Warnings: minor swearing

1. Ice Skating

It's the same old routine: she doesn't run quite as fast, and doesn't jump quite as high. It's more for her sake than his, really—she can't bear the idea of leaving him behind, and so she resolves to move forward with him rather than alone, even if the former takes a bit longer than the latter.

So, naturally, when he asks her if she knows how to ice skate, Mikasa replies, "This is my first time skating." And it's the truth, even though she feels steady on her feet—the ice not all that treacherous.

"It's not that hard," Eren says, conveniently slipping and falling to his hands and knees at the same time. "Come on," he offers his hand and she pulls him up.

She imagines that they're probably quite the sight: she, steady on her feet and her counterpart rather wobbly.

"Are you all right?" she asks when he takes a particularly nasty spill.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he says, waving away her hand. "You just have to make sure that your legs are positioned at the right distance away so that your stance is stable."

She nods politely, and pulls her scarf up a little higher to conceal the smile of amusement tugging at her lips.

Jean lets out a laugh as they pass, and her earlier suspicions are confirmed. "Is this your first time on ice, or something?" he scoffs.

"Fuck you, she's not that bad," Eren spits back.

"Idiot, I was talking about you."

"You wanna go, Kirstein?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do. Let's settle this with a race. From one end of the rink to the other. Connie, call the start."

The two boys make their way to the opposite side of the rink, and it's more than obvious who the loser is. The others gather beside Mikasa at the finish, eager spectators of a comedy rather than a thriller. And when Connie calls the start, they're off—Jean makes a beeline for the finish, and Eren heads straight for the ground. He doesn't get up.

Mikasa flies over the ice, her scarf billowing out like the tail of a kite behind her, she nearly knocks over Jean, his fists raised in triumph, as she rushes past.

"Eren!" she cries as she nears his side, the blades of her skates kicking up ice as she slides into a stop. She can just make out a defeated "that bastard" from underneath the dusting of ice.

Mikasa bends down.

"Sorry," she says, helping him wipe the ice from his clothes, "Are you ok?"

"I've got ice down my shirt," he replies, shivering.

Despite some minor bruising, it's really his pride that's taken the bulk of his fall; he refuses to look her in the eye when she helps him up.

"I thought you said that this was your first time skating?" he asks, still teetering.

"It is," she says. And it's the truth.

He sneezes, and it throws off his balance for a moment.

"You could've gone off on your own, you know. You don't have to stick around for my sake," he says, and she wonders for a moment if she's only ended up putting more pain to his pride. But he only sighs, and curses when he nearly falls again.

"I don't mind being with you," Mikasa says, every so quietly into her scarf.

If he hears her, he gives no indication, hastily turning away, and doing his best to skate away.

"Come on, let's head back. I want to get out of these stupid skates," is all he says.

And maybe it's because it's cold, and he refuses to wear a hat, or because he was just covered in ice, but his ears and cheeks seem to take on a deeper shade of red.

A/N: So I decided that I'd make a separate collection where I could post prompts and other short pieces I come up with. Thanks for reading!