Birdie (Levi x OC)

eighty

Captain Levi

"Captain! Come have a drink with us! They sent a shipment of wine with the recent supply run!"

Levi sighed, casting a weary, sharp glance at the soldiers. They were drinking cheerfully, their faces flushed with a rare, dangerous comfort in the middle of this godforsaken woods. He shifted his gaze to Zeke, who sat with a revolting air of peace by the fire; a book in one hand, a half-eaten apple in the other.

"Not gonna share a drink with them, Captain?" Zeke asked, sensing the weight of Levi's stare.

"Tsk," Levi sneered, turning his back on the man to yell at the soldiers. "Put the alcohol away. Now is not the time to indulge in frivolities. That's an order."

Zeke smiled, a slow expression. "I guess not." He leaned back, muttering under his breath just loud enough for the wind to carry it. "Not that it would matter much now."

"What did you just say?" Levi snapped, standing tall.

"Oh, nothing," Zeke raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'm just getting rather bored. How much longer do you expect us to be here, Captain? I'm sure you're feeling antsy to get back home."

"If you're so bored, how about we have a little chat?" Levi sat back down, leaning against a mossy log. He crossed his legs, though his muscles remained tight.

"I've already told you, Captain," Zeke sighed. "I don't have anything to say."

"I doubt that," Levi hissed, the rushing sound of the nearby river filling the silence between them. "You say so much while actually saying nothing at all."

Zeke tossed his apple core into the fire. The seeds hissed as they hit the embers. He looked at the soldiers, who had finished their drinks and returned to their posts with a strange, sluggish obedience.

"Fine," Zeke said, his voice dropping an octave. "Ask away. I'll answer honestly."

Levi felt a prickle of unease. The afternoon light was dying, bleeding into a bruised purple dusk. "I'll bite. Are you wanting to start the Rumbling? You have to touch Eren to do that. Is that the goal?"

"No," Zeke said, an unnerving, wide smile spreading over his face. "Sterilization, Levi. That's my plan."

The world seemed to stop. The steady rush of the river suddenly felt like a roar in Levi's ears. A cold, hollow feeling washed over him.

"What did you just say to me?" Levi kept his voice steady but he could hear that it sounded dark.

"I don't think I need to repeat myself," Zeke mocked. "Sterilization. I'm calling it my 'euthanasia plan.' Touch Eren, use the Founder, and alter Eldian biology. Prevent us from having children. Then our kind will slowly die out. No more children to take over this war."

Levi's face hardened into a mask of stone. His mind flashed to Birdie. He thought of her in their rooms, her hands covered in grease and ink, her laugh; the only thing that made this miserable world bearable.

He wants to sterilize my wife? The thought was a jagged shard of glass in his throat.

"Does this upset you, Levi?" Zeke asked, his tone dripping with feigned pity. "If it makes you feel better, it's unlikely to affect you, considering your Ackerman blood. But her...a shame, really. You've left her in a pit of vipers, you foolish man."

Levi stood up, his movement a blur of lethal intent. He marched over, seizing Zeke by the collar and forcing the man to meet his gaze. "What did I say to you about talking about my family?"

"I'm merely pointing out the obvious," Zeke whispered, his eyes glinting behind his spectacles. "You can't protect her from a world that is already ending."