Okay. Firstly, I would like to apologize for the late update. Due to school and other stuffs, I can't really write anything out of my mind lately. Maybe I'll change my update schedule into once every two weeks or something. But then again, it depends on how much time I get to write AND how much time I get to think for plot details. Again, I apologize.

Next, let me thank these cool guys for reviewing: meshi-chan, Seraphicpapilion, Alexnoel1422427, Endance, Luke-Lindsedt, Kuroi Onee-san, ElucidatorHJ, Zyzz, im-michaela, animeloverforeverjapan, Ayexia, Kenshin El, inodesuyo, Fan, amazing, RavioliTitan, VarilSK1, creativeactive, Brkrth99, Nancy Haibara, fdfvfdfdf, Hollaloop, Kuro-KuriKuri, Night Stalker, Commander Kotori, Gleam Tamer Hikari27, UberAzn888, Lizzie, AnimeLoverxxxSinceBirth, MayuChii, xEX0tic, Iwai, StandUpEvenIfYouStandAlone, Guest, felicity2hawt4u, silentux131, and sereneskydragonslayer. Please leave reviews again. They're wonderful ;)

And congratulations for MayuChii, my 375th reviewer who completed my goal! XD I'm very sorry I didn't update right after you reviewed… m(_ _)m

To Lizzie, who requested me to write an ErenxAnnie fic, I will consider it :3 I mean, of course I am a fan of that pairing. But right now I haven't thought of a good story to write about them. Maybe I'll write a one-shot? Be sure to check it out once I post it ;)

Oh, right! There's one last thing I want to say: I am truly happy that most of you are very welcoming toward various characters' past I insert into the story. Truthfully, I also enjoy writing an AU and their pasts are freely mine to create (LoL)

Last thing; have you guys watched episode 23? I'm sure most of you have. Alright, one thing I've been craving to say is: OMFG! The whole Annie's yandere laugh scene is…fantastic! I never expected that! I mean, I've read the manga and nothing like that ever appeared in it. I might make use of Annie's yandere trait inside my fic, or maybe create another fic with yandere!Annie in it. Well, again, it depends!

On to the story then. This is the longest chapter so far. I hope you enjoy it. And please kill me if you don't, because I know it's crappy, rushed, cliché, and many more…

Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin


Eren sighed at the test result displayed on the announcement board. He was ranked fifth. Again.

And ironically, the rank didn't change the slightest from the entrance exam's ranking result. Was their fate sealed on the moment of that cursed entrance exam? Once again, Eren sighed, leaving the place while followed by Mikasa.

Lately, Armin hung out with Jean's group a little bit too much for Eren's taste, but he never banned the blond from it. Furthermore, Eren was actually glad that Jean's presence prevented Armin from getting bullied at all. With Jean being an overly-honest person who would beat the crap out of everyone whom he believed was a jerk, much like Eren.

Halfway to the class, Eren met Rivaille and Hanji. However, what took his attention was the fact that Hanji's right arm was bandaged and so was her cheek. Despite her condition, Hanji still put on her usual grin.

"Yo, Eren and Mikasa!" she greeted cheerfully.

"Hanji-senpai, what on Earth happened to you?" Eren asked in slight worry.

"Oh, this?" Hanji pointed to her arm. "Nah, it's nothing big…" she waved her hand. "Rivaille and I were visiting the house yesterday, you see. Sonny and Bean had grown so big while I'm away so when I played with them, I accidentally broke a bone or two. This is like their love mark for me!" she said dreamily, pointing at her wounded arm and earning a glare from Rivaille.

Just what animal are these Sonny and Bean? "…The house? Does that mean… you two live together?" Eren asked carefully.

"We currenly live together in an apartment with Irvin, but previously, I lived in Rivaille's house too. I mean, I was his—"

"You talk too much, Hanji. I'm going to tear your mouth if you say any more than that. Now go and take your goddamned rest in the infirmary."

"…Eeeh? But why do I bother coming to school if I'm just gonna sleep?" Hanji pouted childishly.

"I told you to stay home for the day."

"But we have so much to do today for the culture festival preparations!"

"What help can you offer with a faulty arm?"

"I can help, really!"

"Get. Your. Goddamned. Rest. Don't make me repeat myself."

Hanji stuck out her bottom lip into a pout and went to the infirmary while murmuring incoherent words—most likely curses—under her breath. After he had watched Hanji left, Rivaille turned to Eren.

"This means extra work for you, Eren." He patted Eren's shoulder lightly before leaving.

"Y-yes!"

Eren could only nod, not noticing the menacing glare Mikasa had shot at the shorter man.


Chapter 14. The Culture Festival


One word to describe the entire atmosphere was festive.

Food stands were scattered here and there once you made your first step into the school ground, offering their fine smell and uncountable attractive appearances that lured you in unwillingly. Inside the building, entertainments such as haunted house, maid café, or even fortune teller were waiting for your visit. However, the main show was placed in the gymnasium and school field. Gymnasium offered band performance, drama, and magic shows while the school field offered sports performance from various clubs in the school.

Back to the building, class 1-04 was preparing for their long-awaited—or not—maid café. All the students were present except for Eren, who was busy helping out at the Student Council, which earned bitter look from Mikasa.

While they were decorating the class, Reiner caught a glimpse of Annie tiptoeing to reach a certain spot that was rather high up. She was stretching out her arm that was slightly trembling from the effort she made to reach that spot. The sight was merely too adorable that it took Reiner ten seconds to admire it before offering to help her.

"Fuck off. Mind your own business, tall guy," Annie answered coldly; clearly offended.

Oh man, Reiner thought, was she still mad about him insulting her height? It was just a form of speech at the time and he didn't really mean it—well, it's true that her height hardly increased, though.

"Let me do that, Annie."

The petite blonde turned around just to find Bertholdt smiling at her, offering to help. Her expression softening, Annie handed the artificial flower to the much taller guy wordlessly. Bertholdt put the flower on its supposedly spot without any difficulty at all it almost annoyed Annie. But at least the guy weren't bragging like Reiner would.

"Thanks," Annie said shortly.

"You're welcome! I'm glad I could be of some help," he smiled.

Reiner almost felt left out seeing his two friends getting all lovey-dovey for some unknown reasons. But then again, he had always been aware of Bertholdt's secret crush on Annie—even though the taller guy never mentioned it. He never noticed when it began, but when he came to notice, Bertholdt had been occasionally stealing glances at the petite blonde.

Smiling to himself, Reiner left the two by themselves.


Rivaille glared.

Hanji grinned and continued swinging her feet childishly as she sat on the table.

"Why are you here? I thought I told you to stay home." Rivaille tried to sound as gentle as possible. Only to fail as his tone was extremely chilly it could freeze the very hell.

"Eeh? Why should I stay home on this merry day? Rivaille, you're so mean!" Hanji pouted.

"Why you—someone is worried for your well-being and this is how you treat them?"

"You're worried? That's… wow!" she burst out into laughter.

"Stop laughing like an idiot and ask someone to drive you home."

"Don't wanna~"

"Hanji Zoë… I swear to God I will—"

"Calm down, Rivaille. You worry too much. Hanji is a big girl now." There came a comment from the calmly smiling Irvin, who had been sitting quietly and sorting out documents up until now. Hanji grinned in victory at Rivaille after saying an "I love you, Daddy~" to Irvin, feeling proud that Irvin sided with her. She always felt she did the right thing whenever Irvin sided with her.

Rivaille was about to remain stubborn and insisted on her returning home before a hand suddenly landed on top of Hanji's head, stroking it rather roughly, making Hanji's body shook in synch with her head. The bespectacled brunette turned around to see who did it and grinned afterward.

"Mornin', Mike! You're early today!" she waved enthusiastically.

The blond gave a single nod, "I'm surprised you still stop by this place despite your susceptible state, Zoë. You should've just let us handle the work and taken a stroll."

"I will, later!" she snickered. "I'm currently performing my daily duty of annoying Rivaille, right, Rivaille~?"

Rivaille rolled his eyes and left for his seat, giving up on sending the little annoyance home.


Class 1-04 had already finished decorating their supposedly maid café by the time the event had started and was patiently waiting for customers. The event had just started. It was the most crucial time to attract customers.

…Except, they hadn't received any customers yet.

Why, you asked?

Well, it was because—

"Goddammit! Who on Earth left Reiner in charge of distributing the brochures!? No one's gonna stop by this café!" Jean shrieked hysterically when he saw the giant maid standing outside the class, offering brochures promoting their café—all the while showing a half-hearted, twitching grin that looked incredibly frightening.

"We've got no choice, okay? We're running out of maids here!" Connie commented.

"Huh? Why the hell? If I recall, we've got plenty of maids."

Ymir appeared out of nowhere and started talking, "Listen, Eren is busy with the Student Council, Sasha and Armin are helping out their clubs, and I'm not letting Christa expose herself out there with so many beasts waiting to jump at her and eat her alive." She quickly secured the smaller girl in her arms.

"I get it! So where are the butlers!? 'Cause sending the mascots out there will be so…unrelated! To the point they might think we're doing some kids entertainment!" Jean groaned.

"About that," Ymir scratched her cheek. "Mikasa left after a senpai with glasses came and told her something about substitute player—oh, don't worry, the senpai is still here, helping out in the kitchen. As for Annie, a girl with pigtails stopped by a short while ago and dragged her away."

Jean blinked. Once. Twice. And then he exploded.

"We aren't running out of maids! We're running out of labor here! Someone, go get them back!"

Reiner quickly dashed into the class, "I know where Annie went! I'll go get her!" he said before leaving for the changing room, glad to had finally been freed from the maid outfit, albeit temporarily.


Vast green extended throughout the sight. As one of the largest school in the town, Shingeki High was equipped with wide training field, more so than any average schools in the neighborhood. It allowed multiple activities to be conducted at once in the wide field, including trainings from various sport clubs without sparking unnecessary conflicts. Shingeki High experted in their extracurricular than their academic skills, though it didn't mean the students of this school had poor academic skills.

That being said, there was a certain club currently practicing at the field.

"Sasha, you can go back to your class now!" one of the senior had shouted to the brunette that was horseriding around the field.

As if she was in her own world, Sasha ignored the shout and continued pulling the string of her bow, releasing it and allowing the arrow to hit the bullseye. Familiar feeling of satisfaction filled her heart when her arrow hit the yellow circle. Her lips formed a grin while she took a bite of the potato in her hand. Another shout was heard, now in higher tone, which indicated that the senior was enraged. Frightened by the senior's rage, Sasha quickly pulled the rein and forced the horse to walk the opposite way.

The third year senior stomped toward her, fuming.

"Why you little—"

Sasha quickly jumped off her horse and kneeled on the ground, pressing her forehead on its hard surface, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please forgive me, senpai! I wasn't concentrating and—"

"Alright, get up! You're embarrassing me!" the senior pulled her up, "I wasn't particularly mad anyway. Your performance on the horse was… impressive, I'd say. And I can't believe you were ranked ninth thanks to your horseriding and archery skills. It's just… wow," the senior grinned and patted Sasha's shoulder.

Sasha replied with a stupid grin as she scratched the back of her head bashfully.

"Now go, girl, your friends are waiting for you." Slapping Sasha's back hard until the brunette almost fell forward, the senior snickered.

"Y-yessir!"


Reiner gulped when he examined the artificial human arm hung above the entrance. It looked almost real he couldn't help but shiver at the thought that it could have been a real severed human arm. Looking around, he cursed himself to only notice the eerie—almost gruesome—design this place had. Blood (artificial also) was splattered everywhere within sight, painting it with red. As he peeked inside, he could see the place itself was dim, and he could barely make out anything.

He only went here to find Annie, but what he found was Annie being forced to enter the Haunted House by Mina Carolina, a girl who was in the same class as them in middle school. She and Annie were quite close despite Annie's solitary attitude.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

Beside him, Annie shook her head. Despite her never-changing expression he could tell that she was actually scared.

It happened once when they were still very young. The first and the last time he saw Annie cry was when the three of them were accidentally locked inside the dojo's warehouse for three hours. Annie's fear of the dark was ultimately revealed that time. Scotophobia; was what she admitted to have suffered since birth.

And both he and Bertholdt knew, if not more than anyone, that despite her strong front, Annie carried various phobias—even though she never told them directly.

"Come on, get inside! I just want to know your opinion about our Haunted House!"

Mina said from the counter.

Reiner didn't reply, only looking at the petite girl beside him, who remained stoic but had started shaking slightly. Sighing, Reiner turned to Mina to tell her the truth—since Annie was too embarrassed to admit her phobia to people.

"Listen here, Mina, Annie suffers from—for the love of Titans!"

Annie was twisting Reiner's arm, preventing him from saying anything more, ignoring Reiner's pained cry. "Ouch, ouch! Annie, what are you—ouch—let me go! You're fucking killing me!"

Releasing him, Annie averted her eyes somewhere else.

Groaning, Reiner took Annie's small hand into his and marched into the Haunted House. "Alright! Let's get this over with quickly!"

"Take care~ Don't piss yourself~!"

After an annoying mocking sound made by the grinning Mina, Reiner finally took his first step into class 1-B's proud Haunted House, knowing nothing of what had been waiting for him inside.

He noticed that each step he took increased Annie's shaking. She had been looking on the floor from the moment they entered the place, gritting her teeth in attempt to cease her shaking. The 'ghosts' hiding in the whole place appeared to be considerate enough to not to scare the frightened Annie. She was shaking like a drenched cat now despite the fact that no 'ghosts' had made their appearance.

"Annie, if you're really scared, you should've just rejected the offer."

"Did you expect me to just tell her head-on about my scotophobia? You can't be serious."

"What's wrong with telling your friend about yourself?"

Annie narrowed her eyes, "I don't want any more people to take pity on me. Some people who knew about my life see me with different eyes. I hate those eyes. Those eyes look as though they're telling me that I'm the most pitiful person in this world. Eren and Christa… they see me with those eyes," she turned to look at him with her half-lidded eyes, "so do you and Bertholdt."

"And what's wrong with being pitiful? Don't be so stiff, Annie."

She released her hand from his and increased her pace, "You will never understand, the way you are right now. You live happily, with a loving mom and a hardworking dad who see you as nothing but pride; best friends everywhere. I envy you, Reiner…"

Reiner was about to counter her but she cut in.

"But," she turned away from him, "I don't think I am anticipating such a life. I am fine the way I am now so please stop looking at me like that."

Of course he knew. He didn't look at her that way intentionally. She was a precious friend and he just didn't want to see her to suffer at all. Knowing that she lived by herself, endured all the hardships without asking for help, supported her own life by working part-time, and without any relatives to turn to in the moment of crisis; how could he overlook that?

Especially when knowing that he was the cause to it.

"Annie—"

Before he could say any more, Annie had put a finger over his lips, shutting him up. "Look at what kind of face you're making, you look ridiculously serious."

He could hear her snort after she removed her finger.

Folding her arms, Annie looked him in the eyes. "If you consider what I said seriously, you will hurt your brain. Now which one of us shouldn't be so stiff?" she raised a brow; a flash of amusement in her ocean blue eyes.

Reiner knitted his brow.

Annie did a monotonous mocking laugh before turning around, leading the way.

"Let's go. Luckily I don't see any ghost around for a while."

Sighing, Reiner smiled wearily. He had always found Annie's playful side very adorable—he couldn't possibly be mad after seeing her have fun, even though her fun involved torturing him mentally. As he trailed her from behind, he reached for her small hand once again. She turned to him but never resisted his touch. Instead, he could see a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Maybe Annie really wasn't as pitiful as he always thought.


"Please take care of me."

"—Mikasa!? Why the hell are you here!?"

Eren jumped in surprise when he saw Mikasa inside the Student Council room. She was supposed to be helping out the class, wasn't she?

"I heard from Zoë-senpai," Rivaille slightly flinched at that name, "that her class needs a substitute player for their play tomorrow. Since she broke her arm, she wants me to replace her role in the play…" Mikasa briefly explained.

Before Eren could voice his objection, Rivaille beat him into it.

"Hanji played quite a major role in the play. Are you sure you can manage to memorize all the lines by tomorrow, Ackerman?" he asked indifferently. Deep inside, he already knew that she could. She wasn't ranked first in her grade for nothing.

Mikasa gave a single nod, not wanting to engage into a further nerve-wracking conversation with the President.

"Are you sure?" Rivaille raised a brow, as if mocking her.

Glaring at him, Mikasa nodded again. "I am sure, kaichou. Now would you let me see the manuscript?" she bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying anything rude in front of the other Student Council members, especially Eren.

Shrugging, Rivaille lent her his manuscript before seating himself on his royal chair, observing how Mikasa had taken a seat on one of the chairs while scanning the script.

Noticing that Petra and Eren were staring at him staring at Mikasa, he eyed them and it was enough for them to shift their gazes somewhere else and continued doing the paperwork swiftly. Petra Ral; wasn't a member of the Student Council, but instead, was the leader of the Disciplinary Committee—the committee Rivaille originally wished to join. However, in her free time, Petra would stop by to offer a hand.

Rivaille also noticed that Eren had been hanging out around Petra quite a lot lately, probably because the second year female acted more like a guiding senior than Hanji, who's a third year and still as childish as a ten year old.

Kids sure knew which person to rely on.

When Eren was doing his paperwork, he noticed Petra stealing glances at the President every once in a while. Eren tilted his head, wondering why she was so bothered with Rivaille's paying attention to Mikasa. Being him, Eren asked the second year.

"Petra-senpai, why are you gawking at the President?" Eren whispered.

Immediately, Petra was flustered. "Wha—Gawking? I—I wasn't!" she denied with all her might.

"Eh? You weren't?"

"No!"

"But you were stealing glances at—umph!"

Petra pressed her hand on Eren's mouth to shut him up.

"Don't say it!" she blushed violently.

Eren nodded.

Petra let go and sighed.

"Could it be… you're jealous of Mikasa?" Eren whispered carefully. He just couldn't help his curiosity.

Petra blinked at her junior before bursting into giggles. Careful so that Rivaille wouldn't get bothered by it, she giggled quietly. "No, no, Eren, I wasn't jealous of Mikasa. I mean, she and kaichou are just acquaintances. Or they look more like bickering siblings."

"Then, what is it that bothers you?"

Petra's smile turned bitter, "You see… I was just impressed by Hanji-san…"

"Hanji-senpai? Why would you?" Eren tilted his head in confusion. The brunette third year wasn't anything impressive aside from her science knowledge; her personality being the worst trait possible.

"Hanji-san and kaichou are so close to the point people often mistook them as lovers. Ah, but sometimes they thought the Vice President or Mike-senpai is her lover instead." Petra chuckled at the thought.

"Wow, she sure gets gossiped a lot despite looking like a guy."

Smiling apologetically, Petra spoke up again, "You're still new here, Eren. Maybe you haven't noticed how close they are," Petra shifted her gaze to Mikasa, "Hanji-san broke her arm but went to get help from Mikasa whom she knew is capable of replacing her. Despite everything, she cares about the play, about how kaichou would get troubled by her absence."

Eren stared at Petra's softening expression.

"…I heard from the Vice President that kaichou and Hanji-san went through hell three years ago. I never really get what it means, but I think the two of them share a bond no one could understand."

Eren looked at the President once again, wondering if what Petra told him was true. He had gone through hell three years ago. After Annie and Christa's case, Eren had become sensitive to this kind of topic. In fact, it seemed this kind of thing kept showing itself before him. Eren wondered… what kind of hell Rivaille had gone through.


Her lips curled up to show a toothy grin as she held her coat closer to her shivering body.

"Hey, Rivaille…"

He turned to face her, noticing how pale her face was compared to before.

"As a dying person you will see a lot more of the world than it appears to most people," she looked upward to the starry sky, "No, that's not how I should put it… You see, when you know death is awaiting you, you will have this determination to see everything normal people are allowed to see. Sometimes you even demand more…"

From her eyes, he could tell what she wanted to say. His heart clenched at the thought. There were still many things in this world he wanted to show her; especially her favorite world of culinary. Before he could open his mouth to speak up, a voice interrupted him.

"There you are! Rivaille, what the hell are you doing? Bring her inside. Are you trying to make her catch a cold?"

A girl his age stood there hand on hips, as she gave him an enraged look.

Rivaille was about to snap at her for yelling at him like she was his superior, but when he rose from his spot, a voice called for him.

"…lle… Rivaille!"

.

.

"Rivaille!"

A powerful blow landed itself on his left cheek, almost sending him flying to the other side of the room, which, fortunately didn't happen. Instead, he almost fell from his chair.

"—Oh gosh, Rivaille! I thought you're a goner!"

That overly-dramatic voice belonged to only one person. As Rivaille blinked to clear his vision, the figure of Hanji emerged in his sight, cold sweat trailing down her face. He shifted his gaze to her broken arm and sighed inwardly—reminding himself again about how stupid she was to play with two colossal, exotic pets without putting on any armor. He then looked around the room. It was empty. And from the orange-colored room he could tell that it's already afternoon.

Oh man, he spent the first day of the festival sleeping. Not that it mattered, though.

"…Rivaille? Oh, Rivaille, please say something! You're scaring me!" Hanji began shaking his body violently with one arm while yelling hysterically.

"I'm completely fine. Now release me, shitty four-eyes," Rivaille groaned and brushed his shoulder clean once she removed her hands.

Hanji sighed in relief, "You scared me. You know I get sensitive whenever culture festival comes!"

"That's exactly why I wanted you to stay home."

Hanji tilted her head innocently, "Eh? You didn't send me home because of my arm?"

"No. Even if you didn't break your arm I'll tell you to stay home either way."

Hanji blinked, and then laughed. "Aww! Rivaille, you're so sweet! No worries, I'm not that much of a weakling! Rather, aren't you supposed to be the one staying home? Well, I know you did your job well as the President for two festivals in a row already, but don't you think this year is a little different? I mean, with Mikasa around. Doesn't Mikasa remind you of her?"

Rivaille looked at Hanji. He wasn't surprised. Because he was already half-expecting that she knew. "So you noticed, too. And that means you deliberately chose her as your replacement."

Nodding enthusiastically, Hanji grinned.

"I'm not so weak as to get bothered by her presence just because she reminds me of her." Rivaille rolled his eyes.

Hanji's expression turned serious. Nevertheless, her grin still remained. "We both want to get over with that event," she squeezed her arm to cease her shivering "don't you think so, too, Rivaille?"

He never replied her, only looking outside the window longingly.


"Alright, let's count our earnings for today."

"Hey, it's barely ten dollars!"

"Shut it, baldie! With this ridiculous costumes and ridiculous maids, except for some, how do you expect people to come!?"

"Don't fight guys!"

"Face it, Christa. Most people only come when Mikasa and Annie are around! We should've made a butler café instead!"

"That's right! This is a certain someone's fault!"

Annie looked away, not bothered the slightest by Reiner's glaring at her.

"Now, now," it was surprising to see Ymir taming the atmosphere—very unlike her. "That senpai also deserves gratitude. If not for her, I don't think the food here would even be edible, considering the ones cooking are the unskillful guys." Ymir eyed the guys while grinning provocatively, earning glares from them. In the end, Ymir was Ymir.

"Not funny," Reiner rolled his eyes.

Ymir snickered, only to get smacked by Christa in the head.

Christa was about to stay pouting at Ymir's inconsiderateness, but she soon remembered something important. "Ymir! Come to think of it, tomorrow you have club performance in the gym, right?" she asked.

"Aah… Now that you mention it…" Ymir scratched her cheeks as if implying "What a pain…"

Suddenly, Sasha raised her hand, "Me too! I have club performance tomorrow, too!" she chirped.

"So do I," Armin joined.

"Hey, hey, why would you guys participate in a club performance when you know how limited our labor is?" Reiner asked. "Hello! We only have twelve people here!"

"I'll be performing in a play on the last day." Mikasa said.

"You're making things worse, Mikasa! What are we gonna do without you!?"

"Don't worry. Zoë-senpai will be helping out in the kitchen while I'm away."

"Zoë…?" Christa tilted her head before her eyes lit up, "Ah! That's why I feel like I've seen her face before! She's Hanji Zoë from the Student Council, right? Papa talks a lot about her," she smiled.

"Your dad does?" Jean raised a brow.

"Yes! He said Zoë-san is a very talented young scientist. Papa pays a lot for the drugs she's invented." Christa explained briefly.

"Wow, she must be a real smart-ass." Connie commented.

"I heard from the President that Zoë-senpai is from class 3-04, which also consists of the twelve best students." Mikasa added.

"This school never ceased to surprise me. With overly-genius students everywhere," Jean shook his head and sighed.

After discussing a better method for the next day's business, they finally decided to go home.


When Mikasa stepped into the house, she could hear the sound of streaming water from inside the bathroom. She could guess that it was Eren—since no one aside from him could be inside the house. Without hesitating, she made her way into the bathroom, and without knocking, she opened the glass door.

"Eren, are you—"

"Mikasa!? What the—knock before you enter!" Eren retorted almost immediately. His hands were still in his foamy hair. Mikasa gulped; his lean muscles were exposed under broad daylight.

"But… I was just going to ask if you're going to finish soon…"

"I'm gonna be done soon, okay? Just close the door already! It's cold!"

"I'll join you. Wait there for a moment," Mikasa said as she quickly left and returned as quick, clad in a towel. Her face looked confident as she squeezed the sponge in her hand, "I'll scrub your back."

Eren blinked before realization hit him, "No, Mikasa. I'm serious, just let me wash myself in peace and I'll be right out there in no time. I promise. Okay, put that thing down—No, I'm telling you I can wash myself—Goddammit, Mikasa, stop touching me with that thing!"

"You used to make me do this for you."

"It's all in the past!"

"You used to say that I'm good at it."

"I told you it's all—"

"You used to praise me for it…" her eyes glistened.

Groaning, Eren finally gave in, "Okay, okay! There, good girl," he rubbed her head, "happy now?"

Nodding, Mikasa gave a small smile as she continued scrubbing her brother's back. As she did that, she noticed how much broader his shoulder had grown. How much wider his back had become. That little boy from her past had become a young man now. She couldn't help but count how many years were left for them to stay together like this. One day, he would eventually leave her behind. He would marry a fortunate girl and leave her alone.

Her throat dried.

She didn't want that.

She wanted to stay by his side forever.

He didn't have to marry her or anything. She just wanted to be near him until the end of her life. She didn't want to be alone.

Her body trembled at the thought of being left alone.

"…kasa… Mikasa…?"

She flinched before snapping her head up at Eren, "Y-yeah?'

"Why did you stop? Are you done?" he asked.

She didn't notice when her hand had stopped. However, she quickly covered for it, "Yeah. You can get into the bathtub now," she smiled nervously at him.

"'Kay," he said as he rose from his spot. But before he could make it into the bathtub, he accidentally stepped on a soap lying on the floor.

It all happened to fast. If only it was Mikasa who slipped, she would prevent her fall by skillfully moving her limbs. But Eren wasn't Mikasa. And now, he ended up on top of her, their eyes wide…

…and their lips met.

TO BE CONTINUED


I know the last scene is cliché, but my fingers are itching to type cliché scene for these two (LoL) At last! There's a visible progress between Eren and Mikasa! Congratulations, me! You did it! :'D

Oh, and I inserted Petra's lines in this chapter to commemorate her death. Rest in peace, Petra, you will always remain in my heart :'(

This chapter's quiz will be: "What are Rivaille and Hanji's untold issues?"

Hey, I know this question is almost impossible to answer due to the limited amount of hints in the chapter. But I really want to know how much you guys pay attention to the whole chapter, and maybe, just maybe, you will be able to give the genius answer we're all craving to see. Yes, I'm talking about you, Nyan-chan! Don't disappoint me ;)

For my other reviewers, I do wish you luck for the quiz. As for the reward… hmm, let's see… oh, right! For you who give me the right answer, I shall give you a cyber Rivaille plushie~

Oh! And please tell me if any of you hates RivaHan (you're an exception, Commander Kotori), coz the next chapter will consist of RivaHan scenes. Not exactly romantic, but well, you can see the chemistry everywhere ;)

Just please tell me your opinion…

See you next time!