So Leah had a new purpose alongside her new role. She was to keep control of an unpredictable teenager with the ability to turn into a 15 meter tall titan with a fighting skill equal to that of any trained soldier.
No pressure.
She was reassured by the fact that Levi also shared this burden. Realising how well they worked together, he began to show her a smidge more respect than he had up until now. But by no means was he nice to her, more tolerable.
Their first act as the protectors of Eren Jeager was to deliberate at his court hearing, trying to persuade Premier Dhalis Zachary, the Commander-in-Chief of the Three Regiments, to let him fall into the Scouts' custody.
On the day of the hearing, Levi cleverly ordered Hange down to prepare him. Who better to unnerved the kid than the batshit crazy scientist?
Presently, Levi and Leah stood in silence beside Erwin in a large marble-floored Courthouse. Shortly after arriving and taking the elevated seat at the forefront of the courtroom, Commander Zachary spoke, addressing the crowd formally, before passing the floor to Nile Dok of the Military Police. Just as Leah had suspected, Nile spoke out of his ass, spouting bullshit that made her roll her eyes and scoff under her breath. "For the greater good, after we have gathered all the information that we can from him, we would see him made a fallen warrior of humanity." Nile summarised after his short speech. So they just plan to use and then kill the kid? That's pretty heartless, even for the Military Police. Leah thought.
Before long, Erwin was speaking. "As the commander of the Survey Corps, I Erwin Smith, propose the following. Let Eren join our ranks, reinstate him as a full member of the Scouts and we will utilise his titan ability to retake Wall Maria. That is all." Shocked gasps and murmurs echoed in the vast courthouse in response to Erwin's proposal. And while the courtroom took it well by the majority, a few felt strongly against this use of their money. Zachary demanded more information from Erwin but as he explained, the crowd began to take their turns passionately interjecting.
An argument broke out which Commander Zachary quickly shut down, beginning to address Eren for the first time.
After being accused of having no control over himself, Eren leaped into a passionate speech. Honestly, Leah respected the kid. He was speaking his mind and in doing so, making some very valid points. Good on him.
Sadly he got a bit worked up, ending his fervid tirade with a furious roar. A couple soldiers raised their guns and Leah watched as Levi stepped forward. Before anyone could do anything the Captain marched over to Eren and started beating the life out of the poor boy. Leah's body jerked forward in reaction to try and stop Levi but Erwin grasped her wrist. Leah furrowed her brow and met his gaze but he just shook his head. Clearly this was part of the show.
People spoke out in retaliation, demanding Levi stop out of fear of Eren transforming into his titan form. The raven haired man confidently dispelled their apprehensions. Before long Levi stood before us, holding a handful of hair of a battered and bruised Eren, suspending his head limply in the air as the rest of his body slumped in pain.
Erwin raised his hand into the air before speaking, "Sir, I have a proposition. There's still too much we don't know. And no doubt, his danger will be ever present. As such, I suggest this: Eren Jeager be placed under Captain Levi and Captain Leah's supervision."
Erwin placed a hand on the small of Leah's back and pushed her forward slightly, to highlight her presence to the crowd. Zachary glanced at Leah and she stood there with a stoic look on her face and a confident disposition, staring right back at him. She saluted him, slamming a fist over her heart.
"And we'll conduct a recon mission outside of the wall...."
-
Without much surprised, Erwin managed to sway the courtroom in the Scout's favour, with the undoubted help of Levi's promise of being able to kill the kid. Following the tribunal, Eren's wounds were tended to by a desperately curious Hange as a fraction of the Scouts congregated in a private room. Leah perched on the small sofa next to Eren, watching over his recovery. In her eyes he was more a guileless kid than a man-slaughtering monster. Miche stood staring out the window, as silent and unnerving as ever while Levi leaned on the wall opposite them, not looking at all guilty for the state he'd left the kid in. Now they were just waiting for Erwin.
"Does it hurt?" Hange inquired as they cleaned one of Eren's many wounds with a cotton swab. Eren grimaced, "Yeah."
"Yeah? Describe it to me!" Hange pressed excitedly and Eren made a disgruntled noise, looking to Leah for help. Leah just shook her head and laughed, "Ignore Hange-- Hange, give the kid a break, Levi just beat him up in front of some of the most important people in the military." Just then Erwin marched in and shut the door firmly behind him, regarding everyone with a brief head nod.
"Sorry for all that." Erwin said, closing the distance and standing before Eren, Hange and Leah. "But the theatrics did get you placed in our custody."
"No, I understand." Eren murmured, dabbing a damp cloth to his cheek.
"I can assure you, the pain was worth it. We played our trump card at the perfect time." Erwin lowered himself into a crouch, now eye level with Eren. "You have my utmost respect. Eren, I'm glad that you're on our team." With those words, Erwin extended a hand to the boy, a smile growing on his face. Another startled noise rose from Eren as he hurriedly shook the Commander's hand.
"Me too, glad to be here, Sir!" Eren blurted out as Levi ambled over. He threw himself down on the sofa next to Leah, causing Eren to jump. He was understandably rather skittish around Levi now. Leah rolled her eyes as the Captain flamboyantly crossed one leg over the other and rested an arm on the back of the sofa, his hand brushing briefly against her shoulder. "So, Eren. You don't resent me now, do you?" Leah snorted at Levi's words and looked to Eren for his response, a smirk on her features.
The boy looked terrified as beads of sweat pooled comically on his forehead. "N-no! I can see that what you did was necessary, Sir." Levi looked away, closing his eyes in a way that suggested he was satisfied with Eren's answer. "Good, then you understand."
"Still- don't you think you went too far! I mean you knocked his tooth out-" As Hange argued, they unravelled a clump of grey fabric to reveal a bloodied child's tooth. Leah's eyebrows brows rose instantly, reaching towards the ceiling in horror. "Ew, Hange! Is that Eren's tooth?" Leah turned her face away, closing her eyes tightly and shuddering. It was a gross sight.
"You picked it up!? How disgusting." Levi commented, turning up his nose.
"This is a precious sample, I'll have you know!" Hange shot back, admiring the tooth like it was a nugget of gold. A few seconds later Hange had convinced Eren to let them inspect his mouth. He sat there with his jaw slackened as Hange peered inside. Everyone in the room watched on as Hange let out a small gasp. "Your tooth... it grew... back."
-
By the next day, the Levi Squad began their journey from Trost to the perimeter of Wall Rose where their temporary new base was to be located, with Eren Jeager in tow:
Petra Rall: 10 titan-kills to her credit, 48 kill assists
Oluo Bozad: 39 kills, 9 assists
Eld Gin: 14 kills, 32 assists
Gunther Schultz: 7 kills, 40 assists
And now...
Leah Anderson: 8 titan kills just this week, 151 kills over all... and an insane track record of experience. Often thought of as the female version of Captain Levi himself.
"Well I guess this means I'm a part of the Levi Squad now, huh? For a start we're gonna have to change the name to the Levi AND Leah Squad." Leah smirked at Levi as they travelled at a slow trot through the woods, headed for the old scout regiment headquarters - their temporary holding place for Eren Jeager.
"Nice try." Levi drawled from next to her. She heard Petra giggle at their exchange. Levi didn't once take his eyes off the back of Eren, as if at any moment he could spontaneously explode.
The copper haired Captain watched in amusement as Oluo droned on to Eren about the history of the Castle in the distance. She rolled her eyes at his attempt at intimidating the younger cadet, stifling a laugh when his horse buckled on a stone causing his teeth to sink deep into his tongue. He screamed in pain, blood pouring from his mouth as he held a hand up to his wound but everyone around him was just glad that he'd finally shut up.
On arriving at the historic castle Leah couldn't help but gaze up at its grandeur. Itself and the courtyard they now stood in were terribly weathered from years of neglect: weeds grew in every crack, moss and ivy clung to the aged stone walls and the ground was littered with rubble and large splinters of wood. As Leah helped Eren untack his horse, she allowed herself time to take in their new surroundings. Off to the side, Petra and Oluo bickered like an old married couple and she noticed the small brunette turn away from his horse to observe the other soldiers too, his brow knitted tightly in thought.
"You alright, Eren?" Leah quirked an eyebrow at him, noticing a bead of sweat balling on his forehead.
"Uh- yeah, just uh-" She cut through his nervous stammers.
"Thinking about the fact that even in titan form you stand no chance against these people?" She finished for him. He nodded, frowning and looking down at the cobbled courtyard ground. Leah placed a reassuring hand on the small boy's shoulder.
"Don't worry, it won't get to that. Levi won't allow it. I won't allow it." She wasn't sure if she, herself believed these words, but if Eren felt more confident in himself there would be less chance of something bad happening. Eren gave Leah an appreciative smile, looking up at her with large aquamarine eyes.
For a second Leah's mind flashed vividly back to her past, consuming every inch of her vision.
A titan.
Helpless cries.
Her Brother's blue eyes swimming with tears.
She was brought back to reality after an unknown span of time by Levi's stern voice. "What the hell is wrong with you, snap out of it!" Leah felt a hand colliding with her face and a dull burning sensation erupted on her cheek. Leah's eyes flew open.
She stared at Levi with wide eyes. At some point she had fallen to her knees and now the smaller male was crouched in front of her with a furious look on his features. Something glinted in his eyes for a split second when Leah felt a rogue tear spill from her left eye. Levi stood up, leaving Leah to control her ragged breathing and shaking body. "Alright, alright, shows over, get to cleaning! I want this place spotless."
There was movement around Leah as footsteps slowly disappeared off into the distance, rusted wooden doors creaking open and then closed again. She kept her eyes trained on the ground at Levi's booted feet as she remained hunched over on her knees.
"Get up." There was no patience or understanding in the voice. When Leah's body didn't respond a hand grabbed the collar of her shirt and dragged her to a standing position.
She shook her head weakly, the world spinning as she did so. What the hell was that? Why did it feel so real...?
"Isaac..." Leah breathed, slowly regaining control over herself. "No. I'm Levi." The man spoke condescendingly, rolling his eyes.
"No... when I touched Eren's shoulder... I saw my brother, Isaac." Leah mumbled, her breathing beginning to steady and her legs holding her up much more easily. She noticed Levi still clutched her collar in a balled fist as his eyes studied the emotions on her face, his gaze flicking between Leah's left and right eyeball.
"What do you mean you saw him?" Despite his best efforts Levi's usually void voice betrayed a hint of curiosity. "It was like having a dream, I suppose. But instead, I was reliving a memory..." Leah shivered at the thought of the memory in question. She'd tried so hard to forget it in the last decade. In fact, during her time in the Garrison, it hadn't been so hard to. Some things can't be left behind. "What... happened?" Leah asked Levi slowly; despite her best efforts the last thing she could remember was Eren's striking turquoise eyes.
Levi furrowed his brow before replying, "The brat said you feel to your knees, like someone had punched you in the gut. When you stopped responding and started breathing like you'd run all the way here from Mitras, he shouted for me." Levi paused a beat. "What was the memory of?"
Leah bit down hard on her lip and massaged her temples with her middle and forefingers. A skull splitting headache had erupted in her cranium. This was all so confusing. She shut her eyes tight and shook her head gently. "It..." She took a deep breath and sighed, "It doesn't matter. It was nothing."
Levi's grip on Leah lessened and he shoved her softly away from him. "Tch, whatever. Get to cleaning. I don't want you doing something like that on my watch again, okay?" In classic Levi fashion he was gone from sight before she could answer.
-
Every second she spent thinking about her 'episode' caused Leah's headache to grow tenfold. In an attempt to distract herself and rid her mind of the ghost of her Brother, she busied herself with the cleaning she was instructed to do, scrubbing the stove of the kitchen with an unrelenting motion, ignoring the burning protests of the screaming muscles in her arms, until the light sparkled off it blindingly. Leah had walked into the first empty room she'd found and got to work, which happened to be the kitchen. It just so happened to be possibly the dirtiest room in the castle; it was clear the last inhabitants of this building were slobs and left behind piles of rotting foot and stains on the dark oak cooking stations.
She didn't stop until the kitchen looked brand new. The glass pane windows glistened like crystal, the metal appliances were polished to the point where you could use them as a mirror and the floor was clean enough to eat off of. Leah gave a small satisfied hmph as she looked over her progress before moving on to unpacking the large wooden crates of food that their squad had brought with them, leaving out the odd ingredients she thought could be used to make tonight's meal.
"Hey, Captain." A hesitant male voice said softly from behind her. "I was instructed to come and help you make dinner... how are you feeling?"
Leah turned and watched as Eld's lanky frame shuffled towards her. He looked fatigued and his hair was unkempt from a full days cleaning. She offered Eld a shy smile.
"I'm feeling a lot better, thanks Eld."
-
The process of making dinner went surprisingly smoothly despite their lack of education in the culinary arts. Before long the duo had constructed a delicious smelling stew which bubbled away in a large pot in front of them. They were in the process of tidying up the workspace when a voice spoke out behind them.
"Mmm, something smells nice. And no offense but I don't think it's you pair." Levi remarked from the doorway of the kitchen. He was leaning on the frame, his arms crossed.
"Oh, because you smell like a bouquet of roses?" Leah shot back sarcastically, turning to face him. He had a mocking sneer on his face. She rested against the counter behind her, crossing her arms across her chest and giving the black haired man a smirk in return as he approached them, bringing with him the overpowering scent of bleach. It cut through the warm aroma of the kitchen like a sharp knife. So maybe you don't smell terrible, but there's nicer smells than bleach. Leah thought to herself.
"Someone's changed their tune. Feeling better?" Despite his caring words his voice showed no trace of warmth. Leah hummed in response, shrugging slightly. "Turns out cleaning is somewhat therapeutic."
-
The food Leah and Eld mustered up wasn't terrible and left Squad Levi full-bellied and warm. The group washed down their meal with a mug of tea as the whole squad plus Eren sat around a long wooden table in the vast and empty mess hall of the castle. The hall was obviously meant to hold a lot more Scouts than their current party.
Leah hugged the teacup tightly in her hands, using it to warm her body in the coldness of the endless stone room.
Only their immediate surroundings were illuminated by the candle sticks on the table, leaving the rest of the room ominously dark.
"It's safe to assume our standing orders will stretch into next week. But word through the grapevine is we're gearing up for a big mission a month from now." Eld spoke out into the silence, addressing no one in particular.
Oluo, sat beside Leah, was slumped back in his chair, an air of boredom radiating off him. Leah had to admit she felt the same way. There was only so much cleaning, talking and drinking tea she could handle. Eld continued despite nobody exactly showing interest.
"One where a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears graduates are slated to be our main backup."
At these words Leah furrowed her brow. She wasn't surprised that this was the first she was hearing of this plan, being so busy with Eren and still catching up on everything her new job pertained meant that news didn't always reach her immediately - that's just how it was when you took up a new job - but what was Erwin thinking, sending graduates on a mission like that? Not everyone had Titan abilities like Eren, your every day fresh-faced recruits were simply not cut out for that of stuff at this stage. Leah shifted her gaze to Levi but he just gave her a casual shrug and sipped his tea.
"That can't be right. Why do something like that?" Gunther voiced Leah's thoughts, speaking passionately and waving his arms about as he spoke. "The cadets have been through enough with the last Titan attack. Why subject them to that kind of danger again?"
Leah nodded in agreement but Oluo, incapable of holding his tongue, made a dumb comment about the new graduates peeing themselves at the sight of the titans. She rolled her eyes but kept her attention fixed on Levi, tilting her head slightly.
"Surely this can't be the case?" She questioned, ignoring Oluo's obtuseness and giving Levi a look of skepticism.
"Mission planning isn't my, or your responsibility. But, it is Erwin's and you can bet the man's obsessed over every angle." Levi said honourably. He had a point. It seemed Levi and Leah felt the same when it came to trusting Erwin's judgement, no matter how insane it appeared. Leah dropped the subject, knowing all would be clear soon enough.
The topic of the Levi Squad's conversation almost immediately switched to Eren and his titan powers. Leah felt bad for the boy as they all sat there staring daggers at him.
He looked down, clearly overwhelmed. He explained as much as he knew to them but he seemed fairly uncertain about it all. But, the squad found it reassuring to know that he wasn't keeping anything from them. Leah sipped her tea as he spoke, enjoying the way the steaming liquid slid into her stomach and warmed her from the inside.
She almost spilled the contents of the China mug when a loud bang resonated from behind the broad wooden door Levi was sat in front.
"Ooooow!" A voice screeched from the other side of the wood. Leah jumped up, immediately recognising the cries and moving to unlatch the lock on the door.
She opened the threshold to see Hange stood there with their hand to their head and a sheepish smile on their face. "You okay, Hange?"
"Yes, I'm so sorry. Good evening, team Levi!" They called, announcing themselves to the room. Leah grinned at them, feeling revived by their arrival and feeding off of their chaotic energy.
"How is castle life treating everyone?" Hange questioned, waving a hand in greeting while the green eyes captain shut the door behind them both.
"You're too early." Levi grumbled, lifting the teacup to his lips. Leah observed as his hands clutched the fragile China from the top instead of by the handle. This fact caused an amused smile to tug on her lips. 'Humanities strongest' - holding a teacup by the rim as if he feared it might shatter at his touch. Such a gentle action for such a callous man.
After giving Leah a quick side hug Hange made straight for Eren, jumping right into their rambling while Leah sat back down at the table.
Something something titans something something science. It was always the same with Hange.
Unintentionally, Eren managed to sign himself up for a long day of experiments with Hange tomorrow, and by inquiring about what they had planned, he had also signed up for an endless night of Hange's excitable gibbering. And without wasting a second the rest of the Levi Squad stood up from the table and hurried out the room before any of them could be roped into helping. If Leah had learned anything the past couple days, it was not to volunteer to be part of Hange's incredible yet psychotic experiments.
"Hey, Levi." Leah called after the retreating figure as they all moved down the dimly lit hallway towards their respective rooms.
"What?" He sounded irritated but nonetheless stopped and let her catch up with him. She gave him a sheepish smile as they continued, now side by side.
"I just wanted to apologise for my little 'episode' earlier." Leah lifted her hands and used air quotes as she referenced the breakdown she'd had that morning, still unsure herself what had actually happened.
"Tch, it's okay. Don't let it happen again." He glanced at her and despite his harsh words his eyes were a lot softer than usual as he scanned her face.
He turned away, but the conversation wasn't over. "You did a good job in the kitchen. With the cleaning, I mean." Levi paused and almost hastily added, "Your food was good too though."
Leah let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head. "Thanks. It really helped clear my head..." Leah felt the flashback resurface in her brain and her mind worked extremely hard not to linger on it. Unluckily for her, Levi kept talking.
"What was Isaac like?"
Leah's heart rate doubled and nervous beads of sweat accumulated on her forehead. The only memories of Isaac that screamed out at her was that of his gruesome, unfair death. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. With her eyes closed, Levi felt comfortable letting his gaze linger, he took in every detail of her face: her fair skin - currently glittering in the candle light, her arched eyebrows, sculpted jaw, the slight tint of pink on her cheeks, her two front teeth peeking out as she bit her buttom lip. Leah's eyes fluttered open again, feeling much more composed, and Levi hurriedly looked back ahead of them.
"Isaac was the best." Having forced her mind to focus on the happy moments of her life, Leah reminded herself of just how special her little brother had been. "He'd wanted to be a Scout himself. He wanted to be 'just like me' he'd always said." The sadness had returned to Leah's voice. Levi didn't press the subject any further.
They walked the rest of the distance in silence until Leah reached the door to her chamber.
"Night, Levi." She spoke in a hushed voice as the male continued into the darkness. Her door clicked open as she turned the handle before stepping inside.
"Night."
-
Levi continued down the long, aphotic hall, now by himself. His shoes clicking on the stone flooring was the only sound around him. "Night, Levi." Leah's soft words drifted through the silent night and as they reached Levi's ears he felt his heart pound harder in his chest. This feeling caught him off guard and sent a jolt of panic through his body. He paused for a second to recollect his thoughts. Her voice was ethereal, like all things good in the world were concentrated in one place. For a second it was hard to believe her killer skills were second only to his. She seemed too innocent for this line of work.
And Levi found himself struggling to hate this girl. It had never been his intentions, but he had all reason to; she showed up out of nowhere and expected him to work alongside her, basically stealing his job; she was careless and caused trouble; she was a show off and yet every loved her. Was Levi jealous? No, it wasn't that.
Despite all this he found himself feeling sympathetic towards the bronze-haired woman. He'd been taken aback by her episode earlier and the slightest trace of worry coursed through his body when he saw her wilted and unresponsive figure. Had Jeager not shouted for help, he doubted he would've noticed and this made guilt bubble within Levi.
He hated feeling like this, especially when it was towards someone whom he'd just met. This female made him feel emotions. Too many emotions for him to keep track of and that made Levi feel weak. And Levi Ackerman was not weak.
He composed himself in the blink of an eye and in the coldest voice he could muster replied.
"Night."
As soon as he heard the door to her room close Levi sighed, moving to lean back against the wall of the corridor. He rested his head on the cold stone and stared into the dark abyss of the ceiling.
His heart continued to beat strongly in his chest but every dozen beats it skipped irrationally. He must have been pushing himself too hard recently because there was no way it could have anything to do with Leah Anderson. The fact that he felt like this every time he saw her was just a coincidence. Right?
Chances are Levi would've stood there haphazardly leaning against the wall all night, had Petra not approached him at some point with a worried tone in her voice.
"Are you okay, Captain?" She questioned with a voice dripping with tiredness, as she moved closer to him. He forced himself to stand up straight and sucked a deep breath into his lungs as he looked to the slightly taller-than-him strawberry blonde.
"Yes, I'm okay. It's just been a long day." Levi joined Petra as they walked slowly towards their rooms. Petra was rambling on softly about how much fun she'd had today, but Levi found it difficult to focus on her words, his mind was very distracted and he had no idea why. Until Leah's name was mentioned.
His eyes shifted to Petra, watching her face as she spoke. "...and I was so worried when Leah collapsed earlier. I wonder what happened. It was so strange, wasn't it Captain?" Petra looked back at her Captain, surprised by his attentiveness to her words. A blush spread across her cheek, virtually invisible in the darkness.
"Yeah... strange..." Levi breathed before furrowing his brow and shaking his head softly to clear his mind.
"Well, Goodnight Captain. See you in the morning." And with that Petra opened the door to her sleeping quarters and disappeared inside. "Night, Petra. Sleep well." And with that the door closed and Levi was alone again.
Sleep was hard to come by for Levi, but tonight was even worse than normal. As he lay in bed with his eyes closed, images of Leah flashed in front of his eyes.
Her soft lips, curled into a lopsided smile. Her contagious laugh that bubbled out directly from her soul. Her teary eyes as she came back from whatever horrid memory she had been plagued by.
Levi felt a pang of guilt in his chest for how he'd acted in response to her episode. He should have comforted her, but the idea was foreign to him. Nobody had ever comforted him. Why should people expect anything in return? But he knew for a fact Leah wouldn't hesitate to help him through a hard situation, even though he'd only met her a week ago. She had a confident and capable appearance and yet her strongest feat was her kind heart, which Levi knew made her the better soldier than him. Sometimes he was just too uncaring for his own good.
With his mind now swirling with regrets and Leah stubbornly refusing to leave Levi's thoughts for even a second, he found himself accepting the fact that he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.
(4974 words)