Eren woke up earlier than he expected given the night before. It was still morning – and not just technically morning; it was only just after nine. Somehow, in spite of everything, he had woken up feeling well-rested. He stretched out lazily on his bed and yawned. He only gave himself a few moments to continue to lay in bed since it sounded like he was awake before Mikasa and there was no way in hell he was going to let her make breakfast for herself (or do anything for herself, really). She needed to rest up and get better.

He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair before throwing a sweatshirt on over the clothes he'd borrowed from Hanji. He hadn't even bothered changing out of them since it was just a t-shirt and sweatpants.

Eren shuffled over to the door of his bedroom to head to the living room. From the corner of his eye he caught the newspaper clipping he had pinned above his desk – a story from the local newspaper about the Survey Corps with a decently-sized image of the four of them standing together. And that was when it really came rushing back.

I totally got off in their shower thinking about Levi and Levi totally heard me. Fuck. He probably thinks I'm a total pervy weirdo fanboy. I mean, I kind of am I guess... but fuck if I would have done that if I remembered that he had crazy good hearing. How did I freaking forget that?

Eren's head connected with his door making a dull thud noise.

He pushed it open and went to the kitchen to start making breakfast. Contrary to popular belief (or at least Horseface's belief), he was actually really good at cooking. Having spent so many years living with only Mikasa he had become very skilled at making relatively healthy meals on the fly and had become good at cooking in general. Opening up the fridge he scanned it for what they had; he really needed to go grocery shopping.

"The milk is expired, Eren." Armin's voice came out of the radio on the kitchen counter.

"It expired yesterday. It's still totally fine." Eren grabbed the tablet off of the coffee table in the living room again and propped it up on the counter as he started to pull out ingredients.

"Humans are incredibly susceptible to food-borne pathogens."

"Armin, it expired yes-ter-day. It smells totally okay and it's not lumpy at all. Jeez."

"Mikasa isn't in perfect health, Eren." Armin's avatar glared at him from the tablet screen. Eren still couldn't believe what a good job Marco had done in creating Armin. Not only was he an incredibly advanced AI with a highly realistic emotions cortex, the avatar was incredibly realistic as well. He'd have to thank Marco again the next time he saw him.

"Okay, okay. I'll thin out the eggs with water and put some more cheese in."

Eren set about making omelets; two huge handfuls of cheese in with the eggs along with chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and some slightly squishy bell peppers. He popped some bread into the toaster and began to brown some sausages in another pan. From his sister's room he could hear Armin telling her to wake up and eat some breakfast. He was bouncing back and forth trying to keep on top of everything so that the omelets and toast didn't burn and the sausages cooked evenly.

"Holy crap, Eren. This is amazing."

Mikasa was standing at the entrance to the kitchen. Her hair was a mess and she was wearing a neck brace. She also had gauze wrapped around her right forearm and another piece taped to her forehead. She limped slightly as she moved towards the kitchen table to sit down.

"Nope. Not allowed." Eren moved in front of her.

"What the fuck, Eren? Let me sit down."

"No, you're going to lay down on the couch and I'm going to bring breakfast to you there. You need to rest and you're going to be more comfortable there."

"You're getting back at me for all the times I babied you when you were sick or hurt, aren't you?"

"Clearly." Eren grinned back at her. "Five minutes to food. Sit your ass down and pick out something to watch."

Mikasa grumbled under her breath but went to the couch without any further argument. She lounged out across the whole couch and put her feet up, ensuring that Eren wouldn't be able to sit down with her. She turned the television on and started flipping through channels while Eren finished cooking and plated their food. He walked in and glared at Mikasa who was resolutely looking away from him and at an infomercial for an exercise machine that looked like a torture device.

"So do I get to sit down or what?"

"You're the one who said to get comfy."

"Mikasaaaaaaa. I made you breakfast. Unless you move your feet I will put it downstairs for the Robinsons' dogs."

"Alright, alright." Mikasa shifted into a sitting position so that she could eat the food on the coffee table.

"Do you want anything to drink? We're out of milk but I think there's some orange juice."

"Water's fine."

An hour later they were both sitting quietly watching television. Breakfast dishes had been dumped unceremoniously in the sink to be dealt with later. For now it was just the two of them curled up watching television together for the first time in a month.

Mikasa was the first to break the comfortable silence. Turning towards Eren she began to speak.

"About last night..."

"I'm fine."

"Eren, you could have been seriously hurt. Why didn't you call me?"

"I had my phone out and I was going to... and then I dropped it in one of the stickleback tanks." Mikasa was staring at him incredulously.

"You dropped your phone in a fish tank?"

"Yeah. It's not like we live that far away and nobody had so much as looked at me funny in weeks so I thought that it would be okay."

"Eren..."

"I'm just sick of having you fly me everywhere as soon as it gets a little dark out. I'm sick of being kidnapped and being a supervillain's pawn. I just wanted to fucking walk home and then those fuckers showed up."

Mikasa sighed heavily and looked back at the screen. Minutes passed by as they both stared ahead not really seeing what was on television.

"Stop worrying, you ended up worse off than I did. Armin told me that you took a bad hit to your neck… Are you feeling okay?"

"I suppose I feel as well as can be expected after nearly having my neck broken. Mainly I'm just pissed off that I'm not going to be able to do anything for a few weeks. Armin said I shouldn't leave the apartment unless absolutely necessary for the next week and after that I need to take it easy for a few more. It looks like I'm going to be on the sidelines for a month. No superhero-ing for me."

"I'm really sorry."

"It's not your fault. You didn't do this to me."

"I should have figured out another way to contact you."

"You didn't know anything was going to happen. You couldn't have." Mikasa smiled a little bit. "Unless you're a Titan, huh?"

"Haha. Yeah, that's me. I'm Mr. Titan and I'm here to break your neck and eat you." She rolled her eyes at him and tried to hide a smile. Eren paused for a moment and continued on in a more serious tone. "That reminds me, they're a big group, not just those three. At least that's what it sounded like according to Han – Dr. Scientist and The Hawk."

"Wait. What? When the hell did you run into them?"

"Last night, they're the ones who rescued me. Well, they didn't intend to. They were actually there because they had intel saying that whoever kidnapped me was going to meet with someone important in the organization. So Le – The Hawk showed up and took them down and then Dr. Scientist came in and they untied me and carted them off. They even gave me a ride home."

I really need to clear up this names thing. It seems like it's okay for me to call them by their first names, but I'd never heard them before that so I doubt that Mikasa has either. I know that Mikasa is the exception and not the rule. Just because everyone in the superhero-supervillain world knows who she is doesn't mean that everyone else is the same. And there is no fucking way I'm mentioning the shower unless I have to.

"Armin told me that he'd heard from you and that you were okay a little after eleven and I know that I fell asleep at about a quarter to midnight and you still weren't home. What time did you get in?" Mikasa was narrowing her eyes at him and staring intently at his ears, just waiting for them to flush red.

"I think it was around twelve-thirty? Maybe closer to one?"

"What the hell? How could it possibly take you that long to get home? Did you end up out by the coast again?"

"No, it's just that I ended up getting bird shit all over me while I was being held hostage or whatever and they offered me a shower at their place since The Hawk didn't want me to be fucking gross when he drove me home."

"The Hawk drove you home."

"Yes. He did."

"You took a shower at the Survey Corps HQ?"

"Dr. Scientist insisted... though I think it was actually The Hawk..."

"They didn't do anything to you? No creepy experiments or anything?"

"Hand to god, Dr. Scientist didn't do anything other than offer me a shower and lend me the clothes I'm wearing right now. Armin would have picked up if there was anything weird with them so I'm pretty sure we're okay."

"So you spent time with the freak and the midget at their little team headquarters rather than coming home?"

"No, it's not like that." Eren started to flail his arms as he tried to explain what happened. "I was in the warehouse district and they weren't that far away but that's still a half hour from here and on top of the shower... well, it took a bit. It's not like I was out getting drinks with them or something. I'm pretty sure Levi wants me dead right now anyway."

"Levi?" Oh fuck. I didn't mean to do that. I was doing so well with names before that. Fuck everything.

"I'm going to go wash the dishes."

"Eren."

"What? The dishes need to be washed."

"Who the hell is Levi?"

Just drop it Mikasa. Jesusfuckingchrist, I think it's pretty obvious at this point and you should know why I'm not answering you.

"I shouldn't have said his name." He gave her a pointed look.

"So you're on a first name basis with The Hawk?"

"If my first name is 'brat' then yeah, I guess."

"He called you a brat?"

"Repeatedly. I guess I kinda deserved it at a few points, but I don't think he means anything by it. He's sort of an asshole anyway so I'm not really taking it seriously."

Miksasa was staring at him with her mouth slightly open.

"I also kinda need to return these clothes to Dr. Scientist and I'd really like to not run into this other guy they mentioned so I'd really like to go out soon and do that."

"You're going back to their headquarters?"

"Yeah, Armin also wanted me to ask for more information on the Titans. They definitely know more than we do."

"Fine. Take a shower and go. Pick up some milk on your way back. Get me some Cherry Garcia too while you're out."

"Will do!"

Eren walked towards the bathroom to take a shower so that he could head over and return the clothes to Hanji. He really hoped that whoever "Erwin" was, that he wasn't there.

Thinking about going back to their headquarters brought back memories from the previous night and stepping into the shower brought back even more. He was at half-mast almost immediately at the thought of seeing Levi in spandex again, but the memory of Levi's parting words to him killed any boner that he might have had.

He didn't want to run into "Erwin" but he really didn't want to run into Levi.