Chapter Text
Chapter One | IN THE DARK
MIKASA
The sound of people running and walking in the Underground pavements caught her ears as she dashed quickly into the darkness of uncertainty. The fog itself covers most of the small sidewalks, with the smell of rotten garbage and filth clinging on the area like it was a leech. Such disgusting abnormalities this world has given her made her want to fight more, and fucking get out of this prison she called her home for 11 years.
She shouldn’t belong here. Like everyone else living in this god-forsaken place, they should not be here.
Mikasa ran, her pace steady and calm as she jumped from roof to roof in each of the buildings, not wanting to let one of the Military Police get her. Her movements are frantic, as she dashed through the rugged roofs and buildings at such speed that the ones who are running after her— or even flying together using their shiny 3d maneuver gears, did not even catch her off guard. She knew that it’ll end up like this, as always when those goddamn horses caught her in some deals and trades that she is gladly having.
As if, they’ll catch her.
She was speeding from roof to roof, her feet never faltering to stop. Gritting her teeth, she could feel someone was watching her in the shadows. Slowly trailing after her like a hawk with a precise, calculated pace.
Halting her steps underneath a building covered with a roof, she was glad that the sounds of the maneuver gears were gone. Now, only her labored breaths echoed softly on the dark walls. Her sharpened senses quickly turned to look behind, as if sensing the same person who was trailing her earlier.
What in the world…
“Show yourself,” she ordered, her eyes squinting in the dark. There is no light, only the faint illumination from the Underground’s warm luminescence seeped through the damaged, holed roof.
“I said—!” she was cut off by a dark, menacing voice.
“You really are a goddamn ankle-biter to those MPs, huh?” Mikasa shivered when she heard a low, husky voice hidden beneath the shadows. She clenched her fists and fixed her posture now ready to fight in case this man would attack her.
She snarled, “What do you want from me?”
The man’s footsteps echoed in the building, now nearing her figure. She squinted her eyes again in the dark, but still, there is no sign of him.
“Okay enough, don’t fret yourself. There is no goddamn light here, so just follow me,” he said, seemingly annoyed by the lack of light in the building where they were standing.
Mikasa curiously asked back, “Where—”
“Just follow me. I’m not gonna kill you, at least,” he softly chuckled. “I’ll take you to my home.”
Home? Who the hell is this man? And… are there many homes left in this god-forsaken place?
Mikasa momentarily dazed, not knowing how to react. Here she was, a stranger offering her to come into his house in the most impoverished, poverty-stricken communities in this land? How rare it is.
She relented, holding the dagger in her pants in case the man would seriously attack her if she lowers her guard— even the slightest.
“Okay.”
—
The next thing she knew, Mikasa was following a well-built man as they traveled through the dimly lit city full of never-ending rotting souls. She could only see his shadow, now following him from afar. But he knew, and surprisingly he was aware that she was still following him in the distance they were having. The man had the same height as herself, even though she met men taller than her even though this place lacks sunlight to grow. She cannot even understand why, but she suspected that probably because of his parents. Mikasa ceased to grow, her height as of average women in this city— probably due to the reason of living in this sunless shit hole.
Skipping through the rotting tires and filthy, stinky garbage sacks, she noticed the man turning into an alley on a street, and she fastened her steps to catch up. And before she knew it, she was standing behind him now, closer than before enough to see his similarly raven hair in the dim, warm light from the house they were facing.
“We're here. Make yourself comfortable,” he gestured for her to come inside.
Mikasa didn’t move and just stared up ahead.
The man defeatedly sighed, but she still didn’t even see his face. “Okay. I’ll come in first.”
He opened the door and held it for her to come. The man was facing her now, and she could see his features clearly in the dim light of the house. His eyes were unique, now his bored eyes piercing her soul. His scowl didn’t falter, as his bangs covered half of his face.
He was a fairly, good-looking man. And youthful, too.
“Stop staring at me, brat. Come inside or those uniforms will haunt you down.”
Mikasa relented, her eyes widened, caught in a surprise by a moment before she took a step slowly into the house. The young man was still standing by the door, holding the doorknob as if he was waiting for her to come fully inside.
Mikasa’s eyes squinted in the brightness, but it was just an adjustment of the years living without any decent house. His house was surprisingly clean, it was also well arranged, especially the living room. There is a small kitchen and two adjacent rooms on both sides. The bathroom was located beside the kitchen, and Mikasa almost remembered her long-lost home in Shiganshina.
She strides inside slowly and looks around until she sees the young man staring at her patiently with no incomprehensible emotions on his face.
“Sit, I’ll make tea,” he said and finally walked away, towards the kitchen in his small house. Mikasa heaved out her long-awaited sigh and sat on one of the rugged couches. It was homely… and never in her wildest dreams that she can visit a house like this in this rutted place.
After a while, the young man came back and placed two cups and a small kettle on a coffee table in front of the couch, where she was sitting. He sat beside her on the couch, keeping a safe distance of course.
“What do you want?” she asked defiantly, and the young man turned to look at her with a shrug.
“Just a deal.”
“What deal?” she asked him once again before he lifted the kettle and poured a cup for him and her. The tea was boiling hot, and she almost wanted to drink it in one gulp.
She was this thirsty.
“It’s not poisoned,” he held the cup towards his lips and took a sip before eyeing her. “See?”
Before she knew it, she held the cup and drank the tea in one, big gulp. It was scorching her tongue, but she doesn’t care. The tea reminds her of old family… her father…
“Where did you get this?”
He shrugged, “My work. Same as you.”
Mikasa froze, her eyes widening momentarily. “Are you…”
She scrutinizes him again now, more than before she met him in the dark. Dark hair framing his youthful, comely face in a famous undercut, his piercing dark blue eyes, and the same scowl that can make the thugs like her run away in a blink of an eye.
The infamous King of the Underground, the devil himself...
“... Levi?”
He nodded and took a sip again before leaning back into the couch, looking at her with his inquisitive yet slightly prying eyes. “Yes, I am.”