battle worn and tried [Erwin+Levi][present day]

it's time to leave
and turn to dust

Who’d have thought that the day would come when he would be storming down the halls of the headquarters for the Survey Corps, headed straight for Erwin Smith’s room. As he walked past people moved aside, it was as though he was a bulldozer, moving through a crowd of sheep, he was the hungry wolf that was seeking the week. They moved out of his way in an instance, without hesitating. None of them think of calling his name or saying a single word. There reaction was the same as usual, avoid the short angry man at all costs, avoid the short angry man if you want to keep your good looks. If you didn’t want to walk around with a smashed up face you looked the other way, he was a scary man and his reputation was all truth. Don’t get in his way. Today every person he passed made it clear they weren’t even going to put a toe out of line.

The bunch of greenies he had trained and raised into suitable soldiers had even felt the shift in the air that wrapped itself around him. The normally intimidating stance had echoed with an anger that had resonated throughout the entire building, his so-called greenies were now some of the best shoulders within the entire barracks, most of them were looking at high placements within the next few months. He had become well known for his ability to break them and raise them right, raise them better then anyone else.

None of them had wanted to step up to the plate, or even hint at the fact that their day of training was supposed to have begun thirty minutes ago. Not once, not once at all had he been late for a training session in the year that he had been working with them. Not once had he sat in my office, staring down at a piece of paper ignoring the ticking of the clock as the seconds dragged on. He, in all honestly, couldn’t believe what he had just read. That stupid fucking commander. This stupid fucking memo. From the first few words till the last he had been pissed. He hadn’t liked the connotations and the intentions that had come from those few words.

Captain Heichou, please see Commander Smith for your new placement.

New placement. Fuck that. New placement. Who else was going to look after the idiots he was in charge of? No, screw that, who else was going to keep them in line? Let alone the fact that it seemed he’d be shipped off to some far off district doing Ripred knew what. He’d be moved away from Erwin it all (Erwin. No, fuck him).

When the young gentleman had knocked on Levi Heichou’s fucking door he had walked in, feet covered in mud. He’d trudged it through the entire room before coming to a standstill at the front of his desk, clasping that stupid piece of paper between his dirt covered hands, grim had laced his nails and skin and it had taken an amount of control to hold back the demands he had wanted to make. In fact it had taken everything to not jump over the desk and shove his face into the ground and make him clean the mess he had made. The only thing that had stopped him had been the fact that this idiot probably wouldn’t have been able to work a fucking broom. The scowl of displeasure that had formed on Levi’s face had been enough to send him into a stuttering mess of mixed words and apologies.

If the trash spewing from his mouth wasn’t the end of the line it was the spit that came flying onto his polished oak desk that was the end of the line. It didn’t take long for him to stand up and snag the paper and shove the man out of his room as roughly as he could. He then sat down and forced himself to read the note and extract his gaze away from the smears of dirt and mud on the ground. That had taken more self-restraint then preventing himself from kicking that boy in the face. However, his thoughts of cleaning were disrupted by the memo as the words had sunken in.

That was why he found himself storming down the halls of the Survey Corps headquarters, making a beeline towards Erwin Smith’s office. Not only had he ignored the mess in his room, walking straight past it, he had openly shown his annoyance (to put it lightly) in front of others. And although most people automatically assumed he was pissed off ninety percent of the time he despised an open display of emotions. He rounded the final corner, and with a great amount of disrespect – often associated with all of his actions, he shoves the door open in one sweeping gesture and walks in.

Screw knocking.

Fuck you Erwin.

They were the first words that flew to his lips. For a second he remembered where he was, and the words were almost swallowed back down, seeing as he was speaking to his Commander, but Levi had never been one for manners, he was a thug, a thief and a murderer he didn’t talk with manners and he never had.

”What the fuck, Erwin?” He snaps, striding forwards before slapping the memo on the Commander’s table. ”What the fuck do you mean by new placement? Where the hell is that coming from? Been holding that shit in for awhile now?”

Levi knew that he had no right, he knew that he was solider, a toy to be used as Erwin Smith pleased and yet he trusted this man, Erwin Smith was the only man he trusted and it felt like he was being betrayed.

Fuck you.