One Million to One || Levi x Reader

interlude: home

You've been home for all of thirty seconds when Eren announces, "I want to go to the Beach."

Christ, you just got inside. "Now?" you say, shaking your shoes off.

"Alright," Levi says easily. "Bye."

You scowl at him, but Eren doesn't seem bothered. "And I want the two of you to come too," he adds. "You should come with me."

Levi ignores him completely. "Tea?" he asks, looking to you.

"Sure," you agree, still a bit bewildered, and Levi vanishes into the kitchen. "Wait. Eren, we're doing fine for ourselves. The offer's nice, but don't feel like you have to bring us with you. Your brother is there, right? So you would know someone?"

"Yeah. I just- I like you guys," Eren says, and Levi scoffs from the kitchen. "I want to find out how we get out of this place and why we're being punished like we are. And- well, you don't have to, but I want you guys to get out of this place too."

He's a good kid. Your heart twinges in your chest, because he's made a decent point. You and Levi have adapted well to the situation, but Levi's almost... accepted it, in a way. He doesn't care to know why you're here and how you can beat the system. He just handles life from day to day.

You're still curious. And...

Getting to the Beach means you and Levi don't have to be allies anymore. Getting to the Beach means a large group of people, theoretically- lots of people to be allied with. Levi probably won't trust any of them, sure, but there will be people there who are far more capable than you.

And you can meet other people to work with. You can finally be free of Levi Ackerman and the burden of his dead friends on your shoulders. That feels awful to say, but if you can detach, then you'll be okay. You can stop seeing him every day, you can stop relying on him. And maybe the guilt can stop.

You can tell him, and then he can abandon you, and you don't have to worry about being totally alone. You'll have Eren and- and everyone else at the Beach. There's no better time to finally get this off your shoulders.

"Okay," you say.

Levi's quick to step out of the kitchen. "Seriously?" he asks. "You want to do this?"

You shrug, looking to Eren. There's a glimmer of excitement in his eyes, which gives you the strength to continue. "They'll know more than we will," you explain, looking back to Levi. "And so many of these games, we've just sort of- sort of scraped by really narrowly. If people like Erwin and Hange are there, and- remember, they said to get some games under our belt before we came looking. So the people at the Beach- they're going to be tough. These will be people that know what they're doing."

Levi's staring at you like he's trying to figure out if you're serious. Or maybe he's trying to read for hidden motives, which is equally likely. 

"Maybe we can figure out how to beat the game," Eren says, pumping his fist. "If we can do that, then maybe we can get out of here."

Get out of here. That feels so optimistic for a situation with very few rules or any available criteria for 'winning'. "Maybe they know how to get out of here," you add. "They'll have more resources- you said it yourself, someone had a car."

His eyes narrow, as if he's mad that you threw his words back at him. "You changed your mind awfully quickly," he says.

You shrug. "We don't have to stay. I can- we can check it out and decide for ourselves. But we've run into so many people from the Beach at this point. I'm curious."

"Curiosity kills cats, or- whatever the fucking saying is," Levi grumbles, which almost makes you laugh. He stares at you for a moment, and you can see it in his eyes: he's not totally against it. Despite how much of a routine you two have, how disinterested he seems in discovering the truth about the world... he still wants to find Isabel and Farlan.