The Experiment (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) (Part 1)

Science

"Aha!" Oliver pushed his protective goggles up into his white hair, his watery blue eyes glittering. "I think that could work! And where, you say, have you read about this method?"

"In a book. It's in the Hange family library."

Zoë did not like the look on the old man's ruddy face one bit. It was the look of someone eaten up by greed. And yet, she could appreciate what knowledge was worth, especially to someone like him, whose life depended on it.

It was only the second time she had come to the Underground, but this time, she felt way better prepared. Not that she could claim to fully understand what the people living here went through on a daily basis, but getting to know some of them in the last week had given her a pretty good idea about what drove them: Survival. An old man like Oliver would survive exactly as long as he was useful. And he remained useful as long as he stayed ahead of everyone else when it came to substances. Which he needed to demonstrate. On people like her.

"We don't know what kind of ink was used though," she added. "So we better be ultra careful. I suggest we start here? In this corner and work our way across the first line to see whether this tincture really works."

Oliver nodded eagerly. "We could try to add more sodium carbonate if the first mixture is not right, because..."

"Extraordinary," Levi yelled.

Oliver darted around in alarm. Zoë groaned. Oh no. Levi was crouching on a table, staring at a bottle in his hand.

"Look how pretty," Levi beamed, holding the bottle towards them, his face lit up by childlike joy.

"Don't mind him," Zoë murmured. That much for keeping Levi's vulnerable condition a secret.

"It wasn't me!" Oliver squealed, his hands defensively outstretched. "I would never dare to..."

"It's okay," she sighed. "I know it wasn't you."

She had instructed Levi to keep very quiet, several times. Oliver was not to be trusted, that much was clear from their previous interactions and she didn't want him to know that Levi was tripping on pink things right now. Even worse, she didn't want him to know about the fast healing. The freakishly fast healing. Which... well, she'd eventually get there. Of course, telling Levi to keep very quiet in his current state was completely useless.

She still couldn't believe their damn luck getting here without being stopped by a patrol. She had tried to get Levi to use those back alley ways but he bounced around like a mad rabbit, flitting here and there to look at 'extraordinary things', babbling excitedly about how pretty it all was. She had almost shit her pants at every glimpse of a uniform from afar. But nobody sane would use the main street if he was the prime target in a manhunt, which had most likely saved him from being recognized. Or maybe it was his size and current behavior. He looked like a boy. He behaved like a child.

"Is he...," Oliver stepped towards Levi to peer into his face.

"It suits you," Levi nodded appreciatively at Oliver before returning the bottle to the shelf. Then he stood up on tiptoes to see what was at the very top.

"Pink," Zoë explained.

"Pink?" Oliver's confusion was plain obvious.

"He sees everything in pink hues and seems to like it a lot. He probably thinks your hair is pink."

"Huh," Oliver scratched his head. "And what is..."

"Those," Zoë sighed, pulling the leaves from her jacket.