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Levi took a small sip of his tea. Today was such a nice day that even his tea tasted better than usual. And the constant noise in the dining hall didn’t irritate him like it usually did. No, instead Levi was enjoying his breakfast. It was a good day, but Levi’s night was so much better. Last night he spent with Hange in his arms. They fell asleep together, limbs tangling and breathing synchronizing. The morning was nice, too, as Levi woke up and the first he saw was Hange’s sleepy face. Her hair was a mess and he could see drool on the corners of her mouth, but it was still the best morning in Levi’s life. Up until Hange woke up and announced that she had a lot of paperwork to catch on, so she couldn’t stay any longer. Levi’s hands immediately and involuntarily tightened around her body. Hange laughed, but still managed to escape. Still laughing, she leaned in and gave Levi a long and very passionate kiss. It was such a good kiss that Levi forgot to get mad at Hange’s morning breath. However, it still wasn’t good enough to make up for the fact that Hange was going to work so early. After their first night together. But Hange quickly kissed him again and promised she’d finish early, so they could spend the evening together. Levi rolled his eyes, but conceded his defeat, letting go of Hange and rolling onto his back. He lazily watched her getting dressed and before she was ready to go, Hange gave him another kiss. Levi probably would never get bored of kissing Hange. Her lips were chapped, but soft, and Levi liked the feeling of her body against his. He enjoyed putting his hands into her hair and carding his fingers through her locks. Surprisingly, her hair was soft to touch. And, of course, Levi liked seeing her smile after their kiss. She looked at him with soft look in her eyes and a happy smile on her lips. And Levi felt immense satisfaction knowing that it was him, and only him, that got to see that side of Hange.
Just thinking about Hange made Levi so pleased, that he almost smiled.
“You look unusually content today, Levi,” Erwin commented softly from the other side of the table.
Next to Erwin sat Mike and he kicked Levi’s leg under the table, smirking at him.
“I take it last night with Hange was good?”
Levi glared at Mike and didn’t answer him.
“You didn’t even kick me back!” Mike loudly exclaimed. “I think if you continue your relationship with Hange, we would even see you smile!” Mike obnoxiously laughed. Levi once again decided to ignore him. He was in a good mood today and he wouldn’t let that giant ruin it.
“It’s really good to see you happy, Levi.” Erwin said with a soft smile. “I’m glad for the both of you.”
Levi wanted to reply, but then he noticed Moblit, who just entered the mass hall. The man looked tense, even tenser than usual, and Levi got a sinking feeling in his stomach. It intensified when Moblit headed directly to the table, where Levi sat with Erwin and Mike.
“Captain Levi!” Moblit saluted. Up close, he looked pale and was that sweat on his forehead?
“Did something happen? Is Hange alright?” Levi immediately asked. He definitely remembered Hange telling him that she would only be busy with paperwork. Did she change her plans?
“Squad Leader is fine,” Moblit was quick to assure him. “But I need to talk with you,” he quickly glanced at Mike at Erwin. “In private.” He added.
Levi quizzically looked at Moblit, but got up, ready to follow him out of the dining hall. However, Levi noticed that Mike’s shoulders were shaking. Levi briefly looked at Erwin, but he assured him with the smile that everything was fine, so Levi turned around and went with Moblit. Once they were in corridor and Moblit made sure they were alone, he turned to Levi.
“Captain!” he began and Levi cringed at how loud his voice was. “It has come to my attention that you and Squad Leader Hange are engaged in a romantic relationship. And while I am very happy for the both of you and I’m especially glad to see Squad Leader thinking about something except our work, I have to warn you,” Moblit paused to take a breath. Levi just stared at him, not quite understanding where this conversation was going. Moblit cleared his throat and continued. “Squad Leader Hange is a very dear person to me and I hate to see her upset. So if you would ever hurt her or make her sad, there… there would be consequences. You may be humanity’s strongest, but… I would find a way to make you pay.”
With that said, Moblit saluted again and then hastily walked away. For a good few minutes Levi remained in the empty corridor, trying to understand what the fuck had just happen. Did Moblit really try to threaten him?
He came back to Mike and Erwin in the same kind of daze.
“So,” Mike began with an obnoxious grin on his face. “Did Moblit give you the good old ‘if you hurt her, I’ll hurt you’ speech?”
“He did,” Levi replied, too confused by the whole situation to be properly annoyed by Mike’s words.
“Oh man!” Mike laughed loudly. “I wish I could have witnessed this conversation! Although, while we’re still on this topic,” Mike said and his voice suddenly changed. His tone was still light, but Levi could hear there was a dangerous tint to it. “Remember our first meeting? When I dipped your pretty little face in a puddle?” Levi gritted his teeth at the memory. It was probably the most humiliating moment of his life. And the fact that Mike brought it up so frequently made it a thousand times worse. “Anyways,” Mike continued, smirking at Levi’s angry expression. “If you ever hurt my dear Hange, I would do something much worse to you.”
“As a Commander of Survey Corps,” Erwin added, stopping Levi from giving Mike a vicious and probably foul-mouthed reply. “I condemn violence, especially between by subordinates. But Hange is a very important soldier, she has the most brilliant mind I’ve ever seen and she’s like a little slightly crazy sister to me. So if you upset her, I’ll be forced to punish you. By cutting our funds on black tea or cleaning supplies. Maybe both, if she would be extremely upset.”
“What the fuck?” Levi asked angrily. “Why would I hurt Hange, I care about her, that’s why we are together!”
"I know you care about her," Erwin said with a sweet smile. "I'm just warning you, that's all."
He got up and gently patted Levi's shoulder, and then walked out of the dining hall. Mike finished his tea and also raised from his seat.
"Say hello to Hange from me," he said and left Levi alone.
Levi stared at his tea, it tasted so good before but now he didn't want to finish it. His unusually good mood was ruined by some assholes who decided to put their noses in his and Hange's relationship. Feeling irritated, Levi decided to go and oversee some training. Maybe if he would observe how sweaty and exhausted recruits were trying to run laps, it would make him feel better. He briefly thought about going to Hange's lab to see her, but he quickly dismissed it. Hange promised him they would spend the evening together, if he came to her now, she would only get distracted. And also he would look too needy and he didn't want that. He had a reputation to uphold after all.
When he was walking out of the dining hall, he was met with the rest of Hange's squad. Nifa, Abel and Keiji were excitingly talking about something. Once they noticed Levi, though, Nifa began waving at him.
"Captain Levi!" She called, smiling brightly. The trio walked up to Levi. "We were just looking for you!"
Levi rolled his eyes. "Your Squad Leader is working since early morning, why the hell none of you are in the lab?"
"Oh, she let us have a day-off," Keiji explained. "Said she only needed to deal with paperwork and then she would leave early too."
"She was so happy today," Abel noticed with an arrogant a smirk. "Do you perhaps know a reason to it, Captain?"
Levi had to close his eyes and take a deep breath to remind himself that punching Hange's subordinates would be a bad move. Firstly, punching people was bad and, secondly, and more importantly, Hange would probably get angry with him and he didn't want that at all.
"That's why we wanted to talk to you!" Levi heard Nifa's cheerful voice and opened his eyes. "It may not look like it, but Squad Leader Hange is a very delicate person and her feelings can be easily hurt, just like any other human. And we love her so much and would be very sad if someone made her upset. Right, guys?" Both Abel and Keiji immediately nodded. Nifa looked up at Levi with a determined look in her eyes. She was shorter than Levi was and he had to look down on her (which didn't happen very often). But even still, she managed to look intimidating.
"Making Hange upset is not my intent," Levi said slowly, patiently. He really didn't want for Hange to get angry with him just because he yelled at her squad mates.
"Great!" Nifa clasped her hands. "We just wanted to make sure you remember that!"
Then the three of them saluted to him and left.
Cursing under his breath, Levi headed to the training grounds.
When he came there, he could see Mikasa helping Armin practice maneuvering on 3DMG. Levi observed them for some time. Armin moved more confident and was more graceful than before. Levi wanted to praise him on his progress and so he walked up to the pair. The moment Armin and Mikasa noticed him, they both landed on the ground near Levi. Levi was satisfied to see that Armin's landing was almost as quick and accurate as Mikasa's.
"You've made a huge progress, Armin. Good job."
Armin blushed and gave Levi a small shy smile.
"Thank you, Captain!"
Levi nodded and was ready to turn around and go away, but Armin's quiet hesitant voice stopped him.
"I've heard about your... relationship with Squad Leader Hange," Armin said, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "And I just wanted to say... Congratulations!" Armin blushed even deeper shade of red, but his smile, although, still small, was sincere. Levi almost felt himself smile in return.
"Thank you, Armin." He told him softly.
"I hope you know you don't deserve her." Mikasa said. Her voice was as cold as ice.
"Mikasa!" Armin hurriedly whispered, tugging on her sleeve. "You can't say things like that!"
"No, it's fine, Armin," Levi interfered. "I know Hange is so much better than me. She deserves someone who would respect and cherish her for who she is. I know I can never be the perfect one for her. But I hope I can at least be good enough."
"Good," Mikasa nodded. "Squad Leader Hange deserves some happiness in her life." Mikasa paused, looking away from Levi and focusing her gaze on the ground. Levi thought it was a trick of light, but he saw a slight blush on her cheeks. "You do too." Mikasa added quietly. Then she turned around and, grabbing Armin's arm, hastily walked away.
For a moment Levi stared at their retreating figures. Then he shook his head and headed towards the stables. His squad and Eren were supposed to be cleaning them today.
However then he saw Jean, Sasha and Connie. The three of them were sitting under a tree. They were discussing something in hushed tones. Curious, Levi quietly came up to them, so he could hear their conversation.
"Have you heard the news about Squad Leader Hange and Captain Levi?" It was Jean's voice and Levi rolled his eyes. Was his relationship with Hange the only topic worth discussing today? However, for now he decided not to make his presence known and listen to what those brats were saying about him and Hange.
“Armin told me during breakfast,” Sasha said. “I hope Captain would make her happy. Squad Leader Hange is so nice! Sometimes when I go to the kitchen to grab a midnight snack, she’s there too and she always makes some tea for me and shares her food.”
“Mm, Squad Leader is really cool,” Connie agreed. “One time I stepped in a puddle and then dirtied the whole first floor of the barracks. I thought the Captain would surely kill me. He was so angry when he came asking who did it. I really wanted to confess, but then Squad Leader Hange came and took the blame. I know she knew it was me, because she was the one who pointed out my dirty feet, saying that I should hide somewhere before Captain finds out. Although, Captain Levi didn’t make her clean the barracks, didn’t even yell at her. He just rolled his eyes and then cleaned everything himself. I know that Captain didn’t get angry with her or anything, but it was still very cool of her to defend me. If he found out it was me, I would probably have to clean the whole Survey Corps’ headquarters.”
“Yeah,” Jean said. “Hange-san is awesome. And she’s really sexy too.”
Levi clenched his fists angrily and decided it was time to stop their stupid discussion. He walked up to the trio.
"Oi, brats!" He called to them. Jean, Sasha and Connie quickly got to their feet and saluted Levi.
"Captain!" Sasha said a little breathlessly. "We were just, um, we were..." She elbowed Connie in the stomach but Connie just shook his head, wordlessly telling her he didn't know how to explain themselves either.
"We were just trying to catch a breath. After a very exhausting training." Jean said calmly. Both Sasha and Connie smiled gratefully at him and nodded.
"Well, to me it looked like you were skipping your training altogether and instead sat there gossiping about something." Jean, Sasha and Connie immediately palled. They really hoped that Captain didn’t hear what exactly they were gossiping about.
For a moment, Levi just stared at their scared and obviously guilty faces. The longer he continued to watch them silently, the more nervous the three of them became. Levi could even see a trickle of sweat rolling down Jean’s forehead. Deciding to take a pity on them, he was in a good mood today, Levi signed and turned away from them.
“It’s almost time for lunch, so you can continue your rest,” Levi said and heard how the trio collectively breathed out a sign of relief. “But make sure to train harder afterwards.”
“Yes, Captain!” the three of them replied loudly.
Levi signed deeply. He hated dealing with teenagers.
When Levi got to the stumbles, he found that his squad was not there anymore and only Eren was still sweeping the floor of the stables.
“Where are the others?” Levi asked.
“They finished with their job!” Eren told him. He was as energetic as always. Looking at him, Levi was reminded of Hange. She also was always full of enthusiasm and excitement. Damn it, but Levi was already missing her. He wanted for this day to finish quicker so he could finally spend some time with her.
“I didn’t ask that,” Levi said. “I asked where they are now.”
“Um, they didn’t really tell me,” Eren scratched his head.
“Well, if they truly have done their job, then it doesn’t really matter.” Levi turned around and started walking away. However, Eren didn’t follow him like he expected him to. “What are waiting for?” he asked the boy, looking back at him irritatingly. “The dinner starts soon, aren’t your friends waiting for you there?”
“Oh, sure!” Eren hurried after Levi, leaving his broom on the floor. Levi wanted to reprimand him for it, but then decided against it. He definitely was too kind today.
For some time, they were walking in silence. Then Eren finally gathered enough courage to ask Levi a question.
“Um, Captain Levi?” he began shyly. When Levi turned to look at him, Eren continued. “Petra told me that you and Squad Leader Hange are together now.”
Levi resisted the urge to sign in annoyance. He was really really getting tired of this topic today.
“We are, so what?” he asked angrily. “Do you also want to tell me that I shouldn’t hurt her?”
“Um, no,” Eren replied. He was a little startled at Levi’s outburst, but more than that he was confused. “I just wanted to warn you. I spend a lot of time with Squad Leader and, well, sometimes when an experiment goes wrong she gets really angry. Don’t get me wrong! She’s very kind person and I respect her very much, but you really should never anger her. She is really scary then.”
Well, Levi couldn’t disagree with Eren. Angry Hange was scarier than a horde of titans. Even scarier than a horde of abnormal titans.
“If I may add,” Eren said after a brief silence. “You look unusually pleased today, Captain. It’s a good look on you.”
Levi turned to look at Eren and the boy was smiling at him. His smile was soft and warm. Levi felt something equally soft and warm blossom inside his chest. He reached out and gently ruffled Eren’s hair.
“You should hurry,” he said, pushing Eren forward. “Your friends are probably worried because of your absence.”
Eren nodded and giving Levi one last smile, almost ran to the dining hall.
Levi signed and followed him at a more leisure pace. He had a long day, so he decided to skip the dinner and go straight to his room. Maybe, Hange was already finished with her job and was waiting for him. That thought made Levi walk to his room much quicker than usual.
Levi was proven right when he opened the door to his room and saw that Hange was already sitting on his bed with a book in her hands. At the sound of opening door, Hange raised her head and smiled softly at him.
“Hey,” she said quietly.
Normally, Levi would at least pretend that he was annoyed at Hange barging into his room. Especially, when he wasn’t there. But today he wasn’t in a mood for that. So Levi quickly took off his boots and jacket and joined Hange on the bed.
“I see someone missed me,” Hange laughed. Levi didn’t answer her, tightening his hold on her instead. “I missed you, too,” Hange said, putting her book aside. She started to softly card her fingers through Levi’s hair.
“You shouldn’t have left so early then,” Levi mumbled into her shirt. He tried to sound angry, but it came out more petulant than anything. Thankfully, Hange didn’t comment on that, so Levi was left with at least some remnants of dignity.
“I had a lot of work to do, but tomorrow I’ll stay as long as you want,” Hange said, looking at Levi gently.
“You promise?” Levi asked so quietly, it was almost a whisper.
“I do,” Hange replied just as quietly.
Satisfied by her answer, Levi finally reached out to capture Hange’s lips in a kiss. Her lips were just as soft as they were this morning and Levi could feel that Hange was still smiling. With Hange in his arms, Levi forgot about the awful day he had. He could suffer through a thousand more days like that if it meant that he could spend his every evening with Hange.
“I would never hurt you, you know that, right?” Levi asked after they broke apart.
“Of course, I do,” Hange replied without hesitation. “What brought this up, though?”
“It’s the only thing anyone would say to me this whole day.”
Hange threw her head back and laughed. “Really?” She asked a little breathless.
“Really,” Levi said in flat tone. “If I understood it correctly, your loyal assistant threatened to beat me up, if I would make you sad.”
Hange began to laugh even harder than before.
“Oh my god!” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I wish I could have seen it!”
Levi rolled his eyes. “Mike said the same thing.”
“Ohh, did he also threaten you?” she asked, giggling.
“He did.”
“And I bet he reminded of your first meeting, right?”
Levi decided not to answer that question and just glared at Hange. It didn’t stop her mischief, though, and she continued laughing.
“You should know,” Hange said when she finally stopped giggling. She laid her head on Levi’s shoulder and his hands automatically hugged her, pressing her body closer to his. “That your squad told me the very same thing.”
Levi’s eyes widened at her revelation. So that’s where they disappeared!
“I knew Petra could be terrifying,” Hange continued. “But I would have never guessed that Oluo could look so intimidating!”
“Well, he’s my best fighter,” Levi said with pride in his voice.
“And he hates me the most,” Hange finished.
“What? No, he doesn’t hate you,” Levi assured her. But then he raised up to look at Hange more closely. “Did he say something to you? Should I talk to him?”
Hange laughed softly and gave Levi a quick kiss.
“I’m flattered by your concern but I can take care of myself, you know?”
“Of course, I do,” Levi immediately replied. “I just wanted to…”
“To be a gentleman?” Hange asked with a grin.
“Maybe.” Levi admitted. “Was I wrong?”
“No, it was very sweet,” Hange gave him thumbs up. “But, um, a little very weird,” she added.
“Whatever,” Levi said. He leaned in and caught Hange in another kiss. At first, it was soft and almost chaste, but slowly Levi deepened the kiss, eliciting a quiet moan from Hange. They broke apart and Hange looked at him, smiling that same soft smile that Levi loved so much. He gave her a small smile in return, feeling happier than he ever did before.