It's weird: I don't particularly dislike Jean as a character, but I constantly pick on him in my writing. I swear I don't hate him. Some of my best friends are Jearmin yaoi smut.
I don't own Attack on Titan in any way, shape, or form. But I own this thing I've written and my OC, who I'm growing very fond of.

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Erna joined her team members for the first time in the inner courtyard which functioned as a training space for the Survey Corps. Unlike the Wall Garrison and the Military Police, the Survey Corps never stopped training. If they wanted their soldiers to survive their expeditions they couldn't afford to lose any physical fitness or let their reflexes get slow, so training was nearly constant.

Jean approached her, "Hey I'm, um, really sorry about last night." It wasn't an entirely accurate statement. He wasn't very sorry about what he had said, but he was sorry that she was caught by Levi. Truthfully he knew he was only apologizing for two reasons: 1) because his team members would continue to give him shit if he didn't and 2) even though she was very strange, he still found the new girl pretty cute. So he tried to make himself sound as sincere as possible.

"Oh it's okay. You know, if not for what happened I would probably still be out mucking stalls today. Maybe I should be thanking you," Erna gave him a brief smile and extended her hand.

It was weird. From the noises they had heard coming from the kitchen last night they were all pretty sure Levi had given her a somewhat severe beating, but to Jean she seemed so much happier this morning than when he had tried to talk to her at dinner. She even smiled. Instead of shaking her hand, he pointed to the cut on her lower lip, "I hope that wasn't on account of me."

She looked confused for a second, and then brought the tips of her gloved fingers to her lip, "Oh I'd almost forgotten. It's nothing. It'll be completely healed up in a day or two." On that last thought she almost sounded disappointed. Jean couldn't make sense of the girl. He was about to offer to introduce her to the rest of the squad, but then Levi showed up to oversee training.

Levi looked Erna up and down. It never made sense how no matter how little sleep he let her have she was always on time. Today she even looked bright-eyed. He wondered how dark her bruises were under her uniform and felt a slight twinge of disappointment that he wouldn't get to see them. He noticed her leather gloves. They were military issue and brown to match the soldiers' jackets, but they were an optional part of the uniform, so most didn't wear them. He remembered that her hands would be raw and sensitive from all the cleaning. "You two," Levi motioned towards Jean and Erna, "Pair off and spar."

Erna nodded and faced Jean. Jean looked at Levi, "Hand to hand combat? We haven't done that since the Trainee Corps."

"Weren't you the one who wanted to learn new techniques?" Levi asked, calling him on his bluff from last night.

Jean groaned and looked to his teammates who were watching. Connie gave him a grin and thumbs up. He faced off with Erna and made a move towards her. Without time to notice what happened he was on his back looking at the sky with her boot on his chest. "Fuck." She leaned down and offered her hand to help him up, "What the fuck was that?" He took her hand and let her help him to his feet.

Erna just shrugged. She took two steps back while he dusted himself off. He resolved that this time he wouldn't be beaten and again made a move at her, this time almost grabbing her arm before ending up on his back with her boot on his chest. He heard Connie snickering at him again. This time he didn't let Erna help him up.

They sparred again and again with the exact same result no matter what tactic Jean tried. Levi was thoroughly disappointed. His point in making them do hand to hand combat training wasn't to teach Jean a lesson about lying. His intention was that during the course of the sparring sessions Erna would take some hits to her fresh bruises. He cursed Hange under his breath for stealing Eren for experiments again. He was the strongest hand-to-hand fighter on his squad by a long shot. It was becoming clear that no one else would stand a chance against the girl. He walked over to the pair as Jean dusted himself off for the 6th time and motioned for them to stop, "Maybe this requires a handicap." He loosened the white cravat from his neck and removed it. He pulled Erna's arms behind her back and tightened the cravat around them, tying her hands and arms tightly together. He stepped away again. This time Jean was overconfident and careless. He rushed at Erna headlong to tackle her at her midsection and knock her down. Erna slid her right foot back, lowering her center of gravity and met his forehead with her own. His forward momentum made the effect of her headbutt worse than she had probably intended. He was on his back again, but this time he was clearly unconscious.

Levi strode over to them. "Jean," he tapped him with his boot. No response, but he could see that the boy was still breathing. He was probably just a little or a lot concussed. "Sasha and Connie, take him to the infirmary." Sasha and Connie hurried over and while they discussed who should carry his shoulders and who should carry his feet Levi stood in front of Erna who didn't look the least bit worried or remorseful. Typical, he thought. "Why did you do that?"

"Sir, I assessed the situation and could see no other way to neutralize my opponent without the use of my arms," she said this in her customary mechanical, emotionless tone.

"It didn't occur to you to just let him tackle you?"

Erna cocked her head to the side, looking truly puzzled, "No, Sir, that thought didn't occur to me. Is that what you wanted me to do?"

Levi brought his palm to his face and shook his head in amazement and frustration. Just then, Hange came over with Eren in tow.

Hange looked down her glasses at the unconscious Jean, "Oooh what happened here?"

"Hange, give me back Eren and take this one to experiment on. She's stranger than you," Levi turned Erna around and began untying her arms.

Hange brought her face uncomfortably close to Erna's, "Yay, a new subject!" She walked around and inspected Erna. "Does she transform into a titan?"

"Not as far as I know, but get her out of my sight for a while anyway," Levi finished untying Erna's arms and shoved her to the waiting Hange who immediately locked arms with the confused and slightly worried-looking girl and led her back to the castle, talking at her the whole time.

Eren stood beside Levi, relieved to be free from Hange, and pointed to the unconscious Jean, "What happened? Did he try to hit on the new girl again?"

Levi turned to look at Eren and said coldly and quietly, "Laps."

"Huh?" Eren didn't understand what he had said wrong.

"Laps for everyone!" Levi shouted to his squad. Everyone groaned except for Sasha and Connie who picked up Jean and began carrying him away.

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When he finished running his squad into the ground, Levi paid a visit to Hange. He found her sitting at her desk going over some things, probably about Eren. He knocked on the door frame, "Where's Raban?"

Hange looked up, "Oh, I let her go hours ago."

"She was too much trouble?"

"No! Exactly the opposite, she's the best assistant I've ever had! So efficient! She filed and cross-catalogued all of my research notes, she organized all of my books, she cleaned everything. I finally ran out of things for her to do and had to let her go."

Levi looked around and noticed Hange's office was a lot cleaner than he was used to. He couldn't see a speck of dust anywhere, "The little brat."

"Huh?" Hange was going to ask Levi what he meant, but he was already storming out the door and down the corridor.

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Levi went to the infirmary to check on Jean and found Erna in a chair next to Jean's cot. She was resting her chin in her hands and quietly watching Jean's face. He appeared to still be unconscious. Levi walked over to the foot of the boy's bed, "Is he in a coma?"

Erna turned her head and gave him a tired look, "No, he was awake earlier. They say he has a concussion, so he's going to be a little sleepy and dizzy." She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, "Much the way I feel. Maybe I have a concussion too. I'm going to bed early unless there's anything else."

"You have a cobweb in your hair," Levi said matter of factly. "Why do you always insist on being such a mess?"

Erna pulled her hair out of its bun and shook it out. Levi was surprised at how long it was. It fell to the middle of her back in large, beautiful curls. He thought if you put a dress on her right now she wouldn't look at all out of place at a ball in a mansion of the inner wall. She interrupted his thoughts with a look, inquiring with her eyes whether she got the piece of cobweb out. She didn't. Annoyed, Levi took a white handkerchief from his pocket and said, "Hange says you make a better secretary than a soldier," as he picked it out for her.

Erna gave him a cold, angry look. After a pause, she said, "Her instructions are clear and easy to follow."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Erna started walking away, but stopped in the door of the infirmary and turned around. There was now more sadness to her eyes than anger, "If you hadn't wanted me to spar and instead wanted me to be a punching bag, I wish you would have just told me… I would have done it."

She left without waiting for a response. Levi didn't have a quick response to that anyway. He was a little shocked at how devastatingly accurate her assessment was. She was much smarter than he had given her credit for. He couldn't be blamed, he decided. Who could tell what was going on behind those blank eyes most of the time?

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Erna kicked the door to her room open and threw her jacket against the wall, "Better secretary than a soldier my ass!" She kicked her boots off and sent them flying, "How the fuck would he know? He never lets me be a soldier." She sat on her bed, leaning against the wall and pulling her knees up to her chest. She had been so tired before, but now she felt too worked up to sleep. She knew it wasn't like her to get emotional, but Levi had a talent for saying exactly the right thing to rattle her. She loved it and hated it. Finally she took her gloves off and looked at her still raw hands, "I'm just a maid most of the time."

Before she could pout, the brunette, green-eyed man who had been with Hange earlier appeared in her door frame. She silently wished she had thought to close it.

"Hey, I just wanted to introduce myself since I missed you at training. I'm Eren." If he overheard her little tantrum, he made no sign of it.

"Hange talks a lot about you," the girl said very matter of factly.

Eren smiled, "Yeah, she's pretty obsessive." He watched her unfold her knees and start putting her hair back up into a bun. "So I heard you kicked Jean's ass."

"Not on purpose."

"Ah, well, that's a shame. No one would blame you if it was. Anyway, I'm glad Levi's finally letting you train with us."

She gave him one of her rare and subtle smiles, "I was getting really good at cleaning stalls…"

Eren laughed, "Yeah, I had to do a lot of that when I first joined the Survey Corps too. Just when you get good at something he'll switch you to something else." This made the girl crease her brow in thought and frown to herself. Eren thought it seemed like no one could take a joke today, or it was just that this girl was as humorless as Levi. What a perfect match. He decided to leave it alone, "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow." He left and closed her door.

Erna lay down on her back and looked at her hands. "I must be really bad at cleaning then," she said quietly to herself.

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Behind the Scenes Notes!

OMGee, that very last image is adorable to me.

If you've read this far, thank you so much. I probably love you!