Levi's POV:
All these meetings are getting annoying. I think we all get it at this point. Look out for anyone else who may be a Titan shifter and don't tell anyone.
I hope (y/n) is doing okay, maybe I should have gone with her... I also haven't seen Oluo all day, what the fuck is he up to now? He's starting to become more trouble than he is worth on my squad.
"Oh! I forgot to ask! Erwin, how did last night go with (y/n)?" Hange asked Erwin after our meeting had concluded.
I perked up when I heard (y/n)'s name. I haven't had a chance to ask him about that yet.
To my surprise, Erwin seemed to lose his composure for a second. He froze up and his eyes went wide. I narrow my eyes at him, what is he hiding?
"Fine, it went fine, Hange," Erwin answers quickly before clearing his throat, no doubt getting ready to change the subject. But there was a knock at his office door.
"Come in!" Hange called to the person on the other side.
The door opens to reveal Nile Dok. "What the hell are you doing here?" I growl at him, giving him a disapproving look.
"Nice to see you too, Levi," Nile replied curtly before addressing Erwin, "I've come for Lawrence Pearson."
Erwin stares up at him from his seat, "Mr. Pearson attacked one of my cadets last night, he's not going anywhere."
"Yes he is," Nile replied, handing Erwin a rolled-up letter, "He has a royal pardon. So you will release him by order of the king."
Erwin glares at the Commander of the Military Police, but opens up the letter and reads it.
After Erwin finishes silently reading the letter, to my amusement, he holds it up to the candle that is lit on his desk, watching the letter as it slowly burned out of existence.
"Erwin, don't get yourself involved." Nile sighed at him. "But it does involve me," Erwin rebutted, "She's one of my cadets."
"... How is she?" Nile asked quietly.
Erwin gave Nile a shocked and suspicious expression. "Why do you care?" I snarl at him, getting more and more irritated by his presence.
"She did used to live in the capital, you know. We've met on more than one occasion." Nile replies, glaring at me.
"If you're so worried about her, maybe you should do your job and punish the people who have wronged her, and others like her," Hange added. I'm surprised it took her this long to chime in.
"I can't, or I would have." Nile said as he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, "Anyway, I'm here to get Lawrence, not argue with all of you. I merely came as a courtesy to let you know I'm releasing him." Before any of us say anything else, he turned on his heels and left Erwin's office.
"Tch, useless pricks," I mutter, not really being a fan of the MPs. Hange and Erwin nod in agreement.
Then there was yet another knock at the door, "Oh for fuck sake." I groan as I stomp toward the door to tell whoever was behind it off, but when I open the door, it was an amused (y/n) standing there.
"Bad day?" She asks, trying to conceal a smile. I narrow my eyes at her, but I am relieved to see she seems to be in good spirits. Then I notice Oluo is standing there too, and immediately feel even more annoyed, "Where the hell have you been?"
"Uh..." Oluo starts, but (y/n) interrupts him, "He was busy stalking me and-" Oluo puts his hand over her mouth to stop her from going on. Anger flashed in me and I grabbed Oluo and press him against the wall, "Don't touch her." I growl at him.
(Y/n) laughed, "It's okay sir, he actually helped me out a bit, please don't let me get in between you 2."
"So what are you doing here?" I ask her as I push Oluo away from me. "I was going to ask Hange to examine me." She replied, stepping into the office to wave at Hange.
"No, go to Dr. Thompson," I shake my head at her, and her smile fades once I mention Thompson, "As he is a licensed medical professional, plus he has been looking for you all day. Seems to be under the impression you may try to avoid him today."
(Y/n) stays silent and looks at me nervously, "Sure! I'll go right now." She finally says and turns to leave when I grab her by the shoulder, "Oh no, I'm going with you to make sure you actually go."
Her shoulders sag when she realizes her plan of escape wasn't going to work. "See you." I wave briefly at Erwin before leaving with (y/n). "You," I say to Oluo as I start walking with (y/n), "Stables. Clean them, now." He nods and sets off toward the stables.
"So, how was the trip to your place?" I ask her casually. She doesn't answer me right away, the topic seems to be making her uncomfortable.
"It was fine, it just brought back a lot of memories. It's not far from where I used to live with Malcolm. The layout is exactly the same too. So it triggered the memories I guess..." She trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.
"Kind of weird isn't it?" (Y/n) says out of nowhere. "What do you mean?" I ask her. "Memories, the things you can't seem to quite remember, and then the things you can never forget."
She smiles sadly and looks at me. It is true I suppose, the memory that always sticks with me no matter what is definitely the moment I lost Isobel and Farlan. But I find it hard to remember most of the better times we had in the underground.
(Y/n) places her hand on my shoulder, making me jump a little. I definitely wasn't expecting that from her. I haven't seen her try to comfort anyone, she seems pretty prickly by nature, not really the nurturing type.
"If you wanted someone to go with you, you should have asked me, why Oluo?" I ask her, annoyed that Oluo was alone with her.
"He followed me without my knowledge," she waves off my question, "Anyway, what was Nile doing here? I saw him walking away from Commander Erwin's office."
"So you do know him," I say quietly.
"Yeah, he requested me a few times, MPs get special deals. Whoa!" She suddenly yelled when she saw how angry I got, "No, it wasn't what you think!"
She walked in front of me and put both hands on my shoulders, blocking my way forward. "He and his wife, Marie, came to a few of my shows when I would work at the theatre. I met them both there. Sometimes he would request me, but he would just ask me to babysit for him. He was really kind to me, Marie too especially! People don't request me to babysit, but when I went back to Laurie after Mac died, I couldn't do theatre anymore. I just didn't have it in me anymore, to dance and to sing with heart when I didn't have it anymore. Nile noticed I was not doing well, so he would spend a lot of money just to rent me to babysit, so I could get away from the other awful patrons and Laurie even if it was only for a little while."
She lets go of my shoulders, "Not everyone is corrupt in the military police, there are some good guys too. Nile is one of those people."
I narrow my eyes at her but decide against arguing with her. So we just continue to Dr. Thompson's office in silence.
When we got to his office, his door was already open, so (y/n) took a quick peek into his office. I wanted to wait until she walked into the office before I leave, I won't let her run away. She stiffened and walked back over to me quietly, "Please don't make me go in there."
"You're a big girl, you can handle seeing the doctor," I say, smirking at her.
"Peter, yes. But his ex-wife is in there too. I can't handle both of them fussing over me at once." She replies.
"(Y/n)! Just go in!" I shouted loud enough for Dr. Thompson to hear me.
(Y/n) glares at me as we hear 2 people come rushing out of the office. Thompson was one of them, and the other was a woman with short blonde hair and green eyes.
"Have fun," I say to her as I push her toward them.
"I'll get you for this, Levi Ackerman." She growls at me as Thompson pulls her into his office, along with the blonde woman.
Your POV:
Dealing with Peter and Ellen together was a lot. I knew they would be sick with worry when they heard about what happened. But I didn't expect them to freak out as much as they did.
Ellen wanted so badly to go down to the dungeons and kick Laurie's ass, but that would just draw attention to the fact that she and I are well acquainted. Which would in turn hint at a more personal relationship between Peter and I.
I guess that's the thing that worries me the most, Laurie finding out that Peter has been the one helping me. It's even more dangerous now that he knows I'm in the scouts. It may not be too long until he makes that connection, since Peter is a doctor for him still as well as to the scouts.
Maybe I'm giving Laurie too much credit, he isn't as smart as he thinks he is. But he is still pretty cunning.
Exhausted from being poked and prodded by Peter, and answering all of his questions about what happened, I slowly make my way to Erwin's office. Hopefully, my window gets fixed soon, I don't want to impose on him for too long.
When I reach his office door I knock politely to see if he is already there. I listen closely and didn't hear anything, so I opened the door and let myself in.
I was surprised to see him passed out on the couch. I make sure I close the door quietly and make my way over to him. He looks so adorable in his sleep, especially with his slightly messy hair.
He must have fallen asleep while reading, he had a book lying open on his chest. It looked like it was starting to slide off though, so I carefully took it off him and put it on the table.
As I blow out the candle next to him, I can hear him stirring in his sleep a little bit. I grab the blanket that is draped over the back of the couch and cover him with it. Before I walk into the bedroom I can hear him moan in his sleep, "(y/n)..." my face went completely red when I hear that. It was so clear for a second I thought he had woken up, but he was still sound asleep, moaning my name...
I close the bedroom door gently behind me, face still heating up. Usually, I'm disgusted by any man who moaned my name like that in the past, but I felt different this time. Could I be slightly turned on?
I try and shake the thoughts from my head, but they keep coming anyway. Oh man, how much longer can I take this?
I quickly change and hop onto the bed. It doesn't help that the bed smells like him. I expected to fall asleep right away, but my mind is racing and sleep is just out of my grasp. This may be a long night.
...
'As we are waiting for the man who rented us, I turn to Andrea, hoping to talk to her before he gets here. "Andrea," I say, getting her attention, "I need you to distract him for me, so I can make a quick run to the library."
She looks at me with wide blue eyes and ran her fingers nervously through her long auburn hair, "(y/n), no. You'll get us both in trouble."
"Please please please please Andrea, I'm close to knowing more about the mysteries outside the little world we live in!" I plead with her, "I'll be quick I promise!"
"(Y/n), all this theorizing and sneaking around isn't going to help you. Even if you do find what you're looking for, so what? Nothing is ever going to change." She replies to me sternly.
"Did Kat tell you to say that?" I ask her suspiciously. "She's just worried about you, (y/n)." She answered me shortly.
"Andrea, I don't sleep, I don't eat I don't do anything other than think about this. I need Mac's death to mean something, that he wasn't just fighting a pointless war, that he was apart of something bigger."
She looks at me nervously, I feel bad putting her in this position, but I know this customer has very interesting information. Last time I was here he let me look through some of his library, but I was stopped by him when I tried looking around a little farther.
"No one can say 'no' to you, can they?" Andrea sighs at me, finally relenting to my shameless begging.
"Thank you!" I kiss her cheek, "once he is done with me, try to stall him for as long as you can, okay?"
"I can give you 20 minutes at the most, okay?" She replied, "Not a second longer."
I nod just as our customer comes out to invite us in, "I'm sorry that took me so long, but as always it is great to see you Peitho and Eleos." He greets us with a smile.
"Good evening, Lord Reiss," We greeted him with sweet smiles, "How can we please you?"
The short chubby man looks at us like a starved animal, before gesturing toward Andrea first. "Eleos, if you would please come with me first. Peitho, wait patiently like a good little pet, I'll be with you soon." I smile at him as I sit back down on the couch, "As you wish, Lord Reiss."
Andrea gives me a nervous look as she allows Reiss to guide her into the room. As soon as the door shuts, I stand up and make my way over toward the library. I've been to his estate enough times to know where I am going.
It's a good thing it's not too far from where I was sitting, otherwise, I would be more concerned with people seeing me.
I reach the library and slowly open the door. Excellent, it's empty. I make my way over to the books I was denied access to last time.
But when I get there, none of the books have any titles on them. Without me consciously doing so, I automatically reach for one of the books.
I feel myself smile, but why? I only see a blank book in front of me. But I can feel myself smile in excitement at the contents of the book. Why? What is printed on these pages? Whatever it is, I feel like it's something I've been searching for.
I gasp when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I'm turned around forcefully and come face to face with one of Reiss' guards, "What the hell are you doing here?" Oh shit, I'm screwed.
I blink and my surroundings change. Andrea and I are chained up in one of Laurie's dungeons. How long have we been down here? Hours? Days? Months? I can't tell.
"Andrea," I try to call to her, but I can only manage a whisper, throat too dry from dehydration, "I'm sorry." As if Sorry would make up for this, she is doing worse than I am.
The door opens and Laurie walks in. He makes his way over to me first. He picks me up by my neck as much as my chains would let him and slams me against the stone wall.
"You are far too curious for your own good, (y/n)." He spat at me, he used my real name, I'm in big trouble.
"Do whatever you want to me," I smile at him, making his anger rise 10 times over, "I read some interesting things, you can't get rid of that." I spat the blood pooling in my mouth out at him.
I figured he would slam my head against the wall again and knock me out, but he didn't. He dropped me off and then made his way over to Andrea. "Doing whatever I want to you won't get my point across, Peitho." He sneered at me as he grabbed Andrea's auburn hair, "I'll do it to your co-conspirator Eleos instead."
"No!" I cry, please not her. It's all my fault she's in this position. I look away, but he calls someone else into the dungeon. Someone from the military police stepped into the room, "Make sure she doesn't look away," Laurie commanded the man, "If she tries to close her eyes, pry them open."
The man nods and makes his way over to me. I try to fight against him, but it's useless, I have no energy left. All I can do is scream as I helplessly watch Andrea take the full force of Laurie's anger.'
...
My eyes snap open as I feel someone gently shake me awake. I jerk up into a sitting position and clutch at my head with my trembling hands. It was me, I'm the reason Andrea died. I'm the reason her existence was erased. How could I have forgotten that?
"It's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault, it's all my fault!" I repeat to myself over and over again, "She's dead because of me."
"(Y/n)," A voice said, and I recognized it right away as the deep voice belonging to Erwin, "You were just having a nightmare." He sits on the bed in front of me and grabs my arms that are trying to cover my face. He pulls them down gently and rubs his thumbs in slow circles, trying to calm me down.
"It wasn't though, it was a memory," I groan, raising my head to look up at him, "It's been happening more and more recently. But this time it was a memory I didn't know I had, I didn't remember this."
"What happened?" He asked me gently, concerned blue eyes looking into my panicked (e/c) ones.
"I asked a friend that I worked with to distract a client so I could sneak into his library, and look at some books that I wasn't allowed to," I explain, finding some comfort in Erwin's presence, "I knew we could both get in a lot of trouble. But I was curious and couldn't help myself. And of course, I got caught." Ashamed I broke eye contact with Erwin to look down at my lap.
"Laurie locked us up and we were tortured. But Andrea got it worse because he knew the only way he could truly hurt me is to hurt someone else I care for. Andrea's existence was erased, she was killed, and it's all because of me. I didn't come to find out the memories people had of her were erased, until my oldest sister Katrina visited me in the hospital. When I mentioned Andrea to Katrina, she had no idea who I was talking about. Do you want to know something else? I don't even remember what I read in that book. I sacrificed her for nothing."
Erwin lets go of my arms and sighed, "Even if that's true, you have to push on, you don't have any other choices. You don't get to quit now."
I look up at him and be brushes some hair out of my face, "I know what it's like to sacrifice people for little to no reason."
"What are you talking about?" I ask him, giving him a confused look. He chuckles a bit, "I don't know if you're aware you do this, but sometimes when you ask questions or if you're listening intently you tilt your head to the right slightly. It just reminds me of when you ask a dog if they want to go for a walk."
I scrunch up my face and give him a playful punch, still waiting for him to continue on his previous statement.
"I wanted to become Commander because, yes I do want to save humanity. But my primary reason is for information. Information as to why my father was killed. To learn the secrets that they have wanted to keep hidden. It's my reason for surviving. Secondary to that would be the survival of mankind. I sacrifice lives by the hundreds, without giving it a second thought." This time he looks down as he continues, "Have you met a more selfish person than I?"
I take a moment and consider his confession. He may do a good job at hiding it, but I know he isn't that selfish. Sure, he has his own personal agenda, but that's not all he is fighting for.
"I don't think that's true," I say as I lift up his face to look at me again, "A truly selfish person wouldn't feel guilty about his actions. The people who fight and die for you do so because they believe in you, they want to follow you. I've heard some of your speeches, you know how to inspire. Maybe you consider it to be manipulative, but it doesn't come off as that to me. I manipulated a lot of people in my time working for Laurie, I know what manipulation looks like."
He stares at me silently with an unreadable expression, so I continue on, "People are drawn to your passion and your ability to plan from A all the way to Z. Plus, weren't you the one who came up with the long-distance scouting formation? Someone who doesn't care if they lose lives wouldn't bother to come up with something like that. Sure, one of your ultimate goals is finding the truth, but that doesn't stop you from being affected by the deaths around you. You should give yourself more credit."
"You're doing it again." Erwin said, looking at me quietly, "Doing what?" I give him a puzzled look.
"Trying to make me feel better when you're the one in pain." He replied with a small smile forming at the corners of his lips.
"You started it." I pout childishly, causing him to let out a light chuckle. "You should take some of your own advice then, (y/n). You're not a bad person either, try and remember that."
We exchange smiles before he moves to get up, but without thinking I grab his arm before he stands. Confused, he gives me a questioning look and I shyly look away from him but kept hanging onto his arm.
"I know it's probably inappropriate, but would you mind staying with me? I just feel like for once I don't want to be left alone." I say quietly. Erwin seems quite shocked by my admission, but agrees.
He walks around to the other side of the bed and gets under the covers. "Thank you," I say as I turn to lay on my side, back facing toward him. "My pleasure." He replies in return, but he narrows his eyes at me when I turn to raise my eyebrows at him suggestively, "Shut up." He says, and thanks to the soft light of the moon, I was able to see his face go a little red.
I laugh softly and drift back to sleep, feeling comforted and safe with Erwin there.