As to not keep you from the story I have placed the Author's Note at the bottom which I suggest you give a read after. Enjoy!
Levi was having a bad day.
At first it started off as a minor annoyance. His alarm clock had seemingly fucked up over night, and chose this exact day to not ring. Thank god that he was naturally an early riser, or else he could have completely missed his flight to Boston. He came that close to leaving his precious cravat behind in his haste.
He yelled at his Taxi driver, a blond boy, what was his name, Arty, Arthur, no it was Armin, into driving like a mad man to the airport. The poor boy that couldn't be any older than 19 fumbled, and apologized more times than he could count for his "incompetence". Levi made sure to give him a generous tip for the trouble (and yelling) after he had been delivered at the airport reasonably quickly.
He thought it would be smooth sailing from there, but he just had to stopped by the metal detector, and patted down by a female officer that took way too much pleasure feeling him over.
Curse these looks.
And now here he stood, tapping his foot angrily as he stood in front of a flight attendant who was currently delivering some less than pleasant news.
"I'm-I so sorry sir, so very sorry, but there seemed to have been a slight, um problem, with your ticket."
His eyebrow twitched.
"Um well you see, I guess, there was an issue, and you were accidently, purely on accident I assure you, placed, in economy class, instead of the first class you ordered sir."
"And what does that mean for me exactly?"
This giant of man was sweating profusely, swallowing the lump in his throat as he spoke. "It means that your gonna have to fly in economy class, sir, and I can assure that you will receive the proper compensation and-"
Flight 562 roundtrip to Boston will now be boarding.
And Levi stomped off before he stood up on the desk just to be able to strangle to the tall, sweaty flight attendant.
"Um, uh, have a nice flight sir!"
"Fuck off!"
Levi already knew he wasn't gonna have a "very nice flight". He was placed at the very back of the plane, one of the very last seats. And his height was making it rather difficult to place his carry on in the upper compartment.
"Stupid shit hole of an airline…" He mumbled quietly under his breath, and he stood on his tippy toes, trying in vain to place the heavy suitcase on the shelf that was way above him. There was no way in hell that he would tell another shitty flight attendant to help him.
He grunted and pushed a little harder.
"Need some help with that?"
He tore his gaze away from his task and was encountered by the steely gaze of sharp onyx eyes. He stood frozen for a moment, taken aback for a bit. She had short raven hair that framed her face perfectly, and bright red scarf that contrasted nicely against the pure black blazer.
"I said if you need help with that Shorty."
His eyebrow twitched as he was brought back to Earth.
"No." He said curtly. He maturely proceeded to ignore her.
And she promptly chose to ignore him, and walked over, yanking the suitcase from his hands and placing it in the upper compartment with ease. "Sorry Shorty, but you don't really have a choice. You have take your seat before I can mine, which, just so happens to be next yours."
Great, he was gonna be seated next to this shitty brat.
He glared at her. Hard. If looks could kill, she would be twelve feet underground at the moment.
She gave him a bored look, and gestured for him to take his seat.
"Fine you brat." He spat and sat with a huff and a wounded pride. She had the nerve to give him a small smile, as if he were a puppy that just successfully completed a trick.
He wasn't about to be disrespected like this, but this day so far had already been enough to tire him enough to not put too much of a fight.
She took her seat beside him without another word, and both passengers looked forward to the safety demonstration that was about to begin.
And for a brief, shimmering moment, Levi thought he would actually have a semi normal flight. As normal as it could get with a bratty, snarky, god damn sarcastic (and admittedly beautiful) young woman next to him.
No words were exchanged on takeoff, the only noise coming from her, was her slight groan in pain, as she cupped both her ears softly as the plane slowly gained high altitude. Obviously she wasn't used to plane travel.
And from there, Levi thought it might be smooth sailing, and he leaned back into the rather hard seats of the economy class, making himself a little more comfortable and placing his arm on the left arm rest.
And accidently bumping and pushing her arm from said arm rest.
She cleared her throat, and still he made no move to move his arm from its position. He smirked a bit to himself.
Payback is a bitch isn't it?
"Excuse me Shorty, but if you could move your small puny arm away from there. I was using the arm rest first."
"Stop calling me Shorty."
"I have nothing else to call you."
"The name is Levi."
"Alright, Levi," He perked up a bit. He really liked the way his name rolled off her tongue. "If you could move your god damn arm please."
"Ain't gonna happen."
"That isn't fair, and you know it."
He let out a long sigh. Looks like she wasn't gonna stop pestering him, like he had originally hoped. "Alright, brat, how about we make a deal. I've had a long shitty day, and I'm hoping to get some rest. So how about I get the arm rest for the first half of our journey, and you can have it all to yourself the second half."
"I have a name you know?"
He quirked a brow. "And what might that be brat?"
"It's Mikasa." And as soon as she said it, Levi immediately liked it. It seemed exotic and so fitting from what he could gather from her so far.
"Alright Mikasa," He loved to say her name already, seemingly flowing effortlessly with his words. "Do we have deal?"
She let out an irritated huff. "Fine."
He smirked, obviously pleased with his victory, and closed his eyes, preparing himself for some sleep.
And he was silently praying that he wouldn't wake up with a giant dick drawn on his face, just like what happened the last time he traveled in economy class.
He awoke to a gentle nudging at his side.
"Hey, Shorty, they are going to start handing out beverages right about now."
He stifled a groan at his new uncertified nickname, and rubbed open his eyes. There was a bit of sunlight poking through his window, and with a tsk he snapped the binds down completely down blocking the annoying sunlight out.
"Sir, would you like a beverage?"
A flight attendant pushed a large cart down the aisle, filled to brim with cups and different types of drinks.
"I'll take some juice, thanks."
She obediently served his drink and passed it along to him. "And for the young wife?"
Even with also his willpower, Levi couldn't stop the bit of pink tint that came rushing to his cheeks. "Hey, miss, get your facts straight, this brat isn't-"
"I'll take some tea thank you very much."
The flight attendant quickly served her drink before moving on to the next row of passengers.
"Why the fuck would you interrupt me! I was only correcting her!"
Mikasa took a sip from her tea. "I know that look already. There wasn't any point in chewing her out for making an honest mistake."
He sighed. "Point taken brat."
She scoffed at him, peering at him from above her cup. "Hmph, I'm anything but a brat. I happen to be on a very important business trip."
He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could say anything she interrupted. Again. "Also just wanted to say that you mumble a lot when you sleep. Something about a fuckin Erwin. Who's that? Your boyfriend?"
He let his face sink into his hands as he let out a tired groan. He thought he had left that mumbling habit behind a long time ago.
"No, he isn't my boyfriend." He said, rolling his eyes after his moment of embarrassment passed. "He's my boss, he's the man putting me through this shitty flight. Anyway sorry for that, a bad habit, I didn't mean to disturb you."
"No need to apologize. It was kind of adorable." Levi's eyes widened considerably as he turned to look at her, and she began to hide her rosy cheeks into that shitty red scarf of hers.
"Wait what did you just−"
And there was a sudden, strong jolt that shook through the length of the entire plane. Adults were jostled awake, children began crying at the sudden disturbance, and tea was dropped onto people's precious cravats.
Fucking turbulence.
Just his fucking luck.
"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT."
He balled his hands into fists as he felt the hot drink seep through his shirt and cravat and make contact with his skin.
Please buckle up as we may encounter more turbulence.
"No shit!"
Mikasa's eyes widened in sudden panic. She searched through the various pouches in the front seat, managing to find a couple of napkins, and reaching over her seat to begin to dab his shirt.
"I'm so sorry Shorty, the drink just flew out of my hands, I knew there was a turbulence warning, and I should have been more…"
"Shut up Mikasa." He said as politely as he could, taking one of the napkins and helping her in the dabbing of his shirt. "If anyone should be panicking here it should be me. Now if you could just find me some more napkins Mikasa please?"
Before Mikasa could do anything of the sort, there was another jolt, this time stronger than before, enough to completely launch one body onto the other.
And somehow, in this odd turn of events, he found his a hairs breath away from the face of the fellow passenger who he had originally called a brat.
They both seemed frozen for a full moment, and Levi took the moment to admirable he how softly her silky hair farmed her blushing face, her wide charcoal black eyes which he found strangely endearing, and her soft scent of strawberries.
A just like that, it was yet another jolt that shocked them back into reality.
"So sorry…" She mumbled, climbing off him and sitting down, burying her face into the safety of her scarf.
"Yea." He was surprised by the hoarseness of his own voice. "No, it wasn't a big deal." He swallowed hard. He suddenly couldn't keep his eyes off her. He would be lying if their sudden intimate proximity hadn't sparked something in him.
He sat back down in his seat, continuing his meticulous dabbing of his shirt and cravat.
And this way they stayed, in complete awkward silence all the way until they landed.
As soon as the plane touched down, every passenger in the entire plane seemed to shoot up to grab their luggage. Mikasa stood before him, grabbing her small shoulder bag from the upper compartment, and about ready to walk out to the now open terminal.
He sighed. She was obviously still flustered from before, and now she probably wanted nothing more than to get away from here. He couldn't blame her, but he really didn't think that Mikasa was the type to get flustered so easily, judging from how feisty she was from their first meeting.
With a groan he stood, and standing on his tip toes to try to reach for his suitcase in the upper compartment. And once again he was finding himself unsuccessful.
"Need another hand Shorty?"
He turned and raised a brow. Mikasa stood there, hand on her hip. Strange, he thought she would have left by now. Guess she didn't run away as easily as he thought. He nodded, once again his pride wounded but he couldn't help the small smile that crawled its way to his face, a little happy that she hadn't just run away from him.
She hefted the suitcase down and handed it to him.
"What do you carry in that thing? Rocks?"
"No, I carry the dead bodies of my foes and enemies. Now, shall we walk to the terminal together?"
He pretended not to notice how happy the tiny, almost invisible smile on her face made him now.
It was early morning they found when they exited airport completely. He took in the nice morning dew into his lungs, bracing himself for the meeting he now currently had to rush to.
He didn't feel as hurried as he should though, because he had no desire to leave the side of the woman he had spent the majority of his fucking shit day with. Still, he knew, it was time they parted ways.
"I guess you weren't the worst person I could have been stuck with in shitty economy class." He said as he turned to face her, his rolling luggage he had picked up at his side.
She rolled his eyes at his statement. "I guess when you put it that way, you're right. I'm sorry about your cravat again; I can see how much that little piece of cloth means to you."
"Please, if anyone can get these stains out it's me. Don't worry about it."
And there was another uncomfortable silence between them, as unspoken words hung in the air. He felt like he should say something, anything, ask for her number, maybe ask to met up some other time while they were both still in town.
But he stood there instead cursing himself for being a coward.
"I guess this is where we part ways. It's been, tolerable to say the least." She rolled her eyes at him again. He extended his hand to her. "Farewell, Mikasa."
She shook his hand gently with her delicate one, and as soon as she retracted it he found himself already missing her soft, comforting touch.
"Farewell, Levi."
And with that they turned their backs on each other, for what would seem the very last time.
Levi swore to himself all the way long in his taxi ride to the hotel he agreed to meet Erwin in to discuss business.
He cursed himself for having no balls.
For being a fucking coward.
He griped the car handle a little harder, making his knuckles turn white.
"Something wrong sir?"
The taxi driver seemed to be partly genuinely concerned, the other part, slightly scared of the short man who seemed to be on a rather short fuse, no pun intended.
Levi shook his head. "Just thinking of opportunities wasted. Now step on it kid."
And he made it to the hotel fast enough, and he gave the Taxi driver his fair share, and got out, slamming the door a little harder than necessary.
He was greeted by Erwin as soon as he stepped through the front door.
"Levi!" The blonde man said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Glad you made it here safely!"
"Erwin." He mumbled half heartedly.
The taller man raised a thick eyebrow. "Guessing someone must be in a particularly bad mood to skip even casual greeting."
Levi scoffed, taking off his coat and placing his suitcase on the circular table in the room Erwin had rented. "Well I guess it you can blame it on the shitty flight you booked me. Idiots made a mistake and placed me in economy."
Erwin shrugged as Levi took a seat at the table. "Now Levi, I'd like to introduce someone that will be working with us from now on. I know she's fresh out of college, but she's proven herself more than capable already, so all I ask is that you give her chance Levi."
He shrugged and slumped down in his chair.
"Mikasa, if you would."
And just like that, she appeared through the door, still wearing the outfit he had seen her in this morning. He shot up from her seat, and he saw her eyes widen and a nice rosy color return to her cheeks.
"Never thought I'd see you here, of all places." He teased, arms crossed over his chest. He was too happy to worry about being professional right now.
She rolled her eyes, and hugged her bag a little closer to her chest. "I can say the same about you Shorty."
Erwin eyed them both carefully. "You two are already acquainted with each other?"
"You can say that." He said, allowing a small grin to escape onto his face. He guessed he had another chance after all.
Heya guys its me. I got this cool little prompt from tumblr, and I couldn't help myself! Sorry if this is a little rushed, I tried to finish this asap, but it was still a pretty long day, and I guess it kinda reflected in my writing.
I've gotta make sure I'm in the right mood for writing to avoid crappy one shots (with a large amount of linebreaks) gah. But it would still help if you dropped a review! They mean a lot and encourage me to keep writing! I won't continue to bore you with this author's note, and I hope you have a nice day/night!
~Trustinthefireflies