Ending The Past: Attack On Titan/Shingeki No Kyojin

Chapter 7: Figuring It Out

After lunch Harper decided to visit Lucy during her lunch time. Being on the Special Operations Squad meant Harper had a different schedules than the normal cadets. It made it hard for Harper to meet up with her best friend but nevertheless, they made it work.

Running, Harper kept yelling," Lulu! Lulu! Lulu! Lulu!"

"What is it, my little puppy?" Lucy answered when she finally heard Harper's yelling. Harper stopped for a second. Puppy? She thought.

"Puppy," said Lucy, waving her hand in front of Harper," what is it?"

"Ahh yeah, I made a new friend!! Well, more like 9 new friends," said Harper, suddenly forgetting about being called a puppy.

Laughing at the girl's childishness, Lucy said,"That's great!!"

Before long, Harper had to get back to training and Lucy had to go to lunch, so the two girls said their goodbyes before they went about on their own thing.

As Harper was training in her hand-to-hand combat she notices a tall guy standing next to this intimidating guy. Immediately she becomes scared. I'm so small and they're so big. They could squish me like a bug and nobody would notice she thought. Noticing that Harper is staring at them, Reiner and Bertolt walk over to introduce themselves. They're coming over!!!! What should I do?!?! She thought mentally panicking. Finally the really intimidating one extended his hand towards her and said,"I'm Reiner and this," he said pointing to Bertolt," is Bertolt."

"Oh, umm... I'm Harper," she replied a bit embarrassed at the fact that she had been caught openly staring at the two. As they helped her train she also started getting along with them. They were almost like two big brother-like figures.

Once her training was over for the day all Harper wanted to do was flop down on her bed and sleep, but as soon as she got to her barracks she was told that Levi had requested for her to meet him in his office. She groaned and grumbled a bit as she made her way to his "office", which was really more like a room that his squad used to hang out in. Petra opened the door to his office just as Harper was leaning forward to knock, causing her to almost fall flat on her face.

"Oh!," Petra exclaimed catching Harper by the shoulders and preventing her from falling, "I'm sorry, Harper!"

"It's fine," Harper said pulling away as she felt heat creep onto her cheeks, "I should have been paying a bit more attention."

Petra started to respond, but was interrupted by Levi coming up beside her in the doorway, "Hey, brat, are you alright?"

Harper and Petra both looked at him, Petra was shocked to hear such compassion in his voice. "Yeah, I'm fine," Harper responded, still a little bit embarrassed.

"Good, be a bit more careful next time," he directed that towards both of them.
Harper couldn't help but notice the slight blush on Petra's face as Levi stood beside her, and the slight waver in her voice as she said her goodnights and took her leave. Hmmmmm.... I wonder... Her thoughts were interrupted by Levi clearing his throat and glancing at her, motioning to come in and sit down. She obliged and plopped down in one of the most comfortable chairs, and Levi took the seat beside her. An awkward silence settled over both of them as they wondered what they say.

Finally, Levi broke the silence, "So, how was your first day?"

"Oh, it was good," she said, relaxing a bit and beginning to bubble over explaining how everything went and all of the people that she had met, and what they had worked on in training.

Levi suppressed a smile as he watched her happily going on and on about how wonderful her day had been. He was immensely pleased that she had gotten on so well with the other new members, and he was very proud when she explained how she had used the techniques that he had taught her to show up all the other people, even the instructor.

"I'm very glad that you had such a pleasant, and eventful first day," he said, letting a small smile slip as she grinned at him. Harper caught the smile and began to grin even wider. Even she knew that Levi rarely smiled, but whenever he did it was always very warm and kind, and she appreciated that. "I think that tomorrow we will have some training with just our squad. How does that sound?"

"Amazing! I can't wait to work with everyone!" Harper said, completely forgetting how tired she was as she bounced in her seat.

"Alright, it's getting late. You had better get back to your barracks and get some sleep," he said standing.

"Yes, sir" Harper said, joining him in standing. They stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do, before Harper had finally had enough and walked towards the door.

She almost left without saying another word, but Levi caught her just as she was walking out the door, "Goodnight, Harper."

"Oh, umm. Goodnight!" she said with an awkward wave as she closed the door. Once she was out in the hallway she breathed a sigh of relief. Man, that was soo awkward! I wonder what's up with him? As she walked back to her barracks and prepared herself to sleep, Levi sat in the same place contemplating what had happened. He didn't know what had made him freeze up like that, normally he always knew what to say. But it was a whole new playing field with that girl; he was beginning to feel responsible for her, even more so than his other squad members, and he also felt the need to protect her. Maybe it was that childlike attitude that made him feel the need to worry and try to "father" her. Whatever it was, he needed to figure it out before he ruined whatever sort of relationship they had started.