Imperial Affairs (Levi X Reader) AU

44. A Canadian Blizzard In Another Universe

Reader's POV

What is he doing here?

"He's not my master," Reiner gritted his teeth, "He's my friend."

Damn, he's dumb. He's not supposed to reveal that. I guess the cold really does hinder his activities; physical or mental.

"Sure. And I'm the crown prince."

"How dare you joke about that?"

"I'm pretty fucking sure that the prince wouldn't like it if his servant called him his friend."

"I am his friend!"

"Look, blondie. I'm busy. I gotta go back to my mum. So if you would just let me see your master then that would be better than me forcing my way in," Levi threatened.

"How dare you threaten to barge into the prince's personal quarters?!"

"Right now," Levi started, his voice smooth, "I am worried for the prince's safety. If someone arrived at his room, his attendant would open the door but when asked to see the prince, the attendant would either ask the prince if that's okay or let the visitor in. You, however, referred to yourself as the prince's friend and I don't think the prince would stand for that and not speak up if he was present. And he is present. So I suspect you've done something to him."

That's a good excuse to be allowed in.

"He's not in here!"

"Where would he be in this weather then? Besides, I know he is here," I felt Levi's presence stronger than before, as if a wolf was cornering a dog.

Or a cat cornering a dog.

Some dogs are scared of cats.

I knew I was in deep shit. I wasn't in my disguise and I wasn't supposed to be here. Some people suspected that Y/N was a real person, the prince's full sister; but if she really was real, then why would the prince bring her to the North when the business there is not related to her? It would make Levi suspicious. Anyone else and I could threaten them, imprison them or have Marlowe bring in those strange injections from Marley or Eldia that can alter people's memories.

But Levi, my key card to being the Emperor like people had key cards for hotels, being discarded?

Nope.

I knew I had to leave. I approached the colossal window which I assumed was for ventilating the moisture after a bath or something. My palace didn't have windows as large in the bathrooms because it was modern enough to ventilate without large windows. I looked at the window which was completely shut to keep the snow and cold air outside as I tried to open it but I couldn't figure out its mechanism since I had never opened a window before in my life.

I could hear arguing and fear in Reiner's voice as he tried to hold him back for as long as possible, knowing that I would be trying to leave the attached bathroom at the moment. Reiner held him back for another minute as I figured out that it was supposed to just slide upward and had no hidden mechanism at all and had nothing to lock it.

I slid the window upward, falling victim to the cold winds as snow that freely entered in, listening to the extremely loud creaking of the window that I figured no one had bothered to fix. The sound hurt my ears. But in that second, I realised that Reiner and Levi were easily also listening to that sound.

I heard Reiner's voice grow louder, as if he was trying to be louder than the screeching of the window that was breaking something in me. I realised that the creaking wouldn't silence if I opened the window slowly so I pushed it up in a second and left it as it was upon hearing it thump on the top of the window frame but what did I expect? The glass slid back down, closing up once again once I removed my hands.

How old is this fucking place?! Why doesn't the fucking window hold itself up?!

I cursed under my breath as I pushed it up again, hearing commotion behind the bathroom door, jumping onto the window sill and harshly hitting my forehead onto the top of the window frame because I was just too tall to be able to leave easily. I leaned down to be able to get out and got my hair stuck on a nail that was sticking out. In an attempt to free my hair while holding the window up and balancing myself on the sill, I fell out.

I landed on the snowfield and thankfully didn't get hurt because of that. But my landing wasn't peaceful. I fell in a big pile of snow and I would have normally sunk right into the snow but it had hardened quickly because of the extreme cold so I tumbled away into the smaller piles of snow before finally landing into a pile of snow that wasn't as frosted as the others.

"Ugh," I got up, completely covered in snowflakes, feeling extremely cold and being hit time and time again because of the snow falling from the sky which was no longer singular snowflakes but bundles and bundles of snow getting as strong as ice.

"Ouch," I laid back into the snow to prevent any more falling snow to harm my beautiful face and also to hide myself from the view of Levi who could be peering down from the window at this moment. It would be difficult to see anything in this blizzard anyways but I wanted to make sure I wasn't visible and I was lucky that I was wearing a white nightgown.

I hissed in pain into the snow as the piercing and numbing chilliness of the heavy snow pained my skin and got up before I could be buried by the incoming snow like a corpse buried into the ground.

And because of that thought, a memory launched into my mind. One was very old and one was quite recent. Both had been very painful for my 'stone heart' to bear.

This is no time to be emotional.

I stood up, my waist still buried in the snow but my feet were on a surface so it explained how harsh the storm was as I waddled forward before falling on my face because the snow was too strong.

What if I die like this?

No one else but Reiner knew that I was down here. Levi knew that something that reacted to his blood had fallen but didn't know what. Mikasa was probably still with Kuchel. The Special Guard Squad and their replacements were either in their squad based rooms or volunteering to help out manage the place.

I was sure that Levi was curious and thought that it was an important piece of information finding out who or what had fallen but I doubted that he would risk death by the cold in order to find out what had fallen.

As for Reiner.... He.... He....

He would come to save me, right?

Or send someone?

But he...

I hastily got up and struggled against the snow pushing it away as I tried to figure out where exactly I was and how I could make it back into one of my buildings before my thinking was hindered because of the cold and I passed out because of hypothermia and died.

I didn't care which building I got in. I could come up with some excuse as long as I stayed alive.

I don't want to die.

But then, I felt a boiling in blood that I was thankful for because it kind of warmed me up and a few seconds later, when the boiling had become very strong, I was able to think better again and realised why my blood was acting that way.

It was a reaction.

An Ackerman?

I looked straight up, expecting the blood reaction to be some kind of feel related mirage and expecting to see the pure white sky or maybe a cluster of snow to be thrown right at my face but instead, I saw a pair of steel silver eyes that I never knew that I would be this thankful to see.

"Get up, shitty brat."

A/N = Finally, after weeks, I am not late!

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March 28, 2023

- Heliaxa