Was this real? Had Levi really just said that? To me? No, he was asleep. He was dreaming, right? But he had said my name. My name, it had been paired with a love confession. It was the acknowledgment of an emotion we used to share for one another. This couldn't be right. Hange had said that Levi had no recollection of the past. But maybe...this was something that even Hange didn't know about.

I'd discuss it with him in the morning.

Pulling my wings back, I tried to block out the idea of Levi having ever said such a thing. I felt happy and I felt blessed, but a much larger portion of my conscious mind was telling me to be wary of this incident. I needn't walk on eggshells, but I didn't have to explain to Levi what he had said, either. I needed to play it cool, but God, I needed to get some sleep.

Sleeping as an angel really was different from sleeping as a human. Not just the position, but the actual act of it, too. I don't know why I hadn't realized it already, it wasn't like this was my first time falling asleep (it was my second), but it almost felt like an overwhelming sensation of warmth had started taking over my body. It reminded me of the secure incubation I had felt within my egg, and now that I had the chance to appreciate it, I really liked it. I was asleep within minutes.

A sudden sound that had I remembered all to well awoke me, some odd number of hours later. I guess annoying alarm clocks are pretty common, then again, I don't think there's such a thing as a "pleasant" alarm clock, either. It was with a yawn and a stretch that my wings parted lazily, revealing my hunched over form. What time was it anyway? Levi had mentioned something about sleeping in, but it still seemed early to me. I took a peek over the small mound of covers that I assumed to be Levi and looked at the clock. Displayed in bright red, cubic numbers, I read 12:01 PM.

My wings began to flap anxiously. Did we sleep in too late? And why did it feel like it was still so early? Assessing my surroundings, I think it might have had something to do with that fact that Levi owned blackout curtains. How he ever had the energy to wake up with those things eluded me.

"Hey, Levi?" I said softly, doing my best not to disturb him. If not my voice, the loud beeping of his alarm clock surely would.

A horribly guttural sound, starting in his throat and resting on his tongue, passed through Levi's lips, as his arm shot out from underneath the sheets and slammed the snooze button. Wow, if only my alarm clock had had one of those. It would have been much appreciated on the mornings that I'd spent messing around with the stupid thing.

"What?" Oh, he was talking to me.

Climbing off the edge of the bed, I straightened out my angelic garb and rattled my brain for words. "Oh, I...I just thought that we should probably wake up now. I think we've slept late enough, haven't we? And you must be hungry, right? It's important you eat a well-balanced meal, you know, and you've already missed breakfast, so-"

"Eren," he interrupted me. His voice was deep and scratchy, more than definitely a factor from his rest. Before he had the chance to say anything else, I was already apologizing.

"I'm really sorry! These words, they come out before I can stop them, and-"

"Eren," he'd interrupted me again. I let him speak this time.

"Um, yes?"

I heard him yawn, as he crawled out from under the covers and sat up. He raked his fingers through his hair, and turned his head to look directly at me. Like an idiot, I immediately stiffened.

"What is it?" I asked nervously.

I'm pretty sure Levi could sense my unease, for he dropped whatever it was that he was going to say and picked up something else. "Let's get dressed," he suggested. "I have work in an hour."

All of my worries seemed to subside, when I found myself getting very excited. Levi's workplace was still a mystery to me, and he'd planned on keeping it that way until I found out where it was for myself. I desperately hoped that he wasn't involved in any kind of shady business, though. He really needn't rehash his past life as a thug.

I watched him climb out of his bed and fix the covers, pulling them tight at the ends to give the appearance of neatness. After he fluffed up his pillows, he took a quick look at himself in the mirror that was connected to his bureau and scoffed. "You'd think I slept in a tornado," he muttered under his breath. I tried not to laugh, but I had to admit that he was right. His nightwear was disheveled, and his hair was an absolute catastrophe.

"I'm sure if you use some of the jelly stuff that you have on your bureau, you'll be able to fix your hair," I smiled. "It looks quite expensive."

"Mm, not really," he sighed, opening a drawer that contained some shirts, most of which were deep greys or earthy colors. "That stuff is only good for styling. If I want to fix this rat's nest, I'll have to take another shower. Ugh, I should probably do that first."

We were in the bathroom, and as Levi conditioned his hair, I found myself staring into the mirror again. I wasn't trying to be vain, but I couldn't help myself from being amazed. It was like being an angel gave you an instant ticket to beauty.

Hearing Levi curse snapped me out of my daze. Within the blink of an eye, I was alert and asking, "What's the matter?"

"Nah, it's nothing," he replied, but I could tell from his hesitance that he was hiding something.

"No, you have to tell me," I said, sounding stern enough for him to give in.

Groaning, he contemplated his response, before saying, "...I cut my leg."

"...You did what?" How could he have done that? I had originally thought that he was only going to wash his hair. In retrospect, he shouldn't have even been doing anything to his legs. Wait, what was he doing to his legs?

I heard another groan. "I cut my leg," he repeated irritably.

"But how?" I asked in just the same way.

"By...shaving?"

"What?!" I gasped. "Why are you shaving your legs? You're a guy! You don't have to do that!"

"First of all, not true. I can do whatever I want. And secondly, I hate body hair. I shave under my arms, too."

I hadn't meant to sound so judgmental, and he had a point. He could do whatever he pleased. The initial idea of it was just a bit odd to me. He cussed again.

"Hey, are you even using shaving cream?" I wondered.

He answered with the negatory. "I ran out, and I haven't had the chance to stop by the store yet. I'm using body wash."

"Well, that won't do," I spoke sympathetically.

"No, it won't," he agreed, "but there's nothing I can do about it."

Stepping closer to the shower, I folded my hands together and rocked on my heels out of habit. "Can I see your leg?" I questioned, trying to sound as innocent as I could manage.

Levi must have been confused, but he didn't seem to show it as he obliged my request. He pulled the shower curtain back, and it was just enough so that he could prop his foot up on the side of the tub. It was pretty cool how their shower served as both.

Looking at the side of his calve, I was able to see the two cuts he had made. They weren't too bad, but they still caused my sides to itch. I didn't want them there, not on his body. I wanted them gone.

I'm guessing Levi could see the discontent in my eyes, because he withdrew his leg and continued shaving. "Look," he spoke, quickly grabbing my attention, "I don't know too much about guardian angels and all that jazz, I only know the things that you've told me about them, but my guess is that once the damage is done, nothing can erase it, right? I mean, that's just life."

I shrugged at first, but then I nodded. "I think you're right. My job is protect you so that a harmful action does not take place. But once it does..."

He turned off the shower. "But once it does," he repeated, "there's nothing you can do about it."

After he'd stepped out and grabbed for this towel, Levi applied some aftershave to his leg. It was ironic to me how he had that, but not any actual shaving cream. Whatever the case, he need to get dressed, so we made our way back to his bedroom. Again, he offered me a change of clothes.

"Maybe we can figure something out, when you get off from work," I said. "I wouldn't want you to be late, or anything like that."

Scoffing, Levi pulled a grey v-neck over his head. "Arriving fashionably late is my whole shtick. It's gets my boss pretty ticked, but whatever. She can deal with it. She's such a dictator."

I sat on the edge of his bed. "You use that word a lot," I noticed.

"What do you mean?" He pulled his arms through his sleeves. "What word?"

"Dictator. You use it a lot. You used it just yesterday to describe Erwin's parents. Speaking of Erwin, where is he? And Hange?" I was mostly curious about Hange. I still wanted to talk to him and tell him about what had happened last night.

Levi seemed impressed, as he responded, "You're right, I did. Huh. Well, whatever. I only use it, when it's true. You'll see what I mean. As for Erwin, he's at school. He had that Psychology test, remember? And Hange, he's probably at the pet store. His hours are all messed up, so I can never tell for sure."

That was a bummer. I'd have to figure out a way to explain it to him later.

Shimmying into a pair of denim skinny jeans that he'd grabbed from his closet, Levi walked back over to his bureau and reached for his comb and his hair product.

"Are you planning on styling it?" I asked.

"That is the plan," he said. Dipping his index and his middle fingers into the paste, he began to tease his hair with the comb and work out all of the matts. He seemed experienced, what with the way his hair obeyed his every stroke and command. It made me a bit envious. As a human, my hair had been nothing short of average in both style and color, but with Levi, it was like his hair was Cinderella and he was its fairy godmother.

I hadn't realized that I had been staring, until he said, "Eren, you're staring."

"Oh, was I?" I smiled, trying to play off my embarrassment. He rested his hand against his hip. I assumed it as my cue to continue. "Well, I, it's just that your hair looks really nice like that. You look really cool."

"You think?" I couldn't tell if he was being modest or sarcastic. Something in the way that he'd raised his eyebrow and quirked the corner of his lip leaned my judgement toward the latter. "Well, you know. Gotta look presentable. By the way, are your wings alright?"

At that, I tilted my head slightly. "What?"

"Your wings. You fell on them in the bathroom last night. Are they okay?"

It was touching that he cared for my well-being. That was supposed to be my job. Whatever. We were still getting used to our roles anyway.

"Yeah, they're fine," I answered. Flapping them back and forth with ease, I attempted to prove myself to him. "See?"

Levi nodded and turned to grab something else from his closet. He pulled out a jacket that sported faux leather sleeves. Since when had he become so fashion forward? Just yesterday, he was wearing a sweatshirt. When he'd said that he needed to look presentable for his job, he really wasn't kidding. Now, I was all but brimming with excitement. I wanted to know where he worked.

Down the hall, Levi picked up a ring of his keys and stuffed them into his pocket. Before we left, he shot me an over-the-shoulder glance. "While we're in public," he began, shoving his feet into his boots, "try to keep talking to a minimum. I don't want people to think that I'm talking to myself."

I understood where he was coming from, and with a childish motion of my hand, I locked my lips and threw away the key. My act hadn't gone without comment.

"Adorable," he snickered. "Let's go."

Levi walked below, as I flew from above. It felt wonderful to stretch out my wings and coast through the air in flight. I didn't want to show off or anything, but I'd even gone as far as preforming a few twists and twirls. It left me with a deflated ego, when I'd realized that Levi hadn't been looking. I'd come to the conclusion that maybe I had been trying to strut my stuff, if only just a little bit.

Speaking of strutting some stuff, that's exactly what Levi was doing. Walking down the pavement in a manner that was much unlike the way he had been last night - not just last night, but this morning, too - he held a certain sense about him, an aura that read, "Step aside, I'm coming through." With his hands in his pockets and his chin held high, I had to say, he resembled a runway model.

I was still unable to tell where we were going, and our surroundings weren't very helpful to me, either. If I'd had a watch, I would have been checking it a billion times, because I was pretty sure that we were late. Levi had mentioned something earlier about it being his trademark to arrive past clock-in, but I could tell from the way he'd picked up his gait that he had been full of it.

We passed small business after small business, and I had to admit that I was getting pretty antsy. I couldn't picture Levi working in any of these places. Papa Pete's Pastries? Red Ralph's Recycling? Anabelle's Antiques? None of them sounded right. None of them seemed to fit. However, within three, carefully timed strides, Levi was turning the corner and entering a side shop. What was it? I hadn't managed to catch the name.

I landed to my feet as gracefully as I possibly could, which meant that it hadn't been graceful at all. I'd nearly toppled over, but bless those lumps of feathers, my wings had saved me again. It felt silly, but I almost wanted to thank them. They always seemed to be looking out for me. Although, at the moment, I had a much more serious matter to attend to: Levi.

"What's up, girls?" Wait, what? What? In all of my days, in all of my lifetimes, I had never heard, nor could I have ever imagined, something so unmistakably flamboyant coming from Levi's lips. His hair, his clothes, his strut, all of it had been mere build-up to what he had just unleashed a few seconds ago. Just, what the heck was going on?

"Ugh, Levi!" I heard a woman's voice whine. "Where have you been? I scheduled an appointment for one o' clock, and it's already quarter past!"

"Oh, Donna," Levi chuckled, he chuckled, "you should know by now that I never kiss and tell. Forget tipping me, and we'll call it even. Now put down that tabloid trash and have a seat."

I was in a daze, as I looked all around me. A magazine rack resting by the door, coat hooks perched on the wall for customers' convenience, and the scent of hair dye mixed with shampoo was almost sickening. For the love of God, Levi worked in a beauty salon.

I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, but most of all, I wanted answers. How did Levi, humanity's strongest and most feared soldier, get hired at a beauty salon? A beauty salon!

'Well, you know. Gotta look presentable.'

Yeah, if that wasn't the truth, I didn't know what was. Just a little over an hour ago, I had been staring into the face of absolute death upon his awakening. Now, Levi was laughing and smiling, sashaying his way over to a spinning chair that I'm sure he intended to be for his customer. He instructed her to take her seat.

"So, what are we doing today, Donna?" he asked, his fingers aimlessly roaming through her hair. "Your usual two inches, or something more exotic?"

"My usual," she responded with a sigh. "I have a business meeting tomorrow, so I can't mess around. Maybe another time."

"Aw, that's no fun," Levi said, reaching for a styling comb. "You should branch out a bit. I mean, come on. It's the same thing again and again, every six weeks!"

Donna seemed to rethink her original answer. It was in that small pause of conversation that he'd looked over at me. I wanted to smile, or do something, anything to acknowledge his gaze, but I just stood there like a statue. He smirked. I felt stupid.

"I don't know, Levi," she finally said. "What do you think?"

"Well, that depends," he answered, twirling one of his fingers around a particularly long strand of her hair. "Do you trust my judgement?"

"Of course!" She'd said it a bit too quickly. "Of course, it's just, I don't want it to look too..."

"Bold? Daring? Intrepid?" Wow, Levi had a way with adjectives.

"Yes, exactly!" She rested her hands against her lap. "Maybe I do want something different, but I still want my style to be reserved and business-like. Do you think you can do that?"

Levi rose an eyebrow, as he looked into the mirror before the both of them. "Darling, I can do anything. And trust me, you're going to love it, when I'm done."

The fact that this Donna person was all but swooning, because of Levi's response, made me want to rush over there and reclaim what was rightfully mine. Levi was mine. I wouldn't let anyone else...wait, was I alright? Was I insane? Yes, Levi was mine, but in a much different sense. He was mine to protect and to guard, but he wasn't mine by the definition of humans. In that sort of standard, I didn't even know what we were.

The sound of blades slicing hair caused me to look up, and when I did, my eyes widened a great deal. Levi had literally just chopped off a good five inches from that woman's hair. What used to be a past-the-shoulder style was now making headway into becoming a pixie cut. That's what they called it, right? I'd have to ask Levi later.

I didn't know if it was customary for Levi to do this will all of his customers, or if Donna was just a special case, but he had turned her chair around so that she wasn't facing the mirror. The whole spin around and getting a surprise thing was kind of cool, but what if the person didn't like it? There was no such thing as do-overs when cutting hair. Again, I'd have to ask Levi about that later.

The time seemed to fly by, as Levi continued to snip and snap away. About thirty minutes later, he was ready for the big reveal. "Donna, are you ready?" he asked, reaching over the back of the chair to massage her shoulders.

"Yeah, I think I am." There was a shake in her voice. I could tell she was nervous.

Levi released his hands from her shoulders and grabbed onto the arms of the chair. "Okay, I'm going to spin you around now."

It was with a slow and suspenseful twirl that Levi had brought her back into the proper position. In a flash, her hands were covering her mouth and tears were bubbling at her eyelids.

Personally, I would have been scared out of my mind that I'd done something wrong, but Levi was as calm as ever. "Now, tell me," he said softly, "do you love it, or do you love it?"

She must have been unable to form words, because all Donna did was nod her head. Turning around, she jumped from the chair and gave Levi a big hug. My jealously was on the rise, yet again.

"Oh, Levi," she sobbed, "it's perfect! It's absolutely perfect! It still looks reserved, but it's something new, and God, I love it so much!"

He must of got that a lot, I thought, or maybe he didn't. Maybe this woman was overly dramatic. I'd have a lot of things to ask him later tonight.

"Of course you love it," Levi responded arrogantly. "Pixie bobs are all the rage these days. Now, seriously, will you ever question my talent for these kinds of things ever again?"

She shook her head. She shook it so fast that her new hairdo flopped about, hitting against her face.

"Good," Levi smirked. "Now pay me, because I did a good job."

He walked her to the cash register. I stepped out of the way, as they passed, which was something that I really didn't have to do, but was a habit that I knew would die hard. Donna would have walked right through me, just like everyone else who wasn't Levi.

That got me thinking for a second. Levi and I...we'd only had one act of any sort of physical contact with one another. This woman, she'd had at least three.

After Levi stuffed the money into the cash register and accepted his tip - the one that he'd said for Donna not to give, but expected anyway - he waved her off and grabbed a nearby broom to begin sweeping up her hair. I followed him.

A few women were still tending to their costumers, and it was with that piece of knowledge that it'd become very obvious to me that Levi was the only male employee that worked there. I wanted to comment on that.

"It must be weird," I said. I stepped out of his way, as he swept next to my feet.

It was a non-verbal response, but a response nonetheless. If for only just a second, he'd looked at me.

"Weird, I mean, because you're the only guy that works here." He shrugged. I stopped talking, for the time being.

When he was finished cleaning up the floor around his area, Levi meticulously straightened out his combs and his brushes. He seemed very focused in what he was doing, but I was more than a bit restless from my lack of answers.

"So, you cut people's hair," I stated, finding it to be an easy enough conversation starter, as well as ender.

Levi used one of the combs he had been arranging to poke a small piece of paper on the corner of his tray. It resembled a business card, but was clearly handmade. I read it aloud.

"Cosmetologist?" I said questioningly. "What the-?"

He cut me off by tapping the bottom of the paper. I continued to read it.

"Hair stylist and..." No way. No, there was no way. Not Levi, no. "...Make-up artist?"

Nonchalantly waving his comb around like a little flag of victory, he went back to rearranging his tray.

This was crazy. Levi, the Levi, working as both a hair stylist and a make-up artist. This beauty salon really had it all, didn't it? It was my guess that there must have been some back room of sorts that hosted all of the make-up and beautifying products.

"Hey, where is she?" Levi asked. He wasn't talking to me.

"She's in the back room with a bride-to-be," one of Levi's co-workers responded. "She's been in there for over an hour now, so I'm almost positive that she's finishing up. Oh, look. Speak of the devil."

And speak of the devil indeed.

Flaming red stilettos clacked against the linoleum, as a woman dressed in clothing as black as her hair came strutting into view. Wrapped around her neck in a cross knot was a scarf to match her lips, which were also kissably rouge. It wasn't until I'd caught her gaze that we were both taken by the sight of one another. I was at a loss of all words, but one.

"...Mikasa?"


Hi there! Chappy here! :D

Another cliffhanger to start off your weekends! You're welcome. (:

Now, there's something that I really would like to mention. In the previous chapter, I had made a major slip-up. I am so grateful to the one reader who caught it and commented about it, because it is seriously a major part of the story!

In Chapter 6, I had written that Hange not only touched Eren's shoulder, but his waist, as well. Obviously, he shouldn't have been able to do that! The chapter is edited and fixed now, but please remember that it was a big mistake on my part and that Levi is the only one who can touch/be touched by Eren.

On that note, I hope you've enjoyed! (:

- Chappy