I decided to write this because I'd read so many incredible rivetra fics and I was just feeling completely inspired! Also I love the original special ops squad so much and really wanted to selfishly spend some more time with them - as much as this is a romance, it is almost more about the developing friendships within the scout regiment...what bunch of perfect weirdos.
I'm not really a writer but I am a fan of silly jokes and friendship groups that resemble families - I had a lot of fun doing this, so I guess hope you enjoy x
Monday
Eld stood quietly in the kitchenette hovering over a questionable cup of black coffee. The sun danced in lazily from the autumn window and he looked down into the swirling liquid. Disgusting. Maybe the new addition to the squad would be able to brew it better than this shocking attempt. He really hoped so.
Everyone had known for a while that the dynamic wasn't working. For six months the four of them relentlessly drilled: waking early, going for four mile runs, sparring and practising different formations with ODM gear, but the atmosphere was constantly tense and confrontations were occurring almost daily.
It wasn't that he didn't like his squad mates per se; Gunther especially was pleasant enough after a tankard of ale, when he actually said anything at all. He supposed Oruo could be fun sometimes…but he was usually such an arrogant dill-hole that that basically became a moot point. Then there was the squad's captain, Levi. He was sullen and distant, but occasionally mustered a sarcastic comment so out of place that it shocked Eld into laughing.
The issue was that they were also all assholes.
None of them appreciated Eld's spark and humour. It was a perpetual struggle to try and raise the collective spirit, only for his efforts to be at best completely ignored and at worst actively discouraged, earning him a clout on the head plus toilet duty. Recently he'd stopped trying altogether.
He dipped a finger into his grainy coffee and stirred it, lifting his hand and watching the liquid run down it with mild disdain. Shit coffee was better than no coffee…right?
Eld, Gunther and Oruo had been selected for the Captain's "Special Operations" squad for their superior skills and stats, but mainly because they were some of the few soldiers who had actually survived going beyond the wall over several years. They also benefitted from being a bit older than the average scout, which granted them a level of 'wisdom' and 'maturity' necessary to be on such an elite squad…supposedly.
Lately however; with assistance from the ever watchful eye of Commander Erwin, they had come to the conclusion that - though they had made it through all their expeditions as a squad largely unscathed - a rethink was in order. Their survival thus far was due to luck and individual skill, not because they resembled a team in any way; and they were failing spectacularly to accomplish any of the 'special operations' goals set out by the Commander.
He was suddenly haunted by a memory from a recent expedition: he had been pushed out of the way as he was about to kill a titan by Oruo, pulling a muscle in his arm while fumbling to right his fall. All this because Oruo wanted to improve his 'solo kill count'. That guy was such a selfish jackass. Furthermore Gunther had disappeared for the best part of twenty minutes while the Captain shouted for him, and when they returned to the barracks it came to light that he had in fact been assisting an entirely different squad for reasons which remained, to this day, completely unclear.
A clattering in the hallway stirred him from his thoughts and he looked up to a very dishevelled Oruo barreling into the room.
"Hmph. Didn't think to knock on my door then?" he grumbled.
Eld shrugged and returned to his horrible drink. He wondered if his own bitterness had somehow crept into the coffee as he'd made it.
He flinched, becoming aware of a dark shadow at the edge of his vision and span to see Gunther leaning against the wall. What the - how long had he been there? There was no way he could have gotten there without walking directly past Eld. It was highly likely that Gunther was some kind of night…bandit…before joining the military. He narrowed his eyes. Were there day bandits? He wasn't sure.
"Great. You're all up."
The Captain's voice grated through the morning air in its classic low and grumbling way.
"You're running laps of the second ODM run this morning, so go and get your gear now. Eld's in charge. I have a meeting with Erwin followed by surveying other squads. I'll join you in the afternoon."
He turned back towards the doorway, freezing in step;
"Oh and Eld?"
"Yes Captain?"
"Clean that shit up." He gestured to the single drip of coffee that had run off of Eld's hand onto the kitchen counter.
…
"Right."
But he was already gone. The three remaining men stood in silence for forty-five years…though in reality it was about eight seconds.
"Come on then." Eld mustered, dutifully wiping up the drip and rinsing his cup.
"Whatever." Said Oruo, huffily moving towards the door and straightening his jacket. Gunther wordlessly followed him out.
"Cool." Eld sighed and trundled after them.
Levi neared the end of the long corridor and stopped, looking directly at the heavy door to Commander Erwin's office. If he had to listen to Erwin even begin to utter the phrase 'team-building exercise' again he was going to break a chair, and they were already in short supply due to the regiment's tight budget.
Not that he cared about that particularly. Tch, pathetic. Sitting down for long periods of time was for the weak.
He continued and firmly rapped on the door.
"Come in."
The Commander didn't look up from his laden desk,
"Ah, Levi - please, take a seat."
Levi's eyes narrowed towards Erwin, who was rearranging a stack of reports intently. Classic, the paper shuffle; a move Erwin used to seem busier and smarter than anyone he spoke to in his office. Except…he was busier and smarter than anyone he spoke to, office or otherwise, and Levi was in a predictably pissy mood and needing to dig at anyone or anything that dared appear in his field of vision.
"I'll stand." He stated shortly.
"Hmm…one of these days Captain."
Levi looked blank.
"…What?"
"Never mind. Ignore me." Erwin smiled and looked up, having gotten his affairs in order. "So I presume you'll want the other squads' schedules this morning?"
Levi gave a barely perceptible nod.
"If you're taking the mornings for observation you could probably get around about two squads a day; that should give you enough time to assess the key candidates. I thought it would be best for you to start off with Anna's squad and observe them on the ODM runs - they will be on the fifth run. Then head over with them to the sparring grounds, that way you'll get a clearer idea of overall skillsets. You can continue on this way cycling through squads for the rest of the week. I look forward to you reporting to me on Friday afternoon with your recommendation."
Erwin nonchalantly held out a single sheet of paper and he snatched it.
"Anything else?" Levi asked, tilting his head to one side, his unshifting eyes set in a bored glaze.
"Yes, actually."
Erwin stared at him for a moment, furrowing his large brows. Levi blinked.
"Well spit it out. These brats aren't gonna assess themselves."
"What will you do if this doesn't go the way you want it to?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Only that I already gave you the opportunity to select a squad, and you seem to have struggled to pick in the first instance."
"…"
"Right. Then I'll rephrase. What makes you think adding another soldier will improve the performance of the team?"
"Gut feeling."
Erwin sniffed.
"I hope you realise that if this doesn't go well you will have wasted a lot of people's time. Not to mention the regiment still won't have a functioning Special Operations squad."
"Then let's hope the gamble pays off." Levi raised his eyebrows a touch.
Something flashed across Erwin's eyes and he slowly smiled, returning his attention to his work.
"Oruo! Fall back - ORUO! Damn it- "
Eld was shouting across the run but the daft prick continued on his downward trajectory towards the dummy titan's neck at the same time as Gunther pulled up from underneath it, having disarmed its 'legs'…
"NO DON'T- "
The two men collided with some force just above the kill point on the nape, falling back in both directions like rag-dolls and coming to hang down either side of the dummy with a slight jolt, still somehow hooked in with their gear. Through the commotion Eld swore he could see a tiny spurt of blood from Oruo's almost certainly bitten tongue.
"For fuck's sake."
He zoomed towards them, landing on the fake titan's head, eyes to the ground. For a moment there was total stillness, then he sliced the material from the neck in a swift and even motion - almost casually. A perfect cut. The two invalids began to groan and shift from their positions.
"Hey - uh, sir - you really shouldn't - I mean…we're low on materials and - er - it's not like the titan would have just stayed still while- "
Eld turned and stared daggers at the cadet located on the ground below, who, if he were being honest, was just doing his job.
Cadets and lower ranking soldiers were sometimes stationed to move parts of the dummy titans 'realistically' so that the ODM runs had at level of unpredictability resembling expeditions. In reality the movements were nowhere near the real thing, but some movement was better than no movement at all and the constant improvements meant fewer and fewer young scouts were dying on their first expedition…though the number was still too high for comfort…any number was too high…
He relaxed his gaze.
"Sorry. Force of habit I guess."
The cadet smiled nervously back at him.
"Are they…uh…are they alright?" The young lad gestured towards the two hanging scouts, who were in the slow and dizzy process of winding themselves down to the forest floor.
"They'll be fine. They're supposed to be pros, though I suppose you wouldn't know after that performance. It's their pride that'll take the most damage."
"Shall I call a medic sir?"
"No…leave it to me. They don't deserve a medic. You might as well get everyone on duty on this run to take a break. It's close to lunch anyway and I doubt we'll be running it again before then."
"Oh wow - thank you sir!"
The cadet skipped off into the fallen leaves. Eld shook his head and descended to the forest floor.
"Urghhh" Oruo groaned, dusting himself down. A tiny splodge of blood decorated his shirt collar.
Eld Smirked.
"I think I have a concussion…" Gunther was rubbing his temples with small pressured circles.
Eld turned and started walking back towards the main site.
"Let's get lunch." He muttered, deflated.
"Wait - you don't want to discuss what just happened?" Gunther asked, tailing him. Oruo followed, his hands in his pockets.
"I'll write it up in the report for the Captain."
"Just make sure you include that Gunther has no spatial awareness." Oruo grunted.
"-And that Oruo is a fucking loose cannon." Gunther retorted.
"Thank you for your…frankly extremely observant suggestions. Now why was it you couldn't be so observant in the field? You know, where it actually mattered?"
"Look, it isn't my fault that Gunther is so damn slow. I had already dispatched my own target, I was doing him a favour by getting his as well."
Gunther exhaled aggressively through his nose. "Fuck you."
"That isn't very grateful, Gunther. Had this been an expedition I would have just saved your life."
Eld stopped in his tracks.
"Had this been an expedition we'd all be dead. You know what? I can't be bothered. Gunther, take everyone's gear and get it oiled. Oruo, go and sort out the squad's laundry. Eat whenever and wherever the hell you want. I'll see you at two thirty for knife skills with the Captain."
"…You'd make me carry all this equipment with a concussion?"
Eld inhaled deeply.
"Fine. If you're going to be a little bitch about it give me the equipment and head over to medical."
For a split second Gunther seemed almost guilty, but as quickly as it appeared the guilt dissipated and he stalked off, having dumped his equipment at Eld's feet.
"Great." He mumbled to no-one, quickly realising that Oruo had separately paced off towards the barracks.
At some point on the slow and laden walk to the equipment sheds he realised he was humming. Briefly caught off guard that he could be humming without realising, he recognised the jaunty kind of tune as that his mother would sing while cooking. Ah…home…he missed it. It was warm and jolly and full of laughter. There was never an awkward moment and the conversation zipped between him, his parents and his two brothers as freely and easily as gliding through the trees with ODM gear.
As the eldest and (they often joked) the Eldest, he was constantly finding new and creative ways to pull pranks on his siblings; sometimes enlisting their help to get each other. Once he even teamed up with the pair of them to throw a bucket of molasses and a sack of feathers over their father…who had taken the whole incident surprisingly well, not even blaming them for his sudden fear of chickens, or the bald patches that appeared on his arms afterwards and were still there to this day.
He rounded the corner towards the sheds and halted, almost ramming into another soldier and losing his grip of Oruo's equipment, which clattered to the floor.
"Moblit?"
"Oh, Eld! Hello!"
The sandy haired scout smiled widely and nodded towards him, and Eld noted the small bundle of flyers he was hampered with.
"Sorry - let me help you with that…"
Moblit began to awkwardly move as though to help Eld pick up the dropped equipment but seemed to simultaneously realise that picking things up when his hands were full of flyers was not going to be easy.
"No problem - I've got it. What brings you down to the equipment shed? Shouldn't you be chasing Hange around with a bunsen burner or something?"
"Actually I - Ha! Well Nifa should be doing that right now. With any luck she'll have remembered the delivery of safety goggles that - you don't need to know that. I'm er - on a quick break to distribute these…"
He vaguely waved the flyers and they flopped about weakly.
"What's this?" Eld peered over the pile to try and get a clearer view of the text and what appeared to be a rather hilarious drawing of…was that meant to be a trumpet?
"It's the um- " he cleared his throat, "We're looking for anyone who wants to join the new Scout band."
Eld couldn't contain the laugh that erupted from him, but his levity was quickly quelled when he saw Moblit's lame smile, and immediately backtracked -
"Oh, uh sorry. I didn't mean…you just surprised me that's all."
"Don't worry about it. You aren't the first person to react like that to be honest." Moblit looked a little red and shaken up.
"Is this a new…undertaking?"
"Well…yes it's a recent thing…a few of us realised that we liked to play music while at the pub a couple of weeks ago and we put in a request to Commander Erwin. We've fixed up the old mill building at the edge of the base and we're gonna start er - jamming - together on some of our free evenings, before curfew of course! The Commander was surprisingly enthusiastic and he even asked me to make and distribute these; he said something about using free time wisely and how music is a 'team-building' activity, it was all a little odd. Anyway…uh…it's gonna be Wednesdays and Fridays if you're ever interested…"
Eld thought of his jaunty humming.
"I'll pass. But, I mean, good for you! Maybe I'll come drink and hear you guys play sometime."
Moblit smiled widely,
"I'll have to let you know if we're any good first."
The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully. Levi didn't even bother asking his squad how the morning training had gone after seeing the looks on their faces when they showed up for the afternoon. He didn't question the bandage around Gunther's head, or the fact that, despite being sent to do laundry, Oruo was still wearing a shirt with a blood-stained collar. Tch.
They, in turn, didn't ask how his assessments had gone, which ended up being somewhat of a blessing, as he hadn't had gained any clarity from overseeing the morning drills. There was always tomorrow. And the rest of the week. To make this pretty substantial decision. Damn, it wasn't long. Surely he was due a bit of luck?
The group dragged their feet back to the Special Ops barracks.
Each of the elite squads had their own small section of the barracks, separate from the men's and women's standard barracks - a perk, if you liked your squad. The main benefit was one shower between one squad, rather than having to queue at the shower points with everyone else, and the kitchenette that provided the capacity for tea and coffee, as well as basic meals if anyone could be bothered to cook. There was also a compact yet comfy area for 'socialising' next to the kitchenette.
Levi recalled Eld's first day on the squad, kitting out a corner with board games and carting in a crate of beer he had swiped from somewhere or other, a look of pure excitement slapped across his big dumb blonde face. Yeah, like they were gonna play games in their free time. Needless to say, his joy had been short lived as he was frequently the only member of the squad sat on the threadbare couch drinking.
"Chess is a one man game anyway!" He huffed on one occasion.
The moment they set foot in the door, the squad wordlessly dissipated to their separate rooms (another perk of their barracks, not having to bunk together) and that was that. Another day done.
Predictably unable to sleep, Levi slowly paced his dorm, his mind flitting through possible selections from the day.
Marlene had certainly shown potential: she was fast and had an aptitude for decking a full grown man, but she was too indecisive in the field. A liability.
Lucas was easily the best combatant of the sparring matches he'd seen. But sparring was one of the least important of a soldier's skills when It came to killing titans. Could Lucas really be the glue to bring the team together and get them working as one? Not likely.
Dirk's ODM skills were the envy of his unit, but he was a write off. There was no way the squad could take an Oruo 2.0. And he had an even shittier beard than Eld (it turned out it was possible!) which Levi was sure would distract him to the point of endangering his life on an expedition. No; one shitty beard was enough for one squad.
He sighed, pushing through his door and heading towards the common room. His eyes widened a touch as he saw Eld sat at the table, the embers of a fire dying out in the hearth and a cup of tea steaming in front of him. He was writing, but looked up on hearing the floorboards creak.
"Oh, Captain. Hi."
Levi stood for a moment and considered dissolving back to his room without a word.
"There's still tea in the pot if you want, sir."
Tea was the reason he made his way to the kitchen in the first place; it wasn't something Levi liked to to pass up. And he liked to pass up most things. Even Eld's inconsistently brewed tea was worth a try.
He fetched a cup and poured, coming to lean on the kitchen counter, his brow fixed in a frown.
"Writing…at this hour?"
Eld cleared his throat and held up the sheet of paper:
"Once again Oruo didn't listen to instructions and went off on his own merry way doing whatever tasks he felt like doing. Gunther was too focused on himself and closed off to his surroundings to pay attention to what was happening, and so, despite my constantly shouting directions to the team, the morning's training was a complete and utter failure."
"…hm."
Eld shrugged, and returned to writing.
"Well if it's any consolation Eld; this tea is…fine." He nodded slowly, and took another large sip.
"Did you find the new squad member yet sir?"
"No. Not yet."
A warm silence fell over the small room. Eventually Eld stood, draining his cup and going to rinse it off in the sink, holding out his report for the Captain to take on his way.
"Well Captain - goodnight. I hope you have more luck tomorrow." And he swiftly exited.
Levi scanned the paper quickly, before folding it and stowing it in his coat. He washed his cup and departed into the night.
A chill wind was punctuating what was otherwise an uncharacteristically warm evening. The moon was full in the clear sky, and pleasantly illuminating the sporadic trees and uneven ground of the static training zone; so called because the titan mannequins were far less sophisticated than on the ODM runs: they couldn't be manipulated and acted instead as big flat wooden targets.
The idea behind this zone was for squads to speed around it, eliminating the randomly placed dummies (which could be taken out with a simple strike of a blade) as quickly as possible. It was also different to a regular ODM run in that there were a lot more targets, fewer trees and other higher spots to hook onto when using the gear, and the main challenge was in the squad leader quickly knowing how to split the team to hit different points, and reconvening. The area was large and spread out, rather than contained into a shifting circuit as the ODM runs were, and as such there were several shacks for supplies stationed at random through it, which were lit with small oil lamps like small beacons in the dark.
On clear nights squads could apply to train here after curfew, though this was limited to once every three months. This particular evening it was Squad Clara's turn.
"Remember to count the number of targets you eliminate! And no lying. I'll find out."
Clara was a tall, stocky woman - hardy too, having survived a few years of expeditions: a real veteran. Despite this, she was only fairly recently appointed as a squad captain. At the heart of her intense gaze was a softness; she cared deeply for her team.
"If you mess up the counting we won't know our proper time or if we've fully completed the exercise, and this evening will have been wasted - you might as well have gone to the pub. So please for the love of god remember. Also! Make sure you keep your ears open, the whole point of this is to listen and intuit the movements of the whole squad; visibility is obviously down, and you won't be able to rely on flares. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!" The squad chorused.
"Good. Thats 32 targets to eliminate total. Now, on my signal!"
Clara fired a noise round signalling the start of the time.
"Stefan, Peter and Hannah - veer left. Julia, Gerd, Petra, you take the right hand side. Whoever's left with me through the centre, everyone fan out and pay attention! Reassemble on the northern edge, then we'll return to the start as a group."
They zipped off in their separate directions.
Petra had been looking forward to the evening training. It was so long since she was last out on the grounds past curfew and she loved the cool dusk air and the blue tinge the night gave the trees. Using the ODM gear was easily the best part of being in the military, and Petra was certainly no rookie. She glided, span and swept through the trees in a balletic fashion, hands down the fastest member of her squad.
She dove, slashing a target clean in half and propelling herself back into the higher branches. She wasn't confident with solo kills beyond the walls, having only one to her name…at this kind of target practise though, she was a regular expert.
"Nice hit!" Julia called out to her from a few trees away.
"Thanks!"
"Don't lose count now - how many's that, three?"
"Four actually. You?"
"Shit, only two… ugh."
Petra laughed, "Looks like you have some catching up to do Jules."
Petra, Julia and Hannah all shared a dorm room since being thrown together in Clara's squad.
They instantly became close, eventually returning from several expeditions as a unit. Their trio also attracted some attention for being an awkward looking combination of people; Commander Pixis, the head of the Garrison regiment, had once seen them in the mess hall and described the group as "physically interesting". None of them were sure if it was meant to be a compliment or not. Going by Pixis's track record…it wasn't. If anything, it was creepy.
Hannah was five foot eleven, taller even than a lot of the male scouts. She had dull blonde hair that she always wore pulled into a tight bun, and dark sparkling eyes that were hungry for gossip.
Julia or 'Jules' was around five foot six; she was broad shouldered and tenacious with a large amount of unruly curly brown hair that often fell into her face and caused her a number of troubles in the field.
Then there was Petra…a five foot two pasty elfin looking woman with giant pleading doe eyes and a shoulder length mop of ginger hair.
The rest of squad Clara called them 'the three bears' and had invented an in-game where they tried to make sure the three of them were always stood in a height descending line, and when they were successful someone shouted "Goldilocks!", and each member of the trio had to buy a round of drinks…not that they ever made good.
Since Petra's graduation from the cadets, Hannah and Julia had been indispensable to her. Most of her friends from those days had joined other regiments, or been placed in completely different squads so they didn't get to see each other too much. It was a tough, life-threatening job, so having close trustworthy companions to blow off steam was crucial to staying sane, and each of them had in turn helped the other two through the losses of dear friends.
A bright determination spread through her chest. She cut down another target and breezed to the northern edge of the training area. This was important. What they were doing was important; it was fundamental to humanity's understanding of the world. How could she not be a part of that?
Levi started, hearing the familiar zip of ODM gear and distant shouts. He had ventured outside to axe firewood. It was either that or go for a run, and he wasn't going to blow off steam by going for a pissing run. No, he needed to smash things. Or at least hack them up roughly. That was a sure fire way to stop all this damned thinking he couldn't seem to stop doing. Ideally he would be speeding through the trees to clear his mind, but the squad's gear was locked away in the equipment stores in the evenings (curfew rules) so he would have to make do with obliterating some timber.
He turned toward the trees, painted in moonlight against the inky sky. He could just about make out the ropes which dictated the edges of the static training zone. Of course there was a squad practising this evening; it was a perfect night for it. He squinted into the expanse, trying to pick out any activity or any standing targets that would indicate how the squad was faring, when a shadow streamed through the branches.
The figure hooked under a large low down branch and, after passing under it, allowed themselves to fall backwards, releasing the hooks and turning fully upside down, their blades smoothly dispatching a target in a strong sideways motion before twisting round and hooking back upwards in a full, perfect spiralling semicircle. The movement was positively acrobatic, perhaps a little showy, but they didn't seem to use too much gas in the undertaking either.
It was impressive.
In the time it took for him to consider what he'd seen, the shadow had melted away into the trees, continuing its nimble journey.
Well, he wasn't expecting that. For minutes he stood in contemplation. Should he go to the entrance to the zone and wait for the squad to leave? Then what? He supposed whoever it had been was a woman; for one thing the figure was pint-sized…though maybe that wasn't an accurate assessment - he was a runt himself after all. Would he have any way of knowing which member of the squad it was just by looking at them anyway? He hadn't seen nearly enough. It was better he find out whose squad was training this evening, then he could fast track them up his observation schedule. Yes. That could work.
Even if this graceful shadow was talented on ODM and swift at target dispatch, that still didn't mean they would be the right person for his squad. Maybe their field track record was bad. Maybe they had a shitty beard. Tch, here he was again thinking and thinking. He grabbed the axe and slammed it downwards, completely destroying whatever was left of the log that was there.
He'd go in the morning and request the squad leader's name.