Armin was awake earlier than other boys in the barracks. He was supposed to run an errand for Hanji – she needed him to deliver some experiment results to the archives. He was tired, but didn't mind being awake early. It was always calm in the mornings, when no one else was awake. The sun had started rising from behind the walls.

He reached the courtyard before realizing he wasn't alone.

"Hey, Arlert", a familiar, rough voice grunted.

Armin had stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. Fear started clenching his stomach. Not now, please.

"Hello, Ansel", he answered, biting his bottom lip. He could see the other man's shape in the shadows.

Ansel suddenly rushed towards him and grabbed his arm, pulling Armin to the shadows.

"Hey-" his breath got stuck in his throat when Ansel threw him against the wall.

"Here you are, sneaking before sunrise, taking some errands, eh?" he asked with a fowl tone.

"What's wrong with that?" Armin asked, panting against the wall.

Ansel scoffed. "You're pathetic, you know that?"

The golden-haired boy didn't answer, he just stared at the man in front of him. Ansel was a bully, just like the boys back in Shiganshina. Unfortunately, he'd never been the one to put it up against the bullies.

"You're supposed to be a soldier", Ansel growled. "You look like a haystick. You'll be doing nothing but putting your friends in danger."

That's not true, Armin wanted to say. But he knew that answering would just provoke the guy. Besides, he wasn't completely wrong. Armin's mind wandered to that day when Eren had saved him from the maw of a titan – and gotten himself eaten in the process. Of course, he had transformed into a titan and survived but Armin remembered the feeling so well. The feeling that your best friend has died – because you were too afraid to move a muscle.

His thoughts were stopped when Ansel's fist connected with his face. Armin gasped for air, when he pushed his knee between the boy's ribs, stealing away all his oxygen.

"Stop", Armin breathed.

"I want you to fuck off from the Survey Corps", Ansel murmured. "You're not worthy of being in Levi's Squad. Hell, you're not even worthy to be a soldier."

Armin didn't even try to fight back. He never did. The bullies always stopped eventually, letting him go about his own business.

Suddenly he felt the weight disappear from his ribs as Ansel staggered backwards. Armin watched in awe as captain Levi demonstrated his right hook to the bully.

Armin saw the horror in Ansel's eyes – the captain was probably the last person one would like to get caught by. Levi's eyes were flaming with anger as he grabbed the younger man's neck and pushed him against the wall, hitting the guy's head in the process. Ansel grunted in pain and fear and stared at the smaller man in absolute horror.

Levi's voice was dripping with poison.

"You touch one hair in my soldiers' heads, I'll cut off your tongue and feed it to you."

Then the captain threw Ansel to the ground. The man glanced back at him with a horrified look, before staggering to his feet and disappearing to the corridor.

Armin slowly got up. "Thanks", he said quietly.

Captain Levi turned around, anger slowly fading from his eyes. "I hope you don't let the shitstack's words get to you. I'll make sure he gets a suitable punishment."

Armin nodded slowly.

Levi narrowed his eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry", the boy whispered.

"Why are you sorry? It's that sad excuse of a soldier who should be sorry."

Armin gulped. "But he was right. I'm just on the way."

"Armin. Look at me."

The boy raised his head and looked at his superior officer, who had a serious expression on his face.

"You do realize that you're in my squad for a reason?" he said, raising his brows. "You're the smartest recruit this HQ has seen after Hanji. You have no idea how much Erwin and Hanji value you", he stated. Armin blinked, confused.

"So don't let that fucktard get to you. I bet he'd just love to be in the Special Ops Squad himself", Levi scoffed. "So get your head up, kid. If I understand right, you had some errands to run. And if you feel like it, you can pop by the hospital wing."

Armin was baffled for a second, but then nodded.

"Roger. Thank you, sir."

Later that afternoon, Levi called his squad to the training field. Hanji was there, too. Everyone seemed quite confused – no one knew what this was about.

"So", Levi cleared his throat. "I was going through some paperwork yesterday, and guess what I found."

He eyed at his squad members with narrow eyes. "I found a report from two years ago", he stated, waving a paper in the air.

"A report about your carry your friend-exercise."

He watched as their faces darkened.

"Oh no", they whined.

"Captain, we can explain-"

"We were really tired that day, alright?"

"Silence!" Levi grunted. "I don't care. We're doing the exercise. It's important. The results of your last exercise were dreadful. I need to know you're capable of carrying your injured comrades if it's needed."

Hanji grinned at the squad members. Levi slowly shook his head. "Disappointing."

"Okay, what do you need us to do?" Eren asked reluctantly.

"First", Levi began, "we'll teach you the right ways to carry somebody. Eren, lay down on the ground."

The boy's eyebrows popped up. "Lay down on the ground?"

"Is there a fucking echo here?" Levi glared at him.

"Okay, okay", the titan shifter muttered and did what the captain asked. Levi walked up to him and squinted at the others.

"Okay. Pay attention you ignorant fucks. Eren here is gravely injured, he's going to bleed out if you don't do something."

"But captain", Connie said. "Eren is a titan shifter. He can't bleed out."

Levi glared at him especially venomously, so he shut his mouth.

"First step is a fucking hug, alright?" Levi spat. "Like this."

He pulled Eren up and wrapped his arms around the taller boy. Eren's face was kind of horrified, but he did his best keeping limp and letting Levi use him as a ragdoll.

"So first you raise your buddy to a standing position", the captain continued. "Then", he grabbed Eren's wrist, "you need to throw their arm over their head while continuing to support their weight with your other hand."

Levi did as he had just explained, before continuing:

"Then it's the challenging part, okay? You have to bend your buddy's waist", he bent his knees "and pull them over your shoulder."

Levi kept a small break. "Now, if it's not too much for you fucknuts to grasp, at the same time you'll have to let go of their waist and grab their leg behind their knee."

Eren breathed heavily as he felt himself being lifted from the ground- also Levi's shoulders were quite sharp – but kept staying as limp as possible.

"Then", Levi continued, "The hand you were holding your friend's wrist with has to be moved to the hand that's grabbing the knee."

This left the captain's other hand free.

"Okay", the captain stated, "We don't want to fuck up at this point so we're going to use our free hand to push ourselves back to the standing position without straining our backs."

Levi placed his hand on his knee and pushed himself to stand up straight.

"Now then. You should adjust your buddy's weight so that it's comfortable enough", Levi moved Eren's weight slightly on his shoulders. "And then you'll have to carry your friend's ass to safety. Over there", he nodded towards a haystack that was on the other side of the training yard. "I assume I won't have to demonstrate."

He then bent his knees a bit. "Get the fuck off my back, Eren", he then grunted. The boy did what he was asked and slowly slided back to ground. Levi straightened himself up.

"Well, don't just stand there", Hanji exclaimed. "Pair up!"

"Armin's not here", Mikasa stated suddenly. Eren was with Levi already, so her next option was obviously Armin – but she hadn't seen the boy all morning.

"He's running an errand for Erwin", Hanji stated. "Never mind that, now. Go with Jean."

Mikasa glanced at Jean and nodded. The boy seemed quite excited…

Levi turned towards Eren and glared at him. "Drop me and you're dead."

The boy nodded and stared at him for a while. "Well? Aren't you going to lay down on the ground?"

Levi grimaced and looked at the ground. "Ew", he stated, but then reluctantly and stiffly laid to the ground. Next to him were Mikasa and Connie.

"Begin!" Hanji grinned and everyone went to work. It wasn't a competition (except oh yes, it was) and everyone tried to remember what they had just learned.

"Remember! Your pair is bleeding and dying so you're gonna have to save their asses. Come on!" Hanji yelled, encouraging them to work faster.

Levi was actually quite impressed with Eren. He had learned the proper technique – of course it might have something to do with the fact that the captain had demonstrated this on him – and it didn't take long until Levi was lying limp on his shoulders.

Eren breathed heavily as he left to stagger towards the haystack. Levi grimaced.

They all walked quite the same pace, but it felt like it took forever. Eren seemed to be exhausted and slowed down a little, but they heard Hanji yell:

"Keep up, Eren! Levi is dying! The fate of humanity is at stake!"

That seemed to bring Eren's willpower back, and he took big, fast steps and went past the others. Levi was kind of proud.

By the time they reached the other side, the captain was quite sure he'd have bruises. Eren was about to drop his ass to the hay pile, but Levi stopped him.

"Just put me down here", he hissed and the boy obeyed. The captain was glad to be back on his own feet.

After Mikasa had quickly carried Jean and Connie had carried Sasha, they were done for the day.

"Fucking marvelous", Levi stated. "Now you know how to carry your buddies. Now get out of my sight and go do whatever you were doing before this."

That evening the boys were in their barracks and had actually an exceptionally good time. Eren stayed with the others for a long time. Connie was currently doing impressions.

He moved next to Armin and started aggressively sniffing him and they all bursted out laughing.

"Mike!" Eren snorted.

"Hell yes", the shorter boy answered. "Okay, what about this?"

Connie then grabbed a mug that was on the nearby nightstand and started hanging it between his fingers, holding on to the edges. He then narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brows.

"Tch, tch", he stated. "The corridor is not clean! You'll have to do it all over again, Eren!"

The others were squirming. Connie's face looked so ridiculous when he did impressions.

He then stood up on his toes and grabbed his eyebrows, stretching them.

"Onwards, children. Bring honor to humanity!" he yelled with a glorious tone.

"Oh no, oh no, stop it", Eren wheezed.

"It's too much", Jean howled, water running from his eyes.

After fifteen minutes, they were done. It was midnight, so Eren had to return to his cell.

"Bye, guys", he breathed as he stepped out the door, but then he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Woah", he stated.

"Look at that!" Armin said with his eyes brightening.

"Fascinating", said Jean.

"Snow", Connie sniffed.

The next morning Eren was up and about, minding his own business. He stepped outside and had to turn away his head because of the brightness that faced him.

He muttered something vague in displeasure, as his eys slowly adjusted to the light.

"Chilly", stated someone behind him. Eren turned around and saw Commander Erwin walking towards him.

"Commander", he greeted with a nod, wrapping his arms around himself.

"Good morning!" a familiar voice exclaimed, and Hanji appeared from behind the corner. "Isn't it lovely here?"

"Sure is", Erwin smiled at her. Hanji wrapped her other arm around Eren's neck.

"Hey there!" she grinned.

"Morning, Hanji", Eren laughed softly.

For a while they just exchanged some small talk, but then some action came in. Jean, Connie, Armin, Sasha and Mikasa were all approaching them from the barracks. Mikasa was wrapped up in her scarf (Eren still didn't understand why she was so attached to the old thing) and Armin seemed baffled by the sight of so much snow. The white stuff sure was everywhere, in thick piles and the sunlight made it shine so brightly it hurt.

Eren walked up to his friends and grinned at them.

"Just like back at home, right?" he stated to Armin and Mikasa, who nodded.

"It reminds me of Shiganshina, and all those winter days when we made snowmen and threw snowballs at each other", Mikasa stated.

"Those were the times", Armin smiled faintly.

Eren was about to answer, but then something cold and wet hit him right in the back. He quickly turned around and squinted at Jean, who had a smug grin on his face.

"Oh, we'll see who laughs next", Eren said villainously as he grabbed some snow and threw it straight at Jean's face.

The other boy quickly wiped the snow off his face and grimaced viciously. "I will crush you!" he yelled as he started making another ball. Sasha and Connie seemed to join him.

"Come on, let's show them what we're made of", Eren growled at Mikasa and Armin, who were already in battle stations.

Back in Shiganshina they'd always had an effective system where they went to cover and Armin kept making snowballs for Eren and Mikasa, who then aimed them at their enemies. Armin made the best snowballs, Mikasa was had the best aim and Eren's balls hit the hardest.

"This is war!" Connie shouted as he threw a ball straight to Eren's face.

It sure was a gruesome and hard battle. The fight stopped, however, when Hanji and Erwin made a snowball of their own and threw it straight at the unsuspecting captain Levi, who was walking away from them.

It hit straight the back of his head.

Eren stopped in horror. Oh shit. Hanji, what have you done?

Captain Levi's short character slowly turned around. He had a grim look on his face, as he stared Hanji dead in the eye from the other side of the yard. Erwin grinned at him and Hanji lifted her chin, challenge glimmering in her eyes.

Levi narrowed his eyes and glared at them. He slowly grabbed some snow from the ground and started making a snowball. Not a word was spoken – everyone's eyes were on Levi.

The captain sniffed and eyed at his creation. Then he threw a quick glance at Hanji and Erwin, before throwing the ball with a killing speed.

It landed nowhere near neither of them. Eren squinted and realized that the captain had thrown it… to the roof?

For a second they all just stared. Levi had already turned his back and started walking away.

"Oh no", Hanji breathed and she looked at Erwin in horror. They realized Levi's intentions a second too late. A huge mass of snow had started to tumble down a roof with a horrible speed. Neither of them had time to run for cover. In seconds Commander Erwin and Hanji were covered in snow to their chests.

Erwin sighed as he brushed some snow off of his hair. "I should have seen that coming."

Helloo, sorry for taking my time xd

This is your chapter, a little bit shorter than usual, but it has a lot of content. I hope the atmosphere was a bit lighter on this one :)

Love your reviews, as always!:3

Orion Hunts: Omg thanks :3 so kind of you, and I'm pleased to hear you didn't think anything bad about the gentle-with-kids Levi xD I really appreciate your opinions =)

Supergurkan: Oh yeah I'm happy you liked it =D Also no worries about your schedule, you'll read when you have time. I hope your grandparents are well =3 Also very happy if my stories help with your English. It's not my first language either (it's Finnish, if you're interested) so I always make some mistakes. Usually I notice and fix them, though ^-^