I am the product

of too many unfinished kisses

and not enough scenarios

in which you stay all night.

Kat Savage

-Emmryn's POV-

After an overly dramatic showdown with that scared shitless commander, we were fortunately saved by Armin's passionate speech, and Commander Pixis stepping in at the last possible second and stopping the trigger happy moron from killing us all. Breathing a sigh of relief, I was not at all surprised when one of the Garrison soldiers instructed me that Commander Pixis had requested my presence on top of the wall.

"Cadet Emmryn Smith, reporting in, Commander Pixis," I greeted with a salute as the bald man in front of me gave me a small smirk.

"That was impressive, Cadet Smith, staring down a barrel of several canons without pulling rank on any of my soldiers. You could have easily used your relation to Erwin or to Levi to get out of that situation," Commander Pixis said, his smirk widening as I kept a straight face.

"My older brother has nothing to do with the actions that I take, and I'm afraid I do not know what you are referring to with Captain Levi, sir. He's merely the person in charge of me until I repay my debt to society," I stated, keeping my voice and face uninterested and stoic, a trick I happened to pick up from the vertically challenged captain. This just earned a chuckle from Pixis.

"Of course. Of course. Now, what do you think of this Armin Arlelt boy's plan?" he asked me as I looked at him apprehensively.

"Now why would a commander of an entire regiment of the military be asking the opinion of a lowly cadet trainee?" I asked apprehensively, causing him to full on laugh as he took a swisk of his flask.

"Not very trusting are you, Cadet? Also, not very shy about questioning authority I see," he laughed before actually answering my question, "I've been made aware that you have an intelligence level on par with your older brother as well as much of his fighting spirit. And let's not kid ourselves here, your skills in both the field and in leadership are enough to outrank almost everyone here." My face flushed slightly at his compliments. I was definitely not used to getting those from anyone in the Survey Corps.

"I am not my brother, and I am not a replacement for him; however, Commander, since you are so keen on knowing my opinion of my fellow cadet, I will inform you that from my observations, his intelligence is on par with Section Commander Hange and my older brother. The main difference is that he massively lacks experience; however, his plan is sound in logic as long as Eren is able to control his titan. It's a massive risk, but it gives humanity a fighting chance for the first time," I answered honestly. It was true. Armin was a bit of a genius honestly. Given time and experience, he could surpass Hange and Erwin both.

"Alright then," Commander Pixis said with a smirk, "Let's rally the troops then, Cadet Emmryn." My smirk mirrored his as we walked to explain the plan to the others.

-Time Skip- (Emmryn is put on the same team as Eren and they reached the boulder where Eren is to transform)

"Alright, Eren. You've got this!" I encouraged, trying to counterbalance the annoying negativity that is Nico Brzenska. He nodded nervously before a glint of pure determination showed in his eye causing me to smirk, "Yeah. You'll be fine, kid."

With that Eren bit into his hand as he jumped towards the boulder. Lightning struck and he was there in his titan form, but something was definitely off. Before I could warn her, Mikasa had jumped to him to get his attention. Finally seeing his eyes, I knew that he was not in control at that moment.

"Shit…," I muttered to myself as I rushed to move her out of the way, successfully landing wrong on my left foot as I got Mikasa and I onto a nearby roof right as Eren punched himself directly in the face, knocking himself out in the process, "Fuck my life…" Mikasa turned to me, shocked.

"Emmryn, what do we do now?" she asked, clearly shaken up. I grimaced as I put a bit of weight on my left foot. It hurt like hell, but it wasn't unbearable. I'd get it treated after this damned mission was done.

"We're cancelling the damned mission. I knew this was a stupid idea from the beginning," Rico interrupted with a glare in Eren's direction, "We are leaving him here and going back to regroup." With that, she lifted up her flare gun and fired off a yellow flare, indicating that something had gone wrong.

"So we get this close to taking a step in favor of humanity, and you're okay with giving up after one mishap?!" I demanded, my tone even, but my glare speaking volumes.

"You Smiths and your damned obsession with the fight for humanity! I have soldiers that are out here that will be dying for some fake idea that may never happen!" Rico barked back, "Now, remember your place Cadet Trainee Smith! Big brother isn't here to protect you this time!"

"You're right. Remember who is in charge, Rico! And I believe Commander Pixis put me in charge of this operation," a calm male voice interrupted, effectively stopping me from getting myself court martialed. I looked over to see Ian Dietrich followed by one of his squad members, Mitabi Jarnach, walking over to us.

"Ian, you cannot be considering continuing this suicide mission," Rico exclaimed angrily, "We're sacrificing soldiers for a mission that has a decreased chance of success every minute we are all out here with this hope here being passed out!" She motioned to Eren. Right then, Armin approached us on ODM gear looking concerned.

"Guys, what happened? Why is Eren passed out?" he asked worriedly. We quickly explained what happened, and he got that look on his face that I recognized from Hange and Erwin. This kid had a plan.

"Do you have an idea how to fix this, Armin?" I questioned, loud enough to get the attention of the other members of the team. He nodded with a serious look on his face.

"Yes. But I'll need everyone to keep the titans away from us for some time," he admitted as he looked at Eren. I smirked at this as I started walking towards the edge of the roof, ignoring the pain in my left foot as I did so.

"Alright. Leave it to me. I didn't become a member of the Special Operations Squad in the Survey Corps for no reason," I admitted with a reassuring smile as I turned to the team, "I'll fight till my dying breath for the sake of this mission. Just give humanity this victory."

Without waiting for an answer, I deployed my ODM gear and attacked the nearest titan to Eren, a 10 meter that just barely missed my ODM cables as I reached its neck and sliced out its nape before landing on a nearby house with ease. I looked back to see the team looking at me in shock before getting into gear themselves. Mitabi, Ian, and Mikasa started going for titans nearby, and Rico stayed near Armin and Eren as a last line of defense.

After taking down another two titans, I was really starting to feel the pain in my left foot, but was distracted by that when an ear shattering titan screech took over my focus. My head snapped back to where Eren was to see him in titan form carrying that giant boulder on his shoulder. My heart lifted. He's actually doing it!

I was so excited that I didn't notice that I was propelling myself straight towards a titan that reached out and grabbed me tightly causing me to spit out a bit of blood. Shit. There goes at least two cracked ribs. I am not dying when we are this close to a victory! I managed to slash my way out of the hands of the titan, but my gear was busted. Shit… I clenched my eyes shut tight, bracing for an impact that never happened.

"Damn, greenhorn! Barely done with training and you're getting yourself killed without even going on another expedition!" I heard a familiar voice sneer, causing me to look up to see that none other than Oluo Bozado had managed to catch me mid air. I then noticed Petra slicing through the nape of the titan that had caught me.

"Thanks… asshole… Missed you too… " I wheezed, my lungs hurting from the pressure of the titan and probably from the movement of the broken ribs, and gave him a small smirk. He scoffed at this but gave me a small smirk in return.

"Hurry back, greenhorn. The captain's gotten even more uptight ever since you left. I knew there was something between you two," he said bluntly, giving me a look that dared me to argue with me before taking us to where they were now pulling Eren out of his titan form, the gateway successfully sealed. Standing in front of the Shiganshina trio was none other than the captain I had missed so much since his last visit over two months ago.

"Levi!" I yelled out without thinking, feeling so relieved that we had both survived the hellish day that today had been. He turned to me, his usually stoic expression wavering slightly as he saw me in Oluo's arms as he rushed over to us, quickly taking me from Oluo.

"What happened to you?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice even, though his eyes showed immense concern. Everyone just stared at us in shock. I smiled slightly as I raised my hand to cup his cheek.

"A titan caught me, destroyed my ODM gear, and I'm pretty sure it cracked a couple of ribs. Oh I also messed up my foot saving one of those kids, but I'll live," I admitted, wheezing slightly from the pain in my ribs. He glared back at the Shiganshina trio.

"I expect a full report later," he said before pressing a small kiss to my forehead and calling out, "Gunther, Petra, I need you two to take Emmryn to get treatment. She's cracked a couple of ribs and her foot has been injured. Once you get her to treatment, come back and help us with these titans." Both responded with a quick "yes, captain!" before coming to take me from him. I reached out and grabbed his uniform with shaking hands, the effects of the day's events finally taking their toll on me.

"Levi, please be careful," I said softly just loud enough for him to hear me, "I love you…" He gave me a small smile that only I could see before giving me one more soft kiss on my forehead before whispering as he moved passed my ear, "Now and forever." With those words, my entire body relaxed, and I lost consciousness.

Song: Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons

A/N-

Hi everybody! Sorry I haven't been super consistent with posting! I am a stay at home mom with an almost one year old! Also, the past couple of days, I have been out of commission with the worst stomach bug I have ever experienced. Also, side note, I know I am not super descriptive about fights or about scenes that are from the anime. That is because I hate just rewriting what happens and I am terrible at fight scenes. So expect a fair amount of general recaps or overviews of those scenes. Though I hope to get better at them in the future. Thanks for all the support for this series! :) 3

Edited: 03/26/2020