Hey guys! I'm back with the rewrite of the rewrite! I have an actual plot planned out, sorta. I haven't worked out all the little details yet but here's the preview/first chapter. It's a bit different from before. Hope you like it! Also, the photo above is not my own I found it on pinterest, credits go to the original creator.

Please give feedback! Vote, comment. Anything!

P.S. Lmao I made levi my new screen saver on my phone

~

"Beautiful."

That was all Alena Holdt was able to say, her deep green eyes flecked with gold gazed upon the open field and small pond in the center. Inside of the Trost District, it was unlikely to find scenes such as this. Even though it was just an outer district of Wall Rose, it was quite expansive, but Alena had thought that any beautiful scenery had been wiped away as a result of building development to accommodate the growing populace. Maybe a building was taken down and they put this here.

She peered over at her grinning companion, his eyes the color of dark honey were on her. Smiling at him, she plopped down underneath a tree, watching him do the same. "Isn't it?" He sighed, laying back onto the ground with his hands folded behind his head.

The nineteen-year-olds looked into the sky, the day was warm and peaceful. The young military police officer was back on leave for only a week, and today was her first day back. Masato practically begged her to let him show her what he found while she was away. "Instead of begging you should have told me what you found!" A laugh bubbled from her lips as he gave her a sour look.

"Maybe if you weren't so stubborn I wouldn't have to beg," he turned his head away, his nose in the air.

"Don't be such a baby," Alena teased. Masato sat up, his eyes narrowed as he leaped on her. He pressed her back against the ground, his fingers at her sides causing her to let out a screech.

"M-Masato... Stop!" She gasped between breaths, her sides burning from his relentless attacks. His fingers eased away from her sides, allowing the young woman time to breathe. Masato leaned over her, gazing at her face. When she opened her eyes, his face clouded her vision. His eyes met hers, the sheer intensity in his gaze caused a blush to rise to her cheeks.

It was no secret to others that the two had feelings for one another, but they never crossed that line due to fear. Much to their parents chagrin. Alena's mother always pestered her about moving things along in the relationship but she wasn't even sure if Masato felt the same way. It was the same for Masato.

Now she couldn't help but think that he might feel the same way. And it scared her. She didn't know why but it just seemed wrong. Why was she wasting away inside the walls, with silly romance and telling drunkards to go home inside Wall Sina?

As Masato leaned in slowly, she didn't know what else to do other than turn her head away before his lips could make contact. The man leaned away from her, shielding the hurt in his eyes by gazing up into the blue sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight. Alena bit her lip as he got off of her, standing up and brushing his clothes off. "It's about time to go. Do you want me to walk you back to your cottage?"

Nodding, the girl took the hand that he reached out for her to take, a static pulse emanating from his touch. He always did that to her. "Hey, you wanna hear a funny story about when I was patrolling the underground?"

~

"What do you mean someone attacked you?!" Masato gasped, turning and gripping her shoulders in his hands. She was his best friend and first love, he already didn't like that she was in the military police, but now he had to worry about people from the underground trying to kill her.

"Well, I was just doing my thing, handing out the left over bread to the kids—which I do every night— when this short dude with an undercut came at me with a knife."

"You say this like it happens so often!"

"..." Alena didn't say anything, averting her eyes away from his scrutinizing gaze. She may have omitted the fact that whenever she was in the underground, every do often there would be a desperate man trying to steal her money or sex traffickers trying to kidnap her. She was always advised to not volunteer to go in the underground but, she was the only one willing to bring the bread to the kids.

"Alena..." her companion spoke in a stern tone. "You've been lying to me this whole time?!"

"Of course, if I told you about every man that's tried to force themselves onto me or rob me you'd have a heart attack."

"Force themselves onto you?!"

"Masato, it's fine. I can protect myself down there. Anyways, this short dude with the undercut wanted to steal my bread but I told him it was for the kids. He didn't believe me and then he cut my arm!" She huffed, pulling back her sleeve to reveal a faded pink scar, stretching from her wrist to her elbow. She was lucky it missed any major blood vessels.

"Take me down there, I'll kill that bastard—"
she listened as he made a string of threats, telling her that he was being serious when she laughed. "This isn't a joke! I knew that you joining the military was a bad idea!"

"Masato... you know why I joined."

"Yeah, but I don't like it when you get hurt," he frowned as they continued on their way back to her home. They didn't get very far, because Alena felt the hair rise on the back of her neck along with with goosebumps. She placed her hand on the back of her neck, rubbing the area as she stopped Masato.

"What is it?"

"I don't know." She mumbled, turning head in all directions, looking for anything out of the ordinary, anyone suspicious. From years of working in the underground, she'd trained herself to be wary of her surroundings. It was best that way, since she didn't need her past catching her off guard. The tingling feeling faded away, causing her to sigh. "I guess it's—" She was cut off when someone knocked into her while they were passing by, shoving her into her companion.

"H-hey! Watch where you're going!" Growled the young woman, throwing her fist in the air angrily.

"Sorry, my bad," the man called back, the bottom half of his face cover by the collar of his coat as he turned his head back.

"Tch, what a jerk," Masato settled Alena back onto her feet, his hands on her shoulders as he looked down at her to make sure she was alright. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's get going. It's almost dinner." She gave him a reassuring smile.

~

Alena stopped at the fence surrounding her small cottage, spotting her pretty mother gardening over by the living room window. "Hey, mom!" She greeted, catching the woman's attention.

"Alena! And Masato! Just in time for dinner. Would you like to stay and eat with us?" The kind woman asked, taking off her gardening gloves and hair bandeau, brushing out her red hair. Sometimes Alena was jealous that she didn't inherit the same bright colored hair as her mom, instead it was a dark auburn, almost brown, color.

The nineteen year old turned to her friend, watching as he tensed up at the question. Masato didn't hate her mom, in fact, he was actually beginning to like the woman. He was just wary of her after what had happened in the past.

"It's ok Masato, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, I'll stay," he said, entering the gate with Alena. "She looks like she's getting better," he murmured.

"She is."

Having been friends with Masato since their childhood, he knew almost everything about her. Even when she wanted to keep a secret, he always found out. So, there normally were no secrets between them. She could only keep a secret for so long before she let it slip. Because of how close they'd been, he knew all about her home life.

He knew that her mother was recovering from a previous psychotic break, and that she was still fragile. Much of her trauma had to do with their past, and much of it included Alena. Seeing Alena sometimes was triggering, so it wasn't often that the girl visited her mom. That wasn't the only reason she didn't visit very often, a lot of the past that she was trying to forget also had to do with her mother, so she wanted to stay away for her own sake as well.

But ever since her mother started getting better, she started coming around every couple months, rather than twice a year. Masato was happy that things were starting to fall into place, and that he got to see Alena more.

"Hey, Masato, let's go set the table." Nodding, the boy followed the girl into the small cottage, picking up the aroma of potato and carrot stew, and the slight hint of beef.

As they all sat down at the dinner table, they made small talk with each other and thanked Angelina for the food. Outside the cottage, they noticed people running passed, many of them being garrison soldiers. "Hm, I wonder what's going on?" Alena questioned, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind.

"Oh, it's probably nothing dear." Her mom waved it off, going back to eating the beef stew she had made.

Unfortunately, this would be the last time they would be tasting beef stew for a while.

~

Hope you guys liked it! Vote, comment, leave your feed back so I know how you guys feel before I continue on with rewriting the story!