A/N: A high school AU that I wrote a about a year ago (I think?).


If she weren't so damn cute he'd be rolling his eyes at the sight of his girlfriend carrying around a pink stuffed bunny in baby's clothing. He supposes that taking care of stuffed animal is slightly better than taking care of, say, an egg or a sack of flour, but this is still pretty ridiculous. What would taking care of a stuffed animal teach anyone about economics? The only thing the stupid bunny did was sit there and look cute. Petra, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind this project at all and, to his horror, even seems to enjoy taking care of their fake baby. Even now she's cradling the bunny in her arms like it's a newborn babe, making sure to support its head, as she talks to him about her upcoming math exam. "I don't mind the actual math part," she says to him. "It's just that the scenarios are so ridiculous to me. I know I'm not going to be a rocket scientist. Why do I care what the average acceleration of a rocket is?"

"Because if you don't care and get a zero your dad would probably be disappointed in you," Levi answers. Truth be told, he didn't get along all that well with Mr. Ral but Petra adores her father so he might as well be civil. The two stop at Levi's locker and Levi begins to input his combination to the lock.

"You're right. He's always so happy whenever I come home with an A on my calculus exams," she sighs. She leans her back against the locker and shoots Levi a flirtatious smile. "Hey, do you want to help me study after school today?"

He stops swiveling his lock for a second and gives her a wary look. "At your house? You know your dad doesn't like me."

She scrunches her nose at him and rolls her eyes. "Only because he doesn't understand how you can look so unhappy all of the time when you're dating his adorable daughter." She pokes Levi's cheek playfully. "You should really smile more though. It looks nice when you do."

"I always look nice," Levi responds. His reply makes Petra snort. "Hey, turn around for a second." He snaps his lock open and unhooks it from his locker door.

"Ooh, do you have a surprise for me?" Petra asks, turning around and covering her eyes with a hand.

"More like a secret," Levi mutters. He quickly unzips his backpack, takes out a teddy bear, and then shoves it into his locker before slamming the door shut. "You can turn around now."

His girlfriend turns around and harrumphs when she sees him empty handed. "Hey, what gives?"

"I didn't say I had anything for you," Levi points out.

It's too late though because she's already annoyed. Before he can say anything else or put the lock back on his door, Petra shoves their bunny into his arms and pushes past him, opening the door of his locker. The sight must surprise her because she lets out an audible gasp.

There's a mountain of stuffed animals piled into Levi's locker. They're practically packed inside. He couldn't even remember how many were now in his possession. They just accumulated and had gotten out of hand before he realized the problem that would arise with stealing so many. He didn't know what to do with them so he just kept shoving more and more in his locker, hoping the baby project would soon be over so he could get rid of them.

"Did you steal these?" Petra asks incredulously. She grabs their bunny from Levi and shields its eyes from the horror of children's plush toys stuffed into Levi's locker. "Levi, how many did you even take?"

"Er, I don't really know," Levi replies, hurriedly slamming the door to his locker shut before anyone else can see. He glances around but it seems that no one has noticed. "I just thought it would be easier to get a good grade if everyone else, um, had bad ones for losing their kid. And Shadis said you get extra credit if you could kidnap someone else's kid so, you know. I just did what I had to do."

"You can't just kidnap everyone's child! Imagine what kind of example this sets up for our baby." She shoves the pink plush bunny in his face and he reddens at the mention of "their" baby.

"Petra, that's not even a real baby. It's not imprinting on anything I do, good or bad," he hisses.

"Wow, it's like you don't even want to have kids with me," Petra says a little dejectedly. Their bunny dangles from one arm and Petra brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. "I know you think this project is stupid and everything but, I don't know, I thought it was a really nice way to spend time with you."

"What?" Levi splutters. "I don't – Stupid? I never said – and spending time with you – Petra, what are you talking about? Of course I want to have kids with you." The words leave his mouth before he realizes what he's saying. If a bolt of lightning struck him down right now he'd thank god or whoever the fuck is up there. He can't bear to look Petra in the face because he knows exactly what he'll find. Somehow, his eyes are drawn to her face anyway and, sure enough, she has a giddy grin spread across her face.

"I was just kidding but that was really cute," she giggles. "I'm going to have Mike babysit now but I'll talk to you later." She kisses him on the cheek before leaves, walking away with a little bit a skip in her step.

"Yeah, whatever," he mutters, trying to recover from his embarrassment.

"But you better give all of those stuffed animals back or I'm going to kick your butt!" she calls over her shoulder.

"Ah, young love," a familiar voice says. The speaker flings an arm around Levi's shoulder. Only one person would violate his personal space like that and he's not surprised to see Hanji's face when he turns to see who it is. They flash him a goofy grin when he scowls. "So what were you guys talking about? You look pretty flushed. Did you accidentally tell her you wanted to be with her forever and ever? I don't see why you're always so embarrassed about that. I mean, I wouldn't mind spending an eternity with that cutie."

"Shut up," Levi mutters. His response only manages to make Hanji snicker even more. He unlocks his locker, grabs a ratty-looking stuffed dog, and throws it at Hanji. "Here you go."

Hanji clumsily catches the dog and blinks. "Isn't this my baby from the baby project for Shadis' class? I thought you said Moblit lost it!"

"I lied." He stuffs a bunch of teddy bears and various other plushies into his bag, piling a small number onto his arm because his damn backpack couldn't carry all of them, and grumbles, "Help me find everyone else. I need to get these back before Petra gets mad at me again."

"Aww, listening to your wife. You guys are adorable," Hanji sighs, taking a few stuffed animals to free up Levi's arms. "Sometimes I forget you two aren't actually married."

He mumbles for Hanji to shut up under his breath but he doubt that his friend is listening to him. When did they ever? But he's not actually displeased about their statements. He's pleased, even. If taking care of a fake baby and not kidnapping other people's fake babies meant he could spend time with Petra and make her happy, it isn't all that bad. And, well, if people thought they'd make a nice married couple, that didn't hurt either.


A/N: Yes, this is actually an assignment that some of my peers had for their government/economics class. You would have to take care of a stuffed animal but also give it to someone to babysit for two periods. (My friend would give me hers to babysit!) Underclassmen could steal your "baby" for extra credit although I don't know if that ever happened ^^"

Word Count: 1306