"Here, use my jacket." I instructed Mikasa as I quickly folded it and placed it on the ground. She was carrying Armin on her back as she walked towards me. After Armin had ate Bertolt – we needed to take him out of his titan form and bring him up to the top of the wall to rest.
"Ryder! We found some blankets!" I looked over and saw Jean and Connie run towards me.
"Perfect! Lie Sasha down beside Armin and let's cover them with the blankets. We should let them rest a bit." I instructed the troops.
"Ryder, we need to look at your burns." I heard Levi say over my shoulder.
"We will, just let me help the kids out first." I said to him as Jean and Connie tossed me the blankets. I placed two beside each other on the floor and placed the folded jackets at one end. We placed Armin and Sasha on the two blankets and then I covered their bodies with the spares that we found. "Do we have any more bandages we can use for them? Maybe get them some water?" I started asking the troops in front of me.
"Ryder."
"Do we something else spare, like cloth? I can rip it up and use it to help with the wounds if we don't have any bandages." I continued to speak.
"Ryder."
"Wait, we can use my shirt if we need to-"
"Ryder!" I stopped talking once I heard Levi raise his voice to get my attention. I slowly turned my head to look at him and I saw him looking at me with a disapproving gaze. "They can treat their friends. You need to get your burns looked at." Wit his arms crossed against his chest – I knew that I could not argue with him at this very moment in time. With a sigh, I stood up and nodded to the younger members of the squad.
"Come get me if you need anything." I said before turning around and walking away with Levi.
"Sit." Levi instructed. I sighed as I sat down on the wall, but managed to face myself, so I could keep an eye on the younger troops.
"They're not that bad." I told Levi as he sat down in front of me. He placed the water, rags and bandages in front of him as he silently brought my hands in front of him. He tore the remaining bits of my sleeves up my arms in order to see the burns. We both saw that I was now severely burned all the way up to my elbow. The blood had stopped spilling from my skin, so I made an assumption that I should be able to heal without any scarring, but that was yet to be confirmed.
"They're not bad, huh?" He sarcastically said as he began to pour the water onto my wounds. I slightly winced from the pain as he began to clean my left arm.
"How are you?" I asked him.
"That's a dumb question." Levi replied as he kept his eyes focused on my arms. "How did you manage to burn yourself this badly? You're not going to be allowed to come with us on any other expeditions like this."
"Yes I can." I sighed.
"Ryder, you can't because-"
"No. I can because we have no one left." Levi paused, so he could make eye contact with me. "Take a look around – there's only ten of us left. Everyone else is dead." Levi didn't respond. He just brought his eyes back down to my arm and continued to clean it. We sat in silence as he grabbed the bandages and began to wrap my left arm before he cleaned my right.
"I'm happy you're alive." Levi muttered.
"I was worried about you. Once I got a second to think – you were the first and only person to come to mind." I confessed. Levi paused from cleaning my right arm and looked at me a second time.
"When I failed at killing the Beast Titan all I thought of was how I wouldn't be able to make it to the wall. I had no more gas left and I was tired, but then I thought of Erwin because I promised him that I would kill the Beast Titan. Then when I looked at the wall all I thought of was coming to see you because if I was a second too late – then maybe I wouldn't be able to see you again." With that, Levi looked back down and began to bandage up my arm. I was shocked by his honesty and vulnerability at that moment.
"You were the only person that kept me alive. Even though you weren't there because the thought of not having a future with you is worse than death." I told him. Levi nodded his head.
"I know." He agreed with me. I stayed silent as he finished wrapping up my right arm. He then silently held my two hands in his. Our eyes didn't meet and no words were spoken. Levi just stared at my hands as hi thumbs gently traced circles on my bandages and my eyes stared at his lovely black hair that gently sat on the stop of his head. Levi was taking in every piece of me that was in front of him because we were too close to death today. I was taking in every piece of him because I needed a constant reminder of why I fought today.
This chapter is kind of short, but I think we might be in for an emotional ride...