This cruel world [Levi Ackerman x Neko reader]

18.

"You can go way faster than this."

Sweat dripped down my face. My body was aching from hours of hard work, yet I was given no time to properly recover. Shouting back a fast response, I tried attacking even faster.

However, it didn't take long for him to use this as an opportunity and use my focus on the pace rather than the situation itself. Not soon after, ground disappeared beneath my feet and I lost balance, falling back on my butt.

"You're so mean!" I winced, panting heavily, and scratching the back of my neck. I felt exhausted.

"You're the one who didn't pay enough attention to your surroundings, it's not my fault." A click of a tongue ticked me off.

A wide hand appeared in front of my face. Levi was looking down at me, barely breaking a sweat from this workout. I huffed, taking his offered hand.

"I'm going to make you lose one day, I swear." After being pulled back on my feet, I sighed in annoyance.

"Wow, I already feel so scared." Levi rolled his raven eyes and threw a bottle of water to me. I gladly took it.

"Well, since you're so confident, it is only fair, if I attack you in my fashion as well?" I raised an eyebrow, taking a big sip of water. 

"And what might that be?" Levi answered as if he didn't care, but I could see how his guard went up immediately after my words.

"Ah you know, nothing too much.. " I teasingly looked up, squinting my eyes, pretending to think about what it was. But soon a big smile appeared on my face. "Just a shit-ton of paperwork came in today and I promised Erwin for you to have it done by tomorrow."

Levi's face beautifully changed into a baffled expression.

"That's actually cruel, (y/n).." he sighed, putting his arms on his waist. "When did you prepare this "attack" ?" 

"I knew that the delivery guy would come today so the moment you made me move away from my project to train, I left a note for him in Hanji's office." I smiled in victory. "That's what you get for interrupting my work."

"Your work  is not engineering." Levi rolled his eyes once again and started gathering his things from the training grounds to go back to the office in defeat. "Your work is to assist me."

"As far as I know, I do not have an official workplace. So until I am actually employed, I decide what my job is." I knew exactly how to respond to his attack. 

"The audacity. " Levi sighed, waiting for me to grab my jacket, and after I did, we started walking up the hill.

"I only learn from what is in front of me." I winked at him, laughing.

My time in the survey corps had almost reached a eight months at this point. The headquarters had become my home, cadets - my family. It was the best I had ever felt.

I'd become way closer with Hanji and Levi as we were closer by age than the cadets. Out of the two, I felt more comfortable with Levi, as after testing the boundaries of our weird assistant-boss relationship for a while, it somewhat became more of a friendship. I was never punished for mocking him, while he openly mocked me back. Our bickering came with us wherever it was we went.

I did mainly spend my time on project developing and engineering, however, I still fulfilled my duties as Levi's right hand - as many of the cadets called me. I became somewhat of a manager for him, sometimes even managing Hanji when she tried to slack off.

And so with time my position in the survey corps, even though I was an unofficial cadet, slowly rose and after new cadets came in, I began seeing more eyes of admiration. It felt weird at first, but I didn't let myself feel flattered - that would only add fuel to my ego, so I rather worked even harder to prove my skills to them directly, not through the rumors.