Burns and Stings
Disclaimer: I do not own Snk.
It was a hot, sizzling day, so humid that you can literally make a river out of the sweats the soldiers shed. In fact, it was so hot so that even the Commander Erwin gave permission for the soldiers to change out of their uniforms into shorts and t-shirts, including Erwin himself. Still, even in lighter clothing, the weather was unbearably stuffy and the soldiers could do nothing but just lie around, feeling like a chicken slowly baking in the oven.
"This is too hot! It's unbearable!" Armin panted, fashioning a fan out of paper and cooling himself with it.
"Yeah, and on the day of the break, too! Today we could have gone to the town if it wasn't so hot." Eren agreed.
"Maybe it would be cooler if we opened the door."
Shouts of agreement rose from the soldiers, and Eren slowly opened the door.
However, instead of a stream of cool wind everybody was expecting-well, hoping for- they were greeted with even hotter blast of sunlight. Eren slammed the door shut.
Everybody just sat in silence, filled with despair and hotness. In midst of red, weary soldiers, however, there was one person who didn't look at least at all fazed.
"How can Commander be so composed?" Armin wondered. It was true. Erwin, too, was out of his uniform, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, but unlike others, who were sweating and complaining furiously, he set calmly at his desk, signing documents and planning who knows what.
"Maybe he's hiding a water bucket with ice in it under his desk to dunk his feet in." Reiner suggested.
"He isn't sweating single drop!"
"I don't know about Commander, but I do wish for an ice bucket right now…" Jean groaned.
"I know! Let's still the ice bucket away from Commander and use it for ourselves!" Sasha clapped her hands.
"Let's play a game of rock-paper-scissors, and the loser steals the ice bucket away from Commander!"
"But we don't know if he does have an ice bucket…" Eren protested, but it was buried under Sasha's delighted yell.
"Okay…Rock, paper, scissors!"
Nine rocks. And a single scissor.
"Wait, that can't be right! You guys planned against me, right?" Eren cried out, staring desperately into his palm.
"You're the loser! Go do it!" Sasha pushed Eren in Commander's way.
"Whatever." Eren grumbled, and ran full speed at the Commander. However, before Eren made contact with Erwin, the door burst open another person flung himself at the blonde man.
"Levi!" Erwin said in surprise. Other soldiers gasped in shock. How could a person survive in this heat like that? Wait, no, was he even human?
Levi Heichou was dressed in his uniform, plus his full gear. He was stifling only to look at.
"Erwin…Too…hot…" He panted his pale face red with heat.
"You could have changed to shorts and t-shirts, you know." Erwin commented. Levi gave him one of his famous scowls.
"Like I could ever, you Eyebrows…"
And that's the time he fainted.
Erwin sighed and picked up Levi, bridal-style. The small man looked frail in the large man's grip, panting from the heat.
"I'll put Levi into his room." He told Hange, who nodded and shooed him away.
After a moment they left, Eren cautiously approached Hange.
"Um, Hange-san… Why didn't Heichou change to lighter clothing?" He asked. Hange looked thoughtful for a moment, and grabbed Eren's wrist, squeezing it tightly.
"Ow! What was that for?" Eren complained, rubbing at the red mark Hange left him.
"You see the mark? It's like that." She explained.
"Except that it won't disappear by a simple rubbing…"
Erwin carried Levi to his room, carefully putting the small man down on the bed. Thanks to the curtains which blocked out the sunlight, the room was at least breathable, cooler than the office.
"They won't say anything even if they saw the scars, you know." Erwin chastised as he looked through Levi's drawer for some cool clothing.
"Shut up…" Levi groaned, burying himself deeper into the cool sheets.
"I don't want anyone to see them…"
"Change into these clothing. You'll die of suffocation if you keep wearing your uniform." Erwin instructed. Levi followed it without protest, exchanging the long-sleeved shirt for the lighter one. His bare skin was red, not from heat but from his past battle. Ugly bubble marks marred the pale skin, a remainder of the heat the titans had.
And Levi hated those marks. Erwin didn't know why. Those marks were one of those which every veteran soldier would get from years of fighting titans. It was just that Levi had it worse than others.
He would say that his body was cleaner when he was in the Underground. At least at that time, even though he was covered in muck and filth, he wasn't covered in those ugly scars. But Erwin disagreed. But just because Levi hated them, Erwin would get the healing balm that would heal the heat-infused skin. He would bring them to Levi every day, for him to put the balm over his scarred skin.
But Levi refused. He saw no point in it. Why heal it when he was going to get another one as soon as it healed? Day by day, year by year, scars settled over scars. Levi hated them, but he also didn't let Erwin heal them. What could he do?
"I don't regret following you from the Underground." Levi suddenly said. Erwin looked at him in surprise.
"I don't like those scar marks, but they are worth it. Being in the Survey Corpse. Having you and Hange, and my squad. Able to see outside the walls. They are worth every scar mark I have."
"Sure, they are ugly and I don't want anybody to see it, but they're part of who I am now. I don't want them to be gone. I'll get another one as soon as one disappears anyway."
"Levi…" Erwin started, but Levi cut him off.
"Now shoo. I want a nap."
Extra story 1
*After Erwin carried Levi off*
Eren snuck behind Commander Erwin's desk. He leaned down and reached his hand out, hoping for something… And was rewarded handsomely.
"YES! GUYS, COMMANDER HAD AN ICE BUCKET!"
It was a miracle. Eren was called a hero, and everybody went for a dunk in the ice bucket. Just as the last drop of the cold water was splashed out, the door opened and everybody froze.
"Whose idea was it to steal my ice bucket?" Commander asked, and his words were completely sincere and his smile was warm…
Why did they feel a sudden chill?
Extra Story 2
The blissful ice bucket was now gone, everybody was back to lazing around in the room.
"Let's tell ghost stories!" Krista suggested, and everybody agreed, hoping for anything to cool them off.
"I'll start!" Sasha volunteered.
"So, it was a late night, but I couldn't sleep. So I decided to take a walk, but when I got off my bed, I stepped on something that was hairy and that twisted around my ankle…"
"So what happened?" Connie asked, feeling a slight goose bump on his arms.
"Well, I screamed as loud as I can, and somebody lit a candle, and I found out that I actually stepped on Mikasa's scarf." Sasha concluded. Shouts of disappointment rose from the soldiers, and that was when Eren realized something.
"Wait, where's Mikasa?"
Since morning, nobody has seen Mikasa. Eren was too hot to care about it until now. Everybody agreed to help. The whole building was searched, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Mikasa, where are you…" Eren mumbled worriedly, and opened the fridge for a cool water bottle.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A scream rang through the building, and people found Eren on the ground, staring panicked at the fridge. A person asked what the matter was, but only thing he could do was point at it.
"Well, what's in it?" Jean grumbled, pulling the fridge door open…
To find a pale corpse with black hair inside it.
A corpse that had a red scarf around its neck and looked like…Mikasa?
"Oh, hey." She said nonchalantly at the crowd staring at her.
"Inside the fridge was so cool…I guess I fell asleep."
*Genius Idea: Hot? Go inside the fridge.*
A/N: Okay...So I was writing this story about Heichou who faints because of heat on a hot, hot day...and his scars from killing titans...And Erwin who hid an ice bucket beneath his desk...Was it good enough? Please review! Thanks for reading!
