With a Whimper - AU!Levi x Reader [Ch 8]

The trip through Wall Maria was significantly less gruelling than the last time. Maybe it was because there were more people with you, or maybe it was because you already knew what to expect. Either way, you were beginning to get the hang of it. You felt that within the next couple of trips you’d be able to travel through Maria without any trouble at all.

It was definitely a good thing that the kids accompanying you could handle themselves in a fight, too. You were almost worried that you’d be stuck playing babysitter for them. But as it turned out they were pretty well-trained for pipsqueaks.

As of the present moment, you had been trekking along the Arizonan Wastes on your way to Maryland. Honestly, you had never done so much work in your life. Usually survival comes fairly easily to you; all you ever had to do was kick a few heads in and then hole yourself up in a safe place. But in the past twelve hours alone you had already killed four Titans, at least twenty zombies, and to top it all off, did it while carrying a fucking tonne of equipment and then continued on to walk in the heat for an ungodly amount of time. You only ever stopped somewhere during mid-day to hydrate yourselves and eat a sandwich or two. This was too much work.

“Levi,” you wailed, dragging your feet along the gravel path as you – subtly – eyed his backside. You couldn’t help it; he really filled out those shorts.

You heard him let out a groan before saying, “I swear to fuck if you’re going to complain about how your feet hurt again I will punch you in the face.”

You swallowed your words and instead mumbled out, “…I just wanted to say the weather was nice.”

“We have been walking a long time though, Corporal. Can’t we take a break?” Eren chimed in. Bless his soul, now you weren’t the only one whining about your feet.

Of course, where Eren went, the others would follow. “We should stop to eat something, at least,” Mikasa agreed, with Armin in tow.

“The sun’s starting to go down, it’ll be too dark to navigate soon,” he said.

Yes! Majority rules, Levi, you thought to yourself victoriously.

He closed his eyes and took a steady breath in. You could tell from his actions that he was just about ready to knock some heads together. It must’ve sucked being the oldest one in the group – he even outdid your own age by a long shot – he probably saw all four of you as squabbling brats. And, to be truthful, he wouldn’t be entirely wrong about that.

“Fine,” he caved. “As soon as we find somewhere we can sleep without being in the open, we can call it a night. Deal?”

“Woo hoo!” you cheered, slapping your palm roughly on Eren’s in an enthusiastic high-five as you all took solace in the fact that you wouldn’t have to be walking much longer.

“Don’t start celebrating yet, brats. We need to find a safe place to sleep, first.”

“Oh pfft, don’t you worry, Levi, we’ll find a place in no time!” you grinned.

Never had you been so wrong.

A task you thought would be simple turned out to be unexpectedly time-consuming and exasperating. How many hours had gone by? You didn’t care to keep track, it all felt like an eternity to you anyway, what was the point? The only thoughts that plagued your mind as of this point was eating and falling asleep, but lord knows you wouldn’t get to participate in those activities anytime soon.

The sky was blanketed in darkness, a cobalt shade covering the above and the only light among the big empty were the flickering stars and the luminous moon. One thing about living underground was that the inhabitants would never be able to experience the quiet serenity that was night.

You had finally come across an abandoned motel – it had been riddled with filth and was infested with rats and zombies but with a good hour or so of hard labour you managed to make it habitable. Good thing, too, even Levi’s strength had been waning by this point. Any longer and you’d all collapse on the side of the road.

After eating your meals, Levi had set up a roster for patrolling the location, and unfortunately for you, he had set you and him up to be the first watchers. You were too tired to be motivated enough for any of this, but Levi had claimed that your inhumane abilities marked you as the safest option.

And so, here you were, begrudgingly patrolling the area with a flashlight and a pistol. You were grateful that your belly was full, but you were aggravated that you lacked the rest you wanted. Nonetheless you rubbed the sleep from your eyes and continued on your trail.

Eventually you had spotted Levi perched on the rooftop scanning the area with his binoculars. You waved your arm frantically in an effort to get his attention – he purposely ignored you just to see you squirm. You flashed the light in his direction and jumped up and down on the spot, but nothing you did seemed to faze him. What an asshole.

You gave up and walked another lap around the motel, pausing in your footsteps when you felt something light collide against the back of your head. You looked around to see a balled up sheet of paper and quickly turned your head in Levi’s direction – who had donned a smug expression on his features. Who could’ve known he’d be so childish?

Grinning a bit, you decided to head upstairs and join him on the roof. You sat yourself beside him and muttered, “That was a cheap shot.”

“Shut up, brat. Why aren’t you patrolling?”

“I thought you looked kinda lonely all up here by yourself.”

“Tch, that’s cute.”

“I try,” you replied in an almost mock tone.

Your eyes drifted to the skies above as you allowed yourself to fall into deep thought. Levi didn’t speak a word, and that was okay with you. Despite the world around you looking far more different and eroded than when you were a child, the sky didn’t seem to alter much. It just looked a little… wrong.

You spoke softly, voicing your thoughts to the man beside you, “The sky looks nice,” you said, pausing for a brief moment. “Looking at it you’d never tell there was an apocalypse at all.”

Levi lowered the binoculars from his eyes and turned to gaze at you. You looked different to him. You weren’t covered in grime or spouting smarmy comments or crying, you looked… softer. Gentler. Graceful. He watched silently as the [H/C] strands fell from your shoulder from the angle your head was tilted, his steel grey irises tracing over your skin that seemed to glow in the moonlight. An unfamiliar feeling of fondness surged through him as he remembered the last time he watched the sky with someone.

“Yeah,” he stated finally. “You’re right.”

You hummed contentedly and looked over at him, the corners of your lips pulling upward into a soothing smile. “You’re the first person I’ve felt comfortable with in a long time, y’know. I’m glad I met you.”

“Me too.”

Your eyelids felt heavy as your stare drifted down to his mouth. You wondered what it’d feel like against yours. His fingers ghosted over your forearm as he leaned in closer toward you. You could feel his breath fanning against the lower half of your face as you parted your lips in anticipation. The space between you had almost come to a close – but a sudden suspicious noise caused you to pull away.

You wasted no time in discovering what the source of the unfamiliar sound was, using your keen eyesight to dart around the outskirts while Levi looked through the lenses of the binoculars once more. The both of you landed on the perpetrators at the same time.

“Mutants,” you spat.

“They’re not just mutants,” said Levi, examining them closer. “They’re NCR.”

“What? How can you tell?”

“They’re organised, armoured, any mindless mutant would just attack on sight, like the Titans in Wall Maria or the zombies in the Wasteland. These ones are waiting for something.”

“What do we do?”

He stood up from his spot and readied his weapons. “Get the others, I’ll fend them off.”

“But Levi y--”

“Now, [First].”

You nodded your head once and followed his orders, hurriedly sprinting to the rooms the cadets had been sleeping in. You burst through the door and rushed to the slumbering figure closest to you. You put your hands on his side and shook him. “Wake up guys, come on! Armin, quickly, Levi needs our help!”

The blond shifted around in his makeshift bed before sitting upright, and you then proceeded to wake the others. Countless gunshots reached your ears, and you silently hoped that Levi would be able to hold them off just a little while longer.

Once all three of them had been awoken Mikasa asked, “What is it, [First]? What’s going on?”

“There’s mutants – Levi says they’re NCR and they--”

The four of you perked up at the sudden booming sound outside the door. Fearing for Levi’s safety, you grabbed whatever weapons you could carry from the cache pushed to the far corner of the room. “Quickly, we have to hurry!”

The others rushed to get their gear on their bare bodies before equipping themselves with firearms and following you outside of the room. After making it outside the door you could see clear as day just how many mutants had made their way to your hideout. There were dozens, at least. It was astonishing just how many of them had come to hunt you down.

“How did they find us?!” cried Armin. “Did we leave a trail?”

“What does it matter?” Eren snapped. “We have to kill them all!”

You hurled yourself over the railing and landed feet first onto the gravel beneath. The corpses of zombies littered the floor – so Levi had managed to kill some of them. But your breath became lodged in your throat as you saw the giant brute standing over the collapsed body of the Corporal. His gun had been flung from his grasp and his body lay still, unmoving, on the ground before you.

The beast that had inflicted the damage stood tall – not quite as tall as a Titan, it was probably only around Erwin’s height. But it was undoubtedly a mutant of some kind, the way it lugged around that heavy, full plate armour like it was nothing proved that fact. Spikes adorned its knuckles, and judging from the blood pouring from the left side of Levi’s face, you could only conclude that it had used them on him.

“Oh god, Levi!” you called out, hoping he would respond somehow.

He did not.

You grit your teeth and clenched your fists as you glared daggers at the catalyst of this chaos. Your words were venomous and livid as you threatened the abomination of a being in front of you. “I’m gonna make you pay for this you ugly son of a bitch.”