Levi sighed and moved back a little hearing a soft yet painful groan coming from Petra's mouth.

"Are you sure about this? We can stop, you know." He said simply.

"No, no, I'll take it, ignore me."

He looked at her doubtfully and lowered himself again to bring his hands to her bare side. He did what he could to make it less painful for her but the choice of getting tattooed right on the ribs made it inevitable.

She was laying on her side in his separated part of the studio. Instead of the pain, she tried to focus on something different. The touch of his gloved hands was the first thing that came to her. She raised her head to prop it up with her hand and watch him work.

It was only 9AM on a Saturday morning, making them the only people in the parlor, and they just started. The weather was beautiful, and she was already planning on what to do when they'll be done. She didn't even realize she was staring at him for such a long time. He, on the other hand, was perfectly aware of that, despite not taking his eyes off from the piece of skin he was working on.

He was surprised when she told him that she'd want to get a black wing on her side. She exactly emphasized, with a visible blush on her face, that she wanted it in the same style as the wings he had tattooed on his arm. For some reason, he held himself back from asking why. The project took him half of the night. He couldn't remember the last time he was so invested in making any as perfect with every detail. He redrew it many times to find a perfect pattern that would fit her. Likewise, he tried to make the feathers in a way that they would remind him of her. At the end he got so irritated, he made it in sharp thick lines that were unquestionably more defying of his character than hers. It happened to be the one he chose.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asked, finally.

"Um...actually, there is a big bruise on your cheekbone. Don't worry, the color is quite pretty."

Levi blinked and sent her a warning glare, which caused a smile on her face. Cursedly beautiful smile that made him frown.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" he suggested then. For a moment, there was only silence and a buzzing of the machine in his hand. He didn't stop his work.

"Oh..." she said softly, and he cursed himself in his mind because that was not the reaction he wished to hear. Fuck, he was bad at this.

"Is that why you trapped me here?" she asked lamely, trying to make it less awkward.

"Listen, you're on thin ice."

Petra looked at him surprised but also a bit alarmed. He shook his head lightly.

"The more we'll go for it, the harder it will get to let go. Trust me, I fucking know. And you should know what kind of person I am, when...if things would go shitty between us. Just saying."

"Do I, though?"

Her words made him furrow his eyebrows and look at her.

"I've never seen you hurting anyone you care about. Never heard of that either."

"Because you're too naive. You probably ignore all the red flags because you're my fan."

"And what about being your friend?" she asked, and it really struck him. There weren't many people he called friends, as he naturally used to distance himself from others.

"You're good to be around." he decided and sighed focusing on his work instead. "But I don't think you know me as much as you think."

"Then let me." she said softly which made him stop what he was doing for a couple of seconds.

Just as she expected, she didn't get an answer for that. The truth was, she knew what she was getting herself into. He wasn't an easy person to deal with, but it didn't change the fact that it didn't bother her because of all the good feelings he induced in her.

"I really like you..." she tried again. "I'd say we should just be ourselves and...see what will happen."

Petra could feel the raising temperature on her face from saying that. Her thoughts were definitely not as soft and naive like he thought of her.

"Mhm...just don't get angry at me when shit hits the fan."

She started laughing and covered her mouth.

"Oi, stop moving around." he warned her, raising his hands up to not mess up the tattoo.

"Yes, yes, sorry." she composed herself quickly and looked at the ceiling with a smile.

After that, they swiftly came back to more casual topics. Petra got the impression that they were mutually uncomfortable in talking about what was between them, which made her a bit worried, however, she quickly convinced herself that at this point it was not such a bad thing.

"Can we stop for today?" she asked around 4 hours later. She's been distracting herself with scrolling through her phone, but the pain on the swollen skin and feeling of needles right on the bones started to be unbearable.

"Give me 5 minutes, I need to finish one thing." Levi responded but, hearing her sigh, he tilted his head to look at her direction. His hand moved before he could even think about what he was doing, and brushed the bangs of her peachy blonde hair away to see her troubled face. He lowered his eyelids and caressed her cheek with the top of his fingers. The gloves were thin enough for him to feel its heat.

The view of her blushed face from this perspective mesmerized him. He took a breath before returning to what he was doing.

"I'm so happy, I'm going to explode." she said looking at his work on her skin in the mirror. It was already covered with the foil.

"That would be a mess." he added in a flat tone looking at her from the other side of the room. It was hard not to feel satisfied when she laughed at his stupid comment.

He was so focused on the sight of her uncovered back that he didn't notice she was talking to him again. He snapped his head up and blinked as she let her shirt fall down and cover her again.

"Do you have plans?" she asked again, hiding the embarrassment. She would have never thought she'd be the one to ask him out.

"Hange should be on their way here right now. They want me to meet their new assistant which is a pain in the ass by itself. Are you giving me an excuse to cancel that shit?"

"No! Hange is blessed, you can't do that."

"You would be surprised."

"No, no, no. It's ok. Let's meet tomorrow."

He raised his eyebrow, and she realized he didn't agree to go anywhere in the first place.

"I'll come by your house to see if you're still living in a pigsty."

"It was only a bit dusty!'

Levi was looking at the clear night sky recalling the last week in the studio. He had some stuff to do so he wasn't there as much as normally. Maybe that was better since being with Petra when there were other people around somehow started to feel weird. He didn't like the feeling that suddenly he couldn't be as close to her as he would want to. Practically, he could, but he knew she wouldn't like that. He tried not to think about it but when he tried to think about something different he was back to the way her skin felt under his touch, to the glimpse of her bra he could see under the raised cloth of her shirt and the way she was looking up at him, tired after the session.

"Are you even listening to me?" Farlan snapped his fingers in front of Levis eyes.

"No." the other man responded without a flinch and looked up at him.

"You ass. You've been thinking about that ginger girl, haven't you?"

"Huh?"

"WHO?" Isabel ran to them with a four pack of canned beers in hand. "Petra?"

They both looked at Levi's grim expression.

"Are you together yet?" she asked, taking a seat on his side. They were sitting outside in front of one of the bars. There wasn't any party, just people drinking and hanging out.

Levi stopped Isabel's hand from fixing the bandage on his forehead.

"No."

"What? It's been like, forever, do you want me to help you?"

Farlan hid his mouth behind his hand trying not to laugh.

"It's not that simple, Isa." The dark-haired man responded.

"Why?"

He fell silent for a couple of long seconds so Farlan took his chance to speak.

"Are you scared?" He teased and propped his chin on his hand.

Levi met his eyes.

"Of what? Her?" He asked ironically.

His blonde friend laughed.

"From letting someone new get close to you."

"We are close." He said automatically, but it struck him how fake those words sounded.

Isabel broke their staring contest by putting the beer canes down between them.

"I agree with Farlan, you act like she could burn you when she gets close."

"Wow, that's so poetic, Isa." The mentioned man noticed.

Levi couldn't describe how uncomfortable he felt talking about this. He didn't let them see that. He had to avert his eyes.

"She's a good person, I don't want to hurt her." He said. It was way too much emotional talking for his liking already.

Farlan laughed which made the other two look at him in surprise.

"Like how? You're not really a dangerous person right now. You have a normal job, pay taxes and go on adventures to find the best tea shop in town in your free time. Doesn't sound so threatening to me."

"You never know what might happen."

"And even so, then what? You'd just abandon her for her own sake?"

Levi was looking at him with wide eyes, Isabel looked away and Farlan cursed opening his next beer. The atmosphere suddenly felt heavy.

Isabel was the one that decided to break the silence when it started to get too long.

"It's a bad idea. Don't do that to her." She said awkwardly.

Levi took a deep breath. It was irritating, he was the oldest yet definitely didn't feel like the most mature one at the moment.

He put his elbows on the table.

"If that's what's really bothering you two so much then tell me everything."

Petra kicked the public trashcan with her boot, startling Nifa and making her get soiled with the sugar powder from her waffle. They were on their way to her home after the night out. Nifa wondered if Petra didn't drink a bit too much.

"You're good to be around? HUH?" the ginger screamed at the object and huffed going back to walking on Nifa's side.

"Are you ok?"

"No? I don't know! I'm...embarrassed. Don't tell Rico, I beg you."

Her friend sighed and smiled. They had enough time to talk about her troubled feelings towards a man who seemed not to know what he wanted.

"Since you will see him tomorrow, maybe try being more straightforward?"

"You haven't met him, you don't understand."

Nifa giggled and embraced her arm with her own.

"Maybe you're just too enamored."

Levi knocked on the door to her apartment for the third time. After a few seconds of silence he took his phone out of the pocket of his jacket and checked the time. He messaged her an hour ago letting her know when he will arrive, so he couldn't really understand why she would not be home. He was about to call her when he heard footsteps from the other side.

The door opened just a little.

"Can you give me 5 more minutes?"

"Something happened?" he said tilting his head and trying to see what was going on inside.

"I...just woke up."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

She tried to grab the door when he pushed it, so they ended up face to face with it half open.

"I'm going in." he announced looking at her messy bed hair.

She held her breath then let him do that.