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"get me a damned matcha" | Chapter 2: July I

{{ Chapter 1: June I | Chapter 3: August I }} Chapter Directory

yes even modern au levi has a sad backstory, no i regret nothing

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✧ pairing ➼ levi ackermann x fem!reader, college x coffee shop x roommates!au ✧ summary ➼ After you find yourself plagued with misfortune due to struggles in your personal and family life, you find yourself needing to move last minute. As a junior in undergrad with little money and little social support, you considered yourself lucky when you found a sublease that was close to campus and was relatively cheap. Unfortunately, it seemed that your roommate did not seem to be so excited regarding your presence. ✧ content/warnings ➼ slowburn, enemies to lovers (sorta), strangers to lovers, mentions of family deaths, mentions of an emotionally abusive parent figure, gn!hange (they/them), mentions of kenny being an abusive father figure, levi being mean ✧ word count ➼ ~3.6k

Although you weren't too surprised at your ex-boyfriend's lack of timeliness in terms of dropping off your belongings, you still cursed at yourself for being naive. You remembered waiting a week before shooting Zack a text message with a drop-off point to meet up for your belongings, in which he only responded with "I'll get to it when I get to it". You knew that this roughly translated into the fact that he would be taking his sweet time getting you your stuff, if he would even bring it to you at all.

You didn't have a car and you certainly didn't want to ask Levi to borrow his with how adamant he was on ignoring your existence. Luckily, one of your "close" friends was also in town due to a summer on-campus job, so you were able to go shopping for living supplies with her.

You and Petra had been friends since high school and you appreciated her existence, but you couldn't help but feel like she was only tolerating you instead of actually being your friend. It was always you reaching out and any attempts at bonding were half-assed at best. Still, she was the only reliable person in town at the moment—and you at least got to vent about Levi to her.

You had lived with your ex-boyfriend for around three years before breaking up and getting kicked out of his apartment. This was actually your first time navigating this type of situation on your own, but you were determined to make it work, no matter how much of a dick Levi was intent on being.

"He's just been kind of ignoring me," you muttered as you sat in the passenger's seat of Petra's car. The two of you were headed towards Chosahei Cafe. You had been spending your free time there the past couple of days and you enjoyed the atmosphere there, minus Levi.

"He barely responds to text messages and barely even acknowledges me at home. Trying to initiate conversation with him is like pulling teeth," you continued.

"Maybe he's shy?" Petra suggested innocently.

You looked at her with an "are you kidding me?" expression. You were never sure if Petra was blindly positive or simply naïve, both were irritating to deal with.

"Well, you'll be able to see him for yourself if he's working his shift today," you mumbled as you saw the café come into sight as Petra pulled into the parking lot.

"You still come into this café despite the fact that he works here?"

"Well, I figured if he's going to be a dick and continue ignoring me, then I'll be as much of a pain in the ass to him as I can be."

"You're petty."

You scoffed at Petra's comment without responding as you got out of the car, swinging your backpack that was no longer overpacked over your shoulder.

As you glanced at the entrance to the café, part of you wondered if Levi was working there at the moment. It would determine how enjoyable and productive your time at the café would actually be.

You found yourself sighing in relief when he wasn't.

"No Levi today?" you asked as you waved and smiled at Onyakopon.

"Thank goodness," you muttered, which earned a chuckle out of the barista.

Instead of taking your regular seat at the coffee bar near the tea station, you elected to sit with Petra at a small two-seat table in the corner of the café so that the two of you could chat regarding your plans for the upcoming school year.

You proposed the idea of a honors society social club towards the end of last year before shit hit the fan with your ex-boyfriend. The two other officers of the club were still off-campus for a few more weeks, so you couldn't do any serious planning ahead of time. On top of the club, you also had to think about your capstone project for graduation. Although you were primarily an English major on the creative writing track, your curriculum was a bit more individualized. As a result, your capstone project to graduate was to write and publish a light novel.

You had gladly accepted the additional requirements for your major last year before things fell to shit. You had everything planned out, such as how much you should write each month or how much time you'd dedicate to outlining versus actually writing. However, the whole situation with your ex-boyfriend threw everything out of proportion. Your grades in the spring semester plummeted—you even had to take an incomplete for a few classes—and you missed out on four months of writing, which left you horrifically behind. Luckily, it wasn't enough to throw your graduation into jeopardy, but it meant that these next two years would require you to work your ass off.

On top of that, you had to make sure your baseline grades were satisfactory enough to keep your helicopter parent-style aunt off your ass. Ever since your parents passed, your aunt had picked you up, including offering you food, shelter, and financial assistance at the expense of subjecting you to her somewhat emotionally abusive behavior.

"You sure you're able to do all that?" Petra asked. It wasn't that she doubted your abilities. She had seen how much of a mess you were the previous year and knew that keeping all of this up would be difficult, even without the emotional strain of everything in your personal life.

You stayed silent for a while.

"I have to try," you whispered.

You knew that it was going to be exceptionally difficult to even stay afloat if you don't get your shit together. You told yourself that this year would be different—you'd be more independent and focus on school and school alone. You wouldn't bother yourself with relationships or be too preoccupied with superficial friendships.

You had to—your schooling, career prospects, and even relationship with your last living family member depended on it.

~~~~~

In addition to all of the things you had to accomplish with school, you also had to do with your less than pleasant roommate every single day.

Levi Ackermann was an absolutely terrible roommate. You could not think of anyone worse. Even your ex-boyfriend, had he not been your ex, would might have been a more pleasant person to be around.

Levi was a clean freak. Although you weren't a particularly messy person, it apparently still wasn't enough for his standards. You remember you left a mug and plate overnight in the sink once and Levi spent the next 24 hours grumbling about being stuck with a "filthy" roommate and how you were going to be a magnet for pathogens. You vaguely knew that he was doing research in something related to immunology, but this behavior was too extreme even for that. Even if you did agree with him regarding the dishes, grumbling passive aggressive comments underneath your breath the entire day was certainly not an effective method of communication.

You were both light sleepers. However, this was primarily only an issue for you. Levi apparently rarely slept. You would notice him wandering around the apartment throughout the night or even pacing in his room. While he wasn't noisy by any means, you also being a light sleeper meant that you were always acutely aware of his movements throughout the night. His inability to sleep was also beginning to affect yours. You had made sure that you made a mental note to buy earplugs the next time you went shopping with Petra, although you doubt that would have helped much.

One day, you found yourself scrambling around in your room, digging through your backpack and wallet. You facepalmed as you realized that you forgot to pick up your laundry card from your landlord and she was out of town for the next two weeks.

You awkwardly knocked on Levi's door. You were out of clean laundry. You hated being forced to interact with him, much less ask him for help, but you had little choice.

Your grumpy roommate slightly cracked his door open and peeked at you through it with an annoyed expression.

"What do you want?" he asked in an unnecessarily annoyed tone. "I'm busy."

"Doing what?" you asked, matching his frown. "Staring at your laptop screen all day again?"

You didn't actually care about whatever it was that he was doing. As long as he didn't bother you, you couldn't care less about his day-to-day activities.

He didn't answer.

"Whatever," you said, trying to contain your irritation. "I forgot to pick up my laundry card from the landlord. Can I borrow yours? I'll Venmo you."

Levi remained silent and continued to frown at you. A suffocating feeling arose within him. You had only been living with him for a little under two weeks, but he could already tell that you were going to be an absolute pain in his ass throughout the next couple of months.

He walked away.

You were bewildered with his behavior and apathy towards you.

"Are you serious-"

However, before you could finish scolding him regarding how petty he was being, he reappeared and held his laundry card in between his index and middle finger, holding it in your direction.

He paused before completely handing it to you.

"Don't make this a habit," he said curtly, immediately shutting his door after you took his card.

You were grateful that he lent you his card, but you still had to take more than a few deep breaths to contain your frustration. You were already wanting to rip his stupid, obnoxious head off.

Why did I have to be stuck with the worst roommate imaginable?

There was no way that you could even fathom being stuck living with Levi for the next year.

The one positive in the sea of negatives was that you had rent and utilities figured out in terms of splitting the bill. That's what ultimately mattered, so that's what you tried to focus on, although ignoring everything else wasn't exactly easy. Even setting up payments was a pain in the ass.

He was fine with handwriting an old-fashioned check and mailing it out. You were not. You didn't understand why you'd leave so much up to chance in terms of trusting that he'd get the check written in time and that the postal service would get it to your landlord on time.

You opted to set up an automatic payment system through your leasing company's website. The fact that it existed and Levi never utilized it was astonishing. You set up automatic payments as well as spreading out bill due dates throughout the month so neither of you would have to worry about having to be overwhelmed with one gigantic bill at the end of the month. You really thought he'd be grateful that you were taking the time and energy to set all this up to make both your lives easier. He wasn't.

"Anything else you have a problem with, Matcha Girl?" he grumbled as he typed into his phone.

"Matcha Girl?!" you exclaimed, surprised at his unnecessary nickname for you.

You glanced over at his phone and saw that he was typing your nickname that you never consented to into your contact information, replacing your name with it. You scoffed at him in disbelief.

He looked up at you with a neutral expression.

"What? Are you not obsessed with your Matcha's? It's all you ever fucking order."

You clenched your jaw, finding yourself frustrated for the umpteenth time at him.

"You're a dick."

"You're a pain in the ass," he responded immediately, barely letting you finish your sentence.

Surviving this next year was really going to be impossible.

~~~~~

Levi found himself unable to concentrate. It was entirely your fault. He was sure of it.

Outside of reading at home and working at the café, Levi found himself being forced to labor away his time in lab. He was one year into his immunology PhD program and performed research regarding pathogens and the various effects of the different types on the human body. It wasn't the only reason, but it largely contributed to his status as a "clean freak".

He sighed to himself as he continued neatly writing in his notebook. He had just finished analyzing his slides and needed to jot the preliminary data before moving on to code it into the department computer. He wasn't particularly tech savvy, which contributed to how tilted he found himself at your insistence on using your leasing company's website to handle everything. Of course, you didn't need to know that. The less he had to interact with you, the better.

Levi groaned out loud as he heard the door noisily open as someone barged in, carrying too much in their arms than they could handle.

"If you fall and injure yourself, it's entirely your fault, four-eyes," he grumbled.

This so-called "four-eyes" stumbled into the room before noisily setting a myriad of lab equipment onto the table—mostly pipettes and beakers, but they had also finagled a microscope into their grasp.

Levi shot them an unamused look.

Erwin's lab primarily consisted of himself, Levi, and Hange, with Levi as the PhD student he was mentoring, and Hange as the lab tech that kept the lab running. There was the occasional undergraduate student, but this was rare.

"Oh c'mon, it can't possibly be that bad!" Hange exclaimed after listening to Levi vent about his new roommate situation for a few minutes. "_____ seems sweet."

Levi scoffed at their last comment.

"Yeah, when you're not living with her. I'm going to strangle Miche when he visits in October."

"For what? Getting a job?"

Levi remained silent at Hange's comment. He knew he had no valid reason to be mad at Miche for moving, he just hated the fact that he had to deal with you as a roommate.

"You're mad because she's an undergrad, aren't you?" Hange asked quietly.

Levi grunted and continued jotting down his notes, clearly no longer interested in continuing the conversation.

"Don't you remember your undergrad days?" Hange prompted.

"What's worth remembering?" he grumbled.

Levi always found himself incredibly irritated around undergraduate students. They were constantly running around, buying their cheaply made lattes, partying on the weekends, and generally being able to breeze through college through their parents' funding—all things he was never even given the chance to enjoy or explore.

Levi's mother had passed when he was a child. As a result, he was raised by his uncle, who couldn't be bothered to give a shit about schooling. Levi's financial aid got fucked up due to his uncle's lackluster performance in being a parent helping their kid get into and through college—which resulted in Levi having to work overtime through undergrad and pulling some strings with the academic advising office so that he could still get his degree despite having his family situation as an additional source of stress. He never got the traditional college experience, so he found himself irrationally pissed off at the more typical undergrads that didn't seem to give a single fuck about everything happening in the background that allowed them to have their "fun college experience".

"Oh y'know," Hange muttered in response to his rhetorical question. "Like figuring out how to navigate the world for the first time on your own."

They looked up and saw Levi glaring at them as if he was trying to murder them with just his gaze alone.

Levi always had to figure it out "on his own". Even around his uncle, he basically had to raise himself. He doubted that there was a single thing that Hange—or anyone—could say that would decrease his ire.

"Levi," a voice said.

Levi internally sighed as he turned to face his PI.

"Let's chat," Erwin said, gesturing to his office. "I want to discuss your project."

Since Levi was already irritable at baseline, he felt himself rapidly exiting his window of tolerance when Erwin began chatting about how he had been falling behind on research updates or literature reviews. What Erwin didn't know was that Levi was forced to work more for the past few weeks due to his moving situation, although it was unlikely that he would've done much to accommodate.

He still had three years before he needed to finish his PhD, and he could technically be granted extra semesters to finish his study, but being able to graduate in the standard four years seemed like the path of least resistance. Every other option required extra steps that gave Levi more than just a headache.

Levi decided to head home after the irritating back-to-back conversations he had been forced to endure over the course of the day. The only thing he wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and forget everything regarding real life, including labwork and the café. More than anything, he wanted to avoid thinking about his housing situation, but he knew that would be next to impossible. That further irritated him.

He groaned silently to himself as soon as he walked in the door and saw you on your laptop on the couch. You had your hair up in a messy ponytail and had already settled in for the night, wearing sweatpants and a loose t-shirt.

His following groan became audible as he noticed you approaching him.

"Hey," you said quietly, "I think we got off to a bad start."

You paused for a while to give Levi a chance to respond. He remained silent.

"But I wanted to let you know that I appreciate you letting me move in and working with me to get everything figured-"

"Just don't drag your undergrad shit home and we'll call it a day," Levi muttered as he cut you off, not interested in having a real conversation regarding the topic. He's had one too many irritating conversations in the day and he couldn't imagine talking with you as anything other than irritating.

"'Undergrad shit'?" you asked in disbelief as if you didn't hear him properly.

"Yep," he said curtly before walking past you.

You felt your frustration rising and forced yourself to take a few quiet deep breaths. You were trying to be nice and level out any tension that had resulted from bad first impressions or incompatible living styles, but none of that was being reciprocated.

Being around Levi truly was strange for you. You hated to admit it, but you knew you had a pattern of prioritizing other people's happiness over your own, even to the point of silencing your own voice and autonomy.

However, Levi effortlessly pissed you off every single time you interacted with him. Even if you wanted to prioritize his needs over yours, you couldn't. The last thing you wanted to do was give him the satisfaction.

"You really want to make living together this difficult?" you asked, trying your best to contain your anger.

Levi was immediately able to tell how pissed off you were getting, but that didn't give him any remorse. He shot you an expression that matched your mood: angry and hostile.

"Looks to me like you're the one making it difficult."

"What?!" you exclaimed, a bit louder than intended.

"Were you not the one that came up to me with this shit?" he asked calmly.

It pissed you off how seemingly calm he seemed while you were unraveling in rage.

"I walked in the door for less than 30 seconds before you brought shit up."

You clenched your fists and spoke through clenched teeth.

"Well, I'm trying to come up with a compromise!" you argued. "So we can at least get along while being forced to live together!"

Levi scoffed before rolling his eyes and walking towards his room, cutting the conversation off.

You couldn't understand why he was being this hostile to you. Sure, you had called him a dick at your first meeting, but in your defense, he was giving you a hard time at the café and your fuse was already short because you couldn't get keys to the apartment—which was also caused by him. If anything, you should be the hostile one.

You weren't sure if you did something wrong. Your previous roommate of three years, your ex-boyfriend, always said that you were a terrible person to live with, so you began to really suspect if it was something about you that made you difficult to live with, despite you putting in active effort to accommodate or be considerate of their living styles.

As you began to consider all the reasons as to why you might have had a fundamental flaw that made co-living unrealistic, you suddenly stopped your train of thought and clenched your fists—enough was enough.

Even if it was you, even if it was some terrible oversight you've had in which you were already ruining your relationship with your new roommate, you told yourself that you had enough of pleasing people like Levi—people who trampled upon your efforts to cooperate and threw them out the window. If he was going to be this difficult, you were going to be difficult back. Social reciprocity—or in this case, the lack thereof—was a thing.

You groaned to yourself as you sat back down on the couch, holding your head in your hands out of frustration.

How the fuck am I going to get through this year if I have to come home to this every day?

#: @levisbrat25 @gothgril69 @sckerman @berrijam @notgoodforlife @meowjaa @averysmolbear @roseofdarknessblog @bejewelledd @hhighkey @ayame236 @sad-darksoul @velouria17 @kamyru @l1zk4

#srb

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