Housekeeping

Disclaimer: SnK and its characters are not mine.

Chapter 6

The next day right before breakfast, Eren pulled Armin aside and confided his plan to him. To his relief, his best friend seemed to be on board with the idea. He even offered to cover for him to the Sergeant in charge of their chores. Luckily, Hanji had no experiments planned for him that day either.

He saw Mikasa during most of the day, like during drills and meals, so the only times he'd have to worry about watching her were during morning duties and her new "extra training."

After escorting his sister as usual to the stables, he snuck around the back entrance and found a good hiding spot behind some hay bales to spy on her. However, the brown-haired teenager got bored about five minutes into his watch. Seeing her shovel horse shit could only be interesting for so long.

It wasn't until a tall man approached her when his head perked up. Could this be the guy? He had light brown hair and blue eyes and a muscular build. Eren didn't catch his rank, but she saluted him politely.

"At ease. Good morning to you too, Ackerman," his deep voice resounded in the barn. "I see Braus and Cohen are running late."

"Yes, Sir, Sasha should be here shortly. I'm not sure of Robert's whereabouts, I'm afraid." Her voice didn't waver, and her face kept its stoic look. Eren guessed this guy must be her supervisor.

The older man nodded. "Carry on then. Let them know when they arrive that the horses will need a better brush-down today. Captain Levi was here the other day and commented on how his was filthy."

Mikasa's face slipped into a scowl for the briefest of seconds before she turned her head and quickly gave an acknowledgement as he walked away.

Eren sat back on his haunches and sighed in relief. Everything seemed normal so far.

"Mikasaaaaaa~!" The high-pitched wail of a female voice came from the entrance Eren had come in through. Caught off guard, he scrambled to make himself as flat against the wall as possible. "Sorry I'm late!" Sasha burst in almost out of breath.

The auburn-haired girl rushed past Eren's hiding place. He waited a few seconds to make sure she hadn't noticed him before releasing a breath he'd been holding and wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. That was a close one.

Unfortunately, in her hurry, she didn't see the pail of droppings on the floor until her right foot was planted directly in it. With a disgusted squeal, she started hopping backward on the other foot, trying to fling the stuck bucket off her boot.

"Sasha, look out!" Mikasa called, but it was too late.

The cadet had jumped backwards into the giant pile of hay bales, knocking them over. Eren tried his best to stifle a yelp as the dense, golden bundles came crashing down on him.

The young titan-shifter was still picking hay from inside of his clothes as he tailed his sister for what had to be the last leg of his day. There was nothing remarkable about the training session he'd followed her to later on that morning. It was simply her doing some weight-lifting and practicing on a punching bag in the rec room. Even though she had been surrounded by physically fit men in tight or barely any clothing, she didn't bat an eye at any one of them.

Eren didn't know why he bothered to follow her for this last part. He knew all she was doing was going to Captain Levi's office to clean it.

He peered cautiously around the corner down the hallway. Mikasa had just knocked on his door and let herself in. Eren tip-toed the rest of the way until he was standing right outside where she'd disappeared. He didn't know what compelled him, but he decided he might as well listen in for a few minutes before leaving empty-handed.

"Sorry I'm late, Captain," Mikasa said as soon as she'd closed the door behind her. She was greeted by a blank stare from the man sitting behind the desk.

His voice didn't seem to show any irritation at least. "Two minutes past your usual. That's not like you, Ackerman."

"I took the long way here, Sir. It feels like someone's been watching me all day." A hunch told her not to stray too far from the entrance.

The dark-haired man seemed to sense something too. Ever so subtly, he made a motion with his head toward the door behind her. "I never took you to be a paranoid one, Ackerman."

Mikasa caught his drift. "I'd like to call it being cautious, Sir. Better than getting careless." She quietly backed up, not even making a creak on the floorboards. "You never know when it may pay off. Like, for example—" With one quick motion, she turned and pulled the door open, causing a body with dark brown hair to tumble into the office. "—when someone's eavesdropping," she finished with a grunt, hauling the intruder by the collar on the back of his jacket and pinning him up against the nearest wall. She was about to land a blow to subdue him when a familiar voice stopped her.

"Mi-Mikasa, wait!" Her brother mumbled out while his face was half-smashed against the plaster. Her right arm froze in its pulled back position, and her onyx eyes went wide.

"Eren, what the…?" She immediately dropped him to the ground. He landed with an "umph" and rubbed at his cheekbone. "What are you doing here? Was that you this whole time?" A million other unvoiced questions swam in her head.

Mikasa could see his face turning red, and he didn't dare look up at her. "Well, I uh… You see… Not exactly…"

"Jaeger!" Levi's booming call interrupted them. Eren's back stiffened. Then in a quieter voice, he drawled, "Funny you should drop in."

The boy scrambled to his feet and gave his commanding officer a clumsy salute.

Captain Levi hardly acknowledged him as he continued, "Sergeant Blake was in earlier to complain about Squad Leader Hanji's experiments taking you away from your chores today. And when those chores involve cleaning, you know I get…concerned."

Mikasa could hear her brother audibly gulp.

"So imagine my surprise when I banged Shitty Glasses' door down over it and she said you weren't even scheduled for an experiment today. Now tell me, Jaeger…" At this, the Captain slowly rose from his desk and ambled over until he was mere inches from his cadet. "…if you weren't doing your chores this morning, and you weren't being sliced open like a lab rat, where the hell were you?" The older man reached over to pluck a piece of hay from inside the boy's jacket.

The teenage girl's eyes narrowed at the sight of the yellow filament. As she noticed more hidden on his person, she couldn't fathom why she hadn't seen them before. Now the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, much as she didn't want to believe it. Eren bit his lip, clearly not wanting to fess up while she was boring holes into his head with her glare.

After about a minute, the older man sighed, "Maybe I don't even want to know. But lying to a superior officer is still grounds for punishment." Turning toward his window, he ordered, "Fifty laps around the castle, now! I'll be watching you from here. And if you miss one goddamn lap, I'm making it a hundred. Is that understood?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" Eren saluted again. As he turned to run out the door, his emerald eyes briefly met hers. She didn't attempt to hide the hurt in them, and that must have made him freeze in his tracks. "Mikasa, I…"

"You'd better get going." Her voice was cold, but she didn't care. His confession that he was spying on her would be too little too late. She didn't want to hear any of it right now.

"Now, Jaeger! Before I throw you out this window!" Captain Levi threatened harshly.

Terrified, Eren dashed out the door and let it slam shut behind him. It wasn't until afterward when the Captain fixed his emotionless gaze on her. "Well, this is quite the change from this morning, Ackerman."

Mikasa didn't have the energy to hide the confusion on her face. "Sir?"

"Earlier in class, you objected to me making him write ten sentences on the board for punishment. Now you don't care I'm making him run fifty laps." A slight smirk appeared on his face. "Betrayal hurts like a bitch, doesn't it?"

She scowled and stormed over to the supply closet. Trying her best to keep her voice steady, she replied, "I'm sure there's a good explanation, but I'd rather not talk about this." She yanked out bottles of cleaner and some newspaper before joining him at the window, only she was there to clean it, not revel in her brother's punishment.

As she reached out to grasp the first glass pane, she could feel him step closer to her. Mikasa tried to tell herself he was just getting a better view of her brother's suffering. When she leaned back to grab the spray bottle, however, she could feel his breath on her neck.

"Funny how you defend him up until he wrongs you. Maybe you should stop doting on that brat and let him grow up on his own."

She stiffened but merely turned back to her work. "I've already started doing that, for your information," she stated plainly. "I didn't go to his experiment with Hanji yesterday."

At that, she abruptly stopped her rough scrubs on the squeaky window. She didn't go with him like she usually did… That's right, even though she had made sure to get his consent, somehow she suspected he really wasn't okay with it.

Now lost in her own train of thought, she murmured more to herself than the Captain, "He must have been worried about me again." Knowing her reckless brother, it might have driven him to act on some crazy ideas, one of which led to this mess. She didn't bother looking back at the man behind her as she resumed talking to him. "Eren was probably spying out of concern for me. But thanks to you, I've just now realized that."

"Tch." She could feel him back away, which made her relax slightly. "If you're working on distancing yourself from the brat, you could have gone a little less overboard in class then."

Mikasa scoffed, "And make Armin go back to watching me like a rat in a cage? No thanks."

"Hmmm." For a moment, she could have sworn she heard a hint of amusement in that utterance. "Deceiving your friends too? Makes me wonder what's going on in that head of yours." With that, he limped back to the desk, not bothering to supervise the young titan-shifter any longer. "Whatever it is, I'd suggest you get your shit together before tomorrow's test. I trust you won't let me down."

Mikasa's face turned back to stone as she continued her work. For the rest of her session, she didn't even want to talk to that irritating excuse for a man.

Armin caught a gasping and very sweaty Eren in the hallway on the way back to his room. It took several minutes for the dark-haired boy to explain what had happened in between breaths.

"But what about Mikasa? Did you see her with anyone?" Armin inquired.

Eren slumped against the wall just outside his quarters. The blond took this opportunity to run and grab a glass of water for his friend. The tired boy greedily drank the cool liquid in one long gulp.

"No…no one," Eren panted slowly, wiping some dribbled water off his mouth. "And she didn't…put up a fight…against the Captain…when he gave me…my punishment."

"Really? After what happened in class today?" Armin sat down beside his friend. He still kept a bit of distance between them, though, since he could smell Eren's body odor from across the hall.

"Yeah, it was like…someone had torn…out her heart…and left…her body…to scold me." The other teenager ran both his hands through his messy chocolate-brown hair. "Not that I…could blame her…really. This was…a stupid idea." Once he finally caught his breath after a few minutes, he slowly tried to get to his feet. Armin had to help him steady himself. "I need to hit the showers, but I'll see you at dinner."

The blond nodded. "You should talk to her at least."

"I know, I will." Eren waved a hand dismissively as he stumbled away, his legs wobbling like jelly. "Doesn't mean I'm looking forward to it."

He had been a damn fool, all over nothing. Eren couldn't stop berating himself as he and Armin walked toward the wooden dining table where all their friends were chatting. He quickly scanned the group and felt a mixture of relief and disappointment that his sister wasn't there yet.

As they both took their usual seats, Eren barely paid attention to the current conversation.

"I'm sure he's just going to have us use a regular titan dummy to practice on," Connie commented.

Jean snorted. "You forget that this is Captain Levi we're talking about. He'll have something scary set up for tomorrow's test I'm sure."

"Scary like how, Jean?" Sasha chimed in. Her tray was empty now, so she pulled an extra loaf of bread from inside her jacket that she must've snuck out of the kitchen.

"Like hell I would know. But you know how the Captain always has some surprise." He stopped to take a big gulp of his water.

"A week would be too short to make anything elaborate," Armin contributed. "At most he could modify a 15 m dummy to have extra pads on the arms, legs, and neck where we have to target."

The young titan-shifter suddenly noticed Connie leering at him. "I'm really curious what he's going to have Eren do." The boy with the buzz-cut gave him a mischievous grin.

Connie must have noticed Eren was not in the mood to get involved in their banter like he usually was. Jean seemed to pick up on this too and joined in on the fun. "Maybe he'll tie Eren up to the head of the titan dummy so he can feel what it's like to have our blades dancing all around him."

"Hey, you guys stop that!" Krista chided. "You're making him more nervous about the test."

Eren had just realized he was unconsciously fidgeting with his stew instead of eating it. The blond girl was way off about him, but he could see how his anxious actions could be interpreted as nerves. He was more worried about when a certain raven-haired teenager would appear than whatever was in store for him tomorrow.

"He might be able to acquire two dummies so that we could practice our two-titan maneuvers as well," Armin mused. "That way Eren could be tested too."

The dark-haired boy could hear the others chiming in with their thoughts, but it all suddenly turned to background noise as a tall girl walked into the mess hall. Eren didn't wait for her to come over to them. He was up on his feet in an instant and heading her way.

The tone of the babble from his friends shifted abruptly at his departure, but he didn't care. All he could focus on was the person he cared about most and making amends.

Mikasa had taken but a few steps into the large room when she spotted her brother making his way quickly over to her. She didn't even have to ask him what he wanted as she set her dinner tray on an empty spot at a nearby table and walked with him outside.

The sun had set below the horizon, and its dying light was no match against the quickly darkening indigo engulfing the sky. A chilly autumn breeze ruffled both their jackets.

Because they knew each other so well, they didn't have to voice the first few lines of their conversation. A simple exchange of looks sufficed.

You had something to say to me?

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Why, Eren? Why did you do it?

The boy sighed and leaned back against the stone wall before explaining, "You might laugh at this, but after you didn't go to my experiments the other day, I got this crazy notion you might have a boyfriend or someone you were seeing instead."

Mikasa tensed, but a particularly cold wind had passed at just that moment, so she rubbed her arms to pretend it was because of that. "Boyfriend…? What made you think that?"

For the briefest of seconds, Eren's face had contorted into the expression he usually had when faced with one of Hanji's scary looks. He then nervously blurted out, "It…It was all Armin's idea!" The boy cowered back a bit, as if expecting someone to smack him. When she didn't make a move, he added with his gaze lowered, "I couldn't think of any other reason why you wouldn't be up front with me like usual."

Mikasa turned away to hide her irritation. "I see… Well, are you and he satisfied now?"

Her brother slowly nodded. "I'm sorry for sneaking around like that. I was just desperate to know…if I'd been replaced."

Twin onyx orbs softened at the last part. 'No one could ever take your place, Eren,' she thought to herself, wanting so badly to voice this. 'Not even him…'

"I should have just asked. After all, we've never hidden anything from each other before."

"Yeah…that's right." A chill ran down Mikasa's back, and she was sure it wasn't because of the outside temperature. "I should apologize too, for speaking so curtly to you earlier, when it was my own fault for not further explaining myself."

Eren merely tipped his head to the side and gave her a quizzical look.

She took a deep breath before continuing, "The Captain agreed to give me personal combat training when he's better. With the new chores, I haven't had the extra time I need to train, so I had to fit it in somewhere. You know I'd hate to lose to that midget bastard. And…I trust Hanji to take care of you."

The teenage boy bobbed his head in understanding. "So that's all it was, huh? I really am an idiot."

Mikasa placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Please relay that to Armin, so that he stops worrying too. I appreciate you both care about me, but trust that I can take care of myself."

"Yeah." She could see the sparkle returning to his emerald eyes. "Let's get back to the others. We both need to eat up in preparation for the Captain's test tomorrow."

Mikasa gave him an amused smile. "I guess this means Sasha gets less of my dinner tonight then."

Her brother laughed as they turned to go inside. While they made the trek back, she couldn't help the sinking feeling in her stomach. Even though what she'd told him was the truth, it wasn't the complete story. She couldn't help but feel that was same thing as lying to him. Ironic that she asked him to trust her when her actions showed she deserved it the least.

For now, though, she forced herself to push those thoughts to the back of her head. She joined Eren in a reassuring wave to her friends as she retrieved her abandoned meal tray and made her way to sit with them. Thoughts of the Captain and her growing feelings for him also had to take a backseat. In this moment, she just wanted to enjoy the time she had with her only remaining family, and the friends they had made together.

Everything about her was like clockwork. He could set a new watch to her punctuality. Not only that, but she had also perfectly synced her routine with Levi's whenever she came to clean.

Get partly dressed after a shower, unlock the door, she was knocking two seconds later. Finish his shave, walk out of the bathroom to put the finishing touches on his wardrobe, she was cleaning the sink five seconds later.

This morning, though, as he opened up one of his wardrobe drawers, he was met with an empty spot.

"Ackerman, where's my—?"

"Your last clean cravat is hanging on the mirror already," came her reply from the bathroom. "I'll be washing the rest with the laundry today."

"Tch. Cutting it close," he grumbled.

"Your harness is on the bed, since I'm assuming you'll want that for today's test. Boots are at the foot of it. I stuck the papers you need to bring to the Commander in the doorway so you'd remember to take them."

Sure enough, the sealed packet was wedged between the doorjamb and the door just above the knob. Levi rolled his eyes. "As if I would forget."

"You would for about a minute then call me over to hand it to you on your way out like you did three days ago."

The Captain felt a twitch coming on.

After putting on his harness, he worked on his cravat in the mirror. He couldn't help but stare at the slender form working away in the reflection behind him. To be honest, he didn't know what to make of her. It'd only been a week and already she had his morning regimen down to the second, a feat that would take normal people months or even years to accomplish.

He could see her pause for a moment, as if she could feel his image watching her. "How did those mended pants hold up yesterday?" she asked casually.

His fingers put the final adjustments on the piece of white cloth around his neck. He also hadn't expected her to be so…domestic. Sewing was definitely not on his list of things he imagined she would have mastered. Then again, she was good at everything he'd seen so far. "They worked out well enough, though I haven't tested them in 3D Maneuver Gear yet."

Levi limped over to the bed so he could sit down to put on his boots. In an instant, she was over to clean the mirror.

He couldn't help but wonder, what exactly was she to him? They had gone beyond a commanding officer-soldier relationship by this point. She was more like a…what, maid? No, that was too demeaning of a position. Assistant? Closer, with all the extra tasks she performed, but their newly-formed bond seemed more familiar than that.

She had shown a clear interest in getting to know him better, and over the last week, she had succeeded. Now the girl acted like she'd known him all her life. Hence, "friend" didn't even cut it either. So what, should he start thinking of her like family now? "Daughter" didn't quite suit her, although the age difference would be about right. She behaved more like a…

…wife? He choked at the sudden thought and had to hide it in the form of a cough.

"Captain, are you all right?" Mikasa's eyes were on him in a second.

He dismissed her concern with a wave. "Must be dust in the room. You sure you cleaned this place yesterday?"

Scowling, she turned back to scrubbing the mirror harder.

…But he didn't think he was too far off. Not that he knew what marriage was like, but they worked together so well, it was as if they'd been made for each other. At the same time, he couldn't see her as a wife either, with her being so young compared to him. Then there was the need to factor in a thing called "affection," which she clearly did not display toward him.

His jacket suddenly appeared in front of his face. "Here," came Mikasa's voice, "you're going to be late at this rate."

He snatched the article of clothing from her grasp. Maybe they were in the old married couple stage.

As he brushed past her to access the mirror once more, the teenager paused. Before he could put his jacket on, she reached over and plucked a strand of black hair that was caught between the back of his neck and his cravat. Judging by the length, it had to be one of hers.

"Ackerman, do I need to require you to wear a hairnet when you do my laundry?" he droned.

"That won't be necessary, Sir. This one must have slipped," she responded, unfazed.

When she moved to turn back to her work, he caught a brief glimpse of their two reflections together in the mirror. He was stunned at the sight. They fit so well together even there. Granted, she had been standing behind him with her head over his shoulder, which made her appear shorter, but because the both of them looked so unlike their ages, they could have easily passed as a couple. He tried to shake the thought, but it kept haunting him for the short remainder of his routine.

Levi grabbed the bundle of documents waiting for him at the exit and began to make his way out. Once he passed the threshold and turned to close the door behind him, he noticed Mikasa staring oddly at him. "Something wrong, Ackerman?"

She shook her head. "No, but I was just waiting for your 'Oh and Ackerman' for the morning."

Levi stiffened. He had made quite a habit of that lately, hadn't he? But with certain plans weighing heavily on his mind, he wasn't in the mood for tormenting her at the present. "Today is different." With that cryptic message, he shut the slab of wood. The dark-haired man couldn't help but give a sigh as he limped down the hallway. She knew him like a wife would, huh? This was only going to make it harder for him to do what he had to later.

Instead of gathering at the classroom, Levi's squad met fully geared at the edge of the forest that harbored the training grounds. Only, this side wasn't where they would normally enter for 3DMG practice. The Captain said he would walk them to their testing site, which was also unusual, since they would normally enter by swinging through the trees.

In addition to the eight of them, Squad Leader Hanji would also be partaking in this exercise. They'd only been told she would be timing them, and that was it. Armin shifted from one booted foot to the other. Something about this didn't feel right.

"Where's Braus?" Captain Levi barked after scanning their little group, which currently was missing one person.

No sooner had he said that when she appeared in the distance, running like her life depended on it. Knowing the Captain, it probably did.

She stopped to catch her breath when she reached them and performed a less than perfect salute. The action caused a roll to fall from inside her jacket.

"Braus…" Levi's voice was low and deadly. His displeasure was clearly evident in his normally stony eyes.

Sasha gulped. "Sorry, Sir! That was for after the test, I swear!"

"When we're through, you are scrubbing all the bathrooms in the entire castle by yourself for the next month! Is that understood?" He boomed.

The girl cowered and hid herself behind Hanji.

"Oh come on, fussy pants," nagged the Squad Leader. "She was probably hungry from all the stress of this test. Cut her some slack!"

"Not to mention no one shared any food with her this morning," snickered Connie quietly to Jean.

The Captain visibly twitched. "Fine, one week then. I don't have time to argue. Let's go."

Sasha caught Hanji in a tight glomp. For the next minute, she recited a multitude of "thank you"s to the older woman.

As they walked for what seemed like forever, Armin took a moment to peruse everyone in the group. For someone who was still injured, Captain Levi had no problem walking ahead of them at a good pace. His limp wasn't as severe as it had been previously, so he must be close to fully healing.

Jean and Connie were trying to hide their nervousness by talking themselves up to each other. Krista walked not too far from him and was taking in the beautiful scenery quietly. Sasha was bouncing around Mikasa and Eren and gabbed about what she hoped today's lunch menu would include. While his best male friend tried to humor her by intermittently responding, his adoptive sister pressed forward and caught up to their leader.

"Are you sure your ankle is up for this, Captain?" Armin could hear her ask him. His eyes narrowed slightly. Since when had she started initiating cordial conversations with him?

The older man gruffly replied, "I don't expect to be doing anything difficult today. That'll be your job."

She simply nodded and slowed down to let Eren and Sasha catch up with her. That feeling of something being off still nagged at Armin, and it wasn't the fact that their two resident hotheads had interacted without someone getting mad. So, the blond teenager hung back to talk to the oddball of their group.

"Ne, Hanji, I hear you're only here to keep time for us?" Armin asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

A puzzled look appeared on her face. "I've got the stopwatch with me, yes, but protocol dictates I must be present in any activity involving an experimental titan."

"You mean Eren?" he attempted to clarify. "But he does training unsupervised all the time. So why are you with him now?"

She had just opened her mouth to speak when they reached a large clearing in the woods.

"We're here!" Levi called, interrupting their conversation.

Everyone halted at his announcement. Before them there was…nothing. It was just a simple, albeit spacious, clearing surrounded by the dense forest. They had only walked a few meters in before he had stopped them.

"Captain…what's going on?" Nervous, Eren was the first to speak. All eyes focused on their instructor, whose back was currently turned toward them.

"Eren," the older man said in a deadpan voice, "change into a titan."

"WHAT?!" chorused the cadets in shock.

"But-But, Sir!" the titan-shifter objected. "I haven't mastered that ability yet. I can't just—"

Levi cut him off with an over-the-shoulder glare. "Funny, all of Shitty Glasses' reports seem to indicate you should be able to, or are at least close to it."

It was the confused scientist who spoke up next. "He can create the individual parts, Levi. Head, torso, arms, legs. You told me those would be sufficient for this test. We aren't at the stage where he can generate a fully functional titan on command."

Completely ignoring her, Levi pressed, "How did it go again? You start with a self-inflicted wound?"

"Captain!" Mikasa snapped. "If he says he can't do it, he can't do it." Turning to her brother, she assuaged, "It's all right, Eren. He can't force you to do anything you don't want to."

The dark-haired boy was visibly shaking, his hands clenched into fists.

"Eren," Levi continued in his unwavering voice, "this is an order from your commanding officer. Transform."

His friend bowed his head, silence still upon him.

This was insane. Eren had strict orders not to change unless his life depended on it, not for the mere whim of an exercise. What was the Captain thinking? This could endanger everyone's lives if something went wrong. Commander Erwin couldn't have possibly approved of this…could he?

After a long pause, the boy at the center of everyone's attention whispered, "All right, I'll do it."

"Eh?!" the rest of the recruits in the squad gasped.

Connie was nervously wringing his hands. "Look man, you don't have to. I'm sure titan dummies could work…" But everyone knew it was too late for that. And they were all just as scared about going up against Eren in titan form.

The trembling teenager slowly made his way toward the middle of the clearing. There was a hush over everyone during this, all eyes carefully watching him. Once he had gone a sufficient distance, he faced them and raised his hand to his mouth.

Everyone tightly grasped the operating devices to their 3DMG, already searching for trees to shoot into at a moment's notice.

The only warning he gave them was a simple nod, before biting into his hand.

A collective breath was held, waiting for the impending lightning strike.

…And then nothing.

His eyes wide in distress, he raised the other hand and bit into it. Again, nothing.

A few sighs of relief were heard among the squad members.

"Don't forget, Levi," Hanji spoke up. "He needs to have a clear goal in his mind to transform."

"Fulfilling an order isn't clear enough?" Levi retorted in a cold monotone.

Tears starting to stream from his eyes, the brunette boy continued to draw more blood from his hands, but to no avail.

"Stop this, Captain, it's useless." Mikasa stomped forward, a burning rage in her eyes. "Eren did his best, even though he told you he couldn't. Now tell him to come back." By now she was at the Captain's side, glaring daggers at him.

"Hmph." Their commanding officer slowly turned his head to match her gaze. For a second, there was a deadly gleam in them that took Mikasa aback. Then in a low voice, he murmured, "Maybe he just hasn't found the right motivation yet, Ackerman."

Before anyone could blink, the Captain grabbed Mikasa around the shoulders with one arm, pinning her own arms to her sides and pressing her back against his chest. More cries of surprise erupted from their little group. Less than a second later, he drew one of his blades with his free hand and pressed it tight across her throat.

Onyx eyes wide, Mikasa gasped, "What the hell are you doing?!" However, that action alone cause the weapon to start to break skin. Both her hands grasped at his restraining arm, but his grip was iron-tight and wouldn't budge.

"Hey, Eren," Levi called out casually.

Time seemed to stand still as everyone stared at him in shock.

"Change into a titan, or I kill her."