It's not summer at all, but for some reason, it does feel like it is. Well, sort of. Levi's not one to be excited about the month of December, with final exams and culminating projects left and right—not to mention having to buy exchange gifts for holiday parties has him constantly grumbling about finances. The fact that his birthday falls on Christmas itself ("'Tis the season to be grumpy!" Hange would tease him) only makes him more anxious about it.

But maybe this year, it's going to be different. Especially now that he's officially dating Hange, his best friend who loves keeping other people company, who's good at entertaining with her silly stories, who's always fun to be around.

Maybe it's not going to be so bad at all.

Nanaba and Mike were singing Christmas carols while the four of them were decorating their apartment with stockings, tinsels, and holly. LED lights are now hung up everywhere, in every door frame, in every corner making the entire place look like a disco bar. Levi thinks it's too tacky, especially with the angels and the wreath with Jack Frost's face dead center on the front door.

Nobody cares about Jack Frost, he told them. Nobody even remembers Jack Frost. Unless you count that cartoon movie with Chris Pine in it.

And of course, nobody really listens to Levi's snarky comments.

It's a Saturday and now he's alone with Hange in the living room. She's been singing Mariah Carey's classic jingle non-stop while he's reviewing for his exam. He loves Hange's voice, and truth be told, he doesn't have the heart to shush her from singing.

That is, until his phone starts vibrating.

Hange notes the lack of a ringtone, but Levi can't be bothered to put one when it's always on silent, anyway. Nobody dares to call him except for one person, and he can pretty much guess who's on the other line, so he fishes his phone out of his pockets, already knowing who it is upon answering the call—

"Mom."

"Levi, oh my little baby boy, how are you?"

Kuchel is finally back in town.

Levi's heart swells at the thought that she's home. It's been almost a year since he last saw his mother and he can't wait to see her again. But the sentimentality stops abruptly when his mother begins rambling about all the souvenirs she's brought home (and all the imported chocolates!) and how she'd like to feed it to him just like how she had done it when he was still a child.

"So, who's my little baby boy, huh?" Kuchel croons and Levi is as red as a tomato. "Does my little baby boy want to be spoon-fed once again?"

Hange snickers beside him, "'Little baby boy,' really?"

Levi gives her a scowl, finger on his lips to shush her up for now. His little secret of being a mama's boy is out. Kuchel can't hear her from that distance so Hange takes this chance to giggle with a hand on her mouth.

His mother doesn't stop with the pampering and says she can't wait to see "her little baby boy" turn another year older. "So I'll see you on Christmas, my sweet Levi?"

He feels elated, after not having seen her in months, but he's also torn between wanting to spend Christmas with Hange and coming home to see his mother. Right beside him, he can read Hange's lips, saying 'my sweet Levi,' 'my darling little boy,' and 'my baby,' mimicking Kuchel's way of speaking.

"Are you gonna let your Mama bathe you when you come home?" Hange whispers to him with a grin on her face.

"No, I'm not," he hisses back.

"Is she gonna spoon-feed you? Put you in cute Christmas sweaters with a big red ribbon in front?"

"Shush, stop it."

"Baby Levi needs his Mama," Hange croons.

Meanwhile, Kuchel is still blabbering about her work and how she can't wait to come home for a break just to see her darling baby. This doesn't stop Hange from teasing him with more theatrics this time around, Baby Levi, Baby Levi, who's the Baby Levi, until Levi himself can't take it any longer.

"Shut the fuck up, Four-Eyes—" he yells.

His mother stops talking on the other end, and that's how Levi knows she heard that. Kuchel's voice is now coming out in short gasps of air. "...Did you just… curse me?"

Eyes wide and apologetic, he starts stammering, "No, Mom, uhm, I'm sorry... that—that wasn't for you, that was—"

Kuchel is now wailing like mad. "My little baby boy is all grown up and cursing, oh my god. The next thing I know he's about to graduate from college and then he'll forget about me—"

"No, Mom, that's not it—"

"And then you'll be a full-grown adult in the workforce trying to pay the bills yourself, and then you'll die single and all alone, and—" Kuchel is now sobbing hard. "You're still going to be my little boy, whatever happens."

"Alright, Mom, that's enough."

But Kuchel starts crying as if her son just died, like the world has ended, as if hellfire has spread above the pits of hell.

"Your son's going to be alright, Mrs. Ackerman," Hange finally says.

There's a pause on the other end of the line. "Who's that?"

Levi knows it's time to spill the beans.

"Hey, Mom, uh, I'm with my best friend, her name's Hange, and, uhm… we're officially dating now."

He stretches his arm out towards Hange, inviting her to speak, but before she can do so, Kuchel squeals in excitement. "Oh my god, is this real, my little baby boy, I can't believe it, I want to meet her—"

"Yes, yes, Mom, you will," Levi says, deadpan. Right beside him, Hange is beaming. Everyone knows she'd get along with his mother.

So she inches closer to the phone. "Hi."

Kuchel bawls louder all the more.

—

It's already Monday and Levi can still remember his mother blowing loudly into a tissue, the tears of joy probably running down her face. She and Hange got along real fast, though, Hange was telling him this a few days after. Kuchel had already saved Hange's number and had added her on social media as well, much to Levi's chagrin. The worst thing that could happen is Kuchel Ackerman planning to marry them off as soon as they finish college.

But for now, he has more things to worry about.

Evil professors come in different types, but the kind that Levi hates the most are the ones who are selective with the students that they like. His Fluid Mechanics professor should be sent to the deepest level of hell for playing favorites. And obviously, Levi is at the bottom of his list.

As far as he knows, he has done nothing wrong—well, maybe except give the jackass teacher his death glare whenever he picks on him during class recitations. Sure, he's not as enthusiastic as the others when it comes to learning, but Levi has always been stellar when it comes to exams, always attaining high marks for the most part. However, the professor has a few tricks up his sleeve here and there made just to piss off the smallest senior in class. Levi's been thinking about taking Hange out on a date, their first official date, but he's also trying to budget his allowance so he could buy his best friend a gift.

"Mister Levi," the professor calls out to his student who's interest has flown out of the window already. "Can you explain to us the pressure and velocity variations in Bernoulli's equation?"

He doesn't recall this topic. "How should I know? You've never taught us this."

"Did you read the syllabus, you scowling midget?"

He fidgets in his seat. "No, I doubt anyone else did."

"Well then—Lynne!" He calls another student. "Given a steady flow of a constant density fluid in a converging duct, would it satisfy all restrictions governing the use of Bernoulli's equation?"

Everyone can tell from the poor student's face that she has no idea what their professor had just said.

Nevertheless she mumbles, "Uh, yes…?" and the professor breaks into a smile.

"Excellent, Lynne." The professor goes back to Levi's scowling expression. "Seems like you really don't care about this subject, Mister Ackerman."

"That's not fair, that question was—"

"Another homework for you, you smartass shortstack! You will be answering the end-of-chapter questions on page 126, or else, your recitation points will go lower than your height." He pauses for the class to laugh. They're all silent, fearing the small guy in their class. "As for the rest of you, anyone who recites, correct answers or not, will get some extra credit from me!"

Everyone starts cheering. Levi is ready to stab himself with a pen.

—

Not a lot of people know that Levi's birthday is the same day as Christmas. Probably because it's finals week, and nobody gives a damn about whose birthday it is, or what day it is on the calendar, except to check which exams they'll be taking for the day. It's also a sign that everyone is busy, especially when Mikasa brings a rice cooker to the library. ("What for?" Eren scratches his head, and Mikasa simply responds: "To make rice, what else?")

"Why can't they just give us the diploma and be on our way?" Miche is complaining while he's doing his reviewer. He's seated right beside his girlfriend who's in agreement with him.

"With all this stress, graduation should just be a party with booze, to be honest," Nanaba says. "Our principal can just hand us beer bottles when we come up on stage."

The seniors are still studying in the corner of the room when Armin walks up to them and asks them if they could tutor their group for their upcoming finals. Levi is the first to shut the idea down, but Hange is more sympathetic. In addition to that, Eren is wailing once again because he's about to fail the oral exams for his German classes.

"How are you failing when you're literally of German blood?" Jean asks him in front of their friends. "Your surname is literally German. Your parents are German."

"I was born outside of Germany, dipshit," Eren shoots back, his eyes red from crying. "Besides, I don't see you doing well in German either, Kirchstein."

The two boys are about to start a brawl in the library when Levi does a divine intervention. "Oi, Eren, tell us your exam scores then."

"Uhhh, let's see…" The boy takes out his papers, all of them marked in red. "9/100. 21/100. 30/100. 34/100."

They all stare at him in silence. "You gotta be kidding me," Levi mutters.

"That bad, huh?" Eren cringes apologetically.

Hange tilts her neck to the side so she can take a better look at his exams. "Well, at least you have one that goes past the calendar days."

Jean snorts loud enough to control his laughter, making Eren nudge him in the ribs. Hard. The taller boy pushes back and Connie joins in the fight. Sasha is still chewing on a potato without a care. The brats are back to bickering when Armin finally kneels in front of the seniors, his hands clasped in prayer. "Hange, please, just teach us!"

"Why should I?" Hange is dumbfounded amidst the commotion. People would rather copy the solutions to her homework, lest she'd answer it for them.

"Uh, 'cause you're already exempted from the finals?"

The freshmen's eyes are all hopeful, wide and longing, as if their lives all depended on Hange Zoe, the brightest student among the seniors. Even Sasha has dropped her potato to beg on her feet. Hange Zoe doesn't look much, but her brain cells are the only ones currently working right now. After ten seconds, she finally sighs. "Fine."

"Yes!"

"But—" Six mouths hang open simultaneously once she finishes her sentence—"You all have to help me out with something."

"Anything!"

Hange takes out a piece of paper from her pad and starts writing something, everyone watching her intently. When she notices Levi staring, she hunches her back and cups her hand on the paper in an attempt to cover it from him. Nothing suspicious, no, not at all, especially not for him. It's just typical Hange not wanting anyone to copy her notes.

"This is getting ridiculous," Levi interrupts. "Do you have a highlighter in hand?"

"I've got one." She pulls one out from her hair and continues jotting down notes on a pad, one hand still shielding the paper from him.

"What about a pen?"

"Red or blue? I'm using the black one."

"Either, it doesn't matter."

Nevertheless, Hange extracts both from her messy ponytail and hands the pens to Levi once she's done writing. Completely satisfied, she carefully folds the piece of paper and secures it with a paperclip (also from her hair) before handing it over to Armin. When she turns around to face Levi, his face is blank.

"What?" Hange's afraid that Levi must have noticed something odd. She holds her breath and prepares for the worst.

"Let me know if you also happen to have a knife hidden there," he says with a shrug.

Then Hange exhales in relief.

—

To add to that, the seniors are required to attend career counseling sessions with the school counselor, Dot Pixis. No one's really excited about it, really. Career counseling is a scam; they let you think you can get a six-figure job upon graduation, but in reality you're barely even qualified for an entry-level job when they start asking you for five years of work experience.

"I just don't get it, what's the point of consulting about your career path?"

This time, it's Hange who's doing all the grumbling while they're all having lunch at the cafeteria.

"I guess they want us to be successful when we get our diplomas?" Mike offers.

"But can't we just figure that out by ourselves?" Hange continues. "I mean, mine's easy. I just want to be a lab researcher so I can conduct more fully-funded experiments. See, simple as that."

"Not everyone's got it figured out, Hange." Levi tells her upon entering the cafeteria, having finished his last exam for the day. He has an inkling of what he wants to do upon graduation, but he's totally clueless on how to go about it. That, and he's not really sure what his mother or his uncle might say.

"Well then, friends help each other. Nanaba—" Hange faces her blonde friend, "What do you want to be?"

Nanaba's eyes are dreamy. "I think I want to be a writer and publish my own novel."

"Okay, so you want to be broke and depressed. Cool. What about you Mike?"

There are wrinkles on his forehead as he tries to think hard about what he wants to do. "Probably planning to take over my family's cafe in the suburbs."

"Is that the best thing you can do with your Philosophy degree?"

Mike twitches his nose, offended.

"Alright, stop it, Four-Eyes, you're not helping." Levi gently slaps Hange's hand. "Besides, Philosophy majors aren't useless. Society needs people who can talk shit when things aren't going right, anyway."

It's actually more dreadful during the actual career counseling workshop. They are grouped together like Alcoholics Anonymous, the rickety white monobloc chairs bearing witness to their misery. Old man Pixis looks like an anemic Buddha, with the way he tells them that their futures are brighter than the sun. Of course, no one believes in that. Hange volunteers herself to go first and their career counseling adviser is more than happy to know that Hange has indeed gotten everything figured out.

The rest of them aren't so lucky.

Even with Pixis motivating them to think better and prepare themselves for the real world, Nanaba doesn't have enough contacts in the publishing industry and Mike isn't sure he really knows the ins and outs of running a successful business. The old man advises them to get the resumes as polished as possible, to network with people as much as possible, and then to hope for the best.

Then it's Levi's turn to stand up and explain his career dreams. He's never really told anyone about this before except for Hange. And to his luck, Hange's in complete support of him.

Pixis leans forward from the monobloc chair, digging his elbows on his knees."So, my boy, what do you want to be?"

He breathes. "A sanitation engineer."

There are "oohs" and "aahs" from the other seniors. Hange's face brightens up and Levi feels confident, even when Gelgar whispers to Mike, "What the hell is a sanitation engineer?"

"It's just like being a janitor," Mike explains to him, "But fancier."

—

If there's something that Levi despises about December, it's the fact that it's in the dead of winter. He hates it that there's snow blocking the pathway outside their apartment, and hates it even more that he's going to have back pains from shoveling it on his own. His friends are useless when it comes to household chores during this season because all their focus is now on the holidays.

"Are you excited to come home after your exams?" Hange comes into his bedroom after he's been writing this goddamn essay for three hours non-stop.

"Me? To get into a brawl with my uncle? No thanks."

"But it's your birthday!"

"Which I do not even celebrate." Not until Hange discovered it in freshman year and started greeting him the moment the clock strikes 12.

"Levi, you're getting stressed." Hange puts a hand on his shoulder while he's marking lines on the text and squeezes him with affection. "Maybe you should take a break for a while."

"I can't, Hange," he says as he buries his face in his hands. His textbook is propped wide open in front of him, but everything's garbled right now in his mind. Nothing's getting absorbed. He's been thinking about too many things at the same time, and he knows that's not a good sign. On top of having to finish this one last project that he needs to submit, he's thinking about the professor he hates who's probably going to fail him without good reason, his mother waiting for him to come home, and him just barely surviving this gruesome month.

But Hange is insistent. "Come on, just for today. What do you say to a quick trip to the mountains?"

"I… I don't know…"

"I mean, I can't turn the winter into summer, but we can always leave some room for imagination." She kisses the top of his head and that's how he relents.

Levi can't really deny her anything these days.

They use Hange's car for a little getaway trip to the winter cabins just an hour and a half away from their campus.

"Why does my professor hate me so much?" Levi starts complaining while in the car. He can see the scenery change as they drive past the small town, all the small hills now covered in snow, snow, snow. "I'm technically done for the semester, but he gave me a shit-ton of essays and projects to work on for my grades."

"Some people are just the pure incarnation of evil," Hange chuckles, "I would have done your homework for you had you ask me. I'm your best friend, remember?"

"You're not my slave, Hange," he says, "You're my partner in all things good and bad."

Affectionate, Hange puts a hand on his thigh.

They're both clad in warm clothing, their winter jackets and snow boots thick enough to fight the cold, and Levi can feel his cheeks heating up. Maybe this is what it means to be in love. As he sits in silence on the passenger's seat, Levi watches the scenery drastically change from the residential area to the snowy mountains, the landscape all veiled in white. The sight is a beauty to behold. He turns his head towards Hange and she's smiling at him. This is technically their first date, and truth be told, he's more than excited to be going out with his best friend.

It really isn't summer at all, but they can somehow pretend. He can imagine himself going skiing with Hange, maybe do some cross-country racing with her as they traverse down the snowy slopes. Running past the thick trees blanketed in snow. Shouting words of love from the top of his lungs. He's not even a sappy person. Perhaps this isn't going to be so bad at all. He knows he can handle this.

However, he's proved otherwise when they finally arrive at their destination. Instead of a ski lodge, Hange has brought him to a small mountain hill.

"Wait, aren't we going to a ski resort?" He's confused.

"Who said we're going to one?"

Levi tries to recall their conversation and realizes that Hange has never mentioned what they were about to do. "What was your idea right from the very start?"

"Well... skiing is quite expensive, but uhm, this one isn't." Hange climbs out of her car and pops the trunk. He follows her outside and sees something huge covered with a red blanket. Levi's mouth opens when Hange removes the blanket, revealing a giant plastic sled.

Levi has never been so discombobulated, dumbfounded, and disconcerted all at the same time. "What the fuck? Sledding is for kids."

"Aren't you excited?" She beams at him as she takes out the sled. "I was like 9 the last time I went sledding!"

"Hange, I am not sliding down a hill with a bunch of brats."

"Oh, you won't be alone. I'll be with you." She grins at him and holds her hand out for Levi to grab on. He huffs in defeat and takes it anyway. They trudge along the top of the steep hill right where the parents are, waiting to push their kids down the smooth snowy ground. Said parents are also eyeing them with judgment—just two college kids, technically grownups in terms of age, dragging a children's sled right behind them.

"You ready? Go sit." Hange positions the sled right at the brink of the hill.

He'd want to protest and go home, but he also doesn't want to hurt Hange's feelings. Maybe he can pretend not to be an asshole and a killjoy for a day. He sighs and puts one foot inside the sled, slowly, to test it out. He can definitely fit inside, and he has to swallow his pride to admit it. Once his arms and legs are properly tucked in, he looks up at Hange. "This is extremely embarrassing. What now?"

Hange then clambers inside as well, sitting right behind him, her legs on either side of his hips, her arms around his small frame. It feels somehow comforting. She then holds onto the reins. As much as he wants to focus on the view in front of him—the white slope heading down, the pine trees covered in snow beyond them, the bone-dry skies—Levi can't help but notice Hange's breathing against his nape. He likes it when she's this close to him.

"Ready?" She doesn't wait for her answer and pushes themselves off the edge. Levi yelps from the sudden motion, and finally, they plunge down into the depths of winter wonderland.

It's a blur, it's a whirlwind, all the whiteness of the surroundings passing them by as they speed past the trees lining up the side of the hill. He looks up at the skies and sees the birds soaring through the air, the cold rush hitting their faces.

Perhaps this is what it means to be free. All the stress gone in an instant. The entire ride feels like an adrenaline rush, like a rollercoaster, all the joy and the thrill in his mind. Right behind him is Hange whooping and laughing as if she's having the time of her life.

Levi's still struck with awe when he realizes that there's something sticking out of the snowy ground a few feet away from them. "Is that a rock? Hange, shit, swerve, swerve, swerve!"

Hange does so in time, avoiding the rock that could have toppled them over, or worse, sent them flying through the air. She maneuvers them back into the path and continues speeding down the hill, the powdery snow flying around them as they slide halfway down the path. The children at the bottom are cheering them on, and the next thing he knows, he's laughing as well.

He can feel the ridges of the slope beneath them, their bottoms at the mercy of the bumps of the uneven terrain. It's a magical experience, nevertheless, and Hange's right: they can imagine summer in this dreaded snow if they try hard enough.

However, they both don't notice another rock protruding from the ground and Hange is unable to maneuver them out of the way. The sled jerks from the sudden movement, and out he goes.

It all happens in slow-motion: Levi flying out of the sled just like in the lyrics of Skyline Pigeon (fly!), his limbs all useless as he rockets into the air, his cursing filling everyone's ears. He hits the snowy ground with a thud, face-first, but the humiliation doesn't stop there. Since he's in the middle of the inclined plane, he rolls down unceremoniously for the remainder of the slope like an avalanche, except he's human and this metaphor is just as horrible as his pride—dissipating with every tumble on his sorry ass until he finally reaches the bottom of the hill, right where the kids are watching him, his face covered with snow.

He groans and the kids start snickering. He tilts his head up and he can see Hange climbing out of the sled, completely unscathed for some miraculous reason, her face painted with joy as she comes running up to him.

"What do you think? I'm so glad I was able to borrow this sled from the neighbor!"

Hange helps him up as they pat down the snow that had clung to their pants. She's breathing hard from the exhilaration of their ride, and Levi can see the small tufts of air coming out of her mouth.

Levi clicks his tongue. "This was not what I expected."

She stops dusting off her jacket. "Oh," Hange says, disappointed. "Sorry, I really should have gone with the skiing—"

"No, I meant we should have used an air mattress instead," he tells her, holding her hand. "But let's do it again."

—

Two hours later and their limbs and backs are completely exhausted. All heavy and ready to fall out. They had been laughing so hard from falling off the sled and rolling down the hill until they could no longer breathe. It was enough of a workout and a getaway. Hange is now driving them back home in the comfortable silence. Her cheeks are flushed, brown eyes gleaming with joy. A chuckle escapes her.

He tears his gaze from the window and looks at her. "You alright?"

Slowly, she reaches out for Levi's hand, her other still on the steering wheel. "I'm glad you're happy," she says.

"Yeah, I guess. Thanks for the break."

"You're welcome." Hange squeezes his hand. "So, uhm, now that graduation's coming real soon, what do you suppose we should do once we leave? Should we move in together?"

The idea really fascinates him. Just him and Hange, together.

"Yeah, we'll make it nice and easy, all actions perfectly calculated."

"Cool, maybe I can blow something up," Hange teases him and Levi laughs along. He definitely feels lighter now. She then continues, "So… are you ready for a house party?"

He stops laughing. "A what?"

There's loud music in their apartment, the booming bass about to make them deaf. The Christmas lights are blinking wildly in all colors, making their place look like a bar during happy hour. If Levi cranes his neck towards the windows, he can see that the inside is jam-packed, people chatting and eating and dancing to the rhythm of the beat.

"Sweet, huh?" Hange grins at his face in utter shock while they're coming round the curb. "And that's not even the best part!"

"Since when did our place become a dive bar?"

"Well..." Hange pulls up to the parking lot. "I did ask a few people to have a Christmas birthday party in honor of you."

Just as they climb out of her car, Miche and Nana are walking back to the house with five boxes stacked together in their hands. They're wearing matching Christmas sweaters, so ugly it's enough to make him retch.

"Heya, birthday boy," Miche calls out to him, "You're just in time. Pizza's here and we're all ready to—"

The glass window crashes, a pan flying out of the house.

"Something's on fire!" Eren comes out of the front door, his hands flailing. Black smoke is filling up inside, and then people are running out, shouting, panicking, crying.

The next thing they know the annoying fire alarm is blaring, enough to drill a hole in their ears. Levi looks at Hange with a scowl and Hange forces a smile on her face.

"Damn it, Kirchstein," Connie shouts, his hands on both ears, "I thought you'd handle everything!"

"I did, but she kept saying she'll do the cake!"

Levi raises an eyebrow. "She?"

When Levi turns around towards the entrance of their apartment he freezes on his spot. There's a familiar figure slowly coming out of the door with a cake pan in hand, black smoke billowing right behind her. The stupid fire alarm is still ringing and fire trucks are now coming up to their street. She seems utterly unfazed, but Levi Ackerman can recognize that figure anytime, anywhere.

"Mom."

Kuchel sees him and smiles. "Levi, my dear, how are you? We're here to pick you up!"

—