Chagara - Chaos in the Darkness (Levi x OC Fanfic / AttackOnTitan)

22. Don't say "Oi" to me

Chagara yawned into the crook of her arm. "How long will Peter let me clean out the stable?," she thought as she put the sliced carrots into the soup pot. Eva was in bed with a fever. When she had heard about it from the other stable workers, Chagara had offered to help the chef with lunch. She yawned again and reached for the onions as the door opened and the commander entered the kitchen.

"Hey," she greeted Erwin, but did not look at him. Yesterday's situation had been too awkward.

Erwin just nodded and went to the cupboard with the mugs. "How do you still manage to find time for your actual soldier duties?," he began. "You have to clean out the stable, you cook for us and you still have time to go to church."

Chagara squinted her eyes. "I was wrong. Now it's getting really awkward."

She had been to church the day before. Just as Peter had requested. For three hours she had crept around and inside the church. But she witnessed neither any rituals nor any interesting conversations. When there was no priest in the church, she waited another half hour. When nothing else happened, she decided to return to the headquarters. She had hardly left the church when she saw Erwin coming out of a stationery shop. He had bought new pens. But he was not the only familiar face in the alley. Marie Dok was standing in front of a flower shop. Chagara was fascinated by her appearance. She had hardly changed in the years, although she already had several children. Marie Dok was engrossed in a conversation, but out of the corner of her eye she had noticed Erwin. Her bright eyes were fixed on the commander of the Scout Regiment, who was looking worriedly at the dark clouds above him. When Marie raised her hand to wave and opened her mouth, probably to call for Erwin, Erwin looked down at Chagara with wide-open eyes. She had grabbed his free hand and was hastily pulling him along behind her.

"Come on, Erwin. It's about to start pouring," she called to him as they disappeared around the next corner.

"Ayumi." Erwin leant against the kitchen counter. "I saw Marie yesterday too."

The girl didn't dare to turn around and continued cutting onions. "Thanks for trying to protect me again. But next time, feel free to leave me alone. I closed this chapter a long time ago," he explained to her.

Chagara turned to face him. At that time, Erwin had chosen the Scout Regiment over his first love. The night his decision was made, he had got drunk. Chagara had kept him company, gave him her shoulder to cry on and wiped away his vomit. Apparently, people on the surface didn't always have all the luck in the world on their side either.

She nodded sheepishly. "How stupid did I behave yesterday?"

Erwin smirked. "Well, I'm sure our running caused astonishment among one or two of the citizens." Recalling the scene, he laughed and ruffled through Ayumi's hair.

***

"Tch!" Disgust was written on Levi's face. He gripped the wooden handle of his mop tighter. No matter where he looked, dark shoe prints were everywhere on the light floor. Now and then, even small tufts of grass or little branches, dragged in from the training ground. Did no one notice this except him? How could they all be comfortable in this pigsty?

After a brief analysis of the headquarters in the morning, Levi had come to the conclusion that every room was in urgent need of a thorough cleaning. Unfortunately, there were not enough soldiers available to make quick progress. The only thing worse was that almost all the soldiers did not possess his understanding of cleanliness. He had ordered rework in almost every room. And so not a single soldier had yet started to deal with the canteen. Levi looked at the cleaning products, brushes and cloths in his bucket. Would they be enough? He placed all his cleaning utensils neatly in a row on one of the benches and walked with his bucket to the kitchen door.