Underground (Levi x Reader)

Storm

The next morning, after another blissful night of nightmare free sleep, I woke up early and headed into the adjoining bathroom to take a long, relaxing bath before the day started. My muscles were sore from swinging my blades all day yesterday, and I needed to get loosened up if I expected to spend another full day out in the field.

After warming the water and filling the tub to the brim, I slipped beneath the surface of the steaming pool, letting out a contented sigh as the hot liquid instantly began to soothe my stiff joints and muscles.

I sank down into the water until it was lapping just below my nose, and closed my eyes, sitting there in silence, completely still. It felt amazing just to stay still for more than a few moments-I felt as if everything that had happened in the last few weeks had kept me running, and drained all my energy completely. I needed a serious vacation, but unfortunately, that would never be a reality until the titans were defeated.

I heard the door open and Levi enter the bathroom, but kept my eyes squeezed shut. I wanted this one moment of rare calm to stay forever, or at least until the last possible moment.

"Oi, (F/N)."

I let out a long sigh and opened my eyes, pushing myself up out of the water enough that my shoulders were exposed to the chilly air of the bathroom. He was crouched beside the tub, watching me, his dark hair still tousled from sleep. He raised an eyebrow at me. "Trying to drown yourself? Was last night really that bad?"

I let out a snort of derisive laughter as I reached up to push my damp hair off of my forehead and met his gaze. "If I wanted to go, I'd do something far quicker and less painful than drowning myself. I'm not stupid, you know." I dropped my hands back down under the warm water and gave him a slightly nostalgic smile as I said, my voice a touch more serious, "I was just enjoying the calm before another day of storm."

He rested his arms on the side of the tub and leaned over a bit, dangling his fingers into the warm water. He circled his fingers round and round for a few moments, watching as the movement created small ripples in the surface of the pool, and then he said quietly, his focus still on the water, "Hard to imagine a world without storm when all you've ever known your entire life is that hell, isn't it?"

I watched him intently, his gaze still on his hand underneath the surface of the water, his dark eyes holding a hint of despair at the thought that we would never experience a world without the hell that we were now so familiar with. And it made my heart ache. I had always wanted to give him everything, but in that moment, I wanted nothing more than for Levi to have the world he so desperately wanted, and the happiness that came with it.

There was no one else who deserved it more than he did.

I brought my hand up from underneath the water and placed it over his, stopping the movements of his fingers with my own. His skin was soft and warm from the touch of the water, and as my fingers laced between his, the feel of our wet skin clasped together was an oddly comforting feeling.

He finally looked up at me, his black irises flat once again, as if he were attempting to mask the emotion that had been there just seconds earlier. "Levi." I gave him a slight sad smile, feeling defeated that he still felt he needed to hide things from me after all this time. "Don't hide from me. Please. Talk to me. Like when we were kids."

The muscle in his jaw twitched slightly as he ground his teeth, seeming to debate whether he wanted to say anything or not. Finally, he released the breath he had been holding, and dropped his gaze from mine, sounding slightly defeated, as he said, "I'm not trying to hide things from you, (F/N). I'm just trying to protect you." He met my gaze again, his eyes now back to the same, sad intensity as before, and squeezed my fingers between his as he said in a low voice, "Everything I've ever done, it was only to protect you."