Deviate | Levi Ackerman x OC

Ch. 43

Usually by this point in my shifting journey, I was mentally preparing to be greeted by my bedroom back at home. It never completely eased the ache left by the abrupt absence of this place, but I found I coped better when I was somewhat equipped for the inevitable. However, I was pleasantly surprised every morning when I woke up beside Levi instead, happy to live at least one more day in my little delusion.

He was facing me this time, one arm folded under him and the other reaching out toward me. I smiled to myself, the sight of this notoriously disgruntled insomniac at some kind of peace beside me warming my heart. As much as I had come to know and love his near constant grimace and pointed glances, seeing his face without a care in the world was a welcome change of pace, too. I rolled over a little more onto my stomach, holding my hands up by my face. Appreciating him this way was short lived, however, as he began stirring almost immediately, as if he could feel me looking at him. His eyes opened slowly before me, his eyebrows furrowing as his gaze met mine.
"What are you doing?" He asked in a sleepy voice.
"Nothing. Just admiring the view."
Levi scoffed quietly, moving his arms to stretch. "Is that why you never wake me up?"
"I wake you up," I disputed half-heartedly. "After I take the rare sight in for myself first."
He hummed from beside me, reaching over to tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear. "Well good morning, even if you weren't going to wake me to get a move on it."
I rolled my eyes at him but smiled anyway. "Good morning to you, too. If I knew this is how you were going to be, you'd be absolutely right."
He shot me an unenthused look that almost broke for a moment, his lips pulling into a small smirk before he caught himself. He leaned over and planted a kiss on the top of my head before he got to his feet, extending a hand to me to help me up.

We got ready for our day, an unusually pleasant start to a Monday. I'd slowly started developing a stash of my own clothes here, too, in a dresser drawer Levi had cleared out for me. I had a habit of trying to slip out first on work days so we wouldn't be seen leaving here together, but I decided today I simply didn't care. I could tell Levi was aware of this, too, as he continuously glanced at me, noticing how I took my time. I pulled my jacket on, putting the final adjustments on my harnesses before turning around to face him.
"Ready?"
I could read his skepticism from here, but he tried to hide it. "Yes, I am. You?"
"Absolutely," I affirmed confidently. "Let's go."
I walked over and opened the door, instinctively looking to see whoever might be lurking around. I stepped out into the hallway to find it was empty anyway, waiting for Levi to lock up behind me. I couldn't hide my happy demeanor as we walked down to the mess hall; sure, no one might've seen us head out together today, but it was another step toward normalizing this thing between us to everyone else. We were chattering aimlessly, about to descend to the first floor when I felt something or someone grab me by the back of my jacket collar.

"What the fu–?!"
"Let's go," Hange deadpanned, strangely serious for them. They let go of their hold on me but the stern look on their face told me they meant business. I exchanged a cautiously curious glance with Levi and we entered their office.
"Hange," I broke the silence when we'd all finally been seated. "What is going on?"
"They know," was all they offered in response.
"They... know? Who knows? And knows what?"
Levi watched them carefully but didn't say a word. Hange met his hardened look with one of their own. Everyone else here seemed to be speaking a wordless language I hadn't been clued in on, and they were taking their time in helping me get there. "Hello?"
"They," Hange stressed again, "know. Our friends in the Military Police."
Their words still weren't making sense to me, but what I was picking up seemed absolutely impossible. I choked out an awkward laugh in disbelief. "They can't know anything. Except maybe that one of their own is incompetent, but that isn't exactly news."
"They know enough to summon Erwin for a formal meeting."
"And how exactly are you sure it has anything to do with... what happened?"
"Stroid, they operate on an almost annoyingly exact schedule over there. Conferences happen like clockwork at the designated quarterly marks, never a week or even a day early. You think it's something of a coincidence that they'd throw one in on a random month in between?"
I pursed my lips. "I think we'd be getting a little carried away to assume they could possibly know what we do."
"You aren't wrong," they replied dryly. "But I do think it's in the realm of possibility that they know something is clearly amiss."
"How so?" Levi finally spoke up from beside me.
"That little book holds a lot of information that can be useful to us, sure, but also a lot of information that would be detrimental to them if it ever made it outside. They've never had to care before because it's been something of an inside joke among themselves," Hange mused. "If I had to guess, I'd say your date from hell finally noticed a certain paper weight missing from his office and informed the appropriate channels, resulting in Erwin being recalled."
I stared blankly at the floor in front of me, unsure of what to say next. There's no way they could be right. Right? It had to be something cooked up in that mad scientist head of theirs?
They weren't about to let my lack of response detract from their determination. "He leaves this afternoon for the meeting tomorrow morning. So we have to act fast."
Levi and I snapped our heads up in unison. "Act fast to do what exactly?"
"You're not serious," he didn't even give them a chance to answer, already sounding like his mind was made up.
"They're already sniffing around," Hange persisted. "They don't know exactly what for yet, so now is our chance to go out and get what we need."
Suddenly, I was clued in to what they were getting at. "Hange, you don't actually mean–"
"Come now, darling. You knew the plan going into this."
"Yeah, as a back up to mine if it failed, which it very much didn't," I countered forcefully. "Or so I thought. Are you saying I went through all that for nothing?"
This seemed to rattle them, their stonewall resolve shattering a little as their gaze softened at me. "No, my darling girl. Not at all – I commend you for every bit of what you accomplished. This isn't as a substitute for your contribution, but a surefire reinforcement for our case is all."
"No," Levi stated firmly. "That's not how any of this works. Ace did what you needed, if not more. We're leaving it there and no bureaucratic bullshit is going to change that."
"In a normal circumstance, you'd be right. But they're bringing in Erwin because they're worried they're somehow found out, so it wouldn't be unlike them to impose even stricter measures against our budget to flex their muscles and prove they still have us where they want us. It's bigger than Stroid and that promotion, this could mean an even worse standing for all of us."
"You have no proof of that," he replied, getting to his feet. He gave me a discrete side glance, probably trying to gauge my stance or see if I was going to follow suit. Part of me wanted to do just that, put an end to this madness before Hange could go any further, but my legs suddenly felt like they were made of stone and wouldn't go. Not because I wanted to entertain them further, but because I couldn't believe this was really happening. Levi paused for just a moment but when he realized I wasn't immediately getting up myself, he turned and left without another word. The room fell silent.

"Stroid?" Hange attempted sweetly after a few minutes had passed.
My words had a hard time coming together. "This... can't be real. Right?"
They gave me a sympathetic look. "I would never ask you to do anything you're uncomfortable with, especially after everything that's already happened. But I am going to continue with it myself – I don't know what exactly they're up to over there but I don't have a great feeling about it. I want to make sure we have our bases covered as much as we can just in case."
"And your idea of 'having our bases covered' is attempting an all-but-guaranteed death wish?"
"You're spending too much time with Levi – you sound just like him."
I scoffed. "I think that's less Levi and more basic-sense-of-self-preservation."
"I guess I can understand that," they rolled their eyes lightheartedly. "But I do really believe in this one. I've wanted to do this for so long and Erwin has never been on board until now!"
"Technically he still isn't on board," I corrected. "He has no idea about what you're trying to do."
"What he knows won't hurt him, and he'll end up thanking me once he sees what we accomplish!"

I zoned out after that, physically still 'with' Hange as they detailed the specifics of this mission, but everything around me became a blur.
I had to find Levi.
At least, that's what I know I should be doing. Instead for whatever reason, I left Hange's office and just sort of... went. Where my feet were taking me, I hadn't quite figured out yet, but my brain was in too much of a fog to worry about that. Trying to decipher my own thoughts, I went down one corridor, then another, rounding corner after corner.
It was naive to think that chapter was truly closed that easily – if you want to call it that – but I'd never considered the possibility that the worst was far from over. The Military Police had power we couldn't even wrap our heads around and bent any other 'rules' to fit their agendas, making them as close to untouchable as possible. This much we knew, of course; what we hadn't considered was them pushing back and risk exposing themselves in such a big way. It was a different kind of disappointing, too, feeling as though all the work I'd done to get through that interaction and put it behind me was ultimately for nothing.

Things were tangibly awkward that evening upstairs with Levi. It was the first time we'd been alone again since that sit-down with Hange and neither of us really knew how to broach the subject here – if we should at all. He could tell something was off with me, being somehow more attentive than usual. Even if he had his own feelings on the matter, Levi gestured for me to come closer to him, stroking my hair when I laid my head on his chest. I thought I'd narrowly escaped having this conversation as the steady sound of his heartbeat began lulling me to sleep when he cleared his throat from above me.
"Ace."
"Hmm?" I hummed in response.
He hesitated briefly, carefully considering how he wanted to continue. "What did you end up telling Hange?"
"What do you mean?"
"Knowing them, I assumed not going through with it was simply not an option. I just wasn't sure how they took your not participating."
It was my turn to delay. I was grateful for the position we were laying in for multiple reasons now, as it helped divert my gaze a bit more discreetly. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come out.
"Ace?" Levi inquired again, a little more firmly. "You did tell them that there was no way in hell, right?"
I closed my eyes and swallowed hard, trying to formulate my thoughts. After a few moments, I managed to force out a questionable and not very confident, "No."