Impossible Odds [Levi x OC]

SIX: INNOCENT NIGHT

ONE YEAR LATER

After three painfully-long-- and painful in general-- years of training under Instructor Keith Shadis, the night on which the cadets of the 104th Cadet Corp. would be promoted to soldiers finally arrived.

The cadets lined up in the courtyard the exact same way they had on orientation day three years ago. But, instead of asking them for their names and spitting insults at them, Shadis gave a moving speech. He combed over the last three years in a mere ten minutes. Then, he announced the ten most-gifted cadets in the 104th Cadet Corp..

After the ceremony, a feast was held in the rarely-used banquet hall. Here, the soldiers celebrated; they ate and drank, talked and laughed, and exchanged stories from their three years together.

"We won't have to worry about food ever again!" Sasha exclaimed triumphantly, and raised her half-eaten potato into the air.

Connie raised his glass, and alcohol sloshed over the brim of it. "Limitless booze!"

Everyone laughed at them.

Just then, Jean came over to stand next to Asami. She raised her eyebrows at him. "How's your ego, Jean?" she teased. Jean had been sitting alone, sulking about the fact that he'd ranked lower than Eren.

Jean rolled his eyes at her, but he remained otherwise unbothered by her teasing. A smirk danced on his lips. "My ego is perfectly fine... in fact, I came over to ask a beautiful girl if she wanted to dance with me." He raised his eyebrows at her, silently asking the question.

Asami laughed. Her right hand went up to her heart, and she smiled sincerely at Jean. Then, she narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't you dare try anything, Kirschtein."

Jean's smirk became mischievous. He innocently raised his hands into the air.

Asami put her drink down on a nearby table, and Jean led her into the center of the circle her friends had created. He took Asami's right hand in his, and held their joined hands just above Asami's shoulder-height. He placed his left hand on her waist, and she placed hers on his upper arm.

With the way they were standing, they were supposed to slow-dance, but instead, they bounced back and forth to the music, which was playing from a vinyl record player. Jean picked Asami up and spun her around.

"Oi, Horse-Face-- what the hell do you think you're doing, huh? Get your pervert hands off my best friend!" Eren yelled. He grabbed Jean by the shoulders and yanked him backwards. Eren was fairly protective of Asami, but tended to become especially so whenever Jean was involved.

"Yeah, Horse-Face, hands off! She's my dance partner," Reiner teased. He emerged into the center of the circle and took Asami in his arms the way Jean had. Reiner twirled her and spun her around and dipped her as if they'd danced together a dozen times-- which, they had.

Mina stood at the edge of the circle, jumping up and down and clapping her hands in excitement; she'd been asking and asking Asami about her secret feelings for Reiner for a long time... except, there were no secret feelings. Asami simply saw Reiner as a big brother.

Admittedly, thinking of Reiner in this way hurt her, a little, because her legitimate big brother had disappeared from her life five years ago.

In the three years she'd spent with them, Asami hadn't had a crush on a single one of her fellow cadets. The one person who she did have a little, tiny crush on... well, there was no way in a million years.

After the song ended, Asami picked her drink back up and looked fondly around her, at those she'd spent the last three years with-- Eren, Armin, and Mikasa, her childhood best-friends; Mina and Sasha, her closest girl-friends; Jean, who was a little bit of a pervert, but had never failed to have Asami's back. There was Reiner, who Asami had danced with on countless occasions. There was Marco, who was always willing to explain to Asami, and Connie, who had the ability to lighten the mood and make her laugh no matter what, and Krista, who Asami found easy to talk to. These were Asami's closest friends.