Chapter Text
“Mikasa!”
The dark-haired, pale teen girl woke with a start, terrified of what she’d just heard.
Who’s voice was that? She knew it wasn’t her father’s and it certainly wasn’t her mother’s.
“Is this because I looked at that screamer last night?” She pondered, her body trembling under her black sheets. “Am I really cursed?”
“Mikasa!” The fear in her heart had been washed away with the sweet sound of her mother’s voice. She had just misheard after all; had just been imagining things!
“I’m getting up, Mom!” Mikasa exclaimed.
Mikasa sluggishly came out from under her pitch black covers. Eyes stinging from the sun’s rays, she grabbed a towel and went downstairs to take a shower. On the way, she saw her father preparing breakfast for the family. As he greeted and hugged her, she reminded herself that she was safe and she had just been hearing things before.
Something inside her, however, was telling her otherwise.
After Mikasa had gotten changed, she adorned her face with moisturiser, tinted sunscreen and some cherry-red tinted lip balm.
She quickly put her straight, coarse hair in two pigtails and checked her phone before going to the living room. It was 8:00AM, which meant she still had a bit of time to eat breakfast with her family.
“Morning, Mika,” her mother began, when Mikasa walked into the room. “I didn’t think you’d have enough time to eat today judging by how late you woke up.” She half-teased, half-scolded.
“Sorry, Mom.” Mikasa apologised, as she sat down to eat her omelette with a side of buttery toast.
After she’d finished her breakfast, she got her backpack, and briefly checked if she had everything she needed.
“Alright, I gotta go.” Mikasa said nonchalantly. “Bye Mom. Bye Dad.”
Mikasa walked out the front door, the farewells of her parents following her.
When Mikasa arrived at school, Armin, her blond, geeky best friend, matched the smile on her face as she walked up to his locker. Coincidentally, their lockers were right next to each other, giving them the perfect opportunity to become friends. And so they did.
Other than her parents, she truly believed he was her favourite person in the world.
“Hey, Mikasa. How’s it going?” He asked, pushing up his thick frames.
“Oh I’m good.” Mikasa replied apathetically. “I mean as good as the beginning of a Monday morning can get, because nothing has really happened yet, you know?”
“Yeah I get it. I’ve been here for like 20 minutes and nothing’s really happened other than more people arriving, which is standard school stuff.” Armin rambled. “Don’t know what’s going on with Marco, though. I haven’t seen him and he hasn’t replied to any of my texts or calls.”
“Maybe he’s late or something.” Mikasa shrugged. “Let’s just hope he hasn’t died or anything.” She joked, trying to cheer Armin up. “By the way, did you watch Young Royals?”
“Oh, uh, I only watched one episode.” Armin confessed. “It seems interesting though. Maybe we could watch it together?”
“Yeah, that sounds cool—“ Their peaceful conversation was interrupted by a sudden force that pushed Mikasa forward. She opened her mouth to ask who had pushed her, but the look on Armin’s face was all she needed to know.
Her internal guess on who was responsible was later confirmed by the poorly-contained sniggers and condescending look back from the bitch called Krista Lenz and her minions.
Krista Lenz.
Mikasa couldn’t stand her ass. Acting like she was better than everyone else with her matching designer sweater vests and headbands; her sleek Prada loafers and her super short tennis skirt that any other girl would’ve got dress-coded on the spot for.
She didn’t really mind or judge anyone wearing super short skirts or designer clothes, she was angry that Krista - rich, privileged, snobby, bitchy, stone-cold Krista - was the one wearing it. She and her socialite family didn’t deserve that sort of money. Her money was the only thing stopping Mikasa from landing a solid punch on her face, as she knew the Lenzes would ensure that she would be behind bars for the rest of her life.
“Fucking Regina George-wannabe ass bitch.” She muttered under her breath, throwing back the filthiest look she could muster. “Why doesn’t she just mind her own business?” She questioned, turning back to Armin.
“Don’t let her get to you, Mikasa.” Armin reassured as the bell rang. “She’s just mad because she’s jealous.”
“Of what, exactly?” Mikasa’s already very deep, almost-black eyes, darkened with cold, icy hatred. “She has everything anyone could every want. Loyal friends, money, money and money! What the heck do I have that she doesn’t?”
“Be careful, what you wish for, Mikasa.” Armin argued as they walked to their English class. “A lot of these crazy rich people actually do some crazy shit behind closed doors.”
She sighed as the anxiety and anger in her chest slowly declined. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
As Mikasa sat down and their English teacher began to talk about today’s lesson, she couldn’t help but ponder about the person she’d thought was calling out her name in the morning. It sounded like a little kid, but the only little kid she knew was her little brother, who had been sick off school for a couple of days, and the voice sounded nothing like him.
“Mikasa?” Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her name out of her teacher’s name.
“Here.” She awkwardly announced, her face heating up the more eyes she noticed peering at her and even worse, Jean Kirstein winked at her in a poor attempt to flirt. “Shit…” she thought, putting her head down and doodling in her sketchbook, she would eventually go back to being unnoticed.
Jean Kirstein was a fucking menace. He’d go around, pretending he was some sort of threatening force when he knew damn well he was going to his pretty little bungalow in Trost, as soon as school ended, where he was going to be pampered by his Mommy and Daddy.
He’d had his eyes on Mikasa for a while. It was really weird, the way he’d speak about her as she was a rare animal in the wild, and Mikasa had a few sneaking suspicions why, and none of them were good.
“Eren.” The teacher called, once again cutting Mikasa’s thoughts short.
Eren. Where had she heard that name? She felt like she knew this dude.
She turned to find the source of the response to this name, and saw a tan-skinned, green-eyed boy with mid-length, dark brown hair and hints of a moustache on him upper lip. Mikasa had seen him around before; he was mostly inexpressive and apathetic; he wasn’t geeky like Armin or incredibly popular like Krista; he wasn’t even a floater like Sasha or a slacker like Connie; he was just there. She had to admit that he was very good-looking, though. As Eren’s emotionless eyes met hers, she realised she had been staring for a bit too long, and quickly turned away.
What she didn’t know was Krista had been looking too.
Her sea-blue eyes swiftly froze over when she’d caught Eren looking at Mikasa.
Why the heck was Eren Yeager looking at that gloomy goth bitch? It pissed her off like crazy. The first time he’d shown any interest in anything ever and it had to be the weird goth freak in the corner.
How fucking dare he.
Along with her, Jean Kirstein was fuming. "He's so gonna get it at lunch." he thought, piercing Eren with his grimace. Who the hell was this stray dog to invade his territory; this loser to be fucking around with his girl like that?
At fourth period, Mikasa was attempting to copy Armin's notes after she had been doodling instead of listening to Dr Hange's, their chemistry teacher, teaching for half an hour. "You know, Armin, something super weird happened this morning." she began. "I woke up and there was like this super weird voice. Like, I heard this little kid saying my name."
Armin looked at her with a mixture of pity and concern. "Uh..."
"I know that sounds crazy, but I swear I'm not." Mikasa aggressively reassured him. "This has never happened before. I don't know what to make of it, though."
"I'm still concerned." Armin worriedly said, "but if this isn't what I think it is, maybe it was just your brother?"
"No way, Leo never wakes up before 9AM." she stated.
"Okay, maybe this could be a... ghost." He shuddered at the thought of it. "Maybe God or some other deity is trying to tell you something. But I wouldn't know, because I don't really believe in that type of stuff."
Meanwhile, on another desk, Krista was subtly trying to get Eren Yeager's attention, and failing. Ymir Reis, her best "friend", watched with disdain as she twirled her golden stands of hair around her dainty fingers. Ymir's blood boiled for about 20 minutes longer as she watched her dream girl be swayed by some homeless-looking bitch.
"So Eren, I heard you play for the Paradis Devils." Krista pried, trying to play it cool.
"Yup, sure do." He said dryly, barely keeping out his disinterest. He'd seen Krista eyeing him for about a week and it was starting to get on his nerves.
"Y'know, I think football is an amazing sport. It really keeps the spirit of this school alive."
"Yeah, it does." Eren agreed, his mind still on English class. Why had the goth girl been staring at him so wistfully, with those deep, starry eyes of hers? And why did it feel so familiar and even saddening?
"Yeah, it does." Ymir mimicked, bringing her presence to Eren's attention. "You know, your stoner-ass should show a little more respect and gratitude to Krista for even breathing next you, instead of these half-assed responses you've been giving her for the past 30 minutes."
"Who asked you?" Eren retorted. "Who even are you?"
"The reason for your next hospital bill if you're not careful." She stated, cold fury rising in her voice.
"Haha, it's ok, Ymir!" the blonde giggled. "Don't worry about her, Eren. We'll talk later." she finished in a saccharine, yet threatening tone.
"Uh... ok?" the brunet mumbled, before going back to answering the questions in the textbook.
"Alright, class, I'm going over to Mr Smith's class for a bit. Don't get crazy in here!" Dr Hange announced before leaving the classroom.
Eren chuckled. "They're one to talk about crazy."
"Yeah, and so are you, pretty boy." Jean sneered in disgust.
"What is it with everyone not minding their own businesses today?" Eren snapped, starting to lose his patience with his nosy classmates.
"Get out of my girl's business first, then."
"Krista's your girlfriend?" Eren asked surprisedly, which also caused Ymir's jaw to drop, and Krista to open her mouth to protest.
"No," - Ymir let out a sigh of relief - "I mean Mikasa--"
"I am not his fucking girlfriend. I have never been his girlfriend." Mikasa declared to the class, vexed that Jean was fucking things up for her once again. "He just doesn't when to give up."
"You'll give into me one day, I promise." Jean said in a soft, but strangely scary tone, similarly how Krista spoke to Ymir. "You'll regret ever wasting your time with any of the other losers in this school."
"So you're telling me you're mad because I made 5 milliseconds of eye contact with a girl you keep harassing?" Eren spat harshly at Jean, gesturing to the Asian girl wearing the skeleton-hoodie before.
"Oh, so you really wanna fight, huh?" Jean questioned, getting in Eren's face. The bell rang and Dr Hange re-entered the classroom.
"Ok, class!" their boisterous voice boomed through the classroom. Their face fell as they saw the rest of the class, mouths hanging open, anticipating what Eren and Jean's next moves were, faces inches away from each others. "Um, what is this?"
Both Jean and Eren looked at them, breaking their staring match.
"Seriously, get out of each other's faces. I do not like the energy coming from you two at all." They demanded, hands on their hips.
"Tch." Jean stalked off, still gritting his teeth over Eren's disrespect.
"You good?" Eren mouthed to Mikasa while walking to his seat.
She nodded, her pigtails bouncing as she did so. She and Armin turned back to each other at the same time.
"What the fuck just happened?" Armin whispered to her as they got their notebooks and began to leave.
"I don't know." Mikasa smiled, her usually pale cheeks reddening, "but I think that boy may just be my dark knight."