spite || levi x reader

4 - 6

A/N: I heavily encourage my anime-only friends to not spoil this for yourselves. I skip a lot of important plot areas in the manga because Logan only sees so much. I'll be here after the anime comes out, I promise.

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By some miracle, Hange doesn't give themselves shot.

The cart titan rounds on them, nearly making you grab your rifle, but Hange somehow manages to talk them down. Even though your heart is going a million miles an hour in your chest, you try to place your faith in Hange and keep yourself still. Worst case scenario, this goes badly wrong, and all three of you get killed. Best case scenario, you make new friends.

You scowl to yourself. You don't want to make friends with Pieck and whoever else is with her- if they're anything like the rest of the Marleyans, they're going to want you dead simply for existing. 

You see Hange turn towards you and beckon to you. You see two people on the back of the cart titan- one of them is steaming. Probably Pieck. "Here goes nothing," you mumble to yourself, and you urge the horses forwards. 

As you close in, the urge to grab your rifle becomes stronger and stronger. Your fingers feel dangerously twitchy.

Please, Hange. I hope you know what you're doing.

Sure enough, one of the people is Pieck. Although you've only seen her in her human form once before, when she and Zeke had ambushed you years ago, she's impossible to forget. She's perched on the back of her titan's neck, black hair as long and tangled as you remember it, and titan markings along her cheeks. When she meets your gaze, her eyes widen slightly with recognition, but that's the only reaction you get from her.

The other man is, surprisingly, someone you recognize. Hange introduces him as Commander Theo Magath, a Marleyan general, but you know him as the man who spared your life for saving Falco. Maybe Hange's onto something- he can probably be reasoned with.

You stop the horses in front of the two of them, eyes narrowed at Magath. He's holding onto a gun, but it's at his side, not aimed at you.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Hange says, their voice painfully optimistic. "Levi awake?"

"Yeah," you reply, eyes still locked on Magath. "Just woke up."

"Perfect."

Hange moves around to the back of their horse, trying to remove the cart. You don't move from your position, painfully rigid. You wish you had a set of throwing knives right now; you're much more accurate with those than you are with a gun.

Eventually, Hange's got the ropes off of the horse and unstrapped Levi from the cart, and you see him ease himself to a sitting position as Hange turns the cart around so that he can face Magath and Pieck. The corners of your mouth twitch upwards; despite the state he's appearing in, his glare is still piercing.

"My goal is to kill Zeke," Levi says plainly.

Pieck and Magath don't say a word to that. They simply stare at him, waiting to hear him out.

"Our interests align," he says when neither of them speak.

"Levi Ackerman," Magath says, and he raises his gun. Your hands fly to your waist, reaching for the rifle. "It seems that you have the strength to stand against the nine titans. But how do you expect to dodge one of my bullets looking like that?"

Fuck this. You raise your rifle, making aim for Magath's head.

"I can't dodge any bullets," Levi replies dryly, and the calmness in his voice makes you relax- only slightly. "But I'm presenting myself to an enemy in this sorry state. Shoot or listen. It's up to you."