The Pain Made Me Strong ~ Levi x Reader

Chapter 10

Levi’s POV- 

     I landed next to Y/n and looked up at the dazed cadets watching us from a hundred feet back. They all looked completely stunned at both Y/n’s and my speed and agility when it came to using the gear. I didn’t know why I had challenged her to a race in front of all her fellow cadets, I easily could have just waited for them to leave, but for some reason I wanted them to see how skilled Y/n was.

     These were the same thoughts that I had been feeling last night after that fight between Jaeger and Kirstein that Y/n broke up. I had entered the mess hall quietly to tell Y/n about the training for the next day, but as I entered the two began to argue.

     I watched the scene play out till I finally decided to stop it, knowing if that Horseface had gone after Y/n once more he would definitely have had to go to the infirmary. I asked Y/n to explain what had happened just to see how she would answer. Luckily, she was completely honest, she didn’t take sides or sugar coat another’s actions, she just explained what had happened, solidifying my trust in her.

     After we had gone to my office, I didn’t know why I told her about the private training in front of the other two, I was originally going to tell her in private, but at that moment I wanted those two to see that she was skilled and should be an example to them all. I suppose I even wanted them to be jealous of her.

     I didn’t understand why I cared so much to make her stand out, but for some reason I just did. She had done surprisingly well with her gear on this first test, not that I necessarily expected her to do bad, I just didn’t expect her to beat me, even if just by a second.

     It seemed as though we were fairly well matched when it came to 3DMG, but you could tell I had more experience with gas conservation than she did, giving us a place to start for our training. I walked closer to her and turned to the cadet still outside.

     “You are all dismissed brats,” I shouted and they began to leave back to the barracks. I turned back to Y/n and said, “Not bad, but you used too much gas.”

     She looked at me slightly stunned, as if she had not expected me to have any points of criticism towards her technique. “I did?” she said.

     “Yes, when you are outside of the walls trying to survive, you can’t use that much gas or you will die. I have extra canisters over by where we started, we’ll both let our gas run out and see how much longer mine lasts.”

     She nodded and we both began to let the gas seep out of our gear, very quickly her gear went silent, leaving my gear still hissing for quite a while longer. “See?” I asked and she nodded.

     She began to walk towards where I said the extra canisters were and began to change her canisters. When she was done she handed me the extra canisters I had for myself and began to say, “Lets go one more time, I’ll try to preserve more gas this time.”

     There was determination in her eyes, but I was skeptical, “Y/n, I haven’t even gone over anyways to help you conserve gas, you can’t just magically change just like that,” I said beginning to change my canisters.

     “Please! Let me just try this once, then you can go over ways to conserve gas, I was just never aware of how much gas I was using because I rarely went long distances at a fast pace,” she said with pleading eyes.

     I clicked my tongue and gave in, agreeing to race her once more. We readied ourselves at the entrance to the forest and I counted down. As I yelled ‘now’ I automatically noticed a difference in her technique. Instead of automatically using her gas to gain speed, she stayed low to the ground and used her momentum swinging from trees to progressively get her to her top speed.