Archive of Our Own ^beta

The frigid winter air nips at her nose, encouraging Mikasa to open her stride in a futile attempt to outrun the cold. Fortunately, her journey is not a long one considering her apartment is only a block away from the museum. Regardless, she'd rather not spend more time in the heavy December snow than she has to.

It's not long before the museum is in sight. the ancient steps lead to an even more ancient looking set of oak doors that tower over her. With a bit of effort, she pries one of the doors open, allowing herself sanctuary. As soon as the heavy oak door closed behind her she lets out a sigh of relief as warmth begins to overwhelm her body.

As much as she hated the winter, she loved how silent it left the museum. That's not to say she wanted the museum empty, obviously she equally enjoyed when it was bustling and full of life. But on days like today, it was like another world meant only for her and no one else. With a satisfied hum, she set off towards the basement, her heavy black boots echoing with every step.

The basement is a stark contrast from the rest of the museum. Thousands of important artifacts are meticulously sorted into hundreds of shelves and drawers in a way that would give anyone who wasn’t a curator or conservator a stroke. But Mikasa liked it like that. Everything was perfect, she knew where each every piece was at any given moment despite how chaotic it may look to an outsider.

With the practiced elegance of someone who’s completed this routine a thousand times before, she weaves her way through the maze of tables and shelves until she arrives at her work station. Shedding her winter coat and dawning latex gloves, she approaches the table harboring an ancient piece of art. Her current objective is restoring a painting from the Byzantine era. The piece likely depicts the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus Christ, but it’s nearly impossible to tell at the moment given the hundreds of years of dirt and grime clinging to the canvas.

This does little to deter her. She loves a good challenge. Putting in her ear buds to listen to music and rolling up her sleeves, she gets to work. To anyone else it would be a boring task, gently swabbing over the grime with a Q-tip coated in cleaning solution. However to Mikasa, it’s exhilarating knowing that she has the power to bring this fantastic piece of history back to its full glory.

Admittedly, it does get a little repetitive and time consuming. She’s been working this piece for months and has barely completed an eighth of it. Letting out a bored sigh, she dutifully continues the task at hand.

That is until the door leading into the basement is slammed open with enough force to make the shelves near the door shutter in distress. Mikasa jumps at the sudden intrusion nearly knocking the cleaning solution onto the historic painting. She grimaces at the thought before turning her attention to the intruder.

“Mikasa dear! We have an exciting new project for you!” It’s the head curator, Doctor Zoe who is tailed by a group of archeologists that work closely with the museum. Mikasa notes the fact that some the archeologists are carrying a large wooden crate, no doubt containing this ‘exciting new project’.

“That’s great Doctor Zoe, but please don’t take it out on the door. You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days,” Mikasa murmurs. She makes sure to seal the cleaning solution and take off her latex gloves before meeting her superior at an empty table near the center of the room. The archeologists carrying the wooden crate take great care when placing it on the table.

“We found it on a previously uncharted island off the Somali Peninsula,” The lead archeologist, Levi speaks. Mikasa regards him with a nod. She had worked closely with Levi for many years. It was usually items that he discovered that she had the pleasure of restoring. It wasn’t uncommon for her to refer to him when she needed context or details about the pieces she worked on. Yet despite working so closely with him, she never got to know much about that man other than the fact that he was good at what he did and had a patience that matched his short stature.

“What makes this so exciting,” Hange continues, “is that the stratigraphy suggests that this particular piece comes from an era where there is just a complete gap in human history. For a couple hundred years BC there is just a total lapse in any human documentation. This will be the first evidence of human life from that period.”

Oh. This is huge. This is more than huge, this is life changing. Regardless, all Mikasa can find to respond with is a soft “I see.”

With that, the team of archeologist work to remove the nailed-shut wooden crate with crowbars. Mikasa watches with bated breath as they remove the top of the crate, revealing its contents.

“It’s fractured in a few places, and obviously a chunk of it’s missing. Weirdly enough, we didn’t find anything else at the excavation site. No other artifacts or signs of life, not even fragmented pieces of it. Almost like someone intentionally buried it there after it was broken,” Levi explains as Mikasa takes a good look at the artifact in the crate.

The sight of it takes her breath away. It’s a statue, but not just an ordinary statue. It’s a disembodied head that, much as Levi described, is fractured and missing a portion of its face near the left side of its jaw. Despite this, it’s one of the most incredible things she has ever seen.

The face is that of a boy. Based off the facial structure, the boy represented appears to be in his early to mid twenties. On top of that, his face is covered in strange markings, mainly underneath his eyes, around his chin, and across his cheeks. She can’t help but wonder if they’re some kind of tribal markings or an injury… She also notes the way the face’s eyes are shut in such a peaceful way, as though it was a real human who had simply fallen asleep. Even more remarkably is the way the rock has been shaped into long locks of hair around the stone boy’s face. Everything about it is just stunning.

“In case you haven’t figured it out yet,” Levi’s voice draws her back to reality as she realizes she’s been a little too quiet. “You’re gonna have to restore this thing. While you’re working on that, we’re gonna have to keep tearing up that island to see if we can find anything else that might help us figure out who this brat is.” He punctuates his sentence with a nod gesturing towards the statue.

Still at a loss for words, Mikasa simply nods. All she can think of is everything she’s going to need and do in order to restore this piece. “Hey,” Levi calls for her attention once more. “I know you’re young and still fairly new to this. If this looks like too much of a pain in the ass I have no problem getting someone from the Natural History Museum to work on it.”

Mikasa knows his words aren’t an offer of kindness but rather a threat. 'Fuck this up and I’ll get someone better to do it right' is what he really means. However this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Her name will be written in academic journals and textbooks for the next few centuries. She’s not just filling the cracks of a piece of stone but she’s also filling in missing pieces of humanity. No, this is not something she’s going to sit out on.

“No,” she states firmly enough to make Levi’s eyebrow raise. “Ive got it.”

“Then it’s settled!” Doctor Zoe squeals. Mikasa had nearly forgotten the Doctor was even there after the tense exchange of words between herself and Levi. To the chagrin of both Mikasa and Levi, Doctor Zoe wraps their arms around the two pulling them into a hug. “We’re about to make history!” They declare whimsically.

Doctor Zoe is smart enough to quickly let the two go before Levi’s annoyed grumbles become shouts of profanity. “I want you to go ahead and put all of your other projects on hold in order to put all of your focus on this,” Doctor Zoe informs the girl as the archeologist begin to file out of the room. “I know you’ll do amazing, Mikasa. Just let us know if you need anything at all.” They punctuate their sentence with a reaffirming squeeze to Mikasa’s shoulder. “Just take your time and do what you do best.”

With that, Doctor Zoe goes to exit the room, leaving Mikasa alone once more. After Mikasa is certain she’s the only soul left in the room, she returns her full attention to the statue in the wooden crate.

Something about it bewitches her. A strange sensation of familiarity prods at her mind the longer she looks at the piece of stone. She’s so overwhelmed by its magnificence that she can’t even bother taking it out of its crate yet. Instead all she can do is wonder who the ancient boy it represents was. Was he some kind of fictional God that was prayed to? Or maybe a king that ruled over the island. What if he was simply a model for an artist who had clearly adored him considering how beautifully they conveyed his features…

Her rational side brings her back to reality to focus on the task at hand. First things first is safely removing the stature from it’s container and placing it on a pedestal so that she can properly work on it.

She goes into the depths of the room and finds an empty pedestal that according to the measurements of the statue, should be a perfect fit to hold it. With the pedestal now on the table, she now has to accomplish the scary part; taking the stone out without damaging it. She dawns a new pair of latex gloves and goes to relocate the head.

With bated breath, she reaches for the statue and nearly gasps at the sensation of electricity that briefly courses through her fingertips when she comes into contact with the artifact. Electing to ignore it and playing it off as static, she manages to successfully life the statue and place it on the pedestal. It’s a perfect fit, the statue is safely secured without any further sign of destress.

Before she can get to the fun part of restoring the piece, she accepts the fact that she’s going to have to sketch out what the finished product should look like first. That way she can at least have some semblance of a reference. She studies the head for a while, noting its sharp jaw line, high cheek bones, and well defined nose. The strange markings once again capture her attention. 

She notes the way they dig into his skin rather than resting upon it the way traditional tribal makeup usually would when being depicted in statues. That must mean those markings must be some type of infliction…

With that in mind, she gets to work sketching. She feels entirely entranced trying to make sure that her sketch is as perfect as the statue itself. Completely engorged in her work, she loses all track of time. Hours pass as she assaults the paper with her pencil and eraser. It’s not until Doctor Zoe comes back into the room that she snaps out of her trance.

“Mikasa… It’s quite late. You should probably head home soon,” they speak softly, concern evident on their tone. Feeling slightly embarrassed for letting time escape her so easily, Mikasa straightens up to address her superior. “If you wouldn’t mind Doctor Zoe, I’d actually like to stay a little bit longer so that I can finish this sketch. I’m almost done, I just need to add the marks.”

“Alright,” the Doctor relents. “But just don’t stay too late. God knows we can’t afford to pay you overtime,” They laugh at their own joke before heading towards the door. “Take it easy Mikasa, try not to overwork yourself.” With that Doctor Zoe exits the room, once again leaving Mikasa in silence.

With a new sense of determination Mikasa returns to the task at hand. Repetitively, she sketches then erases. She sketches some more just to immediately erase again. She just can’t get it. She’s never seen markings like this before and she’s not sure how to draw them.

Her frustration is becoming harder to contain. Over and over she tries to draw the marks but to no avail, they’re just not right. Letting out a frustrated groan, she places her head into her arms against the table. She didn’t realize how exhausting today had been. Maybe she’ll rest her eyes for just a moment. Yes, that way when she opens them again she’ll be able to properly draw the statue…

“Mikasa, there you are. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

She shoots up, not realizing she had fallen asleep. Except… she was no longer in the basement. She wasn’t even in the snowy city. No, she was somewhere else entirely.

She looks around, noting she must have dozed off on a wooden bench. She's found herself in a large clearing beside a small cabin surrounded by a lush green forest. And that voice…

“Eren, where are we?” She murmurs still confused as she looks around her surroundings, yet to meet the eyes of the other person. Eren… how do I know that name. Then finally, she looks up at the man in front of her and nearly sobs. It’s the boy from the statue. Except he no longer has those damn markings and his hair, it’s much shorter now.

“What do you mean? We’re home.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world as he dips his head down to place a gentle kiss on the top of her hair. She feels so overwhelmed she's not even sure how to respond.

“Mikasa? Why…” He pauses to wipe a tear that she hadn’t even realized rolled down her cheek. “…Are you crying?”