| New Purpose | Erwin Smith fanfic |

•| Chapter 3 |•

Erwin's POV

We were all sat in the mess hall, in the veterans quarter; Miche, Hanji, Nanaba and the new participant F/n, who was currently being hassled by the titan craze. F/n had slept well, confused with where she was, but settled once her memory returned... when the realization hit her, her little face dropped hence why I thought introducing her to my friends would cheer the atmosphere again.

"You're so small!- And your hairs so soft and pretty! Can I have a bit to keep?" The brunette cried playing with F/n's hair which was now tying it back into a tight plait bun.

"Hanji, You're scaring her." Nanaba smiled, sipping on a cup of coffee

"No I'm not! am I? N/n?" Offended, turning back to the small girl who's cheeks had gone a pink glow.

"N/n?" Miche asked, officially taking part in the conversation... After currently sniffing the small girls scent, leaving her rather confused and self-conscious.

"Yes! It's C-U-T-E!" Hanji over-exaggerated "N/n likes it, don't you dollface?" giving her a kiss on her right temple. leaving us all chuckling at F/n's petite flustered face.

"Mhm, Alright." Zacharias responded, swallowing his food before continuing with his gruff voice "F/n, How old did you say you were? If you don't mind me asking." F/n looked up from behind the loosening hair that spilled out from Hanji's DIY hairstyle
"I'm going to be six this year." she answered, taking a sip from the mug of water.

(Time skip)

We finished our breakfast, Unlike the rest of us F/n's food portion filled her up. Nanaba and Hanji had left to clear up the plates. "F/n, would you like to help us? y'know, get away from the boys?" Nanaba rolled her eyes playfully, F/n slid off the chair a couple moments after the two had left the room, F/n was about to follow ahead suddenly tripping over the table leg.

I noticed in the corner of my eye. Attempting to grab her with my hand, missing and clumsily hitting an empty plate off the side, leaving her to stumble to the floor.

"F/n!" My voice was louder than intended, taking myself and her by surprise, I reached my hand out to pull her back up. her eyes widening shoving herself away from me. The plate had fallen to the ground with a clatter, rolling on its rim under the table.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she whispered, reaching for the plate holding it over her head in defense. "It was an accident..." she sobbed quietly.

"Hey, hey, Its fine. Relax!" I reassured poorly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. let me help you up." If I'm honest F/n's skittishness took me by surprise and her response- no, actions were almost instinctively. I glanced over at Miche, whom still sat at the table. His expression taken aback, but equally phased with concern.

F/n POV

"Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. let me help you up."

I held my breath, I instantly regretted moving away. I understand he hadn't intend to alarm me...

He lent his hand out to help me up. I ignored him hesitantly, pulling myself up. Resisting the urge to look at them both, I could already feel the embarrassment overwhelming inside, my stomach seethed with butterfly's wings fluttering, it's too obvious, now they're going to judge me...

"I-I'll take the plate back." I murmured quickly, following after Hanji and Nanaba who had already disappeared from the room. Before I sped out, neglecting anything they had to say, I peeked in the reflection of the plate; Erwin and Miche's faces were surprised, glimpsing at me and back to each-other. As soon as I left the room, my bottom lip began quivering. I'm such a ditz... I- I can't do anything-What if Erwin starts yelling at me too? Everything was going fine! They were being nice to me, all I've done in return is scream at them for trying to help- Mom always told me to be polite to strangers, now I've just done the complete opposite!-

My comments were interrupted by a cheerful voice. I rubbed my eyes from any evidence of sadness. "N/n!" Hanji cheered, calling me over, hurrying towards them as Nanaba held the door for me. the pair shuffling me around the washroom, introducing me to any passers that went by.

"So F/n, Which wall did say you were from?" The blonde smiled, taking the plate from my hands.

"Uhm, Wall Sina, just outside the capital..." I fiddled with the rim of my skirt, blinking rapidly to dry my eyes.

"Wall Sheena Aye? very fancy," replied Nanaba, crouching down to my level. "Must be a pretty big change for you entering Trost district!" She joked, ruffling my hair back into place.

"Oi! Trost isn't any different than Sheena, If anything, its got more life within the public instead of being infested with rich snobs." Hanji laughed, pulling the plug and draining the water from the sink. "But of course you and M/n aren't snobs, Erwin would kill me if he heard me refer to you two as that!" M/n... mom... Nanaba must have noticed my drop in confidence at the mentioned name, giving a quick glare at Hanji to be quiet.

"Were you friends of hers...?"

Hanji and Nanaba glanced at each other quickly, "Yeah we were pretty close, you look a lot like her you know!" Hanji smiled, creeping up behind me, squeezing my cheeks.

"I'm afraid we haven't seen her since a couple of years ago." The two of them smiled cheerfully distracting me from the topic with the frothy bubbles
"Come on, lets get going you cant trust Miche and Erwin on their own for too long. Besides, I'm on stable duty today."