Shorter Than Me

19 Levi

I sit back down, remembering the fear in her eyes. That shouldn't be right. I shouldn't be the cause of that fear.

But she wouldn't have gotten hurt. I feel the weight of the one bullet inside my sleeve. Of course no one saw me put it there, not even Guiin, whose eyes were on my hands the whole time. It was so easy I could do it in my sleep.

"Now it's time for you to get drunk," Herga says. He's already more than tipsy himself and I don't know what kinds of questions a bunch of drunk people would ask a sixteen-year-old girl.

Guiin rolls her eyes, but doesn't object to Hanji pouring her a cup of alcohol. Hanji encourages her to drink it all at once. She takes a large gulp and cringes as she swallows.

"Hanji!" she rasps.

"Do it again. The second time is better," Hanji urges.

Guiin shakes her head and takes tiny sips from the cup. Everyone else drinks from either their own bottle or a cup. Once Guiin has drained her cup, Hanji fills it again, as if she can't do it herself.

I don't know how long it takes to get drunk so... that much time passes.

"Who wants to ask the first question?" the commander asks.

"Levi should!" Hanji exclaims.

I just shake my head. Everyone else is a lot more drunk than me.

I also don't know kind of how drunk people act. Just from movies. This may be interesting...

"Then I will!" Hanji states. "Ecyn, do you find titans fascinating?"

"Not particularly."

"Why?" Hanji presses.

"They're scary and they kill people." Guiin takes another drink from her cup. She isn't bothered by it at all now.

"My turn," Herga says. "Who is your best friend?"

She stops herself before saying something and thinks for a second. Her face gets kind of sad. "My best friend was Dren Reardon."

"One of the cadets that died?" Wade asks.

She looks at him. "Yes." Her eyes don't stay on him too long, but she's obviously sad at the mention of Reardon.

Hanji notices and asks nosily, "Did you love him?"

Guiin looks downright depressed and that's all the answer anyone needs.

But they still pry even more.

"Did you hug?"

"Yes."

"Did you kiss?"

"Yes."

They stab questions at her like knives and she answers them. I know the drunkenness is affecting her actions right now. She's not the type to accept the intrusive questions this easily.

"Did you two have sex?" Wade wiggles his eyebrows and smiles weirdly.

I swear it took like five minutes to write that sentence. Then I went back and added to it twice.

A few of them laugh and look at her expectantly.

Even I'm curious to know her answer. I've seen a few girls her age who were prostitutes. They lived in the Underground. I always thought that was too young of an age to start, and the idea of Guiin doing that is disturbing.

"No!" She seems surprised at the question though I could see it coming miles away. Wade always liked prying into people's personal business. He never suspected the relationship between Petra and me though. If he had asked me a question like that I would have punched him.

The truth was that Petra and I did. She was my first ever and my last forever.

Yes, I like to think that their relationship was perfect like that.

"Do you know how he died?" Hanji changes the subject to an even worse one.

Guiin seems disturbed by the questions being asked, but she answers them anyway. "I saw him get swallowed by a titan. Then I couldn't move and I couldn't breathe. Then someone killed the titan and pulled me up and told me to snap out if it. Then he slapped me and dropped me." She doesn't mention my name, but she does look at me. Everyone else does too and it's obvious who she's talking about. I keep my gaze on her eyes until she looks away and the next question is asked.

They question her for another thirty minutes while everyone gets gradually more drunk. Eventually, Hanji remembers my silence throughout this whole interrogation.

"Levi, you should ask a question!" She suggests.

I don't really have anything to ask but Hanji is a lot more annoying when she's drunk, even slightly. I try to come up with a question just to keep her from getting all excited. "Do you want to be a captain?"

"Of course." She grins stupidly. This is why I don't like getting drunk or being around drunk people. They're not themselves. They're not smart. "I get to boss people around."

This sets off a lot of laughter. "What's one thing you want to do now that you're a captain?" Zebbo asks.

She thinks for a moment, still with a stupid look on her face. "I want to boss a cadet around."

There's more laughter. "What would you make them do?"

"I think I'd drop them from trees, while they're wearing the maneuver gear of course. That seems fun."

She's referring to the times I've dropped her.

"Yeah. Fun!"

A clock chimes. It's twelve now. Commander Erwin interrupts the laughter. "Party's over." He's met by drunken protests. "You're all going to thank me in the morning for not letting you go farther." He's hardly drunk at all. If anything, he'll get a slight headache tomorrow. "Now you're all going to stand up right now and stumble your way to your rooms."

Everyone rises, still protesting. Wade trips on his chair and falls into Herga. They both stay upright, but clutch each other as they walk out.

"Ecyn, I'll help you to your room," Hanji offers. It will probably be Guiin who does most of the helping.

Everyone is gone in a minute but the commander and me.

"Levi, you can go. I'll clean this up."

"No." His definition of cleaning is putting the cups in the kitchen and throwing the bottles away. His definition of cleaning excludes the spills on the floor.

"Levi." He looks into my eyes with a stern expression. "I'm ordering you to leave."

I wait a second before deciding he'll clean up enough. I turn and walk out the door.

I'm walking down the hall when I hear a loud thump from around the corner. I see Hanji slumped against Guiin. They're against the wall.

"Hanji," I snap. I pull her away from Guiin. "You're going to kill someone. Go to bed." I shove her a little.

"Whatever you say, Captain." She puts her arms in the salute and then releases it a second later. "Goodnight, Captain." She moves to hug me but I shove her away again. She pouts and walks down the hall.

Guiin is still slumped against the wall.

"Guiin." I grab her arm and pull her forward. Her room is three doors away. I push her toward it. I pull open the door and she starts to walk in. "Guiin." She turns to me. "Take your shoes off and the jacket off." I give her a nudge and close the door.

I shouldn't have to do that. She should be smart enough to avoid getting too drunk.

Thanks for reading. This is where my rant used to be.

So what do you think will happen next? Will someone die? Will someone get hurt? Will someone fall in love?

The picture is a screenshot of the anime. The words were edited on using the app Pixlr. Here's a question for you. How did the titan cut his hair? Dun Dun Dun! Plot twist!