Chapter Eleven
I grimaced at Hange from behind my desk. "You know she is new. Why this brat?" I asked, looking down at the papers in front of me.
"She needs a taste of the real world! Just because she is new doesn't mean she can't kick some ass! Eh, am I right or am I right?" She winked at me behind her glasses. I just stared at her. "Come on Levi!"
"With all this damn paperwork, trying to get your expedition ran by and approved, and the meetings, I haven't even had any damn time to train her." I folded my legs over each other and leaned back in the chair. "I'm not fucking Superman, and I am definitely not a fucking babysitter. I can't do all these fucking things at once."
"Well now that all the paperwork is mostly taken care of-"
"Mostly." I reminded her irritatedly.
"You can get back to training the new cadet!"
I just stared at her without saying anything. She sighed. "Levi! You still have time-"
"Four eyed bitch, its hardly enough time." I turned in my chair so I was facing the window. It was about time I headed back to check on those idiots in the dining hall.
"Your humanity's strongest soldier! I'm sure you can figure so-"
"Once again, humanity's strongest soldier, not humanity's strongest fucking babysitter."
Hange was quiet for some time, and I could hear her walking back and forth behind me, her footsteps making the wood beneath her creak. I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths.
"Well, you did offer to train her yourself. I didn't think it was a problem."
I paused, opening my eyes to stare out the window. I turned in my chair to look at her. She stood there with a firm face, meeting my eyes. I raised my eyebrow at her, before grabbing my teacup and taking a sip from it.
"So, any progress on recovering her memories?"
"No."
"She hasn't remember anything?"
"How should I fucking know?"
"But you just said no to having progress o-"
"Listen y-"
"Levi!" I narrowed my eyes at her and she sighed. "She is a person you know."
"She is also a goddamn stubborn, back talking bitch." I snapped.
"Well maybe there is a reason she is acting like that?"
"There is no excuse for her being defiant towards me. She is just being a damn difficult brat."
"Well you know-"
I placed my teacup down on the table and met her eyes challenging. "Are you saying I don't know how to do my job?"
She frowned. "But you just complained you weren't a bab-"
I shot her a dark look and she flinched.
"Get out of my fucking office." She didn't waste a breath. She rushed towards the door, and was out of sight in seconds. I grunted, rubbing my temple. Everyone was being such a pain in my fucking ass today.
I stood up from my chair, walking around my desk and made my way towards the door.
I stared at every inch of the dining hall, taking it all in. "I think it's pretty clean. I mean I re-did everything twice just to make sure."
Armin shook his head beside me. "You did really good Rina. I'm sure the Captain will approve." He smiled at me kindly.
"If not," Eren's eyes narrowed. "He is going to kill us. No pressure here."
I shivered. "Well you did the tables so he can't yell at me for that." I smiled, looking over at the nicely cleaned and organized wooden tables.
"Well if you screwed cleaning the windows in here too, he is sure to have your head." Eren teased. I rolled my eyes.
We then heard footsteps approaching from outside and our eyes widened. It had to be him.
We stood next to each other in a single file line, our arms limp at our sides.
The door opened and Captain Levi strolled in, taking his sweet time. His usual serious visage was unwavering. His presence made me nervous, and I discreetly wiped my palms on my thighs. I prayed that everything would be to his liking so I could clean his stupid office again, do kitchen duty, clean again, then go to bed.
We all saluted as he approached, and he looked over at us.
He first met Eren's eyes, his eyes narrowing sharply at him. His eyes then darted over to mine and I gulped unintentionally. I heard him grunt, then look over at Armin, who had a firm and strong composure.
"So, did you brats finish cleaning?" He asked, eyeing every single one of us carefully.
"Yes sir!" We yelled in unison, releasing ourselves from our salute.
His eyes narrowed more, if that was even possible. "I will be the judge of that."
He walked by us, looking at each of the many wooden tables. He paused at the fourth one, examining it. I could see his face slowly darkening. Eren shifted nervously beside me.
"Who did these fucking tables?" He asked quietly. We all stayed quiet, knowing the wrath was soon to come.
"I asked a fucking question." He snapped impatiently.
"Me sir." Eren answered confidently, raising his hand.
"I should of known it would be fucking Yeager." He grumbled mostly to himself. "Get over here."
Eren didn't skip a beat. He walked over to Levi, until he was standing beside him. Levi then grabbed his hair roughly between his fingers and slammed the side of his face on the table. I jumped in surprise and horror as Eren groaned from the impact. I barely even saw it coming. Levi was quick with the violent action. Oh no.
"What is this?" Levi asked, shoving Eren's face towards the condiments in bottles that sat in the middle of the tables.
"Ketchup….Mayonnaise..Mus-"
"You are Rina always being smart asses! If you are trying to make a fucking joke, I am not laughing. You aren't a stand up fucking comedian. You are a cadet in my squad." He lifted his head again just to slam it on the table harder. "So, let me rephrase the question so your tiny ass retarded brain can comprehend it."
I scooted back closer to Armin and he looked at me apologetically. Levi's voice became deadly low again, and he spoke each word slowly. "Why is it that the condiments on the first three tables are in alphabetically order, but you decided that you could pass by this one and I wouldn't fucking notice?"
I felt my face drop in irritation and disbelief. Really? He was getting pissed because the condiments weren't in alphabetically order? What a weirdo.
He slammed Eren's face on the table again. "Fuck off Yeager! Do it again and you better get it right this time!" He released his deadly grip from Eren's head and Eren groaned against the table, trying to recover.
Levi turned towards Armin and me and we both jumped. He looked down at the floor, eyeing it. "You did the floor Rina?" Shit, shit, shit, fucking shit kill me.
"Y-Yes sir!" My voice came out shaky, and I cursed myself for it. Levi's cold gaze burned into me for what seemed like hours, and I could feel a drop of sweat run down my face.
He then nodded and spoke to me. "I could tell, but at least you didn't do as bad as you did in my office." He then turned and walked towards the windows. Was he trying to say I did okay?
I sighed, placing my hand over my racing heart. Thank god. "But it seems you still don't know how to clean a fucking window." I groaned mentally. Damn it.
I looked over at Captain Levi, who was having a staring contest with the window. "There are fucking water streaks everywhere on these damn things." I sighed, walking over to him.
I was then beside him, looking over at the window in front of us. "For fuck sakes." He grumbled. He turned to look over at Armin. "Arlert can take over for you, since its obvious you won't get any better with it. I'm not even concerned with checking his work, because he isn't a shitty cleaner. He always cleans everything right." I just stared at Armin and he slightly shrugged at me.
"And by the time you would had finished, it would already be time for cleaning again and kitchen duty. You still have work to do back in my office." In a strange way, I felt he was letting me off the hook, and I was grateful for it.
"Get your ass over here Arlert!" Levi called, and Armin rushed over, his blonde hair bouncing along with him.
"Clean the fucking window."
"Yes sir!" Armin saluted before running off to find the cleaning cloth.
Levi eyes then darted over to me. "And you are coming with me."
My eyes widened slightly but I nodded at him. "Yes Captain."
He walked past me, making his way to the door and I followed him silently.
Our walk back to his office was silent, but I guess I really shouldn't had expected too much. I just stared off into the clouds to try and distract myself at the yelling and scolding to come. Levi walked in front of me, not uttering a word.
When we finally reached his office door, he opened it and stepped inside. I followed in and I heard the door slam behind me. I jumped slightly at the impact. I turned around to see that he was leaned up against the door, watching me. His eyes burned with anger and I started to step back subconsciously.
"Cleaning my office," he started, leaning off the wall and striding towards me. "Does not require going through my paperwork." My eyes widened. How did he know? I gulped, stepping back until I felt my butt hit the back of the chair in front of his desk.
He made his way towards me, until he was dead in front of me. He placed both hands on either side of the chair, trapping me so I had no escape. Man it was like I had some sort of death wish with this guy.
"What did you see in those papers?" He asked, his voice low and challenging. I avoided eye contact with him. It's not like it even matter. It was only a slight possibility. "Rina." He warned darkly.
I dared to meet his eyes and he was glowering down at me. I found myself speaking. "It was nothing." I answered, looking at the door behind Levi to avoid looking at his face.
"Don't fucking lie to me." He growled.
"I-I'm not lying Captain."
"Then look me in the eye and repeat that." I froze. He got me there. "I thought as much." I heard him sigh tiredly. "You and Yeager just love to piss me off."
I looked over at him again and he was still looking down at me with that fire in his eyes. I could tell though, that he was irritated beyond compare. "Just clean the fucking office, and this time do it right."
He backed away from me and walked behind his desk, sitting down slowly in his chair. He rubbed his temple, grumbling under his breath. He seemed very frustrated and bothered as he tapped his finger on his desk, looking over at the pile of papers that sat beside him.
I frowned. Even if he was a jerk, maybe doing something nice for him would ease his stresses. "Captain?"
"Are you going to tell me what you saw in those papers?"
I paused. "No."
"Then I don't want to hear it."
"Captain…" He didn't respond, so I took the opportunity to continue. "Would you like some tea?"
He looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. "Are you trying to get out of your punishment?" He asked annoyed,
"No…you just seem tired." I grunted and turned my back towards him. I bent down to grab the cloth and cleaning spray that I left on the floor. "I just thought it would be nice is all. Forget it."
And that was it. The next thirty minutes we didn't speak a word. I did my cleaning and he went through loads of more paperwork that hadn't been finished.
As I cleaned, I thought about all the things that had been bothering me. Passing my evaluation, training, and what was in the paperwork really didn't help my stress anymore.
I had a year. A year to recover my lost memories and a year to become the best Scout Regimen member that I could be. What if I didn't succeed? I would be executed. All because I wasn't good enough.
As I began to mop the floor, my mind wandered even more. Captain Levi had to do something. I wasn't making hardly any progress. If it wasn't for Armin, I would be hopeless right now. What was I going to do?
It felt time was going as slow as ever, but my thoughts were soon cut short.
"Rina." I looked up at Captain Levi, who had his legs cross over one another. "You're done."
I blinked at him. "I am?"
"You actually did an okay job this time." He grunt, his eyes scanning the floor.
Was that his way of giving a compliment? "Oh." Was all I could muster.
"Someone will be here shortly to escort you to dinner." And then he was back to working on the papers in front of him.
He was so strange. One minute he was bashing someone's head in, then the next he was as cool as a cucumber.
I watched him as his hand quickly raced across the papers in front of him, his eyes dashing left and right. His lips were pressed in a tight line, his forehead creased in concentration.
He then looked up at me, raising his eyebrow. "Can I help you?"
I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "N-No, I'm sorry." I mumbled.
He sighed, closing his eyes. "Come over here and sit the fuck down if you aren't going to do anything productive."
"Yes sir."
I walked over, taking a seat in the chair. I leaned back in it, twiddling with my thumbs. The air in the room was so awkward. I didn't like it. I felt as id the silence should be filled up with…well no silence. Even arguing with him was better then this quietness.
I looked up to see Levi use his free hand to run his hand through his hair, pushing his dark locks back. His eyes narrowed even deeper as he studied the paper in front of him.
I know I said and thought some pretty mean things about Levi, but I regretted it slightly now. I never knew how much paperwork he had. It made me think back to what Armin said last night.
"He has a lot of responsibilities. Being a captain isn't easy." Seeing the stressful expression on Levi's face made me very much believe that. I'm sure being Captain was one heck of a job. I shouldn't had been so quick to judge him with not having time to train me. It was probably one reason why he was also so grumpy.
Grey eyes then looked up to meet mine and I felt my face heat up. I really was staring at him again? Man he probably thinks I'm a creep. Kill me.
"Is there something on my face?" He asked irritatedly.
I averted my eyes to my hands in my lap. "No."
I heard him make a sound of what seemed to be amusement, before proceeding to his work. Just don't look at his face again.
After a few more silent moments, a knock was heard from the other side of the door.
"You better not be Eren Yeager, or you can piss off!" He called from behind his desk, his eyes never leaving his papers.
"Its meee!" A woman sang enthusiastically from behind the door. Levi paused his writing for a few seconds, before continuing to scribble down words.
"Come in." Levi answered half heartedly.
The door immediately burst opened and a woman walked in. She was a thick woman, with glasses and brown hair that was sported in a ponytail. She wore the same uniform everyone is the Survey Corps had.
Her dark brown eyes dashed over to me. "Ah, so you are the new recruit everyone is talking about!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Levi has told me so much about you!"
My eyes widened and I looked over at Levi. He talked about me to other people?
"Bad things I assure you." He commented, his eyes still glued to his task at hand. Ouch.
"Don't listen to him!" She assured, placing her hand on my shoulder. "He is such a sourpuss. He isn't always like that though. He can be a sweetheart too. Unless you don't clean something right, then it gets scary! Like once, he-"
Levi looked up at the woman quickly, glaring at her. He then met my eyes. "The four eyed bitch is Hange. She will be escorting you places for now on until I can trust you won't go running off in the middle of the night." He nodded over to Hange. "Take Rina to dinner, then make sure she starts kitchen duty. Don't keep your eyes off her."
Hange grinned from ear to ear, patting my shoulder. She didn't even seemed phased at the name he had referred to her as. "Don't worry Levi! She will be safe with me!"
Levi gave her a unconvinced and regretful look, but just sighed and went back to his paperwork. "Just go. You are giving me a headache."
Hange pulled me out of the chair, pulling me over to the front door. "Well Rina, there is so much we have to talk about!" Hange exclaimed excitedly. She opened the door, closing it behind us.
Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! What do you think are in those papers Rina read? oh ho ho c:
Anyways, I do hope you liked this chapter! The next one should be uploaded Saturday or Sunday since I will have a lot of free writing time then! Until then my lovelys! xo
Z. Ashes
