Birdie (Levi x OC)

eighty-four

What I could only explain as a guttural growl escaped Levi's throat as he shoved me behind him, blocking my view of Reiner and Jean.

"What the fuck is going on, Jean," Levi snarled, his voice a low, lethal vibration. He stepped forward, shoving the tip of his blade closer to Reiner's throat, the steel biting just enough to draw a thin bead of crimson against the Marleyan's skin.

"Calm down, Captain," Jean said, his voice cracking with a mix of exhaustion and urgency. He moved to step between the blade and Reiner, his hands raised in a desperate gesture of surrender. "Just put the steel down for a second. Let me explain."

Levi didn't budge. I could feel the heat radiating off him, the sheer protective violence rolling off his shoulders in waves. He was a hair's breadth away from finishing what he had started in Shiganshina.

My mind vividly flashed to Levi's blade running through Reiner's neck after we had found him hidden in the walls.

I peeked my head around Levi's shoulder, my eyes wide as I took in the man standing beside Jean. I had never really known Reiner as anyone but the traitor, the boy who possessed the Armored Titan and tore our world apart. I remembered him from all those years ago: a young, blonde soldier with broad shoulders and eyes that almost seemed kind.

But this wasn't a boy standing in front of me.

This was a man.

He was hollowed out, his posture sagging as if the very air around him was made of lead. His face was lined with weariness and his eyes were haunted and vacant, stripped of any spark of defiance.

I felt Levi's muscles coil, ready to lunge, but I reached out and curled my fingers into the back of his shirt. I could sense that Reiner wasn't here to cause us harm. Despite all his past actions, despite the blood on his hands, the man standing in front of us now looked like he was simply waiting for the blade to cut deeper. He looked like a man who was already dead, just waiting for someone to make it official.

"Levi, wait," I whispered, my voice trembling but steady. "Look at him. He's not fighting."

Levi's eye remained fixed on Reiner's throat, his breathing shallow and jagged. "I don't care if he's fighting or not," he spat. "I care that he's still breathing."

Levi's blade didn't waver. Reiner opened his cracked lips, his voice a dry, rattling sound. "Captain, we—"

"Shut it, Reiner," Jean snapped, his eyes darting to Levi's murderous expression. "I'll handle this. You being the one to talk is only going to get you a hole in your windpipe."

Reiner closed his eyes and bowed his head, accepting the rebuke with such grace it was almost jarring. He looked like a man who had forgotten how to stand up for himself, or perhaps a man who felt he no longer had the right to.

"Captain Levi, please lower the blade," Jean pleaded, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper. "We don't have time for this. We're here because we're the only ones left who are willing to try and stop Eren. We need to get back to Hange and the others."

Levi's lip curled, his voice a low, dangerous rasp that vibrated through the small space. "All I care about is getting my wife out of this alive. And I doubt that talking to him," he looked sharply at Reiner, "will have anything to do with it."

Reiner's head turned, his haunted, hollowed-out eyes moving from Levi's face to mine. I saw slight recognition ripple across his features.

Reiner's eyes drifted lower, following the lines of my uniform until they landed on the heavy metal bracing of my leg. I felt a chill run down my spine as his stare lingered there.