A safe place ~ ErwinxReader

3. Punishment

As we finished our horse stable duty, we started discussing what we should do next.
Sasha suggested: "We should go and eat dinner before commander Erwin comes back!"
"Are you crazy?", Jean asked. "We were ordered to go to his office after we finished cleaning!"
"He is still out riding his horse. He takes good care of it, so he will do the after preparations with care. If we hurry we can eat enough."
The young man grabbed his hair. "I'm still against it. Furthermore, I have an inkling that he has something against me. I bet you wouldn't realize it but his stare could have killed me!" He shuddered.
Sasha laughed at Jean. "You are definitely exaggerating!"

Now I interrupted: "Sasha! You shouldn't laugh at Jean! But to be honest Jean...I'm quite hungry and we don't know what our punishment will be."
I scratched my neck. "Sasha is right Jean. Commander Erwin will take at least fifteen minutes. If we hurry we could eat our lunch in ten minutes and wait in front of his office so he won't notice."
I looked at him with big eyes and took his hand.
"Are you joining us? If we were together, Sasha and I wouldn't get punished because we could make up an alibi."

Jean took his hand back and sighed. "Alright. But let's hurry up before we waste too much time!"
Happily I grabbed Sashas arm and we hurried to the dining room to eat, more like devoured, our food.

After eating, we hurried to the commander's office. Scared to knock on the door, Sasha and I shoved Jean to the door.
"Hey! Why are you pushing me from the back?"
We ordered: "Be a man and knock for us!"
"Geez!" Jean knocked on the door but no one answered. We sighed in relief that we made it.

I touched my tummy and grumbled: "I think I ate too fast..."

Erwin PoV:
What have I seen and overhead back then? While riding, I thought about their punishment. I definitely needed them to be separated, or else that young lady probably wouldn't talk.
I will let Cadet L/N help me with my paperwork, then I would have an opportunity to talk to her.

Before I went to my office, I went to Mike and told him about what I had seen. Mike's face got quite dark and I knew he would take care of that young man. I said my goodbyes and went straight to my office.

The two women were crouching on the ground and chatting with each other while the young man saluted before my door. He was the first person to notice me and informed his partners. Both of them jumped up, saluted and they greeted me.
"Good afternoon, Sir!"
I hid my chuckle and looked sternly at them.
"Good afternoon, Cadets."
I opened the door to my office and invited them in.
"You can come in."

They were nervously standing next to each other, still saluting. I stood before my desks and began to punish them.
"Cadet Braus?"
"Here!"
"You will go and help section commander Hange with her tasks for the rest of your day."
"Yes, Sir!"

"Cadet L/N!"
"Yes?"
"You will stay and help me with my paperwork."
"Yes, Sir!"
This way I had a chance to talk alone with her.

Now I stared straight at the young man. I noticed that he was a bit more nervous than the other two. So did he really feel guilty about harassing her?
"Cadet Kirstein!"
"Yes!"
"You will go and help section commander Mike for the rest of the day."
"Yes, Sir!"

"The next time I see you steal something again, your punishment will be more severe!"
They apologised in unison. I nodded and sent the other two away.

"You can sit here."
I pointed at the couch, searched for a few documents and put them on the table next to it.
"I want you to go through them!"
"Yes, Sir!"

I sat down at my desk and did my own paperwork.
From time to time I looked at the young cadet, pondering with myself how I should start. Will she deny everything?

Reader PoV:
"Cadet?"
I lifted my head and looked surprised at the commander. He seemed serious but also worried? Was that my imagination? "Ye-Yes Sir?"
The commander adjusted his collar and harrumphed before he started to speak."I know I'm probably not the right person for you to talk about it but I'm concerned."
He was concerned because we took some small food portions in secret?
"Today at the stable, did Cadet Kirstein harass you?" Commander Erwin looked straight at me. His face said that he was pretty dead serious.
"What?" I was even more surprised.
"Usually I wouldn't interfere in any relationships, but I saw him pushing you at the stall. It was also clear to me that you were crying. Did he force you?"

What? What was happening? Oh gosh! Did the commander misinterpreted the situation?

"N-No! It...It wasn't like that." I was too shocked to give a clear answer.

Perhaps I wasn't believable enough because now he looked even more worried.
"I know what I saw. It makes sense that you don't want to talk about it, with a male superior at that, so I could introduce one of the women to you. Cadet Kirstein will also be punished accordingly. I already instructed Mike to keep a close eye on him."

"No!" I jumped from my seat while shouting. "Jean did nothing wrong! On the contrary! He was super worried that I would overwork myself because my body hasn't fully healed yet. And! And!" My face turned slightly red from embarrassment. "I only cried because I got something in my eye and wasn't able to get it out. So I asked Jean to help me. The push against the stall was just because he needed better lighting."
After blurting everything out I had to take a deep breath. I'm not sure what was more embarrassing. The fact that the commander misunderstood Jean and thought I got sexually harassed, or the fact that I got so agitated that I started to cry even though I didn't want to.

The commander was shocked. "Y/N? Why are you crying all of a sudden?" The blond man got up, took out his handkerchief, knelt before me and handed it to me. "Are you really fine? If you aren't that well yet, you should stop and take a rest."

I took the handkerchief and tried to dry my tears while I sniffed. Why was he so nice?
"I'm...I'm sorry." Gosh! Why am I crying in front of my commander? That's so embarrassing!

Now he even patted my head to comfort me?
"You don't have to apologise. I really hope that everything is just a misunderstanding. But if you or one of your friends really gets harassed please don't be afraid to talk to us. I want the survey Corps to be a safe place."

I nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you Commander." I really felt safe with him. Even though our life's are always at stake on our missions, Erwin tried his best to guide us safely. Without him I probably wouldn't have survived our last mission. Now he even was concerned about me. I really felt his warmth. It was nice. It's been such a long time since I felt this safe.

"Good." Suddenly the warm feeling within me left, when the commander got up. "With this, your punishment is settled! Remember to not steal from the food rations ever again or your punishment will be more severe."

I stood up and saluted. "Yes Sir!" I put his handkerchief in my pocket so I could wash it and left his room.

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Authors note: I just love it how mad Erwin and Mike are at Jean because of this misunderstanding!!!xD I also hope that you enjoyed the cute interaction with Erwin!!!x3