The papers never stopped coming. If he had known being a Lance Corporal meant sitting around for hours writing up reports, he would have refused the title Erwin had been so dammed smug about dumping on him.
He signed a request for a dozen of horses from Ness in neat script. Strange, this thing should be handled by Hange. Unless she had smuggled some of her work into his crate. Again.
No point stopping now. He had already started on her pile, better finish all of them than make a mess sorting her papers out of his.
He was not alone in the room. Oulo and Günther were quietly sharpening the squad's blade supply, not a word exchanged between the two of them, clockwork shink of whetstone against steel a fading background noise. Eld sat by the window table, helping him with Special Ops reports. Only Petra was nowhere to be seen.
The door behind him opened heavily and the familiar footsteps of Petra entered the room, abnormally stealthy. She only made it past him before a muffled 'meow' told him exactly what she was holding inside the fold of her jacket.
'Get it out.' He ordered without looking up from a detailed dissertation from Hange about her latest findings from a Titan they captured in the previous expedition. The paper was promptly thrown back in the crate without preamble. Moblit should have put a better leash on her. That was the fourth one he found in this particular pile. Who knew how many hand-written notes Hange had sneaked into other team's work.
Petra jumped a little as everyone's attention turned towards her.
'But Captain-' Petra pleaded miserably.
'No.'
'Captain's right, Petra.' Günther said, putting another blade on top of the growing pile to his left. 'We don't even have enough ration to feed our soldiers, let alone a cat.'
'Give it to Squad Leader Hange.' Oulo suggested and was awarded with a loud sniff.
'No way.' Petra vehemently shielded the cat away from Oulu's direction. 'She would dissect it.'
'Then put it back where you find it, Petra.' Eld's tone brooked no argument. 'Let nature do the rest.'
Petra looked torn and extremely put out. She made her way for the door nonetheless, petting the lump within her jacket softly.
Levi tuned back to his work. That was enough excitement for today. If he wanted to get all this done by sunset, he must not be distracted.
Distracted again he was.
A sudden 'Hey!' from Petra was all the warning he got before a weight landed on top of his head and proceeded to jump down the pristine paper in front of him, smearing muddy trail as it settled down on its haunch, staring obnoxiously innocently at him with mismatched eyes.
Muddy paws that seconds ago were on top of his head.
Petra let out a horrified squeak and the other three stared in alarmed silence.
He paid them no mind, attention fully on the dirty fiend that was eyeing his approaching hands with rapt attention.
It deserved to be choked to death right this instant. No creature this filthy was allowed on the table, let alone on top of his work.
The cat leant toward his palm and licked fearlessly, rough tongue a strange feeling on his fingers. When he made no move, it rubbed its matted head against his palm, begging to be petted.
Levi felt his eyes twitch. The small cat made a sorry picture, fur plastered to its body in clumps, tiny twigs tied to each of its whiskers, ears chipped away with a scissors, tail chopped off by half. Most likely the work of some spoiled brats.
'Petra, get this monster cleaned up and put him in your quarter. It is not to wander outside without supervision.' He said, holding the cat by its scruff towards Petra. 'And clean the floor and your boots, the state of them are unacceptable.' He motioned to the muddy boot prints on the floor.
'Get going.' He ordered curtly to a stock-still Petra holding a wiggling cat.
'Yes, Sir.' She awkwardly saluted and dashed outside.
Levi pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his fingers. They were not clean by any stretch but he made do. He needed to have the papers done.
The rhythm of whetstone against steel resumed, and he fell back to the monotone of doing paperwork.
His fingers were cramped all over by the time he set down his pen. Sunset had been two hours ago. It seemed he had miscalculated the time it took to finish paperwork.
A lone candle set up in front of his face, flickering with his every breath.
Sometime ago, his squad had left, leaving him alone in the room.
He wanted to stretch but the warm furry lump in his lap made him rethink it.
Earlier, Petra, dripping wet, had dropped by and dumped the cat, freshly washed and cleaned, under his nose, with the explanation that others were in no shape to handle the cat and walked out, sleeves rolled up to her shoulders and pants to her knees. She seemed pissed.
The feline had stared up at him and done relentless circles around his hand until he gave up and paid attention to it. It stopped for a moment before starting playing with his pen.
Aggravated, he stood up, picked a chipped wooden bowl with many cracks running along the edge from the shelf, poured in some milk and placed it under the cat's nose. It happily lapped at the treat and stopped bothering him.
His peace lasted for a minute.
The cat meandered over to his place again. Just as he was about to shoo it away, it jumped onto his lap and stared up at him unblinkingly. Without preamble, he picked it up by the scruff and put it on the floor. It jumped up again almost instantly. Levi brought it to his eye level and scowled at it.
'Stop.' He said and put it back down on the floor.
It leapt for his lap again. He put it on the floor again.
This continued for a few more times until Levi was fucking fed up with it and let the imp do whatever the hell it wanted.
Which led him to the dilemma at the moment. He could just stand up and wake the cat but he was too numb to feel anything below his belt.
The cat slept on, purring softly. Contentedly.
Levi was tired himself. Maybe he could have some shuteye….
It had been a battle and a wrestle to clean the cat to an acceptable state. The cat hated water and soap with a passion and Petra was tempted to abandon the mission but her soft spot for animals prevented her from doing so.
Just like it had prevented her from turning a blind eye on the pitiful creature in her early morning patrol.
Therefore, with much difficulty, yelling and clawing, she managed to clean the matted fur without shaving the whole thing off.
By the end of it, she was dripping wet and annoyed beyond believe.
Günther, Oulo and Eld had dragged themselves out of the room to watch her struggle from the window and were snickering among themselves at her state.
A sudden thought entered her mind.
She approached them with the cat bundled in a dry cloth, a serene smile plastered on her face.
'Can you help me dry it?' It was not a question and Oulo, who was nearest to the entrance, took the bundle apprehensively.
Her smile stretched a bit more and she turned around, making her way for the yard to clean the water-, dirt- and soap-strewn battlefield.
She was not even halfway done when screams and curses flew out from the men's directions.
When she came in, each of them was sporting red angry slashes across their faces and hands. The cat, however, was miraculously dried and eyeing all of them with intelligent eyes.
She handed Eld the broom and carefully approached the cat. It let her pick it up without any troubles.
'Where are you going?' Eld wheezed out, leaning against to stand up.
'I'm going to find Captain, maybe he can train this beast.'
Find Captain she did. He had not moved from the spot at the head of the table, still reading and signing.
She dropped the cat off, explained and got out before Captain could have a word in edgewise.
Between the four of them, they had decided to clean the whole yard as well as the stable.
When the three men made their way for their quarter to prepare for their night shift, she silently walked the dark corridor, mop and bucket in hand to clean the boot print.
She peaked in through the crack on the door. She did not close it fully when she entered last time.
Captain slumped forward a little, obviously asleep after a long day of work, piles of finished papers arranged neatly in the crate.
The cat was nowhere in sight.
Not wanting to wake Captain up, she slipped inside and quietly mopped the floor.
He did not twitch once for the whole duration she was there.
The cat was still surprisingly missing when she prepared to leave. Looking around to find the little monster, she noticed a oddly shaped furry mass on Captain's lap.
The cat. Sleeping. On Captain's lap.
She couldn't resist a small coo.
As quietly as she came in, she came out and ran at breakneck speed to find Moblit. There in his quarter, She made him swore into secrecy before tugging him on his sleeves and dragged him off.
Captain and the cat were still sleeping, oblivious to the world.
Of course they would still be sleeping, she had been gone for only forty-three seconds.
'Is that-' Moblit pointed at Captain and the curled fur ball, surprise colored his voice.
'Yes, can you draw?' She cut him off. They needed to get on with it. There was no telling when either of them would wake up and she would rather not have Captain glare daggers at her.
'Just a moment.' Moblit flipped open his sketchbook and started drawing.
Petra could not keep the smile off her face for a while.
'Uhh, Officer Moblit?'
'Hm?'
'Uhh, who's that in the picture?'
'Captain Levi and the cat. It is -was- Petra's favourite.'
'The…cat?'
'I don't know where it came from, only people from Special Op Squad knows… And knew.' Silence. Hollow wind. 'You can have it Eren.'
'I- uh, thank you Officer Moblit.'
'Don't mention it.'
The cat comes and goes since Petra's death. Whenever it comes, Levi allows it to sleep on his lap. It likes Levi's new squad enough but it never stays. It always leaves at dawn and comes at dusk.
AN: I'm still in denial of Original Squad Levi's death. I just want to get the picture of Levi dozing off with a cat on his lap before I go crazy and attempt to draw it with my non-existent art skill.