A/N: Written for usapin for the Rivetra Valentine's Day exchange (2014) on tumblr.
When Levi pushes open the door to the dining hall, he is greeted not by the robust aroma of freshly brewed coffee he has come to expect but something richer and sweeter, a thick and smooth and creamy scent that lingers in the air.
"What's that?" he wants to know as he approaches the table, footsteps silent. Auruo jumps a little and swears and Erd chuckles, earning himself a glare.
Petra stands up, reaching for the pot of not-coffee and a clean cup by her side. "Good morning, captain! Would you like some hot chocolate?"
"Some what?"
"Hot chocolate," she says. "My father used to make it all the time during the winter. Since we have the day off today I thought we could drink it."
Instead of coffee are the unspoken words—Levi can't remember the last time he had a non-caffeinated beverage first thing in the morning, and judging from the way the other members of his squad are inhaling their drinks, they must feel the same way.
He supposes he can do without caffeine for a while—it is break. He nods as he sits down and Petra beams, smile twitching wider as she pours him a cup, filling it to the brim with the sweet dark liquid.
She pushes it across the table at him and he takes it; her fingers ghost across his for a moment and he tries not to wonder why the warmth of her skin affects him more than the temperature of the heated ceramic.
"It's good, captain!" Auruo says, setting his own mug down and wiping his mouth with a napkin. "You'll like it."
"Of course," Gunter agrees. "Petra made it."
Levi eyes him for a moment, wondering if there is more to that comment than first appears, but Petra is watching him expectantly so he raises his cup to his lips and takes a sip.
And tries not to choke as his mouth is flooded with one of the sweetest things he has ever tasted—rich and milky and bursting with cocoa flavor, the hot chocolate must have far more sugar than that one piece of dark chocolate he ate three months ago when offered it by Hanji. Levi likes to think of himself as not picky at all when it comes to food—he nearly starved to death several times during his childhood; he finds it difficult to turn his nose up at anything edible because chances are whatever it is, it's far more edible than some of the things he ate to survive as a boy—but there is so much sugar and flavor and who-knows-what-else in that creamy liquid he has a hard time swallowing it down.
"It's very… sweet," he says, setting the cup down and thinking about the taste in his mouth. It's not unpleasant, but as someone used to drinking black coffee every day, he can't really say he likes it.
"I didn't add any extra sugar," Petra says, looking at him curiously. "How is it, captain?"
Disgusting, he thinks, though that's not completely true. Strange, he wants to say, but that sounds like an insult and for some reason the idea of insulting her is slightly upsetting. "Interesting," he finally answers, and to prove his point, he takes another sip.
He must not be as good at hiding his feelings as he thinks though, because Petra never makes it when he is around again.
Levi completely forgets about the incident until one day, as he is walking through a marketplace in Sina, killing time until Erwin's meetings end, he sees a candy shop.
He pauses to look in—baskets of brightly-wrapped sweets and shiny boxes adorn the window display, surrounded by colorful signs announcing low prices and guaranteed satisfaction. A particular box with clear wrapping catches his eye; it is filled with gold foil-wrapped bars of what he thinks must be chocolate. He stares at it for a moment, something like a faint memory flashes in the back of his mind, and next thing he knows he is walking into the shop, the bell above the door jingling when he enters.
"How can I help you?" asks the shopkeeper, a woman roughly his age with light brown hair and a kind smile. She steps out from behind the counter, and Levi points to the box in the display.
"What is that?"
"Twenty-four bars of Sina's finest milk chocolate for a very reasonable price. Handmade and each bar wrapped individually, it's a favorite with the Military Police, I've heard."
She goes on to talk more about its attributes but Levi tunes her out as he doesn't understand what makes chocolate good and he doesn't particularly care about what she has to say. "I'll take a box," he says, cutting her off mid-ramble, and she blinks for a moment before nodding.
"Would you like it specially wrapped?"
He must look confused because she elaborates. "Is this for a special someone, perhaps? A particular young lady you might wish to impress?"
Levi thinks of Petra's quick wit and undeniable skill and how she doesn't take shit from anyone, not even him, and does not reply. Perhaps his glare becomes more pronounced though because the woman laughs a little as she goes to fetch him a box.
It is more expensive than he expected—in her spiel, she conveniently did not mention the exact price—but Levi has plenty of coins to spare, and he pays without much fuss. It isn't until later that night, as he sits on his bed in the hotel and considers the box of chocolate he bought lying on his suitcase, that he has time to wonder what the fuck he's actually doing.
The box would probably stay on the top shelf of his closet beneath a few folded shirts for the rest of the year if it weren't for the next day off they have, only two weeks later—Erd, Auruo, and Gunter have all taken the day to visit their families, but Petra decided not to. "My father's having dinner with a merchant that night and might sign an important business deal," she explained. "I'll just stay back and relax; I can always find something to do."
So when Levi heads downstairs that morning, the sun barely warming the sky outside, he expects her to still be in bed—he can leave the chocolate on her seat or something and then maybe he'll come up with some shitty excuse as to how it got there—
"Captain, you're up!" She opens the door to the dining hall before his hand reaches the knob, standing before him with a cup of hot tea and a cheerful smile. "Breakfast is ready and—" Her eyes fall on the box dangling from his fingers (he doesn't know why but he feels obligated to hold it like he wants it as far away from him as possible) and stay there. "What is that?"
All the shitty excuses he tried to prepare flee from his mind and he shoves the box into her free hand. "Here."
She returns to the table in the center of the dining room, setting her cup down, and he walks after her. She gently turns the box over and sees the foil-wrapped bars, reads the small print on the side. "This is… chocolate? For me?"
"I found it," he says, crossing his arms and not looking at her. "I thought… you made hot chocolate once and…"
She looks genuinely bewildered but nods anyway, her fingertips tracing the sides of the box. "This is… I mean… thank you, captain."
"For fuck's sake, Petra," he says, glad of the chance for a subject change. "No one's around."
A little grin breaks out over her face as she starts unwrapping the box, pulling out three gold-wrapped bars of chocolate. "Thanks, Levi."
He watches as she heads for the kitchen, leaving her cup of tea and half-eaten breakfast on the table. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to make hot chocolate." She cocks her head at the door and raises her eyebrows at him. "Want to come?"
He follows her inside, where she sets the bars down on the counter before standing on her tiptoes to search through the cupboards overhead. Levi scratches the back of his neck, feeling rather useless as she gathers ingredients, humming a tuneless little ditty that would probably annoy him if it were coming from anyone else's mouth.
"You want to help?"
Not really, he thinks, but Petra is looking at him expectantly, a bottle of milk in one hand and a whisk in the other, and he finds himself shrugging in half-acquiescence.
"I'm going to heat the milk in a saucepan," she says. "You can start melting the butter in another pan and adding the chocolate."
She turns on the stove as he takes a knife, gingerly slicing a stick of butter in half. All his previous attempts at making anything in the kitchen ended in failure or at least resulted in something very disgusting that could hardly be considered edible, and it would probably be best if he didn't attempt this, really, but—
"Not that much butter, Levi," Petra says, and from the amusement coloring her tone and the quick cough she lets out, he can tell she is stifling laughter. "Here, let me."
She leans over, her hand covering his and her orange-gold hair overtaking his vision for a moment, and he tries not to breathe in too much of her sweet scent. She takes the knife and the butter away from him and nods at the chocolate bars. "Break those into little pieces?"
It occurs to him that she's ordering him around, somewhat, but he realizes he doesn't care. Wordlessly he turns to grab the chocolate bars, the crinkling of the foil wrapping and the quiet hum of the stove the only sounds in the small kitchen.
In the end he doesn't do much; it is Petra who melts the butter and the chocolate, heats the milk, and whisks everything together. Her hands are sure and purposeful, movements precise and measured, and he wonders why as humanity's strongest soldier he is so adept at wielding blades but he can't even handle kitchen implements.
She lets the mixture slowly heat on the stove, leaning back against the kitchen counter and staring off into space as the rich, creamy aroma of chocolate fills the room. It is silent but comfortable—Levi doesn't feel the need to say anything, to break the quiet with an inevitably shitty joke or unnecessary comment.
His eyes eventually stray to Petra—she is smiling to herself, fingers tapping against her leg and eyes sparkling as if recalling a secret joke. He wants to know what it is but he bites back the urge to ask; he's being stupid again, he's being foolish and ridiculous and none of this was a good idea, really; he should just leave now while he can still salvage some of his dignity because what the fuck is he doing making hot chocolate—
"This is good," she says, interrupting his thoughts; she is holding a large wooden spoon to her mouth and taking careful sips. "The chocolate you bought is excellent quality, so it doesn't need anything extra, and it's not too sweet. Do you want to try some?"
The slight curve of her throat bobbing as she speaks distracts him enough that it takes him a few more seconds to process what she said. "No, I don't like—oh—that I bought—"
She giggles as she scoops another spoonful of the liquid. "Come on, Levi. You found it? And the price tag is still on it."
Before he can respond or even think, she tilts her head back, swallowing the last few drops of the drink on her spoon, then licks the excess chocolate off her lips. His mouth goes dry and she smirks at him, very deliberately, and it occurs to him she's doing this on purpose.
"Really, Levi," she says, "do you think I'm stupid?" She missed a spot; there is still a small smear of chocolate on the corner of her mouth. She shakes her head but her voice is only faintly exasperated as she continues, "I'm not that—"
She is cut off by his thumb on the edge of her lips, brushing the bit of chocolate she missed away. He opens his mouth to say something—what, he's not really sure—but before he figures it out she rolls her eyes, leans forward to put her hands on either side of his neck, and kisses him.
His palm instantly comes up to cup her cheek as he kisses back, fingers curling against the side of her head. She leans back against the counter, pulling him with her, and runs her fingers through his hair; her lips are soft, the inside of her mouth warm and sweet, and he can taste the scent of cocoa on her tongue; and he thinks maybe he does like chocolate after all.
Happy (late) Valentine's Day, all!