Chapter 2
One year had come and gone since my friends and I had made it to the human city. I was now almost 18, almost. We were able to blend in with the humans and nobody suspected. Nobody even wondered if the colossal titan and armored titan had been human. Even though they just disappeared afterwards. We all decided to join the military and act like we didn't know each other. Well Annie and I agreed we would be from the same place and the boys would be from somewhere different.
[time skip]
We were all standing in formation awaiting our squad leader. I looked around at the other cadets of the 104th trainee squad. The ones that stuck out the most to me were a dark headed boy with freckles who wouldn't stop smiling. I rolled my eyes at him when he noticed me and waved. There was a shorter blonde guy. I think it was a guy, he turned to look at me and gave me a weak smile. I grimaced at him and looked forward to see a older bald man come stomping towards the group. I assumed he was our leader. He started by yelling at us about something or another. He said his name was Shadis and that we were going to call him squad leader. Then he started to get in the recruits faces. He first got in the blonde guys face and asked him where he was from. I didn't hear his answer and just stood there straight faced, ignoring everyone and everything around me. He never got in Annie's or my faces, actually he walked past a few people. I looked at the people he walked past. There was a reason I saw, the ones he ignored all had a look of determination or their eyes showed that they had been through hell already.
After Shadis had finished a few recruits were already on their way back to their homes unable to take the pressure. Training was easy, it was nothing that I hadn't gone through before. Whenever I excelled in the tasks I was given higher ups would come and watch me with their eyebrows raised. One of which while we were doing hand to hand combat training was Commander Erwin. The head of the survey corps had interest in me already on the first day. I took down my partner who was the freckled boy named Marco. He had come at me with a fake wooden knife. I rolled my eyes at him yet again and grabbed his arm as I side stepped him and tossed him onto his back. He let out a ragged cough and clutched at his chest. I felt kind of bad so with a straight face I bent down took the knife and stuck out my hand to help him up.
"T-thanks…uh" He stuttered.
"Kat" I said.
"Thanks Kat" Marco smiled at me.
I pulled him up a little too hard and he flew up, I had to set him back on the ground. I handed him back the knife and walked away from the training grounds. There was no challenge here so I was going to leave. I would have left if it weren't for Reiner grabbing my arm and spinning me to look at him.
"Care to spar against me?" He asked.
"Tch…Fine whatever" I said.
He came at me as if to tackle me. I side stepped but he anticipated that and caught me with his arm. As I fell I grabbed the arm holding me and threw him over my shoulder. With his arm still firmly in my grasp I twisted it behind his back and bent down with my knee on his back.
"37-0 Braun. You'll never get me down" I whispered into his ear.
Reiner's face contorted into anger and I gave a short laugh. I let him go and walked away giving Commander Erwin a smirk as I left. Erwin smiled and went to talk to Shadis.
I ran into Annie who had also left early and we walked to the mess hall together. Annie was the only I could genuinely smile with. We had been friends since she had found our town outside the wall. I was also the only one who got to see the laid back part of Annie. We walked into the mess hall, we were the only ones there.
"Wanna go help the cooks?" I asked her.
"Nah I'll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs" She said with a smile.
I laughed and went to the kitchen. When I walked in all of the cooks turned to me.
"Can I help you missy?" An older man walked up to me.
"I thought that I could help since I'm not doing anything"
He smiled and handed me a potato peeler and pointed to a bag of potatoes. I walked over to it, grabbed a potato and started to peel. I got the entire bag done in about an hour. The cook looked at me impressed. He gave me a plate of food and told me I deserved to eat first.
"Thank you!" I said with a kind smile.
I took the plate and walked out into the eating area. The others had just started to come in from training. They all were breathing pretty heavily. I went and sat next to Annie who was at the corner table. She eyed the food and gave me a questioning look. I smirked at her and she rolled her eyes at me. She then got up to get her own food. All of the other cadets were staring at me wondering how I got food before anyone else. I looked down at my plate and ate picking at the food. I was hungry but I have a habit of becoming not hungry when I get my food. I forced myself to eat, it wasn't all that bad. I ate in silence until Marco sat next to me. I looked at him from the side. He faced me and plastered a huge grin on his face. As become my habit I rolled my eyes at the freckled boy.
Another boy sat on the other side of me, he had dual colored hair. I stared at his face and couldn't help but notice that it resembled a horse. I said that to him and Marco almost spit out his water that he had been conveniently drinking.
"Jean haha I can't believe you just said Jean had a horse face" Marco laughed quietly.
Jeans face got incredibly red and he started to shovel food into his mouth. Annie came back and sat in front of me on the other side of the table. She glared at the other boys. Jean ignored her and Marco just smiled. Bertholt took his seat next to Annie. Reiner had snuck up behind me with an actual knife and as he raised it I elbowed him in his balls. He hunched over almost gagging at the pain. The knife however dropped at cut the hairband holding my waist length black hair up. All at once my hair cascaded down to my side. I stood up grabbed my plate and walked away from the table. I tossed the rest of my food away and handed the plate back to the kind cook. Then I stoically left the mess hall headed to the girls dorm.
"What the hell was that Reiner!" Annie yelled at him.
"What? I wasn't going to attack her I was just going to scare her" He said.
"You need to go find her and apologize." Bertholt said which surprised both Annie and Reiner.
Reiner huffed and ran out of the mess hall to find me. Jean and Marco's eyes were bulging out of their heads at the sight that they had just witnessed. They hadn't even thought to imagine that my hair would be that long.
"Wow she is beautiful" Jean said absentmindedly.
"Stay away from her horse face" Annie and Bertholt said at the same time.
They both looked at each other and smiled.
"Why? Is she taken?" Marco asked.
"No but if you can't tell Reiner likes her" Bertholt said looking at the other boy.
"Not my fault if I beat him to punch" Jean said and he kept eating.
Annie glared at him but ate quietly. Then there was a commotion later on with Jean and the Eren kid.
Meanwhile while I was walking towards the dorms Shadis caught my arm on his way to the mess hall. He towered over me which is a feat in itself because I was not by any means a short girl.
"Ward you skipped out on combat training did you not?" He spoke calmly.
"Yes sir, I did" I felt there was no reason to lie. Erwin had probably told him that I left early.
"Go run laps until I get back" Then he let go of my arm and walked away.
"Tch fine" I mumbled.
I went to go run laps and found Sasha there running laps too. She had gotten in trouble for eating a potato while Shadis had been making his rounds through the troops. She looked like she was going to die of exhaustion at any moment now. I sighed and began running laps with her. I passed her about 25 times before Shadis came out and told us we could leave. I wasn't even out of breath but I left anyway. Sasha suddenly ran full on to the mess hall drooling the entire way.
I walked around the training grounds for awhile getting accustomed to the place. I found a small clearing among some trees. In the middle of the clearing was a practice dummy. As my curiosity piqued I waled towards the dummy. It seemed sturdy enough and I had nothing better to do so I started to take out my anger at Reiner on it. I was so engrossed in taking jabs at the dummy I hadn't heard Commander Erwin walk up behind me. When I finally calmed down I was panting and sweaty. Erwin shuffled his feet and I whipped my head around to stare coldly at him. When I recognized who I was standing in front of I instantly saluted.
"Commander Erwin!" I said standing completely straight a perfect salute.
He laughed "Hello, cadet Ward I presume?"
I nodded stiffly my face still showing no emotion. He really started to laugh when he saw my expression.
"You remind me of someone, he also never smiles"
"Commander?" I said.
"Okay Ward how about you spar with me instead of that poor dummy" He smiled.
"I do not think that is wise sir" I said still saluting.
He just chuckled and got into fighting position. Then he charged at me, I looked at him and brought my knee up into his stomach when he was close enough. This didn't seem to faze him in the least bit. I smiled inside my head. This might be a challenge. This time I took the first move and went after him straight on. He went to grab me but I faked him out and jumped behind him. I kicked out his legs and he fell. I grabbed his arms and held them behind his back.
"Sir may I leave now?" I asked.
"Yes cadet you may leave now" He said struggling against my hold.
I released him and grabbed my jacket that I had discarded. Then I turned and walked briskly away from the commander. He watched me go and then rubbed at his wrists. Erwin smiled knowing that he wanted me in the survey corps, and he was going to do anything he could to get me in it.
I was almost to my dorm knowing it was well past lights out. I opened the window to sneak into the room when I got pulled into a large muscular chest. I looked up to see Reiner holding me against himself. I looked back down and grimaced.
"Listen Kat I'm so sorry about earlier" he said.
"No your not" I scoffed at him.
He spun me around to face him. Staring down at me with a look of hurt and anger.
"Dammit woman why can't you just accept my apology" He said angrily.
"Because you don't mean it. You never do, tomorrow you'll do something to piss me off again and I'll just glare at you and walk away like usual. You never change" I stated my face void of emotion.
"Ugh you are the worlds most thick headed woman, you know that Kat?" he said.
I nodded "I know."
"Then why can't you understand that I do all of that because I love you!" Reiner yelled.
I stared wide eyed at him, my mouth hanging open. I began to move my mouth open and closed like a fish out of water. Then I heard the other girls whooping at Reiner and I. I forgot I had opened the window before this happened.
"Uhhhh…I don't know what to say" I mumbled.
My eyes were glued to Reiner's boots. 'Were they always that shiny?' I wonder. He stuck his hand underneath my chin and forced me to look up at him. He sighed heavily and turned to walk away. I grabbed his hand and he spun back around.
"Look, I can't say that I love you back right now because truthfully I don't."
His face fell. Reiner looked crestfallen. I cleared my throat "I just have never really liked anyone. I've never had the time too, but you…you are so incredibly aggravating, annoying, completely and utterly irritating that you have somehow wormed your way into my heart. I have noticed that as I began to feel new things for you that you have become sweet, protective, and loving. So as of right now I cannot say I love you but maybe in awhile. Just give me some time okay? This kind of stuff doesn't come easy to me" I got out and took a large breath in.
Reiner stood there in complete shock. He straightened himself out and smiled brightly at me. Then he took off to his dorm and I smiled. I got into my dorm and was beginning to close the window when I heard a very loud "WHOOOOO!" I laughed so hard that I had to hold my side.
