"Who the fuck's is it, Petra?" Levi groaned from his desk in his office, trying to do his paperwork - but to no avail - as his soldier had skipped in, with 'joyous' news for him.

The whole ordeal was apparently proving to annoy him a lot more than it should have. Yet, the Corporal reasoned with himself that any squad leader would find it utterly irksome if he found that one of his soldiers were to leave his squad as a result of 'child commitments'.

This would mean he would need to find a new a member to fill her place in the squad. And that he'd have to sign a whole lot of resignation documents and whatnot.

Of course, it had nothing to do with the nagging feeling that the child's father was definitely not him.

"He's not mine!" The small woman squeaked, taken aback by how easily the Corporal had suspected her. But she was enjoying the conversation too much to care. "I... I adopted, Heichou!"

Levi's head snapped up at her, an expression of what Petra mentally categorized as incredulity - it was hard to tell as the man was never one of many 'emotions' - on his face.

Levi, however, continued to scrutinize her as if the girl had grown another head. How could she have been stupid enough to adopt a child whilst in the Survey Corps? A defenseless child could easily hold them back from expeditions - what, with all the crying; the bawling; the hunger; the bawling, again. Levi inwardly scrunched his nose.

"You are to dispose of the kid on the next expedition. It's an order."

Petra's jaw unbuckled as her eyes widened indefinitely, as if she'd just heard the most shocking, terrible news ever. "I can't just feed him to the Titans!"

"No," Levi once again, tore his gaze away from the impressive stack of unfinished - and untouched - paperwork on his desk, "Just drop the kid off where it came from; inside the walls."

"He'd be so lonely, though!" Petra pouted, her ability to reason, obviously failing her at that point.

"Then why don't you just give it back to its father or something?" Levi spat at her bitterly.

"Hund is not an 'it' - he's a 'he'!" Petra threw back defensively. "And he doesn't have a home - or a family! He grew up on the streets, having to fight for himself - you know that struggle, don't you, Heichou?"

'Hund?' Levi mused to himself, wondering when the girl had come up with such a name. Brushing the thought off, he rolled his eyes at her before directing his vision back to his paperwork.

Petra huffed at him; half annoyedly, half pleadingly.

She was giving him those eyes.

Levi, head down and facing the paperwork on the table, found himself concentrating more on not looking up to meet her 'puppy eyes', rather than concentrating on filling out the new updates onto the sheet in front of him.

He finally sighed, giving in. "How old is he?"

Petra's eyes widened - now in delight - that Levi had apparently just given her the 'go-ahead' to continue her rambles about the gorgeous little boy she'd found. Yet, "I don't know," was what she found herself admitting, instead.

"Then why don't you just ask him?" Levi, again, exhaled deeply, his words dripping tiredly.

Petra grinned once more. Yes, she was really enjoying this conversation. "I can't... Well, he can't."

"He's a mute?" The Corporal muttered under his breath, wishing they could just forget about the subject of the child as a whole.

Petra simply settled to watch him, expectantly.

"The answer is 'no'," Levi huffed gruffly. "We can't have some kid holding us up on expeditions and whatever. And for me, looking after you idiots, is enough. I don't need extra trouble."

It probably came out too harsh, but Petra had a way of understanding the true meaning behind Levi's words; so she allowed herself to continue, undeterred. "You'll love him, Heichou! He's golden! And don't make me get started on the beauty in his eyes! They... They sparkle!"

Levi rolled his eyes, obviously irked by the girl's persistence. And also irked by the fact, that he knew, if this was to keep going on - if Petra was to keep staring at him with those, God, huge hopeful eyes - Levi knew that he was sure to be a goner.

"I didn't question him on his appearance," he snipped, exasperatedly pinching the bridge of his nose. He wasn't getting any of his assigned work done because Petra had thought it to to be alright if she adopted a kid without asking him before doing it. "If he's a mute, and he doesn't have a home; he's fragile. It'd be a better idea to just give the kid to some merchant family."

"But I took him in because no 'merchant family' would!" Her voice rised a few octaves higher in her own exasperation, equaling the Corporal's. "I found him, abandoned by humankind, lying down in the streets! If I hadn't taken him in then, he would have died!"

She was being overly-melodramatic. Petra knew that. Hell, Levi knew that.

Levi groaned. "For fuck's sake, Petra, just give the kid-"

Petra, apparently also having enough of the conversation, mimicked Levi's tone. "God, Heichou, I'm adopting a puppy!"

A/N- Hey guys!

Sorry for the slow updates; school just started up again and whatnot.

Who thought Petra was adopting a kid instead of a dog? Haha, hope I had you fooled there ;)

Btw, 'Hund' means 'dog' in German hahaha
Why did I choose to write it in German? Because there are a lot of 'German' connections in SnK aha :P

Thank you guys SO much for the lovely reviews/faves/follows! :')

keepsakeformemory: I'll hopefully get started on the music AU very very soon! I smell inspiration bubbling - I just know it! :D

Anyways, please review!

~ InnocentBlossom Xx