Once I finished my terribly nasty dinner I left the mess hall. All of a sudden, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Armin. He looked uncomfortable as he played with his fingers. "Hey Y/N," he started. "H-Hey Armin," I replied. I hadn't talked to him or even interacted with him at all, for the past several months. I'd even forgotten what he'd sounded like. I was convinced that he was still mad at me, as he didn't once look up at me. He simply avoided making any unnecessary eye contact. "So, I heard you have to work with the Survey Corps for the summer," he mumbled quietly. I began walking and he kept close beside me. "Yeah, it sucks. I'm not looking forward to it, to be honest. I would've rather have spent my summer in some other kind of way," I told him.

"I get that. I was wondering if you would like me to go in your place. I mean, you haven't really experienced a summer vacation in this time and I've experienced 17. I feel like you should maybe get that chance," he explained. I didn't realize he knew I was from another time, but that made sense. When we were dating I must have confessed that to him. I stopped in my tracks and looked over at him. He patiently awaited my answer. 

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to have a terrible summer fighting titans alone and feeling miserable. I want you to enjoy yourself here and get to see some history here."

He was way too considerate. Armin was honestly the sweetest, most caring boy I've ever met. There was really nobody else like him. At that moment, I understood what I might have seen in him while we were dating. I put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up for a second, just to look back down.

"Armin, I appreciate the offer but I'll have to say no. You should really spend some time hanging out with your friends. I bet you'll have a lot of fun. It was really nice of you to offer to take my place though. I thought you were still mad at me and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you were right now. You're too giving."

He looked up at me with his serious blue eyes. "First, I'd like to say that I'm not mad at you. I was never mad at you. I just felt like I'd been put in a really uncomfortable position. Eren was mad at you and you were really the only reason we were talking. You and I were just acquaintances because you didn't remember what we had. If you did, I'd still be with you right now but because you thought you loved Eren and you guys stopped talking, we did too. It just didn't make sense for me to keep going out of my way to bother you. I could tell you already didn't enjoy having me around. But back to the point, Y/N, are you sure?" he asked, "I mean, I could go." "Armin, it's fine, I promise," I reassured him, smiling at him warmly. "But Y/N, if you change your mind could you please tell me?" he asked me. "Fine," I agreed, "I can promise that."

"Okay, thank you. Anyways, I really hope you enjoy your night, Y/N. I've got to get to bed. I just wanted to tell you that so, yeah."

We started walking down our different pathways, his to the boys' cabins and mine to the girls'. He waved goodbye to me. "Oh yeah," he yelled back at me, "Y/N, I love you!" I couldn't see him but I knew it was from him. He was somewhere walking down his path to my right. I kept quiet and walked back to my cabin. I didn't really know how to respond. I could tell this was going to be a long summer.

Friday morning came quickly. I was told to meet the Corps at the stables by 7:00 am with my luggage. I did exactly that. They told me that I could only bring one bag worth of belongings.  I had a lot of stuff so that was pretty hard to achieve. I waited for what felt like years before a woman in glasses approached me on her horse. "Hi, are you Y/N?" she asked me, looking down at some papers. "Yes, I am," I replied. 

"Great."

She jumped off her horse and put out her hand toward me. "I'm Hanji, it's nice to meet you. I'm the leader of the fourth squad in the Survey Corps. I'm in charge of leading experiments and gathering scientific knowledge. It's nice to meet you," she said. I shook her hand and gave her a weary smile. She told me, "anyways I get this is probably not your first option on how you'd like to spend your summer but just try to give it a chance, okay? I promise we have a lot more fun than you might think." We walked into the stables together. I told her I'd try my best. 

"That's the spirit!"

She started helping me tack my horse. "Why do I have to do this?" I groaned. "It's good practice. Erwin was the one who suggested it to your Commander. I think he wants Levi to learn how to get along with new recruits. Levi's the captain of the Special Operations Squad," she explained. 

"So I'm wasting away my summer so that some antisocial captain of the Survey Corps can learn how to make friends? That's stupid. Why didn't you just send him here?"

"I mean, you're right on that, but if we sent him here I'm sure it wouldn't end well. I don't even think Petra could convince him into doing that. I honestly think he might die if we sent him here to be around so many kids. By sending one over to us, it's a little easier on him," she chuckled, half-jokingly, "Just work with us, we're all not that bad. I bet you'll end up enjoying yourself." She finished tacking my horse and brought it out of the stables. Then she got back onto her own horse. I hopped on mine after loading up my luggage and sat there, patiently awaiting instructions.

"Alright let's go. I'll bring you to our headquarters," she hollered as she sent both her and her horse flying off into the distance. She had a lot of energy for a Friday morning. I followed close behind her on my horse. We rode through some towns and crowded areas before stopping at a medium sized building. We dismounted and left our horses in a stable out back before entering the building. Hanji looked a bit lost, considering how many times we passed the same door. "Here!" she yelled. She opened a tall wooden door and we walked in. There was a big, dark, wooden table in the middle of the room, with similar colored chairs surrounding it. There was a closed wooden window and a few bookshelves. A group of people were sitting around the table and they looked at us as we walked into the room. A tall blond man stood up and came over to greet me. I shook his hand. "I'm Commander Erwin Smith," he told me. I introduced myself. He was a bit intimidating. He gestured me towards the table.

"Sit wherever. We have plenty of space."

I nodded and sat down in between a short, black-haired man, and an innocent-looking strawberry-blonde-haired woman. I turned to look at her. I figured it'd be better than being scolded by the man scowling beside me. She introduced herself to me. She said her name was Petra. I introduced myself and she smiled, saying she was happy to meet me. She seemed friendly enough. Maybe I would end up having some fun here. Erwin sat down at the head of the table and Hanji sat beside him.

"Alright, Y/N. Welcome to the Survey Corps. I'm assuming some members haven't introduced themselves so I'll go ahead for them. So I'm Hanji. To my right is Erwin, beside him is Mike, then Petra, you and then there's grumpy, I mean Levi," Hanji snickered. "Shut up four eyes, nobody thinks your jokes are funny," Levi snarled back at her. I could already tell this was going to be a long, interesting summer.