Stoke The Fire (Levi X Reader)

9.

~Some Time Later~

Reader POV

I didn't even realize it had been a year since the incident with Reiner until he showed up at my house one afternoon, no longer in jail. I wasn't expecting it and it certainly wasn't a happy surprise. I suppose he was trying to reconcile; he brought me some pretty yellow and pink roses. But it wasn't that easy. His apology was nice but he'd gone too far. And now along with his apology he wanted to get back together? What was I supposed to say? Well, no, of course, I had a new boyfriend now. But it wouldn't be that easy with him...

And I was right. "Reiner, we're over. I've moved on and I think you should too." I tried to keep my tone calm and firm and it only seemed to upset him. "Move on? You want me to move on? I loved you. I still love you. Even after what you did to me." I took a step back into the house, putting the doorway between him and I as he pointed a finger at me a bit aggressively. "Well I can't be with someone who cheats and lies and then tries to force themselves on me. You're a real piece of work, Reiner. I don't know what I ever saw in you in the first place. I was stupid to love you and I'm glad I don't anymore. Get off my property or I'm going to call the cops." I warned, deciding to throw niceties out the window since he was being difficult.

He clenched his fists at his sides and glared at me, trying to hold himself back. And I expected a fist to come flying for my face but it never happened. Instead he just growled and pointed his finger at me once more, right in my face. "You're gonna regret those words." He stormed off after and I shut the door and locked it, leaning back against it to look up at the ceiling. "Holy shit..." I breathed out, trying to calm down from being so on edge. There were so many ways that could have gone worse and I was so damn lucky it didn't.

~~~~

I woke in the middle of the night to a burning sensation in my throat. Now this wasn't all that unusual, I sometimes slept with my mouth open and would give myself a very dry throat that started to burn after a while. But this burning feeling didn't go away after I took a couple sips of my water on the bedside table. I picked up my phone from beside my cup and turned the screen on. Only 2am... I groaned and laid back down to try and go back to sleep. I was probably getting sick, lucky me. But then it hit me, the smell in the air. Something was burning.

I shot upright in bed and tried to untangle myself from the blankets, falling off my bed in the process. I managed to make it to the light switch and when I turned it on, the room was hazy and I could see little curls of smoke slithering from under the closed bedroom door. I covered my mouth and nose with the bottom of my shirt and coughed a little. What could have started the fire? It didn't matter right now. I had to call this in and then get the hell out of here before I suffocated. Or burned alive... Whichever would come first.

I grabbed my phone from where it had fallen on the floor in my tumble out of bed and unlocked it, trying to open the phone app to call the fire department I scrolled all through my contacts, twice just to be sure but there wasn't a contact for the fire department specifically. I had thought for sure I had it saved but I guess I didn't. So I called the next best number I could think of in my smoke hazed panic.

As the phone was ringing, I put it on speaker and set it on my dresser, pulling out a pair of leggings that I quickly threw on along with a pair of socks and slip on shoes that were nearby. I couldn't go through a burning building barefoot and pantsless. That was just asking for injury that could easily be avoided. The phone had gone to voicemail by the time I was done getting suited up to brave whatever lay beyond my bedroom door. So I called and put it on speaker again, again covering my nose and mouth with my shirt, this time the collar of it as I needed one hand free to open my door. The doorknob was warm but it didn't burn me so I opened it anyway, ducking as the smoke puffed into my room and rose up in the thick sheet to the ceiling.

I squinted in the thick haze and lowered myself to my hands and knees to crawl down the hallway. And finally a voice came through the other end of the call just after the fifth ring. "(Name), what's going on? You never call this early in the morning." Levi's voice sounded sleepy, I knew I'd woken him up with my phone call but I had no time to worry about that. I continued to crawl through the smoky hallway toward the stairs, my phone in one hand and I brought it closer to my face so he could hopefully hear me. I opened my mouth to speak and even through my shirt it was a big inhale of smoke laden air and it made me cough. "Levi... c-call the fire department... I need..." I broke off into a coughing fit again just as I reached the top of the stairwell.

I had my eyes closed for a moment because they were stinging and watering but I didn't need to see down the stairs the know I couldn't go down there. I could feel the roaring heat from here. There was a bunch of shuffling around on the other end of the phone call and Levi told me to hold on. He'd get help right away. It was a good thing he understood my broken call for help because I wasn't faring too well right now. Not long after he hung up to call the fire department, I collapsed in the hallway on my way back to my room to maybe try and climb out the window. A broken bone from the two-story fall would be better than burning or suffocating to death.

My efforts were in vain and I quickly lost consciousness, my world going black as I heard sirens nearing the house over the roar of the fire downstairs and my phone rang again but I couldn't pick up the call of course...

Levi POV

I rushed out of my car, leaving the door wide open and the keys in the ignition in my hurry to make it to the ambulance I saw parked outside (Name)'s house. I saw her being placed onto a stretcher by a firefighter who had just brought her out of the burning home. Other firefighters were busy putting out the fire now that she was safely out of the house, I ran all the way up to the end of the stretcher, keeping the way clear for the EMTs to get her hooked up to an oxygen mask and check her other vitals. My heart clenched at seeing her in such a state. I'd only just found her... She couldn't leave me yet...

~~~~

I sat outside the room while they hooked her up to various things that would read her vitals and give her fluids, waiting impatiently for the doctor to come out and tell me that she would be okay. Nurses came and went for a couple of hours, hurrying back and forth to get different tests completed. I just wanted to see her, to hold her hand, and make sure she was alright but I wasn't allowed to go in just yet and it was killing me inside. How long was I going to have to wait and wonder? What could they possibly be doing that took so much time?

I frowned deeply and leaned forward in my chair in the hall, resting my elbows on my knees and putting my face in my hands. No sooner had I done that, did a nurse come out of the room and gently place her hand on my shoulder. "You can go in and sit with her now. But be quiet, she's resting." I was told, and almost instantly I was on my feet and striding into the room. I pulled up one of the guest chairs and sat next to her bed opposite where the doctor stood, recording something on a clipboard.

Gently picking up her free hand from the bed, I held it in both of my own and stroked the back of it with my thumb as I scanned her vitals monitor and her physical being to make sure everything was stable and alright. She was breathing normally and though her vitals looked slightly elevated, she was clearly stable. When the doctor was done writing, he hung the clipboard up on the wall beside the vitals monitor and turned to me, clearing his throat lightly before speaking. I spoke before he could, though I'd already answered my own question by reading the monitor and her physical state. "How is she? Will she be alright?" The doctor cleared his throat again and smiled just a tiny bit. "Ah, Officer Ackerman... They're both fine."