She stood looking around, trying to process anything.

She was there.

She stood in it.

After months and months of reading about this place, she'd finally set foot in it.

She wondered how she wound up where she did; it was a room significantly similar to the room she'd seen in the book, but no one seemed to be living in it. Or at least, not anymore.

Going back into the closet, she knocked onto the wall and putting her ear against it to determine if she could hear her own setting beyond the wall.

Nothing. Nothing but pure silence and the sound of the subordinates talking and walking outside on the hallway across.

"How the hell..." she mumbled to herself, remembering that when she talked to Levi, he spoke of a key that allowed him to cross through.

She immediately took out her keys from her bag, jingling, being held together by a ring. She rummaged through them, looking at which key was which. She never really took a good look at them which was why she always had to try more than once to unlock her door.

On one key, she saw that it was a plain silver key- the silver slightly getting worn out by the constant use. The second key was similar to the first, just as worn out. Her third and fourth key were just there for the sake of her ever visiting her parent's house, but looked to be used to a great extent as well. The last key on the ring looked identical to the rest; she figured it was the key that took her there, considering the fact that it had hardly been used and was slightly newer than the rest.

She slipped her keys back into her bag and walked out of the closet.

On the bed, there was a Scouting Legion uniform carefully laid out- from the boots, to the 3DMG harness, to the cape.

It was as if someone had anticipated her arrival and prepared these clothes so she would blend in when she did arrive.

Hange probably left the keys on purpose so I could come here and settle things with Levi. she thought.

On top of the uniform was a piece of paper with a note on it that read "Instructions."

She carefully read through it and learned what she had to do.

She quickly put on the uniform and struggled with the harness and left her clothing on the bed. The note stated that the room was completely off limits and was used for her stay.

When she finished, she headed for the door and sighed, stopping infront of it, to think of the dangers she was about to face.

"Here we go," she turned the cold door handle and opened the door to the many soldiers walking around.

She proceeded to walk right where many soldiers were headed, assuming it was the way down.

Everything was distracting to her, seeing her fiction become a living reality felt surreal.

"Watch where you're going!" a voice shouted at her. Unaware of the moving crowd, she bumped into someone infront of her.

The taller figure turned around- he had blonde hair on the top and a slightly darker shade on the bottom. It reminded her of a mushroom.

"Oh, sorry." she looked up at him. It's Jean. she thought, regonizing his face.

He blushed, he'd never seen her before, her hair, her face, and her voice was all new to him.

"It's alright," he looked away in attempt to keep his cool. "How come I don't recognize you? Your face isn't familiar at all." he added.

She knew she had to make a quick lie that wouldn't make her seem conspicuous. The lie couldn't be associated with Levi since they weren't exactly in good terms, meaning she had to choose a different option. "I was just chosen to be under the command of Hange." was what she could make up. Solid lie, (y/n) she mentally patted herself on the back.

"Oh, well my name is Jean," he held out a hand to her to which she shook, he had an awfully strong grip as a result of having to hold tightly onto his blades. 

"I'm (y/n)" she replied.

"Well seeing as you are new here, how about I give you a tour?" She thought of taking up his offer, so that he could possibly show her where Hange was.

"Sure." she accepted, following him to wherever he was headed next.

"Great," he walked her downstairs to where the kitchen and the dining areas were.

"So... you're in Levi's squad now?" she asked him.

"In a sense. Since his squad was wiped out when fighting the female titan, we worked with him." he scratched his head. "He doesn't really have a squad right now, it's more like he's babysitting us."

"That's too bad." she replied. "not that he's babysitting you, the 'losing the squad part'."

He chuckled, "Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I heard that he was planning to get married to one of his subordinates but she died in battle.

She flinched and fell into a daze, subconsciously following him. He was right- she remembered reading about how Petra talked to her father about Levi and how discreetly devastated he was when she died. She couldn't deny that she was jealous, but she still felt bad that she lost her life while serving humanity.

"Hello?" he waved his hands infront of her, "you compeletely stopped listening to me,"

She looked back at him "Sorry, just thinking about something."

"Well alright," he went back to talking about his experiences in the Scout Regiment and not much about the place. Still, she learned a lot about everyday training and dealing with the terror of titans. He talked about how he discovered that Eren was a titan shifter- which she'd already read, but it was nice for her to hear the small details of it, such as being paranoid of his mother's life being in danger or often finding himself feeling that he wanted to give up. It was the terror of living in this world. She alost felt bad for him; he constantly had to put on a tough boy look and when the time comes- as scared as he would be- he couldn't cry. And as much of a blunt person he was, he hid so much, or perhaps refused to accept his weakness.

"Sorry, I talked too much," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you have any questions?"

"Uh, do you mind telling me where Squad Leader Hange's office is... or lab.. or whatever," she was planning on visiting her when she had the time to.

"Yeah, it's just inside the building on the west end. They put it in the far area just because they didn't want to involve anyone in her weird experiments or even come relatively close to it." 

"Oh," she replied, "I have things to discuss with her, so I have to go. Thanks for showing me around, Jean." 

She waved goodbye and started walking for the west end, "W-wait," he called out to her, "I can walk you there." he obliged.

"Uh, yeah, sure thing. But I won't be able to bring you into the discussion since it's kind of a private matter... You know.. about titans and stuff." she lamely conjured up a lie.

"That's fine. I can leave right after." he responded. 

"Okay," she started to walk towards the west end, hopefully to see Hange again. Jean ran up beside her.

Once they arrived at the door, she looked at him, hoping that Hange was there. She let out a sigh before knocking. "Hange, you there?" she called out. There was no response for a few minutes, but she refused to leave. She needed Hange. For the last time, she furiously knocked at the door, "Hange! It's me (y/n)! Answer the god damn door!" 

After a while the door slammed wide open, "(y/n)! What are you doing here?! I missed you!" she squeezed her tightly, nearly asphyxiating her. 

She turned around and saw that Jean took it upon himself to leave, just as promised. "I'll see you during dinner, (y/n)." he waved goodbye.

Hange invited her inside her office where most of her thinking and theorizing came to be. There were sketches of the titan's anatomies as well as different plans for her next experiment. On her bookshelves there were stacks upon stacks of different books; some of which looked to her like the books she wrote in about her experiments. She even saw the notebook she bought for her from the store.

"Before anything, (y/n), I apologize for hiding everything from you. I didn't know it would take such a hard impact between you and Levi. I didn't even know he was going to ask you out, or even romantically be attracted to someone for that matter." she sat down on her messy table, papers and such thrown around the place.

"It's... it's okay, Hange. I shouldn't have reacted to it like that. I know you and Levi were just trying to find options for the people. It was selfish of me." she started playing with her hands. She wanted to see him but she knew he couldn't do that. He left for a reason, and that was not to see her while he was upset.

"Well, to be fair, we should have asked you first. So, no need to feel bad." she went up to her and patted her shoulder. "I know you want to see Levi, but he's busy with HQ right now." she added.

"I want to see him, I'm just not sure if I'm ready. I know he's going to be furious with me." she bit her lip.

"Yeah, okay, he might kinda be a bit scary sometimes, but trust me he has a soft side. He's your boyfriend, you should know that, but in the event that he does get mad, I'm sure you can take him on, he's a pipsqueak." she tried to lighten the mood.

"I'll try to apologize when I get the chance... If he wants quits then I'll accept it." she held her chin high as if she was preparing herself for battle.

There was a knock on the door, "Squad Leader Hange? It's me, Armin." Armin!  she lightly gasped and shot a look at the door.

"Guess we'll have to talk about it later. For now, you can meet Armin." she whispered, grinning. She'd talked about Armin copiously to Hange and how adorable he was. "Come in, Armin," Hange called out.

The blonde boy quietly stepped into the room, she wanted to give him the biggest hug. "Oh, am I interrupting something important? I can come back later." he stopped a few feet from Hange's desk.

"No, it's fine. We were just catching up," (y/n) chimed in. She felt happy talking to him. Armin looked at her and smiled.

"Oh, alright then."

"Armin, this is (y/n), (y/n), this is Armin." Hange gestured to both as she introduced him. Armin flinched upon hearing her name.

"That's funny, the book I'm reading has a character that has the same name as you,(y/n)." Armin responded. "Same (h/c) hair, same (e/c) eyes, it's kind of weird and coincidental. I was just reading the book before I came here, sorry."

"Oh," was all she could say. She wasn't sure whether she should reveal herself or not. "... What's the book called?" she added.

He thought for a while, looking for the name of the book, "Uh, Dark Shines?"

(A/N) Hey! I'm so sorry for updating late. I was ill during the weekend and kinda still am, which is why I inevitably procrastinated. I'm such an asshole. I promised I would upload every Sunday, AND I DIDN'T. I belong in hell.
But I will update earlier just to make up for this. Maybe friday or something HOPEFULLY.
Anyways, "wow, no Levi for two chapters? I thought this was a Levi x Reader fic??" Yeah, since theyre in a fight, I wanted them to separate for a while to let it simmer. But next chapter will definitely have some Levi in it. Maybe even a jealous one. On that note, Armin seems to have read your book as well which is cool. Hehe.
I kinda wanted to explain why I called this fic Dark Shines, because that song is kinda contingent to how Levi sees you, the reader.
Idk, it's a song about a man who falls in love with a girl and he's kinda reluctant to fall in love with her because she's so innocent and he's kinda like angry angry i hate everyone and stuff and I'm not innocent.
But yeah. I love that song too which is part of the reason why I called it that.
Also, 3.7k reads aahhh thank you!
ALSO ALSO, I just realized this is the first chapter with more than one word. Hehe.
Thank you for reading!!