Kapitel 22: Side Story 1

" Hmm, today is 25th of December, do you know what that means, Mikasa?" asked Asriel.

" Un? What does it mean, Eru?" asked Mikasa slightly tilting her head to the left.

" It means today is Christmas! And it's a white Christmas too!" replied Asriel energetically.

" Christ.....mas?" asked a confused Mikasa.

" Ah right, you don't know about it," said Asriel with a wry smile.

" Come, let me tell you a story," said Asriel while gesturing Mikasa to sit on his lap. It was December 25th 2 years before they head off to register as cadets. Asriel and Mikasa were sitting outside near a campfire, resting after a long day of hard work doing various errands for the caretakers while snow slowly falls down from the sky.

Mikasa gladly sat on his lap and made herself comfortable, digging into his chest. Asriel covered her up with his coat in a tight embrace making it warm and cozy for Mikasa. She cooed lightly, feeling his warmth, she wished that she could stay like this forever.

Asriel gently petted her head and continued his story.

" Once upon a time, there was a man named Santa Claus. He wears a red cap, red suit, and a red modified ODM gear, he also had a big white beard. He would go around using his ODM gear, zipping around from house to house, climbing into their chimneys to deliver presents, consisting of toys, made by his little helpers called elves, to all the good children of the world." (Asriel)

" He sounds like a robber instead..." said Mikasa between her 'Mnn' s and 'Nnnn' s from being petted.

" Hahaha he does, and for those who are naughty, he would give them charcoals." (Asriel)

" I'd rather, Nnnn, have charcoal during, Mnn, this winter, the naughty kids are the real winners, Mnnn....." said Mikasa, rubbing her face in his chest. Asriel looked at her with a wry smile but continued petting her head. She was too cute that he couldn't stop.

" Anyway.....one day there was a titan with green skin, which was jealous that it didn't get any present from Santa Claus. So it decided to eat all the children. It thought that it would get presents if there were no more children to give presents to. Santa heard of this and with his little elves, he confronted the titan in a fight to the death." (Asriel)

" Eru~ Mnn...." said Mikasa sweetly. Asriel looked down to see Mikasa squirming a bit with a red face so he decided to stop petting her for a while. He felt like he won't be able to hold on if he continued. Mikasa felt like she lost something and was a bit disappointed so she hugged Asriel real tight burying her face in his chest and refused to let go.

" *Ahem* Well.....let me continue, where was I....ah right...so Santa was fighting this green titan with the help of his little elves but even then he was slowly but surely losing the fight. Alas, he was defeated, smacked away into a distant building where he remain stationary. The children seeing this were saddened, so they built these figures out of snow to scare the green titan away so that they could help Santa. It was super effective as the titan screeched in horror seeing these snow figures. They were later called snowmen." (Asriel)

" Mnn...." (Mikasa)

" You aren't even listening anymore are you....well it's ending anyway.....Santa came back up and finally fought the titan, killing it and everyone lived happily ever after." (Asriel)

" I'm living happily ever after right now...." (Mikasa)

Asriel was speechless for a while and said " Come here you little bundle of cuteness!" and gave her a bear hug making her scream with delight. They stayed like that for a while, listening to each other's heart beat and the occasional crackles of fire from the campfire.

" Come on, let's go eat something warm, and later on let's have a snow fight with Eren and Armin. Then we should all build snowman and snow angels." said Asriel with a warm smile towards Mikasa.

" Un!" Mikasa energetically nodded and smile brightly towards Asriel.

And so, Christmas came and went quickly....