LEAVE COMMENTS!

By the third week of bone-crushing training from Captain Erwin, one of the recruits had decided to step back from the main Survey Corps and go into caring for horses full-time. The pay was the same, the danger the same, but the physical requests of it were more humane, according to him; which meant that, finally, Susanne had a little bit more of free time, something that the unlucky people in cleaning duty did not know unless someone was being punished.

And then, there were nine of them.

Eight hardworking, smart and agile recruits doing whatever it was that Captain Erwin Smith wanted for the sake of getting his attention, his praise and his chance. And Susanne, just trying to live through the motions.

While the others were excited about the possible climbing of ranks, Susanne had already given up on the whole situation without knowing the truth outside of the Walls before making her decision of staying or not. There was no reason for her to lick somebody's boot to shine them unless she knew she would make that far ahead – if she decided to leave, her brother would help her and she didn't want to be acknowledged as the silly girl that couldn't withstand it. Susanne had decided to be a suck-up after surviving her first fight against the Titans.

The thing about sucking-up to the superiors that some of the other privates didn't seem to understand was that it didn't work to all of them.

It worked well enough with the Commander of the Survey Corps; Commander Keith was friendly and did try to form a connection with the new recruits of the corps, always telling stories of his first years in the regiment and asking for funny anecdotes from the young people around him when he was in a good mood.

It worked somewhat well with Captain Erwin, who tried to copy Commander Keith to some extent, though he was less sincere in his interest and always more focused in the lessons he could teach or take from the stories circulating around the mess hall during dinner.

It was the easiest thing to do to Lieutenant Hange Zoe, by letting them talk about whatever they wanted for however longer they wanted and pretending to pay attention was enough to make them likable, actually paying attention to their words just made you their favourite.

The problem was that it did not work with Sergeant Levi.

Isold Busch was the first to be victim of his bluntness and dismissal at her attempt to suck up to him.

"Sergeant, I made you tea."

"It tastes like shit. Never do it again."

Amal Grosse was the next, trying his best to fit in and get into the Sergeant's space by freeing the man from cleaning.

"Sergeant Levi, I'm already cleaning it, don't worry about it."

"I'm only cleaning this because you're doing a bad job at it. Get out of my sight."

Around the fourth recruit that he had dismissed and been rude to, the others stopped even trying to approach him.

Hence the obvious panic from some of them when Captain Erwin did not show to training that morning, having been taken away by the Commander for a meeting, leaving Sergeant Levi to train them.

"I've been told that you all received good marks in your ODM equipment," the man said, walking in front of the line of recruits, looking at the clipboard in his hand. "But I don't trust paperwork. I'll need to see it with my own eyes." He stopped, turning to them and looking them up and down. "I already prepared the obstacle course, used titan-replicas of all sizes. In total, there are 35 replicas in the forest. I'll time you all going in pairs, I want you to do your way through the forest, and whenever one of you sees a replica, you must cut the nape of the neck of it. Ready?"

"Yes, sir!" the group responded.

Levi didn't seem impressed by their lung capacity with the answer, lowering the clipboard and looking for something in his pocket. It was a watch.

It was impressive how much Levi could control the crowd of recruits when he was the shortest person there.

"You and you first," he pointed at the two tallest men in the group.

Without further explanation or asking if they had understood, Levi started their training without looking twice at them unless they were in the obstacle course. Even Susanne had been taken aback by his way, tensing up right away when it was her turn alongside Isold; the last pair of the group.

The majority of the people in the group had made the obstacle in around ten minutes, Susanne had made it in fourteen (Isold, her partner, had made the course in twelve minutes and a half).

Most people had 'killed' or 'wounded' 10 titan-replicas, Susanne had 'killed' 10 and 'wounded' another 15.

There was an odd air of excitement and euphoria after it was done, even Susanne had a smile on her face as the adrenaline finally wore off. But Levi didn't seem to find anything fun or exciting, he was taking the training just as seriously as Erwin had the whole time.

"Every titan that you have wounded, think of it as an assisted kill. We will never send you out there without a squad, the ideal is that you are able to always have one or two people with you through the whole journey even in the worst of situations. Wounding a titan might not cause them pain, but it'll slow them down while they heal – cutting a hand or foot off, piercing the eyes, slashing the jaw – everything might be the thing that will save your partner's life," Levi explained. He avoided looking at them, still writing down the results and his observations. "Killing titans sometimes is not an option, and you need to know when it's time to kill and when it's time to run."

"And how do we know, sir?" Isold asked, still breathless from the exercise.

Levi looked up from the clipboard, looking at Isold as if he was surprised that she had spoken at all.

"When you know you cannot win," he explained. "You will know, Private."

He turned his eyes to the clipboard again, finally done with writing, just reading through his own observations.

"Private Susanne Hellman?" he said.

She took a step forward.

"Yes, sir?"

Usually that was the point that some unfortunate trainers would ask about her relation with Tom Hellman, perhaps the famous Josi Hellman and –

"Your strength is shit, get better at it and you'll be a good soldier," he said, looking down at the clipboard again. "Your cuts aren't deep enough, but you're quick and agile. Your assistance will be useful, but your killing might be a problem if you hesitate. But you took too long in the forest trying to get every single titan on your way, that will leave you behind and get you killed. Get only the ones you cannot avoid unless you have backup."

She stared at him, taking in his words and putting them side by side with her training and what her other trainers had said before. He wasn't wrong. Since most of her other trainers hadn't complained too much about it, it had never crossed her mind that her agility and quickness might leave some of her strength behind. Since most of those trainers had assumed she would go to MP, they had never dragged her about it, but clearly it was an important thing to care about now.

"Yes, sir. I'll focus on it," she said.

He ignored her, turning to the other soldiers.

"Moblit Berner?" he called.

One of the tall boys stepped forward, face forced into a serious expression. He usually looked like that when scared, but looked scared when calm. It was quite amusing to watch.

"Your cut is also shallow, but it isn't because you aren't strong, you're just too far away. You don't use the tip of your blades for this job, you need to use the middle of it for a better grip. Don't mess it up. You're fast, but you need to get better with your aim," Levi continued, not even looking at the boy. "It says here you got the highest mark in your group in engineering. Lieutenant Hange is searching for an apprentice."

"I'm interested, sir!"

"Go talk to them after dinner," Levi said, writing something else down.

Susanne turned to look at Moblit through the corner of her eyes, impressed. Being the apprentice usually would leave him to be the assistant after a while, and that was a good position – same danger, same excitement, but with the late nights leaning over Hange Zoe's crazy plans. Good pay, though.

"Isold Busch."

The girl stepped forward, eyes wide in fear. She looked about to throw up at being called by Levi, hands at the side of her stiff body.

"Good depth, but you're too slow. Had Private Susanne not been with you, opening way, you would've taken even longer than her. Stop thinking only of yourself and work in a group," he said.

She looked down, bothered by the pointing out of her flaws. His correction was direct and clear, one must be an idiot to not understand it. Finally, when she controlled herself enough to move again, she took a step back into formation.

"Amal Grosse?" Levi said.

For this man, Levi raised his head to look at him, distasteful to what he was seeing.

"Yes, sir!"

"You're too loud. Titans have ears and they can hear. You'll die if you continue yapping about," Levi said. "Work harder in your skills and stamina and stop paying attention to barrack's gossip. Then, maybe, you'll survive."

That was all that he said, already turning away and walking towards the rest of the group.

"Agatha Meier."

The girl stepped forward, biting the inside of her cheeks so hard that it deformed her face, but she kept her cool.

"Yes, sir?" her voice was hesitant.

"You're small, you can be faster if you can withstand the pull of the ODM gear better. Train resistance and muscle tonus, otherwise you'll hurt yourself before you can even get outside of the Walls. I'm surprised nobody corrected this gross mistake before," Levi said, rolling his eyes at another trainer's incapacity.

He looked down at the clipboard and made a little noise.

"Alfred Meier," he glanced at Agatha. "Brother?"

"My wife, sir!" Alfred said, stepping forward at the same time Agatha stepped back. Levi wrote something down. "May I know why it was a question, sir?"

"Because I cannot put you in the same squad if you are married. I don't know if it was disclosed during training or if it's written in your files," Levi explained. He seemed unimpressed at the news. "Well, you're too fast and you left your partner behind thinking it was a race. If it was a race, I wouldn't put you two together now, would I? Work in a group."

"Yes, sir!"

He stepped back.

Levi turned on his heel to the other side of the line.

"Private Karl Fischer," he called out.

The man, tallest of the group, stepped forward. "Yes, sir!"

"You're quick and agile, but your coordination isn't good enough. You had a low grade in some parts of your training with blades because of it and I can see it, you cut your own hand during the course. That will kill you if you get an infection out there and we cannot get back quick enough. You're grounded from ODM gear until we can get you to hold your fucking blade well enough," Levi said with a grimace. "Lance Corporal Noah will train with you every morning for the next week. If I see you're better, I'll let you join basic training again."

Karl seemed offended by the idea, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth closed while he stepped back.

"Private Detlev Graf?"

"Yes, sir!" the man screamed with all his might, shoulders shaking with every word, taking a step forward.

Distasteful, Levi just stared at him for a moment before continuing what he had to say about his performance.

"Same problem as Private Susanne, you lack strength. You have the size, use more of your weight on your cuts and stop pulling away before the cut is done. It's not a damn race," Levi said simply, shaking his head with his own thoughts.

Detlev seemed devastated at the public correction without proper instructions or demonstrations as Erwin usually did, but nodded and stepped back, already deep in thought in how to get better. He was hardworking, more than most, but he wasn't the brightest, which was quite sad since he was so gentle with everybody around him.

"Franz Krause?"

If there was someone that Susanne didn't like was fucking Franz Krause. That horrible man was charming, but lazy – he always knew what to do or say to convince someone to do his job for him. He had joined the Survey for glory and women, as he had said himself, which had annoyed the female recruits to the level of him being completely ignored by most of them.

He stepped forward.

"Yes, sir?"

"Your grip is good but you lack elasticity, you'll get hurt," Levi said. It didn't feel like a warning, more like a promise. "Did you skip your basic training before coming here? It's ridiculous to see it. Don't let me catch you looking like a clumsy scarecrow again, or else I'll ground you with Karl," he added.

Franz looked at Levi's eyes, seemingly ready to argue, but pressed his lips back together as if reminding at the last second who he was facing. Finally, he decided to step back into formation and lower his head, looking submissive and small.

Levi stared at Franz, waiting.

"What is it, Private? Do you have something you want to say to me?" Levi mocked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, sir."

"Are you sure? Because from where I stood, you looked ready to argue with me," he continued teasing.

"No, sir!"

"Good. Keep it like that, otherwise the latrine will be getting a deep clean by your hands alone," Levi threatened.

"Yes, sir!"

The loud bell coming from headquarters marked lunch time, but nobody moved at first, all still in position. That small thing seemed to make Levi relax a bit more, as if he had noticed that the recruits weren't completely useless.

"Alright, go eat," he said.

"Yes, Sergeant!" the group yelled.

Together, eight of those people started moving towards the headquarters with the intention of food. Susanne remained, unbuckling her ODM gear slowly instead of just running with it hurting her hips.

Levi watched her, narrowing his eyes with interest.

"Why are you taking it off, Private?" he asked.

"The Main-Housing broke as I landed," she explained, showing it to him. There was a small part of her shirt already being coloured red as blood continued to bloom from the small cuts. "Some of the wires cut me as they broke. I wanted to clean it before getting to lunch."

The man took a step forward and grabbed the end of her shirt between his knuckles, avoiding to touch her skin at all as he raised it just enough to see the bleeding cuts – all shallow and seemingly not dangerous, but painful nonetheless against the white, unscarred skin.

He locked his jaw, deep in thought.

"Ask Hange to give you the alcohol for it, it's kept locked so nobody drinks it," he said, looking away from lower back in front of him and stepping back. "Don't take long and eat well. I'll continue training straight after lunch."

He didn't wait for her response before turning on his heels and walking away from her. He didn't need to look back to know she was putting her ODM gear on top of the box of extra gas tanks he had brought to the entrance of the forest.

Levi was very different from Erwin in all ways possible.

Physically, Erwin was tall, blonde, wide shoulders and strong presence even in silence. Levi was small, short and his presence was made strong by his actions, not his silence – those that felt his presence before he spoke only did so because they knew who Levi was before they even saw him. The way they treated the cadets were also very different, while Erwin showed how to mix mistakes and helped them through it, Levi would only say it once, explain it and watch as the person attempted the correction; whether they made it correctly or not was clear only by his facial expression.

But one thing that they had in common is that they didn't want their subordinates to die. However, they showed it differently.

"...FUCKING IDIOT! THAT WILL GET YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE KILLED!" Levi screamed at Franz. "YOU'RE DONE! NO MORE ODM TRAINING. YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR NOW."

"Sir –"

"Do not argue with me, Private. I don't have the patience to hear your voice and not tear your vocal cords out," Levi threatened, stepping forward to be face to face with Franz; he was small enough to have to look up, but that didn't take the power away from his standing. "Get the fuck out of my sight right now."

"Yes, sir!" Franz said.

Apparently, Levi wasn't one to scream unless somebody really fucked up. Franz using all his gas to get somewhere faster instead of taking the time to calculate his trajectory, clearly, was fucking up bad enough.

Susanne had to force herself to not smile, happy that Franz – annoying Franz – was getting scolded. Perhaps that would shut him up for a while.

By the time the recruits were dismissed, all stumbling to take off their gear to go to sleep.

A low hum of voices continued all the way into the headquarters, the new moon failing to light up the way there and making the group stick together so the one lamp they had could guide them bed. The words spoken were mostly complaints or small feedbacks from their peers for a better training session the next day.

The training had taken too long, and now they had two less hours of sleep before another day of training.

The group got to the door of their dormitory and the other lamp was lit. Susanne stopped at the door, taking the old lamp with the half-burnt candle and waited for them all to get inside before stepping back.

"Aren't you coming to bed, Susie?" Moblit asked, frowning as Susanne took the lamp.

"I want to clean my gear," she said, shaking her head. "Otherwise, I'll have to wake up earlier to clean it."

"Just don't clean it for a day," Agatha whined from her bed, still in her uniform, too tired to change.

"My gear's cables are new, I need to oil them well to make them smoother," Susanne insisted, shaking her head. "I'll be back soon," she dismissed when Moblit looked in concern at her.

An hour later, already going to his own bed, Levi found Susanne sitting in the mostly dark mess hall with two gears on the table.

"Private, what are you doing?" he asked from the door.

She looked over her shoulder, moving to get up as soon as she saw it was Sergeant Levi, stumbling in her sleepy state.

"Cleaning my gear, sir," she answered.

"Who asked you to clean their gear?" Levi asked, looking at the spare one on top of the table.

Susanne glanced at the table, seemingly remembering that the already clean gear on top of it wasn't hidden.

"Oh..." she said, hesitating. "Nobody, sir. It is... well, it is your gear," she admitted.

Levi raised his eyebrows, crossing the mess hall as soon as he closed the door behind him. He stopped by the table, taking the already clean gear and inspecting it, trying to find any sort of flaw in her cleaning job, but the gear was oiled and cleaned thoroughfully.

"What did you use?" he asked.

"White vinegar to clean where the oil cannot go, cleaned it off quickly so it doesn't corrode," she explaining, getting closer to point at the important parts. "We use it on the bakery to make sure the machines don't rust."

Now that she mentioned it, he could smell the vinegar. He wondered why it took so long for him to name the smell, perhaps because it was one of the few kitchen supplies barely used at all in the regiment.

Levi made a huffing noise, dismissing her explanation after he already had an answer. He didn't care where she had learned it or why she had used it, he had only asked what she had used. It wasn't how he usually cleaned it, but it was the first time that he saw his gear – old as it was – so well cleaned.

His gear was always clean, of course, he wasn't messy or sloppy, but it spoke of its years of use even when well-kept.

Susanne pressed her lips together, watching his face carefully under the weak light of the candle in the lamp, silently hoping he wouldn't scold her loud enough to wake everybody up for doing something like that without his permission. Her heart was slamming against her chest in fear, because no matter how much she respected and even liked Levi, she knew him to be unkind to those he saw as incompetent.

She had hoped to surprise him as a thankful gesture after he had told her about the alcohol the week before; she had planned on treating herself with some of the plants that grew nearby. There was aloe vera and yarrow just outside the headquarters, they were wild, but big enough for her not to kill it all for a simple cut.

The man put the gear on top of the table again, putting his hands behind his back.

"As you were, Private," was all he said before walking away to go to sleep.

It was probably the closest thing to a 'thank you' she would get and his lack of scolding the closest thing to a compliment.

She smiled to herself.

"Good night, sir," she called after him.

"Good night," he answered, voice muffled by the distance.

Susanne sat back on the bench near the table, pulling her own gear back towards her and going back to its cleaning. She felt energy simmering just under her skin; the feeling and knowledge of a job well done was so much better than a compliment.

She still felt fine when she woke up three hours later for another training session.

I hope you all liked it! Please, leave comments. It's very important to me!