Eren POV
"Armin, whatever you think you have seen – stop staring and help me.", Eren groaned, lifting the heavy pots they had to carry straight through the whole garden to bring them to the kitchens. After doing so since an hour now he didn't even give a fuck anymore as to why they needed such unhandy things.
His friend flinched and nodded hastily. He hurried to Eren's side and helped him with the pot he currently tried to get up from the ground.
"General Hanji must hate us to give us a task like that on a day like today."
"Stop complaining.", Armin sniggered, only the upper part of his face visible for Eren. "We are nearly done. Only a few more and then we can help them in the kitchen again."
Eren grumbled something but in the end decided to just shut up for the rest of the way. Armin wasn't the one responsible for his bad mood – that hellish sun above them was.
When they finally reached the cool halls, he thought he might cry simply from the relief flooding his body. Armin continued laughing about his friend's behavior, not showing his own discomfort even though his skin was just as reddish and the sweat just as sticky as Eren's own.
They carried the pots through the halls and over a bunch of stairs that were leading to the kitchen and some of the staff's chambers. If they could even be called that. They were more like a broom closet than anything.
Armin knocked on the wooden door and set down the heavy pots in his hands.
For a few seconds they could only hear some rustling behind it, voices muffled and the clinking of cutlery as loud as the laughter that sometimes echoed through the corridor in front of the kitchen.
When the door opened up they spotted a familiar girl with a brunette hair appeared in the small gap, blinking at them for a second only to throw it open when she recognized them.
"Eren! Are you bringing food? Please tell me you're bringing food!"
"Geez, come down, potato girl.", Eren huffed.
"I'm sorry, Sasha. There are only some pots. But they are empty."
The excited glimmer in her eyes died and for a second Eren believed she would start crying right on the spot only to get hit on the head by someone.
"Wuah! Connie! Why would you-"
"Standing here and talking won't make the food appear any sooner."
The bald boy grinned at her and pouting and with her head hanging low the girl disappeared behind him, going back to the stove where she was welcomed back by the other girls and boys with pats on her back and sympathetic laughter.
"I'm gonna help you, man.", Connie offered, taking some of the pots in his own hands and groaned in surprise when he felt for himself how heavy they were. "Woah, man. Wouldn't wanna carry them around myself."
"Believe me, I haven't taken a liking to it either."
Finding Connie and Sasha again in the palace had been a sweet surprise for all of them. They had barely survived the attack on Shiganshina and had been heading to Sasha's hometown Dauper at first only to realize that the army had been there too.
So they tried to get some work in the palace and got to be members of the kitchen staff. Eren hated his father with all his might but for once his disinterest in the members of the staff proved to be useful.
The heat around them made Eren's skin crawl and he almost wished he was back in the gardens. Almost.
"So, are you here to help us?", Connie asked and returned to his work, cutting some vegetables on a board while watching the knife in his hands carefully. Eren scratched the back of his neck and sighed.
"Guess so. What's there to do today?"
"Enough. Come on, I will-"
A loud clatter interrupted their conversation and all heads flew around to the source of the noise.
One of the servant girls sat on the ground, rubbing her backside with a contorted expression on her face and quietly whimpered. Sasha was quick to help her back up on her feet and the girl thanked her quietly.
"That's only because of those stupid orders!", the servant cussed, picking up the plates that hadn't gotten broken. "How the fuck are we supposed to get so many things done in only a week? It's not like there is nothing else we have to do."
Some other servants tuned in her complaint and shouted agitated at each other.
Eren looked back to Connie, who already didn't pay any attention to the things around him anymore.
"What's the ruckus about? What's happening in a week?"
Disbelieving Connie laid down his knife.
"Do you live under a stone, Eren?"
Eren tried to overhear the chuckle of Armin who was also helping the girl with the shards of the broken plates, kneeling next to them with zealous motions.
"The king has given orders that the anniversary of his coronation will also be a ceremony for your return." In the fuss that was happening around them no one had heard him and Eren was more than thankful for that. When he caught Eren's strained expression he hurried to apologize. Eren waved the apology off but was secretly wondering if it had been so wise of him to tell Sasha and Connie about his heritage.
They had gaped like a pair of fish when he had gotten them out of the kitchen to tell them about the real reason for his sudden appearance in the palace.
"Why should there be a ceremony for the prince?", Eren asked, paying attention to the bustling around them.
"The king wants to welcome him back. Give him a reason to turn up, I guess." He shrugged his shoulders, working with a frown on his forehead. "I can only tell you what I have heard from the guards and whatsoever."
"Thanks, Connie. I appreciate it.", he said and set out to help him with preparing the food.
"Don't mention it."
Meanwhile Armin had joined some servants, cooking the vegetables and the meat given to them. He talked to them with big hand gestures and earned a few laughs when he accidently spilled some liquids.
So...he wants to tempt me to come back with a ceremony? That's how he thinks I tick?
Eren snorted and ignored the startled look Connie was giving him.
He is in for another disappointment. But...why don't we make this one a little special?
(So Sasha and Connie are alive and with the boys.
But what about the others?
What do you think happened in those five months after the attack? Where are Jean and Ymir?
And Grisha throws a feast for his second son. What does Eren have in mind?)