Love you always (Levi x Reader x Erwin)

Chapter Four: Blades

"I think pain is the best discipline"
-Levi Ackerman

As I approached the captain, I rubbed the last remaining sleep from my eyes. Levi was looking directly at me, his arms sternly crossed, his face emotionless as he waited for me.

"I'm surprised. You're actually on time." To Levi, being early meant being on time. Being on time meant being late, but being late was unacceptable.

Levi stared at me, his sharp silver eyes feeling like daggers on the verge of plunging into my soul. Levi cleared his throat and began to go over his lesson plan for the day.

"Since you don't have much experience with the ODM gear we'll start there" Levi handed me the gear, it was quite heavy, metal clanked together as I struggled to put it on. Levi instructed me on how to put it on right. He was already in his gear, he had told me to look at how his was put on and try to mirror it.

Once the final strap was fastened into place I stood up and looked at the still silent captain. "What now?" 

"Take out the blades, you'll need them when attacking Titans. They're made for clean cuts, anything sloppy or too tough will cause them to snap, so you'll have to watch out for that when you're in action. Next, you'll use the triggers right there on the handles to propel yourself into the air, they have to hook onto something or else you'll just have shot the air and will go plummeting down." He said. "Follow my lead, and pay close attention if that's not too hard for you. I don't expect you to get it down on your first few tries so just try not to break any bones, you'll be useless broken."

Levi used his ODM gear to propel himself high into the air where he landed on top of a tree, he looked down at me expecting me to follow his lead.

I took the blades out and aimed for a tree opposite of Captain Levi. As I flew through the air, I couldn't help but worry that I wouldn't stick the landing. I wasn't expecting the wind to hit my face as violently as it did, I struggled to keep my eyes from watering and my vision from blurring. I was surprised I reached the tree I was going for, though my landing was far from graceful, I fell hard on my ass just as soon as my feet made contact with the uneven surface of the branch. "Ouch."

Levi looked at me blankly, saying nothing for a few seconds. "Most cadets  usually don't make it to the branch at all, so there's that." He said. I was unsure if it was a compliment or an observation.

"How the hell do I get down?" I looked down at the ground which seemed very far down. I was a little too high for comfort, not confident that I would be able to survive a fall from this height.

"The same way you got up. Just use your hooks to grab onto a lower structure. You'll be propelled downwards."

I did as he said, I grabbed the triggers again, aiming for a sturdy, yet lower branch. With a a click, the grapples hooked onto my target and the gas from the tank yanked me forward.

"Use momentum and swing! Don't just let it throw you like a rag doll or else you'll just crash!" Levi Instructed.

I did as I was told, relaxing my body and swinging myself as best I could. I managed to land on the branch, my legs ached as pain shot up my body from the heavy pressure gravity had put down on my lower half.

Levi propelled himself to the same branch I was on. "Well it wasn't bad." He shrugged. "You didn't fall this time. You seem to be a quick learner, thankfully that means you'll be out of my hair soon. We'll keep working on the basics until you get the simple stuff down fully. Once you get it, it'll be like muscle memory. You'll be using your ODM gear very often, if you do good enough, you won't die on missions." He said.