Far fewer soldiers rode in through the gates of Wall Maria than those that had left a mere 3 days ago. Their faces full of dread and fear, many of them injured. Erwin rode at the front of them keeping a neutral expression so as not to let on how devestating the losses had been. Never had they seen so many casualties in such a short expedition. It seemed as if the Titans were relentless in their attacks. Barely giving the soldiers time to rest before they were ambushed once again. Levi rode alongside Erwin his face covered in the blood of a Titan that they had encountered just metres from the gate.
They passed by the hundreds of members of the public standing in hoards on the street watching as the soldiers sworn to protect them return home battered and almost obliterated from battle. Some turned away from them too horrified to look upon the faces of those grievously injured by the monsters that lurked beyond the safety of Wall Maria.
Soon they arrived back at HQ and every one went their separate ways apart from those higher in the ranks whom all gathered in Erwin's office for a debriefing.
"Welcome home everyone. As you all are well aware we lost a lot of good soldiers again today. But I do believe we are still making good progress. I wanted to call you all here to discuss our shortcomings and what we can change to make the next mission less dangerous. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?" Erwin sat at his desk ready to take notes whilst everyone else stood or sat around.
"I do." Miche raised his hand.
"Go Ahead Squad Leader Zacharias." Erwin nodded toward him.
"We're too slow to notice them. Especially when we're split up and not together as a full group. There is a huge lack of communication between the squads to the side ranks and those in the center. Before we know it the sides have been taken out leaving the centre vulnerable to attack from every angle. We need a way to send messages easily so that any squads that encounter a Titan can get back up if need be."
"I completely agree. Maybe we should ask for something to be put into the budget? Or.... I could try and engineer something myself!" Hanji leaped off the table they were sitting on and began scrawling a design on a piece of paper.
"A SMOKE SIGNAL! A FLARE! YES!" Hanji held up the paper for everyone to see.
Miche laughed a bit.
"That's our Hanji always the MOST enthusiastic about everything."
"It's part of my charm!" Hanji grinned at Miche before turning to Erwin. "So? Thoughts?"
Before Erwin had a chance to reply Levi butted in.
"I think Erwin needs to get his mind off other things and focus on the task at hand. I don't know about anyone else but it seemed like he didn't give crap about what happened out there today."
"Captain, that's hardly fair, the Commander was great today as always. Sure our tactics need work but that's no fault of his. We all need to sort this out we can't leave everything down to the Commander. Just look at his desk for heaven's sake. You know what they say about a messy desk." Miche motioned to the piles of unorganised paper strewn across the desk and room.
"Tch. What? Tidy desk, tidy mind? What are you 12?" Levi stood. "If we're done I'm going to check the new recruits have finished their cleaning duties."
"Yes, everyone dismissed. Get some rest. We'll discuss this more another day. Section Commander get those diagrams drawn up for me and I'll see if we can get approval." Everyone saluted each other and left the office to go to their own quarters.
Erwin put his head into his hands and soon found himself drifting to sleep still sat at his desk. A sorry sight amongst the mountains of papers. The rattling of the window in the wind startled him awake and he stretched his muscles sore from the expedition. He rose from his chair walking into the bathroom seeing the soap on the side of the sink he smiled a little and began to run a bath. Undressing and sinking down into the slightly warm water beginning to wash away the last few days stresses.
His hands traced the scars on his muscular body, remembering where each one had come from. He flinched at a blister on his right shoulder from his harness and ran his dampened hands through his hair. He thought about y/n's last letter and wondered what she would be doing at that very moment. He splashed his face with water to get the thoughts from his mind.
The water was starting to get cold so Erwin got out of the bath and dried off. Putting on his pajama shirt and trousers leaving the bathroom rubbing his hair with the towel and combed it gently into place before blowing out all the candles and getting into bed. The calming scent of lavender wafted from his skin and slowly sent him off to sleep.
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The following morning Erwin awoke early as usual and got dressed ready for another day of work. Unlike most of the Survey Corps every day was a work day for the Commander.
Erwin wandered from his bedroom into his office pulling his bolo tie up as he did and checked his desk to see if there might be a letter from y/n but his desk was just as it had been left the previous evening.
"I should take a walk down to the training grounds to see how the new recruits are doing." Erwin spoke quietly to himself but out loud nonetheless. He left his office and began his walk which took him through the gates of the main building and onto the main streets. Where he noticed an altercation taking place between a lanky looking postman and a member of the military police. Those new to the MP's were often put on security details for military offices to get a taste for their role before moving on to more important tasks after a year or so.
"Please, you don't understand. I need to deliver this personally. If I don't how will I know it reached it's destination!" The postman was red in the face and tears almost welled in his eyes.
"You can't just barge into the Commanders office to deliver some stupid letter! How do I know you're not some troublemaker?!" The MP shoved the postman causing him to stumble back a little the tears threatening to fall even more so.
"What seems to be the problem here?" Erwin spoke clearly standing just beside the both of them having approached unnoticed.
"Commander!" The MP turned quickly saluting the Commander.
"SIR! M-my name is S-Stefan Kraus! I'm a friend of F/n L/n she wanted me to deliver this to you!" Stefan held up the letter.
"Ah, I've been waiting on this. You can leave it to me." The MP nodded and returned to their post on the gate. "Stefan was it?"
"Y-yes sir." Stefan rubbed his eyes adjusted his shirt collar.
"Well Stefan, thank you very much for making sure this got here safe and I'm sorry for any mistreatment that MP gave you. But you must understand we have lots of people trying to break in, especially recently. So perhaps you should just leave it with the rest of the mail in future to avoid any misunderstandings." Erwin smiled gratefully and took the letter from Stefan.
"Yes of course. Have a good day, sir."
As Stefan left Erwin thought about calling out to him to ask him about y/n but before he had the chance Stefan had rounded a corner and was out of sight.
'Perhaps I should simply invite y/n over for some tea. Maybe that would be the best way to get to know her a little better.' Erwin thought to himself as he turned around and went back inside to do just that.
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Return address:
Cmdr Erwin Smith
Survey Corps HQ
Trost
Dear Y/n
Consider this letter one of invitation. We've written a fair few letters back and forth now and I wondered whether it would be better to get to know each other if we met in person. As you know as Commander I rarely get any days off and so unfortunately the best I can offer is tea in my office and perhaps a stroll around the training grounds. But even then I feel it would be nice to have company of someone new, as much as I like seeing the faces of my colleagues its nice to talk with someone new everyone once in a while. As I write this, I have just finished reading your previous letter after it was hand delivered by someone claiming to be a friend of yours, I believe his name was Stefan? Anyway, that's besides the point, as you mentioned in that letter loneliness is something we both appear to struggle with and so, I hope this isn't too forward. If you're so lonely, why not come be lonely with me? Just for an hour or so. I'd very much appreciate the company.
Erwin~
YOU ARE READING
Commander, Soldier, Spy (Erwin X Reader)
Romansa(#1- Erwin (1st Dec 2021!) When forced to choose between new found love or life long duty, how can you be sure the one you choose is right? Erwin Smith is the commander of the survey corps and the many losses in his life have made him fearful of lov...
