Hanako Norene's Past

Chapter Nine

Today I had woken up a little later than usual. And by later than usual I mean 20 minutes late for training. The other girls in my cabin had already left without waking me up, which I thought was complete bullshit and a little frustrating, but oh well. It wasn't until I was up and about that I saw the grand clock in the city. I then began running around my cabin picking up parts of my uniform and throwing them on while yelling. "Dammit!  Fucking late for class?! GAH!" I screamed in frustration and stood in the middle of the room before continuing to get ready. At one point I bashed my head against one of the drawers that was open while I was picking up my boots. I brushed my hair as quickly as possible and stumbled out into the hallway, slamming against the door with my hand around the handle so it would fling open instantly. My eyes were exposed to the bright white light of the early morning, but I couldn't let that stop me from getting to training. When I finally reached the other cadets, my entire face was red as I stumbled over to Lone, panting. "I'm... here... not late... at all.. psh... nooo..." I stood next to him with my arms behind my back as I looked at the captain while trying to regain all the breath that I had lost while running. I heard Lone whisper and I turned my head towards him. "Hey...what happened?" I felt kinda embarrassed about being late for class, especially just because I slept in for too long. But I trusted Lone, so I just decided to be honest with him. "Well, I woke up late and then I didn't even start getting ready until I realized training had already started about 20 minutes ago. The other girls in my cabin didn't even bother with trying to wake me up before they left so.. yeah.. basically I slept in." I tugged at my scarf awkwardly, glancing aside. "I know, kinda dumb." "What a bunch of bitches.." I turned my head towards Lone again and shook my head. "No, they aren't bitches. They just made a dumb mistake is all. I forgive them." I shrugged, about ready to listen to the captain when I heard what Lone said. "Well, if you were sleeping with me, I'd make sure to wake you up for training.." I noticed that his face turned a little red. "Um... you know what I mean..." My entire face turned bright red and I quickly looked away from Lone. "Jesus dude. My mind ain't that dirty, I know what you meant. Shhhhhesh." There was a moment of awkward silence before the captain started to speak about todays drill. Oh thank gosh.. I thought to myself before actually kicking into gear and listening to what the captain had to say. He pointed to a large object made of wood and steel with two hooks for latching onto. It towered above any normal human, almost the height of a titan. "This, ladies, is the trapeze. You will hook onto it with your standard-issue 3d maneuver gear, and you will learn to stay upright for a full minute without falling over! If you do fall over, you will pick yourself up and continue until you get it right!" He does a dramatic little hand gesture before returning to whatever he was doing before, most likely drinking ale or wine, considering he was a veteran of the Garrison. I looked over the veteran making sure he was okay before looking back at Lone. "He called all the cadets ladies... well.. ok then. Anyway, you wanna go on that trapeze thingy first?" "It's because lady implies a delicate type of person. Like you, but not badass." He looked up at the trapeze. "This thing is taller than my house.." I looked at Lone like he was crazy for a moment before looking back at the trapeze. "It is a little tall.. but you didn't really answer my question, you wanna go first?" "I guess I could." He smirks playfully. "If you're too scared, that is." I glared at him for a little bit before folding my arms across my chest, glancing aside. "Tch... I'm not scared at all. I'll go first then." I elbowed him lightly before walking up to one of the trapeze, looking at the hooks. They confused me for a moment until I glanced over at another soldier getting ready to try it so i'd know how to put the darn thing on. Once I was finally set up, I looked over at Lone and shrugged. "Seems easy enough I suppose.. you'll probably end up falling a couple of times.." He folded his arms up and blushed a little bit. "Yeah, well..." "Well what?" I chuckled a little bit before noticing that I had to calm down if I actually wanted to past this test. I took a deep breath and relaxed all of my muscles, snapping my fingers once to signal the people spinning the wheel to raise me up. Once they rose me up into the air and finally locked in, I stared directly ahead, not moving an inch. I knew that that would mess everything up. I counted the last few seconds in my head 57.. 58.. 59.. 60!  When I was let down, I took the hooks that were connected to my belt off and walked over to Lone. "I didn't fall on my face, I think that's a good thing. Anyway, your turn. Just try your best to relax and not move around too much, it'll screw your balance up and you'll fall on your face. You don't want to be sent home with the rejects, right?" 

Lone's POV

I walked up to the trapeze and took one last look at it before hooking on. I certainly didn't want to end up on the failure wagon. That would mean going back to my crappy little house in Trost, and probably never seeing Hanako again. I don't know what it is about her, but she's amazing. I can't seem to figure out why I like her so much. I guess she's pretty much the only person who really pays much attention to me. As soon as I was lifted off the ground I nearly fell immediately. It didn't feel the way I expected at all. The ropes shook wildly, surely it wasn't me doing that. Then again I was shaking quite a bit. In any case it took about 10 seconds before I had fallen. I could feel Hanako's eyes burning holes into me. There's no way I was gonna embarrass myself in front of her anymore. I had to prove myself to her. I couldn't just let her protect me forever. She deserves better than worrying about me constantly. I picked myself up off the ground, this time going up felt more natural. I was just glad I didn't fall immediately, like Eren. That guy's kind of a wimp...eventually I made it the full 60 seconds, and they lowered me down. Hanako shouted something at me, I assumed it was some sort of advice, but I was too distracted by trying not to humiliate myself in front of her to hear it. I walked back over to her, my face felt like it was on fire, it was so red. I hate blushing so easily. She must think I look like a tomato in human form or something...I just hope I can pass through the rest of training and become strong enough so she won't have to look after me all the time. She deserves better.

Hanako's POV

I looked at Lone, smiling a bit. I was actually proud of him, he didn't give up or anything like some of the others. "You did good, Lone. At least you didn't fall on your face multiple times like those two idiots did." I made a little hand gesture towards Eren and Alux, who both seemed to be humiliating themselves in front of their fellow cadets by failing and falling on their faces.  "Yeah.. well, thanks?" He went silent for a moment, looking at Eren for a moment longer before he noticed something. He turned back towards Hanako and spoke. "Eren's belt is broken, has the captain noticed that yet?" I didn't believe what Lone just said and I quickly steered my focus towards Eren. My eyes widened as I soon realized that Lone wasn't lying at all. "Woah.. it really is.. But why were you looking there? Lone.." I noticed that his face turned bright red. "U-um.. it's not cause of.. um... Hanako, you know how I feel about you so why would you ask that?" I let out a laugh before shaking my head. "I don't know, guess my brain was in the gutter for a moment." I placed a hand on the back of my neck before looking back over at Eren. "Do you think the captain will notice? He's a blind bat.." "Nope..  He'll probably get sent home on the failure wagon, screaming like a little girl the entire time.." I laughed and pointed at the captain and Eren. "It seems like the captain finally noticed.. Surprising I suppose.." "Oh.. well if the Garrison would just make their belts properly.." Lone let out a sigh of frustration before I just shrugged and looked around. "It's fucking boring here.. do you think we'd be able to leave, maybe?" Lone made a face that looked disturbingly similar to Mikasa's. "Wherever you go, I'll go.." My entire face turned red as I looked down at the ground. "U-uhm.. Lone.. that sounds kind of stalkerish.." He looked down at the ground and stuttered. "Yeah.. O-of course.. Sorry.." I instantly noticed that he looked upset and I quickly grabbed his hand, wrapping my fingers around his. "H-hey.. I'm sorry you took that personal, I didn't mean it in a bad way, my mind just processed it wrong.." "Oh.. it's fine.. I know I can be stalkerish.." I sighed and shook my head, trying to forget this conversation. "Okay, let's just forget that. Let's go for a little walk.." I gently grasped his hand and looked at the other cadets and the captain, making sure no one was watching them. "So.. where are we going?" I rose my head up and looked at him, walking beside him away from the training spot as he spoke. "I don't know, just a little walk.. Not too far from here." "All right...you know I only say things like what I said earlier because I don't want you to feel alone, right?" I stopped in my tracks, my cheeks turning a little rosy pink as I stared at the ground before a shy smile danced across my lips. "I-i didn't know that.. but.. that's so nice of you.. thank you, for everything, Lone.." "No need to thank me, Hanako..  I just wanna see you happy.." I looked up at him and smiled, speaking softly. "You won't need to worry about that. Because whenever I'm around you, I'll always smile." "Me too.." He wrapped his arms around me lovingly. I smiled, wrapping my arms around him as well as I gazed up at him, looking at his face. "I love you, Lone." "I love you too, Hanako." He leaned down a little bit and kissed me a little bit. My entire face turned red, but I was very happy. Lone was the most important person in my life. He was the only one that had ever made me happy since Kazumi was taken away years ago.