A Promise (An Attack on Titan Fanfic: Erwin Smith)

Found out

"Oi oi oi oi, Isa! You hungry?"

Isanna sighed through her nose as the booming voice coming from Adalaide came barreling through the door of the clinic where she had been staying for the past 2 weeks. After receiving an earful of chastisement from their head instructor, Erwin had brought Isanna to the medical bay where she had been tended to by a designated nurse. 

Throughout the two weeks of her resting period, Adalaide and Chiara had been visiting her on a daily basis, occasionally bringing the rest of the guys over. Erwin would drop by to check on her from time to time, albeit he did it more privately.

Isanna watched as Chiara whacked the redhead at the back of her head, jerking her. "You'll ruin her hearing, idiot."

Muttering a quick, halfhearted apology, Adalaide bounded towards the side of the bed where Isanna was currently sitting on, propping herself on a chair. "Isa! Guess what happened today at training!"

"You pushed Dok and he hit his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious for the rest of the day?"

"Tempting, but no!" Adalaide chirped, a finger on her chin. "Someone confessed to Chiara."

Isanna's eyes widened, whipping her head towards the brunette who had already walked and placed a plastic bag full of food on the foot of the clinic bed. "For the record, I don't even know his name. I rejected him."

"Was he hot?" Isanna asked, getting straight to the details. 

Chiara paused and thought about it. "Not to me."

Adalaide laughed at her blunt answer, feeling kinda bad for the poor guy. Nevertheless, she was quick to change the topic, engaging the girls into another conversation which would most likely take the rest of the 3 hours of their visit. 

While chatting with her friends, Isanna's thoughts went towards a despicable fellow trainee cadet - particularly the bastard who was such a thoughtful saint and had decided to let Isanna take a brief swim down the river, as well as gave her a fun free fall dive to boot. Oh, and of course she couldn't forget the four broken bones that came with the exhilarating experience. Isanna wanted to thank him with a high five. With a chair. To the face.

When Isanna had regained consciousness the next day after that untimely accident two weeks ago, she immediately inquired about Baldrick's whereabouts. However, by some kind of dumb sheer luck, she had been told that the cadet had dropped out of the Training Corps and went back home in his town inside Wall Sina that very same day. She had missed him by just a couple of hours. When she asked about the reason, all she knew was that it was due to 'personal reasons'.

Not wanting to drag anyone else into their little secret, Isanna had not told anyone, even Erwin, that Baldrick was the one who pushed her off the cliff. She wanted to settle this only between the two of them, but unfortunately missed her chance. 

•

"Did you do something to Lovof?" Adrian shot a sudden question to Erwin. They were now back in their cabin dorm, with some of their roommates still in the bathrooms and only a few of them were inside their room. 

The blond, who was in the middle of drying his hair, dropped his hands to his sides as he turned to Adrian, small drops of water dripping from his dank hair. Erwin raised a questioning brow at him, prompting him to clarify his question. 

"I mean," Adrian stressed, bringing a hand to his hips. "Did you do something to make him drop out?"

Erwin's expression didn't change one bit, but Adrian took note of the way something flickered in his eyes. "What makes you say so?"

"Two weeks ago at dinner, hours after you came back with Herrmann and brought her to the clinic, I saw you call him and the two of you walked out of the mess hall," Adrian explained, his memory going back on the said day. "then, if memory serves me right, you guys came back approximately 10 minutes later, and Lovof's face was as white as paper as if he'd seen a ghost."

As Erwin listened to him, Adrian saw how his eyes mildly shone in what seemed to be amusement. He probably had not expected for him to notice something as small as that, but Adrian had always been an observant guy. 

A few seconds trickled before Erwin broke the silence, turning around to continue drying his hair. "We just had a talk."

"Talk?" Adrian repeated, a brow quirking up in curiosity. "What kind of talk could you possible hold with a bastard like him?"

He knew Erwin wasn't fond of the guy ever since he had joined their batch a year ago, and he was also more than aware of Lovof's dislike for the blond. It was only because of Isanna's threat that he no longer bothered Erwin after that incident. 

Erwin took his sweet time before answering, "I confirmed that he was the one who pushed Isanna that day."

Certainly, such an answer was not what Adrian had been expecting to hear. His eyes widened at the information. "What? That jerk?!"

Erwin went on to explain how he had to climb over the wreckage of dirt caused by the landslide. He had noticed the patched path that had been pushed through the mud and deduced that by some sheer effort combined with panic from Isanna's horse, the creature had managed to plow through and never stopped running, which was why it reached Erwin's group that day. He had led his own horse through the thick grounded earth, with much difficulty, and after passing through it, began scanning the path for some kind of clue as to what had happened to Isanna. Just his luck, his eyes landed on a certain backpack that had been dressed in mud and hidden behind a bush and realized Isanna had fallen off the cliff. It was then did Erwin decide to unmount his ride and look for a less steeper side of the cliff to climb down.

Just as Erwin had Isanna on his back in a piggy-back ride, the sight of a golden watch not too far from them had caught his eye, the shining object almost hidden in the pool of murky puddled mud, but he did not pay much attention to it since his priority at the time was to get Isanna out of the cold rain and back to safety.

After retrieving Isanna, they climbed up the same side where Erwin had gone down and rode back to the training camp.

Then, after admitting Isanna to the clinic, Erwin had went to wash up and take the rest of the day to catch a breather. It was only until dinner did he catch a glimpse of Baldrick Lovof's wrist, a thin, light strip on his left wrist, which was a sign that he usually wore something to wrap that area around his wrist and avoid it from tanning because of the sunlight exposure to his skin. 

Erwin had his suspicions after that, but it wasn't enough evidence. So, he had called Baldrick over outside the mess hall and had a 'simple talk between men'. His suspicions were confirmed after the conversation, and let's just say his reaction towards the guy wasn't as nice. 

"You threatened him?" Adrian asked with disbelief, having a hard time picturing Erwin ever threatening someone. The guy was as well-mannered as a mature adult, so the thought was intriguing to say the least. The look on Baldrick's face after their conversation was as if he'd just seen the most abominable thing, and he could only imagine what Erwin had said to him.

Erwin looked unbothered. "I did not. We just talked."

I don't think a simple talk could cause someone to look like their soul had ascended to heaven, Adrian let his hands fall to his sides, incredulous. No wonder Baldrick dropped out the next day; Erwin scared the guy out of his wits. Suddenly, Adrian started viewing the blond in an altogether different light. 

If Isanna was like the devil incarnate whenever someone bothered Erwin, Erwin himself was like a silent assassin, creeping up behind, unnoticed whenever someone laid a hand on Isanna. 

They had each other's backs in the most terrifying combination, and Adrian realized there would be no way out should someone hurt one of them - because the other would definitely retaliate.