really. Armin is just, well I had the wrong idea about her." Connie said.

Sasha leaned forward eagerly. "Yeah?"

"I just thought she was this really sweet, nice girl. And she's not."

Sasha frowned. What the hell had Armin done? Sasha had figured Armin's dick would be the problem, not Armin being a dick.

"She didn't do anything that bad, but you know, if you spend one day with a person, and they're already lying, and being selfish... I just can't imagine how much worse is in store if you stick around them." Connie continued. "It's a major red flag on a first date."

Sasha leaned over the table and patted her best friend on the back.

"You're better off without her buddy." Sasha said. "Besides, I didn't tell you this, 'cause I thought it would be super funny to see how it ended, but Armin's a guy anyway."

Connie just stared at her. "What was that last bit?"

"Armin? Is a guy." She repeated solemnly.

Connie shook his head in disbelief, smiling for the first time since leaving Armin's house.

"I don't believe you, but you're a great friend for trying to cheer me up."

"What? I'm not lying!" Sasha insisted, looking slightly outraged.

"Yeah? How would you know?" Connie asked, laughing.

"His grandpa and him come in the restaurant all the time. His grandpa's always like 'Look at my cute grandson, can you believe he's single?'. It's really cute how he tries to play matchmaker. I'd be more flattered if he didn't do the same thing with Fat Mildred, but..."

Sasha was so sweet. Just being reminded of the lengths his friend would go to to make him feel better did make him feel better. Once she had finished rambling about Armin's manliness and a ham she suspected one of the waitresses of stealing (Connie suspected she'd just ate it herself and forgot) he finally managed to get a word in edgewise.

"You know what Armin was lying about?" Connie asked.

"What?" Sasha responded, mouth full of an impressively large wad of hashbrowns.

"Mikasa and Eren. Apparently they take forever to make up when one of them gets pissed at the other." Connie said. "Usually Armin has to play peacemaker. She just said they'd patch it up on their own quickly so she could get rid of you last night. "

Sasha gulped and took a drink of water. "That sucks."

"What? You don't care?"

"Of course I care. But it's a new day Connie. Today, nothing can stand in my way!"

"What a relief." Connie said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious!" she said. She snatched his plate, still half full of food, away from him and began devouring the remaining potatoes.

"I'm not paying for that, you know."

"Of course not. It's on the house, like usual."

It didn't take her very long to finish off that plate either. Connie just watched her, still slightly amazed at his best friend's whirlwind like ability to make food disappear, even after years of watching it. She never seemed to gain weight either.

"Well, I'm going to get this whole thing straightened out. Don't be too mad at Armin, either. I was totally cockblocking you last night (sorry) and he had a right to be pissed."

"If you say so, Sasha."

"I do say so."

She rose.

"Where are you going?"

"To talk to Eren."

"It's 11 in the morning, you're about to get a lunch rush." Connie said.

"Mina can take care of it. It's mostly clubs and soup, easy stuff on the lunch menu."

She gave him a quick peck on the forehead before leaving. Maybe stuff like that was half the town thought they were dating, and he found it so hard to find a girlfriend. Or maybe it was being so short. Who knew?

Connie signaled for the waitress to bring more coffee, and something to eat that wasn't potatoes.

Sasha had slept easy that night before, secure in her belief that she would right all in the morning. So she was bright-eyed and perky as she began the formidable task of winning over her love.

Her first obstacle was at the Dauper Fire Department. After making her wait half an hour for the morning drills to be finished, the station's captain, an incredibly short guy with an undercut, was untalkative and unhelpful. She couldn't get any information out of him other than that apparently, there was no one named Eren employed there, period. Frowning, she left the station and headed to her car. She could try the phonebook to find him, but most people she knew didn't even have a landline these days. She should have pried the Jaeger's cellphone numbers from Armin last night.

Sasha was just about to start her car and head over to the library when a shadow fell across her face. She looked up. A cute redhaired girl in a firefighter pants and a white t-shirt tapped at her car window. Sasha rolled down the glass.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked.

A month ago she would have been overjoyed to a have a random sexy firefighter chick knocking on her window, but these days she was a one-woman woman, and she had time only for her mission...for Mikasa.

"I heard you asking about Eren in the station." the girl explained.

"Do you know him?" Sasha asked.

"Oh yeah. He used to work here. He was a nice kid, shame it didn't work out."

"What happened?"

"That I can't tell you. The Captain would have my hide." the girl giggled.

Sasha rolled her eyes. The girl was deliberately teasing her with the information. Luckily, she didn't care. If Jaeger had gotten up and did a striptease on the firemen's pole for their Captain, she wouldn't care. She just wanted to know how to get ahold of him so she could set things right with Mikasa.

"I just want to get in touch with him."

"What do you want to get in touch with Eren for?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, you could be some kind of stalker, or something." the girl said. "Though, come to think of it, I can't think of any stalker that could get through that sister of his." she perked up. "So I guess it's okay if I give you his address."

Yes! Paydirt! Sasha pumped her fist in victory.

"You know those apartments next to the show?"

Sasha grabbed a spare napkin and began scribbling down directions.

"So why did Eren get sacked anyway?" Sasha asked.

"Inappropriate use of the station's sliding pole, to say the least." the girl said, winking.

Sasha whistled.

The apartments next to Dauper's one movie theater were old but still respectable. The small brick and siding building was one Sasha had been in a few times before-her old classmate Hannah and her husband had lived there briefly, before deciding to move out to the country.

She found the Jaegers' apartment immediately-it was the first apartment inside of the entrance. Sasha gulped. She had thought she'd have more time to work up her nerve. Eren Jaeger-she knew so little about him, but so much of her future happiness depended on him. If he wouldn't believe her-and forgive Mikasa-then Mikasa wouldn't forgive her. And would never date her. And they'd never ride off into the sunset in Sasha's old but reliable Buick.

She knocked on the door, almost hoping he wasn't home. She thought Armin had implied he was adopted, but she still pictured a tall, ripped half-Asian guy with a cold gray stare that could pin you to a wall-or send annoying would-be suitors of his sister running home crying.

So she was completely surprised when the door opened to reveal a guy about her height, with warm brown hair and vivid green eyes. The grouchy expression on his face was right in keeping with her imaginings.

"Uh, hi."

"Hello."

"Eren, right?"

"Can I help you with something?" he asked.

"I'm Sasha. You don't know me, but I need to clear up a misunderstanding or two..."

Eren cursed. "Has that bouncer been giving out my address again?"
He started to close the door on her, but she quickly stuck her booted foot in the way.

"It's about Mikasa."

The irritation left his face, replaced with curiosity.

"What about my sister?"

"Well you see, there was some bread that Mikasa gave to you..."

Seeing his eyebrows draw down and a frown mar his face once more, Sasha hastened to explain.

"It wasn't from her! I mean, not in the way that you think. Someone gave it to her at the grocery store, she didn't realize there was a note attached."

His eyebrows narrowed even more.

"So this bread was meant for her. Everywhere we go, there's always some creep who gets infatuated with her. Bugging her, insisting she go on dates with them, giving her presents...Who was it this time? Is it you? You want to date my sister?"

Intense green eyes stared intently at Sasha. She drew back from the force of it. Date this guy's sister? He looked like he'd throw her through a building if she said yes.

"Er, I mean no, of course not...that bread wasn't from me..." She struggled to think of an answer, sweating under the force of that glare.

"It was from uh, Jean! Yeah it was Jean. He's the bagger at her store you know."

Eren was already turning away, grumbling. "Workplace harassment, too. Just wait till I get ahold of this guy."

"Wait, wait! He's not a bad guy. He's a real sweet guy-tall too, handsome. And uh, you know..."

Eren rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the tip-off, Sasha." he said, moving to close the door once more.

"Hey! Wait, that's not all!"

"Yeah?"

"That bread uh, wasn't meant for Mikasa! He just wanted her to pass it along to you. He has a real thing for green eyes, and men in uniform...he just couldn't resist you."

There! She was going to make it out of this hallway alive, and she'd done something nice for Jean-he really did sound quite taken with this Eren guy. Eren's expression darkened, popping her delusionally happy thought bubble. "And she didn't tell me that because she didn't want me to get a boyfriend." he said.

"Nooooo...I'm sure that's not it." Sasha said frantically. "I mean, no offense but it sounds like you weren't exactly willing to listen to her explanation."

His expression softened. "That is true, I guess. I just assumed the worst."

Sasha nodded vigorously.

"You wouldn't happen to have that Jean guy's phone number, would you?"

"Sure do!" she whipped out her cellphone and let him copy the number from the contact list.

"Don't be afraid to send him a text some time-with these shy guys, you have to take the initiative sometimes, you know?" she said.

He nodded, smiling. "Thanks Sasha-I guess I'll see you around."

"Seeya!" she said, and then fled the apartment building before she could dig herself in any deeper.

Hey, it might work out though, right? Maybe if Jean hit it off with Eren, Eren would be grateful to her for helping him find a boyfriend...and wouldn't tear her apart limb from limb for having the audacity to date his sister.