He'd been having a very long, tiresome day.
He felt grimy and sweaty, the weather a bit warmer than usual for this time of year. His cloak hung about his shoulders raggedly, shredded from when he'd sliced it free of a titan's grubby grip, his left arm feeling achy and rattled from the hard stroke of his blade. His side felt more than a little bruised and to top it all off he hadn't slept very well last night.
It'd been a mixture of things that had wracked his skull and kept him stirring. Nightmares, mostly; the gruesome sound of bodies being crushed and chewed, the bloody smears they were reduced to after they'd been clenched between titan fingers, their screams of pure terror and agony as they were eaten alive.
And yet as he'd tried to distract himself from these images there had been a sudden shift from the soup of skin, blood and bones to just pale, clean skin. The softness of it still clinging to his fingertips. The cries and screams had been replaced by the quiet, thrilling sound of her sharp intake of breath. The small curve of her parted pink lips making his pulse quicken for a much different reason.
And as he dangerously wondered what it might have felt like to have her lips part for him in his bed the pale sunlight had begun to bleed into the inky blue of the sky, and he'd felt the exhaustion grind on his bones.
He rubbed his hand over his face tiredly as he walked back to his quarters, breaking himself away from his irritating thoughts as the sun beat down on the nape of his neck.
And then he heard it.
Cackles and chokes of annoying, hyena-like laughter. The snaps and cracks of 3D maneuver gear and a few cries of dismay.
He was very tempted to ignore it. He could, really. He could take a hot shower and eat and perhaps be left alone long enough to catch up on his sleep. He could avoid all forms of human interaction and the thought seemed like bliss.
But then he heard a feminine voice call out.
"Mikasa, please—I can't get down!"
He debated only for a few more seconds before he moved.
Wearily, he began to walk around the corner towards the commotion.
He spotted Jean and Connie first, huddled together beneath a small cluster of tall trees. They were whispering quietly to one another, looking up at the branches with a sickening fascination, as if glitter was falling from them.
They continued to murmur. They hadn't noticed him standing behind them.
Yet.
"Look at where her hand is." Jean murmured to Connie in fascination.
Connie giggled a little dumbly. "Yeah, I see."
He looked up at the two women grimly.
Mikasa was balancing on a flimsy branch steadily, methodically undoing the buckles and straps on Sasha's legs. Sasha was gripping Mikasa's thighs, dangling upside down and looking a little frightened and woozy. She buried her face against Mikasa's hip and groaned.
Jean shifted forward. "Sasha is…very lucky."
Connie hummed.
"I'd do anything to be in Sasha's position right now."
He'd known of Jean's little infatuation on Mikasa—who didn't really—and it bothered him to no end that it was a similarity he also seemed to possess. He wasn't infatuated with the girl, but since they'd fed the horses she had never really strayed far from his thoughts. He kept recalling the feel and smell of her and his irritating, helpless reaction to it—and yet what had stunned him more than anything was that she had responded to him, also.
When was the last time someone had been so receptive of his touch?
When was the last time he'd wanted to touch anyone at all?
"If Sasha just turned a little to the left she could…" Jean murmured, a little breathlessly.
Irked—with Jean's words and his own thoughts—Levi finally spoke. "What are you brats doing?"
Jean and Connie whirled in place, their eyes comically wide. "H-Heichou!"
He waited.
Connie sputtered. "Sasha got tangled in the tree."
He felt a little more than exasperated. "I can see that, Springer. What I'm asking is how."
Jean scratched the back of his head, his words awkward and stilted. "She was trying to make a spider web with the 3D maneuver gear."
Connie desperately tried to choke down his laughter.
He almost sighed. "Why aren't you helping Ackerman?"
Connie was still laughing too hard to speak.
Jean cleared his throat, gesturing to Levi's gear. "We don't have our 3D maneuver gear, Heichou."
Levi looked up at Mikasa. "Neither does Ackerman."
"She…was the only one able to climb up the tree." Jean admitted, a slight blush on his cheeks.
He examined the tree again. It did look rather impossible to get up the tree without their gear. But if anyone could manage a seemingly impossible physical feat of strength and prowess it was Mikasa Ackerman.
He supposed he had better shoot up there but he wasn't quite sure his gear was in working order. As they'd returned it had begun to sputter and jerk.
Sasha gave a sudden sharp cry and they all looked back up.
Mikasa had finally freed Sasha from her entanglement and Sasha had slid down. She landed on the branch beneath Mikasa's feet and with the sudden added weight it snapped beneath them.
Shit.
He ran forward—skidding to a stop when Mikasa grabbed a hold of Sasha's jacket collar and grabbed onto the branch above her head. She'd reacted quickly enough to save them both from the fall, carrying both their weight with one arm—but she was straining, and the branch she clung to looked about ready to crack any second, too.
"Hold still, Ackerman." He barked and she nodded grimly.
She was dangling in a rather nasty cluster of thin branches, and he scanned for a sturdy one about them quickly. He angled himself and shot up swiftly, landing lightly on a thick branch beneath them.
"Let her go."
Mikasa gave him a grim look and then released her grip on Sasha's jacket. Sasha gave a little screech as she fell through the air, landing on him heavily. He held steady, grunting and heaving her onto her feet beside him. She swayed and he had to grab her to keep her from toppling over.
"Heichou, I…I was upside down for a while."
He looked at her critically. She wasn't really able to stand on her own. He looked up to see Mikasa gripping the branch with two hands.
"Don't try to pull yourself up, Ackerman. That branch doesn't look too sturdy. Stay there until I can get Braus on the ground."
"I can get down on my own, Heichou."
He gave her a hard look. "Stay put." He shifted Sasha over his shoulder and swung them down, landing on the ground with a curse when she nearly fell. He barely managed to hold them both up. He glared at Jean and Connie. "Take her, Springer."
Connie scurried forward and lifted Sasha in his arms. "Hey Sasha."
She gave him a loopy grin. "I was a spider."
Connie gave her a tender smile. "Spiders don't get caught in their own webs."
She frowned in confusion. "They don't, do they?" She curled up a little. "Do spiders vomit?"
"What?"
"I'm going to vomit."
"Shit." Connie shifted from left to right frantically. "Heichou, I—"
"Take her to the medics." He looked back up at Mikasa. The damn spoiled brat was pulling herself up, the branch bowing beneath her weight dangerously. He angled himself to shoot up again. "I told you not to move, Ackerman."
He couldn't really tell from this distance but it looked like she was glaring at him again. He also thought he heard her muffle a few curses, though all he was able to decipher were two words that sounded like 'short' and 'ass'.
He had half a mind to leave her up there for a few hours when the branch suddenly broke.
And she was falling, cutting through the leaves and branches.
He shot up instantly, catching her in mid-air, her weight crashing onto him and throwing him off balance. His gear gave a thick sputter and it jerked, flipping them. Damn it. The cables snapped taught as they hurled down and as he tried to shield her he felt Mikasa pull him forward.
They hit the ground hard, his knees and arms dragging across the ground as they skidded to a stop. She'd somehow managed to get beneath him but he'd cradled her head in his arms, feeling the blood sinking through his clothing and onto the rocks and grass beneath them. He was winded, his lungs aching, but he forced himself up on his arms.
She'd landed on her side, her head cradled in his hand.
"Ackerman."
Her eyes were shut, her inky lashes fluttering against her flushed pale skin.
"Ackerman?" He bit out, a bit worried when she didn't respond.
And then he saw the blood trickle down her temple.
"Shit," He slid his arms beneath her and heaved her up against his chest, ignoring the pain that shot through his arms.
Jean scrambled towards him. "I've got her, Heichou."
Levi glared at him. "What you can do is get your moronic friend Springer and tell whoever is on stable duty that you two will be shoveling horse shit for the rest of this damn year."
Jean fumbled and Levi continued to limp away.
Her head was dangling back over his arm. He shifted her up so that her head lolled into the crook of his shoulder, her soft, jagged pants brushing against his damp throat. The blood was trickling down the side of her face and he felt his stomach twist. Either she'd hit her head on a branch on her way down or he hadn't been able to shield her properly.
He hadn't expected her to pull him onto her.
Why had she tried to protect him too?
"You're a bloody idiot, Ackerman."
She looked up at him with soft black eyes. "I'm fine, Heichou."
He almost scowled. Of course she'd try to pretend she was fine. He felt the limpness of her body in his arms, however and knew she wouldn't be able to stand for the life of her.
"Shut up, Ackerman. I told you not to move. It was an order and you disobeyed it."
You never bloody listen.
"I fell…" Mikasa's eyes were open and glazed, her little bewildered frown tugging at him. It was a little odd—and endearing—seeing such a powerful woman look like a child.
He nodded grimly. "I caught you."
She shut her eyes, looked a little dismayed. "Again?"
He smirked a little, remembering the time he'd saved her from the female titan. "Again."
Levi ignored the protests of the medics as he walked towards his bedroom. He'd just gotten some bloody scrapes, after all, nothing as severe as a possible concussion, anyway. He yanked off his jacket and shirt quickly, stepping into his shower. He let the hot water run over him for a few moments, wincing as all the slices and cuts throbbed over his body.
As much as he loathed admitting it he was worried. It seemed incredibly moronic that a soldier as skilled as Ackerman could have died from a stupid tumble down a tree. He was angry—almost enraged, really—that those idiots had taken it so lightly. He'd seen enough of his comrades die fruitlessly to know how fleeting life could be. He hadn't been able to save any of them—had let enough of them die for a cause to feel less than human.
To feel more than dead.
He'd seen her fall and felt that familiar, vicious twist in his gut—and he'd caught her, barely been able to prevent her skull from getting smashed when she had somehow managed to put herself beneath him the split second before they'd hit the ground.
And for what? Because some idiots were making spider webs? She'd almost died for their sheer stupidity.
But she hadn't. And he'd saved her.
But for the few he had saved there were hundreds he hadn't. And he drowned in their blood every night. He raked his wet hair back with raw fingers.
The water was tinged red as it swirled down the drain.
A/N—I know this is a short chapter & it was all from Levi's perspective. I hope you didn't mind. I sort of like (more than like, really) writing from his point of view. I hope I'm not screwing it up.
To the people who reviewed or liked & even reblogged it on tumblr—I'm a little more than in love with you. You were very encouraging. And so, I've decided to ask you guys for a favor.
Every chapter is going to begin with "Un"
For example the first chapter is titled "Understanding Subtlety"
This chapter is titled "Untangling Spider Webs"
I'm asking you all for a title that begins with "Un" and I'll write a chapter based off of it. It can be anything, any SNK character and any word that starts with those two letters...like "Undermining Heichou" or "Undesired Jean" or "Unknowing Eren"
Let me know here or on tumblr.
I'll give it about two weeks.
Thanks for any suggestions and reviews. You really have no idea how happy they make me.
