Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|12| The Calm Before the Storm I

The days passed, and the training of the rookies went smoothly and according to plan. The day of the 57th Expedition was slowly approaching, but thank goodness, it wasn't there yet. There were more important things at hand than the Expedition. Nathalie could not hold back the excitement. It helped mask the feelings of self-doubt that were slowly reaching for her. No. No thinking about the Expedition.

She sighed as she looked at Levi's 'plan' on the green table that rested on the wall. She did not like it. Cutting off Eren's limbs?! What the hell?! She knew Eren couldn't possibly control his abilities, and until he learned, then transformed he could be dangerous to them, but that was taking it too far. But then she reminded herself she had done worse things to her test subjects than just cutting off limbs and tearing tissue apart.

"Sir! Ma'am!"

Both Nathalie and Levi turned and looked at the kid who stood in front of them. Nathalie gave him a smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Eren, how's your day been?"

"Uh..." he didn't expect such a question. "...it's been fine, Lieutenant, thanks!"

"Get it together. I didn't call him here so that you can babysit him," Levi frowned and she crossed her hands turning at the grumpy Captain.

"If you had even bothered to read any psychology books, you'd understand that I'm not trying to babysit him, but merely calm him down before he hears about your crazy plan!" Nathalie explained and Levi sighed heavily. Eren never thought he'd see Levi get scolded by anyone without having him dissecting them.

"That's important, you know," Hange pointed out. She had been sitting on top of a desk that laid on the side, with her thumb gently rubbing her chin. "We always keep the test subjects calm before experimenting on them,"

"Test subjects...? Experiment...??" Eren asked worriedly.

Nathalie cringed and fought the need to shoot Hange a glare. Way to go, Hange. Instead, she turned at Eren passing a hand around his shoulders and patting his back. "No, no, no, no, we're not talking about you, sweetie-"

"Whatever," Levi cut her. His voice had a slight touch of irritation. It almost felt like all those times when she'd tease the hell out of him and he'd try his best not to react. Levi turned at Eren. "In your titan form, we may have some middle ground after all. A fail safe, if you will. The method I've come up with will only leave you mutilated. Well, at least, in theory. Essentially, we cut the entire nape from the body with you inside. Arms and legs will be severed during the process but... you'll survive," Levi shrugged.

"As a matter of fact, they'll grow back up, so you absolutely have nothing to worry," Nathalie said with a smile, but she knew she was failing at making Eren feel better by pointing out the only positive thing in this.

"Creepy, little bastard," Levi commented only to receive a smack on his shoulder by Nathalie.

"Hey!"

"W- Wait, hold on a sec. I'm not really sure how they do it, I mean, they might, but I don't think it's worth the risk if they won't," Eren said.

Poor kid looked scared to death and she wouldn't blame him. No matter how much she wanted all that tissue and all those test samples from the severed limbs, Nathalie didn't want to hurt Eren in any way.

"Oh, I see, so you'd only be up for this if there's no risk involved whatsoever," Levi said.

"U- Uh, n- no-"

"Then be prepared. We're in the same boat. If you go on a rampage, you could kill us. So, we're even,"

"Oh c'mon, give him a break. He's scared," Nathalie said.