Thanks to everyone that left a comment in the past chapter!

I didn't ask for the help of any native English speaker to check this one, so please know you're more than welcome to tell me if there are some grammar errors or wording that you can't quite understand.

Hope y'all are doing well~

LAWLESS


Chapter 22. Audacity (Part II)


"What doesn't make sense, Eren, is that you told me not to kiss you when you actually want me to."

Eren let out a long breath against the bare curve between her neck and shoulder. Mikasa closed her eyes in delight at the warm, moist pampering of his breath. Then he moved his head a little and the tip of his nose brushed her collarbone. Every touch felt like a wonder. She stroked the short hair at the nape of his neck as he stood still and silent. Lazily, she scratched him inside the starched collar of his shirt and he quivered.

"What was that that you drank?" He asked shortly after another sigh, a surrendered one, and took distance from her to scrutinize her with narrowed eyes and flushed cheeks. "You're acting very... emboldened, so to speak... And affectionate."

Eren's voice resounded more attractive and deeper. His eyes were a pair of mesmerizing emeralds that twinkled under those bushy brows he tended to scowl so often. His mouth was calling out to her, and she longed to have that mouth on hers. She wanted it going over the entire length and every nook and cranny of her skin. Mikasa curled her lips in a provocative little smile as she draped a weightless arm around his shoulders and rested a palm on his chest, which she slipped through his fine tailored vest. Eren wore the first button of his shirt unbuttoned under his black tie just like the day she met him at the Reiss Palace.

"I don't remember what was the name they gave it." Mikasa said, trying to contain herself as best she could so as not to unbutton his shirt. The background music vibrated inside her like a distant dream while a compelling awakening, more seductive and visceral, was summoning her. "It was a very tasty red drink. Maybe you could have one of those drinks too..."

Eren shook his head.

"One of us has to be sober."

"I'm sober."

"Sure..." he replied with a between annoyed and amused snort. Mikasa settled on his thighs to shorten a bit of the distance he had put between the two of them. She loved it when Eren twisted his lips like that. "Ho-How much alcohol do you think that thing might have had?"

"I think nothing. It was the juice of some fruit, very sweet and a bit sour... Raspberry, perhaps? And they told me there was something else in it, but it wasn't alcohol."

"What was that something else?" Eren insisted.

Mikasa gave him a gentle tug on his tie, which she rolled and unrolled between her fingers.

"Does it matter? I know nothing. Stop worrying." She whispered. His appearance had her dazzled. Tonight Eren looked a lot more handsome than he already was. One way to define it would be unbearably irresistible. She tried to comb his hair back with as much unhurriedness as she could, gluing her polished nails to his scalp. She had messed it up herself by stroking it earlier, while she was filled with sensations and feelings perhaps more sacred than profane compared to what she desired now. "We came here to have a good time. We're in a damn party, a real one, to which we've come without obligations, just because… Don't you want to have fun?"

Eren frowned.

"Sure I want to, but—"

"But what…? Just relax for a bit and stop questioning me about what I drank. You're getting tiresome with that." She reproached him with a fleeting pout. She was too fascinated and in a good mood to allow Eren's questions and buts bother her. "Let's just enjoy tonight together, okay?" She proposed while she gave him a loose shoulder massage, which was more of a gentle and phlegmatic caress.

He stared at her, his face serious and clouded with doubts. Mikasa parted her lips when he cupped one of his feverish hands on her cheek, which did nothing but hasten her heartbeat and fan the heat she felt. Was Eren going to kiss her at last?

"It's just that... How do I know if you are…" Eren began to murmur, continuing to search for something in her face with his beautiful wavering and restless eyes. "... doing all of this... If you're flirting with me seriously, because you want to, and not for the effect of whatever it is that you've drunk or for that…" He paused and a wounded gesture seemed to cross his features for a thousandth of a second. "... that role that you're so determined to play?"

So it was that. Mikasa took a deep breath. She laid a tender hand over the one Eren still held on her cheek, took it, and guided it gently down her neck and clavicles to the upper curve of her left breast, partially covered by the fabric of her dress. She exerted some pressure there so that his touch was as close to her heart as possible. She needed him to understand. Let him feel it.

"You are a fool, Eren." She held his gaze for what seemed like an eternity and, with a sweet smile and a wonderful peaceful sensation in the center of her chest, that she wished with all her might he could also perceive, she told him softly: "I'm in love with you."

She just said it like that, and Eren blinked in daze at what she had just confessed. He stared at the hand Mikasa was still pressing against her chest as if he had just fully realized it. When he met her gaze again, it was tinged with hope as well as his expression, previously plagued with uncertainty. It was a beautiful change to witness. He was adorable. The short space between them disappeared with a loving and delicate kiss, almost shy, that reminded Mikasa of the first one they shared and made her sigh in sweetness.

"I'm in love with you," she said again, smiling relieved and blissful against his lips. Everything was alright. All she wanted and needed was to be with Eren and love him.

A liberating sensation of euphoria reverberated from her stomach as he returned a slow and gentle caress with a slight cinnamon flavor. Mikasa rose up and leaned over him. Eren tipped his head back, resting it on the back of the couch, allowing her to deepen the kiss. The mixture of painstaking passion, heat, and humidity made her gasp. One of Eren's hands slid down the contour of her waist and hip to her thigh, where he gave her a firm stroke and dug his fingers through the fabric of her dress. He adjusted his arm still around her waist as she held both sides of his face without stopping kissing him. It was so hot. Mikasa yearned for his hands to touch her skin.

Eren stopped at some point, breathing hard. He looked at her with a bright gaze, as if what he was seeing in front of him was a reverie and he was debating about her materiality, and then he took a puzzled glance around them.

"What's the matter?" She asked before kissing him again. He responded enthusiastically to her kiss but interrupted it after a few seconds.

"There're many people here…"

"No one is looking at us," Mikasa mumbled without even making sure what she said was true. "They don't care."

"But I do care." Eren replied in an affectionate tone, withdrawing his hand from her thigh and apologizing while he fixed her dress, which had barely gone up to her calves, sheltered by black stockings. "You would also be concerned that... we get carried away in public. If you were completely—" He trailed off and shook his head. "We better find somewhere around here where we can be alone. Or… let's go back to the hotel," he suggested with a hint of nervousness.

"Let's find a place here. I think the party will last all night," she said, kissing his perfectly shaven cheek.

She didn't feel like leaving so soon. It must be cold outside and in this mansion they could surely find a place to be comfortable and take advantage of the time they had. Mikasa put her feet on the floor and got off him. She missed the warmth of Eren's body right after. He rose behind her and, intertwining their hands, led her in the direction from which they had come. They ventured down a corridor with numerous doors in which they had not been before. She felt a slight dizziness as they walked. Her throat was dry.

"I'm thirsty," she said after Eren turned a couple of knobs to no avail.

"Let's drink water directly from the tap of a bathroom. I don't trust the water they can give us at the cocktail table, they could put something in it… Um. Wait for me here, okay? I'll go for a glass."

He saw him take a glass with some golden liquor from a waiter's tray and then ask a servant about the bathroom, whom they ran into as they retraced their steps. He pointed out two doors towards the end of the corridor in which they already were, but immediately said that on the second floor of that area there were two more bathrooms in case those on the first floor were already occupied, which was most likely, and he was kind enough to lead them up some stairs. Mikasa had to hold onto the railing after climbing a few steps from the landing of the staircase, as she miscalculated when she lifted her foot, collided with the toe of her shoe and almost fell when she stumbled.

"Are you alright?" Eren asked, still holding her other hand and stepping down a step to stand behind her, thus preventing her sudden clumsiness from leading her to slide in an undignified and unladylike manner to the landing, four steps down.

Mikasa giggled. Careful, she turned on the narrow step and squeezed him into her arms.

"Yeah, I didn't notice where I was stepping." She answered in an amused tone and didn't waste the chance to kiss him. She didn't get tired of doing it.

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Despite how stunned he was as he continued to reciprocate Mikasa's delightful kisses, Eren couldn't help but notice that they were being watched. He forced himself to open his eyes a little, just in case. There were two women standing halfway up the stairs. The one who was staring at them with the greatest fixation and interest was a short blonde with shoulder-length straight hair and an unfriendly yet surprised gaze. She became familiar to him in a vague way and, as was customary, he had no idea where he had seen her or who she might be. Nor was it that he could ask too much of his poor brain, subdued and fused, but happy thanks to the pleasant activity in which he was immersed. Anyway, that same brain decided the snooper in question posed no danger to them, so Eren soon forgot about his prying audience and resealed his eyelids, just in time to feel Mikasa suck on his lower lip and made him get even more stupid, to the point he spilled almost all the liquid from the glass he was carrying in his left hand.

"So you're a voyeur. Who would've guessed it?" Said one of the women to the other, and the comment was accompanied by a few footsteps that moved away down the steps. "Ouch!"

"It's not that, idiot," the other tried to whisper, but her annoyance led her to grumble against the charges at an audible volume.

"Your fingernails and sticky fingers are going to leave marks on my arm, brute!" The first one complained. After a malicious laugh, she said: "Alright, yeah, that's fine. He's cute, but he's already taken. Her too, unless you—? Mmf!"

"Can you shut up? Better go find Carly."

Eren had to try to hold Mikasa better for she seemed to be melting in his arms. Out of a sudden, she snatched the glass from him and took a small sip of the little and nothing that was left of liquor, making a comical grimace of disgust.

"It tastes horrible."

"I thought you were going to spit it out." Eren retrieved the glass and sniffed it. It was a strong, concentrated distillate that he couldn't accurately identify. It could be whiskey, brandy, rum, or anything else he's had before, as well as some unknown imported drink. Mikasa shouldn't be affected by how little she had consumed. He just hoped it was some regular alcoholic drink without exotic additions courtesy of the house. In any case, perhaps spitting out what she managed to get would have been for the best, just in case.

"I was just about. Yuck. I'm going to have to rinse my mouth."

And that's what she did as soon as they reached the bathroom at the end of the second-floor hallway. Eren took it upon himself to dump the rest of the glass' content into the sink, rinsed it well, and refilled it with water. Mikasa drank two glasses of water and he did the same. They were quietly silent until Eren asked her to stand under the light bulbs crowning the oval mirror. Her cheeks were rosy, and the pigment that had colored her gentle lips was almost completely smudged. Mikasa was so beautiful and her presence so magnetic that just looking at her altered his usual heart rate. The effect was greater now that she had revealed something so important… which they would have to talk about later. Eren held her chin with a goofy, knowing smile, trying to focus on what he needed to check.

His grin faded.

"You have dilated pupils." He said wrinkling his forehead. He had been unable to notice it while they were in those other dimly lit places in the mansion. "In fact, they're huge."

Mikasa turned around and almost stuck to the mirror to see for herself.

"Ohhh! It seems like my eyes are actually black." She smiled, opening her eyelids wide. "And what does this mean?"

"It means that that red juice definitely had a drug in it. The pupils should retract in response to the light, but yours remain just as dilated... Here." He filled the glass again under the stream of the faucet and handed it to her. There were drugs that, like alcohol, could dehydrate someone quite a bit. "Drink more water. How do you feel?"

Mikasa put the empty glass on the sink and, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, took a step towards Eren. He didn't stop her when she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest.

"I feel like everything is fine," she said with a smile in her voice.

Eren hoped she was right. He hugged her, hesitant. He didn't want to ruin the moment with his own doubts and questions. He inhaled the floral scent from Mikasa's hair, feeling the metal of her tiara under his cheekbone. She wanted to have fun, to disconnect from duties, problems and worries, and she deserved it. If the unknown drug she took was having this, let's say, positive effect on her, then he wouldn't continue to pressure her about it. He wouldn't become tiresome. He would only take care of her and be alert in case of noticing any negative and dangerous effects. Eren gave Mikasa some more water to drink before leaving the bathroom, and he followed her into what appeared to be a small and simple office. They found its door ajar.

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She ran her fingers over the sturdy, elegant mahogany leather-topped desk. Above it were an inkwell, a quill, and an embossed bronze lamp with a glass shade, which Eren had just lit. The cabinet had several drawers. Mikasa pulled some and closed them again just to do something with her restless hands, not the least bit interested in what they might keep. They seemed to be empty anyway.

"Kenny should get one of these. It's pretty," she said absently. Her attention shifted to the bookshelf laden with gold-lettered books that loomed behind a bulky chair similar to a small throne.

Eren half sat down on the desk keeping one foot flat on the floor and tapped the leather cover.

"He'd ruin it with his boots," he said. "Or he'd leave black burns on the leather with his cigars."

"Right. He's very careless," Mikasa smiled, brushing the spines of the books as she passed. She tested the chair. It crackled under her weight and leaned back when she leaned against the back with a bit of force. "Ohh, not bad… I think the old man would appreciate the chair more. And look! It's perfect for him to comfortably put his strider's legs on the desk." She said as she did exactly that.

"Good thing you've decided on the chair," Eren faked a sigh of relief. "It will be easier to carry. We'd break our backs trying to get this huge desk down the stairs between the two of us."

Mikasa gave him a sparkling look. She got up and stood in front of him.

"Would you really be my robbery accomplice?" She fiddled with his tie, pleased. He was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. She had always considered him very handsome, but it seemed that walking around with her dilated pupils helped her admire and absorb Eren's beauty in greater detail. She could gaze at him for days and nights. And she would caress him for all that time with no rest.

He rested a limp hand on her waist. A smirk hung on his lips.

"I've been your accomplice for a while on much more... complicated things than that, haven't I?" Eren said, running the back of his index finger across the base of her chin in a brief graze.

"Are you flirting with me?"

"Maybe," his half smile turned into a full one and his face took on more color. "Am I getting better at that?"

"Maybe," she answered softly, glad of the feeling of lightness and ease that flowed through her body and that motivated her to do and say whatever she wanted. Without fear. Without restrictions. "The other day, why did you tell me you didn't want me to kiss you anymore?"

"Umm…" Eren giggled, nervous, looking away from her side and then lowering his gaze in a gesture Mikasa found charming. "Uh… That… was silly of me. It wasn't that I didn't want you to. It was that, well... you know…"

"No. I don't know," she said, putting a hand on his thigh and scratching the fabric of his pants, under which she felt him tighten almost imperceptibly.

Eren stared at Mikasa's hand. After taking a few moments, he slowly shook his head and gazed at her. There was an unexpected hint of uncertainty and weariness in his eyes.

"Can we talk about all this later?" He asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "In a few more hours, perhaps?"

With slow and patient movements, Mikasa opened the buttons of his vest, drew the outline of the starched collar of his shirt and undid the knot of his tie.

"Mikasa…" Eren whispered, cautious, and she dropped the tie behind him on her desk.

"Fine," her voice silky as her hands lowered down his torso in a sinuous motion. Beneath his thin white shirt, Eren's pecs rose and fell amid a restrained gasp. "Let's talk later," she whispered in his ear. It seemed to her that he was holding his breath.

She kissed him gently on the edge of his jaw, also on his chin and neck. The scent of him intoxicated her. The cozy warmth his body gave off was addictive. His shirt was nothing more than an annoying barrier that kept her from feeling him properly. Mikasa undid a few more buttons and indulged in stroking the warm, bare skin of his chest with her fingertips, palms, and lips. He vibrated and stirred under her touch. On his pectoral, she described the circular shape of the tattoo whose name she did not remember with the tip of a fingernail. She trailed wet kisses across his collarbones and paused a few centimeters above the black mark as she heard Eren curse very softly. She stared into his halfway closed eyes before gently and slowly sliding her tongue across his lower lip. Eren growled and hugged her around her waist, holding her with such strength against his body he almost lifted her off the ground. He devoured her mouth with suppressed, almost reluctant desperation. Without stopping kissing him, Mikasa tugged at his open shirt so that he would get off the desk and turn around with her. She sat on the desk and Eren got placed between her legs. Their breaths were shallow and quick like the mad beats of her heart that anticipated what she was dying to do with him.

"Eren…" she called him, his name sweet on the tip of her tongue. She moved her wet lips away from him no more than a few millimeters. "Do you like me?" She asked, drawing him a little closer to her, to the fire in her core.

He gave her a soft kiss and smiled against her mouth.

"I like you very much," he murmured, his voice hoarse.

Mikasa took one of Eren's hands and guided it under her dress, towards her thigh.

"So why haven't you started touching me yet?

Eren's jaw clenched.

"Mikasa, I—"

"Please," she begged as she kissed him at a tortuous rhythm. "I want you to touch me."

Eren didn't remove his heavy hand from her thigh, yet he also gave no indication he would move it to soothe the wet burning between her legs. Mikasa moved closer to the edge of the desk and, wrapping her thighs around Eren's hips, she attached the base of her hips to his groin as closely as she could. She let out a tiny moan of pleasure as soon as she ran into his hardness. Eren dug his fingers into her thigh and her lower back as she rubbed against him.

"I want to make love with you," Mikasa whispered after another shift. She wanted him like never before and right now she had no difficulty admitting it. She didn't understand how it is that days and hours before she hadn't been able to confess what she felt for him. She had wasted time. How much time did she have left with him?

"M-Mikasa," Eren gasped. "You're drugged… I can't… I can't do this. Ahh, fuck, s-stop doing that."

"Please?" she pleaded softly. She needed to be with him like she needed oxygen. It was a vital necessity, urgent.

"Are you… trying to kill me?" He mumbled and sighed as he brought their foreheads together. He leaned back and offered her a pained smile. "You do and say all these things…" He ran a hand over his face, squeezed his eyelids for a few moments and looked up at the ceiling as if he was asking for help or saying a long prayer. "Shit… You've no idea how difficult it is to tell you this, but no, Mikasa… I'm not going to do anything else with you." Eren finished, pushing her hips firmly yet gently away from his.

"Why not?" Mikasa complained almost pouting as she tried to get back to her original position, but Eren held her at bay with his solid grip. The sudden disappointment and sadness she felt were reflected in her voice. "You told me you liked me very much…"

Maybe Eren had lied to her. A mild dizziness hit her as she tried to search her mind for something specific related to Eren that gave her a similar sensation, but she was unable to find it. It didn't matter anyway. Whatever it was, they could fix it or they could just forget about it for tonight. She could forget it. All they had to do was enjoy the moment and time they had.

"Yes, that's what I said and I reaffirm it: I like you a lot... and I care about you more than you might imagine." His tone was calm and gentle. "It really worries me that in a matter of minutes or hours you won't even remember what's been... going on between us since you tried that drug."

"I'll remember everything," she assured him. Of course she would.

"How could you know?"

"And you, how could you know that I won't remember?"

Eren hugged her and promised in her ear: "We will do... everything you want later, but not now. Not in this way... We will do it when there's no doubt that you are fully aware of each of the things that are going on." Mikasa hugged him back in silence, in search of momentary comfort. She could understand what he was referring to, however she no longer saw the point of insisting she was more than aware of what she was doing and saying, or of explaining to him how it was that her feelings and desires were clearer than ever, so she was very sure of wanting what she wanted. "Besides, what if I say yes? If I just let myself go and once you're sober again, you regret it?" Eren added, stroking her back.

"No way would I regret it. It's what I want," she replied, wrapping herself in his warmth. Her face sagged under the weight of Eren's refusal to continue. "Can you kiss me again? It's the last thing I'm going to ask of you," she whispered as her brain was traversed by some sort of ripple that left her a little stunned and lethargic.

"The last thing?" Eren asked, teasing her a bit.

"For now…"

"If it's the last thing for now, then yes," he muttered with some relief just before starting to approach Mikasa with frustrating and slow care. Eren jerked up. "Did you hear that?" He asked, alerted. Mikasa hadn't heard anything, but she made an effort to concentrate and listen for another noise. Eren turned his head sharply to the right. "What the hell is...? There's someone else here!"

"What?" Short after, a figure stood up from behind a sofa about three meters from the desk. Quickly, Mikasa took out the knife that was hidden under her dress and threw it to interrupt the escape of whoever was in the office with them. With a tiny whistle, the knife flew through the air in front of the unknown person, which uttered a nervous cuss word. The knife's point was nailed in the wall. "Do not move," Mikasa ordered in the Ackerman style, cold and impersonal. A quiet threat that guaranteed bad news for anyone who dared make a false move.

"That was too close," the woman hissed, surly.

That voice, Mikasa thought. Could it be…?

Eren had reacted swiftly and was already planted in front of the closed door to prevent the woman from escaping. He activated a switch that illuminated a chandelier in the middle of the ceiling and improved the visibility of the entire office. Mikasa rubbed her eyes as it was much more light than the small desk lamp emitted. Then she recognized her. But what was she doing here?

"How long have you been here?" Eren inquired, yanking the knife from the wall. When he did not get an immediate answer he demanded, anxious: "How much did you hear?"

"Just a little more than I would've liked. Nor is it that I could decipher or was interested in everything you began to whisper between each other later," acknowledged the young woman with her hands up. One of her pale eyes was hidden behind a thick lock of blonde hair.

"Wait a minute," Eren muttered, pointing at her with the knife in an accusing gesture. "I saw you a little while ago. You're the voyeur at the stairs. Have you been following us?"

"I'm not a voyeur, damn it! And I was in here from before you two walked in."

"Annie?" Mikasa managed to say, getting off the desk at last.

"Annie?" Eren repeated. "Annie… Leonhardt, the Trost's MP? That was it!" He made a noise of exasperation and tapped the handle of the knife against his temple. "I knew I had seen you somewhere."

"Annie!" Mikasa exclaimed with a cheerful grin. She rushed to her side and held her in an effusive hug. Her pleasant surprise had restored her energy. "You're okay!"

"I... I can't... bre…"

"Ah! Sorry." She undid the hug and studied her from top to bottom with a worried frown. The poor girl had been through an explosion. She could have a burn, a bruise, a broken bone or something. "Are you hurt?"

"Uhh... No."

Mikasa touched Annie's docile loose golden hair and the sleeve of her cute ashen blue dress, regaining the easy smile she had worn for who knows how long.

"Wow, I think this is the first time I've seen you in a dress," she said, and grabbed Annie's intact nose between her fingers.

"Ugh, what the fuck, Ackerman?" Annie complained, removing her hand with a flabby smack. "I knew something couldn't be quite right with you…" she said between her teeth, directing an icy look at Eren.

Mikasa shrugged at her comment. Instead, she thought that perhaps her dress might suit her too, and Annie could use hers. It would fit her long, of course.

"So what are you doing around here?" Mikasa asked the way someone wonders about the weather. "How come you're at a party?"

Annie's confused and suspicious countenance deepened.

"I'm... I've been staying at this house…" She said, having qualms. "I'm a friend of Carly Stratmann," she unwillingly specified after a pause.

"I didn't know you had friends," Mikasa joked.

"Now that sounds more like something Mikasa Ackerman would tell me right off the bat, though I bet if you weren't so strangely cheerful you would've said it in a much more infuriating way." Annie replied in a low voice. "Seriously, what's wrong with you?" She made a vague gesture indicating Eren, who shifted in his place, glanced at Mikasa and then looked down at the ground in a sign of awkwardness.

"Maybe my moods and expressions are more varied than you think," she noticed something she had heard a bit earlier and her until then friendly disposition mutated into one somewhat suspicious. "Hey, why did Eren call you a voyeur?"

Annie snorted and crossed her arms.

"You should ask him that."

"Answer me, Annie," she demanded.

Annie pursed her lips, irritated.

"For the record, I'm answering your questions only because I screwed up and later I don't want any more problems than I already have." She grunted and, not before glaring at Eren, she continued. "Your not-so-fake boyfriend seemed to be very busy when I ran into you two on the stairs but still could hear a friend calling me that stupid way to bother me. And yeah, Mikasa, before you play funny again, I surprisingly have the ability to make a few friends, just as you have the natural ability to be lighthearted for a change."

Mikasa narrowed her eyelids. She was being sarcastic, wasn't she?

"It's the only thing I remember her telling you because yes, I was very busy," Eren broke in, resting the tip of his index finger on the sharp end of the knife over and over again. Mikasa felt an unexpected throb of shyness when she heard him say that. "You were snooping right next to us, I couldn't not notice that. And now we catch you here… So maybe your friend was right." He said, raising an eyebrow.

"I already told you that I was in here since before you arrived," Annie said, weary. "And about the other thing, I kept looking at you because I recognized you, idiot. I didn't understand what the two of you were doing at a party like this, much less did I expect to run into you unexpectedly as I came down the stairs."

"Carly invited us," Mikasa said.

"It seems like I overlooked your names on the guest list, but if you were allowed in, it means that you were included. Unless you sneaked in through a window or something."

"We were on the list. We walked in civilly through the front door, like everyone else," Eren said, leaning on one shoulder against the door.

Annie scrutinized him with a bored and disapproving expression, and he noticed his own open shirt. Eren exchanged an embarrassed glance with Mikasa and started buttoning it.

"Alright but, if you were supposed to be going down the stairs when you ran into us, why is it that you suddenly retraced your steps and got into this office, alone?" Mikasa questioned. The pleasant sensation of relaxation and lightness that had been with her since she drank those glasses of sweet fruit flavor was gradually fading. Some of the effect still lingered, yet the rational side of her was gaining ground again as was her growing dizziness. Her legs felt a bit weak. "Where's your other friend? Explain it to me, Annie, are you really following us or what?"

This was the second time someone they knew caught or interrupted them while things between them went beyond a few simple kisses. Mikasa felt her heart skip a beat. What if it hadn't been Annie? What if a complete stranger had heard her real name from Eren? Then the situation would have become quite complicated. The very thought of perhaps having to get rid of someone that night gave her chills. On one hand, it was fortunate that it was Annie who was inside that office. But on the other hand…

Mikasa inhaled hard through her nose as she reviewed and judged what she had been daring to say and do. Oh. Shit. It seemed as if her heart was going to jump out of her throat. Her breathing began to rag and her peripheral vision darkened.

"How do I explain it...? For a moment I thought that you guys were on this place to spy on me and that you were playing dumb when I came across you. Then I saw that you went upstairs and went into the bathroom. I looked for a place to hide and found this empty office where I could hear you when you left. Yes, my idea was to follow you and find out what the hell you were up to, but then I noticed you were coming this way and I had to hide behind those damn curtains." Annie pointed to the nearest window and Mikasa looked in that direction while bringing a hand to her chest, trying to regulate her breathing in the most dissimulated way possible. "You mentioned Kenny and I waited for you to reveal something important, until I realized that the only plan you were up to was something that I wasn't interested in hearing and, very much less, to see, though it was too late." She said glaring at them in detail with a grimace.

Mikasa felt she was going to faint at any moment. She didn't understand why she was having such a hard time controlling her heart rate and calming her exacerbated agitation. What she had done was nothing serious and yet she seemed on the verge of dying, whether out of embarrassment or something else. She forced her gelatinous legs to move. Walking a bit would help.

"So yeah, why else would I risk crawling out of this place? Covering my ears and closing my eyes even while hiding wouldn't be enough and…" Annie stopped speaking.

"Mikasa?" Eren called out to her from very close just before everything went black.

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Mikasa's body was heavy, so much that the intense gravity sucked her into the mattress she was lying on. She felt the soft and smooth surface with a clumsy, unsure hand. It had to be a bed. How had she gotten there? She didn't know when she had gone to sleep. Besides, she was sure that during the last few days she had spent the nights in a chaise longue. Where was she? She sensed she was in an unknown place. She opened her eyelids with difficulty. Three women appeared in her field of vision. They surrounded and stared at her.

"Well, luckily our sleeping beauty didn't decide to take such a long nap." Commented a girl with short and wavy hair that Mikasa had never seen before. She was wearing a moss green dress that matched her eyes.

She recognized the other two as Carly Stratmann and Annie. "Annie?" Mikasa made an effort to lift herself up on her elbows. She had to corroborate what she was seeing. That was definitely Annie, and she was in one piece. She smiled and pounced on the petite blonde.

"Annie! You're okay!" She screeched against her hair.

"W-What the hell?" Annie didn't hug her back, instead, she tried to get away without much effort "Again with that? Let go."

"You're mean, Annie," Carly laughed.

"She's terrible," the other girl agreed.

"It's me, Mi-mmfff!" The young police officer covered Mikasa's mouth carelessly and didn't allow her to keep on talking.

"Yes, Margot, I know it's you," she muttered, pushing her by the shoulders and giving her an obvious warning look so that she would be careful with what she said.

Mikasa scowled, blinking in daze with her back against the mattress. She felt weird and lethargic. It was something like waking up after a too long nap, not sure about what day or what time it was. Annie stopped gagging her with her hand and Mikasa brought the back of one her hands to her forehead, closing her eyes. She moaned as she tried to recall how she had gotten there. A small stab of pain in her head gave her a bad feeling. Had she gotten drunk? She lazily glanced around her from her position and didn't recognize the huge room. She wasn't at the hotel.

"Now she looks like she's drunk, and I don't think she even remembers what happened less than an hour ago." Annie complained to Carly with an exasperated gesture.

"She may look and feel a bit like that, but she'll reorient herself and begin to remember everything that happened, little by little. You'll see that I didn't lie when I told you that memory loss could occur in cases like hers and that this loss is only temporary." Carly clarified, walking away from the bed and lighting a cigarette with a click of her metal lighter. Cases like hers? "Let's try not to overwhelm her with questions or too much attention. We've to give her time to process things. Besides, she'll later go through some kind of hangover."

Hangover? She hated hangovers and anything similar to one. She went through an awful one the only time she had ever gotten terribly drunk after drinking a deceptive, syrupy almond liqueur that she stole from Kenny's trunk at thirteen. It was like drinking liquid marzipan. When he came in from doing an early morning job, Levi found her asleep face down on the corridor floor. Kenny didn't even realize he lost his expensive liquor, as Levi soon managed to cover her up and get another one. Of course, Mikasa had to resign herself to listening to her cousin's lectures, who feared she might become an alcoholic from then on. He even asked her, several times, for how long she had been secretly drinking and made it very clear that he would rather have her drink some beer with them every now and then than have her choking on alcohol alone like some ugly old man with cirrhosis.

"I've a sliiiight suspicion that her bad-tempered lover boy will try to murder you if he sees that the effect hasn't worn off or she doesn't regain her memory after she fainted. Or if he sees you smoking here."

Did she faint? When? How? Why?

"Hitch is right." Annie said wearily. "How long do you think he takes in the kitchen?"

Well. From what she understood, Eren wasn't there with her because he was in the kitchen, but whose kitchen?

"No idea." Carly exhaled the smoke through the slit in the window. The volume and waves of her long leonine hair were fabulous. "Though, if he's going to be overseeing everything the cooks put in the turkey broth, in the freshly squeezed orange juice and all that, I guess I still have time to enjoy at least half an hour or more of life and peace."

"That's assuming he won't try to rush everyone to make sure his princess is safe and sound and away from our harpy claws as soon as possible," Hitch said, playing with a small plaster figure.

His princess...? Mikasa couldn't imagine him calling her that, but someone referring to her as Eren's princess was kind of… nice.

"Hmm…" Carly shook the ash from her cigarette in an ashtray, lost in thought. "I should've given him the keys to my laboratory so that he can take samples of the food and analyze them for nonexistent drugs."

Mikasa sat carefully on the bed and touched the thin burgundy silk camisole she was wearing. It was a little too large for her and it had a neckline that was too deep for a simple nightwear. It seemed to be for the size of Carly or Hitch. They had a much more generous bust than hers. The deep indigo sheets also appeared to be silk, very soft and shiny.

"He must think that you put drugs even in perfumes." Hitch mocked. "No, really, how many times did he take her pulse and all those things that doctors do? How many faints has that boy seen?"

"Pretty sure he's witnessed a bunch of blackouts. You shouldn't judge him so much for being worried about his girlfriend." Annie interceded and Mikasa gave her a curious glance.

"For the same reason, it's not difficult for me to understand and accept his mistrust," Carly said, focused on something that was going on outside the window.

"Fine... It's just that men get worked up so easily and are so dramatic, and then they have the nerve to say that we're the hysterical ones..." Hitch backbitered. "Perhaps he and she are making me a little jealous." She conceded in an annoyed murmur after a pause.

"Marlowe is an asshole. Get over it."

"Oh yeah, Annie. I've finally gotten over my anger at his stupidity because the millionth time you told me to do so just happened. Thank you, you're a ray of sunshine, now I'll be able to move forward and contemplate new horizons. Wow. I never thought it was that easy."

Carly chuckled until her gaze fell on Mikasa.

"How are you feeling, Margot?" She asked as she stubbed out her cigarette and closed the window.

It took a moment for Mikasa to find out that she was Margot.

"Uh. I feel… a little weird. Where are we?"

"In my party. At my place. You're lying on the huge premium quality bed that my notorious father hasn't used in a month." Carly was imitating the typical cadence and style of expression of various people who belonged to the high society of Paradis. That obnoxious and prim tone. "It has clean sheets, of course. I hope you like it." She said in her usual way of speaking and with a sincere beam.

"Oh, I see..."

Carly Stratmann. The shady party. The gears in Mikasa's dull brain creaked, unlocked, and some memories began to flow into her mind in a messy way: her getting ready in front of the hotel room vanity, the dancing and the frenzy music in a hall with statues, her pretty black dress, a red glass, a group of women laughing with her at the cocktail table, a small orchestra, Eren's eyes and the things she said to him while sitting on his legs. She had sat on his lap! Mikasa brought a hand to her head.

"Margot?" Annie asked, next to her.

Oh fuck, Annie. Annie had been in the office while they… While she asked and did all those things to Eren. Mikasa flopped onto her side on the bed staring at nothing. Her memories continued to accumulate until there were too many and they fell and hit her like a cold, dense avalanche. She even remembered the exact moment she lost consciousness.

"Carly, what the hell is going on with her?" Annie's voice was uneasy. "It's like she's out of it."

Carly's heels clicked fast against the hardwood floor, probably parquet. All those huge houses had impeccable parquet floors. And from what she saw and felt, their owners' beds had expensive imported silk sheets. The revealing pajamas she was wearing must be very expensive too and Mikasa was almost certain that, from the position she was in, her boobs were showing thanks to the damn low cleavage. But little and nothing mattered to her that other women saw her tits after she had not only dared to confess her love to Eren, but she had also insisted on seducing him without the slightest shame. She had explicitly asked Eren to touch her. She had rubbed against his… with his… Mikasa covered her seething face with both hands. The flushing she was experiencing was so much that she wished with all her might she could pass out again, but it wasn't working.

"Hitch, please, go find Eren Jaeger," Carly requested as she turned her around and placed two fingers on the side of her neck to take her pulse.

"No!" Mikasa yelled. She ended up on all fours on the bed in an automatic attempt to go and stop Hitch. Carly nearly fell on her butt at her sudden cry and motion, but Annie managed to catch her. Hitch was frozen with a hand on her chest and was staring at her in bewilderment with a tic in her left eye. Mikasa gulped. Like a twitching cat, she slowly backed up to sit, still examining her companions one by one. She grabbed the quilt and covered herself. She had to try to act normal. Only Annie there knew the true situation between her and Eren. The other two thought they had an official romantic relationship with all that that implied. Carly even believed they had broken a bed while fucking in the house of that old man with a long lastname. Mikasa couldn't tell them that she wasn't ready to see Eren in the face yet for reasons that wouldn't make any sense to them. "I'm sorry… I don't know where that came from. I still feel weird and I'm very confused." She said in a tremulous voice.

"Oh, sure…" Carly smiled, recovering from the shock. "It's alright."

"Carly. Hitch. I think it's no longer necessary for us all to be here. You mentioned that we shouldn't overwhelm her and, right now, she is." Annie said. "I'll stay with her."

Hitch nodded and left the room as soon as she could, while Carly took a colorful tin box and placed it on the bed within Mikasa's reach. It was decorated with delicate flower patterns and people dressed in the old fashioned way. She recognized the Süsswerk brand written in pretty cursive letters.

"Have you already tried these? They're chocolates with various types of filling. Chocolate will make you feel better." She said with a wink. "There are more boxes inside that dresser. You can share them with your boyfriend if you want."

"Thank you." Although she wasn't hungry, Mikasa opened the box and put the chocolate in her mouth. The chocolate melted with a bittersweet flavor. She tasted the creamy filling. "Hazelnut?"

"Yes. Those are my favorites." Carly said. "Good. I'll be back later."

Mikasa made a goodbye gesture with her hand as she still hadn't finished eating the hazelnut chocolate. She waited until the girl closed the door to grab Annie by the arm.

"Help me!" She whispered desperately, her face burning. "He'll come back soon and I don't know what to do."

Annie raised her eyebrows.

"If you want me to hide you somewhere, forget it… But I think I'm willing to listen to you for about five minutes if that counts as moral support."