Scrapes of Cold Ice [LeviMika Fanfiction]

Prologue

Winter always brings a smile to most people. Not because it gets colder and its usually holiday season, so most get to stay at home, in bed, under covers with a hot cocoa sipped little by little and a laptop prepared with movie marathons (although maybe that might have contributed to the joy of the season), but also because the lakes would freeze, and to Mikasa - that was all she needed.

Living in a town with barely three hundred in population, Mikasa had always appreciated the cold season. There weren't any convenient ice rinks around town, the nearest one was a city away, so winter was the only time she could skate.

Mikasa was a simple girl. She was adopted into the Yeagers when she lost her parents as a child, and she was happy to have been embraced in a warm family. She was given a brother - Eren - and a best friend - Armin. Her source of happiness was their happiness, or the compliments and acceptance her adoptive parents have given her as she grew up.

She had never asked for anything - not until she found a frozen lake when she was five and her eyes were doe when she was gifted a pair of skates on Christmas.

Eren had shown her a video of an olympic figure skater, and that was enough to have Mikasa going out to the lake every year. Sometimes she went with Eren if he was up for it, but if he was not, then she'd go alone.

She didn't mind.

Winter was her season.

Besides doing what she loved to do most in the world, winter also meant hope to see that boy again each year.

She was seven and a half when they met, he in his early teens.

Despite being older, the boy was short, far shorter than her, but he carried a sense of poise, confidence and dignity far from her own - as a girl, she didn't understand these words then, but if she were to explain the aura that she had perceived from the boy, these words would be her choice of definition.

There had been no exchanges between them - just her admiration of him from afar, and the memorable pair of skates he wore - navy blue pair with white laces, and L.A written on one side.

She never really liked to share her lake with other kids (except for Eren and occasionally Armin, too), but when she saw him glide against the ice, she didn't mind. When he succeeded to jump a beautiful loop - she was in awe. She hadn't been able to jump as precise as he did, or maybe she hadn't been able to jump as high as he did?

Whatever it was, he looked so calm, relaxed and free as he skated, turned and jumped, and Mikasa long to be just as exhilarated as he had been on ice.

Since then she'd never seen him again - the boy with the steel eyes - no matter how often she visited the lake during winter.

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