Author's Note: Yayyy, updates! I've had pretty severe writer's block for this story and I tried to fight it hard while writing this chapter. Hopefully I unblocked myself (maybe). Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks to Empryexl for the review! I'm super excited about continuing this drama.

Chapter 9

"I'm sorry…what?" Beth asked with a furrowed brow as she tried to comfort the screaming child in her arms.

"A man!" Keith raised his voice over the fussy baby. "Do you know if she was seeing a man? Someone named Zeke?" Beth scoffed and readjusted the child in her arms, patting the baby's back gently.

"Shh, shh. You're fine." the blond cooed before turning her attention back to Keith. "No, sorry. She never talked about men with me. I don't even think she liked anyone." Keith frowned at the lack of information.

"Alright. I'll leave you to your—" he paused, unsure of what to refer to the child as. "—responsibilities." Beth gave him an amused smile as she watched him walk toward the door. Her eyes suddenly widened.

"O, wait!" She changed the baby to her other shoulder and walked toward Keith. "Every once in a while, she would go to this tea shop in town. The one near the stables. She would always make a big deal about being on time. She was probably meeting someone. I'm not sure who, though." Keith gave the girl a grateful smile and immediately made his way to the tea shop. He knew exactly which one it was. He and Cassandra would often pass by it on their way home from the stables. They had never stopped to try it, though.

His heart raced as he weaved through the crowd of people and entered the small shop. He made his way to the front.

"Good morning, sir. Are you—" Keith immediately cut off the cheerful waiter.

"I need some information on one of your patrons. A young girl with long, straight black hair and green eyes. Her name is Cassandra. She would have been with a man. Maybe around the same age as her? Maybe someone named Zeke?" The waiter stared back at the anxious commander in confusion.

"I'm sorry, sir. I just started working—" Finding himself with little patience to spare, Keith cut in again.

"Then is there someone here who would know?"

"A young girl with long black hair and green eyes?" an older voice came. Keith turned and saw a patron, an old man, sitting in the corner of the shop. "I think I know who you're talking about. She wore a white dress."

"Yes, yes, that's her!" Keith responded excitedly, turning his full attention to the senior. The man took a sip of his tea and closed his eyes, probably trying to recall details of the encounters.

"She's a pretty girl. I never caught her name, or the gentleman she was with, but I thought it odd that such a pretty young thing was always waiting for that older guy."

"Older guy?" Keith's fingers tightened into fists.

"In his forties, maybe?" the man speculated. "He stroked her face sometimes, but he always seemed cold to her, at least from what I could see. They wouldn't even spend a half hour together, and she always looked so sad when he left. She brought him flowers once, but he never brought her anything." The old man opened his eyes and met Keith's gaze. "That's all I know, sorry."

"Can you tell me what the man looked like?" Keith pushed.

"Hm…long, straight, black hair, green eyes, glasses…that's all I really remember." Keith frowned at the description. That could have been one of a hundred men in Shiganshina alone. If they only met sparsely, maybe the man lived further into the walls. How would he ever find him? It infuriated him—the thought of an older man taking advantage of Cassandra. He had to make sure nothing happened.

"Thank you for your help." Keith replied before taking off toward the stables at full speed. He needed to get back before Cassandra left for the Underground. He needed to know the truth. The uncertainty of the situation would certainly kill him.

"Erwin, Nanaba, my office." Keith called to the two blonds as they made their way to the mess hall.

"Hm? But we'll miss lunch!" Nanaba whined. Keith gave her a stern look, forcing her to follow him back to the main building. "What's going on?" He locked his office door and moved close to his soldiers.

"I talked to Beth and found out that Cassandra was seeing some guy in his forties at a tea shop when she was younger." Keith whispered.

"Forties?" Erwin asked, unable to contain his surprise.

"The idea that some older guy would take advantage of her makes me want to—" The commander snarled through gritted teeth in lieu of finishing the sentence. He loosened his fists and crossed his arms. "Erwin, watch her closely. Make sure there's no creep hovering around her."

"Yes, sir." Erwin immediately agreed, slightly infuriated at the thought himself. What mortal man had captured his goddess' attention?

"Nanaba, I need you to find out if anything ever happened between them." Keith instructed. Nanaba groaned and threw her head back.

"Please don't make me do that. She didn't know what sex was, I think she's fine. But don't make me interrogate that poor girl."

"Nanaba," Erwin scolded. "if she was entrapped by some older man, do you think she's in the best mindset to make good judgements about relationships?" He furrowed his brow at her. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Fine, but I'm not taking a script. I'm just going to make sure she's not in any abusive situation, and that's it. Anything else is none of our business." Nanaba said, putting her foot down at the metaphorical line of her ethics. The men exchanged an uneasy look but eventually caved, nodding in agreement. The blond woman left the room and Keith turned to his subordinate.

"I swear, the second I find him, I'm going to impale him on my swords." The commander's words were menacing, and Erwin suspected there was real bite behind his bark. The young squad leader suddenly realized how dangerous his addiction to Cassandra was. The goddess had lured him in so easily. He had been so distracted by her that he had failed to notice the razor's edge he had been walking between Keith's gratitude and unyielding wrath.

Cassandra glanced up from her bag when she heard her office door open. She set the neatly folded shirts on her bed and walked out of her quarters.

"Nanaba?" she asked, surprised to see the blond nonchalantly running her fingers across Cassandra's bookshelves of stored files.

"Hey, Cassandra." Nanaba replied with a sweet smile. "How's packing going?"

"Good." Cassandra followed her squad mate with her green eyes as she made her rounds through the office. She looked nervous.

"Um…I never got a chance to ask you—I mean, I just assumed. When we were talking about sex the other night…." Nanaba's voice trailed off, and she scratched her neck as she glanced at the ceiling, desperately trying to secure the words. "Are you actually a virgin? I mean, you've never had sex before, right? Not with anyone?"

"That's correct." It was an odd question, but the answer seemed to lessen the blond's concern.

"Good." she sighed out, immediately catching herself. "I mean, it's good because you didn't know what it was. So, now you can make an informed decision about it." Nanaba bit her lip.

"Is everything okay?" Cassandra's brow twitched together in a small furrow for a fraction of a second before returning to its resting place.

"Yea…I'm just—Cassandra," Nanaba moved toward the young girl and placed her hands on her shoulders. "if someone hurts you, you'd tell me, right?" The black-haired girl nodded slowly, unsure of what her colleague meant. "Good. If someone does hurt you, tell me." Cassandra tilted her head to the side.

"Okay."

"Good." Nanaba repeated again. She gave her squad mate a forced smile and rushed out of the room, meeting up with her squad leader and her commander. "I feel dirty." she complained once inside the safe confines of Keith's office.

"What did she say?" Keith immediately asked.

"She's still a virgin. I told her to let me know if anyone hurts her. She seemed kind of confused by that, but I really don't think you guys have anything to worry about." Nanaba explained, wiping the sweat that had appeared on her forehead. She always felt uneasy being dishonest with people. She never had a need for dishonesty. Love it or hate it, she would speak her mind. Sneaking around, trying to steal bits of information about Cassandra felt wrong to her. It was a foreign act, one that made her skin crawl.

"Erwin, I still want you to keep a close eye on her. Make sure she doesn't get into any trouble." Keith demanded.

"Yes, sir."

"Really?" Nanaba groaned, watching Erwin take his leave. She turned her head back to the commander. "I thought this was to put your concerns at ease, not to stalk the poor girl."

"She's my daughter, and I will do what I feel is best for her." Keith replied, returning to his desk and subsequently signaling the end of their conversation.

Erwin stepped out of Keith's office, nearly bumping into his executive officer.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you." he quickly apologized to the small girl. She certainly seemed less startled than him. She waved off his apology. "Are you going to train?"

"Yes, we don't leave for another few hours, and we most likely won't have the opportunity to train for a few days." Cassandra replied, making her way around him.

"Right…." he whispered to himself as he watched her walk away. His blue eyes traced her long, black hair to her mid back, and then wandered further down without any command from him. Had her pants always hugged her so closely? Had every curve from the small of her back to the back of her thighs always been so alluring and well defined? Of course, not. Erwin scolded himself. He was a child. Now that she was forbidden fruit, all he wanted was to satiate his hunger for her. He rolled his eyes at his petulant behavior and retreated into his office. Surely, paperwork would rid his mind of any impure thoughts.

"Shit, where is it?" Erwin whispered to himself as he sifted through documents. He checked the piles for the third time, making sure that the tricky letter had not just been stuck between the unlikely folds of a file. When he had exhausted all options in his office, he glanced at the empty space on his desk where the completed reports had sat earlier in the morning. Cassandra must have taken them into her office for review and filing, along with the letter by mistake. He sighed in annoyance and made his way to her door, giving it a light tap. When no answer came, he let himself in, hearing the unmistakable sound of the shower in her bathroom, muffled behind the door of her bedroom. He rushed to her desk, hoping to find Lovof's letter before she caught wind of him.

"Squad leader, you startled me." Erwin glanced up at the soft voice and a groan inadvertently left his throat. It seemed like she was not the only goddess mocking him. Someone far above had decided to toy with him. His eyes wandered over her glistening skin. Beads of water glimmered with the reflection of the afternoon sun that poured through her window, casting a warm glow on her honey skin. She tightened her grasp on the thin towel around her—the only thing between Erwin's hungry gaze and her naked body. Water dripped from her wet hair, creating small pools by her feet on the hardwood. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fanciful red envelope that contained his precious letter. It stuck out from between reports, taunting him. Erwin snatched it, his ego clearly hurt by the series of events.

"Sorry, I accidentally placed a letter that I needed with the reports that you took. I just came to get it." He moved around the desk awkwardly, trying to rush to the door before the growing and persistent muscle between his legs could make itself known to anyone but him. She moved quickly, too, stopping him dead in his tracks before he ran into her.

"Your face is red. Do you have a fever again?" she asked in a concerned voice, pushing her free hand against his forehead. The smell of soap, shampoo, and fragrant oil lifted from her skin and overwhelmed him. He grabbed her wrist, a lot harder than he meant to, and pulled her hand away.

"I'm fine." His voice broke awkwardly as he rushed out of the room, but not before catching the rare flinch of her face as she brought her wrist to her body, and not before he heard her whisper to him.

"I'm sorry." He felt guilty. He must have really hurt her—maybe not emotionally, but physically. Erwin flopped down in his chair. The thought of her pained look—no matter how short-lived it had been on her face—quickly solved his previous problem. His thoughts were no longer indecent. Rather, they swirled with culpability, shame, remorse. He shouldn't have grabbed her so roughly. He sighed and stood up from his chair, making his way back to the girl's office after a few minutes. He knocked and entered again, seeing her in full uniform, drying her hair. Her green eyes shot up toward him. "Squad leader, I apologize, I wasn't—" He raised his hand to silence her.

"No, I should be apologizing to you. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have grabbed you like that. It was rude and uncalled for. I wasn't thinking straight." He took a few small steps to close the distance between them. "I really appreciate how much you look after me—how much you look after everyone in the Survey Corps." She stared back at him with that same stoic face, and he smiled at her, gently grabbing her hand and inspecting her wrist. It wasn't bruised, thankfully. "I'm sorry I hurt you." he mumbled, running his fingers across her arm, inspecting the skin carefully. A small sigh left her and she moved closer to him.

"Your face is hot. I think you have a fever." she insisted once again. A small laugh, expressed only in the exhale of his nose, followed her analysis.

"It's not a fever." he assured with a soft smile.

"Are you sure?" she asked again, leaning closer to inspect him.

"Yes." Erwin barely whispered before giving into his temptation and closing the small gap between their faces. He pushed his lips against hers and waited until he felt her reciprocate the gesture. He moved his hands down her sides until they reached the tops of her thighs. He circled them around her legs, pushing his palms up against her butt and lifting her onto the desk as they kissed. He held her close and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him deeper into the embrace. They shared the moment for a while, until she lost her breath and pulled away to replenish her lungs. Erwin smirked at her. She was so innocent. "We're leaving for the Underground in an hour. If you have anything else you need to do, do it now." He suddenly commanded, switching back to being her superior. She nodded cutely, trying to hide the pink blush on her cheeks. Erwin chuckled at her, stepping away and leaving her sitting alone on the desk with her racing thoughts. Though he was long gone, Cassandra kept her eyes on the door, unable to move or think. She felt strange. It was a new sensation she was not familiar with. She ran her hands over her curves the same way that Erwin had. It excited her. She stepped into the bedroom and locked the door, flopping down on the bed and taking deep breaths before her next move. She gingerly loosened the buttons on her pants and slid her hand into them, trying to find the secret cure to this pleasurable ailment that had overcome her.