It's Complicated - Levi x Reader x Erwin

3 - Partners

A faint knock at the door snapped your eyes open, as you quickly sat up in your bed.

"Who's there?" You managed to groan out.

The door opened, revealing a pair of friendly blue eyes gazing inquisitively at your unkempt bed-head. You pulled the cover up to your neck, blushing at the embarrassment of appearing so unpresentable to your new boss.

"Ah, not used to early mornings?" Erwin's jolly voice rang, a slight blush emerging through his pale cheeks, unnoticed by you.

"No... no." You sighed. "I'm sorry, I'll be down in a minute."

"Make sure you have your training gear, today you'll start working with Levi and the recruits."

Already? You hadn't even properly introduced yourself to the captain, and now you had to instruct several eager teens together with him.

Erwin closed the door, and you leaped out of the bed, pulling on the beige trousers and buttoning up your - unfortunately - creased white blouse.

***
Levi was already at the training ground, and from the distance, it was evident that he had already put the recruits to work with a warmup exercise that seemed almost too harsh.

"Hey!" You called out.

The captain turned his head, and raised his hand in a faint attempt at a wave, turning his attention back to the already sweating teens.

It became clear that friendly cooperation may be a lot harder that you had initially thought.

Wanting to gain the favour and respect of the recruits, you decided to break the ice with both them and your new co-captain in one go, with the only way you knew how.

"Well then." You started, turning towards the eagerly waiting recruits, "How about myself and your captain have a little challenge to start our new partnership?"

A wave of excitement burst from the crowd, obviously this was something they had been waiting to see. As you thought about it, you realised that these trainees hadn't actually been outside of the walls just yet, and so had never even seen Levi seriously engage in battle. Well, instead of a titan, they'd have to settle for a fight between yourself and him.

Levi opened his mouth to protest, but the sudden shouts of multiple recruits caused him to set out a sigh.

"Fine. Just this once."

A circle had formed around the two of you, and as you faced one another with your fists raised in a defensive stance, you realised that you hadn't actually had a real look at the man before. His grey, cat-like eyes glinted with focus and confidence, his black locks softly covering the outer corners. The skin of his hands seemed smooth, yet worn with the experience of many battles fought to exhaustion, and you wondered to yourself how many scars roamed around his slender body from past encounters.

Suddenly relaxing, Levi took his hand to his neck and undid the clasp of his cape, loosely folding it up and handing it to a black haired female recruit who stood in the circle behind him.

"Sorry, didn't want that getting in the way." He explained, returning to his stance.

With his arms raised, you could faintly make out the outline of his biceps through his thin, white blouse. Levi's lean, yet toned body caused your mind to wander for a fraction of a second - when suddenly, he lunged towards you, throwing a right hook at your head.

"Argh!"

You grunted, narrowly dodging the swing, a rush of air travelling at high speeds past your ear.

Fuck. Maybe this fight was more unfair than you expected.

Not wanting to fall so easily, you swiftly adjusted your footing, and aimed a lower blow to his chest, followed by a strong punch to directly to his nose, the former of which he easily dodged, but stumbled slightly causing your fist to lightly graze his cheek.

Levi's eyes seemed to glow more intensely now, getting the first blow appeared to fire him up. Like a shot, he charged towards you, wrapping his arms around your upper body, and knocking you to the ground. Instinctively, you grabbed onto his waist with your thighs, attempting to squeeze the power out of his own grip.

"10, 9, 8.." One of the recruits began to count.

Shit. Shit.

You wanted his respect.

You wanted their respect.

A gush of energy surged through your core, slamming him over onto his back, allowing you to pin him fully to the ground, with holding his arms above your head.

For some reason, the strange intimacy of this position came to a realisation in both your own mind, and you snapped your eyes shut to avoid the embarrassment of making eye contact.

"3, 2, 1!"

The crowd screamed out your name in delight, as you relaxed your grip on Levi, opening your eyes. To your surprise, the look on the captains face was not one of defeat, but a more sheepish grin, as you could have sworn that a faint blush crept across his cheeks.

You leapt up, greeting the trainees with a smile, cockily taking a bow and then turning back around to your opponent.

Levi was standing with his hand outstretched, a passional smirk inviting you to shake it.

"Well, I can't say I'm too surprised." He joked. "I was sure there was a reason Erwin paired you with me, and I guess I found it."

"Ah, the pleasure's all mine." You smiled.

The rest of the training session continued in high spirits. There was no longer the same tension between the two of you as in the meeting with Erwin, or even when you first arrived to the training area, but a newfound mutual respect allowed you to work in an almost perfect synergy with one another.

"Right brats!" Levi yelled out. "Training's over. Get the rest of your chores done and maybe you can have an early dismissal tonight."

"Yeah right." Chimed a brown haired boy, prompting a sharp glare from Levi, making the boy sheepishly turn away.

The trainees gathered their things and began leaving the area, as you were noting down the records from their work that day.

"Hey." You heard Levi say, turning around to see him standing directly behind you.

"Sorry about today." You joked, "Didn't mean to show you up in front of all your followers."

"Followers? Oh shush, they're supposed to do as they're told."

"Yeah but... the way they look up to you - it's like they worship you. I mean, I can't say I blame them." You said. Levi chuckled, bashfully taking his hand up to his cheek and rubbing it slightly."

"Well. I might just become your first follower." He smiled, with a downward gaze.

You felt your face began to heat up, raising your own hands to cover the redness that a was speeding across your cheeks. "It'd be an honour."

Levi suddenly stood straight. "Well. I've got a meeting to attend to. See you at training, captain." He said, turning and walking away as the last word left his lips.

"See ya!" You yelled out, as he raised his hand as a farewell gesture.

The initial fear you felt about being upstaged or even humiliated by the Ackerman had faded away, replaced by the beating of excitement in your heart about the following week to come.

Author's note
Hopefullya I'll continue to update this daily, but if not, every other day.
Thank you for your support! I hope you enjoy :)