The Shifter Titan (Annie Leonhart x Male Reader)

3: 104 Cadet Corps

Having prior military training did make the transition from street rat to soldier fairly easy, but not easy enough. Considering that Y/N had spent the last two years scavenging for food, and an approximately additional eight as a Titan outside the walls, the military training he had received back in Marley had almost disappeared from his recent memory. There was a vague understanding on how things worked, but the orange-haired boy needed to remind himself that soldiers should not mouth-off their superiors. 

After signing up to the Cadet Corps with a fake surname and a fake sister, Y/N and Ymir got on a wagon which led them to the Southern Wall Rose training facility. The wagon was almost empty, expected from a wagon that served as transportation from Sina's citizens to the military. The teens around them in the wagon were all skinny and/or obnoxious, thinking that they would join the military and rise the ranks in a few weeks. 

For the most part of the way, Ymir and Y/N stayed in silence, while occasionally they engaged in conversation with each other. The rest of the future cadets looked at them with some sort of disdain, probably due to their odor, lack of quality clothes, and overall look of homelessness, but neither the brunette nor the orange-haired boy took any offense to their looks. After all, Ymir had only joined because of an unknown girl named Christa Lenz, while Y/N had simply followed along. They didn't care about making friends in the military, especially since the closer they were to people, the bigger the chance for their secret to come out. 

It was already easy enough for someone with half a brain to discern that Ymir and Y/N were not related. From the slightly different accent to their faces, there were many things that screamed "not blood related" to anybody who saw them together. However, both of them were around the same height, had the same sort of hair (not counting color of course), and used the same slang. They could pass as siblings--they had passed as siblings--but if they wished for their cover story to hold, it would be better to foment the least questions possible. 

The first thing that happened when they arrived at the training compound was getting yelled by some soldiers. They were asked for their clothes size, changed from their dirty rags to uniform, and were taught how to properly salute. It was an easy salute, but it was more complicated than the salute back in Marley. Instead of simply putting a hand up, the Walls salute consisted of putting the right hand fist in front of the heart, while putting the left fist behind the back. 

After being taught the basics, Ymir and Y/N, along with the rest of the new Cadets, were instructed to line up outside. They did so quietly and stood with their back straight and hands behind their backs. Their faces were serious, devoid of any emotion. It was the same as what was expected back in the Marleyan military: perfect followers. Soldiers were not meant to think for themselves, they were meant to follow orders and make cold-hearted decisions. 

Some things, like the military, didn't change no matter where you were. 

The instructor, who had the unfortunate luck to be named Keith Shadis, stepped forward and began to address them. It were all words meant to intimidate the weak minded people to drop out quickly, so they did nothing to scare off neither Ymir nor Y/N. The orange-haired boy simply looked straight forward, sometimes sparing a glance at where the instructor was yelling at some cadets. 

For some reason, the instructor bypassed some of the cadets, not wasting any time in yelling at them or even asking for their names. Neither him nor Ymir were questioned by the Commander, the reason for this completely unknown to him. Others that were ignored were an angry-looking teal-eyed teen, an oriental-looking girl, a blonde buff dude, the tall guy standing right besides him, and a short blonde girl. 

Y/N narrowed his eyes at the tall boy standing besides the blonde. There was something about his face that made him look very familiar. Maybe if he heard the name of the unknown guy he would remember where he had seen him before.