Chapter 22: Hearth and Home

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Levi takes a careful sip of his tea. He's learned from enough experiences with these early morning practices that it's best to wait and let the liquid cool some first, instead of quickly gulping his drink down for the caffeine hit. Luckily, waiting until the tea won't burn his mouth doesn't take long when he's sitting inside of an ice rink. Briefly, he considers taking the lid off so that it will cool even faster, but quickly decides that he'd rather drink the liquid, not chew on it when it turns into slush.

Letting out a quiet sigh, and enjoying the warmth from the cup in his hands, if not the cold slowly numbing his ass, Levi watches as Mikasa and Eren talk quietly together before practice starts. The rest of Eren's team is huddled around Coach Smith, who looks completely at home out on the ice, and wide awake, which is just unnatural. The man is discussing the maneuvers that the team is going to practice that morning, forcing the teens around him to pay attention and look alert, even if they're mostly faking it.

Smith's serious tone doesn't hide the amused look in his eyes one bit. The man seems to get a certain amount of sadistic glee out of his job, and Levi has no doubt that he's cataloging exactly who's awake and who isn't, and is getting ready to motivate them accordingly. A few spills onto the hard ice is usually enough to wake up even the most sluggish among them.

Levi still thinks that the other man is creepy, but now he also knows that Smith is smart and genuinely enthusiastic about his career, and somehow always seems to infect the kids with that same enthusiasm during each practice, until the team is skating across the ice like a well-oiled machine. It's impressive to watch happen each and every time, and also makes Levi feel very relieved that he gets to stay right where he is, even though he's freezing.

The whistle blows, and Eren waves to Levi and says something else quickly to Mikasa before he joins the team. Levi hopes for the brat's sake that he was listening to the strategy discussed for this morning's practice.

Mikasa slowly makes her way back to Levi, sitting down near him and cradling her own drink in her hands. Though she has a scarf wrapped around her neck and mouth, and mittens on, she looks even colder than Levi feels. Her nose is almost touching her coffee lid.

"If you burn yourself, I'm going to laugh," he informs her flatly. She takes his hint and lowers the cup just slightly.

They sit there in silence for a bit, trying futilely to warm up. Despite her coffee, Mikasa is still yawning from time to time while watching Eren's practice. "How do you drive this early without crashing the car?" she asks idly.

Levi snorts. "I have no idea," he informs her honestly. "When the hell do you two start taking driving courses through the school?"

The look that she gives him in response is amused and sympathetic all at once. "Not until next year," Mikasa says, "and then it'll be a while before we can try to get our licenses. And then we're still supposed to have someone else with a permanent license also in the car with us for a bit. Sorry. You'll just have to continue to freeze."

Levi sighs, but he doesn't bother complaining. Smith now has the kids broken up into two smaller teams, pitting them against each other. Eren steals the puck from another boy, and Mikasa cheers him on, which causes the boy that he stole it from to suddenly trip over his own feet. Eren laughs, and Levi chuckles quietly into his tea, watching Mikasa's surprised expression.

"I didn't think that would startle anybody," she admits, once the playing resumes.

"Don't worry about it," Levi says. He has a strong suspicion that the boy's accident had more to do with Mikasa herself than with her shouting. He's seen that particular boy turn red whenever Mikasa is standing nearby, and has learned from Eren that the kid's name is Jean-something. Levi finds the whole thing hilarious, mostly because Mikasa and Eren are both completely oblivious to the boy's obvious crush.

Mikasa doesn't say anything else, just waits until the practice is over before she stands up again and starts walking back over to Eren. Levi shakes his head and follows her. He's a little more awake now, and even more aware of just how cold it is in here. He can't wait until they get back into the car and he can blast the heater on high and begin thawing them all out some.

Eren's face is pale from the cold, his cheeks and nose a bright red, and Levi just hopes that the brat isn't going to get pneumonia or something from all of this practicing in these freezing temperatures. So far, he hasn't, though. It probably helps that Eren doesn't seem to feel the cold as much as Levi and Mikasa do.

"It looks like you brats are getting better," he tells Eren when he gets close enough.

Eren chuckles. "I think I'm learning all of the rules, finally," he says.

That boy, Jean-something, snorts as he walks on by, but surprises Levi by lightly punching Eren's shoulder in a friendly way. "You shouldn't get as many penalties as I figured you would when we first started practicing," he says, apparently in agreement that Eren's improving.

Eren just rolls his eyes, not looking insulted in the slightest. "Whatever, Jean," he says. "I bet you're going to get more penalties than I do during the season."

Jean-something opens his mouth as if to respond, but Mikasa seems to get tired of standing around waiting for Eren to hurry up and take his skates off already, and grabs his hand to start dragging him over to the bleachers where his shoes are waiting. "Come on," she says. "Let's get out of here before my feet freeze to the floor."

Eren laughs and happily goes with her, and Levi is treated to the very entertaining sight of Jean-something wilting where he stands before he slowly walks away dejectedly. Shrugging his shoulders, Levi yells over to Eren and Mikasa, "I'm going out to get the car started."

The kids nod, and Levi leaves the building with a sigh of relief. He pulls up the car to meet Mikasa and Eren at the front entrance, and then drives off, happy to be done with hockey for another morning, and trying not to think about how he has to come back the very next day for another practice.

"You brats ready to go home?" he asks, despite all of them already knowing that there's no way in hell that Levi is driving anywhere else right now. He can still get in some more sleep before he heads off to work, and he plans on doing just that.

Levi looks in the rearview mirror, and sees Mikasa and Eren both smiling drowsily, their heads resting against each other's as they both finally start to warm back up.

"Yeah," Eren answers for the both of them, Mikasa nodding slightly in agreement. "Yeah, we're ready to go home now."

Good. Levi is, too.