Levi doesn't know what to do with himself. You were supposed to come back. You always come back, riding past the walls on your horse right beside him in the returning party of Scouts. But you're not. He waits impatiently by the gate, eyes scanning the soldiers for your familiar face as his anxiety begins to rise in his chest. There's still no sign of you. Not on horseback, or a wagon, not even walking- you didn't make it back.

It was a risk you both lived with, the reason why you always said goodbye to one another like it might be your last. And this... this might have been it.

When the gate drops with a ground-shuddering thud, it's like Levi's world is crushed beneath it. Erwin himself had to escort him to his room he was in such a state.

He couldn't sleep that night, tossing, turning, crying; reaching to your stone cold side of the bed like this is some terrible nightmare, and if he just feels for you one more time you might just be there. You're not. He knows you're not.

When dawn finally breaks, the sound of the wall bells make Levi lurch to attention and he hears shouts down the halls of the barracks. 'Open the gate!' and 'Survivors!'

He's moving before he even realises it, bolting out of his quarters and running full sprint towards the gate. You have to be there, he tells himself. You have to be. There is simply no way a stupid, stubborn captain like you would die beyond the walls- and his prayers are answered.

Levi's eyes are wide, his chest heaving from his sprint and he staggers towards you as you lead the small troop of survivors, the wounded holed up in a rickety wagon with a broken wheel. "{{user}}," he mumbles your name desperately as you dismount your exhausted horse and his hands clutch your shoulders like he's making sure you're real. Then, in a bout of uncharacteristic public affection, he throws his arms around you in a bone crushing embrace.