"Try again, Eren!" Hange yelled, a few feet away from the giant titan.
Hange had woken (Y/N) and Moblit up at the crack of dawn to help her with her experiments on Eren. They had traveled on horses, along with a few other cadets, to a field farther away from the Scout's base. There, Hange was trying to get Eren to successfully harden his skin.
"I don't think he can take much more," Moblit warned.
"Yes, he can! Come on, Eren! Put your mind to it!" Hange yelled again, ignoring Moblit's warning.
(Y/N) stared down at her little notebook and yawned. So far there was nothing to report, besides a bunch of failures. She was sure that Eren was getting tired, they had been on the field for at least one hour. She knew that she was hungry and sleepy and desperately wanted to get back to the scout's base.
"Yes, yes, Eren that's it!" Hange cried as she noticed Eren's skin on his hand starting to turn blue. "(Y/N) write down the observations, Moblit sketch it, quick!"
(Y/N) and Moblit both came closer to Eren, standing right next to Hange. (Y/N) jotted down all the physical characteristics of the hardening of one of Eren's knuckles. She wasn't sure if this was a huge discovery, but she still complied with her orders.
"I think he deserves a break now," Mikasa spoke up from her spot. She had demanded to come with and was silently observing the whole time. "Last time he got so overworked, remember?"
Hange frowned. "But we're so close! If he tries harder maybe he can harden his whole hand!"
"Let's get him out now," Mikasa insisted.
Hange sighed, but her eyes were still alight from the excitement from the progress. "Alright, (Y/N) come help me get Eren out his titan form."
(Y/N) nodded and followed Hange on her ODM gear, landing on Eren's shoulder. She watched Hange slice the nape of Eren's neck carefully to reveal his human body. She grabbed one of Eren's arms, wincing at the heat, and helped Hange place him on the ground. Eren's titan body started to disintegrate immediately.
"How do you feel, Eren?" Hange asked, seriously.
Eren groaned. "Exhausted."
"Let's go eat breakfast, Eren, you should be eating properly so your body doesn't take a heavy toll," Mikasa helped Eren to his feet.
Eren nodded and Mikasa helped him onto his horse, determined on ending any experimentation or analysis that Hange had in mind.
"I guess it's time to pack up! We'll reconvene tomorrow morning!" Hange clapped her hands, a grin on her face.
(Y/N) smiled and picked up her notebook and pen and swung herself onto her horse. Moblit rode next to her on their way back to the scout base.
"We got close this time. The look on section commander Hange's face was priceless," Moblit chuckled.
"Yeah, I hadn't expected Eren to be able to use his hardening abilities at all."
"Why is that?"
(Y/N) turned around and saw that Hange had caught up to them on her horse. She flushed, not knowing how to respond.
"Well, I just thought since he recently discovered his abilities, it would have been hard for him to concentrate on hardening any part of his body. Honestly, I think that today's discovery might have been an accident," (Y/N) admitted.
Hange's glasses reflected the glint of the sunlight and her expression was one of pure focus. She pursed her lips and was silent before responding, "You might be right, (Y/N). I doubt he was trying to harden one of his knuckles. Anyhoo, it's still a big step in the right direction!"
"That's true!" (Y/N) smiled. "All of your hard work is paying off, section commander."
"All of our hard work," Hange corrected. "I couldn't have done it without any of my assistants."
(Y/N) could feel her cheeks grow red. "T-thanks, section commander. When are we going to capture a new titan for research?"
"Soon. Erwin said we could on one of his outside-the-wall expeditions. Oh, I can't wait! We learned so much from just observing the titans in their natural habitat, and from our last experiments! Did you know that titans have different digestive systems than humans? They don't excrete which is so fascinating and makes me wonder where their waste goes, because they do consume humans. Do they stay in their stomach—" Hange started to ramble.
(Y/N) watched Hange's countenance light up at the mention of titan experiments. She watched Hange's hands fly in the air as she explained exactly what she wanted to discover and her current hypotheses. She watched Hange's eyes sparkle with the excitement of future experiments. (Y/N) could feel butterflies in her stomach.
(Y/N) tore her eyes away from Hange and noticed Moblit staring at her, an eyebrow raised. Her cheeks grew redder and she didn't know how she would explain to Moblit why she had stared at Hange talking for five minutes or why her cheeks were flushed whenever Hange looked her way. What would she even tell Moblit? That she looked up to Hange and was just admiring her intelligence? That sounded like a lie even to her. If that was not the case, then...
(Y/N)'s eyes widened, and her heart stopped. Heart pounding, butterflies in stomach, red cheeks...those were the symptoms of only one thing. A crush. She had a crush on Hange? No, that couldn't be! She was attracted to men...right? She would have known if she was attracted to women.
"(Y/N)?" Hange waved a hand in her face. "Are you alright? You turned red then pale all of a sudden."
"I—" (Y/N) stuttered. "I'm fine. Just hungry."
"We're almost there! Next time eat before coming, I wouldn't want one of my assistants fainting on me," Hange smiled kindly.
Yep, it was definitely a crush.