Housekeeping
Disclaimer: SnK and its characters are not mine.
Chapter 13
A breath hitched in Levi's throat. This had to be some sort of dream. Ackerman would never return like this…would she? It took every ounce of willpower not to rush over to the door and rip it off its hinges. Instead, he calmly limped over to the entrance of his chambers, crutch resounding against the planks of the floor with every step.
Once he reached the large wooden slab, he took a moment to quickly pinch his arm to make sure this wasn't a dream. Finding nothing different besides a now sore spot just above his wrist, he unlocked the door and stiffly opened it.
"Ackerman, I told you I didn't need your shitty help anymore," he instantly scolded. He was then about to tell her to get lost when he noticed a certain green-eyed boy standing behind her. "What's Jaeger doing here?"
The titan-shifter in question was glaring at him with a stern look on his face. It didn't take long, though, for that countenance to succumb to an involuntary yawn.
"He's acting as my bodyguard, Sir," Mikasa briskly replied, taking this opportunity to push her way into his room before he could object. Levi had to stumble to the side to avoid getting bowled over first by her, then by her sleeping beauty of an adopted brother.
"Your what?" The older man noticed the teenage boy's cheeks had suddenly reddened.
"Bodyguard," she repeated. "He's here to make sure you don't try to kill me again while I clean your room."
"Tch." As if Jaeger could pose a threat to him even if he had entertained the thought. "Since when did you need a babysitter, Ackerman?"
While Mikasa robotically headed over to his closet of cleaning supplies, Eren had barely moved from his spot in the center of Levi's room. The boy looked around awkwardly, seeming hopelessly lost as to what he should be doing now.
"Since yesterday, Sir," came her blunt reply. "You've clearly proven you're too dangerous to be alone around."
Dangerous indeed, but probably not in the way she was thinking. "Then why bother coming here?"
At this, she stopped rummaging through his supplies and looked downward. "Even you could use the help." After a few moments of silence, she resumed her search for the items she needed and added, "Besides, you'll be much more crabby having to live in this squalor and will likely take it out on the squad during practice." Her arms now full, she shut the closet door with her foot and made her way to the window.
Levi clicked his tongue once more and headed to the wardrobe to retrieve a set of clothes. "Fine, do what you want. But stay out of my way." As soon as he snatched the last garment, he quickly hobbled into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. He took a moment to lean against the wall and let out a deep breath.
One day, that raven-haired siren was going to lead him to his demise, he just knew it. At least with Jaeger watching his every move, it made it harder for his impulses to take over. The last thing he needed was another reason for her to press her own sexual assault charges.
He neatly laid his change of clothes on a stool, leaned his crutch up against the wall, and started the shower. Levi was already cringing at the thought of what he was going to feel shortly.
'Cold water, here we come again.'
"Eren, you wipe down the furniture first, then work on the floor," Mikasa scolded as the chocolate-haired boy had just stooped down with the rag.
"What? But they look fine," he protested shifting his gaze between the shelves and the dresser.
Mikasa promptly proved him wrong by walking over to the bookcase and swiping a finger, showing him a thin layer of dust now coating her digit.
Eren sighed, "Fine, fine." He started wiping up the shelf she had just demonstrated on but was immediately met with a clearing of his adoptive sister's throat.
"Start at the top and work your way down."
The young titan-shifter threw his hands up in frustration. "Geez, Mikasa, does it really matter?" He stomped over to grab the chair at the desk and returned to set it right in front of the subject of their argument. Once he stepped up to demonstrate he could now reach the top, he spread out his arms in an exaggerated manner. "Happy now?"
"Quite," Mikasa curtly stated and sauntered back to her own work at the window.
Of course, this did nothing to alleviate Eren's crankiness. He let out a huff and pivoted to get to work.
As he did so, the bathroom door suddenly slammed open. The noise startled Eren so much that he lost his balance and grabbed onto the nearest thing he could find—namely, the bookshelf. He soon discovered, to his dismay, that his lifeline wasn't bolted to the wall.
"What the hell?" was the last thing Eren heard from Captain Levi before the boy was showered with heavy tomes and subsequently the bookcase, which fell on top of him with a crash.
"JAEGER!" boomed his superior, fuming at the mess he'd made.
His body aching all over from the beating he'd just taken, Eren scrambled out from the pile as fast as he could. "Sir, sorry, Sir!" The young soldier could barely stand, much less give him a clumsy salute.
"Clean up this goddamn mess and then beat it! You've done enough damage for today!" the Captain growled. "Honestly, I don't know why Ackerman thought your shit face would be of any help."
"Because he does a good job cleaning; you just refuse to acknowledge it, Captain," Mikasa snapped. Her fierce onyx eyes met her leader's icy glare.
"Tch." He impatiently broke their staring contest and finished buttoning up his shirt. "If you insist he stay, then he can do a good job standing in a corner and keep his clumsiness to himself."
Mikasa lent a Eren a hand in righting the fallen shelf and putting the contents back in their place. "Pay no attention to him," she addressed her brother in a low voice but still loud enough for the Captain to hear. "He's always this grumpy in the morning."
"One more snide remark, and you'll be joining him, Ackerman." Levi irately yanked his cravat around his neck.
Unfazed, Mikasa made her way to the bathroom to begin scrubbing that down while the older man took his place in front of the mirror. Thankfully the rest of their cleaning session went without a hitch. It wasn't too hard for them to fall back into their previous routine, despite her few days of absence.
At one point, she caught Eren staring slack-jawed at the both of them as they fluidly moved about the room, not once running into each other even though their eyes were preoccupied with something else.
And as per usual, while Levi crossed the threshold on his way out, crutch under arm, he had another "Oh, and Ackerman." Leaving her back turned to him, Mikasa rolled her eyes. "Re-iron my entire wardrobe. Everything's hideously wrinkled."
The raven-haired girl pushed aside the rest of her half-consumed breakfast tray, allowing Sasha to swoop in and devour the rest of her food. She knew she should have eaten more, but the thought of seeing a certain midget presently kept her appetite at bay.
Last night, she had a feeling she was going to regret resuming the Captain's chores, but at the same time, she knew deep down that this was the right thing to do. Despite how much she loathed him, despite how much her mind protested her being around him, she had to see this through until he was better…
The boisterous chatter of the mess hall suddenly died down until the thunking of someone's crutch hitting the wooden floor was the most prominent sound that could be heard. All eyes turned to the source of the strange noise, and most of Levi's squad stared in shock as their Captain made his way to their table.
As he swept his steely gaze over the room, every soldier quickly turned back to scrutinizing their own breakfast trays.
Eventually Captain Levi reached his destination but his countenance clearly radiated an aura of "don't bother me" to his entire squad. That still didn't prevent his cadets from stealing nervous glances at him.
"Do I have something on my face, Kirstein?" the Captain coldly inquired.
"N-No, no, Sir," he stammered. After a series of "er"s and "uh"s, he meekly replied, "It's um, about that." He weakly pointed at Levi's crutch. "You didn't seem injured that badly yesterday."
The older man silently took a sip of his tea, but Mikasa could tell by the twitch of his eyebrow that he was barely containing his annoyance. "So you're curious as to what happened to my leg, is that it?" he asked after a pause.
"Um…yes…Sir?"
He slowly set his cup down, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "Arlert took a shit in the forest yesterday and I slipped in it."
The blond sitting beside her nearly choked on the bite of oatmeal he'd just taken.
Mikasa fixed him a glare at the crude lie. "That's not what happened and you know it, Sir."
"Would you rather I tell them I twisted my ankle after kicking your ass, Ackerman?" His narrow eyes snapped open to meet her gaze.
The raven-haired girl looked away, furious. How dare he phrase what happened like that!
Everyone else was struck silent, unable to think of anything to say.
"I have to admit though," the Captain continued, "you pack one hell of a kick." She looked up to see him stirring his own oatmeal. "I've had an easier time dealing with Aberrants than fighting you."
Mikasa pulled up her scarf so that no one would see the pink tinging her cheeks at the unexpected compliment.
"So…! Uh…" Armin piped up, trying to break the awkward silence that ensued. "Speaking of Aberrants, I've come up with additional formations we can try to make them easier to deal with."
A wave of groans washed over the table because they all knew that meant extra practice during their 3DMG sessions.
"Before you delve into such a fascinating topic, Arlert, I have one more issue to address." The dark-haired man pushed aside his breakfast even though he couldn't have taken more than two bites of it. "For the next week while I recover, Ackerman will be in charge of your lessons."
There was a round of surprised cries and stares at the confused teenage girl in question.
"She already knows what I intended to work on with you, so she is the perfect person for the job. She will also be reporting your progress to me every afternoon, so if I get the slightest impression any of you are taking advantage of the situation by slacking off, I will personally come to your room and beat your ass with my crutch. Is that understood?"
Six vigorously bobbing heads later, Captain Levi stood up and took his leave. Not another word was said until he was long gone out of the mess hall.
"The hell happened yesterday, Mikasa?" Jean shot at her.
"Oh, oh, Mikasa, can I bring food to class today?" Sasha chirped.
The raven-haired girl's own eyebrow now twitched. That shorty had every opportunity to talk to her about this, and he clearly chose not to warn her, much less even ask if she was willing to do this. Mikasa added this to her long list of offenses she swore she'd make him pay for one day.
A firm hand on her shoulder disrupted her vengeful thoughts. "Hey." A pair of emerald eyes met hers. "If you need any help later lemme know, okay?"
"Yeah, I can draw up a daily lesson plan for you—if you could use it, that is," chimed in Armin.
A warm smile spread across her face at her friends' offers. "Thanks, guys, but I think I can handle it. The Captain wouldn't have trusted me with this responsibility if he didn't think I could."
"That's the spirit, Mikasa!" Sasha cheered. "Just don't forget to bring rolls, okay?"
The half-Asian girl's smile broadened, and out of habit she brought her scarf up over it. "I'll think about it, Sasha—if you do a good job."
Armin let his forehead fall against the wall for what had to be the third time in five minutes. "'Bodyguard,' Eren? That's what you came up with?"
"I panicked, Armin, I already told you." By now, the young titan-shifter had forgone sheepishly mopping up the hallway as he explained to his best male friend what happened between him and his adoptive sister.
"But still, bodyguard? You might as well have told Mikasa she needed a wheelchair."
"I realized that after I said it. She was pretty pissed off at me." The brown-haired boy leaned up against the wall and started lightly kicking at the floor.
Armin let out an exasperated sigh. "Well, you know what that means: you're going to have to tell her tonight how you really feel."
"I hate to tell you this, Armin, but it isn't as easy as it sounds," Eren snapped. "Besides, why tonight? I was thinking of backing off for a couple of days and let things calm down a bit between us."
"No!" The blond's sudden, emphatic disagreement surprised the titan-shifter so much he nearly jumped out of his skin. "I mean…" he coughed, "the sooner you tell her the better."
"I think I've done enough damage for now, don't you? I mean…" he finally took up the mop again and resumed furiously scrubbing the floor. "It's not like there's any rush."
Eren looked up to see that Armin had another one of those calculating looks in his face, like he was studying him in order to find the best way to dissect him. "How would you feel if someone asked Mikasa out first?"
"Psh, like who?" he fixed his emerald eyes back on the wet floor.
"Like, I don't know… Let's say Captain Levi."
This made Eren burst into laughter. He had to hold onto the wall with one hand so that he wouldn't end up rolling around the slick floor in amusement. The teenage boy had to take a few gasps of air before he could calm down enough to reply, "I half-expected you to say Jean, but the Captain? Mikasa told me herself she hates his guts. So no need to worry there."
Armin merely furrowed his eyebrows. "Fine, fine, for the sake of argument, we'll say Jean. What if Mikasa chose to give him a shot, then how would you feel?"
Eren straightened against his cleaning utensil. "I guess I never really thought about it since Mikasa's had no interest in anyone."
"Except for you."
"You don't know that for sure!"
"I've known it for years, Eren. You're just in too much denial to see it." Once again, Armin struck a chord. "Look, just trust me when I say the sooner you tell her your feelings and ask her out, the better."
He didn't know what to say. What could he say? Even though he'd thought about it plenty of times, he still couldn't settle on an answer. "But what if I don't know my own feelings, Armin?"
The blond set his lips in a grim line. "Better to ask her now and find out later it was nothing, than to do nothing now and find out you had feelings for her when it's too late."
Eren clenched his fists. He knew Armin was right. Armin was always right. "Fine, I'll talk to her again later." With that, he resumed his work, trying his hardest not to think about the toughest thing he'd have to do in his life.
"Historia is showing remarkable improvement, most likely due to becoming more accustomed to the concept of fighting another human," Mikasa rattled off her report. "Armin, however, isn't making as much progress, which has made their bouts fairly one-sided." She dipped her brush into the bucket of soapy water once more and resumed scrubbing the floor of Captain Levi's office.
"So how did you fix that?" The dark-haired man flipped through the stack of papers at his desk and withdrew two in particular he had been looking for. Just like the last ten minutes of his debriefing, he never once looked up from his work.
"I helped him out one-on-one until he was sufficiently caught up with her skill level. He had notable deficits with his form and reaction time."
"I take it that occupied a majority of your lesson today."
"Yes, but it was worth it. After all, our team is only as strong as its weakest link."
"Tch, calling your own best friend weak. Only one day on the job and you're already cold as ice."
"You asked for the truth with minimal insertions of my opinion, Sir. If being 'cold,' as you say, is disagreeable to you, then you should have given me a different set of instructions."
"I didn't say I was against it; I simply wasn't expecting it until tomorrow at the earliest." The Captain leaned back in his chair. His brow scrunched at the sight of the chocolate-haired boy asleep in the seats across from him. Eren had likely fallen asleep about five minutes into her dull report to him.
"Jean incidentally requested some one-on-one time with me as well, although I couldn't fathom why. His skills surpassed where he should be at this stage."
Levi snorted. "I'll bet he did," he grumbled.
Seemingly oblivious to his comment, she continued on with her report. "Because I was running low on time, I asked Eren to work with him more closely while I took care of Armin." Levi could feel the corners of his lips tug slightly.
"I'm going to stop you right there, Ackerman. That should be enough for today." He straightened a stack of papers and set them aside.
"But Sir, I haven't gotten to Sasha's evalu—"
"Something has been bothering me since this morning," he abruptly cut her off, turning in his chair toward her.
Mikasa paused her work to quizzically look up at him. "Sir?"
Boring a set of stormy eyes into her own onyx ones, the Captain pressed, "What's your game, Ackerman?"
The raven-haired girl blinked and tilted her head to the side. "I'm sorry, I don't understand, Sir."
"I told you not to come back to doing these chores and yet here you are anyway, even though you have no reason to. In fact you seem to insist on being here. Why?"
Mikasa reached for her scarf and turned her gaze away. "It's just like I told you this morning, Sir. It's better for our team if I help you."
"Bullshit, Ackerman!" He pounded a fist on the desk, making everything sitting on top rattle. It was a wonder Eren didn't wake up. "I'm tired of playing whatever the hell it is you're scheming. So start talking or get out of my office!"
"I only want to help, that's the truth, Sir!" she shot back.
"You've either got to be insane or up to something after everything I've put you through, Ackerman. And I highly doubt it's the former—at least not yet."
Mikasa bit her lower lip but made no move to respond.
After what felt like an eon of uncomfortable silence between them, the older man released a sigh tinged with annoyance and made to stand up. He needed to get out of here before he did something he regretted. "I'm heading down to the medical bay."
His words caused Mikasa to raise her head up at him. As he reached over for his crutch, she blurted out, "But that's all the way on the other side of the castle, Sir!"
"I know, and it's going to be a pain in the ass." Tucking the wooden piece of equipment under his arm and cringing at the thought of the agony to come, he began to hobble toward the door. "However, these bandages are long overdue for changing."
The raven-haired girl furrowed her brow in concern. "But you're only going to aggravate that injury. You need to stay off it as much as possible to recover."
"'Possible' being the operative word, Ackerman—which it is not to let these disgusting rags just fester."
He wasn't even halfway to the door when Mikasa suddenly stood up and blocked his path. A brief look of confusion crossed her face, as if her body had moved of its own volition and she had no idea why she was there now. "Um…" she started, a tinge of pink spreading across her face, "what about those spare bandages in the closet? Couldn't you just change them here?"
"Negative, Ackerman," the older man stated as he shook his head. "I can't get them tight enough from my angle. Much as I hate to say it, the eggheads down there do a better job." It was only a half-lie; he really couldn't wrap them as firmly as he'd like from above, but the doctors weren't exactly any better at it.
He attempted to hobble around her, but she simply mirrored his path. "What if… I changed them for you?"
This caused Levi to freeze in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly. Meanwhile, Mikasa's cheeks turned a brighter shade of red, and it wasn't because of the scarf now covering them. "It's…quite all right, Ackerman. I can go and—"
"Please, Sir!" her muffled voice cracked behind the piece of cloth. "It would be no trouble at all." With that she hurriedly walked over the closet and started digging around for the supplies she needed.
Dumbstruck, Levi simply stood in the same spot and stared at her. It wasn't until Mikasa told him to have a seat on her way out to retrieve clean water that he finally sat back down in his chair.
What had he gotten himself into? Dammit, the last thing he needed was her personally taking care of him. He had to find some way out of this. So lost was he in his thoughts that the next thing he knew, she was kneeling at his feet and waiting shyly for him to remove his boot.
Levi sighed. Too late, he supposed. He reluctantly removed the long piece of footwear and turned his head away, unable to bear watching her. Soon enough, her nimble fingers went to work, removing his old bandage quickly and discarding it in his wastebasket. She then proceeded to clean off his warm, swollen ankle with a wet washcloth.
Every point of contact with her slender fingers was like an electric pulse that sent a tingle up his leg, yet he couldn't get enough of her gentle touches. He hoped she didn't notice the sweat that began to bead on his brow, but as he stole a sidelong glance at her, he was relieved by the fact that her eyes were constantly turned downward.
As she continued to work, he couldn't help but study the delicate contours of her face, the way her hair framed her exotic features into the most breath-taking portrait he'd ever seen.
It was a shame this picture only held a thousand words of hatred for him.
Despite that, he still longed to piece together this puzzle that was Mikasa Ackerman. As she gingerly dried off the tender area, he quietly asked her, "Does your guilt really last longer than your grudges, Ackerman?"
She paused and blinked a few times at the question. Hesitantly, she resumed her work and replied, "I don't know what you're talking about, Sir."
"You're awfully concerned about the well-being of my leg," he explained calmly. "So much so that you're putting yourself in illogical positions given the circumstances. Do you still blame yourself for me getting hurt?"
Once his skin was sufficiently dry, she began placing the end of a new bandage in a position that it could be secured. "Perhaps, Sir."
"You shouldn't. I made the choice to act, and I don't regret it."
"You wouldn't have had to make that choice if it weren't for my selfish actions," Mikasa bit.
"It's a lesson you've sufficiently learned. You should move on."
"I have, Sir. It won't happen again."
"Then why are you here?"
The teenage girl tightened the coil around his ankle with a firm tug. "I don't quite know myself, Sir."
"Ackerman, look at me."
Her eyes remained glued to her bandaging work, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. He knew she was just stalling as she slowly put the finishing touches on the final knots. So, reaching down, he placed a hand under her chin and firmly tilted her head up.
Her dark irises still refused to make eye contact with him, thus he gave her jaw a slight squeeze until they finally turned upward toward him.
If there were ever a bigger miscalculation he'd made, he couldn't think of it at the moment. He instantly found himself lost in her onyx orbs, hypnotized to the point he no longer cared to search for the secret stowed away behind them.
"You really shouldn't be here…" he murmured.
Levi attempted to focus on something else but his gaze instead fell on her pristine lips, parted ever so slightly, just calling out for him to kiss them…
A loud yawn suddenly echoed throughout the room like thunder, followed by a thud as Eren fell out of his chair on the other side of the desk.
Mikasa instantly scrambled away from the Captain, who in turn straightened in his chair and fumbled around for his pen. The raven-haired teenager quickly collected her bandage-changing supplies and hurriedly stood up to put them away.
Oblivious to what had transpired, Eren sat up from the floor and rubbed his head. "Er, sorry, did I miss anything important?" he apologized sleepily, another yawn soon following.
"Nothing of your concern, Jaeger," Levi curtly responded. "Although Ackerman has yet to give me her report about Braus."
At that, Mikasa stiffened and clenched her fist. "My apologies, Captain," she bit out as calmly as she could, "it must have slipped my mind somehow."