Chapter Text
The first time he heard her, she was at the piano.
The meeting to discuss the establishment of the clinic had become an unproductive chatter after three quarters of the bottle of whiskey.
Grisha was not as strong for drinking as he was, and barely blinked when their three partners shifted the subject of investing in the necessary infrastructure to matters relating to their personal assets, women and gambling.
A game of trickery had started when he stood up uneasily, his head aching. He had spent the last few days adjusting every detail of the budget needed so that it didn't end in a night. He got up with the excuse of going to the toilet, and as soon as he reached the indicated place, he tried to relieve the tension with water on his face. He had so much to resolve.
Paradis was lagging behind. Bringing advances in materials, medicines and treatments known on the continent was a challenge. Consolidating that society was the best chance to break with technological stagnation.
That was it.
He had to remain patient.
He wiped his hands and left, listening to a familiar melody from a distance. He approached the stairs, trying to recognize the notes that were being played in a pleasant cadence.
Unconsciously he climbed a step or two to get closer, and when he realized how invasive he was to be inviting himself to a more private area of a stranger's house, he returned to the drawing room.
"Young Yeagar, I waited for you, but you took too long and we started another match," his host justified waving his glass of whiskey.
Sandes was a tall and haughty man with blond hair tucked at the level of his ears, what favored the framing of his angular face and made him look youthful, even though he was close to forty.
"Okay, I got distracted by a song from up there."
Sandes offered a wan smile "It must be the servants playing the piano".
"It must be someone with knowledge, in addition, she had a beautiful tone."
The eyes of his other partner, Rotchford, darted between them.
Sandes's hand tightened on the glass “Effect of alcohol. Take a little more with me” he indicated to sit down.
"You can't meddle in a man's secrets," Ruthford mocked with the cigarette between his lips and Eren sat down, pouring himself a whiskey, choosing not to dwell on it.
The night turned out to be a long one, with more card games and even betting. Eren tried to concentrate, but when he said goodbye, the sound of that melancholy melody still hadn't left his mind.
xxx
Eren Yeager was a man of science. Myths, fallacies and legends of ghosts had no place in his world of logic and study.
On other occasions when he visited Sandes' mansion he always saw the attic light on, just as there was routinely the sound of sad music coming from a room on the first floor. He even asked Grisha if he knew about anyone else living with the lord of the mines, however he replied that it was not known to him that he had family or aggregates outside of Mitras.
He chose not to mention it any more, but his curiosity was still piqued. And that did not go unnoticed by Rotchford.
He was at the solstice lunch organized by Sandes when the minority partner caught him watching the attic window.
"Sometimes I also expect her to show up, Yeager."
Eren looked at him questioningly, but he just returned it with a discreet little laugh "But don't get too excited, I hope the day he gets tired of her for years".
The doctor waved at the partner with growing discomfort and after a few more drinks he said goodbye claiming to have a family commitment. Which was true, since Carla enjoyed getting the family together at the time.
Only a few days later he finally saw her.
She was at the piano playing a tense melody. "It's the less devastating thing I've ever seen you play, and yet ...", he said as soon as he entered the room, moved by the curiosity of weeks.
He couldn't see her face, but by the silhouette at the piano she was dressed well, white and fine cloth robes marked her thin body and made sure she was not a maid.
Despite making sure she heard him, she did not answer and continued to play, the notes increasingly aggressive, loaded. Not wanting to give the impression that he just came in through sheer intrusion and lack of education, he decided to justify his sudden entry, but before he could, her voice overlapped the melody.
“Summer is neither sad nor happy. Just raw. The sun can be exhausting, good times precede bad and there is no summer without storms. ”
She continued to play as if he hadn't interrupted her, perhaps waiting for him to withdraw, and he even thought, but it turned out that she was good.
He listened until the end and when she passed the score she stopped a few seconds before starting again.
He decided to apologize.
"I'm going to leave, I just came in ..."
"Curiosity," she stopped playing, turning to him.
Her face was delicate, shaped by short, dark threads. Her rosy, well-designed lips stood out on her fair skin, and together with her dark curved eyes and sharp apples, she gave her a beauty hard to compare to any woman he had ever met.
"Yes. My name is Eren Yeager ”.
"Doctor Yeager's son."
"Do you know my father?"
"Everyone knows Dr. Yeager"
Eren can only agree. His father was known and respected on the three walls. He was even a trusted doctor of the royal family, despite refusing any official position, he was always required in special cases.
"Do you mind if I hear some more?"
"Sandes will kill you," she turned, playing again.
" Why would he do that”?
"You are smarter than that."
"If you don't mind, then I'll stay."
"At your own risk."
xxx
A few more days passed before Sandes arranged another meeting. The previous one had been canceled due to something unforeseen, which allowed him to spend more time listening to Mikasa. That was his name. It sounded familiar, as if he had heard it a long time ago, though unusual. They didn't speak much that afternoon, and he heard her until one of the servants went over the message.
He must have been very busy, since he warned that he would be late again.
When he crossed the garden, he saw Mikasa again. She was leaning back in her chair, eyes closed, her skin illuminated by these was approaching, she opened her eyes.
"Eren" she greeted and he accepted that informality without strangeness. His first name sounded good on her lips.
"You did that?" he pointed to an embroidered cloth on the chair beside her. There was thread and needles on the table.
She acquiesced, "There is not much to do here."
"It's very beautiful. My mom would be in love. She likes these things. ”
"You can take it to her."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I do one of these in a couple of hours," she declared with disinterest.
“If you are so fast, you should sell your talent”, he took the carefully worked fabric. Carla would like the gift, "It is very well done".
A line that made up her millimeter-blank face fell away, and she looked at the fabric.
“I'm not that good, my mother was. There was a bridal shop that only bought her work” Mikasa said in a soft voice, as if she had lost herself in a very pleasant old memory.
"What about your father?" Eren asked, assuming she didn't have. No father would let such a young daughter live as a man's mistress, even if he was wealthy.
"He hunted, fished, planted ... We lived a very secluded life."
Eren almost invited himself to hear more, but his intention was suspended.
"Yeager," Sandes greeted him approaching and Mikasa stood up, looking at him tensely,"I'm sorry I'm late, some appointments have busy me".
"Okay, I just arrived."
"Mikasa, get in" he ordered in a low tone, however, a vein popped out of his temple.
She looked at him hesitantly, but swallowed, disappearing between the pillars of the mansion's hall.
With her departure, Sandes soon invited him to sit down. He treated him with cordiality, offered him a wine, heard about the planning of hiring and purchasing equipment, but there was also an impatience, the trace of animosity in his tone was almost palpable. In some moments his attention went to the attic. Eren feared he had causing trouble for her.
"Mikasa was embroidering when I arrived, she hadn't even noticed me," he commented after a while, interested in leaving no room for any misinterpretation.
Sandes took the glass of white wine and shook it, "I am a great wine lover, Yeager. A cheap can be used to have fun and kill time, but the good ones ... those worth being appreciated take time. They're expensive. Believe me, once you put your hand in a really good, really good bottle, you don't want to share it. "
Eren's fist clenched, and he felt disgust. Hate.
He had fought several times in his life, his parents were the greatest witnesses, but he never felt such contempt and the desire to dislocate someone's jaw. Sandes, if he was aware of his intention, did not show it.
"Mikasa" he pointed out as if he censored the fact that he brought his name, "it's my business. We can keep the good terms if we respect this restriction".
"Whatever".
Sandes smiled with satisfaction.
xxx
On occasions he chose to be more careful. He doubled the requests for meetings and excuses to show up at the house. He arrived a little earlier or did not actually leave until he was due, and he was always careful not to be seen.
She was always in the music room or in the greenhouse, where he once saw her come in from a distance and followed her, as in an unspoken agreement about where it would be more discreet to see each other.
She did not speak much, spent most of her time playing, or embroidering, but she was an attentive listener. She didn't forget any details about his parents or Armin. Once she gave Carla a curtain with delicate embroidery of peonies, just because he commented that they were one of her favorite flowers. In fact, Mikasa was always more open when he talked about the family, and sometimes she would let something out about her own parents. They had been very loving for what it seemed.
However, Mikasa did not allow him to probe her past too much, every time he went in that direction, she became evasive, and he was afraid to push it further away.
It was a mined area and one day it was inevitable to cross it.
It happened when she played Spring and he talked about Armin's longstanding plan to see the sea. His busy schedule had never allowed it.
"I wish you were with me," he said without knowing what he expected.
She offered him a sad smile. Like a child saying that she cannot .
She had never smiled at him, and the first was one that wasn't even genuine.
"I don't know how you can live here, like a bird in a cage."
“I don't live” she continued to play, “Sometimes I think I died here. That I died a long time ago. This would be just the place that I haunt. That after all there is nothing out there for me. ”
“You look very alive to me. What is wrong with you?"
She stopped playing.
"Eren, my life cannot be fixed by you or your good intentions."
"And about you?"
She kept her eyes down.
"Do you want to spend the rest of your days locked up here?" he insisted wanting a reaction.
Mikasa looked at him. A hard and impenetrable look.
“I am a harlot, Yeager. This is just a small kingdom palace, but enough for me. Maybe one day I want a bigger one, but it won't be on a trip to the beach that I will get it ”.
Eren held his incredulous look, "Mikasa ..."
"Do not come back".
No more words could be said. When he closed the room doors behind him, he heard the sound of Winter.
xxx
She played that day until her hands didn't want to respond.
What was she doing?
She couldn't drag him into her cursed life. That was her burden.
It was so easy to let him get closer. Be invaded by his presence.
One day she didn't even know him, the next he seemed to be everywhere. She spent the week waiting for him to show up. The expectation of seeing him started to fill her days. It was ... a feeling that had no place in that world.
"Sing for me," Sandes asked dismissing her effort to ignore his presence since he entered the room.
"My throat is not good," she made a sharp sequence.
"One won't hurt, I need some relaxing music."
"You can turn on the phonograph."
He got up from his chair.
“Mikasa, what are you missing? I do everything to please you, and you can't sing a song for me? ”
"I was only offering options, I can't sing."
He sat next to her and closed the keyboard.
“You can't obey me, that's the problem. I ask you to let your hair grow and it appears even shorter. I ask you to stay in your quarters when I receive visitors and catch you giving confidence to strangers.” His fingers touched her face and she looked away.
"No, no" she repelled his touch and he pulled her closer. "I will no longer accept your disdain."
Mikasa held his gaze and he loosened his grip.
“Sing”, he opened the keyboard and went to sit in the previous place.
Mikasa nodded, her expression charged with bitter perception.
It was Winter.
She had to walk carefully on the ice.
Then she sang, sweet and smooth like a bird in a cage.