Blue and White - Levi Fanfiction

Ch. 21 - Winter Snow

Levi was still perched against a tree which I might have inadvertently flung him towards with my movements when the time I reached the ground, rolling easily through my feet and then my knees, assuring that with the additional expelling of gas, I had an easy landing, one I was as practiced in as breathing, one that was as instinctual as smiling when one was happy. 

I looked up at Levi with a smile, and it seemed only to grow when I caught sight of his sneer. Still, I was far too used to this behavior from him by now, so I just sheathed my blades and set my hands on my hips, meeting his gaze evenly all the while. "How's that? I've killed more than you, now!"

Whatever anger had bubbled up in his chest died as he dropped to the ground before me and when he spoke, he sounded disappointed more than anything. "Why the hell did you do that, Amaya?"

"Why?" I repeated rather incredulously. "I can't leave all the fighting to you, can I?"

"We're both still new to this," he forced himself to say through a barely-concealed sigh.

"Right," I agreed surely with a nod, "but we'll never get better if we don't just... go for it."

"Just going for it is what gets half these soldiers killed," Levi spat out. "The other half die trying to save the idiots that just go for it."

"It's not that I'm not thinking," I argued gently, not wanting this to turn into a shouting match - not that I thought it would rise to that level, anyway. "I just want to make sure I wasn't brought into this group for nothing. I can't very well be labeled an elite without having the skill to back it up, can I?"

"We were asked to be here because of the skills we already have," he told me. "The rest will come with time." He whistled calling our horses back to us, who obediently trudged to us through the snow. I didn't even have it in me within that moment to remind him that he hadn't been asked to join the Vanguard. He had demanded it. Still, when he came, I took Strider's reins in hand as I mounted and just as Levi did the same. 

"For the record," he spoke, and I was half expecting him to say that at some point when I wasn't looking that he managed to kill several more Titans, meaning that I hadn't killed more than him, "what you did, it was impressive."

Huh.

Wait... Wow!

Before I could exclaim anything aloud, Levi continued and gestured with a movement of his head towards the direction we'd been heading before the bout with the Titans. "Let's get moving."

I didn't even have time to respond before he kicked into his mare's sides and brought her to a trot. I followed suit, a wider smile on my face than I'd had in a long, long time. I'd impressed him. I had. I had.

Wow.

For a while, we rode through the snowy forest. The thundering of our horses' hooves echoed back to us, bouncing between the trees and making it sound as though the entire regiment had caught up to us, but that was never the case. We were alone. 

With our cloaks wrapped tight around us, the horses trotting through the snow, and the wind shifting the branches just so, letting down slight flurries of snow that got caught in the wind and swirled to the ground, it was a rather calm, beautiful sort of atmosphere that we settled into.

It was only us, still working and remaining diligent, but relaxing and regathering our strength for the next encounter with a Titan. It was only us in this forest, content within the silence, soothed by the company we kept, and well-equipped to face any danger we came across - together.

I found myself looking around, not just for Titans but at the scenery. It was our first winter on the surface after all, and time and time again Elwin would tell me about the beauty of winter. He'd tell me stories of playing in it, in compressing it into balls to throw, even rolling them up to build... What did he call them, snowmen?