An electric wave shot down my spine as the man, much stronger than I hoisted me up against the wall, my legs clung to his waist and gasping at the feeling of his body pressed to mine. This was wrong, so wrong, but our mingling breaths, a panting chorus of need that grew with every feverish kiss told me I need this. I needed him. His tongue begged, no, took entry into my already open mouth and claimed it, sliding wet and slick over mine enticing a moan from me. He answered my call with a squeeze to my buttocks that made my body arch against him.

"Levi!" I moaned as he pushed the bulge of his uniform hard against the lustful mound between my legs. What if we got caught? We shouldn't do this, but we were losing control. All those sideways glances and unspoken words were all pouring out in this unprecedented act of betrayal, passion, lust and above all…love.

It had all began when I was sparring with Petra. I reached up to block her strike and suffered a blow to my forearm. Easily, I twisted the limb around to pull her offending arm past me, turning to push her completely to the ground where I proceeded to straddle her from behind, still holding her arm I twisted it and pinned it to her back. I leaned down and put my other arm around her neck. Like this, she couldn't get up. She grunted, struggled, but I held fast.

The cadets watching us clapped.

"Enough," said Levi. I released her and got up, dusting off my scraped knees and offering a hand to the sandy haired girl. Still breathing heavily, she took it and dusted herself off.

"You leave yourself too open, and your feet were too far apart, it's how I was able to pull you off balance so easily." I told her.

"My turn," said Levi, pulling off his cravat and jacket, shoving them into Hanji's surprised hands. Even Petra was shocked, she blinked and retreated to the rest of our squad to watch. Often, I would spar with our little group in front of the cadets. It was as much for sport as it was for their education, not to mention a great work out. But Levi was…well, he didn't lower himself to such things. He was humanity's strongest after all, he didn't need to practice on mere humans, much less me.

I was nervous, but I turned that into adrenaline and readied my fighting stance. Levi rolled up his sleeves and raised his fists. I watched him for his first move, he watched me with those even, expressionless eyes. It was one hell of a poker face.

I couldn't even tell when he was about to strike until his fist was gracefully colliding with the left side of my jaw. I immediately saw stars and stumbled back, raising my arms in a block. It was a distracting move as I regained enough sense to simultaneously turn with a roundhouse kick, which he dodged.

"Damn shorty!" I shouted in frustration, only realizing I had actually spoken out loud instead of in my head.

He countered my insult with a knee to my gut just as I had scarcely finished the kick. The wind was knocked out of me, but I swung with a hard uppercut, which connected. I could only gasp with excitement when I felt my fist against his jaw and he was pushed away. We both regained our senses and he came at me again, I dodged a blow to my face only to get hit in the solar plexus. I coughed, and tried to back up, and instinctively raised both my forearms to block another punch. This caused a series of enthusiastic "oohs" from our audience.

It was time to get serious. I was best at close combat, really close. I'd have to move fast. I dropped and swung my legs to try and trip him. He jumped and I used the moment to return to a standing position, spinning to place myself right against him, my back to his chest and I elbowed back. Of course the hit would cause him to double over, but with my body in the way, he'd be set off balance. In that moment I took his arm and crouched, pulling with all my might and moving in such a way that I pulled my Heichou over my shoulder and onto his back on the ground. Still holding his arm, I quickly dropped on top of him, letting go and using my knees to pin his arms.

Sure, this meant my ass was in his face, but he was trying to kill me! Breathing hard I realized I was bleeding. The cadets were cheering. Someone let out a hoot. I spat out the blood into the sand and realized Levi wasn't moving. I was about to say something snide when a slow clap was heard behind me. I looked over my shoulder. It was Erwin.

"I think that's enough for today. Good job, both of you."

I blushed and got off of Levi, sitting in the dirt beside him, panting. I pushed the stray hairs that had fallen from my pony tail out of my face and rubbed my jaw. Levi was still laying there, hardly bloodied at all and staring at me. I blinked.

"Clever move," said Erwin, reaching out to me. I took his arm and he pulled me to my feet without me having to give any effort. I only stood about as tall as his chest, the commander certainly was an imposing figure.

I turned to give Levi a hand up as well, but he ignored my hand and got up with a "tch."

He snatched his cravat and jacket from Hanji and was already walking off. I couldn't see his face. Was he angry?

I stared after him, but in the end all I could do was shrug. He was a moody little thing and who was I to try to figure out the complex animal that was Lance-Corporal Levi Ackerman? Besides, there were more pressing things.

"That's all for today," said Erwin to the cadets, "you are dismissed."

There were some disappointed groans, but it was soon replaced by teenage chatter as the youngsters dispersed.

The hulking man turned to me, looking rather devonairre.

"Miss (name) would you mind having dinner with me tonight?"

I felt heat rising in my cheeks, my ears burning, I averted my gaze to the ground. I was naturally really quite shy, and here I was being openly asked to dinner by the Commander himself! I held my arm at the elbow and shifted,

"Uh…yeah, okay, sure. When?"

"An hour should be enough time to get cleaned up right?" he smiled and I became aware of how hideous I must look.

"Yeah, definitely, plenty," I said, glancing shyly up at his blue eyes.

"Good, meet me in my office. There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"Yes sir." I said. He sort of laughed, but he kept his lips together and turned from me. What was that look just then? It was something like a fatherly look of caring, like the way one might endearingly regard a child covered in mud. It made my heart beat a little too fast.

I took a deep breath, my body was starting to ache, and I headed toward the showers.

Petra and I shared quarters and she was there when I entered, with my wet hair twisted up in a towel.

She eyed me, "So what was that about?"

"What was what? Erwin?"

"Well, that too, but Levi. He sure left in a huge huff."

"Huh," I said, walking to my dresser and pulling a small mirror from my things.

"And he never gets involved with our sparring stuff, I wonder why…"

"I don't know," I said ruffling my hair with the towel to dry it faster, I genuinely could pull no ideas from the farthest reaches of my imagination as to why he'd want to spar with me.

"Maybe he was mad that you beat him, you should have seen the look on his face when you pulled that stunt at the end."

I laughed, "You mean he has an expression other than his usual scowl?"

"Apparently!" She laughed back.

Even though I laughed, remembering the compromising position I'd been in with the corporal had me turning a little red. No one else could say they'd had him in such a position. Maybe he was angry I'd made such a spectacle of us.

"Anyway, so…Erwin?" she continued, raising her eyebrows in question.

"He wants me to have dinner with him tonight." I was blushing and felt my heart racing. I'd never put any thought into romance here at the survey corps. I mean, we could die any day, at any moment, violently, horribly, who would want to fall in love in a world like that? It would only be sentencing the one you loved to watching you die horribly one day. But the idea that it could somehow exist anyway, that maybe….maybe there was one little seed of hope that love was possible in this world was actually kind of attractive.; totally illogical, but attractive.

Eventually I got myself all gussied up, as much as I could. I mean, it's not like dresses and makeup were standard issue, and the bruise on my jaw was rather unsightly, but with my hair down and my eyebrows plucked I made my way to Erwin's quarters in uniform, minus all the straps for gear.

I knocked at his door and heard him call for me to enter. I was so nervous as I turned the handle I couldn't think. But my breath sucked in sharp when I saw what was waiting for me.

Commander Erwin was wearing his standard button up shirt, pants, and boots, but his shirt was far more casual looking with the first three buttons undone. I could see the rise of his muscled pecks and the shadow between them teasing me with ideas of how sculpted he was beneath the white fabric.

I was blushing again, and he saw me looking at him.

"Don't be shy, have a seat."

His desk, normally strewn with paperwork had been turned into a table for two, and I took my seat. The meals for us weren't fancy, standard potato soup and bread but it was the candles that made it seem….romantic?

He pushed the chair in behind me. He was so strong, what a gentleman. Wow. My heart was beating like a school girl's.

He gazed at me with that same endearing look from earlier.

"Uh, so…what, um….did you need?" I asked, looking at my food, stomach twisting into knots. No way I was hungry.

He smiled and looked a little uneasy himself.

"I don't know how to go about this casually, (name), so I'm just going to say it plainly. I was wondering if you would allow me to court you."

What? What was this, the 1800s? Court me?

The stricken look on my face must have made him feel like he needed to explain.

"You are an honorable woman, strong, fearless, smart. To be entirely honest, I would like to make you my bride." He shifted his gaze away from me, and I blinked, was he blushing? "But I feel that asking you to marry me outright would be to sudden, so I'm asking this instead."

He wanted to marry me? I was breathing hard again, eyes wide and mouth opening and closing like a fish. I was shocked.

"Uhhhh," I said, swallowing. I felt like I might feint. "I mean…o-okay. Yeah, we could try it…."

Erwin smiled, pleased.

"Then let us meet tomorrow morning. We'll take a walk before the daily routine starts. Get to know each other better."

I felt like a princess somehow and I nodded, trusting that azure gaze that looked at me with such adoration.

Notes:

HEY guys! So I got this idea from two sources, one fic, that was so heartbreaking and brain scarring that I have pushed the title from my mind and second from an Attack on Titan Fan-page admin on Facebook who suggested I write this. I know there's a lot of Reader x Erwin, but it IS a Levi x reader, I promise. Stick with me on this one, you'll love it!