When I grow up I want to be myself.
"So you had someone in your life." smiled Elizabeth, listening to his words completely absorbed. His voice was quiet, almost afraid of being heard by someone else.
But the thing she liked the most was the fact that he was telling her those things.
She felt she could completely trust him, despite her own origins. She always hated where she came from, but never to the point to deny that place. It still was a part of her and she wanted to open up, at least with him.
She was the reason why they were playing that game, after all...
"Their names were Farlan and Isabel."
"I'm sorry for them. And for you. I know how it feels to lost someone."
The blonde looked down on the ground visible from that height. Something she always craved.
The possibility of climbing high enough to see everything that she couldn't see from below. The sky was the first thing, followed closely by the ground, which before was a roof for her.
Levi noticed a little change in her gaze, her eyes darkened a bit, becoming more deep.
In that moment he wanted to hug her, to comfort her, but he felt it wrong. He couldn't do something like that.
He liked the moments with her. She was fun, the soul of the team; she always tried to keep everyone in a good mood even when she wasn't. But she was also brave, strong, audacious and a bit crazy, he had to admit it.
She was a person who lightened everything around her, even him.
"What happened to your brother?"
She looked up at him, swallowing a bit before answering the question. It was a painful memory but she felt she could share it with him. She could trust him.
"He had a degenerative disease. He slowly began to lose sight. Since he couldn't work anymore it was my turn to take care of everything. He didn't want so I was hiding that from him. I wanted to pay him out of the underground but he died before I got that money."
You're from underground too... She came from the same place as him, that's why he always felt her so similar to himself. She really could understand him. She was the only one between everyone who knew what kind of life was living there.
She was like him.
"Why are you so obsessed with cleaning everything?"
Elizabeth surprised him changing that tension between them. He smirked at her question, she was smart.
"I hate dirt. I always have."
"Okay, dumb question."
"I see it more like you have less question for me now."
Levi decided to provoke her a little; he liked her smile, her laugh was something he could kill for.
"How rude." she hit him with her hand on his shoulder, making him raise an eyebrow silent asking her if she really thought she could hurt him like that. "Your turn."
"Why are you here?"
"On the roof?" asked her amused, but understanding his question.
"In the Scouting Legion. What led you to join the army?"
Elizabeth ran as fast as she could.
Her brother was waiting her, she knew that, and the man who checked his injury was about to finish. She had to make it before he started to be suspicious.
Frank was a good man, one type really difficult to find down there, but she was lucky enough to meet him. He knew something about medicine and helped her brother in his disease, but she was aware that he needed a more intense cure. Something she would never find in the underground.
Looking at her, no one would have thought she was so able at scams. She never missed a single hit.
She was so beautiful that some men wanted to marry her but she was disgusted by each one. Her brother was too.
They wanted her for sex, it was pretty evident, but he wasn't going to sold her little sister for money.
He knew there were people so desperate to do such a thing, but all the world's money wasn't enough to make him sold Elizabeth; he loved her too much.
They were alone in the world, it was just the two of them and she was going to do everything to cure him, to give him a better life.
She talked to a couple of men; they told her exactly what she had to do to go out.
She was told to become a prostitute; looking so beautiful every man would go to her but she didn't want to. She made a promise to her brother to never sold herself.
So she started to think about what she was good about.
Card games.
She was pretty good in card games. Not even Frank or her brother had managed to win a single time with her.
She made an arrangement with the man.
Frank had a sort of a bar, a place where people drank alcohol and played all the money they had in the hope of winning even more.
It wasn't entirely legal because of the illicit business between some men and the women they chose for the night, but no one had ever asked too many question and Frank was always careful about the answers he gave.
He didn't really care what people did in the upstairs rooms as long as there were no fights and no one touched Elizabeth or his wife.
It was necessary to survive somehow.
When some military men started to go with women there it became impossible to make him close down that place.
He said yes to the little blonde just to take care of her. If she was with him he could easily keep an eye on her.
When he had to check her brother, his wife took care of the place.
They hated that place but it gave them enough money to eat everyday.
"I want that one." exclaimed a tall man in a suit, pointing at Elizabeth. He was a rich one, it was evident. "The one with a green eye."
She looked at him, studying him for a second. She saw him play a couple of match, he won all of them.
She smiled internally, he was going to loose everything that night.
Frank's wife gave her a glass of water.
"Are you sure you want to do it?"
Marie was a big woman; she wasn't pretty but she was able to hurt someone with a single hit and, under her watchful eye, everyone behaved. She was a bit like the mother of all the youngest kids who were looking for a job to go on, she wanted to help them all. She really was too kind to live in a place like that but she made Elizabeth feel safe.
"Yeah. I can handle him."
"Hello little girl. You're so damn good." said the man, smirking and looking at her like she was already naked. She hated that gaze but she was about to make him regret everything.
"What do you want from me?"
"From you? Nothing. I want you." he pointed another time at her, making really clear that he wanted her body with an eloquent gesture with his hand.
"I'm not for sale."
Elizabeth took a seat next to him, smiling innocently when he took her chin in two of his fingers.
"It's a real shame because I can pay you the exit from this shit of place."
"Maybe I can win myself the exit from this shit of place."
Flirting was something she learned man couldn't resist.
He, then, joined his hands under his own chin, intrigued by her. She was something like 20 years old younger than him but she was so proud of herself he wanted her even more.
"What do you mean?"
"A card game. If you win you take me. If I win I take all the money you have with you."
"I don't have with me enough money to pay you out of the underground right now, you still have to come with me."
He started to smile more, she was worth the money but he was sure to win with her. He had a lot of experience while she was just a, something like 19 years old, little girl.
"What you have will be enough for me right now."
"Be careful with her."
Another man, with red hair, a usual client who liked to drink a lot of beer, tried to warn him but he didn't payed him attention. Elizabeth liked his presence, he came here just to drink, he liked to watch her play and he always cheered for her. She knew he had a daughter younger than her that he loved with all of himself.
A game after her opponent was left without any money with him while she smiled proud and greeted him with her hand.
The redhead laughed, taking a sip of his beer.
"Told you."
She got home when Frank was cleaning an empty cup.
Her brother was asleep so she was able to talk more openly about his conditions. She didn't want to talk in front of him.
"How's going?"
"I don't have any good news Elizabeth. He's getting worse."
Frank took a seat to talk to her and she does the same, in front of him, at the table. She looked for a moment at her brother, who sleep peacefully in his bed.
"How much time's left?"
"I'm not sure about that but it's not a large amount of time."
"I'm almost there." she said more to herself than to to him but he listened to her anyway. He took her hand in his, smiling like a father to his daughter.
"I know. I want to help you but..."
"No. You're doing so much for us. Thank you for taking care of him."
"Thank you for taking care of my wife."
Frank gave her a caress on her blonde hair which was getting longer. "You know, tomorrow is her birthday."
"We'll come for lunch. Cook something good." smiled Elizabeth, knowing he had to go away. He took his jacket and his hat before turning around to reach the door.
"As you wish. Don't be late."
"So you were winning money by scam people and no one ever got you. Were you so skillful?" asked him pretty amazed by her story. He didn't expect something like that, he felt kind of guilty to ask her about.
But she wasn't angry and she didn't refuse to respond to the question so, he thought, maybe she felt safe to tell him. And that thing made his heart race.
"I had to survive someway." she defended herself in a playful way. "After two weeks I had enough money but he died in his sleep."
"And you liked doing that?"
She immediately understood what he was talking about, he didn't have to make himself clear. It wasn't necessary to say he was sorry for her brother, she already knew that.
She laughed sarcastically, shaking her head at those memory.
Levi watched her with so much attention, trying to capture with his eyes everything of her story, every movement she was doing. He didn't want to miss a thing.
He started to have more respect for her, not only for how she fought those titans but also for what she was. And the felling in his stomach made himself more aware of what he was starting to feel but, for the first time, he decided to give it a try. She deserved that.
"No. I hated it. The day I decided to be a soldier I promised myself I would never do that again."
"Bold choice. You escaped from underground when you lost everything."
"You'll see me differently, now?" asked her scared of what he would respond. But what he said to her make her smile genuinely, happy to, finally, be able to be herself with someone who could understand her.
She loved the team but they were different from her, they were all respectable people in her eyes, while she felt she was just someone who was trying to clean up herself from her past and be a better person. She always felt different from the other from the first day she came out the underground. But not with him.
"Yeah. But not in a bad way."
Her cheeks glow red, she felt hot and her stomach twisted from his hand so near to her thigh. She started to think about what would be to have that hand on her skin, to feel his touch and his smell more near, almost penetrating her body with his essence.
Those thoughts made her more red and her heart started to pump furiously in her chest, so much she feared he could listen it.
"You're nice when you're not grumpy, you know?"
Levi moved his hand more near to her as if it were an involuntary gesture.
He closed his fist, forcing himself to not touch her. He had to put a barrier between them, he had to remember he still was her captain or he would make a mistake and ruin her life. Everyone who got too close to him always died.
At the same time he liked the way she made him feel.
"Ackerman." said him, after a silent moment between them.
She widened her eyes, not fully understand what he was saying.
"What?"
"My name. Levi Ackerman."