Erwin looked at the cheering people in front of him and he had to try his hardest, not to break his character. He closed his eyes for a second, giving into the feeling of pride and power that came over him. Then he raised a hand and the noise immediately died down.
"You will be contacted in the next days and get your roles assigned. I trust you to carry them out carefully, as the whole operation will rely on the precision of every single one of you."
A few people cheered again in agreement; others nodded.
"Thank you," Erwin said. "That would be all for today."
He turned to Levi and Nanaba, while the noise level in the room rose again. People were excitedly chatting with each other again. "This went better than expected," he said to the two in front of him, this time with a lower voice.
"Now let's only hope that Shadis will listen to me of all people," Levi said rather concerned. "The operation will depend on that outcome."
"And I'm sorry to put you into this position, I really am," Erwin said frankly. Sending Levi to talk to Shadis was a very risky move – suicidal, like Levi had put it the night before – but it was their only hope to get Shadis' men away from the Wall-Cult. It was true, that Shadis had just tried to kill Levi and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't try it again as soon as he saw him. But Levi was the only person that Erwin trusted not to break, in case things took an ugly turn. Erwin trusted Levi with his life and he wouldn't even be able to describe the feelings of gratitude and awe he felt that Levi was that willing to give his life for him if needed.
"I'll check on my team and then I'm taking the next few days off," Levi said. With those words he started walking away towards the table his team was sitting on.
Erwin looked after him for a while, before he went to the other side of the room. He'd stay to talk to the members, to keep morale as high as possible, before he returned home.
/
Jean: Hey babe, Armin is celebrating his birthday on Friday and he told me to invite you as well
Jean: he said you can bring friends
Jean: what should I tell him?
/
Historia scrolled down to the latest massage from Jean. While the others had been getting drinks and talking, she had asked Sasha how things were with Jean and his roommates.
"Absolutely horrible," Sasha had whispered, before she had gotten her phone out. "Look at this."
The two had been texting every day, pretending to keep the relationship up. At one point they had gotten paranoid that someone from Jean's roommates would see the messages on the phone – and by someone both meant Eren – and that was why they texted like an actual couple instead of just agreeing on a meeting point. Historia had to think back to her undercover days, but she could tell that she definitely had more fun back then than Sasha had now.
"So, are you going to the party?", she asked in a low voice.
Sasha looked absolutely overwhelmed. "They already invited me to two game nights, it's getting suspicious if I cancel again, right?"
"If you want to keep up the lie, then probably yes," Historia answered honestly and glanced back at the phone screen. She would have offered Sasha to accompany her as a friend, but the problem was that the roommates had already seen her face at the restaurant, and she couldn't risk one of them recognizing her.
Sasha cursed. "And I think that Mikasa is still really suspicious, you should have seen the way she looked at me," she then added.
Before Historia could answer, suddenly Levi's head appeared between them. "Don't tell me that's what I think it is," he whispered in the same volume as the two women.
Historia jumped startled and Sasha cried out, jumping to the side and falling off the chair. They hadn't seen him coming.
The whole table, or rather the whole room, looked in their direction.
Historia could feel that Levi was still bent down, his face probably still next to hers, but she didn't dare to look in that direction. She froze on the spot. And, judging from the looks on Gunther's and Bertholdt's faces, who were sitting across from Historia, it seemed like that was the right call. Levi stayed like that for what seemed to be an eternity, before he straightened up.
"The two of you," he said with a more normal voice, "to the office."
Then he turned around and walked towards one of the offices on the side of the room. They were made of glass, but one of them had blinds on the inside, which served as privacy screens. Of course, Levi went into that one, leaving the door open.
Historia and Sasha looked at each other in fear. Did he know, what they were talking about?
"It was nice to have known you," Ymir commented sarcastically.
Historia shot her an angry glance. "You're no innocent here," she whispered.
"Yeah," Ymir said. "But I didn't get caught, so –"
In the meantime, Sasha had gotten up and the two of them hurried to the office, before Levi had the chance to get even angrier. They felt the looks of the others on them as they walked up to the door, Historia could only imagine what they all must been thinking. She stepped into the office first. Inside, there was a big table with one leather desk chair looking at the door, and two wooden chairs with a low backrest on the other side. Levi was leaning against the desk, with his arms crossed.
"Close the door," he said in an unusual low voice.
The door fell shut.
"Sit!"
/
Levi looked at the two women sitting down in front of him. Neither of the two dared to look at him. The noise from the outside had died down and he assumed that no one dared to speak, in hope to hear what was going on inside here.
"You know," he started, with a normal voice; "over the years one picks up on the one or other piece of information … Information like names, for example." He paused only because he knew what effect it had. "Like the names of Kirschstein's roommates."
He saw how Sasha winced.
"Sasha, look at me," he said, and she looked up, biting down on her lower lip. "Explain yourself."
Sasha fumbled with her hands and looked like she was about to start crying. But then, she told him what had been going on between Jean and her. She told Levi how she had ended up in Jean's apartment and how she had to come up with the lie that they were in a relationship and the events that led her to go to dinner with his roommates. Levi was boiling on the inside as he listened to her story. When she finished, he restrained from commenting, but looked over at Historia.
"And you didn't think about reporting that?"
Historia now looked at him as well, an anxious expression on her face. "I - I was afraid that she'd get in trouble," she answered.
Levi drew a sharp breath. It took a considerable effort to not start screaming. "Do you know, how unbelievably, incredibly stupid the two of you were?" His voice was still low, stressing every word. He couldn't believe what he just heard.
"Not only have you jeopardized the mission, but you've put yourselves, as well as Kirschstein, into absolutely unnecessary danger. What would have happened if the roommates had found out? Do you know that Jeager's son is one of the roommates?"
Judging by the absolutely shocked expressions from both of them, they didn't know that.
"You're in my team, which means that I want absolute transparency and honesty. I need to know that I can trust you," Levi continued. "Do you think that no one made mistakes before?"
Hell, his old squad had also made so many mistakes that Levi couldn't even remember every single one of them. He had gotten what felt like countless calls from Aoruo and Erd, that "something stupid" had happened. Gunther had crashed, not only one, but three different cars of Levi. And while Levi may had given them a piece of his mind, he had never punished them for all that stuff. They had stayed in his squad, because he knew that he could trust them with being honest.
"For fucks sake, I didn't strangle Braun for almost killing the Mayor," Levi reminded them of the latest incident. And that, even if one could argue that Braun was the reason for everything that had happened the last few days.
Levi looked at Sasha. "I'm fucking pissed that you kept it up so long. How the hell am I supposed to look out for you, if you don't tell me shit like that?" They were in his squad, and he was responsible for them. He couldn't have his members out there doing stuff in secret because if something were to happen to them or because of them, he'd be the one responsible for it.
Now Sasha started crying. "I'm sorry," she uttered between sobs. "I didn't think … it was Connie … and then … I don't…" She looked at him in absolute despair. "I'm sorry."
Levi sighed. She had been afraid what would happen to Connie and it led to a snowball effect of bad calls on her side. Feelings. It always came down to feelings, didn't it? Unwittingly Levi heard the voice of the Leader in his head; "Feelings, Levi. That's what hinders humanity from achieving success." She was only supposed to be the contact person and no double-agent. If they had wanted to go with double-agents, they would have sent someone else.
"Make your call now. Either stay in the role or I'll assign someone else for it," Levi finally said. "But if you stay, then you'll have to stop giving them reasons to get suspicious. And, you'll have to start communicating with me."
Sasha took a few breaths and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. "I can do it. Let me prove to you that I can do it."
Did he really wanted to risk it?
"I had been nervous around them, but a lot of it was also because I was afraid that you'd find out," Sasha added, as if she was able to read his mind. "And because no one knew that I was there, if something were to happen."
"Alright," Levi finally said. He then took down the watch he had around his wrist. It was a digital one, with four buttons around the clock face. He handed it over to Sasha. It wasn't a women's model, but she had to make do with it for now. "There's a GPS-chip in it, you'll have to press the button on the left for one minute to start sending your coordinates to the IT team. If you're in trouble, press that one," he said, pointing at another button; "and they'll send someone over."
She put the clock on her lap and started taking off the normal one she already had around her wrist, to change them.
"The two of you won't get another chance," Levi said and stepped away from the desk. "If you do anything to as much as make me suspicious again, then you're both out of the team, understood?"
The two women nodded.
Then, Levi looked over to Historia. "Teach her some self-defence moves until that party."
/
When Levi had ordered Sasha and Historia to the office, the whole room had fallen silent. He had looked furious and no one had dared to make a noise when he stormed off through the door. After the door fell shut, everyone was still looking at it, expecting to hear yelling from within, but nothing came. Hanji looked over to where Erwin was standing and she saw how the Don raised an eyebrow, but then continued his conversation. Slowly, the people in the room went back to chatting, some of them saying their goodbyes and leaving.
"See, there's never a dull moment at our gatherings," Daz commented eventually. He had previously told a few stories about the "highlights of the HQ" as he had put it.
"It seems so," Hanji agreed with him. "I only hope that it won't take too long, Levi's my ride home."
The others laughed. "Well, we can keep you company until then."
More than half an hour later, the door to the office opened again. Historia and Sasha came out, both with a guilty expression. Sasha even had red eyes. Hanji wondered what had happened, but she didn't want to be intrusive, as the people from Levi's squad already run up to them. However, she noticed that Sasha was wearing Levi's watch around her wrist. For a second, Hanji wondered whether she should go to the office, but then she saw Erwin entering it. "I won't get home tonight, will I?" she thought.
After another fifteen minutes the door flew open again. Erwin and Levi walked out, the Don walking towards the exit and Levi towards his squad. Erwin called a "goodbye" into the room before he walked out. Levi talked with his squad, before he came to the table Hanji was sitting at.
"Everything alright?", Gelgar asked him. Hanji had noticed that Nanaba's team seemed to be less frightened of him than the others, because they'd always start chatting with him.
"My idiots just costed me my days off," Levi answered and then looked over at Hanji. "Ready to go?"
She nodded and they said goodbye and walked out.
"Everything alright?", Hanji asked him, when they were alone.
Levi took out his car keys and just shook his head. "I fucking hate people."
/
AN: Do you remember the one scene in S1 where Sawney and Bean had been murdered and Erwin comes in really awkwardly to ask Eren what he thought? That's how Levi appeared to Historia and Sasha, in my mind :D