No Choice (Eruri)

Approach

"I just readjusted the settings," he heard Lily's words only from a distance, while he fixed all his attention only on one man standing in a group of soldiers only a few meters away from them.

"You can start," she seemed to try again after he still didn't respond to her.

But Levi continued to pay no attention to her words, still looking over at the man standing in the center of the group, gesturing wildly with his arms. There was something hypnotic about his movements. If only he wasn't such a jerk.

"Hey, Levi? Are you even listening to me?" Lily's voice now sounded much louder and near his ear while she simply threw some of the modified equipment on his lap to regain his attention. She grinned broadly at him and followed his gaze with a soft giggle. "Kjell is really popular."

Levi didn't reply to that and just stared absently at the apparatus in his hand before getting up from the bench for the fifth time that morning to attach the maneuvering equipment to his upper legs and his back. Again he glanced over at the soldiers and only suppressed a yawn with great effort. Although he hadn't slept a wink last night and exhaustion was slowly catching up with him after this extended test run, he was still glad to be able to distract himself at least a little from yesterday afternoon.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lily eyeing him with slight concern in her gaze. No wonder, since he had barely been able to hide the dark circles under his eyes.

"Just this one more round. Then I'll have enough data to make further improvements. I'm sorry for hogging you right away, even though you just had that incident yesterday."

Levi froze in his movement as these words made him think of Erwin. Not of the robbery, though. But of the moment afterward when they had lost all control from one second to the next.

He shook off the thought and put a hand on his chest to calm his heartbeat. Any distraction was welcome right now, so he let his gaze wander briefly over the practice area, which, since it had existed, had probably never seen so many people at once. Obviously, Lily had not been able to keep her mouth shut and had told her comrades about the planned tests. Accordingly, some of the soldiers had gathered at the edge of the small forest and just turned their attention to Kjell, who had also agreed to help the engineers.

Apparently, the MPs and the Scouts did not meet too often, for all eyes were on the boy as he waved his hands around excitedly, probably telling them some anecdote from the expeditions. To Levi's astonishment, the soldiers were literally glued to his lips, and despite this ridiculous show, he was more than grateful not to be the center of attention.

But that soon changed when he finally put on his gear and walked quickly past the soldiers towards one of the giant trees. Without giving Kjell or the group standing with him a glance, he pulled himself up one of the large branches.

The astonished shouting of a female soldier reached his ears as he, having barely reached the top, pushed himself off the branch with a backflip and was already aiming for the next limb. Once there, he took a sharp turn to the left and completely changed direction again. An unchecked dive into the depths almost made it look like he was about to hit the ground, but he took advantage of the dry soil and the power of his momentum to skid his shoes across the sand before making an arc and launching himself back into the air with a well-dosed boost. He heard a loud yelp, and someone clapped their hands as he finally landed back on the branch he had just started on. A relatively short round, but that should be enough for more data.

Casually, he saw the clapping coming from a young man standing in a group off to the side, looking up at him with wide eyes.

He made a disparaging sound but gave the boy a friendly nod. These guys were easy to enthuse, but no wonder when they were obviously here all day doing nothing but boozing and lazily sitting on their asses.