Wings in the Dark

Chapter 12: Providence

*Reader's POV*

It turned out that Levi's idea to have the two of you spar in front of the others, even if it had a scripted ending, had the desired effect. The other Scouts seeing for themselves that you were able to make Levi work for a win in the spar was proof enough for them to acknowledge that you did have the skill to be in his squad. Of course, it didn't make the rumors go away entirely, there were still a few bitter people who just didn't want you to have so much success so quickly, mainly people who'd known you in the Cadets and were still green enough to the Scouts to be worried about that kind of petty thing. For the rest, seeing your ability up front and confirmed in the close spar was enough to take the momentum out of the rumors, and threats of bringing it officially before Erwin turned hollow.

It had also served the dual purpose of the rest of Levi's squad seeing that you were, in fact, perfectly capable of sparring with Levi and most likely knocking the rest of them on their asses. If there was any lingering doubt that you were capable and that you deserved the one on one training with Levi that they'd been speculating about since it started, that doubt was now erased. Even Oluo couldn't come up with anything smart to say, considering you'd almost beaten Levi before, true to your deal, you'd given him the opening necessary to make sure he won.

To help disguise it as the discredit to the rumors it actually was, the two of you hadn't really shifted the training session as a whole to the training grounds. Instead, Levi had volunteered to give a demonstration, and you had been his sparring partner for said demonstration. Which meant the rest of that time, after the spar was finished, was spent with Levi using it for a teaching experience, walking back through parts of the spar to teach the others, or highlight moments where you'd done something smart or something wrong so the others could learn from it.

In other words, everyone had benefited from it, even though the motivation behind it had been to take the teeth from the rumor's bite.

Feeling a little relieved after you officially came to realize the rumors had died down, you were allowing yourself a lazy hour out in the field, the horses out and about with two of them, your horse and Levi's, lingering around you, one of them, Petra's horse, occasionally checking on you but otherwise doing its own thing. You'd found a nice, mostly undisturbed patch of long grass and had spent some time drawing before setting your sketchbook aside and laying back against the grass, eyes closed and simply soaking up the rays of the sun with a slight smile on your face.

Zephyr pawed at the grass next to your head, pausing long enough to lean over you and sniff at your face before giving a snort, hot horse breath puffing on your face, and causing your nose to wrinkle at the smell.

"Gross," you murmured, simply glad it hadn't been a wet snort. Levi's horse, meanwhile, had gotten down on the ground and rolled over, legs up in the air as they scratched their back, the ruckus enough to disturb the picture of peace but not enough to make you open your eyes or to irritate you.

Speaking of Levi...

His scent was on the breeze, growing gradually closer with his footsteps muffled by the grass until he came to a stop beside you, on the opposite side Zephyr. You cracked your eyes open to look up at him, the sunlight framed behind him making him a little difficult to look at, causing you to squint.

"You make a spectacle of yourself always around the horses," Levi said bluntly as Zephyr nudged at your arm with her nose, nickering softly.

"Pfft," You scoffed, closing your eyes again. Sure, you'd gone from the girl that none of the horses liked to the girl that key horses seemed to flock to, and you spent almost all of your free time out here, which hadn't gone unnoticed, but you wouldn't say you were a spectacle. "Maybe if I was naked I would be. Unfortunately, I'm still clothed, so I wouldn't say a spectacle."