A 'missing scene' from chapter 21 of OMWF. Levi's POV, of course. If you've already read the chapter, you'll know when exactly it takes place.

This starts out pretty dark, but it really isn't, I promise.

Chapter 4: Of Wounds and Fear

She was flying through the air, eyes bright, moving with purpose and grace. Free. There was a lightness about her she didn't exhibit on the ground; down there, she was carrying invisible shackles, bearing their weight silently; the faint, near-permanent crease between her brows and the tension around her lips the only indicator.

Her hair was streaming out behind her as she soared through the trees.

Levi saw it before her. He always did. And he shouted her name, but all the noise was sucked from the air, and when the titan's fist closed around Nora, all he could do was watch from afar. The sound returned in full force, and he heard the terrible crunch as the titan squeezed, heard her dying scream, heard and saw her exploding in a splatter of blood.

No. Too late.

The scene changed, and they were inside the Walls, making their way through the maze of buildings, Rose looming in the distance. She was flying up ahead again, swords drawn, cutting through their enemies. Shots died down around them. Nora landed on a roof, turning and waiting for him.

As his feet touched the shingles, a single shot cut through the air, loud and final.

Red bloomed on her chest, and she fell to her knees. Levi caught her in his arms, watching the crimson stain spreading fast, so fast.

"Ah, my bad." Kenny's voice came from behind him. He lowered the gun he had just fired, grinning. "But just as I said—everyone needs a hobby, Levi. Seems like ya have to find a new one."

Blood was streaming out of Nora's mouth and nose. "Not in here," she rasped, almost soundlessly, "I don't want to die... inside these damn... Walls..." The light in her eyes extinguished, and she went limp in his arms.

No. No. No. If he had just been faster, better, stronger...

But he never was, always too late. Always watching, useless, unable to turn back time, to prevent the inevitable.

There was so much blood. On his hands, on her body, drenching her previously white shirt, on her face, trickling down into her hair. Pooling beneath them, soaking his knees.

It didn't stop.

#

Levi's eyes snapped open. Against his back, he felt the bark of the tree he'd chosen to sit beneath earlier. Despite his deeply disturbed sleep, he hadn't moved an inch. Searching, he looked around and found Nora sitting in the grass to his front left, legs crossed, gun resting in her lap, watching him. Behind him, inside the filthy stable, he could hear the faint snoring of his squad.

Levi looked her over, blinking the sleep from his eyes. Nora was whole, no wounds, no blood. Her sandy blonde hair was contained in a long braid, trailing over her right shoulder to her waist.

Still alive.

Slowly, the gruesome dream-images of her still lingering in his mind faded. The white shirt beneath the straps of her gear was snug, showing off the small curve of her breasts, and he remembered how perfectly they had fit in his hands, soft and round and perky—

"Were you dreaming?" Nora asked, and he dragged his eyes back up to hers, big and doe-like, glimmering in the faint light of beginning dawn.

"You know, you're supposed to watch our surroundings on lookout duty, brat."

She ignored him, continuing like he hadn't spoken at all. "Because your eyes were moving crazy fast behind your lids, and damn, you looked grumpy, not relaxed at all—"

"None of your business." Shit, but he was glad he didn't talk in his sleep.

"So yes, then."

He answered with an annoyed, non-committal grunt.

"Only you can look so glum even in sleep. I take it you didn't dream anything pleasant?" Nora leaned forward, elbows on her knees, watching his face with a small frown.

"Do you ever dream of something that isn't complete shit?" Levi deflected. No way in hell would he tell her a word about his nightmare.

A blush crept up her cheeks. "Rarely. And even then, it pisses me off."

"There you have it." Drawing from his own experience, he had an idea what she could be referring to.

"Let me guess." She paused for effect. "You spilled your tea." In reaction to his scowl, she grinned, only further encouraged to entertain herself on his expense. "Or you were somewhere really filthy, and no cleaning supplies anywhere nearby, oh dear—"

"Will you shut up." Damn, she was a pain, and now Levi's lips were twitching, which annoyed him even more.

"You're no fun," Nora said, still grinning.

"If you'd mean that, you'd have left me in peace by now, shitty brat."

"Got me there. Though you could go, too, if I'm bothering you that much." Her eyes were glinting with challenge.

"One of us has to pay attention on lookout," he countered, his gaze locked on hers. Yeah, that was definitely the reason he wasn't leaving. He was fooling her probably as little as he was fooling himself. "Besides, you taking the piss out of me about tea? Give me a break. I bet you've dreamt of spilling some more than once."

"Can you blame me?" Nora shrugged. "Once, I dreamt I was bathing in tea. It was staining my skin, and I was thinking, 'Why am I doing this?' Not the best idea. Then I decided to try it, like, dipped my head under the water—I mean, tea—and took a big gulp. It hit me then I'm drinking tea from a tub I'm sitting in, naked, and it tasted pretty gross."

They were silent for a few seconds. Levi blinked.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" And now he was smiling. Dammit.

The smile she returned was triumphant, and he got the feeling he had just lost a game they had been playing. "I don't know where to start with this question," Nora answered.

He shook his head at her. "Were you just shitting me, now? Making that dream up?"

"Sadly, no." She was still smiling.

Admittedly, the image of her in a bathtub full of tea, naked, wasn't exactly the most repulsive thing he could think of. Levi propped up one leg, resting his elbow on it. He was just as insane as her.

Minutes passed by in comfortable silence. Dawn crept up on them, reality threatening to return. None of them had died yesterday, but it had been incredibly close. Would they survive today? Would she live tomorrow? There was no way to know.

"I had a nightmare, too, before I went on lookout," Nora said at last, eyes cast down at the grass before her legs. "Did you dream of them, as well?" Her voice was barely audible.

Levi knew what she was referring to, what had plagued her sleep. The people she had killed. He had killed more, yesterday, yet he hadn't spared them more than a thought.

They weren't who he was losing his sleep over.

"No," he answered, wondering if she could read the truth from his face.

Probably not.

She didn't pry further, likely because she realised it would be futile. They knew each other well, by now, but there were some things he'd rather Nora didn't find out. It was bad enough he was aware of them. Already, he had given her too many glimpses of the truth, thanks to her deeply unsettling knack for coaxing it out of him, often even without intending to.

He was trying very hard not to think about all the stuff he had let himself say, just because he was an idiot who couldn't seem to keep his cool around her. Worst of all, their night together, when he'd given in. It would have sufficed to say 'Yes, I want you,' wouldn't it? But no; he'd been angry at himself and at her, for needling him about this and not seeing what was so painfully obvious to him, and he'd let his shitty mouth run its course, given her a speech that should have sent her running. And despite all this and more, the brat still didn't quite seem to realise what she did to him, how… how aggravating she was.

With a small sigh, Levi leant his head back against the tree trunk. The stitched wound on his shoulder was itching already. Healing. That reminded him of the two plasters still on his face, and he lifted his hand to his forehead, tugging at the first.

"Wait—" Nora stopped when the patch came off. Without hesitation, he also removed the second, on his cheek. She was frowning at him now, her jaw slightly agape. On all fours, she inched closer, until she was kneeling right at his side.

Oh, for fuck's sake. "What?" Levi's voice was gruff, her sudden proximity nothing he could ever be prepared for. But she was only staring, inspecting his face with that disbelieving look.

"You can't be for real." And she lifted her small hand to his face, fingers grazing over his forehead, then his cheek. Similar to the day before, but without the business-like attitude she had adopted—and fought to maintain—when tending to his injuries. Her touch was cool, but far from soothing, his skin prickling. Without meaning to, Levi dropped his gaze to her lips. He struggled to keep his breathing even.

"Yesterday," Nora said, shaking her head, "Yesterday, you were bleeding from these cuts, all over your face. Today, there aren't even scabs. Just faint, pinkish scratches—barely visible." She dropped her hand, but did not retreat.

Levi lifted a brow. "Yeah, so?"

She made an exasperated sound. "You realise you heal way faster than, well, humanly possible?"

Rolling his eyes at her, he said, "I did notice on a few occasions, if you believe it. Can you stop being a pain in the ass about this?"

"After everything, I shouldn't be surprised." Nora sighed, leaning back on her heels. "I kind of expected it, in fact, but I didn't think it would be quite so…" She trailed off, still watching him with a puzzled expression.

Levi's patience had run out. "Quit gaping at me like an idiot. You're just as bad as four-eyes." He was reminded of the time Nora had called him incredible. Where others had gone for 'monster', the nutcase had chosen 'incredible'. When she talked like that, blunt and analytical, impressed and curious instead of creeped out, with that ridiculous look in her eyes… It made him tense and twitchy all over, and it pissed him off to no end.

His reprimand seemed to snap Nora out of it. "Sorry," she said, surprising him, "I have been gaping, haven't I?" For whatever reason, her face reddened, the colour competing with the light brown dusting of her freckles. "It wasn't my intention to treat you like a test subject."

That wasn't what he... Levi narrowed his eyes at her, and she averted her gaze, like she so often did when he was trying to figure her out. "What's the matter with you?" he asked, voice offhand, "Usually, you'd snap right back at me, give me shit with that foul mouth of yours." When he saw that delicious blush deepen, the tension that had been palpable between them when she had patched him up, yesterday, came back with a vengeance. Always there, simmering right underneath the surface, boiling over whenever the two of them happened to be somewhat alone, impossible to ignore.

Shit, but he almost wanted to take off his shirt, just to see that look on her face again. Directed at him, of all people. He couldn't resist leaning forward, close enough to smell the lavender scent of her hair and the tea in her breath, hitching as he did so.

"Guess I've gotten too used to your constant grumbling." Nora's voice was shaky, her eyes dark and wide. "Also, that's rich, you calling me out on my foul mouth…"

Levi's gaze zoomed in on said mouth. She licked her lips, and it took a lot of self-control not to grab her, pull her into him. "And here I thought there was no getting used to me." Citing her own words had a visible effect on her that was far from disappointing.

"To you, no," she whispered, her breath quickening.

By now, most of his blood had rushed south. He stared her down, seeing himself mirrored in her pupils. Her flustered face, the subtle reactions of her body—tensing, shifting closer, fingers twitching—told Levi that she wanted him, like she had yesterday, her dark brown eyes gliding over his bare torso like a caress. Like she had some nights ago, when she had told him he kept saving her, and he hadn't been able to stop himself from kissing her, and she had melted into him…

Like she had that night, when he'd had her spread beneath him; a moaning, gloriously naked mess, and he'd been ready to believe she was almost as far gone as him. Almost.

Yes, she wanted him, for whatever crazy, fucked-up reason. Nora had seen him, understood who and what he was, and yet, she did. It drove him mad.

And if they were still alive after this mess, and if she let him, he would fuck her senseless.

No regrets.

He wondered if he should warn her.

Voices sounded from the stable. The squad had woken up. Nora pulled away abruptly and stood, giving a shaky exhale, half turning from him. Levi thought it wise to stay put, for a while.

"I'm gonna make some tea," she said, sounding normal again. Her fingers were trembling, though, and she wouldn't look at him.

"Good idea." He didn't recognise his own voice. It was too deep and scratchy, coming from somewhere low in his throat.

She threw him a look; irritated and longing and intense, as far as he could discern by now. It was strange how familiar it seemed—he was quite sure he'd known that look almost as long as her. "What you're doing to me should be illegal, you know," she said, and walked away, leaving him only hotter and harder.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Levi slumped back against the tree, thinking of another thing he'd said to her that one night.

Stop torturing me, woman.

AN: It's always interesting to me how different Levi's POV 'sounds' compared to Nora's. Also, how they see each other vs. how they see themselves. For instance, describing her from his eyes paints quite a different picture than she has of herself!

I do hope it's not just in my head but gets across to you readers, too.

Thank you all for reading, and special thanks to everyone who has commented here or on the main story. And even though things have quieted down a bit at the moment, I think it can't hurt to mention again that I'd appreciate any comments and thoughts you might want to share IMMENSELY. :)