Chapter Text
The sun had set, letting the moonless night spill over the firmament like ink. The expedition had been going smoothly so far – an easy reconnaissance focused on updating maps on a specific route before winter. With only one casualty and two lightly wounded it seemed even great. As the soldiers were securing their base for the night, Erwin strode past them to check up on everything. High among the nearby trees, he spotted Levi who was hiding like a bird of prey and looking up into the starry sky. By this time, Erwin could recognise his stance, silhouette, even his stark eyes from afar. The Commander quickly climbed the tree using the gear and stood behind Levi, who promptly said, "I'm coming," and turned towards Erwin.
The other man, however, looked up as well with a fond smile and said, "Beautiful, aren't they?"
Levi resumed his gazing. Views like this fascinated him no matter how many times he looked at the starry sky. Even inside the walls, where the light of the cities sometimes drowned most stars, sleeping felt like a waste of time when you could just sit alone on a rooftop and look up into the small distant flickers of light. He then replied, "Kind of overwhelming, too. Impossible to count."
"True, but many have already tried. I guess it is one of humanity's major impulses, to describe." Somehow Erwin was able to come up with a philosophical comment for any sort of ordinary sentence. It was a quality that for Levi started out as extremely annoying, but with time became just a normal element of the Commander's personality.
"Does that big head of yours ever stop thinking?" he said looking at Erwin with a frown.
"Not really," replied Erwin, looking back at him.
"Then let's go," added Levi, already jumping off the tree.
Early October brought a severe drop in temperature at night, the cold felt more intense now, the sun being way less powerful in its warmth. That night, many people either pulled their covers especially tightly around themselves or bundled up with other bodies laying close. Levi was no different, curled up on the side, with his knees barely touching his chin and the blanket covering him almost entirely. Still, the cold seeped through the layers and didn't let him sleep properly. Growing up in the Underground made him used to a usually warm and steady temperature, so cold was one of his least favourite things about the world above the ground. He often put on more clothes in winter than others and basically transformed into a pile of blankets every cold night.
"Hey, Levi," a quiet voice spoke, startling him lightly. When he opened his eyes, they still saw only rough shapes in the darkness, but he didn't need sight to know it was Erwin. The abandoned building they were camping in didn’t have many rooms, so the biggest one, probably a dining hall once upon a time, had been transformed into a sleeping space for the soldiers. The thin mats were laid out chaotically on the floor, just to get by this one night. Still, a freezing one.
"Are you cold?" Erwin whispered.
"Yeah, a little," Levi replied, voice muffled by the covers.
"You can sleep closer to me if you want to."
After some initial hesitation, he gave up and murmured "Okay." He shifted closer to Erwin, who was laying on his side facing the other man. Their bodies didn't touch, but even a little proximity would be better than freezing there alone. Erwin draped a part of his own blanket over Levi to give him every bit of warmth he could. The little sounds they made felt loud in the dead silence of the room.
"Last year I tried to kill you and now we're fucking cuddling," said Levi with half-sincere irritation. Actually, Erwin was one of the very few people Levi didn’t mind being physically close to. He smelled nice and extra warmth was always a plus.
Erwin smiled at that. "I hope you don't feel any murderous intent towards me anymore."
Levi thought about it for a second or two before replying, "Only when you leave muddy shoeprints in the corridor."
"Oh, I'll keep that in mind, then."
"Good,” he replied. He then added, ”and go to sleep, I can hear you thinking from here." That was the closest thing to a good night he could manage.
"My big head won't stop,” Erwin sighed. “By the way, I think it would be a good idea to clean out the Survey Corps archive over the winter."
Levi lifted his head up and met his gaze, "You mean that shit room nobody goes to?"
"Yeah. It's a giant, dusty mess now. It all needs to be cleaned and then reorganised, I'm afraid." This room, like many other things, had been fidgeting in the back of his brain for sure. Before Wall Maria fell, the proper archive was located in the Survey Corps Headquarters, but then they all had to run for their lives and there was no way to save the piles of paper holding most of their history. Fortunately, the more important documents had copies in the capital, but a place haphazardly turned into a big storeroom was increasingly hard to use nowadays. Erwin liked documents and paperwork in some odd way, so all this must have annoyed him deep down.
"Would you be interested in something like this?” he asked Levi. “Of course, you wouldn't have to do it alone. You could take some soldiers to help you with the heavier tasks and I'd like to supervise the file organisation anyway, so I’d help too whenever I could."
Levi thought about it for a second and shrugged. "Not a bad way to spend winter. At least for me. Alright, I'm in," he answered.
"That's great. We can go there when we come back, but the real work will have to wait until after the last expedition of the season. For now, maybe you could do a rough cleaning when it’s not too cold."
Levi felt Erwin was only getting started again, so he said, "Sure. Now shut up.” Levi fumbled with his blanket one last time before settling down. “Huh, the Cleaning Corps," he added quietly and heard Erwin chuckle.