the dinner hall was organized like an overly expensive restaurant, with round tables fit for around ten people each covered in white cloth. they were placed randomly around the room, however the room was miraculously large enough to leave space for a small stage and podium at the front of it all.
y/n and eren found themselves a good table away from all the people that they knew.
that wasn't to say that their table wasn't full of other military figures, but it was mostly nameless scouts who were often overshadowed by whatever team levi had happening. so of course, they recognized eren immediately, but once they turned to y/n that was when their shock began to set in.
people had always heard of her. scouts knew of her, and of her existence, but nobody really knew about her.
of course it was already a great feat to go from scout, to captain, to an independent scout in only a year or so, but with changes like that, nobody ever got real close to her aside from commander hange.
they always heard of her countless missions outside the walls where she could travel alone for days, even weeks, and could come back safely like she had never even left. and after she returned, she disappeared somewhere in wall sina and wouldn't be seen again until the next time she was leaving.
everyone was deathly aware that by now, y/n and captain levi were practically the same scout in terms of ability, just with a bit of age between them. their numbers were near identical, with it always being a competiton on who would die with the highest number.
but really, all of that didn't matter.
nobody knew anything about her. not where she grew up, or where her family lived, if she had any. nobody knew why she was a scout, even though she always said that "she finished what she needed to do."
other scouts, specifically the ones sitting at the table with her, wondered how easy it was to be so secretive and mysterious. clearly she was an interesting person, so everybody wondered why she hid so much.
a bowl of bread was placed in the center by castle servants. while y/n and eren proceeded to enjoy the night like nothing was happening, the group of scouts sitting around couldn't take their eyes off supposedly two of the most intimidating military figures of this day and age, strangely messing around.
eren would grab a piece of bread and would go to butter it, but because he was so weirdly incapable of keeping a light touch, his knife would tear holes in the bread instead.
y/n sweetly laughed at him and grabbed him another piece of bread, this time directing his hands with hers, softly moving the knife over the rough side of the bread, letting the butter smoothly spread on.
when she was done, eren stared down at his plate and sighed.
"i don't get what i'm doing wrong."
y/n laughed again. "just eat the bread before it gets any worse."
while eren could've done so, he felt the strange and compulsive need to impress her, so while she reached down to grab her own tiny appetizer, eren stopped her.
"please, allow me," he jokingly said.
y/n rolled her eyes behind her mask, but granted him permission anyway.
eren tried his best to follow her example, but by the end of it, the bread on her plate was just a bunch of buttery bits and crumbs.
he leaned back in his chair and groaned.
"i can't believe this..."
"i think it's pretty funny," y/n mused. "despite all the things you can do, you can't butter bread." still, she ignored the mess and picked a piece up, eating it anyway.
