To Love a Criminal ((MIKE ZACHARIAS X OC))

Chapter 4

Several minutes passed until Silica's moment of solitude was quite rudely interrupted.

The door leading into her dorm burst open, prompting her head to turn swiftly, nearly causing the cigarette between her teeth to tumble out of her mouth.

Who stood in the doorway was an average height woman with messy auburn hair and glasses. She had a Roman nose and her skin was a shade lighter than her own. The lens' of her glasses glared over her hazel eyes before she straightened herself out, and once she had, a huge grin plastered across her face.

"My, my," she said, stepping in and shutting the door without an invitation. "Yet another mysterious recruit, eh?"

Silica's eyebrow twitched at her tone, but her silence alone wasn't enough to put off the clearly eccentric woman as she pulled up a chair.

"My name is Hange Zoë," the now known Hange introduced herself whilst adjusting the wooden clipboard she had brought with her. "I'm sure Erwin already told you, though."

"Yeah," Silica mumbled, taking the coffin nail out of her mouth to blow smoke out of her nose. She noticed how closely Hange was watching her. It made her hairs stand on end. "What do you want?"

"I'm here to conduct a physical, of course!" Hange exclaimed, being a little too openly excited about it.

"The hell for?"

"Oh, you know," Hange prattled on, pushing herself up from the wooden surface she sat upon. "To see what you're going to be capable of and what you won't be."

"I have good ears," Silica stated dismissively, turning back to the window as Hange inched closer. "There isn't a thing I can't do."

"Ah," Hange opened her mouth and plucked the cigarette out from between Silica's teeth. If looks could kill, the glare sent to Hange definitely would have executed her. "Are you sure? Cigarettes are dreadful for your lungs, you know."

"I don't care," Silica seethed, swiping it back from the woman with a scowl. "Why's it matter?"

"Plenty of reasons," Hange declared, yanking Silica away from the window by the arm. "Your lungs won't be able to handle as much since you smoke, so it'll be pretty bad to get winded so quickly outside the Walls."

Silica shrugged as if the matter was trivial and stepped on the butt of the cigarette once she had tossed it on the floor. Hange frowned at the action, but said nothing of the matter nonetheless.

"Anyway," she went on. "While we're on the subject, do you have any history with drugs or alcohol?"

"Yup," Silica deadpanned, leaning her weight to one side. "And it's never stopped me from doing anything before."

"Maybe," Hange said, an absent smile on her face as she scribbled something on her board. "But fighting Titans and fighting humans are two totally different things."

Silica wouldn't know, she only had experience with the latter.

The rest of the physical went on quickly, and for the most part silently — if you considered Hange's one-sided conversation silent, that is.

"I'm impressed," Hange mused, rereading what she had previously written. "For a drunkard, that is."

Hange's joke forced a warning look onto Silica's face, but the four-eyed woman merely laughed dryly at the sight and stood from her seat once more.

"Well," Hange continued, changing the subject. "It was... pleasant to meet you, Miss Silica Delaney. I wish you luck for the days to come; you're going to need it."