Levi x Reader Oneshots 2

The Unnamed Hero (Levi x Reader)

Author's Note: Hello, lovelies! I finally got around to finishing the "Attack on Titan 2" game, and holy cow! I had so many feels that I wrote two stories about it. This is the first version (which is also quite saucy, some things are implied – you're welcome). You'll have to wait until next week for the second, non-saucy version. Enjoy!

It was the middle of the night, and the captain sat alone in the mess hall. The others had gone to bed hours ago, but he knew better than to attempt sleep. Not after...

He brought the teacup to his lips, hand shaking slightly. He took a careful sip, willing the hot, aromatic beverage to calm him, as it often did. But nothing could ease his troubles tonight.

The cup made several soft clinks against its saucer as he set it down, still trembling. His control was hanging by a thread, and he was trying desperately to hold on. He couldn't break, not now, because if he did...there was no way to put himself back together again.

She was gone. The cadet he'd coached at Erwin's request when she was fresh out of the Trainee Corps. The friend she'd become as they fought side-by-side against titans. The woman he'd fallen deeply, irrevocably in love with, but never confessed to.

He thought she'd known, at least, by the way she acted sometimes. But she never asked him, and he never admitted it. He was hesitant to get involved romantically while both their lives were so dangerous.

Now, he regretted not telling her the truth when he had the chance.

They'd been outside the Walls on a recovery mission, and his gear had broken, making it necessary for him to withdraw. While he was gone, her group had been attacked by a horde of titans, appearing out of nowhere, advancing too fast for the carts and horses to get away. As her comrades told it, she'd left her diary with them before bravely engaging the enemy, knowing the odds of survival were slim, but buying time for their escape anyway.

The last anyone saw her, she was covered in steaming blood, and still fighting.

Hanji – who'd been her C.O. – had screamed at Erwin for what felt like hours afterward. Her friends from the Trainee Corps all wanted to go back and search for her, as did many of the veterans whose lives she had touched. But the commander couldn't allow it. It was too dangerous, and the Scouts couldn't risk losing anyone else. They simply had to accept that she was gone.

A hero. That's what they all said. She died a hero.

But it did nothing to fill the gaping hole inside Levi's heart.

------------------------------------------

A week after her presumed death, she stumbled to the gate of Wall Rose – injured, malnourished, and sleep-deprived, but alive. Amid much shock and haste, the Garrison brought her inside. Officers bombarded her with questions while shoving food and clean clothes into her hands, only pausing to allow her to shower, then asking more questions before finally placing her in a carriage for return to the Scout Regiment.

She found Levi in his office. He had been trying to drown out his emotions with paperwork, but it did little to suppress the ache in his heart. His thoughts kept snapping back to her, like a rubber band that had been stretched too far and recoiled, cursing him with fresh stings of pain over and over again. If only he had told her how he felt. If only his gear hadn't broken that day. If only...

His pen slipped from his fingers when he saw her standing there. It clattered onto the desk, then rolled onto the floor, but he made no move to retrieve it. His eyes were locked on her – wide, disbelieving. His lungs had forgotten how to breathe.