Disclaimer: I do not own SnK, either the manga or the anime. All content pulled from either source is not mine. The plot and original characters do, however, belong to me.
Chapter Two: Monster Boy
"Where are we going?" Eren looks around the secluded courtyard they are in. A single archway, high and made of powerful stone serves as an exit from the large space. To his left is a long expanse of stable enclosures, and the smell of hay along with the unmistakable stink of horse manure assaults his nose.
"You're going to the corps' old headquarters, kiddo," Hange informs him, notebook still clutched firmly in her hand. He hasn't seen her without it since the incident with his tooth. She adjusts her glasses before nodding at the archway, indicating a place far beyond the courthouse he's just been arraigned (more like accused) in. "A few kilometers south of Hermina."
"Wait, I'm going? You're not coming?" Eren is momentarily filled with dread. What about Mikasa? Armin? Hange is one of the only people possibly on the entire planet who doesn't stare at him like he would be better off dead. If she isn't coming with them then that means –
"Problem being alone with me, kid?" Captain Levi's voice is bored as he approaches from behind them. He is leading a horse by the reins and holding a fresh green cloak in one hand. "Don't tell me you're scared after a little beat down?"
He throws the cloak towards Eren, and the newly minted cadet flinches as if the cloak had been something explosive.
"Little?" A smooth voice scoffs from behind them. "Let's not start this journey off with lies, Levi."
Maia is coming out of the stables, several horses following her without their reins being pulled. They trail her without question, loyally, almost…reverently.
Wait, is she a goddess or something? Eren knows that is a foolish thing to wonder again, but it is the only thing he can think of when he sees these beasts looming over her almost protectively. She is so small, but the height and mass of the horses make her seem like she is leading an army behind her.
"Tch." Levi makes an unimpressed noise from behind his teeth, but Eren can see his eyes soften again as he looks over at her. It's so brief, so fleeting, that he almost misses it a second time. "Fine. A moderate beat down."
Mike guffaws loudly as he approaches, arms laden with saddle bags, "Always so modest, Levi, aren't you?"
"Down boy," Levi sends the most humorless smirk Eren has ever seen over to the tall blond man. "Doctor, your hound dog has gotten loose."
Maia simply rolls her eyes with a small smile playing on her face.
"Very funny," Mike slaps a hand against Levi's back, jolting the captain forward only slightly. Eren winces. If Zacharias had slapped him like that, with his still tender injuries? He would have fallen flat on his face. Levi must be made of pure, solid muscle. The captain merely sends another bored expression over to the larger man, though there is no mistaking the underlying feel of camaraderie between all of these soldiers. It permeates the very air around them.
"Let's get a move on," the captain cuts his eyes over to a group of corps soldiers striding up to them with bags slung over their shoulders. Green capes billow in the cool breeze running through the courtyard. "I don't care for dawdling with the mutts."
Eren knows he's referring to the MPs gathered around sneering at their group. If his comment about Mike being a hound dog had been in jest, this comment was meant to be taken seriously. He also knows that none of the corps soldiers standing around him care very much for the Military Police. They are like children pressed together on the sidewalk, examining some sort of bug they've found. The Survey Corps is the bug. The MPs are holding a lens against the sun, taking pleasure in watching them burn underneath its magnified heat.
"Good luck with monster boy," one says from his place against the wall of the courthouse. His arms are crossed at his chest and his right foot is propped lazily on the stone behind him. He gives the group of soldiers in green capes a condescending sort of smile, like he feels sorry for them. Eren shrinks back against the horse Maia has led to him. It snorts behind him as if it too has been offended by the MP's harsh words.
Mike makes a move to step up to the soldier, but a soft hand presses a set of reins against his chest. Maia skirts by him, having passed a strong, chocolate brown stallion into his care. The equine animal watches her with attentive eyes, as if ready to come to her aid at but a moment's notice. Eren thinks that might be true.
She saunters up to the jeering soldier and stands firmly in front of him. Maia is almost comically short, even as the soldier loses height due to his bent leg and relaxed stance against the wall. From the corner of his eye, he sees Levi take a small, almost imperceptible step forward, Hange mimicking him.
"Soldier," she greets him with a false pleasantness that somehow drips in sarcasm. Eren thinks it's odd coming from her, a woman who has only shown kindness while in his presence. The horses behind them all whinny and neigh, stomping their hooves against the cobbled stone beneath them. The soldier stands to his full height, one hand coming to rest on his gun holstered at his right side. He towers over her now. A horse rears up on his hind legs, a huge, dappled stallion, and snorts angrily.
It is an alarming sight that is pregnant with barely restrained violence from both human and animal. Eren thinks bitterly that in this world it is already so hard to tell one from the other. He grinds his heels into the stone underneath him as if standing in solidarity with the horses threatening a stampede and the corps members who are tensed and ready to intervene. The soldier facing down Maia's unwavering stare grips his fingers around his gun harder, but Eren, Levi, Hange, and Mike can see the slight tremble they give off.
The Survey Corps must have quite a reputation among the Military Police.
Maia whispers to him, but the others can hear her clearly, "You would pull a gun on a fellow soldier?" She takes one step closer and the height difference is made even more apparent.
"I - " he gulps, suddenly seeming unsure of himself, " - you...want to be around that- that- that monster?" He tries to sneer at her, but he is sweating now under her stare and at the sight of the other corps members surrounding her. Not to mention the horses who are now going positively stir crazy behind them. It is almost unbelievable, the effect she has on this man, but his eyes are widening and his brow is beginning to sweat.
"Aww," she smiles sweetly, cocks her head to the side, and reaches one tiny, dainty hand out to lay it on the soldier's own. His fingers still tremble over top of his holstered gun.
"You can't think of any other names? I thought all MPs were the top of their class. Hmm," she squeezes his hand and Eren watches as his fingers flex underneath hers, crushed by the force she exerts on them. The MP hisses and removes his hand from his gun, either voluntarily or from Maia moving it for him.
"Guess not," she whispers low to him, eyes boring into his with an intensity that makes a strangle noise gurgle up from his throat.
Eren now knows why she is in the Survey Corps, in this squad, even if she is, as she says, just an equine veterinarian.
This soldier is actually afraid of what she will do to him. This soldier who has at least a foot and then some on her in height and is definitely over fifty pounds heavier. Yet, with just a simple pressure of her hand against his and her unwavering stare locked onto him, this large, burly soldier has been reduced to a sweating and...is he whimpering?...mess in front of them.
What were the members of the Survey Corps made of? Eren has to wonder if he can even cut it. Levi's skill, speed, and strength, Mike's powerful form and heightened awareness, Hange's incredible intelligence and keen eyes, Erwin's unwavering resolve and resolute determination, and now? Now even their veterinarian displays such wild intensity and undeniable ability? What if he isn't good enough? What if he's not like them? What if the only thing he has going for him is that he can turn into one of them?
Maia gives the MP's hand a final squeeze before letting it go. His fingers hang suspended at his side in the same contorted position Maia's hand forced them into. The other MPs around him are conflicted. Their faces clearly show they want to laugh at the man, but their body language displays a desire to hightail it out of the courtyard. Maia simply walks away from them all without another word. Swiftly, like she is being lifted by the air itself, she mounts her horse. The animals immediately calm down and seem to sidle up to their assigned squad members.
Mike mounts his horse as well as the other scouts who have joined them. Hange snickers quietly behind her notebook. Levi's eyes manage to leave Maia and cut over to the sweat covered soldier who now no longer looks so sure of himself. The captain gives him a bland stare accompanied by a "tch" before he too flips gracefully up onto his horse.
Eren switches his stare from the thoroughly embarrassed and scared soldier to Maia and then finally to his horse. The stallion Maia had led over to him is watching him curiously as if silently saying "are you getting on or what?" and he even walks a little closer to Eren in what might be emphasis.
He is clumsy while mounting the horse. His hands shake as he realizes he is leaving this god forsaken place and going with the Survey Corps, the Survey Corps, with Captain Levi Ackerman and his hand picked squad. Humanity's Strongest Soldier and his hand picked squad. Eren! Eren Jaeger! He is going with Squad Levi.
A sudden doubt-filled terror more intense than the feeling just moments prior nearly knocks him to the ground. It steals his breath and makes him grip the horse's saddle until his knuckles turn white. This is real, not a dream. He is going with them! Out there...
"Come on, monster boy," Levi calls to him, "Don't give these snot nosed bastards anything else to say about us."
Us.
What if he messes everything up? What if...what if he can't keep his word to Levi? To Commander Erwin? What...what if he fails them all?
A small hand comes to rest on his shoulder and he jumps. Eren turns to see Maia, who has pulled her horse over to him. She looks over at him softly. Her hand is not intimidating to him. That same hand that nearly crushed the MPs fingers is gentle against his cloaked body. In fact, it squeezes his shoulder reassuringly, not threateningly. He can't seem to understand how that soldier had been so afraid of her. To him her touch is like a ray from the sun coating his skin. He can feel it underneath the deep green Survey Corps cloak he had taken from Captain Levi and thrown over his own shoulders. He locks eyes with Maia who gives him a wide smile.
"Eren," she is sure to look pointedly at Levi when she says his name, doesn't call him monster boy, even in jest, "Let's get out of here. We've got important things to do." She is sure to look at the soldier and his MP comrades this time.
"Together."
Her tone is final, unwavering, and Eren gets on the horse immediately.
He would follow these people anywhere. The doubt dissipates. Vanishes in a blink. He is filled with a sense of purpose as they ride out of the courtyard together. He can vaguely hear Hange yelling at the MPs to move out of her way unless they want to hear about or be used in her Titan experiments. The scurrying of feet follows. Eren is actually excited to help them now, to show his worth, to prove he is on their side. Humanity's side.
He is not a monster boy, not a monster at all. He is Eren Jaeger. And he will save humanity.
Even if it kills him.
A/N: I have to believe that Eren is feeling a whole myriad of different emotions during this scene. Yes, he's trained with the cadets for this exact moment, with this specific goal in mind, but I think once the reality of it all sets in, he's going to have some doubts. After all, the courtroom scene and what was said about him couldn't have felt good.
To clarify from last chapter's author's note: I don't hate Eren. He's just a hot mess express and yells a lot (like, a lot) and has wild as all hell emotions that make me exasperated with him. But, he's really just a kid, and his sweet little face is so precious that I can't help but want to like him. It's like Harry Potter, you know? Few people actually say Harry is their favorite character. Eren deserves a fair shake, though, so I'll keep him as a casual observer of the action and frequent POV for now.
And yes, I realize this is a Levi/OC pairing story but it can't only be them interacting and then doing the damn deed over and over without any plot development (notice my frequent need to defend my choices? I'm working on it...). I hope everyone likes how this is going so far with the POVs and present tense. I'm having a great time writing these precious little babes.
Up next: Squad Levi, who deserved so much more. So expect to see them for a while. I just love them to pieces.
Leave a review to tell me how you feel or just to say hello! See you in the next chapter, you beauties! :)