One last chapter before the Christmas Special is over! I hope you guys enjoy the latest chapter. Please leave a comment when you're done! I would love to know what you're thoughts are on the story.
Saph's PoV
"So where is your tiny bodyguard?" Brutus asked as he sat down on the couch in the living room.
Folding my hands together, I regarded my short nails with interest before answering. "He's moved up the ranks in the Survey Corps. Keeps him busy."
Brutus nodded as he brushed his moustache with his thumb, thoughtfully. "I didn't send for you, so I'm wondering why you're here."
"I believe someone attempted to kill me little over a week ago."
"And you want me to look into it?"
"Yes."
A slow smile tugged his lips to a vicious grin. Eyes glinting with greed, Brutus shoved his hand near my nose with the palm up. "It'll cost you."
Giving a level stare, I leaned away. "Since you have yet to show me your worth in regards to finding information on my brother, I'll let you prove yourself by telling me who wants me dead. If not, maybe I'll take my business back to Agni."
The mention of the most widely known information dealer's name was enough to put a scowl on his face. His most hated competition. There had been rumors of a backstory before their rivalry started. It was easy to use her name to profit from their dispute. "You wouldn't be here if you thought she could get more info than me."
Not mentioning the fact that it was because she was scared of Kenny that I was forced to find someone else to help, I huffed. "Well I guess I overestimated you." Brushing off the nonexistent dirt from my jeans, I slowly got up off of the couch. With deliberate, slow movements, I headed towards the door.
"Wait!"
I stopped, but I didn't turn around. "Yes?"
"I'll do it. Not for free, but for a reduced price. Call it my special deal for such a loyal customer."
Casually, I titled my neck back so I could get a glimpse of his hardened face. "This time, I'm going to pay you after you get me what I want. I'll look forward to hearing back from you on either of the subjects."
"Fine."
Smiling to myself, I left the old house and began to jog the empty streets back to the headquarters. There, I would have to apologize to Petra and Auruo for what I said. That I was something I wasn't looking forward to, at all. It seemed as if I wouldn't have to wait for long in trepidation, I could see Petra standing at the entrance of the building.
"It's cold out here! Why are you standing outside?" I said as I rushed towards her. Might as well be polite, though I doubted that facade would work after I talked in great detail about I ate people when I lived in the Underground. Acting like a psycho to scare Auruo off meant that playing nice was going to be suspicious.
Petra looked surprised, and she didn't take the coat I had offered her. "I was waiting for you."
"Well I did want to apologize for what happened earlier, but what did you want to talk about?"
"I think I made Levi mad and I don't know how to fix it."
"So why are you out here?"
Petra leaned closer to me to whisper, "Because he's in there, and I'm scared."
I snorted at her. "He's a tiny, grumpy man who has the title of Humanity's Strongest Soldier. Nothing to fear."
"So you're not scared of me?"
Petra shrieked. I stiffened. It took me a few breaths but I was able to relax after a bit. Flippantly, I twisted to face the person I had been talking about. "I've never been. Don't know why I would start now."
Levi's grey eyes were analyzing Petra. Glancing from the bangs blocking her face to her shifting feet. "You should be since your disrespectful to your superior and you make a mess of things constantly." It sounded more like he was trying to reassure Petra than to threaten me. Don't act like Saph and we'll be fine.
There was no way I wasn't going to take that as a warning, though. I've had enough washing clothes to last for the rest of my life. Wrapping my arm around Petra's shoulders like I've seen Leon do to… well everyone, I grinned down at him. "I was just apologizing to Petra here about the whole cannibalism thing." See Levi? I was being all friendly and nice with the new recruits. Please don't punish me. An uncomfortable beating in my chest made me grimace. It was due to his presence and a mixture of fear concocted with something else.
Levi wasn't buying it, but before he could speak, Petra added her own, unwanted, thought.
"You're ignoring the question, Saph," Petra added, rather unhelpfully.
I couldn't help but glare at her. The lift in the corner of the lip revealed that she wasn't dense, but that she liked seeing me on the spot. Revenge for earlier I suppose? "Well, Petra, I'm not as scared as him as you are." Snickering in glee at the way her face paled, I removed my arm.
"Saph!"
"I still gotta apologize to Auruo!" I shouted as I entered into the kitchen. Both Eld and Leon were there, one with a knowing expression, and the other one filled with glee.
"What have you been up to?" Leon asked, as he leaned his elbows on the counter.
"Oh," I spoke quietly, clasping my hands in front of me, "I just took a walk around town to clear my head."
"Of me?" he winked.
I wanted to dump the tea in his face. Yeah like his face was the one that constantly seemed on my mind these days. If only he was shorter, with dark hair, grey eyes, and a constant scowl then we might have gotten somewhere. Leon was attractive, and most people in the Survey Corps did at least have a small crush on him, but his flirting and touching always made me uncomfortable. Ruby was always the one to make him back off, but she wasn't here anymore.
It was easy to ignore him. "Where is Auruo?"
Eld answered, "He's unpacking his stuff in the sleeping room."
Having a shadow following me as I approached, Leon was riling me up without intending too. "You know everyone could hear you talking outside. Standing right by the door doesn't give you any privacy."
After I nodded, a hand shot out, blocking me from the entryway.
"It's cute how the new girl is acting like a scared rabbit around the Captain. Heard you weren't frightened though. I've always like my girls brave."
"I'm not interested," I snapped.
Leon looked taken aback for a second as he gave me some room in the small corridor. "You're not?"
Exasperated, I looked at him in confusion. "Did I ever seem like I was?"
"Thought you were playing hard to get."
"I don't think I could even if I wanted to," I answered, honestly. Seduction was not one something I'd attempt to try. Knowing my looks, it would only work on people with a very unique and strange taste. Made me wonder why the guy who could almost get anyone was chasing after me.
His laugh was light with no trill of hurt in it. "We've worked together for over a year, I know that brain of yours can come up with some tricks, I couldn't imagine."
I dodged the finger that was trying to poke my forehead. "Why don't you go after Petra? She's cute."
"She is cute," he agreed. His blonde hair sticking out as he ran his digits through the long strands. "I'm tired of cute though. You're… interesting, more challenging. Besides, she has been fawning nonstop over the Captain. Apparently, he saved her life or something." Guess that answered my question about why I was the one in the spotlight.
He wasn't too bad to talk to when he wasn't getting in my space. Made me wish that I had drawn a clear line sooner. "You sound surprised about that. A lot of people follow him because he has saved a lot of lives." It's not the reason I respected him, but it seems to be the biggest reason people gave him the headline of Humanity's Strongest. His skills were unmatched, but there were a lot of things that made him a great soldier.
"That usually stops once they get to know him, however. Anyways, I'll stop bugging you. Just keep an open mind about my offer to go out sometime."
Pivoting back towards my original destination, I came face to face to my target. "I was just coming to you."
"I'm surprised to see that someone would be interested in such an ugly girl like yourself," Auruo commented, his eyes on Leon's receding back.
"I was going to apologize for making you piss yourself, but if you're going to talk to me that way, maybe I should make you clean the headquarters instead."
Auruo snorted in derision. "You're not a superior to me."
His challenging tone was making me bristle. "Then I'll just tell Levi about your attitude."
"He wouldn't listen to you."
"I'm his second in command, of course he would. Do you really think that I would be in the position that I'm in if Levi didn't trust me to a certain degree?" That might not be exactly true, what with Erwin making the decision for him and all. I believed that Levi had to hold me in some regard. Putting the past trying to kill each other incidents behind us, we've had each others back since the Special Operations Squad started. Even the blame he once placed on me for Farlan's and Isabel's death had disappeared.
Auruo seemed to bite his tongue at that. There really wasn't anything he could say. Instead, he tried to put me on the defensive. "You tried to throw that guy onto Petra!"
"You mean Leon? He's harmless. Just likes to joke and play around."
"Still."
I tilted my head as I considered the guy in front of me. His small eyes betrayed nothing, but the frown lines had deepened to something akin to worry. "You're very protective of her."
"Of course," he turned his nose up at me, "we're friends."
"Okay."
"Just friends!"
Narrowing my eyes at him, I wondered why their was a sheen of sweat beginning to form near his hairline. "That's what I heard." Feeling awkward, I went upstairs. While I hadn't actually apologized, I'd mentioned it to both of them. That counted, and I could sleep easy tonight.
Lucifer liked Petra. He liked Petra and Levi, yet neither of them would switch with me. Levi wouldn't because he said that it was my own fault and that no more horses would be killed because of my terrible riding skills. Petra wouldn't because she was too attached to her own horse, and after hearing about my record, she had promised her filly that I would never sit in its saddle. Pissed, I had told both of them that they were just scared shitless of him.
Turned out, Petra didn't care if I ranked above her, she would scold me for my language. Which was terrible for me since Levi had rubbed off on me in that way, and I tended to cuss a lot when I rode Lucifer.
"It's your own damn fault that the horse won't listen to you," Levi snarled at me. Tired of hearing me whine and complain about wasting energy on trying to control my crazy horse.
"Levi!" Petra yelled. After the conversation in the front of the house (where everybody heard us) she had seemingly dropped her fear of him. Now it was all respect and admiration. That didn't mean his potty mouth was allowed in her proximity. I believed Levi put up with it because it reminded him of Ruby and her mothering.
His grumbles were lost in the wind as we rode on. It was our first time as a team out in the field. We had all practiced as a group in training, but reality was different. Situations were unexpected and wooden cut outs of the Titans could never replace the actual beasts.
Erwin seemed pleased with the changes implemented by the new additions at least. Petra and Auruo seemed to be the missing link that made everybody work together instead of in two separate troops. I was still the only one who could keep up with Levi's speed (which consisted me of sprinting along the treetops most of the time), but Auruo's skill paired with Petra's ability to flexibly coordinate with just about anybody, meant that when we slaughtered, we were a single mind instead of just six separate ones.
That didn't mean there wasn't a little dysfunction when we were off the field. "Stop acting like the Captain and just help me unpack the gear!" Petra shouted at Auruo as we settled in an old castle for the night.
Unrolling my sleeping bag next to Levi's, I was surprised to see Petra's on the other side of mine. She had left a big enough space between Levi's and her's for me to fit mine in comfortably.
"Hanji told me that you always sleep on the right side of him," she said, cheerfully.
Unsure with what she was trying to do, I sat down on the top of the blanket. "That was nice of you." It was easy to see that she wanted to discuss something with me. While I didn't dislike her, Petra's constant attempts to become besties was beginning to shorten my patience in my dealings with her. The person I was closest to was Levi, and that was mostly due to us being around each other for so long. Neither of us were the type to seek out connections, each with our own reason for doing so paired with our personalities. Petra seemed to be the opposite in that regard with how she had boundless energy in trying to create an environment of something closer to camaraderie.
Apparently, she didn't know about my reservations about… people. "I've been hoping we could talk more."
Might as well stop this now. "You don't want to be friends with me," I gruffly said, focusing on pulling off my boots.
Her warmth didn't dim as she leaned over, worried. "Why not?"
Without hesitation, I peered at her. "I slept with a man for information then I killed him and the guy who sent me to him."
She gawked at me but didn't look disgusted. Rolling my eyes, I slipped underneath the covers, thinking that I had gotten rid of her pestering forever. Content, I rolled my body away from her. Levi was sleeping not to far away. His arms and legs straight and pressed close to his body. He was the first person I had told about what I had done to get the information about Kenny. It was also one of the few times he had ever shown concern by wanting to know where that bastard was. His comforting stopped at that, but I hadn't wanted pity. The whole event was just another nightmare to add to the growing trauma.
Her hands grabbed my shoulders so suddenly, that I almost threw her off in a panic. "Are you okay?"
An odd question to ask after someone admitted something of that caliber. My thoughts were more headed towards the direction of 'what happened?' and 'did you really do that?' "People do that all the time in the Underground. It wasn't that big of a deal. Just wanted to warn you about what you're getting into."
Petra considered my admission. "It doesn't matter."
"Killing people and having sex to get what I want doesn't matter to you?" What the hell was I even saying? I guessed that her persistence had made me resort to more extreme measures. That, and I was tired. "I'm going to sleep." This time, Petra didn't shake me awake as I drifted off.