847, June 15

Part 1

In the list of Odilie's favorite things, early mornings were on top of it. Most would say it was because it meant that she was still alive, having survived yet another day in this world, and they wouldn't be entirely wrong but reality was much simpler…

For the first part… When everyone still slept… When you could hear the birds chirping… It seemed like titans didn't exist. It was moments like these that let her dream of a simple life where no one fought and no one died, because at all other times of the day, the true reality manifested itself in the worst possible forms, ranging from never-ending memories to nightmares which awoke her gasping for air.

Mornings were one of the few things that brought some calmness to her heart.

As for the second reason…

'Beautiful…' She let a satisfied sigh out, her left hand supporting her head whereas the other kept drawing circles on the edge of her cup. She loved silence and colors this time of the day brought. Besides that, the day seemed to be gorgeous…

The soft warm tones were already starting to disappear and soon the veil of dimness would be gone with the summer sun, recoloring the surroundings into brighter tones yet again. When that happened, scouts would start to awaken and flood the halls of their headquarters. A new day in the Scouting Legion would begin yet again. Until then, she was free to enjoy the quietness of her favorite time of the day. Like always…

With this thought, her eyes closed.

Odilie had spent so much time in the Legion that it had already began scaring her a bit. She knew exactly what was going to happen where.

Irvin would be up before the bells which signaled the start of another day for the scouts. He'd be as awake as ever and with that grim expression on his face and a load of papers in his hands would head from his room to the office.

He'd meet Eckart on his way, at the same time in the same place as ever, who would trudge slowly to the bathrooms, still in his pajamas, rubbing his eyes and yawning. The younger man would blink the sleep away as soon as his eyes landed on the Commander and he'd fall into a greeting, dropping the towels with his other things onto the ground. Irvin would tug his lips into a smile at this, involuntarily, and then help him pick everything up. Honestly, this repeated each and every morning and the timing and the place of it never ceased to amaze her. Their bodies' clocks must have been set in stone for this to keep happening for so many years…

As for Odilie, she knew it because that view always made her day, ever since she began noticing this. Once she did, it became a ritual for her to go there and tease the two. After that, she'd usually have a great morning, able to smile ear to ear just because of that. After all, it's the little things in life…

Then, she'd meet Leo, who would leave her room, timidly looking around, and, as soon as her eyes landed on Odie, beam a bright smile before going back to her shy behavior and rushing to her and the two men. A beautiful salute would follow this. After that, the two females would proceed to the board, where everyone's duties for the day were pinned.

They'd find Petra here, already examining who was assigned to what job. After a cheerful informal greeting between her and Petra and another salute from Leo, the three women would make their way to the dining hall, chatting about anything that came to their minds. Well, at the very least Odilie with Petra would… Leo would be a pace behind her two elders and nervously play with her belt buckles, listening to the women.

Just before reaching the hall, they'd usually run into Hanji, who'd throw herself at the trio, hugging the hell out of the shortest in the group – which happened to be her. Odilie would take this with an annoyed face, but say nothing. Once she was released, she'd sigh and be on her way, mumbling incoherent things and fixing her hair which Zoe never failed not to touch. In a way, the woman was a lot like her oldest brother Kurt so she could never get seriously mad at her…

After this, the routine would snap, having in mind Hanji's crazy personality.

Odilie found that she loved such mornings. Routine was something she began appreciating after all the insane shit that had happened in her life. Mundane meant no surprises, no deaths and lots of laughter, which she missed dearly before a lot of people joined following the fall of Wall Maria.

/*==*\

The young female opened her eyes and stretched. The sun had risen and was already pretty high. She had zoned out for quite a while it seemed… It had to be merely half an hour at most before the bells began ringing. And this meant that she had to get a move on already.

She grabbed the cup from the table and stood up. When she turned to her left she nearly had a heart attack, flinching after seeing she wasn't alone in the kitchen anymore. Her eyes met cold steel ones as the man was leaning against the cupboards, his gaze unmoving from her form.

Odilie blinked a couple of times. For the life of her, she couldn't remember his name, although she greeted him formally many times and also had heard that he got pretty famous rather quickly. Besides that, he had just been promoted, like some two or three months ago…

Seemed stupid not to know who her Corporal was? Well, then consider her stupid. The only reason she even knew he was her superior was because of his chilling and unapproachable looks, which was impossible to mistake with anyone else's. Add to this that so far she didn't have even small dealings with him. She'd see him in the halls and would greet him, his eyes sweeping past her, not even seeing her most likely even if he would respond to this.

Besides that, what was the point in remembering people's names when there was a bigger chance in them dying than surviving? After all, she didn't even hear of him graduating from the Military Training… It was beyond her how and why he joined… Promotion was a total mystery… Then again, there were rumors of their new Corporal being a natural genius with 3DMG…

"… Corporal." She fell into a salute, hiding her cup behind her back with her left hand. He nodded, sipping on his coffee. His expression was as cold and bored as ever. However, that intense gaze was making her uncomfortable. Odie could only think that those eyes were far from uninterested…

'… I'm getting out of here.'

Without further wait, she made her way to the sink. Hurriedly, Odilie washed her cup, not even having to look to know that his eyes were following her every movement. This was a bit unnerving. He had never even taken the time to properly look at her before and now it seemed like she had his full attention. And she doubted it was because she was the only person in the room…

"Why the gear so early in the morning?" His voice startled her and she dropped the cup. Thankful to her quick reflexes, she managed to catch it before it had reached the surface of the sink.

Odilie looked down at the metal sheaths on her thighs, six blades in each and weighing the belts down slightly. She could feel the operating device at her sides just under her chest and the maneuver mechanism pressed a bit too tightly on her back. All of those sensations were so familiar to her that she forgot more than just half of the time she had her gear on…

'I'll have to correct that one once I'm out of here…' She slightly tugged at the back where the maneuver mechanism was, realizing that she had also forgotten her jacket when it didn't brush her hand.

Her gaze shifted to the man. His gear was present as well. Her eyebrow rose.

"I can ask you the same, Corporal."

"True. But I had asked first." His cup now sat on the cupboard, empty, and his hands were crossed. Startled, she realized she didn't hear, feel or even see that happen…

Odilie shrugged, positioning her eyes back to the cup, and grabbed a rag that hung nearby.

"Shit happens." Corporal nodded, obviously well aware of what she was trying to say. The silence that followed meant that he held the same position as she on the matter.

The young woman put the now clean cup down with the others and hung the rag. Then, she turned to the man who hadn't moved since.

"Corporal." She saluted and he nodded. Apparently, this was his way of dismissing her.

Without further ado, Odilie turned on her heels and hurried out, cursing out loud as bells rang before she could step out the threshold. At once, she got into a run. She had already missed the first part of her morning show…

/*==*\

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General notes/rants:

Sorry that updates might take a while, but I am in the middle of my finals so it will take me some time to think up chapters that have a nice flow and make some sense. Besides, I didn't quite think that writing a SnK fanfic in another timeline than the manga will be this hard… You can't even imagine how many times I had to adjust this story's timeline, characters' ages or something else after re-watching the anime and constantly finding things that didn't quite add up. I stopped counting how many times I have rewritten draft chapters in completely different settings too… ^^''' At the very least, I seem to have a quite solid past for Odie…

This is a bit slow right now but I'll get things rolling a bit more with the next one :)

Summary: That's a subject for change, unfortunately… Don't be surprised if it really changes as I am not very sure what will fit this fanfic best yet…

Dates: EVERY SINGLE DATE THAT YOU FIND HERE MIGHT CHANGE. Every. Single. One. Although I hope this won't happen, I can't guarantee this right now.

Some info on OC characters (as of 847, June 15):

Odilie Artz. Age: 21. Years of birth: 826, near the end of the year. Height: 157cm. Looks: **

Leonore Volk (aka Leo). Age: 15. Date of birth: 833, end of the year. Height: 165cm. Looks: blonde hair, blue eyes, dainty build.

Kurt Artz. ?

**I find it easier to write when I pay little attention to such details and it also gives a chance for readers to paint the main character themselves. However, that doesn't mean that I do not know how she looks. If you want to imagine her the same way that I do, not interpret her yourselves, do let me know and I'll post a link to her picture on my profile.

Notes on Levi's age: I found somewhere that in an interview SnK author Isayama-sensei had said that Levi is around 30. Fans' calculations say (again, where did I find this?) that he has to be 23 at least. Quite a few say that he is 28.

Well, heck. Didn't expect that one X.X. Still, I'm sticking to this. As I assumed that the age was when attack on Trost began and this is happening before it, I'm making Levi 25, so when I catch up to manga, he will be 28.

SnK facts/errors/grammar mistakes: Found any? Don't hesitate to let me know! Any mistake I correct early on will help me to write later!

Disclaimer: Characters which you do not recognize belong to me. Everything else belongs to their rightful owners.

Thank you for reading, enjoying, favoring, following and/or reviewing!