The sun was beating down on us harshly as all the new recruits stood in a line, waiting to be addressed. There weren't that many of us to be honest and I think it put a damper on the other captains' moods, they had most likely expected more. But then again, how could they not have expected this? Morale for the Scouts was at an all time low. Citizens and future soldiers have seen what should've been called a damn funeral procession for the return of each mission. Bodies of loved ones covered in tarps and the shadows of death casted over the eyes of the leftover mangled soldiers did more than enough to turn even the bravest soldier away. However, all the failed missions and overwhelming deaths were only two reasons why people would never want to join.

I highly suspected that it was the Titans that remained the true reason of why soldiers didn't want to join us. I could laugh aloud at that! As if they think they were highly trained on 3DMGs just to wear the damned equipment for show. As if they'd never face a titan in the entirety of their careers, especially the Military Police. The only thing keeping a respectful thought of them was Anna. Lucky them.

But to simply join the Scouts thinking yourself to be brave or noble, was a fucking stupid motive. I could glance down the line of new recruits and say with full confidence that each and every one of these people had a personal reason for being here. Whether it was for vengeance of some sort or even a fucking death wish, who knew. I definitely had my own reasons, but that was a story for another day.

Right now I was trying to ignore the beads of sweat that were crawling their way down the nape of my neck as the captains were discussing which cadet to place in what team. I wouldn't even try to remember all the names that were being called out, except for the captains. I'd try to remember those ones.

Try. The key word was try.

Uniforms were passed out by a handful of the veterans once we were able to break our salute. Then suddenly, we're ushered along to our new rooms and unlike the cadets from training, these people were mostly solemn, save for a few of the chattier ones that couldn't help but ask questions. The rest of us were kind of in this "fuck it" mode. We were tired and hungry from moving all our personal shit from one place to another in wee hours of the morning only to stand at attention until the late hours of the afternoon for some serious briefing. Oh, the joys of being in the military. One girl (I forget what her name was) turned to me, as if she could see the excitement and positivity oozing out of me in rainbows, and smiled as words came pouring out of her mouth faster than I could comprehend. Her light red hair bounced and swished in an almost obnoxious way as she walked...was I this much of an ass twelve hours ago?

Probably.

So when the girl turned to me with her forty-seventh assumption, obvious statement, or whatever else that came flying out of her mouth, I turned and put my pointer finger across those full lips of hers. Her eyes grew wide as she settled her gaze onto my own and we stopped walking altogether. "Name." I asked, my voice low.

"P-Perta..." she mumbled, trying to move her lips against my finger.

"Petra, shush." I said with a pointed look and moved my finger away from her face. The girl looked absolutely appalled!

"I just..."

I sighed a little through my nose. "Look, nothing against you or anything. I'm just-"

"Cranky?" she asked, a hint of a smile on her lips. My eyes narrowed and a small smirk found its way onto my face as I pointed a finger at her, but I didn't say anything. She wasn't wrong, but I just didn't want to admit she was right. Petra put her hands up in defense and took a step back. "Alright, alright. So you're not the talkative type?"

"Maybe?" I shrugged. I wasn't quiet when I was around Anna, but I never really had any other friends. Petra looked my face over before we started walking together once more, although this time it was much calmer. We were far behind the other cadets so most of the rooms were taken; Petra and I stood there for a few moments trying to find a vacant room.

"Wait!" she said, stopping once more and I couldn't help but throw my head back and sigh as I turned back to her.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I didn't get your name." she said and something clicked inside my head. Of course she hadn't, I was too busy being a complete prat.

"It's Eli."

"Oi, brats."

Both of our heads snapped over to see two of the captains standing a little ways down the hall. A woman with a messy ponytail and glasses while the other was a shorter man with pale skin and jet black hair. I could just barely hear the soft pop of Petra's lips when they fell open as he gave us a bored looking once over and I bumped her arm so she would salute with me. But when she jumped to attention the man looked like he fighting the urge to roll his eyes at us.

"At ease." he said and the woman next to him gave a light giggle, the sound giving Perta and I a sense of ease. Our hands fell to the smalls of our backs simultaneously. The man clicked his tongue as he looked around at all the other new recruits that were carrying shit into their rooms and turned back to us with that blank expression of his. "You two are late." he stated.

"Our apologies, Captain." I said, the sound of my voice matching his expression with great accuracy. A small part of me thought his eye twitched out of annoyance but it was quickly brushed away as he turned around and beckoned us with a wave of his hand as he walked back down the hall. Petra and I exchanged quick glances as we followed but remained silent.

I felt like he was the type of person to make the cadets sleep in the cells below the compound if he wanted to.

"You two get to share the shitty room since you allowed yourselves to be late." he said, stopping at a door at the end of the hall. I looked at Petra and she looked at me and we shrugged.

"That's fair," she concluded as she stepped inside to look around. I looked over at the two captains, fighting the urge to give the little man a once over of his own but instead, I settled on a small smile and looked up at him through my hooded eyes.

"It's perfect, Captain. Thank you." I said and bowed a little as I took a step backwards into the room and swiveled around on my heel to look around. I could hear another click of someone's tongue as the sound of footsteps carried voices away.

"Brat."

I wanted to laugh, but I didn't and turned my head to look at Petra. She was sitting on a small cot with her chin in her hand, smiling. "Are we friends?" she asked, looking at me with those big eyes of hers and I knew I was fucked.

"...Yes." I said and her smile turned into a gentle one as she patted the spot next to her and I sat down a little ungracefully.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked, I nodded. "Don't tell anyone though, I could get a lot of hell for it."

I freigned surprise and leaned back onto my hands. "I thought you were to innocent to curse."

Petra scoffed and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she looked away. "You don't even know me!" she said and I shrugged.

"We share a room now. It's gonna be a learning experience for the both of us." I reminded her and she blew out her cheeks for some reason. I just quirked an eyebrow. "Anyways..."

Petra studied me for a moment before ultimately standing up and brushing herself off. "Never mind. I think I'm just gonna unpack for now." she said and I rested my chin in the palm of my hand as I watched her move about. A blush slowly crept onto her face as she felt me staring her down. "What?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip. My eyes narrowed as a smile stretched itself over my face and I absolutely adored the look on her face as her blush intensified and her eyes widened out of irritation. She looked like an angry twelve year old!

"You like the captain, don't you Petra?"

Her mouth bobbed open and closed like a fish and I snickered as I leaned over to my rucksack to unpack.

"C-Captian Levi? I-"

"Ah, so that's his name." I quipped and Petra huffed, actually stomping her foot out of frustration. God, this woman was an open book...but I suppose that's what made her so endearing. She was hyper and overly talkative when she first interacted with me, but now she was calm albeit severely annoyed from my assumptions of her affections for Captain Levi. Maybe she was just like that before because she was nervous...I didn't know for sure, but now that I thought about it, it made sense. Whatever the cause, I was starting to like the girl. "Ah, whatever. I don't care. Do what you will with your love life, however short it may be."

Petra rolled her eyes as she pulled a shirt out of her bag. "Eli, we're both shorter than he is. Especially you...you troll." she said with a huff, but we both just ended up laughing after that. She was absolutely right!

"Touché." I said with a slight smile. I think I was gonna like living with Petra.