*Reader's POV*

You, Levi, and Erwin were once more gathered in Levi's office, except this time the three of you were standing in a loose circle somewhere around the middle of the room instead of grouped around a desk like usual. This meeting was solely a discussion, and there was an uncomfortable amount of attention on you while there was a rather intense discussion about you, your past, and the vampire who'd started all this.

Topics you would rather not think about, a lump in your throat and a seeping, strengthening sense of intense anxiety that came more from the memories they kept poking at than the situation itself.

"You can't remember because you don't want to, even when he's returned and poses a possible threat," Erwin repeated for clarity.

"I can't think of his face without all of it starting to flood back," you said softly, avoiding looking at Levi's face since you could feel the intensity of his gaze on you.

"Knowing what he looks like is important," Erwin said, strongly suggesting that he felt you should make yourself remember, anyway, so everyone could have that information.

Surprisingly, Levi intervened on your behalf.

"Some people remember trauma in vivid detail. Others block it out. We won't get anything out of her until she's ready, there's no point in pushing it. Probably do more harm than good. We'll have to do without." You gave him a startled look, both for him defending the fact you weren't dragging the man's description out of your traumatizing memories, and the fact he was saying that while you were here with them instead of privately to Erwin later, like he normally did. His gaze flickered towards you, and he shrugged. "You'll hear me anyway. Might as well say it now."

"There's not much we can do without knowing anything other than he's a vampire beyond any of our current capabilities," Erwin said critically.

"We can at least think of something to keep the creep out of her quarters, right?" Levi asked pointedly before turning to face you fully again. "The specifics about the 'entering a home' rule for you, again?"

You sighed, running your hand through the hair at the back of your head as you thought of the more finite details of how it worked, that you were aware of.

"Um...okay, so a vampire cannot enter a human's residence without being invited in. It has to be the human that lives in the residence, legally or officially or however you want to say it, that invites the vampire in, no one else's invite will count. So, anyone living in that space can invite a vampire in, like children, family members, or other tenants, but a guest cannot, even an extended stay guest. Though I'm sure anyone on a deed to a residence can also invite a vampire in. Communal places a vampire can enter because it's open to the public, not a private residence–hence why I could comfortably sleep in the barracks but I can't walk into Erwin's office."

"What happens if you're pulled into a residence you haven't been invited into?" Levi asked.

"Lots of unpleasant things and then death...so let's not experiment with it," you said seriously.

"What about change of ownership?" Erwin asked. "How would that change things?"

"It's like locking the door on the vampire again. They'll be unable to enter until the new owner invites them in again."

"So assigning your room to someone else and having them invite you in would solve the problem. You'd have the protection of a room no other vampires can enter," Erwin suggested.

You inclined your head. "It's worth a shot. Make my quarters officially someone else's second quarters, make sure I can't enter, invite me in, and it should be fine. And I won't have to worry about telling people to come in because I won't be able to give a vampire permission."

"Levi?" Erwin asked, turning to look at the Captain. Levi sighed, gaze flickering up to Erwin.

"Put my name down, I don't care. It's not like anyone will notice," he said dismissively. Erwin nodded, straightening up.

"I can have the paperwork done by dinner. Levi, I'll need you to sign some things, I'll send them your way, then put the paperwork somewhere safe. You can invite her into her room after dinner, I'll have put my seal on it by then," Erwin said diplomatically, already walking towards the door. He paused just shy of the entrance, turning back to fix you with a stern blue stare. "And if you remember anything...tell us," he said in a voice that sounded closer to a command than a gentle suggestion. After that, he left, and you turned to look at Levi bashful, gazing at him with partially lowered eyelids.

"Thank you, for that...about the remembering thing..." you murmured, still self-conscious about the hard push Erwin made and your stubborn reluctance to give in. Had it been the wisest choice? Letting your fear get in the way?

"You really should try to remember who he was," Levi said curtly, his momentarily hard gaze showing you he meant what he was saying. You needed to remember because this vampire was a threat and you were the only one who could put a face to him. However, his eyes softened slightly when he saw your reaction to his hard words, and he clarified his statement. "...but on your own time."

Levi walked passed you, heading for the door to his office without looking back. "Now that this is settled, we still have training to do today. It's been a while. You're rusty."

"We haven't even sparred yet, how could you know that?" you complained, though you still followed him compliantly as he led you back to your hidden training grounds without any further comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After dinner, you and Levi went back to your room in order to test that the transfer of ownership actually worked. You both waited until the hall was clear, Levi standing just behind you as you put your hand on the doorknob, opening the door and attempting to step through. On its own, however, your foot would not step through the front door. Your hands braced along the edges of the doorframe, leaning in as far as you could but unable to actually pass.

"It works," you said with a relieved sigh, stepping away and looking over at Levi. "Now if you would do the honors..."

Levi inclined his head towards you, casually striding through the front door with arms folded over her chest. He turned on his heel when he was in the middle of the room, not at all in a hurry to invite you back into your quarters. "I could, yes," he drawled, and you were shocked to see a glint of mischievousness in his eyes.

He was enjoying this a little too much. Then again, this was the first time he got to knowingly make this choice–he didn't get that with his quarters, of course he was going to make the most out of this opportunity.

The look you gave him ended up being something between a pout and a scowl, shifting your weight from one hip to the other and reaching out a hand to lean on the doorframe.

"Levi..."

"I'm sure I could think of something for this extra space, settle in," Levi pondered, looking around the room as if he was visualizing a tearoom or something. As much as you appreciated the break from all the seriousness and grim thoughts, you really wanted to be able to get back into your room.

"Captain Levi, I would really like to be able to get into my safe place, if you would please let me inside," you said tiredly, leaning your whole body against one side of the doorframe with your head against the doorframe. It had been a long, long past few days, and you really wanted to be inside somewhere you knew you were safe, sleeping in your own bed, getting much needed rest.

Levi's gaze centered on you again, and his gaze softened like it had back in his office. "Get your ass in here, Y/N."

You raised your eyebrows, the slight lean forward into the room stopped short enough to tell you that the informal invite wasn't enough. Levi sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Come in, Y/N."

"There we go," you said with the slightest, pleased exhale as you passed through the door frame, feeling yourself relax substantially knowing you were in a safe space no vampiric threat could reach you, now. You even gave Levi a small smile once you'd stepped through and that sense of relief had spread through your limbs. "Thank you."

Levi studied you for a moment, thoughts and emotions flickering by in his eyes that were out of reach with your current understanding of him. The silence lingered before he moved, slowly stepping around you and heading for the door.

"Go to sleep early–training time isn't changing in the morning," he said bluntly before he left the room, shutting the door firmly behind him and leaving you alone in your room–this time safely in your room, out of reach of unwanted guests.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Two Weeks Later)

*Levi's POV*

"The next expedition is in a few days."

Levi made the comment as they were walking back from ODM gear training to head to the mess hall for dinner. Honestly, she was reaching the point where she might not need the ODM gear training anymore. There were a lot of changes on the horizon for her–official membership with the squad, no more need for ODM gear training, the point position for the entire formation. However, a few of those things were still at least a couple days off, and right now, he was worried about preparation for the next expedition. When expeditions grew near, Levi grew focused on preparations and making sure everyone was ready. At the moment, that included Y/N's diet. They were a little early, but she was struggling–he could see as much. The death of her parents and the reappearance of the vampire that turned her had taken its toll, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

"I know. I'm going to try and wait until the night before to go out. I think I'll be okay until then," she said hesitantly, but Levi shook his head. He'd been keeping a close eye on her since she came back from the funeral, and he didn't agree with her guess. Or rather, he felt like she needed it now, and that waiting was only going to make her worse. She'd been struggling before hunger came into play, he wasn't going to let her thirst for blood make that worse, not when it was preventable. Yes, that would mean she'd go out twice this week, but he really felt it was healthier for her to go out when she needed it than to make herself wait–in this circumstance, at least.

"Go out tonight. You need it," Levi said bluntly, feeling her gaze study him closely for a few moments from where she was walking beside him.

"Normally I try to minimize casualties," she said in a very soft voice, Levi cursing in his head.

Why'd she have to put it like that? He'd almost forgotten for a few moments that what they were talking about was killing people. Just for a few moments. It had all become so normal, and they always avoided talking about what was actually happening down there, it had managed to slip his mind for a few seconds. And she was dragging it right back into broad daylight, as if to clarify he was encouraging her to go down there and kill an extra person this week.

Fuck, she needed an alternative. This delicate balance of morals and needs was exhausting, honestly. If she had a willing donor, it wouldn't be /nearly/ so much of an issue, because she wouldn't have to kill anyone, but...

Levi halted those musings–not the first time he'd started to think about that kind of situation and what it might mean, but personally not ready to go a step farther and start thinking about the glaringly obvious choice for who that would be.

He wasn't ready to go there...though he was aware it was an option. An unspoken one, probably one she hadn't thought of herself, and one he wasn't ready to consider, even for a brief moment.

"Make an exception," Levi returned a little stiffly. "You've been getting worse in training. And your gaze is starting to linger on people's throats again."

"Again?"

That's right, he'd noticed that little detail about when she started thirsting for human blood. Not that he'd said anything about it, because normally she took care of that need before it got any worse than that.

"Just go. Tonight. Don't risk another day, it's not worth it," Levi stressed, gaze sliding towards her to see the concerned and thought-absorbed look on her face. It was a comfort to see she didn't make these kinds of decisions lightly, that the cost of life actually weighed on her and factored into the decision making. But right now, he wanted her to take care of herself, especially since he was worried she might have been neglecting to do so as a form of grieving.

"Also, you should know, as of this next expedition, you're no longer an aid–your part of the squad. Officially," Levi added, making the sudden topic change to help distract her from her inner conflict. One way or another, she was going below ground tonight to take care of herself, he would see to it. But right now, he was distracting her so she couldn't mount much more of a solid argument against his order.

She gave him a look of surprise, successfully pulled out of her musings by his statement. "Really?"

"The aid position was to keep an eye on you when your motives were questionable. Now you've been with the squad for several expeditions. It's about time it was made official," Levi said with a slight shrug, keeping his gaze fixed forward.

"Thank you, Captain."

"Levi."

"Not for that–that was a Captain thing," she returned without missing a beat, and Levi snorted softly at her comeback.

"Erwin's finishing making it official. I'm telling you now, but the rest of the squad won't know until it is official."

"I wonder if the newbie jokes will return," she mused.

"They shouldn't. They should all be aware by now your abilities are beyond all of them."

"Don't tell them that, it might hurt Oluo's pride."

"Tch."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As had become customary between Levi and Y/N, after she headed underground to feed, Levi went down into the mess hall to start making tea and wait for her. He brought some paperwork to get done while he was down there, staying in the kitchen and making tea around the paperwork he was doing, sitting at the center island by the fire so he was close to the tea and had the fireplace for light.

With how exhausted she'd been, he expected this to be a longer night out, so he was settling in for a long night.

He went through an entire pot of tea and all of the paperwork without Y/N making an appearance. Once he was out of paperwork to do, he got up and returned to his office to find a candle to burn to keep track of time, checking the current time by looking up at the moon outside his window. It was the literal middle of the night, hours after sundown. And she'd left not long after dinner. He'd learned better than to get too fidgety, though, after his close call underground, so he was going to wait a little longer before deciding to do something. Hence why he was bringing the candle with him back into the mess hall–to keep track of the passage of time.

If she wasn't back by the time the candle burned down to a stub, he would go below ground to check on her. And now, they had arrangements for how he could safely check up on her with safeguards against other vampires underground. For one, he had been working on strategies to fight vampires with her for some time now. Plus, they had a place underground she was supposed to check into every few hours when she was down there for longer than normal. He could go there and see if she'd been making her check in times. If not, he would start looking for her. If she had made them all, he would wait for her to come back for the next check in and confirm she was all right before heading back above ground.

And just in case, so he could cover more ground, he would bring his ODM gear down below with him. It would also give him more maneuverability if there was trouble. He wasn't going to be caught unawares this time when he went below ground. He would be ready to help her, not hinder her.

Lighting the candle to let it start burning and so he could keep track of time, Levi settled down for what would hopefully be a short wait before she returned, making himself another cup of tea just so he had something to do and something to help him stay awake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The candle burned all the way down to the stub without Y/N appearing, Levi's worry for her absence finally, officially justified enough that he needed to go looking for her. It would be morning in a few hours–she should have come back by now.

He didn't hesitate to put out the fires in the room so nothing burned down in his absence, heading upstairs to get fitted into his gear over his casual clothes and then throwing on a plain cloak, hood up. This time, he was certain she was in trouble, and with the recent appearance of the vampire who turned her, he was on edge about what kind of trouble she could have run into. First he needed to find out if she was officially missing, though, and how long. So he needed to go down to the Underground and find the Rusted Corner bar.

It was actually the Trusted Corner, but the place was run down even for the Underground, hence why it was known more commonly as the Rusted Corner.

It was easy for Levi to slip out at this hour. It was too early even for the farmers that woke up before the sun to do chores, so sneaking out and to the closest entrance to the Underground was effortless, easily blending into the shadows of night to help cover his journey. Once he got underground, he felt a bit more on edge now that he knew just how dangerous it could be down here.

Frankly, he was trying to figure out how the hell he'd managed to go so long without getting chewed on when he lived down here, if he'd stumbled across a vampire on accident while trying to find Y/N last time.

So, he was more cautious of secluded areas, sticking to the edge of more populated routes on his way to the bar, eyeing everyone he passed from under his lowered hood. He walked quickly, knowing that he didn't know how long Y/N might have been in trouble, and that he needed to move quickly.

The bar came into view faster than even he would have anticipated, causing him to momentarily wonder if he'd been running and just didn't realize it. He walked right in, ignoring the look from the late night bartender as he headed straight to the counter, holding out a hand to stop him when he started to pull out a cup for whatever Levi might order.

"A woman should have been in and out of here tonight," Levi said curtly, giving the bartender a bare minimum description of her and staring at him intently, waiting for the answer.

"I might be able to remember better if–"

"No," Levi said harshly, gaze turning hard and threatening. "You tell me, or I will hold you personally responsible for anything that's happened to her."

The man backtracked quickly with the threatening edge and the almost cruel light in Levi's eyes, a little of the color draining from his face. "She came in twice earlier in the night, but she hasn't been in since. Is there anything specific you need to know?"

"No," Levi said simply, pushing away for the counter and already heading for the entrance again, his mind now a storm of thoughts that were nothing good.

With how late it was, she should have been in and out of the bar to check in and see if Levi came down here out of concern for how long the hunt was taking at least four times by now, coming up on a fifth, but she'd only come in twice. Something was wrong, and he now had the entire Underground to search to try and find her, to find out what happened, to find some trace of what happened to her.

He was well aware, especially with the practice of burning vampire bodies, that if the worst had happened to her, he might find no confirming trace of her. But he was still going to try.

Shit, he hoped that wasn't what happened. He'd been the one to insist she go tonight, if she had died, that would be on him. For now, though, he was just starting the search, and he was going to hope for the best in this situation and prepare for the worst.

They didn't talk about what she did down here, not specifically. He didn't know her preferred hunting grounds, if she rotated, where she was in that rotation. All he could do was to just go off his own assumptions and what he knew about her and the Underground and try to make that work for him. Pick an area he knew the shady people she preyed upon were concentrated, and search every damn nook and cranny for any trace of her. Start with an overhead pass, then do a more thorough search looking in places he couldn't see well from above.

Thankfully he'd thought to bring the ODM gear.

Tucking himself away in a dark corner for a few moments, Levi kept his hood lowered but moved the cloak out of the way of the ODM gear, starting his overhead pass to see if he could spot her somewhere below with a general pass before he tried a more thorough search on foot. It would help make the search easier. So he took to the air, moving fast but being mindful not to be wasteful, that way after his search he would still have enough to use in a fight or an escape if he needed to.

His gaze scanned the surrounding area as he rapidly moved from sector to sector, searching different parts of the city, hoping that wherever Y/N was, she could hear the ODM gear working and would know he was looking for her. If she was okay, she would find him, if not...she would know to seek him out with her senses so she would know when he grew closer. Maybe she would be able to manage something to let him know he was close.

He did two passes over the city, just in case she emerged from a hiding place and he could see her from a second overhead pass, but still found nothing, giving him the sinking feeling that he was going to have to search the entire Underground on foot.

At least he could rule out private residences and dwellings. The only places she could hide were abandoned buildings, public buildings, and on the streets. He just had to be observant enough to find her.

But even he could feel the tiredness in his limbs telling him it had already been a while, between his travel down here and do the two overhead passes. More time for whatever had gone wrong to get worse, whatever had happened, wherever she was...

That pit of dread in his gut was getting worse, a chill going down his spine. What was he going to do if she'd been taken, if she'd been killed, if he came across a vampire stronger than the last one they'd faced, and she was in no condition to fight? He'd never had to back down from a fight because it was beyond him before vampires were introduced to the mix, but now, what if it was a situation he had to back down from? What the hell was he supposed to tell Erwin, what was he, himself, supposed to do?

Levi dropped gracefully back onto the streets of the Underground, covering his identity and the gear he was using entirely once more as he started a thorough scour of the streets, making sure he swept through every abandoned building he found, but also taking care not to stumble across any large gatherings of gangs...and trying not to stumble across a vampire's hideout. He wanted to avoid getting into any scraps right now, because he wanted to save his strength for when he found Y/N. Who knew what the situation would be, and the last thing he wanted to do was to tire himself out before reaching a fight he would need that strength the most.

He checked the bodies he passed on the street, living and dead, though he gave the living some space and checked them from a distance, passing by the many people who needed help in search of the one who needed his help specifically and very urgently. There were a few times he saw someone with similar features, and his heartbeat had picked up in anticipation, but each time it hadn't been her, and he was left with disappointment and a growing sense of distress that he still had no idea where she was. He gently kicked apart trash heaps in case someone was buried beneath, a tactic that was utilized quite a bit down here for warmth or concealment. Boarded up buildings he would check each possible entrance to see if someone could have gotten inside, leaving if it was entirely blocked up from the outside, but pushing his way in if it was blocked from the inside. He found a few gruesome starvation death scenes or just people who rotted away in obscurity, looking upon them with a blank face as he ruthlessly shoved down painful memories that tried to bubble to the surface at the sights, but still, he didn't find her.

He carefully combed through two, three, four different sectors of the city without a trace of her, and he was starting to feel true fear for her well-being slip into his bones. If she was okay, she would have heard him flying around and would have known to be on the lookout. If she were conscious, she would have been seeking out his scent or the sounds he made, murmuring her name softly under his breath for her to hear and no one else. She would have known to find the strength to give him some kind of sign she was nearby, but he was hearing nothing. The likelihood that she was dead or taken was growing, and he was starting to feel ill that he'd waited so damn long to come down here, he was starting to hate the fact that she had to come down here in the first place, that she put her life on the line far more than she'd initially implied. She shouldn't have to come down here to hunt. In such a short span of time so much had gone wrong down here, it was too risky.

If she was still alive, if by some miracle he managed to find her...then when he got her to safety...

No more. No more.

Mind full of dark thoughts and probabilities, a growing sense of dread that he would find nothing down here seeping into his bones, that she would disappear down here as insignificantly as so many, despite how important she'd become, just because she was trying to survive and this was the best way she could come up with in her current predicament, Levi moved on to the sixth section of the city, determined to search everywhere even if his search bled into the next day and he went missing with her, with no explanations or warnings. He had to find her, and he wasn't going to give up until he knew he'd searched the entire Underground.

And then he'd start a search everywhere within the walls if he had to, under every damn paving stone and in every pile of trash, until he had some kind of sign for what happened to her.

Levi's fingers closed along the wooden edge of an open trash bin outside a boarded up shop, currently checking the building itself and poking at any dark lumps in the shadows he came across half-heartedly. He started to step towards the window, looking down at the pile of trash that spilled over onto the ground while his other hand reached for the boards along the windows...

And a hand closed around his wrist, coming out of the dumpster to grasp at the hand holding to the edge of the bin. His hand instinctively grabbed onto the wrist and started to pull, intending to pull his assailant towards him and attack, but he realized after grabbing the wrist that the weak grip was not one of assault, it was someone reaching out, trying to get his attention. That defensive grip of his quickly turned firm and concerned, abandoning the house as he grabbed tighter to the arm and pulled to get whoever it was out of the dumpster. His heart was in his throat as he came up to the edge and saw part of the cloaked upper body, his other hand reaching out for the other shoulder to pull them up enough he could get his arms under their armpits and drag them out of the dumpster, grunting softly at how heavy they were, nose wrinkling at the foul stench that made him want to vomit, though he swallowed it down and endured it, dragging their limp body out of the dumpster with no resistance, just weak compliance.

By the time he was dragging their lower half out of the dumpster, he knew it was Y/N, and he could see that she was hurt.

Terribly.

Her feet finally passed over the edge, and she fell back into his arms as he crouched down around the corner of the dumpster, holding her up in his arms as he tried to properly assess the situation and the damage, her head lolling with eyes closed, apparently the attempt to even lift her head too much for her at the moment. It was a miracle she'd even been awake to reach out to him when he'd passed.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, and as much as he would have liked that voice to be firm and demanding, it was too shaky for it to pass as a calm and collected demand for information.

This was bad.

This was very bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(A Few Hours Earlier)

*Reader's POV*

Unfortunately, sometimes your hunting trips were...dry, for lack of a better world, and tonight was one of those nights. Maybe it was because your heart wasn't entirely into it, since you'd been encouraged to come down here and hunt instead of deciding to hunt on your own. You didn't particularly want or need to be down here.

Okay, that was a lie, you were getting rather thirsty, you did need to eat something, you'd just wanted to wait a bit longer before going hunting.

You wandered aimlessly in the streets for the first few hours, hoping someone would be foolish enough to try and jump you. You didn't have any takers, though, which meant you were going to have to get your hands a little dirtier than normal. More active hunting instead of baiting the hook–actively seeking out the hideouts and regular meeting places for local gang members, specifically in the neighborhoods that tended to house the worst of the worst.

You checked into the bar you and Levi had agreed to use as a check-in station one more time, then headed out again with the intent to start actively hunting–you even knew what neighborhood you wanted to hunt in, one you hadn't stalked through in quite some time and as such the criminals in the area may have let their guard down to the specific kind of threat you posed to them.

The streets were darker than usual for the Underground, some of the lights weakened or the glass panes of the lanterns not yet cleaned and making the light dimmer. You didn't mind, though–the darkness lent itself to you, was something that was a natural friend when you were hunting undesirables in the Underground. It let you blend easier into the shadows, to creep up on your prey longer before being detected.

Even though you usually hunted in a more bait the trap style, you were still perfectly capable of actively hunting someone when you chose to.

This was still the Underground, though. For your own sanity, especially since you had officially readjusted to being topside, you had to block out some of your senses so you wouldn't be overwhelmed–namely your sense of smell. And your focus could get a bit...narrow, when you finally had a target.

That was what you were going to tell yourself later, anyway, when you figured out how the hell they got the drop on you.

The knife was thrown from a fair distance, a quick flash as the faint light caught it before the sage-soaked blade cut at your cheek, the burn making you hiss and duck your head as you covered your faintly steaming cheek with your hand on instinct.

Your head lifted to try and pick out the perpetrator, but a soft click somewhere behind you was the only warning you got before an arrow sunk through your leg, the bloodied tip having cut straight through and shining at you as fire burned through your leg, causing it to give out beneath you.

Hunters. Ones that knew to attack from a distance to incapacitate a vampire. You didn't know how the hell they found you–maybe they saw you stalking the area and used the knife as a test before attacking with the arrow, maybe they'd been trying to pin you down for a while with your fairly regular hunts. However that happened, it didn't change the fact that you were under attack, already injured, and they would kill you if you didn't escape.

You staggered to your feet and threw yourself aside as another arrow sliced through the air, again from the street behind you, though almost immediately after you stopped moving, having to lean against a wall for support as the burn in your leg worsened and threatened to render the limb useless, a shot from the front sounded, striking you in the shoulder and knocking you several feet back.

Flee. You needed to flee. But you were going to have to go through one of them.

The one in front was too far away for you to pin down, especially as the sage started to burn through your system, head spinning, vision getting blurry, and bile rising in your throat as you tried to steady yourself enough to flee. The front attacker had to be the more experienced one in this team, because the second was close enough for you to pin down.

You groaned and took a step forward, before launching yourself back at the assailant behind you in a simple feint, using this first burst from the reserves of your strength to incapacitate one of the obstacles in the way of your escape.

The man you appeared in front of was young, very early twenties, and his eyes went wide as you materialized, trying to go in for an early and quick kill, to snap his neck or something. In that split second, you forgot all the training with Levi where you had been so focused on improving his techniques, not your own. And much to your shame, you saw the flash of the stake falling from up the sleeve and into his hand a split second too late.

But you were able to react fast enough to move at the last second, making the wound a painful, nasty bitch, but not a fatal one as it wedged itself between your lower ribs, below your heart, missing the important mark.

In the next second, you made a risky choice based on opportunity. This young man probably had white sage in his system, and any time lingering in front of him was more time he had to correct his mistake. So you made the snap decision to remove him from the equation entirely.

Your fangs flashed in the darkness as you continued to lunge forward, sinking your fangs deep into his neck and tearing, ignoring his scream for his partner–and the scream of the older man running towards the two of you in vain. You reared back, tearing the man's throat out and letting his body now in death throes drop to the ground, the way in front of you clear. You staggered in your take off, dropping to your good knee when you heard the man try to get off another shot, the arrow sailing above you before you scrambled back to your feet, world darkening as you just ran, wounds and mouth starting to burn as the tainted blood lingered on your skin instead of being digested, and the white sage pumped into your system by their weapons starting to do its ruthless work.

You broke off the ends of the arrow with the intent to pull them out when you got somewhere safe, hand burning fresh when you made contact with the wound and making you quickly drop the pieces. The stake was a different story. It was protruding through you, and you needed a good, strong grip to pull it out, something you couldn't do when it seemed to have been soaked in white sage so long it was infused into the wood. You couldn't stand to grasp it any more than you could stand to have it in you.

You had to come to a stop when your vision started to fail you. The entire thing was over faster than you could comprehend what happened, especially with the white sage starting to make your body fail you, your mind in a poisoned haze, vision gone more than it was a faint haze.

You needed to hide. Lay low until you had the strength to leave or pull out the stake, and for the remaining hunter to stop searching for you.

At least for now.

You had killed his younger partner, maybe a protégé of some kind. Walls forbid it had been a relative–then the hunter would be out for your blood specifically, and they might have gotten a good look at your face. You weren't sure, you didn't know how far away he'd been at any point in that fight.

As if you needed more enemies, especially when you were moving into a more public position. Fuck. And you didn't even know what he looked like.

Shit.

Your legs were giving out, the burn filling your whole body, and you blindly fumbled around until you found what was a foul smelling container of some kind.

It would have to do for now. Right now, you just needed to get out of sight and relax, let the white sage try to work out of your system...though you were not optimistic about your situation given the amount of white sage being pumped through your system by the arrows and stake.

Collapsing into the trash heap you'd managed to find, you started to slip in and out of agonized unconsciousness, trying to simply endure the fire eating at you from the inside out and the burning thirst that now consumed you even in your weakened state.

Starvation, maybe.

Considering the white sage sapping at your strength would also rapidly accelerate the increase in your need for blood. Not desire, need.

You wished you hadn't come down here. Not tonight.

You wished you didn't need blood. Wished you didn't need to kill to survive. For a few seconds of consciousness as starvation and fire burned through you, you wished you didn't exist, either, just so the pain would stop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Present)

*Levi's POV*

The very first thing Levi noticed about her once she was out of the dumpster was the whittled piece of wood at least as long as his forearm sticking out of her chest. Clearly, based on the fact that she wasn't all blackened and shriveled like the one vampire she'd killed, and that she was still responsive, she wasn't dead. Whoever shoved it into her had missed the heart, possibly because she moved at the last second. The wound itself was the next thing he noticed, because it was a putrid sight. The skin was hot to the touch and blistered like it had burned, red and peeled back as if shriveling, prominent black veins that faded back into normal appearance under pale skin a few inches away from the wound itself. It looked infected, spewing that nasty yellow pus looking substance even though this wound should not look this awful at this stage, even if she had been hiding in an Underground dumpster. It hadn't been long enough.

He was able to find out why because of two things–the faint char along the edge of the wound like it was burning, followed by wisps of steaming smoke, and the slightest whiff of a scent that Levi had grown very familiar with.

White sage.

So this was what it did to a vampire when it came into contact. Or rather, when it was used on a wound. It would also in part explain why it was left in. He knew from experience she would have left a weapon in up to a point in the healing process to let it heal better and stop herself from passing out because of blood loss, but normally she would have reached that point by now. However, this wound wasn't healing, it just looked sick, and she might not be able to grab the stake if it was soaked in white sage.

This hadn't been the work of a vampire. This had to have been one of those hunters she'd mentioned.

He was fairly certain she'd said white sage couldn't kill her, but with the position of the soaked stake just below and to the left of her heart, and the look of that wound alone, how the edges looked like the dead vampire's skin, he worried that might have just been a detail she wasn't aware of in her own experience. He wasn't sure if her current state was because of the wound or the white sage, maybe a nasty combination of both, but he doubted letting a poisonous substance continue to infect her bloodstream was going to help her. Her body could flush the white sage out of her system, and would eventually heal the wound on its own. But it would just continue to do damage if he left it in.

Even though usual, basic medical knowledge told him to leave it in, in this one instance, Levi grasped the stake and pulled it out, feeling bile rise in his throat at the sound and the unpleasant mixture of fluids that came out of the infected, poisoned, gaping wound.

She was so out of it, she didn't even react to the pain of having it yanked out of her body. She just stayed limp in his arms, skin boiling to the touch, sweaty and pale, breaths barely there. She looked worse than she had after she fought that vampire, more like–

–Levi grit his teeth tightly enough it was painful–

–more like his mother in her last hours.

It was a good thing he'd brought the ODM gear, because he needed to get her back to Headquarters and treat this wound as quickly as possible. She had other wounds, smaller ones, or at least ones that he could only see the dark staining of blood around and not the wounds themselves, but right now he was focused on the big one on her chest that oozed blood and infection onto her clothes and onto his chest as he picked her up bridal style in his arms, shifting his cloak out of the way of the ODM gear beforehand so he would still have clear shots.

Her head turned into his chest, lips parting with the ghost of sounds that might have been his name, but he wasn't sure. It was too broken up, too faint, for him to truly tell, and her face twisted in pain in the next few seconds, making him think it might have just been noises of agony strangled into obscurity by her current weakness.

He wasn't going to carry her out the same way he had last time. Last time he'd unceremoniously shoved her in a burlap sack and carried her like a sack of wheat, paying off the stairwell guards like a Military Police Officer to look the other way as he packed her back to Headquarters. This time, he wasn't going to be shoving her in any sacks. He went to the hole in the ground with a clear view of the surface that he, Isabel, and Furlan had once gone to so they could release the bird, using the ODM gear to propel himself to the surface and taking off for headquarters at a sprint. Night was lightening above ground, the sun making the sky paler and chasing away the stars, signaling that daybreak was moments away. Farmers would be up. Military officials would be patrolling the streets. Tradesmen that needed to get an early start would be moving about. He didn't have cover of darkness to help him for long, so he needed to book it back, using the ODM gear to try and shorten the trip and to allow him to move on rooftops out of most people's view instead of risking the streets.

By the time he reached headquarters, dawn had broken over the walls, which meant there were going to be soldiers moving out and about. Throwing some caution to the wind, he set Y/N down on the rooftop, anchored to the edge of the roof, and propelled down to his office window. That window he knew was currently unlocked, and he wouldn't have to waste time taking a chance on her bedroom window being unlocked.

He opened the window wide, climbing inside momentarily to clear anything in the way, including his desk and chair, making sure there was a clear path into the center of the room before he jumped back out the window, fired a cable into the roof, propelled himself back to the top with a smooth landing, and gathered Y/N back into his arms. He got into position, tightening his hold on her as he planted his feet, took in a sharp breath, fired a single cable into the edge, and then jumped, swinging like a pendulum with a 270 degree reach down into his office through the open window, detaching the cable at the right moment so they would roll unceremoniously into the room rather than landing in some other unpleasant way.

Levi grunted at the impact, trying to take more of it himself instead of risking Y/N being injured further. When they came to a stop, Levi climbed to his feet, going back to the window so he could shut and lock it, then hurrying to the other end of the room to lock the door to make sure no one came inside, before he scooped Y/N back into his arms, kicking open his unlocked bedroom door and carrying her over to his bed, laying her down on the fairly soft mattress and making sure she was lying comfortably and not on any other items protruding through her body before he started moving once more, racing around to get the supplies he needed: lots of towels, water–lots of water, suture supplies, bandages, clothes from her quarters, he even put on a pot of tea in case she woke, some kind of herbal blend that would help with the healing process and to help cleanse the poison from her system. Some of the supplies he had to leave his office to get, but he did it all in one run and did it quickly so he could be in and out without anyone realizing it. Once he had everything gathered in his room, he started peeling back the blood and infection soaked clothes, officially revealing the large wound unhindered and some of the smaller but still unpleasant wounds as well.

There was a cut on her cheek–this one he'd noticed but hadn't at all been occupied with–from something sharp passing across her face, something with white sage, judging by the milder form of what her chest wound looked like. There were a few small blackened veins and a general appearance of burned skin around the edges, the wound hot, but it wasn't infected and putrid like her chest wound. In her shoulder there seemed to be the broken middle of an arrow shaft, the ends broken off likely by her so no one could grab either and and cause more damage, though that was going to make his job much harder. This, too, had white sage signs, looking like it was between the chest and the cheek wound in severity. Yes, the wood poisoning her bloodstream was still in her, but it was less damaging than the stake, and wasn't near vital organs like the stake had been. This just had a spider webbing of black veins, a mild peeling of the burned looking skin, and some infection located in the wound around the arrow shaft. There was another arrow wound in her calf–again, white sage soaked, and with the ends broken off.

As much as his first goal had initially been to clean out her chest wound and try to get as much of the white sage and infection cleaned out, his new objective was to get those arrow shafts out without leaving splinters in the wound. He wasn't a doctor, so he was just doing his best, especially because there was no doctor to turn to for wounded vampires, especially vampires in conditions like these. So this was a lot of winging it and going off what he thought might be the most important things or what he needed to do first, based on what he knew about her healing abilities and general field first aid.

He had to go searching for a pair of tweezers to get a good grip on the arrow shafts that weren't the same tiny tweezers he was going to use for stitches, coming back to the bedroom directly afterwards. He pulled up a chair beside the bed, rolled up his sleeves, and sat down and working on the shaft in her leg, first, since it was in a more sensitive spot and she was currently unconscious. Best to get the very painful part over with while she was unconscious.

He had to do some digging in the wound to get a good grip on the fragment of arrow in the wound, pulling it out with care so he wouldn't cause further damage, dropping it into the wastebasket beside his right foot. He moved the chair and wastebasket around the bed to the other side so he could fish out the fragment in her shoulder. She was so out of it she wasn't even reacting to the pain–he was surprised she was still breathing, honestly.

The second arrow shaft fragment dropped into the basket, and he set aside the now bloody tweezers and got the pitcher of water and a washcloth that had been soaking in a bowl of water, starting the arduous task of cleaning her wounds, attempting to help flush out at least some of the white sage that was doing such disgusting, infectious damage. It was soaking the bed and sheets underneath her, but that wasn't something he was concerned about. His main focus was cleaning the wounds with what he had available, watching what he hoped was the nasty infectious stuff away. After cleaning all of her wounds and drying up the water mess he'd made in the process, he stitched some of the 'minor' ones closed to help them heal faster, put patches over the small injuries, and bandaged the larger ones tightly to help keep them clean and under control. He was going to have to change that chest bandage frequently, with how nasty that wound was.

Once he finished cleaning and bandaging the wounds, he got her changed into clean, dry clothes he'd brought from her quarters earlier, changing the sheets around her still unconscious body and then leaving her to rest and recuperate while he cleaned up the mess as discreetly as possible. They didn't want to be drawing any unnecessary attention–it was best that these kinds of things flew by without the notice of anyone else. Explaining an absence was one thing, explaining blood and water soaked sheets was another.

After he'd finished cleaning up his mess, Levi once again returned to his office, taking the teapot off the fire before it got too hot and starting to brew the herbal tea he'd scrounged up for her earlier. He moved around quietly, even though the fact that he had the tea made up and ready meant that he was going to try and get her up at least to drink the tea to help flush the sage out of her system. Still, it was worth it to see if she would regain consciousness on her own before trying to rouse her.

He went into the bedroom with the freshly made tea in hand, walking closer to the bed at a slow pace so he could see what kind of condition she was in and if she looked like she was going to wake up soon on her own. He didn't see any signs of her stirring, though, which meant he was going to have to wake her up. Or try to, at least.

Levi pulled up the chair beside the bed once again, sitting down at the edge and setting the cup on the nightstand for the moment as he reached out to gently touch her uninjured shoulder, palm resting on the curve as he started to gently shake her to rouse her back to consciousness.

She didn't react for the first few moments, but after a few solid shakes, he saw her eyelids twitch, her breathing shift, and her head turn in the direction of what was waking her up.

"Oi...wake up. You need to do some things before you fall asleep again," Levi said, giving a slightly firmer shake as her eyelids started to flutter at the disruption. Her face started to twist in pain, eyelids squinting open at him as he slipped an arm under her shoulders, starting to try and help her sit up.

"Come on...up...just a bit. You need to drink this, it should help," he said quietly, keeping his voice low now that she was awake as he kept in mind her sensitive hearing, and how that might hurt if her senses were a mess right now. As he got her into a proper sitting up position, he reached back over to the teacup on the nightstand, holding it up to her lips and waiting until she started to purse her lips to drink from the cup. That was when he slowly tipped it up, making sure he went slow so she had enough time to drink, parched lips drinking the tea he was offering her at a glacial pace.

Levi gave her breaks to breathe, waiting until she'd downed the entire cup before he helped her lay back down with ginger care, setting the cup aside. Once she was settled back down and it looked like she wasn't going to immediately fall back asleep, Levi spoke up again, gaze level on her and unwavering.

"What happened?" he asked in a clear and firm voice.

She licked her lips, eyes closed but head turned towards him and pain still in her features. She was probably going to be out for a couple hours at the very least, when he wasn't asking her to stay awake for conversation.

"Hunters. Two of them. Knew to attack...from a distance. Didn't hear them...till the first shots went off. Had to kill the younger...younger one to get away. The older one's alive. Had to run. Couldn't fight."

Levi tapped her shoulder to get her to stop forcing herself to speak, using it as a signal that he got the general gist. She was ambushed by professional vampire hunters that probably took her out in the leg first so she couldn't immediately run, weakened her, and tried to finish her off. She was lucky she was alive–damn lucky Levi was the one who found her.

"They jumped you."

She hummed weakly in reply, brows knitting together.

"Before you fed?"

"Yes," she croaked, and Levi felt bad for her at the realization her condition had only gotten worse with the attack. Rapidly worse. She needed blood, and this time, she didn't even have the strength to hold a full conversation. He doubted she'd be able to drag herself out of bed like she had last time, or even make it safely down the hallway without sinking her fangs into someone.

That was the short term concern. Right now, the thought screaming at the front of his mind was the one he was focused on making known.

"This–this thing, where I keep going into the Underground to find you and you end up wounded like this–it isn't going to become a habit. No more. You're not going down there to hunt ever again. Next time all that's left of you to bring back may be ashes," Levi said stiffly, lifting up her shirt just enough to check the bandage on her chest–he was worried it would have already gone through the bandage and wrapping, with how much shit was in the wound even after he cleaned it out with water.

"I don't have a choice, Levi," she murmured with a timbre of pain in her voice.

"It's too risky–and that's without throwing in the return of the vampire that turned you. You're not going back," Levi said in an almost harsh tone. That was the end of it, he wasn't going to change his mind. He'd been thinking it since he found her in that damn dumpster.

She shook her head, as much as she could in her current state. "It's the only way...I can't get blood with a...with something of a...clear conscience," she whimpered. Levi softened his voice in the face of her pain, knowing his points would ultimately win out, and he didn't need to be particularly forceful besides being firm in the decision.

Right now she was in a lot of pain, and the sooner she could rest, the better. But they needed to talk more about it before she lost consciousness again.

"You said if you had a willing donor, it could work. You wouldn't have to." Levi hesitantly broached the subject, leaning forward on his elbows.

She shook her head rather vehemently for her current condition. "It's not going to happen. I don't have one, I won't–"

"Then take from me."

The silence was thick after he said it, and she opened her eyes to stare at him in shock. It hadn't even crossed her mind that it was a possibility Levi could be a donor one day–him and Erwin had been strictly off limits in her mind for how long? And he doubted if she had considered it, she thought he would be the one to bring it up and offer.

After what felt like hours of her just staring at him, she spoke in a surprisingly steady voice, her tone deathly serious.

"That's not a decision to make lightly."

"I've already thought of it. Several times. It's a thought out decision. Not a snap one," Levi stressed, gaze searching her expression.

Clarification: he'd thought about her need for a donor many times over, but not about his willingness to be that donor.

"I don't think my self control...is up for that challenge," she said hesitantly.

Levi arched a brow that she was going with that as her argument. Considering all the times he'd been bleeding in front of her, once fatally, he was certain she had the self control to resist, or in this case, stop. She'd stopped herself in starving states when standing hardly an arm's length away from him, she'd resisted the blood all over both of them when he'd almost died. Maybe actually partaking would be a different experience, maybe it would be more difficult once she had that taste and had her fangs in him, but at the same time, he was confident enough in her restraint to be proposing himself as a donor.

"After what I've seen, I'm confident in your self control."

Her eyes cleared up for a moment, locking with his. "Are you willing to stake...your life on that? Because that...is exactly what you're doing."

Levi held her gaze without fear, displaying complete outward calm. "If you go too far, I'll stop you."

"That's easier said than done...Levi."

"It's our only other option. We're going to do it," Levi said firmly, putting his hand on her shoulder again when her face suddenly twisted in pain, concern momentarily overtaking the pace he wanted to do this. "How long before the white sage is out of my system?"

Her brows furrowed again as she started doing the math in her head. "About a day...give or take...depending on how much..."

Levi nodded, allowing him some cushion in his own estimates, just in case. "Then by midday the white sage will be out of my system. I'll come back then. In the meantime, you should rest and let yourself heal, get some of your strength back."

He got to his feet, and though she looked uneasy for an entirely new reason, she still dropped back into unconsciousness rather quickly after the conversation was officially over. He grabbed the teacup off the nightstand to clean up, heading to the washroom to clean up and wake up before he went about his charade that everything was progressing as normal.

At least all that black tea he was drinking through the night hadn't been the special white sage kind, just regular black tea to keep him up. She wouldn't have to wait as long, he could get her what she needed.

What she needed...right...blood. His blood.

Shit. Fuck. Shit.

As calm as he was outwardly, appearing to anyone who passed him in the hall it was just another day, one insomnia had kept him up all night instead of most of the night...inwardly he was freaking out.

Yes, he offered. Yes he'd thought about it...a bit. But he hadn't been ready to even think of the actual words 'I could give her my blood,' and had just gone from not being able to reach that point of the train of thought to telling her–not asking, telling her–to take blood from him.

But now, she needed blood, desperately, and he was no longer willing to let her keep risking her neck in the Underground. Not if there were hunters on the prowl, one of which now knew what she looked like and had a vendetta against her since she'd killed their younger partner. Not to mention all the other vampires who might feel like she was impeding on their territory, or the return of the vampire who turned her.

Even though that particular threat had been silent so far, since the note. Not so much as a whisper from them. Which only made Levi a little more paranoid and on edge. Who knew what would make the vampire show themselves again, or when it would be.

As for donors, only Levi and Erwin knew her secret, and her feeding from Erwin was not an option–Erwin was off limits. They shouldn't risk bringing someone else into the secret just to make them a blood donor–what if it went wrong? Most likely they would refuse to be a donor.

Bringing in someone else just brought up unnecessary complications. Which meant Levi was the only viable option. Which was also a good thing, for her. With what he understood after their late night discussion about blood quality and how it affected vampires, his blood would make her stronger in many ways, and she would need it less often than the blood she'd been taking up until now. That could give her a valuable edge in future conflicts, both Titan, vampire, and human.

But that was what he was thinking to rationalize the decision. That didn't stop him from fucking freaking out internally, mentally loosing his shit about what he just agreed to, mind flashing back to the vampire that almost sank their fangs into him not too long ago.

Obviously it was going to hurt, right? She was going to bite him and drink his blood, how could this not hurt? What would it be like? How would they do it, where would she bite him? How would it feel to voluntarily have a vampire drink his blood? How would it affect him? Would he have to rest, would it make him woozy, impact his performance? Was this something that he was going to have to be careful about because it might sideline him if it happened too close to an expedition? What was he going to do if she wasn't able to stop? He couldn't just lie there and take it, let her kill him on...partial accident? Losing control of her bloodlust was an accident, driven by her bloodlust instincts. If that happened...

Maybe he should go out and snip a small branch off the white sage brush out by her garden.

Levi paused in the middle of the hall, running a hand through his hair as he continued to grapple with what he'd just agreed to–no, not agreed to, he proposed this, he demanded this. This was his choice.

Midday.

Shit.

He really hoped he was able to commit a bit more, internally, to this decision by midday or this might get messy, in more ways than one.

But whether he really was ready for this, she needed it right now. She was in pain, she was poisoned, weak, starving probably. She needed this, and he was the only solution right now. They were just going to have to make the best of the situation...

...Shit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He came back at midday, like he'd said he would. Even with his usual crazy sleep schedule, he was starting to feel exhausted with his lack of sleep, a night spent searching for Y/N, a crash from all the black tea he drank, and internal stress over the knowledge of what was happening at midday. Still, he remembered to lock the door behind him after he entered, a sprig of white sage hidden on his person where it would be within reach but wouldn't slip through and hurt Y/N accidentally, nerves twisting his stomach into an anxious mess as he approached the bedroom.

Inside she seemed lucid–drowsy, but awake, shifting around slightly. The wound on her cheek had healed to a faint scar, which meant when he got the chance he might want to take a look at the wounds he'd stitched to help them heal easier and remove the stitches if need be so they didn't get in the way of her healing abilities. Actually, he should do a general check of her injuries before doing anything else. It might be an excuse, a way to delay the inevitable a little longer, but it was also necessary.

Levi returned to his chair next to the bed. "Take it easy–I'm going to check your wounds, change the dressings maybe," Levi told her, waiting until she was settled and looked ready before he started pulling back just enough clothes to look at the major wounds he was supposed to be treating.

The infection was still there, but it didn't look as angry, and the jagged edges were starting to smooth out, some of the irritation or burned looking skin cooling down. He had to change a couple wrappings, which she stayed still and silent for besides a few hisses of pain that she tried to muffle but didn't escape his notice.

Once he was certain he'd done what he could for her still-healing injuries, he settled back, meeting her gaze and doing his best to swallow the nerves that were eating him up inside.

He hoped she couldn't tell he'd partially been stalling, or that he was nervous.

"How should we do this?" he asked bluntly, watching her closely despite his worry she might see through to some of the thoughts he was trying to keep buried. Shit, this was actually happening–was about to happen.

"Now? You want me to...right now?" she asked, mildly surprised.

Damn, he'd thought she knew that. Hadn't it been obvious enough from his question about how long it took white sage to run its course through his system? Maybe she was still a little too out of it to easily make the connection.

"You need blood. To heal and recover, at the least. And the sage should be out of my system, now."

"I have less control than normal when I'm starving like this, Levi," she clarified seriously.

"I trust your control. And like I said, I'll stop you if I have to."

She studied him again, eyes clearer than they'd been earlier. Slowly, she nodded, looking resigned more than confident or relieved in any way. That was reassuring.

Not.

"All right...all right..." she murmured, turning her head away to look at the bed beside her. "This might get awkward...but...we'll need a towel...just in case."

Her words were soft spoken and strained, showing it was still taking a bit too much of her energy to hold simple conversation. Levi, meanwhile, got to his feet and went into the washroom to get a bath towel, well aware that it was probably for blood.

Just in case.

When he re-entered the room, she reached out with a hand to the large unoccupied space on the bed next to her. "Okay. Lay down, and try to relax."

His eyes narrowed suspiciously at that, and she sighed when she realized how he was interpreting her words, sitting up slowly and with great effort.

"I have a theory...untested, of course. But if you're willing and relaxed instead of fighting me like most people do, I don't think it will hurt so much. So, maybe you should lie down the first few times–if this works–until we're both used to it," she explained softly, Levi slowly moving around the bed and handing her the towel when she held out her hand for it. She folded it twice and spread the folded towel under the pillow, right where his neck would be.

He felt that anxious bundle of knots in his stomach tighten painfully at the sight.

"The better the flow, the easier it will come. I'll have to bite around the throat instead of, say, your arm, especially while we're both adjusting to this," she explained, and Levi remembered she could hear his heartbeat. Which meant no matter how well he might hide it in his expression, she knew he was nervous, maybe even...well, he wouldn't say it out loud, but scared, at least a little, though the closer the actual event came, the stronger his fear and anxiety grew.

"Will you be able to keep it covered up, afterwards?" She asked pointedly, and Levi thought of the semi-high collars of the uniform and his cravat, giving a quick nod.

"I'm a fast healer," he added as reassurance, cursing inwardly when he could hear some strain in his voice.

She was going to bite him, on the neck, and drink his blood. With his permission. What part of this was rational?

Well, he knew how he'd rationalized it, but that didn't make it any less insane.

Y/N nodded at the space beside her, shifting a little further away as if to give him space. "Go on, lie down. Take your time, get comfortable, try to relax. I won't do anything until you're relaxed," she said, though as he moved closer, he could feel her gaze on his throat, hear a slight thickness in her voice.

How much control was it taking her to hold herself off right now, knowing what was about to happen but trying to do it the 'right way', if there was a 'right way' to this kind of thing? Was the thickness in her voice because of her fangs, were they already showing? If he looked at her, would he see the flash of her fangs as she started to need to rip into his throat?

No thoughts like that, she wasn't going to be tearing into him like a piece of meat. This whole painfully drawn out stage before her actual...feast–the word made his stomach churn–was to make sure it was as painless as possible for him. Even though this attempt was rooted in her needs, she was going out of her way to take care of his well being, first.

Carefully, Levi climbed onto the bed beside her, laying down flat on his back, neck cushioned on the towel with his head sinking into the pillow, shifting around to try and get comfortable. This felt strange on multiple counts. He never slept on this bed, he usually fell asleep in a chair, so the feeling of lying down on a bed like this was alien, which made it difficult to relax. It didn't help he would think about what was about to happen and start to tense up again, before he reminded himself tensing would probably make it extremely painful and he forced himself to start to loosen up again. He tried breathing, putting his mind elsewhere, all kinds of things, further embarrassed by the fact she was just sitting there waiting for him, watching him struggle to fucking relax.

His shoulders loosened and lowered for the umpteenth time, a slow breath coming out with it, and Y/N shifted, causing his attention to immediately snap to her and his shoulders tense up again in anticipation. She ignored the reaction, her fingers reaching out to gently touch his jaw, which he pulled back from instantly, weirded out by the touch and trying to figure out where it came from.

"I'm just trying to help you get ready, relax. Let me do my thing, Levi. You're going to have to trust me if this is going to work," she chastised him, though there was no bite in her voice, just quiet patience.

Reluctantly, Levi settled back down, letting her touch him, her fingers gently running along his chin as she turned his head to the side so he was facing her, tilting his chin up slightly, his neck now exposed fully but not uncomfortably with this angle. The cold air against his skin was suddenly unsettling, his senses hyper-aware along his neck, able to feel for the briefest moment the thumb of his pulse against his skin. And he was still lying down, head still sunk into the pillow, one of his eyes buried in the downy feature. He would stay comfortable and relaxed here as long as he didn't tense. That was going to be his biggest challenge.

Her gaze was now fixed on his throat, and he could see a glimmer of red in those normally familiar eyes. Tension was seeping into his limbs again, that strange power inside him itching to burst forth as his fight or flight instincts started to rouse themselves. This was it. She was going to do it. Fuck, what did he sign himself up for? Was it still too late to back out?

His breaths turned shallow as she shifted once more, one of her hands planting into the mattress beside his shoulder to hold herself up as she leaned over him, eyes still fixed on his throat as she started to lower. Levi squeezed his eyes shut...

She paused, holding her breath, though Levi was painfully aware of how close to his taut throat her lips were.

"Are you sure?" She asked in a gruff voice, the effort just to stop and check with him again obvious in her tone. "Last chance to change your mind."

She knew he was scared. He wouldn't admit it, but she already knew, listening to his heart beating as fast as it was, listening to his shallow, quick breaths. She was giving him the chance to back out and try another time, when or if he was ready. This was his out, if he felt he wasn't ready, that he couldn't go through with this. Last chance to change his mind, make a different choice for today.

He swallowed thickly, gaze looking down at her as much as he could without changing his position, attempting to force himself to relax again before she actually bit, for his sake.

"Stop messing around and just get it over with," Levi replied roughly, feeling himself officially pass the point of no return once the words left his lips. No going back, now. This was happening, whether he was actually ready or not.

He heard the slightest sigh escape her, though he couldn't decide if it sounded relieved or disappointed to him. One of her hands snaked along the back of his neck, up into his undercut and into his hair in yet another alien touch he didn't know how to react to other than stiffening at the touch that felt a little too intimate for their current relationship. Though the firm grip her fingers had in his hair alerted him that the touch wasn't as intimate as it seemed, more utilitarian, in this situation. Her other hand moved over his upper chest and gripped at his shoulder, pulling his attention briefly from her and to the hand on his shoulder, guard dropping for a split second as her thumb stroked along his collar bone.

That was the moment she sank her fangs into him, when he was distracted from her fangs by her hands, a little more relaxed at that moment because he wasn't tensing in anticipation of her fangs. The action was swift but precise, fangs piercing deep into his throat in one clean stroke. There was pain, of course, Levi grunting and tensing on instinct at the sharp pain in his neck, which intensified when he tensed in reaction to the pain. He had to bite down on his lip to avoid making a sound, quickly starting to regret this decision.

Y/N was latched on tightly, though, and she wasn't moving much. Their heads were close enough together in the quiet room that he could hear the sound of her drinking in greedy gulps, and it felt surreal to know that was her drinking his blood, even though he could feel the strange sensation of his blood flowing into her mouth. Any focus she might have spared for him seemed to be gone, her bloodlust taking over as she got a real taste for blood that had been tempting her for months, almost a year.

Had it really almost been a year since he met her? Already?

A particularly sharp draw of blood made a pained sound build up in Levi's throat, one he barely stifled, eyes squeezed shut. He was trying so hard to just endure it until she'd had enough, but it was getting steadily worse, and he worried what would happen if he let out a cry and someone heard.

Her hands moved at that point after he vocalized, even if it was muffled and faint. Her hand on his shoulder gave a few reassuring rubs, and a couple of her fingers in his hair gave little circular rubs or idle traces across his scalp. For one, it was a little reassuring, but it also made him realize just how much he'd tensed up.

He needed to relax. That was what she'd been worried about–he needed to relax to make it less painful for him. Less struggle, less resistance, less pain.

Levi let out a few shallow breaths, swallowing thickly as he slowly let go of the tension in his shoulders, let his head fall comfortably back on the pillow, trying to relax and give more control of the situation back over to her. As he relaxed, the pain did actually lessen. The more he relaxed, the less it hurt as she drank from him, which encouraged him to continue to relax.

At times, with his head leaning back on the pillow and eyes closed, lips parted, it was an almost...pleasurable sensation. But it was still an odd one, and sometimes when she made a particularly hard pull on his neck for blood, the pain returned and interrupted that fleeting pleasure. Usually he tensed again, too, at the pain, and he'd have to work to relax again and make it better instead of worse. He teetered between pain and pleasure, one of his hands raising to clench in her shirt simply to give him something to hold to, because he felt awkward just lying there occasionally fisting the sheets. She apparently had no qualms holding onto him.

Besides the occasional hiss of pain, the only other sound in the room was the faint sound of her drinking quickly from him, and–this made it particularly awkward for him–the occasional soft moan from her.

He must taste pretty damn good if she was reacting that way. It made the entire exchange feel oddly intimate, but also clearly not.

He wasn't sure how he felt about it all, what he thought about this becoming a regular thing. He felt...odd...

No...no, he felt woozy. She was starting to take too much. The blood loss was starting to bother him even laying down trying to relax.

His hand grasped firmly at the bundle of fabric of her clothes he'd been holding to during this...experience. His other hand came up to tap at her side, trying to get her attention.

"That's enough...too much, almost," he said firmly, surprised his voice still had that much strength. She didn't react to his words, fangs still sunken deep into his neck and not slowing down in her drinking pace. Nerves started to make him tense, which meant each pull started to turn increasingly painful again. "Oi! Cut it out!"

Again, no reply, and as his knee shifted to press into her chest to try and get her off, hand pulling at her clothes, her grip grew firm on him, unyielding. It seemed struggle only made her latch onto her prey tighter, instincts taking over in the place of rational thought. Was he going to have to use the sage?

Not yet. He still had some strength in him, yet. And this was a situation he couldn't win by brute force. He needed to try a different approach to get past her predator instincts, keeping in mind she was blood drunk right now.

He tried holding her closer, his spare hand tangling in her hair as he spoke in a steady but firm voice, using a gentle approach to get her attention instead of the forceful one. "Y/N...you need to stop. It's too much," he said, speaking directly into her ear, running his fingers through her hair like she'd done for him, simply in the hopes it would get her attention with how different it was. She seemed to be slowing down, but she was still latched on, Levi closing his eyes and hoping that she would listen to him. "That's enough. You need to let go."

She grunted, and with a bit more effort than Levi was comfortable with, she finally released him, teeth pulling out of his neck with a small gasp. She didn't move away from him, still hovering over him as she quickly picked up the end of the towel and pressed it against his neck, turning her head away and taking a few steadying breaths. Both of them sat very still, neither of them moving as the moments stretched and passed slowly, a strange kind of tension in the air between them neither of them knew how to define.

She just drank from him. Drank his blood.

He was just glad that she stopped on her own. He really thought he was going to have to burn her or something to get her off him. It hadn't been a pleasant experience, but it hadn't been nearly as bad as he thought, either.

So what was the result? She'd never had blood as high a quality of his own...so what did this mean, now?

Y/N suddenly moved, pulling out of his awkward embrace and rolling back over to her side of the bed in a surprisingly swift motion, her back to him. Glancing down at the towel, he could see she'd wiped her face off on the part of the towel that wasn't pressed against his neck. As she sat on the edge of the bed, she started moving to take off the bandages, revealing smooth, uninjured skin underneath, moving with ease and what seemed to be her usual strength as if she'd never been hurt in the first place.

"How bad is the bleeding?" she asked abruptly as she was removing the bandage around her chest, keeping the used and stained bandages and wrappings in her hands instead of setting them down on the bed, thankfully.

Levi pulled back the towel enough to look, surprised at how neat the wound was, even though it had allowed her to drink so much. It was still bleeding, though–he might have to wrap something over it or bandage it in order to staunch the bleeding–he couldn't very well go walking around with a towel pressed to his neck all day.

"Fine...how are you feeling?" Levi asked, staring at her intently as she got to her feet, turning around to finally face him. There was a faint red glimmer in her eyes, but otherwise they were normal, vibrant, her skin no longer sickly, looking healthier than she'd appeared in quite some time, from what he remembered. There was a healthy, strong sheen to her that hadn't been there beforehand.

He hadn't realized just how much of an impact her diet had on her, how much difference one little change could make.

"I'm good. Much better. It's you I'm worried about, now. You'll want to take it easy, get some rest so your body can make up for the blood loss," she said, that casual tone about serious matters that unnerved him so much returning.

"People will notice if I'm missing."

"Fine. Be present. Do some paperwork. But take it easy, still. Sit when you can, nothing too strenuous."

"You're not going to get addicted to me or something, are you?" Levi asked abruptly, cutting off her mother-hen-like lecturing and instead throwing out a question that had popped into his mind seeing how she reacted to tasting his blood.

Y/N snorted softly. "I don't think so. It's just..." she moved to sit on the edge of the bed again, settling down to have a proper conversation again. "It was just hard to stop once...well, obviously, it was, but...I haven't had anything that high quality before. It's a whole new kind of bloodlust to control, harder to resist."

"You're thinking it will get easier?"

"For both of us," she said pointedly. "But this is...this is something we can talk about later. Try to get some rest, first. And I need to make an appearance somewhere since I've been missing all morning. We can talk about it more later."

Her gaze looked him over closely, seeking out something, though he wasn't sure what.

"Are you okay? Really?"

"Fine. Go on, you've got things to do," Levi said dismissively, turning his head away and gazing out the window. There were a few moments of silence, she shuffled, and then got to her feet. "I'll talk to you later, then, Levi. I'm sure by then we'll have plenty to talk about," she said cordially.

He hummed in acknowledgement, listening as she left the room with a surprising spring in her step, leaving him alone with his minor wound and his thoughts.

And he had plenty to think about until this wound on his neck stopped bleeding and he could properly hide it.