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angelanimedesaray · 3 years

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Wings in the Dark Chapter 8: Bleed

AN: Okay, um...all I’m going to put for this chapter is, ah...this little quote from AOT’s Wiki about Levi:

“When dealing with individuals he perceives to be enemies to mankind, Levi is capable of behaving sadistically, even vindictively. “

Characters: Levi, Fem!Vamipre!Reader, Eld (Briefly/Mentioned), Erwin (Mentioned)

Pairing: (Eventual) Levi x Fem!Vampire!Reader

Warnings: Blood, Violence, Injury, Self Inflicted Injury, Misunderstandings, Near Death, Forced Blood Drinking, I think Mild Torture counts for this...Language

Word Count: 7842

<----Previous Chapter Masterlist Next Chapter---->

*Levi’s POV*

Levi waited a few days before he did anything.

He would have waited longer, but he knew if he waited a week or more, she would have the chance to kill again, and he wanted to act before she could. The other night it had been someone who had jumped her that she’d attacked, but who would it be next time? Some random civilian off the street? Considering the conditions in the Underground, the man she killed could have been someone just trying to survive--Levi himself had been a thug in the Underground.

Of course, given the area they’d been in, it was less likely that man had been just trying to get by, but there were too many unknowns about her, too much sinister implications in the stark facts alone, for him to go off blind, naïve faith that she was some kind of vigilante type that only preyed on the truly terrible.

Though honestly, even that thought sickened him. If she was just another person, which was the theory he would act on considering how insane the other one was, then that meant she was going out of her way to kill people in the Underground, and that kind of self-righteous dealing out of judgement and death was sickening to him.

Of course, he was still keeping the insane theory in mind. He had no solid evidence he’d seen with his own eyes to prove it, just a bunch of theories and circumstances that fit so snug and perfectly into the larger picture he couldn’t ignore it. But he wasn’t going to treat her as some supernatural creature of darkness until he saw something that proved it without a doubt.

All the more reason for this plan for a confrontation he’d managed to cook up in a short amount of time.

Firstly, he hadn’t told Erwin yet. Not because he’d suddenly decided not to have the other man involved--no, Erwin needed to know what was going on, no matter how this panned out. Why he withheld the developments he’d made in the Underground was because he was still uncertain about the more insane theory. There was too much for him to omit it, but he didn’t exactly want to go up to Erwin and tell him that he thought L/N was a demon who drank blood from humans she killed every week.

Erwin would probably have him committed if he told the man he was considering it with no actual, solid proof. So, Levi had left behind a letter addressed to Erwin explaining what he’d discovered in the Underground and his two theories, complete with the tale from the Underworld and why he was crazy enough to even consider it, and how at the very least she was a serial killer so either way she was a threat. That way, if something went wrong during this confrontation and he didn’t make it out of there alive, the secret wouldn’t die with him, and Erwin would still be warned.

That was his main concern.

The second had been how to approach this. How to get the upper hand on her when she was already so...refined in her senses. How she always seemed to know when he was nearby or when he was heading her way. How was he supposed to get the drop on someone like that?

That was where Eld came into play.

He did his best to make it look unimportant and nothing more than part of the usual daily routine. The command was given in passing as Eld came from the opposite end of the hallway, Levi stopping him briefly to ask him to tell L/N to make a delivery for Levi to a specific address, with instructions that included a fake package waiting just outside Levi’s office for L/N to pick up and deliver.

The address, unbeknownst to Eld and certainly to L/N who had just recently come to the surface compared to Levi, was to an abandoned warehouse a little ways outside of one of Rose’s main towns.

After giving the order to Eld, Levi kept walking with a purpose like it had simply been a passing thing instead of the first domino to fall in his plan for cornering L/N--or at least getting the drop on her to give himself a bit of an upper hand in this mess.

Now he just had to get to his observation point before she had the chance to make the delivery, and wait.

No more games. It was time he started getting real answers from the source itself.

Levi left his jacket behind, making sure he had full mobility, ODM gear primed and ready as he crouched low on the rooftop of another tall building a few houses over from the warehouse. He waited in silence, sharp gaze on the roads as he waited for L/N to appear with the fake delivery.

He tried not to think too much about the situation any more than he already had. He was already so wrapped up in conspiracy theories as it was he didn't want to get any further in his head, especially since he needed to be focused on the confrontation at hand.

Leaning against the chimney of the home he was waiting on top of, Levi attached one of the ODM gear blades, just in case he needed it as soon as his feet hit the ground. When he needed to move, the only sound he wanted to make was the ODM gear, and hopefully he could push it fast enough L/N wouldn't be able to bolt.

Speaking of…

She finally appeared, making her way down the street towards the warehouse with the fake parcel in hand. She slowed down when she saw the state of the building, hesitation appearing in her movements, head suddenly on a swivel. She was good at sensing the danger in a situation, which under normal circumstances would be a good thing, but currently it made Levi’s job a little harder.

Levi shifted just enough so he was ready to move immediately, watching L/N as she cautiously made her way into the warehouse. Heart pounding, Levi waited a few seconds, giving her the chance to walk deeper into the warehouse, to put down to parcel where he’d described…

The cables of his gear fired, and he kicked off the roof, a burst of gas propelling him forward, feet extended out and arms crossed in front of his face to protect himself as he crashed through one of the warehouse windows. Below him, she whipped around at the sound of the glass crashing, body coiling like she was going to run, retaliate, or simply dodge. After seeing it was Levi crashing through the window, she hesitated for the briefest moment. It was all he needed for him to move just slightly, to adjust now that he had a visual of her, so that he could land atop her.

His knee was planted into her chest, foot planting on the ground beside her solidly, one hand slapping against the ground beside her head while his other put his blade at her throat. With her pinned solidly beneath him, Levi's eyes flashed, glass crunching beneath his boot from the shattered window as he made sure he was in a solid position that would not be easy for her to break free of.

"What are you?" Levi ground out, steely gaze fixated on her eyes, reading every twitch in her face to make sure he caught if she tried to lie to him.

It was the first thing he asked, because he knew she was a serial killer, at least, but if she was more, if those monsters from the story were real and she was one of them…

She hesitated. It wasn't confusion that flashed across her face at his question, and she didn't immediately spout some bullshit lie about being innocent of anything that would justify his ambush.

The fact that she didn't immediately ask him what he was talking about gave him a bad feeling, a sense of his monster theory slowly solidifying.

He still wasn't ready to believe it entirely, but it was continuing to gain traction.

"You're going to have to be more specific," she said in a level voice. Beneath him, she kept perfectly still, attempting to look non-threatening. it didn't work when Levi knew she'd killed a man just a few days ago by ripping out his throat.

Levi’s grip tightened, the blade held straight against her throat as his eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm done playing games with you. I know you've been sneaking around the Underground killing people for years, longer, perhaps." Even though he wasn't entirely certain, he decided to take a leaf out of Erwin’s book and gamble to see if he could coax a confirming reaction, growling the words out in anger. "You're not even human, are you?"

Alarm flashed in her eyes, and her posture shifted to a more on-guard position, body tense beneath him as her words came out careful and measured, full of wariness. "What do you--"

"Enough with the games!"

He was pissed now, fed up with the round and round with her constantly slipping through his grasp. Her attempt to continue to be dodgy right now only inflamed his temper, causing his free hand to grab her collar and lift her up before slamming her against the ground again. Glass cracked and crunched beneath her from the impact, likely causing the glass to tear up her back in the process.

She didn’t react in pain, though. Her eyes hardened and she grabbed at the hand that was clutching her collar, attempting to pry his fingers away as she ignored what he was saying in favor of trying to get his hand off her neck. She wasn’t even going after the blade, which would have made far more sense in his mind, but both her hands were going for the one at her collar.

She was protecting something there.

“She’s always wearing the same necklace, all the time–I’ve never seen her without it.”

That had to be what she was protecting, what she was so focused on right now. Realizing it might be something he could use as leverage, his hand delved a little further until he felt a chain and medallion, fingers curling around it before he ripped it off her on an instinct, holding his hand far out of her reach while the other hand kept that blade on her neck.

Since Levi had come through the window and pinned her to the ground instantly, they were sitting in the sunlight. The shadows of the warehouse were a few feet away from her, and Levi’s body was partially blocking out the sun.

As soon as the necklace came off of her, as Levi pulled his hand back to hold it out of reach, the parts of her that were exposed to the sun and not hidden in shade or shadow began to steam and burn. In a sudden show of strength that revealed just how much she had been holding back, she let out a scream of pain and darted off into the shadows, momentarily abandoning the attempt to protect or reclaim the necklace in favor of getting out of the sun and curling up in the shadows a few feet away.

Levi sat frozen in place, staring in shock at the woman whose skin had turned red and blistered, the steam already starting to lessen and the skin that had been burned starting to heal itself as he watched.

What...the fuck...

That...had not been normal. Nothing about this situation, about the woman in front of him, was normal. No more doubts, then. The insane was the reality of what he’d discovered. She really was the creature from the Underground tales. A creature of shadows that fed off the blood of humans.

"It's real, then," he said in a monotone voice, getting to his feet as she continued to lurk in the shadows, the pain from her burns lessening enough she was unfurling from the defensive, pained position of a few moments ago and was slowly getting to her feet as well.

The tension in the air, the dynamic between them, shifted entirely with this new development. There was open hostility in Levi’s gaze as he tucked the necklace safely away. As long as he had it, he had an advantage over her--he didn't understand the specifics, but it seemed the necklace he had protected her somehow from the sun. As long as he had it instead of her, she was trapped and restricted to the shadows of this warehouse. He would have an environmental advantage. Though she would also probably be desperate to get it back. He would have to be careful of that--desperation made people unpredictable and dangerous, and she was already both of those on a normal day. At least she was to him.

Now that the impossible had been confirmed, many of the theories Levi had been keeping at bay in case it really was impossible now came flooding in, hardening his resolve and deepening the hostility the longer he thought about it. She might not have done anything to harm the Scouts yet, but that didn’t mean she was innocent. She hadn’t been around Erwin yet, had she? What if Erwin was her target? Now that everything was rapidly falling into place, the enormity of the implications that came with her being an immortal creature was falling over him as well. At the rate she’d been feeding on people in the Underground recently, she must have killed hundreds of people across her lifetime--more, maybe.

And that locked door double homicide--the way Victoria had died, how it had only been Victoria and Y/N Frazier in the room, how there had been no sounds to alert the parents, how strongly the police had suspected it had been someone the girls knew. Now that he knew what L/N was, it made sense for Victoria’s murderer to have been L/N herself. The woman in front of him hadn’t been above killing her best friend back then, so even if that man she’d killed last night had been scum of the earth, anyone was fair game to her. Who knew who else she had hurt or killed during her lifetime? She was just as much of a threat as the Titans, except her, he didn’t know her intentions. Titans were mindless beasts that ate humans just because. She had intelligence, she mingled with them, she picked them out, stalked, and preyed upon them, and her intentions with the Scouts were entirely unknown to him.

Which made her much more dangerous, in his mind.

He would deal with his reaction to finding out these monsters of the shadows were real later. Right now, he had to deal with the situation at hand and the creature that was staring him down from the shadows now. Reflection could come later, if he survived this, considering how in the dark he was about what they were capable of and what they could do. Or how to kill them, now that he thought about it considering he’d just watched those burns across her skin rapidly heal.

Decapitation seemed like a safe first attempt, if it came to that. He needed answers, first, though. He might actually be able to get some answers now that the façade had been dropped. There was no point in her trying to hide it now that he knew for a fact that she wasn't human.

"Why join the Scouts? What did you hope to gain--what were you trying to do? Were we just your convenient cover or does it go deeper than that?"

*Reader’s POV*

Wariness had quickly turned to alarm as you had approached the warehouse and as Levi jumped you. You’d heard his approach, but seeing it was Levi crashing through the window had caused your hesitation--the last thing you wanted was to do something that suggested you were threatening him.

Alarm, however, had given way to panic one Levi pulled the necklace from your neck. That necklace was your freedom. Your life. And he had quite literally just taken it from you and was now actively keeping it from you. Without that necklace, you couldn’t walk in the sun, couldn’t be in the Scouts, couldn’t stay on the surface--you would have to crawl back down into the Underground for the rest of your life because as far as you knew, that necklace was the only one of its kind. You’d acquired it by a nigh miracle, off the body of another vampire. Finding another would be no small feat--practically impossible.

All other thought went out the window, except for the singular consuming thought to get the necklace back. Now. Levi’s questions were secondary in the wake of the need to get your necklace back.

“Give it back,” you said in a harsh tone, gaze boring into Levi as any calm or timid demeanor gave way to a hidden ferocity from your nature.

“No,” Levi replied simply, taking a step back deeper into the sunlight. “You’ll answer my questions first.”

In an attempt to take it back by force, you rushed at him, not sure which pocket it was in, but knowing if you moved fast enough you could at least knock him out of the light and have a better chance at finding it in the shadow. Levi side-stepped after seeing you coil for an attack, moving out of the way just in time. You crashed into the shadow with a gasp, skin blistering again from the brief exposure to the sun. You would just have to tolerate the brief pain--it was nothing compared to getting that necklace back.

After taking a moment to let the burn ease, you shifted and rushed at him again, this time successfully knocking him into the shadows before he staggered backwards into the light of another window, blade in front of him in an attempt to ward you off and warn you he /would/ cut you if he felt he needed to.

“Give it back, now,” you reiterated in a growl, and Levi’s gaze hardened again, angling the blade in front of him so the sunlight glinted at you, causing you to have to duck out of the way with a hiss.

“While I have it, you can’t be in the sun--you can’t leave this warehouse. Correct? I’ll keep it until I have my answers,” Levi answered, continuing to reflect the sunlight off his blade to force you to move.

Not in the mood to be toyed with--and the irony currently escaping you considering Levi had alluded to the fact he’d felt like you’d been toying with him all this time--you rushed him again. This time, he grabbed at you when you connected with him, both of you falling to the floor and rolling across the ground, your hands grappling at his waist to try and find the necklace. Since your hands were currently occupied, it was easy for him to grab you and roll you over, attempting to pin you to the floor face first with part of your body in the sun.

“Answers, now!” Levi shouted over your cry of pain, body weight pressing down on you to try and keep you down and in the sun. “Why join the Scouts? What do you get out of it?” Levi demanded to know.

Considering how much he wanted answers, you doubted he’d be doing this if he knew that being in the sun too long would kill you. He just knew it hurt you, which was probably why he was trying to use it to make you talk.

With an angry and pained snarl, you briefly went still before rearing back to throw him off, turning in the same movement to push him off of you and break free.

This was quickly turning into a full on fight. So much for not antagonizing him.

As Levi got back to his feet, the edge of the blade was angled more fully towards you. It seemed he could tell this was becoming a full on fight as well, and was about to step it up.

You weren’t armed, not in the sense of weapons that weren’t body parts. Your fangs weren’t an option--both because you refused to bite him, and even if you wanted to, you couldn’t, thanks to what you’d been putting in his tea…

Which meant while he had his own natural abilities and his blade, you just had your strength and speed, plus you were holding back because the last thing you wanted was to kill him, which made this all the more complicated.

Once again, you rushed him, and like last time, he met your attack instead of stepping away, trying to throw you aside into the sun. You dug your heels in to prevent it, feeling Levi’s fist connect with your gut and causing you to stagger slightly, fingers clenching in the fabric of his shirt as you threw him aside. He didn’t go far, planting his feet after a few staggered steps before his foot cut through the air, colliding with your jaw. You reeled back, hand on your bloodied lip before you felt his hands on you again, taking advantage of your momentary daze as he swept one of your feet out from underneath you, pushing you backwards and to the ground again. His blade was at your throat once more, except this time it was biting, just shy of drawing blood as he held you firmly down with all his strength, all patience and tolerance gone from his eyes.

“Answer me, or I’ll just kill you and be done with it,” he threatened, the chill in his eyes and the blade breaking skin and drawing blood from your throat for emphasis and to show how serious he was. For him, it was your last chance to talk. And for extra incentive, he was attempting to keep your arm pinned and burning in the sun.

Your instinct for self-preservation triggered at the very direct and real threat against your life, you threw him off of you with all of your strength, tossing him aside and hearing him go through a wall before landing with an ominous sound out of view.

You heard a choked sound...silence fell over the room...and you could smell the blood in the air.

No...

The scent of blood was getting rapidly stronger and overpowering.

No, no, no…

You’d only been trying to get him off you, wanting the threat to your life removed before you were going to pin him and make him listen while you took back your necklace.

You hadn’t meant to hurt him--not as seriously as the scent of blood in the air suggested. And now you were afraid of what you were going to find as you got up from the floor with your heart in your throat and arm cradled to your chest, waiting for it to heal as you rushed forward to see what state he was in and assess the situation.

*Levi’s POV*

The first impact as he was sent flying through the wall had been enough to stun him and knock the wind out of him, trying to brace himself for the next impact when he felt the wall give beneath him, choking on the dust he inhaled before he felt the second impact on a second wall that had been perpendicular to the first and already partially broken and decrepit. It gave way partially but not entirely, wood and other building materials cracking and giving way beneath him, Levi’s full weight smashing against the broken materials. Oddly enough, he didn’t fall to the ground. His head cracked against stone, pain shooting against his head and momentarily disoriented and unable to grasp his surroundings as something held him in place.

He choked again, partially on the dust from the broken walls, but also from pain--not just from his head, but from something that made it hard to breathe, that had him starting to go into shock. As his vision slowly came back, sunlight falling across his body in beams from a boarded up window, he looked down to see some of the wooden internal, structural boards of the broken second wall sticking through his stomach.

He’d been impaled. Plus the back of his head felt damp, telling him he’d cracked his head hard on the stone behind him as well as been impaled somewhere fatal. Impaled in a place that would give him a slow death, too. Of all the ways to die, it was going to be impaled on a random piece of wood in a broken down building. Not fighting Titans or anything like that. All that time fighting Titans, putting himself out there and putting his life on the line time and time again, all those people dying around him in fights with man eating giants, and this was how he was going to go out?

What a joke.

Well...perhaps there was something fitting in his death in the fact it had been in the middle of a struggle with another man-eating creature. Either way, he was still going to die. She would either watch him die or leave him to die, because it was the best situation for her--he would be silenced, her secret would remain. Well, as far as she knew. She didn’t know there would be a letter for Erwin to find in his office revealing her secret to the Scout’s Commander. He had some comfort in that thought, at least.

He’d known this was a possibility going into this situation with so many unknowns, but he’d still hoped that maybe he could make it through this alive. Apparently his luck had finally run out.

As Levi came to terms with his rapidly approaching death, L/N suddenly climbed through the hole in the first wall, her burnt arm cradled to her chest even as it rapidly healed, eyes wide at the sight of Levi impaled in front of her. Her hands shook slightly as she approached him, her unburned hand reaching out instinctively for him before it was burned by the sunlight, as if reminding her that she didn’t have her necklace and couldn’t withstand the sunlight.

She let out a small hiss, stepping as close as she could with the sunlight as her hands started searching him again, patting him down in a rush, obviously looking for the necklace he’d stashed away.

“FUCK!” she shouted halfway through, making Levi flinch slightly at the outburst, her hands repeatedly being burned and forcing her to pull away before she would reach out again, uncaring if she would get burned, simply desperate to find that damn necklace.

In his mind, it showed how little she cared for his life, how inconsequential it was to her in the grand scheme of things. How she could ignore the dying man in front of her so completely in her search for that damn necklace.

He wouldn’t get any answers from her before he died, would he?

Her hand finally found the place he’d tucked her necklace away, a modicum of relief flashing in her eyes as her fingers curled around the fine chain and she pulled back, stepping away from the sunlight as she quickly put it back on. Her head lifted, eyes meeting his, and Levi felt a sudden surge of panic as he realized there was a red glow in her eyes, a red glow that was getting stronger as she stepped closer to him.

His mind was filled with that tale Kenny had told him, how the glowing red eyes was the last thing a man saw before having his throat ripped out and being devoured by the monster of shadows. On a self-preservation instinct, Levi’s limp grip tightened on the blade still on his hand through pure survival instinct drilled into him after years in the field. As she came closer, he attacked with the blade, slashing at her to try and keep her back before she could tear into him. He was dying, but at least let him have some control over how he died--he would rather die from something stupid like being impaled like this than ripped into by her while he lay helpless and unable to do anything. He might be dying, but he would fight until his fingers couldn’t grip the blade anymore to keep her at bay if it meant dying with a scrap of dignity.

*Reader’s POV*

When you saw Levi, the panic was palpable in your blood, causing your pulse to quicken and your hands to shake as you went up to him. Where he was pinned down, he was in the sunlight, which meant you couldn’t help him like you needed to until you had your necklace back. You hated prioritizing it over his life, even for a few moments, but you needed the necklace back so you wouldn’t be restricted by sunlight while you tried to help him.

Every moment you’d been unable to find it had been torture. Yes, because you kept burning yourself in the sunlight as you tried to find it on his person, but also because you could practically feel his time running out with every second that passed with you unable to find the necklace.

And then there was the big issue. The temptation. You had always been afraid of what would happen if Levi’s blood was ever spilled around you. Just being around him and what you knew about him was enough to tell you his blood would be exceptional, one of the best sources of blood within the walls you were going to find. Freshly spilled blood was always tough to resist, but when it was exceptional blood like his, and when this much of it was being spilled so close to you, the red blossoming rapidly across his white shirt…

You had to fight yourself every moment you were standing in front of him, that intoxicating scent trying to overwhelm all of your senses, dizzying in its intoxicating nature, drawing you in at a time when you couldn’t afford to take a step back. You knew your eyes were glowing red as your vampiric nature tried to take full control, your teeth aching painfully in your mouth, fangs wanting to protrude forth and begging you to sink your teeth into his warm skin.

But you couldn’t. You couldn’t.

He needed help, the kind of help only you could give him right now, and if you didn’t do it soon it was going to be too late.

Trying to overcome your instincts by sheer willpower started to feel impossible the longer you stood just in front of him, teeth grit painfully together especially with how much your jaw was aching right now. It helped to remind yourself in your head over and over like some kind of hypnotic mantra that he had white sage in his blood and it would be poisonous for you to even have a small sip--even if you did give in, it wouldn’t end well, not just for him but for you, too.

Finally finding the necklace had been a relief--no more wasting time, you could help him without restriction now. Plus it was a huge wave of relief to have the small item that provided you with freedom, though any relief you felt was quickly muffled by the situation you and Levi were now in. Able to finally stop focusing on that necklace once more, you looked up at him just to make sure he was still conscious, that he was still with you and wasn’t too pale, considering he hadn’t said a word the entire time you’d searched him. He might have still been in shock--

The sudden whistle of his blade slicing through the air and across your chest quickly dispelled any foolish notion you had about him being in shock. The rapid pounding of his heartbeat was enough to tell you the action had come from raw fear, and that fear was still rampant inside him even as he slowly bled out in front of you, his gaze still hard as steel despite his fear and the situation he was in.

The wound across your chest caused you to stagger back with a low groan, blood blossoming across your now ripped shirt even as the wound started to slowly stitch itself back together. The severity of the wound meant that the healing sapped at your strength, making you feel a hint of fatigue while also intensifying the thirst that was already so hard for you to control with so much top tier blood in such close proximity.

His breathing was ragged, but he still held that blade up to protect himself, showing he was ready to struggle against you until all strength left him. You couldn’t afford that right now--you needed cooperation if you were going to get him out of this. Or you at least needed him in a position he couldn’t fight back, though you weren’t about to wait until he lost his strength due to blood loss--it might be too late by then.

Using your speed to attempt to grab him before he could react, you snatched his hand that was holding that blade aloft with both of your hands, pausing for just a moment to meet his gaze.

“Sorry, but I can’t have you cutting me up right now and making this more difficult...it’ll heal anyway,” you said apologetically, seconds before you broke his hand without warning, a sound finally escaping him in the form of a sharp shout of pain that he quickly cut off, gritting his teeth even as the injury forced him to drop the blade and prevented him from drawing another--at least with that hand.

Now that you’d taken care of any attempts to try and attack her with the ODM gear blades, you lifted one of your arms up to your mouth, biting deeply into your own skin with a pained whimper. This wasn’t something you’d done before, especially not like this, but you knew it would work, so you muscled past the instinct not to hurt yourself and through the pain, making sure you drew enough blood it dribbled down your arm before you released it.

Levi was watching you in horrified silence, probably trying to figure out what the hell you were doing. It was clear he, ah...didn’t think very highly of you, but you were trying desperately not to take it personally and focus on your current task--making sure Humanity’s Strongest didn’t die from a stupid accident during a fight that had been born from a complete lack of understanding and communication.

“I know it’s gross, I know it’s weird, but you’ve got to drink it,” you told him as you moved closer, lifting your arm to his mouth. He gave you an incredulous look and a quick no before you had pressed your arm against his mouth, and he tried to push your arm away with his one good hand, body tensing as he started to struggle, causing his wound to bleed more, fresh blood staining his shirt around the wound. You hadn’t moved him off of what was impaling him yet because you knew it would only make him bleed out faster, but if he was going to keep struggling like this, he was only going to do more damage.

Attempting to get him to stop moving, you pressed your other arm against his upper chest, that injury still pressed hard against his mouth even as he clenched his teeth and tried to keep his lips pressed together, tried to turn his head away and resist.

“Stop fighting me--it’s just going to make things worse, and we’re already on borrowed time,” you pleaded with him. He didn’t listen, though. It was no use--he saw you as an enemy, he didn’t trust you, why would he believe what you were doing was to help him?

You’d pushed your arm past his lips and up against his teeth--the only reason he didn’t bite was probably because he knew that would only accelerate or help what she was trying to do. All he could do was try to resist, try not to swallow any. The wound on your arm was healing, the bleeding slowing down as blood slipped down his chin, his resistance making a mess even as he coughed, choked on his own blood that was starting to well up in his throat, and attempted to spit out what had made it into his mouth, speckles of blood dotting your skin and his lips.

You hated how cruel it was, but he wasn’t giving you much of a choice. Desperate to get your blood in his system so it could heal him, and a fair amount of it so he would heal quickly, you pulled your arm away, covered his mouth, bit into that same spot again hard enough tears pricked in your eyes, and then forced your arm against his mouth again, this time taking care to cover his airways and suffocate him until his reflex to swallow kicked in.

You held him down as best as you could as he struggled violently against you, unable to look him in the eye in the process and simply pressing your body weight against his to keep him pinned in place and try to minimize the damage his struggling would do to the already fatal wound, ears straining for the sound you were waiting for that would tell you he’d finally swallowed.

It was a relief when it finally happened, two big but reluctant gulps causing relief to wash through you as you instantly pulled back, Levi sucking in instinctually desperate gasps for air as you started undoing the brown wrap of your uniform that was around your waist, reaching over and pulling Levi’s free of his uniform as he sputtered and retched.

At the sound, you suddenly snapped to attention and reached up to grasp his chin, eyes flashing dangerously. “Don’t you dare try to spit it back up you stubborn, idiotic asshole!” you snapped, some of your frustrations leaking out despite your best efforts to try and stay calm in this situation. “I’m trying to save your life you goddamn idiot!”

Pulling the wrap on his uniform free as well, you quickly wadded both of them up, finally slipping one hand behind him against the middle of his back, the other resting on his chest, bracing yourself as if this was going to hurt you as much as it was going to hurt him. You reminded yourself to breathe through your mouth instead of your nose in the hopes that would help lessen the bloodthrist when the blood gushed out with what you were about to do.

Fuck, this is not how I wanted this to happen, if it was ever going to happen, you thought to yourself before--again, without warning Levi--you pulled him quickly off of the wood that had impaled him.

Levi’s cry of pain was far more audible this time, his legs buckling and causing you to have to support his weight as your hands shifted, pressing the wadded up wraps to the entrance and exit wounds of where he’d been impaled to try and staunch the bleeding and try to keep as much blood as you could in his body as long as possible. You didn’t know how long it would take your blood to start healing him, or if it would heal him in time, but you did know from personal experience that the healing wouldn’t work properly if he was still impaled.

You hoped for his sake the healing would outpace the rate he was dying, even with all the time you’d lost with all his stubborn struggling.

“Careful, careful, try not to move, you’ll only bleed out faster,” you warned him as you very carefully laid him down, letting the weight of his body press the wrap against his back against that wound while you pressed down with your strength to staunch the bleeding from his stomach, your now free hand making sure you laid him down as gently as possible, crackling his head until he was lying still on the ground.

You swallowed thickly at the increased scent of blood in the air, small groans trapped in your throat, eyes closed and nostrils flared as you tried desperately to resist the urge to drink from him. There was a dark voice in the back of your mind that whispered what a waste all this blood would be if he died, but you shoved it aside viciously, pressing perhaps a little tighter than necessary against the wrap you were holding to his stomach.

After a few moments of tense silence, you heard Levi’s voice rasp out a question, his broken hand lying limp against the floor and the other instinctively clutching at the wrap with you.

“Why? Why not leave me for dead, when I know what you are? Your secret would die with me--so why are you trying to help me?” he asked, voice hoarse and strained, his eyes burning with confusion, showing just how lost he was at how quickly this whole encounter kept shifting in direction and tone. And looking into his eyes, you felt a sudden wave of sympathy and pity for him.

He was just as lost and confused as you had been all those years ago, when this had first happened to you. You couldn’t hold any of this against him. He’d clearly thought you were a threat--understandably, since you technically were. Even now while you were trying to help him, you were fighting tooth and nail against your nature to rip into him instead.

He needed answers. He deserved answers. The truth, no more lies or deceit.

You were going to give him what you never had the luxury of receiving. An explanation.

“Humanity can’t afford to lose you,” you said, the words coming out far more gruff than you anticipated, how much you were struggling right now leaking out into your voice, your body rigid with the effort it took to resist the blood seeping out of him just below your hands--blood that was actually starting to stain your hands, you could see now. “And I don’t want you dead. I never have and I never will. You need to live, even if that means I have to run, because the Scouts need you.”

You cleared your throat, deciding to add a bit more logic that might sit more comfortably with him considering he’d gone into this seeing you as an enemy.

“Not to mention, I’m not an idiot. It won’t be hard to figure out I’m responsible if you die here, like this. There’s that, too,” you added in a fairly flippant voice that hinted at humor, like you were actually trying to lighten the mood. The attempt fell flat, though--you hadn’t expected it to stick, at least, it had been a knee jerk reaction.

His breathing was shallow, but he still attempted to speak again, trying to get the most important questions out first while he still had time.

“Why...did you join the Scouts?” he asked, voice low and quiet from a lack of energy, the sound alarming you because it made you realize just how much blood he’d lost, how weak he already was. Still, you answered him, hoping to keep him engaged and awake by answering his questions. You needed him awake, because that meant he was still with you, he still had a chance to make it out of here alive.

You cleared your throat, trying not to get emotional over the question that actually had quite a personal reason behind it. You’d only given him a partial truth that night he’d asked you in the mess hall after you’d returned from the Underground. Now, with him knowing you weren’t human and having something of an understanding of what you were, you could give him a more complete picture.

“I couldn’t take living the way I was down there. Killing to survive and nothing more, doing nothing with my life except surviving--if it could even be called that. And it was coming at such a high cost just to keep myself physically alive, a high cost in the lives of others, and I...I wanted to do something that made my life feel...worthwhile. I don’t think it could ever justify all those deaths, but at least I could do something to help a cause bigger than myself. I could put these abilities of mine to use for something other than killing people to survive.” You met his eyes, your panic rising to see the fogginess in his gaze, how unfocused he was, how much he was struggling simply to stay present and hear your answer. You spoke a little louder to make sure it got through to him, pouring your emotions and intent into your next words in the hopes he would hear you and believe the sincerity of what you said. “I really did join to help in whatever way I could. I wanted to give my life some meaning again, so that maybe I could feel like I had a reason for living, for being what I am.”

Levi’s breaths started to hitch and catch, eyes fluttering, head starting to loll to the side, consciousness clearly starting to leave him. In a panic, you reached out with your free hand to grab at his chin, trying to turn his head back to its upright position to look at you.

“Captain? Captain Levi? Levi, stay with me, I need you to stay awake.” His eyes focused on you for a moment, but only briefly. His eyes never regained that conscious clarity, remaining foggy and unfocused as his eyes started to flutter again.

“Captain!” you shouted harshly at him, smacking him across the face in hopes to spark something of a physical reaction. “Hey, stay with me--you can’t let yourself die, especially not right now,” you lectured him as his head briefly lolled towards you after you’d smacked him. He was already slipping again, though, and you continued to shout at him to try and keep him with you, desperation coloring your voice.

“Levi! You have to stay alive, especially now that you’ve got my blood in your system. Please, stay awake, just a little longer! I need you to stay with me until my blood heals enough of your wound, okay? Captain Levi, stay awake, stay--Levi!”

You could see him struggling, see him trying to stay awake and alert, trying to stay with you, but he went limp, his consciousness leaving him soon after, breath a bare rattle and his pulse alarmingly weak.

“Captain Levi!”

Next Chapter---->

Levi Tags: @humanitys-hottestsoldier @clary-quinn @sunny-flo @whalerus @thirstyforsometea

Wings in the Dark Tags: @regalillegal @animeluver23 @theshylittleelfgirl @queenthorin1 @dilucs-thighs @sociallyanxiousmouse @subtlepjiminie @hakunamatatayqueen @queenofcurse

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