As it Was | Hange x Reader

Chapter 6: Another Encounter

The ground was wet and muddy underneath (Y/N)'s feet and she was suddenly grateful for her beat up leather boots. Her converses would have been ruined by all this dirt. Historia had mentioned cleaning up the stream, but she had failed to mention that they'd be inside the stream as well.

"This is gross!" Sasha complained as she waded through the water. Her hand gripped a sopping wet hamburger wrapper, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

"It is," Ymir grumbled in response. "But stop complaining and pick up the pace. Historia said we can finish early if we get all the trash out."

(Y/N) held back her gag as she poked at a used shoe with her trash pick. The campus cleanliness club was the bane to her existence. Would it look nice on her resume? Sure. But was it also her least favorite way to spend time? Yep. Well, at least the meetings were only bi-weekly. If she had to sacrifice each and every single one of her Fridays, she'd go insane.

"I heard y'all went to the club without us," Ymir continued, her sharp gaze on Sasha. "You didn't even think of inviting Historia or I?"

Sasha froze, like a deer caught in headlights. Ymir and Historia were really close with Sasha, yet she had failed to invite them to the girl's night out. "O-oh. I, um..."

"It was a last minute plan to celebrate my nomination," (Y/N) spoke. "We would have invited you, but it was extremely last minute."

"Yeah!" Sasha nodded vigorously. "Don't worry though, I plan on forcing (Y/N) to go out tomorrow too. Gotta set her up on a—"

(Y/N) jabbed Sasha's side sharply, causing the brunette to let out a yelp. Pieck was standing mere feet away, focused on picking up the stray cans littered everywhere. She didn't want her to hear Sasha's nonsense. Not after the tiny heart-to-heart they had at the library the other day. If Pieck learned about Sasha's intentions, then the whole thing would just become so weird.

Ymir understood though because she raised an eyebrow in (Y/N)'s direction, clearly intrigued. "Good luck with that. This one doesn't do much besides studying."

(Y/N) scowled and turned back to her cleaning. Ymir was right but still...she could go out on a date if she wanted to. Why did no one have faith in her abilities to ask someone out? She'd prove them wrong one day. That was the new item on her bucket list.

"Thanks for helping out, guys," Historia waded over, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She smiled brightly, and (Y/N) could have sworn that Ymir melted. "This stream is going to be spotless when we're done!"

"You betcha!" Pieck grinned in response.

The seven of them—(Y/N), Sasha, Mikasa, Historia, Ymir, Pieck, and Yelena—continued on with the cleaning, engaging in small conversation in between. The weather was nice-ish. The cool, sweet breeze felt like eating a bowl of ice cream. (Y/N)'s clenched jaw relaxed, and her shoulders weren't hunched up by her ears anymore. The stress of everything had caused her to feel like a ball of stress and tension. And while cleaning up wasn't the task she wanted to do...she had to admit, being out in the fresh air with her friends beside her, listening to their laughter and giggling along...it was stress relieving. She could worry about everything else later. She had submitted the proposal last night. She had faith in herself. Everything was fine.

Or so it was for a few minutes.

(Y/N) tied up the bag of trash and trudged over to the trash can, thinking about what restaurant she wanted to eat at later that evening—Historia had promised everyone a meal. As she reached the trashcan, her gaze fell over the grassy field that many students lazed around on. College students were like reptiles. They craved every single drop of sunshine they could receive.