Wings in the Dark

Chapter 19: Off Record

AN:  With this chapter, Wings in the Dark is officially up to date on Wattpad and on the same posting rotation as Tumblr and AO3...in other words, it's not going to get updated NEARLY as fast, I was just releasing the chapters at an accelerated rate to catch up Wattpad to where I'm actually at in the story.

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*Levi's POV*

Further questions waited until the end of the expedition since they both had more important things to focus on. As such, the drawing was carefully rolled instead of folded so no creases would ruin the image, and then tucked carefully away in his jacket, feeling strangely warm to him the entire trip back.

What was he even going to do with it? He wouldn't put it in his office, and he was rarely in his bedroom...

He'd figure it out. He still had some questions he wanted to ask Y/N, first, just to get a feel of why she'd given it to him.

She'd had a point the other day, asking him if what happened was going to change things between them. Something had changed, but Levi was still figuring out exactly what that was that had changed. He had the feeling she was trying to figure it out as well.

Though, this certainly wasn't helping him figure it out.

When they were back behind the walls, Levi dismounted to walk for a little while, feeling stiff and sore in the saddle after the two days of hard riding with not much of a break, besides the short night's rest. He wasn't the only one who usually did this, though some people were usually so tired they just stayed on their horses until they were back at headquarters. Most of Levi's squad, having been at point and doing a lot of hard riding and fighting, were all on foot for the first part of the trip back. Even Y/N who, after coming to walk beside him with Zephyr following obediently on her other side, shrugged at his questioning look.

"What? Everyone else is walking, I might as well. And I still get sore and uncomfortable. Everything works the same as a normal person so long as I'm on a healthy diet," she said casually.

Levi sighed, keeping his gaze forward, the drawing a little heavy in his pocket again. Did he bring it up now, in the open? For once, the trek back didn't feel like an inappropriate time to be discussing something so lighthearted. There were minimum casualties, especially for Scout standards, during the entire trip. There was still the occasional skirmish inside the formation, it was unavoidable with how unpredictable Titans could be, but Erwin had instructed them to stay focused on the road ahead and on keeping the formation from running into Titans on the way forward. That goal had been monumentally successful.

This was huge. If they could manage to make this the standard expedition, continuing to oil the arrangement until it ran as smoothly as possible, then things were about to change for the Scouts. Even now, the whispers in the crowd they passed were different, people talking about how few injuries and dead there were despite the fact they'd been out for nearly two whole days. A successful expedition that didn't come with a heavy toll that made people question why the Scouts were even a group.

Of course there would still be the tragedies, the disasters. Nothing was certain out there. But if this arrangement could work this well when it was in a test run...

The cutback in casualties alone made it worth the anxiety Levi found himself suffering the entire time Y/N had been up ahead. As much as he'd hated it in the moment.

As such, the entire shift in tone on the way back from the usual grim and depressed mood was enough that Levi felt comfortable bringing up more lighthearted topics as he and Y/N walked side by side.