Chapter Text
The air was all crisp and heavy as Mikasa tried to steady her shaky breath. It felt like her lungs had just been shredded with the shards that the grapples of her ODM gear usually left behind after detaching.
Hange’s orders had been the first knife that had sunk into the tender strings of her heart.
Historia, who’d apparently been getting comfortable with all the royal stuff lately, and her totally unwitty decisions might as well have just ruined it all completely.
With heart heavy, limbs even heavier, and mind on the brink of a breakdown, Mikasa paved her steps, dragging behind the two men on their way to the place where she would have to stay for the next…Walls know how long. Damned Hange. Damned Mitras.
And what definitely worsened everything that already dawned upon her was the fact that she would not be living there alone. Not with any other girl from the Scouts, not even with some cheeky or hateful MP. No.
What was in that saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, huh? Well. Technically, he wasn’t an enemy. But out of all the people she’d worked with or ever had the (dis)pleasure of somehow coming across in the Survey Corps, he would always be the last one to make it to the list of her friends.
“Here’s the main room; over there, on the sides are your bedrooms; and right here in the middle is the bathroom. Please get comfortable,” the tall and rather awkward man in the pristinely neat serving garments said, showing the two their new dwelling. If it could even be called so. He then quickly maneuvered his way towards the door and disappeared into the corridors, apparently trying to avoid whatever was coming next between those two.
“Choose the bedroom to your liking, brat, I couldn’t care less,” Levi blurted after a long and heavy pause that had hung in the air.
Jaw clenched, and knuckles whitening from the pressure of her curled fists, Mikasa finally pinned her glaring eyes on him. As if this place had been his idea and his fault. Or maybe it was. She didn’t know and wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out, either. All Mikasa could wish right now was for all this to end and to get some sleep — the journey from the Survey Corps HQ to Mitras had taken her way more patience and strength than she’d ever anticipated.
Wordlessly, however, she’d tugged at the strap of her bag, and, leaving it on the floor and thus earning Levi’s scowl — she didn’t see but was totally sure it was there — went up to the door on the left. One lock click later, she found herself in a tiny bedroom furnished with a bed, table, chair, and a few cabinets and commodes. The modesty of this room felt…unusual, given all the sophistication of the rest of the royal palace. Or at least those its parts she’d been to before.
She then walked out and headed for the second bedroom — the one on the right, glancing at her new roommate, who seemed unbothered by her inspection, instead focusing on the cleanliness of the surfaces across the main room. Or lack thereof.
The second room was literally the same as the first one, only mirrored in terms of furniture placement.
Ridiculous. It was all some joke she didn’t get. With a heavy sigh, Mikasa decided to just stay right there — choosing between the two rooms was beyond pointless. She dropped onto the bed, her face pressing against the crispy linens, and her throbbing limbs finally getting some rest after being strained for more than two days nonstop.
“Oi,” she heard his irking voice from behind. “Get a shower, then rest all you want.”
Mikasa didn’t answer. She turned her head slightly to the side, just enough to see the man leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed and his expression emitting the same usual indifferent yet discerning look she always felt she couldn’t hide from.
“Let me be,” she murmured, squinting her eyes. “I’m drained.”
It had been mere moments since she’d felt the bliss of relaxing her body, and he was now mercilessly taking it away from her.
“I know, brat,” Levi continued more softly, much to Mikasa’s surprise. “But there’s no way I’m letting you skip a shower after…that trip.”
Oh, right. That trip had been memorable, to say the least. Two unbelievably long and sleepless days spent on horseback (since the long-awaited magical railroad was nowhere near finished yet) and accompanied by the gale and downpour, making the usual paths dangerous to ride through; making the two lonely riders choose each next step and turn carefully, almost with a goldsmith’s precision. When they’d finally reached Mitras, the only thing they could still feel was relief. At least they’d made it there. But the next events and meeting with the Queen hadn’t made them happier. In fact, a few times Mikasa had doubted that surviving on their way there was a good idea at all.
“Just leave…please,” she insisted, her voice trembling. “I can’t…not now.”
“Brat—” Levi said, pushing himself from the doorframe and taking a step towards her.
“—I said, leave me alone!” Mikasa interrupted, her raspy voice breaking, whether from all the emotions or exhaustion. She then curled up, hiding her face and stubborn tears in her palms. Not now, stupid, you can’t cry in front of him. She did try to hold back. She did fail terribly, too.
Levi couldn’t hear her thoughts. He wished he could, though, many times. But he couldn’t. He was sure she always felt uncomfortable being the object of his piercing stares, but he could still never guess what was going on inside her troubled head.
And right now, she was obviously crying. And even more obviously, she hated him being there at that time. She wasn’t the kind of girl to easily reveal her vulnerability to others. He knew that for sure. And he was just the freaking same.
Leaving the room at this point felt just as stupid as dumbly standing there, waiting for her to calm down.
Damn. What now?
He took two more careful steps towards her bed — now it was her room and her bed, he figured — and squeezed her shoulder, lightly.
Levi had no idea if that gesture was to reassure her or to simply justify his attempts at making her cooperate.
“Take your time, then go shower. If not to get clean, then at least to get warm. We’ve been freezing our asses for too long out there. I’ll go unpack.”
At that, he quietly left the room and went to his room to settle in.
~
Mikasa did take her time gathering the last bits of her strength to sit up on the bed and look around. Levi was long gone. Her bag was neatly placed next to her bed, obviously brought there by some unexplainable forces.
By some very irritable and audacious forces now making some noises two very thin walls away from her room. Unpacking? More like cleaning the whole place up, she could swear. She hated him more by the minute. Was it really possible for him to get under her skin even more? Thinking about it hurt.
Mikasa grabbed some clothes from her bag and slowly headed for the bathroom.