Broken Bodies, Severed Feelings (Erwin x OC)

|12| Bad News

Finally, December had arrived. The Winter Holidays were only a week away, and the temperature had started to drop dramatically. It was late in the afternoon as Nathalie pulled out of the oven one large tray of butter cookies that she had just made in the kitchen of the Survey Corps HQ. The HQ had been empty lately, as it always was in the Winter Holidays. Only the veterans were into it now, the Miche Squad, the Hange Squad, Levi, Nathalie and Erwin. They were dealing with a few last paperwork piles and this was the last week of work for them before their break. Nathalie was planning to visit her parents, but she wanted to ask Levi to join her. She didn't know how he'd like the idea of staying in a house for a couple of days with two more people that he didn't know, but if he didn't want to, they could just spend that break together in their quarters in the Survey Corps HQ.

There was no saying how excited Hange was when she saw the titan spinal fluid that Nathalie had collected. She hadn't yet gotten the chance to test her theory, because the transfer of a prisoner to the custody of the Survey Corps was taking quite the excess amount of paperwork, but the liquid was safe in a large bottle, ready to be tested whenever they'd get the chance. From the small sample that she had put beneath her microscope, she could tell that it was a protein. She had always known. She had even considered trying it on herself. But that would possibly turn her into a titan with no hoping of turning her back into a human, so it was a bad idea.

"Something smells heavenly in here," Miche's voice came as he made his way into the kitchen and he sat by the large wooden desk that served as an island in the middle. He looked at the large metallic tray of white cookies that steamed warm on top.

Nathalie chuckled. He was always the first one to barge right in and 'inspect' the kitchen. "Alright, I want you to put your skill to use to detect the ingredients in them,"

He laughed. "With pleasure," He leaned close and started sniffing the cookies. "There's at least half a kilo of butter in here," He pointed at the tray and Nathalie laughed and nodded.

"Spot on! That's why I call them butter cookies,"

"Hmm, there's burnt almond crumbs in those things too,"

"Yes, you got that correct too," Nathalie nodded as she set off to get some white powdered sugar.

"And there's definitely two eggs in here as well, and something smells of..." sniff, sniff "...alcohol?"

"Cognac," Nathalie laughed. "How the hell do you do that? The accuracy!"

Miche laughed. "It's a gift," He turned at the cookies watching her as she started settling them on a large dish. "So, are they ready for me to try one or should I wait?"

"Well, I was thinking that while they're still warm, some powdered sugar frosting would stick well on top, don't you think?" She asked as she started tapping sugar on top each layer of cookies she added.

"Actually, that's a very good idea. Don't think I've ever had such cookies before," Miche rubbed his beard.

"Well, it's a... new recipe of mine,"

He noticed that she hesitated to say that. Where was really that recipe from? Nathalie had started making food and cakes and dishes that he had never before tasted or even heard of before. But he was sure there was more to it. She was hiding something which was important but it wasn't dangerous. She had been more distracted lately. He had heard Levi talking to Hange about it. Nathalie would spend so many hours in the labs, filling notebook after notebook of information. Surely, she wasn't just writing recipes down all the time – in a lab at that.

"Nat," Miche drew her attention. "If there's anything you want to talk about... just know that you got lots of people who would gladly sit down and listen," He said and for a moment a little bit of fear flashed in her eyes, but she blinked it away immediately. Instead, she gave him a smile.