Chapter 14
Sometimes Eren hated how rich the Ackerman's were. Not because they flaunted their wealth, they didn't; not because they were self-absorbed, greedy, rude…honestly, he could go for days on insults about rich people, but they weren't like that either.
No…
It was because they had installed soundproof walls in every main bedroom.
Eren had no idea that Bertoldt, one of his best friends, was hanging out in Mikasa's bedroom, full of girls in their Pj's, and they were all under the influence. Eren can admit he didn't know Mikasa that well, but he knew enough to assume she had never tried the substance, so she wouldn't be following better judgement.
The only reason he found out about Bertoldt being inside the mansion, when a loud beep sounded from his doorway to the hall. Someone was at the front door.
"Okay, now who could be coming this late to a completely locked down estate, home of two of the most vicious prosecution lawyers in the country, and their daughter is…" Eren trailed off and suddenly had an epiphany. "And their daughter is high as a kite."
He threw himself over his projects and rolled onto the floor.
Quickly gaining his footing, he stumbled to the door and threw it open. He made the 10 steps to make it across the corridor to Mikasa's bedroom, and knocked, as- damnit- he couldn't hear much through the door. He heard a voice right by the door, probably talking to the person who beeped, and waited to hear the invitation to enter.
It came from Mikasa throwing open the door, in he midst of pushing the button to open the front gates.
"What's going on? Who's-,"
When Eren finally took in the scene behind Mikasa, his jaw dropped.
"Bertoldt!? What the hell are you doing here?"
Bertoldt started to stutter, and his face started to redden under Eren's irritated gaze. Ymir scoffed.
"Down, big fella, Bertoldt ain't interested in your woman," she said. Eren's eyes widened.
"What? Of course, I know that, I wasn't mad about that- wait, how do you…" Eren glanced at Mikasa, then Bertoldt, and then snuck a quick glance at the blonde who was oblivious to the fact the room was all mentally looking at her. "You know? How do you- Bertoldt, do you know Ymir?"
"Yeah, I guess it never came up," Bertoldt said, trying to play it off.
"Never came up? How about when I talked about Mikasa's band and mentioned their names, you didn't hear the bells ringing?"
"Ymir is common name…"
"No, it isn't," majority of the room replied, Annie and Historia were still browsing on Mikasa's laptop, stoned, and probably didn't even realize Eren had entered the room.
Before another response was uttered, there was another knock on the bedroom door.
"That's him," Ymir said. She breezed past Eren and Mikasa and went to open the door.
"Another guy? Who is it now? Jean?"
"Hey, you met Jean?" Bertoldt asked.
Eren's eyes darkened; Bertoldt sucked in a breath.
"Okay, yeah, you-you met Jean."
The tension broke when a booming voice shook the atmosphere.
"Well, I guess your secrets safe with me, brother, ha-ha!"
This was enough to bring Annie and Historia back, and the laptop closed.
"Oh, just so you're aware now before you plow into that 12 pack, there are tissues in the bathroom in case you need to wipe some tears, my guy, we understand," Ymir said slapping him on the back.
Reiner seethed out a breath.
"Oh, Bertoldt, you didn't," Reiner said.
"Come on, Ymir! What did we just talk about!" Bertoldt said.
"I couldn't help it, gotta kick this party off right," Ymir cackled.
Mikasa put a finger up. "Hey, we classified this as "Not A Party", right, or did I, again, miss something?"
"Yes, yes, our little hangout…" Ymir struggled with the wording, "thing. Oh, and Romeo," For some reason, Eren automatically thought it was him, but Bertoldt's attention was also caught, "we were going to get you, just needed to play a few things out first."
Eren's arms crossed, and he looked at Mikasa. She was smiling and gazing off completely in her own head. Eren felt himself calm a little and he put an arm on her shoulder.
"Hey, don't dig too deep in there, some people don't like what they find. I'll run downstairs and grab some cups for that cola.
Mikasa started to giggle to herself, when she turned to look at him.
"Actually, I have a better idea, and a better revenue for our…little hangout thing."
Mikasa led them through the chambers of her mansion, all the way down to the third floor, which was below ground. They all followed down a long hallway, where double doors stood at the end.
"Why do I feel like we're about to walk into some cliché horror trope?" Annie asked, breaking the silence.
"I can promise that we don't keep torture chambers…here," Mikasa added for a laugh.
Surprisingly, a lot of her friends laughed. Reiner's was the most prominent.
"Credit to the rich girl. Points for good humour."
When Mikasa opened the doors, all thoughts about the torture chambers vanished. Within, and beheld, gloriously, in front of them, was every mans dream, well, they're sure women wouldn't mind a room like this either.
The room was an octagon shape and accented with chiseled stone and dark wood. The floors gleamed, polished and deprived of dust and crumbs. The walls were pillared and stocked with bookshelves and art.
Along the far wall was a long table with a skylight to the outside casting light upon it; 12 chairs surrounded it.
To the left of the room was a grand bar; 10 feet long and bursting with fountains of alcohol. Along the wall behind it was a shelf 8 feet high stocked with hard liquor, wine, and add-ons.
In the middle of the room, a sofa melded into a lowered part of the floor, only leaving space for a couple small steps leading in; a coffee table centerpieced it.
To the right, was an Air Hockey table, a Pool table, a couple of classic arcade machines and a small kitchen station with a sink, fridge and toaster oven.
The group simply took in the room, not daring to step inside, hence the floor fall out from beneath them.
"Eren, you didn't say you lived in heaven," Bertoldt said.
"I didn't know I did," he replied.
"Welcome to Levi's Den," Mikasa said, turning around and gesturing to the ceiling. "If you break or scratch or scuff anything in this room, you will go to sleep one night and never wake up."
"Consider us warned," Ymir said, rubbing her hands together and stepping in to gander.
Eventually, everyone got the confidence to take the risk of entering the chamber and started to explore.
Reiner went into the kitchen to store his beer in the fridge, Bertoldt followed and started to reveal the story of how he ended up here in the first place; Ymir followed Annie and Historia to the bar and started to search for glasses to use. They decided to play it safe and stick to the classic Rum-n-Coke. Better than flying through Levi's stash of hardies and sicking it all up the next morning.
Eren darted to the game section to check out the Air Hockey table and started challenging Bertoldt to a game.
During this, Mikasa stood by the door after she shut it and took in the scene before her.
If anyone had asked Mikasa if she would ever have a party- by this point, she's accepted that- on a Friday night, breaking a lot of lifelong rules and not caring, three days ago? She would've laughed and kept on laughing until she got herself away from that crazy person.
This wasn't her at all. But she didn't care.
Why? Well, perhaps, because for the first time in her life, she feels genuine happiness. She knows that tomorrow she might regret it, but she knows that guilt won't stick for long.
She doesn't need to justify having a good time to herself. She can deal with the consequences when it comes, if those consequences don't involve her brother finding out, because if he does, so do her parents.
Eventually, drinks were poured and passed around, and soon, people were pouring their second, or opting for one of Reiner's "Dark Matter" beers. Shocking everyone, Historia went for the brew.
"Whoa there, Blondie, how'd you end up with taste buds like that?" Reiner asked. Not hiding that he was clearly interested in more than her taste of poison.
"I don't mind it, but "Dark Matter" is one I've enjoyed frequently more than others," she responded.
"Well, if you're into that than how about you consider trying some of my personal favourites some time?" Historia giggled and Reiner had to take a breath.
"I'm flattered, but I already have someone who takes me to do things like that. I will admit you are attractive, and I would consider if not for the guy who's made me feel like a goddess."
Reiner nodded, understanding. "Of course, that's what you deserve and more. I respect that. But, uh, let me know if it goes south."
Historia shook her head, smiling, as he started to walk, getting riled up as Eren challenged him for a rematch at Air Hockey.
Mikasa came over with a full glass of Rum-n-Coke and threw an arm around Historia's shoulders.
"Tori, I am so glad you talked me into this," she said, sipping her drink.
"'Talked you into this?' I asked and you said yes," Historia laughed. "And what was it you called me? 'Tori'?"
Mikasa nodded. "Like it? It's a nickname I came up with for you. I thought 'Hissy', but that means too many bad things, so I came up with Tori."
Historia took in her friend and her demeanor. Mikasa's cheeks were a little flushed, her usually straight, proud posture was now hunched over, relying on her one arm around Historia to keep her balanced; her feet seemed to trip in one place.
"Mikasa, how many drinks have you had?" the blonde questioned, noting the quarter of liquid in her glass.
"Only one full one," Mikasa replied, smiling.
"Okay, let me rephrase, how many drinks have you had, period?"
At this, Mikasa paused. She seemed to struggle with her brain for a second before she shrugged.
"I guess I haven't really gotten drunk before," she concluded. "Only slightly tipsy from wine or champagne at my parents' dinner parties and such." At this her face frowned, and she swirled her glass around, some sloshing over the side.
"Okay, well if that's the case, maybe you should slow down a bit," Historia was about to reach for her drink when Mikasa suddenly gained her usual reflexes back. She stalled Historia's arm and held the glass out of reach.
"Come on, you girls said you wanted a party, I'm giving you one. This is my fucking mansion!" She proved her point by downing the rest of the drink and gave a satisfied sigh after swallowing. "I'll be fine, Tori, don't you worry 'bout a thing." At this, Mikasa walked away…well, she stumbled into Ymir who happened to be the person walking by. Ymir laughed.
"Better get over here, Jaeger! Your woman's getting feisty!"
Surprisingly, this did manage to get Eren's attention from his game over two on two with Bertoldt and Eren versus Reiner and Annie, who had been bugged by her teammate for 10 minutes to play.
Sadly, his diverted attention gave Annie the perfect opening to shoot the puck straight into the goal, and the satisfying dispense of the plastic disc landing by Eren's abdomen caused Eren to curse and Annie to whoop and high-five with Reiner.
This only caused Ymir to laugh harder. "Sorry, Bud!"
Eventually, the game between the 4 friends got so loud and intense that the rest of the girls joined.
"Come on, Berty! Not going easy cause it's Annie, right?" Reiner teased, taking a sip from his brew after Annie scored, yet again.
Bertoldt, having a few drinks coursing through his system, loosened up, and played along.
"I want to go anything but easy on her." He had mumbled it, but the right, or wrong if you'd ask Bertoldt, people heard it.
Ymir howled, Historia gasped, and Mikasa spat out her drink…Eren, well, he was too busy fuming over the fact that he was now 3 points behind, and his opponents were 2 points away from winning.
"Use that fire in the game!" Ymir cheered.
Nobody repeated what Bertoldt had said to Annie, they didn't need to, because Ymir's plan was going perfectly.
"Might as well give up now," Reiner cackled as Annie managed to bring it up to the finale.
The disc went to Eren, but Bertoldt stepped up.
"Let me shoot, I can do it," Bertoldt said.
Eren frowned. "But you were goalie last round."
"I know, but it can't exactly hurt us, can it?"
"Whatever," Eren said, moving to switch places with the taller man.
Bertoldt took the goalie position and started to fiddle with the puck. Annie and Reiner got on the defense.
"A sprint on the last leg, classic move," Ymir mumbled to the other two spectators.
"You think he can do it?" Historia wondered.
"Who cares? I just want this game to end so we can do something else, and I'm also expecting this party to get, just a bit livelier."
At this, Mikasa seemed to sober up a bit. "Whoa, what do you mean? I'm already pretty sure you can hear us from the street," Mikasa said, gesturing wildly to the door.
"You're already knee deep, Mika."
"If you're going to call me anything, call me Mik or something else. 'Kasa is fine, too, but not Mika," Mikasa said, crossing her arms.
Ymir raised an eyebrow, amused. "Oh, interesting. Why's that?"
Mikasa shrugged. "The only person who's ever called me that is my brother. I guess I see it is a term of endearment. I don't get much affection from Levi, but that name has always been the equivalent of a hug or a kiss from him."
"Oh, Mikasa," Historia put an arm on her shoulder, saying this.
"I'll even admit, that's inspiring, Mikasa. Honestly, you could write a song about it," Ymir said.
Mikasa blinked. "Oh, I have. Many. Although, I never intended for him to hear them." Mikasa looked away, suddenly aware that her usual defences weren't as strong. "Sorry, you probably don't want to hear about my sad family life."
"No, Mikasa, you should talk about it. That's what we're here for," Historia comforted.
"Agreed, in fact, why don't you sing us one of your songs? It might make you feel good. Plus, some of us haven't heard you sing for real," Ymir said.
"I don't know, and only the boys haven't heard, you girls know what I sound like."
"We know what you sound like with us, and when you sing for a purpose. But those songs, they are from the heart, and you sing for you, and for who and what you love. It's a little different," Historia explained.
"How are you two beers in and not even slurring a word?" Ymir asked the blonde. She shrugged.
"I guess I've always had the tolerance, I also have 5 siblings, 3 older. They were quite the influences."
"I was my own bad influence, so, Mikasa, how about it?"
"I don't want to be a downer on the party, and I don't know if I can make it through a whole song without losing my grip," Mikasa replied.
"We can sing with you!" Historia said.
A loud cheer signaled that the game was won.
"Incredible! How did you fucking do it?!" Reiner shouted running both hands through his hair. Annie simply stared at the game table, shellshocked, while the winners were cheering loudly with each other.
"You are my permanent Air Hockey teammate!" Eren said, clapping Bertoldt on the back.
"Thank you, everyone, thank you."
"Goodness, someone's climbing into the tank, and submerging nicely," Ymir commented.
Mikasa and Historia have her a look.
"What? I just meant that he was drunk."
"Which one, they all are!" Historia said, finishing her beer.
Before Ymir could answer, a loud beep came from the entrance to the Den. Everyone froze.
Some of them scanned the room, counting heads, and then saying, "Who the hell?"
"Sit tight, friends!" Ymir announced. "The cavalry has arrived!"