A few notes: the word garrison has two definitions, a place where troops live, or a group of troops protecting a town/city. For the Garrison, I capitalize the "G". For garrison, as in where Levi and his troops live I don't capitalize the "g". Hopefully I don't make any mistakes on this.

Also, aristocracy naming is incredibly complicated. My American brain is completely unable to comprehend how the titles work. Since this takes place after the apocalypse, though, I figure rules wouldn't be the same anyway. I just refer to the gentry as Lord and Lady Fluer.

Chapter 1

The Fluer family arrived in a hub of noise and motion. They were beautiful, the type of beauty that wealth tends to create, with good food and lack of strenuous labor. They made those around them look thin and pale.

The family was composed of Lady Fluer and Lord Fluer. Around them bustled servants, unloading their luggage and shouting orders, like frantic bees tending to a hive. The Fluers, in delicate, lacy clothes, shown out among them. Lady Fluer made a sort of gasping sound, pressing a hand to her forehead "such a long, tiresome journey." Lord Fluer barked some order. The hive buzzed louder in response.

Looking down from window of the garrison, Levi felt the coil of disgust deep in his gut tighten. Rot and filth came in many forms. He was familiar from birth with slime ridden streets, with blank-eyed, starving citizens, wallowing in their own shit, but with experience he had come to learn that there was another sort of rot, that of the rich, tended by the poor. They were often like a cancer upon society, appearing harmless to other cells, but spreading disease throughout the body.

Still, Erwin Smith had said something or another about this family being particularly important. Funding to the survey Corps and all that. He had explained that the Smith family and the Fluer family were old allies. Old money, good blood, and all that; be sure to grovel plenty. He might not have said it in those exact words.

Levi allowed himself a small tsk, a sound he often made when he found a spot of titan blood on his clothing during battle, before heading down the stairs to greet them. His expression blank, eyes already heavy lidded with boredom.

The Fluers would be staying at the garrison for one month. The idea was that they would see how their funding was being spent, and negotiate with Erwin on future donations.

This caused several inconveniences. It meant that soldiers of a higher rank, who were used to having their own rooms, were being crammed together in order to make room for the swarm of servants the Fluers had brought along with them. The mood, as a result, was almost mutinous; you didn't want to undercut the benefits of being of a higher rank if you could. Rank was a promise: work hard, sloth through years of titan slaying and steady practice, and you just might get a room to yourself. Really, some were muttering, what was the point of even trying to save humanity if you couldn't eventually get the chance to fart as loudly as you wanted without being judged by a roommate?

Worse was the food needed to feed the leeches. It would be taking a considerable chunk out of the Corp's budget. Nobles were a breed of creatures that required heavy maintenance. There was to be fresh greens, butter for the bread, and honey for the tea. Then there was the meat. Meat! They expected meat at their meals, at least once a week, Erwin had explained.

Lady Fluer would be a particular food vacuum; she was famous for her demands. Levi had already had to try to procure duck liver pate for her tea. She was a large woman, caked with layers of powder that cracked and ran with her sweat. She reminded him of a tick, bloated with blood. Once, in her more youthful years it was said, she was a truly beautiful woman, catching the eyes of all men. Now she was still trying to grab back that attention. Fainting fits, and dizzy spells, odd headaches––she suffered from these fabricated symptoms of exotic diseases, which required even more exotic and expensive cures. She is, her husband said, a very delicate woman. She was also a very short tempered woman, Levi noted; he could hear her from inside the building as he headed down a corridor towards the entrance, screeching at one of the servants.

Lord Fluer was a proper gentleman, which meant he liked yelling at servants in his foghorn voice, and racing across the countryside hunting small creatures. His flat, dark grey eyes might have once helped create an air of stern character. However, the whites around them were now stained a dull yellow, jaundice from the alcohol he drank. He smiled too much, gambled to much, and patted people on the back forgetting their names and calling them instead "old sport". Still he was the better of the bunch, Lord Fluer did not have a plotting mind, or any great ambition; he plodded along in the honorable footsteps of his ancestors, sometimes prodded here and there by his wife.

Lady Fluer made a sort of excited huffing sound when Levi came into view, hand across her chest. "Why it is humanities strongest." Levi noted the bright smile, but also the quick look over she did of his body, clearly noting his height. There was a small smirk on her lips at the end.

If Levi actually cared for their opinions, actually respected them, he would have done a military salute. Hand behind back, hand over heart, it was one of the few gestures that he truly valued. However, he cared little for the idiots, and so chose to bow. He was tempted to be stingy, but Erwin was standing nearby, eyes boring into him, so the bow he gave was almost sarcastically low.

Even so, there was something almost triumphant in the eyes of Lady Fluer when he rose; he suspected his reputation for disregarding other's attentions must have spread. Although the gesture had meant little to him, he felt a bitter feeling deep in his stomach when he saw her eyes. She gave a shallow curtsy in response.

Lord Fluer was shouting with his bugle-like voice at one of the servants, something about being careful with that thing, gosh darn it.

Lady Fluer turned to the figure shadowing her. The maid stood a ways back, shuffling awkwardly to keep out of the hub of activity, head bowed under her traveling hood. "Jacinta, deal with that trunk." The Lady pursed her lips. "Roger seems to be making a bit of a mess of it…"

The woman ran forward. The valet, Roger, was passing down the trunk to one of Levi's men. Both of them seemed to be doing a truly remarkable job at making a relatively easy task as dangerous as possible. There was a sharp cry from one of them, and the trunk began to slip sideways. The maid, running forward, caught it with a grunt, but it still continued fall to the side. Levi ran forward and caught ahold of the opposite end before it hit the ground. He was impressed by the its weight.

"Dear god," said Lady Fluer, "Jacinta, be careful, for heaven's sake. You nearly killed someone." She turned to Levi, who was attempting the maneuver the trunk on his shoulder into a better position, a difficult task since he had to coordinate with the much taller Jacinta. "Really, she can be quite careless sometimes."

The girl said nothing, except for a quiet, outer wall accented, thank you to Levi.

Levi ignored her. "Private Marden!" he said addressing the soldier who had been trying to catch the trunk before. "Get your head out of your ass and make yourself useful. This shouldn't be so difficult."

The trunk was ungainly enough that Levi had to rely on Jacinta's help. He could simply pass it off to another man, but he wanted any excuse possible to get away from the Fluers. They shuffled awkwardly through the open doorway, the hallway, and to the stairs.

Jacinta had to move backwards while going up the stairs. She shrugged back the cloak she was wearing to reveal a flushed face. She had the reddest hair Levi had ever seen, such a deep color that it was almost ripe cherries, or even pooled blood; it hung in a long braid.

She didn't meet his eyes; stepping backwards she grimaced under the weight of the trunk. It was only when they had reached the room, and put it down, that either one of them bothered to look at the other. Levi studied Jacinta, while she looked around room with vague curiosity, eyes grey, sharp as flint. She brushed back a loose strand of hair, and looked towards Levi.

"Thank you." Was her outer wall accent less thick now, or was it merely his imagination? She held out a hand to shake. Levi ignored it; her palm was likely sweaty and dirty from work.

She took back her hand and wiped it on her apron, as if to clean herself of the rude experience. A small smile flashed across her face with a sort of half eye-roll. "Too dirty to touch, huh?" she teased. Her tone was light hearted, but something sharp flickered behind her eyes.

"It's unhygienic, that's all." Levi said. He started to turn to walk towards the door, but Jacinta opened her mouth, and then closed it, almost like she was tasting her words to see if they would be good to speak. She opened her mouth again.

Levi was an impatient man. "Spit it out." he said cooly.

"You're ruder than I thought you'd be." She opened the chest and began to pull out clothes, ignoring him. He was surprised by her familiarity. He knew he was somewhat of a celebrity, that people called him all sorts of things, like "humanities strongest". He was not embarrassed about it, and thought little of the resulting reaction from girls––gasping, cooing, or gushing.

Jacinta was not gushing. This was vaguely annoying. She was regarding the wrinkles in a dress critically. She was tall, the dress would reach only down to her knees. Its fluffiness made an amusingly awkward barrier between them, extending out almost two feet in front of her. From behind it he assessed her, all the dirt and imperfections: the frizz where the back of her braid met her collar, the grease stain on her apron, the shadowed half moons of sweat under her arms, and the thin dusting of travel dirt that coated her… yes, smelling faintly of manure. Noticing such details was a game he enjoyed playing with people that annoyed him, that was, most people. She looked up at him, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Jacinta!" The call came from down the stairs.

"Yes, m'lady?" When she replied. the accent came back, almost thicker than before.

"Come HERE Jacinta." yelled Lady Fluer. Levi could hear her muttering loudly "By the mighty walls, what the is wrong with that girl."

Jacinta put down the dress on the bed nearby. As she headed out into the hallway, her shoulders rolled forward, her head bowed slightly. Levi stood in the door frame while Jacinta stepped out.

"Jacinta, dear god, were have you been!?" hissed Lady Fluer, then she saw Levi and drew back abruptly. "Aw, the warrior Levi," her voice was bright and cordial. "I see you've met my lady's maid. I hope she hasn't been two much of a bother." she laughed as though she had told a very funny joke. Levi noted that she had not yet addressed him as captain.

Jacinta kept her head bowed.

"One of the cases was heavy." said Levi. "She needed help."

"Is that so, Jacinta." The woman's long fingernails were painted red, they gripped the handrail next to her, like a bird on a perch.

Jacinta nodded. "Yes, m'lady. It is how he speaks."

Lady Fluer laughed again. "Gosh, she has such a very thick accent, don't you think." she turned to Levi. "We've tried to teach her how to speak properly, all of us, but you see she comes from one of those very poor outer villages. Little huts and such––they're not a very cultured group of people. Most of the time I can barely understand her. Isn't that right, Jacinta." she spoke slowly and loudly when talking to the girl.

"Yes, m'lady."

"God," said Lady Fluer, she shook her head towards Levi. "Truly impossible." She then turned back towards Jacinta. "Come with me, girl, and help me get ready for the luncheon."

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Jacinta walked slowly by Lady Fluer, keeping her head bowed, and her shoulders hunched. Levi's look when she had left, that of faint amusement, stung deep. This had surprised her, as she had not felt such shame in a long time. When she had first been forced to act this way, to bow her head down, to hunch her shoulders, to diminish herself, she had ached with a sort of deep rage, but by now she had grown so accustomed to the hurt that she hardly felt it anymore.

Long ago, Jacinta had come to realize that there were several things that people wanted from a lone woman and servant that were not explicitly told. One of these is that they expected you to be lesser.

The most important thing was that you should always try to make others notice you as little as possible. If you had beauty, you tried your best to undermine it, if you had talent, you kept it hidden, if you had education, you played dumb.

Jacinta's mother had once told her that no one could take their pride from them, that they might be poor and desperate, but they always would have their freedom in their dignity. This was not true, for they could take your dignity and pride from you if you showed it; they would kick you down, smother you, until you had none of it left. Better to hide it away, keep it somewhere deep inside, wear a mask over your face, and laugh at them behind it.

Jacinta had perfected this art; she had built a mask, from hunched shoulders, blank eyes, and an accent thick in outer wall jilt. It was like a magic trick, only instead of palming a coin or slipping a card up her sleeve, Jacinta was stashing away her pride to create the illusion that it did not exist.

But the thing with magic tricks is that they only worked if people didn't understand them. With Levi she had been incautious. She was unused to seeing other people outside of the nobility, and her immediate reaction to Levi and the Corps was to think they were like her. But they were strangers; they knew nothing of each other. She would stay clear of him in the future.

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Coming through the crowd, Levi bowed to Lord Fluer quickly while the man was still somewhat distracted, hoping to get it over with without much recognition. Clearly the gods were not on his side. Fluer caught him out of the corner of his eye and beamed. His smile had too much teeth. He bowed a short bow back, and then caught Levi roughly by the arm, shaking it. "Here, here, humanities strongest. Look at him. Titans feeling the sting of your blade?"

"Refreshments are inside," Levi replied. He wasn't even going to bother trying to respond to all of that shit. Erwin was giving Levi a long look. Erwin's interactions with Levi were often composed almost entirely of long looks. This one translated roughly to behave yourself.

"Come with me," Levi said to Lord and Lady Fluer.

Lord Fluer seemed caught off guard by Levi's brusque response; there was a startled pause before he slapped Levi roughly in the back. "Ah! Always working, huh?" he beamed. Levi met his gaze with a leveling, unenthusiastic look.

Inside, they lounged in an area that had until recently been used for storing extra gear. The Corps had just cleaned it out a few days ago to make a parlor-like area. Lounging in faded arm chairs that had been dredged up from god-knows-where, they drank lukewarm brandy. The Corps hadn't had ice for a long while, and although they had ordered a shipment, it was yet to arrive. Flies buzzed listlessly around the hot room. Lord Fluer made a face as he took a sip.

Levi's glass remained untouched on the armrest. Idly, he prayed that the ice would arrive soon, it would be bothersome trying to keep the meats fresh if it did not.

Around him he could hear the insistent chatter of the Fluers and Erwin. Various members of the Corps where placed on display. Here's blond girl, can take down titans with her eyes closed. Here's freckly guy, who can destroy the titans single handedly. Here's kid who doesn't brush teeth enough, finest of humanity. The Survey Corps spoke with nervous little smiles, lots of hand gestures, and m'lords and ladies in their sentences. It was revolting. The only thing Levi seemed incapable of beating out of them was their respect for pointless authority

When he felt that he could stay no longer without shitting himself from boredom, Levi stood up. "The troops need training." He said. He could feel Erwin scowling at him.

"Oh! That would be ever so exciting to see!" said Lady Fluer. "I've always wanted to see titan fighting."

His head truly did throb. He wanted nothing more than to be out sailing through the trees without dealing with these shit-headed nobles. However, that was clearly not an option. He gritted his teeth, while outwardly shrugging in all casualness. "You can come if you would like."

Levi did not look back to see if the lady was following him as he got up, but he could hear the rustle of her skirts, and, as they headed down the long hallway that led out into the courtyard, her heavy breathing. Inwardly sighing, he slowed his steps.

They had rounded the corner and came across Jacinta carrying a large box. Her face was flushed from exertion, and few more strands of her long red hair had escaped from her braid; she blinked to try to get them out of her eyes.

"Jacinta!" Lady Fluer hollered. "Is that field dress for me pressed and ironed? The burgundy one."

Jacinta put down the box she was carrying, and did a quick curtsey. "No my lady. I'm afraid I didn't even pack that one. I thought you wanted the yellow one, with roses. I haven't pressed and ironed it either." Her voice was humble.

Lady Fluer, shoulders hunched with rage, walked over to Jacinta. Jacinta was leaning back against the wall, but stood a good head length above the woman. Fluer stood on her toes to press her a few inches from Jacinta. She hissed words rapidly, too low for Levi to make out. Jacinta made no response but to blink, slowly, once or twice, her eyes dull and dumb.

Lady Fluer finished, huffing slightly with the strain of her exertions. She turned back towards Levi, who was leaning against the wall opposite wall. "She's a basket case really." Turning back towards Jacinta, "Get me my coat at least, the blue one; even you can do that."

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The troops, without Levi, clearly had very limited idea of what they were supposed to do. Someone had organized some half hearted drills, but those had quickly disintegrated into dice games, sword fighting with sticks, or simply dozing out in the sun.

Blake Cumberland was enacting a particularly agonized death at the hands of his foe Suzana Morganston. His agonized expression turned to real and instant fear when he spotted Levi coming through the door.

"Sir!" he said, quickly straightening up and saluting; the others followed suit.

"Despicable." said Levi. Normally he would have made them run until they puked, but it was going to be a bad few weeks. The troops, crammed into even smaller quarters would be eating the scraps of the nobles' dinners. Lots of leftover potatoes in thin broths. They might as well enjoy a little bit of peace from time to time while Levi and Erwin were distracted. Still, their ignorance of his opinion could be useful. He smiled slightly, watching them scamper faster than ever to obey his orders after he told them that they were heading to do 3D maneuver gear drills.

Levi stationed Lady Fluer and Jacinta back aways from the center of the drill ground so that they wouldn't be getting in the way. It seemed that it was expected that a Lady's maid follow her mistress on excursions, in cased she needed to be urgently waited upon. However, Levi had a hunch that Lady Fluer was dragging along Jacinta simply to cause more misery to the girl, sucking time away that she would use to do other work.

"They're smaller than I expected," said Lady with a small smirk on her face, gazing at the wooden models.

She was trying to seem cocky and sexy, but nothing pissed Levi off like when someone undermined the nature of the troops work.

"Some titans are that size," said Jacinta quietly. "Some are smaller, many are larger."

Lady Fluer snarled, pearl like teeth flashing as she spoke. "Well, I forgot we had a real live titan fighter on our hands here. Having any dramatic flashbacks now that you're seeing the enemy again?"

Jacinta stiffened, her hands twisted around each other.

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As they went through the exercises––first some simple warm ups, and then some real "titan" slaying of wooden models––Levi watched Lady Fluer out of the corner of his eye for amusement. While at first she looked interested, but she quickly became bored. She fidgeted, while flicking her white ostrich feather fan impatiently back and forth. Jacinta, sitting next to her, paid them little notice, quietly mended an item of clothing which she had brought along.

He, himself, simply instructed the troops. He hated being put on display, and anyways, he usually did his practices separately from others.

It was growing darker. The shadows of the wooden titans lengthened and became ever more ferocious beasts before blending into darkness. The air smelled of the troops' sweat, and the wet of the growing dew. A mournful bird sang somewhere in the distance.

Levi eased their practices up a little. Like horses after a long run they needed to be cooled off before they rested. Tired, their gleeful, and boastful shouts had faded, and now there was only the soft whir of the gear lines being shot out. It was because of this that Levi could hear the sound of galloping hoof beats.

Turning back to the direction that the noise was coming from, he could see Jacinta and Lady Fluer where already looking in the direction of the noise. An ever wary extinct in him caused him to walk briskly over to them to apprehend any possible threat.

Something was off. As the horse came into view he could be seen that the rider was half off the saddle, one arm dragging over brambles along the path.

Levi ran forward along the path, arms outstretched in an attempt to halt the horse. He had never been good with animals, but horseback riding was a large part of his work, and so he had some knowledge in how to calm a spooked beast.

It reared, eyes rolling in their sockets, but with soft noises Levi was able to calm it. It was soaked with blood, the source of which became immediately clear.

Lady Fluer, calling out indignantly and running up to investigate, halted abruptly when she saw it; spreading a steady pool of blood unto the forest floor was the stump of the rider's neck, glistening like molten rubies int he fading light, emerald cloak stained nearly black with gore.

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