"Have you seen my-?" Levi started asking about his knives.

"You don't need it," I said back for the fifth time. We were both very new to this. A mission without our gear and without our costumes. Our normal routine was getting switched around.

"Oh right," he mumbled, "what about?" He started asking about his jacket.

"You don't need that either," I said before walking over to my braces. I picked them up before freezing. I ran my fingers over the laces and looked up at Levi who was walking over to help me put them on. I paused and looked down at them before looking back at Levi. "I can't take these can I?"

"You need them," he shook his head.

"Yeah, but they are a part of my costume. They might be too recognizable," I let out a sigh setting them back down and looking up at him, "Besides if we do this right we won't have to use my powers."

He seemed hesitant to let me leave them, but he just nodded and patted me on the back, "we got this." He sounded more convinced today than he did last night, but I still had my doubts. Most of our missions don't go as planned in one way or another. I'm just wondering how this one could fuck up.

"Stop that, we need to keep a more positive outlook."

"I'm positive something is going to happen that we didn't plan for," I said before turning back around and grabbing my mask, and shoving it way down in my pocket. We had decided to take them as a backup in case shit hit the fan. Then maybe we can put our masks on before anyone notices.

Levi just shook his head at my negativity. He grabbed me by my hips and pulled me into a kiss. "Don't be so negative hun," he whispered in my ear. "Say it with me. Everything is going to be okay."

"If I say it, will you get off my ass for a minute?"

"If you say it I'll give you another kiss," he said with a smile I just couldn't resist.

"Fine, everything will be okay. Probably," I mumbled.

"Close enough," he said pulling me in for another kiss.

"Hey no time for making out we gotta get going," Connie said coming to grab us.

"Is everyone ready?" I asked as Levi let go of my hips and we started following Connie towards the common area.

"Just about everyone," he nodded.

"Everyone is in normal clothes and wearing layers?" I asked.

"Yup and everyone has their masks in their pockets."

"Good."

"Do we know about the check-in process yet?" Levi asked. It was the one thing we were still trying to figure out.

"We have to show our IDs," Connie mumbled.

"Okay we can work with that," I nodded.

"Are you sure?" Connie asked. "I mean all of our IDs are outdated. Most of us only have our old school IDs, and all of them have our powers on them."

"I'll explain before we go through the portal," I said as we turned the corner making it to the rest of the group. The last few people seemed to be walking in each checking their materials and double-checking their outfits. I can tell no one was really comfortable without their normal gear and costumes.

"It feels like I'm naked," Hitch finally mumbled and everyone silently nodded in agreement.

I gave them a quick rundown of the plans and the backup plans and my idea on how we could get through the ID check.

"I hope this works," Pixis mumbled before nodding to Erwin. "Okay, open it."

Erwin did opening a small portal in an alley making sure to double-check no one was around before opening it fully. We all walked through and made sure to get in our little groups. We had split up the groups a little since 12 people were a lot to have on this mission. Each of the team leaders had a burner phone in case of emergencies. I had the one for our group, Annie, for hers, Pixis for his, and Nanaba for herself.

Our team started to split up almost instantly so we weren't all seen together. Mina, Annie, and Marlowe went to a nearby park inside Mina's radius. They were just waiting on the text from Pixis on the burner phone for Mina to "fall asleep" on the bench leaning on Annie so she could do her part.

In my group was Levi, Eld, and Christa. The last group was Pixis, Erwin, Connie, and Hitch. Nanaba was all by herself which was fine. She had snagged a fake ID from her collection and had changed it to match the appearance.

Our group decided to take a longer route to the press conference. The place where we were going was a big arena. There was a marked-off section for the press and behind that was enough room for people to hear their statement. Of course, these meetings are always more packed than any other because people are curious about what's going on, but these places are also off-limits to anyone with powers. God forbid a blue badge even comes near this place. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear guns going off. It's become normal for people to get struck down in the streets for just walking places.

I felt someone nudge me and looked up from the ground to see Levi giving me a concerned look. "I'm okay," I whispered. It's just a sad sight. One that I've seen a few too many times now. "We need to make a left," I said changing the topic and getting us back on track with the mission.

We got to where the line was starting to form. I could see a few people in front of us was Pixis. I made sure to ignore them and keep my eyes on Levi.

Levi elbowed me when we got closer to the front. I gave Christa a nod and waited for her to nod back before throwing my arm over her shoulder pretending to be all lovey-dovey. This was so weird doing this not to mention right in front of my boyfriend, but gay couples stand out more than straight ones, and right now we didn't need to stand out.

Levi just gave me a light pat on the back to tell me it was okay. It didn't stop me from feeling guilty still. Christa looked fine but I could tell she wasn't comfortable with this situation either. We had already talked with Ymir about this beforehand and got permission to do what was needed. Knowing that we still were a little hesitant to do anything. I mean if our cover was blown Nanaba told the few people that were disguised as couples to kiss while taking off hats or sunglasses because it acts as a shield while you are subtly changing your appearance.

I glazed over at the other group and could see that Hitch and Connie looked equally as uncomfortable with their setup. Not only because they each had their own relationships, but because of the age gap. It wasn't as noticeable since Hitch looked like she was at least 18 and Connie didn't exactly look 23, but she's only 16. A part of me knew even if they got caught Connie probably wouldn't be able to pull off pretending to kiss her. Even the way he had his arm over her shoulder he looked very nervous.

As we got closer to the front Christa and I picked up the acting. My hand moved down to her waist and she leaned her head up against me and started up a flirty conversation. "So when we are able to ditch our friends and head home we should do that thing I was telling you about," her voice purred as we walked up to where the guards were waiting to check our IDs.

"I'd like that," I whispered back trying to keep my voice low and seductive. Got this is so humiliating.

"We will talk more about this later," she said clearing her throat before looking up at the man, "sorry about that here's me and My boyfriend's ID's." she leaned in really close as she handed them to him giving the guard a little wink to get his attention focused solely on her.

She gestured for him to lean in and lucky the guard was straight cause he instantly listened to her. With an all-to-happy smile to what a secret from her. "You see nothing wrong with me or my Friend's ID's and you're going to let us in and forget you ever saw us," she whispered before giving him a flirty smile pretending to have told him something dirty.

"Yes, ma'am," he said back before "checking" our IDs and let us through.

Pixis's groups had already made it through before ours which means Hitch was able to use her illusion powers to change the IDs to have correct dates and to change them slightly. She changed the names on them and under powers it said none. Nanaba had already got in cause I saw her bump into me before she kept walking. She did the same to Pixis to show him she was in.

We all were pretty spaced out from each other but we were close enough to see each other and be able to alert each other in case something went wrong.

Now all that was left was to sit and wait for the meeting to start. So far everything was going well, which is exactly what I was worried about. In the last few missions, everything has gone well until it hasn't. In the end, things always go wrong.

"Remember we got this," Levi whispered.

"Probably," I mumbled. Now we wait. It's all just a waiting game.