ii. burning pinewood
Petra quickened in her haste to get back to her flat once she had exited the library.
She could smell him too, the moment she had first stepped into that unfamiliar hall in the guise of a chemistry student. Luckily for her, the girl with the glasses three seats away had offered to give her a spare textbook for when the professor would reference it. She introduced herself as Hange and Petra would often sneak a whisper towards her to ask for the spellings of highfalutin terms the professor riddled his speech with. By the time he was on to something about 'electrophilic substitution', she started to wonder why in the world she was doing this for Auruo in the first place.
Soon enough, the faint, peculiar scent of the forest became stronger, until it was almost unbearable. Petra looked around the room in a daze, knowing that someonewas the root of the problem. She had noticed him straight away, directly across from her, listening to the white-haired lecturer with a bored stare, chin resting on his raised palm.
He was handsome, Petra couldn't deny, but he looked sharp, and that normally meant danger. It wasn't just his eyes either. Though his bullet-grey stare was the most striking, his black hair also starkly contrasted with his pale skin. And that jaw-line.
Petra shook herself out of her trance, diverting her attention to the whiteboard. Auruo had said she didn't have to understand a word of chemistry to take down valuable notes, so she relied on her dictation skills to transcribe the professor's explanations as best as she could, sketching out the diagrams he provided on the whiteboard.
She thought she would never have to look at that boy again until she felt a pair of eyes glaring straight at her. She glanced up, surprised, and found herself locked with those same bullet-grey. But why does he look so uncomfortable? she thought. Before she could pin the answer down, he had looked away, as quick as lightning.
Must be a coincidence, Petra assured herself. Nevertheless, she kept observing him picking up his pen and then placing it back down, attempting to bury his nose into the crook of his elbow. Once, she caught him stealing a glance in her direction.
Turning back to the lecture, she scribbled down the new lines of equations presented on the board, choosing to ignore her rapidly increasing heart rate. It couldn't be…she mentally shook her head.
When the bell sounded, she lifted her eyes to see where the boy was, but he had already gone. Along with the smell of burning pinewood.
She had walked out of the hall absent-minded after thanking Hange for the textbook. The brunette had also been in a rush to get out of the room, presumably to her next lecture.
Somehow, she had ended up walking to the library. The place was like a second home to her, being a Linguistics student, so she welcomed the familiar scent of history mixed with dust that greeted her when she opened the doors. Usually, she would spend her time upstairs in the language section, but since she was only here to think in a quiet area, she chose to sit near the window, away from the other bustling students in the library.
What had happened in there? She thought it was not only strange, but almost frightening that, at least for a moment, she had become hypersensitive to that boy. But why burning pinewood? Something about it tickled in the back of Petra's mind, probably something Erd had mentioned once, long ago.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the abrupt opening of the library doors, and her head started aching when the same smell that had plagued her since two hours ago reached her nose. It was him again, surely.
He had sat down ten seats away from her, close to the edge of the long table, and Petra couldn't resist a small smile. It was so obvious he was avoiding her. When she saw him take out a yellow notebook, she couldn't pass up this chance to approach him. Just to see…maybe I'm wrong. Writing down a few more notes on the lecture, she got up and walked over to where he was, slumped on a book of hieroglyphics.
She should've expected he would have a foul mouth, just like most boys she knew, but she never expected it to be the first words to officiate their meeting, though she was interrupting his work.
Instead of mulling over his apparent grouchiness, Petra only gave him the notes she had intended to give to Auruo, watching his expression carefully. She was right. He could smell her, though she had no clue what he was thinking, only that he looked like he was in pain. It must be really bad…
She smiled apologetically. Now it was clear. In a room full of other students who were clearly not as affected by each other as they were, there was only one answer for their mutual discomfort.
Now only Erd could tell her what a human smells when they find out they're destined to be with a werewolf.
Auruo let her into the flat, rubbing at his temple groggily. "Did you get my notes?" he said as he yawned. Petra slapped his mouth shut, causing him to stumble backwards, mouth still open. "Oi, what was that for?"
"Good morning, you drunkards," Petra announced loudly as she dumped her bag next to the shoe shelf. She walked further into the flat, Auruo trailing behind her, and she saw that the rest of the three people she lived with were still horizontal on the living room floor. Rolling her eyes, she gently kicked Erd awake, eliciting an annoyed grunt from the blond. "Erd, you have to wake up, it's almost five in the afternoon."
Reluctantly, he sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Christ," he said. "I have a splitting headache."
"That's what happens when you get drunk without me in the pub," Petra sighed, handing him a water bottle and some aspirin. Erd muttered a "thanks" before consuming it. He kicked at Gunther's back to jolt him awake.
"Erd, I swear to God—" came the disgruntled reply.
Auruo snickered from the kitchen table as he lazily munched on a granola bar. "So, Pet, did you get my notes?" he attempted to ask again.
"I told you to stop calling me that," Petra glared. "And no, I gave them to someone else."
The dirt-blond man straightened in his chair, his expression indignant. "What? But, Pet—"
"If you call me that one more time I won't cook for a week."
"That's fine, we have Erd—"
"No, it's Petra's turn this week," Erd chimed in, stumbling towards the fridge to take out a bottle of milk. "Ah, that reminds me, did you get the notes from the Sapir-Whorf lecture this morning, Petra?"
The caramel-haired girl nodded as she took a seat on the sofa next to Gunther. "Or assignment for the next supervision is just some light reading so you should be okay."
"Thanks, Pet."
"No problem," she said, smirking at Auruo's betrayed expression. "By the way, Erd, if I start smelling burning—"
"Pinewood?" Erd cut in casually after chugging down a pint of milk. "Who is it?" he continued, ignoring Petra's wide eyes. When she remained silent, he pressed for more. "Human or wolf?"
"What's this about?" Auruo tried to join in but was forced into silence by Erd's stern stare.
Petra shook out of her reverie when Gunther suddenly shifted his position, discretely listening in to their conversation. She turned her head to see Erd's expectant gaze. Sighing, she said, "Human. He was in the chemistry lecture a while ago."
Auruo jumped at the opportunity. "Who is he? Maybe I know him, what does he look like?"
Petra shot him a glare. "It doesn't matter. I'm never going to see him again anyway."
Erd shook his head. "Petra, you know the deal here. You've seen it happen to me with Elsa. You know there's no way you won't cross paths with this boy again."
Gunther was now wide awake. "Is this something to do with your weird mating tendencies?" he asked drowsily. "Because human or not, we still have to protect Petra."
She rolled her eyes at his statement. Sometimes she found it endearing when Gunther's big-brother attitude shines through for her, and sometimes, like this time, she found it slightly irritating. "I don't need protection."
"That's what they all say before they start popping out babies in no time," Auruo guffawed. He stopped abruptly when he saw no-one else was laughing. His face dropped. "Fine. Ignore me."
"Anyway," said Erd, breaking the silence. "Given all circumstances, I'm actually happy you found someone, Petra, whoever he is. And I don't really understand why you're the only one sitting with a frown."
She had thought it through before. Anyone in her position would be absolutely delighted that they had found what they would call their 'soul mate'. It was every romanticist's dream come true. To find the one person they were 'meant to be with' out of the million other people around them.
But she didn't want to believe in fate. She wanted to believe in free will. To love whoever she wanted to fall in love with and not be attacked by the smell of burning pinewood whenever they're around her. No matter how handsome he is…
Which brings her to question, "If I can smell burning stuff when he's nearby, what does he smell when I'm there?"
Erd attempted to suppress a grimace. "Well…for wolf on wolf it's different. It's actually nice from what I was told, but when I found Elsa…she couldn't stand to be around me for more than an hour. It was just so unpleasant."
"I'm not surprised," Auruo butted in again, earning a sharp glare from all three of them. He put his hands up in defense.
"Basically, to them you smell like a wet dog," said Erd, blunt as always.
Petra had no choice but to bury her face in her hands. "That's one more reason I have to avoid him," she groaned. "And he looks at me like he wants to be put out of his misery. Him and his stupid grey eyes."
"Grey eyes?" Auruo piped up. This time, Gunther and Erd turned to him in curiosity. Auruo clapped his hands, rubbing his palms together with a satisfied smirk. "I think I know who it is."
"Who?" Gunther was quick to interject. Petra punched his arm at his eagerness.
Auruo was laughing uncontrollably. "It's Levi, isn't it?"
Petra wouldn't know because they never introduced themselves to one another, so she just stared blankly at the annoying git on the kitchen table.
"Short? Black hair? Looks like he went into Hitler's salon?" Auruo persisted. "Come on, there's only one dude in Chemistry with eyes that you would actually remember because they're so intense, and I'm telling you, his name is Levi Ackerman. I still can't believe you gave my notes to him. It's not like he needs them, he's a beast at chem."
"Well," said Erd. "I won't be surprised if he didn't get any notes down while Petra was in the room. It's quite…overwhelming, to say the least."
Petra buried face deeper into her arms, if not to hide her blush at learning the boy's name, then to hide her embarrassment at learning she smelled disgusting.
It will go away once you make contact with him, Erd told her later that night. And you know you're in deep once he starts smelling like the best thing in the world, and vice versa.
Petra shook her head as she nodded off to sleep. There was no way he could ever smell like paper fresh from the printer.
Mikasa now
It's urgent.
slide to reply
Levi frowned when he received the notification. Why couldn't she just text the details? He already knew it involved that Jaeger brat before he even called and she picked up.
"What is it now?" he said. "I'm busy."
"No you're not," Mikasa replied. Levi scowled at the ceiling of his bedroom, knowing he could never fool his sister. "I need money."
He sat up, visibly annoyed at the news. "Did Eren end up in prison or something?" He had to admit, he was kind of hopeful.
"No." Never mind. "I broke your bike. Accidentally. The subframe and the rear cowl got crushed. I need money to repair it."
Levi ran a hand through his face before replying. "Jaeger broke it," he stated curtly. There was silence on the other line. That must be it, then. "Jaeger broke it so he should pay for it with his own damn money."
"I said he didn't break it." Bullshit. He knew her too well. Her and that boy she'd taken an unfortunately liking to since they met as kids. "I can't ask the Jaegers for money since I've already intruded in their humble abode due to your absence."
Trust her to subtly put the blame on his abandonment of her to pursue his studies at an out-of-town university. "I'm drowning in student debt before I've even finished studying and you're asking me for money to pay for someone else's fucking clumsiness?" he growled into the phone.
There was a pause. "Yes."
Levi sighed loudly. "Fine. Just text me the amount and I'll transfer it to your account in 48 hours. Is that all?"
"Yes. Thanks." The line went dead. She even had the balls to hang up first.
After staring incredulously at his phone for a few moments, Levi switched the screen off and flopped back on the bed, awaking moments later to it vibrating against his palm again.
He squinted at the bright screen.
Mikasa now
The repairmen said to start with £70 but you might as well give me £200.
slide to reply
"No," he muttered, texting his response. "I'll give you 150 max." He put his phone on silent before placing it on his bedside lamp. It didn't take long for him to fall fast asleep, the image of a wolf with cinnamon fur burned in his mind.
A/N: Third chapter won't be out any time soon, sorry! Gotta revise!
