Off The Beaten Path

Devil's In Your Hands

LEVI

His drew his eyes back to the pad of paper he was supposed to be taking notes on, wrenching them away from the scenery outside. He didn't normally have this much trouble focusing but Erwin's voice was droning and Hange was gushing to some yearling about her latest discoveries about the chemical compounds in titan flesh and it was stifling. Even with the windows open it was difficult to breathe. Despite their early summer cleaning he spotted a spiders nest in an upper corner of the rafters. He tsked, his tapping foot picking up rhythm. That would bother him until he cleaned it. His eyes drifted to his pages again, out of the corner of his eye he noticed a trail of muddy boot prints on the floors. He closed his eyes, feeling the same heat rising in his stomach that always came when he got in one of his fits.

"Are you alright?" The soft voice broke through the white noise gathering in his head.

Sharply he turned to Petra. She was leaning towards him, her smile gentle. Her hand barely hovering over his shoulder. He sighed, physically forcing himself to stop tapping his foot. Almost immediately he began picking at his fingernails. She gave a soft giggle, scooting closer and nudging him.

"Maybe..." she broke off, looking outside, visibly collecting herself. she took a deep breath and looked at him from under hooded eyes, "Maybe we could go to dinner after this? My uncle owns a really nice restaurant and he could cut us a deal on the food?"

He hesitated, he knew what she wanted from him. He knew he couldn't give it to her. Her calloused hand rested on his forearm and she smiled. Levi closed his eyes for a second, dark brown hair flashed in his vision. Quickly he opened his eyes again, blinking the image away.

"Okay." Her small smile gave way to a beaming grin. "Hange, Petra invited us all out to dinner. You're coming?"

He saw Petra's grin deflate from the corner of his eye but she recovered quickly. Hange jumped on board, loudly. Once she spread the news that the gang was invited on Petra's request Oluo immediately jumped on board, leading three others to demand their invitations as well. He watched from his peripheral vision as Petra attempted to recover her cool, pushing her hair from her face and smiling brightly. He couldn't help but notice some of that spark from earlier had left. Levi didn't feel like he'd lost anything in the exchange. She was a child, too inexperienced, too young. And he... well, he was almost half her age. He shook his head slow, his gaze drifting back to the spiders web.

Fucking brown hair. He frowned.

BERNELL

"Are you sure it's okay to leave the children?" Bernell craned her neck to see the kids in the yard screaming and playing. "I mean, I don't think I've ever left them unattended like this before."

Lisa placed an arm on Bernell's sleeve, smiling softly as they crossed the road towards the store fronts. "It's only for a few hours," she grinned, nodding at a passing gentleman who had doffed his cap. "Just three or four dresses."

Bernell stifled a groan, "Does it have to be dresses?"

Lisa frowned, ticking the items off on her fingers, "Nightgown, evening gown, and a day gown or two. I assume all this prison stuff won't take too long. What other things do they have that could possibly take longer?"

Bernell held in a sigh of argument, nodding and following instead. It was proper for women to wear dresses. Unless they were military. She grabbed at the skirts choking her ankles and frowned kicking at the hems. The dresses she wore as one of the poorer classes were heavy skirted, less layers. Cheap, thick wool material and earthy colors - easiest and cheapest to dye. The ones Lisa was proposing had layers and flounces and delicate materials and fancy trimmings like lace and embroidery. She held in another sigh. Fitting one of Lisa's old dresses enough for Bernell to wear out of the house had taken the better part of the day. They'd taken a short break for noon and nursing and lunch, then resumed. Already she was in a bad mood, it seemed only to be exacerbated by the fact that she was still on farm time. It would be near dinner right now. She was famished. Doing nothing except standing and being poked all day really worked up her appetite and wore her down.