Shingeki no Jiyu

V

      Adria decided that after the typhoon of which her life had spiralled into, running up the slopes of the camp's forest in the dead of night was the worst. Abram's hovered overhead with his vertical gear, keeping a smouldering torch close to his features—Adria clasped her hands together in hopes that the hooks would give way and he'd fall. Even though he was an oversize oaf, he only needed one grappling line to hold himself up when barking critiques down to the twenty remaining cadets.

      "Rolf, raise those knees or you'll find yourself licking silver spoons back in Rose!"

      Burchard pulled the backpack filled with miscellaneous weights higher up on his shoulders. To make the exercise harder, Abram's implemented the cardboard decoys of titans used in the team communication challenge. He pressed the button on the small toggle and a silhouette emerged. Burchard swiped the snot from his top lip and ducked beneath it, continuing up the slope.

      "I think I just tore off a nail," Iris whined from the back. "Ugh, I preferred cleaning the gear over this."

      The remark was no louder than a whisper, but Abram's shouted down, "What was that Kar—you want to be dismissed?"

      "No sir," Susanne clamped a hand around Iris' mouth to stop the girl from countering. "Iris here was remarking at how glorious your view must be!"

      Abram's dwelled on Susanne's save before giving a small chuckle. He moved forward to the front of the group where Adria and Viktor jogged at an even pace. He noted that after the altercation in the forest, both had honed their skills and combined knowledge to work almost as one entity. Their previous instability, Abram's argued, was due to fatigue and dependency on Survey Corps pampering in Trost. Without the two Captains surveying the mission, Viktor and Adria had to rely on their own abilities rather than waiting for the opportune moment to call in their backup.

      The purpose of the task was to boost endurance and show the difficulty of surviving without equipment would be if thrown into a survival situation. Their gear was designed to break apart on impact to minimise damage to the wearer and a safety mechanism for the kit itself; rather than breaking due to clumsiness or violence, it could be easily collected and reattached after the threat moved on.

     Adria blew peppered breaths as she wove around the decoys, and with every movement she made, Viktor would follow as her shadow. They hadn't discussed what happened in the forest, mainly because they didn't truly understand the gravity of the situation but it had allowed Viktor to open up. Especially since their previous tension had dissipated through the feed.

      Viktor missed the dinner rounds after their training had ceased for the day. However, Adria made sure to snag two buttered ends of the loaf for him. The mess hall was practically abandoned when he took his seat across from her; Leo and Graham played cards across the room whereas the rest of the cadets had retired.

      She cocked her head at Viktor when he rested his head between he hands. She noted how his straight hair fell unevenly up and around his angular cheek bones; in the flickering flame of the lamps the maroon turned the colour of Keith's ruby. As he rubbed his face, Adria witnessed the scarification from the bite mark of that afternoon, it hadn't properly healed yet and remained somewhat puckered. Hers had completely healed, though she didn't want to constantly activate whatever it was by tearing at her flesh, she wanted to use a subtle approach like harnessing her gear to prick herself.

      "You should eat," Adria removed the two slices from the napkin and lay them in front of Viktor. She didn't raise her tone above a whisper, but it was enough to ensue conversation.