Chapter 7

"Do you have any plans for after school?"

"Cleaning. My house is a wreck." Crystal complains, "When I left there was a layer of dust on my key rack."

"You're such a clean freak." Armin smiles, "Why not meet me, Eren and Mikasa at the park before you clean?"

"I'm not a clean freak." Crystal says harshly, "God I wish I was, but my house never gets the care it needs because of this stupid medication."

"You end up tired after school?" Farlan asks and Crystal huffs.

"I end up physically weak by the time I make it home, and I barely make it to the shower and then to bed."

"What about dinner?" Isabel asks and Crystal keeps her mouth shut, "Wait. Don't tell me all you eat is that basic lunch every day?!"

"Pretty much." Armin answers for Crystal, "She isn't starving herself, she just forgets to eat on days she doesn't come to school." Crystal zoned them out, and without realizing it accidentally slipped right into another daydream.

"Crap. She's out of it again." Farlan says but his eyes widen as Armin takes her hand in his, "What are you doing?"

"She won't snap out of it with soft touches. I'm ensuring that She'll be safe." Armin says and Isabel gets up on the other side of her, taking her other hand softly, "Yeah like that."

Crystal daydreamed the rest of her day away, no one was able to snap her out of it until the last bell at Computer Science went off. Her eyes widen and she looks around worriedly when Farlan stands up next to her.

"Are you finally out of it?" Farlan asks and Crystal nods.

"Was I… In an episode this whole time?"

"Yeah. You got just about nothing done, people led you to far-off seats to let you be." Crystal gets up and looks at her hand in shame, "Let's go." Farlan whips around and starts walking off. Crystal follows him down the stairs and through the entrance where the cars were all parked, and Crystal felt her head hurting again.

"God I hate this." Crystal says out loud, "Someone just fucking put me down already." She mumbles as she walks off to the street, Farlan grabs her wrist, "What?"

"Let me drive you home." He says softly and Crystal sighs.

"Okay but if Isabel screams I'm going to lose my mind." Farlan leads her over to his light gray Hyundai Elantra, and Isabel looks at her curiously but Crystal sits in the back, not even noticing who was also sitting back there.

"Tsk. You really had everyone scared." Levi says harshly as Farlan gets into the driver's seat and Crystal types her address into the GPS he hands her.

"Sorry. I took my medicine but I guess it's not working." Crystal says simply, leaning back on the seat, as they pull away from the school she feels a weight being lifted off her shoulders, "Thank you Farlan. Seriously."

"This is just my way of thanking you for a good first day. We were all pretty nervous about the new school."

"Figures." Crystal smiles, "Well, hopefully I can get stronger medicine and I'll be able to socialize more."

"If the medicine you have now isn't strong enough and makes you fall asleep, how tired will stronger medicine make you?" Isabel asks as the car comes to a stop in front of a two story house, a light blue porsche sat outside.

"Not sure. Thank you Farlan."

"Whoa! Who's sick ride?!" Isabel asks as she rolls down the window.

"She's mine." Crystal smiles before disappearing into the house and she sighs as she closes the door. Bags of trash lined the wall, flies going nuts around the tops of them, the dark room smelling musty and as she flips on the light, the cloud of dust in the air almost made her sick. Going upstairs she changes into a pair of shorts and a long sleeve shirt, tying a cloth around her head for a mask, pulling it to just above her nose. Grabbing her basket of cleaning supplies, she sighs softly before she began taking out the trash bags to the local dumpster, after she done that as she was about to go weed her driveway, a strange black Mustang pulled up behind her Porsche and she glares at it before grabbing the pocket knife she keeps by the door, but as she snuck around the wall separating her from the person, she looked only to see a certain raven haired man.

"Levi?" Crystal calls out, throwing the knife back into her house, and he looks at her. He had a pair of yellow gloves on that went up to his elbows, he wore a similar mask to her and a cloth over his hair.

"I thought you would appreciate some help." Levi says simply, lifting up his basket of cleaning supplies similar to her own. Her eyes widened.

"While I appreciate it, are you sure?" Crystal says nervously, "It's a hellhole in there. I wouldn't want you to judge me based on my house's condition-" She went on, but Levi passed by her and opened the door to her house, she smiled to herself. Turning back she saw no expression of disgust on his face as he turned back to her.

"I'll start in the Kitchen, you get a load of laundry in the washer?" He asks, and she nods. They both got to work, and with someone there to help her stay motivated, she turned on her karaoke playlist. Her surround sound stereo played through the entire house, as she cleaned up her room because she didn't want Levi to see anything personal. 

Walking downstairs as sweat goes down her cheeks, she looks to find him boiling water for tea. He wasn't sweating even a drop and she groaned audibly at the sight, catching his attention.

"Why am I completely drenched and you're still pristine?!" Crystal exclaims and he scoffs with a smirk on his face, her eyes widen slightly at the sight.

"It's because I clean all the time. You're also under the side effects of your medicine. Speaking of, when is your next dose?" Levi asks and Crystal looks at her grandfather clock.

"Eh? About an hour. I got to make sure I put something on or get something to eat before then though. I have to eat before this dose."

"Why are they different?" Levi asks.

"That's because there's only one pill that stays the same and it's an antidepressant. The others are all completely different pills." Crystal stretches as she sits down at her island.

"It's a big house. 4 bedrooms and 2 Half baths and one full bath." Levi says as he gets two mugs for them and places them on the counter, pouring the hot liquid in, before grabbing the tea bags that looked like the ones Hange gave them. Sitting down beside her, he stares at her, "You live alone?"

"Yeah. It's just me nowadays." Crystal smiles sorrowfully, dipping her teabag repeatedly, "I'm usually the one who hosts sleepovers because of that. Anything that might have been personal to my family is stored in the Second floor office. It's locked with a key I have." Levi hums in acknowledgement.

"So, that's why you acted so suspicious when I pulled up. Sorry." Levi looks at her, giving her a side glance. Crystal smiles at him.

"No! I appreciate it. More than anything, actually. None of my friends besides Hange drop by to check on me…" Crystal takes a drink from her tea, "If you would like, you can take a shower and I'll clean your clothes for you." Crystal says simply and Levi nods before finishing his tea, she notices he held the cup weirdly, looking down at hers she tried it, lifting it up, she drank from between her index finger and thumb.

"What are you doing?" Levi asks and Crystal tenses up as she puts the cup back down.

"I just.. Thought it was interesting how you were drinking from the cup, wanted to try it out." Crystal smiles sheepishly, and Levi hums before getting up, "Put the clothes on the table and I'll make my round to grab them."

Levi disappears down the hall into the full bath, and Crystal sits there waiting to hear the water running. Soon it started up and she walked down the hall, opening the door to the laundry room that connected with the bathroom. Grabbing them and putting them into her washer, she clicked the quick cycle and poured some of her lavender detergent in before starting it. Sitting against the table, she sighs softly.

"You haven't fallen into a daydream yet," Levi says from the other side of the door, turning down the water as it sounded like he stepped into the bath.

"Oh. No, I don't usually go into any at home. It seems to be strictly when I'm around a bunch of people." Crystal watches as the washer cleans his clothes before it dings, she takes them out and puts them in the dryer.

"I'm sorry." Levi says softly, "I never would've known."

"It pisses me off whenever someone says sorry to me." Crystal says angrily as she sits back against the table, "It was four years ago for crying out loud. The only person suffering is me, no one else." Crystal balls her fist up, her eyes threatening to spill over with tears, "I'm sorry, I appreciate it, I just…"

"No. I get it." Levi says softly, "I'm about done." Crystal nods to herself before leaving. She walks into the kitchen and opens her freezer, seeing a pack of frozen curry that she made last week, she grabs it and takes it out. Pulling her rice cooker out she begins to pile enough rice in for two people, figuring she would show her gratitude through food.