Moments

Chapter 5: Lunches and introductions

Like at the moment when she knocked on the wooden doors, the whole room broke into mutters and whispers when Levi walked in holding this girl that woke half the Corps every night, screaming after waking up from a nightmare. Some called her the mad rabbit after the doctor had casually chatted about her albinism, using his expression: "more commonly found in rabbits".

Levi didn't seem to care about the gossip and headed to a table where Hanji had saved a couple of seats for them, whilst Ivy coldly looked straight at the faces of those who were staring at her like the curiosity she was. She observed them. She observed their words spoken secretly to their peers, their skeptical, curious and everything in-between expressions, the wooden bowls, the soup inside, the recurring patterns of stone rectangles that made up the floor, the burning fire in the huge chimney, the soot on the walls next to it and on the ceiling... And the sudden stiffness of the bench Levi not so gently sat her on.

"- Well I'm glad you came down to eat with us!" Said Hanji, happy as usual.

Since her phrase was not a question, neither Levi or Ivy, being the great casual conversationists they were, sought to reply.

But Hanji wasn't going down so quickly. Just her luck that everyone is so quiet compared to her. Well fine then. If no one was going to try to be sociable, then she'd take it upon herself to make them be sociable.

And so she continued, introducing the people at the large table, and some of the others in the room, to Ivy.

"- See Mike here is the best soldier we have. At least he was before Levi came into the picture. Now I'm still not sure who takes the hand..." She said with a sly smile which was returned by the concerned with jaded expressions.

As Hanji was going on and on with her presentations and the room had returned to its usual chatter, Keith Shadis, then commander stood up. He was a man of logic, with an imposing attitude that forced respect. He was a good commander. What saw his downfall was reality. The reality that no matter how "good" of a commander you are, people will die. There will be blood. And it will all be on your hands.

He said in his forever strong voice:

"- Seeing as we are all gathered here now, and that soldier Leighton joined us earlier than expected, she should use this moment to introduce herself." It sounded more like an order than a recommendation.

Ivy feebly stood up, sinking her nails into the table for stability.

"- Hi. My name is Ivy Leighton. And I don't know if I'm mad or not. I've been having trouble coming to that conclusion myself." She said, referring to her nickname as she surveyed the reactions of her 'public'. "I don't know what you're expecting me to say..." She muttered looking down.

"- I see you're a person of brief introductions. Very well, I'm not much of a man for long descriptions myself." She sat down. "Ivy Leighton will be joining our Corps for training as soon as she can walk. Consider her an older recruit. That is all."

The room buzzed with confused and outraged voices. Who is this girl? What is she doing here anyway? How come she just shows up out of nowhere and suddenly integrates the Corps? She isn't part of the new Trainee Squad that's sure! So why did the Commander call her an "older recruit"?

Ivy slowly drank her soup and munched on two slices of bread, not getting to the main course, being much busier listening to all the questions going on around her. Questions she never wanted to answer.

~~~~~~~

Again, thank you for reading! I hope you like it (though even if you didn't I always like reading constructive advice :) )

Oh and by the way, the next chapter will be written from Levi's point of view ^_^