This is my first exclusively AoT fanfic and first AoT Halloween story. Hope you enjoy!
Attack on Titan belongs to Hajime Isayama!
Attack on Halloween
No one knew where the tradition had come from. Some say it came from before the Walls, which made the Wallists want to condemn the tradition and tried to get it stopped but it was too popular, particular with the children so it remained.
The tradition was that every Octo 31, also known as All-Hal-Eve, children and adults would dress in scary masks and costumes and the children, accompanied by a parent, would go from door to door to 'scare' treats from their neighbours while the other parent waited for other children to come to the door so they could have treats 'scared' out of them.
The Scouts had their own tradition. They would write down all the names of their superiors on slips of paper and draw one out then the challenge was to be the first one to scare the pants off the one selected. Everyone gathered round the bowl containing the slips, waiting to hear who their victim was this year.
Armin was chosen to pick out the name and the blue-eyed blonde reached into the bowl, moved the slips about and pulled one out. He unfolded the paper, read the name and his eyebrows shot up.
"Well," Eren demanded, his green eyes flashing with anticipation of who their target was. "Who is it, Armin?" Armin dropped the paper on the table and everyone bent over to read the name on it.
Corporal Levi
Eren went into shock, Jean hit the table with his fist, Connie began making strange choking noises, Sash looked desperately around for comfort food and Krista looked ready to cry, Armin looked thoughtful but Mikasa looked like she had just been handed the greatest gift in the world.
At last, a chance to get her own back on the evil little pipsqueak. She had been waiting for this ever since the courtroom.
"Oh great!" Jean exclaimed. "Humanity's Strongest! How do we scare someone who's not scared of anything?!"
"Everybody's scare of something," Mikasa replied. "We just have to find what he fears and throw it at him. Is there anything that sets him off. Eren?" Everybody turned to look at Eren who squirmed under their undivided attention.
"Why ask me?"
"You have to be around him nearly all the time," Jean replied. "You see more of him than the rest of us so you must have some idea of what he doesn't like."
"Dirt," he replied. "Filth, mess, but it's more of a hatred than a fear. If we tried to scare him with untidy mess, he'll just tidy it up or worse, make us do it!"
"Let's think about it," Krista said. "What scares us?"
"Titans!" Sasha blurted.
"Speak for yourself!" Eren replied, tersely. "Anyway, we're talking about Humanity's Strongest Soldier and the best titan killer around. Besides, I'm not going titan, just to scare the Corporal! The MPs are just waiting for an excuse to drag my ass away from the Scouts and into their prison and I'm not going to hand it to them."
"I'm just saying that we should think about what our own fears are," Krista replied. "Maybe the Corporal has the same fear. We can only try!" The others nodded. They had nothing else to go on.
"First one of us to get him to scream, wins, right?" Jean announced and everyone nodded again. "May the best scout win!" They had a day to make Levi scream.
Levi sat sipping his tea with his unusual, by-the-rim way of holding his teacup with his usual look of bored irritation. Since joining the Scouts, he absolutely loathed All-Hal-Eve and the Scout tradition of trying to scare the pants off one of the officers. So far, he had dodged the bullet but it was only a matter of time but he would be ready for them.
They would never guess his fear in a million years.
If Krista had a bad thing to say about anyone or anything in the world, it was rats. She was scared to death of them. Their twitchy little noses and beady little eyes, scurrying about everywhere, dragging their long rat tails. She shuddered.
Rats carried filth and disease so, perhaps, Levi might have a phobia about them so maybe if she put some rats in his …...
But that meant she had to catch some and the thought of doing that was enough to make her want to run for the hills so she enlisted Ymir's help who managed to catch two of them and they snuck them into Scout Headquarters and let them loose in Levi's office. Then they sat beneath Levi's window and waited for the reaction.
Levi went into his office to get the paperwork done before he went to see what kind of mess the shitty brats had made and bully them into cleaning it up and he heard the scurrying almost immediately and spotted the small, black bodies running around the edges of the room.
"Tch!" he muttered. That was an unwelcome blast from the past, remembering how he used to use the rats that had ventured into his, Farlan and Isobel's home as target practice in the underground. Not wanting to have to clean rat blood from his office floor, he waited for the rats to come out of hiding and then he struck with the speed of a cobra. Carrying the two rodents by their tails, Levi moved to the window, opened it and dropped the rats outside. Straight on to Krista's head.
The small blonde screamed in abject terror, running her hands through her hair to dislodge the two rats and she ran screaming down the street with Ymir following her. Levi watched them, the two girls vanishing before Krista's screams did and had an idea of how the rats got into his office in the first place.
"Tch!" he said again. "I guess it's my turn, this year!"
Jean 'Horse-face' Kirstein had once had a very ironic phobia. He had once been very scared of horses but being in the Scouts meant he had had to face that fear as horses featured very much in their patrols and meant the difference between life and death in the field. But he had another phobia that he had never had to face and conquer and that was his Arachnophobia.
Jean absolutely loathed spiders and could not be in the same room as the eight-legged arachnids and many had the same fear so maybe Levi shared it too. Problem was, Jean faced the same problem as Krista of catching something he was petrified of so he needed help too. So he enlisted the help of Squad Leader, Zoe Hanji.
Hanji was not that hard to persuade to help as she wanted to hear Shorty scream, something that had never happened to her or anyone else's knowledge so, scientifically of course, she wanted to see if it was possible.
When not drinking out of his teacup, Levi would leave it upside down on his saucer so dust and dirt would not fall into it and, with Jean standing at a safe distance, Hanji put a large spider from her own personnel specimen collection under the teacup and they left the office to wait for the fireworks.
After the débâcle with the rats, Levi settled down to deal with his paperwork but his first order of business was his morning cup of tea. As he picked up his teacup, his second unwanted visitor of the day made its appearance as the big spider crawled off his saucer and began to make its way across the table. On his third 'Tch!' of the day, Levi picked up the heavy volume of military regulations and casually dropped it on top of the spider.
Jean and Hanji heard a heavy thud as they stood outside Levi's office and Jean wondered if he would get extra acclaim if he caused the Corporal to faint. He nearly fainted with disappointment himself when Levi opened his office door with his hand behind his back. He looked around and spotted Jean and Hanji standing there, trying (and failing) to look like that they were just passing.
"Kirstein!" Levi ordered. "Dispose of this!" He grabbed Jean's hand, pulling his saucer, holding the spider's corpse from behind his back and tipped the corpse into Jean's hand.
Jean screamed, throwing the mangled spider toward Hanji who caught it, and for some reason cradled it like something precious while Jean ran, still screaming down the corridor while Hanji looked toward Levi, almost crying.
"That was a rare specimen, Shorty!" she moaned.
"Keep your rare specimens out of my office, Shitty Glasses!" Levi replied and shut his door.
Sash and Connie decided to team up and scare the Corporal together but they had to come up with some idea to do that. Sash feared a complete absence of food but Connie got the feeling that would not work against Levi so he went with one of his phobias. Connie was actually scared of frogs.
Frogs were slimy, jumpy, that croaking noise they made was grating, and scary at night and they gave you warts, or was that toads. Connie did not care. All he knew was that the green, pot-bellied, skinny-legged amphibians would leave him paralysed with fear if he could not get away or scream like a little girl and run if he could. So this is what they would throw at the Corporal.
Sash spent the day, gathering frogs and toads by the river and nearby lakes and she managed to get a fair few and now they stood, waiting for Levi to leave his office and their patience paid off as Levi left to go to Erwin's office to discuss something with him. When he was out of sight, he and Sash carried the boxes holding the frogs into Levi's office where Sash released them and they began jumping around the room.
"I agree," Erwin replied when Levi suggested a slight change to the Scout formations to increase protection to their more exposed positions. "Is that everything, Levi?"
"For now," Levi replied. "I better get back to see if my office in one piece." Erwin looked confused.
"What?" he asked.
"I've already had unexpected visits from rats and spiders," Levi replied. "Courtesy of the shitty brats of our illustrious Survey Corps." Erwin's face took on a look of realisation.
"So you're the victim this year," he replied. "How are they doing?"
"I'm not scared of spiders or rats," Levi replied. "So not very well, so far."
"The day's not over yet," Erwin warned. "They could find your greatest fear yet." Fourth 'Tch!' and counting.
"Not likely," Levi replied, moving toward the door.
"You remember the All-Hal-Eve officer's get-together tonight?" Erwin reminded him. "And you remember that you have to come in costume?" 'Tch' number five!
"Must I?" he asked, exasperated.
"Yes," Erwin replied, accepting no excuses. "And remember that you're escorting Hanji."
"Who'll no doubt go as a titan," Levi replied. "Shitty Glasses has a one-track mind." He opened the office door.
"Levi!" Levi turned back to Erwin.
"What is your greatest fear?" Levi just gave Erwin a 'Do you really think I would answer that' look before leaving, closing the door behind him.
When Levi returned to his own office, he was greeted to the sound of croaking and a frog jumped onto his boot and the 'Tch-o-meter' clicked up to six. He had seen a pattern between what was happening and who was making it happen so he knew who was responsible for this one. He left his office, looking for a certain person and there, around the corner, with his potato-loving, food-stealing accomplice was the bald one he was looking for.
"Braus, half rations for the next three days," Levi ordered and Sasha looked ready to cry while Levi grabbed Connie's collar and dragged him back toward the room. "Springer! Get those creatures out of my office and clean it! That's an order!" He threw Connie inside, locked the door and walked away as the little girl screaming began in his office.
Eren's fear was Claustrophobia although he did not know why for sure. There was no childhood trauma of being locked in a cupboard or any other tight space that he could remember so he supposed it came from his desire to move beyond the walls but whatever the reason, he feared and loathed confined spaces. The only reason he had managed not to freak out in the well was because the ladder had still been there and he had been concentrating on trying to shift into his titan.
He wondered if Corporal Levi might have the same phobia, having spent his life stuck in the underground and maybe wanting to be free of it. It was not beyond the realms of possibility so Eren decided to give it a try.
He spotted Corporal Levi walking away from his office and wondered why he was out and about at this time when he usually had his head in his paperwork and he moved to intercept him.
"Corporal!" he said and gave the salute, his left fist coming to rest over his heart. "I was just on my way to your office, sir."
"Well, you obviously won't find me there, Yeager," Levi replied. "Braus and Springer decided to fill my office up with frogs and I've got Springer clearing it out now."
"But, Corporal," Eren replied, knowing Connie's phobia. "Connie's afraid of frogs."
"He shouldn't have filled my office up with them, should he!" Levi replied. "What did you want, Yeager?" Eren needed to come up with a reason to speak with Levi and quick. Yes, that will do!
"There's a problem with the gas cannisters for the 3DM gear, sir," he lied. "It seems that some of them have only been half-filled." Levi frowned. That was a problem! Scout lives would be at risk if the cannisters ran out in the middle of a titan encounter. He would have to check and, if Yeager was right, heads would roll.
He and Eren went to the storeroom where the cannisters stored. There was only a small space in the storage area and Levi moved into it to check the cannisters. That was when everything went dark as the door were suddenly slammed shut and locked.
What is that Shitty brat doing now? ….. Of course! It was Yeager's turn and he thought being locked in a closet would send Levi into screaming hysterics? Ah! He knocked calmly on the storeroom door.
"What do you think you're doing, Yeager?" he called out. Outside the storeroom, Yeager frowned with disappointment. No screaming, no hysterical banging on the door, just a irritated What do you think you're doing, Yeager? The longer he kept Levi locked in the storeroom, the more severe the payback so it would be best to let him out now and take whatever Levi dished out on the chin. He unlocked the door and opened it to Levi's annoyed, death glare.
"I'm sorry, Corporal," Eren apologised. "It's the All-Hal-Eve Scout tradition and your name came out and ….."
"I worked that out for myself, Yeager," Levi interrupted. "And for everyone's information, I'm not scared of rats, spiders, frogs or confined spaces so it was all doomed to failure. There's more chance of Nile Dok winning most popular Military Leader of the Year."
"Right," Eren sighed. "I'm very sorry, Sir." Levi gave his seventh 'Tch' of the day.
"I suppose it was bound to be my turn at some point," he said. "I accept that." Eren gave a sigh of relief.
"But it doesn't mean you get off without some payback, Shitty Brat," Levi continued with an almost evil smile and he grabbed Eren's arm and pulled him into the storeroom as he stepped out, slamming the doors shut and locking them. Levi leant against the door as banging and screaming erupted from the storeroom and continued for a full five minutes until Eren threatened to go titan and Levi decided that Eren had been punished enough.
Well that had been an interesting day, Levi thought to himself as he made his way to Hanji's quarters to escort her to the Officer's All-Hal-Eve Get Together, although he would rather give it a miss. His costume consisted of a pair of cat ears and that was as far as he was willing to go in the name of this idiotic party. It was enough that he had to escort the crazy scientist who was no doubt dressing up as a titan right now as he was heading to her quarters.
He almost laughed to himself as he considered all their attempts. Not bad, he had to admit and had they been up against anyone else, they might well have succeeded but he just did not fear those things. What he did fear ….. well, fortunately no one had ever witnessed that and he wanted to keep it that way.
He reached Hanji's quarters and knocked on the door. Hanji finally opened it and Levi took one look at her and …...
"Well, that was worst All-Hal-Eve of my life," Jean groused as they walked down the corridor, discussing their success, or lack thereof. "We never stood a chance."
"Not against Humanity's Strongest," Eren agreed. "Let's face it, the odds were against us."
"I don't think we should beat ourselves up for failing," Connie replied. "We already lost at the start." Krista nodded her agreement and everyone turned to Mikasa and Armin who everyone knew had teamed up.
"How did your attempt go?" Eren asked. Mikasa smiled.
"Our attempt should be happening any time now," she replied, enigmatically. Right on cue, there was a scream and suddenly, Levi ran passed them in blind terror as he was chased by Hanji, dressed as a jester, who was shouting, "Shorty, what's wrong? What did I do?"
Unknown to Levi, Armin had noticed how he steered clear of jesters at festivals and street parties and he knew about the costumed event for the officers with Levi escorting Hanji so Mikasa had suggested to Hanji that she dress as a jester.
Yes, Mikasa and Armin won because they were the only ones that knew that Levi was scared of clowns.
Clowns are as creepy as Hell (this latest fad of killer clowns jumping out at people and chasing them doesn't help) but what really scares me are Crane Flies. I can't stand the things and can't be in the same room as one, although I don't like them being killed so it must be capture and release, preferably by someone else.
What do you think Levi's phobia would be? I would love to hear what you think!
And, on that note,
Hasta la Pasta!