Scrapes of Cold Ice [LeviMika Fanfiction]

1

Noise.

To most, the sound coming from the flat screen was their usual evening news, a platform to input the newest thing to talk about within social circles, or to publish and humiliate politicians who had been greedy.

Well, to Levi it meant nothing.

It was useless noise.

The anchor's voice passed him by - would soon be forgotten - like everything else in the world. The volume drowned in the silent background of his empty apartment, and Levi's eyes was on anything but the screen. There was a blur of words, and a mention of his name, and that was enough trigger for him to take the remote control from the stool beside him. He didn't really care about context.

"Three time Olympic champion, National figure skater, Levi Ackerman, is still on an unknown hiatus. There had been no successful contact to get a statement from the athlete since he forfeited from the last competition."

The television was quick to shut off the moment Levi pressed the power off button, as if it had been waiting for Levi to do so. His eyes moved to the now empty screen.

A frown formed so naturally in his lips, a habit he had yet to care about. The sudden loss of light from the screen made him realize that he hadn't bothered to turn on his lights at all, and the darkness of his space made his shift his eyes to a source of better lighting - the busy streets of the capital city of Mitras from his penthouse view.

It was only 7 PM, and most people were probably out for dinner, or a drink with friends, but Levi had no plans to do anything else but let his mind run blank. The Ackerman was not usually so empty headed, and never in his life, had Levi been so out of touch, but this time he just wished to be. He didn't want to think, for once, all he wanted was to be empty and soulless. He thought maybe it would be less frustrating if he really was.

Levi finished his beer and stood up, his eyes briefly resting on three velvet boxes laid in the corner of the room. Six months ago the contents of the boxes was on display, with full pride, on the glass shelf placed very egoistically across his door.

It was never his idea to have displayed his medals out in the open. The display only happened because of Hanji, because she reasoned, "Why did you even compete if you don't want to show off what you won?"

He had never been the most excited about awards or titles. Levi had achieved what he had achieved because he was a fighter. He had something to prove and he proved it. The gold medal meant less to him than his breakfast.

When he was still capable, it meant nothing to him. Now that he was incapable, it became a painful prompt to irritation.

Despite his usual heartless demeanor and his ability to ignore pain, the gleam of gold had irritated him to the bone. The sharp reminder of pain bolting through his right ankle as well as a flash memory of the accident had always followed along with the ghost of pain that haunted him.

The constant reprise of shock, anger and disappointment to himself, and the world, was irritating and it was getting frustrating.

Within the first month of rehabilitating, he pushed his medals to a corner - out of sight, out of mind, soon to be forgotten.

Levi scowled. Why he was having such sentimental reminiscent bullshit - he didn't know. And he didn't want it to be a habit. It was a waste of time and energy to be pitying himself like that. 

He crushed the empty beer can, and went to throw it properly in his trash can - a neat habit and self-sanitation task that he was keen to keep even in his self-loathing session.

It was funny, this habit of his. He first came from dirt, after all. Poverty was his everything. Cleanliness was the only luxury he could attempt to give himself, and he trained and grew up with absolutely nothing to lose - no family to feel indebted to, nowhere lower he could've fallen to.

But now the entire nation praised his name, and to them, he was a national hero. He broke record after record, most of them winning his own previous. He lived twelve years in glory, where the Olympics and Grand Prix were his throne, and the entire world had their eyes on him.

Even his apartment, wide and modern as it was, was a residue to his years in figure skating glory.  He worked nonstop to be where he was, and he was currently sitting at the top, nobody dared say otherwise. Every skater dreamed to be him, and every country representative wished to have an athlete like him. Everything around him was a prize he had gotten from that very glory, but also an obvious reminder to where he was standing.

And from there, he fell.

And the world still imagined he was still soaring somewhere they couldn't see - nobody saw his fall.

Not yet, at least

Levi scoffed. Kenny would've mocked him. What good was all his success now, if he became just as incapable, if not even less, than when he first started?

A notification bell disturbed the long silence in his one man apartment and his phone lit up so obviously in the dark room. It started with one, two, and eventually the beeps continued endlessly. Levi would've let the device on its own fun and catch himself a few early hours of sleep, if only his phone (or more like the person texting him) would shut up and let him.

He was already in his room when he took a quick turn to pick up his ringing phone. 

The texter had turned to calling him alternatively, so he swiped the green button and greeted the other line with a quick, "Fuck you."

The boisterous laughter coming from the other line was enough information to conclude who his annoyer was.

"Hello, our beautiful missing figure skater! I hope you're having a great time self-pitying yourself in the confines of your home."

"What do you want?"

Hanji's excitement was apparent and almost automatically visualized itself in his imagination much to his chagrin. Levi blamed it on the decades of growing up with the latter. Hanji was basically stuck with him - she made that clear.

"I want you~, is that a lot to ask?" Hanji laughed again. Obviously, there was something she was uncomfortable of asking him, and Levi could care less about what she wanted from him.

"Fuck off."

"Okay fine - wait! Don't hang up!"

Hanji heard a sigh, and she grinned. She wasted no time in going on. " So there's these kids, Levi, in my class, talented, of course, and it's almost competition season, and-"

"No."

Levi did not wait to cut off the line, put his phone on silent, and leave it dry on his living room couch. This time he really was going into his bedroom, and he could feel sleep coming to him as soon as he touched his mattress - but then his bell, his actual apartment bell, started ringing like some maniac alarm.

"Fuck Hanji."

At that moment, Levi regretted ever installing a bell at all. He didn't need visitors anyways - why did he bother in the first place?

The bell rang endlessly, and frustratingly. The culprit was obviously the one and only Hanji Zoe, and Levi ought to go out with a knife. Or maybe his skating blades.

"Levi! It's Hanji, let me in!"

Her voice was muffled by the doors, but the solid piece of embellished wood was not enough to muffle Levi's annoyance.

Instead of opening his door, Levi pressed the answer button in his intercom and connected it to his building's security line, making sure both his security officers and Hanji could hear him.

"Security, there's an unknown woman ringing my bell like madman. Take her away."

He let the button go, and heard more muffled screams coming from Hanji.

"What? No! Levi, come on! Let me in!"

He didn't really care, though. Levi proceeded to return to his room, get under his covers, and get himself a proper early sleep, for once in his life.

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