A Secret told -
Ceases to be a Secret- then-
A Secret- kept-
That-can appal but One-

Better of it- continual to be afraid-

Than it-
And Whom you told it to- beside

-Emily Dickinson

-EMMRYN'S POV-

After speaking with Erwin, I went back to my room instead of returning to Levi's office. Though everything worked out great, I was still pissed that he forced his way into my personal matters. I went to bed and slept fairly peacefully minus waking up a couple of times from nightmares. The nightmares were still bad, but they had lessened a bit with time and with the environment that was so drastically different from the Underground.

The next morning, I woke up a little earlier than usual and in an exceptionally good mood. Erwin had invited me the night before to eat breakfast at the table he sat at which consisted primarily of other leaders in the Survey Corps. We had agreed that after the first expedition, we would let it be public knowledge that I was his younger sister. That way I had a chance to prove myself first.

I quickly dressed in my uniform, making sure that everything was in place as it should be for my ODM gear and walked down to the cafeteria. There, I was greeted by a tackling hug from everyone's favorite resident crazy scientist.

"Emmmrrryyyyynnnnn! It's been sooooo long! I've missed you!" Hange said excitedly as I shyly pushed her off of me. I smiled up at her.

"Sis, it hasn't been that long. Besides, I've been training," I pointed out politely. Her eyes lit up at the affectionate name, and she took my hand dragging me to the table that already consisted of Erwin, to whom I gave a polite nod to, not wanting to give anything away, Levi, whom I blatantly ignored, and another guy with shaggy dirty blonde hair and a thin mustache. I sat across from Erwin and between Hange and the shaggy haired guy who proceeded to sniff me. I quickly flinched away from him and glared back at him as he smiled to himself.

"Ohhh I forgot you guys haven't met! This is Squad Leader Mike! He gives everyone a good sniff when he first meets them," Hange explained happily as she placed food in front of me. I scooted closer to Hanji and away from this Mike person. The sniffing really creeped me out. My reaction just caused Hange to laugh even harder and I heard a "tch" from my currently least favorite captain; however, I continued to ignore him. I really didn't have the patience for him today.

Everyone continued their conversations, with Hange begging Erwin to let her capture a titan on this next expedition (which he refused) and Mike and Erwin further discussing other details about the long distance scouting formation. I sat silently and listened politely as I ate the bread and soup that was provided for breakfast. After we were done, we all went to our separate duties (well except Levi and I who both had to go to the same place).

When we arrived at the training grounds where we'd be practicing with our ODM gear and practicing our team maneuvers, I smiled slightly and waved at everyone. Everyone responded with either a nod or wave except Oluo, who seemed to have an oddly sadistic looking smirk on his face. My brows furrowed in confusion but decided to let it go as Levi showed up to give out instructions.

"For this expedition, each person will be assigned a partner to be sure to aid in killing and protecting each other from titans. Here are the pairs: Gunther and Eld, Petra and Myself, and Oluo and Emmryn," Levi explained as I noticed Petra immediately perk up due to her obvious crush on the captain. I rolled my eyes slightly at that and the fact that Oluo's smirk seemed to have grown even wider. The captain briefly explained the maneuvers we would be doing which would require us to be perfectly in sync with our partner. We essentially had to practice crossing in front of each other while slashing our blades (we were using dull ones for this exercise) as well as going over and under each other without crossing the lines of our ODM gear.

This was gonna get ugly. My ODM skills were not as good as Oluo's, and I may just end up holding the team back. But I have to try. Each pair went through the drills pretty much flawlessly. There were a couple of hiccups with timing with both pairs, but it only took them maybe 15 minutes each of practice to fix those issues. Finally, it was mine and Oluo's turn. I had continued avoiding eye contact with Levi due to his interference last night and that along with Oluo's odd behavior had been starting to really stress me out a bit. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I got into the starting position beside Oluo.

As the captain yelled to begin, Oluo and I both deployed our ODM gear in perfect sync, doing some basic maneuvers to warm up before jumping into the more complicated moves. Everything was going well, we were picking up speed and deftly avoiding the trees until a statement interrupted my concentration.

"How sloppy, Cadet SMITH! Did your big brother not even try to train you before sending you to the Special Operations squad? Or maybe he just sent you here so we could all die protecting your sorry ass!" Oluo sneered loudly to where I knew everyone could hear. The wind was whipping around me quickly, and my focus was shot as I panicked and suddenly hit a tree at a very high speed. A whimper of pain left my lips as I felt a couple of cracks where different bones were probably fractured. I do not have time for this right before the expedition. How did he find out?! Those were the thoughts that raced through my head before everything went black.

Song: Secrets by One Republic