"We haven't even eaten!" Isabel whined as they followed some guy with short, dark hair and a thin line of hair along his jaw. The way he carried himself told Levi he was either in charge of this place or at least was high up the food chain.

"You will eat after training just like the rest of the recruits" the guy told them, his low baritone voice bounced off the walls "My name is Keith Shadis, you will refer to me as Commander Shadis" ah, so the raven's suspicions were confirmed, but in all honesty he thought Smith was in charge (he just gave off that sort of vibe) however, it seems he was wrong "now, follow me and keep up."

After following the Commander for a while (Levi was forced to half jog, damn his short legs) they eventually climbed a set of stairs and reached a... stage? In front of them were far too many soldiers stood in a grid pattern, each person stood with their hands behind their backs, the way they all stood in the exact same way unnerved him a bit. However, there were some familiar faces like Smith and Dish Water.

"Attention!" Called the Commander, somehow the soldiers stood up straighter "I am here to present you with three new recruits who will be fighting along side you, I imagine some one you will recognise them from the barracks but I still want you three to introduce yourselves," right, so that's how its gonna be.

For a second Levi down right refused to talk, they were adults, he wasn't gonna introduce himself like a child. A tall woman with brown greasy hair (he could see the dirty shine from where he was stood) gave him a nervous side glance, so he decided to swallow his fucking pride and mutter out a quick "... name's Levi," he kept his expression as neutral as possible, but the slight grimace couldn't be controlled.

"Isabel Magnolia, nice to meet ya'll!" The redhead shouted, the raven couldn't help but wince at her tone.

"I'm Farlan Church" was all the blonde gave up, but the smile on his face was far more welcoming than Levi's glare. He couldn't help the smirk when he saw some of the soldiers glance at each other uncomfortably- good.

"They will be assigned to Flagon's Squad, take good care of them" oh shit they were paired with Dish Water's shitty group of lackeys, fucking perfect. Apparently Dish Water felt the same about the situation if his squawk of "My Squad?!" Was anything to go by.

"Is that a problem?" Questioned the Commander.

"No! I- I just thought they would be better under the guidance of Squad Leader Erwin, Commander" the idiot stumbled over his words, side eyeing Smith in the process.

"I have placed Squad Leader Erwin in charge of the upcoming expedition, therefore, he will have no time to care for new recruits, is that understood?"

"Y-yes Commander" their new leader answered, thumping his chest with a fist in some sort of odd saluting gesture— this place was fucking weird, but watching Dish Water sweat nervously almost made it worth it.

xXx

Soon enough the several squads split up for training... the joy, reluctantly the trio followed Dish Water and his rag tag group of disciples.

"Theresa, take these three to the stables, they'll be on the horses today" Flagon shouted unnecessarily, they were right next to him for fuck's sake, but at his order a girl to their right did that stupid salute before waving them away from the rest- Levi happily followed.

Their temporary mentor stood just above Levi's height and walked with a light spring to her step, over all he couldn't find anything to annoy him so she was in his good books for now. Once they were away from Dish Water's group the girl spoke up, "okay, hello! I'm Theresa and I guess I'll be helping you with the horses today" she tossed one of her strawberry blonde pigtails over her shoulder as they make their way into a moth-eaten stable, the creaking beams set the raven on edge slightly. The three of them tensed when several large horse heads come into view, but Theresa just reached to stroke one's snout like the beast wasn't towering over her "these are the military horses, they have been selectively bred to outrun the titans so they're not your average cart horses, but they're gentle giants really."

Now, Levi had never been close to a horse before, he had seen them from afar when the Military Police used to patrol the streets of the Underground on a couple (one was brown he remembered distinctly), but that stopped when the cobbled streets became to uneven for their hooves. It wasn't like anybody had pets either, food was difficult enough to come by as it was but trying to feed a useless animal too? You would've been condemning yourself to starvation for sure. The closest anyone got to having a pet was when a random kid would trap a rat in a box for fun.

"I'm gonna go through this with you like you've never even seen a horse so I know I've told you everything" oh thank god, maybe she'd read his mind.

"Do we get a horse to ourselves?" Asked Isabel, of course that's what she'd be interested in.

Theresa chuckled "not really but people tend to stick with the same horse, each one moves a different way, you know?" He didn't but he nodded anyway "but it's always good to practice with different horses." With that she led them over to three horses, one brown, one beige and one grey "alright pick a horse and I'll show you how to saddle them up." Isabel bounced over to the grey horse, giving it a rub on the nose, it always amazed him how fearless she was. Farlan on the other hand held a shaky hand up to the beige horse's nose, flinching slightly when it sniffed his hand. Considering they'd never seen a horse before Levi was proud of how brave they were being- he'd never admit it out loud though.

He turned to face the grey horse head on, their eyes meeting, if he was being honest he'd say the beast looked a bit dead inside- at least they had something in common. Moving to stand in front of the horse he realised just how fucking big it was, it was like a slap to the face, a rude slap to the face... from a horse. Turning slightly a bucket caught the raven's attention, peering over the edge to see it half filled with apples, he grabbed one and held it to the horses mouth. He couldn't help but chuckle when the beast practically inhaled the fruit.

When he felt a presence next to him he span on his heels, body suddenly tense, only to come face to face with Theresa.

"Hi," she said, holding up the saddle in her arms. He looked to the other stalls to see his friends missing "they're horses are all saddled up and they're walking them to the field to get used to them, I see you've discovered this guy's love of apples" he just grunted in response, maybe she could read his mind? "This is Rex, it was Reckless but we shortened it... watch closely and I'll show you how to saddle a horse up!"

xXx

Sitting on a horse was a weird feeling Levi decided, he was sat on something solid, yes but when the beast shifted on its hooves he was forced to shift with it just to maintain balance- it was fucking weird... but not uncomfortable. Isabel was a natural on her horse (a mare named Lady if he remembered correctly), she seemed to listen to the redheads every shout and pull of the reins.

"She's a natural" Theresa muttered in awe.

"Yeah and she's never even been on a horse before today" Farlan retorted, rubbing his horse's neck gently, when the girl's head span to face them the blonde explained "there's no horses in the Underground" Levi decided to tune out after that, the morning's bathroom event wouldn't stop running through his head, how had he allowed himself to look so weak in front of one of the people who rely on him? He didn't even want to think about how he was going to tell Isabel. At least Farlan hadn't brought it up again but the raven didn't miss the glances he gave him. However, now one of his friends knew it felt like a lead weight he been lifted from his chest... it was refreshing in a way.

The raven really just wanted to put the ODM gear strapped to their waists to good use, he didn't have to think when he was flying through the air at a stupid speed.

The whirring of wires snapped him back to reality, he looked up to see Isabel flying off into the trees, her horse trailing after her.

"And I didn't even have to really teach her anything!" Theresa seemed absolutely amazed by their friend, to be fair she was a pretty amazing human being (when she wasn't flinging herself into walls accidentally) "I guess we should just join up with Squad Leader Flagon" Levi nearly gagged at the mention of the man "let's take the horses back to the stable, erm... how do we get Isabel back?"

Levi couldn't contain a snort at that, "she's not a fucking dog, Isabel! We're leaving!" Within a couple of seconds the redhead in question was flying towards them "see?" He turned to Theresa, a sheepish look adorning the girl's face.

None of them saw blue eyes watching them from the barracks windows.

xXx

Stabling the horses and taking their saddles off was pretty straight forward and Rex seemed pretty content to enter his stable... after being tempted with an apple. His companions had finished with their horses and were already stood outside waiting, Levi was hanging the saddle up when he heard a sudden 'BANG' from the other end of the stables.

"What was that?" He asked himself seeing as no one was in the stable with him. When another bang was heard his curiosity got the best of him so he made his way down the corridor- the damn squad could wait for a minute or two.

Identical stall doors lined the corridor, horse heads peaking out of some, but one of the large oak doors shook on its hinges when yet another bang sounded, was something trying to escape?

He approached the door slowly, not wanting to startle whatever was in it.

Peering into the stall he saw a horse that looked like none of the other horses there, it was slightly taller than the others but it still had a thin yet muscular frame. Its shiny jet black coat reflected the light off it perfectly and its midnight mane fell over its neck. He could tell the exact moment the horse saw him, it stood up, holding its head as high as possible in an 'I'm better than you, so fuck off' manner.

"I see you found Valka" shit, he swivelled around to see Theresa, they would really have to get a bell for her "she's a feisty one."

He cleared his throat before answering "yeah, she was trying to break the door down," that earned a laugh from the woman.

"She does that, won't let any of us near her, she'll be getting sold soon," well that made no sense.

"Why is she here then?"

"Well, she was dumped as a foal so we took her in, she's one of the breeds used for cart pulling in the outer walls but she's slightly too lean for that, in theory she'd make a perfect military horse however, she knocks off anyone who tries to break her, she'll be gone soon. A shame really," well that was fucking dumb, Valka's dark eyes seemed to stare into his soul but he could see a spark in them, a spark that he recognised it was a spark that gave her the will to survive.

It would be a shame to see her go.

"C'mon, let's get going and leave this moody mare alone" as the raven went to follow his temporary mentor he couldn't stop looking at Valka, it hurt something in his heart to think about her being sold to some filthy farmer and that was somehow worse than the usual throbbing in his bandaged chest.

xXx

"Oi! You!" Levi suppressed a groan, they'd been there for two seconds and Dish Water was already trying to start a fight, he tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword "what do you think you're doing holding it like that? They're not designed to be held like that!" The raven glanced down at his hand, the sword held tight in a reverse grip "you wanna be killed the second you set outta the walls?"

Levi sliced the air in front of him "you might end up that way" he retorted dryly, hoping to piss the bastard off.

"What did you just say?" nailed it.

"What does it matter when the end goal is slicing a titan's nape?" When Dish Water didn't respond he continued "let me do whatever I want," when the idiot just growled at him (what was he, an animal?) the raven smirked in satisfaction. He ignored the glare Farlan sent his way.

Soon enough they were flying through the air, the wind made his eyes water slightly but he loved it. The 'game' was simple, aim for the dummy titans and mess up their napes- easy enough, to begin with his friends had stuck to their usual formation with Levi in the front but he had quickly told them to split up, he wouldn't be there to protect them from titans forever after all.

Now he was flying through the forest by himself and he felt amazing, the feeling of the adrenaline coursing through his veins was truly addictive.

In the Underground he was used to manoeuvring with no blades, just the grip to control their anchors, so it took him a couple of minutes to get used to the blades. He was just glad nobody saw him nearly chop his own head off when he momentarily forgot about the massive knives he was forced to carry.

Flying in the Underground was exciting but it was dark, the lack of sunlight combined with the grime covering the bricks made their surroundings claustrophobic, it was tricky to swing around in the small streets. However, the forest was so bright it burned his eyes slightly, the wind whipping his face was so refreshing, and he had so much room to move it was so freeing- he felt like a cat let loose from its cage for the first time. One thing that shocked him was the size of the trees, they were fucking huge! In his life the only plant life he'd seen was the odd patch of grass as well as the moss that covered every surface possible.

As a child the raven heard tales of trees that towered over the titans, his childish mind hadn't been able to comprehend their size but swerving through them he could truly appreciate how gargantuan they were.

He could feel the six year old in him squealing with excitement.

A shitty looking cardboard cutout of a titan came into view, the nape had what looked like a pillow strapped to it. Levi went to shoot towards it when he saw Farlan come into view, some blonde idiot hot on his heels, but his friend didn't seem too bothered by his peruser as he sliced through the pillow in one swift motion- he'd never admit it out loud but he was proud he'd picked it up so quickly.

Levi decided to tag along with the two blondes, it didn't take long for him to overtake the survey corps moron- when he did the idiot was obviously enraged, good.

When another cutout came into view Farlan motioned for the raven to have a go, something he was glad to do. Swinging to the right to line up his shot he was suddenly forced to spin in the air as that bastard blonde shot passed him, his grey eyes widened, that was too close for comfort. The sudden twist caused a twang of pain in his chest, that made him angry- was this moron seriously trying to steal Levi's 'kill'? Good job the raven wasn't one to rollover and accept defeat easily,

Without a second thought he switched both his blades into a reverse grip and lined his shot up perfectly. Anchoring himself to the cardboard was easy, flinging himself forward was easy, the spin he added was tricky and the wind in his ears was almost deafening. The panicked shout from the blonde idiot was satisfying as fuck- after all he did get his revenge by passing the other a bit too close for comfort. Slicing though the pillow was so straight forward to him you'd think he'd been doing it all his life, he decided that second that he loved it.

The cutout remained standing but the fluffy contents of the pillow spilt onto the grass below as the unnamed blonde idiot stood on it panting harshly, Levi merely offered him a dead eyed side glance before he shot further into the forest. He couldn't help but smirk when he heard Farlan whoop behind him.

xXx

They spent the rest of the day training not even stopping for breakfast, something that Isabel made sure to complain about every five seconds. Considering the last time they'd eaten was breakfast the previous morning by the time dinner had arrived even Levi was willing to admit he was hungry, and the mess hall smelt amazing when the trio entered.

It didn't take long for the staff to fill their plates with hot, steaming food, Isabel's whole form was thrumming with excited energy whilst they made their way to the seats. It didn't escape the his attention that the other soldiers scattered around the other tables would send them nervous glances every now and then, he couldn't blame them, they were just thugs from the Underground after all. So to put everyone else at ease he chose a table away from the others.

Glancing down at his plate made his mouth almost instantly start to water. He had a slice of bread, not a spec of mould in sight, several steaming vegetables, he didn't know what most of them were, and a slab of some sort of meat. In truth his stomach wanted to consume all the food possible but in reality he knew that would be impossible, he felt a little sick just thinking about his stomach being that full for the first time.

He looked up to see Isabel shovelling the food into her mouth like it was her last meal, or more like her first. On the other hand Farlan was carefully stabbing each piece of food and slowly eating, at least one of them was civilised. Levi decided to wait no longer and followed in the blonde's footsteps, the warm food making his heart swell slightly.

"So," Farlan began (Levi prayed he wasn't going to bring the situation up now of all times) "what's with the weird hold on your blades?" Thank god.

"What about it?" He asked.

"Well like Squad Leader Flagon said, they aren't designed to be held like that."

"And like I said, what does it matter if the titan's neck gets fucked up in the end?" Why were they talking about this? It wasn't important.

"If you just did it to get on his nerves you need to stop," oh the cheek of this brat.

"Leave Levi alone Farlan!" Isabel interrupted, crumbs falling from her mouth (disgusting) "if it's comfier for him then let him to it!"

"Farlan, it is genuinely fucking comfier to hold the damn blades that way sometimes, I don't know why, so don't even ask," the raven explained, wanting the conversation to be over already.

"Okay... I just don't want any of us to attract too much attention," he left it at that thankfully. They finished their meals of with minimal conversation, the only noise being the horrifically loud chewing from Isabel, lovely.

xXx

The barracks were dark that night, but yet again, sleep did not come easily to Levi. For the second night a row he lay there staring at the slats, the creek of bodies moving above him was oddly comforting. He'll never work out how Isabel wasn't getting caught staying in the men's barracks... well technically he shouldn't be there either but only Farlan knew that.

Closing his eyes only brought the ghostly feeling of hands running along his thighs, so he stubbornly refused to close them, problem solved.

Sighing, the raven quickly realised simply lying there was going to send him insane so he slowly raised from his bunk, tugged on his boots and stalked out of the barracks, leaving the sleeping bodies behind. It was early morning and the hallway was shrouded in darkness, the only light being the moonlight that spilled onto the wall, illuminating the way. The raven knew that if he was caught out of the barracks this late he would be "suitably punished," whatever the fuck that meant, but he didn't particularly want to find out. So, he took extra care to move like a cat through the halls.

Eventually, Levi found himself stood on a stone balcony type area overlooking the training fields below. With a sigh he perched himself on the edge of the crenel, feet dangling over the lip of the wall- what idiot thought a castle was a good place as a HQ? It stood out like a sore thumb.

He settled his elbows onto his thighs before digging the palms of his hands into his eyes, soon enough he began to see white spots in the darkness, maybe he rubbed a bit too hard. It was then that he realised that had physically been the easiest day in a while, even though they had been training all day, only stopping for quick water breaks, he hadn't felt the usual pain running though his torso- apart from when that dickhead blonde had forced him to suddenly twist. But overall it had been a good day, and those were rare.

A part of him reasoned it was because he let Farlan clean the cuts around his underarms however, the child in him wanted to believe it was because he'd told his friend the secret, almost like an emotional weight had been lifted off his chest.

He froze when he heard creak of the door behind him opening, shit, he'd been caught. He tensed, getting ready for a verbal thrashing.

"Hey," oh thank fuck it was just Farlan, it took every muscle in his body to stop himself grinning in relief. He didn't reply to the blonde, just nodded to him as he took a seat beside the raven, "Isabel will be hear in a minute" yes, he was about to ask where she was, before he could ask what she was doing the redhead in question burst through the door.

"Hiya guys! Look what I found!" Both men twisted to watch her skip towards them, an expensive looking wine bottle clutched in each hand.

"Okay first off, be quiet you idiot, and second, where'd you get that stuff?" Farlan questioned, Levi was just happy he was as clueless as the blonde. Nevertheless, he took one of the bottles from the girl as she plonked herself down on his other side, the bottle hadn't even been opened yet.

"Okay first off" she mimicked "everyone's asleep so does it matter?" Sort of " and second, nobody's gonna miss this shit, it was hidden away in some office, nobody will notice it's missing" Levi only sighed when Farlan stuck his tongue out at her.

"You two are children," he stated in a flat tone, forcing the cork from the bottle.

"Yeah but you love us for it, right bro?" The raven hid his smile by taking a quick swig of the wine, it was an odd taste and he wasn't quite sure if he liked it or not, but it tasted alcoholic and that would do for now.

Together the trio stared at the sky above them. Their environment was dark, but a different kind of dark than what they were used to... this was a nice kind of dark. The Underground was always dark no matter the time of day, no matter where you were it was depressingly gloomy. Here however, the sky was covered in an inky blackness with plenty white shining spots sprinkled around, it was truly beautiful.

"What are they?" When they just gave her blank stares Isabel elaborated "the white dots, what are they?"

"I have no idea" Levi mumbled in response, deciding to drink another mouthful of wine.

"When I was a boy, my mother used to tell me tales of lights in the sky up above the Underground" Farlan started, his friend's full attention on him "she used to say they were tied up by rope, tethered higher than we could ever comprehend, held up higher than the walls themselves, she called them 'stars,' and if you managed to catch on in a jar you'd have good luck for the rest of your life," Levi heard Isabel mutter a faint "wow" next to him.

Nobody commented further, they just continued watching the 'stars' twinkle in the sky.

Isabel's voice cut through the silence,"before you found me I lived in the garbage heaps, which you already know, but I would always hang around with some of the ladies that lived here too. I remember one of them telling me that people with red hair were rare, that I was special," they see tears in her eyes but neither of they interrupted her "now I look back on it, it wasn't really true, there's plenty of people with red hair but when I was small, it made me feel so unique." finished off by taking a large gulp from her bottle.

It was moments like these that made Levi feel more human, their little heart to hearts was all it took to separate the Underground thug from Levi. His mind snapped back to the morning, he'd promised Farlan that he would tell Isabel... better now than never right? They were only granted so long to be together, death would catch up to them some day and it felt wrong to think of one of them dying without Isabel knowing.

"I have something to say" well shit, that just slipped out before he could even think about it, the wine must have loosened his tongue- it was stronger than the watered down shit they were used to. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his blonde companion nod encouragingly.

"What do ya wanna say, bro?" That gave him the push he needed to tell her, without another thought he turned his head and looked the redhead dead in the eyes.

"I..." he swallowed the lump lodged in his throat "was born a girl... but I'm not a girl..." he trailed off, voice wobbling slightly, at some point his gaze had wondered over to the grass below them. His heart felt like it was trapped in his windpipe.

"Okay, so?" Wait... that wasn't what he was expecting.

"What do you mean 'so'?"

She just smiled at him, her eyes holding a slightly tipsy sheen "what does it matter? You're still my big bro, I don't give a shit what you were born as. I met Levi my big bro! So that's who you are to me, that's who you'll always be to me."

Fuck he wasn't crying, his eyes were just leaking (which he promptly covered up with yet another swig of wine). He couldn't ask for better companions in life really, they'd accepted him for who he was and his heart became warm at the concept. All he did was smile at the horizon with Isabel's head rested on his shoulder, he ruffled her hair earning a grumpy squeak from her.

He truly felt at home for the first time in his life, it was amazing.