Cursive: Someone thinking.
(f/s): Favorite scent.
Hot steam danced from the tea cup as the golden liquid was poured into it, gently. It swirled around in the porcelain container for a while, before settling; giving off a sweet floral aroma. A calm hand picked up the cup by the rim and lead it to a pair of pale lips. A sip was taken before the cup was securely placed back on the saucer.
Levi loved tea. It was one of those very few things he actually was comfortable using the word "love" for. Tea was calming; came in many different varieties and most importantly: it didn't constantly annoy him. It didn't have a mouth, so basically: it couldn't. All it could do, was stand there, in the perfectly shaped porcelain cup, looking good and delicious. He picked up the cup again, and lead it to his mouth. Barely had he taken a second sip, before one of the squad leaders ruined it.
"I've heard she uses horse dung."
'Thank you, Mike... You just ruined my appetite'
"Horse dung!? Really? That's just gross! I've heard she uses mud. That's more believable and far less disgusting" Another squad leader added.
"Now, come on, guys! Get real! Of course she uses Titan spit!"
All the squad leaders sighed at that last comment.
"You and your Titans, Hanji! Why don't you just go ahead and marry one, already!?"
All the squad leaders, including Commander Erwin and Captain Levi were currently seated around a table, to discuss the details of the next expedition beyond the wall. Somehow, however, the conversation had shifted over to the mystery of the one squad leader who wasn't attending.
"Don't you have better things to do than argue over (Name)'s soft lips?" Erwin who had been silent through the whole conversation suddenly cut in. He spoke in a rather annoyed tone, clearly distressed that his subordinates found this topic more interesting than his battle plan. Levi just sighed down in his tea cup. He couldn't care less about this topic; or (Name) herself, for that matter.
"But Erwin! HOW can they look so soft!?" Hanji asked the Commander, pulling that messy shit-brown mop she called hair, in exasperation.
"The rest of us has lips, the texture of sandpaper!" She exclaimed, loud enough for Erwin to cringe.
"Does it matter?" Erwin tried calmly.
"It's just lips."
Hanji went in to what Levi had heard the cadets call "Hanji mode".
"It's NOT just lips!" She squealed so loud that she sounded like a cat that had been pulled by its tail.
"It's warm, silky, velvet lips! We need to know her secret!" No... Levi had been wrong. She did not sound like a cat that had been pulled by its tail. More like a pig that had gotten a spade shoved up its ass. It didn't help the turmoil in the room, or Levi's growing headache, that Hanji had managed to tick off Erwin.
"The HELL with her secret! We have Titans to kill!" He slammed his fists in the table, startling everyone (except Levi).
" . TITANS. Who won't hesitate to kill you, regardless of the texture of your ******* lips! Dismissed! Everyone get out!"
Everyone hurried out of the room to escape the Commander's wrath. Levi however, calmly put down his tea cup, silently got up from his chair and walked out like a normal person.
'What a bother' He complained inwardly as he closed the door behind him, leaving Erwin alone to cool down. Not that he was afraid of a pissed off Erwin, but the taller male did get really annoying when he didn't think clearly.
The sun had begun to set behind the vast horizons and everything was calm around the Survey corps head-quarters. It was true that the superiors meeting hadn't exactly gone smoothly, but nothing ever really did as long as they had oddballs like Hanji around. On his walk back to his office, Levi noticed some dust in the corners and some mud stains on the floor. He made a mental note to himself, to get Jaeger to take care of that. Not that the kid was any good at cleaning, but he had to do. Before he got to his office, he was 'ambushed' by a certain Titan lover.
"Ah! Levi! What do you think?" Levi turned to look at the woman with a very stoic expression.
"What do I think about what?" He asked, also here, the indifference was clear to see.
"About (Name)'s lips! What do you think she moisturizes them with?" Levi sighed.
"Look, Shitty glasses, if you care so much about a stupid lip moisturizer, why don't you just go ask her about it?" Levi couldn't believe that he was actually having this ridiculous conversation with this ridiculous woman.
"I DID!" Hanji sighed.
"But she just told me that it was a secret!"
Levi let out a deep, tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let it go, Hanji" Why? Oh why, did woman have to be this strange? Honestly, she was such a nuisance.
"I CAN'T! I have to know!" She whined like an overgrown baby.
"But luckily, I have a plan!" She said, excited, jumping up and down on the wooden floor, her dirty military boots, leaving dried up mud on the floor.
"Tch" Levi crinkled his nose in disgust.
"Great" He said sarcastically, opening the door to his office.
"Then you go ahead and do that; just stop bothering me."
Before he could enter, Hanji took his arm and yanked him back.
"GREAT!" She squealed.
"Let me tell you what I had in mind, then!"
Levi forced himself out of her grip and brushed off invisible dust from his uniform.
"And why would you tell ME about your plan? I don't really care." He said, annoyed. The brunette didn't seem to care though.
"But Levi! You're the most important part of the plan!" She whined.
"I am?" Levi raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Yep! So here we go:" Levi prepared himself for a long speech from the woman.
"Okay, so you go to her office and order her to tell you..." He expected her to continue, but she didn't. A long silence filled the hallway as Levi just stared down Hanji, angrily.
"Nice try, Hanji, but I'm not going to do that" Levi turned around to leave, but again, Hanji stopped him.
"Why not!?"
"Because I don't care."
"But I care!" She started jumping up and down desperately as she looked at him with puppy dog eyes.
'What an ugly puppy'
"Don't care about that either"
"Pleaseeee, Levi! Do this favor for me? Friends help each other out, after all." She tried.
"We're not friends" Levi just stated coldly, removed her hand from his arm and shut the door in her face. You should think that Hanji could take a hint, but no. Hanji couldn't... Why? Because Hanji was Hanji and Hanji did what Hanji did best: annoy the crap out of Levi.
(A/N: Hanji count: 6. I wrote 'Hanji' 6 times in that paragraph)
"LEVIIIIII!" She knocked frantically at his door, yelling like a maniac.
"COME OOOON!"
'Why me? What did I do to deserve this?'
Levi tried to ignore her for a while, but that soon proved to be very difficult.
"No, Hanji!"
"Oh, COME ON SHORT STUFF! TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM!" She argued.
"What did you just call me!?"
"SHORT STUFF! BUT I HAVE OTHER NICKNAMES IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT ONE." Hanji started yelling all kinds of insulting nicknames after that.
"CAPTAIN CLEANFREAK, GRUMPY DWARF, CHIBI CAPTAIN, HUMANITY'S SHORTEST, MIDGET OF STEEL, THE ANGEL OF WINDEX, DICIPEL OF THE DUSTER, MINI-"
"STOP, STOP, ENOUGH!" Levi suddenly yelled back, unable to take anymore.
"OH, COME ON, LEVI! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO MAKE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND!?"
Levi didn't answer.
"I'LL CLEAN YOUR OFFICE FOR A WHOLE MONTH!" Hanji offered, but Levi did not take the bait.
"Sounds more like a punishment to me. You are horrible at cleaning!" He recalled the time Hanji had tried to clean his office and left it dirtier than when she had started.
"I'LL BRAID YOUR HAIR FOR YOU?" She tried again.
"Braid my hair, and I'll braid your intestines!"
"I'LL... I'll stop my Titan experiments for a whole week?" Levi barely heard Hanji's offer, but when he finally registered what she had said, silence filled the room.
"..."
"..."
"And, you'll stop bothering me about anything even remotely related to Titans?" He asked.
"Shit! I'm nodding my head!"
Levi opened his office door to see a very serious Hanji stand there with doe eyes.
"Does this really mean that much to you?" He asked the crazy scientist. She simply nodded.
"Tch" He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Two weeks, and you'll clean Erwin's office." He finally said in defeat.
"Huh? I thought you said, I was bad at cleaning?"
"Exactly"
***Time skip brought to you by Erwin's eyebrows***
"Squad leader, (First) (Last)!" Levi burst through the door to (Name)'s office, not even bothering to knock.
"Why weren't you at the meeting today!?" He asked angrily as he slammed a flat hand on her wooden desk. (Name) simply looked up from her paperwork, a smile adorning her face.
"I'm sorry Corporal."She sang.
"I had an emergency with one of my cadets, and I needed to be there." She pouted slightly as she glanced up at Levi with shining (E/C) eyes before returning her gaze to the paperwork in front of her.
"Besides... It was probably just Erwin trying to go through the same battle plan we have already gone through like ten times, and the other squad leaders turning the conversation over to gossip hour." She mumbled in a joking tone. Levi raised an eyebrow at this. (Name) was certainly a peculiar woman to say the least. She was probably the only person on the planet who wasn't the slightest bit afraid of him, even though she had been chosen as a squad leader because of her intellect, not her strength. Levi could not for the life of him, figure out why she had this audacity around him. He looked down at the (H/C) haired woman as she simply continued with her paperwork as if he wasn't even there. Her (E/C) eyes scanned the paper in concentration and a lock of (H/C) hair had fallen out of her loose ponytail, tickling her face as it moved against her steady breath.
"You're actually right, (Last). It was nothing but gossip." He broke the silence to no avail. (Name) still refused to give him any attention as she just continued scribbling words down on the paper in front of her.
"Is that right? What was today's juicy story?" She asked in a bored tone which annoyed Levi very much. Why wouldn't she look at him when he spoke to her? Come to think of it, why wouldn't she ever look at him when he spoke to her? He always felt so invisible when he was alone in a room with her. Which is why he always tried to avoid her.
"You." He said angrily in a cold and venomous voice, trying to make her notice him by pointing a finger at her nose.
"Uh huh?" She simply hummed, still ignoring him completely. This ticked him off. Why on earth would she not notice him!? He hated Hanji for sending him in here.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you (Last)!" He snapped, finally gaining a reaction from the woman. She got up from her chair and decided to lean against the wall as she locked her gaze with Levi. Never had she stared so intensely at him, or kept eye contact with him for this long. She took a deep breath and then asked.
"And what rumors about me, has the squad leaders come up with now? That I wet my bed? That I have a collection of dead husbands in a closet in the basement? Or perhaps that I'm sleeping with one of the Cadets? Rumors like that seem to be popular around here. I suppose you're here to clear whatever rumor out?"
Dead husbands in the basement? How messed up was this woman to even come up with a notion like that?
"That is exactly why I'm here." He told (Name) coldly, with a bored expression on his face.
"Okay, fine! No! I'm not a bed wetter. I'm not a black widow, and I'm certainly not dating Eren, Armin, Jean or any of the other cadets. They are simply not my type." She sighed, smiling mischievously at Levi.
"Good to know..." He said stoically.
"No... Hanji has been bothering me to find out what you moisturize your lips with. Idiotic, I know, but she just wouldn't leave me alone." Levi decided to tell (Name) the truth. He was her superior after all, and he refused to play any games in order to get an answer.
"Oh? Has she?" She smirked mischievously while making her way around her desk. She sat down on the wooden surface right in front of Levi, a dangerous look in her eyes he couldn't quite identify.
"Yes." Levi said coldly, as he looked down at the woman in front of him with an icy glare.
"Now tell me, so she stops bothering me" He continued in anger.
"I'm sorry, Corporal. I can't tell you that. It's a secret." (Name) seemingly didn't care that with every disrespectful word, Levi was seething more and more with anger.
"Are you disobeying an order, (Last)?" Levi moved closer to the woman in front of him. Sadly, she didn't look intimidated at all.
"Not exactly Corporal. If you want to know what I moisturize my lips with, why don't you just come a little closer and find out?" (Name) said, dead serious. It even sounded a little bit like she was purring her words out. Levi's eyes widened slightly in shock. Had she just?... Had she just told him to?...
"What?" He whispered in disbelief, the usual anger mixed in his voice.
"You heard me... Levi" She said his first name for the first time, sending shivers down his back for some reason.
"If you want to know... You'll have to find out yourself" She whispered. Levi stood frozen for a minute, not quite sure what to do. He could leave her office, but then he would be seen as a coward, and Levi was way too stubborn to go down as a coward. Hoping that Mike hadn't been right about the horse dung, he grabbed her head and crashed his lips forcefully against hers. She immediately kissed back with extreme passion which took him by surprise. As she moved her unbelievably soft lips against his, he tasted something very sweet and almost sugary, like... Levi smirked against (Name)'s lips. Her secret had been revealed. Technically he could pull away from the kiss now, but... She suddenly deepened the kiss, licking his bottom lip which immediately sent his thoughts on a long vacation. He finally moved his lips again and decided to lick all the sweetness away from (Name)'s lips. This was unbelievably satisfying. A moan escaped her lips and once again, Levi felt something he couldn't quite identify. Satisfaction was probably the word that came closest to describing it. All too soon, she pulled away, licking her lips to get all the saliva away. Her face was brushed a delightful pink as her eyes sparkled with glee.
"I trust that you got what you came for, Corporal?" She turned her voice back to a stoic one and sat down to continue her paperwork as if nothing had happened. Levi stood there with a baffled expression on his face as he tried to register what had just happened. Left, wanting more, he eventually regained his composure and simply just nodded before leaving her office. As soon as he had closed the door, he was tackled by Hanji.
"Did you find out!?" She asked excited as she hugged him. Levi pried her off immediately and growled at her.
"Yes, you stupid idiot. Of course I did!" Hanji's eyes widened in glee.
"So?" She got a little bit closer to Levi, slightly invading his personal space. He grazed his lips with a finger, the feel of hers still slightly there.
"Honey" He answered, a smile threatening to surface on his own lips.
"She moisturizes her lips with honey"
Reader P.O.V:
(Name)'s head shot up immediately after she heard the sound click of the door closing behind Levi. She was once again alone in the room.
"It worked..." She whispered quietly to herself, covering her beet red face with her shaking hands.
"It actually worked!" She whisper yelled as her lips widened in a smile that would put even Hanji to shame. She had been trying to make the Captain kiss her for months, and now... Thanks to Hanji, he actually had! Speak of the devil, Hanji burst through the door with a smile plastered on her face.
"Hanji, it worked!" (Name) screamed as she leaped into the crazy scientist's open arms in a soul crushing hug.
"Of course it did! Calm your ovaries, woman!" Hanji laughed.
"You owe me BIG time!"
***Extended ending***
When the sun shone through her hair, it burned a beautiful (h/c) color. When she smiled, everyone in the room always smiled with her. Her laugh was melodic and soft. She was kind. She was brave. And she dared to talk back to him. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why he hadn't noticed this before. Sure, (Name) was beautiful, but that did not mean that Levi was in love with her! He was the superior and she the subordinate. He did not want to embrace her. He did not want to hold her close to him. And he definitely did not want to run his fingers through her (h/l) silky locks that smelled so deliciously of (f/s). He was not in love with her at all.
"Uhm, Corporal? Would you please stop staring at me like that?" Levi turned his gaze down to the cup of tea next to the huge pile of paperwork he and (Name) had been assigned. He still loved the golden liquid, but for some reason, he suddenly found it so boring. He chanced another glance at the (h/c) haired woman, sitting in front of him. He was NOT in love with (Name)!
"..."
"..."
But he definitely wouldn't mind kissing her again.