seventeen

You bring in the baked goods bright and early Wednesday morning. Historia takes the containers you packed them in with a grateful smile, tells you that they look delicious, and stacks them on top of a few other tupperware containers that you're assuming the others brought in.

"Look at you, doing all of Levi's crap," Jean says with a snort as you go to your desk. 

You roll your eyes. "That's literally my job."

"Yeah, but he should've been the one to bake, so he can suffer too," the brunet objects, leaning back in his chair. "I burnt, like, three trays of cookies."

"That's no one's fault but your own," Marco says pleasantly.

"Marco! You're supposed to be on my side!"

You sigh softly, your lip twitching up into a grin. "Levi did help, actually," you say, waving to Hange as they come in the door.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Jean says with a snort.

Hange laughs, squeezing your shoulder as they walk by. "Yeah, Levi was in here late last night," they say. "I came back in to grab something I'd forgotten at, like, nine, and he was still here."

You frown. "Really?"

"Yeah," Hange says. "Something about reports that needed finishing."

"Oh," you say in surprise. You feel a bit better now- you'd originally thought that he'd been using work as an excuse to leave. You straighten yourself up. "Well, he did help me out," you insist, willing to at least try and make sure his effort is acknowledged. "He sort of helped me bake- and then he cleaned."

Hange laughs. "He can never resist a good cleaning."

"He seriously helped you?" Jean asks with wide eyes.

"Who helped who?" Connie asks, walking over to his desk.

Marco nods at you. "Captain actually helped out Greenie with her baking."

Connie's eyebrows shoot to the top of his head. "Seriously?" he asks, sitting himself down. "Did you blackmail him?"

"I suspect blackmail," Hange agrees.

You shrug sheepishly. "Maybe a bit."

"Damn!" they say with a laugh, squeezing your shoulder. "Greenie's got balls."

Levi's office door opens, and all eyes turn to look at him. "Oi," he says, glaring at you. "Where's my tea?"

"On its way, sir," you reply. "Anything in particular?"

"Something to wake me up," he responds. Before anyone can get another word in, Levi slams his office door closed, shutting himself inside.

Hange whistles. "Someone's in a mood today."

"I'd better get him his tea before he takes it out on me," you joke, standing up. 

"Don't cry!" Connie suggests as you head to the kitchen.

Turns out, Levi's much more focused on his work than anything else. You bring him his tea and he barely looks up; he tells you he emailed you your work for today. As you always do, you tell him to just call you if he needs anything, and you leave him to his devices.

Strangely enough, you don't see him all day. His door remains closed. He's sent you enough to keep you occupied, but normally he stops to check up on you at least twice a day- once in the morning, once in the afternoon. 

He's just busy, you tell yourself. It's not you. He's just busy.

At the end of the day, he still hasn't talked to you, so you knock on his door before you pack up. "It's open," you hear him reply gruffly, and you push into his office. It's the messiest you've ever seen him: hair disheveled, reports thrown across his desk, messy stacks of files that look like they're going to fall over.

"Sir?" you say quietly, and his eyes flicker up to you. "Do you need anything else from me today?"

"Not if you're done what I sent you earlier."

"Almost," you admit.

Levi's eyes shift back to his computer monitor. "You can finish tomorrow. No need for you to stay late."

"Alright," you agree. You hesitate for a moment, then add, "how late did you stay yesterday? Hange said you came back to the office."

"Only until eight."

You frown. "Hange said they saw you at nine."

You see his shoulders stiffen slightly- he's been caught in a lie. Levi shrugs. "Lost track of time."

"Well, go home earlier today," you urge, glancing at his messy desk. "I can help you sort out anything you need tomorrow."

"Sure. See you tomorrow."

The dismissal is clear. You purse your lips. "Alright. See you tomorrow."

When you head out, you can't help but groan: it's been snowing all day. You don't mind the snow, but walking through it can be a bit of a pain sometimes. When Hange offers you a ride again, you take it without hesitation.

"What's Levi been doing that's keeping him at the office so late?" Hange asks on the way to your apartment.

You shrug. "Not sure. I offered to help, but he brushed me off."

They hum. "Typical Levi."

"I'm worried about him," you confess. After you'd realized that he was legitimately swamped with work and not avoiding you, you'd started to get concerned. "He tried to lie to me about how long he stayed last night."

Hange sighs. "He does this sometimes, especially at the end of a report period."

"How often are those?" you ask.

"June and December. Levi can get a bit lost in his work, as you've probably noticed." They take a right turn. "Well, it's not like he's got any other commitment outside of work, so he just stays late." Hange laughs. "No wonder he's got no dating life."

You force a laugh. "Yeah, that's it."

You can't help but think of Levi all evening, so much so that you accidentally burn your dinner. Should you text him? See if he's okay? In the end, you decide to put a bit of trust in him that he won't stay as late as he did yesterday.

When you get into work the next morning, Levi's already there, locked away in his office just like yesterday. "Did he even go home?" Eren jokes as he comes in.

Honestly, you wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. "No idea," you say, shrugging. "Either way, he's going to need his tea."

"Chin up, Greenie," Eren says with a grin. "Only seven more days of work! That's seven more teas!"

Seven more days.

With that depressing thought in mind, you go to make Levi's tea, glancing at his office more often than you should to check if he's going to come out. He doesn't. You watch others come into the office, waving good morning to each of them. When Levi's tea is done, you knock on his office door.

You receive the same "it's open" so you head inside. Somehow, the stacks on Levi's desk seem even larger and more disorganized than yesterday.

"Tea," you say, heading over to his desk.

He doesn't even look up. "Thanks."

"Uh, where should I..." you gesture around his desk.

Levi finally looks up. He reaches out for one stack of files and dumps them on the ground next to his desk. Your eyes widen when you realize there's two more stacks on the ground. 

You set his tea on the now-open area. "Planning on putting the filing cabinets out of business?" you say.

Levi shrugs. "Something like that."

"How long did you stay yesterday?"

"Long enough."

"Levi. How long?"

He finally looks up at you. Levi sighs softly. "Ten, I think."

Your eyes widen. "Ten? Levi, that's ridiculous. Did you stay that long on Tuesday too?"

"I've sent you enough to keep you busy for today," Levi replies, ignoring your question. "You should be good to get it done without assistance, but if you do need help, talk to Annie. She's done most of those numbers before."

"...Fine." You cross your arms. "Can I help you with anything?"

"I'm good. Just do the work I sent you."

You stare at him for a moment, waiting. When he doesn't say anything else, you sigh and say, "alright."

You're halfway out of his office when Levi calls, "close the door behind you." Sighing to yourself, you oblige, and Levi vanishes from your line of sight.

Just like Wednesday, he doesn't set foot outside of his office. Not at lunch, when everyone gathers in the lunch room and a food fight nearly starts. Not when everyone is packing up for the day, ready to head home in another snowstorm. You think he jumped out at some point in the afternoon to use the bathroom when you were in Hange's office asking questions, but that would be it.

You frown, glancing at all of your work from today. There's still plenty that can be done... maybe you can stay late. Keep an eye on Levi, get him to leave at a reasonable time. 

"Not going home yet?" Armin asks, walking by your desk.

You shrug, forcing a smile. "Nah. I got plenty to finish."

"Need any help?"

"All good, thank you."

"Alright. Have a good night."

"You too," you reply, waving. Most people have long since headed out of the office, but there's a few hanging around: Eren and Mikasa seem to be going back and forth about some of their work, Reiner and Bertolt are still hacking through spreadsheets, and Ymir is leaning on Historia's desk as she waits for her to finish. Erwin left early afternoon for a meeting downtown; you're not sure if he's going to stop back in the office or just go home. More likely the latter. 

You sigh to yourself. Alright, you may as well get some work done.

By 6 pm, Reiner and Bertolt have taken off. Historia helped you staple a giant stack of reports before she left while Ymir stayed off to the side and 'cheered' you two on ("hurry the fuck up, I want dinner"). Eren and Mikasa roll out maybe forty minutes later, waving goodbye to you.

Now, it's almost 7 pm. Levi still hasn't come out.

With a sigh, you stand up from your desk and pad towards his door. You listen for a moment, waiting for any signs of movement, and you think you can make out typing. You knock twice, and there's a pause before Levi calls back, "who is it?"

"It's me," you reply.

"The fuck are you still doing here?" he snaps back, and you take that as your cue to let yourself into his office.

You sigh at the sheer size of the paper stacks on his desk and around it. "What are you even working on that's keeping you so busy?" you say in wonder, moving closer to his desk to take a look at the files he's got splayed out.

"Go home," Levi says gruffly. "You don't need to stay late."

"Sir, I'm not going home until you do," you reply, furrowing your eyebrows.

Levi groans. "I'm going to be here for a while. There's no point in you wasting your night. Go home."

"No."

"Red. Come on."

"No, Levi. I'm not going anywhere."

"You've already stayed an extra two hours," he says, "and there's no sense in making you stay even longer if you've got nothing to do."

You frown. "Then you have to go home too."

Levi sighs. "Red, stop-"

"You need to take care of yourself too," you object, crossing your arms. "You stayed late on Tuesday and Wednesday- three days in a row is just ridiculous. Why are you even staying this late?"

"It's nothing."

"If it was nothing, you wouldn't be staying."

Levi groans. "Red, you-"

You slam a palm down on Levi's desk. He doesn't flinch, but he does stop talking. He lock eyes with you, his eyebrows rising expectantly.

"I," you snap, "am your intern, and it is literally my job to do your work and make your life easier. But I can't do that if you don't tell me what's going on and how I can help. And, as your friend," you add, glaring at him, "I care about your wellbeing and being at work until 10 pm three nights in a row clearly isn't healthy."

Levi stares at you, and you hold his gaze with your own matching glare. Like hell you're backing down now.

You're not sure how long you hold each other's glares, but eventually, Levi sighs. He beckons for you to come over to his side of the desk, so you shuffle around until you can see his monitor. "Our end of year reports are close," Levi starts, pulling up a sample report file. You don't recognize the file, but you recognize the format; you've been filing these away since you started in September. "So Rod requires every report from the past year."

"From you?" you ask, and Levi nods.

"Yeah. When anyone in sales closes a deal, they make up this report and they send it to me when they're done. Every report takes maybe an hour or two." Levi clicks on a spreadsheet. "Every sales staff has their own spreadsheet to record their sales. Keeps it all organized."

"So what's the problem?" 

He sighs, and you notice he's biting his lip. "...There's a new file format that Rod requires," Levi says bitterly, "so every single report needs to be redone into the new format."

You pause. "What's the new format like?"

Levi pulls up another document, and your jaw slips open. It's almost completely different: the fonts are changed, there's a table inserted at the top of the document that wasn't there before, the new reports call for summaries and reference lists that their predecessor didn't. The content seems relatively the same, but it's all in different orders. Things that used to be bullet points are now written in paragraphs. Hell, there's a graph required in the new documents that you're not even sure you understand.

"What the hell?" you mutter, taking the mouse from Levi and scrolling through. Holy shit, it's long.

"Yeah," Levi says sourly. "And I've got to rework all of them. That's why my desk is a disaster- easier to pull up the physical copies to recopy rather than going back and forth between tabs."

"How many are there?"

Levi pulls up the master document, which you've seen and used several times, then highlights one of the columns that has the date of the report, organizing it by date. He scrolls through all of the ones from this year, and your jaw slips open. It's a lot, way too many to be done by just Levi.

"I've got most of them done," Levi says before you can say anything. "I was planning on getting through the rest of them tonight."

"When were you planning on leaving, midnight?" you ask, shaking your head. "This is ridiculous."

"It's also none of your concern."

"Why haven't you just asked the others to rework their own forms?"

Levi shakes his head. "They've got enough on their plate. December is one of our busiest months. They're working out of the office just as often as they are in it."

That's true enough- Sasha and Connie are gone most days for at least a few hours. "Still," you insist, "I could've helped with this."

"My reports, my responsibility."

"My boss, my responsibility," you retort. "Let me help."

"Red-"

"When was the last time you ate?" you demand. "Or got a decent night's sleep?"

Levi's lip curls. "I don't sleep," he snaps.

"What do you mean, you don't-" you groan, pressing your palms to your forehead. "Levi. Drop this for tonight, and I'll help you finish up tomorrow."

"It's fine," he replies gruffly. "I-"

"No, it's not," you snap firmly. You don't give a damn that Levi is your boss; right now, he's your friend. "This is what's going to happen," you insist, straightening up. Levi raises his eyebrows at you. "You're going to come back to my place-"

"Christ, Red, I'm not in the mood-"

"We're not going to fuck, damn it," you interrupt, glaring at him. "You're coming back to my place, I'm going to make you some fucking food because I can't trust you to do it yourself. We- we're going to relax, we're not going to talk about work, and I'll strap you to my bed if it'll get you to sleep. Tomorrow, we'll come back and I'll help you slam out all of those reports, but for today," you argue, "you're going to take some much needed rest."

Levi's jaw opens, then closes.

You raise an eyebrow at him, daring him to contradict you. 

He holds your gaze for a while, his jaw set. Eventually, he sighs, his shoulders slumping. "Fine."

You straighten up, pleased. You won. "Perfect. Then we're leaving now. Close what you're working on."

"Yes, ma'am," Levi mutters sarcastically. 

Nodding, you turn on your heel and stride out of Levi's office, heading to your own desk. You save the sheets you were working on and start shutting down your computer, packing away your supplies. You pull your coat around your shoulders and glance back at the office. Levi's still glaring at his screen. "Levi!" you snap.

"I'm fucking going," he snaps back, standing up from his chair.

Satisfied, you nod again and tuck your chair in. You cross your arms, purse hooked over your shoulder as you wait for Levi to pack up. 

Finally, he leaves his office, shutting off the light and closing the door. He glares at you. "Happy?"

"Very much so," you agree. "Shall we?"

Grumbling, Levi follows you to the elevators, then down into the main lobby and out the doors. You hop into the passenger seat of his car, and Levi slumps himself down in the driver's seat. The snow's stopped now, which is nice, but the roads are still going to be a bit dangerous. 

Levi pulls out of the parking lot, driving well under the speed limit. "So what's for dinner?" he grumbles.

You shrug. "Haven't decided."

"Haven't decided, or haven't got much selection?" he asks. "I've seen your fridge. You need to go grocery shopping."

Your jaw opens, then closes. You can't really argue with that- you really don't have a lot. "I've got a pizza in the freezer," you say eventually.

Levi snorts. "Five star meal."

"I'll make tea," you add.

"Better."

Tea and pizza? Definitely not your ideal meal, but if Levi wasn't going to complain, then you'd just go with it. Remembering your conversation from Tuesday, you pipe up and ask, "what episode are you on now? We can watch one with dinner."

Levi grumbles something under his breath that you can't make out.

"Hange is one text away," you threaten.

"Season three," he replies. "Episode twenty-one."

Your eyes widen. "You're almost there! You've got two more in this season!" You laugh. "And then you've got season four."

"It's a long series."

"Oh, come on, just take a weekend off and you can plow through it."

"Not all of us can sit around and do nothing for a weekend, Red," Levi objects, braking for a stop sign.

"It's a skill," you say with a grin.

It takes a bit longer than normal to get back to your apartment, with Levi driving the speed he is, but you're not complaining, especially not after your friend's slip up on Monday. You and Levi trek into the building, shaking the snow from your coats and kicking it off of your boots. 

As soon as you're up in your apartment, you pull out the pizza and set the oven to preheat. "You can shower, if you want," you call. "Towels are in the closet."

"I'll take you up on that," Levi replies.

Levi pads off to the bathroom, and you start setting up for dinner. You grab plates and set them out, put in the pizza as soon as the oven beeps to tell you it's ready, then start making tea. Levi being in your apartment used to stress you out like nothing else. Now, the anxiety is gone.

You're not walking on eggshells anymore. You're comfortable.

With a happy sigh, you head into the bedroom to change out of your work clothes and into something comfier. When you head back out, you move to the television and start setting up Advances of the Tyrant. What had Levi said? He had two more episodes of season three?

By the time the pizza's out of the oven, Levi's finished with his shower. He's changed back into his work slacks and a t-shirt- maybe he packed a spare shirt. You wave a plate at him. "All set?"

"Tea?" Levi asks, pressing the towel to his hair.

You roll your eyes. "I swear, you're addicted. Yeah, it's already at the table."

"Black?"

"Yep."

Levi nods in thanks, moving to your couch. "There's worse things to be addicted to," he replies, taking the plate from you and sitting himself down. 

"You're not wrong," you muse, taking your own plate and sitting down next to him. You give Levi a bit of a gap between you two, just to allow for his own personal space, and hit play on the remote.

Watching AOT with Levi proves to be more fun than you expected. He's a silent watcher, sure, but occasionally you mumble something like "that's a parallel" or "that's a reference to season one" and Levi actually stops you to ask what you mean, and you pause the episode to hunt for the scene you're looking for on your phone.

The two of you end up finishing season three together. Pizza has long since been finished, and the both of you have finished off your tea. 

The credits roll, and you glance sideways at Levi. "Season four?" you tease.

"How many times have you seen this now?" he mutters, shaking his head. "No, I should... I should probably get back to work."

"Nope," you say, popping the 'p'. "You're staying here."

"Red-"

"No buts, we talked about this," you interrupt, standing up from the couch. You gather his plate and yours in one hand, then grab onto the handles of the two mugs in your other hand. "I'll make you more tea," you say firmly.

You walk towards your kitchen, and to your surprise, Levi doesn't get up. He sinks back into the cushions with a sigh, pressing a hand to his forehead. You click your kettle on to boil more water, then start cleaning up your dishes.

"Need help?" Levi calls.

"All good," you reply.

When everything's cleaned up and the kettle's boiled, you pour both you and Levi another cup of tea. Holding each mug by the rim, you walk back towards your couch, setting Levi's mug on the table in front of him. He mutters his thanks, picking it up with his fingertips.

You sit back down on the couch, giving him the same amount of space you did before. You set your mug down temporarily so that you can grab your television remote and turn the screen off- doesn't look like Levi's in the mood to watch anything more.

You take your mug back into your hands, then swallow hard and turn to face Levi. "Are you okay?" you ask softly. "You've been quiet this week."

"I'm always quiet," he replies, taking a sip of his tea.

"More than usual."

His eyes shift to you, then back to his tea. "You playing therapist now?" 

"If that's what it takes for you to talk to me," you challenge.

Levi sighs, fingers tight around the edge of his tea mug. "It's been a busy week," he mutters, and you resist the urge to fidget as you wait for him to talk. "Lots of work."

You hum softly. "See, I don't think that's all there is to it. You've been busy before, Levi."

Maybe you're playing a dangerous game, trying to get him to open up to you like this. But it's the only way you're going to learn a bit more about Levi and how he operates, so you're willing to push a bit if you have to.

"Fine," Levi mutters. "It's not just work."

You straighten up, triumphant. 

"Monday." He sighs, taking a sip of his tea. "Monday messed with my head."

Monday- that was the day Levi drove you to the hospital to visit your friend. The friend who'd had a bit of a bang up in her car. You swallow hard. That day feels like ages ago.

What had Levi said in the car? Something about how he'd had friends in accidents too?

"You said..." you trail off, then regather your strength and continue. "You said you had friends in a car accident before."

Levi's eyes flash, and he pinches his lips together, bringing his tea up to his mouth.

Immediately, you backtrack. "Sorry," you murmur. "Forget I asked."

You bring your mug up to your lips, trying to will the awkwardness away. Your attempt at getting Levi to open up apparently didn't work. Sighing softly to yourself, you set your near-empty mug on the table, keeping your eyes away from him.

"Isabel," Levi says, his voice tight, "and Farlan."

You stay dead still, worried that even the slightest noise or movement will interrupt him.

"They were..." he swallows. "They were in the car with me when the accident happened. Drunk driver. They..." 

God, you didn't know Levi had been in the car as well. You feel like you're getting a glimpse into a part of Levi's that he's kept under strict lock and key. It's a huge moment for you, so you stay quiet to let him go at his own pace.

"Isabel died instantly," Levi murmurs, his eyes focused on something very far away. "Farlan died in surgery. And I got off with a fucking concussion."

Oh, god- they died. Survivor's guilt. 

Levi actually continues, which you weren't expecting. "It was right when I first started working for Erwin. I was maybe two, three months into the job. He gave me a paid week off. I didn't want it, but the stubborn bastard made sure I took it."

He sets his mug down with a sigh, his shoulders slumping as he leans back into the couch. He suddenly looks so much older, like the weight of his life is catching up with him. "Fuck," he mutters, shaking his head. "Forget I said anything."

"I'm so sorry," you murmur. "Thank you for telling me."

There are so many things you want to tell him: I know this isn't easy for you to talk about. I know you're putting a lot of trust in me, and I appreciate it. Thank you for trusting me with this part of your life. But from the gaze Levi fixes you with, it seems he already knows.

"I guess Monday couldn't have been easy for you, then," you whisper. "Thank you. For sticking with me anyways."

Levi sighs, and his eyes flutter shut. "I'm fucking tired," he grumbles, crossing his arms.

You hum in reply, unsure of what else to say. He looks like he could fall asleep right here on your couch. He told you he doesn't sleep much...

Is there anything you could do that would get him to sleep? Maybe you could grab him a blanket or something, or a different kind of tea. But then again, Levi might just decline and he could leave. The two of you are at a crossroads right now, toeing the line between an actual relationship and a friends-with-benefits arrangement. This vulnerability that Levi's showing you makes you feel warm inside, even if the topic is grim. He disclosed something personal to you; now you want to help him in return.

Levi's eyes are closed, and his hair is falling into his face. You know from your many nights together that he's sensitive to touch, and an odd thought strikes you. What if...

It's a stretch. It's definitely risky; you wouldn't be surprised if he smacked you away and took off. But he looks so tired, so worn down, and his hair just looks so soft...

You bite your lip, then reach over and press your fingertips into Levi's head.

He stiffens almost immediately, but as soon as you slide your fingertips across his skull, Levi deflates. His shoulders drop so quickly that you would've thought he was a puppet cut from his strings. Levi sinks into the couch, sighing softly.

You smile to yourself and slowly run your fingers against his scalp, the soft locks of black hair tangled between your fingers. Gently, you pull his head towards you, and Levi doesn't resist; he falls sideways, and his head lands on your thighs.

You freeze up, surprised that it actually worked, and Levi stiffens up beneath you. You start running your fingers through his hair again, and he softens.

He's like a cat, you think, smiling to yourself as you continue to stroke his hair. You've got Levi's head in your lap. Levi trusts you enough to rest on top of you. It's the best sort of gift you ever could've gotten from him: his trust.

"Oh, Levi," you murmur under your breath.

He sighs quietly beneath your fingertips but doesn't say anything else. You smile softly and continue to run your fingers through his hair. You study his face; he's literally perfect. His eyes are closed, long lashes fluttered shut. His jaw is relaxed, and he finally looks like he's at peace. There's nowhere else you'd rather be and no one else you'd rather be with.

You realize this is the first time he's been completely vulnerable with you. If that isn't a positive sign, you don't know what is.

Oh.

The realization that's been slowly sneaking up on you rears up in full force, and you sigh softly to yourself. It makes sense. It shouldn't, but it does. 

I'm in love with him.

You're in love with Levi Ackerman- your boss. You shouldn't be, definitely, but it doesn't change the fact that you are. This man in your lap could tear out your heart and you'd let him.

You let your fingers slowly dance through his hair, tangling it and twisting it between your fingers. Eventually, his breathing slows, and then you realize he's asleep. For someone that claims they don't sleep often, this is a huge win for you, and judging by how cranky he is at work, he could definitely use the extra sleep.

So you let your hands work idly, letting him rest, and eventually you drift off as well.

.

Levi wakes up before you, but he jerks himself up so fast that it wakes you up as well. "What..." you yawn. "You good?"

"Shit- did I fall asleep?" he mutters, sitting himself up. 

You nod, blinking yourself awake and glancing at Levi. He's rubbing at his eyes. "Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep too."

He stands up. "What time is it?" he asks, heading towards your door.

You frown. Is he late for something? You grab your phone and turn it on to check the time. "Only eleven," you say. Not much he could possibly be late for, especially on a Thursday. "Levi-"

"Shit," Levi mutters. "I- I should go. I shouldn't stay here."

You blink, taken aback. What's he so panicked about? "Levi," you start, but he's already jamming his shoes onto his feet. Your weariness fades, replaced by concern. "Wait- what's wrong?" you ask, standing up from the couch. "Are you- are you late for something?"

Levi shakes his head furiously, grabbing his coat and pulling it over his shoulders. "No. I just shouldn't be staying so late."

You're confused. Yes, he's made hasty exits before, but it's not like you two had sex this time. You walk towards him. "Is there- is there anything I can get you? Before you go?" you try.

Levi, to his credit, stops rushing. He sighs softly, turning back to you, and he shakes his head. "You've done more than enough," he mutters, and his expression is uncharacteristically soft. "Thank you."

You swallow hard and nod. "Wait."

He pauses. You close the distance between you two, and after a deep exhale, you lean in and kiss him softly on the cheek, just like you did on Tuesday after baking. One of your hands rests casually on his arm, feeling for the tension that'll occur if he's going to bolt. Levi feels frozen beneath your lips.

You pull back, keeping your hand on his arm. "Thank you," you say quietly, "for talking to me. I appreciate it."

Levi can't seem to tear his eyes away from you. He stares, eyes wide, gaze unwavering. You grip your fingers into his sleeve, inwardly screaming at him to stay. 

Stay. Please. Keep me company.

Instead, Levi carefully reaches out for you, like he's afraid that moving too fast will make you jump. Slowly, he extends his hand, and his fingertips gently touch your jaw. You stay perfectly still, wondering what he's going to do, heart hammering so loudly inside your chest that he can probably hear it.

Then, he leans in.

Levi's lips meet yours, and you nearly melt on the spot. His mouth pushes against you, and you push back, trying to avoid sinking to the ground. His lips are soft, so soft- you want to imprint the memory of them into your brain.

His fingers slip around to the back of your head, and he pulls you closer to him, tilting his head so that you can slant your mouths together. You oblige, kissing him harder, your arms moving to go around his shoulders.

For a second, it feels like this is getting heavier, like the two of you might end up back in your bedroom. Your tongue slips into Levi's mouth, and he kisses you harder, his grip tightening on you.

But then he pulls back. You lean your head backwards, inhaling slowly. Levi stares at you for a long second before he lets go. "Shit- sorry."

"Don't apologize," you say immediately. "You didn't do anything wrong."

Levi swallows hard. "Alright." 

"You don't have to go."

"I do." The two of you stare at each other for a moment, digesting what just transpired between you. Then, Levi backs up, and your hands fall away from his shoulders. "I'll see you tomorrow," he forces out, his voice choked.

And then he leaves, the door shutting softly behind him.

You stand there, staring dumbly at the door, trying to recount the events of the evening and figure out if you did something wrong. It wasn't like you both had sex or anything like that- if anything, it was just a bit of opening up and vulnerability. Levi fell asleep on your lap, which was probably the best sort of reward you could get from him. He trusted you, and from his overall demeanor and personality, it didn't look like trust was something he gave out very often.

And then you kissed. That was better to you than any sort of fucking that Levi could give you.

"What did I do wrong?" you whisper to no one, frustrated.

Okay, well, if you didn't do anything wrong- then maybe it was Levi. Suddenly, things start to make a bit more sense. Levi had always avoided anything that wasn't purely physical in your relationship- whatever the fuck this is- and maybe it's not because he only wants you for sex, maybe it's just because... he's scared of a relationship?

It makes a lot of sense, now that you think about it. His desire to be anything but physical, the lack of vulnerability- and when he is vulnerable, he bolts. 

And then you realize, that's why you're a prime candidate- because you're only around for four months. There's no danger in awkwardness later, and there's no point in a relationship forming because you'll be gone. You exhale slowly, tipping your head back to look to your ceiling. 

What if that's what you want, though? Because you've been slowly falling for Levi, more and more with every moment you share together. And after today, you're inclined to think he feels the same about you.

"What the hell do I do?" you murmur.

The ceiling doesn't reply. Go figure.

You don't sleep well that night.

.

A/N: Thank you all so much for your support! It means the world! <3