Thanks for all of the kind and motivating reviews! :) To the one rude reviewer: I don't know if you'll read this, but you need to calm down. It's cool if you don't appreciate my humor. I respect your opinion, so please respect mine. If you were being sarcastic, then I have nothing to say. Moving on, because Hange/Hanji's gender in the manga is unknown but portrayed as a female in the anime, I decided to follow the anime here.

Chapter 2: Her Eren-dar

8:33 AM

Eren scrubbed the window in front of him with true dedication, fully intending to do his best because he knew from previous experiences just how much of a clean freak his squad leader was—an OCD clean freak with a terrifying wrath if the job wasn't done immaculately. Wiping the beads of perspiration gathering on his forehead with the back of his hand, Eren stepped back to assess his handiwork somewhat proudly and nodded to himself in satisfaction. The glass was so clean that it shined. Now he had to clean the outside of the window, and unfortunately this was one of the few in the castle that didn't open.

Picking up his bucket of water and dropping the sponge and rag inside, he made his way out of the living quarters. He caught a glimpse of Reiner and Bertolt sweeping the hallway floor while Auruo and Eld were scrubbing the walls. Ymir breezed past him with a feather duster in hand, and Krista tailed behind with a broom. Passing by a room with the door propped open, he saw Connie chuck his sponge at Sasha's face and walked faster when he heard her indignant yell that promised revenge. He didn't want to be there when they got in trouble for goofing off. Sunday cleaning was serious business; the Lance Corporal took his cleaning just as rigorously as he did his training.

Striding out of the front gates, Eren squinted in the morning sunlight and looked around. It was a clear day, and there were a few people working on trimming the garden hedges and pulling out weeds. Locating the window he was halfway done cleaning, Eren marched over and returned the sneer Jean sent him when they made eye contact as he walked by. The gray-eyed boy snorted derisively—the guy was cleaning the stables and even petting the horses while he was at it. How disgustingly fitting.

Armin was working on the hedges next to the window Eren was approaching. The blond boy looked up and smiled at him in greeting. "Who would have thought that Lance Corporal Levi was a stickler for aesthetic appeal?"

Eren rolled his eyes and began to wipe down the window. "Yeah, he sure doesn't look like it." They worked in compatible silence for a while before the Titan shifter broke it with, "Have you seen Mikasa yet today? I didn't see her at breakfast."

"I think the Lance Corporal gave her the task of cleaning the bathroom." Armin replied, snipping away and humming a line from some folk song that the other boy vaguely recognized but couldn't name.

Eren looked over at his best friend. "All by herself?"

Armin frowned and shrugged. "Something about punishment for sleeping in later than everyone else. Can you believe that, Eren? Mikasa, sleeping in?" He gave a short chuckle. "That's impossible. I hope she's doing okay."

"Well," Eren began, unsure how to bring up what had happened yesterday, "the girls apparently drank a bit last night."

Armin's head shot up in surprise. "They did? It must have been Sasha's doing." He shook his head. Indoors, Sasha sneezed particularly loudly and Connie dropped a wet cloth onto her head. Her banshee-like screaming could be heard from a mile away. Their faces fleetingly twisted into matching grimaces before the lighter-haired boy returned to the matter at hand. "Wait, are you saying that Mikasa drank as well?" Armin's jaw dropped open incredulously when the other boy nodded. "How do you know?"

"I ran into her in the bathroom." Eren tossed the sponge back into the bucket and leaned against the wall, recalling last night's events. "She was crying and wouldn't tell me why. But she did tell me other rather…confusing things."

Worried and curious, the blue-eyed boy stood up from his crouching position and patted the dirt off of his trousers. "Like what?"

"Like how I always push her away and she can't handle it." Eren crossed his arms across his chest and furrowed his brows in thought, aimlessly scuffing the toe of his boot against the dirt. "Am I wrong for trying to show her that I don't need to be protected like that?"

Armin sighed as he pondered the question. "You know how Mikasa is...she's been like this for as long as I've known her. From what you told me about her past, she feels—"

"Indebted to me, I know." Eren huffed in frustration. "But I've always told her that she shouldn't feel that way. We're family and she already does more than enough for me. Being overprotective is the one thing I can do without. You've seen how…irrational she gets sometimes." He could feel Armin's calculating gaze on him and glanced up. "What?"

The blond hesitated, picking his next words cautiously. "You know that she loves you, right?"

Eren waved a dismissive hand and rubbed his lips absentmindedly, feeling a bit warm as he said his next words. "Yeah she told me that yesterday. After she kissed me."

"She kissed you?" The brainiest of the trio screeched, beyond surprised. Sure, Mikasa was bold, but he had no idea she was that bold…ah, maybe the alcohol had kicked in.

"Shh!" Eren looked around wildly, making sure that no one was within earshot.

Armin looked apologetic and dropped his voice to a whisper. "What did you say?"

"Well she kind of passed out before I could say anything…" The puzzled boy trailed off, squinting at something in the distance. "But I love her too."

"You do?" Armin was stunned, his reaction causing his friend shoot him a questioning look. "In what sense?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Eren scratched his head in agitation. "I don't get what you're asking, Armin. She's my family, so of course I love her."

"No, I mean—"

"You're a fucking idiot." A harsh biting voice interrupted.

"No one fucking asked you." Eren bared his teeth in a threatening manner at the unwelcome horse-face that was Jean. Since reuniting with all of the 104th Trainees Squad members who chose to join the Survey Corps, the two of them had been on relatively civil terms. He was also much quieter these days and tended to keep to himself—it was most likely because he was still recovering after Marco's unexpected death. So then why was the guy suddenly being so hostile? "Get back to work."

The taller boy scoffed and looked down his nose at the boy who had unknowingly stolen all of the affections of the most beautiful girl Jean had ever laid eyes upon. And that was unforgivable. "You don't understand Mikasa at all. You don't deserve her."

"What do you mean?" Eren shot back, exasperated. "I've known her for years! In fact, I think it's safe to say that I know her best!"

"You must be blind then." Jean returned with a barking laugh. "Did your eyes grow on your ass instead?"

"What the—" The dark-haired boy began, his eyes sparking with murderous intent as he clenched his fists at his sides.

Seeing that things were already spiraling out of control, Armin hastily stepped in between the two boys who were angrily sizing each other up and waiting for the other to swing out a fist first. "Eren, calm down. Jean, can't you explain it to him in a nicer way? Your malice is uncalled for."

Jean threw his hands up in the air in contemptuous disbelief. "Does he seriously need someone to explain it to him when it's so glaringly obvious to the point that it's painful for me to watch?"

"What's he talking about, Armin?" Eren asked, genuinely bewildered. With a determined square of his shoulders, Armin prepared to open up his oblivious eyes to a whole new world. Gardening could wait—this might even be a greater shock than the first sighting of the Colossal Titan.

9:42 AM

Mikasa wiped down one of the many shower stalls with precise strokes, working efficiently with a rag in each hand. She was used to cleaning and quite good at it, so it hadn't fazed her in the least when the Lance Corporal ordered her to clean the bathroom on her own as punishment for sleeping in. She was angry at herself for sleeping in and even angrier for drinking the night before—but her pride hadn't allowed her to back down from Ymir's challenge. She had consumed enough to make her crash from both exhaustion after a long week and light headedness, but aside from waking up more tired than usual, she felt fine. No headache or hangover of any sort. Sighing and scrubbing even harder, Mikasa silently vowed to never place herself in such a situation again. Well, at least she had a pleasant dream involving a certain someone; just thinking about it made her cheeks turn pink. She released her hold on one rag to clutch the scarf around her neck.

"Mikasa!" Sasha popped her head into the doorway, beaming happily. "Just thought I'd check on you. I'm almost done with the room I'm working on, so I'll help you in a bit!" Something bounced off the back of her head. Eyes twitching in irritation, Sasha swung around and called down the hallway to the perpetrator who was definitely snickering. "Connie, you're dead!" She turned back to Mikasa, who was looking back at her with a faintly amused tug of her lip.

"He's so annoying." Sasha supplied with a roll of her eyes before shouting down the hallway again. "Hey, actually you finish up the room okay? I'm going to help Mikasa." Turning a deaf ear to Connie's loud cries of protest, she set down her cleaning supplies.

"You really don't need to, I'm doing just fine." Mikasa assured her.

"Don't be silly, I want to help! And besides, last night was for the most part my fault." Sasha admitted sheepishly as she started mopping the floor. "I promised Eren that it would never happen again."

Perking up at the sound of his name, Mikasa glanced at the girl in interest. "Eren?"

"Mhm." Sasha said in affirmation. "Oh, and please don't get mad, but I heard everything that happened in here." Noticing that Mikasa was frozen in place, Sasha quickly added, "I was worried, but I'm glad that Eren was around to take care of you."

"Here." Mikasa echoed a bit distantly, her eyes glazing over. They flickered over on their own accord to the tiles she had seen in her dream. She blinked a few times before dropping the rags in hand and walking over to the other girl, grabbing onto her shoulders to look her in the eyes. "You're saying that you heard everything?"

"Um, yes?" Sasha forced a meek smile, inconspicuously wincing under Mikasa's intense scrutiny.

Her hands fell down to her sides, a look of utter defeat on her usual serene face. "So it wasn't a dream." Her hands came up to cover her eyes in mortification. "I told Eren that I…and I did that…?"

Knowing exactly what the girl before was referring to and mentally chastising herself for babbling, Sasha put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Mikasa, I'm sure he understands. He must love you too."

The elite soldier dropped her hands, and the glutton was shocked to see tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. "No…it's not the same." Comprehension dawned on Sasha's face, but she was abruptly silenced when she opened her mouth to offer words of comfort.

"It doesn't matter." Mikasa stated rigidly, shaking her head. "Now isn't the time for me to be burdening Eren with my feelings. He has much bigger things to worry about, greater responsibilities to shoulder in this war we're fighting and I want to help him, not add to his stress. What was I thinking?"

"I guess you weren't." Sasha daringly joked in an attempt to lighten up the damp mood. When she received a warning glare, she dropped the humorous tone and continued on a serious note. "Mikasa, it's exactly because we're in the midst of war that you shouldn't hide your feelings. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? After nearly…" She took a deep breath. "Getting eaten back there at storage headquarters, if I've learned anything from it, it's that we have to live in the moment. Oh, and train hard to wipe out the Titans in the long run because I'll never forgive myself for surrendering to that creature, but yeah. Live in the moment." She concluded her small pep talk with a bright smile that was contagious.

Mikasa flashed a rare smile in return, mulling over the girl's (surprisingly) wise words. "Thank you, Sasha."

The brunette shrugged, her grin growing wider. "Everyone seems to be thanking me these days. It feels weird to be appreciated like this." Her flighty eyes darted over to the doorway. "Who's cleaning the kitchen? You think I can successfully steal some bread?"

11:30 AM

"Okay brats, it's lunchtime!" Levi announced from where he stood in the middle of the main hallway. He turned to Petra and Gunther as they approached him from behind. "Go tell the brats outside that I'll be doing inspections while they eat. Thirty minutes." The two nodded and made their way to the front doors, careful to sidestep buckets, cleaning supplies, and people who were frantically doing last-minute touchups.

"Man, finally! I'm starving!" Connie declared to no one in particular, carrying his bucket to dump out the water.

"Did someone say lunchtime?" Sasha bounded out from the bathroom, a look of pure excitement on her face. Feeling something wet dripping from her mouth, she carelessly wiped away the drool. "Come on, Mikasa! Let's go eat!" Without waiting for the other girl to respond, the brunette took off for the kitchen, crashing into Connie on the way but too one-track minded to apologize.

Mikasa followed Sasha out, turning under the doorway to give the bathroom one last look. She hoped that everything met the Lance Corporal's exceedingly high expectations. Tugging off the bandana she had used to keep her hair back and out of her face while cleaning, she stuffed it into her pocket just as Eren and Armin appeared down the hall. She had sensed him approaching even from such a distance—call it her own personal Eren-dar.

And of course, they immediately locked eyes.

Suddenly feeling strangely shy, Mikasa averted her gaze and started to walk ahead of them towards the kitchen. She could feel his eyes intently boring into the back of her head but chose to keep up her pace. Internally slapping herself, she sharply turned the corner and entered the kitchen. Why was she even avoiding him? Sasha was right, so why was she trying to hide instead of confronting him like she usually didn't hesitate to do?

Pushing aside those thoughts for the time being, Mikasa peered over Krista's head to see what was displayed on the counter for lunch and spotted a tray of baked potatoes. Someone must be happy. While some people enjoyed them, potatoes weren't her favorite so she went directly for the vegetables and bread.

"It feels like my birthday!" The potato monster shouted gleefully, her plate hosting a mountain of potatoes. There had to be at least five.

"Can you be any less attractive?' Connie muttered with a roll of his eyes.

Mikasa was very aware that Eren was standing directly across from her and helping himself to a loaf of bread, but kept her eyes downcast as she hurriedly picked up a fork and walked over to the tables. She knew that he was following her with his eyes and blushed, pulling up the scarf a little higher.

Before she knew what she was doing, she set down her plate next to Sasha's and looked at all of the faces around the table. Sasha, Ymir, and Krista all stared back at her in stark astonishment, some more outright than others.

"You're not sitting with Eren and Armin over there?" Sasha tilted her head towards the table the three of them usually sat at.

"No." Mikasa swiftly sat down. "It's good to change things up every once in a while, right?"

When everyone just blinked at her, Mikasa turned expectantly to Sasha. The brunette swallowed the chunk of potato in her mouth and cleared her throat. "Uh, right."

Krista took a bite of her bread and chewed as she watched Mikasa thoughtfully. "Why are you avoiding your friends?" The blonde glanced over at the table Eren and Armin just sat down at and giggled. "Eren looks like he's about to blow a fuse…he keeps staring at you."

Mikasa stilled for a few seconds, wondering if she should give in and look over but decided against it and instead began picking at the greens with her fork, her lips set in a stubborn line. "I'm not avoiding them."

"Sure you're not." Ymir drawled, popping the rest of her potato into her mouth and obnoxiously smacking her lips. "Got into a fight?"

"No." The black-haired girl adamantly denied, still poking at her vegetables. "I don't want to talk about it."

Ymir tsked and clicked her tongue, but didn't say anything more. She honestly didn't care at all; it was just sadistic fun for her to relish in the miseries of others. Krista was still watching her with knowing eyes, and Sasha was sneaking pitying glances at her every now and then. They were all getting on her nerves. Mikasa ruthlessly stabbed a carrot and put it into her mouth, chewing and swallowing but not really tasting.

A few tables down, Eren was fuming as he repeatedly and restlessly butchered the same piece of lettuce with his fork, smashing it into smaller and smaller fragments. Sitting across from him, Armin watched in quiet amusement, taking a casual sip of water. From the next table over, Jean didn't bother hiding his amusement and snickered. "Even attacking vegetables now, are we? You should keep that temper of yours in check."

"Shut up." Eren snarled without taking his glare off of his plate. He was going to destroy, completely annihilate this stupid piece of lettuce.

"Why the hell are you even angry?" Jean set his mug down, arching a mocking eyebrow. "I just told you the truth, even though it pained me to do so."

Eren remained silent, still furiously hacking away. Deciding that he'd let him go on for enough, Armin reached across the table and grabbed Eren's arm, stilling his movements. "Calm down, Eren. Mikasa just isn't ready to face you yet after what happened yesterday. Give her some time, okay?"

"That's not what I'm angry about." He growled under his breath.

"Then what is it?" Armin prompted patiently. Fed up with this conversation, Jean switched his attention back to his food. He really couldn't understand how anyone could stand being around the moody moron; his respect and compassion for Armin and Mikasa grew infinitely.

Before Eren could say anything, a booming ecstatic voice from the kitchen entrance carried over all of the lunchtime ruckus. "Oh Ereeeeeeeeeeen! Where are you, kid?"

The gray-eyed boy visibly cringed but stood up and waved over the leader of the 4th squad. "I'm here."

"My Titan shifter!" Unable to contain her delight, Hange briskly crossed the dining room to grasp Eren's arms in an iron hold, her eyes twinkling. From the other side of the room, Mikasa's head whipped over. Her eyes zeroed in on Hange's grip. "Ready for some experimenting?"

"Oh, right that's today." Eren gestured to his nearly untouched plate of food. "Armin, can you take care of this for me?" The blond boy nodded and gave him a stern we-are-not-finished-talking look that Eren ignored. The dark-haired boy saluted the Titan scientist. "I'm ready."

"Excellent! I have permission from shorty to kidnap you for the afternoon. I was thinking that we could work on figuring out how to completely shift without fail using different stimuli to get you into action…we didn't get any fruitful results last week, but I have high hopes that our efforts will pay off in due time!" Hange led him towards the exit, smiling amiably at all of the other Survey Corps members ogling them from their seats. They weren't even trying to be discreet about it.

Listening to the researcher's optimistic words made Eren feel hopeful as well. With these experiments, perhaps he could eventually obtain full control over his Titan body; this was essential to progressing towards a brighter future for the human race. His chest tightened, and he reminded himself to breathe. No pressure or anything.

Hange was still droning on; she was as passionately obsessed with Titans as Sasha was with food. Eren briefly tuned her out as his gaze landed on Mikasa sitting at the table by the door. She looked up at that exact moment, narrowed her eyes, grabbed her loaf of bread, and stalked over purposefully. Sasha, Krista, and Ymir watched in uninhibited fascination.

Dutifully saluting the squad leader before turning to Eren, Mikasa proceeded to forcefully shove the bread into his mouth. "You need to eat if you're going to train!"

Hange chuckled while Eren struggled in vain to speak with his mouth full. Taking a big bite and yanking out the rest, the embarrassed boy fixed her with a flustered look for being treated this way in front of a superior. "Fine, I'll eat this." Softening, he hesitated before adding, "Thanks."

Mikasa nodded, skillfully masking her surprise. The way he was looking at her was unfathomable; she had a feeling he was tacitly trying to convey something…but what? Hange sighed wistfully and looked between the two of them a bit regretfully. "Alright Eren, let's get moving. We have many experiments to go through."

"May I ask what kind of experiments?" Mikasa asked steely, her protective nature seeping into her voice.

Hange's eyes lit up, and Eren, all too familiar with that pleased and even bordering smug look, hastily grabbed the researcher's arm. "No, Mikasa, you really don't want to ask. I'll let you know later, we're going now!" He desperately wanted to add "I need to talk to you," but that wouldn't be quite appropriate at the moment given the audience and circumstance.

As she allowed Eren to tow her out the door, Hange called cheerfully over her shoulder, "If you're interested, we can talk later! Come find me!"

He was going to make sure that didn't happen; no one deserved to suffer through that torturous lecture. Shuddering at that memory, Eren bitterly wished that he had kept his mouth shut back then.

"Four eyes." Scowling, Levi beckoned them over to where he was inspecting the wall. "Don't hold back on these experiments now." He trained his cool gaze on Eren. "And you, get it done, you hear? I'm sure I don't need to tell you again just how many people are depending on you." It was an order.

"Yes sir!" Eren saluted with a determined nod. He couldn't afford to let anyone down; with the 57th expedition a mere three weeks away, he needed to do everything he could and more now. His mind drifted off to picture a girl with shimmering dark eyes and full pink lips wearing his scarf. There were things he had to clear up with her soon.

So this made me think about just how hard it must have been to clean without Windex. The following chapter will be up next week!