#pooft

Mikasa fell into a schedule as the days passed one after the other. Wake up, school, spend a few hours in the library working on homework, home, dinner, text Bertholdt for a while, and then attempt to sleep.

After that initial conversation with the other, her nightmares had lightened up some and she had managed to get a decent amount of rest. Her parents had noticed the change in her behaviour and had questioned her about it, but she'd only given vague responses. Saying something about finding a way to deal with her dreams. Of course, her dad had asked her a few times who she was texting all the time, but she'd only turned red and told him to mind his own business (politely, he was her father after all). Her mother had been on her side and told him to let her be, and to just be glad that his daughter was making friends.

Of course, the peace only lasted for a short while before her nightmares came back worse than she could remember them ever being. She had managed not to scream in her sleep and so her parents remained ignorant to the fact that her nightmares had returned. She had looked to her phone every time she'd awoken, the promise she'd made with Bertholdt eating away at her conscience, but she could never bring herself to hit the send button to all the texts she had typed up.

She'd found out he was on the track team a few days after meeting him from Eren, who had come to find her to invite her out to eat lunch with him and Armin, his best friend. The two had informed her about who was who in the school and she had just listened, taking in the information.

As an athlete, Bertholdt would need all the rest he could get, she had reasoned. She did feel bad about not telling him like he had wanted her too though, especially since she had been the one who had asked him to make that promise in the first place. The amount of unsent texts in her phone was starting to pile up, but she couldn't bring herself to delete them either. It was her fault for not sending them. For second guessing herself and worrying that she would be bothering the kind guy.

Eventually the feelings of guilt and the little amount of sleep she had managed to get in the past week caught up with her and she almost fell asleep in her breakfast one morning. Her mother insisted that she take the day off from school and try to sleep, or at least to just take it easy for the day. Maybe sew a bit or something that wasn't stressful. Nothing Mikasa said could change her mother's mind and so she found herself sitting on her bed, staring at the phone in her hands.

She had made plans to meet up with Bertholdt that afternoon in the school library to do work together since they hadn't met up since that first day. But it seemed there was no way that was going to happen. She scrolled through her contacts to Bertholdt's name before clicking on it and quickly typing out a message.

'Hey Bertl? My mom's keeping me home today. So I won't be seeing you in the library. Maybe we can reschedule for another day.'