The Captain and the Assistant

Chapter 17: Sheganshina

On the night of the new moon, the scouts get ready to silently take off. It's not as momentous as you had hoped. Before your last expedition the scouts were met with a massive send off. You had hoped this would be similar, but not when you leave in the dead of night.

You walk with your horse next to Levi. You're both towards the front of the entire pack, only Erwin walks in front of you two. You steal a glance at Levi. The only light illuminating his face is his lantern, which he holds out with his steady hand. He looks so handsome in the glow. You want the thing making your heart skip a beat to be the idea of the mission, titans, saving humanity, but you can't help daydreaming about the fact that you are now Levi's girlfriend. Well, you hadn't made it official with any titles or anything, but you knew you were his, and he was yours and that was enough to carry you through any fear you might have had over the expedition.

Levi catches you staring at him and greets you with a soft smile. He slowly moves closer to you and swings his cloak out wide, so it envelops both of you. You don't know if he does this to keep you warm, or ward away wandering eyes. Then he reaches for your hand with his. The moment he does, you feel electricity flow through you. You lace your fingers, feeling his rough palms as you connect. His knuckles are still bruised from the altercation last night, (if you can even call it that. It was more accurately a complete ass beating).

He's still looking at you while you look down to his knuckles. You lift both of your hands up towards your mouth and gently kiss his knuckles. You barely even had time to say thank you after everything that happened. You feel Levi pull away. Even though you have shielded the view from the back, Erwin could turn around at any moment. You see Levi's eyes flit to the commander. His eyes are locked ahead.

You smirk at him. "Oh please, Levi. He's well aware," you whisper.

Levi's eyes open wider in shock. He shakes his head at you, "Will we be there soon? It's almost dawn?," Levi calls out.

Another man responds, "Just over this mountain."

You realize you must be close to your hometown. Even these trees are beginning to look farmiliar. You remember your father showing you the best spots to find dry firewood.

"We're close, Levi," You promise him. "My town must be on the other side of this forest. When this is over, I'm going to take you there sometime."

Levi smirks at you. It's nice sometimes pretending like your lives are normal. You wish you could take him there for a 'meet the parents' type of dinner. You know your dad would be wary of Levi, but if your mom were alive, you're sure she would love him just as much as you do.

....

Day breaks and Erwin orders the scouts to mount their horses. You'll need to get to Sheganshina as fast as possible to avoid conflict with any other lingering titans in the area. You see the walls appearing in sight.

Levi's fast to mount his horse and you struggle slightly pulling yourself up onto the saddle, but you manage and every scout takes off, the horses galloping must sound thunderous. You hope it doesn't alert anything or anyone.

"Keep your guard up. There could be titans anywhere," Erwin calls out when you near the small town on the outside of the walls. "All scouts switch to ODM gear."

You watch Levi, who makes standing and balancing on a horse trotting at full speed look like a walk in the park. You follow his lead, only slightly less gracefully and you both latch into the side of the wall and use your gas to ascend. You stick your landing and Levi starts running at a full sprint. He calls back to the others in his squad to get moving.

"You're coming with me," Levi calls over to you. You knew the plan, but had stopped suddenly to take it all in. You couldn't believe how crowded Sheganshina looked down below. The houses had all been destroyed. You couldn't imagine what it must have been like to have been here that day. You  could understand Eren's passion more. You selfishly hoped that your home was still intact. You needed to show Levi.