See Me Now

XX. Mockingbird

"Captain Levi, why?"

Levi looked up at her and saw her bleeding nose and mouth. He also caught sight of the bloody bandage on her forehead before his hair was brutally grabbed by the man who was tormenting (F/N).

"Let him go!" screamed (F/N). She was desperately begging her captor to let go of Levi.

Levi, on the other hand, didn't really care anymore, despite his aching body which received a lot of blows the moment he set foot on the building.

"..."

"What did you just say? Stop mumbling and man up!" said the man to the degraded Captain.

"Let go of her." Levi answered in a very anguished tone, unable to suppress the pain he felt at the moment.

"And why should I do that?"

"You,.. have me. Let,... g-go of her,..."

To this, the villainous man just smiled broadly and faced his men.

"You heard that boys? The once high and mighty Levi Ackerman is surrendering himself!" he said, then looked down at Levi once more. He flashed him his filthy yellow teeth and said, "Oh, how the mighty has fallen,..."

The men started laughing boisterously at what their Master just said like some rogues who were laughing at some sick joke in a bar.

(F/N), however, couldn't contain her sorrow and pity. She hated seeing Levi suffer because of his weakness. She never realized, until now, how painful it was to see the one man she loved the most being mocked by ignorant people because of her.

The girl, unable to do anything, bowed her head and cried in silence.

The man noticed this and made her look up by holding her chin forcefully. his long and dirty fingernails digging into her smooth skin.

"Guess what, sweetheart? Ackerman is actually willing to give up his life just to save you! You might have a chance, after all!"

"Keep your fucking, filthy hands off her!" growled Levi, still on the floor clutching at his aching ribs.

The man frowned, removed his hands from (F/N), went to Levi and swiftly gave him a very hard kick on the stomach, which resulted in the poor Captain coughing up blood.

"STOP HURTING HIM!" (F/N) begged, desperately trying to free herself to protect Levi.

"Oh, why should I? This is actually quite fun! You have no idea how joyful it is to kill these monsters."

"He's not a monster, you are!"

"That hurts, sweetheart. You've not complimented me for my glorious endeavors, yet. And now, you're being such a fucking nincompoop for begging me to let this asshole go! After all the sadness he inflicted upon you,... how fucking stupid can you actually get?!"

Levi struggled to look up at the man as he was about to go near (F/N) again.

If only I have the strength, then I could've -

The obnoxious man grabbed (F/N)'s shoulders and brought his awfully wrinkled face closer to hers.

"Get away from her!" Levi begged and received another kick to the stomach by one of the goons.

(F/N) looked away, unable to stomach the grotesque sight of the man.

"Let's have a deal, then. Shall we, sweetheart?" the man sweet - talked to her.

"Don't listen to him! He'll - AHH!" Levi said as another kick landed on his battered body, this time, on his back.

"You'll let me touch you, and I'll let him go."