Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin or any of its characters.

Edit: I've gone back and edited the past two chapters to include more detail – this one as well. The overall plot is the same but there have been little details I've added that you might want to go back and read if you've read this fanfiction before 4/03. The overall length of each chapter has doubled, I would say. Funny enough, the first chapter is actually longer than the second. I decided that there wasn't enough detail for the setting and character building, so that's why I went back. Again, it's all up to you whether or not you go back and read, but I would advise you to do so.

A/N: I actually started outlining what I want to happen in the story. That way, I won't be stumbling around in the dark with no idea what to write. Being organized is weird. I decided that I wanted this fanfiction to be more similar to the movie and it was really venturing as far as it could get, so I went back and edited things like I mentioned above. I'm going to incorporate more lines from the movie and situations, unless it really doesn't fit with where I want to go. It's hard to make it like Tangled, though, with the characters from Shingeki no Kyojin and all. I think I have Levi as less OOC in this chapter, along with Mikasa. I guess she'd be a little different since she wasn't rescued by Eren Jaeger like she was in the anime/manga. Backstory is still the same, though. You'll find out later what's different. I'm so excited for this chapter, though, because there's more action! And you meet someone special. Anyway, hope you like it! And let me know what you think, as always.

This chapter was inspired by When Will My Life Begin (Reprise 2), another song from the Tangled soundtrack. I'm obsessed with the soundtrack, if you couldn't tell already. Again, feel free to listen to it while reading this chapter.

iii: gandalf's looking for you - something about a ring

When Levi stalked towards the window, then turned to her with a murderous expression, Mikasa realized that he was not the nicest person. If only she'd figured that out sooner, then she could've simply fed him to that titan – or perhaps feeding him to the multiple titans gathering around the tower would've been the better option. Still, it was too late for that now as she shrunk under his scrutinizing gaze, pulling her scarf past her lips. She hated to admit it but he could be somewhat intimidating when he wanted to be.

"Well?" he prompted, placing his hands on his hips. However, Mikasa remained calm and collected as his eyes narrowed even more. She wasn't about to let a man that was no more than five feet tall tell her what to do. As such, she remained completely silent. After all, he could figure out the answers to most of his questions on his own.

"What the fuck is going on here? And you better answer me in the next five seconds if you know what's good for you, you brat."

He wasn't as tough as he tried to appear, she realized. Empty threats – that's all he could do. Words mean nothing unless they hold meaning. She knew a little about swordsmanship and could definitely kick his ass if the opportunity appeared. And she would do that gladly. His pathetic 'maneuver gear' blades would dull in no more than two uses. Well, she didn't even have a blade of her own but she could manage with her frying pan. The bump on his head was proof enough.

When she continued to say nothing, he scoffed and began to pace back and forth in the tower, rubbing at his temples in an effort to lessen what seemed to be a migraine of some sort. Simply watching him was giving her a migraine of her own.

"How about this..." he trailed off to gather his thoughts, touching at his lips with his thumb. He stopped pacing to glance over his shoulder at her. "...you explain what the fuck is going on and I don't toss your worthless corpse to the nearest titan. Deal?"

"Don't you need me alive?" she asked in a flat tone, pulling down the scarf so that he could understand what she was saying.

It looked like he was about to retort with something, but changed his mind at the last moment, allowing a look of utter distaste to take over his face. Clenching his fists at his sides, he began to stalk towards her with an expression that promised murder. She could tell that he was at his limit, but it was amusing nonetheless.

"Do you want to leave this tower or not? I will leave your ass behind if you don't stop being such a smart-mouthed piece of shit."

"Then you won't get paid." she said in response.

She did want to leave the tower, even if she didn't say it outright. She wanted that more than anything else. The titan had supplied her with several hobbies to pass the time, such as painting and cooking, but hobbies meant nothing if that was all she did. It couldn't even communicate with her properly, so she was the most alone that she'd ever been in her entire life. Sometimes, it was even hard to remember that she used to have a family. But she also didn't want to beg for him to save her. She had some pride, after all.

"Who knows?" he said, looking away and towards the window again. "I just want to get out of this god damned tower. It's depressing, isn't it?"

He was baiting her and she knew it. He knew that his empty threats weren't working, so he was trying to manipulate her into spilling information about herself and also making her think it was her idea. Still, she wouldn't be around him for much longer, so the information that she'd give him would be ultimately useless in the end – if he managed to get them out of the tower, that is.

"It could be worse. The titan brings me food every day and those titans below were ordered to guard this tower from humans," she said after a minute or two.

Turning around, she walked over to the basket sitting on the table and began to sort through everything – the loaves of bread, strawberries, and slices of cheese mostly, which she'd received from the titan simply a few minutes ago. It occurred to her that she had no idea how such a big titan could carry such small items and keep them in good condition, but she'd learned to accept everything it did.

"Aren't you coming?"

If he thought a titan kidnapping her and locking her in a tower for ten years was a lot to take in, she hoped that he didn't find out anything else about her. Maybe he thought that because she was young that she hadn't suffered, but she knew that they would be together for at least a few days before going their separate ways. In that amount of time, though, she could only hope that they remain acquaintances. The memory of her parents was still painful to think about sometimes and the idea of caring about another person – only to lose them – was impossible.

"Yeah," he replied and watched as she held the basket in one hand and the frying pan grasped in the other. "We should hurry, though. That old geezer was hanging by a thread and he should see his granddaughter before he completely keels over."

Getting Mikasa to agree had been easier than Levi thought. Though, he felt like it was almost too easy and she was simply going along with it while having an ulterior motive. She did have that look about her that she was always one step ahead of everyone else – or maybe that was just her face. Still, he couldn't complain. She was doing exactly what he wanted and that meant getting rid of her sooner.

Currently, he was climbing onto the window's ledge to get a good look at the titans below. Damned bad luck that there was an entire group gathering around the tower, he thought. But she had said that they were guarding it, so perhaps they'd always been there and it wouldn't have mattered if he was rescuing her several days before or a week in the future. If they weren't there, though, he could simply climb down the tower without having to use anymore of his gas, which wasn't much. He didn't know what Mikasa would do, though. Glancing at her hair, he could think of a few ideas.

As his hand grabbed onto a brick that wasn't sunk into the tower as deep as the others, he made some mental notes about his opponents. He'd have to fight them – that was for sure – but he'd never fought a titan before. Though, how hard could it be? He'd killed humans before and they were more dangerous, in his mind at least. A titan is bigger and slower. With his speed and intelligence, he could easily take them all on.

"What is it?" Mikasa asked from behind him, peering over his shoulder. The warmth she breathed onto his shoulder was almost scalding and he found himself fidgeting with the triggers of his maneuver gear to take his mind off of it.

"I'm going to have to kill them," he said, rolling up his sleeve to wrap one of his injuries in a cloth she'd given him. The part of his body that ached the most was his leg, but he needed his hands more.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye and watched her stony expression for a moment before he turned back to the titans below. A moment later, she asked, "Have you even fought a titan before?"

"Have some faith in me, will you?" he muttered, more to himself than to her.

The gash on his arm that'd been cut by one of the shards of glass was now completely wrapped in cloth and the relief was instantaneous.

"Maybe you should attack that one first," she started to say, pointing over his shoulder to the tiniest titan in the bunch, It appeared to be twice the size of a human, but with uglier features. "More your size, I would say."

He swore he'd never rolled his eyes as much as he did around her and he'd only known her for an hour. Farlan had been a pain in the ass with his short jokes and he'd known him for years. With Farlan, it was an occasional occurrence, not to mention his jokes were terrible. Mikasa, on the other hand, seemed to have a natural gift for it. "Hilarious. Never heard that one before."

"Really? No one's been short with you?" she asked, taking a few steps back and allowing him a chance to breathe. He listened to the sound of her rummaging through one of the cupboards, but didn't have the slightest idea what she was doing.

"No one that's lived," he sneered.

He roughly covered a matching gash – though, it was higher up – on his other arm in the cloth but tied it a little too tightly. At that sensation, he uttered a hiss.

He had a feeling that she'd mention his height sooner or later. Not that it bothered him that much, but he was more offended by the lack of creativity. It pissed him off more, though, when Farlan decided to make a trend out of short jokes. The worst one was when he asked him for money because he was short on cash. He'd laughed at his own joke for ten minutes straight while Levi watched on with a blank expression.

"Well, I've got to hand it to you, then..." she trailed off, looking over at him with a small smile, "...because you probably can't reach it anyway."

He'd been throwing pebbles from the window at the titans, attempting to determine if the fall would be enough to kill him when she said that. The particular pebble he'd held between his thumb and index finger simply dropped to the ground and missed a nearby titan by at least several feet. In her case, the only way she'd stop would be if he ignored her, which seemed to be impossible. He licked at his lips for a moment, trying his best to conceal his irritation but failing miserably as he heard a snicker from behind him. At that, he sent a glare in her direction.

"Sorry," she managed to say through her laughter. "I'll stop now."

"You'd better. We have more important things to worry about than your shitty jokes."

And with that, the two of them didn't say another word. He'd been analyzing the titans' movements for ten minutes but he still hadn't the slightest idea how to kill them. Obviously, he knew that he would have to engage them with his maneuver gear and slice at the nape of their necks, but knowing and doing were two different things. He didn't want to admit it but he was feeling a bit nervous.

The titans were average sized but they were still titans, the very beings that seemed to have no other purpose than to eat human flesh. They didn't care about horses or any other kind of animal, only humans. It was puzzling on its own and he tried not to think about it most of the time, not that he had to worry about them in the Underground. Still, where did they come from? When did they first appear and why? His only options, though, were to fight and win, or die and lose. As he observed the remainder of the Military Police's corpses, he realized that's what he'd become if he failed.

His best chance would be to simply jump from head to head, slicing up flesh as he went. It'd be hard with an injured leg, but he could manage. He'd have to be quick and agile if he wanted to avoid them swatting at him like some sort bug and squashing him beneath their grimy fingers, though. There was also the issue of how much gas he had left. None at all or barely enough to finish the titans off – he had no idea. Still, it was pointless to worry about all the things that could go wrong. And with that, he aimed his hooks at the tower and began to climb down far enough to be in jumping distance.

A titan emitted a growl of surprise at him standing on its head, but he soared through the air and sliced into its neck before it could fight back. Its last scream was enough to alert the other titans of his presence and he immediately felt a surge of power flowing through him, like he knew exactly what to do in that moment. The steaming titan began to fall towards the ground and he hooked into the tower once again, aiming his dull blade at an oncoming titan's eye. A gush of blood squirted from it and he used that to his advantage, propelling into the air and stabbing directly into its skull to catch himself.

He dropped down onto its shoulder, pulling out the blade from its flesh and grabbing another from the dispenser. The second titan was easier to finish off than the first, he realized. He seemed to speak too soon, however, as an oncoming hand snatched him in its fist. He couldn't move enough to cut himself free, but he'd killed two of those bastards. If he was going to die protecting some kid, then his life was already worth more than it had in the Underground.

Meanwhile, Mikasa had seen the whole thing and immediately acted on impulse. At first, she paced around the tower in search of something – anything – that she could throw to distract the titan in question. The fist that was holding Levi captive seemed to be tight – too tight for him to move – but not enough that it was crushing his internal organs. It only took her a matter of seconds to find some clay pots and throw them out the window, only to realize that they had no effect whatsoever. The pots would simply break into a million pieces on impact without the titan even realizing what she was doing in the first place. Still, it was puzzling to her that the titan was simply holding him there.

With no other options, she held up the frying pan that was firmly grasped in her hand and took a moment to aim accurately for its eye. It went soaring through the air and she realized that a flying trajectory probably wasn't its intended use. The frying pan hit the titan directly where she'd planned it to and she leant out the window to watch as Levi took the opportunity to slice his way out of its fist. He was covered in blood – either his own blood or the titan's – but at least he was alive.

Looking back into the tower, she was prepared to break off the legs of her own bed to assist him, but he had it handled, apparently – with her help, of course. His figure transformed into a spinning blur as it left slices and cuts in its wake, the titans falling to the ground as steaming corpses within a matter of seconds. The only indication that he was alive was that blood was splattering all over the place, his figure emerging without a single trace of injury. He stood on the last titan's head and allowed it to carry him to the ground before hopping off, then stumbling because of his injured leg.

Mikasa watched as he looked at his hands and the blood began to emit steam and evaporate into thin air. It's stunning how fast he's able to cut into their flesh, she thought. His leg had been injured, yet he fought as if it was painless. Of course, she'd never seen a person engage a titan before because there weren't enough soldiers brave enough to race into titan territory. Sometimes, she would watch from afar as a band of soldiers with green capes fought titans, losing the majority of their men in the process. Their bravery was something she greatly respected and she hadn't been too confident in Levi's abilities. But after watching him slay titans in a span of several minutes, she was stunned.

"Oi!" he yelled up to her, cupping his mouth with his hand. "Can you use your hair to get down? I'm out of gas."

She nodded in response, still lost in her thoughts. He was a brutal and emotionless man – that was for sure. If anyone could kill titans in that amount of time and still be completely sane, they'd have to be.

Walking into the tower, she began to feel mixed emotions about leaving. The tower was depressing and lonesome, but it'd been her home for the past ten years. Worse things could've happened to her, she reasoned. As her fingers traced the lines of her drawings on the wall, like the beautiful hydrangea bush that outlined an imaginary forest, she realized that in order to live, you must suffer. And she'd suffered and suffered and suffered. The hand tracing the wall clenched into a fist at that thought. Her parents were dead and the only thing she had to remember them by was her bright, red scarf. She would wash all her blouses, dresses, and socks, but not her scarf. It'd been a habit of hers to pull it past her nose so that she could smell it, even if their scent was faint.

Withdrawing her hand from the wall completely, she noticed that some of the dried paint had coated itself on her palm in colors of green, yellow, and pink. The past few years, she felt like a shell of a person, doing the same things each day. And for what? Why was she cherishing drawings on the wall of a tower that held her prisoner? They meant nothing to her and she realized that she didn't even like to paint. It was messy, and sometimes, she couldn't even recognize what it was she was trying to bring to life. It was the visual aspect that she loved, though. Simply looking at the outdoor world, even if it was only from a swipe from her paintbrush, was beautiful to her.

"You coming, brat?" Levi yelled from outside, his voice barely reaching her ears.

She continued to stare at her hand and it soon began to tremble after being held in mid-air for so long – or that's what she told herself. It was then that she realized that she could do the same thing as the dried paint. She'd left her own imprint in the tower, like her vivid drawings and ragged clothing. After a while, though, it wouldn't be imprints of her but simply evidence someone had lived there. She would find a new place to call home and her imprints would fall behind there as well. With Levi's help, she could finally make the decision to not be a prisoner any longer. Wiping the splotches of green, yellow, and pink onto her white dress, she realized it would stain.

Was she doing her hair or something? Levi had been finding things to pass the time while he waited for her, but she seemed to be taking her sweet ass time. He'd kicked a pebble that he'd thrown earlier around and even admired the stones used to make up the tower, but he was growing impatient. In fact, he was about ready to leave her ass behind. Who gives a shit if he didn't get citizenship on the surface? He was already on the Military Police's most-wanted list anyway. Maybe he could live outside the walls. Those titans had been easy enough to kill, after all.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, as he heard something from inside the tower and watched as her black hair cascaded from the window. In the sunlight, it seemed even sleeker than it'd appeared in the tower. She hooked some of her hair on a conveniently placed hook above the window, then jumped from it like a crazy person. As she lowered herself down, her face went through many emotions – joyful, nervous, and even sad, which didn't make sense to him at all.

Finally, she was nearing the ground when all of a sudden, she stopped. Her eyes were wide, as if she'd never seen grass before. Maybe she hadn't. Slowly, she uncurled her feet from under her and allowed her toes to feel the green texture. A big smile stretched across her face and she sunk to her knees, grabbing and yanking with her hands at the blades of grass.

He'd only raised an eyebrow in response and wondered what the hell he was watching. Eventually, she stood up and dusted off her dress, even though it already had a few grass stains near the bottom. He also noticed there was a stain near her abdomen, the colors ranging from pink to green to yellow. Had she been painting in there? A few seconds later, she pulled at her hair and the rest pooled around her bare feet. He had no idea what she was going to do if she stepped on a rock or something. Then again, she probably never needed shoes in the first place.

Giving her a grunt of approval, now that she'd decided to finally notice his presence, he indicated that they start moving. However, she was way ahead of him as she took off in a run towards the forest.

"What..." he started to say, then simply resigned himself to slowly trail after her.

He paused, however, when he noticed the frying pan she'd thrown in a puddle of mud. The temptation to simply leave it behind was very strong, but he knew she'd demand they go back for it anyway. And with that, he reached towards it with a grimace.

With each step, Mikasa felt so much joy that she wanted to explode. At first, she had been simply jogging ahead of Levi, taking in each individual plant and bush as she did. But then she'd notice a river curving around the forest and the birds soaring above her, so her jog quickly turned into full-on running. The trees whirred by her and she never knew that she could run so fast. There were so many things she didn't know, actually. The books she read only skimmed the surface – it seemed – as she dropped to her knees at the river. Her hands cupped some water and she threw it in the air, laughing to herself. The sound of footsteps behind her alerted her that Levi had caught up with her, though.

"Are you done?" he drawled, watching with a raised eyebrow as she continued to splash around in the river. He was barely holding onto her muddy frying pan in one of his hands, holding both of his dull blades in the other.

"Sorry," she mumbled. It was loud enough that he'd heard her, though. "I might've gotten a little bit too excited."

"I'm noticing that..." he said, but he wasn't irritated with her. "You know, this is titan territory, so you should probably be more quiet unless you would like to admire the inside of a titan's belly."

She nodded at that. "I guess that I've never had to worry about them before since I was safe in the tower. Even if I did, I always thought that people were worse than titans anyway."

He wasn't about to say anything, but then he found his mouth opening on its own, "You'd think with the titans around, people would work together. But that's not how it is at all."

The two seemed to reach an understanding then. As her eyes seemed to stare into the deepest parts of his soul, he realized that she was still holding that basket she'd been packing earlier in the tower, everything inside still intact. He didn't even see her carry it down, he realized. That reminded him of the frying pan that he was delicately holding in his hand.

"Here."

Her eyes widened as he tossed the muddy object and it landed directly in front of her. Some of the mud found its way onto her hair but as he noticed that her hair was covered in leaves as well, he figured it didn't make much of a difference. He could only hope that she'd want to wash it – eventually.

"Wash it, will you?" he muttered, feigning disinterest. His gaze remained on her hair, though. "Your hair, too. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lizard slithering in there or something."

He expected her eyes to narrow at the insult but she'd simply looked down at her hair with furrowed eyebrows. Again, why would he lie about something like that?

"Oi!" he shouted. She stopped pulling random leaves and twigs out of her hair to look up at him. "It's going to get dark soon, so we should probably hide in one of those big ass trees until tomorrow. Didn't see any titans around, besides around your tower, but I don't want to take any chances."

He'd seriously underestimated how fast time flew by on the surface. In the underground, it was always dark, if not for a few street lamps. The only source of light came from the Stairway, which was guarded at all times. He hadn't lived anywhere nearby, though.

Mikasa gave up on picking the random assortments of nature from her hair and went to stand up, clutching her muddy frying pan in one hand. His eyes zoned in on her dress again, which was now covered in mud as well. He'd definitely have to teach her what it meant to be clean.

Suddenly, he heard what sounded like a horse, which wasn't impossible. The Survey Corps had just been on another one of their ventures and it was highly likely that soldiers died, leaving their horses behind after getting eaten. Still, he slowly turned around to see with his own eyes.

It really was a horse.

It'd come from the east and it was pampered like a horse you'd see from the Capitol. As it neared closer, he noticed the traces of blood on its saddle. Its rider was probably eaten - cruelly. Still, finding a horse was a good sign. It was faster than the average titan and they could probably make it towards the gate by tomorrow after they took cover in a tree or something.

As he went to grab at its reigns, its eyes seemed to look at him with malicious intent. It began to race towards him and he quickly jumped out of the way. If he hadn't, he was sure he would've been trampled to death. Still, the horse turned to look at him again with even more maliciousness and he wasn't sure he liked that very much, taking a hesitant step backwards. Animals had never liked him, so he couldn't say the horse's behavior was that surprising.

Then, Mikasa walked around him and the horse's entire composure changed. She began to stroke at its mane and used her other hand to hold up its collar. "His name is Jean."

"Yeah, probably means 'horse from hell' in some dead language," Levi sarcastically muttered. His comment wasn't appreciated, though, as Mikasa stopped rubbing the horse's head to glare at him. He scowled in return.

"Don't mind him," she said, turning back to the horse and scratched under its chin. Her voice lowered to a whisper as she said, "I don't like him either."

"I can hear you."

It was silent as she continued to pamper and scratch at the horse, expressing words of encouragement. He leant against a nearby tree and grimaced as he caught sight of the leaves in her hair again. He forced himself to drag his eyes away and looked at the sky, noticing it was getting even darker than it was before – and it'd been dusk.

"Would you stop babying that damned horse?" he shouted, walking towards them and grabbing ahold of her shoulder to steer her towards the tree. The horse whined in protest. "Climb, will you?"

She looked like she wanted to say something, but she decided against it. He hoisted her up and she grabbed at some of the lower branches. He instructed her to be careful, as some of the branches wouldn't be able to support her weight, which was a serious statement and not a stab at her weight.

As she continued to climb, her eyes drifted down to him silently climbing below her, his muscles flexing with each time he pulled himself up. Returning her eyes to his face, she asked, "Why didn't we just stay in the tower?"

He paused, then went to grab another branch. He ignored her as he continued to pull himself up branch by branch. He would have to pull something straight out of his ass if he wanted to avoid telling her that he couldn't exactly tell the time after living in the underground his entire life. When she didn't move, he roughly shoved her ass upwards.

"I was out of gas and I didn't exactly want to climb up that tower. Trees are easier to climb anyway."

Not that he would know since this was his first time climbing a tree. Still, sounding like a lazy piece of shit was way better than telling her anything about himself. Farlan had hardly known a single thing about him, and they'd been friends for years. With a roll of her eyes, she began to climb the tree again, stumbling a few times when she went to grab for a branch. Eventually, they reached the highest and thickest branch of the tree. It was the perfect size with enough room for them to sit side-by-side throughout the night. Levi slammed his back against the tree's trunk, grunting in pain.

"We're going to take turns," he said, settling his head more comfortably into the bark. When her only response was furrowed eyebrows, he continued, "The titans, or did you forget they existed?"

"No..." she trailed off, her cheeks burning.

"I'll take watch first, so you can sleep. I'll wake you up in a few hours."

At that, she joined him against the tree trunk and gathered her hair in her arms. Tucking her feet into the confines of her dress, she used her hair as a blanket. He could still see, but he knew it would be dark within the next hour.

From the titans' end, he didn't hear a single sound. Perhaps they were just like humans and slept through the night. As such, he reached towards her hair and began to pull the leaves that were knotted within the strands as she began to softly snore. Occasionally, his fingers would stumble across a twig, but he'd simply throw it behind him without a care about where it landed. He'd snorted once, though, when he heard the horse make a sound of protest. The twig had landed on its head, apparently.

Mikasa would move around occasionally, but she stayed clear of touching him – for the most part. After a half an hour, though, her head landed on his shoulder. He reasoned she was in a deep sleep and not in control of her actions. Still, he cautiously wrapped an arm around her and she snuggled into his chest. That way, he'd be able to make sure she didn't fall off the branch like he knew she'd find a way to somehow. It was the only reason he did so.

It was at that that he realized he was paying more attention to her snores than that of the titans.

A/N: Phew! It took me way longer to edit this chapter than it did the other two. I think I'm getting a general idea now of how long each chapter will be, which is around 5,000-6,000 words. I hope that's long enough! I'm excited about this story, way more than I was before. Actually, when I was looking through the first drafts, I was cringing. Even though I'd written them days ago. It's amazing what editing will do to a story. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If anything was unclear, let me know and I'll go back and edit some things. Please let me know what you think! See you next chapter, which will be in a few days.