Note: I wanted to write a little bit of fluff and lemon…but what the hell happened on the way?!
Afraid to be a man (Part 1 / Prologue)
A waft of rotten alcohol, sweat and slimy atmosphere hit Hanji in the face as she opened the door to the musky bar. She quickly pulled a hand in front of her nose to cover the smell. Ugh, it stinks in here she thought. She walked in and closed the door behind her, scanning the dimly lit room as she did so, for a particularly petite man. Of all the places, why did he choose here?
She found him sitting at the end of the bar, making a distinct effort to make sure he was as far away from another human being as possible. He was wearing his casual white shirt and black jacket, but his cravat was missing. As Hanji approached the Corporal she found the neckpiece discarded and forgotten by his feet. The Squad Leader picked it up and then glanced at him, sitting to her right.
"Is it alright if I sit here…Levi?"
The man in question slowly looked up, glancing at her and acknowledging her existence, before returning to his previous staring competition with his beverage.
"It's a free bar. Sit where you like." was his dead-pan response. Hanji smiled a small smile and sat down next to her friend. "It's good to see you're still around. We weren't sure where you had run off to at first when you didn't attend the meeting earlier."
Still not facing her, he replied -"Then I clearly wasn't doing a good enough job if you were able to locate me so quickly then huh? How did you find me?"
"Erwin."
"Che, that rat bastard."
"He gave me instructions of how to find some of your old hiding places. I had no idea you used to hang around these sort of places! They're so filthy too! How did you ever stand it? Even for me, this place could do with a scrub." Levi glared at her and simply responded "It was good enough."
She sighed- "Yeah I suppose in those days you didn't care about how clean you were right? You just tried to survive each night, trying to keep going…just like tonight…" Levi couldn't take it anymore, and finally turned his body around to face hanji, in her full uniform and manoeuvre straps all secured in place. In comparison, he had left himself completely unguarded with no manoeuver gear or even combat clothes ready in sight, something he noted with a twinge of shame.
"Why did you come here Hanji? There must have been a reason for you to disturb me."
She smiled, and looked his sour face in the eye- "Glad to finally have your full attention. I was wondering how long it would take."
"-did not answer my question. Get to the point." The brown haired woman closed her eyes and sighed sadly. "I was wondering how long you were going to mope. It's been four days already." Levi's eyes narrowed dangerously at this. "…and?" Hanji's eyes shot up with determination in them. He wasn't taking any of the bait. "Look at yourself! When was the last time you shaved? Or even washed for that matter?" Levi simply turned his head away, and did not answer her question. He didn't need to tell her how badly he was taking it. No one needed to know.
This only made her even angrier. "Hey! I was talking to you!" and with that she grabbed humanity's strongest soldier by the scruff of his shirt and dragged him towards her, forcing him to lean on his seat. A few inches away from her face she stopped and stared straight into his now lacklustre orbs, the strength in them long faded in the darkness. Levi still found the strength to muster up a glare and at this distance, his sharp grey eyes were even more intimidating. Despite that the woman did not look away and glared right back at him with an anger she had not felt before. It was an anger arousing from disappointment. Disappointment of watching her friend and hero stoop to this level. "She won't come back Levi. Nothing you do is going to change that. Stop trying to return to the past."
"It's none of your business. I'll leave when I'm ready to." She flung him back to his seat. "That's not good enough anymore, Levi! I'm tired of this." With that she threw some money on the counter and kicked the smaller man's chair, knocking him off balance so that he landed square on his behind on the floor. Levi was already in such a mess that it did not require much of her strength to do the manoeuvre and proceeded to carry him bridal-style out of the near-forsaken bar with hopeless protests being spat in her general direction.
END OF PART 1