Chapter Text
The morning sunlight is creeping across the old floorboards in Hanji’s room, peeking under the curtains as they blow in the breeze from the open window. The air is comfortably warm, the summer weather just barely having started to fade. She is lying in bed, snuggled underneath her sheets and blankets, lightly snoring in her sleep. Behind her, her sleeping companion is nestled cosily. Levi’s shorter stature could be damned, he enjoyed being the big spoon; and as such, his arm was wrapped around her midsection, their legs tangled together and his breath warming the back of her neck.
Although both soldiers can feel the approaching dawn, neither wishes to be the first to open their eyes. It has become somewhat of a morning ritual to see who will wake first. Levi loses most mornings, Hanji being a much heavier sleeper than himself. Slowly, the sounds of a bird singing outside the window begin to penetrate his sleep addled mind, and cause the first flutters of his fingers at her waist.
Feeling the warmth of the sun’s rays on his eyelids, Levi buries his face further into the darkness of Hanji’s hair. Pulling her more closely against him, he uses her warmth to help lull him back into the land of sleep.
Her own sleep having been disturbed by all the movement behind her and the incessant bird singing below her window, Hanji’s own eyes begin to flutter. The harshness of the light trying to penetrate her cracked lids is almost blinding and she squeezes them shut hoping to hold out a little longer. Snorting her dismay, she wiggles around in Levi’s arms enough to turn and slide down the bed so she can wrap her arms around him and bury her face against his chest.
Now fully awake from all of the shuffling they are both partaking in to avoid the harsh light of day, Levi groans his displeasure and brings an arm up to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Slowly, blinking and feeling the slumber lift from his body, Levi opens his eyes. The vision before him is one he has woken up to many times before...Hanji having rolled him onto his back, now settled with her face buried into his chest and her rats’ nest of hair sticking up in all directions. His right hand travels up her back to tangle in her hair, fingers running through it, combing it down where he can. The process of waking up has now begun.
“It feels so nice when you do that,” Hanji murmurs as his Levi’s fingers scratch against her scalp before brushing through her length. “Such a perfect way to wake up in the morning.”
“Shame the favour is never returned,” Levi points out with a tug at the end of his motion.
“Not fair, you always wake up before me anyways,” Hanji accuses while she begins to stretch her length along the bed, arms coming up and then crashing back down across his torso violently.
Wincing, the smaller Lance Corporal whacks the back of her head. “Oi! Watch where you flail those monkey limbs!”
Pushing up onto her arms to hover over him, all Hanji can really see without her glasses are a lot of blurry features, but she can tell he is scowling at her. “Oh Levi, it’s much too early for that pouty face,” she teases, leaning down, and aiming the best she can with her limited vision, she kisses Levi on the nose. Realizing she has missed her intended target, she smoothly covers by then kissing each cheek before going for his lips.
What was meant to be a simple good morning peck begins to escalate before Levi realizes what he’s done. After catching a whiff of her morning breath he quickly pushes her away. “How I fall for that time and again is really starting to piss me off,” he growls. “Seriously shitty-glasses, brush teeth then kiss. I swear to god you just invaded my mouth with thousands of micro-organisms you developed over night.”
Giggling at his pretentious cleanliness, even in moments of romance, Hanji flops back down on the mattress beside him. So much for that idea. “I think I have a meeting this morning with Erwin to go over my Titan research, so I shouldn’t linger too long,” she sighs.
“I remember. I have training this morning with the new recruits,” Levi runs his hand down his face trying to further wake himself up.
Rolling over to face him, Hanji gazes into his eyes. Blurry though he might be, his eyes are always bright enough to draw her in.
“So I won’t see you again until tonight then?” She inquires.
“Not until dinner it would seem,” he casually brushes the hair from her face and tucks it behind her ear.
“I wish I could see you better in the morning without my glasses,” Hanji muses while she enjoys the caress of his long fingers.
“And I wish that that the world wasn’t full of Titans so we wouldn't have to get out of bed at all,” Levi rolls onto his back, stretches, and then proceeds to push out of bed. “But alas, here we are, so find your glasses and get your ass moving Squad Leader, as your commanding officer is surely awaiting your report in his office already.”
Hanji watches as Levi’s blurred image moves about the room, starting his morning rituals and snuggles into the warm space he has left behind in the bed they share. She’ll get up, when she’s kicked out of bed as Levi leaves to start his day. For now, her eyes begin to drift closed once again.