that's the beauty of

the human condition.

you're never alone.

and,

you're always alone.

Kat Savage

-EMMRYN'S POV-

After two years of redundant training, it was finally over. Now, I just had to finish wall duty in Trost with the other trainees, and I could return back to my rightful place in the Scouts and consequently to the side of my lover. Speaking of the Scouts, they were currently making their way through the city towards the gate.

Now obviously, I had every intention of seeing them off, but Eren, as usual, wasn't using his brain and was dragging me by the hand to the front of the crowd to see their procession through town. Levi and I made eye contact, and I noticed his eyes narrow at Eren holding my hand. To avoid a scene, and potentially some blood loss on Eren's part, I wrenched my hand from the brunette's and approached my raven-haired lover who was on his usual black horse.

There was a bad feeling in my gut about torday, and I wasn't sure if it was about the expedition or not, but I mean what else could it be from? Either way, I needed to talk to Levi, Hange, and Erwin before they left, so I began walking beside Levi as the procession continued.

"Who the hell is that brat?" Levi asked, his usual bored tone just barely masking his irritation. I snickered at this and looked up at him before answering.

"His name is Eren Jaeger. He's the one I told you about. You know, the one from Shiganshina that has a hard on for killing titans?" I answered with a laugh before becoming more somber and keeping my voice low enough that others wouldn't be able to hear me, "Levi, I have a bad feeling about today. Please be careful on the expedition." At this, Levi looked down at me, raising an eyebrow before noting my serious expression and nodding slightly.

"Okay. I will. You gonna warn Eyebrows and Four Eyes as well?" he inquired, his bored tone returning. I nodded before taking a deep breath.

"Be safe, Levi. I love you," I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear me. I figured he wouldn't respond, which was fine, but to my surprise, he placed his hand on my head comfortingly causing me to look up at him.

"Now and forever," the stoic captain said lowly, his stormy gray eyes boring into mine for a second before roughly ruffling my hair and ordering in his normal bored tone, "Now, go and talk to Eyebrows and Four Eyes, Cadet Emmryn." At this, I couldn't help but smirk as I gave him a rather sassy salute.

"Yes, Mr. Lance Corporal Levi," I responded, teasingly saying the title he had just received after a recent promotion.

Before the irritable corporal could yell at me or threaten me with cleaning duties, I ran forward in the formation to locate everyone's favorite psycho titan enthusiast. A smile graced my features when I caught sight of the familiar auburn ponytail bouncing with her horse's movements next to an easily recognizable neat and slick blonde haired man riding a striking white horse. Not wasting any more time, I ran up between the two.

"Hange, Erwin," I greeted, surprising the two. Erwin opened his mouth to scold me but I was saved by Hange's usual enthusiasm.

"Emmmmmrrrryyyynnnnn! You came to see us off! I've missed you sooooo much!" she squealed with excitement before switching to a more mischievous expression and tone, "Or maybe you just came to see a grumpy short, clean freak of a captain!" She ended this statement with a suggestive wink, and a growl erupted from my older brother's throat.

"Hange! Enough!" he scolded before turning to me, his large eyebrows raising in concern at my unusually somber expression, "Emmryn, what's wrong?" I shifted my weight nervously as we continued forward before meeting his blue eyes that matched mine.

"I have a bad feeling about today," I admitted, nervously, my voice softening and becoming much more vulnerable than I had shown Erwin in years, "Be careful to come back alive. Please." At this, Erwin put his hand on my head in a comforting manner and gave me a reassuring smile. Looking at Hange, she too gave me a confident smile as well as a cheeky double thumbs up. Giggling slightly at her childish display, I gave them both an enthusiastic salute before running back to the Shiganshina trio who had been watching me the whole time in shock.

"You know, Captain Levi?!" Eren yelled in shock, and I laughed before smacking his head for causing a scene.

"Yes. My brother is the commander of the Survey Corps. I know all of the officers," I pointed out bluntly before walking towards the wall, "Now come on. We have wall and cannon duty."

~Time Skip brought to you by migraines and a teething ten month old (Please send help)~

It looks like the entire 104th training regiment was put on wall duty today. It blows, but what can you do? I often found my gaze drifting to the area beyond the wall we were on, looking out in wonder on how Levi, Hange, and Erwin were doing. Sighing, the other cadets noticed me angrily wiping down the cannon I was currently cleaning.

"Emmryn, what's wrong? You've been glaring out there and cleaning that one section of that cannon for twenty minutes," Armin asked timidly causing the other cadets in training to look at me. I sighed again and gave them a small smile.

"Nothing. I just feel like I should be out there helping against the titans, not on wall duty," I said bluntly, "It's frustrating when your closest loved ones are out there risking their lives and you're stuck on the sidelines." They all looked at me, some with confusion like I was crazy, others with sympathy.

"Loved ones? I thought you said Erwin was your only sibling in the corps," Christa pointed out. Damn. I hadn't meant to let that slip.

"Ahhhh… Well…" I started, trying to think of a way to get myself out of this mess.

"You don't have a boyfriend do you?" Connie teased, and I felt my face get hot as I tried to think of how to get myself out of this. Levi and I weren't exactly open about our relationship. Only Hange, Erwin, and Mike knew, and that was more out of necessity because hiding it from them would have been a fucking nightmare. Luckily, or unfortunately depending on how you wanted to look at it, Jean's laugh interrupted us.

"Oh come on! Like Emmryn would settle for anyone who was brain dead enough to join the Survey Corps!" Jean sneered, and I glared at this, "Besides, we're going on a date after graduation right?"

"We've been over this, Jean. I'm seven years older than you, dumbass," I pointed out, trying really hard not to punch the guy in the face considering he did just save me a bit. He winked at me.

"Age is just a number, my dear," he flirted.

I rolled my eyes at this right as Sasha walked over, saying something about stealing meat from the officer's quarters. Walls. This woman is dumb but she's hella stealthy. Everyone agreed to might as well try it, even me because I mean, she went through all the trouble to get it, might as well. Right as I was about to walk over with everyone else, lightning struck, temporarily blinding me; however, when I could see, my breath was caught in my throat. In front of me was a titan that was taller than the Wall: The Colossal titan. We were under attack once again.

Song: Guns For Hands by Twenty One Pilots (Social Repose Cover)

Edited: 03/26/2020