The night couldn't get shittier for Levi. His throat was on fire and he had difficulty breathing thanks to the stupid cold he contracted from Hange. He had told that damn abnormal to stay home and ride out her cold! "Damn four-eyes is getting hell for this tomorrow." He grumbled to himself and tried to make himself comfortable in bed. At some point during the night Mikasa had cuddled to his side (Damn brat needs to start wearing socks to bed. Her fucking feet are freezing!) Searching for warmth and limited his range of movement. He had been patient up to now but enough was enough. He needed to go downstairs and make himself some tea otherwise he would never be able to go to sleep.

He slowly tested the waters by moving his arm a little to see if Mikasa would wake. Fortunately she only stirred slightly and didn't appear to register anything out of the norm. Levi then moved a lock of her hair away from her face and kissed her temple lovingly before disentangling himself from her and slowly exiting the room.

He slowly made his way downstairs and into the kitchen and with practiced dexterity he started arranging everything he needed for his tea. He had just finished putting some water to boil when Mikasa suddenly interrupted him.

"Levi, what are you doing up at this hour?" Levi jumped and almost dropped his chamomile supply. He hadn't heard Mikasa enter the kitchen.

"Oi brat, you shouldn't be creeping up on people like that this late at night," reprimanded Levi in irritation.

"Well, it's not my fault for once you're not attune with your surroundings," she said with a mocking tone, "beside I got cold without you in bed. Have you been down here too long?"

"No, I just got here. I couldn't sleep. I thought some tea would help."

Mikasa's demeanor immediately changed to worry, "are you feeling unwell? " she closed the distance between them and felt his forehead. "You've got a bit of a fever, is your throat still bothering you?"

"I'm fine, the tea will liven me up." He grabbed her hand and kissed it, "go back to bed. I'll join you once I'm done."

"Nonsense, take a seat, I'll prepare the tea."

"Mikasa you don't have to…"

Mikasa interrupted him with an annoyed sigh, " Chibi, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You decide."

Levi resignedly sat down. He truly didn't have the energy to put up a fight or to even feel irritated over being called chibi.

"Here you go love," Mikasa said as she gently placed his tea in front of him. She then proceeded to take a seat in front of him with her own cuppa. She interlaced the fingers of their free hands and smiled softly at him causing him to blush. She laughed softly, "you know…"

"Mikasa, Levi!"

"Eren?" asked a confused Mikasa,

"Just ignore him. He'll leave soon if we continue to ignore him. " Said Levi in deadpan tone.

"I know at least one of you is up. Open up, please! I need to talk to you," called Eren from outside.

"You're opening the door aren't you?" asked Levi in a flat voice.

Mikasa looked apologetically at him and nodded her head yes, "I can't ignore him if I know he's troubled," upon seeing Levi's resigned look she smiled slightly and gave him a quick peck on the lips, "I'll make it up to you. I promise."

Levi sighed and continued drinking his tea while Mikasa opened the door for Eren. He better have a damn good reason for banding on the door in the middle of the night. Whatever happened to no visiting after nine o'clock at night? He slowly heard Eren and Mikasa make their way into the kitchen. Eren greeted him excitedly and he simply waved nonchalantly.

"It's a good thing you guys were awake. I really needed to get input from the both of you. I don't know what to do!" exclaimed Eren desperately. He then proceeded to make himself comfortable in the seat in front of Levi while Mikasa sat to Levi's right. Eren then began alternating between looking at them and them back at his hands while trying to find the best way to begin.

"Oi brat spit it out! We don't have all night," said Levi whilst he ill humoredly proceeded to finish his tea. Mikasa gave him a disapproving look and simply motioned for Eren to speak.

Eren smiled at their interaction, sighed and said: "I met someone." He then lost his smile as he gazed at his hands once again, "I might've screwed things up though."

Mikasa and Levi looked at each other and then she asked, "What happened Eren?"

Eren then proceeded to tell them how he had had the day from hell since he woke up and by the time he had finished his shift at work he was at his wits end and in one of his "moods" as Mikasa tended to call them. ("PMSing again, how surprising, interjected Levi sarcastically which earned him a kick on the shin from his wife). Eren had surprisingly not noticed this and kept going with his story, "and the fucking icing on the cake on this day from hell was crashing my brand new car! I was in no mood to be nice with the person that had crashed into me and… let's just say I didn't react in a very civilized manner when the other driver got down to talk to me." He leaned his chin on his hands and was quiet for a moment. " The poor guy looked confused and terrified."

"So your someone is a 'he'?" mocked Levi, "wait until Horse-face hears about this. He's never going to let you live it down since you were an ass when he came clean about his relationship with Marco."

Eren looked at him in anger and shouted: "Damn it Levi, for once stop being such a fucking asshole and let me finish my story."

"Enough you two!" reprimanded Mikasa, "Levi, let Eren finish his story in peace, no more interruptions or caustic comments;" she then smacked Eren on the head, "and you, enough with the cussing. Mama Carla didn't raise you like that." She looked at both of them to ensure they would behave and upon getting their agreement (Levi sighing and rolling his eyes and Eren pouting and nodding) she motioned for Eren to continue.

"As I was saying I was berating the guy when out of the passenger side of his car comes the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on. She was perfect; nothing I could ever dream up could compare to her," said Eren with a dreamy look. "And it just to happened that she's the sister of the guy I was yelling at… who also happens to be autistic. Fuck! I think I even beat Levi at giving bad first impressions."

"Watch it Jaeger! "

"Well he is right Levi," Levi then turned to look at Mikasa in shock as she took Eren's side and chuckled at his expense. "I had never disliked someone so much within seconds of meeting them before you. As a matter of fact, you still hold the record," she finished with a smile.

Levi just crossed his arms and scoffed. "It's not my fault you brats brought up the worst in me."

"Levi, the first time we met you screamed at me for bumping into you. That hardly qualifies as a great first impression;" Mikasa said with a smile.

"Tse… You would've yelled at a person bumping into you if they made you drop your scalding beverage on yourself. Don't even try to deny it." Levi defended himself as he started having a coughing fit.

Mikasa looked at him worriedly and softly rubbed his back. She could see he was feeling worse than he had initially revealed and the difficulty he was having staying awake in spite of his spirited responses. "Would you like to go to sleep already?"

As Levi regained his composure he finally allowed the tiredness to show on his face and he simply nodded then proceeded to kiss the back of Mikasa's hand. He quietly bid goodnight to both of them and made his way back upstairs to the bedroom.

Mikasa watched Levi walk toward the stairs to go back to sleep.

Mikasa and Eren remained in the kitchen catching up on their lives. It seemed the interruption caused by Levi's coughing fit had ruined the momentum in Eren's story and he had lost the nerve to keep on speaking about his encounter.

"Hey Mika, do you mind if I stay the night? For some reason sleeping here always manages to calm me down and settle my thoughts."

"This has absolutely nothing to do with my awesome Belgian waffles does it?" teased Mikasa.

Eren gave one of his infamous big grins, "not at all. That just happens to be a bonus." Mikasa chuckled and then asked him to follow her upstairs. She took him to the guestroom and left him to get comfortable while she went to get him more blankets.

"Here Eren, this part of the house tends to get colder so I got you some extra blankets. " When Eren made no sign of acknowledgement she proceeded to sit in front of him and pass a hand over his eyes, "Eren, I know you really wanted Levi's input about how to fix the horrible first impression you gave this girl but you can talk to me too. Don't forget that at one point I was on the other end and Levi was the jerk that was yelling and being and ass;" she finished with a smile.

"Thanks Mika. It's just that I've never felt this way before." He sighed and put his head on his hands. "I've never believed in the notion of so love at first sight or anything but when I first saw her… I can't even describe it. I just had this feeling that I needed to speak to her or I would regret it for the rest of my life."

"Well, you had to have had exchanged phone numbers for the repairs on your cars right?"

"Right."

"Then there you have it. Give her a call and ask to meet her and her brother so that you can offer a formal apology and start all over." Eren opened his mouth to protest but Mikasa lifted her hand to stop him, "I know it won't be easy at first. She might even refuse but really try to convey how sorry you are. I'm telling you from experience. Levi had to work a lot because not only did he make a bad first impression, he also managed to bugger up our second meeting."

Eren looked mildly curious at this, "did this second meeting happen to take place at the gym you used to go to?"

"Yeah! It was the most awkward way to try to approach me. I honestly thought he was a creep because he kept staring at me and when he actually stood up to talk to me he said to me was 'Is your tank top felt?' and before I could even answer he finished with 'Would you like it to be?' You know I don't like being approached while I work out, period. But no apology for yelling at me and then that line? It's a good thing Sasha was there to hold me back or I would've slapped him."

By this point Eren was laughing so hard he had tears running down his cheeks, " I can't believe he actually did it."

"What do you mean? Did you have something to do with it?" asked Mikasa with an angry glare but it was futile as Eren was still laughing and it didn't look like he was ready to stop anytime soon. "Eren!" she finally yelled as she smacked him repeatedly on his arm.

"Ow! Ok, stop it! Do you remember the day you first met him?"

"Yeah."

"Well he was the guest lecturer in my class that day. I guess he was still reeling from the encounter with you because he was brutal with us. Anyway he caught a glimpse of you when you came to drop off my textbook and he asked me if I was your boyfriend. Once I let him know that I wasn't he mentioned the incident earlier and asked for my help so he could apologize to you."

"And instead of being a decent human being you told him to stalk me at the gym and hit me with a pickup line?"

"Well it was my way of getting back at him for being an ass in the lecture. I never actually thought he would do it… or that you would end up marrying him for that matter."

"I knew Levi couldn't have possibly come up with that on his own once we actually sat down to talk civilly. I mean he can be crass and somewhat socially inept but that was just pathetic."

"What made you give him a chance?"

Mikasa remained quiet for a few moments, " I honestly don't know. After that day at the gym I didn't even think I would see him again and then two months later we bumped into each other at the supermarket." At this point Mikasa got a faraway look in her eyes and a tender smile (one that is only ever for Levi). She chuckled lightly, "he was so nervous once he saw me and apologized profusely for everything."

"So there was no monumental gesture or declaration of love?" Eren asked incredulously.

Mikasa snorted, "of course not. That only happens in movies. Also, it's not like Levi. The reason I ended up accepting his invitation for coffee was because he was genuine. I liked what I could see of his personality and decided it was worth getting to know him;" she finished with a smile.

Eren pondered this for a few seconds, "do you think I have a shot with Annie if I apologize and I act like myself around her?"

"I don't see why not," encouraged Mikasa, "well I'm off to bed. Good night Eren." Mikasa then got up from the bed and started making her way to the door.

"Night Mika."

Mikasa stopped just as she was about to exit the room, "hey Eren, where did you say you met Annie and her brother?"

"Outside of work, by that place you go to take your krav maga classes. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I had just forgotten. Sleep is already getting to me. Sleep well." Mikasa then closed the door and made her way to her bedroom to join Levi.

She slowly opened the bedroom door and tried to be as quiet as possible. She found Levi curled up on his side facing the window. She smiled lightly and slowly laid down trying not to wake him. She was suddenly startled when Levi's armed grabbed her from her waist and pulled her towards him, "Oh, I thought you were already asleep."

Levi grumbled and buried his face in Mikasa's neck, "You know Chibi; I just heard the most interesting story from Eren." Levi just grunted in response and looked up at her in annoyance. "Aren't you curious?"

"I'm not interested in the particulars of his love life or his weird love-hate friendship with Horse-face."

"Actually he told me the story of how you went to him for advise on how to approach me."

Levi blushed hard at this, "damn brat, I didn't kick his ass last time because it ended up working out in my favor but I won't be generous this time."

Mikasa laughed and pecked his nose, "not to worry. I already have the perfect way of getting back at him." Levi raised his eyebrow, "he crashed into Berthold's car. He's been picking up Annie from the krav maga studio since her car's at the shop for repairs."

"Leonhart? She's the girl he was talking about?" asked Levi incredulously.

"Yup, I'm meeting her for lunch to discuss ideas for the marketing campaign we're launching for her studio. I'll be sure to ask her to make Eren work hard to get on her good graces."

Levi chucked and gave her a light kiss, "I knew marrying you was the best thing I could've done for myself."

"Well, nobody is allowed to mess with my chibi but me."

"Oi brat don't call me that!"