The only commitment that Eren had was to go to the lab in forty-five minutes to feed the sticklebacks and record their various metrics. In spite of being not-entirely-awake he had decided that he absolutely had to have pancakes and after confusing teaspoons for tablespoons and having to redo the batter, he was finally waiting for the pan to heat up. He heard his phone go off and went to check it while the pan continued to heat.

[Hanji:] Good morning Eren! How's your morning going?

[Eren:] pretty okay. you didn't text yesterday. was sort of surprised

[Hanji:] Levi said that he ended up checking in with you yesterday morning since you drunk texted him the night before.

[Hanji:] Also apparently I was the intended recipient?

[Eren:] yeah, i saw a guy with eyebrows that I swear were bigger than erwin's

[Hanji:] Impossible!

[Eren:] that's what levi said too

He bit his lip and stared at his phone debating whether or not he really wanted to ask.

[Eren:] hey hanji… what's levi's deal?

[Hanji:] What do you mean?

[Eren:] he tells me he doesn't give a shit about me but then he tells me that i'm too drunk to go home with someone and yells at me to make sure i drink water when i've been out drinking

[Hanji:] It's not like he doesn't care at all. He's my friend and I freely admit he's an ass sometimes but he cares in his own way. He's not going to ignore you if you're in some sort of trouble.

[Eren:] i should really thank him… we texted the morning after but i didn't really

[Eren:] i kinda want to in person

[Hanji:] He's been out all night for the past few days, but he should be at HQ this afternoon. Actually, I wanted to talk to you too and I'll be around most of the day.

[Hanji:] Don't worry, it's not about Grisha! It's for my research. I've updated the security on the door so you should be able to open it yourself. I probably won't hear you knock.

[Eren:] okay

He turned back to the stove to continue making pancakes; the kitchen was quiet except for the hiss of the gas and odd clicking noise that their coffee pot always made. Eren had just finished pouring dollops of batter into the pan when he heard the front door open. He whipped around and inched towards the kitchen door with his spatula at the ready.

"Calm down, it's just Mikasa."

"Oh." Eren straightened up and allowed his body to relax at Armin's words.

"Her door was closed, I thought she was still asleep."

"She left to take a morning run a little while ago. She told you that she was leaving but I guess you weren't completely awake yet. You had just gotten out of bed."

"Yeah, that would explain it."

Eren had started to flip the pancakes when Mikasa came into the kitchen. She downed a glass of water before turning to Eren.

"Good morning. You look infinitely more awake than when I left."

"He didn't even remember that you said you were going out for a run."

"Armin!"

"Seriously, Eren? It's like you're a zombie when you first wake up."

"Not true! I'm not always out of it when I wake up!"

"More than half the time you're nonfunctional until you have a cup of coffee. And you really need to cut back on your caffeine intake, it's really disturbing how much coffee you drink."

"I'll cut back once I've graduated. Until then… well, I'd like to not pass out while I work on my thesis."

"Or you could sleep more." Mikasa was glaring at him now.

"I don't have time to sleep right now. Just leave it, okay? I really need to focus on school right now and I'm already stressed about some group of crazy people who may or may not still be after me. Caffeine addiction is the least of my worries right now." Her glare softened into a worried look.

"Try and sleep more though, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll try. I need to go to the lab right now and uh… I'm supposed to meet with Hanji after." And Levi, to thank him for telling me to not be an idiot.

"You haven't seen them in a couple weeks, do they have anything new?"

"I don't know yet." Eren started to put some of the pancakes into a plastic container and poured some coffee into a thermos.

"You aren't eating here?"

"I have to be there in less than half an hour and I still have to walk there. I'd rather get to the building and eat there than be rushing to get over there after eating."

"You'll be back by dinner?"

"What, don't want to cook for yourself?" He grinned and dodged Mikasa's attempt to punch him. She could have easily readjusted so that she hit him, but as gentle as she tried to be sometimes her superstrength meant she would hit him harder than she meant to. Especially now that she was almost healed.

"Yes. Now get going. And wear a jacket, it's a bit colder out than it's been and it isn't supposed to warm up much."

"Yeah yeah, I will."

Eren's shift at the lab was uneventful as always. There was one dead fish but other than that the rest of them seemed perfectly happy. He went through the motions, doing all of the things he needed to on autopilot since he was so familiar with everything by now. He let his mind go blank as he continued to go through his tasks until he was finally ready to leave.

I finished earlier than I expected. Hanji didn't say anything about picking me up so I guess I'm taking the bus. Ah yes, I finally get to be an independent adult for the first time in weeks. Walking to and from campus isn't that big of a deal and it's nice to get rides at night from Jean, but actually getting out of the area by myself is really nice.

He paid the bus fare and watched the scenery pass by. The leaves on half the trees had already started to turn and the air was crisp. He found himself looking forward to Halloween and wondered whether or not he'd be allowed to go out and do anything fun. Usually their whole group would go to a big party or club and every year Sasha would try and convince everyone that they should do themed costumes for their group. He and Jean would inevitably end up fighting about something stupid and Mikasa would refuse to participate unless she was able to wear a costume that she could fight in if she needed to and in the end it never happened.

I wonder if Jean and I will be able to agree on something this year.

Eren made the transfer to the second bus and finally arrived at the Survey Corps' headquarters. He had barely touched the door when it clicked open. He hesitated a moment before remembering that Hanji had told him that it was okay if he just let himself in – that they might be busy working and not here him. He stepped through the door and felt himself growing more nervous as he walked down the dark hallway and out into the main room of the building.

He knew he was a bit earlier than Hanji probably anticipated but he had assumed that them saying that they would be around all day meant that they would actually be there. Instead he walked in and saw two people sitting at a large workbench looking over a pile of papers. It took his eyes a brief moment to adjust from the darker hallway to the much brighter central room, but he quickly recognized that one of the people at the table was Mike and the other was… someone he didn't recognize. He stood awkwardly at the threshold of the room debating if he should just walk in or call out first, he figured it would be rude not to say anything but also couldn't think of something appropriate to say. His thoughts were cut off when Mike spoke.

"Eren, if Hanji gave you clearance you can come in. You don't need to wait for permission."

"Okay… I just expected Hanji to be here."

"They had to run out to get something from the hardware store." The person sitting next to Mike had short blond and clearly would be fairly tall when they stood up. They looked up from the papers and gave Eren a warm smile. Their androgynous features had Eren deciding that he was reserving any and all guesses as to their gender. He had known Hanji preferred neutral pronouns long before he had met them, but whoever this was… he didn't recognize them. Adding to his confusion was the fact that they weren't wearing a mask so he couldn't even guess if they were a hero or not since he at least knew of all the superheroes in the greater Trost area.

"Hi… I'm Eren."

"I'm Nanaba." They stood and extended their arm to shake his hand. "I'm Mike's wife but you're probably more familiar with me as Lady Lightning."

"Oh um wow. Hi!" Don't freak out. You got used to being around the Survey Corps, you can handle being in the same room as Lady Lightning. Just breathe.

"Did Hanji say why they wanted you here? I didn't think that we had any more developments in the past few days." Mike's confusion was written clearly on his face.

"Something about their research. Wait, so things have happened since the last time I talked to you guys? Nobody has said a word to me and it's a little freaky actually."

"I'm sorry Eren. Please trust us for now."

Eren mumbled quiet words of assent before sitting down at the table with the both of them. The silence was deafening; clearly he had interrupted them going over information that they couldn't share with him, but without Hanji's presence there was nothing for him to do.

"I hear that you're a good cook." Eren was surprised by Nanaba breaking the silence.

"Yeah? I mean, yeah I am but where did you hear that?"

"Hanji said that you made dinner a couple weeks ago."

"And forced Levi to eat something that wasn't garbage. I wish I'd seen his reaction to being forced to eat someone else's cooking without being told beforehand."

"He wasn't a complete jerk." Mike was clearly trying not to laugh as Eren continued to talk. "Does he actually like eating gross-ass pre-made food?"

"I doubt it, but he also won't let Mike teach him to cook anything. And no offense to Hanji, but they aren't the greatest cook. Come to think of it, I don't think Erwin cooks for himself much either. I guess I lucked out when I was picking out a husband." Nanaba and Mike smiled at one another briefly before turning back to Eren.

"As you can see, my cooking skills are greatly appreciated."

"He's like the Survey Corps' team mom, making sure everyone is well-fed."

"Well I don't know about the two of you but when I think about my mother, I think of cleaning just as much as I think of food." Eren's smile faltered. When I think of my mother I think of helping her make baklava… but also…

"So what then, Levi is the actual team mom here?" Nanaba's smile was infectious and Eren could feel his own mood picking back up again as a result of her joke; thinking of Levi as being a motherly figure was hilarious. Mike chuckled and intertwined his fingers with Nanaba's and Eren felt torn between feeling awkward being around an actually physically demonstrative couple and feeling happy because he was sitting with two people who were so very clearly in love. When they separated their hands Mike continued the conversation.

"I can't really complain. It's nice to have a clean headquarters, but Levi definitely acts like my mother when it comes to cleaning."

"I'm sorry but who acts like your mother when it comes to cleaning?"

None of them had noticed, but Levi had arrived at some point in the past few minutes and was currently standing at the end of the hall glaring at the three of them. Nanaba and Mike quickly looked down at the papers in front of them, acting like neither of them had said anything. Unfortunately for Eren, there was absolutely nothing he could do to occupy himself with and was faced with the choice of either staring down at his hands or staring at Levi. He knew that the first option was the safe one but he really couldn't resist looking at Levi with his arms crossed and hip cocked out as he smirked and –

Out of the corner of his eye Eren saw Nanaba look up and do a double take.

"You aren't wearing a mask?"

.

For a list of everyone's superpowers and costumes go to chapter four of the ALYNA Asides: fanfiction dot net/s/10713081/4/The-ALYNA-Asides
Nanaba wasn't in the original document so I'm going to add her stuff here.

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LADY LIGHTNING

Power to create and control lightning and electrical currents. She can control the voltage of her power and like, 99% of the time she uses non-lethal voltage but she isn't above using lethal voltage if she has to. She wears a catsuit like Levi since she can't afford to have stray material potentially catching fire if her electrical currents hit something flammable. Her original uniform didn't offer the greatest protection since it had to be predominantly made of lightweight rubber / synthetic fiber blend so that she didn't electrocute herself but it didn't allow for the greatest range in motion. Hanji helped design her new uniform which is made with a teflon / synthetic fiber blend and is able to offer better padding, flexibility and physical protection in addition to better protection against her own powers.

Nanaba has absolutely bitching powers since there are conductors all over the place so she can telegraph her powers pretty fucking far if necessary. Plus, being able to create / control electricity works pretty damn well if there's a power outage or anything like that.

TL;DR Nanaba is amazing.