AN: Hey! So yeah, just popping by here to say it would be awesome if you wrote a review or something so I know how the story is progressing along. I hope I'm not jumping forward to quickly. Also thank you for reading up til this point! I hope you stay with it!
AN: Also... I had a lot of trouble uploading this chapter for some reason so I've decided to also upload chapters on my snk blog on tumblr as a backup. It's tagged as #Fic: Falling with the Rain
We stayed in the courtyard in a strangely peaceful silence for some time after that. How could I respond to such a desperate sounding remark? All I could do was meekly look down at my feet, confused as to why such a seemingly cold man would lower his defenses to me.
Finally Levi dropped his hand from my arm, surprising me, since I had become acquainted with its warmth. He stood up in front of me, looking briefly at his watch before saying, "Come, Eren. People will be coming into the offices soon." With that we departed the courtyard, and once more in silence, made our way to Levi's office. When we got there, he made his way to his desk opened the laptop that was placed on it, and began tapping away at the keyboard.
Unsure of what to do, but definitely not wanting to look out of place like a fool, I sat on the couch in the office and placed my bag beside me. Rummaging through it as I pulled out my laptop I found my cellphone, which was flashing with a number of text and missed call notifications from Armin and Mikasa. Responding briefly to the two, telling them not to worry, I opened my own laptop and stared blankly at the bright home screen, wondering what I should do.
When I finally looked up, my eyes where met by Levi's stern gaze as he stood over me with a large stack of papers in his hands. "Here," he said bluntly as he handed me the papers. I gave him a questioning look as I tentatively took them. " You don't have to worry. It's actual work this time. I want you to read it. Tell me what you think. We might end up publishing it. I have a meeting with Erwin now. I'll be back later." With that he walked back to his desk, grabbed his phone from it, and left.
I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding in. Shit, why did I get so nervous around him? I was glad though. I didn't have to worry about doing some stupid task that amused him. Shaking my head of thoughts of what had just happened less than an hour ago I looked down at the papers. "When I Was With You" was the name of the story. It was a romance? I was taken aback. Levi really didn't seem the type to take on such whimsical assignments and, by the looks of the short description, this story sounded like one sappy teenaged romance. Nonetheless I opened to the first page and started reading.
"You read faster than I expected."
The sudden voice from behind startled me out of the deep concentration I had focused on reading. Turning around quickly I saw that Levi was casually leaning forward against the back of the couch, looking at the page I was holding. "Huh? Oh, I guess so," I replied as I noticed I was over halfway done the rather large pile.
"And?" Levi raised an eyebrow expectantly at me. He was so close I could feel his warm breath brush past my neck, making me even more nervous in his prescience. Dammit! Why was I so damn flustered around him all of a sudden? Was it cause I finally saw that he was human? Or that he confused me even more now?
"And? And what?"
He sighed and pushed himself off the back of the couch so that he was standing straight. "You really are an idiot. What do you think about the manuscript?" I had turned around completely at this point and saw as he rolled his eyes at me.
"Oh!" My eyes widened as I noticed my own pathetic stupidity. "Uh... Yeah. I mean, it needs a lot of work since it seems to be just a rough draft but... The story is... Different from what I expected. I thought it was going to be some cheesy thing, but instead..." My voice trailed off. I didn't know how exactly to describe what I felt towards the story.
"Good." He said quietly to me.
I waited for him to elaborate on his statement but he just moved to his desk and began putting his laptop away in his bag. "Where are you going?" I said suddenly before I could stop myself.
"Home."
"Why?"
"Eren, look outside." I did and saw that the sun had set long ago and the sky was dark. "It's eight. Really you could have left three hours ago."
My eyes widened as I grabbed my phone to see it flashing like crazy again. I briefly read through the texts to find out that Mikasa and Armin had already left without me, assuming that I was immersed in a special assignment or something. "Shit," I said quietly to my self, not noticing that Levi had moved again and was now standing at my side, reading the texts along with me.
"Need a ride?" He asked, jiggling his keys in the air in front of me.
I took in a deep breath as once more he startled me, and just stared at the keys. I didn't know how to respond, so I just stood there for a good minute before finally uttering something. "You know it's an invasion of privacy to look at someone else's texts." God was I stupid.
"Usually when someone offers you something, you don't immediately insult them. Well, if you don't want one I'll just leave." He took the keys out of my face and started for the door.
"Wait! I'm sorry. Yes. Please." I turned around and lifted my hand towards him, as if gesturing him to wait. I really didn't want to have to ride the bus twice in the same day. "Just, let me get my stuff together first." I began throwing my stuff into my bag hastily, not wanting to make him wait too long. He just stood there patiently, watching me with the eyes of a hawk.
"You should probably text your friends back you know," Levi remarked as we left the office and made our way down the hall. "Even if they think your working on some special project, they're still probably worried since you haven't answered any of their messages all day."
"Right," I replied, pulling out my phone and typing out a quick response to the two of them about how I was so immersed in my work that I had lost track of time and would be home soon. I nearly tripped when Levi suddenly stopped in front of one of the few remaining cars in the parking garage.
"I was going to say to wait until you weren't walking. You don't seem like the type who is good at multitasking." I looked up from my phone after the message sent to see Levi pull his car keys out of his pocket and press a button unlocking the doors. It was a silver Audi. I really shouldn't have expected anything less from the Vice President of a major company, but damn was it a nice car.
"Are you going to get in or just continue to gawk at my car?" Levi was standing by the open driver side door.
He took me out of my trance again. Why did this keep happening today? I shook my head and walked over to the passenger side and got in. The inside of the car was just as amazing as the outside. Not to mention it was like serial killer clean to the point were it still had that new car sent. Hell, for all I knew it was a new car. Levi climbed in beside me and started the engine. He didn't switch gears though and just sat there. Then he turned to look at me. "Are you hungry?"
It was then that I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day. "Kinda…" My stomach growled loudly right as I said it. "Okay, yes. Very. Why?"
He switched the gear into reverse and pulled out of the parking space. "Because I'm taking you out to dinner."
