Disclaimer: I do not own SnK, either the manga or the anime. All content taken from either source is not mine. All original content does, however, belong to me.
Some character heights, before we begin, if you're interested:
Levi is apparently 5'3" and the only male shorter than him is Connie at 5'2". Krista is a teeny tiny lil gal at 4'9" but she and Connie are both not in this story just yet. I'm putting Maia at around 4'11"/5'0". Again, just like the ages, it's not really a big deal. I wanted to add this anyway in case any of you needed exact measurements for your imagination process. All that really matters is that Maia is a small little pixie gal and is shorter than Levi, yeah? Yeah.
Thank you for the support! Enjoy chapter six :)
Chapter Six: Furlan
A few years prior, the year 844…
"I promise he will not attack you."
Furlan is looking at the horse with skeptical eyes. He doesn't believe Maia. Why should he? She grew up on the surface. Why would he have any reason to think she is different from the rest? Why would he believe her when she says that she only wants to help him? With her stupidly bright amber eyes and her annoyingly warm smile. Furlan only has one goal in mind: get those papers and then get the fuck out of here.
He doesn't have time to make nice with the pretty veterinarian. Even if she is really pretty.
"Look," Maia sighs as she looks up into Furlan's light grey eyes, "You can either learn how to ride a horse or go out on foot during the next expedition. How far do you think you will get before a Titan grabs you? Furlan, I only want what's best for you."
His eyes narrow, "Why?"
"Why?" Maia asks in disbelief. Is he really asking her why she cares about his well being? Here? In this beautiful, lush, green pasture? During the first ten minutes of knowing each other formally? Her jaw hangs open. What did the Underground do to people?
"You don't trust me? You don't trust us to look out for you? To help you and guide you? Look, Furlan, Squad Leader Erwin would not have recruited you if he didn't have faith in you and I happen to trust Erwin implicitly, so therefore I have faith in you and just want to see you come back from the expedition in one piece." She holds her hands up as if calming a caged animal. "I don't know what's happened to you before coming to the corps, but all I'm here to do is teach you how to ride Hasselfir, that's it."
The beautiful chocolate colored stallion gives a snort at the mention of his name. The animal lightly nudges Maia on the top of her head with his snout.
His eyes are still narrowed, but Furlan thinks this woman is being genuine with him as she stares into his eyes with such determination and care that he has to look away. He has a knack for these things. It was how he knew that Levi could take on all those thugs he threw at him way back when in that dirty Underground tavern. It was how he knew that even though she was annoyingly bright and bubbly, Isabel would make a great addition to their duo with her skill and dedication. He supposes that maybe this impossibly beautiful woman really is just trying to teach him how to ride a horse and won't stab him in the back the second he lets his guard down. He's seen it literally happen before, down there, and it has been something he has worried about ever since.
Being an Underground street thug was not a glamorous life, nor a particularly profitable one, and it made you wary of people and places and things you weren't familiar with. But through it, through that squalid cesspool and all the horrors it brought along, he found two kindred spirits with whom he could weather the shitstorm that was the Underground City. He had no other choice after his family disowned him. Too many mouths to feed, his father had said, and Furlan happened to be the oldest. He could "tough it out on his own" according to his father.
He had been nine.
A delinquent in the streets ever since, Furlan had run with many gangs and crews in the filthy back alleys and abandoned buildings. He survived how he could, any way he could. When he heard rumors of Levi and his insane strength, he had to check it out for himself. If the stories were true, if this Levi guy was what everyone said, then his dream of clawing up from the pits of darkness could actually become a reality. He was certain that with Levi on his side they could bust out of this rut they'd been unfairly stuck in.
And then Squad Leader Erwin and his fucking eyebrows and bravado had come literally flying in to throw that entire plan to shit. But Furlan is resourceful, has always been that way, and he is able to think on his feet, keep a level head and assess the situation with all of its possibilities. There was a way out of this forced servitude to a government that had only pissed on them for their entire life. He, Isabel, and Levi would get out of this tangled mess they are currently in, even if it kills him.
He supposes, then, that riding a horse might be useful.
"It's hard to trust people sometimes," Furlan relents and sighs. It's not divulging anything personal since Maia can clearly guess this for herself. She isn't stupid.
"I'm choosing to trust you," Maia's voice is soft and kind, and Furlan wonders how she could use that tone when speaking with him, a criminal. "There are Titans out there. And they won't hesitate to try to eat you. We work together so that won't happen. So, could you please try to trust me?"
How she can so casually bring up being devoured by a gigantic humanoid monster is beyond him. Furlan purses his lips but nods nonetheless, "Sure, I'll try."
"Good," she smiles and it lights up her face. "Now, let's get you on Hasselfir before he runs off without us. He's antsy and wants to go for a ride."
Maia shows him the ropes, literally and figuratively, and soon has him trotting around the large enclosure. It was a little awkward at first and he nearly slipped off the saddle twice, but he eventually got the hang of it and found it to not be so bad. He admits to himself that the feeling of riding a horse, such a powerful animal, is liberating. This strong, stalwart companion will carry him anywhere he chooses (as long as Maia agrees, he's sure) and for once in his life Furlan feels...safe. Or at least what he imagines it is like. Atop this horse, Hasselfir, who is thick and proud and tall, Furlan feels the wind in his icy blond hair, the vibrant smells of the surface world attacking his senses. He feels free.
In all his years on this crumbling earth, he has never once felt free.
After a long session of galloping and switching gaits and steering this way and that, Furlan pulls Hasselfir up to Maia. She is leaning against the post of the water trough area, smiling at him. The breeze blows her aureate hair over her shoulders. The veterinarian has chosen to wear her hair down today, and the wind pulls some strands gently across her face. She brings a hand up to clear her vision and sees Furlan stopped just in front of her.
"Thank you," his voice is gentle, which surprises her, "for this."
"Anytime, Furlan," she pats Hasselfir's neck down. The animal is panting slightly from exertion but there is happiness in his big brown eyes. He had a good time with Furlan, and that is all Maia can ask for. "It's my pleasure."
The ex-thug jumps down from the saddle. "You know," he says to her as Hasselfir loyally follows her without needing to be led by his reins, "you're not so bad."
Maia lets out a puff of air and contorts her face into a mock surprised look, "Wow, 'not so bad'? That's pretty high praise coming from you. Should I alert the press in Sina that I've just done the impossible?"
Furlan rolls his eyes and gently shoves her. He doesn't know what came over him, why he thought it would be okay to touch her like that, but she doesn't recoil, only laughs and continues to stable Hasselfir. She is smiling again (seems to be her default appearance) and looking over to him like they are chums who go way back. It's strange, this feeling of freedom and safety that comes in her presence and in the vicinity of these tamed beasts. Isabel had informed him that Maia had a way of befriending you, getting under your skin and weaseling her way in. Furlan had thought it was just Isabel's bubbly personality and excitement over the horses that made her say such a thing as that. Now, however, he knows the truth.
There are a lot of shitty people in the world, but Maia Beckett doesn't appear to be one of them.
It's a shame, really, that he has to betray her to get those documents from Erwin. To leave the Scouts and never come back, never look back, so that the three of them can finally live free on the surface. Maybe she'll be forgiving, though, he thinks, hopes. He senses that about her: it's in her nature to forgive and to understand. Maybe it will all be fine. Maybe she'll even help them.
After all, she did say she only wanted what is best for them.
Furlan follows Maia out of the pasture and towards the mess hall. It is time for afternoon meal and he has a lot to talk about with his friends.
Furlan, Isabel, and Levi are standing around waiting for their names to be called for ODM gear practice. It has been a few days since they arrived here at the compound. The three had made it a point to not make any friends. In fact, they steered clear of nearly everyone they passed, choosing instead to stick together as much as they could.
Isabel would not stop talking about riding that fucking horse though.
Levi rolls his eyes. The girl is practically tripping over her words in her excitement to tell them about her most recent session with Breya.
"You guys shoulda seen me! I flipped up and spun three times before landin' back on her! It was amazin'! Hey! Maia!" She waves her hand obnoxiously over her head to catch the small woman's attention. She is walking with that one soldier Castor, who is built like a brick shithouse, and another of her (their?) squadmates Sairam. "Wasn't it really frickin' cool? What I did earlier? Huh, huh? Wasn't it?" She is bouncing off her damned feet at this point and Levi feels a pounding ache starting to creep up at the base of his head.
Now the petite woman is walking over to them and Levi wants to scowl harder but it's starting to actually hurt his face. For fucks sake, Isabel could alert every Titan within a two hundred mile radius with just her ear splitting voice if they had been outside the Walls. Instead, the tiniest woman he has ever seen is making her way over to them. She is smiling at them, at all three of them, her face lit up like the sun, and Levi can feel something odd stirring inside of him.
What the fuck is that feeling?
Was he going to throw up? Maybe. That could be the feeling he is experiencing. The warmth and glow that this woman radiates is nauseating. She is a walking beacon of happiness and light. Who the hell is even like that on a daily basis? It's just not right. There's a reason why he has started to leave the room whenever she enters.
He has just about had it with these Survey Corps cronies and their overly kind demeanors. There has to be some ulterior motive. There is just no way so many people would be willing to work with them. Hell, Squad Leader Flagon expresses pretty damn openly how much he hates their guts and wishes they would be arrested so that they can rot in cells. Befriending and working with the criminals is obviously not high on his priority list. So why are Erwin with his bushy-ass eyebrows and that hound dog Mike and the woman with those shitty glasses Hange and even this annoyingly attractive horse lover Maia trying to be nice?
"Tch." Levi makes an unimpressed scoff when Maia finally reaches them. He takes the time to survey her up close while Isabel prattles on and on about how awesome she looked doing a front flip onto Breya and not breaking her goddamn neck.
Isabel and Furlan were right: she is really short. All his life Levi has been teased for his height. Even fucking Kenny had always called him runt when he was still around. Like Levi gave a shit, though. His height often made people underestimate him. It worked to his advantage, honestly. But this woman, she probably only reached under his chin. He never saw the sunlight when he was growing up, had to rely on pillaged food and basically garbage for nutrients for most of his formative years. What was her excuse?
Her eyes are one of her most striking features. Even he can appreciate that. Wide and expressive, they are the color of warm honey and Levi finds himself too uncomfortable to stare at them when she looks over. The depths of them seem endless, swirling with amber and the warm colors of fire. They complement her tanned skin well. He guesses that her profession working with animals out in the stable and pasture has colored her skin with that bronzed glow.
Her hair is something else. People in the Underground rarely achieved such a brilliant glowing color. The deepest gold he has ever seen, almost too bright and shining for someone to look at who has had to live with the muted and dark colors of the Underground for so long. He nearly winces when his eyes flicker to the gleaming locks. She has them braided into a simple, long plait pulled over her right side.
He has yet to start his riding lessons with her. Levi dreads tomorrow when he is one on one with her. Furlan asked him to play nice, but nice isn't really in his vocabulary when it comes to strangers. His two closest allies have somehow formed some sort of truce with the woman, but he isn't so sure he can.
The last time he trusted someone to help him…
Well, he doesn't need to think about that right now. It'll only piss him off more. He carefully arranges his features and steels up his gaze so Maia doesn't get the insane notion that he's on board with whatever friendship bullshit she has it in her mind to form. She raises a full, arched eyebrow at him when she notices him looking at her again. Isabel has since stopped gushing about her day on her horse.
"Levi," she nods politely and he wants to lunge at her. How dare she be so nice when they're actively trying to betray everyone in this suicide squad. "I'm looking forward to our lesson tomorrow."
"Hmph," he crosses his arms, "don't get too excited."
Her face is calm as she approaches him and every instinct in him tells him to run. His legs tense, ready and coiled to spring himself right the hell out of the way, but something, some unknown, unused part of him, stops him. She is a foot away from him, enough room for him to still hightail it out of there, but he cannot move. Her head cocks to the side. Her braid goes tumbling off her shoulder and down her back; it swings lazily across her backside. A small hand, so damn small that he wonders how she can even handle those bigass horses, crowned with slender fingers and a single, plain gold band on her pointer finger, comes up to his chest.
She grabs at his ODM gear strap over the right side of his breastbone. He finds himself lowering his arms and he mentally curses his body for acting this way. Her eyes slide down to the durable leather, and she uses her hand to tug lightly at the material. She checks the other side in the same way. Levi watches her carefully, his fists clenched at his sides. Finally, she slides her index and middle finger to the middle, giving the strap a good pull. Levi finds himself lurching forward, his face closer to hers than he would like. From this distance, he can see the different flecks of color in her eyes. She smiles at him. It's not a smirk, no, it's just that normal, warm smile that she seems to give everybody. He doesn't understand why she would want to give it to him.
"I said I was looking forward to it," she releases the strap and allows him to take a generous step away from her, "not that I was excited."
She turns to saunter (saunter! The audacity!) away but throws over her shoulder at him, "Your back harness needs to be adjusted. You favor your right side too much. You'll be off balance."
He watches her go and feels that same feeling rising higher inside of him.
What in the actual fuck was this feeling?
"Levi," Isabel giggles, full-on giggles, behind her hand. He turns to her to ask what's so funny and sees Furlan with a small grin on his face as well.
"She just treated you like one of her horses."
Levi grumbles to himself and crosses his arms.
If Maia didn't have such a pleasant face, he would have liked to smack her.
A/N: I thought Furlan deserved some backstory even though his character is hard to pin down. from the No Regrets manga it's difficult to tell his default mood. He's the one, after all, who most vocally agrees with the plan to just straight up murder Erwin after the trio gets the contract for the documents. But he's also sweet? But also a crime lord? Who sends thugs to test Levi's strength? I don't know friends, the characters in SnK are so complex and I am just here for it.
Some younger Levi and Maia interaction in this one, where Levi's POV is filled with foul language because he's just a lil baby Underworld criminal who hasn't had his edges softened just yet. He's not the nicest, what can I say? Give him time.
Also, a side note for the end scene: Maia deals with harnesses and weight distribution and maneuvering all day and in different ways. I'm not trying to portray Levi as an idiot who wouldn't notice something off with his gear, having Maia come barreling in like an all knowing goddess or something like that, but I'm just simply allowing Maia some time to do her thing and also annoy Levi while she helps him out. Love that. Presh.
Please let me know how you feel in the reviews! I toyed with dropping the rating down to T in case that made this story more viewable but...the themes and language and situations are just...they're M, y'all, straight up M. Especially later chapters [ moments of ;)...but also moments of :( ]. So even if this story isn't viewed by as many people, I can write it how I want and not worry about getting into trouble. Thanks for sticking with me! I appreciate all of you.
Until next time! xx