Never Trust Me

Chapter 12

Crystal grunted as Eren and Armin were pulling her to the dining hall, cringing at their loud voices but kept a warm smile on her face.

As they walked in, Crystal took a quick glance around the room to get bearings on her surroundings. Levi sat next to Hanji, Diva and the other captains, Jean sat next to Sasha and Conny. But then her gaze returned to Levi, only to catch him looking back at her, and she looked back towards Eren quickly in embarrassment.

"So Crystal, " Armin started, as they sat down with Mikasa, "Are you excited for the next Expedition? Maybe while we're out there you can stop by your old home!"

"I guess." Crystal sighed, "If I'm gonna be here instead of training early, I'm gonna get a cup of Black tea." Crystal stood up and walked over to the teapot, slowly pouring the dark liquid into a teacup. She sighed into the hot cup, causing it to ripple and the steam to blow out. Before she sat down Hanji walked up to her.

"Crystal, mind joining us for breakfast? We would like to talk to you." Hanji said kindly, realizing Crystal's more pissed off expression, but Crystal smiled regardless and nodded.

"Sure. Sorry, Eren, I have to go with Commander Hanji." Hanji dragged Crystal back over with her and sat her down next to Levi.

"So Crystal... How are you feeling?" Moblit asked curiously, and Crystal let out a hum like a response, "Was your sleep good?"

"It was normal. I struggle with it sometimes though, I get up frequently and I end up cleaning or drinking tea for an hour before dozing back off to sleep."

"That's normal for you?" Hanji asked curiously, as Crystal nodded, but Levi caught on to how quiet she was trying to be and thought about it for a moment.

"Crystal, why don't you join me in my office to help me clean it up more? It's kind of big and I have paperwork to do." Levi asked out of the blue, sipping on his tea, and the question only received a small nod in response.

"I'll come by in an hour, I gotta go get some training in." Crystal stood up and went to walk off, but Hanji spoke up.

"But you haven't finished-!" Crystal was already out the door, and Hanji looked back at the cup of tea. It was practically still full, "She must have felt uncomfortable."

"She was." Miche spoke up, "I could smell it." Hanji pouted and sighed.

"Maybe she's not ready to commit to life inside the walls after all. Maybe being here hurts her more." Hanji gazed at Levi before her face turned serious, "I found out a lot about her... Seems Erwin made her a file even though she was never a part of the scouts. There was never an approved stamp so he never sent them in but he kept them in his desk." Hanji placed the off-yellow folder on the desk, that had her full name written on it, "Crystallina Lace Shigorati. Born March 29th, 836, daughter of Neca Laymins and Jariksu Shigorati. Despite heavy belief, her mother was never married to Jariksu, Jariksu adopted Crystal at a young age, after the mysterious death of her mother." Hanji reported, looking at the report Erwin did on her a long time ago, still slightly smiling the aroma he had, almost causing her to lose her composure.

"That sounds very vague." Moblit commented, but then spoke up, "Does it say what connection she has to Erwin though?"

"They were cousins..." Hanji said softly, "Her mother was related to Erwin's father. But they were Half siblings, so I guess they were half cousins."

"FourEyes... Stop snooping in her files." Levi spoke quietly, his cold expression lightly growing colder, "She probably won't like the fact you've been snooping."

"True..."

---At the training grounds---

"Ugh..." Crystal picked up both halves of the wooden dummy, she accidentally broke another one. She already felt the blood trickling down her leg and knuckles. But the nightmare she had was enough to make her grab her ODM gear and started to train against the variously deployed titan dummies. Crystal finished off the 30 dummies in under an hour before she landed back at the area where they spar.