spite || levi x reader

3 - 9

You're woken up to the sound of talking and scuffling. You barely remember falling asleep in the first place, if you're entirely honest. There's some chatter, and you try to crack your eyes open, but the light is painfully blinding and you give up. Forgoing sight, you decide to just listen.

"...four hours since the battle ended," someone's saying, and it sounds like Jean. "We spent it all looking for survivors, but we found none."

Someone shuffles next to you. You inhale, then exhale slowly.

"So," someone says quietly, and you're pretty sure it's Armin, "the gate to Shiganshina is sealed. You assume Reiner, the beast titan, and one other have fled."

"Pieck," you croak out. 

There's instantaneous shuffling towards you. "Logan! You're up," you hear Eren say, and an arm eases under your back to lift you. Grimacing, you let whoever's helping you sit you up, and you raise a hand to your forehead. "How you feeling?" Eren asks.

You open your eyes. Eren's crouched in front of you, and a quick glance sideways shows that it was Levi that eased you up. Of course.

"Fine," you say, glancing around. Armin's beside you, also on a makeshift bed- weird, he doesn't look injured- and Sasha's on his other side, still resting. Levi's next to you, a comforting presence by your side with a lingering hand on your back. Connie and Jean are sitting near Sasha, and Hange's just a little further away. There's another scout just behind them that you vaguely recognize as one of the new scouts with the horses. "Her name's Pieck," you add.

"Her?" Levi says, fingers rubbing gently across your back.

The touch is hidden from the others and very much welcome; you're still a little disoriented from waking up. "The titan that carried them away," you explain, the memory coming back to you. "I... I caught them."

There's a pause. You glance around, knowing you interrupted, but no one seems keen on picking up their conversation again. You turn to Levi, and he nods, so you continue.

"I caught them," you start again, turning your eyes downwards. "She- she had long black hair, and she came out of the back of the titan. I was... I was just going to hold them there, wait for back up, but she... she transformed again."

"She transformed again?" Levi repeats. 

"Don't you need time in between?" Connie asks, glancing at Eren.

You nod vigorously, trying to justify their escape from you in your head. "I thought so," you agree, frustrated tears biting at your eyes. "But she- she just transformed again, no hesitation. And it threw me off."

There's a heavy silence.

"Maybe that's just a unique power for that titan," Hange says thoughtfully. "Quick transformations."

"I- I'm sorry," you force out. "I let them-"

"Enough," Levi says sharply, and you pinch your lips together. "There's no way you could've known. Clearly, they had some surprises for us. It's not your fault."

Not my fault.

No way you could've known that would happen. No way you could've know that titan- Pieck- could transform again right away. 

Right.

"Armin," Levi says, his hand still on your back. "Keep going."

Armin looks startled, but he continues, a haunted look in his eyes. "So, you all, you successfully kidnapped Bertolt," he says hollowly, and you straighten up. You have a feeling he's going to talk about what happened when you were passed out. "When both Commander Erwin and I were on the brink of death," Armin continues slowly, "after a disagreement about who should receive the injection..."