Brian fell off his chair, clutching his stomach as he was racked with spasms of laughter. Sophie and Steve had their faces hidden on the table, their bodies shaking with hilarity. Linda held a hand to her mouth to smother the threatening amusement and Jack just leaned against the table, shaking his head.
"God I wished I was there to see the Captain's face." Steve slowly sat back up, wiping tears of joy from his eyes.
"I'm telling you, you missed the best thing." I repeated, the memory of Levi being dragged away by Stacey almost having me in stitches again.
"Do you ever think she'll get the hint that the Captain is not into her?" Linda mused, removing her hand. I shrugged.
"Personally, I hope she doesn't. This whole Stacey-Levi thing really makes my day a lot of the time." and I grinned at simply the thought.
"You're so mean." smirked Sophie, spinning her teaspoon between her fingers. I threw her a look.
"This coming from the girl who sliced Brian's belt open and making his pants fall off mid-flight." I replied, raising an eyebrow.
"It was an accident!" she cried out, standing up abruptly, slamming her hands on the table.
"Who had an accident?" asked another voice and I grinned at Hanji, who entered the mess hall.
"The belt incident of Brian's back then." I informed, smirking.
"Ah, I remember that well." The science geek murmured, grabbing herself a cup of coffee.
"I wish you wouldn't." Brian brushed himself off and plopped on his chair again. I studied Hanji's face.
"I take it that you haven't managed to crack open Annie Leonhart yet?" I pictured the talented blonde girl sealed in her crystal coffin. Hanji sighed in exhaustion, sitting down and taking her glasses off to rub her eyes.
"No. The crystal is unlike anything we've ever encountered and nothing we've tried so far can even dent it. That aside, I've been improving our Titan capture methods. Speaking of Titans, where's Levi?"
My Special Operations Squad froze before we all cracked up again. Hanji threw us weird looks.
"What? What did I miss?" she asked, her gaze scanning through all of us.
"Rina!" I halted in my actions and a chill ran down my spine. I felt a hateful gaze boring into my back and shivered. The squad busied themselves with something. Must be Levi.
"Oop, you're in troubleeee." Brian sang quietly. I frowned at him.
"Outside, Rina." Levi ordered and I hesitantly followed him out. We continued to walk in silence, away from the mess hall and to a secluded open balcony.
"Your shitty prank cost me three hours of precious time." He growled, immediately turning to me once we were alone. I crossed my arms in defiance.
"I don't know why the hell you were out for three hours. All you had to do was be nice to the girl and get some lunch. I know you're not dense, Levi but she's been onto you for almost a year."
"I couldn't well damn leave her while she was eating like a sloth. She wasn't even eating half of the time. She was talking instead."
"Make up an excuse to leave after the lunch then. It was good for you not to be a workaholic, even if it was only for three hours."
"Only? Only three hours? Jesus, Rina, are you-"
"You've been working yourself to exhaustion, Levi!" I cut him off, holding a hand up. I was a little riled up now. "You sleep late, you've been skipping meals and yet you still manage to get up at 5 in the goddamn morning to start paperwork all over again. Plus you've got all your Captain duties as well! Relax, will you?"
"Relax?! How can I relax when humanity is counting on us to defeat the Titans and to secure their survival?"
"We all know that that's not going to happen any time soon. Geez Levi, just slow things down at least. I can hardly focus myself if I'm worried sick about you half of the time." I shoved a finger into his chest for emphasis.
"You're called Humanity's Strongest Soldier for a reason, but that's going to mean nothing if I have to catch your falling ass from the sky if you suddenly lose focus or fall asleep mid-flight." I exclaimed.
We fell silent after my little rant. Just as well, as a Garrison messenger came for Levi.
"Commander Erwin Smith wishes to see you Captain Levi." he saluted stiffly.
"Sure." Levi replied and abruptly left me. I growled and turned to lean on the railing to calm down. What a stubborn friend.