Erwin Smith was the most popular soldier from the very beginning of his career. Although he began as a regular trainee, just like his comrades, he quickly gained the attention of his seniors for his enthusiasm in employing novel training and enemy scouting techniques and expert strategies. With his stern, unnerving personality, and straight-headed judgement, he went up the rank very easily and quickly.

Unlike his friends in the Military Police, he stayed faithful to the cause of humanity and unlike those in the Garrison, he stayed focused on the looming danger outside the walls.

His predecessor, Commander Keith Sadies, relied on him on many occasions to make the judgement call on the field, when faced with the fear of being eaten alive.

"How many today?" Dr. Gooden asked Erwin, squeezing his shoulder. This old man was the only person who saw the effect that the loss of his comrades had on him. "We lost three of us today," he informed with a heavy heart, "one got severely hurt. Fell of her horse. If Mike wasn't quick, we would have lost her too."

"Oh, how fortunate!" the doctor said, as two soldiers carried Nanaba inside the ward. "Come on in, Smith" he called Erwin, "I'd like you to meet someone."

"Dr. Tubrey," Dr. Gooden called out a name as he entered the medical ward of the Scout's base. Erwin followed him inside. "This is.. oh, you've started looking into her wound?"

"Of course, Dr. Gooden. She's bleeding out," a woman's voice surprised Erwin. She was in a doctor's coat, with a surgical mask pulled down from her face and she was looking into Nanaba's wounded leg.

"Hey, Nanaba, right?" she spoke to the injured soldier in front of her, "listen, you gotta stay calm. Your ankle's a little twisted and I'm gonna fix it. When I say 'ready', get ready for one second of atrocious pain and then it'll be fine."

"Hey, sister, let it be," Nanaba yelped in pain as she merely touched her ankle.
"No can do, sister. We'll have to stop the bleeding soon after. If you wanna survive, just cooperate, okay? I don't think the Scouts can lose another one."

Mike barged in as soon as she had stopped speaking, looking like he just came in to check. He sniffed awkwardly as he acknowledged the new doctor. "Hey," he looked away and waved at Nanaba, his facial expression swiftly changing from casual to concerned. The doctor at work was quick to notice.

"You can hold someone's hand if you want," she said to Nanaba getting back to the ankle. Mike came forward, offering his hand. "Okay," she said again, suddenly sounding very sympathetic. She pulled her mask back to her face and lowered her face to the sapping wound. "3.. 2.. 1.." Nanaba could only hear her muffled sound as she patiently waited for the 'ready', "ready."

And, in a split second, she twisted the ankle back to its original form. Nanaba cried out in pain, squeezing her boyfriend's hand.

The doctor was gone before she could thank her. She came back in a couple of seconds with medical gauge, bandages, needle and thread in her one hand and a water basin in the other. Dr. Gooden pushed a stand towards her to put the things down and she rushed back to get something else. One of the nurses in the ward was about to help her, but he stopped him.

"Hey, it still hurts," Nanaba demanded of her, "you said it'd be one second."
"Yeah, I'm getting you something. Drink this." She handed her a vial of clear liquid and Nanaba drank it down. "God, that.. woah!" Nanaba soon passed out from the strong sedative, allowing the doctor to clean up, stitch and dress the wound in peace. Mike had left as soon as she assured him that the liquid was only a sedative and that his girlfriend would be wide awake as soon as it wears off. Erwin and Dr. Gooden stood in a corner and watched. The old doctor was mesmerized by how quick she acted.

"Isn't she a miracle, Smith?" he commented, observing her wound dressing skills.

"Aura, come here," he called her up as soon as she was done with her work. She disposed off the blood-soaked bandages, washed her hands and came towards the two men standing. "Aura, this is Section Commander Erwin Smith," he introduced them to each other, "Erwin, this is Dr. Aura Tubrey. She is going to take over the medical ward as I smoke the rest of life away."

"You're retiring, Sir?" Erwin asked. This was obviously the first time he was hearing of this.

"Yes, son" the old man informed him, "I've spoken to Sadies and he has granted me this final leave. And, here on, Aura is going to look after you all. Let me tell you, you soldiers are going to be in very good hands. She was my student when I taught in Ehrmisch, her father was my colleague and I know her personally. She is very skillful."

"Okay, Doc, uncomfortable," Aura stopped him from praising her further.

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Tubrey," Erwin produced his hand for her to shake. "Please," she shook his hand, giving him her most professional smile, "Aura is just fine." He returned her a soft, warm smile that finally grabbed her full attention to his handsome face.

"Why don't you guys check out if you two can get along, while I go back to packing?" Dr. Gooden waved at both of them and left.
The moment Dr. Gooden left, an awkward tension arose in the room. Nothing sexual, only the tension that rises between two perfectly full-grown adults left in a room with each other seconds after they've met for the first time. Aura found herself rapidly growing nervous around the tall, well-built, confident man, while Erwin could not quite grasp how to make conversation. This had never before happened to any of them.

"So.." Aura broke the silence, "I guess we'll meet again, almost every day. I'll be in the ward, or at the chamber or in my room mostly, I'm guessing. So, if you ever need any medical help or whatever kind of help, just let me know."

"Yes, thank you, doctor," he replied, "for taking such good care of Nanaba. She's one of our best."

A few hours passed before Nanaba regained consciousness. Aura had been by her side the entire time, checking her pulse and temperature and the condition of the dressing. Mike came in a couple of times, but his other duties persistently called him back.

She groaned in pain as she tried to turn in her sleeping position. Aura, who was sitting near the opposite end of the room reading a book in the candlelight, shifted her attention to her patient. Nanaba groaned again, waking up completely.

"Hey," the doctor called her, walking towards the bed, "Nanaba, how are you feeling?"
"You," Nanaba almost hissed at her in anger, "lady, you told me that it'd be over after a second. It hurts. It still hurts. What, it's been hours?"

"Relax, sister," Aura bent over her to check her eyelids, "you fell off a horse. Of course it's gonna hurt for a while. I didn't take you to be this naïve."

She took her wrist and looked at the clock above the doorway. "So, how are you feeling?"
"Like I said, it hurts. And I'm a little bit woozy from the drink you gave me before. Otherwise.. I don't know.. I guess I'm okay."
"Yes, you are. Would you like me to call in Mike for a while?"

Nanaba went red for a split second. And in the same second, two very tall men walked into the ward. In the shaking silhouettes, one of them caught Aura's breath in a grip. Her cheeks flustered and she knew she had never been so glad about the absence of light.

"Hey, honey," Nanaba addressed Mike, "we were just talking about you. Good evening, Erwin."
She put her fist to her heart, and Erwin let out a small chuckle. "Please, Nanaba, what Sadies can't see, can't hurt him. Good evening, Aura."

Aura found herself skipping a breath as she struggled to muster the same words back to him, "good evening, Erwin."
"How's she doing?" Mike asked, sniffing at her again.

"Better," the doctor said, regaining her confidence, "it's gonna hurt for a while. But once I take off the stitches in a week, she'll be good to go."
"A week?" Nanaba was not much happy about it.

"Yeah," she replied, "too bad, I know. But you can go back to your room tomorrow, if you want. You don't have to stay in here with me for the entire week." She made a sad face that finally made Nanaba smile.
Aura only dared to flutter her eyes towards Erwin, and it was there again.

The same warm smile from before that unnerved her one more time. It wasn't supposed to - it was warm and sweet, and nothing raunchy. Not the kind she usually gets attracted to. She got annoyed by it and looked away. Drawing a sharp breath in, she spoke to Nanaba again, "you stay in here tonight. I keep an eye on you. Tomorrow, I tell you if you can really go."

She was only gone for a minute when Mike pulled out a bottle of rum from under his coat. Nanaba almost squealed at the sight of the bottle and the two men tried to calm her down. "We thought you'd like something warm," Erwin whispered at her. He was not the type to do this. He knew they shouldn't have brought alcohol to the medical ward.

Something urged him to do something that he can use to start a proper conversation with Aura. While Mike was planning to hide the bottle and keep the entire ceremony of giving it to Nanaba a secret, Erwin wanted Aura to see. And, she did.

"Hey, what's that?" she asked from across the room as the glass bottle glimmered at her in the candlelight.

Mike quickly put it back under his coat, but Erwin seemed like he didn't lose his calm. "Oh, it's just something, you know," he said, "something Nanaba may like."

"Did you seriously bring alcohol into the medical ward?" she asked, rolling her eyes, "Erwin, you seemed to be smarter. Aren't you a Section Commander and shit? God, what did you bring, show me?"

Mike brought out the bottle of rum again and handed it to her.
"Captain's, huh! That's.. good rum."
A wide smile spread across Erwin's face as he watched her examine the bottle. Rum was his go-to alcohol, at least at that time. When Aura identified the brand, he found himself wondering if it was her favorite too and whether the type of alcohol could be another topic to start a conversation about.

"How about we open this babe up tomorrow night?" she said, walking away with it.
"Hey, give it back," Mike snapped at her. When she looked back with an arched eyebrow, he sniffed at her again.

"Hey, relax Sniffer," she put it down on a table, "I can't allow you to give Nanaba alcohol today. She hasn't had any solid food today. I don't wanna lose my job and license on my first day here. Tomorrow morning, I sign her out and send out a request to the mess to give her good amount of solid food. Then, tomorrow night, it'll be safe for her to drink as much as she wants. Is that okay, sister?"
"I guess that's reasonable," Erwin answered for her.

"And.." she continued, "if you guys don't mind, and I don't have serious patients tomorrow night, may I join you?"

There emerged an "yes, of course" from Erwin's mouth as soon as her question was over, without a moment's hesitation.

Nobody in the room was as perplexed by his behavior as he was. He had a girlfriend, goddamnit! And he was sure of his feelings for her. But, there was something different and mysterious about this woman he met only that morning. It was not like him to engage with another woman when he was already with someone.

He didn't even want to. Or, did he? That was the problem! He did not know. Maybe that was why he needed to know more about Aura to assess the effect she could have on him.

Aura, on the other hand, wanted to get to know everyone. She loved her job as a transferring doctor. She worked under the Council of Health and Goodwill, and they kept transferring her to different districts.

Although it's usually a little bit tough to get accommodated due to her nagging nature and obsession with cleanliness, people liked her if they got to know her. She got the job at the Scout Regiment, because of her affiliation with Dr. Gooden, one of the chief members of the Council.

She knew she could stay here for as long as she wanted, or get transferred as quickly as she liked. All she had to find out was how the Scouts would treat her if she stayed. And she was up for a night of drinking any day, if it did not get in the way of her being the good doctor that was expected of her to be.

"I guess a day's delay would not ruin the alcohol then," she smiled at Nanaba, "sorry, sister. I'm not the kind to discourage getting drunk. But, not today!"

She was about to hand the bottle back to Mike when she stopped midair. "Hey," she looked at the two tall men with intent, "since you two are here, take seats. Let me check you up."

"What? No! We're fine." Mike could not find one thing to agree on with her. As a matter of fact, he could not even say that he liked her.

"Come on! It'll be fun." Aura had recently worked at a paediatric hospital, before coming to the Scouts. She felt like she had not yet lost her charm, although it wouldn't work with two grown men.

Weirdly, it worked with Erwin. His face got split up by a huge warm smile again and he took a chair and sat himself down beside Nanaba's bed. Mike scoffed at him and sat down too. Nanaba watched with curiosity as Aura rushed to get her stethoscope and sphygmomanometer.

Other than a little phlegm that Aura could hear near Erwin's lungs, the men were fine. As she gave him a little vial of something, she found him sniffing too, just like Mike. "Wait, you do the sniffing too?" she asked him.

"Not usually," he answered with a smile, "but your cologne is intriguing."

She suppressed a burst of laughter. "It's ethanol, Erwin. I used it to clean my hands."

Her cheeks were the color of cherry tomatoes when he returned her an innocent yet sexy smile. God, he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen! None of the men she had ever been with came any close to him. It wasn't like she wanted to be with him right away. It was the first day she even saw him. She was just very curious about how it would feel to be with him.

"He has a girlfriend," Nanaba informed her as she stared at the doorway through which Erwin walked out for the night.

"What?" she feigned a baffled look as those words stung unexpectedly, "oh, no no no! It's nothing like that. He has a girlfriend? That's.. that's good for him."
"Relax, sis. You're allowed to have a crush on him. I think we all once did. Even the men, I dare say."

The next time they saw each other was the next night. They had assembled, as planned earlier, in Nanaba's room. After Sadies had fallen asleep, a trainee from the 101st Cadet Corps was kept on guard as the seniors got ready to rave. As expected, Aura met new people there. In a group of skilled Titan Killers, she felt like a fish out of water. She was the new girl, somehow the life of the party.

"We're gonna be great friends, I think," Hange Zoe was a weird girl. With her glasses strapped to her face, she was the most lively and the most curious. She was a research enthusiast and Aura could not say she didn't already absolutely love her. "I think so too," she replied, sipping the rum that was offered.

"You don't look like you like rum," Moblit, who sat stuck to Hange, asked her with concern on his face. He seemed kind and he definitely cultured feelings for Hange.
"I do," she told him, "I do. It's just not my favorite, maybe. I'd probably prefer whiskey over rum any day."

"Hey, me too," Hange got excited again, "I wonder why. I mean, why do different people like different things anyway?"
As Aura's eyes widened at the question, Moblit signalled to her to chill. "She asks a lot of questions when she's drunk," he said. "That was a really good question," she whispered back to him.

Nanaba was on her bed, the wound on her leg stitched and bandaged. Mike and Erwin sat around her, speaking about the upcoming 21st Recon Mission. Nash and Sam stood near the windows, smoking cigarettes. Aura went up to them and asked for one. Erwin's eyes had only left her whenever he felt Mike or Nanaba's eyes on him.

"How long has it been since I smoked a cigarette?" he asked, putting up a questioning look on his face. Nanaba frowned at him, and said, "you quit to increase your performance during training."
"Exactly. It's been years, right? I feel like having one today."

"Seriously?" Nanaba asked again, "are you sure? Will Marie be okay with it?"
"I'm sure she won't mind," he said, getting off the bed and walking towards the window.

"Hi," he waved at Aura as he reached her vicinity, "Sam, do you mind if I bum a cigarette off you?"

Aura took the time to stare at his beautiful face as he lit his cigarette. He was so handsome. With his high cheekbones and thick eyebrows and deep, mysterious, blue eyes and tall, muscular build, he was a God. His lips made her so curious. When he breathed out the smoke, she wanted to inhale it, straight from his mouth. As his 'O' transformed into a smirk, she digressed to meet his eyes.

As she struggled to not get lost in them, he stated, "you're staring."
"You don't inhale the smoke?" she asked, building up an impromptu excuse, "you're basically wasting the cigarette."

As she spent the next few minutes teaching him how to smoke properly, standing only inches away from him, Nanaba's warning kept ringing in her head. "He has a girlfriend.. he has a girlfriend.. he has a girlfriend" it went on and on until she stepped a few steps away from him.

Why did he need to have a girlfriend? Why couldn't he just be single and ready to mingle with her from the very beginning? Why did she have to wish for another girl's heart to be broken? She shrugged off the notion. She was surprised she even had that in the first place.

"So.. tell me about yourself," Erwin Smith took the first step to getting to know her.
"Oh.. umm.. well.. I'm originally from Ehrmich and my father, Dr. Arthur Tubrey is a really well-known surgeon there and my mom, Lena, is a homemaker.." she went for a while, spewing some basic information about herself and it was Erwin's turn to stare.

She was nothing extraordinary to look at. Any given person would probably declare Marie to be more beautiful than her any day. But there was something about her poised smile, and her dark eyes that did it for him.

How she held her calm in the midst of Nanaba's painful screams and with six people watching her as she stitched a bloody wound, was beyond him. He had never seen Dr. Gooden in action, so he could assume that any doctor would be capable of that much patience. But he could not make his head and heart agree to it.

He was a person to figure out a situation, or read another person quicker than anyone else. Which was the sole reason for him being the right hand man of Commander Keith Sadies. But, there was a fine line, it seemed to him, between who Aura portrayed to be and who she really was. And he could not decipher whether it was for the good or the bad.

This sexual/romantic tension between them went on for months. Both of them made sure they met each other every day, found reasons to cross each other's paths and took turn in basking in each other's company and friendship.

The better friends they became, the higher the tension between them was. As they slowly became comfortable with each other, they also started to fall in love with each other.

Erwin on one hand found it extremely difficult to maintain even eye contact with Aura without breaking open a huge smile. Aura on the other hand engaged the free time she had in hand in writing letters to him that she did not send.

In one of such unsent love notes, she wrote:

"Erwin,

I know I've tried this before and failed miserably, but here I am again. I still don't know how to tell you about how I feel about you. You make me want to be a saint and preach to the entire humanity about the greatness of your character. And there are times when you make me a sinner for lusting you as much as I do. I've wanted you since the day I met you and it baffles me to realize how I kept my desires for you in check. It's been 11 months and I still can't find the right words to express my feelings. I've always been a lover of literature and, all these years of reading and writing seem futile and redundant if I can't write three simple words to you.

When you asked to accompany me to Ehrmich last weekend, I had to say no because I wanted to tell my mother about you and your presence would have sealed my lips. When you wrote to me from Stohess about having gone to meet Marie, I couldn't say if I was relieved or apologetic to myself. It isn't like I hate Marie, I don't even know her. I'm jealous - yes, I admit - of her because she has you. I feel like my love for you is beyond claiming you as my own, but I wouldn't mind.

You maintaining your relationship with her from Colonith to Stohess makes me feel like you're really good at keeping in touch. Maybe if I shift to some distant district.. no, what am I even thinking of? I love my job here. I have my friends and I get to see you. And, most days, that's more than enough. Come back from Underground and I'll tell you about my short vacation.

~ Aura"