A Devoted Heart (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) - Part 2

Madly, Deeply

"Zoë? I want to talk to you."

As always from him, a command, not a question. Swallowing a childish, rude retort, Zoë followed her father into his study on the ground floor. The dark wood of the furniture and the heavy green curtains gave it a dark, somber look, the low fire smoldering in the grate adding a touch of woodsmoke to the air that otherwise smelled of what she associated with her father's crushing authority. She wanted to rip open the window to air it out but he was blocking her access to it.

"Can you open the window?" she asked. "It's fucking stifling in here."

"No," he replied. "The draft is unhealthy."

She felt the onset of one of those headaches that began with a slight pressure behind her eyes and then exploded into her skull at the most inopportune moments. Hopefully, she wouldn't be fighting for balance in front of him later.

"Well," her father sat down behind his desk and pointed to one of the pompous chairs facing it for her to take a seat too. "You for once did what I told you - I am very pleased with you."

She sat down, suddenly no longer trusting her legs. Her father was pleased? Damnation. It could mean only one thing...

Too fucking sure of herself, she had "tested" the word on Mikasa last night when she had gone to see the kiddos in Historia's room. The lot of them had been a bit anxious but she had calmed them down, assuring them that it wasn't likely that anything exciting would happen before Tybur's arrival. When she had asked the young woman to step out into the corridor with her, Mikasa had complied. A word that worked on Ackermans? Yes, she was eager to help Zoë find out what it did!

Nothing, that's what it had done.

Mikasa had blinked at her expectantly first, but when it had become clear that it was a dud, they had both laughed. An evil joke from an evil man, as expected.

She had been stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why had she whispered it into Levi's ear later? Why?! Was it a morbid type of curiosity that had made her do it? That part of her that got so interested in random things she forgot to eat and drink? That part that wanted to cut open Titans and study their entrails?

Levi's behavior this morning could mean one thing only: he had heard her say it and he was pissed off about it. Understatement: He was furious. And who could blame him, she would be too in his place. The big unanswered question was... had it had an effect? One she had not seen?

"What did Levi want to discuss with you earlier?" Zoë demanded to know.

"He tried to blackmail me," Council Hange answered with a little smirk. "The little shit will have to be taught his place."

"Try to touch him and I'll kill you," she growled.

Her father laughed. "Oh my dear girl. What misguided loyalty. He has gone behind your back so many times before. Are you too blind to see it?"

Poison. Her father's words were like poison, she knew that. Don't let him get to you, don't let him get to you...

"He wants to kill Tybur. I don't really blame him. Tybur really almost broke him, you saw the records. But then, all the Ackermans are unstable to begin with," he patted his pocket from which he had drawn the red booklet the night before. "Must have something to do with the Titan fluids they were injected with when their line was created."

Poison. And bait. More information, knowledge about experiments on human beings with Titan fluids! Maybe he believed that if he just dangled such a thing in front of her mouth long enough, she would eventually bite?