Chapter 7: Bickering

The days of training went by, the two with previous experience had no problems with any of the exercises, easily taking first and second spots for a long time.

Klemens was first thanks to his absurd physical strength in anything that involved fitness, running, and physical strength, while Liesl thanks to her instincts that bordered on precognition was undisputed first in and to hand combat.

Both were at the same level in tridimensional movement, but they specialized in different things, he was incredibly faster and focused much more on waiting for the most perfect chance to attack his target.

She, on the other hand, decided that cutting down anything and everything that stood in her way, be it trees or anything else was the best solution to any problem.

But being first didn't mean that they had no competition, as a matter of fact there were a couple of people that stood right behind them and if they grew lax and let go would surpass them in no time.

First among them is Mikasa, who the two still jokingly called sister due to her sharing Klemens' surname, she was a prodigy in almost everything, be it hand to hand combat or tridimensional combat, she had almost the same amount of talent as Klemens, but with much more drive to achieve the best.

Second was a competitor specifically for hand to hand combat, Annie Leonhart, the girl that felt weird for some reason that Liesl wasn't able to explain, she was so well versed in hand to hand combat that she could make Klemens sweat and pushed Liesl to go even further polishing her technique, inevitably dragging her friend to test any new idea she had.

Other two people who we're really good, but really behind the two monsters, as they were called by the other recruits, were Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover, the other two of the weird feeling trio, they had no particular speciality and were all rounder, with Reiner coming on top, but not by a lot.

The duo had never seen the trio again after that one time they met them right after the fall of Wall Maria, as if they had disappeared into nothingness, Liesl tried looking for them, to investigate on the reason behind her weird feeling, but when she found nothing she eventually gave up.

They had never thought that they would have met them at the military training of all places and it seemed that the three were equally surprised, but it didn't matter much, they seemed good people to Klemens, but if Liesl say she felt something weird then something weird had to be going on.

He trusted nothing more than her instincts after all, not even his luck, not anymore.

Then there was Eren, he was pretty average among the top recruits, he wasn't brimming with overflowing talent, but he was more motivated than anybody, this pushed him to train to his limits all the time and pick a lot of fights with Jean, who specialized in team fighting and command.

Another person they would have never thought was actually good was the Potato Girl, to the great surprise of the two.

"Stop it Lie" it was time for launch and Liesl decided to addomesticate the beast.

"Shush, I'm going to adopt her and you can't stop me" replied the girl as she stood up from her table and started going in Sasha Braus' direction, with a loaf of bread in hand.

The girl in question had long since wolfed down her own meal and was furiously ogling that of her friends whom she was eating with, sending chills down Connie's spine who was sitting in front of her, he was one of the top recruits, just slightly above Sasha even considering his less than ideal height.

Liesl seemed really sketchy as she carefully neared the girl from behind, once she was right behind her she whispered to her right ear "Hey"

This sent a jolt through the spine of the Potato Girl as she involuntarily jumped out of her seat wile shouting "AH! What!?"

She calmed down once she saw who it was that scared her.

"Oh, it's the angel!" said the girl.

Liesl had been feeding a bit of her food to the girl since the beginning of their training days, earning her the title of angel.

What the poor girl didn't know was that Liesl didn't do so out of the goodness of her heart, but mainly because she saw the girl as a cute pet.

"Yes it's me, here" she passed Sasha the loaf of bread in her hand and started petting her head "Good girl" she said a couple of times.

"What the..." said Connie, he had seen this happening a couple of times already, but he could swear that could see dog ears coming out of Sasha's head and a wagging tail as she ate the bread that was given to her.

"You'll get used to it" said a clearly resigned voice from the person who sat down next to him.

"Oh, hey Klemens" greeted Connie, he wasn't close to this person, but they were starting to become friends, mainly thanks to the multiple encounters happening while Liesl was feeding her pet.

"Hey" replied the green eyed boy.

"Do you mind telling me why she keeps doing this?" he whispered to him while pointing at the two girls, one of whom had stopped petting the other as she had already finished the food that was offered her.

"Figuring out what goes through her head is the same as figuring out the origins of titans, I think that it's all thanks to what happened the first day, they probably formed some sort of bond or whatever" figuring out the girl's thoughts was an impossible thing and not only because she was a girl, but it was a pretty amusing pastime not the less.

The two talked a bit about pointless things, before Connie asked a question "Do you know where Eren is? He ran away as soon as training finished and I haven't seen him since"

"Nope, why do you ask me? I'm not that close to Eren" he still wasn't really close to anybody other than Liesl, but that was beside the point, true friendship with others could only be forged with time.

"You aren't? I heard you calling Mikasa your sister so I thought that at least you guys grew up together" Connie was now confused, it hadn't been a lot of time since they met each other and there still was a lot about each other pasts that they didn't know.

"We aren't really brother and sister, we only met each other two years go, after the fall of Wall Maria, Lie said that she looked a lot like me so she dragged me to talk to her, turns out we hold the same surname, so Lie started calling her sister and it sticked" explained the boy who now started reminiscing.

But his trip to his memories was brutally stopped by a teasing voice that rung from a person who now seated by his side with an arm around his neck and a grin on his face "Oh? So your sister is her sister? Are the two of you married, by chance?"

"For the love of..." his reply was interrupted by the person in question, apparently Connie had been loud enough to be head even by other people.

"ME! For the love of me, this man has long since stolen my frail maiden heart with his laziness and his constant deadpan face, I'm unable to imagine living the rest of my live with anyone else!" said Liesl while moving her arms exaggeratedly and looking at him straight in the eyes with a grin on her face.

'Any chance to see him being bashful is a good one' she thought and seeing his reaction made it worth it.

His lips squeezed into a line as his checks went slightly red as he looked at her with fake rage in his eyes, covering his real feelings, he was actually very pleased about being complimented, that didn't happen often, everyone enjoyed being complimented and he was the same.

But he decided that maintaining silence wasn't the right answer to the teasing, so he went on the offensive "Indeed indeed, my wife is the most beautiful woman in the world after all and her chaotic tendencies made her all the more cuter" he replied while looking at her straight in the eyes, making equally, if not more, exaggerated movements.

He had stood up while putting one of his feet on the bench and lifted both arms palm up, all with the most deadpan face he could muster and with the sarcastic tone he had trained all his life to mock people, mainly Liesl.

Now it was her turn to turn red, which caused him to smirk in victory, but he soon turned horrified as he saw the mischievous grin slowly forming on her blushing face.

The attention of the tables near them had already turned to them to assist to the people usual antics that the two pulled off occasionally, it was one of the best sources of entertainment in a place were there was nothing else and the two were pretty fun while they were at each other throats.

"Yes my dear husband, I remember those sweet words you told me as we were cuddling in each other arms all those years ago as we were in titans territory 'my dear Lie, there is no need to worry, I'm here and the titans will have to go through me to reach you!' then I turned to you and replied 'Oh yes my dear Kle, take me right here, the titans can watch!'" as she spoke his supposed words she imitated his usual deadpan face and tone and while she acted her words she made her voice more acute and more sounding like a maiden in love.

"That's fucked up Lie! We were only ten you pervert! And none of that happened" he already started regretting taking a jab at her, he should have known better.

"We did cuddle tho" she replied with a sly smile, the blush from before gone and replaced by a grin that showed she was enjoying his frustration.

"Yeah, cause we were freezing to death, we had to maintain body temperature!" he replied with slight panic in his normally deadpan voice.

"Oh? So the high and mighty Klemens, undisputed number one in the 104th recruit corp likes to cuddle?" Connie took the chance to throw a hit too, and it hit deep.

"Goddamnit" whispered Klemens, as he decided that a tactical retreat was the best solution, but thankfully, he saw the perfect occasion to use entering through the door.

"What the hell is all this noise coming from here you brats!" shouted the bald instructor as complete silence now reigned through the hall that had been filled with sounds up to now.

'Think fast!' thought Klemens as he raised his hand "Lie farted"

'Yesss, perfect plan' he internally smiled, while outside showing his usual deadpan face to mask his true thoughts, not that it mattered much with someone who could read him like a book sitting right in front of him.

"Stark huh" the instructor quieted down for an instant before continuing "I should have figured you were involved, be sure to not do that in front of civilians, the military has an image to uphold" he then left without adding a word more.

Klemens gave a mental nod to the instructor 'he even gave me a hand' but his glee ended when he felt a chill going down his spine, his head darted to look at his friend who had now narrowed her eyes and did nothin more than smile at him, very ominously.

It was her smile that promised vengeance and as she had once read, vengeance was best served cold.

A couple of seconds later, as people started preparing to go to the next session of training and silence still reigned the hall a feminine voice could be heard "Revenge is best served cold, but you know I'm not very patient, I could do it right now or never, you'll know only when it's too late" the voice was low with a completely unveiled threat which gave a really bad feeling to Klemens even if he didn't have inhuman instincts.

But, hey 'How bad could it be?'