Trapped – August 16

Description: Hanji and Levi are captured by the titan shifters

Rating: T

Characters: Hanji Z., Levi

Genre: Angst with a side of Humor

Hanji wished for a window, a way to mark the passing of time, but all she had was meals and the times she was alone in their cell. They took Levi out at some set interval to beat him. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was to torture him for information. Maybe it was to torture her.

Maybe it was his punishment for all the titans he'd killed.

But then how many had she tortured for information? Wouldn't that be worse than the quick, clean deaths he gave their brethren?

A noise echoed and Levi was thrown into their cage again; he looked terrible. She immediately picked up his hands, seeing if they'd ripped off any of his fingernails.

But no, they weren't the monster she was, even if they were titan shifters. They merely beat him, was it every day? She couldn't be sure.

He never said a thing about it, only moaned in her arms when he was sure they were alone. She often wondered if this was worse than if they'd been left alone in isolation. After what she guessed to be an hour, food was thrown into their cell by some human she didn't recognize.

She wondered which titan he was. The one that crawled around on all fours maybe? It really didn't matter. But she forced some food into Levi, which seemed to revive him. He crawled away to the corner he'd claimed as his as soon as they'd arrived. Despite the bruises and cuts that covered him, he looked around his cell in disgust, "It's filthy in here."

Hanji had tried to stay positive, but he was making it harder. "Levi, I do not have the patience for your diva attitude right now."

He scowled, throwing a piece of stale bread into his slop. "I'm not a diva."

Hanji smirked, attempting to regain some of her natural good cheer. "Really?" She leaned forward to yank off his cravat.

He slapped her hand away. "Stop that."

"See, you won't even let me touch your fancy bib."

"It's not a bib."

Hanji laughed, but had to stop after a few seconds for fear of it turning into sobs. She no longer looked at Levi.

He shifted his weight, he ached all over, but not putting weight on any body part for too long helped. "So have you thought of a plan to get us out of here yet?"

"My plan is to wait for Erwin to figure out that it's not in humanity's best interest to let us rot in a jail cell."

"I'm not impressed, Humanity's Smartest."

Hanji shrugged. "Well, if Humanity's Strongest hadn't let us get captured, we wouldn't need a plan."

Levi nearly growled at her, but it was too much effort and he groaned in pain instead. Hanji rose, coming to his position. He tried to turn from her, but she pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered to his neck.

Levi wished he had the strength to turn away, but he desperately needed the comfort. He dug his face into her neck. Her arms tightened.

After a moment, Hanji pulled away. She moved to sit beside him, head leaning back against the wall. "Feel like playing a game?"

"Only you would suggest such a thing while we're in prison."

"Come on. It'll help pass the time."

Levi could sense that arguing wouldn't make a difference, so he replied, "What did you have in mind?"

Hanji grinned. She then did her usual habit of thinking out loud. "Well, I Spy would get boring real quickly. I feel like you would suck at 20 Questions." He glared at her. She explained, "Because you wouldn't take it seriously. We could play Truth or Dare, but we can't really do much for dares, so I guess it would just be truths."

Levi looked at the bars that confined them. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea here."

Hanji nodded in agreement. She perked up again, "What about Kill, Bang, Marry?"

"No."

"Come on, we could do it about the 104st."

"Hell no. I'm not going to sit here and think about which kid who reports to me I'd hypothetically rather fuck."

"I'll go first."

"No."

Hanji crossed her arms. "You have absolutely no sense of fun."

"Sorry, I guess torture takes it out of me," Levi snapped.

Hanji looked down for a moment before asking in a low voice, "How bad is it?"

"I'll live."

"Of course you will. That's not what I asked."

Levi stayed silent, looking to the solid wall across from the bars. What he would give for a window. Hanji's eyes didn't leave the bruises and cuts on his body. Some had healed only to have new one inflicted over top of them. She frowned, "They should beat you harder and wait for you to heal more. It would hurt more."

Levi snorted. "One time and you're suddenly an expert?"

Hanji recoiled as if he'd hit her, but she still said, "You'd think it would be me they'd want to hurt. I'm the one who tortures titans. You give them clean kills."

"You cry when you do it. I'm the human with the highest titan kill number. Trust me, none of them seem to get anything but pleasure from watching me suffer and bleed."

Hanji reach out a tentative hand to touch the bruise on his face. Levi hissed at the contact. "I'm sorry for this," she said.

"Not your fault."

"We got lost because I ran off from the group."

"No one forced me to follow you."

Hanji's hand moved to touch some of the other wounds. Levi winced at some of the contact but leaned into it just as often. "What do you think they want?" Hanji asked.

"I don't know. They don't really question me. Maybe this is just revenge."

Hanji clicked her tongue. "How human. It's so disappointing. Titans could have been anything, but in the end, they're just humans with an attitude problem."

Levi snorted, almost like a laugh. "Humans are easier to kill than titans."

Hanji removed her hand, but scooted closer to him, resting her head against his shoulder. "Not really. Titans were mostly mindless and predictable. Humans can be crazy."

"Well, then it's a good thing we have you. You can out crazy anyone."

Hanji giggled. Then she closed her eyes and drifted off, dreaming of dead comrades and decapitated titans who talked.