A/N: Well what can I say, you people keep on surprising me. Reviews, follows, and favorites in the double digits, all you people are incredible. I won't say anymore because I'm sure you guys are tired of me wasting your time celebrating up here in the Author's Notes. Anyways to more pressing updates, this will probably be my only chapter out for about a week to a week and a half. Got some things coming up so will be a bit busier during that time. Finally, some stories you should take a look at if its suits your fancy:

Chronicles of Attack on Titan(by TheRealStarKiller) - Some wholesome OC/Potato Girl goodness for these trying times.
The Self Insert Scout(by DannyDevito'sWaifu) - First chapter in but an SI in AOT playing it as an RPG just seems like its going to be a wonderfully insane story.
Inure(by Noc007) - Also one chapter in with an interesting premise and really mysterious yet engaging writing.

Hope you guys enjoys the chapter and I'll see you in the next one. ~Scipias

CHAPTER 7 - THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: TRUST

"Sorry, Schmidt came by earlier and said he was picking up your meal."

Sasha Braus looked at her fellow recruit assigned with serving the cadets meals with disbelief. Today was Sunday, Sundays were the brunette's favorite day because they granted the recruits an extra half a ration added on to their normal allowance of food. The girl had almost been lulled into a state of shock, she didn't doubt her fellow recruits' credibility, but this was an unheard of move from Lukas, no matter what she currently thought of the boy.

And what do you think of him?

"Shut up!"

The girl from Dauper felt conflicted, despite what other feelings she might have felt at the time. Lukas first and foremost had been her friend, and if she was honest a pretty good friend at that. The teen was really easy to be around, funny, caring, and remarkably never commented on her eating habits, but he was stupid. He had to go risking himself trying to fight two grown men at once, and got his head cracked open. The brunette cared about the black-haired boy but seeing him laid up unconscious after the incident with the thieves brought up an emotion she did not expect, fear. Sasha was afraid he wouldn't wake up despite the Military Police's examination proving the boy would be fine, and what was even worse, was that it was something she had no control over. After Lukas had eventually woke up, she had felt so relieved, but then had felt angry. Sasha was angry that Lukas had put her in that state, and she was still angry, not having talked to the boy or interacted with him since that day.

You didn't like how Krista kissed him either.

"SHUT UP!"

Sasha was upset, she was angry, and now that she had been deprived of food that was rightfully hers, she was hungry, very fucking hungry.

"LUKAS!"

…

The group of four boys were huddled outside of the boy's barracks, sun waning in the harsh dry dirt-scape that was their training ground. The sound the group had heard was overbearing in volume, a guttural screech that was almost feral, even demonic in nature, and seemed to sound like a certain black-haired teens name.

"Schmitty this has to be the stupidest idea you've ever come up with?" Jean scoffed at his friend, his face almost worried.

"Really?" Lukas shrugged, "Would've guessed that time we threw a chicken into the school bathroom."

"Hmph," the grey-haired teen responded, "Forgot about that one, but still this one is pretty dumb."

"I agree with Jean." Marco motioned to the taller boy, "This is looking pretty dangerous."

Lukas shrugged once more, knowing fully the dangers of what he was going to attempt but resolved in the fact that he had to do them.

Connie chuckled darkly, "Jean, bet you she kills Lukas before he makes it ten feet."

Jean smirked, "You're on, Cueball."

Lukas rolled his eyes at the duo and looked down at the packed meal cradled in his hands. The boy had no way of knowing whether or not this would work but he had to try something. It was pretty evident that Sasha was mad at him, for what he did not know, but the fact that she had actively avoided him for the past week had weighed on the teen. He needed to talk to her, if not to resolve things, then to find out what it was that Lukas did to upset her. After all she was his friend and at the very least, he'd want it to remain that way. That's why in his idiotic genius the teen looked to force a confrontation, after all, all he had to do was outrun Sasha to a more secluded location where he had a waiting parcel that would hopefully stop the brunette from killing him.

The black-haired boy's thoughts were interrupted a moment later by the deafening noise of the door to the mess hall crashing open. Lukas felt the trio of boys behind him clear off him in an instant and looked to see the figure standing in said doorway. Sasha Braus scanned the immediate area with the quickness and accuracy common to a huntress such as herself. In no time at all she made eye contact with the boy, the look of recognition and anger in her face draining all the color from the boy's face. Lukas didn't need any feeling in his body to tell him what to do next.

YOU SUICIDAL MORON…. RUN!

Turning on his heels, the teen bolted as fast as he thought possible, running down the line of buildings making up the male barracks area, faintly hearing a victorious Jean gloating to Connie fading away in the background. Not a second later his ears were graced by the sound of almost inhumanly fast footfalls behind. Whatever force that had been fucking with his body suddenly decided to make an appearance, a rapid thumping in the back of his head that without actually saying anything strongly advised him to duck. Lukas did so kneeling into a running slide, careful to keep the box he still had cradled in his hands intact.

"OH FUCK!"

Not a moment later, Sasha flew headfirst over the boy. The action seemed to happen in slow motion and even though she was surprised by his sudden reaction, the momentum overshooting the brunette over the teen, her eyes maintained contact with him the entire time. Lukas shuffled to his feet as Sasha landed in a roll not a few feet in front of the boy. His original path now blocked; he made a hard right gunning it through an alleyway of two of the buildings.

"Only a little bit more."

The teen rounded the corner now on the rear side of the row of buildings. It was a much tighter walkway, only about as wide as two people and flanked on the opposite side by the fence encasing the entire training camp, and he only needed to make it a few more buildings down. A sense of relief washed over him for only a moment when the black-haired boy made a chilling realization; he didn't hear a second pair of footsteps anymore. A second later his senses flared up but, on this occasion, it was too late, coming from an adjacent side alley between another two of the buildings was the brunette who with a vicious speed dove into the boy shoulder checking him. Lukas felt his feet leave the earth and made a move to cushion the box for a hard landing. As the boy did so though, he realized that in the shoulder check Sasha had also grabbed the box which had been loosened from Lukas's grasp. With that in mind, the teen crashed into the dirt roughly but as he quickly noticed exactly where he needed to be.

"I really need to stop putting myself in these situations."

Lukas looked up to see that Sasha had already ripped open the box, hungrily ingesting the preserved meal. With a blink of an eye the contents of the box were gone and the boy's blood chilled as the brunette that was supposed to be his friend turned towards him. Her face was beset with a primal anger and if Lukas had any less of a constitution, he would have pissed himself right there.

"Why?" Sasha almost growled out fuming.

Lukas calmed himself, "Because you won't tell me why you're mad at me!"

The brunettes face still furious, she gave the teen an inquisitive look, but then started to turn away to walk off still angry.

The boy gave a saddened sigh, his ploy not having gone to plan, "Well if you're just going to just leave you might as well take this." The boy lifted up a thatch bag that had been sitting perched up against the building beside him.

The black-haired teen heard an audible sniff from the girl. Sasha quickly turned around grabbing the bag out of the boys outstretched hand. Lukas shifted himself to sit leaning against the building the bag had leaned on, head down low in defeat.

…

At first, she couldn't believe what she was smelling but when she opened up the bag, she saw it. A perfectly intact, still warm portion of meat sat cozily at the bottom of the bag. She was still upset, but most of her anger had been washed away by this morsel which Sasha delicately lifted from the bag dropping the latter by the wayside. The brunette turned away from Lukas and took two hearty bites out of the morsel, it was delicious if not a bit colder than ideal but then again, she wasn't a picky eater. Sasha then paused, the girl from Dauper wouldn't admit it but she was on the verge of tears, but she couldn't tell if it was happiness from the apparent gift she was just given or maybe something else.

"How did you get this?" she muttered calming herself.

It took a moment for the boy to respond, "Eren had cleaning duties for the officers mess this week, he owed me a favor."

Sasha looked down at the meat taking another bite, not waiting to finish chewing she responded, "So you stole it?"

"Yes?"

The brunette relented while also taking another bite of the meat, "You're stupid."

"What?" Lukas replied, as Sasha could feel very confused eyes staring at her back.

"I'm mad at you because you're stupid…and selfish."

The boy squinted at her still confused, "Wait…what do you mean?"

The girl from Dauper finished the last piece of the meat, her stomach content, but still annoyed she turned to face the teen, "People care about you Lukas, and then you try and fight two grown men and get your head almost caved in!" She exclaimed.

The black-haired boy sat in silence for a moment head down before muttering, "And are you one of those 'people'?"

The brunette looked down at the ground almost blushing but stopping herself. Grinding the toe of her boot into the dirt she spoke quietly, "Yes…"

"Oh" Lukas replied looking down awkwardly, " I… didn't realize you cared that much…"

Sasha was finding it harder and harder to be annoyed at the teen.

The brunette gave a weak smile, "Of course I do." She sighed, "You're my friend."

"I'm sorry." The boy replied quietly, "I wasn't trying to hurt you, I just…someone had to be the one to jump in alone, and I guess I felt responsible."

The girl looked at him, "I understand…it's just that…" she was struggling with her words, "…I've always been able to trust in just myself, depend on just myself, that was just how I was raised."

Lukas looked at her intently, waiting for the brunette to continue, but when she got stuck for words he responded, "…And you started to trust me?"

She looked at him in confirmation, "Yes!" the girl exclaimed, "and how couldn't I. From the moment you met me you never treated me like I was different than anyone else. You've been kind to me and even went out of your way to put your trust in me to make me feel comfortable after I'd thought I'd embarrassed myself."

"I never thought of it that way." Lukas replied.

"I know." Sasha plopped herself down next to the teen, "You've always been genuine about it, that's why I knew I could trust you, to…depend on you." The girl frowned, "When you jumped in there, I trusted you'd be fine, and when you didn't…it hurt."

"So did that slap." Lukas retorted trying to cheer the girl up.

Sasha chuckled for a moment, "Jerk." She playfully punched him in the arm.

He smiled genuinely, "But really…" the boy looked up at her and spoke, "as your friend who also trusts you in case you didn't know that already, I am sorry."

Sasha had to catch herself from blushing again. She berated herself internally, all of her hunter instincts and this boy kept catching her off guard.

"Stupid smile…it is nice though…"

The girl steadied herself smiling, "Well…I guess I could forgive you."

Sensing the tone shift, Lukas chuckled, "It was the meat, wasn't it?"

The brunette pretended to look shocked, "How dare you! It was out of the kindness of my heart!"

The teen snorted, poking at the girl's belly, "More like the kindness of your stomach."

As the boy's finger touched her mid-section, Sasha's body squirmed back instinctively, an uncontrollable giggle came from her mouth, and like that she had finally failed to keep a blush red from taking over her face.

Lukas pulled back but gave the girl a shit eating grin, "Looks like somebodies a bit sensitive there."

"I will kill you." The brunette replied composing herself.

The boy rolled his eyes looking up at the setting sun, "I doubt that. If you didn't kill after I stole your dinner, you're not gonna kill me for this."

The girl from Dauper didn't know if it was instinct or her doziness finally catching up to her, but she laid her head on his shoulder. Sasha half expected Lukas pull away or made some snide comment, but he just sat still letting her head rest there and watching the setting sun.

"At least you're a good pillow." The girl said drowsily.

Lukas gave half a laugh, "Is that so?"

She managed a nod, before hearing the faint noise of what she thought was his heartbeat. The brunette found the rhythmic beat calming, and soon enough it lulled the girl to sleep.

"This is nice"

…

Lukas sat as the sun finally dropped below the horizon. It didn't bother him that Sasha had started using his shoulder as a pillow and by the sound of her soft repetitive breathing and a hint of low snoring he assumed the brunette had fallen asleep.

The boy had a lot on his mind, the 104th would be making the trek to Trost in a week's time for a training exercise and while he relished the chance to visit his mother, after all it had been two years, Lukas didn't look forward to the 'mental baggage' that was bound to pop up that he worked so hard to bury the last couple years. Besides that, was the literal fact that his body was acting up in ways he couldn't understand, and he was pretty damn sure it wasn't puberty.

"Two problems, I got two problems."

Distracting him from his inner monologue was a soft mumble from Sasha as the girl laid asleep leaned up against him. Lukas turned his head slightly to see the brunette fast asleep, her lips moving ever so slightly as if she were whispering. The boy smiled and carefully took his hand and sweeping away the bangs covering her eyes. He found that having Sasha there was somewhat calming.

You know she's pretty cute.

"Wait…what?"

The teen went wide eyed and a shade of red graced his cheeks.

And is super nice.

"Wha…?"

And sweet.

"Ahhh…"

You like the way she smells too.

"Please…"

Her hair, and the color of her eyes too.

"…stop"

And how it's so easy to talk to her.

"Oh no…"

Lukas was beet red and his heart raced as he rested his forehead in his free hand. He wanted to lie to himself, but the dark-haired teen knew what he felt was true. Lukas Schmidt had feelings for the food-loving brunette girl from Dauper Village who was currently fast asleep on his shoulder.

"Three problems, I have three problems."