#rivetrafic

‘’Of course not Pet’’ He soothed, I just told you, you just had surgery, we are at the hospital.

‘’Hospital? what’s that? She asked confused, she was asleep before he could answer her                                                                                ⸻

She woke up again a couple of minutes later, Levi was still sitting next to her, he was reading something that looked like a newspaper, which he put down when he realized she was looking at him.

 ‘’Captain Levi, what happened with the female titan?’’

‘’Captain? Titan? Looks like you are still pretty out of it.’’ He said softly, slightly confused by the question, he sighed ‘And who is this captain you are talking about? Were you reading fanfiction last night?’

‘’Am I okay? She asked lethargically for a second time that day, ignoring his question. ‘’Are there no titans?’’

‘’Yes, you are fine, the effects of the anesthesia are just wearing off and that’s making you feel funny. I promise, you are okay and there are no titans here, and even if there were, I’ll protect you.’’ He reassured her, kissing her forehead.

The nurse had warned him that this was probably going to happen, most people woke up pretty confused from the anesthesia so he just let her be to not agitate her.

‘’Captain?’’

‘Yes?’’

‘’Did we save him’’

‘’Save who from what?’’

‘’Eren’’

‘’You mean my sister’s boyfriend Eren?’’ Chuckled Levi ‘’That brat is fine, they will probably come to visit you tomorrow.’’

‘’Captain, are we together?’’ She wanted to ask since she woke up, he was being so sweet and nice to her, not like he wasn’t before, but this time it was different, more intimate. The way he looked at her, his tone of voice. 

‘’What do you think?’’ Bragged Levi, pointing to the ring on his finger. She still seemed confused so he continued. ‘’Yes Petra, I am your husband, we are married.’’

‘’Oh’’ grinned Petra ‘’I’m so happy’’ She exclaimed followed by a huge yawn.

‘Yeah, you better be’’ He smiled at her. ‘’Get some rest, you are exhausted. I’ll be here when you wake up.’’ He promised. 

‘’I love being with you captain.” Petra purred, as she snuggled, going back to sleep.

‘’I love you too.’’

When Wings of Freedom came up on stage, she and Hange move amongst the crowd to go to the front, the venue wasn’t that big, so he could see her from across the stage. They were amazing, despite feeling quite ill she was having a great time, that until they started to play their fifth song.

She started to feel cold even though she was surrounded by sweaty people jumping around, her vision went fuzzy, she felt like her head was underwater. She tried to warn Hange and grab onto her but before she knew it, her body was falling to the floor.

‘’Petra, wait. Oh shit.’’ Was the last thing she heard before her vision went black.

As soon as Levi realized what was happening, he stopped playing and jumped off the stage, leaving his band members confused.

                                                        ⸻

When she opened her eyes again she was laying down on a couch, her legs elevated, her ears were ringing, but she could hear different voices around her calling her, asking if she was alright.

 “Hey, Hey. Look at me.” It was Levi, he looked worried. As soon as she was fully conscious he helped her sit up and gave her a bottle of water. ‘’What happened? Do you want me to take you to the hospital?’’

‘’What happened?’’ She asked confused and a little embarrassed, his whole band and some other people she could not recognize were looking at her. 

‘’You fainted.’’ Pointed out Hange. ‘’Here, eat this.’’ She gave her a piece of gum. ‘’You almost gave me a heart attack down there.’’

After a few minutes, everyone went back to whatever they were doing before she had been brought backstage, the concert was already over so the majority of people were just moving instruments around or saying bye to each other, Hange had gone back to their group of friends to let them know that Petra was ok.

‘’I’m sorry Levi’’ She apologized with her eyes downcast. She was fiddling with her fingernails,    feeling embarrassed, not only for passing out in a place with so many people but for doing it in the middle of one of their songs.

‘’Don’t worry about it, that was the last song in the set anyway, are you feeling better now?’’

‘’Yeah, I think so.’’

‘’You know, If you wanted my attention you didn't have to go to such extremes.’’ He said, mostly to tease her. ‘’I came here with you on a date after all.’’

‘’Leviii, I said I was sorry’’ She replied covering her face with her hands totally mortified.

‘’ I know, I know I’m just kidding, let’s go. I’ll take you home.’’

‘’Why are you sleeping there?’’—He asked crouching beside him after opening the door ‘’  —’’ where are your parents?’’

‘’My mom, she died..’’ he mumbled nervously.

‘’Where do you live?’’ Levi asked, mentally shrugging when the kid responded what he already suspected, he didn't have a house, nor did he have more family or a place to stay. He knew what it was like to be hungry and not knowing where to get food. Not having anyone to ask for help, to sleep on the streets and be ignored by everyone

‘’What's your name kid? Are you hungry?’’

‘’Johan, Johan Roth  and I have no money sir‘’

‘’That's not what I asked brat, come here, you don’t need to eat out of the trash, let's get inside and wash your hands, I don't have all day’’

                                                     ⸻

When Petra arrived at the shop, hours later she found Levi attending to some customers and Johan sleeping on a small couch. Later Levi told him that the kid appeared to be an orphan.

‘’We can’t leave him like that.’’

‘’I know’’

                                                                 ⸻ They both bonded with Johan immediately, he was a well-behaved kid. He loved to help Levi clean around and to help Petra when she was baking.

They asked around the town to see if Johan had more family members that could take care of him but could not find anyone.  Afte that, the plan was to take him to one of the orphanages in a couple of days, the days became weeks and months.

They somehow always had an excuse as to why they couldn't make it to the orphanage.

                                                                 ⸻ ‘’Say, Johan, do you like living with us?’’ Levi asked one day not wanting to sound pushy. ‘’Yes,’’ Johan responded sincerely.

And that’s how their little family of two, became a family of three.

Petra grew up without love, her father supported her financially but he was very distant emotionally, she had great friends at school, but she always felt like there was something else missing. She was from a small town in the countryside, where people tended to be conservative, where family was everything. So, when she visited her friends’ houses and saw them interacting with their families, she felt so ashamed and out of place, she felt so much envy.

When she started college, made new friends, when she met Floch, Petra felt that finally, good things were happening to her, she started to feel like she was having a normal life, that she was normal.

They were head over heels for each other since the very first time they met, they didn’t go to the same college but when they weren’t together, he called her and messaged her every day, all the time. She never felt so loved.

Unfortunately, life happened, and her father lost his job, he was moving back to their hometown, three hours away. She was on a scholarship, but even so, she didn’t have anywhere to live, so when Floch offered his place, she was so happy.

He was her silver lining.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

Petra woke up that morning feeling sore all over, she and Floch have had a huge fight the previous night over some stupid shit she couldn’t even remember. He threw her across the room a couple of times, she could see the bruises starting to form in her arms and legs.

She felt so tired, she didn’t really feel like going to classes but Floch only had classes in the morning that day which meant he would be home the whole afternoon and night, which translated to more fights and screams, just thinking about it gave her the energy boost she needed to get up and get ready to go to class.

‘’Hey guys, I saved you a seat’’ She said, waiving to Hange, Mikasa, and Armin that had just walked into the classroom.’’

‘’Hey, are you okay?’’ Hange asked sitting next to her.

‘’Yeah.’’ She smiled. ‘’I’m just really tired, I think I’m getting sick.’’ She lied, hoping that Hange would stop asking questions, she was a really good friend but so nosey sometimes.

‘’Do you wanna go to the new café after class?’’ Armin asked all of them, getting his things out of his backpack. ‘’They are giving out free cupcakes.’’

‘’Free food? Count me in.’’ Replied Mikasa. ‘’You coming too Petra?’’

She thought about it, on one hand, she didn’t want to be home, but she also knew that if she went out without him, he would get so pissed.

‘’I don’t know, I have things to do.’’

‘’Common, it’ll be just for a bit, besides everyone else will be there too. It’s like we never see you anymore…pleaaaaaseeee Petra.’’

‘’Okay, but just for a bit.’’

All her friends were at the café, Jean, and Eren fighting about the last cupcake, Mikasa was trying to calm things down between them, Armin was reading a book, Hange was ranting to Connie about some biology experiment she was working on, Sasha was stuffing her face with some doughnuts and Levi was just sitting there. Oh Levi, before she met Floch she kinda had a silly crush on him, I mean who wouldn’t like Levi? With those piercing blue eyes, his black hair, that undercut, she wondered how different things would be if she had been in a relationship with him instead of Floch.

But the guy was so reserved and intimidating, of course, they talked here and there being in the same group friend and all. But she couldn’t help but feel intimidated by his presence which made her nervous whenever she was around him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a bunch of notifications on her phone after it connected to the WIFI.

30 new messages from Floch <3

She was really screwed.

‘’Alright guys, I’m gonna go home now.’’ She announced gathering her things.

‘’Oww why? Exclaimed Armin. ‘’It’s still early, we were thinking about going to the movies after this’.’

She really wanted to go, she missed hanging out with them so much, but Flock didn’t like them, any of them, and the few times they had met, they had ended up fighting someone saying something, or him being jealous of the guys, it was simpler for her just to hang out with them in class.

She could hear the notifications of all the text messages from Floch coming in, it was embarrassing, but she couldn’t put the phone on silent mode, because if he called her and she didn’t answer, it was a shitshow, luckily no one said anything about the phone.

‘’My head kinda hurts.’’ She wasn’t lying. ‘’Maybe another time yeah?’’

‘’Do you want any of us to walk you home?’’ Eren asked her.

‘’ No.’’ She answered, faster than she intended to. ‘’ It’s okay, I’m gonna take the bus. See ya.’’

She didn’t really take the bus, she decided to walk home, slowly. As soon as she was away from the café tears started to fall. Part of her just wanted to get hit by a car or maybe get kidnapped, she didn’t want to go back to Floch’s apartment, but where else could she go.

She was about to cross the street when a black car stopped in front of her, it was Levi. She quickly dried up her tears using the sleeves of her hoodie.

‘’Hey,’’ He said awkwardly. ‘’I thought you said you were gonna take the bus, want a ride?’’

She couldn’t really make up an excuse to say, so she jumped into the car. They rode mostly in silence.

‘’Does your head hurt that bad?’’ He asked, worried after noticing that she looked like she had been crying.

‘’Hmm,’’ She responded. ‘’I’ll just take something when I get home, don’t worry about it.’’- ‘’Weren’t you going to the movies?’’ She asked him, trying to change the subject.

‘’Not my thing, besides, Hange was probably going to pick the shittiest movie available.’’

‘’You are right.’’ She laughed. ‘’It’s here’’ She said, pointing to the building around the corner. ‘’Thank you so much for the ride, Levi.’’

‘’No problem’’

She looked around before getting out of the car, hoping that she didn’t look too crazy. When she didn’t see him outside, she quickly got out of the car, praying to whatever God there was, that Floch would not be waiting for her at the balcony or looking out the window to see her getting out of Levi’s car.

While walking up the stairs, scared for what was waiting for her inside the apartment, she could not help but wonder when did things get so bad.