His Wounded Heart Beats For One (Levi x Reader Fanfiction)

18: A Sudden But Welcome Guest

You don't run into the group of nurses on your way back to Keiski, and you're left to make the trip back to Trost alone. It spans two days, with a brief stop in Fordshire, and you eventually reach the gate of your home district right when the sun touches the horizon on the second day.

It's too late in the day to visit Walter, so you decide to simply head home instead. You find a community stable in Trost to leave Cyrus at, then make your way to your lone house.

It greets you with its empty rooms, vacant of life for too long. That subtle must has returned, yearning to be cleaned.

That's tomorrow's work, though. You're tired, a week's worth of Scout training just now taking its toll.

The next morning, you get ready for work at Walter's clinic—you might as well get back to the routine, after all. Between your sluggishness in getting out of bed and your hurriedness to prepare for the day, you don't have much time to tidy up your house at all. You simply hope the meticulous Levi won't show up until after you've had a chance to clean.

You cross the pedestrian footbridge over the river and head to Walter's clinic, preparing yourself for the mundane yet pleasant day of work. It's a quick shift after the hectic week behind you, and it's simultaneously an activity blessed with peaceful serenity before your commitment to the Scouts tears you out of the ordinary yet again.

The door to his clinic is unlocked, likely recently. You let yourself in, scanning the room. "Walt? It's me. I'm back."

The door against the back wall swings open, Walter bumbling through. "You're back!" he repeats, arms outstretched as he joyfully approaches. "Welcome back, welcome back! It's so good to see you!"

You embrace him, chuckling. "It's nice to see you too, Walt." Leaving the hug, you mirror his happy smile. "How have you been? How's the clinic?"

"Wonderful." Walter scratches his scalp as he looks around the empty office. "I'm doing just fine. Business is well. Oh, yes. The people of Trost are so good to me."

"That's good. Your assistant would have a real problem if you weren't being treated well."

"Oh, it's good to have you back," Walter says delightedly. "Sit, sit! Let's talk for a bit before patients show up. We have time."

You take a seat in the waiting area, Walter beside you. Tales of the past week are recounted, though you find yourself skirting around the notion of joining the Scouts. You don't mention Erwin's proposal, or the nurses' rumination, or your eventual agreement to join. Speaking with Walter, you can't bring yourself to dampen the aura of joy beaming in his expression. It'll hurt him too much.

You'll tell him, for sure. Just...not right now.

Instead, you discuss Levi without discussing his promise to protect you. You talk about how he spied on the nurses' group, and how he was an unbelievably incredible flyer and swordsman. You avoid his argument with Lisa and instead reminisce on how you snuck into his room, having to reassure Walter that you didn't do anything with him. You just visited, and talked.

Soon, patients show up, and you disband your conversation to get to work. It's an easy routine, one citizen after another arriving with their own issues that you diagnose and work to resolve. Walter is kept busy, the two of you operating the clinic like a machine.

You cannot stop thinking about your enlistment. Not so much the prospect, but rather explaining said prospect to Walter. Having to tell him about this hadn't even crossed your mind in the decision-making, but now you have to face the brutal reality of confessing your future plans to your mentor.