The Love We Give

Arrival

I hope you will enjoy this rather short chapter of Sira and her first meeting with Keith Shadis, after he resigned as the Commander years ago. I felt it necessary for them to have this kind of interaction, conversation, and really liked how it turned out. It shows a somewhat more lighthearted snippet of her life. As always, I appreciate every Kudos, bookmark and comment from you!

Song recommendation for this chapter:
"Mundo" by IV Of Spades

It's been five days since she had arrived at the Training Corps camps, since she had unpacked all her things and had taken her first walk around the area. It had been a really long time since she had been here as a cadet, too. Thinking back to it, Sira was surprised by the fact, that it had been almost eighteen years, to be exact, since she had first stepped foot on these training grouns. She was barely 12, when she enlisted in the military with Erwin. How she survived all of this hell back then, she wasn't so sure of anymore. Maybe it was the trauma of losing their father and being molested by these two murderers, before watching her brother cut their throats right in front of her, that had made these brutal training sessions more bearable. Because they were still not as bad as what had happened to her before.

Sira surprisingly remembered a lot about her time here when she walked the grounds on her first day, already getting a glance at some cadets; but she took a bit more time during her first days, before actually getting to work. She knew she would spend the next few months here, so there was no need to rush things.

On some occasions, naturally, she saw Keith Shadis, doing what he was best at: Yelling at these idiots of cadets that, he thought, would need exactly that to improve. Although she had oftentimes rolled her eyes at him in secret, while he was still the Commander, hearing his bellowing voice now brought a smile to her face. Ultimately, it was something familiar to her and Sira would have even gone as far as to say that she enjoyed hearing his yelling again. That was, because it wasn't directed at her, of course.

While she had seen Keith Shadis, their first true meeting had to wait until her fifth day at the training camps, when a messenger of his knocked on her cabin's wooden door this morning, informing her that he wanted to see her, right now, even before breakfast. Without further ado, she only went to grab her brown jacket that held the Wings of Freedom embroidered on the back, before she set off to Shadis' barracks. After knocking she waited for his voice to call her inside, and when she entered, she froze upon her own words.

"You wanted to see me, Comm-"

The words came so natural to her, but Sira felt like choking on them now when she realised what she almost said out loud. She looked at Shadis with widened eyes, embarrassed, to say the least and he only looked back at her, before finally bursting out into laughter.

"Wanted me out of my position so bad and now you still wanna call me the Commander?", his voice came, chest still rumbling from the amusement. He shook his head at the younger Smith sibling, before he made notice of the expression on her face. She really felt bad about this fauxpas, didn't she?

"It's alright, Smith, don't make that face. Old habits die hard, I suppose, but you can say Keith now. No point in still calling me your Commander, I willingly handed that over to your brother and I don't regret it. Although, I realise, you probably don't call him your Commander but by his name, don't you?", Shadis then went on, earning at least a silent nod from his former underling, before he pointed to the chair in front of his desk he was sitting at. He waited until Sira took it, even offering her a cup of tea, "So, tell me more about Erwin's idea of sending you here. He wrote to me, saying he wants you to review the cadets. Application numbers are as low as ever over there at the Scouting Legion, I reckon?"