𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙰𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙴𝙲𝚁𝙴𝚃𝚂

14

Y/N wasn't sure when it started. Maybe after she had been starting to sell a few books or after they had been handing out some of the supplies that they had stolen. Maybe it was just a normal part of this kind of business. She knew that Levi had been somewhat of a big deal for a while and she knew that her parents were the same. The kind of people that had dealings with them knew them well.

And after her parents had died, her uncle had taken over, getting a similar reputation. It seemed like it was Y/N's turn now. When she was walking through the streets, people would see her and they would whisper about her. They would look at her, some of the people who looked like they were much better off than anyone else would greet her with a respectful nod.

It was weird and at first, Y/N was feeling kind of paranoid at being watched this closely. Had she not been covering her tracks well enough? Did everyone know? Would they rat her out to the military police? Should she lay low and try to become invisible once more? It was nerve-racking, to say the least. But thankfully she had Levi around and even though Levi didn't enjoy people making a big deal of him, he was somewhat used to it. It made Y/N feel much better to have him with her.

He had never really been caught out with anything, even though he knew that the military police at least knew of him. But they were never interested enough to actually catch him. It would have been too much hassle and in the end they might not have a good enough case against him and in general, they just didn't care enough about anyone living underground. They liked to forget about everyone who lived down here, unless something that was threatening the people above ground massively was happening. Like the four of them stealing supplies, for example.

But even with that, they didn't really care enough. People in the district above them had more than enough food. They were doing well for themselves and anyone else they didn't really care about. Stealing their supplies was a small bit of a sting for them, but nothing that was devastating enough to warrant more than a half-hearted chase. So for Levi it was easy to get used to being kind of a big deal in the underground city. He had been before and no one would actually try and come for him, as long as he was careful. For Y/N it was slightly different.

If anyone realized that Y/N had stolen books that contained some of the secret knowledge about the walls or about the world around them, there would be trouble. Y/N wasn't really sure why exactly, but there had to be some information in those books that would have devastating effects on everyone if it ever got out into the public. And if everyone learned that the clergy knew about it all along.

Y/N didn't exactly know what that secret knowledge was, but she was getting a kind of sense of what it might be. And she didn't like what she was reading one bit. Still, she couldn't stop herself from wanting more and more - it was almost like an addiction, trying to find out what everyone was hiding. Y/N wasn't even sure if she would make any of that public or not. She felt like it was something that would have to stay hidden until the time was right. It seemed like such a big thing... If anything, it would have to be revealed very, very slowly and over a long period of time. She got the feeling that anything else would send the world as it was now into chaos.

Then again, that was just a gut feeling. Maybe what the clergy knew were a few small details and everything else was just completely benign and they just made a big deal over nothing. But somehow Y/N couldn't imagine that. She couldn't imagine that her parents had been murdered for nothing. There had to be some big truth out there and she would find out what it was or die trying.

In the meantime she would just have to deal with people being weird about her somehow. The looks she was getting in the streets were making her nervous. She had been used to just flying under the radar and sticking to herself and not being in the (semi) public eye, but now all of that had changed and she felt exposed all of a sudden. Even Levi was getting slightly more attention than usual.

"You're looking nervous. Is everything okay?" he asked her, as they were walking through the marketplace in the middle of the city. It was one of those days when everyone was out and about and things were just getting a little too much for Y/N. She turned around, wishing she could grab his hand, but it would be too dangerous. If people knew that they cared about each other that much, they would know how to get to them. And underground, there were few people who would have qualms about something like that. So they had to be careful about being in public together.

"Yeah, just... big crowds. I'm still getting used to this new status as someone selling information." Y/N answered. Selling books was the same as selling information, especially when they were banned books. It was like she was selling some sort of forbidden knowledge. It was dangerous. It was definitely illegal. And somehow in the underground that gave Y/N a high social status. She glanced to the side, where she saw two young boys whispering, looking at her.

"It'll get better over time, trust me." Levi just said. Y/N nodded. Of course, it had to get better over time, otherwise she would go completely insane. She didn't want to give up what she was doing either, because she was enjoying it so much, but the people aspect of it was freaking her out. Either way, it was what it was now. Even if she stopped selling books at this very moment... she'd still have a fairly high status for a very long time. Until someone else came into the business at some point.

Y/N didn't even know whether there was anyone else who would be willing to do this job if she decided to retire. It was an incredibly dangerous job. Y/N had known that from the start, but it hadn't really sunk in until she had started actually doing it. She hadn't realized just how much of a facade she had to keep up, especially when dealing with the military police. She knew they were onto her or at least had an eye on her, but as long as they couldn't trace anything back to her and didn't get any proper evidence, there wasn't much they could do. Except to intimidate her.

"MP was over the other day. Tried to question me and all." Y/N mentioned. Levi's expression turned into a frown.

"They didn't find anything, did they?" he asked quietly. Y/N shook her head. They sure had tried... two of the younger officers who had just gotten out of training and felt angry and like they were ruling the world. They hadn't been very gentle with her when they tried to question her.

"Of course not. I wouldn't be here otherwise. I'd say they didn't even know where to look, to be honest." she replied, holding her wrist. She had a nasty bruise there from when they had been holding her down, trying to scare her. It had worked pretty well. She was scared. Terrified, even. But she was more scared of them actually finding anything, so she didn't squeal.

"What's with your hand?" Levi asked, his eyes wandering to her wrist. Y/N wrapped her hand around it, so he couldn't see the bruise. Levi got angry really easily and she didn't want him to do anything stupid because he was angry for her. It was just a bruise. Y/N had had worse than that.

"Nothing, I..." she started, but Levi interrupted her.

"They hurt you." he stated. Y/N was about to shake her head, but then she just sighed and showed him her wrist. It was a dark purple, the bruise almost going around her entire wrist. It looked worse than it was, really.

"It's not that bad..." Y/N muttered, knowing full well that it wasn't going to help. Levi raised his eyebrow at her.

"It is that bad. We're getting you something for that. Fuck, I wish I could just kill those bastards every time they come for one of us."

"I know, I know. But you can't. They'll get you back three times as badly. It's really not that bad, Levi."

"Whatever. I still want to kill them."