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

|137| Torn

Nathalie just spent those five days working. She concerned herself with mapping Zeke's genome and running tests on his blood and that was it. She was sitting on her ass all day. Her attention, fully consumed by the lenses of her microscope and all she did was stare and write down on the thirteenth notebook that she was fast finishing. She had made a collection of notebooks filled with her impossible-to-read handwriting. Those notebooks were to be delivered to the Burgess Library after her passing. But for now she just wholly focused on that. She did not want to talk to Levi. She did not want to talk to Zeke. She did not want to see what the hell was going on with the world right now. She did not want to do anything. It was the third day, and she would probably leave by dawn. She wanted to go back to her babies and hold them and kiss them and love them. She had missed them so much. There was no saying how much she had missed them.

Levi had asked her about them and it was his only questions that she didn't answer curtly. He had noticed it, that slight change in her demeanour. She wouldn't look at him in the eye. She'd try her best to just work, and work, and work because during her work hours neither Zeke nor him were around. She barely spoke to him. She just nodded and hummed and brought no argument to the surface about whatever he asked of her. She was obedient. Very and he just knew that something was wrong. Very wrong.

Did Zeke do something to her? Did that bastard do something to her whilst he wasn't looking? That was impossible. Zeke was within his sight every single moment of every single hour of the day. And if he wasn't with Zeke, then he was with Nathalie and Zeke was never around. Though, Levi should never underestimate that man.

Nathalie felt the weight a familiar hand on her shoulder. She flinched beneath his touch and Levi pulled his hand back right away. His eyes slightly widened. Was she scared of him? She knew it was him, right? Her husband. The father of her children. Her comfort, her everything. Right?

"Oh! Levi," Nathalie pulled her attention away from her microscope. She had set everything she needed a wooden table that was set outside. The tall trees were bringing enough shade everywhere, so the few sunrays that stole through the thick leaves were always welcome. She was sitting down on a small, wooden bench. "What is it, darling?" Nathalie asked, pulling out a casual, fake smile as she scribbled a few things more on her notebook, still refusing to look at him even when he knelt beside her and tried to catch her attention.

"Funny. I was about to ask you the same," Levi said as he propped one hand on his bent knee and he looked up at her.

"Why, darling?"

She asked casually, even though he could tell she was putting up lots of effort into avoiding him right now, but she was also trying to act casual, as if nothing was wrong. Was he being paranoid? He sighed heavily. His hand reached for her own, the one that was holding her pencil and scribbling down and he stopped her from writing anything else. She still didn't look at him.

"Nat... what is it?" Levi asked and she tried to stand up and leave, but he grabbed her by her waist and forced her back down. "Nat-"

"I- I just need to grab another-"

"I'll fetch it for you, but please, take a moment to talk to me, my love, my baby, please," Levi pleaded and his voice came out more desperate than he was intending to make it. He cupped her face and urged her to look down at him. Her eyes met his own. An unreadable expression laid across her face. He sighed. He caught her hand in his own and he pressed a warm kiss at the back of her palm. "I need to know if something's bothering you,"

Nathalie had found such comfort in her work. She could not deny it. Diving into science and pretending there was nothing else around her but her thoughts, it greatly helped her mind stay at peace, and busy with only her theories and her sweet, sweet science. Science gave her no harm. Science did not hurt anybody unless it was used wrong. But people hurt each other. Relationships between people were complicated. Nathalie used to convince herself that she could not understand them. And even though she was married and she had children and she had so many friends and people she cared about, there were times like now that reminded her just how complicated things could get between two people. Complicated and hurting.