#Plus while cleaning out the freezer my housemates and I found a big bag of Lima beans I had forgotten about that’s still good

[positivelyapunovexponent-good]

graduate school application fees have me carefully plotting out how exactly to make $78 in groceries last three weeks. I thought the stressful part would be over once I submitted my last application (which I did yesterday! I am very proud of myself!) but no the financial fallout is just beginning

[shingeki-this-kyojin]

Happy Holidays! Have some of my Modern Collage AU!

Pairing: Springles (Sasha Blouse x Connie Springer)

Rating: G (General Audiences)

World: Modern/Collage AU

enjoy!

It was only 5:49pm and it was already pitch black outside. The wonders of Winter. Sasha stared out the kitchen window aimlessly; watching the snow fall, gazing at passersby walking down the side walk, peering up when she spotted headlights, but quickly leaned back onto the windowsill again when she could see the vehicle and that it wasn’t the one she was looking for. She played with the band around her wrist, and then switched to play with her hair that she had taken down to shower earlier that day.

She was waiting for Connie to get back to their shared dorm home. They rented it with their giant group of friends, seeing as it could fit all of them snugly with the absurd number of rooms and space held within. It was nice having a big house to goof around in and a bunch of cool people to hang out with. It was rare that no one was home, so you were guaranteed to having someone there to bug.

Lost in thought a bit, Sasha barely noticed the headlights in the driveway go off, but the change was enough to have her sit fully up from her lean and smoosh her face up against the chilly glass to get a better look. When she saw the figure digging out bags from the trunk, she knew it was Connie that had come back. More than half the house had gone out somewhere, and the other half were either decorating, or sick, or taking care of the sick.

Sasha broke into a mad sprint to the front door, swinging it open with ease. She started making her way down the walkway. After locking his car, Connie looked up at the form approaching him.

“Hey Sash! It’s freezing out here, go back in, I’m good!” he called with a big smile adoring his face.

She ignored him and continued to make her way forward. Once reaching him, she smiled brightly.

“Gimme half! I can at least help a little!” She demanded in a jolly tone.

Seeing as Marcel and Ymir were sick, Sasha opted to make them some nice soup while Connie left to shop for a few things. She felt bad not accompanying him, but the look of delight on Marcel’s face and the wonky, but genuine smile on Ymirs face with the soup offering was more than worth it. That and Porco thanking her as well in such a heartfelt way. It was nice and then funny when Pieck pointed out how sappy he looked so he retreated back into the living-room (stomped back, more like it) to continue decorating.

Connie relented and gave her about half the bags to which she happily took them, taking big strides back to the house, leaving Connie’s warnings of slowing down and not slipping as well as his comment on how he’d be in the house by now on deaf ears.

Once inside, they were greeted with Porco yelling to “close the damn door” and Pieck welcoming Connie back from the living-room. Connie greeted them both back as he knocked his boot against the outside trim before making his way in. He kicked his boots off, like Sasha did, and dropped his half of the bags off onto the counter. Sasha was already unloading them and placing food into the fridge or freezer or cupboard or wherever they needed to go.

“Ohh! Thanks for the measuring stuff, Reiner still couldn’t find that spoon set that he swore he had. Plus we really needed some big measuring cups.” She exclaimed. Connie grinned back at her in response as he unloaded the bags before him. Placing the bags of chips in the counter top, Connie peered over to Sasha who had collected a number of things and was lining them up on the island.

“Wait, you wanna make the cookies now?” he asked, eyeing up all the ingredients needed for Gingerbread.

“YES! This is what I’ve been waiting for!” She exclaimed, overjoyed.

This was her favorite part of the holidays, making deserts, but especially making Gingerbread cookies. She still couldn’t drive a vehicle herself and had to rely on others taking her out or getting stuff for her, but seeing as everyone was so busy this time of year, she hadn’t been able to go and get all the baking supplies she needed this year. It had her feeling mildly depressed, so when Connie finally asked what she needed that morning, she teared up.

“Okay, okay! Wash your hands and we’ll get started.” He lamented.

She nodded, turning to the sink, before she stopped to tie her hair up into a high pony tale. Connie took this time to wash his hands, and when she began to wash hers, he noticed how much the sweater she wore hung off her shoulders.

“Soooooo, what happened to the sweater?” He asked.

She snorted and started drying her hands.

“I stretched it out a bit too much to make it comfy.” She began, a big grin on her face, ”And then I washed it and the hole was even bigger, so now I gotta go out and buy Bert a new one altogether.”

A lot of them decided to dig into Bertholdt’s sweater collection and steal whatever fit, which, everything fit everyone and then some. Bert didn’t pay any mind, he thought it was cute and happily allowed the sweaters to be borrowed. Key word is: Borrow. So Sasha very much did need to buy the guy a new sweater, but she knew Bert wouldn’t really care much, he’d appreciate her going out of her way to get him a new one.

“So where do we start?” Connie spoke. He’d never made Gingerbread himself, only bought the pre-made stuff at the store to decorate. Sasha looked up at him, a gleam in her eyes and a giant smile on her lips.

She began taking him through the steps: dry mix, wet ingredients, mixing, rolling, all with excitement. At his question as to why she had a sad look about her at points, she told him it was something she and her Grandma would do every Holiday season. She loved it so much and it was always her favorite thing, spending time with her Grandma. She didn’t say much after that and Connie viewed her with understanding. He wouldn’t push what didn’t need to be pushed.

“Well, if you want, we can make this a yearly thing between us.” He started, causing Sasha to stop and look up at him. He folded the dough again and pressed down. “You can teach me, just like your Grandmother taught you, and we can make these every single year!” He finished, grinning and looking to her. She gave a sweet smile back to him and nodded.

“I’d love that, Connie.”

After cutting out all the cookies into people and filling the trays, Sasha popped them into the pre-heated oven where it would take a time before they were done. The two washed their hands again.

“It feels so oo-y goo-y, but it’s kinda cool after a while.” He spoke, a bit grossed out at how the remnants of dough fell from his fingers in little gloops while under the water. It was kinda nasty, but it reminded him of silly puddy and just being a little kid in general.

“You’ll get used to it. Over time, you start to love it and can’t wait for it.” Sasha spoke, obviously remembering over time how she felt about folding the dough.

“Thick doughs feel a lot different from thin ones and wet ones, those are sticky and get EVERYWHERE.” She laughed.

“Yeesh, maybe we can work our way up to that then.” He said in response, wincing a bit.

“Yes, of course!” She agreed.

They started cleaning up after turning some music on to get them into the mood. Cleaning was never the fun part, but it had to be done. They moved around each other seamlessly, almost dancing. When they’d bump into each other they would laugh and giggle quick apologies, before going back into the rhythm. It didn’t take to long to scrub the islands counter and throw away the tiny pieces that didn’t make it and were too small to do anything with, even together. They hand washed the bowls and measuring cups and spoons and utensils, and through idle chatter they found the cookies to be done.

Sasha took them out wearing her oven mitts and put the trays onto the stove top to cool off.

“Kay, so now we get the frosting and stuff ready to decorate!” She began, gathering up the various coloured frostings from the counter to place onto the island.

“Should we use some paper towel or something so we don’t have to clean much again?” Connie interjected.

The strawberry brunette shook her head, yes, and grabbed something from one of the pull-out drawers.

“Parchment paper.” She spoke. “It’ll keep everything clean as we decorate. When we finish a cookie we can just put it back onto the trays for now, since the icing would then need time to set.”

She ripped some of the paper off of the roll and placed it onto the island with the icing.

“Perfect!” Connie exclaimed. “Also, I’ll be back, potty break.” He quickly said before he left the kitchen.

He returned to Sasha touching the cookies lightly. She looked back at him and stated they were cool enough to decorate now. He helped her bring the trays into the island where they could reach things better and the two began their decorating.

Sasha decided to make her cookies look like their housemates. She asked Connie ahead of time to make sure he got black icing to which he had asked if it even existed. After looking to her cookies now and then, he realized why and thought it was cute.

Connie went a different way. He wasn’t so good at piping, nor was he going to bother with filling, so, he just drew squiggles and swirls. He made a face on each one, at least, but the most important thing was having a steady hand with the letters. On the chest of everyone one of his Gingerbread people was a letter. Even if Sasha looked over, she may think that Connie just didn’t know what to fill the space with, so he’d just put a letter there, but she was fully engrossed in what he was doing to pay much attention to him.

When the two had finished they looked over their tiny Gingerbread friends.

“Wow, Sash, thats super cool!” Connie expressed with joy as he looked over the cookies Sasha had worked hard on. “Also, where are the giant muscles on Gingerbread Me?” He joked, earning him a laugh and a tiny shove, which he snickered at.

“No, but, honestly...These are amazing, they’ll love ‘em.” He complimented.

“Thanks, I’m sure everyone’ll have a fun time eating themselves.” She grinned. “So, let me see what you’ve got.” She peered up at him expectantly.

It took him a few seconds of just nervously gazing at her, to move his body away from what he had been covering up.

The Gingerbread people had been placed in a way where the letters on their chests could spell something. It took Sasha a moment of genuinely loving what Connie had done with all the Gingerbread people to spell out what was written.

“...U...Wanna Date...?” She said out loud. It then clicked in. She turned her head to Connie who had the biggest blush she’d ever seen on him, and that alone lit her own face up. She looked back to the cookies, reading it in her head again and then back to Connie who looked a bit more worried than before.

She snorted and then began to laugh whole-heartedly, a sweet look on her face. Connie was a bit taken aback, but when Sasha turned to face him and wrapped her arms around his neck, and then leaned in to kiss him, he knew it was okay. They both smiled into the kiss and they both broke it to laugh. Sasha held him close, to which he responded by wrapping his arms around her waist.

“So what does that mean?” He questioned was a love struck look. She looked up at him, giving him a quick peck on the lips.

“It means, as long as we eat those now, so no one else thinks you’re asking them out, I’ll date you.” She answered.

It was Connies turn to burst out laughing now. He loved her, so very much.

“It’s a deal!”