A.N: I got something done after all! For a while I debated if I should publish this separately, but since I have this series of SnK one shots, I ended up just putting it here.
This is a very loose continuation from my last year's SnK Christmas one shot, but no need to read that to understand this one. Enjoy!
Christmas of the Scouting Legion
"Keep walking guys, we still have a way to go!" Hanji told Levi and Eren as the two followed her through the snow in the mountains.
"Just where are we going to in the first place, commander?" Eren asked "It's about time you tell us, right?"
"You two know what time of the year it is, right?" Hanji asked. Levi raised an eyebrow, but Eren got what she was saying and answered: "Christmas is in a few days."
"Exactly!" Hanji agreed "And I found the most fabulous Christmas tree, so we're taking it back to the HQ!"
Eren and Levi stopped in their tracks. Exchanging looks, they made the nonverbal decision to turn on their heels and go back.
"Wait wait wait, where are you guys going!? We have a Christmas tree to fetch!" Hanji protested at the retreating men's backs.
"Get it yourself" was all Levi said "I don't want to be a part of this."
"Oh, c'mon you two!" Hanji protested, catching up with them "We all had so much fun last year, right?"
"…We did" Eren admitted "But surely you can handle one tree on your own, commander."
"Not this one; it's huge!" Hanji disagreed "So I need you to carry it back in your titan form!"
"…"
"…"
Without another word, both Levi and Eren picked up the pace.
"Guys guys, I'm serious!" Hanji said, jumping to Eren's feet "C'mon Eren, please! Just this one time!"
"No" Levi told her, crossing his arms "He's not your delivery boy."
"You just go drink your tea" Hanji jabbed at him, turning all her attention to Eren and making her best puppy dog face "Please, Eren!"
"…"
The trip ended with a fifteen-meter titan carrying an almost equally tall tree on its back.
XXXXX
"Shitty Glasses, the tree is way too big" Levi pointed out with an irritated scowl "It won't fit in the HQ."
"…" Hanji realized that as well. She had thought it'd be fine, but it seemed the tree was a few meters too tall.
"It'd be a shame to shorten such a brilliant tree… well, time for plan B, then!" she thought "We'll keep it outside."
"Really?" Levi said "All this to have a damn tree outside?"
"Yes, all this to have a damn tree outside" Hanji confirmed gleefully "Time to look for a good place. Let's go, Eren!"
The titan followed, but not before Levi caught him rolling his eyes. The young man clearly wasn't any more excited about this than the captain himself was.
"Not that I care as long as it's not me carrying that damn tree"
XXXXX
"The commander is… really in to it this year" Onyankopon pointed out as he observed Hanji running around, giving orders regarding the Christmas preparations.
"She's under a lot of stress; this is probably her way of trying to relieve it" Armin said diplomatically, trying to not be too hard on his superior "She'll calm down eventually."
"She'd better, or people's clothes won't be the only red thing around this Christmas" Levi said from where he sat cleaning the tree decorations, making Onyankopon look at him worriedly. Armin paid the man no mind, knowing he wasn't as serious as one might think.
"As cheerful as ever I see, captain" Yelena said as she came over, carrying a box that was almost the size of Levi "Not much of a Christmas person, I assume."
Levi simply gave her a look that told her he was tired of her shit. Charming.
"What's in that box, Yelena?" Armin asked as he came closer, wondering if he'd be able to carry it with the same effortlessness as Yelena did "Is it heavy?"
"Not really, but the size makes it a little difficult to carry" she cast a knowing smile at Levi "Or at least it would to some people."
The captain gave her a glare, and Armin wondered if he should just bail.
"There you are!" Hanji called out as she spotted Yelena, running over in a flash "I needed that!"
"What is it?" Armin asked curiously as Yelena put the box down and Hanji started unpacking it. Out came a statue of a white bearded man dressed in red "That's…" Armin paused, trying to remember the name of the fictional character "Santa Claus?"
"Yes!" Hanji confirmed with a grin "I actually ordered this from the Reeves company last year, but it didn't get finished in time. Now we can finally use it!"
It seems Hanji had been more in to it already last year than they had thought.
"Yelena, give me a hand so that we can find a place for this" Hanji said, and the woman dutifully picked the statue up again "As for you two, help Levi with the decorations."
"…Sure" Onyankopon said, knowing he had nothing better to do at the moment anyway. Armin, however, declined.
"Actually commander, there are some preparations I have planned to do myself, if you don't mind" he said. Hanji raised an eyebrow, asking: "Christmas preparations?"
"Yes ma'am"
"Then you're dismissed!"
Hanji and Yelena went off to their own business and, as Levi watched Armin go, he couldn't help but comment: "I wonder if the little shit actually has something to do or if he just bailed on us."
"Armin playing hooky?" Onyankopon asked in surprise "He doesn't seem like the type to do that."
Levi snorted.
"You're in for a real surprise one day if you think that" he said, now observing how Hanji made Yelena walk in circles as she couldn't come up with a good place for the statue. As amusing was it was to see the giant woman wandering around aimlessly under Hanji's orders, the whole Christmas -thing was starting to annoy him. Looking at Onyankopon, he remarked: "And this mess is all your fault."
XXXXX
"I can't believe the commander is making us do this" Floch complained as he wrapped up a Christmas present "We have far more important things to do than prepare for some stupid Marleyan party!"
"I don't mind the break, but I do wonder if the Scouting Legion's budget can handle all this" Jean said "That's what the commander used to get the gifts, right?"
"She's out of her mind" Floch said "Is she really suitable to be a commander?"
Jean frowned at this.
"Careful, Floch" he said "Walls have ears."
"Yeah, I know" he said with a frustrated sigh "And heads and feet and arms; the walls are freaking titans! That's another thing we should be looking in to instead of- "
Mikasa, who had been packing presents silently until now, cut off Floch by abruptly standing up.
"Mikasa?" Jean questioned, but the woman ignored him in favor of walking over to Floch, ripping a piece from the tape roll in her hand off before smacking it on the redhead's face, his mouth to be more specific, effectively silencing him. She turned her gaze to Jean, who immediately got the hint and looked away, continuing to work.
As Mikasa saw that Floch was about to remove the tape, she took another one and crossed it over the first one. Floch glared at her, but Mikasa just raised an eyebrow, looking at him coldly. Floch was able to hold her gaze for a few more moments before no longer having the guts and looking away, returning to his work. Satisfied, so did Mikasa.
XXXXX
"You I can understand" Connie said as he gestured to Eren with a broom "But how did I end up on the HQ cleaning duty?"
"Hanji probably wanted you out of the way" Eren said flatly "You have the tendency to start trouble."
"Wha-!?" Connie was shocked "Like you're one to talk, Mr. Getting-Kidnapped-Is-My-Hobby!"
Eren cast his friend a glare, saying: "I kept getting kidnapped because I'm irreplaceable, you know."
"Uhhuh, sure" Connie said, unimpressed "Everyone wants to steal Levi's favorite slave who cleans like a pro!"
"…"
Wordlessly, Eren chucked the rag he'd been cleaning with straight to Connie's face.
"Alright" Connie said, taking the rag off "You're just asking for trouble."
"Bring it" Eren told him, and soon they were battling with mops and brooms, trying to swipe each other in the face with them. Connie was still shorter, so one would think that Eren had the upper hand but, like always, Connie's reflexes made up for his size. He was not one to be taken lightly.
"What are you two doing?" the young men froze, momentarily fearing they'd been caught by Levi, but soon they relaxed as they realized it was just Yelena "You've made a mess, you know."
Looking around, Connie and Eren realized it was true. Shoot.
"…We need to clean this up before the captain finds out" Eren said.
"Yeah, we probably should" Connie said, turning to Yelena "Since you're here, give us a hand, would you?"
Yelena just smiled, as usual, and the duo paled as she stepped aside, revealing a very pissed off Levi behind her.
"Shit"
XXXXX
"Sasha for the last time, those are for everyone!" Nikolo yelled, whacking Sasha's hand away from the gingerbreads with a wooden spoon, ignoring her yelp "Keep your chubby hands off of them!"
"My hands aren't chubby!" Sasha protested with a pout "They're just swollen because you keep hitting them!"
"I wouldn't hit if you weren't such a thief, you little pig" Nikolo muttered "Can't you go help with the Christmas tree or something?"
"But I want to be here with you!"
Nikolo blushed, but forced it away before Sasha could see and instead said: "You mean you want to be here with the food, right?"
"…."
"Sasha"
"Can't it be both, okay!?" Sasha finally broke under pressure "You make the best food, but I also like you!"
Nikolo blushed again, and this time Sasha noticed.
"And you like me too" she said with a confident grin, but the stubborn POW just scoffed "Ahha, sure, who doesn't like greedy thieves in their kitchen."
"Meanie" the girl said, sticking her tongue out at him "We better get back to work."
Whacking her with the spoon again, Nikolo pointed out: "You're the one who keeps slowing us down in the first place."
XXXXX
"Thanks for giving me a hand Hitch" Armin said as he and Hitch decorated Annie's underground chamber for Christmas.
"No prob" the woman said "Though I would've liked to be invited to this "Christmas party" when you had one last year or, you know, to get invited this year!"
Armin laughed nervously.
"Yeah, sorry about that, it was just pretty hectic and all new. Even now Hanji's probably ordering everyone around like a slave driver."
"So that's why you ran off here?" Hitch snickered "Smart move."
"I didn't even need to lie; simply said that I have Christmas preparations elsewhere" the blond told, struggling to throw a bow over Annie's crystal "It's good to be trusted!"
"Except when it comes to reaching things" Hitch snickered as she snatched to bow that kept falling from Armin "The all mighty Colossal Titan can't even reach high enough to put a bow on a girl!"
"Ha, really funny" Armin said, gaping as Hitch climbed on the crystal "Hitch, you're not supposed to do that!"
"I'm in charge of the sleeping beauty; I can do what I want" Hitch told without missing a beat "As long as nothing goes wrong, nobody needs to know."
"And if something does go wrong?"
"Then we'll finally have some process" Hitch said with a shrug, patting the crystal "Our girl's been sleeping long enough!"
Well, Hitch wasn't wrong.
"I hope we can celebrate Christmas with Annie some year for real"
XXXXX
"Christmas is so not worth all this" Jean thought as he leaned on some empty crates, out of Hanji's sight. He'd thought the commander had been a real slave driver at first, but when they were done with the presents and got to the decorations, he realized he'd been wrong. The true devil had yet to come out "She ought to give us a break…"
He actually had it the hardest, being the best with the gear after Levi. The captain had fled under the excuse of cleaning, so Hanji had put him in charge of decorating the place with his gear. That would've been fine had Hanji not kept screaming instructions all the time… if it was so important, why not do it herself?
"Candy cane for your thoughts" Jean jolted, but relaxed once he realized that it was just Eren who popped down next to him. Raising an eyebrow, the young man asked: "A candy cane? Really?"
"I'm completely broke; take it or leave it" Eren explained, actually holding out a red and white candy "Well?"
Jean snorted, taking the offered treat.
"In how big trouble do you think I'd get to if I murdered our superior officer?" he asked as he unwrapped the candy.
"Make it look like an accident and you should be fine" Eren said, taking out a candy cane of his own "Maybe the tree will fall on top of her?"
"Yeah, maybe" Jean snorted "So who's she focusing her attention on now?"
"Sasha and Connie; Hanji made them take your place as soon as she noticed you were gone" the shifter told "She'll be pissed."
"If those two pisses her off even more before she finds me, she won't remember she has something to be mad at me about" Jean said "She's a bit too disorganized for that right now."
"Who's too disorganized for what now?" the boys looked up, seeing manically grinning Hanji standing on the crate, a box of candles in her hands "Break time's over boys, chop chop!"
They groaned, wondering how hard it would be to inconspicuously tip the tree over.
XXXXX
"We're done!" Hanji cheered, jumping up and down next to the tree.
"And with a good timing" Onyankopon said, wiping sweat from his forehead "Though we did work like crazy for all this; maybe we should make a do with a little less next year…"
"Nonsense; next year will be even better!" Hanji protested, making everyone at the hearing range groan. Frowning, Hanji asked: "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, commander" Eren said as he stood up, bringing his hand close to his mouth "Though there is one thing I forgot to hang on the Christmas tree. Permission to transform?"
"Permission granted!" Hanji said without missing a beat, clapping her hands together excitedly.
"Eren?" Mikasa questioned, but Eren ignored her as he backed away from everyone else before his transformation. After he was done, Levi came over with some Christmas ribbons, handing them to the titan.
"Make this a peaceful Christmas for us; we've all deserved it" he said. The titan nodded, the scouts and Marleyans watching as he took off towards the huge Christmas tree, but not before picking up the commander.
"Ooh, I get to hang it?" she asked, not protesting as Eren carried her closer to the tree. She only started to feel like something was wrong as Jean flew in with his gear on Eren's shoulder, reaching for the tree "Guys?"
As the titan and the horse faced young man grinned, Hanji knew she was in for it now. Had she had her gear, she would've bailed that very second but the thing is, she didn't. She was at their mercy.
"Merry Christmas commander" Jean said as he and Eren tied Hanji up to the top of the tree "Hope you'll have a peaceful Christmas up here; we sure as hell will- just not this high!"
"What? C'mon guys, after all I've done for you!" Hanji wailed, trying to break free, but Jean and Eren ignored her in the favor of saluting the cheering and laughing scouts. The mood getting the best of him, Jean yelled from the top of his lungs: "MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!"
XXXXX
OMAKE:
"I can't believe you were so clumsy"
"Me? What about you? You should've caught me properly like a gentleman!"
"I told you not to climb on the crystal!"
"Well you could've actually stopped me instead of whining, oh brave scout!"
Armin and Hitch glared at each other from the awkward ankles they'd ended up on when Hitch fell off of the crystal, right on top of Armin, tangling them both with the giant bow.
"…"
"…"
"…So, when will Boris show up?"
"Knowing his lazy ass, around noon."
"Great" Armin said with a sigh "Merry Christmas."
A.N: To quote Armin (and Jean): Merry Christmas!