Housekeeping

Disclaimer: Forgive me if I keep copy/pasting the disclaimer from the first chapter for awhile. SnK and its characters are not mine.

Chapter 2

Mikasa woke an hour earlier to get a head start on her day. It seemed like the best way to squeeze her new job into her schedule would be to clean his room first thing after she got dressed. She could then make it to morning exercises and breakfast with the other troops. Normally her day was followed by chores, tactical classes, lunch, combat training, and 3D Maneuver Gear practice. After that was free time until dinner, during which she could finish up with his office, in lieu of the extra training she usually put herself through. It seemed like a solid plan for her, but she was well-aware of the possibility the Captain would throw in something extra to get on her nerves.

Tugging at the maroon scarf around her neck, she took a deep breath and exited her room. Up and down stairs she went, winding her way through corridors in the labyrinth of a castle, until she reached her target room on the commanders' level. She quietly knocked three times, wondering if Captain Levi was even awake by now.

"You're late, Ackerman," was his muffled reply. "Get in here!"

She tried the doorknob and surprisingly found it unlocked already. Taking one last gulp, she pushed forward and into her superior's room. It was much more spacious than hers and included an attached private bathroom off to the side. The decor, however, was just as plain as the Captain's office downstairs.

To her left, she spied the man in question adjusting his cravat in front of a full-length mirror. "I had hoped you'd take this job seriously enough to show up at a decent time. I've had that door unlocked for you for the last half hour."

He turned and walked slowly toward her, still with that slight limp. Mikasa moved aside to let him out. She couldn't help but glare at him coldly the moment he walked past her such that all she could see was his back.

"Cleaning supplies are in the closet as usual. Lock up before you leave by twisting the button on the doorknob before you go." He took this opportunity to check his right pants pocket to make sure he remembered his key. "By the time I get back, I expect this room and the bathroom to be so spotless I could host a dinner for the King on the floor, Ackerman."

"Yes, Sir," she saluted out of habit.

Just as he stepped forward and was about to close the door behind him, he suddenly turned back to look at her. Luckily, Mikasa had already wiped all traces of anything derogatory off her face. "Oh, and one more thing. I have some laundry for you to do in addition to cleaning the room. You might as well take the sheets and wash them too while you're at it. I'm sure you can fit that in today despite your late start."

"Sir, if I may," Mikasa started curtly, attempting to reign in the anger building up inside of her. "I was under the impression I was just serving a pre-set punishment, not becoming a maid service."

"Tch, your punishment is whatever I dictate it to be, Ackerman. Consider this an order…from your commanding 'midget bastard.'" With that, he closed the door in her face.

It took every ounce of willpower for Mikasa not to smash something in his room. That vindictive little…he was so infuriating! She had expected a hitch, but that didn't mean she couldn't be upset about it.

Pulling up the scarf over her nose, she set off to work, if only to keep her thoughts off that incorrigible excuse for a man.

The bustling mess hall was already dying down as soldiers trickled out to continue on their morning duties after breakfast. In fact, a certain blond teenager was polishing off the last of his oatmeal when his childhood friend sat down at their table with her tray of food.

"Something happen, Mikasa?" Armin Arlert asked the dark-haired girl. "I've never seen you so late to morning exercises."

Her hardened face never wavered as she tore a piece of her burnt toast off. "I started new chores today," she answered flatly. New chores indeed, ones that ran her late to practice and as such forced her to cut into breakfast time to make up for it.

"Eh? Is that why you were doing laundry at this time of day?" Sasha gasped, her gaze constantly flickering to the other untouched slice of toast on Mikasa's plate.

A pair of turquoise eyes peered up at her. "If you need any help with them," Krista offered, "you can always ask us. We'll be glad to give you a hand." A gentle smile appeared on the fair-haired girl's face.

"Especially if food is involved…" Despite having already eaten all her breakfast and some of her friends', Sasha still had a hungry gleam in her eye.

Finishing up her toast and grabbing a piece of fruit, Mikasa shoved the rest of her plate toward her comrade, who proceeded to devour the remaining food immediately. "Thank you for your concern, but that won't be necessary. It's my responsibility, and I'll take care of it myself." She then turned to the boy on her right. "Where's Eren?"

"Ah, he already finished here and went to see Hanji in preparation for the experiments later this morning," Armin replied.

"I see." He could hear a touch of disappointment in her voice. It was no surprise considering she tried to spend every bit of her free time with him.

Armin took a moment to scrutinize her visage before carefully asking, "So what are these new chores?"

She blinked before giving a light shrug and sighing, as if to say there was no point hiding it. "The Captain's given me extra duties as punishment for the incident with Annie."

"Wait, seriously?" came a disbelieving voice from behind. "That was ages ago." All eyes turned to a tall young man with brown hair.

"Jean, what are you doing back here? I thought you and Connie had already gone to work on the stables." Armin raised an eyebrow at him.

"I can't seem to find where I left my book. I wanted to make sure Potato Girl here hadn't mistook it for a sandwich and ate it." He shoved a thumb in Sasha's direction. The girl in question immediately stuck her food-filled tongue out at him.

"He really just wanted to see Mikasa!" a voice called from across the hall. Grinning, a short-haired boy ducked his head back out of the doorway of the mess hall.

"Shut it, Springer!" Jean yelled, a faint blush creeping up on his face.

This earned him a laugh from everyone present. Well, everyone but Mikasa who at least gave a small, amused smile.

"Er, well, I don't see my book, so I'd better get going," the young man said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Then, fixing a serious gaze on the dark-haired girl, he added, "If he mistreats you in the slightest, let me know right away."

Mikasa nodded and was about to thank him for his concern when she was interrupted by a now satiated Sasha, "Why? So you can piss in your pants the moment you try to stand up to the Captain?"

Jean's face turned bright scarlet. "Oy! I'm just trying to look out for her!"

"Because he has a crush on her~!" Connie's head popped back out as quickly as it had appeared.

Without another word, Jean dashed out of the room to beat the snot out of his comrade.

Armin couldn't help but grin at the quickly retreating figure. After a minute, he stood up and grabbed his empty tray. "I should get going too." With one last look at Mikasa, he said, "I think the rest of us feel the same. If the Captain pushes you too far—"

"I know, thank you, Armin," she replied rather abruptly. He knew his childhood friend would rather tough it out than call on them for help. He also knew the Captain wouldn't let her hear the end of it if she allowed anyone to assist her. Keeping that in mind, he made a mental note to sit down with her in a few days to make sure she was really okay.

The Captain's quarters were still locked by the time his laundry had finished drying, but Mikasa knew where to find him later that afternoon.

The large wicker basket of clothes and sheets under one arm, she rapped quietly on the wooden door of his office with the other.

"You'd better not have ruined any of my cravats," was her signal to enter. She'd always wondered why he never locked the door to his office, which contained important military documents, but was so paranoid about keeping his bedroom secure.

At least his office wouldn't need as much work since she'd come back yesterday afternoon and finished up like she'd promised. Luckily for her, he hadn't been in by the time she returned, or he may have exacted his revenge for her insult sooner.

She set aside the basket for who knows when he'd go back to his room, and started cleaning. Things were just as quiet between them as they had been the other day, only interspersed with the occasional snide complaint about her work from the Captain.

Mikasa had to bite her tongue a few times, but resolved not to give him the satisfaction of a reaction from her.

With a rustle of papers, Captain Levi stood up at his desk. "I suppose I should let you into my room to put those away."

Not even looking at her, he headed for the exit to his office. Catching his drift, Mikasa gently dropped what she was doing and grabbed the basket.

For someone whose ankle was injured, he was going at a pretty decent pace through the castle. Not long into their dull trek, he asked nonchalantly, "How did Shitty Glasses' experiments go?"

Mikasa blinked for a second. It wasn't like the Captain to make idle chatter, especially when he had plenty of opportunity back in his office. She took a moment to think back to what happened in the Squad Leader's office shortly after she had finished kitchen duty. "Eren was fine, although I don't think Hanji got the results she wanted."

"Oh?" It was more an invitation to elaborate rather than an expression of interest.

"For her first experiment, she made a cut on each of Eren's arms, to see if he was able to regenerate one faster than the other."

"And?" He slowed down a bit to tackle a particularly long set of stairs.

"They healed at the same time. Eren couldn't focus that kind of power."

The Captain merely shrugged. "Anything else?"

"She asked Eren to mentally command Connie to do a set action. She thinks he has some sort of telepathic ability since he was able to make the titans attack a single target during the last battle."

By now they had arrived at his room. As he reached for his key, he commented, "I suppose that ended in failure too."

Mikasa merely nodded. "And then Hanji—"

"I think I've heard enough of her harebrained experiments." He raised a hand as he opened the door. "I was just bored as hell, not wanting a full report. There's no paperwork to distract me on a walk." With that, he stepped aside to let her in.

Mikasa tried to keep as straight a face as she could, even with the aggravating prospect of putting everything away for him as if he were a child.

"Lock up once you've put those up then finish with my office. I need to go see Commander Erwin."

"Yes, Sir," she muttered under her breath, not even looking at him. She set the basket down on a chest and pulled out a jacket she had neatly folded earlier. The raven-haired girl could hear the sounds of his boots walking toward the doorway. 'Three… two… one…' she mentally counted down.

"Oh and Ackerman," he began. Here it comes, right on cue. She gave a quick roll of her eyes with her face turned away before giving him her attention. "What time are your tactical classes tomorrow?"

Mikasa blinked. That wasn't quite what she had expected him to say. She still braced herself for him to give her yet another assignment. "Eleven in the morning like every other day."

Levi raised a hand up to his chin as if mulling over something. "Right, it's been awhile…" Finally making his way out the door, he called back over his shoulder, "Carry on, Ackerman. I don't want to see a single wrinkle in those sheets, got it?"

A simple salute was all Mikasa could muster, still wondering what the Captain could possibly be up to now.