Barracks

"Why do you always walk with me Mikasa?" Jonathan questioned as they both walked down the streets of the barracks, they had just finished eating lunch and they were about to go train again for the next three hours. But they had a few hours of free time before, so Jonathan figured he would walk around and converse with people. Mikasa had been following him around for the past few days, he didn't mind it. At all, in fact he loved having Mikasa around she was someone to talk to.

"Because, I like talking with you Jonathan. It makes me forget about the world sometimes." Mikasa said lowering her head and slightly looking at Jonathan's boots she put her scarf up to her face.

"You put on that scarf a lot when your around me why is that?" Jonathan asked, which caused Mikasa's eyes to widen. She felt her cheeks turn bright red, luckily for her he couldn't see it though because of the fact that her scarf was there.

"Well… Jonathan it's just that…" Mikasa shivered as she looked at Jonathan's hand reached up to her scarf. "Don't!" Mikasa grabbed the hand of Jonathan quickly causing Jonathan's whole body to surge with adrenaline. Mikasa felt air on her cheeks, the scarf… slid down and her red cheeks were showing…

"So… that's why…" Jonathan said also blushing, cadets were watching it was rare that you saw Mikasa blushing and embarrassed. Mikasa quickly let go of his hand and ran away. Jonathan said nothing, as he looked around the cadets were now looking at him. Jonathan just turned around and also ran.

Most of the secrets, were out. The secret that Mikasa liked Jonathan, and Jonathan liked Mikasa. The cadets were passing the rumors around like a wildfire, it was pretty grave considering Mikasa was one of the best scouts and so was Jonathan they were both in the top ten. Except no one expected Mikasa to fall in love with someone, at all.

Mikasa arrived at training, and all eyes were on her. Mikasa didn't care though, the only thing she cared about was jonat- Jonathan. Where was he? Mikasa looked around and she didn't see any Jonathan, Eren heard about the rumors. But he didn't care honestly, he was looking for Jonathan to along with Armin. Ymir was at training and just figured he was skipping, "It's only natural. He's probably embarrassed." Ymir said as she lined up with the other scouts.

"Understandable, but where is he?" Armin asked as he looked at Eren. "Mikasa do you know where he is."

"The forest… where he always hangs out by himself." Mikasa said as she remembered when Jonathan was upset about something, she found him in the forest just sleeping against the tree with a book in his hand.

"Can we skip training if we look for him?" Ymir asked turning around looking at Mikasa. Mikasa looked back at Ymir, and Ymir got the message turned back around quickly.

"Do you guys have an idea where Jonathan is?" Krista asked all of them, Jean, Sasha and Connie looked in the same direction as all of the commotion occurred. They came over.

"Jonathan is missing?" Sasha asked looking over to see if she could find him. It wasn't easy for Jonathan to hide, other than Reiner and Bertholdt he would be the tallest person there standing at 5'11.

"Yeah I don't see him anywhere." Connie said as he also looked around. "Shouldn't we tell someone before training starts?"

"Well maybe he is sick?" Sasha suggested.

"Jonathan sick? Never." Krista commented. "He's always healthy."

"He's in the forest!" Mikasa said quite loudly. "It's my fault…" She muttered. "Lets… do training first…"

"As long as he is still inside the walls he is alive. Don't worry." Armin commented as he looks at all of them.

They did the training, but during all of it none of them performed very well. Because of the fact, that Jonathan was gone and they couldn't wait to try and find them. After the training Mikasa was the first one out there, looking around in the forest for him. She was wrong, turns out. Jonathan was near a lake, sitting under a tree tossing stones into the lake. He seemed happy, he seemed at peace…. Mikasa walked up to him and looked at him. Jonathan turned his head softly. "Sorry." Jonathan said.

"Your always apologizing Jonathan…" She said crossing her arms. "You had everyone worried sick… even Ymir is searching out for you."

"No… I just stumbled along you." Ymir said across the river smiling at Jonathan. "We could've missed all that training to find you though, so I'm pretty mad we still did training."

"We?" Jonathan questioned as he then felt a hand on both his shoulders, Sasha on one side and Connie on the other. "Sasha! Connie?"

Jonathan was shocked this many people were looking for him. He was greeted with a hug from Sasha. "Next time can you bring us with you if your skipping training?" Sasha asked.

"Yeah that's unfair." Ymir said as Jonathan got up. "Also, your welcome I told them you were sick. So your not getting any type of punishment."

Jonathan just smiles. "I, I love you guys."

"He protected Eren like it was his job." Gunther commented as he ate with the Levi squad, Captain Levi himself was there.

"Understandable, Eren is probably our only hope. So we can see anything outside the walls. I must, admit. I believe that we overreacted." Petra admitted as she took a bite out of her stale bread, Eld was also disappointed in himself for over reacting. They later made it up to Eren by biting themselves, but they couldn't shake the image of Jonathan willing to die for his friend Eren.

"I hope that the rookies are ready for their first expedition. You know how many kills that each one of them got in?" Eld asked wanting to know which rookie that he could rely on.

"Eren got the most I'm pretty sure, no one was there to record them except the wall garrison. And everybody but Rico is dead." Oluo stated, "But, Eren is useless in his human form. He didn't get to strike down one titan before he was eaten, or at least that's what I overheard from the rookies. All the cadets like to gossip a lot."

"What other gossip have you received?" Petra asked looking at Oluo, he scoffed as he took a sip out of his tea. But he decided to tell, he did do a lot of eavesdropping in his free time.

"Jonathan, had the most kills. It ranges from five to eleven." Oluo stated as he looked at all of them, they all seemed extremely impressed. Levi didn't seem to react, but inside Levi knew that Jonathan could be a real threat on the scouts.

"That's… like… a lot." Gunther stated as he looked at Oluo, "Even three titan kills would be looked at as impressive." Gunther stated as he took a spoonful of soup and put it into his mouth.

"We cant put that much faith into a rookie." Levi stated as he sipped his cup of tea weirdly. "Trusting on person will always get someone killed, we have thousands of people on the scout regiment." Levi stated as he then got up. "You guys better be ready for the expedition tomorrow."

"I told you Jane, Jonathan will be fine. I have taught him everything that he knows." Shadis said as he took a sip of tea as Jane was walking back and forth. Jane looked back at Shadis and sighed deeply. "You have to trust me on this one, I heard his kills in Trost. The boy had at least five kills…" Shadis said, "Not even I… in the first expedition did I have five kills, three maybe. Which was above average. But, the key word is at least five. Some people said that he had eleven, Jane I know that you don't like this but your son is probably the next greatest thing." Shadis said as he looked at the small woman as she sat down next to Shadis.

"Keith. I want you to come to me, if Jonathan dies. Understood, I don't want that Levi Ackerman prick at my doorsteps if my son dies. I want you." She stated looking at Keith which surprised him deeply.

"Alright, will do. Ma'am." Keith said as he then got up from the table. Jane grabbed his arm.

"Stay, at least for dessert…" Jane said, which made Shadis look at her. Not a terrifying look but a nice and tender look. It wasn't a look that he would give any of the cadets, Shadis sat back down and Jane heard a slight crack in his back. "You really should get that checked out."

"I'm not young like you Jane." Shadis said giving her a small smile as he looked at her getting up to her cabinet.

"I'm not young I'm like 37." Jane said blushing at the compliment as she brought out the powdered treat, "It's something that Alan always liked to eat, he was surprisingly fit. He literally ate this all the time." Jane said smiling as she placed the pastry in front of Shadis and then sitting down herself and taking a bit. "Don't worry, I just brought it today." Shadis did take a bite out of it and felt slightly dizzy. "You must not eat sugar a lot."

"I don't." Shadis said as he put the pastry down and holding his head for a second. "Sorry, all this sugar at once is making me feel dizzy it's going to be gone in a few."

"Alan, never had that problem because he would always be eating this stuff." She stated, "Come to think of it he was extremely jittery."

"Yeah he always was running around but after training he was absolutely drained. Maybe a sugar rush." Shadis suggest as Jane giggled at that idea. Something about her giggle made Shadis smile, and Jane noticed that smile on Shadis. It was a smile that she hadn't seen for a long time.

"We should do this again." Jane stated looking at Shadis smile. "That's the first time I have seen you smile like this. You should do it more often…"

Shadis smile stayed the same it seemed like this was the most that he could smile, it wasn't really impressive it was like a small smile… But none the less it was a smile.

"Jonathan. You look a bit distracted. Come on get some rest we are going to go out tomorrow." Armin stated walking up to Jonathan, who was sitting in a cross legged position with his arms crossed. He looked at Armin.

"Oh! Hey Armin! I'm sorry, it's just that. You remember Annie? I've just been thinking about her." Jonathan said lowering his head. "I mean, she was a alright person. We talked, every once in a while. She seemed like a nice person I just wish I got to know her better. And now she's gone, well in military police." He stated looking at Armin who sat right next to him. He heard footsteps and turned his head, Mikasa was right there. "Oh hey Mikasa." Jonathan took a look at her face, it looked concerned and slightly saddened. "Any-" Jonathan looked at her face closely. "Mikasa are you sick or something?"

"I need to talk with you alone." Mikasa stated looking at Armin. "You guys can finish your conversation though, it's not important." Mikasa walked away from Jonathan putting her scarf up and Jonathan stares at Mikasa as she walks away.

"You think she likes me?" Jonathan asked bluntly as he looked right at Armin. Armin was taken aback but he understood why Jonathan would think that.

"Mikasa doesn't show any emotion really…" Armin stated. "I'm not going to day anything yet… you like her? Jonathan?" Armin asked

"What? Why would you think that?" Jonathan asked eyes wide and blushing deeply.

"Jonathan even if it's the slightest blush, you blush around her. You obviously have a sweet spot for Mikasa." Armin said.

"Please!" Jonathan got into Armin's face quickly and looked at him. "Don't tell anyone! Especially Eren!" Jonathan said looking around making sure no one was around them.

"Calm down… I wont…" Armin said slightly backing up.

"If i ask her out will she say yes? Come on there's been a bond for the past year!" Jonathan said Armin heard the slight whining in his voice. "Does she like Eren?"

"Uhm! Jonathan these questions aren't in a book, I would have to ask them that!" Armin said slightly putting his hands up hoping to calm down the bigger man.

"But Armin! I have to-" Jonathan tripped and fell onto Armin, Armin's frail frame couldn't really hold Jonathan so they fell onto each other. "Sorry…" Jonathan looked at Armin feeling his hot breath and blushing at this. "This is… this is weird." He commented

"Mikasa!" Armin shouted looking at her as Mikasa looked slightly amused. Even though she wasn't smiling Armin could tell when she was slightly amused.

"Mikasa! Crap, we can talk now if you want to!" Jonathan got up quickly and then went with Mikasa. Mikasa looks at Jonathan but then nods and continues to walk with him. "Sorry, I accidentally tripped and fell onto Armin."

"Don't worry your secret is safe with me." Mikasa said something which made Jonathan stop. Was that a joke?... Mikasa telling a joke? Or was she serious. Mikasa realized he stopped and then turned around. "Problem?"

"Mikasa you know me and Armin aren't together right!" Jonathan said blushing deeply as he looked at Mikasa. Mikasa just walked over. Jonathan slightly backed up and Mikasa touched his shoulder.

"I know." Mikasa said. "I came here to ask… you to promise me… that you wont die… " Mikasa said touching his other shoulder. "Come…"

"Your very touchy! Have I ever told you that?" Jonathan said as he blushed deeply. Do it. Do it, Jonathan heard his mind screaming he wanted to make a move… kiss her. Jonathan wondered if Mikasa felt the same way as him. He looked away from Mikasa.

Mikasa touched his cheek and then turned his head towards her. "Yes." She said blushing deeply, this time Jonathan saw her blush. "Come on… let's look at the stars."

"Okay… but don't we have to sleep…" He questioned blushing even deeper than Mikasa as he felt her nice and soft hand on his face.

"We wont be gone that long." Mikasa said. "But. What we do. Stays. Between. Us."

"Mikasa." Jonathan was extremely nervous at this point and looked at Mikasa his cheeks were now as red as her scarf. "What… are you talking about?"

"Just come on." Mikasa said taking the hand of Jonathan and then walking with him. Jonathan looked around to make sure no one was around, no one was. She took him into a part of a forest where Bertholdt, Reiner, Eren, Armin, and Jonathan went on their first night in the cadets. "You remember this place?"

"Of course, I go up here on special nights." Jonathan mentioned looking at Mikasa as he realized her grip was very light, he was the one that had a firm grip on her hand. "I was… planning on coming up here, before the expedition." Jonathan said looking at Mikasa as Mikasa gave him a light blush. "You wanted to say something?" Jonathan asked rubbing his arm.

Mikasa didn't know what to say, she looked at Jonathan and then looked around at the sights. She didn't know if she should make a move onto him… Jonathan he was a good. Well, he acted like a man already even though he was only 15 he acted like a man. The fact that he went looking for her constantly during their missions, the fact that he almost got himself killed… just to check on Mikasa and make sure she was okay. Mikasa felt like she didn't deserve him, what has she done for Jonathan? She couldn't think of anything, she just stood there looking at him not blinking she felt her eyes about to tear…

"Because I want to say something." It was time for Jonathan to stop being such a coward, Jonathan figured it was now or never he had read about these scenarios. Mikasa was shocked by this but Jonathan swifltly took her hands and Mikasa caught off guard looked at him in the eyes as he towered over her. He looked down, and then smiled it was a nice a bright smile Mikasa couldn't help but turn her head that smile made her want to smile back. It was a smile, that made her feel someway… "We don't tell anyone about this… but Mikasa. These… fuck, it's been years now… years since we have known each other. Everyday, I'm happy… to see you. You bring, joy. Into my life, whether it's fighting for my life or just doing some running. You. Keep me moving." Jonathan said looking down at her. "I uh…" He turned his head. "Hope you feel the same way about me…"

"Jonathan…" Mikasa pulled him in close which surprised Jonathan and Mikasa gave him a kiss on the lips touching his face. They were there for a while, but Jonathan pulled back for some air. His face being extremely red and he looked down and rubbed his arm.

"Heheh…" He nervously chuckled at what just happened, his legs… they felt weak. They slightly shook, "Holy… I'm sorry… I knew they were risks talking with pretty girls but I didn't know this was one of them."

"Don't worry about it." Mikasa said blushing at him deeply. "Were… not going to be in the same. Squadron, so that… was a good luck kiss… please stay alive Jonathan." She said kissing him again.

"I'll do it for you. Mikasa." Jonathan said.

"Also. Protect Armin, and help the people out in your squadron." Mikasa said.

"Got it." Jonathan said going in for yet another kiss, he couldn't get enough of Mikasa and how she felt. She was all muscly, but Jonathan actually liked it…

Day of the Expedition

The horses started to ride out of the walls, Jonathan took one more look back at the walls and sighed. He also yawned, he guessed that he was up to late last night. He couldn't stop thinking about his sweetheart, well… now sweetheart Mikasa. He figured that she would be okay… right… she is Mikasa after all. Probably one of the best scouts out there!

Jonathan was with Armin luckily, someone that he knew and not a random person. His and Armin's jobs were suppose to be alerting people of any sudden danger so far nothing. Jonathan did see multiple smoke signals in the distance though. "How did it go with Mikasa." Armin asked.

Jonathan knew he could trust Armin, he wasn't a snitch and plus he already knew of the whole thing. Plus he could go to Armin for relationship advice… why him? Jonathan didn't know he was smart. "Good," Jonathan said with a smirk remembering that kiss Mikasa gave him. "Shit." Jonathan sees a titan in the corner of his eye, it wasn't his responsibility but the people who were over there had to fire a red flare. "We just outrun these fuckers?" Jonathan asked realizing the people weren't really attacking them.

"We do, it's just that we have to make sure no other titans are around. Or… especially an abnormal… those are the most dangerous they don't care where they are going. It's like… they know what we are doing…" Armin remarked as he kept on riding.

"Really?" He asked looking at him as he kept on riding, Jonathan looked to the right. Fucking black smoke, Jonathan knew something big was coming he got his canister ready. Jonathan pulled out the flare and loaded the canister.

A titan speed walked out of the forest, Jonathan resisted the urge to laugh mostly because he knew that titan could eat him alive in a very painful death. The walk was extremely quick, and Jonathan didn't know what to think of it. He just fired the black canister, Dieter comes out of the forest with the titan and Jonathan sees that the titan wasn't attacking him Dieter and Cis came over. "Alright line him up!" Dieter shouted as he then attacked to the titans leg and then sliced the heel open, "Now! Cis!" Cis jumped up and then cut the nape of the titan and Jonathan saw the steam come out. But… something else… was wrong… oddly wrong…

"Something wrong Jonathan?" Armin asked looking at him. Jonathan looked around and saw nothing. Well, nothing except a titan sprinting at them… a titan… sprinting at them? Jonathan turned back swiftly, a titan... with blonde hair? Impossible.

"That's… not… a fucking titan… is it?" Jonathan asked with his eyes wide open.