Hanji was all smiles which in turn, would have annoyed Levi if he hadn't worked with her for so long; both soldiers sat at the table going through reports sent from Commander Erwin. His eyes rove over her form in an attempt to read her and after a while, Levi decided to break the silence,

"What the hell are you smiling for?" His companion only grinned wider, leaving Levi to deal with the fact that she just blatantly ignored him and continued to read the report in his hand.

The silence was extended further, something Levi usually liked, however, today out of all days, the silence bothered him greatly. He swore that Hanji wore a grin more disturbing than any titan he's faced and slain before; he reached for his mug to take a sip and it was at that moment that Hanji decided to disrupt the silence,

"Don't you think Petra has been acting rather unusual lately?"

The mug halted for half a second before he took a sip. Unfortunately, the woman caught his small action as easily as she collected information from her experiments. Deciding to humor the annoying woman, he played along, asking a rhetorical question,

"Petra?" Hanji nodded with amusement, her grin visible as she was contained with thoughts of countless scenarios running through her head. Levi stopped himself from cocking an eyebrow and resumed reading the last page of the report he had left.

"I'm sure you've noticed as well, Levi," Hanji commented, a chuckle rumbled as she continued to pester the small captain with a situation involving one of his subordinates.

"You must be spending too much time with your lovers," he remarked, referring to her filthy, beloved guinea pigs; it disgusted him more when she completely accepted his snarky comment with a victorious grin plastered onto her face.

"Heichou?" Levi immediately traced the sound of her voice and regarded her with a glance to his left as his subordinate poked her head in with a small smile,

"Would you like more coffee?" Levi watched silently as she pushed her strawberry blonde locks behind her right ear; a gesture he's noticed her do constantly, especially in his presence. Before he could answer, Hanji beat him to the start of the conversation,

"Petra, have you been alright?"

The shorter woman blinked once and then a second time at her question. Small lips pursed faintly in thought of Hanji's question, unsure of how to give a satisfying answer to the grinning woman. Clearly, she wouldn't get any juicy responses like she had hoped. Petra then forced out a smile and escaped back through the door with a barely audible,

"Coffee's on its way."

Levi wasn't startled when Hanji slammed a hand on the table, disregarding his supposed interest in the last report he was reading.

"See? Don't you feel a tad bit curious?" In response to her question, Levi simply fixed the position of his coffee mug for when Petra returned to serve him more coffee. He refused to become a nosy bastard; instead, he waited for Hanji to leave with the realization of paranoia finally hitting her. Sadly, it didn't happen. He heard her scoff at his lack of interest and figured that she was waiting for Petra to come around again for a second interrogation. At this point, he figured that this wasn't the last of hearing Hanji's suspicions.

Of course, after Petra made her appearance once more, Levi had already caught on to what Hanji was saying. It was odd for his subordinate to evade a question made by Hanji. Normally, no matter how shitty the question was, Petra always had an answer.

With a soft smile, she poured enough coffee for Levi and immediately turned around as if she remembered to finish a forgotten errand.

"Petra."

She immediately stilled and waited for his next words, forcing herself to not shiver at the roll of his tongue as he spoke her name. The strawberry blonde twisted her head, to show that she had heard him. Levi remained stoic as he caught sight of Petra's nervous smile.

"Yes, Heichou?"

Her heart fluttered at the way his eyes watched her as if he were trying to read her and fought hard to not let herself become so flustered. Especially with Hanji there to witness the scene.

Petra stared at Hanji in disbelief, wondering why the scientist was grinning like a madwoman at this point. To make things worse, Levi broke his gaze from her and was suddenly more interested in his mug of coffee.

"Forget it. You can leave, Petra."

There it was again, the way her name sounded horribly pleasant whenever it was released from his tongue. She fought off another shiver as she made her exit, glad that they didn't catch her expression or so she thought.

Once she knew that Petra was gone, Levi swore that Hanji's grin must've been permanently branded onto her face since it never left.

"What's your point?" He asked, his eyes never left the door as if waiting for the answer to just come through the door to finally shut Hanji up.

"As her captain, I say you should check to make sure she's alright," the suggestion caused the coffee to turn unbearable and his stoic expression wavered.

"She's a fucking grown ass woman. There's a reason she's in my squad." His mug landed harder against the table than he would have liked but he didn't give a shit. Hanji blinked before pouting,

"Then how are we going to find out what's wrong?"

He stood; leaving all the reports stacked neatly and read through. The only item he bothered to pick up was his mug and the tasty bitterness was back when he took another sip.

The last thing he heard was Hanji whining.

The moon light shined brightly over headquarters and Levi simply stood by the window to let it wash over him as well. From where he stood, Levi had a hawk eye view of the barn.

An eyebrow instantly shot up when he noticed a small silhouette entering the barn slowly like culprit who didn't want to get caught at the scene. His lips twitched into an amused smile when the moon shined down on the form to reveal the person he least expected to be out this late.

Petra sighs in relief when she manages to release her stallion back into its stall with no trouble in the dark. The strawberry blonde rolls her shoulders at the soreness that she's starting to feel from her late evening training, unsure of what compelled her to do so if she had already proven herself as a worthy team member.

Her eyes began to twinkle as she thought back to when she first got word that Captain Levi invited her to be part of his squad. There was no doubt that she felt happy for being acknowledged of her skill and abilities, but she had not expected to become more entranced with her captain. It wasn't until recently that she discovered that nothing made her happier than to devote herself completely to him. She frowned when she instantly thought of even dying if it came to help Captain Levi. The sick part was that she was more afraid of being separated from him rather than dying at the merciless hands of a titan.

She places a small hand over her heart, feeling it accelerate to the point that she was in risk of it breaking through her rib cage. That alone was enough for her to face the awful truth.

She had fallen for her captain hard.

Petra smiles sadly and turns to give her horse a few comforting strokes on its face.

Her companion whines a bit and jerks its head to let her know of what she shouldn't forget.

"I know," Petra murmured with a smile as she worked on the bucket to fetch some water outside. She jogged to the nearest well.

Soon as she pulled the bucket back up, she fingers almost let it slip from her hands when she heard a familiar voice that made her toes curl inward,

"Petra." And again, he would unknowingly torture her in a blissful way with his voice and she huffed slightly before facing him with a smile.

"Heichou?" He stood a couple of meters from where she stood and watched her carry the bucket with a hand as she walked back to the barn. She wasn't sure if he would follow, but then she inwardly felt springs of joy when she heard his footsteps right behind her.

He didn't question her like she had expected him to so she went to tend her horse before it became restless. Pouring the water down, she smiled when the horse whined with content and soon left to go back to the man who caused her emotions to spike up dramatically.

She closed up the barn and returned back, both anxious and scared. As she struggled to ignore the fact that Levi was staring at her in thought, she pushed back her locks behind her ear again and spoke with a sheepish smile,

"I'm sorry that I've been sneaking out."

"Care to explain to me why?" He voiced out, his eyes narrowed dangerously when he couldn't come up with a conclusion as to why his subordinate decided to run off at late hours. He noticed her shuffle uncomfortably under his scrutinizing stare before mumbling,

"I was training and today I marked my tenth kill." Levi said nothing and only remained passively quiet before shooting out his next question.

"Don't you train enough during the day along with all the other chores you do?"

Petra opened her mouth to respond, but she immediately clamped it shut at what she was almost going to blurt out. Instead, she sighed through her nose and with a look of determination, she faced her captain again,

"Still, I was handpicked by you to serve under your command." The way this conversation was going wasn't the way Petra had expected it to go. She wished that a titan would be nearby in order to distract her captain enough to flee, but as long as those sharp eyes of his never left hers, it made her train of thought crash into a wall and ended up admitting an important piece of information.

"I want to be of use to you," she murmured before mentally slapping herself for the way it sounded. No later, she became awfully nervous when she noticed his brow twitch up at her confession.

"Is that so?" He mused, somehow getting under her skin without losing his stoic expression. She must've had cocoons locked away in her stomach, because she suddenly felt thousands of fluttering butterflies inside of her from the sight of those cold, grey eyes.

"Petra." This time she couldn't fight off the blush that colored her face a pretty pink as her name escaped from his tongue. She enjoyed the slight tingles she received and it didn't escape his eyes.

She closed her eyes to calm herself down, the loudness of her beating heart was the only thing she could hear and Levi simultaneously began to walk till he stood in front of her. Without meaning to continue his torture, he spoke Petra's name again as he broke her from distracting thoughts. Her blush was more apparent but Levi paid no mind to it,

"Why did you agree to serve under me?"

Her eyes fluttered open at the question, not knowing where he was getting at. Still, she shyly smiled and offered a simple explanation,

"You acknowledged my abilities that I've worked so hard for." Her smile becomes more confident as she suddenly stands at attention with a salute.

"And for that I'll devote myself to you, Heichou." He stands still as he stares at his subordinate announcing her full loyalty and respect towards him. He sighs before laying a gentle hand on top of her head as a thankful gesture.

"I made the right choice." That was all he murmured before making an exit towards the door, but once he was almost out, he halted for a brief moment,

"I'll accept it." He then disappears, leaving Petra to think over the words he just said as she failed to catch the faintest smile from the man she chose to fight for.

Headquarters was dead silent when Eren and Levi arrived back and the captain was the first to head towards his room,

"I feel so damn filthy."

Eren paid no mind as he sat alone at the kitchen table, feeling remorse over the failed mission. There was no way to stop the tears if he couldn't even forgive himself for what had transpired.

He wanted to believe that he had made the right choice, that they weren't murdered for nothing.

"What good is trust if you can't protect those around you?" He choked on his sobs that echoed through the empty halls of their base.

Not far, Levi glared at the walls as he slightly limped towards his destination.

In his bedroom, Levi slowly approached the window before gazing down at the barn, somehow waiting for a figure to just sneak inside to store their horse. He waited and waited till the warm covers of the sunshine were replaced with sheets of the moonlight.

Still, he saw nothing but had soon caught a faint whisper of a familiar voice as he continued to wait for that someone to enter the barn.

Was I useful to you, Heichou?

"Yes."

Howdy! It's been a while! Sorry, but I'm kinda in a writer's block with my first story, so it'll be awhile before I go back to it. I've been dying to write a Shingeki no Kyojin fanfic and I finally did! :D Bad side... It causes me pain and suffering every time I think back to my OTP. I love you, Petra. /3 I feel like nothing will ever help me move on but oh what the hell! lol In the end, it's a blissful torture when riding the Rivetra train, but I'll keep my head up. Ahem, anywho, sorry, but this is my first fic of Shingeki no Kyojin and probably many more will come to appease my Rivetra heart! Also, this is my belated birthday present to myself as well as dedicating it to all Rivetra fans there! Hope you enjoyed!