#hunter!levi

With a quiet sigh, the stoic hunter turned to grab a pack of cigarettes that sat atop the nearby dresser, shifting to take a seat in an armchair across from the couch as he removed one from the pack and placed it in his mouth.  After lighting it, he fell into the chair hard, then carelessly tossed the pack and lighter down on the table in front of him, intentionally making as much noise as possible.  

He let himself spread out as he sunk into the chair, watching the young man stir as he took a drag of his cigarette.

“Oi...”  The man finally spoke. “You still alive?”

“Uhh...”  The blonde blinked his eyes open, and soon two orbs of shining pale blue found themselves resting on the tattered man before him, before quickly becoming wide as his face contorted with confusion and fear.  He pushed himself up onto his knees from where he lay on his stomach, his eyes fixed on the man as he shakily pressed himself into the back of the couch, his breaths coming quick and panicked.  “Who... who are you?!”  

The dark-haired man lifted a hand towards him.  “It's alright...”  He said, his voice flat and emotionless, but soft.  “You're safe.”  

“What?”  He asked, bringing his shaking fist up to his lips in fear as his mind tried to put the pieces together.  “W-what happened?”  

“You don't remember?”  He asked, expelling smoke from his lungs after taking a drag.  The small room was beginning to become blanketed with an opaque fog.  “You were imprisoned.”  He told him lowly.  “By blood-suckers.”

The young man trembled, his breaths coming shaky as he tried not to whimper, and the look behind his eyes showing evidence that the memories were coming back to him.  “I-I was...?”  

“Yes...”  He said again flatly, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stared at the boy, seemingly unmoved by his fright.  

His guest leaned further back against the couch, curling himself up into a tight ball as he brought both his hands up to his chin and stared up at the man before him.  After a moment, his expression changed and his hands stilled with a look of recognition.  “Y-you...”  He said with wide eyes.  “You're Levi...”  His breath shook at the implications of his realization. “The Gate Keeper.”

The warrior before him, Levi, the most renowned Keeper in the city, continued to stare blankly at him as he answered simply, “Yes.”

It seemed the young man had now slipped from a hysterical panic to being frozen with fear.  “I-I...” He tried to speak, his pale blue eyes wide and terrified.  “M-my family...”  The blonde shook, his voice cracking as he spoke. “Where are they...?”

Levi looked down, idly attempting to rub a stain out of his jeans while he answered, “I don't know...” He said flatly.  “Dead, probably...”  

The blonde gasped quietly, his throat so shaky and tight he could barely breathe.  He opened his trembling hands and put them over his mouth, attempting to muffle the whimpers and sobs that were threatening to break through.  “N-no...”  The young man muttered, and couldn't hold it back any longer.  He squeezed his eyes shut as he sobbed into his hands, his entire body shaking and curling in tighter.  “No... please...”

The Keeper looked back up at the boy - his stern, stoic expression softening just slightly as he listened to him sob.  He had no words for the young man.  Nothing he could say could make the pain any less.  He knew that all too well. 

A somber and uneasy silence went by as the boy continued to sob.  The hunter across from him, sitting quietly as he waited patiently for him to stop.  He wasn't sure how long it was, but the boys cries finally began to slow into whimpers as he took the last drag of his second cigarette.  

He sniffed as he brought his hands down from his face, his cheeks streaked with tears and flushed red with grief.  

The dark-haired warrior leaned forward, pushing a box of tissue towards him as he pressed his cigarette butt into the ashtray.  “...Wipe off your face.”  He said with a stern coldness, but there was a slight hint of compassion there.

The young man looked up at him a moment - distraught, confused and exhausted – then looked down at the box of tissue and timidly took one, gingerly bringing it up to his running nose.

“What's your name?”  Levi asked.

The boy sniffed again before answering as he folded the tissue, struggling to find his words as he swallowed his aching throat.  “I... I'm...”  He said, his voice cracking painfully.  “Armin Arlert, sir...”

“Armin...”  The Keeper acknowledged.  “You're lucky to be alive.”

He watched as his guest took a deep, shaky breath – trying to hold back the cries that still threatened to escape.  With the pain in his throat and his hyperventilating lungs, he had not the energy to let them out.  The young man closed his eyes and nodded, acknowledging the hunters words and realizing that he was probably the only reason he was still here.  “Y-yes... Thank you...”

“You'll have to report to the high council in the morning.  Until then...”  Levi stated as he reached under the table for a tall, dark glass bottle and sat it on the surface.  “Here.  Go numb.”

Armin blinked as he looked down at the bottle, half full with liqueur and the label removed.  He looked away after realizing it was alcohol.  The young man had never so much had a sip of the stuff in his life.  

“...No, thank you...”  He said quietly, lowering his eyes to the floor.  

“Suit yourself.”  The dark-haired man said before picking up the bottle, tipping it back and taking a drink for himself.  

“Sir...”  Armin said, timidly looking back at him.  “If it's all the same... I think I'd like to just go home...”

“No.”  Levi said after bringing down the bottle, causing a watery, clinking sound as the liquid sloshed around inside.

“What?”

“I can't allow you to leave.”

The blonde leaned back into the couch a bit more, tensing up to the man's stern words.  Despite the fact that he'd saved him from certain death or slavery, he found the hunter almost more intimidating than the vampires that had taken him. “...Why?”

“I am required to bring you to the High Council in the morning so you can tell then what happened.  It's protocol.”  He explained.  “Believe me.  I wouldn't keep you here if I didn't have to...”  He said and took another drink.

“I... I see...”  

“I would offer you something to eat, but... I doubt you have much of an appetite...”  Levi stood and walked towards the windows.  The morning sun had begun to peek over the horizon, it's first rays of light shining through the left window where the curtain was already open.  As he spread the other curtain, the light spilled inside, brightening the room a bit more.

He stared out at the dystopian city before him.  The place he called home.  The place he swore his life to protect.  Despite it's crumbling buildings, and thick, smog-filled air, this was it.  The last bastion for human survival.  The only place humans could be 'safe'.

“Ah!”  A sudden cry behind him jarred him from his thoughts, and he turned to see the young blonde, now on the other side of the couch, holding his arms and staring at the light landing on the couch in confusion.  

Levi furrowed his brow and immediately went for one of the swords that hung on the wall, stepping over swiftly with heavy stomps and pointing the blade directly at the boy.

“Ahh!”  Armin yelped again at the sight, his eyes getting wide as he looked up the shining silver shaft, the tip of it's sharp blade just inches away from his face. “Wha...?!”  

“Where were you bit?”  The hunter demanded.

“W-what?!”

“Where were you bit?” He said more firmly, his voice raising as his expression became more angry.

“I-I wasn't!”

“Then why does your skin burn in the sunlight?”  

“I don't know!!”

Levi reached down quickly, passed his blade, and grasped the boy's shirt, pulling him up by his collar and forcing him to stand up.  He shoved him away from him, causing the blonde to stumble backwards, before raising his blade once again.

“Take your clothes off.”

“What?!!”  Armin yelped, shaking in terror.  

“Now!”  

“No!”

“Do it!”  Levi shouted forcefully. “Or I'll kill you where you stand.”  

Holding his arms to his chest, Armin's breath shook as he looked at the sharp, intense eyes across from him. He felt his throat begin to ache as he once again held back the urge to cry, but the tears he could not stifle.  As the droplets of liquid rolled down his cheeks, he closed his eyes and reached his shaking arms down to the brim of his shirt and gingerly pulled it over his head. 

The hunter stood there a moment, staring him down, eyeing a spot on the left side of the boys abdomen where two clear puncture marks were plain to see, then looked back up at the blondes face.

“You're a night-walker.”  The man said.

“No, I-I'm not...!”  The young blonde cried desperately, his eyes still closed and his teeth clenched.  His expression betraying his words, revealing in it's painful contortion that he knew the truth.  

“Tch...”  Levi scoffed.  “Letting a blood-sucker into my home.  How careless of me...”

“I... I'm not...”  Armin whimpered, again breaking out into weak sobs as he turned his head down deeper towards the floor.  

“How long ago where you bitten?”

“Please...”  He begged.  “I'm not a vampire...”

“Hmph...  Not yet...” Levi huffed coldly.

“P-please...”

“How long.”  Levi demanded again.

“I don't know!”  Armin burst out, finding himself coming to his breaking point.  All he wanted to do was wake up from this terrible nightmare.

“What do you remember?”

“I don't know...”  He whimpered again, his voice becoming more and more pathetic, and he kneeled on the floor, wrapping his arms around his knees as he trembled with nothing else left he could do.  “P-please...”  His voice came out in cracking sobs.  “I just wanna go home...”  

Levi paused, narrowing his eyes a bit at the cowering boy before him, and couldn't help but feel pity for him.  “Unfortunately...”  The hunter said lowly.  “That's no longer up for you to decide...”  

Armin whimpered and silently cried as he held himself in a tight ball on the floor.  “...A-are you going to kill me..?”  He muttered between sobs.  

“...No.”  Levi answered.  “Not unless you give me a reason to.”  

The blonde shivered as he looked back up at the hunter, eyes red with tear stained cheeks.  

“As long as you don't threaten mine or anyone else's life...”  The man explained.  “It's up to the High Council to decide your fate...”  

Armin took a shaky breath, then looked down at the floor.  “Ohh...”  

After a moment, the stern Keeper finally eased his frightening demeanor and lowered his sword. Placing it down on the table, he stepped over to the trembling, half-naked boy crouched on his floor and kneeled in front of him, offering him his hand.  “...I apologize for frightening you.”  He said, his tone now surprisingly soft.  “Stand up.”  

The young man looked up at the hunter before him, his face a mixture of surprise, relief, exhaustion and pain.  He slowly uncoiled one of his arms and placed his shaking hand in the one offered to him.  Levi stood, pulling him up with him.  The blonde continued to watch him with curious eyes as the man reached down and picked his shirt up from the ground, then handed it to him. Armin glanced down at it briefly before timidly taking it, a bit taken aback by the sudden compassion he was now receiving, and looked back up at the man.  

Their eyes hung on each other, fixated with cold steel against pale blue.  Levi looked down a moment, then glanced back up briefly before turning away, stepping back towards the window.

Armin stood there, quietly frozen. Still terrified, though his nerves had begun to calm.  He looked down, finally laying eyes on the puncture marks on his stomach and he trembled, suddenly feeling sick and violated, and his heart sunk as the reality of this situation he'd suddenly found himself in got deeper.  

With a quick jerk, Levi pulled the curtains closed - causing the young man to jump slightly at the sudden movement - then turned back to his guest.  As the boy looked up, his eyes were caught in the others sharp, steel-blue gaze; through their dark coldness, seemed to be an unspoken apology.  It was a look that made the boy fear even more for what was to come of him.

Armin held his shirt tightly and close to his chest,  “...W-what's...”  Then asked with a weak and frightened quiver, “...going to happen to me now...?”

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Thanks for reading!