Underground (Levi x Reader)

Favors

The next morning, after not sleeping much the night before, I trudged along beside Hange to the mess hall.

She was chattering on like usual, stopping just for a moment to push her smudged glasses farther up the bridge of her nose, before she continued onward with her verbal tirade. Normally, I would attempt to humor her by at least listening to some of what she was saying, but this morning, I couldn't focus on her words. I had a pounding in my head and I was dreading seeing Levi at the officers' table after last night.

We entered the mess hall and I slumped down at the officers' table beside Erwin, who raised an eyebrow at me and said, "Something wrong, (L/N)?"

I straightened and took the cup of coffee Hange offered me, taking a long sip of the hot liquid. "No, sir. Just a little tired. I'm fine."

I avoided looking in Levi's direction, instead, focusing on taking measured sips of my coffee as I scanned the roomful of cadets. I spotted the cadets from my squad gathered around their usual table, joking and shoving each other as they ate. I caught sight of Johnson, seated next to Miller, and for a brief moment, I wished all of the cadets had the foresight to train and ask questions like he did. I would never admit it out loud, but that kid just kept on impressing me.

Hange flicked my arm from across the table and I brought my gaze back to her as she gave me a bright grin and said excitedly, "We should pair up our squads for today's mission, (F/N)! That would be fun." She turned quickly to Erwin, her eyes lit up with excitement behind the glass of her spectacles. "Can we, Erwin? Can we?"

Erwin didn't look up from his paperwork as he sat down his coffee cup and said matter of factly, "I'm sorry, Hange. (L/N)'s and Ackerman's squads will be paired together again today."

I couldn't help it, I groaned under my breath. "Damn it all." I let the words slip out past my lips and Erwin glanced up at me again, a stern look on his face.

"Is there something wrong with my orders, Corporal (L/N)?"

I bit my tongue and said through gritted teeth, "No, sir. I'm sorry." I clenched my fists in my lap under the cover of the table.

Levi spoke up from the other side of the commander. "Tch. If she won't say it, I will. We can't be paired together, Erwin. She's a liability and her group of brats are too inexperienced for the field. They put us all in danger last mission."

I stood up from the table so quickly that I knocked my chair to the floor behind me, but I was so mad, I didn't care. I slammed my hands down on the table and glared at Levi, who regarded me with his normal, flat, blank stare, raising his teacup to his lips. "You're an ass, you know that?" I leaned toward him, my eyes flashing with anger. "Everywhere I go, everything I do, you're always there somehow, to make fun of me, or tell me I'm not good enough, or tell me that I'm stupid."

He lowered the teacup from his lips and said in a bored tone, "I'm only trying to do you a favor, (L/N). You're going to get yourself killed if you keep up this reckless behavior."
"Well, then, You know what, Ackerman?" I straightened and stepped back from the table, my gaze still boring into his. "I'm not your little Underground pet project. I don't need you. So. Stop. Doing. Me. Favors."

I turned and stalked out of the dining hall, some of the cadets who had overheard our argument staring at me with wide eyes as I pushed past them. I marched to the stables and threw the tack on my horse, making it slightly skitterish with the force I applied to the straps as I tightened them. I clenched the reins in my fist and led the horse out into the sunshine, just as my squad exited the dining hall to hear our mission assignments for the day.

"Corporal!" Miller called out to me as I approached them all. She threw me a quick salute and then said, "What's our orders today? Are we going outside the wall again?"