𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙰𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙴𝙲𝚁𝙴𝚃𝚂

3

It was surprisingly rare for Y/N and Levi to have some free time. Living in the underground was harsh and surviving each day meant a lot of hard work. Most people wouldn't think that people in the underground worked a lot, but really, without effort it was impossible to survive down here for long. Levi had learned that from a young age and Y/N had learnt it early enough as well.

Crime was quite an exhausting business if it was done well. And Levi was very good at what he did. For Y/N, selling information was also quite exhausting, because it wasn't easy to get the information she was selling. It took a lot of hard work and dedication and a lot of research. But Y/N was doing a damn good job of it and she was proud of her work, even though it wasn't the most honest work.

But then there were days when they had some free time and instead of Y/N teaching Levi how to read, he taught her whatever he knew. When she was still young, he taught her how to use a knife (not that she had ever been very adept at it) and now he was teaching her how to use the military's ODM gear. Honestly, Y/N preferred that to the knives, because she had much more of a knack for it.

She was nowhere close to Levi's level of skill with it, though. Isabel and Farlan - two of Levi's closest friends - were both pretty much at the same level as her. Which meant that Y/N could sometimes help them out if they went to do one of their jobs. She would usually do that when she was running low on funds and had nothing better to do. Some of their jobs just paid better than whatever she was making.

Either way, she still hadn't really heard the full story of how they had managed to get their hands on ODM gear. Y/N always just assumed that Levi had stolen it at some point, but no one really knew for sure. Levi was great at stealing shit, but stealing ODM gear was on a whole nother level.

"What's wrong with you? Tired?" Y/N heard Farlan's voice next to her. She shook her head and snapped back to reality. Had she just really been staring at her ODM gear for the last minute or so?

"No, I was just... lost in thought, I guess. Where are we going?" she wanted to know. They had to be careful with the ODM gear. It was way too dangerous to get caught with it, so they had to practice somewhere outside the city, deep in the caves of the underground, just so they wouldn't get caught.

Not that Y/N minded. The caves around the underground city could be dangerous places, because no one ever knew who was hiding in them, but often they were also incredibly beautiful. Y/N liked to see the strange formations that were naturally there. At some point they had even found a small underground lake, but when they went to look for it again, the tunnel that led them there had collapsed.

That was another danger. It wasn't just the common criminals and gangs that tended to hide out here, the tunnels could also collapse any time and bury them underneath heavy rocks. It was honestly the thing that Y/N was more afraid of... there was no way to survive something like that. But getting mugged and robbed and possibly sold into slavery? It would be bad, but it was survivable.

It wouldn't be that much different from her life with her uncle. She was basically treated like a slave. Or a concubine. Y/N shuddered as she thought of it. She needed to distract herself, before she went completely non-verbal. It sometimes happened when she thought of what had happened to her and continued happening to her every day of her life - she wasn't sure why it happened, but it was terrifying and she preferred to avoid it. She could go into blackout mode when her uncle was with her.

As she glanced up into the cave, she could see Levi zipping around as if he had never done anything else. How he was so good at this was beyond Y/N. None of them had ever gotten formal training, but Levi had become incredibly skilled and fast over the years. If he ever joined the army, he'd be absolutely lethal. Not that they would even let him join - he was from the underground after all.

"Come on, Y/N, see if you can catch me!" Isabel yelled at her with a sweet little chuckle. Y/N smiled. Isabel always knew how to cheer her up. The girl was young, but she had a weird sixth sense for how people around her felt. And she always knew when Y/N needed some distraction.

"If I can catch you? The real question is whether I'll catch you within the next two minutes or if it'll take me longer!" Y/N replied with a big grin on her face, as she used the ODM gear to pull herself up towards Isabel. The younger girl laughed and started zipping around the place fast.

But not fast enough for Y/N. It took her a little while to get into the swing of things again, but she quickly caught up to her, her eyes never losing the target she was following. Isabel was good, but Y/N was just a tiny bit better and she managed to get a hold of her after a short while.

"Got you!" she exclaimed with a big grin. Isabel laughed and glanced up at Levi who had been watching the two of them.

"How long, Levi?" she wanted to know. Levi raised his eyebrows at both of them, before shaking his head.

"You're getting worse and worse at this, Y/N. Two minutes, seven seconds. Honestly, are you getting old or something?" he asked. Y/N scoffed and shook her head. Of course Levi would always have a snarky comment for her. It wouldn't be the same if he didn't say something like that.

"Maybe you're just getting bad at counting the time, who knows." she replied, getting a dry little chuckle from him in return. Of course neither of them took these kinds of comments seriously. Sometimes Y/N wondered whether Levi spoke differently to people he'd just meet now, but they had always been like this. She couldn't remember a different Levi and she couldn't imagine him not being sarcastic and snarky.

"How about me getting better? Did that ever cross your mind?" Isabel complained. Y/N and Levi turned to her at the same time and answered her in unison, "No."

"Ouch, that was painful even for me." Farlan said with a laugh, as he landed next to them. Levi sighed.

"Why are we standing around and wasting time?" he grumbled.

"Technically, we're not really standing, we're hanging..." Farlan corrected him, which earned him a glare from Levi. Y/N chuckled and shook her head.

"Well, see you later, losers. I hope we're getting a really nice dinner tonight after all this training." she said, before zipping off again. It wasn't like they actually had a lot of money to get fancy dinners or whatever, but sometimes, every once in a while they would be able to afford a meal and a few drinks at one of the pubs around. It always felt special to Y/N. Just like the ODM gear training felt special.

Y/N wasn't sure what it was about flying through the air at high speeds with the potential of breaking every bone in her body, including her neck - but it somehow made her feel free. Weightless. Like she was above all the stupid shit that was happening down in the underground. Like she could take on the entire world, if she wanted to. And there were many days when she wanted to do just that.

But taking on the world was a bit of a pipe dream and Y/N knew she'd never get that far. But it was nice to dream, wasn't it? That they all might make it to the surface one day (and not just when they snuck up, always afraid of getting caught). That they might be able to live a normal, comfortable life. Maybe one day she'd even be able to tell Levi how she felt... maybe that day would be soon.

She stopped in her tracks and looked around the cave. Farlan and Isabel were chasing each other - those two were like children, especially when they were together. Well, they essentially were children - but in the underground everyone had to grow up pretty fast. She looked at the opposite end of the cave and her eyes met Levi's. He gave her a short nod and something that looked like the tiniest smile, before zipping off again, twisting and turning with his ODM gear.

Y/N watched him for a bit, before shaking her head. Levi was on a different level with this. He was on a different level with so, so many things. How could she ever hope that he would like someone like her? All she had were her smarts and her books. Apart from that she was pretty average, while Levi was exceptional. Completely out of her league. But she could dream, couldn't she?