The run was a nightmare. Nicolette was struggling, but still managing to keep up the pace. But she was getting tired quickly. The air was hot, but the rain was wet and cold and it made her shiver. Her legs were tired already but she refused to give up. They weren't even at the half way mark yet, and she wasn't going to let herself fall behind this easily.

Somehow she was managing to keep up with Krista and a few others in the middle section of their group. She was grateful she was this far ahead, especially when she heard the instructor shouting at Armin for his slow pace. Armin was a weak runner to begin with, but putting that weighed down pack on his back surely wasn't doing him any favors. Nicolette turned to look back; Armin was far behind even the last in line. He was panting and he already looked so exhausted. The instructor was shouting at him, not really even bothering to attempt to motivate him before riding off ahead. Nicolette and Armin might not have been incredibly close beyond their study session together, but she knew how determined he was and felt awful for him, but she also knew any attempt to help him would be frowned upon and surely earn her a failed score on the test.

But then there was Reiner. He scooped Armin's gear off Armin's arm and up onto his shoulders. Nicolette was both incredibly impressed and furious at Reiner n that moment. Sure, it was kind hearted and noble of him, but also foolish to risk his own grade for someone who was falling behind. But just like everyone else, Reiner knew how much this meant to Armin. He wasn't doing this because he pitied Armin, but because he believed in him.

But what Reiner didn't know was how Armin refused to slow anyone else down because of his own short comings. It was a subject Armin often spoke of when he was helping Nicolette study. He always said how honored he was that she asked him for help, because he often felt like he didn't offer much in any other areas despite his incredible desire to be an asset to the team. So when he rushed up to Reiner and grabbed his gear back, Nicolette wasn't surprised. Armin sped up, now with more motivation in his eyes as he caught up even to Nicolette and the others in the mid section. Nicolette was impressed, and as Reiner rushed up to pass them she could tell he was too.

Reiner was one of the first to finish. Jean, Eren, Annie, Bertolt, Connie, and of course Mikasa also finished without issue. Sasha finished before Nicolette, who reached the end of the trail about the same time as Krista and Marco. Armin, despite his earlier sudden rush in motivation, still finished among the last few. They all had to wait at the end of the trail just outside the forest as the last of the cadets finished up, and once everyone was out of the forest the instructor told them to take a five minute break before heading back to the barracks.

Nicolette took the time to find Armin; he was hiding in the back of the group with disappointed consuming his expression as he kept his eyes on the ground. "Hey Armin," Nicolette got his attention as she approached him. "You did great." She tried to encourage him but he only sighed and shook his head.

"I appreciate that, but I know I probably got one of the lowest grades." Armin insisted as he finally looked up at Nicolette.

"Do you really think I'm going to just stand here and let you feel bad for yourself when you ran over two miles ahead of me?"

"Yeah, before I got tired again and fell behind." Armin argued, looking back at his feet.

"You're not getting the point." Nicolette reached out to him, grabbing his chin and forcing his head up to look at her. "Yeah, you might have had a few rough spots there, but no one was expecting anything extraordinary out of you Armin, you and I both know that. Sure, you finished behind most everyone else, but you weren't last. And yeah, you might have fallen behind a few times, but no one thought you'd get as far as you did ahead of some of us. So you might not have the best score, who cares? What you did today was still pretty awesome whether you want to believe it or not."

"She's right." Reiner stepped from behind Nicolette, joining her in her little encouragement session. "You were even keeping up with me for a while, and that was impressive."

"T-Thanks guys." Armin still seemed a little hesitant to really believe them, but Nicolette could tell he was feeling slightly better and that was all she could have hoped for.

Armin didn't stay next to them long; as soon as he caught sight of Mikasa and Eren he walked away. As soon as he was further from him, Nicolette turned her gaze to Reiner with subtle hint of anger. "What you did was foolish." She insisted to him harshly.

"What?" Reiner seemed caught off guard by Nicolette's sudden change in attitude.

"What if you had been caught Reiner?"

"But I wasn't."

"But you could have been, then you would have failed, and I know how much making it to the top ten means to you! You'd so easily risk it all for the sake of someone who was weaker than you?"

"A minute ago you were singing his praises, now you're calling him weak?"

"What he did was impressive, but that doesn't mean he's still not weak and even you can't deny physically he's below you, yet you'd jeopardize your career to help him get a better score he doesn't deserve?"

"But didn't you see what it did to him? It motivated him!"

"And what if he hadn't? What if he would have just let you carry his gear, then you got caught? You didn't know how he was going to react."

"Why do you care what I do?"

"Because I care about you, idiot." Nicolette was over this argument, and didn't have the motivation to continue. He obviously wasn't going to see her point of view on the matter so she saw no reason to waste her breathe. When the instructor called for them to head back to the barracks Nicolette stormed off from Reiner to rejoin Connie and Sasha on the walk back.

"Armin did really great today." Connie remarked at dinner that night. "I wonder what got him so pumped, he just came out of nowhere."

"You did pretty great too Colette." Sasha added, "Looks like all your training really paid off."

Nicolette as less than thrilled with the conversation because it only reminded her of Reiner and his stupidity during the run and how he was too stubborn to see why it had bothered her so much. She sighed softly, nodding a silent thank you to Sasha for her compliment, but spared no actual input in the conversation.

"Tomorrow is search and destroy." Connie remarked.

"It's going to be so much more fun than the run!" Sasha was excited, search and destroy was her favorite training activity since she was so damn good at it.

"I bet Annie will get one of the highest scores, her strikes are always the deepest."

"But Mikasa will properly score higher." Sasha argued. "But I plan on being right up there with them!"

"Yeah but Nicolette always comes out on top for the search and destroy." Jean remarked as she sat down to join the group. "She's even better than Mikasa at it."

"That's because she has the best attention to her surroundings when maneuvering her gear. Most others don't pay much attention to anything but what's in front of them, everything else just sort of passes in a blur, but Colette takes in everything she can." Sasha bragged about Nicolette, playfully shoving her.

Normally Nicolette would have been flattered by Sasha's kind words, which she still was but she was too distracted to really react properly. Her eyes were on Jean; there was only ever one reason he'd still with them during dinner. They both exchanged glances from across the table; luckily Connie and Sasha were too wrapped up in their guesses in who would excel during tomorrows test to notice. "I'm really exhausted from the run, I think I'll head to bed a little early tonight." Nicolette made an excuse as she rose from the table.

"I swear you sleep more than anyone I know." Connie insisted as Nicolette began to walk away from the table with a soft smirk.

She didn't go to the barracks, or even the showers. Instead she went to an old barracks hall, one they didn't use to house cadets anymore because it was in too bad of shape. Instead of tearing it down, it was used as storage for random gear and even some nonperishable foods. Nicolette waited out by the back door, and in the darkness she saw a figure running up to her; it was Jean. "Took you long of enough." She whispered once he was closer. But Jean didn't respond, instead he pushed her up against the door as soon as his arms were close enough to reach her. He gripped her hips and pressed himself up against her as he nibbled playfully at her ear. "Can you at least open the door first?" She playfully shoved him away and he smirked at her.

"What can I say, it's been a while since we did this. I actually kind of missed you." He moved by her to start working on picking the doors lock; one of his unrecognized talents.

"Well you're the one who makes that call." Nicolette reminded him as he got the door opened and they walked inside.

"Yeah, and I really need to get some more time together in before you and Reiner finally make whatever you got going on a legitimate relationship."

"Do you really want to talk about Reiner right now? Nicolette rolled her eyes as she turned her back to Jean to lock the door only to be shoved back up against it as Jean wrapped his arms around her.

"As a matter of fact I do." He whispered rather seductively into her ear as he started to kiss down her neck. "You want to know what I think?"

"Not really."

"I think we're closer than you and him, I think we have something more." Jean insisted as he turned Nicolette around to kiss down her collarbone.

"And why is that?" Nicolette sighed softly, enjoying the feel of his lips against her skin as she ran her hands up his neck to grab a hold of his hair.

"Because we share a secret, a very deep and intimate secret, a secret that makes us trust one another."

"So what?"

"You don't really trust Reiner like you trust me, that's why you never do any of this with him, because you're afraid." Jean insisted as he slipped his hands up Nicolette's shirt to run his fingers up along the curves of her body.

"You know that's not true Jean, we've gone over this before." Nicolette reminded him as she tugged a little harder at his hair.

"You can keep spinning that lie all you want." Jean straightened his back and stepped away from Nicolette, gently pulling her to follow him as he made his way towards one of the bunks. As Nicolette followed him and fell into one of the beds with him, she found herself wondering if he was actually right. She tried not to put much thought into it; after all thinking about such matters while another man slowly took all your clothes wasn't entirely the best time. But still…what if Jean was right? That definitely wasn't going to be something she admitted out loud any time soon, especially to him.