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kind-red-ghosts · 7 years

Text

As Many Burgers as You'd Like

Attack on Titan. Springles (Sasha/Connie). Fluff. Humour. College AU. 1626 words.

You can also read it here.

Summary: Connie and Sasha have college exams to study for and plan an all night study session, but who are they kidding? Of course they spend most of it playing video games and goofing off. They make a bet, and the loser has to buy the winner as many burgers as they want. A winner is about to emerge when Bertolt leaves a not-so-nice surprise for them.

As Many Burgers as You'd Like

Energy drinks with their tabs pulled off and half opened textbooks littered the coffee table and the living room floor. A day old pizza box holding the last half-eaten slice was shoved to the side of the couch. This scene was the only evidence left of Sasha and Connie’s short lived all-night study session. Currently, they sat side by side on a couch leaning forward, shoulders pressed up against one another, eyes glued to a screen where they were duking it out in a tournament style video game.

They had spent the better part of the morning controlling different characters and were finally on their final round. They were both left with their best fighters. Connie’s favourite character excelled in agility and quick attacks, whereas Sasha preferred fighters that used ranged and delayed attacks.

“Hey Connie, what about a bet?” Sasha tugged at the pull string of her hoodie. It was several sizes too big and that’s what she loved about it. Connie was wearing a graphic tee and sweat pants.

“What?” Connie stuck his tongue out in concentration.

“Loser buys as many burger as the winner wants at Titan’s Burgers.”

Connie’s eyebrow arched. “As much as they want?”

Sasha nodded zealously, eyes almost glazing over as she thought about it. “Even if it’s a month’s worth of rent!” Sasha pressed a button in rapid succession, bombarding Connie’s character with attacks. “BURGERS!!!”

Connie countered with a successfully executed combo, knocking her character to the ground. “You don’t know what you’re in for Blouse,” Connie huffed. “I’m going to make you buy me so much you won’t be able to afford rent and get evicted.” Sasha’s character’s health bar was pushed into the red. A mini animation flashed across screen. “Looks like you’ll be crashing here!”

“Who will be crashing here?” Reiner and Bertolt walked into the living room. Backpacks slung over their shoulders.

“Sasha made a bet-”

“It’s not over yet!” Sasha screamed, guiding her character to crack open a piñata of sorts releasing an assortment of food, which served as the healing items of the game. “FOOD NEVER FAILS ME! Take that Shorty!”

“YOU’VE GOT TO ME KIDDING ME!” Connie groaned –loudly – to the ceiling.

“Karma is a dish best served cold!”

Reiner shook his head. “I think you’ve gotten two different sayings mixed up there, Potato Girl.”

“That was one time Reiner!” Sasha said through gritted teeth, hands squeezing the controller.

Bertolt had apparently slipped his bag to the floor and was gathering empty cans in his arms. Reiner flicked him. “Don’t clean up after them! They’ll never learn.” Bertolt left the mess and straightened.

Reiner crossed his arms and turned to Connie, “anyway, she can stay here as long as she stays away from my side of the fridge!”

Sasha paused the game –

“Hey!” Connie exclaimed.

–and spun to face Reiner. She locked him in her glare.

Reiner held his hands up in defense. “I swear I lose weight after you visit because all the food mysteriously disappears. I woke to noises one night and found you passed out with your head in the fridge.”

Bertolt rested a hand on Reiner’s shoulder and Reiner automatically turned his ear. “I thought you said you thought that was a dream?” Bertolt asked.

Reiner shook his head. “I really don’t know,” he looked pointingly at Sasha who had stretched out her leg and managed to pinch the pizza box between her toes drag it towards herself. She peeled cheese off the lid and placed it on the last slice. She held it up to Reiner who declined. Sasha shrugged and then shoved it into her mouth.

“I’ve seen stranger things during the day,” he concluded.

Music from the game resumed.

“Not fair! Don’t unpause the game without telling me!” Connie shouted at her, eyes snapping back to the screen, his thumbs finding their hold on his controller again.

“Heading to school now, then working late,” Reiner called out as he walked towards the front door with Bertolt. “Don’t wait up.” Reiner winked.

Connie heard the wink in his voice and rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Ah! Sasha calm down with the booby traps – hey!!”

Reiner laughed, “oh you don’t have to be shy when all these people around, I know how you really feel.”

“Oh, just go and kiss your reflection, already.”

Bertolt snickered and they both left, the front door swinging closed behind them.

Connie and Sasha were concentrated on the game. Sasha trapped Connie’s character in blast and finally brought his health bar into the red. Their scores were evenly matched.

Connie cursed just as Sasha’s hand flew to her face.

“Who farted?” Connie pinched his nose.

Sasha coughed. “It’s like rotten eggs but, like, sweet.”

“No, no, no…more like someone was making a stew and mixed armpit sweat, dog piss, and garbage sludge!”

Sasha gagged at the description and started to get up from the couch.

“If you leave now you forfeit and I win!”

“Con-nie! I think it’s burning holes in my lungs!”

“If you’re not strong enough to endure the pain, then you aren’t worthy of being crowned the victor!”

“CONNIE THERE’S LITERALLY TEARS IN YOUR EYES.”

Connie scrunched up his nose, his eyes narrowing into slits. “Like I said.”

A smile tugged at her lips despite the toxins penetrating the room. “Fine,” she tucked a leg under her bum. “THIS IS FOR BURGERS!” She yelled and shot Connie’s character with arrows from behind. “And you’re completely clueless like usual, this smell is like being stuck on a hot and crowded bus between some guy who hasn’t showered and another who thought it was socially acceptable to eat a garlic and onion sandwich without brushing their teeth after.

Connie moaned, “you’re making it worse Sasha.”

Reiner dry heaved behind them. They both turned to see him grabbing his forgotten keys from the dish near the front door. “Bert, was that you?”

“Sorry!” Bertolt popped his head through the door.

Reiner waved the smell away from his nose, “You could to sell your farts to the government as a secret weapon!” He his voice in a jeering tone, “Bert’s farts are silent but deadly. I guess I won’t have to worry about my food getting stolen! Although, I’ll need post an ad for a new roommate! It was nice knowing you Connie.”

He walked through the door again and elbowed Bertolt in the stomach. “You’re just full of hot air, huh?” Bertolt frowned and his eyes darted from side to side.

“Leave the door-”

“-open so the smell-”

“-gets out!” Connie and Sasha’s pleads went ignored as the door clicked shut. Somehow the smell got worse.

“Did he fart again?” Connie exclaimed.

“We’re gunna die in here.” Sasha slouched, hoping that the end would come quickly. “Connie, I think this is goodbye.”

Connie pressed a hand against his forehead (before promptly returning it to the controller), “I never thought my life would end – at such a young age – by a haze of butt fumes.”

Sasha snorted and smashed the buttons, “why don’t you just stand still for a second, and then you won’t have to meet such a tragic fate.” She exhaled, “although that would be a funny caption on your headstone ‘Here lies one that met his demise because of Bertolt’s farts’.”

Connie shook his head, “he must have eaten gym sneakers.”

“More like bad sushi!”

They both burst out in a giggling fit. Connie choked and ducked his chin into his t-shirt trying to cover his nose without using his hands. Sasha dove into the couch cushions but she couldn’t properly use her controller in that position so buried her nose into Connie’s side, bunching up his shirt to cover her nose.

Connie lifted his arms up in surprise. “What are you doing?!”

“Wut’s it ook like?” The fabric of his shirt muffled her words.

“Then I’m using your hair,” Connie took a strand between his upper lip and nose so it looked like he had a huge moustache.

Sasha started laughing then coughed. “It burns!!! It hurts to laugh!”

Blades clashed on screen, sparks flew, and the music crescendoed.

“The smell! How is it still here?”

“I know!” Sasha pushed herself up and buried a nose in a couch pillow.

Connie took this chance to fall back into Sasha’s lap and bury his nose in her shirt.

“Hey that tickles!”

“Oh yeah!?” He poked fingers into her sides making her laugh harder – and in turn – cough harder.

“Uncle!” She shouted. “Please! It smells so bad I think I’m going to cry!”

However, onscreen she went in for the final blow which Connie’s character blocked and then countered. Their weapons caught, and there was an explosion as both players flew out of bounds.

The match ended in a tie.

“No way!”

“Stop!”

They looked at each other and laughed and gasped for clean oxygen. Connie nodded in the direction of outside and Sasha jumped up with Connie right behind. They burst out onto the lawn.

“FRESH AIR!!!”

Sasha tumbled to the grass and laid with her face to the sky.

“MY LUNGS DON’T FEEL LIKE THEY WANT TO MURDER ME ANYMORE!”

“I wouldn’t wish that smell on my worst enemies,” Connie said sucking up the clean air.

They both doubled over in laughter. Sasha rolled into a sitting position.

“Titan Burgers?” Connie asked a lop-sided grin plastered to his face.

“Definitely.”

Just as Connie reached for his pants pocket, Sasha touched the side of her bra.

“I left my wallet!”

“My bus pass is in my backpack which…”

Sasha and Connie locked eyes and then peeked at the house.

They held out a hand each.

“Rock Paper Scissors to decide who has to go back in there?”

A/N

So no matter which AU Bertolt is in, he is full of hot air...and it's deadly.

#springles #connie springer #conny springer #sasha blouse #sasha braus #attack on titan #AoT #shingeki no kyojin #snk #what is spelling???#like every character has like 2 different spellings lol #my ff #I finally posted a Springles fic #it's about time lol

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kind-red-ghosts · 7 years

Text

Ocean Talks

Attack on Titan. Levihan. Angst. Humour. Fluff. 2996 words.

You can also read it here.

Summary: (Takes place after chapter 90). It's been a year since the majority of the survey corp were wiped out in Shiganshina and Levi used the injection to save Armin and Erwin died. Now they've finally reached the ocean. Despite the celebration, a sobering truth hangs above them: many people have died to get them this far. That night the survey corp camps outside the walls for the first time. Hanji and Levi have the heart-to-heart that they have evaded since the injection on the roof. A surprising guest interrupts their conversation.

Ocean Talks

Gathered inside a ring of stones sticks and dry grasses were gathered. They were charred black and the remaining embers glowed against an inky sky dotted with twinkling stars. The moon hanging in the sky provided the only light and cast the ocean in a ghostly tinge. The whispered conversations had long burned out as the campfire did. The constant drumming of the waves rising and falling along the shoreline lulled the survey corp members lying by the fire to sleep.

However, Levi was wide awake and couldn’t sleep. He laid on a blanket covering the ground, arms propped underneath his head as he listened to the breathing of the kids around him: Mikasa slept like a soldier, rigid and quiet. Connie talked in his sleep and Levi could have sworn he heard him call out to his mother at one point. Eren and Jean snored – even while sleeping they seemed to be in competition with each other. However, lately the spark had left Eren’s eyes and it wasn’t as easy to rile him up as before. Everything was hitting him really hard.

It was hitting everyone hard. All the kids had been through so much – too much.

A lot had happened in a year. The survey corp had culled all the titans and had reached the ocean. It was a victory hard won, but the cost was huge. Nearly the entire military had been lost in that one battle. New recruits, veterans, Hanji’s assistant Moblit, and the Commander of the Survey Corps: Erwin. To top it off, after reaching the basement, they learned that unknown enemies lay across the ocean. The cage was bigger than they thought. And they were in more danger than they had ever imagined.

A gentle breeze carried the salt from the ocean in the air to Levi, which made his nose wrinkle. He looked over to where Hanji was perched on a rock, boots removed with her feet dangling in the water. It was her idea that they take shifts to keep watch in the case an abnormal titan found them that they might have missed during their purge.

Although he could not see her face, he could tell by the arch of her back and the way she leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees, that she was deep in thought.

Mindful not to disturb the sleeping bodies he maneuvered between them, pushing arms through the sleeves of his jacket. His boots kicked up rocks as he approached the rock.

Hanji heard him come up behind her, but didn’t lift her head or meet his gaze. She already knew what expression his features would be wearing.

Levi stood directly behind looking at her back. He folded his arms. “If someone had told me last year that we would be sleeping outside the walls by the ocean tonight I would have told them they were full of titan excrement”.

Hanji nodded. Her eye trained on the horizon where the sun had sunk behind the edge of the water hours before. “They’re all sleeping soundly I take it?”

Levi grunted in confirmation.

Hanji moved her feet in circles watching the water ripple around her ankles.

Levi clicked his tongue. “Stop overthinking things. I can tell you’re holding all the responsibility on your shoulders.”

She straightened her spine. Those eyes always saw right through her. Levi never wasted any time getting straight to the point, but that was one of the things she liked about him after all. Still, she went for a casual tone in response:

“Carrying all the responsibility comes with the territory of the job I’m afraid.” Hanji tugged on the crest that hung around her neck that signified her position as Commander and allowed it to fall to her chest again.

“As stubborn an asshole he was, Erwin always had someone to talk to even if I had to kick down a locked door just to get him to tell me what was going through his mind.”

Hanji half grunted, half laughed. “Fine.” She shook her head, but still kept her back to Levi.

The emotionally charged scene on the roof came flooding back to her: The traitor Bertolt laying with his limbs reduced to steaming stumps as he cried for his life, pleading not to be eaten. Armin burned so badly he was unrecognizable as charred skin flaked off in the slightest breeze. His wheezing was burned into her memory. Erwin, her leader, and dear friend miraculously returned to the roof on the back of the new recruit but barely breathing. Somewhere inside his chest his heart still beating. Then there was Levi looking like a corpse himself: covered in dirt, sweat, and evaporating titan blood. In his hand, was the injection that could save one person’s life.

Hanji took off her goggles and combed her fingers through her hair before resting them beside her. She finally turned to face Levi, her voice low, pensive. “Why?”

“Why.” He repeated.

Levi knew what she was asking. It had been a year and they had never talked about what happened. Since that day, a tension slowly wedged between them, making it so they hadn’t talked like before. Before her presence was big and loud and the space at his side belonged to her. Since the roof, they looked the other way when their eyes met, and preoccupied themselves when they were in the same room. The quiet had been draining him. And he hadn’t even noticed. It was empty and pointless without her going on long winded tangents. Or fiddling with some trinket. Or reading a book, her mouth moving just as fast as the pages flipped by.

Hanji continued, ripping Levi from his thoughts. “Erwin trusted you with the injection, so by default I did – do.” Hanji pressed a palm into her good eye. “I trust your decision. I do. But because of that, I haven’t allowed myself to question it, but…” Hanji looked up and held his eyes and for the first time in a year, he couldn’t avert his gaze. Levi could only remember one other time when she looked like that – when she had told him about how titans had ruined her life – killed her family and her best friends.

“I know I need to hear ��why’ from you.”

On that roof, he had made a decision that she hadn’t agreed with. She had never hidden her opinion and even told Armin she believed Erwin should have been saved. He hadn’t saved one of her last friends. And right after losing her entire squad and Moblit. Could she ever forgive him?

Of course he knew why he had saved Armin instead of Erwin. Every day since it happened the whole situation had played over and over in his mind until it was raw. His choice. Why he didn’t regret it. He had to have a reason because on restless nights Erwin’s ghost wordlessly asked him the same question with unblinking eyes. Yet, confronted with Hanji’s question hanging in the air it was hard to articulate an answer, and all he had done so far was stall. So, he opened his mouth.

“You are completely right. Erwin,” the named weighed heavily on his tongue, “was a great leader and no one can replace him. Shit, I would have followed that man into the jaws of a titan if he ordered me to do it for the good of humanity.”

Levi’s mouth dried up, making his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth. Words came out in scrambled spurts.

“Erwin was tired, broken and because of that he wasn’t laying his heart down for humanity. To fulfill his old man’s dreams, Erwin wanted to reach the basement no matter the cost-” Levi paused, as words abruptly left him. They always did. He adjusted his sleeve cuff. “That bastard was a great Commander and deserved to pursue selfish desires more than anyone else.”

Levi intimidated people: his eyes too sharp, his words too rigid. But no matter how strict, crude, or uncaring he came off Hanji always understood exactly what he meant. Levi was completely exposed in front of her no matter what he said. So right now, he wouldn’t hide anything from her.

“In the last moments, I convinced him to give up his selfishness and give his heart once more to humanity. He died as valiantly as he led the Survey Corps.”

Ocean waves crested on the beach. Hanji’s hair blew about her face.

“Hanji, seeing him there on the roof, I saw an opportunity for him to escape all this. It was my. Fucking. Selfish. Desire. To finally let him rest in peace. I couldn’t bring him back to the front of this war. This shithole. To give him that burden again.”

“Fuck it all.” Levi had no idea if he made any sense, even in his own mind his words seemed convoluted, jumbled trains of thought.

Levi looked back at the campsite. He could make out the individual lumps of bodies that slept. “Armin is not a fighter, but he has given his heart for humanity. He has laid his life on the line many times. Erwin saw the potential in him to be a leader and I see it too. His brain, his intuition, and his dedication can be given in service to humanity.”

Hanji turned around to face the ocean, absorbing everything Levi had said. She thanked him, her heart lighter than it had been in a long time.

“No,” Levi thought back to the past year of them avoiding each other, “I should have talked to you about this sooner.”

“It’s alright Levi, I’m sorry about avoi-”

She heard a squeak, then a thud.

She swiveled around to see Levi meters away from the spot he was standing in mere seconds ago, a rock poised in his hand and aimed at that spot on the ground. She followed his narrowed eyes. In the sand, a small creature’s spindly legs poked out of a shell. Beside it was a rock lodged in the sand that she now realized was the source of the thud, which meant that the squeak had been…

“Levi! Was that sound you?”

His eyes wide he said, “it crawled over my foot!”

“It won’t hurt you! It’s only a horseshoe crab!”

“EXCUSE ME!? You’ve already named it?” His head jerked between Hanji and the vermin. He had never seen this creature before in his life, and neither had she.

Hanji burst out laughing then slapped hands across her mouth, he didn’t want to wake the kids. Between waves of giggles, she managed to say, “it had the nerve, no the audacity to touch Humanity’s Strongest!?”

“Are you shitting me right now shitty glasses? First, you are willing to touch those slugs that came out of the water, and now you’re naming these ugly things?”

By this point, Hanji had lost control of her laughing but eventually invited Levi onto the rock. “Come up. They can’t climb.”

“No way! I’m going back to stoke the fire, that’ll keep these water bastards away!"

Hanji sucked her bottom lip, “Levi, in your hand.”

The so-called rock he was holding sprouted legs and was wiggling. Levi dropped it faster than Hanji had ever seen the grown man move before. He leapt onto the rock.

“Welcome!”

Propped up on one knee, Levi leered over the edges. “Fuck, I’m stuck here now.” He narrowed his eyes, “They’re watching me.”

Laughter was bubbling within her again, but she pushed it away, instead she said, “they’re probably thinking that you’re their long-lost land cousin – you’re short enough.”

Levi’s features knit themselves into a full-fledged scowl aimed right at Hanji. He reached his hand towards his hip only to remember he wasn’t wearing his gear. “Hanji.”

“Yeah?” He was so serious, she could barely keep from bursting out laughing again.

“Kill them for me.”

“I would never!” She said feigning a gasp.

“Then throw them back into the ocean, or put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!”

She shook her head, sure to exaggerate. “I’m your overarching leader now. You actually take orders from me.”

Levi wasn’t listening. He was spiraling. “That water is fucking nasty, and the things you and the kids were pulling out of it! You all just jumped right in, splashing around! What if you contracted some disease?” His voice pitched on the last word.

“If that happens then I’ll just have you take care of me.”

“There’s something seriously rotten in your brain if you think that would ever happen.”

Hanji tapped the crest.

His mouth dropped. “That’s a blatant abuse of power.”

Another roar of laughter erupted from her and Hanji fell back on the rock, her hair splayed out about her face.

“What’s with that loopy grin plastered on your face?” Levi said into his knee as he drew one towards his chest.

And just like that. They slipped back into their usual rhythm. It was as if the past year hadn’t been spent evading one another or dodging conversations. It came easy as if that wedge of tension had never been there. Her smile was infectious, and the corners of his mouth pulled towards the sky as if controlled by strings held by her. Again, the space beside him was filled with her boisterous presence.

She was much more relaxed now, and it wasn’t like he had done anything for her, in fact-

“Hanji, I’m sorry about - everything.”

She boosted herself on her arms. “I trust you Levi. I always have. Always will.”

Levi’s eyes were trained forward, on the same horizon she had been looking at before.

“We’ll never know which choice was better,” she said. “You can only make a choice you will not regret. Isn’t that what you say all the time?”

Levi turned his head. She had forgiven him.

“Armin and the kids are the future.” She continued, “We have to do everything we can to make sure they see that future.”

The future. “What about the 13 year ultimatum for shifters?”

“I’ll figure out a way to reverse it. I have to.” She leaned forward.

Levi thought back to the night before the mission to Shiganshina to visit Eren’s basement. He overheard Armin, Eren, and Mikasa talking. They were filled with hope and love for one another. A makeshift family he didn’t want to see broken up.

“Those three.” Hanji poked his side gently. “Eren, Armin, Mikasa…they remind you of a similar trio?”

“Farlan and Isabel.” Levi unconsciously rubbed where she had poked, “I miss them."

Hanji touched Levi’s hand. “I do too.”

Levi gently wrapped his hand around her fingers and brought them to his face. He pressed her fingertips against his lips. Hanji reached forward with her free hand and traced her knuckles softly against the side of his face.

“You miss people too.” Levi breathed. He was still holding her hand.

Hanji shifted in her spot and rested her head on his shoulder.

She pointed at the stars. “My father told me that people we love watch us from the stars. As a woman of science, I don’t believe it true. But on days like this, I want it to be.”

“Why can’t it be?” His chin was lifted towards the sky.

Hanji stretched her hands out, releasing a kink in her back. “You’re right. They are watching us from the stars. Farlan, Isabel…” She pointed to a pair of shimmering silver stars.

“…Moblit…” Levi nodded in the direction of the brightest of stars.

“Pastor Nick.” Hanji pointed to a star that was surrounded by a cluster of others.

Levi scanned above. A light streaked across the night sky.

“Erwin.” They both said in unison.

Levi squeezed her hand.

Hanji nudged his neck with her forehead. He moved his free hand to hold her head against him and brushed fleeting lips to her forehead.

Hanji breathed in deeply his scent. His smell was one she never wanted to forget.

“You’re peculiar.” He said, his face stoic.

Into the dark hours of the night, Hanji and Levi named fallen comrades, family, and friends while pointing to stars that they must be watching from.

---

Hanji opened her eyes, the sun was coming up behind them. She had fallen asleep and her head was in Levi’s lap where he was absentmindedly working fingers through her hair undoing the knots then braiding strands together while watching the waves churn in the ocean.

Over the edge of the tall rock, she could see a swarm of crabs.

“They must like you.”

Without as much as a glance in the sea creature’s direction, Levi responded with his classic glare.

Hanji rolled her body and slid off the rock to move the crabs. She didn’t miss Levi’s look of repulsion and smiled to herself in spite of it. She stood before him as he sat on the rock eyes following her. Positioned like this he was a little taller.

“I removed all the unsightlies from your sight.” She took a shallow bow, “am I your knight in shining armor?” Levi responded by places the goggles back on her head.

“Screwball scientist matches you better.”

“I don’t know about that, I think Knight in-”

He leaned down to kiss her.

His lips tasted like the salt air. “Will we be ok?” Hanji spoke against his lips. They had promised each other to take care of the kids’ future, but what about theirs’?

“We will protect each other.”

Hanji kissed him back.

Hanji offered him a hand off the rock. He ignored it and landed on the sand beside her.

The sun was spilling pinks and oranges over the landscape when they walked back to camp, where everyone else was beginning to stir and greet the day.

A/N

Chapter 90 took a headshot at my emotions! It was so bittersweet, beautiful, and awful. That one-year time skip leaves a lot to be imagined until we get a chapter focusing on the main cast again.

Now that they have reached the ocean we can finally have canon based fics with romantic walks on the beach and I'm excited for the cheesiness that opportunity brings!

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #levihan #levi ackerman #hanji zoe #hange zoe #my ff #snk #AoT

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