Shards In Your Heart || AOT x Male Reader

Fight

It's not that (Y/N) was bad at fighting.
No, he was in fact brilliant at it.
But Levi, no matter how tiny he was, felt like the devil incarnate.
You learned from a very young age that underestimating the enemy was one of the biggest mistakes one can ever make.
(Y/N) hadn't seen Levi fight, but he had grown up underground, or at least that was your assumption. He didn't seem like the man who's lived above before nor does he seem like the type to have lived in luxury.
Plus he was offered a position in the Survey Corps. Offered; implying that he had the skill set to be involved, and (Y/N) had a funny feeling it wasn't just the ODM skills.

You squared up against Levi, as he did the same.
(Y/N) pulled himself into a fighting stance, arms raised in front of him.
This wasn't the time to be scared.
It was late in the morning now and quite an audience had gathered round. Cadets and some of the captains stood, forming a wide circle around the fight area. The instructor took his place at the centre of the crowd, evidently not bothered that the other cadets weren't sparring. It seemed, he too, was invested and a tad bit eager to witness the outcome.
The cadets too were buzzing with excitement, the occasional
"Who's the new guy?" Or sometimes "(Y/N)'s going to win" filled the air, preparing themselves for one of the most legendary fights ever to take place in the training corps*.It brought you a bit of comfort; the idea that the vast majority of the cadets had faith in your abilities, brought you a bit of confidence.
In a last ditch attempt to calm your nerves, you glanced quickly into the crowd, a few familiar faces smiling back. One of your friends, Tom; a good natured fellow who you got along with, considerably better than the others, flashed a thumbs up and mouthed a 'good luck'. Smiling back to yourself you took a deep breath, calming your mind and drawing your attention away from the crowd and onto Levi. He was holding himself in a similar stance, more defensive than aggressive; his eyes still fixed on you. A quick once over told you about his fighting style and you couldn't help but notice how he pushed most of his weight onto his right foot, his left seemed to be a little limp comparatively, maybe due to the ODM session, for that limp wasn't there earlier.
That was his weak spot.
You clenched your fists, nails digging deeper into the palm of your hand, as the instructor shouted, "GO", now beginning to trod slowly, eyes fixed on the other man.
The two were circling around like wolves, poised to attack at any moment, but neither of them making a move.
It was obvious that Levi was playing the waiting game: and you had taken the bait, swiftly charging at him attempting to knock him over. Levi quickly side-stepped and attempted to use your own momentum against you to topple you.

You weren't stupid. That was an obvious move.

A sharp turn and (Y/N)'s fist made first contact with Levi's jaw. That victory, however, was short-lived as he turned over and delivered two sharp blows: one to (Y/N)'s ankle and then the back of his knee. Pain shot up (Y/N)'s leg; he couldn't feel anything snap, therefore his ankle wasn't broken, just badly sprained and he buckled. There was an audible gasp from the crowd around, even the instructor was surprised by this, though it vaguely showed on his face. No one could best (Y/N) and here there was an upstart completely destroying him.
You picked back your stance and stepped back into position; you hadn't done considerable damage to Levi but the punch seemed to have rattled him a bit.

One thing, ran through both of your minds though: this was just a tussle, the fight was yet to begin.

You charged yet again, this time however, anticipated his move and roundhouse kicked him, twice: the first made contact with his stomach, knocking the wind out of him, the second was blocked quickly.
He was going defensive now.
Being the aggressor as always (Y/N) surged forward and thrust his fist once more into Levi's gut; the second attack was more effective as the force of the thrust caused him to double down, wheezing, retreating backwards and clutching his stomach in pain.

The two of you were even now.

The two men continued circling each other. This was less of a small spar but more of a fight; no one stepped in to stop it though; they were either too scared or eager to witness the outcome.
Out of the corner of your eye you noticed a familiar blonde.
Why was he here?
You hesitated.
Taking advantage of your momentary hesitation Levi attacked, delivering two kicks, both of which were blocked and then a final kick to your chest sending you crashing towards the crowd. A few cadets edged back nervously. You lay down in the dust, helpless, in pain, desperately trying to stabilise your breathing. You could hear Levi approaching; whether to check if you're okay or to continue the fight; was something you did not know.

"Get up and fight" said a familiar clear voice from above.

That's right.
You lunged at Levi, tackling him down and holding him in a choke hold; your intention was not to kill but to knock him out. He clawed at your arms, struggling before noticing an opening in your defence. A sharp elbow dug into your side and your grip loosened: allowing him to work his way out of your grasp and pin your neck to the ground. His entire body weight was put into it.
All your attempts to wrangle your way out of his grasp were futile so you did the only thing left to you.
You bit him.
Hard.
There was a small yelp; this was unexpected and you noticed his forearm was bleeding. He let go of your neck almost immediately and staggered back. Small comfort because the next and last thing you saw was the bottom of Levi's boot.

You woke up all groggy, eyes sliding in and out of focus. There was a sharp pain in the back of your head, and your skull felt like it was split in two. The room slowly came into focus and you realised that you were in the infirmary.

"How's your head feeling", a cold drawling voice spoke.

It took you some time to process what happened, your hand now gingerly feeling your face. There was a bandage wrapped around your head and your nose felt broken.
A searing pain ran through your mind at the sudden noise.
As everything settled slowly, you came to realise that Levi was sitting across you at the end of your bed. He wasn't glaring anymore, but his eyes were filled with concern.

"What happened?" You mumbled, now feeling your wrapped up leg.
"You were knocked out for hours, it's nearly evening."
Vague memories of the fight that happened earlier came back to you.

"You won didn't you?" Adding a small smile.

"If it makes you feel any better, I too was bed ridden for a while, those kicks were... something."

That wasn't an answer to your question but you stayed silent, too tired to talk back,
"Y'know, in my eyes, neither of us really won that. I mean all we did was hurt each other... badly"

"So how come I was unconscious and you weren't. Let's face it, you won Levi." But you weren't bitter about it, it was a good fight.

"I wasn't expecting you to bite me, I panicked and kicked your head. It wasn't intentional I swear." And then as more of an afterthought, "Erwin broke the fight, he brought you here...the instructor said you could take a day off tomorrow to fix that thick skull of yours" he let out a small laugh at his feeble attempt in trying to lighten the situation.

"That's a positive isn't it, I get to skip a day of training"
"Lucky you... how's your head now?"
"Hurts like shit... we should have another fight y'know to settle it for once and for all."
"You're crazy, bat-shit crazy (Y/N)"
"You didn't refuse though", you pointed out.
"I dare say it'd end in a draw; I, for one, think this one did"
The door squeaked interrupting your conversation and a cadet entered, blushing profusely:
"Uhm, Levi was it?, it's reaching curfew, you should be back at the dorms. And uh (Y/N), you're to stay at the infirmary overnight. Sorry instructor's orders." She paused, evidently holding back something.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, then promptly closed it, standing in the doorway and sneaking tiny glances at Levi.
The situation was starting to get awkward now.
Levi gave an irritable sigh "well?"
"Well, I'm to escort you there", she spoke softly, still blushing.
"Fine", but he did not sound fine. (Y/N) could tell he didn't like the attention he was receiving and sniggered.
Levi got up and patted (Y/N)'s leg, "if we can't be enemies, we might as well be friends" silence. "good night, rest well" he said grinning at (Y/N).
"Will do", you said, returning the grin at the now retreating figure.

* The fight between Levi and (Y/N) took place 8 years before that of Mikasa and Annie.

A/N: the amount of math I had to do to get everything to fit. I'm in pain.

Edit: I think it's cute how I used to think my writing was good because looking back, it really wasn't.