[AN] first thing's first, I finally updated again! yaaaay... *crickets.* anywho, thank you for withstanding this fic thus far. if you guys have any suggestions on anything, let me hear 'em! sorry that I never ever update. my life is just really hectic, and I threw my laptop out the second-story window, so now I can only use my girlfriend's family laptop.

but seriously, it's like my life is the crazy train that ozzy is always singing about, and there are giant piles of shit on the railroad that keeps driving me off course.

Levi is probably extremely OC it actually makes me cringe. someone help me... he's a difficult character for me to write.

That tattoo of your name,
The number of your age.
I don't know what to say,
I still think about you.
And those pictures in mum's house
That I touch when I'm around.

"Chin Up," Moose Blood

Chapter 7: Daisies

"Having a dominant hand is dangerous, Ambrosia."

Spitting blood onto the ground, Nephele dropped her blades and put her hands on her knees as she stopped to catch her breath. Mikasa made training look so easy. She had no dominant hand, so her incisions were deeper and more accurate than Nephele's.

"Sorry. I'm a leftie," she muttered, head bowed. Training under Levi was humiliating. He always made her feel like she was less than a cadet. Like she was a pig with a sword, swinging blindly. The way he praised Mikasa made her feel even worse.

Well, praise was an overstatement.

"Start doing everything with your right hand from now on," Levi commanded, leaning down to pick up her swords for her. He plugged them both back into her gear, and his fingers just barely brushed against her shirt before retreating. It was strange, how such a simple action and the slightest bit of contact was enough to make her heart stutter.

Staring up at the clouds, Nephele stifled a sigh. She wasn't an idiot. She wasn't ignorant of her own feelings for her Captain.

Turning to Mikasa, Levi announced, "That concludes today's session. Report back here at the same time we began, as usual."

It had been Nephele's first day training with Levi and Mikasa, and her entire body already felt like it had endured multiple beatings over an extended period of time. Her arms were sore, and her head was throbbing from when Levi had bashed her on the skull with the blunt edge of his blade. The force and shock knocked her unconscious for a few minutes, and when she awoke, Levi had been looking down on her, his hands on his hips with a disapproving expression. Mikasa was sitting on a bench and cleaning her blades of dust with a cloth.

"Yes, sir," Mikasa said, saluting him with a fist over her heart. Nephele mirrored her actions. but not her words. When the pair turned to leave the training field, Levi called out Nephele's name.

Stopping, she turned around to acknowledge him, a brow raised.

When Mikasa was a significant distance away, Levi leaned in close to Nephele's ear. At the moment, she stood a bit taller than him, yet somehow he seemed to hover over her. Had they ever been this close before? She could feel his warm breath against her neck, and tried to suppress the chills that coursed through her veins. It didn't work. She shivered, and could have sworn to see him smile out of the corner of her eye.

"I suggest not letting your eyes wander during our next session, Nephele," he whispered, saying her name for the first time. He made it sound like a different language. "It might get you into trouble."

The chills were replaced with warmth that spread throughout her entire body like a fire that burned within her, but didn't scorch her flesh. Cheeks flushed a few shades lighter than her hair, she stared at his cheekbone, his expression hidden until he pulled back an inch and gave her a sideways glance. No one had ever looked at her like that before. It made her feel vulnerable.

It made her heart ache.

Straightening his stance, Levi's gaze hardened once more, and he shifted back into the man she was better acquainted with. The man who looked at her like she was a little girl, not a woman.

"You're dismissed," he said, turning on his heel and walking back to the Administrative Building. His sudden, drastic change in demeanor made her head spin and hurt even more.

It was only the first day of training, and now every piece of her ached.

Standing where Levi left her, Nephele turned her attention back to the wispy clouds. Her gear suddenly felt 10 kilograms heavier. How could she ever hope to conquer the government if she couldn't even conquer her own heart? It was so stupid to harbor such feelings for her Captain. He was only messing with her, after all. Maybe he was trying to distract her to see if she could handle the pressure?

When she looked over in the direction Levi went, she realized that he was gone. There was a vast expanse of open field that he had to cross before getting to the Admins' Building, yet he was already out of sight. Nephele couldn't imagine him running that distance just to get there. He didn't care enough to move that fast unless it was necessary.

So where the fuck did he go?

The injustice of it all was really starting to piss Eren off.

That red-headed bitch Nephele didn't even want to join the Scouts, yet she got to personally train under their most elite soldier. Mikasa deserved that privilege because she actually trained hard and wanted to join the Scouts, but Nephele was the exact opposite. All she cared about was her stupid heels and her stupid hair and her stupid… everything!

Armin looked at his friend with worry. His face was red and his expression belligerent, but Armin wasn't sure if it was from physical exertion or if something just pissed him off.

"You alright, Eren?" he asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Eren rolled his arm to shake him off, looking in the opposite direction as his eyebrows relaxed a bit. Who knows what pissed him off this time.

"Yeah, of course I am. It's just bullshit how Ambrosia gets to train with Captain Levi when there are plenty of other cadets who deserve it more than her," he muttered, raising his blade once again. It was just a casual sparring session, and Eren hadn't even broken a sweat yet. Armin, on the other hand, was breathing rather heavily as beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead.

Armin tried not to sigh and roll his eyes. He should have known that was the reason for Eren's foul mood. Lately, Ambrosia had been all he could think about, even if those thoughts were negative.

"Well, she is second best, even though there's a decent sized gap between her and Mikasa's skill levels," Armin said, taking a few steps back and kicking up a bit of dirt beneath his boots. The ground beneath them was finer than dirt, and packed down more too. Face planting on this earth always had devastating consequences.

That was a fact that even Eren couldn't ignore. She was better than the rest of them, even though it was a marginal difference in strength between Nephele and Reiner, who was just barely ranked at number three.

"Yeah, but still…"

"Like I said, Nephele works hard. We're all here for different reasons, Eren. You don't understand her situation just as much as she doesn't understand yours." Raising his left blade and pointing it at Eren's chest, his arm trembling slightly from the weight, Armin changed the subject. "Now shut up and focus!"

Even though Armin's attempt to rile Eren up was a bit awkward, Eren smiled nonetheless at his attempt and lifted his blade. Even though Armin wasn't nearly as strong as Eren, he appreciated how his friend didn't go easy on him during their sparring matches.

"If you say so, Captain," Eren teased, and the clashing of their blades rang like bells chiming along with the rest of their fellow cadets.

It was Ymir's idea.

Although Nephele wasn't well acquainted with the freckled girl, there was something about her that she was drawn to. Nephele thought she was charismatic, but it might just be that Ymir appealed to her appetite for adventure. She was always ready to try new things and explore new places. Her eagerness sort of rubbed off on Nephele and the rest of the group. It might have also been because of how persistent she was in getting the other cadets to go along with her scheme.

The girls barracks were illuminated by a single candle. The majority of the female squad members were asleep in their bunks, oblivious to the plan about to unfold.

"Trust me, I know each and every one of the guards' shifts. I know how they rotate, when they rotate, and where," Ymir whispered, although it was clear that she was struggling to keep her voice low from all of the excitement.

"I wouldn't really call them guards," Krista piped in, her tiny voice trembling anxiously. "They're just soldiers."

"Whatever, details." Ymir waved her hand flippantly.

"I don't think this one's a good idea, idea, Ymir. We could seriously get kicked out of the Trainees," said Krista.

"Don't be such a wimp. As long as we're quick, quiet, and queer it'll all go smoothly."

"Queer?" Nephele's brows shifted in confusion.

Ymir scoffed, leaning forward in their little circle, a ring of conspiring girls around a flickering flame. She sat cross legged on the floor, her hands on her thighs. The circle consisted of Ymir, Krista, Sasha, Mikasa, and Nephele. The 'ferocious five' as Sasha liked to refer to them all as in a group.

"Yeah. It's the three Q's of thievery."

"I'm not quite sure that's a thing, but alright," Nephele shrugged. "So are we gonna do this or what?"

"I'll go," Mikasa answered, raising her hand.

"I guess so…" came Krista's voice from across Nephele. Although her nervousness was evident, it was obvious that she'd go along with whatever Ymir suggested.

Sasha was always gung-ho for anything dangerous and thrilling, so it was no surprise when she raised her fist in the air and proudly proclaimed, "Hell yeah we're doing this!"

"Damn it. I hoped to weed you out of the flock, Sasha. You're so fucking loud," Ymir teased. Sasha covered her mouth with her hand and gave an apologetic 'oops' with smile hidden behind her palm.

"Alright, now that that's settled, let's go see what those uptight assholes got to say about us in their reports," Ymir murmured, her pearly white teeth flashing in the dim candlelight. She had the grin of a feral animal about to pounce on its next unwary victim.

Nephele thought she heard a tiny 'squeak' coming from her the pocket of her trousers.

…

Trying to herd four other girls through the off-limits Administrative Building while bypassing wandering officers and keep the flock quiet proved to be a difficult task to tackle, even for Ymir. Sasha was the biggest problem. Occasionally, she would forget the mission and open her big mouth to spew something about how hungry, tired, or bored she was from the absence of conversation. Krista was just a clumsy oaf who tripped over her feet constantly and clung to Ymir's shirt as they traversed the narrow hallways.

Once they reached the corner that rounded into the hallway where the records room was, Ymir placed a finger to her lips as she took a quick peek into the hallway. The way her body moved made her seem like she had done this sort of thing before. It wouldn't be surprising if she ever revealed that she was a master thief before joining the Trainees, or if she at least dabbled in illegal trades like stealing.

One brief glance at the door, and Ymir swiftly hid back behind the wall again. She moved her hand to motion for the others to stand against the wall as she had, and they did as silently ordered.

"You gotta do me a favor, Kris," Ymir whispered in Krista's ear, leaning down to her height. The little blonde blushed and looked up at her, nodding. "Go back the way we came and take a left down the first hallway. Then, once you reach a fork, take another left. That hallway connects to the hallway where the records are, too."

"Oh no…"

"Oh yes," Ymir grinned, placing her head on Krista's head to console her. "The guard over there by the records room absolutely hates anything that carries diseases and germs. So…" Her voice trailing off, Ymir reached into her pocket and pulled out a squirming, squeaking rat. It's fur was matted and yet she handled the creature with little regard to its lack of sanitariness. Handing it to Krista, she continued. "Take this little guy and just let him loose into the hallway. I already trained him to go down the hallway you'll be in, so once you see that the guard is following it, head back over here."

"How do you know he'll take the bait?" asked Sasha.

"Trust me. I just know people," Ymir insisted. Krista held the rat close to her chest, ensuring that it wouldn't jump out of her hands.

"Okay. I'll do it," she murmured, a look of determination crossing her face. Ymir smiled like a proud parent and ruffled her soft hair.

"Sweet. Go make me proud, Krista."

Once Krista was out of sight and off to complete her part of the mission, Sasha shot Ymir a mischievous smirk and prodded her on the chest with her finger.

"Ymir likes Krista," she sang under her breath.

"So?" Ymir shrugged, not even bothering to hide the fact that she has feelings for the girl. Even though she was a dishonest thief, she still remained true to herself and her feelings.

Caught off guard by Ymir's blunt response, Sasha had run out of things to tease her about. It was hard to get under Ymir's skin about matters involving the heart, because she wore hers on her sleeve.

Ymir shifted her attention back around the corner to where the guard was. The rest of the group couldn't see into the hallway, so they all relied on Ymir's judgement to complete the mission.

Once Ymir had decided that the coast was clear, she motioned for the other girls to head into the hallway ahead of her. "Go, one at a time. I'll wait for Krista. And Mikasa, you're gonna be on look out if that's still cool with you."

Mikasa nodded and Nephele led the way to the records room, the group moving silently as their officers had instructed.. It's rather ironic that the skills they were given in training were being used against the very organization that taught them. Once they were at the door, Nephele briefly read the brass plate upon which the words "Cadet's Records" were inscribed.

"I got this," she ensured, removing two bobby pins from her hair. She straightened them out and pushed one into the keyhole, then used the other to lift the lock's pins. After several attempts, she was rewarded with a distinct 'click,' and removed the bobby pins from the keyhole, turning the knob and opening the door.

"How did you manage to do that?" Sasha asked, stunned as she and Mikasa followed Nephele into the room. Mikasa closed the door just enough for her to peer out the cracks between the door and the wall on both sides and relocked the door to make it appear as though no one ever broke in.

"I used to break into my parent's stables back home at night and ride around the forest nearby," Nephele admitted, smiling sheepishly.

Then, thoughts of her deceased parents turned sour. It had been quite some time since she thought about either of them, especially her mother. Nephele suddenly felt as alone as one could feel while surrounded by their friends.

None of the other girl's noticed her change in demeanor, even though Nephele wore an expression of indignation. She often translated sadness into anger, letting it fuel her hatred. There was no point in wallowing in one's own sorrow when that energy can be used to demolish the cause of one's pain instead. Titans were mindless, instinctive creatures unworthy of Nephele's hatred. They were only things to be killed. On the other hand, humans consciously murder, torture, and betray their fellow man, and therefore it is the monarchy that is to blame for the death of Nephele's mother. Although her father met his end in the jaws of a titan, the beasts couldn't be blamed. Of course, it was only right to exterminate them regardless, and anyways it would be best to keep a level head when indiscriminately slaughtering titans if she wished to keep it.

"Ymir and Krista are returning," Mikasa announced. Sasha and Nephele exchanged sighs of relief upon hearing the news. Mikasa opened the door further to allow the pair to pass, and returned it to its former position, turning the lock in case she would have to suddenly close it altogether.

Ymir wiped her brow with the back of her hand before placing it on her hip and flashing her signature winning grin. "Well, that should keep 'em busy for a while."

"What did you do?" Nephele asked, suddenly wary. Ymir was as unpredictable as she was cunning. That's what made her so dangerous.

"Nothing. I just caught that rat near its nest in one of the storage closets downstairs. There's a hole in the wall in the closet, and behind it is a whole bunch of the little guys. Great aunts, cousins, siblings, grandparents, great grandparents, like a huge extended family! I blocked all of the other holes it could have gone in so that it's only escape route would be in the storage closet, so it would lead the guard to the nest," she explained, though Sasha, Mikasa, and Nephele were still confused. What kind of plan was that anyways?

"How could a rat be so vital to this operation?" Sasha asked, scratching her head with her brows furrowed in confusion.

"Let's just say the guard who's been watching the records room these past few days hates disease-ridden rats," she said, not wasting any time on explaining the exact details of her plan. The guard could return to his post any minute, so she decided it'd be best if their time wasn't wasted on unnecessary clarifications.

Nephele shrugged, unperturbed. "Works for me." She was still too preoccupied with dreams of toppling an empire of pigs to care about the details. "Let's just get our files, read them, and get out of here."

Sasha reached into the satchel she had been carrying and retrieved a long coil of rope, knotted every meter of length. Krista opened one of the windows while Sasha placed the rope on a rickety wooden end table.

"Alright, who's jumping?" Ymir asked, looking around the room. The girls couldn't tie the rope to something once they tossed it out the window, because no one could untie it once everyone was on the ground below, and they couldn't leave behind evidence of their break-in. Someone would have to hold on to one end of the rope while the others climbed down it, then jump out the third-story window into a sheet the others would hold stretched out to break their fall.

"I'll-" Mikasa began, only to be interrupted by Nephele.

"I'll do it," she declared, tilting her foot up to inspect the sole of her heel, ensuring that nothing was stuck to the bottom of it.

"Shouldn't it be Mikasa?" asked Krista, afraid that she might offend the hot-headed, red-haired girl. After all, Mikasa was the current number one in the class, though Nephele held a close second.

"In terms of physical strength, yes. I've got a bit more upper arm muscle than any of you," she said, blunt and honest but without being too boastful of her abilities. Truth be told, Nephele could lift much more than Mikasa, whereas Mikasa had more strength in her legs. "Someone's gotta hold on to the rope while Ymir shimmies her fat ass down it."

"True to your name, eh Nephele?" Ymir said, smiling widely, unoffended. "I bet you're strong enough to lift the sky itself."

"The sky cannot be lifted. It is infinite."

"Quit your metaphors and find your damn file so we can get out of here," Ymir waved her hand as if she were swatting a fly and went off to find her own records.

The group dispersed, each girl searching through the file cabinets for their own name. Nephele gave a quick glance around the room, noting nothing of particular importance. The walls were lined with wooden cabinets, each labeled with a single letter. She doubted the 104th Trainees had enough cadets in its ranks to fill each cabinet, so they must have also been filled with records on cadets that had already graduated. In the center of the room was a pine desk, behind which sat a red leather chair, it's back to the window so that whoever sat in it would be facing the door and any who may enter through it. Upon the desk lay several quills, jars of ink, rolls of parchment, and a half-melted stick of red wax for sealing. Everything was neat and orderly, each quill placed in a clear bottle for storage, the rolls of parchment in a perfect row on the left side of the table, and the wax stick sitting in a bowl along with a ring bearing someone's seal. Nephele vaguely wondered whose it was before deciding that she had other things to worry about at the moment.

Most likely files were organized by surname, so Nephele went to the first cabinet filed 'A.' She noticed that each drawer had a strip of paper detailing different variations of the letter preceded by other letters of the alphabet. She searched for 'Am,' and opened the drawer labeled as such, turning her head to check the progress of her friends.

Sasha was already reading her file, her eyes squinting in a vain attempt to read the papers she held right in front of her face. It was no use in this darkness. Ymir, who had lit a candle that was stashed away in one of her pockets, rolled her eyes and went over to Sasha, reaching into her satchel to get her candle for her.

"Need this?" she asked, holding it before Sasha, who smiled sheepishly, her cheeks warming up from her chagrin.

"Thanks," she laughed nervously as Ymir lit the candle with a match.

Krista was reading her own file, her expression haunting. Nephele had never seen the warm-hearted girl look so cold. She wondered if it was something she read on her file that gave her usually kind eyes such a sharp edge, made her soft lips go thin and placid. Krista didn't even look like Krista anymore. Did she always look so pale?

Shaking her head, Nephele thought it best not to stare and let her thoughts linger. It was Krista's business, not her own. However, she couldn't stop herself from imagining all the secrets stored in those drawers, secrets about complete strangers and her closest friends. Certainly none of them could be too vital of importance though, or the files would be more heavily guarded.

'First training. Then intel.'

Nephele returned to her search, pulling the files forward. Luckily, each name had it's only folder so all she had to do was read the tabs to find her name. Amabili, Amai, Amarino, Ambach, Ambern, Ambers… Ambrosky. No Ambrosia. Not even a folder.

"Hey, I don't see mine," she called out to the other girls, confused as she continued flipping through the drawer. Maybe it was misplaced or something.

Sasha echoed her thoughts. She hadn't finished reading her report, and placed it on the desk to go help Nephele search for hers.

"'Model cadet, excels in everything. In fact, it's no overstatement to call the girl a genius,'" Ymir read aloud, trying to contain her snickering as she handed the papers back to Mikasa. "Dang, Mikasa. Shadis doesn't seem like the kinda guy to throw the word 'genius' around so lightly. Either he's seriously impressed, or seriously in love," she droned, wiggling her hips and bouncing them off of Mikasa's.

Unsure of what to say to that, Mikasa pulled her scarf up higher to conceal half of her face as she casted her eyes to the floor.

"I want to read Eren's…"

Sasha shuffled through a few other drawers with Nephele, pursing her lips. "I don't see anything, Nephele," she said with a shrug. By then, Mikasa had returned her file to its drawer and returned to her post by the door with Eren's report in her hands.

"That's annoying," Nephele droned, wondering why her report was missing. She didn't have much time to dwell on the thought before Mikasa's voice heralded their doom.

"Someone's coming," Mikasa warned, her voice as calm as the surface of a still pond despite the impending threat. Everyone immediately went into action as swiftly and silently as possible. Mikasa closed the door to make it appear as if no one ever passed through it, but even she couldn't dull the old and rusted hinges' slow, agonizingly loud creak.

"Fuck," Ymir hissed, stuffing her records back into their corresponding file, as did Krista. Mikasa hurried over to the 'Y' cabinet, returning Eren's report.

Adrenaline shot through Nephele's veins like an injection. She felt like such a fool. They were going to get caught. She gave the dimly burning candle in her handle a wordless whisper to extinguish its flame, her hands trembling violently.

"Hurry up!" Sasha called out to her from the window, her voice hardly above a whisper. The room was quiet enough for Nephele to hear her. She responded with a nod and put the candlestick back into her trousers while the other girls evacuated out the window. When she looked up, she saw a small stack of papers on the desk, just where Sasha had left her records.

'Fuck.'

The other girls had already begun their descent down the rope, Ymir being the second to last girl tasked with holding it. "Come on!" she insisted, leaving Nephele only seconds to deliberate. She could only hope that the officer on the other side of that door hadn't already suspected foul play. If she didn't put Sasha's records back, she'd be screwed either way…

Nephele rushed over to where Ymir was waiting for her and grabbed onto the rope, the material chafing her palms. It burned her skin even further once Ymir began going down it. She dug her heels into the wooden floor for some sort of purchase while Ymir descended. Once she was safely on the ground, the rope went slack and Nephele let go, watching it slither out the window. Rather than make the jump like she was supposed to, Nephele rushed over to the desk.

Quickly, she grabbed the papers and sustained a rather deep papercut in the process, her blood blotting out Sasha's name and date of birth. That didn't matter at this point. She returned the papers back to Sasha's folder when she heard footsteps approaching. From the footfall, she guessed they were male.

There wasn't any time for Nephele to escape with the other girls. She would have to somehow close the window behind her, and her accomplices wouldn't have time to get out of sight of the window in case someone decided to look outside, which she was certain would happen. No way did that door go unheard when Mikasa closed it. It was very evident that someone was here, and the girls needed a distraction if anyone had a hope of escaping this.

There was only one option to minimize the casualty count.

She stuck head out the window and looked down at her friends waiting below, who mouthed soundless words of encouragement to her and made gestures for her to jump quickly. The four of them each had a corner of sheet ready for her to fall into. By now, she was far over any fear of heights due to training, but that was one fall she was afraid of making.

"Go!" she said, her voice hushed. She wondered if they could even hear her, so she waved her hand to signal for them to leave. Before they could react, Nephele shut the window and turned to face the door.

She heard the faint chiming of a set of keys. There was no point in hiding. Hopefully the girls had enough sense to run before the guard decided to look out the window or something.

The door unlocked with an audible 'click' and although it was too dark to distinguish the man's features, Nephele recognized the silhouette standing in the doorway.

"We really need to stop running into each other like this, Nephele," said Levi.

"Captain," Nephele greeted casually. No way in hell was he going to let her off the hook a second time.

They remained quiet for a while, so Nephele guessed that he was thinking about what to do with her. Did he have the authority to kick her out of the cadets? She wouldn't be surprised if that was his verdict. It didn't seem like he particularly enjoyed having to train her every Monday through Saturday.

"Get out," he ordered, his tone firm and resolute. He had a hand on one hip, head head angled to the side.

"But-"

"Are you deaf?" Levi jeered, growing increasingly annoyed with Nephele. Did she want to be punished or reprimanded? Unclean thoughts began to dirty his mind at the thought, but now wasn't the time for that. He had just dealt with an infestation of rats, and certainly no longer had the patience for bratty girls. "I said get out."

This was ridiculous. Levi must have had some sort of ulterior motive. Military officers don't just hand out free passes to disobedient cadets who've broken the rules more than once.

Wait a minute…

"You…"

"Out with it, brat," Levi insisted, wondering what her accusation would be. Maybe she found something of value in those dusty drawers, though he highly doubted that. "Are you deaf and mute, or just plain stupid?" His words might have suggested one thing, but his actions vouched for Nephele's explanation.

"You like me," Nephele blurted, immediately regretting the words as soon as they left her lips. She covered her mouth with both hands, as if she was literally trying to hold her tongue.

Shocked by her blunt allegation, Levi stared at her with raised brows. There was no doubt in his mind that he was attracted to her, but harboring any romantic feelings was out of the question. The man didn't even know if he was capable of such sentiments.

The only person he ever felt that way about was Isabel.

"I think you want me to like you," he countered.

"Well, what else am I supposed to think? You flirt with me during training even if it's weird, off-handed and passive aggressive. And you keep turning your head the other way when you catch me doing things I'm not supposed to."

"Do you want me to like you?" he rephrased, his voice quieter, less firm. She watched nervously as he stepped further into the room, closing the door behind him. He locks it.

"I want you to be honest with yourself. And me."

"I'm curious. When did you start feeling this way?" he asks, not even bothering to question her feelings for him. He just assumed. No; he knew.

Thinking back to their first conversation, Nephele finds the answer easily. "When we first met."

Levi walks closer so that Nephele could see his ashen features in the moon's reflected light. She's never felt this way about anyone before, not even Prince Charming Erwin whom she fantasized about as a little girl. Levi was a predator to titans and people. Instinct told her to fall back and retreat because nothing about him was safe. It's no wonder she joined the Trainee's. Apparently she was attracted to mystery and danger.

There were so many factors Levi had to take into consideration. He should wait to pluck the fruit when it was ripe, he shouldn't be doing this because it's so wrong for all the right reasons, but fuck did he want to kiss her. Those small, heart-shaped, pouting lips probably tasted as good as they looked.

Only then did Levi really notice her. Sure, he'd spent part of their daily sessions staring at Nephele's curvy ass and breasts dewy with perspiration, but it was her body he had taken note of. Now, he noted the freckle on her left cheek, the scar on her forehead hidden beneath her straight bangs and wondered what the story behind it was. She had such elegant posture and poise, small hands, a round face, and the healthiest hair he'd ever seen. She was so clean and well groomed, and for the first time in a while, Levi wasn't entirely repulsed by the idea of laying with someone.

He was going to kiss her because he wanted to, not because Erwin ordered him. For once, Levi would do something he wanted, and that was Nephele.

Levi moved in on her, becoming light headed when he saw Nephele take a hesitant step back until her thighs met the window sill, causing her to stumble and sit down on it. His gaze followed hers as it swept hesitantly outside, peering into the darkness, then flickered back to him. Her hands tightened around the polished oak.

"Captain Levi."

He was before her, one hand on her thigh and the other lacing its fingers through her loose curls, shiny and soft as ribbons of silk, but making sure not to unravel them.

Nephele's hand came over his, and the action was oddly comforting. But when she pulled his hand off her thigh, her expression solemn, he froze.

"No."

When was the last time Levi got rejected? It was Petra, over a year ago surprisingly. Despite her feelings for him, she, too, denied his advances. That was sex, but this was just a simple kiss.

"Women," he muttered, pulling his hand from her grasp like she had shocked him to drag it down his face in exasperation. And truly Nephele did shock him, in more ways than one. "You're all so obsessed with courtship."

"I want to fall in love with you first," she declared, staring him straight in the eyes. Levi decided he liked that about her. Most would avoid his steely gaze, but she held the blades in her hands and her grip was strong.

"What makes you so certain you will?" he asked, his initial objective the last thing on his mind at that point.

"The stars said so."