The Intern

Chapter 16

Levi

"Goodbye, Corporal."

I heard the car door slam shut and the soft scrape of tires as the limo began to pull away, but I saw none of it. My vision was blurred for reasons I would never admit to, and I turned my gaze to the sky above as I willed away the offending emotion. I didn't care. It didn't matter that he had ignored me entirely and gotten into the car, despite the fact that I had begged him not to. He was going to Erwin's apartment to be fucked senseless and it really didn't matter at all. I asked for this. I had spent days trying to get him to agree and he finally did. He was doing everything I asked for, so it didn't matter if he said goodbye to me now. There was nothing between us to begin with. It didn't matter. It didn't.

But fucking hell, it did. God damn it, when did I start to care?

Somewhere in the brief time that I had known him, this shitty little brat had managed to worm his way past my defenses and into a place in my chest that I was sure had died long ago. I was so certain that I had stopped caring, that my walls had become so thick that no one could ever break through, but every time I saw his face my heart moved as if it was trying to get out of my chest just to get to him. I hated him for making me feel this way, for making me feel at all, and I hated him more for his ability to break me. There was a pain in my chest that I wasn't used to, and he was the one who had put it there. When had I let him in?

I wiped a hand over my eyes and ignored the dampness I felt there. I would not get emotional over some teenage brat, at least no more than I already had. He had set out to hurt me when he said those words, and maybe it was in vengeance for all the things I had done thus far but I was going to make him pay for it regardless. I was certain I had made him feel plenty and were I in a better state of mind I might have even found him justified in his actions, but there was no chance of that right now.

I never let anyone hurt me and the fact that he had was something I couldn't easily forgive. If he wanted to play this game, we were going to play it my way and he wasn't going to like it. I was giving him the chance to back out of it when I followed him out those doors. I had been ordering him to give up. I wanted him to drop the stupid game because I realized I wasn't willing to sacrifice him. This entire mess could only end in him being hurt and a few days ago that didn't matter, but it mattered now. Or at least it had, until he said goodbye.

Goodbye to the Corporal, no less. I could have swung at him for that, if I hadn't so shocked when it happened. It was as if he had thought of the perfect way to hurt me; one I wasn't even aware of. He had taken the only identity I had ever been comfortable in, the first one I had met him in, and he told me goodbye. I was sure he must have physically stabbed me then because it hurt to breathe even now. It had been so long since I had let anyone in and I could feel the walls beginning to board themselves up once more.

I turned to walk back into building and jerked to a stop when I saw Erwin walking out the front doors. I'm not even sure I managed to compose my features before our eyes met, but I did my best to put on a stony mask. I couldn't let him see how any of this was affecting me. None of it should have mattered to me in the first place, and maybe if he believed that then I would start to as well.

"Levi, what are you doing out here?" Erwin's face was a mask of curiosity and nothing more. He knew exactly why I was out here.

"I saw Eren leaving and thought the brat was trying to skip out on work," I said the lie so easily, but I knew neither of us believed it. "I came out here to drag his sorry ass back inside."

"I just finished telling Mike that Eren will spending part of the day with me," Erwin smiled and I fought the urge to claw the grin off of his face. I wasn't in the mood to see anyone smiling. "He'll be back in time for lunch, so he won't be missing a full day."