The Romance of Reimbursements - Chapter 16
Pairing: Levi Ackerman x Reader
Status: COMPLETED
Summary: There’s a guy you see every Friday on bus 143, and you think he’s pretty hot. It wouldn’t hurt to tell your best friend about him, would it?
or, you and Levi take the same bus home from work every Friday, and you fall in love slowly, clumsily, and with all the time in the world to fold as many paper stars as your heart desires.
Word Count: 7.7k
Tags: slow burn, friends to lovers, modern au, office au, fluff, romance, meet-cute, matchmaking
(A/N: this fic is entirely available on ao3 here if you would like to read it there instead!)
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the feeling not understood
When you're comfortably situated in your usual seat on bus 143 on Monday after work, you reach to take your phone out of your pocket to give yourself something to occupy yourself with for the next 45 minutes. You see a text from Hange, so you smile and go to unlock your phone to read it.
Hange - 5:20 PM
Remember to leave saturday free!!! We're celebrating Moblit's birthday with everyone at Sina's :D
You - 5:22 PM
his birthday is today, right?
Hange - 5:23 PM
Yup!!
You - 5:23 PM
tell him i say happy birthday ^^
Hange - 5:24 PM
What makes you think Im seeing him today?
You smile to yourself and shake your head. Right, they still don't know you know they're together.
You - 5:25 PM
i never said you were going to see him today
i simply don't have his number to tell him myself
Hange - 5:25 PM
WAIT HAVE I NEVER ADDED YOU TO OUR GROUP CHAT?????
Oh my god I cant believe we've gone this far without adding you IM SO SORRY
You roll your eyes.
You - 5:26 PM
it really isn't a big deal, i don't need anyone's number
Hange - 5:26 PM
NO NO I MUST RIGHT MY WRONGS
Honestly tho we never use it anymore bc Levi has had us muted since like february and we have to text him separately anyway
STILL I AM SO SO SORRY LET ME ASK THEM RN IF I CAN ADD YOU
Before you can even come up with a way to tell them that you really don't mind that you haven't gotten access to this apparently dead group chat, you see a text from a group chat titled The Hottest People Ever. You giggle at the title before switching over to see what's going on there.
Hange's typing when you get loaded in, but they're taking a while to type out whatever they're trying to say, so you go to check who's in the group chat. There's two numbers you don't have saved (presumably Mike and Moblit), Hange, of course, Levi, and Erwin.
Erwin's number is actually saved as "Erwin (WORK, DO NOT ANSWER)" because you haven't had the chance to change it since becoming better friends, so you quickly remove the parenthetical before clicking back to the chat.
Hange - 5:30 PM
Hello!!! WELCOME TO THE GROUP CHAT ASTRAEA!!
Everyone say hi pls :D
Unknown Number - 5:31 PM
Hello! This is Moblit :)
You - 5:32 PM
hi!! happy birthday ^^
You quickly go to add him to your contacts, as well as Mike since he’s probably the other number you don’t already have.
Moblit - 5:33 PM
Oh, thank you!
Everyone else is probably busy, going by the fact that there’s no other texts that come in, so you exit out of the chat to scroll through SNS.
In the middle of you reading some random news article talking about the economy, you get a text from Erwin.
Weird, he never texts you. If anything, he’s the type to only call.
You tap on the notification to see what’s up.
Erwin - 6:05 PM
Sorry for the late notice, but could you stay late tomorrow? I need help with something.
The period at the end of the message comes off as way more passive aggressive than you’re sure he intended, but you still feel intimidated by the relatively minor punctuation.
You - 6:08 PM
Sure.
You cringe when you go to send the message, the capitalization and punctuation too serious for how you normally text, but you figure that’s good enough of a way to respond to Erwin (who was just speaking to you as your boss and not your friend).
You hope that he takes offense to your reply, actually. Who actually wants to stay even later than normal at their fucking office job?
You get home soon thereafter, and while you do your homely chores and get dinner ready, you try your best to take your mind off of the impending doom that awaits you at work tomorrow. Knowing how the workflow has been for the last… four months now, Erwin’s probably asking for your help for the rest of the week and not just Tuesday.
At least you have Saturday’s dinner to look forward to. Maybe you can tell the waiter to pick Erwin’s credit card in the roulette.
✰
The next morning when you leave for work, you're unsurprised to see Moblit walking out of Hange's apartment, arms full with bags of gifts. You both wave to each other in greeting, and because you're both headed in the same direction, you end up walking together.
“Need help with the gifts?”
“No, I’m alright. Thank you for offering, though!”
“You sure? Your arms are, uh, pretty full.”
“Yeah, I don’t mind.”
There’s a door between where you are and where the elevator is, so you go ahead and get that open so he can get through. You push the button for the ground floor, and he thanks you before the both of you step into the lift.
“How’re you and Hange? You guys look really happy together,” you tell him in earnest.
“Oh! Have they finally told you? I thought they wanted to keep it a secret, like, for fun.”
You roll your eyes. “They haven’t, you guys are just terrible at sneaking around.”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “Yeah, I guess we are. I run into you practically every time I’m leaving their place.”
“Yeah, I don’t really know what you were thinking with that,” you say.
The elevator beeps once you’ve reached the ground floor, and you step out first so you can hold the doors open as he stumbles out. He thanks you, and before you split paths, he answers your question from earlier.
“And we’re great, I feel like I’m falling in love with them all over again,” he beams. “I’ve had a crush on them since uni, but I didn’t really know what to do about it until a couple months ago.”
You reflexively smile and go to put a hand over your heart. Moblit’s such a sweet guy, you really couldn’t wish anyone better for your best friend.
“You guys are so cute,” you gush. “Drop hints to go public, yeah? I have a bunch of candid photos of you and them walking in the courtyard here, and I’m sure Hange would want them.”
He perks up. “Wait, could you send those to me? My phone wallpaper is just an old picture of us at graduation, but I’ve been meaning to change it.”
You nod enthusiastically. “Yeah, of course, I’ll get them to you!”
You wave goodbye to him, and he gives you a nod before heading off to the parking lot and presumably back to his car.
Ugh, you hate the both of them (in a “they’re so cute, I need to strangle them” kind of way).
As you’re walking over to the bus station, you sigh, remembering what Erwin texted you yesterday.
Thinking about it presently, what is there for you to even help him with? He definitely is the better lawyer between the two of you (objectively, at the very least), so what does he need you specifically for?
Yeah, you most definitely will be making sure his card gets chosen on Saturday.
✰
Turns out, Erwin needed you to review some work reports, entrusting the task to you while he's gone at higher-up meetings. You were right to assume that it wouldn’t be just Tuesday—it was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Reviewing such paperwork isn’t particularly difficult, but it takes fucking forever, and you can’t afford to make any mistakes. Because of this, the next couple of days pass by slowly, with both nothing and everything happening all at once.
Unfortunately, the slow pace doesn’t mean anything anyway because you aren't able to get even a second to breathe, and when you finally go to take your seat next to Levi on Friday at 3:02 PM, you can only greet him with a defeated sigh.
It’s a miracle you’re here at all, considering how late you’ve been coming out of the office for the last 3 days. How you managed to get all of your work done before this exact moment, you have no idea.
You’re too exhausted to try and strike up conversation in the moment, so you prop your briefcase up higher so you can put your head down on it comfortably and close your eyes.
“Sorry, is it okay if I rain check on talking today?” Your voice comes out weaker than you intend it to, but you’re much too tired to pay any attention to it.
You feel a bit of weight at your left side, and you’re unsurprised when you turn to see that Levi’s lightly tapped his shoulder against yours.
“Yeah, get some sleep.”
You hum tiredly. “I don’t need sleep.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yep, I just need to quit my job,” you whine. “Ugh, I still have to go grocery shopping, maybe I’ll go tomorrow.”
“Are you actually going to do that? Quit your job?”
“Of course not, but it’s nice to dream.”
Your mind actually is too busy to let you fall asleep even with your head down, so you just sit there quietly, waiting for the bus to eventually get to your destination.
For whatever reason, it feels like it’s enough to just be sitting next to Levi. Your nerves leave you slowly, and you eventually get to settle further into your spot and enjoy as the scenery passes you by.
It’s the middle of spring, so the flora on the route is in full bloom, lighting up the way with bright colors and visible gusts of pollen.
You wish you could muster up the energy to talk to Levi—to ask him about his week, to tell him about yours.. You’re not physically tired; you very well could.
But when you turn to look at him, he looks content with the silence that covers the two of you, going by his stare out at the same flowery paths that pass by in the window.
You open your mouth to speak, but you can’t find the words to say. Somehow, you can sense that if you do talk, he’s just going to tell you to shut up anyway.
Or maybe he’d look up the definition of “rain check” on his phone to make sure you understand what it means.
You smile gently at the thought before putting your head down again on your briefcase, and you close your eyes. Not really to sleep, but you might as well try to get some of your energy back before heading home.
✰
When the bus’s sound system tells you that you’ve reached Rose, you lift your head from your briefcase and yawn, making sure to cover your mouth. “Get home safe, Levi,” you tell him, slowly blinking yourself awake.
When you wave goodbye to him, however, you’re taken off-guard by the warmth that takes over you when he takes hold of your hand and gently pulls you up.
You get the message quickly enough and scramble to get your briefcase secured in your other hand, but you’re unable to ask any questions as you try to get yourself oriented enough to get off the bus.
You manage to tell the driver a “thank you,” but other than that, you’re at a loss for words until you’re both safely on the sidewalk, the bus leaving a huge gust of wind behind it and blowing both your and Levi's hair in all directions.
The two of you just stare at each other, daring the other to speak, but you hardly feel like you’re the one who has to do any explaining.
And he probably feels the same way, because he wordlessly turns away from you and lightly tugs at your hand. When he starts walking, you have to jog a step or two to catch up with him.
“Where are we going?”
He doesn’t slow his pace, instead giving a squeeze to your hand. The contact is hardly meaningful in that he’s probably only holding your hand to drag you around, so you won’t take it as anything else.
“Surprise.”
Well, you doubt he could take you anywhere surprising, especially when you know that the only things in the immediate area are Magnolia Floral Company, the supermarket, and his car, but you suppose you’ll entertain him. Not like you have anywhere else to be anyway.
When you’re taken to the front of the supermarket, you’re hardly surprised, but you still play along. “The grocery store? I never would’ve guessed!”
He rolls his eyes and flicks your forehead, eliciting a whine from you. “Really, now?”
While you rub at your forehead to make a show of the pain (it really doesn’t hurt at all, it’s just in good fun), he drags you both over to get a shopping cart. He puts his backpack in, and you follow suit with your briefcase.
He lets go of your hand to push the cart, and you feel like you miss the warmth. It’s hardly winter, and the weather is definitely warm enough, but your hand feels… cold, all of a sudden.
Instead of weaving through the lanes like you’d think he normally would, he stops at the very beginning of the produce section and just stares at you.
You blink owlishly at him. “What’re you looking at me for?”
He rolls his eyes, almost ruefully so. “You’re the one who has to get groceries, or did you forget already?”
You raise an eyebrow. “That’s why we’re here?”
“Yes, so start putting shit in and let me pay while you’re at it,” he says. Before you can protest, he continues. “And none of your ‘stop paying me back’ shit, we both know neither of us are letting up anytime soon.”
You’re still frozen in place, at yet another loss for words, but when Levi reaches over to seemingly try and flick your forehead again, you move out of the way to get out in front of him. “Okay, okay, but you have to get something too. I don’t want this to be a waste of your time.”
He scoffs. “As if I have anything better to do right now.”
You lead the both of you through the aisles, looking at anything and everything. You’re hesitant to add things to the cart, but even when you put things back on the shelf, Levi moves to put them in anyway. You chastise him for it, telling him you don’t want him spending too much money on you, but he just flips you off and continues to follow you as you venture through the store.
At the checkout, he’s quick to get ahead of you so you don't get the chance to pay, and you just roll your eyes before loading everything on the conveyor belt.
When the cashier hands the receipt to him, Levi scratches both the singular and total prices out with his nail before handing the long sheet to you. “For you to make your stars.”
You take it from him with a nod, and you tuck it into your pocket before helping him put everything back in the cart. He pushes it out for you, and before you know it, you’re both in front of his car.
“I assume you’re driving me home.”
“No, you’re gonna have to haul all of this stuff back to the bus,” he deadpans. “Yes, get in.”
You laugh. “At least let me help put everything in your car.”
He shakes his head, but he lets you do just that. He wheels the cart back to its designated space in the parking lot after handing you his keys to start the car, and you get yourself situated in the passenger seat after you do that. By the time he comes back, you’ve already torn off your first strip of paper, and you’re looping it onto itself.
He reaches over you to his glove box, and from it, he pulls out a small box of blueberry merlot tea. He puts it between the both of you on the little open space, probably because your hands aren’t free in the moment.
“Did you take me grocery shopping because you forgot to bring the tea with you?” You ask.
He hums to himself as he goes to back out of the parking space, his hand on the back of your headrest. “Maybe,” he replies, “but Erwin’s been complaining about work a lot more than usual, which means you probably had a tough week too. Might as well help make you feel better while you’re here.”
You sigh. “As if it isn’t his fault I’ve been so busy at the office. That fucker asked me to help with reports all week.”
“Or so I’ve heard. Don’t worry, I chewed him out for it already.”
You laugh, and you shake your head. “Thank you, I guess.”
As always, the drive is silent, save for the rustling of paper. You reach your apartment easily enough, and he goes ahead and parks in the parking garage for the building. You hand him the stars you’ve made from the receipt, and he reaches over again for his glove box to put them away.
You know he’s going to do it anyway, so you let him carry some of the groceries up to your apartment with you. When you reach your unit, you get your keys and open the door to let him in to get everything set on the table.
You’re still at the door, watching as he does that, and when he comes back to you to leave, he gives a curt nod.
“Get home safe.”
“Stealing my jokes now?”
“I made it first.”
You blink. “Huh? When?”
He rolls his eyes. “When I dropped you off after our Valentine’s Day disaster.”
You sigh, shaking your head. “You still make fun of me when I say it.”
“It’s only funny when I say it.”
“You get home safe too, then.”
He nods, and you watch as he starts to walk back in the direction you both came from, and before you can stop yourself, you yell out his name.
“Levi!”
He isn’t too far, so the volume really isn’t necessary, but he still turns around. “What?”
You look back and forth between him and the groceries that’re set on your dining table, and you think for maybe two seconds before deciding that it’d only be fair for him to at least have some use for your groceries, seeing as he’s the one who paid for them.
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” You ask.
He stares blankly back at you, but after checking the time on his watch, he eventually shrugs and walks back over to you. “Sure, but only if you let me help cook.”
You let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding, and you open the door further to let him inside again. “Okay, fine.”
You go to quickly change out of your work clothes, not wanting to get them dirty with anything in the kitchen, and you bring back the same set of clothes Levi wore last time he was over so he can do the same. He excuses himself to go change, and you hum to yourself as you get everything sorted out so you can figure out what to cook for the both of you. Levi comes back out relatively quickly, his work clothes neatly folded up, and he sets that at the edge of your dining table before joining you in the kitchen.
You aren’t able to figure out what you should make, but it seems that Levi has more cooking knowledge than you when he naturally takes initiative in deciding for the both of you. Of course, he asks you if it’s alright to use any ingredients before he does, but you wave him off every time and tell him that he doesn’t need to keep asking.
You let him guide you throughout everything, listening along as he directs you to chop this, stir that, whatever it is. There isn’t much room for any other conversation, but that’s fine with you.
Dinner gets made quickly enough, and with a pot of blueberry merlot tea between the two of you, you start to eat.
You take a sip of the tea first, though, and you give it a solid 7/10. He does the same, but he gives a 5/10, citing the fact that it doesn’t have caffeine as reason for its lowered rating.
You both take the time now to talk about work, since you weren’t able to earlier on the bus, and conversation flows easily. Talking about the misery of the last workweek makes up for the trouble because it lets you completely let go of any of the anxieties you had about it, and when Levi talks about the hell that is grading college papers, you know he feels the same as you do.
After you’re both done venting about work and your coworkers and your clients and practically everyone else in the world, the topic shifts over to Moblit’s birthday dinner the next day.
“Are you bringing a present?”
He shakes his head. “He’s not a gifts person, never accepts them from anyone.”
You go to cover your mouth to stifle your giggle. “Right, right.”
“How’s that funny?”
“I saw him leaving Hange’s place on Tuesday, he was bringing home a bunch of gifts from them.”
Levi sighs, shaking his head again. “I would say I’m surprised, but I’m not.”
“Does he like sweets? I’d feel awkward showing up without at least that.”
“That’s not a terrible idea, but knowing him, he’s probably going to give it all to Hange.”
“That’s alright, still better than nothing,” you muse, swirling the teacup in your hand. “We could make something together. Maybe you could bring some of it home for Isabel and Furlan, too?”
Levi hums. “If you’re fine with it.”
You nod, going to take another sip of your tea before gathering your now-finished plate and utensils to bring to the sink. You hold out another hand to Levi’s spot at the table, and he shoos your hand away before getting up himself to put his tableware into the sink.
He tries to start washing them, but you gently shove him out of the way before turning on the faucet.
“Remember what we said? No washing dishes at the other person’s place.”
He doesn’t give any contest, but he grabs the small dish towel that hangs on a ring above your sink, and he waits next to you so that he can dry the dishes before putting them away.
The running water is loud enough to fill your relatively small apartment, so neither you nor Levi feel any need to talk. While Levi finishes up with drying and putting your tableware away, you take out your recipe book from one of the upper cupboards.
You check the time on your phone: 7:31 PM.
It's quite late already, so you flip through the pages to try and find something that doesn’t take that long to make. Levi is done with getting everything put away shortly thereafter, and he comes up next to you to watch as you figure out what to make.
“Is there anything he likes in particular?” You ask.
“He likes brownies,” he answers. “Do you know how to make those?”
You look over at him, mock offense on your face. “You think I don’t know how to make brownies?”
He puts his hands up, sarcastically so. “Sue me.”
You shake your head with a smile, and you go to close your recipe book. “I will.” You start heading over to your cabinets to get the ingredients, knowing already what you need. “Could you get some eggs and butter from the fridge? Just take out everything you can find.”
“Yeah.”
Soon enough, there’s a hefty pile of ingredients on your kitchen counter, and now you’re the one directing Levi to do things. You turn on the oven and get the ingredients measured out, but you leave everything else up to Levi.
Brownies are certainly not complicated and you could have very easily just made these on your own, but you still feel happy to be making them with him. He struggles a bit here and there, but he doesn’t give up, which is more than you could say for Hange whenever you’re in these situations with them.
It’s weird. Ordinarily when you teach other people how to bake, they feel more like a hindrance to the process than any help.
You let Levi finish mixing the batter while you get the pans prepared, and you can see a faint smile on his face when he goes to pour it all in.
It warms your heart to know that he’s having fun, even if he doesn’t quite know what he’s doing.
You’ve just finished putting away the dirtied utensils and food scale, so you come over to where he is so you can help scrape off the rest of the batter from the bowl.
You quickly get some star confetti sprinkles from your cabinet to put on top (you know, to make the brownies more birthday-esque, or whatever), and you hand the shaker to Levi once the lid’s off.
After that, you open the oven door for him to slide the pans inside, and you close it once they’re all neatly put in.
Looking over at him now, you laugh when you’re met with a better view of his flour-dusted front. “Can I take a picture?”
“Fuck no,” he scoffs. “How long do they take in the oven?”
You shrug. “40 minutes, give or take.” He looks past you and at the bathroom, and so you assume he wants to wash up. “You can shower, if you’d like.”
“I am never taking a shower here ever again,” he laments. “I’ll just go change back into my work clothes.”
“My shower really isn’t that hard to use, but that's fine,” you tease.
He walks past you and into the bathroom, making sure to stop by at the dining table to pick up his clothes on his way there. You go ahead and get started on washing even more dishes, and you hum to yourself as you scrub them clean.
Levi comes back just in time to grab the drying towel a second time, and he does that next to you while you wash the soap off your arms.
For the rest of the time the brownies bake, you and Levi migrate over to the couch and turn on the TV. Thankfully, you find a decently entertaining episode of Shark Tank to put on, and you and Levi shout at the TV when the contestants pass on offers from the Sharks or when the investors say something stupid.
The oven beeps to tell you that the brownies are ready, so you excuse yourself to go take those out to cool. You’re quick in doing so, and not even three minutes later, you’re back on the couch, screaming at Mark Cuban for passing on an especially cute line of plush animals.
You and Levi spend the next hour or so keeping up with this. Thankfully, all the contestants in this extended episode are incredibly bad at their pitch, so there’s no hard feelings from either of you when practically all of them leave the Tank without any deals.
You doubt that Levi understands the business lingo any better than you do, but you’re glad he finds as much fun in yelling at the screen as you do.
The ending credits roll, and you stretch upwards, yawning. “What time is it?”
Levi checks his watch. “10:15.”
You hum. “Let me get some brownies for you to take home.” You get up from your spot on the couch, and Levi follows closely after you. You grab some cellophane bags, twist ties, and star tags from your cabinet, as well as some disposable gloves for yourself.
You move everything over to the dining table so you can sit while you work, and when you come back with a knife to cut everything, Levi’s there too.
“Can I help?”
You nod with a lazy smile on your face.
“Please.”
You slip on your gloves after giving the bags to Levi, and you carefully go to cut out neat squares from the pans.
“Where’d you learn how to bake?” He asks.
You sigh. “It’s been a while since anyone’s asked me that.”
“Sorry,” he apologizes quickly.
“No, you’re good.” You hum as you reangle your knife to start going in the perpendicular direction. “I don’t know, everywhere? I watched my mom do it as a kid, and I picked it up as a hobby when I was in high school.”
“You didn’t come out of the womb with a whisk?”
You snort. “No, but I might as well have. Could you open a bag for me?”
He does, and you slip in the first brownie.
“Thanks.”
“Did you ever want to be a baker? Not that law isn’t admirable either.”
You nod, careful as you continue putting away brownies. Levi continues holding out bags for you to do it efficiently.
“A little, but I didn’t really consider it when I got older. It’s still fun, though, I like it a lot,” you tell him.
“Evidently.”
You smile, shaking your head. “Yeah, I’m sure.” One of the brownie’s hasn’t been cut properly, so you set that aside for you and Levi to have later. “It’s nice anyway, everyone likes being friends with the baker, so it made socializing easier for me.”
“Had trouble making friends?”
You shrug. “I guess, yeah. I was always busy with school, so I never really went out. Baking just gave me another crutch.”
He nods in understanding. “If it’s worth anything, I don’t think anybody now only sees you as a free baker.”
“Not even Isabel?”
He scrunches his nose and aggressively shakes his head. “Absolutely not, she never fucking shuts up about how much she loves you.”
You laugh. “She’s a sweet kid.”
“Hange used to call you ‘Sugar,’ though. Before we knew your name.”
You cringe. “That’s the name they chose for me? I couldn’t get something cooler?”
He nods nonchalantly. “They would not shut up about how they hit the jackpot getting you as a neighbor because you’d always come over with snacks for them.”
You laugh at the memory. “Yeah, I was still used to baking for groups of people, and I didn’t know what else to do with my leftovers.”
By now, all the brownies have been put into their bags, so you go to throw away your gloves, get the pans in the sink, and come back with two pens to write on the tags. You hand one to Levi, and you tell him to just write whatever he wants for Isabel and Furlan, and you can do the tags for Moblit.
You make sure to put that one misshapen brownie on a plate between the two of you, and while you write, you both take small pieces from it.
“Did Hange ever give me a different name or did they stick with Sugar?” You ask.
“You know them, they never change names for anyone,” he complains. “They say it works anyway, since you’re apparently so sweet.”
“What, you don’t think I am?” You tease. You’re both looking down at your writing so you don’t catch his reaction to that, but he does take a while to respond.
“I never said that.”
The two of you continue writing on the tags in silence, and soon enough, all of them are being looped onto iridescent twist ties. There’s more than enough for Levi to take home with him even after you have a good amount prepared for Moblit, so you have to excuse yourself to grab a bag for him to put his share in.
You hold the bag open for Levi to put everything inside, and you laugh when you see that he’s addressed Isabel and Furlan with curse words instead of their names on his tags. He helps you put Moblit’s share into some boxes that you had leftover from when you made all that shortbread for him a while ago.
You watch as Levi slides on his shoes, and before you can open the door to let him out, you remember he still has your clothes.
“You can just leave the clothes you borrowed here.”
“I don’t mind taking care of it.”
You wave him off. “It’s okay, I’m doing laundry tomorrow anyway.”
“If you say so.” He unloops one of his backpack straps to bring it forward and take out your clothes.
You take them from him. “Yeah.” You go to open the door for him, and he steps out into the hallway.
You bring your hand up to wave goodbye to him, but before you can actually do the motion, he brings his hand up too. You half expect him to grab your hand again, like he did on the bus, or maybe even give you a hi-five, but instead, he swipes at your cheek with his thumb.
Again, it feels warm—comfortable. You almost feel yourself wanting to lean into the touch further, but his hand doesn’t linger on your skin for any longer than it needs to.
He flips his thumb back to you. “Crumb.”
You nervously laugh, rubbing the back of your neck with your already raised hand. “Right, thanks. Get home safe, Levi.”
“You too.”
“I’m sure I will.”
This time, when you watch his figure disappear around the corner of your apartment floor’s hallway, you don’t call after him.
You almost wish you do, only to see his face again before he has to go.
✰
The next day, you feel… confused as you go through the motions of your morning and afternoon. Hange comes over at around 4 to get ready with you, and you manage to fend off the nerves, but they come back again in the car.
For once, you’re grateful their driving is so horrendous. If anything, you’ll just let the feeling of crashing be more paramount than anything else.
Nothing even happened last night. Nothing insurmountable, at least. He went grocery shopping with you, drove you home, you invited him inside to make dinner and dessert with you, and he left.
But the feeling—this one, where you feel so comfortable—you don’t know what to do with it.
It doesn’t have you red in the face. It doesn’t fill your stomach with butterflies. It doesn’t force you to shy away from spending time with him.
If anything, it prompts you to do exactly that. It’s weird. It’s so glaringly different from the attraction you felt in the beginning, when you didn’t know his name and he was just another stranger you saw on the bus once a week.
Do you even have to figure this out? It could very well just be something completely normal, and you’ve been overthinking it this entire time.
Hange suddenly stops the car, which snaps you out of your thoughts. Though you’re grateful for the mental break, you have to grip even harder than you already were on the grip handle above your seat.
“What the fuck, man!?”
They only laugh before going to take their key out of the ignition. “Well, we’re here!”
You shudder before getting out of the car, careful not to forget anything, and the two of you join the others in the waiting area. You’re the last to arrive, courtesy of Hange’s poor driving skills, and you watch as they naturally drift towards Moblit.
Mike and Erwin, upon seeing you and Hange enter, go to the reservations desk to presumably tell them “table for Smith,” and that leaves you and Levi alone with each other. You raise the boxes of brownies you brought with you, and he nods in acknowledgement of it.
“Did Isabel and Furlan like them?” You ask, unsure of what else to talk about.
“They liked them too much,” he whines. “Begged me for the recipe and everything.”
“I don’t have one written down, but I can do that on a napkin while we wait for our food,” you offer.
“That’d be nice,” he says. You nod, and then your group of six are guided by a hostess.
The rest of the night is a whirlwind, spurred by Hange’s excitement to celebrate their boyfriend’s birthday with their other friends present. You hand Moblit his brownies, and like the saint he is, he thanks you before splitting it up between everyone at the table. You, Levi, and Erwin refuse them, but he insists that he’d rather share than have to take so many of them home.
You aren’t able to write out the recipe on a napkin as promised because the napkins are fabric, but after figuring out the measurements for a more… manageable batch, you text the information to Levi.
Levi does actually call over the waitress to bring over paper napkins for you, just like when you both came here on Valentine’s Day, and you thank him before starting to tear at the paper. You hand that one to Levi, and instead of rejecting it like you expect him to, he takes it and waits for you to make yours so he can follow along again.
When the food eventually comes to your table, all six of you can do is eat in silence to savor the expensive taste as well as you can. There’s no drinking tonight, probably because everyone drove here in smaller groups and it’d be too inconvenient to figure out how to get home, but it’s still lively and exciting.
Towards the end of the night, you and Hange slip away to “the bathroom” to tell the waitress that it’s Moblit’s birthday and to pick Erwin’s credit card, and when you come back, you both have to act surprised when the whole restaurant starts singing Happy Birthday and when Erwin gets fucked by the expensive bill.
Levi seems to catch on that you’re responsible for Erwin losing the roulette, but he only rolls his eyes and doesn’t make a scene out of it.
When everything’s paid for and everyone’s back outside, just about ready to part ways for the night, Hange winces.
“What’s wrong?” You ask.
They nervously go to scratch behind their ears. “Do you think you could find another ride home? I totally forgot to tell you, but I’m going over to Moblit’s to, uh,” their gaze drifts off to their not-so-secret lover, “test some liquor!”
You should’ve expected as much, but it’s no trouble.
Get some, Hange!
You wave them off, and you look around at the group. “I’m sure least one of them have a seat to spare.”
They wrap you in a warm hug, nearly crushing you, and you return the gesture with just as much enthusiasm. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you so much!”
You try to wiggle out of their grip after a while, but they don’t really let up, instead rocking back-and-forth with you still in their arms.
Their grip on you finally loosens up when Levi comes up to you, and he practically has to pry them off of you before they let go. You thank him, and Hange’s off to go… test liquor with Moblit, the two of them headed for where Hange parked their car.
Erwin chimes in first. “Mike and I live in the opposite direction, so you can go with Levi.”
“Is that okay with you?” You ask him.
Instead of answering, Levi goes to stomp (lightly) on your toes, and you take that as a yes.
You and Levi give your goodbyes to the other two men, and you follow him to his car.
This sure does feel like a repeat of Valentine’s Day. It's parked in the exact same spot.
When you’re both in the car and about ready to leave, he hands you the receipt, telling you that Erwin forgot to take it before he left. You thank him for the paper, and you promptly start tearing and folding it.
The ride is completely silent, again, with only the sound of crinkling paper filling the vehicle, but it’s comfortable. Almost alarmingly so.
You drop the stars into the palm of Levi’s hand when he’s parked at the curb of your building, he reaches over to put them away in his glove box, and nothing is said other than a “get home safe” from the both of you.
When you get safely inside your apartment, you don’t even know what you’re supposed to do.
At least when you were constantly anxious and high-alert around Levi, you could at least find reason to denounce those feelings and get rid of them.
Maybe you should ask Erwin to give you extra work this week to distract yourself.
Who are you kidding, you definitely aren’t going to do that.
Still, when you go to sleep that night, you wish for more opportunities to skip on thinking about it entirely, and even more opportunities to just enjoy the feeling while it’s there.
✰
Both fortunately and unfortunately, your wish is granted to you.
Unlike last week, this week is fast. It rushes past you, works you as hard as it can, and spits you out without so much as a “thank you” for your efforts.
Erwin, bless his heart, apologizes profusely and comes by your office often to check up on you, but you barely spare him a glance whenever he passes through.
The only silver lining in any of this is that Friday comes just as quickly. That and the fact that the hustle and bustle doesn’t give you any time to overthink any of your feelings.
When you go to take your seat on bus 143 at 3:09 PM on Friday, you have to put your head down after you hand Levi his tea. You ask for another rain check, and Levi doesn’t make any fuss about it before taking out his phone to busy himself.
Unfortunately, because there’s a lot of traffic on this particular Friday, there’s plenty of starts and stops, all of which break you out of your resting state. The sounds of city bustle don’t help either. When the bus comes to a sudden halt for what feels like the hundredth time in the last ten minutes, you groan and lean your head back, looking up at the ceiling.
You chuckle halfheartedly. “Maybe I should just jump out the window and walk the rest of the way home.”
Levi scoffs next to you. “We’re still in the city, you might as well stay here until Monday.”
“That’d be better than getting shaken awake every three seconds.”
“You were sleeping?"
“I wasn’t, but I can’t really rest with the traffic. My briefcase isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world either.” You sigh and prop your elbow on your lap, resting your head on your hand. “So, how was your week? We might as well talk if I can’t keep my eyes closed.”
He doesn’t say anything, so you naturally turn to look at him. He’s propping up his backpack straighter on his lap, and he slides his phone into the front pocket.
He turns to look at you when that’s done, and the two of you hold eye contact before he looks away and out the window in front of your seats.
“You can rest on my shoulder.”
You lazily shake your head. “No, it’s okay. That’s probably uncomfortable for you, and you seem tired enough from work.”
“You literally look like you’re about to fall forward,” he scolds. “And no talking, you need to rest.”
“Geez, you make it sound like I’m sick or something,” you joke.
“Picked it up from you,” he contests.
You follow his gaze out towards the window, and you hum. “But it’s okay, I can stay up.” As if on cue, you have to yawn, and you can see Levi shake his head out of the corner of your eye.
Before you can bark out something to dismiss any further scolding, you hear him turning towards you again. You wait, still staring out the window, but you watch as his left hand reaches over to push your head gently onto his right shoulder.
It feels awkward, honestly, and you kinda want to laugh.
You’d think the touch was romantic, but it hardly is when he struggles to reach over the backpack in his lap and your briefcase, and the bumps of the roads that knock you back-and-forth hardly do anything to help the atmosphere either.
But still, the act has you breaking out into a shy smile.
Had it been months ago, you probably would’ve passed out then-and-there from just his touch alone, but you don’t feel any red creeping up at all.
Just a quiet, comfortable glow in your chest, and a smile that acts as a silent thanks to him for lending you his shoulder for the rest of the ride.
He pulls his hand away from your head, and he reorients himself to look outside again, and he sits up straight against the back of the seat. You don’t dare move your head away, instead just slightly turning to look at his face, and you close your eyes once you see that he's comfortably settled back into his seat.
“So, how was your—”
“Just shut the fuck up,” he mumbles.
You sleepily hum. “You like silencing women?”
He groans. “Fuck off.”
You laugh and shake your head, position permitting. You close your eyes, and you hum to yourself as you try to find your sleep.
Yeah, you can figure out your feelings later.
You know you definitely shouldn’t be continuing to put off the emotionally daunting task, but you definitely don’t want to confront anything right now.
You still think it’s weird, that much hasn’t changed. And this is definitely not normal. That much is apparent, more so now than before when you were first starting to question things halfheartedly.
All you need to know is that here, with him, you’re comfortable.
For you, it’s enough to know that. Even if it isn’t, you’re okay with not knowing anything else, so you'll just spend the next... however many minutes left of your ride through the traffic, with him, trying to imprint the comfort that he gives you into yourself as well as you can.
✰
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