Notes:
Hi all, it's great to have you here reading my work. :)
I would like to say a few words before we start.
First of all, it's an AU, written for fun. I understand there may be things you expect, like a certain way a character behaves, but I'm warning you that I'm not going to think too much about the canon here. I'll try for the characters to resemble themselves, but there's a chance sometimes they'll do or say something that they wouldn't in AoT. Just so you know.
Second of all, I'm up to date with the manga, but there'll be no spoilers here. And even if some things appear spoiler-y, I'll do my best to make it a wink at those who know and keep the people who don't, think it's only a part of the fanfic. So recommend it to whoever you want, even if they're just getting started.
And, please, put warnings before spoilers in the comments.
The third thing is Hanji. The small thing is that I'll be spelling it "Hanji", not "Hange". The bigger thing is that I'm going to refer to them as a woman. I've started my AoT journey with the anime and learned that their gender is rather undefined in the manga quite recently, so female pronouns are already saved in my head. The author himself doesn't say Hanji is nonbinary. He just lets us know that their gender doesn't matter, is open for interpretation, and anyone can use whatever pronouns they please. So I'll be using she/her. But feel free to use whatever pronouns you prefer in the comments!
Chapter 1: All That Came
"He's been coming here for like a week straight, you know?"
Levi quivered, feeling a warm, coffee pervaded breath on his left ear. He shook his head covering it with his hands as he recoiled from the girl. "Personal space, Hanji. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
If looks could kill, Hanji would be lying on the sticky floor behind the counter, but because they couldn't, she just swung her hand in front of his face as if to say "shut up, I'm busy spying on a hot, mysterious customer sitting alone with a stack of books and a terrible coffee choice beside him" (which would have sounded oddly specific if this mix wasn't the case for at least half of the people they encountered working at the Colossal Cafe, the most popular coffee shop within three miles from the Jaeger University). Hanji loved all the quiet drama that could be picked up in that place, filled with supposed future doctors and lawyers. She didn't hesitate to eavesdrop whenever she got a chance, and she'd share every spicy detail she overheard doing so with the very same person who was now contemplating the pros and cons of poisoning her coffee at the soonest opportunity - aka her high school best friend who she'd known for the last six years of her life.
"Isn't he a little too old to be a student? I mean, I've seen much - and I mean MUCH - weirder specimens than him, but there's something… He looks like a person with all their shit already together, you get me? Like some kind of a ratty businessman who makes more sipping that boring espresso than we do in a year. Or two years. I already hate his pretentious, rich ass. But damn, he's fine ."
Levi looked back at the guy sitting at the other side of the coffee shop, brooding over a heavy book in front of him - with a few others lying right beside a couple of empty coffee cups. The pen between his fingers swung, again and again flicking his bottom lip. On the floor, leaning against a table leg, was a laptop bag, but in two hours of the man's presence, he didn't glance at it once. Old school. Normally, Levi would have rolled his eyes at the sight of yet another literary poser trying to fit in the academic aesthetic while scribbling in their little notebook, but this one did not seem like the type. No yawning, no looking around in search of female students that would buy the 'sensitive poetry major' narrative. Just a man, his books, and the last cup of nearly cold coffee.
"You should hit on him."
If there had been something in his mouth, Levi would have begun choking right there and then. He sent Hanji the most incredulous look he was able to pull off, but she just grinned.
"What? Don't tell me you wouldn't want to."
Levi shook his head. "You're impossible."
"C'mon." Hanji threw one of her arms around his shoulders, yet again disobeying the personal space rule, and pressed her cheek up against his own. She used the free hand to grab his chin and make him look directly at the guy once more before she said: "Blond. Tall. Thirty-something, probably. Hot like the Carolina Reaper itself. At some point, he would definitely make you call him 'daddy'. You dig that stuff. You love it, and you know it."
Levi was fully ready to perform his first-ever murder when the center of their attention suddenly decided to break away from his studies, and, to Levi's utter terror, land his eyes right on him. They glanced at each other for the longest two seconds of Levi's entire life, and he felt his soul leave his body, and backpack across Europe before returning to its rightful place.
The man snorted. Strangers staring at him in cafes must have been neither a concern nor a surprise, because it took him no time to go back to reading, just as unbothered as he was before.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" cried Hanji as she found herself with one knee on the floor, and her arm twisted behind her back. "I'llbegood, I'llbegood, I promise! Levi, you psycho, let me go!"
"You're calling me a psycho?" sneered Levi. He waited another couple of seconds before finally releasing her. "You should spend less time messing around and more actually working."
"Savage," muttered Hanji, rubbing her wrist, but Levi was already walking away with an empty tray in his hand. The day was slow, and most of the people walking in were either regulars spending hours typing on their laptops at their usual tables or groups of dumb teenagers with their fancy orders and annoying laughter, mistaking every coffee shop in the world for an imitation of Starbucks.
The blond one was the only exception.
It was hard to consider him a regular as they had never seen him until a week prior, but he had shown up daily ever since. He radiated weird, superior-like energy that made Levi feel even smaller than he already was.
He didn't like that.
"Can I take that?" Levi pointed at the empty cups on the other side of the table.
The man did not move, not even to make sure what exactly he was asked about, but still replied: "Sure."
Levi clenched his teeth and without saying a word began collecting the coffee-stained glass. Any other customer would have helped him out, smiled, or at least acknowledged his existence. But not this guy.
Now that Levi was thinking about it, the eye contact from a moment ago must have been the first time the man paid actual attention to him, even if so briefly.
Hanji was right. Pretentious ass.
"Do you need anything else?" asked Levi when the last cup landed on the tray.
"No," said the man and closed the book with a loud thud.
Levi looked at its ugly red cover, which he knew all too well, and once again thought that whoever designed that monstrosity must have either gone blind or got paid in literal crap. "All That Came'' by Jeremiah Lewis was Professor Growen's favorite position on world history and he didn't hesitate to mention it whenever he had a chance. Seeing that was more than enough to give Levi chills remembering the neverending boredom that accompanied every lecture.
Levi looked at the stack and scanned through the titles. "Mankind In A Nutshell", "The Fall And Rising of The Ancient'', "The empire's curse", and a few more; all of them with two things in common: history and Professor Growen.
"I can't believe anyone actually reads this stuff."
In a matter of seconds, the air around them became heavy and stiff, and all the sounds - so very distant. A leap of heat rose across Levi's body when he realized that once again he brought upon himself the man's attention, this time completely unhinged. With his eyes fixed, slightly squinting, he waited to hear more. For some reason, Levi didn't feel as if he should.
"I mean-" Why was he suddenly feeling so intimidated? "Don't worry about Growen too much. He yaps a lot, but you don't have to take the class seriously. No one does. He's ancient, it all sucks, and the guy probably doesn't know what a phone is, so cheating is a breeze."
Silence. The man didn't move an inch nor said a word, but Levi felt an overwhelming pressure to do something more. To say something more.
But he didn't. Annoyance grew within him, so instead of backing off in face of the man's somehow unnerving presence, he kept on staring back at him, fighting the urge to avert his eyes. It was so dumb.
"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Levi put on a smile so fake that it could've won him a Golden Raspberry or two. Good.
"No, thank you." The corner of the customer's lips moved but way too slightly to define it as either a smile or a grimace. "I'm good for the day."
Levi stayed in place for another moment, looking at the man stand up and begin to collect his things, before he finally turned around and went back to where Hanji was already waiting with sparkles in her eyes.
"What were you two lovebirds talking about?"
"Every day you keep digging yourself a deeper grave," said Levi, putting the tray on the counter. He sighed. "I honestly don't even know. I wish he would stop coming. There's something off about him, and I don't like it. Not one bit."
"Yeah, right." Hanji rolled her eyes with as much theatricality as the few acting classes she attended in the fifth grade let her.
Levi didn't comment, he just looked over his shoulder, at the sound of the bell, to see the door slowly closing behind the man. Now, there were only a bunch of regulars left - and Hanji - and a tray full of stained cups. He picked it up and walked into the kitchen. No matter how high the piles of dishes, it was always better than listening to whatever his friend had to say about his disaster of a love life.