The Titan Queen - Levi X Reader

Chapter 23 - The Hand

"Sun," you said, smiling. "How I've missed it."

Not that there was much of it – the day had known that you would surface from the depths and had prepared itself appropriately. It was a grey day – not quite the dark grey that warned of a storm, but the light grey that teased a light behind it.

"This reminds me," Levi said, suddenly, turning to grab your shoulder tightly. "Where the fuck did you take my horse?"

You choked before laughing. "I let him go outside of the walls – I would have thought he'd made it home by now."

"You – you what?" Isabel and Jean both said, one of which eyeing Levi anxiously and the other smacking his hand dramatically into his face.

"Horses don't know where home is," Levi said, his voice so tightly controlled that it sounded flat. "Are you telling me that Raven is gone?"

You wanted to slyly place Isabel between you, but the girl had already begun following Ymir and Christa to where they'd had the horses stabled. "I am perhaps telling you that Raven is gone."

"I'm going to kill you slowly," Levi said, and Petra raised an eyebrow before patting his elbow. "Don't you try calming me down. I am calm."

"I don't think you quite know what quantifies as calm –" Petra started to say, but one glare from Levi was enough to make her see how far gone he was. She sent you a mock salute, nervously skipping a couple of steps ahead just so that she wasn't in the danger zone.

"She's right, you know," you said. "Calm and you seem like unlikely friends."

"We'll be better friends when you're dead," Levi said.

You left him sulking and brewing that magnificent temper, hurrying to join Petra and talk about her experience with the dye store. The streets seemed tame – far tamer than the ones below the depths of them, in that world where any one person hadn't seen sunlight. Even the thieves here were wise enough to not even look in your direction too long. The ones below would have been wise enough to do the same – but desperate enough to try robbing all of you anyway.

Ymir and Christa led the way through the main street, heading towards the very castle where you'd once spent a school trip. You and Isabel bumped fists as you both took into the view of the banners and the walls – and you flushed as you remembered how your first experience with 3DMG had taken you soaring through the air just a few hundred meters away.

You couldn't remember if the thundering in your blood had been because of the height and the rush – or the male that you'd had to cling to.

The castle's stable swam into sight, and a slight sense of trepidation began to settle itself in your stomach. "You stored horses in here?" You asked, muttering to Ymir.

Ymir replied as Christa stepped forwards to deal with the stable attendant. "We didn't exactly have enough time to think of a discrete solution. Don't blame us for making the tough call."

"If all goes well, I won't have to blame anyone," you conceded, and walked straight into Erwin Smith's chest.

You didn't have time to fall to the ground before the large man had his arms around you, his hands gripping your elbows. You'd forgotten just how huge the man was – his mere hands could break your elbow joint, if he so desired.

"Imagine what a day I'm having," Erwin said, looking down at you with his eyes glowing with murder.

"I bet you that I'm having a worse one," you replied, and tried to shift your feet to get a good stance – if you could twist just a little, you'd be in the prime position to knee an area you were certain Erwin wouldn't be spectacularly pleased about. "But, for the record, I'm blaming Ymir and Christa for this one."