Hanji was here. This wasn't one of his wet dreams, she was really here, in this room, in front of him. The skin of her face was soft and warm underneath his fingers and she smelled like horses and grass and freedom and everything he had ever wanted.

Her lips tasted like warm bread with honey and butter, and Levi licked them greedily, his blood pounding in his ears from a desire that threatened to rip him apart. Was it possible to die from wanting someone too much? His heart launched into a frantic rhythm when her tongue began to playfully tease his, featherlight strokes that made his nerves tingle all the way down to his toes. She made a small whimpering sound, a bit of a sigh and a bit of a sob mingled together and hugged him fiercely against her.

"I've missed you," she whispered, "so damn much."

She had missed him.

He wanted to shout it from the rooftops, he wanted to sing and dance. Exhilarated, Levi studied Hanji's flushed face, that face that was so dear to him, reached up, removed her glasses and kissed her brow, her nose, her cheekbones, her eyelid. Then he carefully peeled the black eyepatch away because that other eyelid deserved to be kissed too. A small shudder went through her when his lips connected with it.

"Does it hurt?" he asked, slowly stroking the scarred skin around the eye with his thumb.

"Not at the moment," she whispered back hoarsely.

"I'm sorry you had to suffer," Levi felt his hate for Titans surge. For Titans and whoever was the blame for bringing them into the world.

"I'm just so relieved you made it out of Shiganshina alive," she replied, stroking the back of his head, his neck.

"I don't plan to die soon," he put a fierce kiss on her lips, wanting to taste more of her. She opened her mouth to him and he took possession of it, his hands grabbing her shapely butt and pulling her against him, barely holding back from grinding his swollen dick against her body for relief as his tongue stroked against hers.

"I should probably wash myself first," she murmured, trying to pull back. "I'm dirty."

"No way," he growled, grabbing her harder. "You're staying here with me."

Sex had to be dirty, it was the whole point. Besides, he knew what would happen if he let her go. She would bump into Eren or Armin or whoever. She would begin a conversation and forget about him. And he would die of lust and longing alone in his room, forever doomed to jerk off while thinking of having her.

She did start to grind against him when he started to kneed her butt just as he had fantasized and he groaned with pleasure, deepening their kiss. He could smell her wetness, the tangy scent of pussy readying itself for action. His desire soared higher. He should probably tell her that they would not leave this room anytime soon.

"I thought about fucking you every day," he told her breathlessly, "I cannot wait any longer, Hanji."

"What do you mean every day?" she blinked and blushed and he wanted to eat her, that's how delicious she looked.

"Every damn day. For years."

"Y… years?" she stroked a finger along his chin and down his throat. "Damn."

"I should never have stepped away from you," he said bitterly, "I'm such a fucking fool."

"But didn't my father…"

He clasped his hand over her mouth. "Shush. No talking."

No talking. No thinking. There were many reasons why he shouldn't sleep with her but not a single one mattered right now. Levi reached for her jacket, pulling it off her shoulders. Then he reached for the buckles of her harness with the soft swell of her breasts underneath. Hanji was not wearing a bra, he could see her nipples stiffen under his gaze, inviting him to bend down and lightly move his tongue over the fabric over and around the little peaks.

"Levi," she moaned and he bit down and sucked harder, his hand moving to the front of her trousers, his palm circling over what he craved with mounting desperation as he lapped and nibbled at her breasts, her dampness beginning to seep through the white fabric below as his mouth wet her blouse above.

"Get fucking naked," he growled, straightening abruptly, "or I'm going to explode in my pants."

Luckily, he wasn't wearing a uniform with hundreds of straps and buckles but only trousers and a shirt, which were off at lightning speed. Her eyes moved over his naked body with curiosity and interest, making his strutting cock twitch proudly. Her gaze lingered on the scar that ran from his right hip up to his heart. A souvenir from Annika, a reminder of his biggest failure. A reminder of what they had lost. Of what he had given up. Not anymore.

"I thought you were dead," she breathed. "It was a nightmare."

"Fuck, it was," he agreed, "but can we talk about it later?"

Levi was breathing heavily when she finally reached the buttons of her shirt, soon revealing the flat, muscular planes of her stomach. Had he properly noticed the shape of her belly button before? He loved it. Her breasts were exactly like he remembered them, the areola several shades darker than her skin, her nipples small and perky, just perfect for sucking. Levi noticed that her hands trembled when she opened her trousers, maybe she was a little nervous, he couldn't blame her, he was just too damn turned on to feel nervous himself, barely holding back from pouncing on her.

"Fuck," he groaned when she dropped her pants, revealing how wet she was when her drenched underpants became visible. She wouldn't expect him to go slowly, would she?

And then she dropped her underpants. That did it.

Levi pounced. He pounced, she gasped, and they tumbled onto the bed together where he parted her legs and angled them up. Shaking from suppressed desire, he stared at her exposed cunt and asshole. How pathetic his wanking fantasies had been, he realized, she was so much more beautiful in real life, so ripe and juicy. Levi dived down to bury his face in her wetness, licking the entire length of her, her gasp and moans spurring him on to lick harder and faster, lapping up her saltiness, swirling his tongue around her clit to draw forth even more of her juices. Impatiently, he dove his tongue into both her holes until she came with a guttural cry that made precum spill from his dick like semen.

Not able to hold back for even a moment longer, Levi positioned himself between her open legs and pushed into her slick wetness. She was still orgasming around him and he almost came too but he pulled out again, gritting his teeth for composure, plunging forward when he had a bit more control, finding the squeezing warmth of her around his shaft agony and bliss at the same time. His balls were tightening already but he wanted to feel more of this, more of her, wanted to reach even deeper.

Hanji opened her eyes to look at him, one of them amber and full of passion, the other hazy and thoughtful and then both of them fluttered shut as she threw her head back and moaned his name.

It was his undoing. He felt himself explode inside of her, gush after gush after gush with no end was wrought from him and he bit down hard into her shoulder, moaning her name in turn, a wave of emotion washing over him that robbed him of breath and reason, leaving him shuddering and feeling… feeling… he gasped for air, at a complete loss for words.

"Are you alright?" she whispered, stroking his head. "I bet we scared the kids."

Oh, had they been a little loud? Levi lifted his face from her neck to look at her flushed face. Scaring the kids was something he wanted to continue doing all night. And all day - because it was not even noon yet. Sadly, it wasn't possible to make up for lost time. But that didn't mean he couldn't try.

###

Thunder grumbled in the distance. Leaves rustled hectically in the sudden gale outside. Zoë had to squint a little to see Levi's face in the gathering gloom. His hair was messy, his cheeks reddened, and he looked smug and happy. She felt her heart twinge at the sight.

What a sexy, handsome man he was.

Of course, reality was clamoring to be let into their little bubble, and she wouldn't be able to ignore it for much longer. For starters, she had just slept with a senior officer under her command. And that was reason enough to relieve her of her position if Zackly so wanted - which he probably didn't, there weren't exactly many valid candidates for a successor. Besides, it had been inevitable and she regretted nothing: All those erotic dreams about Levi in rooms that smelled of wild roses… she breathed in deeply and had to smile. It smelled predominantly of wild sex in here. The wild roses were just an afterthought.

Zoë stroked down the length of Levi's muscular back and he moved a little to shift his weight off her. She was well aware he hadn't pulled out of her yet. In fact, Levi was growing hard again at her touch, she could feel the mounting pressure inside of her. Her pussy reacted eagerly with a hectic fluttering. He smiled up at her.

She felt herself get a little nervous. She feared she might be out of practice for anything requiring more finesse than a mad tumble. And she'd be terribly sore, riding back would be a challenge.

But she was also looking forward to more, why deny it. During the past years, sex had been alright. There was little to complain about, though Zoë didn't exactly get a lot of it. But, well… 'alright' was not 'good'. Her body had never forgotten that a different level of satisfaction existed. She had forced herself not to compare Mike with Levi. But she knew and her body knew what the difference was, an endless source of guilt.

A sensible person would have sent Sasha and Connie to fetch Levi back to Trost, it was a simple enough task and she had a lot of things to do. But she had wanted to go herself. Because she had wanted… yes, this. Sex so good it obliterated all the damn tension that forever cramped her back, shoulders, and neck. Sex on a narrow hard bed in a small room while people shouted in the courtyard outside, readying the farm for the oncoming storm. Sex with no inhibition because your partner knew no shame. It was 'all in' with Levi. There was no other way.

Once she had been scared of that. The notion seemed pointless now. She had lost everyone but Levi. If he wanted her and she wanted him, what was keeping them from being together? Only their fears. What could possibly go wrong?

Levi began to move his hips and she sighed, grabbing his butt.

"I need more, Hanji," Levi said huskily, putting a kiss on her chin. "I want you to ride me. Use me for your pleasure. Can you?"

Without waiting for an answer, he flipped her around, arranging her into a sitting position atop him.

"You can make love to me if you want," he informed her, "but when I take over, we fuck."

"Very funny," she breathed and began to roll her hips. Oh but it felt good! He swelled further and the tip of his erection began to insistently rub the pleasure spot inside of her. Remembering that he liked it when she touched herself, she began rubbing her clit as she rode him. He grunted, his face full of admiration as he drank in the sight of her.

Making love? Ah, but she felt like fucking him. Hard.

She upped the pace, biting down on her bottom lip to squelch a lusty whimper, locking eyes with him. Without her eyepatch, her damaged eye strained to see as well as the other. If she turned her head a little to the right, Levi's face blurred behind a wall of mist. When she looked at him with both eyes, his features seemed to soften, as if he held no substance.

Don't disappear again, she wished fervently. Please. Stay with me.

"Slow down," he ground out, grabbing her hips to still her.

"No," she panted, shaking his hands off, "I'm fucking you."

He laughed and then cursed, sounding desperate. She moved faster, listening to his rasping breath, watching his enraptured face. In her dreams, it had always been so gentle and leisurely. This? It was pure need.

"Dammit, Hanji," he groaned, his body tensing.

He grunted and she felt him jerk inside of her, which drove her over the edge too. Her whole body shuddered from the orgasm that came from deep inside and rolled through her like a wave.

"Shit," she moaned and collapsed against him, suddenly devoid of the strength to sit upright. She wouldn't be able to move at all for the next few hours. Levi put his arms around her, his mouth nuzzling her neck near where he had bitten her earlier. Marked her. She would certainly bruise.

A flash of lightning illuminated the room and a clap of thunder followed almost immediately.

"That will spook the horses," she murmured. The rain set in, the sound of the sudden deluge loud and soothing.

"Hmmm," he hummed, twirling a bit of her hair around a finger. "You know, I think Blitz has serious designs towards one of the mares here. He'll make trouble once we need to leave."

Hanji smiled. Blitz was Levi's moody, temperamental but incredibly fast horse. It fit Levi's personality perfectly, she and Erwin had once agreed.

"We can buy her and bring her back to our stables," she suggested. "We have to start breeding again, the horses were decimated too."

"How smart you are, my Hanji," Levi murmured and moved one of his hands up to her head. "Or we could just all stay at the farm."

"You like it here?"

"Yes," he answered after the briefest of pauses.

Zoë lay very still because she suddenly felt bad for him. Xandra's plan for him to live on a farm, Mr. Tybur's words the day before… Nobody had ever bothered to ask Levi what he wanted for himself. She certainly hadn't. He liked it here? She probably shouldn't force him to leave then.

"I'd not come after you for desertion," she swallowed down a big lump in her throat, "if you ever decide to quit."

"Yeah, but I'd come after you if you left me," he answered matter of factly, turning her to the side and pulling out of her. The sticky warmth of semen and other fluids seeped out between her legs.

"Wait," he said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and walking over to the washstand, awarding her with a lovely view of his ass in the dark. He grabbed a pitcher and a piece of cloth and came back to the bed to wipe her clean. He washed briefly too before lying down again.

"Sleep a little," he said, cradling her into his arms. "Then you tell me why you've come."

"Okay," feeling very exhausted, Zoë nestled against his silken warmth. "Don't go anywhere."

"No," he promised. "Never again."

###

The thunderstorm raged on for a brief while then quieted down. Water dropped down from the roof somewhere, then stopped. The sun came out from behind the clouds, its light drawing a golden pattern on the wall.

Hanji slept in his arms, her chest rising and falling slowly. She looked content. Levi would have liked to kiss her on her half-open mouth but she obviously needed rest so he just took his fill of her tranquil face, the fine lines around her eyes and mouth that were new, the scarring around her damaged eye. How brave and strong she was. His memories took him back to the time in the Underground, to the morning before the fight. Levi had sneaked out on her while she slept like this. He had thought it was the only choice he had. But it wasn't true; he had always had other choices and that realization angered and saddened him.

What was he still afraid of? That somehow, Council Hange had managed to put a trigger into his head to prevent Levi from being with Hanji? Or that Levi could be violent towards Hanji? It seemed obvious that the only problem was his own failure to make the right decision. If Council Hange had put anything into his head, then it was the poison of doubt - a doubt that fed on his cowardly fear that Hanji didn't really like him. And his even bigger fear that his feelings towards her weren't real.

Levi sighed, snuggling closer. How could he have doubted the depth of his own emotions? His heart beat for her, only for her, the tenderness he felt was a sweet ache in his throat, it had never stopped.

"I love you, Hanji," he whispered into her ear.

She smiled in her sleep, turned and put an arm around his middle. His heart full to the bursting, Levi fell asleep too.

… White sand covers the ground, twinkling like a gazillion tiny stars in the strange twilight. The vast sky is painted with trails of wavering light, a guide into the past and the future.

"I've been here before," he realizes with a frown.

"Yes, you have," somebody says on his right. Levi turns his head and is acutely alarmed to see that it is Council Hange, his beard and hair white, his face deeply furrowed by age. He dangles a key that is larger than his hand. "But you failed to change the fate of humanity," he chides him. "All is lost."

"That is a little overdramatic", Levi snorts. "Everybody dies, get used to it."

"But not like this," Hange moans, "not like this!"

Levi becomes aware of the tongues of a world consuming fire on the horizon and somebody who is hurrying towards them through the sand, her shadow long and thin before her. It's a girl, she seems agitated.

"Trespasser!" she screams at Council Hange, "get out of here!"

"You foolish girl," Council Hange says, the corners of his mouth dipping down low. "Why did you let yourself be seduced by him?"

Eren is there too, suddenly taking substance behind the All Mother Ymir. He is older, looking like he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Because he is the Founder, he has power that is too much to bear for just one young man. Levi feels sorry for him.

"I still know enough about your kind," Eren tells Levi. "So you can lead people here? How does that work?"

Levi has no clue what Eren is saying, so he shrugs.

"I cannot see you and I cannot feel you, you are not connected through the paths. How is that possible? Zeke wants me to kill you before it's too late but maybe…" Eren sights deeply and puts his hands on the girl's shoulders. "What should we do with him, Ymir?"

She looks up at him with so much trust and admiration that Levi pulls a disgusted face. It looks like she is completely under Eren's spell. Eren's green eyes are pensive when he looks up.

"Give us back our ability to procreate!" Council Hange demands of him shrilly.

"Why?" Eren is clearly disinterested in having a conversation with the old man. "You were punished for disobedience by one of the Founders before me. We do not change the will of those before us. It is not done."

Eren looks at Levi again, like he is about to make a fate changing decision.

"Let's discuss a deal, Levi Ackerman," he says slowly. "You have one weakness and I am going to exploit it."

Levi immediately knows that Eren means Hanji.

"If you scumbag hurt so much as a hair on her head, I'll…"

Eren cuts him off with a wave of his hand. "I have a weakness too, Captain Levi. But I'm ready to give up a life with her for all of you. If you do what I want."

"You little shit," Levi steps towards Eren, "who gives you the right to meddle with people's lives?"

A ghostly smile plays on Eren's lips as he lifts his hand. "My power gives me the right. You arrogant bastard, here I am God. Get out of here."

Eren pushes Levi so hard he falls… and falls… and…

… with a gasp, Levi opened his eyes, his heart hammering frantically. A nightmare? Hanji stirred in his arms, brushing a soft breast against his side. What time was it? Levi lifted his head to look over at the window. Evening.

As if to confirm, his stomach grumbled. Dinner time.

"Hey," Hanji smiled at him. "You're still here."

Levi bent over to kiss her, moving his hand over her hip and down her leg. Hmmm, dinner could certainly wait a little longer. Then he remembered that he still didn't know why she had come. Part of him didn't want to care about it but part of him knew he bloody had to.

"I had a weird dream," he told her. "Eren was in it. And your father."

"My father," she repeated bitterly.

"He was very old," Levi remembered only that. "And sad."

"Yeah, right," she sighed. "He's not sad but a pain in the ass. Listen, you need to come back to Trost as soon as possible. My petition to move your court hearing was denied."

"Ugh," Levi looked up at the ceiling. How inconvenient.

"I gather from what I was told upon my arrival that nobody made a move on Historia out here?"

"Nobody," Levi agreed. "We found a connection between a woman who works here and the person who shot arrows at me but that woman knows nothing about what her brother is up to and he seems to be lying low."

"You questioned her?"

"Hm, yes," Levi nodded. There were those who spilled everything they knew at the mere threat of losing a fingernail and those who spilled nothing even after they had lost all of them. Caroline belonged to the first group.

"It's a bit strange," Hanji said and began to draw a light pattern on his stomach.

"If I have to go back to Trost, we should take the brats back too," Levi suggested.

"Yes," Hanji nodded. "We have to ride tomorrow. Mr. Tybur thinks he can stall for three more days but…"

"What?!"

Hanji jerked back at his sudden shout and hit her head against the wall.

"That's a lawyer that I hired," she frowned, rubbing the back of her head. "He is dodgy but if he keeps you out of prison I don't care about his motives."

It felt to Levi like the ground was shifting underneath him, like an abyss had just opened up, threatening to swallow him whole.

"Tall? Grey predatory eyes, blond hair?" Levi heard himself ask.

"Yes! Do you know him?" Hanji's frown deepened.

"I do," Levi said darkly and cursed for good measure. "Tybur is the Panther, Hanji."