Time to dial up the cringe even more my dudes


Marie was not gonna wait those few years in silence. When her duties on the fields were done and over with she trained her body till she dropped. She knew stamina was needed and thought it'd be better to start earlier rather than later.

Before taking off on one of her evening runs, she surprisingly got approached.

"Marie, right?" she heard a voice say. Marie turned around to see the three kids from before, Eren being the one who had spoken to her. She nodded in response

"Where is your mom? I want to thank her for before." Eren said smiling sheepishly. Marie's eyes darkened turning her face away "She got send outside the walls." she said curtly, before deciding it was a good time to start running.

She heard 3 sets of feet take off after her, Eren and the girl flanking her. "I-I'm sorry." Eren said, shame evident in his voice.

Surprisingly, they kept jogging with her for a while before the boy lagging behind spoke "What are you doing going out every night?" he asked curiously. Marie turned her head slightly "I'm upping my stamina to prepare to become a soldier." she said simply. The boy nodded before speaking up again "I'm Armin by the way. Armin Arlert." the girl beside her spoke up too "I'm Mikasa Ackerman." she said simply.

Marie nodded, before picking up her regular pace again. The three decided to keep her company on the rest of her run. At the end both Eren and Armin were huffing and puffing, Armin more so, while Mikasa seemed to be ok.

After taking another few gulps of air, Eren asked "So you wanna become a soldier?" he grinned "Me too, I wanna join the Survey Corps!" he spoke with determination.

"I didn't think that far ahead." Marie admitted "I just want to become strong enough to protect my precious people." she finished. Mikasa nodded understandingly while Armin smiled at her.

Marie, feeling a bit better after the run, smiled at the trio "Let's become the best soldiers we can, then."

The years quickly passed thanks to her company. They decided to join her on working out, suggesting more fun and effective ways to strengthen themselves.

Mikasa was easily the strongest out of all of them, followed shortly by Marie and Eren. Armin had a bit of trouble keeping up, but his brains made up for any shortcomings.

Before they knew it, they were eligible to become soldiers.

Marie had to wince at their assigned tutor, who was currently screaming in a poor cadet's face. The poor guy was sweating buckets while managing to answer each question in the most stupid way possible.

Soon Shadis had ended up in her row.

"And who are you pathetic maggot?!" He all but screamed in her face. "Marie Berger, from Alsfeld, sir!" Marie shouted back, saluting.

"What is your purpose here Berger?!" Shadis screamed, bits of spittle flying on her face. "To become strong enough to protect humankind, sir!" Marie shouted back confidently.

Shadis stared into her soul for a bit longer before continuing down the line. Marie felt a sigh of relief leave her body. Being yelled at was not exactly the definition of fun.

"Time to start your drills! Start with a warmup round of 20 laps!" Shadis yelled after harassing the last cadet. Marie was glad she had taken it upon herself to up her stamina, as hell would rain down if she couldn't keep up. Or more specifically Shadis' spit.

While jogging their laps Marie looked over at the poor girl, being told to run till nightfall. Sasha, if she remembers well. Even if she did something so foolish as stealing and eating a potato, she felt sympathetic for the girl.

Eren soon caught up to her and leisurely jogged the rounds with her. "First impressions so far?" Marie asked the boy. Eren looked over at her, excited "I can't wait to show everyone what I'm worth!" he exclaimed excitedly. Marie smiled back at the boy, amused by his antics.

Marie was glad when the drills were over though. While she was sweating heavily, she was definitely better off than most of the other cadets. She lifted Armin up from the ground, slinging his arm around her neck. He smiled tiredly "Thanks Marie.".

Leading them to the mess hall, she grabbed two plates, placing the second one down in front of Armin. The poor sap immediately dug in, savouring the meal while also shoving it in as fast as he could.

Armin and her had become good friends over the years. His natural curiosity for the world and amazing book smarts being his best qualities. Marie had never really thought about much beyond the small village she lived in, so she was happy to learn any and all knowledge she could about the outside world. It was time to expand her horizons a bit after all.

Armin was always happy to share his information, eager to have somebody else to daydream with. He told tales about the books he used to find filled with images of sprawling pools of water called oceans, and endless dunes of sand called deserts, along with many amazing sounding tales.

It made the small town farmer girl wish for more. To experience more. To expand her horizons.

Armin in turn was amazed by her physical strength. As a young farmers girl, she was used to the physical labor, and had always been in good health. It helped that she had started to maintain and improve upon herself the past few years. Marie was always patient with Armin, making sure he caught up to them, and helping him with more difficult activities. They had become quite the duo with each other.

Her peaceful musing was ground to a halt, when word got out that the trio was from Shiganshina. All hell broke lose. Soon, their table became absolutely crowded, fellow cadets firing off questions about that day.

Marie felt herself shudder, trying to erase the unpleasant memories from her mind as the crowd grew bigger and bigger. It all became to much for her though, so she took her remaining loaf of bread and bolted outside.

Walking towards the female dormitories, Marie slumped back against one of the walls to try and catch her breath. She tried distracting herself with her remaining piece of food, but it soon was gone, leaving her to dwell in her own thoughts.

Seeing her father being eaten alive, and knowing her mother and unborn sibling would likely have faced the same fate was traumatising enough at is. While she knew she had to get over her fears and confront them, she was avoiding thinking about it.

After a little while, she felt a bit less nauseous and started walking back to the main road when she walked past one of the bonfires, noticing a startled blonde girl on the ground, with Sasha menacingly holding a piece of bread in her mouth. They both turned to look at her causing her to dumbly stare back.

"Uh... am I interrupting something?"


The following days went much the same, weeding out those unfit to be soldiers at a rapid pace. Many of the candidates were just not able to keep up with the physically demanding lifestyle.

Marie however, felt exhilarated knowing she was one of the current best around. All her prerequisite training hadn't been for nothing.

Currently leading the pack, she was surprised to see a duo jog up to her. Reiner and Berthold if she remembered right. These two were jogging along leisurely like it was just a casual evening stroll.

"Hey Marie, how are you able to keep up so well?" Reiner asked out of curiosity. Marie grinned "That's a farmer daughter for you!" she said with a toothy smile before adding "and I also like to exercise for fun.".

It wasn't a lie. While it at first started as a necessity, Marie soon started to have more and more fun while exercising, partly because of her companions. However, she still enjoyed her alone time very much, quickly having it become her primary hobby due to time constraints.

Reiner nodded, seemingly satisfied, and decided to take the lead instead, Berthold running after him to catch up. Soon a girl named Annie passed her as well, briefly looking at her before continuing.

These three in front of her were seemingly born to be soldiers, excelling in everything that had been thrown at them so far. From intimidation to all kinds of exercises, they handled it in stride. Marie wondered what kind of life they led before this.

As Marie looked back at the rest of the cadets, she slowed her pace until she was next to Armin, smiling at him gently.

"You're able to keep up better than before, Armin." Marie said kindly. Armin beamed at her "Thank you Marie!". The two kept running next to each other for the remainder of the warm up laps.


Marie's time in training made everything speed up even more. At least, that's what it felt like. Today they would already be testing out their aptitude for the ODM gear.

As soon as she was called up to the weird machine, she straightened her back, trying to remain confident. Being strapped in took a little bit but soon she was being lifted up into the air. Surprisingly, Marie intuitively knew what to do. She compared it to balancing two buckets of milk she would've had to haul back in the day, using her whole body to stay balanced. She did slip up a bit at times, but overall she had a nice passing grade for this portion of the training.

Looking over at Eren however, she winced. The boy was unable to stay afloat. In the meantime, Mikasa was an absolute natural, while Armin got there with a only a tumble or two.

Looking closely at Eren, she couldn't help but feel something was off. Marie couldn't place her finger on it however, so she joined Mikasa and Armin in helping Eren train after the class hours were over. But to no avail.

When slipping into their bunk beds in the evening, Marie worried at her lip. Looking up at Mikasa she asked "Do you think Eren will be fine?". Mikasa looked down "Even if he isn't, he'll be fine. I'll follow him everywhere." she said confidently. Marie hummed softly "But isn't there anything you want, Mikasa?" she couldn't help but ask. Mikasa fell silent for a bit "...no, not really. He is all I have left to live for." she said solemnly.

Marie flopped back down in her bunk, wondering what type of person she would have turned out to be if she lost someone precious like Eren was to Mikasa.

Marie herself had turned out in quite the opposite way to Mikasa. Rather than giving up on life, her parents deaths was her driving force. She had to live on for not just their sake but her own.

"He'd want you to live for you though." Marie softly whispered. She didn't know if Mikasa had already fallen asleep but bid her good night anyways.


Eren managed to pass, much to Marie's relief. It seems like his gear was faulty, and with the proper gear he easily managed to balance himself.

Mikasa had also seemed to be deep in thought lately, suspecting that her short conversation the past evening had done something with her. It wasn't enough to change her, but it was enough to make her start to think.

Right now though, another day of class was behind them, this time on the more academical side. Now that most of the weak links were weeded out, they were expected to start their curriculum fully, including theory. Marie was glad for Armin, as he could finally shine the way he was meant to.

Sitting in the dining hall, Marie was just trying to munch on her food peacefully. It turned out to be a more difficult task as the group of friends had turned out to be quite popular, with little fanclubs starting to pop up for the top 11 cadets. Safe to say, her table was crowded.

She tried to enjoy her food squished in between Armin and a kind boy named Marco, but to no avail. To her left, Eren and Jean were arguing again after Jean shamelessly flirted with Mikasa for the umpteenth time. Ymir was being her loud abrasive self and egging them both on while Krista tried to calm them down. Connie and Sasha were having a contest on who could balance the most spoons on their forehead, while Reiner and Berthold watched the chaos unfold opposite of her corner of the table.

Marie held her head in her hands, softly sighing as to not disturb anyone else. Marco peeked at her when he heard this. "Marie, are feeling ok?" He kindly asked. Marie smiled at the boy "I just have a small headache thats all." Marco seemed soothed by that and continued back to the conversation. She chugged down her glass of water, before standing up.

Before she could leave though, her name got called "Marie! Come back! I was just about to propose a game!" Sasha yelled at her. Marie sighed before going back to the busy table.

"Ok, ok." Sasha said, gathering the attention of the table "I think it's about time we play Truth or Dare!" she exclaimed. Connie was at her side cheering at the idea, while everyone else seemed to shrug in agreement.

A few truth or dares were launched back and forth, the order being decided by an empty glass bottle Sasha had seemingly procured out of nowhere. As Ymir completed the dare of trying to go give a hug to Annie in the corner (and being punched as a result) she spun the bottle, making it land on Marie. Marie hadn't been picked yet so far so she went with the simple truth.

Ymir smirked impishly "Do you have a crush on anyone?" she asked slyly. All eyes turned towards her.

It was not a very well kept secret, but most of the cadets had formed small Crushes on somebody, but Marie by far had the most in her group. It was her mix of oblivious innocent farmers girl energy along with her power that made people's hearts beat a little bit faster, both male and female.

Marie blushed furiously, embarrassed by the personal question. To be honest, she hadn't quite thought of her fellow cadets in that way yet. As she looked around the table, seeing everyone's expectant faces, she could only imagine what it was like kissing each person her eyes roamed over. "Uhh..." she made a few more nonsensical sounds as her eyes roamed over everybody, her blush becoming redder and redder by the second.

"You look like a tomato, Marie!" Sasha exclaimed, laughing at her misfortune. Ymir piped up after the laughter settled down enough "You know the rules, if you can't answer the Truth, you have to take a Dare." she said, the impish smile never having left her face.

On the verge of overheating Marie managed to stutter out "D-Dare me.".

"Ok" Ymir hummed, looking around the room, but obviously having made up her mind "Go sit on either Marco's or Berthold's lap for the next 5 rounds." she said, grinning madly. Marie's calming countenance quickly turned back up to blushing panic mode.

Standing up abruptly, she looked between the boys who were both incredibly flustered as well. Marco and Berthold were easily the most vulnerable targets besides Marie, knowing Ymir waited for this opportunity to arise on purpose.

She looked between the two rapidly, blushing furiously. In the end she sat down on the tip of Marco's knees, since he was the one seated next to her. Ymir started yelling "Closer Marie! Back to chest!" everyone cheered her on.

Marie felt like fainting as she felt her back touch Marco's chest. Hiding her head in her hands, she furiously tried to get her breathing under control, not daring to look at his face.

Marie shakily reached her hand towards the bottle, spinning it softly. It ended up on Connie, who bravely shouted dare. Marie's jumbled thoughts quickly put together the silliest thing she could think of.

"Either piggyback Jean around the hall 5 times, or arm wrestle Reiner." She stammered out, going with a multiple choice dare as well. Connie blanched, before choosing to piggyback Jean, preferring to be exhausted than to end up with a broken arm.

The next four rounds went at a snail's pace. At least, that is what it felt like to Marie. Marco was stiff beneath her, trying to move as little as possible to not bring her any discomfort.

In these rounds everyone seemed to be upping the stakes even more. Nobody was choosing Truth anymore, everyone going for Dare. On Ymir's incentive, the Dares were starting to get more ballsy. As Connie spun the bottle for example, he dared Jean to kiss Eren. They both screamed in horror, but had to do it or a punishment would await them. Jean lightly pecked Eren on the cheek before dry heaving dramatically. Eren merely rubbed at his cheek furiously.

Another 3 chaotic rounds passed before Ymir announced Marie could sit back down next to Marco. She did so as quickly and politely as she could, still in tomato mode. When daring to look up at Marco, he looked back at her with a healthy dusting of his own tomato red on his face. They awkwardly smiled at each other before focusing on the game.

After a few more rounds they had to quit though, as Shadis would be pissed if they stayed too long.

Marie all but bolted back to her bed, forgoing even the showers to wallow in her own embarrassment.

The question "Who is your crush?" echoed through her head for the night, making her sleep a restless one.