Author's Note: BTS is going to present at the grammy's WHAAAATTTTTTT Also, what do you guys expect to happen in this story? Just curious.

Chapter 15: Finders Keepers

"How is your forehead?"

"My forehead...?" Petra snapped back into the present, having been lost in the idea of how many different ways she could throw her boot in Artem's face next she met him. Her fingers went up to hover over the small bandage, the object of Shane's question.

"Yeah. I heard from Levi you fought off a man that attacked you in the alleyway."

Petra looked over at Shane, not missing the wonder in the glint of his eyes. He was impressed. "I did try to. But I wasn't the one who knocked him out."

Shane nodded slowly with his brow raised, looking across the room towards the subject of who he did imagine was the one to commit the deed.

Petra awkwardly brought the tea she made up to her lips, spotting Levi doing the same across the room as he sat atop a couch, glaring into nowhere in particular as Hange went on about her recent discoveries from their travels. A not so distant memory of the dark haired male holding her by the shoulders in front of the train station, eyes wild and urgent, barrelled into her head. Seeing him now, back to his bored of life expression, she had to admit it brought her an absurd relief.

The girl modestly placed her saucer and cup on her lap, biting her bottom lip. Was this okay? Vlak was probably on the roads looking for her, meaning they had to use unconventional means to travel back to her hometown moving forward. Meaning the underground. The only trifling problem from that was when it came to the underworld, there were no rules. Even money or power couldn't do as much as it could on these streets. And then there was the problem of the war making traveling even more trickier-

She jumped at the sound of glass clacking on wood top.

"Hange." Levi had stood up, staring daggers down at the brown haired female. "You're telling me this entire time I'd been running around in circles and you knew that aristocratic rat was at our tail?"

"Ehh, well no." Hange chuckled darkly, fixing her glasses. She pretend yelped when Levi grabbed her shirt collar. "Okay, okay, yes. But what do you expect us to do, Levi. Come running back to tell you both? We trusted you would know what to do."

Levi let go of her with a sound of annoyance, standing back up to run a hand through his hair, agitated.

Petra kept still. An unwelcoming alarm went off in her head signaling it was time she addressed the fact of him being an Ackerman...but what did that entail?

"Petra."

Then again, she hadn't quite come across to addressing all her questions about him. And he hadn't exactly volunteered further information, either.

"Petra!"

The ginger-head jumped in her seat. "Y-yes?"

"What the hell's on your mind? You're making everyone uneasy." The raven haired male cocked his head towards her.

"I...it's nothing." Her eyes slid to the door left ajar, leading back out into the bustling cavern where the townsfolk were still celebrating and drinking away their regrets. "Actually, I think I need some more tea," She stated obtusely, standing up and swiftly walking out of the room.

The other three watched her leave, Levi narrowing his eyes slightly as if he was troubled and looking like he was about to get up before Hange placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Levi, I don't think you're the one she wants to see right now. Give her some space."

"A surprise coming from your mouth like you know all about personal space, don't you, four-eyes." But the dark haired male looked away with a hand under his chin, knowing Hange was right.

/

Petra entered one of the side kitchens from where she had made the tea, unsurprised to find the kettle she had left empty.

Someone at the party must have drank it.

"I think you gotta take stuff easy," A voice said from behind. It was Shane. "I know there's lots to take in where Levi's concerned. Now that ya fully know who he is."

Petra paused, hand hovering over the handle of the kettle. "He. He's never made you do things you didn't want to do, right? Like-"

"Hurt someone?"

Petra's eyes widened at the empty kettle and her head whipped to look at Shane, her shoulder-length locks swaying. Her worried gaze met Shane's reassuring one.

"He ain't how people talk bout him say he is. Yaknow he found me strugglin on the streets and took me in?" Shane eyed the kettle. "I know what people with his name are known for. And for the most part it's true, some of them are ruthless killing machines. It's also true Levi's one'a the most capable but he's also not like the rest of em."

"If he does anything...there's always a darn good reason behind it." Shane finished, gently taking the kettle from her unresponsive hold to fill it with water at the sink.

Petra nodded numbly, eyes refocusing as she watched Shane fill the kettle. From the side, he looked aged as if he had been a few years younger when she had seen him last. The dirty blonde now had small scruffs of hair on his face, a good few days away from shaving, the skin around his eyes slightly strained. The most glaring was the stitch running alongside his right cheek, the gash still red at the seams. It was perhaps only a day or two old.

"Shane." The ginger held a serious expression, bracing a hand on the edge of the counter. "If you don't mind me asking...has everything been okay for the past few days?"

The boy that she had known for as long as she had had never avoided her questions or failed to answer a query but now he stood in front of the sink, still for a lasting moment, turning his head abruptly to shoot her a strained smile. If Petra hadn't known him before this night, she would have actually believed that the heavy lidded set to his eyes with the way he smiled was completely genuine.

"Ah, right. Levi asked me to give you this." He changed the topic with a finger in the air at this mention, opting to fish his other hand into his pocket before retrieving a long silver chain. Something glimmered at the end of it. "He stole it from Vlak's place. 'Stole', it back. You're the original owner, arentya?"

But Petra didn't respond, speechless as she allowed the chained ruby to land into her palm, its essence foreign to her before a screaming familiarity dawned over the fact that this was something her mother had given her when she was only a kid.

/

The celebrations continued to drag on much like they had at the beginning of the fateful evening. People continued their drinks, their extravagant get ups, and the traditional kissing greetings.

This, however, was not working in Petra's favor.

She stood outside the door believed to be where Levi was in, committing the mistake of hesitating to knock to the point that flocks of individuals in the hall found this as a fruitful opportunity to either strike conversation with her or worse, in the case of one unfortunate soul, try to turn the cheek kiss into something it was not.

The random male went so far as to reach his hand towards the door she stood outside, turning the handle cleverly so that she stumbled back into it when he came in for an embrace.

The male's breath stunk of what could only be unrestrained booze and the moment she felt the man's arm come around her and his face come closing in, it must have been either the exhaustion or her quick reflexes, she turned around sharply to avoid the stranger's advances.

Her body fell forward into the new expanse of space of the open room.

And in a harrowing twist of faith, her lips were against someone else's.