Laundry Day

"Eren, don't touch that!"

A long awaited, very dreaded day had come upon the Scouting Legion: laundry day. Seeing as it was Eren's first time partaking in such matters, Corporal Levi had entrusted him in the hands of Petra in order for him to learn the ropes of how to go about washing uniforms, sleepwear, and casual clothing of the like. He had been doing a fairly decent job for a beginner, that was, until he had been yelled at.

Dropping every article of clothing that was in his hands, he anxiously asked, "Wh-what? What is it? Don't touch what?" The look of pure horror that glistened within Petra's eyes made Eren tense up.

She lifted her arm and shakily pointed towards a dainty, medium-sized blanket that now rested on the grass below them. Petra thanked her lucky stars that it had not fallen into one of the water buckets. "Th-that!" she stammered. "That blanket! It's the Corporal's..."

Eren didn't know what he was more shocked by; the fact that he had nearly given himself and his superior a heart attack, or that Corporal Levi owned...a special blanket? "Keh..." he snickered. "A blanket? Is he a baby, or something?"

Petra furrowed her brow with distaste. "Eren, don't speak of your superiors that way. And even more so when you're referring to Corporal Levi."

Biting his tongue, Eren rubbed the back of his neck and apologized for his words. "But seriously," he added, "a blanket? Isn't he a grown man? And how did it get mixed in with the laundry."

Petra sighed and bent over to retrieve the fallen blanket. Even when she had so much as touched it, Eren could see the caution within her fingertips. "Haven't you ever," she spoke, "heard of a comfort object before?"

"A comfort object? What's that?" Eren asked. He obviously hadn't.

Pinching the cloth of the blanket between her thumb and index finger, Petra slowly dropped it into one of the empty laundry baskets for temporary safe keeping. "A comfort object is something that provides its owner with, well, comfort..."

Eren tried to grasp what Petra was telling him. "So, you're saying that that blanket thing helps keep the Corporal calm?"

"Precisely."

"That doesn't answer my other question, though," Eren insisted. "How did it get mixed in with the laundry? We're washing uniforms and sleepwear right now."

Debating on whether she should entrust such intimate information with a soldier of a lower rank, Petra sucked on the inside of her cheek. Couldn't Eren put two-and-two together? Why did she have the be the one to say it?

"Miss Petra?"

"He sleeps with it..." she answered, her voice barely audible over the hum of conversation amongst a few of the other soldiers. They were stationed at a distance and had been assigned the task of washing the casual clothes for now.

"...Pardon?" In the expanse of five seconds, Eren tried to wrap his head around the concept of Corporal Levi, a man that killed Titans for a living, snuggling up to a cuddly-wuddly little blanket in the depths of the night. It was unimaginable. It did not compute.

"Eren, I don't want you to mention this to anyone," Petra ordered sternly. "Even I am not supposed to know about this."

"Then how do you know?" Eren questioned confusedly.

Petra gazed upon the grass as a gentle breeze forced it to dance. She had already said so much...was there really anything she could lose? "This isn't...it's not the first time that his blanket has ended up in the laundry."

"...Really?"

Petra nodded. "The first time it happened, Chief Erwin had been patrolling the grounds and saw it laying in one of the baskets. Personally, I figured that it had just been a misplaced bed sheet of some sort. When he told me what it was, he informed me to return it to the Corporal's bedroom at once. And so I did." Pausing her explanation, she carefully lifted the basket that held the blanket inside and handed it over to Eren. "I feel as if you should do the same, Eren. You wouldn't mind bringing it to Corporal Levi's bedroom, would you?"

He did mind. He minded it tremendously. But what could he do about it? A soldier of a higher rank was asking him to do something, so of course, he had to do it. Taking the basket into his arms, Eren sighed and said, "I'll be right back."

Traveling through the empty corridors of the Scouting Legion dorms, Eren tried for a second time to picture what Corporal Levi would look like with a blanket in his clutches. The visual was just too surreal for him to imagine. "Tch, there's no way the Corporal would be that soft-hearted," he chuckled.

"I beg your pardon?"

Eren stopped dead in his tracks and froze. Of all times for the Corporal to pop up out of no where, it had to be the time when Eren was jabbing his character with an insult? "Corporal Levi!" he saluted. "What brings you here?"

"This is my dormitory," Corporal Levi responded. "What are you doing here? Were you not appointed to laundry duty this afterno-" His eyes had dropped to the basket within Eren's hands. When they saw what was inside, they narrowed menacingly.

Eren followed the Corporal's gaze and swallowed nervously, when he realized that he was staring directly at the blanket. "About that-! I'm here to return your precious blanket back to your room! It's like your own, personal laundry delivery service!"

"Is that supposed to be funny?" the Corporal asked. "I don't find it funny, Yaeger."

Eren twitched at the intensity of Corporal Levi's voice. 'He...he's seriously mad right now...' he thought. 'What should I do?'

"What do you know?"

The Corporal's question left Eren a tad confused. "Sorry?"

"What do you know about that blanket, Yaeger?" Each time Corporal Levi spoke Eren's name like that was as if a knife had been jabbed straight through his spinal chord.

Lying would get him nowhere, he knew that much, so Eren wished himself the best as he spoke his only other option: the truth. "I know that it's your...comfort object? I also know that you sleep with it, sir."

In an instant, the Corporal's entire demeanor had changed. He had transformed. He had smiled. It was a sight that Eren's virgin eyes had not been prepared to see. It was...it was...

To put it simply, it was creepier than the smile of a Titan.

"Yaeger..." he spoke slowly. Corporal Levi stepped forward and placed a much-too-strong hand upon Eren's shoulder and squeezed. "Because of the knowledge that you have obtained, you do realize that I'm going to have to kill you now, right?"

Eren gulped. Yes, this was just another long-awaited, very dreaded laundry day for the Scouting Legion.

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

Wow, finally! My very first drabble for Shingeki no Kyojin! I'm so excited! :D

I really hope that you all enjoy it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read! (:

- Chappy