Chapter 2.
That same day, everything seemed to be as normal as always in the barracks of the Scouting Legion. Only a few people knew about Captain Levi's accident from earlier that morning, and the special operations squad had the special mission of keeping it top secret; who know what could happen if someone else found out about the state of their superior. For the time being, the squad took the necessary actions to assure their captain was safe and far away from prying eyes that could notice the change on him.
"So, you're telling me the captain thinks he is 7 years old?" Erd's face was priceless when Eren and Petra explained what happened, and he couldn't keep himself from laughing so hard, while Gunther was apparently in shock. As for Oluo, he had already witnessed his superior's behavior and was only looking at him with precaution.
It wasn't a common situation and none of them had imagined their boss could even behave in such way, which made the whole situation even more amazing and bizarre. As for Levi, he was busy eating some bread buns they brought him. He was silent, but ate very fast, as if he was afraid that someone would take them away from him or something was threatening him.
"Erd please… this is serious. The captain needs our support while he's like this. He would do the same for us and…" Petra began to explain, but was interrupted by a bread projectile that hit Eren's face, making the blond soldier laugh even harder and the girl made an exasperated expression when she saw him. Perhaps, Levi wasn't the only child in there.
"I…I'm… so sorry!" Erd couldn't stop laughing "It's just…. Too… much!"
"It might be funny now, but if the next projectile is headed towards you, it won't be funny anymore." Gunther tried to put some order.
"Oh, come on. I'm great with kids. Just look." Erd approached Levi with friendly intentions and began talking with him, while the rest of the squad continued with the meeting.
"I believe the best thing to do is to keep him away from the other soldiers. We'll limit the places where he could be, let's say his office, his room, perhaps the backyard while there's no one there and maybe the library." Gunther seemed to be quite serious while considering the situation.
"It's a good idea, but do you think we could keep him there? I mean…. When we were in the infirmary, he couldn't stay put for a moment… and then he started to punch me." Then, another bread projectile passed right in front of Eren, but this time it was directed to Gunther.
"Very funny, Erd. Don't give him more ideas." The blond soldier laughed from the other side of the room.
"We should at least try. We don't have another option." Petra seemed a little sad and then, Erd approached them again.
"Apparently, he doesn't recognize anything in here. It's as if he was another person, so first we should give him a tour around the place, in case he gets lost. Petra, you take the first turn to keep an eye on him. The next one will be Gunther, then Oluo, Eren and finally me. Depending on how things work out, we'll make arrangements on the watches."
Erd was the second in command and he had to behave as such. Nevertheless, he seemed to be enjoying the situation like no one else in the squad. At least, he took it with some sense of humor. Apparently, he got along well with the Captain's child version, and he would take it as an opportunity to stablish some order, but most of all, to keep their fellow squad members united.
They all agreed with the plan and, in case something happened, the even had an emergency strategy, so a member of the squad had to remain nearby in case the person in charge needed backup. The captain could get violent any time, just like it happened with Eren earlier that morning.
A moment later, Petra began with the tour around the barracks. She was walking next to the Captain, and before entering a room, she made sure there was no one inside. She didn't want anyone else to know about his condition, but her biggest worry was that Levi couldn't get his memory back. What would happen if he stayed like this forever? It would be a great loss for her, for the legion, but most of all, for humanity.
She knew it had been an accident, but it didn't make the situation less serious. Besides, she would have preferred that it had happened to her, instead to the man she admired the most. Distress started to invade her, but suddenly she felt something pulling her shirt.
"Miss Petra, where are we?" Levi's voice sounded worried and the way he spoke wasn't anything like the Captain's.
"We are in the library." She smiled because she though the way he spoke was sweet and her attitude changed immediately. Now, she was warmed and more careful "there are many books in here, you see? Some of them could interest you. Besides…"
"But I don't know how to read." He felt ashamed and was about to cry, then Petra remembered that not every child learnt how to read at the same age and, even though she ignored the circumstances where the captain grew up, she figured it must have been rather harsh for him. She had heard the rumor that he came from the underground city, but that morning he confirmed it and felt even more sympathy and tenderness towards him.
"I learnt how to read when I was 9, there's nothing to be ashamed of." Petra smiled and he felt relieved "besides, I can teach you." She felt a lot of empathy towards him, as if he was very easy to approach.
"Really?" his eyes brightened up.
"Yes, Levi." She knew no one could hear them, it was the first time she called him by his first name and she thought it was rather curious to do it in such circumstances. She always imagined that, the first time she'd call him like that, it would be under very different circumstances "when we're done with the tour, we can start the first lesson, if you want to."
She looked around the library and approached a bookcase, looking for a book that wasn't too complicated to read. It wasn't as if she had read many of them, but she remembered she once read one with fantasy stories and it should remain in the library. She wondered where could it be, but suddenly, she felt a pair of strong arms surrounding her and surprised her.
"Thank you, miss Petra! No one else other than my mom had always been so good to me" Levi hugged her from behind with tenderness.
"Captain!" she immediately blushed. She never expected him to do something like that, and for an instant she forgot it was the captain's 7 years old version.
It was an embrace full of sweetness that made Petra smile for a few moments. She would be lying if she said she hadn't thought about embracing him more than once, but to actually feel it, made her heart skip a beat. She had never had him so close and his particular masculine scent almost made her sigh. It was a mix of soap, tea and the jacket's leather.
Suddenly, something interrupted her thoughts and an idea came to her mind: how sad must his childhood have been if he said such things. There was even a possibility that he was an orphan, at the mercy of the underground city's cruel life. Truth to be told, Petra didn't know much about his past and she could only speculate, but in any case, based on his behavior, his childhood must have been unpleasant.
A protective instinct invaded her and the relaxed under the arms embracing her. She even caressed one of them with her hand, trying to comfort him and feeling thankful because there was no one around, or the scene could be misunderstood.
The tour kept going for the next hour and Petra took the opportunity to make up a "game", where the captain had to act as such in the presence of other soldiers. She told him that every time another soldier he didn't know approached, he had to put on a serious expression and remain silent, but more than a game, it was apparently his normal behavior; some things never change.
More than appearing like a 7 years old kid, he was like an exaggerated version of the captain. One that despised military and authority figures, stole anything that could fit inside his pockets and didn't have any manners at the table. He ate way too fast and his attitude was defensive when he did it. Also, his expression became threatening if someone approached him when he ate.
Despite all that, the day passed without any further problems and Erd had the bright idea of cleaning the basement with Levi, so by 9 PM, the little captain felt exhausted and ready sleep. So, he accompanied him to his room and made sure he went to bed. Later, right after he closed the door, he met Petra.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yes, Petra. He is very tired, so I don't think he'll have trouble sleeping, but… I'm worried." For the first time, Erd seemed to recognize the gravity of the situation.
"Yes, I'm worried too." She crossed her arms and leaned back on the wall "this can't keep up for much longer." There was frustration in her voice.
"Come on, don't worry too much. I have a hunch telling me that this won't last too much." He patted her shoulder to comfort her and they both exchanged sympathy glances. Then, both soldiers parted ways to their own rooms.
The next day, Oluo woke up earlier than anyone else to look for the captain. Having younger sibling taught him that children didn't sleep a lot, so he went looking for him a few minutes after the sun rose. He knocked on the door but there was no answer. He waited for a moment before knocking again, but he didn't have luck either.
"Looks like he's still sleeping." He smiled and carefully opened the door to not wake him up, but here was nobody inside "what the hell?!"
Before start to worry without a reason, he looked under the bed and inside the closet, but there was no sign of captain Levi. The bed was undone and was still a little warm, so he couldn't be too far. Oluo went out to the hallways, looking for him inside the closets and cleaning supplies storage, as well as de kitchen, but he didn't have success. The more time passed, the more nervous he felt. Anyone could notice the state of the captain's mind, if they spoke with him. Also, he was practically a child and could get hurt if he wasn't careful.
Finally, Oluo looked out the window, hoping to see him running around in the backyard but he wasn't there either. Then, he heard a loud noise in the byre and feared for the worst. Without losing another moment, he hurried to find out what happened. There was no time to lose and ran with all his strength, meeting Gunther on his way.
"Hey, Oluo what's going on?"
"Hurry, I can't find the captain! I think he is in the byre."
"In the byre?" the loud noise was heard again and they looked at each other with horror "let' go!"
They both ran and opened the byre's door, expecting the horses running around and wanting to scape, but lucky for them, they only found captain Levi in the ground and only one of the horses loose, walking around the place and looking for something to eat.
"Captain!" the two soldier hurried to where their superior was. He had blood on his nose and, even though he wasn't unconscious, he appeared to be dizzy, based on the way he looked at them, as if he had trouble focusing his eyes.
"What happened?" Oluo wanted to find out how it all happened but he had a slight idea of how he ended up in the ground.
"I only wanted to pet the horse and… and…" he pouted and then started to cry "ahh!"
"Gunther, take him to tie infirmary. I'll take care of the horse." And before his colleague left the place, he yelled "don't let anyone see you!"
On their way to the infirmary, Gunther was really careful. He didn't want to meet any one from the legion, but the captain's cry wasn't helping at all, and suddenly he thought about the fact that the whole thing was really absurd. The last thing that went through his mind when he woke up, was the possibility of taking his superior in rank, an adult man whom he respected and admired, to the infirmary crying and yelling in pain, just as if he was a little kid.
"Captain, please stop crying. Everything's alright, it's just a little punch in the nose." Gunther took a handkierchef from his pocket and cleaned the blood from his nose "let's go… we should get to the infirmary."
Lucky for them, there weren't many soldiers wandering around, and the few that were already awake, were either in the kitchen or in the dining hall, so no one saw or heard them. Once they were in the infirmary, Gunther sat the captain in one of the stretchers and looked for the supplies to take her of his nose.
"Are you still bleeding?" the soldier asked with the most normal voice he could. He felt weird taking care of his superior like that. Levi was the humanity's strongest; a punch in the nose wouldn't make him act like that. On a normal day, if something like that happened, he wouldn't even have gone to the infirmary, but actually, none of that would have happened in the first place if the captain was in his senses.
"Yes, there's still blood coming out of my nose…" he sobbed and his eyes were red, full of tears.
"Tilt your head back." He came closer to the captain and put a cloth with cold water on his forehead and then he cleaned the blood. After that, he examined him." I don't think it's broken, but it will leave a bruise.
"Exactly what will leave a bruise?... oh, my! What happened?" Hanji exclaimed as soon as she entered the room and saw them.
"Apparently, he was kicked by a horse…" said Gunther with irony.
"I just wanted to play with him!" Levi was still sobbing.
"My, my, this is priceless…" Hanji tried not to laugh while she looked in one of the drawers for a flask "this still help stop the bleeding." She put some of the balm in a cloth and then put it right on Levi's nostrils.
"Ah! It stinks!"
"I know, but it will stop the bleeding. Come on, it's only for a moment." She looked at the other soldier "he must have approached the horse from behind and… it kicked him. A rookie mistake."
"I was thinking the same thing. Damn, he has gotten hurt more in the last two days than in the last three expeditions."
"And I'm afraid he'll keep doing it if you don't watch him closely." Hanji seemed to be enjoying the whole thing.
"We already have assigned turns to take care of him, but this morning… well, he went ahead of us and…" he sighed "it looks like someone will have to keep guard on his room. I'm afraid that, if we lock him up, he will destroy his room or try to jump out of the window with the bedsheets. After all, he has the strength of an adult."
"Of an adult?" suddenly the captain's eyes lightened and sat in front of the infirmary desk "come on. Let's play arm-wrestle!" he smiled at his subordinate, his eyes were still red.
"I.. don't think it's a good idea..." Gunther frowned and looked at Hanji with frustration "perhaps later."
Gunther was in charge of taking care of him during breakfast, which was taken to his office. By then, his nose had stopped bleeding and was only a little swallowed. The bruise began to show on his face. When Gunther entered the office with the food, for an instant, the captain seemed the be the same as always: he was sitting on the desk chair, looking through the window with absolute seriousness and glanced at him with cold attitude when he saw the soldier.
"Captain?" Gunther smiled, expecting a positive answer, as if by magic everything was normal again, but when he saw Levi jumping from the chair and hurrying to take the food tray, his hopes vanished "you better sit down again." He said, a little disappointed.
"But I'm hungry!" he complained but did as he was told after a moment and waited for the soldier to put the tray on the desk.
Levi seemed to be very hungry, he ate fast and managed to get his hands dirty, aswellas his cheeks. As for Gunther, he abbandoned the idea of making him eat properly. Each time he tried to tellhim how to do it, he earned a despise glare from his superior, so in the end he decided to have some fun with the scene. To ne honest, he didn't have any other choice.
Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard and the soldier felt alarmed. He didn't want anyone to see the captain while he was acting weird, so he approached the door and with serious voice he asked who it was.
Hi everyone!
This is the second part of the story, I hope you liked it! I believe this fic will have aroun chapters, so please look forward to it I'm having so much fun writing this and imagining Levi acting as a child. Thank you so much for the comments and likes, they really make me happy and motivte me to keep writing!