Shingeki no Kyojin
In Freedom or Death
Chapter One: First Meet
It wasn't unusual for soldiers to be called to Commander Erwin's office. The Scouting Legion was strict with their rules, and not everybody can follow them without a hitch. But most called to the commander's office included the higher ranked officers such as squad captains. Though when the higher-ranked officers were normally called, the commander would normally state the reason for calling them; and usually it was only updates or new orders. Out of the current captains, no one had expected Laura Tarell to be called to Erwin's office for unknown reasons.
Laura set a pace for herself as she walked. Erwin had only just returned this morning from his visit at Wall Rose, the chances of him finding out of her misconduct during his absence was near to impossible. Commander Erwin's trip lasted for a week, and during the week Laura and Hanji had stayed up past the usual lights out and this made them tardy almost every morning. It wasn't as if they were doing anything bad per se, they just spent their newfound freedom away from Erwin's watchful eye to play old maid and chess. Now that she thought back to it, there wasn't much merit to breaking curfew, they probably did it just for the sake of going behind Erwin's back. It was a dumb decision, and now Laura was going to hear it from Erwin. Someone must have ratted her out; only she was called to Erwin's office, this could only mean that it was either Richter or Jaime that ratted on her.
She paused outside the tall wooden door. She was beyond nervous, not once has she ever gotten in trouble with her commanding officers. Whenever she spoke to the commander, he only had praises or new orders for her. Instinctively, she began tapping her foot and crossed her arms as she stalled. She knew full well that stalling wouldn't do her any good, and the time available to her was limited before Erwin starts to lose temper over her tardiness. Without her even realizing, her foot began tapping faster and louder than before. But her thoughts were spinning in her head, and she could hardly hear anything else but her own voice screaming internally.
Laura was suddenly blinded when the door in front of her was pulled open. The suddenness startled her so that she took a short step back. Instead of Erwin at the door, there stood someone completely unfamiliar to her. He wasn't tall; she stood taller than him but only by no more than six centimeters. But what she noticed first wasn't his small stature, but the dreary look in his eyes. Lingering her gaze on his features, she didn't stop looking until he spoke.
"Was that you tapping behind the door?"
"… That's irrelevant," she regained her composure. "Who are you and why are you in Commander Erwin's office?"
"… Oi, Erwin, there's some woman here," ignored her remark and walked back into the room. "I thought you said we were waiting for someone important."
"Commander?"
Laura followed the stranger in and saw that her commander was sitting at his desk. It was like every other day, his desk was already filled with paperwork and mapping plans.
"Commander, what's going on?" Laura brushed past the other man and walked up to the table. "Why is there a civilian here?"
Before Erwin could reply, Laura heard something from behind her. A faint but very prominent sound… did he just click his tongue. Slightly offended by his impoliteness, she was about to give her a piece of his mind before Erwin stood up. He put a hand on her shoulder and gave a soft smile. Every ill thought she had of the other man disappeared. She gave a quick small nod and waited as he approached the man.
"Rivaille, this is Captain Tarell. One of my longest-serving officers and graduated top of her class," Erwin motioned for her to step closer. She did so and stepped right next to her commander. "You'll begin serving under her in a week."
"This kid?"
"Excuse me?" Laura once again took offense to his attitude. "I'd like to think with your height that I'm older?"
"Think again, dumb brat."
"… Commander, is he allowed to do that?" she turned to Erwin, her eyes furious. "To call his commanding officer a 'dumb brat'?"
"Of course not. Rivaille, though you may be older you'll have to show respect to those of a higher rank. I recall myself explaining things well on our way here."
Laura's eyes widened slightly at the commander's words. This person, Rivaille, was actually older than her? She was dying to know by how much, her original guess was that she was at least two or three years older; but it never occurred to her that he just had stunted growth. As she was lost in her thoughts once again, she failed to notice Rivaille eyeing her before turning away with a scowl.
"Tch, whatever," he hissed. "I apologize, Captain Tarell."
"… Well, okay then. Introductions complete," Erwin spoke when she didn't reply. "Laura, for now I want you to get Rivaille settled in. Find him a room and then bring him to the dining hall for lunch."
"Yes, understood. Should I get him a uniform?"
"That won't be necessary yet," Erwin turned to Rivaille. "After lunch, you're to come report to me right away, understood? We'll go over your first week then."
"Yeah."
Laura gave a salute before leaving the room after Rivaille. Though she had no idea how things will work out, she was in no position to complain. The most she can do was do her best to make the newest addition to the Legion feel at home. But she doubted how well he could adapt with their procedures and regulations.
"This way, Rivaille."
The Legion's castle outpost was old but the building makes up for its age with size. The main castle contains the kitchen, baths, dining room and various multi-purpose rooms. There are bedrooms in the upper floors that were assigned to the commander and captains. Outside of the castle were the stable and a large storehouse that's been refurbished into dormitories.
"The dorms are split into four sections," she explained as they made their ways down the stairs. "Half for the women and half for the men. If I remember correctly there are some spare bunks in the second men's quarters."
"… How many people in a room?"
"Four, two bunks in a room," she glanced back briefly. What she saw stunned her briefly. If she hadn't looked back she wouldn't have realized that he was watching her. Unlike a normal person, when their gazes met he just continued to stare at her. "… Yes? Do you have another question?"
"No."
As they entered the dorms' common room, all the soldiers that were currently lounging inside stopped chattering. It was unusual for a captain to come visit the dorms at this time of day; and even stranger to see the first squad's captain.
"Captain Tarell!"
It was a soldier that was in Laura's squad, Karl Freyer. Though not the brightest one of the bunch, he was certainly the most helpful and friendly. Laura greeted him back politely.
"Freyer, are you appointed in the first or second men's dorms?"
"First, ma'am!"
"Would it be possible for you to escort me to the second dorms?" she asked. "Commander Erwin brought back a new recruit and he needs a room."
"Understood, ma'am!"
Soldiers moved along skittishly as Karl marched down the hall with Captain Tarell and the supposedly new recruit. As he followed, Rivaille noticed that people were practically jumping out of the way at the sight of Laura. Even though she was a captain, it felt like they were overreacting. Or maybe the male soldiers were just embarrassed to have a woman trudging through their sanctuary.
The whole hallway had doors on either side, and on every door was a carved nameplate. Around a third of the way down the hall, they stopped moving. After dismissing Karl, Laura examined the doors on either sides and turned to Rivaille.
"We have lots of empty rooms available on this floor but those rooms are reserved the cadets that will be joining us in two months," she pointed towards a door as she explained. "So I'll be assigning to you to this room. You'll have a roommate, but I know the man and he won't give you any trouble."
"…"
"… Is this acceptable, Rivaille?"
"Yeah."
"Okay then," she turned on her heels. "Let's get to lunch then… Oh! Before I forget, I wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"How did you manage to get recruited two months earlier than all the other cadets?" she noticed him twitch slightly. "… Were you the top of your class or something?"
"No."
"Care to elaborate?"
"… I've received no formal training before coming here."
"… Seriously?"
Rivaille's only reply was a hostile look he sent towards her. Taking note of the look, Laura turned away.
The first thought that came up to her mind was: 'does this guy have a death wish or something?' And the second thought was why Erwin would even consider letting someone without any experience or proper training join the Scouting Legion.
"Laura?"
"… Huh? Oh, uh-… try to keep that to yourself, okay? Many of the soldiers here take pride in their two years as recruits and it may bother them that you were recruited without going through the same."
"I see. Okay."
XoXo
After showing Rivaille to the dining hall, Laura talked him through the general basics of kitchen and meal duties. It felt like he was ignoring her half the time, but she continued speaking though it was probably more benefiting for her own self-esteem than actually helping him. After giving him a run-down, she left to join the other captains at their table at the front of the room.
"Laura!" Hanji waved. "How were things with Erwin?"
"Yeah, Laura, we were awful worried when we heard you were called to Erwin's by yourself," Jaime chuckled. "Did the princess finally get scolded?"
"…" giving the man a square stare, she turned to Hanji. "Good, turns out he didn't know anything about our misconduct."
"Lucky!" Hanji grinned. "Then what did he need you for?"
"… There's a new recruit being placed in my squad."
"That midget that walked in with you?" Richter scoffed.
"His name is Rivaille and don't call him a midget."
"Exactly, Richt," Jaime began barking again. "Our lil' princess Laura's only a teensy bit taller, you'll hurt her feelings if you start going around calling people midgets."
"Classy as ever…" Richter rolled his eyes. "Anyway, how much do you bet that we'd get less than fifty new recruits this year?"
"Fifty, really?" Hanji exclaimed. "I know we get the runt of the bunch, but isn't fifty too little?"
"I say at least eighty," Jaime nodded meaningfully. "And I hope that out of those we'll get some cute girls. Not that we'd ever get bored of you, Laura-chan~."
"You're giving me the creeps," Laura flinched and inched away from the man imposing in her personal space. "… But I actually think fifty's too many. I say thirty."
"Seriously," Richter sighed. "There's no hope for the new generations. They're all too concerned with protecting themselves to care about the rest of humanity."
"What's this Richter-sama, are you starting to get philosophical on us?"
"God, shut up, Jaime! Why you gotta go ruin my cool lines?"
Laura laughed along as her fellow captains joked about. It was usual for her to be surrounded with such these warm and friendly people. Laura knew Richter and Jaime from her recruit days, and they graduated second and third in the class respectively. They got to know Hanji after being promoted to captains, and the four never failed to have their meals together after a long day of work.
"You know Laura, we were just thinking-."
Before Jaime could finish his sentence, a crash came from behind Laura. By reflex, the captains dropped everything and jumped from their seats. The view that met Laura was unbelievable. A long table was knocked over completely, trapping a number of men on the other side; and stood in front of it was none other than Rivaille.
As more people began whispering, Laura realized that she was responsible for this man. If not for her no one will step in to intervene. After all, most didn't even know who he was.
"Rivaille! Front and center!"
Laura tossed aside the fork that she was gripping from earlier, and walked to the Rivaille. He was meeting her glare straight on, without even having the decency to wipe that smug look off his face. Laura paused two meters before him and crossed her arms. She sent a deadly look around the hall and everyone immediately turned away.
"Okay, those that are done should probably leave first," Hanji's voice called from the front of the hall. "Captain Jaime's squad should go start preparing for this afternoon's patrol."
Almost half of the hall cleared out. Jaime and Richter took initiative and helped the men trapped under the table. They proceeded to leave with a majority of their own squads. Now the only ones left in the hall were the soldiers that haven't finished their meals yet. But they knew better than to stick around long and were already rushing to polish their plates.
"What's the meaning of this, Rivaille?" Laura spoke softly.
"I was asked to show respect to my superiors," Rivaille huffed. "I didn't do anything wrong."
"No, you've assaulted someone from the Legion. Though not your superiors, they are your equals. I don't know what gave you the thought to think it was okay to cause a scene but you must also treat your equals with the same respect-."
"No, you misunderstand, Laura," Rivaille took a step forward and met her gaze. "I will only take orders from my superiors. And these dumbasses aren't my equals. I don't give two shits about everyone else."
"… I know you're new but these people are your people now. We can't afford to have an internal strife. You need to-."
"Quit your preaching," Rivaille scowled. "I'm already following Erwin's orders by listening to you. He didn't ask me for anything more."
"Look here!" Laura raised her voice. "You're not going to get anywhere with that attitude of yours! I don't care what kind of shithole you were in previously that made you have a need to act this way, but your circumstances have changed! You've-!"
"Laura, that's enough. I'll take it from here."
At the sound of her commander's voice, Laura's own voice ended in a tiny squeak. Though she was embarrassed by her sudden outburst, she couldn't bring herself to turn away from Rivaille.
"Rivaille, go wait in my office."
Only when Rivaille turn away did Laura snap out of her trance. She hadn't even noticed herself feeling hot until she looked away. It seems that yelling at really got her winded up. She sighed as she pulled her jacket off.
"… Laura, you'll have to excuse his behavior," Erwin sighed. "He was brought up very differently from how you were. I don't think it'll be easy for him to grasp the concept of compliancy or friendship any time soon."
"Commander, do we really need someone like him?"
"I believe he'll make a fine soldier."
"You better be right about this, Commander."
"I'm not saying it won't take work. Rivaille has put a wall around himself to keep other people out. We'll just need to break down that wall and have him slowly adapt to life here."
"And I'm hoping you're not relying on me to go knocking on his wall."
"Well yes, that was the general plan."
"Just leave it to Laura, Commander!"
Out of nowhere, Hanji pops into their conversation and puts an arm around Laura's shoulders.
"You can rely on Laura to bring out someone's potential," Hanji laughed. "And if not, then we can just feed him to the titans!"
"I'm not sure that's something to laugh about…" Laura smiled slightly at Hanji's attempt at diffusing their conversation. "But alright, Commander. I'll do what I can for Rivaille when he enters my squad."
That was a careless promise she made. Laura wasn't even sure she could keep her word, but that won't stop her from trying. At the moment, she had no real positive opinions on Rivaille. She's never seen him in action, and his personality can use some work; but if her commander believes in him then she'll at least give him a try.
Hello readers! This is my first SnK fic and honestly I'm finding it very difficult to write Rivaille. I love the guy, but he's so freaking awkward at times.
Well anyways, here's the first chapter and I hope you all enjoyed it! This story is set before the main story's events obviously and will show Rivaille's gradual change from unpredictable ex-thug to the lovely corporal we all know and love :3
I always appreciate reviews, especially for new stories! :)