Wings and Hammers

3. The Proposals

She had something in mind. This had occurred to her ever since she got the news of Erwin's encounter with a Titan. She was scared out of her mind when he proceeded to get captured and almost killed by the previous King's Council. She had been away from him for way too long, and they had still been going strong. But, the idea of losing him forever and never being able to see him again shattered her beyond premonition. She knew it was selfish, to be the Commander's girlfriend and expect him to survive every beyond-the-wall survey and not wanting to expect a bad news at any moment.

But how could she help it? He meant everything to her. Without Erwin, there'd be no Aura. He may have disagreed, but she strongly believed this.

She took a brief shower and got dressed. Taking the half-full whiskey bottle and her pack of cigarettes outside the cabin, she occupied one table in anticipation of the guests she invited. She wanted to know the new Cadet Corps, Levi's squad. She also wanted to execute her plan in front of everyone. Initially, she planned otherwise, but something about Erwin's behavior in the morning changed her mind. He may be a little embarrassed, but he'd probably be okay with it. Hell, he may even be happy about it.

"Hey, brat!" her lit cigarette almost fell off her hand, as Levi startled her. He arrived first, Hange and Moblit following suit.

"Oh! Are those mint cigarettes?" Hange sprawled her hands across the table asking for one. Aura gave her the entire pack.
"So.. I was thinking of popping the question!" she declared, not daring to look up and meet the eyes that looked at her, horrified.

"I thought you guys have already had that done, no?" Moblit asked, scratching his head.

"They never really asked each other," Levi answered for Aura, sighing and plopping his one hand over the back of his chair, "Good for us. We get to drink for free one more day."

"Looks like someone's jealous! Sad about losing your boyfriend, Levi?" Hange said, in a louder, cheery tone, puffing out smoke, "it's okay, Levi. We'll find out another Erwin for you."

"We would have," Aura said, looking down at her knotted fingers, "but there can be no other Erwin Smith."

"If you want me to say 'cute', just be happy knowing that I wasn't entirely disgusted by what you just said," Levi scoffed at her.
"I'm happy knowing that you actually agree, Shorty," she scoffed back.

The young ones arrived shortly, bringing more life to the party. Eren and Mikasa were still in a state of dismission of the glee. But, a pitcher of beer down, they joined in too.
"Won't the Commander be joining us?" Sasha asked, stuffing her mouth with mashed potatoes.

"He will," Levi answered again, "he went back to the quarters for some important work."

"Hey Shorty," Aura snapped at him, "stop answering questions for me."
"Hey," he snapped back, "stop calling me Shorty. We are the same height."
"That's not true. You're 5 feet 2 inches, and I'm 5 feet 3 inches."

"No, brat, we're both 5 feet 2! You just wanna call me Shorty, because that's what your boyfriend calls me."

"The Commander uses nicknames too?" Armin's round eyes got even rounder at the newly acquired fact.

"Only for Levi," Hange cleared his doubt, smirking, "you see, they were once in love with each other."

"That is not true," Levi interrupted, looking all offended, "not that I care if you think it is. But, just for the sake of clearing out misinformation, that's not true. The Commander and I are both perfectly heterosexual males."

The party went on without Erwin. Aura shot glances at the door every now and then, but there was no sign of him. The Cadets were all already a couple beers down and drunk. Levi, Moblit and Hange enjoyed their whiskeys, but Aura barely even touched her drink. She had been patiently waiting for this day for the last couple of months. In fact, she had been waiting for Erwin to finally officially ask her for a very long time. But, under the given circumstances, she understood why he'd like to delay any form of ceremony.