The gloom among the room was thick, well thicker than usual. A female titan that possessed intelligence had done a number on the Special Operations Squad. By the time she had been neutralized she had damn near taken out every single member on the left and middle of the squad. If the situation hadn't been bad enough already the squad's captain, Levi, made the decision to dump the bodies that had been recovered. It was a bold decision but, then again, the captain himself was a bold, blunt, and even brash person. Nobody questioned the decision that he made, just nobody wanted to see the body's of there fallen teammates discarded into becoming mere titan puke.
Eren stared blankly at the food placed before him; he had a habit of not eating his food whenever something upsetting involving certain human eating giants happened.
Mikasa who was sitting across from Eren was staring at Eren, though he probably wouldn't notice till a good half hour later after he had somehow forced his self to digested the days events.
Jean, who was sitting next to Mikasa was currently void of all color but he was at least seemingly responsive to his surroundings. Especially the young Miss Ackerman sitting next to him. He had a major crush on her ever since he first laid eyes on her and her unmistakeably astonishing jet black hair. Jean knew that right now was no time to be day dreaming about a girl, but in a way thinking about Mikasa was a way to escape the morbid truth about the days events.
Armin, who was sitting next to Eren, was poking at his food while clearly being lost in his thoughts.
''Hey, do you guys think that, that female titan today looked strangely familiar?,'' Armin asked, being the first one at their table to speak in over an hour.
His friends all looked at him like they had forgotten how to speak. After an extended pause, Mikasa looked as if she was about going to provide input to her friend's question when the doors to the dining area flung open with such force that Mikasa thought they were going to be knocked clear off the hinges.
The captain had entered. Like usual his stoic behavior rendered his facial expression to be void of all emotion. If one didn't know the captain they would say that he wasn't even affected by today's events. However, to the most vigilant of people his eyes would tell another story.
Levi, had never been an emotional person to begin with and his life experiences had just increased his inability or desire to react emotionally to anything. Usually whenever something upsetting had happened Levi would deal with it by running his mouth at anything or anybody that dared to look his way. Tonight was no exception.
Levi glared around the room completely ignoring the looks that he was receiving from his subordinates. The newer members of the squad were all staring at their captain with both shock and fear written across their faces. Only the members that had survived awhile, those were scarce in numbers, seemed unfazed by the captain and his behavior.
Levi seemed to be inspecting the dining hall for anything that he dubbed as unclean; making a lot of his subordinates cringe knowing that in a few seconds diner was going to be declared as over and they would be cleaning the hall yet again.
''Those fucking fat ass cooks. How many times do I have to remind them that they are to wipe down the hall before we eat as well as after? They know that I'll notice; they're just being lazy because their ass cheeks are too big to move properly. Lazy pigs,'' jeered Levi.
His subordinates didn't make a sound.
Everybody breathed in relief when fellow squad leader, Hanji, motioned for Levi to come and sit down next to her. A slight twitch of Levi's left eyebrow was the only thing to show that he was extremely annoyed by Hanji's request. However, Hanji was currently Levi's oldest remaining comrade aside from Erwin so the captain did spare her some respect. With that Levi reluctantly applied to her gesture putting aside his strong urge to make every solider he had clean all night. He sat down with a 'tsk' while everybody else gingerly resumed what they had been doing moments ago. Only when the noise level had gradually gone up did Mikasa finally dare to speak to her friends once again.
''Is he always that rude?,'' asked Mikasa.
Eren glanced over at her casually, her question had successfully had the effect of finally snapping Eren out of his gloomy thoughts.
''From what I can tell, yes he is. Although the solders that have been around him for awhile seem to respect him even though he's like that,'' answered Eren.
''His skills are definitely impressive and he did save both your and my life today which I'm obviously more than grateful for, but I don't think that power should give him the right to be so cynical and condescending toward everything,'' stated Mikasa.
''Yeah, I agree, why worry about dirt when we had so many deaths today?,'' concurred Armin.
''Plus, what if the cooks were simply having a bad day?,'' added Jean.
Eren shrugged his shoulders. ''I also agree. I know sometimes that we have to swallow our emotions when engaged in combat but if we lose our humanity when speaking to other people I think that will be one of the signs that humanity truly is on the verge of giving up. However, I did hear that the captain was into some pretty nasty stuff before he joined the Corps. According to...,'' Eren gulped in despair remembering that the man that had told him this information had just died today in battle. ''One of the guys that had been on his squad for awhile,'' everybody looked down knowing that who Eren was talking about was now dead. ''He told me that the captain ran a few branches of violent gangs specializing in theft of high priced valuables. Apparently he would kill people who crossed him or stood in his way,'' informed Eren.
''And we should entrust our lives to a petty thief and cold-hearted killer?,'' inquired Mikasa, worry for Eren's life suddenly apparent in her tone of voice.
The table of friends all paused to think on that question; all of them glancing over at the captain for a brief second or two.
''I don't mean for this to sound cold but do you guys think that maybe that's what is needed to command a branch of the Survey Corps? I mean, I heard that captain Levi is one of the longest surviving people in the Survey Corps. I also know that he's been here awhile because I remember him being appointed to command right before the Colossal Titan struck for the first time. That was seven years ago,'' pointed out Armin.
Another pause between the friends.
''He has to be doing something right then,'' Jean added with a controversial tone, afraid that he might say something that Mikasa wouldn't like. Lucky for him Mikasa looked fairly unruffled by his statement. Although ever since Jean had met her she had been a hard girl to read.
Another longer pause came over the group of friends once more, yet, at least now they were all silently eating their food instead of blanking out.
''How old do you think he is then?,'' asked Armin out of mere curiosity.
''Not sure exactly. He looks like he's our age but I know that is far from true. He's got to be at least Hanji's age which is late twenties,'' speculated Eren.
Armin was about going to add another comment when the unspeakable happened. The cooks, there were three of them, all entered the dining room to sit and eat themselves. As soon as they entered the room they were doomed. The captain's eyes locked onto them with a displeased almost demented stare. He lost some of the best squad mates he had ever had today and somebody was going to pay.
As soon as they sat down and got comfortable Levi arose. Hanji had tried to make him sit back down with a slight tug to the shoulder, nonetheless, Levi just brushed it off. He proceeded to walk over to a table that was nearby the cooks. He obnoxiously wiped a finger across the table making it squeak to his touch. The cooks looked at him with sudden horror written across their faces. Everybody else went dead silent.
''Hmmmm,'' grunted Levi.
''Look at this table and then look me in the eyes and tell me what you see,'' ordered Levi.
The cooks looked anywhere and everywhere except in the captain's eyes. Their nerves quickly getting the better of them.
''It wasn't my turn to clean today so one of these idiots forgot!,'' blamed one of them.
''That's a lie! You said that you were going to do it but clearly you didn't!,'' declared another.
''No! We all thought that the other one was going to clean but I guess we just assumed,'' promised the last one.
''Look into my eyes and tell me if I look like I give a piss fuck about whose cunt fault it is,'' demanded Levi.
Two of them backed down; too scared to even make eye contact with the captain. While the other one only made eye contact with him for a moment before gulping and also looking away.
''Well,'' taunted Levi, not averting his gaze even to blink.
''No,'' answered the one who had made brief eye contact with him.
''Good answer because I didn't think that I did,'' replied Levi before turning around to face everybody to get his point across to not only the cooks but to every being under his command.
''I want you cooks to take a good long look at all the people dining here tonight,'' He instructed then paused with his back turned to them.
''There's a lot less people dining here tonight than there should be. Our job is to outwit, outlast, and survive man eating giants, while yours is to clean and put stuff in a pot for us. Now, you guys have succeeded in failing at half of your daily duties,'' accused Levi.
''But sir...it was only one day...we usuall...''
''Just one fucking day is all it takes,'' mocked Levi, while turning back around to face the cooks.
''If any of us other than you three only did half of our duties even if it was for just one miserable mother fucking day then we would pay with our lives. But no. You leeches had the audacity to think that if you did some kind of half-assed job then you would get away unscathed,'' barked Levi. His commanding voice roaring throughout the entire hall without his facial expression changing to even the slightest degree.
Levi paused still glaring intensively at his targets; the cooks. None of them speaking and all of them looking at the floor. Levi cleared his voice for more effect.
''I have news for you pigs there's consequences to every action you make including something you dub as mundane or useless and lucky for you I'm here to deliver these consequences to each one of you,'' asserted Levi.
The next line of events happened so quickly that nobody had the time to process what had happened. Hanji laughed sadistically, Levi broke the wrist on one of the cooks, the other two rushed towards the door, Mikasa stood up to aide the other two cooks but was talked down by Eren and Jean, Levi stride maliciously up to the other two cooks before breaking one wrist on each of them. Before anybody could so much as bat an eyelash Levi had tossed all of the cooks on the floor like they were rag dolls.
''I still expect this place to be immaculate by sunrise otherwise I'll break the other wrists on each of your hands,'' threatened Levi.
Levi's lifeless eyes scanned the room. He realized that he had succeeded in mortifying his subordinates and with that Levi suddenly felt satisfied with himself once more. He may have had more causalities than he would admit on the field today but the sudden fear of his subordinates made him feel once more dominate and alive. He was far from giving up on any battle whether it be against a fifty meter titan or against a microscopic dust particle; he would eventually have his way, he always did.
An extremely small smirk of satisfaction appeared on his face but managed to fade as quickly as it had arrived. He was about going to walk out of the dining hall when he heard it.
''Bastard!,'' a word of defiance and rebellion ran through his ear lobes making his eyes darken at the thought that somebody dare to challenge him. A word that he was only suppose to be able to use. He was humanities strongest solider; other people didn't insult him and he be damned if they started now.
He inhumanly twisted around scanning for the perpetrator. Instantly he found his target. The young Miss Ackerman being held in place by three of her friends. She was the one that said it. It had to have been her. She was the one who nearly defied his orders on the battlefield today resulting in him hurting his shin.
''You good for nothing, reckless whore of a brat,'' spat Levi. He could feel his face heating up from the anger that was pulsing inside of him, but he refused to show it.
Mikasa squirmed a little bit in between the boys all the while she was subconsciously listening to Eren's pleading words. Begging her not to say nothing more to the captain except an apology. Before she could really think the captain was standing inches away from her face. The captain stood shorter than her, however, she damn well knew better than to underestimate a man that she witnessed single handedly immobilize a seventeen meter titan in less than forty seconds after his entire squad failed to do so.
''I don't like little childish ignorances like yourself that defy chain of command because they're acting off of emotion. Now since your brand new I'll give you one fucking warning and I mean one. Hesitate against me during battle again and I'll cut your legs off. Insult me verbally again and I'll cut your tongue off,'' menaced Levi, ill intent promised in his voice.
Mikasa was practically biting her tongue off already in attempt to force herself to remain quiet. Truthfully the only thing that kept her quiet was Eren standing to the side of her squeezing her hand; physically letting her know that he didn't want her to say anything.
Which usually she didn't say anything unless if the situation involved Eren and his well being. Normally she was a quiet, reserved person. Yet witnessing her captain being so violent for practically no reason at all set her off. It reminded her of the men that killed her parents for practically nothing. She wanted to rip his head off even if she died trying, but she had Eren to live for and Eren to protect; she couldn't get killed in some useless argument with a glorified criminal posing as a captain. Thus, she remained quiet.
''Good dog,'' remarked Levi who turned around to leave acting like nothing out of the ordinary happened tonight.
At that moment Mikasa swore to herself that she would somehow teach that man a lessen. She didn't like bullies and her captain or not he was still nothing but a big bully.
-Hi guys! It's my first Attack on Titan fanfic! So let me know what you think. XD I just love Levi/Mikasa these two remind me of Mr. and Mrs Smith. ;D Anyways, enjoy/follow if you're interested in reading more. Until next time, pleasant readings-