*Levi's POV*

When he finally got his eyes to open, it was bright enough to instantly send a lance of pain through his head, eyes squinting, nearly shutting as he tried to give himself the chance to adjust. While he was waiting for the light to no longer be painful, his fingers curled again around the warm weight enveloping his hand, fingers brushing slightly along the backs of two fingers that were pressed inside his wrist. Keeping track of his pulse, most likely.

It took him a few moments, and his body protested the effort, as if it was telling him it would be much easier just to go back to sleep, but his eyes started adjusting to the natural light in the room, opening a centimeter at a time until he was blinking bleary to clear the hazy film that blurred his vision, eyelids still heavy and not open wide, but able to look around the room.

The first thing he saw wasn't the ceiling, because he was apparently lying on his side, but instead was his nightstand in his bedroom, currently cluttered with a bowl with a damp rag folded and draped over the edge, a pitcher of water, what he assumed was an empty cup, and a familiar sketchpad and collection of sketching supplies.

Y/N.

He didn't have the strength to lift his head, which was frustrating, especially because he knew if he couldn't even do that he couldn't be able to turn over or anything like that. Since he was restricted, the best he could do to search his surroundings was let his gaze wander, eyes travelling downwards to the weight he could feel beside him on the bed, down where one of his hands was lying enveloped in another--the other hand resting near his face on the pillow.

It was Y/N who was holding onto his hand--in her sleep, apparently. She was sitting next to the bed in a chair that she must have found and brought over, her head resting atop her folded arms, hair shielding her face even though her head was turned in his direction. Her fingers were enclosed around his hand, which was easily in reach of her hand even with the position she'd taken up in order to sleep--she didn't even have to stretch out to reach him. Two of her fingers were resting atop the inside of his wrist, placed right over the veins in his arm to feel for a pulse.

How long had she been here? How long had he been here?

He tried to speak to get her attention, though all he managed was a muffled sound that seemed like he'd been holding back a word before suddenly letting out a sharp exhale. At that point he realized his mouth and throat was dry, lips chapped, tongue heavy, and there were lingering echoes of pain around his chest. Even breathing felt like a demanding effort.

Unable to get himself to speak--and even if he did, he doubted it would be loud enough even for her to hear in her sleeping state--Levi tried to reach out a different way to get her attention, seeking answers and a bit of reassurance, even though he wasn't going to be obvious about the latter. His fingers twitched, curling weakly around her hand a little more as his index finger started to lightly stroke along the side of her hand--it was the best he could do at the moment, so he was hoping that the light touch was going to be enough to wake her.

It took a few minutes--long enough that Levi sincerely thought he was going to fall unconscious again before she woke up. Thankfully, the gentle touch against her hand eventually got her to stir, and once she started to stir and became more aware of the world around her, she woke up a little faster. As she opened her eyes with a slow flutter, confusion settled over her eyes like a hazy film, head starting to lift and hand twitching slightly around his as she tried to process what was going on. Her gaze settled on their interlocked hands so she could see the finger gently brushing against the side of her hand, and once she noticed that repeated, conscious movement, her gaze lifted sharply to his face to see his heavily lidded eyes staring back at her.

"Levi!" she gasped in clear surprise to see him awake, which only made him self-conscious about what his state had been while he was unconscious, and just how long it had been since the attack.

She was already getting up out of the chair and moving to the head of the bed after seeing him conscious, concern etched into each feature as her hand slid out of his to gently caress the side of his face in a motion that seemed to be simply brushing hair out of his eyes. The gentle touch sent far too many tingles scattering across his skin for it to be something simple.

His lips parted to try asking her what happened, how long had it been, was she all right, what had he missed, at least some of the many questions that were settling to the forefront of his mind the longer he was awake to worry about them. However, when he tried to make sound come out, his throat ached painfully, and a forceful cough raked his body, eyes squeezing shut as a surprising amount of pain pulsed through his chest, particularly his lungs.

"Don't talk--You've been a little lucid the past few days, but I haven't been able to get you to drink much. You need water, and more rest--you're still healing," she said softly, pulling back to grab the pitcher on the nightstand and pour a glass of water. She sat on the bed beside him, one of her hands sliding under his head to lift it up and help him drink slowly from the glass.

As soon as the cool water touched his lips, it made him realize just how thirsty he was, drinking eagerly and feeling a surprising amount of relief. It was embarrassing how little he could do, but it was only him and Y/N, so he was a little less subconscious about it. It was in the privacy of his own room, and she'd taken care of him before.

Well, not like this. Last time he'd kicked her out of his room once he was awake and heard how she risked turning him into a vampire. This time, he wouldn't be doing that even if he could have spoken.

She pulled it away before he could finish the glass off entirely, head leaning forward with furrowed brows in agitation that she pulled it away before he could finish it off entirely. She did, however, fill the glass with more, but she set it aside out of his reach, which earned her as much of a temperamental glare as he could muster right now. She ignored it, however.

"Pace yourself. I'm going to get some tea on the fire--you need some of the herbal health benefits because you've been out so long. Hopefully it'll be done before you fall asleep again," she murmured, walking away without another word, but she was at least moving briskly so he knew she was going to try and get back quickly.

Levi let out a soft sigh, eyes almost falling closed before he told himself to stay awake, fingers clenching slightly in the sheets in front of him, since she'd only lifted his head enough to help him drink from the glass and laid him back down on his side.

There was a bit of shuffling in the other room, and Levi almost nodded off in the silence of his bedroom before she returned, seeing him almost falling asleep on the bed, though he perked up slightly when she entered, tired eyes tracking her as she headed back to sit on the side of the bed.

"Do you want me to try and explain a few things, or would you rather we just focus on getting some water and tea in you and making sure you stay comfortable before getting more rest?"

Levi arched a brow at her. Like she really had to ask--of course he wanted to know some of what had happened while he was unconscious. They had to wait for the water to heat anyway, she might as well use the time to start catching him up.

A small smile twitched across her lips for a brief moment. "Why did I even ask?" She murmured in mild amusement. "If you don't mind, I'm going to check your wound and redress the bandages while I talk."

Levi didn't protest, keeping his still position on his side as she started to undo the bandages around his chest with steady, careful hands. The strips fell away one by one as she worked, and she spoke in a gentle voice that was almost too soft in a sense that it felt like it was going to lull him off to sleep.

"You've been out for a week and a half, roughly. Saying you were sick wasn't enough to excuse that absence with the way you are, so Erwin's told everyone who's asked that you had to take a short personal leave. Not a bad idea, in my opinion, no one is going to have the balls to try prying into your personal affairs, and if they do, hopefully they have enough brains to know you're not going to give them answers. You were hurt...a lot worse than last time, it was really difficult to...to stabilize you, so...it's taken more to heal you, more time and I'll admit a little more blood. It's out of your system by now, but it was precarious for those first few days."

He'd been on the edge of death for several days, then? Judging by the sudden shake in her voice, and how she was leaning over him so he couldn't see her face, it had to have been close--close enough she was still shaken by it.

The excuse he could work with when he was up and around, as well. She was right that there shouldn't be any questions about where he went--not any that anyone asked to his face. And after a few days, weeks at the most, the lack of answers would make the questions taper off into obscurity.

A week and a half already...and more ahead of him, based on his current pathetic state...this was ridiculous. Then again, he'd been on the edge of death for days according to her. From the sounds of it, he was just starting to really recover, and he was still recovering faster than the average person who would have been through this. Between his usual fast healing and the boost her blood gave him for the first few...days? However much he had while he was out, it had helped him recover faster, despite how long it had already been.

He didn't get much time to process those quick three facts before Y/N continued speaking, filling him in on more basic information, nothing extremely serious.

Nothing like what happened with the hunters that must have attacked them. What was the progress with the fall of Wall Maria? Had that other vampire reached out to her yet? There was far too much he could have missed in a week and a half period--even more he could continue to miss while he was stuck in bed.

The bandages fell away entirely, and Levi felt himself...not still, because he already lacked the energy to do much moving. It was more like he tensed as much as he could, breath catching and heartbeat hitching for a few seconds as her hand brushed against his now completely bare chest, her other hand's fingers gently brushing along his back, investigating around what must have been the remains of his wound. He hoped she couldn't tell how he'd just reacted to it, the physical reactions he couldn't help, the goosebumps that wanted to break out across his skin despite the warmth of her touch. But, with those razor sharp sense of hers, she could definitely tell exactly how he was reacting, if she was paying attention to it and not solely focused on his injury at the moment.

"I've been keeping an eye on you while you recover. Hange has come in a few times to check and see how you were doing and to have some discussions about what I am--I figured we might as well have those discussions while I was here, if I wasn't going to be doing much else besides keeping an eye on you. I might as well fill her in instead of leaving her hanging with what little we told her before everything happened. It's probably weird that we have you positioned like this, but with the hole in your back healing at a slow pace, we decided it would be best not to lay you on your side, and the first few days when you were still having breathing troubles we were worried about having you lie prone. So we've kept you on your side, turning you over every now and then just so you're not stuck in the same position however long you're going to be stuck in bedrest."

Levi let out a slow sigh as she got off the bed to head back to the pitcher on the nightstand, though this time she poured the water into the bowl and started soaking the washcloth in the water before she started wringing it out. From what he could see of her face, her eyes were far away and troubled, no doubt dwelling on what happened.

And he was in no shape to be having that conversation right now. It was going to have to wait, unfortunately. But at least he was going to have a bit of time to mull over what he wanted to say until he got enough of his strength back to hold a conversation.

"Your back is almost healed up enough we can lie you down on your back, though. It's just a shallow wound left at this point--we still have to keep it bandaged and everything, obviously, but it shouldn't be too much longer," she commented as she went around the bed and out of his sight again, one hand resting on his arm to hold him still while she started pressing the cloth gently around his back, and Levi realized just how sensitive and strange a certain spot in his upper back felt.

There was definitely an open wound back there, and it felt weird knowing it was a wound that should have killed him but was slowly healing thanks to the impossibilities Y/N brought to the table.

"I don't know much about what's been going on with the fall of the wall since I've been in here, but obviously we haven't been attacked again. People are starting to come off high alert--uneasily, but still relaxing from the constant sense of feeling like we're going to be attacked. There's still plans and developments in the works for a counteroffensive if it happens again, though."

She appeared again, putting the washcloth back in its place draped along the bowl of water for now before rummaging in the drawer for fresh bandages. Now, besides a brief murmured apology for how invasive she was about to be for this part, she didn't talk while she sat next to him and carefully slipped her hands under him to sit him up, leaning him up against her for some stability. She pressed a folded patch of gauze against the wound on his back, and then started to carefully wrap the bandages around his chest to hold it in place.

She had his head resting on her shoulder, his body leaned forward into hers so she could easily reach around him while she did her work. At the same time, Levi was met with a deep well of her natural scent--thank God she'd been keeping up with her bathing despite keeping a constant eye on him. But she smelled good still, and he found himself breathing her in, eyes closed, limbs heavy as for a moment he thought he would fall asleep on the spot.

She better get that tea to him soon, because he was about to start fading in and out trying to stay awake for her.

He also noticed she wasn't being shy about her touches, or any brush she made against his skin. They lingered, they were tender and warm, caring, maybe a bit scared, like he'd disappear from beneath her if she pulled away. He...he wasn't used to this. Yes, he'd been having subtle lingering touches of his own recently because he found himself just wanting to be near her and to have a bit of that contact, but this was different, it was more blatant. He didn't know how to react to it, but he didn't really have the strength to react much to her, anyway. So he didn't say or do anything about it--he simply noted it for later, just another thing to...well, no, he didn't know if this was something he'd bring up. Maybe this was something he could figure out later amongst all the other conversations they needed to have that were piling up.

It was a bit of a let down when Y/N laid him back down after she finished wrapping his bandages, even more so when she pulled away to get off the bed.

"I'm going to get the tea before it gets too hot to drink. You need to get back to resting," she commented, stepping out into the office section of his quarters to go fetch the pot of tea she'd been making.

She came back in not with a pot, but just a cup, coming over to sit beside him and lift his head as she'd done earlier with the water. "It's herbal, a blend I tried putting together to help with what happened, specifically. Echinacea and hawthorn...with a bit of blackberry and honey, just a tiny bit, to help the taste. But it's supposed to be good for immune system, inflammation, pain, blood circulation, relieving stress on the heart..." she mused, tentatively tipping the cup just enough he could sip on it.

It wasn't something he would normally drink, not at all, and it wasn't something he was going to seek out again, but he wasn't going to waste a cup of tea, especially one she'd made him to help his health. He'd force it down this time--just this one time.

As she held him up so he could drunk the tea, Levi felt the barest, repetitive stroke of her thumb against his scalp, a soothing motion to go with the careful way she cradled his head in her hand, making sure sure didn't tip the cup back too fast as he drank every last drop.

She was so gentle with him right now...

She laid him back down when he finished off the cup, setting it aside for the time being on the nightstand before getting him situated. She pulled the sheet over him, letting his arms stick out, brushing her fingers unnecessarily through his hair again and once more brushing it off as simply getting hair out of his eyes.

"You should get your rest now. We can talk more when you've got more of your strength back," she said, making sure his arms weren't trapped under his weight or anything.

While she was so close, Levi reached with what little strength he had left to grasp her hand before she pulled too far away and he had to really reach, which he currently couldn't manage. His fingers curled lightly around her hand, catching her attention.

"Thank you," he said briefly, the words coming out in a rough and slightly painful whisper that he could barely understand or hear, the sound seeming more like a guttural rumble in his throat.

Her fingers squeezed his hand in return, her body stilling as she stopped breathing for a moment. Her eyes lowered, and she wasn't quite looking at him as she answered.

"I should be thanking you. Though...part of me wishes you hadn't," she said honestly, shoulders raising slightly and lips pursing as her fingers tightening a little more around his hand, a slight shimmer in her eyes. "I really thought you were going to die for a while, there...I was afraid I was going to lose you."

The way she said it...made it a lot more personal. She wasn't saying you almost died, wasn't saying we thought you were going to die, she was saying I, I thought, I was afraid, I was going to lose you--I, not the Scouts. She was dropping all pretense of professionalism or simple camaraderie for this much more personal approach to what happened. It wasn't about the Scouts or what Hange and Erwin had been present for. She'd whittled it down to just him and her. She had been personally afraid for him, not just afraid for him because of his importance to the Scouts.

And for some reason it sounded pretty damn close to a confession of sorts.

He was too tired for this shit right now. Later, they could unpack this later. For now, he squeezed her hand in response, as much as he could with his waning strength. Y/N tentatively met his gaze at that, but apparently saw something there that reassured her, because she shifted her grip on his hand so she was holding it up and tightly in her own, sitting down beside him on the bed. Her hand reached out once more to 'brush hair out of his eyes,' though this time the pretense didn't really hold up since Levi knew there wasn't so much as a strand of hair in his eyes.

"Get some rest. You need it...but I'm glad you're responsive again," she said softly, and Levi was relieved to finally let his eyes close, feeling darkness rapidly taking him back as soon as he was compliant.

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

*Reader's POV*

After Levi woke up the first time, his recovery steadied, smoothed, settled into a gradual upturn. It was still frustratingly slow for him, that much was obvious. He was awake for short, fleeting bursts of time at first, time that you spent simply trying to get him to drink something, to get down more tea. You didn't graduate to solid foods for a little while because he was never awake long enough for you to successfully run and grab something he could sip on or that wouldn't require a lot of chewing. Soup, mainly--you needed time to make him soup to fill his stomach, and you didn't have the time to do that at first.

You didn't regale him with any specifics of what he'd missed beyond what you told him the first day. He was probably annoyed that you weren't filling him in a bit more, but you felt like he should be a bit more recovered before you talked about the heavier things, the things that were probably going to spark long conversations. He needed to be able to hold long conversations before falling asleep again, first.

While it had been worrisome that he'd practically been mute the first day when he woke up, it didn't last long. He still wasn't talking much, but he could murmur out soft requests when he needed, or simple remarks--which was how you knew not to put anything in the herbal tea you were making for him--it only made it taste worse to him, apparently. He wanted to get up and get moving, but you were still helping him sit up to drink and eat, he could barely move around in the bed in his current state, and he'd only recently started lying on his back. There was a current agreement that when he got a bit more strength back, you would help him start doing some in-bed exercises to start building his strength back up so he would be ready to get up and move around faster. But at the moment, he was still stuck to staying in bed and trying to hold conversations before he wore out and had to fall back asleep.

However, he was gradually staying awake for longer and longer periods of time, staying alert much longer, which meant it wouldn't be long before he would ask about the things you hadn't brought up yet.

The harder topics. Things that had you thinking and fretting and stressing and freaked out while he was unconscious. Now that he was awake, though, talking to him about them all was suddenly imposing. Not that you wouldn't talk--he needed to be filled in on a few more details, and he doubtless had questions.

And it seemed he wasn't wasting time, or giving you an out.

A few days after he woke up, when he was capable of some conversation and was staying conscious for decent periods of time, he apparently decided it had been long enough he'd waited for answers, and it was time he started pushing for them.

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

*Levi's POV*

Once he finished the hot--and actually rather decently made for someone who didn't need to eat--meal Y/N had procured for him from the fireplace of his office, he set the empty bowl carefully on the nightstand. It was the only surface within reach, though it was still cluttered with all Y/N's supplies to take care of him, so the simple motion required a bit of balancing.

She had been getting his meals to him impressively fast, and not just because she was putting together meals in his office whenever he was awake for a longer period of time. She had to get any meals she made for him to him before his energy was spent and he passed out again--not an easy thing to do when she also had to wait until he woke up to start cooking so it wouldn't get cold while they waited for her to regain consciousness.

She was still taking care of him, still staying in his quarters to be there every time he needed her, which was far too often when he lacked the strength to even get out of bed and was unconscious more often than not--at least for now. Yet she hadn't once complained. Not even when he made it more difficult for her than it should have been, with how frustrated he got with himself for the state he was in, and therefore got a bit...touchier than normal. She didn't complain about having to help him sit up or move around in bed, or having to carry him in and out of the bathroom so he could take care of business--as soon as he could get in and out of a tub by himself and wasn't in danger of falling asleep in the tub, he could finally take a bath. He wasn't about to let her bathe him, that was too much, even if he thought she could be professional and impartial about it--he'd die of embarrassment if she had to bathe him.

Though if he didn't reach that level of capability soon, he might cave--he was painfully aware how long it had been, and how badly he needed one.

But the point was, she didn't complain at all about taking care of him, even with the attitude, the smell, the fact he kept needing help with the smallest, most menial things. Whatever he needed she did immediately and without question, ready and willing to help no matter what it was.

The only thing that they were having an issue with, the only thing she showed resistance towards--normally--was talking about what happened. And clearly something adorable happened with her while he was unconscious because ever since he'd woken up, she'd been...different, with him. Not in a bad way. She was just...very open with him. There was a lot of physical contact, little gestures he wasn't used to receiving, especially so openly and frequently. He'd been giving her lingering touches, looking for subtle excuses to reach out and touch her, but these excuses and touches weren't even subtle. He didn't know how to respond to them, yet, namely because he wasn't used to this. But that didn't mean they were unwanted--he did want them, he was just trying to figure out what changed with her while he was unconscious.

Which he couldn't figure out if she wasn't talking about what happened in the first place.

At the moment, he was sitting up with his back leaning against the headboard of the bed, watching as Y/N came over to retrieve his dirty dish. Before she could take it away to wash it and Levi wasted precious time where he was awake and able to hold a conversation, he spoke up, effectively stopping her near the foot of the bed. Sunlight bathed the room between the two of them in natural light, unhindered by the drawn-back curtains in the bedroom, as if to emphasize his words.

"What happened to the hunter?" Levi asked bluntly, trying to keep his words short since he still couldn't do long conversations, especially on his end. His throat still started to hurt after so much talking, and long co versatile just left him feeling tired. So he had to make this count.

She looked away at his question, stifling a sigh and moving over to the dresser to set the empty soup bowl on the surface for the time being. Her actions made it clear that she expected this to be a long conversation, but at least they were finally going to have it.

While she was moving away, Levi spoke up again, pressing the issue in case she was about to get cagey with him. "You're not acting like there's still a threat."

She wasn't--not in the slightest. She wasn't restless like she felt she had to leave, she wasn't on edge like she was waiting for the world to shatter again, and the most obvious part was that the windows were open, curtains drawn back all the time--there was no effort to keep any other sharpshooter attacks at bay. She wouldn't be this relaxed if the problem hadn't been handled, but he wanted confirmation, and wanted to know when and how.

"Because there isn't one. Not anymore," she said quietly, turning back around so she could lean against the dresser and meet his gaze just as easily as avoid it. He also wasn't oblivious to the fact that her current position put her far out of his reach if he got upset about anything she was about to say.

"After we got you stabilized and it became a situation Hange and Erwin had control of, I left to track down the hunters while there was still a trail." Levi's eyebrows rose slightly at the plural, but he didn't interrupt, letting her explain before he started interjecting with more questions. He also bit down on the knee jerk protest that she'd chased after them alone like a reckless idiot, since clearly things had turned out just fine for her.

They really needed to stop with the reckless gambles, because one of them was going to end up killed if either of them made the recklessness a cocky habit.

"It took a while, but besides the head start they had, I managed to track them down three towns over. I eavesdropped on them for a few minutes while I was waiting for the town guard to get far enough away, and then I ambushed them. A hunter's entire advantage on a vampire relies on surprise and ambush, so with me ambushing them, they didn't have a chance. I grabbed the one who I escaped from in the Underground, asked him...a few questions...and then killed him."

That part didn't surprise him. It probably should have been worrisome, but it had become pretty clear that was how this issue was inevitably going to be resolved. However, after how she reacted with the last hunter she killed, he was a bit more sensitive to the fact that this was different for her, maybe she had qualms about it still--which would honestly be a good thing that she wasn't taking it lightly. Something was bothering her.

Wait...she said she killed him, not them.

Levi eyed her warily, suddenly having an inkling about why she was acting a little off. "What about the other one?"

She hesitated, looking off to the side instead of at Levi. "We had a little chat, and I let him go."

"What?" Levi asked as he straightened as much as he could, hairs on the back of his neck standing on end and suddenly lying painfully aware of the fact that the windows were open, and she'd been in the same damn open room for weeks.

But that was a good sign, right? It meant whoever the second hunter was hadn't attacked again despite the prime opportunity. Levi sure as hell wasn't going to let his guard lower, not after thus disaster. Why the hell had she done this, let the other one go, when this was exactly the situation that had gotten them in this mess in the first place?

Y/N sighed, pushing away from the dresser and running a hand through her hair. "It's stupid, I know, killing one and letting the other go is how you got shot in the first place, but I..." she grit her teeth and looked away. "But if I want to keep my humanity, I can't kill everyone that inconveniences or poses a threat to me. I have to draw the line somewhere, and this one I have reason to believe won't come after me again."

He understood that reason for letting him go, he did. Especially in her situation, her humanity was a serious topic, something she closely guarded to separate herself from the monsters so that her transformation into a vampire didn't make her a true monster. But there was a time and place for these kinds of things, and this might not have been the time to make a principle statement--it very well could cost them, could make this happen all over again, except this time the hunter might learn from their mistakes and hit their mark the first time. This was too much of a risk for her to have taken.

She had one chance to convince him otherwise.

"It better be a damn good reason," Levi said in a low voice.

Y/N sighed, dropping her arms from the crossed position in front of her chest to instead brace them against the dresser, tilting her head back to look up at the ceiling.

"From the conversation I overheard while I was waiting, it was obvious the two weren't close, like before. They were arguing ideologies about human casualties because apparently the older one pressured the sharpshooter into taking that shot. I doubt they would have lasted long in a partnership, so there's no vendetta to pursue like the older one had. He didn't seem too broken up about the guy being killed, angry on principle more than anything. After hearing the older one didn't give a damn about people caught in the crossfire, the sharpshooter practically let me kill him. After that, we had a talk about sides. He's helping humanity his way, I'm helping my way without hurting anyone. As long as he doesn't come after me, and he doesn't start disregarding human life like the other one did, we won't have a problem, and he shouldn't have any reason to come after me because I'm not hunting people."

Once again she was displaying that cold indifference that could put Levi off with how flippantly she discussed some of the things she did. At least now he knew it was a defense mechanism, a way to cope with the heavy topics that weighed more on her than the average person with how deeply she felt everything. So he let go of his concern about how casually she was discussing killing one man and letting another live.

She softened slightly, which helped Levi relax a bit listening to her. "Besides...he wasn't a bad kid. Just got tangled in a mess he didn't understand. He's got heart, and he could help protect humanity in the shadows so long as he's pointing the end of his rifle at the right people. And now he knows to make sure he's targeting threats, not just vampires. That's pretty damn rare in vampire hunters, if this encounter stuck with him."

She was still leaving something out. He didn't think this was enough to convince her to let him live, there had to be more to it than this, something she wasn't telling him for whatever reason. "Why are you so sure he's going to rethink his position on vampires? That he won't hunt you anyway?"

"Because the reason he hesitated, is because the only thing I gave a damn about, the questions I asked the older one before killing him, was if he even cared or gave a damn about the fact that he'd shot you instead of me. I only cared that someone else had gotten hurt when it was supposed to be me. And the difference between the two was that the sharpshooter was furious you got caught in the crossfire after the older one pushed him to take the shot, and the older one didn't give a damn."

Him. The difference had to do with him. He was the deciding factor, their 'common ground.' They'd been able to come to an agreement based on the fact both of them had been concerned about Levi getting caught in the crossfire...and the hunter seeing Y/N cared only about Levi's safety and what happened to him had made the hunter open his eyes a little more in that chat of theirs.

Considering nothing had happened while he was unconscious, so far their conversation seemed to have worked. And, in an odd way, hearing these little bits of information...the sharpshooter, even though he was the one that shot Levi, was the only reason Levi was alive. He got sloppy when the older one pressed him, which allowed Levi to catch the glint of the sun on the metal in the woods. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known the shot was coming, he wouldn't have been able to shield Y/N from it and she'd most likely be dead.

"Speaking of..." Y/N said, pulling Levi from his musings as the entire tone of the conversation suddenly shifted, and she turned to look at him with a clearly angry expression. Not at all a look he'd been expected to be fixated with, especially at this particular moment. "That's something we haven't talked about--the stunt you pulled that almost got you killed, or at the very least, turned."

The anger burned in her eyes, voice sharp and a harsh frown crossing her face. He was taken aback for a moment by the complete switch in town, and the fact that she was angry about him saving her life. It made him prickle a bit to hear the accusing tone in her voice.

"That stunt is the only reason you're alive," Levi countered, mirroring her frown and meeting her gaze.

"You don't know that--you could have just warned me, I might have had enough time to react. Even just the slightest shift, it just has to barely miss and I would have been fine, even if it hurt like a bitch," she detailed, coming to stand at the foot of his bed, and planting her hands on the end of his bed as she leaned forward, eyes stormy. "I'm the one that's hard to kill. I don't want you risking your life like that, you don't have to. If someone's going to take those risks, then it should be me, not you."

"Compared to you, I'm the expendable one," Levi snapped back, some of the reflexive arguments for these arguments tumbling out of him before he could think twice about it. "You're far too valuable to the Scouts to risk--"

"This isn't about the Scouts, this is about..." Y/N cut him off sharply before she suddenly seemed to strangle herself into silence, hands up in the air as she let out a sound of frustration and turned away, shoulders hunched to show she was struggling with something even if he couldn't see her face.

"Then what is it about? Why is this suddenly such a problem?" Levi pressed, gaze boring into her back.

He asked, but he knew damn well why it was a problem. Or, at the very least, he had an inkling. It was the same reason he'd jumped in front of that stake in the first place, and it had nothing to do with the Scouts--the Scouts had been the last thing on his mind when he did it. He could spout rhetoric about who was more important and the logical thing to do all he wanted, but they both knew that wasn't why when they got down to the heart of the matter, and that was what bothered her.

He didn't know how to say it, though, so he was hoping she might.

"I don't want you thinking you have to protect me, I don't want you to get killed trying to protect me from something that I probably would have survived, I..." She turned slightly, hands gripping the arms that were once more wrapped around her, her eyes cast low as she turned just enough he could make out the side of her face. "I don't want you getting hurt on my account. I should be the one protecting you, all things considered. When you get hurt like this, I..."

Her fingers tightened, digging into her arms as her eyelids lowered, lips pursed. He kept waiting for her to say something else, but she didn't, leaving him to believe she didn't really know what to say, either. They were both hopeless fools, then, weren't they? Someone had to make the first move, or he was going to go insane.

Levi sighed, and this time he was the one to look away, eyes cast off to the side, towards the nightstand. "So, you let the sharpshooter go because he has morals and you believe those morals will keep him from taking a second shot at you."

Y/N looked up at him, though Levi wasn't meeting her gaze yet, keeping his stare off to the side as she processed that he was providing the out for the awkward silence, and getting them back on track for the important conversation they had been in the middle of when she took a detour down sentimental lane. Her hands dropped away from her arms as she walked around the bed, taking a seat beside him with a look of vulnerability on her face that, for a moment, made him think she was going to pursue the topic they were both struggling to voice.

But no. This was a different vulnerability--this was someone seeking something from someone else.

As she sat beside his bed, she placed her arms slowly on the mattress in front of her, arms folded atop each other. She leaned forward, head bowed forward slightly as her thumbs stroked lightly across each other, her frown growing more prominent as she worried this one thought over and over in her mind.

"...do you think I made the right choice?" she asked in a low whisper. "I didn't want to kill him, I didn't feel like I had to. I wanted to let him keep doing his job protecting people from my kind, and I don't have anything against him. I'm just scared of what he could do...but...is that enough to kill someone? If I set the bar too low, what's stopping me from killing more people in the future, people who probably didn't deserve it."

Her hands laced together in a grip that turned her skin white around the pressure points. "I'm trying to wash blood off my hands...not add more to it."

She wanted reassurance. She wanted someone to tell her she made the right choice. Or rather, she needed the reassurance. This was eating away at one of the big struggles she had--her struggle with her humanity and how to keep it.

Hesitantly, Levi reached out and covered both her hands with one of his own, trying to give her a bit of physical reassurance in case his words fell short. Her thumbs stilled underneath his palm, and she looked up at him with a shy glance up through her lashes.

"What do you value more--your safety, or your humanity?" Levi asked. "You can't tell if a choice is right when you make it. You just go with the one you'll regret the least. What you're asking me...you should be asking yourself what you value more, and if your choice falls in line with those values."

Her eyes lowered to their hands, eyebrows starting to pull together as she contemplated what he was telling her. Her eyes softened, and he felt her thumb stroke along the inside of his palm, fingers twitching like she was thinking about holding his hand in return, but was stopping herself.

"You're right...I know what's more important. I have my misgivings, but I'd make the same choice again."

"Then you have your answer."

As productive as the conversation was, he could feel his fatigue encroaching once more, eyes heavy, feeling the urge to just lay down and sleep. He attempted to hear it, but she was already looking up at him with his comment, sharp eyes noticing the currently common look in his eyes that told her he needed to rest again.

"That's enough for today. Get some rest, Levi. Neither of us are going anywhere anytime soon. There's plenty of time to talk," she said quietly, getting to her feet and gently patting his hand before she helped him resituate so he was lying down properly on the bed once more. Once he was situated, admittedly grumpy about having to go back to sleep already but knowing by now there wasn't much he could do about his body still trying to recuperate and get back to normal energy levels, she pulled away and retrieved the bowl he'd honestly forgotten about, leaving the room to clean the small dinner mess while Levi slowly drifted off into a light sleep.

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

Levi refused to be stuck in this damn bed any longer than he had to be. As such, once he was awake long enough to have a meal and conversation before needing rest again, he started requesting that they work on building his strength back up so he could recover faster, and he would be able to actually move around more when he was finally released from the strict bed rest. There wasn't much he could do at first, mostly just leg lifts, sometimes with Y/N's assistance as he worked to build slowly get back to his usual strength. Once he was able to do the leg lifts comfortably on his own in the bed, Y/N helped him with small standing and walking exercises. At first, it was just helping him stand up from the bed and stay standing for longer and longer periods of time before he had to sit down and recuperate. When he could stand for a few minutes before having to sit down again, they started doing some very short walks around the confines of his quarters to get him up and moving, though he couldn't do much at first, and he didn't dare leave his quarters and risk getting spotted by someone. Rumors would fly if he was seen having problems walking around the halls, rumors that needed to be avoided simply on a moral basis, aside from the many other reasons. The long walks around Headquarters would have to wait until he was strong enough to walk around without drawing people's attention to his weakened state, which he was still a little ways away from. But, he was getting better faster than even Y/N had anticipated, had been ever since he woke up. Part of it was his stubbornness to push himself mixed with her moderating hand making sure he didn't push himself too far, allowing for a steady and rapid recovery. Erwin had started sending a bit of paperwork to keep him busy, which helped Levi with his push to stay awake for longer and longer periods of time.

Y/N was still staying in his quarters, sleeping on the couch so she was nearby if he needed assistance, but it wouldn't be long before she would be returning to her quarters and her usual routine. Soon he'd have made a full recovery.

Soon. He wasn't there yet. And he was still depending on her to do several of his usually mundane and routine tasks around his quarters. Like right now, how she'd gathered up the dishes from another short lunch--he'd graduated beyond just soup by now, thankfully, and she didn't have to help him sip his soup meals like she'd helped him sip water anymore--and was currently down in the mess hall cleaning and putting away dishes while Levi did a short walk around his quarters, trying to do some stretches along the way, eyes roaming around the quiet rooms while he moved around.

He came to a stop by the dresser where her sketchbook had recently migrated. She'd been using it a lot to kill the time, usually while Levi was asleep--she tended to close it as soon as he woke up so she could focus on him, so he knew she was drawing in it a lot, but he didn't know what she'd been drawing.

Not yet, anyway. And since he had a bit of time to himself and it was right there, he might as well finally take a little peak at what she'd been drawing.

Checking her sketchbook was becoming a habit of his, not that she'd complained--and he knew she had to know he occasionally took peaks, since she'd told him before his scent had been all over the sketchbook after he'd looked at it. And since she hadn't chastised him about him, he didn't feel guilty taking the occasional peak through the sketchbook. Especially now, since he knew it might give him a bit of insight about what was going on in her head right now.

He flipped open the sketchbook with care, leafing past the drawings he'd seen before and slowing down as he approached new ones, some from before Maria fell. There was one that was a drawing of the horizon beyond the wall, possibly from the vantage point of atop Wall Maria. When had she snuck off to do that?

Well, she did have a life outside him, as much as she'd been around the past few weeks--months, really, but especially these past few weeks while taking care of him.

There was another drawing of an eagle nest amongst the trees--probably one in the forest just outside HQ, one he could probably find if he took the time to look. More horse drawings, focusing on different parts of the horse--it seemed she was practicing the anatomy.

He found her recovery period when he stumbled across a sketch she'd done of a few of the refugees, three kids huddled together sitting on the ground, one asleep, one acting as a lookout of sorts, and the other stewing in their own thoughts. It wasn't a detailed one, more of a quick sketch--what had possessed her to stop and capture the scene?

It was rather obvious when he finally hit the stretch of time where he'd been unconscious after being attacked. The theme of her drawings switched from her observations of the world and a wide array of scenes...to a series of drawings focused on him. There were a couple that were things someone could see outside his windows, and one drawing of the entire bedroom from the vantage point of someone sitting in a chair pushed up against the wall opposite his bed, but even then, he was lying in the bed in that drawing, he was still part of the scene.

Those breaks in focus of her drawings were few and far between, though. Almost every drawing was some aspect of him. There was one that was a careful rendition of his face while he slept, hair falling into his eyes, head sinking into the pillow, lips parted. One was his profile in the bed from behind, waist up--though it was a little depressing and a reminder to the reality of that stretch of time that she'd included the bandages wrapped around his body, and the darkened stain growing on the upper part of the bandages as his wound started to bleed through--she must have changed his bandages not long after the drawing, or maybe stopped mid drawing to change them but still kept it as part of the original scene.

A few she'd actually labeled 'anatomy practice' up in the corner, as if for his benefit while he looked through to placate him about the amount of detail he gave to the curves and muscle definition of his upper body in those drawings. Oh yes, she was well aware that at some point he was going to go through these drawings, and apparently felt the need to defend herself about how much attention she was giving to his body.

It was a damn good thing she wasn't in the room while he was looking at the 'anatomy practice' images, because he could feel the heat in his cheeks as he imagined how intently she must have been staring at--studying him.

Well...he knew she was watching him closely, now.

Between all the studies of profiles, anatomy, features, all the different angles and lighting she drew him in...there were drawings that revealed a...darker part of what was going on in her mind while she waited for him to recover.

The first he found was jarring. He turned a page from a simple image of him asleep in bed and it was just his eyes on the page, staring back at him with agony etched into every line. There was a slight haze over them, the haze of a dimming mind. Maybe he was projecting onto the image because he knew exactly what moment she was drawing this captured drawing of his eyes from, maybe it wasn't that detailed, or maybe his insight made it easier to tell what emotions were trapped in those eyes. And her strokes were different, too--there were places where it was unnecessarily dark, where she'd pressed a little too hard into the paper, in a couple places causing the start of an indent but pulling back just before she could break through. There were places with thick lines because she kept drawing over and over it, absentmindedly, like she wasn't all there as she drew this particular outline of a feature. It was almost like she hadn't fully been paying attention, hadn't entirely realized what she was drawing until halfway through--it felt unfinished, like she'd started to draw surrounding features, the full nose, hair in the eyes, the sides of his face, but she'd realized what she was drawing and stopped, made herself move on.

That wasn't the only drawing like that. There was one with a prone figure lying on the ground, a simple line drawing of a figure, blood pooling on the floor, the outline of blood on the clothes--she'd started to fill in details before abandoning that one, too.

Lips with a trail of blood out the corner of the mouth and blood bubbling past the bare part, a shattered window with curtains billowing in an unseen wind...

These kinds of more disturbing drawings were scattered between the softer ones, like her mind had wandered too far, into dangerous waters she didn't want to be in but existed in her mind nonetheless. What happened was haunting her more than she'd initially let on. Of course she'd admitted that she'd been afraid he was going to die, but...she hadn't given him reason to suspect this extent of a mark left on her by what happened.

They'd brushed on the topic, but they hadn't said enough for him to realize just how deeply it really had scared her. She'd been scared he was going to die, that she'd lose him, or that he'd...he'd turn into a vampire.

That reality hadn't really settled in his mind. Twice now. It had been twice that he'd almost died and she'd run the risk of turning him to save his life. Both times she'd been successful, but they never talked about what would happen if she couldn't pull him back from the brink, if in trying to save him...she turned him.

What would that mean, for both of them? Was that an outcome he could live with? That she could live with, given how afraid she'd been in both instances that he would die and turn? Clearly she didn't want to turn him even in the process of trying to save his life, she wanted to keep him human, which made sense. But if this had already happened twice...

The door opened, and Levi instinctually closed the sketchbook, even though he was aware Y/N would be able to hear him close it, would know he'd been looking through it. But while he knew he had permission to peak because she hadn't stopped his peaking yet, that didn't mean he was comfortable with being caught peaking through her sketchbook.

Still, in his current state, he didn't have time to move away before she was at the door of his bedroom, and he was still looking down at the sketchbook as he chewed on what he wanted to say now that she was here.

As if sensing the seriousness in the air, she paused in the doorway, a hand on the doorframe. "Levi?" she asked carefully, her gaze heavy on Levi's profile by the dresser.

Instead of commenting on the darker images, he found himself speaking up about this recent train of thought.

"If something ever went wrong while you were trying to save me...and I turned...what would you do?" Levi asked quietly. A heavy silence lingered in the air between them, one that stretched on and on before Levi looked up, worried about her silence on the matter.

She was certainly caught off guard by the question, and there was a darkness in her eyes at the suggested scenario, however real of a possibility it was. Her grip had tightened on the doorframe, and an old sadness seemed to be settling into her posture and expression.

"I'd...I'd made sure you had the freedom of choice I didn't have. And I'd comply and assist with whatever you chose. Whether that was acting as the guide I needed back then, or it was helping you get ready for..."

She paused, not wanting to say it even in this imagined scenario. Still, the strength she demonstrated in nearly promising that if he woke up in transition into a vampire, and decided he didn't want it, that he would rather die...she'd let him, and she'd be there to help him prepare for the eventual end.

Morbid, but also showed a strength most people didn't have when it came to respecting another's choice. She could just as easily say she would make sure he had a smooth transition, that his time as a vampire wasn't as difficult in the beginning as it had been for her. Instead, she stayed open to the possibility that he might not want it, that he might rather take death than vampirism. Her openness to that possibility made him believe a bit more firmly that she really would respect whatever decision he made in that kind of situation.

Then again, she didn't get a choice. That had been one of the first things she'd told him and Erwin when they found out she was a vampire--that she was robbed of her choice, because it was done to her, and because nothing was explained to her, she didn't understand she had a decision between vampirism and death, a choice she could have made if she'd been aware of it.

If that were to happen to him, she wanted him to have the choice she didn't get, even if she didn't agree with what he chose.

Her gaze wandered down to the sketchbook in front of him, a knowing glint in her eyes. "Where did that come from?" she asked, gaze raising back to Levi.

"I was just thinking about what happened. How close it was." He pushed away from the dresser he'd been holding himself up by with one hand, shuffling the short distance back to his bed and letting out a small sigh of relief as he sat on the edge. He looked back up at her, a seriousness in his eyes as he held her gaze, trying to make his expression be open enough she would know how much he meant what he was saying. "I'm sorry I made you go through that...but I'm not sorry for protecting you."

"I still believe I should be the one protecting you," she said quietly.

"Just agree we look out for each other, and it will make things easier for both of us," Levi said bluntly. She seemed to concede to that point, at least for now, and Levi nodded, gaze roaming over her current state. "Speaking of assistance with vampirism..."

She looked exhausted, maybe a little thin--as in stretched too thin. Worn out, rough around the edges. Definitely paler than normal. She wasn't shifty, but maybe that was because of all the close proximity, she'd just figured out how to deal with it for now.

"When was the last time you fed?" he asked her, sharp eyes watching her reaction. If he'd been stuck in here for weeks, than she was past-due time for another feed, and she certainly hadn't mentioned anything to him--and he highly doubted she fed off him while he was in those first two, two and a half weeks of recovery where he'd either been unconscious, or only conscious for fleeting moments.

It had been too long. She needed to feed, and nothing she could say would change his mind. He knew her routine by now, and she was past time she should have fed again.

She gave him an accusing stare, straightening in the doorway. "I am not feeding off you while you're trying to recover. You need all your strength."

"Then what do you plan to do? I know you need it, it's been too long since you last fed from me," Levi countered, raising an eyebrow as if he'd just proved his point.

"I'll go back into the Underground, just this one time. It won't kill me to hunt again to scrape by," she said, though they both were able to feel his protest building as soon as she said Underground.

"No. You're not going back down there, not when I can't help if something goes wrong again. My blood's fine, it's my stamina that needs rebuilding," Levi argued, and Y/N scoffed.

"We both know what happens when I feed off you--it weakens you, even if you put on a big show of trying to make it seem otherwise," she accused.

"Then just take a little over the next few days, not all at once. Don't risk going into the Underground again. Aren't you the one who pointed out we've been unnecessarily risky lately?" Levi countered, starting to feel irritated about how much she was resisting his suggestion.

He could have suggested she ask if Hange would be willing to donate just this once, since Hange was officially in the loop and aware of what Y/N was, but a selfish part of him didn't want anyone else to be experiencing what he felt when she fed from him, just him. Which was why he kept quiet on that alternative, trying instead to convince her to take from him.

She moved to stand in front of him on the bed, looking like she was about to try and scold him like a child. "It'll hurt your recovery."

"Worst case scenario, I'll be weaker for a day if you took all that you need right now. If you only take some, maybe I just tire out faster for a while. It's not like it's going to set me back weeks or kill me. Unless you suddenly lost all sense of control while you were sitting in here with me day after day," Levi finished with a twinge of sarcasm in his voice.

She made a noise of frustration in her throat, lowering herself towards him and reaching out to brush some of the hair from his face, her face inches from his for a few heartbeats. His breath caught, and for one wild moment as he sat paralyzed in front of her, he thought she might try to kiss him.

"Stubborn fool," she chastised him before tilting her head to the side and lowering her lips to his throat. He felt her fangs pierce his throat, and in a reaction completely opposite to the first time she'd bitten him, he felt himself relax in response, a soft sigh escaping him as his head leaned back and his eyes closed.

Her other arm brushed against his side as it planted into the bed behind him, and she leaned forward, pushing him backwards until he fell back on the bed, Y/N coming with him even if she had to release herself from his neck for a second as she crawled after him, hovering over him on the bed. He leaned his head to the side, into hers as his eyes cracked open, breathing her in deeply as he felt the familiar pull on his blood as she drank deeply from him. His hand reached out to tangle in her hair and hold her to his neck, the other wrapping across her back as he gazed at the curve of her ear and the small corner of her face and neck he could see while she was feeding from him.

I care about you. So let me take care of you, let me protect you when I can. If you're going to be so insistent on protecting me, if you're going to take care of me like you have in my embarrassing moments of weakness without comment...let me at least try to do the same for you. It's the best I can do, returning the favor. I don't know what else to do to try and show you...except...find excuses to be in your presence, like I've been doing. This is the least I can do for you.

She drank deeply from him, enough that he thought she was just going to take everything she needed now instead of pacing herself, that perhaps her control to stop early slipped with how long it had been and how much she needed it right now. The air around them relaxed and warmed, the entire mood shifting from the argument about each other's safety they'd just had in favor of the mix of feelings moments like these made them feel, of the heat and the pull and the closeness to one another.

He'd just caught a low moan at the heat that seemed to rush through him with the current intimacy of the moment when she suddenly pulled away from his neck, one of her hands covering the bite mark to staunch any bleeding as she pulled back to look him in the eyes, catching the expression on his face. The hooded eyes, lips parted, relaxed expression, the slightest flush in his cheeks--and it looked like she had a bit of a flush as well, a bit of blood lingering on her lips as a thousand thoughts flashed through her eyes. She licked her lips to get rid of the physical evidence of what she'd just done--besides a red glimmer in her eyes--and let herself search his expression for a few moments.

"What were you going to tell me? Before Maria fell," she asked, a slight breathlessness in her voice, not showing any sign of pulling away yet.

Any flush that was about to disappear as he tried to calm down after that sudden feed returned full force, heating his cheeks as he thought about his clumsy handling of trying to tell her how he felt before the wall fell. Was now the time for that? Would she believe him if he said it now, or would she think it was just because of how her feeding off him made them both feel? Would she write it off? Did she feel the same way? He had reasons to think she did, but he could be wrong, he didn't actually know, and whenever it came to a moment like this, he couldn't help but think that the feelings might not be reciprocated, that he was fooling himself, no matter how much the evidence seemed to say otherwise.

Embarrassed at the current subject and his inability to communicate this one damn thing properly, and unsure if he could ever find the right words, he looked away from her intense stare, trying desperately to think of a way to show her if he didn't want to embarrass himself again and stumble over his words like he had last time.

Well...there was the one thing she kept doing for him when he woke up the first time. That had felt...well, it was something that was comforting, reassuring, and warm, and he felt like there was more than just friendship and camaraderie in it. Maybe he could start there.

Hesitantly, he reached out to let some of the strands of hair falling in her face fall over and between his fingers, reaching further back to try and brush the hair behind her hair. His less-practiced hands made the tender touch a bit gruffer than he'd intended, fingernails scratching against her cheek, and one of his fingers getting caught unexpectedly in a knot of hair that made him curse inwardly as he desperately untangled his fingers as fast as he could, dying a little on the inside at how clumsy the action ended up being as he had to catch the strands that had pulled free in the fumble and tuck them behind her ear separately. Now his cheeks were definitely burning, his ears too, but at his point he couldn't back out. Instead of pulling away entirely, he let his touch linger, fingers brushing against her cheek and jaw as he forced himself to look her in the eyes. That way...that way hopefully she could see the vulnerability and tender care he was trying to display in an unfortunately clumsy way.

She held still while his fingers struggled with her hair, not pulling back and letting her eyes search his in the suddenly painful silence as Levi's heart raced, waiting to see what she would make of the silent reaction he'd provided in place of a verbal answer, to see how she would react, what she would think.

"Can I kiss you?"

He was pretty sure his heart just fucking stopped, sure he must have heard her wrong with that serious, curious look in her eyes that didn't match how outlandish that sounded.

Well, maybe not outlandish. He'd been thinking of kissing her that one night in the hall. He just hadn't thought she would ask him so directly right now--though that was certainly preferable to all the dancing around the subject they'd been doing. Kissing her could certainly clear a few things up.

She looked at the wide eyed shock he was staring at her in after her proposal, and she tried to hastily retreat, afraid she must have overstepped some unspoken boundary they'd been flirting with.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...that was inappropriate, stupid of me, I just--" she started to babble, body starting to pull away from his own.

Before she could get too far away, he used what minimal remaining strength he had to lift himself partially off the bed towards her, hand reaching out so his fingers could tangle roughly in her hair and pull her head back down into him, lips pressing roughly against hers in a hasty kiss--hasty only because he'd been afraid she was about to pull away before she could kiss him, so he'd just rushed himself.

She pulled away in shock of the sudden motion, staring at him with wide eyes as they gazed at each other with pounding hearts and flushed cheeks, breathing heavy. Before he could think he was about to get rejected--which would have just confused the hell out of him considering she'd just asked to kiss him--she came back in to crash her lips against his in a return kiss, one he was all too happy to return as relief rushed through him that she wasn't pulling away.

It was like the cork had been pulled in both of them, releasing a painfully built up pressure between them both that now crashed together. It was probably a little more forceful than it should have been, both of them pressing roughly against the other in their eagerness, sometimes missing the mark just so as they each turned their heads this way and that, trying to find the right angle, the right pressure, the right spot, like two kids fumbling through a first kiss in a rush because they only had minutes before someone spotted them, or they were just too impatient to finally be here, not even realizing they'd wanted to be here this badly.

Her hands slid along the curve where his jaw met his neck, comfortingly warm as they cradled his face close to hers, his own hands tangling deeper into her hair and gripping tightly to her hip as his arm tightened around her waist.

They both gasped for air between shifts in position, lips breaking mostly away for a quick breath of air before crashing together again, uncaring if it was just the corner of the other's lips, or just the bottom or top lip they managed to catch in the process, they just wanted to keep this rush flowing through them going.

Or maybe that rush was the lack of air going to their heads.

Either way, for a first kiss that showed neither of them really knew what they were doing, it was rushed, hot, forceful, like if they pressed a bit harder it would answer another question. At one point, Y/N whimpered lightly into his mouth, and a split second later he felt a quick, shallow cut on his lips as her fangs, peaking through in the heat of the moment, nicked him. He flinched slightly, but didn't break the kiss, especially as her tongue swept across the cut to lick away any blood, sending a shiver down his spine at the sensation.

He could have deepened the kiss after that, he partially wanted to, but he pulled away for more air, since their current limited supply was starting to make him dizzy. He gasped in quick, large breaths, hand still tangled in Y/N's hair as she pulled back to stare down at him, still hovering over him on the bed, eyes glimmering red not in need since she'd just fed, but intense emotion, as she'd once defined it.

They were both catching their breath, staring at each other on the bed, his thumb brushing gently against her cheek, which caused her to lean into the motion, eyes warm as they stayed locked with him, both of them processing what just happened.

"Holy shit."

Both of their eyes widened, Levi freezing in place before his head snapped to the side to see Hange standing in the doorway with his nightly delivery of paperwork to get done by tomorrow night, no doubt here to pick up today's paperwork for Erwin, as well. Y/N would have left the door open when she returned from washing the dishes in anticipation of her arrival, and she certainly hadn't anticipated this turn of events, and the need to lock the door must have slipped her mind entirely with everything they were discussing and how quick it was all happening--that or she'd been a little too confident she'd hear any approaching intrusions before the kiss happened and claimed all her attention.

Hange was frozen in place, eyes wide at the scene she'd at least partially witnessed. Y/N must have been far too wrapped up in what was happening to hear her coming, and Levi sure hadn't noticed, which he was deeply regretting right about now as he shot up fast enough he almost threw Y/N off him in the process with eyes burning in sudden anger at the intrusion. He wished he had the strength to chase after and murder her right about now, or at the very least that he had something to fucking throw!

What do you know, the pillow was in reach. And as soon as he realized that, it was sailing through the air to plant firmly in Hange's shocked face with enough force the woman was actually sent reeling back a step or two.

"GET THE FUCK OUT, FOUR-EYES!"