Remember Your Promise - Levi Ackerman

Chapter 10

Dedicated Chapter Song: Smoke and Mirrors - Black Veil Brides

I hear it in her voice, she's stalling
"You were just another man"
Your claims of love are falling
Now it's clear you can't win

(Rose to Levi)

      "Hrngh!" Anna grunted as she sliced her sword through the air, cutting up Rose's hand. "Gah- ah!" Rose gasped, stumbling back to see her steaming bloody wrist and her hand laying a few feet away. She glared at the brunette. "You're lucky it can grow back!" She hissed. Anna rolled her eyes. "Stop being a baby and go sit in a corner until it grows back."

      Rose shook her head and grabbed some gauze off of a nearby table. "Hanji! Sliced off body parts for you!" She called. Anna grimaced as Mikasa just put a hand to her head in shame. "Besides, do I really need to learn hand-to-hand combat? It isn't as though a Titan is going to come after me with a pocket knife."

      "I wouldn't be so sure with how many Shifters there are now," Rose stated. "It's better to be cautious." Anna sighed and dropped her sword. "Are we done here? I've got other matters to attend to."

      "Like what?" Rose scoffed. "It's none of your business." Anna shrugged her shoulders. "It's just something I have to do. Now, are we done?"
      "Considering you've removed a limb of mine, yes. We are done for today." Rose grunted. Anna sighed in relief and darted off inside. "Where is she off to in a hurry?" Mikasa asked, to which Rose sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. That girl never tells me anything anymore."

      Anna maintained a calm appearance as she walked up to Levi's office as Eren had just walked down, rubbing his back. "Lemme guess, Levi gave you an ass-whooping?" She giggled. Eren just gave her a look. "I don't wanna talk about it..." He mumbled. Anna laughed and ruffled his hair as she knocked on the door to Levi's office.

      "Come in, Kasahara," Levi said flatly. Anna playfully rolled her eyes as she pushed open the door. "Always know it's me, huh?" She smiled at him. "You still have the lightest knock ever." He mused, to which Anna grinned as she locked the door behind her and pulled up a chair. "So," she sat on it backward, resting her arms on the back of the chair. "Rose took my diary away." She pouted. "Something about I'm reading too much."

      "She is right. How far did you get?" Levi asked. Anna huffed. "To when you turned me into a Titan." She admitted. "When I ran away. Is all of that real? He's truly dead?" She innocently asked. "He is." Levi confirmed, to which Anna jumped off the chair in delight. "Yes!" She cheered, reaching over and grabbing him by his cravat, pulling him into an excited kiss.

      Levi, to say the least, was in complete shock when she let go. Sure, they'd messed around the prior night, but he expected nothing of it. "What...was that for?" He stared at her. Anna pouted and crossed her arms. "What? Suddenly you don't like my kisses?!"

       "I didn't say that," Levi mumbled. "Why are you all of a sudden infatuated with me?" He asked, obviously suspicious of her. "Because I am." She shrugged. "Don't act like you don't want me to be. I had to borrow your stupid cravat to cover these up." She pulled back her hair that was covering a few dark marks on her skin.

      "You say that like you don't enjoy having those. You should see the scratches you left all on my back." He replied. Anna smirked and let her hair down again. "I could always leave more." She tempted him. If there was one thing in the world Anna was always better at than fighting, was tempting people. Especially Levi. "We do have a little time..." he mumbled. Anna smiled, ruffling her own hair. "As long as we keep it quiet, we won't get caught."

      "That's a hard thing for you to do." he snorted. Anna bit her lip, fiddling with her fingernails. "Yeah, you're right about that." she said, lowering her head. "Another time, mayb-" but he was already standing from his desk and had walked around it, embracing her face between his hands as she was pressed back against his desk, his body flat against hers. He could feel her breathing, feel the racing of her heart. At first he kissed her gently, as though he were afraid to touch her, or perhaps testing to see if she would truly kiss him back. When she had, her hands had left the desk and were fists in the back of his shirt, and her softness was pressed against his chest. He was kissing her the way he'd always wanted to and always would before she left him, with a wild and total abandon, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth to duel with hers, and she was just as bold as he was, tasting him, exploring his mouth. He reached for the zipper of her coat just as she bit lightly at his lower lip and his whole body jerked.

She put her hands over his, and for a moment he was afraid she was going to tell him to stop, that this was insane, they'd both hate themselves tomorrow. But: "Let me," she said, and he went still as she calmly unzipped the zipper and the coat fell open. The shirt she was wearing underneath was made of deep red silk, and he could see the shape of her body underneath: the curves of her breasts, the indentation of her waist, the flare of her hips. He felt dizzy. He'd seen this much of her before, of course he had, but it never made him feel so guilty before.

And now nothing else mattered.

She lifted her arms up, her head thrown back, pleading in her eyes. "Come back," she whispered. "Kiss me again."

      He made a noise he didn't think he'd ever made before and fell back against her, into her, kissing her eyelids, lips, throat, the pulse there — his hands slid under her flimsy shirt and onto the heat of her skin. He was pretty sure all the blood had left his brain as he fumbled at the clasp of her bra — which was ridiculous, what was the point of being a soldier and expert at everything if you couldn't figure out the clasp on a bra? — and heard his own soft exhalation as it came free and his hands were on her bare back, the fragile shape of her shoulder blades under his palms. Somehow the little noise she made was more erotic than having a clean room at ever been.

      Her hands, small and determined, were at the hem of his shirt, tugging it off. He pushed hers up, around her ribs, wanting more of their skin to be touching. So this was the difference, he thought. This was what being in love meant. But if he were so in love with her, why did he feel so guilty to touch her? Perhaps because it was all fake. Perhaps because by torturing himself to make love to this new Anna he was lying to himself that his Anna would come back to him.

      Day after endless day for the past three weeks, the two would make up excuses and sneak off to be together intimately. If someone were to make a map of headquarters and ask them where they'd frolicked, the map would no longer exist. Though with each passing day, Anna grew less and less like herself and more of an outcast. She distanced herself aside from training and spent any free time she had that wasn't with Levi in the library, studying. For what, no one knew. All anyone hoped as the last week neared was that she could complete the mission beyond Wall Rose successfully before needing to be sent to the Cadet Corps.