"The only way to have a friend, is to be one"
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Eren's head was spinning, he wasn't exactly sure where he was all he knew was that he was swinging which wasn't helping his head; the blurry world around him was slightly coming into focus but not by much.
There was a muffled sound coming from his right, he couldn't be sure if that was actual noise or he'd done some serious damage to his head, he tried to swing to face it, but his head hurt too much still.
Luckily the noise was on hand to help him, he felt a hand being placed upon his shoulder that gradually spun him around to come face to face with a woman, who leaned closer to get a better look at him giving him a view of her features away from the blurriness.
A woman who had long brown, messy hair which was being kept in a ponytail with her bangs parting down the middle to frame her face while she held a look of concerned but slight amusement.
He racked his injured head to try and remember who she was as she seemed so familiar, "Scout L-Lynne…" he muttered hoping that was the right name.
"Well, you got that right so you're not too broken" Lynne mused grabbing his chin with her hand and inspecting his head, "You definitely messed this part up though".
"ODM Gear training, was that what we were doing" he muttered looking around seeing the matching equipment on both their waists.
"Yes, you were, you're definitely in better condition than I originally thought you'd be, should get you to the infirmary though just to be on the safe side" She added with a small smile, while in her eyes she was looking to something else, likely the wires that were holding him up.
"Does this mean I fail?" he muttered.
Lynne gave back a cocky smile, "You're really concerned about that right now, you do realise how high you're dangling off the ground right?" she said with the hint of a laugh on her lips, "But if you really want to know, you passed in fact".
"How?" he questioned looking around realising that Lynne too was upside down just like him but not dangling, she'd fixed her hooks into the tree with no slack so that with her feet pressed against the branch so she wouldn't swing.
She sighed looking off too see her fellow Scout Henning standing with some of the other cadets some of whom had landed in the trees and the rest still attempting to get up, "Here's the thing with ODM Gear, you can't master it until you know what it's like to fail with it, knowing what it's like to screw up helps you to not let it happen again".
"You see those lot, no one gets this perfect first time, so they are just stupidly lucky, you now have the edge over them having the experience of messing this up, now you know the pain you won't be scared of it happening and you'll know how to avoid it next time" she smiled returning to the wires.
"So, to pass is to fail?"
"Exactly, all the best pass second time" she smirks "It's a life experience if you will, you should hear some of the stories about how bad the Veteran Scouts messed up their first time around".
Eren leaned back briefly seeing the far down ground before bolting his head back up not wanting to know how far he was from death, "I won't let you fall don't worry, let's test your memory a bit more shall we?" Lynne offered wanting to take his mind off the situation, she knew how scary it could be.
"How does the ODM Gear work, the triggers and the rest?"
Eren looked to the grip he was holding, "Each grip has three primary parts, the top trigger controls the relevant hook on each side, the longer you hold it the further it goes until max length or till you put in the trigger pin to keep the hook extended as once the trigger is released the hooks reel back in".
Lynne nodded in confirmation she tried to pull a hook out from the leaves on the branch, "The blade release catch on the inside of the grips, the blades automatically clip in when fitted into the grip, when they're used up, you pull the catch down and it releases the blade for new ones to be fitted".
She nodded again realising that that hook wasn't coming out, "The second lower trigger on both grips is the gas, both must be pressed in unison for it to work as a safety feature, once pressed the gas mixture from the cannisters is released and fired out the back to propel you forwards, but you have to be careful with how much you depress the trigger as the more you do that, the faster you go…".
"Which is how you ended up here" Lynne commented with a smile towards Eren, "Good so your brain isn't shattered if you remember all that, usually it takes you cadets a few lessons to keep all that memorised".
"Now your hook isn't coming out, so I suggest you wrap your arms around me and hold on" she said holding an arm out as an offer to him, but the boy was hesitant making a sly smirk go across her lips, "Don't worry, it'll be our secret".
Eren blushed a little before looking away and wrapping his arms around the taller woman before she cut his cables and they fell to the ground but thanks to Lynne's skill it was a graceful landing.
She helped Eren sit down before offering him a waterskin to drink from which was gratefully accepted as she turned back towards the forest they were training in and looking up to her comrade who had about three other cadets standing behind him on the branch, "Oi, Henning!" she called.
He looked over with his serious expression "Everything alright Lynne?" he called back down to her with his arms crossed.
"Yeager here should head to the infirmary, but he can't walk on his own, have any volunteers up there to help him?" she called back.
Henning looked over to the group of cadets who'd made it up already, "Leonhart, you've been checking him out all day, go help him out" he pointed to the uncaring looking blonde who immediately scowled.
"Sir I-" she wanted to retort annoyed by the subtle snigger from Reiner beside her.
"It wasn't a request cadet" he coldly said.
"Sir, I can do it" Mikasa immediately offered extending her hand up.
"No Akerman, you still need more practice here, Leonhart is so far the best of you at this so she can miss a few minutes" he nodded towards the blonde, "Now can you figure your own way do or do I need to carry you down too".
It was bizarre to Annie and many other cadets the weird personalities the Scouts seemed to have, everyone expected them be hard asses and so far, Henning was proving that stereotype, but Lynne was far different to him, she as much kinder while she could still be hard on them it wasn't as much as Henning.
Annie strolled to the branch and jumped off not exactly using the equipment as gracefully as Lynne did and even had a bit of a rough landing with her ankle taking a lot of her weight, she was sure she twisted it but kept moving knowing it would be okay as she knew her own limits.
She walked up and scowled down at Eren before pulling him up quite forcefully and throwing one of his arms over her shoulder as she essentially dragged him towards the Infirmary.
Lynne smirked as she took off with him, "Henning, I'm definitely winning that bet" she mused to herself as she heard a scream from the tree, seeing another cadet tangled up in the branches, she sighed before readying her equipment to go help again, "Next time you're doing this job though" she sighed.
Meanwhile, Annie was not enjoying her time with Eren, still mostly being annoyed at Henning's comment of which she had no idea what he was on about, she'd been looking at Eren the same as she looked at everyone else, maybe she was looking at him a bit more than usual but she wasn't 'checking him out'.
"Thank you for helping me Annie…" he muttered glancing over to her, his senses having mostly come back to him, "I can probably walk it you know" he chuckled making Annie roll her eyes before suddenly letting him go sending him straight into the ground with a thump.
She turned around and began to walk away without a single word, "You could still come with me though? If you wanted a break from y'know…" he trailed off as he stood back up and dusted himself off.
She looked back at him with her usual look, "And why would I want to do that, I already spend enough time training you" she scolded but kept looking at him waiting for an answer.
"Well, no offence but you look angry, or more than usual" Eren smiled his annoying smile or at least the one Annie seemed find annoying, "I thought you'd want a break, but if not…" he trailed off turning to walk away.
"Fine, I'll walk to the infirmary with you" she said walking beside him with her arms crossed, "If you collapse on the way I'll get the blame" she quickly added before walking ahead with Eren surprisingly keeping pace, almost as if he hadn't hit his head at all.
They walked in a silence for a moment, neither was sure what to say.
"How're your ribs?" Annie surprisingly said breaking the silence, to say Eren was taken off guard was an understatement, she was the last person who'd want to start conversation, "From our training yesterday, you went into that tree stump pretty hard…" she continued thinking he was confused by her question.
"Oh, yeah they're fine, you wouldn't even be able to tell I hurt them" he grinned rubbing his chest where the injury occurred, "Rare to see you concerned about my wellbeing, you've put me down a number of times now, last evening and today are the only time you've cared to ask if I'm alright, why?" he questioned raising an eyebrow.
"If you must know, you went into that branch extremely hard with the ODM Gear, I was concerned the injury might have turned to a break in one of your ribs" she muttered looking away at the distance which had become extremely interesting to her, "And last evening I told you, that's all" she added through gritted teeth.
Eren backed away slightly at her threatening tone, knowing how quick she could be to knock him over, but his inquisitive look didn't fade, there was something different about Annie, the way she was speaking was almost, caring in her own Annie style which was still somehow threatening.
"How's your hand, you did land a strike on my forehead after all?" he mused getting her to glance at him, "It might be broken hitting something that dense" he attempted to joke, he didn't know why he did it, he just panicked and said the first thing on his mind, but Annie wasn't one for jokes, or so he thought.
Annie made a sound, but not just any sound, one of a snigger, almost a laugh before she caught herself.
Eren had to do a double take towards Annie who was wide eyed at him, Annie Leonhart the most emotionless person Eren had known, had just sniggered at a terrible joke he'd made.
The silence returned, neither could think of what to say, this was the last thing you'd think of to be an awkward moment but between these specific two, it most definitely was.
Annie immediately returned her interested to the nothing in the distance, her eyes fixated on looking anywhere but the boy beside her who she just embarrassed herself in front of, "You heard nothing…" she hissed in warning.
Eren chuckled at her reaction, "It not so bad to be human once in a while you know" he grinned but he could almost feel the anger emanating around her, "Alright, I heard nothing" he threw his hands up in compliance.
The silence returned for a little while until Annie began to grumble something, "I took your advice" Eren looked back to her, "About talking to Mina, you were right she does have that gift".
He smirked, "Yeah, I dunno how she does it but that girl worms her way in" he chuckled thinking back to first meeting the pigtailed girl as he looked back ahead,
"She really does" Annie muttered in agreement, "Makes you change your whole outlook sometimes" she looked to Eren with a tiny smile on her face which he was oblivious too as they neared the infirmary, "Hey Eren".
He looked to her seeing the smile on her face, "Thank you for encouraging me to talk to her, I suppose I owe you one now" she muttered not wanting to come off as bashful or childish, two things Annie never would be.
Eren took a moment to look her smile over, as well as her body language before he returned a small smile of his own, "It was no problem Annie" he bashfully responded rubbing the back of his head, "I didn't really do anything though, it was really more of a suggestion" he nervously chuckled not sure how to deal with this new happier Annie.
Annie smiled looking off to the large trees in the distance where if you squinted you could see a single figure miss spectacularly with the ODM Gear, "Maybe it was a suggestion or maybe you have something about you too" she muttered in an almost dazed sounding state focusing upon the distant figures.
Eren didn't say a word wanting her to finish what she was saying, "I don't know what it is about you either, but I think you have some sort of gift too, what it is I haven't a clue but…" she trailed off unbeknownst to Eren she was actually stopping herself from revealing her strange feeling towards him.
She shook her head turning to face him, "Listen, if you're feeling up for it, we can train again tonight, and I'll try and go gentler on you" she muttered.
Eren couldn't help the grin the spread on his lips, "You're going to try? I really doubt that you know" he said rubbing the back of his head.
"I will, if you want me too that is", she looked right into his eyes now, "If I want to be your friend, I can't spent the time beating you up now can I" a small smile graced her lips again before she abruptly turned around, "Feel better soon Eren".
Eren was taken aback as he watched her walk away, "Did she just say friend?" he muttered as her figure retreated, "Mina just what have you done to Annie, that or I really have hit my head hard" he groaned as he stepped into the infirmary building, his own small smile on his lips.
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A while later the cadets had been moved from the training field to one of the class rooms with a few cadets missing having been taken to the infirmary after some 'in flight' injuries thankfully however none of them were as of yet fatal.
Annie had taken her spot at the back with Mina taking the seat besides her, Eren hadn't returned yet even though he'd seemed fine to the blonde, it was likely the medics were keeping anyone who had an ODM Gear related injury in the infirmary just in case, regardless of how they looked.
She gazed around the room to see who was missing, the Jean kid was missing, Annie had passed him on the way back quickly figuring he was likely the one she saw messing up badly in the distance, she couldn't help the small smug smile that graced her lips at the image of one of the most irritating people here eating absolute shit.
A few others were missing too, Milieus wasn't there and neither was Christa as well as a bunch of cadets Annie hadn't bothered to learn the names of.
The ones that were still around however weren't in the best of shapes, most if not all were scuffed up in some way or another and if you paid attention you'd see one or two with a limp.
The ODM Gear training was rough and all they had done was jump onto branches and that had resulted in about half the group in the infirmary and this was barely even the basics' of the equipment, it was dawning on Annie why so many cadets get dropped out by this point, the training was extremely intense and could break the weak ones easily.
She cast a glace to her side where Mina was looking ahead expectantly with a small smile on her face, of all the people Annie thought would get injured she was at the top of the list, the fact she's made it this far is a testament in of itself, Mina Carolina was really beginning to surprise the uncaring Blonde.
"So, you an Eren where away a while" Mina grinned glancing at her from the corner of her eye, "Whatever could you two of gotten up to…" her grin widened as Annie scowled at her.
"I think you know, absolutely nothing happened, we just talked" she hissed knowing Mina would take the smallest slip up and turn it in to a much larger thing, "I offered to be nicer to him during our training" she added on the end.
"Oh, where's this come from?" she enquired leaning in slightly.
"Ugh, you of course" Annie grimaced hating to admit the fact, "You wormed your way in and made me admit that I wanted to try and become his friend too".
Mina's eyes lit up with sparkles, "Aww, Annie that is so sweet" she smiled her bright smile while clasping her hands together.
"Yeah well, you two are the only ones I talk too so it only makes sense" she muttered again averting her gaze as she leaned on her hand.
"That is so adorable Annie, I knew there was a heart in there" Mina cooed getting a glare from Annie that she was oblivious too.
Although instead of hitting her like she would most others, she instead extended her free hand towards Mina and gripped her nose, the girl shot her eyes open and looking in confusion before Annie pulled her nose up.
"Ah, okay, okay, I get it I'll stop with the teasing, just let my nose go" Mina wined as she tapped the table.
Annie relented and put her hand on the table as Mina rubbed her reddening nose, "That was mean you know" Mina pouted; Annie shrugged but let a small smile go across her lips which was reciprocated by Mina.
"Listen in Cadets!" Henning called out from the front as they all finally settled down, "We're going to be taking those of you who can still stand through the ranks within each branch of the military" he said having all their attention.
Lynne pulled down the board behind them as she picked up a piece of chalk, and drew five separate duel roses, the mark of the Garrison, "We'll start with the largest regiment, the Garrison".
"First up the regular Garrison soldier will have the plain roses, with a green stem, leaves, thorns and red roses" Henning indicated before moving onto the next as Lynne coloured some bits in white, "Now the Sergeants will have the thorns of the roses as well as the leaves coloured gold" he indicated to the white coloured areas.
Lynne moved to the next one, "The Lieutenant's will have gold thorns and leaves too but also the stem will be gold" she indicated to the relevant parts "The Captains will again have all the previous parts coloured but they will also have the outer section of the rose coloured in" she finished drawing before finally getting to the last set or roses and colouring the entire thing in white.
"Finally the commanders will have the entire thing coloured in gold, simple enough right" he said looking around and seeing the nods, "The rule is simple, the more gold they have on them the higher rank they are".
"Points to note" Lynne said snapping around still holding the chalk before passing it to Henning who began his own drawings, "Every branch will have 5 ranks these are, your basic soldier, Sargent's, Lieutenants, Captains and finally Commanders, the only exception to this is the Scouts who have an additional rank but we'll discuss that when the time comes" she instructed as Henning finished drawing five separate Unicorn heads.
"Now, your standard MP will have a green unicorn with a white mane and horn; then the Sergeants are mostly the same but will also have half of their mane coloured gold, the Lieutenants will have the whole mane gold" Lynne informed beckoning towards Henning's drawings.
"The Captains will have the golden mane but the horn as well will be golden and finally if you haven't figured it out yet, the Commander will have the entre unicorn in gold" Lynne finished as Henning stepped back from the chalkboard "Any questions so far?" she looked around the room but saw nothing.
She took the chalk from Henning and drew seven sets of wings identical to the ones on their backs, "Finally the Scouts" Henning said looking round to see Lynne had finished, "The Scouts are unique in the fact they have seven different rank styles, your basic Scout will have the blue and white 'Wings of Freedom' on the back" he turned around and indicated to his own he wore on his jacket.
He turned back as Lynne began colouring in, "Now the Sergeants will have the left most blocks of the white wing highlighted in gold, the Lieutenants will have the left and middle blocks of the white wings highlighted gold and the Captain's will have all three lines of blocks in the white wing highlighted gold" he said looking around to see them all making notes.
"Now the Scouts have an additional rank, the Section Commanders, we have two of these, they follow the same pattern as the Captain's for the most part but the Section Commander of the left flank has the left wing blocks coloured entirely gold with the rest highlighted and the right flank Section Commander will have the right wing blocks coloured entirely gold with the rest highlighted" Henning explained.
"Finally the Commander quite simply has the white wing coloured entirely gold, any questions?" he asked as Lynne finished drawing.
"Why do the Scouts have an extra rank?" Sasha asked with her hand extended.
"It's to do with our formations outside the walls, if you join the Scouts you'll learn all about it but in essence, it makes it easy for the Commander to micro manage the entire regiment" Lynne answered, "We ourselves serve under Section Commander Mike as part of his squad so we have first hand experience with this".
One more hand shot up from Floch, "Why does everything get assigned, like the ODM gear you matched our names with number that are inscribed on the side, why?".
"Quite simply it's for identification, say for example you leave you equipment out in the woods and someone finds it, they can bring it to as and it can be returned; the same method is for everything, even us Scouts have our horses assigned to us so should one wander off on an expedition we know exactly which soldier is in trouble and from memorising the formation we can know where they are" Henning answered with his hands on his hips.
"But there is the more obvious reason" he said in a colder tone, "Should a body be unrecognisable, having multiple items on the person will allow us to identify them should the worse of happened" his answer put the entire class into a silence.
They both looked around for any other questions but there didn't seem to be any more, they had been pretty clear, "Alright, we'll call it there for today so you few who aren't injured can get some rest" Lynne said.
"We won't be doing this from here on out though" Henning warned looking over them all, "This training isn't easy, so I advise you get a good nights sleep for now, tomorrow is going to be even harder" he crossed his arms, "You're all dismissed".
The cadets filed out leaving Lynne and Henning alone, "Oi Henning" Lynne said getting his attention.
He looked around as Lynne leaned back against the desk behind them, "What do you think of those lot?" she questioned.
He looked out the window where they were all filing out, "Couldn't tell you yet, but some of them seem to be skilled to some degree, we'll see how long that skill holds up though" he muttered turning back to his comrade, "Why'd you ask?".
"Well, do you think any will become Scouts, cause to me, it looks like a lot of them are already aiming for MP's" she muttered jumping on the table and idling swinging her legs, "It's disappointing to see how few actually seem to want to join us".
"Well there's not much we can do about that, it's really up to them, but maybe that's why Sadies wanted us to come over to train them, maybe seeing some Scout veterans might make them believe in us more" he trailed off uncrossing his arms to adjust his jacket.
"Maybe, but at least we'll have that Yeager kid definitely" she chuckled, "He's got a natural balance too, we might be getting another Sky in our ranks, if he stops smacking into branches" she said as her chuckle turned to a little laugh.
Henning grinned back, "Would be great if he did" he said looking back out the window, "We need all the help we can get if Erwin's plans are to ever succeed" he muttered before they both shared a knowing look and exited the class to go get something to eat and drink, already planning what they'll put the cadets through tomorrow.
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Yes, this was mostly about establishing the ranks and how the ODM works, important for going forward.
Also what do you all prefer: Mike or Miche?