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The sight of her hunched on a flimsy bench makes him uneasy. It makes Levi's throat tighten for reasons he's not equipped to address, and so he masks this particular impotence with his usual indifference: "Here again?"
Hange peels her eyes off a gravestone to look at him. A tear is still rolling down her cheek, as her lips immediately curl into a smile, unnaturally fast, as if she felt the need to compensate for that moment of weakness. "Yeah." She tips her chin in the direction of the grave, fingers tugging at the long sleeves of her shirt. "It's her birthday." And Hange says nothing more after that, eyes set on the engraved piece of greystone.
Levi approaches, looking at the carved-out image of a woman on the stone - the woman looks so much like Hange it disturbs him. "Where did you misplace the brat?"
Hange huffs out a weak laugh, angling her face back toward him, glasses fogged up, cheeks dewy with remnants of tears. "She's with her dad."
Levi's brow shoots up in surprise. "I hope you're not referring to the abusive asswipe who left your mother?"
Hange only shrugs. "Bingo."
"Tch. Are you unwell?" Levi demands a bit too loud for the surroundings and promptly lowers his voice, glancing around the perimeter for any visitors he might disturb. "Hange, this man is unpredictable."
Hange falters. "But he's her dad. She-"
"Unpredictable." Levi repeats, face softening at her visible confusion, furrowed brows, and the sadness lingering behind her brown eyes. "Highly volatile. Where are they now?"
"Levi, I think you're overreacting." Hange makes to stand, dusting off the back of her pants. Levi simply stares, waiting. "They're at his house. He came to pick her up."
They drive back in heavy silence, only broken by the soft pitter-patter of rain against the roof of the car. Hange is looking away, staring into the bespeckled window, visibly adamant about not meeting Levi's gaze. He lets out a sigh: "Why would you let her go with him?"
She shrugs, like some stubborn child, lips pressed together. Her stomach bubbles with anxiety, with irritation. "I'm sorry." She finally mumbles, voice weak. She always apologized. For every silly little thing, deeming herself an inconvenience at every step.
Levi recoils at his own harshness then: "Don't apologize, Zoe." He tells her gently, fingers tightening around the steering wheel. "It's just... you're too gullible sometimes."
"I guess I wanted her to have someone." She says, finger tracing a droplet of rain that rolls down the glass. "Someone aside from me."
"And what's wrong with only you?" Levi narrows his eyes in question.
Hange chuckles, but it's devoid of mirth. "I won't be here forever."
Levi tells her off then, tells her how stupid she sounds - all to mask how his chest constricts and how fear coils somewhere deep in his stomach.
-
"No please!" Hange attempts to swivel past a cop that stretched out his arms to keep her at a distance. Her closed fist manages a knock at the police car window. "Leave her alone!" She begs, tears trickling down her cheeks and past her chin. Sasha is staring at her older sister from the inside of the vehicle, pale and terrified.
Levi tries to pull Hange away but gets an elbow to the guts for his efforts. "Come on Hange, let them do their job." She protests at his grip on her arms, as the cops enter the car and the doors close with two dull slams. "Sasha!" Hange wails, as Levi tries to keep her from wriggling free from his hold. "Let me go, you asshole!" It's punctuated with a heavy sob that tears through Levi's chest as much as the sight of the kid being taken away.
The parking spot in front of the house soon clears out and just like that, little Sasha is gone. Levi finally loosens his grip on Hange only for her to turn around and hit him in the face with an open hand. Her wet eyes immediately widen, as she recoils, hands flying to cover her mouth. "It's all my fault-" The word cracks at the end as sob rakes through her. Levi, ignoring the stinging in his cheek, pulls her into his arms.
-
Levi pulls up behind a tiny trailer, but the little rascal still manages to spot him through a small, grime-covered window in the back. "Levi Levi!" She emerges from the inside, and skips towards him, her mouth open in a wide smile - there are still gaps in her teeth. "Did you bring me something?"
Levi huffs as he slams the door closed. "You little materialistic brat." And Sasha giggles with mischief, even though she doesn't know what the word means. He pulls out a miniature plush toy from his pocket and crouches down to her level. "Aren't you too big for toys?"
Sasha shakes her head decidedly, swiping the bear from Levi's grip. Her arms wrap around Levi's neck in a silent 'thank you' and he hauls her up as he straightens. "Where's Hange?"
Sasha's eyes peel away from the toy and she cups her lips to whisper conspiratorially. "She's being a crybaby. She's older, but I don't cry anymore!" She tells him resolutely.
"Hm." They make it to the entrance and with Sasha perched on his hip Levi climbs up into the bright green trailer. The door opens just as he's about to enter. "Oh hi." Hange smiles, but he immediately notices the red rims around her eyes and the way she rubs a palm over one of them.
"Vermin extermination." Levi deadpans, then nods at Sasha. "Found a big one behind your house." Hange rolls her eyes and Sasha giggles.
Inside, Levi sets the child down, eyes darting around the perimeter. "You actually cleaned this place." He marvels, remembering the mess he'd witnessed the last time he was here. Piles of laundry, empty take-out boxes, and dying plants. Levi shudders at the sole memory.
"Yeah yeah." Hange says, loudly rummaging in the fridge. "You want something to drink?"
"A coke!" Sasha calls, sitting cross-legged on the couch, animating the plush bear into jumping from the headrest repeatedly. Levi inspects the empty space next to her, and finding it acceptable he sits down. "And Levi wants tea!"
He ruffles Sasha's unruly hair as Hange moans in annoyance. "There's no tea."
"Water then." He says, watching the child play, quirking a brow as she lets the innocent plush fall to its doom. "Why are you so set on killing the poor bastard?"
Sasha shrugs. "But nothing bad happens to him." She brings the toy up to Levi's face to demonstrate. "See?"
Levi pushes the toy away from his vision and turns to Hange. "Isn't it bedtime?" Sasha screeches in horror and her older sister lets out a battered sigh, which indicates that it is, in fact, way past it.
"She's too hyper." Hange shrugs, as she pours some ice-cold water for Levi and cracks a can of coke open for Sasha. "It's not like I can knock her out." Sasha giggles devilishly at Levi.
"No wonder you can't get her to sleep, letting her drink this crap." He nods at the can in Hange's grip as she comes over and hands the two their drinks. Sasha's little hands wrap around the can instantly.
Hange lifts her up to sit down and sets the little girl in her lap. "Don't spill."
"Hange." Levi stares at Hange and then casts a glance at the child, who steals little sips of the sugary drink.
"Okay, it's the last time." She promises, but Levi knows the reality of it. Sasha is a little kid, who recently went through the trauma of losing her mom. It's obvious why Hange spoils her. Levi understands, but he still doesn't like it one bit. "A social worker visited yesterday." She tells him, smoothing Sasha's fringe away from her forehead.
"Hence the clean house." Levi muses, eyeing the walls of his glass for stains and then taking a measured sip from it.
Hange hums. "She doesn't like me one bit. Probably thinks I'm not suited to be taking care of her." Her eyes settle on Sasha, who is now pushing the bear's muzzle into the can. "She's not wrong, but..." Hange's eyes settle on Levi's face. "I'm so scared they will take her."
Levi lets out a sigh. "Why would they?"
Hange looks down to the floor, thoughtful. "I'm poor, I can barely keep a job and I'm not a gold standard of keeping my house immaculate." She punctuates with a sigh. "Plus I'm single. The woman told me that the kid needs a full family. I can't provide that."
Levi doesn't miss a beat. "We could get married." He says with a shrug and it has to be the most bizarre proposal ever.
Hange bursts out into laughter so hard the can knocks against Sasha's teeth as she attempts a sip. "Nice one, Levi." He turns to her with a frown. "We married? Ha! You would have filed for divorce the second day I'd leave my dishes in the sink to dry up."
Sasha looks curiously between the two. "Are you marrying Levi?" She turns to Hange, with a question in her eyes. "But he doesn't let me eat sweets!" She complains.
Hange chuckles. "See? The votes are against you."
"Tch."
-
Sasha's father is put into jail for drug possession. The neighbor heard her screaming and called the cops. It turned out the old man was shooting up his veins while a six-year-old cried from hunger. Levi would rather Hange never heard the full story, but it was unavoidable.
At least she doesn't know that the bastard struck Sasha.
"Hey, four-eyes." Levi pushes a plate of eggs at Hange's shoulder. "You need to eat. Not gonna be much good, if you starve."
He comes every other day, as much as his job allows, and tries to get her to move from the couch. He knows that when he's not there, she wastes away. "Hey." He reaches for her forearm and she jerks away abruptly, with much more vigor than her current state would allow. Her fingers curl at the ends of her sleeve and Levi's eyes narrow. "You've got to be fucking me..." He mutters, setting the plate down and reaching for her again. "Show me your arms."
Hange shakes her head, eyes welling up with tears.
He clicks his tongue and then makes a grab for her hand. In the struggle, her sleeve falls away just slightly to reveal a white bandage. "Hange, you moron." Levi crouches, letting his head fall in resignation. "We've talked about this."
"Screw you." She mutters, pulling her knees up to her chest.
"Listen to me. You need to keep it together." He sighs, searching for her gaze. "For the kid, at least. They can't see you like this."
Hange shrugs, nibbling at her lower lip. It pops back out as she finally says: "It's no use anyway. They'll find her a new family."
Levi decides to stay that night, something ugly clawing at his chest at the way she seems numb, at whatever she hid beneath her sleeves. Hange doesn't protest, just slips into the bed she usually shared with Sasha and dozes off. Sleep can't come to Levi, though and he listens in from the couch for any sounds of movement, just in case.
In the morning, he gets busy with cleaning up. He gathers her clothes into the laundry basket when he finds Sasha's little bear. He swipes it before Hange notices and pushes it inside his jacket. He does a week's worth of dishes, plucks the freshly washed clothes on a line outside, and most importantly - dumps out all the potentially harmful shit, kitchen knife included - Hange rarely ever cooked anyway.
She awakes way into the afternoon, her eyes bruised as if she spent the night crying. "Hi." Levi is almost startled that she says anything to him. Even more when she continues: "I had a weird dream." Levi stares at her face from across the room. Hange peels her eyes off him and looks around. "Oh. It wasn't a dream."
He gets her to wash up and eat a little, fork pushing at the food as she thought. "Do you think we could visit her?"
"I think so."
Sasha is already in a foster family, looking happy enough once they get there. It takes everything in Hange not to burst into tears. The little girl muses about the kids she met, about the things they did together, her mind seemingly pushing out the memories from the night she was taken away. "They don't let us eat sweets. Like Levi." And Hange smiles, for the first time in days.
Back at the trailer, Hange gets busy watering her vast collection of plants. Levi is just happy she's not back sulking on the couch. "They seem to treat her alright."
Levi hums from the couch, folding the laundry. "Let it all settle down, then we'll think of getting her back." The watering can in Hange's grip pauses, but she doesn't comment right away.
Having made sure she's stable enough, Levi makes way to leave, but Hange calls for him. "Can you... stay?" And he curses under his breath because she damn well knows he'd do anything. She knows how big of a moron he is.
She takes pity on him, cramped on the tiny sofa, and pulls him onto the only bed. The sheets smell like artificial flowers. "Hey, Levi." She shifts closer, hooking her arm around his shoulder from behind. "Is the marriage proposal still on the table?"
Levi huffs. "Just get a maid, four-eyes."
Hange forcibly rolls him on his back. "I'm not joking."
"Me neither."
She pouts, hovering over him. "I was wondering why you'd proposition at all."
Why? Because I'm a fucking dumbass. He stays quiet, letting her brew in whatever is now going on in that bumbling brain of hers. Serves her right. "Levi." She shakes him.
"Ugh, that settles it. The couch is better." She curls her hand under his chin and pinches hard. He pushes her away with an annoyed grunt. "What the hell do you want?"
She doesn't say, only leans in and brushes her lips against his. If he didn't focus he would have missed it. She seems to be waiting, a long while before she shifts away with a barely there sigh and Levi finally regains the ability to move. He grabs her shoulder and pulls her in, her lips clumsily landing somewhere in the center of his cheek. Hange giggles and he places his hands on the sides of her face to angle her right this time and press her lips to his.
The gesture quickly strays away from its genuine simplicity, though when Hange throws her leg over his hips and grinds into him impatiently, the eagerness making Levi pull away from her lips with a groan. His hands land on her hips to still her. "Easy."
But she barely hears him, plastering her lips back against his, with some sort of desperation that rubs Levi the wrong way. "Touch me." She demands, pulling his lower lip between her teeth and sucking.
"Hange." With a huff, she grabs his hands and pushes them under her shirt, placing his palms over her breasts. He swears, rolling his thumbs against her skin.
She plucks the shirt from her torso, and her bare nipples brush against Levi's chest as she leans down to nibble at his earlobe. He sucks in a breath, as she locks her lips at his neck to leave a bruise there, her hips rolling against his impatiently. Her breath is hot against his skin as she whispers: "I need you."
A part of him wants to end it there, douse a bucket of cold ass water over his head and snap out of this madness. Hange is out of it, she isn't thinking straight, surely. But the desperation in her voice - he knows she would take it the wrong way if he pushed her away now.
He rolls them over to regain at least a semblance of control. "Hey, you okay?" He brushes her hair away from her face, as he hovers over her. "Sure you want this?"
Hange closes her eyes under his touch. "Yes."
He kisses her then, slow and gentle - a contrast to her fervent kisses from before. She seemed desperate to have him, he just wanted to savor this. His hand snakes past her abdomen, past the hem of her pants, and settles against her warmth. He curses at the way she's so wet already.
She hums against his lips as he touches her, unhurried and deliberate, reveling in the way she sounds, in the way she holds onto him, and trembles when he circles her clit. He peels away from her lips to taste her then, but she keeps him in place. "Just... do it." She murmurs, spreading her legs further, reaching to palm him through his pants.
"So goddamn impatient." He mutters, slipping out of his pants, then removing hers with some more maneuvering. She locks her legs around his hips in a vice-like grip and pulls him in, until he enters her, much too fast for his liking, but still enough to punch the air out of his lungs. "Fuck..." He waits, feeling her pulse around him, pulling him in even when he can't possibly get any closer to her. "You good?" And when she nods, he finally moves, arms bent at the elbows on the sides of her head, leaning down to kiss her forehead her cheek, as she tightens around him, as her ankles dig into his hips almost painfully.
He reaches down to touch her again and slows down, even more, watching her face - eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed and teeth buried in her lower lip in concentration. She shivers, nails digging into his forearm as she comes with a quiet curse on her lips. Levi pulls out. "Wait, did you-?
Levi shakes his head as he settles by her side, smoothing down her rumpled hair. "Just sleep, four eyes." He doesn't say anything more. He doesn't have to. It's reckless enough of them to do it like this. There needn't be another brat for them to worry about.
-
"Zozo!" Sasha squeals as Levi throws her, then promptly catches her before she breaches the surface of the water. "Zozo look!"
Hange dips her feet into the wet sand. "I'm looking!"
"Aren't you tired already?" Levi complains as Sasha demands to be thrown again and again. The little girl purses her lips stubbornly. Damn it and damn Levi for agreeing to this.
"Can Zozo throw me?" She suggests head angling back to Hange. "Why won't you swim too?"
Levi angles her away from Hange, her feet skimming the surface of the water. "She can't swim." He lies.
When he looks over to the shore, Hange is shoveling sand with her hand, gaze set downwards. She's clothed, top to bottom, even despite the scorching heat.
-
He wakes up and in an instant, everything feels wrong. The draft that comes through a cracked window settles on his bare arms and makes him shiver. Yet the shiver itself, it's something else too.
There's an empty spot next to Levi, so he slides off the bed and pulls on his discarded pants. He looks around, finding it weird she would disappear in such a cramped space before he catches a glimpse of something sticking out from behind the kitchen counter. "Fucking shit." He crosses the length of the trailer in a flash, his heart falling down to his ass.
On the floor, back perched against the bottom of the counter sits Hange, pale and unmoving, her arms limp by her sides. One hand is latched around a razor blade, both forearms blooming with red. "What have you done?" He kneels down and shakes her hard. The razor falls from her grip with a soft click. "Hange, you moron. Wake the hell up." He demands, hands at her shoulders, shaking. Levi feels his heart hammer against his ribs, sweat beading at his temple. "Wake up!"
"Hange."
With a groan she awakes, hands smoothing against the pristine white bedsheets. Levi watches her, as her fingers nibble at the bandage on her forearms, as her eyes focus and finally find his. "I fucked up, didn't I?" She mutters, voice so weak he could almost miss it.
Levi scoffs, even though tons worth of stress fall off his shoulders. "To put it mildly."
Hange lets her head fall against the pillow with a sigh. "I'm sorry."
"You should stop fucking apologizing." He snaps at her, but she knows damn well she deserves it. "Get it together, you idiot. I might not be there every time to save your ass."
She angles her head to look at him, her gaze soft despite his harsh tone. "Thank you." He clicks his tongue. "I don't know what I'd do-" She trails off and Levi knows that tears are threatening to spill down her cheeks.
"You'd be six feet under, shithead." Hange despite all, chuckles. As for Levi, well, he finds it much less amusing. "Just... fuck. Stop doing that to me." The smile fades from Hange's lips as soon as it appeared. "Stop being so goddamn stupid. So fucking selfish." He lets his head fall with an exhausted sigh. "I'm tired of always wondering if it's the last time I'm seeing your dumb face."
Hange's hand slides towards the edge of the bed, but Levi doesn't take it.
"And the kid, she needs you." He squeezes the bridge of his nose. "I guess I need you too." Levi looks up at her, to see her mouth hanging open. "So just..." With a stern gaze, he reaches into his pocket and fishes out a small blue box, then proceeds to slide it towards Hange's hand.
Hange stares at him then at the box. Her fingers curl around it as she brings it into her lap. Trembling digits pry the lid open to reveal a ring. Hange's mouth opens and closes like some fish. Levi rolls his eyes, impatient. "Gosh... that's so cliche." She finally says, her eyes crinkling as she smiles, tears falling.
Levi groans. "Just fucking take it." He watches her, as she looks down at the contents of the box, thoughtful. "You need someone to be your impulse control. And the kid... she needs a family."
Hange smiles, eyes settling on Levi. "Okay." She sniffles. "But you'll be doing the dishes."
"Tch. Like that's anything new."