Childish Games

Childish Games - Twelve

-Chapter Twelve-

Since what Marco had said about Levi potentially being 'broken inside', Jean had been unable to stop thinking about it. He found that his anger towards the older man was rapidly fading and was instead replaced with sympathy, which he was pretty sure became obvious to Levi himself.

~

'That kid Kirschstein's been giving me odd looks recently...' Levi muttered, glancing around at the other seniors of the corps. They were all sat together in a kind of dining room with a somewhat long table and a small kitchen area that was only ever used to make hot drinks and maybe a sandwich or something of the like. Erwin looked up from his drink with a raised eyebrow and shrugged a bit.

'You sure it's not just his face? I rarely see him with a regular expression on.' He said, causing Levi to scoff a little but still agree a bit.

'Maybe.'

'But Levi, Jaeger barely shows a regular expression either,' He added. 'So it doesn't exactly mean much.'

'Gosh, fifteen year olds are so confusing now.' Hanji sighed, slumping in her seat a bit but then deciding to lean forwards with her elbows on the table and her hands holding up her head. 'I don't remember fifteen year olds ever being as angry as either of those two.'

'Teenagers are weird. I don't like them.' Levi muttered, having some more of his drink and then glancing out of the window briefly to just see the sun barely rising. That was one of the biggest cons of being in their position, the seniors all had to be awake at an ungodly hour in order to carry out certain morning duties, which in Levi's case included cleaning. Erwin's was mostly paperwork, and Hanji's was generally checking any new intel she'd found regarding the titans, often making notes about Ilse Langard's journal that they'd found quite a while back but returned to the family, only with some of the information taken out as citizens didn't need to be worrying about that kind of stuff. If anyone were to read the journal now, it'd make no logical sense as some words were obscured and others even ripped out.

'Well, Jaeger seems to only be looking for a way to avenge his mother.. I have no idea about Kirschstein though.' Hanji said, scratching her forehead a little before adjusting the strap on her glasses. 'Maybe he just wants to look tough?'

'Horse shi-'

'Actually, that's entirely possible.' Erwin interrupted. 'If I remember correctly, you were the one who introduced himself by saying 'name's Levi' and nothing more.' He said, with a subtle smirk on his face. 'I'm pretty certain you wanted to look like you were better than everyone already in the corps.'

'That's because I was better than everyone already.' Levi deadpanned, as if it were obvious. 'I thought you knew that. I taught myself to use the gear but they had to be taught, that kind of says it all.'

~

'Levi's kinda scary, don't you think? I mean, he hates himself but thinks he's better than everyone else.' Hanji said, idly chatting to Petra to pass time whilst waiting for more orders to come in.

'It's no secret that he doesn't like himself but hate's quite a strong word.. I don't think he's scary though.' Petra smiled, shrugging and glancing around to make sure nobody was listening to them. 'Although I'm pretty sure he blames himself for everyone who dies on an expedition, so that's got to be a heavy load to carry.'

'Yeah, you're right..'

Jean hadn't meant to listen in, but he just happened to walk past at the time of the conversation and simply made sure not to be seen, heading back up to the room since it was still early and before the actual time they had to be awake. He was simply thirsty. With a glass of water in hand, he padded up to his shared room with Marco and took a sip of it, settling it on the bedside table and then sliding back into bed, allowing Marco to cuddle up close to him again.

'Where'd you go?' A sleepy voice asked, accompanied by a soft yawn.

'Just to get some water.'

'Exciting.'

'It was, I'll invite you next time and we'll have a blast.' Jean chuckled, keeping his voice quiet though since Marco seemed to still be half sleeping and he didn't want to disturb him too much this early.

'You should, but I'm not a morning person.' He found that hard to believe though, since Marco was literally the human embodiment of an angel. Jean really couldn't imagine the freckled male angry or annoyed.

'Liar.'

'Don't test me.'