"There's a small man in there that sings when I tell him to," Evelyn said, grinning. A relic from the 90s, her father had given her a Metallica CD she kept in the CD player for when there was nothing good on the radio.

Hange yelped in disbelief, "There is not!"

"Yes, there is. I push food through the air vents here when he gets hungry." Hange leaned forward peeking into the vents. Evelyn couldn't hold back her laughter any longer.

"I knew there was no such thing as a small man living in there." Hange said leaning back and adjusting her goggles.

"I'm sorry, I had to try." Evelyn chuckled. "So, you'll believe in giant man-eating monsters, but not small singers?"

"I can see the titans. And, while I don't understand how music is being played without a band, I have never seen tiny men." Hange said bending over and bringing her right ear closer to the speaker built into the car door.

"Whatever that is, silence it. You'll draw the titans here." Levi said next to the driver's side on horseback.

Turning the sound down to where the music could barely be heard Evelyn turned to face him. "That better, gramps?" Levi glared before riding off to join his squad.

Turning to face an amused Hange, Evelyn asked, "So what signal are we waiting for?"

"Look for a green flare, go towards to direction it is shot towards. Red flares means titans, and black flares are for abnormals." Hange explained while digging through the glove box.

"Do you people know nothing about manners?" Evelyn reached to shoo her hands away.

Annoyed, Hange asked, "what about you? The only things you've said have been commands, threats, and insults. If you want people to respect you, then respect them in return."

Taken aback, Evelyn sheepishly looked out the broken window. After a moment of silence, she spoke, "look, I woke up in the middle of nowhere instead of where I parked. Your friends, colleagues, or whatever, attacked my car and broke my window. When I fled for some defensive cover, I saw the impossible with a giant trying to grab me-"

"Eat you, you mean," Hange interrupted. "The titans want to eat us all."

Evelyn examined her face; Hange shrugged in reply.

"Great," Evelyn let out in a sarcastic tone, "that's even better!" After another brief moment of silence, she continued calmly, "you know we're alone. You can drop the act now and none of the others would know. Please, just tell me where I am."

"There is no act. What the commander told you is the truth," Hange said.

Evelyn sighed and reached behind Hange's seat to grab her backpack, hoping to figure out where she was with GPS. "Fine, keep your secrets."

A loud pop caused Evelyn to turn around. "That's the signal," Hange said.

Annoyed, Evelyn settled in for a possible long drive. Turning the keys further, confusion clouded her thoughts. "Why won't-" turning the steering wheel while trying the keys again, the wheel gave way and the engine roared into life. "Oh, the wheel lock must've engaged." She shifted into first gear, began moving forward, then shifted into second gear; reaching to shift to third gear, she consciously forced her right hand to rest on the wheel. A loud beeping sounded as she shifted into first gear and Evelyn looked toward Hange after a few seconds. "Put on your seat belt will you? Before we get yelled at again for making noise." Evelyn put her own seatbelt on while keeping an eye ahead.

Hange followed Evelyn's lead; slowly running a hand along the strap before pushing the metal clasp in the buckle. Looking out the windows, she said, "Slow down, you need to stay behind Levi squad."

"Now, how do you know that?" Evelyn asked struggling against her lead foot.

"The commander would've ordered a squad to keep up with us in case you went rogue. They're the only squad in sight besides mine as the commander's squad probably resumed their position at the front. I told Moblit to have my squad follow behind us. Levi squad is the special ops squad, so it would make sense for them to defend this precious discovery," Hange replied looking in the different mirrors.

"Wait," Evelyn chuckled, "you mean the violent pipsqueak is the leader of your elite soldiers?" After a brief moment of contemplation, she continued, "you know, I can see it. Dude, does have the air of someone that knows what he's capable of."

"What's a 'dude'?" Hange asked playing with her window; opening and closing it.

"Please, stop. That's super annoying," Evelyn looked at the excited female. "'Dude' is just another word for guy. By the way, do you have any idea where we're headed? I could really use something to drink."

Moving to play with the buttons on the central console, Hange said, "Our original mission was to establish more outposts for longer expeditions outside the walls. Then, we ran into you. If I'm correct, we're heading back where we came from. There's an outpost about a two-hour ride from here that we left earlier this morning. It's possible we're headed there."

"If I show you where you can learn everything you could possibly want to know about the car, will you stop pushing every button in sight?" Evelyn asked, feeling as if she were traveling with a young child. "Also, I hate to break this to you, but this car is only going to go so far without needing more gas. And someone," Evelyn briefly looked at Hange, "won't tell me where I am, so that I can find more."

Hange looked dreamily at Evelyn "Everything I could want to know?" Her expression grew serious and demanding, "tell me where this is! Does it also describe this 'gas'; if it is the same as our ODM gear, we can probably spare some."

"Open the glovebox, the small compartment I told you not to play with earlier, the car manual is in there somewhere. By gear, you mean those grappling things everyone wears on their thighs?" Evelyn glanced at the metal items in front of Hange.

Hands rummaging through the glove box, Hange replied, "Yes, they use a compressed gas to propel the user forward or really just where ever depending on how it's used."

Evelyn sighed, "not gas as in gas, gas as in gasoline. You know, the fossil fuel."

Finding the manual, Hange closed the glove box and immediately began flipping through the pages. "No clue what that is," she mumbled distractedly.

Evelyn, grateful for the distraction turned up the music just a tiny bit. She could have sworn she saw Levi's head shaking faintly left and right in the distance.


The last hour-and-a-half were filled with questions about what certain words meant. Sometimes, this meant Evelyn had to explain entire concepts from their invention. The CD player was a particularly long discussion as Evelyn had to start at the beginning with Thomas Edison recording sound for the first time and then how Alexander Graham Bell improved upon the idea. Evelyn had hoped to avoid discussion on the telephone, but it didn't take long for Hange to ask what a "Bluetooth" was. Evelyn munching on a bear claw and drinking orange juice had also started an avalanche of questions about plastics.

A rider from further ahead in the formation had fallen in line with Levi squad. Levi had then slowed his pace, unlike the rest of his squad, to allow the car to catch up.

Matching the car's speed as he rode next to the car window he yelled over the wind and engine, "Follow us, the commander wants to keep this situation under wraps for as long as we can." Evelyn's face deadpanned.

Sure, keep the car secret, it's not like everyone doesn't know about them anyway. They probably just don't want to give the others a chance to break character.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Evelyn waved him off and let off the gas pedal. She could see Hange's squad following in the rear view, now with two rider-less horses in tow.

Pulling up to an abandoned farmhouse, Evelyn stopped as Levi had signaled them to halt. Coming up to the driver's side again he said, "We'll open the barn. Move this thing in there and Erwin will meetup with us in a bit." Rolling her eyes Evelyn nodded and parked the car in the barn.

Once outside the car, Evelyn stretched out her arms and legs. A young man rode up to Hange with a second horse in tow. "Is everything alright, section commander," he asked as she exited the car.

"That was amazing," Hange yelled. "I learned so much on what this beauty can do. It was actually very comfortable too."

Evelyn opened the back passenger door on the left and pulled her backpack out. Retrieving her phone, she exited the barn hoping to get a better signal. Finding no signal outside either, she opened a GPS app she downloaded in preparation for the hiking trip. It reported having no GPS connection.

"Oh, what's that," Hange asked from behind Evelyn causing her to jump in shock.

Placing a hand over her heart, Evelyn asked, "remember our conversation about phones?" Hange nodded. "This is mine, and it's rude to look over someone's shoulder like that."

Evelyn's attention was drawn to the stables where the other people were taking care of their horses. Outside the stables, Levi stood petting his stallion. Evelyn quickly opened her camera app to take a picture of the light-hearted moment from the person she thought the least likely to display this behavior. The horse licked his hand as the shutter closed.

"How did you do that!" Hange yelled reaching out for the phone. Evelyn spun out of the way just in time.

"Grabbing someone's phone is even worse than peeping," Evelyn gritted her teeth.

Hange reached again for the phone. "What was that? How could it see Captain Levi and his horse?"

If Hange's commotion to grab Evelyn's phone hadn't grabbed Levi's attention, hearing his name sure did. Evelyn felt another presence behind her after the phone she held away from Hange was snatched from her hand. Ready to punch whoever had done that, she turned around to see Levi holding the phone in his hands; his eyes wide. The phone fell from his hands and Evelyn barely caught it before it fell on the ground.

"What the hell is that?" Levi asked, his tone demanding and laced with a mixture of anger and, what Evelyn thought to be a bit of fear.

"It's just a picture," Evelyn said as she stood from her crouching position. "You're acting as if I just stole your soul, Chill."

Levi's hands formed trembling fists, "Tell me right now what the hell you're babbling on about. What did you do to me?" A threat evident in his tone.

"Nothing!" Evelyn took a step back, hands up. "The camera just captured your image, I didn't do anything to you, it didn't do anything to you. It just captured the light going into the lens." Hange took the opportunity to take the phone and study the picture on the screen. She accidentally placed her finger on the touchscreen, the image minimized and she could see Evelyn and Levi on the screen in real time. Moving the phone around slowly she let out a small gasp.

"Moblit," Hange said in amazement, "look at this!"

Moblit and Levi both moved to see what Hange discovered. Hange pushed a button on the side of the phone when shifting her grip on it. A clicking sound played over the phone's speaker and Hange nearly dropped the phone in surprise. Hange looked to Evelyn, a silent question in the air, as the other's also looked toward her.

"Ok, I'm tired of this game!" Evelyn yelled. "You're great actors, show me your Facebook, Twitter, whatever and I'll leave a great review or retweet your stuff. But, I need to fucking know where on Earth I am!"

Levi struck with a snake's speed and held Evelyn by fist-fulls of her clothing in a death grip inches from his face. "You, are in, no, position to make demands scum. We want answers and I want to know why the hell another me was on that thing."

"Scum?" Evelyn growled, "Listen here pipsqueak." She grabbed his uniform, mirroring his actions. "I don't give a fuck who you think you are. Touch me again, and see what happens." The pair stood there with their locked eyes narrowed, each waiting for the other to make the next move. So distracted, they didn't hear the sounds of approaching horses.

A tall, muscular man moved his arms between the pair, signaling them to break apart. "Stop this nonsense at once!" Recognizing Erwin's voice, Levi broke first with a scoff and Evelyn followed suit. "Just what is going on here?" Erwin studied the scene before him, Evelyn and Levi looked ready to pounce on each other. Hange and Moblit stood by the barn entrance staring in wonder at something small in Hange's hands. Levi's squad had run towards the commotion once they heard their Captain yelling. Petra stood beside Levi asking what was wrong.

"Commander," Hange called. "You need to see this."


So since I write these things at like 3 in the morning, I tend to reread and fix small mistakes I find.

Thanks, for putting up with my horrid proof-reading.

Also, for anyone who really wants the romance to kick off, I'm trying to establish Evelyn's place in the world first. This is going to be a serious slow burn with a lot of complications and wrenches thrown in. If you're into that, great! If not, I don't know what to tell ya.