Two Captains | Levi Ackerman ff

3

Stubborn Journey
[Word count : 1558]

A three day trip outside of the walls alone with my enemy is something I never thought I'd be doing ever in my lifetime unless it was to take him far away before murdering him.

Here I was. Standing holding a few bags of things to attach to a horse to carry our supplies like a tent each and spare clothing and especially food and a little extra water in case of a rough journey not to mention spare gear to fill up our equipment for the dangers out beyond the walls.

The first day was to travel to wall Maria, a checkpoint was just inside of the walls, a small run down town of houses was our goal to reach and set up our tents in a disclosed area and a place to keep the horse safe. I was offered a horse, but caring for animals more than ourselves for our own safety was too much of a hassle, it's the reason we didn't bring our teams, to save lives because we could fend for ourselves, but instead we were given another innocent life in our hands.

I settled on walking, but Ackerman gladly climbed onto the horse and took lead which pissed me off. I caught up walking next to him and the horse walking through the town as everyone clapped and congratulated us for our bravery, wishing us the best, praying for our safety outside of the walls, Ackerman didn't look at them and focussed on looking ahead. I waved and thanked them and greeted my team before leaving, Levi glanced at his own team and nodded towards them which announced one of them being in charge while he was gone.

There we were, leaving wall Rose on our journey to the first checkpoint of wall Maria.

Silence engulfed most of the journey, I hummed to myself to keep myself on my feet and keep myself sane in a moment of silence, but he would always tut at my tunes and curse under his breath about how annoying I was. I didn't mind his comments, I was used to things like that from him, it was a given standard about our envious relationship towards each other, they were pointless comments that had no effect on the other but made ourselves satisfied about our hate towards each other.

"You're stupid." He speaks to me loudly, starting a conversation, the silence must've been eating him up, he's so used to being around such loud and talkative people on his team he wasn't used to being around his own thoughts within the silence, and I was so used to having conversation too, just not with him, so I didn't exactly want to be interested in his statement. I couldn't help it. I had to reply, the silence after his deep voice cutting through it all was killing me.

"For what? What made you say that?" I spat, looking at his composure on the horse, he seemed so perfectly sat upon it, calmly, almost too calmly when death could be around the corner since we were exposed to the Titans that could be around us, lurking. "For not bringing a horse. It's miles away, are you seriously expecting to not get tired the entire journey?" His tone was dark, he didn't care about my well-being he was only pointing this out to pick on me of course, so I had to reply with something that would bother him as equally as this did, "I'm stronger than you." Was all I had to say and I saw his body react, his voice letting out a breath of annoyance. "You're still human." He stated.. it was true, I was bound to get tired at some point but I didn't care as long as I proved to him I wasn't weak at the end of the day.

"Whatever, suits yourself. I get the horse because I'm not a stupid brat." He scoffed in annoyance to my arguing and started riding faster than my walking pace could catch up to, unfairly of course to tire me out before I made it to the first checkpoint just to prove his own point, "Whatever." I mumbled, distantly seeing the wall in the horizon, it wasn't as far as we thought it would be. Maybe it's because we had no interruptions on the journey, it was a straight line without having to change routes because of titan attacks. It was oddly quiet out here, no titan in sight, not any that was worth fighting anyways, they hadn't seen us at all, almost as if they were uninterested because it wasn't part of their plan to attack us.

We finally arrive at the checkpoint, Ackerman making it there before me, unloading some supplies and tying the horse up somewhere safe inside a run down home that had no roof but the second floor was still intact to act as a roof. I walk to the horse as he explores slightly, finding a tent to set up, just hoping to get it rushed so he could pitch his own one that was still on the horse somewhere and get the night over and done with.

He joins me, slowly observing where I was choosing to place the tent. "The sun will hit there directly in the morning, are you expecting to overheat or what?" He asked teasing my choice, so I threw the tent pieces to him, "you decide then, I'll set up my own afterwards." I leaned on the wall and watched him decide a place that was shaded and in a corner, where maybe a living room had been once before.

He unrolled the tent and picked up the poles to set it up. He seemed to struggle putting the poles together, not knowing the sizing, he kept referencing the image that was on one of the windows as an instruction manual that wasn't very instructional. I walked over to join him, to see if putting it together really was hard, but it wasn't. I lifted a few pieces and put them together with ease without reference to the image, he refused to look at me as I helped him set some things up.

I pulled away, letting him do the work, not prepared to murder him tonight if he was to start an argument. Then I noticed he had no idea where to put the poles. "Have you ever set up a tent before?" I asked curiously as he shoved a pole in a hole it wasn't supposed to go, but he kept trying, ignoring me completely, "well?" I asked once again and he paused, letting go of the pole completely giving up quickly, there was a long silence as he lifted another pole to occupy his eyes.

"No." He finally replied.
"So you've never been camping?" I picked at his memories, my curious talkative mind full of questions.

"I have, I just haven't been the one to set up the tent."
"Oh so you were the one pumping Up the inflatable beds and bringing the blankets in from the storage?"
He shook his head, letting out a gentle chuckle without a smile,
"No I'd make others do it for me." He stated, trying to make a point at being a great boss, being able to control others at the word. But it just pissed me off that he didn't help them.

"Lazy cunt." I commented and he scoffed.
"Shut the hell up it doesn't matter. Pass me that pole." He groaned pointing to the one that was in my hand while lifting part of the tent he thought it belonged to, but after quick examination I concluded it didn't belong there. "It doesn't go there." I joke, chuckling.
"Yes it does." He argues back.
"Okay, okay fine." I hand him the pole to prove a point, and as suspected it didn't fit or go there at all, it wasn't the right length. So he stood back dropping the pole, letting me take control, refusing to look my way. He walked over to the horse instead as an excuse to be away from me.

I completed it quickly, it was fairly simple and a small one or two person tent, there was no way I would sure with him though. "Fuck." I heard him groan and I head his direction, "what?"
"That's the only tent they packed us." He stated the worst of my nightmares, I sighed and avoided eye contact with him.

"I get the tent." He stated plainly,
"Excuse me? You got the horse!"
"Because you didn't bring your own, so it's only fair I get the tent."
"No it most definitely is not."
"It most definitely is. Don't argue with me, we're not children, this is something stupid to argue over."

I thought for a moment and looked away from him. "I'll sleep outside but I want the blanket they packed." I stated taking it from the storage the horse had carried, and he agreed with the compromise selfishly taking the tent -not talking to me for the rest of the night, retreating to the tent, not coming out at all.

I ate dinner alone, and I wasn't going to dare offering to him. I made the fire originally for warmth but I got carried away. He didn't deserve it anyways.