Chapter Text
Levi had a really rough day.
He had gotten stuck with a public speaking assignment (that they would not let him out of despite the fact most of his classes were online) for RAD and he completely flubbed it.
Ordinarily he’d turn to his favorite anime for a distraction, but he recently learned that it was cancelled and they weren’t going to finish the current season so it only depressed him more whenever he tried to watch it. And he also couldn’t even pick up the latest manga he had been hooked on because his favorite character just died, out of nowhere!
Feeling like absolute crap, he curled up in his tub and just waited for you to come back from RAD for the day. He already struggled enough with his own negative thoughts daily, and this added stress was really getting to him. But you always told him how you’d be willing to listen to him if he ever needed to talk, so he thought this would be as good of a time as any to try to take you up on that offer. He just hoped you got back before his own self doubt convinced him that it wasn’t even worth trying to talk to you because he was just overreacting and you’d surely be annoyed that he wasted your time for something so trivial.
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“Levi? I’m back. Are you ready…”
When you opened Levi’s door to join him for your scheduled anime marathon, you were shocked to see he wasn’t in his room. Or at least that’s how it appeared initially. But after you took a few steps inside, Levi lifted his arm up just enough to be visible and waved you over to his location in the tub.
“Hey, what are you doing in here? You feeling ok?”, you asked, kneeling beside the tub, before crossing your arms and resting them on the edge.
“No. I feel awful. Everything is awful. It’s not fair…”
“Scooch,” you instructed him, standing so you could climb into the tub to lay down next to him. Levi was a little startled at first by the sudden request, causing him to blush, but he did as you said and made a space for you to lay beside him.
Laying on your side, you tucked one arm under a pillow, adjusting its position so you were as comfortable as possible given your current location. And with the other arm you reached out to brush Levi’s bangs from his eyes so you could get a better look at him, before taking hold of one of his hands and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“What happened? Is this about that school project?”
“No...well yes...but that’s not the only thing…”
“Then what are the other things?”
“You’ll think it’s stupid. I know I’m overreacting and just being a lame otaku.”
“Levi, you know that’s not true. I told you that you could talk to me, so talk to me.”
Levi thought for a moment about how best to approach this as he played with your hand, rubbing his thumb along your fingers. He wanted you to understand how big of a deal this was for him, but the thought of saying it out loud was...well, scary. He didn’t know what he’d do if you told him to get over it. But, after taking a deep breath, Levi decided to just trust you, and started to explain.
“It’s...you know that new anime I started? Well it’s not new new. It’s been out for awhile. But I just started it?”
“Umm, I’m not sure if I do, but continue,” you said, giving his hand another comforting squeeze, smiling at him softly.
“Well...it’s...well...they canceled it. And they didn’t just cancel it like not renew it. They CANCELED it. They won’t even be finishing the season. And how could they do that? Don’t they know how invested people get in their characters? Who gave them the right to just decide their fans don’t deserve an ending? The least they could do is finish the season! I can understand if they don’t finish a story arc, but a whole season?!”
Levi froze. Without even meaning to, he had slipped into pure otaku mode, ranting about his problems with fiery passion. His cheeks flushed as he averted his gaze, “S-s-sorry. I got carried away. You probably didn’t want to hear about all that stuff…”, he said, shrinking in on himself.
“It’s fine Levi,” you replied, laughing softly. You gave his hand another squeeze before continuing, “I like listening to you talk about your stuff. You know that. And you listen to me rant about my stuff too.”
Realizing Levi wasn’t going to look at you on his own, you let go of his hand and gently cupped his cheek, tilting his face up so you could look him in the eyes, “It’s ok Levi. I promise. So finish your story.”
You were looking at him so tenderly Levi wasn’t even sure how to respond. He could tell you were concerned for him, and even though you didn’t know what he was talking about, you were still listening intently. He really liked that about you. It was one of the many things he thought made you such a good friend, and he was so thankful you were his friend right now.
He gave you a small smile, and closed his eyes, holding your hand to his cheek while he continued. “There’s also this manga. I don’t want to say which because you’ll probably want to read it later. At least I think you will. I’d want you to.
But anyways, there was this one side character that I really liked. He was just so fun, but he also stood up for his friends and was just really cool. But...they...they...they killed him off! Just out of nowhere. There wasn’t a warning. Nothing that happened made you think he was in danger. You just open the volume and BAM he’s dead. Page one.”
Levi grew silent now that he’d gotten everything off his chest. Just talking to you made his heart feel a little bit lighter. Not that he was back to feeling 100%, but at least he didn’t feel quite as hopeless.
“So just too much bad stuff going on all at once, huh?”
“Y-y-yeah. After that...torture...at RAD I couldn’t even relax and unwind because everything else just made it worse! It’s not fair. Why did this all have to happen today? They couldn’t have spaced these things out by a couple weeks or something?”, Levi asked, with a huff of frustration.
“Come here,” you said, as you moved the arm out from under your pillow to slip it behind Levi’s neck and pull him into a hug. He didn’t put up any resistance at this point because he was pretty sure he was about to cry and didn’t want you to see his face. He simply cuddled into your shoulder as you started running your fingers through his hair.
“Thank you for talking to me. It makes me happy to know you trust me that much,” you pressed a small kiss to his forehead. “I’m sorry you had such a rough day.”
Levi just pulled you closer, letting your legs tangle with his. He used to think he hated being touched, but for some reason he never got tired of having you close. Your presence and your warmth just soothed him, melting away the knots of anxiety. He loved the feeling of your fingers combing through his hair too. It was always at a nice, slow, steady rhythm that was easy to focus on when he needed to keep his mind from wandering where it shouldn’t.
The two of you laid together like that in silence for a while, and it didn’t take long before you both had fallen asleep, with just the gentle hum of electronics as white noise in the background.