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The day Hange arrived at the Survey Corps headquarters in a carriage is odd enough. The thing that really distinguished the day as totally off the wall freakin' weird was the fact that she was toting several large orange gourds in the carriage. Levi had never seen these gourds, so his first response to Hange setting a perfectly smooth and round one next to his breakfast plate at seven in the morning was a kind, "Shitty glasses, what in the hell is this?"
She laughs. "It's something called a pumpkin. In Wall Sina, they carve them up for Halloween with scary faces and put candles in them to light the walkways for little kids."
"What?" He asks, genuinely confused. Halloween? He's never heard of a Halloween.
"...You don't know what Halloween is, do you?" Hange asks, laughing. "I forgot, Kenny wasn't exactly.. the greatest, sorry. It's a holiday where the mythical supernatural and humans have a night of peace according to legend, so little kids dress up and go from home to home getting treats. Honestly, it's just a fun thing and there isn't much to the actual legend," Hange explained.
"So what do I do with it again?" He asks, frowning.
"You carve it. Put a scary face or something on it, I dunno. I think I'll make mine pretty crazy," she says.
Levi watches everyone else in the mess hall start on their pumpkin, some carving with their breakfast knives and others with a knife provided by Hange. They started by cutting off the stem at an angle, before plunging their hands into the center of the pumpkin and extracting some bright orange goop littered with white seeds. Hange sweeps in and out, instructing everyone to separate the seeds from the goop as they can eat them later.
After everyone seemed to have gutted their pumpkin, he saw Eren carve a large Wings of Freedom emblem on his, and Armin carve the garrison roses on his. Mikasa seemed to take longer, coming up with an east asian character that he couldn't read. Hange took awhile on hers before carving circular eyes and a smile sewn shut onto hers. She also took pieces out of the front of hers that allowed more light to show through, turning it into a piece of art that sent chills down his spine. There seemed to be a commotion around the area with Connie, Jean, and Sasha, a debate between whose pumpkin was scarier. Truth be told, Sasha's was downright adorable, Jean's just looked angry, and Connie's was unidentifiable.
The entire hall stank of pumpkin, and Hange came toting another pumpkin before sitting next to him. "Aren't you going to carve yours?"
He glanced at his pumpkin, the prettiest in the room. "Tch, maybe. It's nice on it's own."
"Aye, but please finish appreciating it before the thirty first," she says and tears into the pumpkin she's brought over. He watches her scoop the guts out of it, placing them into a bowl which she shoves in front of him. After that she takes a large knife and cuts down the center of the hollow pumpkin, dividing it into halves then quarters and eighths and eventually too many chunks to count properly.
Levi hesitantly begins picking the seeds out of the bowl of goop, finding it to be stringy and slimy, sending the hairs on his arm up on end. After awhile the methodic action of separation becomes kind of fun, especially when he realizes the seeds can be squeezed in between his thumb and index fingers to shoot into the seed bowl Hange's provided. She watches him with an amused face, secretly surprised to see he even put his hand into there, much less was having fun with this.
"You're so cute, you know?" She says, starting on another pumpkin.
He shakes his head. "Oy, shitty glasses, you're a liar. What are you killing those ones for?"
"They'll make a good pie," she says. "And I'm not a liar, you're just a cute grump face. If I had my notebook, I'd take scientific notes on you right now."
"Then praise these damn pumpkins for taking you away from your research for once," he groans. "I'm done sorting all this, why do you want the seeds?"
"They're delicious!" She says. "Put some butter and herbs on them and they're good in everything."
Dubious, Levi follows her to the kitchens, where everyone has left their pumpkin remains and seeds on the counter. Sitting on one of the worn chairs, he watches her place the pumpkin chunks onto a tray and light the fire underneath the stove, covering the tray in foil and leaving the chunks to soften. She takes another baking tray and washes the seeds, tosses them in butter and a herb Levi's familiar with and lets them to cook for an hour. After the hour's up, she has him peel the now pliable pumpkin and mash it, running the mash through a sieve.
"Looks like baby food," he notes.
"People in Sina do feed it to their babies," Hange admits kind of sheepishly. "But we're going to use it for a pie. You don't have to stay around for that if you want."
He shrugs. "Nah, I'm fine watching you."
"Have some seeds," she hands him a palmful of the now golden brown seeds and he experimentally takes one and pops it in his mouth. It's crunchy, a taste much unlike the gourd it came from, and surprises him. "They're good," he tells her. She gives him a beaming smile. "Knew it! Now for the pies."
The day melded into night, and by dessert time there were half a dozen orange-brown pies on the table quickly being devoured by the Survey Corps. Levi and Hange sat with pieces of their own, quietly edging Erwin to try a piece. Levi leaned against the wall, feeling the coldness from outside seeping through the window.
He glanced outside, noting a darkness on the edge of the horizon.
It would snow soon.