Year 848
The young teens of the 104th Trainee Squad were nearly finished for the day. After some long, gruesome training exercises, their bodies became tired and worn-out. But at last, the day was over, and they could now spend the rest of the evening in leisure.
Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlert ate up their supper while talking about the day. But since it was Eren who often led the conversations, the topics usually involved Titans.
"I was thinking, Armin. What if we chop off the Titan's ears? Maybe it won't be able to hear sounds anymore!"
"Well, Eren. Since Titans are capable of regenerating, I'll assume that this is the case with ears. Depending on the Titan, they could regenerate both of them in under a minute!"
"I suppose that's true. Hey, Mikasa, what do you think? Mikasa?"
Mikasa walked away from their lunch table, taking her still-full tray with her. She promptly dumped the contents of the tray into the trash can and placed it on a shelf. Her eyes met Eren's while doing so.
"Eren, I'm going to the girls' dorm room. I will be there for the rest of the evening. I will retire early for the night."
"Oh. Then, uh, good night, Mikasa."
She nodded and left the room. Mikasa was the first to leave, since supper was not yet over. Eren and Armin, watching her as she went, simply shrugged and continued with their discussion.
"I wonder what Mikasa's up to. Maybe she's just having one of those girl moments again," Eren wondered.
"Girl moments? What are girl moments?"
"Reiner told me that every month or so, girls do some weird thing and they-"
"Erm! Eren, I don't want to hear about it!"
Supper ended with bell chimes. Everyone got up, dispensing their trays and walking with their friends back to their respective dorm rooms. In the commotion, Eren and Armin cleaned up their table, scraping up some crumbs here and there. It was then that Eren noticed something. A purple satchel.
"Hey! Mikasa left her bag here!"
"Are you sure it's Mikasa's, Eren? I've never really seen her use a bag before."
"Yeah, Armin. She probably got a new one. It says right here, in really big letters, 'If found, return to Mikasa Ackerman.' She made it really clear it's her bag."
"Let's bring it with us. Mikasa's already long gone in the girls' dorm."
The two boys brought the satchel with them. All the while, Eren formed a plan in his head.
Bedtime slowly arrived, for both the boys and the girls of the trainees squad. As the cadets in the boys' dorm hit the hay, Eren Jaeger still stayed awake while sitting on his top bunk, uneasy. Armin sat next to him with a lantern, reading a book.
Eren continued staring at the satchel. He grabbed it, examined it on every end, and felt it. Finally, he became frustrated.
"Armin," Eren said, "I feel bad about this."
"Hm?"
"Mikasa's probably worried sick right now that she's lost her bag. And now that we took it from the lunch table, she won't be able to find it now. What am I supposed to do?"
"Perhaps we could wait until tomorrow to give it to her."
"No way! I don't want to keep Mikasa stressed, especially when she's about to go to sleep. Imagine what kind of important stuff she's got in here. She's gonna have nightmares just thinking about her losing these things."
"But Eren, what will you do, then?"
"... I'll give it to her."
Armin gasped. He realized what Eren meant.
"You mean... you're going to the girls' dorm?!"
Upon saying this, the other boys in the room quickly overheard. They, too, started to crowd around Eren's bunk. Some of them murmured words such as, "Eren's going to sneak into the girl's dorm?" or, "Wow, he's really gonna do it?!" A single figure stepped closer to Eren. Jean.
"What's this, Jaeger boy? You're going to peep at the girls now?"
"Peep? Why would I peep? I'm just going to give Mikasa back her bag."
"You... you what?!"
Jean grabbed Eren's shirt. This was his signature move.
"You heard me, Jean! I'm going to do my duty as her guardian and return her belongings!"
"Grr! You're always one to show off, Eren! You lucky son of a-"
Eren shrugged Jean off and jumped down to the floor. He equipped the satchel onto his shoulder, then cleared his throat.
"All right, everyone. I'm sure you all know what I'm about to do. But this is something called kindness, people. If I'm not going to do it, who will?"
The whole room stayed in dead silence. Finally, someone spoke up. It was Connie.
"He's right. No one else in this room is as... uh, familiar as Eren with Mikasa. There's Armin, but everyone knows he's a sissy." Armin whimpered in the background. "Besides. You know what will happen if the girls catch you, right? So let's leave Eren to it. After all, he's not gonna get punished by Mikasa as bad if you get what I mean."
"No, I don't get what you mean," responded Eren.
"Tch. Whatever. Go now, Jaeger. Maybe if you catch them while awake, you could just tell them. But if you're too late..."
Eren nodded and ran out the door. The boys looked astonished at Eren's bravery and determination, except for Jean, obviously.
Eren reached the front door of the girls' dorm room. His heart pounded and his palms sweated. If Sarge caught him wandering around at night, who knows what would happen to him? He touched the doorknob, then quickly reconsidered his actions. He knocked on the door instead.
"Hello? Is Mikasa there? She forgot something at suppertime, and I just came here to return it."
No one responded. However, Eren did hear some shuffling inside. He knocked once more, and decided he was wasting time. He turned the doorknob slowly. The door creaked open a few centimeters, allowing Eren to see inside. The girls were sleeping, and the room was dark. The only light came from the slightly open doorway.
Oh boy. thought Eren.
Eren crept inside on the tips of his toes, trying to reduce noise as much as possible. He walked along the aisle, checking for Mikasa's bunk. He pulled back a few blankets, checking for Mikasa's face, but none of them matched. Then, Eren realized that Mikasa must be on the top aisle.
He gulped as he placed his foot onto a ladder. But by then, he shook so much that even the ladder shook with him. As he reached the top, he nearly slipped on the top rung and lost his balance. Thankfully for him, he hung on and reached the top level.
Eren's pace reduced to a crawl, trying to find Mikasa in the darkness. When he reached the end, he immediately saw her. Her scarf was a good indicator that it was her. Relieved, he dropped the satchel next to Mikasa and was just about to leave when the worst of the worst happened.
"Hm? Eren?" said Mikasa, one eye opened.
Eren gasped in shock. He tried to slip away, but ended up collapsing over the edge and falling onto the floor with a thud. By that point, the rest of the girls had woken up. The room lit up.
Eren, still on the ground, held his hand to his head.
"Ow..."
Mikasa jumped down in a perfect landing and walked over to Eren, her shadow covering him. Mikasa, normally a stoic girl, seemed less than amused.
"Eren. What is the meaning of this? Why are you here?!"
"Mikasa! I'm sorry! Please, don't tell Sarge about this! I just wanted to give you back your bag! You left it back in the lunchroom! I thought you were worried or something! Please don't tell Sarge!"
"Oh, you're here just for the bag, Eren?"
"Duh! Why else would I come here?"
Suddenly, the rest of the girls started clearing their throats, tapping their feet, and glaring at Eren.
"Oh, uh," Eren mumbled, "Guess I'll have to face the consequences."
Annie cracked her knuckles, saying to herself, "This'll be fun."
Mikasa held her arm outwards, signalling the others to back off.
"Don't hurt Eren. He has done no harm. He did not come here with bad intent. He came here simply to assist me."
Mikasa turned back towards Eren, gently blushing.
"You're welcome to come see me any time, Eren."
"Eh? I thought we see each other everyday. Anyways, um, thank you, Mikasa. Heh, heh."
Eren sprinted as fast as he could out of the room. When the girls knew for sure that he was out of hearing range, they all began to giggle and laugh. Hannah approached Mikasa, gesturing a thumbs-up.
"See, Mikasa? I told you the plan would work."
"Eren really does want to take care of me. Even for a simple bag, he goes on to take huge risks."
"Yup. Say, did he even check what was inside this satchel?"
"Probably not, given the way he acted."
She opened up the satchel for everyone to see. It was a sketch of Mikasa and Eren holding hands.
