Chapter 1: Trainees
"A group of trainees just came in!" The voice of Marie's mother sang into the hot kitchen. "Table 10. Can you get them? Marie?"
"Sure!" she shouted, making sure her mother heard before she disappeared back into the front room. "I'll be there as soon as I deliver the order to Table 8!"
Business at her parents' bar normally lightened during the spring break. Third year trainees graduated and were whisked away to their new posts. First and second years had the opportunity to go home and see their families for a few weeks, and the newest class had yet to arrive.
But some trainees didn't go home, either because of the expense or personal reasons, and they still came into town even during the break. If anything, they came more often, because there was less to do, and in some ways that made up for their lesser numbers.
The bar still felt emptier though. Less than half full tonight.
Marie hurried out of the kitchen, carrying a large tray of food and drink. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the trainees, six of them, all young men, chattering loudly at their table. She set down her current delivery, making certain that Table 8 had everything in order, and scurried back to the kitchen to drop off the tray.
The trainees were still talking as she walked up to their table. They were probably too young for stronger drink, but the nice thing was that trainees like them tended to come in packs, and even if not all of them drank, usually all of them ate, and that was good for business.
She didn't recognize this group though. Probably soon-to-be third years, trying to find their future watering hole. Only third years had the freedom to leave camp and head into town during their free time.
"Hello, gentlemen! How can I help you tonight?" She flashed a smile as she stood at their table and made sure to make eye contact with those she could to get their attention.
The first of them was the young man closest to her on her left. He and his friend across the table stopped talking immediately and he turned to shush the rest of them before looking back at her.
"This is our first time here," he said. "Do you have anything you recommend?"
He had a friendly, expressive face, framed by his neatly parted blond hair. More of a handsome, than cute, Marie thought, and though he was sitting, she supposed he was pretty tall. He couldn't be that old, being a trainee, but he already had a strong jaw that she would expect more often on someone a few years older.
"The baked chicken and potatoes is popular with many of our customers," said Marie. "People also like the pork and the grilled carp. The fish was bought fresh this morning from market. We guarantee it. If you would like something lighter, we have our family's special soup recipe that we always keep ready in the pot."
"I guess I'll try the chicken," said the trainee. "And I'd like a mug of beer to go with it."
She liked his smile, and returned it with one of her own before turning her attention to the next trainee, and in this way she worked her way down the left side of the table, around the back to the right, until the orders at last came to the trainee closest on her right.
He was a stark contrast to the blond trainee opposite him. Though he was not short by any means, he had a lean, angular look about him that made Marie wonder if he had been well fed as a child. Whereas his friend's head had scarcely a hair out of place, his own was barely combed at all, with black locks left to fall whichever direction they pleased.
And he wanted whiskey.
"Are you sure you're old enough for that?" she asked, half-joking. "It's pretty strong if you're not used to it."
It wasn't that her parents wouldn't sell it to a trainee. As far as they were concerned, anyone old enough for military service ought to be old enough to hold their alcohol, but she didn't want to clean the floor if he started puking it up.
He winced. "Do I look that young to you?"
Trainees could start as young as twelve, so even if he was an incoming third year, he could still be young. Eyeballing him, she decided that he was likely fifteen, he couldn't possibly much older, so she said, "Yes."
He looked back at her, making his own assessment and said, "I'm probably older than you. You don't even look old enough to be working here."
"Oh?" Now she was interested.
"I'm sixteen."
Marie grinned. "I'm seventeen. Do I win anything?"
He stared at her, surprised, and his friend across the table chuckled. "Looks like the wrong bet to take, Nile."
Nile snorted. "Shut it, Erwin." Then he turned back to Marie and said, "Sorry, I guess we both look young."
"But does she win anything?" asked the boy on Nile's right.
Nile shot him a withering look and added, "And I'll buy you a drink, for when your shift is over. Assuming you think I'm old enough."
"That's kind of you, but I'm all right," said Marie, more amused than anything else. "I'll be back with your orders as soon as I can."
-AoT-
The trainees stayed late into the evening, and ordered more drinks after their first round was gone and even after their food was as well. Nile did not puke, to Marie's relief, though it helped that he did not ask for more past his first order. Without many other customers to tend to and the night waning, Marie dallied with the trainees and listened to their stories. She did not have much else to do and they were good company.
And well behaved. Some of the other trainees from camp were rowdy and she'd heard more than enough off color remarks that came with the nature of the business. This group was a bit loud, but more the loudness that came from friends having a good time than because most of them were drunk and couldn't control their speech anymore.
As she suspected, they were headed into their third year, and she discovered that most of them were here because of the one called Erwin, the blond trainee with the neatly parted hair. He was something of their ringleader, both in and out of training, and from the looks of it, a valued friend.
"Erwin didn't have any place to go back to over break," said Nile. "His mother passed away last year, and his father's already gone as well. Werner, Brett, and I decided to stay to keep him company, and Darren and Andy were stuck here anyway so they came with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said.
Erwin shook his head. "It's all right. It was rough, but it's been long enough that I can talk about it now. And these guys," —he gestured to his friends— "are like a second family to me."
Marie smiled. "I can imagine that. You must spend a lot of time together; studying, practicing, and you learn to rely on each other."
"Erwin is the best strategist in the entire camp," said Nile. "When we do team exercises everyone wants to be in his squad."
"There are plenty of people with good heads besides me," said Erwin. "But if you want good riders, if you're going to put someone on a horse, you want Nile. And if you want hand-to-hand combat, you want Brett. Andy might as well be a bird once you see him in the trees..."
"See, that's what I mean," said Nile, before Erwin could continue. "We know what we're good at, but you really consider these things when you put together a team. You know how to fit people together."
Erwin shrugged. "Assuming they let me. You know they don't like us to get too comfortable with the same group of people. Once we graduate we can't expect to be assigned to the same squad, even if we go into the same branch."
"Are you going to try to stay together?" Marie asked.
Nile nodded emphatically. "Yeah. We'd like to, and it's not like it's gonna be hard. We're top of our class. No one's going to talk us out of anything. We'd be wasted in the Garrison."
Marie thought of the men who were mostly soldiers in name and not much else. It was common to see them drinking or playing cards while on the job, because if the walls didn't need repair, or there wasn't a riot of some kind, there wasn't much for them to do. She supposed it was a necessary job, but not a glamorous one, though she supposed the Garrison soldiers themselves could be nice enough. There were a few who were regulars here.
If anything she thought Garrison work was too easy. Even if it required some training, they didn't have to be on their feet all day. Her father toiled behind the bar six days a week and Marie and her mother took orders and delivered food for as long as the bar was open. Their cook, Nance, didn't have it any easier. But if they stayed busy, they earned enough to get by, with a little extra for a rainy day.
Unlike the Garrison, the other branches worked. She knew the elite of the Military Police guarded the king, and she often saw their most junior members on patrol. As for the Survey Corps... She might not have seen them in action, but she doubted anyone willing to go outside the walls to face titans was giving anything less than their best. If a soldier wanted to idle away his days, there were much safer places to be.
"Not according to Instructor Baumer," said the trainee named Andy, interrupting her thoughts. "He'd like us in the Garrison. I heard him talking to one of the captains from Karanes saying how we'd be perfect."
"He doesn't have a say," said Nile, dismissive.
Erwin agreed. "He really doesn't. The only regulation that blocks anyone from going to whichever branch they want is the Top 10 requirement for the Military Police. He could try persuading us, but salaries are set. It's not like he can offer us any perks."
"Can you imagine?" asked Brett. "If they tried offering us better barracks, or a keg of beer every week for signing up?"
"I think they get the beer already," said Andy.
Nile sniggered.
"Since you guys are top of the class," said Marie, "does that mean you're going into the Military Police?"
"We could," said Erwin, with an easy smile, "but we've got something bigger in mind."
"Survey Corps," said Nile.
"Survey Corps?" she echoed.
There weren't many soldiers in that branch, and being that she lived comfortably within Wall Rose, she only saw them pass through on the occasional bit of business. Most of them were based around Shiganshina in Wall Maria, to more easily get to the outside. She'd heard some people call them a waste of lives and money, and then there were others who were proud of them for exploring the outside world, but all this had come to her secondhand, as she had never spoken to one before.
Now here were six, who planned to join.
"There's a big world out there," said Erwin, "and a history we barely know anything about. Our ancestors fled here a century ago, but what kind of world did they leave behind? There must still be something out there. The titans couldn't have ruined it all. We know they chase people, but they don't bother with anything else. There could be cities, libraries, troves of artifacts left behind. I want to find those things."
Nile grinned. "And our job will be to keep him alive long enough to do so."
"You're not also looking for history?" asked Marie.
"It's interesting," said Nile. "But I'm not as much of a dreamer as Erwin. I'm going, because one, Erwin's my friend, and two, I know the group of us are going to make an excellent squad. I wasn't kidding about Erwin being a good strategist. He's honestly a really good leader, and I'm sure the six of us can take down a titan."
A/N: I was rereading the manga in advance of the second season and realized that at some point Erwin had became my favorite character. I really liked how he and Nile used to be friends when they were younger, and the story of how the woman Erwin loved eventually became Nile's wife. It was a small detail in the grand scheme of things, but brought an extra dimension to both men.
I'm a little surprised no one seems to have written this story yet considering how large the Attack on Titan fandom is, but maybe I'm the only one who wants to see a young Erwin and Nile in a sappy love triangle? The story is starting with Marie to stay neutral between the two, but eventually we'll see their POVs as well.
Writing a less jaded Erwin and Nile is interesting. Young Erwin has a really earnest, bright-eyed look to him as a trainee. Young Nile looks more like a dork, and not nearly as sour-faced as his older self. I decided to make them both sixteen at the start of their third year (so they'll be seventeen at graduation), which is a little older than Eren and company, but still younger than I think they should have been considering that they make their life choices about whether to be with Marie before selecting their service branch. I couldn't really make them any older though, given the manga artwork.
