Reiner and Bertholdt were the last cast members to arrive at the restaurant. They were directed to the back dining area by a waitress. The rest of the cast were already grouped at tables. Eren was with Marco and his sisters and Ymir and Krista sat together. So, Reiner took a seat with Annie who sat by herself.
Bertholdt pulled over a chair and sat down next to Reiner and Annie.
Reiner grabbed a menu, "So what do you think you're gonna get Annie?"
"I don't know. Probably something small. I'm not really that hungry." Annie admitted.
"Bertholdt?" Reiner asked his friend next.
Bertholdt looked up from his menu, "U-Um, I'm still deciding, but I might get some pizza...and maybe some fries as well..."
"Maybe you and Annie should share something." Reiner suggested casually without looking up from his menu.
The tallest boy's cheeks flushed crimson red. "M-Maybe, I-I mean...ah..." He stammered.
"I'm sure it would work out well if you shared," Reiner shrugged, "Right Annie?"
Annie shrugged. "I guess so." She looked up to Bertholdt, "You okay with that Bertholdt?"
Bertholdt nodded quickly. "S-Sure! Um, why not?" He smiled awkwardly.
Reiner smiled behind his menu, pleased with himself. All Bertholdt had needed was a little push.
Meanwhile, Marco and the girls had just received their drinks from the waitress who was serving them. His sister's had gotten chocolate milks and Marco had just ordered a water. "So," Marco looked up to Eren, "Do you know what you're getting to eat yet?"
"Cheese fries, chicken fingers and a piece of pizza with mushrooms." Eren recited as if he had done it a hundred times.
"Nice." Marco smiled. Then he turned to his sisters, "What about you girls?"
"I'm getting pizza!" Lisa smiled.
"Me too! But with fries." Marina chimed in.
"Good choices!" He beamed to his sisters. He then turned to Olivia, who was sitting in the booster seat. "Do you want pizza Livi?" He asked her.
"Yeah!" Olivia cheered, "And juice!"
Marco chuckled. "Okay."
"Should we get an appetizer?" Eren asked.
"I think that's a good idea." Marco nodded.
"What's an appetizer?" Marina asked, cocking her head to the side.
"The food before the food." Eren explained reaching over and grabbing the menu,"How about two orders of mozzarella sticks?"
"Oooh! I love Mozzarella sticks!" Lisa exclaimed, licking her lips excitedly.
"So mozzarella sticks it is!" Eren nodded with a smile at the girls.
"Hurray!" Lisa and Marina cheered.
Olivia lifted her arms in the air, "Yay!"
Meanwhile in the booth a few seats away, "I hope you're ready to get super famous in the next few days." Ymir teased Krista. She had her arm gently around Krista's shoulders as she went to take one of her fries with her free hand, "Ilse is gonna write a five page article on us, I'm sure."
Krista smiled brightly, "She is?" She squealed happily, "Oh, I can't wait to read it!"
"Yep, 'Modern Star-Crossed Lovers'" Ymir laughed lightly. "So, about that date?" Ymir seemed more confident after her confession, but it just made it easier for her to act cool as her heart pounded.
"...Well, when are you free next?" She asked, with a gentle smirk towards Ymir.
Ymir blushed lightly, but kept her cool, "Just about every day now that the show is over."
"Okay....so...would Wednesday be a good day then?"
"Of course. Where would you want to go?" Ymir leaned her elbow on the table smiling softly.
"It doesn't matter to me." Krista said after a moment or two of thought, "Do you have any place you'd want to go to?"
"Well, park is always a nice choice. Going out to eat is the good classic choice." Ymir started to list things off, "Bowling, or we could do all of it in one day."
"Oooh, we should do all of it! That would be fun!" Krista clasped her hands together.
"Then we're doing all of it!" Ymir declared with a smile. "I'll make it the best date you've ever been on. I promise."
Krista giggled, "Alright, I'm holding you to that promise."
Ymir pulled her close with her arm in a brief hug, "Good. You have full permission to ditch me if it doesn't live up to your expectations."
The small blonde gently rolled her eyes and smiled gently at her girlfriend.
Ymir smiled back, "You're gorgeous." She spoke softly.
Krista blushed brightly, glancing back at Ymir with a few giggles. She then placed her head on Ymir's shoulder. "I love you."
Meanwhile, once again, on the other side of the room, Reiner began ordering: "I'll take two slices of pizza, a cheeseburger, fries, and a mountain dew." He told the waitress when she stopped at their table.
The waitress wrote down Reiner's order on her little notepad, nodding. She then turned to Bertholdt as if she say 'what about you?'
The tall male glanced up at the waitress, but not before looking to Annie. They had in fact decided to share food together. "We're um...sharing a check." Bertholdt said shyly, with a little blush creeping onto his cheeks.
"Alright, so what will you have?" The waitress said, holding up her pen and notepad at the ready.
"O-Oh, um..." He glanced back down at the menu once again. "We'll have a small pie...a-and a basket of fries and two waters please."
The waitress wrote it down. "Want a lemon for those waters?"
"No thank you." Annie turned down the offer politely as she shut her menu and passed it towards the front.
"Alright." The waitress finished writing the order down and held out her hand to receive the menus
Reiner passed the menus to the waitress with a grin. "Thank you." He said with a small wink.
The waitress blinked a bit in surprise, a light blush appeared on her tanned face. "No problem." She responded as she walked away with the menus.
Reiner grinned at his friends, "At least one girl is into me." He chuckled lightly,
Annie rolled her eyes at the blond, crossing her arms. Bertholdt's eyes went from one side to another, not really sure how to answer his best friend.
"Oh, come on you guys." Reiner said slightly sarcastically, "Don't everybody talk all at once."
Annie sighed, "You know, I'd tell you how I really feel Reiner, but I wasn't born with enough middle fingers to express myself in this case." She gently smirked.
Bertholdt's eyes widened. "A-Annie!"
Reiner put his hand on his chest like an offended mother, "Excuse you?"
"You heard me."
"Bertholdt, some support please." Reiner nudged his friend.
"O-Oh...u-um...okay...ugh.." He cleared his throat. "Annie, I-" The boy stopped, his eyes staring into the crystal pools that were Annie's eyes. The boy couldn't speak. Her eyes were beautiful.
"Bertholdt, your nose is bleeding." Annie spoke up, raising an eyebrow.
"Huh?" He took his napkin and pressed it against his nose and pulled it away. Yup, his nose was bleeding. His entire face turned as red as the blood on the napkin. "I-I...u-um....I have to use the bathroom!" He quickly stood up, practically sprinting towards the bathroom.
Annie watched with a confused look on her face. "What's gotten into him?"
"He likes y-", Reiner stopped himself, "I'll be back." He excused himself and headed in the direction of the bathroom.
Annie just shrugged and pulled out her phone, playing a game as she waited for either the food or the boys to come.
Back on the other side, Marco had just finished ordering for his siblings. The waitress from before, wrote everything down. She looked Eren. "And for you doll?"
"A slice of pizza with mushrooms, chicken fingers, fries and two orders of mozzarella sticks for an appetizer."
The waitress nodded as she wrote Eren's order down on her notepad. She then politely took the menus from Marco, who had collected them while Eren was ordering, and walked away.
"So," Lisa began as she and Marina colored on the coloring sheet they were given when they sat down. "How long is gonna take for the food to come out?"
Marco shrugged, turning to face his oldest sister. "It all depends."
"Depends on what?" Marina piped up, glancing up from the coloring.
"Well, it can depend on a lot of things, like how many other people are waiting for their food as well." Marco explained.
"Ah, I see!" Lisa said, understandingly.
"Look Eren! I drew a picture of you!" Marina held up her drawing. It wasn't that bad, for a six year old, but it still had the childish charm to it. "What do you think?"
Eren looked over the picture with a small smile, "Wow! That's really good!"
Marina beamed at the boy. "You really think so Eren?"
Eren nodded, "Yes I do. It's a really nice drawing!"
"Thank you!" Marina said happily as she placed it back down to continue coloring.
Eren picked up one of the unused crayons and started to doodle on the edge of Olivia's paper. The small child pulled the paper away violently, "No!" She exclaimed.
"Olivia, share your paper." Marco said with a motherly type tone in his voice.
Olivia groaned and put her paper back down drawing a small square. "You can draw there." She told Eren.
The boy smiled slightly, "Okay," He shrugged and began to draw little flowers in his designated box.
Marco smiled to Olivia. "Good girl." He said and gave his little sister a gently pat on the head.
Olivia smiled at her brother and continued to draw. Eren had eventually filled up his little box with crudely drawn flowers. Lisa continued to draw on her paper, drawing a lovely rainbow, while Marina proceeded to draw herself near her drawing of Eren.
Marco glanced over to see his sister's drawings. "Wow you two, those are great!"
"Thanks Marco!" Lisa grinned.
Marina giggled. "Yeah thanks big brother!"
Soon the appetizers were placed on the table and Eren went in, forgetting that the food would probably still be hot and gave a slightly pained expression.
"We should wait until they've cooled down a bit before we start eating them." Marco chuckled.
Eren groaned and put the half eaten mozzarella stick on a napkin. "Humans should evolve to eat hot food..."
Meanwhile, Krista had just finished her slice of pizza. "That pizza was so amazing. It's the best I've ever had!"
Ymir had ordered a cheeseburger loaded with toppings and was halfway through it. "The food here has always been good." She smiled at Krista with ketchup on her cheek.
Krista, noticed the ketchup on Ymir's cheek and giggled. "Oh Ymir! You have ketchup on your face! Here, let me get it for you." She said, grabbing a napkin and gently wiping the girlfriend's cheek with it. "There, I got it."
Ymir laughed lightly, "Thank you." She said teasingly leaning against the girl. "Do you want some of my fries?"
The small blonde looked up at Ymir, "Really? I can have some?" She asked.
"Uh, yeah?" Ymir turned her plate around so the fries were closer to Krista, "I've gotta feed my girlfriend. It's what good girlfriends do."
Krista smiled and took a couple of fries and put them on her plate. "Thanks Ymir."
"No problem." Ymir leaned over and kissed the girl's cheek before getting back to her food.
A blush appeared on her cheeks. She placed her hand where Ymir had kissed her, that smile growing wider.
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Reiner walked out of the bathroom with Bertholdt after stopping his nosebleed and gave him a pep talk. "Now, remember what I said. Confidence, eye contact, witty comments."
Bertholdt nodded. "R-Right."
The blond took his seat again and watched his friend hoping his pep talk had worked. The taller male also took his seat.
Annie glanced up from her phone. "About time you guys came back. I thought for sure you fell in."
"Ha ha. Like you've never spent more than five minutes in a bathroom." Reiner rolled his eyes and took a sip of his drink.
Annie narrowed her eyes at Reiner, but then they softened as she went back to her phone again. "Touche."
"That's what I thought." Reiner nodded, satisfied. He kicked Bertholdt lightly under the table and motioned towards Annie with his head.
Bertholdt sat up alert when Reiner kicked him and turned to his friend with wide eyes. Then he looked to Annie. "O-Oh, right." Bertholdt gently cleared his throat. "U-Um, Annie?"
The blonde girl looked up once again from her phone, her eyebrow raised. "Hmm, what is it?"
Here it goes, don't mess this up Bertholdt.
"Y-You look very...pretty today..." He stammered a bit.
Annie's eyes widened a little, blinking in surprise by the sudden comment. She glanced away as she tried to place a strand of hair behind her ear. "Oh...um...thank you." the girl finally answered after an awkward few seconds of silence.
Bertholdt felt the heat rushing to his cheeks once more. A small smile laced his lips as he quickly turned to Reiner, like a proud child who just aced a hard test. The brawny blond flashed him a thumbs up and encouraged the boy to go on with a small nod of his head.
The tallest male glanced back at Annie. "S-So, what are you doing on your phone?" Sweat poured down from his forehead.
"Playing a game." answered the blonde, not glancing up this time.
"Oh, cool. W-What game?"
"Monument Valley."
"O-Oh, I've heard of that one before...um...I have it on my phone too."
How could these two have such a boring conversation? Reiner wondered as he listened to the exchange. Ask her out... Reiner tried to convey the message through his expression at Bertholdt.
The young Hoover felt his heart pounding in his chest. Sweat continuing to race down his face as he spoke to her. He bit his bottom lip as she answered him. Once there was a break in the conversation, Bertholdt spoke up again: "A-Annie?"
"Yeah?"
"I-I...uhhh...I-I was wondering if you....if you'd like to-"
"LISA! This is mine! Get your own!" Marina exclaimed, pushing her crayons over to her right side.
"But, I need a purple one and you have two of them! Can't you just give me the extra?"
Marina shook her head and crossed her arms, "No! They're both mine!"
Lisa turned to face Marco, pointing at her sister. "Marco! Marina isn't sharing!"
"You're such a tattletale!"
"Am not!"
"ARE TOO!"
As the two sisters continued to argue, Marco just placed his head in his hand, sighing in annoyance. He wanted to intervene but he knew Marina wouldn't listen. So he sat there, slightly embarrassed by both of the girls' behavior.
Reiner whipped his head around and groaned. Little kids could be so annoying, but thankfully Eren had also had enough.
"Here, Lisa just take my purple crayon." Eren offered with a small sigh.
Lisa turned to Eren, giving him a thankful smile. "Thanks Eren." She said, reaching her hand out for the purple crayon.
Eren handed her the crayon and Reiner whipped back around hoping that he hadn't missed anything between Bertholdt and Annie.
Annie was back on her phone, but Bertholdt was blushing and a wide smile was on his face. He looked like a child who was just told he was going to Disneyland.
Reiner looked between the two, "What did I miss?" He asked Bertholdt.
The taller of the two males turned to face the blond, that smile never leaving his lips for a second. He just gave him a small nod, biting his bottom lip. He didn't want to say while Annie was still at the table. He wanted to wait until she had left or when he and Reiner were alone. It was the polite thing to do.
Reiner smiled brightly at his friend and gave him a congratulatory pat on the back.
Soon after everyone had finished their food and paid their bills they were off. All smiles. With not just one, but two blossoming romances (three if you asked Marina), new respect for one another (or new tolerance), but in the end they were all closer.
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