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Jan. 31st, 2014
Title: The Walls (chapter 1.1)
Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin
Pairing: *updating*
Rating: Safe
Warning: Alternative Universe, Origin!Fic (sort of)
Wordcount: 2058
Summary: Welcome to The Walls.
It’s a world in itself. A world where you live. A world where you die, and all you have to do it’s doing your best, because you have nothing to lose anymore.
Or do you?
Awakening
He had to run.
He felt it down deep in his gut, a primordial instinct that urged him on his feet even before he managed to open his eyes. He had to run, he had to be quick, he had to get up and move, but his body wouldn't obey. His back and his bones ached, his mind felt sluggish, as if he had been sleeping for a very long time, and he had forgotten what it felt like to be awake.
He knew that it was the smell that woke him up. The sharp smell of rotting waste, and what seemed like the content of thousands of cesspools, hit his nostrils with such violence that he felt his empty stomach churn and his skin crawl. His gut feeling urged him again: he had to get up and get the fuck away from the filth he smelled.
He couldn't open his eyes yet, though. Why not? He had to wait. Wait for what? He had been told to wait for his other senses to sharpen, before trying to get up. He wouldn't have remembered the instructions in so many words, but he would have known and followed them. What?!
The rough wall behind his back was suddenly much more uncomfortable than it was only a few moments ago, and he found that his bare feet were practically freezing off. When he curled his toes, he felt the hard stones of a paved street. Wet hard stones.
He shuddered and tried to get away from the unknown dampness, but moving was hard, it hurt, like he was trying to squeeze himself in a really tight space, like his skin wasn't quite the right size.
In the distance, the muted hum of a trafficked street filled the silence, unfamiliar and comforting at the same time.
Someone shouted his name and he finally opened his eyes.
‟Levi! What the fuck, have you been napping here all this time?”
Levi blinked. He was half sprawled against a wall, in a smelly alley he didn't know, right under Anna's shop back window. Who's Anna? He sit up with half a gasp, and realized with a grimace that part of the smell came from him. The rest of it was probably horses, more people, and the nasty-looking sludge that trickled along the alley's edge.
The boy who called out his name crouched at his side and put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly. Levi couldn't place where he had seen his face before, but his mind supplied a name - Cutter - and the fact that he had completely forgotten to warn him that he was going to take a nap somewhere before getting back to work. Wait, was he really cutting people's bag for a living?
‟Uh,” answered Levi, touching his pocket. A small bulge told him that the small amount of money that he had collected during the morning was still there. Thank Sina. Sina?
‟You seriously went and fell asleep just like this? Holy shit you're lucky nobody gutted you or something,” Cutter murmured, fixing Levi's tattered shirt on his shoulder. He then noticed the bulging pocket and went ‟Lucky bastard, you still have the money too! Where's Stayn?”
Levi batted away his hands with a grunt.
‟How the fuck am I supposed to know, I'm not his mom,” his mouth answered automatically. His mind was clearing, his body loosening up. Maybe it was just the uncomfortable position he fell asleep in, all leant against the wall like that.
He rubbed at his eyes. ‟Shit. What time is it?”
‟Somewhere between two and three, you sleeping beauty. I've been looking for you since midday, what the hell. I thought someone had caught you.”
‟You thought they caught me? Ha. Nobody catches me,” answered Levi, and he knew it was the truth. He was too quick.
‟Hey, you ok?” asked Cutter, leaning back into his personal space again. ‟You look like you got a blow to the head. You sure nobody tried to take away your stuff?”
‟I'm fine,” Levi answered, standing up with a fluid movement, dusting his pants with quick pats of his hands.
‟It just feels like I've had a long-ass dream.”
Cutter scoffed, but he smiled, shaking his head and getting up. ‟Dreams ever got your belly full, Levi? Lucky you. Try to eat something more solid than dream stuff though, or you'll end up being on of them,” he teased, poking him in the side with his bony fingers.
‟Fuck off, Cutter, you're not my real mom,” he snapped, waving away the offending fingers. ‟Not even my fake one, to be fair, and I'm too old for either anyway. Older women are not really of my taste.”
Cutter flipped him the bird and shoved him playfully. Levi chuckled, shoving back amicably.
They fell in a comfortable silence, while Levi stretched in the alley's dim afternoon air. It was still warm enough in this season to stay outside for a while longer, but he couldn't help but feel a chill settled deep in his bones. Winter was coming, and his clothes were getting too thin to allow him to stay still in once place for too long. He needed to move, at least to prevent getting too cold.
He looked down at his feet and grimaced at the sight of the dirt caked between his toes. He needed a bath, and a new pair of shoes. He would have liked to get his hands on some boots; they were warm, durable, and could be used to hide small weapons and extra money. Unfortunately they were really expensive and difficult to steal.
‟Well, I'm glad you're ok,” Cutter said, startling him out of his thinking. ‟I think I'm going to look for Stayn, then. You never know with him, he could be gone fishing in the canal or he could be stabbing someone in a dark alley.”
I hope he's not the one getting stabbed, was implied in his tone.
Levi felt sorry for him. Stayn was one troublemaker.
‟I can go, if you want. I picked pigs' pockets all the morning, I can afford to lose an afternoon if you need a hand looking for him,” he offered.
If Cutter was starting to gather up his kids this early, it probably meant that he wanted them all home for some special occasion, or he was having bad feelings about something. Cutter wasn't a mother-hen that liked having her chicks all over the place when tension was high.
‟No, it's ok. I have the guys helping me out. Jenn is checking from above and I asked Anna if she could keep an eye out on the street, if she spotted him or something. The others are back already, so there. We should be fine.” He hesitated, and then went on ‟Be sure to sleep somewhere safe tonight. Maybe it's nothing, but you can't be too careful.”
Levi nodded, accepting his advice.
Cutter smiled, gave him a mock salute and ran out the alley, to join the rest of his small squad in the stream of people in the main street.
---
It wasn't like he enjoyed what he did, but there was something about it that set Levi's nerves on fire.
Everything had to be calculated and measured to the last detail; there was no half-assing stuff when you had to slide your hand in someone's pockets to grab their wallet and run away. You could improvise, sure, but if you did you had to deal with consequences. Levi knew. Somehow.
The first step was choosing the victim. Levi's personal favourite were rich, fat men who clearly had thought about taking a morning stroll and belately realized that they were too paranoid to actually enjoy walking down the street, among poor people, without being afraid to be robbed. It was surprising how many of them there were every day. One would think that they would have learned, at some point.
Maybe he enjoyed how much it felt like hunting - Levi knew he had been prey all his life. Still was, with all this fucking talk of Titans outside the Walls, and the Military Police that tried to catch his ass all the time, but in that moment he was the hunter.
His prey this time was a tall man, with a ridiculously carefully trimmed beard and moustache. He had caught his eye because he wasn't the usual paranoid type, who normally kept his hand hovering over his pocket, but he looked nervous anyway.
He was a difficult target, but Levi had chosen him on purpose.
The money was in the inner pocket of his jacket. Levi had been following him for almost an hour now, and he had seen him putting the wallet back after a purchase. He also had an expensive-looking pocketwatch inside the waistcoat, but Levi didn't care about that. He stole just what he needed, he wasn't a seller.
Levi pretended to be interested to the spices in the stand in front of him when the man turned to look around, suspicious. He didn't think he had been spotted yet. Trimmed-beard was just being careful.
He watched him with the corner of his eye while he turned back, and followed him, silent and fluid like a shadow, getting closer and closer.
The man stopped in front of a shop window and leaned over, presumably squinting at the price of whatever was exposed in the shop.
That was it. Levi just had to slip behind his back while he was distracted and cut into his jacket to let the money out. Easy.
The blade of the knife almost didn't make a sound while it glided into the soft fabric, and Levi's trained fingers were quick to slip into the laceration around the billfold. He stopped just to watch the man's hand covering the pocket and discovering the damage, before smirking to himself and starting to run.
Levi was three years too old to be a pickpocket, but he could get away with it because he hadn't had something that most fifteen years old had had instead: a growth spurt. He was small and lithe, and could run away faster than most, blending into the crowd thanks to his height.
He ran through the market place, leaving chaos and yelling in his wake, purposely crossing by the noisiest stands to rise even more ruckus and cover his escape. If he had followed his usual modus operandi, nobody would have even realized that there had been a theft in the first place, but he enjoyed the chase, sometimes.
Blood pounding in his ears, muscle straining, changing quickly direction in order to avoid getting caught; after having played the hunter, Levi was playing the prey. He didn't mind though, because in his fist there was a wallet, the rich texture of expensive leather smooth in his palm.
His running away came to a stop when he decided to take a shortcut through the wrong alley: a dead end. Levi stared at the wall, unsure what to do next. It was a simple stone wall, similar to many walls in the city. It wasn't too high, either, but for someone who hit a meter and half with a good effort it was still pretty damn high.
He could climb though. And he was pretty good at it. Oh really?
Yeah. He could run and climb up. All he had to do was to hold to the wall when he got a nice grasp, and haul himself up and over it.
That sounds pretty fucking difficult. But he could do it easily.
Fuck it. He was going to try anyway. He pushed the wallet between his teeth, started to run up to the wall and jumped to step on it.
Too far, told him his mind, but his foot actually got a grip on the wall and pushed him up. Startled, Levi kept going, throwing up his arms, purchasing for the edge to hold on. He bit down hard on the billfold when he scraped his hands on the rough stone, but he managed to bring his chest over the edge and to haul himself on top, one foot at a time.
Standing on the wall and breathing hard through his teeth and the leather wallet, Levi watched the city spread out in front of him and the sun that was going down behind the west side of Wall Shina.
Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin
Pairing: *updating*
Rating: Safe
Warning: Alternative Universe, Origin!Fic (sort of)
Wordcount: 2058
Summary: Welcome to The Walls.
It’s a world in itself. A world where you live. A world where you die, and all you have to do it’s doing your best, because you have nothing to lose anymore.
Or do you?
He had to run.
He felt it down deep in his gut, a primordial instinct that urged him on his feet even before he managed to open his eyes. He had to run, he had to be quick, he had to get up and move, but his body wouldn't obey. His back and his bones ached, his mind felt sluggish, as if he had been sleeping for a very long time, and he had forgotten what it felt like to be awake.
He knew that it was the smell that woke him up. The sharp smell of rotting waste, and what seemed like the content of thousands of cesspools, hit his nostrils with such violence that he felt his empty stomach churn and his skin crawl. His gut feeling urged him again: he had to get up and get the fuck away from the filth he smelled.
He couldn't open his eyes yet, though. Why not? He had to wait. Wait for what? He had been told to wait for his other senses to sharpen, before trying to get up. He wouldn't have remembered the instructions in so many words, but he would have known and followed them. What?!
The rough wall behind his back was suddenly much more uncomfortable than it was only a few moments ago, and he found that his bare feet were practically freezing off. When he curled his toes, he felt the hard stones of a paved street. Wet hard stones.
He shuddered and tried to get away from the unknown dampness, but moving was hard, it hurt, like he was trying to squeeze himself in a really tight space, like his skin wasn't quite the right size.
In the distance, the muted hum of a trafficked street filled the silence, unfamiliar and comforting at the same time.
Someone shouted his name and he finally opened his eyes.
‟Levi! What the fuck, have you been napping here all this time?”
Levi blinked. He was half sprawled against a wall, in a smelly alley he didn't know, right under Anna's shop back window. Who's Anna? He sit up with half a gasp, and realized with a grimace that part of the smell came from him. The rest of it was probably horses, more people, and the nasty-looking sludge that trickled along the alley's edge.
The boy who called out his name crouched at his side and put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly. Levi couldn't place where he had seen his face before, but his mind supplied a name - Cutter - and the fact that he had completely forgotten to warn him that he was going to take a nap somewhere before getting back to work. Wait, was he really cutting people's bag for a living?
‟Uh,” answered Levi, touching his pocket. A small bulge told him that the small amount of money that he had collected during the morning was still there. Thank Sina. Sina?
‟You seriously went and fell asleep just like this? Holy shit you're lucky nobody gutted you or something,” Cutter murmured, fixing Levi's tattered shirt on his shoulder. He then noticed the bulging pocket and went ‟Lucky bastard, you still have the money too! Where's Stayn?”
Levi batted away his hands with a grunt.
‟How the fuck am I supposed to know, I'm not his mom,” his mouth answered automatically. His mind was clearing, his body loosening up. Maybe it was just the uncomfortable position he fell asleep in, all leant against the wall like that.
He rubbed at his eyes. ‟Shit. What time is it?”
‟Somewhere between two and three, you sleeping beauty. I've been looking for you since midday, what the hell. I thought someone had caught you.”
‟You thought they caught me? Ha. Nobody catches me,” answered Levi, and he knew it was the truth. He was too quick.
‟Hey, you ok?” asked Cutter, leaning back into his personal space again. ‟You look like you got a blow to the head. You sure nobody tried to take away your stuff?”
‟I'm fine,” Levi answered, standing up with a fluid movement, dusting his pants with quick pats of his hands.
‟It just feels like I've had a long-ass dream.”
Cutter scoffed, but he smiled, shaking his head and getting up. ‟Dreams ever got your belly full, Levi? Lucky you. Try to eat something more solid than dream stuff though, or you'll end up being on of them,” he teased, poking him in the side with his bony fingers.
‟Fuck off, Cutter, you're not my real mom,” he snapped, waving away the offending fingers. ‟Not even my fake one, to be fair, and I'm too old for either anyway. Older women are not really of my taste.”
Cutter flipped him the bird and shoved him playfully. Levi chuckled, shoving back amicably.
They fell in a comfortable silence, while Levi stretched in the alley's dim afternoon air. It was still warm enough in this season to stay outside for a while longer, but he couldn't help but feel a chill settled deep in his bones. Winter was coming, and his clothes were getting too thin to allow him to stay still in once place for too long. He needed to move, at least to prevent getting too cold.
He looked down at his feet and grimaced at the sight of the dirt caked between his toes. He needed a bath, and a new pair of shoes. He would have liked to get his hands on some boots; they were warm, durable, and could be used to hide small weapons and extra money. Unfortunately they were really expensive and difficult to steal.
‟Well, I'm glad you're ok,” Cutter said, startling him out of his thinking. ‟I think I'm going to look for Stayn, then. You never know with him, he could be gone fishing in the canal or he could be stabbing someone in a dark alley.”
I hope he's not the one getting stabbed, was implied in his tone.
Levi felt sorry for him. Stayn was one troublemaker.
‟I can go, if you want. I picked pigs' pockets all the morning, I can afford to lose an afternoon if you need a hand looking for him,” he offered.
If Cutter was starting to gather up his kids this early, it probably meant that he wanted them all home for some special occasion, or he was having bad feelings about something. Cutter wasn't a mother-hen that liked having her chicks all over the place when tension was high.
‟No, it's ok. I have the guys helping me out. Jenn is checking from above and I asked Anna if she could keep an eye out on the street, if she spotted him or something. The others are back already, so there. We should be fine.” He hesitated, and then went on ‟Be sure to sleep somewhere safe tonight. Maybe it's nothing, but you can't be too careful.”
Levi nodded, accepting his advice.
Cutter smiled, gave him a mock salute and ran out the alley, to join the rest of his small squad in the stream of people in the main street.
It wasn't like he enjoyed what he did, but there was something about it that set Levi's nerves on fire.
Everything had to be calculated and measured to the last detail; there was no half-assing stuff when you had to slide your hand in someone's pockets to grab their wallet and run away. You could improvise, sure, but if you did you had to deal with consequences. Levi knew. Somehow.
The first step was choosing the victim. Levi's personal favourite were rich, fat men who clearly had thought about taking a morning stroll and belately realized that they were too paranoid to actually enjoy walking down the street, among poor people, without being afraid to be robbed. It was surprising how many of them there were every day. One would think that they would have learned, at some point.
Maybe he enjoyed how much it felt like hunting - Levi knew he had been prey all his life. Still was, with all this fucking talk of Titans outside the Walls, and the Military Police that tried to catch his ass all the time, but in that moment he was the hunter.
His prey this time was a tall man, with a ridiculously carefully trimmed beard and moustache. He had caught his eye because he wasn't the usual paranoid type, who normally kept his hand hovering over his pocket, but he looked nervous anyway.
He was a difficult target, but Levi had chosen him on purpose.
The money was in the inner pocket of his jacket. Levi had been following him for almost an hour now, and he had seen him putting the wallet back after a purchase. He also had an expensive-looking pocketwatch inside the waistcoat, but Levi didn't care about that. He stole just what he needed, he wasn't a seller.
Levi pretended to be interested to the spices in the stand in front of him when the man turned to look around, suspicious. He didn't think he had been spotted yet. Trimmed-beard was just being careful.
He watched him with the corner of his eye while he turned back, and followed him, silent and fluid like a shadow, getting closer and closer.
The man stopped in front of a shop window and leaned over, presumably squinting at the price of whatever was exposed in the shop.
That was it. Levi just had to slip behind his back while he was distracted and cut into his jacket to let the money out. Easy.
The blade of the knife almost didn't make a sound while it glided into the soft fabric, and Levi's trained fingers were quick to slip into the laceration around the billfold. He stopped just to watch the man's hand covering the pocket and discovering the damage, before smirking to himself and starting to run.
Levi was three years too old to be a pickpocket, but he could get away with it because he hadn't had something that most fifteen years old had had instead: a growth spurt. He was small and lithe, and could run away faster than most, blending into the crowd thanks to his height.
He ran through the market place, leaving chaos and yelling in his wake, purposely crossing by the noisiest stands to rise even more ruckus and cover his escape. If he had followed his usual modus operandi, nobody would have even realized that there had been a theft in the first place, but he enjoyed the chase, sometimes.
Blood pounding in his ears, muscle straining, changing quickly direction in order to avoid getting caught; after having played the hunter, Levi was playing the prey. He didn't mind though, because in his fist there was a wallet, the rich texture of expensive leather smooth in his palm.
His running away came to a stop when he decided to take a shortcut through the wrong alley: a dead end. Levi stared at the wall, unsure what to do next. It was a simple stone wall, similar to many walls in the city. It wasn't too high, either, but for someone who hit a meter and half with a good effort it was still pretty damn high.
He could climb though. And he was pretty good at it. Oh really?
Yeah. He could run and climb up. All he had to do was to hold to the wall when he got a nice grasp, and haul himself up and over it.
That sounds pretty fucking difficult. But he could do it easily.
Fuck it. He was going to try anyway. He pushed the wallet between his teeth, started to run up to the wall and jumped to step on it.
Too far, told him his mind, but his foot actually got a grip on the wall and pushed him up. Startled, Levi kept going, throwing up his arms, purchasing for the edge to hold on. He bit down hard on the billfold when he scraped his hands on the rough stone, but he managed to bring his chest over the edge and to haul himself on top, one foot at a time.
Standing on the wall and breathing hard through his teeth and the leather wallet, Levi watched the city spread out in front of him and the sun that was going down behind the west side of Wall Shina.
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