The Girl With The Yellow Ribbon - Attack on Titan

Chapter Thirteen

"Captain?" Marie's voice was softer than Levi had ever heard before. She sounded timid, not like the loud, rambunctious girl she usually is.

"Yes?" He turned to face her, but her eyes were downcast as she refused to meet his gaze.

Suddenly, her entire demeanor changed. She looked up, expression firm, and clenched her fists.

"Will you teach me to fight?" She asked.

"Teach you to fight?" Levi echoed. Marie nodded curtly, keeping his gaze as long as she could bear.

"Yes, teach me to fight. I want to learn . . . " Her expression changed again, and instead of a face of ferocity she smiled sweetly. "And who better to learn from than Humanity's Strongest?"

"Don't call me that." Levi scowled. "You give me too much credit, I'm not as strong as you think I am. Not at all like the commander, who you seem to adore."

"Maybe you're right, but unless you can get the commander to teach me to fight, then you're the next best thing." She crossed her hands behind her back and rocked on the balls of her feet. "So will you do it?"

Levi sighed heavily. "Sure, I'll teach you to fight. But don't expect me to go easy on you just 'cause you're a little girl. I'll treat you the way I treat all the cadets."

"I wouldn't want it any other way," She grins. "So, when do we start?"

* * * *

"You're holding your hands wrong," Levi said, thrusting a quick kick to Marie's abdomen, knocking her swiftly to the ground.

Brushing the dirt of her skirts, Marie stands on wobbly legs. She frowns.

"That's the third time you've gotten me down, what am I doing wrong?" She wheezed.

"You're holding your hands too high. You're so worried about protecting your face that you're leaving your stomach exposed." He dropped his fists and sighed. "It's a rookie mistake."

"Oh." Marie whispers, glancing down at her hands. She hadn't even been able to get one punch in, and if somehow she did manage to, she was sure it was a fluke.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her fists lower than before.

"Come on, hit me again." She bounced back and forth, urging Levi to make the first move.

"I've already knocked your ass to the ground three times, do you really want to make it a fourth?" Levi said.

"There won't be a fourth, I won't let it happen." She raised her fists higher without thought.

Levi, of course, noticed and took full advantage.

"You won't let it happen again?" He asked.

"No, I won't." She declared.

As soon as she spoke, Levi threw a quick right hook into her stomach, throwing her off balance.

"Then why did you leave your stomach exposed?"

Marie fell to the dirt for the fourth time.

* * * *

"If Petra finds out that I helped you train, she'll be pissed." Levi muttered, sinking into the large arm chair.

"No, she won't." Marie said, dismissing his worries with a wave of her hand. "She used to help me train all the time before she . . . "

Marie's voice dropped suddenly, her face falling slack.

"Before her injury." Levi finished her sentence.

"Yeah, before her injury." Marie said sorrowfully. "Be honest, captain, do you think Petra will ever be like she was?"

"I don't know," He replied. "She lost a lot that day, and some of it will never come back. But I think, after a while, she'll be as close to the old Petra as she can be."

"So you're essentially saying no?" Marie said abruptly.

"Well . . . yes, to an extent, yes." Levi drug a hand down his face and sighed. "She won't ever be exactly the same as she was, no one would after something like that. You weren't there, and I pray that you won't ever have to go through something like that, so you wouldn't know. But I do believe that, at some point, she will get better."

"You're sure?" She asks.

Levi sighed again, muttering: "No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure of anything anymore, but I refuse to give up the idea that Petra will get better, and you shouldn't either."

"There is one thing I'm sure of." Marie said softly.

"And that would be?"

"When I'm old enough," She took a deep breath, preparing herself before shouting, "I'm gonna join the Scouts."

"Like hell you are!" Levi seethed. "There is no way you're joining the Scouts."

"You are a Scout and Petra's a Scout, so why can't I?" She argued.

"You don't know the half of what I've seen—you're still a little girl, and I refuse to let you be tarnished by the horrors that come with being a Scout." With one hand, Levi spoke passionately, and the other clutched the arm chair so tightly his knuckles drained of colour.

"I know I'm just a little girl, but when I grow up I won't be! I'll be brave and strong, I'll be just like you and Petra." Her brows furrowed as she argued a brick wall. "There is nothing more in life I want to be than like you two. You're my heroes."

"There's a reason they say not to meet your heroes and it's because the shit they do isn't heroic at all." His words were hard and cold. "You call us heroes, but you don't know half of what we do. Do you have any idea how many comrades I've seen die at the hands of titans? Do you have any idea how many letters to families I've had to write to tell them that their son isn't coming home? Do you have any idea how much blood I've had to clean off my hands?"

"That doesn't matter, none of it matters!" Marie screams. "It doesn't matter what you say or what horror stories you tell me, you won't change my mind. I'm going to join the Scouts, whether you want me to or not."

Levi stood abruptly and knelt before Marie. He grabbed her hands and urged her to look him in the eyes.

"Marie, you need to listen to me and you need to listen well." He said. "Becoming a Scout doesn't make you honourable, it makes you a fool. Barely half of us make it home alive after every expedition, and those who do are never the same. I keep saying I have faith that Petra will get better, but the truth is I don't know if she will. Becoming a Scout means you're signing your life away, and only those dumb enough to realize that join our ranks."

Marie sighed heavily before speaking.

"Four years ago, I stood in that hallway over there and listened to Petra tell daddy that she was gonna join the Scouts. I stood silent, listening to daddy beg and plead with Petra not to join, but she did anyway. She said something that day that I've never forgotten." Marie pulls her hands away from Levi and fiddles with her skirt. "She said, 'telling me I can have freedom in the walls is like telling a bird he can fly wherever he pleases, as long as he is in his cage.'"

"Marie, what do you—"

"That was the day I decided to join the Scouts and be just like her. She'd always been my hero, and she always will be. I want to be strong like her. I didn't make my choice on a whim, I've thought about it for years. I will become a Scout."

Levi stood and scoffed.

"You're just like Petra, you know?" He tucked his hands in his pockets and peered down the hall. "Stubborn as a mule, but as clever as a fox."

Marie smiled softly.

"Does this mean you'll support me joining the Scouts?"

"I have said no such thing," He replied, tossing a wayward glance over his shoulder. "But if you're as much like Petra as I think you are, what I say will have no affect on your choice."