Chapter Text
For a long moment nobody said anything as we all processed that the famous Levi Heichou was standing in front of us. The world famous champion; the one who only broke records and left even his teammates in the dust. The Levi Heichou.
I'll be honest, he was a lot shorter than I thought he would be. Even so, he still had an imposing air about him. His eyes were squinted and he looked as if he was perpetually bored. He crossed his arms and sized us all up.
“Well, fuck me with a drumstick,” Eren murmured as he voiced his surprise. I don't think he meant for anybody to hear it but Levi raised his eyebrows.
“I'll pass but thanks, dumbass,” He deadpanned and Eren turned a bright red that gave fire trucks a run for their money.
“Um, Levi,” Coach Ral interjected, “You aren't supposed to swear at the students.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes but said nothing.
“You aren't as tall in person.”
Several mouths dropped as Levi pivoted on his heel to face the boy who had spoken and narrowed his eyes. The boy had brown hair and was a whole head taller than him and didn't seem to noticed the deathly glare on the new coach's face. A freckled boy with black hair elbowed him in the side but he just furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
Levi approached the boy and stood before him. I could sense the concealed anger under his masked face which only showed annoyance. Height must have been a really sensitive subject for him.
“What's your name?” Levi asked the boy.
“Jean Kirschtein, Coach,” he answered boldly.
“And do you always go out of your way to be an obnoxious little shit or is it just a character flaw?”
Coach Ral seemed like she wanted to say something about him swearing again but decided against it.
“I-what?” Jean seemed appalled by this turn of events. Eren snickered and Jean spared a glare his way before he turned his attention back to the tiny man.
“Kirschtein!” Levi yelled and the boy took an involuntary step backwards. He really was intimidating despite his size.
“Yeah?”
“Five laps around the field. Now.”
“What? Why?”
“Because your horse face annoys me,” Levi said before turning his back on all of us, “In fact, everyone take five laps. Consider this the beginning of try outs.”
There was an awkward moment where everyone looked at each other before Eren started running and everyone else followed suit.
I paced myself as we ran as most of the others did. Back when I was a Titan, I was the quickest runner on the team which is probably one of the main reasons I was on the team. I wasn't the ideal batter but I could could run three bases in the time it took for most to run a base and a half. It also made me a killer outfielder.
At the last lap, I picked up my pace and quickly passed many of the others. I soon caught up to Eren and Jean who seemed to be racing each other at the front of the line. For a moment I ran with them before I passed them both completely and smirked to myself. Let Krista see that.
Suddenly, I felt a presence beside me. I looked over and saw Mikasa keeping pace with me. She didn't acknowledge me before she pulled ahead of me. I gritted my teeth and sped up matching her speed but no sooner had I done so, she sped up once more. My competitive nature kicked in and I quickened my pace and passed Mikasa.
Apparently Mikasa had a competitive side as well as she ran alongside me. I knew she probably wasn't giving it everything she had and neither was I. As we started the last stretch I put all my energy into running, knowing that I would leave Mikasa in the dust. As expected, I pulled ahead of her easily but she seemed to have put all her strength into the last leg as well. She wasn't as fast as me sprinting but I could imagine that in a long distance run she could surpass me. Fortunately, I didn't need long distance when running bases. But even so, she was close behind me as we finished the lap.
I finished the last lap and then walked over to where my water bottle was. Once I had taken a drink and looked up I saw that most of the others were finishing up.
I had to give Mikasa props. I had actually had fun while trying to beat her. I smiled a little as she looked over from drinking her water and she nodded back. Friendly and fun competition. That's the reason I had always enjoyed baseball. But being with the Titans, baseball had never really been either.
I shook my head. From what it seemed, the Scouts seemed obsessed with beating the Titans. Almost like they were just as obsessed with winning as everyone else always was.
I'm doing this for a date, that's all.
“Alright, everyone line up!” Levi shouted after we had all gotten a drink. Once we did as we were told he continued, “We are going to be starting with some hitting drills starting with your stance and coiling. Then we will move onto the next drills. Get your gear and we'll start.”
For the next hour and a half, we did drill after drill. I was out of practice seeing as I hadn't actually picked up my bat or glove in about a year but my base running was still near perfect.
We all were reacting differently having an actual sports star as our coach. Some, including Jean and Eren, were showing off and it made them look a little pathetic. Others were just so nervous they kept making mistake after mistake. I couldn't really blame everybody though.
The only ones who seemed unaffected were Krista and Mikasa.
Mikasa had natural talent and it was extremely obvious that she was the best on this team. Coach Levi pulled her aside at one point and talked to her for about fifteen minutes before letting her back onto the field. I knew instantly she was going to be on the team.
Krista, however, was different story. While she didn't seem particularly concerned that someone famous was coaching our team, she also wasn't very good. She was great at ground balls and alright at bunting but those were pretty much her only two skills. She had stamina but her base running needed a lot of work.
Not many of the others were very good either. Eren tried really hard but nothing really came to him easily. Armin wasn't athletic at all but made really good calls and always seemed to know just exactly which play to make, even if he couldn't carry it out. Jean was almost the same, assessing the situation before helping others out. The freckled kid, Marco, followed Jean's lead almost as if he were a puppy. I automatically knew that those two were dating.
Eventually, Coach Levi called us all over to him.
“We are going to play a mock game,” He told us, “I've already divided you up into two teams which will have more than nine people on it due to the number of people trying out. It's only going to have two innings. Once everyone on the first team finishes batting, you will switch so the second team can bat. I won't instruct you; I just want to see how you all do on your own.”
In the end, I was put on the team with Jean, a bald kid named Connie, Mina, a redheaded girl whose name I had forgotten, and Krista as well as several other kids whose name I didn't care to remember.
We didn't bat first so we all grabbed out gloves and headed out to the field. Connie stepped up to the pitcher's mound and I assumed that he had been the pitcher last year but then Coach Levi shouted out to us.
“No. Let Horse Face pitch!”
Jean grumbled a bit at the coach's nickname for him but went to pitch anyway.
He was remarkably good at pitching. Eren had been first up and had missed the first pitch but hit the second one. He probably would have gotten to second base if I hadn't managed to catch it.
“Good job, Ymir!” Krista called out breathlessly from first base as I threw the ball back to Jean.
Person after person batted. Due to lack of experience from both “teams”, it was a messy affair. The only one who was able to make it to home was Mikasa, unsurprisingly enough, and she did it with a home run.
Once they had all finished, we switched sides and Marco stepped up to the pitcher's mound. Connie batted first and he hit the ball first try. He was fast; he made it to the first base but then stupidly decided to go for second which resulted in him getting out.
Several other people went before I stepped up to the plate. Marco threw a curve ball but I hit it with ease and ran like hell. It wasn't technically a home run but by the time that Sasha had made it to the ball and threw it to Armin on third base, I was already home. I looked over at Krista, trying not to be obvious, and she gave me a double thumbs up before turning around to get ready for her turn to bat. I looked down and silently rejoiced at her silent praise. As I raised my eyes however, I spotted Coach Levi staring in my direction with his eyes narrowed. He didn't look away right away, but when he did, I had a feeling that something I had done had somehow displeased him.
Once everyone had finished, Coach Levi had us line up shoulder to shoulder once more before taking the his clipboard and smacking Connie over the head with it.
“Springer! What is your excuse for trying to run second base knowing that you wouldn't make it?” He asked flatly.
“I-I'm not sure. Just thought I would try,” Connie responded. Levi made a sound of disgust at the back of his throat before moving on to his next target.
I started to drown his voice out as he berated various people for their performance until I heard my name being called.
“Goldhull!” He said as he stood in front of me.
“Yeah, Coach?” I asked looking down at him. I honestly didn't expect to be called out. I had definitely done a lot better than most of them.
“Why the hell are you trying out?” He asked me.
Well, shit. I couldn't very well say it was for a date. I glanced over at Krista before returning my gaze to Levi.
“To play,” I lied.
“Bullshit,” He replied, “You're damn good, but you aren't playing to get on this team. Why are you here?”
“I'm telling the truth,” I said, “I want to be on this team.”
“Don't insult me. I've seen plenty of people play baseball and I know when somebody is playing for themselves and you aren't. All these kids here have more room for improvement than you do because they are all here for baseball and baseball alone. If you aren't here to play baseball then get the fuck off this field now.”
I wanted to leave. I had already done what I had promised Krista I would but then I thought back to what it had felt like running the bases again and actually feeling the victory of hitting the home plate. How it felt to just compete with someone because it was fun. In that moment, I probably did the stupidest thing imaginable.
“I'm here to play, Coach,” I said, not lying this time.
He raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything before moving on. I glanced over at Krista and saw she was suppressing a smile. I realized belatedly that this was exactly what she wanted to happen.
After he had finished reprimanding the rest of the people, he took the clipboard from Coach Ral.
“Alright you shitty brats, here is the list of who is on the team: Hannah Abbott, Mikasa Ackerman, Franz Antsu, Armin Arlert, Marco Bott, Sasha Braus, Mina Carolina, Ymir Goldhull, Eren Jaeger, Jean Kirschtein, Krista Lenz, Samuel Meru, Connie Springer, Nack Teaz, Tomas Wagner, and Millius Zermusky. Does anybody have any questions?”
“Uh, yeah, actually,” Eren spoke up, “Why are we starting practices so early this year?”
“Because you shits need all the practice you can get. Anybody else?”
Everybody shook their head and Coach Levi nodded.
“Good. Those of you who made the team: Congrats. See you at four on Monday.”
With that, he turned on his heel and started walking away with Coach Ral on his heels saying something about not swearing at the students.
The rest of us gathered up our gear and started going home. Eren was boasting to both Mikasa and Armin about beating the Titans was going to be easy with Coach Levi.
I gathered my stuff silently until I felt someone beside me. I stood up and looked at the person. Krista smiled brightly at me.
I sighed. “I suppose you knew this would happen.”
“I might have had an inkling. Like I said, you always looked really happy playing. At least in the games I've seen you in,” She answered.
I sighed once more as I hefted my bag up onto my shoulder.
“Well, I suppose you got what you wanted. I guess if you are on the team, it isn't so bad anyway.”
She blushed a little and I almost wanted to just hug her right there because she was so damn cute but then she looked up at me with her impossibly blue eyes.
“Oh!” She exclaimed, “The date!”
“Forget it,” I said turning around, “Don't worry about it.”
I felt a hand on my arm and turned to look down at her.
“You aren't mad at me, are you?” She asked wide-eyed.
“No, I just...”
Why am I doing this? I thought to myself.
Deep down, I knew that she didn't care for me the way I did for her. Forcing her on a date now wouldn't really make me happy. The plain truth of the matter was that even if we did go out on this date, that would be it. I wanted more than just one date. I wanted her to like me the way I liked her and to do stupidly cute things with her because she was just too damn adorable.
“You just what?” She prompted.
“I just figure that I'm going to get you to like me back before I ask you out properly.”
“What?” She seemed taken aback.
“Tell me the truth. Do you really like me as more than a friend?” I asked her. She looked at me for a moment before looking down at the ground.
“Well...I...”
I waited for her to finish but she didn't. I took my hand and put it to her face to make her raise her head to look back at me.
“You really only just met me so I don't really expect you to think of me that way but I will make you like me, Krista Lenz. Then we can go a proper date.”
She didn't say anything but I withdrew my hand and laughed.
“Just you wait,” I told her.
This time she smiled back at me before saying, “Fine. I'll be waiting with baited breath.”