"I'll be there in 10 minutes."

Hanji starred at her phone long after Levi hung up. This was another totally unpredictable situation she found herself in. The talk with Eren made her anxious. If his father was murdered despite being a great scientist - and Hanji knew too well how good Dr. Jaeger was; she was using his formula book after all – who could assure her that she won't end up the same?
There was no proof that she wouldn't end up like him. It would even be possible for Levi to kill her this night. However, a part of her denied this scenario at all costs. Yes, he was a criminal, but there was something about him that made her feel safe when she was around him. And this was the oddest thing ever, if you consider how hard he tried to act dangerous.

"Are you going somewhere?" Moblit asked Hanji when he saw her putting on a jacket.

"Umm ... outside," she mumbled.

"At midnight? Hanji what's wrong?" he asked with a worried expression.

"Nothing," the woman answered narrowly. "I just need to go outside."
She hated herself for lying to the person who believed her the most. But she couldn't tell him the truth.

"You're behaving strange in the last days," Moblit said and stepped closer to her. "In addition to that, you've been drinking in the morning and now you're going out at midnight on a Wednesday."
He paused for a second, before asking the question, which's answer he feared the most.
"Are you seeing another guy?"

"God, no," Hanji said, but it didn't come over convincing.
After all, she was exactly doing this.
"I'm not cheating on you," she added desperately.

"Well, what is it then?"

Seeing his hurt expression was heart-breaking and Hanji felt like she would start crying any second.
"I … I can't tell you … I'm sorry," she whispered and ran off.

She could hear Moblit calling her name when the door closed behind her.

/

When Hanji stepped outside, there was a motorbike standing near the sidewalk in front of her apartment building. The driver was sitting on it, his helmet still on his head. He handed a second helmet in Hanji's direction. She took it wordlessly and climbed clumsily behind the driver.

"You look awful," she heard Levi's voice, before he started the engine.

It was the first time for Hanji to sit on a bike. When Levi drove off, she instinctively grabbed on his jacket. She clenched onto him for the whole drive and sent a prayer to heaven that they would arrive soon. To think that he was driving while intoxicated didn't help her to relax at all. Levi drove in direction of the city centre and when they arrived at the Sina-Bridge, he left the boulevard. After a few seconds, he stopped the bike in front of an abandoned building.

"Couldn't you come with a car like all normal people do?" Hanji complained when she got down from the bike.

Levi looked at her with an amused grin. "A bike is more maneuverable in case of a pursuit."

"You thought that my new neighbours would chase after us?" Hanji asked him.

Instead of an answer he only shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the building, signalizing Hanji to follow him inside. They went along the corridor until Levi opened one door. In the room behind it, there were some wooden chairs lined up in a circle.

"Make yourself at home," Levi said sarcastically and stepped aside to let Hanji enter the room.

He closed the door and dragged one of the chairs to place it in front of the one Hanji was sitting on. The raven took out a cigarette and lightened it up.

"Holy shit, I didn't realized how much I missed this," he mumbled to himself with the cigarette between his lips. When he stretched the pack in Hanji's direction, the woman shook her head. Levi shrugged his shoulders again and put the pack back in his jacket.

"How do you know about Dr. Jaeger?" he asked as he exhaled the smoke.

"His son is one of my neighbours," Hanji answered curtly, trying to hide the fact how much the smoke irritated her. She still wasn't used to Levi smoking beside her.

Levi raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I guess the kid is out for total revenge then?"

"Yeah, you could say so," Hanji said, remembering the boy's devotion for this. "Will you tell me why Jaeger had to die?"

"He wanted to back off, but he already knew too much. So we didn't have any other choice," the raven only said.

He would conceal the details to her. She didn't have to know that Jaeger suddenly announced that he wanted to quit, because he missed his family. After six devotional years in the Corps his fatherly instinct suddenly got the upper hand.
Someone had said that it was cruel to take a father away from his children; however, it was that father's own, voluntary choice to join the Mafia in first place.

"So if I told you that I want to quit, I'd end up the same?" Hanji asked him curiously.

"Do you always ask so many questions?" Levi answered with an annoyed mien.

"The job of a scientist is to question things," she said with a defiantly smile. "You never answer though."

"Tsk, Annoying. I should get you home," he decided and was about to stand up.

"I had a fight with my boyfriend only to come here for 10 minutes?" Hanji asked in disbelief. "I thought that you'd tell me some details about Dr. Jaeger and my new neighbours."

A minute passed silently, Levi's gaze fixed on Hanji. Then, the raven sat back down on his chair, moving it more closely to Hanji.

"You had a fight with your boyfriend?" he asked with an amusing tone in his voice.

"How nice to see that my life amuses you so much," the woman hissed bitterly. She hated to admit it, but his behavior hurt her.

"It doesn't amuse me, I'm just flustered that you fight with your man because of me," Levi stated with a rascal grin.
The grin grew even bigger when he saw how Hanji reacted to his words. The woman in front of him turned bright red, opening her mouth to say something in her defence. However, she closed it again, as she didn't find the proper words.

"You looked just like a fish now," Levi said and ground his cigarette. "Want to tell me what the fight was about?"

He earned a mortally offended glance from Hanji.
"You also never tell me anything. What makes you think that I'll share my secrets with you?"

"Because, compared to my secrets, yours are childish," he said bluntly.
"I don't mean to offend you, but I think that the police would care more about the details regarding the Corps than why you've fought with your boyfriend. And I want to spare you the details. The less you know the better it is for your own safety."

In that moment, Hanji realized what a sorehead she was.
She felt ashamed and she was mad at herself. And, she was mad at Levi. Mad, that he just busted in her life and made it turn 180°.
Mad, that he was right.
"Why did you even forced me to join the Recon Corps?" she asked huskily.

/

Maybe, just maybe, Levi would have told her the truth, if there wasn't the noise of footsteps, coming closer, behind the door.

/

AN: i hated writing this part, i had to rewrite it a few times until i got a vague idea how to continue the story ...

anyway, thank you for putting up with me and my late updates ... i couldn't find time to write because i was barely at home in the last days T_T