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Eren scrunches up his nose as the smell of horse excrement invades his nostrils. “I would rather redo the basement a hundred times over than shovel anymore of this horse shit.”
Mikasa says nothing, and continues to scoop up manure at a steady pace. Eren sticks his shovel into the ground and rests his forearms on the handle, watching her intently. He’s tired and his muscles are aching, yet Mikasa shows no signs of exhaustion, even though she’s been helping him the entire time.
“You don’t have to be here, you know. Captain Levi only punished me for the whole sponge fiasco.”
““I know I don’t have to be here. But I want to.”
“You never change, do you?”
Mikasa shakes her head, and Eren sighs. “Where is Armin, anyway? Last I saw him he looked kind of in a hurry to get somewhere.”
“Jean didn’t show up for lunch so Armin went to look for him,” she replies, pausing in her shoveling to take a sip of water. She tosses the bottle to Eren when she’s done, who catches it gratefully.
“Armin’s been going out of his way for Jean a lot lately,” Eren takes a long gulp, and wipes his mouth. “Do you think he...likes Jean or something?”
“I suppose when you like someone, you’d want to be around them all the time,” Mikasa says, more at the ground than to Eren. “No matter what you would have to do.”
Eren blinks, and stares at Mikasa burying her face into her scarf. He can feel his cheeks beginning to flush, and Eren pretends he doesn’t see the visible parts of Mikasa’s face turn a faint shade of pink.
“Let’s finish this before I end up accidentally throwing horse droppings on Captain Levi or something.”