Chapter Text
Another day of hard work was about to begin. Rubbing the sleep off of your eyes, you reluctuntly pulled yourself out of bed and got dressed quickly. A major advantage of joining the army was that you never needed to think much of your clothes. A uniform is all there is to it. On the rare occassion that you’d need to be dressed properly, you were allowed to wear your everyday clothes. Although in the few months that you’d been stationed here, such an occasion had yet to arise.
Once you were done getting ready, you made your way over to your squad’s chamber to ensure they were all woken up and ready for the morning salutations. It was part of your duties to check in with them before you joined the rest of the troops.
“Hurry up, everyone! We haven’t all day!”
You half shouted, noting that most of them were already prepared to report to you. You were grateful for your team mates, you really were. They were extremely hard working and would never let you down. Even when they’d made mistakes, they were honest with you and, at the end of the day, that’s what mattered. Honesty and hard work will make every and any team thrive. Unless your Commander is Erwin Smith.
His obnoxity often stretched to your squad too. Mostly because the Commander seemed to dislike you. It was your performance, no need to think too hard about it! However, it was admirable of your squad that they usually had their own way of not letting his critisisms affect them too much. They were so supportive of each other – and of you.
“All done, lieutenant y/l/n! We’re ready!”
Sasha Braus, a girl from your squad announced, giving you a small salutation. Shortly after, you made your way towards the court.
As you gathered in the court along with the rest of the unit’s squads, all teams began lining up. The morning salutations soon commenced and everything went as usual. Commander Smith called for the captains’ and lieutenants’ names and whoever heard their name had to respond with “present” or “here”. This would take a while in any other unit that wasn’t as small or as understaffed as yours, but here, it only took a couple of minutes, so you were done with it pretty soon. The Commander made a few announcements concerning some equipment you were waiting to receive from another unit and that was it.
Soon afterwards, you noticed Commander Smith steadily approaching your team’s spot, his hands tied with one another behind his back, a grim look on his face. Has he ever had an actually good day in his life? He always looked so… Miserable. An austere look was permanently plastered on his face. It almost made you pity him. Only a little bit, though. You mostly wanted to punch him in the eye for being, well… As unpleasant as he usually is.
“Lieutenant y/n and squad, please remain. Everyone else is dismissed.”
The Commander’s was raised, even though he stood so close to your squad. You exchanged a few worried looks with your team mates. All your duties had been fulfilled the night before and with no trouble whatsoever. What could he possibly want?
“Please, follow me to the main hall. There’s been some mistake with your cleaning duties as of lately.”
You scoffed silently, but still followed him inside, motioning for your squad to move forward as well. The moment you reached the main hall, you realised something really bad had gone down.
“Lieutenant, soldiers. Do you see this mess?”
He pointed to a few major stains on the floor that were certainly not there when you mopped the floors last night. And that was only a few hours ago.
“Yes, sir!” your squad replied.
“Do you call this a clean floor?”
The Commander requested, the veins on his outer palm prominent as his arm trembled with anger. You walked closer to the stains, leaving the Commander slightly behind you, and knelt down to inspect what the stains were made of. You stuffed your index in the red stain and brought it closer to your nose, taking a whiff. It was tomato sauce from last night’s dinner. And it was still fluid, meaning someone had poured this all over the floor not so long ago, or else it would’ve dried up.
“No, sir!” your squad responded while you were still examining the spread sauce.
“Is the stain to your liking, lieutenant? Perhaps you need some more pasta to go with it?”
The Commander questioned, being as sarcastic as ever.
“With all due respect, Commander…” you began, “but this stain is tomato sauce. I’m assuming the rest of the stains are the same. My squad licked the entire place clean last night, not even 12 hours ago. But this sauce is still liquid. See for yourself! We can’t be held responsible for this.”
Commander Smith took his time assessing you, not uttering a word. It was a few seconds of him examining you with his eyes before he finally spoke.
“Are you defying my orders lieutenant or doubting my judgement?”
His tone was poisonous. He seemed as if he was about to burst.
“Sir, you haven’t given us any orders yet.”
You regretted speaking up as soon as the words left your mouth. His eyes flinched at your words, batting once, then twice as he walked closer to you.
“Stand up, lieutenant.”
He ordered and you obeyed. There wasn’t much space for defiance right now.
“Yes, sir!”
“Are you accusing the rest of your comrades of doing this out of spite towards you and your squad or are you trying to get out of cleaning duty?”
A soft murmur spread across the room. What nonsense! Why would anyone hold a grudge against you? Or against your team? And the mere thought that the Commander would even consider that this was an attempt to avoid your duties was absurd. You were always responsible, hard working. It’s how you came to be a lieutenant this soon. Even though Commander Erwin disliked you, you were certain he couldn’t be thinking of you – or your team - this way.
“Sir, I don’t mean to defy you or get me or my team out of any type of duty. But we aren’t responsible for this. This place was spotless last night. You can check it on the board. You know Captain Hange is responsible for the board, so you can’t blame us for meddling with it.”
You explained last night’s events confidently, your eyes looking intensely into the Commander’s. He hadn’t considered that, it seemed.
“Very well” he stated matter-of-factly. “Agent Springer, bring Captain Hange before us this instant”.
Your team mate, Connie, took a step forward and saluted the Commander briefly before rushing outside in search of Hange.
The Commander’s gaze finally shifted away from yours to a place somewhere behind you. You turned around to see what had caught his attention, only to find lieutenant Brown approaching from the hinter side of the hall, where the kitchen was located.
“Commander, lieutenant”, he saluted, acknowledging the both of you.
His eyes darted to the floor, taking notice of the red, liquid mess.
“Whatever happened here?”
“That’s for Captain Hange to clear up, lieutenant. According to lieutenant y/l/n, this place was shining last night, but this morning, it turned into a flavourful pool.”
The Commander side-eyed you. He wasn’t funny, but he certainly thought so. He seemed to enjoy his own take on the events, along with lieutenant Brown. Lieutenant Brown was your usual suck up, you expected nothing less of him. But the Commander was always just and decent. Surely, you had your differences, but this wouldn’t turn him into an unjust person, right? He couldn’t really think that on purpose, could he? He didn’t find it the least bit suspicious that lieutenant Brown suddenly appeared from the direction of the kitchen?
“Sorry for making everybody wait! What’s the fuss about?”
Captain Hange half yelled, half giggled, as they strolled into the hall, saluting everyone, Connie following a couple of steps behind them.
“It’s uncommon to hold a meeting this shortly after the morning salutations. What’s the issue?”
They winked at you, their smile prominent on their face. How Hange was able to be in such good spirits remained a mystery. Although they could be excused this once. They’re about to discover the bad news this meeting was. You couldn’t understand how they’d manage to always be this cheery, though, especially in the unit you were both assigned. Commander Erwin briefed them with almost the exact words he’d used to explain the situation to lieutenant Brown.
“So, is it true, Captain? Was this place clean last night?”
The Commander insisted, not averting his gaze from Hange’s. Hange’s eyes grew wider as they inhaled, their breath lingered inside of them, making their chest puff out a bit.
“Well, uhm… Yes, of course yes!”
At that, they finally exhaled and regained their confidence, moving towards where the board was hung and motioning for the rest of you to follow.
“Are you all complete fools or do you take me for a fool?”
Commander Erwin was yelling now, a vein furiously popping on his forehead. His hands were into fists before grabbing the – now empty – board and smashing it on the floor with a loud clang. A tiny lock of hair escaped from his neatly combed head, curtaining his steadily sweatier skin. The board was empty and none of the announcements, that were supposed to be displayed on it, where there anymore.
“Someone must’ve taken them down. The question is who would do that? And why? What was the motive behind this?”
Hange looked up into the ceiling, deep in thought. Their index finger was on their chin as they considered the issue.
“I think it’s safe to assume that this is all the lieutenant's y/l/n doing. After avoiding their duties last night to get some early sleep, they’d have to cover up their tracks by retrieving the files off of the board. Case closed.”
“But, Erwin, I stamped the cleaning log myself last night. Lieutenant and their squad were attentive to their duties, as per usual. Someone else is responsible for this and we have to search for the culprit!”
Hange seemed upset now. It was obvious that the Commander wouldn’t listen to sense if it meant he could pin it on you.
“Commander, this is absurd.”
His eyes landed on you, only turning his body halfway through to face you. You continued, giving him no time to start with his lecture. He’d have his share later anyway.
“Why would I do that to my team? My only goal is for them to succeed, to rank as highly as possible, to make sure they’re skilled enough to apply for whatever unit or branch they desire moving forward. Why would I risk their careers? And, most importantly, why would I risk my own career?”
The Commander smiled at you, but it was wrong, sinister. When he finally spoke, you shivered at his coldness.
“Rumour has it, lieutenant, that you’ve been meaning to apply for a bigger unit soon, is that right?”
side-eyed lieutenant Brown, who gave a small nod in response. How had Brown even known of this? You’d only ever confided to Hange about your future plans.
“What about it, Sir? Am I not allowed aspirations?”
The Commander took a deep breath in before speaking, his words final.
“Meet me in my office in 15 minutes. Captain Hange, lieutenant y/l/n and lieutenant Brown. As for the rest of you… Go back to your tasks for the day. And someone see that the board is replaced with a new one. Dismissed.”