~ Speak Your Dark Pleasures to Me ~

Levi had always thought he would be happy when Hanji started taking better care of herself, but he had failed to consider certain consequences of her being generally well-groomed... namely, that other people would start noticing that she was attractive.

He couldn't help noticing that people tended to stand closer to her now. She received random casual compliments on her appearance from men and women alike and, unused to dealing with such comments, Hanji always brushed them off with an awkward laugh and a change of topic. Levi had to fight to keep himself from telling her to go back to her old disgusting ways.

His temper was short at the best of times, but Levi found himself lashing out more and more lately.

He nearly lost his shit when he arrived at Erwin's office for a strategy meeting only to find the commander leaning over Hanji, telling her, "You smell nice."

A nervous chuckle escaped her, but Hanji did not otherwise attempt to reply.

"I suppose we have Levi to thank for that," Erwin continued with a smile. He laughed at the shocked expression on her face following that pronouncement, and said, "Oh, come on, it's a well-known secret that the two of you are together. No one says anything to you about it out of respect for the fact that you haven't gone public with it."

"Does everyone know?" Hanji croaked out - half horrified, half curious.

"Well, I mean... there are betting pools on everything from when you two will get married to whether your kid's first word will be 'shit' or 'titans'."

Observing this exchange from the doorway, Levi felt the knot of tension in his chest loosen for the first time since this whole ordeal had begun. As the other two burst into laughter, he found himself smirking along with them.

~oOo~

A/N: Is clean!Hanji even a thing? Do other people write this?