"Ugh… What time it is?" Sluggishly raising your head from the pillow, you had to muster all your strength to get your eyes open. Bright rays of sunlight pouring into the room through the thin curtains hinted you had slept until noon. It wasn't a wonder, taking into account that you had stayed up almost the whole night, telling Levi about yourself and your past. "Oh, right… I probably should've changed before going to bed..!" You muttered when you realized you had crashed to bed still fully dressed― You had been already half asleep when dragging yourself into your bedroom, not even thinking about your blood and sweat stained clothes when going to sleep. You hopped out of the bed and tiptoed to the hallway, taking a peek into the guest bedroom on your way downstairs; "...Levi?" You called for his name when you only found an empty, neatly made bed. It was already past midday, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he had already left. When there was no answer, you assumed this to be the case and you made your way to downstairs.
When you persuaded Levi to stay for the night, you had exploit the fact how pointless it would be for him to go back to HQ at that hour― Truth to be told, the thought of spending the night alone in that house made your anxiety levels rise uncomfortably high. He most probably saw right through you and stayed purely out of pity, but as long as you didn't have to be alone, you didn't complain. It felt kind of weird to wake up without even a slightest hangover; This was the first night you spent in that house without drinking yourself to sleep. "And not the last, I hope..! Things are starting to look up~!" Quietly smiling to yourself, you hopped the few very last steps of the staircase down and pranced across the living room, towards the kitchen about to grab some breakfast, but stopped by your tracks when you noticed something on the coffee table. "Huh? A note… and what's this?" Next to the folded piece of paper was a small parcel. Taking a closer look, you saw that the mystery item was wrapped into a something that looked like a handkerchief and tied up with a single piece of thread. Did he left you a gift of some sort? "Whaaat..? Is this..?" What was unwrapped from the package was… "...an acorn?" Or at least it looked like one, but not an ordinary individual, to say at least. "This thing is huge! Size of a child's fist..!" After recovering from the bafflement, you couldn't help but to giggle at the sight of a chubby acorn. "It's so cute..! Where the heck did he got this? I've never seen anything like it..!" The note he left probably had some answers, so you snatched the piece of paper from the table and folded it open. "Almost forgot; an acorn of a giant oak, picked up during our latest expedition. Newly found species, or at least so four-eyes claimed. Wouldn't take her word for it..." You read the message out loud. "He really brought me something from outside the walls?! I was only joking when I suggested it, I didn't think he'd do it for reals!" Surprised but also delighted by the gesture, you simply couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day, nor stop playing with your tiny gift.
The next few days went rather uneventfully― The talk you had with Levi gave you a lot of good reasons for some introspection and self-reflection, and that was exactly what you tried to focus on for now. Living in a house which was once supposed to become your family home got easier as time passed, but it would still take a while before you'd truly feel at home there.
"I guess I could do something to the garden..?" Raising your gaze from the book in your hands, you casted your eye over the weed filled backyard. After a 6 year long streak of working round-the-clock, slacking off at home and doing nothing was difficult to get used to. Even now you were just chilling on the back porch, reading a book. "I kind of like it lush, but the front yard is almost like a jungle…" Fighting an urge to yawn, you placed the book down next to you as your eyelids started to feel heavier; It was barely a lunch time and you were already snoozing off. "Who knew that being unemployed would be so… boring? I need to figure out at least a somewhat smart way to kill time or I'll catch a cabin fever in no time…" Little you knew that the answer to your problem was about to come knocking at any moment― Very much literally. Only after 10 minutes or so, your slumber was ceased; You raised your head and listened carefully when you thought you heard some noise coming from the other side of the house. And sure enough, soon you heard a voice calling for you.
"Hello? Is anybody home?"
"What the..? Who..?" You furrowed your brow when you heard an unfamiliar voice echo from the front yard. Rubbing the sleepy dust from your eyes, you scuffed up, then proceed on making your way around the house. The person standing at your doorstep didn't look familiar to you― But what caught your eye was the attire this light haired man was wearing. You could tell by the very first glance that your visitor was from the military, but it was the regiment that surprised you: The wing insignia on the back of the jacket told you he was from nowhere else but the scout regiment.
"Ah! [f/n] [l/n], I presume?" The man greeted you when he saw you walking up to him. "Are you ready to go?"
"Uh… That's me, yes, but…" You looked at him baffled, having no idea what he was talking about. "Ready to go? Where?"
"Where?" He blinked confused as if the answer was clear. "To work, of course!"
"My apologies― Captain gave me an impression that he had already briefed you."
"He sure didn't..!" You muttered under your breath as you followed the scout regiment soldier, who had introduced himself as Moblit Berner, through the hallways of the base. Levi had apparently arranged you a job of some sort― Without telling you about it. "And I doubt that he forgot to..! A letter would've been enough, but instead he just sends someone to pick me up?!" You sighed to yourself, then turning your attention back to Moblit. "So tell me, what kind of job this exactly is?"
"He really didn't tell you anything?" Moblit glanced at you over his shoulder, looking equally surprised and amused about your cluelessness. "Well… It's nothing too complicated, so no need to worry about that. From what I've heard, you're very much overqualified to a job like this, but…" He paused for a second as you two stopped at the door in end of the hallway. "We're short on staff at the moment, so just as long as someone gets the job done, we're not going to complain."
"Research laboratory?" You read the sign on the door. "I sure hope you're not looking for guinea pigs for your experiments..!"
"No, thankfully we aren't." Moblit gave you a short smile as he looked for a right key from the keyring. When he found the right one, he unlocked the door before handing the key to you. "You'll need this― Ever since we caught the living test subjects, section commander and I have spend most of our time in the research room in the courtyard. The titan research is in full swing…" He stated as he swung the door open. "Which also means that we're falling behind on keeping up the archive."
"I… can see that." Your jaw almost dropped to the floor when you saw the sight behind the door. Honestly, the room looked like a bomb had gone off in there; Loose papers and documents covered the floors and desks, and every bookcase was stuffed so full of books and notes they looked like they were going to burst at any moment. Spiderwebs on the corners of the ceiling told you the room hadn't been cleaned in ages.
"Yup, so…" Moblit scratched the back of his head seemingly embarrassed. "The information stored in this room is invaluable― And unusable like this. It can take half a day for me to find a document I'm looking for..!" He sighed and shook his head, gesturing you to follow him in. "Your job is to get everything in order and archived in here. I hope you're not in a hurry; This may take a while."