The Royal Decree (Erwin x Levi)

Chapter 20

A:n Please don't hate me for this one.

Levi knew that living outside the Walls would be akin to suicide. After all, besides the Titans, there was real danger out there: the lack of food and potable water, the cold, and the animals that were particularly hungry for human flesh. If he had been on his own, he would have probably survived; but with the two tiny lives depending on him keeping his for everything, he just couldn't risk it. After spending a couple of nights cooped up in the tall trees of the Forest, hungry and alone, with only two screaming, ravenous infants for company, he stealthily made his way back to the Walls, knowing that he was probably condemning the children and himself to a terrible fate given that the only way out of the MP's field of vision was the one place he had vowed never to return to.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in."

He snapped out of his hunger-induced delirium and instinctively cradled the children to his chest, hiding them from view underneath his uniform jacket.

"Levi, as I live and breathe."

The man's breath smelled of alcohol and stomach acid as he leaned in, attempting to get a better look at the Corporal. The latter sought to keep himself still as he held the man's gaze evenly in a display of what he hoped looked like complete control.

"What, did they finally see you for the piece of shit you are and kick you out of the army? News travels slowly around here, you know. So I haven't heard the latest from aboveground."

"Fuck. You. Get out of my way."

"What? Are you gonna fight me? You can barely stand, you're so fucking weak. Remember when you were the life of the party around here? Those were the fucking days. Levi, the famous whore–,"

"Shut the fuck up," Levi said through gritted teeth, attempting to get past the man. He remembered this one, an unfortunate fellow, one of his more-or-less frequent customers back in the day when the young man's only means of survival had been selling himself to disgusting characters akin to this one.

"Hey, what's that you're holding there, Levi?"

The man leaned in to get a closer look at the bulge beneath Levi's jacket, and the younger man felt his muscles jam into action as he ran, pushing past his former customer and ducking into a dark alley. Is there any other kind of alley down here? He thought with a bitter chuckle.

This was the underground, the very place he had struggled to escape so many years ago, and yet there he was, back again, with an armful of hungry, whimpering babies. He wondered whether Erwin was looking for him, and his chest contracted at the memory of the kiss they had shared. He didn't know whether it had been Erwin all along, if it had always been Erwin, from day one, and he had been reluctant to admit it. Either way, it was not going to happen for the two of them. Erwin would probably not come down here looking for Levi and the children. He knew how much the Corporal despised the place, and he was aware that this would be the last resort...

No. Now was not the time to think about these things, he had to find shelter and food, and fast, as the children's uncharacteristic silence could only mean that they were too weak to put up a fight now.

He found a small inn that he remembered visiting as a younger man, one of the places where he would offer his services for a coin and drink; and judging from the innkeeper's apparent flash of recognition upon seeing his face, he was well-remembered. Levi had spent all his money on getting down the stairs – the guards at the bottom recognized him and didn't want to let him in because of his newly-found reputation as an officer. He managed to convince the man to put them up for the night and give them some grub in exchange for his Corporal's pin, the only valuable thing he had on him besides the uniform.