As I was working on my other fanfiction for Eremika, I got inspire to write this one and another (soon to be out) story. Hope you all like it!


Chapter 1. The Dare

*Click, scroll, click, click, scroll*

She mindlessly types into the computer with uncanny diligence as it was almost a routine for her. She stopped only when her phone timer went off and she realizes that she had already gone far enough overtime that she was just a few minutes from hitting compliance.

She yawns then, closing her computer down, and gathering her stuff. It was 10:30 at night and the other employees had gone home a long while ago. She was the only one left. Not unsual as she was always the last to the leave the office.

It wasn't because she was slow at her job-rather the contrary, she already finished most of her projects for the week, but it was because she honestly had nothing to do outside of work.

She just turned 24, lived on her own in a simply apartment complex.

She didn't have any close friends, no boyfriend, hardly no social life- she had nobody really.

After years of shutting people off, and keeping to herself, she was a lonely person, but she was used to it.

Dimming the rest of the lights, she started heading home.

As she steps into her apartment later that night she welcomes the conformity of her own home. It's silent and almost completely vacant aside from a few furniture, books, and a television set to the side. If anyone else had walked in her apartment room they would have figured that no one truly lived there and it was just a model apartment for people thinking about buying an apartment.

Taking off her shoes, she walks towards the sink, prepares herself a drink of water, and then sits in her couch, deciding to open her laptop to scroll through whatever popped in her brain. She was usually restless at night and suffer from severe insomnia sometimes that the only thing that would help her sleep was late night internet navigating.

After unsuccessful searches and clicks, she found herself going to her company's social media page. To her great surprise she found that she had a message.

Oh, something in her sank when she saw it was just a mandatory invitation to the dance event her company was holding for Valentine day. She would have avoided it if possible, but her boss Erwin Smith had stressed that this event require the need of everyone and honestly no one dared to disobey Erwin's orders.

Legend around the company said that Erwin, the ex-militant CEO had a terrifying reputation when he wanted something, and absolutely no one could stop him. They say that the reason the company is thriving now really is because everyone else is too scare to mess with Erwin.

There's even ridiculous exaggerated rumors and tales on how he lost his arm.

Usually she just ignores them most of the time, seeing them being blown up far too over proportion, but she often did wonder how he lost his arm.

Scrolling further down the page she sees post made by her coworkers. All of them out having fun and posting pictures or videos of their activities. Seeing all of them having fun made her feel hollow inside.

It was in moments like these, when she was utterly alone in her apartment that she wished for companionship. She hated the loneliness in moments like these.

She wishes she had the easy caring life of all her co-workers. She wishes she had someone to talk to or hang out with. She wishes she could find the love that she had been missing ever since her parents died.

Hell, she really, really wishes she could find true love- like the ones described in all those romantic novels, movies, and songs. But life is cruel, and she knows better than to expect for that to ever happen to her.

Her loneliness becomes overwhelming in that second as she finds herself curling herself in a fetal position, clutching to the cushion nearest to her, and crying.

But her cries in the night are silent to everyone else, because how can anyone hear the cries of a lonely person if there was nobody around to hear it?

Maybe she got so emotional that night because that night after all was her 24th birthday.

Happy Birthday to me, she thought bitterly as she let her eyelids grow heavy and thick from the tears, until she had dozed off into sleep.


(A few days later)

It was around lunch time, and Mikasa was just preparing her 2nd coffee for the day when she overhears her co-workers talking excitedly near her.

"Are you going tonight?" One asks the other.

"Of course, I got the dress and everything!"

"It's so nice that Mr. Smith let's us do these stuff,"

"Imagine Erwin in a party!" One snickers. "I bet his beer tolerance is unheard of."

"You can come over to my house and we can get ready together-…"

Their chatter continued getting more excited as they continue anticipating tonight's event. Mikasa remains silent just stirring her coffee when Jean asks.

"How about you Mikasa? Are you excited about tonight?"

"Should I be?" She asks in return, although she asked genuinely curious to why she should be, considering it really was just a silly valentine's day dance- her coworkers found her tone rather rude as they instantly held disapproving looks.

"Jean, you know Mikasa doesn't do stuff like that," Marco says.

"Right, she's probably not going, she doesn't do anything fun. Right Mikasa?"

Mikasa stops stirring her coffee, narrowing her eyebrows at the others. Before she could reply Krista walks into the room and calls her attention.

"Ah Mikasa, Erwin wants to see you at his office as soon as possible."

"Okay," Mikasa sets her coffee down and walks out of the room, but she feels as if every one of her co-workers stares at her as she leaves. She hears chatter from them as she walks out.

"I feel bad for her. She's such a loner."

"She so boring too, like she never does anything-"

"She's like a robot" laughs someone else.

"Haha yeah she has like no emotions whatsoever."

She listens with a heavy heart as they continued mocking her. She wants to say that it isn't true. That if they only had a chance to meet her- to actually talk to her and befriend her they would see how she does have emotions. That she is actually a fun person, but when she thinks about her current life at the moment she realizes that maybe they were right.

She steps right into Erwin office, trying to bury the words of her co-workers.

"Ah Mikasa, good to see you, please sit- how are you?" Erwin grins when he sees her.

"Fine," She lies smoothly, effortlessly.

She doesn't sit. She did not expect the meeting to last long.

"Krista said you wanted to see me," she gets straight to the point

"Ah yes of course," he pulls out a file out. "I was just running reports on employees when I came across your working time Mikasa."

"Is there something wrong with my hours?" She asks, wondering if this was about the overtime she pulls every night. Maybe she clocked out too late last night.

"Not exactly," Erwin explains with a slight tilt to his lips. "It has come to my attention that you haven't taken your vacation time Mikasa."

Vacation? She almost does let out a slight laugh out. She has been working here for over 2 years and not once has she taken a vacation or day off.

"I thought Vacation time was optional," She mentions. "I'm fine not taking my vacation time, I assure you sir I'm quite all right not taking the vacation time."

"Unfortunately, Mikasa, not this time. It seems like its obligatory for an employee to take a vacation if they passed the maximum number of hours worked without a vacation. You pass that limit of hours worked, and although your work is rather impeccable, this is the governmental law and I have to comply to it."

No! Mikasa frowns.

Work was her escape route from going to her lonely home. The thought of spending more time than necessary at home was maddening and was beginning to fill her with dread.

"So, I take a day off," She suggests, hoping to minimize her time at home as much as possible.

Erwin chuckles. "God, you remind me so much of someone right now." He gets up and hands Mikasa a sealed envelope.

"What is this?" Mikasa asks, a raw panic coming to her as she took the envelope. "Am I getting fired?"

"No. Calm down Mikasa, this is just your bonus pay for your vacation time. It starts after today- Two weeks."

Two weeks….

She felt herself sinking into the ground. "T-Two weeks?"

"Yes. It's undebatable Mikasa. I want you to enjoy some time to yourself, outside of work, you've been such a good employee these past years, it's the least you deserve."

"But sir…what will I do for two weeks?" She asks, her fear must have been shown in her face because the next moment Erwin pushes the candy jar closer to her.

"Humanity is a wonderful thing Ms. Ackerman. There are more things outside these walls than what you've ever known. Visit some friends or family, or maybe even go exploring yourself. Don't they say that the sky is the limit."

She cringes at the mention of friends or family. Doesn't he know that she has no one?

"For one, you can start by enjoying tonight's event. You're coming right?"

She nods looking down onto the envelope in her hands. How can she survive two weeks doing nothing…-

"Excellent! I expect you to have some fun tonight Mikasa, and I will see you back here in two weeks."

"Yes sir," she merely says as she feels an impending doom lurking in her soul.


Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks….

The words kept repeating in her mind as the day drag on. She sits at one of the tables for the Valentine's event in a black dress. She couldn't shake those words out even after she went home to change and get ready.

The words linger with a sense of dread that loom further as she realized her vacation started after tonight.

Maybe she could run longer and work out more, she thought to herself as it was routine to for her to do so every day but she knew she still would have too much spare time in her hands.

Running a hand through her strands of long black hair, she honestly did not know what she was going to do.

She had to find a way to make the best of it. But how?

Her eyes now scan to the crowded number of guest at the ballroom. Her company was hosting the event, but many extra guests from the city had decided to come as well. Soon she realizes that she doesn't recognize a single person in the ballroom.

The event went on for hours, and although she found a few familiar faces here and there, nobody in the whole night had approach her or greeted her. And so the night drag even further. Sometimes she would catch herself wistfully staring at the couples in the floor, dancing, or talking very closely to each other. Even kissing.

She sighs, her eyes looking away from the couples. She caught sight of a table with some of her co- workers chatting up and laughing. They seem to having a good time with each other as they pass the champagne bottles around the table.

She remembers earlier what they mention about her. Hurt and slightly frustrated she thinks about her situation. Suddenly standing apart from everyone else, in the situation she was and did not want to be in, she decides that she wants to prove them wrong.

She takes one of the drinks from the tray that one of the waiters passing by had, and drinks it in one gulp. Her throat burns, and the taste is far too bittersweet, but she swallows it all down, squares her shoulders, and walks up to the table of her co-workers.

"Hello," she says much to the surprise of the others.

"Mikasa?" Jean face lights up almost instantly upon seeing her.

"Huh, well look at that, you actually came?" Ymir murmur stealing another sip of one of the bottles.

"Wow, you- you look- I never- you're hair is nice," Jean awkwardly mumbles, his cheeks coloring in the process.

"Thank you," She replies formally in return. "Can I …join you all?"

The others all glance between each other, hesitating.

"Of course, Mikasa sit!" Krista finally said, making room for her to sit down.

With a quick nod, Mikasa shot them a grateful look as she sat down. The others continued to stare in bewilderment at Mikasa for a while, until Marco started to talk about how he accidentally managed to dye his hair blue and that was the reason why he was hiding it behind his top hat. Soon enough they slowly began talking up again.

Mikasa tries to comment whenever she saw the opportunity fit to respond and her co-workers seem both surprise and welcome to the idea of Mikasa finally talking. She lost track of how many cups of wine she had as she sat there, but her mouth loosens significantly by the time the midnight hour was approaching.

"Didn't think you were the type to like big parties." Ymir finally says what everyone in the table was thinking but far too afraid to ask.

"I don't," Mikasa answers taking another sip of her cup. "But that is because no one ever invites me-."

Ymir hymphs "That's because you talk to no one, literally everyone thought you were some robotic machine."

"Ymir!" Krista shot her best friend a look.

"It's the truth don't you all act like you've never thought it before. Like for years, we knew all you did was work, work, and work. Honestly, I thought you were just a boring dull person, no offense."

"Ah yeah we sort of did," another co-worker confesses, snickering.

"So what do you do outside of work?" Annie asks her, narrowing her eyes at her suspiciously.

If Mikasa had not gone too far with the drinks, she might have answered differently, but right now she wasn't even truly thinking.

"Nothing. I go home and I go to sleep then I go to work. That's all I ever do," she blurts too late to take it back.

The others look at her with pity. Someone even laughs in the back. "Ha see I told you Jean she was so boring there's nothing special about her-she's like a Hermit."

She twitches now hearing, her hands clenching tightly. "A hermit?"

"Hermits, those things that hide into their shell all the time. Never taking risk."

"I do take risks," Mikasa challenges back, the hurt in the words making her act before thinking.

A few other laughs escape between the rest of the coworkers.

"Prove it then," Ymir comments leaning back on her chair with a smile. "I dare you to do something crazy right now."

"N-Now? Like what?" Mikasa frowns back at her, but still too booze to think straight on what Ymir was proposing.

Ymir shrug "I don't know-wait-," her eyes dart to the side. Her smile widens. "I dare you to go right up to that guy right there and kiss him-"

Mikasa follows her gaze to see a tall handsome waiter standing across the dance floor, with brown hair, tan-like skin, and vibrant green eyes, giving glasses of wine to a few of the guest.

"Him?" Both Mikasa and Jean blurt out at the same time.

"Come on Ymir that is taking it too far," Jean replies angrily to Ymir before turning to Mikasa. "You don't have to do it."

But as Mikasa glance between the faces of her co-workers and Ymir, she wanted nothing more than to wipe that knowing look from their faces, as if they knew everything about her already- to a point that it felt as if they knew more about her than she did about herself.

But they don't know her and she is not just a lonely and boring person. She is so much more than what the others think of her.

She wants to surprise them and dare them to rethink what they thought they knew about Mikasa Ackerman.

She gets up from her seat with a humph, proudly she walks off to the direction of the handsome waiter, not daring to think twice about it, she makes her way across the dance room.

The waiter had finally given the last of the glasses of wine to one guest, taking one glass himself, when he notice her walking towards him.

She staggers a little in her step now that his green eyes had focus on her, confuse.

What was she doing….- she almost did stop but her mind was made up and she couldn't back away now, her co-workers would've been right and she would have been a coward.

One thing she for sure knows about herself is that she is not a coward.

"Uh- Hello," she says once she's standing right in front of him.

"Hi?" The man replies still frowning, his eyebrows the same color of his hair narrowing back at her.

She is blushing ferociously in her spot, and she's sincerely hoping that he can't tell.

"So..I-" She starts but then shakes herself- ah fuck it.

Clutching her eyes shut, she steps up, grips him by the white collar of his shirt and pulls him into a kiss.


Please comment/review! Would love to continue this story.