"I know you're a fan of the whole shut-in thing and it has it's own appeal," Erwin said, walking way too briskly with his long, long legs. "I mean, you get to avoid people, which I know you love doing, but I'm still surprised you've never been to Café Maria. It's quiet, reclusive, and has great coffee. Doesn't that suit you perfectly?" He shot Levi a broad grin and the short man scowled at him. Most girls would have swooned if Erwin smiled at them but Levi only felt annoyed.

"I don't like coffee," Levi responded, fixing the strap on his messenger bag so it would quite digging into his shoulder.

Erwin raised an eyebrow. "Really? You?"

Levi shrugged. "I don't need anymore bitterness in my life," he said simply, following his friend's quick strides. "Here's a better question: Why am I even going?"

Erwin held the door open for Levi and Levi was hit with the overwhelming scent of roasted coffee beans, something he wasn't particularly fond of because of the bitter liquid it produced. "Free wifi?" Erwin guessed. He followed closely behind Levi, ticking off his fingers as he listed out reasons. "The ambiance, the good customer service, the lack of people. Take your pick. I'm also paying for your coffee so that might be why." He waved at a ginger-haired girl in a green apron walking briskly past them, a pair of wings stitched to her chest.

She smiled brightly at him after handing orders to two customers sitting at a table nearby. The girl brushed her hands off on her apron and walked up to Erwin and Levi. "Hi, Erwin! It's always nice to see you drop by," she said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. She looked at Levi and tilted her head curiously. "I don't think I've met you before though…?"

"Levi," he answered.

"Levi," she repeated and smiled at him, dimples appearing in her cheeks, and the first thought that appears in his head is, goddammit, she's cute. "I'm Petra. It's nice to meet you." She offered a hand out to him and he took it, surprised at how nice and warm her hand is, how strong and firm her grip is.
"I brought him here because he's been grumbling about how noisy it is in the library on campus," Erwin chuckled. "And also because he hates coffee. Who better to get him to like it than you?"

Petra beamed the tall blonde before turning to Levi. "Don't worry! You definitely came to the right place! And I know exactly what to make for you two." She hurried off behind the counter, giving them half a wave before she disappeared to make their coffee.

Levi raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't she supposed to take our orders first?"

Erwin shrugged. "They never take orders here," he replied, leading Levi to some empty seats at the counter. He sat down easily, resting his arm on the countertop. "You just walk in and they'll have your order ready in a couple of minutes."

He sat next to Erwin, a skeptical look on his face. "But how do they know if that's what you want."

"It's not about what you want," another voice answered. Levi and Erwin looked up to see Petra, two steaming drinks in her hands. "It's about what you need." She placed the beverages on the countertop and pushed them towards Levi and Erwin.

Erwin took the cup and raised it to his lips without hesitation. After taking a sip, he closed his eyes and seemed to be in deep bliss, a content smile on his face. He finally opened his blue eyes and grinned widely at Petra. "Another amazing brew, Petra," he praised, taking another sip. "How do you do it?"

"Magic!" she replied cheerfully.

Erwin chuckled but Levi raised an eyebrow at the strange and somewhat childish reply, but maybe she just wanted to keep her brewing methods a secret.

"Levi?" Erwin said, looking expectantly at the coffee hovering in Levi's hand.

Levi was about to scowl at his friend but realized that Petra was looking at him with apprehension, wondering what he'd think of her drink, and he lifted the drink to his lips tentatively, getting ready for the bitter coffee to scorch his throat. Instead, a pleasantly warm liquid coated his tongue and throat. While it was bitter, it wasn't overwhelmingly so and he found himself quite enjoying the taste. There was a tiny tinge of sweetness nipping at the tip of his tongue but something else too and he closed his eyes to concentrate and figure out what it was. He took another sip, a larger one this time, and let the flavor fill his mouth before he swallowed. It was bitter, sweet, and felt like something. It felt like staying in on a rainy day, the curtains drawn and the lights dim, while he was wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets with Pushing Daisies playing on his laptop. How the fuck did she manage to put that in her coffee? He greedily took another sip and choked on his coffee from drinking it too fast.

Alarmed, Erwin began hitting his friend roughly on the back. (If anything, that made everything much worse and Levi almost stopped choking to tell Erwin that he was an idiot.) "Levi! Are you okay?"

"Fine," Levi spluttered, waving Erwin off.

Petra looked at him, her big, amber eyes filled with concerned. "I'm so sorry," she said, biting her lip. A few employees and customers had begun gawking. "Was it that bad?"

"Did you almost kill a customer because your coffee was so bad?" a cashier snickered.

"Shut up, Auruo!" Petra snapped. She was almost o the verge of tears now.

"No!" Levi almost shouted. Crap, he felt so bad for making her feel bad and making her think that her coffee was shit when in reality it was amazingly fantastic. "I just…It's really, really good. I was surprised at how good it was and drank it too fast." God, now he sounded stupidly but hopefully now she'd understand that it wasn't because she was bad at making coffee.

"Oh," she said, relieved. Her mouth spread into a wide grin and those adorable dimples appeared again. Levi could feel himself fighting off a blush. "Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it."

Erwin rested his chin in his hand and gave Levi a smirk. "Petra's a coffee angel," he said.

Petra rolled her eyes but smiled at the compliment and Levi stared at her. "But, really," he said, remembering how just one sip of the beverage made him feel. Heck, just smelling the earthy aroma right now was beginning to take him back to that comforting feeling. "How do you do it?"

She smiled, giving him a little shrug. "Magic!"

xxx

He came back every day for the next two weeks and, just as Erwin had told him, he would be greeted at the front door and Petra would deliver a perfect caffeinated to him in a few minutes without fail. Each drink would be different. Sometimes a drink would take him back to his childhood, a single sip reminding him of lying in the grass and watching the clouds form figures with his friends Isabel and Farlan beside him. Other times it would be his first kiss, the faint press of lips on his from a nice girl he couldn't quite recall. But each one was different and, strangely enough, exactly what he needed that day.

She often talked to him when she wasn't busy with making orders. He liked the way she tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear before she said something and how the sunlight streaming in the window made her hair look golden when it hit her just right. He soon learned her laugh sounded like bells, soft and tinkling, and that her eyes were the same color as golden amber. While he wasn't a person who liked company very much, he found her presence rather pleasant and always felt a twinge of disappointment whenever she excused herself to go serve a customer. Erwin teased him a couple of times about going back to the café more for Petra than the coffee and Levi would scowl, but the blonde may have been right. After all, he was right about the coffee shop.

When Petra was working, Levi watched Petra as she made orders as he sat from what was now his regular table in the corner of the café. She was always cheerful and bright, greeting everyone that came in by name. She was careful when making her orders, always incredibly focused when she was behind the counter. He noticed that she would hold whatever she made in her hands for a while and close her eyes, her lips moving like she was saying something but he didn't know what. Occasionally she would even do foam art, drawing symbols onto coffee for people, meticulously making sure every stroke was just right. Every customer she served came away happy, no matter what mood they entered the shop in, and he sometimes wondered why Café Maria didn't have more customers.

"How do you do that?" he asked after finishing yet another one of her mystical coffees. He wasn't sure if he was referring to the coffee or the weird pounding in his chest whenever he saw her that she could probably hear because it was so damn loud.

She smiled and, goddamn, there were those adorable dimples again. "I told you before," she laughed. "It's magic."

And this time he almost believed her. Almost.

A/N: I guess writing fics while I'm procrastinating is just a bad habit of mine, hahaha. Well, I hope you enjoyed this. I decided Rivetra needed a magical coffee shop AU so I wrote one. I'll expand more about this with a couple of more chapters but I hope you guys have enjoyed it so far. I don't know when the next update is because I should be working on my other multi-chaptered fics but the latest an update will come will probably be two months.

Reviews are always appreciated so leave one if you have time and thank you!