The Paths - Oneshot (Zevi, ZekexLevi, Eruri) EXPLICIT

The Paths

Based on "Bonus Chapter: Levi's POV of Trost Arc" from I Need You by Levi_Simp137724

Preamble: Mid-January. Trost. After walking in on his repressed love Sergeant Taitus in bed with Eren, Levi embarks on a suicide mission over Wall Rose. He encounters a swarm of Titans beyond the walls and throws himself into the sea of limbs and jaws with nihilistic abandon. Just as his canisters are running low a final Titan lunges long with its fist, slamming Levi out of the sky and into the wall of an abandoned alleyway. Concussed, his ribs are shattered, a long gash leaking red down his arm. The Titan advances on him, its mouth open, stupid and salivating. He thinks of Furlan and Isabel. Of his mother. He prepares to be devoured.

- - - 

Is this how I die?

A voice I've never heard before rouses me awake.

"Captain Levi, I presume."

"Who's asking," I rasp, consciousness tightening its cruel grip on my body.

It's unclear how long I was out for. My vison clears around the tall form of a man who has clearly never heard of a razor standing over me. He must be out of his damn mind, walking around in the dead of winter in just fatigue pants and an open tunic. Put your pecs away, asshole. Something's off about this moron.

"I'm Zeke, Captain," he drawls, his breath making a cloud in the cold air. "I've been so eager to meet you."

He nods to the waiting Titan who turns obedient as a dog, lumbering down the alleyway and out of sight.

The realization of just who he is strikes me square in the chest. He's one of them. My blood runs faster, fingers tightening around the knife in my hand.

He takes a knee as he eyes me, raising a heavy blonde eyebrow.

"You don't look nearly as intimidating as everyone makes you out to be."

Suddenly he sticks his thumb into the open gash on my arm. I clamp my teeth together and hold my body rigid, refusing to give him the reaction he obviously craves. Who the fuck does this guy think he is?

"Rrr..." I grit, a cold bead of sweat trickling down the back of my neck. "If I weren't injured, you'd be dead by now."

"Oh, I believe you! And yet here you are... Humanity's strongest soldier helpless before me. I'm aroused just thinking about it."

"The fuck is wrong with you."

"It's not what's wrong with me, Levi, but what's wrong with this world."

He leans over me, prizing open my fist to remove the knife. My leaden arms move too slowly to stop him, collapsing back to the ground almost immediately.

Twirling it between his fingers, Zeke's eyes follow the light across the blade.

"I'm here to change all that."

Threads... Millions of threads move behind my eyes.  They pull, pile, twist around me, dark and long as time.

I recognized the man, the smell that entered the room before he did. Sweat and sour opium. I recognized him this morning when mother returned from down the street with a flask of basement whiskey instead of bread. She touched the sticky remains of her perfume bottle to her collar and the back of her neck. I had bitten the cankersore on the inside of my lip until it split.

"Evenin' little guy."

I ducked the greasy palm that reached for my hair. I was fourteen years old now. Old enough to fantasize about murder. I hated all of them. Hated her whenever knuckles at the door rapped three-two-three and her thin shoulders were out.