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“Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do; strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do.” – Savielly Tartakower
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Open.
***
Seducing Levi wasn’t an easy task, all things considered.
It certainly wasn’t; the smaller man had never been one for warmth and pliancy, for softness or grace. His companions certainly didn’t help either, the pesky little things. Erwin can forgive the girl— she’s a young thing, young and bright and affectionate, coaxing rare, beautiful smiles out of Levi whenever she ambushes him for a hug or strokes a fond hand through silky black hair. Although the man— god, how Erwin loathes the man.
Perhaps loathe is a strong word, Erwin thinks idly. Yes, it is. Loathe is reserved for things like fat pigs who gorge themselves on the suffering of the people, blind and lazy monarchs, vaguely human-shaped creatures consumed by greed so thoroughly and unrelentingly that they don’t care who gets in their path. Erwin doesn’t even loathe the titans, not really. They’re animals, unwitting creatures. They don’t even have the capacity for evil or hate, not like humans do. Not like Erwin does.
The man certainly loathes Erwin, though. Erwin can see it in his eyes when he stands closer to Levi during a routine walk— it quite vindicates Erwin when Levi bristles away from the contact— from the arms snaked around his trim waist and the kisses pressed to pale cheeks in greetings. Underground customs, Levi excuses. He hasn’t made that excuse in a while.
It took weeks— months to get where they are now, where Levi no longer excuses for Farlan. It was a long battle, a hard battle— it was a delicate dance, a seduction; Erwin would take a step, Levi would dart forward and stab him with an épée.
It took time, it took patience— Erwin’s always had a wealth of that, even if time is more than scarce— and it took persistence, an unflappable approach even when Levi would spit and snarl and act like he truly hated him.
He didn’t. Erwin doesn’t think he ever could.
Seducing Levi was an art. It was a game of chess where Erwin is a master player, but Levi put up a good fight all the same. It was a nice, long day by the lake reeling in a fish— a little tug on the wire from Levi, a little yank to the rod from Erwin; oh, how Levi fought, how he snapped and yelled and hissed, writhing in the net that Erwin carefully wove with a hook perfectly sunk through his plump lip. Inescapable.
Erwin’s heard of monstrous, man eating fish: things with rows upon rows of teeth sharp as razors, with tough skin and fierce eyes, with an unquenchable thirst for blood and a dogged pursuit of those they think wronged them. Perhaps Levi’s that kind of fish.
Well, does it even matter? Erwin thinks, a smile growing on his lips. He hooked and reeled him in all the same.
There’s not much longer he can delay the expedition. Shadis is growing suspicious, and Erwin never did like anyone interfering with his carefully laid plans.
“Mr. Church,” he lays a hand on the young man’s shoulder and doesn’t miss the way his fingers twitch. He doesn’t miss the outline of a knife in his pocket either. “Commander’s office at half past, if you will.”
“Why?” That’s a trait shared among the two Underground men, they’re intrinsically suspicious. It’s why it was so hard to lure Levi in, why Erwin doesn’t even want to bother with Farlan. Levi’s interesting. He’s not.
Erwin’s perfectly pleasant when he replies, “to discuss formation strategy. I’m concerned about the redhead in your group—”
“Isabel,” Farlan supplies, testy as anything. “Her name is Isabel.”
“Isabel,” Erwin graciously allows. Farlan glowers at him. It’s quite a fierce growl, Erwin wonders if he learned it from Levi. “She’s good with the animals, but less so at sticking to formation. I’m worried that she might break from formation if her horse spooks, try to soothe it instead of getting herself to safety.”
Farlan’s glower softens. “She’s empathetic like that.”
“A good thing to be as a person, but dangerous as a solider.”
“Oh, you would know about that, wouldn’t you? Trying to turn Lee— us into a cold bastards like you.” Trying to take him away from me. The glower is back. Erwin sighs. This is why, Erwin tells himself, pinching at the bridge of his nose. This is why.
“My office at half past, Recruit. Don’t be late. Come in right away, I don’t want to waste any time.”
“Fine.” Farlan turns to walk away— stalk away, just like a petulant child in an Underground thug’s body, but Erwin stops him.
“Your salute.”
Farlan turns around, a touch too slowly to be anything but disrespectful. “My what?”
“Salute your superior officer.” There’s something satisfying about seeing Farlan grit his teeth and bear it. He can practically see the lie back and think of the walls playing out across his face as a very reluctant fist thumps against a very reluctant chest. Dedicating his very reluctant heart.
Erwin smiles and doesn’t tell the other man to release the salute yet. It’s quite enjoyable to watch him squirm, pinned by soldiers' rules and Erwin’s gaze.
“Dismissed.”
As Farlan storms away, Erwin makes his next move.
Check.
***
“Levi.”
“What?”
“My office. Five minutes.”
“…fine.”
***
Erwin wouldn’t have thought it before he actually got to experience it, but Levi’s moans are loud.
Oh, it was a long road getting there— it was coaxing Levi into proximity, then into casual contact, then more purposeful contact, then into heated glances and bit lips, arousal and anger warring in slate-grey eyes. It took quite a while, but it’s all worth it for the way Levi’s spread out in front of him, pinned open like a butterfly.
“The door,” Levi gasps out— he can’t get any breath in even as he pants harshly, chest heaving— “lock the fucking— the fucking door—”
“It’s closed,” Erwin assures him, breathing heavily. The door is thick, and it’s solid, and it casts them both in thick grey darkness as he hefts Levi up against it, shutting it securely with the weight of two grown men. He doesn’t say it’s locked, and maybe Levi doesn’t notice, or maybe Levi does and it’s good enough for him anyway as he crashes their lips together again. Levi kisses hard enough to sting, nips sharp enough to draw blood as Erwin strips him messily, wrestles him out of his clothes with the smaller man not allowing even an inch of give or space.
“Filthy slut,” Erwin growls, plunging his hand down the front of Levi’s briefs and meeting the wetness there that clings to his fingertips. There’s not that much to start— Levi’s type of men are rarely ready to get down to business right away, they need time and patience— but it grows as Erwin strokes and rubs, until Levi is soft and slick and whining through his teeth like an angry dog even as his hips cant into Erwin’s hand. “You’re getting wet for me that easily?” Levi moans when Erwin bites his neck, moans even louder when he soothes the mark with a soft lave of his tongue that trails up to his ear, makes the most delicate little mewl when Erwin whispers right into his ear. “Whore.”
“Ungh— yeah—” Levi’s teeth are bared and his brows are furrowed, his neck corded, but his eyes are wanting and his cock throbbing, muscles fluttering around Erwin’s finger as he stretches it past the thin skin around Levi’s hole, abusing the tiny thing. Levi’s such a small man, and his entrance is small, small and delicate and wreckable as Erwin curls and presses his fingers in, seeking out that one bit of tissue that makes Levi spasm in his grasp. “Ah!”
Levi’s hole is so small, so tight, so perfectly pink— both of them, actually, and Erwin will never forget when he happened upon Levi in the officers bathroom, foot propped up proudly on a rickety tri-legged showering stool (Erwin’s perfectly at home in the air but unbalances easily under the spray of the shower), one hand pulling taut as the other occupied itself with a pair of dainty scissors. Erwin had suspected, of course— where else but from the scars on Levi’s chest just above the swell of his muscle, old but keloided and thick. Erwin stood, pointedly not gaping but just observing, cataloguing all of the numerous scars and marks on Levi. A burn on his side, old manacle marks on his wrists and ankles, a knife cut here and there. There was one fairly fresh mark just starting to scar over, it was the same blooming pink as Levi was between curling tufts of dark hair, just little glimpses of pink until Levi adjusted his stance, spread more so he could get to each wiry strand. Erwin was quite blasé about it, all things considered. Levi relaxed, letting out a sneer and continuing to trim himself up. It was two weeks into their seduction.
“What? Never seen one outside of dirty mags? Or just never one as clean as mine? Tch. Figures.”
It was quite arrogant of Levi, spitting implications and insults as he stood there naked as the day he was born. Erwin wants him just as naked now, just as spread and just as wet— but from arousal instead of icy shower water.
“Get the rest of your clothes off.” Erwin orders, making it easier for Levi as he takes his finger out— he was just testing the waters, he can fuck Levi on his fingers until he spurts and screams later, can show him just how effortlessly three simple digits can reduce him to almost nothing. He also makes it ten times harder for Levi by cupping him between his legs, his hand so large that it eclipses all of Levi, from the stiff jut of his cock to the sensitive smoothness of his perineum, almost to the pucker of his ass. Levi’s all hot flesh under his hand, hot and soft and curling with little wisps of damp-matted hair. Levi’s pretty between his legs.
“Dirty,” Erwin spits as Levi strips, tightening his hand until he’s grabbing at the softness of Levi’s dick and folds between his fingers, tight enough that Levi gasps from the pressure, stomach rippling as his back bows, curling in on himself. “Dirty boy, getting so wet.”
“Fuck,” Levi breathes, throbbing and slick under Erwin’s touch— “fuck.”
“Over the desk.” Levi goes to comply— oh, Erwin’s trained him well, he’s led him to the water of seduction and coaxed him to bend over and drink from Erwin’s hand, letting his desperation and anticipation shine through— but Erwin adds a caveat. “Ah-ah-ah. Not so fast.”
“What?” Levi’s a good little soldier, he’s Erwin’s good little soldier as he looks back, all naked and dripping, already bent partway over the desk. Like a good whore, like Erwin’s good whore. “Chickening out?”
“Not at all.” Erwin gives Levi a swat on the ass for his cheek— Levi takes it gratefully, with a pleasure-filled grunt and a back arched for more. “Put this on.”
A blindfold dangles from Erwin’s fingertips. It’s not particularly imposing, just a strip of opaque cloth, long and serpentine, but Erwin can feel the shiver that Levi makes, his eyes fixed on the fabric. He looks— he looks hesitant, defiant, more than a bit aroused and more than a bit challenging.
“You some sort of pervert?” He sneers, holding out his hand to take it anyway. “You a pervert, Cap’?”
“For you?” Erwin reaches out to trace the lining of a thick scar, all the way across Levi’s chest and back to where Levi’s nipple stands bright and rose-pink. It’s scarred just as the rest of his chest is— Levi is scarred beyond belief, tiger striped silver and dull red, but he gasps all the same when Erwin pinches the tender little peak of it with his nail and tugs. Erwin grins, wolfish. “Without a doubt. Now put the blindfold on, before I put a gag in as well.” That’s a bluff, he wouldn’t. Not when he has such a mean, nasty, wonderful plan to put that filthy mouth of Levi’s to good use.
Levi scowls but snatches the cloth out of Erwin’s hand, tying it around his own face roughly: once over, twice over, three times, until Levi’s sharp eyes are concealed by the strip and only his eyebrows peer over it, arched with disdain. “Satisfied?”
Erwin reaches out to adjust it carefully, making sure that Levi can’t see hide nor hair from him. To test it, he makes a rather crude gesture in front of Levi’s face. Levi doesn’t react, but then again, he might make the same gesture at Erwin enough to be desensitized to it. To test it further, Erwin flicks Levi right in the nose.
“Oi!” Levi flinches back— oh, it’s adorable how his nose scrunches up, offended as his hand comes to rub at the smarting skin. “The fuck was that for?”
Erwin chuckles at Levi’s indignation, rubbing a soothing hand over his chest. “My apologies, that was the best way I could test if you could see anything.”
“Whatever,” Levi hmmphs, clearly still deeply offended. If he had fur it would be bristled, feathers would be ruffled with that unique way he folds his arms, turning away from Erwin even though he can’t see him. Erwin’s lips curl, an idea forming.
“Aw,” Levi starts when Erwin’s lips land on the back of his neck, slow and sweet. “Did I hurt you? Do you need me to kiss it better?”
“Maybe,” Levi snarks. He’s once again back where he was: half-over the desk, half standing up, feet perfectly shoulder apart and back perfectly squared. A soldier’s stance, just like he were a mannequin and someone just went and bent him at the waist. Stiff and unyielding.
Not so unyielding, not when Erwin can perfectly well see in the dim room how Levi is shiny and soft between those tensed thighs, petal soft and drooling with his arousal. Erwin can work with that.
Erwin’s very silent as he drops to his knees, cat-quiet and stealthy, right up until he strikes.
“Oh!”
Levi makes the most delightful gasp when Erwin surges forward, pushing him fully over the desk— his hips make fantastic handholds for Erwin to angle his pelvis up and out, the soft folds between his legs flowering open around Erwin’s tongue. “Fuck!”
Erwin groans, the sound reverberating through Levi’s core and sending a matching, visible shiver up his spine— god, how he loves eating people out, especially from behind. There’s something so heavenly about it, so debased and a bit dirty— he bets Farlan never ate Levi out like this, his tongue laving between Levi’s lips as his nose nudges against the tight pucker of his hole, the sensitive skin between the two of them. No, that would be inconceivable, that would be beneath him, that would— that would be dirty.
Levi, for all his cleanliness and order, is such a dirty boy, and Erwin’s never been afraid to lower himself down to his level.
“Are you enjoying this?” Erwin’s voice is a deep rumble, and his lips press directly to Levi’s— a kiss, if not a rather unconventional one— making Levi buck his hips back in a plea for more, his hard cock aching as it bumps against the varnished wood of the desk.
“Nnngh— yeah—”
“Of course you are. Filthy boy.” Levi moans when Erwin licks a flat, hot stripe up one side, then the other, then the center, giving Levi a thorough tonguing before he passes over the pink furl of his ass lightly, delicately enough to make Levi gasp. “You like being bent over the desk and licked, don’t you?”
“Yeah, yeah—” it’s like Levi will say anything, bobbing his head along to Erwin’s words as his hand reaches back and threads fingers through Erwin’s hair, pulling him back to his task as his other one braces against the desk, knuckles shining white against dark wood. “Fuck, do that again—”
“What, lick your tight little ass?” Erwin asks with the worst air of innocence he could possibly put on, a blatant show that lets the dark undertones bleed through freely, staining his words with promise and potential. It makes Levi moan, the way he says those words, the implications of them. “You’re all wet from this, it’s getting on the desk. And you love it, don’t you?” Levi nods, breathless and biting his lip as Erwin rewards him with another carefully placed lick. “You love leaving a wet mess for your tongue to clean up later.”
It’s true, Levi’s leaving little traces of slick arousal wherever his cock bumps, little kisses of moisture left as his mark. Erwin imagines making Levi squirt and gush all over the desk, making him drip and drool and cry onto the wood and papers strewn across it, ruining it beyond belief.
“Naughty little slut,” Erwin bites marks into the swell of Levi’s ass, rubs his face on his thighs so a nice friction burn from the beginnings of his stubble is felt between thin scars— “this isn’t even my desk.”
Levi gasps, so Erwin continues, gleefully, pervertedly pleased.
“This is Shadis’ desk. You wouldn’t know it, since I do all the work on it anyway, but it is. And tomorrow, he’s going to hold a big meeting behind it. All the squad leaders will be there.” Erwin rises from his knees, fishes himself out of his pants with a barely-concealed groan. God, he’s so hard it aches, and it feels as though he’s been that way for ages, ever since he cornered Levi for the meeting. He kisses behind Levi’s blushing ears— god, he’s blushing so beautifully, even in the darkness, so hot against Erwin’s lips. He must blush with his full body, it’s so warm as Erwin gives into his temptation and grinds against the expanse of pale skin presented in front of him, just a bit. “And you’re going to come all over the desk, just like the slut you are.”
“Oh, you piece of shit, just fuck me already—”
Levi reaches back and scores his nails over Erwin’s arm— he’s still dressed, still fully dressed to Levi’s complete nudity— clothed man, naked man— and he loves it, loves the contrast and the faint sting that Levi leaves even through the fabric. He’s greedy, he’s demanding, he’s hitching a knee up on the desk to open himself up even more, pleading for what Erwin is more than willing to give.
“So fucking pretty,” Erwin growls it like an insult, stroking Levi there— they don’t even need the oil that Erwin stashed conveniently in a drawer earlier, worried that the tight fit— Levi is so small, and Erwin so not-small— would be too much than what Levi’s capable body could naturally handle. He needed not to worry— fucking Levi is like putting on a fine pair of doeskin gloves, sinking into him a glide into slick heaven, hot and tight and so good.
It’s a graceful, hugging-tight glide, and it feels— it feels like the most natural thing he could be doing, and perhaps it is. Perhaps Levi was always so perfectly molded to take him in, the space that lives between his narrow hips always shaped for Erwin, for Erwin, in waiting just for Erwin.
“Mine,” Erwin snarls into the skin of Levi’s throat, too silent to hear over the other man’s gasps and moans, but there, written into his flesh with the way Erwin bites his neck, sucks a deep mark above where the white scarf he wears tucked neatly into his collar would cover. His, his, his. Erwin’s fatal flaws have always been possessiveness and pride, but doesn’t he— hasn’t he merited Levi? Hasn’t he earned him, rightfully dragged him up from the dark, dank Underground and gave him a sunlit life up on the surface? A purpose?
What has Farlan ever given him that can ever match up to what Erwin has? What has he ever given Erwin to compensate for how he makes Erwin’s blood boil, seeing him try to stake his cowardly claim onto what’s rightfully and wrongfully—
Jealousy. That’s it. He is jealous.
He is also fucking Levi over the Commander’s desk in the office, sweaty and desperate and full of an emotion that isn’t quite hate and isn’t quite love, and Farlan isn’t.
Levi’s spilt a bottle of ink that’s now seeping over strewn pages and lacquered wood, a paper— oh, look at that, it’s a letter from Nile— clutched in his trembling fist as he gasps and swears, cursing Erwin’s name even as he meets Erwin thrust for hard thrust. He’s drooling onto the desk, the wood shiny and slick under his cheek with every broken oh—oh—oh— that leaves his mouth. Very vocal, very messy. Oh, how very delightful.
On impulse Erwin touches some ink onto his fingers and swipes it over Levi’s flank and side, practically on his asscheek, practically on the edge of the old burn that marrs that very same side. He creates crude letters, finishes it off with a sharp slap to plump flesh. E.S. Erwin Smith.
“Fuck!” Levi cries out— he tries to spread his legs more, tries to hitch a knee back onto the desk to deepen the friction of Erwin’s cock— he had one there earlier, spread out and pinned, but now his ankles are braced open around Erwin’s own, sweat-gleaming calves entwined. “F-f—ah—fuck!”
He’s panting, moans tearing themselves out of his heaving chest, and so is Erwin, breathing so heavily with his focus on fucking Levi as well as he can, making the drag and slide good for his foul-mouthed little cock-sheathe— god, how he wants to just pound aimlessly until they both lose their minds— that he almost misses the creak of floorboards.
“Oh god—” Levi doesn’t whimper (yet), he’s (for now) too proud, but his voice has a sharp, cut-glass edge to it as he whines, squirming when Erwin settles in deep and grinds his hips in, the metal buckle on his belt pressing red marks into Levi’s ass— it’s taking quite the beating, that prized ass of his, pink and quivering every time Erwin’s hips slam into the cradle of it— while the fat head of his cock presses against Levi’s sweet spot and keeps the pressure there, so good and heavy. “Fuck you— f-fuck y—oh—you— uh, uh— uh—!” he’s taking in these ragged gulps for air, almost sobbing when Erwin changes back to thrusting, keeping him well-fucked and messy, fingers scrabbling for purchase amongst the papers and wood.
Erwin takes in a shaky breath himself, barely avoids moaning— he wants to blanket himself over Levi’s back and kiss those flaming cheeks of his, wants to see him cry and swallow those cries in a kiss, when there's a faint creak and a thin stripe of light casts one of his eyes in sharp relief.
“—you! Fuck— ah!”
“Levi.”
“Ah!” Levi cries out when Erwin cards a hand through his hair, playing at tender first before he fists and pulls, curving Levi’s back in the most striking arch, one hand in his hair and the other on the tense muscle between neck and shoulder. “Fuck you— what?!” he’s indignant, but he’s also squirming as Erwin stops his thrusting for a moment, pulling Levi flush to his back with a hand over his throat and chin, the contours of his jaw gleaming.
“Beg.”
“What?” It seems like Levi is going to break out of his grasp, shocked and broken out of the moment, so Erwin grabs his wrist in a punishing grip, pulling it tight to his side as Levi tries to grind back, muscles fluttering around Erwin’s cock. “N-no!”
There’s spit down his chin, sweat down his neck and chest, arousal down his twitching thighs. Erwin drew all of that out of him, he can draw more.
“If you don’t want me to leave you hard and aching—” Erwin’s voice is low but loud enough to hear, dark and desiring.
“Mmmph—” Levi groans, near feral at the lack of sweet friction— “move!”
“—then you will.”
“Fuckin— asshole—”
“Now.”
Erwin teases him with a little thrust, just a little one, just a bit, then another one, shallow strokes that tease at the power held back, torturous and tantalizing until Levi quavers, so close yet so far from breaking free, from letting all that pent up desperation and wanting burst forth and leave him wailing with it. So close, close enough that Levi lets out a little mewl, a little almost-please, his slick flesh throbbing around Erwin.
It’s close, yet it’s so far, and it won’t get any closer if Erwin doesn’t do something, more and more light throwing all their debauchery in sharp, shameless relief. The wet mess on the desk, Levi’s red cheeks, his wantonly open mouth and the blindfold concealing his eyes. Humanity’s strongest assassin— oh, yes, Erwin knows all about that little plan— blindfolded and fucked to tears at the mercy of his target. Erwin gives few sharp snaps of his hips, the sound obscene.
“Fuck— mnn—” Levi’s crying, almost sobbing as Erwin resumes his earlier fervor, squirming and bucking against Erwin’s chest, pushing against the hands holding him in place until Erwin changes the angle and gives one, two, three—
“You— y— ah! Ah! Please!” Levi wails as he breaks, begging with all the remaining strength that he possesses, “please, p-please! F—fu—fuck mm—!”
Erwin’s lips move right next to the vividly pink shell of Levi’s ear, curled into a smug, infuriating smile amidst all of Levi’s cries, his beautiful begging. “My name, Levi.” Levi hiccoughs, chokes on his own tears in the middle of a moan.
“Ah…”
Erwin’s eyes are staring directly at the figure standing amidst the wide-open door, backlit by the harsh light. “Use it.”
“Er-er— fuck — oh! Fuck! Erwin!” Levi cries it out like a prayer, like a curse, chants it like a mantra, like a devoted confession. It’s a mark of possession, of staking a claim, and Levi is claimed, sobbing and wailing as he all but screams in his passion:
“Erwin! Fuck me! Please! Please-please — Erwin!”
Farlan looks completely, utterly heartbroken.
Checkmate.