Of Silver Linings
Summary: When Levi loses his squad in the battle against the female titan, injures his leg and is put out of commission for the Stohess battle, he decides to go see Sansa Brandt, an old friend, to rekindle what they once had. Unfortunately for him, Sansa is not ready to pick up from where they left off just yet. Forced to face the consequences of decisions long made, they try not to step on anymore toes as they fall back into their miserable back-and-forth.
"Why did you really leave me?"
[CHAPTER START]
Clink, thud.
Her eyes shoot open in alarm. For a grueling moment, she strains to listen for any misplaced noise in her bedroom, and when she hears nothing beyond the townspeople's comings and goings from the window, she tugs her sheets above her head in a feeble attempt at security and closes her eyes.
Clink, slurp.
She stiffens. There is someone in her room for sure.
Sansa grips her nightgown and counts backwards from ten to calm her racing heart. If the intruder wanted to harm her, they had the perfect opportunity to do so when she was asleep a few minutes ago, and seeing as she was still perfectly alive and very vulnerable, she concluded that they weren't there to kill her.
But what if they were those type of sick bastards that loved a squirming prey?
She could feel her thundering heart on her hot ears as she readied herself to spring out of her bed and lunge wildly at the intruder, whom by now was a mere six steps from the edge of her bed. She calls forth her military training ages ago, and with steely blue eyes, she throws her sheets behind her and is in a lunging position before it hits the ground, but before she can jump and throw the first punch, she freezes in her tracks.
Sitting there by a table propped by the door, watching her and drinking casually from her favourite mug is fucking Levi.
"Are you kidding me?!" Sansa hollers hysterically, as he lifts the translucent mug to his lips and stares at her with raised eyebrows. "How...what the hell are you doing?!"
"What does it look like? I'm drinking your piss?" is his flat response as he puts the mug down on what she notices now is one of her dinner plates.
"Oh, I thought some creep broke into my house, and," she pauses and lifts her eyes to meet his, "apparently a creep did break into my house, to drink my tea - I hope that isn't the goddamn expensive one."
"It is."
He leisurely dodges a pillow. And a candlestick. And another candlestick.
"I don't get why you're so mad - you clearly bought them for me."
"Hah?!"
Levi pushes the mug and plate away.
"You hate tea, and you barely have any friends that're still alive." He catches a drawer this time, and narrows his eyes at the fuming redhead. "Stop it!"
"You still don't have a damn filter huh?"
"And you're still a fucking psychopath."
"You're the one who broke into my house and watched me sleep for who knows how long! I mean, who does that?!"
"The fact that you waited so long before you reacted was deplorable. If I was anyone else, you would've been dead by now, or..." his silver-blue eyes shine for a split second. "Is that one of your kinks Sansa? You like the attention?"
She went for her original plan, and lunged at him.
Levi anticipates it and catches her forearms. He cushions the force of her momentum with his chest as he pulls her upright on his lap, while his suit jacket falls off his shoulders and onto the chair. She surprisingly doesn't struggle and with a loud, annoyed sigh, she settles her weight on him.
"Isn't this precious, giving up so soon?" he mocks, despite resting his arms on her waist. She noiselessly shifts to face him with half-lidded eyes, her arms looping around his shoulders. He raises his eyebrows when she gives him one of her smiles - the bright, angelic kind, like the world is beneath her feet and the stars are within her reach - and for a second, the apprehension that stretched him since he was brewing the gone tea was replaced by a sense of familiarity and comfort.
"Are you going to tell me why you're here Senpai?" she croons, tilting her head to further her innocent act, and Levi falls for it for a second when she notices him relax onto the chair. But it's only a second; he realizes that little, yet potentially harmful question snatched the win effortlessly from him. He should've known by now. It didn't matter how her rose red hair grew from just past her shoulders down to her lower back, it didn't matter how her once expressive cornflower blue eyes now gave away no hints, and it didn't matter how much softer her skin had become. She was still the same girl he once knew.
And that scared him a little.
"I needed a quiet place to drink some tea, brat."
He wasn't going to admit it though.
Sansa stares at him.
"I expected to unwind and yet, you don't even have a proper tea set for shit's sake."
She glares at him without a word.
"Also, your kitchen was a fucking pigsty, I had to wipe down everything before it was remotely usable."
She smirks a little.
Levi clicks his tongue before he pulls her hair as a punishment, and surprisingly enough she sits there and takes it. He even twists his wrist and pulls, but she only sticks her tongue out and laughs like he was a mere tantrumming child.
"Tch, is this turning you on? How low have you sunken brat?"
"Low enough that I haven't kicked you out yet, although, I guess that makes me a good person huh?" she taps his wrist as a gesture to release her hair, and when he makes no move to, Sansa sighs with frustration. "If I was any other person, you would've been dead by now, Humanity's Strongest Soldier."
He grimaces a little. "Don't call me that."
Her smile widens considerably. "Isn't someone being an ungrateful little dick?"
"Stupid, isn't humanity supposed to be grateful?"
"I meant the fact that I haven't killed you yet Senpai."
Levi pulls her hair again.
"You're still a cute, adorable sweetheart, ne?"
He pinches her side this time with a sneer.
"In need of a hug and a long make out session."
He throws her off of him, and she lands on her ass with a resounding thud, her downstairs neighbour hollers to keep it down.
"Fucking perverted little brat."
"Well that answers one of the questions I was going to ask."
For several minutes, they sit there quietly, each in their own thoughts. Her neighbours prattle on about entitled military folk and leases, their muffled shouts hitting deaf ears who've heard the whole 'the scouts are a waste of our precious taxes' rant a hundred times too many. Levi sighs noiselessly and breaks the silence.
He tells her everything. From the previous expeditions' findings, to Eren Jaeger, how the decision of putting him in his regiment was made,the 57th Expedition, and the titan shifter in their midst, sparing no details. Of course, he said it in his crude way, like the whole thing was as annoying as his (now known by her) injured leg, but from previous years of knowing him, she took notice of the subtle changes in his eyes. The flashes of anguish, the humiliation, the unbridled rage of being ignorant to the whole ordeal was as clear as day to her. But it was when he finally mentioned his slaughtered team last, and turned to face her once again in his own twisted way of seeking atonement, Levi finds her tearing up, reaching out to hug him.
"What -"
"Give me a minute," she cuts him off, sighing into his shoulder with the power of all the battle wounds she had kept locked away when she quit the military years ago. It stirs up a certain turmoil - one he feared would surface on his walk to her home - in his chest, he couldn't bring himself to hug her back because of it. "Levi."
He hasn't heard his name fall from her lips for years now, and the sorrowful, regretful yet selfishly relieved tone laced around it tipped his sanity off its feet just the same. Before he knew it, he wrenched her off of him and held her in place, hands firmly grasping her shoulders and eyes burning with the intensity of a thousand suns pinning her own glassy ones.
"Why did you really leave me?"
[CHAPTER END]
AN: Hello, you've stumbled upon my first Shingeki no Kyojin fanfiction. This isn't my first rodeo writing-wise (you can check out my profile for my other accounts), but it is my first time writing Levi, so please, if you can leave a review with your thoughts, what you felt about Levi and Sansa's dynamic, what you think is going on or what happened, that would be awesome.
I've had this idea floating around in my head for days and decided to throw this out there and see if it was as good as I thought it would be. Hopefully, you guys like it, and if that happens (do I sound like a hopeful schmuck? fml) I'm going to take you on a damn ride :D :D :D
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters besides Sansa (and any coming OCs). The edited cover art is mine, only the original picture belongs to its rightful artist. Beyond the obvious canon things (ex: Eren being a titan, Levi being from the underground) the plot is indefinitely mine.