Work Text:
They’d spent weeks, no, months on this project, but couldn’t figure it out. Nothing was coming forth from their research, nor from the field tests they’d conducted, nor from their usually reliable intuition. No amount of coffee or black tea, no amount of sleep or conversation, and no amount of reading and testing was helping them figure it out. Humanity’s smartest was stumped on the mere idea.
They had to give the couple credit though for putting up with the months of often uncomfortable tests. There was the first challenge of determining if the blonde was even capable of this. Then, getting permission from Erwin (whom was more than happy to admit it), and finally the capitol. The capitol was the hardest part, whom gave the excuse that the Survey Corps was for battle, not children-making. Erwin countered this by explaining that if any baby came from two of the Survey Corps members, it would probably be a hell child whom would be unstoppable in the field of battle. Despite that chilling possibility of raising a child for battle, the two women were soon granted permission based on Erwin’s speech. The couple was everlastingly grateful, but little did they know that this would be one of the biggest challenges of Hange’s entire science career.
“Zoe,” he calls them one day. Levi almost never uses their first name, so they stop peering into a microscope for half a second to look up at him. He gently pushes the microscope away from them, taking their face in his hands and peering up at them. “Take a break, Zoe.”
“I can’t, I need to do this for Ymir and Historia,” they reason.
“Yes, you do,” he pushes the sample she was examining into the drawer where it belongs on her work bench. “But you also need to bathe, and eat, and sleep.”
Hange looks at him, deciding it’s easier to go with him than it is to fight him. They let him lead the scientist to a bath (he hadn’t planned to let them go, it seemed) where he undresses them with a gentle hand. He does not comment on the pieces of cloth binding their chest, nor does he comment on their general air of filth due that can only accumulate from spending three days straight in the lab. While they douse their hair in water, he leaves and returns with a plate from the kitchen. Hange drinks a broth that Petra dubbed miso and Levi massages the roots of her hair with lavender soap.
It’s halfway through their second bowl of curried rice that they suddenly set it down on the edge of the bath and demand their notepad. Knowing this pattern well, Levi does as he’s told and moves the bowl to a safer place, handing them a pencil and paper where they start to furiously jot notes and draw diagrams.
“Got it,” Hange declares triumphantly. Levi peers at their notes, occasionally asking them to explain a certain procedure before officially declaring them not brain-dead and definitely humanity’s smartest.
“Are you satisfied?” He asks them while they dry their body and dress it, foregoing their usual maneuver gear and uniform for a loose t-shirt and pants.
“Yes,” they reply. “But I’ll test it tomorrow, not today. Today’s challenge is complete.”