Eremika Drabble Prompt #6

Title: Truth in the Mirror

Rated: T

Summary: She found her darkest desire in the mirror

Notes: Submitted as entry for SNK RP Family Writing Challenge Theme #1 (Darkest Desire). I only wanted to write short drabble but (again) I ended up with a long one ._.

They say that a mirror always tells the truth.

Mikasa Ackerman stood in front of the large mirror in the hallway to her room, and pressed her palm on its shiny surface. Her reflection was looking back at her – a girl with quite above average height for her age, her shoulders firm, her body polished with lean muscles, the results of her everyday training. Her soft, raven-colored hair framed her rather thin face, adding color to her otherwise pale skin, its end was hanging just a little bit below her chin. Her eyes trailed, to the pair of black-grey eyes reflected in the mirror, a pair of eyes that were now returning her gaze to her – a gaze filled with wonder and curiosity.

A mirror is a curious thing indeed.

Mikasa had heard many tales about the mirrors. Her mother had told her when she was very little. She remembered only vaguely but that didn't mean she forgot. In one story, a girl named Alice passed through the looking glass to find a bizarre world, where everything was backward. In another story, an evil queen possessed a strange, magical mirror to which she would ask the same question every day: 'who is the most beautiful person in the world?' and the mirror would give the same answer, until one day a girl more beautiful than the queen appeared.

A mirror is strange thing. Why was it backward? How did it reflect things? Sometimes she wondered if she could pass through the mirrors and find another world, like Alice. Sometimes she wondered if there was another person behind the mirror, who waved her hand everytime she waved, blinked when she blinked, and returned her curious gaze straight back to her.

Sometimes she wondered if she could ask questions to the mirror, and if the mirror would answer her back – like the magic mirror owned by the queen.

What is your desire?

Mikasa drew a few steps backs, startled. It was a somewhat eerie whisper, more of a hiss instead of clearly spoken words, creeping on her skin like the mist of chill in a winter night. She turned around to see the person who spoke it, but could see no one. Unavoidingly, her eyes drew back to her reflection in the mirror. And as though in a dream far more absurd than her wildest dream, she saw her reflection parted her lips, and repeated the same question.

What is your desire? her reflection said, her lips curved and her eyes glowed with a hint of wickedness that she had never seen in herself. Mikasa blinked at the bizarre scene in front of her, but despite her surprise, she managed to open her mouth and answer. "I… I wish to protect Eren to the end," she said, somewhat numbly. Yes, it wasn't a difficult question to answer. Ever since six years ago, her only purpose in life had been set. She only wanted to protect that boy – the last of her family, and everything in the world to her.

Liar. You do not wish to protect Eren. You only want him for yourself, to stay with you until the very end, her reflection hissed. "No!" she shouted, horrified at the nonsense her reflection was spouting to her. Yes! said her reflection viciously, as Mikasa stared in shock, too stunned to react. What was this? Was she dreaming right now? What was this dream, with her reflection saying such madness in front of her face?

"No!" she shouted again, pressing her fist to the identical face in the mirror. Curiously enough, she didn't mimic her action right now – she stayed still instead, eyeing Mikasa with a disgusted look on her face, her lips curved up, pulling a taunting smile. You are afraid that one day Eren will leave you, she went on, as Mikasa drew back in shock. Why do you think you do not want him to join the Scouting Legion? Why do you think you are worried every time he said he wanted to see the world outside the wall?

"I do not want him to die!" she replied, desperately clutching both of her palms to her ears to stop the cruel nonsense from pouring in.

Liar, her reflection spoke again, her words slithered on Mikasa's skin like a snake – cold and vicious, and Mikasa trembled. "Stop," she begged. "Please stop." But the person on the other side of the mirror still continued mercilessly. You do not want him to join the Scouting Legion because you do not want to lose him. You worry everytime he said he wanted to see the outside world because you are afraid that once he sees that world, he will forget about you, her words only became crueler by the second.

You say you want to protect him, but all you want is to chain him down so that he will always be around you, because you are a coward who is too afraid of being alone. You are disgusting, Mikasa. You are nothing but a disgusting liar!

With all her strength, Mikasa curled her fist into a ball and hit the smooth surface of the mirror. A loud sound of broken glass followed after, as pieces of the shattered mirror fell apart around her. A sharp pain stung her where she punched the mirror, and she felt warm blood began to trickle out, dropping to the floor beneath her. "Eren is important to me," she said, looking at her reflection in the broken mirror. A pair of hollow eyes stared back at her, empty of any lives, unable to talk any longer. "He gave his life to save mine, when we were young. Now I will give my life to protect him to the end."

"Mikasa!" a startled voice woke her up from her thoughts. "What are you – why are you bleeding?" A sound of footsteps approached quickly, before a rough hand grabbed her small hand and gingerly examined her wound. She winced when his fingers touched her fresh cuts. "Did you just… punch the mirror? Why the hell, Mikasa?" A pair of dazzling emerald green eyes was fixed at her, perplexed and full of disbelief at her recklessness.

"It's nothing, Eren," said Mikasa. She couldn't possibly say that her reflection in the mirror was suddenly beating her verbally. "I was just… trying to hit a fly." It was a terrible lie, but it was the best she could manage, when her right hand was still throbbing painfully and dripping fresh blood to the cold stone floor. Like hell I'd believe you, Miss Obvious, he thought rather irritatedly at her answer, but said nothing more. "We need to treat this. I'll get the first aid box," he said, leading Mikasa away carefully through the debris of shattered mirror. "Careful," he said, stepping on the pieces of broken glass, which gave a faint cracking sound below his feet.

"I need to clean this," said Mikasa. "Yeah yeah, later," Eren replied. There's no way he's going to let her clean up the mess when she was still gushing out blood like a freshly slaughtered poultry. He sat her on a chair and kneeled in front of her, washing up the remaining blood from her wound. Afterwards he dabbed a piece of cotton with sterilizing liquid on her cuts. She bit her lips at the stinging pain, but said nothing more. It had been her own fault that she was hurt.

"Eren," she said as he pulled out the bandages, ready to wrap her wounds.

"Hm?" he answered, his pair of green eyes stared up rather curiously, and she felt, deep within her skin, a scarlet blush began to spread.

She didn't know how to start it. She recalled what her reflection had said to her. Her words were like poison – evil, vicious, destructive. And in the same time, they made her terrified. Because, deep in the corner of her mind she had begun feel – that maybe they were right.

"Nothing…," she finally sighed.

"What? You're acting weird," he replied, as casually as he always sounded. She could almost hear him laugh. She must have looked stupid indeed. "Hold your hand still, I'm going to wrap this." She nodded, and soon his fingers work quickly to wrap the bandages around her wounds, his eyes were full of concentration. He wasn't called the son of a doctor for nothing.

Mikasa drew a deep breath. Eren's presence, and the way his fingers gently wrapping the white fabric around her, brushing her skin softly, seemed to negate the poisonous words spoken to her by her reflection on the other side of the mirror. They might be true – she might be just a selfish bastard, who was too afraid to live by herself. She might not have wanted to protect him, after all – she only wanted him to stay alive so that he could always be by her side. She didn't want him to go anywhere, she didn't want him to forget…

Because her reality was wherever he was.

Slowly she leaned her head forward to rest on the top of his head. Breathing the scent of his hair softly she said, "Thank you…," her voice was small.

As long as you are with me, I can do anything.

Author's Notes: I took every single one of hate for Mikasa out there and turned it into a story. This doesn't mean that I hate Mikasa - just want to show that there is likely a selfish part of her which we haven't reckoned. In the end though, she decided to embrace that as a part of herself, and her undying love for Eren.

And yes, for those of you who have been wondering, this is also inspired by Harry Potter's Mirror of Erised ~ ;)