He could hear determined footsteps coming to a halt at the foot of his office, wondering for only a mere moment if he would be graced with a knock or if the brass man would simply barge in without invitation. A deep sigh escaped Erwin's lips as he sat back in his cushy leather chair while the Captain thrust open the door, making his displeasure known as the door slammed against the wall with a screaming thud.
"Give them to Shit Glasses," Levi demanded with his thin black eyebrows drawn to a frown, slamming his strong palm down onto Erwin's large oakwood desk, the candlestick shuddered and the wood creaked beneath his hand. The flame that kept the room alight wavered, almost leaving the pair in the darkness of night.
"We need to work on your manners Captain." Erwin said with a displeased frown, picking his pen up to continue his heavy slack of paperwork under the hazy glimmer. Levi merely gave him a scathing look. Shiny steel eyes glared with fury at him and Levi downright snatched the paperwork from Erwin's desk and threw them askew across the large office.
He knew the Captain wouldn't be pleased by the decision, a mere ten minutes ago Erwin had sent one of Levi's fellow captains down to the mess hall to announce new squads before the night headed to a close. He had suffered a great loss of numbers after the 57th Exterior Scouting Expedition. Captains, trained diligent soldiers and rookies had been slaughtered in the battle against the female titan, who had been identified as Annie Leonhart. Among the dead was the Levi's Special Operations Squad comprising of Levi's second Eld Jinn, Gunther Schultz, Oulo Bozado and Petra Ral; who perhaps the most hard hitting for Levi. But now the dust had settled, following the disappearance of Ymir, Reiner Braun and Bertholt Hoover; who had all presented themselves as titans and disappeared after Erwin himself had been gravely mutilated, losing an arm. They needed to assign new squads and prepare for new threats. The Survey Corps needed to move forward whether humanity's strongest liked it or not.
"We need to work on your fucking choices Erwin." Grit out Levi, Erwin paid his anger no mind. He new how to be nothing but patient with the short and short-tempered man.
"They all hold strong potential, that's why I'm giving them to you. They need training." He explained, he had handpicked the 104th cadets for the new Levi squad, consisting first and foremost of Eren Jaeger. The young titan shifter who gave them some hope in the war to come, with him Erwin new, needed to be Mikasa Ackerman. She showed so much potential and skill Levi could without a doubt nurture if he tried. If Levi gave that girl his effort, she may even be able to surpass the soldier himself.
Not to mention, trying to separate that girl from Eren would be a headache.
Connie Springer and Sasha Blouse were nothing special and the commander new this, she had good instincts but aside from that he found them both to be average fighters. However, it was the spirit they held that Erwin believed in. They had lost friends and family, without a doubt their urge to fight and conquer alongside their friends would only grow.
Then there was Jean Kirstein, despite being easy to fluster, the young man had qualities of leadership that reminded him of his late friend Mike. He could lead soldiers to their death one day, knowing that boys and girls would die under his command and that was exactly the kind of soldier Erwin Smith needed, he needed men he could count on to use others as tools. Armin Arlert had fought and saved many of his soldiers with that brain of his, he was one of the most brilliant young minds of his generation. Erwin hoped with the right training he could be a wonderful strategist and take his own position when he passed on. And finally there was Historia Reiss, the Scouts couldn't afford to put her in a squad where her safety could be compromised, Levi was his strongest and most trusted captain, he would keep her safe.
"They don't need training, the brats need fucking parents. I've told you before Eyebrows, they're too young. Eren's already enough of a pain in my arse."
Levi new Erwin didn't make any decision lightly, he knew every move of his was calculated and Levi could accept that these kids had some experience and potential, but he wasn't equipped to deal with them. He didn't believe he could help them with the emotional baggage they lugged endlessly. The Survey Corps needed to stop letting kids get involved in this fucking war, is what he thought. They trained children to fight because grown men and women wouldn't. It made him sick to his stomach.
He remembered every face of every soldier he had seen die on dirty stone floors, smashed into the trunks of trees, laying boneless along plains of crimson-stained grass. He didn't want these scouts, these kids, to die by his order.
He remembered, he was sure Erwin remembered too, the head of a girl not much older than the 104th, staring at him with piercing dead eyes, blood and sloppy mud coating her hair and lips. He recalled Petra's small dead body against a tree, looking at him, as if he'd failed her too.
Erwin cleared his throat in the silent room as he saw Levi's head spinning with doubts and memories, he knew that the man wouldn't understand, not yet. Alas, Erwin still spoke with an even voice, "you are their best chance."
Immediately the soldier straightened and voiced his doubts with a low tone.
"Hange is their best chance." Argued Levi.
The short raven-haired man believed in her more than himself, she was more compassionate in her calm and best moments. She was intelligent and better with people than he was, she possessed a better understanding of the human psyche than Levi. Erwin seemed to contemplate his words for a moment and that's when Levi's stomach dropped.
He suddenly felt overwhelming guilt, sticking the burden of them, their inevitable deaths, on his, albeit he'd never admit it, closest friend. She'd watch them die under her order instead and he didn't want that either, she was already so close to being swallowed by that deranged madness he saw swirling in her eyes sometimes. Occasionally he believed, that without that little pet of hers, Moblit, who forced her to eat, drink and bathe, who ran around her like a headless chicken, she'd have already lost herself.
Damn Erwin, the fucking asshole.
Levi cursed aloud, profanities falling from his mouth in a splurge of anger, slamming his hand down once again with a curled fist, worn nails digging into his own flesh.
Erwin didn't sway as a book fell from his desk corner to the floor. His stare unwavering.
"Fine. I'll train the shitty brats, but their deaths are on you." He declared with a hot face of flushed anger and a clenched jaw. Levi turned on his heal and stormed away in fury and anguish, his chest tight with anxiety.
They were on Erwin, of course, every soldier's life, even his, was Erwin's responsibility the moment they crossed their arms in salute for the first time. But he wasn't daft, when that bright blond lost his head to a Titan, the babbling idiots that stole food and caused chaos throughout the castle were snatched because, for a moment, they were just a little too slow; that was on him, too.
Levi hurried to the door of his own quarters under the hall lights, his own floor vacant of rookies and only shared with other captains and Hange. Being a captain in this large stone castle provided him certain luxuries. He could bathe in private with his generously sized bathroom consisting of essentials, with an apartment lacking only a kitchen available to him. If he wanted, he could lounge around on his free days off in his own office, peacefully reading old novels or doing paperwork. Instead he generally chose to clean.
Just as he reached the large wooden door in the now dimly lit hallway, he met a dejected looking Eren Jaeger.
His brown hair was dishevelled and his uniform was a rumpled mess, the white of his pants tinged with the dirt of the day. The boy looked tired. The captain didn't blame him, he and the boy had been training all day and being he was his only living squad member until now, Levi had put him through the rounds.
They'd run lap after lap and had begun practicing hand-to-hand combat in the event Jaeger needed to fight a person instead of a man-eating monster. The older man new that the brunet had thought the exercise meaningless, believing humans weren't ever going to be a real threat. Still he had tried his best and given it all he had.
Since he had joined Levi's previous band of misfits' the captain had picked up on one definitive thing when it came to the ocean eyed boy with a full heart.
When he wasn't a bundle of energy, ready to fight and thrive and kick the ass of everyone, human and titan, he was exhausted. Dark circles always seemed to trace his eyes after their dinners down at the mess. The dark-haired man new that when Eren was ready to crash, it was probably best he did so before he burnt out and lost whatever control on his terrors and anxieties he had.
"You should go to bed." Hissed Levi, his temper still alight. Really, he didn't want to take it out on the kid. When he took his anger out on the titan-shifter it hadn't often made him feel better and always made Eren skittish for days after.
He fiddled with his ring of keys, finding the first for one of his two locks.
"I- Captain… You left when you found out who your new Special Operations team was uh… very quickly, do you not want us to be on your squad?" Asked Eren, his voice low and his eyes filled with poorly concealed admiration, it was a look Eren had given him a few times now and Levi despised it. When he pulled that shitty gaze at Levi he was reminded of his past, the past he tried to forget with every battle he fought. Levi gave a deep sigh, not unlike the fed up one given to him earlier by Erwin. Finally, he slipped his second key in its respective hole, wanting the warm bath that was calling for him. He slipped open the heavy door.
"You were already on my squad Eren, go the fuck to bed I'm not discussing this with you tonight, we have a long day tomorrow." Declared the captain, he was standing within the threshold of his door, ready to close it behind him. Eren accepted his words with a shaky nod and turned to leave and make his way to the cold cellar for the night. It was a precaution they still had to follow and while only he and Hange new they didn't lock him up at night anymore, he still had to sleep down there for now, to keep the rich rabble's minds at peace.
Levi's guilt almost tripled at the thought of how cold it would be down there now the winter was approaching. Almost. But he knew it would be Eren's last night in the cellar for a long while.
If he was going to oversee these brats, he was going to train them right.
"You'll pack your belongings and equipment," began Levi the next morning to his seven newly woken cadets who cradled their mugs of hot tea and coffee, "there's farmland on the skirts of Wall Rose we'll be occupying for the next few months. If you're going to be in my squad your going to work your asses off to be the best fucking cadets this shitty regiment has ever god-damned seen."
The lot of them looked at him, dumbfounded.
"Tch, eat your breakfast." He said, his very first order for them as their newly appointed captain.
So this is the first chapter, I'm just going to have fun with this story and see where it goes. This story takes place before season 3 but after season 2. Thanks for reading and a comment would be lovely, if you have any request for interactions between characters in the new Levi Squad feel free to lemme know!