Coldness.

Down.

It's been a month, and you have checked everywhere you could think of. You checked all places inside the walls that Levi was known to frequent, and you had made time to check outside of the walls on every expedition. There was absolutely no sign of Levi, and things were not looking good. Erwin wasn't being much more helpful. He allowed you to conduct your searches and provided necessary adjustments for that to be possible, but he didn't seem at all bothered whether you find Levi or not.

A few days ago you sat down with Hange and reminisced over Levi's life with you all. Tears were shed, of laughter and sadness, but then something hit you. Hange mentioned how he first arrived in the scouts, and where he had arrived from... the underground.

That's it! the one place you hadn't even thought to check. Sure, Levi hated it there, enough to never want to set foot near the entrance ever again, but wouldn't that make it the perfect place for him to hide? The last place anyone would think to even look? it makes sense, and upon this realization you and Hange had immediately sprung into action. After badgering Erwin and throwing in a few guilt trips, he agreed to help you out and got passes for a few of you to go the underground.

So here you were, standing atop the steps, staring down into the darkness at the bottom. It's as if simply looking in it's direction caused you to feel everything the inhabitants of the underground felt. Emptiness, despair, hopelessness and resignation. This place was hell. Granted, so was the outside world, but in a different sense.

You had chosen Hange, Mikasa and Armin to accompany you for this mission, much to Eren and Jean's dismay. The two boys wanted to take any opportunity to be a part of the action, and near Mikasa of course, but they were too reckless and hotheaded.

Hange was obviously reckless at times too, but they knew when to cool it down. Hange knew Levi best, Armin had the brains and Mikasa had the brawn, you thought this was a perfect choice for a search team.

The four of you silently began to descend the staircase, you could feel the tension as you all advanced, slowly and stiffly. You had no idea if you would actually find Levi, or any clues as to where he could be or if he is even still alive, but you had to try. with the amount of times he had saved your life, it was now your turn to try and save his. It's the least you could do, but you'd be lying if you said you didn't do this for yourself also. You just wanted him to be safe and with you again.

"Man this place stinks." Hange broke the silence.

"We're not even halfway down the stairs yet Hange! and no offense, but I hear you don't always smell so great yourself" you weren't sure if your tone properly conveyed that this was a joke or not, but it really doesn't matter right now.

"When I find that shorty I swear!" 

"How did you know it was him who told me?"

"Who else could it be? What else has he said?"

"Not much. Just the usual shitty glasses, four eyes crap. Oh, and that he bathes you."

Hange let out a gasp at this as their face turned pink and panicked.

"Oh god. Y/N, I swear it's not how it sounds, believe me, I hate every second."

"Oh I know. I didn't think of it in any other way. All I can imagine is you thrashing around like a cat in the bathtub."

"You're not wrong..."

Despite that small lighthearted banter, nobody laughed, in fact, none of you cracked a smile, for you had only a few more steps until you reached the bottom.

It was worse than you had even imagined. Levi didn't go into too much detail about the conditions of this place, but even if he had, nothing he could of said would have prepared you for this.