As The Spark Dies | Levi X Reader

the rest

You and Levi have separated by the time Hange stumbles out onto the porch, rubbing at their eyes.

"Morning," they say with a yawn, fumbling with their glasses. "Did I miss anything? I didn't mean to sleep for so long-"

"You needed it," Levi interrupts.

Hange frowns, finally getting their glasses settled onto their face. "I slept like a rock," they confess. "Sparks? You weren't supposed to be awake. Did I..." they trail off. "Did I miss something?"

"No," you confirm, standing up from your spot. "Nothing. I just couldn't sleep so I came to bother Levi on guard."

"Successfully," Levi adds.

Hange's lips twitch. "Look at you two."

You're not sure what that's supposed to mean, but you definitely don't want to give Hange the chance to elaborate. You move the rest of the way up the steps, opening your arms, and you give Hange a hug. "I'm happy you're here," you murmur into their shoulder, holding on tight.

Hange seems surprised for a second. Then, their arms go around you and seize you tight. "Me too, Sparks," they whisper, hands clutching at you. "I'm happy you're here too."

The two of you stay like that for a minute, just hugging and gently swaying from side to side. You hope Hange knows how happy you are to have them, how happy you are that they made it out- the loss that you're all undoubtedly feeling would be so much worse otherwise.

Eventually, you separate yourself from Hange. "I heard the plan," you admit.

Hange's face falls. "We weren't trying to go behind your back or anything," they say quickly, glancing at Levi. "We just- well, we thought there'd be more of us, and it's just-"

"It's fine," you interrupt, squeezing Hange's shoulder. "It makes sense. Let's just get it over with."

That's a lie. It doesn't make sense, wanting to drag you back to a lab in an attempt to 'discover more' or 'recover crucial information' or whatever the fuck Erwin might've said about it. It doesn't make sense that you have to relive your trauma just because Erwin's curious. There's going to be nothing to find except for dead bodies and memories you've long since buried.

But that won't help, and for the sake of keeping the team together, you don't speak on it. With only four of you left, staying together is more important than ever, and you don't want to create unnecessary tension.

Besides, Levi knows. It's not like you're keeping your feelings to yourself: you told Levi and he promised he'd help you through it.

Something in your chest warms.

Did he really? Your conversation last night (or early this morning?) feels like it was a fever dream. Levi was... sweet. Strangely enough.

"Sounds good," Hange says, dragging you out of your thoughts. "We'll go through it quick."

You force yourself to nod. "Yeah. Sure."

"Once Erwin's awake, we'll inventory and go," Levi says, crossing his arms. "We've got fifteen days to get off this death trap."

Right- the island's probably going to be bombed. You forgot about that. "Did we bring the radio?" you ask, and both Levi and Hange shake their heads. "I figured. So we don't really have any new information to go off of."

"I don't think they'd move the deadline up," he says, as if reading your thoughts. "Government's shit with actually meeting deadlines in the first place."

"True," Hange agrees, a tiny smile growing on their face. "So we might be okay."

He nods. "Six days to the southern bridge- and that's including this pit stop- and then another five days to the northern bridge if it turns out that the southern one is the one that's gone to shit. In an ideal world, we're out of here in six days."