"Here, Captain Midget," Zoë Hange slammed a large ceramic tankard filled to the rim with foaming liquid in front of the brooding figure at the back of the tavern, "it's on me."

Whack it went when pottery met wood with force and pshhh when the brownish concoction sloshed over, forming a small puddle on the well-worn surface of the table.

Levi pressed his lips together in disgust. Smelled like piss. Looked like it too.

"Go back to where you came from," he grumbled and folded his arms in a dismissive gesture - but squad leader Hange had already slipped onto the bench next to him and peered at his face up close. He pulled his head back abruptly but she just leaned in further.

Her breath smelled like she had eaten horse dung, her hair was a horrible mess and her skin glistened from sweat and grime. She was uncleanliness personified, knew how to torment him like nobody else and loved every second of it.

"Were you smiling up at the ceiling like a lunatic five minutes ago?"

"What?!"

"Thought so," she nodded slowly, still peering at his face through her dirty glasses. "But Moblit insisted he saw it. You scared him."

Fucking morons of the Fourth Squad. Gritting his teeth, Levi turned his head to find them in the unruly crowd. There, in the corner, throwing furtive glances in his direction. He still felt like ripping their heads off for the mistake they had made three days ago. But that would mean touching them and that... he shuddered. They all looked like they had rolled in grease and then in dirt. Maybe they had. They were the type, just like their leader.

He shuddered again, this time more violently.

"Are you cold?" Hange asked, managing to sound concerned. She began to fumble for his cape but he slapped her hands away. Hange wasn't concerned, she was just well on the way to getting spectacularly drunk, which did not bode well for this place. There had been a famous incident about two years ago when Zoë had tested the explosive qualities of different mixtures of alcohol as part of a dare. In a closed building. What a fucking mess.

"Drink something," she smiled lopsided and a little cross-eyed, "you'll be warm in no time. And eat more. Maybe you'll have a sudden growth spurt?"

They had been served some meat tonight, in celebration of Commander Erwin's birthday. If anyone doubted that humans were not that different from beasts, you just had to watch them fight over scraps of the rare treat. Levi would rather go hungry than to lower himself to that level.

He just wanted to turn back to Hange to make a snide remark about her shockingly base behavior when his eyes caught those of a pretty, blonde girl who was staring at him from across the room. She looked startled to be discovered looking - but pulled herself together and sauntered over with determination, hips in the colorful dress swaying seductively. Levi groaned inwardly.

"Oh," Hange giggled, not drunk enough not to notice, "someone else has taken pity on your poor, affection-starved soul. She looks very warm, look at those breasts... be careful not to get squashed!"

"Hi!" the girl smiled shyly, barely loud enough to be heard over the overall din of rowdily celebrating soldiers, revealing slightly crooked but clean teeth in a heart-shaped face. "May I sit?"

"No," Levi snapped, refusing to look at the plump bosom pushed up by a corset for ultimate effect. Tch, as if he were that easily manipulated.

"Yes," Zoë beamed at the exact same time. "I was just leaving. Bye, Grumpy! Erwin will be cross with you if you keep that sour face all through his grand party."

Erwin had left the tavern over an hour ago. Levi still hadn't made up his mind whether to be worried that he had not come back yet or not.

And off she staggered and swayed, holding on to tables and random shoulders for support. She shouldn't be walking at all, Levi thought with a deepening frown, but lying down.

Her injuries were just as bad as his if not worse. All evening long, his knee had throbbed with dull, persistent pain and the bandages around his thigh seemed to get stickier by the hour. Likely that the wound had opened again. Fucking quack who had patched them up, they needed to find better doctors for the Corps urgently.

Across the room, Hange stumbled artlessly into Mike Zacharias arms. They both laughed and he drew her closer, looking at her with an unmistakably besotted, utterly stupid expression. Really?! When had that happened?

Finding his mood worsening further, Levi turned his most evil stare on the young woman eyeing him apprehensively. She recoiled as if she'd been slapped. That gave him a few seconds of pleasure at least.

"I... I thought you..."

"Better not to think too much," Levi said coldly, "you'll get wrinkles and then nobody will pay for your services anymore."

"But my friend said... Captain Levi is..."

Is what? She faltered before illuminating him about what her friends had to say on his account, looking ready to cry. Seriously now? She needed to toughen up and fast at that if she wanted to survive. Levi knew her type from his days in the underground. She was very pretty now with her golden locks and violet eyes, though barely of age, made to look older with blush and lipstick. She had likely jumped on the opportunity to service members of the Survey Corps on their Commander's birthday, while her panderer had greedily rubbed his hands in anticipation of a nice bonus.

Heartache was in her future and pain, a suffering way beyond what she deserved. There were far too many beasts inside the walls, just as vicious if not worse than the titans. She would look old way before her time, her body used and abused by whoever paid the right amount. If she wasn't careful, she would find herself with child and if she was foolish enough to keep it, she would have to hide it away in a cupboard when customers came, feeling forever guilty for being a bad mother.

Levi sighed. He could do her a kindness and leave with her now, keeping her away from the streets for a few hours. But tomorrow, she would have to roam the taverns for new customers by herself. So why bother?

It was all so very pointless.

But the girls' haunted, frightened eyes reminded him of people and places from the past and it made him uncomfortable. It was one thing to be nasty to Shitty Glasses who gave back as good as he gave and another thing to be nasty to a doxy who had seen his sour face as an opportunity to make some money.

Well. Her bad luck that he was absolutely not in the mood to be nice to anyone.

Levi picked up the tankard in front of him to buy some time - the wench was still staring at him with a mixture of fear and hope in her pretty eyes, expecting something from him he could not give - and took a sip... spewing the vile liquid across the table the very next moment.

She hadn't.

"Hanji!" he bellowed across the tavern, fighting to keep the contents of his stomach down, "you four-eyed bitch!"

All the heads swiveled in his direction because when had Levi ever shouted like this? - and then they swiveled to her in unison, who was standing very close to Mike with her hands around his middle - a wide grin spreading on her face as she saluted Levi mockingly.

It didn't only look like horse piss, it was horse piss.

Something inside of him snapped.

"I'm going to kill her," Levi growled and heaved himself upright, grabbing the cane he had to use for walking since coming back from their mission like a fucking invalid. His knee was stiff from sitting down for too long and it hurt like hell to move. All the better.

Hange was laughing like a maniac now, moving away from Zacharia, stepping behind stocky soldiers to seek protection. They were smarter than to provide it though, quickly clearing the way when Levi picked up his pace, leaving Hange exposed - and utterly unafraid.

That was Zoë for you. Someone who jumped into a Titan's path because she was fascinated by a gleam in its eyes.

"Are you warm yet?" she laughed and opened her arms wide, "or do you need a hug?"

"Enough is enough," Levi growled, jumped and swung - catching her squarely in the jaw. He pulled his punch when he realized she wouldn't doge, but man, she deserved every bit of it. What a reckless idiot!

Someone gasped, most likely that moron Moblit who was always at her heels like a lap dog, but those guys from her squad would never dare to move against Levi, they were too afraid of him, like they should be.

"What, are you hitting girls now?" Zoë asked innocently as she righted herself, rubbing her jaw and righting her glasses - before swinging her good leg around with amazing speed. Thud. Stupidly surprised by the viciousness of the counterattack, Levi staggered - damn that injury! - but he managed to grab onto her leg before she could withdraw, and he took her down with him in a tumble of limbs.

More gasps from the crowd. They sounded shocked and awed at the same time.

After years of occasionally trying to fit in, Levi had internalized enough of the strict military rules to realize that it wasn't exactly good form for senior officers to have a go at each other like this in public, there were new recruits around after all. The hell with being a role model though, he was horrible at that even on his good days.

Levi tried to get Zoë into head-lock to end this quickly but she resisted successfully. To hell with it - she was strong and agile and merciless, wriggling underneath him like an eel, not in the least shy to use teeth and nails on him.

"You have been wanting to hit me for days, huh?" she panted before twisting his arm, making him holler in pain. "You should work on your anger management! It's unhealthy to keep a rage like this in for so long."

"I can't believe someone like you is a squad leader," he growled, "you'll get us all killed at your next whim."

Man, she knew how to fight dirty. If he hadn't heard someone speak about her high-born background the other day, he'd have placed her as gutter-bred like himself.

"I couldn't let that Titan's head go unexamined," she hissed. "It had the most remarkable eyes!"

"You should have checked for others more carefully, what are you, a novice?"

"I couldn't see the one hiding behind a tree! It was very thin!"

"Because you turn into a complete, brainless maniac when a reason for it arises!"

"Brainless? Ha, my brain takes over completely overruling all my bodily instincts!"

"Get a room!" someone shouted and a lot of people laughed. Levi tried to see who dared, but he was too preoccupied with trying to subdue this woman. Great, now the entire dirt from her was on him too, including blood from both of them.

"Nobody was killed, okay?" she panted underneath him, "but yeah, I promise to be more careful next time."

She managed to sound sincere but it only enraged him more.

"Stop thinking in 'next times', you shithead! All it takes to end you is one moment of stupidity from you and your idiotic squad! There are no 'next times' out there!"

"What, don't tell me next time you won't save me just as heroically?"

Levi could not believe the gall of this woman. He had pulled her from the mouth of a titan at the last possible moment and she thought that a joking matter?

"Maybe I won't," he said viciously. "People with a death wish deserve to have their wish fulfilled."

"Look in the mirror, rage dwarf," she snapped at him and for a few minutes, speaking became impossible. At one stage, when their blows became particularly vicious, feet moved in their direction hurriedly, but shouts from the crowd made whoever had wanted to interfere back off.

He recognized the boots for what it was worth: Petra.

It came to an eventual stalemate, with her head caught between his legs and his head caught between hers. Panting heavily, Levi thought about applying more pressure to make her black out but his wound hurt like hell and his rage had strangely dissipated. Better to be an adult and give her an opportunity to yield without losing face.

"Slacking off?" she growled and rammed her elbow into Levi's stomach with brute force. His vision wavered and he saw stars, heard himself make a rather pitiful sound somewhere between pain and surprise as the crowd roared in excitement.

That's when he swore never to be nice to her again.

That was also when the door opened and the room went utterly still around them.

After blinking away blood from his eyes, Levi understood why: Commander Erwin was standing in the door frame looking at the scene before him with the most incredulous face any human being could make. Then, the face changed to anger... only to slowly turn into a mask of bitter disappointment.

Strangely enough, it was that last emotion on Erwin's face that gutted Levi. The regret he felt tasted bitter in his mouth.

"Shit," Hange whispered. "He's always so depressed on his birthday."

They came to their feet somehow, helping each other stand. Levi's leg wouldn't carry him anymore, the leg of his trousers was soaked through with blood, but Hange lent him her arm, leaning against him heavily at the same time for support.

"You two," Erwin said, his voice as cold and merciless as his eyes, "follow me out. Now."