Chapter 4:

"Eren. Grab the rest of the squad and meet me at the stables in half an hour. We're going over some maneuvering techniques in the south forest." Levi hollered as they were walking out of the reconnaissance mission meeting.

"Sure thing Captain." nodded Eren as he walked down the hallway towards the barracks to gather the squad for training.

Levi figured he might as well grab a cup of tea before he had to deal with the bunch of brats that were his squad. He thought the tea might give him a little bit of extra patience, but that was probably just wishful thinking. As he was exiting the grub room, he noticed some new recruits that he didn't recognize which reminded him of Ivy Andrews. He had yet to run into her, and he wanted to thank her for the shirt. Levi might be known for having a filthy mouth, and violent temper, but he still had some manners especially for those who could make him laugh even if the laughing he had done was at their expense.

"Recruits." Levi addressed the table he was about to walk past. "Where can I find Andrews?"

"Andrews?" A girl with straight red hair questioned nervously. The whole table was on edge because the rumours about Captain Levi were big news around this place. Nobody wanted to get on the Captain's bad side.

"Blonde hair, smaller than me, fixes shit" sighed Levi, shaking his head, realizing nobody knew who the hell he was talking about. "Never fucking mind."

Levi couldn't help but wonder on his way to the stable, how nobody at the table knew who Andrews was. Every time someone needed something with the horses he assumed they would've had to go and talk to her, and she mentioned she fixes things.

He got to the stables, and gulped the last bit of tea from his mug, setting it down on the shelf that the reins hung on, and entered the stall his horse was in. "Daisy" softly left his lips as he patted her behind so she knew he was there, about to walk around her backside. Perfectly placed on a stool was his freshly cleaned, polished, and fixed saddle. Not only had Andrews fixed his saddle, but she took the time to clean it and treat the leather. Normally something like this would just annoy Levi because everyone knew he liked to run, not just a tight ship but a clean one. The problem with this was people would clean for him but it was never up to his standards, and he'd either have to ream someone out or re-do it himself. To his surprise, the saddle was immaculate; almost as nice as the day he bought the damn thing.

Ivy Andrews might be some kind of klutzy walking disaster, but she knew how to clean like a goddess. Levi would have to find her sooner or later to thank her for her efforts now more than ever. The sounds of his squad started to fill the stable. Levi, still in Daisy's stall unsure how long he'd been just standing there admiring his saddle thinking about the klutz.

Finally, he picked up the spotless saddle, gently throwing it on Daisy's back because it was time to train his group of unruly brats. It'd been a while since they were able to get some advanced training in because the weather had been so finicky. It still wasn't looking great outside but Levi figured they had at least two hours of training before the rain would come. If they didn't give it their all in the two hours then a little rain would be the best punishment for his squad.

Levi had been right about the rain. In just about over two hours, the rain started falling quickly and heavily, but they continued to do drills in the rain anyway. Levi thought it was important for them to get some experience in extreme conditions since 3DM gear was trickier to use when wet.

"Okay that's enough for today. Everyone hit the showers. You disgusting pigs are covered in mud." commanded Levi, looking at his squad whose miserable faces were dripping with rainwater and dirt.

Levi couldn't wait to get to his room and rinse off the mud and sweat from training. He got to his room and stripped off the top part of his uniform, and walked into the bathroom so he could fill the tub. He would have preferred a shower but the room he was given had a tub and he'd grown accustomed to it. The feeling of being clean was something Levi could never take for granted. Growing up in the hell that was the underground where the streets were perpetually dirty gave him some pretty extreme cleaning compulsions. The smell of cleanliness was something he wished Isabel and Farlan had gotten to experience for longer. It took a few years for him to get rid of the foul underground stench from his nose, and they never got enough of a chance.

Levi splashed his face with water to try and wash away the memory of his friends. Not that he didn't like thinking about them from time to time, but the thoughts of them always seemed to make his insomnia worse.

After finishing his bath, he made his way down to the mess hall to get some much needed dinner. He was hoping he would run into Andrews so he could finally thank her and maybe grill her on some of her divine cleaning practices.

"Levi!" Hange chanted, patting the bench beside herself. He always seemed to sit beside her so he wasn't sure why she felt the need to beckon him every damn time. He figured it was because he was the only one she could indefinitely ramble on about titans too. Let's just say he had perfected the art of blocking out Hange's voice when he needed to.

Usually he was pretty quiet during meals other than when he felt the need to call his squad members idiots for their ridiculous arguments. Today however he was very focused on scanning the room for Ivy Andrews.

"You looking for someone Captain?" asked Eren.

"I'm wondering where Andrews is" Levi's squad's faces showed no recognition of the name. "Blonde braided hair, short, uncoordinated, fixes shit." He elaborated.

"I uh… overheard some guys in the shower" Jean pointed to a table of guys across the room, "said they tied Slip to a tree behind the old grain tower."

"Slip is Ivy Andrews?"

"I didn't know what her name was, but Slip is the equipment manager and fixes things so I guess so." shrugged Jean.

Levi felt like he must be struggling with his sleep lately if he wasn't able to piece that together. Slip was Andrews. It made sense, what were the chances of there being two extremely clumsy people in the Survey Corps. In some way, it was a relief to know that there was only one uncoordinated soldier he had to worry about.

"You said a tree behind the grain tower?" declared Levi standing up from his spot at their table.

"Ah. yes sir." Jean replied wondering why the Captain was acting so abruptly.

Meanwhile, Levi started to make his way out the door, but not before he stopped at the table of guys that Jean pointed to. Instantly, Levi recognized the guy who had broken his saddle, and tried to get Andrews to fix it before he found out. The table went silent as soon as Levi was standing there looming over their table with his usual blank but deadly stare.

"Did you tie Andrews to a tree?" Levi slammed his hands down at the head of the table. The whole table gasped, and the rest of the room went quiet.

"Yep and she had it-" challenged the guy but before he could finish his statement, Levi grabbed his head and smashed his face onto the table right into his plate of food. When Levi finally let go of the guys head he looked up and Levi definitely saw fear, and shock in the dumb recruits eyes. He figured he broke the kids nose but it was enough to get his message across. He leaned down to the kids ear and spoke in a quieter voice.

"If you touch her again, I'll break more than just your nose."

The arrogant kid nodded his head in defeat.

"By the way she didn't even rat your stupid ass out. I mean I was going to make her but she didn't even get the chance too since you looked so fucking guilty." And with that, Levi was out the door on his way to finally repay a certain someone.