"Mikasa!?" Eren barked out, startled at the sudden appearance of his basically-sister.
Her face was caught in the shadows of the opposing wall, her arms hanging limply at her sides. She was in full gear, on an off day, so early in the morning in his basement cell. This could turn out to be something bad.
"Eren..." She managed to whisper again, taking a step forward to the connected bars. Something was off about her, but for the life of him, he couldn't tell what.
She had been like this before, once, way back when their military training had first began. It was when one of the girls had caught his fancy, this one had long dropped out of the program, and Eren had assumed it to be a sign to continue towards his ambition to kill every last titan. But maybe Reiner, for all his bastardness, had been onto something when he'd loudly speculated her reasons for dropping out just before the final year of training being something to do with Mikasa.
"What are you doing here, Eren?" She paused, hard grey eyes piercing his very soul, "...Captain Levi called for you over an hour ago."
Oh shit this was bad. Holy fuck his ass was well and truly grass. Oh man, if the Captain had to wait for him any longer then he'd blow a gasket more pissy than the time Eld spilled his tea on his favorite white tablecloth. Aaand now slightly sad. Eld was a cool guy... if only he'd taken the opportunity then they'd all still be here.
"Can you wait for me to finish getting ready? I gotta put on my actual uniform... and you're like, a girl. So?"
She glowered darkly. "Hurry it up, I don't want to have to hear it any longer than you do..." She said something else, something about gutting, but he couldn't quite make it out.
"You wanted to see me, Captain?" He gasped out, having made his way all the way across base in a matter of three minutes.
Levi had yet to look up from the reports on his desk, his non-dominant hand resting idly on the rim of a cooling cup of tea, an earl grey with a splash of honey and lemon, if Eren remembered correctly. The room was silent save for the occasional scratch of the quill on the parchment. Why the government didn't just use pencil and paper eluded him, probably some stuffy bureaucrat getting kickbacks on the sale...
It had been several minutes now, and Eren was convinced the captain was giving him the silent treatment for his tardiness. Levi finally, slowly, looked up at him.
"...What?"
A bit confusing, but whatever the mind.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" He wasn't so sure now if the captain remembered what he'd even called him for.
"No. I didn't. It's your day off." He replied dryly, looking back down at his work. "Unless you want me to set you about cleaning the base, get lost."
Eren didn't have to be told twice, he'd made that mistake once before, and had ended up suspended outside of the towers scrubbing each individual brick down with polish. Every day for a week. And that had only ended because of the recruits showing up.
But still, why had Mikasa told him Levi wanted him immediately. He pondered it for a minute. Maybe it was a prank or something? He'd have to ask Armin, if anything, he and Mikasa were having a good laugh at his expense.
Where was Armin at anyways? All over the base, but nobody had seen hide nor hair of him. He had vanished like this before, back during training to see a girl, and Eren would cover for him. But he'd always told him where he was going beforehand... weird. But last night had been crazy, and, to be fair to Armin, there wasn't much time or privacy to tell him anything anyway.
It wasn't that big a deal though, y'know, a guy forced into a really uncomfortable situation and dealing with the aftermath of aforementioned situation needing the support of his closest friend in the world. Actually, he hadn't seen Ymir or Christa anywhere either. Weird, but he'd probably just looked over them somewhere.
"Hey, Eren..." A hand clasped onto his shoulder from behind, startling him from his thoughts.
"Mikasa!?" He yelped, surprise turning quickly to irritation.
"What the hell was that earlier!? " He found himself glaring at her even more seeing the way she tried to hide the smirk beneath that old scarf. "You're such an ass, you had me bolting all the way across the base for nothing!"
"I couldn't help it, Eren, you looked... far too," She paused, her voice shifting slightly. "comfortable."
In hindsight, it was kinda funny, but why couldn't she have pulled it on horseface? Y'know, make him have to run all the way to Levi's office probably getting that stupid little vest of his all messed up. Now that would've been funny.
"Hey, actually, have you seen Armin anywhere? I've been looking for him all day."
"You've only been up for about an hour, Eren, have you checked in his bed?"
"Yep, first place I checked." He idly noticed that Mikasa shielded her forehead with her hand, glancing at something past his shoulder, but now he was doubting himself whether or not he'd really checked Armin's bunk. Actually, which one was Armin's bunk anyway?
Mikasa pointed over his shoulder, her face deadpan. He slowly followed her gaze, only to see that she'd pointed at Connie who'd managed to get his shirt caught on a high branch.
"I'mma go double check Armin's bunk then."
I MAKE SLOW EASING OF MYSELF BACK. I GOT 2 JOBS AND 6 COLLEGE COURSES. BEEN TOO BUSY TO DO ANYTHING. SAT DOWN AND FORCED SELF TO WRITE AFTER DOUBLE-SHIFT