"Did you? Or didn't you?"

"For fuck's sake, Connie… Just let it go, alright?" Jean sighed, tired for listening his friend's continuous intriguing. "She was just joking around! [f/n], silence him already, will you?"

You shrugged lazily, not turning your gaze from the path ahead. Now when the supply base HQ was active and running, Erwin had planned multiple expeditions deeper to the titan region than ever before. You, Jean and Connie were middle of scouting the outskirts of a demolished village. Overall the day had been uneventful, but exploring rundown towns and trying to stay constantly alert was surprisingly exhausting- Luckily, this was the last location of the day.

"Finally we're getting out of here..!" You mumbled under under your breath after a trail of smoke emerged from the ruins, telling all squads to regroup and head back to the HQ. "I thought I'd never say this, but damn I'm happy that we'll be back behind the walls by this time tomorrow."

"Ugh, I feel you." Connie muttered as he and Jean followed you towards the prairie. "I mean… It's great to see the world outside the walls, but it sure takes its toll on a long run- We have to stay on our toes 24/7 because of those giant freaks!"

"Um… Talking about the giant freaks…" Jean pointed at the hill behind you. And sure enough, a huge head popped from behind the mound, scanning the area before locking its eyes on you.

"Oh dang it..!" Connie cursed as the titan rumbled over the hill and towards your team. "It's a fast one… What we'll do?"

"Why one had to appear just when we were about to leave?! Shit… We could try to outrun it, but-" Without time to lose, you tried to quickly come up with something, but were snapped from your thoughts as you noticed both of your friend's eyes on you. "Spit out some suggestions, please? Who made me the leader?!"

"Well… You are the highest ranked-"

"If you don't have a plan of some sort, just shut the hell up." You scowled at Jean. "Fine! Just don't blame me if I get all of us killed. Follow me!"

You could already feel the shaking of the ground when three of you reached a small wooded area behind the ruins- A best possible place for a takedown in such poor environment.

"We'll fight, I assume?" Jean asked somewhat nervously as you waited for the titan to catch up.

"Yup. If we'd run, it would just follow us all the way to meeting point." Pausing for a moment and covering your ear with your hand, you shot a green flare up into the sky. "I doubt that everyone would be ready to dispatch right away, so we'd be forced to take it down anyways- We can't risk the others by leading it to them. And… It's difficult to tell from this far, but that one might be an abnormal. So, who wants to be the bait?"

"You guys better not miss..!"

You tried your best to ignore Connie's horrified whimpers and focus only on the approaching monster. The plan was to cut the leg tendons when the titan passed the trees you and Jean were taking a shelter on. Who ever was fastest would get the kill.

"When it passes the trees, make a run for it!" Jean directed his friend on the ground below. "Just head straight to the opposite direction so it won't turn around!"

"Since you know so well how to do it, how about if we switch places?" Connie laughed nervously. "I really wouldn't mind-" His voice got stuck into his throat as the beast entered the wooded area. It was too late for a change of plans; It was time to strike.

"Come on, couple steps more..!" Holding your hand up, you told Jean on the other tree to wait for it. He looked so anxious for the sake of his friend that he could launch at any second- Surprisingly, he didn't move a muscle until you gave a sign.

Thankfully you didn't wait too long before taking action; Connie was frozen in place, not moving an inch even when the titan's face smashed to the ground only 10 feet away from him. Not wasting a second, you launched to cut the nape before the titan would try to gobble up the little treat in front of it.

"Fuck yeah!" You cheered as you landed on the steaming titan corpse. "Another assisted kill onto my list!"

"Oh look, the cavalry is coming!" Jean, who landed next to you, smirked as two teams arrived at the scene. "A bit too late, unfortunately."

It was no surprise that Levi, Oluo and Petra arrived so quickly; In a situations like this, Levi's team was usually first one on the scene. The other arrivers were Eren accompanied by Mikasa and Ymir, who were the team closest to your location.

"Are you alright?" Levi swiftly dismounted his horse and quickly made his way to your gang.

"Yeah, we're OK." Jean shrugged lazily, seemingly proud of himself. He opened his mouth to continue, but was unable to utter a word when Captain walked straight past him without giving him a single look.

"Uh… I'm… Fine..?" You stuttered embarrassed while Levi carefully examined you, still a worried look on his face. "Geez, what's the big deal?! At least pretend you're worried about everyone else as well!"

"What were you thinking? Who gave you a permission to go soloing like that?!" After seeing you were unharmed, his expression quickly changed from worried to angry.

"Soloing..?" Only a short moment ago you had felt so incredibly good about pulling off such a clean kill- Apparently, Levi didn't agree. "For god's sake, since when doing teamwork is soloing? What did you expect us to do?!"

"Um… Levi, I don't see the problem here…" Oluo tried to cut off the starting argument, hesitatingly inching between you and Captain. "Kids took the titan down, no-one was harmed… Shouldn't we just go on with the plan?"

For a short moment, Levi pondered the situation with a somewhat confused look on his face- Only now noticing everyone's eyes on you two, he quickly put up that menacing look of his and marched back to his horse without another word to you.

"Let's get the fuck away from here before another one shows up." He snapped the order.

"Oh how this reminds me of the times back then…" You sighed in annoyance before whistling Cubie over to you. "Connie! Snap out of it!" Giving him a swat on back of his head as you passed him seemed to do the trick.

"They… They did…!" Connie gasped under his breath, the sudden realization quickly clearing the glazed look from his eyes. "They did!"

"Alright, Sherlock. Let's go." Jean rolled his eyes, gesturing Connie to hurry up and follow everyone.

"Really?! Why the hell he freaked out like that?" You frowned to yourself, keeping your eyes glued onto Levi's back as he lead the three groups to the meeting point. "I thought he wanted keep things professional in front of everyone else..?! This is the exact opposite!"