A/N: Welcome, welcome, WELCOME BACK EVERYONE! I'm so excited to have another chapter up for you all! This chapter may or not contain a little bit of foreshadowing for some future works between these two, so pay attention. *teehee* Anyways, for those of you have been waiting for some of the juicier bits of Celica and Levi to reemerge, let me tell you something. So have I my dears, so have I. (It takes so much self-control not to just shove these two together, you have no idea.)

If you are having problems finding my poll, it should be at the very top of my profile. (It took me about ten minutes of looking myself to find it)

As always, I would like to thank my beloved readers for their support and love. And if you like the story, don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and or Review. Feel free to PM me whenever you would like, especially if you have questions about the series. I am more than willing to answer any and all questions.

SHOUTOUTS TO: bluebellvine and SabineGerhart07 for the reviews that lit my writer's soul on fire!

Well, CIAO FOR NOW!


CELICA'S POV:

The next morning, I had imagined that I would be lying awake before dawn breathless and heart racing from another dream involving Levi. Well, I wasn't totally incorrect in my assumption. I was awake before dawn, struggling to catch my breath as I lay there in mess of sheets after I dreamed of the captain. However, the reason for my waking was due to another nightmare; one that rattled me to the very core.

I dreamed of being surrounded by a swarm of titans, the captain lost from my visual for a split moment. One moment there was blood covering my hands and clothes, screams echoing in my ears before everything turned black. Hot, humid, foul smelling and pitch black.

The blood on my hands and clothes belong to me and the screams I heard were also mine. Had I been swallowed by a Titan? When did it happen? If I was, why am I still alive? Where is all this pain coming from? Where was the captain?

Levi Heichou...? Levi Hei-...! Please... where are you...? Levi...? Levi...!

"LEVI!"

My screams had awakened me as I bolted up in bed, throwing the covers off, as my throat burned and tears collected in my eyes. My body trembled from the shock as I buried my face into my knees and held them as close to my body as I could.

"Hey... You're okay." Petra whispered beside me, suddenly finding her sitting on the edge of my bed, an arm wrapped around me in a gesture of comfort. "It was just a bad dream. The captain is okay, safe in the capital, and you're okay too."

Tears were freefalling down my face as I looked up at her but I could feel no shame for the overwhelming amount of fear that I was feeling. It took me another moment to come to my senses, remembering that Levi wasn't in the capital at all, but most likely in his own room on the other side of headquarters. Regardless of where he actually was, he was still safe. For now.

"It... felt so real." I choked out between sobs, phantom pains from my nightmare coursing through my limbs as if they had been mauled by either teeth or blade one. "It... It still hurts, Petra. Like physically... hurts. It was... it was like torture...!"

Before I could continue, Petra brought me in closer to her, embracing me tightly as she shushed my sobs to a dull whimper.

"But it's not real. You're in your room back at headquarters. You aren't beyond the walls and you're safe."

Still crippled with a mixture of pain and fear, I buried my head in her shoulder as the tears kept running down my face.

"I'm... I'm sorry." My voice cracked as I tried speaking.

"Don't be." She whispered, comforting me until the tremors and tears eventually stopped and we both tried to return to sleep before the sun threatened to break over the horizon.


Utterly drained and sore from the ache in my bones left behind after my nightmare, the day proved to be difficult as we rode out on horseback for the majority of the day. My thighs screamed their constant and obnoxious protests with every mile after we had ridden well over the 20-mile mark.

Serves me right for forgetting to stretch properly before bed. But then again, I was still extremely wound up since the first time I had awoken last night. The same nightmare continuing every time I went back to sleep until the last moments of shut-eye before I finally gave up and stayed up until time to get ready.

At least the other reoccurring wake ups didn't force Petra awake as well. I still feel bad about waking her the first time and having her see me like that again. Damn, I must really be fucked up in the head if this stuff keeps happening to me.

When the training day had finally come to a close, we boarded up our horses for the night and put up their gear. My legs felt like I had pins pricking into every muscle as I tried to walk straight and unassisted, eventually working the stiffness out of the gradually as I meandered through the castle.

There was still some daylight left in the day and I suddenly remember the list of chores that had been neglected since yesterday. The amount that the captain would make us clean in a day was excessive at best, let alone two days worth. Sighing with a bit of discontentment, I headed back to my room to gather my cleaning gear and start on the list of cleaning tasks that I had memorized look ago.


Dinner had come and gone during the time I had spent cleaning, the hours slipping past me in silence as I was tucked away in a lesser used part of headquarters scrubbing the floors. Kneeling on the floor, I was grateful for the small little break on my legs even if my knees would be screaming at me later for it.

If anyone had thought to come looking for me during this time, I'm guessing that I had properly hidden away for once. Funny how whenever I didn't care to be found that everyone would leave me be, but the moment I wanted to be alone, it seemed that I had a whole search party after me.

Memories of my last hideaway ran through my mind all at once. The worry I had put everyone though. What I had put Levi Heichou through. His anger and frustration and the boiling point that followed soon after.

The memory of the feel of his lips on mine, on my skin, my blood began to heat just thinking about it. The look he wore back then had made me crave him and right now it was no different when I thought about his unabashed like this.

In truth, I could probably say that I was head over heels infatuated with him. Not in love, but, maybe in lust at least? Who could say?

Not I.

Collecting the cleaning supplies after I was done with the floor, my legs buckled under me as I went to stand, immediately falling right back down to the ground.

"Shit." Don't tell me my legs finally gave out when I needed them.

"Need some help?" Looking up, I found the captain walking towards me from the end of the hall.

"I'm fine, Heichou. Just a little stiff that's all."

He cast a side glance at me and picked up the scattered cleaning items that I had dropped, putting them away in the supply closet just a few feet away. Meanwhile, I tried to at least straighten out my legs in front of me, having to literally pull them back in front leaning on one hand as I shifted to sit properly on the floor instead of my legs themselves.

"You didn't stretch last night." It wasn't a question but a statement as he stood over me.

Just as I pulled the other leg forward, the muscles suddenly tightened, cramping painfully as they seized.

"What was your first clue?" I gritted through my teeth.

"Troublesome brat." Kneeling beside me, he straightened out my leg the best he could. "Bear with it a moment." Was all the warning I got when his hand ran over my knee, a painful and tight grip on the muscle as he began to help work the muscle through the rest of it's seizing.

I have NEVER wanted to hit this man so much in the entire I've known him as much I had then.

Within the minute, the pain slowly subsided but his hand didn't stop, the force of his fingers becoming a lot more gentle but not nearly as harsh as before.

"Better?" He asked in a low, quiet voice.

"Yeah. Thank you." I dipped my head down to hide the blush that had risen to my face after the pain was finally gone, his strong touch making me heart beat jump, grateful for the contact.

When he finally did stop, pulling back his hand, my skin felt suddenly cold in comparison and I had to force down the little whimper that bubbled in my throat.

"Think you can stand now?" I nodded in reply and brought my feet under me again. I only got about halfway up before I faltered, the captain's hand securing my arms to keep me from going down again.

He sighed softly and wordlessly turned around, kneeling again before pulling my legs forwards, basically making me fall right onto his back. And in one swift motion, he hooked his arms around my legs and stood up with me clinging to his for dear life with my arms securely tightly around his shoulders and throat.

"Levi Hei- What are you-?!"

"Until your legs are properly stretched and relaxed I doubt you can hold yourself up anymore. Now seems to be as good a time as ever. And you've still got more training in the morning. Can't have you locking up again flying straight into a tree. It could ruin that perfect little face of yours. And ease up a little bit, you're strangling me here."

Had the blush from earlier not faded, I was pretty sure my face would have been cherry red right now as I loosened my grip just a tad.

"Yeah, but... where do you think you're taking me?"

"You wanna stretch out on a cold, hard, and wet floor?" He pointed out, looking back at me with those equally cold and hard eyes of his. I ducked my head into his back in silence, not quite ready to make eye contact with him. "That's what I thought."

It must have been later than I had thought it was, finding the hallways desolate as he carried me through them. Thinking about how much time I had been off in my own little world made my body tense, worried about what the others would say. The captain though took my uncomfortable tension as fear of being dropped and coaxed out to me.

"I've got you. Don't worry." Securing an even tighter grip on me, I didn't let myself think twice about the others. I didn't think about where exactly I was being piggybacked to nor about anything else in particular. Instead, I was reveling in his familiar spicy scent as I buried my nose into the soft fabric of his shirt.

Goddess, I missed this scent. I missed the warmth he emanated whenever I was with him. I missed the way he felt under my fingertips as I moved my hands from around his neck to hold onto his shoulders instead, pressing myself fully against his back, finally fully relaxing my body.

He took me to his room, suggesting that Petra had already turned in for the night after such a long day. I didn't fight him for his reason, only grateful to lay down in his soft warm bed again.

Dumping me onto my back rather unceremoniously among the sheets, he helped me guide my legs straight again, settling himself into between my knees.

"I take it you have no objections to my assistance?" I shook my head.

"I would have let you know by now if I did." He nodded his response as he gingerly wrapped his fingers around one of my ankles.

"Try to keep your leg straight as best as you can on your own and remember to breathe deeply. In and out when I say, alright?"

This time it was my turn to nod.

"Okay. Breathe in." He tightened his grip and I took my breath. "Release, slowly."

As I let out my breath in precisely measured amounts, he started lifting my leg, keeping one hand still on the ankle and the other on my knee, making sure that it was straight. My leg burned like fire the higher he moved it. I could already feel my other leg wanting to move off the surface of the bed to try to ease the strain. What was sad though, was the fact my leg wasn't any higher than his waist.

He lowered my leg down about an inch before speaking.

"Shit, you're worse off than I thought. How in the hell can it be this bad already?" He muttered.

"I can't afford to hold back in training," I answered. "Too little time and too much to catch up on."

"Keep it up though and you'll hurt yourself again." He warned.

"I always keep my promises, sir. I don't intend to go back on my word now."

He looked at me with a reserved and straight face but his eyes reflected an emotion that I couldn't quite pinpoint right then and there before he interrupted my train of thought.

"Take another breath. When you can reach my shoulder, then we'll move on."

I nodded and took my breath, releasing slowly as he guided my leg straight up again. It took a few tries before I finally got my leg high enough. Having him studying the features of your face so carefully to see if the strain is too much and to relax only made it more difficult. It was hard enough just enduring the stretching, let alone doing that and not blushing from the way he was looking at me.

First I reached his waist, then the bottom of his ribs, followed by the center of his chest and then finally his shoulder, where he hooked my ankle over and let it stay there for just a few more moments to get the most of the stretch.

"Good job." He said with a barely-there smile.

"Finally." I breathed, taking a few more moderate breaths before he slowly guided my leg down, hooking a hand under my knee to bend it as my foot touched the bed again. Oh, but it wasn't over yet. I still had had another half to do.

"Ready?" With another nod as my confirmation, he forced my knee as close to my torso as possible, the strain now in my hamstrings and glutes instead of predominately in my calves. It still hurt like hell but at least it seemed easier than earlier.

Switching legs, we found that the other was even stiffer than the other. So much so that he basically had to sit on my other leg to keep it from raising so that the stretch could be down properly, my entire body trembling lightly from the strain.

I'm sorry but for a man who's only five foot three, that fucker is heavy! It was only when I realized that his crotch was pressed against mine did all other brain function cease to occur.

My breath hitched in my throat as my body started trembling for a different reason than before. I could feel his eyes on me again, harder this time, and looking up, I think he had noticed the closeness as well.

"I don't think you actually do understand. Not in the slightest."

He had said that to me that day. But I did understand now. I understood perfectly because now I was the one in his shoes. I had forgotten about the strain my body had been under entirely and I wanted nothing more to jump him, press our lips together for the first time since then, and let him have his way with me and vice versa.

But then I wondered, did he even want that anymore.

"Sorry." He muttered, trying to ease back a little, guiding my leg back down and immediately into the last stretch, the little movement he made not doing exactly what he had intended which ended up with him pressed even closer to me.

"Levi?" I called out his name before I could stop myself. He didn't respond aloud or give me any indication that he had heard me at all but he did release my leg and let it straighten back out on its own accord.

As of now, the captain was settled neatly between my legs as they parted on either side of him. Thing was, I didn't much feel like complaining. His eyes met mine, a cold, calculating look in them as if he was wondering exactly what to do now.

"What do you want from me, Celica?" He asked suddenly, hanging his head to where I couldn't see his eyes as he hovered over me.

My fingers twitched at the idea of lacing them into his hair or pulling him closer against me, but with him so close already, his intoxicating smell trying to shut down the logical part of my brain, I had to keep my head at least a little bit.

"What do you mean?" He sighed and ran a hand through the black strands before reluctantly looking up at me with hesitant eyes.

"I told you I wouldn't force anything out of you anymore. And that if you wanted something, that was your choice. So, I'll ask you again... What do you want from me?"

Propping myself up with my hands, looking at him with such a conflicted look on his face, only one thing came to mind when he asked me that second time and it when I spoke it, it came out like a soft whimper.

"I want you to stop holding back."