Chapter 12: The Visitor

Eren's POV:

"What the hell was that, Oluo?" I yell at him after (y/n) ran out of the room, and Petra and I kicked all the other squads out.

"Tch, shut up, brat. It doesn't have anything to do with you." He says, trying to wave me off.

I was trying to wrap my mind around everything Oluo and (y/n) said. Oluo has had a stick up his ass about (y/n) since the first time he met her. But I never would have thought it would come down to something like this...

Petra came up behind Oluo and gave him a good hard smack to the back of his head. "You idiot!" She yelled, "What were you thinking? You were just going to take some stranger's word against (y/n) because you're jealous of (y/n)'s skill and the attention she gets from the captain? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"She's so secretive, what does she expect is going to happen? I think we, being her fellow squad members, deserve to know who she is and where she came from." Oluo mutters, rubbing the back of his head where Petra hit him.

"So you just asked some random girl who worked in this lounge about (y/n), and you just took her word for it?" Eld asked, giving Oluo a disapproving look.

"It's not like she gave us much to go on!" Oluo tried, half-heartedly, to defend his actions, "I mean, maybe I would be more inclined to believe (y/n) if she had given us something from the get-go."

"Captain Levi trusts her, isn't that enough for you? Why does she have to prove herself to you? Especially when you gave her the cold shoulder from the beginning." Asked Gunter, crossing his arms.

"She's a part of our squad now, her past doesn't matter," Petra added, "I've seen the scars on her body, it's clear she has been through a lot. And for you to do that to her, that's pretty low. I would have attacked you if you did something like that to me, but she did her best to show restraint even though you were spreading lies about her!"

"I never knew she had all those scars, and how was I supposed to know the woman from the lounge was lying to me?" Oluo rebutted, finally showing signs of remorse.

"You aren't supposed to just 'know'," Petra explained, "You're supposed to be a decent human being and leave people alone that want to be left alone."

Oluo looked down at the floor. I can't tell if he's going to try and justify himself again, or if he is actually going to agree with us.

"You should apologize to her," Petra continued, "She was hiding for a reason, and now there is a good chance whoever you spoke with told the person she is trying to hide from. And now her worst fears are about to come true."

I wanted to try and go after her myself, she's good at hiding her real emotions, but she must be pretty freaked out right now.

"I'm going to go look for her," I mumble to my squad mates and turn to leave the room. "I'll go with you." I hear Oluo sigh behind me. I just nod at him and we set out to go and look for her.

She was pretty pissed off, so my best guess would be she's probably somewhere on the training grounds.

Oluo and I are silent the whole way. He's probably trying to figure out what he's going to say to her. What do I even say? 'Hey (y/n), I'm sorry Oluo forced your secrets out and posted some portraits of you while you were half naked!'

I shake my head, hopefully, I'll figure it out when we get there.

We reach the training grounds and as I suspected she was there. She was going hard on one of the practice dummies, probably fantasizing about it being Oluo.

She didn't seem to notice our entrance, too busy in her own little world.

"(Y/n)," I say tentatively, making my way slowly toward her, "How are you?" I didn't know what else to say...

"... Spectacular." She said while flashing a sarcastic smile.

"Ah, and of course you're here too." She groaned, noticing Oluo was there as well, "Haven't you already said and done enough?"

Oluo stepped up beside me, "I just wanted to talk to you."

"Well, I don't want to hear it, I heard enough. So you can leave before I decide to use you as my training dummy." She said as she turned her attention back to the training dummy.

"I wanted to apologize." Oluo replied, making (y/n) pause, "Why are you sorry?" She asked, keeping her back to him.

"It wasn't my intention to sell you out to bad people-"

"But it was though," (y/n) said calmly, now turning to look at Oluo, "Of course, it was your intention to sell me out. Obviously, I hid my identity because I'm hiding from bad people. But you did it anyway. Your 'apology' means nothing to me. I don't know what I ever did to you for you to hate me, Oluo. But you made your point. We are on the same squad, so of course I'm going to do everything I can to help you, if need be, out in the field. But as for when we are at HQ, every time I see your face I want to punch it. So I would stay away if I were you."

She goes back to punching and kicking the dummy. I expected Oluo to leave her be after that, but he stood his ground, "Fine, have a go then."

(Y/n) turns around to look at him again, "What?"

"Punch me in the face." Oluo replied simply, "Just try to avoid my nose... Actually no, wherever you want, go." Oluo shut his eyes and waited for (y/n)'s response.

"Why are you doing this?" (Y/n) asked, sighing in frustration.

"I am sorry, (y/n). I just had tunnel vision when it came to disliking you. You just remind me of someone I knew once, he was better than me in pretty much every way. But his attitude got him into trouble. I still don't really know why I chose to take it so far with you. And I don't know how to make it up to you."

(Y/n) is still for a moment, probably a bit shocked by Oluo's suggestion and admission. But then without any warning, she aimed her punch right toward his groin, sending Oluo tumbling to the ground moaning in pain.

"Nope, still mad." (Y/n) smirked as she held out a hand to help him up.

"What do I have to do for you to forgive me?" Oluo asked as he accepted her helping hand, "I can help you with your training."

"No thanks," She says to his suggestion, "I'm already better than you in most things."

... She's not wrong.

"A battle between us then, if I beat you in something, you have to forgive me," Oluo said while holding out his hand for (y/n) to shake it.

"A cockfight? Intriguing." She laughed as she considers Oluo's offer. "What do I get out of this?"

"You get to have me challenge you and you humiliate me by winning the challenge. Until I do eventually beat you of course." He explains with a smirk.

"It doesn't happen just like that you know, I'm not going to just forgive you." (Y/n) said seriously.

"I know," Oluo sighed, "But I'm going to try like hell to make it up to you."

(Y/n) bites her lower lip, it looked like she was really deep in thought. "Okay." She said finally and shook Oluo's still outstretched hand.

"Not to be rude to you Eren, but can you please go? Oluo, I don't mind being rude to you, fuck off." (Y/n) chuckled as she let go of Oluo's hand, "I kind of want to be alone with dummy Oluo." Oluo nodded and left the training grounds, but I stood there for a bit longer.

"That was fast," I commented to (y/n) as she goes back to punching and kicking the dummy. "What's the point in staying angry?" She responded simply, "It's already done, and I need to prepare for what is evidently coming my way. I don't have the time or the energy to waste on hating Oluo."

"So, you were married?" I ask her quietly. She stops punching the dummy again and just stands with her back to me.

"Yes."

"He was a lucky man," I say, trying and failing to cheer her up. "I don't see it that way." She said, lowering her gaze to the ground. I didn't really know what else to say...

"I'm sorry that he died," I comment quietly.

"Me too."

There was another awkward silence, so I tried to keep the conversation going. "You know you can talk to me. I know I may not know the first thing about what you went through, or what you're going through now. But I do know we all need someone to confide in, and I just want you to know that I'm here for you, no judgments."

She turned around and gave me a genuine smile, "Thanks Eren, but I'm okay, I promise. I just need to be alone for a little while." She walks closer and plants a soft kiss on my cheek. It made my heart beat super fast and my cheeks flush a deep red.

With that I leave her and the dummy and walk back into HQ, completely lost in thought and dazed.

Author's POV:

The man with shoulder-length silvery blonde hair was busy looking over some documents when he heard a knock at his door.

"Come in," He muttered to the person on the other side.

"Laurie," A woman says as she walks into his office, brushing her long golden hair away from her face, "I have some new information for you." She says, smiling sweetly at Lawrence.

He looks up from his paperwork and frowns at her, "Antheia, you better have a good reason for disturbing me. Do you need 20 more lashes?"

"No sir," Antheia answered nervously, "I just thought you would like to know that I have information pertaining to (y/n)'s whereabouts."

Lawrence immediately stops looking through papers and gives Antheia his full attention.

"It appears she has joined the Survey Corps, on a special operations squad," Antheia continued, "A man from her squad, Oluo, came into the lounge in Stohess yesterday, and he recognized one of her portraits hanging up."

Lawrence leans back in his chair, waiting for her to continue. "It appears she tried to hide her identity, but that didn't work out as planned. It's doubtful that she has confined with him about her time here, he probably would have said something."

"The Survey Corps, huh?" Lawrence mumbled to himself, "Alright, I won't waste any time, I'll go immediately."

Antheia gives him a wide smile, "Do you want some company, sir? What do you plan on doing to her? I would love to watch."

Lawrence pauses before leaving his office, "Are you requesting something from me? You don't question me, you do what you're told." He grabbed her by her throat and pushed her against the wall.

"Don't forget your place you filthy whore. I let you work in the lounge because you were being a good little pet. But I think I'll send you back to my brothel instead. Jealousy is not attractive." Antheia's eyes went wide as she gasped for air, clawing at Lawrence's hand around her neck.

Lawrence let go and Antheia collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. He grabbed a handful of her hair, "Report to the brothel tonight, if you don't make every man or woman that walks in happy, I'll chain you up for a week."

Lawrence lets go of her long golden hair and walks past her out of his office door. He started the long journey to his carriages, the men and women who worked for him bowed and greeted him as he walked past.

He reached his carriage house and waved at one of the drivers, "Good day Mr. Pearson, where can I take you today?"

Lawrence let himself into the carriage, "Take me to the Survey Corps headquarters." He said as he tucked a stray silvery blonde hair behind his ear.

"Of course sir," the driver replied, bowing to him before getting in his own seat. With a little bit of clicking from the driver, the horses took off toward their destination.

Lawrence's mind was consumed only by thoughts of you. He couldn't wait to get his hands on you again. He knew he would find you again, and he has waited as patiently as he could. He was looking forward to seeing you after 3 years, and no one was going to get in his way.

Your POV:

I decided after I was done training for the day, I would take another shower right away before dinner. I went pretty hard all day, and now I just feel gross.

I sigh with relief as I take my sweat-soaked clothes off and hoped into the shower. The training was definitely helping me keep my mind off of what happened this morning. But now that I'm done, I can't help but worry about what happens next.

I have no idea what Laurie is going to do. Is he going to come after me? Of course he is. But I don't want him to get to anyone else here. He's a smooth talker and can be very persuasive when recruiting.

"(Y/n), are you in here?" I hear Petra call from the doorway, "Yeah," I answer, "I'm almost done, what is it?"

I hear her walk into the shower room, "Nothing really, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

I turn off the shower and grab my towel off the hook, "I'm fine, Petra. I promise."

"You know you're all anyone talks about today," Petra giggled as she sat on one of the benches, "All good things, I swear."

I give her a half smile, "Oh, that's good I suppose." I start to brush out my wet hair, and pull it up into a tight bun on top of my head."

"You're still here," I commented to Petra, who was still staring at me from the bench.

Her cheeks went a little red, "I just thought I would wait for you so we can head to dinner together."

"Petra," I tut her, "You have to pay for the pleasure of my company like everyone else."

"Oh... ummm... I-," She stuttered, causing me to laugh a little, "I'm joking, Petra." I typically use humor to cheer myself up, especially when it makes other people uncomfortable.

Her face goes completely red and she avoids looking at me in the eye. I get dressed in my casual clothes and shrug at my appearance, good enough.

Petra follows me out of the shower room, and we make our way to the Mess Hall together.

"So, Oluo spoke with you?" Petra asks, breaking the comfortable silence. "Yeah, I heard him out, I can tell when someone is being genuine. He still didn't really explain why he did it though... Still confused at that part." I reply quietly.

"I think he's jealous that Captain Levi spends a lot of his time with you," Petra stated, which stopped me in my tracks.

"Huh?" I say, narrowing my eyes at her, "Does he?"

Petra nodded and half smiled at me, "Yeah, you haven't noticed?"

"... No... I think you're reading too much into it." I tell her as we enter the Mess hall and grab our dinner.

I decide to take a seat with the rest of my squad, sitting beside Eren and across from Oluo. This is the first time he actually greeted me and acknowledged me without any sarcasm.

"I've never seen you two together outside of squad activities," Eld noted as he watched Petra and I walk over and sit at the table.

"Yeah," I nodded, "She was watching me shower and then followed me here."

Petra's face goes red again, "I was not! That's not true!" I laugh at her response, "It's not not true. And she also told me Oluo is jealous because I have breasts and Levi pays more attention to me."

"Well, that's not entirely inaccurate." Gunter chuckled thoughtfully.

"Honestly, I don't think he notices stuff like that," I reply, "The only thing he seems to be into is cleaning supplies. It's his 'thing'."

"Tell you what, if I had a pair of tits I would definitely let Captain Levi have a go on them if it meant he would train me more," Oluo commented quietly.

I looked up and smirked as I saw Levi standing behind Oluo and giving him a firm smack to the back of his head. "Oluo, you could never pay me enough to fondle your breasts."

Oluo narrows his eyes at me, "You knew he was behind me and didn't say anything?"

"I just thought you were too shy to admit your true feelings to Captain Levi, I was only trying to help," I say as I smile sweetly at him.

Levi sat down at the table and looked over at me, "When you're finished your dinner, I need you to come to my office. There is something I need to speak with you about the upcoming expedition in a couple of weeks."

I nod at him and bring my focus back to my dinner. I wonder what he wants... we've already been over where we are in formation, and expectations while we are out there...

"By the way, Oluo," I look up from my food again, "What did you do with those portraits of mine you put up?"

"I took them down, but a lot of people were asking me to sell them one," Oluo admitted, face going a little red.

Hmmm, interesting... "If you sell any of them, I want an 80% cut," I say, giving Oluo a lopsided grin. I hate the thought of my portraits still being up in Laurie's lounge, might as well make a profit out of it.

"Deal." Oluo agreed and I went back to finishing my dinner.

Levi gets up from the table and walks out of the Mess Hall, probably heading to his office.

I notice that Petra was pretty quiet all of a sudden, she is usually pretty chatty. "Is everything okay?" I ask her, a little concerned.

"Don't worry, she's just jealous that Captain Levi invited you to his room," Oluo smirked as Petra kicked him under that table.

Oh, I guess that means Petra must have some type of feelings for Levi. "I'm not going to his room," I protested, "I'm going to his office."

"His room is attached to his office." Oluo smiles and raises his eyebrows suggestively.

"Don't worry, Petra. I'm sure if you cover yourself in his favorite cleaning solution and walk into his office, he'll be rock hard." I reassure her as I get up from the table.

"(Y/n)!" She yells after me as I leave the Mess Hall.

Levi's POV:

I was sitting in my office doing some paperwork, waiting for (y/n) to get here. I'm worried about her, I need to know how she is doing after the eventful morning she has had.

She had been working hard to prepare for the upcoming mission. But if she is distracted by these recent events, I can't risk losing her out in the field.

My train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door, "Name and business?" I call to the person behind the door.

"Cadet (y/n) (l/n), here to attend to all your personal needs, master." I hear (y/n) from outside the door. I know she's joking... But I secretly hoped she wasn't.

"Come in," I sigh, trying to stop the dirty thoughts coming to my mind.

"Hello again, sir," She smiles politely at me and takes a seat in front of my desk.

Her big (e/c) eyes settle on me, waiting for me to address her. I've never seen her in a tight bun before. I liked it a lot, it showed off her pretty face. Though I do also like seeing her hair in a ponytail, it is more distracting as all I want to do is grab it while -

"Are you okay, sir?" She asks, giving me a worried look. I shake my head, trying to get rid of the depraved thoughts going through my head.

"I was going to ask you that actually," I reply, leaning back in my chair a bit as I study her.

"I'm fine, sir." She reassures me quickly, "I've dealt with much worse."

"This is an important mission, a lot is riding on it. I need all of you to be at your best." I say, looking at her sternly.

"I understand, sir." She leans closer to me, "I know there has been a lot going on with me, but you can count on me out there, I won't fail you."

She smelled really good, was that a hint of lavender? Pull yourself together, Levi. You're reminding her to stay focused when you keep getting distracted by her.

"Alright, but a lot of people's lives are on the line here," I remind her, "Any kind of distraction can mean the death of you or someone else."

I receive another knock at the door, this time it was Erwin. He walks in and pauses when he sees (y/n).

"Cadet (l/n)," he greeted her, "Is everything alright?"

(Y/n) turned around and greeted him with a smile, "Yes sir, Captain Levi was just offering to buy one of my half-naked portraits, so you want in too?"

"Get out," I growled at her. She laughs and saluted both of us and takes her leave.

Your POV:

After I exited Levi's office, I decided to head to my room. I'm definitely more tired than usual today, there was just a lot going on.

Everyone knows who I am now, and I just have to accept that. I should make Oluo give me the name of the girl who he spoke with. That way I will know for sure how worried I should be.

I sigh as I reach my room, so ready to collapse onto my bed. I open the door to see Sasha talking to someone.

I was about to ask what was going on, but I freeze immediately when I got a better look at the man.

"Ah! There she is!" The man with silvery blonde hair and amber eyes said, "I missed you so much my little Peitho!"

Sasha looked over at me, confused by how scared I appeared to be. "Hey (y/n), we were just talking about you! It's so nice for a family friend to come and visit." She said, unaware that this is the man who made my life a living hell.

"Come here, beautiful! Where is my hug?" Laurie said as he stepped closer to me.

Sasha seemed to become a bit more uneasy when I backed away from him. I made my way around the room, trying to keep myself just out of his reach.

"I've missed you, you know," His tone was becoming more menacing, "I took you in, didn't I? Bought you the best clothes, fed you, and housed you. And what do you do for me? Leave me for a man who can never give you what I gave you. And when I took you back in after he died, you run away again." Laurie is getting angrier and angrier with each word he speaks.

I can't speak, all I can do is back away until I can't anymore. I feel the cold glass of the window behind me.

Sasha can see the panic in my eyes and steps in, "I'm sorry sir, but we really aren't supposed to have visitors in our room. We could get in trouble."

Laurie turns to her, "Of course, I'm very sorry dear. You know, you are very cute. I would love to have you come and work for me. You get to live a life of luxury and get to leave this depressing place behind." Laurie smiles as he reaches his hand toward Sasha, and that triggered me.

I snap out of my frozen state and grab his arm, "Don't you fucking touch her." I growl at him, digging my nails into his arm.

That did it. He grabbed me by my neck and threw me at the window. My back hit it hard, shattering the first pane of glass. I could feel the shards dig into my back and I look up at Sasha.

"Sasha," I wheeze, "Run! Get out of here." She pauses, not wanting to leave me alone with him. But someone had to go get help, and I didn't want Laurie to take his anger out on her too. Especially when he's like this.

Sasha runs out the door and out of sight, I breathe a sigh of relief that she is safe.

Laurie picks me up again and I can feel the blood dripping down my back and onto the floor.

"You stupid bitch," He screams at me, "You think you can just run off and that's that?!"

"I don't belong to you anymore," I cough as he wraps his hand around my neck, "I have full citizenship now."

He smiles at me, "You think a piece of paper can protect you from me? You're mine, (y/n). You always will be. You'll come back to me, you just wait."

I freeze when he pushes me against the wall and starts attacking my neck with his lips. Words can't describe how much I hate it. It made my skin crawl whenever he touched me. But I couldn't move. Years of enduring his abuse left me powerless against him, and he knew it.

It was like he was literally sucking the life out of me as he marks me as his own once again. I can't think straight, and my mind goes blank. I black out as I see another figure grab Laurie and slam him against the wall. Leaving me to topple to the ground, motionless.