In Another Life || Levi x Reader/OC

Utgard Castle

You winced as you felt the needle poke through your skin, watching as Lynne looped the thread through the gaping wound. The blood was sloppily wiped away, red staining your skin and uniform. Lynne held down your exposed thigh while she concentrated on connecting the skin back together.

"I'm sorry. It's only a few more loops, I promise," she reassured you.

You bit down on your lip harshly, drawing some blood. Having no travel medic among the Survey Corps was an unfortunate situation to deal with. Of course, all soldiers were required to learn how to treat injuries like these, but they were not licensed doctors. It didn't help that Lynne's hand was continuously shaking from nerves as she stuck the needle in your thigh, either.

You flinched when she pulled the thread too tight.

"Shit. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," you said weakly. "But please be quick. Having my underwear exposed to you this long is a little uncomfortable."

The cut was more dire than you had originally thought; it took up about half your thigh, exposing the fat layer. You silently prayed that Lynne cleaned up the wound well enough until you were able to see an actual doctor, knowing that the stitching for a wound this severe was going to require more professional hands, or else it could get infected.

She finished stitching up your wound - knotting the end and cutting off the excess thread. She quickly grabbed the white bandages and lifted your thigh cautiously to wrap it around.

"There," she said. "You should be okay until we get back. The bleeding will likely continue for a bit, but it shouldn't be as bad as before."

"Thank you," you responded, carefully standing up and pulling up your pants. Continuing to wear your blood-stained attire for even longer revolted you, but it was either that or walking around half-naked. You just prayed the wound wouldn't get infected.

"You're lucky Lynne heard your call from a distance," Gelgar said while still situated on his horse. He covered his face in defeat and exhaled in exasperation. "I should have known not to let you two go. God, if this is what happens to the second strongest soldier in our army, who's to say Captain Levi isn't next?"

He wouldn't be, you thought to yourself. Although you were surprised by the way Mike had lost his cool and began to panic, it was still a reasonable reaction to have upon seeing something such as the Beast Titan for the first time, even for someone as strong as he was. Still, you had a hard time believing Levi would succumb to fear so easily, especially under such pressure.

Witnessing genuine fear from humanity's strongest soldier would surely be a sight worth paying for.

"What happened? That was a pretty deep cut," Lynne said, putting away her medical supplies.

You limped away from the scene before they found you, making sure you retreated as far away from the incident as possible. Avoiding questions was your top priority. Had they found the exact location where everything occurred, they'd have surely questioned you regarding how Mike died, why his gear was missing, and why his horse was dead. You wanted to reveal as little information about the Beast Titan as possible.

"We were bombarded by titans," you answered, avoiding eye contact.

"But even then, Squad Leader Mike has always been able to defeat multiple titans at once. With your help, I just don't understand how he ended up like this," Gelgar made a point to say. He furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought.

"There were too many," you added. "All of them were abnormal. It became impossible to catch up. At one point, I stumbled upon a jagged rock, which caused my current injury. He got distracted by his concern for me and was grabbed by one of the titans." You cast your eyes down. "It was my fault. The situation became all too overwhelming, and I was blinded by panic. I saved him too late. He was fully gone by the time I was able to clear the titans, and I knew I had no other option but to retrace my steps to find help."