Birdie (Levi x OC)

eighty-eight

"Lower, Falco!" I yelled, my voice tearing through the wind as I begged the young boy to bring his Titan closer to my husband.

Something was wrong with Levi's leg. Even from the air, the sight of it made my stomach flip; it was a mess of crimson, and the sheer amount of blood staining his pants sent a wave of panic crashing over me. Memories of my own maiming—the crushing weight, the snap of bone, the burning hot knife, the years of struggling to walk—rushed to the surface of my mind like a physical blow.

Is he going to bleed out? How do we stop the bleeding in the middle of this nightmare?

"Levi!" I cried as Falco tilted his wing, dipping lower to the ribs of the Founding Titan.

Ignoring the pain in my bound wrist, I reached out and grabbed at my husband's arm with both hands. I was desperate, my hands digging into his sleeve as I tried to haul him up onto Falco's back.

He reprimanded me immediately, his voice a sharp rasp. "Drop me, Birdie. I can do it myself."

I let out a sob, the sound lost in the roar of the wind, but I listened, letting him go and easing the pressure on my wrist. I watched, heart in my throat, as he ignored his own agony and pulled himself up onto the bird, even turning around to help Connie up behind him.

"Go get Jean and Reiner!" Levi barked, his commander's instinct overriding his pain. "They're just up ahead!"

As he was barking orders, my vision began to blur. I couldn't stop looking at his leg; the shredded skin, the way the blood seemed to pulse against the fabric. My vision tunneled and my breathing turned shallow and hard. I was back in Shiganshina, feeling the cold finality of my own injury, the terror of knowing life would never be the same.

"L-Levi, your leg," I cried, my hands shaking as I reached for him again. "We have to stop the bleeding. We have to—"

"Birdie," he ordered, his voice dropping into that low tone he used to steady me when the world grew too loud. He turned away from the chaos for a split second to lock eyes with me, forcing me to see him. He grabbed my upper arms, his fingers digging into my skin, his eyes fierce and clouded with a dark, protective anger.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he rasped, giving me a little shake as we lowered toward the skeletal ridge where Jean and the others fought.

"Your leg," I cried, staring at him wide-eyed, totally ignoring his reprimand. "What do we do? We have to—"

"It didn't hit an artery," he snapped, grounding me with the cold, hard facts. "It's just broken. The skin got shredded, but it looks worse than it actually is. You have to calm down. Breathe."

I swallowed thickly as I forced the information to settle. He wasn't dying. Not yet. I surged forward, wrapping my arms around his neck with reckless care, burying my face in the crook of his shoulder to hide the tears that broke free.

I felt his arms wrap around me, pulling me flush against his chest, his heart thundering against my own.

"I am so angry with you," he murmured into my ear, his voice trembling with a raw emotion he usually kept under lock and key. His grip tightened, bruising and desperate. "But I've also never been more thankful."

For a heartbeat, the war vanished. There was no Founding Titan, no screaming wind; just him, providing me comfort, even here at the end of the world.

"Now," he breathed, pulling back just enough to look at me, his brow furrowing as he finally registered our transport. "Explain to me what the hell we're riding on right now."

I let out a choked, watery laugh. "It's Falco."

Just as I answered, Jean, Reiner, and Mikasa scrambled aboard Falco's Titan, their faces pale and wind-whipped. They were all equally shocked to see me, their eyes darting between me and Levi's bloodied form.