Chapter 2:
"We're going out on patrol again" Levi said plainly while sipping at some herbal tea "intel shows us there are four titans heading this way, it's our job to take them out before they reach here" he explained.
Eren up until this point had his full attention on Levi but now he was looking at Petra, who didn't even shoot him a proper look, she gave a quick glance out of the corner of her eye before turning back to Levi, Eren sighed and did the same.
Half an hour later they headed outside to the stables, Eren was now permitted to ride anywhere in the pack, not just next to Levi so he could keep an eye on him. Petra was walking alone so he ran over, when he got next to her he spoke "Petra?" he asked softly, she didn't respond, just looked ahead and kept walking. Eren stopped and hung his head "why did I tell her?" he asked quietly to himself "everything was fine until I did".
Erd was now walking up to him, he put his hand on Eren's back and smiled "what's up?" he asked smiling down to Eren as they continued walking, "oh, nothing, I'm fine" Eren lied giving a pretty convincing fake smile, truth was he felt terrible, to be ignored and shunned by the girl he liked and admired. "It's just all these patrols, they're getting on top of me, that's all" Erd believed him and patted him on the back "you get used to it" he explained as he walked off to his horse, Eren did the same.
They saddled up and set off out of the old HQ's courtyard, after a while of riding in the direction they were meant to be going, they came across a small, abandoned village, there were a lot of these between wall Maria and wall Rose. The formation went Levi at the front with Oulo riding close behind on his right, a bit further back on Oulo's left were Gunter and Erd riding side by side like they always did and behind them were Eren and Petra but Petra was riding as far behind Eren as possible.
As they emerged out the town one by one, Eren noticed something in his peripheral vision but ignored it, it didn't look like anything interesting, but as Petra moved out of the dead village, a giant hand swiped for her horse and made contact, the head of a titan emerged from over the top of the last building, Petra was thrown forward from her horse with great force, as she crashed, her ODM gear broke, the gas chambers broke off and the holsters came from the main chassis of the gear, as this was all happening none of the others knew until they heard the ear piercing scream of Petra as she was left helpless in a titan's reach.
Everyone turned and Eren's heart stopped, he swung his horse around and yelled to her "PETRA!" it took longer for the others to swing their horses around for some reason, they didn't want to behave. Eren was riding at full speed, closing in on the titan, he jumped into the air and fired his ropes into the titan's arm as it was reaching for the petrified Petra, tears in her eyes and screaming.
"You bastard! Don't you dare hurt her!" Eren yelled as he swung around the titan's arm, having achieved his full attention, he landed on his neck and sunk his swords deep inside it's nape, the titan screamed and fell to the ground next to Petra, dead. The rest of the Levi squad were here now and Eren had jumped down from the carcass of the titan to check Petra, she was quaking in fear as everyone crowded but also kept some distance to make her feel safe, not threatened.
"Shit" Levi muttered "Gunter! Escort Eren and Petra back to HQ, the rest of you, follow me" he said giving orders as he hopped back on his horse, Erd and Oulo jumped on theirs and rode off with Levi.
Eren got on his, unfortunately, Petra was in no fit state to ride a horse and her horse had been killed in the impact of the titan, so Gunter put her on the back of Eren's horse, she instantly put her arms round Eren's stomach and held on tight, her eyes wide with fear as they rode back off to the HQ.
That evening after Erd, Oulo and Levi had returned safely, they had dinner, everyone excluding Petra who was resting in her room, still in shock, you would think a higher up would get used to it but no, no one ever gets used to the horrors of the titans.
Commander Erwin and Zoe Hange had stopped by to see if everything was ok, Levi and the others were able to take out the remaining titans and Levi even praised Eren to Commander Erwin about his quick actions to save Petra, they tried to go see her but she was asleep so they left her, after dinner, they all cleared up and headed off to sleep.
Eren tossed and turned for hours and hours but couldn't sleep, about half past 4 in the morning, the door to Eren's bedroom creaked open, he sat up and could make out a silhouette of a girl standing in the doorway, it spoke softly and quietly, he instantly recognised it as Petra's voice "Eren, are you awake?" she asked, Eren reached for the lamp and light it, the room slowly warmed up but instantly glowed.
Petra walked in and closed the door as Eren sat up, he was in his green long sleeved shirt he used to wear in his cadet days but was wearing nothing on his legs but his grey pants, Petra was wearing a long sleeved, white dress shirt way too big for her and what looked like fabric bottoms.
She slowly walked over to Eren and sat at the end of the bed "you saved me" she said plainly, skipping straight to the reason of why she was here, she was looking at the floor at the moment but when she raised her head to look at Eren, he could see she was trying her hardest not to cry, her eyes tearing up, she leapt onto Eren, swinging her arms around him and lose control, she burst into tears "thank you, all i could think about while that titan was reaching for me is how cruel I was to you yesterday and the night before".
Eren was surprised but he just sat there listening "that was wrong of me, it's just, no one has ever said anything like that before…" there was a long pause before her next words "i owe you my life". Eren was kind of taken back, he put his arms around Petra as she sobbed into his shirt "if we ever get time off work" Eren began "I'd like to take you on a date, if there is anywhere we could even go" he said quietly, Petra nodded in his arms "anywhere with you would be wonderful" she said quietly and sweetly as she started to stop crying.
After about ten minutes of holding each other, Petra broke the silence "do you think, that i could stay with you, till morning?" she asked looking up and rubbing her eyes, Eren didn't want to get into trouble but he didn't want Petra to be alone, they all had double beds so there was enough room, he nodded and smiled as Petra clambered in next to him, Eren turned off the lamp and they both fell asleep as the room slowly cooled, until morning when they were woken by light shining in through the window, and a knocking on the door.
