Chapter Text
Levi has never been inside an airship before. They’re only an hour into the journey, but he’s decided already that he hates airships. His body feels too heavy, like something is sucking him against the floor. He saw the thing from outside—a great oblong titan with a metal belly. It does not strike Levi as the sort of object that should be able to fly, and yet here it is, drifting past the clouds like it’s one of them.
“Do you mean to sit there all morning, little Captain? You are permitted to walk around, you know.”
The back of Levi’s neck prickles. Zeke Jaeger has a way of towering over Levi, as if he means to be condescending. Some men are simply tall, but Zeke is tall to be arrogant, and he’s chewing on one of those awful cigarettes, too. When Levi looks back at the table, his knuckles have turned white around his teacup.
“You don’t talk much, do you little Captain?” Zeke sighs. He’s fond of that nickname—little Captain. Levi supposes it makes him feel quite big, quite important, to stand over Levi like this and call him silly nicknames.
“Well then, you won’t mind if I sit.” He squeezes into the booth next to Levi, bumping his shoulder. The stench of smoke invades Levi’s senses and his nose scrunches. If there were more room between himself and the window, he’d move over, but Zeke could not possibly be sitting closer.
“So what do you think?” Zeke asks, gesturing at the room. “Of all this?”
Levi doesn’t think much of it at all. It is big for a ship that flies, he’ll grant it that. But the silk tablecloths and thick cushions are not so different from the ones in Mitras. Levi had occasion to visit dining halls like this when Erwin took him on business.
Levi stopped receiving invitations after the first two or three banquets.
“I know you have that gear, on your little island,” Zeke says. “What was it called again? Omni-directional. Impressive, for such a primitive design. But the technology can hardly compare to what we have in Marley. It really is just a small thing, by contrast, don’t you think?”
There he goes again. Full of condescension. So pleased with himself—or pleased that he knows something which Levi does not.
“This is one of the smaller airships, too,” he goes on, huffing smoke from his mouth. “Just wait until we get to Marley. You won’t believe the sorts of things we have over there. Automobiles and radio and—you don’t have ice cream on your little island, do you? Without effective refrigeration, Reiner mentioned—anyway, you’ll quite like it, I think. It’s sweet. I’ll treat you when we get there.”
He’s still speaking as if Levi is an honoured guest, instead of a prisoner. As if the Marleyan soldiers wandering the dining hall have not been looking at him like they want to spit on him. As if the guards stationed at the doors are purely ornamental.
Zeke breathes out more smoke, and Levi turns his head away. These cigarettes have a herbal smell to them—not like those filthy ones Kenny used to smoke Underground. Out the window, Levi can only see clouds. They could be over the sea by now. There are people back in the Walls who would kill—who have killed—to see the sea. And here Levi is, floating over it without even noticing it’s there.
“Would you like something to eat?” Zeke asks, then waves over one of the soldiers. He’s wearing a grey armband, where Zeke’s is red. “Tell the cook we’ll have two servings of the eggs and bacon, won’t you Franz? And more tea,” he adds, nodding at Levi’s empty cup.
The armbands must denote rank, Levi guesses. But Franz still looks disgruntled when his eyes slide over to Levi, as if Zeke is insulting him.
“Go on now,” Zeke urges, when Franz looks like he might argue. He turns stiffly on his heel and walks off. Zeke grinds his cigarette into the porcelain ashtray before turning back to Levi. “Meat isn’t common where you’re from, is it? Have you ever had bacon before?”
Levi hasn’t. He knows what it is, obviously. Mike used to rave about it. “I’ll take you all up to the farms one day,” he used to say, before Maria fell. “We’ll eat nothing but pork for a week.” What might he say if he could see Levi now? Dining with the monster who killed him.
When the soldier returns with two plates and a steaming pot of tea, Zeke refills Levi’s cup. The bacon is good. Better than good, actually—Levi understands why Mike went on about it now. He polishes his plate clean before Zeke has finished buttering his toast. Zeke pushes his spectacles up and raises an eyebrow.
“You ate that as if you haven’t seen a good meal in your life—forgive me, maybe you haven’t. You must have had food shortages, with such a big population in such small walls. And given your proportions, I think it’s fair to guess you were malnourished as a child.”
Levi pushes his plate away and sips his bitter tea. The soldier hasn’t made it right—not hot enough, and it hasn’t been left to steep long enough. He watches the clouds drift past the window. If he squints past the sunlight, he thinks he can see green, somewhere below. Maybe they haven’t reached the sea yet.
“It’s not the same for everyone on your island though, is it?” Zeke goes on. He doesn’t seem bothered that he’s the only participant in this conversation. “You have some big soldiers—big men, I mean. It’s an Eldian thing, did you know? We grow large. Not you, though,” Zeke adds, pointedly. “You’re unusually small for an Eldian.”
He pauses to dig into his eggs. His shoulder is still pressed against Levi’s, even though the booth is quite long enough to accommodate three grown men side-by-side.
“Mm—take your Commander, for instance,” Zeke says through a mouthful of toast. “Big, strong man. I’m sure he grew up healthy, with enough food. When people think Eldian, they think of a man like him, typically.”
Levi presses his thumb against the head of his fork until it bends. His fingers are trembling. He can feel Zeke’s eyes on his face, waiting for Levi to give him a reaction. Filthy, petty man.
“You know,” Zeke says, and his voice goes quiet, “I was surprised by how easily he was convinced—to give you to us, that is. They told me to get an Ackerman, any Ackerman. A male is better, they said, for breeding purposes. But any will do—well, more than one would be preferable, but we didn’t know how many you had left. I decided I wanted you.”
Zeke stops to finish the last of his bacon and eggs, then delicately wipes his beard with a napkin and pushes his plate away.
“I wanted you,” he repeats. “Then I saw the way your Commander looked at you and I thought, there will be no negotiating with this man. But when I met him in his hospital bed, do you know what he said to me? I told him we wanted an Ackerman and he said, take the male. ”
Levi’s head snaps up. He’s lying. The wretched beast is lying to get under Levi’s skin. In that moment, Levi feels a truly visceral surge of hatred for the man. An echo of the rage he felt on the battlefield outside Shiganshina. Zeke is lighting another cigarette. The smug, self-satisfied fucking bastard is—
Levi picks up his warped fork and jams it into Zeke’s hand.
Zeke roars in pain and drops his cigarette, eyes flying wide behind his glasses. Blood spurts onto Levi’s sleeve as he digs the fork deeper into Zeke’s flesh, until he hears the crunch of bone.
“Fuck— fuck! You little—” Zeke stares at Levi, sweat glistening on his brow, breath sharp. “Stop. Levi, stop. ”
“War Chief Jaeger! Give the order and we’ll shoot.”
Levi looks up then, and finds himself staring down the barrels of at least ten rifles. Every soldier in the room has mobilised, and their booth is surrounded.
“No, no,” Zeke pants, lifting his free hand. “Don’t shoot.”
“Like hell!” barks one of the soldiers, cocking his weapon. He isn’t wearing an armband, Levi notices. “Look at him—devil spawn! He’s bloodthirsty. Better that we put him down now—”
“ No, ” Zeke snarls. Blood spits from his wound, his entire right arm trembling. “No, he is to be kept alive.”
“He’s dangerous. Look at his face—he’s a savage!”
“Alive,” Zeke snaps. “That’s an order.”
The soldier’s face pulls into an ugly grimace. “You do not give me orders, Eldian. I don’t care what titles the top brass have slapped you with—”
“They are not my orders,” Zeke retorts. “They come directly from General Calvi. Our mission is to retrieve an Ackerman, alive. Would you have me tell him you blasted the brains out of the only surviving male?”
That makes the soldier pause. But he’s still looking at Levi with a disgusted sort of indignation, and Levi knows he so desperately wants to pull that trigger.
“Lower your weapons,” Zeke commands. “All of you. Now. These are not my orders, they are the General’s. If any harm comes to the Ackerman, you will forfeit more than your positions.”
One by one, the soldiers lower their guns, though they do not disperse. Only then does Zeke turn to Levi, with as much pacifism as he can probably muster. “Levi, take your fork out of my hand, won’t you? It hurts.”
He’s smiling at Levi—or at least, he’s trying to. There are tears at the corners of his eyes, and his jaw is trembling. Levi gives the fork a twist before yanking it out, and Zeke grunts, wrapping a napkin around his hand. Steam is already rising from the wound.
As soon as Levi has dropped the bloody fork, the Marleyan soldier presses the barrel of his rifle against Levi’s head, jamming him against the window. “Get out of the way, Jaeger. We’ll move him to the cells.”
Zeke grips the barrel of the gun and pries it away from Levi’s head. “You will not,” he says coldly, and he angles his body so that he’s blocking Levi from the soldiers. “I will escort Mr. Ackerman to his bed chambers.”
A murmur of disapproval runs through the group. “You—you can’t be fucking serious,” snaps the soldier, still pointing his rifle. “He just tried to kill you!”
Zeke chuckles lightly, dabbing the blood off his hand as the wound seals itself up. “Oh, hardly. I think if he’d wanted me dead he would have gone for the throat, no?” The soldiers gape at him. “Come, Levi,” he beckons, standing up.
Levi does not want to follow him. He is not a dog on a leash, trailing after its master as ordered. But staying for the sake of being stubborn would do him no favours. There is a thin line between being stubborn and being childish, Levi, Erwin might say, if he were here.
When Levi stands, Zeke offers him his hand. Levi shoulders roughly past him, and the soldiers scramble to get out of his way.
“I must admit,” Zeke mutters as he hurries to catch up to Levi. “I did not expect you to lash out like that. It upsets you then, when I talk about your Commander?”
Levi walks straight ahead, and does not look at Zeke. He doesn’t know where he’s going. The corridor is long and empty, and he feels unsteady on his feet. Dizzy, almost. He does not like airships.
“I have to respect the man, to some degree at least,” Zeke says, and he sounds bitter. “He is dedicated to his cause. He gave up his most prized possession—forgive me—most prized soldier, in exchange for knowledge. For peace and knowledge, that is. I do hope it satisfies him, because we have no intention of giving you back.”
Levi wants to point out that he isn’t the only thing Erwin gave up. Zeke struck a hard bargain— you will forfeit Shiganshina, the Colossal and Armoured Titans will be released unharmed, the Female Titan will be returned to Marley.
“I do wonder if he might have given us the female Ackerman,” Zeke says ponderously, “if her whereabouts were known. Would he have fought harder for you?”
Mikasa is probably with Eren—wherever that may be. Levi is surprised Zeke didn’t push harder for Eren, in his negotiations. At this point, he isn’t even sure Erwin knows where Eren is. In the midst of the attack on Shiganshina, he simply… vanished, along with Mikasa. At that point, Erwin made the call. A strategic surrender, he called it. We can’t win without Eren’s Titan.
“You know, you still haven’t said a word to me,” Zeke says, putting a hand on Levi’s shoulder to guide him around a corner. “Were you like this with your Commander, too? Did he break you in before you started speaking to him?”
Levi twists around, but Zeke catches his fist before he can raise it.
“I would not advise that, little Captain. I know you could overpower me, if you wanted to, so you must realise it too—violence will not get you far anymore.” Levi yanks his hand free and keeps walking. Zeke follows with a burdened sigh. “It is quite hurtful that you will not speak to me, you know.”
“Waste of breath,” Levi says, and Zeke’s face lights up.
“Ah, there you go. Such an uptight little thing, aren’t you? I look forward to seeing you looser.”
Levi glances at him, unamused, and Zeke smiles.
“Here we are,” Zeke says, when they reach the end of the corridor. He slips a key from his coat and unlocks the door. Levi frowns at the room. It’s large—larger than they would afford a prisoner, even on this ostentatious hunk of metal. The bed is a double, and there’s already an open bag of clothes on the armchair.
“This is your room,” Levi realises.
“Well, of course it is. You didn’t think you would have your own bed chambers, did you? I didn’t want to give the soldiers the wrong impression by telling them I would be escorting you to my room.”
“And what impression would that be?” Levi asks.
Zeke lets out a breath, and he looks quite satisfied with himself. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable, little Captain? Sleep if you’d like. It’s been a busy few days for you, hasn’t it? I doubt you’ve had much of a chance.”
Levi looks at the bed and scoffs, then walks over to the window. The clouds have thinned to wisps, and he can see a stretch of golden sand beneath them. “How much further is it?”
“Oh, a good half day at least,” Zeke says. “So you may as well settle in.” He takes off his boots and coat, then lies back on the bed, opening a book. Levi would sooner eat the barrel of a Marleyan rifle than go to sleep on the same bed as Zeke.
He sinks into the armchair next to the window and watches the sand fields roll past below them.
“It’s called a desert.” Zeke is watching him. “Have you heard of them? Dry expanses of terrain, barely any life—”
“I know what a fucking desert is.”
Zeke raises his hands, apologetic. “Well, I wasn’t sure. You won’t have seen much of what the world can offer inside those tiny walls. But you will, now. I can show you rainforests and big, urban sprawls and icy wastelands and—” He breaks off, thumbing the cover of his book. “Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll have to see what the officials have planned for you first, I suppose.”
Levi turns back to the window. Erwin said the same thing once, in fewer words. We’ll see the world beyond the wall someday, Levi. When we’re free, we’ll conquer it.
“You really should sleep, you know,” Zeke tells him. “I can’t say you’ll have much time once we arrive. The top brass are very eager to meet you. There will be a lot of… socialising.”
“Socialising,” Levi says dubiously.
“Yes, well. In an official sense. And—and probably a scientific sense too, if you understand my meaning. You are a biological anomaly after all. It will be quite tiring, once we arrive. Sleeping now is a good idea.”
Levi huffs, still watching the window. “You’re using the bed.”
From the corner of his eye, he can see Zeke smiling. “It’s a big enough bed.”
Levi doesn’t give him the satisfaction of a reply.
“Ever the stoic, Levi,” Zeke says dejectedly. “Were you always like this, or is it something you picked up from your Commander? He’s the same. So reserved. A difficult sort of person to read—though less so when it came to you. I could tell right away that you were someone—something precious to him. It’s why I was so surprised when he gave you up. Though he wouldn’t be the first man to put ambition before love.”
Love. The word makes the cynical part of Levi scoff. It’s the sort of word that only exists in the minds of naive teenagers, or perhaps, between a mother and her child. What Levi and Erwin had between them wasn’t love. If it had been love, Levi wouldn’t be here—
Damn it. He’s letting the ape get into his head. Erwin made a strategic decision, and Levi trusts him. It was necessary. Erwin has sacrificed hundreds—no, thousands of lives to reach his goals. To reach humanity’s goals, he should say. Levi is not so important that he’s above sacrificing.
“You poor creature,” Zeke sighs. “You poor little thing. Even now, you still feel—committed. I can see it. It must hurt. It must truly hurt to be discarded so readily, by your liege.”
“I don’t need a dinner fork to kill you, Zeke,” Levi warns.
“No, no—you must forgive me,” Zeke says placatingly. “I am not trying to be cruel. I only—you don’t understand much, do you?”
“You’re a condescending fuck, beast.”
“About the Ackermans, I mean,” Zeke clarifies. There’s an almost feverish excitement to the way he talks now, wide-eyed and gesticulating. “That they were bred to be bodyguards. They were meant to be devoted to the royal family. Though I’m sure the science wasn’t exact—it could be anyone. For you it was… Well, I can understand why it would be a man like him. He is quite… quite dignified, I suppose.”
“You sound jealous,” Levi says.
“I am jealous. Was that not obvious?”
“So that’s why I’m here, is it? Because of your petty grudge against a man you don’t even know.”
“I think I know him well enough,” Zeke says bitterly. “And no, you’re here because the Marleyan generals ordered it. And because—well, you deserve better than a man like him.”
It’s such a ridiculous statement, Levi almost laughs. A better man than Erwin, he says. “Like who?” Levi asks snidely. “A man like you?”
“Not… necessarily,” Zeke mumbles. “Although if we’re getting scientific, you were bred to serve royalty.”
That’s right, Zeke has royal blood, doesn’t he? It was written in Grisha Jaeger’s books. The ones Zeke permitted Erwin to read right before handing Levi over. Levi thinks he understands Zeke now. His envy. He saw it in plenty of nobles—plenty of senior officers, even—who felt they were owed what others had. Especially those they deemed lesser.
“It is not my intention to make you a slave, Levi,” Zeke says. “All I want is to give you the opportunity to pursue goals that are your own. Ones that have not been forced upon you.”
“And you plan to do this by... making me a weapon for your military. By breeding me until my balls fall off.”
“Well.” Zeke looks apologetic. “Some things are out of my control, unfortunately.”
Levi turns back to his window. His small slice of the world. “Don’t you have a book to read?”
Zeke glances at the novel in his lap as if he’s forgotten it’s there. “Yes, well it isn’t nearly as interesting as you are, Levi.” He puts it aside, then, and gets up, coming to stand beside Levi’s chair. “We’ll be over the sea soon,” he remarks idly, as if it is an insignificant thing—as if passing over the sea is something he does every day.
If Levi casts his gaze far enough, over the golden hills of the desert, he thinks he can see blue. But it might just be the sky.
“You know…” Zeke trails off, as if he’s reconsidering. He brushes his fingertips against Levi’s cheek, then through his hair. Levi slaps his hand away, recoiling.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Zeke twists the rim of his glasses, humming. “Did you know that you’re quite lovely? Have people told you that? Did your Commander—”
“Fuck off.”
Zeke sits against the arm of the chair, blocking the window. Levi draws away. He can smell the lingering herbs of Zeke’s cigarettes, and the sharp spice of cologne. Erwin wears a similar scent, Levi recalls queasily.
“You have an allure to you,” Zeke says. “Not in the way most beautiful men do. You’re not handsome. You’re—well, delicate isn’t the right word either. You’re too strong for that. Too dangerous. But you’re… well, you’re nice to look at, is all.”
He is staring blatantly now, and he’s completely unashamed. Levi wants to say something—something snide, maybe. But he’s all of a sudden quite speechless. He clicks his tongue and looks away.
“I don’t normally fuck men like you,” Zeke says thoughtfully. “I prefer—well, men like your Commander, to be blunt. Big, strong men. Handsome men. But a man like you—all that strength beneath the beauty. You’d be a nice fuck, I think.”
Levi leans away, but he’s squashed himself as far from Zeke as he can without falling out of the chair. He’s in Levi’s space again, occupying it like it’s his right. “So that’s why you brought me here, huh beast? To fuck me.”
“It’s not the reason. But I can’t say it never occurred to me.”
“Yeah? When I was slicing you to ribbons outside Shiganshina, did it make you hard?”
Zeke purses his lips, a muscle twitching in his temple. “No. Although it did get my attention.”
Levi snorts. “I’m glad my efforts didn’t go to waste.”
“It was after,” Zeke says. “When you went back for your Commander—when you hauled him off the field like you would die if you didn’t save him.”
“I did save him,” Levi says.
“You did. And then—well, he gave you to me, as a thank you.”
Zeke’s jaw makes a satisfying crack beneath Levi’s fist. He staggers, clutching his face with a sharp groan. His glasses are askew, and there’s blood on his lips. “Shit,” he gasps, sinking back onto the bed. “You really are a feral little fucker, aren’t you?”
Levi can already feel bruises forming on his knuckles. He doesn’t heal as quickly as Zeke does, so overall, it wasn’t a good trade.
“I think you…” Zeke flexes his jaw, rubbing at it with his thumb. “Bastard, you’re lucky you didn’t break it.”
“Lucky,” Levi sneers.
“You’re lucky it was me, I should say. Anyone else in all of Marley, and you’d be—well, you are very lucky it was me,” he repeats.
“I can’t imagine there’s anyone worse than you in Marley,” Levi says childishly.
Zeke smiles, but it’s sad. “You haven’t met them yet.”
He disappears into the en suite bathroom for a few minutes, and it’s the longest stretch of silence Levi has had all morning. He hears running water, for a time, and when Zeke returns, the blood is gone and his face is clean.
“Tell me, Levi,” he says, sitting on the bed—just out of reach of Levi’s fists. “What do you normally like to do? When you fuck.”
Levi grinds his teeth together. “Stop talking about him.”
Zeke blinks, all innocence. “Him? Did I mention him?” Levi scowls and twists back around to stare out the window. “We don’t have to talk about him. I meant in general—you like sex, don’t you?”
Levi sits with his knees up, resting his chin on his palm. “Whatever.”
“Do you not like it? You’re not—you’re not a virgin, are you?”
Levi rolls his eyes. Of course Zeke would be the type of man to think of a thing like virginity. A soldier in the Corps once told Levi he was still a virgin unless he’d fucked a woman. Levi supposes then, he’ll always be a virgin.
“I’ve had sex,” he answers.
“With men?” Levi gives him a flat look and Zeke shrugs. “So you’ve never even tried? With a woman?”
“Why would I?”
“Well, they’re not so bad. Not to my taste, personally. But I’m curious by nature.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, okay then,” Zeke concedes. “You’ve only fucked men. So what do you like, when you fuck them? Do you prefer to give or receive?”
“You ask as if it has any bearing on you whatsoever.”
“It may yet,” Zeke says confidently. “I’m going to assume you receive. With a man like your Commander—well, I can see why you would want to receive.”
Levi twists in the chair, so his back is to Zeke. He can definitely see blue on the horizon now. Just a sliver of it, too dark to be sky.
Behind him, he hears Zeke stand up, and the smell of soap and cigarettes grows stronger. He sits on the arm of Levi’s chair again, only this time he keeps his distance, wary.
“I’m trying to think,” Zeke mumbles, looking Levi up and down like he’s assessing him. “What a man like you would enjoy. I haven’t met many men like you, so it’s difficult to know. Do you enjoy pain? Inflicting or taking?”
“You’ve seen me. I like inflicting pain,” Levi answers, without inflection.
“Hmm. No, I don’t think that’s true. I think, if anything, you would enjoy receiving pain. It can be quite grounding, you know. For a soldier.”
And what would you know of being a soldier, beast?
“Well, I’ll assume you like having your cock sucked,” Zeke says. “I’ve never met a man who didn’t.”
Levi closes his eyes and rests his head against the window. He doesn’t like airships, but there is a peacefulness to it. A quiet, steady hum to fill the silence—well, what little silence he’s granted with Zeke.
“I don’t understand it,” Zeke says quietly. “I don’t understand it at all.”
Levi cracks an eye open. Zeke is looking at him, brows furrowed at the centre. “You need me to explain how fucking works to you, beast?”
“No, no, I’m not talking about that anymore,” Zeke rambles. “I mean—your Commander. I don’t understand how he could have—how he could possibly give up something like you. It must have been difficult for him. So difficult. To part with such a precious thing.”
Levi is shaking. He doesn’t realise it until his knuckles start to hurt. He looks down and sees that the skin is darkening from red to purple. If he hits Zeke again, he’ll have to do it with the other hand.
He catches his reflection in the window, past Zeke’s shoulder. He’d forgotten they’d put him in Marleyan clothes. Plain grey trousers and a white jacket. He misses wearing green. Sometimes, after a particularly taxing mission, Levi would pull his green cloak around his shoulders and just… sit. Erwin would normally find him that way, either in his office or the barracks. And he would sit with him, or touch him, however Levi wanted it.
Now, when he sees himself in the window, in this uniform, he does not feel like the same man who trembled beneath Erwin’s fingers. He turns to Zeke, swallowing. “Get on your knees,” he orders quietly. Zeke looks down at him, blinking in surprise.
“What was that?”
“I said get on your knees,” Levi snaps. “Suck my cock.”
Zeke’s throat pulses, and Levi can see pink in his cheeks. “You actually—you’re not joking?” Levi just looks at him, and Zeke’s mouth twitches up at the corner. “Well, if you insist, Captain.”
Zeke climbs off the armchair and deftly removes his jacket, so he’s down to just his button-up—and his armband. When he kneels, he does it slowly, carefully. He rubs his thumb up Levi’s inner thigh, dragging the fabric up. “You’re all muscle,” he marvels. “Everything about you is just so compact. So firm.”
“Did I ask you to write a fucking poem about my legs? Get on with it.” Levi is on the verge of regretting this already. But—fuck, he just needs to stop thinking.
Zeke grins, and pulls off Levi’s boots one by one. He rolls up his trousers to kiss his calves, squeezing his thighs in his palms. He has large hands, like—well, like Erwin, of course. There isn’t anyone else Levi could really compare him to—no one he wants to remember anyway. Except for Furlan, maybe, but— God, Levi does not want to think about Furlan right now.
“I didn’t realise how nice you smelled,” Zeke says as he pushes his face into Levi’s lap, rubbing his cheek against his inner thigh. Like an animal marking its scent. “All clean and—”
“Are you ever going to put my dick in your mouth? Or are you just going to lie there and talk about how pretty you find my crotch?”
Zeke smiles at him, nudging his glasses up his nose. “Is that how you like it then, little Captain? Quick and filthy?”
“I imagine it will be filthy with you regardless of how you do it.”
“Ha.” Zeke frowns a little. “You’re not the first person to say that to me, you know. Though I’m sure you didn’t mean it in the same way.”
He carefully unclips the button on Levi’s trousers and shifts them down his legs. Zeke’s hands are hot, unusually so. Levi tries to remember if Eren’s skin was this warm, though he can’t recall ever touching him long enough to notice. Maybe it isn’t a Titan thing. Maybe it’s just a Zeke Jaeger thing.
Zeke presses his nose into Levi’s inner thigh, his beard tickling the soft skin there. When he palms Levi through his briefs, Levi shifts forward, hips twitching. “How long has it been?” Zeke wonders aloud. “Just a few days, I imagine. Your Commander will have fucked you nice and deep right before you came to Shiganshina. It’s the soldier’s way, isn’t it? To fuck before a battle. In case it’s your last.”
“Stop,” Levi hisses. “Stop talking about him.”
“I’m just trying to figure you out.” Zeke mouths Levi’s cock through his briefs, soaking the fabric in saliva. “God, if I’d been—if I were him, I would have spent hours between these thighs.”
He pulls Levi’s briefs down and nestles into his crotch, flicking his tongue against his balls, brushing the head of his cock with his thumb. A soft breath slips past Levi’s lips. “Will you get on with it?” he says impatiently. “God, don’t—don’t kiss my—”
Zeke’s warm breath ghosts over Levi’s cock as he chuckles. “So very demanding, Levi. Is this how you were with him? Did he give you control, or was he man enough to make you melt for him? To make you docile and sweet. Are you even capable of being sweet?”
Levi grips Zeke by the shoulder and pushes him back, thumb digging into his throat. “I told you to fucking stop talking about him.”
Zeke gazes at him, oddly calm. “Do you want to hear the truth, Levi? I think you like it when I talk about him. I think—” He bends his head and touches his lips to Levi’s cock. “I think it turns you on.”
He takes Levi into his mouth all at once, burying his nose right against Levi’s pelvis. Levi’s breath hitches and he catches Zeke by the hair, twisting hard. Fuck. Fucking damn it. If he turns his head away, closes his eyes, it’s just another warm mouth. It could even be—
“You can pretend I’m him, if it makes it easier.”
Levi’s eyes snap open and he stares down at Zeke, who’s licking saliva and precum from his lips. He pushes his hair out of his face, his glasses fogged. “Does it make it easier?” he asks. “Blonde hair, blue eyes, similar build…”
“Just—just shut up,” Levi grits out, tangling his fingers in Zeke’s hair again, urging him down. Zeke obliges, taking Levi back into his mouth with a quiet sigh.
He doesn’t suck cock like Erwin, Levi quickly realises. He’s rougher, his nails digging into the flesh of Levi’s thighs, teeth scraping carelessly—no, deliberately. He pulls Levi’s legs over his shoulders, encouraging him to squeeze before fucking his cock into his mouth.
When Levi stifles a groan in his sleeve, Zeke makes a deep sound of pleasure in the back of his throat. Levi shudders, and sees Zeke grinding into his left hand, palming himself through his trousers. He pulls back to catch his breath, jerking Levi off with the slick from his own mouth.
“I’m sure you were louder for him,” he whispers, and his throat sounds raw. “I bet you make the prettiest fucking sounds, when you’re made to. Did you moan his name while he was inside you? Did you scream if he did you hard enough? How spoiled your Commander must have been, to have you all to himself.”
Levi inhales sharply when Zeke swallows him again, holding him deep before setting an easy rhythm, up and down. Levi locks his legs around Zeke’s shoulders, and Zeke grips his ass and lifts him so that his cock pushes deep enough to brush Zeke’s throat. He doesn’t gag, or even show discomfort. Erwin had a stronger gag reflex, though it never stopped him from—from doing this.
Zeke seems to sense that Levi is close, because he squeezes his ass and draws him in, speeding up. Levi has one hand wrapped up in Zeke’s curly hair and the other pressed over his eyes. If he doesn’t look, if he just feels, this could be Erwin. He could still be back inside the Walls, tucked up in the armchair across from Erwin’s desk, Erwin’s face between his legs. He could still be—
Levi sighs when he comes, face pressed into his sleeve. Zeke swallows messily, letting it dribble from his lips and onto the carpet. Levi scowls in disgust. As predicted. Filthy beast.
When his legs have stopped trembling, he stands and pulls his trousers back up. He feels sticky and damp. Dirty. He wants to shower.
Zeke wipes his mouth and beard with a tissue, watching Levi with an eagerness that makes Levi feel self-conscious. “I enjoyed that,” he says. “Thank you, Levi.”
Instead of answering, Levi turns back to the window—and all at once, the breath is knocked out of him.
Instead of the vast expanse of sand, the earth below them is completely blue. As far as the eye can see, there’s nothing but blue, deeper than the sky, but glittering like gems.
In spite of himself, Levi presses against the glass, like a child.
“Ah, you won’t have seen the sea before, would you?” Zeke lights a cigarette before joining him, and Levi’s nose crinkles.
“You have to do that in here?”
“I dare say I’ve earned it,” Zeke replies flatly. “Well, what do you think of it then? The sea.” He’s standing close enough that his shoulder presses against Levi’s.
“It’s… big.”
“This isn’t even the biggest sea,” Zeke says—and that tone is back. The tone that tells Levi he’s proud to have knowledge which Levi doesn’t. The tone of a man who likes to make others feel small. “Or the deepest.”
Levi frowns. “How deep is it?”
“The deepest part is a couple of miles, maybe. Other seas are deeper.”
Levi stares down at the impossible expanse of blue, and has to remember to close his mouth. He flinches when Zeke touches his face, turning his head so that Levi is looking up at him. There’s a brief, horrifying moment when he thinks Zeke is about to kiss him.
But if he was, he must reconsider, because he drops his hand and puts his cigarette out in the ashtray next to the chair. “You don’t mind if I have the first shower, do you?”
“What do you need to shower for? You’re always filthy, aren’t you?”
“Well, you weren’t very reciprocating,” Zeke says, and when Levi looks down, he notices the thick bulge in Zeke’s trousers. “Don’t worry, I won’t be long. I could have gotten off just listening to you, actually.”
When Levi hears the spray of the shower, he turns back to the window. It’s daunting to think that he’s the first person from inside the Walls to see this in a hundred years. He feels as if he is not appreciating it enough—that someone like Erwin, or Hange, or the other boy—Armin—might be more deserving. The sea is wasted on Levi.