A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed and read up to Chapter Three. Here is the next chapter and I hope you all like it :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Attack on Titan
Chapter Four: Gymnastics
It's around lunchtime the next day when I head off to work. I got a job in a bar serving drinks at the very start of the summer and the owner offered to let me work part time during my final year in school. I only work for a few hours on the weekends but the pay is good and the work is easy enough.
My uniform is quite simple, plain white shirt and black trousers and shoes to match. The owner insists we leave the first few buttons of our shirts open, apparently it's appealing to some of the women who come in. I don't see how though, they're probably far too drunk to distinguish the handsome from the donkey-look-a-likes.
Pushing open the door, I'm greeted immediately by Petra. Her father owns the pub and she works most weeknights as well as at the weekends. She can afford to though, somehow, she always manages to keep her grades up.
"Good afternoon, Levi," she calls as she wipes down one of the tables. "Enjoying your weekend so far?"
"No."
My bluntness doesn't seem to have an effect on her. "Sorry to hear that, maybe work will take your mind off things."
"Doubt it," I mutter, hanging up my coat and moving towards the bar.
"So what happened?" She asks, popping up at the front of the bar, her honey eyes shining. "What's got you in such a sour mood?"
"It doesn't matter."
She ignores my response and leans in further, studying my face. "Did someone piss you off at school?"
"Everyone does that," I reply, beginning to wipe down the counter after noticing a spot of dirt on it. This place would be shut down by the health inspector already if it wasn't for me.
"Yeah, but it's never been this bad," she pauses and tilts her head to the side. "Is it someone new?"
"No." My answer comes out a bit too forced and I take a deep breath to calm myself. "Just drop it."
She takes the hit to back off, holding her hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, I'll yield. By the way, we have a new employee starting here. Since it's our final year in school, I'm going to only be working weeknights and she's going to be taking over my hours at the weekend."
This catches my attention. "She?"
"Yeah, she came in this morning and she's practising making cocktails in the back room. Although you're a lot better at it than I am so maybe you should go in and teach her. I'll get everything ready out here."
"We have fifteen minutes until we open up, how much can I possibly teach some brat in that amount of time?"
Petra gives me a small smile, snatching the cloth from my hands. "Trust me, you could teach her a lot, she's a fast learner."
"Tch, fine," I relent, heading towards the back room where we store most of the alcohol.
"And Levi, be nice and be patient," Petra warns me. "This one's a keeper."
"Whatever." I don't really care if she's a keeper or not. Petra knows the limits of both my patience and sanity and she doesn't over step them, this new employee probably will and that's going to make my job ten times harder.
Straightening my shirt, I push open the door to the back room and I'm instantly greeted with the last person I ever expected to see. Mikasa takes her eyes off of her drink-making, raven locks tumbling over her shoulder as she turns to look at me. I can see her eyes flash with the smallest hint of surprise, but otherwise her features remain neutral.
"What are you doing here?" It's the first thing I manage to say even though it's not the brightest.
She gives me a dead look. "I work here."
"You have a job," I point out impatiently.
"I need another one," she replies going back to making her drinks. "The rent doesn't pay itself."
"Tell me about it," I mutter before moving closer, observing her fast and precise movements. There are a line of cocktails set up on the counter, all perfectly prepared and all of them are on our menu. She finishes her twelfth one, beginning to move on to her thirteenth.
"Did Petra teach you all of these this morning?" I ask.
"No," she answers with a small shake of her head. "Petra taught me those two, the rest I knew from before."
"You worked in a bar before? You said you only turned eighteen last month."
"I never said I worked in a bar," she gives me a sideways glance as she shakes the tin container. "We didn't have much reading material when I moved away and one of the only things I could get my hands on was a cocktail book so I read that a lot and memorised most of the drinks."
"Is there any on the menu you don't know?"
"No, Petra already taught me the ones I wasn't sure of."
"And you know where everything is?"
"Yes."
I'm impressed but I don't tell her that. Instead I just nod once with a grunt and move to walk back out the door, about to tell Petra that I really don't need to teach her anything. However when I reach the door, Mikasa speaks up from behind me.
"Hey," it's a soft call but I still turn to acknowledge it. "I really need this job." She pauses and I can practically see her pride break and shatter, like a bullet through glass as she resumes. "So can we put aside our differences while I'm here?"
"Fine by me," I nod, eyes narrowing on her. "Just stay out of my way."
"With pleasure."
Without another glance back, I return to the bar, preparing for opening time. Petra is nowhere in sight, I assume she's already left. Now it's just going to be me and Mikasa running this whole bar every weekend, unless the manager decides to pop in every now and again. I have a feeling my weekends are about to get either a lot more interesting or tormenting.
Possibly both.
After Mikasa and I have locked up the bar, she leaves without a word of goodbye. I don't bother to offer her a lift, she clearly doesn't want one. So I drive away and a few minutes later I pull up outside my own home. It's a small two-bedroom house with two stories and a small back yard. Luckily, it's located in one of the safest estates in the district so I have no worries about leaving my car in the drive or setting a house alarm.
Opening the door, I kick it shut leisurely behind me and chuck the keys into the small bowl on the table. "I'm back," I call out to my roommate.
"How did work go?" His reply comes from the kitchen. I make my way through the door and grab a glass of water before sitting across from him at the table.
"Shockingly," I reply.
"Why? Were you fired?"
"No. We have a new employee."
He releases a small sigh and nods in understanding. "Let me guess, they know nothing?"
"The opposite. She knows too much for her own good."
"Much like someone else I know." He gives me a small smirk and I roll my eyes, averting my gaze.
"So how's the cold case coming along?"
Erwin Smith, one of the district's best detectives and community leaders, looks at me with tired eyes. "It's still as cold as it was when I first delved into it."
"So no progress then?"
He shakes his head, his blonde hair slightly dishevelled. "Not in the slightest. There's a reason this case is declared as cold as a corpse. It's completely dead."
"No leads at all?"
"No, this murderer left no finger prints, no murder weapons and no survivors behind. There isn't anything at all to help me especially considering he hasn't struck in over six years."
"Perhaps he died?"
"He's too cautious to die. The case proves as much."
I shrug. "Misfortune falls upon everyone."
"Well it has certainly fallen upon me," he sighs and takes another long gulp of his coffee. "With no leads, I will never be able to reopen this case."
"Why don't you find a different cold case to reopen? There has to be easier ones."
He pinches his nose and closes his eyes. "I wish I could. All the other aspiring detectives have taken the rest and I doubt they'd be willing to swap. We're all fighting for the same promotion."
"Certainly is a dog-eat-dog world."
"And you have it all ahead of you," Erwin smirks slyly. "That is if you're still planning on going down the detective career road."
I give him a dead look. "The excitement is killing me."
Monday comes quicker than expected and the first three classes move even quicker. I'm not arguing, biology with Mikasa is as tense as a cornered fox and I can't stop stealing glances at that bloody leather bracelet of hers.
Now I stand beside Hanji in P.E. while Coach Shadis deafens some of the students who are slacking. He has a silent respect for Hanji and I, considering we take on the most difficult ODM races and since I'm the captain. He doesn't punish us unless we've really pissed him off.
He looks pissed off right now as Historia climbs up on the beam, balancing well but her expression betrays her nervousness. She doesn't move fluidly as she does a cartwheel on the beam; her arms are too tense and knees are locked rather than bent. She hesitates before moving on to the next part of the routine, performing a handstand but her arms buckle beneath her and she falls onto the mat on the ground with a groan.
"Alright meatbags!" Shadis yells at the top of his lungs. "We've been trying this for the past hour and none of you have even come close to completing it. This is gymnastics for crying out loud!
I've seen little girls in pink too-toos do this routine better than you lot! You're nothing but a bunch of mummy-clinging pansies!"
The front row of students flinch as he spits on them and Hanji snickers beside me. We were allowed to take this class off in order to practise ODM training. Hanji is usually the one who likes to stop and watch Shadis eat his students alive. I'll admit, it brightens my day in some ways as well.
I think he's overreacting this time though. They still have another hour to complete the routine and not all of the students have tried it yet but then again, there are only three students left to try it.
One being the annoying Oriental.
"Now line up you fools," Shadis yells and everyone follows suit like startled sheep. "If one of you doesn't pull of this routine perfectly within the next five minutes I'm going to keep all your sorry asses back after school and we'll do this for five more hours until someone finishes it!"
Mikasa raises her hand. She must be brave or stupid.
"What is it, New Girl?" Shadis glares at her.
She doesn't bat an eyelid. "I can't stay after school. I have to work."
As she lowers her hand, every student tenses and looks at her as if she's insane. Shadis is silent for a moment, his glare intensifying until it looks like he's trying to make her head explode with his eyes.
"Well then you better complete this routine," he shouts as he stands right in front of her, bearing down with those dark eyes of his. "Or else you'll be back here with the rest of these pathetic excuses for humans until nightfall!"
"Fine." Her voice is dead, as though she's bored and then she brushes past Shadis as if he was a gentle stranger. He turns to watch her climb up onto the beam, crossing his arms over his chest with an annoyed sigh.
"God help her if she fails," Hanji says, taking out her phone and holding it up.
"What are you doing?" I ask her.
"Recording data for my experiment," she shrugs innocently. "This is the perfect time to observe her physical abilities."
I shake my head and turn back to Mikasa who balances easily on the beam. Her arms are by her sides, shoulders relaxed for once and chest rising and falling evenly. I can see Shadis' patience ticking away from the corner of my eye and just as he is about to yell at her to get a move on, she commences the routine.
Her cartwheel is forceful and fast, legs rising and falling quickly and silently. She doesn't hesitate to move into a handstand, arms not even shaking as she holds herself up. Her legs part and she manages to do the splits in mid air before returning to her starting position.
This is where the hard part starts.
Her knees bend and then extend as she propels herself into a back flip. Her arms move outwards, hair whipping and legs perfectly shaped as she lands without a problem. Not a second later she performs another one and then another before cartwheeling again and performing a sideways flip that brings her to the very edge of the platform.
To finish off, she keeps her body straight and in line with the beam before performing three backwards cartwheels. The momentum she builds is enough to allow her to launch herself high enough to perform a double flip before landing perfectly.
The hall is silent. The girls look like deer caught in headlights. The boys are drooling. Hanji is ecstatic beside me. Coach Shadis is shocked, he's completely frozen with his eyes wide open.
As for me, I can't really believe it myself. Her technique was flawless, her balance was perfect, her strength was unmatched and then she just jumps down as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Who the hell is this girl?" I mutter more to myself than Hanji, who is giggling hysterically under her breath as she reviews the video.
She doesn't respond, I don't really care. Shadis turns his head towards me silently, ushering me over with his finger. A feeling of dread settles in my stomach as I power-walk over to him. He looks down at me icily but I don't flinch under his stare.
"Get some ODM gear on that girl."
