"What the hell are you doing?" Levi snarled; appalled at the sight in front of him.
Currently, a group of flamboyantly dressed individuals stood at the entrance of his apartment - the door ajar - muttering nonsense about what a troublesome task they were facing. Two were female, and another three were male, and they congregated with a leisured stance that did not fit the current situation. A puff of smoke wafted up over their heads in a wispy sort of way, alerting one of the men, who laughed boisterously, before shooting a soft stream of foam from a fire extinguisher he held in his left hand. The others around him laughed with him, still oblivious to Levi's presence; idiotically thinking that his irresponsible acts were the funniest thing in the world.
Levi strode closer; his eyebrows furrowed, and his lips set in a deep frown.
Others - all similarly dressed, most in neon yellow and plastic helmets - stood just inside his apartment, sifting through the rubble that was once his belongings. One big man carried an ax, and with a single flick of his wrists, sent the blade into his kitchen door. Levi did not flinch at the sound, nor at the splintering and charred wood flying through the air, but he did however begin to fume even more violently as he took in the full view of his once proud and prestigious home.
Walls and marble countertops that were once sparkling with cleanliness now showed the clear aftereffects of a terrible fire; the floor being the worst of it all, with loads of what could only be described as junk littered about in colossal piles. His ceiling fan sat in a heap on the floor - whatever parts of it made out of wood being completely gone - and it buzzed uselessly with its ever infinite purpose of spinning on its own hinge. He longed to spit at it, just to short circuit it and put it out of its misery, but as the group outside did not look willing to let any passerby inside, despite the fact that he owned the place, he did no such thing. Instead, he settled for stalking over to the most annoying looking fireman of them all; person in question being a fragile man in his late forties.
"What happened to my apartment?" he seethed; close to his absolute breaking point. His fists clenched around the bag of groceries he had just purchased; and his glare became steadily more deadly as the seconds passed without a reply.
The man took in a visibly large gulp of air, obviously terrified.
"D-Do you live here?" he stuttered, and in response, Levi scoffed.
"Of course I live here, Brat. Are you an idiot?"
The man stifled a whimper. "I-I'm sorry. That makes sense. My bad."
Levi was about to reprimand him again, but all of a sudden, a caramel-skinned hand appeared on the man's shoulder. Levi traced the arm back to the owner, coming face to face - or rather, face to shoulder, as this man practically dwarfed Levi's pathetic height - with one of the other men still standing there; the one who had shot the foam into the air. Levi's lips pulled further downwards into a deeper frown.
His hair was a dark blonde, and he had an impressive beard coming in, but Levi barely allowed himself to take in his appearance as he spit out a now repeated question.
"What happened to my apartment?"
This one wasn't so afraid of the shorter man.
"A fuse blew in your kitchen's wiring," he answered, immediately continuing. "The spark caught flame instantly, and it engulfed your entire kitchen before one of your neighbors noticed the smoke and alerted the fire department." He paused for a moment. "We stopped it before it destroyed your apartment completely, so there may still be something salvageable in the back room." That was Levi's bedroom. "They'll probably let you check once we're finished with the investigation, but it'll be a while, so you might want to-"
Levi cut him off by mercilessly brushing past him. Like hell he was waiting for these idiots.
"Sir, you can't just-"
"Shut up, Brat!"
Still completely pissed, Levi marched through his demolished kitchen, startling the many workers still inside. They attempted to call after him immediately, but even still he continued onward, and with an almighty push, shook the remaining splinters of wood from the doorframe away. He stepped inside into his living room; not caring about the countless shards of glass, wood, and unidentifiable things lying in his way.
He stepped over them all with ease, at last coming to the least damaged part of his apartment; his bedroom.
The knob turned just as it usually did - even now, still without the slight squeak as he had just greased it in annoyance the other day - and Levi pushed it inwards until he was able to slip through. Slamming open his closet and grabbing a travel bag, he ripped his remaining clothes from their hangers and stuffed them into its depths; hissing curses all the while.
His apartment burns down, all of his valuables go up in flames, and yet, the clothes survived. His stupid, useless garments that meant nothing more than a fly to him were the only ones to walk away from this fire.
He scoffed again to himself as he shoved the last, pointless collection of ties into the bag.
Now, the fact that they had costed him hundreds of dollars now seemed like a joke, as if it was possible to regain his lost items in a trade for these silk garments, Levi would have complied in a heartbeat. Hell, he would toss them into the flames himself it was necessary. They were nothing more than scraps of fabric, and more than that, they had no sentimental feeling whatsoever. Levi could literally walk down the street to the department store to purchase them all again if he wanted to. Literally. But could he replace that priceless stainless vase he had gotten from Italy? No. No, he couldn't. The fire had taken that away from him, and he could never get it back. And, not to mention, it had also taken many other things as well; too many to name. It had taken practically everything.
But not the clothes, he reminded himself.
Yes. For some reason, the fire in his apartment had spared his clothes. Perhaps it was the fact that he looked ungodly good in them, and perhaps even still that it was just a cruel joke played by fate, but whatever the case was, Levi was now homeless; his only belongings being a shoulder bag stuffed to the brim with clothes that would be irritatingly wrinkly by the time he found a place to rest for the night.
Great, he thought. Just perfect. Now he could finally trek around town and look for an inn that didn't exist, because Heaven knows that was his lifelong dream. Finally, he could be a street rat again.
As Levi sighed for what seemed like the millionth time - his demeanor calmer than it had been before, but by no means any less pissed - the sound of heavy footsteps alerted him of a presence behind him. It didn't take rocket science to figure out that it was the man he had spoken to earlier.
"I'm sorry you have to go through this," the man told him.
Levi immediately brushed off the attempt at comfort.
"When will my apartment be fixed?" he questioned; still not turning to face the man.
The person in question did not speak for some time, as if considering.
"At least three months," he concluded finally, and Levi replied with an annoyed but affirmative, "Hn."
"I suggest you stay with a friend or relative for the time being."
Levi did not have either of those. Hanji - the annoying brat he had the privilege of working with - did not count.
"The station will alert you with an email once it's been fixed." He took in a breath. "I also suggest you leave before my higher ups force you to do so."
For the first time, Levi turned to the man. As his annoyance was renewed, he said nothing to him in acknowledgement. He did, however, nod; in a general thanks for the information.
Turning swiftly on his heel, Levi stormed back out the way he had come; his surroundings becoming steadily worse the closer he got to the kitchen. Silence hung in the air as he stepped back inside, but without hanging about, he simply pivoted until he was facing the exit, and strode towards it with the bag hanging limply at his side.
Levi's hand grasped the knob, and a strong urge to snap it off instantly overtook him.
Levi's apartment had burned down.
And now, he had to search for a place to live.
(AN: I told you guys to talk me out of it, but no one said anything, so I went ahead and started this. To be honest, I think this is a pretty lame prologue, but it'll probably get better once...you know. [Even though it's in the description I feel like I shouldn't spoil it]. Anyway, I hope Levi's decently in character. I've never actually seen AoT, but I fell in love with him, somehow. I don't really know how it happened. Also, as you can see, this chapter had slight swearing. That's pretty much all it's going to be. I personally don't like swearing, so even though Levi apparently does, I won't incorporate it as much as I probably should for the sake of the story. Thanks for reading).