The Turquoise Cure (Eren X Reader)

Chapter 43: Why'd You Go?

        After a night of sparse sleep, you rolled out of bed to pull on your boots and uniform, ready for a day of training. You made your way to the dining hall and grabbed a piece of toast before you realized the emptiness of the place. Peeking out of one of the windows, you saw the dusk sky as dark and purple as you remembered in your trainee days, far too early for anyone else to be up yet. You saw the city outside of the training center, different from the emptiness you remembered from where you thought you were. "Where am I?" you thought to yourself as you clutched at your chest with your free hand, the toast long forgotten. 

    You fiddled with the crust of the toast, removing it and eating it first, saving the soft middle for last. Wiping the crumbs from your white pants, you tapped your fingernails against the wooden table. Everything was coming back, slowly but surely. As you munched on the toast, you had begun to forget your sudden lapse of thought. 

    Suddenly, though, you heard a pattering of boots against the stone floor. Maybe they'll go somewhere else. They didn't. The door you had entered through so shortly prior swung open once more, Levi's short but sturdy frame surveying the room before him. "I though I heard someone up," he mumbled, shuffling over to the bucket and drawling some water from it. "Why are you up o early?" he asked, dragging his heavy feet over to where you were seated. "I guess I got up too early," you responded, wiping the sleep from your eyes. "I felt like I was somewhere else..." 

    "Interesting," Levi breathed. You were thankful that unlike everyone else, he didn't seem to be too interested in hearing about your foreseeing. It was refreshing to some extent to not have to explain or feel guilty for a lack thereof. "So..." you whispered, feeling slightly awkward with the overwhelming silence between the two of you. "I talked to him," Levi said, looking up from his cup, his eyes slightly more lively than they had been upon his entrance. Your silence was intended to prompt him to continue, but when he didn't, you got the point.

    "When are you going to start training me?" you asked, feeling rude for asking so blatantly, especially with how busy Levi was all on his own. "How does right now suit you?" Levi asked, standing up from where he sat and placing his cup upside down onto the counter. He began to head out without another word, so you jumped up to follow him, eager to do something, eager to feel something...

    "So why are you up so early?" you asked as the two of you headed out to the grounds behind the building, "I know you didn't just get up to socialize with whoever you heard in the dining hall..." Levi scoffed as though choking back a laugh. "I don't get that much sleep," he said, his voice sharp as blades, "but I expect you have the same problem." You said nothing, instead walking ahead behind Levi as he led you to a wooden model of a titan's nape. 

    "You're surely familiar with this?" he asked as you ran your fingers over the crisp edges of the titan's shoulders; it was likely carved only hours or days ago- the need for such being so high. "Yeah," you said, reveling in the memories of the Training Corps.. Although the most tiring and exhausting years of your life, you wished for nothing more than to go back to those times now. 

    The "swishing" sound of a blade caught your attention as Levi disappeared behind you. You turned on your heel swiftly, greeted with the sight of Levi brandishing a sword inches away from your face. You dodged to the left, kicking the dull side of the sword away with your foot and rolling over onto the ground. Before you could get back on your feet, Levi was already there, his reflexes more than catlike. You had never felt as intimidated by an opponent as you now did. You rolled forward to get back onto your feet, Levi's sword barely missing your face. The two of you now stood before each other, pacing slowly in a circle, Levi with his shining sword, and you, unarmed. "Hardly a fair fight," you muttered, the two of you still swaying before each other. "It's not likely to be a fair fight when Reiner, Bertolt, and that ape are against us," Levi responded.