Mikasa curled the weight like it was any other day. Her shirt was tossed and forgotten in the corner of the room, exposing every working muscle group as her fingers curled around the weight. Every flex of her bicep, every curve of her muscles, every breath that she took was planned and memorized. Squeeze, curl, extend. Squeeze, curl, extend. She paid no mind to the ogling eyes in her direction or the obnoxious smell of sweat and body odor wafting through the small gym. Her jet black hair was pulled back into a half ponytail as a bead of sweat ran down her temple, and she diverted her attention to her working biceps instead of the overzealous group of men behind her.

"Dammit," Connie cursed, struggling slightly with the fifteen pound dumbbells he gripped in his hand. "How does she do that?" He asked breathlessly. The grooves in the cold metal of the weight began marking his skin painfully.

"She practices, idiot." Jean scoffed and dropped the bar he had been pressing; he nodded towards Eren who had been spotting him.

"So do I! And I still can't curl dumbbells that big!"

"You also have lanky arms." Eren retorted. The brunet reached for the pair of twenty pounds and sat himself next to Connie.

"Whatever man, Sasha likes them." He shot back as he flexed what little he had in front of the mirror, a dorky grin plastered across his face.

"It's alright, Connie, I'm not all that strong either." Armin spoke, stopping his workout to join the conversation. The blond shook out his shoulders from his pull-ups and readjusted the bun on his head.

"Yeah but you're also a genius. Connie doesn't have either trait." Eren poked fun at him, all in good spirit. He teasingly patted his friend's bald head. A sound of displeasure escaped the shorter man's lips before Jean's voice caught their attention.

"Hey, check out Mikasa." Jean watched the Oriental girl with shock. This time, she wasn't alone. Next to her stood a shorter man, black hair like hers. He was shredded, an exposed eight pack decorating his pale skin in comparison to Mikasa's six pack. He was clad in green shorts and fingerless gloves, curling a thirty two pound set of dumbbells as easily as she lifted her twenty fives. The man didn't even break a sweat, in fact he even side-eyed the woman next to him at the weights she was lifting.

"Holy shit. There's only one person in this whole gym who can out-curl her." Connie gawked, unknowingly leaving his arm hanging pathetically in mid-air.

"Is that her boyfriend? Goddamn, if they dated it would be hard to tell who wore the pants. Or rather, who has the dick." Jean commented. Connie sniggered.

Eren's face twisted in a disgusted scowl. "That's her brother, geez." he corrected, nearly using all his willpower to stop himself from chucking his metal weights at Jean's face.

"If that's her brother I'd like to see the whole damn family."

"How do you know that's her brother?" Armin inquired, watching the pair in awe. Mikasa scowled at Levi one-upping her, dropped her current set of weights and reached for the thirty two pound set as well. She shook out her shoulders and rolled her neck as she began to curl the weights with the smallest hint of a struggle. This time, Mikasa's movements were slightly slower than before. Hell, the weight she was lifting even had Eren searching for his masculinity. Perhaps he had left it in his book club classroom.

"She's in my stats class. She's really smart, too. Her brother came by to give her lunch once, that's how I know him." Eren spoke, leaning forward on the bench to rest his elbows on his knees and wiping the sweat off his tanned skin.

"So you're pretty comfortable with her then, huh?" Jean bit out, an ugly feeling of jealousy bubbling in him.

"More or less. We worked together on a project before. She told me she wants to come back and work towards her master's in finance once she graduates in May." Eren huffed and wiped down his equipment before setting everything back on the rack.

"That's all you know about her?"

"Why does it matter?" Eren asked defensively, earning him a few suspicious glances.

He eyed his friends warily as they continued to obnoxiously drool over Mikasa while he unwrapped his hands. It was pitiful, how bad they wanted her despite never even striking up a single conversation with the woman.

"Shit, she's got the beauty, brains, and the muscle! You should hop on that, Jaeger!" Connie shoved him playfully as he reached for his towel.

"You guys are gross. I'm heading out, I'll meet up with you tonight." Eren waved off, walking towards the exit to leave the group of desperate men. His bright green eyes couldn't help but roll to the back of his head on his way out.

"Eren." A familiar silky smooth voice stopped him right before he got to his car.

"Mikasa," he nodded, "what's up?"

"Are you still coming over for dinner? Levi was wondering in case he needed to cook extra." Her black hair framed her face, a few strands sticking to her sweaty skin.

"Yeah, I'll be there," he snaked an arm around the small of her back and pulled her to his chest, "I promised I'd meet up with boys tonight though, after dinner."

Mikasa hummed in response, then looked up at him with a look that he had trouble deciding if it was serious or not. "Speaking of which," she leaned up to press her lips against his, "tell your friends to stop checking me out."

"What?" He shrank back awkwardly. "They- they weren't-"

"Even Levi noticed and almost decked them in the face. You included."

"Well then, I'm glad I got out of there when I did. I forgot how protective he can get." Eren laughed against her, kissing her forehead before opening his car door. "They told me to hop on you, you know."

Mikasa raised a single, thin eyebrow, "Please, as if you're a top."

Eren decided later that night to ask her about it when she was breathless and underneath his body. Levi had called Erwin over after dinner, and while they were doing who-knows-what in his room, Mikasa was shirt was tossed and forgotten again, except the only difference was that there were no weights around and the only reason her arms were flexing was from the death grip she had on her sheets.

He rolled off and laid next to her while his chest rose and fell from the adrenaline. When he finally managed to take slow, evenly spaced breaths, he turned to her curiously.

"How do you do it?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"Curl such heavy weights with ease," he answered matter-of-factly, "it's crazy how you do it. Most I can handle are twenty-fives."

A small smile pulled at his cheeks when Mikasa scoffed, waved him off, then rolled over to meet his bright eyes.

"Honestly, Eren," the raven began, "my arms were screaming at me to stop at every curl I did with the thirty-twos. My biceps were already worked out with the twenty-fives I had been curling nonstop prior, but I just couldn't stand Levi one-upping me like that."

Eren stared at her incredulously, "So you still managed to do it even after your arms being sore. Seriously, how are you guys so strong?"

"We just don't like being weak." Mikasa shrugged, tracing a finger over bronze, toned arms. "When we were younger and we lost our parents, we vowed never to let ourselves feel weak and vulnerable again, and to look out for each other. It triggered some inhuman strength in us. It sounds crazy, I know-"

"No, no," he negated, "it's not crazy. If anything it's really badass." Eren flashed a smile, "Not a lot of guys can say their girlfriend can curl heavier weights than them."

Mikasa giggled and Eren swore he's never heard anything more beautiful. His eyes flickered down to her rosy lips.

"Real talk, though," he interrupted the silence again and Mikasa's eyes snapped back to his, "you're not alone. You have me now, and even if I'm not as invincible as you or Levi, I'll still fight tooth and nail for you."

Mikasa looked up at him adoringly. She was never the best with words, but her eyes always said more than they needed to.

"Stop being so cheesy." she blushed, before grabbing his face and pushing him back down to the sheets.

"Wait, again?" He looked up at her with wide eyes and she tried her to swallow a laugh. Not only was she that much stronger, but her stamina was insane too! "I'm gonna be late, they're probably wondering where I am."

She straddled his hips in response and ran a hand through his disheveled hair, a devious grin playing on her lips, "You can tell them we were training."