Chapter Text
*Disclaimer: I don't own any of the canon characters or the world they belong in. This is for non-profit entertainment only.
The crunch of snow under their feet and the howl of the wind forced the captain to pitch his voice louder so that the woman just ahead of him could hear him. "Why are we out here?"
It was a rhetorical question. He knew why they were out there, he just still didn't understand the logic behind how they were conducting this venture.
Hange looked back at him. "We went over that already. There's an abandoned supply tower somewhere in these parts. We're going to need as many weapons and supplies as we can find."
Her next words were nearly lost in the wind, and the half-mask she wore under her furred hood for protection from the elements further muffled her voice. "...money cache, too."
"What?"
He sped up his pace to get closer to her. They'd left their horses in the sheltered stables next to a worn out, abandoned shed. The place was once used as a camping waypoint and resource storage. The direction they needed to travel from the waypoint was too treacherous for the horses, hence the decision to go on foot from there.
"I said that there could even be a money cache, according to the old inventory paperwork I found. We could use more of that, too."
"But you don't know for certain." Levi stopped, looking around at the snow and wind-swept path they were on. They were heading for the base of the mountain. He narrowed his eyes against the chill, trying to peer further into the distance. "I think it's a waste of time, Hange. Why the hell didn't you just send a scouting party out here to investigate?"
"Because they'd have probably gotten lost," came her answer. She stopped too and adjusted her goggles. Her eyesight wasn't as keen as Levi's—even less so now since she only had one good eye to see with.
"Could have brought Sasha with us, at least. She'd know this area."
Hange turned to face him. "Sasha is still recovering from her injuries. I'm not dragging her out into this. Our goal right now is to confirm whether this tower is still standing and if it has any supplies left in it. Once we've done that, we'll mark the way and send a transport party out to collect."
"If the damned tower has anything to collect," he grumbled, "and if we find it."
"Levi, I'm doing my best. Our manpower is at an all-time low, we need weapons and materials, and going into titan territory to get that right now isn't an option. We're both able-bodied and experienced enough to do this ourselves, and you aren't a deskwork kind of guy. Since when do you thumb your nose at doing a little legwork?"
"I'm just not thrilled about you being out here." He snapped his mouth shut immediately.
"Me? Why not?" Hange blinked at him.
"Because you're the commander now, idiot. You're also our titan expert. If we lose you, troop morale is going to be even more screwed than it already is. You shouldn't take careless risks."
For a moment, anger flashed in Hange's good eye, making it's color appear a brighter shade of russet. It faded within seconds, and her gaze softened on the captain. "You can't keep me wrapped up like china wear, Levi. After all we've been through, after the sacrifices Erwin made, you know better than most that a good commander has to take risks."
"Not for the hope of a few broken weapons and stale food supplies," he retorted.
"Are you finished, grump?" She put her gloved hands on her hips.
"Tch. Come on. Let's get this over with."
He trudged on ahead, almost petulantly. His body was tense. There weren't any titans in this area, and yet Levi's senses were on alert. Something besides frustration was causing his adrenaline to run high. The captain looked around with narrowed gray eyes again, and he spotted something in the distance that caught his attention.
"Oi, over there." He pointed to the north, where the foot of the mountains loomed. Something was at its base. He could see the crooked, column-shaped structure peeking out amongst the frozen trees, rising just above them.
Hange came up beside him to look. She pulled out a spyglass and held it up to her eye. "I think that's it, Levi! You found it!"
"Don't get too excited yet." He held his hand out. "Let me borrow that spyglass."
She handed it over, and Levi employed his ODM gear to take to the branches of a nearby tree. Finding a perch on a sturdy one, he crouched low and balanced himself. He looked through the spyglass to make sure he hadn't just mistaken a jutting rock formation or broken tree for a man-made structure.
"It's a tower, all right," he called down to his companion. "It looks like your hunch was correct; at least about it still being here. Whether it's actually your supply tower or not remains to be seen."
"There's only one way to find out," she crowed enthusiastically. "Let's hurry!"
Levi came back down from the tree, and he handed her spyglass back to her. Hange took off immediately, hurrying across the open field between them and their goal. Levi followed her. He was just about to tell her to slow down when he heard an ominous crack. It had come from up ahead where his commander was at. The captain looked down, squatted and brushed aside some of the snow with his hand.
It wasn't a snow-covered field they were crossing to get to that tower.
"Hange," Levi shouted, straightening back up. "Get back! It's a lake, and the ice is—"
The ice cracked further, opened up and swallowed her whole like a titan before Levi could finish hollering his warning. Hange's surprised yelp was all he heard from her before she vanished with a frigid splash.
"Hange! Shit...!"
He looked around, and he acted quickly. He anchored his gear hooks into the unbroken ice, and he took a running dive. Sliding over the snow-crusted surface with his wires trailing behind him, he plunged in head-first after his imperiled commander. The water hit him like knives. He nearly expelled the breath he'd taken before submerging when the shock of freezing cold hit him.
...He couldn't see anything...
Levi searched around blindly, hoping there wasn't a current that might have carried Hange too far away already. His knuckles scraped against ice when he reached up, thinking she might have floated back up.
He was under ice. Somehow, the hole he'd dove in through wasn't above Levi's head anymore. He looked up through the murky water, searching for light. It was dim due to the overcast skies and the glassy ice distorting it, but he could see it. He swam towards it, still searching around for any sign of Hange. A hand...a foot...anything. He'd haul her out by the hair if he had to.
He was losing breath, and his limbs were getting heavy. Levi tried to find the break in the ice so that he could take another breath, but all he kept finding the barrier of ice, instead. They were both going to die, and the Survey Corps would be leaderless. Worse yet as far as Levi was concerned, Erwin's vision would die with them.
Something grabbed him, and Levi impulsively struggled against it out of reflex. He realized it was Hange when her chilled, pale face came into blurry view, inches from his own. She grabbed his hand, and they started to rise through the water. Hange placed his hand on something—he could barely feel it—and he realized it was one of his gear wires. He grabbed it as tightly as he could. Levi and Hange used the wires to guide them to the exit hole, kicking and pulling their way along.
They broke through the water at the same time, and Levi pushed at Hange's back from behind to help her out of the water. She in turn grabbed his hands once she was on the surface of the ice. Only when she pulled Levi out practically on top of her did Hange draw a ragged, choked breath. They both rolled onto their sides and coughed up icy water. It took several moments for both scouts to catch their breath and recover enough to speak.
"Alright," rasped Levi, frigid puffs of cloud rising from his bloodless lips, "screw...the tower. Can't...get to it...in this...condition."
Hange's teeth were chattering, and her voice stuttered. "C-c-couldn't...agree more."
"Shelter," gasped Levi. "Back to...the shack."
"W-w-we c-can w-w-warm up there," came her unsteady response.
"Grab...onto me."
Hange looked at him, reminding Levi of a half-drowned hawk. Her drenched hair was already going stiff with ice.
"Do it," he urged. His eyeballs were going to freeze, he thought. So would his whole face, for that matter. If people thought he lacked facial expressions before, they might soon mistake him for a statue.
Hange grabbed hold of Levi's coat, crawling half on top of him with a groan as he rolled onto his stomach. He tried to reach his gear triggers, but his hands were stiff and his position awkward. Hange caught on, and she operated them for him.. They slid across the ice back toward the bank of the frozen lake where Levi had anchored himself before jumping in.
"W-whee," Hange sputtered huskily. "S-sledding on a...midget-t-t."
"Shut up," Levi snapped.
The slide back across the ice hadn't done them any favors in the body warmth department, but it did get them there more quickly and reduced the chance of falling through the ice again. He freed his anchors and reeled his wires back in, grimacing at the screeching sound they made. Exposure to the ice water had made them stiff. He'd have to oil them whenever possible to avoid having them snap on him the next time he needed to use them.
The pair dragged themselves to their feet, helping each other on the way. They began a hobbling trek back to the supply shack and stable. It was an uphill journey, and several times the pair had to push each other to keep going. Their prodding insults to each other lacked fluidity. With Hange's teeth chattering and Levi struggling to breathe the cold air, it was all they could do to speak at all.
"Hah...Oi, Commander Shit-glasses...don't sit...down now."
"Hey-y-y, Captain Cr-r-ranky, y-you're lagging behind!"
Back and forth it went between short breaks to try and warm up by jogging or hopping in place. By the time they made it to the shelter, they were huddling together for warmth and struggling to put one foot in front of the other. Hange tried the door leading into the shack, using both shivering hands to try and lift the latch.
"Stuck," she grunted.
"Move."
Hange stepped aside, having seen Levi's effective yet destructive method of opening locked or jammed doors. Levi took a quick breath and forced his muscles into action. It felt like needles shooting through his leg when his frozen boot struck the wood. It shivered, but held.
"You're shitting me," he rasped. The damned thing was half rotten. It should have shattered into a million splinters.
"W-wow," breathed Hange, wide-eyed. "Hypothermia m-must really be g-getting to you."
"I'll get...it open," vowed the captain angrily. His eyes narrowed to slits, and he prepared to do it again.
"Wait, L-Levi." Hange slapped an ice-crusted, gloved hand over his thigh to stop him. "Maybe w-we shouldn't...break it t-t-to pieces. It can k-k-keep the c-cold out if it's...whole."
"Then what?"
"W-we try it t-t-together."
He nodded frigidly, and he swore he saw tiny icicles on his own bangs. "On three."
They counted together in short, clipped tones. Gripping the latch hand over hand together, they combined their efforts. It gave with hardly any resistance, and the door flew open inwards with both scout's weight leaning against it. Levi managed to twist his body so that Hange landed on top of him, breaking her fall but knocking what little breath he could draw from him.
"Sorry!" Hange got off of Levi with effort, and she crawled to the door. She started to push it shut, but when the interior of the shack was cast in darkness, she left it partly open for light. "Levi, y-you okay?"
"Yeah," he groaned. His earlier kick must have un-stuck the latch, but neither of them had considered that.
They'd come there expecting to have to camp for the night, so the place was already inspected and prepped. They brought in rations and blankets from their saddle bags, along with a few other things they might need. There was still some firewood stored in the stables, dry enough for use. Slim though the chances were that the tower hadn't been plundered since the last inventory papers were drawn up on it, at least Levi could say they'd prepared well for this mission. What they hadn't anticipated was that fall through the ice.
"I'll get a fire...started," declared Levi. "You strip."
"Wha...?" Hange's good eye went wide with startled confusion.
"Take your...clothes off. We've both gotta get...out of this wet shit." Looking at the bars hanging from the ceiling over the fireplace, Levi now understood their purpose. "We'll hang them...over the mantle to dry."
"Oh."
Levi started to stack kindling and wood in the fireplace, and when he noticed Hange hadn't moved yet, he affixed her with a bruised gray stare. "Do you want to freeze to death out here? Get out of those clothes and under a blanket."
"R-right."
Hange started to strip, and Levi concentrated on the fireplace, keeping his eyes on what he was doing. He hadn't expected a person like Hange to be modest. Not that Levi would have leered at her, seeing as he wasn't some sleazy pervert. He tried to ignore the bone-chilling cold he felt, and once he had the wood stacked to his satisfaction, Levi worked on getting it lit. He had to pause to take his gloves off and warm his hands a bit, rubbing them together and huffing into his palms. His shaking eased up just enough for him to get the oil cloth lit, and he used it to ignite the kindling.
"Got it," he announced, getting to his feet. He turned without thinking, and he saw Hange's pebbled, stripe-marked body in full. Levi's expression went completely blank, and his eyes swept his companion's form up and down.
He realized he was staring when Hange bent over to retrieve one of the folded winter blankets, giving him a full view of her backside. Tall and athletic, she didn't have a voluptuous figure. Hange was definitely a woman, though, and Levi had never noticed until now how long her legs were.
"Brrr," stated Hange as she shook out the blanket and wrapped it around her. She turned to face him, having freed her hair from its messy ponytail and removed her goggles. She still wore her goggles and eye patch; those and the commander's bolo tie were all she'd left on. Her clothes were in a dripping pile on the creaky floor.
"Uh, hang your clothes up here," suggested Levi, averting his gaze. "I'll shut the door and get undressed. Just work on drying off and warming up."
At least he could breath without feeling like his lungs were drawing in glass shards now. Levi closed the door firmly, and he peeled off his iced-up winter cloak first. He walked back over to the fire, where Hange was hanging up her cloths. She'd cleverly wrapped the blanket around her body and tucked it in like a towel to hold it in place. Levi found it a bit easier to concentrate now that Hange was covered from her bust to her feet.
There was no room for shyness or modesty. He kept that firmly in mind as Levi undressed down to his skivvies, put his boots beside the fireplace and hung his clothes. They were comrades in arms. They were on a mission. Just two fucked up veterans stuck together in a shack with a serious risk of hypothermia, frostbite and pneumonia. Priorities were priorities.
"Levi, aren't you going to take those off, too?"
He'd been standing there holding an inward conversation with himself. He hadn't realized how deep that conversation had become. He focused his lidded gaze on Hange, and he excused his behavior. "They'll dry."
"Yes, eventually," she agreed, eyeing the skimpy garment, "but faster if you hang them up."
He shrugged. "Just thinking of your modesty."
"Hah! My modesty? Sweetheart, if you're worried about exposing yourself to me, don't. Those skivvies aren't hiding a thing, wet and clinging to you as they are." Hange smirked, still inspecting his crotch area.
The captain looked down, and he saw what she meant. The undergarment did nothing to hide his goods. He could see the shadow of his pubic hair through the wet material. His genitals were so clearly outlined that he may as well be naked. Levi's cheeks warmed, and he tried to be nonchalant. With a shrug, he pulled the skivvies down and stepped out of them. With a deadpan expression on his face, he hung them up next to his winter socks. He was still shivering, his muscles jumping uncontrollably in an effort to get warm.
"I think I would have to classify you as an abnormal."
Levi gave a little start at the comment, and he speared Hange with "the look" that tended to send most people scurrying off for shelter. "Excuse me?"
Hange was tapping her lower lip in thought, looking him over like a prime specimen. She wasn't the least bit intimidated by his cold glare. "Hmm? Oh, it was a compliment, Levi. Lighten up! I just meant you deviate from the norm, is all."
"You think comparing me to a titan qualifies as a compliment? Think again."
"I wasn't really comparing you to a titan," she defended, spreading her hands. "Just using the term we've coined for the ones that stand apart from their brethren."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," snapped Levi, brows pinched. "Did your brain freeze out there, or what?"
"Not at all. I was talking about the way you're put together, Grump. Genetics short-changed you on height, but they clearly applied those inches to other...attributes. Say, does your gear harness cause you exceptional discomfort in the groin area? I imagine it has to, at times. No wonder you're so moody."
Levi's mouth fell open the slightest bit, his expression relaxing into one of disbelief over her brazen observations. She talked about him like he was one of her test subjects, like she was making mental notes about his body and trying to discover more. He wouldn't have described her talk as flirtatious, but with Hange, one could never be too sure. Science excited her. Levi thought it was the only thing she got off on.
"That's none of your business," Levi reprimanded curtly. "Are we finished talking 'Dick anatomy 101'? I'm fucking freezing."
In fact, Levi thought it was ironic that Hange seemed so impressed by his junk. He felt like it was trying to crawl back up inside him from the cold. He ignored the impulse to cover his groin, refusing to give shit-glasses the satisfaction of reacting to her inappropriate observations. He hugged himself instead, and he rubbed his arms and stepped closer to the fire, trembling.
Hange solicitously draped one of the other blankets over Levi's shoulders before he could do it himself. "There you go."
He tugged the blanket around him, and another shiver passed through his body. He put aside the weird conversation they'd had a moment ago. It was Hange, after all. Levi was used to hearing her spout off crazy bullshit at random.
"Thanks. We should eat and drink something warm."
"I agree. I'll look in the backpack for some nibbles, and you get some tea ready."
A short while later, they sat huddled by the fire together, eating a bland meal and sipping tea. Hange had used some of the dried soup powder mix from their rations to prepare a bone broth. Together with the dried field rations, it wasn't bad. They dipped the ration blocks in the broth to soften it up, and they drank the remaining liquid in their bowls once finished with the rations.
"Not exactly gourmet," said Hange with a burp, "but it fills the stomach."
Levi nodded, gazing into the fire. "It does. Nice work, Hange."
She put a hand over is forehead abruptly, and Levi flinched at the cold touch and shot a glare at her. "What are you doing?"
"Checking you for fever. It's not like you to praise my cooking."
"I'm not feverish," he grumbled, slapping her hand away.
"Then why is your face flushed?"
"It's chafed from the cold, all right? It just shows more on me 'cause I'm paler than you are."
"Hmm." Hange regarded him thoughtfully. "You do have a point. Your soft white skin has to be more sensitive to irritants and harsh conditions than other people's."
The captain's lids drooped. He gave her a flat stare. "Don't act like I'm some delicate flower petal, Hange. I've had more stinking hot titan blood splashed on me than anyone else in this gig, and I haven't melted."
"Of course not. You're quite the resilient little wrecking ball. You do have nice, soft skin though. It makes me wonder what you do to keep it so healthy and pliant."
Levi dropped his gaze. "It's called hygiene. See, I do this thing called washing my face on a regular basis. You should try it sometime. Anyhow if I didn't know better, I'd think you were feeding me pickup lines."
"Really?" Hange grinned. "I thought I was just paying a compliment to a friend. Can I help it if you've got some very noticeable, very nice genetic traits? Come to think of it, Mikasa has beautiful skin, too. It has to run in your clan."
"Bullshit," huffed Levi. "You saw my uncle Kenny when we were going up against him. The guy's face was porous as a sponge and rough as sandpaper."
"True, but people inherit different traits from their lineage. Two siblings from the same parents could look nothing alike. Kenny obviously inherited the height in the family. You got the beauty. Oh, and the big dick."
Levi coughed, his eyes widening briefly. "Shit, you don't know when to stop, do you?"
"Nope." There was a twinkle in her eye.
"Anyway, how do you know Kenny wasn't packing? It's not like you pulled down his pants in the fight."
"I choose to believe he was lacking in that department," Hange said with a shrug. "That guy had 'little dick' syndrome written all over everything he said and did."
Levi rolled his eyes. "Fine. So is this what we're gonna be doing all night? Talking about my skin and cock?"
"We could talk about other things." Hange sighed, and she adjusted the blanket around her. "But since we're stuck here, we may as well talk about something besides military matters, death and titans. Not that I mind discussing titans, but I know you're tired of that subject."
"All right, but let's drop the subject about dicks and skin care, shall we?"
Hange finished off her cup of tea with a nod. "All right, then. We can talk about other things."
Levi frowned. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well, we could play a little game. Let's call it: 'What do we like about each other'. Let's face it Levi, we're both very good at pointing out what we see as flaws, but we hardly ever offer sincere compliments."
"Let's play a different game," he grumbled.
"Oh no, you won't get off that easy." Hange bent her knees and locked her hands beneath them, rocking back and forth as she looked at him curiously. "Go ahead, Levi. Try to say something nice about me."
He looked at her expressionlessly, but Levi honestly was at a loss. As far as he was concerned, his insults should be enough to show his affection. Anyone that knew him understood that his crude put-downs were Levi's version of pet names. Hange actually had more nicknames than most. She was asking for a simple, plain compliment, though. Levi's mouth twitched with annoyance, and he struggled with himself.
"You're...smart."
Hange made a "tsk" sound that was almost like Levi's habitual sounds of annoyance. "You can't do better than that?"
The captain sighed. "You know I'm not good at this shit, Hange."
"Well, try harder. Break your own record. Isn't there anything positive about me you can say that isn't already commonly observed?"
It seemed really important to her. He didn't know why she was so determined to get compliments from him. It wasn't like he never...
Then it hit him. Winter had come tearing in with a vengeance, extremely early this year. Levi couldn't help but associate it with Erwin's death. He wasn't a poetic man, but Levi strongly felt that a light of hope had been mercilessly snuffed out, and now the world itself was in morning, plunged into premature cold and darkness. Coming up into the mountains where winter typically hit sooner, that impression was even stronger.
And yet, they were just into the month of September. Hange's birthday was coming up in a few days. Usually they would all do something together on their birthdays...the senior veterans, that was. Him, Erwin, Mike, Hange and Nanaba. It was a wordless tradition they'd started back when the bonds of hardship, conflict, triumph and tragedy drew them all closer together.
Now it was just Levi and Hange. Nobody else was left. That was why Levi had felt such panic when she fell through the ice, he realized. He didn't want to be completely alone, would have rather perished with her than be the last man standing of their band.
If he was honest with himself, he had selfish reasons for a lot of the things he excused as practicality. He'd let Erwin die because he didn't want to see him suffer in this hell they lived in any longer, not because Armin was the more logical choice, or because it would have been too tragic for him to die so young. He'd objected to Hange personally going on this mission to find the supply tower because he didn't want her risking a pointless death, that was true. It was also true that Levi didn't want to see her die. Selfishly, he wanted to be the one to go first.
"Come on, Levi," prompted Hange with a sigh. "You can't even think of one teeny little thing?"
He dropped his pensive thoughts, and he looked at her. If this was what she wanted as part of her birthday gift, then he would play along. Levi scanned her up and down, taking in her appearance.
For someone that had recently fallen through ice and nearly ended up as a Popsicle, Hange didn't look half bad. She was still paler than usual, but the fire had warmed them both up and put some color into their cheeks again. Her light olive complexion kind of glowed in the firelight, he thought. Her hair was almost dry now, and it fell loose to just below her shoulders. He hadn't realized it was that long; Hange never took it out of that damned messy ponytail and it concealed the length of it. The icy water must have cleansed it some, because Levi was noticing a luster he wasn't used to seeing. Usually Hange's hair looked a bit dull to him, with little to no sheen at all. He even thought it looked kind of brittle at times, but that was just the dirt and oil coating it, obviously.
"You really are bad at this," growled Hange. "Forget I—"
"Just give me a second, all right? Damn, I'll bet you were the kind of kid that peeked at your gifts on Christmas Eve 'cause you didn't have enough patience to wait."
Hange settled down, but she raised an expectant brow at him. She looked like she was getting offended.
"Your hair," he finally said, focusing on that first because it was the simplest thing. "It's...not bad."
She frowned. "Not bad? You hate my hair, though. Always complaining that it's smelly and tangled."
Levi shrugged. "That's because you never wash or brush it properly, but now that I'm seeing it after our dunk..."
He reached out slowly, almost afraid to touch it. Maybe it would fall out if he tugged on it. That ponytail of hers could be the only thing keeping those strands intact. Hange held still, watching him with anticipation and a little awe on her face. Levi touched a lock of it, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. Rather than pull it as he was wont to do on occasional impulse, Levi stroked it thoughtfully. Hange's hair had a slight wave to it when it wasn't so weighed down with grit and oil and god knew what chemicals. It was even soft, and it did have some shine.
"It looks good down," Levi told her, stroking the lock slowly and thoughtfully. He looked up from it at Hange's face. She was staring at him like she thought he was about to pull her hair, say something derisive or both.
"Frames your face," he went on, words tumbling from his lips in a near desperate attempt to pacify her need for compliments. He just spoke his immediate thoughts, choosing not to analyze them or censor them because he would just fuck it up if he tried that. "It's...soft. Makes me notice things about your features I overlook sometimes."
"Go on," she murmured. She leaned a little closer to him—possibly to see him better since she'd hung her goggles up when they ate. "What about my features, Levi? This should be interesting."
He leaned back a bit, suddenly uncomfortable in a very weird fashion. He released the lock of hair. "You've got a good face. Pretty eyes...er...eye, nice cheekbones, interesting nose. I uh, like the way it turns down a little at the tip. Reminds me of a bird beak."
Hange smirked. "I suppose how I take that depends on what kind of bird you mean."
"A hawk or a falcon," he said immediately. "It's got character."
"And my eyes are pretty?" Hange blinked. "I never knew you thought that."
"They're really expressive. Interesting color, too."
Hange smiled. "That is the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Levi. I know you're only saying it because I hounded you, but I appreciate you playing along to make me happy."
He felt his brows pull together. "What do you mean? You think I was bullshitting?"
Hange glanced off to the side, and she rocked again. "Not exactly. You were obviously trying hard to find something to compliment me on, so at least it made you really look at me. You never really thought of me as a woman though, did you? Maybe you even found me ugly—"
"You're not," Levi said, "ugly. I never thought so. Filthy yeah, but not ugly."
She smiled the tiniest bit at him. "Really?"
"Oi, I don't lie to my friends. If I say you're pretty, then you're goddamned pretty, all right?"
Hange gave a little start. "Whoo, you're actually mad, aren't you? Okay Levi. I'm pretty. Calm down."
"I'm serious, four-eyes."
"I know." Hange smiled at him. "And I won't contradict you again. So, is there anything else you like about my appearance?"
"Tch. You still want more?" He was tired from their ordeal, and Levi thought he might actually sleep for more than three hours tonight...if Hange would ever let him.
"Just one more," she pleaded. "One more for Commander Cyclops, and we can call it quits."
"I've only got so much in me in the way of praise, Hange. Let's see." An idea came to him then, and Levi reclined back with his elbows supporting him, stretching his legs out on the floor in a lazy, relaxed manner. He looked at Hange's exposed calves where the blanket had ridden up, and he decided some payback was in order.
"Say," Levi nodded at the long, toned forelegs meaningfully. "Do those go all the way up?"
Hange's eye went wide and shocked. "L-Levi!"
"What's the matter?" He kept his body relaxed, and he gave her a deliberately lascivious stare; the kind a lot of guys employed when they were trying to pick someone up. "Maybe I should warm you up. Looks like your cheeks are getting wind-chapped."
"No they aren't, I'm blushing!"
He dropped his facade, rolled his eyes and damned near laughed—or as close to it as he tended to get. "Heh, you idiot. You didn't even try to play it off."
"W-well that was very unlike you."
"You wanted another compliment." He sat up and shrugged. "I gave it to you."
"That was more like a proposition, and I don't mean the kind Erwin used to be so fond of spouting out in the middle of court proceedings."
"So, kind of like you describing my dick?" Levi smirked. He had her now.
Hange scratched her head. "That was...different. I was speaking from a scientific biological standpoint. You were acting like some sleaze in a tavern."
"You're the one that wanted me to check you out," he reminded evenly, enjoying himself a bit too much. "If you can talk about my dick, I can talk about your legs. Unless of course you would rather me focus on other body parts. We can play it that way, too."
Hange's mouth fell open, and then a wide smile split her face. She laughed raucously, and she pushed at him in a playful yet rough way. "You are still a bad boy, Ackerman."
He righted himself, focusing a hooded gaze on her. "Who the hell ever said I was good? Anyway, I've heard and seen enough sleazo's fire off lines like that at women in my life to know how to imitate them. Disgusting pigs."
"So I take it you aren't much for flirting," Hange observed dryly.
"Who's got the time? Anyway, given the current state of affairs and the average life expectancy of a scout, it doesn't make much sense to strike up a love affair. Erwin had it right when he told me he'd never marry. He said when soldiers in our line of work marry civilian women, they make widows out of them every time."
Hange stared down at her lap, now sitting cross-legged. "Good point. Depressing, but good point." She shivered and leaned over to grab up the extra blanket. "Brr. It's getting chillier in here."
"Yeah. The temperature's probably dropped by ten degrees outside since the sun went down. I'll go check on the horses."
"Don't stay out there long," warned Hange. "Especially barefoot with nothing on but a blanket. You'll freeze your little tootsies off."
"I'll be quick," he promised.
Levi was chilled again when he came back into the shack, and he hurried over to the rug on the floor in front of the fireplace to sit back down and warm his feet. Hange was sipping on something from her flask, and he eyed it suspiciously when she made a face and shivered.
"You aren't going to get drunk on me now, are you?"
"Hmm?" Hange swallowed the mouthful she'd just taken, then looked at the flask. "Oh, this. No, it's just brandy. Helps warm you up a little. Want some?"
"I'll pass." Levi tugged the blanket tighter around him. He grunted a little in annoyance when Hange cuddled up to him for warmth. "Just don't overdue it. Me and Erwin used to take bets on who snored the loudest after a night of drinking: you or Mike. Nanaba always stuck up for Mike"
Hange choked a little on her next pull, and she wiped her mouth. "Ah, the good old days." She capped the flask and put it aside. Hooking an arm with Levi's, she leaned close to him and put her head on his shoulder. "I miss them. All of them, not just our fellow veterans."
He almost nudged her off of him, but her warmth felt good, and her hair didn't stink like it usually did. Levi also empathized with her quiet, heartfelt statement. He patted the hand resting on his forearm, consoling her in his own reserved awkward way.
"Me too."
"The fire is starting to burn low," Hange announced, nodding at the flickering hearth. "Shouldn't we add more wood to keep it going?"
"I'll do it."
"No, wait...just stay here under the blankets with me," ordered the commander. "Now that I think about it, we shouldn't feed it. We're about to go to sleep, aren't we? It's better not to leave an un-tended fire blazing. It could throw an ember onto something and start a fire while we sleep."
Levi stopped reaching for the spare wood on the rack, glanced back at her and nodded. "Good point. I'd rather not get burned alive after nearly freezing to death. One extreme is enough for me."
Hange patted the space next to her, where they'd spread out the extra blanket over the rug. "Come reminisce with me for a while, then. Maybe we'll both get pleasant dreams out of it."
"Or nightmares," muttered the captain.
"Oh, don't be so pessimistic. Talking about the good times will relax us both and give us sweet dreams."
"If you insist."
Levi himself didn't like to talk about the past. Even recalling the good moments took him to a dark place, reminding him that they were done and over with, mere shadows of the past. He said nothing of this to Hange, though. This would be another part of her birthday gift. Levi decided that he would do three nice things for the commander for her birthday; one for each of their lost veteran comrades.
They talked in depth about the old days, reliving their recruitment into the scouts and the bonds they'd formed in the days to follow. Hange laughed quite a few times when a particular memory tickled her. Levi was more solemn about it. Before either of them knew it, they dozed off, leaning against each other.
It wasn't until the blanket cloaking Levi slipped off his shoulders that the captain jerked awake, roused by the chill against his bare skin. He frowned and peered around, gathering his bearings. The lingering glow of the dying embers and the low illumination of the glow lamp gave him enough light to see with. Recalling where they were, he glanced down at the messy dark head nudged against his left shoulder. Hange was snoring softly, steadily slipping. Soon she might fall face-first into his lap.
"Hange," Levi whispered. The moan of the wind, the nicker of one of the horses in the stable, and the creak of the shack lent a kind of haunted feel to their surroundings. He shivered, and he supported Hange with one arm while trying to tug his blanket back over his shoulders at the same time.
"Hange," he said again, giving her a little shake.
Her blanket slipped as well, and she stirred with a mumble, lifting her head groggily. "What time is it?"
"No idea. We should lie down and bundle up, though. I'm used to sleeping upright but you'll wake up bitching about a sore neck if you do it."
"I suppose." Hange yawned, and she lay down on the cushioning winter blanket with her back to the fireplace. She shivered and covered her head up. "Brr. I don't think my blanket's going to be enough for me, Levi."
Levi joined her side, tucking up under his blanket. "We'll just have to make due until morning. If we're going to make a second try for that tower right away, it might even be better not to start another fire at all."
"I see your point, but it's going to make it damned uncomfortable to get dressed. At the very least, we should still stack some fresh kindling and wood in the firebox before we go. We may need to warm up again after we come back."
Levi pillowed his head on his bent arm, watching as she peeked out at him from under her blanket. "We can do that. Hey, why are you still wearing that patch? Don't you take the thing off when you sleep at night?"
"Oh, uh...usually."
"So why do you still have it on?" he asked. "It's got to be uncomfortable."
Hange looked away. "I'm just used to it. No big deal."
Levi stared at her, and it occurred to him that she was self-conscious about her damaged eye. He'd never seen Hange be self-conscious about anything before. He also hadn't seen what her eye looked like under that patch since she sustained the injury that half-blinded her. He didn't speak, just reached out to touch the patch lightly. She looked at him, going still as Levi pulled the blanket down a little so that her head wasn't half-covered.
Still saying nothing, Levi hooked a finger beneath the strap holding Hange's eye patch secure, and he pulled it carefully up and off of her face. He put it aside, and he scrutinized the patch of shiny scar tissue surrounding her left eye. It was a lighter pigment than the rest of Hange's face, a little pink in contrast to the olive complexion. It wasn't as extreme as he'd been imagining. It wasn't misshapen, and the eye itself was whole. The color of the eye was dulled, bleached by a milky film and almost pink in hue. The pupil was wider than its twin in Hange's good eye, non-responsive to light or darkness.
Levi found himself caressing the scarring, comparing the damaged eye to the healthy one. "It's not bad."
She briefly bit her lips, and she met his gaze. "Do you think so?"
"Yeah. I was expecting an empty socket or something."
"Well, the physicians did a very good job treating it, once they got the chance," she explained. "Just as they did a good job cleaning up Erwin's arm and helping it to heal cleanly. We really do have some good medics in our ranks."
"I can't argue with that."
Levi took his hand away, and he tugged his blanket up to cover his shoulder. Their breath was now coming out in foggy puffs as the temperature in the shack steadily dropped. The remaining warmth from the dying embers in the fireplace was being quickly leeched away by the chill. The wind howled outside, and the draft seeping through the floor and walls was bone-chilling.
"Levi, we should share body warmth," suggested Hange. "We'll both sleep better for it and wake up less stiff in the morning."
Seeing the logic of it and not particularly fond of the prospect of shivering his balls off all night, Levi nodded. Hange wriggled closer to him, and she surprised him by pulling open her blanket, exposing herself to him.
"Come on. Under the blankets together."
He gave her nudity a quick inspection, compelled by the fact that it was right there in front of him. Scarred in places like himself and bearing the marks of harness straps from years of ODM use, Hange's body was nonetheless attractive. She had more developed muscle tone than common women, as most soldiers did. Her breasts were small and firm, the nipples dusky and small. Her waist was a bit thicker than the average woman's, due to muscle mass. The curve of her hip was very feminine in contrast, and her thighs were smooth and long.
Levi dragged his gaze back up when he saw the shadow of her pubic hair, reminding himself that she was his comrade and his commander. He opened his own blanket, and Hange's gaze briefly scrutinized him before they pressed up against each other, overlapping their blankets and embracing. Their bodies fit together better than Levi would have expected.
"Mmm, that's much better," sighed Hange against his hair.
Levi said nothing. It was warmer this way, sure. Unfortunately, with that warmth came an awkwardness he hadn't felt in years. With Hange pressed flush against him, skin on skin, he was more aware than ever that she was a woman. He downplayed it, brushing it off as a natural, instinctive reaction for his body to have after being starved for intimacy. It wasn't a big deal...just two people keeping each other warm. That was all. The captain shut his eyes and tried to go to sleep.
"Levi?"
His eyes slitted open, his brows pinching with annoyance. "What is it? We should get to sleep, four eyes."
"I know, it's just...did you slip your flare gun under your blanket?"
He frowned. "No, why?"
"Well, something's digging into my hip and if it's not a flare gun..."
He groaned very softly. Wonderful. "It's my dick, okay? Don't get excited; it's not something I can help. You're a biologist, you should know men don't control these things at will."
"Just making sure." There was a smirk in Hange's voice, but she wisely didn't tease him. "Goodnight, you abnormally blessed little man."
"Shut up."
-To be continued