Underground (Levi x Reader)

Box

I followed Levi to headquarters, surprised he had brought us here. What could he possibly have to show me?

We entered the formidable stone building and walked down the main corridor, until Levi came to a stop in front of the door to the office that he used to share with Mike. Now, the space was all his.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside, glancing back at me when I hesitated for a moment in the doorway. "Tch. Are you coming or not, (L/N)? I'm not keeping a titan in here."

I followed him into the dark office and he shut the door behind me. I remained against the wall next to the door as he walked over to the large desk in the corner of the room and leaned down to open the bottom drawer. He pulled out a small, worn, wooden chest and sat it carefully down on the desk before him. He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow as he said in a slightly annoyed tone, "Oi, (L/N). Get over here."

My curiosity won over and I pushed up off the wall, padding across the room to stand on the opposite side of the desk from him, on the other side of the box he had carefully placed in the center of the surface. He flipped back the lid of the chest and I leaned over the desk, trying to get a closer look at what was nestled inside the worn wooden container.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I glanced up at Levi, who stood watching me with dark, unreadable eyes, and then asked in disbelief, "Is that....."

He reached a hand into the box and pulled out the item that was laid delicately on top, holding it cautiously in the palm of his hand as he held it up for me to see. "So you recognize it then." There was a very faint inflection of surprise in his tone, as if he had expected me not to understand what he was showing me.

I shook my head, still in awe of what I was seeing. "I could never forget it." I reached out a hand, hesitating for a moment, not sure if he'd let me take it. He pushed his hand closer to mine, as if to say it was alright, and I reached out again, my fingers curling around the delicate object balanced on his palm. His cool skin brushed briefly against my hand as he pulled back from me, still studying me with a steady, inscrutable gaze.

"It's the last teacup." I held the chipped, thin teacup up to my face. The scrawled paintings of vines and flowers that had adorned its porcelain surface had faded over the years, but every chip and scratch that I remembered so well were all still present, just as if it had been yesterday when I had last seen it. "Why do you have this still?" I flicked my eyes up to meet his over the top of the cup, the surprise still evident on my face and in the tone of my question.

"Tch." He dropped his gaze from mine and motioned to the box, still laid open in front of us. "That's not all that's here."

I set the teacup down softly on the desktop, giving it one last long glance, before I leaned over to look at what else was held in the box. I let out a gasp and pulled out the next item. I held the small, square chunk of shriveled leather in the palm of my hand. "Holy Hell. You kept this?"

I remembered finding the shoe in the trash, so proud that I had cut it up myself and made us "soup" with it for dinner. And then I had dropped my cup and spilled my serving, so Levi had given me his. He must have picked up the scrap of leather from the spilled soup later and had kept it all these years.

I set the piece of leather down beside the teacup and peered back into the box. I couldn't help but laugh as I pulled out the small dagger that lay in the bottom of the wooden box. I glanced up at Levi and held up the dagger, a smile flickering across my lips as I said in amusement, "The dagger we used for thieving. I can't believe we thought we were so damn hardcore with this tiny thing. And look at what we have access to now."