Here I was

Sitting on my knees in some hallway I'd never even used

Using my toothbrush (which I would definitely figure out a way to replace that short asshole's with) to scrub out the gunk caught in the tiny space between the door hinge and the wall.

Who put me here?

Well, I think that's pretty obvious.

Why?

I can't be fully angry, y'know? I kinda deserved it.

Four Hours Earlier

Jax and I squared up, analyzing each other. Ten feet away, Harold cheered Jax's name and whistled shrilly. I chuckled as I picked up Fran's voice, which seemed to be periodically switching between both of our names.

Such dorks.

Jax made the first move, digging his heel into the red dirt as he launched himself at me. I didn't move a muscle and instead chose to study his movements. He reached me in four steps, rearing his fist back and-THERE!

I ducked underneath his arm and put my weight onto my hands, which I had positioned on the outside of my left leg. Twisting myself at the waist, I spun around on my hands and swept my legs over. My heel collided with his, knocking his foot forward and sending him tumbling onto his back. I twirled into a standing position and waited, giving him a chance to stand back up. I laughed as I picked up Harold's voice again in the background, which had changed from a triumphant chant of Jax's name to a slightly guilty cheer of mine.

Jax jumped back up to his feet and stopped. He'd noted that I had a defense he couldn't match. He was waiting for me to make the advance this time. I grinned. Good boy.

Obliging as I am, I charged forward. Finding it entertaining to mess with him, I darted right to left in a zigzag pattern. His eyes followed my feet, straining to keep up with my speed, but then dropped to mark out the path I would take if I continued my pattern. I smirked. This was exactly the type of textbook bullshit they taught in the Trainee Corps. In a real fight, your opponent was unpredictable.

Which was proved to me right then when a foot collided painfully with my face.

I flew backwards and smacked to the ground in a cloud of dust. Taken aback, I sat up with a bright smile to commend Jax, only for it to go completely cold as I recognized who's boot was raised.

"What the hell, Ackerman?! We were just sparring!"

His crossed is arms. "You were supposed to be going over formations."

I rose to my feet and mirrored his position. "How am I supposed to do that when the Squad Leader isn't here?"

Levi didn't answer, instead scowling and waving us all over to follow him to the picnic tables in the fields. I rolled my eyes but didn't protest in following him. I heard a muffled snicker behind me and turned to glare at Harold.

"What?" I snapped.

He snorted piggishly and flicked my forehead."You can see his bootprint on your forehead."

My cheeks burned as I pulled my bangs down in an attempt to hide my face. "Fuck off, Harold."

His laughter followed me as I sped up to walk beside Fran and Dia instead. Fran grinned at me from my left. "It's about time someone knocked that head of yours."

I elbowed her playfully, laughing lightly. "Oh, shut up. You've done so plenty of times."

Dia scoffed at my other side. "I'd love to have a turn sometime. I wonder, does an airhead react differently to force? Like, would it roll like normal or does it, say, bounce?"

I rolled my eyes and turned to her. "Bounce? You mean like your reputation after I kicked your ass last week?"

Dia's face colored as I jogged up to meet Levi at the tables. He glanced up at me and the ghost of a smirk brushed his face briefly. "You look like shit."

I hopped up to sit on the tabletop, just to annoy him. "Well, that does happen when you kick somebody into the mud, y'know."

He glared at the dirt now caked to the backs of my clothes, skin, and hair. "Get off the table. You're gonna get it dirty."

I ignored him and instead pulled my feet up to sit Indian-style beside the square of parchment he had laid out just as the rest of the squad arrived. Harold leaned down to study the lines Levi had drawn out on the sheet. "So, what's the plan, Cap?"

Levi pointed down at the drawing with one hand, using the other to roughly shove me off the table, and narrowed his eyes. "This will be our squad formation for the mission next week."

I sat up, surprised. "Wait, you already finished it? Erwin just announced the date like an hour ago."

Levi didn't acknowledge me, instead opting to explain his creation. "Our squad, because it's newly formed, will be stationed as the lead of the upper-right flank to protect new recruits."

Jax leaned in, hanging onto his every word. "So...the front lines?"

Fran helped me up and nodded at him. "In a way, technically. We'll be the first to encounter any Titans on that side of the formation."

"But, we aren't really on the 'front lines' since we're several squads back from the formation tip." I explained. Jax seemed to relax a bit at this.

Dia huffed and curled her lip, looking like she was about to complain. Levi looked up and glared at her. "Is there a problem, Frosche?"

His glare was harsher than I expected it to be. She shifted uncomfortably and her disrespect dissolved. "No sir."

Levi looked at her for a second more and then turned back to the map. "Good."

Oh, sure, she'll listen to him.

"As for within the squad," he continued, pointing down at his drawing at the corner of the map. "This is our formation."

I leaned forward in interest. Levi had split our group into two, a suggestion I would have definitely made due to our numbering, and placed each member into either group. The placements were organized to have Levi at the helm, leading the squad, flanked by Fran and Harold. Dia and Jax rode slightly behind them, situated to be in between them for protection. I was set to bring up the rear in case of emergency.

Fran, Harold, and Levi's names were all accompanied by a small red "X," just as Dia, Jax, and my name were beside a little blue "O" to mark the two groups. It was silent for a moment as everyone took in the blueprint. I nodded to myself. It was a good plan. If we encountered Titans, the outer members (Harold and Fran) could team up and able to take them out themselves, with the inner members (Jax and Dia) easily accessible for backup. If Levi was at the front, he could spot any abnormal threat to the formation and either send specific orders back or take care of it himself without having to stray too far from the squad. With me at the back, I could take out any Titan that proved too strong for/got past the central members or come to Levi's side if called. However, something about the set-up bothered me.

"Hey, Ackerman," I said thoughtfully. "I've got both Dia and Jax with me. If Fran and Harold end up busy with a kill and my team has to go take out a different Titan, I don't want both the rookies having to take one on themselves."

Levi looked mildly annoyed with my protest, but considered it all the same. "Fine. What's your idea."

It wasn't so much a question rather than a challenge. I pointed down at the drawing, moving my finger between the two teams. "Swap one of the veterans with a rookie. That way, no matter which team is fighting, neither of the recruits are without some sort of protection."

"We didn't join the military to be protected." Dia snarked.

I glared at her briefly. "I don't think you joined to be dead either."

Levi thought for a moment and pulled the parchment to him. Wordlessly, he scratched out Harold and Jax's names, swapping their positions. (And if his lack of argument wasn't a huge confidence boost, I'd eat my shoe.) Levi rolled the parchment back up and faced us. "I want a full track-drill in this formation. Martin, Stronghold, you're with me. Trazzer, Frosche, you're under Bently's charge. I want this run under ten minutes."

We nodded, shooting off into the trees. I took my place at the rear of the group and looked forward to find my team. Harold was perfectly in position, ahead of me to my right but still within my sights. Dia was almost correct, but I'd let her know her later to be closer to me, since I'd sometimes lose sight of her behind trees. We reached the end of the track very quickly, the formation having worked nearly flawlessly, and all anchored onto a tree at the finish line.

Levi glared back at us. "9:28." A small cheer rippled through the squad but Levi grunted, rendering us silent. "You all can do better. I want everyone here at 0400 hours tomorrow."

Harold yelled in protest, earning himself a turn cleaning the stables that night, as the rest of us groaned quietly. Why did he have to be such an asshole.

We all watched unhappily as Levi readied himself to fire his gear down to the grass. An idea struck me and I acted fast, firing down my own grapple about an inch away from where his was airborne and then shooting another to hit his directly. The wires clanged and then tangled, knocking his grapple from the air and into a much higher spot than Levi had aimed. I held in my laughter and fired again to get myself to a safe distance as Levi's gear whirred loudly and he was yanked into the twisted wire and flipped upside down.

The squad stared in shock as Humanity's Strongest Soldier hung upside down from a tree, tangled in his own grapples.

Levi himself looked completely aghast. He blinked as the surprise began to clear and turned his head in my direction.

"Aaand that's my cue!" I yelled as I swung down to the ground and took off towards HQ.

The last thing I heard was Harold's explosion of laughter playing a backtrack for Levi's string of swears that were directed at my retreating form.

I stopped scrubbing briefly, looking at the blackened brush in my grasp and grinning widely.

Worth it.