Chapter One: Oh, Universe

Bertholdt had been biding his time again, feigning practice in the training fields to get away from his comrades. He wasn't too keen on all the rapport talk and building too many unnecessary connections as it was. Thus, he found himself distancing away from most of his fellow soldiers for the majority of the time here.

Reiner, much to his dismay, happily befriended everyone left and right—anyone who so as much as had a pulse and could breathe air. He knew that any of that would be an act done so in vain.

They had a mission to fulfill first and foremost and any sort of relationships unwittingly established by any of them would lead to a compromised mission. They've worked so hard from the beginning they left their village and Marley would have their heads if they failed the mission.

Just thinking about how much the mission was taking a toll on his mental state made him frown in spite of himself. He grit his teeth thinking about how much worse Reiner was at coping with the amount of burdens they had to bare. The man was dissociating between two different realities for God's sake.

The thought made him sweat profusely again, he could feel the anxiety dripping off his psyche with each drop as he gripped on his swords. Now he found himself stuck in a staring match with one of the training dummies as he pondered their unfortunate circumstances.

Standing in the middle of the training fields having a psuedo-mental breakdown, that's when he first met her.

"That's not how you hold your swords," he heard a voice mutter out between the silence. It was a stoic voice with the familiar lilt belonging to that of a woman.

He trembled even more as he realized not only had someone witnessed him in such a volatile state, but a woman no less. He was never too good at speaking to anyone of the opposite sex and he found himself sweating even more.

Bertholdt shakily turned towards the voice and he felt as if he could die right then and there. He never had any real experience in speaking to girls, much less ones as pretty as this one. He was just about well enough to have a heart attack right at that moment.

"I-I'm sorry," He stuttered out in disbelief. "U-Um, I didn't, well, I-I...um, I didn't know you were around. I—"

Mikasa Ackerman stood across him in just within an arm's length of distance. Her visage was solemn and devoid of any particular emotion just as usual and she was geared up in her soldier's uniform. She gave him a strange look as if to state the obvious. "I'm always training. So, I'm always here."

The girl, whom he noticed from his many silent observations, was always a woman of very few words, something he could very much appreciate as opposed to the other two that completed that trio.

Eren was always boisterous and found every opportunity to scream his head off, whereas Armin, though a tad bit quieter than his counterpart still managed to talk more often than not. Mikasa, on the other hand, barely spoke.

She was as silent as she was dangerous, causing him to tread lightly whenever he so happened to cross her path. She was deadly. Her speech during their last mission when she called everyone out on being "spineless cowards" after Eren almost died showed him just a little glimpse at just how powerful she could be.

She was their class' top-ranked soldier, a beast on the battlefield that even made Annie shiver in fear. To know that this was how he would first meet her with him under tremendous anxiety made the embarrassment all too worse.

"O-Oh, well I was just—" Bertholdt began, trying to form some sort of response from the jumble of incoherent thoughts that was currently his brain. The truth was, he had no words.

"You hold the swords like this," Mikasa affirmed before placing her cold hands over his trembling fingers to move his sword placement.

At this point, Bertholdt was having a panic attack. Sweat continued to drip down his temples as he felt her small, calloused hands glide over his own. His heart was palpitating in a maddening rhythm and his face grew hot.

Skin-to-skin, he could feel her lithe fingers hovering over his before the warmth had left altogether leaving his hands cold. He wondered idly to himself why a sudden feeling of emptiness bloomed within his chest and why he secretly wished the warmth to return.

She stepped back to survey her handiwork. "There," she said with a slight smile. "That's how you hold your swords."

"Um, thanks," he replied in all politeness, trying to recollect what semblance of dignity he had left from such an embarrassing encounter. "I, um...Well, my hands always get a little shaky, sorry."

He caught a glimpse of her smoldering grey eyes, before quickly averting his gaze and lowering his head—both in an attempt to disguise the blush that had spread across his cheeks and to hide his shame.

Suddenly her outstretched hand came into his field of vision and she indicated for him to shake it. Gingerly, Bertholdt complied feeling how oddly comforting her cold hands felt in his. It made him feel warm again.

"My name is Mikasa Ackerman," she introduced herself as if he hadn't already known. They had been training altogether in the same squadron for two years now and she hadn't even spoken a word to him up until graduation. Perhaps she just never noticed him before. After all, people tended to do that anyways.

"My, uh, name's Bertholdt, uh...Bertholdt Hoover. Nice to meet you," he replied as he shook her hand gently. Her grip was strong and firm, but he expected that much as she was rumored to be one of the strongest soldiers of their generation, or so he heard. The thought in it of itself made him shiver.

Her eyes flashed as if in slight surprise as she seemed to piece the puzzle together. "Ah, Hoover? You must be the cadet that ranked third in our class, am I correct?"

She'd only ever noticed him because of his shaky hands. Those large, trembling hands that would hold a sword like a child unfit for battle.

Unremarkable and always blending in the background like a wallflower, it was a surprise she ever noticed him. But it was those damn hands.

It irked her to know that those very same hands that seemed so little experienced in holding a sword much less any weapon at all, managed to snag the third rank in their 104th squadron. So when she caught him training on one of the few rare occasions in which Reiner was absent from his side, of course she had to fix it. It was her only opportunity to.

"Y-Yes, I am...er, I did."

He watched nervously as her eyes narrowed in the slightest. "Knowing our rank, we will most likely see one another on field missions often. We're comrades, so please feel free to ask me if you ever need help. I'll see you around," she finished off rather stoically before ambling away, 3DM gear clanking against her sides with each step.

That was the first time they met and his impression of her at that very moment was a mixture of fear, awe, and fascination. So caught up in the flurry of emotions, he had forgotten to bid her farewell in her departure.

Had he known what he knew now, he would have never even spoken to her in that first encounter...