#Cadet Cold Steel

[ask-coldsteel]

Oh, cool! If that's the case, I suppose I should probably take a visit there sometime.

Also, forgive my ignorance, but what type of leaf is that insignia?

Blazing Dawn: I needed help in Mathematical Sciences and so I befriended Cold Steel over here!

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Chapter 1: Last Cadet Days

Part 20

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Guest Artist: @void-art-blog

#ask-coldsteel #Cadet Cold Steel #Blazing Dawn #Lime Light #Equestrian Grand War #Pre-war period #Imperial Equestrian Army #Imperial Equestrian Military Academy #ask-shady-krowne #ask-wizard-sunburst #MLP #My Little Pony #OC #Earth Pony #Unicorn #Ask Blog #MLP Art #Digital Art #Question No. 18 #Question No. 19

[praisethesuuun]

One Piece characters reacting to you grabbing their boobs!

Marco

🪽The poor guy wasn't expecting it at all. Marco was dozing with his eyes open, completely relaxed as he sat on the handrail of the Moby Dick; the light breeze ruffled his blond hair, while the sunlight made his skin and the tattoo on his chest shine. He was so relaxed and with his guard low that he didn't hear your footsteps slowly approaching behind him, as silent as a cat's footsteps hunting a bird.

🪽Marco jumped when your hands made their way around his hips, your fingers grazing his abs softly. "You scared me for a moment-yoi" he speaks, now with a calm tone instead of a worried one.

🪽The commander started to blush when your hands started to move up, more and more, until you grabbed his boobs, squeezing. Your head pressed against his back, your gentle touch on his body and sensitive parts...give him time to recover from the surprise, then you'll see some good ones. And pray that no one saw or you will never hear the end of it.

Shanks

❤️Oh Lord, good luck with that! We all know how playful Shanks is, a shameless free spirit, always ready to do whatever he wants and prefers, especially when it comes to you. And if his little darling wants to play, then he won't shy away from the fun.

❤️Probably, you decided to tease Shanks during one of his serial drinks at the bar. He was simply beautiful in the noisy atmosphere of the club, singing and joking, while a few drops of beer soaked what little beard he had on his face. His breath caught in his throat when he saw you licking your soft lips, your fingers cold under your shirt, feeling the hot skin.

❤️"Right now?" the red head whispered to you with his signature smirk, starting to do the same to you, making your body shiver. His fingers were more calloused than yours, but they weren't unpleasant. And, at the exact moment you squeezed the captain's chest tightly, he did the exact same thing to your boobs, moving the bra and feeling you whole.

Garp

👊Honestly, he'd been expecting this for a while. He didn't expect a cadet with so much interest in him and also quite a cute one. Garp lacked female attention, which was increasingly rare as he got older, so he'll start taking you under his wing. Expect to see him flexing his muscles more than he should when you're around there, he probably doesn't notice either, but don't let the marine notice, you don't want to ruin the fun, right?

👊"Come and watch my training tomorrow, so you will learn something". Yes of course, of course, old fox. One blow then another, a few drops of sweat venturing along his abs, hard as steel despite his age; Garp scratched his beard in a lazy way while waiting for you to get another dummy. Your eyes seemed full of stars, your curious irises moved over his body, analyzing every scar, even the smallest.

👊Your hand moved without you even realizing it, squeezing his boobs and pressing on his nipple too. Garp's face was flawless, his mouth open and his eyes wide, but he refused to shy away from the contact. Suddenly, the Vice Admiral was hotter than expected and began to sweat more: no one had ever touched him like that and he wasn't sure how to behave. "Let's not talk about it with anyone, okay? In fact...let's just pretend nothing happened!"

Dragon

🌧The image in your head already makes you laugh. Mokey D. Dragon, the most wanted man in the world, leader of the revolutionary army, feels his legs shaking when you are around him. Your personality always finds a way to make his heart do somersaults, I question the tormented soul of man.

🌧One of your favorite things to do is to hide under his cloak, hugging him gently and covering you from the ever-present wind and rain. Dragon loves to feel your closeness, so he doesn't mind that much and it lets you do what you want. But keep your eyes open, Dragon. Something is about to hit...

🌧During one of his many moments of reflection, the presence behind him decided to act. At first, the revolutionary didn't think much of it, thinking it was just another one of your simple hugs, and then...GRAB. Dragon jumped, squirming slightly. "What the hell was that for, woman?! Let go!" but you didn't. After that episode there were others, eventually he got used to it.

Killer

💙You were both lying in your bed. Killer had his arms wrapped around your body, smaller than his. The man loved having you all to himself, allowing himself to remove his helmet and let some weakness be overlooked; your breathing calmed him and he clung to you as if he was scared to let you go.

💙Killer's chest was soft, big, welcoming...impossible to ignore. His hard training had paid off and they were all for you to taste and feel; obviously, your head was right between her boobs, while an expression of pure bliss. You began to feel your new pillow, leaving a few kisses here and there, waking your lover up. "Y/N...what are you doing..." the blonde mumbled, the voice deep and thick with sleep.

💙Even though Killer looked like a tough brute, the Massacre Soldier was a sweetheart in love. Given his lack of experience in this field, frustrating him was really easy. "W-Wait..." your lover sighed softly, blushing and adjusting himself a bit. His arms tightened around you as his nose nuzzled into your hair, smelling your scent and letting you do it..

Kid

💢You're in for a browl if you even think about doing that. Kid doesn't like to be touched too much in general and still needs to get used to the gentle and loving touch of the person next to him. It will be hard to deal with him the first few times, but he will still try to be a little nicer to you.

💢Just try not to do it in public, if you really want to do it, in private; and pay attention to the nipple, don't pull it too much and don't make strange movements. He has piercings there, and while they bring pleasure, they can also hurt a lot. If you try to do something like this in public, his anger will explode and he will scream at you: he has a reputation to protect, you can't just do as you please.

💢The first time you squeeze his pecs, Kid has to stop himself from blushing more than he should. "Don't do anything strange, woman" he will repeat, while your hands danced on his boobs, playing with the piercings and trying to be as gentle as possible.

Benn Beckman

🚬Serious, stoic and weak to women. Benn never refuses your hands on his body, he really doesn't mind that, at all. He always relaxes when you pet him, tracing his muscles and loving it, he keeps fit for you too after all; and if there's one thing that's true, it's that the vice captain is proud of his body.

🚬If Benn lets you do it, it means he is truly in love with you. So, since taking him by surprise is impossible, first he will let you hold his chest as you like, then he will take revenge by doing it to you. "What's the problem, dear? You like my chest? I like yours too..." he will whisper in your ear, grabbing you just like you did with him earlier.

🚬If first your fingers stopped in the middle of his nipple, squeezing or teasing it slightly, Beckman will give you the exact same treatment, holding you in his arms and whispering sweet nothings to you. What a gentleman he is!

Crocodile

🐊Expect to be judged, very judged. Crocodile is a classy man, he doesn't get lost in too many romances or anything like that, and above all he hates being touched suddenly. He much prefers a slow, sensual touch rather than a sudden squeeze.

🐊"What the hell are you doing?!" he will scolds you, turning around immediately and blocking your wrists in his much bigger hands; he squeezes so tightly, you can feel his rings on your skin. When the man sees your slightly scared big eyes at something like this, he will let you go, turning away.

🐊But he'll make it up to you, don't worry. He will take you out for dinner, buy you anything you want and, even if reluctantly, make you hold and feel his chest. You'll have the big Crocodile on his knees.

#one piece #one piece crocodile #one piece x reader #one piece x female reader #one piece x you #one piece x y/n #crocodile #monkey d garp #garp #red haired shanks #shanks #benn beckman #monkey d dragon #eustass kid #eustasscaptainkid #killer #marco #marco the phoenix

[wing-ed-thing]

Stupid, Stupid, Emotionally Unavailable Erwin Smith (Levi x Reader x Erwin)

Synopsis: You knew him through his cadet years and yours. You practically grew up together and your admiration of him led you right into the Scouts. You thought your affections had been a well-kept secret. Levi thinks Erwin has known the whole time.

Word Count: 17.5k

Tags/Warnings: No Reader Pronouns, Robbery, Knife-Violence, Violence Against Children, Alcohol, Slight Timeline Divergence, Reader is Good at Math, Angst, Fluff, Hurt and Comfort

Notes: This was so fun to write I never want to do it again!

The door was still open, and bugs were getting into the shop. 

You could see them from around his shoulder. The lantern at the door illuminated the sign that swung above the sidewalk. The sun had set a bit ago, and now, because of the light, bugs were entering through the open door. The steel of his blade reflected the flickering ember. You didn’t like looking at it. It made you upset, but the moths and other winged things entering the store made your guts squirm. 

The stool you had been sitting on had been knocked to the ground by your ankles. You stood behind the counter. The cash register sat on the small space in front of you with just enough room for it and an area for customers to place merchandise to ring up—a hook with bags dangled on the edge.

“Are you deaf? Open the register,” the man repeated forcefully, glancing over his shoulder toward the open door. His eyes flickered around, and he slammed his fist on the counter when you did not respond. You jumped instinctively, your focus only then breaking from the swarm of nocturnal bugs. “I don’t like roughing up kids, but I won’t hesitate if you don’t do what I tell you!”

Before you could even think, you popped open the register. Your heart fluttered in panic as the man came around the counter, pushing you to the side. You fell to the ground as he ransacked the cash from the trays. He pocketed the wad of bills, not before catching sight of the small safe that sat underneath. The thief eyed it greedily, and you could do nothing as he seized you by the sleeve, dragging you up onto your feet. A hand made its way into your hair, tugging and tangling painfully at your skull as you were shoved face-first into the safe’s lock. 

“What’s in this?” He let go of your hair, having difficulty withdrawing his hand as he ripped out a few strands at the root. You crumpled to the floor. “Open it!”

“I can’t!” You looked up at him with round, pleading eyes. “I don’t have the key—” A cold metal line touched firmly against your neck, causing you to swallow the rest of your sentence. A stream of tears trailed down your cheeks. You could hardly feel their warmth over the chills of fear that vibrated your entire being. 

“Go open it!” As a warning, the thief pressed the blade deeper against your skin before letting you go. 

You curled on the floor, mind racing at the prospect of performing an impossible task. Surely, this would be where you would die. You looked toward the front door, a part of you thinking you heard movement, hoping your parents would finally return as they told you they would after their errand. Tears hit the ground below you, soaking into the floor. And as you curled in on yourself, you hoped you would disappear into the wood, too.

A sudden blur flashed in your damp peripheral. The thief stumbled back, his weapon clattering to the floor and disappearing somewhere under the myriad of shelves. A brown-clad arm wrapped around his throat tightly as if holding on for dear mercy. From behind his shoulder came a striking blue color.

“Run!” you heard, staring into bright blue irises, “Get out of here!” Booted feet kicked from behind the man, the glimpse of a sleeve visible to you in the lantern light. You scrambled back with no strength to do as he said. 

A military cadet!

The large man threw his weight backward, slamming the young cadet into the bookshelves behind him. You heard the cadet groan out in pain as books tumbled off the shelves like a waterfall. His grip on the man’s back ultimately gave out as he fell. The thief shook himself off, and just as he turned to cock his fist against the young, blond cadet, an encyclopedia hit the back of his thigh. 

You stood at the opposite end of the counter, hard-cover novel raised in the air, ready to follow up on your weak throw. The look on your face was frozen in petrification as all you could do was cry. But the moment you distracted him was enough because, in the next moment, the thief was slammed down hard against the wood floor. 

And that was how you met Erwin Smith. 

The papers would laude him as a hero, detailing the story of a young military trainee on a late-night run through town, arriving just in time to save a child from a knife-wielding thief. The story would come and go from the papers, although you wouldn’t learn all that until later.

One of Erwin’s friends, who had also stayed late to get in some extra training, had tipped off the Military Police, who arrived shortly after Erwin managed to singlehandedly take down your attacker. Your parents returned within ten minutes of the incident, confused and panicked, as their shop had turned into a crime scene in their short absence. 

You couldn’t help staring as the blond cadet, Erwin, answered questions by the Military Police. He stood straight and looked serious, more composed than you had been. The MPs had scared you so much you could barely speak, not that your talking capabilities were all that functional before their arrival. They quickly moved on to your parents, and the cadet slowly approached you. 

You didn’t know how to stand. He looked so official in his uniform, cadet or not. He held his hands behind his back with an unreadable look on his face, and when he stood in front of you, he held his hand out. His neat bangs were slicked to the one side of his forehead, untouched. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, the neutral expression switching from stoic to cordial. “I am Cadet Erwin Smith.” You became conscious of your stance. His back was straight, and shoulders squared, but even so, you stood just a bit taller. You shook his hand. His grip was more firm than yours. You offered your name. 

“Thank you,” you said in a small voice, watching as the MPs milled around. You and Erwin stood off to the side, just two kids in the middle of something that felt bigger than truly hit home for you. “I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I’m glad I could help.” He nodded. You leaned against the bookshelf behind you, one of the shelves supporting about an inch of your bottom. Erwin continued to stand straight. He offered you a closed-lip smile and a slight shrug. “You helped me as much as I helped you.” 

The two of you continued to watch over the scene, the two of you having been shoved off to one of the book-lined walls, forgotten. You watched in awe, never having seen military officers in action up close. Erwin, however, watched on with a certain knowledge glinting in his eyes that yours didn’t. You glanced from the MPs to Erwin. 

“Did you want to become an MP?” you asked. Erwin hummed.

“No,” he answered curtly, his eyes glued to the officers.

“Oh.” You reached behind you, tracing the spines of the books on the ledge. You pushed a few back into place, the titles having shifted from when you grabbed and threw one. 

“I want to become a scout.” 

You didn’t know what to say, only humming your previous response as your gaze returned to the door. The MPs kept it open as they came and went, and the bugs came and went with them. 

***

He came by the shop the next day. You caught his uniform jacket and crest as he passed by the window, the sight of him like a dream. Erwin seemed to notice you the same time you did, his thick eyebrows shooting up on his forehead as he excused himself from a group of friends to enter your humble bookstore. 

You sat behind the counter on your stool, appearing taller than you looked the day before. Erwin approached you with a mixture of surprise and relief. 

“I’m surprised to see you back so soon.” He stood in front of the register. “I wanted to see how you were doing but assumed you wouldn’t be in for a few days.” The corner of his lip dipped, unsure how you would react to him casually mentioning the traumatic incident from the day before. 

“My parents still need a cashier,” you muttered with a few bobs of your head. 

Erwin bobbed along with you. He meandered to your left, padding as he scoped out the books on the shelves. The word “NONFICTION” was painted in curly letters on a sign posted near the ceiling. He splayed a hand across a series of encyclopedias, just as you had the night before. They didn’t budge, already neatly pressed against the back wall.

“Your strength is admirable. It must be hard being back so soon.”

“You’re the cadet,” you blurted. “You’re the one with the strength. I’m sure you get into fights like that all the time.” Erwin laughed aloud, something about it still proper— at least it was to you. 

“I can’t say I do.” He shook his head before facing you with a mischievous glint in his eye. “That one was my first.” Erwin puffed up his chest, nose proudly in the air as you caught the twelve-year-old in him for the first time. Even so, he practically looked like an adult to you. “And when I’m in the Scouts, I’ll be sure to fight titans and explore all the land outside Wall Maria.”

“Titans?” you cocked your head to the side, not quite knowing much about the military or caring. You had heard the word in school, but your parents preferred not to discuss things as gory as Scouts fighting titans around school-aged children. There were Scouts— you often forgot they existed— and there were titans, which existed separately in your mind. As for the land outside of Wall Maria, it had never even crossed your thoughts. 

Erwin’s eyebrows furrowed. You smiled at the sight, deciding you thought they looked like two caterpillars. He glanced over the shelves.

“Yeah, you must have a book on them somewhere.” 

Not finding what he was looking for at the front, Erwin headed to the back. He looked over the titles quickly, his boots making a solid sound against the wood floor as he descended the row. You followed him, scrambling from your stool to chase after the double-sword crest on his back. 

Erwin found a book near the back of the store. He plucked it off the shelf with a flick of his index finger. The cover consisted of a crudely drawn giant with sharp, gaping teeth. It looked real enough to you. You glanced around the empty store, nervousness causing you to sweat.

“I dunno if my parents would be okay with this.” You cast your gaze off to the side. 

Erwin maneuvered around you, the open book in his hands as he settled into a nearby loveseat. You glanced around again, but you found no one, only Erwin. He stared at you from his book before waving you to sit beside him. 

You sat, hands nervously on your knees. Erwin sat with the slightest slouch as he placed the back cover over your left thigh. You nearly recoiled, swiveling your head around the store to avoid being caught complicit in obtaining inappropriate knowledge. 

“Titans are man-eating giants that live outside Wall Maria,” Erwin explained, pointing to a page in the book. You pouted. You knew at least that. “Preventing us from exploring things we’ve never seen before. All the things living out there.”

“But there’s nothing out there.” You shifted in your seat, bringing your knee up onto the cushion as you crossed your arms. Erwin took the rejected book in his lap with a slight frown. “We live behind the Walls because the rest of humanity was destroyed.” You recited the sentence just as you did in school, not quite knowing what the words meant. You nodded as if it were obvious, blowing a hair out of your face.

Erwin stood, leaving the book about titans on the cushion as he perused the rest of the non-fiction section. You watched him disappear behind the shelf in front of you. 

“Well, why don’t we have any record of the people who came here when the Walls were first built?” His golden hair popped out from the opposite side, another book in his hands. He glanced down, taking a step toward you before stopping. “My dad has a theory… had a theory. That there was more outside.” You didn’t notice his correction. 

He kneeled in front of you, placing another book in your lap. The two pages joined together to show an entire map of the three Walls. Hardly an inch at the edges was dedicated to the territory outside. You had never really bothered with the books at the back of the store—you preferred the medical texts at the front— but you occasionally reread the short fiction your mom read you when you were smaller. As Erwin knelt in front of you in his uniform, you couldn’t help but be reminded of the princes from those pages.

“This can’t be everything,” he said with certainty, but if you didn’t know any better, you would have thought he was pleading. “And right now, all we know about are titans. And we don’t even know much about them at all.” Erwin scrambled back up next to you, opening the titan book again. “These tall ones could eat you in a single bite.” 

His voice was laced with wonder. He hadn’t intended on scaring you, as most boys his age tended to like to do, but his words made you freeze. You studied the page, thinking back to the thief the night before. He had been a large man. There were monsters bigger than him?

“Are they all that tall?” You remained glued to the pages as Erwin flipped through them. He did so quickly, his ability to read a lot faster than yours. 

Erwin raised the open book to your face, again tapping at more crude illustrations. Kicking legs flailed from the mouth of a giant with sharp teeth. You couldn’t stop the slight quiver of your lip. You put on a brave face in the presence of an older kid. Erwin didn’t seem to notice, more caught up in flipping through the book of gruesome images. 

“Some are only 3 meters, but that’s still tall.”

“I’ll grow that tall one day.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I’m still taller than you.” 

Erwin stayed to look through your myriad of books. He even bought one at the end of the night when you closed. And the next day, he stopped by again, plucking books off the shelves to teach you what his father had taught him before putting most of them back where they belonged. Over time, you suspected that Erwin ended up buying all of the texts he used to guide you. At the very least, he learned how to use the cash register after a few weeks. And after a few years, Erwin had become a regular at your holiday dinners. 

You would see him walking from one side of your display window to the other before he entered, sometimes walking with friends. You met Nile Dok once, but given how he never entered your store again, you didn’t think he liked you very much. You spotted him the most, walking by Erwin’s side. And during times when Erwin quickly stopped to say hello to you, Nile waited on the street. 

The closer graduation came, the less Erwin stayed in your shop, but he always made it a point to greet you with a promise to make up any time missed another time. 

Then, one day, Erwin came to the shop in his Scout uniform. While the ensemble was hardly different from his cadet uniform, you had practically screamed once you saw him. You scrambled out from behind the counter, leaping across the storefront to wrap your arms around his neck. 

“You did it! You did it! You did it! You made the selection!” you cried, feeling the rumbling of Erwin’s chuckle reverberate from his chest into yours. He wrapped his arms around you, embracing you. 

“You stop that! You’re going to mess up his uniform!” your mother scolded behind you. Only then did you let go, beaming from ear to ear as you smoothed out the front of Erwin’s jacket. 

“Oh, it’s going to take a lot more than that,” Erwin laughed, addressing your mother formally from over your shoulder.

He stood a good novel’s width taller than you now. You swore a few months back that you would catch up when you hit your teenage years. Erwin smiled proudly, and you were glad for him. Nile Dok stood, cross-armed on the street, as he usually did. A few other teenagers in Scout, Garrison, and MP uniforms milled about in a group.

“Me and a few buddies were headed out to celebrate, and I wanted to invite you.” 

You blinked in surprise, glancing quickly behind yourself at your mother in an unspoken bid for approval. You rubbed your bicep nervously. To your surprise, she nodded. You suspected it was only because of Erwin. 

“You go ahead, just be home at a decent hour.” 

“I’ll make sure of it.” Erwin nodded and guided you out of the store. 

***

The pub was packed. Erwin’s friends had claimed a cluster of tables in the far corner, stealing chairs from the adjacent area to pull up enough seats for all of them. You stuck by Erwin, him being the only person you knew, as you found yourself utterly lost. The rest of the newly recruited soldiers had just turned the legal drinking age of fifteen; meanwhile, you, at age eleven, sat nursing a sad-looking juice that Erwin had ordered for you. They yammered on about the military, using jargon you couldn’t decipher. Even your waitress, a girl named Marie, seemed to know what you didn’t. 

You sat, trying not to look awkward while Erwin and Nile chatted with her. She laughed a lot, and at one point, she even sat down at the table with you all. Both conversations proceeded to prattle on without you, trapped between military talk and more military talk. Marie seemed more than happy to indulge Erwin and Nile in their niche discussion.

“Up, the both of you, let me see them!”

The two boys rose and, with a cheerful—albeit sheepish— reluctance, gave Marie a slow turn. Only then did you realize that Nile Dok wore the green and silver unicorn of the Military Police. They faced each other, Marie cheerfully between them as the rest of the table whooped and hollered at the modeling of their uniforms. Nile glared at Erwin, who didn’t seem to notice. You looked around at Erwin’s comrades nervously, offering a slight clap of your hands before the two boys finally sat down. 

“I see you brought a friend this time, Erwin.” Your head snapped up, distracted and looking elsewhere when Marie spoke. She offered you a warm smile, her face round and kind. “I’m Marie, it’s good to meet you.” You mirrored her, telling her your name in return. 

“From that bookstore, you like a few blocks away,” Erwin chimed. Marie lit up in recognition. 

“Oh, I love that place. My father always used to take me to pick out books.” She nodded profusely, letting her cheek settle into one of her palms. The other held a round, empty drink tray close to her chest. “I think the amount of times he’s had to read Beauty and the Beast to me has shaved a few years off his life.” She laughed, and the notes she let out were beautiful.

“Really? I might have seen you. I usually run the register,” you said hopefully, without recollection of seeing Marie before. “Small world.” Marie took a sip of ale from Erwin’s cup.

“And you’re so close—” She flinched at the flavor, and Erwin chuckled. —“You should really come by more often. I’ll have a drink waiting for you on the house. Neighbor’s discount.” Erwin cut you off before you could speak.

“Not of age, Marie, don’t do that,” he warned playfully, taking a swig of his drink. You saw Marie’s face contort in confusion. 

“Oh,” she sounded, cocking her head to the side. She studied your face, leaning forward as she squinted at you. “I wouldn’t have known.” Marie cocked her head to the opposite side. “You can’t be too far off.”

“I’m eleven,” you surrendered, feeling small in a group of teenagers, “I’ll be twelve by next season.” You and Erwin only had a three-year age difference, but the gap between his birthday and yours during this season made it appear a year greater. 

“That’ll be just in time for recruitment. Are you planning on joining up with the military, too? If you’re around this one, I can only imagine he’s told you all about it.” She nudged Erwin hard, and he groaned.

“Really, Marie?” 

But, in fact, Erwin hadn’t told you about recruitment. Not that you had been thinking about joining the military in the first place. You remembered he spoke about it more when he was a newly recruited cadet. But as the years passed, you realized you hadn’t noticed his talk about the military— and his father’s theory— had dwindled. 

“I think you know more about it than I do,” you opted, thoughts swimming. You glanced around the table. “Are you also a cadet?” 

“Oh, no, no, no,” she giggled, waving her hands profusely. “Trust me, if you’ve seen me run, you’d know not to put me in any branch!” You were late to the collective laugh that overtook her, Nile, and Erwin. 

“Uh…” You looked down at your sad juice, fingers tracing the rim. “I might apply.” 

Erwin quirked a brow. 

“Really?” he questioned, “I didn’t know you were interested.”

“I was thinking about it.”

And just like that, the conversation became about the military again. A few trainees from your right chimed in about recruitment, mulling over their days as cadets and other pieces of terminology that you still didn’t understand. 

Marie, to her credit, kept attempting to pull you back into the conversation, changing the topic every so often to include you. But just as the chatter had gotten away from you, it got away from her, too. 

She was beautiful and seemed kind, and you understood why Erwin seemed so taken with her.

***

Time passed slowly for you but apparently did not for Erwin. After checking the clock for the umpteenth time, you discretely rose from your chair. You left a coin by your half-empty cup for the pathetic juice. You tried to interject in the discourse for just a moment, but as you expected, you were utterly tuned out. You bid a polite farewell. Erwin didn’t notice. Marie caught your eye as you took two steps away from the table, wordlessly asking if you were alright, and with an equally silent affirmation, she turned back to the group. 

You made it home. You tried to busy yourself with tasks around your room before you found yourself back in the downstairs bookshop. You always thought seeing it locked from the inside was funny, that something about the closed door transformed the space in a way you couldn’t describe. 

The street grew darker on the other side of the glass. The name of your family’s shop displayed itself backward to you, but the letters were correctly cast in the shadow of the setting sun. It would be completely dark by the end of the hour.

You lingered at the back of the store, standing in the second half of the non-fiction section. One by one, you pulled books. Titans. Architectural analysis of the Walls. Cartography. You remembered reading copies of them with Erwin as he explained things to you. 

You sat with them in the dark, pages splayed over open spines as you tried to decipher them. You tore through line by line, flipping as frequently as Erwin had, trying to understand his infatuation with the mysteries between the lines because you were certain that Marie understood in a way you didn’t.

You held the book about titans on your lap, staring into the crudely drawn illustrations as you had with Erwin three years prior. You remembered what Erwin told you. You could probably have recited what he taught word for word, yet you still wouldn’t have understood.

A shadow cast itself across the floor. You recoiled back into the darkness behind the bookshelves. The figure outside pressed itself against the glass, looking in. Despite the elongated form, you recognized a familiar silhouette of hair. 

You peeked out from your hiding place. Erwin was pressed up against the front glass of your shop, hands cupped around his eyes. You retreated, holding your back against the shelf behind you as you pondered your subsequent actions. For once, you weren’t excited to see Erwin Smith at your door. 

He knocked. You waited a few moments, breathing slowly and hoping he would leave. He knocked some more. 

It was only when you heard him sit down on the pavement that you went to collect him. Erwin perked up at the sound of the latch unlocking, quickly scrambling to his feet as you opened the front door of the bookstore. He looked surprised.

“I was worried about you,” he said quickly. “I didn’t know where you went. You didn’t say anything.” Your heart palpitated, seeing him in his new uniform still a dream to you. And better yet, he had remembered you after all and cared enough to come find you. 

You stood in the shop doorway, holding the door against the front of your shoulder. Erwin remained close to you, almost as if waiting to be let in.

“I did,” you assured him. “Marie said goodbye to me on my way out.” Kinda. He glanced between your face and the positioning of the door with a slight frown. “Thank you for inviting me. I’m glad you finally got to join up. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Goodnight.” 

“Wait—” You moved to close the door, but Erwin quickly gripped the width of it. You didn’t fight him for it. He pursed his lip. “I’m sorry.”

Mixed emotions swirled around in your chest. An urge to tear up tugged at your sinuses, and you didn’t know where it came from. 

“Nothing to be sorry about, Erwin.”

It had turned to night. The street where Erwin stood had been overtaken with dim lantern light, and the moon overhead was full. A few clouds passed over his head, floating fast across an otherwise clear sky. 

“We could’ve talked about something else.”

Even in the darkness, his eyes shone with the reflection of the moonlight. The blues of his irises glinted with an acute solemness. They flickered up, and as you followed them, you found a small hoard of winged bugs buzzing around the top of the doorframe. Wiry bodies smacked against the wood and the ceiling, not knowing the difference between outside and indoors. 

“I guess I’ll have to become a cadet.” You met his eye, and he held the same surprised expression from the pub. Surprised and impressed. It was an attention that you liked. “So I can understand what you’re talking about next time.” So that you’ll take me seriously. The corner of his lip twitched.

“That’s a poor reason.” 

“Well—” Your gaze flickered from the Wings of Freedom crest on his left breast pocket. —“What about all the things outside the Walls?” The solemnity in his eye had sparked into a blaze instantly, yet the rest of his features surrendered nothing. “You told me about them a while ago. You think you’re the only one who wants to see them?”

You recited it perfectly. You would have believed you, too.

“You know,” you continued, glancing back toward the back of the shop and the stairwell leading to your upstairs apartment. “They’d be thrilled if you stopped in. If you’re up for it, that is.” 

Erwin didn’t say a word as he pushed the door with a warm smile. You moved to the side to let him in, locking the shop back up behind you.

***

He tried to talk you out of it more than once. 

Erwin liked to ask, “Are you sure?”

And you would always answer, “Never been more sure in my life,” before distracting him with something else to get him to drop the topic. But for all your huffing and puffing, you couldn’t say you disliked the attention. Whenever you brought up your intentions for recruitment, Erwin always fell for your bait. 

You spent three years in the Cadet Corps, just as Erwin had. You donned the same uniform you had grown used to him wearing. The warm smile Erwin had shone when you first showed him had you riding a high for the following two weeks. 

You wrote to him often. Erwin was, after all, a full-time Scout now, and you were busier than ever— training monumentally more taxing than keeping the register at a bookshop, to a lack of your surprise. He offered instructions on how to best perform in ODM gear, how to coil your wires so they don’t tangle, the places to keep stupid clean for inspections… 

You kept them in your gear, papers folded to display certain sections of his notes as you practiced morning to night on your skills. The writing grew worn, and the stationery wrinkled from times that rain fell while you were out and then dried again when you found yourself at a fireplace. 

He told you about expeditions and when he departed. You had a theory that sometimes he forgot he was writing to you at all. You owned pages of Erwin dumping his thoughts onto paper, long ramblings about nothing and everything all at once. You spent your nights trying to understand because there was undoubtedly something more profound than his words. And after a thorough session of overanalysis, you drafted your responses in perfect synchronization with his, line by line. 

His last letter came in before he was sent off on another monthly expedition. Erwin had addressed it, “My Dearest.” You admired how he wrote your name in the following space, observing where the pen lines were thickest and thinnest. 

“By the time you receive this letter, you will have already made your branch selection. Congratulations. I wish I were there to celebrate with you as you did with me…” the letter read. The collection of pen strokes shot through your heart. You let the note drop onto your dorm vanity as you vibrated with glee. You caught sight of your reflection in the mirror and then the Wings of Freedom crest on your breast pocket— just like Erwin’s.

You drew your own stationery, ready to reply to his letter, line by line, as you always had. This time, you intended to give it to him in person. 

***

The gates opened at an odd time in the evening. Which, given the nature of the Scouts, certainly couldn’t have meant anything good. You waited with bated breath at the headquarters in Trost, watching as your fellow Scouts trudged up the hill. You kept out of the way to avoid being put to work by a supervisor who’d perceived you as loitering. After scanning half of the crowd from your upstairs perch at a hallway window, you finally caught sight of a familiar blond. 

You made a break for the stairwell, sliding down the winding railing at the behest of a few passing officers, and dismounted into the courtyard with a start. Meandering horses and soldiers passed you, your singular standing presence parting the group like a lodged stick in river water. 

You instantly spotted him, a wave of relief passing over you that he had returned. The feeling faltered as you saw the gauze wrapped around his forehead and left arm. It didn’t take long for Erwin to spot you in return. His brows raised with joyful surprise before settling into something much more sentimental. You offered him a salute, the first in your new Scout uniform. He saluted you back, the reins of his horse in his hand. 

“You really did it,” he said, riding up before you. He gestured with his head. “Walk with me to the stables. I want to hear all about it.” You obliged.

And so continued a long history of following Erwin Smith. 

***

On the other hand, Levi Ackerman didn’t seem to like you very much. Granted, he didn’t seem to like anyone much outside his two friends. You didn’t blame him, given the way that Erwin had strongarmed the three of them into the military. 

“You’re the one who serves the tea,” Levi said as more of a definite statement than anything else. He stared down at you from a step up, his two friends sitting together in the barracks behind him. The scorn in his voice almost made you take another step down, and his thin brows twitched slightly in confusion. He glanced back at his friends, who both shrugged simultaneously. 

“I’m a team leader under Section Commander Erwin?” you clarified, which made Levi scowl deeper for some odd reason. You repeated your name, but Levi didn’t appear to be paying much attention. A buzzing sounded from the lamp hanging just outside Levi’s door. A long-legged insect fluttered around the light. Levi stepped outside, closing the door behind him. 

“I always see you serving tea.” Your skin burned with embarrassment. You fidgeted, lightly folding the papers in your hands. Did new recruits really think you were just there to serve drinks?

“I wanted to give you these,” you glossed over the implication, offering Levi the stack of small papers in your hands. He looked at them skeptically but ultimately took them from you. Levi flipped through them briskly, bored gaze passing over carefully hand-written notes and detailed diagrams. They looked old. “I had help when I first became a Scout. And training is tomorrow, and I know the three of you were kinda singled out, so…” You didn’t know where you were going with that. 

“Thanks.” Levi continued to stare you down. 

“Well, that’s all. I hope they can help.” You made your way down the steps of the barracks hastily. Levi watched your back as you retreated into the darkness. 

***

“I guess you didn’t need those notes after all.” Given that this wasn’t your squad, Levi was surprised to turn around and see you. You stared past him and up into the trees of the training forest. After your delivery to Section Commanders Hanji and Flagon, they quickly returned to headquarters. 

“Hurry up, Newbie.” Flagon had called to Levi, but you had insisted that he could return with you instead.

“Your matters are urgent, Section Commander. Let me take something off your plate.” And with one last pout, he obliged you.

“They were helpful enough,” Levi said, polishing his gear. If anything good came from his current situation, it came in the form of standard-issue cleaning and maintenance products. “You keep thorough notes for an errand-runner.” You laughed, although Levi couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic.

“Expedition Command is no joke, and besides, it let me catch the tail end of your practice.” You sat down next to him. Before the Scouts claimed this section of the forest for training purposes, someone had placed a picnic table out by the tree line. You sat with Levi on the bench, heaving a deep sigh. “Unless you’re complaining about getting time away from Flagon, which, in that case, I can take you back now.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

You leaned back against the table, enjoying the view over Trost and Wall Rose, glancing at Levi, who was now tending to his grips. The sun had begun to float back down to the horizon, although you still had a few hours before it completely set. Peak heat was starting to dissipate, and the light cast a myriad of pastel colors across the thin mass of swirling clouds overhead. You reached into your boot and, retrieving a folded paper and a pen, turned on the bench to study Levi’s reverse grip. 

He glanced up from his polishing, double-taking your rigorous notes. You had already drawn a diagram of how Levi held his swords. 

“Can I help you?”

You glanced up at him and back down at your notes. A few equations littered the margins. The numbers were small. A few of them were crossed out. Complex diagrams depicting vectors and force lined the bottom. 

“Your reverse grip might be revolutionary. I heard Hanji say so. No one’s ever done it before.” Your face lit up much more subtly than Hanji’s did. Hanji had practically passed out on the spot. “Standard techniques might damage your wrists long-term.” You turned to him with a light smile. “Maybe we can troubleshoot it sometime.”

Levi set his gear down, resting his current fixation on his lap. He observed every inch of your face, suspiciously taking in every fold, pore, and curve. Perhaps Erwin knew of his plan for assassination and sent you to do recon. But something about you gave him the slightest doubt of his suspicion.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, the scowl on his lips no more severe than usual. You would learn quickly that it happened to be the face Levi always made. You cast your attention back toward your notes, calculations, and diagrams, shrugging.

“When you join the military, a lot of talk can go over your head. Things can be a little cliquey that way, unfortunately.” You held out the page to him. “It’s rough because it’s based on my estimations, but this might help.” Levi’s nose wrinkled, and he made no effort to take the note.

“I don’t want your boot paper.”

“Not a fan of footnotes?” Levi didn’t laugh. You stifled the goofy smile that fought to overtake your lips. Terrible puns aside, Levi had never seen that expression while you were pouring tea. You put the scribbling into your breast pocket. 

“I’m not a fan of gross, sweaty paper from someone’s boot.” 

“Fair enough.” You stood, stretching as you continued to stare out towards Trost. You pivoted to face Levi, who had just finished wrapping up the rest of his gear. “Are you ready to head back?”

You mounted your horses, and Levi had to admit that riding back to headquarters with you likely marked his most pleasant experience since joining up with the Scouts. No supervisors were around to talk down to him. No one was screaming. It was just the two of you traveling through wildflowers and tall grass.

Levi stared at the back of your head as you naturally took the lead. You sure had a lot of faith that he wouldn’t slit your throat and ride off, Levi thought. He rode up next to you, his unfamiliar horse jerking to the side. 

“You gunning for some job in the rookie— whatever— school or something?” Levi leaned forward to meet your eye. The question left you puzzled.

“The Cadet Corps? No.” Your mouth puckered in thought. Levi veered ahead, your horses slowing down as you traveled carefully down a decline. He scoffed.

“With your thorough lesson plans. What’s even the point of being here?” he jeered.

“Most of that was actually Erwin’s.” Levi perked up at the mention of his target’s name. “We used to exchange letters when I was a cadet. He helped me get through the academy, so I compiled everything into more organized notes. And, well, I expanded some.” He hummed, saying nothing as you entered Trost. 

A few people waved to you. You waved back with a smile. Levi continued to follow you down the busy streets.

“You keep showing those titans who’s boss, Lieutenant!”

“I certainly will, Mr. Flynn. Say hello to Mary for me!”

The farther Levi rode with you, the clearer it became that you knew just about everyone. Even the stable boys regarded you casually, taking your horse in immediately as you made small talk. Levi had several questions about you, but none of them would distract him from his mission. 

***

That was until the expedition happened. 

Levi made himself scarce during the following days, and with no one close to him, no one sought him out to bother him. 

“Maybe I should stop by.” You stared out the window of Erwin’s office. He hardly looked up from his paperwork, humming to himself as his distracted brain worked to register your comment. 

“Hm? Why’s that?” You stared off in the direction of the barracks. Given your position, pulling Levi's schedule wouldn’t be too difficult. Your eyes focused on your reflection in the glass, and as Erwin sighed and turned to face you, you met his reflection. “Feeling sentimental for my assassin?” You scoffed, turning around. Your knees bent, allowing you to lean on the low windowsill. 

“You’re still here, aren’t you?” 

Erwin swiveled his head with a playful roll of his eyes. His mouth remained in a stoic line. 

“You’re heartless.” 

“You? Calling me heartless? That’s funny when you’re straight merciless. Assassin or not…” With a jump of his brows, Erwin turned back around to his paperwork. —“Oh, and thanks for letting me in on that, by the way.” You glanced back outside the window with a slight pout. “Someone’s ordered a hit out on you, and you don’t even bother to tell me.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know next time.”

“Erwin.”

“Hm?” 

You had lost his attention again, probably for the better, given that Commander Shadis wanted the paperwork under Erwin’s hands on his desk as soon as possible. You meandered across Erwin’s office, plucking open a side cabinet to reveal all the fixings for a cup of tea. He perked up at the very sound. 

Erwin waited for you to start preparing it.

“Would you make me one?” He craned his neck, hoping to catch today’s selection— as if it wasn’t Erwin’s very own tea collection. You didn’t look at him.

“No.” 

Erwin’s face fell with an acute shake at your outright refusal.

“Why not?” 

You turned with reluctance, the tea already in your hands, ready for brewing. A vein twitched in your forehead.

“Because new recruits think my only job is to bring you tea.” You didn’t miss the little smirk that glitched onto Erwin’s lips. Another bob of his eyebrows. His pen flew across the pages. 

“Oh really? And who told you that?” He glanced up at you, another tease at the tip of his tongue. He would only talk this way with you. “Would it be a breach of power if I ordered you to bring me one?” The annoyed tensing of your shoulders filled Erwin with amusement. 

“I’m sure Commander Shadis would love to know that you’re abusing your power over your team leaders.” You walked over to Erwin’s desk, and sure enough, you held a second cup of tea. He graciously took it in his hands with a polite nod.

“This is why you’re in my squad.” You held onto the handle.

“Hopefully, not the only reason.” After a beat, you relinquished the cup to him. Erwin thanked you. You sat on the front of his desk, the both of you taking a sip of your drinks simultaneously. 

“Oh, I’ll be seeing Marie at the month's end.” You nearly choked. That was a name you hadn’t heard in a while. You didn’t think Erwin had seen Marie again since the beginning of his time in the Scouts. If he did, it wasn’t information you wanted to know. “She sent me a letter recently. She says she has big news that she wants to share with me.”

“Will Nile be there?” you asked, trying to make sense of the situation. Erwin shook his head. 

“Not as far as I know.” You hummed into your tea, not wanting to sound too invested.

“You haven’t seen Marie in quite some time. I’m sure seeing her again will be very nice.”

“I think so, too.”

When you finished your drink, Erwin was filling out the last page. He held his teacup in one hand and penned his signature on the last of the paperwork with the other. You gathered it all in one big stack, and with relief, you retreated from Erwin’s office.

***

A pounding came at your door later that evening. Its force made you dart onto your feet, and as it sounded again, you scrambled for a weapon to answer the door with. Opening the door to your unknown visitor turned out to be rather anticlimactic. Levi pushed directly past you, making a beeline for your kitchen. 

“Uh, hello…?” You stood at the door in a set of comfortable civilian clothes and a sizable combat knife in your hand. It was late, after all, to be having unexpected visitors. He only stopped raiding your cabinets for a moment to scold you.

“Shut the door; you’ll let in the bugs.” Not knowing what else to do, you complied with his request. Levi stood in your kitchen, a canister in his palm. He turned back to you with his usual deep frown. “Really?” He held the canister up and shook it before raiding your cabinets some more. “The Scout’s resident tea servant, and you don’t even have anything of quality.”

You gaped at the sight in front of you. Unlike most officers, you didn’t live in standard issue housing within headquarters. Rather, the Scouts owned a few apartments in the surrounding buildings. You happened to get placed in one of those through sheer bureaucratic bullshit, but you certainly weren’t complaining about not having to live in a glorified dorm fifty steps away from where you worked. 

Still, you huffed at Levi’s audacity, storming forward to slam your hand against the counter extended in front of you.

“Didn’t you grow up in the sewer or something?” you shot back, earning another glare from Levi.

“Yeah, so it’s a goddamn testament when I say this shit is shit.” Nonetheless, he continued to brew the tea. If you were honest with yourself, you were a bit sick of tea for the day. Levi crossed his arms, his bangs falling in his face. “Do you still have that page from your shoe?” You stood, blinking for a moment.

“The… footnote…?” you wondered with a genuine seriousness. Levi rolled his eyes as he grumbled to himself. 

“Whatever. Whatever you want to call it. Do you still have it?” He slammed one of your cups in front of you, and by some miracle, the tea didn’t spill over the sides. Levi took a sip from his, physically recoiling as the liquid touched his tongue. He slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“Yeah…?” You still didn’t follow. Levi dumped his drink down your sink. 

“Get it for me.” From seemingly out of nowhere, he tugged out your notes. Levi slammed them down on the counter, letting the pages splay out. “I want to work on that reverse grip.”

***

Sitting with Levi at your kitchen table as he read over your notes, something about it felt familiar. A single light dangled overhead. Your two plates had been pushed off to the side, the pastries from the market being the only thing Levi seemed to approve of in your apartment. Your tea had about an inch left in the cup. Levi had settled on a blend you didn’t know you had, grumbling something about it being shit but less shit than your shitty tea. 

He sat at your kitchen table for hours, following silently along as you walked him through your notes. He wanted to know everything, what every term meant, every figure and diagram. You explained it all as you relived your old notes with older eyes.

In a way, you couldn’t help but be reminded of Erwin and the way he used to teach you. 

“I don’t understand the difference here.” Levi slouched over a comparison of two diagrams. “They look the same to me.” 

“The difference is that instead of your first knuckle bearing all the force, it would be evenly distributed across your finger. You can bend your fingers the way you have been, but you risk breaking them.” You pulled up another page, layering the two so that the pictures lay one on the other. “And this rotating motion will allow the remaining force of your strike to be absorbed throughout your entire arm once you hit something solid instead of breaking your fingers or shoulder.”

Levi nodded silently along, eyes darting elsewhere as he thought to himself. He mirrored the motion in the air.

“Doesn’t that feel more natural?” Levi hummed, and you didn’t think twice about taking hold of him to guide him in the motion he had been using in his swordsmanship. “As opposed to this. You can feel it right here, can’t you?” You patted the underside of his bicep. 

“Yeah, I can.” You stared into his eyes, the sudden realization coming over you.

“Oh, sorry.” You recoiled your hands from him. He returned to studying the papers.

“It’s no problem…” he trailed off. You watched as he pondered to himself, and you subtly checked the clock. The time he had been there wasn’t much of an issue to you; you were just surprised you had talked for so long. No wonder you were all out of ideas for him. You were about to tell Levi just that when he spoke again, “You are wasted in your position.” Your head snapped toward him, wondering if you heard him right.

“What?” 

Levi didn’t hesitate to repeat himself.

“You’re wasted as a glorified errand dog,” he asserted. “I don’t know much about the ranks and shit around here, but I know for damn sure you deserve section commander or higher.” 

You were stunned and silent. Levi sighed, taking it upon himself to start clearing up the dishware from the table. You shook your head.

“I don’t—”

“You know, I don’t really care if you don’t agree.” Levi moved past you, rolling his sleeves to work on the dishes. “And I’m not going to try to convince you either way.” 

Levi’s departure from your apartment was uneventful. After he finished putting away your dishes, you handed him the newly-thickened compilation of notes, and he was out the door. His words about your wasted potential kept you up that night until you overthought yourself to sleep.

***

Once an assassin sent to kill your closest and dearest friend from childhood, you now thought of Levi Ackerman as more similar to a housecat than anything else. He showed up at your doorstep once. You had given him terrible tea and a decent pastry once, and that had turned into a terrible habit of him showing up to your apartment unannounced at least a few times a week. 

“It didn’t feel right,” he muttered the next time he stormed through your door. A few of your notes were fanned out in his hands, wrinkled from how he held them in his punishing grip. He wore his full ODM gear on top of his civilian clothes, with filled sword sheaths and all. You just about screamed when he drew a blade. Levi remained focused on the notes. “You said the new technique was supposed to relieve tension, but I’m still getting aches in my knuckles and my shoulder.” You continued to watch his sword.

“Is my apartment really the best place for your ODM training?” 

“It’s not like I’m tearing up the place; even if I did, the Scouts would pay for the repairs.”

“Out of my paycheck,” you muttered.

“Better yours than mine. Show me the technique again.” Levi sighed, shoulders dropping in annoyance as he finally lowered the page. He gritted his teeth, tilting his head back in exasperation. Yeah, Flagon was right. Levi really did look like a thug. A moment passed until he deflated, blowing out hot air as he fought his signature scowl. In your opinion, he wasn’t doing a very good job. “...please?”

You sighed, setting aside whatever task you were doing.

“Look, I’m not a trainer. It’s just theory and a mishmash of stuff I know, which can only take you so far.” You crossed your arms, gesturing at him with a shrug of your shoulder. Levi blinked at you, unbothered. “Okay, show me what you’ve been doing.”

That extra set of ODM gear sat compiled in the corner of your already small living room, which Levi had brought a few nights back to practice his basic motions with. You didn’t ask where it came from.

(He had even hidden an extra set of clothes at your place, although it was likely that he had told you where he was stashing them, and you weren’t paying attention or forgot. Both were likely.)

You stood again at Erwin’s tea station, holding an unopened container in your palm. Given the times it had been passed over, you safely decided that Erwin didn’t like the blend. You held it up in the air.

“I’m taking this,” you proclaimed.

“Go right ahead.” Erwin shifted in your peripheral. “Late nights?” He took a comb to his hair, squinting at his reflection in the window. You reckoned he looked pretty goofy from outside, given anyone was watching the windows.

“I guess you could say that. I was told that my tea sucks.” Erwin chuckled, smoothing his bangs out over his forehead one last time. 

“Well, I’m honored you’ve decided to raid my stash to turn the tides.” He came around his desk as you closed the cabinets. You pocketed the tea, and Erwin came to stand tall and straight in front of you. He puffed out his chest, his newly laundered dress uniform looking crisply ironed. “How do I look?” 

You adjusted his collar. You never did make good on your proclamation to grow three meters tall, and now Erwin stood in front of you with a decent advantage in height. Not that it mattered now as adults well into their twenties, but it struck you how much time had passed.

“You look as handsome as always. I think Marie’ll just…” You took an inhale, putting on the best smile you could. “Marie will just be so happy to see you.” You picked up the mixed bouquet from his desk and handed it to him. “Good luck. I hope you get home safe.”

“And you—” Erwin glanced back up from the tea stashed in your pocket to your face, a coy look about him. —“I take it you have evening plans as well?” 

“Hardly,” you laughed bitterly, picturing Levi’s frowning face. Erwin leaned back on the front of his desk, carefully holding the bouquet for Marie by the bound stems. And as he sat, simply staring at you, your smile faltered as you dared to think his expression resembled something sentimental.

Erwin had changed; as much as you liked to think he looked the same as he always did growing up. To you, he did look the same. You saw him just about every day for the past ten years, and the small details of his face had escaped you. He used to have full cheeks, you realized. Now, his face looked far more defined. You wondered when he developed such angular cheekbones.

“You like your bad tea.”

“Wait, you think it’s bad too?” 

“I’m just saying to not get too invested in a guy who criticizes your tea, that’s all.” Erwin shifted his shoulders, pulling on the front of his collar before smoothing it out again. You scoffed.

“Believe me, I wouldn’t consider myself ‘invested’ in any sense of the word—” You stopped short. Erwin was staring again, a self-satisfied smirk threatening to give him away.

“So there is a guy.” You protested at the smug waggle of his eyebrows. You searched around your vicinity for something to throw at him. Finding nothing, you reopened the tea cabinet and hurled a teaspoon at Erwin’s head. He ducked out of the way with a light chuckle. “Easy. You know, I really ought to have a word with this tea critic of yours.”

“There’s no guy. And why do you assume it’s a guy anyway?” 

“I know you better than anyone else, for one.” Erwin bobbed his head in thought. “And so, I’d like a word.” The clock chimed, alerting you to the next hour. Erwin stood, and you left his office together. You frowned at him as he locked the door from the hallway, not forgetting the bouquet in his hands for a second.

“What’s it to you anyway? You’re off to see Marie.” 

Erwin pocketed his keys, eyes avoiding yours.

“When you have the same tea for so long, some wiseass shouldn’t be waltzing in talking about things they don’t know about. That’s all.” You took the canister out of your pocket, studying the label with furrowed brows.

“Wow, I didn’t know you were so passionate about tea.” 

Red moved somewhere in front of your face, and as you looked up, the red blur had become a single flower plucked from Marie’s bouquet. Erwin offered it to you.

“I’ll see you tomorrow for expedition prep,” Erwin said, breaking you out of your trance. You took it in your hands.

“See you tomorrow.” With one last faint smile, Erwin disappeared down the stairwell.

***

You didn’t have a vase. You had never been gifted flowers before, so the single flower Erwin gave you sat in the nicest, tallest glass you owned. Due to the wide mouth, the stem flopped to the side, displaying the petals at an angle. 

You sat at your kitchen table, having just had dinner. An empty plate moved off to the side, you rested your head on your crossed arms, lost in the makeshift container. You tried not to think about how Erwin’s night with Marie was going. 

You had seen her a few months back, accidentally running into her somewhere in the market. She told you that she didn’t see many of the old group around— not that you were a part of it in the first place— but that you should join Nile in visiting her at the pub. She owned it now. You went a few times during your cadet years, a part of you wondering if perhaps the two of you could be friends. It never clicked through no fault of your own or hers, and you stopped as soon as you graduated. 

With a groan, you buried your face in your arms before snapping yourself back up again. You plucked your black, beat-up leather notebook from the adjacent shelf, and with a pen from a nearby jar, you flipped to one of your pages in progress. 

A neat list of Levi’s complaints with the reverse grip sat on the left side of the page, and a jumbled mess of lines interweaved to point toward possible solutions. Some arrows were crossed entirely out, with new lines overlapping them. Unlabeled microcalculations littered the spaces in between, left unfinished when you got to a point where you could do the math in your head. 

You stared at the book for a while, scribbling and jotting things you knew were half-hearted ideas. Your guesswork littered page after page until the ink began to stain your fingers, and just when you were starting to get sick of looking at your writing, a firm knock sounded at the door. 

It thumped three times exactly, and you buried your face in your hands at the prospect of having to keep thinking about this stupid reverse hold technique. But you brought it on yourself. Naively, you wondered if you could convince Levi to do something else. He seemed like he could be easily persuaded to clean your kitchen. Maybe you could read a book or perform some other leisurely activity you haven’t had the time or energy to do.

“I left it open,” you moaned, “Just don’t expect me to feed you—”

You had expected Levi, but when the door opened, Erwin stumbled through. He held the door with a lazy grip, the front of his long jacket completely undone, exposing his white button-down and dark-colored slacks. His face drooped in the way that most people did when they had too much to drink. Erwin hardly drank, let alone overdrank. 

You immediately jumped up, running to the door to support him. Erwin practically collapsed in your arms when you came near, his dead weight almost forcing you to the floor. He wrapped his arms around you tightly, anchoring the both of you firmly to the ground below. Your door didn’t quite close, allowing a sliver of light from the outside lamps to enter your apartment. 

He smelled strongly of whiskey. You tried to pull him away to talk to him directly, but he didn’t budge, head buried deep in the crook of your neck. 

He just held you wordlessly.

“Marie is getting married,” he said, hardly above a whisper. Your cheek moved against the hair just behind his ear as you turned in surprise. You rubbed your hand gently between his shoulder blades, your other tracing the back of his collar. He tightened his grip on you, refusing to move. 

“Oh, Erwin…” You sighed, and you felt him shake once. “I’m sorry.”

After all this time, he was still in love with her.

And you knew it, too. You’ve always known. 

You knew it when you went to his graduation dinner.

You knew it when you found his unfinished love letters to her when he was promoted to Section Commander and got his office. 

You didn’t know what you were apologizing for.

You let him find comfort in you, taking the time he needed in your presence as you stared off at where the wall met the ceiling from over his shoulder. You felt something deteriorating in you like a slow spiral that settled into what you could only describe as heartbreak. A few tears prickled at your eyes, but you refused to shed them. 

After an eternity, Erwin finally rose, the withdrawing of his grasp also withdrawing his warmth. He let out a huff, almost in disbelief of himself. The only evidence of his crying soaked into the shoulder of your shirt. 

“Go sit down. I’ll bring you tea.” With another labored breath, Erwin nodded. He slipped out of his jacket. You took it off his shoulders to hang up by the door. He placed his shoes neatly underneath, slowing impressive dexterity for a man who might not remember the night in the morning. Erwin popped open a few buttons on his shirt as he went to sit. 

You went to the kitchen, preparing your beverages with the same tea you had always used. He took it from you graciously. 

“I only have tea that you don’t like. I thought I’d opt for the familiar one.” 

“I can’t say I have the right to be picky,” he laughed lightly, staring at his rippled reflection in the cup. “Thank you.” 

“It’s not a problem. What else are friends for?” Erwin watched as you set your cup on the coffee table before you.

“Yeah… friends.” 

He glanced around your apartment. He hadn’t been there for quite some time, but even so, little had changed. Your kitchen table sat four, but the one you sat in every time was the only one not neatly pushed in. You have had the same water kettle since you first joined the Scouts. He remembered when you bought it. You were worried that you got ripped off, but more than ten years later, it still did the job. Pages of handwritten notes were designated into piles across every surface, some better hidden than others.

“That’s not your ODM gear,” Erwin pointed out, observing the pile of gear in the corner of the living area. Even if it was yours, keeping swords and sheaths in one’s living area didn’t align with standard policy. 

“Oh, um.” You followed his gaze. “I was doing some experimenting, I guess you could call it.” Erwin took a sip of his tea, beginning to sober up some.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Hanji,” he joked, his smile fading as he played with the cup's handle. “How come you never told me about it?” Erwin leaned forward, taking a paper from a pile on your coffee table, nursing his steaming beverage as he glazed over it. He flipped it over. “You weren’t kidding…”

“That’s not even all of it.” You stood, running to grab your journal and the myriad of pages from the kitchen table. Moving your tea out of the way, you splayed it on the table. Your complex mathematics, crude diagrams, and painstakingly thought-out theories. Erwin poured over it all.

You expected him to say something, but he remained quiet. He flipped the pages over, revealing just as sophisticated backs. 

“These are our current techniques for Titan-Engaged Combat,” he said, almost to himself. He set his empty cup down. “And you calculated the most efficient navigation for the best gas conservation and highest striking power… Where did you get these numbers? Who taught you this?” Thrown off by his questions, you almost smiled.

“Do you remember the closest shelf to the register at the shop? The first half of the non-fiction section?”

He did remember.

And all this time, Erwin had only thought about what he could teach you.

“I never knew you did this.” He flipped through your journal. It dated back years, and judging by the near identical ones that lined your bookshelf, he guessed it wasn’t the only one. “It’s impressive. It could be, well, life-saving.” 

You thanked him awkwardly, not used to sharing your hobby with anyone. Erwin sat back against the cushion of your couch, studying your work. You leaned an elbow back, sitting on your side as you slung your legs over his lap to read with him. And then he laughed, letting his head fall back, and the page drop to your knees. 

“What’s so funny?” you asked. Erwin’s chest rose as he breathed in deeply.

“Just Hanji, huh?” he exhaled, another laugh breaking up the stream as he pinched at the bridge of his nose. Erwin shook his head, his typically neat hair turning just a bit ruffled. “I was worried for nothing.”

“Worried? Why were you—” 

You didn’t know how it happened. 

Erwin’s nose nudged against yours. You felt him lean toward you, and like that, you let him kiss you. 

Your eyes fluttered closed. He was gentle, and his lips were smooth. It was clumsy at first, but you quickly learned to follow his lead, falling into a rhythm as his hand ran up your jaw and as far as it could into your hair. You had waited for this moment for so long, but now that it was finally a reality, you couldn’t stop that nagging, sad, and confused pit in your chest.

“Erwin?” Your eyes remained closed as he kissed the side of your mouth, leading a trail of sloppy kisses down your jaw. You found yourself quickly, taking him by the shoulders and pushing him back, holding him at arm’s length as you stared into his wide, lost blues. You shook your head slowly, repeating his name softly. “Erwin.”

He flinched back from you instantly, hands flying again to his face. Erwin rubbed at the skin around his eyes, brushing aggressively over his cheeks and through his now messy hair. 

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Erwin drawled in a voice you had never heard before. “I’m sorry.”

You didn’t know what to say. Your knee dipped into the cushion under you as you reached out, trying to place your hands on his. In a stroke of irony, you weren’t allowed to say anything at all. 

“Do you not know how to close a goddamn door? You see all these moths—”

All the three of you could do for a second was look at each other. Erwin sat up straight and alert, ready to stand at any second against your intruder. You had shot yourself to the opposite side of the couch in a moment of instinct, and Levi slowly closed your door, making sure the latch clicked. 

You shot up after the momentary shock wore off, instantly taking Levi by the sleeve.

“Now’s really not a good time.”

“Is it, now?” Levi stopped, not letting himself be tugged along. He made a point to glance at the cups of tea on the coffee table and back at you. He sent a pointed glare towards Erwin. “Having some evening tea, are we, Erwin?” Erwin stood, arms crossed, as he regarded your new guest.

“Levi,” he acknowledged. 

“Levi!” you hissed, tugging him back toward the door. You held it open, practically pleading with him. “Out!”

With a final glare toward Erwin, Levi shrugged your hand off with a jerk of his arm and left. By the time you turned back to Erwin, he was already beginning to collect his things. 

“I should probably be going, too,” he sighed, slipping on his jacket.

“Erwin, wait, I—”

“I’m sorry. What happened tonight was inappropriate and extremely unprofessional, especially for a superior and subordinate officer—”

“Erwin, please, can we talk about this?”

“I will see you in the morning for expedition prep.”

You couldn’t stop him as he left.

***

Erwin arrived at the meeting with Expedition Command just three minutes early with Miche in tow. You had been waiting for him outside, several copies of his requested documents organized neatly in your arms, watching other senior officials enter the meeting room. Ever the one to be at least a half hour early, Erwin arriving to a session on time struck you into a panic. You nearly called someone, convinced there had been an emergency. But with five minutes to spare, you heard him from down the hall. You knew his gait anywhere.

He strode with purpose down the hall, jaw as squared as ever and weight to his step. Your heart jumped, the events from the night before still fresh in your memory. You hoped to talk to him after everything had been squared away from the next expedition.

You had bolted up from the bench you were sitting on and stood at attention with a salute. Erwin regarded you coolly, never dropping an ounce of his collected and upright professionalism. You tried not to let the fact that he treated you differently in private whip your thoughts into a frenzy, but his avoidance of your eye wasn’t something you could ignore. 

“Ah, you brought the copies. Perfect. Miche can take those from you.” Erwin walked past you, the slight breeze of his quick pace flowing through the tips of your hair. You hardly noticed as Miche towered over you, hands ready to receive your papers as instructed. You craned your neck, looking at Erwin’s back as he approached the meeting room doors. “You are dismissed.”

“Section Commander? Am I not also on this meeting, too?” 

“There’s no need for there to be two team leads here, not for meeting this early in advance.”

“But the expedition is less than a week away—”

“Team Leader,” Erwin snapped, turning toward you. His gaze was lidded and cold, and his lips drew into a tight, untelling line. “You are dismissed.”

His words lodged in your chest, swirling around your stomach until you became nauseous. You didn’t remember saluting him or handing Miche your copies. You heard yourself say, “Yes, sir,” but you didn’t remember speaking.

You hurried out of the hall as quickly as possible and then out of Headquarters completely. And with a single stop at your apartment, you rode out of Trost on horseback. 

***

“Graah!! Agrahhh!” You slashed your way through the compilation of dummies stationed on the forest floor, each outfitted with durable, twirling arms made specifically for sword training. The force of your cuts caused them to spin with a force of equal magnitude to your strike. You screamed into the training forest, scaring a few birds overhead who flocked out of the leaves above. 

Hot, concentrated air blew out your nose as you maintained your labored breathing. You swung your swords, burning red-hot as you made your way through the training area, the sound of metal clashing filling your ears with a piercing scratching sound. Your muscles knew where to strike before you could even process the rapid turns in front of your eyes. 

You ducked under a spinning arm, driving your swords up in an arch.

Why were you taken off of the meeting with Expedition Command?

The arm fell to the ground. The force of slicing it off cramped your thumb, giving you another reason to scream and cry out as you slashed at the remaining dummies with reckless abandon. 

Why did Erwin refuse to talk to you? If you let him continue, would he have demoted you like this?

The very thought of demotion made your blood boil, your rage launching you to conclusions and your swords in all directions. You weren’t even thinking about your swings anymore.

All these years following, pouring tea and making copies while Erwin wept over a woman he hardly made an effort to pursue? Turning down Hanji’s offer for a promotion within their ranks for this? For a man who never even saw you in the first place—?

An arm from one of the dummies hit you dead in the face. The velocity at which it spun ensured an instant and solid crack in your nose. You shrieked again as you felt a warm stream of blood pour from your face, your last strike sending the offending arm flying off into the forest. And with a final fit of rage, you sent your swords flying, too.

You dropped to your knees in the middle of the busted-up training circle, frustrated tears falling from your cheeks as you brushed your wild stray hairs from your face. You took a second to feel sorry for yourself and another to pop your nose back into place before you went to retrieve your swords. If you kept bleeding, you would reluctantly ride down to Trost to see a medic.

“You should really watch where you throw those things. You could’ve hurt someone.”

As if your day wasn’t bad enough…

“Leave me alone, Levi.” 

You could have cried seeing him. Hell, you were crying anyway. Had it been anyone else standing at the edge of the training grounds with your swords, you might have snapped and wailed at them, too. Levi held a stoic expression on his face if not his usual frown. Not wanting to engage, you reloaded your grips with new swords from your sheath. 

You turned back toward the training dummies, giving some half-assed swipes to the spinning arms. They didn’t rotate nearly as fast as they just were.

“People are looking for you.”

“Since when did you become an errand dog?” You spat, still refusing to look his way. Tears were still streaming down your face; no matter how you willed them to stop, they just kept coming. You heard Levi shift somewhere behind you.

“I dunno,” he answered, “When did you start sleeping with your boss?”

You whirled around instantly, eyes puffy and teeth clenched as your face contorted in barely restrained rage.

“I don’t! We aren’t—” you barked, the clasp where your swords fit into your grips clattering just slightly from the shake in your hands. You tugged out a portion of your shirt from under the straps on your shoulder to wipe away the wetness from your eyes. “Please, just leave me alone.” 

Your newly attached swords dug into the ground adjacent to your feet, and with new tears came more swipes of your sleeve. With your vision so obscured, you didn’t even notice Levi approach you, the reins of his horse in one hand and yours in the other. The sudden appearance made you jump a bit. Levi had thrown your old swords into the dirt. He offered the reins to you again, holding out his arm. 

“Let’s go.” His voice was low and soft. Your brow furrowed, your brain still in a fog. Levi spoke before you had a chance, almost reading your mind. “We’re not going back to headquarters.” 

You collected yourself with no time to be embarrassed over your display of emotion. You didn’t know why you followed him. Rudderless, you didn’t know what else to do.

***

You tried your horses up between two narrow areas somewhere in Wall Sina. The thin pathway opened up to a broad, square area hidden between the tall buildings. The height of them made the ground below appear dark. Levi led you through the thin maze of alleys until you finally arrived at a slender, rock-faced building with a wooden door. The shudders were open, allowing sunlight to illuminate the wooden floorboards below your feet.

Looking around, you couldn’t tell what the establishment was. There was a bar, but nothing appeared to be behind it. Tables lined the sides of the room, but there weren’t enough to accommodate many customers for dining. A woman sat at one of them, a broom in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She made half-hearted attempts to blow her smoke out the open windows. 

Levi exchanged a brief look with her before marching into a room behind the bar. You stepped into the center of the room, lining your feet up with the orb of light that reflected onto the center. You finally noticed how scuffed up your boots were.

Levi was back instantly, motioning for you to follow him up a set of stairs to the left of the bar. By the time you even reached the doorway, he had already managed to make it up two flights. Random items littered the landings, obscuring your path with folded tables, cases of liquor, and assorted cleaning products. You stared up the winding railings, jogging along quickly to follow. 

The stairs led to the roof, where Levi was already sitting at a beat-up table for two. A few clotheslines sat behind him with linens blowing in the wind. A mixture of other assorted items was pushed off to the side. A table missing a leg sat upside down. A few broken lamps lay strewn across the rooftop, among other evidence of broken things abandoned. Levi had already poured wine into two tall-stemmed glasses.

You sat on the chair closest to the door, back tense and your bottom at the edge of the seat. Levi swirled the wine in his glass, an ankle slung across his opposite knee as he looked out across Sina. He didn’t speak, let alone acknowledge you. You took the wine in your hand, giving it a swish as he did before bringing it tentatively to your lips. To your surprise, you enjoyed the flavor. 

“You didn’t think I’d choose a shitty wine, did you?” Levi lounged back on his slotted wooden chair.

“I just didn’t take you for one to drink, I guess.”

“Fair enough. I don’t make a habit of it.” He placed the glass back on the table with slender fingers. You still held yours, not knowing what to do with your hands. You stared down at it, and the various items littered the ground within your field of vision. You ignored your peripherals completely, avoiding having to look at Levi at all costs. 

“You just drink nice wines whenever you please?” you asked absentmindedly, not really looking for an answer. He crossed his arms, adjusting how his shirt sat on his shoulders.

“I guess you could say I have an eye for quality.” You missed his lingering glance, letting the silence between you fester. Levi, all for silence on any given day, was unbothered for the most part. But for once, he wasn’t simply content to let the quiet pass him by. “You and Erwin are close, huh?”

“Please, I really don’t want to talk about this,” you groaned, squinting your eyes closed as you cringed to yourself. 

“I don’t ask for my sake, believe me.” Levi played with the base of his wine glass, tracing the circular shape with the pad of his finger. “Who else are you going to talk to?” 

The simple question struck you. He was right; you didn’t think you even had anyone else you could talk to about Erwin. There was Hanji, but as a fellow section commander, talking to them about personal matters might overstep some professional boundaries— not to mention if they decided to report Erwin’s abuse of power to the commander. Team Leader Miche didn’t seem to be the type to give the sort of advice you were looking for either. 

“We knew each other as kids,” you found yourself blurting after another sip of wine. Levi settled farther into his chair, ready to listen. And he did, patiently drinking his wine as you told him all about how you first met, the holiday dinners, the day Erwin selected his branch, Marie, and the letters. He remained quiet for most of it, only interjecting occasionally to ask questions.

“Do you even want to be in the Scouts? Or is it just because of him?” he asked, somewhere between your recount of the celebration dinner and Erwin’s promotion to section commander. You had never thought of it before. You chose to join to be close to Erwin, and now, having spent almost your whole life in the service, you weren’t sure you could even make a distinction. 

“I think in the beginning, it was because of him. And now that I’m good at what I do, I’m not sure where else I would go,” you sighed. “And if I’m good, then why change now, I guess.” Levi scoffed.

“That’s a poor reason.” His words made you chuckle.

“That’s exactly what Erwin said when I first told him I was going into the Cadet Corps…” you trailed off, the smile on your lips fading slowly. You found it funny: your best friend was giving you the cold shoulder; meanwhile, you were venting your frustrations to the man who was sent just a month ago to assassinate him. You kept talking until there was nothing left to talk about. “I don’t know when I fell for him.”

“Well, you’ve always been in love with him. I’ve barely known you for that long, and even I can tell that much.” You nodded along, trying not to take his words as a blow to your pride. You accidentally met his eye. “And I assure you in no uncertain terms that Erwin has been very aware of that, too.” You cringed again. 

“You think so?” You buried your face in another drink from your glass. 

“Do I think you’ve been breadcrumbed along by an emotionally unavailable jackass so he has an emotional support blankie? Yeah, I do think so.” Every word struck you through the chest. Levi frowned as deeply as ever, a genuine frustration painted on his brow. You wondered if it was your naivety that made him so angry. 

“I wouldn’t say I’m in love with him,” you said, only partially convinced yourself. Levi didn’t even humor you with a response.

“Hm.” He stood, empty glass in his hand, as he stretched out his lower back. “I’m going to give you my unsolicited advice, but I’m only going to say it once.” Levi turned to face you as you still sat. His head blocked the sun perfectly from your eyes, a halo of sunbeams shooting out from his short strains of black hair. “If you’re going to stay, at least stay for a good reason. Not because of some schmuck who can’t make up his mind.” 

He held his hand out to you, not making a show of doing so. You took it.

“Wow, Levi, who knew you could be so soft?”

“Tch, remind me never to try to help you again.” 

***

You thought about what Levi said almost religiously in the days leading up to the next expedition. And as your administrative responsibilities gradually dwindled, you had much more downtime. 

Erwin only spoke to you when necessary, and even then, his words were far more sparing than they needed to be. The passive comments should have hurt more than they did, but your racing thoughts only served as a shield to numb the dull ache in your chest. 

A week until the next expedition turned into days and then a singular day. All the while, Erwin remained your section commander and nothing more. 

The last meeting had adjourned. Commander Shadis had called a gathering of the four section commanders and their team leaders, as was usual before expeditions. Erwin had departed quickly, speaking urgently to various other officers on his way out. He avoided you expertly, ensuring you didn’t have an opportunity to approach him after the discussions. As he made his way briskly down the hall to his office, he heaved a light sigh, he too wrapped up in his thoughts. 

He tugged open the door to his office only to find you already sitting behind his desk. Erwin couldn’t help his pause and the apparent surprise on his face, but he didn’t let the expression linger long. 

“Can I help you, Team Leader?” He regarded you formally and coldly. You frowned, standing to shrug off your jacket. You folded it so the crest didn’t show before tossing it across the width of Erwin’s wooden desk. 

“I’m not coming to you as a team leader, Erwin.” You tried to not let your shaking show, equal parts of you mortified and invigorated by your audacity to gatekeep a section commander’s desk. Judging by the steepening frown on Erwin’s lip, he had little patience for it. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Things have been busy.”

“None more than usual.” You matched his frown. “You’ve been avoiding me.” 

“I heard you the first time, Team Leader.” 

You didn’t imagine Erwin would openly converse with you so easily, but you also didn’t expect his outright icy refusal. You had never made Erwin angry before; in fact, you didn’t think you could recall a time that you weren’t in his good graces. Now, as you stood in direct defiance of his passive-aggressive avoidance of you, you felt shaken to the core and tried not to let it show.

“You still want to talk about work? Fine.” You sat back down in the chair behind Erwin’s desk, the joints at the base shifting. It felt unnatural here with him across the room where you usually stood. “It’s in poor taste to come onto your subordinates, Section Commander.” 

“And yet, that’s not the part you have an issue with.” 

He studied you for a moment, and with reluctance, he tugged off his own uniform jacket, throwing it on the leather couch to his side. Erwin squared back his shoulders, unconsciously adjusting how his clothes sat under his uniform straps as his arms coiled over his broad chest. Yes, he had grown significantly over the years and had the sculpted muscles to show for his decade of ODM training. 

“It was unprofessional.”

“Cut the crap; you made it clear that isn’t what we’re talking about right now, so stop pulling your punches.” He spoke as levelly as ever, the most calculated bite in his voice so as to not give away his seething frustration. 

“You seemed happy to see Marie again.” Your voice began softly, slowly gaining momentum as you continued. Your voice was starting to shake, forecasting your incoming tears. “Then you had the audacity to drink yourself stupid and crawl to my doorstep, and only when you knew you couldn’t have her did you even look at me.”

Erwin said nothing as he stared forward with a hard, sunken face. He didn’t sit, perhaps in the same way you couldn’t will yourself to stand. 

“Is that it?” he spat disapprovingly, almost bored. Your resolve wavered with just three words, him perceiving you as childish, as he seemed to typically do.

“Is that it?” You repeated, aghast. “Did you just ask me, is that it?”

“You’re impeding me from my work because you’re jealous.”

“Of course I’m jealous!” You jerked forward in the chair, hardly realizing the tending of your legs and the curt gesturing of your hands. “And how dare you try to diminish that. When you’ve known this whole time how I’ve felt about you.” You didn’t even try to hide your open sobbing. “Because you knew, and you never felt the same.”

“Hung up on things that don’t matter.”

Your parted lips revealed clenched teeth as you continued to shamelessly meet his eye. 

“I would have followed you to hell and back, and I have—”

“And so has every other soldier under my command—”

“I’m not just a soldier under your command, Erwin!” A clap of silence overtook his office. Erwin’s back faced towards you as he aggressively rubbed at the back of his neck. You were standing out of your seat now, hands on the surface of his desk. “We’re friends—” You wiped the stream of wetness from your cheeks. 

Erwin heaved a deep, low breath, the sound heavy enough to fill the air. 

“Things are different now.” He was struggling, but he kept it together better than you were.

“You had a place at my dining table for years. You knew how to work the register at the shop.”

“Things are different than back then.”

“Are they?” you asked bitterly. You held your hands together as if in prayer, resting your forehead against them. “When did they change? Because I—”

You were cut off by the exasperated sound of your name. And by the time Erwin turned around, his face was red, frustrated, and puffy. A few strands of golden hair hung over his forehead as he looped a thumb in his belt.

“Things are different in the service. It’s why I couldn’t be with her, and it’s not different with you! We are here to serve and die— there is no other way out— and I need you to understand that!” He was shouting, screaming. Erwin leaned slightly toward you, one leg in front of him. “You don’t understand how instantaneously you could be taken from me! No, you didn’t understand when you joined the Cadet Corps, and you don’t understand now!”

You were both a mess, physically worn, and voices hoarse from yelling. You had drenched Erwin’s desk. You stared down at the puddle of tears, the hem of your jacket in your watery sight. 

“I joined the Survey Corps for you. To be with you.”

Erwin strode to the door with what looked to be a shake of his head. In an instant, you were around his desk, running after him as you usually did, but you weren’t quick enough.

“We all have our own reasons for being here. You’ll find a better one.”

He shut the door in your face.

***

It felt dull for an expedition day. 

Exhaustion tugged on your eyes. Having had poor sleep the night before, you woke up two hours earlier than you needed. The gathering of horses outside the gates, waiting for them to be heaved open, made you antsy. The looming dread felt akin to the moments before an exam when you were back in the Cadet Corps. 

But you didn’t have time to reminisce, as in an instant, you were off through the gates, then across the plains. The pop of smoke guns was the only thing anchoring you to reality, as even the harsh rhythm of your horse couldn’t quite pull you out of your haze. 

The formation held as you crossed the land, making it into the forest and just past the point you had roughly achieved the last expedition. That in itself would garner the expedition as a success. Even despite potential casualties, it would hold weight in justifying further funding. 

But the luck you had in conquering your titan encounters soon ended as the entire formation was flanked, and everything was plunged into chaos. As the formation broke, the field was filled with screams and the whinnying of horses. 

Commander Shadis always kept Erwin close, an in turn, only Erwin’s teams remained close to the center of the unit. No one died in Erwin’s squads. You rode along, torso close to the back of your horse to avoid being hit by flying debris. 

The retreat had begun.

“Team Leader, look out!” 

You didn’t hear it in time. A tremendous hand flew out of nowhere, smacking your horse from under you and crushing your right leg. Your vision became a jumbled mess of earth, animal, and blood as you were sent rolling across the field, jumped over by other retreating soldiers. You shot up immediately but were forced back to the ground before you could even stand. Your leg was bent at an unnatural angle, the worst of it hidden under the cloth of your uniform pants. 

A titan loomed overhead, it’s shadow eclipsing you as you sat helplessly on the ground. You turned in the direction of the retreating soldiers. Time seemed to slow as you met Erwin’s eyes.

He had only turned to look over his shoulder for a moment. You saw as his lips parted in terror. You watched as he began to veer his horse to turn back, the strands of her mane moving with the motion of her pivoting head. She whinnied loudly over the sound of gore and battle as she fought against him to run as fast as she could away from the man-eating titans, with or without her rider aboard. All within a matter of milliseconds.

He could see it all in your wide eyes.

The very last things he said to you swarmed him all at once. 

Then, a spray of blood. A slide to the straps holding your sheaths. 

The hand that reached out to you fell to the ground. The titan fell forward, and before you were crushed, an arm wrapped uncomfortably around your ribs and pulled you to safety. You were dizzy. The rhythmic thumping of another horse continued to rattle your brain as you were splayed uncomfortably across the back just above the front legs. You tried to pull yourself up to look around, but a hand forced your head down. 

“Levi?”

“Shut up and keep your head down.”

Yeah, it was Levi.

***

You were taken to the infirmary as soon as you returned from the expedition. You spent the night there, and when Levi wasn’t out doing his duties as a soldier or getting you food, he was with you. He was sitting next to you reading a book when Commander Shadis knocked on the door to your room. 

You tried to salute him.

“You’re injured, soldier. Don’t strain yourself.” 

He stood in the center of the small room, subtly looking for a place to sit. You made wordless eye contact with Levi, and with a small grunt of effort, he stood and took his leave. Commander Shadis took his seat.

“Am I in trouble, Commander?” you asked nervously, shifting up on your pillows. 

“No, no, nothing of that sort,” he assured you, reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out a few folded pages. You thought you recognized the writing on them. He stopped quirking an eyebrow at you. “Unless there is, of course, trouble that you’ve gotten yourself into that you’d like to report, Team Leader.”

“Not at all.” You let out a breathy laugh. “You just look like you’re here on business. I guess I was just a bit—”

“Nervous?” Shadis interjected, his shoulders bobbing as he chuckled to himself. “My commander just about scared the living crap out of me when I was a soldier. But I’m not here to reminisce.” Shadis unfolded the papers, and as he laid them at the edge of your bed, you realized that the writing was yours. 

“I am here to offer you the position of section commander.” You could only describe the expression he wore as proud. “I’m just sorry the proposal isn’t more formal, but what can you do in this line of work?” You gaped at him, still trying to piece together what he said in your mind and how he obtained your notes. 

“Maybe this is shooting myself in the foot, Commander, but—” You knitted your brow at him. —“I didn’t think my performance has been all that impressive. Team Leader Zacharius—”

“Has already been offered the other position,” Shadis interrupted. The corner of his lip twitched downward in a skeptical pout. You supposed you both felt as if you were missing a piece of information. “Section Commander Smith put in a glowing recommendation for you in addition to these. He and I believe you could live up to your potential best out from under his command.”

“Section Commander Smith wants to get rid of me,” you jested, a convincing smile on your face as you pondered over what was said in Erwin’s meeting with Shadis. 

“On the contrary, I’d say he’s reluctant to see you leave. Or at least that was the impression I received.” Shadis rested an ankle over his knee as he sat back in the flimsy hospital chair. “Section Commander Smith was adamant about your abilities, both on the field and in this secret hobby you’ve been keeping.” He gestured to the pages he brought, taking them in his hands. “If I had to scold you for one thing, it is that you’ve done us all a disservice for not bringing these forward.”

“I sincerely apologize, Commander.” 

“But myself and Section Commander Smith have done a greater disservice by not seeing this brilliance, not fostering it, sooner.” Shadis gathered the pages together and placed them on your bedside table, eyeing the rest of the pages Levi had brought for you to keep busy. He turned back to you, hands clasped between his knees as he leaned forward. “What do you say, Team Leader?”

Your voice stalled in your throat. 

“I don’t even know if any of those will make a difference on the field.”

“Have you not been helping Levi Ackerman on his reverse-hold technique? He took out ten titans alone during this past expedition.”

“I feel that should be attributed to Levi’s— I mean, Ackerman’s— prowess rather than anything I did.” Shadis sat, staring at you as a growing disappointment clouded his face. You averted your eyes. “And Section Commander Smith saw his talent and recruited him in the first place.” Shadis said nothing, only heaving out a steady sigh. You sat in silence for a beat. “I’m sorry if you’ve been deceived into thinking my abilities are greater than they are. I don’t want to deceive you further.” 

Shadis sighed again, standing.

“The only one who’s been deceived is you,” he hummed. “I would very much like the opportunity to invest in your skills, but I am not about to take a chance on someone who doesn’t even believe in themselves, you understand me?” You watched the crest on his back as he approached the door. “I will leave you to think about it.”

***

When you were finally released, Levi helped you to your apartment. He didn’t allow you to do a thing. 

“Hey! What did I say about getting up on your own?” He scolded from the kitchen. Something that smelled good bubbled on the stove behind him, filling the immediate area with steam. You smelled the air, ready to take guesses at what he was cooking. Levi stopped in the middle of chopping something on a cutting board with rigor to shoot you a pointed glare. 

“I have to get used to the crutches eventually. Don’t you think it’s been long enough?” You hobbled out of your bedroom, content just to be out of bed. Levi frowned, eyeing you for any hint of a tumble. A cotton apron hung around his neck, another item he had fished out from the depths of your kitchen cabinets. He put the knife down on the cutting board but remained where he stood. 

“Tch, says you and your shitty perception of time.”

Just as you were about to sit at the dining room table to watch Levi work some more, a knock came at your front door. Something rang out in your chest as soon as you heard it. Evidenced by nothing, you already knew who it was. Levi turned to rinse off his hands in the sink. 

“I got it.”

“No, wait,” you interjected swiftly, and, to your surprise, Levi stopped. He offered you a questioning look, but you were already hobbling forward. You smiled at him reassuringly. “I’ll be alright. Gotta get used to the crutches, remember?” He let you move forward, returning to the kitchen as you shouted to the visitor on your doorstep. 

And as you expected, Erwin Smith stood at your door. You stood in the doorway, leaving the entrance just ajar enough to accommodate your form. 

“Uh, hi,” he said breathlessly, and just like that, you were twelve and working at your family’s bookshop again. You didn’t think you’d ever see a day where Erwin would be nervous to talk to you, yet all you had to do was look at your doormat. 

“Are you done giving me the cold shoulder?” You quirked a brow, and Erwin let out another deep sigh in response. A surrender. 

“I’m sorry. I know I’m the last person you probably want to see.” He glanced over your shoulder, spotting Levi cooking in the background. You couldn’t see the glower that Levi shot Erwin from behind his bangs. Erwin turned his attention back toward you. “And I won’t keep you. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” 

“I’m alright,” you assured him with a nod. “It wasn’t as bad as they thought it was. I might miss the next scheduled expedition, but Commander Shadis said we could find ways to work around it.” Erwin perked up, his thick eyebrows shooting up on his forehead.

“You already spoke to Commander Shadis?” 

“He offered me the rank of section commander.” Erwin’s eyes lit up with his warm smile as he shifted his weight. 

“Very good, you deserve it. I know you’ll make an excellent section commander. No one deserves it more than you.” You leaned against the doorway, amused at his feigning ignorance. You couldn’t help your smug expression as you gave in to your temptation to burst his bubble.

“He told me you put in a golden recommendation.” 

“He did, did he?” Erwin shook his head, blond lashes fluttering shut as he deflated just slightly. Outmanuvering him wasn’t something that happened often, but it sure as hell was a wonderful feeling. “And so I did.” But even in his defeat, he continued to hold sentiment in his reflective, blue eyes. 

“I’m telling him that I accept tomorrow.”

“Well, in that case, let me be the first to congratulate you, Section Commander.”” Erwin pulled a bouquet of red flowers out from behind his back, holding them up to offer to you. You hadn’t even noticed he was even holding them. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I look forward to working with you as your peer and earning your trust in me.”

You looked to him, then to the bouquet. With a plucking of your fingers, you withdrew a single flower from the middle. You made the motion awkwardly, balancing your second crutch under your elbow as you shifted your weight uncomfortably.

“I look forward to that…” You waggled your eyebrows. “Section Commander.” Erwin’s mouth formed a thin-lipped smile. He gave you a nod.

“Section Commander.”

You shut the door without a single insect entering your apartment. 

Just in time for dinner.

Thank you to all who liked, reblogged, followed, and supported. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

Writer's Notes: I thought it was fun to write Erwin of all people as that one kid who teaches you things you "shouldn't know" because he's just doing it all by accident.

This fic drew heavy inspiration from "The Imitation Game," in a way. I had always wanted to write a fic that mirrored the scene when Alan wanted to give his love letter to Christopher or something where Erwin was an upperclassman-like figure. It's probably not detectable in the actual fic, but I did go back and watch some of Alan Turing's early life scenes. Weird, considering I only watched the movie once when it first came out.

Please, I encourage you to write complex notes in the replies, reblogs, or inbox. Please. I beg of you.

#levi ackerman x reader #levi x reader #erwin x reader #erwin smith x reader #levi #erwin smith #levi ackerman #aot x reader #snk x reader #attack on titan #shingeki no kyoujin #levi fanfic #levi fanfiction #reader insert #aot reader insert #commander handsome #daddy sasageyo #levi heichou

[mychoombatheroomba]

Your Move

Between the Bones (Leon x GN! Reader) - Chapter 3

Krauser has you lead another lesson.

(Cross-posted from Ao3)

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Chapter Index

Two figures were waiting for Leon’s squad when the time came for close quarters drills a week later. One bulky man in a red beret, and the other . . . well, part of him had expected to see you again. 

Your presence at Krauser’s side set murmurs throughout the squad - the men and women training alongside Leon taking every opportunity to talk before they got into formation. “Looks like the Sergeant came back for seconds,” one of them said, and Leon felt the attention turn to him for a moment. They all probably imagined he would be getting a matching bruise on the other cheek. Maybe even a touch up on the now fading original. 

Even with the apology you’d given him, Leon knew by the look in your eyes that any fighting you did today would be without mercy. You were just as you had been on that first day - focused and determined. Something told him that there would be no slip of that mask, this time. 

He felt more than a little vindicated when Krauser announced what today’s exercise would be. 

“You know, boys, I was promised the best and brightest Uncle Sam had to offer. You can imagine my disappointment when I was settled with you lot.” The Major shook his head, stepping forward. “Weeks of training, and you’ve all got shit to show for it, and you know what? It’s my fault.” Not a good sign to hear Krauser admit his fault in something. “I had you fighting each other all this time. Letting you teach each other your mistakes.” He motioned you forward, and you obeyed, eying all the recruits in front of you. Your gaze, cold as steel, spared Leon no extra moments of attention. “Williams.” Krauser pointed to the first cadet in line. “Arm yourself. Then you’re up.” 

It wasn’t just going to be Leon, this time. The young recruit didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse. What he was sure of was that he and his fellows would have bruises by the end of the day. 

Leon just watched, doing all he could to prepare himself as Williams took up a knife and stepped up to you. Leon had fought her before. She’d trained with the army, just like most of the other recruits here had. Just as you had, if your rank was any indication. She was tall, broad shouldered and strong to match. She’d been one of the better fighters in their unit since day one. It didn’t end up mattering. Again, you began the fight unarmed and again you had your opponent’s knife in a matter of seconds. Williams inhaled sharply as you bent her wrist inward, taking the knife and resting it at her throat in one clean motion. 

“And that right there is what I’m talking about,” Krauser shook his head. “Step back, Williams, before you embarrass yourself more. Alenko!” 

Krauser pointed to the next recruit in line, and Leon knew what was coming next. Ten recruits, himself included. Ten recruits, ten fights, and he was third to last. 

“But sir-” Williams tried, but Krauser silenced her. 

“You’re dead. Dead people don’t get to fight.” Leon wished that were true. Wondered if Krauser knew how ironic a statement that was. “Back in formation.” 

Williams listened, and Alenko took her place. Down the line you went, tearing your way through Leon’s unit, one at a time. All he could do was watch and wait, trying to analyze. To look for a weakness, or something he could use. Patterns, favored sides, anything. 

As he searched, in those quick exchanges before you found your victory, he realized fully what he was up against. He knew from your first fight that you were skilled but watching it from the outside . . . he’d only ever seen Major Krauser move like that. You looked invincible, even when you made missteps. Even when a knife came too close and your eyes flashed, or with the way your breathing was coming faster with every opponent, Leon could only think that nothing would stop you. It was impressive in a way that made his throat feel dry and his heart beat faster.

Still, he'd gotten you once before. He could do it again.

“Kennedy!” 

It wasn’t about winning, it was about learning. That was the point of this. Leon had to remember that. 

Smaller arm movements. 

He’d been practicing, but he knew you had been, too. He’d seen you in the yard in your off hours, or at the firing range. It seemed like you lived for nothing but this - and whatever your reasons, your work had paid off.  

Stepping up against you made him feel heavy. Grounded. Like your razor-edged focus was seeping into him. There was no sign of familiarity between the two of you, no indication that you had sought him out to apologize. Just a little tilt of your head, one that Leon understood well enough. 

Your move. 

Keeping his arms close, his knife low, Leon weighed his options. The guard you stood in left your hands up, ready to defend. Leaving your lower body open for attack. Your left leg was forward. 

Leon moved, his knife a line of silver through the air, poised to hit your leg. You stepped back, your left arm moving. Your hand met his forearm, guiding the knife away from you. Leon let the motion happen, the momentum of it making what he planned next easier. You wanted smaller movements, you would get them. 

He twisted the knife, angling its blade back so that it would slash across your forearm. It was the smallest movement he could manage, and delivered with a speed that was too much for you to avoid. As you saw what was happening and moved your hand away, Leon felt the dull edge meet your skin. It was just a scrape, but the attack had worked. 

He knew better than to think one scratch would mean a win. It wouldn't be a victory against any of his fellow recruits, and it damn sure wouldn't be a victory against you. 

Knife moving fast, he slashed up at your arm. You blocked, moving back. Another slash, another block. Each one, he felt himself getting closer to his target- 

He realized why all too late as you moved, your arm coming up and over his own and trapping him against your body. He felt his arm extend, edging close to the point of pain as you moved, your free hand coming to his shoulder. Eyes wide, Leon tried to move back, his free hand reaching for something, some hail mary attack he could get to. In the end, with you just out of reach, Leon could only fight to remain upright as you used his arm to pull him down. 

It was a fight that he lost, and for the second time, he was forced to the ground face-first, your weight and the now painful hold you kept on his arm keeping him down. 

And just like that, it was over. Krauser called the next name, and Leon was done. 

It was stupid to let the frustration get to him, but it crept in from under the floorboards anyway. At least, it did, until just before you released your hold on him, Leon heard your voice. “Better.” It was all you said, and it was spoken so quietly he almost missed it. Still, it was enough. Then you let his arm go and stood, your weight being gone letting him move. 

A hand, one with bruised and scraped knuckles, was offered to him. This time, Leon took it, offering you a grateful look as you pulled him to his feet. He stood just in time to see you tucking your dog tags back beneath your shirt. 

Three tags. Not two. 

There was no opportunity to question what he’d seen. He fell back into formation, just as another recruit took his place against you. 

The remaining fights were quick, just as Leon’s had been. One ended with a knife flying towards the line Leon and the others were in before you twisted your opponent’s hand behind their back. The final fight, however close the knife came to your throat, was over when you took the practice knife from the man you fought and drove it into his gut. He grunted in pain, and Krauser barked “Hold!” 

You were at attention in a split second, the practice knife still in your hand. Krauser stepped forward, his lips pulled tight into a smirk. 

“Well, that was a damn tragedy to watch.” No one laughed, all of them either too furious at getting their asses handed to them, or knowing better than to interrupt the Major in any way. “All armed, one after another, and the Sergeant still wiped the floor with you.” He almost sounded proud of you. That pride was gone as soon as it came, as Krauser took a more serious tone. “I promise you, whatever you find yourselves up against won’t be as forgiving as our Sergeant, here. You think you’re all ready for that? You think you can afford to be sloppy when you’re in the thick of it?” 

Leon’s throat tightened, and he remembered that night. He remembered the monstrosities he’d fought, all the times teeth had nearly ripped into his throat, or a claw had just barely missed his belly. He had been lucky. He wouldn’t always be.  

He had to be ready.

“I was going to have us run drills, but now? Now I think running is the only thing you would be good for in a fight.” 

Leon knew what that meant. So did everyone else in line, if the shift in energy was any indication. The march was miserable, but they always were. This one just had an overtone of shame and anger to it. Some were angry with Krauser, whispering that he was just a prick, that he was trying to scare them. 

They didn’t know what was waiting for them when they were done with this training. Some of them might have heard the rumors or heard from a second-hand account what happened in Raccoon City. They hadn’t been there. They hadn't had the light drained from young, bright eyes like he had. Like Claire had. Sherry. Youth and childhood taken from them all in one night. These soldiers hadn't seen what he'd seen, or survived what he'd survived. 

If they wouldn’t prepare, then Leon would. So others wouldn't have to suffer what he and Claire and Sherry had suffered. That was what he resolved himself to do as he trudged on, the weight of the pack on his shoulders nothing next to the weight of what he had seen. 

He would prepare, and he knew just how to start.

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Chapter Index

A/N: I love the process of rereading these while posting them here, cause Leon is truly just a little guy in these first few chapters!

#leon kennedy x reader #leon s kennedy #leon kennedy #jack krauser #resident evil x reader #resident evil 2 #resident evil 4 #resident evil #between the bones #gender neutral reader #leon kennedy x you #no y/n

[helix-studios117]

Halo Reloaded: Empty

John leaned heavily against the cold metal frame of the observation deck, his armored shoulders hulking and tense under the weight of both past and present. His gaze was locked on the star-strewn void outside the viewport—a void not unlike the one gnawing at his insides. It was quiet here, away from the cacophony of war, but the silence only amplified the whispers of his memories.

Back when he was just a number among numbers, training days stretched long and merciless. He was the runt, always trailing behind, his legs burning with the effort to keep up, his stomach echoing hollow with hunger. "Last again, 117? Maybe you'll run faster when your belly's growling," Drill Instructor Mendez would bark, a cruel smirk playing on his lips as he scratched another mark next to John's name—another dinner forfeited.

The barracks rang with the easy laughter of those golden boys—Jerome, Kurt, Vannak-134, and Fred. They were the anointed ones, always at the front of the pack, always first to be praised. Their camaraderie was a wall John could never scale, his attempts to join in met with cold shoulders or sharp words.

"You really think you're one of us, John? Look at you, always panting at the back. What a joke," a cadet would snicker, the others joining in, their laughs like knives to John’s pride.

Punishments were frequent and inventive.

"John, since you love the mess so damn much, you're on scrubbing duty. And no, not with a scrub brush—here's a toothbrush. Make those latrines shine," Captain DeMarco ordered, his voice dripping with disdain as he tossed the toothbrush at John’s feet.

The glassing of Eridanus-II, his home, was announced like a footnote in a routine briefing, the news delivered without a hint of empathy. "Eridanus-II has been lost," they stated flatly, as if discussing damaged equipment. No condolences, no moment of silence. Nothing. Just another piece of John that was stripped away and disregarded, as if it never mattered.

One act of rebellion found him sneaking into the kitchen late at night, the craving for something as simple as ice cream overwhelming his sense of duty. The cold sweetness was a brief solace, a momentary escape from the relentless grimness of his life. He was halfway through the tub when he sensed Mendez behind him.

"Got a sweet tooth, 117? Or just stealing because you're a pathetic little thief?" Mendez growled, his voice low and menacing. John stood, the ice cream container hanging forgotten in one hand, as Mendez continued, "This is your way of fitting in? Fill your stomach, 'cause you can't fill their shoes?"

The torment didn’t stop at hunger or isolation. His fleeting, innocent crush on a young medical officer had been fodder for weeks of mockery.

Now, staring out into the void, John felt the sting of those days as keenly as ever. The scars were internal, carved deep into his psyche, shaping the Spartan he became—a man honed by adversity, defined by solitude. His battles were fought in the silence of his own heart, as much as on the alien fields of war.

His reflection in the glass showed a warrior marked by battles visible and invisible, his eyes betraying a depth of loneliness that no commendation could ever heal...

He trudges down the stark, steel corridor, each step heavier than the last, the ghosts of their last conversation clawing at him. Linda’s words, sharp and raw, echoed relentlessly in his mind.

“You're not even a person anymore, John!” she had yelled, her voice laced with desperation and a painful edge of truth. The words had stung, not because they were cruel, but because part of him feared they were accurate.

He stopped outside her door, hand hovering over the keypad, hesitation wrinkling his brow. What was he doing here after that blowout? Maybe he was a glutton for punishment, or maybe he just needed to see for himself that the rift between them hadn’t grown too wide to bridge.

The door slid open with a hiss, and there she was.

Linda looked up from her desk, her expression tightening with a mix of surprise and unresolved anger. Her eyes searched his, looking for the soldier she knew, or perhaps the man she hoped was still there beneath the layers of armor and duty.

John stepped inside, the door closing silently behind him. Neither spoke. The silence was thick, fraught with the remnants of their last exchange. Finally, breaking the tense quiet, John moved towards her, his movements stiff, more the product of will than desire.

He embraced her, an awkward, almost clumsy gesture for someone so usually precise. His armor clanked slightly as he wrapped his arms around her, the sound oddly loud in the quiet room. He leaned into the embrace, a rare admission of need, letting his weight rest against her.

"I’m just so damn tired, Linda," he admitted, his voice a hoarse whisper against her hair. The words felt like tiny betrayals, cracking the stoic facade he showed the world.

Linda’s arms came around him slowly, her body stiff at first, then gradually relaxing as she accepted his weight. They stood like that for a long moment, two soldiers in a quiet struggle with their vulnerabilities.

“When you said those things…” John’s voice was low, almost lost in the fabric of her uniform. “I thought that was it. For us... that you were done with me.”Her response was a soft sigh, her breath warm against his neck. “John, it’s hard... seeing you turn into what they want you to be, and not knowing if you’ll ever come back to me.”

He pulled back just enough to look at her, his face still an armored mask of control, but his empty eyes betrayed the turmoil inside. “I don’t know how not to be what they made me into...”

Linda's eyes filled with tears, spilling over as she held his gaze. Her voice cracked as she spoke, “And I cry, John, because you can’t.”In her tears, he saw the reflection of all he suppressed, the humanity he denied himself every day. It was both a balm and a blade to his soul.

They remained there, in the quietude of her quarters, finding solace in the shared silence more than in words. It was a moment of reprieve, a small pocket of warmth in the cold expanse of their lives. Here, in the shelter of each other's arms, they made an unspoken pact—to bear the weight together, to find moments of humanity amidst the chaos of war.

For John, it was a promise to seek these moments, to remember that he was more than just a weapon. For Linda, it was a commitment to be there, to cry the tears he couldn’t shed, to remind him of the man beneath the armor.

#halo #halo fanfic #halo fanfiction #john 117 #master chief #master chief fanfiction #master chief fanfic #halo headcanon #halo au #halo reloaded #helix studios117 #ultimate halo

[gcldfanged]

🖋 Tseng

Send me a 🖋 and a character you’d like to see me write, and I’ll give it my best shot! [ACCEPTING]

Trigger warnings: homicide, genocide, gore, blood.

Back in those days, the people were destitute. Everything was in scarce supply, save for the Revolution's passion and anger.

Gods, the anger- So pure and good, so just and dogmatic.

So arrogant.

His father wanted to join the Revolution. They trudged for seven days through winding dirt paths and fields to the nearest encampment- Father, mother, son. He was handed a rifle with a single bullet, to shoot and kill one of the young gweilo cadets they'd lashed to a tree waiting at the forest's edge. Even then his fingers struggled to find the trigger.

'He's just a boy, give me a man to kill.'

The guard's expression went stony and coiled an arm hard with steeled muscle around his father's shoulders, pointing: 'Don't you see? That's why you must kill them. Even a foreign boy can stand on the field of battle as a soldier-They are taught from birth to hate, to destroy- All of the Revolution's enemies are like this. That is why they are evil.'

His mother used to be a famous actress before the war. Now she stood as just another peasant with dust smudged against her high cheekbones, her perfect face a mask of cold and austere beauty.

She snatched the rifle from her husband's arms and swung it to her shoulder.

'Just one bullet? Is it really that hard?'

She pulled the trigger and the crack was deafening, the bullet ripping a long red tear straight through the foreign boy's neck like a jagged smile- But he didn't die.

His mother marched right up to where he lay spasming on the ground and grasped barrel of the rifle like she was about to dig a hole for a fence post, bringing it down again and again until his skull cracked open like the shell of an egg.

They rode a convoy back the house in silence. His father never spoke of it again.

Eventually, it became too dangerous to stay inside the cities. Reports buzzed in through the static of the local radio system, accounts of the fighting having reached the capital.

A line of soldiers were fanned out facing a huge crowd. The air was filled with countless shouts: ‘Defend Wutai, down to the last man! Death to the Fascists!’

Even as the tanks closed in around the young and the elderly, students and farmers, rich and poor- The survivors packed together like sardines, you could hear them singing.

They were singing to the background of gunfire.

#ceaselxss #◈ WRITING #I keep thinking about how one of my mutuals mentioned they might have used Sephiroth's fame to LOWER the recruitment age #anyway I know this got a bit dark but like war man #war makes nothing or at least nothing GOOD #omg Cas' Tseng and my Tseng hating their dads tho

[republicsecurity]

Yes Sir, no Sir.

In the quiet shadows of dawn, where the world is hushed and draped in uncertainty, the family's son stood tall, his youthful face reflecting the innocence of a life yet untouched by the stern realities that awaited him.

"Let us take your only son," the authorities decreed, their voices echoing through the somber corridors of power. The boy, once vibrant and carefree, now found himself molded into a different shape, a new existence carved by the hands of obligation and service.

Let us take your only son, What a good boy he'll be, With a shaved head, in chastity, In helmets and body armor, you see, He'll serve the Corps and nation free.

His head, once adorned with unruly locks, was now a canvas of smooth, shaved skin, a symbol of uniformity and discipline. His spirit, once wild and untamed, was now tethered by the steel constraints of chastity, a reminder that his desires were secondary to duty.

"What a good boy he’ll be," they whispered, their words like a cruel lullaby, promising purpose in the sacrifice of innocence. And indeed, he became the epitome of obedience, uttering "Yes Sir, no Sir" with a precision that bespoke of ingrained respect and submission.

He stands with comrades, strong and true, In the face of danger, they'll see it through, Their chastity, a symbol, their pledge to pursue, To protect and serve, their noble debut.

In the daylight, he donned his helmet, its visor obscuring the dreams that once flickered in his eyes. Behind that shield, he was more than a boy; he was a paramedic, a soldier of mercy, a guardian of life. His body, encased in armor strong and unyielding, bore the weight of responsibility, each piece a testament to his commitment to protect and serve.

"So eager to please," they mused, watching as he stepped into the fray, his every movement a testament to the training that had transformed him. His laughter might have faded into the recesses of memory, but in its place emerged a quiet determination, a resolve to honor the sacrifice he had made, to prove himself worthy of the trust placed upon his shoulders.

In the heart of duty, the paramedic's son found purpose. In the face of challenges, he discovered resilience. And in the depths of sacrifice, he unearthed a strength he never knew he possessed.

For he was not just a good boy anymore; he was a paramedic, a beacon of hope in a world often shrouded in despair, a testament to the unwavering spirit that thrived even in the harshest of circumstances. And as he moved forward, shaved head gleaming under the sun, chastity hidden beneath the armor, he carried with him the legacy of duty, etched into his very being.

So let us take your only son, In this life, he's found and won, With shaved heads, in chastity spun, In body armor and helmets, duty done.

In the twilight of evening, the paramedic conscript, PXC5I, leaned against the rough concrete of the paramedic station, a temporary reprieve from the daily rigors of service. His eyes followed a group of fresh-faced cadets, their footsteps in perfect unison, their heads held high beneath the fading sunlight.

"Let us take your only son," he muttered, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "Such a good boy he'll be, obedient to the core, marching in line with his shaved head and his precious chastity belt."

He couldn't help but scoff at the indoctrination, the neatly packaged patriotism that masked the realities of their service. "Yes Sir, no Sir," he mocked, his tone dripping with disdain. "Eager to please, they say. More like stripped of choice, stripped of identity, masked behind the cold plastics of our helmets and armor."

He watched as the cadets continued their march, their faces a mix of determination and youthful naivety. To them, perhaps, the poem still held the spark of inspiration

Two conscripts found themselves caught in a moment of contemplation. They stood side by side, watching the youth group of Cadet march by, their movements precise, their faces bearing the imprint of indoctrination. One of the conscripts, his eyes reflecting the flickering glow of streetlights, turned to his companion.

"Let us take your only son," the first conscript recited mockingly, his tone laced with bitterness.

"Yeah," the second conscript replied, his eyes narrowing at the sight. "A good boy, they say. Molded into their perfect image of obedience. It's all so... calculated, isn't it?"

The first conscript nodded, a sardonic smile playing on his lips. "They make it sound like a noble sacrifice, like we're heroes in the making. But it feels more like erasure, doesn't it? Stripping away our individuality, our quirks, and replacing them with this uniformity, this conformity."

The first conscript sighed, his breath forming a mist in the cold air. "But it's more than that, isn't it? It's a plea for conformity, a call to sacrifice individuality on the altar of uniformity. 'What a good boy he'll be,' they say, as if being good means surrendering your essence."

"We're commodities, assets to the state. Our dreams, our desires, they all fade into insignificance compared to the grand narrative they've crafted for us."

As the last of the marching recruits disappeared from view, the two conscripts shared a knowing glance, a silent acknowledgment of the reality they faced.

His companion placed a hand on his shoulder, a silent gesture of solidarity.

[glassesandswords]

I was too excited for Hange’s birthday and I also am bummed that I wouldn’t be able to post this on fifth September (it’s too long), so I decided to share with you guys a sneak peek into the Erurihan fic I’m working on for Hange’s Birthday Bash Event! 

---

As the days grew colder and snow covered entire towns in a white, powdery blanket, the annual winter holidays were finally announced for the Survey Corps. Cadets and officers alike packed their belongings and loaded them on hired carriages with enthusiasm, the thought of warm home-cooked meals and the smiles on their family’s faces by the fireside clouding their minds. 

Gazing at the departing crowd through the frosted glass of Erwin’s office, Hange hummed.

“The year flew by real fast this time. Say, what are you both going to do for the next fifteen days?” 

“There’s a lot of paperwork I have left to do,” Erwin said, buried in said paperwork, “Including the signing of the official death certificates of the soldiers who died in the recent expedition. Needless to say, I’ll be coming here everyday, holiday or not.”

“Being a commander sure is tough, huh… What about you, Levi?”

Levi did not look up from the three steel mugs he was pouring hot tea into. “I don’t have anywhere to go other than the training grounds.”  

Hange raised an eyebrow, “Even during the winter?” 

“Of course. The holidays are not an excuse to dawdle around. A soldier must be prepared at all times. You best keep that in mind, Shitty Glasses.” 

“Who do you think I am?” Hange protested as they saw Levi place a cup of tea next to Erwin who muttered his thanks while poring on a document. “I too have grand plans that I’m working on.” 

“Is that so? And what might those be?” Levi asked, eyes narrowed as he handed Hange their cup. The heat of the piping hot tea seeped through the mug, warming Hange’s cold fingers instantly. They took a long sip, relishing the searing heat on their tongue, as they let Levi’s question simmer in a dramatic pause.

“It’s top secret.”

“Knowing you, it’s yet another reckless plan to get a pet titan for yourself.” 

“Hange is tasked with the development of a special target restraining weapon that can capture titans alive without any casualties,” Erwin replied without missing a beat.

“Too soon! Erwin, I was planning to let him go in circles for a while! Stop ruining the fun.” 

“Sorry.”

Levi hummed, refilling Erwin’s half-empty cup before taking a sip from his own. “How far is it coming along then?” 

“I just got done with the test blueprint and approved it from our trusty commander here," Hange lightly patted Erwin's head, "I’ll be working on the nitty-gritties of its construction and figure out what materials we’ll need so that we can calculate the number of sponsors we’ll have to lick the boots of to get it done by the next expedition.” 

“Sounds quite troublesome.” Levi refilled Hange’s cup. “I don’t know how you two manage to get out of those meetings with even a shred of your dignity intact.” 

“You know how it goes, Levi," Hange shrugged, "Anything for the cause, dedicate your hearts, yada yada.” 

Levi let out a sarcastic huff as Erwin shot Hange his steel sharp ‘Commander’ glance before returning to the contracts on his desk. Hange stared at the tendrils of white steam from the surface of the golden tea curl in the air. They opened their mouth, hesitated, and closed it again, wondering whether they really wanted to go ahead with what they had in their mind or not. 

“Why do you look so constipated all of a sudden?” Hange’s indecision was not missed by Levi. “Spit it out.”

That was enough for Hange to gather their courage. 

“Say, are you both free three days from now?” they posed a nonchalant question.  

“Mmm... not really,” Erwin hummed thoughtfully as he approved a receipt. “But I must be done with the immediate paperwork by then.” 

“You, Levi?” 

“Depends on why you ask.” 

“You’re free then!” Hange blatantly ignored Levi’s narrowed gaze. “Great! I recently came across a research that said that working in one place for too long can dampen productivity. So, in order to get us all fired up again, I propose a short trip!” 

“A trip?” Levi repeated unsurely, as Erwin paused his paperwork and turned towards Hange, wondering what they were up to this time. 

“Where?”

“To the illustrious hub of science and engineering,” Hange beamed at them, splaying their hands forward and accidentally spilling some tea on the carpet, much to Levi’s dismay. “To the Industrial City!”

---

The whole fic will (hopefully) be out on my Ao3 on September 10, right in time for Hange's Backstory Day in the Hange Week '22 (for more deets on that, check here).

Thanks for reading!

#hange zoe #erurihan #snk #aot #levi ackerman #snk veterans #HangeBirthdayBash22 #hanji zoe #erwin smith #levihan #eruri #eruhan

[ask-coldsteel]

Cold Steel: Can't wait to get my nugget and become a butterbar!

---------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1: Last Cadet Days

Part 21

---------------------------------------------------------

Guest Artist: @void-art-blog

#ask-coldsteel #Cadet Cold Steel #Blazing Dawn #Lime Light #Equestrian Grand War #Pre-war period #Imperial Equestrian Army #MLP #My Little Pony #OC #Earth Pony #Unicorn #Ask Blog #MLP Art #Digital Art

[alyssacbatt]

Pokémon type gym leaders: part 6

(Remember I will spin a wheel of Pokémon types that the characters will have and if you wanna draw this be my guess, it your art and it can be anything you want, and let's get started)

Male Pokémon:🚹

Female Pokémon:🚺

Others/no gender:⚧️

1. Orville Elephant

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Grass.          Me: "I can kind of see it."🤔

Pokémon: 1. Lilligant(Hisuian)🚺 2. Leafeon🚹 3. Leavanny(Shiny)🚹 4. Bellossom🚹 5. Ludicolo🚹 6. Meowscarada🚺

2. Happy Frog

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Bug.             Me: "But she's a frog, frogs eat bugs."😓

Pokémon: 1. Vespiquen🚺 2. Illumise🚺 3. Mothim🚹 4. Forretress🚹 5. Spidops🚹 6. Shuckle🚺

3. Mr. Hippo

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Fairy. Me: "This is a maybe for me."

Pokémon: 1. Mr. Mime🚹 2. Whimsicott🚺 3. Aromatisse🚹 4. Klefki🚺 5. Florges(Blue Flower & Shiny)🚺 6. Togekiss🚺

4. Pigpatch

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Flying.          Me: "I mean do pigs fly?... get it.. no ok I shut up."

Pokémon: 1. Aerodactyl(shiny)🚺 2. Braviary🚹 3. Toucannon🚹 4. Staraptor🚹 5. Flamigo🚹 6. Iron Jugulis⚧️

5. NeddBear

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Ground. Me: "I mean I guess that's ok.🤷🏻‍♀️"

Pokémon: 1. Mudsdale🚺 2. Dugtrio(Alolan)🚹 3. Quagsire🚹 4. Toedscruel🚹 5. Hippowdon🚺 6. Gastrodon🚹

6. Candy Cadet

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Dark.        Me: "I mean he does talk about dark stories.🤔"

Pokémon: 1. Weavile🚹 2. Shiftry🚺 3. Kingambit(shiny)🚺 4. Lokix🚹 5. Mabosstiff🚹 6. Crawdaunt🚹

7. Rockstar Freddy

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Poison. Me: "I am so confuse"

Pokémon: 1. Mareanie🚺 2. Sneasler🚹 3. Slowbro(Galarian)🚹 4. Weezing🚹 5. Dustox🚺 6. Qwilfish🚹

8. Rockstar Bonnie

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Electric. Me: "yeah, I can see that."

Pokémon: 1. Electivire🚹 2. Zebstrika🚹 3. Manectric🚹 4. Toxtricity(Amped Form)🚹 5. Jolteon🚺 6. Arctozolt⚧️

9. Rockstar Chica

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Steel.           Me: "I can kinda see it."

Pokémon: 1. Mawile🚺 2. Skarmory🚺 3. Corviknight🚹 4. Tinkaton(shiny)🚺 5. Gholdengo⚧️ 6. Magnezone(shiny)⚧️

10. Rockstar Foxy

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Psychic. Me: "I don't know about that one."

Pokémon: 1. Alakazam🚹 2. Starmie(shiny)⚧️ 3. Meowstic🚺 4. Reuniclus🚹 5. Beheeyem🚹 6. Exeggutor🚺

11. Lefty

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Fighting.          Me: "I.. don't know.?"

Pokémon: 1. Urshifu(Rapid Strike Style)🚹 2. Slither Wing⚧️ 3. Pheromosa(shiny)⚧️ 4. Chesnaught🚺 5. Sawk🚹 6. Gurdurr🚹

12. El Chip

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Rock.       Me: "I can little see that."

Pokémon: 1. Garganacl(shiny)🚺 2. Coalossal🚹 3. Armaldo🚺 4. Kabutops🚹 5. Carbink⚧️ 6. Klawf🚹

13. Funtime Chica

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Normal.       Me: "haha she's normal."

Pokémon: 1. Audino🚹 2. Blissey🚺 3. Deerling(Spring Form & shiny)🚺 4. Jigglypuff🚹 5. Furret(shiny)🚺 6. Swablu🚹

14. Music Man

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Fire.         Me: "I guess you can say his music is lit🔥."

Pokémon: 1. Camerupt🚹 2. Magmortar🚺 3. Skeledirge(shiny)�� 4. Scovillain🚺 5. Heatmor🚹 6. Rapidash🚺

15. Scrap Baby

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Ice.         Me: "Oh, that's cold... get it.."

Pokémon: 1. Glalie🚺 2. Avalugg(Hisuian)🚹 3. Walrein🚹 4. Abomasnow🚹 5. Cetitan(shiny)🚺 6. Baxcalibur🚺

16. Scraptrap

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Ghost. Me: "yeah, I can see that."

Pokémon: 1. Dusknoir🚹 2. Spiritomb🚺 3. Cofagrigus(shiny)🚹 4. Houndstone🚺 5. Zoroark(shiny)🚹 6. Banette🚺

17. Molten Freddy

Gym type:

*Drum roll please🥁*

Water.     Me: "water... why water?"

Pokémon: 1. Carracosta🚺 2. Empoleon🚺 3. Blastoise🚹 4. Gyarados🚺 5. Seismitoad🚹 6. Veluza(shiny)🚹

Bonus characters coming soon or later...

#ethgoesboom #fnaf au #fnaf #orville elephant #happy frog #mr. hippo #fnaf pigpatch #nedd bear #candy cadet #rockstar freddy #rockstar bonnie #rockstar chica #rockstar foxy #lefty #el chip #funtime chica #music man #scrap baby #scraptrap #molten freddy #pokémon #fnaf ethgoesboom #ethgoesboom au

[bigbrainkatrina]

Once Burned - a Kim Possible/Shego spy thriller

One year ago, Shego went under a deep cover mission with the Bermuda Triangle. Things turned sour fast and Shego betrayed Global Justice. In a desperate Hail Mary, Kim tries to retrieve her, and learns that things aren't quite what they seem.

“Kim… um, I—I can’t go with you.”

“Ron?”

“I… can’t do this anymore. You a-and me, it’s not working, I know you know that—”

“...Ron. Please don’t do this.”

“KP—I don’t   want   to do this. They’re—they’re making me.”

“Making you? R-Ron, we need to go stop the Seniors. Can you just—”

“You can   handle   the Seniors, Kim. All that we do, you got it. I’m—I’m Class A and you’re Class B…”

“But… no, Ron.”

“Betty wants me doing… I don’t know, bigger things, bigger things I can’t tell you about. I’m sorry, I… I have to do this, Kim. My powers need me to do this and… it’s just—the mission stuff. It’s all we have that’s making   us   work, and I’m… sorry, KP. I don’t want to hurt you, I just…”

“Ron, I love you. Whatever you need me to do to keep you here, I’ll… I’ll…”

“KP, it’s over. And I love you too. I love you more than you can understand.”

“So why are you doing this?!”

“God, I’m sorry, I… I gotta go. You gotta go too. You gotta go save the world now. Alone.”

“No… no! Ron, I can’t—I can’t do it without you, I—”

“No Kim. You can. Remember: you can do anything.”

“Kim, are you with us?”

~~KP~~

 10 Years Later

Kim snaps out of her reprieve and takes a moment to collect her surroundings.

Rumbling all over. The steel plated floor vibrates against her palm. Her breaths are shallow and she feels cold. She pulls her winter coat closer to her purple tunic and looks to her right, where the friendly yet concerned voice is coming from.

Wade Load. Now twenty five years old, he’s as plump as ever with some facial scruff. Still weird seeing him in person. 

“Finally awake, eh?” he jokes.

Kim frowns. She’s in a Global Justice aircraft, with a parachute loaded backpack strapped tightly to her torso. By this point, they should be soaring over Colorado. Over Middleton. She hasn’t been there in years. 

Too bad it’s for a mission. 

“And they call  me  a space cadet with my head in the clouds,” a nasally voice whines from her left. That surprises her. Who else could be here—Drakken. Doctor Drakken. A blue man with a ratty ponytail and scar below his left eye. He wears his traditional lab coat and a thick winter coat like her. She looks ahead.

“Sorry, yeah, I spaced out,” Kim mutters. “Which one of you am I working with again?”

Wade raises an eyebrow. “You don’t know? Kim, c’mon.”

“Oh no! No no no no no no!” Kim gasps in a panic, simultaneously whipping her whole body against her hips to look at Drakken, her apparent partner. “Not  you , right? Please tell me I’m not—”

“I’m crushed!” Drakken moans. 

Kim rolls her eyes. “Who thought this was a good idea? It’s a joke, right?”

“Aw geez, Kim, dude,” Wade frowns. “He’s right there. And for the record, this is on  you  for not playing nice with Team Impossible.”

“Those guys suck,” Kim grumbles, looking back over at Drakken again. “I’ve worked with them, you, Hego, Will Du, Felix, Monique, Bonnie, I mean, guys, I’ve worked with  Junior  of all people! And the one time,  the one time  I worked with someone who could actually keep up with me—uh, no offense Wade.”

“None taken,” Wade frowns.

Kim continues, throwing her hands into the air, “The one time I worked with someone who could actually keep up with me, she turned out to be evil!”

“Evil?” Wade echoes with confusion. Drakken raises an eyebrow with a similar energy. “You mean Shego? When did you work with Shego?”

“Yes, I don’t recall that, Kimberly Ann,” Drakken frowns.

Kim winces; she wasn’t supposed to bring that up. “Uh, sorry, I must have been thinking about the Lowardian Invasion or something… heh heh.”

Wade observes Kim carefully, then shrugs. “Okaaaaaay.”

Drakken leans forward with a sharp intake of breath, as if he’s about to say something important. But instead his face falls and he leans back into place. “I’ll have you know, Kimberly Ann, that I’m much geniuser than Shego! I think you’ll be quite surprised by my abilities on the field.”

Kim stares blankly at him. “Uh huh… okay, Wade, how about you sitch us already?”

Wade rolls his eyes, and pulls a remote out from his GJ uniform. He clicks a button, and the hatch before Kim and Drakken opens up, revealing the cold night sky. Vicious winds rush through, whistling and howling. 

“You both have five seconds to make the jump,” Wade says carelessly.

“Oh okay,” Kim chirps.

“What?!” Drakken blurts out, going pale in the blue face. “Wait—can we, erm, do a flyaround—”

Wade smirks. “No.”

Kim pats Drakken on the shoulder playfully. “See you in a few, Drak.”

She jumps. Her ponytail whips behind her head, and the wind rushes into her face. She grits her teeth through it, forcing her eyes to stay open.

Down below, she sees what looks to be some kind of military compound. There’s gray warehouse after gray warehouse, all arranged in a grid. From up high, the streetlamps appear to her as blips and they are beautiful.

She smiles and spreads her arms like wings. Despite the circumstances, she feels calm. 

Behind her, she hears a distant shriek. 100% it’s Wade physically shoving Drakken out of the plane. But soon it fades as the wind overcomes her. Until Wade starts talking in her earpiece.

“ Montgomery Fiske, also known as Monkey Fist, has threatened to level the entire state of Colorado with two nuclear bombs  …” Wade monologues. “  ...unless Ron is to sacrifice his powers to him, which is not an option. ”

Kim narrows her eyes; from her understanding, Ron is off-world right now, defending Earth from invading Lowardians. The Lowardian Invasion back in ‘07 was just the beginning.

“ We have managed to pinpoint the location of the bombs to the Villain Timeshare Labs located in Middleton  ,” Wade explains. “  Your mission is to defuse both. We don’t know where the bombs are, so Kim you should take the West Side of the compound and Drew, I think you should go East.”

“ Which way is East ?” Drakken moans, only able to be heard through her earpiece. 

Kim rolls her eyes. “It’s behind you, Big D.”

“ Don’t call me that. ” 

Kim smirks, and focuses on what’s ahead. The timeshare lab complex gets closer, and closer, the ground enlarging and giving way to more and more detail. Tiny black dots patrol the warehouses, they must be Monkey Fist’s army of monkey ninjas. 

She aims her body like a rocket, falling and falling. The skylight to her chosen warehouse grows near and at the last second, Kim flips mid flight, and she pulls the string on her parachute. 

Fwoomp!

The parachute pulls against her, dragging her out of her dead fall. She lands on the roof beside the skylight, and drops a knee. Waits for some change in formation from down below, but there’s nothing. Apparently none of the Monkey Ninjas saw her. (She assumes the black dots are Monkey Ninjas… though from her vantage point the troops look awfully tall to be Monkey Ninjas.)

The timeshares are arranged in a grid, unfortunately too far apart for her to go roof jumping. Without proper intel, she can’t even ‘skip’ this warehouse so she tiptoes to the dead center of the roof where there’s a skylight. Quietly she goes for her laser lipstick, and starts blasting out the bolts to the skylight. It’s something that she’s done a million times over, so she takes a look around and notices two problems right off the bat.

Firstly, Drakken has already unleashed his parachute… practically one mile into the air. 

Kim growls into her earpiece. “Drakken, what are you doing?!”

“ What am I doing?  ” he repeats sarcastically. “  I’m not Tom Cruise, Kimberly Ann; I’m playing it safe! ”

“Safe? You’re like a sitting duck up there!” Kim seethes. “If they see you—”

“ Kim  ,” Wade interrupts. “  I’m with you, but he can’t exactly fold his parachute back in—we’ll deal with it. Move on. ”

Kim grinds her teeth then shrugs it off. “Tell me about the ninjas—oh shit, hold on—” The final bolt skips out of its socket, and the skylight falls… but Kim catches it. Heavy, the massive piece of glass dips into the warehouse. Awkward to hold, Kim tenses and manages to lift the skylight up through the gap, and set it aside. She throws one foot through the gap, and readies her grapple line. “—I’m back. But the ninjas… those aren’t monkeys, right?”

The ninjas aren’t monkeys at all, she noticed while yelling at Drakken that they were walking, talking humans. 

“ No, I think those are people, which as you know isn’t Monkey Fist’s M.O.,  ” Wade sighs. “  I’m trying to ID them, but I got nothing. ”

“No ID, huh,” Kim sighs to herself. That sounds familiar to her, but she can’t quite place where it’s coming from. But out of her vast rogue’s gallery and network of connections, she knows someone who Wade wouldn’t be able to ID… but who?

She drops down into the warehouse, her grapple line unspooling. She lands on a hard cement floor and the lights turn on in her presence, shining through the windows like a beacon. “Oh great.”

Slamming at the door. Kim scans her surroundings: lots of golf clubs and barrels of exploding golf balls. Not much else. Definitely Duff Killigan’s. How classic of him to be so one-note. She snags a golf club from one of the duffel bags and spins it in her hand. Looks like a Driver club, at least, as far as she knows. Her only experience with golf is from Wii Golf, which she played with Ron before the break-up. 

The steel door flies off its hinges, and smoke pours into the room in a flurry. Two black-hooded heads that just peek over the top of the smog rush into the room, running in opposite directions. 

Kim leans into her heel and lets the two ninjas surround her.

She grins, and the ninjas charge her with a series of kicks and punches. Kim spins the golf club around her like a bow-staff in figure-eights and precise spins.  Clack! Clack! Clack! Flesh strikes steel in precise jabs. 

Kim blocks every blow coming her way. Trained as the ninjas might be, they telegraph their movements immediately. 

“It’s amateur hour, fellas,” Kim snarks.

A kick to the hip, a punch to the chin, a swipe at the neck, it doesn’t matter, she spins her golf club where she needs to, and emerges unscathed.

The ninja on her left goes by a high kick to the chin. Smirking, Kim slashes her club into the air and manages to hook the Driver against the man’s ankle. He whines in pain and she drags his foot higher into the air then spikes the club downard, whipping the ninjas into the cement. 

Kim whirls around and faces the second ninja. He scuttles backwards, hands raised for defense, and she charges him. Cartwheels forward and tries to kick him in the chest with both feet. He throws his body backwards and she lands before him, leaving her wide open. She spins the club horizontally at his head, but he ducks the blow—but before he can fully slip away she flips the club in an underhanded spin, and precision jabs the goon in the face. His body shoots backwards and falls flat on the ground.

Kim smiles at her handiwork, but the moment is short-lived. From the skylight, another ninja drops down. With two sais in hand, he swings at her. With the hilts to each sword as pointed as the blade itself, curved like a trident, it’s a deadly weapon. He swings and swings and swings. Kim dodges and dodges and blocks! But the sai cuts clean through the golf club and the top half tumbles to the floor. Frowning, she tosses the broken club aside and goes for a daring move. Her hands snap forward and grab onto the ninja’s wrists. She pushes and he resists, but his arms shake more than her. She’s stronger. 

With the ninja’s arms locked in place, it leaves the guy’s front wide open. So Kim takes advantage, she swings her head down and bashes her skull against his. He falls backwards, hands losing their grip on the sais, which clatter to the floor.

Kim kicks high and nails the ninja in the face. He collapses, down for the count. 

Kkkkk!  A boot scrapes against cement behind her. Kim tries to whirl around to face the incoming ninja, the first one she downed, but she’s not fast enough. She hears the blades cut through the air, so instead Kim focuses on dodging. She playfully dodges to the left, hands folded behind her back. Another  shwing!  and she bobs to the right. She bobs about, dodging blow after blow. When he swings at her ankles, she hops into the air.

Again and again, the ninja pursues her, but he can’t hit her, and somehow, despite not being able to see him, Kim knows each and every move he’s pulling. 

How does she know? she wonders.

The ninja swings both sais at her neck. She knows that move. Ron used it sometimes when his powers were recharging.

Kim ducks the blow and her hands snap upwards, clamping onto the ninja’s wrist. She struggles, holding the ninja’s arms high in the air. Simultaneously, her arms stiffen, locked into place just like the ninja’s. Deadlocked and stuck, neither have the advantage… until Kim grits her teeth and manages to twist her hips enough to kick the ninja in the stomach. He doubles back, and Kim—unable to resist—yanks the ninja’s hood off his face. 

Hirotaka. From Yamanouchi. 

Yamanouchi gave its sword to Monkey Fist?

Yamanouchi is a secret;  of course Wade wouldn’t be able to ID them! It makes sense.

But it doesn’t matter\, at least for now. So Kim kicks Hirotaka in the face, and he collapses like a broken toy. Sais once again clatter to the floor. Kim looks ahead, throws off her winter coat finally, and runs out the door and into the open night air. Looks up and Drakken is  still  making his way down. She rolls her eyes and looks around in a panic.

“Where do I need to go, Wade?”

“ Cut through the two ahead of you  ,” Wade chirps. “  That’ll get to you Monkey Fist’s, that’s my best guess. Passwords are going to be Coco Moo, Niener and Die Ron, Die. ”

“ Die Ron, Die is with spaces?” Kim notes.

“ And a comma, yeah. Monty’s has gotta be grammatically correct. ”

Kim stops at the first terminal to the first timeshare lab before her. Types it in rapidly. C-O-C-O M-O-O.

The door opens and Kim is greeted by a very familiar sight. Syntho-Drones lie dormant in their acid-filled glass containers, lined up along the walls. Kim hesitates, then sprints through. Takes in the sights. A death ray, a pool of electric eels, a few Weather Machines, and a mountain of cardboard boxes with cupcake logos.

She has to ask.

“Drakken, you—uh—still have your Timeshare Lab, huh?”

“ Hrm  ?” Drakken hums. “  Do I? ”

Kim laughs under her breath. “It’s been twelve years, Drew, you might want to, uh, get rid of this?”

“ I was wondering what that charge on my credit card was every month …”

Kim opens the door opposite the one she came in through and charges ahead to another Timeshare Lab. Types in the password. N-I-E-N-E-R and… this one is filled with plans. Charts and diagrams are smeared across the wall, alongside blueprints of evil devices and corporate ladders. It rings a bell but…

“ Hank Perkins, ” Wade answers for her.

“Hank Perkins!” she cries out with mirth. “I forgot about that guy. Uh, the villainy consultant, right?”

“ The same. ”

“ Ooh  !” Drakken cries out. “  Cupcake Hank? What’s it like in there? I’m in Dementor’s Timeshare right now  —” He pauses and repeats the name with disdain. “—  ugh, Dementor. But his Transportulator, WOW! Don’t tell him I said that though —” 

Kim blinks. “Drew, um, not to burst your bubble, but there’s a bomb going off soon? Maybe you should be, uh, looking for it?” 

“ Oh, erm, yes, I suppose…” Drakken mumbles, still in a trance.

“Drak!” Kim shouts as she exits Hank Perkins’s timeshare. “Up and at ‘em!”

“ Alright! ” he bemoans.

The next timeshare is up ahead, as ordinary as ever. She types in the password. D-I-E-R-O-N-,-D-I-E. The door opens revealing a dark space lit by torchlight. She slides to a stop and scans the space. Flickers of light illuminate aged and eroded monkey idols that are embedded into the walls. Kim keeps looking and at the center of the room she finds first of two bombs. The lid is already popped off, the wire exposed. She narrows her eyes and steps forward—

—only for Monkey Fist himself to drop down before her. Formerly raven black hair grayed with specks of white, his mutated skin aged and patchy, the years have not been kind to the monkey man.

Shuffling from outside as monkey ninjas crowd the entrance. Monkey Fist raises his hand, stopping the ninjas in place. He steps forward, the torchlight playing on his angry face.

“Where’s Stoppable?” Monkey Fist grunts, then looks at his minions. “Go. Find Dementor’s Transportulator, use it to escape.” He turns back to Kim. “Well?”

“Not coming,” Kim growls. “This is sick and wrong, Monty. You have to know that.”

Monkey Fist grinds his teeth. “What’s sick and wrong is that Stoppable child taking the Mystical Monkey Power from  me ! What’s sick and wrong is Stoppable being unwilling to sacrifice his powers to save millions of lives.”

“ Don’t let him talk, Kim  ,” Wade says. “  He’s stalling .”

Still though, Kim finds herself shaken. Because it is true. Doctor Director isn’t willing to give up Ron for  anything . It’s unlikely Ron even knows this caper is going down. 

Kim sprints at Monkey Fist, and Monkey Fist does the same.

“How long do we have?” she asks before shifting into a high kick at Monkey Fist’s jaw. 

“ Three minutes ,” Wade says, anxiety creeping into his voice. Ever confident in Kim’s abilities, it’s unlike him to be so stressed. Three minutes is plenty of time to make magic happen.

Monkey Fist leans back and his hand snaps at Kim’s ankle. He grabs it tight, and with all his might, he turns on his heel, and lifts Kim into the air. He swings her like a ragdoll, and throws her behind where he stood.

Kim spins through the air and soars over the bomb. It all happens fast, but in her mind’s eye things slow to a crawl. She looks down, and sees the matrix of wires looped over and over each other, and the sequence plays in her mind. Red-Purple-Green-Yellow-Brown-Blue-White. Her hands reach down and just as she passes over the bomb, she snatches the Red, Purple, and Green wires from their spots. Lands on her haunches and stares at Monkey Fist. 

“Stoppable’s not here, Monty. Because he’s Class A and you’re a Class B Threat. But I’m here,” Kim growls. “And I’m going to stop you.”

She vaults forward and flips over the bomb. It plays in her mind again as time slows. Yellow-Brown-Blue-White. She snags three of them, leaving the lone white wire behind and cartwheels over to Monkey Fist to—

—it doesn’t matter, Monkey Fist strikes first. Sends his leg crashing into her back as she flips forward. 

Crack!

Kim hits the floor, dust from the flooring smearing her tunic. She tries to boost herself up, but Monkey Fist presses one bare foot against her stomach. She squirms under his hold. He smirks and, before she can recover, he stomps her face in, heel of his foot nailing her in the nose. Her head bounces back, striking cement and rebounding up, blood squirting out of her nose, her face bruised. 

Monkey Fist goes for another stomp.

This time Kim reaches into her utility belt and comes back with a pistol. Aims it right at Monty’s face. He flinches and so does she.

Twelve years of being a Global Justice agent and she’s still never killed someone. 

Monkey Fist takes advantage of her lapse in judgment, and snatches the gun from her hands. Points it at her face. 

“Well, Miss Possible,” Monkey Fist tuts. “You’re quite the worthy adversary, and I do not enjoy our play, but if you die… well, they’ll just have to send Stoppable, won’t they?”

Kim presses her teeth together, trying to suppress the smile itching at the corner of her lips. 

And Monkey Fist fires.

Click! A hollow sound. He frowns and raises the gun to his eye level. Presses the trigger again and nothing. 

“What?” he exclaims.

In Monkey Fist’s lapse of focus, Kim strikes. Hits him like a freight train. Snaps her legs around Monkey Fist’s waist and flips him onto the floor. He hits it hard, the gun sliding out of his hand, not that it matters. She never loaded the thing so that she’d never be able to use it. Makes for a good sleight of hand at a moment’s notice however. 

Before Monkey Fist can regain his footing, Kim charges him. Grabs him by the waist and flips him completely upside down over her shoulder, then piledrives him headfirst into the floor. She feels him crash into the cement, his body twisting and contorting as she squeezes his body in like an accordion. Finally, when he can take no more abuse, he collapses in a heap, and so does she, at least briefly. She stumbles back up, and runs at the bomb, plucking out the white wire. 

The bomb shuts down with little fanfare. 

“Alright, that’s one down,” she barks into her earpiece. “We’ve got eyes on the other one?”

Wade answers immediately. “ Yes, it’s in DNAmy’s, but uh—we’ve got a problem. ”

Kim thinks for a second and starts her jog to DNAmy’s—wherever that is—and responds. “He forgot the sequence?”

“ Kind of, I’m trying to talk him through it, but the bomb sprayed him with some gas. Made his eyes like a dog’s or whatever, he can’t see color. Look, I’d talk it through with him, but I don’t know where the wires go. I only know the colors and I was thinking —”

“That won’t work, I don’t trust him to follow directions,” Kim charges into the open night air and turns. Her limbs snap against their joints, pushing her ahead as quickly as possible. 

Then Monkey Fist rounds the corner behind her, giving chase on all fours. Kim looks over her shoulder and sighs.

“ But Kim! You have one minute !”

“One minute is plenty.”

“ No it’s not! ”

“I don’t care,” Kim snaps. “Directions, I need directions.”

“Kim, you’re killing me over here,” Wade growls. “You’re going the right way. Pass by three more timeshares and it’ll be on the right.”

Sweat beads on her forehead. She wants to have faith in herself, she always cuts it close like this… but something about this whole caper feels… off.  First, the Yamanouchi Ninjas. Then Monkey Fist’s point about Ron being a no-show. But that is what they do at Global Justice; they don’t negotiate with terrorists. 

Now there’s this. Can she make it? Can she do it?

“ Remember  ,” Ron said long ago when they broke up. “  You can do anything. ”

And she can. She knows she can. She can—she can—she sees the timeshare up ahead. Panics. She doesn’t know the password, she doesn’t know the—

Another line plays in her mind.  Cuddle Monkey  . DNAmy used to call Monty her  Cuddle Monkey . 

She types in the code.

C-U-D-D-L-E-M-O-N-K-E-Y.

“Kim, the password is—”

“I know what the password is!” Kim snaps. “I just need to… need to… yes, door’s open, we must have thirty seconds, right?”

“ You have ten, Kim .”

Her heart nearly stops. She sees Drakken crouched helplessly over the bomb, she sees the wires. Around them, animals float in tankards. Experiments-to-be. She rushes to the center of the floor, drops a knee. Starts plucking away.

Red-Purple—Blue? No, Green! 

Her hands hover above the wires, her jaw drops. 

“ Kim  ?” Wade chokes from his end. “  Five. Four. Three …”

She remembers. Red Purple Green… she plucks them out as the colors flash in her mind. Yellow. Brown. Blue. 

The final wire: White. 

She reaches for it and—

—and—

Boom.

                                                            The bomb goes off. Heat pushes against Kim’s body, the light is blinding. She braces herself and—

—a globe of blue light materializes around the explosion, trapping the fire from escaping. Flame pushes against the blue light, and curls backwards like a wave. The explosion surges against itself, and Kim opens her eyes. Slowly, the globe of blue light shrinks inwards, and then becomes so small it crushes the explosion out of sight, out of reality. 

“Nooooo!” Monkey Fist howls, snapping Kim from her reprieve. “Where’s the kaboom?! There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboo—”

Boom.

Blue light explodes again, this time into a portal at least twelve feet tall. Light flashes from within, the light within the portal airy like storm clouds. Drakken and Monkey Fist both turn on the portal, jaws agape, not sure what to expect. But Kim? Kim groans and smacks her forehead. 

Another distant boom, and a flash of light through the portal. A silhouette appears as a blip that becomes larger fast, and then Ron Stoppable swoops out of the portal, and soars right at Monkey Fist. Grabs him by the throat, and jettisons him across the room, smashing into a tankard holding a baby elephant. Cracks splinter the glass, and a foreign, green liquid spits out the cracks only to retreat back inwards. Blue light burns along the cracks, resealing the glass as nothing was damaged to begin with.

Ron has barely aged since their high school days, Wade’s theorized it has something to do with Ron’s powers. The only hint that he’s in the beginning of his 30s is the occasionally white hair speckled along his blond head, and even then, it’s mostly from stress.

And then there’s his eyes. Formerly brown and amber, they’re hardened now and a cold, steely blue. They glow like headlights when he uses his powers. 

With some extra muscle caked onto his lanky frame, he fills out his navy blue Global Justice uniform well.

Kim wonders sometimes if Ron is even human anymore. 

Ron stares Monkey Fist in the eyes. A crack of light and Monkey Fist’s body goes limp. Carelessly, Ron lets Monkey Fist’s body slide out from his grasp and hit the floor. He turns over to Kim. “Don’t worry, KP, he’s just knocked out, I didn’t kill him or nothin’.”

Kim stares at Ron, still on her hands and knees. “Who called you?”

Ron frowns, taken aback. Probably because she hasn’t seen him in  months,  and yet she’s still unhappy to see him. “Oh, um, Wade, called me like a few seconds ago. Heh.”

If it wasn’t for Ron, all of Colorado would be gone… all because Kim Possible wasn’t willing to give Doctor Drakken basic instructions. She can still feel the heat from the explosion singed on her body. It’s the closest she’s ever felt to death.

She quietly gets to her feet. “Wade, can you keep Ron’s appearance off the books?”

A long silence.

“ Sorry Kim  ,” Wade sighs. “  I can’t. ”

~~KP~~

“For the last time,” Monkey Fist moans, handcuffed to a wooden chair in an otherwise empty interrogation room. “I didn’t mind control anyone from Yamanouchi, they willingly joined me.”

“Really?” Doctor Director scoffs. “You’re really sticking to this story, huh?”

Doctor Director is a tall woman. She towers at least half a foot over Kim and Ron. Over the years, crows feet have grown into her skin around the eyes, the creases particularly harsher from behind her eyepatch. A streak of white cleaves through her neatly cropped, chestnut brown hair. 

Kim’s never seen her outside of her GJ uniform. 

Standing besides Kim and still in uniform, Ron frowns. “You said Hirotaka was there, Kim?”

Kim nods. “I know, it doesn’t sound like the Hirotaka we know.”

Ron’s frown only sinks deeper. “Yeah…” he says with the air of someone who knows a little bit more than they’re letting on. “Betty, I think… Monty’s telling the truth on this one.”

Kim raises an eyebrow. What is it that she doesn’t know? She used to know everything but now that she’s stuck in Class B…

Doctor Director raises an eyebrow too. “Stoppable, if there have been issues at Yamanouchi, you need to be communicating that with me.”

“Sorry,” Ron bows his head in shame. “Sensei and I… had an argument, and I kinda interpreted it more as a personal problem than a saving-the-world kinda problem but I guess… yeah, I’ll do better, Betty, I swear it.”

Kim sympathetically reaches over to Ron and strokes his back.

Ron looks up. “Thanks, KP. Uh, so do you want me to round up the Yamanouchi peeps who got away?”

“It’s fine,” Doctor Director snips. “Possible’s got it.” 

Oh, yeah,  of course  Possible’s got it.

Monkey Fist sneers at the three of them. “Some people in Yamanouchi felt that I had a point—that the Mystical Monkey Power shouldn’t belong to someone who isn’t willing to sacrifice their powers for the greater good.”

Ron sniffs loudly. “Dude, I didn’t even know about this shindig. I would have—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Doctor Director snaps. “God, you two… alright, I’ll take your word for it, Fiske. For now. You tell me where your people are hiding and we’ll be in better standing, got it?”

A twitch in Monkey Fist’s cheek. “Not a chance.”

“We’ll see about that,” Doctor Director growls, bending away from the chair. She shoves the door open with her elbow, and walks out into the hallway at a brisk pace. Kim and Ron follow.

The hallway is a pristine white. Not a speck of dust in sight. Immaculately clean, this is Global Justice DC, the homebase for most operations. 

Doctor Director regards Kim harshly. “I don’t even know what to say to you.” She stares at her for a moment, her single eye burrowing deep into Kim’s soul. “You’re suspended for a week.”

She figured her punishment would be something like that. 

Doctor Director turns on Ron. “Thank you for your work, Stoppable. While you’re still out here, I’d love a briefing on what’s happening in Lowardia.”

Ron glances over his shoulder at Kim. “Actually I was kind of hoping me and Kim could catch up, it’s been a minute for the two of us and um—”

“ Now , Stoppable,” Doctor Director says coldly. 

Ron cringes and offers Kim a meek hand wave before walking away with his commander. 

Once they’re out of earshot, Kim slouches and exhales.

“I know,” Drakken says suddenly, and Kim jumps. She looks back and sees the Formerly Bad Doctor staring at her from a few feet away. “Sorry, did I surprise you? Ha, who would’ve figured I’d be able to get the drop on the great Kim Possible…”

Kim winces. “I’m not great, I’m not even Class A.”

An awkward silence unfolds between the two, Drakken doesn’t seem to understand what she’s saying.

“Whatever, I’m just having a bad day,” Kim sighs, joining up with Drakken, nodding for the two of them to go to the cafeteria. “So don’t gloat about surprising me. Can you see colors again?”

He nods. “Could we… not go to the cafeteria? I actually wanted to speak with you. About a private matter.”

Kim stops in place. Blinks and shrugs. “Where to?”

~~KP~~

A few minutes later, they wind up in Drakken’s dormitory. It’s a messy room in need of a maid. Blueprints and schematics are scattered all over the floor. A half-filled mug of cold coffee sits at his desk. 

“Apologies for the mess,” Drakken mumbles, using his heel to slide some of his paperwork underneath his bed. “Been working overtime on some… projects.”

Kim raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t think too much of it. She takes his desk chair while Drakken takes a seat on his bed. 

“So?” Kim says when Drakken doesn’t say anything.

“Mm,” Drakken bites his lip. “It’s about… Shego.”

Read Chapter 2 today on AO3! Chapter 3 coming soon. : ) 

#kim possible fanfic #kim possible x shego #kigo #it's mission: impossible kinda shit #ron stoppable x will du

[poesbeforeprose]

Chapter 1:

I shifted in my chair as the chime caught my attention. A simple notice of an emergency call being answered. Not by me however. I was currently swiping through another chapter of “Love Lies Lost” as my coffee was going cold. Four in the morning was a haunting time for the base mostly because of how quiet and contained it had become. Most of our troubles were miles away and mine especially were just down the road. Unlike most people stationed here, I was able to finish my shift and go home if I wished but not much was there save my cat and stack of unread books.

“Odie.” My radio called. The voice I immediately recognized as Keaton was on the other line.

I closed my phone and clicked the comm, “Go ‘head Kit.”

“You should see this. Headed to you now.”

The line went dead shortly after which meant a few things. Either Keaton was going to personally show me some fucked up side of the internet he was entirely too proud of, he was about to show me something on his phone that would be suspect to prying eyes, or lastly something big just came to our station. The latter was the one that was the most rare. Keaton took pride in the fine and exquisite taste of raunchy and dark humor, but he also got a kick out of showing off all the subscription sites he was plugged to. In short, the guy was a perv, but who wasn’t in a quiet and lonely place like this?

After a moment or two, he rounded the corner into my small office space. Immediately his eyes were not of wild pleasure and glee, but instead were almost rounded with fright and dismay.

“Dude.” He whispered. He checked back into the hall and gazed about the room before saying anything. “You need to come with me to ER, right now.”

My boots hit the floor before he could say anything and I felt my heart flutter, “What’s up? Is something happening?”

He gave me a smirk, “Calm down cadet, no combat here. Except the Jane that just rolled in. You won’t believe it.”

I could feel my shoulders give way. Keaton also had this knack of sticking his hands deep into my brain and squeezing the exact nerve that triggered my anxiety. I could relax just a beat because I felt like he was about to tell me about the girl that just came into the station was probably “hot” or something.

“What is it? Is she dismembered or something?” I exhaled, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Dude, no. The opposite. She has a nasty look about her. Scars from nape to neck and everything. I looked at her file really fast and came over. She’s practically a celebrity in some parts of the force.” Keaton, keeping his voice sullen and controlled was remaining vigilant to sharp ears.

“Oh? Big deal huh?”

“Yeah. Spec Ops brother. Task Force One. Four. One.”

I felt the pit in my stomach disappear into the floor.

——————————————

“Dude shut up and keep your head down.” Keaton said. Since then we cut through security checkpoints back to the way he came.

Standard procedure in this case would be extremely off the record and kept close to the chest. For me to even be in the same building Keaton works in made my palms sweat.

“I am not supposed to be in here right now.” I muttered as a nurse passed by. Keaton elbowed me in the ribs.

“Fuckin’ chill Brodie. You’re gonna be fine.”

He grabbed a clipboard off the nearest desk and pretended to be flipping through a chart as another gentleman at least in his forties strolled by. I could see the parade of demerits and flogging coming my way if we ran into the wrong CO. Please God if you’re up there, send as many guardian angels as you can.

“Henderson!” A voice shouted from behind us and we froze in our tracks.

God, you must really hate us right now.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Dr. Josiah Pierce, one of the oldest and crummiest men on the planet could turn anyone’s blood to stone.

“Dr. Pierce! Yes, my apologies for the late call. I was bringing Caleb Thompson up for my walk about. He is an orderly after all.”

Dr. Pierce’s steel grey eyes cut to the bone as he looked me over, “Ah. I’ve heard about you. I understand the skeleton crew call you ‘Odie’?”

“Y-yes sir. That’s a nickname.”

“It’s a shitty nickname.”

Keaton and I stiffened, “Yes. Yes it is sir.” I simply replied.

“Henderson, make this quick. We don’t have time for showboating and sticking our noses in shit that we can’t comprehend. We got her taken care of.”

Keaton was taken aback, “Got who taken care,”

“Cut the shit son, I know you were taking him to the op. Just be quick about it and get the fuck out of my wing.” Pierce muttered. Keaton snatched me by the arm and led me away.

“Yes sir. Right away sir.” He chimed.

After he was hopefully out of earshot I said, “Kit you’re going to get me strung up on display in the front fucking lobby.”

“Relax my compadre, we’re here.”

My eyes scanned the room, and there was a single nurse taking notes at the moment. Keaton, ever the charmer, strolled up to her right side, leaving me in the doorway.

“Natalie, what’s up lady? Doing alright in here?”

She didn’t even jump in the slightest as he approached her. Apparently she was used to this every night. “Hi Keaton.”

She turned to see me standing alone there, “And you are?”

“Thompson. Caleb. I’m just tagging along.”

“Yeah, Caleb here is a little bit of a fan when it comes to special forces, runs in his blood. Too bad he had a few bad run ins which sidelined him.” Keaton droned on. I looked at my feet as she looked me over. As the conversation shifted away from me however, it gave me an opportunity to slide over the bedside of the operative.

I could feel my heart slamming against my chest. First impression showed she was shorter than me, at least five years younger but battle scarred. I was careful not to touch her but just examine anything out of the ordinary. Although I’m certain she had already been in good hands. Her hair fell about the pillow in a wave of inky blackness. Looking over her arms I could see bruises, cuts, and even one long wound that had closed some time ago on her inner bicep. I swallowed hard as I tried not to stare too deeply into her facial features but it was like looking at a porcelain doll. Her skin was fair and taken care of, lips firm and unblemished, and a jawline that seemed so defined for her career choice. In a word, she was beautiful, but then I looked at her hands to see the other side of the story.

They were worn past their expiration date. Knicks, cuts, bruises, scars, and even her fingernails seemed to be damaged. Just looking at her I could tell that whatever past she had, whatever battles she had experienced, all of her stories boiled down to one simple fact. She has killed before and she was incredibly good at it. I gulped down the knot in my throat and exhaled softly away from her.

“So, get this Odie, wanna see something cool?” Keaton snapped my attention and I turned to see he was holding her file. He thumbed through a few pages and stopped on a note.”

“Check her callsign.”

He passed me the chart and I looked to see first her name and then the name that run a chill down my spine. Nyx Stevenson, code name “Cadaver”.

“Holy shit.” I muttered.

Suddenly her hand lashed out and latched onto my wrist. I didn’t realize I was that close to her still?

She groaned softly, almost a purr, “Simon.”

Keaton and I looked at one another, “Who the fuck is Simon?”

#fanfic #call of duty #romance #slow burn #longing #long post

[spiritgamer26]

The Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel III

Vous ne connaissez pas la série des « Trails of Cold Steel » ? Pas de panique ! Vous trouverez ici un résumé complet des événements majeurs du premier et second opus.Pour Trails of Cold Steel III, en l’an 1204 du calendrier Septian, un jeune garçon du nom de Rean Schwarzer fait son entrée dans l’Académie militaire de Thors, le plus prestigieux établissement de tout l’Empire d’Érébonie. C’est avec les élèves de la Classe VII dont il est l’instructeur qu’il va surmonter les nombreux incidents frappant le continent et se forger sa place dans un monde en perpétuel mouvement.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ2pRw1L5n8

L'Écriture Magistrale de Trails of Cold Steel III : Une Épopée Anime Captivante

L'écriture est tout simplement phénoménale. L'exposition, riche mais jamais verbeuse ni répétitive, permet une immersion totale. Les personnages se distinguent facilement à travers des dialogues vifs, précis et intelligents. L'expérience offre la saveur d'une grande épopée, semblable à un "Guerre et Paix" à la sauce anime. Cependant, cela vient avec les inévitables clichés japonais, mettant en scène de jeunes adultes accomplissant des exploits gigantesques, pilotant des robots et sauvant le monde des forces surnaturelles. Si ce genre de récit vous rebute, alors Trails pourrait ne pas être à votre goût. En revanche, si vous appréciez cette formule narrative, l'aventure de Rean Schwarzer s'impose comme une expérience incontournable.En respect envers ceux qui n'ont pas encore exploré Trails of Cold Steel, nous expliquerons sobrement que Rean est le protagoniste incontesté de cet arc narratif. Il a dirigé les jeunes cadets de l'Académie Militaire de Thors à travers la guerre civile secouant l'empire d'Erebonia. Trails of Cold Steel III débute environ un an et demi après les événements de l'épisode précédent. Rean, désormais connu sous le surnom d'Ashen Chevalier, a obtenu son diplôme plus tard que ses camarades de la classe VII. Il a choisi de former les élèves problématiques de la succursale que Thors a ouverte près de la paisible ville de Leeves. Cependant, à son insu, le chancelier machiavélique Osborne et la mystérieuse société secrète, Ouroboros, continuent de conspirer contre tout et tous.

Trails of Cold Steel III : Un RPG Épique Mêlant Tradition et Innovation

L'histoire de Trails of Cold Steel 3 est étroitement liée à une structure qui, à première vue, peut rappeler les récents jeux Persona, marquant le rythme de l'histoire, initialement posée et réfléchie. Rean se retrouve à former la nouvelle Classe VII, l'accompagnant dans des missions en apparence routinières, lui permettant ainsi de mieux les connaître sur le champ de bataille et pendant son temps libre. L'exploration de la ville et du campus, les interactions avec les PNJ, les tâches secondaires et l'utilisation des Bonding Points (BP) ajoutent une dimension sociale au récit.Dans ses premières heures, Trails of Cold Steel III semble suivre un schéma d'aventure traditionnelle, mais les plus attentifs remarqueront une narration qui prend son temps pour composer une mosaïque politique et militaire. Les enjeux s'élèvent progressivement autour des jeunes protagonistes, passant d'une atmosphère légère à un récit plus intense et captivant. Les ordres courageux, consommant les BP accumulés avec les attaques de lien, ajoutent une couche stratégique au système de combat.Trails of Cold Steel, bien que RPG complet et ancré dans des conventions anciennes, présente une approche plus proche des expérimentations récentes. Son système de combat complexe et stratégique peut être déroutant pour les novices, surtout sans expérience préalable avec Cold Steel. L'exploration tridimensionnelle et les rencontres visibles apportent une dimension immersive à l'aventure.Sur le champ de bataille, la gestion de la distance entre les personnages et les ennemis devient cruciale, influençant l'efficacité des attaques de zone. Les compétences agressives et défensives, Orbal Arts et Craft, ajoutent de la profondeur au gameplay. La personnalisation des Quartz et des synergies entre les personnages offre une dimension tactique. Trails of Cold Steel 3 propose un défi adaptable avec son système de difficulté et encourage une attention stratégique envers la résistance élémentaire.En résumé, Trails of Cold Steel sur PlayStation 5 offre une amélioration de la résolution et des temps de chargement. Le jeu, d'une durée d'environ 50 heures, évolue d'une aventure apparemment traditionnelle à un acte final haletant, offrant une expérience RPG riche mêlant habilement tradition et innovation.

Un Système de Combat Évolué et Captivant

Le système de combat de Trails of Cold Steel III offre une profondeur considérable, allant au-delà des simples Link Attacks. Contrairement aux interactions pendant le temps libre dans le jeu précédent, les Link Attacks dépendent désormais du Link EXP gagné en faisant combattre certains personnages ensemble. Cette valeur accrue augmente la possibilité d'exécuter des attaques conjointes, pouvant évoluer en Rush Attacks ou même en quadruples Burst Attacks, engageant toute l'équipe et dépensant les Brave Points accumulés avec les Link Attacks. Ces points peuvent également être utilisés pour les Brave Orders, des bonus de groupe variant d'un personnage à l'autre.Le système de combat, complexe et dynamique, intègre également des éléments tels que les conditions anormales et les combats en mechs, offrant une expérience organique et stimulante. Le jeu prend le temps d'expliquer chaque mécanisme à travers des tutoriels détaillés, assurant une courbe d'apprentissage fluide.Trails of Cold Steel, en tant que JRPG complet, témoigne de l'expertise de Falcom et rend hommage à l'histoire du genre. Il propose divers mini-jeux et objets de collection, de la pêche à la cuisine, en passant par le Vantage Master, un jeu de cartes au tour par tour prisé dans l'univers du jeu. Les joueurs en quête d'une expérience riche et variée trouveront leur bonheur, que ce soit pour débloquer des trophées ou atteindre des objectifs liés à Trails of Cold Steel IV en détectant une sauvegarde terminée dans la mémoire de la console.L'histoire, quant à elle, ne se contente pas de s'arrêter là. Le cliffhanger final intense annonce directement le prochain chapitre de cet arc narratif. Le jeu, maintenant disponible sur PlayStation, offre des améliorations graphiques et de chargement, ainsi que des DLC cosmétiques, sans altérer l'essence du titre original.

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#EngineSoftware #NihonFalcom #NihonFalcomCorporation #NipponIchiSoftware #NIsamerica #PH3GmbH #THELEGENDOFHEROES:TRAILSOFCOLDSTEELIII

[crystal-quill]

Chapter Seven

    Taharim Academy is a far more massive campus on paper than it appears to be in person, and the reason for this is the area known to the students as the backlot. A five acre wide, three acre deep territory of woodland considered part of the academys' property, bordered at the back by a fast moving river with deep, fern and moss slicked banks. Originally meant to be cleared out for a massive training ground and additional facilities, the backlot was left to grow wild as enlistment numbers never met the expected projections and funding could not be obtained. Most of it is left unexplored by the cadets, with only a few clearings near the actual buildings haunted occassionally, largely for the purpose of indulging in contraband and furtive midager laisons.

    Vurawn was an exception, as he often was. The boy preferred the denser wood, it reminded him of the orchard back home, his safe place. He had especially grown to love the river, and had found a small nook in some tree roots on the bank that was lined with thick, soft moss and hidden from the paths made by game animals by a lofty tun'esar bush, the only one he'd ever seen on Rentor. He'd looked it up in the library and apparently it wasn't native to anywhere in the Ascendancy. Fascinating, and the sweet, gentle scent was absolutely lovely.

    At the moment, Vurawn had two free periods back to back. His schedule had a lot of strange holes in it, largely because he had straight up skipped the equivelant of two grades and there were certain freshman classes that were considered either too academically advanced, such as actual combat training not just physical conditioning or maths that he did not have an appropriate foundation for, or inappropriate for his age group, such as the freshman health classes which spent the first half of the year on sex ed for the cadets who were now well into starting their adolescent journeys. What he was supposed to be doing was teaching himself the necessary fundementals for the scholarly classes he couldn't take yet, but today had been very stressful. Nothing specific had happened it was just one of those days. So instead, he was curled up in his little moss lined nook, breathing in the scent of the yellow and white flowers above him and allowing himself to be lulled by the whispers of the leaves and the rushed chattering of the river.

    It really was a lovely day for it, and Vurawn had allowed himself to totally space out watching the dappled sunlight on the forest floor from where he lay for nearly an hour and a half before it occured to his sleepy mind that he should make his way back. Sighing heavily and stretching long, thin arms to the canopies above, he stands and begins his run back the Academy proper. He was fast, better fed, and he knew the area, so it didn't take him long to cover the distance. It didn't take him long to come within hearing range of the furthest clearing used by cadets.

    Hearing voices, Vurawn slows relunctantly, wishing he had discovered an alternate path and wouldn't have to cross the open area to get back. He is debating whether it would be worth trying to slip past unnoticed along the edge when he hears a voice he recognizes, feminine with a core of steel spitting rage and disdain so powerful it was practically literal acid.

"-don't care what problem you have with it, he's my friend and I'm not dropping him just because you're a bunch of k'on'becsoi that think being part of a Ruling Family makes you better than everyone else.."

The response is laden with digust, offense, and cold anger, and makes Vurawn feel as though a void has swallowed him with its unending chill.

"Fine. Then we'll just have to teach you how to be a proper member of this family."

Vurawns tiny, birdlike form darts, panicked, into the clearing just in time to see an older midagers heavy fist bury itself under Ziaras ribs.

The world becomes sharp and hard and bright and his body is iron and stone, unmoving under the unseeing gaze of the sun with the thick, bloated sounds of grunts and strikes of flesh against flesh.

And there's a scream with words he can't understand.

And then Vurawn doesn't understand much of anything, anymore, as the world

                                                                                                                          cracks

                                                                                                                                       and

                                                                                                                                               shatters

                                                                                                                                                               into

                                                                                                                                                                          so

                                                                                                                                                                                  much

                                                                                                                                                                                               red.

#crystal quill

[lawnmowerstore]

2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46

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Riding Mower 2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46

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Lawn Riding Mower

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A high-back seat is one of the features that distinguish this lawn tractor from others. Its seatback is higher than most of its competition, which means a comfortable ride. This mower even includes a cup holder. But for those with a love of lawn maintenance, small details like these make a difference in performance and functionality.

Riding Lawn Mower 2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46

Riding Lawn Mower 2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46 if you're in the market for a new riding lawn mower, consider a Cub Cadet XT2 Lx46. It has many great features, including cruise control and a spring-assisted lever. This allows you to set the cutting height from one to four inches. And because the mower is spring-assisted, it can be raised or lowered in one-quarter-inch increments.

The Cub Cadet XT2 Lx46 riding lawn mower has a 46-inch steel deck and an electronic fuel-injection system for improved fuel economy and cold weather starts. Its steel fabricated deck is stronger and should last for many years. It's an excellent value for the price. Its deck is also incredibly durable, and you can expect it to withstand years of heavy use and constant wear and tear.

Another great feature is its high seat back, which is much higher than most competitors. Even experienced mower operators will notice the small details that make the ride more comfortable. The cup holder is another nice touch. These features are easily noticeable to experienced users, but they aren't important to normal consumers. Instead, they're more important for the operator. AcuTrac tires help direct power to the ground, minimizing spinning and slippage.

2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46 Lawn Mower

2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46 Lawn Mower features a 46-inch fabricated AeroForce mower deck. This angular shape makes the deck much more durable than the usual round design. It can handle tougher conditions like mud, which makes it a great choice for homeowners with large lawns. Lastly, it has an electronic fuel injection system, which gives it more reliable cold weather starts.

2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46 features cruise control, which allows you to start and stop the machine in a steady, consistent manner. The cruise control mechanism locks the blade into position and allows you to adjust the cut height between one and four inches. The height adjustment lever is spring-assisted and allows you to adjust it in quarter-inch increments. The rear wheels lock in place when you are in cruise mode, so it's easy to get the perfect height for the job.

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Cub Cadet Riding Mower XT2 LX46

Cub Cadet Riding Mower XT2 LX46 is a 46-inch riding mower with an upgraded engine and deck. It is equipped with an electronically fuel-injected engine for better fuel economy and cold weather starts. The fabricated steel deck is extremely durable and should last the life of the tractor. It is easy to start and stop, and its reversible deck design makes for easy storage.

2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46 features a Tuff Torq hydrostatic transmission that requires less maintenance than a standard transmission. The mower also features a standard oil change system. Fortunately, John Deere simplified this task with a cartridge oil change system. The manual lift system is also standard. If you have a tight turn radius, this is a great option. Those who are limited in space will want to consider purchasing a commercial version. While there are several models in the XT2 Enduro series, the newest model is the 'XT2 LX46. This model takes the XT1 series and adds features to it. This machine also has a snowblower. Despite its new features, the XT2 LX46 is a great mower for the price.

Unlike many of its competitors, the 2022 Cub Cadet XT2 LX46 EFI/FAB is designed with the operator in mind. This means more comfort for the rider. Another notable feature is the cupholder. Those who use mowers often will notice that the XT2 LX46 EFI/FAB has an ergonomically designed seat. It is easy to change the blade by simply pushing the collar forward and dropping off the blade.

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[pinkchanelbag]

what turns them on

eren

legslegslegslegslegs

you could literally be fully clothed and he’d still trace his eyes along the curves of your thighs and calves and you gotta wave a hand at him and he’ll be like “hm?” and god forbid you have odm gear on during a “chill day.” the straps around your thighs, the steel bumping against your hips as you walk. once you catch eren’s eyes, yeah good luck charlie.

when you get mad at him lmfao

like not MAD mad (maybe sometimes but he’d never admit) but if he does a reckless move on an expedition, etc., and you’re yelling at him or giving him a >:( face or giving him the cold shoulder, he starts thinking with his dick and it’s like “i need her NOW but i gotta make her not mad anymore” the most frequent solution? body worship.

seeing you sweaty??

something about coming back a training session or a titan battle and you’re stripping the heavy gear off, a sheen of sweat on your forehead?? like the way you rush out of the uniform because the heat is just too much, too much. let’s be real it’s just how you look kinda fucked out. he loves it.

levi

he likes it when you hum

cause well, how often are you idle enough to be able to do something like hum in canonverse? when you hum he knows you’re feeling calm and it’s usually when you’re making tea or something and it’s almost like seeing you naked in a way, and it makes him want to actually see you naked. besides, with his imagination, a soft hum isn’t too big a stretch from a moan.

using odm gear but for sport

in a mission or something, there’s no room for that, but when you fly around in the gear for fun and the wind in your face, levi’s eyes are tracking the push and pull of your waist through the air, the bend of your limbs. you look so pliable, he can’t help wanting to take you back home despite having just gotten here.

your reaction to his inappropriate jokes

levi’s not sexually promiscuous with his day-to-day words or actions, but sometimes he just wants to make you flustered. the jokes are more deadpan than sexual (“hange’s making me an elixir so i can stay up late to work.” “you need your sleep idiot and i can keep you up all night just fine :|” ) muttering a joke in your ear during a meeting, or in the mess hall making the cadets go 0.0 he lives to see your surprise and sheepishness and the trying to brush him off, knowing you can’t.

mikasa

seeing you sleepy

no cause her protect >:( instinct goes into overdrive when you get all dreamy and let your guard down because of exhaustion. that closed-eye drowsy smile makes her puthy throb, but she’ll let you sleep, no worries. she can’t make any promises about not waking you up, though.

combat practice together

just take a moment to imagine por favor. mikasa is usually serious with training because she wants, needs, you to be stronger, but sometimes she finds herself holding back so the fight lasts longer, and not for training purposes. your aggression, your raw, bodily instincts pushing you forward, your concentration. please. you won’t walk for 2 days <3

treating her injuries

her protect instinct is malfunctioning when this happens cause it’s like “no i’m fine,” but when you don’t let her brush off the scratches she sustained on the mission, forcing her to sit on the bathroom bench while you clean the dry blood off her neck and jaw while she stares at you in adoration GOODBYEEEE she’s on her knees.

#aot #attack on titan #attack on titan season 4 #attack on titan x reader #eren yeager #eren yaeger headcanons #eren smut #levi smut #mikasa smut #captain levi #levi ackerman x reader #eren jeager x reader #eren yaeger x reader #mikasa x reader #eren x reader #levi x reader #nia.eren #nia.levi #nia.mikasa #nia.nsfw #mikasa ackerman #mikasa headcanons #levi headcanons #levi attack on titan #nia.txt