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The little cabin sat in the opening in the forest, not far from the up and coming city a few miles north, but far away to not hear the constant construction. Outside sat a little garden full of ripe tomatoes and squash, nearby sat a pen of goats and chickens who fed on the green grass. A cobblestone path led to a worn out doorway, paint chipping from the wood on the frame. Besides the paint, the windows were crystal clear and the floral surrounding the cabin was kempt and blooming.
Gabi, holding Falco’s hand in hers, led him towards the front door. She knocked, she heard a fatigued grunt from the other side of the door and the tapping of a wooden cane coming closer. The door lightly swung open, Levi stared at them with his greying hair starting to cover his eyes. His scars on the left side of his face had turned slightly wrinkly and pink. Cane in hand and slightly hunched over, Gabi could tell he looked shorter than normal.
Back then, he was such a powerhouse. Gabi was shocked at how far he’d crumple since the war.
“You don’t look like you’ve aged a day, Levi.” Gabi joked and dragged Falco inside, she could smell the black tea brewing in his quaint kitchen with three clean tea cups set beside the metal teapot. Levi grunted in response, though it wasn’t a happy grunt.
Every Wednesday, Gabi and Falco would visit Levi in his hidden away cabin; it became a tradition shortly after the war against Marley ended and Levi took the two under his wing. Though he didn’t fully know how to raise two kids, he did his best to care for them. Teaching them both generic logic from before their time as well as telling them the brutal stories of his time on Paradis. With every story, Gabi learned to see Levi as a parental figure rather than her enemy. Falco, on the other hand, was fully ready to accept Levi as his guardian.
“Tch, you two are early.” He complained, shutting the door and hobbling towards the kitchen where the boiling water hissed, ready to be poured. He grabbed a rag and lifted the hot pot, pouring three cups of tea for him and his guests.
“We can leave and come back next week.” Falco joked, grabbing his tea cup from Levi’s ancient hand and giving it a stir, he glooped honey into the liquid to sweeten it up. Gabi was handed her own cup, she was just like Levi when it came to tea: black and bitter. Levi sat at the table with them, setting his cane against his chair and giving his hot tea a small sip, the liquid burning the roof of his mouth in the process.
“Watch it, brat.” Levi set his cup down and glared at Falco, he could tell he was trying to be intimidating but the warmth in his old eyes betrayed him. Gabi looked around the cabin at Levi’s decorations, he had photos of the ones who survived framed on his walls as well as old Survey Corps memorabilia propped up around the fireplace. Her eyes drifted across the photos until she landed on a photo of Levi and a woman with shaggy hair, their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders as she displayed a bright, toothy smile and he wore his normal annoyed expression. Despite his expression, Gabi could see the blush on their cheeks as their bodies pressed side by side to each other.
“You never talk about her.” Gabi muttered, she could hear Levi’s breath hitch. His tea cup clinked on the table as he lightly set it down, his eyes darted towards the ground as Gabi redirected her attention towards the older man, taking in how his ever so confident persona fell at the mention of her.
“...Hange.” He whispered, his hand with three fingers came up and rubbed his forehead as he looked down. Falco looked at Gabi, shock painted on his face as Levi said her name for the first time ever in front of them.
They didn’t know her name, they knew it started with a H but Levi refused to talk about her. It was a s if she was a curse and Levi was superstitious to even think about it.
“She used to drive me completely insane,” He said faintly, a smirk tugging at his lips as he reminisced about his past. “Always running off and getting into shit, and then I’d have to come in and save her dumbass. She also lived in her stupid lab, it was always messy and smelled like shit but I didn’t mind sitting in there with her.”
The lab reeked of mildew, Hange had seemed to grow used to the pungent smell but Levi could smell it the second he walked into the lab. Upon entering, he saw her hunched over one of her tables with her goggles and leather gloves on, messing with a glass vile of some sort of liquid. Levi didn’t care what was in it nor did he care about her experiment; but he hadn’t seen her all week.
“Are you trying to blow us all up?” He asked, entering the lab and shutting the door behind him. Hange stood up quickly, the liquid in the vile sloshing around and just barely hitting the glass rim. Her goggles were slightly crooked on her hooked nose.
“Levi!” She sighed and set the vile down, making her way towards him with her hands outstretched. “How was your meeting at the capital?” She gave him a warm hug, her gloves rubbing against his skin through his thin, grey shirt. The second she pulled away, he raised his hand to fix her glasses. She gave him a quick “thank you” before dragging him towards her table.
“I was just about you test the reaction between Zeke’s spinal fluid and this-”
“No.” Levi replied before Hange could finish her sentence, her mouth gaped open at his denial of learning more about her experiment. Either way, she decided to tell him about it and what she hoped she would find. As she ranted, Levi grabbed a clean rag and began cleaning up the tables she wasn’t currently using. She didn’t realize what he was doing until she heard the familiar squirt of a cleaning bottle. Hange dropped whatever was in her hands and stared at the shorter man, completely distracted by something smudged on her table.
“You’re cleaning my lab for me?” She asked, he looked up at her though his fringe and nodded. “Do you realize how domesticated you look?” Her goggles slipped down from her face and hung around her neck as she made her way back to his side, the table slightly shook as he finished scrubbing whatever smudge he found a few seconds ago. Setting the rag down, he turned to look over at her. She had propped herself up on her wooden table, her long legs swung as she smiled at him.
“Don’t make it weird.” He complained and lightly hit her knee before moving to the other side of the table behind her and beginning to scrub.
“You’d trip over your own shit if I didn’t come in here and clean up after you.” He muttered, Hange swung her legs around so they were hanging off the other side now, she leaned on her right arm and stared at him while he was cleaning, the dumbest smile Levi had ever seen was on her face.
“Sometimes I don’t think you realize how much you care about me.” She joked, Levi paused and looked up at her. Her goggles hung loosely around her neck and her bangs were tucked behind her ears. Her caramel eyes pierced his soul as she stared at him, taking in all his facial features all the way down to the little beauty mark on the side of his eye.
“You make it hard not to care.” He replied, his voice quieter than they both expected. He looked back down at the table, now insecure to meet her gaze. For once, Hange didn’t laugh or brush off the comment. Her expression warmed as she rested her hand on his broad shoulder.
“You know if you want to tell me you care, you can just say it.” Her voice was as soft as velvet as the words fell from her mouth. Levi tensed under her light grasp on his shoulder, but he didn’t care to move away from her gentle touch. He could smell her sweat and the lingering scene of smoke on her wrinkly clothes. His jaw tightened, unsure of what to say.
“I think it’s obvious I care.” He muttered, his gaze still focused on the rag in his hand. Her hand moved from his shoulder and up to his freshly washed hair, it was still slightly wet from his shower earlier that hour, Hange assumed he took a shower and came straight to her after getting home from his meeting at the capital. She tugged at his hair, making him face her.
The silence between them was tense, her caramel eyes absorbing themself into his stormy eyes, though she began to notice the storms weren't as strong whenever he was looking at her. They were calm, duller, and gentle. Truly, the calm after the storm. Her hands lingered in his hair, she could feel how tense Levi’s frame had become under her grasp. Hange was so used to seeing Levi put up a strong front, seeing him frozen in front of her, almost vulnerable, was a new sight she realized she loved to look at. His pink lips were slightly parted as he stared at her, she could see his pupils dance around her facial features.
“You drive me insane, you know that?” Hange muttered, knowingly that Levi wouldn’t be the first to speak while they were this close.
“Mutual.” He replied, his eyes locking in with hers.
“If you’re thinking about kissing me,” She swallowed hard and nodded, taking a deep inhale before she spoke again. “I want you to kiss me.”
Levi reached his hand around her skull and gently brought their heads together, their lips lightly colliding as he moved his hand down to cup her burning cheeks. Hange’s heads dropped to wrap themselves around his shoulders, pulling him closer to her body.
Levi sat at the table, Gabi and Falco’s eyes wide as he told the story of their first kiss. They never imagined Levi to be a romantic, he seemed too distant for that type of thing. Especially with someone who seemed to be the exact opposite of himself. His hand lightly hovered on his own lips, eyes glossy as he stared at the tea cup that was now cold from sitting too long.
“Before I went to the forest to babysit Zeke, she made me the worst cup of tea you could even imagine. It was way too sweet for me, but seeing her smile as I drank it made me finish that damn cup.” Levi stood up and grabbed his cold tea cup and poured the liquid down the sink. “When she… died, it killed me to let her go.” Levi didn’t turn around to face Gabi and Falco, he didn’t want them both to see him cry, the tears fell though.
“If I could go back, I would have forced her onto that stupid plane. I regret not trying hard enough to stop her.”
Gabi and Falco sat at the table speechless, their tea had also grown cold in the time they sat there. He reached over to hold her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze as if he was reminding her that he was still alive and there with her. Gabi’s jaw trembled as she squeezed his hand back.
“She would be proud of the things you’ve accomplished since the end of the war.” Falco said, his voice shaky. “She would have been happy to know that you went on to help people get their footing back.”
Levi wiped his eyes with his sleeve and turned around to face the two kids, he noticed their hands in each other's and their solemn expressions. Grabbing his cane, he made his way over to the photo of him and Hange on his wall and stared at it.
“You’re right, Falco. I think she would be happy with everything we’ve accomplished.” Levi replied. “I just wish she was here to experience it, too.”