Pairing: Eren/Mikasa

Setting: Right after they all join the Scouting Legion.

Rating: K+ (and one bout of Strong Language)

Words: 1731

Day 6 – Snowball Fight

Jingle Bells

Whoever decided training in the snow was a good idea was ….well, Levi that's who. Eren tried to run his numb hands on his arms but it wasn't working. Yeah, they had jackets and yeah, they had boots but gloves would've been nice, maybe some hats. He supposed the Scouting Legion really didn't have the money to suit the members in winter gear but it would've been nice.

"How long is he gonna make us stand out here," Jean grunted with Sasha and Connie standing nearby.

Eren wasn't even sure how long they had been out here to begin with but long enough for his toes to lose feeling. If the snow on the ground wasn't bad enough, then the flakes falling from the sky was worse. He glanced over at Armin who was shivering, ears and cheeks red from his spot next to Eren. He got the feeling the only one who was remotely warm was Mikasa, on the other side of him, her nose and face tucked under her red scarf. Ymir and Krista had taken to leaning up against the side of the building with Reiner squatting nearby, Bertholdt trying to brush the snow out of his hair. Everyone looked freezing.

"You guys doing okay?" Eren huffed, his breath coming out in little bursts of vapors that looked like smoke.

"Yeah," Armin chattered, his hands shoved into his pockets and his jacket pulled tight around him. "I just wish the Lance Corporal would come out so at least we could start moving around and warm up."

"I'm sure he has his…reasons." Eren really wasn't sure if he did or not, maybe this was their training; trying not get frost bite.

Mikasa make some muffled noise that made Eren look over to her. The skin popping out from her scarf was red from the chill but she wasn't even shivering.

"Well, you're the only smart one," Eren said, tucking a piece of her scarf that had blown over her shoulder back around her neck.

"Only in the winter though, not in the dead of the summer," Armin snorted.

Mikasa rolled her eyes but Eren saw she had that small smile on her face even behind the fabric.

He was about to turn back around to gaze up at the building and see if anyone was coming but he noticed Mikasa had her hands tucked under her arms . Well, she was only human.

"Let me see," he said holding one of his hands out to her.

She blinked at him.

"Mikasa." Eren gestured with his hand. "Let me see your hands."

She carefully removed her hands from under her jacket and held them out to Eren.

He grabbed a hold of both of them in his and started to rub against them; granted it wasn't helping all that much because his hands were just as cold. Mikasa always got cold before he did, even with the scarf around her neck. He wasn't quite sure what it was about her but he couldn't count the times he found her cold toes and fingers in bed with him in the middle of the night during the winter.

"Is that doing anything?" He looked up to see Mikasa watching him.

"Yes," she answered.

"Liar." He brought her hands up to his mouth, his own hands still enclosing them. He blew air into his hands, trying to hit her's with his breath as he started to rub his hands against her again. Eren knew his hands were starting to get feeling back as he took another breath and blew again. He glanced up at her over their hands. "Better now?" he murmured, his lips brushing against her fingers.

"Yeah," she breathed, her face looking a bit redder than it had previously.

Eren went to breathe again since as her hands were warming up so were his but all warmth left his body when a sharp and very wet feeling was sent all down the back of his head. He dropped Mikasa's hands and reached behind him to find snow sprayed out on him, some of it inching down his back.

Eren spun around to find the guilty party; it was so easy it was like they didn't even try. Sasha had her hands over her mouth and Connie was trying not to laugh but Jean, Jean was looking away, his hands shoved in his pants pocket and an angry scowl on his face as he looked anywhere but at Eren.

Oh no, he was not getting away with that. Eren reached down and grabbed a handful of snow in his hands that were now more than a little cold but he packed it together and sent it flying towards Jean's face.

He must've been really avoiding Eren because the snowball landed right in his face.

Silence fell in the field as Jean stared over at Eren. "You're dead," Jean snarled before reaching down to grab more snow to toss over.

Before the next snowball could hit though, Eren felt himself get pulled down behind a nearby rock. Mikasa was crouched next to him, her hand still on his jacket while Armin was frantically making snowballs next to them.

"What're you doing?" Eren asked as Mikasa let go of him. "I could take care of myself."

Multiple snowballs flew over the rock landing close by behind them.

"Okay then," Eren said, reaching out to help Armin make snowballs. He wasn't sure why or when this turned into a war but a war he could do. "He started it, I'm gonna make him pay."

"He'll have Sasha and Connie with him," Mikasa said, peering over the rock carefully. A snowball flew so fast that she had to duck so it didn't hit her face. "And Reiner now."

"Bertholdt too," Krista's voice said as she peered out from behind a tree nearby.

"Even in a fake war you always seem to be the root of it, huh, Jaeger."

"Shove it, Ymir," Eren grumbled, ignoring the girl who was standing near Krista. "This isn't something that's new to us."

Eren peered around the rock and saw just a bit of Connie's bald head looking the other way. He flung the snowball in his hand right towards Connie before ducking back behind the rock.

"Ah! Cold, cold, cold!" Connie shouted.

"Keep down," Reiner said. "They'll know where we are."

Eren didn't have to know where they're to know they had no chance. He wasn't lying when he told Ymir they had done this before. It wasn't the first time the three of them ended up in a snow ball fight in the middle of winter and they certainly weren't used to losing, not with Mikasa.

"Ready?" Armin asked, pushing his snowballs towards her.

Mikasa looked to Eren who grabbed a few snowballs before giving her a nod. She jumped up to her feet holding Armin's nearly perfectly made snowballs, while Eren leaned out the side of the rock already tossing snowballs at anyone he could see, specifically Jean's tuft of hair popping out from behind a bush. Snowballs flew over his head coming from Mikasa, who landed a hit on both Sasha and Reiner.

Eren leaned back around to get some more snowballs when Mikasa dropped back down, her hand on her cheek. He could see the snow in her scarf and the red spot on her face to know she got it.

"Who was it?" he asked leaning into her.

"Bertholdt," Mikasa said. "I didn't even see him behind the tree."

"I got it," Armin said, grabbing an armful of snowballs and slipping around to a bush that was a little closer. A few more snowballs flew over from Krista who was behind them; Ymir still looked indifferent but Eren pitied the person who managed to hit Krista.

Eren reached up to brush the fallen snow off her scarf, careful so it didn't get on her neck or down her jacket, before he placed the back of his hand up against the red mark the snowball left on her face. "You okay?"

She nodded, pulling her scarf up over her mouth a little as she looked at him.

"You think we should go all in?" Eren asked, pulling her scarf back up around her neck. She didn't have to say anything, he knew that look. He gathered half the snowballs Armin left as Mikasa gathered the others; he wasn't even aware that he couldn't feel his fingers anymore.

"Ready?"

She nodded, and Eren saw the smile in her eyes. He jumped up at the same time she did, wailing the snowballs in their arms at whoever was there. The other's seemed to have the same idea; Sasha letting out some war yells as she pegged snowballs wherever she could.

"Man down!" Connie shouted as he fell to the ground, completely covered in snow.

Eren felt on hit him in the chest but that wasn't nearly enough to make him stop, not when he landed one in Jean's face again.

"What the fuck is going on out here?" a chillingly familiar voice called, one that was enough to halt everyone mid throw to look over. Levi was standing near the door, a snowball clearly having made contact with his shoulder.

Eren resisted the urge to blame it on Jean, but just stood there staring at their recent superior officer dumbfounded.

"Are you done acting like five years olds?"

Everyone who was holding a snowball still promptly dropped it.

Levi reached over to brush the snow that was on his jacket off. "Just get inside before I make all of you camp out here tonight with no tents."

Everyone quickly filed inside whether from the threat or the prospect of being out of the snow Eren wasn't sure. He followed next to Mikasa, trying to avert away from Levi's narrowed gaze. He looked over to Mikasa, her cheeks still red from the cold but there was something else in her eyes, something he hadn't seen in a long time. It was happiness; small, yeah, but it was there. He had to look away for fear he was gonna get caught staring at her.

Even though Eren felt about two feet tall when he walked by Levi, it was totally worth it to see that light in her eyes again.

And to hit Jean in the face with a snowball.