Natalie hesitated walking outside and to the training grounds. Her and her friends were supposed to work on physical training today, but she didn't know if she could face Armin after what had happened the night before.

She thought she had let her feelings for the blonde boy subside long ago, but a certain turn of events were telling her differently.

Despite it, however. She couldn't help but feel... Guilty. Having these beaten down feelings slowly rise to the surface had her conflicted due to another blonde she had feelings for.

She knew her and Yelena would never be, no matter what the woman had said. Her hopes had all but diminished at this point.

Taking a deep breath, she walked down the rest of the corridor and outside.

Captain Levi and Commander Hange were standing Infront of her friends, and her brother and sister, probably waiting for her to show up.

She walked towards the group, and Levi side-eyed her.

"Glad you could join us today, Monet. You've been absent from daily training for a few days now."

She saluted him, offering an apologetic look.

"I apologise, Captain. I haven't been doing well these past few days, but I'll be sure to work hard to catch up on what I missed."

He nodded, and gestured for her to join the others.

As she walked, she also spotted the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers a bit of a ways away, standing at distance, which was fair. They weren't allowed anywhere near Eren.

Armin caught sight of her first, and he sent her a toothy grin, and a small wave.

Her shoulders tensed and hunched all the way to her ears as she walked past him stiffly and stood far away from him.

It's not like she hated him, or was angry at him, but she felt awkward around him now.

As she stood next to Sasha, she caught sight of Yelena looking at her from where she and the other Volunteers were standing, an unreadable look on her face.

Before she could ponder on it for too long though, Hange spoke.

"What we want to work on today is hand to hand combat, self defense, and general combat. Now, I know you all probably worked on this in Cadet Training, but there are a few of you that still need to perfect it."

A few of Natalie's friends, including herself, glanced at Eren.

Her friend didn't exactly place the highest in combat training, he more excelled in the 3DMG training back in the Cadets.

"I'm going to be pairing you all with who I think you'll work best with. Try not to injure eachother too much."

Eventually, everyone was paired up.

Mikasa with Sasha.

Eren with Jean.

Connie with Adri.

Armin with Maliath.

And Natalie left by herself.

She let out a sad noise in the back of her throat, slumping her shoulders.

"It's just like my childhood all over again." She whispered.

Hange placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can find someone for you to work with. How about... Oh, Floch!"

Natalie grimaced, narrowing her eyes at the ginger as he approached.

She looked up at Hange.

"Can't it literally be anyone else? I can trade with Adri. Ginger with a ginger?"

Floch let out an offended sound, glaring at her.

Hange shook their head and laughed.

"Maliath, come work with Floch. Natalie, you can partner with Armin."

Said girl stiffened, but didn't say anything as she and her brother traded partners.

Everyone spread out, and prepared.

Armin turned to Natalie.

"Hey, I'm really sorry if I made you uncomfortable last night, what I did was kind of uncalled for."

Natalie shook her head, noticing how others were removing bits of clothing and showing their workout clothes underneath.

"It's ok, really. I mean, sure, I was a bit shocked, but I'm not mad or uncomfortable."

Armin smiled. "Good. Wanna get started, then?"

"Yeah, gimme a second, though."

She began removing her button up shirt, throwing it on the dirt ground next to her, then unbuckled her belt, tossing it aside, as well.

Armin's cheeks turned red as he averted his gaze away from her toned arms and stomach.

No one noticed the way Yelena whistled lowly to herself from where her and the Volunteers were standing.

Her eyes scanned along Natalie back muscles, rather impressed, but she kept those thoughts to herself.

As everyone got into fighting stances, Hange shouted out "start!" And everyone began.

Natalie wasn't too sure what had happened, but next thing she knew, she was on her stomach on the ground, Armin on top of her with his knee digging into her lower back, with a hold on both her forearms, pinning them against her shoulder blades.

Everyone stared in shock, stopping what they were doing.

Feeling their stares, Armin immediately let her go.

"I'm sorry, that was a bit rough." He said, getting off of her.

Natalie took in a breath of air, letting her head thump against the dirt ground.

Normally, she'd have put up more of a challenge, but she really didn't have the energy to fight against anyone.

She breathed heavily, feeling her chest push against the ground.

Opening her eyes, she glanced up and instantly made eye contact with a certain blonde a couple feet away.

Yelena stared her down like a hawk, her eyes dark with an unknown emotion.

She decided she really liked that look on Yelena's face.

Pushing herself up with a grunt, she rested on her knees, shoulders slumping and her head leaned back.

She took in gulps of air, as she noticed her brother approaching.

She grunted as he helped her up.

"Are you good? You're usually not like this during hand to hand combat."

She just shook her head, pushing him away.

"M'fine, just need to up my game."

Taking a deep breath and running her hands through her hair, pushing it back and out of her face, she closed her eyes then let her hair fall back into position.

She then opened her eyes, before gritting her teeth and turning fast on her foot.

Landing a solid punch on Armin's face.

The boy staggered back, holding his nose as blood dripped down his mouth and chin.

Steam emitted from the wound, as Armin gazed at Natalie through hooded eyes, then grinned.

He rushed at her, sending a punch towards her stomach, that she easily dodged.

It went back and forth like this. Punch, kick, dodge, block.

All of their friends stared, completely forgetting about about the fact that they were supposed to be training, too.

Eventually, Natalie managed to grab Armin by the forearm and flip him onto his back, straddling his legs and pinning his arms to the ground.

Both stared at eachother, breathing heavily.

It was silent for a few moments before Armin let out a small chuckle, letting his head fall back onto the ground.

"Alright, you win." He said, breathlessly. "I yield."

Immediately, Natalie let go of his arms and got off of him, helping him up off the ground.

Patting the dirt off of his back, Natalie turned and walked away.

"I'm done for the day, later."

No one objected, watching as the ravenette picked up her shirt and belt off the ground and headed back inside.

"Damn..." Connie muttered. "Natalie's kinda scary..."

~~~

Kick after kick was sent to the punching bag hanging from the ceiling, and grunts of frustration echoed throughout the Scouts workout room.

Natalie wiped away the sweat dripping down her forehead, beginning to punch the bag until her knuckles bled from under the bandages wrapped around them.

Her mind barley registered the door to the workout room opening, continuing her current task.

"Hey." A voice said.

Natalie yelped, stopping just as the punching bag came swinging back to her and hitting her directly in the face.

She fell to the floor with a thud, cradling her bruised nose.

"Oh, that's gonna fucking hurt tommorow." She grumbled,

She really wished she had her own Titan power right about now.

Picking herself up off the ground, she turned to face whoever had spoken, immediately grimacing once she caught sight of Yelena.

She sighed, turning to walk over to the other side of the room, grabbing her water canteen and chugging what was left, taking a seat on one of the benches with her back resting against the brick wall, and her legs spread.

"Y'know, for someone who says she doesn't want to pursue me just yet, you sure do seek me out alot." Natalie said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees, wiping excess water from her lips with the back of her hand.

Yelena's eyes trailed her over. Pale skin flushed pink from working out, sweat dripping down her chest and hairline, all the way to her toned arms and stomach.

Her gaze then found itself on the girls abs, where there was a faint trail of hair peeking out from the waist band of her baggy shorts, all the way to her belly button.

The blonde looked away, internally cursing herself.

'Dammit, Yelena, stop! You promised yourself you'd wait!'

Natalie gazed at the blonde through hooded, tired eyes.

"What are you doing in here? You don't exactly look like you're dressed to be working out."

Yelena cleared her throat, pushing away the desire to continue checking her out.

"Your superiors assigned personal guard to all the Volunteers. You're mine."

"Huh?! When did this happen?!" Natalie exclaimed.

"You were in here, and weren't aware of the meeting that took place because no one knew where you were, and therefore couldn't inform you." Yelena said simply, trying to clear her head by acting apathetic.

The shorter girl groaned, leaning back once again.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be."

The blonde rose a brow, confused. "Excuse me?"

Natalie stood up abruptly, tossing her empty canteen onto the bench.

"You say you want to wait, that you won't pursue me, yet come in here and blatantly check me out -yeah, I fucking saw that- and now you're telling me that I'm now your personal guard?! What are you trying to accomplish, here?!"

Yelena's eyes darkened suddenly, making Natalie's eyes widen, before the taller woman began walking over to the girl and roughly grabbing her by the front of her sports bra, and pinning her to the wall.

She leaned in close, while Natalie's fingers pried at her wrist in an attempt to make Yelena let go.

The blondes voice was low as she spoke.

"First of all, I'm not trying to accomplish anything. As I said, I think you're very attractive, but I'm not looking for a relationship with you yet. I'm waiting until you're an appropriate age for me to be comfortable with, so don't blame me for being cautious. Second, I didn't choose you to be my guard, your Commander did. It wasn't my decision, but I don't think you should be complaining. After all, you get to be closer to me, right?"

Natalie swallowed thickly, her hand slowly loosening it's grip on Yelena's bony wrist.

Her blue eyes searched Yelena's darker ones, her breathing shaky.

Yelena glanced down towards Natalie's bandaged, bloody knuckles, then let go of the girls bra, taking a step backwards.

"I'll be going now, meet me later." And with that, Yelena left the workout room.

Yelena walked down the hallway, hands in her pockets nonchalantly. She thought back to the encounter just a few moments ago and sighed irritably.

'I really could've handled that better." She thought to herself, then immediately thought back to how Natalie looked pinned against the wall by her.

She gritted her teeth, clenching her fists in her pockets, and looking to the ground.

"Shit, get ahold of yourself." She muttered. "You're never this worked up over a woman, get your priorities in check."

Too busy chastising herself, she failed to notice the other figure in the hallway.

"I bet you're real happy about this, aren't you?"

Looking up, she stopped walking at the sight of Maliath standing in the hallway leaned against the wall, his arms crossed across his chest, with a scowl on his face.

He walked away from the wall, stepping towards her.

"My sister as your personal guard? You're probably ecstatic, with someone naive and fragile to manipulate."

She narrowed her eyes, her gaze settling into a glare.

From the moment she had set eyes on the brunette, she had gotten a rather bad feeling, which said alot coming from her.

She sneered.

"You're fucking stupid if you think your sister is naive and fragile."

Maliath narrowed his eyes at the slightly taller blonde.

"She's my little sister, she's always going to be fragile in my eyes."

Yelena scoffed.

"She's almost an adult, and a woman in the military. She's far from fragile."

He came up beside her, glaring.

"If you ever lay a finger on her, I won't hesitate to kill you."

Yelena gave a cold smirk.

"I'd like to see you try, it'll give me some entertainment."

His green eyes darkened, before he walked off and shoved his shoulder against hers harshly.

The blondes head turned to look at him walk away, an apathetic yet angered look on her face.

With a scowl, she turned and headed into the direction she was originally walking in.

She didn't know exactly what Maliaths problem was with her, but damn him if he threatened her. He wouldn't get away with that.