Levi x Reader: What is real? chapter 1

My head was pulsing with pain; my body was floating in a dense substance, preventing me from making any move. I hated this state as much as I knew it. It was right before I woke up after that…coma-like period. It made me feel weak and useless.
I tried to swim through that substance and make it to the surface. The struggle was taking me every piece of energy I had, though it was necessary if I wanted to live. A dim ray of light reached me; I grabbed onto it, and the next second, my eyes were wide open.
I first saw the white ceiling of the infirmary. I tried to get up, but a sudden pain in my head obliged me to sit again.
“Whoa, hold on there [F/n!]”
I groaned in response. Hanji was a good soldier and a good doctor- sometimes, a good friend. But i couldn’t deny that she was annoying as hell sometimes. I wanted to wake up and find someone…someone else there. But nevermind.
“I see that her majesty has awakened.”
I shot Hanji an angry glare, not letting myself provoked to insult her. She knew I hated my origins, and loved to tease. Well, I guess that this is what friends do.
“Do you want to know what happened?” she asked me, serious.
I nodded, and she started to talk.
I fainted during the Female Titan’s attack while I was high up in a tree. I feel down, but luckily I had just a few minor injuries. Yeah…that was my sickness…Why nobody from my family wanted me and send me in the army to go and die. A few soldiers tried to wake me up, though they knew it was useless. Le-I mean, the Corporal had to take care of Eren, so he left me there without hesitation. Hanji told me that his squad died…My face showed no emotion, but my insides were torn to pieces. They…were the closest friends I had. The members of my squad were somewhat afraid of me...And because I used to help Levi I got closer to them too. But that was the mistake of loving someone, no?
I was spacing out, when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.
“By the way, soon as you can walk, Shortie wants you in his office.”
That bastard… My bastard…Always ordering around. Always being bossing with everyone, though Erwin, or even I should be the ones to do that.
I so wanted to face-palm right then and answer something else, but…
“Ok…If you say so.”

I was healing surprisingly fast; I guess it was one thing which was compensating for my random episodes of unconsciousness. In a day or two, I was able to walk again, though it still hurt a little. I didn’t want any crutches to walk to Levi’s office- many soldiers considered me to be one of the weakest from Survey Corps, despite my skill. I didn’t want to give them something to gossip about.
I opened Shortie’s office door without being bothered to knock; I just wanted to see his slightly annoyed face. It was simply priceless.
“Hi.”
“Is that how you greet your superiors, squad leader [F/n]?”
“Is that how you address your Princess, Lance Corporal Levi?”
His eyebrow twitched with anger; I could already see him jumping over the desk, trying to cut my head off with random things. But no, he just stood there, sighing.
“I want you to fight me?”
“Huh?”
I rised both my eyebrows in amazement. Fight him, right now, in this moment, in his office? The last time we fought each other was a long time ago, when I first came in the Survey Corps…

Flashback

“Insolent peasant!”
He dared to called me brat. Me, the Dancing Blade. Me, the Royal Princess. I renounced at the throne when I joined the military, but still…I was one of the best cadets. He couldn’t get away so easily.
I drew out my special sword, made for duels. I thought it could be no match for a sword made to kill titans. I thought.
My speed barely kept up with his. I guessed that from an outsider, our attacks looked like a bunch of blurred lines. We both parried each hit, and in no time, we were sweating and panting. I was at the end of my powers, and with one hit…I was defeated.
I hit the ground with a loud thud, spreading dust as I fell. The crowd gasped and clapped, seeing my defeat. I felt ashamed from the depths of my soul- but I guess that my own pride was the fault. I closed my eyes for a moment, when suddenly, his hand grabbed a fistful of my hair.
“Never underestimate me, Royal shithead.”
Then he left, without looking behind.

End of flashback

“Are you deaf Squad Leader [F/n]? I said fight me.”
He quickly searched in one of the desk’s drawers and threw something to me. It was my dueling sword, which he confiscated from me after our first fight.
“But…”
“Do as I say.”
I didn’t wait anymore. I rushed forward before he could take one of the 3dmg blades. Of course, he dodged. I continued with a combo of a few hits, which he parried. He jumped behind me, and with a swift move, his sword was at my neck.
“You are as weak as ever, [F/n]” he whispered in my ear.
A well aimed kick at his leg made him let me go; I turned around and knocked him down. He fell on the floor just like I did last time. I kneeled down an approached my face to his.
“Never let your guard down, Lance Corporal Levi.” I whispered when our faces were barely an inch apart.
Well…Guess it could be quite fun to be Levi’s fiancée.