The night dragged by for Asuna. Despite slowing her breathing and attempting to clear her mind several times, sleep just wouldn't come for her. Meanwhile, the other scouts had seemingly zero problems snoozing. She glanced at the arm hanging down the side of the bunk above her and sighed quietly.
When the sun's rays began filtering into the room, rousing her comrades, she pulled herself up as well. It wasn't until she was standing that she felt the full weight of her exhaustion. Ironically enough, she figured if she were to lay back down right now, she'd fall asleep immediately.
"Tch. Of course," she muttered under her breath, dressing in her uniform accessories. Just as she had pulled on her left boot, Levi poked his head in.
"Hurry up. The horses are ready." He looked her disheveled appearance up and down before adding, "There's black tea on the table." With that, he popped back out. Asuna finger-combed her hair, suddenly self-conscious. Is it that obvious I didn't sleep?
After straightening her appearance for a moment more, she stepped out and headed to the kitchen. There, the rest of the scouts were up and having breakfast.
"Hey, Asuna! Get a load of this idiot." Jean greeted her and jabbed a thumb at Conny, who was leaving a puddle of drool on the table as he slept. The other scouts snickered, and Asuna covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.
"C'mon, let the guy sleep! He had a rough day yesterday," Eren threw in, and everyone erupted into uncontrollable laughter. As Asuna poured herself a cup of tea, she thought back to yesterday's hilariously unfortunate events that ended with a pantsless Conny tangled in a tree by his ODM gear.
"How did he even manage to lose his pants? That should be impossible with all these straps!"
"He's just extraordinarily graceless..." Everyone cackled as they recalled yesterday's incident.
Conny sleepily raised his head at the commotion, bread crumbs stuck to the side of his face. "Wha…?" He mumbled, and everyone burst out laughing once more.
Aware that Levi was waiting for her, she quickly finished her tea and wiped a tear of laughter out of her eyes. "I'll catch you guys later," she spoke as she grabbed a piece of bread, "but please be nice to poor Conny. He's trying his best, you know." Everyone giggled.
"Where're you off to, Asuna?" Armin questioned just as she reached the door. She hesitated, momentarily unsure how to answer.
She turned her head back to reply, "My gear's been acting up lately. Levi and I are going to replace it." At that, everyone seemed to lose interest. Silently breathing a sigh of relief, she headed out to where Levi was standing beside two horses. He turned to her as she approached.
"Finally. Let's go."
After a while of riding in silence, Levi asked, " You didn't have another dream, then?"
It took a moment for her to realize he was referencing her obvious lack of sleep. "Ah, yes." She confirmed his assumption.
"I see."
They fell into silence once again, and that silence held for the remainder of their journey. By late morning, they had arrived in Trost District.
After entering the city walls, the duo slowed their horses to a trot. Citizens of Trost looked on, talking amongst themselves.
"That's Captain Levi. I haven't seen him in a while…"
"Oh? Captain Levi is back."
"Levi's here. Who's that with him? Where are the rest of the Scouts?"
Meanwhile, Asuna was finally registering what she was about to do, hence her wide-eyed look. I'm...about to claim I have magical psychic dream powers with two of the most intimidating men around. What the hell? How did I-
"We're here. Snap out of it." Her thoughts were interrupted by Captain Levi's command.
"Yes...right." She shook her head slightly, hopping off her horse and gazing at the stone building before her. This should be interesting, at least.
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