in the middle of the chaos | jean kirstein x fem!reader

10 | in the middle of the shop

"The hell are you talking about? We tied!" Jean protested again. "Besides, if we add the ones before I challenged you, I win!"

Y/n thought about it, then scoffed. "You're so annoying."

Jean grinned, realizing he'd won the competition and the argument. A rare victory. He almost wanted to smile at her annoyed expression, but he felt like she'd kick him off the tree if he did. "Says who. Come on, let's get back to camp."

———

Y/n looked around, not finding a small bag she could use. Had she not packet any? Then again, she never really expected to be going to a town while in the army. She grabbed her small coin pouch and left with Sasha.

It was a rare day off when the cadets were allowed to go in the next town over if they wished — some like Mikasa, Eren and Armin had already left, while others like Annie stayed behind. Y/n couldn't wait to go, mostly to bribe Jean to treat her anyway, despite loosing their friendly competition the day before.

''Jean,'' Y/n said when they met up with the three boys. Jean hummed, looking away from Marco and Connie's conversation. ''You have pockets, right? Can you keep my pouch with you? I don't wanna loose it.''

''Oh, yeah.'' Jean nodded, taking it from her hands and putting it in his spare pocket.

''Thanks,'' Y/n said as the group started heading to the exit of the training camp. ''Don't you dare spend my money, though.''

''Tch, who do you take me for?'' Jean scoffed. "What do you wanna do first?"

"Oh, oh!" Sasha raised her hand eagerly as she walked with Marco and Connie in front of Y/n and Jean. "Can we eat first? I'm starving!"

"We ate, like, an hour ago!" Connie pointed out, causing Sasha to frown.

"Me, personally, I need to go do a little bit of shopping," Y/n said, looking at Sasha. "I need a new skirt. You wanna come?"

"Oh, yeah! I gotta buy a new vest, this one is getting too small," Sasha thought out loud.

"What are we going to do?" Marco asked, looking between Connie and Jean.

"I'm not going shopping for skirts." Connie said, raising his chin high. "That's boring!"

"Huh? I think you'd look great in a skirt, Connie."

"Shut up, Y/n!"

Once they made it to the town, the group split into two — Y/n and Sasha went to a nearby clothing store, while the three boys walked around the market, waiting for the two so they can all go get lunch.

There weren't many stalls around and most of them sold food. Jean walked next to Connie and Marco as he looked around, not listening to their conversation. Truthfully, he wouldn't have minded going with Y/n, he was used to it. But she has Sasha now. Jean's chest tightened.

His eyes fell on a stall selling accessories — wallets, watches, bags. Jean's eyes fell on a brown fedora hat.

When we live in the interior, we'll be able to buy all the hats we want!

The memory flashed in Jean's mind. He remembered Y/n had taken a liking to a similar hat the day he'd told her that. He smiled at the thought. They were so close to achieving that dream now, it felt surreal.

His legs acted before he could think, as did his hands. "How much for this?" Jean asked, holding the fedora up to the seller.

The man told him the price — it wasn't the most expensive, but Jean swallowed and handed the money over. The man took the hat from him to put it in a bag, but furrowed his eyebrows as he looked between the hat and Jean. "Isn't that too small for you, boy?"