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"Do you resent me?"
The question came out more rough than he expected. His eyes were completely focused in hers, and their breathing started morphing together.
She wasn't sure if she heard the question correctly. She blinked, one, two, three times. And scoffed.
She thought her small gestures were enough to prove she didn't despise him anymore. Apparently, they didn't come through? Mikasa cocked an eyebrow, and couldn't help but make a face. Yes, her captain was looking at her dead in the eye, but she felt like looking down at him instead of lowering her head.
"The fuck is wrong with your face?"
"Captain, It's been years since the last time I wanted to beat you up" the older man crossed his arms "I don't resent you."
The whole conversation had a comical tone. Was he worried? No, not after so long. He was trying to get a reaction from her. He was that bored, she thought.
Unresolved tension was there. It has been, for the first couple years following their first encounter. That invisible wall that kept them away from each other, that made their interaction feel like a script. With time though, it felt like that wall was dissolving.
It became a comfotable silence. An unspoken agreement. Neither of them mentioned it, but both of them knew. Or so she thought.
Hearing that question from Levi made her want to laugh. Even when she knew he didn't literally mean it, she couldn't pinpoint the exact reason for that question.
"Do you?"
After she put a blade against his neck, restraining his wrists while asking him to give her the serum, completely being able of taking it away but didn't, she wondered. She wondered for a long time how their dynamic was able to morf into what was going on nowadays. Maybe he wondered, too.
"If I had the chance to bring back a dear friend-" oh "I would've done the same thing."
He briefly spoke about his past, sharing a few details but never the whole story. She guessed maybe Hanji knew. And the way he explained himself sometimes, guiding her in his own way, made her sure he related a bit too well.
Her throat suddenly felt too dry to speak, so she let her eyes do the talking.
Levi, indeed, understood. So with the hint of a smile appearing in his face, he left the room. Like a ghost fading away, his footsteps started sounding more and more distant.
Mikasa breathed heavily through her nose, and went back to duty.