-

You had no idea where you were right now. Everything just felt fuzzy and muffled in your ears and your mind. You were trying to register every sound around you to see what hinted at where you might be. Your memory started to slowly come back to you bit by bit and the last thing you remember was trying to pull Levi up to the surface with you and then everything went dark.

Right now, all you could hear was the soft rippling of water and waves crashing. The next thing you were able to register was the feeling of rock beneath you and how you were laying on your stomach on the ground. Your face was pressed up against the ground and your hair had fallen over your face, and your eyes were still closed.

Those were the only few couple things you were able to feel and sense as you slowly started to gain back consciousness. Though, headaches and disorientation were definitely kicking in. You knew that much.

But when you fully regained feeling in your entire body and felt your system waking up, the first thing you did out of pure instinct was to immediately start coughing and gasping trying to get more air back into your lungs, that you desperately needed. Suddenly coughing was what woke you up enough to slowly edge your eyes to start opening.

You eventually got enough strength to start lifting your head and your eyes were open enough to take in your surroundings and to get accustomed to the light of the day. From the looks of it, it seems like it was barely dawn and the sun was just now beginning to rise over the horizon. The sky was pink and orange, and you could hear seagulls in the distance cawing and announcing their presence.

You were trying to figure out how you went from falling unconscious, sinking down to the bottom of a river to now being up on the surface. But as you looked around, more and more of those questions began to answer themselves without you having to do anything.

You moved your head as much as it allowed you to and let your eyes trail around your surroundings. It seems that the rock you woke up on was actually one of many rock surfaces around you that had water surrounding them, like tidal pools during high tide.

The next thing you noticed as you used your arms to lift your body up from the ground with a soft groan, with slight pain shooting up your body, and moving to be in a kneeling position, was Levi standing not too far from you with his back to you, facing the ocean.

You thought to yourself and realized that he must have been the one that got his consciousness first when the two of you were in the water and brought the two of you up to this rocky shore. At least that's what you assumed. You didn't know if he was aware that you were awake.

But Levi did know you were awake. He was just much too preoccupied with something else at the moment to care. He wasn't exactly looking out to the ocean, but down at his wrist. His steel eyes were zeroed in on his right wrist as he held it with his left while panic and confusion caused rampant through him, realizing that a very important part of him vanished. What made him who he is. His tattoo was gone.

He had it just the night before and before he fell conscious, didn't he? Was this just a figment of his imagination and sea water had gotten to his head? It just vanished, it's gone and he doesn't know why. The entire source of his powers isn't on him anymore. His wrist had nothing on it and he felt like his mind was short circuiting trying to figure it out.

He lifted his head up and trailed his gaze to look upwards and towards the horizon with eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed as he tried to process in his mind what this meant, if it was really happening and he wasn't just imagining it. His chest began to rise and fall with short breaths as internal panic grew inside him. It was slowly revealing itself further rather than just on the inside like he usually did. He was feeling out of sorts in a way that he doesn't think he ever has, but he was failing miserably at hiding it. He just lost the source of his powers, and if that entailed what he thought then....

His right curled in tight on itself as he tried to stay calm and he closed his eyes shut, but it was becoming harder to come to terms with what was in front of him. His hair fell over his face as he lowered his head a bit, trying to stay logical, but none of this was making sense to him.

He didn't even notice how you were able to get up to your feet again and were stumbling, still feeling a little dizzy, as you began to make your way to stand next to him near the shore of the rocks. You had no idea what kind of inner turmoil he was going through in that very moment and pretty much could only think about how glad you were that the two of you made it out of that alive.

The memories from the night before started to resurface. The man who disguised himself as your cab driver and tried to kill you, Levi showing up and wanting to make a deal, him helping you out and taking care of the killer, and then remembered how the two of you were forced to fall into the river after the cab driver tried to run you and Levi over.

You could barely register the fact that any of that happened, but it did. You weren't thinking about implications and what happened last night meant because, right now, you just wanted to go home and retrieve your car that you remembered is still in that parking lot you left it in. It was all just rushing towards you and it was all too much. 

Even so, as you moved to stand next to him, you let out a weak chuckle and put a hand on your head. "We got pretty lucky, huh? Making it out of that," You pointed out as you stopped to stand right by his side, but when you turned your head and saw him, you noticed that there was a strange look on his face as he held his wrist and avoided eye contact.

You were just trying to relieve the tension when you said that, but it seems that when he heard your voice, you saw Levi's body visibly tense but still refused to look at you. You didn't know that any of the events that happened the day before would end up in the situation you and Levi are in. You were still a little lost and were trying to acclimate and make things better since this situation wasn't ideal for either of you.

You were about to say something else and ask if he's hurt anywhere, since the two of you took a pretty hard fall, but all of a sudden your words got caught up in your throat when you felt a very blinding and throbbing pain in your head, forcing you to groan, close your eyes shut and raise your right hand to press it to the side of your head where you felt it the most. But you didn't realize what you'd done.

"Fuck, that hurts," You muttered to yourself as you held the side of your head. You can't remember the last time it hurt this bad. Levi glanced at you once as you raised your arm, not really having the right state of mind right now to make small talk but the moment you raised it and pressed your hand to your head, you didn't notice how your sleeve rode down a little as you did so, still unaware on what was on your wrist.

When it did, it revealed something that made Levi do a double take at you so quick that his head almost snapped. He turned his head to look at your wrist and his eyes immediately narrowed with suspicion. His gaze focused on what he thought he saw and he began to wonder. Did he see that right? He couldn't have possibly seen what he saw. It's impossible. Surely, his mind was playing tricks on him.

His eyes were locked onto your wrists as you held your head in pain. "Give me your wrist," Levi said lowly, his voice deepening, and hearing him say this, you opened your eyes and turned your head to look at him with complete puzzlement. Did you hear that right? Why does he want your wrist? That was such a random thing to ask? Did he hit his head too?

"I'm sorry?" You asked as you turned your body to full face him, and saw that instead of seeing a face that hinted that you'd heard wrong, you saw that his expression was hard and you knew from that alone that he was dead serious. He didn't even wait for you to deny or accept.

"I'm not going to say it again," He said, and his eyes narrowed, as opposed to yours, that widened when you saw his hand suddenly outstretched to grab your wrist anyway. But you were quick enough to move your hand back and not give him a chance to grab it. You were so confused.

Levi sighed and placed one hand on his hip and ran the other down his face as he sighed with what was clear exasperation and something that was eating him up inside by the looks of it. "Why do you want my wrist? Are you concussed or something?" You asked, analyzing how his eyebrows furrowed further and his gaze got darker on you.

When the air between the two of you seemed to thicken when the two of you stopped bickering and you saw how Levi had gotten silent after that, you assumed he dropped it altogether, despite how weird you thought it was that he asked to see your wrist of all things. But just as you let your arms fall at your sides, you realized you shouldn't let your guard down.

Before you could even process it, Levi had gotten ahold of your wrist. "Hey!" You said, immediately trying to tug your hand from his grip, but when you realized that he was holding it far too tight for you to even attempt to free yourself, you gave up and felt the need to groan inwardly.

But when you turned your head to look at Levi, your face twisted with uncertainty when you saw the look on his face. It is hard to decipher but from it alone, you decided not to say anything. His eyes were wide, his pupils were small and constricted and his mouth had fallen agape.

You were too distracted trying to figure out what was causing that reaction when you could just turn your head to see what he was looking at, since his eyes were directed elsewhere. But when you did, you held back a gasp at what you were seeing. There was a tattoo on your wrist.

A tattoo of what seemed like paths of branches that stretched out up until the base of the palm of your hand. You didn't know if what you were seeing was really on your body or this was some sort of fever dream. It had to be the latter, right? It made sense why he wanted to look at your wrist so badly before. But why did a tattoo appearing on your body matter so much to him? You were racking your brain but came out empty.

When you looked away from your wrist and turned your head back, you saw that Levi was already looking at you with a look on his face that you couldn't quite place. You couldn't tell what kind of thoughts were going through his head in that moment, even while still holding tightly onto your wrist. He was looking at you so intensely as his eyes darted all over your face in a way that said not even him could understand how his tattoo that just last night was on his wrist, was now on yours for some reason.

He hadn't imagined seeing his tattoo on your wrist earlier and his eyes were deceiving him at all either. This was all real and there was just no logic for that in his head to put two and two together. He couldn't comprehend it and he felt like he was going crazy trying to figure it out. In 200 years of his life, this has never happened before. You showed up in his life and his powers had to fall to you for reasons he couldn't understand.

As Levi continued to hold tightly onto your wrist and he refused to take his eyes off you, you were the one to break eye contact first and look back down to your wrist again. You really thought your brain and your eyes were trying to trick you when you began seeing that the tattoo on your wrist was slowly turning red and glowing a bit.

You didn't even have a chance to react to that, or much less what came after that. You began to hear water rushing next to you, and after the tattoo began to glow, you gasped out loud when it was followed by a huge wave of water that crashed into the rocks from the shore, and when it did, it created an arch around you and Levi while the water itself and droplets about to fall on the two of you froze in place, surrounding you both.

You began to look up and everywhere around you in wonder with your eyes blown wide in shock, surprise and puzzlement all into one expression. How could you possibly be expected to react normally when you and Levi were enveloped in a curtain of water that froze in mid-air?

You were just completely entranced by how the rising sun above the horizon gave this arch a beautiful hue of orange and pink as well that you began to wonder if it was really unfolding before your eyes or not.

Speaking of which, this is when your brain really started to put two and together. This tattoo belonged to Levi, he was able to do some pretty unnatural stuff the night before, and now that his tattoo was on your body, his powers caused his arch of water to just casually freeze in time around the two of you. Your head was just swimming with questions about who he really was, what he was, and how he could do all of this.

You turned your head back at him and you were surprised to see him barely react to the feat that he seemed to create with his tattoo, as if it was a regular, every-day occurrence for him. As opposed to you that has never witnessed something like this before in your life. As you locked gazes with him again, the two of you looked at each other with similar intensity but with entirely different thoughts running through each other's heads.

When your head seemed to clear, you asked the questions that you were actually able to get into words, somehow; "What are you? How did you do all of this? Who are you?" You asked, looking at Levi with a look on your face that was desperate for answers. Everything that he did the night before that you didn't question because of your own turmoil was starting to return to you. No human could ever do what he did, not then or now.

But Levi didn't answer your questions, because he had things of his own that he wanted answered just as desperately as you did. "What the hell did you do to me? Why is my tattoo on your wrist?" He countered as his gaze remained so intense that you could barely hold eye-contact with him. He just refused to let up. He was asking you that as if you knew what he was talking about, but the truth is, you had no idea why this happened and you were the wrong person to ask. You didn't know anything.

You were able to peel your eyes away from him and began to let your eyes look elsewhere to try and figure out what the answer to his question was, but you truly had no idea. You had no idea what he was, how his tattoo was on your wrist now, or what any of this meant. You didn't know what to tell him and your mind was completely blank as you opened your mouth to respond but nothing came out. You had nothing to say.

Though, just as your mind was starting to form any sort of coherent thought, it suddenly went blank again, you began to feel dizzy again, your ears began to ring, and your eyes began to flutter shut slowly as you fought to keep them open. This feeling felt very familiar to you somehow, remembering that's how you felt before you passed out in the river the night before. Eventually, you couldn't even register when you began to feel dizzy enough that your limbs began to give up on you.

Levi was still holding onto your wrist as this happened, watching carefully your body language as your eyes fluttered closed completely and your legs gave out on you, causing you to lose consciousness once more and begin to fall forward without any control over your body. Before you fell to the ground, out of instinct, Levi swiftly caught you, quickly wrapping an arm around your back, holding you close to his chest firmly as your head fell directly on his shoulder with a soft thud.

The moment your eyes closed and you began to fall forward, your loss of consciousness also made the power of the tattoo vanish. The arch of water above dissipated, fell apart back into the tidal pools, and not a single splash of water from it managed to hit you and Levi.

But when the water fell completely back to where it came from, Levi was forced to look at a girl that he barely knew that he had in his arms, studying every one of your  features, because for once, he just didn't know where to look or what to do. Your eyes were closed, your body was limp, but at the very least you were still breathing. His eyes kept going from your face and down to your wrist, to his tattoo, which only scrambled his thoughts even more.

You were unconscious and as he looked at you, he genuinely didn't know how to process anything that's happened. He truly thought he'd never see you again after that very disastrous lunch the day before, but here you were, in his arms, holding his powers and everything that made him who he is quite literally in your hands. How could he have ever expected this?

The both of you were still drenched from head to toe with water. Your hair was damp, Levi's hair was dripping from the strands that were falling over his face, and both of your clothes were soaked completely. As the rippling of the water was the only thing he could hear, it was the only thing that gave him a peace of mind to realize that he needed to find a way to get the two of you back to the city and he would figure things out from there. He wouldn't let things stay this way.

-

It felt like everything was starting to replay in your head. It was blurry, muffled, and it didn't feel real at all. You could perfectly recall how being in the water felt like while having the weight of your clothes on you and trying to pull Levi up with you to the surface.

The way you remembered it, it felt incredibly fuzzy to you the way you desperately grabbed onto Levi's wrist while he remained unconscious and used all of your strength to pull him up with you to the surface, not taking into the account that the wrist you grabbed was the one that he had his tattoo on. That was the first mistake you made.

You recalled how your lungs burned as you tried to pull him up with you, and how you felt like you would pass out at any second even as you struggled to save his life when you could've left him behind, but you didn't. Even if you barely knew him, you knew then that you couldn't leave him behind. You felt like you owed him in more ways than one.

Going through that all over in your head felt like a dream to you and you wondered if that was really you that it happened to, because it felt so unfamiliar. The one part that you didn't witness because you had your eyes focused upon the surface, but most definitely happened, was how his tattoo began vanishing from his wrist and then appearing on your own wrist, glowing briefly as it settled there.

To you, that was the moment when everything went dark, and you lost all feeling of your own extremities and you had no control over your own body, unable to remember anything that followed after that. It was truly chilling to you to recall how it felt when your body stopped to fight against the weight of trying to pull Levi up with you.

The sensation returned to you vividly, but it drained as soon as it came as your strength faded entirely and it forced you to release the hand that you were clinging onto so tightly. The feeling of letting go of Levi's hand was the last thing you felt before your memories slipped away entirely, and then you woke up on that shore. And even then, everything still felt like a fever dream until you passed out again.

Yet, even after you passed out—remaining unconscious after letting go of Levi's hand as the two of you began to sink—the mystery of how you ended up on that shore became clear to you. You didn't know why your mind was showing you this, or even if it truly happened after you passed out, but all you could see was a fuzzy memory of Levi waking up.

You didn't remember what you were seeing at all, and this memory was playing in your head from a completely different point of view that wasn't your own. But all you could see is that after you let go of his hand and both of you began to sink, is how his eyes suddenly snapped open in the water, remaining in that glare that he carries everywhere.

Then, being completely conscious in that moment, he took notice of your unconscious body and was quick to grab your wrist. Back then, he hadn't known that you had his tattoo, but when he grabbed your wrist, he proceeded to tug you closer then he moved the hand that he was gripping your wrist with to wrap around your waist securely. But before bringing you up to the surface, he took a second to look down at you.

His glare remained the same as his eyes were locked onto you. But what felt the most bizarre to you, and you truly felt like you had imagined and like you had seen before somewhere, was seeing how his steel gray suddenly took on a crimson red hue and the intent behind his eyes was completely foreign to you. Why was your mind showing you this? But all you felt after that was a strange weighing feeling running up and down your body, and it made your heart sink in ways you couldn't explain.

That was when your eyes snapped open and you gasped loudly. The first thing you saw when you did was a white ceiling, and then you quickly felt the impulse to sit up. You heard shuffling next to you but your mind was so preoccupied with itself and so jumbled that everything came out muffled and jumbled to you. You were trying to gain back your bearings, feeling pretty freaked out by that dream you had just now.

It took you a couple seconds what your surroundings were, but when you did, you realized you were in a hospital room. You were wearing a hospital gown, and sitting on a hospital bed. But you were also quick to notice the presence of someone else the moment you woke up, the presence of the person you couldn't quite register before, but when they spoke, your head snapped to the side and your eyes went wide.

"Y/n," The voice said and when your vision cleared, your mouth went agape when you saw that it was Hange. They were standing over you, leaning forward slightly as they quickly ran their eyes over you and put a comforting hand on your back, running it up and down.

"Hange," You breathed out as you finally let yourself relax knowing that you had them by your side again. Your shoulders sank and you raised a hand to your forehead as you closed your eyes, trying to gather your thoughts. Everything that happened between the day before and now felt like a complete blur to you. How did you end up in the hospital in the first place? Why were you here? Why did it feel like everything was scrambled?

"Are you okay?" They asked with nothing but concern laced in their tone, inclining you to feel more at ease, which helped tremendously. Though, you didn't even know how to answer their question at all. Were you okay? What even happened that would make you not be okay in the first place?

"I...I don't know. But I had a horrible dream just now," You said as you held your head in your hands, trying to forget that image of the man with crimson eyes in your dream, whose face was nothing but a blur to you.

Even so, what you just saw seemed to be burned into your mind and you couldn't shake it no matter how much you tried. There were some things you could remember from the day before and other details were a little less recognizable in your mind than others.

But before Hange could respond, you halted your movements rubbing your forehead as you kept your hand when you suddenly felt someone, who wasn't your assistant, suddenly pressed a towel to the side of your face and gently dab your face with it. Your eyebrows shot up and you realized that you had been so startled from your dream that you had failed to take into account that there was yet another person in the person.

But you felt your blood run cold when you heard them speak. "It sounded bad. Look at you, you're sweating," You heard the person say, and by that alone, you knew exactly who it was. You slowly began to look up and your eyes widened when you realized that Levi was looking down at you and standing over you, right next to your bed.

You blinked a couple times and your mouth fell open when you realized who was standing in front of you. You tried to say something but nothing was coming out. Why was he here of all people? The last thing you remembered was the two of you in the water after almost getting hit by that car, and both of you were left unconscious, so why were you in a hospital bed and just now waking up, while he looked completely fine?

And why was he looking down at you with the opposite of a glare like he did every time you and him have crossed paths. Instead, his eyes were soft and so were all his features. He looked...concerned? Worried? What was this expression he had on his face that said that he actually cared? Last time you saw him, he wanted you out of his sight and nowhere near him.

You also couldn't ignore the presence of his hand on your lower back, where Hange's used to be. Your features twisted as you looked at him, with your head tilting to the side as if he had two heads. You began to wonder to yourself why he was in your hospital room at all. Nothing was clicking in your head but why does it seem like you should know some context for this but it vanished out of thin air from your brain? You couldn't remember anything past falling in the water.

"I was worried sick for you. Glad to see you're okay," Levi said in a tone you would have never expected to hear from him at all, feeling his hand move from your lower back, over to settle on your arm. You quickly shook your head and looked away from him. Were you still in your nightmare? What was going on? You couldn't piece anything together.

You turned your head to look over at Hange, who was still standing on your other side of the bed and you realized they had this weird look on their face. Their lips were pursed and their gaze was set elsewhere.

Your eyes deadpanned at them with no amusement. "Hange," You started, trying to stay as calm as possible, which showed in your tone how passive and eerily calm you were. After hearing you call their name, they were quick to hurriedly look back at you as they adjusted their glasses and sent you a hum, letting you know they were listening.

"What's he doing here?" You asked, and having no shame in asking that out loud and using your thumb to point back at him. But from your peripheral, you could see that Levi seemed completely unaffected by that, so you continued to wait for your assistant's answer. You kept your eyes on Hange and watched as they were quick to answer, but were quickly beaten to it when Levi decided to say something first.

"Don't worry, the nightmare's over. You can relax" He said, but to you, it felt like it was just starting. You turned your head to face him and felt as he continued to dab your forehead slightly, but knowing that he didn't really mean any of what he was saying, you swatted his hand away from you and sent an annoyed glare his way. You needed to gather your thoughts before even beginning to think about why he was here in the first place.

But as you swatted Levi's hand and he straightened up, you missed the way Hange's face darted between you and Levi with curiosity as a light teasing smile tugged at their lips. If they had to guess, from context clues even before you woke up and when they got a call from Levi earlier that day, this is the guy that you had the blind date that expressed how bad it went afterwards to them, even if it wasn't in detail.

That must be how you knew him. But to Hange, that still did not explain why Levi was with you when he received a call from you saying that you'd gotten into an accident. Was he involved? Why was he there with you when it happened? It also clearly seemed like the encounter between you two had gone south and neither of you wanted to see each other again and you'd only met once. Why did the two of you happen to be in the same place?

They were trying to piece it together the best they could. As for you, knowing you shouldn't be trusting anything that comes out of Levi's mouth at that moment, you turned your head back to Hange and sent them an expectant look that demanded answers as to what was going on.

"I got a call from him earlier today and he said you'd gotten into an accident, so I brought you to the hospital," Hange explained, leaving out how they were able to track down the car at all. Hange had been able to pick up the car once they were able to retrace its location, use their spare car keys, and pick you up at the location Levi had given them.

"Alright...but that still doesn't explain why I'm here. In a hospital. Was I really that hurt?" You continued to ask, feeling like there was a part of your memory missing that would be pretty useful right about now. But then you held back a gasp when you realized that if you'd been sleeping before, then time has passed since what happened that made you end up here, but just how long? You hoped not too much.

"Oh my God.." You said as you raised your hand to cover your mouth and you frantically began to think and refill your mind with work, trying to get back on track, depending on how long you were out. "I haven't missed too much, have I? How long have I been asleep?" You began to ask frantically as you dropped your hand from your mouth and looked back up at Hange, who kept their composure and was quick to reassure your conscience.

Levi crossed his arms in front of him and Hange raised their arm in front of them to check their watch. "Well, since I brought you here, it's been around 4 to 5 hours since you've been out," Hange explained, and when they did, you replayed their words in your head, realizing that not much time had passed and there was no reason to panic anymore. You raised your hand and put it on your chest to help you settle down a little.

"Okay...okay that's not so bad," You said to yourself mostly, but also to Hange, while a relieved smile came upon your face. You felt even more at ease when you felt them put a hand on your shoulder, rubbing it slightly to break any tension that was left in your body. Though, Hange felt that that tension in your body come back shortly when Levi spoke up again.

"Are you sure you're feeling better now?" You heard Levi suddenly say, so you and Hange both turned your heads to look at him. Hange was looking more in surprise as they watched how Levi put his hand on your arm yet again. You were looking at him more in disbelief, letting your eyes dart back and forth from his face and down to the hand that he had on you. When you looked back at him, your eyes squinted slightly for any sign that indicated a facade behind his behavior and his presence there.

"What are you talking about?" You asked, genuinely confused at him and not being able to tell the intentions behind what he was doing right now. You were looking at him with so much bewilderment but he just seemed completely unfazed by the looks you were giving him, not reacting to them, and you watched as he remained completely gentle and calm.

He had a way of looking entirely different to how you've come to recognize him, and it was freaking you out. Either he flipped a switch entirely or he was just really good at lying. But you were able to catch the tiniest hint of the attitude you knew him by with what he said next.

"What does it sound like I'm doing? Are you dizzy or sore anywhere?" He said, disguising himself almost perfectly, but you narrowed your eyes at him, studying him and what he said, along with his tone and body language. He gave himself away with that and you almost scoffed.

"Are you sure nothing's bothering you?" He asked, and you turned your head back to look at Hange to see if they were thinking the same thing you were, and your thoughts were confirmed when you saw that they were quick to meet your gaze at the same time and you purse your lips when you saw that they were actively fighting the urge to laugh as they adjusted their glasses. You rolled your eyes and a small smile tugged at your lips while you turned your head back to Levi,

You yanked your arm away from Levi again, and looked at him with an expression that expressed all the confusion he needed to know you were feeling. "Can you stop? Why are you being so weird? Or better yet, why are you here?" You said as your confusion soon turned into a sickly-sweet smile that dripped of sarcasm, yet a clear message behind it.

"I knew it. You're still concussed. Why don't you lie down a bit? You should rest until the doctor says that you're good to go," He said, and your eyes nearly bugged out of your head and your mouth parted when you saw that he still refused to answer your question and break out of this little act he had going on. He put his hand on your shoulder and began to gently push you down on the bed, but you resisted mid-way. Why's he acting like you were the only one who had the accident?

"Concussed from what? What are you talking about?" You asked and after that you could've sworn you heard Hange actively trying to hide a snort, trying not to laugh and fighting for their life to stay professional. When you forced yourself to stop mid-way against Lev's hold as he tried to lay you down, you saw how he actually looked dead serious. You didn't know how he did it, but you knew it was all fake.

Hange was still looking between the two of you, and while a knowing smile came upon their face, you still were able to hear the shuffling of their clothes as they began to take a couple steps back. You turned your head to the side and saw that they were heading towards the door.

"Since you're awake, I'll go get the doctor, Y/n," Hange said, and you gave them a slow nod, still a bit dazed by their sudden departure. But in the corner of your eye, you could see them open the door and stop walking just before walking outside. "I'll be back soon," Hange started, and you moved your eyes to look at them again, sensing they weren't done. But this time, you saw that there was an almost imperceptible, teasing smirk on their face. You purse your lips, knowing something was coming.

"In the meantime, Shorty, why don't you keep an eye on her?" They said before fully making their way out the door and closing it behind them. You heard that and you instantly raised your hand and slapped it over your mouth as you snorted out a laugh, muffled by your hand.

By the time Levi snapped his head up at what he heard and the gentle facade on his face morphed into that deadly glare that you knew him by, Hange was already gone. That was all that was needed for Hange to give into what they were thinking. When he heard you laugh, he looked down at you again and this time, he didn't care to hide his stoic, careless and annoyed look on his face.

But just like that, as you knew it would happen, when the two of you were left alone, a switch flipped on Levi and he immediately leaned away from the bed and straightened up. You did the same, sitting up as soon as Levi's facade broke and you were able to ask him what he really wanted.

You watched as he took a couple steps away from the but still stayed in your vicinity, keeping his back to you. "Now can you tell me what the hell you're doing here?" You asked, not wanting him to dance around this anymore, especially now that the two of you are alone and he doesn't have to hide it. He needed to keep up appearances before.

You watched as he turned around to face you and locked eyes with you, all the while he put the handkerchief he used earlier to dab your face into one of the inner pockets of his jacket. You watched as his face remained as a glare and you crossed your arms in front of you, contrasting in your mind how different the look he has on his face now is entirely world's apart from the one that he was using to hide behind before.

That sharp, fiery, and intense glare that he was looking at you with was the one you knew. "See? That's more like it" You teased him with an encouraging smile and a sweet voice, reaching over to pat his arm, but his eyes only narrowed further, but his annoyance only added to your satisfaction. But you could tell that he was losing his patience, because there was something in his eyes that said that he had a reason for him to stick around like he has. But you couldn't quite place it.

"I'm not here to play games, alright?" Levi said and you looked at him incredulously. What about you made him think you were trying to trick him or play 'games'? If anything, he was the one trying to make the two of you give off the entire wrong idea to Hange and pretty much anyone who walked into the room. He was driving you insane.

"I'm not trying to play any 'games' either, so I don't know what you're talking about. You were the one putting up an act" You said, putting up air quotes around the word 'games' because it didn't make any sense at all to you. You couldn't understand at all what he was getting at with these cryptic answers he was giving you with or without anyone else around.

"I did that because I was trying to be polite and, you know, not let the wrong questions rise about why only the two of us were out there. The focus should be on catching that psycho. I figured that's what you wanted until it's resolved. God, there's really no pleasing you, is there?" Levi muttered as he began to walk away and turn his back to you once again. But as he said that, the question of what happened to that cab driver arose in your head and you began to think it over to yourself.

"Well, congratulations. Your little act will give people the wrong idea now," You said, sighing and looking away, trying to use those words to deflect the real thoughts going on in your head. Did anyone manage to identify what it looked like? It was so dark the night before that you could barely make out his face except details here and there but that's it.

At first you could barely see him because of the dark, then the fog, and the blood on his face from his fight with Levi and the broken window. It was all fuzzy memories to you that you could barely connect together. You hoped that since Levi fought him, he could have seen him up close.

"Not my problem," Levi muttered under his breath and responded to your previous words, proceeding to sit himself down in the nearest chair that was still in the vicinity of the bed. You didn't even put too much thought into what he said back to you, it was the last thing on your mind to worry about his little quips but your mind in that moment became more inclined towards knowing what happened to that killer.

"Did they get to catch that psycho? The one that was trying to hit us with his car," You said as you turned your body slightly over to face him, but still staying seated in your bed, keeping your hands in front of you as you fiddled with the sheets. You were looking at Levi with hope sparkling in your eyes, wishing that he had good news that came out of that accident. He seemed to have more information about this than you did.

"They'll find him soon. I was up close to him so while you were asleep, I gave the police a description of him. If they know what they're doing, it shouldn't be too long until they find him," Levi said as he crossed one leg over another and then crossed his arms as he leaned back in his seat. On one hand, you were glad Levi was able to be there to see the killer up close and be able to give a description of him, but on the other hand, you couldn't help but give him a brief, weird look for his comment.

You nodded in understanding at what he said and you adjusted your hands on your lap, lightly fidgeting with your blanket. You were looking off into another corner of the room lost in thought as you began to attempt to remember anything after falling in the water. But you didn't notice the way that your sleeve rode up a little, to which Levi immediately took notice of. His eyes focused on your wrist while you weren't looking and still being completely unaware of his tattoo on your wrist.

"But...are you sure you're feeling okay?" Levi asked tentatively, not looking at you but at your wrist where he could see peeks of his tattoo. His eyes narrowed, not taking his eyes off of it for a second. Hearing his question knocked you out of your thoughts so you turned your head cluelessly to look at him, not knowing why he was asking that again.

Even so, you looked at him and shrugged, moving your arms and starting to massage parts of your shoulders that did feel a bit sore to you, but other than that, you felt okay. But what you didn't know is that Levi's eyes followed your arms wherever they moved. In the back of your head, you knew he wasn't really asking to really know about your well-being, but the other half of your brain tried to tell you that since he got you here to the hospital and saved you before, maybe he really was concerned.

"I feel fine. Besides..." You trailed off, turning your head to look at him and quickly doing a once-over Levi, looking at him up and down, and he looked completely fine. Again, you both fell in the water, he broke your fall and took the hit for you, so why was he up and about so fast?

"You seem...okay. You're practically unscathed," You finished, with a clear tone of uncertainty laced in your voice, which made Levi move his eyes from your wrist to look at you. You were finally voicing out all of your doubts that you were having before. There was a slight squinting in your eyes and your entire body language and facial expressions hinted at suspicion and skepticism. He looked completely put together to you, and here you were, in a hospital bed. It didn't make sense.

"It may look like that, but I'm not okay at all" He started and you looked at him incredulously, seeing how he said those words with a blank face. You didn't believe one word out of his mouth, but you'd psh all of your thoughts that were in the back of your head that were pushing to come out and you'd wait until he's done talking to say something.

But you suddenly got a chill up your spine when you saw his features harden as he raised his pointer finger and aimed it at your wrist. "I brought you here and have been waiting for you because you have something that's mine. I want it back," He said and your face twisted with confusion. Your eyebrows furrowed and you hesitantly looked down to see what he was pointing at. To you, it seemed like he was still concussed and he should also be in a hospital room for some sort of observation.

"What are you talking about? I didn't take anything from-" You started but then your words were cut off with a gasp and your left hand flew to your mouth. There was an actual tattoo on your wrist. Where did it come from? You couldn't even tell what it was. It was some sort of...branchless tree? Paths? And look, you liked tattoo's as much as the next person and thought they were cool, but on your own body? You had an image to uphold and you couldn't carry this around with you in your company.

You didn't know for sure where it came from or what it was. What even happened last night for you to have woken up to see this on your body all of a sudden? You've never had a tattoo before in your life and that didn't change last night, when you didn't have a tattoo. You grabbed your right wrist with your left hand and brought it closer to your face to inspect it. "Oh my God! What's this tacky thing doing on my wrist?" You asked yourself with panic as you took a closer look at it.

But the moment you said that, Levi took offense. His eyes widened and moved forward in his chair, feeling like he must have heard you wrong. "Excuse me, tacky?" He said as he suddenly stood up and took a couple steps closer to you. But his eyes nearly bugged out his head when he saw you begin to rub and scratch the part of your wrist where his tattoo was.

"What do you think you're doing? Don't do that, you're going to ruin it" Levi said with clear irritation in his voice as he reached over and grabbed your wrist, trying to stop you from ruining the very source of his powers, not wanting to take any chances when it came to his tattoo until he knew what happened. He couldn't have you messing with it.

His movements were panicked as he tried to hold onto your wrist but you were still able to yank yourself away from him, causing Levi to fall over the bed, propping himself up on his forearms. He exhaled out a short breath and turned his head back to look at you as his exasperation with you grew. You were holding his life in your hands and he didn't want you to tarnish it by trying to scratch it off or something.

But he watched as you stopped rubbing your wrist and you gasped realizing what this meant if it wasn't coming off. The hopes that this was one of those water-based tattoo's that lasted a few days came crashing down, but it hit you like a truck that this was in fact a very real one. You also hadn't quite realized that this was not an ordinary one either.

"So...I have a real tattoo on my wrist," You said out loud as your face morphed into one of even more panic, as reality was quickly starting to set. You desperately began to search your brain as to what happened last night for you to have woken up like this. You didn't recall anything that hinted at you getting a tattoo. "How did this even happen?" You asked yourself, actively trying to remember last night's events.

You felt as the weight on the end of the bed was lifted when Levi pulled himself up to stand up again. He was standing right next to you as he watched your face scrunch a bit, trying to get your brain to remember, but when you did, he noticed how your face immediately went into one of recognition when every detail before, during, and after the incident with the killer suddenly came rushing back to you.

You gasped and raised both of your hands to cup over your mouth as your eyes widened with recognition. You remembered so clearly all of a sudden the way Levi appeared through the fog, his proposal of him wanting to make a deal with you, him knocking out and throwing the killer into the car window, your first time seeing the way his eyes began to glow a shade of red that made you want to shrink in on yourself, the killer trying to run the two of you over with the car, forcing you both to fall into the water.

After falling into the water, that part was still a little hazy but waking up on that shore was still crystal clear to you. You remembered him realizing that you had his tattoo then, grabbing your wrist, and then an arch of water appearing over the both of you when his tattoo began to glow.

Then you didn't remember anything else after that, up until now, the moment you woke up in the hospital. So, you pretty much caught up now. Levi rolled his eyes as he saw that you remembered everything from the night before. At least he wouldn't have to explain anything to you now but the issue with you having his tattoo on you was still far from resolved.

"Good, you're up to speed," He said bluntly, as he walked back and sat himself back down in his chair, watching as your face looked like it was going through the 5 stages of grief. He couldn't believe he had to be here for this. You weren't saying anything but Levi knew you were still  processing bit by bit what happened the night before.

"Was I really that drunk...? I mean, I was a little tipsy but not nearly enough to have done something like this," You muttered to yourself and Levi raised an eyebrow. Were you still not believing even your own memories about what happened and thinking you got drunk somewhere and that's how you got the tattoo? But in your defense, what happened would sound surreal and like a total fever dream to anyone. It was hard to believe that anything that happened last night really did occur.

Levi could tell that you were having some sort of inner dialogue in your head, and your facial expressions and body language showed it. You were clearly debating something in your head, and he had no idea what it was. But he felt a weird churn in his stomach when saw you look up from your wrist and there was a weird look in your eye. Though, when he heard your next words, he felt his heart plummet to his stomach.

"That's it. I'm going to laser this thing off of me," You said, hurriedly pulling the covers off of you and heading towards the door to find Hange. But you couldn't even take two steps away from your bed before Levi stepped in front of you and his sharp eyes narrowed darkly and menacingly, looking at you with so much distaste that he didn't even need to say anything to you to know his expression did all the talking for him.

"You're not going anywhere near a laser with my tattoo," He said with a tone that he was clearly using to try and intimidate you out of removing his tattoo, but it wasn't working on you. You looked at him, completely unbothered and tried to step around him, but he was quick to block your path again. You felt the need to scoff for the lengths he was willing to go to for this tattoo, that he claims you stole from him, which you were still struggling to comprehend. How would that be physically possible?

"What do you think you're doing? Move," You said, continuing to test his limits continuously. Levi's eyes had a certain gleam to them the moment you said that. You were so exasperating and you just weren't cooperating with him whatsoever, it was tiring. "You want to laser my tattoo off your body? Well, over my dead body, I'm not letting you leave this room" He said and you blinked a couple times to know if he was serious or not, but nothing about his demeanor said otherwise.

"Why are you so protective over this thing? How will you stop me from leaving this room anyway?" You challenged and Levi's chest heaved up and down as he looked at you with utter disbelief in his eyes.

Why were you being so difficult? He was trying to be civil but you were making it impossible with that look on your face that said you weren't planning on letting up. "What's it to you if I laser this thing off? How would it affect you at all?" You said, and then Levi remembered that even if you remembered seeing his tattoo and powers the day before, you were still refusing to believe any of it was real and that it all really happened.

You probably thought some parts of what you recalled before was all some sort of fabricated memory from a dream you had that didn't really happen. You had no idea that the tattoo on your wrist was the source of his entire life and there was no telling what would happen if you tried to get rid of it by force. He couldn't let you do it.

You didn't have time for this, you were feeling fine already. You sighed and raised your hand, putting it on his shoulder and nudging him out of the way. But as soon as you began to walk past him, again, he didn't let you go very far. He quickly grabbed your right wrist, the one with his tattoo on it, tugging you back, and making you stumble in your step until you were standing right in front of him again. You looked at him, not believing he wasn't letting you leave. Why did this tattoo matter to him that much?

He tightened the grip he had on your wrist and his eyes hardened. "Don't you dare let a laser come near your wrist. Or...." Levi said, but trailed off and paused, suddenly feeling his brain freeze for a second. What was happening to him? Why did he feel like he was running out of things to say to make you stay in this room? But when his brain finally responded, his words didn't come out nearly as convincing as he wanted them to.

"...Or, you'll regret it," He said, keeping his face stoic and blunt to make up for the fact that he fumbled his words out when he needed them the most. You purse your lips, trying to contain a chuckle but your eyes were betraying you, telling Levi that wanted to laugh. So badly. You settled for a soft snort, not wanting to damage his ego by laughing.

"Ooh, I'm terrified," You said with sarcasm laced in your voice and let out a couple chuckles. Levi deadpanned at you, not finding your teasing amusing at all, in fact he found it very childish.

But to Levi, you really had no idea that he wasn't human at all and that while he messed up his words, they were very real. But the more time he spent with you here, the more he realized him telling you that he's a demon wouldn't have that big of an effect on you and wouldn't bother or intimidate you that much. In fact, you wouldn't even believe him.

Though, after a few seconds of just staring at each other trying to study each other's eyes to see what the other was thinking, that's when the bickering began. You turned your head and noticed that he was still very much holding your wrist in a tight grip that you desperately wanted to get out of. Your face hardened, reflecting how much strength you were trying to use as you began to try to yank and tug your wrist away from Levi's grip, but he just wasn't letting go and only tightening his grip.

When you couldn't, you let out a huff and looked at him directly in the eye. "Let. go. It's my wrist, I can do whatever I want with it" You said sternly, tugging your wrist back your way, not letting his sharp gaze intimidate you, which he was clearly trying to do. He only seemed to get more annoyed with your words the more you talked.

Levi simply tugged your wrist back his way forcefully, making you stumbled forward a little and bringing you slightly closer to him. "I don't care. It's my tattoo" He said bluntly, and your head tilted to the side, feeling like everything you said to him went in one ear and out the other. But to him, little did you know that he was thinking the exact same thing.

"What are you- are you still on that? What are you even saying?" You said, genuinely lost on his intentions and what exactly he meant with what he was saying because you really needed some context. But even as you heard his reasoning over and over, you still didn't understand.

"I don't get it either, but my tattoo is on your wrist right now and I don't know why. All I know is that you can't do anything to it, it's mine," He said, and you looked him dead in the eye as he did. He looked completely serious and you let out a laugh of complete disbelief.

Does he realize how insane it is for him to say that his tattoo was on his own body last night. apparently moved to your wrist, without any evidence, proof, or explanation behind it?

"Have you completely lost your mind? I think you might actually be concussed. How about this, if you let me go, I can go look for a nurse and they can set you up in a cozy little room," You said, sending him a teasing smile his way which only seemed to anger him more as you watched him press his tongue against his cheek and look away for a moment. Though, to you it only satisfied you more knowing you were getting to him.

You still weren't giving up, though. You looked directly into his eyes, and tugged your hand back to you. "Let go," You warned, as your expression turned even more serious than before, but it seems that Levi wasn't even close to giving up either. He tugged your wrist back to him just as hard.

"No. I won't. I can't let you leave this room knowing what you'll run off to do. Who knows what you'll do to it. We have to stay here," He said, looking you straight in the eye and his glare only intensified, but you still didn't buckle under it. You tugged your wrist back to you again, and your gaze on him intensified too. You let out a scoff at his words.

"Pardon? What's this 'we'? I said, let go," You said, as you tried to keep your hand on your side even with the strength he was using you. "You heard me. I'm not doing it," He countered, overpowering your efforts and bringing your wrist back over to him. You felt the need to groan in frustration, knowing this was going absolutely nowhere now.

There was yet another moment of silence as the two of you looked at each other, trying to process each other's words and what was happening because the circumstances just did not seem reasonable at all for either of you. As the two of you were holding your wrist, it was being held high enough that the tattoo was on full display now.

"I'm going to say it one last time. You better let go, I'm getting tired of this," You lowered your voice and told him, your eyebrows knitting together with resolve. This guy was obviously a nutjob and no matter what you told him, and you didn't want to do this back and forth game anymore knowing you wouldn't get through to him at all.

"And you think I want to be here? I have better things to do than being stuck in this room with you but I'm not leaving without what belongs to me," He said, dropping one of the hands he had on your wrist, but still holding onto it just as tight with one hand. Your eyes didn't part from his and it was getting easier and easier to hold his gaze.

"I'm telling you, this is your last warning," You warned as the volume of your voice dropped, already feeling the urge in the back of your mind to act on your impulses, but you had been holding back. This guy was really pushing your limits and Hange would be back into the room at any moment with your doctor. This had to be settled sooner or later.

But when Levi didn't say anything back or act upon your words, staying completely silent. You let out a huff and straightened up. "One," You started counting down and Levi's eyes furrowed as he clearly looked taken aback that you're resorting to counting down now.

"Two," You continued to count down, keeping your gaze firm on his and you saw Levi's face twitch just a little in puzzlement, as he had no idea what you'd do when you finished counting, not that he was scared or intimidated by it by any means. He couldn't be bothered to care for your tactics at all if he was being completely honest with himself.

There was a beat of silence before you spoke up again and finished your countdown. "...three!" You said, quickly raising your free arm and cocking it back, giving in to your impulsive thoughts, with the intent of slapping Levi. But as soon as you cocked your hand back, you suddenly felt like you couldn't move it anymore. It remained cocked back.

You looked back and your mouth dropped open when you saw that you physically couldn't move your hand forward. There was some sort of force kept there, no matter how hard you tried to bring it forward.

The moment you'd swung back your hand, since Levi was holding onto your wrist that had his tattoo on it, he was quick enough to activate his powers knowing what you were about to do as his eyes focused and narrowed on your hand that was in a perfect form to slap him. He was able to be quick enough with his reflexes and stop you just in time.

He tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow as he watched you visibly struggle to bring your hand forward. You were letting out soft grunts that indicated the efforts you were making to be able to move it, but since Levi was holding your wrist, there was nothing you could do to move it whatsoever, and to him, this was incredibly amusing to watch. He couldn't believe you thought you'd be able to pull one over on him.

"What the...?" You muttered to yourself as you gave in to another attempt and tried to bring your hand forward, but there was something keeping it held back. You were using every fiber of your body to move it but it just wasn't budging at all. What the hell was happening?

Levi had gone from looking at your struggle, to look at your wrist, and his tattoo more specifically. It was glowing red again, which meant his powers were at work. He briefly thought about the way his powers flickered the night before when he needed them before, which never happened before, and his powers were working fine now. But he quickly went back to the moment at hand. His eyes went back and forth between his tattoo and your hand that he was able to stop in mid-movement.

"Why can't I..." You wondered as you continued to try to bring your hand forward but there was just nothing that you could do. You were still failing to understand how any of this was happening. But as Levi brought his eyes from your hand and then back to his tattoo, he slipped up.

He made the mistake of thinking that now that you were distracted by your curiosity of how your hand stopped its movements all of a sudden, he could remove his hold that he had on your wrist. That was his first mistake, because as soon as there was no longer a force holding your hand back, there was momentum that built up.

So, the moment Levi let go of your wrist, your hand was free and your hand was sent straight to his cheek, slapping him even harder than you intended. So hard that it seemed to knock the living daylights out of him for a split second as he not only fell on the bed, but also all the way to the other side of it, bringing the sheets of the bed with him as well, followed by a loud thud on the other side of the room.

When you slapped him and watched him fall over like that, you gasped loudly and raised the hand you used to slap him over your mouth. You meant to slap him before, sure, but not that hard, right? "Oh my God..." You breathed out as you looked over to the other side of the room where Levi fell and you waited to see until he came back up.

But when he didn't for a couple seconds, your attention was drawn to your own hand as you began to flop it around and look at it curiously. You began to mimic the way your hand moved when you slapped Levi, over and over. How could your hand have been capable of something like that? You had a normal amount of strength that any person had, but you knew it certainly wasn't enough to knock someone that far.

You were so caught up in trying to comprehend your own actions that you didn't see Levi slowly begin to rise from the other end of the bed, with his right hand holding his cheek as a deadly and murderous glare became apparent on his face. If he wasn't happy before, it was safe to say that even more in this very moment. That was perfectly clear.

His gunmetal eyes were narrowed dangerously, in a way you only took notice of because you felt a heavy weight of his gaze on your body. So you halted in your own movements and slowly turned your head to see Levi raise his other arm and place it on the bed to hold himself up, not letting his eyes go astray from you for a second.

When you fully turned your body to face him and fully looked at him, you swallowed hard and found the strength to stay something to him even though it looked like he wanted to wipe you from the face of the Earth. "I am so sorry..." You breathed out, but when he didn't say anything back to you and continued to glare, you felt compelled to continue.

"I...really did not mean to hit you that hard, I swear," You explained yourself as best as you could, but by the look on Levi's face, it really looked like he didn't believe a single word you were saying to him in that moment, showing him movements with your hand, actively trying to demonstrate what you were really trying to do before.

But when you turned your head back to him and saw that he had removed his hand from his cheek, you saw a big red hand print on it. Your eyes widened and your hand flew to your mouth as you tried to stop yourself from snorting out a laugh. If you did, that would be a death wish with this guy, because if he was holding back his patience now, he definitely won't do that now. This was probably the last straw for him.

But you knew when to shut your mouth when he started to push himself up from the floor. "First, I save you last night, then you steal what's mine and now this?" He said, with rage and anger evident in his voice, making you gulp slightly while you still tried to keep your head up high. You watched as he began walking over to you, but you remained in place.

But there were certain words in his sentences that made you want a replay of what you just heard. "Excuse me? Again with the stealing? I didn't steal anything from you? You think I want this thing on me?" You said as you raised your wrist and watched him walk over to you with a stride that made you want to take a couple steps back.

"I really must have been out of my mind last night even offering my help to you. I should've just left you to be killed by that psycho cab driver. Worst decision i've ever made," He said, muttering the last little bit to himself. But you narrowed your eyes at him, having heard every word he said. It was truly unbelievable to you how ironic it was.

"Yeah? Well, right back at you! When we were sinking, I should've left an asshole like you to drown and be eaten by the fish!" You said as you lost your fear and got the courage to walk closer, getting closer to his face, looking directly in his eyes. "I risked my life and saved you from drowning in that river, so I must've gone crazy too" You continued, holding back the need to scoff in his face at how he wasn't realizing how ridiculous he sounded.

"How can you look me straight in the eye and say that when I'm the one that saved your sorry ass out there?" He countered, recalling how he woke up in the water and was the one that brought you back to shore. But you clearly didn't remember that part because after that, you couldn't hold back your scoff. After you did, you turned your body away and took a couple steps away from him as you tried to hold your emotions in check.

You were so close to lashing out in his face and saying everything you were thinking but he was really insufferable. You couldn't handle arguing with him for another second because you knew you'd snap.

You breathed in and out and then looked back to take one look at him, only to see that he still looked dead set on what he said just now and everything else up until now.

You let out a huff, pacing a bit in place, trying to gather yourself. It also wasn't easy to take him seriously with your handprint still on his face. You were fighting demons inside you to stay serious and look at him in the eye when you also had to look at that.

There was palpable tension in the room in which neither of you said a single word to each other and just remained in place, waiting to see which person would say something first that wouldn't continue to test the other person's blood pressure. That was until you finally heard a knock on the hospital door, so both you and Levi turned your heads to the side.

You straightened up and turned your body fully to face the door, seeing that Hange was walking into the room again with the doctor behind them in tow.

In the corner of your eye, you saw that Levi's posture said that he just couldn't be bothered to care about anyone else that came in the room because his focus was clearly set on something else.

When Hange walked into the room, their head tilted to the side as their eyes darted between you and Levi. They were surprised to see that not only were you standing up already, which was good because you were recovering quickly enough. They also noticed that from yours and Levi's body language cues and the air that they sensed when they walked into the room, they could tell that you and Levi definitely been talking and that it was a not so pleasant interaction at that.

But they pushed those thoughts to the back of their heads and moved to stand next to you as the doctor assigned to you came into the room after them. The doctor stopped to stand in front of both you and Levi, but his eyes directed at you. He had a warm and comforting smile on his face, already being able to tell that you were recovering from the accident faster than ever.

"Ms. L/n, glad to see you're already up, how are you feeling?" He asked, and you were quick to give Levi a brief and quick glance, that would constitute as a scowl to most, but you were able to conceal it so only he would receive it and know it was for him.

You heard him scoff softly and turn his head away as he crossed his arms. You turned your attention back to the doctor and straightened up before answering. "I feel fine, but a little dizzy still, it's uncomfortable," You said, and the doctor nodded understandingly, quickly pulling out his penlight and walked closer to you to bring it right up to your eyes, taking a closer look at them. You opened your eyes wider as he began to examine them, to see if there was anything out of the ordinary to him.

But not even a few seconds later after he began to examine you, you felt Levi's presence approach as you heard and felt him take a few steps forward. "Doctor, is she not going to be okay- I mean, is she going to be okay?" Levi said, backtracking a little, and it took you everything not to snap your head towards him while you were being examined. You were completely indignant.

Did you hear that right? You wanted to desperately turn your head and look at Hange to see if they heard what you did because the doctor just  seemed completely unfazed by what Levi just said.

But when the doctor finally stepped away, not having found anything that had any cause for concern just then, you quickly turned your head to send Levi a hard glare that sufficiently expressed your annoyance towards him.

You couldn't even tell if he felt it or not because he looked totally unbothered as he kept his eye contact with the doctor, who had turned to look at him to answer his question. The nerve on this guy.

You finally turned your head to look at Hange and you saw that they were looking at Levi curiously, and when they noticed you were looking at them, just by the look on their face, you could tell that they were just as surprised and shocked as you were by Levi.

But in all honesty, you've practically already been on a date with this guy, even if it was a mistake, and have already had a near death experience with him that has practically told you everything you needed to know about him  already, so should you really be surprised at this point? You've known him for, what? A day? And you already know the kind of person he is, so a comment like that shouldn't be too shocking.

"Well, all signs of exhaustion are gone and judging by her chart..." The doctor trailed off as he was handed a clipboard and he began flipping through it. "Her vitals are mostly back to normal. There's no cause for concern, don't worry. Everything looks fine. She's approved to be discharged today if she wishes," The doctor reassured, but even Levi couldn't hide his scowl when he heard those words.

It clearly wasn't what he wanted to hear. But he was able to conceal it well enough and just nodded along to what he was hearing. You shook your head in disbelief at how he wasn't even trying to hide it now.

"I wouldn't be so sure, doctor. I think I might need some more examination after that hit to my head. I'm pretty sure I'm still out of my mind," You said innocently as you turned to look at Levi and sent him a petty smile that made his scowl deepen as he turned to look at you.

He could see right through your words, knowing you were throwing back his words from before right back at him. But your smile dropped and you rolled your eyes subtly, looking away from.

Though, you could still feel his eyes on you. You crossed your arms and watched as Hange cleared their throat lightly and took a step forward, sensing the tension between you and Levi and having a feeling you wanted to change the subject.

"Doctor, I assure you that Ms. Y/n is more than capable of any recovery that she has left. I'll make sure the rest of her recovery goes smoothly" Hange said and you sighed, nodding along as you felt the doctor's eyes go back and forth from you to Hange a couple times.

You were silently backing up the words of your assistant, taking a couple steps to stand closer to them. In response to your proximity, Hange moved one of her hands and placed it comfortingly on your back. The doctor wasn't sure what kind of dynamic was going on in the room, but after hearing Hange's words, he and the nurse behind him nodded.

"Oh, well, I see. I'll leave her in your care, excuse me," The doctor said, earning a nod from Hange and you. You, Levi, and Hange watched as the doctor left the room and after that, there was only silence left in the room. Awkward silence at that.

You stayed close to Hange and the two of you watched as Levi let out a breath of exasperation and turned his body around to silently start walking along the room.

You and Hange looked at each other, and while they gave you a look that urged an explanation as to what happened while they were gone, you sighed and simply sent them a shrug that indicated that not even you knew how to explain this to them. You stepped away from them and quickly walked over to sit down on one of the chairs on the bedside.

Meanwhile, as it felt like the tension in that hospital room could be cut with a knife, outside two people were approaching your room. Two people that Levi had told you he'd contacted just earlier that day.

It was two detectives that worked for the city's police department and had been assigned to your case, so now, they were heading over to your hospital room to ask a couple questions while your memory is still fresh from the night before. Anything you could remember would be useful to them, and their job was just to piece it all together to find that killer.

Their names were Nile Dok and Dot Pixis. They have been part of the police force for years now and this case stood out to them a lot when it was assigned to them in the first place.

They have been working as partners in many cases in the past couple years so they worked well together and their chief knew it too, which is why they were paired up together to solve this one too, knowing how distinct this particular situation is. They were the best the police had to offer.

Just as the doctor was leaving your room, Nile and Pixis were both walking across that same hallway and heading straight for where the doctor had just left from. They were reviewing every detail that Levi had given them before and what he knew from this cab driver.

"The name of the guy we talked to was Levi Ackerman, wasn't it?" Pixis suddenly said, trying to get a refresher in his mind of what they were going into as he walked side by side with Nile next to him.

Nile turned his head to the side when hearing his partner speak up, as they continued to get closer and closer to the door where you were staying.

"Yeah, that's his name. Not a bad looking guy, not so great with words, though" Nile said, his face scrunching a bit while remembering the off-putting interaction that they had with Levi earlier that day, being taken aback by his attitude and the way he went about presenting his case.

They weren't really sure they've ever met someone like him before, but hey, a job was a job, wasn't it? And they were there to do just that.

Right before reaching your door, Pixis stopped right in front of it, and Nile was quick to halt in his steps and stand still next to his partner. Pixis looked like he was deep in his thoughts.

"There's something about him that I've had on my mind all day," Pixis said, and Nile's face twisted with confusion as to what his partner meant by that. They were about to walk into their first questioning of a case and Pixis' mind was elsewhere.

"Why? What about him could you possibly be thinking about?" Nile asked, moving his briefcase to move from one hand to another. Pixis ran a hand back and forth across his head and quickly reached into his jacket's inner pockets to pull out his flask, quickly unscrewing the cap and taking a swig of his drink from it.

"I'm not sure. I like his style, though," Pixis said, and Nile closed his eyes, raising a hand to press to the bridge of his nose with exasperation, realizing that his partner had his thoughts somewhere else.

He dropped his hand back to his side and looked at his partner again. "Really? Is that what you're thinking about right now? He has a case to investigate, Pixis," Nile said as he gestured to the door in front of them, and they couldn't wait for a single moment out here.

He'd stopped from walking in because Pixis had stopped walking, but now he realized they were wasting time. Pixis put his flask back in his jacket's inner pocket and turned to look at Nile.

"I'm just saying, I wouldn't mind changing my wardrobe a bit. I like his style. Do you think I could pull it off?" Pixis said as he remembered having liked the way Levi dressed, as irrelevant to the case as it may be.

Nile let out a long breath and composed himself before giving Pixis a light pat on his back. Sometimes moments like this made him realize that while they were very capable and good at their jobs, and two of the detectives with most solved cases in their police station, there could be a few tweaks to their methods, especially to their conversations.

"You know what? Why don't we focus on this first? Then you can ask him where he gets his clothes," Nile said as stepped in front of his partner and raised his hand to knock on the door.

Pixis nodded along to his partner's words and steeled himself, for professionalism, and watched as Nile knocked three times on the door before pushing the door open.

Back inside the room, everything had remained almost completely silent until your head snapped to the door when hearing three knocks.

You turned your head back, just as Levi and Hange did when they heard the knocks, and you quickly stood up from your chair when you saw that it was two men that you've never seen before. But your eyes quickly noticed their police badges on their jackets and you relaxed a little.

You turned your body to face them as they politely let themselves in the room. "Hello. Let me introduce ourselves. I'm detective Nile Dok, and this is detective Dot Pixis. We're the officers in charge of your case," Nile said with a warm and professional smile, having noticed your hesitancy when they came into the room.

Your shoulders sank and you smiled back at them, nodding understandingly about who they were and what they were here to do in the first place. You quickly felt more at ease knowing that they were in charge of catching that crazy cab driver.

After that introduction, you were quick to go back to your bed and settle yourself in it, remaining in a seated position. Nile and Pixis were both also quick to notice Levi's presence as he remained standing by the edge of the bed, watching your movements carefully as you settled yourself in it, adjusting the blankets over you as you got comfortable.

Pixis turned his body to go from facing you to facing Levi. "Oh, great! You're still here," Pixis said, earning a sigh from Nile, but Levi wasn't fazed by the excitement that Pixis showed upon seeing him. Levi had his focus on you, or rather your wrist, and wasn't looking anywhere else.

"Unfortunately," Levi said with a sigh that made the detectives look at each other once and then turn their eyes to look back at Levi. "But, I wanted to make sure everything was okay here..." He said, trailing off and not hiding the fact that he wasn't looking at you but at his tattoo.

You rolled your eyes at Levi's response upon seeing that he was clearly still there for other reasons, but leaving it vague enough for the officers to think that he was here to make sure that you were okay.

You crossed your fingers together in front of you, making your sleeve ride up a little, leaving the tattoo on display for only Levi to see from where he was standing. His eyes narrowed when he caught sight of it and didn't look away.

You ignored Levi's eyes on your wrist and looked at him, even if he wasn't looking at you directly. "Well, as you can see, I feel perfectly fine. So, you can leave," You said, sending a petty smile his way that made his eyes go from your wrist to look back up at you. But by the looks of it, he was, ironically, fighting demons to be able to even consider leaving.

He clearly didn't want to and he made that abundantly clear before. His glare on you only deepened further after he heard you say that, knowing full well you wouldn't be able to get him to leave this room that easily. Though your words true intent went right over the officer's heads because they simply nodded understandingly.

Sensing that the tension between you and Levi was arising yet again, Hange decided to disrupt whatever staring contest the two of you were currently having. They had no idea what was really going on, but in a way they already had an idea in their mind about what it could be.

You and Levi had been going back and forth since you woke up and there were definitely context clues they were missing. Though, right now wasn't the time or place so instead they focused on what was important and what they were sure you wanted to hear about.

They stepped closer to you, taking your attention away from Levi, making you turn your head to look at them as they approached your bedside and they looked down at you.

"I asked the detectives before to keep this incident away from the public, including Grisha," Hange reassured and you nodded while letting out breath, realizing that was yet another concern you had forgotten about, but as usual, Hange took care of it efficiently.

That was one less thing you'd have to worry about. You turned your head to look from Hange, over to the detectives, who gave you nods of confirmation for your assistant's words.

After that, Nile felt that it was important to start the investigation as soon as possible so he felt like it was appropriate he spoke up first. "Excuse me, I know you're still recovering but we need a statement from you in order to begin the investigation," Nile said, beginning to pull out a small notepad and a pen.

You nodded at him, beginning to rack your brain about anything that could be useful enough as a statement, but then you thought of something that was pretty clear and straightforward enough.

"I don't remember clear details from last night all that well, but just use any of the information Levi gave you in order to catch that guy. He remembers a lot more than I do," You said, briefly feeling Levi's eyes on you the moment you mentioned him, but you ignored it.

Nile nodded and began writing down and connecting what Levi told them before, to hopefully come to a conclusion soon enough that would move the investigation forward. This was a great start already.

As Nile wrote down everything that he remembered, Pixis recalled a detail that Levi had mentioned to them about what relation he had to you when it came to the case.

"I hope I'm not intruding or anything," Pixis started, catching the attention of you and Levi. The both of you turned to look at the detective and saw he was about to say something else.

"I heard that the two of you actually met on a blind date, is that right?" Pixis asked in a way that definitely had undertones that allude to something else. Hearing this, you closed your eyes and looked away, not wanting to relive that moment, while Levi rolled his eyes and turned away. He didn't expect to be brought back at any moment, and now he's regretting it deeply.

Pixis didn't mean anything by what he said, he was just trying to liven up the situation and lightly making the best out of a bad situation, having sensed that there was some tension between them. He was going about it as if they were awkward teenagers with crushes on each other, trying to harmlessly tease them about it.

"If that's the case and the two of you ended up here together again after that date, the two of you should get married," Pixis said as he let out a hearty laugh and looked at Nile who stopped writing and was doing a motion with his hand across his neck that said to 'cut it out'.

Both yours and Levi's eyes widened at the detective's words. "No!" Both of you said simultaneously as your heads snapped to look at Pixis. Your facial expression showed how horrified you were by the insinuation, while Levi looked incredibly offended by what the detective said.

Both of the detectives looked at each other as the air in the room turned awkward again. Hange simply couldn't even hide the quiet snort that left their lips as they quickly turned away and covered their mouth. Since they were so close to you in proximity, you heard it loud and clear and looked up at them briefly to see that they were trying to stay professional.

You cleared your throat briefly and dropped your hands in front of you, fidgeting with them a little. You didn't mean to respond like that and just blurt it out. "I actually don't plan on getting married," You said, earning a look of recognition from both detectives as they both nodded and began to understand the kind of relationship that you and Levi had now.

"And I'm not looking for a relationship," Levi was quick to interject as well, making the two men turn to look at him. It seems Pixis and Nile started to realize that the two of you aren't that fond of each other. To Pixis, that would've been nice to know before he made that comment.

The tension in the room didn't seem to be getting any better at all, so Hange looked nervously between you and Levi, adjusted their glasses against the rim of their noses and turned her body to face the detectives. "

"Yet, even if both facts are true, the two of them still went on a blind date. Intentional or not..." They pointed out, while whispering the last part to themselves, but you were once again able to hear every word clear as day. You sighed, looking up at Hange again with a helpless look on your face.

That small detail really wasn't helping their case at all. "Hange, you're not helping," You whispered you said and they simply shrugged unknowingly and looked up again, to see Levi was glaring at them now.

But you could tell that it didn't seem to be bothering them at all. This is the second time Hange has made a comment towards Levi where he gets annoyed but they don't seem to care, and only seem to find it amusing instead.

There were a few more seconds of deafening silence after that, so before anybody could say anything else, Levi heard buzzing in one of the inner pockets of his jacket. He breathed out and quickly reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. He saw that it was an alarm he'd set.

So, when he saw his screen and the message 'contract expiration', he knew that it was time to take his leave. As much as he knew that the moment he left, you'd run off and do who knows what to his tattoo, this is something he couldn't put off either. He would just have to hope that you would remember what he said and at least wait until he figured this out.

"I have to go. I have somewhere to be," Levi said bluntly as he put his phone back in the inner pocket of his jacket and turned his body to face the detectives.

You tilted your head at what he said, but relief washed over you, knowing you could at least start preparing to leave the hospital and also begin to think about getting back to your work routine, despite also knowing full well Levi wouldn't leave this alone and you'd have to see him again eventually. Hopefully not too soon, you hoped.

"Sure, go right ahead," Pixis said respectfully and Nile nodded as well, watching as Levi put his hands in his jacket pockets and began to walk around the bed, over to the side he was on before.

You watched his every movement as he briskly walked over to you and your eyes widened when he bent down to your level and began to speak in a volume that only you could hear. You flinched slightly when he moved to speak right by your ear and his breath fanned against it.

"Take care, Ms. Y/n. You're not getting rid of me that easily, so until next time, don't you dare touch that tattoo, got it?" He whispered lowly, and without another word, he straightened up again and began to head towards the door. You were frozen on the spot and you felt like your entire body had run cold the moment he left your vicinity. You couldn't move.

You didn't want to let his words shake you up, but it definitely felt like they did, even more than any other quip he said before while the two of you were bickering. You blinked and brought yourself back down to Earth, looking up at Hange, with a look in your eye they couldn't quite decipher.

Your mouth was agape as you let out a breath and turned your head away.  You quickly grabbed your sleeve on your right arm and pulled it up as discreetly as you could, not letting anyone see that tattoo just yet.

The moment you heard the door close, you turned your head to look at the door through where he just left. Now, the only ones left in the room were you, Hange, and the detectives.

You knew it was time for you to answer any questions that they had for you, but you knew that all you'd be thinking about when would be the next time that you'd have to see him. All you knew is that you were dreading for that moment to come.

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Hello everyone! I definitely had a vision for this chapter but from my own perspective, I'm not sure if It really translated to what I had in mind. Though, I hope that you guys liked it either way!

Also I will go back to this chapter for spelling and grammar mistakes because there might be a few if any of you noticed :,) But don't worry, I'll come back to correct them!

I also heard you guys enjoyed chapter lengths like the last one so I did the same for this one! Let me know if you guys want me to keep this same wordcount from here on out! Im happy to do it! :,)

Right now in this author's note I don't have a whole lot to say so if there's anything else, I'll be sure to mention it next time. There's a lot of stuff coming and I'm starting to preplan a lot of the stuff that happens in the future of this book so hope you guys are excited too!

As I'm posting this, I have midterms coming up but i'll still try to stay as consistent as I can so I'll see you guys next Sunday with the next update! I promise the next one will be a lot better!

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