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The first time Erwin meets Levi, he sweeps him off his feet with his wit. At least, that’s how he sees it.
“Oh, sorry about that,” he says after accidentally bumping someone into their bench. “I guess we must have a really strong attractive force.”
He’s not even a minute into teaching his new physics lab for the semester and Erwin’s already more than a little proud of himself for that line. Levi, however, is not. Still irked at being shoved around, Levi continues to hold his eyes and says flatly, “Maybe it’s because you have such a large mass.”
Erwin, encouraged, smiles brightly. “Law of gravitation,” he remarks. “Are you drawn to me?” Levi opens his mouth to say something derisive, but before he can, Erwin turns to introduce himself to the rest of the class as their TA.
A promising start to a great semester, Erwin thinks, smiling to himself. This has potential.
---
At the science department’s fall social for graduate students, Erwin spots one of his lab students from across the room and makes a beeline towards the punch.
“Hey, it’s Levi, right? You’re in my lab.”
Levi turns around at the mention of his name. “Oh,” he says, unimpressed. “It’s you.” Were he a prideful man, Erwin would be offended, but as it stands, he only finds Levi amusing.
At the end of the night, Erwin mentally organizes all of the information he’s gleaned from the department social into a short list. He’s learned that Levi’s twenty four, getting his masters in organic chemistry, and responds violently to puns.
Naturally, he tries to fit as many puns into the conversation as he can while walking Levi to his car.
“Can I get your significant digits?”
“I gave you my number earlier, you dweeb.”
“It’s a joke,” he says, and raises his palms helplessly.
Levi rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe your incapacitance, Erwin,” he says as he climbs into the driver’s seat. “Thanks for walking with me; I’ll see you tomorrow in class. Goodnight!” He backs his car out of its parking spot and stays his eyes on the vision of Erwin in his side mirror as he drives away.
“Goodnight!” He doesn’t stop waving until the car is out of sight.
Erwin ends up falling in love as naturally as gravity.
---
A month later finds Erwin sneaking into the organic chemistry lab that Levi coordinates every Tuesday at 1. He plays at casual with one elbow bent over his head leaning against the doorframe. A few students look away from their experiments at the disruption. He makes sure his voice is loud and clear and obnoxiously flippant when he addresses the room, “Is it getting hot in here?” Erwin flaps the collar of his shirt for dramatic effect as he lets his question hang.
“Nobody answer him,” Levi immediately barks to the class. Aside from the warning to his students, Levi gives no indication that he’s heard him or even noticed Erwin’s presence. His hands are steady behind his fume hood and his eyes haven’t left his experiment once.
Eren, confusedly watching their interaction from his lab bench, raises his hand but aborts the movement quickly when Levi catches it out of the corner of his eye and turns his head sharply at him; he scowls. “Do. Not.”
“But-”
“NO. I swear to God Eren Jeager so help me I will give you a zero on this lab if you fucking fall for this a--“
Erwin sees his opening, quickly interjects “--Or is it just our exothermic bond forming?”
Levi lunges at him.
“Hey, aren’t you supposed to take your gloves off before touching bare skin?” Erwin laughs as he’s forcibly and quite literally pushed out of the door for interrupting Levi’s lab section.
---
The hum of the fluorescent overhead lights catches briefly and they flicker from being on for so long. Muffled footsteps on carpet from students shuffling in start to come every couple minutes instead of hours, and the quiet of 6 AM on the library’s third floor begins to leave with the dawn.
Levi wakes up stiffly, groggily, to the blurry vision of coffee and a scone in his direct line of sight.
Reluctantly, he peels his face from his textbook and rights himself. A sheaf of textbook paper sticks to the side of his mouth where he’s drooled on it. Ugh, he thinks. I don’t remember falling asleep. And I definitely don’t remember buying coffee.
He spots the corner of a simple white notecard under the coffee cup and pinches it, holding it an inch away from his nose. He squints.
“Good luck on your midterm today.
I believe in you.
- E.”
His eyes soften at the edges and an unfamiliar feeling wells up in his throat. Quietly, with care, he folds the note in half and tucks it in the pocket of his flannel, close to his chest.
3 hours left. He can do this.
---
That week, Levi’s the only student to show up at his office hours so Erwin spends a whole fifteen minutes explaining circuits to him. Levi isn’t sure how the other hour and 45 minutes pass by without either of them noticing.
---
The next week’s office hours go pretty much the same. They’re alone in the physics department’s help room on the basement level of the science building, each preparing for their respective finals.
“Levi,” Erwin says, voice cutting through the companionable silence they’ve kept for the last half hour. When Levi looks up, he moves so that they’re an inch apart, noses touching; Levi’s pencil drops, forgotten, from his hand. “Did you know,“ he drawls, brings hand up to cup Levi’s jawline, and all the air leaves Levi’s lungs at once. “That you’re my...” moves his hand to play with the short prickly hair at the dip between the back of Levi’s neck and his undercut— he can feel Erwin’s breath floating right above his lips and Levi thinks he’s going to die.
“...gene of interest?”
Levi chokes on a laugh and the spell is broken. “That was bad.”
Erwin grins at him. “Not as bad as I’ve got it for you.”
“Oh my god,” he says deadpan, “Are you kidding me right now.”
Quickly and without hesitation, he answers— “Not at all.”
Levi pauses to consider how his words fit in his mouth for the first time since they meet. After an eternity, he tells him, “Ask me seriously then.”
“Levi” he says, clearing his throat, very serious. “Are you susceptible to backside attack because I--”
Levi throws his napkin across the desk they’re studying at. It hits Erwin square in the nose, he notes with gratification. “Goodbye, Erwin Smith.” He gets up to leave, but before he can, Erwin puts his hand on his arm to stop him from closing his book and outright walking away.
“Wait, Levi,” he says. He twists his forearm, maneuvering Erwin’s hand so that it’s holding on to nothing, and places the flat of his palm on Erwin’s nose and pushes.
Erwin’s laugh is muffled and once Levi removes his hand from his face, he can finally speak.
“Levi, I’m just kidding, will you go on a date with me?”
He lets out a longsuffering sigh. “I’ll think about it.”
Erwin's subsequent smile is dazzling. He drags Levi over to him by the waist, plants a firm kiss on his lips, and thinks about constants.