(Levi Ackerman x OC) Melting A Frozen Heart ~ Attack on Titan

Chapter 18: Always

"Little Levi's grown up a bit now that he has a woman, hm?"

"Shut up, shitty four-eyes."

"Oh, come on. I've never seen you nurse someone back to health!"

"I'm necessarily doing that... sort of. It's just that I can't just leave her as she is."

"Excuses, excuses! You already announced your love to her in front of the Corps, anyways. Why're you so touchy about it? Ooh, you're blushing~!"

"Do you want me to kill you?"

"Le... Levi?" Chi murmured, stirring from her sleep. "Is that—is that you?"

"She's up!" shouted a voice, a blurry figure bounding over and hovering near Chi's bedside. "Levi, your girlfriend's awake!"

"Lower your voice," Levi's voice growled. "I don't know why you're yelling so late in the evening."

"Fine, fine. I mean, shouldn't you be crying with tears of joy? You were as white as a ghost when she collapsed! I've never seen you freak out like that before! Screaming for a medic and panicking and—"

"If you don't shut your mouth right now, I'll feed you to the titans personally."

Curiously, Chi blinked a few times and adjusted her eyes to the late evening light spilling through the curtains. Levi sat against the wall in a chair, Hanji's face inches away from hers with calculating chestnut eyes.

"Gah!" Chi screamed, scooting away from Hanji. She instinctively snatched up her pillow and chucked it at the woman, bombarding her in the head with the plush apparatus. "Don't - don't scare me like that!" She was sitting up now, twisting the rings on her fingers; a habit that'd developed whenever she was nervous.

"Oops, sorry," the other brunette giggled. "Habit of mine after years of observing those funny little guys everyone calls titans! Although personally, they're extremely fascinating!" Her eyes glittered with excitement, but a warning glower from Levi made her tone down the topic-leaping. "Anyways, got yourself a little roughed up back there, didn't you?"

"'Roughed up?'" Levi scoffed, standing from his chair and moving to the bedside. "Quite an understatement, don't you think? You were bleeding your ass off, you have countless bruises, and you earned yourself a sprained ankle, too."

"I - I'll be fine," Chi insisted, throwing her legs over the edge of the mattress. "Just a few days of extra exercise should do me some good."

"Hell no." Levi's tone was rather sharp and demeaning, more so than usual, catching both women off guard. "You're resting for the next week at least."

"Yup," Hanji agreed. "What the lil guy said. You're one of our best soldiers; don't want you getting yourself into even more trouble!" To cheer Chi up, she gently patted her on the head before bounding out of the room with a wave, claiming she had some work with Annie to do.

"I'm also sure Levi would looove some alone time with you now that you're awake!" she called as she closed the wooden door with a click.

The other two were left in silence, dread filling up the empty space as the dull pain reverberated throughout Chi's body, continuing to ache. Because Levi was in her presence, she hardened her expression to hide the agony.

"I know you're in pain," he sighed, rolling his eyes before taking a seat next to her. "Don't try to cover it up, idiot."

"No," she protested. "I'm not, really. Don't worry about me."

Quirking an eyebrow, he lightly kicked her left ankle - the bad one. She yelped loudly and clutched her thigh, casting an angry look towards the man. He simply shrugged a shoulder and smirked, stating, "You're not in pain, hm?"