Petra and I dragged our new friend back to the barracks after she fainted. I had Mike open our door for us and we set her on the bed.

"Zoë, get me a towel and some water, she's burning." Petra said. I complied quickly and patted down Neasa's forehead. She let out a sigh and sat up, holding her temples.

"Ugh… what happened?" She asked.

"You fainted when you saw that boy and his black haired friend. I can see why, he was cute." I said fanning myself with my hand.

"What are you talking about? The black haired was the cute one," Petra said, rolling her eyes.

"Guys, I have some bad history with those two and I would appreciate it if you didn't fawn over them." We apologized and helped her up, as she was our friend.

At supper, we ran into the two boys again. They sat down with us and started talking to Mike, not bothering to pay any attention to Neasa.

"Hi, I'm Erwin, and this is Levi. You are?"

"Mike Zacharias. What brings you here, if I might ask?"

"I have always wanted to find out about the outside world. Like, what if the government was actually keeping us away from the rest of the world and humanity's history because it could lead to a rebellion? Levi, here just kind of got dragged along," Erwin said, getting the look I get when I think about the titans. I was excited, but for a different reason than usual. I promised to remain quiet though, for my friend's sake.

"I would have escaped if only my hands were not bound-" Levi started but was cut-off.

"By our friendship. See, he was given the task of protecting me by my mother, so he had to due to his enormous crush on her. Seriously, she's way out of his league." Erwin continued.

"Right, well, I am trying to eat and I don't like the scent you are giving off," Mike said, earning curious glances from the two next to him.

"Apparently, he can smell different qualities and emotions like a dog," Petra piped up.

"Yes, and you two reek of lies. So, either come clean, or move tables… I really don't care which one you choose."

This time it was Levi that spoke. "Alright, here's the deal, he is a wanna be soldier boy, and I'm the convicted criminal. I was put under his custody and now we are here for military training. I was going to escape along the way, but my hands and legs were bound, so now I'm stuck here with you imbeciles until Erwin here passes, probably learning nothing useful to my everyday life as a thug."

"I find that hard to believe, but my nose says otherwise. If you will excuse me…" Mike said as he took a bite of his potato. We all went silent for a while except for the occasional cough. Mike finished eating his spud. Levi got up to leave, but Erwin's hand caught him, forcing him to sit down. Now that I actually got to study the raven haired, I found several interesting aspects.

First of all, he was SHORT. Not as short as Neasa, but definitely short. Despite his size, he seemed fairly masculine, which I assumed was related to the thug thing. He wore a cloak, which was weird, considering they were out of fashion. He was pale and had the strangest haircut ever. I couldn't see how Petra found him cute. Erwin, on the other hand was tall, masculine, and a die hard soldier with an interest for knowledge. That was my kind of man.

I looked over at Neasa, who was clenching her fists. I rubbed her back, trying to relax her, which helped quite a bit. She looked at me and offered a weak smile of appreciation. Petra was busy calming down Mike, who thought he smelled smart-ass and an I'm-better-than-you attitude on one of the boys next to him. As he continued his rant, Neasa stood, crossed over behind the three, and banged their heads together.

"Owww… what was that for…" Erwin whined as he held his head where it connected with Mike's and Levi's.

"Mike, for going on a rant, you, Erwin, for making up stories, and Levi for being an arrogant dick," she replied with the tone of a mother in every sense of the word as she scolded them. I noted not to cross her in the future. "Now, apologize all three of you, not just to me, but also to Petra and Zoë, for making them listen to it, and to each other. " They all did so. "Good, now be good little boys and eat your god damn potatoes. I don't want to hear another peep out of you three for the next five minutes, or I'll beat your asses."

They went quiet, leaving the girls at the table to talk about torturous things for boys.

"Putain, quelle pute, nous traiter comme nous sommes cinq" I swore in french (READ: literal translation is 'Damn, what whore, treating us like we are five.' My translation is damn, what a bitch, treating us like we're five.) This, of course earned me a deadly glance from the three girls across the table. I bit into my potato angrily as they went on gossiping about who knows what.

"I find that the right bra is just loose enough so that you aren't being strangled, but not so loose that you have to keep on adjusting it so that it stays up on your boobs," the one with the peach hair said, making the two men beside me blush like crazy. They were obviously seeing how long we could last before one of us cracked.

"Well what about, panties? Bras aren't the only thing that keeps women the way men want us." I saw Zacharias go from a light dusting of pink to cherry. Erwin stayed the same, scarlet. I assumed Peach-hair was Petra, and the girl with the shitty glasses was Zoë. The girl in the middle was sort of shrouded behind her friends and I couldn't see her.

"Do not wear white panties during your period. I made that mistake once. The stain was impossible to get out." Shitty-glasses said quietly, a slight tint of pink snowing upon her cheeks.

"Alright, you three can speak now. Hope we didn't make you uncomfortable." The center said with a smirk. Mike excused himself from the table, looking as if he was about to throw up the meal he was so insistent on eating. Erwin sat there moping, looking from me to the women, then averting his gaze.

"Wow, they're still quiet. Neasa, you are a fucking genius," Peachhead cheered. Erwin looked up, and so did I. I killed Neasa, how could she be alive?

"Ne… Neasa?" Erwin asked.

"Yes Erwin…. Sadly, Irene was the one that died, not me. We switched lives about two years ago so that we would both get what we wanted, but... that didn't work out they way we wanted," Neasa said between slight sobs. She would have been worth a lot more than what I initially thought. Even if she didn't sell to the right, rich, old, lecher, I could have asked for a high ransom. She went into detail about how she and her friend plotted around.

"So what I'm hearing is," Erwin started, "is that I didn't need to beat Levi, and her death didn't need to be avenged." Everyone at the table, including I, stared at him, mouths agape. "After all, who cares about a filthy little farm girl who has no real value unless she keeps working at the farm, joins the military, or sells herself to some stuffy rich guy?" He chuckled. Neasa slapped him, shaking her head, and running for the door.

"Neasa, wait! Come on Zoë." Peach ran off after her friend, her other trailing behind. I looked at Erwin, who had an innocent, confused look on his face.

"You don't say that to a girl, idiot," I said walking off as well.

I ran into the barracks and flopped onto my bed, sobbing. Erwin was so thoughtless as he talked about my best friend. Head in my pillow, I cried. There was a hand on my back, rubbing it gently.

"G…go away Pe…petra," I managed to say between wails. There was a slight chuckle in response.

"Never assume the name of person comforting you,"a man's voice said softly into my ear. I looked up to see Mike sitting on the edge of my bed giving me a kind smile. I buried my head into the crook of his neck as he began to stroke my hair. He stopped for a moment to sniff my forehead before speaking again. "I smell anger and hurt. Care to elaborate?"

This is when I explain what happened while he was in the restroom gagging. He nodded in sympathy, telling me that he was ever so sorry for me. He stood up, looking at the door to see Petra and Zoë running in to comfort me

.

I figured that Ral and Hanji could fix the situation the rest of the way, so I left Neasa in their capable hands. I sniffed the air…'trouble'… Just behind the girls was Levi, shocked to see me exiting. I shook my head when I met his gaze. I could smell that he had a thing for Neasa, much to my disappointment. I had a small crush on her too. She was smart, funny, pretty, kind, and strong. I was kind of hoping that because of their history, he would despise her. I clutched Levi's arm tightly and dragged him off to the male barracks.

Author's Note: sorry I haven't updated in a while. Hopefully there will be more action in the next chapter mixed with some humor from Mike. I will be starting school in the next few days, so if I don't update soon that's why. Hope you enjoyed and PLEASE REVIEW!