A/N: Insanity, absolute insanity. I celebrate having 150 views on this measly story, and within 24 hours of posting the last chapter you folks double it. You people are incredible, and I am humbled once more by your gracious views. Another great milestone has been reached as well, 10 REVIEWS! Thank you to Viperx679, TheMist33, Asesino321, and Guest(whoever you are!) for your great reviews. Another big shout out to densi2402 specifically whose been giving me great feedback. Alright enough wasting your time blabbering, hope you guys enjoy the chapter and see you in the next one. ~Scipias
CHAPTER 5 – THE 104th TRAINING CORPS: DISTRESS PT.1
Another clear and sunny day, only a few sparse clouds in the sky, and hard dry ground beneath him. Lukas Schmidt had found that he had acclimated to the weather of the southern area of Wall Rose, in truth not that much different from Trost for obvious reasons, but in this case devoid of settlements, people, and most importantly at this moment anything interesting to look at. The only saving grace was a slight breeze that made the day bearable as he and his comrades rode on horseback for this training exercise.
Lead by Marco, with Armin tasked with writing an account of the day-to-day happenings, the group included Eren, Jean, Krista, Connie, Sasha, and himself. Lukas was content with this, most of his fellow cadets were ones he hung around, and though he knew at least Jean wouldn't admit it, the both of them had grown close with a few of the, making a small friend group. There was Marco, who despite being a little innocent still was ever the optimist, and one of the kindest people Lukas had ever met, minus maybe Krista. Connie, while never being the most logical person always meant well, seemed to have an unending supply of jokes, most of which he botched the delivery of, and was never opposed to joining Lukas to prank Jean. Finally, there was Sasha, who after her talk with the boy had clicked into their group pretty well. The teen had never had any issue talking to girls but had found that talking to the brunette was incredibly easy. The feeling seemed likewise as while the girl from Dauper had decided to keep her accent masked while talking to other people, she was a lot less hesitant now to speak in her native tongue to him often slipping in and out of it while they were alone. Lukas thought it was a sweet gesture, and despite the girls almost crazed fascination with food, which the black-haired boy found more amusing than odd, he found that they had become pretty close, only second to his friendship with Jean.
As the group trotted along, Lukas felt a familiar buzzing start radiating from his core spreading to all of his limbs, and before long he felt his eyes start to get hazey.
Not again, give me a break…
This strange set of symptoms, which the boy had first noticed during ODM exercises, but had realized first occurred when he had sparred Annie for the first time, had puzzled Lukas to his wits end. The "feeling" which was how he termed it seemed to happen randomly, could last anywhere from a few seconds to half an hour, but always seemed to consist of a buzzing feeling and his sight becoming "blurred" in a way. Had those been the only things though, Lukas would have felt a lot more fortunate. He had counted times now where he would experience the buzzing take on a burning or almost freezing feel, blobs of color would flood his blurred vision constantly, though it usually was only one color at a time, and then there was his head. It could be as simple as a feeling of someone lightly tapping their finger on his skull, or in this case, someone slamming his ear into a table constantly.
Red blurs, cold feeling, and a splitting headache. Can't ever be consistent, can we?
"Lukas…" a feminine voice called from behind him, "…you ok?"
The boy turned to see Sasha atop her horse, trotting along a bit behind him alongside Connie.
"Yeah Sash" he smirked, feigning a confused face, "I'm fine."
At that, the brunette raised her eyebrow, "You sure….?", She questioned accusingly.
Damn that hunter's instinct of hers.
Lukas continued his poker face, "Yeah…fine." The boy diverted the conversation, "Must almost be lunch time." He smiled
"I hope so…" the girl responded almost to a fault, "I'm soooooo hungry, I bet even those rations would…wait?" Sasha squinted her eyes.
Fuck. Worth a shot…
"Nice try Lukas." She said almost seriously, "Really, what's wrong? You can tell me!"
The black-haired boy gave a half chuckle, he could tell she really cared. Still, he doubted anyone would take his symptoms at face value, and he would be damned if this got in the way of his training.
Taking his pause as a signal to continue, the brunette pushed on, "Lukas…come on, Lukas." She repeated trying to goad him. "Lukas….Luuuuuukas…..LuLu….please."
The boy head to hand sighed hearing Sasha's nickname for him and almost relenting until an unlikely savior came in the form of his bald-headed friend.
"Jeez Sasha get off his back, almost sounds like you like the guy." Connie said half-heartedly, still in a bored daze on his horse.
Had it not been the timely intervention of the small blonde in the rear of the group, no doubt everybody would have saw the brunette, face red in embarrassment, failing to form some semblance of a reply. "Sasha's just worried about a comrade, right?" Krista said aiming the statement and a slightly smirked face at the other girl.
The girl from Dauper having recovered slightly quickly fumbled out a hurried, "Yeah…yeah that's all it is…"
The interaction having flown over both boys' heads, Connie turned to Lukas, "Hehe LuLu" he muttered jokingly.
The taller boy raised an eyebrow, "Careful now Connie, wouldn't want Jean finding out who placed that bucket of water on top of the doorway leading to the showers." Lukas gave him a devilish grin.
Connie, a shocked look in his face replied, "But…that was the both of us!"
Lukas, eyebrow raised, remembered the prank they had pulled on their friend fondly before replying, "Yeah…but who is he gonna believe?"
The shorter boy sighed resigned, "Fine…"
Lukas chucked, the feeling having faded away again, but as he turned around, he focused in on a conversation between who else but Jean and Eren.
"Jean if you're going to ride at a snail's pace, I'm going on ahead." Eren said.
Eren tried to ride forward, but was stopped by Marco, "We need to do this as a group…" the boy started, "Jean what do you think we should do?"
His friend answered, "Like I care." The gray-haired teen said flatly, "It's not like this is gonna get me into the Military Police."
Lukas rode up beside Jean, and responded, "Marco, you're doing fine, at the pace we're going we should be on track. I trust you."
Marco seemed reassured by that, "Alright, let's just focus on the exercise then."
"Not gonna happen." Jean said negatively riding beside him.
"Hey" Eren responded "it's too soon to give up." Turning towards Jean he finished. "Stop being such a baby."
Here we go…
"So, we're not even allowed to moan now?" Jean retorted.
"Yeah…Jean does love moaning." Lukas replied, getting a few laughs but failing to ease the tension.
"Shut up Schmitty" his friend hissed at him.
"I'd be fine moaning if it made the time go by faster." Connie added.
"You said it…" Sasha finished, "the road ahead is a long one."
Lukas heard Jean mutter something before the group continued on. In the silence, the boys mind drifted back to what was becoming a constant issue for him. Not wanting to be seen as a weak link by the military higher-ups, he resolved to keep it a secret for a few more weeks until the training corps was assigned to visit Trost for a training exercise. Though not being a medical professional, Lukas's mother was the one of the most knowledgeable people he knew, so he would see if she had any advice about this issue. The thing that bugged him today though, was the intensity of it. It had never been that bad before, and the thought of it was a pit residing in his gut now.
"Tch, we even got a lizard as a running partner." Jean commented to him, breaking Lukas out of his thought.
Lukas looked at the creature skittering along the ground, and realized his stomach was grumbling.
"You don't see lizards too often" he heard Marco add.
Damn, am I that hungry?
The rations that they were given for the exercise were "suitable", but the fact that Lukas had to actually think of the last time he had meat only made the creature more desirable.
I am that hungry. Is this what Sasha feels all the time?
"They're really tasty…" Sasha said if like she read his mind.
"No kidding?" The teen found himself replying.
"Yeah" the brunette said with a smile, "We used to have them all the time back home."
Well then
"They taste like chicken."
That's settled
"You know how to cook them then?" Jean added, the two friends definitely on the same page.
"Of course!" Sasha replied enthusiastically, "It's easy"
"All right then." Jean replied, rushing ahead of the group, and whipping out his swords
What happened next was a blur. Jean rushed the lizard hoping to skewer it on approach, but right before he was able to make the kill, Eren, who had followed him out had blocked the teens blade with his own.
"What are you doing?" Jean questioned as the lizard started to skitter away.
The black-haired boy formerly of Shiganshina was about to reply when a sound echoed a few feet away, that of blade entering flesh. The two looked up to see Lukas, atop his horse only a few feet away pulling his own blade from the body of the now deceased lizard.
Eren, looking like he was about to lash out at the two of them spat out, "This isn't a game!"
The taller boy having dismounted to collect his trophy responded, "Who said it was?" The response threw Eren off for a moment.
Lukas continued, "Point of the exercise is to keep focus during this trip even though we're not at war, right?"
Eren nodded still disgruntled. Lukas who handed the lizard to Sasha, who unbeknownst to everyone was looking at the boy like he was some conquering hero, continued, "Keeping focus means we keep ourselves well supplied in the event that we should run out of rations right?"
Eren now somewhat confused, scratched his head "I guess?"
"Good" Lukas smiled as he sheathed his blades and remounted. He turned to Marco, "Should we keep moving Team Leader?"
His friend, recovering from the shock of the incident, took a moment before responding, "Yeah…of course."
As everyone resettled into trotting along, Marco turned to Lukas who now rode alongside him. "That was some pretty great stuff you said back there. I didn't know you were so invested in this exercise Lukas."
"I'm not, all of that I said was bullshit." Lukas said with a smirk.
"WHAT?!" Marco replied with shock.
The Lukas patted his friend on the back with a smile, "Marco don't worry, I was just defusing the fight that was about to happen between Jean and Eren."
"Oh" Marco replied still confused, "Then what about the lizard?"
The boy gave a guilty look, "I'm starving, and Sasha said it tastes like chicken…"
Lukas winced, slightly embarrassed before looking over to Armin who he had not realized was riding alongside then, "Wait…Armin you haven't been writing this all down have you?"
The blonde gave an equally guilty look.
…
That…was totally worth it.
Lukas slipped the final piece of his cooked lizard into his mouth. Sasha had spoken true, while not tasting exactly like chicken, the meat had been pretty close. Most of the company had enjoyed the meal, the hesitation of even Marco and Armin fading away as Sasha cooked the beast on the fire. Lukas was pretty sure Krista was somewhat upset at him, her kind heart not too keen on him killing an innocent creature, but the boy was sure that that same kind heart would forgive him at some point. Even Eren, who had just got over arguing with Jean once again, reluctantly chewed at his piece, a hint of enjoyment on his face.
"Lukas" Sasha spoke up as the boy finished his meal, "Have you seen Jean, he hasn't got his piece yet?"
His friend had walked off after his altercation with Eren and was most likely cooling off.
"Here" the boy extended his hand, "I'll take it and go give it to him."
The brunette looking up from the fire, handed Lukas the meal, "Don't go eating that LuLu." She smiled. "I can see your stomach popping out already."
Lukas smiled looking down at his gut, though not engorged, it was bigger than usual. Although polite and cordial to everyone else, Sasha had grown comfortable with joking with both him and Connie, and honestly could be pretty witty herself. The teen enjoyed the brunette's company, as even if she was not in the best situation, hungry or otherwise, Sasha seemed to always make the best of it; always happy or at least positive. It was something that Lukas really appreciated from the girl from Dauper, and maybe something that he needed himself.
Lukas chuckled in response, making an exaggerated motion with his gut, "You like what you see?"
The boy didn't wait for a response as he walked off, the campfire hiding the fact that the girl had blushed a little bit at his comment.
Lukas continued on towards the outskirt of the camp they had set up. The night was extraordinarily clear, with no clouds in the sky, and they had been graced with a full moon. That being said it only took a couple minutes for the teen to find his friend sitting leaned up against a tree, busy sketching away at a piece of scratch paper he had smuggled along on the trip.
"You know" Lukas started alerting Jean to his presence, "If you didn't just sketch when you were pissed off, we could've opened a shop in the interior." The shorter boy chuckled, "Rich people love that shit."
It was a little-known fact that Jean Kirschtein was actually a pretty decent sketch artist. Albeit the grey-haired teen only really indulged in it while trying to cool off, Lukas always thought his friend's skill was pretty amazing, definitely compared to the chicken scratch he could come up with. The shorter of the friends didn't have to look to see what Jean was sketching, he knew his friend still worked on a sketch of a certain black-haired girl from Shiganshina, and he knew it was pretty damn good, even if Jean didn't think so himself.
Jean scoffed, "Who says I'd go into business with you?"
The dark-haired boy smirked handing his friends meal to him, "Well you have the personality of a brick, and sure as well can't yell or fight all your customers so that's why you got me." He joked.
The taller boy looked back at the camp, "I can't stand him…"
Lukas didn't have to look to know that he meant Eren, "I mean he's passionate" the darker-haired boy sighed, "You and I saw how those refugees stumbled into Trost after Wall Maria fell. I can't imagine what that must have felt like…"
Jean gritted his teeth, "That's exactly my point. How can Eren preach to people like they're cowards after they've been through something as horrible as that."
"I don't know bud."
Jean continued, still fuming, "He shouldn't try and drag everyone with him if he wants to join the Survey Corps an di…" the boy stopped himself there seeing his friends head hung low, eyes void of their usual light.
"Im sorry Lukas." Jean muttered, regret in his eyes, "I didn't mean…"
The shorter boy almost whispered, "I know."
The taller boy quickly redirected the conversation, "That was quite the bullshit you pulled on Yeager earlier Schmitty."
Lukas looked up, regaining his composure, "Yeah…" he chuckled, "Figured you didn't catch that one."
Jean smirked, "Didn't catch it?" the boy chuckled, "I nearly died right there. 'Keeping focus' my ass."
The dark-haired boy laughed at that, "I thought it was one of my better works."
At that moment Lukas could feel the telltale signs of the 'feeling' coming back to him. Same as the experience he felt earlier, he put a hand to his temple of his head.
"Still getting those headaches?" Jean questioned.
Lukas gave his friend a confused look before the taller boy continued. "Give me some credit Schmitty, I'm just as observant if not more so than Potato Girl, and I'm a lot harder to bullshit."
The shorter boy resigned replied, "Yeah, but not gonna give Shadis a reason to kick me, no point if only one of us gets into the MP's right?"
Jean nodded, "Just get that checked out when we head back to Trost in a few weeks."
"For sure." Lukas smiled, "Gonna talk to my Mom about it."
The taller boy cocked his head, "You sure you don't want to have a doctor check that out?" Jean questioned, "Your mom causes more headaches than she fixes."
The shorter friend gave a smirk, "I'll make sure to tell her that."
A look of anxiety ran across Jean's face, "The fuck you are."
Lukas chuckled and continued, "No, but I'm not sure I can trust any doctor in that town. Since Wall Maria fell they've become as bad as the merchants."
"You're not wrong." Jean sighed agreeing.
The friends sat in silence a few more moments, before Lukas took a glance at his friend's sketch again.
He pointed at the piece, "You ever going to ask her?"
"I don't know." Jean sighed, rubbing the back of his head, "She hangs around Yeager all the time."
Lukas shrugged, "You never know."
Jean smirked standing up, "Could say the same about you."
The black-haired boy gave him a puzzled look, "I don't know what you mean?"
The two teens started back towards the camp, "Well can't tell you." Jean smirked, "Me and Connie have a bet."
Lukas gave a puzzled look for a moment then shrugged it off, "You know…me and Connie also have a bet…"
…
Lukas rolled around in his sleep; the feeling hadn't ceased even though he had fallen asleep. Now all he felt was a brain-splitting headache, red blobs dancing around in his eye site even though his eyes were closed, and a bone-chilling feeling running up and down his body. His unconscious state, finally giving up the act woke the teen up; his eyes shooting open and greeted by the muzzle of a rifle not two inches away from his face. Suddenly the feeling seemed to dim, still there but resigned to the back of his mind having done its job. A job that the teen realized, was not to annoy him or even hurt him, but to warn him.
Suddenly a scream rang out through the forest, which Lukas immediately recognized as Krista's, waking the rest of his group up.
"Don't move."