‘Focus, Jessica!’

The voice of the corporal, Levi Ackerman, sounds loudly through the field in front of the castle you and the Survey Corp stay for the time being.

‘But sir!’ You wanted to complain about the hours and hours of training, but you were cut off.

‘Do you want to be devoured by one ing Titan, or what?!’ His voice never showed any emotion, except annoyance.

You fall into silence, and just run some more laps around the castle.

‘Pft! Corporal Levi is being such a bossy piece of !’ Eren complains, and you hear it since you’re almost next to him.

‘Don’t say it like that!’ You are defending Levi, but why you are doing that, you’re not sure. ‘He wants us to be prepared!’

‘For what? The attack of Titans?’ Eren laughs sarcastically. ‘I don’t know if he is blind or something, but I turn into a Titan when I want, and I will defeat them all!’

‘Well, turn into a Titan now?’ You dare Eren.

‘What? Do you want that little ty corporal to get mad at me?!’ Eren looks at you confused.

You laugh. ‘Never mind, I was joking, Eren!’

Eren laughs, and gives you a pat through your hair, while running.

You grin, but noticed a very annoyed corporal, who looks at you and Eren. ‘Jaeger! Ten more laps!’ Levi grumbles.

You snicker at the face Eren gives Levi.

‘But, sir!’

‘Nothing! If you won’t do as I say, I’ll give you 5 more laps!’ Levi walks to you, because you stopped running.

You’re panting a little, the laps you ran –a total of 20-, was more than you did before.

‘You okay?’ Levi asks, and you look up.

‘Y-yeah…’ You say, and stand straight up.

Levi looks at you. ‘You sure?’

‘Yeah! Don’t worry about me… Just worry about… Eehh… I don’t know… Eren or so? Since he is running more and more laps…’ You smile awkwardly. ‘So… More chores to do?’

‘Maybe. Follow me.’ Levi walked into the castle, and you followed him inside.

Jean, Armin, Mikasa, Conny and Sasha were also doing chores, since the castle was all dusty.

‘Corporal!’ Armin noticed, and saluted Levi.

‘Just get back to work… It’s still ing dirty in here…’ Levi doesn’t sound motivational at all, which makes Conny and Sasha look more depressed then just before.

‘No… Motivation… Potato… Are there potatoes?’ Sasha complains, and holds out a hand to Conny.

‘Not if you won’t work harder.’ Levi tells Sasha. ‘If you get to work, I’ll save you some potatoes…’

‘YUSH! That’s the motivation I’m looking for!’ Sasha says, and gets back to work, even faster. Conny follows, too.

Armin, Mikasa and Jean didn’t care about the scene Sasha made, and just did their chores.

Corporal Levi walks to the upstairs bedrooms, where the higher ranked soldiers used to sleep, like Petra, Oluo and Erd.

You shiver a bit when you think back about the 57th Expedition, when they all were killed by the Female Titan. ‘Corporal…’ You mutter.

‘We have to clean their rooms...’ Levi mutters back, and opens the first door; the room of Erd.

You take a deep breath before entering the room.

‘I’ll be in the room of Oluo… Just shout if you need something…’ Levi walks past you, of course, without touching you.

Erd his bed isn’t a big mess. You take off the pillow and shake some of the dust off, and you do the same with his blanket.

You dust off the closet, which didn’t have a lot of dust either. They had cleaned it a day before the 57^th Expedition.

Corporal Levi ordered everyone to clean their rooms before cleaning the whole castle, since it is important to sleep in a clean room.

You clean Erd his room as good as you could, and then walk to Levi, one room next to Erds.

Levi has his white dust-mask on, and around his head another one.

‘I’m done with Erd his room…’ You say, and look at him while he cleans.

‘I’ll inspect it when I’m done with this room… You can go and clean Petra’s room…’

Your eyes open up a little. Petra was one of your friends. She was one of the nicest persons you’ve known in the corp. You just nod, and walk to her room, on the other side of Erds room.

Carefully, you knock on the door, expecting her to be alive, and respond to the knocking. But it kept awfully silent. You just opened the door, and looked around.

Everything was just like she had left it, just like Erds. It wasn’t a surprise for you, because she never returned to her room.

You get a bit emotional as you enter the room, and take your dust cloth out of your pocket. Unlike Erd his room, you start with dusting off Petra’s window, and after that, opening the window.

A nice breeze tickles your skin, and plays with your hair. For a moment, you close your eyes, and feel the warmth of the sun directly on your skin.

You see the face of Petra in your mind, and it triggered you to let out a tear. You faintly remember her voice, because the voice is one of the first things you forget after someone dies. You just take another deep breath, and start cleaning the room. This room will be the room of someone else soon… You take a look around, but you don’t spot many personal things of Petra you could keep as memory.

With your back to the door opening, you step back and look at the result. Levi should be proud of you. Everything is dust free, and the whole room is ready to get another person in it.

You bite your lip, as you take one final look into the room, and close the door after it. The memories you had about this room with Petra… Deep in the night, when everyone else was sleeping, you snuck into her room and talk with her about hot boys. You were drooling about Levi most of the time. Petra laughed a lot then, and in the morning, with the breakfast, she tried to get you and Levi together. When that happens, you get red all of the time, and when Levi finally sat next to you, you couldn’t eat any of your breakfast.

You smile sadly about this thought, and look out of the window. The emotions whelm up, and you run to the window. ‘Petra!’ You shout, scaring Eren, who still is running laps around the castle, and he was just under the window.

‘Petra!’ You cry, and bite your lip. ‘I miss you…’ The last you whisper, and you hide your face into your hands.

‘Jessica…’ You hear Levi’s voice, but you only think it is an imagination. But when you feel your hands get pulled away from your face, you notice Levi’s voice calling your name wasn’t your imagination.

Levi, who is two centimeters taller than you –it’s a miracle-, looks into your eyes. He suddenly hugs you, and holds you tightly.

You close your eyes, and hug him back. ‘S-sir…’

‘Sh… Just call me Levi…’

‘Le-Levi…’

Levi took you to his clean, and neat room. Once he lets you go, he goes and wash his hands. You get the time to calm down a bit, and focus, but it is harder as you think.

‘Jessica, come and clean…’ Levi called, and you walk to his bathroom. He has his own bathroom! You had to share the bathroom with everyone from the corp, except for the higher ones. You cleaned your hands too, and dried them after they were fully clean.

You noticed Levi already had his hands soaked in soap, and scrubbing them for at least a minute, since they started to look red.

‘Stop… You’re hurting yourself…’ You say, and grab Levi’s hand. ‘They are clean already.’

Levi looks at you, and pulls back his hand. ‘I know…’

‘Then why do you hurt yourself?’ You ask, and still look at him worried.

‘It needs to be clean.’

‘It is!’

Levi sighs, and pulls his hand back. ‘It’s clean now…’ He turns of the water, and dries his hands with an ultra clean towel.

You smile a bit, and you dry your hands too.

‘Come here…’ Levi says, and hold out his hand. You’re a bit confused, he isn’t touchy at all, and he wants you to hold his hand? Carefully you touch his hand with your fingers, and walk closer. Levi’s fingers close around your hand, and he pulls you towards him. His free arm goes around your waist and his face is on your shoulder.

‘I’m sorry… For pushing you…’ He mutters, and pets the tips of your hair with his free fingers. His other hand holds your hand, and brings it to his hip. You already had closed your eyes, and you now hold him softly. ‘I just pushed you too much, with the running laps…’

You can’t say anything, you just hold him softly. You enjoy this moment as long as you can. Is it a dream?

While inhaling, you smell his scent, the scent of his favorite tea, you relax, and Levi feels that. He holds you a bit tighter, and makes sure you’re not too tight in his embrace.

‘Say something, Jessica…’ Levi suddenly says. ‘You’re so quiet… Normally you talk so much I want to cut off my ears…’

‘E-eh?  That’s not very nice to say, sir…’ You say surprised.

‘Sorry, but I do like it when you talk… So I take back my comment of just now…’ Levi mutters, and still pats your hair. ‘I like you…’

You don’t know if you imagined the last thing he said, or if it was reality. ‘S-sir?’

‘You heard me. I like you.’ Levi his voice doesn’t sound annoyed at all.

‘I… I… I like you too, sir…’

You look Levi into his eyes, and you see a little smile on his face. ‘What did I tell you? Just call me Levi, idiot.’

His voice didn’t sound warm, but it didn’t sound cold either. You smile. ‘Yes! Levi~’