Mirage

A/N: I apologize if Levi's a little OC sometimes. But let me tell you, Heichou is one hard man to write so I'm really sorry if my depiction of him in this story is a little inconsistent. Trying my best to make the story worth reading tho!

Summary: Humanity's strongest soldier had secrets of his own. So when the woman he loved died, he turns on another for pure companionship and comfort. But a night of mistake has its consequences. Levihan.

Warning: Might warn you too that this chapter is a little shitty because I just caught some flu. It's really hard to brainstorm for ideas when your mind is literally in a storm, to be honest. Bear with me please.

CHAPTER SEVEN: CRAVINGS

Soldiers who had just graduated from years and years of training had put so much prejudice and deemed that devoting their lives into the Survey Corps credo is like choosing suicide as a last attempt to find glory.

Maybe sometimes, their speculations and fears are true. But not unless they have really succumbed into the Survey Corps life and experienced the satisfaction that giving glory to humanity brings, they will never know the real splendour and satisfaction of being a soldier that mankind mostly depends on.

Fears can be set aside for a heart that seeks change, freedom, and retribution.

Hange sighed at her thoughts, then closed her eyes as the water that had come from the shower once again hit her skin, droplets rolling down her body. As her body soaked into the steam, her mind just wandered off to how being a soldier of the Survey Corps had changed her entire being.

She had been in the bathroom for almost half an hour just enjoying the day-off that the Commander rarely gives. And another thought just popped into her brain when the thought of their day-off had crossed her rather intricate mind.

A popular misconception is that soldiers of the Scouting Legion always face battles and head off to conduct trainings each day but little does people know that everyday life at the Survey Corps headquarters isn't always filled with trainings that batter the bodies of soldiers as sometimes, they pause for a little break. They spend their free time doing things a normal person would enjoy – talking with comrades, going to the market to buy stuffs they need, or just catching on some sleep and rest.

Not only do the soldiers have time for themselves, but even the Higher Officers and Squad Leaders also take a break. Commander Erwin goes into different districts to attend meetings and catch up with the latest happenings in Wall Sina, and only God knows where Mike and Nanaba had ventured into this time.

Levi, as usual, was cleaning and doing the laundry for his wife. It was kind of sweet, as Hange had coined and she kept teasing her husband about it until it got him irritated.

From the way the backyard had looked earlier when she went out, it seemed that the man had already finished cleaning outside and is now raiding the soldiers' quarters.

And Hange was just there in the bathroom lazying off. If she wasn't four months pregnant with Levi's child, she would have been in her lab alone right now, just doing some experiments and marvelling at her new discoveries.

She sighed again, then gritted her teeth to express how annoyed she was at the fact that she could be doing great things at that moment but no, her husband had told her to suit down in their room and rest.

The incident with the captured Titan a few weeks ago, and how it almost killed her when it got lose made Levi a little stricter to her. He had made her promise that she would eat healthy and tune down with the paperworks, and she agreed.

True to her words, Hange started eating too much as compensation for all the time she could've spent doing paperworks. And once she stuffed herself with so much foods, the pregnancy cravings started to kick in again.

And right now she only wanted one thing.

Strawberries.

Hange bit her lip. A drool had started to form in her mouth at the thought of licking the juices of fresh, delicious strawberries. She felt the desperation creep in her chest and whilst thinking of the delightful fruit, a sudden thought just popped into her brain. She would ask Levi to buy some!

With the idea of scurrying down the castle and persuading her husband to buy the fruit, the woman turned off the shower and then reached for a towel to dry herself off. But then she realized that she forgot to take a towel with her when she got inside the bathroom.

Groaning, she opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom and into their bedroom, her bare feet touching the cool floor. Water droplets rolled down her naked body and she shivered as a gentle breeze blew her way.

She found the towel on the bed and she reached out to dry herself. Once finished, she let the towel fall and it pooled around her feet.

And at that exact moment, the doorknob of the bedroom turned, revealing the figure of Levi, and Hange jerked up in surprise.

All Levi had wanted when he finished cleaning was a long shower to rinse himself of the dirt and filth that had started to stain his clothes and skin, but as he turned the knob and opened the door to the room he shared with Hange, his eyes went wide and his soul left his body.

Hange was standing beside the bed.

She was naked.

His wife was, in all her glory, vibrantly, and very, very naked.

Levi recalled the first time he'd seen a pair of naked breasts. As a young man slowly awakening to his own sexuality, he'd thought nothing could ever topple over that moment for him.

This one did.

Hange stood at full towering height, with the towel pooled around her feet. An endless mass of scarred skin lay before him, damp from the bath. Her legs, lean and muscled, just went on forever. Her breasts were high and full and if it wasn't his eyes deceiving him, her breasts were much larger now as compared from before.

He gulped. Hard. His eyes darted into her belly and he saw the small bump that had formed.

Both of them were frozen on their feet as they both just stared at each other. Hange's face was flustering and when she finally came to her senses, she immediately ducked and grabbed the towel from the floor and hastily wrapped it around herself.

"What the fuck, Levi!" she yelped, her face all furious and from where Levi could standing, he could see that she was still flushing. "You should've knocked!"

Levi clicked his tongue before turning his head to his side. "Why should I? I own this room," his eyebrows furrowed. "I'll go in whenever I want. And why are you standing in the middle of the room naked, anyway,"

"I-I… I forgot the towel. At least you should've turned your back when you saw me, you disrespectful asshole," Hange snorted and crossed her arms before her chest.

"It's not like I haven't seen you naked before," Levi walked his way towards their cabinet and grabbed some clothes. "And besides, you don't have something worth looking at."

"Fuck you," she hissed.

"You would love to do that, would you?" Levi turned his back on her, hiding the little smirk that had formed on his face and missing the chance to see Hange's surprised reaction to his words.

The dark-haired man went inside the bathroom with the smirk still plastered on his mouth, and when he finally lost all might, he released the small chuckle that he had been holding since he saw the affronted look on Hange's face when he mentioned that she didn't have the perfect curves to look at.

Oh, he missed the occasional banter with the woman.

Once he finished taking a bath, he went out and found Hange now dressed with shorts and a white tank top, and if he was being honest with himself he would admit that he was quite disappointed. She was laying on the bed with a book on her hands, wearing the new eyeglasses she bought after the old one got broken with her encounter with the captured Titan.

He rounded the corner as he dried his wet hair with the towel. "What are you reading?" he asked.

She grimaced at him. She was still furious. "Why do you care?"

"Answering a question with another question," Levi muttered. "What would people think when they realized that the woman they dubbed as humanity's smartest is slightly bonkers?"

"And what would people think if they had somehow realized that the man they so obviously glorified for being the strongest soldier alive is actually a clean freak?" Hange retaliated. "Not to mention a pervert, impolite bastard."

"Say what you will," Levi's forehead crossed at her words. He blamed her pregnancy for her extreme stubbornness and rudeness at the time, and he tolerated it. "I'm done with it." The man grabbed his blades and pulled the chair from the small table that they had placed inside the room. He held the blades in his hands and then wiped their edges with a clean cloth.

Hange, on the other hand, flipped through the last pages of her book and lost herself in reading. When she finished, she got up and stretched, and the tank top she wore was tugged up.

Levi once again noticed the small bump on her belly. "You're starting to show,"

Her eyes darted to her growing stomach and both her hands immediately flew to touch it. She rested her palm against the small mound. "Yeah, the – our child's growing."

"How does it feel?" he asked.

"What?" Hange looked up and eyed him.

"How does it feel to have someone growing inside you?"

Her face displayed a puzzled look. While Levi was really a man of few words, every now and then he would suddenly ask random questions about her pregnancy that Hange found really endearing. "I feel funny," she smiled. "I have not felt the baby moved, but sometimes I can feel the heart beating. I have this urge to pee almost every time, and I have these cravings I want to indulge in."

"I see," The man gave a hum sound and then he proceeded back to wiping the blade on his hands.

The mention of her cravings made her senses alive, and she remembered about the idea she had when she was bathing. "Levi…. Can I ask you for a favour?"

The man looked up from the blade and eyed her. "Go ahead."

"I know this may sound funny, and I know I shouldn't ask this from you…" Hange pursed her lips. "But I really, really want some strawberries and I want you to go get me some. Please?"

Levi had a confused look on his face. Only a few minutes ago Hange was furious but now she looked like a little girl as she grinned sheepishly at him. "You do know that strawberries only grow in the north where the weather is always cold, and that they only sell those in Wall Sina. We don't have them here in Wall Rose, Hange."

Due to how expensive and rare it was, only the richest in the walls could buy it and this seemed the case across all the different districts and villages around. Most of the fruits were mainly exported out to Wall Sina and its surrounding district where its privileged citizens could enjoy them at their finest.

As a kid who grew up underground, Levi had never tasted the fruit until one time when he was at Stohess District with Erwin, meeting with some of the Higher ups.

"I know that…. But I really, really want strawberries so bad, Levi. Your child does, too," she clutched her stomach. "Please?"

Levi sighed as he saw the desperation in the woman's eyes. "Erwin and I will go to Stohess next week to meet up with Pixis. Only then will I manage to buy you some,"

"But…" she bit her lip. "I want them now!"

"You will wait. It's not like your options are vast these days, Shitty Glasses."

Hange glared at him and crossed her arms before her chest again, a habit both of them shared. "Fine. But you will never hear the end of my complaints, unless finally I have them,"

The infuriated woman pouted, and continued to look at her husband who seemed to have no care at all. Clicking her tongue, Hange headed for the door and went to her old room, picking up a new good book to read. She returned a few minutes later and found Levi now finished with his blades and was now slumping on the couch by the window, his eyes closed.

Her gaze upon him lingered for a moment and there she noticed that he had that tranquil look on his handsome face which was very unlike his usual, rough appearance. His features were not that of a trained soldier, but of a child who was awakened early into this seemingly ruthless world, of someone feigned with that slightest bit of innocence.

"Shitty Glasses, you're staring," he uttered but his eyes were still closed. "I know I'm quite the view but you see, I'm trying to rest here. Go find another gorgeous thing to look at,"

She gave out a sarcastic laugh. "You are a condescending bastard."

Night had already fallen, the skies now beautifully hued with black.

Hange kept turning on their bed. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't will herself to sleep; her mind was set only on one thing.

Fresh, delicious strawberries.

She shifted her position and sat up on the bed, turning to look at Levi. He was sleeping soundly, blowing wisps of his hair as he breathed.

"Levi," Hange shook his shoulder lightly, "Levi."

"What is it?" he asked groggily, letting his head fall back down on the pillow.

"Don't you fucking dare tease me, Levi," she warned, her lips twitching into an uncertain smile. "But I really want strawberries now."

The dark-haired man groaned loudly. "Didn't I tell you that I'll buy those fucking fruits for you next week?"

She gritted her teeth and shook her head, refusing to listen to her husband who seemed to not care about her dilemma at all. "But I want them now, Levi. Not next week!"

"Go back to sleep," he mumbled, turning on his back and covered his face with the pillow. "When you wake up you'll forget all about it."

"I can't sleep. I keep thinking about it and it just makes me crave for it more." Hange's forehead crossed as the man shoved himself back to sleep.

Levi felt her move away from him and cracked an eye open. He watched as she started picking out clothes from their cabinet. He had no idea what she was planning to do but when she had put on her Survey Corps jacket and moved towards the bedroom door, Levi pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"Where do you think? I'm going to Stohess District to buy the fruit myself because my husband is a heartless jerk." Hange walked out but left the door half-opened.

Levi groaned again. It's just a few hours after midnight and a few more before the sun rises. Still fucking early. He knew if they travelled by carriage or horse they will reach Stohess in just a span of two hours, three at most.

He trailed his fingers through his hair before standing up and putting on some decent clothes, then ran after Hange.

What had he gotten himself into?

This was the shortest chapter I've ever written but I promise I will compensate in the next one. Pregnant Hange is becoming too much for Levi. *evil laugh* Let's punish Heichou a little bit. (And also I'm sorry for the crappy writing)

By the way, thank you for reading! Don't forget to give me a review, they motivate me so much!