A/N: Whooo! It's been so long. Three months! I apologize for that. Well in any case, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

WARNING: Contains Yuri and Yaoi so... if you're not into this stuff, why are you still here? (It's chapter 4!)

Disclaimer: I don't own SNK. I think I've established this already. Can I stop doing this from next chapter?

The Art of Connection

Chapter 4

"No, honestly. Just get over it"

"No"

Christa pouted. Convincing Mikasa to go to the Karaoke party was proving to be a harder task than she had initially thought. She had been attempting to persuade the dark-haired girl for over ten minutes and no results have yet bared fruit. As a last resort, she displayed her best puppy eyes, clasped her hands and fell to her knees.

"Pleeeeeeeaaase? I'm begging you. I promise you don't even have to do anything but simply be there" she pleaded. Their classmates were looking at them and whispering but Christa paid them no heed. Mikasa on the other hand seemed irritated at the attention they were receiving. She sighed and relented.

"Fine. I'll go but I'm not going to sing"

"Yes!" Christa shouted, standing up and pumping a fist into the air. Seeing Mikasa's expression darken at the increasing amount of whisper that was being directed their way, she quickly lowered her hand and coughed awkwardly, a tinge of pink dusting her cheeks. "I uh, I mean great! I'll see you on Saturday then"

With that, she hurried out of the classroom, silently cheering at the success of phase one of her plan 'Get Mikasa and Annie together'. (Or as Ymir had shortened, 'The Mikaanie project') Getting Annie to accept wasn't as hard as she had assumed; all she had to do was ask Reiner and Bertholdt to ask the blonde and she had said yes in a matter of seconds. Outside the classroom, she found her tall girlfriend leaning against the wall with her arms crossed in a bored fashion. Ymir quirked an eyebrow at Christa's beaming face.

"I take it that it went well?" she asked. Though she appeared disinterested, Christa knew that the brunette was secretly thrilled at the prospect of meddling with other people and playing matchmaker. She nodded, feeling accomplished.

"Yes, I did. It took me the puppy eyes and the dramatic knee drop but I think Mikasa only agreed to go because she didn't want more attention"

Ymir whistled, silently impressed that Mikasa was able to resist Christa's persuasion as well as her ultimate puppy eyes which everyone else fell for.

"Now we just need to watch phase two of 'The Mikaanie project' unfold itself on Saturday" Christa continued. Ymir rolled her eyes but her lips were curled into a smirk. She had a feeling that Saturday was going to be an interesting day.

(0)(0)(0)

Mikasa pulled up her scarf so that it covered up to her nose. The weather was rather warm but she had worn the scarf for the comforting presence. She was waiting outside the Karaoke bar with her brothers who were busy playing Candy Crush on their phones. She rolled her eyes at the mere thought of the game. She could not for the life of her figure out why it was so popular amongst her friends, although maybe that was just because of her general dislike towards games of all kind. Armin suddenly burst into a string of curses which caused her to raise her eye brow in surprise. Armin hardly ever cussed, much less in public. Maybe Mikasa was under-estimating the power of Candy Crush.

They were actually quite early, curtsy of Armin hurrying them all morning. Although normally Mikasa would wholeheartedly agree that being early was always better than being late, in this case, she just wanted to be as far away from the dreaded karaoke bar as possible and fast. It was not a known fact amongst their group that Mikasa sucked at singing despite having a perfect pitch and she liked to keep it a secret. It was mostly her pride that refused her from admitting this fact. After all, it was kind of embarrassing to say that she could name the notes within the vibration of footsteps but she couldn't carry a tune to save her life.

"Yo! Whassup!" yelled out an obnoxiously loud voice that did nothing to soothe Mikasa's bad mood. She looked up with a hint of annoyance and found Jean jogging towards them with a light grin on his face. Now that she thought about it, Mikasa noticed that Jean's demeanour was generally brighter nowadays. He had stopped putting up the arrogant act and had starting opening up more and making light hearted jokes. That is not to say that the rivalry between him and Eren was gone though. They still butted heads every given chance, much to the distress of Armin.

"And here I was hoping that you got hit by a bus on the way," Eren muttered, earning a scolding look from his brother. Jean sneered at Eren but otherwise made no comment. He simply greeted Armin and Mikasa while completely ignoring Eren's presence. As time passed, more and more of their friends arrived. After Jean's arrival, Connie and Sasha shortly followed. Immediately after them were Ymir and Christa. Not surprisingly, the last people to arrive were the Reiner-Bertholdt-Annie trio.

"What are you doing here?" Mikasa asked Annie as soon as the others started rushing into the Karaoke bar. She had no time to think how the question might have sounded. Annie raised her eyebrows.

"You don't sound too pleased to see me"

"I didn't mean it like that. I just didn't peg you as a social butterfly"

"I'm not. I just felt like coming since I was bored"

"I see"

They walked in silence, the atmosphere surrounding the two of them a stark contrast compared to the loud and excited chatter of their friends. Mikasa observed Annie out of the corner of her eyes. Despite the girl looking and acting the same as always, Mikasa felt that something was different about Annie. There was this almost glowing aura surrounding her. To add to that, Mikasa noticed Christa eyeing them occasionally with a look she couldn't quite place the meaning of. Maybe she was just nervous and was thinking too much into things.

Following the gaggle of their excited friends, Mikasa found herself in a spacious dark room with dim lighting and a big screen for karaoke. She immediately plopped herself onto the sofa in the corner of the room and hoped that nobody would insist on her singing because she really preferred not breaking anyone's bones today. Annie seemed to have a similar mind-set as she also joined Mikasa in her corner with a look of indifference.

Mikasa looked over to her friends who all spread themselves across the room. Armin was still playing Candy crush, judging from the way his face was reddening with anger. Jean seemed to be trying to help but from the way Armin was frowning in disapproval, he was not doing a very good job. Sasha and Connie were, naturally, shouting out food orders to the guy at the door who seemed to have a hard time jotting down all the orders in time.

"Alright guys! Who wants to sing first?" Ymir shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. There were mutters of 'you go first's when finally, Jean strode to the front and grabbed the mike from Ymir's hands. A small round of applause echoed in the room. Jean took a bow, mostly likely ignoring Eren's snide comment about his soon-to-come embarrassment.

As it turned out, Jean was actually a decent singer. He had a good grasp on the melody and seemed to hit the high notes with ease. Mikasa was pleasantly surprised to hear only a few flat notes here and there. She had been expecting a lot worse. She hid her smile when she saw Jean gloating to Eren, who seemed irritated to find that his prediction was wrong.

Next up were Reiner and Bertholdt, who sung a duet together. Reiner got really into the song, improvising some parts and adding some unexpectedly good harmony that complimented Bertholdt's baritone voice. Mikasa raised her eyebrow, feeling rather impressed. She turned to Annie and saw that the blonde girl seemed to be equally surprised.

Mikasa nudged Annie, "Did you know?" she asked quietly. Annie shook her head with a frown.

"I had no idea. Reiner always said that he was crap at singing and I took his word for it."

Mikasa smirked, "Obviously you were mistaken."

"Shut up before I shut it for you," Annie snapped, her eyes taking on a dangerous glint. As much as Mikasa found this side of Annie adorable, she didn't want to cause a scene in the presence of her friends so she simply did as she was told. Wait…adorable?

"…Mikasa sing" Mikasa whipped her head to the direction of the voice. Her eyes narrowed when she saw a smug looking Ymir holding out two microphones.

"What." She said, ice layering her voice. No way in the ninth level of hell was she going to sing. Ymir only flinched slightly for a fraction of a second. Mikasa had to commend the girl on her bravery. Nobody had ever stood up to her when she used 'the voice'. Ymir continued, seemingly unfazed by Mikasa's obvious displeasure.

"I said, you should sing a duet with Blondie next to you. You're the only ones who haven't sung yet."

Mikasa froze. She glanced at Annie who seemed apathetic. After a long moment of silence, Annie shrugged and grabbed a mike. Mikasa mentally panicked, fishing for a plausible excuse to get the hell out of the dreaded place.

Mikasa got up stiffly. "I just remembered that I have an assignment that I haven't finished yet."

"I thought you said you finished everything yesterday?" She recognised the voice to be Eren's. She had never wanted to kill her brother more than in that moment. As she was trying to find another excuse, (while simultaneously plotting Eren's murder) she caught Annie's gaze and stopped. The blonde girl was sending her a look of challenge. Mikasa narrowed her eyes. She never backed down from a challenge.

She scowled. "Fine," she said and snatched the remaining mike from a grinning Ymir's hand.

Damn my pride.

(0)(0)(0)

"HAHAHAHAHAHA"

Mikasa rolled her eyes as she sped up her pace, wanting nothing more than to go home and take out her frustration on the drums.

"Oh, god, that's rich," Annie gasped in between her relentless laughing. Mikasa just wanted to punch the girl in the face. "Who would have thought? The mighty Mikasa Ackerman, musical genius with perfect pitch, unable to sing even the simplest of notes." Annie finished and dissolved into a fit of laughter once again. Mikasa growled and contemplated committing murder then and there. She would bury Annie's body along with Eren's.

"Shut it, Leonhardt. I'm shit at singing, fine. Now get over it."

"And miss the opportunity to have a good laugh? No way. And you're not just shit at singing. You're the crappiest singer I've ever met. I'm surprised the TV screen didn't break from the horrendous noise that came out of your mouth," Annie paused for a second, as if picturing the very scene in her head. It wasn't long before she was on the floor clutching her stomach.

Despite the dark thoughts of maiming swirling around inside her head, Mikasa couldn't help quirking her lips into a small smile. This was the first time she had seen Annie so carefree and expressive. She decided that smiling definitely suited the blonde girl better than her usual expression. She quickly masked her grin with a scowl when Annie finally regained her strength and stood up.

She seemed to calm herself down before settling into her usual expression. "So, what now?"

Mikasa shrugged, "I don't know."

They stood awkwardly in silence, each contemplating the next course of action. After they had finished their duet, Christa had kicked them out because Annie wouldn't stop laughing and Mikasa had been on the verge of breaking a table in half. She had strictly ordered them to stick together and 'bond'. It didn't escape Mikasa that Christa had sported a strange look of glee in her eyes. Although they had no obligation to follow the order, there was something about Christa that both Annie and Mikasa found hard to refuse.

"Movies?" it was Mikasa who broke the silence. Annie hesitated for a second but shrugged.

"Whatever. I haven't bought enough money for a ticket though," she said.

"Then we can go and watch one at your house," Mikasa replied.

Annie furrowed her brows. "Why at my house? What's wrong with your house?"

"I left the house key with Eren and Armin. Grisha's at work and Carla said she was going to go out. So that only leaves your house." Mikasa was pretty sure that Annie noticed how she called her parents by their names but she didn't mention it, which Mikasa was grateful for.

Annie sighed. "Fine but I'm warning you in advance. My mum can be a bit…overwhelming."

Mikasa nodded and heeded the warning. It was then that she came to the realization that this would be her first time visiting a friend's house. That is, if she and Annie were even friends. Were they friends? Mikasa wasn't sure. She just knew that she had to gain Annie's mum's approval in order to…in order to what?

She shook her head free from such thoughts. There was no need to further complicate the situation. She spent the rest of their trip instead trying to guess what Annie meant by overwhelming.

(0)(0)(0)

Mikasa found out that Annie had been rather accurate in describing her mum as overwhelming. As soon as Mikasa's presence was announced, the door had flung open with such a force that left her wondering what material was used to make the hinges in order for it to withstand the strength. Before she could even utter a word of greeting, Mikasa had found herself being engulfed in a tight embrace. Annie had just stood to the side with a look of irritation. For the millionth time in the span of five minutes, Mikasa wondered if the two blondes were truly related. Finally, the older woman took a step back. As soon as the dark haired girl saw her face, all doubts were driven away. Annie was practically a carbon copy of her mum, except for the eyes.

"Oh my, I didn't know Annie had such a beautiful young lady for a friend!" gushed the woman, "It's so wonderful to meet you my dear. It's very rare that my daughter brings a friend home so you'll have to excuse me."

Mikasa offered a small smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mrs Leonhardt."

The woman froze and turned to stare at Annie who shrugged. The woman sighed. "I see that Annie hasn't told you yet. I suppose it's best if you hear it from her directly. In the meantime, please, call me Jenny."

Mikasa felt confused but nodded. Jenny led them to the living room and got them some popcorn and few bottles of drinks before kissing Annie on the forehead and retreating into the study. The blonde girl seemed to be embarrassed at the display of affection. Mikasa ignored the memories of her own mum flooding in and focused on her current situation. She asked what Jenny was talking about earlier. Annie, who had gotten up to choose a movie, stopped for a second before resuming her search.

"My mum got divorced when I was in middle school. It's nothing big," was Annie's reply. But Mikasa felt that there was more to the story than a simple divorce. She came to the conclusion that she shouldn't push for more information. After all, she herself kept a few secrets that not even Eren or Armin knew about.

After a long debate, they chose a gory zombie apocalypse movie to watch. They each selected one side of the couch to settle into and started the movie. The movie started off with a gory scene of a zombie tearing apart a helpless guy.

"He's spilling way too much blood. Human's don't have that much blood in them," Mikasa commented. Annie agreed.

The rest of the movie played out like any other typical zombie apocalypse movie with bland characters, bloody situations, character deaths and a whole load of chaos. The plot was predictable and some of the characters screamed in a really annoying way. So naturally, Mikasa's concentration wavered and her mind drifted to other thoughts. Like how close Annie was. They had initially started off with at least 2 meters between them but the popcorn bowl was placed in the middle so both had subconsciously shuffled to reach it until they were sitting side by side.

Mikasa glanced at the girl to see if she had noticed. She was surprised to find that Annie was staring intently at the screen while munching on popcorn. Mikasa decided not to mention their proximity because she didn't want to break the girl's attention away from the movie. She tried to convince herself that she was only being polite. With nothing else to do, she turned her attention back to the movie, just in time to see a zombie being shot and bits of its brain spilling out from their skull. Mikasa rolled her eyes subsequently as one of the girls screamed and hid behind her boyfriend? Dad? Brother? She honestly couldn't bring herself to care.

Just as her eyes were starting glaze from boredom, she felt a weight landing on her right shoulder and froze. Slowly and quietly, she turned her head to confirm her suspicions and nearly jumped back when she saw Annie's sleeping face staring back at her in close proximity. Mikasa swallowed nervously, not sure how to handle the situation. What do normal people do when their friend falls asleep on their shoulder during a zombie apocalypse movie?

A high-pitched scream from the screen broke Mikasa from her panicked state. She realized that the movie was still running. Should she leave it or should she turn it off? If she turned it off, Annie might wake up and that would be awkward. It was only when the girl in the movie released yet another high-pitched scream that Mikasa decided to turn it off. An eerie silence soon took over the room and left the dark haired girl fidgeting restlessly. She was still debating on whether she should stay still or remove Annie from her shoulder.

In the end, she decided to remain seated. Only because she didn't want to wake the other girl, she told herself. She took another peek at Annie's face. Upon a closer look, Mikasa found her breath caught in her throat at the normally scowling or indifferent face relaxed into a peaceful one. Annie's blonde hair was messily falling over her eyes and her breath was soft and steady. Mikasa felt an urge to touch the smooth skin but held herself back in fear of waking her up.

A yawn escaped from her mouth and Mikasa realized that she was also feeling slightly drowsy. Normally, shed didn't get tired easily but there was something about the warm breath on her neck that lulled her and coaxed her to relax her muscles.

It wasn't long before sleep soon took over and the last thing she remembered was her head falling softly on top of Annie's before all became dark.