(Edited)
Marco's POV:
"Marco Bodt, at your service sir! From Jinae, south side of Wall Rose! I want to join the military police and give life and limb in service to the king!", I said quickly but confidently. I wanted him to understand how passionate I was of this matter.
"Well then, that makes you an idealistic fool and a rube", Sadies replied, his voice flat but strong. I felt my straight posture sink and my smile faltered.
'That makes me a what now?'
"You want the truth?", Sadies asked me, inching his face closer to mine.
'Did I really say something that wrong?'
"The only use the king has for your life and limbs are as titan fodder". He backed away from me. "Sixth row! About face!". I turned around along with the rest of my row.
'God, who would think wanting to serve the king would trigger that kind of response, I always thought it was a noble and selfless choice'
I felt a pair of eyes looking at me, and I lifted my gaze to meet them. It was a girl standing a couple of rows down from mine. Her face showed a mixture of sympathy and... admiration? I gave her a quick smile, not wanting her to worry about me.
'I guess I might have looked sad or hurt'
As soon as I smiled at her she averted her gaze, looking straight forward again. She looked flustered and I noticed her straightening up her stance.
Sadies dropped Connie and made his way over to her.
"Who are you cadet!", he yelled.
"Y/N L/N, sir! From Shiganshina district, sir!", she replied with a steady and stern voice.
'Shiganshina, huh...'
I would never had come to that conclusion myself as the other cadets from that area have shown no emotion whatsoever during this whole ordeal. Don't get me wrong, she looks tough, and she probably is, but the way she looked at me earlier showed something else.
"Why are you here L/N!", he asked intensely.
"To avenge my parent's deaths and take down the armoured titan, sir!", she replied with the same stern tone, however her previously steady voice faltered just the tiniest bit as she addressed the commandant.
No one said anything, not even Sadies. Some looked shocked, others confused. I even felt myself making a shocked grimace.
'She must have been through hell...'
~Timeskip to the next morning~
Back to normal POV:
You were fast asleep, exhausted from the previous day's events. At least you thought you were fast asleep, however, that's when you felt someone staring at your face like they were trying to uncover your very soul. You opened your eyes tiredly and the sight that met you sent chills down your spine.
You jumped up to a sitting position, hitting your head hard on the top-bunk of the bed.
"What the hell Sasha!", you groaned and rubbed the sore spot on your head.
Sasha had placed her face inches from yours, staring at you with the most intense face you have ever seen. Her face contorted into a weird, wide smile, her eyes staring you down ten times more intently than titan-face Sadies himself.
Sasha burst out laughing at your reaction, letting herself fall flat onto the floor.
"I just wanted to see if I could wake you up only by using my mind and the powerful thoughts of breakfast!", she replied, a little winded from all the laughing.
You threw you pillow at her and it hit her with a thud. You laughed at the sound.
"Can you guys shut it!", an irritated voice coming from the corner of the room said. It was Ymir. "Some of us are still trying to squeeze in a couple more minutes of sleep before we have to get up!".
Sasha looked over in your direction and whispered,
"Come on Y/N, put your uniform on! We have to get to mess hall early, so we get the food while it's still fresh!". She almost hissed the last part. You rolled your eyes and got up to get dressed. On cue your stomach growled, and you remembered that you didn't really eat anything yesterday. If it weren't for Crista sneaking two rolls and some water over to you and Sasha once you both collapsed to the ground, you probably wouldn't have been able to get yourself back into your bunk even. Though come to think of it, Sasha went into beast mode, eating both rolls before you could even stretch out your hand to grab one from Crista. Thus, leaving you with only water to consume, but you weren't complaining. At least you got something.
Once dressed, Sasha grabbed your wrist pulling you with her towards mess hall.
"Hey Sasha, calm down!", you pleaded, struggling to keep up. "They haven't even rung the bell yet; we can't even go inside!".
"I don't want to risk not being the first one there!", she replied, tightening her grip around your wrist to ensure you followed.
Finally reaching the door of the mess hall, she freed you from her tight grip. You leaned back against the railing trying to catch your breath.
"I see you guys are up bright an early as well", a familiar voice called from behind you. You turned around and saw a blonde boy facing you.
'Armin!'
You smiled, taking a step towards him, unsure if he recognize or even remembers who you are.
"Hi Y/N", he said with a smile, like he had read your mind and wanted to let you know he remembered.
You closed the distance between you and gave him a hug. You had always wondered what had become of him after all these years. If you hadn't seen him on the boat, you would have presumed he died.
"Oh Armin, it's so good to see you", you said in his embrace. You don't know where this sudden confidence came from, seeing you used to be shy around new people and you hadn't necessarily talked that much with him before. You guys weren't friends the way he was friends with Eren and Mikasa. Having to survive on your own for two years must have done something to your social confidence as you had to be tough to get by.
"Likewise, Y/N. I always wondered where you ended up after the boat ride. I hoped you'd try to come find us", he said as he pulled away from you.
"Yeah, I probably should've. But it was a confusing and stressful time, I didn't really know what to do at first", you answered him sincerely.
"I get it, Y/N, no worries. I'm just glad-". The bell rang, stopping Armin mid-sentence. You felt a hand grab your wrist.
"Come on Y/N, this is what we have been waiting for!", Sasha almost screamed.
'It's seven in the morning.. It's seven in the morning..!'
She pulled you in through the door before you could even wrap up your conversation with Armin. You looked over at him with an apologetic expression on your face. He just smiled back at you and let out a little laugh. You saw Eren and Mikasa closing in behind him.
'At least he won't be alone. Damn it Sasha, your love for food is going to be the end of me'
You looked over at your new friend who continued to drag you over to the serving station. While she dragged you across the floor, you smiled happily, knowing that you weren't going to be alone anymore.
~
Two more people joined you, Sasha, and Connie at your table. The three of you had hit it off rather quickly, laughing nonstop at the stupidest of things.
You recognized the two as Marco and that guy clinging hands to his head in paid.
"You guys mind if we sit here?", Marco asked with a smile.
'He sure likes to smile a lot. As he should though, he has a very nice smile... -wut?'
"No, not at all, please sit", you answered him, returning the smile. As they took their seats you looked at the light brown haired boy.
"Hey, I didn't catch your name yesterday". "I was distracted by Sasha continuously munching on that potato in my ear", you added looking over at her with a smirk. The others laughed while Sasha looked at you in shock.
"Y/N! I thought we agreed upon not mentioning that ever again!", she said mortified. That is true. While running your asses off yesterday, you got to talking about a lot of stuff. You had a lot of time to kill after all and spent the first five hours of running getting to know everything about each other. As cliche as it sounds, it kind of feels like you have known each other for weeks already, your 'bonding session' yesterday being the one to thank for that. Nothing builds friendships faster than shared trauma, the trauma in question; being subjected to Sadies wrath. The last thing you guys agreed upon was to never mention the event that led to your punishment ever again, you being just as embarrassed over your pig-snort of a laughter as Sasha was over her potato-fiasco. But mentioning it one last time couldn't hurt, right?
"It's not like your snort wasn't loud enough to distract anyone either!". Her comeback made your jaw drop. Connie straight up fell down from his seat laughing, while Marco nearly choked on his water.
"Sasha!", you hissed. You looked each other in the eye and started laughing simultaneously.
"My name is Jean, by the way. Jean Kirstein", Jean answered after the laughing died down.
"Okay, nice to meet you Jean", you smiled at him.
"We saw your guys run yesterday", Marco said, looking at you and Sasha. "How did you guys even manage to run for seven hours straight?", his voice sounding impressed.
"Well, we got to talking for the majority of it, which made it easier to deal with", Sasha explained.
"However, the last two hours was pure hell, it felt like my body was going to combust", you added, eating the last piece of your roll.
"Yeah, I can imagine", he said with a sheepish smile.
"Y/N, didn't you say you were from Shiganshina?", Jean suddenly asked, looking at you.
"Uh, Yeah I am", you replied cautiously, curious as to where he was going with this. You didn't really want to talk about that day with anyone yet. That day was the only thing you left out while talking to Sasha the night before.
"Do you know Mikasa by any chance?", he asked while looking down at his roll. You noticed the slightest shade of pink forming on his cheeks.
"Mikasa?", you repeated. He nodded, looking back up at you.
"Uh, kind of. I know who she is, and I have talked to her a couple of times back home". Your voice trailed of as you mentioned home. Your felt the feeling of homesickness creep up, making it slightly harder to breathe. Marco noticed.
"Hey, we don't have to talk about it if you don't feel comfortable", he reassured you, his smile making all the sudden negative feelings go away. Jean looked over at him and then back at you, his expression changing from realization to something you could only describe as guilt. You took a quick breath.
"No, I'm fine", you answered him, returning the smile. "It's not like I don't like talking about my home, I love to tell people stories from there. It was a really nice place.", you continued, becoming more relaxed as you spoke. Marco seemed to relax as well and the look of guilt in Jean's face faded away.
"Well, uhm. I Just wanted to know a bit more about what she is like, that's all", Jean said. "I haven't talked to her much, but she is pretty hard to get to".
"I don't know if I'm much help there, Jean. I barely ever talked to her.", you began saying. "I only ever knew Armin, that being the only reason why I ever spoke to her in the first place. However, what I do know is that she lived with Eren's family after loosing her own. She is really strong and almost never shows any other emotion than calmness. She will also do anything to keep Eren safe", you concluded. You know there is much more to her than what you mentioned, but this was really all you knew from your occasional encounters. You felt determined to get to know her better during your time here in the cadet corps.
"Keep Eren safe? Did he need a lot of protecting?", Jean asked curious.
"Well, Eren is very impulsive and would pick fights with whoever was in the way. He mostly needed Mikasa's help while going to defend Armin from the town's bullies. I also had to help him out a good number of times.", you answered him, taking a sip of your water.
Jean opened his mouth again but before he could ask anything else the door to the mess hall slammed open. Connie fell out of his seat again as he was startled by the sudden sound.
"EVERYONE IS TO PUT ON YOUR ODM GEAR HARNESS AND MEET AT THE BALANCE-TESTING SITE IN TEN MINUTES!", Sadies yelled, slamming the door with just as much force as he used when he opened it, as he left the building.
"God, that man makes me nervous", Sasha said with a lowered voice.
"Yeah, he is actually scarier looking than a titan", you commented, expecting the others to laugh or at least give you a giggle, but as you got no response you realized; They have never really seen one. You eyed them, and they looked like they didn't really know how they were allowed to react.
"Guys, calm down, just trust me on that", you said with a wink, defusing the tense atmosphere. And with that, you all got up, leaving to prepare for your first of many hard days of training.
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A/N:
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! This was a long one.
I tried to make it interesting by showing some different POV's and stuff like that, hope that was fun to read!:)
Their relationship will build over time, i just wanted to show how they have already established some kind of connection and liking to each other, but don't worry- I won't have them be a couple straight away. Personally, i think the best kind's of romantic stories are those where the relationship is built over time:)
Have a wonderful day!<3
~Jen