spite || levi x reader

1 - 4

"So... Captain Levi."

You stab your food with your fork hard enough to hear the awful sound it makes as it strikes the plate. "As I've already confirmed ten times," you growl, "yes."

"Sorry," Eren says in disbelief, shaking his head. "It's just, when you said someone was waiting for you..."

"We never thought it'd be Captain Levi," Armin finishes.

You shrug. "What's so bad about that?"

You're quickly discovering that Levi's got a reputation. It's not bad in any way, but all of the cadets seem to idolize him. Despite Levi only being in the scouts for around two years, he's already known as one of the best soldiers the Survey Corps has got, and with how quickly he's climbed the ranks, the cadets seem to respect him well enough.

"It's Corporal Levi!" Connie squeaks, gesturing widely with his arms and nearly smacking Marco off of his seat.

You set your jaw. "And?"

"He's- he's humanity's strongest," Sasha says between mouthfuls of her food- or maybe it's Connie's food. "He's terrifying."

Ymir snorts. "Never thought he'd be so short."

"Don't let him hear you say that," you warn.

"How'd you meet him?" Krista asks, leaning closer towards you. 

You chuckle. "Don't really remember."

All other conversation around you falls quiet. You glance up from your plate to see almost a dozen sets of eyes on you. You quirk an eyebrow.

"Aw, c'mon!" Jean says, smacking your shoulder. "Just tell us!"

The situation is laughable. Although Levi's sort of told you how the two of you came to be acquaintances, you truly don't remember it, so is it even a lie? "Honestly," you say with a roll of your eyes. You grab your cup to bring it to your lips for an excuse to stop talking. "I don't..."

Something pulses at the forefront of your brain.

Hiding under a table. Screams. Blood spilling, flowing freely through your fingers.

There's a clatter that blinks you out of your stupor. You blink, refocusing your vision; your cup had fallen from your hand. The water inside has spilled, dripping off the table and into your lap. 

"You okay?" Eren asks as Mikasa grabs the cup and sets it back upright.

It takes you a second, but you nod. "Yeah, sorry." Everyone is still staring at you, so you force a sheepish grin. "Good thing there wasn't much water left. Excuse me."

You stand up from the table, desperate to excuse yourself, and try not to jog to the bathroom.

.

Whatever sort of memory that was, you haven't had anything like that in months, and it's disturbing. You can't shake that vision from your head, even though it barely qualified as such: it felt more like flashes. Glimpses.

You hide it in the back of your brain. Maybe you can ask Levi about it when you see him next- whenever that is.

And for the most part, you're fine. You ignore the vision- vision, memory, whatever it was- and keep up with your training, eager to prove yourself for whenever Levi comes back again. The only nagging thing is the headaches. Sometimes, your head feels like someone is trying to split it open from the front.

Sparring has slowly transitioned from practiced techniques to a bit more of a free-for-all, which has become one of the highlights of your day. You love watching your opponent, trying to guess what they'll do next and figuring out what you can do to anticipate it. You whip out several moves on accident that you didn't know you knew how to do. Sparring is the only way for you to draw out your full potential, your full arsenal of what you can do.