Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|89| Progress

Nathalie spent every night, every moment, every second with Levi. Except maybe for the hours that she worked, all the rest, she was with Levi. He never ceased to remind her how precious she was to him, and she never ceased being reminded how much she loved him. He would come to pick her up at exactly 9 pm and take her back to the HQ in Trost. She continued avoiding Erwin as much as possible, but she couldn’t really keep avoiding him forever. They had things to talk about.

She told him about Eren’s plans. The ones that he had entrusted to her and her alone. Erwin spent all those weeks pulling his hair out, spending endless, sleepless nights in his office, trying to figure out alternatives. He needed help. He couldn’t do this on his own. Nathalie helped him. She helped him as much as she could, but with the demanding amount of time she had to spend in the labs, her mind was never clear enough to think.

The Expeditions went well though. It was by Summer that they had scoured the entirety of Wall Maria and its Districts, and then beyond the walls. They turned every single titan back into a human and they only proved Nathalie’s visions and Dr. Grisha Yeager’s notebooks to be the truth. Soon, all territories were cleared off titans. Those people were taken by engineers and doctors and asked of them to teach them everything they knew.

Things were progressing fast. Historia had offered they tear down the royal palace’s walls and try to establish electricity in the building. Hange, Moblit, Nathalie and Erwin were way too excited to sit alongside those people -who were more than glad to help out- and learn how it all worked. Nathalie was so close. So close to making it work. Dissolving those titan genes from all Eldians. That was their only option to end this conflict. The vaccine wasn’t done yet, but she was close. 

Nathalie sighed contently as she mixed the ingredients together in the stew that she had set on top of the flickering fire. It was nice to take a break from work. The Expeditions were no longer a reason for her to stay awake in the nights, or snap out of sleep because of mental breakdowns. They made countless Resurrection Serum doses. Each soldier had at least five of them on their outfit, so, all Expeditions were carried out with almost zero casualties.

The Survey Corps were only growing bigger. More and more people from other Regiments joined. The training was still harsh though. Erwin was hell-bent on not letting any other soldier ever die again under his command. He could not add to the mountain of corpses that he stood on. He simply couldn’t.

And now here they were, camping outside at the -finally- titan-free territories outside the walls. They would arrive tomorrow at the sea. Everybody was so damn excited. But still, they had been riding on horseback all day. They had to rest. It was only the Levi Squad, Hange, Moblit, and Erwin. Whatever was left of the other veteran and Hange’s squads, were left behind to train the rookies.

“Are you cold? Here, take my cloak,” Eren said as he took off his green cloak and he passed it around Mikasa’s shoulders.

Mikasa’s cheeks were engulfed in bright red. “I- I’m fine, Eren, you don’t have to-” Oh- but Eren knew her. He knew how strong she’d try to make herself look. She’d try to evade all help. Just like the Captain. Nathalie was right after all. The Ackermans were all the same.

“Here,” Eren cut her, and he made sure to wrap his cloak around her just a little tighter as he sat down on the grass beside her. One arm slipped around her and Mikasa found herself laying her head on his shoulder. She could feel the weight of his cheek pressing down on her forehead. A large smile spread on her lips.

Connie smiled too as he sipped down the bottle of beer before he passed it at Sasha who was sitting down on the grass beside him. Jean groaned as he watched the two. “Jeez, you two go get a room,”