Underground (Levi x Reader)

Rocks

His eyes widened in surprise, but before he had the chance to say anything to correct me, Mory threw her arms around his legs, burying her face in his uniform as she cried out, "Thank you for saving me, brother-san!"

"Good." I flicked my fingers at Johnson. "Now go and take Mory to Hange. She's agreed to watch her during training today." I crouched down next to Mory again and said, "You're going to love Hange-san. She's so much fun and she'll show you all sorts of cool things."

Mory nodded at me, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement, and she waved at me enthusiastically as Johnson took her by the hand and pulled her out of the mess hall.

I stood from my crouched position and turned, starting to gather up the mess of paperwork I had been working on before Johnson interrupted me. As I finished stacking up the sheets of paper, Erwin's voice cut through my concentration.
"(L/N)."

I glanced up to see him standing on the other side of the table, empty coffee mug held in his hand. He glanced down at the stack of paperwork in my hand and said sternly, "Well, I'm glad someone around here keeps up on their paperwork. Ackerman could learn a thing or two from you in that department."

I bit my lip to stop myself from smirking at the backhanded remark about Levi and steeled my voice. "Yes, sir." I said seriously. I knew he hadn't come to talk to me just about my paperwork, so I set down the stack of papers and asked, "Was there something you needed me for, sir?"

He flicked his gaze to the tables filled with noisy cadets behind me and then said, "Walk with me, (L/N)."

I picked up the paperwork again and followed him out of the mess hall, wondering what he wanted to speak with me about.

We walked for a few minutes in silence, the paperwork clutched to my chest, Erwin's hands held loosely behind his back, before he finally spoke, breaking the silence. "I've given it a lot of thought, Corporal, and I want you to join with Ackerman in the special forces. You'd be in charge of the cadets together." He glanced over at me and must have noticed the dismayed look on my face because he said in a stern voice, "This is the best way, (L/N). You and Ackerman are two of my best Corporals. I need you to work together for the good of humanity. Put aside your selfish differences and get along, pooling your strengths, so that we can take down these titan bastards for good."

"But sir...." I began, starting to protest the arrangement. He shot me a look of warning, silently cautioning me to be careful in what I said next. I let out a frustrated sigh, biting back my words of criticism. Instead, I decided to ask, "What about my cadets?"

He stopped walking, as we had reached the officers' quarters, and turned to face me, his hands still held behind his back, his thick brows furrowed over his eyes. "There are already six members in the special forces. I leave it up to your judgement, but you can take as many as four of your best cadets to join the squad with you." He raised one of his dark eyebrows at me. "Choose wisely, Corporal (L/N)."

He strode past me, back toward the direction of headquarters.

After he was gone from sight, I angrily kicked a rock at my feet with all might, bouncing it off the wall of the officers' quarters with a loud crack. I swore under my breath. Why Levi? Why did I have to be paired with the one person here who couldn't stand me?

"Tch. I assume you heard the news."

I glanced up and saw Levi leaning against the wall of the building, partily hidden in the shadow created by the overhang overhead, his arms crossed loosely over his chest as he regarded me with dark, expressionless eyes.

"Why does he think it's a good idea to keep pairing us together?" I growled in frustration, picking up another rock and hurling it as far into the nearby trees as I possibly could.

Levi remained motionlessly against the wall, watching me hurl a few more rocks angrily into the woods, before he said in a flat tone, "Oi, (L/N)." I paused, another rock in my hand, and looked over at him, his dark eyes meeting mine before he said, "Why don't you do something more productive with your anger than throwing around rocks like a damn child?"

"I could throw the rocks at you if that would make it more productive." I snapped back. I flicked the rock between my fingers for a moment, seriously considering chucking it straight at his arrogant, stupid head, but I thought better of the idea and dropped it to the ground at my feet, settling for shooting him a dark glare instead.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you done with your tantrum now, (L/N)?" When I remained silent, not answering him, he continued, pushing himself up off the wall as he did so. "Come with me. I have something to show you." He walked past me, knocking me upside the back of the head with his palm as he passed. "And leave the rocks."

"Ow!" I yelped out at the sharp whack, whirling around to glare at him as he continued walking, his hands now in his pockets. "What the hell, Ackerman? Why are you such an ass?"

"We grew up the same, (L/N). You should know why." He called back over his shoulder in his usual flat tone.

I watched him continue walking away from me for a moment, surprised he had acknowledged our common upbringing when usually it seemed like he tried to do everything in his power to ignore it.

I shook my head. I didn't get him. And part of me wanted to stay behind, just to show him he couldn't order me around, but the bigger, more curious part of me wanted to see what he had to show me.

I jogged after him, but not before slipping one last rock into the pocket of my uniform in a small, secret act of defiance against Levi Ackerman.