One Million to One || Levi x Reader

king of spades (1)

Welcome back!! Full author's note at the end. XOXO I missed you guys

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You wonder how people die.

A fairly common thought, given the situation. People die in all sorts of ways: you've been witness to numerous. Marco, shot through the throat and bleeding out slowly in the hallway. Zeke, shot in the stomach and dying a slow and painful death. Floch, shot in the chest.

But those are all just shootings. Isabel, crushed by rubble. Farlan, boiled to death. That girl on fire in the very first game you played, clawing her way out of the room and burning alive. The girl with the snakebite- you can't remember her name. The shooter in the five of spades, falling to their death. 

Death is an inevitability; you know that. You just thought that in your lifetime, you'd see a lot more natural deaths. Old age. Cancer. Disease. Maybe the odd accident here or there. You wonder how disease works, actually- the science behind it all sounds interesting. Diseases that attack the heart, the brain- how do they function?

You wonder how you'll die. You wonder how Levi will die. You both will; it's just a matter of when.

When.

"What're you thinking about?"

You blink, pulling your gaze from the streets outside the car window. You look to who spoke: Hange, who's riding shotgun. Every thought you just had feels too morbid to say out loud, but you manage, "how do you think tuberculosis works?"

Erwin chuckles from the driver's seat. "I would not have gambled on that being your answer."

"What the actual fuck is going on in that brain of yours," Levi mutters.

You frown at him. "It's a valid thought!"

"Is it, though?"

"It is!"

"Who cares about tuberculosis?"

"I do!" Hange pipes up. "Isn't it interesting? I'd love to research the type of bacteria that causes-"

"We're probably all infected with various types of bacteria, living as we have been for the past few weeks," Erwin interrupts.

Hange's eyes light up. "Really?"

"I really fucking hope not," Levi grumbles, rolling his shoulders back. 

"No more different bacteria than usual, hopefully," you supply, but the look on Levi's face implies he's not reassured. "I mean, you know. Lots of bleeding and open cuts. So, you know, the same bacteria but maybe just more of them?"

Levi's frown remains. "You're not helping."

"Maybe that's how this all started. Some weird brain bacteria."

"I hate that theory."

Your lips twitch. You look back to the car window.

It's been several hours since the ten of hearts. The fire hadn't stopped until most of the resort came down, and it wasn't until the sun came up that people actually started to move. You'd passed out, you think, because Levi was shaking you awake at some point and you had your head on the ground, his coverup serving as a shield between your head and the sand.

You don't remember falling asleep- mildly embarrassing- but at least you didn't miss much. But Levi was still there when you woke up. Actually, now that you think about it, wasn't he sitting on his coverup to keep from sitting in the sand? How did that end up under your head?

Regardless, chatter arose as the sun did about some action in the city. Massive advertisement screens lighting up in the city, announcing the start of the next stage- whatever that means.