𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐌 | 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐢 𝐱 𝐎𝐂

Bites

[AN:

FanArt: by roredwarrior

Songs: "I Feel Like I'm Drawning" by Two Feet, "Shiver" by Maroon 5, "Do I Wanna Know" by Arctic Monekys.]

LEVI'S POV

As usual, I couldn't sleep that night either, but for once, at least, I had a "good" excuse. I desperately wanted to know how Daphne was doing, and at the same time, I also wanted to start caring less about that girl. I could have really gotten myself into trouble.

I had always lost out when I cared about someone else: my mom, my friends, my comrades. And once I learned my lesson, after countless deaths, I had completely trained my mind and body to suck it up and move on. Honestly, there was nothing else I could do. Each loss had brought me to my knees, still, none of those seemed to stop me from achieving my goal, which was to annihilate the titans. To wipe them off the face of the earth. Once and for all.

And yet with Daphne, it was... different. I still couldn't fully understand the nature and depth of my affection for her. I found no explanation for that chronic attraction I felt towards her and her story. Maybe just empathy... yes, maybe just empathy, for another poor scrap from that hovel called Underground...

The sun rose. It was about time for me to go down to the cafeteria and let that brand new and challenging day begin. When I was almost in front of the main stairs, I noticed a bit of bustle: some cadets were crammed in front of a window, intent on looking out and making almost incomprehensible comments. Among them, I saw Petra, who immediately noticed my gaze and ran towards me.

"Captain, good morning!" she greeted me with her usual enthusiasm. "What's this fucking racket now?" I cut her off. "Ahem... Well..." While Petra was stuttering something, I went to the window, getting those brats out of my way. Tch, what the fuck they are ever looking at.

"Here she comes again..." one of them whispered as they all stepped back. Then I saw her: Daphne was running like an insane around the castle.

"How long has this been going on?" I asked Petra, who had come forward, close to me. "I don't know, sir, for a while I guess, but..." she shyly replied, intimidated by my possible reaction. "And you back there? What are you looking at, huh? Fuck off" I yelled at the cadets behind us. They instantly ran off.

"Captain, do you want me to go talk to her? You know, girl to girl..." I heard Petra say at one point, but I was too focused on thinking what the hell Daphne was trying to do to answer her. After a while, I came up with "No, Petra. In that state, if you tried to talk to her, she would probably rip your head off. Let her be. See you in the cafeteria."

As I walked down to the ground floor, I passed before the main door and there I felt like my legs didn't want to move forward. I stopped and after a while, I decided to head outside. I stepped into the walkway and waited for her to pass in front of me again. Our eyes met, but she didn't care too much and she just kept running around the castle, so I lost sight of her again. Tch, again with this ignoring-me thing?

On the second lap, as soon as I caught her gaze, we stared at each other again. Her eyebrows frowned visibly and so she stopped. After catching some breath, she started to walk in my direction. Actually, it seemed like she was coming right towards me. So, I decided to say something to her, "Oi, go take a shower, today Hange wants to do experiments on Eren-"

She didn't even let me finish, and when she was a few inches away, she just walked past me, without saying a word, and kept walking straight into the castle. This girl, she...

Later, Daphne didn't come to the cafeteria and appeared in the courtyard just in time for the experiments. There were only me, her, four-eyed, and the whiner. During the whole experiment, Daphne stood aside, holding the notebook that Hange had given her, and she was just there waiting to write down what she was told to.