Your Wings - Reader X Levi Ackerman

The dull gray sky looms heavy over Stohess, thick clouds pressing down on Levi like an invisible weight as he crouches on the edge of a rooftop. The chill bites into him, but he barely feels it. He hasn't slept in two days, and the exhaustion clings to him like fog, sinking into his bones. But his mind won't stop, circling the same questions in relentless loops, a spiral that drives deeper every time he blinks and sees your face.

He grips his blades tighter, his knuckles pale against the leather. The mission was supposed to be simple—stake out the district, find any trace of where they took Historia and Eren. But every hour that passes with no sign of anything wears him down. Each lead they've tracked down has come up empty, each rumor leading only to dead ends. Even now, as he watches the carriage below with the row of coffins, there's no way of knowing if one of those coffins might be hiding you.

Levi clenches his jaw, looking away from the cart. You've been missing for days now. They found bodies at the scene of the attack, but none of them were you. That should be reassuring—should be something. But the questions he can't answer claw at him, digging deeper each time he considers the possibilities. You're gone, vanished without a trace, and he doesn't know if you're alive or dead. That single fact alone eats at him, driving him to the brink.

In all his years, Levi has learned how to live with loss. He's watched comrades fall, held people he cared about as the light left their eyes. But this—this—is different. It's the not knowing that gnaws at him, an ache he can't shake. If you're dead... He forces the thought down, but it won't stay buried. If you're dead, thats it. The last person he's deeply cared about from his past. Hange was right... He won't have the chance to say the things he should have said. He hates himself for it.

But it doesn't make sense. He can understand why the Military Police would take Historia and Eren—both are valuable, weapons in their own twisted game. But you? Why you? You're strong, capable, and fierce in your own way, but there's no reason for you to be taken alongside them. No reason he can think of that would put you in danger like this.

The thought of you, hurt or suffering at the hands of the enemy, brings a bitter taste to his mouth. He's tried to push it aside, tried to focus on the mission, but you've crept into his thoughts, again and again. Moments he'd shared with you surface unbidden—the determined look in your eyes when you trained, the quiet smiles you'd offered him when no one else was around, the unspoken connection that had grown between you in the shadows of war.

A sigh escapes him, barely audible, as he stares down at the rooftops below, eyes hard but distant. He's torn between the weight of his own failure to protect you and the raw fury simmering beneath his skin, begging for an outlet. Levi doesn't usually let himself worry—he knows it's pointless, a distraction. But now, with you missing, worry has a hold on him, gnawing at his thoughts with a persistence he can't shake.

He doesn't know if he'll be able to live with himself if he fails you.

Nifa shifts beside him, her whisper breaking the silence. "They're loading up the carriage."

Levi nods, forcing himself back to the present, even as his mind races with unanswered questions. He doesn't respond, his lips pressed into a thin line as he watches the men in the street. He's never been this unfocused, never let his thoughts drift so dangerously in the middle of a mission. But the doubt, the uncertainty, it's like an ache he can't shake.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he catches a glint of metal—an intruder moving on the rooftop, a gun glistening in his hands.

In an instant, Levi snaps to attention, his voice cutting through the air. "Nifa, get down!"

But it's too late.

Levi's breath catches in his throat as the sound of gunfire rips through the air. Nifa's blood splatters across the rooftop before she even has time to react. The first bullet goes clean through her skull, and she crumples instantly, her body falling like a ragdoll off the edge of the roof. The second shot grazes Levi's side, the impact sending him stumbling back. His hand presses instinctively to his side, feeling the warmth of blood seep through his fingers. It's a sharp, searing pain, but there's no time to register it fully.