The Experiment (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) (Part 1)

The Final Deal

Zoë's face was so soft and tranquil, the usual sharpness of her features transformed by what looked suspiciously like happiness. It awed and humbled him that she slept in the bed they had shared with such an expression on her face. Staring spellbound at how the gloomy underground morning cast faint green patterns onto her throat as it woke up the colors in the emerald necklace, Levi wished he could capture the image before him on a piece of paper. Like the thief that he was, he wanted to steal this moment and keep it hidden away.

But he couldn't draw for the life of him.

The more intensely he stared at her face in a foolhardy attempt to memorize the scene instead, the more certain he became he would not be able to hold on to it. What he was feeling, this unfamiliar elation of body and soul, it was so fleeting it was already beginning to fade. Doubt was starting to seep into his mind as the seconds ticked by, a heavy feeling pulling him down towards the cold reality of what lay outside this bed, this room, away from this dangerous, loony emotional state that felt like floating. He would probably welcome his newfound soberness tomorrow.

If there was a tomorrow.

There was no fear in him, only the knowledge that things had moved way beyond his control. He wasn't smart enough to understand the extent of the net he found himself entangled in though his instincts told him that he was in deep, manipulated by an unknown enemy whose reasons he did not understand. Xandra, Annika, Kenny, Renzo. Why did it feel like they were all in this together somehow?

Because he was silly, that was the answer. Silly, and, that was something new, maudlin. He was so sentimental right now he felt an urge to laugh at himself.

Levi wanted only one thing and that was to stay with Hanji. He wanted to lie down again, stretch his body out behind her, take her head onto his arm to hold her very tight. He wanted to breathe in the scent of her hair, drown in the Hanji smell that made him giddy. A few more hours before the fight tonight, they had that at least, didn't they? Only a fool would waste them.

A fool he was, had always been. He couldn't stay.

Someone had been outside the door, making the faintest of sounds when putting down a sheet of paper. A note, he guessed. He had not cared enough to spring up in time and catch the person. It was the Hanji smell and the warmth, the subtle softness of her body underneath his hands that made him sluggish and unwilling to move. A bit longer. A bit more, his lazy brain had thought. Hours had passed with him just holding her since, another foolishness he would likely pay for.

They could pretend all they wanted, they were who they were. He was a thief taking what wasn't his, stolen moments of happiness that weren't for him.

She slept so sweetly in her exhaustion before him now, her little snores bringing a smile to his face as he sat on the side of the bed. He wiped it off. Besotted fool, idiot, he chided himself. Go. You need to leave. Go, there is no time, not time! He touched her face, gently. He stroked her hair. He brushed his lips over hers, lingering, hovering, hoping...

Shit. This was hard. Exactly what he had never wanted, couldn't allow in his life, however good it felt to float on clouds with his heart beating ferociously for someone else.

Wrenching himself away with an effort, he quietly made his way to the door, opened it and bent down to collect the note. It was short, hastily written on expensive paper. The handwriting was unfamiliar, could be a man's or a woman's.

"He has signed the petition to defund and disband the Survey Corps," he read. "There's a slim chance you can stop it if you surrender yourself into his hands."

No signature.

He swore under his breath. Exactly the kind of shit he wanted nothing to do with, Levi thought bitterly. But it was the kind of shit he had gotten himself into the moment he had come back to this godforsaken place. He shouldn't have. He really shouldn't have.