It had been about nine months since we first signed up. Much to Erwin's displeasement and disappointment, I had been talking with Levi more and more

"So, as you can see…" Our teacher was talking, drawing pictures if titans on the chalkboard. I was sitting between Erwin, who was on my right and Levi, who was on my left. I sat and listened. We were in class learning how to slice titans. Titans fascinated me. Everything about them was amazing. I was far more interested in knowing about the life of a titan rather than knowing how to kill them. I often wondered why they only ate humans and not other animals or birds.

I sat on the edge of my seat, both elbows on the desk and my hands supporting either side of my jaw as I listened tentatively… I may or may not have been drooling…

*SNIFF*

I heard come from my left.

"I told you before, you shit. Don't ever sniff me" I would recognise that dead-pan-mono-toned voice anywhere.

I looked to my left out of my peripheral vision. I could see Mike slowly leaning over to sniff Levi's shoulder.

"I swear I'll feed you to a titan if you don't stop"

Erwin, on my right, sighed "Leave him alone, Mike"

Mike didn't listen.

"Oi, blondie, learn to control your dog!"

"Mike!" Erwin whispered aggressively.

Mike sat back in his chair properly and smirked. He leaned back to look at Erwin "I can't help it; he always smells so… clean"

"It's a little thing called bathing. I doubt fucking dogs like you have ever heard of it" Levi retorted

Mike grabbed Levi's collar "Hey"-

"Boys!" The teacher saw them.

"Uh" Mike froze rigidly. Levi hung limp in his grasp

"Do you two want to run laps again?" he threatened

Mike and Levi often got in trouble in class. It was mainly due to Mike; he knew exactly how to rub Levi up the wrong way.

"N-No, sir!" Mike dropped Levi.

The shorter boy got to his feet and dusted himself off. He growled "You got dirt on my white pants, you asshole!" Levi punched him square in the mouth and a fight between them erupted.

The class jumped up and began chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"Stop! Stop it!" The teacher tried to control us.

"Levi! Mike!" I called.

"You grab the short-ass and I'll take care of Mike!" Erwin put his hand on my shoulder.

"Aye!" I nodded.

We tugged and pulled and eventually separated them.

Erwin held Mike, who now had a bloody mouth. Levi on the other hand, who I was restraining, came out relatively fine, he had blood on his shirt and pants from Mike and some dirt on him.

"Look what you've done, dog!" He squirmed as he looked at his dirtied clothes

"What I did! I think you knocked out one of my teeth!" Mike was squirming also.

"That's enough!" The teacher yelled "Laps! Both of you! Now! And no stopping until you collapse!"

The stopped squirming and gritted their teeth.

"Shit" Levi mumbled.

I was constantly observing Levi whenever I could… NOT LIKE THAT! I-I was curious about him, his habits and why he is the way he is. I've noticed that he's an absolute clean freak, a serious one. When it came to his clothes, his bed (please believe me when I say I was in the boys dorm for scientific reasons… TOTALLY INNOCENT SCIENTIFIC REASONS), his gear, in fact the only foul or dirty thing about him was his language.

Needless to say, himself and Erwin didn't get along, although they both seemed to respect each other, probably due to Levi's skill with blades and Erwin's natural ability to lead. Watching them interact was like watching two rival lions… well, what I think two rival lions would look like, I've never really seen a lion before, only in story books from when I was a very small child.

Almost a year into our training, we were sent to a nearby forest to test our skill with our 3D Manuver gear. We needed to be fast, agile and co-ordinated… or at least I thought we did. They didn't really explain this task to us. We were going to the forest and that was about all we knew….

We all stood in the main yard in alphabetical order. Erwin was far closer to me now when we would stand in formation like this. A lot of people had quit over the past year. We started out with twelve rows of seven but now we barely scraped together seven rows of seven.

"The carts will be along shortly!" Shadis shouted "We need to put you into teams of seven" he paced along the front line "Myself and a few of your teachers have picked seven teams of seven, at random, to work together. Some of you have forgotten that when it comes to slaughtering titans, you not only rely on your own abilities, you rely on your team-mates. Learn to trust each other… your life could depend on it" He paused, the carts were approaching. He pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket.

"When I call your names, I want you to get into a cart and sit with your team!" He cleared his throat "Team one! Dreyer, O'Neil.." Some time later "Team six! Smith, The Patterson twins, Burquest, Zacharius, Zoe, Rivialle"

"What!" Mike exclaimed. Himself and Levi had been ignoring each other since Levi knocked out one of Mike's teeth and now they were going to be on a team together.

"Shadis! These team are"-

"Are not changeable!" Shadis finished "Now get in the cart!"

Learning to trust our team-mates. All our teachers knew that Mike and Levi despised each other. Mike was always coming second to Levi in nearly everything. The only thing Mike had better than Levi was his acute sense of smell. It was impressive how he could smell something's from such distances. Although, Levi didn't seem too upset over it. In fact Levi rarely showed any emotion over anything. He was the best fighter in our class and he didn't care.

I suppose what Shadis said is true; if we're face to face with titans and I got into difficulty, I wouldn't care who you were if you came to my aid.

We sat in the cart in silence. I was observing everyone, our team, team five in the cart ahead, team seven in the cart behind. I looked at each member, wondered what they could possibly bring to each team and which team was the strongest. I was sure we weren't placed in these teams for pure fighting ability;

What could this task be? Hmm… something is out of place. The Patterson twins are in the lower part of the class but they were exceptionally good at mending and understanding our 3DM gear. Maria; midway in the class, hard as nails, bit of a messy butcher when it comes to clean cuts but is very good at being sneaky. Erwin; midway in the class ability wise but is a natural leader. Mike; invades peoples personal space but second in the class, can smell danger a mile off. Levi; no social skills or understanding of teamwork; best in the class… Me… what do I bring? I need to look at my abilities from a non-bias, objective point of view… Hanji; Midway in the class, observation specialist, good for forming tactics…. Totally non-bias-

"Hanji" Erwin pulled me out of my thoughts "What are you thinking?"

"Huh?"

"You're thinking, aren't you?"

"Aye" My voice was weak "These teams. I truly don't think they were picked at random"

"Really?" DJ asked

"Then, how else would they team us up?" Rin asked

"Abilities" I answered "We all have different abilities needed to for a successful team. Each team has them" I began to explain "Erwin" I looked at him "You're team leader, I'm the observation specialist, Maria's tactics, Levi's a skilled soldier, Mike can smell danger and the twins know 3DM gear inside out"

"M-me? Leader?" He seemed a bit shocked at the statement

"Aye" I nodded, as did everyone (except Levi) in the cart.

Erwin went a bit red "I see"

"Don't go getting too flattered" Levi interrupted looking away from us "You're the leader which means you make the final calls. You'll be putting all our lives on the line"

"Uh"

He looked at Erwin "Could you live with making a life or death decision? Could you live knowing you'd be leading some people to their deaths?"

Erwin was frozen

I put my hand on his arm "Er"-

He clenched his fist on his knee "If I have to, I will. In this life, we have to believe in the choices we make. If I believe in those choices and if I believe in the people who've chosen me to lead them, I will never regret any decision I make"

Levi chuckled slightly "You were born to be a leader alright; you're well capable of spouting bullshit when you need to"

*SMACK*

Maria slapped him

"Can you at least try to get on with us!? We're a team! We know you don't want to be here, but do you really think this is what we want in life? No! I'm doing this so someday, my children, my children's children, won't have to live in fear anymore! We're in this together, whether we like each other or not, so grow up and get over yourself!"

There were a few moments of silence as we waited for Levi's reaction.

He sighed "You have no clue, girly"-

The cart stopped. We looked around.

"This is a gate out of Wall Maria. Why are we here?" Rin asked

"Beats me" Levi shrugged.

A cart arrived from the west. Several qualified leaders of the Survey Corps riding in it.

"Hello, soldiers!" Pixis jumped off the back "Welcome to 'Titan-Training-1-0-1" He walked over to our cluster of carts with a smile "Today, you'll get to kill your first titan… outside the wall"