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“Levi, have you ever heard about the story of (Y / N) drowning during her first summer as a scout?” After the door of the office was opened during a winter night, already deep into it, Erwin spoke up to the other higher up that was following him behind. The tall blond placed the cups on the little coffee table of the centre that was surrounded by couches, usually for more professional meetings. Levi was carrying on more cups and another pair of stuff, Hange and Moblit followed quickly behind, immersed in their own conversation.
Winter break had already arrived one more time to the scouts, there was no snow outside but the type of wind and the heavy clouds announced that it was imminent.
It wasn’t the winter break where two lovely dovely connected, neither the following one nor the other one. That drama had been long forgotten and all that was left was a good group of friends who had been through thick and thin.
Erwin, wise and witty as a fox, did the question right when they came inside the room as an indirect invitation for all of them to join in the humiliation of telling her boyfriend something that happened before he even knew about her existence. As if they were her siblings trying to make a brand new boyfriend material face second-hand embarrassment by showing him baby pictures of her during the first dinner over.
“Oh my god! Do you remember that?!” Nanaba was eager to jump into the topic. She was cuddling in one of the couches with her boyfriend, usual of them (They were known to be the PDA couple of the group)
Hange began to chuckle as soon as some mental images began to pop up in her mind, Mike followed her with a sassy smirk. Levi, who seemed to be in another world, was quick to leave his cargo on the table to free his hands and check up on his partner. Levi’s partner, (Y / N), wasn’t laughing though. The comfy deep green leather tufted armchair, that was usually used by the commander, she was curled on had been moved as close as possible to the fire that was crackling at the chimney, the little wheels helped for that and that’s why the actual owner gave it up for other person sake. Not only the higher on command had given up his desk chair but also the place, his office was bigger to hold important military meetings and that was reason enough for all of them to hang out there.
The young woman in question (long-forgotten was her “girl title” now that she had turned twenty) was covered in heavy thick knitted whitish beige wood blankets. Her face showed an unhealthy shade of red all over her cheeks and nose, the rest of her complexion had a greyish-pale undertone, her lips and under eyes with a weird shade of purple mixed with pallor. Her eyes were also reddish, appearing tired and crystally. Her breath came out irregular, agitated and heavy out of her mouth that was hanging slightly open instead of her nose. Them, who were not the PDA couple of the group, forgot about it. Levi forgot about his not PDA in public policy as soon as he saw that the fever was raising one more time. The dark-haired man was struggling to see how to sit down on the little space felt on the seat, bringing the cups with him and a little wooden bowl that appeared to have some food type inside. Erwin who hadn’t sat down yet stopped him with a hand gesture. Reassuring Levi that he could sit down and he will handle the meal.
Levi sat down and (Y / N) in her illness forgot about the rest and clung to his figure quickly, crabbing for any drop of temperature that the short man’s body could provide as if the turned on fire wasn’t even close to being enough. She coughed in agony.
“Let’s go back to the room” Levi insisted, for only God knew how many times that night.
“I want to be here, I don’t want to miss the meeting” (Y / N) insisted with an aphonic voice, her appeal sounded almost childish as if her fear of being left behind for her sickness was deep-rooted in her mind.
“She doesn’t seem alright” Hange, who had been closed up inside her office for some paperwork left to the last minute (on her own words “if you leave everything for the last minute, it will only take one minute”) for a good couple of days to be unable to notice the health deterioration of her friend, murmured to her assistance.
Erwin while picking the cups, gave the brunette his best “this is not a good time” glance.
Levi manoeuvred sitting down there, grabbing the cups given by his friend, a bowl (that had a porridge, apple compote and some nuts spread around) and the immense heat that was coming out of his girlfriend with such grace that he spun around in the 3dmg seemed like a piece of cake. She picked up her cup, with grayish and shaking hands. The brew had a weird greenish colour and a strong smell of leaves that weren’t tea. The young woman, who was reluctant to have the infusion last week, was eager to jump into it as if now it could perform some sort of miracle.
The captain of the special operation squad was usually eager to fancy a cup, especially if he had brewed it (security of almost perfection) but he had bigger tasks. His hand was holding the bowl of porridge, waiting for her to finish a couple of sips before saying “Put something in your stomach to take the medicine”
It wasn’t a recommendation, it was an order. There was no place for complaints. His recommendation had been ignored last week, so he turned them into orders as soon as the situation got out of control. (Y / N) wasn’t particularly into the idea, not feeling as if her body could handle such a simple task as digesting. Repositioning herself to be sat down straighter, her boyfriend provided the lack of support she needed.
They were not scared of catching the illness, it all began after Hange came from the industrial city feeling a bit unstable. Some dropping nose and a bit of sore throat, Levi had told her as soon as he landed his grey eyes on her “Don’t get close to (Y / N), she cannot handle an illness right now”
Both females thought that the clean freak was freaking out a little bit too much, not paying mind to it. (Y / N) would swear that she was way more pissed about having to hear her boyfriend saying “I fucking told you” than about the actual illness. So if the rest of the team hadn’t caught it in the last three weeks then, it was not gonna happen that night.
“So” Mike brought the attention back to the original topic, aware that it was better to divert the focus of attention “Have you heard about it, Levi? Have (Y / N) told you?”
The ill woman chuckle miserable and said with an aphonic voice “Don’t tell him, I look pathetic in that story”
“More pathetic that you look right now?” Nanaba asked back as if there was a serious concern in her voice but it was pure sarcasm, raising an eyebrow and smirking with sassiness. Unlike the dark-haired man, she wasn’t that concerned about her friend’s health.
“Touché “ (Y / N) laughed while saying that and pointing at her friend with her index finger. Covering her mouth with the inner part of her elbow as she coughed dryly.
“I remember it, it was the first day of summer break, we were fifteen, sixteen if I am not wrong. We were melting off how warm it was” Nana began to recall for the rest of the group as if not only Levi had been missing in the experience but also all of them “I don’t know which squad leader had the idea of taking us to the lake that’s past the forest, from the east. We were like; oh my squad leader is taking us to the lake, but you could come too-”
“Don’t tell me, the entire fucking cadet formation ends up showing up” Levi interrupted the blond, already seeing it coming. Perhaps because something similar happened last summer and Hange woke him up to ask him if he could spend his first free day looking after a bunch of teens with her.
“I was sitting down at my office, commander Shadis came and told me; tomorrow, you take the brats to the lake, too much for Sharon to handle. Tell Mike too” Erwin explained his side of the story quite pissed.
“Why do you sound so offended when it was you who forced me to go last summer?” The captain commented back while he slightly raised from his spot to leave the empty bowl at the coffee table and sat back.
The blond who was addressed chuckled mischievously with the cup close to his lips “Because now it’s my time of sending people to do stuff that I don’t want to deal with”
“As I was saying” Nana interrupted to keep going
I don’t recall exactly how or when we had an amazing idea. But Chris and I saw (Y / N) in all her glory checking the lake from a safe distance feom the edge of the cliff that surrounds it. You know, the lake is quite deep because it’s the river mouth so it has a little waterfall from the rocks. We are talking about something that happened before the fall of wall Maria, so we used to do this little trip there. It was quite far away but we left early-
“First time that all the caders woke up early and were on time, to be honest,” Mike added and everybody in the room nodded from experience.
“We should tell them that we are taking them for a trip more often, you know trick them like dogs for a vet appointment” Hange reasoned.
“Wouldn’t that be too dishonest?” Erwin wondered.
“Levi told the cadets that if they cleaned the full kitchen, food storage and mess hall from top to bottom they would get dessert that night. After they did it he said; lesson number two, life isn’t fair and people lied. And never gave them dessert” (Y / N) commented between coughs and chuckles. The addressed person just nodded and took a sip from his tea.
The laughs echoed on the thick brick walls of the office, some of them throwing their heads backwards.
“You may question my methods, but not my results’’ His deep monotone voice added after the laughs ceased a bit.
The thing was that Chris and I looked like shit, while (Y / N) was there doing what (Y / N) knows how to do best and that’s showing off in front of us, the rest of the mortals, how flawless she is. She was checking the lake from the cliff with a full white cotton babydoll shaped dress. The dress was simple with a loose silhouette for the warm season but it matched perfectly with everything else; the hat, the shoes. So Chris and I were like “no fucking fair”. Then Chris came up with a way too tempting idea to let it slip.
“I pick her up from the armpits, you go for the ankles and we throw her to the lake” He whispered with his big bright and almost childish smile.
I smiled back, I mean we didn’t think anything could go wrong. The lake was deep and the height of the cliff wasn’t that big. I mean, it was a good fall but you would not die.
“At first, I thought that Chris was hugging me from behind and the second I blinked I was being swung in the air!” (Y / N) gave her input on the story. “I don’t know from where I got the lungs to scream the way I did it”
Nana, Moblit and Hange were already laughing loudly probably because they remember the desperation, the screams and the mental picture of her being hanging of thin air after they throw her.
“I was leading the team through the pathway, so I heard some high pitched screams as if someone was being killed and I turned around. When I turned around, oh god, I saw (Y /N) suspended in the air, falling into the water with a really loud splash and those two idiots laughing” Erwin explained “ I was perplexed. Like those two just throw into the water from a cliff, the only member of the scouts who spend her entire life surrounded by feather pillows inside a manor in Sheena’s wall”
“I remember Erwin looking at us like, you better explain yourself! Chris said between laughs; oh sir, she’s going to be fine! who hadn’t gone for a swim with their friends when they were younger” Nana said while her blue eyes were slightly wet from the laughs.
“At that moment, the kid knew he fucked it up. Those are the kind of ideas you have when you’re fifteen and you wonder what could go wrong. Everything” The commander was slowly shaking his head as he recalled how ginger blond’s face paled when he realised the mistake “(Y / N) wasn’t raising to the surface and Chris began to scream. I was about to jump when Mike, who was looking after the end of the group’s line, saw everything and was already jumping to the rescue”
Mike nodded proudly while (Y / N) looked dead in the eye to her friend that was making an effort to breathe from the tale that was way funnier for her and said “I saw my life pass in front of my eyes!” She seemed to scream but her voice couldn’t raise any higher and the words came out as whispers.
Then to Levi’s surprise, it was Erwin who cracked laughing and the only thing he managed to say was “(Y / N) looked like one of those Persian white cats when they get wet. She was scratching Mike up, grabbing to his shoulders as if her life depended on it, the white dress sticking to her body making her all skin and bones, her hair was a mess, all tangled up stuck to her face while she shook and coughed water like crazy. When I was on the shore with the rest waiting for her, I asked her if she was alright and the first thing she did when her feet were back on the mainland was throw up plain water like just water!”
The protagonist of the tale was hiding her face with her hands as she heard her boyfriend chuckle, probably imagining it himself.
“Erwin was like; oh let’s all calm down, the situation is under control. I was laughing my ass off because I could see in his face that he was trying his best to keep a straight face. His Oh I’m a mature and responsible adult face” Hange added to the tail and the laughs, the only one who didn’t seem to be having a good time was (Y / N).
“A wet cat” she repeated “What an asshole you’re. If I wasn’t sick, I would punch you in the face”
“I would like to see you reaching it” His boss replied that their height difference came out so quick that it was surprising. There was a moment of silence while they processed the punchline before the burst of laughs.
This time she joined too, with a way more tired and exhausted smile. “I hate you guys,” she said with her aphonic voice and whistling breathing but those four words were far from true and they all knew it.