-

As you walked closer to get to him, you did have to admit that it was a beautiful sight. You eventually reached Levi and stood next to him, looking out into the horizon just as he was.

The trickling of the water against the shore of the river was incredibly comforting, accompanied by the sounds of the city from afar.

Neither of you said anything, and you began to sway back and forth on your feet awkwardly as you realized that if you wanted answers, this was the time to get them. You cleared your throat lightly before you finally spoke up.

"So, will you finally tell me what this is about? What exactly is it that you need that wasn't what you did back there? I'm just so lost and you've barely told me anything, I have a right to worry, and the timing in all of this is just off to me," You started, giving him the opportunity now to tell you what it is that he's truly after. If he did, you'd feel so much more at ease about all of this.

But just as you should have expected, Levi wasn't going to answer any of that. In his head, he was going to do exactly what he told Onyankopon he'd do. Captivating humans.

Levi slowly turned to face you, and noticing this, you began to turn your body around as well, so now the two of you were facing each other. But what took you aback was seeing the entirely different look he had on his face. It was...soft, gentle, and kind in a way.

It was a complete switch from his demeanor the entire evening and you tilted your head slightly to the side witnessing this. It somehow felt so unnatural because you'd never seen it before on him, but somehow it was just as fitting as you would expect.

Your body couldn't help but flinch when you suddenly felt him take your hand into his, and you didn't know why your body reacted the way it did or if it was because of the way he was looking so deeply into your eyes, but him simply grabbing your hand from your side and holding it tightly made goosebumps suddenly erupt all over your body.

It was really unfair. Here you were, trying to get answers from him and it was like he was trying to distract you, but even with all of these small gestures, you still weren't forgetting what you wanted to know.

As nice as it is to see a change in demeanor in him, you weren't going to forget whatsoever. Though, all of those goosebumps from his touch against you suddenly vanished and you blinked yourself back to reality when he spoke up again.

"I have to ask you something," He said, and you nodded instantly. Was he finally going to tell you what it is that he brought you here for? You prepared yourself to listen intently, but all of those hopes came crashing down just as fast as they came up.

"Can you hold your breath?" He asked, and you swear you almost asked him to say it again because you couldn't have heard that right. But even if that soft look on his face was still present, his tone was dead serious and you knew he wanted a real answer from you.

"I'm sorry, what? I hope you're joking. What do you need to know that for?" You asked, all of those butterflies from before quickly extinguishing as you began to wrap your head around what he meant by that.

And you couldn't decipher what he meant either by his demeanor or facial expressions because he was doing a great job at disguising that too.

"No reason. What about swimming? Do you know how to swim?" He asked and your mouth dropped opened, trying to get any words out, but nothing was coming out. Why was he asking you these questions? You thought he was finally going to give you answers and he's just asking you if you can hold your breath or if you knew how to swim. He was just wasting your time at this point. You were seconds away from walking out.

"Okay, here goes nothing," You heard him mutter to himself, but it was definitely loud enough for you to hear. Anything that he did after that became a blur to you and everything else in the world muffled with no fault of your own.

Your eyes were blown wide and you felt your breath get caught in your throat when you suddenly felt his right hand start to trail up your left arm, feeling his fingers go from your hand, your forearm, your upper arm, your shoulder, up until he let his hand nestle itself in your jaw.

Your breathing quickened without your permission, feeling your breaths come out short when your body finally decided to respond. But you didn't want to react this way. What was he doing?

What was he trying to do? Why was he confusing you like this? One minute he was being a total asshole, the next he was asking you these weird questions, and now, like he did before at the fountain, he changes his entire demeanor to get some kind of reaction out of you but you didn't want to give in.

A part of you realized with gestures like that where he leans in and his skin touches yours, you realized you really lacked physical contact and its like he knew how much you really needed when not even you knew.

How is it that when he looked at you like that, he made you forget that everything around you existed and it was just the two of you? Your eyes trailed all over his face. To his porcelain skin, his hypnotizing, gunmetal eyes, his raven hair that lightly fell over his eyes, and every feature you could possibly have at your reach.

What's this hold he had on you? You wanted to be stronger and let go, but when he looked at you like that, with a softness to his grey eyes that you've rarely seen on him that made him look so youthful, it was hard to look away.

You didn't know if it was you imagining it, but was he leaning in? It felt like he was, but once again, you wouldn't let your mind betray you this way? There was a part of your brain screaming at you to not fall for it, because Levi has given you plenty of reasons not to fall for what he says.

But when he looked at you like that...you listened to that much less rational part of your brain that made you forget that all you wanted was to get the truth from him.

And the part of your brain screaming at you to walk away was the one you should have listened to, because from one moment to another, that sweet expression turned into a smirk and in the blink of an eye, Levi used the hold he had on your neck and your jaw to push you along with him into the water.

You didn't even have time to think about it or stop him because before you knew it, the two of you fell into the river.

It instantly felt like a repeat of the night before, which is exactly what Levi was hoping for, and it was already making you react against the water.

You were still not over what happened and the struggle of trying to survive the first time, remembering the burning of your lungs and the fight to save Levi too as all resurfacing and coming back to you.

At first, the disorientation hit and the splash of water and the bubbles surrounding you the moment you hit the water with Levi made the dizziness start to take over.

It took a couple seconds for either of you to get your bearings back and Levi was able to gain back his surroundings a lot quicker than you did. Seeing that you were still a little out of it and trying to bring yourself back to reality, he took the opportunity of your disorientation and distraction to take your wrist with his tattoo on it and put it up against yours.

His plan was to hopefully put them back into contact again, recreating what happened the night before, and the problem would be solved.

He saw no other logic out of desperation and couldn't think of anything else so this is what he resorted to. He continued to press both of your wrists together, hoping for any sort of sign that they were transferring. But he was taking too long and you were able to gain consciousness.

When you were able to get back your bearings, you felt a grip on your wrist and your eyes landed on the scene before you. Your eyes trailed between Levi and your hand that he was holding.

Your face twisted in confusion as you began to try and tug it back to you, but it was no use because Levi wasn't giving up. He kept trying to bring them closer together, but when nothing happened, he got more and more frustrated.

He prayed in his mind over and over that his tattoo came back to him. if it couldn't come back to him this way, then he didn't know what else to do.

He knew that after this, you wouldn't let him near you with a 10 foot pole. He hoped that he could still get his tattoo back after this, you'd be mad, sure, but you wouldn't have to see each other again after.

You continued to use all of your force to try and tug your wrist back to you, having no idea why he pulled you into the water, feeling anger and annoyance build up inside you, and just overall wanting to get the hell out of the water.

After the night before, being back this soon in open water scared you and you didn't like one bit of it. And it became worse when you kept tugging and he just wouldn't let go, feeling that same burning feeling come back to your lungs and you began to panic that the incident was repeating itself.

You began to think of a last resort of what to do, given that no matter how hard you pulled, Levi wasn't letting go. You groaned underwater, eliciting bubbles to come out of your mouth out of frustration and you decided on one last thing that could get him to let go.

You tugged your wrist one last time at the same time that you gave Levi a good and hard kick on his chest with your heel, which effectively, made him let go.

You didn't waste another second to start swimming back up to the surface, and it's a good thing you didn't have a dress on this time.

You didn't even bother to try to save Levi this time and decided to do the one thing you didn't do the night before that could've prevented this whole thing. Saving yourself.

You were done trying to help him and he could save himself if he wanted, but you weren't going to do this with him anymore.

When you finally made it up to the surface, your head popped out of the water and you took a loud gasp of air to get some back into your lungs.

You quickly started to swim back to the shore and you weakly crawled out of the water, climbing up the steep shore of concrete, trying to make it back up to where you were before. You were gasping loudly and it was almost painful how you had to go through that twice in less than two days.

You got up to the top once again, still on your hands and knees, clutching your chest desperately as you continued to try to get air back into your body.

You began to cough hard and laboredly, realizing that you have practically escaped the same situation twice with your life just barely hanging in the balance. And it was all because of Levi.

You got into this situation in the first place because you tried it would be a good idea to try to save him the first time, and now he did the same thing to you again.

Your entire body hurt in a way you couldn't describe and you knew you didn't want to go through that ever again. You were on your knees now as you tried to get your body back to normal, including your breathing, your heartbeat, your thoughts in order, and everything in between.

You were also so caught up in your own well-being and also trying to think properly again that you didn't even hear Levi crawling out of the water too and coming up behind you as well just like you did. At that moment, your body restored itself on its own.

You noticed his presence when you heard his grunts of effort and struggle to come back up to where you were, making you quickly focus on one thing and one thing only.

You didn't even need to look back to know it was him, but without looking back at him, your breathing somehow slowed on its own and your eyes narrowed dangerously and your eyes were suddenly filled with so much anger as you looked forward. Your hands curled against the ground, forming into fists of hatred and loathing you could barely stand it.

You only turned your head to the side when you felt him crawl up beside you, but he didn't spend much time there, because unlike you, he was still able to stand back up immediately.

It only made your blood boil watching as he didn't even bother to check on you and went right away to check on his wrist. You watched as he held it up and he held his wrist with his left hand, looking at it with eyes wide as his breathing got heavy with panic. His tattoo didn't go back. It was just as absent as before.

You glared daggers his way, with venom deeply embedded in your gaze even if he was too caught up in himself to notice. Watching how dismissive he is, even after pulling a stunt like that, that alone gave you strength to stand up and start charging towards him.

You reached him and shoved him hard. He stumbled back a bit from your push, but at least he took his attention away from his wrist and he was looking at you now. "What the fuck was that for?! You almost killed me!" You yelled at him, with anger boiling in your veins as you panted heavily.

The way that he just looked at you blankly made tears start to spring in the corner of your eyes as heat gathered behind them. A lump formed in your throat and it was getting harder to breathe and to hold everything in. You couldn't take it anymore.

This is your last straw to everything that was happening and you were tired of pretending it didn't bother you, and him acting like he didn't care only made your emotions spike dangerously.

You were too overwhelmed, too tired, your senses were numbed and the way your heart was hammering against your chest wasn't helping. You were tired of this, tired of it all.

"Can you calm down?" He said gently to you, seeing how vulnerable you've become but your words only made you scoff and chuckle bitterly. Was he serious right now?

You didn't know why you were standing in front of him anymore, you wanted to walk out on him, and let everything out, but now before you gave him a piece of your mind. "Calm down? Seriously? You have some nerve, you know that?" You said lowly as your shoulders rose and fell with every breath you took.

It took everything in you to not punch him straight in the face. He deserved that much for putting you through this all over again.

You needed to feel something, you couldn't feel anything but rage coursing through you right now. You were just going to let everything out. You couldn't possibly hold it back for another second or you would feel yourself decaying from the inside.

"How the fuck can I calm down?! You have no idea what you're talking about! I've had so many near deaths in less than two days and you want me to calm down? I almost drowned twice and it's all because of you! Do you know that? I should've just saved myself yesterday and left you there!" You screamed in his face as your eyes got redder with tears and your voice became more and more choked up that you could barely finish a sentence, and Levi just listened.

"It doesn't end there either! There's some psycho out there who's trying to kill me! I don't even know who he is or why he wants me dead but I know he's out there! I can't possibly live in peace now or go anywhere by myself anymore. My family hates me and wants me gone! I have too much to think about already and you're just making it worse!" You yelled, suddenly feeling like you couldn't talk anymore because it just became too hard.

You buried your face in your hands as you began to sob right in front of him, but you couldn't care less. You didn't want to see him ever again and you just want all of these problems to go away. You didn't know what you did to deserve it.

You dropped your hands from your face and when you did, Levi blinked back and his breath hitched when he saw that there were tears streaming down your face as you continued to sob loudly, not being able to contain it anymore. This was too much, you wanted to disappear forever.

"Tell me! Why are you doing this to me?! I tried to save you yesterday and this is where it got me! What did I do so wrong to make you do this to me?" You sobbed and raked your hands back through your hair. You leaned down and put your hands on your knees as your crying turned into gasps that were slowly beginning to ache in your body.

You clutched your chest again and tried to control yourself. There's so much more you wanted to say but you didn't want to waste your breath on him anymore. He wasn't worth it.

After a couple of seconds of trying to calm down, your cries had mostly subsided so you straightened up and looked out into the river for a couple seconds before you turned to look back at him again.

He was still frozen and hadn't said a single word. He was only looking at what you could only describe as pity. You scoffed and wiped away your tears, looking at him, awaiting a response after all of that. Anything at all. But he was silent.

"Why? Why did you do that? I've been trying to get you to tell me all night but you've refused. Just tell me, we don't have to see each other ever again after this but just tell me. I deserve that much," You said through your small pants, and you watched as his facial expression betrayed how much he was struggling to tell you. Was it really that hard that he had to put you through that? He was unbelievable. He was still being evasive.

"I just...I needed to check something," He said, and you brought a hand to the top of your head at his response in disbelief. You let out a laugh of incredulousness, seeing how much he was still avoiding telling you anything.

But he at least responded, that was something, wasn't it? "Then why didn't you just tell me that? Did you think I was that unreasonable? I'm sorry if I gave you that impression but I wish you would've told me," You said weakly as you looked at him with teary eyes, hating that you even had to apologize to him.

But his response to that really tested your willpower to not slap him across the face. "If I told you, you would've said no," He said, and you looked at him in disbelief for a couple seconds with so much hatred that you could see even the tiniest bit of regret on his face.

You shook your head and looked at him dead in the eye. "Fucking asshole," you muttered, but making sure he heard it. You didn't even want to stick around for a second longer. You knew nothing that you said would stick with him anyway, so what's the point?

You seethed and turned to walk away, leaving him behind on the spot. You walked back to the car to grab your things, not looking back for a second. You reached the car, opened the door, reached into the seat to grab your purse, and then shut the door.

You started walking away, not knowing where you were going, but anywhere away from him was better. You stopped walking when you realized something.

You groaned inwardly and turned back around, walking back towards him, but not looking up to face him as you opened your purse and began to dig into it to find what you were looking for.

Sensing that you were approaching, Levi looked up and his eyebrows knit in confusion when you stopped right in front of him and pulled out the envelope from your purse.

When you reached Levi, you forcefully shoved the envelope onto his chest, but he didn't catch it so it just fell to the ground and some of the money spilled out for him to see. He looked down at it and then back at you, watching how you were angrily seething at him. You were going to keep your word at the very least, you weren't going to be like him.

"I don't owe you a single thing," You said to him, and with that, you turned on your heel and finally began to walk away, not sparing a single glance at him.

You don't know why you were even trying to be nice by trying to help him out but this is what you got, and you realized that just because you went through the same thing, he does not deserve your efforts.

You tried, you really did. But this is a reminder of why you are the way you are. You didn't want him to see him step foot in your vicinity ever again.

Levi watched you walk away in silence, not knowing how to process what just happened. He didn't know what to think. He certainly heard your words and he's realizing now that his desperation might have taken his actions too far.

You stayed in place as he hung his head low and his hair fell over his face and he looked around his surroundings to see what is it that he could do next, but not just what to do in that moment, but in regards to his powers.

Now he's just driven you farther and farther away and his options had become even slimmer than before. He let himself get carried away and how he ruined this for himself.

But as he watched you walk further and farther away, until you disappeared in the distance, he needed to get his feet moving and get back to his office.

He needed to find a way to make this right, but he feels like he's already fucked this up beyond repair. How will you ever let you near him? He knows you want nothing to do with him, but should he just sit back and wait until he perishes?

He was thinking about so many things at once, but one thing that surpassed everything else in his mind was your voice replaying over and over in his head.

You sounded so hurt, so broken, and tired, and with good reason. He could recognize that much and he would be lying if he said he didn't feel a pang in his chest when he heard your sobs ripping through the air in such a devastating way.

It replayed over and over in his mind as if you were continuing to punish him even after you left for what he did to you. He couldn't get his feet to move to go back to his car because he was just so entranced with everything that just happened, coming to the realization of what would happen to him now.

And it didn't help the emotions that were surfacing inside him, that felt so incredibly foreign to him, continued to grow when he looked down and saw the envelope with money splaying out of it.

It felt like it was mocking him in a way, and he didn't like it at all. He didn't need the money before and he didn't need it now, but still felt the money was more than tainted now.

He was getting so overwhelmed with so many thing at once; his failure at what he'd planned to get his tattoo back, knowing what awaited him because he failed, your voice continuing to ring over and over in his head and how pained you were, and just knowing that it would be even harder to come back from this.

With a frustrated yell out into the air, Levi couldn't help but raised his leg and then kick away the envelope with money across the concrete.

He put his hands on his hips and walked over to stand on the egde of the banks of the river as he looked out into the water, but then brought his head back to look at the sky as he closed his eyes trying to gather himself again.

What now? Where does he go from here? Is there nothing else he could do? He wondered that even if he's known you for such a short amount of time, and even if he only seeked you out for his own benefit, is there any way he could prove to you that he could go about this in a different way.

He knows that while he should still try to find a solution for his powers, he did go too far, and he needed to think of something to repair what he did, and soon.

When Levi finally got his feet to move, he turned on his heel and began walking back to the car. He reached it, moving as if he was on autopilot or as if he was in some sort of trance, opened the door, slipped in, and closed the door next to him.

He put both of his hands on the wheel and leaned his head forward against it. He let out a huff as he closed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts.

If trying to recreate what happened the night before wasn't it, how is he supposed to get his powers back now? Was this really it for him? Is there nothing else he could do? He got too carried away and fucked this up, didn't he?

But as he continued to keep his head down, the sound of the passenger seat car door opening so suddenly made his head shoot up, and his eyes widened when he saw that Onyankopon had come into the car and settled himself in the passenger seat.

As his assistant closed the door next to him without a word, Levi stared at him for a few seconds before he found the right words to say. Onyankopon just came out of nowhere.

"What are you doing here?" Levi asked in a tone that was a bit too eerie and calm for Onyankopon's liking. He had never heard Levi speak in that tone to him before and it was freaking him out.

But, either way, Onyankopon moved past that and went back to what his boss just asked him. He tilted his head in confusion because he thought Levi had already asked him for this.

"Well, I stayed nearby in case of an emergency like you told me to. Don't you remember?" Onyankopon said, making Levi groan and put his head back on the wheel as he started to remember that before he met up with you, he asked Onyankopon to do.

His mind was just all over the place right now and couldn't think straight. "Oh, yeah...sorry about that," Levi said, making Onyankopon nod slowly as he studied his boss' body language. You weren't here, Levi was acting strange, and the air around him seemed different.

Something must not have gone right with you then. It's probably frustrating Levi knowing this might have been his last shot at getting his powers back.

It's also probably not a good time to mention to his boss that Petra also knew about Levi's situation. Onyankopon decided to keep that to himself for now. Levi was clearly in a very tough place right now.

Onyankopon gave Levi a once-over with skepticism. "It's fine...but look what I found!" He started but then the cheeriness in his voice came back when he raised his hand and he had the handful of that same money that Levi kicked away just minutes ago.

Levi raised his head again from the wheel and when he saw that his assistant was holding the cash you gave him, he sent Onyankopon a deadpan look. Seeing the look on his boss' face, Onyankopon gasped and pointed a finger at him.

"Uh-uh. Don't look at it like that. Finders keepers," He said, making Levi roll his eyes and groan quietly as he leaned back in his seat, tilting his head back as he closed his eyes and raised a hand to pressed to his forehead. He couldn't care less about that money now. He had bigger things to think about right now.

"Also, I thought you were going to charm her into helping you, not lunge the two of you into the river," Onyankopon said, remembering what he saw when he was watching over the scene as he remained nearby.

He lowered the cash onto his lap and turned his body in his seat to face Levi, who still had his head tilted back with his eyes closed. Though when he heard his assistant's words, he opened his eyes and sent a deadly glare Onyankopon's way.

"I don't need you reminding me," Levi muttered, making Onyankopon raise his hands up in defense, and then turning his body in his seat to grab the seatbelt and buckle himself in.

Levi turned his head to look forward again, grabbed his seatbelt, buckled himself in and then turned on the car. He switched gears, and quickly began pulling out of the parking lot, while Onyankopon knew not to say a single other word about this.

His boss was definitely in a fragile state, where he needed to get to a place where he could think clearly before he could talk to anyone again.

Anything right now could make him snap out frustration and Levi didn't want that, and neither did Onyankopon, so the two of them settled for the silence during the entire car ride. There was nothing Onyankopon could say to make Levi feel better.

-

Your anger had slowly began to dissipate when you got back to the main street and now, you felt numb. You didn't feel anything and you barely had the strength to do anything else either.

You just wanted to head home, go to sleep and forget any of this ever happened. Though, deep in the back of your mind, you knew you had problems on your plate that you couldn't escape even if you went to sleep, and you'd have to face them eventually.

But right now, you didn't want to. You didn't want to think about anything. You knew that no matter you tried to pretend that you could continue living life like you used to, you just couldn't anymore.

You tried to go back to work like you usually did, you tried to pretend you could go anywhere by yourself even when Hange offered, and you tried to ignore that everything could go right back to how it used to be.

But you should have known that after that incident, nothing was going to be the same anymore and that thought left an unsettling feeling in your chest that scared the hell out of you. You weren't ready, you know you weren't. You weren't nearly as strong enough as you would want to fight off any of the threats that you knew were coming your way.

How could you protect yourself? Will you even make it out of this alive? You've almost died twice in less than 48 hours and just barely made it out, out of sheer luck at that.

You felt like your body was moving on its own, without your mind to help, because somehow when you made it to the main street, you were able to call a cab and you were now sitting in the backseat of one, staring out the window blankly.

You wish you had something to think about to pass time until you got back home, but your mind is just empty and at times it feels like your ears are ringing.

You could feel a headache coming in at any moment now. That would really be the icing on the cake to this whole day, wouldn't it? You leaned your head against the window and closed your eyes, though still remaining awake and alert, hoping to get back home soon.

Unfortunately, it seems like nothing is pointing to go your way today because you flinched and eyes shot open when you suddenly felt the car halt. You groggily straightened up in your seat and heard the cab driver speak.

"I'm sorry, miss. There's a couple streets closed for construction. I can only take you part of the way there, so I have to drop you off here," He said, and you know you should have felt worse about that, but somehow, you nodded numbly and simply unbuckled your seatbelt, grabbed your purse, and stepped out of the car, muttering a quick ''thank you' to the driver.

As you closed the door behind you, and took a couple steps to stand on the curb, you watched as the cab drove off and looked around the area he dropped you off on.

You recognize it, it was a pretty busy street at night, but right now there weren't a whole lot of cars and thankfully you knew your way home from here. You noticed that the cab driver dropped you off at a curb that had a crosswalk, so you just looked up and waited for the stop light to turn red so you could walk across the street.

You felt many people walk to stand next to you, seeing as they were waiting to cross as well, but you continued to look ahead. Your eyes were numb, blank, there was no spark in them. The only energy you had left was what you were using to walk and nothing else.

After a couple seconds of looking ahead, you blinked yourself out of your stupor when you noticed the people next to you started walking. You got your feet to move as well, and even if your steps were a little slower, you were walking across with everyone else.

Though, as you walked across the street, surrounded by people and the only light to guide your path were the streetlights and the monitors on the buildings with advertisements, sure enough, you looked up and your feet halted on their own in the middle of the crosswalk when you saw what was being shown on one of the monitors. Your heart felt like it dropped to your stomach and your mouth fell open.

'Financial Chief Manager of Eldia Group Conglomerate, Keith Shadis, found hanging in a public bathroom' The headline read out, and you couldn't even bring yourself to realize that you had to keep moving or the stop light would turn green soon again, but you were just so shocked by what you were reading that you couldn't even think about getting your body to move.

Does Grisha know about this? How did it happen? Who did it? The monitor was showing the scene of the crime, with the rope hanging from the ceiling, his body being carried away, his company pass, everything.

Why does it seem like everything is going to shit and taking turns for the worst in just a matter of two days? Nothing that you knew before to be normal was every going to be the same again and these news prove it.

There was somebody going after Grisha's company, and soon, it clicked for you as well that it was all attacks to get to him, making your head start to spin in a painful way.

Though, what you didn't know, is that this murder against Keith wasn't just to get to Grisha, but to get to you too. You just didn't quite know it yet, but it wouldn't be long before you realized it.

And if you thought that today just couldn't get any worse, then you had another thing coming. Quite literally. The stop light was still red, thankfully, but that didn't stop certain people from getting to their goal.

What you didn't know, is that right behind you, there was someone on a motorcycle just coming around the corner and heading straight towards you, taking advantage of the fact that your back was to them and that you weren't moving and simply too stunned from watching the news.

Whether you stopping to watch the news of a murder, right as yet another person with malicious intent heading towards you had any correlation was something you had yet to figure out.

Still not realizing the imminent threat just revving their bike around the corner and heading straight towards you, it was only when you heard the loud sound of a motorcycle getting closer, that everything seemed like it had slowed down once more.

Your eyebrows pinched together and you turned your head to the side to see that someone riding a bike was riding past you, but not before throwing some sort of transparent liquid towards you.

Your breath hitched and your eyes widened, hating your body for not getting your feet to move when they needed to, but instead, you simply instinctively closed your eyes and braced yourself for impact.

But the liquid never reached you. Instead, you suddenly felt a figure stand in front of you just in the nick of time and wrap their arms around you securely, with one arm around your waist and another in the back of your head, followed by a pained grunt. Your face and your head were forced to press against their body.

But either way, while still keeping your eyes closed and remaining pressed against this mysterious stranger that you had yet to lift your head and see who it was, you heard the sound of faint sizzling and a burning smell, it quickly clicked in your head that this person took the hit for you and the liquid landed on their back instead.

After that, not much could be heard except for the sound of the person revving and driving away in their motorcycle, while you remained frozen on the spot and still being held by this person that just saved your life.

You don't know what that liquid was, but whatever it was, you knew it could've either sent you to an emergency trip to the hospital or you would've died on the spot. Well, you're 3 for 3 at least.

You needed to know who this person was, so when you knew the coast was clear, you tentatively decided to slowly open your eyes and slightly detach yourself from the hold this person had on you.

Sensing you wanted to pull away, they slightly loosened their hold on you and when you finally looked up, you felt your blood run cold at who was in front of you. Even more up close than you've ever been with him before, you could recognize those gunmetal eyes and that raven hair in an undercut anywhere.

"Levi," You breathed out, feeling like this was some sort of trick your mind was playing on you, but he was really standing in front of you, having taken a deadly hit for you.

Levi was looking at you with an expression you couldn't quite recognize, but your mouth dropped open and your eyes went wide when you realized that he had taken the hit for you.

Your eyes locked onto his, begging for an explanation as to why he would do that? What he was doing here? How did he know where you were?

You just had so many questions, but as much as your mouth moved to try to get words out, no sound came out and you were just so stunned, shocked and confused that you could barely think straight.

Before your mind was completely blank and couldn't muster up a single coherent thought, but now, thoughts are all you had and you didn't know what to say.

You watched his eyes trailed all over your face as if to memorize it all, seeing if you were okay and if any of the liquid got you, but somehow Levi felt comfort that he got it all and he stepped in right on time so that all of it got him instead.

You wanted to yell at him because you hadn't forgotten what happened just earlier that night, but you couldn't bring yourself to. He saved your life and you just wanted to thank him now for what he just did. He still had his hands on your body and he hadn't pulled them away yet. He was probably in just as much as shock as you to even think about moving them away.

You didn't even want to think that you just had another murder attempt done to you, but just wanted to know what made Levi want to be here and do this for you after what he did.

What compelled him to take such a measure to make sure you lived? He was looking at you with such a sure and determined expression that you couldn't bring yourself to look away either.

It was also hard not to feel grateful for what he did when you saw smoke coming from behind his back.

He made it even harder for you to get words to come out when his hand that was on your head, suddenly travelled down to grab your wrist once more, a place where it felt like his hands had been there countless times throughout the night.

Without saying a single word, he raised your hand and held up your wrist, leaving his tattoo to be on full display for you to see.

And when you turned your head, you could see that once again, the tattoo on your wrist had turned red once more, glowing in a dim crimson light.

You had seen that many times throughout the night, but it still feels surreal to see, knowing you still had no explanation for it either.

It was still so foreign to you and you couldn't comprehend it, but at least, Levi was now going to give you a chance to see why it was so important.

His eyes went from looking at his tattoo, to moving his head back to look directly into your eyes, and you could have sworn your eyes were deceiving you when his eyes softened just the slightest bit.

And not like before, where you knew it was a trick, but it felt different now. You didn't know how to feel, being torn between still being angry and not forgive him that easily, to showing him how thankful you were for what he just did. But he was looking at you in a way that was making it impossible to look away.

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Hi everyone! I swear I thought I could get this chapter out by Sunday like I said, but I'm sorry for taking so long and publishing it a day after :,( These last few weeks of finals are killing me lmao but I'm trying to stay consistent! I finish this semester in a week and then i'll be free to write all of Christmas break!

But other than that, this might just be one of my favorite chapters to write so far. I say that every chapter, but I just can't help it! shsjs :,) There is so much more coming that I'm excited to write and I can't wait to write it all out for you guys. Their relationship is developing slowly but surely, so hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and are as excited as I am for what's coming!

So, anyway, I'll see you guys next Sunday (once again, I hope I do lmao) with the next chapter! Love you all so much! Thank you for everything and see you in the next one!

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