Chapter 4

Levi was ready to kick the three out of the room with quite some force, but Hange was faster. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him back on the bed. If it wasn't for her other hand which caught him by his shoulder, he would have fallen on Armin, who was still lying on his right side.

"They didn't do anything wrong," Hange defended the three kids.

"The fact that they're here in this room is enough reason for me to give them a beating." Levi tried to release his arm from her strong grip. He turned around and switched to a sitting position.

"I gave them permission to enter the room."

Levi stopped with his struggle. "Why?"

"They were so kind to bring me breakfast."

"Breakfast?" He looked at the windows and saw the sun shining brightly.

"Did we really sleep that long?" Armin asked, causing the two who were hovering over him to look down at him.

"No, you slept this long," Levi said.

"Ooh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Hange gave him once more one of her rare smiles.

The moment of silence which followed was Levi's opportunity to get out of Hange's grip. Her grip had already slackened, making it easier for Levi to break free. With one strong move he pulled back his arm, hoping for her to let go. But she didn't. She did the complete opposite. Her finger tightened around his wrist, causing her to follow his hand with her body. Being unable to keep her balance, she fell off the bed onto the hard wooden floor. The loud thud was followed by a second silence, before Levi turned around and called out her name.

"Hange…" He quickly stepped out of bed and kneeled down next to her.

Hange was lying on her back, one arm draped over her eyes, the other clutching her right hip bone.

"Hange?" Levi said her name again. "Are you alright?"

A small chuckle escaped Hange's mouth.

"What?"

"That's so unlike you, Levi."

"What?"

"Being so worried when I only fell off the bed. I've had worse accidents than this."

"Tch." Levi turned his head away from her.

"Hange-san?"

Hange removed her arm from her eyes to look at Jean who stood behind Levi. "I'm alright," she said and tried to sit up. A chain of curses resounded through the room. Her free hand flew to the other one, holding together onto her hip bone. "You know what? Maybe I should stay lying on the ground."

Jean kneeled down next to Levi. "Does it hurt a lot?"

"It's more like a prickly pain. I'm sure it will be over in a minute."

"Are you sure?"

"Jean don't worry so much, I'm fine." Even though she wasn't really good at reading people, she could see the disappointment in his eyes. He just wanted to be of help. "I appreciate the concern though." The soft tone in her voice made him look at her with caution.

"Levi-heichou isn't the only one with the odd behavior."

"What do you mean?" Hange asked, curiosity winning it from pain as she sat up right.

"I'd noticed it too, Jean. Hange-san is behaving a little bit differently," Armin said.

"But hasn't Hange-san always been a eccentric type of person?" Mikasa asked. "Not meaning to offend you." She switched her attention to Armin, her piercing look and tall posture made him slightly uncomfortable. "I've been wanting to know this, Armin, since we saw you lying there. Why were you lying in between Levi-heichou and Hange-san? Have you been there all night? Eren told me he hadn't seen you this morning in your room. And why do you agree with Jean? Have you seen this specific odd behavior of Hange-san?"

"Mikasa," Eren interrupted her train of questions. "I'm sure Armin has his reasons."

"But still, I want to know."

"I-I only have an answer for your last question," Armin said, his voice barely hearable.

Hange didn't know where this conversation was going. She hadn't been that weird this night, right? She was only concerned about Armin and helped him with what seemed for her like the best option, to have him sleep next to her and Levi.

"What did she do then, Armin?" Jean asked.

Hange noticed that all the eyes giving Armin attention made him even more uncomfortable than he already was. He sat with crossed legs in the middle of the bed, his fingers were fidgeting with the edge of the blanket which was draped over his legs.

"Don't you guys know what privacy means?" Levi said while he stood up. "He doesn't need to tell you."

"Yes, he does, we tell each other everything, right Armin?"

"We used to, yeah," Armin whispered.

Hange looked up to Levi. All this attention was getting too much for Armin. She didn't want their effort from the whole night to go to waste. It seemed that Levi thought the same. He stood up and stepped closer to Mikasa. "He doesn't want to talk right now."

Mikasa turned around slowly to face him. "Don't talk about Armin as if you know what he wants or doesn't want." Her voice was low and here eyes challenged Levi in a staring competition.

"Mikasa," Jean said, "I think Levi-heichou is right."

"I think so too," Eren said. "Even though I want to know what is going on with Armin, I think we need to give him more time."

"And I'm sure you don't want to push him too hard," Jean said. "I'm, no we are sorry Armin. Just come to us when you feel ready." He made his way to the door and opened it, a sign for Mikasa that it was time to leave Hange's room.

"Armin?" Mikasa asked again.

Hange heard that her voice had softened, but that didn't change the fact that Armin still wouldn't look at her. "Mikasa, don't push any further. He's emotionally unstable right now."

After a short silence and a glare from Mikasa, Hange decided to tell them a little bit more about why Armin had slept next to her and Levi. "Levi and I found him in the hallway yesterday evening and he needed some help and company. So we helped him to calm down and we all had a decent night rest."

"Wait why-"

"Mikasa! Eren! Let's go." Jean finally found the strength to drag his friends out of the room. "He will tell us eventually." With some protests and struggling the three left the room and the door closed with a loud bang. Silence returned to the room as their voices slowly faded away.

"Why did you tell them?" Levi asked and bent down next to Hange.

"I thought that it would help them understand the situation."

"Well, it didn't."

"As if I hadn't seen it yet."

Hange let Levi help her to get up on her feet. Her right hip still hurt, but not as badly as before. "How are you feeling Armin?"

Armin didn't answer. He couldn't look at her of Levi. They were back to where this all had begun.

"Armin, it's okay they are gone and wont be back for a while. Try to calm down, again." Hange sat down on the bed in front of the boy.

"Think about what we said earlier this morning," Levi said, "you're not alone."

They both stayed silent for a few minutes, hoping that Armin would find his courage to say something. But he too stayed silent, still looking at his hands.

Levi let out a sigh. "Well, I suppose it's okay if you don't want to say something." He turned to Hange and looked at the food. It was just enough to serve as a meal for one person, but they could all take a little bit of it. It would be too troublesome to get more. After carefully dividing everything he gave the plate to Hange and Armin and sat down on a chair. They ate their part of the breakfast in silence, an awkward silence.