Prompt: Demons

They haunt them.

Every time their eyes are closed, they see them. Every time their eyes are open, they are forced to face them.

Seeping into the cracks in their sanity, the demons shake their mental stability and more often than not, one of them ends up waking in a cold sweat, occasionally yelling.

Tonight, it is Petra's turn.

She swings through the forest, the adrenaline and fear pumping through her veins, propelling her forward as the hammering footsteps of it follow behind.

The speed of it is incredible and it is on her in a second. Petra turns and sees the blonde hair of the female titan before ending up face first in the tree trunk. She hears her back break with a sickening crack, and coughs up blood. All feeling below her neck is gone and the only things she can do is lean there helplessly against the tree tears running down her cheeks as she wonders whether this is truly the end.

Is this where she dies? All alone on a practice expedition?

"Petra!"

Her eyes snap open and she finds herself lying in bed, the sheets soaked in sweat and Levi hovering over her. She begins sobbing, and he props her up in his arms holding her against him and smoothing her hair down.

"It's alright," he murmurs, "you're here, with me. She is never going to hurt you again."

"I know," Petra gasps out, "but she's already done so much." Her tears begin to flow as Levi carries her to the bathroom. Setting her in the tub, he carefully slips her nightdress over her head and removes her underwear.

Gently, he pours the warmed water over her, dosing her hair and watching as the clear liquid makes trails down her battered body. Angry scars coat her front and back. Her chest and stomach are covered in deep gashes from the bark ripping her skin open and her back still has the imprints from where the fractured pieces of her spine broke through.

Lathering his hands with soap, he begins massaging her scalp, scrubbing out the anxiety and rinsing it down the drain. He rubs his hand down her body, over her breasts, across her scars, between her legs, removing the trauma.

After rinsing her off, she has calmed down quite a bit. He kisses her forehead quickly before lifting her out of the tub and wrapping her in a fluffy towel. He rubs her dry and trails kisses after the damp cloth, even though he knows she cannot feel most of them.

"I don't want any clothes on," she tells him when he begins to move towards the drawer, and he complies, setting her towel wrapped form in the chair by the fireplace before beginning to change the sheets.

"Do you ever regret your choice?" Petra whispers, staring at the dancing flames that seem to mock her with their free movement.

"Which one?" Levi asks as he straightens out the clean, fitted sheet.

"Quitting the Survey Corps, moving to the center, marrying me after-"

"Never," he cuts her off sternly, knowing what she was going to say next. "I will never regret marrying you, Petra."

"But look at us, Levi" she whispers, "You don't deserve to have to take care of me like this. You're prestigious and well revered, any woman-"

"Stop it," Levi interrupts her again. "Petra, I love you. I will want you forever. It doesn't matter whatever hell the cruel deities decide to put us through next." He picks her up and places her on the bed, unwrapping the towel from around her and slipping her naked body between the sheets.

She looks away in shame, hating the way he loves her so much, but loving him all the more for it. "Kiss me," she whispers.

He does, he leans forward, cupping her face because he knows it is the only place she'll be able to feel his hands, and kisses her deeply.

"I love you," she whispers wishing she could lift her arms and touch him back. Hoping that someday she will be able to feel his soft hair between her fingers again, praying that she will be able to pleasure him the way a wife should be able to. Grasping at any hope at all that she will regain sensation below her neck again.

"I love you too," Levi responds, running a hand down her dead arms and legs, thinking that he will take care of her forever, even if there is no hope of recovery.

Seeing her pinned against that tree drowning on her own blood had been the most disturbing scene he has ever witnessed. That is what he sees when he closes his eyes at night. Except sometimes, he is too late and instead of her crying in relief when he lands in the grass next to her, she remains still, her dead eyes staring at the sky.

"Always, Petra," he promises before lying down next to her and holding her limp body in his arms.