A/N: we didnt get to see much of Erwin in action TTATT i know its bc hes the commander and all but i wanted to see him fight (he was so cool when he fought levi in the no regrets ova)

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"Care to explain why those two have been looking at Erwin like that since this morning?"

Isanna paused from her stretching, turning to the voice and saw Adrian looking over towards Chiara and Adalaide, who were also staring intently at Erwin at a considerable distance. Except, the two girls were sporting dark glares.

Sighing, Isanna shook her head. She had told them to keep what she revealed to them the night before as a secret, but their glares towards the blond were as conspicuous as it could be.

Could they be any more obvious?

After their 'girls' talk, Isanna had decided to bury her feelings for Erwin now that she knew he had taken a liking to someone, and that someone happened to be the same girl Nile was interested in. But of course she wouldn't divulge such a secret; frankly, it was none of her business.

"Beats me," Isanna shrugged her shoulders in fake indifference before resuming her stretching. She noticed Adrian moving his gaze to and fro between Nile and Erwin, a somewhat conflicted expression.

Poor guy. He was sandwiched between his two best friends, a love triangle with a bar waitress. Isanna sympathized with him.

Honestly, if Isanna were in Marie's position, she'd choose Erwin, - and, borrowing a slang from Adalaide and Chiara, - no cap.

She crouched and stretched a leg, eyes glancing towards Erwin and Nile who were currently engaged in a conversation. Yep, she'd definitely pick Erwin over Nile any day. As quick as a heartbeat, with no hesitation.

What kind of blind idiot would pick that prick over those perfect fancy eyebrows - GODS, calm the fuck down Isa.

Isanna slapped both of her cheeks as a means of getting her attention back on training, the impact causing her cheeks to burn and swell in a color of light pink.

"You've finally gone nuts."

Isanna lifted her face to see Nile and Erwin had approached, the former looking at her with his usual disgusted expression while the latter wore his usual, calm demeanor.

Grumbling, the girl stood up from her crouching position. "Dok, do you wanna know how much I love you?"

"No," Nile immediately replied, his face scrunching up even more and confused as to where the girl was getting at.

Isanna ignored him and pointed a finger at the sky. "Count the stars."

Nile automatically looked up, before cursing himself for falling for her gesture. His brows pulled together into a frown as he returned his eyes on her. "Fuck you, it's morning."

"Exactly," Isanna said with a stoic face.

"Technically," this time it was Erwin who entered their conversation, mildly surprising Isanna since the blond always tended to just listen quietly to their verbal exchanges from the background. "the sun is a star."

For a few awkward moments, the three cadets stared at each other as the information hung above the air, as if he just dropped the most mind-blowing revelation to them. 

Then, with a frown, Isanna finally broke the silence. "We get it Erwin, you're smart. You don't have to rub it in our faces."

"Idiot," Nile retorted at her. "you don't have to be smart to know the sun is a star."

"Then does that make you an idiot too?"

"..."

Isanna scoffed. "Thought so."

Moments later, their 3DMG training had finally started, and the thump of hooks latching onto tree barks and the swishing of ropes whizzed through the air as the cadets soared inside the forest at the signaling yell of their instructor.

Isanna squinted her eyes and sharpened her vision as she flew by the big-ass trees, turning her hips occasionally as she turned here and there in search for a target. When her sights landed on a large cut-out cardboard of a titan, she tightened her grip on her blades and angled her wrists, twisting her body in the air and sliced through the bundle of thick stuffed bag that was attached to the nape of the made-shift titan.

Not looking back to see how deep she managed to cut, Isanna continued on, her pace never slowing down while she scanned for her next target.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of blond hair and glanced to her right as Erwin flew a few meters away from her, his undeterred, cool gaze fixated on his own target. Isanna watched as he brandished his blades with both hands and cut through the nape of the fake titan with ease, the sharp buzzing sound of a knife slicing through meat reaching her ears.

Hot damn.

If Erwin sliced through her and told Isanna it was for the survival of humanity, she'd believe him, and even give him her thanks as a side compliment.

I need to get my grip, Isanna scolded herself as she refocused her attention on her training. He already likes someone else. 

•

"Müller, I swear one of these days I'm going to throttle your neck."

Adalaide stuck out her tongue at Nile while pulling the skin below her left eye in a mocking face. "Fix your skills first before you do that!"

When Isanna walked back onto the training grounds to see Nile and Adalaide at each other's neck again, she tilted her head questioningly.

"Adalaide stole his target," she looked to her side to see Mike.

"Again?" Isanna smirked. Whenever they had their 3DMG training, Adalaide always made it her goal to piss Nile off by stealing his targets from right under his nose. "Serves him right."

As they observed Adalaide and Nile having a round of hand-to-hand combat while yelling insults after the other, Isanna felt a figure walking and stopping to her right. When she turned to her side, she saw Erwin holding a flask chugging down its contents as the early noon sunlight kissed his skin, radiating his face while sweat clung on to him.

Isanna silently gulped and couldn't tear her eyes from the heaven-sent angel that was standing right next to her. She swore the man was sculpted by the gods themselves and wondered how such a beautiful specimen was walking the same ground and breathing the same air as her.

To think she had been by the side of this majestic creature for years.

Life was unfair.

She was so lost in admiring the scenery when Erwin glanced at her, lowering his flask.

"Is there something on my face?"

Wincing and internally cursing, Isanna prayed her face wasn't as red as she imagined. She grabbed Erwin's flask and took it from his grasp.

"No, I was just thirsty," she defended, half a truth and half a lie as she brought the opening of the flask to her own lips and downed the dregs of water. I need to get over him fast. 

Isanna found it funny that she had to get over someone she wasn't even in a relationship with. Curse her feelings. 

Erwin lightly shook his head at her but didn't say anything nor made a move to get his bottle back. There was this silent unofficial rule between them that whatever Erwin had, Isanna also had full ownership over it, and vice versa. Such were the terms and conditions enclosing their friendship.

On the other hand, Mike silently observed their exchange. He knew both have been living together when they were kids and that there weren't supposed to be any meaning to it, but he wondered if they were even aware that their gestures were considered borderline flirting. Anyone who would see them acting like the way they were around each other could see that.

In addition, Mike had adept intuition other than his good sense of smell; he would be blind to not have noticed the tension between his two friends for a while now - although the tension leaned more towards Isanna's recent stiffness around the blond. Erwin on the other hand, was as bland as ever.

Or maybe he was just reading into things too deeply.