I intended to get this chapter and chapters in two other fics up yesterday but...I got called into work for my third 24 hour shift in a row...yay...I haven't slept in three days!

Ugh...ok, here we go.

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By the time the night ended, Petra was wishing she'd worn flats to her interview; to be fair, she hadn't really intended to start work as soon as she stepped out of the office! The club was slowing down, the last song of the night was being sung, surprisingly enough, by the woman Petra had failed in seating earlier. Banana? No, Nanaba, that's what it was!

Petra watched and listened in a dreamy haze as she took a seat at her desk, leaning her head on her palm and closing her eyes to take in the sultry voice of Nanaba's voice. It was an unfamiliar tune, but it was slow and sad and full of emotion and Petra thought it was the perfect song to end the night with. When the song ended, the customers and members began to leave in a herd.

"That was so lovely," Petra attempted to redeem herself by complimenting Nanaba as she and Mr. Dok walked past her hostess desk. Nanaba smiled genuinely and thanked her before she was caught up in the crowd and followed the flow through the front doors. When the last customer was through, Gunther locked the front doors and sighed.

"Another day, another dollar," he said as he pocketed the key, Petra decided she rather liked the large man's deep speaking voice, "Ain't that right, Petra?"

She nodded in agreement, rubbing her feet underneath the desk. No more heels this high for work ever again.

"I think I need to buy new feet," she complained. Gunther laughed and jerked his head towards the bar where several employees had already gathered; Eld was pouring drinks for some of them while others engaged in conversation. Petra realized this must be the nightly ritual and she was eager to join in.

She and Gunther passed Connie and Marco as they were wiping down tables, Mikasa and Auruo were busy too, vacuuming and gathering the used candles.

"So how was the first night?" Gunther asked as they took a seat at a table near the bar that Connie hadn't wiped down yet since the barstools were all occupied.

"I loved it!" Petra told him honestly, "I really did. This is the best job I could ever ask for!"

"It's pretty damn chill," Gunther agreed, giving Eren a grateful nod as the boy handed him a beer.

"Would you like a drink, Petra?" Eren asked, smiling at her. She liked this kid's smile, it was full of mischief, but it was honest.

"No thanks, Eren, I have to drive home," Petra turned down the offer, "But thanks for offering. You all have been very welcoming!"

"Why wouldn't we be?" the blonde clarinet player, Armin, asked as he took a seat across from Gunther and laid his instrument case on the floor by his side, "You fit right in here. Did you like the band?"

"You guys are all fantastic! Man, when Mike did that trombone solo, that was awesome!" Petra cheered and then looked around for said trombone player and only then did she realize the majority of the band was gone already.

"Yeah, they usually cut out pretty quick," Gunther informed her, "A lot of them have second jobs to get to in the mornings. Reiner and Bertholdt work for the city doing demolition, Mike is a firefighter. Hitch, Krista and Marlow are in college so they have classes all day until they come to work here again in the evening. Ymir just isn't the socializing at work type but she's cool once you get to know her."

Jean and Sasha emerged from the kitchen, looking tired but smiling and, as soon as Connie joined them, the three of them bid their goodbyes and left as well. Soon, the only people remaining were Petra, Hanji, Eld, Eren, and Levi so they began to claim seats at the bar and nurse their drinks slowly. Petra sipped on a bottle of water to stay on the responsible side.

Auruo was still there as well, finishing the cleaning in his table section. Finally, he sat down on the barstool next to Eren and asked Eld for a bottle of water too. Petra watched him out of the corner of her eye, still pissed at him for what he'd said about her earlier to Nanaba...that swine.

"Hey, Bossard, how's it hangin'?" Hanji was returning from a trip to the bathroom and she claimed the barstool between Petra and the ash blond waiter.

"A little to the right." Auruo's reply was so nonchalant that it took Petra a moment to catch what he'd said.

"What the hell, man?" Eren choked on his drink and started laughing.

"Don't know what kind of answer you were expecting from a question like that..." Auruo shrugged like he was innocent in the matter, but Petra saw a mischievous glint in his eye.

"You're disgusting..." she muttered to herself...but obviously not quite enough to herself because Auruo leaned back on his barstool to look around Hanji.

"Oh, hey, it's the new girl," he commented dully, "Already thinking she knows what's what. Did you finally figure out the seating chart, babe?"

Petra's cheeks burned; not out of embarrassment, but pure rage. She clenched her fists at her sides and stared at the label of her water bottle.

"Anyway, it's been fun but I've got shit to do so, I'm out!" Auruo spun around on his seat and slid off to stand, "See you all tomorrow."

Everyone bid their goodbyes...everyone but Petra.

She was secretly plotting revenge.

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It wasn't too long after Auruo left that Petra bid her farewells to her coworkers and Levi, who informed her she did a good job, and headed out the back door to her car. She pulled out her IPod and put on some upbeat pop music to offset the soothing, sleep inducing lull of the night's smooth jazz and pulled out onto traffic, heading for her neighborhood.

She was getting into the music, singing out loud and bobbing her head and drumming her thumbs against her steering wheel, when she looked up ahead and immediately stopped all jovial activity in a split second. She recognized the person plodding down the sidewalk; there was no mistaking that mop of ash blond hair, that tall, lean frame and that wide-stanced swagger...wide enough to make her assume his "a little to the right" comment earlier had been a bit on the modest side.

What the hell, Petra? Why are you thinking about that rude, uncouth jackass's dick size right now?!

She shook her head and, against the tiny voice in her head, she slowed down to a crawl and rolled her window down, she noticed that the air outside was much colder and it smelled like rain and she felt a sudden desire to be helpful...but the desire to be a smartass was stronger.

"Hey, good looking!" she yelled out the window at him and he jumped in surprise, looking around wildly until he spotted her and he blinked incredulously, "How much would it cost to take you home with me tonight?"

God, Petra, what are you saying? She didn't really know, she just wanted to fluster him; it didn't work and he just gave her a wolfish grin and waggled his eyebrows.

"A studly, young Frenchman like myself?" he shot right back without missing a beat, "More than a simple hostess like yourself could ever dream of affording."

Petra laughed despite her distaste of the man and she was about to roll her window back up and go on her way, but a sudden and incredibly loud clap of thunder made the both of them yelp in surprise and the clouds broke, sending rain pelting heavily down from the sky.

"Get in loser!" she yelled, a feeling of pity like she felt when she saw a hungry stray dog came over her at the sight of her coworker getting soaked with his suit jacket covering his head as he ducked against the downpour. He looked out from under the material at her, his eyes questioning if she really meant it, and then he trotted into the street and slid into her passenger seat with a grateful sigh.

"Hey, thanks, noob," he said with a shake of his head that sent droplets of water flying through the entire car and then he grinned at her and winked, "But I'm still not lowering my rates for you."

Petra just huffed in thinly veiled disgust and sped up, rejoining the flow of traffic.

"Where to?" she asked.

"You can just drop me off a few blocks from here at the subway stop," Auruo replied simply, resting his arm on the door, leaning back and turned slightly so he could look at her better, "I'll just take the train from there."

"Auruo, you're in my car and we're apparently heading the same way," Petra dismissed his statement, "I can take you to your place."

"Naw, it's fine," Auruo seemed pretty eager to convince her, "I don't want to inconvenience you."

"Hey, it's raining out and it's late," Petra insisted, "And the last thing I need is you walking home in this and being an ass at work because you came down with pneumonia! You're already enough of a mean, cocky, nasty bastard as it is."

She slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized she'd spoken her thoughts out loud and she glanced over at him; he was staring at her in shock, his eyebrows were lifted so high that they were not even visible below his hairline. He looked genuinely affronted.

"What?" he asked incredulously, and seemed to lose his ability to form a sentence, "That's...not..."

"Oh, so now you lose your eloquence? Not so clever after all?" Petra's stored up venom from his actions all night were pouring out and he continued to stare in wide-eyed unhappiness, "It's alright...remember, we can't all be pretty and smart. Apparently some of us can't be either."

There! Ha! She'd finally said exactly what had been on her mind all night! She'd blurted out the witty retort she'd rolled over and over in her head every time they had made eye contact throughout the night at the club...but, now, the look of hurt that came over his face for a split second before he masked it made her triumph stick uncomfortably in her throat and she regretted it immediately.

"I deserved that," he assured her calmly, "I...really wanted to kick myself for saying that earlier, it was really rude and completely untrue. It's just that Nanaba and Nile are regulars and she sings for us often and...I just didn't want them to be upset about your incompetence."

Petra wondered how he managed to insult her even while he was apologizing...

"Shit, I mean...just...you're not incompetent...and you're not NOT pretty either," Auruo seemed desperate for her to understand his point of view, but he clamped his mouth shut after that last statement and looked out the window at the apartment complex they were passing by, "Oh, hey, this is my building."

Petra was more than glad to get him out of her car, the space inside the vehicle had become tense and uncomfortable and she just wanted to drop him off and get home to her cat and her bed and forget about how rude he was...but also how there was something about him that she felt she needed to know more about. She must be missing something, right? Everyone else seemed to adore him and get along just fine...what was it about him that earned their respect and admiration that she wasn't seeing?!

Auruo was out of her car before she even came to a full stop and he seemed like he wanted to bolt...but he sighed heavily and made his way around to her side of the car and leaned down through the window that she'd opened so he could speak, crossing his arms on the door and looking her square in the eyes.

"Petra, we got off on the wrong foot, I think," he said gently, his smug tone was gone and Petra realized he sounded like a totally different person, "I was pretty brainless tonight and I am sorry for what I said. If we're gonna work together all the time then we should try to get along, yeah? Can we start over?"

Petra blinked, struck dumb by his sincerity, and nodded. He smiled at her, a real smile, and it caused an incredible transformation, it made him look young; the lines at the corners of his mouth and eyes made sense to her now...laugh lines, not scowl lines.

"Thanks for the ride," he was saying when her brain decided to work again, "See ya at work tomorrow!"

He ducked under the rain, pulling his jacket back over his head as he headed for the apartment building's front door. Petra waited for her chance to get back on the road and she watched as Auruo fumbled with his key in the apartment door's lock, but as she pulled into traffic and glanced in her rearview mirror she saw him straighten up and watch her drive away...he trotted down the front steps of the building and began walking down the sidewalk again towards the nearby subway station.

Why had he lied about this being his apartment building? What was up with this guy? He was all over the place! One minute grumpy and rude, the next gentle and apologetic. He was a mystery to Petra...and she suddenly found herself wanting to know his secrets.

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Songs for this chapter:

"The Way Things Were" -Anita Marie

This chapter was supposed to be longer but I thought this was a good place to end it so I did :)

Read and review, my wonderful readers, I love to hear from you!