Chapter song: Samuel Kim - So ist es immer (cover)
"You shouldn't have said that." Furlan's voice blanketed the room after what felt like an eternity. One too short to allow Levi to master his thoughts.
The vibrations of the door slamming shut still rippled along the walls of the decaying house, echo annoyingly ringing in his ears.
His eyes slowly slid to his friend and associate, then back to the entrance. What he saw on Furlan's face made a mix of anger and shame stir in Levi's chest.
"I only spoke the obvious," he said, hands searching his pockets for his knife.
He needed to do something. He needed to occupy his mind with something else besides the betrayal glazing her eyes and the storm darkening her face.
He hated it. He hated he had to be the reason for her sadness. The reason for her tears.
She thought Levi didn't know.
She thought he never noticed how her throat bobbed every time she was swallowing back tears, long before they welled up in her eyes. She thought he didn't pay attention to the pain her own body brought her sometimes. How her muscles and bones ached, and her chest burned; how fever conquered her for days on end, despite acting like she was all right. How she pushed herself closer and closer to collapse.
Each and every time, Levi had prepared for the worst. Prepared himself to lose her. Because that was the sensible thing to do. That was the only thing he could do in the Underground.
She thought Levi didn't know all those things, and yet he knew her habits very well. She was on her way to the Waterfall that very moment, the only place people from the slums could gaze upon the sky and briefly feel the warmth of the sun.
It was their place. The place where he promised her, he would take her to the surface so many years back. When or how they came into each other's lives didn't even matter anymore. Levi couldn't remember life before meeting her, but he did remember every moment with her.
The blade brightly shone between his fingers the moment he found the knife, pristine surface reflecting the grim mask on his face. Then, the searing spark of hatred in her eyes.
He proceeded to clean it.
Furlan scoffed at Levi's pretended indifference. "The obvious?! What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Don't start with me, Furlan," Levi grunted, head hung and shoulders heavy. "I'm not in the mood for one of your smart lectures."
"Oh, no. I will give you a lecture! I will give you a fucking lecture on how not to be a fucking jerk to the people who care about you!" Furlan's fist banged against the fragile table, immediately catching Levi's attention.
Irritation festered in his chest.
"What would you have wanted me to say?!"
"It was not what you said, it was how you said it!"
Levi slammed his hands against the wood as he stood up, causing Isabel to recoil in front of their fight. A stinging pain cut into his palm as he put his weight against the knife. Blood quickly gathered under his hand, impregnating the surface. He had to clean the house again after this.
"Then pray tell, how should I have told our best thief — the one that more or less has put food on our table every day for the last couple of years — that she cannot come to the surface with us because she can't keep up with us?! She's too weak handling the ODM gear."
"You know it's not about the damn fucking gear!" Furlan's face flashed a shade of red, as dark as Levi's pooling blood, the more he countered Levi's pathetic excuses. The color of his cheeks made the gray of his eyes burn with disdain.
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Road to Hell
FanfictionBetrayal, murder, illness. Whatever the reason, every relationship ended the same way. But even when they know the ending, people still hope. She was a talented thief, and he was the best fighter. They thought they could change their fate. They thou...
