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Levi x Reader - Persona Of Levi Part 16

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Levi grunted in pain, the weight of (F/N)’s body straining every muscle in his arms as he prepared for the last leap. The gap in his bedroom window was just large enough for him to swing from the neighboring building while ensuring that his body was perfectly streamlined like an acrobat performing a leap through rings of fire. That wasn’t a problem normally given his excellent 3DMG skills, but the burden of an additional person coupled with his injury made the act seem almost impossible. And with the impending rise of dawn, there was no other way about it. Going through the creaky front door would immediately alert Farlan to their presence.

“Grab on,” he growled.

Humming in response, she curled up closer to his chest, trying to make herself as small as possible. Her warm breath seeped through his thin shirt and caressed his chest, sending ripples of unneeded emotions through his body. Levi gritted his teeth, hoping that she won’t detect the slight increase in the rate of his heartbeat. Calming himself down, he took a deep breath and launched himself off the rooftop.

The bedroom window drew closer at a rapid rate and he could already make out its shadowy confines. Timing it perfectly, he retracted his cables and let his momentum carry them the last few meters. Despite how much his body protested in agony, he straightened his legs and bent backwards as far as he could while keeping (F/N) close to him. His muscles strained as a burning sensation tore through his senses. The wooden frame came dangerously near and he closed his eyes, dreading the impact….

Only for his boots to hit the floor with a hard thump and his arms giving out under (F/N)’s weight. A hiss escaped from his lips as his back hit the ground. He squeezed his eyes shut as he rode out the wave of searing pain, relieved that at least it wasn’t his face that had crashed into the wood.

“Come on, Levi.”

He heard her whisper softly and through his half-lidded eyes, he saw her extended hand in front of him. Careful not to injure himself further, he slowly pushed himself up and gripped her hand. As she pulled him to his feet, he strained to hear for any sounds from outside but all was silent in the house. Hopefully their not-so-subtle entrance had not been detected.

Grabbing the neatly folded set of clothes on the dresser, he motioned to her to follow him out. They had to take a quick bath to rinse off the dirt and smell from their overnight mission before either of the other two occupants would notice.

He opened the bedroom door slowly, making sure that it wouldn’t creak. The hallway was dark with only a sliver of light from the dim lamppost outside illuminating part of the living room. As he made his way across to the bathroom with (F/N) following close behind, his eyes hastily raked across the small quarters. But in his hurry, he failed to notice the shadowy figure leaning against the wall and when a burst of bright light hit him on the face, he instinctively lifted his arm, shielding his eyes from the glare.

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

Levi grimaced as he recognized the owner of the voice. Lowering his arm slightly, he squinted under the assault of the bright light. A few meters to his right stood Farlan with a serious glint in his eyes, his arms folded across his chest as his back rested against the wall.

“So now what are you going to tell me… that you and (F/N) decided to go out for a game of wrestling and…” Farlan paused as he scrutinized the two of them carefully. “… grocery shopping, perhaps?”

Looking down at his pants, Levi discovered a leftover shred of cabbage stuck to the hem that he obviously missed out in his cursory cleanup. He cursed inwardly, frustrated at being caught and now being in a most uncomfortable position of having to explain himself.

Opting to remain silent, he merely stared at Farlan, hoping that the shrewd male would – for some inexplicable reason – decide to drop the case against him. Obviously he wasn’t in luck, for Farlan drew closer towards him before stopping inches away from where he stood.

“I think it’s about time you explain all this, Levi.” Farlan spoke quietly, his voice carrying an undercurrent of aggression.

Not fazed by his friend’s uncharacteristic display of antagonism, Levi stared straight into his light grey eyes, easily matching Farlan’s intensity.

“It’s not any of your business.”

The tension between the two males was palpable. No one moved a muscle as they continued their silent battle. It lasted a couple of seconds before Farlan snapped first. Lashing out with a quick right jab, he threw himself at Levi.

Although Farlan was fast, Levi’s reactions were even faster. As soon as he saw his friend’s arm jerk up, he parried easily. Farlan threw a few more blows but their years together made all his moves highly predictable and Levi dodged them effortlessly.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw (F/N) move away, her eyes darting worriedly to Isabel’s room every few seconds. She was obviously worried that the girl would wake up but he knew perfectly well how soundly Isabel slept. As long as they didn’t knock down any furniture, she would be oblivious.

While his concentration was torn away from the fight, Farlan delivered a hard blow to his chest and Levi keeled over. Thinking that he had gained the upper hand, Farlan hesitated but that only proved to be a distraction, for Levi aimed a well-positioned kick at his shin.

As soon as Farlan tumbled down to his knees, Levi regained the upper hand. Pinning Farlan’s hands to the floor, he inhaled sharply a few times to regain his winded breath. He half-expected his friend to struggle but the dark blond male only glared at him angrily.

“Levi… don’t think I don’t see what you’ve been doing. You’ve been sneaking off with (F/N) all this time and I don’t care what you guys are doing. But this time…. This time you come back with wounds and vegetables on your pants and you think it’s alright?”

Levi’s eyes darted to his left arm but all he could see was a pristine white sleeve covering his bandaged wound.

“I can tell from the way you move, Levi. I don’t need to see blood to know when you’re wounded,” Farlan explained. “All I know is you’re in some kind of trouble with (F/N) and it’s exactly that kind of trouble that you’re bringing home to me and Isabel.”

Farlan struggled against Levi’s restraints as he spoke, his voice rising in volume at every word. “And you’ve never considered that whatever you’re involved in might cause harm to me and Isabel too? And that’s somehow not my business?”

Levi’s eyes widened, his grip on Farlan’s hands loosening. He had taken on this mission with utmost caution, hoping to never involve them in any way. But maybe he had been too naïve after all. The people they had questioned all knew his face, and knew his name. After today’s events, it would be worse with almost all of Jasip’s men recognizing him and (F/N).

Farlan was right. He had been too callous and overconfident. A sense of guilt and regret overtook him and slowly, he eased his body off Farlan and onto the floor. Draping his injured arm across his knee, he watched as Farlan pulled himself up to a sitting position. He dreaded what was going to happen next but he knew he owed his friend an explanation.

As Farlan’s grey eyes probed his expectantly, he forced himself to say something, no matter how little. But “It’s about my past” was all he could come up with.

Just sitting there, he felt utterly vulnerable – saying any more would be tantamount to being exposed to a thousand stab wounds but saying nothing would mean losing the only two friends he ever cared about. He battled against himself, wondering what he could possibly divulge to Farlan in the least amount of words.

Thankfully his dilemma was resolved when (F/N) stepped out of the shadows and said quietly, “We’re investigating the death of Levi’s mother.”

Both men turned to look at her, almost forgetting that she had been there the whole time. A wave of relief washed over Levi as he was saved from saying anything further. Taking the opportunity, he swiped the clean clothes that had fallen to the floor and walked towards the bathroom, leaving the situation to (F/N) to handle.

Farlan exhaled in defeat. “So that’s it. As usual, he escapes immediately. But then again, what did I expect?”

He slowly got up to his feet and half-shuffled to the couch across the hall, with (F/N) following close behind. Slumping down onto the worn-out cushion, Farlan propped his head on his hand as he regarded the woman sitting across from him. Gone was his distrust of her, replaced only with a touch of envy.

“Go on then. I believe Levi just gave you his permission to tell me everything,” he said.

Hesitatingly, (F/N) stole a glance at the bathroom door, worried about what Levi might say. But the soft sound of running water coming from there eased her concerns. Shifting her gaze back to Farlan, she recounted their whole investigation, omitting most of the nitty gritty details that he had no need of knowing. As he digested all that information, she studied him carefully. From what she knew of him, he was remarkably resourceful and cunning, perhaps even more than she was.

“Obviously, the next step would be to question this shopkeeper. And find his records… these people are usually very meticulous.” He pondered something for a while before continuing, “How about any of Kuchel’s effects? Have you examined them thoroughly?”

“No… why?” she asked quizzically.

“If she has something belonging to this mysterious client, then she may have more from that same person,” Farlan reasoned.

She nodded slowly, acknowledging that she understood his line of thought. It had never crossed her mind to go through Kuchel’s belongings and she wished she had managed to scavenge something… anything.

“Well, there’s that cloth I got from her… but there’s nothing on it except this drawing of a rose,” she thought out loud.

Farlan frowned but didn’t question her any further. “Anyway it’s just a thought. We’ll probably find out more from the shopkeeper.”

“No no, it’s a great thought, Farlan. I wouldn’t have been able to think of that myself.” She smiled encouragingly.

“Yeah,” he snorted, “What would you guys do without me? You would think that the first person he should ask help from would be me. Apparently not.”

She could see that he was trying hard to hide his disappointment and frustration in Levi’s supposed lack of trust in him. How not to when all evidence pointed to such a conclusion? It was difficult to explain why else Levi had hidden such an important mission from his two comrades, other than the fact that he didn’t have much faith in them.

But she knew otherwise.  She might not know much about the present Levi and his relationships with people, but she knew the Levi of the past. And although she knew all too well that people change with time, certain things will always remain with them.

“You know, Farlan,” she said, a wistful smile on her lips. “Levi closed me out too. Quite literally in fact.”

Farlan leaned forward, his curiosity now piqued. “Really? When?”

She smirked at the memory as she crossed her legs, making herself comfortable on the couch. “Back when he had just left the brothel. He was… around 4 or 5 at that time, I think? Anyway, I used to sneak out during dinner time and spy on him and Kuchel. I didn’t dare approach them because I felt it was my fault that they moved out.”

Pausing, she recalled once again how Levi had stood up for her both then and now. Her chest warmed at the thought that some things really didn’t change. Maybe.. just maybe it was possible to relive the past. Was it too greedy of her to ask for that?

“(F/N)?”

Farlan’s voice jolted her to the present and she cracked an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I got distracted. So, I was saying that it became my routine to peep into their home through this small window. Every day I would see Levi alone in that small shack, just cleaning every single corner of that broken down place. I was puzzled at first but I soon realized he was just keeping himself busy. I don’t know how long I just looked in without doing anything but one day, I couldn’t stand it any longer.”

“I rapped on the window.” She made a knocking motion, reenacting the scene exactly how she remembered it. “I called out to him and I could see his eyes just light up when he recognized me. He reached up and pulled the window open. I was so happy to just interact with him and so I asked him to let me in.”

Her smile fell as she remembered the events after that. “It was then that he just… shut off. He looked so scared, so mistrusting. It was as if he didn’t dare to even talk to me. I tried asking him what was wrong but he just shut the window in my face. That was the last time I saw him. Every day after that, he would place blinds across the window and ignore all my attempts at getting him to talk to me.”

“That was the Levi I knew,” she ended.

Farlan’s expression was distant, his eyes filled with sorrow and sympathy as he listened intently. Her story was short and simple but he understood immediately what she wanted to convey. He could feel Levi’s loneliness and mistrust as a child – things that manifested in his social behavior as he became the person he now treated as a brother.  

For someone like Levi to actually let him and Isabel into his life took a great deal of courage and faith. He could not measure Levi’s sense of trust using his own yardstick, but he at least knew what it meant to Levi. It renewed his confidence in their friendship, and although he knew it would take forever for Levi to open up about his past, he was fine with where they stood now.

“Thank you, (F/N), for telling me this,” he replied, flashing her a grateful smile.

She grinned and winked at him. “I think that story deserves at least 2 pieces of gold, don’t you?”

As the two of them laughed, they barely noticed that the sound of running water coming from the bathroom had stopped for quite some time. Levi stood with his back against the door, his arms folded across his chest as he listened to their merry banter. Hearing them talk about his childhood was slightly uncomfortable, but strangely it didn’t make him feel anxious or insecure. Somehow it felt… nice letting other people know more about himself even if it was through her.

Maybe it was time to let go of the mantra he always recited – “Never trust, never talk”.



She knew it was time for her to leave but she at least wanted to hear what the guys had found out from the shopkeeper. After today’s incident, she had no place at their home. Not only had she fulfilled her purpose to Levi, but she would bring nothing but trouble to them. Jasip would be scouring the entire Underground city for her and she didn’t want any of them to be implicated.

But even though her mind had decided on leaving, her heart ached as she realized this was the last time she would be seeing them. She would miss teasing Farlan, cooking for the trio, listening to Isabel while she did her hair…. and most of all, she would miss Levi. It wasn’t just because they spent the most time together or because they shared the same love for Kuchel, but some part of her felt a deep connection with him – as if she belonged with him. Yet she knew that was not possible… was it?

Her head jerked up as she heard the front door open, admitting Levi and Farlan. Judging from their expressions, they had learnt something although it didn’t seem like much.

“How was it, guys?” she called out from the couch, resting her packed bag on the floor below the armrest, hidden from their sight.

“Well… we did find out something,” Farlan exhaled as he plunked down on the seat opposite her. “Once we settled on a price, he checked through his records. Apparently, Kuchel pawned off a pair of expensive earstuds and he remembered a gang of men who demanded them back. Obviously, he gave it to them so we don’t have any leads there. But he recalled the men mentioning their young master L.”

She frowned. “L?”

“Yeah, it’s probably an initial. I’m going to start asking around and see what else we can get,” Farlan replied.

Levi stretched out beside her, draping his arm over the back of the couch. “The timing is all wrong though. From what that bloodsucking shopkeeper told us, it seems to me that those men never got what they wanted. It fits with what I remember since they burnt my house down.”

That did sound odd. If Kuchel had something more valuable than that, she would have pawned it off earlier. It didn’t make sense for her to keep it. But that was for Farlan and Levi to uncover now. She would continue her own investigation separately, despite how hard it would be by herself. Now it was time for her to say her goodbyes. It had been a hard decision to make – whether to leave without a word, or to tell them of her plans. In the end, she had come to the conclusion that it was better to at least tell the two men of her departure. That way they would not attempt to find her again.

Pushing herself off the couch, she slapped her thighs with a sense of finality and picked up her bag from the floor. She turned to look at the two men who had surprise written all over their faces. If this was the last time she would be seeing them, she wanted to remember this moment. Earlier on, she had already etched Isabel’s smiling face and laughter in her mind. Although she probably wouldn’t be able to catch Levi smiling now, his surprised look would have to suffice.

She faked a jovial smile and laughed. “What’s wrong, guys? You knew this was coming. I might as well take my leave now and be off your plate.”

“Whoa, wait a minute, (F/N),” Farlan said as he hurriedly stood up, his hand outstretched to prevent her from leaving. “What are you saying? The arrangement was for you to stay here. That’s what we told Za-“

“Well, I’m breaking that arrangement,” she interrupted. “The truth is I was only here to help Levi find out about Kuchel. And since he has you now, I think my services are no longer required.”

Again, she made to leave but was stopped by Farlan’s sudden grip on her arm. “Just because I’m helping him now doesn’t mean you can’t be involved too. We could use your help-“

“My help?” (F/N) snorted incredulously. “Look, I’m sorry to break it to you but I’m just another whore. I’ll only be more trouble to you now that Jasip is on the lookout for me.”

Farlan’s eyes narrowed, and his grip increased in strength, causing her to wince slightly at the pain. His tone was terse, his words sharp. “Don’t you talk about yourself like that, (F/N). And I know what you’re doing. We can protect you from Jasip. You don’t need to worry about that.”

Seeing that Farlan had seen through her act, she dropped her lackadaisical attitude and faced him seriously. “That’s not what you said earlier when you caught us. Jasip is a force to be reckoned with. What can the three of you do? What about Isabel?”

A quiet voice rang out in the tense atmosphere. “You’re running away and you dare bring up Isabel?”

(F/N) spun around to see Levi still sitting in the same position, but his fierce raven eyes were challenging her. His expression had not changed but the anger that radiated from his body sent a chill down her spine.

Levi continued, “What did you promise me before? Or have you forgotten that as well?”

“I’ll visit her sometimes-“

“You know very well that’s not going to happen. If you walk out...” He pointed at the front door. “..you’re never coming back in.”

She hesitated at his words but her resolution was firm. Yanking her arm away from Farlan, she strode purposefully towards the door.

“(F/N)! We can do this together,” Farlan called out.

Shutting him out, she continued on her path until her fingers were already grazing the doorknob, ready to move on to the next phase of her life.

“We need you, (F/N).”

Levi’s quiet voice sent a jolt through her and she stopped. Her eyes were fixed on the rusty doorknob, the last thing that stood between her and the outside world. All it took was a small twist of her wrist and she would not see Levi, Farlan, or Isabel. Yet her body wouldn’t move.

“Isabel needs you. Can’t you see how much she loves you? You’re the mother she never had. And as Farlan said, you could help us with the investigation. And…”

She had never heard Levi speak so long and with so much emotion. Just hearing it all tore her apart; her fingers shook as she tried to tame her aching heart from wanting to stay.

“…a-and,” Levi stuttered slightly. “I need you too, (F/N).”

Her heart stopped.

“I told you I wanted to learn more about you. How am I supposed to do that when you’re fucking gone?” His voice increased towards the end, agitation clear in his tone.

Levi’s heartfelt and earnest way of expressing himself earned a chuckle from Farlan. “Hear that, (F/N)? This cold-hearted bloke here needs you too. You sure about this?”

No, she wasn’t sure at all. What her heart wanted was winning the battle against what her mind told her was the right course of action. She squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that this decision would change everything. But this was a battle her mind could not win. Sighing, she spun around and walked back towards them. She stopped barely an inch away from Farlan, tiptoed slightly and kissed him on the forehead.

“Thank you, Farlan. I appreciate it.”

His blushing face brought a smile to her lips and she threw him a flirtatious wink before moving on to Levi. With her arm on her hip, she tilted her head and said, “Well, I guess I’m here to stay. Wanna show me back to my room?”

Levi glared at her for a moment before he clicked his tongue and got up, following her towards his bedroom. As soon as they were out of earshot, he muttered, “Was that really necessary?”

Her eyes widened in surprise and she held down a guffaw. “Ahh… somebody is jealous eh.”

She drew closer towards Levi, her lips almost touching his ear.  “Don’t worry, you’ll get something more.”

As she moved on forward, Levi watched her hips sway to and fro, as if goading him on. A smirk grew on his lips and he followed her in.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
Once again, it took me this long to write the next part of this series!! >< I'm so sorry!! I took a long time to decide what should happen in this chapter since it's kinda like a transition one. 

We're actually very near the end of this series (like about 3-4 more chapters). As usual, I'm feeling both sad and relieved that it's coming to a close. T.T Things are gonna ramp up a bit fast after this cos we're reaching the point of ACWNR where Levi and gang meet Erwin. I'm gonna gloss over certain parts of that story since most people know it, but there's still lots to tell. XD

Anyway, big thanks to my betareader Frappe7 who gave me confidence that the chapter turned out ok!! :love:

Hope you guys enjoy this~~ <33

Next part: Levi x Reader - Persona of Levi Part 17

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Cover pic: Little Levi by Lulu2222 tumblr
Thank you for letting me use your beautiful art!
© 2016 - 2024 WindMeister8
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c-vanek's avatar
I hope you update it soon I really like this series.