Tiny Peek
This is a little piece of a chapter I thought might be fun to share. I kinda liked the vibe of this section and it flowed pretty easily. This piece doesn’t give away any spoilers, so why not 🤷🏻♀️
Fair warning, I cut off the excerpt before any of the spicy stuff because there’s something in that section that does give away plot points.
Completely unedited, so sorry about the grammar, lol.
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Levi fiddled with his saddlebags irritably. It wasn’t that he minded the idea of what Mikasa had proposed, nor did he object to time with her away from others. But did they really have to gather equipment, ride all the way here and spend the night in a tent?
It was the next to last day of their reprieve and Mikasa wanted to get away from the port and see the stars. So they had spent the morning packing and made a thinly veiled excuse about sweeping the coast before heading out.
She glanced back at him from where she rode ahead, the radiant smile on her face annihilated any trace of annoyance that remained. She was strikingly beautiful; the sun beaming down cast a glow on her skin and lit her gray eyes with a brilliance that left him breathless.
He was utterly fucked. He would never be able to deny her anything, not without ripping himself apart at the seams. Levi could admit that much to himself. Not that Mikasa was prone to wanting unreasonable things from him. On the contrary, his biggest struggle with her had always been stopping her from expecting unreasonable things from herself.
Reining in her mount, she drew up at a flat clearing leading to the sea. The flattened grass, clear of rocks, and charred stone of the fire-pit marked it as a waypoint used by Scouts returning from the far-outlying watch buildings used to keep alert for invasion.
Thankfully, neither of them had been stuck on that duty for any extended period. However, Mikasa had sometimes been tasked to travel out with those just graduating and lead them to the posts for the first time. She claimed this was her favorite place to stop on the way back.
As much as dread lurked in the back of his mind from the now-inevitable conflict with Marley, he was grateful for these last few years of relative calm, for the chance to grow to love her in an environment where death wasn’t lurking around each hill and bend. Most of all, he was grateful that these years had somehow convinced her to love him too.
Levi still had trouble accepting that. He couldn’t quite get his head around the idea that this fierce, compassionate woman had decided he was a worthy match. Not after all the sins he bore and all those he knew he would still tally up in the conflicts ahead. He frowned at his own train of thought before shaking it off and helping her set up camp. Maybe one day, he would find peace with himself on that count.
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The sea breeze lifted strands of Levi’s dark hair prankishly, forcing him to push it back so he could see the sparkling mote in the sky that Mikasa gestured towards. She was right, the stars were breathtaking out here. On an essentially moonless night, with not a cloud in the sky, it made a vista as expansive as the sea that lapped at the shore before them.
On the ride out, Mikasa told him about doing this when she was little and her family was still alive. Later, while recovering from the wounds she received at Wall Maria, Hange had found her a book on the stars after Mikasa asked a question of the eccentric commander. Wasting away from boredom, she spent the nights learning which stars had names and theories about what they were.
Propped on his side, Levi tried his best to follow the aim of her finger and see the stars she named, but none of them held his attention the way her face did. The way the dim light bounced off of the ridges of her face and reflected in her wide gray eyes, kept drawing him back in.
Those liquid slate eyes turned to Levi now, freezing him up like a rabbit spotted by a hawk. A slow smile spread across Mikasa’s lips and she rolled on her side to him.
He was still locked in place until her hand made contact with his cheek, the warm touch of her palm breaking the trance. “Sorry,” he murmured, feeling bad that he had been caught not listening.
“Don’t be,” she reassured, still holding his face. “There won’t be much time left for things like this soon.” Her voice filled with sad resignation.
“We’ll just have to make the most of it,” Levi replied, reaching forward to move that stubborn forelock away from her eyes.
The soft smile from earlier turned mischievous, and Levi found himself frozen once more when she pushed him onto his back and perched atop him.
