Chapter 1

Deep breath.

Eyes closed.

He allowed himself to forget his surroundings, focusing on only the cool metal of the microphone in between his fingertips.

The musky smell of sweat, the delayed screams from the audience that pierced through the air at various intervals, all suddenly drowned out by the authoritative sound of the violin, penetrating through the hushed voices of the restless crowd, signalling the beginning of the song.

His hips swayed from side to side as he allowed himself to get immersed in the beat.

The crash of the drums and the strum of the guitar to his rear reverberated throughout his being as he leant forward. His lips lightly brushed the head of the mic as he prepared himself.

The lyrics flowed from his lips smoothly yet powerfully, all eyes on him as his raspy voice permeated throughout the room.

Death surrounds,

My heartbeat's slowing down,

I won't take this world's abuse,

I won't give up, I refuse!

This is how it feels when you're bent and broken,

This is how it feels when your dignity's stolen,

When everything you love is leaving,

You hold on to what you believe in...

The music softened slightly, the drums letting up as the soft voice from the brunette on the guitar behind him drifted from the speakers.

The last thing I heard...

Was you whispering goodbye...

And then I heard you flat line!

Her comparatively soft but powerful voice added a new dynamic to the song.

As the chorus began, they sang simultaneously; the intense voices clashed, but surprisingly complimented one another. The male's hoarse voice overshadowed the feminine voice slightly, but not so much that hers became unnoticeable.

No!

Not gonna die tonight,

We've gotta stand and fight forever!

(Don't close your eyes)

No!

Not gonna die tonight,

We've gotta fight for us together,

No, we're not gonna die tonight...

As the song continued on into the second verse, the singer's eyes scanned the crowd. He was met with many hopeful faces, however there were none that caught his attention. Or so he thought, until he was met with the most beautiful set of teal eyes that he had ever seen.

Their intensity had his knees buckling underneath him. He steadied himself with the microphone stand and forced his voice not to waver and show the current emotions flowing through him.

All he could see were those eyes...those beautiful, vibrant eyes that he felt he could drown in. His voice raised as the pitch of the song changed, leading into the bridge.

Don't you give up on me...

You're everything I need...

As he sung that line, he put all of these new, conflicting emotions into his voice, staring longingly into those eyes, which seemed to glow with an ethereal light, even in the darkness of the club.

He wanted to look into those eyes forever, get lost in them and never...

6:28am

The clock glowed angrily at him from beside the bed as he glared at it.

It continued assaulting his bleary eyes as they adjusted to the brightness of the less than welcoming, overcast Monday morning light filtering in through the slanted blinds.

Again, he was awake before he needed to be. Only by two minutes mind you, but he still believed that to be valuable sleeping time.

His already sharp glare intensified as the number flickered tauntingly from an eight to a nine.

Maybe if I look at it menacingly enough...

He never got to finish the thought, his consciousness fading as his eyes slowly slid closed again. He only got far enough back into his dream to see those bright eyes flash before him, stunning him yet again with their intensity.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

His clock decided at that moment to obnoxiously blare out the song of its people just as he'd managed to doze back off.

He reached his left arm out blindly, his clumsy hand fumbling over his bedside table as he attempted to shut the damned thing off. He eventually found the desired object and slammed his hand down—much harder than necessary—and dragged himself into an upright position.

"Ugh," was all he could manage to groan out, his mind void of anything more coherent in his current drowsy state.

Before he could move fast enough to stop it, his phone alarm began ringing throughout his sparse apartment, echoing off of the plain white walls. He always set this second alarm, for precautionary reasons, although he rarely needed it.

"Fuck off," he growled out, switching the alarm off and shoving his phone back under his pillow as if it had offended his very being.

He moved sluggishly to sit on the edge of his bed, and stayed there for a few moments, trying to bring himself to move. The cold, uninviting air raised goosebumps up his bare legs.

How the hell do morning people do this shit every day? He bitterly thought to himself, absentmindedly rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

His toes recoiled as he pressed them gingerly against the cold wooden floorboards which ran throughout the whole apartment.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue piercing against the back of his teeth in aggravation.

He hated mornings more than he hated people, which was quite the achievement.

Stumbling into the adjoining bathroom ungracefully (and stubbing his toe in the process), he stared at himself in the mirror.

He was a mess.

Dark hair sticking up in all directions, a red mark on his cheek most likely from where his hand had been resting, and finally, the dark shadows beneath his eyes, blatantly announcing the fact that he'd had a less than peaceful night's sleep.

Restless nights had become the usual this past month. His subconscious was determined to torture him every night with that same dream.

He couldn't fathom how his mind had created such a vivid dream, but was highly unimpressed with it. It forced him to wake up feeling empty and unfulfilled.

He slowly began to undress himself, the first article of clothing that was removed was his plain black t-shirt, shortly followed by his boxers.

He meticulously took the time to fold them and place them carefully into the laundry basket, before stepping into the shower and turning it on.

A shower was compulsory every morning without fail, no exceptions.

After roughly 10 minutes, he turned the near-scalding water off and wrapped a fluffy towel around his waist.

Grimacing as he realized how disgusting his mouth tasted, he quickly went about brushing his teeth.

Every day was the same.

He followed a strict routine from which he rarely faltered, and he was so used to the repetitive system that he had perfected over the years, that he did everything without even thinking.

He dried himself off, and then chose clothes from his spotless closet (a pair of black, haphazardly ripped skinny jeans, a dark grey t-shirt which hugged his toned torso in all the right places and showed off his well-defined abdominal muscles, plus a pair of simple black boxers).

He dressed in silence, before moving to the kitchen to get out his favourite coffee mug, and turning on the coffee machine.

As the machine slowly began making his much needed caffeine, he retreated back to the bathroom. He again stared at himself in the mirror. He studied his appearance intently.

"I suppose it could be worse." He mumbled.

Levi Ackerman stood at a rather underwhelming 5"3.

His skin was flawless and deathly pale and his hair was a jet black in colour with a sleek undercut and short bangs that reached his eyes and parted slightly to the side.

He ran his fingers through said undercut as he began painstakingly styling his hair until not a single hair was out of place.

Levi had thin silver eyes; the only part of him that betrayed his true emotions. They gleamed back at him under the radiant lights. His nose was small, dainty almost, and it turned up marginally at the end. His lips were thin, and he occasionally envied those who had been gifted with thicker, plumper lips.

He turned his head from side to side to admire his handiwork, his facial piercings twinkling in the bright bathroom spotlights.

Six piercings in total.

A stud in each ear, as well as a ring in the helix of his right ear, a bar in his right eyebrow, a ring on the left side of his lip, and a small bar at the front of his tongue.

The most commonly asked questions tended to be "Did it hurt?" or "How did you deal with the pain?" Honestly, it wasn't as big of a deal as people made it. Yes, it had hurt, but it wasn't completely unbearable.

He added a final touch, a small line of eyeliner along the waterline of both eyes, and was finally done.

It wasn't until he had sat on one of the two bar stools at the breakfast bar in the middle of his kitchen, nursing his freshly brewed cup of black coffee, that his mobile phone started to go berserk in his room.

He scowled in its general direction, knowing full well who the culprit was.

Levi retrieved the phone and sat back down, his brow furrowing and a short sigh of exasperation passing through his lips as he studied the notifications.

43 Messages the screen shone tauntingly back at him. He reluctantly unlocked his phone, and opened the contact named Shitty Glasses.

The texts ranged from asking whether he had woken up yet, to random scientific facts, and even to whether he had gotten laid last night.

He replied with his usual "affectionate" and "articulate" responses.

Levi: Shut the fuck up.

The reply came almost immediately, as expected.

Shitty Glasses: Oh ho I guess that's a no then…

Shitty Glasses: Are you gonna be here soon?

Levi: No.

Shitty Glasses: Oh really? Wet dream got you sleeping in again?

Shitty Glasses: Ah the joy of wet dreams

Shitty Glasses: ;)

Levi made the executive decision to ignore her and instead finish his steaming coffee.

He knew he had plenty of time, he always did.

The mug was immediately washed, dried and put away before he grabbed his backpack, headphones and leather jacket. He stepped into his black combat boots that had been neatly placed by the door, pulled the jacket on and checked his bag for all of his items.

Once he had confirmed that he had all he needed, he left his apartment and locked the door behind him.

The wind outside was icy and cut right through him. Luckily, his apartment wasn't too far from the school.

Sina Highschool.

Aka;

Hell.

Notes:

To see Levi's outfit, my beta and I have created a visual collage for you!

Check out my tumblr to view it: that-bloody-brit