A million thanks to Hoedi for helping me out with the English version!
LAWLESS
Chapter 9. Trust
Eren slammed the door shut and remained static in his place. He couldn't believe he just saw Kenny Ackerman smoking a cigarette and reading the newspaper while taking a shit. It would be difficult to forget the image of his wrinkled pants laying over his shoes, exposing his long hairy legs, the black hat hanging on one of his gnarled knees and the offended expression written all over his old face.
"Eren?"
Mikasa came out of the closest room to the bathroom. She was wearing a long green sweater.
"Hey!" Eren walked towards her with a chuckle dancing on his lips, "You won't believe what just happened."
"Your shirt disappeared?" Mikasa made a quick gesture with her chin to point at his naked torso and looked away.
"Huh?" the boy looked down. "Ah, no. I had training and… crap, I forgot to bring my stuff up!" Eren let out a groan. He didn't have the energy to go back downstairs.
"Don't worry," Mikasa said. "I left your stuff in your new room while you trained with Levi."
"I see. Thanks, Mikasa," he smiled at her. The wet shirt that he abandoned downstairs could wait until tomorrow.
"If you need it, you can go to the other toilet on the first floor," she suggested, a bit indifferent. "Though it only has a sink and a toilet, not a bathtub."
"I just need to take a bath," he said, scrutinizing Mikasa's face. Her eyes were a bit reddened and she looked just as tired, if not more than him.
"Then you'll have to wait. Kenny takes a ton of time in there."
Eren slipped a hand through his sweaty hair and asked himself how long exactly he would have to wait. His eyelids had started to feel heavy but there was no way he would go dirty like that to a bed he hadn't even had used yet.
"And why didn't he use downstairs' toilet?" he grumbled aloud by mistake.
"He almost never uses it. This is his… favorite toilet."
Favorite toilet, what the fuck Kenny? Eren sighed and leaned his shoulder on the wall.
"All in all, what I was going to tell you," he summed up in a humorous tone. "When I came up I was so tired I forgot to knock," he pointed at the bathroom a couple of meters behind with a thumb, "I opened the door and I met up with your uncle inside. He was taking a shit. It will be a memory hard to forget, without a doubt."
Mikasa blinked as if she was trying to assimilate what he had just said. He saw her grimacing and pursing her lips until her eyes got lighted up and her lips stretched in a grin. She started to laugh. She had such a delicate and singing laughter. It was so nice to listen to and Eren wished it would last longer.
"Did he say or do something to you?" she asked after covering her mouth, silencing her cute laughter, "Eren?"
"Sorry, what?"
"If Kenny said or did something to you."
"Oh, yeah," he answered quickly, massaging his nape. He was beginning to feel awkward. The sweat had already dried and he felt his skin sticky. Shit, he must have had an awful smell! He was sure Mikasa had already noticed it. "After addressing me with some kind words, he told me to get the fuck out and to learn to knock the damn door."
She let out a giggle and Eren slyly took a step to the side. He must go to his room. Maybe put his stuff in order until Kenny vacates the bathroom, whatever instead of continuing chatting with Mikasa while he was half naked, filthy, sweaty and stinky in the middle of the hallway.
He opened his mouth to tell her that he was going to go wait in his room, but she went ahead of him.
"That tattoo…" she started saying in a soft, shy voice. Her glance was fixed on the black ink drawing over his left pectoral, "how long have you had it?"
"Some years ago," he said. Even though he liked to talk with her, this wasn't the best moment to do it, much less talking about thorny issues, "See, Mikasa, I think that-"
"It's all yours, kid," Kenny announced when he suddenly came out of the bathroom. He put on his hat and made a farewell gesture as he went downstairs.
"Finally!" Eren let a sigh of relief.
"Wait," Mikasa asked. She disappeared inside her room for an instant and came back with a folded towel.
Eren, grateful, received the clean towel.
"I'll tell you about this another day," he said, putting his fingertips over his chest, "Good night. See you tomorrow?"
Mikasa nodded slowly, "Good night, Eren."
Except for the lavender flowers inside a simple crystal vase, the bathroom was completely white. It had a small frosted glass window, a bidet, toilet, sink and a huge porcelain bathtub with iron legs.
Eren got astounded when he opened the faucet because he got hot water after a few minutes. Having a gas water heater was a luxury worthy of the wealthy King's butt-lickers, and the Ackermans had one. He put the plug into the drain and waited until the tub was half full before undressing. He let out a sigh of pleasure when his skin and muscles became more relaxed at the contact of the liquid warmth surrounding him.
There was a small table with four soap bars next to the tube. Three of them were already used, while the fourth one seemed brand new. On top of this one, a piece of paper had his own name written. It was an elegant, round shaped, well-kept calligraphy. He was certain that feminine handwriting belonged to Mikasa.
He took the soap bar and brought it to his nose. It had a nice musky and citric scent, similar to the perfume he tended to use for special occasions, and of which there was not even a drop left. Actually, the last time he used it was for the ball at the Royal Palace. Mikasa seemed to notice and even remember it, curiously.
"So thoughtful," Eren murmured as he sank the soap under the water.
Thanks to his tiredness and the bath (that helped him in a great way), Eren slept like a log. Though when he tried to stand up his whole body hurt, especially his abs, shoulders and arms. He stretched himself carefully and groaned a bit when he got out of bed.
The clock at the wall showed it was past eight in the morning, so everyone must be in the mess-hall having breakfast. He took out some clean clothes from the suitcase that Mikasa had left near the wardrobe, got dressed swiftly and went out of the room. He would put everything in order and put his clothes in place when he came back.
When he was at the first floor, he saw Mikasa peeking from the kitchen.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going downstairs for breakfast, you're not going?"
"You can have breakfast here," she suggested with a gesture of her head. She went back inside the kitchen and Eren followed her.
She took a steamy cup that smelt marvelously.
"Hot chocolate?" it's been a long time since he last had one because these were super expensive. His mouth watered.
"Yeah," Mikasa put a clean cup on the counter and poured the brown and thick liquid. "This one is for you."
Eren sat in front of the cup, grinning like a small child that just got his favorite candy.
"Thank you," he said after taking a warm sip. He noticed Mikasa was wearing her pajamas. It was a camisole similar to the one he had seen her wearing when they stayed at the hostel. "Do you always have breakfast here, alone?"
"Sometimes Levi eats with me."
"Sometimes?" Eren raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What about when you were a small girl, did you also had breakfast alone most of the times?"
"No. Levi was always with me during that time. He did breakfast for me," she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Now's not necessary for him to do so. I'm not a child anymore."
Of course she wasn't a child anymore. She had changed a lot since the last time he casually saw her, when he was a child too.
They should have met each other in one of his father's house calls, but life brought them to meet up under different circumstances. The funny thing was that they ended up meeting anyways and that they were there now, sipping on their hot chocolate together at eight in the morning. Living in the same house.
Eren felt comfortable with her presence. She seemed to be such a nice girl despite the negative impression he had of her after all the abduction business and the hard times that flourished after… other problematic situations.
He couldn't believe that he even ended up behind the bars in Trost's police station because of this girl.
"What's so funny?" Mikasa asked.
Eren didn't realize he was smiling.
"Nothing," he said.
"Your silly grin says something else."
Eren leaned his elbow on the table and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. His silly grin started to fade as he glanced at Mikasa. Her hair was neat, not stirred in a funny way like she used to have it when she woke up. Did she brush it? It seemed so.
Her eyes were shining under her long eyelashes. She was somewhat haggard. There was a chocolate stain on her rosy lips. She had a little mole at one side of her neck and a superficial scratch on her clavicle – she must have done it by herself without even realizing. The fabric of the camisole embraced her narrow shoulders and stretched over her bulging chest, which went up and down faster than regular breathe.
Eren stopped his inspection in an abrupt way once, through the fabric, he noticed two little tips that subtly protruded from Mikasa's breasts. He glanced down to his hot chocolate cup, now tepid, and finished drinking it in silence.
After a prudent time, he raised his glance and found a flustered Mikasa. She suddenly reacted and started to do things, a bit frenetic. She stirred something inside a steel pot, served part of the content in a pair of bowls with the help of a big wood spoon. She put one of the bowls in front of him. It was oatmeal porridge with fruits.
"Thanks," Eren looked at her sideways. "Sorry if I bothered you."
It has not been his intention to openly stare at her female attributes, but he was neither feeling guilty nor regretted doing so because he didn't stare as if he was a damn pervert. He just contemplated her without thinking about anything specific.
He hoped Mikasa realized there were no lascivious intentions on his part.
He saw Mikasa bringing a spoon of porridge to her mouth. She didn't seem annoyed or offended. Her hand didn't tremble as she ate and neither was there a straight signal that indicated she was still nervous, except perhaps for the blush she kept on her cheeks, but Eren knew that blushes didn't disappear just like that.
He'd seen her blushing many times back in Trost and, he wasn't going to lie, he found these attitudes of hers were adorable. The snippy, cold and blank behavior in which she had performed at the beginning gave him the impression of being mostly defensive, while the girl with whom he had been sharing the past few days seemed to be the authentic Mikasa. It was evident that she had started to trust him more, and he had the certainty that he could trust her completely. It wasn't due to the influence of his father's words written on his posthumous letters, but it was what his own instinct dictated to him.
He trusted Mikasa and enjoyed her company.
He liked that she was his friend.
"Did you know that there are two members of the Legion here?" Eren asked casually.
"Yes, two fifteen year-olds. Kenny told me." Mikasa replied softly.
"Sasha and Connie" he pointed out, "Did you meet them already?"
"Not yet. Did you?"
"I had dinner with them yesterday. They seem to be good guys and they are so… funny." He remembered the nonsense about the wedding and the children that, according Connie and Sasha, he and Mikasa would have. They were so funny.
Eren tasted the porridge and let out a little moan. "This is delicious," he smiled at her and started to devour the food.
She offered him more and Eren accepted, content. Along with more porridge, she also gave him some bread, cottage cheese and a lot of orange juice.
"Oh, shit," Eren gasped, feeling as though he could barely move, "I ate way too much."
"Levi's trainings can be harsh. You must eat well."
"So, from now on I'll train with Levi instead of Volker, huh?" Levi, unlike Volker, didn't seem very merciful.
Mikasa nodded.
"Volker is training the guys from the Legion now."
"I see," Eren rubbed his stomach, "Yesterday Levi just told me that we would have 'a conversation later', but instead of that I received thousands of directions per second until I suddenly found myself at the verge of a cardiac arrest."
"A conversation?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I guess that's the name he gives to the trainings, doesn't he?"
"I doubt that," Mikasa brought a finger to her chin.
Eren shrugged.
"Whatever," he stood up from the chair with a groan, "I'll go to my room. I need to rest a while, do you want to come with me?"
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Levi still didn't finish drinking his second morning tea when Kenny told him to go down to his office in about ten minutes.
"What's going on?"
"We have visitors," Kenny said before leaving.
The visitors ended up being four members of the Legion.
First was the bushy eyebrows blond sat in front of Kenny's desk. The name was Erwin Smith, the Legion's leader. Levi had met him a few weeks ago but hasn't exchanged more than some brief greetings with him. As far as he knew, the rebel group called him Commander. He was the type of person that was difficult to read, however, Levi had to admit the man had an imposing air and appeared quite confident in himself.
Then there was the guy that kept alcohol instead of water inside the canteen he brought with him. Levi had already seen him take a couple of sips. He didn't look comfortable in the lair, but at least he tried to maintain a quiet demeanor. The name was Moblit Berner.
The woman of the group, Hange Zoe, was the only one that greeted them with an excessive familiarity, even though neither he nor Kenny had ever seen her before in their fucking lives. She was interested in the office's decor and seemed to love the damn Cuckoo clock, asking Kenny where he got it.
"It was a gift from a good friend of mine," he said.
A mysterious good friend who was probably just as insane, if not more, than his uncle, Levi thought. Sometimes he wondered who that friend was.
Levi frowned when Mike Zacharias - the taller and bulkiest dude from the group – came closer to him and started to sniff at him.
"What the hell?" Levi grumbled, getting away from him.
Mike smiled to himself and nodded. Did he even know how to speak?
"Don't worry about Mike," Hange said as she noted what just happened. "He always smells people when he first meets them and then smiles. I guess it's one of life's mysteries."
Levi looked at her sideways and then glanced at Mike. He decided not to say anything. Bunch of freaks.
"Ha!" Kenny nonchalantly pointed a knife at Mike, wearing a wily smile on his face as he put his feet up on the desk. "Don't even think about getting closer to me, boy. Later you can smell my shit and try to figure out what I ate if you want, but I don't fancy having someone sniffing at my neck at all."
Levi rolled his eyes.
Erwin removed a fluff from the sleeve of his jacket
Moblit was on the verge of drinking from his canteen again when Hange put a hand on his forearm, interrupting him.
"Returning to the topic that calls us," she resumed. She took a step forward and took a seat next to Erwin, "We got the corpse as planned, we studied it and compared the state of it with the available information about Frieda and the official funerary rituals of the royal family. In the first instance, we confirmed it is a female individual with a build and height similar to Frieda's. It even shares the same hair color and length. However, particularly striking is the fact that the body was not subjected to the embalming process that applies to all members of the royal family. Among other things, we suspect the denture does not correspond to the one of the supposed defunct woman."
Kenny didn't seem impressed by the delivered information.
"Do you have pictures of the corpse? I wanna see them," he said, extending a hand.
"We don't have pictures of the corpse," Erwin clarified. "But we have some portraits that are a faithful copy of the reality," the man gestured at Moblit, who quickly gave him a thick leather-bound notebook.
Erwin set the notebook on top of the desk, leafed through it and pushed it towards Kenny, who narrowed his glance.
"Very talented, huh?" the Ackerman leader grabbed the notebook and brought it to his nephew. "Take a look at that smile."
Levi took a glance at the drawing. He kept a neutral demeanor as he wondered how it was that these people could even get near that thing.
"Where did you hide it?" Levi asked, pushing the notebook aside.
"In my basement in Stohess," Hange said, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "It's less than two hours of horseback from here. Since we know that the young doctor Jaeger had interpersonal contact with Frieda Reiss, we consider it of vital importance that he helps us with the examination of the corpse. To be honest, we need him to do it as soon as possible."
"Yeah, Eren should go with you to take a look at it today," Kenny said, standing up. "The Pork King must have already heard about the theft in his expensive little house for the dead. I imagine him squealing like a deranged man after discovering that someone has intruded under his nose… once again," he grinned in satisfaction.
Levi looked at his uncle. He knew the old man had some sort of personal quarrel with Rod Reiss and that he surely would enjoy seeing him fall. However, sometimes Levi wondered if he accepted to cooperate with the cause of the Legion for less egoistic motives. In other words, he wondered if Kenny was not only participating because he was bored with the apparent order, but perhaps because he longed to sow chaos as well.
"We had already prepared some distractions," Erwin said. "Eren will be able to come and go, avoiding major inconveniences or suspicions."
Kenny lit his pipe up and savored it. "Levi will go with you," he said.
The four members of the Legion directed their glances towards Levi Ackerman.
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"Historia! Historia, come back here immediately!"
She ignored her father's orders as she hurried to get out of the Palace. Holding her dress up to avoid tripping, she ran until she got to the stable where her beautiful Siv waited for her. She opened the gate and got inside the cubicle. The hay crunched under her boots and the horse quietly came closer to her. After petting her on the snout, Historia took hold of her reins and quickly mounted her. The steed deployed all of its velocity as both of them got out of the wooden structure.
How was it that someone had thought of doing something like that? Historia understood the anger of the people against royalty. She also felt it despite being part of such a small and privileged group. She knew firsthand the injustices that the ones that had less went through, but she was conscious that everyone were human beings and that death, after all, was a destiny everybody shared equally. For that reason everyone should understand that you cannot play with death.
Since she met her, Frieda always was so sweet with her and the others. People had appreciated her for her simplicity and charming way of being while she lived. They respected her. Or at least they did so when she was alive, because now someone had decided it was time to desecrate her tomb and snatch her corpse. Perhaps they were thinking it would be a fantastic idea to show a protest against the monarchy, right? Which other reason could there be?
Assholes. There were better and more valid ways of protesting.
Historia's eyes were blurry and reddened from crying. The wind crashed against her face and swept her tears against her skin, drying them.
Bit by bit she started to pull the reins until Siv went from running to walking. She made the filly stop when they got to the entrance of the mausoleum, where a group of royal guards aligned in front of her to impede her pass.
"Princess, your majesty," said one of them. "In this moment, the police are doing the pertinent investigations at the place and-"
"Yeah, whatever. Let me guess: you're not going to let me in?" she asked as she avidly dried her tears with the back of her hand.
"We can't allow you to do so right now. We're sorry for the inconvenience, your majesty."
She glared at him.
"You could have not allowed the stealing of my sister's body, in first place," Historia pulled the reins and Siv stood on her hind legs. The filly let out a neigh and the guards protected themselves from the animal's front legs, scared of getting hit by them on the head.
The throne's heiress released the reins and the animal put all of her feet on the ground. Historia looked at the mausoleum for a moment. She scrutinized the guards one by one and softly kicked Siv's sides, urging her to get them out of there.
Historia nimbly got off the saddle once they got to a little pond surrounded by trees. She pet the lustrous filly's black neck while it drank water. Sometimes she wished Siv could talk and understand everything she told her.
She thought about Ymir. She always thought about her. She wished to see her and be with her, but she was aware of how damn difficult that was.
Historia leaned her head against Siv. She was so warm, so serene.
She thought about Eren and Armin. She wished to see them soon. There was so much to talk about…
She looked to her side and remembered Frieda putting her bare feet in the water, smiling.
She wished she could be near the people she loved, the people she trusted.
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Levi couldn't find Eren anywhere around the underground area.
In the training room he only found the dirty and stinky shirt the messy brat had forgotten last night. In the mess-hall there was only Sasha and Connie, cleaning everything while looking disgruntled, though their faces turned into nervous grins once they saw Levi pass by. Volker and the others had gone to deal with some issues with Reeves, who needed to be offered a hand.
If Eren wasn't down there, then he had stayed upstairs. Levi would make him stand up through kicks in the ass if he found out that the brat had been lazing around or still sleeping in the bed.
As it always happened to him after coming from the dark basement, the sunlight that filtered through the net curtains that covered the windows blinded him for a few seconds. He expected to find Mikasa in the kitchen, but it was empty. The recently cleaned dishes were out drying. There was a pair of every cup and bowl, so the girl hadn't had breakfast alone.
Levi went up the staircase. Mikasa's bedroom door was open and there was no one inside, while Eren's bedroom door was slightly open. Levi could hear some mumbling coming from inside, so he silently got closer without peeking.
"You can touch it, if you want to," he heard Eren saying.
"Really?" and that one was Mikasa.
"Sure."
"…"
"Come on, Mikasa, didn't you want to check if my skin's texture was different here?"
Levi's eyes widened.
"Yes, b-but…"
"Give me your hand, it is fine. There. Touch, don't be shy about it."
Levi had heard enough. The muscles of his jaw got stiff and he gritted his teeth.
He kicked the door.
Eren and Mikasa let out surprised gasps. The two of them were sitting on the bed, super close to each other. Eren's shirt was unbuttoned until the middle of his torso. Mikasa had brought one hand to her mouth and had a red face. An extremely red face.
Levi narrowed the glance and fisted his hands.
"What the hell are you two doing?" he hissed.
