Blue and White - Levi Fanfiction

Ch. 20 - Wings of the Vanguard

Something I far, and I mean far underestimated was how cold winter truly was, and how terribly cold it could get.

Underground, it was always muggy, always disgusting. Sure, it got chilly sometimes, especially if you lived or worked by the vents or the stairwells, but for the most part, the only indication of what the weather really was - and what season it was - up on the surface was if someone ventured to the big hole in the ground that Levi and I tended to frequent and gazed upwards. Of course, there was also the possibility of someone heading upstairs to check, but that would get them killed unless they paid, which no one could comfortably do. So.

This winter in particular, our first on the surface, should have been joyful. It should have come gradually, lightly, beautifully, allowing Levi and I to enjoy the changes as they came and get used to all that winter was and all it could be. But the reality was that it swept in quickly and without warning. A storm blew in from the north, passing most of autumn by and bringing us straight to winter. And god damn, it was cold.

We'd been preparing and living for autumn, not winter, and it caught us all off-guard. The base, made of stone as it was, allowed a bitter air to penetrate its foundation and creep along every hallway and sneak into every room. Food got dryer and more bland by the day, training got harder, and it was difficult to completely remove the chill from my bones no matter how hard I tried.

The barracks were cold, the indoor training rooms were cold, the mess hall was cold, the outside was cold. Fuck, it was all cold.

To distract myself from the chill, I occupied my time by giving all I had to my training and to this regiment. When I told Erwin I was dedicating myself to this, I meant it. And so I did anything and everything necessary for me to do, and anything and everything that I could do in addition to my normal duties.

Since the last expedition - the one that stole the lives of Farlan and Isabel - it had been a few months, and until now, we had not yet been on another one, and I think that a lot of it had to do with the weather. This was fine and all, and I was content to train hard in preparation for a busy springtime of expedition-going, but Erwin the madman had somehow convinced Commander Shadis to plan one for a few weeks from now.

It was to be a long winter. Hopefully the lack of sunlight, with the heavy, dark clouds hanging in the sky for weeks now, would keep Titans from being too active. That was Erwin's thought anyway, and I figured it would make a lot of sense. There were Titans past the northernmost districts, but they rarely found the energy to swipe at the wall. They sat still, dormant, collecting snow that was disrupted only by the wind.

Hopefully, with the length of this winter and how unbearably cold it had been, the same would ring true for the Titans to the south, and we would be able to brave the storm and establish several checkpoints for future expeditions. It would be slow going, it would, but orders were orders and if going now would make it safer in the future, it was worth it.

This moment, after a long day of training in the snow, was the first in which I'd been able to find time for myself. I'd gotten cleaned up and now we were just waiting for the dinner bells to ring so we could head down to eat.

Oh, and by we, of course I meant that my company was Levi, as it usually was.

Truthfully, we didn't spend too much time away from each other. We trained together, we took our meals together, and we spent our evenings together. We spent most nights together too, (though usually I would fall asleep partway through), and it was actually rare for me to willingly spend the night in the barracks.

It wasn't that I didn't like the other soldiers, and I'm sure that even Levi was learning to gradually tolerate them, but after so much loss, I found his company most comforting. And Levi, well... he wasn't exactly a people person, now was he?