Mmke with this ffn is not caught up with Ao3 once again ^^
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Tactics passed at a snail's pace for Eren. He doodled a spiral onto the margin of his notebook, adding a wavy line underneath. He groaned, head leaning heavily into his hand as he glanced again at the clock. He squinted at it. Oh, good, he thought. At least the fucking seconds hand moved.
He jolted as a finger poked him roughly in the side. "Ow," he muttered pointedly, glaring at Armin. "The hell was that for?"
"Eren, you heard what Commander Smith said!" Armin whispered back. "You and Corporal Rivaille are one of the most important jaeger teams, you can't not pay attention to the group tactics-" Armin fell silent, catching a glance from the instructor. He scribbled onto a piece of paper, tore it off, and passed it to Eren.
Those could save your life!
Eren tsk'd softly. yea I know but honestly Rivaille knows it all why do I have to bother even
Armin took back the sheet, frowning and adding something else before passing it to Mikasa. The paper tarried with her for a while, but it was eventually handed back to Eren.
That's not an excuse, Eren. He knows better than most that things happen. Tell him, Mikasa! You'll be out there too, after all.
Eren I really have to second Armin here for all we know the shorty could get eaten or something also you cant just rely on him all the time thats not safe and I wont be there to protect you Ill have to be in my own jaeger
Exactly. You have to learn this stuff!
Eren glared at them, scratching a whatever onto the page, grudgingly focusing on the board in front of the classroom, taking in the diagrams and various formations. Yeah, no, he was going to forget this in five minutes. Tilting his head, he snuck the clock another look.
Two minutes had passed.
I'm never gonna make it.
The phrase "saved by the bell" had never resonated quite so much with Eren before. The second it rang, he was on his feet, notebook and pencil already put away, and the only reason he didn't sprint to the cafeteria was the knowledge that that wouldn't change the speed at which lunch was dismissed. Instead, he settled for shifting his weight from foot to foot, impatiently awaiting Mikasa and Armin.
"You're not going to get to see him any sooner even if we speedwalk," Armin said as he approached and Eren turned to move.
"I- what?!" Eren sputtered. "I don't- what?! I want to pilot my jaeger-" (when, he wondered, had it become his and not the?) "-and get better at that so I can destroy the kaiju!" Seeing Rivaille wasn't even on the list of reasons. Nope.
Well maybe a little.
But Armin didn't need to know that. (From the raised eyebrow he got in return, Eren could only assume that Armin already knew) (Eren huffed).
"Can we just go?" Eren groaned. Armin smiled at him, and even Mikasa allowed a small grin as they headed down to the mess hall and acquired lunch. Eren wolfed his down, holding stunted conversation around mouthfuls.
"You excited, Mikasa?"
Mikasa pulled her scarf tighter, fiddling with the ends. "I guess… piloting is really cool. But…" her eyes darted over to the table where Annie, Berthold, and Reiner were eating, and then she shrugged.
Armin's eyes narrowed a bit, a sign that he was calculating something. Eren almost asked what, but was jolted from the sides by Connie and Sasha squeezing in on either side of him. Sasha reached out towards Mikasa's food, a pleading look on her face (which Mikasa didn't- couldn't?- refuse), while Connie began talking to Eren.
"So are you and Corporal gonna join us today?"
"Mmhm," Eren mumbled around a mouthful of stewed potato.
"Cool… I really want to see you guys fight, I've heard Freedom Wing has a special fighting style and everything…" he left his sentence hanging, prompting Eren to finish it. Eren nodded.
"Yeah, we do." He couldn't help the note of pride creeping into his voice. "It's super-effective, too!" Or at least, Eren thought it was… not that he'd ever actually killed a kaiju yet. His mouth twitched slightly into a frown. For some reason, he'd always pictured himself become a pilot and then immediately wiping out as many of the beasts as he could; clearly, reality wasn't going to comply with his wishes.
"Well?" Connie asked. "Are you gonna say what it is?"
"Naw, that's a surprise!" Eren said, grinning.
"Ey that's not fair!"
"Suck it, Connie. Anyways, I'm going to go to the bathroom now," Eren said, standing up awkwardly and shoving Connie and Sasha sideways a bit, so he'd have room to get out.
Depositing his tray back on the return stack, Eren left the mess hall. There were bathrooms inside, of course; but they were also the mess hall bathrooms. When given other options, it was generally the other option that got chosen. In this case, Eren had the perfect other option- the bathrooms in the piloting locker rooms. Sure, they were far away, but… well, he had to go down there anyways to change into his suit; he'd just do that earlier, and be prepared by the time Rivaille arrived.
The hallways were almost eerily quiet for a shatterdome of that size- only the lunch crew was still around (Eren almost wished he were lunch crew- because there were few of them, and they were willing to wait an extra hour for food, they often got specially prepared, good food). Eren's footsteps rang too loudly in his ears, and he was relieved by the time he arrived at the lockers.
He made a beeline for the bathroom, swinging open the door with more decorum than was strictly necessary-
-and found himself looking down on a handkerchief'd Rivaille.
"Uh," Eren said.
Rivaille straightened up from where he had been kneeling, scrubbing the white-tiled wall, and pulled the handkerchief off his nose, letting it slide to his neck.
"If you're here to take a shit, use the last stall. I haven't disinfected that one yet."
"I- okay." Eren felt a blush begin to creep up his neck, and he shuffled to the last stall. He fumbled with his zipper, and outside he heard the distinctive noise of a spray can being used, followed up shortly by the sounds of scrubbing.
What, exactly, Rivaille was scrubbing was a mystery, as the walls had seemed perfectly clean before. The stall was also spotless, even given that it was in the lockers and not the mess hall. In fact, it almost looked-
"But if you are taking a shit, don't miss. I did already wipe it down, you know."
"…why?" The question was the only thing that came to mind as Eren finished up, tucking himself back in and flushing. He walked out of the stall, greeted by several cans of cleaning product followed by Rivaille, who got right to work cleaning the space Eren had just vacated.
"What do you mean, 'why', you shitty brat? Don't you care about hygiene?" Rivaille paused, giving Eren a very obvious once-over. "Tch, I don't suppose you do."
"Hey! I keep clean!" Eren argued, hastening to wash his hands.
"Whatever, brat. Don't drip water onto the edges of the sink. And go get dressed, the dismissal bell's almost rung."
Making an exaggerated show of not dripping water as he reached for the towel (this earned his a flicker in Rivaille's eyes; what that flicker meant was an unknown), Eren grunted in assent and exited the bathrooms. The bell could be heard ringing dimly in the distance as Eren approached the glass panel in front of their suits, and looked for a place to pull the panel open. At some point, he accidentally brushed against it, but then the glass lit up, asking for his fingerprint. He pressed his thumb to the center of the projected circle, and the panel smoothly swished off to the side, allowing Eren access to the circuitry suit and the armor.
He hummed contentedly as he stripped and pulled on the circuitry suit- just like last time, it fit him perfectly, snug in all the right places. He jumped a little when Rivaille appeared (how had he learned to walk so quietly?), but busied himself with making sure his armor was strapped correctly and sneaking as many glances as he thought he could manage (without getting caught) of Rivaille in a skintight smoke-and-gold suit.
The others arrived just as Eren was pulling on his boots. He fistbumped Mikasa on his way out, noting absently that the armor she was handling now had a crest on it.
His anticipation mounted as he approached the giant head of the jaeger, and he found himself shifting impatiently for the second time that day. Next to him, Rivaille was impassive, merely standing at parade rest with helmet in hand. Finally, they received the clear to hook themselves in and begin the drift.
For all that the time previously hadn't passed fast enough, his time in the jaeger felt like nothing. Two spins, maybe twenty- tactical formations? Rivaille was dictating direction, and Eren was content to follow- and a light-hearted race with the other teams (Ymir and Krista, with Acrobat Historica, came in first, but Freedom Wing was a close second and Eren was fairly certain Acrobat had had a head start), and then the dreaded 'time to come back in' crackled over the comms.
Each jaeger headed to her respective entry hatch, and Eren watched wistfully as the ground rose up around Freedom Wing.
There'll be more time on other days, Rivaille said over the drift. Eren looked at him for a moment, before raising his eyes again with a noise of agreement. Those days couldn't come soon enough.
They were the last to arrive back, and consequently the last two in the locker rooms as well. Just as Eren was pulling on his shirt while heading for the door (his suit had already been put away), Rivaille called him.
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"Oi, brat, wait a moment," Rivaille called. Eren paused, looking back with a quizzical expression. Rivaille rummaged in his right pocket, fingers finally alighting on his sought item. It tinkled faintly as he pulled it out, looking over it once more before extending his hand in Eren's direction.
Eren, seeing it was meant for him, came closer to Rivaille, and reached out to take it- or, more correctly, them. The dog tags clinked together as Eren brought them closer to his eyes, running a finger over the embossed name and, on the second tag, double-winged crest.
"Are these…?"
"They've got your fucking name on it, of course it's yours," Rivaille said, but with no menace. Eren continued his inspection, nonplussed. "You're a soldier now," Rivaille added. Eren looked up at that.
"Does everyone have them?"
In answer, Rivaille reached around his neck, lifting up the chain. Unbidden, Eren stepped closer, and Rivaille resisted the urge to hide his tags or step away.
"You've got two!" Quicker than Rivaille would have expected, Eren's hand shot out, and he himself stepped closer, fingers running over Rivaille's dog tags.
"Petra Ral…" The name was a murmur on Eren's lips as he read, and Rivaille felt the familiar clench in his chest that heralded it. "She was…?" The question was spoken softly, gently, and for once Rivaille didn't mind.
"Yes. She was."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
A few more seconds passed, then Eren returned the tags, stepping back. He ran his fingers over his own tags once more, then pulled them on over his neck, grinning stupidly. "The wings look even cooler on the dog tag!"
Rivaille snorted. "Whatever. Let's just go to dinner, shall we? Unless you're feeling constipated, at which point the toilets are over there," he said, pointing.
Eren huffed, seeming bemused. "Dinner sounds nice," he said, turning and beginning to leave. Rivaille followed him, flicking off the lights as he went. His thumb traced absently over the wings around his neck; once his own, once Petra's. Yes, he still missed her, but- he watched the form of the brown-haired soldier in front of him- now there were three pairs of wings in circulation.;:
Then his stomach growled loudly, breaking off any thoughts Rivaille might have had. Dinner did sound nice, actually, he reflected. Then: I wonder if there will still be any coffee left…
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Full title: "Rite of Passage, or: Here are your dogtags, wear them well"
Someone asked about Hanji's tattoos, and I present you: . /_cb20130721070750/pacificrim/images/0/01/Newtons_ (remove parentheses) Newt's tattoos! :D Hanji's are very similar- the main differences would be wall-type pattern on her arms (upper arm, about halfway through is where the top edge of the wall would be, and the bottom gets cut off by more kaiju) and a vaguely more humanoid appearance to the kaiju (she is particularly fascinated by the bipedal ones). ((Yeah btw shoutout to minorthirds for the initial idea! :D))
Anyways! Um, OH YEAH. THERE WAS FANART IN the TAG AND I ASDFGH yeah :3 So y'all can go check that out if you're so inclined ^^
In regards to this chapter, I have no idea what I'm doing is basically the summary here? Yeah. Cool. :D :D :D :D /shot
[it's almost 3am plz ignore my comments] [i could probably write so much better if i wasn't sleep-deprived i am so sorry i will try and sleep before next chapter gomen gomen]