Levi woke feeling groggy and uncomfortable. His vision was blurry and his limbs felt slouchy.
Suddenly, aggressive coughs burst through his mouth and Levi quickly covered it with his fist, he coughed more harder for a while before dumping his back onto the chair.
It can't be a disease… Can it? Levi was a clean freak and Humanity's Strongest, the people's least likely person that would get sick.
"Oi, Levi, are you alright?" A voice asked with concern behind the door.
It was Erwin, he must have something to discuss to him if he's so near his room to hear him cough.
"I'm alright," He growled. "Be out in a se-" Levi violently started to cough and his head seem to be hit by an invisible hammer.
Right before he blacked out, he saw the door swing open and nothing more; his vision was too hazy and dark.
The infirmary was clean and silence, with three figures in a single room.
"How is he?" A voice faintly whispered.
"Not good…" Another replied, presumably more closer to Levi. "I fed him the medicine, but I'm not sure whether or not he'll heal immediately."
"Why is he so sick?"
"Although his cleanliness blocks out germs, it also prevents his immune system from adjusting from different bacterias. It stops his body from strengthening from common illnesses and therefore, he is more vulnerable to diseases than other soldiers."
Levi cracked his eyes open, the lights were dim, but just enough for him to see properly.
There standing before him, was none other than Hange. Actually, of course it's Hange that pointed out his problem; she's just too over the top and weird for people to notice that she has a powerful brain.
"Ugh… Where am I?"
Levi groaned and tried to sit up, his stomach turned and he felt the urge to vomit though he has eaten nothing since 7pm last night.
"Careful there, Shorty." Hange picked him up slight and made sure he was leaning against the wall.
"Don't treat me like a kid." Levi grumbled and whipped his face away from her smiling one.
Erwin got up from the infirmary chair and strolled over.
"Levi, you're quite ill at the moment, so just be good." He frowned his eyebrows a bit. "I'm going to ask the higher ups to halt your workload and for Hange to take care of you. No one's going to get sick for you, so you better behave."
After Erwin left, Levi glared at Hange, but like always, she didn't give any signs of discomfort.
"C'mon Levi, I know illnesses makes people uncomfortable, but bear with it." She sat on the edge of the bed and smiled a bit more. "If you behave, it's not going to last very long. It's not forever that you'll be sick, so just relax."
Levi continued his stare, not because he's annoyed at being lectured as if he's a child, but because Hange wasn't in her normal attire.
Her hair was tied high like usual, but it was more smooth and silky, no oil or random sprouts, and her face didn't show its usual stressfulness; it made her more peaceful and lively.
"You look different." He croaked out, and immediately noticed how hoarse his voice sounded.
"Here… I thought you'd need it." Hange handed Levi the tea cup from the bedside post.
As Levi accepted the cup and began to drink the black tea inside, Hange stretched her arms up with a grin.
"I guess I would look different. I finished my paperwork early and since I had nothing to do, I took a bath." She chuckled like she told a funny joke. "Surprise, surprise. I didn't need you to hit me out and force me into one - Oww!"
Levi had shifted one of his iron legs and kneed Hange off the bed.
"If you kept yourself more ladylike in hygiene matter, sure. I'd love to not hit you out in order to bathe you!" He gritted the words through his teeth and watched Hange get up onto her weakened legs.
Levi knows just where to hit to weaken someone, but have them still standing.
She looked back at him with teary, crystalised eyes; it somehow made Levi feel a tingle of guilt. He didn't had to shove her off with that much force… But it's not like he would apologise.
"That hurt…" She mumbled, barely audible, but Levi heard the pain in her tone.
"Geez, aren't you delicate." He rolled his eyes. "Why don't you quit the survey corp all together, princess?"
"NO! ALL MY DREAMS ARE HERE!" Hange yelled as something snapped in her; anything but leaving the corp!
Why does she allow herself to be bullied by Levi every single time? She has feelings of her own!
Levi finally, in a nick of a second, realised that he touched an extremely sensitive nerve.
"Han-"
Too late, Hange dashed out the room.
"Ge…"
A voice scuttered through the back of his brain, Levi managed to catch what its raspy and unclear voice was saying. I'm sorry! Hange, come back! HANGE! Come back! I'm sorry! ...Please?
Levi's face was still completely blank even with all the ruckus going through his mind. Should he apologise? That's not something he does, but Hange is important! ...Important…
Levi's mind seemed to have asked him a question, Hange was important, but why is she important?
…Because, because she's the scientist! Levi hurriedly came up with. The survey corp needs her, so they could know more about titans, and strategies, and useful ways of training, and…
The more Levi rumbled through his mind, the more wrong the answers sounded; is Levi perhaps missing out on something key?
After Erwin found out that Hange had sprinted out the castle in an emergency way from a few scouts and why she acted that way from a stuttery Levi, he had ordered the lad to go find her.
"She's as important as you, Eren, and I." Erwin has warned to him.
Levi turned to begin his hunt, and he didn't notice the desperate look Erwin put up; come on Levi, she's the key to your heart. Don't break her like how Isabel and Farlan did to you, they had no choice back then, but you do right now.
A long time after the sun had set, Levi found Hange sitting under a willow tree in an abandoned courtyard in the castle.
Her knees were up, her legs were pressed together, her arms were wrapped around them, and her face was buried away from sight.
Levi's breath hitched, this was hange! The always cheerful maniac loudmouth! But now she's sitting like a broken doll.
"H-Hange," slowly, Levi approached her.
She didn't move, is she asleep?
Levi knelt on one knee right beside her, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Hange, I-I don't know if… if you're able to hear, but - I mean, hear me or not, but… I'm sorry." Levi inched his face closer to her. "I'm sorry."
He was surprised when Hange looked up at him, not about that she wasn't asleep, but about her tear stained face.
Levi don't even remember the last time he saw Hange without her glasses on, but the distant memory washed over him.
That time, Hange was sleeping on her desk, her arm pillowing her head; she was so peaceful compared to her usual state and Levi enjoyed that fact.
Her hair was sprawled all over the place, her long eyelashes fluttered, her plump mouth had a tiny opening and was letting air in and out; she was breathing silently and in an adorable way.
Levi at that time ignored that he had something to report to her and simply covered her with a blanket before leaving.
This time however, Hange had just stopped crying her heart out; there were uncleaned tear routes all over her face.
Her hair had dropped to her mid-back skull, she probably didn't move much after running here, her eyes were half lidded, and her eyelashes dropped in a depressing way, still wet, too.
"Why are you here, Heicho? Are you happy to see me in this state?" Hange bit her bottom lip slightly and looked away as if in shame.
"I…" It was weird for Hange to call him with any sort of formality. "I came for you. I'm sorry, I… I'm really sorry."
"Oh… Is that all you're going to say?" Hange knows she's pushing it, there's no way the Levi Ackerman is going to say anything more.
"Ummm, no…" Levi mumbled. "I… I, uh, didn't mean to use that much force to shove up off the bed. I didn't mean to suggest that you should quit. I… The survey corp needs you, you're important to us…"
Levi looked away before a blush crept onto his cheeks and whisper extremely quietly, "I need you, too."
There wasn't any kind of responses and Levi was afraid that Hange had disappeared, so he snapped his head back to her, only to see her having a gentle facade on.
"Thank you, I… I really appreciate your apology." She smiled and Levi smiled, too. "You're smiling!" Hange gasped.
"'Course I am, idiot! What? Is there a law that says I can't smile?" Levi questioned.
"No, NO! It's just, so surprising! You, Levi Ackerman, just smiled." Then, Hange started to giggle; it felt good in Levi's ears.
"Come on, let's go back."
Hange nodded like her old enthusiastic self and Levi helped her up like a gentleman.
It was only when they were almost in the lights that they noticed they were still holding hands. Hange tried to take hers out, since Levi wouldn't appreciate her filthiness, but yet again, the short captain surprised her by tightening his grip. He has been thinking as they were walking back, and now it's time to spill it out.
"Hange, call me stupid and crazy for noticing this and noticing so late, but…" Levi closed up and hovered his mouth beside her ear. "I think I'm in love with you."
Time stopped and Hange's heart freaked out; she wasn't dreaming, she can tell, so that means Levi… LEVI just confessed! To HER!
"I love you, too." She replied in a mushy and unclear tone; too embarrassed and happy at the same time that her brain just ditched it's vocabulary.
As Levi walked Hange, who failed to cover up her tomato-like face by lowering it, into the dining room, everyone watched.
Some snickered as they already predicted this, some had gaping mouths and were severely shock, while Erwin just smiled and invited the couple to dine beside him.