It was quite a slow day in the Survey Corps today. Levi didn’t have a mission (he just finished one) so he was just walking around Headquarters without a particular idea for a destination.

He couldn’t help but feel like HQ was emptier and quieter than usual, even if they just had a horde of new recruits. As he passed the mess hall, a cacophony of voices overlapped each other as the new recruits happily ate their meal.

Even amidst all those voices, he couldn’t hear the one voice he wanted to hear the most. Jordan Solace. His beloved lieutenant.

Jordan had been on a solo mission collecting information about the Titans for a week now. Maybe two. Erwin trusts only her with this mission due to her knack of sneaking around the Titans undetected. She isn’t nicknamed the Shadow Lieutenant for nothing.

Levi expected Jordan to take a while. He was the one she asked for permission, after all. Erwin believed in her skills and so did he.

Jordan had been in many solo missions before, but it never made the separation any easier. Days in HQ were never complete without hearing Jordan’s annoying but cheerful voice at least once.

He stopped outside her office, wondering if he should go in or not. He knew Jordan always left her office unlocked in case someone needed to put or get something inside. But at the same time, what was the point? Her office would be completely empty, doing nothing but reminding Levi that she was still gone.

As he kept his hand loosely around the knob, wallowing in his own thoughts, a shout from the outside was heard.

Levi jolted in surprise as he looked over his shoulder. The new recruits were running down the hallway, their excited voices quickly overlapping each other as they ran.

It couldn’t have been a Titan breach. Their voices and faces were filled with excitement rather than fear. Levi was about to brush it off, thinking that a cat or something was found in HQ, when one of the voices reached his ears. The words he heard made his heart skip in his chest.

”The Lieutenant is back!”

In an instant, Levi was running ahead of everybody. He had moved so fast it was like he had teleported. But he didn’t care. Jordan is back. His beloved lieutenant has returned.