It had been two days since her revelations, and in that time the cadets had been almost unable to visit the child due to the intensity of their training regime. With the upcoming expedition, and rumours of last minute plan changes, they were being worked almost to the bone as the scouts tried to impart to the trainees a life time's worth of survival instincts in a matter of weeks.

She completely understood this, welcomed it even as it meant that her friends might be able to make it through the trials ahead. However, that did not stop Elsie becoming incredibly bored as she just lay around in the infirmary. The first day had gone by incredibly slowly, even though she seemed to sleep through most of it, but on the second it felt as if her brain were crying from sheer tedium.

And thus it was that Petra, who had realised that the kid was probably going cabin crazy and so decided to visit, found the girl leaning heavily against one wall whilst clutching her side and trying to get her dog to stop barking.
"What the hell do you think you are doing? You're gonna tear your stitches out!"

There was no audible response from the child except a harsh panting from pain, the air whistling from between her clenched teeth. With a decidedly motherly air, the soldier hurried across, scooping up the child and depositing her back into her bed. After a brief check to ensure that she hadn't in fact caused any further damage to herself, the redhead stood before her with crossed arms and a tapping foot.
"I… umm… wanted to go for a wander…"
"Hmph, you are in no condition to be walking anywhere young lady. Honestly, you are going to be the death of me one of these days."
"I'm sorry… I just, I was lonely, so I thought I would go and watch the training… or just sit outside for a bit."

Petra actually felt kind of bad for the girl, who was now staring at the floor with a slightly guilty expression. The scout sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Alright, well we can't have you worsening your injury, and trust me it will take a lot longer to heal if you don't just sit back and let it. However, I can understand where you are coming from… tell you what- if I take you out for a bit, will you promise not to try pushing yourself and be as good as gold?"

Her reply was rapid nodding with shining eyes. Without further ado, the woman picked the child back up, holding her light frame easily in her arms despite her own small stature.
"All aboard the Petra express!"
The little girl was giggling, eyes bright at the thought of having some fun.
"Oh, and whatever you do- don't tell Levi! He would kill- or at least lightly maim- me if he thought I had put you at any risk. You've really got under his skin you know."

They were both slightly breathless by the time they got outside, the older woman finding that the child did not seem so light after all the stairs, whilst the girl in question had been trying not to wince every time she was jostled a little. Eventually though they reached the courtyard which was doubling as the main training arena for the cadets.
"Ok, here we go. I'm going to leave you here for a bit because I have some things I need to do, but if you start getting tired or anything just shout and I will come running."

The kid was beaming at her, "Thank you so much!" as she made herself comfortable on the stone steps. After a moment's thought, Petra reached up and unclasped her cloak, settling it around the surprised child's shoulders.
"Can't have you catching a cold. And it is about time you had one anyway."
"But…"
"No buts- it suits you. Now are you sure you will be alright here?"
"Yeah, don't worry. And thanks again!"

With a couple of looks back, the older woman went to find her squad leader, leaving the child to watch with wide eyes the training drills being conducted. It was strangely peaceful, sitting and letting the warmth from the sun seep into her skin, one hand idly stroking her faithful hound. Moreover, watching the cadets training was surprisingly amusing at times, and the girl often found herself giggling at Auroro's attempts to control the unruly bunch, having been put on teaching duty whilst Levi was conferencing with Erwin.

"No, no, no! Honestly you useless greenhorns! What sort of a fighting stance do you call that? Tch. Stupid brats." It seemed he was trying yet again to imitate the Captain, a fact which the rookies were taking the mick out of mercilessly. The second the scout turned his back, about half of the those present started making "Tch" sounds, and someone who sounded a lot like Sasha called out from the back, "Actually we are a bunch of shitty brats."

This last statement caused a round of giggling to break out, especially as they all caught sight of his outraged face. "Alright you lot, take ten laps of the castle!"
At that an audible groan went up, before the group reluctantly started running.

After just three laps their erstwhile instructor decided to leave them to it whilst he went to attend to some very important business which of course had nothing to do with a certain redhead that he had spotted going into the stables. One lap later, after reassuring herself that he wasn't coming back any time soon, Sasha broke off from the pack and loped over to where she had spotted the wounded girl resting on the steps.

The rest followed, all thoughts of punishment abandoned as they gathered around the child, asking a thousand questions about how she was doing and why she was outside. Briefly she explained about being bored and coming to watch them, at which point a slightly unsettling gleam came into both Sasha and Connie's eyes.

"You know, seeing as how we voted you into our squad, you should really be training with us anyway…"
"Sasha what are you thinking? The poor girl obviously shouldn't be moving around!"
"That's my Krista, always looking out for people."
"Calm down, I wasn't going to suggest anything drastic- although if you are feeling up for a game of 3DM football…"

At that Jean smacked the potato nutter lightly on the back of her head, scoffing at her idiocy.
Armin piped up into the conversational lull, "What about if we practised our 3DM whilst carrying her? It would be good practice for if anything were to go wrong in the field, like if someone ran out of gas or was injured, and Elsie can also enjoy herself a bit."

And so it was that when Captain Levi finally made it out of his mission briefing and went to search for his squad, he was greeted by the sight of the teenagers supposedly under his command playing what seemed to be a game of 'catch the kid'. Biting back his initial impulse to have a go at them for their potentially disastrous idea after the situation had been explained by a trembling Arlet, internally he actually conceded that it was a relatively sound plan.

Even so, once returned to ground level, the girl was sent back to the infirmary carried by a bickering Jaeger and Kirstein whilst everyone else was excused to tactical theory lessons. It was only when the cadets had been fully scattered to their jobs that the superior officer allowed the smallest of smiles to slip out.