At Dawn

Sasha woke to the roar of the blender blaring down the hallway straight through the open door of the bedroom. She groaned, dragging her legs over the edge of the mattress, ignoring the ladder and hopping down onto the floor. A glance to the side proved that Mikasa was indeed already awake, her bed beautifully made and perfectly ordered.

"Why did she have to leave the door open?" she muttered, pushing her way out of the room and shuffling down the hallway.

"Good morning, Sasha," Mikasa greeted her when she stepped into the kitchen. The black haired girl was pouring a pink sludge from the blender pitcher into a cup.

Sasha eyed the packs of protein shake and trays of fruit lining the kitchen counter. "You are up early," she said, snatching up a handful of blueberries before Mikasa could stop her.

Dark eyes that were almost black flitted up to the wall clock. "It's only half six."

Sasha popped a blueberry into her mouth and sighed. "It's Saturday morning."

Mikasa walked over to the sink and started washing out the blender, placing each part onto the drainer to dry off. "I went for my morning run. I got back a few minutes ago."

Sasha's eyes scanned down Mikasa's body and she realized the girl's well-defined muscles in her bare arms were shiny with sweat, her white tank top plastered to her lower back with the moisture.

"You should join me one day," she added.

Sasha picked out a strawberry from another tray. "Too early."

"Then how about coming to the gym with me?" Mikasa returned to her cup of pink sludge and started taking a long drink from it.

"Too expensive." The gym that Mikasa went to had every piece of equipment known to man supplied by a top-notch quality brand and the place had a price to match.

"I go swimming on Monday mornings."

"I have work." Sasha worked at the outdoor experience centre up on the hill on the outskirts of town. She walked there and back, and the job itself provided all the exercise she needed. Most of the time she worked with the other guys to care for the horses and ride them, but she also took the thrice-weekly hour of archery the centre offered.

"Boxercise on Wednesdays."

Sasha raked her fingers through her knotted bed hair, wishing she had pulled it up into a messy ponytail at least before she had left the bedroom. "You lead that class."

"Exactly," Mikasa replied. "You wouldn't have to pay anything." She worked as a delivery driver for heavy goods and had done so since she followed her brother, Eren, to this town when he wanted to come to the local university for a specific course five years ago – Sasha remembered that Eren wanted to join the military and was looking at being an engineer of some sort. Last year, she had set up a boxercise class since the town had lacked for a suitable venue for the girl's interest in boxing, and the class was another source of income.

"I'm fine," Sasha said.

Mikasa shrugged and finished off her cup of pink sludge.

They had been roommates for the past five years since Sasha's old roommate, Mina, had left to go travelling. She had placed an ad on the noticeboard at the supermarket and two days later had got the phone call from Mikasa. Five years of living together had allowed them to get to know each other well and Sasha considered them to be good friends, but they had yet to share anything outside of the apartment. They didn't have the same friends, they didn't go to the café on the corner for morning coffee, they didn't go shopping together at weekends. In fact, they barely saw each other outside these walls. That was why Sasha could understand where Mikasa was coming from when she tried to get Sasha to join her – but Mikasa's hobbies didn't match with hers.

That thought reminded Sasha what her plans for the day were. She took another strawberry before turning to walk back down the hallway to the bedroom. Mikasa followed her after rinsing her cup.

Sasha opened a drawer to grab some clothes and got changed while Mikasa went to take a shower. She was just tidying her now-brushed hair into a ponytail when Mikasa came back into the bedroom, clean clothes on and a damp towel thrown over one shoulder, her hair dripping as she ducked down to pull her boots out from under the bed.

"Where are you going?" asked Mikasa when she saw Sasha pick up her keys.

Sasha gathered her sketchbook and pencils and raised them up for Mikasa to see. "I am going to the park," she replied, already leaving the bedroom and making for the front door.

She soon heard footsteps calmly following after her and she glanced back to see Mikasa close on her heels. "What-"

"I'm coming with you." Mikasa quickly bent down to finish tying up her shoelaces. Her hair was still wet.

"I'm just drawing," Sasha said, watching Mikasa straighten up from her crouch with wide eyes. She had never wanted to join her on her weekend drawing sessions before. Was this another attempt at connecting with each other outside of the apartment? Sasha frowned. Mikasa wouldn't enjoy sitting for hours while she scrawled away in her sketchbook. "I am sure you have other plans for today, anyway."

Mikasa shook her head and reached for her scarf that was hung up on the coat hook beside the front door, wrapping it loosely around her neck. She then waited for Sasha to unlock the door and lead the way.

Sasha realized Mikasa wasn't going to budge on this, so she turned away and they left the apartment together.

It was odd to be walking through the town side by side. They had left the apartment together countless times before, but they had always separated at the crossroads – Sasha turning left to climb the steep road up into the hills while Mikasa always carried straight on farther into town where the main sports facilities and her workplace were situated. Mikasa's friends also all seemed to live in the centre of town while Sasha's lived more on the outskirts, therefore meaning that the two of them rarely saw any reason for walking more than five minutes together.

But today both of them turned right towards the park.

The park consisted of patches of rolling slopes and patches of forest, picnic benches dotted around, a few water fountains set up by the paths that crisscrossed the entire area. It also hosted a small kid's playground, a basketball court, and a trio of tennis courts. On weekends, these were all particularly busy but where Sasha wanted to go was always quiet.

In the far corner of the park there was a solitary small, sparse forest that was too distant from the main paths and areas so people never really ventured to it, but Sasha always found peace there. It was the best taste of wilderness and silence that anyone could get in the middle of a town.

She walked into the spacious clearing where there was a small lake surrounded by the few trees that had grown tall in the many years that they had lived. There was a bench overlooking the lake– she had dragged it there after discovering it forgotten elsewhere in the park, lost beneath vines and dead leaves. It was missing a plank in its back, but it still served its purpose well.

She took a seat and Mikasa sat beside her.

"This is where you go every weekend?" Mikasa asked in a quiet voice.

Sasha smiled and nodded, opening up her sketchbook to a blank page. "I like it here." She chose a pencil out of the tin she had brought. "And I have dozens of subjects."

"Subjects?" Mikasa echoed, glancing around the clearing.

The trees were alive with the fluttering of wings, the air singing with the songs of a hundred, the lake surface rippling as the water parted for the swimmers, the small and large dancing through the air, the pecking of beaks amidst the grass and flowers.

"Birds?" Mikasa guessed.

Sasha hesitated, debating for a moment, before she passed her sketchbook over to Mikasa for her to have a look. The black haired girl accepted the book and flicked through it, carefully studying each sketch and well-detailed drawing that decorated the pages.

"These are amazing," she breathed, lightly touching her fingers to a drawing of a sparrow in flight. She looked up to meet Sasha's eyes. "Have you got a favourite?"

Sasha glanced around the clearing, her gaze falling on the ducks swimming in the lake, one shaking its feathers as it left the water and waddled up onto the bank. She looked away, searching for the bird she liked drawing the most. "There," she said, finding it and pointing. "That one."

"A pigeon?"

Sasha could hear something incredulous, perhaps judging, in Mikasa's tone. She bowed her head, embarrassed, and took back her sketchbook, returning to the blank page. "Some people call them the rat of the skies," she mumbled, putting her pencil to paper. "But I don't think so. There are different kinds of pigeons – wood pigeons, doves…Then the city pigeons, living off what humans leave behind." She started to sketch the bird's tail feathers first, glancing up momentarily to study the pigeon preening itself on a tree branch nearby. "They are here because we're so close to the town, but we're also in the woods." She switched to drawing the environment a little, detailing the leaves behind the bird, crowning it in green. "I just find all birds fascinating and I love drawing them, but somewhere along the line I favoured drawing-"

"Pigeons," Mikasa finished, her voice low as if not to disturb the wildlife surrounding them. She slowly scanned the clearing. "I see what you mean."

Sasha blinked, turning to stare at the girl sat beside her. "You do?"

Mikasa was smiling, softly, as if she were enjoying herself and the appearance of it made Sasha stare longer. "It's calming here," she said. Sasha waited to see if we would say anything more, but she didn't.

Sasha returned to her drawing. Once she had finished it, she searched the lake for something else to focus on and found a pair pecking at the ground, bodies swaying side to side as they walked together. She began to sketch them out. "They all have character," she said, the words leaving her lips unbidden. "Each one is different."

Mikasa didn't reply and her silence made Sasha glance up. To her surprise, the black haired girl was watching her, that smile still on her lips. When their eyes met, Mikasa seemed to realize that she had been staring and she pulled her scarf tighter around her throat. She gestured towards the pair of pigeons that Sasha was now drawing. "They have a more obvious character," she remarked.

Sasha nodded, surprised that Mikasa had noticed that.

Then Mikasa turned back to her and her smile grew a little. "Would it be okay if I joined you more often?"

Sasha stammered, her heart suddenly beating faster in her chest. "I-you-what-I-um-"

Mikasa laughed and Sasha was back to staring at her, stunned. In the five years they had been living together, Sasha realized she had never heard her laugh. It was beautiful and she found herself smiling at the sound.

"It would be perfectly okay," she managed to say.

Mikasa seemed delighted, her smile widening further. "There's also a place I would like to show you."

"A place…?"

"It would be great for your drawings," Mikasa said, pulling out her phone and unlocking it with a swipe of her thumb. As she tabbed through something, she continued, "A whole variation of subjects that you can draw."

Sasha felt like she knew where Mikasa meant. "I've already been to the zoo," she said with a slight frown. "I didn't particularly like it, with the birds caged or trapped in a big bubble."

Mikasa shook her head, still looking at her phone. "Not there. Here." She lifted her phone up, tilting the screen so Sasha could see it.

"Brooklyn-Lee Park," she read. She looked at Mikasa for an explanation.

"It's a five hour drive away," the black haired girl said, something hopeful in her voice. "It's a huge park. There used to be an aviary there, but not anymore. They opened the doors a few years back and the birds still stayed put. It's a perfect place for you."

Sasha studied the photo on the phone's screen. It looked gorgeous, quiet and serene. And full of birds.

Mikasa lowered her phone, locked it again, and pocketed it. "We can go next weekend. If we leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday-"

"Wait, what?" Sasha interrupted, feeling very confused all of a sudden. "What do you mean?"

Nervousness flashed across Mikasa's face – something else to do with her roommate that Sasha had never experienced. "I thought we could make a weekend of it. Take a trip, spend however much time we want. It takes five hours to get there so if we just spent a day, we wouldn't have very long there. There's a nice hotel near the park. Cheap, but it has great views."

Sasha had the odd sense that Mikasa had already long ago thought of all this. "A trip? Just the two of us?" She felt a rush of nervousness, mirroring Mikasa's expression, but also a touch of excitement. Despite living together for five years, this seemed to be a big jump.

The black haired girl nodded, burying her nose into her scarf as if trying to hide her face – another thing that Sasha had never seen her do and it made her strangely happy to see the action. Mikasa seemed to be showing her things she had never seen before already. But why…?

Mikasa must have seen the question on Sasha's face before she could even think to voice it. "I would like us to go," she said, her voice muffled by her scarf. "Together. I've wanted us to spend more time with each other for a while now, but never had the courage to ask."

That made Sasha frown. Mikasa did ask…to spend time together working out, but still she had asked.

Mikasa seemed to understand what she was thinking, and shook her head. "I mean asking you out."

Sasha froze.

Then, "You mean on a d-date?"

"On a date," Mikasa confirmed.

"Oh, wow."

Now Mikasa's nervousness seemed appropriate. Sasha looked down at her sketchbook, the half-finished drawing of the pigeon couple glaring back up at her. She snapped the book shut and stood up.

"Sasha?" Mikasa sounded uneasy – also something new, but Sasha didn't like the sound of this one as much as the others.

"I'm hungry," she declared, her loud voice startling a few birds nearby.

Mikasa didn't say anything for a moment, but then she too stood up from the bench. "I know a good Italian place," she said.

"G-great." Sasha nodded in approval, tucking her sketchbook and pencil tin under one arm.

As they walked back through the park, Mikasa's hand touched the side of Sasha's, making her jump, but then the other girl's fingers took hold of hers, firmly. She gave Mikasa a side-glance and realized that she was watching her for a reaction, despite the assuredness of her grip on Sasha's hand. She swallowed her own nervousness and squeezed Mikasa's hand back.

They were leaving the park and heading towards the restaurant when Mikasa finally broke the silence between them.

"So, next weekend?"

Sasha thought for a moment. "If we leave at around seven or eight in the morning, we will get there in time for lunch."

Mikasa laughed again, a happy sound. Sasha wondered if she'd hear much more of it, the quiet joy that she hadn't heard for the five years she had known and silently fallen in love with the girl beside her. "It's a date then."

A smile tugged at the corner of Sasha's lips. "I thought today was a date?"

Mikasa looked surprised for a moment, but then she smiled back at Sasha, laughing once more. "So it is."

A/N:

A oneshot for tumblr user, just-madman, as part of small collection of mikasasha oneshots under a particular theme of prompts.

I've never written mikasasha before and I never really write Mikasa either, so forgive me for any mistakes in their characters.

[2/4]