Today was the big day.
The big day.
The biggest day for the ex-104th Trainees Squad.
The day when new recruits arrive to the Survey corps.
The day when the rookies stop being rookies and finally have someone to bully, too.
Hanji sat down at the table at breakfast next to Levi and opposite to Erwin.
She snickered and nodded towards the table on the other side of the hall where the youngsters were sitting all jittery, looking forward to the long awaited day.
"Aren't they just cute?"
Erwin smiled and followed Hanji's amused gaze. "Sure they are. Watching the last year's kids loose it has always been the best part of getting new ones. Practically everyone's like that."
Hanji laughed while Levi rolled his eyes. "It's not that funny. And not everyone's like that."
Hanji raised her eyebrows sceptically. "Like who? I totally remember how excited I was myself."
"You don't count when it comes to anything, you abnormal."
"Thank you!"
Levi rolled his eyes again. Erwin only smiled.
"Whatever. Anyway, I never cared when new people came."
"That's because no-one really dared to bully you, so you didn't have the drive."
"And you were already too good at that poker-face and too old to willingly let anyone see you act childishly."
Levi glared. Hanji looked between the two of them with curiosity. "That's right, how old are you anyway?"
Levi ignored the question spectacularly. "Fine, if I don't count... Petra wasn't acting that way. And Ackerman isn't either."
"That's because Auruo made up for the difference and Petra took it upon herself to act like his voice of reason, so she didn't have the time to bully them herself – but she wanted to. And Mikasa does the same for Eren. Though she doesn't need to; Eren's not nearly as bad..." Hanji reasoned.
Levi had to resist the urge to face-palm himself. Why was he even participating in this discussion...? Reasoning with the glasses woman is just pointless...
But he had to admit they were cute. Or at least some were.
His gaze wandered towards one particular form that somehow managed to seem cute all the time in his eyes by purely existing.
After the new blood arrives, the first thing to do is to check their abilities (as in their physical fitness and their control of the 3DMG) and to initiate them to the secret activities all of the Survey corps have to participate in.
While the last two were a part of the regular schedule, the physical test was only for the new recruits. And that was the time for the 104th Training Squad to fully enjoy their seniority for the first time ever.
While the younger ones were running around like crazy, doing things they would definitely feel for a few days, with Erwin Danchou and Levi Heichou supervising them with harsh, critical, judging eyes, the last year's kids were lounging on the grass, laughing loudly, talking, sharing how glad they are they don't have to do this again but that last year they totally did better than these people, how fun it is to be on this end of things.
Honestly, they were annoying the hell out of the exhausted kids – and Levi Heichou. "Either shut up or join them," he growled over his shoulder.
"But Heichou! Last year it was us out there and people were laughing at us, too! Why is it that only we can't have fun? You are also enjoying bullying them like this, aren't you; so tell me why can't we?" Everyone gasped at Eren's bold back-talking. They were so sure they were all dead now. (Or at the very least, Eren was.)
Levi turned around fully and looked Eren dead in the eyes, which stubbornly stared back. After a while Levi sighed. "Fine, whatever. But tune it down."
"Thanks Heichou!" called Eren with a victorious, proud smile on his face.
All of the 104th Trainees Squad stared at him as if he just came out of a titan's stomach unharmed and clean. "How the hell did you do that?" asked Connie in disbelief.
Eren grinned. "Really, he's not as cold-blooded as you make him out to be. If you know what you want, he'll let you do practically anything."
"That might be true, but having a goal in life and being noisy during training are two completely unrelated things," quietly spoke up Mikasa.
"Yeah, he's totally spoiling you. If it were me, I'd already be without dinner." Sasha shuddered at the mere thought.
On the other side, Eren could only blush at the idea of their Heichou spoiling him. "That's not true!"
"Oh, but Sasha's right. Anyone of us would be facing some kind of punishment." Jean smirked at Eren. With a suggestive raise of an eyebrow, he continued, "Could it be you've been earning his favour in some... other way?"
Eren's face went completely red with anger. The two of them started bickering, immediately considerably increasing the volume.
"Oi, you two brats," came a hiss only moments later. (As soon as Eren's eyes fell on its source his face reddened even farther.) "Choose. Either you join the brats over there or you're cleaning the stables."
There was a short break between the physical training and the 3DMG training, which was when the rest of the Survey Corps joined Levi, Erwin, the recruits and the still-not-talking-to-each-other Jean with Eren. (They obviously chose the training over any kind of cleaning. They knew what they would be getting themselves into by now. Moreover, there's never enough training – whereas cleaning gets really old really fast.)
"Eren, are you okay?" asked Mikasa when she approached Eren, who was lying on the ground gasping for breath.
"Yeah," he grinned up at her. "It was great. We should have all joined them since the beginning."
Connie looked over his shoulder at the remark (while on his way to console Jean who was half-dead but still whining that Mikasa didn't ask him if he was okay). "No, thanks. I don't wanna die from exhaustion."
Eren frowned. "But you have to train hard if you want to win. You win or you die. To win you have to be strong."
"Strong? Yes. Dead? No. Everyone isn't a titan-shifter with crazy healing rates," noted Armin.
Eren mumbled something unintelligible as he closed his eyes to relax for the few minutes he had left.
He didn't notice all the eyes suddenly focused on him, nor did he notice when those disappeared after one glare from Mikasa.
The 3DMG training wasn't really going according to Eren's plan.
Not the 3DMG part, that one was going perfectly well, mind you.
No. He was more concerned about the part where he was supposed to be watched with proud eyes as he practiced the recently-in-secret-perfected super special move.
He was purposefully showing off in an excellent manner; he successfully managed to get a several prizes from the people around who saw, even from Erwin himself. But the one he wanted to amaze with his progress the most seemed to be totally ignoring him. Not once did he catch those eyes looking at him.
And he didn't like that fact one bit.
The last part of recruit initiation was the top secret one. It was something specific for the Survey corps. No-one else knew about it. It was the most dreaded part of the everyday schedule.
Cleaning.
When they were told to go grab cleaning equipment and go to Levi Heichou to get an area to clean assigned to them, all the new kids stared with mouths hanging open.
They watched in awe as all of their seniors, regardless of their rank, obediently and without any comments went and did what they were told, giving them sympathetic looks with occasional 'good luck's and 'do your best's.
It was their first time, so all the new recruits got some area together with someone more experienced to supervise them. That was the job of, the last year's 104th Squad.
As much as some of them didn't like it...
('Some' as in everyone but the ever so helpful Armin. The collective reason being, as kindly explained by Jean, 'I don't want to babysit anyone.' The only exception was Mikasa, whose reason was being forcefully separated from Eren. What if someone came to bully him and she wasn't there to help?)
Eren got the basement and some pretty annoying guy.
Needless to say, the guy didn't take his task seriously at all. He just didn't understand yet how dangerous sloppy cleaning could get. He'd learn that soon enough.
But Eren didn't fancy being dragged into him finding out just because he was there. And he didn't fancy cleaning everything by himself either.
"Hey you, you might want to do this seriously. Do it all again."
The guy shot him a look.
"Why? I didn't sign up for this."
"None of us did. But I'm saying this for your own good."
"I'm not some weak idiot if you think you can try picking on me just because you've been here a year longer – or because you're a monster."
Eren raised an eyebrow at that. He was used to the comments by now, but that still didn't mean he liked it. So he decided to take the risk of being dragged in. For the feeling of satisfaction. "If you don't want to take a good advice..."
He shrugged, turned around and focused on his own part of the room. He smirked as he soon heard footsteps. 'Such a good timing,' he thought.
Levi Heichou didn't even need to look well at the place. "Oi, brats, what the hell is this?"
"Eh?"
Levi ignored the confused recruit completely and instead turned to Eren. "Eren, just what the hell do you think you're there for?"
Somehow, when their eyes met, Eren was reminded of the fact that he was actually in the middle of sulking at the moment.
He looked away, refusing to meet his superior's eyes again. "It's not my fault he's not listening to me, Heichou. I did tell him to clean properly."
"And you were planning to leave it at that. As filthy as this?"
"As if you'd let us leave it like that," he mumbled.
"Tsk. Re-do it all."
"'All'?!"
"Yes, all. As in, your part, too. You should have done your job."
The poor-insignificant-guy-who-was-totally-forgotten-by-now just kept looking between the two as they argued. He didn't understand what was going on with them. Like, at all. The atmosphere seemed kind of... weird. But he did catch one thing. Cleaning was apparently a big deal around here for some reason.
Eren huffed, annoyed. "What the hell?! First at the training, now this? Are you pissed at me or something?"
Levi narrowed his eyes dangerously. (But secretly, he was really confused as hell.) He took two steps towards Eren and even though he was good ten centimetres shorter than the titan-shifter, he was intimidating the shit out of him. Eren shivered involuntarily, but refused to move back just because he was sort of scared.
"You little shit, did you say something?"
"..." Eren didn't want to back off but at the same time he valued his life a little too much. So he opted for the 'safe' way of staying silent.
Levi growled in a low, dangerous voice, "Brat, after you're done here, come find me. I have a feeling you need to be thought some manners."
"...Yes sir." Eren's answer bore the tiniest hint of sarcasm.
The recruit's head was full with thoughts along the lines of 'whatthehell, whatthehell' to realise the monster did, in fact, have emotions... and was displaying them all too obviously in the last five minutes...
"What the fuck is wrong with you, you brat?"
"...Nothing."
"Oh? Now you're gonna act like a woman or something? What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On."
"..."
"Eren."
This was dangerous and Eren knew it. He should probably explain, even if it is kind of stupid. He mentally groaned. He's so going to be laughed at...
"During...trai...ning..."
"Huh? I can't hear you!"
Eren looked up, his anger taking over. "During the 3DMG training! I wanted to show you I finally learned that technique you taught me, but the whole time you kept staring at that girl! I trained till I was exhausted just to surprise you and you go checking out some weird girl while I'm right next to you!" Once he got going, he just couldn't stop, his voice getting louder with each word. He sounded irrational and ridiculous even to himself but Levi asked what was wrong, so there he has it!
Levi on the other hand, gaped at him in shock (On the inside. Outwardly he was as indifferent as ever.) as he processed the information thrown at him.
"Wait, wait." He sighed, as he held up a hand to silence Eren's outburst. "Firstly, it's my job to watch the new recruits, and only them, because they are new. Thus I was not staring and most certainly not 'checking anyone out'. Secondly, if we're talking about the same one, I was watching her because she was fucking good. Almost better than you, after a whole year of training with me. What do you have to say for yourself, by the way? But okay; good job with the move. Only took you a whole week." Eren tried to angrily protest at that but didn't get the chance to. "Thirdly, you were not 'right next to me' seeing you were supposed to be training and not watching where your superiors are looking. And lastly..." he smirked in amusement, "Eren, are you trying to tell me this whole fuss is because you are jealous? "
Eren faced away as soon as Levi started talking, only sulking more and more with each word. But he cringed at the last bit. He knew Levi was going to go there. "N-No! Why would I be jealous!?" he let out a strangled, awkward laugh.
Levi only smirked wider and took a step closer. "Oh, really?"
Eren pressed himself more into the wall and looked completely to the side, the tips of his ears a little redder than the rest of his face. When he was trapped perfectly between the wall and his superior, Levi leaned in and whispered into his ear, "Liar."
"I'm not lying, Heichou," Eren mumbled in response, the ears just reddening more.
Levi chuckled and flicked the now-crimson ear that was so openly presented to him. Eren immediately slapped a hand over it and cursed his stupid ears. Thanks to them he could never lie about anything since... ever! He was starting to seriously consider letting his hair grow out purely for the purpose of hiding those bloody things that liked to scream, 'Hey, this guy is lying!' at the top of their... colouring?
"But brat, you wouldn't seriously think I'd do the things I do to you to just anyone, would you?" Levi asked in pretended hurt tone. He was really enjoying this.
The young boy looked down and shook his head. "I don't think that! I understand it's your job, Heichou, but..."
"But?"
"But... it's annoying to see you looking at someone – anyone else," he finally admitted in an embarrased whisper.
"...Shit, why are you so fucking cute..."
"Sorry?"
Levi just grabbed his hand and dragged him into the closest door (which was a coincidentally and conveniently currently unused bedroom).
Meanwhile, just a few meters away, there was someone who was wishing they didn't get lost (or at least got lost somewhere else). Incidentally, it was the cause of the confrontation, the talented new recruit girl.
Two minutes ago she was only trying to figure out how to get somewhere, anywhere she knew, when she heard voices. She leapt in joy that she found someone who'd help her navigate out of there. She ran around the corner enthusiastically, but the happiness was short lived because she froze soon after, as she came face to face with the impenetrable atmosphere.
She unwillingly started registering the words and her first reaction was to blush. It wasn't too hard to figure out who was the talented girl, since there were only two girls among their group and she was the better one – at manoeuvring that is.
But then the point of the talk hit her. And the close proximity between them. And who they were.
Seriously? The Heichou and the Eren? No way!
She was standing still like a statue, completely white, her jaw hanging open even after the door shut behind the two.
A few seconds of brain power outage later another voice resounded from behind. "Ere~n! Where are you~?" It was a cheery female voice.
The girl slowly turned around, still a very much shocked expression on her face.
Hanji cocked her head. "You new, right? I don't know you... I'm Hanji; nice to meet you. By the way, you look kinda sick, are you alright?"
She just nodded. That was really all she could do.
"Okay then... Anyway, haven't you seen Eren? The cute titan boy?"
A trembling hand rose and pointed at the door.
Hanji frowned. "Huh? Isn't that room empty? What is he doing there? ...Oh." She paused, eyes skipping between the door and the new girl. She grinned madly. "Aha, is Levi there, too?"
After a small nod she strode to the door, bursting into the room after a swift knock (just so they couldn't say she didn't knock at all), the mad smile still firmly in place.
"Hanji-san!"
"Get the fuck out, you four-eyed bitch."
"Boys! Stop creeping out these poor little children! And I nee-"
Hanji dodged as a boot came flying at her face. "Hey! What was that for? Anyway, I need Eren."
"Later."
"I'm sorry, Hanji-san..."
"It's fine, I don't mind waiting a little. Please continue."
Another shoe came, but this time it hit its target. Hanji stumbled backwards a little and the door was quickly shut again.
"Levi! Not fair!"
"Shut the fuck up and go away! And take that other little shit with you."
"Wait, what?! Someone was there?!"
"It's okay, Eren, don't mind them."
Hanji shrugged and smiled at the gaping girl. "So. What's your name? Come on, let's go to my lab. To kill time I'll explain some of my experiments to you until Eren finishes here, okay? Or Levi will skin us and serve the others for dinner tonight."
The girl just let herself be dragged away by the mad scientist. ...Only to later regret this whole day dearly. The disturbing images starring titans, reproduction and intestines planted into her head by those two and by Hanji and her... lab probably won't go away for some time.
A/N: It's technically finished, I just plan an omake...