*on hold* Reasons Left You Standing There

Chapter 1

No wonder the woman was out of breath. She’d scared out of her wits.

“No can do Hanji. You can if you want but I can’t. I have something I need to do first.” With that I turned on my heel and silently slipped away. Hanji, blind without her glasses, couldn’t follow me because of my soundless exit. I had to perform the final act. Fast, before Levi could skin me, or before I failed my brother.

~*~

Before I could set the final piece in place, which was 12 pounds of dirt wrapped in a blanket about to be set up above Levi’s bed, Riss came running into the room, screaming and crying. Another freak attack. Shit.

She ran right into the ladder I was using to reach the ceiling, knocking me to the floor in a dust storm. She hugged me tightly, cradling my head. Being only 4’9”, my slightly younger twin sister towered over me at 5’8”, so there was no contest as she gripped onto me as tight as she could.

“Riss!” I could barely breathe. “Riss…”

She loosened her tight grip, and started yelling. “Erwin’s gonna send us to go to the cadet school!”

I looked at her, her blues eyes reflecting the excitement in her voice. “Are you serious? He’s actually letting us join?” She fervently nodded.

“Levi is supposed to escort us later!” She squished me in a hug.

As the breath was squished out of me, I looked up to see the short man himself. I felt the blood rush away from my face as he looked around the mess that was his room. He then locked eyes with me and his dark glare froze me to my soul. Never before had I been so scared.

Riss let go of me then stood up and danced past Levi, not acknowledging him in the room. With Riss gone, Levi could easily murder me on the spot. He sure as hell looked like he wanted to.

“Hey... Levi… What’s up?” My voice shook.

“I’m getting rid of you. Erwin doesn’t know that I’m taking you two with me and leaving you there to join the 104th Trainee Squad. I know you heard me earlier, so there shouldn’t be much other explanation.” Levi looked down his nose at me. I nodded solemnly. “Now, there are some expectations, but I believe you know them.”

“Yeah… Make top 10, officially join the Scout Regiment, keep Riss safe… And make Riss believe that Erwin wanted us to go.” I listed, and Levi nodded his approval when I was done.

~*~

“Come along Larissa..” Levi called for her to stop smelling the flowers and catch up to us.

We were only a few minutes away from the sign in point. Because of the side path Levi was taking us, nobody has really seen us. Even better because it means that Riss and I can slip into the 104th Cadet Squad without being noticed at all.

Just before we reach the stand, Levi turns to us. “Now, these next 4 years of your life are going to be very hard for you. You’re both 16 now, so I believe you can handle it. Erwin believes in you as well.” Levi took a deep breath. “Let’s go get you two in there.” And from there, we went and signed up and shit like that.

Levi stayed with us for the next day, making sure we weren’t bunked away from the others, or that I kept Riss all to myself, perpetually making it harder for me to keep Riss safe and undermining what little authority I had. Riss was on the top bunk next to me, I was also on the top bunk. Under Riss was a girl named Annie, and under me was a girl named Christa. Neither paid much attention to us, which was good, and bringing back my slight authority over Riss’s interactions with everyone else. Nobody else seemed very interested in us, except a female named Ymir. That night she met the 4 of us over by our bunks. Levi had gone home earlier that day so I wasn’t scared of him coming back and taking Riss back to the Corps without me.