"Just leave him alone, Ymir!" Krista shouted. The petite girl grabbed Ymir's arm, forcing the sturdy girl to stop herself mid-punch and avoid flinging Krista to the ground. Scoffing, Ymir dropped her arm and wrenched it out of Krista's grip.

"Excuse me, Krista. Would you like me to step aside and let this guy do whatever he wants with your body?" she sneered, jabbing a thumb at the terrified boy on the ground. Seeing Krista's eyes light up with fury, she continued. "Look, I'm stopping. By all means, go ahead. It's clear you don't need me."

"I didn't mean..." The blonde's eyes flickered, conflicted. "I appreciate your help, Ymir, but I can handle myself," she told her. Upset but hiding her displeasure well, Ymir straightened up to her full height and squinted down at Krista.

"Sure you can. Heading out in the middle of the night by yourself while everyone else is sleeping is obviously the best way to handle yourself," she spat out. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Krista frowned but didn't respond. Escaping Ymir's burning gaze, she watched as the boy Ymir had nearly beat to a pulp silently snuck away while the two girls bickered. You're welcome, she thought.

"Fine. Don't answer. If you're going to go and do stupid things to endanger yourself, then go ahead and do it." With one more harsh narrowing of her eyes, Ymir spun on her heels and marched away. She didn't get very far.

"Wait!" Impulsively grabbing onto Ymir's jacket sleeve, Krista clung to the older girl's arm once more and didn't let go. "Don't... I mean, don't leave me now."

"Oh? Afraid pretty boy will come back for round two?" Ymir sneered. Nonetheless, she didn't shake Krista off like she did before. The two stood in the near darkness without saying another word.

"No," Krista finally spoke. "I just, I could use some help."

Shoulders stiffening, Ymir growled, "This is for that potato-thieving idiot, isn't it?"

Krista frowned at the fact her friend was being called an idiot, but responded, "How did you-"

"We're near the kitchens. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what you're trying to do here." Besides, Ymir thought amusedly to herself, she knew Krista was going to help that potato-thieving idiot after the punishment she received today. Sassing the drill sergeant. What an idiot.

"Then-"

"And I'll help you, but now you and that idiot will owe me double. Let's get moving before I change my mind."

Ymir stalked off, her long legs carrying her far, and Krista needed to sprint to catch up. Refusing to meet Krista's questioning gaze, her lips twitched in disgust and settled into a frown.

"Quit your jogging or someone will hear us more than they already have."

"You're walking too fast for me to keep up, Ymir," Krista pouted. She reattached her hand to Ymir's arm and forced the taller girl to go at a reasonable pace despite the frown that threatened to stretch off of Ymir's face.

"Then eat better, sleep more and grow, pipsqueak," Ymir retorted. Still, she slowed down. The crunching of gravel filled their ears as they made their way to the back door of the kitchens, and before long, they were staring at the padlock that guarded the entrance to their objective. "So?" Ymir taunted the blonde.

Krista, for her part, looked far from defeated. "Jean gave me this," she beamed, pulling a small bronze key from her pocket, and waved it in front of Ymir's nose.

Not even phased, Ymir kept a winning sneer on her face and said, "Go ahead and try."

Try she did, and to her dismay, the key didn't even fit into the keyhole. "I don't understand," she frowned. "Jean told me this was the key to the kitchen."

"What he failed to tell you was that the key only worked for the front door of the building where all the patrols are."

"Oh." Shrugging her shoulders sheepishly, Krista hid her embarrassed blush and wondered, "Now what?"

"Now is when I tell you to go back to bed and sleep." She watched Krista's shoulders sag considerably. "But damn it. Just wait a second," she sighed. She reached into her pocket.

Curiously, Krista watched as Ymir pulled out a couple thin metal rods and bent down to look at the keyhole of the padlock. The rods were curved strangely at the ends, she noted. Muttering unintelligible phrases to herself, Ymir chose two rods from her palm, put the rest back into her pocket, and inserted the rods into the padlock.

"Are those... lockpicks?" Krista blinked, bewildered.

"Yes," Ymir grunted.

"You know how to pick locks?" Krista blinked some more, bewildered.

"No, which is why I am currently attempting to jam these rods in there and hope something happens," Ymir drawled sarcastically. "Are you going to be quiet and let me work or not?"

Biting her bottom lip, Krista held back any further comments and questions and contented herself by silently watching Ymir turn and twist the two rods in her deft fingers. As the seconds went by, however, her gaze slowly shifted away from Ymir's hands to watch the intense look of concentration in Ymir's sharp eyes and the way the freckles on her cheeks shifted as Ymir worked. She was so absorbed in her observing that, when Ymir's eyes suddenly focused in her direction, she missed the click of the padlock and the words that Ymir said after.

"What?" Krista asked.

"I said the door's open." Ymir gestured at the open padlock hanging under the door's handle. "Are you ready?"

"Y-Yes." Moving past Ymir's form, she grasped the door handle and pushed the door open, missing the smirk Ymir threw at her back.

The kitchen was extremely dark when they entered, and once the door shut behind them, they couldn't even see themselves or each other.

"Okay. Now what?" Swallowing thickly, Krista felt very uneasy in the unknown darkness of the kitchen and began to grope around, trying to feel the familiar material of Ymir's jacket. She nearly screamed when a warm hand grasped her own and a metallic click sounded to her side. In a moment, a soft flame lit up the old counters of the kitchen and the various utensils strewn about.

"You okay?" Ymir asked, noting how pale Krista appeared even in such little light.

"You have a lighter?" Krista gaped. "The lockpicks I can understand, but a lighter?"

"What's wrong with a lighter?" Ymir frowned.

"Nothing's wrong, it's just... That's a really rare and valuable item nowadays. How did you get one?" Krista's eyes were as big as saucers as she observed the small flame above the open silver canister in Ymir's hand. When she moved to touch it, Ymir moved the lighter out of her reach and pulled at Krista's hand.

"Come on, we're wasting time," Ymir grunted, ignoring the question. Although she did feel put off by Ymir's attitude, Krista supposed she shouldn't have expected any less from the mysterious girl. They both had their secrets.

They moved about the kitchen, avoiding pots and pans and bags of various produce strewn randomly around the area. Unable to resist, Ymir stopped at a large bag in the corner and plucked a brown lump from inside and held it in Krista's view.

"You think she'd appreciate a raw potato?" Ymir smirked. Chuckling, she didn't even flinch at the chastising slap she received on her arm. "Guess not," she said, and tossed it back into the bag.

As they searched, Krista tried to keep her mind focused on finding where the bread was kept, but her thoughts wandered back to the hand that strongly gripped her own and led her along the dark kitchen. It wasn't all bad, she supposed, to have Ymir looking out for her sometimes. She just wished that Ymir didn't have to hurt people to do it, no matter how much they did or didn't deserve the pain.

"What's so funny?" Ymir's voice cut through her musings and sent her back to the present.

"Funny?"

"You have this weird smile on your face," Ymir shrugged.

"It's nothing," Krista told her.

"Since when was 'nothing' so amusing?" Ymir quirked an eyebrow down at her. Huffing, Krista tightly squeezed Ymir's hand and watched with satisfaction as she winced.

"If you really must know, I was thinking about how strange it is for me to be here, learning how to fight, when I hate fighting so much." Even though she said it with a smile on her face, she felt a rush of anxiety well up inside her chest when she remembered how overwhelming it was to be where she was, and she quickly squashed the familiar fear as best as she could. It was hard, though, with Ymir scrutinizing her every movement and word.

"Then don't think about it. You're here to learn how to fight titans, yeah? Not humans."

A heavy silence weighed down upon them.

"Y-Yeah. Um, yeah."

Ymir dropped Krista's hand from her grip, and they searched through the cupboards without another word. Discomfort, powered by the knowledge of secrets, wedged an invisible wall between them, and they concluded their search for bread without fanfare. Once some bread was in hand, Ymir opened the door, searched for any patrols, noted none, and they snuck out the kitchen. Krista was nearly gone with the bread before Ymir had a chance to reattach the padlock.

That was fine by her.

Casually making her way back to her barracks, she stuck her hands in her pocket, feeling the smooth metal of the lighter and the jagged tips of her lockpicks. She hadn't planned on revealing that much tonight. Nor any night, as a matter of fact. But that was fine; Krista hadn't seemed to mind. Rather, she was fascinated, and Ymir was inwardly pleased.

Then she remembered how their conversation ended.

Grimacing, she abruptly felt vulnerable and even defenseless in the darkness surrounding herself. "Better start carrying a knife around," she muttered to herself, and imagined the feel of a blade cutting into her flesh.

Turning a corner around a cabin, she sidestepped a startled patrolman and nonchalantly continued on her way.

"H-Hey! What are you doing walking around so late at night?" the man yelled, finding his voice.

"How about you shut up before you let the whole place know I got up to take a piss?" Ymir called over her shoulder. Ignoring the following splutter of embarrassment, she caught a flash of blonde hair escape from the patrolman's notice and disappear between another set of cabins.

"You're welcome," she sighed.

Unbeknownst to Ymir, a "thank you" had been whispered mere seconds beforehand.

A/N: Well, I was overwhelmed by OTP feels, so here we are.

This is one adventure that I could see Ymir and Krista partaking in that would bring them closer together since, you know, Potato-chan isn't going to just stop getting into trouble, right?

But otherwise, I have no idea how well I portrayed them. They are very tricky characters, so I ended up forgoing my usual style for something more detached and simplistic. It's easier on everyone that way, I'd imagine ahaha

Forgive how short this is. Also, no PRing, so excuse any mistakes (although if you can point some out, I'll gladly correct them). Thank you for reading!