The Crocus Lawn// Levi x reader BOOK 1

IX

There's a mission coming up, and you were nervous. It would be your first mission, but you were in a rookie squad, which provided you with some buffer. Not loads, of course, plenty died on their first mission. Like Farlan, or Isobel. Including that mission, this upcoming one would be Levi's third, and you were starting to regret teaching him some of your tricks. Sure, you'd learned plenty more from Nanaba, who now had a year of experience under her belt, but it couldn't really compare to the rough and dirty fighting style that could only be perfected in The Underground.
Not that you weren't familiar with that place, but your brother had famously abandoned you before you could learn any ODM tricks there.
Abandoned's a harsh word, you reminded yourself, he was still only a kid too.

"Knock knock," a voice sounds from behind the door of your room, the one you share with Nanaba.

It's Nifa, a girl fresh from Training Corps, who you realise is probably just as nervous as you for the upcoming mission. You'd seen her, as well as the other newbies arrive in the mess hall not long after you transferred. It took a while for them to realise you were fresh-faced too, while you did spend most your time with Nanaba, it was clear you hadn't yet clicked with any of the other soldiers. You only really made an effort to recognise the people who would be on your new squad. As it turned out, for once the death toll of the previous year was significantly lower than the new intake. Possibly because the Scouts weren't present for the majority of the fall of Shiganshina, or possibly because of how many kids had been harrowed by the loss of their hometowns and families. Either way, squads had to be created and expanded.

"Hey Nif, the doors open," you sigh.

She slowly walks in, closing the door to behind her.

"I know you're not technically part of my cohort, but you're on the same squad as me, I wanted to get to know a bit about my squad mates before..."

Right, yeah. Before anyone died.

"There's not much to know about me," you said, trying to sound truthful.

She seemed to buy it, and also decided to leave you alone.

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"Just point your hooks either side of you, gas gas gas, shoot them behind you, gas some more, and you'll start to feel yourself looping back around!" You yell, exhausted from explaining the concept of 'wall flipping'.

"It would be slightly different with a wall, you'd shoot up not out, and you'd need to practice landing. This is child's play!"

You could hear the growl caught in Levi's throat, he was getting frustrated.

"How do I get that high?" He said, adjusting the grip on his blades.

You drop to the branch he's on, carefully balancing. His grip is off, it's strained, like he's forcing his hand to do something unnatural.

"What's with the grip?"

"This is how they teach us to do it, moron,"

"So that wouldn't be how you'd normally do it?"

He shakes his head, baring his teeth.

"I can do it how I want, but you're teaching me a Garrison trick," he seethed.

You shake your head, and hold out your own blades. The grip is reversed. An Underground trick, a dangerous one. That's how you hold a knife to do damage.

"I learned it in the Garrison, yes, but there's no walls here," you begin, watching as he flips his blades to a more natural pose, "You don't need to wield swords much on the walls. But here, where you can't survive without them, you need to make sure you can loop back into a fight."