Song: Deep by Peter Sandberg
"Alright children let's start out with 5 laps" I tell the new cadets.
"Children?!" One exclaims.
"5 laps?!" Another says while their friend looks at them strangely adding, "lucky it's not 10."
I cross my arms at their outbursts. "I can make it 10..." I eye the field surrounding us suggesting they better start running. They all line up and practically flee the scene. I laugh at the sight. These new cadets are something else. One comes outside late and runs up to me.
"Captain Y/n!" He salutes to me and says, "sorry I'm late, I got caught up-"
"I don't need your excuses go catch up with the others before I beat your ass." He runs away in panic and I hear footsteps behind me. I recognize the footsteps because I have heard them so often.
"That was a little harsh wasn't it?"
I turn around to face him. "That's funny coming from you Levi."
His cold dead little eyes stare at me and he responds, "that's Captain Levi to you."
I lightly punch him on the shoulder saying, "lighten up Captain Levi. Today's a good day. We get to force these kids into shape." I take in the view as half of them can barely make it 2 laps without needing to walk. There's a few people who manage to keep their speed up.
"Yikes. This doesn't look promising."
"Tch. Says you."
I snap my head at him, "what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You can't run for the life of you."
I stand closer to him sizing him up, "bet. Let's race right now."
"Tch. I don't have time for this Y/n."
I mock his signature, "Tch" and add, "and that's Captain Y/n to you Levi!" as he struts away. What an arrogant little man. A few of the cadets run back to me out of breath bent half over. I pat them on the back, "nicely done! I see your other friends need some encouragement." They look at me curiously as I run to the ones falling behind chasing them and yelling at them. It seems to work. It always does. They finally make it and I fall down laughing. Some blonde kid stands above me, "you alright miss?"
"Miss? Damn that makes me sound old. What's your name kid?"
He salutes as two others appear beside him, "Armin Arlert!"
I stand up brushing the dirt off of me and say, "nice to meet you Arlert. These your friends?"
The other boy says his name is Eren and the girl is Mikasa. They seem promising. I like them. I see a shadow form on the ground in front of me. I turn around and the person says, "are you done playing? We need to get to sparring now."
I wrap my arm around him, "Ah Captain Levi. Meet my new friends. You guys, Levi is just a little bundle of sunshine. See look at that smile."
I beam as I look him in the eyes while he looks nonetheless impressed.
There's dead silence. Well that's awkward.
"Anyway! Levi's right, let's get training."
Levi and I round up the other cadets and train them. I'm over helping some guy named Jean and I feel eyes on me. Jean says, "I think he's looking at you..."
"Ya think?" I glance over where I feel the stare coming from. It's Levi. I pretend not to notice because he's kinda creeping me out. Jean adds, "he looks angry. Did you do something to him?"
"Oh please. He always looks angry." I finish training the cadets I'm assigned to and now we can all finally eat dinner. My personal favorite part of the day. I find my friend Hange and they start going off about some science stuff and I say, "you know Hange, I really have no idea what you're talking about." I give them what I'm sure looks like a very stupid smile.
"Oh that's fine! I can explain it again in greater detail!" They respond.
Then to my demise, well I assume because of the death stare I received, Levi appears.
"I doubt Y/n could even comprehend the things you do Hange. There's no use explaining it to her."
"Heyyy. That's not very nice Captain." I give him my own death stare. Although he is completely correct. We all get our food and sit down. Armin asks if he and his friends can sit with us and I agree of course because they're good company.
"So how was your first day?" I ask them.
"You should know. You were with us the whole time." Eren says.
"Woah woah woah. Respect your elders Jeager" I respond.
Mikasa says rather quietly, "it was good Captain Y/n, thanks for asking." She gives a small smile. Aw she is so sweet. But also I feel like she wants to kill me for some reason. Oh well. Most people here give off that vibe. I'm reminded of that as I feel eyes on me again. I turn to see where they're coming from and sure enough it's Levi again. When I look at him he almost looks like he blushes. Wait there's no way he blushed. I have to be imagining things.
"What about you Captain Y/n?"
I'm ripped away from my thoughts, "oh sorry what was that? And by the way you can just call me Y/n."
The three smile at me as Hange says, "well you seem to be really getting along with our new cadets."
"Most of them are pretty cool this year. Most."
As if on cue a loud sound erupts which sounds like a table is broken in half. I stand up and my ears heard correctly. I yell, "stop fighting right now or your ass is grass. You wanna run more laps?!" They freeze and begin bowing profusely and apologizing. I give them a stern look then sit down laughing.
Hange says, "I really don't know if you're fooling anyone with your 'tough guy' act."
I respond through laughs, "oh who cares. It's fun and besides look at them, they seem convinced." The cadets look scared half to death.
I look over and find Levi staring at me once again. Alright this is getting weird. While I don't mind the attention from Levi, he isn't the nicest to me so it feels threatening...but I'm not that nice to him either. Whatever.
It's time for lights out and I run to the kitchen to get some water before I go to sleep. My luck today seems to have never existed as I find none other than Levi himself. He's making his usual cup of tea. I fill a cup full of water and drink it as I stare at him. I keep waiting for him to say something or look at me. He's been acting so weird today. I set my cup down loudly as he's stirring his tea with his tiny little hands.
"Alright spill it Levi."
He sets his spoon down. "Spill what exactly?" The tea, spill the tea. Well not your actual tea, that would hurt.
"What's going on with you. You don't seem like yourself."
"And how exactly is that any of your business?"
"I know we don't get along that well, but hey I thought we were sorta friends or something. Don't friends talk about this stuff?"
"You should know. You've made lots of friends today haven't you Y/n."
"And that's a bad thing?" Wait a second okay I might just be going crazy, but is he jealous? No way Levi is jealous over me that is impossible.
There's an awkward pause and then he storms out of the room. Well that went well.
I go to my room I share with Hange. They're already asleep, but when I go to pull the covers over me on my bed, Hange springs up quickly scaring the living hell out of me.
"Hange! What the-"
"You're finally here. You won't believe what I overheard. I shouldn't tell you...but I have to. But I shouldn't...buuut"
"Dude just tell me."
Hange sighs and I patiently wait for them to go on, "I overheard Levi. I don't know if he was talking to someone or just himself, but he was talking about you. That much I know. Y/n...I think he has a crush on you."
"A crush? What are we in middle school?"
"Oh stop it you know what I mean. He's totally into you!"
"Pffft why would Levi be into me? We don't even like each other the least bit. In fact he seems to hate me" I pout.
"I'm just telling you what I heard." Hange probably thinks I'm seriously in denial by how much I'm rejecting the idea. Maybe I am in denial.
I think about what I saw. The way he was looking at me. The way he almost seemed jealous. Could he seriously like me like that? To be honest I don't mind the idea. He's a gorgeous man. Well well well.
To be continued 🪐💫✨