"And a one, two, three!" Armin shouted, initiating the happy birthday song. All the other friends joined in as Bertolt sat awkwardly in front of his cake with a party hat rested crooked on his head.
When they finished, they all pushed Bertolt to make a wish. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before blowing out all of his candles.
"Happy birthday!" Everyone cheered one more time.
"So tell me why everything is Jurassic Park-themed," Bertolt gestured to everything around him. From the plates to the banners to the creepy and atrocious paper-mâché dinosaur that resembled a T-Rex of sorts, everything was from Jurassic Park, and it wasn't even Bertolt's favorite movie.
"That was the only theme that was on sale," Eren stated. "So we took advantage of it."
"Half off!" Marco added cheerfully.
"Let's eat the cake!" Sasha cheered.
Everyone cheered as Bertolt was given a knife to cut the cake with an exception of Jean and Reiner. In fact, they looked more paranoid than anything.
"Hey, Jean, Reiner, you okay?" Christa asked.
They both seemed to be shaking. Not responding at all.
"I think they should have a piece of cake first," Marco suggested sweetly.
"Yeah," Bertolt smiled at the two. "To calm those nerves."
"No, no, no, it's perfectly fine," Jean laughed nervously.
"No," Bertolt said as he cut out two pieces of cake and handed one to Reiner and Jean. His expression changed subtlety. Only Reiner, Jean, and Marco noticed this dark shift. "I insist." His face lit up right after with a sweet smile. "It's my birthday after all."
Jean and Reiner took the cake with their shaky hands. Both of them looked at Bertolt and Marco who were still smiling brightly down at the two. Then, they glanced at each other for a second, then nodded. Reiner and Jean scooped up a piece of cake.
"They're sweating harder than Bertolt, what's going on?" Connie asked Sasha. She didn't reply with a laugh like he thought she would so he glanced at her. "Sasha-"
She was shaking and sweating as well, as if she was anticipating something.
At long last, Jean and Reiner put the spoonfuls of cake in their mouths, chewed it, and swallowed. After this, Bertolt's and Marco's eyes seem to flash a devious look. Jean and Reiner appeared as if they knew they were defeated.
Meanwhile, everyone was quite confused as to what had just happened between the four. Not to mention, Sasha still appeared to be traumatized.
Annie glanced around at everyone and scoffed. "What are you idiots doing with your lives?" She walked over to the cake and cut out a piece for herself. She took a bite, as everyone stared at her, almost as if they were expecting her to start acting weird, but the only response they got was:
"The fuck are you all staring at?" She asked with a mouthful of cake. "This shit is good."
"I want to try!" Connie shouted.
"I'll cut a piece for you, Ymir," Christa smiled.
"Aw!" Ymir squealed. "Thanks, bae!"
"Here, Mikasa," Eren handed her a cake. "Have a piece."
Her face did not change, but her aura radiated with pure joy. She took a bite of the cake, and it was almost as if she was glowing from happiness.
"Wow," Ymir remarked. "She really likes cake."
"This cake is amazing!" Armin said. "Where did you get it?"
"Oh," Bertolt rubbed the back of his neck. "It's about a two hour drive to get to the place, but the cake is really good there. I'd say it's worth it."
"I would totally drive two hours for this cake," Mikasa spoke up, and everyone laughed along with her, surprised by how happy some cake could make her.
Suddenly, Jean and Reiner began to cough. All attention averted to them as the coughing began to grow more violent. The plates dropped from their hands as they rolled onto the floor and continued coughing. It eventually came to a halt. Then, they spazzed out occasionally before finally laying still in awkward positions with their tongues sticking out.
There was a moment of silence while everyone tried to process what happens. But when everyone deemed this situation as weird as shit, Eren spoke up first. "The fuck just happened?"
"I know!" Sasha cried suddenly. She fell to her knees as Connie tried to calm her down. "They were poisoned!"
The friends gasped dramatically.
"And they were poisoned by," Sasha continued. "Bertolt and Marco!"
Everyone gasped again. This time, Ymir "fainted" onto Christa hoping she would catch her. However, Christa wasn't ready for it, so Ymir ended up taking them both down with a thud.
"What do you have to say for yourselves now!" Eren shouted at them.
Bertolt and Marco glanced at each other, both appearing quite confused. "But we-"
"They wanted to get back at Reiner and Jean!" Sasha began to hyperventilate.
"Just explain to us exactly what happened, okay?" Armin kneeled down next to her.
Sasha sniffed. "Okay."
✎24 hours before✐
Some random store place
"Hey, Reiner," Bertolt smiled as he walked up to him. "I got you some tea."
"And got you some, too, Jean," Marco said as he handed Jean a cup and saucer.
"Thanks, but why does it have to be in these old-timey looking cups?" Jean laughed, and Reiner laughed along.
"No reason," Bertolt shrugged.
"Just for fun!" Marco said.
"Alright," Reiner and Jean shrugged. "Cheers!"
"Cheers!" Bertolt and Marco smiled back as they lifted the cup up to their mouths, pinkies up.
When they were done, Reiner and Jean set their cups on the saucer. That was wen they noticed the writing at the bottom which said "You have been poisoned."
At first, Reiner and Jean laughed it off.
"What's so funny, Reiner?" Bertolt asked with a rather dark expression.
"Yeah, Jean?" Marco asked.
"Our cups just said we got poisoned," Jean laughed nervously. "That's a joke right?"
"It would have been funny," Bertolt said with a malevolent tone, "if it was a joke."
"So that means-" Reiner said, his voice shaking.
"We are getting you back for that one time at Target," Marco smiled with an insane look in his eyes.
"Shouldn't we be dead then?" Jean asked.
Bertolt smiled. "Oh, this is only half of the poison. There's another half that will activate it."
"If you ingest an agent alone, it is harmless," Marco said.
"But if you have ingested both," Bertolt continued. "You DIE! Cheers, Marco."
"Cheers, Bertolt," Marco smiled as their cups clinked together. They took another sip, pinkies up.
Little did they know that Sasha was nearby and overheard everything.
✎present time✐
Everyone gasped once again.
"How could you?" Christa gasped.
"You idiots would poison your own friends just to get back at them?" Mikasa asked calmly.
"Please," Marco crossed his arms. "The only idiots in this room is those two."
The entire room gasped one again, shocked that Marco would hold so much contempt for Jean and Reiner.
"We wanted to get back at them," Bertolt sighed. "Not kill them."
Immediately, Jean and Reiner shot up from their awkward positions.
"So that means we're not dead?" They asked at the same time.
"You're dead to me," Bertolt uttered.
"Nooooo!" Reiner said dramatically on his knees. "Baby, I can change!" He cried as he grabbed onto Bert's leg.
"What is wrong with you?" Bertolt asked as he tried to walk away. He only ended up dragging Reiner with him.
"You see, we got this idea from Annie," Marco explained. "To make them super paranoid."
Everyone glanced at Annie. "It's true," she said with a mouthful of cake. They continued to stare at her. "What?" She snapped back. "This is really good!"
"Anyways, you should have seen them up to this point," Marco stated.
✎Five minutes after the "poisoning"✐
"Hey, Jean, Reiner," Marco said while holding out a bag of cookies. "Want some?"
"NO!" They both shouted as Jean slapped the bag out of Marco's hands. They proceeded to run out the shop, down the street, and into a mother shop in a time span of about 10 seconds.
✎shortly after✐
"Hey," Jean called out. "I'm hungry."
"We cannot eat!" Reiner shouted.
"If we don't, we'll die!" Jean pointed out.
"Soldier! We are at war!" Reiner stated
"Bitch, with who?" Jean asked.
"The Spartans!" Reiner held a fist towards the skies.
"Are you high?" Jean asked.
"From now on, we have to assume any food given to us is poisoned," Reiner stated out.
"Why don't we just buy some food," Jean said. "I mean, we are in Panera Bread. It's not like Bertolt and Marco poisoned everything, right?"
"I guess you're right," Reiner sighed. "I am hungry."
They walked up to a counter where a lanky male had his back turned to them. "Excuse me," Reiner spoke up.
"Yes?" Bertolt turned around to face them with a spatula in his hand.
Reiner let out a high-pitched scream and jumped into Jean's arms.
"Dude! How much do you weigh!" Jean groaned as he tried to let Reiner down easy but ended up dropping him instead.
Reiner immediately got up and backed away. "What are you doing here?"
"I work here," Bertolt stated as he held up a cookie in a bag. "Would you like a chocolate chip cookie?"
Instantly, Jean and Reiner bolted out the door at maximum velocity while emitting a high-pitched note that Bertolt thought only Ariana Grande could achieve.
"Hey, thanks for letting me take this position," Bertolt said as he handed back the apron to Annie.
"No, problem," Annie stated. "I love screwing with people."
Marco peeked out from behind a newspaper. "I'd say that went pretty well."
"Same," Bertolt smiled.
✎present✐
"I'm really mad at you for that!" Reiner shouted as he punched Bertolt's leg.
"Hey, it's my birthday!" Bertolt pointed out. "You can't be mad at me now."
"Who can be mad at Bertolt?" Marco laughed. "Besides Annie, and maybe Mikasa, and Ymir occasionally, but besides that we all love you."
"GROUP HUG!" Christa shouted as everyone attacked Bertolt with a hug. They all smiled and laughed together before the group dissipated.
"You're all amazing," Bertolt smiled. "Now can someone please pry Reiner off my leg."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: two things:
First of all, someone murder me for making a half Marco joke.
Secondly,
HAPPY BERTDAY MY PRECIOUS SON!!!!
I'm really anxious for the next SNK chapter :))))