Ever since he heard about the deaths of Frieda and Florian from his mother at the refugee camp in Trost, it could be said that Nick had trouble making any friends, mainly because he put no effort into making any at all.

Before Frieda had revealed that she was still technically alive by forcing her conscious mind into his, effectively saving Nick from himself in the process, he barely spoke any words at all, even though he had gotten better since she had talked to him and convinved him that she had indeed survived and that he had not gone crazy, he had started talking to his parents again and even some of the workers in his family estate in Mitras.

However when it came to joining the military he was terrified, not because of the hard training regime, not the lack of privacy altogether, not even the shit they called food in the military, he was terrified because he knew he would have to make friends within the cadets, because he knew he wasn't a one man army, he would need all the help he could get from his fellow trainees.

The reason he was so scared of making friends was that he had effectively been traumatised by the fact that he had lost all six of his friends in the space of a few days almost two years ago, he was afraid of the emotional attachment that would come with the friendships he would have to form, but most of all he was scared of the pain that would come if any of them died, he was afraid that that pain would never go away because unlike what Frieda had done, they wouldn't be able to do that.

Unless they held the power of the Founding Titan, that was very unlikely in itself, but even then it requied Royal Blood to use it so nothing could be done in the event of the death of a friend.

Frieda had been doing what she could in order to help him prepare for life in the military, she had even found a way to give herself a visible form to Nick so that he could see her again, which brought a smile to his face when she showed him, and she became happy just being able to see him smile again.

In her visible form she could wander about looking at things through her eyes instead of constantly seeing what Nick sees 24 hours a day.

She preferred to keep to her visible form just so that he would smile every time he looked at her, she caught him staring at her numerous times, possibly in the hundreds, this had caused her to blush most of the time because she knew his true feelings for her, and even after the dream between them she had saw she couldn't deny at least being physically attracted to him.

Now standing at 5 foot 8 at 15 years old, his hair had become a little longer and curlier, with him having to contantly brush hair off of his forehead. His muscles had also grown exponentially over the past year and a half, with him becoming much more physically fit, and combining that with the constant hand to hand combat lesons from his mother at a young age to "protect himself" from any potential dangers, Frieda had to admit, he would make quite the soldier, plus she would get to see him wearing the very tight uniform.

So here he was standing in formation in the seventh row with his hands behind his back while Chief Instructor Shadis went about scaring the recruits into submission.

As he went along the first and second rows, with Frieda walking behind him to look at the poor recruits, Nick could only think of the great respect he had for the man, because of his previous occupation of 12th Commander of the Survey Corps, being one of the soldiers brave enough to fight the titans head on in order to give humanity a chance to live outside the walls.

As Shadis reached the third row he passed by some of the recruits who looked like they had already been through hell, Shadis stopped in front of a familiar blonde coconut. "Armin", Nick thought, "why are you here".

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME MAGGOT", Shadis practically screamed into his face, Armin then saluted and replied saying, "Armin Arlert from the Shiganshina District Sir."

"What a ridiculous name, did your parents name you that?", he yelled, spitting in Armins face in the process.

"It was my grandfather Sir" came his very scared reply.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE ARLERT?"

"TO CONTRIBUTE TO HUMANITIES VICTORY SIR."

"Great" Shadis replied "You'll make first rate titan feed", and with that he placed his hand on his head and spun him around while shouting "Row three, about face."

After that Nick started to zone out and just started to blatantly stare at Frieda, well it would have been if anyone else could see her, but he was glad only he could see her, he would probably beat the shit out of any guy who had the audacity to stare at her unrivalled beauty.

"You know I can hear you thoughts, right?" she called out to him while inspecting the fourth row recruits.

He flushed red at his embarrassment of being caught out by her "Sorry Frieda" he apologised.

"Its alright" she cooed "Just don't let anybody see you staring at nothing, they might think you're crazy."

"Crazy in love" he thought making sure to block Frieda from hearing that, not wanting a repeat of the time she caught him thinking about her ass.

"What was so important that you had to block me from hearing it?", she questions while her suspicions are raising.

"Nothing important" came his nonchalant reply.

She looked around a very tall, dark haired recruit while narrowing her eyes, "You better not be thinking about my ass again Nick"

He flushed an even darker shade of red than before, "I was not" came his stuttered reply before he gained confidence "What's so wrong about me thinking about your ass anyway Frieda?."

He could see her face turn into a grin as she moved behind a small blone haired girl with her hair hanging over her right eye, "Maybe you should wait until the Instructor isn't standing in your face before flirting with me" she called out to him in quite a suggestive tone.

His face dropped instantly as he looked straight ahead, "Oh Fuck", "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME SHITHEAD, I SAID WHAT'S YOUR FUCKING NAME."

Nick instantly saluted, "Nicholas Meier from the-", "NO ONE GIVES A SHIT WHERE YOU'RE FROM OR WHY YOU'RE HERE."

Nick had to resist the urge to wipe Shadis' spit from his face.

"Actually no, tell us where you're from shitstain so we can all laugh at your pathetic hometown." Shadis yelled, getting even more spit on Nick's face.

"Shit" he thought, "there goes laying low", "I'm from the Inner District Sir."

Silence. Thats all there was until a certain Instructor broke it, "IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE SOME KIND OF JOKE?", Shadis looked furious now, as if Nick had just insulted his mother.

"No Sir, I'm afraid not."

Silence. Again.

"Tell me Meier" Shadis now spoke in a very creepy low tone, "Do you think that you're better than anyone here?"

"No Sir"

"Then why are you here" he spoke getting creepily close to his face while Frieda was laughing her ass off behind them.

"I made a promise Sir, and I intend to keep it."

Shadis rose from his face before speaking "Alright then Meier" before leaning into his ear to whisper "Enjoy your next three years of hell, pretty boy."

And with that Shadis stalked off to go terrorise some other recruits, about five feet away he could see Frieda on the floor laughing so hard she was struggling to breathe.

"SEVENTH ROW ABOUT FACE", he quickly turned around not wanting to face Shadis' wrath yet again.

He tuned out yet again as he noticed Frieda going about inspecting the recruits like Shadis had, minus the intense stares and the screaming of course, his eyes quickly settled on a sight to behold, her ass.

He wasn't sure how long he was staring before Frieda turned round and walked up to him as his face turned redder by the second before whispering in his ear "If you wanted to stare at my ass, you could have just asked" she said very seductively.

"Wheres the fun in asking, I prefer the thrill of trying not to get caught in the act"

Well look where that got you"

"Yeah, its giving me a very nice view of your eyes" and down your shirt, making sure to block that thought off.

Blocking me out again are you?, I might have to start fighting against that."

God he loved this woman, even if she was technically dead, they could still enjoy each others company most of the time. Especially him enjoying hers ALL the time.

He was interrupted as Frieda began to walk away with a very noticeable sway in her hips, almost definitely teasing him, he just stared, yet again with his mouth slightly hung open before he had to wipe the drool coming out of his mouth.

"I saw you drooling" she shouted back at him.

"This girl is driving me crazy."

Then he heard it, 3 words, a name and a district, he recognised the name and the hone town, it was Emily Schön from the Karanes District, she was Ella's little sister.

After Shadis dismissed them for free time until their training started tomorrow Nick wanted to seek out Emily and apologise profusely for dragging her sister to Shiganshina on that day and just beg for her forgiveness, but he decided against it because of the humiliation that would come from begging for something he thought he didn't deserve.

Emily Schön had joined the cadets in order to get revenge on the titans that she thought had killed her sister, this was because her body was never recovered despite the body being on the boat that ledt for Wall Rose from Wall Maria. The body never returned because in the middle of the night 3 men dumped her body overboard to get rid of any "excess weight".

After Emily had heard Nick calling his name, a new fire ignited inside her, one that told her that he was also responsible for her sisters death because he was basically her boss, even though she would get letters on how sweet, and handsome the boy she guarded was and that he was surely Emily's type, she couldn't help but feel utter hatred to the Mitras resident.

"Hey Meier", Emily shouted across the field as she jogged up to him.

"What is it?" He responded with.

"You knew my sister Ella before she died right?", a crowd had begun to form after the mention of her dead sister.

"Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it" he said hoping to avoid any further questioning on the subject.

"Why not" she sneered "Is it because you're the reason she died."

No response from Nick, he only stared at the ground looking very upset at the mention of Ella again.

Frieda was absolutely furious that this girl dared to suggest that Ella's death was Nick's fault, but there was nothing she could do about it.

An even larger crowd had gathered now at the suggestion of Nick being responsible for the death of Emily's sister.

She put his hand on his chest and started pushing him until his back hit the wall outside the dining hall as she continually berated him for his supposed selfishness for his own survival, she continued until a girls with pigtails pulled her away, apologising to Nick for her friends behaviour.

The trainees dispersed as Nick was left alone with his thoughts, and Frieda until the blonde girl from before walked up to him before speaking "Why were you staring at me?" She asked, boredness clearly evident in her voice, almost as if she didn't want to be here.

"I wasn't staring at you" came his blunt reply.

"Yes you were, and I want to know why?"

"Ok, I was staring because I think you're very pretty" he lied on the spot, impressed he thought it up on the spot quite quickly.

She struggled to formulate an answer to his reveal and he used this opportunity to get a closer look at her, actually she was very pretty up close, now that he thought about it.

"I heard that"

"I know you did Frieda"

Is that the real reason you were staring at me?", the blonde asked, not quite believing that someone had called her pretty. No one had done that before.

"Yes, I do think you are very pretty" came the seroius reply, as he could see that being witty or sarcastic would only make the girl angry.

"No one's ever said that before" she whispered in his direction.

"Well now I'll say it a third time, i really do think that you're very pretty."

"Thank you" she whispers.

"Do you want to be friends" he blurts out with.

"Huh?" She replies with, shocked about his proposal and she thinks that she shouldn't, she really shouldn't, because she will only end up hurting him in the future because of what she is and it will make it difficult for her to conplete her mission.

But then she thinks about it, the fact that he's from the Inner District could mean that there is a sliver of hope that he would understand why she did this if he knows the truth about the world, and she thinks "maybe it's not a bad idea after all, even then I could use him as a source of information to find the Coordinate."

All right Meier, we can be friends" she spoke, going back to her cool demeanor as she walked away with a small smile gracing her lips.

Nick thinks to himself "Maybe these next three years won't be so bad after all."