Chapter Text
The agonizing shriek of the fire alarm shattered whatever semblance of peace had settled over the night.
Juli jerked upright in bed, heart hammering so hard that it almost hurt. She stumbled around in the dark, mind sluggish with sleep and peppered with panic as she grabbed her shoes, keys, anything her mind deemed necessary.
She stumbled out of her apartment after quickly pulling her blanket over her shoulders. She blinked rapidly against the flood of cold night air and flashing strobe of emergency lights.
Around her, her half-dressed neighbors gathered in clumps, muttering and shivering while hugging themselves.
She shifted from foot to foot as useless energy began to vibrate through her body. She tried to keep her fidgeting to a minimum, so as to not draw attention to herself. Then again, it could easily be mistaken for shivering like everyone else.
”I wonder what happened,” she thought to herself anxiously as her mind began to whirl with possible answers.
The obvious answer would be a fire, but she couldn’t smell smoke or anything like that. Still, the thought of a fire in one unit possibly spreading down to hers and everyone else’s had her eyes flittering around anxiously in search of it.
Then she saw him.
Across the street stood a familiar figure, though she doesn’t know how she recognized him so quickly.
It was the mystery man from the coffee shop.
He too was watching the building, but not in a panicked or distracted manner like her. It was something more sharp, but also assessing like the way he first looked at her.
Their eyes suddenly met and Juli wanted nothing more than to look away and pretend she hadn’t been caught staring.
But something about him had her eyes locked on him.
He titled his head slightly in the barest nod of recognition.
Before she knew what she was doing, Juli found herself moving toward him, the one thing that felt remotely solid in the midnight panic.
She hesitated for a half a second, hovering a few steps away before quietly stepping closer.
Levi shifted his weight slightly, subconsciously angling his body to make space for her.
She wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders, suddenly overcome with a sense of shyness she hadn’t felt since middle school, all due to being under his heavy grey gaze.
“You again,” he said lowly, almost as dryly as when they’d first met.
Juli huffed a quiet, breathless laugh and replied, “Yeah, guess we’re starting to make a habit of this, huh?”
Levi’s mouth twitched in a faint ghost of something almost smile shaped.
“You alright?” he asked, because it was a question this time, and quickly yet subtly scanning her.
She nodded too fast. “Fine,” she said, shifting her weight from one foot to another, “Just wasn’t planning on a midnight fire drill.”
“Tch, you got that right. Never plan for things to go to shit. Always does anyway,” he grumbled out, causing Juli to smile.
She moved her hands up into her sleeves and looked up at him fully.
“You live here too?” she asked, curiosity seeping into her voice.
“Temporarily,” he responded shortly, glancing at the crowd and then back to her, “For work.”
Juli nodded. It was then that she finally took in his attire. Unlike herself and the rest of the tenants who were rightfully clothed for sleep, the man seemed to be fully clothed. Like he was just coming in. Or going out, who knew.
She wanted to ask what he did for work, but she knew it wasn’t the time nor place. So instead, she just shuffled her foot against the pavement as she let her mind wander for a bit.
She suddenly broke the silence.
“Thanks. For a couple days ago.”
Levi only tilted his head slightly before replying, “It was just coffee.”
“It wasn’t though,” Juli said softly, surprising herself but not elaborating further.
He studied her for a long moment, longer than what’s considered polite, then gave another small and nearly imperceptible nod.
“If you need anything,” he spoke quietly yet firmly, “you come find me.”
And somehow, that didn’t feel like an offer, but a promise. And something about the way he carried himself made her confident that she could hold him to it.
“I guess if I’m gonna take you up on that, you need to know my name,” she joked, “I’m Juli.”
“Levi,” he said simply.
She shifted again, suddenly desperate for something to get rid of the weird fluttering feeling in her stomach. The interaction had already gone longer than any other she’d had since arriving in Trost three months ago, including ones with her coworker. And this one was heaps more meaningful, to her anyway.
“I, uh…I live in 4B,” she said awkwardly, making a vague hand gesture towards the building behind her and instantly she wanted to smack herself. Giving out her exact apartment number to a stranger, no matter how kind he’d been to her the other day, was idiotic. And why would he even care to know it?
Levi didn’t laugh though. He simply tucked the information away and repeated, “4B. Good to know.” Though he did have a similar mindset in regards to handing out information like that, he decided it to be alright in this circumstance. It was only fair. Plus, it was temporary as he said, not his actual place of residence.
It was one born out of convenience for him and his coworkers. A safe house in the middle of Trost was necessary for jobs in the inner-city.
“Unit 3C,” he offered blandly.
Before Juli could get lost in her own fluster again, Levi reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an old phone. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say it was a burner of some sort. She didn’t have time to linger on that before he spoke again.
“Give me your number,” voice flat and leaving no room for argument.
Juli blinked up at him and Levi only raised an eyebrow.
“In case this dump goes up in flames again,” he supplied, “Better to know who’s stuck inside.”
For whatever reason, the comment made her cheeks flush hotly but she rattled off her number anyway.
Seconds later, he phone buzzed in her pocket with a text from an unknown number with a simple message:
Levi - 3C
Before Juli could say anything or type up a response in kind, a sudden crack split through the air.
The crowd screamed all at once, sharp and panicked. Something shifted in the structure, which had Juli’s mind racing. She still hadn’t smelled anything fire-like, so she quickly glanced around wildly in search of the violent sound’s source.
It was a section of a gutter pipe that slammed down on the sidewalk across the street. She wanted to sigh with relief. A fallen gutter pipe wasn’t dangerous, not really. But the noise of it all punched Juli’s anxiety right through her chest.
So she hadn’t been able to suppress the harsh flinch back, nor the squeak that escaped her throat.
Levi moved without thinking, stepping into her space as a solid and immediate presence. One hand on her shoulder, the other protectively hovered at her side.
“You’re okay,” he said, voice low and sure, almost like it was a command. Like in the coffee shop.
Juli blinked up at him, breath catching. The hand on her shoulder was steady. It wasn’t gripping hard, restraining her movement. It was simply there and keeping her upright.
She nodded shakily and forced herself to take a deep breath. The trembling that had overtaken her body began to fade under the weight of his presence. Levi didn’t let go right away. Juli didn’t step back either.
For a long, fragile moment, they just stood there. Two strangers in the beginnings of something neither could name yet.
And then the fire crew finally gave the all-clear, shouting that it was safe to return to their apartments and just like that, the spell around them broke.
Levi stepped back first, slow and deliberately, giving her space like it was owed to her, while Juli simply tucked her arms tighter around herself, feeling weirdly exposed now.
“You sure you’re alright?” he asked again, quieter than before and the barest hint of an emotion other than apathy bleeding into his tone.
Juli nodded, clearing her throat.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Just…adrenaline, I guess.”
Levi hummed noncommittally but didn’t argue.
He looked at her for a second longer and finally spoke again, though somewhat grudgingly:
“If anything happens, if you need anything, you call.”
Juli’s throat tightened strangely around those simple nine words.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Levi nodded once, something sharp and final, and melted back into the shadow of the street without waiting for a goodbye.
Juli stood there for a long moment, clutching her phone as her heart continued pounding stupidly loud in her ears.
The crowd around her faded away, the emergency sirens sounded more and more distant by the second, and the cold of the night came at her once more with vengeance, but somehow she didn’t feel quite so alone anymore.
It’s funny how you begin to cross paths with a person endlessly after interacting with them one time. They existed in the same spaces before then, but the universe hadn’t decided for them to fully align until after that first interaction.
That was Juli and Levi. Now that they’d finally exchanged names, it’s like something invisible had clicked and they were suddenly seeing each other all over the apartment complex. The mail room, the laundry room, even once at the gym. And Juli rarely ever goes!
And now that she finally knew his name, it’s like her brain finally gave her permission to think about the man. Ever since the fire alarm went off that one night, it was hard not to think about him.
She truly hadn’t had a meaningful interaction like that since she’d first gotten to Trost. Because of that, she held it dearly. That and the fact that she doesn’t think anyone had ever interacted with her the way Levi did and they still seldom interacted.
But there was something to be said for the fact that he bothered to check on her the morning after the fire alarm went off. It took more convincing than she thought necessary to get him off her back after that reaction of hers, but soon after that they began to exchange casual texts here and there.
Nothing significant, nowhere near consistent, but it was more consistent than any other human interaction she’d gotten in a long time, not including her coworkers. It definitely left her more giddy than work, that was for sure.
He had his own way of texting and it was more amusing to read it while remembering the itty bitty burner phone he was texting from.
Levi (6:54AM): You alive?
Juli (7:17AM): Barely. 5 more min
Levi: Tch. Weak.
Juli: God forbid a girl get her beauty sleep 😭let a girl live.
Levi: Beauty sleep makes you late. You don’t need it.
She had plenty of time in her monotonous life to overthink simple messages like that. Juli wasn’t even taking in the fact that he was checking to make sure she was awake and wouldn’t be late from time to time, but the implication of the last sentence.
The lack of social life might be getting to her, but if she didn’t know better, she’d think Levi was subtly hinting at her being beautiful enough. Enough to not need ‘beauty sleep’. The young girl in her wanted to squeal at the near-delusion line of thought.
She knew she read too much into it, but she didn’t care. She clung to that small exchange of messages, along with dozens of other small interactions.
Like the time they bumped into each other in the mail room and she happened to have a large package awaiting her. Large enough for her to need to hoist it over her shoulder for the walk back to her unit.
It wasn’t as heavy as it was oversized packaging. Still, that didn’t stop Levi from casually grabbing it off her shoulders and carrying it for her without a single word.
She tried insisting she was fine carrying it, that it wasn’t a long walk back, but he paid her no mind as he continued the trek to her apartment. She was only slightly embarrassed as she hurried to catch up to him. She was more taken by the butterflies in her stomach that came as a result of the simple action.
Him just making decisions like that without making a big deal of it.
Guess chivalry isn’t dead? she pondered to herself, just a little…different these days.
It was funny, not that Levi laughed much these days, how once you notice someone, you never stop noticing them after that.
For months, Juli must’ve been moving through the same halls as him without ever pinging his radar. Someone quiet, small and unassuming. Then one ridiculous fire alarm later, it was as if the world tilted slightly off axis and Juli was everywhere.
Which was almost baffling, considering he doesn’t spend the majority of his time at the apartment.
He saw her in the mailroom, laundry room, even once at the gym, looking so bewildered by the machines that he had to bite back a real smile. Seems she went there even less than him.
He told himself it was all just a coincidence. Trost was a pretty big city after all. Then again…in buildings like this? Pretty small ecosystem for it to be happening in.
No, it didn’t feel like a coincidence, but Levi never allowed himself to believe in anything greater.
Not everything could be a coincidence after all. Not text messages, especially when he initiates them. He doesn’t even know why he continues to bother, not when she was such a terrible texter.
Way too many emojis and awful grammar. Levi suspected it had something to do with age. He was on the cusp of 30, meanwhile if he had to give a guess, Juli had to be around 22, 24 at most.
Somehow, he didn’t mind that. The terrible texting or the possible age.
Levi (6:54AM): You alive?
Juli (7:17AM): Barely. 5 more min
Levi: Tch. Weak.
Juli: God forbid a girl get her beauty sleep 😭let a girl live.
Levi: Beauty sleep makes you late. You don’t need it.
He stared at the screen longer than necessary after sending the last message.
“Tch.”
It wasn’t a compliment.
(It was absolutely a compliment. He should know better).
Small things like this began to accumulate, whether he wanted them to or not. He’d already given up hope of avoiding her until she forgot his existence due to the sheer number of ‘coincidences’.
The mailroom incident lingered with him longer than it should’ve and longer than most interactions.
He spotted Juli struggling with a box nearly bigger than her, trying to act like she could handle it.
Levi reached over and took it off her shoulder and kept walking without even thinking twice.
She squeaked something about being fine on her own, he simply ignored her. If it embarrassed her, she didn’t voice it. Simply quickened her pace to keep up and fiddled uselessly with the sleeves of her sweater.
On the outside, Levi kept his face blank like always. On the inside though? He filed the moment away, carefully, just like all the others.
If he wasn’t more careful though, he was going to start convincing himself it was his job. That it was his responsibility to look after Juli.
He told himself again and again when he could seem to clear his mind of her, that she was just a neighbor. Just some kid. Just someone who needed a hand every now and then in this big city. That was it.
But he knew he was just lying to himself.
Whatever, he compromised with himself, as long as she doesn’t get in the way of work, it’s fine