A squad leader, huh?
You grinned at nobody in particular while toying with the glistening new insignia between your fingers. Every time you turned it a certain way, a slim glint of light would reflect off the rim.
'Squad leader [l/n].' You repeated to yourself.
'I can't wait to tell Nanaba. Oh, gosh. The look on her face when she finds out!' Picturing it in your head already, you brought your hand to your mouth as you let out staggered breaths through your nose, laughing silently. Her usually calculated eyes would go wide with shock; her jaw would hang slack in a half-gasp, half-smile for her best friend's promotion.
You leant back on your chair and took a deep breath, simply content with letting it all sink in. Shutting your eyes, you recalled the moments from just hours ago in your head.
"It's about goddamn time!"
A hearty chuckle resonated through your superior's office as you jutted your hip to the side, hand resting on it. Evident in your eyes and lips was a smile as you stared at the back of your Commander's head. He was looking out of the window behind his desk. While you couldn't see his face, you could hear a smile in his voice.
"Indeed, [l/n]," he cleared his throat. "Five years of service, hm?"
"Yes, sir! It seems like just yesterday you were scolding me for skipping academics," you chimed, clutching the shining insignia of a squad leader to your chest.
In return, you received a tame laugh from the man.
"How you've grown, little [f/n]," he said as he turned from his place to look at you, his lips pulled into a taut smile.
He took in your features, feeling his blue eyes examine your posture intently. They were so deep, yet always so unreadable and cold. Reading him was just out of your reach, as was the sky the colours mirrored. He was so contradictory – outwardly friendly and pragmatic during downtime, yet so… impossible.
You were pulled from your thoughts as you heard the last few words of his sentence—
"—won't you?"
"Wh—?" you trailed, looking like a startled doe.
"Your papers as a Squad Leader."
"What about them?"
Sheepishly, you scratched an imaginary itch on the back of your neck.
"Come and collect them at twenty-one-hundred. You'll need to keep them on your person at all times from now on." You watched intently as he strode towards you, placing a firm and controlled hand on your shoulder. "Welcome to the ranks, Squad Leader [l/n]."
The grin on your face could only grow as you saluted your comrade with a head held high, your fist pounding over your chest as it clutched the pristine insignia.
"Yes sir, Commander Erwin, sir!"
Uncontrollable giggles left you as you flailed your legs.
No more sitting at the PFC table with the rest of the first rank soldiers!
No more sleeping in shared quarters! Privacy—thank god! Some privacy!
No more mundane errands for the Captain-
Oh.
Oh, wait.
The chair you were perched on screeched as it was suddenly dragged backwards. You pushed yourself away from the table you were sitting at, nearly tripping over your own two feet as you rushed to lean outside of the window.
'Thank Sina!' you thought to yourself while you released a breath you didn't even know you were holding. The sundial in the courtyard indicated that it was just before six – still time for your not-so-official duty.
Nevertheless, you hurried to the mess hall, your leather boots patting on the cobblestone floor enthusiastically while you paced through the doors.
Greeting subordinates and privates as you walked through the hall, you vigorously made a hand gesture towards a particularly handsome young woman, pawing at her attention. When she looked up from her tray of food, she sparked a slight smile and gently waved back.
'Gosh, Nanaba is so pretty,' you mused to yourself.
"I'll come see you at nine," you called to her as you walked backwards towards your destination, but still facing her. Your friend gave you a thumbs up and a kind glint in her eyes, flickering butterflies in your stomach.
'It's unfair for a girl to be that fine.'
You weren't particularly into girls, but there was something – perhaps it was Nanaba's androgyny – that confused your sexuality. Her warm eyes and certain expressions she only seemed to save for you, her boyish undercut that showed off her prominent jawline…
Pushing through the doors to the kitchen, you spotted the unlucky cadets on kitchen duty tonight.
"Gooooood afternoon, cadets!" you yelled out to them, glancing at their clearly exhausted forms. Luckily for them, dinner rush seemed to just be ending.
"Hey, [f/n]," said the cadet with mousy brown hair, lazily looking up from his chopping board.
"Nu-uh, Kirschtein!" you waggled your finger at the cadet as he quizzically raised his dark eyebrow. "That's Squad Leader [f/n] to you, now!" you boasted, earning some excited gasps in your direction.
"No way!" squalled a shorter boy, his hair buzzed extremely neatly. "When did that happen?" You watched as he nearly dropped a ladle into the large stock pot, snickering slightly at him.
An even smaller blonde girl trotted towards you excitedly, who made sure to wipe her hands on her apron before she took yours. "That's wonderful news!" her voice rang, her big blues sparkling with sincerity. "I'm so glad – it was bound to happen anytime soon!" You gave her a lopsided grin and her hair a familiar ruffle.
"You're too sweet, Lenz—" you were about to go on about your promotion until you realised—"Hey!" the subordinates flinched, "story time for later! Back to work! Springer, light another burner for me, medium heat," you barked as you strode towards the cabinets.
You hummed to yourself in contentedness when you heard the sounds of kitchen work resume. Pulling out a pristine teapot, a pouch of tea leaves and a tea diffuser fashioned to look like a swan, you laid them out on a counter. Ticking off a mental checklist, you filled the teapot until it contained two inches of water and instructed Kirschtein to pop it onto the free burner while you measured the leaves. Pulling a handkerchief from your breast pocket, you tentatively gave the diffuser a good wipe and dropped the material onto the counter before carefully measuring exactly six grams of elderflower earl grey leaves into it.
Perfect.
By then the water in the teapot was hot enough to take off the burner since the tiny amount only took a few moments to boil. You swirled the boiling water around, making sure all of the surface area from the inside had been warmed up, softening the limescale that had collected throughout the day, making sure to wipe it off while the hot water had softened it. Rinsing the teapot from the dirty (you didn't really think it was dirty, but you knew the Captain would beg to differ) water, you filled it again, this time totally, before placing it back on the burner to boil.
While you waited for that, you made sure to wipe down two teacups, two saucers… what else…? Ah! You placed two teaspoons onto the counter—
"You really know what you're doing, don't you, [f/n]?" said the tallest cadet. You only hummed a reply in concentration, making sure not to leave a single spot unwiped.
"I goddamn better. Three and a half of this shit, Kirschtein," you smiled broadly, looking to him for a brief moment before going back to wiping. "Three years and a half of being that small man's personal assistant. No more, I say!" Wiggling your shoulders in celebration, you were ecstatic about having another private (or unfortunate cadet) take your place instead. You had your specialised job down to an art – you had to, after all that time you spent running his mini missions.
Imagine all the free time you'd have now! Not having to spend it running from office to office, being the Captain's personal courier would leave so much free time on your hands, you wouldn't know what to do with yourself! Actually… maybe you'd have some paperwork, but still…
You held the back of your hand to the side of the teapot. Too hot, and the leaves would burn and taste bitter. Not hot enough, and the tea would be too weak. But thankfully, it was substantial enough to turn the burner off. Carefully, you lifted the teapot onto a serving tray, followed by the tea diffuser. While counting in your head the seconds that passed, you placed two saucers next to the teapot, and one plain teacup alongside a more ornate one. You filled the time by rubbing away any spots and blemishes of the tray. Periodically lifting the top of the teapot to check the colour, you decided it was absolutely perfect once it hit six minutes. Pink lips pursed into a proud smile to yourself as you removed the diffuser and took a teaspoon and sipped at the liquid.
Ah, how exemplary as always, me!
You placed the teaspoon into your pocket, so you'd be sure that your superior wouldn't use the one you had put in your mouth.
The sugar! Nearly forgot!
You jolted into action, finding a tiny bowl to spoon sugar into and having it accompany the teacups on the tray.
The Captain didn't always have sugar with his tea. You tried observing some kind of pattern but you came to the conclusion that sometimes he had his tea with sugar, and sometimes he didn't. You put it on the tray always to make sure anyway.
Nodding to yourself, you knew that you had everything done. Just in time for the short man to begin his evening bout of paperwork.
You lifted the tray carefully and said your goodbyes to the youngsters of the room, a chorus of 'goodbye!'s and 'see ya later!'s following you. Weaving through the rush of people tootling around to enjoy their evening of free time, you expertly walked backwards to open doors to his office, or pushed them open with your hips – all while keeping the tray flawlessly level. It wasn't long until you found yourself to his door. Gently, your leather boot met his door three times.
Tap tap tap.
"Captain Levi, sir," you said loud enough for the person inside to hear.
You received an expected and curt, "enter."
He wouldn't ask for your name and business like he would for others. He'd heard it enough times, at this exact time of the day to know who it was, and what it was for.
Balancing the tray with your left hand, you turned the door handle with your right and pushed yourself inside. You gave him a one-handed salute with your free right hand, still keeping the tray of tea upright.
He didn't bother to look up from his documents. Instead, he opted for moving some items on his desk around and tilted his head towards the space he made. You obediently placed the tray down and immediately began to serve the tea, making sure to pour the amber liquid into the decorated teacup first before your own plainer one. Happily, you took your teacup and saucer into your hands and wiggled into one of the chairs in front of his desk, and watched as he picked up his own cup by the rim, followed by the small bowl of sugar.
Hm. Today's a sugar day.
It was one of the few moments of your schedule that you could just sit down and relax. Even if you were sitting across from your superior, this had happened enough times that you could just—
"[l/n]."
You looked up from your cup to turn your attention to the Captain. His eyes were locked onto the tray, strands of charcoal black cascading over his permanently fixed expression.
"Sir?"
"You forgot the teaspoon."
Oh. I left the other teaspoon on the goddamn counter.
"My—" god fucking "—my apologies, sir! I'll go downstairs immediate—"
You were already setting down your cup back onto the tray and getting ready to leave when you heard him grunt as he exhaled.
"No need, [l/n]," he was returning the bowl of sugar back to its place on the tray and you stopped him mid-action.
Holding your hand in a 'halt' action, you pursed your lips while reaching for the teaspoon in your pocket. You saw his eyes move from the tray to your hands, his expression unchanging and voice silent. Reaching for the handkerchief you always kept in your breast pocket to wipe down the spoon, you—
No fucking way.
Not the handkerchief too.
You mentally kicked yourself, mouthing a silent 'fuck'. It earned the slightest twitch of curiosity on the Captain's eyebrow. But still, he held his hand over his desk and towards the spoon, humming perplexingly when you pulled it closer to yourself, just out of his reach.
"I used it, sir," you puffed your cheeks out bashfully, embarrassed at your uncharacteristic mistakes. "To taste a bit of the tea before bringing it here."
"And?"
Frankly, you were pretty taken aback.
He still wanted your teaspoon? After it had already been used?
"Sir, I already, used it!" you foolishly repeated yourself.
"I can hear, [l/n]."
With lips parted in confused at his disregard for hygiene, you handed him the spoon anyway, your eyes not leaving the utensil as he pinched the handle, using it to spoon a little bit of sugar into his steaming teacup. You couldn't even look at his teacup when he used the spoon to mix his tea with the same spoon that was previously in your mouth.
You sat back down, taking quite a while to get comfortable again. Deciding to peek over your teacup while taking a sip, you nearly choked when your eyes met his.
The eye contact was jolting like lightning. Stormy eyes seemed to hold yours captive as you watched him slip the teaspoon between his lips. He sucked on the spoon and—
You coughed and pulled your teacup away from your mouth, tearing your eyes away from his.
What the hell was that?
You swear you heard a single, quick exhale, like a sneer. But when you glanced back at the Captain, his eyes were closed, expression relaxed as he swallowed your tea.