The next couple days went back to normal and the routine continued. Your chores had rotated, and you were put with taking care of the horses, which was nice despite having to clean up after them.

You were walking to the well nearby to pump some water into the bucket you were carrying to water the horses when you noticed Connie and Sasha were messing around... again.

"What are you doing?" You asked, chuckling slightly as you raised an eyebrow.

Connie and Sasha were drenched, water covered them from head to toe.

Sasha smiled as soon as she noticed it was you, but soon it turned into a devious grin as she glanced over to Connie, who nodded and smirked.

Before you knew it, they were lunging at you with full buckets in their hands, and you became soaked as well. You stood in shock for a moment, looking down at your now wet clothes, then back at them. You glowered at them slightly, plots of revenge began to rise in your mind.

Quickly picking up your own bucket, you filled it up at the pump and flung the cold water at the two, not that it fazed them in the least. Rather, you were just encouraging them, and they retaliated. This continued for a few moments, of blow after blow of freezing cold water.

The two then stood, doubled over in fits of laughter, and you smiled to yourself as well. You were acting like children, but it felt nice to let loose.

You quickly wrung out your hair, drying it to the best of your abilities, and you filled the bucket, waving to Connie and Sasha as you left. When you did, they decided to get back to work as well.

You finished your chores soon after, still cold and wet when you arrived for dinner. Mikasa and Armin inquired about it, and you explained what happened as you ate. Then, everyone filled out to their dorms and rooms, and you changed into clean and dry clothes and went to sleep like normal.

The next morning, you woke up to Mikasa shaking your shoulder and trying to get you up.

"(f/n), you're sleeping in too much. You'll be late," she warned.

You opened your eyes groggily and groaned at the blinding light of the window next to you. You sat up tiredly, a sharp pain racing through your head as you did.

"Oh, god," you croaked out, "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to sleep in late at all."

You pulled the covers off you and shivered as you felt the warmth leaving you. You tried standing up. You did so shakily, another pain racing through your head. Mikasa made you sit back down and knelt in front of you, brushing your hair out of your face and pressing the back of her her hand against your forehead.

"You're burning up," she stated.

"I can't afford to be," You frowned slightly, "I have to-" You were cut off by sudden coughs racking your body.

"You need to rest. You're obviously ill."

"But-"

"No 'buts.' You should stay here today. I'll tell Ness why you aren't there," She offered.

You nodded and sighed as you laid back down, pulling the blankets over yourself again.

"Thank you," You smiled weakly.

She nodded and left soon after, leaving you alone with your cold. You shivered under the covers, coughing every once in a while. It wasn't long until you became thirsty, which you had to force yourself up and get a glass of water from the bathroom.

You glanced at yourself in the mirror. You had dark circles under your eyes, your hair was fairly messy, and your face was red from the fever. You really didn't care. You cared more about burying yourself back in your covers and maybe getting a bit more sleep.

A few hours later, towards noon, you were woken to a gentle knocking on your door, and you responded, saying they could come in. Armin walked into the room carrying a tray with water and some food.

"Armin," You exclaimed quietly as you sat up, not expecting him, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you might be hungry after missing breakfast. You should stay fed so you can get better faster," He said as he placed the tray down on the side table, sitting carefully across from you on Mikasa's bed, and he handed you a cold, wet cloth to cool you down.

You smiled slightly as you placed the cloth upon your own forehead. That was sweet.

"Thank you, Armin. I really appreciate it, but I wouldn't want you getting sick after me."

He shook his head, "I'll be fine. How are you feeling?"

"Tired, sore, cold," you shrugged.

Armin reached his hand out cautiously, pausing as if he were asking permission. You nodded, and he placed his hand against your forehead.

"Mikasa wasn't kidding when she said you had a fever. You should get some medicine, really."

You shook your head. "I couldn't do that, I'll be fine."

You took the glass in your hands and let the cool water run down your sore throat as you drank.

"Thank you again, I really appreciate it."

He nodded as he stood up. "It's nothing. I hope you feel better," He smiled slightly before he left.

You then ate the bread, rather hungrily for being sick, and you downed the rest of the water as well. Then you began curling up to sleep again. It didn't last long as you were jolted out of resting to the door being slammed open.

You quickly sat up to find Captain Levi marching in and slamming a bottle onto your side table. You stared longer than you should have, wondering why he was here in your room. Soon, you snapped out of your daze, remembering your place and ranking. You quickly scrambled up, trying to give him a salute, but you failed miserably and it was very sloppy.

Chills soon entrapped you again and pain shot through your skull, and you winced slightly, resisting the urge to sit back down. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, grabbed your shoulders, and shoved you back down onto the bed so you were sitting again, which felt a lot better.

"You're fucking sick, Cadet," He frowned irritatedly, "Don't stand unless told so. You're only prolonging it."

You nodded weakly, your face growing red. Hopefully he would think it was from the fever.

"Yes, s-sir," you agreed, fighting back coughs.

Without warning, he knelt down and brought his face down, close to yours, pressing his hand against your forehead. You stiffened slightly in surprised. Just as quickly as he did it, he pulled away, an expression of displeasure plastering his face still.

"Idiot," he muttered, "Why'd you make yourself sick?"

You stammered slightly, trying to find an answer. It was probably because of messing around with Connie and Sasha. He bent down and picked up your legs and swung them onto the bed and pulled the bed sheets over them, causing you to shut up instantly. He picked up the bottle and uncorked it and sat down next to you on your bed.

Your heart raced as he did, questions running through your mind. This was just a dream, right?

He held it out and pressed it to your lips. "Drink," he ordered.

You nodded meekly, taking it from his hand, which brushed against yours, sending tingles through out your arm. You drank it quickly. It tasted awful.

"Four-eyes told me she heard you weren't well, and she decided to make me give the medicine to you," He said quietly, looking in the opposite direction from you, "I don't understand why she couldn't just fucking do it herself."

You chuckled silently to yourself, praising Hanji mentally.

"Thank you, Captain," You spoke up after a moment's silence.

He sharply stood up at this and began to walk to the door. "Get better, brat," he said harshly left.

You stared at the door, a small smile pinned against your face, and your face growing hotter. Despite feeling horrible, this made you feel a whole hell of a lot better. You laid back down, tossing and turning slightly as you felt giddy and your heart fluttered in your chest before finally calming down and resting again.

It wasn't long till your illness passed. It only took a couple days before Mikasa let you get up and about. She was surprisingly strict about it. You were really glad when you could. You didn't want to have to lay in that room any longer.

The days passed and the mission grew closer and closer. Everyone grew slightly on edge, angst was in the atmosphere. People were bustling about the halls of the old castle, carrying stuff, boxes, supplies, things you were most likely going to need or bring on the expedition. Some studied harder about the formations, others trained, and others just tried to relax the best they could. You all did different things to keep your minds off of it while you could. You personally did whatever you could, wether it was doing some sort of chore or being with a friend.

It was a complete change of pace, from having an unexpected battle sprung upon you to a crusade looming over you and you can't do anything but just go with it. The nerves were probably the worst part of it.

Somehow the expedition came and began suddenly, and it was a complete failure. Formations broke and so many were slaughtered before you. You were chased by the Titans into a gigantic forest, cornered and fleeing for your lives. You were ordered to ditch the horses and let them free so you could switch to your 3DMG. Granted, the forest gave you a better terrain, but the Titans would not stop coming. You were separated from your squad and had to abandon your post, and four Titans were converging on you all at once, one from each direction as you stood on the forest floor, alone and scared. You had no escape.

Only by pure luck did you run away. You didn't even know how, but you did your best to search for everyone else. You were absolutely frantic. It was horrible, but it only became worse when you did find everyone else or, at least, their bodies.

Everyone was strewn across the forest, mutilated beyond recognition. You could only recognize a few, and your heart absolutely broke. Mikasa lay, missing a bite-like chunk out of her side, and she lay bloodied on the forest floor.

Your breath hitched in your throat as tears prickled at the edge of your eyes. You landed on the ground, staring at everyone else.

Armin was mangled, blood streamed down his face down to his shirt, staining it, now a deep red. Jean was twisted in ways that weren't even possible, Ymir was using all her remaining might to get to Krista, or what remained of Krista, despite missing her own legs.

It was too much for you to intake all at once. You collapsed to the ground, hyperventilating and shaking. Your head felt too light, the ground and the world around you began spinning. You let out a quiet gasp as it stopped as you noticed the man in front of you.

He lay face down, blood caked his cloak, soaking the Wings of Freedom in a dark red. You couldn't make out who it was as his back was facing you, and you felt more scared than you had ever been.

You crawled over to him cautiously, taking him in your arms and pulling him onto your lap, turning him over as you heard your heart pounding in your ears.

Time seemed to stop as you saw who it was. The dark hair covering his eyes, you brushed out of his face. The blood trickling down his forehead, you wiped away with your cloak.

"C-Captain Levi..." You choked out as tears began streaming down your face. "N-no..."

You gripped him tighter as sobs broke through, quietly at first, but soon grew louder as the realization hit you.

Humanity's Greatest Soldier was no more.

It was indescribable. You heart was beyond repair, it felt. It was so painful to see him like this, and you had hoped you wouldn't have to ever see anyone you cared for die, not him, not anyone else, not again...

"C-cadet..."

You couldn't mistake his voice. It absolutely had to be him.

You pulled back slightly to look at him. His gorgeous, piercing, steel blue eyes were barely open, and his skin was paling.

"W-what the h-hell..." He tried to speak but ended up coughing up blood.

You shushed him, "It's okay, I'm going to save you, alright?" You smiled weakly through the tears, "I've got you, I'm going to get you out of here."

"T-too fucking many... Get the hell out... while y-you can..." He continued weakly.

"N-no..." You shook your head, "Even if the others..." You couldn't bring yourself to say it, "I'm going to save you at least because I... I-"

"(f/n), damn it..." That was the first time he ever called you by your name, "Listen to your s-superior."

Tears again rose in your eyes and spilled over.

"Captain, please!"

"Levi..."

"What?"

"C-call me Levi..."

"Levi..." You repeated quietly, "I can't leave you."

"Y-yes you can," he kept arguing back, growing weaker and weaker, "You need to get away b-because I..." His voice trailed off silently as his ragged breaths slowed.

"Because what?!" You asked.

You shook him, begging, "Please, stay with me! Levi!"

His eyes began to droop off tiredly as his body began to relax.

"Stay awake, please!" You begged, but it was too late, "Please..." You choked out, tears spilling again, "I never got to tell you 'I love you...'"

You clung to his body with all your might, not daring to let him go. He was all you felt you had left. You cried and cried. You cleaned off the blood from his face as you tried to see through the tears. You leant in as you cried silently, now, and your lips were about to touch.

"(f/n)! (f/n)!" Some one called out.

You jumped awake, crying out slightly. It took you a moment to readjust to your surroundings and calm down. You weren't in the forest. You were in your room. By your bedside was Mikasa. She was alive, thank god, which meant none of that had happened.

"M-Mikasa... What..?" You tried to form a coherent sentence, but you couldn't.

"You were having a nightmare," she frowned.

You nodded and put your hand to your face, which was wet from tears that streamed down your face.

"Oh. I see," you sighed, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"I was already awake. (f/n), it's time."

You nodded, pulling the covers of your bed off you. Today was the day. Today was the day of the expedition.