Work Text:
“This is shit.”
Levi Ackerman--your captain, squad leader, and lover--crossed his arms as he raised his eyebrows in disgust at the tea cup sitting in front of him.
Your mouth dropped open in incredulity. “What!? I did exactly like you said!”
He shrugged, dismissing you with a glare. “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever tasted.”
“You’re just an ass.”
“Don’t be a brat. Some people just aren’t skilled enough to do it right.”
He turned back to the papers sitting on the table, ignoring your disbelieving look. You had already been annoyed by the number of laps Levi had made you run during training that day after you had called him a grumpy old man, and you were even more sore due to… other activities. But you had decided to put all of that aside and be nice, making him a cup of tea while he worked, since you knew he was stressed. But this was his reaction? You let out a slow breath….and tackled him onto the couch.
“What the hell--!” Levi grunted as you slammed into him, positioning yourself so you were straddling his hips, glaring down at him.
“Maybe I just had a bad tea making teacher,” you snapped, leaning down so you were nose to nose.
Levi’s expression didn’t change, and he gave no warning as he bucked his hips up, flipping you so that he had you trapped beneath him, his arms on either side of your head.
“Bad teacher, hm? How can I make it up to you?”
You blinked in surprise at his teasing, something that really wasn’t a common occurrence. Usually it was you who was poking fun at him, while he responded with his usual monotone expression.
You gave him a sly smile, and he gripped your chin lightly, tilting your face up--
And then there was a knock at the door.
Levi cursed, rolling off you and heading to the door of his office while you quickly straightened your hair. Of course, everyone knew that you two had been seeing each other, ever since that loud mouthed cadet had walked in on you in bed together. But Levi wasn’t one for PDA and you were fine with that. Private affection was good enough for you.
“What is it?” You heard Levi’s voice at the door.
“Captain! I have a message from Commander Erwin regarding the new scouting mission. He is asking to leave in three days, if you think that is possible, Sir.”
“Three days?” That was sooner than expected, but maybe there was some new information. “Of course. I will begin preparations.”
One week later:
You stood at the window, looking out at a pure nightmare. You were within a clocktower towards the east end of the city, and a group of new scouts cowered behind you. And you were completely and utterly surrounded by titans.
This mission wasn't supposed to be hard; it was a basic scouting mission to examine Wall Rose and plan your next push back against the titans. The scouts that were with you had little to no experience, basically useless against the horrors you faced--you hadn’t been supposed to fight a lot, if at all.
But you had found the city completely overrun, and it had turned into a bloodbath. You could see gore splattering the street, but no bodies in sight. The titans let none of their food go to waste.
Levi had left you in charge of the newer scouts, taking the rest of your squad to push down main street and hopefully clear a path. But you hadn’t seen any familiar faces for over an hour, and you could only pray that your friends were safe. Not that it mattered; you would soon be dead if you didn’t figure out how to get out of this clocktower.
You could hear the sobs of the scouts behind you, their terror practically tangible as you turned to face them. Fear would only lead to paralysis--you had to get them focused if this was going to work.
“Everyone, listen up!” You called, swallowing hard as you raised your voice. Outside, you heard a crash as one of the titans slammed a fist into the clocktower, making the building shake. A few scouts screamed, but you kept your face carefully calm. “We aren’t going to die here, understand?”
No one looked convinced, and you gritted your teeth. There were too many titans outside to deal with yourself, despite your skill in facing them. You were second only to Levi in your kill count, but this… jumping out there by yourself would be suicide.
“I need you to listen.” Your voice came out hard and cold, and you glared at the cadets around you. “You all need to be prepared to run. Get as close to the wall as possible, and keep to high ground. The center of town has the most titans, so head north.”
Most were listening now, and you tightened the straps on your ODM gear. “I’m going to draw them away from you. There might still be a few titans remaining, because I can’t guarantee that they’ll all come after me, but deal with it. This is what you’ve been training for.”
You looked out the window, clenching your fists as you met the eyes of a titan only a few feet below you. Bastard.
You turned and faced the scouts once again, nodding in farwell. It was likely that this might be your last time seeing many of them. “Give your hearts.”
And then you jumped out of the window.
The wind was an unending howl in your ear, tearing your hair from it’s braid as you swung between the houses, keeping just ahead of the reaching hands of the titans behind you. You had been working to rile them up, moving them away from the clocktower where the young cadets still hid, only pausing for brief breaks on rooftops. You had a few close calls, one ending with your shoulder becoming a bloody mess, but years of training and experience kept you from death.
Your plan to act as bait had mostly worked; you could see only a few small titans remaining around the clock tower, which would hopefully allow the cadets to escape to a safer place.
You stumbled as you landed atop a roof, a scream echoing down the block from you. You whipped your head in it’s direction, feeling your heart sink as you took in the form of a huddled scout, cowering before a ten meter titan. The young girl was trying to use her ODM gear to escape, but she was completely out of gas--groundridden.
You were moving before you could think, leaping from the roof and flying towards the titan which was reaching for the girl. Your blades slammed into the base of its neck, sliding through it’s flesh like butter, and you jumped from the titan’s back as it fell.
You landed in front of the girl, already unstrapping your gear and gesturing for her to do the same. “You’re out of gas?”
She whimpered, but nodded.
“Take mine and get the hell out of here. Head north and stick to high ground, got it?”
“What...what about you?” Her voice was weak with terror, and you waved her off.
“I’m fine.”
That was a lie. Without gear, you would be completely ground ridden and surrounded by titans. There was no way that you’d be able to survive if you didn’t get to a rooftop. But you didn’t tell her that--you just focused on swapping gear as quickly as possible.
As soon as she was all strapped in, she hesitated, staring back at you with wide eyes. “You--”
You shoved her, not needing to hear her desperate words. “Get out of here now.”
Despite your insistence, you felt your heart sink as she shot into the sky. Because behind you, a titan emerged from the end of the street.
I’m sorry, Levi.
All you could do now was run.
Levi POV:
Levi slammed into the roof so hard he felt his knees pop, but he was already striding towards the group of cadets cowered a few feet away, the ones he had left under your command.
Blood covered him from head to foot, both from the titans and his fellow scouts. He hadn’t expected so many casualties--it was why he had put you in command of the newest cadets, since he knew you wouldn’t be on the front lines. But where were you?
“Where’s L/n?” Levi snapped, approaching the first cadet he saw. The boy stared up at him in terror, not answering. Levi snarled, gripping the front of the boy’s shirt. “Where is she?”
“Captain!” A young girl stumbled forward, her cheeks tear stained. Despite that, her voice was steady as she spoke. “L/n led the titans away from us so we would be able to escape. Last I saw of her, she was headed west.”
Levi’s eyes narrowed, feeling his mind go blank. You were smart, fast--but from what he had seen, there were dozens of titans filling the streets. You were such an idiot.
The survey corps captain turned away without answering, jumping off the roof in the direction the girl had indicated.
You would be fine.
It took Levi fifteen minutes to find you, fifteen minutes of utter panic and fury. He had moved through the streets faster than he ever had in his life, pushing the ODM gear far beyond its usual capacity.
After ten, he had spotted a girl crumpled on a roof, her eyes wide and horrified as she stared across the city at the monsters moving in between the buildings. Levi wouldn’t have stopped except...she wore your gear.
“Where did you get this?” His voice was almost animalistic as he landed in front of the cadet, indicating the ODM gear strapped to her body.
The girl looked up at him, tears sliding down her face. “She-she gave it to me…”
“Why?” He had no time for her whimpering, he had to know where you were.
“I was out of gas...she told me to run.” The girl’s voice ended in a sob, and Levi’s vision went red around the edges.
So you were groundridden, with no ODM gear.
As Levi turned and slid down the roof, the girl began to wail behind him.
After another five minutes of desperate, panicked searching went by, he finally saw you... and he felt his chest tighten in terror.
You ran--on foot--- down the cobblestone streets, no ODM gear in sight as you dodged between overturned carts and the wreckage of buildings. Behind you, three different titans lumbered in pursuit, their eyes wide and smiles huge. So much faster than you.
You lunged to the left, into a side street, and it took the titans a moment to understand where you’d gone, giving you a second to gain a little ground...but then a large titan appeared at the other end of the block.
You stumbled to a halt, realizing you were trapped between two titans with no escape. Levi could see your eyes going wide, hands shaking even as you took a deep breath. Acceptance, that’s what was in your expression.
You were accepting death, as if you didn’t matter, as if you didn’t have people who wanted you to fight to your very last breath. As if he didn’t love you with every bit of what remained of his heart.
Levi moved faster than he could think, spinning viciously as he slammed into the first titans, spiraling between them in a tornado of blades and death. The first three were down in an instant, and he turned to you…
To find you brandishing your blades at the final titan, despite your lack of ODM gear.
“Run, you idiot!” He roared, but you just flipped him off over your shoulder, cutting through the reaching fingers of the titan and running up it’s arm. Levi wanted to smack you upside the head for being so reckless and stupid--maybe he would, if you survived.
He wasn’t sure his ODM gear could handle holding two people at once, but he didn’t care. He would either save you, or you would both die.
The wires hooked into the wall across the street groaned as Levi slammed into you, his strong arms wrapping around your waist like an iron band as you both fell from the Titans shoulder. You couldn’t help the breathless cry that broke from your lips as you tumbled through open air, but Levi remained focused as he twisted and shot the wires of his gear towards the opposite roof.
You could feel tears beginning to brim as Levi set you gently on the roof, but he didn’t say a word as he turned and lunged back at the Titan still scrambling to reach you.
It was over in a second.
Levi landed once again in front of you, wiping a bit of blood from his cheek in disgust. When he met your eyes, you almost flinched at the unending rage darkening his gaze, hiding the infinite panic. But...
Safe, you were safe, you were alive.
“What the hell was that?” Levi’s voice was almost deadly as he stalked towards you, grabbing the collar of your shirt.
“A cadet needed my help,” you said softly, and your head drooped slightly.
“What if I had gotten here a minute later? You’re one of our most skilled scouts--”
“There will be others to replace me. I don’t matter in the long run, but the future of the Survey Corps does.”
“Did you just say...you don’t matter?” Levi stepped back slightly, his eyes dark. How did you not realize what you were saying? Did you not understand what you meant to him? Perhaps it was his fault for never expressing it to you, showing you how bleak the world would be if you were gone. How precious you were.
“I don’t--”
“You almost died, Y/n. Do you not get what that would have done to--”
You stopped listening for a moment, closing your eyes instead as tears welled. Not at Levi’s words; you didn’t care about that, since it was true.
Instead, it was the realization that you had been seconds away from never seeing him again. Of course, the entire Survey Corps walked hand and hand with death, had seen it countless times in the most awful and horrific ways. But for some reason, now it was different, which was exactly why relationships were so rare within the scouts.
Levi had stopped talking, and the tears finally spilled over as he gripped your shoulders.
“Y/n,” he muttered, still sounding angry, but not so much at you. “Hey.”
He brushed away your tears with the rough pads of his fingers, and you leaned into his hands.
“Thank you for saving me,” you finally murmured, and Levi gave you an annoyed look.
“You have to promise...I mean--you can’t do that…” He stumbled over his words, something you had never seen him do, and you realized how upset he still was.
“Ok,” you whispered, and buried your head in his chest as you hugged him tightly.
But you didn’t promise.