The Games

The walk wasn't long, but it felt like an eternity for Eren as he moved to board the train. Peacekeepers from his district stopped at the door and passed Eren, Levi, and Petra off to the guards standing inside. Eren nervously walked through the lines of soldiers, lagging behind the other two. Eventually they were all led into a large train car, decorated with bright colors and elegant decor.

There was enormous, polished wood table in the center, and it looked perfect. The food was shining with appeal, and everything was colorful. Fresh. And all Eren could think of was how him, Mikasa, and Armin had eaten stale bread for breakfast. How this table of could feed them all for weeks, maybe months, and these people gorged himself like this at every meal.

He felt disgust rippled through him, but was soon disabled at the thought of his friends. The ones that were expecting him to return. The ones expecting him to win.

“ Please sit, eat, you both looked absolutely famished,” Petra waved, smiling her to perfect smile again. Eren hesitated but was the first one to take a seat at the table. Loudly pulling out a chair, and probably scratching the nice steel floors. His suspicions were proven correct when he saw Petra visibly flinch while she stared at the ground looking horrified. He smirked a little feeling like he may have been a tad victorious before plopping down.

Levi followed, being a little more courteous than Eren thought he would be after their encounter. Neither of them moved to eat though, and from the other side of the room Eren noticed a giant man stand from a couch, his back facing them. Eren saw him reach for something before he turned around and moved to find a spot at the table with them. Eren noticed he wielded a small flower embroidered flask, but not before he noticed the intense look on his face, and most of all his eyebrows.

Large,dirty blonde caterpillars, organized into two perfect, small arches lay dormant on his face. His eyes were wide and he looked like he was going to scream after he deeply inhaled. When his face returned to what Eren thought was it’s normal state the hulking man pushed his blonde hair back to the side and began to speak. “ I’m Erwin Smith.” The name automatically struck a chord with Eren, and he moved closer in his chair.

This ridiculous dunkard was District 12 first and only victor.

“ And I’m going to teach you how to… not die. At least not right away.” Eren heard Levi make a tch sound before crossing his arms. Erwins words only made Eren lean in further. This man was the key to Eren’s survival he couldn’t afford to waste anytime with him. Erwin went to take a swig of his canteen, but completely missed his mouth causing it to cascade down his shoulder. Eren’s face became a mix of hopelessness, confusion, annoyance, and REALLY. This man was the key to Eren’s survival.

“ Hey, I think you’ve had enough.” Eren grimaced.

“ Aw, Erwin dear how about we sober you up,” Petra looked at us, “ I swear he’s not usually like this. It’s usually just around the time he mentors.” her voice faded at the end. She quickly led the dazed man out of the train car going who knows where. And suddenly it was just Eren and Levi.

Eren could feel him staring at the side of his head. Glaring daggers more intense than Mikasa ever had. Eren just looked down at his empty table set. His stomach growled and Eren blushed lightly coughing to try and cover it.

“Eat.” Eren looked at Levi before looking at the food again his eyes landing on some bread. He grabbed a piece relishing at the warmth that encased his hands. He stared at it for a while, he felt like he may have actually forgotten to eat. Levi’s voice made him jump. “ You eat bread everyday, try something else.”

Eren didn’t question Levi and went to grab something that looked like a smoked rabbit decorated with carrots and beets.

“ Tch brat, eat something other than bread and rabbit.”

“Are you going to criticize everything I do, and how do you know all I eat is bread or rabbit hm?”

“I’m only going to criticize you if you're doing something stupid.” He paused, “ And everybody eats bread, and you're not the only one that hunts.”

Eren froze.

“Ho-how do you know about that?”

“You and your girlfriend aren't very smart.”

“Mikasa is not my girlfriend, she’s my sister, and you, you’re a jerk.” Levi responded by taking a cup and pouring himself some tea from a nearby pot. Eren noticed that Levi held the cup in a strange way, his fingers grasping the rim while he titled his head all the way back to take one small sip. It seemed inefficient. “ And you call us stupid, you don’t even know how to hold a tea cup.” Levi slammed his cup down on a coaster hard making Eren jump from shock. He was starting to think twice about calling the man stupid and half expected him to yell, but he didn’t. Levi just looked away. Eren looked away as well turning his attention out the window.

The blur of their surrounding actually started to make Eren sick and he looked down at his lap starting to wonder what his family was doing. He hoped they missed him like he missed them. Eren would have done anything to experience Mikasa bossing him around again, Armin reading to him...his mother singing to him. Even Mikasa singing to him. It was rare, but she really did a beautiful voice. There was even a time when the two had joined forces, like when he was sick, they sang bittersweet melodies that lulled him to a comforting sleep. Eren tried hard to remember the lyrics, his fists clenching in concentration, but could only recall the light tune. Eren wasn’t much of a singer himself so he didn’t even try to hum the tune allowed not wanting to make a fool of himself.

“ You look like you need to take a shit.” Levi said bored. Eren snapped his head to face him looking disgusted. Levi was slightly reclining in his chair taking another weird sip of his tea.

“That’s disgusting.”

“Why we all do it.”  Eren pursed his lips.

He grunted and from the corner of his eye noticed Levi was watching him. Levis eye’s were a deep mercury and Eren swore they stole souls.

“It seems you two have found some interesting and completely inappropriate things to talk about in our absence. Sorry we took so long.” Petra waltzed into the room talking a seat near Levi. “ Erwin will be in soon he’s just talking taking a power nap.”

“When are we going to get there.” Eren asked a little agitated he couldn’t speak to their mentor yet.

“ Oh sweetie not for two days. If you like I can show you your room.” Petra chirped,” they are simply lovely, I’m sure you're not quite used to this particular lifestyle, but that’s one thing I think is so great about this experience. Because even though you’re here and it’s only for a little while you get to enjoy all of this luxury.” She was rambling, and seemed unaware of Levi and Eren’s annoyed expressions.

The thought of a room and maybe a bath sounded amazing to Eren though. He waited for a point to intervene in the basically insides conversation Petra was having with herself. “Will you show me to my room please?” Eren hadn’t meant to sound so sheepish, but that's how it came across and it made him blush. Petra smiled gently.

“Of course, and maybe you’d like to bathe Eren,” she got closer reaching her hand out for him to grab. He nodded, but ignored the hand standing on his own.

“Me too,” Levi states setting down his cup again and standing up.,” Levi intervened getting up, and walking over to join the conversation.

“Of course!” Petra replied giddily and Eren swore he saw a little blush dust her cheeks. She motioned for them to follow her and began to trek down the long, steel train. “ Alright,” she abruptly stopped and pointed at two steel doors that were side by side, neither of them had handels.

Eren began to walk closer confusion growing with each step, “ How are we supposed to open th-” The door slid to the side with a WHOOSH and Eren tumbled back know into to Petra, she just laughed.

“Honey, have you never seen an automatic door before?” He stared at her, before turning to watch the door shut with wide eyes. She frowned like the news that District twelve didn’t use this kind of technology was actually unsettling, instead of expected. “Well you just stand in front of it, and after a second or so it will open, see?” She proceeded to show Eren and he watched in amazement.

“ Great, you learned how to use a door, now is this my room?” Levi budded in pointing at the second door.

“Yes! Would you-” the door closed and he was gone; completely having ignored Petra and she looked a little downtrodden. Almost like a someone kicked her puppy.

“Thanks Petra, I’ll see you in a little while. Okay?” She smiled before nodding and Eren disappeared into his dimly lit room. Turning to lean his back against the door he sighed heavily.

Everything’s moving too fast.

Eren felt like it had already been an eternity since he saw everyone, he missed them terribly. He missed them so much his throat burned and tears pricked the corners of his ocean eyes. He sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, unintentionally leaving a trail of snot. He sniffed again before grimacing. He needed a shower.

He pushed himself off the door, wanting to scout for a bathroom.Instead his attention was stolen by the marvelous space;he'd never seen a room so nice, and it was all his. There was a king size mattress to the right, lifted on a stainless steel bed frame. The blankets were ash grey silk, and the top part was folded back to show a light creamy grey that matched the pillows. There was a plush red chair near a long window that was showing the ever changing scenery, but Eren tried to avoid it, not wanting to get nauseous again. The walls were another shade of light grey and the whole room had a modern airy feel to it.

Eren noticed two doors on either side of the room, and was unsure which was the bathroom. He tried the one on the left, standing in front, waiting for it to open before noticing before noticing a long steel handle. He rolls his eyes at his own stupidity, pulling the tall door open. It was just a closet. A huge, very organized closet. Eren walked into the dark room and a light turned on with a hum causing him to just. There were rows of clothes, socks, and undergarments organized by size. On the floor were rows of house slippers, and shoes also organized by size.

After a second of exploring the oversized armoire he strolled over to the door opposite, and opened it, a bright light blinding him and sickly sweet citrus smell blowing in his face. The bathroom matched the theme of the actual room, except the light grey walls reflected bright lights and the floor was cold, white tiles instead of cold, grey wood. The bathroom was huge, not to Eren’s surprise, and the latrine was few feet directly in front of him. Next to it a double sink with a giant mirror, and on the wall opposite were three long low hanging shelves filled with fluffy towels, bathrobes, aroma sticks, and different cosmetics. Farthest from Eren, taking up the whole far wall, was a bath and shower.

Eren stripped, and tryed to figure out the situation with the shower. He stood in the large, silver tub, which was metal like everything else, messing with the dial which had about 50 small settings, including temperatures, different scented shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. Eren wasn’t sure what to exactly do, but he decided clicking the shower button first was probably a good start. As soon as he did a glass shield came up from the open side of the tub connecting to the tub. Eren hadn’t even thought about it, but was glad he had figured it out now instead of having to explain the mess to Petra.

He finally took a gander at the options for shampoo which had all turned light blue, before choosing something called strawberry. Eren knew he’d heard of it before, and recalled it being a fruit, but couldn’t remember much else. He’d never had one before, he doubted anyone from 12 had. The button lit up red when he pressed it, and next all the conditioners turned light blue he clicked strawberry conditioner. He was starting to get noticeably cold, and randomly clicked vanilla body wash when it lit up, before choosing a warm, yet mild temperature.The pressure was incredibly good and Eren had never experienced anything like it. Used to only cold and weekly baths.

He wished he could share this, with Mikasa, Armin, his mother. It was amazing, and he suddenly felt he had even more incentive to win. He needed to move into the victor's village where he was sure they had these kinds of showers.

There was a single beep and Eren felt a glob of soap fall on his head. The scent was intoxicating, as he massaged it into his scalp, and he felt all the dirt, grime, and sweat wash out. He continued this way with the conditioner and body wash, his muscles loosening, and a dumb grin dawning his face. It disappeared though when the water stopped, and the window fell. Eren didn’t want to be done though, he wanted to soak in the warm. He quickly pushed the bath button, strawberry bubbles and the same temperature before plopping down. The water quickly fill the tub, stopping just before his armpit. He sighed deeply, starting to play with the light blue bubbles that covered the tub like a blanket.

*

Eren wasn’t exactly mad, but he was pretty annoyed he fallen asleep in the tub, and that his body was a wrinkly mess of flesh. He was mad, however that Petra had been the one to wake him, and that all of the bubbles were gone when she had. He was more embarrassed than mad though, a blush covering his entire body the whole time as Petra nonchalantly helped him dry off and choose clothes. That’s how Eren figured out that people from the Capitol had no problem with nudity.

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