Something Wicked - 2

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Her fingers tap softly on the wood as she waits for the other recruit in front of her to grab his food. The time he's taking doesn't really bother her though, not as much as the person behind her who is beginning to tap their foot on the floor, making sure each strike is loud and pronounced.

No, Krista doesn't care about that. If there's anyone she's thinking of at this moment it's that man from this morning and the fact that she'll finally be able to sit down now. Unless he appears again from thin air. He seemed quite capable when it came to that trick. Whenever she had just finished one of the tasks he had given her he would be there, looking over her work with a critical eye before assigning her a new one.

Even after really only seeing him all day - since he seemed to insist on riding her like a bull - she still didn't know who he was exactly. Besides being of higher rank than her, which was true for most of the Survey Corps around her even now. The first thing he had done was ask for her name, but he had never given his after that and there had been plenty opportunity in her mind to do so. Especially after that first task with the finger smudged window.

She ran the cloth once more over the window pane before stretching forward so her upper body was out of the window as she wrung the last few droplets of water from the rough fabric to land on the dirt below. It hadn't taken very long to finish, but she wasn't sure the window was shining as the man had requested. Hopefully that part had been a joke.

With a sigh she leaned back, hopping off the window sill so she could actually shut the window with the little hooks on the inside. A rush of warm air hit the back of her neck causing her to jump before turning quickly to see it was just him. His gaze just then flickering from the window and to her.

She could feel a slight burn in her cheeks at being caught off guard like that and jumping like a mouse in front of a superior. "I finished the window just as you asked."

His gaze moved back to it then and she felt her shoulders lower when he spoke a second later, "Good. I have something else you can help with. The last person that did it was insufficient."

He was moving away once again then, heading for the door. Did he except her to just follow him? He must if he was already out in the hall.

She hurried to catch up with him, falling into step at his side. "Sir-" she had begun to ask what this next task was when he moved forward quickly, cutting across in front of her to move into a room on the right.

"In here."

The moment she stepped inside she forgot to even wonder who she was taking orders from again. There was a fine layer of dust covering every inch of furniture in the room. "You only call this insufficient?" If someone had even attempted to clean it in the first place. It certainly didn't look like anyone had.

"Get it done within a couple hours and you can have the room," with those words he was back out in the hall and she was left standing in a room she wasn't sure she would want based on what she might find hidden in the corners.

She had finished that as well, in the time frame even and after him telling her it was hers she hadn't had the will to argue at the time with her limbs screaming bloody murder at her. Then she had moved on to other cleaning chores, passing by that room once to see her pack that held the few things she possessed sitting on the bed inside. It made it pretty clear that that's where she would be sleeping for the duration that they were here and probably even when they came back from expeditions too.

Krista picked up her food tray, balancing the plate and mug of hot tea on top as she moved through the sea of tables to the one that Ymir sat at and plopped herself down with a relieved sigh. She was going to end up with blisters on her feet by the end of the day.

There was a soft chuckle from across from the table. "Exhausted already? You might want to eat that fast."

Krista raised her gaze from the tray to follow the direction that Ymir was pointing with a fork to see that man standing in a corner of the room, supposedly looking over all the recruits but she could not only feel but see his gaze lingering on her. She turned away quickly to look back at Ymir, wanting to know now more than ever just who he was to be doing this to her. "Who is he?"

Ymir looked surprised at this question though, before grinning once again. "That's Captain Levi. He's the best soldier here and from what I hear has an obsession with cleaning."

"You mean making others clean for him," Krista muttered in reply.

Ymir laughed at that. "Well, if you don't want to do it anymore then just don't do the job so well and he'll find another primary victim."

She wasn't entirely sure of that but dug into her food while she could, drinking down the hot tea even though it was scalding her throat as it went down. When she was done she looked over her shoulder to see Levi was just then moving out of the cafeteria. He did expect her to follow him then.

With a rather exasperated sigh she turned to Ymir. "Put my tray back, please." Her words were only met with a chuckle and a smirk that clearly said to have fun cleaning for the rest of her life. Maybe she should just take her friend's advice.

/ / /

The last few days had gone by fast enough, but even so with the large mansion that was their new headquarters nothing ever seemed to get finished. Especially when someone tracked in mud on one of the floors that was actually clean. He had to wonder just how long it would take to get every single room done.

With Eren they had to use these headquarters so if he accidentally transformed he wasn't so close to the cities and start going on a rampage if on top of that he also happened to lose control of his Titan form.

His gaze moved from those that were training with their gear in the courtyard to what some of the recruits had started referring to as the 'garden'. In reality it was just a small field of weeds, some of which were just like green stalks of grass while others had small flowers on them to hide just what they were.

Krista was currently in that field, the corner she had started on was clear of the green sea, but most of it still remained. For the time being anyway. It had started to annoy him yesterday but she had been busy in another room so he had left her to it and just had her start this morning instead of last night.

The weeds were so tall that they skimmed her shoulders as she worked; crouching down on her hands and knees, plucking the weeds from the ground, the dirt clinging to her skin and sweat running down from her brow. He glanced to the stretch of dirt behind her, to look back towards the corner to try and figure out how long it would take her to finish the rest based on her progress so far only to have his jaw clench a second later.

As opposed to the corner she had done earlier that was barren of anything green the last stretch had sprinkles of green in it; not loose weeds that had been forgotten there, but ones with their skinny roots still planted in the dirt.

He pushed off from the rough stone, trampling the weeds in his path before reaching her side. Just as he saw her head begin to turn to see who's shadow was blocking the sun he placed a foot on her back and she went sprawling face first into the dirt. He held her there for a good five seconds, watching her arms flail at her sides as she attempted to push herself up before removing his boot from her back.

Krista practically jerked up from the ground, gasping for air and spitting dirt from her mouth as she sat on her knees. There was streaks of the dark grain on her face, sticking to the sweat that had been there. "W-wha-" her attempts to speak were cut short.

"If you're going to play in the dirt like a pig instead of doing your job do it on your own time. Don't start wasting my time, Krista. Now," he bent down as he spoke to grab the nape of her neck and jerk her head back so she could look behind her at what she had done this morning as well as what was 'accomplished' more recently. "What do you see?"

It only took a moment before she replied, still gasping from her temporary lack of air. "S-sorry, sir. I'll... redo it." He could feel her heart racing beneath his fingers as she took in the deep breath of air.

"Then do it. Properly this time." He let go of her neck to stand back up fully, gaze moving to the recruits and soldiers that had stopped their training to stare at the two of them. Levi scowled. "Get back to your training!" he shouted, moving off the field to stand there and stare down at Krista as she began to pluck the weeds that she had somehow missed the first time.