RivaMika Week 2 Day 6: Valentine's Day

Title: doped up on dopamine
Rating: T
Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin, Attack on Titan
Characters: Levi, Mikasa Ackerman, Sasha Braus, Eren Jaeger, RivaMika
Summary: In which, despite her best intentions, Mikasa's life becomes a romantic comedy.
Notes: HI I'M LATE AGAIN. Stupid internet is stupid. Eren and Petra sort of became scapegoats. Sorry?

Honestly, Mikasa thinks no-one can blame her for dreading tomorrow. She's huddled up on the couch swaddled in a duvet, half-watching some stupid rom-com on the TV. The other half of her attention is focused on her phone, which refuses to light up.

Except it does.

Her heart soars, baby cherubs start to sing in her head-until she notices that it's Sasha.

Mikamika! You okay for tomorrow? xxx

Mikasa sighs to herself and picks up her phone to reply.

I'll be okay. Just worry about yourself and Connie.

After a few seconds, her phone bleeps again.

If you're sure! Ugh, I could KILL Eren. Boys are so stupid. :( xxx

Mikasa nods at her phone like a fool.

Preach it, sister. I'm off to bed – Erwin's got me in early tomorrow.

Sasha replies promptly.

Good luck! :* xxx

Mikasa turns off the TV, throws the remote on the floor and pads off to bed.

Instead of going to sleep right away, which would be the sensible thing to do, she stays up reminiscing.

About Eren.

She didn't really blame him for breaking up with her. They'd only really gotten together because it made sense, back in their last year of school. Neither had they been particularly physical; to tell the crude truth, Eren was a terrible kisser. Yet she put up with it, because she loved him... except not in the way she thought she did.

Her main beef was that he had broken up with her on her birthday.

By text.

Four days before Valentine's Day.

To add insult to injury, the following day he jetted off to South America for an archaeological field placement, and it was unlikely that he'd be back until winter. Eren had never been the brightest Crayola in the box, but Mikasa, who always thought the best of him, would never have thought that he was capable of doing something so colossally insensitive.

Yet as she sat there in that restaurant, gazing at her phone (I want to break up), she didn't feel any pain. She didn't start hyperventilating, nor did she cry. She just felt... resigned. Empty.

She responded with a simple Okay, she turned off her phone, and she ran home.

She should stop dwelling on the past; she has to get up early. She turns over, and, later rather than sooner, falls asleep.

–

She manages to get into work on-time. Mikasa is very much an early riser, and believes in getting up with the sun, but getting up before the sun? Nope.

But Erwin is reliable and she needs this job to save up enough money to pay her (exorbitant) college fees, so she hauls her ass out of the bed, manages to navigate the city's overcomplicated metro system without problem, and has her apron tied and her hands gloved as Hanji flips the sign (Our petals are open!) and the flood begins.

Well, to begin with, it's more of a trickle. Apparently, lovers never run before the clock. Soon, however, Saint Valentine's frenzy takes hold and Avant Gardens is swamped. Instead of paying attention to the clock (which is impossible when a client is demanding Japanese bigleaf magnolias, as opposed to plain old bigleaf magnolias), she counts in the number of pairs of gloves discarded. By the time Erwin gives her a break, there are thirty-two gloves altogether piled beside the cutting counter. Privately, she decides that whoever designated roses as the ultimate flower of love needed a nice, long roast in hell. Camellias didn't have thorns, did they? Why couldn't it have been them instead?

She glances out into the shop, peering over the brim of the chai latte Hanji kindly bought for her. While still mobbed, the crowd has begin to thin out slightly; one man in particular catches her eye. He's short and immaculate, wearing a suit and cravat. Who even wears cravats nowadays? The expensive mobile phone in his hand is threatening to fall; from what she can make out of the screen, he's still on a call. His attention is completely absorbed by a dozen roses in front of him and on the tag hanging off them. She thinks she saw them earlier, and if she recalls correctly, they're for someone called Petra. Really, she only noticed it because there was another bouquet addressed to the very same Petra, going by the address; said bouquet was picked up earlier by some guy with the worst undercut she had ever seen. Oluo, was it? No matter. Mikasa has better things to worry about than that possible love triangle.

One of those problems is making its way towards her. A green-eyed problem, with messy brown hair and the most contrite expression she's ever seen.

"Eren," she breathes, standing up.

He pushes past the cravat guy to get behind the counter; Hanji tries to stop him, but he ignores them too to finally burst into the break room.

"You." She almost drops her drink.

"Me," Eren agrees.

Nothing about the silence that falls between them could be called amiable, but then again, it can barely be described as a silence. Eren is breathing heavily, and her blood is pumping so hard she's certain everyone can hear the raucous lub-dub of her heart. The cravat guy has transferred his attention from the bouquet to herself and Eren.

"Mikasa, I-" Eren sighs, ruffling his hair. "I want to apologize. I... want us to get back together. I admit I made a mistake. You're very important to me, and-"

"...Just like that?" Mikasa interrupts. For once, she is awestruck.

"What?" Eren is baffled, his eyebrows knotting together in that expression she used to find so cute. Now, it aggravates her. "Is something wro-"

"You break up with me on my birthday by text, and freetext, no less! You swan off to Peru -what happened to that, by the way?- you don't call me for three days, and then burst into my workplace on Valentine's Day and demand to get back together, saying you've 'made a mistake'." She uses air quotes for that last bit. "Oh, you made a mistake, Eren... but this time I am not correcting it for you!" The outburst of rage feels good, and the sound of her elevated heartbeat is music to her ears.

"Mikasa... I love you." Eren's weak declaration does nothing to soften her anger.

"I love you too, Eren..." He perks up. "As a brother." Aaand he sags. Hanji gives her a thumbs-up from behind the door. "Look... I've been thinking a lot these past few days, and..." She breathes in. Once she says this she can't go back... but she doesn't think she'll regret it. "I think we are better off apart. I'm not saying I regret our relationship, but it's over. I want to move on, and you should too."

Eren stares at her in a wide-mouthed daze. She steps forward and embraces him momentarily, committing the feel to memory.

"I should go," Eren finally mumbles. "I'll call you later."

"No," she replies, ushering him to the door. "I'll call you."

And as the door slams shut, she feels a strange release, like a belt unclasping from around her waist. Eren is now a closed chapter in her life. She doesn't know the title of the next one, but she's more than happy to wait.

–

Ironically enough, the wait turns out to be a brief one. Erwin closes up shop at seven, shoving a wedge of bills into her pocket. She declines Hanji's offer of a ride home, mostly because she wants to walk to help clear her head, but also because they drive like a lunatic on a full moon.

After they speed off in a puff of smelly smoke, Mikasa heads for the metro stop, but she hasn't reached the corner of the block when someone steps into her way.

She automatically slides into a ready stance, in reflex from her years as a judoka, but her would-be assailant raises his hands in a gesture of peace. She would probably still have lunged, but his next action shocks her into immobility.

He extends a dozen roses.

She accepts them out of sheer confusion, and as she examines them thoroughly he steps into the light. The cravat is a dead give-away.

"You?" she manages.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he replies dourly, hands jammed into his pockets.

"Are you... alright?" She gives him a once-over. He doesn't look like a serial killer...

"That's a question I'd like to know the answer to." He sighs and takes a small step towards her. "Look, I have a reservation at the best restaurant in the city, and hell if I'm going to waste it. Let's have dinner together."

"Petra?" She doesn't mean to say it out loud, but he doesn't react all that noticeably.

"Yes, Petra. From what I saw earlier, you have no prior engagements..." He tips his head to the side.

"I don't know anything about you." Some crazy part of her is actually considering this.

"I'm alone on Valentine's Day, and so are you. I think that's enough." He grins sharply.

Screw it. She doesn't feel like cooking tonight anyway. "If I'm going to have dinner with you, it might be beneficial to know your name. I'm Mikasa."

"Levi. Lovely to meet you, Mikasa. Shall we?" He offers her his arm, and in a fit of madness, she takes it.

"Drinks had better be included." Levi smells of smoke and ink, a world away from Eren's woody scent.

"Oh, they most certainly are." A car honks at them (was that Erwin?), and Mikasa waves. Levi laughs, and the sound sets a small burn in her stomach.

–

When Sasha texts her later (u okay, hun?) she replies:

Fantastic. BTW why didn't you tell me about neck kissing? Neck kissing is great.

She proceeds to ignore Sasha's increasingly frantic replies, and gets back to business.