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Levi is not, by any means, a morning person. Of course, life in the Scouting Legion calls for it - up at 5:30, washed, dressed and irritated with the world by 6:00, dealing out jobs to the incompetent brats in his care over breakfast by 6:30 and violently scrubbing every inch of that dusty fucking castle by 7:00. It has to be done, so Levi deals with being up at the ass-crack of dawn and pushes the thoughts of an extra 5 hours in bed to the back of his mind; he’s got plenty more to complain about for now.
However, there are those rare, rare mornings where no training is scheduled, no work is to be done, and the layer of dirt throughout the castle is tolerable if Levi grits his teeth and thinks happy thoughts and flat-out denies the existence of the crumbs in the mess hall. It is these days when Levi enjoys not being up so early, by lying in as late as his body allows, before he physically can’t refrain from getting out of bed to piss/eat/shout at someone. These days are spent with a long morning in bed, with a leg hooked up around Eren Jaeger’s waist and his face smooshed into Eren’s chest (Levi will deny, later, that his face was ever smooshed anywhere. Levi does not smoosh.).
If Levi’s squad find it strange that on these mornings Eren and Levi seem to lie in until the exact same time, and coincidentally stroll into the mess-hall together to scrounge some bread and fruit, they don’t mention a damn thing. Not to Levi’s face, anyway.
The first time Erwin announces that he thinks the squads would benefit from a day of doing the square-root of fuck all, Levi beams (inwardly). Later that evening, he marches down to the trainee’s rooms and stands in the entrance to their common room. Most of the trainees are getting ready for bed, and Levi can’t help that his eyes immediately seek out Eren, whom he discovers sitting with Mikasa and Armin, deep in conversation as he waits for Levi to haul him off to his cell. Eren hasn’t been there in a while, though, taking up refuge in Levi’s quarters in the dead of night instead, but no one needs to know that. Eren’s eyes find his and the wide, gormless grin he sends Levi’s way makes something flutter in his chest, though he keeps his expression stoic as ever, pointedly ignoring the hard stare Mikasa is sending his way, that he can see from the corner of his eye. If looks could kill, he’d be six feet under in his best fucking suit by now. Some trainees notice Levi and quickly the whole room is standing to attention, all of them snapping into salutes. Levi takes the opportunity to assemble the rest of them with a loud “gather round, fuckwits.”
When all of them are gathered, Levi drawls, “Commander Erwin would like me to inform you all that you don’t have to haul your lazy asses out of bed tomorrow.”
There is a slightly confused, dubiously-hopeful silence, in which the trainees blink at Levi and don’t do much else. Levi omits a long-suffering sigh.
“You have a day off tomorrow. Sleep, eat, take a really long shit- I don’t care. Just don’t do anything painfully fucking stupid or I promise you from the bottom of my heart I will feed your hands to the horses and sing as I do so. Got it?”
There is a chorus of “Yes, sir!”s and the dull thumps as the trainees smack their fists to their chests in enthusiastic salutes, and Levi won’t pretend he doesn’t feel the slight tug of a smile on his lips upon seeing the bright glints in their eyes at the prospect of a long day of doing nothing. Levi nods curtly to acknowledge their salutes, and then dismisses them with a sharp flick of his hand. “Go to sleep. You have a long day of being useless tomorrow.”
He glances at Eren who is still standing where he was as the trainees disperse, and huffs a bored sigh.
“Bed time, brat,” he bites, and with that, spins on his heel and exits the room, not having to look round to know Eren is scampering along behind him.
They walk briskly down a corridor at a respectable distance from each other, wary of the two or three people milling about. They make a turn left, then right, in silence, until the corridor they find themselves in is mercifully empty save for the few torches on the walls, housing low-burning flames to light the way. It’s here that Levi slips his hand up to gently squeeze Eren’s neck, slowing them to a stop before Levi backs Eren up to the wall, crowding into his space, and he hears Eren’s breathing hitch. Levi doesn’t give Eren time to compose himself as he crushes their lips together, his hands roaming up and down Eren sides as the trainee groans quietly and bunches his hands in Levi’s shirt. Levi licks slowly into Eren’s mouth, enjoying how pliant the kid feels beneath his touch, before breaking away and interlocking his fingers with Eren’s to lead them towards Levi’s quarters.
Levi says nothing, save for a hum of quiet contentment as they walk. The corridors they stride down are empty, now- Levi reckons the majority of the castle’s inhabitants have gone to bed early, with the intention of milking the day-off for every extra hour of sleep that it’s worth. Levi flicks his eyes to Eren’s face in time to catch that small, easy smile Eren seems to wear a lot around him. Levi pretends not to notice the way the idea of Eren smiling just for him makes his heart fucking flutter.
As they approach the door to Levi’s quarters, Eren suddenly picks up pace and all but drags Levi into the room. Normally, Levi wouldn’t let himself be dragged anywhere, but there’s a heat pooling in his stomach as he watches Eren’s muscles move beneath his shirt that says he needs to get into that room as soon as fucking possible. Once inside, no time is wasted before clothes are clawed off and they meet in a clash of lips and teeth and tongue.
If they moaned a little too loudly, or Eren, even more enthusiastic about being fucked by Levi than he is about everything else he does, cried Levi’s name loud enough that it’s heard from down the corridor, no one notices or cares. Alternatively, no one is brave enough to bring it up the next day and that’s abso-fucking-lutely fine by Levi.
The next morning, Levi wakes around 10:30, feeling comfortably loose and relaxed with his left arm slung over Eren, who is squished to his side and giving off heat like a damn human furnace. Not that Levi’s complaining- it’s the dead of winter and he views it as a god damn gift every time he wakes up to find he can still feel his feet, with Eren curled around him, his Titan heat keeping their little nest of blankets warm. He’s extra grateful this morning that he doesn’t have to roll out of bed a half hour earlier than Eren, to shuffle quietly round the room as he pulls on his uniform, finally shaking Eren roughly at 6:00 (or, if he’s in the mood, straddling him and slowly grinding his hips into Eren’s) until he wakes up, to have Levi throw his clothes at him, and, if necessary, pull him from the bed by force. Levi usually leaves as Eren is fumbling tiredly with the straps of his gear, and he pauses to offer a slow, sleepy (on Eren’s part) kiss before going to the mess hall to make tea and shout at people.
But this morning, all Levi does is adjust his position, curling into Eren’s chest and hooking a leg around his waist before drifting off again to the sound of Eren’s steady breaths.
He reawakens about half an hour later, still just as relaxed and happy to doze off for another few hours. He lies awake, though, and traces patterns on Eren’s bare shoulder and takes in his peaceful face, tucked under Levi’s chin. The furrow between his brows, that often lends Eren his troubled expression, is smooth, leaving him looking peaceful and boyish. Levi thinks privately that the brat has a lovely face, as he presses a kiss to Eren’s forehead.
Levi does not like to get attached, because in the end what are they all but some titan’s next meal? He’s seen too many deaths, too many wailing parents and children and lovers on their knees in the street as the Scouting Legion returns from an expedition, but some loved ones do not. But having Eren in his arms- this lanky brat with the weight of humanity’s fate on his shoulders and a burning fire in his eyes, Levi can’t help but think fuck it. Fuck not getting attached. For once, just once, he’s going to let himself care so deeply for someone that he just knows that if, when, they lose each other it’s going to hurt more than any blow a titan could deliver.
Before Levi’s thoughts can stray into even darker territories, Eren stirs slowly, stretching languidly, and, as if it were actually physically possible, squishes further into Levi’s side. He cracks open an eye and blinks blearily up at Levi.
“Morning,” he mumbles, shutting his eye again and snuggling into Levi’s bare chest.
“Morning, brat,” Levi murmurs. He can’t help but card a hand through Eren’s hair, seeing as it can’t get any messier than it already is. Inwardly, Levi mourns the fact that that hair will probably never be tamed.
They lie in comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Eren opens his eyes to stare at Levi in confusion. “What time is it?”
A quick glance at the window tells Levi it’s at least eleven o’ clock, if the light is anything to go by. He tells Eren this.
“Seriously?” Eren asks, and then falls silent for a minute, as if he needs to process this apparently shocking piece of information, as he studies Levi’s face.
Levi’s brow furrows. “What?”
“Aren’t you, y’know...I don’t know, I just never took you as a lie-in kind of guy,” Eren shrugs.
“What, you think I enjoy getting up before the birds have taken their morning shit? Eren, kid, I am not moving a damn muscle all day,” Levi announces resolutely. There is an unspoken “and neither are you” tacked onto the end of Levi’s declaration, in the way he tightens his leg around Eren’s waist.
Eren can’t help but laugh when he feels Levi’s leg, and he seems to accept the idea of Levi as a lazy-morning person, because he shuts his eyes again and presses a kiss into Levi’s shoulder.
“I like it when we cuddle,” Eren mumbles sleepily.
It’s actually impressive the way Levi manages to sound affronted even when he’s completely silent.
“I don’t cuddle,” he insists after a moment, actually having the gall to sound offended, even with his limbs tangled over Eren.
“Of course you don’t,” Eren drawls, “You’re just squishing me with your body affectionately. Definitely not cuddling.”
“I will slap you in the eye,” Levi snaps and Eren actually laughs.
Levi makes an offended sound in the back of his throat and squeezes the leg around Eren’s waist in an attempted threatening squish.
“Shut the fuck up and go to sleep,” he grumbles.
Eren’s chortles die down and he kisses Levi’s shoulder once more. “Yes, Corporal,” he murmurs, and Levi doesn’t even try to restrain the eye-roll, before he too shuts his eyes.
They lie in silence again, and Eren has almost drifted off again when he hears a particularly disgruntled-
“I do not fucking cuddle.”
It’s twenty minutes before Eren stops laughing.