Work Text:
Levi blinked at the screen as the notification popped up on his phone. Quickly, he opened the app and typed a reply.
His eyes were glued to the screen as he waited for a response. He tried to imagine the pretty blond as he sat in front of his stone age old laptop with a tab open for Twitter while writing for his thesis, like he did every weekend at the café.
His horn-rimmed reading glasses, which were way too big on his petite face, would slowly slide down the bridge of his nose while he typed. In the beginning, Levi got anxious watching the scenario unfold, fearing they’d slide right off his nose and fall. But Armin pushed it back up at the last second every single time with an odd precision.
Levi had watched him type away on his laptop for almost four months now at the café Levi frequented as he drank his morning tea after his early work out session. He had followed Armin on Twitter for about three.
He wasn’t proud of how he’d used the moment Armin got up from his chair for a pee break one afternoon in order to snoop what he was doing on his laptop. One quick glance revealed three things: His name was Armin, he was writing his master’s thesis on an environmental science-related subject, and his Twitter handle was @mandarminorange.
When he’d looked him up and followed him later that same night, he did not expect for Armin to notice it.
What he definitely didn’t expect was for Armin to follow him back.
Levi never posted anything. Once in a while he’d retweet a meme or something Hanji had shared, but he never actually wrote any original tweets. But for whatever reason, Armin had followed him back regardless.
In the beginning, Levi swore to himself that he went far enough.
He would not take advantage of the situation by interacting with him. But that resolve soon crumbled as Armin started sharing more personal tweets and Levi couldn’t help himself but answer, trying to reassure him that he was doing well and urging him on to keep working on his thesis.
They’d become sort of acquaintances, with Armin tagging Levi once in a while and Levi commenting with his bad humor, which the kid seemed to like.
They even wrote back and forth when they were sitting across from each other at the café, just that Armin didn’t know the person he wrote on Twitter was right there .
When the blue number showed he had one new notification, Levi clicked on it faster than a bullet.
Levi winced. Not the glasses! He was about to ask whether it was the horn-rimmed ones or another pair, but then he remembered he couldn’t reveal he knew what they looked like.
As usual, he kept his answer simple.
And Levi wished he could be the one to fulfill that wish.
He paused.
An idea popped up in his head. He should have stopped to think about it more, but instead he typed it out and sent it impulsively.
The reply came seconds after he sent it and he cringed at himself. A thirty-two year old guy, prying on a much younger man, stalking him on Twitter and now he was about to offer him a hug?
Levi Ackerman, does your tea cup have a chip?
He quickly scrapped the idea.
“Well, shit. What now?” he asked into the quiet of his apartment.
He shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. This was entirely on him. Yet a guilty knot formed in his stomach, making him feel horrible for teasing Armin like that and then backtracking on it.
Would it be so wrong to suggest it?
Yes, it definitely would.
But it couldn’t hurt to test the waters, could it? In all likelihood, Armin was going to call him a lunatic for suggesting something like that in the first place.
Yeah. Things would sort themselves out, and Levi could hide behind the anonymity of the internet. The worst that could happen was that he had to make another twitter account to follow Armin with, if Armin decided to block his creepy ass on this one.
He answered.
Surprisingly neutral. Levi guessed that Armin didn’t think much of it, that Armin just thought Levi wanted to make him feel better.
Which was true.
But still, now that he thought about it, Levi really wanted to know what Armin felt.
He took a leap of faith.
Yes, surprise, surprise. Levi didn’t see that one coming.
Taking a sip of his Jasmin tea, he wondered if Armin got suspicious by now. What were the chances, after all?
There.
He’d said it.
The tweet was out in the open and Levi awaited his public execution. After all, why the fuck should someone like Armin agree to meet a complete stranger for a hug? That’d be insane!
Waiting for an answer, Levi felt anxiety bubble up in his stomach. Armin was taking a while to reply.
Levi waited for five long minutes and was almost ready to log off when he had one new notification.
Smooth, Ackerman. Real smooth.
You’re so trustworthy the kid is gonna give you his bank account and password next.
His answer was only partly true - he wasn’t a killer but he couldn’t quite convince himself he wasn’t a creep. Not after stalking the kid on social media and pretending he was a rando online.
“You’re so stupid,” he told himself and barely dared to look at his phone.
This time, Armin took even longer to reply.
Seven minutes which felt like an eternity later, Levi got his answer.
Levi almost dropped his phone.
“Are you insane?” he yelled at the screen, even though Armin couldn’t hear him. “I could be a killer! Or worse, a YouTuber filming that shit.”
Levi thought the worst that could have happened was Armin saying piss off, you creep . He would have never thought he’d say yes .
Even worse, 8pm was only a little more than 20 minutes from now. He had to decide whether he was actually going to go through with it.
“Fuck,” Levi said and took a deep breath. With trembling hands, he locked his screen for a moment, folding his hands in front of his face into a praying pose. He needed to think.
There was a reason why he had never simply initiated a conversation with Armin. It could be argued that Levi was surprisingly shy when it came to dating, but more than that - he knew Armin wasn’t interested.
He knew because Levi had actually bought him a refill of his coffee the second or third time he’d seen him and slipped his number while Armin took a pee break, but Armin didn’t even bother looking up or around for whoever might be his secret admirer when he got back. He never initiated eye contact. On the contrary, the rare occasions when he caught Levi staring, he looked away instantly.
He wasn’t interested in anything other than his work and therefore, what Levi did here was completely self-indulgent and thus, unfair.
On the other hand, it was just a hug.
And Armin really needed one right now.
But once Armin saw him, he would positively freak out, Levi was sure of that. He wouldn’t come to the café anymore, he’d have to look for another place to finish his thesis – and Levi didn’t want to do that to him.
Levi didn’t know what the best course of action was.
Until he had an idea. If this wasn’t going to work, he was screwed. And Armin with him.
Letting out a long breath, Levi unlocked his phone. With trembling fingers, he typed.
Levi hissed. “Because I said so, brat!”
He buried his head in his hands. This might backfire after all.
He had no choice but to answer.
What he wrote was close to the truth. Levi did value his privacy and yes, he wanted to protect his identity. But that wasn’t the reason he asked Armin to keep his eyes closed.
If he was absolutely truthful with himself, at the root of it was nothing but plain fear of rejection. Since he knew Armin wasn’t interested, he wanted to spare himself the embarrassment of revealing who he was.
He would go there, hug him, and leave.
And that was it.
It was cool for an evening in June. Levi wore a light cotton button-down over his shirt, not having the luxury to obsess over his outfit. One, Armin wouldn’t see him anyway. Two, all he had was five minutes until he had to be out the door if he wanted to be punctual.
As he turned the corner, he was surprised to see him already standing there. And even more surprised when he noticed Armin was wearing a sleeping mask, signaling he took Levi’s concern seriously and wouldn’t look.
The corners of his mouth curled up as Levi crossed the last couple of feet until he came to a halt in front of him.
“Tea cup?” Armin asked, probably having heard the steps on the pavement come to a halt. “Err, I mean, Levi?”
Levi hummed. He shouldn’t have included his real name in his Twitter handle. So much for privacy - internally, he punched himself in the face.
“Yeah. I see you are a man of your word,” Levi praised him for covering his eyes. “ Good boy .”
It just slipped out.
Levi cringed and punched himself a second time internally, barely daring to look at Armin. But when he did, he just caught the way his teeth released his lip from biting it.
Shit.
“You… You’ve got a really nice voice,” Armin said. “It’s pretty deep.”
“Thanks,” Levi said and tried to keep calm.
“So,” Armin started, “what about that hug you promised?”
Levi looked at the tips of his shoes as he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
Yes, that .
“Don’t be startled,” he said. “I’m going in now.”
In the dim light of the street lamp it was hard to see, but Levi thought he saw the faintest of blushes on Armin’s cheeks as he leaned in and pulled him into a hug. Armin and he were almost the same height, so neither of them had to stretch up or lean down to hug each other comfortably.
At first, the hug was timid.
They were strangers, after all, and Levi didn’t know what level of hugging Armin was comfortable with. So he wrapped his arms around him only lightly at first, placing his hands on his upper back.
He almost gasped in surprise when he felt a pair of slender arms hug him back and Armin’s chin coming to a rest on his shoulder.
“This alright?” Armin asked.
“Sure,” Levi said and hoped Armin couldn’t hear the volume with which his heart was thrumming in his chest.
“This is nice,” the kid said as he settled into the hug more, pressing their bodies together in a way that was too familiar for someone you’d never met. “You’re a good hugger.”
Levi cleared his throat as he allowed it to happen because he didn’t know what else to do. “Thanks. You, too,” he replied.
They stood there for a moment. Levi couldn’t tell for how long. Could have been one minute, could have been five. When he finally felt Armin draw back, he did too, immediately mourning the warmth of him and the way his shampoo smelled of oranges.
The kid really liked oranges.
“I’ll be on my way now,” Levi announced as he took a tentative step back. “I’d appreciate it if you kept that sleeping mask on for one more minute.”
“You got it, Levi,” Armin replied with a smile on his pretty lips. “Thank you for the hug.”
Levi merely hummed as he took a couple of steps towards the street corner, walking backwards so he could keep an eye on Armin. But he stood by his word. He did not peek, not once.
Once Levi was around the corner, he ran the fuck home, feeling the adrenaline of the moment pulsing through his veins.
As soon as the door fell shut behind him, he let himself fall on the couch, panting heavily.
“That’s it,” he told himself. “I’m deleting that fucking app.”
He allowed himself five more minutes to calm down and wrap his head around that, yes, he had actually just hugged Armin, had hugged @mandarminoranges while he was blindfolded.
Five more minutes of asking himself what would have happened if he’d asked Armin to take off that blindfold.
Five more minutes of deciding it was better this way, until he finally reached for his phone and opened that goddamn app.
“No,” Levi said. “ How ?”
His heart was racing in his chest. He was stumbling to his feet, pacing up and down. “He didn’t peek, I know he didn’t. He can’t know.”
Frantically, Levi typed back.
Levi felt so nauseous he feared he was about to vomit.
“FUCK!” he yelled and barely managed to keep himself from throwing his phone against the wall.
This was not the plan! Armin wasn’t supposed to know!
But he did and there was no way he could possibly convince him otherwise. Armin was too smart to be fooled.
Levi considered his options.
He could block Armin and decide to simply never reply again, leave the café, pack his bags and leave the state. Better yet, the country. Moving continents didn’t sound so bad right about now.
Or he could own up to it. Say yeah, you’re right. It is me .
Taking a moment to think about his options, he decided on option three. Just move the fuck on and pretend it never happened. And pray to whatever entity people believed in these days that Armin would go with it.
“What?”
Levi didn’t understand. “He’s glad ?”
He stared at the tweet as if he was waiting for the words to change. But they didn’t. They stayed exactly the same, meaning the exact same thing.
Levi could only bring himself to type exactly what he was thinking right now.
Levi’s brain shut off.
It simply was not able to process that information.
Nope, wasn’t gonna happen.
He set his phone aside and stared out the window. It was still dark. A dog was barking somewhere. His ventilator was buzzing. His washing machine was beeping.
He checked his phone again.
“Kiss,” Levi whispered into the quiet of his apartment.
Absentmindedly, he walked over to his sideboard and grabbed the key from the key bowl. He tapped into the empty reply box under Armin’s latest tweet.
And when Levi got there, Armin did.