Attachment

Author: Cigamina

Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin

Protagonists: Irvin Smith and Levi are the main focus

Part: 2/?

Warnings: violence , foul language

Rating: will be M

Disclaimer: Characters unfortunately aren't mine, therefore no money-making~ XDDD

Notes: Not too much yet, story starts a few years before the plot in the anime/manga evolves, in year 835.

Please forgive me for making so many mistakes, English is not my native language and I'm sure you will find plenty of mistakes in there! _

Songs I heard while writing the story below:

Music Instructor – Rock your body (Brainbug Remix)

Schiller – Schiller

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The other stared at him, his expression not changing one bit, and when Irvin took another step in his direction the boy lashed out, slashing his knife through the air before scrambling backwards a little, keeping the distance between them.

"Fuck off, I swear I'll kill you!"

He had no doubt about that, the boy would do whatever it took to make sure he got out of his mess alive. It didn't matter to him who he was, if he was a soldier or another thug or a nobleman, he didn't make a difference – in a very twisted way that was fairer than any other system Irvin had experienced so far.

Irvin cocked his head to the side and nodded in the direction of the four corpses that were strewn on the other side of the narrow street.

"Don't you think 4 are already enough? I wouldn't like to be slashed and left for bleeding out, anyway."

The boy seethed and growled low in his throat, his body tensed up even more. He looked ready to strike, all pent-up fury visible in his burning eyes – he just knew that he would tumble to Irvin's feet if he tried anything of that kind, and Irvin knew it, too. The boy would stay where he was and so would he.

"Fuck off, then, and leave me the hell alone!"

Irvin watched him calmly, his hands still raised in the air.

"I won't steal your bread, don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you."

The boy was watching him, running his eyes up and down Irvin's body but didn't seem to come to any conclusion. He silently congratulated himself that he had chosen to wear his long black cloak instead of the shorter green cape that had the Scouting Legion's emblem on its back and would have given him away in an instant, but as his black cloak covered him past his knees there was no telling that he was wearing his uniform. Not oven the over-knee-boots that were so typical of the military and the leather straps around their thighs were to be seen. Irvin was sure that the boy would act differently if he had already recognized him as one of the military. He had to be aware of the fact that the men of the Military Police were searching for him and he would certainly be alarmed if he knew that Irvin was a solder even if the emblems attached to his jacket would tell him that he was part of the Scouting Legion, not the Military Police.

The boy was frowning, his thin black eyebrows furrowed. He couldn't make any sense of this, Irvin could conclude. He didn't understand what Irvin wanted and he couldn't be blamed, parts of Irvin didn't understand what he was doing either. He acted on instinct, and it told him that he should stay. His instincts very rarely were wrong so he trusted them even though he had no idea where this would lead him.

"What do you want? If it's not me and not the fucking bread, what the hell do you want?!"

He sounded aggressive and frustrated, even the pain he had to be experiencing was colouring his voice a little. Irvin was still just looking at him, thinking it a good strategy to confuse the boy. He thought that he knew everything there was to know on the streets but Irvin would prove him wrong.

"As I said before, I think you might need some help. Like being patched up for example, I do have some experience with wounds."

Oh yes did he have. He had been wounded, his comrades had been wounded and all of them knew the basics to get yourself and others patched up so they neither bled to death nor had their wounds infected when they rode/were transported back to their head quarters. He always had a few things with him in the breast pocket of his jacket, just in case something unexpected happened – just like today. Even though he had never expected to use it on a small boy that had just killed 4 people right under his nose.

The boy stared at him, not lowering his knife one bit. His eyes were full of mistrust and anger; he didn't believe one word Irvin was saying. He hadn't expected him to, knowing he would have to do a lot better if he wanted to convince the boy of his pure objective.

"Patch me up, huh? Who're you, the fuckin' good Samaritan? You going to cut your cloak in two with the sword you're carrying, too? Don't fuck with me you damned prick, just piss off!"

Besides his rather foul mouth he had some other qualities, too, Irvin remarked. He had recognized the outlines of the blade attached to his belt even though the cloak made it almost impossible to see it and it was still rather dark in the alley, especially when the clouds covered the moon again. The boy was good – and he would have to try even harder.

He smiled at the boy and inclined his head a little, still not moving his hands. He didn't want to alarm the boy even more than he already did by just towering over him. Irvin had quite an appeareance, he was tall, broad and muscular and was bound to seem like a giant to the small boy who was still hunched on the ground.

"You have remarkably good eyes. How about we make a deal? I'll take it off, put it on the ground – and you put away your knife?"

He looked at Irvin, stunned for a moment, then he barked out a laugh, a hoarse one that sounded like he hadn't laughed for quite a while.

"Are you fucking crazy? You put away your blade, I keep my knife. Who knows what else you've got under that damn cloak? Don't dare come near me, I'll slice you in half you damn bastard!"

Irvin sighed and looked at the younger, understanding that he needed to give him a few very good reasons to make him lower his weapon. Of course, he supposed that the boy hadn't made many good experiences with people and certainly didn't trust easily. Which was what had probably kept him alive for so long, along with his fighting and observing skills. What he lacked in size and mass he certainly made up for with other qualities.

"If you're done swearing could you please put what nature equipped you with up there to use?" He tapped his own temple with a finger, making the other clearly understand what he was talking about. "Why would I want to trick you? I could have run for the Military Police 15 minutes ago if I wanted to have you captured. If I wanted to kill you, for whatever reason you want to accuse me with, I would just attack you and certainly I wouldn't offer to put away my blade." He watched him closely, trying to see if he was getting anywhere with his reasoning. "I don't want your soaked bread, I don't want your knife and I don't want to spill your blood, I don't want to capture you. I only want to have a look at your wound and see if I can help."

The other didn't say anything for a minute, just looked at him. His expression didn't change but Irvin was positive that he was thinking about his words, pondering them and turning them over in his head, trying to find a hole in his reasoning. He wouldn't find one as there wasn't one.

He made him wait another few seconds that Irvin endured patiently. Patience was something he had learned during his military-training and there were very few people who could make him snap. He was certain that a boy from the street wouldn't be one of those people.

He glowered at him, even showed his teeth a little when he growled low in his throat. Irvin found the term 'untamed spooked wild animal' more and more adequate to describe the boy.

He let out another frustrated growl and tensed up even more, ready to snap at any moment.

"Throw the damn blade away."

Irvin triumphed silently, it seemed that a little insulting and reasoning didn't hurt when dealing with unkempt, aggressive kids of the street. It almost made him chuckle when he thought that he, the corporal, was being ordered about by a boy that looked like 12 years old. It the boy only knew…

Irvin complied and slid one hand into his cloak, causing the boy to inhale sharply and push himself away from Irvin another couple of feet just in case he would just go lashing out at him. But Irvin just calmly decollated the sword from his belt and held it up for the boy to see before throwing it to the side where it was out of his reach. He slipped his hand inside of his cloak again and reached into the pocket of his leather jacket, conjured a bandage and a few antiseptic compresses from it and held them up as well. The boys eyes had widened when he had reached into his cloak once again, but seeing that he actually had things he could patch him up with definitely surprised him. Irvin smiled a little and waited patiently, curious what the other would do now.

The grayish blue eyes watched him intently, brows still furrowed, he was still searching for any sign that Irvin had been lying about his intentions. But he came to the conclusion that Irvin didn't show him any – and he slowly, ever so slowly lowered his knife. Without looking away from him for even a split second he put the knife onto the ground, pushed it just a little away from him – where he could still grab for it if he felt the necessity to do so. But he let go of it, curled his hand into a fist next to its handle. His eyes were still staring at Irvin, mistrust and fury and pain still very visible, but it seemed that the pain seemed to take over little by little as the boy groaned und pressed his other hand onto his thigh.

"Are you a doctor or what…?"

Irvin smiled and bit back on the retort that yes, he used sharp metal to cut through meat to see what was underneath, and settled for not taking his chances.

"No, I'm afraid I'm not. I just happen to have some experience with wounds and how to treat them, that's all."

Revealing to the boy that he usually butchered titans or at least tried to was probably not the right move.

"May I come closer? I'm afraid of your wound infecting if it's not cleaned properly soon."

The black-haired boy glowered at him and his hand twitched for his knife but in the end Irvin earned a hesitant nod. He exhaled silently and smiled, relief washed through him. Even though he had not yet won, he seemed to be pretty close to it.

"As if it'd matter."did the boy mutter.

He took careful, even steps in his direction and finally crouched down in front of him where the boy could see him and everything he did with his hands. Irvin looked at him, took in the tense features of the boy. He really looked young, his features were even and below the dirt he had to be fairly handsome. His hair was dirty and unkempt and there was nothing but skin and muscles to his bones. Irvin assumed that he had been living on the streets for quite some time to make him look as haggard as he did. He finished by looking into his eyes, the blue eyes still glowering at him from beneath dark black lashes. There were dark circles underneath his eyes, giving him a little skeleton-like appearance. Irvin was certain that it was impossible to sleep long and peacefully somewhere underneath a bridge or in a narrow street, always living with the fear to get stabbed when slumbering.

"Show me your wound."

The blue eyes watched him and narrowed, but when Irvin didn't move and waited for him to decide on the pace they were taking things, he muttered something to himself and took his hand from the wound, pushing the dirty fabric of his rags away to enable Irvin to see the wound – and he inhaled sharply when he saw it. Vertically carved into the flesh of his left thigh there was a cut that seemed to be rather deep, the man inflicting it had used a lot of force. Fortunately Irvin couldn't see the bone and he was able to tell that the man had missed a very important artery by very little, but it was still a rather severe injury. He was a little surprised that the boy hadn't yet passed out from the pain and the blood-loss but he concluded that it must be the adrenaline flooding his body that kept him upright. What Irvin also noticed now that he was closer to the boy was the fact that he was shivering all over. That was something the adrenaline couldn't cover, the boy was freezing and having lost quite a lot of blood certainly wasn't helping to keep his body warm. Irvin was already raising his hands to unfasten his cloak because he wanted to drape it over the boy's shoulders - when it occurred to him that it might not be a good idea. He was wearing his full uniform underneath the cloak and he was certain that the boy wouldn't react favourable to that. But… at that rate he would freeze in front of Irvin's eyes. And he needed something to tightly wrap around the boy's thigh to make the wound stop bleeding so fiercely; the most suitable thing he could think of were the straps that were wrapped around his own thighs.

Irvin watched the boy and he was staring back, frowning at him.

"N-not what you're used to, eh? You g-going to be sick? I betcha haven't seen anything like this before."

Irvin only blinked. For a moment he couldn't follow the boy's train of thoughts because he was still pondering how he was supposed to solve the problem of the boy freezing to death without blowing up his cover, but the clashing of teeth when the boy spoke had him make up his mind. He smiled a little and put down the bandages and the compresses, aseptically wrapped up as they were he had no fear of them getting dirty.

"I've seen worse, don't worry." Parts of arms and legs bitten off by titans beat the deep cut even though it was a rather severe wound. Irvin couldn't help but smile when the boy actually looked a tad disappointed. "Given the fact that you're shivering miserably I'll live up to your expectations and pull off my coat to put it around you. I thought I'd inform you beforehand to escape being sliced up because you think I'm going to pull a trick on you." That earned him a snort from the boy and he was glad to hear it, telling him that the other started to let his guard down just a little bit. Knowing that his plan was risky and that he just had fractions of seconds to do what he had to, but he had to try. So he raised his hands and unfastened the latch of his cloak to pull it off his shoulders when he was ready.

"As you don't have your sword I get the whole cloak then, good Samaritan? That's too-" The rest of his sentence remained unspoken because a scream erupted from the boy's lips, telling Irvin that the boy had recognized him for what he was. His body jerked back violently and his face was contorted with rage, his hand went for his knife. Irvin only had fractions of seconds to let go of the coat, slam his left hand down onto the knife before the boy could reach it, plunge forward to pin down the boy's legs with his own weight and grab his throat to push him as effectively back against the wall as he could manage.

And he succeeded.

He felt the boy's hand scratch and rip at his own when he tried to get to his knife, his other hand was hitting and tearing at Irvin's outstretched arm to make him release him, his body was violently thrashing underneath Irvin's – but Irvin didn't let go, he remained in place and listened to the boy's screaming and cursing for a few moments. He wasn't trying to suffocate the boy, merely keeping him at arm's length to spare himself being bitten. The worst part of it were his eyes though, burning into Irvin's own with an expression of pure hatred and betrayel.

"You fuckin' bastard, I knew you're some filthy traitor! Let me go you sick fuck, I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you and LET ME THE HELL GO! YOU DAMNED SON OF A BITCH LET ME-"

"Would you JUST be quiet for a second?"

Irvin's steady voice cut through his cascade of insults and he underlined his words with a little movement of his thumb, just applying a little more pressure to the boy's trachea, not enough to really cause him problems breathing but making him gasp nonetheless. He steadily looked into the other's blue eyes, making it crystal clear that he meant his words just exactly as he mouthed them.

"Believe me, it wouldn't take much for me to strangle you right here and now, or snap your neck in two. As you might have realized I'm from the Scouting Legion, my opponents are usually about 6 times your height and taller and I still manage to get them to their knees somehow. Yes, I'm from the military that you are, let he make a hazard guess, not quite fond of, but I've got very little to do with the Military Police that has been chasing you for a while. What happens here is their business, my field of responsibility lies outside of wall Maria-" That was a lie, of course dealing with criminals when he caught one in the act WAS part of his duty, but the boy didn't have to know every little detail. "- and therefore I'd appreciate it if you just relaxed a little. I still mean you no harm and I'm still here to patch you up. I still want to put that cloak around you so you won't freeze to death right under my hands and I won't take you to the Guards or anywhere else. As I told you already, there's no need for me to be kind to you if I intended to hurt you. And don't look at me like that, I didn't lie to you or anything. I thought that showing my uniform to you right away might worry you a little too much, and I suppose I was right." Dark blue eyes were still trying to burn him to ashes but he didn't say anything, just breathed harshly through his nose. He seemed to be thinking about Irvin's words and he gave him time to do so, moving his thumb away from his trachea but not releasing him anywhere else. Irvin slightly shook his head and cocked his head to the side, never letting his guard down because he felt that the boy's body was still pent-up to the point of snapping. "I think I really liked being regarded as the good Samaritan better." He gave him some more time to think, to ponder his words and turning them over in his head, once again trying to search for possible catches. Irvin understood his fury and hate perfectly well and a part of him felt very sorry for his need to be a little forceful, and yet he didn't want to be slashed by his knife. He would get it into his thick head that he didn't want to hurt him, the boy would end up believing him if he liked it or not.

The boy seethed at him a little more even though he snorted when Irvin attempted at a little bit of humor which he took as a good sign, he didn't try to wrench himself away from him again. He had also stopped scratching and tearing at the hand he was still keeping pressed flat onto the knife, he was merely gripping his wrist tightly. Irvin looked at him inquiringly.

"Can I let go without having to fear you slicing me up? I just want to move back to give you some space, put that coat around you and then finally try to keep that wound from infecting. Oh, and I need one of the straps around my thigh to wrap it around your thigh to make the cut stop bleeding. So I'll reach down to unfasten that once I got to let you go."

The other was frowning at him, pushing his head back against the wall as if trying to melt into it and being freed from the hand that was pressing against his throat.

"Why d'you tell me that?"

Irvin looked at him, mildly surprised upon hearing his question, but relieved that his thinking hadn't culminated in another cascade of curses and insults.

"To prevent you from trying to lash out at me again because one of my actions surprises and scares you?"

The boy's eyes narrowed upon hearing his words and he hit Irvin's outstretched arm with as much force as he could muster with his free hand, wriggling underneath his larger body. The blow hurt, but he wasn't about to let the other know.

"I'm not scared you damn giant!"

He hissed at Irvin, his eyes still burning with an intensity that Irvin had not yet conceived, entertaining Irvin's idea of him being an untamed animal quite strongly. He sighed, quietly muttering "Of course not." and looked at him until the boy stilled, frustrated that he didn't stand a chance against Irvin. He sure was surprisingly strong for a boy his size and built but Irvin came with some natural advantages that outnumbered the black-haired boy by some.

"Can I let you go? I really didn't plan on sitting on top of you the whole night."

The boy snorted again and narrowed his eyes, glowering at him but his body relaxed just the tiniest bit.

"I don't know if you CAN but you SHOULD. Just fucking let go."

Irvin almost chuckled, he liked the boy's wits in a way – when ignoring the foul language he was expressing them with.

He slowly rocked back onto his heals, releasing the boy's throat and lifting his weight from his legs. He waited another few seconds until he slid his hand from underneath the boy's own, being fully aware of the fact that the boy now had the knife underneath his palm, just needing to grab it. For a split second he thought that he had been deluded by his trust in the other's common sense, noticing the boy's body tense up and he already worked up an emergency plan how to pin the other down best before he even moved a muscle – when the boy relaxed. His hand stayed on top of his knife but he didn't grab it. Irvin waited another few seconds, just to be sure, before he inclined his head to the side slightly.

"I take it that I can start?"

The blue eyes looked at him a little calmer now that he felt his knife's bade underneath his hand.

"Feel free."

Irvin smiled and sank to his knees next to the boys legs, grabbing his coat to put it around the boys shoulders. The younger wrapped it around him and covered himself with it, huddled into it as much as he could. Irvin moved his hands to quickly unfasten one of the straps circling his thigh before wrapping it around the boys thigh, fastening it firmly which earned him a little gasp from the boy. He opened one of the little packages that contained an aseptic piece of cloth and cleaned his hands. It earned him a dubious stare and a frown.

"You always carry all that stuff around?"

Irvin chuckled and opened another package containing aseptic compresses, preparing them to finally clean the wound. The bleeding had already ceased a little and he would just wait another minute.

"As we tend to get wounded quite often when running into titans it is rather advisable to do so, yes. It doesn't help much when you happen to… misplace an arm or a leg, though." And that happened on a regular basis he could tell.

The boy stared at him and made an engrossed sound but didn't shudder or gave any other hint that the thought of bitten off arms or legs intimidated him.

"Eww. …Recon Corps, huh…?"

Irvin smiled and lowered his hands to the wound after inspecting it for a few seconds.

"Yes. That's the ones with the wings. Careful, this might sting a little."

He gestured at the embroidered wings that were decorating his left breast pocket and then got to work, carefully wiping off the drying blood around the wound and its edges. His actions wrung a pained hiss from the boy's lips and he quietly apologized, continued his cleaning nevertheless.

"Hnn – I know that, thanks for the lecture."He flinched when Irvin moved to clean the deep but and he put a hand onto his thigh to keep him in place. "Nhhh… you must be mad to willingly become titan's food…"

Irvin looked up at him questioningly, arching his eyebrows.

"Pardon?"

The boy pressed his back against the wall to steady himself, clenching his jaw. The antiseptic might be stinging more than a little.

"It's true, isn't it? Each time you go outside not even half of you return… that's insane."

Ah, that was what the boy was aiming at. Returning to his task he decided that he might as well explain their – and with that his own – motives a little better. It sure didn't hurt to distract the boy from the cleaning he was doing as it seemed to be more painful than he had assumed.

"We suffer losses, that's true. But we need to face the titans, learn about them to fight them. We won't accomplish anything staying inside."

He took out another compress because his first one was already blood-soaked and got on with his task, making the boy moan softly.

"But you stay alive."

Irvin looked up into the boy's face that was tense with the pain he was feeling and he inclined his head a little.

"Alive and caged up. If that was what I wanted I'd have signed up for the Military Police."

He went on with cleaning his wound as the boy stayed silent for a while, hissing and cursing a little whenever Irvin moved away from the wound's edges more to the middle of the cut. He clenched his jaw and tried breathing through his nose, finally deciding that it was better to talk than to fully concentrate of the burning sensation Irvin was causing him.

"So… you willingly decided to join the Scouting Legion?"

He threw a glance at him, mildly surprised that he showed an interest in hearing about Irvin's own motives now. He nodded and took another compress, the last one as it seemed that the wound was as clean as he could achieve in a dirty alleyway.

"It had always been the Scouting Legion for me, there was no decision to be made. And I'm afraid that we might need to attempt a few stitches, the cut is too much ajar to just bandage it."

He fumbled with another package and shook out needle and thread when he managed to rip it open, causing the boy to groan. He smiled apologetically and prepared the needle, pushing the thread through the eye of the needle. "I'm sorry, you might have to prepare for a little more stinging. But I'm good at this our doctors always tell me, you'll avoid scarring like up there."He absentmindedly brushed his index finger across a rather nasty scar that marred the inside of his thigh, the one he had caught a glimpse on when he had fastened the leather-strap around the boy's thigh, not thinking much of it. Feeling the lean body flinch violently and jerk back made him look up, witnessing the boy's hand tighten around the handle of his knife and fear flash across his delicate features. Irvin blinked and help up his hands, confused by the fierce reaction. He looked at him apologetically, wondering what exactly had caused his reaction; pain or the touch itself.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

He kept his words this way, watching the other for his reaction. He didn't think that the greatly scarred skin really hurt when being touched, but he had stirred something in the boy that definitely told him that there was something about the scar – but it didn't really matter, he bet the boy had tons of scars scattered across his body considering his lifestyle. He just wanted him to relax so he could get to stitch up the wound.

Dark blue eyes glowered at him, fear and mistrust flashing in his eyes, his hand tightened around the knife's handle again and Irvin almost felt the urge to apologize again - when the boy shook his head a little awkwardly and relaxed, sagging against the wall behind him. He motioned for Irvin to go on, reaching for a piece of his rags to cover the old scar with. Irvin complied and carefully started sewing the edges of the scars together after having wiped another compress across the scar to lower the chances of it inflaming to a minimum. The boy cringed a little and whimpered softly, biting down on his tongue to keep himself from making sounds. Again he chose distraction over concentrating on what Irvin was doing.

"But why? Why the Recon Corps?" he pressed through gritted teeth. Irvin was as gentle as he could be when sewing somebody together but of course it hurt. He would just have to endure it for another couple of minutes.

He didn't have to think long about the boy's question and answered it, relieved that the boy didn't seem to bear any enmity about what had just happened.

"Because I believe in freedom and the pride of humanity. I believe in a future where nobody has to be afraid of titans maybe breaching through a wall one day, in a future where no walls are needed to protect us. And therefore I'm willing to fight."

The boy winced when another stitch was made and secured with the surgeon's knot that Irvin was quite skilled at making by now, having stitched up many of his own wounds and those of others over the years. His eyes narrowed and he tried breathing calmly through his nose, calming himself. When he spoke, his voice indicated the pain he was feeling and Irvin thought to recognize a good measure of incredulity in its tone.

"But you're most likely to die?"

Irvin didn't look up because he wanted to finish the stitching as quickly as possible, but he smiled when he answered. His voice was firm, not leaving any doubt about the seriousness of his words.

"At least I know what I live and die for; and nothing can take that away from me. If I die in battle I'll die for the cause of humanity, and I'll die with my head up, proud that I have given everything I could to help freeing mankind from its imprisonment. If that's what it takes to get us closer to achieving our goal, I'll gladly give my all."

That silenced the boy for a few moments and when Irvin looked up he saw the boy glancing at him thoughtfully even though he frowned.

"So… you… die when you're ordered to?"

Irvin stopped the even movements of his hands and looked into the boy's eyes, inclining his head to the side a little.

"If that can be paraphrased into 'I'd do whatever I'm ordered to by my superiors', then yes, I would. Without hesitation."

Again his voice was even, serious, and filled with so much conviction that it made the boy fall silent again.

Irvin looked back down at the wound, only a few more stitches to go. Then he could put the remaining compresses to it and wrap the whole thing up with a bandage. That way he ran the less risks of it reopening or inflaming.

He seemed to have gotten his voice back as he heard him clear his throat and then speak.

"That… reduces your superiors to nothing better than what the titans are."

Securing the last stitch with another knot Irvin bent down and bit through the thread, examining the suture he had made with critical eyes before shifting his eyes to the boy's face, frowning slightly. The boy… had an interesting way of thinking. Now that he laid off the swearing and hissing he was remarkably quick at overlooking facts, adapting to new pieces of information and grasping them. Even though drawing wrong conclusions – but that came from lacking age and experience and Irvin set forth to correcting him. He was willing to answer his questions and discuss his criticism as long as he restrained from being abusive.

"Oh no, don't look at it that way. The titans kill for… hunger, for instinct, for fun even, maybe, we don't know. My superiors are aware of every man they send to death and they do it because it's humanity's only choice on advancing towards our goal. Sacrifices must be made and nothing can be changes if there aren't people who're ready to risk everything. My superiors… some people have to lose their humanity to save humanity. And they are dependent on people who're willing to trust them, to give them everything."

His words earned him a frown and the boy seemed to think about them a little more when Irvin grabbed for the last compresses to spread them onto the suture.

"Doesn't… that make you a will-less dog? And doesn't it collide with your will to be free and all that stuff?"

Irvin looked up and now it was his time to think about the other's words. They were amazingly elaborate he had to admit and it made him wonder just for how long the boy had been living on the streets. Judging from his looks he would aim for since he was born, from the way he thought… he was either a by nature very intelligent child that had a lot of bad luck or… he had acquired this lifestyle rather recently.

He inclined his head and looked into the dark blue eyes, noting that once he wasn't raging and concentrating on something his eyes and expression didn't give away his emotions as easily. There was a deadpan characteristic to his features once he was calm.

"Yes and no. I don't think about whether my superior's decision is right or not, I don't question. I obey. BUT I'm there because I want to; how does that make me will-less? I decided to sign my life over to the scouting legion and I don't regret it."

The boy looked at him and Irvin was almost curious what he would come up with next but he just snorted and watched Irvin when he grabbed the bandage and started firmly wrapping it around the boy's thigh.

"Hmpf. Quite the heroic martyr, huh?"

Irvin chuckled and smiled, being careful to apply just as much pressure to his movements that the bandage would neither slide down his thigh nor constrict the blood circulation there.

"I'd humbly call it loyal and romantically idealistic."

He knew that people not belonging to the Scouting legion who heard him talk would rather call him a fool, maybe insane and certainly a drilled subordinate to a system of bondage where you gave up yourself to serve the community. He doubted anybody could understand his feelings unless they had lived through the same things he did and shared at least some of his passion.

The boy snorted again and raised a hand to touch the bandage that Irvin had just finished wrapping around his thigh, looking up into Irvin's eyes.

"Huh. …who are you?"

Irvin cocked a head to the side, not sure what the boy wanted to know. His name, his position, his profession, in a literal or a figurative way? He wouldn't put wanting to know any of that beyond the black-haired boy.

He decided to start with the most obvious, though.

"My name is Irvin Smith."

The boy threw him an almost bored look; he took it he hadn't been interested in his name.

"No, I mean that." He gestured vaguely in the direction of Irvin's chest and he needed the following question to realize what the boy had seen there. "Is it a… rank?"

Irvin had almost forgotten that he did wear a golden emblem to his chest. He usually wouldn't put it there as all of his men knew who he was anyway but he had wanted to show it to his sister and brought it along for that reason. Irvin smiled and packed up the things that still remained from patching the boy up, putting it back into the breast pocket of his short leather jacket.

"I'm the Scouting Legion's corporal."

His words didn't seem to have much of an effect but he had been looking into the boy's face attentively for quite a while now, to the extent that he caught the minimal widening of his eyes. The boy must be profoundly shaken, having been patched up by and having chatted with not only a soldier of all things but one of the higher ranked leaders of the Military – that must have tumbled over his view on the world.

"…"

Irvin smiled and rocked back onto his heels, looking at the boy questioningly.

"Do you think you can stand?"

He had rested a little, warmed up and the wound was taken care of but he still had lost a fair amount of blood. Irvin watched him when he carefully tried to get to his feet, trying not to strain his injured leg too much. Below the cloak he was clutching the package with the soaked bread to his chest with one hand.

Irvin held out a helping hand but the boy only glowered at him and used the wall to make it back to his feet. He swayed a little but then steadied himself, still bracing himself against the wall. Irvin stood up to his full height, realizing just how short the boy was now that he was standing right next to him; the black-haired boy had to look up quite a lot when he wanted to see into Irvin's face. And his cloak was pooling around the other's ankles because it was much too long for him, making him seem even tinier.

The smaller one let go of the wall, putting his weight onto both of his legs and tried shifting it onto the left. If it hurt a lot he covered that up quite a lot, he just narrowed his eyes a little but kept himself upright. Irvin had to give him credit, he had seen grown men injured less and whining much more.

A thought crossed his mind and he paused when he thought about it another few moments, his mind already scheming. That… might have been the silliest thing he had ever thought of… but… in a way it seemed like the only road he could take at this crossroad. And again he trusted on his instincts.

"Where is your… the place you're staying?"

He would have almost said 'home' but chances were high that the boy didn't have something like that so he paraphrased it to not making it sound like mockery.

Blue eyes narrowed and the boy gripped his knife's handle a little tighter but relaxed a moment later and tugged the knife back into somewhere in his rags.

"Everywhere."

Irvin nodded and then went over to retrieve his sword, refastening it to his belt where he had taken it off a while ago. His actions were eyed skeptically but when he returned to the boy he wasn't greeted with a drawn-out knife and he took that as a good sign.

"I'll walk you everywhere, then." The other's protests were simply ignored and he cut through the boy's voice with his own, making it clear that he wouldn't take a 'no' for an option."I'll keep you company for a while. You don't have to lead me anywhere, just close to there you want to go or up to which point you feel it is safe for you to take me. But I didn't patch you up to have you murdered because you're in no shape to fight anybody off right now."

The other huffed and glared at him but Irvin knew that the boy knew that he was having a point. He was weakened and injured, he wouldn't be able run or move as quickly as he had to to make up for his lacking size and mass and that was making him an easy target.

He pfffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, pulling Irvin's cloak even tighter around his body.

"Don't you have more important things to do? Like being a titan's midnight snack?"

Irvin grinned and shook his head before turning to leave the narrow street.

"That brilliant scheme has to be delayed until morning, titans are rather inactive during the night. Lead the way."

The boy stared at him incredulously and Irvin smiled, always content to have him at a loss of what to say. His mouth was even a little agape before he remembered to shut it and put a bored expression onto his delicate features. He huffed again and then started limping out of the narrow alleyway back onto the broader street Irvin had been walking on when he had run into the quarrel. He spared the four corpses a glimpse as they passed, feeling bad that he hadn't been able to get into the picture before the boy had taken them out. He knew that he had to do something about it, but in which way… depended strongly on the way the boy and himself were going to part.

"The Military sure fucks with your minds, the way you're talking can't be called sane."

Irvin chuckled and left the boy's side for a moment to retrieve the paperback his sister had given him before joining him, the boy hadn't stopped walking. Irvin's cloak polished the floor behind him.

"It has always been rumoured that I had a grim sense of humor."

The boy snorted and limped on, not making a sound indicating that his movements hurt.

"You sure do."

They walked in silence for a little while and Irvin found that now was the right time to set some things in motion. Without looking at him he asked him a question.

"Have you ever thought of joining the Military?"

The black-haired boy turned his heads towards him and gave him a frown, his brows furrowed.

"Is that a catch question?"

Irvin chuckled and shook his head, looking at the boy.

"Why didn't you, if I may inquire? And don't tell me 'I don't get along with the Military Police' because that's no reason. You can have a great career in the Military without having much to do with the Military Police."

The frown even deepened and the boy was looking at him strangely. Maybe he thought Irvin had finally lost it – and he admitted that maybe, in his position, Irvin would think exactly the same.

"If I can't appoint 'I'm a criminal and just don't want to be put into prison' as a good reason then it would be: I'm not insane?"

Now it was Irvin's turn to frown as he wasn't able to follow his train of thoughts. When he answered he didn't know if what he was saying was an answer according to what the boy had asked him by his cryptic question.

"The Scouting Legion isn't the only branch you could sign up for if you want to tell me that you think that you're not insane enough to fight titans outside the walls. There is the Stationary Guard and, of course, the Military Police, too. Even though you do need top grades to be able to join the latter."

When the boy answered it was Irvin who was at a loss of what to say; because he hadn't expected it to be anything like that.

"I didn't mean the titans. For me almost everyone is like a titan… I'm not afraid of guys bigger than me. There's no difference between the thread of being stabbed and the thread of being eaten." His voice was very quiet when he said the last words.

Irvin stared at him for a few seconds and then turned his head to look ahead, his brain working fast. That had been a statement – even though the boy probably had never even seen a titan what he said did make sense. He might never have experienced the terror of staring into a titan's grinning, lipless face and have gigantic hands reach for you, but in essential the boy was doing the same Irvin did: struggling against powers that were far beyond what he could muster up, always having to adapt quickly and finding ways to equal his opponent's power to take them down eventually, always having to fear that the slightest mistake could cost him his life. The emotions he had to be feeling when facing 4 grown men had to be similar to what Irvin was experiencing when he looked into a titan's greedy face.

He was silent for another few seconds, silently thanking his instincts to be so accurate that he could trust on them without much thinking.

When he turned back to the boy, he found blue eyes looking at him.

"They offer you a warm bed, food three times a day and the security that you won't be killed in your sleep. They train you properly for three years and allow you to choose your path from there. It's the only education offered for free. I wouldn't say that sounds too bad."

His voice sounded exactly like it had the whole time, nothing giving away the urgency he was feeling. He had to go about this the right way if he wanted the situation to play out the way he wanted it to and he wasn't sure yet if he was able to push the right buttons.

The boy frowned and looked away, staying silent for a while. Irvin waited patiently, rather certain that he would get a verbal reaction from the smaller one. The fact that the boy hadn't waved him off with a simple 'I just don't want to, shut the hell up.' and was instead thinking about his words delighted him a little.

When the boy finally spoke his voice was very hesitant and quiet, Irvin had to concentrate to hear the middle part before the boy spoke up and hastily finished his sentence.

"… I… I wouldn't… couldn't… I just… I don't want to be a tool."

He looked away to the side but Irvin had caught his almost flustered expression for the glimpse of a moment. He smiled a little, unseen by the boy, and looked ahead to spare the boy of having to hide his face from him. He thought that he knew what the boy had wanted to say before it occurred to him that he was about to say something rather… personal. Giving away what he felt. Up to now he had asked Irvin a lot of things about himself and his feelings but hadn't shared anything of his own.

He carefully thought about his words before mouthing them, hoping that they affected the boy in the way he intended to.

"I've realized for myself that sometimes… it needs submission to gain freedom."

The boy didn't respond to that, all he got was a long, contemplating stare – and he got the feeling that it was exactly what he wanted to get.

The boy came to a halt at another crossroad and looked up at Irvin who stopped next to him.

"I'll go on alone."

Irvin nodded and the boy moved to untangle himself from Irvin's cloak but he just put up a hand.

"No, keep it."

The boy stared at him and Irvin smiled, content to have thrown him off-balance again.

"You can come to the east garrison and return it."

His voice didn't give away if he was serious about his proposal or not, he would leave it up to the boy to decide upon it. It had the effect that the boy sputterd and Irvin laughed, looking into his by incredulity twisted face.

"Take care until then."

And with nothing more he walked on, correcting his direction into that of the garrison he had to walk to. He smiled when he heard the other's voice call after him and chuckled.

"Don't get eaten by a titan!"

He glanced back over his shoulder to see the boy looking after him, his cloak still wrapped tightly around his emaciated body.

"As I'm staying here for another five days they'll unfortunately have to wait until next week."

The boy's snort was the last thing he heard before he rounded a corner and disappeared from the boy's sight. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath through his nose, exhaling slowly. Keeping on walking he let the night's events pass by before his inner eye, a mixture of feeling washing through him. That… had been unusual, to put it mildly. That boy… was very, very unusual. And also… Irvin had acted very unusually, he was aware of that fact. But… there was something already working in his mind, little pieces of information and impressions linking together to scheme out plans just as his mind always did. He was good at strategies and usually they turned out to be useful, just as his instincts rarely failed him. That was the only reason why he was acting like he did. Usually… he had to report what he had seen, civilians had been killed in front of his eyes, he had seen (and helped) a wanted criminal. That was something he couldn't just ignore. But – he was going about this in his own way. And he would do what he had to in order to have done his duties and remain a clean conscience.

It was all in the boy's hands to influence his fate – Irvin just hoped the boy would be living up to the expectations he had in him. He had seen something in him that he hoped he had managed to kindle, that he had put something in motion. Sometimes… all that was needed was a little inception.

Irvin went back to the garrison, the paperback full of pastries still in his hands. He couldn't avoid thinking guiltily that he could have given the boy some of them – but on the other hand… maybe it was better for him to stay hungry. It would make the prospect of three meals a day more desirable, he thought with a smile as he passed the guards stationed at the garrison's front door.

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Okaaaaay~ now I can't stop thinking of Irvin being Dominick Cobb… 8DDDD

Hope you enjoyed reading this!