The day Wall Maria fell to the Titans, soldier Arden Keiser selfishly chose to save herself. She disobeyed direct orders and abandoned her role within the Garrison Regiment, taking the life of another as she did so. She made an attempt to escape fro...
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Days passed by, blurring into weeks, and Levi and Arden's relationship continued to slowly change for what seemed to be the better.
Arden had continued making positive adjustments to her attitude. She was quieter and spared Levi less impolite comments and harsh glares. The few times she addressed him, she addressed him by his name rather than by an insult. True, she still wasn't calling him 'captain' or 'sir' like she was meant to, but using his name was an improvement at the very least, showing that Erwin's blackmail scheme had her being a bit more respectful.
On the other side, Levi had found it within himself to suppress his own snarky comments and the frequent narrowing of his eyes. He didn't do it for the sake of being kind, but instead for Erwin's desire to fix her attitude and to keep her impolite words at bay.
Levi noticed that many of his and Arden's arguments started because he mocked her, or because she insulted him, so he decided to bite his tongue to let her continue keeping her mouth shut.
Also, oddly enough, Levi felt almost uncomfortable with being entirely rude to her now.
It was only because she had the decency to be a little kinder herself. It inclined him to do the same. It was a sort of mutual unspoken agreement to show the other a bit more respect—an agreement that both parties benefited from.
This had been going on for a little over three weeks, meaning that Arden had been with the Scout Regiment for a month now. All she could say about the time that had passed by was that she wasn't quite as annoyed by Hange anymore, and she didn't despise Levi like she did before. However, it was beginning to set in that the expedition was coming closer. It was now only one month away. Training had to be taken more and more seriously.
Arden and Levi ambled through the forest that rainy afternoon, their deep green hoods lifted over their heads in an attempt to keep themselves dry, and they worked to avoid stumbling into various mud puddles. The weather hadn't been the best the past few days, but Levi had insisted on continuing to push Arden outside, despite her complaints about getting her hair wet. Anyways, it wasn't like she could argue with that letter sitting back on Erwin's desk.
They were moving towards what their pre-dinner training session entailed (Arden attempting to take down wooden Titan dummies), and somehow, they were holding a conversation as they walked. Something in Arden urged her to mention Hange and her antics from earlier that day, bringing Levi to rant a little about the woman, subsequently driving a conversation between the pair.
"Hange's disgusting," Levi grumbled, both nostrils flared at the thought of her. "Never bathes. Never showers."
"Is that all you care about? If people shower or not? Some squad leader you'd make."
He narrowed his eyes at her, though he held a small smirk, not being terribly offended. "And when was the last time you washed your hair? It looks like shit."
