Ackerman's Steppes / Levi x Reader

Chapter 2: Gorgeous Disease

Quite a few days have passed since that incident with one of the scout's. That boy was too young in the first place to even work as a soldier. These corporations should change their policies...

You sigh. You feel like you should just forget what happened, but couldn't. It was not your place to say all of those things to scouts themselves. Even if they were true.

You decide to go to the town to shop for groceries, since you finally got a break from work. The amount of sick people has increased a lot. There are rumors going around that all of scout's dead bodies started a disease. But it's early spring, so you think that it's quite normal for people to get sick more often since the weather is tricky.

It's sunny. You haven't gotten a chance to enjoy the changing weather because you are always indoors working. The town is unusually quiet. All the times you do go out, it's always full of people looking for best offers, bunch of merchants shouting over each other and pastors reading loudly God's Readings.

But it's not like the town is deserted. The are few people murmuring. But you don't really like what they are murmuring about.

"Captain's Levi squad was wiped out and then their rotten bodies start a disease?"

"Survey Corps are desperate for new recruits. These idiots think that there are grown men who would risk their lives for nothing."

"Only naïve kids join them. Poor parents... raising their children as Survey Corps free body mass."

You put everything together. You avoid any eye contact and quickly buy what you need. You rush back home. It seems that the disease is real. If it keeps spreading, you are doomed to get sick too from your patients. It's not like someone would take care of you. There are only a few doctors around here. After all, it's a small village.

-

It's an absolute rush hour. The air is too thick and warm to breath. There are dozens people moaning in agony in hospital's corridors since there are no more available beds. You've covered your mouth and nose with a thick cloth because it would reduce the chance of catching the disease yourself. Considering these conditions, it's almost impossible.

"Good day. Are you Ella?" a blonde handsome man appears in front of you.

"You shouldn't walk around here freely. You'll catch this disease too," you tell him off.

"Yes, I know, therefore I'll make it fast. I'm Erwin Smith from Survey Corps. One of our best soldiers caught the disease. I heard that you are the best around here... " he respectably looks at you.

You laugh inside. You are only nineteen years old. You only got this position so young because there aren't many people with medical knowledge around here. Your mother was an herbalist and used to provide all kinds of medicine for the hospital, therefore the staff have known you since you were a child. Before your mother died, she taught you a lot about herbs and she even left you her own handwritten book with all of the various types of researched plants, their functions and remedy recipes. After her death, you had nowhere to go, so you kept spending time at the hospital. Eventually you showed your extraordinary skill by healing one kid, although the staff said it's over for him. You thought it's nothing special because it's just in your blood. It's what you can and supposed to do.

After that, they suggested for you to undergo some practice and jump straight into work, frankly because you were homeless and actually knew what you were doing.

"No one is special when it comes to health, therefore I won't make any exceptions," you walk away. You don't want to handpick your patients. Especially help those first who are to be blamed for this.

"I am asking you this as a Survey Corps commander. He is one of the soldiers, who can't die from a mere disease. To be honest with you, his death would be a waste. He deserves to die on a battlefield," he talks in a more serious and warning tone.

You start to feel pressure from him. If Survey Corps own commander came out here to ask you this, you can't resist.

"Where is he?" you ask hiding your uneasiness.

You follow him to a corridor near entrance. You see a beautiful blue-eyed man resting on the ground. He is heavily breathing and sweating. He's wearing the same bloody clothing. It's the same man as back then. It's the captain.

Erwin looks at you hopefully. Just by one look at him, you know that this man has no chance to survive. You reluctantly look at Erwin with an anxious face. He knows what it means.

"We found him passed out like this yesterday, he worked non-stop with all of the dead members papers; he didn't even change clothing. I hope it doesn't bother you, " Erwin tells you.

"You should leave. You will catch the disease too," you glance at him with a disapproving look. Erwin looks unbothered. "Sir, why aren't you leaving? As a commander you can't risk like this for a soldier," you reluctantly stay polite and calm.

"I am risking, because I have so much trust in this man. Frankly, if he dies, our corporation is basically nothing," he looks just as calm.

"Why are you so damn loud?" captain quietly uttered.

"How are you still conscious?" you stare at him. Erwin smiles at you. This man knows what he's doing. You are already gripping captain's shoulder and helping him up. You haven't seen someone sick with this deadly disease so lively.

-

You can't believe yourself. You really brought this man in and freed a room just for him. What could you do anyway? You had no choice. Although he had symptoms of an already dying person, he managed to talk. You slump into a chair. You realize that he is still covered in dry blood clothing which was probably the reason why he got sick. Why would a man be so devoted to work; he didn't even have time to change dirty clothes?

You should change his clothes.

Nurses can do that too, but you feel like it's urgent, so you will do it yourself.

You walk up to his bed. You couldn't bare his weight alone so you just dropped him onto the bed. He is in quite an awkward position, but you are happy you didn't rush to tuck him in because it would feel even weirder undressing him.

You slowly untie his cloak and take it off. You drop it on the floor because it's disgusting and filthy.

"I can do it myself," he suddenly opens his dark blue eyes and utters again.

"Well, you didn't do it for days?" you murmur and start to unbutton his shirt.

He instantly starts to unbutton it himself. You let him.

"I will go and get you a change of clothes."

-

You finally manage to find some spare clothing. You come back to the room only to find him passed out again. This man. You don't want him to dirty the sheets. Actually, he needs a shower. The dry blood all over his body and dirty clothes probably contain virus or bacteria from this disease.

You hope he wakes up again because you need to take him to the showers quickly and leave him clothes to change in. Now, he's just passed out with an exposed bloody chest.

You boil some water and soak his cloak and shirt in it. You hope to kill the bacteria that way. You can't just leave bloody clothing on the floor.

-

An hour passed, but he didn't wake up. You just asked nurses to take care of him. They were all giggling. You felt a little bad, but you had no choice.

After a few hours you had a lunch time break. You decided to check on him. He was sleeping.

You wonder if there's anyone who would bring him clothes and food. He probably has some friends or family members. But no one has come in yet. Well, it's reasonable since there is a deadly virus spreading... But that means that he has no food or water.

You sigh. You cut half of your bread and leave it on his counter. You also get a cup of fresh water.

That man's eyes. Erwin Smith. He seemed to have all humanity's faith in this one man. You sigh again. What have you gotten yourself into?

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