See Me Now

I. Pain

It started about five hours ago.

Hange and the others were checking all the vacant rooms of the vast Scouting Legion Headquarters to see if they could scrounge anything useful. It was meant as a pastime. Hange and her squad had been working nonstop on the field, studying the Titans they caught and saving their own skins from their guinea pigs at the same time. Plus, their fruitless work for the day was beginning to take a toll on all of them.

If Hange says break time, then it's break time. No other soldier could stop her from doing, otherwise. Maybe except Erwin Smith but, he's away on a meeting. So, when the eccentric Squad Leader focused her sight on the windows of the once occupied rooms of the Headquarters, she just couldn't contain her excitement. Who knows which kinds of items they'd find there? And she desperately needed a breather, seriously.

So, with her squad ( who was, unfortunately, unwilling to go in the first place ), Hange began exploring the rooms. (F/N) (L/N), the latest recruit, was with them.

(F/N) recently graduated from the 105th Trainee Squad. She did not make it to the top 10 of her batch, so she had no other choice but to choose from the other two options which were available to average Cadets like herself, the Garrison Regiment, or the Scouting Legion. Now, (F/N) has no desire, whatsoever, to be a part of the Garrison. She had seen most of them during her countless strolls on the district even before she was a Trainee, and she found them very lazy. And they're drunk most of the time.

So, she slapped herself back to reality to face the only place that she could stomach to go into, which was the Scouting Legion. She was well aware of the mortality rate among the soldiers of the Legion but, at least they have done something meaningful in their lives, and that was to bring glory to mankind. At least it would be better than spending the rest of her life staring at the walls while draining a barrel full of beer.

With that firm decision on her mind, she packed her bags and left the Training grounds, along with those few from her batch who were actually insane enough to be a part of the Legion, also known as the Suicide Squad.

But, that was not the entire reason why she decided to join the Corps.

Petra Ral, her most cherished childhood friend, was there. She really wanted to meet her after such a long time of separation.

Only that she was too late, for Petra had already passed away.

(F/N) suppressed her tears, careful not to let her team mates see that she was starting to cry seemingly for no reason at all.

"Hey, (F/N),..." said a small, sweet girl named Nifa, one of the few soldiers who she easily got along well with. "Do you think we'll find something interesting here, like an old diary or something?"

"I'm not sure, maybe." answered (F/N).

They've been rummaging things from room to room, but they still couldn't find something that could be considered at least decent, save for some items like jewelry or some fancy clothes, which were considered luxury among people like them, for they simply couldn't afford such objects.

They were in one of the rooms on the left wing when Moblit, Hange's faithful assistant, finally whined.

"Squad Leader, what will we do if Captain Levi finds out we're invading rooms? I'm sure we're gonna get all our butts thoroughly kicked!"

Hange just smirked. "Oh, Shorty? Ha! Why do you think we brought brooms and rugs? Of course, he wouldn't think negatively of us once he noticed we're cleaning, right?"

"Squad Leader, you're so careless!"

Captain Levi Ackerman,...

(F/N) couldn't help but smile.