Chapter 1:
It was one of those days where Levi was in a shitty mood. He was tasked with going to headquarters to deal with the problem that arose from Erwin's death. Although it was a hard choice to make, there was something in his gut that made him choose to save Armin over Erwin. Obviously this choice came with its own set of repercussions from up top, but this wasn't the first time he'd found himself in the hot seat.
At headquarters, he had to sit through countless meetings explaining what happened at Shiganshina, and why Armin being saved was better for humanity. If you asked Levi, it was a real waste of everyone's time because the damage had already been done; Erwin was dead and Armin was alive. Nonetheless, he was stuck in meetings for two weeks and it wasn't a short distance to the capital in the first place. He figured he was gone for just over a month.
"They couldn't find some other shitty brat with a death wish? What about missions, isn't she a liability." He was concerned. It was hard enough having nimble perfectly trained soldiers to worry about, so the last thing they needed was a burden like that.
"Well yes, but she won't be in the front line, and she does have the same training as everyone else."
"So she can trip and fall right into a ugly titans mouth." spat Levi.
CRASH.
The loud sound followed by some yelling sent Levi back into reality. He was finally back from his dreadful trip but the annoyance was still carrying into the present. The realization that he was sitting in the mess hall reminiscing about why he was in such a shitty mood was just sending him into an ultra shitty mood. He reminded himself that he came to the mess hall for a nice steaming cup of black tea to improve his foul mood, not spoil it.
"What's that damn racket?" huffed Levi.
"Probably Slip knocking something over like usual." Jean says before taking another bite of his lunch.
"Slip?"
"A nickname sir." Connie continued. " ahh.. I'm not sure how to put this but the new equipment manager is-"
"-Clumsy! Really, really clumsy!" Hange interrupts, pointing towards the kitchen as a smaller young woman comes out covered in white dust. "She has a bad habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My scientific observation leads me to believe she's as clumsy as she is unlucky."
Levi wasn't usually one to even bother paying attention to their chattering and gossiping, but he couldn't help himself this time. They finally peaked his interest with this one: A klutzy Survey Corps member? He had no choice, but to raise his eyes and look up at the spectacle unfolding.
In fact, the girl was covered from head to toe in what he assumed was flour. He couldn't help but think she looked like an abominable snowman that was caught in a really bad snow storm. There was dust clouding her eyes which caused her to walk into a table almost bumping people's food into their laps. It seemed like everyone around her was prepared for her ability to be a walking tornado even holding onto their dishware so it wouldn't fall off the table.
He could tell she was saying her apologies like a broken record, but couldn't believe the bright smile she carried on her flour-covered face through her many apologies.
Thankfully, She paused to give her eyes a good wipe so she was able to get out of the dining hall without further embarrassment.
Levi shook his head. "Well that's fucking perfect, another brat that needs a babysitter." he sighed to himself. The laughs of his comrades filling the table as they continued to crack jokes about 'Slip' the walking disaster.
After finishing up lunch, Levi went to his office to get some of his dreaded paperwork done for the week. With the amount of time that he was away said paperwork started to pile up. Not to mention, with Hange becoming the new commander there were lots of minor things that he had to help her with. She was still in the process of balancing her new duties with her research on titans, and Levi was helping her pick up the slack. He should have known better than to tell that crazy four eyes that he would help her out.
Levi was used to having what felt like the weight of the world on his shoulders. After losing Isabel, Farlan, Erwin, and his squad, he would gladly take on any hardship or burden to most. Work was his only distraction from the pain. That being said, all the paperwork he'd been doing for the past few hours was giving him a headache, and at the end of the day he knew when he needed a break, most of the time.
He didn't get much sleep due to his insomnia, so there would be time for paperwork later.
—
When Levi needed a break, he always found his feet carrying him towards the stables. He'd groom his horse to get his mind off all the other shit he had to do plus there was no way in hell he would ride a filthy horse. He entered the stable from the side door like he usually did but paused when he heard the sound of a woman's voice around the corner.
"Sillly miss Daisy, I heard that you caught your saddle on a tree, that's right sweet girl, let me just take it off and I can fix it." she spoke softly to the big creature. "Good girl."
Levi slowly walked toward the sweet sounding voice who was talking to his horse. As he rounded the corner he could see that she was bent over putting a piece of his saddle on the ground.
"What are you doing?" he asked abruptly. This startled her, causing her head to smack against a shelf on the wall when standing up straight to look at him.
"Ow… why does this happen to me everytime." she moaned.
It was the first time that Levi actually got a good look at her face. She was a very petite woman with long blonde hair pulled into some kind of braid. She had big expressive eyes, and he couldn't tell if they were blue or green and the longer he looked the more he changed his mind on the shade. Her skin was slightly darker than his with some freckles covering her cheeks and nose.
"I asked what you were doing, soldier?" Levi gestured to the saddle on the ground.
"Someone borrowed Captain Levi's horse, and they broke his saddle." she answered, rubbing the obvious sore spot on her head. "I'm supposed to fix it before he finds out."
He could feel the temperature rising in his body thinking about the moron who took out his horse for a joy ride, and probably taught it all types of bad habits. "Is that so, do you have a name for the idiot who took the captain's horse?" he asked, slightly annoyed that there was another thing he needed to add to his crappy to-do list: kill the horse stealing saddle breaking recruit.
"Sorry names aren't really my thing" she explained while nervously shrugging her shoulders.
"So what is your thing?" annoyance clear in the tone of voice he used.
"Well... I guess fixing things would be one of them"
"Too bad you can't fix your memory ya shitty brat" he chided, "at least tell me what he looked like."
"Well he had brownish hair… and uhhhh" she stammered.
"Fuck" Levi ran his hands through his hair knowing it was pointless asking her to describe the culprit. "grab that saddle and follow me. You're going to point out who's been taking my goddamn horse out."
