𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 (𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)

[14] all too well

WALL ROSE

***

(y/n) felt grounded as she remained pressed against Levi, her cheek resting softly against his chest whilst his arm remained slung loosely around her lower back. The captain's scent of rain and lavender imprinted itself on her, the calming smell leashing (y/n's) jumbled mass of thoughts for the moment being.

Titan shifters, Reid, and what it all meant for her...(y/n) didn't -couldn't- think about it right now. She had just experienced one of the longest days of her life; encountering a colossal titan and living to tell the tale.

The doctor was still understandably shaken, and the burn that graced the side of her face still stung from time to time, an altogether annoying reminder of what had happened since her arrival along the wall.

Tentatively, (y/n) reached up with gentle fingers and prodded at the inflicted, throbbing area ever so slightly. The woman's jaw tightened as pain blossomed under her hesitant touch, and her fingers marked where the skin had risen to form a darkening scar. The fact that her face was forever blemished didn't bother the doctor a bit - not when there was so many other things she needed to worry about.

(y/n) then subconsciously sensed Levi's gaze diverting to her, and the man quickly reached across their huddled frames to guide (y/n's) fingers away from her face, his pale hand encircling gently around the doctor's wrist.

"Don't irritate it further," the captain intoned plainly, his face straight as his eyes flickered momentarily to fully meet her own. (y/n) noted the way his stony gaze swept along the expanse of the manifesting scar, and the doctor inclined her head a little ways away from his stare.

"I don't mind it, you know." (y/n) intoned with a solid tone. It was just a scar after all.

Levi merely blinked and released a small sigh, his head turning away from her once more. "I'm sorry you had to experience...what you did. You're a doctor, (y/n). You're not supposed to be on the front lines."

"I'm a doctor for the scouts," (y/n) corrected him indifferently. "I go where I am needed. If I am needed to be here, on the front lines as you say, then so be it. My job is to save lives, to help people. I will do so no matter where I am stationed."

The captain only nodded along with her words, and (y/n) acknowledged the acceptance hardening the man's grey eyes.

"You would have made a good soldier, (y/n)." Levi admitted in a more quiet tone as he pulled his arm away from where it was loosely wrapped around her. The absence of his limb felt like a cold presence against her frame.

"You know, I've thought about it once or twice." (y/n) replied evenly as she removed herself from Levi's side, her frame curling in on itself as she sat individually once more. "Being a doctor is hard, Levi. It is very hard and I wanted to give up a good many times...but I had the help of Reid to encourage me to keep going, and now that he is gone, I stick to this profession so that I can say I made it without him when I see him again, wherever that may be. I...want to make him proud, in a way."

The air then stretched into a comfortable silence, and (y/n) diverted her gaze after a long pause to see Levi deep in thought.

"I had two friends, very close ones." The captain intoned. "They made being in the scout regiment manageable. They're...they're one of the many reasons why I continue to serve this difficult cause for so many years."