A Little Bit Human (Erwin x OC)

15: An Ugly Tree

A/N:

I apologize in advance for the fact that this is a Christmas chapter. I know it's spooky season, but that's just how the chapters got released. Hopefully in December it will match up with another Christmas chapter.

The trees turned from green to orange, then orange leaves fell, signaling the off season for scouting. It was too cold and slippery to be going on missions. Lillian hated the cold, but she enjoyed the off season. When she needed to go outside she would wear a thick dress with a thick petticoat underneath, a thick jacket, and on top of that her Survey Corps cloak.

"Come on Lil!" Hange yelled to her.

"Hold on!" Lillian yelled back. She pushed the clothes in her drawer from side to side, trying to find her mittens. She frantically fell on the floor and looked under her bed. Bingo! She grabbed the mittens and put them on as she ran out the door.

The air was cold, the wind was cold, and the snow was of course cold. Why anyone would actually like this time of the year boggles Lillian.

"Took you long enough." Mike commented as she joined the group. The first thing she noticed was nobody was as bundled up as she was.

"I couldn't find my mittens."

"You didn't need those. You could have just asked Erwin to hold your hand." Mike joked as they all started to walk. In the front of the group Erwin and Levi walked by each other while Lillian, Hange, and Mike were causing chaos in the back.

Lillian blushed. For the past couple weeks that was the only kind of joke Mike would make. It was starting to get old even though it made her blush every single time. Erwin had to have noticed by now, unless he was that clueless.

Lillian removed her gloves and stuck them in her pocket. "Or I could just do this." She jumped up, and in the nanosecond that she was off the ground she stuck her hand onto the back of Mike's neck.

"What the-" Mike turned around and took a couple of steps away from her. "How are your hands that cold if you were just wearing gloves?"

"Poor circulation. It's because of how short she is." Hange added.

"Ha ha, the short jokes are always funny." Lillian said with an eye roll and walked away from them, towards Erwin and Levi.

"Help me." She said, leaning her arm on Levi's shoulder.

"You got yourself into that mess."

"You're boring." She removed her arm and walked between the two.

In the back Lillian could hear Mike and Hange whispering and giggling with each other. She could feel their eyes on her, so she decided to have some fun. Lillian leaned closer to Erwin as they walked in the snow.

"Why are we doing this?" Lillian whispered to Erwin with a smirk on her face. It was an innocent enough question, but to Mike and Hange it would seem like it was more.

"You don't like this? I thought it would be more fun to do this as a group than for just one person to go get a tree." Erwin whispered back.

"I just don't get the whole tree inside thing. Why not let it continue to grow and get as large as possible?"

"You should feel lucky that we are doing this Lily. Only nobles get trees for Christmas. If everyone cut down a tree there wouldn't be many left."

"Maybe next time we're out scouting we can cut some down and give them to people."

Erwin laughed.

"Lily, maybe you should be the next commander." Erwin said, dropping the whisper.

"Commander Lillian, huh?" Hange said, taking the first chance she could to jump into the conversation as soon as they stopped talking in whispers. "There wouldn't be any more expeditions beyond the walls!"

"I don't think any cadets would join the Scouts." Mike joked. "They would all be too frightened of all one hundred and fifty centimeters of pure angst."

"One hundred and fifty-six centimeters Mike! I'm not that short!"

"How's this one?" Erwin asked, getting back on topic. He pointed to a tree that was just a couple centimeters shorter than Mike. It wasn't the best-looking tree, there were some bare spots, and it bent a little too far to the left.

"Really Erwin?" Levi scoffed. "It looks like shit."

"I agree." Mike chimned in.

"There's definitely better trees. Like how about the one over there?" Hange said, pointing to a smaller one that was closer to her height.

"I like that one." Lillian walked over to the tree Erwin had picked out. "It's so fucked up, I love it!"

Erwin smiled at her. While the rest of them continued to complain about how ugly the tree was Erwin walked over to it. He ushered Lillian out of the way, then raised the axe to the tree.

"Erwin, please tell me you aren't actually going to cut down that tree, there are better ones!" Hange argued, running towards the two.

It was too late. Erwin had already aimed and swung, he hit the trunk dead on, wood splinters falling into the snow.

"Shut up Hange! It's perfect!" Lillian smiled and nudged Hange with her elbow.

Erwin dragged the tree back with Lillian's help. The rest of them didn't want to have anything to do with it.

"No matter how much you decorate that tree it's not going to get any less uglier." Levi said.

Lillian looked behind her to give her brother a dirty look.

"Why do you three hate this tree so much?"

"It's ugly we've already said that." Mike said. Lillian rolled her eyes.

"It's just a tree, but they're making it such a big deal." Lillian said to Erwin.

Erwin smiled at her. Nobody else's opinion mattered but her's. Why would he care to listen to them? It was Lillian who was happy. It was Lillian who was smiling ear to ear. It was Lillian who was already rattling on and on about how they would decorate the tree. Nothing else mattered.

"Ok Lillian," Hange watched as the three men left the room. "Be honest with me. I know a couple months ago you told me you would never like Erwin. But I think that's changed. I think you can try to lie to yourself as much as you want, but I can see the truth." She sat on the couch next to Lillian.

"Hange you don't know what you're talking about."

"I do. I see the way you two look at each other. I already told you that Erwin likes you, so there's a good chance you won't be rejected. And even if you do get rejected it'll only be awkward for a couple weeks."

"I've been rejected before, that's not what I'm worried about."

Hange's eyes widened. "You've been rejected?"

"Hange." Lillian grabbed her friend's hand. "Even if I do like Erwin, I'm not going to take our relationship any farther."

"So you do like him?" Hange gasped excitedly.

Lillian blushed and she looked anywhere except for at Hange. "Perhaps." She whispered.

"Can you say it a little louder?" Hange smiled as she raised a hand to her ear.

"I maybe like Erwin." She felt like a child again, confiding to her brother about a new man that had caught her eye. Expect this time she had more than just Levi, now she could confine in her friend.

"Good. If you kept on denying it, I would have gone and told Erwin myself."

A/N:

Thank you guys so much for all the comments you've left, and voting on my story. Love y'all!!!