Of Bows and Bubbles

The young woman sighed, pushing open the door to her small wooden cabin in the woods.

Eren had been gone for almost three months now, and she missed him terribly. He had gone with Armin and Levi on another expedition outside of the walls, and he wasn't due to return for another few weeks or so.

In the meantime, she had been trying to distract herself and keep busy with work around the house. She'd cleaned every room dozens of times, knitted three new scarfs for Eren, threw together a couple quilts for the upcoming winter, and made countless meals and desserts. It was all useless, however, when her husband wasn't there anyway.

She sighed, setting down the basket of freshly picked berries on the kitchen counter. Since they were in season, they were the perfect shade of deep, juicy red. She picked them specially to bake a pie.

"Eren's favorite pie," she thought with a sad sigh.

Feeling a sudden wave of loneliness and exhaustion, she collapsed into one of the wooden kitchen chairs, her head falling into her hands. Her eyes stung from lack of sleep, and the throbbing pain in her head was becoming worse.

Slowly, she lifted her head and looked around the dull empty kitchen. The sun shone in brightly through the open window, illuminating the clean countertops and spotless wooden floor. The sink sat empty. There wasn't a dirty dish in sight. Both his shoes and hers were lined neatly on the rug next to the big wooden door. Eren's jackets hung untouched on the wooden coat rack next to the shoes. It made her sad to see such a lifeless and empty sight.

She shook her head, bringing her fingers up to rub her temple, but it didn't ease the pain. What she really needed was an afternoon nap. Slowly, she stood up and made her way toward the stairs.

The pie was going to have to wait.

Suddenly, she heard something from upstairs hit the floor directly above her with a thud. She froze in place, straining her ears to listen for more noise. Faintly, she could hear what sounded like a man's voice.

Alarm rushed through her as she slowly backed away from the stairs. If she hadn't been awake before, she certainly was now. She couldn't help but remember what had happened the last time there had been a stranger in her house.

She tiptoed into the kitchen, cursing as the floorboards creaked beneath her feet. She opened up the perfectly organized cupboard and pulled out a shiny metal frying pan. All of her weapons were upstairs, so it would have to do temporarily. She made a mental note to put the weapons in a more convenient place in the future.

Cautiously, she made her way up the stairs, frying pan clutched securely between her hands. She cursed as the stairs moaned beneath her feet.

She froze midway up when she heard the voice again. It definitely belonged to a man.

"And scars are souvenirs you never lose! The past is never faaaaaar,"

He was…singing? And from the way it sounded, she guessed he was in the bathroom.

"And did you lose yourself somewhere out there? Did you get to be a staaaaaar!"

"What the hell?!" She whispered to herself. She could hear water running in the background, which could only mean this stranger was in her bathtub.

"Who would break into my house to sing in my bathtub?!" She thought to herself, lowering the frying pan. The imposter wouldn't be able to hear her over the sound of the running water. Still, she proceeded up the stairs slowly and carefully.

"And don't it make you sad to know that life is more than who we aaaaaare!"

She reached the top of the stairs and peered out into the hallway. The voice was definitely coming from her bathroom, but the intruder had closed the door behind him, meaning she had time to get a better weapon.

"You grew up way too fast! Now there's nothing to belieeeeve when reruns all become our history,"

She tiptoed into the bedroom and reached under the bed for the bow and arrow Sasha had given them as a wedding gift. Leaving the forgotten pan of the floor, she moved carefully toward the closed bathroom door. She froze again for a second when she heard the water shut off, but the voice continued to sing.

"A tired song keeps plaaaaying on a tireeeed radio."

Somehow it sounded…familiar. She shook her head and pushed away the thought.

She could feel her heart hammering inside her chest as she neared the bathroom. Slowly, she drew back the bow and took a deep breath. Noticing that the door wasn't completely closed, she lifted her foot up to kick it open.

"And I won't tell nooooooo one your name. And I won't tell em your na-"

Her foot slammed forcefully into the door, sending it ramming into the bathroom wall. Pieces of wood snapped off the door and flew in all directions, but she ignored this as she lowered her bow and aimed it directly at-

"Eren?!"

"Holy shit, Mikasa!" He screamed, clearly alarmed by her sudden entry. "Be careful with that thing!"

"Eren?" Slowly, she lowered the bow before it fell to the floor with a clatter. Through the hot steam and the tears of relief that glazed her vision, she could still see him clearly. His handsome face remained frozen in a startled expression, but those beautiful green eyes, filled with concern, remained focused on her. His wet, messy brown hair was matted against his face, and bubbles covered his presumably naked body from the neck down.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "You look a bit pale."

She took a few steps forward and dropped to her knees at the side of the tub, throwing her arms around him and burying her head into his neck. Hesitantly, he reached up to wrap his arms, dripping and covered in bubbles, around her torso.

"I didn't think you'd be home for another three weeks," she finally answered. The tears that had been stinging at the corners of her eyes trickled over.

He laughed, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. "I see," he spoke softly. "I scared you, didn't I?" His voice was teasing, but also gentle and understanding. She had missed the sound of it these last few months. "You weren't expecting me to be here, so you thought some stranger broke into our house and decided to take a bubble bath in our tub."

"Something like that," she smiled. She pulled away from him, realizing that she was now soaking and covered in the clear, glossy bubbles. "Why are you back so soon?"

"Well," he sighed, "we really accomplished everything we set out to. On top of that, we were running low on supplies and half of us were falling ill, so we had a choice to head back early or stay, and I just," he hesitated for a minute. She watched as he scratched the back of his neck nervously, just like he had when the two of them were teenagers, "I missed you, Mikasa."

She laughed, reaching up to wipe away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. "I missed you so much, Eren," she admitted.

He opened his arms up again, and she fell into them once more. She was already wet anyway, and she had missed his warm embrace terribly. Her bed had been so cold and empty without him by her side.

"Why don't you join me?" he suggested after a moment of silence.

She hesitated. A bath really hadn't been on her agenda of things to do for the day, but she had to admit that it did sound kind of nice.

"Well I was going to bake a pie," she smirked at the way his eyes lit up. He was such a child, but pie was his favorite after all.

"Are you sure you didn't know I was coming?" He asked. His handsome face melted into a genuine smile that might have knocked her to her knees if she hadn't already been sitting. God, she had missed him.

"Nope. Hence the bow and arrow," she nodded her head over to the forgotten weapon on the bathroom floor.

He laughed, and soon she found that she was laughing too. The situation was ridiculous really, but it would be fun to tell Armin and the others the next time she saw them.

"Come on," he motioned for her to get in the tub. "Take off your clothes and get in here. You're all wet anyway. We can bake that pie together later, okay?"

"Fine," she rolled her eyes playfully and reached up to unbutton her shirt. "You know, I kind of missed you."

"Yeah," he smirked, reaching his hand up to flick water at her, "I kind of missed you too."

Epilogue:

She pushed him back against the bedroom door, hastily tugging at the bottom of his shirt and pulling it up over his head. She raked her hands through his messy brown hair while leaning in to kiss him. She felt his tongue trail along the bottom of her lip while she ran her hands over his bare chest, feeling the toned muscles that he had been hiding underneath his shirt.

"God," he panted between kisses, "I missed you so much."

She smiled, her lips trailing down to the soft skin of his neck. She teasingly ghosted over his neck before biting down. She felt his hands run up her bare back as he fumbled to unhook her bra strap. Her lips found his again and the two of them stumbled back toward the bed.

But they never made it there.

Through the passion, Mikasa was vaguely aware of a clanging noise coming from beneath his feet. In fact, she hadn't thought anything of it until she felt the absence of his arms around her and caught a glimpse of a small, dark object sliding across the wood floor. She looked down to see Eren, half-naked and somewhat startled, sprawled out on the floor.

"Eren!" She dropped to her knees beside him. "Are you all right? What happened?"

"I'm fine," he mumbled. He reached up to rub his head. "I just tripped over something."

"Huh?" She thought to herself. Her head snapped up as she took a quick glance around the room. "I've kept this place immaculate. What could have he possibly tripped ov-"

Then, she caught sight of the little metal frying pan that he had reached over to pick up.

"Shit," she mentally cursed, "I forgot about that."

His eyes were squinted in confusion as he flipped over the pan to examine it.

"Oh I was just…." She began, "I was just…cleaning the kitchen…and ummm…moved some stuff up here."

But by then, he already had it figured out. She could see it in his expression. A smirk slowly spread across his handsome face, and his eyebrows arched upward with amusement.

"Really Mikasa?" He chuckled. Her eyes fell downward with embarrassment. He was never going to let this one go. "You were going to take me out with a frying pan?!"

XX

A/N- I like this one a lot better than the last one! This was so fun to write. I already have tomorrow's written, it's just a matter of when I have time to go back and edit it and then post it.

Again, thank you for reading and review if you wish! And a big special thanks to those of you who have. I really appreciate your feedback! It gives me some extra confidence and some new ideas.

-Eremika