A/N: In celebration of me getting into university, and getting a future, here's an early update for y'all! It's only one day, but it counts. I know the chapters are short, but it just seems really natural for me to end them there. I'm toying with the idea of doing away with the whole weekly update thing to make up for the length of it but I doubt I can sustain it because I haven't really finished it yet. But we'll see how it goes!
Disclaimer: However (un)fortunately, I don't own SnK
The café Mikasa led Annie and Sasha to was a literal hole in the wall. It looked like a bulldozer had smashed its way into the yellow bricked building, and then covered up most of the extensive damage with a glass window and a door. There were wide cracks snaking out from the door, and various plants and insects had made their home there.
"I'm starting to understand why Eren doesn't want you working here," Annie muttered, looking at the café with trepidation.
"Shut up. It's charming," Mikasa said, pulling the glass door open. "It adds to the history of the building,"
"It looks like there was some sort of bank heist here that went horribly wrong," Annie remarked, following her friend into the shop.
"You know, that's exactly what happened," Mikasa said with a grim cheerfulness, sitting herself down in a booth in the most inconspicuous part of the café.
"If you don't want to be noticed," Annie said wryly, "Why would you want to work as a waitress?"
"If you haven't yet noticed, the café isn't exactly brimming with people—and most of the people who come to this café are visitors to the school," she nodded towards a group of elderly gentlemen whom they'd never seen before. "And anyway, if they do want to harass me, I have my ways of dealing with them,"
"Maybe," Sasha said, "But if you do start working here, word's going to get out to the student population and this place will be flooded in no time,"
"Sasha, I've been coming here for the past few weeks to study. Trust me, if word hasn't got out that I've been coming here on a regular basis, then word's not going to get out that I work here,"
"If you say so," Sasha said, looking doubtful, but unwilling to push the matter further.
"What's good here?" Annie asked, pulling a slightly sticky menu towards her with a face, before flipping it open.
"Everything tastes pretty good—I've gone through their entire menu. They don't really have a large selection of food," Mikasa reported.
"Hmm." Annie cast a critical eye over the menu, before slapping it shut.
"Sasha, are you done?"
"Give me a while more," Sasha grumbled, slapping Annie's hand away from her copy of the menu. "Everything just looks really good!"
Just then, the door of the café opened, letting in a gust of wind along with a hunched figure in a dark green coat.
"Isn't that Rivaille?" Sasha asked, peering closely at the figure. Rivaille was a hugely famous figure on campus—he was the subject of a million and one rumours, both within his faculty and outside of it. Throughout all the different versions of the Truth About Levi Rivaille, there seemed to be a few points of consensus amongst the student body. One: He was French. That much was undisputable. Two: He always wore a cravat wherever he went—whether he was going to class, or out of the campus, or even to the occasional party he showed up at. Three: He was both mentally and physically adept, having won multiple awards and medals for the college in his three years there. Four: He happened to stay at the Plexus Dorm—in the same one as Eren and Armin, right next to the Porter's Dorm where they stayed.
"He seems a bit... short," Annie said.
"You're one to talk,"
Rivaille cast a disparaging eye over the café, glancing over the spot where the three girls sat, before taking his seat in another corner of the room and producing his books from within his green coat.
"Are you ready to order?" Mikasa broke into Annie and Sasha's revel, with a deadpan expression. Both Sasha and Annie let out non-committal grunts, both still eyeing Rivaille from their positions. "
You have boyfriends," Mikasa hissed at them as she flagged a waiter down. "Stop staring at him,"
"Hello," a waiter drawled, holding a notepad and a pen poised in place. "May I take your orders, please?"
"Reiner?" Annie asked, looking more than a little surprised.
"Annie?" The waiter responded, taking his eyes off his notepad. "Hey, it is you!"
"I didn't know you came here," Annie said with a slight smile on her face. Then, turning to Mikasa and Sasha, she introduced them. "This is Reiner; one of my childhood friends. We lost touch after we hit twelve, and I haven't heard from him since. Reiner, these are my friends Mikasa and Sasha,"
"You have friends, huh," Reiner smirked. "You know," he looked at the other two, "When we were kids, she'd refuse to associate with any of the kids on the playground. It took us years before we could even talk to her without getting hit in the face."
"Shut up." Reiner just grinned at her. "You know, Bert's working here, too,"
"Really? So I was the only one who lost contact with you?"
"Sure," Reiner shrugged. "We weren't the ones who had to maintain a reputation of being an ice queen in school. Anyway, if you guys order now, I can get Bert here while I deliver your orders to the kitchen,"
They had just finished ordering their food, with Reiner scribbling it down in illegible handwriting, when an irritable throat was cleared. Reiner turned to find Rivaille looking over with a deadpan expression, waiting to order his food.
"I'll bring your food by later," Reiner told them, before rushing over to Rivaille's table.
"That's rude," Sasha frowned. "I wouldn't have thought he was the type to do that."
"We were holding Reiner up," Mikasa pointed out, leaning back in the booth. "So, ice queen, huh, Annie? Why am I not surprised?"
Annie rolled her eyes at her friends. "You were probably more surprised at the 'friends' part,"
"I know I was," a boy appeared behind Mikasa, all smiles and lanky limbs. He passed out glasses of water to the three of them before sliding easily into the seat next to Annie. "You know, Reiner and I used to approach her every day at the playground trying to make friends, but she'd just punch us when no adults were looking. We only got her to start talking to us two years later after we beat up this guy who was picking on one of the girls,"
"Mikasa, Sasha, this is Bertholdt," Annie rolled her eyes. "Bert, Annie and Mikasa,"
"I know," Bert said. "I've heard plenty about Mikasa Ackerman over the past year. You come in here a lot, don't you?" He addressed her directly. "You know, between you and Rivaille, you're going to get the entire student population in here and jack up the popularity rating of this place,"
"Rivaille?" Sasha asked, taking a sip of water.
"Sure, he comes in here a lot." Bert shrugged easily. "Just as much as Mikasa. But Reiner and I, we keep our noses out of other peoples' business, so don't worry, we won't be telling anyone," he dropped her an exaggerated wink.
"Good, because if you do, I'm going to beat the hell out of you guys," Annie said, levelling a glare on him.
"Still just as violent," Bert laughed. "So what are you studying now?"
"Don't you have to get to work?" Annie retorted. "I'm on break now," he explained. "I'm allowed to take a break, you know. They're not slave drivers here,"
"Mikasa's thinking of getting a job here," Sasha suddenly said. "What's it like working here?"
"Really? Well, as you can see, it's not very crowded. In fact, with three booths being taken up, it's a veritable party. Usually it's just you and Rivaille, there," he nodded his head at the other booth. "I don't know why management wants to hire someone else, but if you want to work here, it's almost like free money. If the day is slow—which it usually is—then you can take out your books and start studying, too. Management doesn't mind what you do as long as all the customers are serviced,"
"Sounds great," Mikasa smiled. "I definitely think I'll send in an application form,"
"Then you've got the job," Bert shrugged. "They seem to place all their trust in their employees because they left the decisions up to us since we'll have to work with the new one. Marco—the other kitchen boy—doesn't really care, and if you're friends with Annie you can probably handle anything the customers can throw at you. Just come straight over tomorrow after your last class and we can work out a schedule," he said, ignoring Annie's glower in his direction.
"Yeah, OK, thanks," Mikasa said, just as Reiner sailed up to them and piling the dishes on their table before moving on to Rivaille's.
"Enjoy your evening, ladies," Bert said, getting up from the booth. "I've got to get back to the kitchen now so that Marco can have his daily smoke."