NOTE: Selma is an anagram of Amsel, which in turn is the German word for blackbird. Yes, I'm a nerd and I love to play with words in my free time. :)

Sixth of December – A Napkin

Harold is having a bad day.

It all begins when they begin their training with another set of maneuver gear routines and attacking dummies in the forest, followed by survival lessons.

"Alright," Eren says as they have gathered at the outskirts of the woods. "We'll start where we left off yesterday. That means maneuver gear routines, that you all know by now. Sasha here will join us again today, so show her what you've got, yeah?"

They all nod and hurry off and up into the air after a salute. Being generally inspired by Sasha's presence, they all are in an exceptionally adventurous mood, moving more boldly and carelessly, but—interestingly enough—with sharper instincts.

Watching them from the top of a tree, Eren makes notes, including his observations and new ideas for further teaching units. He remembers their faces when he's first shown them what he can do with his gear, but after one year, he supposes, their awe when it comes to his skills has faded into acceptance and everyday business. Sasha on the other hand is, of course, a celebrity. Opposed to him, she can give the kids away at the end of the day, which also makes her some kind of favourite grandma. Or rather aunt.

Eren hasn't been up in the tree for ten minutes when he hears Rita call his name. Suspecting another Harold incident, Eren hurries towards her voice, and indeed, finds the kid dangling from a fir, upside-down and tangled up in his wires.

Well, damn.

"I'm sorry, Instructor Eren," Harold mumbles. His coat is dangling over his eyes and he unbuttons it to hand it over to Mia. "I don't even know how it happened. It all went so fast."

Eren lands next to them and sheathes his gear handles. "It's alright, Harold. We'll get you down there."

"How, Sir?" Mia asks. Her blue eyes are big with worry. "The wires seem pretty tight."

"Yes. Looks like we've got to cut him down," Eren answers, drawing a blade with his right hand as he turns to her and Rita. "But it's okay, it happens sometimes. I need you two to step back a bit, though, I could slip with the blades."

Mia and Rita both take two steps back while Eren begins to carve at the strong wires that keep Harold in place.

"You need to concentrate better, Harold," Rita advises over Eren's efforts to cut the boy out. Her voice is stern, yet mild. "You can't let yourself get distracted out there."

"I know," Harold says firmly.

With the faintest of rustles on the wooden floor, Sasha lands next to them. "Oh, what happened here?"

"Only a small mishap," Eren says, looking over his shoulder to where she stands. "Can you have an eye on the others, please?"

"Sure thing." She nods and dashes up and away again.

"Was it a bird?" Mia asks Harold. "One of these buzzarks? I didn't see anything."

"Buzzards," Eren corrects automatically, still busy with the first cut. These wires are supposed to hold, and they do their job.

"Buzzards," Mia repeats to herself.

Rita shakes her head. "No, there weren't animals nearby."

"A branch brushed my nose and I tried to swap it away." Harold's breath goes slightly heavy, and his words come out positively muffled. "That's when it happened."

"Oh," Eren says. "I'm sorry."

Harold grunts. "Not your fault. Did that to myself again, didn't I?" Hanging upside down like this has made his face flush red from all the blood-flow. His nose is swollen again, and his eyes start to fill with tears of pain that he vehemently fights back. His breaths are getting heavier too.

Eren hurries with the wires. It still takes another two minutes to free the kid, and by the time Harold is finally back on both feet again, he immediately sinks down to the ground, holding his, probably pounding, head.

Crouching down next to her friend, Mia carefully rubs Harold's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Of course, he is," Rita says determinedly and slaps Harold's back. "Welcome back to the ground, bat boy."

Face still red and eyes swollen, Harold looks up at her. He smiles weakly. "I'm not a bat boy," he insists.

Grinning, Rita folds her arms. "That's what you say. You should have seen yourself. Frank would have been proud of that show."

"Thank you, Rita." The boy beams, already staggering back up to his feet.

"Slowly there," Eren says, instinctively holding out his hand to take Harold by his shoulder. "Take it easy for a few moments and let your body readjust, alright? You should have a bit of water too. Here." He produces his canteen and hands it over.

"Yes," Harold says steadily, but the hand that reaches out for the bottle is shaky. "Thank you, Sir."

"We'll make sure he's alright," Rita says as Harold takes his first gulp of water. "You can go back to observing the others, Instructor."

Biting back a chuckle at the three of them, Eren looks at her. "Are you sure?" He's not worried about leaving them here. He won't be far away, and with Rita and Mia at his side, Harold is in good hands.

Rita nods. "We've had worse."

So they have, Eren silently agrees.

"Are five minutes of rest enough, Instructor Eren, Sir?" Mia asks.

"Yeah, that should be good," Eren says. "Make sure he's got a natural colour again before he goes back up. And if you need something, call me, okay?"

They nod again. "Yes."

"Good." Eren smiles. "I'll bring you a spare set while you take care of him."

After supplying the three of them with a backup set of gear, Eren goes looking for Sasha. He finds her up on the tree he's made notes from before and takes over from her with a grateful smile. "Thank you, Sasha."

"Anytime," she assures. "Everything alright with Harold?"

"Yeah."

"Reminded me of you, actually." The whimsical grin Sasha shoots him is one practiced by long-time friendship and old camaraderie. "You nearly strangled yourself that day. Made it far, huh?"

Eren snorts and replies just as playfully. "Oh, speak for yourself, Potato Girl." Actually, Harold reminds him more of Armin, but he won't tease his friend while he's not there to defend himself. Also, opposed to himself, Armin at least never managed to tangle himself up in his wires and nearly choke himself to death. Jean had been sneering about the incident for weeks. Eren had been furious, but most of all at himself for being this useless wannabe of a soldier.

Sasha chuckles and then nods at a Titan Dummy a couple of trees ahead. "I honestly can't believe we still have these old things. They're close to breaking apart."

Watching Derek and Sara who fly past them, Eren agrees. "Yeah. Cheaper than producing new props, I suppose."

Sasha sighs. "Well, it's probably for the best."

Eren agrees with a grim smile. About one month after their last battle, the rulings about the Titans being wiped out was proclaimed. Eren still remembers Levi's annoyance about that fact. He said, the only way to make sure every last Titan was gone was to "blow up the whole fucking human race." The higher-ups had only snickered at that comment and told Levi to shut up for once. Which, to Eren's endless satisfaction, he hadn't.

Looking back now, the idea comes to Eren's mind, that maybe their dislike of Levi has played a big role concerning his forced retirement, and he scowls. He's never really thought of that possibility, but now that the thought is there, it seems almost obvious. Does Levi know? Probably. It must have made him furious.

Well, Eren thinks, at least Levi has his café now. He's happy. Hopefully, he concludes with a frown.

"Hopefully what?" Sasha asks.

Realising he said that last word out loud, Eren jerks his head up. "Oh, nothing," he says and tends back to his notes.


With overcoming the first hiccup of the day rather well, Eren concludes their gear drills an hour later to start with the survival training.

It includes finding some kindling that will work which, after the downpour two days ago, isn't all too easy. Due to the cold temperatures and the protection of fir trees, the bare branches on the forest floor are still damp, if not soggy level wet.

Eren splits the Trainees into two teams, ordering one to gather some damp wood from the ground whilst telling the other group to trim dryer low level hanging branches from the trees.

Like this they manage to find a good amount of wood that will do, and Eren shows them how to shave the wet bark from the limbs they collected from the trees, to get a stable fire started.

Once it is lit, Eren explains how to line up the wet wood between the stone ring containing the fire, To hold the drying wood immediately outside the stone ring, he uses a couple larger sticks pushed into the ground as a barrier. He continues with showing them various stages of the drying wood, telling which one would burn and which won't yet. Then Eren makes sure to get a big enough blaze that they could set up a kettle, if they had one. They don't have one, but everyone settles around the small blaze anyway.

"Okay, folks," Eren says. "Who of you have already taken part in a hunt of some sorts?"

A few of them raise their hands, including Mia, Derek, and a small, scrawny boy, named Oskar.

Eren smiles. "Alright. Then I guess you know that in a wooded area like this you have more hunting options than in open country."

They nod, and Eren continues.

"It requires reading animal tracks to know what kind of game you have available to you. Areas like this one usually contain deer, various kinds of game birds, rabbits, and squirrels. If you are near a stream or lake, you could go fishing." He looks at Sasha. "Would you?"

She beams. "Oh, please, can I?"

"Sure." Eren's smile widens into a grin. "You're much better at this stuff anyway."

"Yes, I am!" She booms, boxing his shoulder. "Stick! I need a stick." Enthused, she searches the forest floor nearby, grabs a long, thin branch, and then uses her foot to clear the ground in front of her.

"Rabbits," she starts, "live in holes that are hidden under shrubbery. They make small trails to and from their burrows as they forage for food, that look a bit like this." Using her stick, she makes some sketchy drawings in the damp earth. "Once you learn to read the tracks for real, you can tell whether it is a fresh or old trail. Setting up snares in a rabbit's main path is a sure way to catch it."

She draws something else on a patch of earth nearby the rabbit trails. "Squirrels tend to live up in trees, so you look for sign of their presence by studying the bases of the trees. A squirrel colony will leave slight damage to the tree bark because they are always going back and forth to their food stashes. If you see areas with thin rows of mildly scraped looking bark, you know you're in the right place. The only time you usually find squirrel tracks is when you're next to water."

Sasha draws a rough sketch of what their prints look like as she's speaking. "Squirrels are fast moving, but snares work well in catching them too. They are harder to shoot if you don't have pin point accuracy with a gun, so keep that in mind. You also want to use a weaker caliber gun and bullet type for them or you won't leave enough meat to eat. Higher caliber rifles blow them apart. Our blades are the better option, especially with our gear. You do have to be quick and have good reflex skills, but with practice it's easy. Once you spot a squirrel, you can follow it into the higher branches to kill it."

By now her talk has sped up in excitement, and Eren nudges against her foot with a smile. "Not that fast, Sasha," he advises.

"Oh." She blinks up from the ground and looks around. There's a gleam in her eyes that reminds Eren of one of her numerous meat stealing campaigns. "Alright. Do you have any questions so far?" she asks into the round.

"So we chase the squirrel down using our gear until we manage to kill it," Sara says. "Won't it fall to the ground and get the meat dirty?"

"If you lop the head off clean, and it hits the ground, the meat won't get spoiled," Sasha explains. "You field dress it and keep hunting by tying its tail to the outside of your blade box."

Confusing eyes meet Eren's and he sighs. "We haven't talked about hunting yet, Sasha. They don't know what dressing is."

She looks like in shock. "Why not? They need to know this! It's meat, Eren. Meat!"

He fondly rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

"What's dressing, Instructor Eren?" Sara asks.

Rita clears her throat, and something in the way she's begun to shift on her place, makes Eren look closer. He follows her eyes that observe Harold, and Eren realises with a sudden jolt of concern, that the kid is pale all the way to his bruises.

Harold was fine when Eren explained slaughtering cattle and other domestic livestock during spring, so Eren had not kept a close enough eye on him during Sasha's talk. He knows that Harold isn't stupid. He understands that cows, pigs, chicken, sheep and lambs, goats and staled rabbits will meet their end on a plate someday. Meat is a luxury, a privilege after all. A rare gift.

However, this lecture seems to have had his mind heading towards a very dark place.

"Um," Eren searches for something to say, while Sasha already begins to answer Sara's question.

"There are two kinds, actually. There's field dressing, and full dressing, and–"

"And we will learn about that next time," Eren intervenes quickly, giving Sasha a small nudge with his elbow. "Why don't you explain them how to find other food in the forest, Sasha? Like how to tell poisonous berries from edible ones. And mushrooms, perhaps."

"But isn't that boring?" she asks, her whole face set into an expression of plea. "It doesn't move."

"No, it's great." He stares at her, flicking his gaze shortly to Harold's direction, and her eyes widen in understanding.

"Oh, of course." She relents and redirects her lecture. "Who of you knows some edible mushrooms and their names? I'm sure, Eren already told you a bit during autumn."

With combined effort, Eren and Sasha manage to get Harold back on track, and by the time they head back to HQ the boy is all smiles again.

Watching him as he walks next to Rita and Mia, Eren has to admit that he's worries. He knows he can't protect Harold forever. He knows, he won't be able to save him from the horrors of this world, and can only be grateful for the fact that Harold hasn't been born to witness the utmost horrors on civilisation. Maybe it would have made Harold strong in the end. But maybe it would have made him a hollow shell. Eren has seen it among the veterans too often, luckily not in his own Squad.

He's seen his share of death, more than Eren will ever need, but sometimes there are worse things than a sudden death for a cause you believe in. He wonders how he could help Harold, because he needs to somehow. He can't just stand idly by and send the kid out into the world, unprepared, aside from a concluded Training.

They're already in the outskirts of the city when Mia shoots him a pleading look. Harold crouches down next to her, and Eren mutters a cursed breath at the realisation that something is wrong.

Asking Sasha once more to keep an eye on the others, he hurries over to the small group of three, who have halted next to an old, big fir in the shadow of a house.

"What's wrong, Harold?" Eren asks.

"Hurt," Harold gasps, and something inside Eren cringes. "She's hurt."

He has reached them by now and tries to find what they are all looking at in the midst of brown, rotting foliage.

It's a bird.

A blackbird to be correct, a female one, and she is lying on the soggy vegetation. One wing is spread in an odd angle. She's blinking, and her chest is heaving in a frenzy, but otherwise she is entirely stiff and unmoving. In shock, apparently.

"What should we do?" Mia asks, voice smaller than she is as she looks up at Eren with an imploring gaze. "Can you help her?"

Heart sinking, Eren shakes his head. "I don't know how," he admits.

"She must have flown against a window," Mia whispers, blue eyes big and widened.

"We need to bring her home," Harold declares steadily, beginning to untie his cloak. "Before a cat comes and finds her."

"No," Eren says, putting a hand on his arm to stop his movements.

"But Harold only wants to help her!" Rita's voice is firm and nearly accusing. Her features are resolute. "We must do something."

"I didn't mean the helping part," Eren says mildly, unbuttoning his own cloak. "But here, take mine, Harold. I don't feel the cold as much as you do."

"Oh." A faint blush dusts Rita's cheeks as she looks down at her feet. "Sorry, Instructor Eren."

He smiles. Fierce as her spirit might be, she knows when she stepped over a line. "It's alright," he says.

"Thank you, Sir," Harold says. He picks up the bird with kid gloves, makes sure to add a couple of leaves, and very carefully places her into the green cloth of Eren's cloak before making it into a loose bundle in which she can lay securely. "What do we do now?" he asks.

Eren has no idea. All he knows is that he has to make sure this bird will fly again, because letting Harold down is the last thing he wants to do. Especially today.

By now every other Trainee has gathered around them in a neat circle. Even Sasha looks concerned.

"We bring her home," Eren assures him, and Harold gives a relieved sigh.

"Do you know how to help her?" he asks.

Multiple pairs of expectant eyes look up at him, full of plea and hope Eren doesn't want to crush.

"Not yet, but we'll figure something out," he promises, not knowing at all how to do exactly this.

Because who at HQ would know how to vet a bird with what looks like a broken wing?


When Eren walks into the Sparrow just before closing time, Hanji is sitting at the counter, talking to Levi over a big mug of steaming coffee.

Levi takes one look at him and reaches for a plate to fill it with a piece of cherry pie. Eren is too hungry to complain today. With all the excitement around Harold, he hasn't been having lunch with the others, and his weekday breakfast has been scarce—non-existent apart from a cup of tea to be precise—too.

"What happened, Eren?" Hanji asks. "And where's your cloak?"

The first bite of cherry pie is downright heavenly, and Eren groans softly at the taste before he explains. "It's with Harold's new dormmate."

Levi, busy with a pot of tea, goes still for a moment.

"Oh?" Hanji smiles. "What is it this time? Not a bat again, surely."

Eren shakes his head, aiming for another bit of invigorating cake. "No, an injured bird."

Hanji pauses and then turns fully to him. "A bird."

Nodding, Eren faces her and feels a warning for caution somewhere in the back of his mind at her expression. It has something wild to it. Something he knows all too well. Something absolutely…exhilarated. "Yes. A blackbird in fact. Female. Broken wing, I suppose."

"Interesting." It's clear she wants Eren to ask more.

Not knowing if that would be wise, he shoots a brief glance at Levi. Levi is silent, his eyes are narrowed, and Eren's question to Hanji is accordingly careful.

"How is that interesting?"

Hanji looks at him, then at Levi, who now rolls his eyes at her, and her smile slowly turns into a full beam. "Do you know why this café is called Sparrow?"

"Um…no." Taking another glance at a frowning Levi, Eren shakes his head and turns back to Hanji. "Why?"

"What an excellent question!" Hanji glows. Her eyes are so engrossed that Eren feels like he's fifteen years old again and witnessing the full force of her enthusiasm for the very first time.

"Four-eyes," Levi growls, putting down his cup of tea. His eyebrows are doing this thing again that should warn any sensible person to back off.

She ignores him. "Does the bird have a name yet?"

"Selma," Eren responds, indulging in another bite of luscious, conserved cherries, crumbly pie crust, and comforting clotted cream.

"Of course. And where is Selma the Bird now?"

The sugar already does its job. It settles on Eren's nerves, and he can feel the tension of the day abate more and more with every second, until all that's left is the usual calmness of this place. "In a cage in Harold's dorm. They managed to dig one up somewhere."

"Do you have a cure yet?" Hanji's cheeks are glowing, the eyes behind her glasses are almost dreamy, yet insistent.

"No," Eren sighs with concern. "And what do you mean with 'cure'? That bird needs serious help. And…I don't know. A wing cast?"

Hanji grins, and Eren is absolutely certain that she's in glee. "Do you know what you should do?" she asks.

Startled by her enthusiasm, he frowns. "Look for a vet in town?"

"No." She gulps down her scalding coffee in one go which earns her a disapproving scowl from Levi, puts the mug back onto the counter, and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. "You two boys should talk."

"Tch."

"Huh?" Eren looks at Levi whose expression is completely blank.

"Talk," Hanji elaborates. "You know that thing when you open your mouth and let words fall out? You should try it sometimes. Works wonders. As for myself, I've got a bird patient to visit." She gathers her coat. "Levi, thanks for the vile coffee. As always, it's been a pleasure. Toodles!"

With the familiar tinkle of the bell, the door closes softly behind Hanji's cackle, leaving Levi and Eren alone.

Hanji's indicating words still ring in Eren's head, and the anticipation makes his stomach tingle with an inkling of hope—hope that he will be able to tell Harold that everything is okay. Perhaps there's a possible way to fix this so Harold will smile again after all.

"How did he manage to find an injured bird?" Levi asks.

Scratching together some leftover crumbs from the wonderful cherry pie with his fork, Eren shrugs. "She was laying beside the road when we were on our way back to the headquarters after training."

"Her wing is broken?" Levi takes Eren's plate to reload it, and Eren accepts the second piece of pie with a grateful smile.

Admittedly, today he's truly is in need for food, yet for a moment there, Eren wonders why it's always the evenings that make him this hungry that it verges to greedy. He's never hungry when not with Levi, and somehow he knows, it should concern him more than he lets it. However, Selma is a more pressing issue right now, so the thought gets shoved away.

"Yes, definitely broken," he answers.

Levi nods. "Is she still breathing and flapping?"

"Yes." Sucking on his fork to cherish a new bite of clotted cream and pie, Eren asks himself where Levi is heading to.

"Like mad?" Levi asks. "Or rather lazily?"

"Completely mad." Worry floods Eren from anew.

With endless patience, Harold fed Selma with some water, using a small branch of wood to drop some fluid into her spout. And suddenly she ran riot.

"Good." The smile that spreads on Levi's face at his words is hesitant, but warm.

Eren can't avert his gaze. "Why is that good?" he asks, almost absentmindedly.

Levi fills tea into a cup and puts it onto the counter. "Because that means it's not too late yet."

"Oh." Eager to warm himself up, Eren reaches for the cup put in front of him. "Thanks."

"Here is what you do." Levi takes a napkin and a pen and begins to draw in blue ink. "You'll have to hold her carefully, but in a way she can't move, because she will want to. Take her wing and use some bandaging tape that won't stick to her feathers to secure it against her body like this." He scribbles something.

Concentrated, Eren frowns at the sketch as he listens to the instructions, determined to remember everything. Slightly leaning forward, he drags in a breath of tea-home-Levi scented air, and takes another deep breath before he realises what he's doing. He recoils from the source. Wrong, his conscience supplies with a mental kick. Taking a sip of distracting tea, Eren refocuses on Levi's instructions.

"Make sure the bandaging is firm but not too firm," Levi says. "She still has to be able to breathe and move a bit, but with the wing keeping its place. Think of the difference of a too tight uniform that you've grown out of and a fitting one. Make it fitting." His wrist flicks with a few final strokes of his pen, leaving wet and slowly drying streaks of dark blue on white.

"The tape should be tied all around her, make sure it's running in front of her feet, not behind them, and under her good wing so she can still spread and move it. Observe her for a short while to make certain she can walk, move her other wing easily, and has no trouble breathing. Give her water and birdseed daily, and if all goes well, she'll be okay in a few weeks."

Not knowing where exactly the sudden impulse to tease comes from, Eren points at the drawing. "How is this supposed to be a bird?"

Levi shoves the napkin across the counter and puts away his pen. "You still get its meaning, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Then shut up and heal Selma's wing." Levi looks at him with a faint smirk that makes Eren grin back at the clear grey of his eyes. "Harold will love you for it."

Eren takes the napkin and runs his thumb over the soft paper in relief. "Thank you."

"Hm." Levi takes a sip of his tea. "Dinner?"