745Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4OHBpyW7dA
Demi High has their P.E today and most of them are excited. But then, Inoue and Kuro looked like they were ready for something even more than just casual P.E., swinging their tennis rackets as if they're planning on hitting someone with it, so they were practicing.
Chael regarded them carefully. "Assuming our clock is not faulty, our P.E. is still two classes away. You two are not going into war, are you?"
"For Kuroue." Kuro and Inoue said simultaneously and instead of trading a glare, they clasped their hands together in a form of a normal hand shake but upside-down and shoulder-bumped. Much like they're comrades and not rivals in the first place.
It was not only Chael who was looking so nonplussed but also the rest of their classmates who were gasping and born ready to run away with a step back. That willing handshake or simple touching without recoiling in disgust never happened before.
Of course, this happening was not made out of pure magic. Their strange behavior occurred several hours ago.
♡
Flashback:
It could have been just a coincidence, but during their light-hearted debate between chocolate and strawberries they found themselves fawning over a furry animal that came out from a bush.
Its fur glistening, almost beaming from the light. It started nibbling Inoue's necktie, maybe because of its similarly bright reddish eyes. Kuro was lightly touching its long perked-down ears.
"It's so cute..."
"Nope, it's cute and beautiful." Kuro corrected Inoue.
"Hmph, like you?"
"Nah. I'm just beautiful. You're cute. But thanks for the compliment~"
".... Who the heck are you?"
"Seriously. I'm not kidding."
"Um... right." Looking flustered, Inoue immediately changed the subject. "This doesn't look like a lost pet. What should we call it?"
"How about Kuroue? Appearance like beautiful me, but cute-looking like you?"
"U-um, you're the judge. Sure, we're calling it Kuroue."
One of the rabbit's ears perked slightly as if agreeing to the name provided for him, now nibbling up in the air with its small buckteeth.
A calling of their name can be heard from them a distance away. Looking up from the rabbit, they spotted two students coming their way. One they knew as Rizuki who was fast-walking and the other less familiar person with dark-blonde hair jogging towards them.
"Yes! You found him!" Said the dark-blonde with a wave of his arms, flailing in serious giddiness. Kuro looked visibly shocked to see him.
Stopping on their tracks, the dark-blonde pointed at Kuro. "Oh, you're the gay dude from back then, are ya?"
"Gangster-dude, I haven't seen you in a while." Kuro walking towards, he patted the dark-blonde's shoulder in a buddy gesture, touching a strand of hair almost as gentle as caressing a girl's hair. "Your hair is still nice as ever, man~"
Their lips tightly pressed together, Inoue and Rizuki looked like they're about to puke.
"You know Maher-kun, Rizuki-chii?" Inoue asked.
Rizuki looked grimly flustered. "Classmates and friends. But," she raised the book she was holding to her face. "I didn't know the gay is also friends with him... I feel insulted."
Inoue grimaced despite she wasn't the one being offended. "Um... you don't like Kuro?"
"You may not heard of this, but there's a secret shipping between the gay and Chael and the popularity of that shipping has been increasing more and more lately than that of Kuro and my brother, or my brother and you." Her eyes uncovered by her book, shadows creeped on them. "They have the light-novel and manga of their own and it's selling."
Inoue, not knowing what to get from it and uncomfortable by the way their conversation is going, remained silent watching the other two.
The dark-blonde named Maher grinned at Kuro, looking at him with pride. "Your hair improved too since what, two months?"
"It's all because of your hair tips you told me since the day we met." Running his fingers through his bangs, he flicked them off from his forehead, and winked. "I wouldn't have this lush hair, you know that?"
"I said it's getting better... but you still have a long way to go." Maher did the flipping of the bangs as Kuro did but with a leer smile. Kuro looked defeated and astounded all at once.
At the right moment, when she knew she was at her limit, Inoue finally asked, "Ma-senpai, you said something about finally finding someone? Is that what you came here for?"
"Oh, Inny!" Grinning from ear to ear, Maher waved at her when they're standing only a meter apart. "Hey~"
Inoue waved back, also with a big grin, as she was stepping closer towards him. "Hey~"
"Heey~" Maher greeted, also stepping closer towards her.
"Heey~" Inoue greeted back, stepping even closer towards him.
They stepped forward closer together. "Heeey~" "Heeey~"
"Are you two done?" Rizuki interrupted.
"No need to be jelly, Rizzy~" Maher shaped a heart with his hands at Rizuki and earnestly smiled. "You're still my number one besty-friendy~"
As if imagining the heart floating towards her, Rizuki flicked her hand in the air before ignoring him. "To answer the question," she pointed directly at the rabbit Inoue was carrying on her arm. "We were looking for him."
Kuro pointed toward the rabbit as well, confirming. "Kuroue?"
"Kuroue? We're talking about the rabbit, Zen the 2nd." Maher said pointing to the rabbit as well.
Rizuki was puzzled at her friend. "It's Chael the 2nd, remember?"
"Chael? Didn't we agreed it to be Zen, because he looked like Zen from MM?"
"I agreed because I heard you said, "similarly beautiful reddish eyes" which means Chael the 2nd, no?"
"Weit..." Maher raised a palm, frowning at his friend. "Are you actually making an indirect confession, Rizzy?"
"It's the truth."
Inoue interjected between them. "Um, this is Kuroue, me and Kuro's pet. We just adopted him several minutes ago."
"I'm sorry Inny, but that's our—Me and Rizzy's— pet. We found him during lunch break and we're about to cuddle with it and give some love to it but it ran away."
Inoue looked at Maher with all seriousness. "Ma-senpai, this is Kuroue, we recently found it from the bushes near the gates."
"Is it just me, or how he said "cuddle with it and give some love to it" sounds so wrong?"
"It's just you, gay." Rizuki answered, shadows still creeping on her eyes. "We're simply loving to it."
Kuro took a cautious step back close to the rabbit. "Okei, now I'm feeling creeped out for Kuroue... Inoue, don't ever let them touch Kuroue."
Inoue seemed to agree. "Alright...."
"Hmm? Is it what I think it is....?"
Strangely, Maher's smiley face turned dark.
"...That you're declaring war?"
⚔
Of all students in the classroom, Chael was the only person without a skeptical look towards the two rivals.
"We're going to put pass our rivalry for a while and focus on the important thing ahead."
Kuro and Inoue both took a deep breath. "P.E."
"No. It's Social Studies."
Almost jumping to their feet, they stiffly shifted their attention to their teacher, Levi, who already came in without a sound, without any notice, without a warning.
"Right." Kuro agreed, sitting down in obedience. "For now, Social Studies."
And so, two classes after, it's finally P.E. time.
"I still don't know the rules to this..." Bertholdt said to his partner, Reiner looking so nervous.
"Were there rules?" Reiner asked, shocking Bertholdt.
They were in a hurry but early to go into changing into their P.E. uniforms, before the whole tenth grade class ran outside the building and to their field all at once, rackets on their hands, and some with grinning faces—
Only to find out the whole field has been occupied already and evidently unavailable.
"Isn't that Maher the S—"
Giddy swoons came from most half of the students. Girls to be precise.
"He's with his side-kick Jerk-girl too, haha—weit a minute. Are they playing tennis?"
Fairly noisy but not sharp as gunfire, they watched a nest of tennis balls being fired in rapid speed.
Kuro dragged the ball machine along with him and was aiming for the opponent, holding it like a bazooka. Their opponent ducked, dodged, and rolled away from the ball shots, not letting a single ball hit their body, nor graze their skin.
"No, that is not tennis." Annie pointed out.
All students nodded, at least knowing that one fact, in agreement.
Inoue directly ran forward in the middle of the firing range, in trust she won't get hit from behind. Inoue raising a hand signal, Kuro precisely shot a tennis ball next to her. In time, she swung her tennis as if it was a baseball bat, hitting the ball hard as it passed by her.
They only saw the sight of the ball when Maher raised his free hand to catch it. Smoke appeared through his curled fingers.
"Just as long as the balls were caught successfully, they won't count as "out in the game", yeah?" Not even flinching from the pain, he lunged forward.
The crowd of students began declaring their bets as they fished their betting money onto the decided odds-maker. The Love Rivals versus Ruthless Duo
"Weit... no, this is not legit, everyone." Chael chided. "Where is your pres—?"
Chael was a bit too late upon realizing the class electives were the ones who initiated it in the first place. Disappointed, he gravely sighed.
"Should I stop them?" Mikasa offered and, strangely, she's holding a cutter.
Chael refused as cautiously as he can.
The balls firing continued, this time, automatically set to fire off at any directions towards their field until the balls gone empty. Kuro joined in without a racket and instead, was holding balls in each of his hand.
Kuro's partner being busy with Maher, he instead targeted Maher's partner too, running straight at Rizuki who preferred rackets in each hand for defense.
Knowing Kuro's intention, Rizuki swiped the hurling balls back at him almost all at once, planning on disturbing his momentum. But he tend to hit them back at her, surprisingly with the tennis ball in his hand itself. Less accuracy on Kuro's part though, they were down to one tennis ball hurling back and forth at each other, the ball Kuro threw.
They more focused on simply hitting one tennis ball and then back again. Him at her then her at him that it goes back and forth senselessly when—
Kuro was on the same moment as the ball flying above the eyes. Surprised, Rizuki deflected the upcoming ball upwards, also reflexively taking a step back in hopes to avoid whatever Kuro's attack he'll make.
But, Kuro was already besides her. Soft, hard, and round pressing on her cheek.
"Sorry but you're too slow for me, cutie."
"On purpose."
Kuro felt something bounced on his head; the tennis ball Rizuki deflected, just came down from above.
Smacking away the ball on her cheek, she left the field.
Kuro dragged himself off from the playing grounds as well, pouting his lips and mumbling to himself.
"It's down to the last two! Who will be the winner? Second wagers, anyone?"
"I'll add this on me."
"No. No thanks, I'm only doing this for fun, haha..."
"Well, Rizu is out of the game, at least...." Chael said along with the noise.
Pressuring their heels on the ground, Inoue and Maher made an abrupt stop. Facing each other, they stood in-between the tennis net and exchanged intense stares.
"Oh, now they're going to play the real thing—"
The motion when Inoue hit the ball with a hard smash was unseen, but Maher managed to jerk his head in time. The yellow silhouette barely grazing his long hair.
"—or not."
Smiling innocently despite the strangeness of it all, Maher thrusted his ball into the air, showing it upfront. "You only got one ball left to throw, and so am I. Why don't we settle this now? Synchronized smash?"
Without hesitation, she lowered herself. The ball readied to her front and the tennis readied from behind. "Fine. Three meters away."
Maher posed the same stance but less stiff and more composed. "Ready, Inny? One."
"Two." Inoue counted next—
Then simultaneously. "Three!" "Three!"
In unison the students stared at the balls being hurled upwards, precisely three meters from the ground. The balls softly paused at certain point before starting to fall.
They approximately measured, "Two and a half meters...!"
Inoue and Maher didn't move a muscle on their position—
"Two meters...!"
—And Maher was smiling, stilled on his dark stare—
"One and a half—! "
Then suddenly, Inoue jumped high, her tennis now lowered to smash her falling ball at the right aim and angle. Maher jumped as well the second after her, his tennis on his side.
Two thudding sounds echoed, and in mid-air their faces stretched and recoiled from the impact.
"Uhm... who got hit by the ball first?" Someone asked.
The students were all whispering and mumbling the similar thing; they weren't sure, unfortunately.
"Didn't I told you to study up tennis!?"
The students jumped, turned, and flinched seeing their P.E. teacher standing right before them with his arms crossed and glaring right through their souls. Instructor Keith Shadis.
Just in time, Maher and Inoue were done with the falling as they landed on their backs. "Oof!" "Oof!"
The balls they smashed bounced away.
"You there! On the field! What are two doing?! Who used the balls machine without my permission, hah?!"
For once in his lifetime, Chael had said the "S" word.
And so, they did their roll call before their tremendous jogging for extra 10 laps as punishment. They were careful not to visibly express their complaint and agony of it.
"Rikkun Crosse?" Instructor Keith yelled, but no response came from the mentioned one.
Yelling louder than thunder, the instructor called out again. Shoulders of every students flinched from the booming sound of impending major trouble. "RIKKUN CROSSE!"
"Where is he?"
"Maybe skipping class today."
"Then he's in for some big trouble..."
Inoue lowered her voice into a whisper that can only be heard by Kuro who stood next to her, tilting her head upon realization. "Didn't you said that you're letting Rikkun pet-sit Kuroue?"
"Not really. I just saw him chilling in the clinic so I dropped Kuroue with him there in a hurry. Told him to put Kuroue inside a box while we're in class. Guess he prefers to be with Kuroue than come down here and play?"
"Really? But he never skipped this particular class though." Inoue shrugged her shoulders. "Huh, weird."
Meanwhile, inside their school premises, there was a sound—uncertain if it came from a person— so hollow and shaken that can be heard across the hallways.
"Levi, Levi!" Hanji kept on nudging him in the arm, as they were walking out. "Did you hear that?!"
"I'll clean the vents tomorrow."
⚔
Hospital:
Erwin sat up slowly from his freshly changed bed with an indeterminate blank gaze at his new but familiar visitor and asked, "What's your name?"
He paused, before adding a better inquiry. "And, who are you to me?"
Without hesitation, his visitor—standing firmly straight though casually poised beside his bed looking down on him— briskly answered, "Levi Ackerman. I'm your master. I let you in on a car accident because you were not being a proper servant to me."
Two sentence afterwards Erwin's gritting teeth let out a booming laugh.
His visitor, Levi Ackerman, weited seemingly patiently to laugh all he wants before questioning him. "Why are you laughing?"
"It's just..." Erwin breathed a calming sigh before continuing. "What you just said gave me some sort of de ja vu. I may not remember anything for a long while but your behavior is familiar, still."
It was true. Vaguely, he can recall his distinguishable features of his visitor, even the way he was positioned; towering above him with that—subtle but earnest— look of concern on his rigid face.
Except for the dirty white shirt he wore that seemed to be missing a piece of clothing or an accessory. The worn-out hoodie he's wearing made him look younger and his hair he gelled-back with few strands falling over his face made him look more roguish.
The said visitor turned to another visitor—the one Erwin seeing several days before and often— Hanji who stood beside and behind him. Silent and stiff this whole time. "You said that he'll buy that."
Hanji shrugged both shoulders and answered without looking up from her pocket book, her eyes looking left to right. "I said it could work. I failed on my part on acting like a mad scientist saying I'm experimenting on him, so I thought it could work in your way."
"You could've told me that earlier... Your acting was ten times less sh*ttier than mine. I failed sh*t-tons."
Hanji snapped her book shut. "Aw, don't say that. I thought you actually mean what you said!" She flailed her hands. "It was really frightening, it was sooo good~!"
Erwin placed a fist closed to his grinning mouth. "Pfft... hahaha...please, don't make me laugh too much, it hurts."
Levi, closing his eyes, sighed.
"... Great. We're clowns to him now."
After saying that, Erwin's doctor came inside, quick-scanning a file on his hand, then inspected Levi with a suspicious look firsthand. Levi stared back at him, his face froze in impassion.
Hanji started. "Doc, is it possible to give him another temporary amnesia again? So we can start all over??"
With this, again, Erwin burst out laughing. None bothered to stop or question him.
But Levi regarded Erwin's unpredictable humor and wondered out loud. "Is it possible... that he's been drugged by those...?"
Hanji nodded at Levi, hinting understanding and agreement. "I thought so too." She gestured toward a tray of food beside Erwin's bed. "So I've checked them every day just to make sure, but there wasn't any marijuana or cocaine or nicotine or meth or anything of sorts."
"That explains why I always see you looking for the meal tray intently before letting him help himself...."
The Doctor, who was still there and listening to every word including the offensive ones, calmly interposed but with a meaningful glare. "We make our patients better, not make them feel worse. "
"But the movies—"
Before they—Hanji, Levi, and Erwin—completely finished their point, the doctor shook his head in apparent approval and cluck his tongue disappointedly.
"I've never watched anything as that, being a movie enthusiast myself. But I'm afraid, Mr. Smith, that we'll have to avoid you from brainwashing yourself any further with movies."
Almost stammering, Erwin offered, "Not even a compromise—"
"No buts! And you two"—Referring to Levi and Hanji with a warning pointy finger –"don't even influence him."
"Right, right~"
".....Hm."
"Good. I'll be back later." The doctor said before finally leaving, promising Erwin that he'll be back into full health in no time as one week or two.
Affirmed that the doctor left, Hanji initiated a cautious whisper close to Levi's ears. "I'll still make sure he doesn't drug Erwin..."
As Hanji winked, Levi replied. "Great."
Erwin chuckled watching the two.
"Are you really sure you're not drugged? Have you even taken a sh*t yet?"
Erwin's smiling face fell that was similar as Levi's neutral look.
"No need to concern yourself with my wellbeing, especially with my cleansing routines." Erwin lowly replied, almost like a grumble. Then, "I just feel a little hazy now and then..."
Looking at the open windows, Erwin finally noticed the cool breeze that brushed against his skin, chilling him slightly.
"Since I thought the nightmare I had was real, until now."
He feeling rather refreshed after waking up few hours ago, exhaled with a smile on his face. "I'm really glad... it was all a dream."
Slipping those words out in the air, remained coolness and meaningful silence between them.
"Well... I haven't really slept well so, I may not really know if this is a dream or not..." Hanji mused, taking the question seriously.
"Living in reality or in a dream, hm?"
"If this is just a dream we're dreaming anyway, let's better not wake up then."
Levi concluded, looking farther away through the open windows, towards the cool gradients painting the sunless horizon. The scent of winter is in the air.745Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyCt3U7DDgw
745Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKR418c3ga
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Author's Note:
Upon my author's-block-state of mind, I subconsciously wrote a tennis-action-but-is-not-tennis-play. Pardon me if I seem to not appreciate the legal ways of playing tennis. Really, I like tennis.
Zen that Maher referred to, is a character that came from the- you guessed it- Mystic Messenger! To anyone playing the game, say 'aye'!
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