Levi was sitting on his regular wooden chair back at the den, sipping black tea while watching Sophie tightening some screws of the mobility gear with a rusty wrench. Yan was sitting on the floor and pushing air into the gas canisters with an improvised pumped. The tight wire around the canister's aperture seemed like was going to break at any point.
"You know, it would be faster if you helped us out," remarked Yan.
"I wouldn't want to steal the fun from you two," said Levi.
Sophie seethed at the comment, and as Levi anticipated, she tried to have the last word. "Just what is that thing you drink all the time? It has the same color as the water after mopping."
"It's tea, a refined drink. That's why bad-mannered brats like you don't get to taste it."
"We are almost the same age you know…" she blurted while Yan quietly laughed. The girl was impulsive, but easy to corner. Levi was surprised that she had been able to survive so long on her own, but then again, she had probably been hiding in that basement most of the time.
Farlan entered the room, saluting each one of the gang's members. He had a bright smile on his face, which relieved Levi.
"Good news! I found a calm spot where we can try out the gear. Do you think it will be ready for tonight, crafty girl?" Sophie smiled at him and blushed slightly at the compliment. Levi had quickly recognized how gullible she could be, and so did Farlan.
"I think so. Yan has been really helpful, unlike the boss over there." Levi rolled his eyes at her comment. She just didn't know when to give up.
That night, they left the house and traveled through the most recondite alleys until they reached Farlan's suggested location. It was a small area, far away from the houses and shops of the Underground. The place opened to a small cave, with a large cylinder-like breach on the top part. The end of the breach was not open, and hence there was no light from outside. However, the light from the lamps they had brought was enough for them.
"Alright, it's time," announced Farlan. "We will catch you if you fall, but don't go too far up anyway."
Sophie nodded in response and started adjusting the gear to her body. After a couple of weeks with the boys, she had managed to gain some weight, which had increased her endurance when cleaning and the number of blunt comments delivered, especially against Levi. She grabbed the right controller of the handle and pointed it towards the top part of the cave. She then pressed the top trigger to fire the anchor, which caused her to pull back slightly from the surprise.
"Please don't let me fall…" The boys looked at each other, confused on whether she was praying out loud or asking them for help.
She pressed the lower trigger, which catapulted her towards the wall of the breach. The pull from the gas seemed to have been higher than what she anticipated. She was barely able to use her arms to protect her head from hitting the surface, which resulted in a grunt of pain. The boys were excited, but still vigilant to whether she would fall or not. It could still be too early to celebrate.
She then fired the left wire towards the opposite wall of the breach and triggered the gas flow to navigate to the target. She focused on her legs as support, which resulted in a safer travel. She used the lever to retract the right wire, making a snort of satisfaction as the wire returned to the housing with no problem. She finished off by aiming the right controller back to the floor, slightly away from the boys' position. She landed safely, but not gracefully. However, when pulling back the left wire, the hook fell before reaching the housing.
"Oh, come on. It was going so well…" before she could apologize to the boys, Farlan jumped and hugged her, followed by Yan. The sudden affection startled Sophie at first, but joined their celebration with a big smile.
"You did it! You are a genius!" said Farlan between laughs.
Levi observed the scene, although it was difficult for him to hide a smirk from seeing his comrades so happy. In the end, Farlan had been right, and that gear could completely change their lives in the Underground. All thanks to that troublemaker rude girl.
"Good job, Sophie," said Levi, patting her head and messing with her hair. She smiled at him in response, which slightly surprised him, given their sharp relationship.
"We should celebrate, let's go to the bar in the center," suggested Yan.
"I mean, I still have to fix some stuff. That hook…" started Sophie.
"Come on, you can fix it tomorrow!"
Farlan agreed with Yan. Levi wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea of letting themselves be so visible around town, but he realized that the gang needed some fun time as well.
After leaving the mobility gear back at their den, the group went to the bar mentioned by Yan. Levi didn't frequent those establishments and was feeling rather apprehensive about it, but on their way there, the others seemed too excited to be interrupted by his grouchiness.
It seemed like a vivid night at the bar. Some drunks were playing with an off-tune guitar, adding some music to the eve. Levi rested against the counter while Yan negotiated the price of the drinks. Farlan and Sophie were closer to the guitar ensemble, attempting to dance to the irregular beat. It had been a while since he had seen Farlan so happy, and while he hadn't known Sophie for as long, he was also relieved to see some color on her cheeks.
"You see, I don't believe in luck," said Yan, already slightly tipsy. "But damn, we were lucky with this one." Levi didn't reply. He also wasn't keen on explaining things through luck and fate, but Yan had a point. As he finished his sentence, he took another sip before talking again. Yan always talked a bit too much when drunk. "We still don't know what her deal with Kenny is, right?"-Levi shook his head- "or why she had all that Survey Corps junk. Not that I'm complaining, though."
"I doubt she would tell me either way. She stills sees me as The Ripper's Associate. But Farlan might know something...they have been getting quite close lately."
"You jealous?" asked Yan, playfully. Levi didn't answer. "No way." Yan blinked in surprise and looked at the dancing couple before looking at Levi again.
"You seem more interested in her than I am," said Levi
"Well, I mean...you know, she is nice. To me, at least. And that mobility gear stuff is pretty impressive." Yan stopped rambling, as he probably realized that the alcohol was making him too honest.
Levi shrugged and wandered his eyes through the room. He was starting to consider going back home, but the music suddenly stopped. He and Yan looked at where Sophie and Farlan were; one of the drunk musicians was kneeling on the floor, covering his nose while Sophie shuddered her hand. Meanwhile, Farlan tried to maintain some distance between her and the other drunks.
Levi advised Yan to leave the bar with a sign and walked towards his other two comrades.
"It was just an accident. We don't want any trouble," said Farlan, trying to calm down two of the drunken men next to the hurt one.
"Accident?! He touched me!" screamed Sophie. The situation seemed to tense up as Levi approached them, and so he put a hand next to his knife's fastening. One of the drunks spitted Sophie in the face, which made her prepare her fist and aim at the man.
As Farlan attempted to hold her away from the men, Levi pushed the offensive drunk against the side, pressing his neck with his forearm. To further intimidate him, Levi sank the rusty knife on the wall, close to his face.
"Let's call it a night, shall we?" murmured the boy. The remaining drunk, who had not participated in the offense, whispered something to his pinned mate, who slowly nodded at the boy's suggestion. The two men helped lift the remaining one, who was still bleeding through the nose. Once they had left the establishment, Levi removed the knife from the wooden panel. However, the handle broke as he pulled the weapon out.
Levi stared at the incrusted blade for a moment. That knife had been with him for a long time. Since Kenny, actually. It felt both sad and liberating to have it finally break. He turned around, and Sophie was looking at him with eyes like plates. Farlan put a hand over her shoulder and suggested going home.
No one said anything on the way back.
Farlan had already gone to sleep, and Sophie was sitting alone at the dining room's table. The happiness from the gear trial had been completely overridden by guilt. Not for punching that man, but for putting her comrades in danger. Guilt for making Levi break his knife. She had assumed it was important to him somehow; there was no other explanation for someone to keep and take care of such a rusty old knife, especially a thief like him.
She stood up, planning to go to sleep, but there was still something pushing her back from it. She had seen Levi use a wooden stair to climb up to the house's ceiling once. Nothing was guaranteeing that he would be there, but she still wanted to try and apologize.
As usual, she hadn't thought the idea through. While climbing the stairs, she cursed her eagerness, which only seemed to get her in trouble.
He was there, looking at the scenery of the Underground. He had probably noticed her arrival, yet he did not acknowledge her presence.
She also didn't feel like breaking the ice, and sat next to him in silence instead. After a while, she said what she truly wanted to, "I'm sorry."
The boy didn't even look at her, "What for?"
"For getting you all in trouble. It was supposed to be a fun night, and I ruined it…I'm always so careless."
"You defended yourself. Don't feel bad about it." He finally turned his head towards her. "He deserved it."
She brought her knees closer to her body and sank her head between them, "I wish I was more like you."
The boy frowned at her.
"What happened to being Kenny's little Ripper?"
She smiled. She was never sure iwhether he was genuinely trying to be funny, or if he was always this dry.
"I guess I didn't know how to…cope." She stared at the ceiling of the cave, with the hanging stalactites. "But the truth is, you are just so strong and great…Even after living with Kenny, you were still kind to me."
"Well, I did slap and threaten you with a knife. That's not what I would call kindness."
"After that, I mean. If it weren't for you guys, my big mouth and temper would've already gotten me killed."
Levi didn't reply and looked towards the scenery again. She knew he wouldn't deny it. He didn't seem like the kind of person who would lie to make someone feel better. Not that she wanted him to do so.
"You may be right about that, but I also know that none of these stupid, self-centered folks would've had the guts to do what you did. And even less the brains to fix that gear. Myself included," he said.
She looked at him and felt her heart jump for a moment. She felt like it was a weird sight, with him unbothered, observing the decadence of the Underground while she simply glared at his features. It was the first time she had taken a real look at the boy's face, without any fighting involved.
She felt safe. She had been feeling like this for a while now, ever since she had grown closer with the gang. And it was then that she realized that he deserved an explanation. Even if he hadn't asked for one.
"Kenny killed my father." Levi turned his head and opened his mouth slightly as if he were to say something, but she continued talking. "My mum used to be in the Survey Corps. She was a deserter. She…saw something outside the walls. Something so horrible that it made her ran away to the Underground.
"My dad and I didn't know about her past until he found the crate with her belongings and confronted her. She said that this was the only safe place in the world. That the walls would fall one day, and that the gear would save us once the Titans entered the city. She made us promise that we would not use the gear to escape, only to protect ourselves. I agreed, but my father didn't. He took the parts and left her alone. He hated her for lying, for keeping us in this hell."
Sophie made a brief pause. She looked away from Levi as she started to feel her eyes water. She wasn't ashamed of crying, but she also didn't want her tears to confuse him.
"Do you hate her?" he asked.
"At first, I did. But I heard she got ill, and so I visited her against my father's orders. She was delirious, but she talked about how her comrades were eaten alive, how the Titans destroyed everything on their way…I figured that if I had seen that, I would've also run away to the most remote place in the world. She apologized, I forgave her, and some days later, she died."
"But you still worked on the gear."
"My dad did, mostly. I just watched him and learned from him that way. I guess I'm not that smart after all." She paused to rub her eyes. "He was obsessed with it. He kept saying how we would finally be free and see the birds, despite everything my mum said. I was still scared from what she told me, but he worked day and night on that thing.
"At some point, there was less food and more parts. I would try to get out and look for something to eat, but he kept forcing me to work with him. Once there was no more money, he started stealing. I wanted him to stop, to break that machine into pieces and burn it. It turned out that he stole from a friend of Kenny's, and of course, he had to make amends. I…found him lying on the street…with his face smashed with a hammer…I…"
She wasn't able to finish the sentence. Levi looked down, ashamed.
"Sophie…"
"All that work. All those days without food, his own life…I didn't want it to be for nothing," she interrupted him, raising her voice. "Now that it's finished, I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know who I am anymore."
"You are still you, Sophie. You are still going to punch guys twice your size even though you can't win. You are still going to fix that hook, you are still going to be part of our gang, and you are still going to be my friend, no matter how terrible your cleaning skills are or how much you hate me."
She blushed. She didn't want to blush in front of him, but his words lit her heart up. He was now the one looking at her, while she was staring at the city.
"I don't hate you…I was just…angry."
"I know. But I am used to people not liking me."
"Well, believe it or not, I do." She smiled and looked at him. She had never realized how intense his grey eyes were. "I'm sorry, this was…a lot."
They were still staring at each other. She wasn't sure why, but she felt nervous, and also safe. She just wanted to apologize to the boy and ended up telling him everything about her. In the end, he deserved to know why she had been so rude and evasive, even though it had been Kenny who killed her dad, and not him. She was ashamed of being so honest, but it had been liberating for her.
He put a hand over her right shoulder, which startled Sophie. If anything, Levi wasn't someone who showed affection so easily.
"I'm still keeping my promise from the basement. I can't change what he did, but when the day comes, if you want revenge, I will be there for you."
Sophie opened her mouth to take a small breath. She then looked down and Levi removed his hand. He knew so much about her now, and yet she knew nothing at all about him. Who was Kenny to him? Was he his dad? What happened between them?
Still, she felt like she didn't need the answers to those questions.
"Thank you."