Before I start this story, I thought I should point out that this will be vaguely AU, as I have not read the manga and do not remember all the details from the anime.

I also do not know what happens after the end of the anime, however for the purpose of this story I assume that Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Sasha and Connie become Levi's new squad. This assumption is most likely wrong but like I said, this will be vaguely AU.

Now that that's out of the way, please enjoy!

"I'm adding a new member to your squad." Erwin spoke with authority, a certain tone in his voice that prevented anyone from opposing his command.

"Like hell you are." Except, of course, for Levi. The pair walked through one of the long hallways in the current headquarters for the Survey Corps, heading in the direction of Erwin's office. Erwin let out a sigh at the expected response, but pushed on with his proposal.

"She graduated first in the 106th trainee squad-,"

"Absolutely not." Levi interrupted, and Erwin let out another noise of frustration.

"Her skills are almost unparalleled and she has an outstanding knowledge of-,"

"Erwin, I don't care if her shit is the key to the extinction of titans. You're not putting her on my squad." Levi deadpanned, cutting his commander off again, and Erwin clenched his fists. He had expected an argument of some scale, but this was ridiculous.

"You're being unreasonable, Levi. At least let me get a full sentence out before you-,"

"I know what you're doing. Do you take me for a fool, Erwin?" Levi asked, and Erwin wondered if he had cut him off on purpose or not. He wouldn't put it passed the shorter man and his dry sense of humour.

"What am I doing?" The commander asking unknowingly, and Levi rolled his eyes.

"I know who you're talking about. She isn't just some recruit. It's her, isn't it?" Erwin glanced sidelong at him and saw Levi wore his usual bored expression, no hint of emotion betrayed on his face.

"How did you know?" He asked in defeat, still glancing at Levi in curiosity. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen a flash of real emotion in the man and thought that perhaps, this would spark some hint of humanity in him.

"Nobody else could be that skilled so soon after entering the Survey Corps and, if they were, you wouldn't bother with my squad and immediately promote them to captain. Given her circumstances, it was obvious." Levi glanced out of a long window as they passed it, casually observing his squad as they trained in the courtyard below. He could see they were beginning to slack off, and decided he would give them laps when he was finished with Erwin. "Besides, I heard Hange talking about the other day."

Erwin frowned as they stopped outside the door to his office and, after a moment of thought, he opened the door. He gestured for Levi to enter but the shorter man stayed motionless outside the door. "We're not finished discussing this, Levi." Erwin told him and Levi gave him a hard glare.

"Why does it have to be my squad? We don't need a new member, the team I have now works well together." Levi continued defiantly, trying to argue his point from a logical perspective.

"Because you're the special operations squad, and she's a useful asset to your team. Besides, you know she can be easily integrated." Levi opened his mouth to argue his point further, probably with the use of a few choice words, when Erwin spoke again. "This isn't up for discussion, Levi. I've made my decision."

"You're jeopardising my ability to make just decisions by putting her on my squad. You're endangering my entire team." Levi still held that bored expression, but his voice rose in volume to express his growing frustration.

"I don't doubt your position as a squad leader. You commanded her once, I am certain that you can do it again. As your commander, I expect you to accept my decision." Levi didn't reply and Erwin knew that the conversation had been won. "She'll be arriving tonight. I trust you to be ready." Erwin stepped inside his office and closed the door behind him, though he could practically feel Levi's glare through the wood.

"Tch." Levi turned back in the direction of his squad and decided that yes, having them run laps was certainly a good idea. When his squad saw the cold glare in their captain's eye, they all shared a look of doom before they were forced to run laps around the giant castle. When Eren dared to question their captain's reasoning, Levi told them, "You can thank your new team member when she arrives. Now keep running. You can stop when I don't feel so pissed off."

As Levi watched his team run their second lap, with each lap being about 2 miles long, he began to feel his frustration subside. He called out as they passed him and one by one, they all collapsed in front of him. They all looked completely exhausted and Sasha was crying about how numb her feet were, but Levi didn't bother to listen. He dismissed them for the night and they disappeared almost instantaneously, not daring to stay in his presence longer than necessary when he was in such a mood.

Although he had been beginning to relax, his stiffness returned the moment he saw the figure of a lone rider approaching the castle. He subconsciously straightened his cravat, though did not bother to stand from his seat on the steps at the front of the castle. He watched carefully as she approached, light beginning to shine on her face and aid his vision and all too soon, she was in front of him.

She dismounted her horse without waiting for it to stop and halted in front of him, her hand raised over her heart in salute. Levi scanned her carefully, not failing to notice that she stared straight ahead and did not look at him. He could see her grey eyes were dull and her lips were turned downwards and thought that nothing had changed. He noticed her long brown hair braided behind her and thought, she still hasn't cut her hair, idiot.

"Reina Evans reporting for duty, Sir." She spoke after an elongated moment of silence and Levi felt his eyes narrow. Her voice was too certain, too calm. He felt like she was mocking him, and he couldn't have been more annoyed.

He slowly stood to his feet and, the moment he was in front of her, her gaze dropped to the ground. She was avoiding looking at him. Levi slowly circled her, taking a moment to familiarise himself with her once more. She was slightly shorter than him, perhaps only by an inch, but was lean and incredibly fit. He stopped in front of her once again and waited, daring her too look at him, but she refused. His eye twitched in annoyance.

"Where the fuck do you get off?" He asked after almost a minute of silence, failing to realise his unprofessionalism. However, his sudden lash had the desired effect and her eyes darted up to meet his. Levi wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but having her look at him only made him angrier.

"…Sir?" She questioned quietly after a moment, unsure if the question was rhetorical or not. Knowing Levi it was, but she wasn't going to take any risks. He stared at her a moment longer, eyes narrowed in scrutiny, before he averted his gaze and sat back on the castle step once again.

"Laps. Start running." She made no move and he looked back at her in question. She regarded him with a knowing gaze and Levi scowled at her. "Now." She paused a second longer but then began running, and Levi let out a breath he didn't realised he had been holding.

Eren, Jean and Armin observed her from one of the castle windows.

"That must be our new member." Eren muttered, face still hot from running.

"I wonder why Captain Levi didn't tell us about her before." Armin said quietly. Eren scoffed.

"I don't care, we had to run laps because of her. I hope the captain makes her run twice as many laps as we did."

"How old do you think she is?" Jean asked, squinting his eyes as he tried to assess her through the darkness that was quickly enveloping the castle.

"Looks about our age, I think. Maybe older?" Armin answered thoughtfully, because it really was hard to tell in the dark. The three continued to watch in silence for a moment, before Armin spoke again. "I wonder what she did…"

"She must have really pissed Levi off to be running laps already." Jean offered, and they all nodded in agreement.

Reina was finishing her third lap when she felt every muscle in her body start aching. She glanced to the front of the castle and saw Levi was still there, so she pushed on and began her fourth lap around the castle. She was used to the pain of training hard and, if anything, she welcomed it. She was especially grateful for it at that moment, because if she didn't have the pain of her body to think about she would be forced to think about him.

She had expected Levi to be hostile towards her upon their reunion, but this was just immature. She hadn't so much as stepped foot inside the castle before she was being punished. And for what? She figured Levi was doing it just to spite her, to punish her for her actions ten years ago. It certainly was like him to hold a grudge.

Reina cleared her mind of all thoughts not associated with pain and forced her legs to keep moving forward. When she passed the castle for the fourth time, she saw Levi was not there anymore. She faltered for a second, wondered if she should keep running, but deep down she knew this was a test. Of course she had to keep running. He hadn't told her she could stop, yet. And so despite the objections of her body, she began her fifth lap around the castle.

As she passed one of the windows of the castle she heard a voice calling out and looked in their direction, though still did not stop.

"Hey, Captain Levi is back in his office. Why are you still running?" Reina saw a small girl with black hair, framed around her face. She seemed indifferent to the matter either way, and was perhaps trying to help only to pass the time. Reina looked away from her.

"He hasn't told me to stop." She muttered, and continued dragging herself forward. When she finally rounded the castle once more, she noticed several bodies sitting outside. She was disappointed to find none of them were Levi.

Mikasa had told the rest of the squad that the new girl was still running and, because a vast majority of them didn't believe anyone could be that stupid, they had gathered outside to see if it was true. So when they saw the brunette jog into view they were shocked, to say the least.

"Oi, new girl. Why are you still running?" Sasha called out. Reina didn't even bother to spare the group another glance because if she distracted herself, her body could give up on her. Besides, she was almost certain they were only there to mock her.

"She said it's because Captain Levi hasn't told her to stop." Mikasa mumbled.

"Huh?" Eren gawked. "Are you an idiot?" Still, she ignored them. They watched in dumbfounded silence as she disappeared around the side of the castle once again and, after exchanging looks, decided to stay out of curiosity.

Reina couldn't feel her body anymore. Her legs had gone numb somewhere between her fourth and fifth lap, but she didn't take notice of it. She was determined to do this. Something inside of her was furious that Levi would give her such a trivial challenge, as if he had expected her to give up. She was determined to prove him wrong.

When she began her seventh lap around the castle, she noticed the group out the front were still there. They watched her quietly as she passed by them again and when she was almost out of sight, one of them called out.

"How many laps have you done?" She considered not answering, but figured there was no harm in such a simple question.

"This is my seventh." She muttered, not entirely sure if they had even heard. However, a second later she heard gasps and someone exclaimed that 'she's about to beat the record!' Reina didn't particularly care about beating some silly record, but she thought perhaps if she accomplished that much, Levi would realise she wasn't giving up. With that in mind, she pushed forward.

Levi heard a knock on his office door and didn't glance up from his paperwork. A moment later the door opened and Erwin appeared. Levi sighed.

"Why is Reina running laps?" Levi's eye twitched for the second time that day, and he realised that something about her name bothered him immensely.

"She disrespected me." Levi told the commander curtly, still focused on his paperwork. He paused for a moment, then added, "Why? Did she come and complain about me already?" He wasn't surprised. Reina had never been particularly concerned with following Levi's orders, and he didn't see any reason for her to start being now.

"Actually, I heard she's about to break some sort of record." Erwin smirked, because he knew this would bother Levi and Erwin was always interested in watching Levi's reaction when things did not go to plan. He stopped writing and took a moment to process the words, before he looked up at Erwin expressionlessly. Levi studied the commander for a moment before he stood from his chair and headed back outside, hands clenched in fists in anger.

When he reached the front of the castle, he saw his entire squad seemingly lounging around to watch her. Levi waited a moment, stood behind them in the shadow and watched. When Reina dragged herself around to the front of the castle for the seventh time she could hear the group assembled there cheering lightly for her. She looked at them for a moment, half expecting to see Levi among them, but felt her heart sink when she saw he was still absent.

She let out a sigh and continued forward, and the cheers from her team members subsided.

"Wait, she's still going?" Connie asked in a hushed voice, and they all exchanged confused looks.

"What's the point?" Jean asked, dumbfounded.

"Captain Levi left! That's practically the same as him telling you you're dismissed, doesn't she know that?" Sasha gushed with wide eyes. They continued to exchange mumbled whispers for another moment, before they were all jolted back to attention.

"Oi, brats. What do you all think you're doing?" They turned to see Levi standing behind them, his typically bored eyes looking at them. They scrambled to their feet with rushed apologies, Armin explaining that they were offering their new team member some support.

Levi looked at them for a moment longer before he walked through them, outside the front of the castle. He saw Reina was just disappearing around the side of the castle and for a moment, he considered letting her do another lap. But he decided against it because it was starting to rain and he didn't want his boots to get muddy while he waited for her.

"Evans." He called after her, and she immediately stopped running. She turned back around and her shoulders slumped when she saw Levi standing there. "Are you dense? You should have stopped running when I left." Reina did not make a move and Levi waited another moment before he let out a long sigh. "You're dismissed, Evans."

The moment the words left his lips, Reina collapsed on the ground below her. She felt her knees graze the hard dirt as she fell but she didn't mind at all, just thankful that she could finally rest her aching muscles. She had completed his challenge, and she hoped that would make some sort of difference in Levi's attitude towards her. Show him that she was serious about this, Reina hoped.

She took long, deep breaths as she lowered her head in exhaustion, her body beginning to sink further toward the ground. She was preparing to lie down, unbothered by the rain and subsequent mud beginning to form, but was halted when she saw a hand in front of her. She looked at it in confusion for a moment before raising her head, following the hand up as it attached to a muscular arm, up past a dampening jacket and over a well-defined jaw until she was looking at Levi.

His expression was as cold and emotionless as ever, but Reina smiled nonetheless. She let her hand fall into his and he pulled her to her feet. However, her feet objected to the notion of being used once again and her knees buckled as she began to crumple, until Levi shot his arm out to catch her. She fell into him and he supported her weight, reluctantly helping her walk back inside the castle.

His squad watched with wide eyes as he all but carried Reina towards her room, and Levi didn't bother to spare them a glance.

"Sir, the mud-," Armin began to say, thinking that perhaps the captain hadn't realised that he was dirtying his uniform.

"Why are you still here? Training begins at 7 am sharp. Go to sleep, you idiots." Levi deadpanned and the group immediately dispersed. Levi remained silent after that as he led Reina to her new quarters. He opened the door with his free hand and manoeuvred her to the bed, where he dropped her ungracefully.

He turned to leave but stopped at the door, glancing back to see her pulling a blanket over herself, not even bothering to remove her boots. "Like I said to the others – training begins at 7 am sharp." He turned to leave, faltering only slightly as he heard her voice.

"Yes, Captain Levi."

a/n

I know this chapter might be a little slow and what not, but please let me know what you think! I'll go into detail about Levi and Reina's past as the story progresses, but I'll explain a lot of it in the next chapter (if I do decide to continue this).

This is basically the tester chapter, so if no one reviews or shows interest then this is all that there will ever be of this story!

So basically, please let me know if this interests you! Thank you, I really appreciate it!